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* New claims for unemployment benefits dip last week

The four-week average of claims, which smooths volatility, fell by nearly 7,000 to 447,250, the lowest total since the week of Sept. 13, 2008, just before Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis intensified.

* Mayor of Washington Park shot to death in his car

The mayor is John Thornton, 52….Police arrested a man about two hours later, and police believe that man is the driver of the getaway car.

* Washington Park mayor shot to death

* UPDATED: Mayor of Washington Park, IL gunned down

* Southwestern Ill. village’s mayor shot, killed

Police were called out to a report of a car wreck at 47th Street and Caseyville Avenue before 6:00 a.m. When they arrived, they found Mayor John Thornton in his vehicle. He had been shot twice in the chest and it appears the murder took place where the car was found. Thornton was transported to Kenneth Hall Hospital in East St. Louis, but was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after six.

* Biden touts programs against domestic violence in Peoria

Biden, along with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Sen. Dick Durbin, was in Peoria on Wednesday for a fund-raiser for the Center for Prevention of Abuse.

* Biden says more must be done to end domestic violence

* Vice president calls for changing attitudes about violence

* Audience moved by Biden’s speech against violence

* Our View: Charming, chatty, chivalrous - visiting VP all the above

* Cook County Assessor: Politicians Planning to Delay Property Tax Bills

* Houlihan takes swipe at likely successor

In part, Houlihan is also responding to criticism Berrios and the other two Board of Review members laid at his feet last week. On Friday, the Board of Review sent a letter to Cook County Commissioner John Daley, who chair’s the county’s powerful Finance Committee, saying the second installment of tax bills would be delayed until after Dec. 1 because Houlihan has delayed assessments and made mistakes due to new rules governing assessments.

* Cook assessor charges Madigan, Berrios with ‘chicanery,’ ‘coverup’

* Battle brewing over Cook Co property taxes

* County assessor’s employee quits amid allegations

Sources said the employee was the subject of an internal investigation into allegations he solicited money in exchange for a lower assessment. No evidence was turned up that indicated money changed hands, the sources said.

* Commissioners Deny Claims About Delaying Property Tax Bills

* GOP calls for U.S. probe of Houlihan property-tax charges

Lee Roupas, chairman of the Cook County Republican Central Committee, said Mr. Houlihan’s charges constitute “serious allegations that deserve a full review. We’re talking about millions of dollars in taxpayer money.” Mr. Roupas specifically urged U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “to open an investigation into Joe Berrios and his misuse of money.”

* Aldermen fall short but win compromise in street-sweeper war

Under the compromise, each alderman will control a sweeper four days a week in his or her ward. That’s down from five days a week now, but a lot better than a citywide plan that Mayor Richard M. Daley had pushed that would have centralized dispatch downtown.

* Daley’s plan to cut street sweepers stands

* Despite Debate, Street Sweepers Start Cleaning Chicago Today

* Aldermen to Daley: Don’t mess with city services

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said the “hands off our street sweepers” message was imperative with the 2011 election less than a year away.

“We have to make sure we have the tools we need to do our jobs. When those tools are taken away from us, we are unable to do our jobs. Which means we will lose our jobs,” Hairston said.

Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) thought that message was so important to deliver, he interrupted a Florida vacation to attend Wednesday’s meeting. Schulter credited the changes Byrne has already made to appease aldermen with keeping his colleagues away.

* County makes, withdraws offer to accused administrator

Last week, Stephen Hill was offered a $127,000-a-year risk management job in Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s administration. This week, the Stroger administration rescinded the offer after news reports surfaced that Hill’s former employer, the Detroit Public Schools, is suing him over an alleged scheme to divert $57 million from school coffers.

* Hiring risk director proves risky for Stroger

* New federal grand jury eyes ex-police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s ‘Midnight Crew’

Special Cook County Prosecutors Robert Boyle and Edward Egan were hired to investigate in 2002, and after interviewing more than 700 people said there was evidence to support charges of police abuse in at least 70 cases, but either the statute of limitations had expired or evidence was insufficient to charge.

* Grand Jury Investigates Burge’s “Midnight Crew”

* Sun-Times: When Da Mare wasn’t Da Boss

* Sneed: Betty Maltese’s new gig…State Rep. Art Turner, who lost his bid to become lieutenant governor, may be in line for a prestigious position in the Quinn administration.

* Garrett: Tax Issue Loomed Large in Failed LG Bid

* Simon says desire to boost schools can bridge cultural divide

* New Lt. Gov. hopeful Simon says education is a priority everywhere

* Zorn: Spicing up the Hall of Governors

* Greens say Quinn taking black vote for granted

* Chicago Lags in Census Participation

By Wednesday evening, the city was at a 38 percent rate of return, compared to the country’s rate of 52 percent.

