Despite Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s insistence that his office “referred” a politically sensitive allegation of workers’ compensation fraud to an appellate prosecutor, no such order has been issued by a court.

Jenny Thornley faces criminal charges alleging overtime fraud from her time at the Illinois State Police Merit Board. A civil lawsuit now unsealed and on appeal alleges workers’ compensation fraud with claims Thornley invoked Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office and received around $70,000 in disability benefits based on unfounded sexual assault allegations.

After the Cook County GOP put up one of its biggest slates in years for positions in the November election, seven candidates have either been knocked off the ballot or withdrew on their own.

These candidates didn’t run in the June primary, but were submitted by the party to fill ballot vacancies. The failure of those hopefuls to make the ballot — including for assessor, Cook County Board and the Board of Review — mean the Democratic nominees will largely go unchallenged. Higher-profile candidates such as former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti and former county Commissioner Tony Peraica are still in the running.

The cost of the terminal rebuild at O’Hare International Airport is going up, but so is its bond rating.

The city of Chicago now estimates that the new global terminal, which hasn’t yet begun to be built, and related projects will cost $7.1 billion, up from the $6.1 billion price tag when the project was announced. It’s part of a larger O’Hare program that includes other capital and maintenance projects that originally was estimated at $8.5 billion but now is projected to cost $9.8 billion. Along with other previously approved and additional projects, the total is now $12.1 billion.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot can travel to campaign events in her city vehicle accompanied by an aide and her security detail — all paid for by taxpayers — without violating the city’s ethics ordinance, the Chicago Board of Ethics determined.

The unanimous advisory opinion issued Monday and signed by Chair William Conlon represents the first time the board has addressed the issues that surround the decision by an incumbent mayor to run for re-election. In keeping with the board’s rules, the identity of the person who requested the opinion was not revealed. The opinion was sent to Lightfoot.

A former supervisor of lifeguards has admitted committing sex crimes against much-younger female employees that he supervised, becoming the first Chicago Park District employee convicted in the year-old investigation by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

Mauricio Ramirez, 32, was sentenced last month to three years of probation, 40 hours of community service, electronic monitoring and lifetime sex offender registry after pleading guilty to two felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, court records show.

Small-operation cannabis growers and infusers said they may be locked out of Springfield after the city council turned back a resolution to reconsider zoning for such industries.

Some council members said the drastic reduction in the setbacks was unpalatable to their constituents.