As Chicago Public Schools faces the prospect of going bust before the start of classes in the fall, Mayor Rahm Emanuelis asking aldermen to give the city the option of lending cash to the school district — a policy change that the city says is not intended as a way to bail out CPS.

Emanuel this past week quietly proposed a change to city investment rules that would allow the city to buy debt from so-called sister agencies, including CPS, no matter the creditworthiness of that debt. He said he was making the request on behalf of city Treasurer Kurt Summers as part of the Summers’ annual investment policy update.

Aides for both Emanuel and Summers said the proposal was not designed to give the city a way to provide temporary funding to CPS as it seeks state help to right its teetering financial ship. “That’s not what’s happening,” city spokeswoman Molly Poppe said. “This is not some contingency plan or bailout for CPS.”

A collective of non-profit organizations believe a bicycle can go a long way when it comes to making sure kids have something positive to do during summer months in Chicago.

“Cycle of Peace” gave out 500 refurbished bicycles to North Lawndale children Saturday. The event took place at North Lawndale College Prep’s Collins Campus (formerly Collins High School), located at 1313 S. Sacramento Ave.

Paul Fitzgerald, general manager for Working Bikes, one of the organizations involved, believes in the overall effort to get kids involved with bikes.

Money may be tight in Bellwood School District 88, but the school board still managed to quietly divert more than $105,000 from an education fund to replenish a retirement account its superintendent drained years ago.

The money added 20 years of service to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System account for Superintendent Rosemary Hendricks. That change, under a TRS formula, would increase annual pension benefits to $77,000 from an estimated $14,000. Taxpayers across the state will pick up the tab, potentially for years to come.

The move is another example of an Illinois school board diverting funds to help administrators land more lucrative retirement packages. The Tribune has written extensively about salary spikes, penalty payments and sweetheart deals that compound the state’s pension obligations.

This week marks what could be the most significant benchmark in the long, painful slog of Republicans’ and Democrats’ historic war over the Illinois budget.

Thursday is the end of a full year without a state budget — plus another blown deadline to make a budget for the new fiscal year that starts Friday.

America’s urban downtowns were neglected for decades, abandoned for newer malls in the suburbs and bigger homes on the edge of town. The construction of new highways helped speed their decline. And rising crime nearly killed them.

That’s the story of much of the second half of the 20th century in cities such as Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago. But newly unveiled housing data dating back to 1990 show that these long-shunned city centers have been attracting Americans again. According to detailed data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home prices over the past 25 years have appreciated more in the heart of big cities than just about anywhere else.

“After decades of hollowing out,” write FHFA economists Alexander Bogin, William Larson and William Doerner, “center-cities are becoming increasingly popular.”

It’s starting to look like Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Gov. Bruce Rauner have a better chance of revving up a couple of old Plymouth Colts and completing an Evel Knievel jump across the missing Illinois 157 bridge over St. Clair Avenue than they do of passing a 2017 budget by Friday.

That replacement bridge in Fairview Heights is one of many state highway projects about to come to a screeching halt when the 2016 fiscal year ends. Illinois went a whole year without a budget. It is starting 2017 without a budget, but this time there is no authority to fund $130.6 million in local highway projects and no authority to fund schools like there was last year.

Belleville Elementary District 118 is in the process of alerting parents that school may not start in August, or that if it starts they may have to close in November after reserves are depleted. Other school districts are facing similar choices, but it is worse in poor districts that live from state check to state check because they have little in reserves or property taxes.

The Central Illinois plant once owned by Mitsubishi Motors North America has sold for far less than the fair-market value that local taxing bodies had set for it.

The plant was bought for $2.5 million last month by Maynards Industries, a company that buys commercial properties to resell them. It closed on the 2.5-million-square-foot plant June 1.

Maynards handles about 100 plant auctions and liquidations per year, Maynards Industries USA Division President Taso Sofikitis said earlier this month.