The Illinois Tollway board is expected to vote on Thursday to increase the time drivers can take to pay online for missed tolls, from seven days to 14 days.

“It’s an extra effort to accommodate our customers, especially those who are infrequent users and those using open road tolling for the first time,” said Tollway spokesman Dan Rozek. “It gives them an extra week to pay their tolls.”

Karen Lewis — the woman whose tell-it-like-it-is style catapulted the Chicago Teachers Union into prominence both in Chicago and nationally — is officially retiring at the end of the month, years after a 2014 brain cancer diagnosis led her to a less active role.

Now, her union must chart its future without Lewis’ powerful voice — and it comes at an especially challenging time. The union faces continued membership losses as well as financial difficulties. And  the year ahead holds a mayoral election, a union leadership election, and contract negotiations.

The former mayor of Ford Heights was arrested Wednesday on felony theft and misconduct charges, a Cook County sheriff’s office spokesman said.

Charles R. Griffin, who served as mayor from 2009 to 2017, is accused of siphoning more than $147,000 of public funds into two secret bank accounts that he then tapped for his own use, officials said. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office confirmed the arrest.

Chicago’s chief financial officer will sound out aldermen Thursday on the possibility of issuing $10 billion in pension obligation bonds amid widespread skepticism from municipal finance experts about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan.

Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas has urged the City Council to stop that train from leaving the station to avoid putting Chicago taxpayers in a “financial straightjacket” — though CFO Carole Brown has insisted no final decision has been made.

You’d think one advantage of being among the last court systems on the planet to switch to electronic filing would be that the bugs have been worked out.

Not so.

Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211’s tentative budget for the new school year, approved by a 6-1 vote, includes slight decreases in revenues and spending, and a prepayment to fully fund the district’s pension obligations for nonteaching staff.

Like the district’s decision to become debt-free last year, prepayment of $10.2 million in Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund obligations reduces long-term costs and results in significant benefits and savings, Superintendent Dan Cates said.

A special meeting Algonquin Township officials had scheduled for Thursday afternoon to discuss an intergovernmental agreement with Highway Commissioner Andrew Gasser has been canceled.

In an email to township officials, Supervisor Charles Lutzow announced the meeting would be rescheduled for Aug. 28.

Proponents for a study that would examine the cost of abolishing McHenry Township’s road district have filed a petition to remove the consolidation referendum from the November ballot.

The petition was filed Tuesday with the McHenry County Clerk’s Office on behalf of more than 30 McHenry Township residents.

McHenry County Board members sent two resolutions aimed at ensuring elected officials aren’t using county funds for political gain back to committee during Tuesday’s meeting.

The Finance and Audit Committee has been in the process of drafting the amendments to the county’s travel and business expense policy and will continue to discuss the items.

The Elgin Area School District U-46 school board this week approved a four-year contract for paraeducators guaranteeing a roughly 3 percent yearly increase per employee on average.

The district and union have been negotiating for a year. The previous three-year contract, which expired a year ago, granted an hourly raise of 55 cents across all levels in fiscal year 2016 with an extra 15 cents per hour for home school liaisons. In fiscal year 2017, hourly rates increased by 2.75 percent across all levels.

Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211’s tentative budget for the new school year, approved by a 6-1 vote, includes slight decreases in revenues and spending, and a prepayment to fully fund the district’s pension obligations for nonteaching staff.

Like the district’s decision to become debt-free last year, prepayment of $10.2 million in Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund obligations reduces long-term costs and results in significant benefits and savings, Superintendent Dan Cates said.

The Rockford Park District’s blueprint for the future should emphasize improving neighborhood parks, playgrounds and youth programs, enhancing trails and becoming more bicycle friendly.

The district should sell or lease land and buildings with no recreational value and explore the privatization of some iconic attractions, including Magic Waters, Forest City Queen and Trolley Car 36. It should also consider consolidating ice-skating operations and closing one of its two ice facilities.

The East Peoria City Council is having second thoughts on letting voters decide in November whether the city should change its form of government.

A special meeting will be held Friday for the council to consider rescinding a decision it made two weeks ago. On Aug. 7, the council voted to give voters a choice on the November ballot between retaining the city’s commission form of government or abandoning it for the default aldermanic form of government. The aldermanic form of government, likely six aldermen and a mayor elected at large, would replace the commission form if voters voted “no” on the referendum question to retain the current form of government that has served the city for 100 years.