The Illinois Attorney General’s office has filed a lawsuit against Jimmy John’s, alleging the company imposes “highly restrictive non-compete agreements on its employees.”

The attorney general’s office alleges that all employees — from sandwich shop workers to delivery drivers — are required to sign a noncompete agreement as a condition of employment. The agreement bars them from working at another sub shop while being employed at Jimmy John’s and for two years after leaving the company, the attorney general’s office says.

Specifically, the office claims that the agreement specifies that Jimmy John’s employees cannot work at another company that derives at least 10 percent of its sales from selling “submarine, hero-type, deli-style, pita, and/or wrapped or rolled sandwiches” within two miles of a Jimmy John’s. Jimmy John’s, based in Champaign, has about 270 locations in Illinois and 2,000 nationwide.

High levels of lead have been found in water at an additional 11 Chicago elementary schools, with results from tests at scores of other buildings yet to come in, Chicago Public Schools said Wednesday.

The district expanded lead testing to all of its 600-plus schools after a pilot effort begun in April found that multiple fountains at Tanner Elementary on the South Side spouted water that contained lead levels well above federal standards.

After additional test results came in this week, CPS brought in water coolers and shut down potable water fixtures at Reilly Elementary in the city’s Northwest Side Avondale neighborhood. The district did not disclose the amounts of lead detected in the school’s water, saying the building was being retested because of “possible extenuating circumstances that could have compromised the testing accuracy.”

An ordinance proposed to City Council this week could expand hate crimes protections to firefighters, paramedics and cops.

Currently, Chicago’s hate crime law applies to individuals targeted based on their race, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, prior military status, ancestry or age. On Monday, Alderman Ed Burke introduced a bill that would add “past or current employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel” to the list, reports ABC7.

“Each day police officers and firefighters put their lives on the line to ensure our well-being and security,” Burke said in a press release. “It is the goal of this ordinance to give prosecutors and judges every tool to punish those who interfere with, or threaten or physically assault, our public safety personnel.”

With the first installment of property tax bills reflecting a $588 million increase due to arrive in mailboxes within weeks, Chicago aldermen are bracing for a flood of complaints and praying that Mayor Rahm Emanuel will throw them a life raft before they drown politically.

Emanuel had hoped to persuade Gov. Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly to double the homeowner’s exemption from $7,000 to $14,000 so that homes worth up to $250,000 would be held harmless from the record property tax increase for police and fire pensions and school construction.

Gage Park High School’s principal thought the visit from the governor went really well.

During an hours-long visit to Gage Park on Martin Luther King Day in 2015, Gov. Bruce Rauner took a tour. He praised the high school’s improvements.

More homeowners are trapped by underwater mortgages in the Chicago area than in almost any other major metropolitan area in the country, two new studies show.

One study, released Thursday by housing research data firm CoreLogic, found Chicago slightly better off than Las Vegas and Miami. But a separate study released Wednesday by real estate website Zillow places Chicago homeowners in the worst position in the nation, with a larger portion of homes underwater than in either Las Vegas or Miami.

When homeowners are underwater, they have unpleasant choices. Their homes are worth less than they owe their lender. So if they decide to sell, they won’t make enough on the sale to repay the lender. Somehow they have to come up with extra cash to cover their debt, or they have to negotiate with their lender to have the debt forgiven in a process known as a short sale. And they have trouble buying a new house because they don’t have leftover money for the next down payment.

At around the same time that Alderman Ameya Pawar was blasting Governor Bruce Rauner last week, former alderman Will Burns was lighting into Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Well, not Burns directly, but Airbnb—the company he works for.

The point is, you effectively had one old mayoral ally undercutting the efforts of a current ally, who was trying to make the mayor look good in his fight with Rauner.

If you’re confused, I don’t blame you. It’s always hard to keep up with the shifting alliances in this town.

Newly appointed Choose Chicago CEO David Whitaker will be paid a base salary of $380,000 a year, but his total, five-year package includes an annual 25 percent bonus for meeting unspecified “tourism targets,” officials said Tuesday.

Whitaker’s predecessor Don Welsh was paid $526,956 for 2013, with an additional $54,866 listed as deferred compensation, according to a Chicago Sun-Times Watchdogs investigation.

Illinois, on the cusp of a second year without a state budget, counts among its many unpaid bills one that threatens to provoke a dispute with the nation’s top crime-fighting force.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act show that the deadbeat state owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks for professional licenses and permits. The debt is old enough that it could be turned over to the federal government’s collection agency — the Treasury Department.

The delinquent payment is just the latest unexpected consequence of a stalemate between the Republican governor and Democrats controlling the Legislature. The gridlock has left Illinois without a budget since July 1 and exacerbated a long-standing backlog of debt. As of Tuesday, the state had more than $7 billion in unpaid bills.

“The breadth of the issues covered by the budget impasse never ceases to amaze me,” said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook and chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee on civil matters.

Most residents of Illinois probably don’t know much about the role of auditor general. It’s a statewide post, but the person in that position is appointed by theGeneral Assembly, not elected. Being auditor general is a day-to-day accounting and accountability job — stick with us, readers — not a flashy soapbox.

In short, the auditor serves as a crucial watchdog over state government.

From 1992 until last fall when he retired, William Holland of Springfield served as Illinois’ auditor general. Most people never saw his mug on TV or heard him speak a word. Holland earned a reputation for conducting the office in a nonpartisan, precise and thorough manner. Among his valuable moments:

In 2014, Holland blew a loud whistle on an antiviolence program thrown together during the final months of Gov. Pat Quinn’s 2010 election campaign. Holland’s audit raised serious questions about how $54.5 million in state money was spent, much of it with little documentation or accountability. Chicago aldermen got to choose which antiviolence neighborhood organizations would receive the grants. It was unclear in some cases how they spent it. And the gush of taxpayer money made no noticeable difference on crime rates.

When Superintendent John Pearson of the East Alton-Wood River High School District recently went online to find information on the state’s prevailing wages, all he could find was last year’s information.

Many municipalities, school districts and other governmental bodies start passing ordinances and resolutions dealing with the prevailing wage at this time of year. The prevailing wage must be paid to construction workers on projects involving public monies; another section of the law covers janitorial and maintenance, food service and security positions. It is especially important because of the large number of summer construction, renovation and repair projects.

According to an Illinois Department of Labor spokesman, the delay was caused in part by a change from a paper to an online survey as the department modernizes, and should not create any problems for local officials.