Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner tells agencies to look for solutions on dangerous drug interactions
Gov. Bruce Rauner has ordered state agencies to examine how to bolster accountability at drugstores and protect the public’s health following a Tribune investigation that found pharmacists failed half of the time to warn about dangerous drug interactions.
The Republican governor’s move came as the longtime Democratic chair of an Illinois House health-care committee began crafting legislation on Monday to set minimum staffing levels at pharmacies to prevent pharmacists from racing through prescriptions like an “assembly line.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Rauner finds common ground on criminal justice reform
Obscured by the gridlock in Springfield is one promising place where Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Legislature have come together to make progress: criminal justice reform.
As a Republican governor, Rauner has signed 15 worthy criminal justice bills, many of them advanced by Democrats. Among them were a bill introduced by Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, that clarifies juveniles cannot be sentenced to mandatory life in prison for certain crimes; a bill introduced by Sen. Patricia Van Pelt, D-Chicago, to establish safeguards for youths during interrogations, and a bill introduced by Sen. Iris Y. Martinez, D-Chicago, to allow some health care workers convicted of non-forcible felonies to get their licenses restored after several years.
Crain's Chicago Business: State's job incentive program is about to die
Illinois’ business community is about to get unhappy year-end news: the state’s main job incentive program is going away—at least for now.
In the latest casualty of Springfield’s bitter budget wars, the state’s Edge tax credit program will expire Dec. 31. Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders have not agreed on a plan to avoid an automatic year-end sunset for it.
Chicago Sun-Times: Munger vows to sue comptroller if she continues to ‘damage’ image
Leslie Munger on Monday defended herself against claims that she left behind offices that appeared “looted” — and vowed to sue Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza personally if she continues to “damage” her image.
Mendoza says she was left on Day One with offices with little furniture, locked desks and missing documents.
Chicago Sun-Times: Restaurant industry gets behind relaxed rules for food trucks
Calling food trucks a pivotal part of Chicago’s “culinary scene,” Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia on Monday threw his formidable support behind a plan to allow Chicago food trucks to park and stay longer in one legal space — perhaps up to six hours.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) had proposed allowing Chicago food trucks to set up shop in one location for six hours. That’s triple the current limit of two hours.
Chicago Tribune: Daley slated to give deposition next month in Burge-related lawsuit
Former Mayor Richard Daley is slated to give a video-recorded deposition next month in a federal lawsuit accusing him of ignoring evidence that white Chicago police detectives working under disgraced former police Cmdr. Jon Burge tortured dozens of black suspects into murder confessions.
Lawyers for the People’s Law Office are scheduled to take Daley’s deposition in the case of Alonzo Smith on Jan. 17, according a notice sent last week to attorneys for the city.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel shuffles cabinet after appointment of city clerk
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday ordered a cabinet shuffle triggered by his appointment of political operative Anna Valencia as Chicago’s $133,545-a-year city clerk.
Emanuel was widely expected to replace Valencia with her African-American deputy Samantha Fields, a move that would have appeased African-American aldermen who privately staked a claim to the clerk’s job.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Emanuel Calls for School Quality Over School Choice in Op-Ed
Rahm Emanuel has some suggestions for President-elect Donald Trump when it comes to public education policy.
Days after the two men met face-to-face in New York, The Washington Post ran an op-ed Friday penned by Chicago’s mayor in which he called on state and federal partners to focus on boosting school excellence over school choice.
The Southern: License plate renewal notices to continue for now, budget or no
The Illinois secretary of state’s office plans to continue mailing out license plate renewal notices in the new year, with or without a new budget deal between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic leaders of the General Assembly.
“The plan is to maintain them” for the time being, Dave Drucker, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White’s office, said of the mailed notices.
Belleville News-Democrat: Good news for Granite City steelworkers: Unemployment benefits extended
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday signed legislation that extends unemployment benefits for steelworkers who were laid off at Granite City Works to 52 weeks from 26 weeks.
About 2,000 people were laid off from the steel plant last winter when Granite City Works’ blast furnaces, steel-making facilities and the hot strip mill were idled in response to challenging global market conditions.
Crain's Chicago Business: Amazon adding 1,000 jobs at new Aurora facilities
Job-hungry Illinois is getting a nifty holiday gift from Amazon: another 1,000 jobs, this time in Aurora. The move brings to 7,000 the number of full-time positions the internet behemoth has announced it’s adding here in the past two years.
In a joint announcement, Amazon, the state and Intersect Illinois, the state’s economic development corporation, said the 1,000-plus jobs will go to staff two large product warehouses, known as “fulfillment centers,” in the west suburban community.
Chicago Tribune: Rahm Emanuel calls Lance Armstrong a 'wuss' in odd podcast
Hands up if you had disgraced cycling cheat Lance Armstrong down as the man to secure a profoundly odd 50-minute year-end interview with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Anyone? No?
But an encounter between the two alpha males on Armstrong’s podcast, released Monday, was not without intrigue, or humor — some of it intentional.