Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning Shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Chicago police, school leaders meet to address student deaths

* Al Sanchez trial: Chicago worker says job came before application

Illinois ranked seventh nationally in foreclosure activity last month as Cook County filings surged in recent weeks despite pledges by big banks to a temporary cease fire, according to two reports released Thursday.

Residential and commercial properties in some stage of foreclosure totaled 14,218 last month, down 1.6 percent from January but up more than 62 percent from February 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing company.

* Foreclosure Filings Up in Cook County

* Iowa lawsuit seeks $1M from company linked to former Republic owner

* Anger, disappointment linger after Republic owner’s Iowa deal

* Natural gas pipeline could be flowing soon

* FutureGen flap irks Costello, Durbin

* Audit finds fault with state’s choice of Pepsi

* Lawmaker wants new bids on statewide cola contract

* Audit spurs call for state to dump Pepsi pact

* Audit questions Rod Blagojevich’s ‘No Coke, Pepsi’ contract

* Prison decision another chance for Quinn to reverse Blagojevich

* Quinn says Pontiac prison will stay open

* Quinn: Keeping Pontiac prison open will save hundreds of jobs

* Quinn cites jobs in keeping Pontiac prison open

* Pontiac Correctional Center Stays Open, Reaction Mixed

* Pontiac Prison Gets Reprieve

* Pontiac residents happy with decision to keep prison open

* With Pontiac matter resolved, Thomson a question again

* Lawmakers: Release funeral trust fund records

State lawmakers from Springfield oppose Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes’ decision to deny a request by The State Journal-Register for records regarding a troubled funeral trust fund.

“This has occurred during the last six years under the comptroller’s watch, and he is the one that is supposedly doing the auditing, so let’s get all of that out in the open and solve the problem,” Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, said Thursday.

* Official: Illinois’ prepaid tuition plans are OK

* Illinois’ prepaid tuition plans get passing mark

* Students shouldn’t be political pawns

* Ald. Ed Burke delays vote on spay and neuter ordinance

* 20% of Illinois adults still light up regularly: CDC

Twenty percent of adults in Illinois are regular smokers, according to government figures released Thursday.

Nationally, the number of adults who smoke is estimated at 19.8 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported

* City offers incentive for homeowners to get water meters installed

* Daley lays out $1 billion stimulus wish list

* Daley says $1 billion in stimulus cash ‘better than nothing’

* Daley Lays Out Stimulus Plan

* Daley Breaks Down Plans For City’s Stimulus Money

16,000 Jobs To Be Created Or Saved

* Chicago Olympics team wants more financial support

* Daley not worried USOC changes will hurt bid

* Olympic apartments won’t be ‘white elephant,’ IOC chief says

* Chicago Sun-Times editing jobs won’t be outsourced to India, Canada

Union officials representing Sun-Times editorial employees said management informed them Thursday that the paper is scrapping the radical January proposal to eliminate up to 30 jobs.

The Newspaper Guild was braced for a fight. But, in the interim, a shareholder-led overhaul upended parent Sun-Times Media Group’s board and a succession of other changes, including John Barron replacing Cyrus Freidheim as Sun-Times publisher and Don Hayner succeeding Michael Cooke as editor.

* Chicagoans React to Renaming Sears Tower

* All about money? That’s OK.

Paint it silver? No. Call it Willis? Why not? Our immediate reaction upon hearing that Chicago’s landmark Sears Tower soon would be renamed Willis Tower was not good. Why, we wondered, can’t people leave Chicago iconography alone?

Macy’s should be Field’s. The Aon Center should be Big Stan. Cellular Field should be Comiskey Park.

* Tower power

* Willis Tower ain’t what it used to be

* Willis Tower? Addams Tollway? Old names still stick after renaming

* Willis we always call it the Sears Tower? No, we won’t-is

* Robbins mayoral race marred by defaced campaign billboards

* Sox Park’s new top dog

Vienna Beef replaces Best’s Kosher at Cell

posted by Mike Murray
Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 10:19 am

Comments

The Weis/Huberman meeting is a positive, but the initiatives seem rather elementary. If it’s a breakthrough that the schools and police are sharing intelligence and gameplanning on a daily basis, then I’d say the relationship has a lot of room to grown.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 10:32 am
again with the incentive to do something homeowners in Chicago should already do…have a water meter. so my friends who got a meter several years ago pay the usage fee while others get a flat rate grandfathered in for several years? this is unfair. some homeowners pay while others do not. when will someone file a suit on this? why is there a double standard?

Comment by Amy Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 10:47 am
I’m confused. It was maybe 2 years ago when there wasn’t anything but Coke products at the state fair (didn’t attend last year). Separate contract?

Comment by Captain Fuzz Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 11:01 am
Daley looked like a kid in a candy store as he unvailed his free billion. The stimulous must be working, on him, anyway.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 11:02 am
–The largest allocation, $260 million, would go to education, Mr. Daley said. Most of that would be earmarked for after-school programs and teacher recruitment and training. It also would be used to expand Head Start and provide child care to an additional 7,000 to 10,000 Chicago children.–

Isn’t that one-time money funding an expansion of ongoing programs?

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 11:11 am
Why does there need to be a “contract” that limits employees, who can’t leave a building but once a day, to just one kind of soft drink? Put in two machines, Coke and Pepsi and see which does the best. Every time I see a report on which is doing better in market share, Coke is usually ahead, but when Pepsi gives away their
equipment, cuts greatly discounted deals on their product, etc., it’s no wonder their machines and fountain-heads are everywhere. They have so completely saturated the restaurant market in Springfield, I drink a lot of tea when eating out.

Comment by BehindTheScenes Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 11:46 am
BTW, since when does Lisa Madigan subscribe to the Rod Blagojevich school of government finance newsletter? It is time for Quinn to do what is required of a State income tax in that it will not be regressive in a time when most families in IL are struggling…those making more than 56K will contribute more of their fair share…he has the courage to do what is necessary and pay the price while Lisa gets to exercise her jaw…

Comment by Anonymous45 Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 1:56 pm
Does anyone know the rules on use of stimulus dollars to pay employees? Daley said stimulus funds will save 1,000 CTA jobs and 700 CPS teacher jobs but I thought I heard at one point that the $$ can not be used to pay employees, and if it can why isn’t any funding being used to save city jobs? CTA employees aren’t going to be refurbishing buses or building buses.

Comment by James the Intolerant Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 1:56 pm
Rich,

OOPS please post my rant in the proper section…

Comment by Anonymous45 Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 1:58 pm
You gotta do that yourself.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Mar 13, 09 @ 1:59 pm
Yeah, we can now call sears tower “The big Willy”

Comment by Anonymous Saturday, Mar 14, 09 @ 8:49 pm