If the old Pat Quinn were around, he would be booking a hotel conference room for a Sunday morning press conference to scream about the shenanigans of a lame-duck governor.

That Quinn would roast the lame-duck governor for sliding his former campaign manager into a $175,000-a-year job with a two-year contract. That Quinn would complain about the lame-duck governor cutting a questionable Lottery contract settlement on his way out the door.

If only that Pat Quinn were around to raise hell.

Federal officials unveiled new rules on Friday that will streamline and simplify the union election process, a reform long sought by labor unions and fiercely opposed by businesses.

Among other changes, the rules issued by the National Labor Relations Board will limit some of the litigation that can precede a union election, making it harder for parties to stall or drag out the process. The reforms will also allow unions to file election petitions and other documents via email, and they will require employers to provide unions with the email addresses and phone numbers of workers eligible to vote.

Many employers favor the older, slower election process, as it gives them more time to dissuade workers from unionizing. The reforms announced Friday have long been discussed and debated, and businesses have argued that they would infringe on the businesses’ free speech rights and lead to “ambush” or “quickie” elections.

In coming to a constitutionally valid plan to appoint a new state comptroller to replace Judy Baar Topinka, who died Tuesday, what matters most is to respect the likely preferences of the state’s voters — back in November and in a future election.

In our view, that would require outgoing Gov. Pat Quinn to appoint a comptroller to oversee the office for the remaining few weeks of Topinka’s current term. Then in January, Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner would appoint a comptroller — presumably a Republican, like Topinka — for the new term that starts Jan. 12.

Before Rauner makes that appointment, though, the Legislature would call for a special election in November 2016, as part of already scheduled statewide elections. Rauner, then, effectively would be making an appointment to a two-year term, as opposed to a four-year term, allowing the voters to weigh in sooner.

Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios isn’t taking attempts to end patronage hiring abuses in his office seriously and should face court sanctions, a court-appointed monitor says.

The old school Berrios — who has repeatedly come under fire for hiring an estimated 15 relatives into well-paid government positions — has at every step taken only “the minimum steps necessary” to placate a judge and sees ending Shakman decree violations as “not a priority,” monitor Clifford Beachem wrote in court papers filed Thursday.

“The general impression of employees in the office was that employment actions were based on nepotism, favoritism or politics,” Beachem wrote.

It’s down to Chicago versus New York strongly competing for the  entire Barack Obama presidential library and museum with Hawaii hedging its bet and also pitching  a presidential center as four schools submitted bids on Thursday.

The University of Hawaii, the University of Illinois/Chicago, the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York presented proposals to the Chicago-headquartered Barack Obama Foundation.

Hawaii, the state where Obama was born, submitted a bid to host a library and museum in order to be in a position to get the whole thing if that is what President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle want – but pragmatic project planners in Hawaii also know that a facility on the mainland is more realistic and so emphasized the creation of an expansive “center” in their proposal.

Two actions taken this week by Illinois Governor-Elect Bruce Rauner indicate that he plans make good on his pro-growth campaign promises. And Illinoisans across the state must be breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

Illinois’ state-run pension plans are quite simply bleeding the state dry. Illinois’ pension debt now is well over $100 billion. According to an Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) report released this week, the state contributes the equivalent of up to 127 percent of its state employee salaries just to meet the defined-benefit pension systems’ obligations. In the average private sector, where employers have shifted to defined-contribution plans, the employer contributes the equivalent of 9 to 10 percent of a worker’s salary each paycheck.

IPI also issued a report that shows some pathetic employment numbers. In short, while across the U.S. since 2014 there are nearly one million more workers employed, surpassing pre-recession levels, Illinois has yet to show a similar level of recovery. In fact, the state’s post-recession payroll stats are the worst in the country, showing 256,000 fewer Illinoisan employees.