Des Plaines is getting $283,919 in federal community block grant funds to build new sidewalks and repair houses, among other programs.

The city was awarded the annual grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development earlier this month.

Outgoing Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn granted executive clemency to 179 people Wednesday as the Democratic chief executive sought to continue to clear up a backlog of clemency requests he inherited.

Quinn, who traditionally takes clemency actions on or around holidays, acted on 604 requests on Christmas Eve involving cases dating to 2008, his office said. Quinn denied 425 clemency petitions in the latest batch of cases.

After inheriting a backlog of more than 2,800 requests that now-imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich took no action on during his tenure, Quinn’s office said he has acted on 3,962 clemency petitions, granting 1,418 and denying 2,544 petitions, since taking over in 2009.

Walgreen plans to tie a bow around the acquisition of European counterpart Alliance Boots by the end of the year, announcing the results of a shareholder vote Monday at a meeting in New York.

Walgreen bought a 45 percent stake in the Switzerland-based company in 2012 for $6.7 billion. Shareholders are expected to approve buying the remaining 55 percent, analysts and investors say, making way for Walgreen to close the deal by Dec. 31.

Illinois’ only two harness horse racing tracks kept their promise to the Illinois Racing Board as they filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday to continue operations into 2015 and protect themselves against property seizure.

An appeals court says a curfew law invoked to arrest Occupy Chicago protesters park in 2011 is constitutional.

The ruling by the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court reverses a lower court finding that Chicago’s 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew at Grant Park violated the protesters’ freedom of speech and other rights.

The unanimous appeals court opinion posted Tuesday afternoon argues the city had legitimate interests in closing the park overnight, including to dissuade common criminal activity after dark.

Caterpillar Inc., already battered by a slump in demand for its mining machinery, faces slowing sales of compressors, pumps and gas turbines as oil companies reduce spending.

The impact will be felt by Caterpillar in early 2015 as drillers cut back and exploration declines, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman told Bloomberg Television in a Dec. 22 interview.

While Caterpillar forecast in October that sales will be flat to slightly up in 2015, that view might now be optimistic given the decline in crude prices in the past two months, Sameer Rathod, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said in a Dec. 16 report.