WHEN PEOPLE need something done that they can’t do themselves—a haircut, an oil change, an eye exam—their instinct is usually to seek out the most highly qualified professional possible. Imagine for a second that you are being forced into bankruptcy, for instance. Or that your house is being foreclosed on, or that you are trying to collect child support payments from an uncooperative former spouse.

What you need in those situations is a lawyer, right? Ideally a really good one, who has earned a law degree from some prestigious institution and passed the bar exam with flying colors.

Don’t be so sure. Though an expensively trained lawyer certified in your state is the only kind of person legally allowed to help you, many ordinary legal problems could actually be resolved by a more affordable professional with narrower experience filling out forms, interpreting formal documents, and identifying legal options. “We could be providing good service to a much wider share of the population,” said Gillian Hadfield, a professor of law and of economics at the University of Southern California. Under the current system, she added, around 85 to 90 percent of Americans who need legal help can’t afford it.

Means-tested welfare programs provide government aid to individuals based on their need — therefore, at some point, a person’s income disqualifies them for aid. Unfortunately, this can mean that something positive, such as getting a promotion or a raise, can leave a person in welfare worse off than they were when they were receiving public assistance. A new report from Erik Randolph of the Illinois Policy Institute delves into this “welfare cliff” problem in Illinois, explaining how the system creates disincentives for recipients to move off of welfare and toward self-sufficiency.

Randolph analyzed the welfare situation for two groups — single-parent households with two children and two-parent households with two children — in three Illinois counties, looking at a range of welfare benefits: tax credits, food stamps and similar programs, housing assistance, cash assistance, subsidies for child care and health care benefits.

What did he find?

Startups have been on the decline for 30 years, and I have written frequently on some of the possible reasons. One big open question: To what extent is government regulation playing a role in that decline? A blog post by Scott Shane, professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University, offers a few data points that suggest rules and red tape could be hindering business formation. He notes, for instance, small business owners are complaining more about regulation than they have in the past — twice as much as in the 1980s, for instance. And this:

Over the past three-and-a-half decades, federal regulation has been rising, while new business creation has been falling, as the chart above indicates. Researchers at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, theHudson Institute, the Hoover Institution and the Heritage Foundation believe the pattern is more than a coincidence. The per capita rate of new employer business creation and number of rules pages in the Federal Register — a common measure of the scope of federal regulation — correlate -0.67 over the 1977 to 2012 period. Similarly, the per capita rate of business creation and the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulation — another frequently used estimate of government rulemaking — correlate -0.78 over the same period. (A correlation of 1.00 means that two numbers move in perfect concert.)

Downstate residents who came to the capital city to watch a new governor take office Monday say they hope Bruce Rauner can turn things around.

“His focus on education is important,” said Julie Vahling of Effingham, as she and others waited to meet the new governor at the Old State Capitol.

She said that as a mother, education and the next generation are important to her. She said she also hopes Rauner can bring unity to Illinois politics.

Two months since Illinois enacted rules for high-volume oil and gas drilling, no company has applied for a state permit to put hydraulic fracturing to use.

Denver-based Strata-X Energy registered Nov. 14 with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. But the company hasn’t formally applied to begin so-called fracking.

The Illinois Oil and Gas Association’s Brad Richards believes the slow response may be because of the state’s delay in adopting regulatory rules, as well as low oil prices that may have discouraged energy companies.

In an effort similar to its so-called Building Code Scofflaw list, the City of Chicago will begin posting the names of landlords who have been referred for official review for failing to provide basic services and protections to people paying rent.

The “Bad Landlords List” will also name building owners who had more than three cases filed in Administrative Hearings within 24 months. These cases include no heat, lack of working smoke detectors and illegal porches, among other violations.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new plan comes after an emergency court hearing on Friday. The city took landlords of 20 properties to court to force them to restore heat for renters.

U.S. small business optimism jumped in December to its highest level in more than eight years, underscoring the economy’s strengthening fundamentals despite slowing global growth.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index increased 2.3 points to 100.4 last month, the highest reading since October 2006.

The index, which crossed the 100 mark for the first time in eight years, is now back at its prerecession average. It was bolstered by a surge in sales expectations as well as hiring, capital outlays and business expansion plans.

