There are some numbers at Chicago Public Schools that look pretty good these days. Nearly 74 percent of students now graduate within four years—a rate 16 points higher than it was five years ago. And about 40 percent of the class of 2015 enrolled in a four-year college, approaching the national average that year, the most recent data available.

Though there’s still plenty of room for improvement, credit for this better performance can be rightly shared by students, parents, teachers and administrators all the way up to schools CEO Forrest Claypool and his boss, Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

One of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent claims—that he’s eliminated or significantly cut “every one” of the bad financial practices inherited from predecessor Richard M. Daley—is “half true,” according to a comprehensive analysis by PolitiFact’s exclusive Illinois partner, the Better Government Association.

Emanuel’s fiscal reforms are significant but incomplete, according to our assessment, and it occurs to me that if he’s interested in a better rating for his anticipated 2019 re-election campaign, he can focus on the current round of contract negotiations with the city’s public employee unions: Forty-four separate agreements covering salaries, benefits and work rules for 91 percent of the city’s workforce, or nearly 31,000 employees.

When a local government leader passed the deciding vote on a penny-per-ounce soda tax, she said it would generate enough money to balance the county budget while making people in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs healthier.

But so far, the tax seems mostly to have created problems for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who until recently was so popular many considered her the only possible candidate who could unseat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

As the city of Springfield goes down the road toward creating its ninth active tax increment financing district, a researcher says the proliferation of the economic development tool doesn’t always lead to more growth.

Still, advocates for the proposed Peoria Road TIF district say with the dilapidated buildings in the area and dropping property values, building the pot of development incentive money the TIF has to offer makes sense for the North End neighborhood.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a plan pushed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan aimed at protecting students who take out college loans.

Madigan says the proposal was intended to fight abuse and failures in the industry, part of an investigation and lawsuit her office brought against a loan servicing company. The measure would, among other things, require servicers to provide students detailed information, including their repayment options.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has rejected a plan aimed at regulating trampoline parks, citing a “new mandate on businesses” in the state.

The Republican vetoed the proposal on Friday, one of many bills he acted on.

Attorneys for Edward Vrdolyak are asking a judge to remove several details contained in the former Chicago alderman’s 2016 federal indictment, arguing that they are “deceptive, irrelevant and sinister sounding allegations.”

In a motion to strike filed Friday afternoon, Vrdolyak’s lawyers argue that much of the indictment “will confuse the jury and prejudice Vrdolyak.”

Thumbs-down: To talk of new taxes in Cary. Residents already pay too much in taxes. Staff members recently presented the Village Board with options for a natural gas utility tax, an eating establishment tax, increasing the cable franchise fee, increasing license and permit fees and increasing property taxes through new growth. Cary Trustee Jennifer Weinhammer told Northwest Herald reporter Megan Jones this week that she is opposed to these options. “I don’t believe it’s fair to continue to pass four or five different types of taxes onto the residents,” she said. We agree.

With a projected $700,000 budget deficit looming, the Village Board needs to look at reducing expenses before raising taxes. Although Cary already has worked to reduce expenses in recent years, more needs to be done for government to be sustainable. We encourage Cary residents to let their elected officials know how they feel about these proposals in the coming months.

Kane County officials began searching for a new Metra representative this week, a position with both perks and challenges.

Elgin resident Manny Barbosa is the county’s current Metra board member. The retired judge, whose term is expiring, became Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen’s first appointment to Metra after the resignation of Mike McCoy. McCoy resigned when the directors came under fire for a $871,000 severance package for former Metra Executive Director Alex Clifford after Clifford threatened a lawsuit and wrote a letter stating he was pushed out for refusing to go along with patronage requests.

Some 27 streets have been included in Bloomington’s proposed master plan of streets that need rebuilding or realigning over the next 20 years.

“The streets master plan is not intended to be a binding document, but it provides guidelines for the City Council to make decisions on new roads,” said Public Works Director Jim Karch.

Robin Hanna has a new appreciation of Quincy University.

“Up until last year, I knew QU was there, but it wasn’t ever really on my radar screen,” said Hanna, a project manager for the Rural Economic Technical Assistance Center with the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs in Macomb.

More than 100,000 people from nearly every state and 40 countries are set to converge on Decatur this week as the city again takes its place at the epicenter of the agriculture industry.

Tuesday marks the start of the Farm Progress Show, the largest outdoor agricultural show in North America, which has been held in Decatur every other year since 2005. The three-day event transforms more than 500 acres north of Richland Community College into a hub for companies to showcase the latest equipment and technological developments in agriculture.

While the Northeast Community Fund provides food, clothing and other assistance, many come looking for help finding something else: a job they can still hold with a felony on their records.

The agency gets so many requests that it keeps copies of a list of employers who will hire people with a criminal background.