* Chicago Drags Feet on Census

* Quinn Wants Chicago Teachers to Live in City

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has also spoken out against the bill.

* CTA says it has beefed up security

* Suburban officials, Bean talk funding for transportation, jobs, business

* How school, road construction spurred pension reform

The problem is the state’s lingering economic woes are hurting its credit rating, which means it’s more expensive to borrow.

On Tuesday, Illinois’ rating on $23.4 billion of municipal bonds was cut one level to A- by Fitch Ratings, which cited a rising budget deficit in the next fiscal year for the second-lowest rated state after California.

* News-Sun: Pension reform

* Health care bill’s impact on state will be delayed

Illinois may try to lessen the financial impact by shifting some Medicaid members to a new state health insurance exchange to be created in 2014….Illinois would move Medicaid members with household incomes equaling at least 133 percent of the federal poverty level to the exchange. There, the federal government would pick up the tab for their coverage; low-income individuals are set to get hefty subsidies.

The plan could generate savings of about $53 million by transferring financial responsibility for about 93,000 children and adults to the federal government, according to figures supplied by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

* Quinn Focuses On Immigrant, Labor Efforts

Quinn started the day at a school on Chicago’s South Side attending the annual Cesar Chavez Serve and Learn Program, where he signed an executive order formalizing the Governor’s Office of New Americans. Quinn appointed one of his policy advisers, Denise Martinez, as director of the office…According to the governor’s office, immigrants make up 12 percent of Illinois’ population and the new office will assist the state in helping them become successful.

* On Brady’s home turf, Quinn eyes middle class

Gov. Pat Quinn made a stop in Bill Brady’s hometown Wednesday, signing a union-friendly executive order for public-works projects and attacking his Republican rival’s stand on the middle class.

Continuing efforts to paint Brady as anti-union, Quinn said the Bloomington state senator does not support the minimum wage and has a poor track record with labor at Brady Homes, his family’s home-building company.

* In B-N, schools chief says ‘Race’ grants still possible

* Lawsuit may bring needed changes

Two Illinois citizens have filed suit against Gov. Pat Quinn and the State Board of Education claiming that funding public school districts through property taxes is unfair to taxpayers and unconstitutional.

The lawsuit’s chances are probably less than even, but the point is a valid one.

One of the plaintiffs, Paul Carr, is a high school counselor. He owns property in the Homewood-Flossmoor Consolidated High School District and pays a 4.1 percent property tax rate. Homewood-Flossmoor allocated $7,292 per student in the 2008. The lawsuit claims that in the New Trier Township High School District, one of the wealthiest in the state, the property tax rate for schools is 1.66 percent. The district spent $10,641 per student.

* State officials insist school reform will happen

* Our Opinion: Give schools 4-day option

* Freed from prison, some juveniles have no place to go

As of Tuesday, 104 of the 1,107 inmates in the state’s juvenile prisons, or 9.4 percent, were still behind bars even though their expected parole dates had passed. The percentage has remained relatively steady since the department began tracking the figures in September 2005, though at times it has crept higher than 10 percent.

* Industry group angles to stop rejection of video poker

* State grant helps Ingersoll expand into turbine part production

* Illinois Layoffs Hit Police, Libraries, Even Zoos

* Union: State trooper cuts could trigger lawsuit

* State police museum plans on hold until state grant released

* State police raise almost $4K for Special Olympics

* National Guard honors state police

* 2 Illinois universities receive federal grants

* Mitchell: Infighting, injustice at Chicago State

“You don’t want to leave a position after 26 years without honor. I’m being forced to leave. It is not right,” [Haki Madhubuti] told me. Citing legal concerns, Watson declined to discuss details of Madhubuti’s departure. But Watson denied that Madhubuti was being forced out.

* Q-C breaks ground for WIU Riverfront Campus

* Work to begin on Quad Cities WIU campus

* Pantagraph: Sign petitions to change state’s remap process

* Bernard Schoenburg: Jackson Jr. ‘red-faced’ about running of red lights

* Clock’s ticking on Elgin police chief’s deadline to take buyout

She was placed on paid leave after a closed-door council meeting on March 10.

* Bill to let Rockford annex faces delay in Legislature

* AG’s office asks for records, recording of LeRoy meeting

* Three development concepts for Lake Decatur on the drawing board

* Laid-off CWLP workers return, union sues

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Apr 1, 10 @ 9:02 am

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