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Chicago Tribune: Chicago to pay $20 million to settle code-of-silence lawsuit over fatal crash caused by drunken cop, sources say
The city of Chicago has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a code-of-silence lawsuit brought by the families of two young men killed in a fiery drunken driving crash caused by an off-duty police detective, sources told the Chicago Tribune.
The agreement to pay $10 million each to relatives of Andrew Cazares and Fausto Manzera was reached in dramatic fashion earlier this month after it was revealed that key documents involving an alcohol-fueled bar fight in detective Joseph Frugoli’s past had been improperly withheld.
Chicago Tribune: Cook County court clerk asks to push back e-filing deadline a full year
Less than a month after saying her office was ready for a looming statewide deadline to end paper filings in lawsuits and other civil cases, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown has asked to push back the start date a full year.
Brown told the Tribune last month there may be some growing pains but her office was ready to make an on-time transition from filing lawsuits in person at the downtown Chicago and suburban courthouses to filing — from anywhere — legal paperwork digitally; nearly 62 percent of the county’s roughly 178,000 civil filings so far this year have been on paper.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Why 25K SNAP Recipients Are Suddenly Without Food Stamps
The guidelines that require recipients of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to twice a year prove they qualify for the modern-day version of food stamps haven’t changed, but the ranks of individuals who saw their benefits abruptly cancelled swelled as Illinois transferred to a modern computer system to manage their cases.
Individuals often drift in and out of the SNAP system intermittently, but the number of individuals who suddenly lost benefits spiked last month at 41,000 – a figured provided by the Illinois Department of Human Services – after recipients apparently missed a deadline to have renewal forms submitted by a Nov. 5 deadline.
Northwest Herald: Crystal Lake School District 47 approves property tax levy increase
Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 Board members approved a tax levy increase Monday, but the effect it will have on homeowners is not yet known.
The district will levy $76,122,326 – a 4.12 percent increase from the 2016 levy.
Daily Herald: Hoffman Estates approves sales-tax break for Ace Hardware
Hoffman Estates officials Monday further helped a long-sought Ace Hardware store survive in a difficult market by adding a village sales-tax break for the business owners to the Cook County property tax incentive that allows their landlord to charge lower rent.
Village Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer said the unanimously approved 10-year agreement creates a gradually decreasing rebate of the sales taxes.
Rockford Register-Star: Rockford task force recommends how to raise money, cut city deficit
A financial task force on Monday backed a home rule referendum and recommended 75 measures to help City Council close a projected $10.2 million deficit in the city’s 2018 budget.
But if the home rule referemdum fails on March 20, the task force recommends that aldermen enact a utility tax on natural gas and electricity, said the group’s chairwoman Michele Petrie, branch president of Wintrust Community Bank. Previously, a utility tax was estimated to generate more than $8.7 million, but has never been implemented because it is viewed as a regressive tax that could hit the poor the hardest.
Rockford Register-Star: City Council delays vote on infrastructure plan
City Council on Monday delayed voting on a $30 million 2018 Capital Improvement Program package after aldermen late last week forwarded minor amendments to city staff.
Mayor Tom McNamara said that among the changes sought by some aldermen was the removal of a $60,000 study to determine if a bike path on Spring Creek Road would be feasible, the removal of a plan to make Church Street two ways near the BMO Harris Bank Center and a requirement for staff to send City Council a list of neighborhood roads they intend to resurface.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Council OKs $375K cash infusion for arena
Grossinger Motors Arena will get a $375,000 cash infusion from taxpayers to keep the city-owned facility operating in the black.
Without much discussion, the City Council voted unanimously for the transfer at Monday night’s council meeting at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Normal council approves bond refinancing
Normal is officially on track to save more than $1 million through a bond refinancing.
The Normal City Council signed off Monday on the transaction, to save the town an estimated $1.15 million between the refinancing date, tentatively set for March, and payoff of the bonds, which still is set for June 1, 2039.
State Journal-Register: Springfield School Board, support staff reach contract agreement
Springfield School Board members agreed Monday to a new contract with Service Employees International Union Local 15, which represents 560 non-teaching positions.
The board approved a two-year wage proposal and a five-year agreement on non-economic components of the contract.
Fox Illinois: District 186 votes to increase taxes for 2018
The District 186 School Board voted to increase taxes by a total of 3.3 percent.
Superintendent Jennifer Gill said the tax increase will go towards the district’s education fund, transportation, and Special Education Department among others. The increase is based on the consumer price index and new properties.
Belleville News-Democrat: Belleville OKs 12 percent tax levy request
Belleville aldermen voted Monday to ask for a 12 percent increase in the city’s property levy, which is the amount of property tax funding the city wants for the next fiscal year.
Most of the property tax revenue will be used to support the pension funds for the city’s police officers and firefighters. Other sources of revenue such as sales tax, income tax and utility tax revenue are used to fund most of the city’s day-to-day expenses of running the city.
Belleville News-Democrat: Hofbräuhaus is opening 2 years late. Here’s why its developers won’t pay a penalty.
When Belleville city officials decided to annex sites for the proposed Hofbräuhaus restaurant and hotel complex and Parkway West homes and office buildings, they agreed to spend nearly $3 million to extend sewer lines to the two developments that were once valued at $153 million by developers.
But after multiple delays, neither project has yet to come to fruition although the city already has installed sewer lines to the two sites on the west side — $2.42 million for the Hofbräuhaus site and $502,000 for the Parkway West project.
Belleville News-Democrat: Worthless government unit? Not so, says momma of its boss.
Apologies in advance to Dr. Lillian Parks, former East St. Louis District 189 superintendent and mother of East St. Louis Township Supervisor Alvin Parks.
We’re about to insult her on several fronts, and bad things can happen when you insult Alvin’s momma.