Mike Madigan and four other Cook County Democratic Committee members met again Thursday to pick a successor to the longtime state representative, this time choosing Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar.

The appointment to the House seat Madigan held for 50 years took roughly five minutes.

I heard a pretty hot rumor the other day. On checking, it proved to be wrong, or at least premature. But it nonetheless contained a gold nugget of truth at its core.

The rumor was that Chicago mortgage mogul Victor Ciardelli, concerned about soaring taxes and other matters, had quietly moved to Miami and soon will take with him the headquarters of his company, Guaranteed Rate. Ciardelli’s response when I got him on the phone: No. Although he has been spending time in Florida lately, neither he nor the company has moved there and doing so would involve a lot of trouble. But, he added, if Chicago’s crime rate keeps soaring and people keep fleeing the city, then, “the mismanagement of government is a real problem.”

With all that the public has learned about the many shortcomings of remote learning, no one should be surprised by the latest data showing just how severely Chicago schoolchildren are struggling during the pandemic.

The alarming news from the Chicago Public Schools, as reported on Thursday by Nader Issa of the Sun-Times, is that kids are failing classes more and attending school less, especially high school students.

A newly-filed federal tax-evasion indictment against a former member of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan’s leadership team stems at least in part from secret payments for “government relations” work from Commonwealth Edison.

A source familiar with the federal probe tells WBEZ that a six-count indictment against former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, is a byproduct from the ongoing bribery investigation into ComEd’s Springfield lobbying practices. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about an ongoing criminal investigation.

One former member of the Illinois General Assembly was indicted, along with his two sons, on charges of tax evasion this week, while a second former lawmaker pleaded not guilty in a separate case that alleged he committed federal tax fraud, among other charges.

Former Republican state Sen. Sam McCann, 51, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, through his court-appointed public defender, to charges of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion related to his alleged misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds.

Starting Monday, Motorists nailed by speed cameras driving 6 mph to 10 mph over the posted speed limit will receive $35 tickets in the mail, under a crackdown triggered by a 45% surge in traffic deaths.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to lower the boom slowly — with a 44-day warning period — after her decision to lower the threshold for speed camera tickets became a focal point for aldermanic critics of her $12.8 billion budget.

Legislative leaders in the Illinois House differ on what is causing the state to see continued population decline, and how to reverse the trend.

The state lost nearly 80,000 people in the year that ended July 2020, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data. That’s 22,000 more than were lost the year before and the seventh consecutive loss of population in the past 10 years. Illinois led the nation in population decline for the past decade at 255,000.

He toned down talk that Illinois voters soon again may be asked to allow a graduated-income tax, but notably waded into another hot issue, declining to reject out of hand the possibility of amending the Illinois Constitution to limit government worker pension benefits.

He defended the record of predecessor Mike Madigan, but also conceded that lawmakers need to act to restore public faith in the Legislature.

When four Democratic committeepersons not named Mike Madigan issued a press release last week demanding an open process to replace him as state legislator, I scoffed cynically and responded with an intemperate email.

What was the point, I wondered? In the first place, Madigan — by law — controlled 56% of the weighted vote to pick his replacement. As a mathematical certainty, his was the only vote that counted.

The City Council is poised Friday to authorize another round of federal stimulus spending despite the political furor triggered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to spend $281.5 million on police payroll costs.

Lightfoot said she’s confident she’ll get her way 48 hours after two of her most dedicated City Council critics — deposed Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14^th) and Ald. Ray Lopez (15^th) — used a parliamentary maneuver to delay the stimulus vote.