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* Blagojevich status hearing coming up Wednesday

* Former Blago chief of staff postpones guilty plea

* Monk plea a no-go tomorrow

* Trustee requested job help at U. of I.

University gave future son-in-law tailor-made, $115,000-a-year position

* Lawmakers stay in background of University of Illinois scandal

* Caterpillar 2Q profit falls 66 pct on weak demand

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. says its second-quarter profit fell 66 percent as the global recession continued to dampen sales of its machines and engines. But it boosted its 2009 profit outlook.

Caterpillar’s broad reach and diverse line of products — ranging from backhoes and bulldozers to turbines and cargo ship engines — make it a bellwether of the global economy.

The company says it earned $371 million, or 60 cents per share, for the three months ended June 30. Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar earned $1.11 billion, or $1.74 per share, during the same period last year.

Revenue slid 41 percent to $7.98 billion.

* Cat soars on improved outlook

U.S. machinery maker Caterpillar Inc. posted stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday and raised its full-year outlook, citing signs of stabilization in the world’s credit markets and economies.

Shares in the Peoria-based manufacturer rose 12.1 percent, or $4.42, to $41.07 in early trading…

Stripping out costs associated with layoffs and restructuring, Caterpillar made 72 cents a share. Since the end of 2008, Caterpillar has cut 17,100 full-time workers.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to report a profit of 22 cents a share on sales of $8.36 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

* Nonprofit brings mortgage workshop to Chicago

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America will bring its “Save The Dream Tour” to McCormick Place starting Friday. Chicago is the fourth stop on a 10-city tour.

The workshop allows homeowners in trouble to meet with their mortgage lender to restructure their existing loan, either through permanently lowering the interest rate, dropping the principal balance or changing the terms.

The services are free and the workshop is open to the public.

* Recession a wakeup call for elite hotels

Hotels in Chicago, as well as other big cities, are offering dramatic bargains to draw visitors during this economic lull.

Here, the prestigious Drake Hotel, famous for hosting Princess Diana during her only visit to Chicago 13 years ago, started the price war among Chicago hotels last January that continues today.

The Drake started offering a $95-a-night rate in January that dared others to follow, said a rival hotel executive who declined to be named. That rate ended in mid-April, but Chicago’s hotels continue to offer deals.

* Wal-Mart Renews Push for South Side Location

Wal-Mart launched a Web site Monday to try and generate grassroots support for its controversial plan to build a South Side super-store.

It’s the latest in the company’s five-year battle to build a second Chicago location in the Chatham neighborhood.

But the plan has faced strong opposition from unions and community groups. Elce Redmond is a community organizer with the South Austin Coalition. He says he wants Wal-Mart to provide worker health benefits and higher wages.

The proposal is now stalled in the City Council.

* Sidewalk activism `strangling progessive politics’ one disillusioned employee at a time

* City solicits designs for riverwalk, lacks money to build

Now that Chicago has filled in the “missing links” in the Wacker Drive riverwalk, it’s time to design the rest — even though the city still doesn’t have the money to build it.

The Daley administration has issued a “request for proposals” from firms interested in designing the final phase of the San Antonio-style riverwalk — the six-block stretch between State and Lake streets.

“We have secured funding for most, if not all of the remaining design, but we still need to identify construction dollars,” said Transportation Department spokesman Brian Steele.

* Bow ouch! City’s Animal Care cuts adoption schedule

* Bid for Olympics on the hot seat

Chicago 2016 leaders gave their regular presentation Monday, telling a community forum in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood that the Olympics would be a privately funded spectacle that would raise the city’s profile globally.

But unlike a string of recent meetings, after the bid team put its best foot forward, it was immediately hit with counter-presentations from critics who fear that the Summer Games could gravely damage the city.

While bid officials hoped to allay fears particular to Lakeview residents, such as the impact of venue construction to a lakefront bird sanctuary and further congestion to a crowded neighborhood, they had to defend the bid from attacks on multiple fronts.

Sharing the stage with bid officials were Tom Tresser of No Games Chicago, which opposes the games, and Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks. While Tranter doesn’t oppose the Games outright, her group fears that the current plan would permanently mar some parks and burden the Chicago Park District with facilities it later won’t be able to afford to operate.

* Lollapalooza jumps on 2016 bandwagon

* Rockford to borrow $10M, may raise refuse fees

* Police union negotiators plan to file for arbitration

ROCKFORD —Union representatives negotiating a new labor agreement for police officers plan to file today for arbitration with the Illinois Department of Labor, union representative Doug Block said Monday.

Faced with a financial crisis, city officials have pushed for concessions in negotiations with unions representing Rockford police officers and firefighters. Those concessions include wage freezes, insurance contribution increases and staffing reductions.

* Rockford Library Board delays action on shortfall

* Crackdown on Vacant lots

* CTA riders: We prefer to sit

Ten months after the CTA pulled seats out of a number of Brown Line cars to make room for more riders, they are pulling the plug on the idea, saying customers want to sit, not stand.

* Pay-per-mile fee a fair way to fix highways

* Austin’s No. 1 nothing to be proud of

* After delay, hospital data to be published

This fall Illinois will start publishing data about hospitals’ performance on a public Web site, according to officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The data will include rates of hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA, the ratio of nurses to patients, and information about the cost and volume of 30 leading procedures performed by hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.

* Official ‘alarmed’ by shelter’s stun gun claims

MOUNT VERNON — An executive affiliated with a southern Illinois group home where a sheriff’s deputy allegedly zapped three children with a stun gun says he’s “alarmed'’ by the allegations.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the three boys claims a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy was unprovoked when he shocked them a year ago at the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon.

The lawsuit claims a fourth child was handcuffed, threatened and thrown into a closet.

The petition names two deputies. Their boss, Sheriff Roger Mulch, says he stands behind the deputies.

posted by Mike Murray
Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 9:33 am

Comments

It’s outrageous that the City Council denies a Wal-Mart to the South Side.

These union leaders, fighters for the working man, who live in the suburbs and consider Target to be slumming it, should walk a mile — literally — in the shoes of the folks who try to make a house and home in the retail desert of the ghetto.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 9:57 am
The U of I employee got an MBA at the top of his class from Oxford. If that’s the kind of result we can expect from a ‘clout hire’, let’s keep it up.

Comment by Sewanee Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 9:59 am
Walmart produced this video featuring community leaders advocating for a new store: www.youtube.com/Vote4JobsChicago#play/all/uploads-all/2/K1zThfG7xLU

Just look at the West Side store & how that community flourished from a Walmart.

Comment by VoteChatham Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 10:01 am
The blood bath in Austin and the rest of Chicago would end and crime would come down if you armed law-abiding citizens with (yes) guns. Legislators can toughen penalties all they want, but it’s not a deterrent to gang banging thugs. If a gangster is running around with a gun and knows that behind any door a man or a woman is standing prepared to defend his/her family, that gang banger is going to change his ways in a hurry. By the way, the prisons are full – there’s no more room to hold these low lives, nor should the courts have to fool with it. Let citizens protect themselves; it’s proven effective everywhere concealed carry laws have been enacted.

Comment by Out There Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 10:11 am
Steve Huntley is throwing his support behind the VMT solution?

I’m speechless….

Comment by The Doc Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 11:54 am
Has anyone called or request documents from the alumni associations? Do they request favors? Does the booster club have clout? Does the sports team get special treatment? Do contributors who donate large amounts of money for projects get favors curried? Where are these lists? Why are we only asking for the lists of Blagos?

Comment by anon Tuesday, Jul 21, 09 @ 7:52 pm