Does anyone remember a time when franchises were not a vibrant part of the American business landscape? For decades, tens of thousands of individually owned businesses with iconic names such as Burger King, IHOP, Jiffy Lube and Howard Johnson’s have channeled the entrepreneurial spirit of men and women, provided jobs to millions of people and contributed to economic life in communities in every corner of the country.

Now, however, the franchise business model that has flourished for over two generations is under attack. The Service Employees International Union, as part of a national campaign to bolster its membership and finances, is leading an assault on franchise businesses. If the unions prevail, nearly 800,000 small business owners who employ more than 8 million workers could face economic uncertainty, even bankruptcy, and thousands of other would-be entrepreneurs could be deterred from pursuing their dreams and creating additional jobs, according to a recent industry report; meanwhile, franchisees are expected to create nearly a quarter million new jobs in 2015 alone. In addition, the franchise model, which involves less risk than that typically associated with a small business startup, has been especially attractive to aspiring women and minority entrepreneurs. Around 20 percent of franchises were owned by minorities in 2007, compared to 14.2 percent of non-franchised businesses.

People who owe old debts to the Social Security Administration are getting a reprieve this tax season: The federal government won’t be seizing their tax refunds.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin suspended a debt collection program last spring in which thousands of people had tax refunds seized to recoup overpayments that happened more than a decade ago. Members of Congress complained that some people were being forced to repay benefits they received decades ago as children.

Following a review, the agency said Monday it will continue suspending the program this tax season while officials explore possible changes.

The Geneva school board is willing to rebate about $817,700 in property taxes, over nine years, to land a factory in Batavia.

The board voted 7-0 to approve a tentative intergovernmental agreement with the city of Batavia to persuade the AJR Filtration company to build a new plant on nearly 12 acres in the industrial park that is east of Kirk Road and south of Fabyan Parkway.

The factory would move the equivalent of 250 full-time workers to the site at 1252 Pierson Drive, and could increase that to 400 within 2 years of opening.

Where can a former Chicago transportation official embroiled in one of the biggest bribery scandals ever to hit City Hall go to get a fair trial?

How about Las Vegas?

That’s where the man at the center of the controversy, John Bills, wants his trial on bribery charges moved to avoid a potential jury of his peers that he says would “unlikely be able to check its bias at the door.”

Moments after being sworn in as Illinois’ 42nd governor Monday, Republican Bruce Rauner said he was taking steps to deal with the state’s budget problems by freezing all non-essential spending at agencies under his control.

In a 22-minute inaugural speech, Rauner also said solving the state’s problems will require sacrifice by everyone, and he pledged to bring change to a state suffering from moral and ethical challenges as well as financial problems.

“If we work together, Illinois can be great again,” Rauner said.

In an eleventh-hour flurry Monday in Chicago, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a few final bills into law, appointed friends to ceremonial posts and laid a series of political traps for incoming Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Quinn also maintained his pace of working through a large backlog of clemency petitions. But his swipes at Rauner with several executive orders on the rookie governor’s first day overshadowed the other actions — and showed just how sore Quinn remains from the bruising 2014 campaign.

Quinn, who waged a class warfare theme in his failed re-election bid, took direct aim at the refusal of the wealthy private equity executive to release his full set of income tax returns during their race. Quinn issued an executive order requiring governors to make available for public inspection individual income tax returns on or before May 1 each year.

California Gov. Jerry Brown sold a $6 billion tax increase to voters in 2012 by promising that nearly half of the money would go to bolster public schools. Critics argued that much of the new revenue would wind up in California’s severely underfunded teacher pension system. They were right.

Last June Mr. Brown signed legislation that will require school districts to increase funding for teachers’ pensions from less than $1 billion this year in school year 2014-15, which started in September, to $3.7 billion by 2021, gobbling up much of the new tax money. With the state’s general government pension fund, Calpers, also demanding more money, California taxpayer advocate Joel Fox recently observed that no matter what local politicians tell voters, when you see tax increases, “think pensions.”

Californians are not alone. Although fiscal experts have warned about the worsening condition of government pension systems for years, many taxpayers felt little impact from the rising debt—until now.