Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced changes at the top of two key state offices, naming new directors of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Insurance.

The Republican governor announced Friday his budget director, Tim Nuding, and Department of Insurance Director Anne Melissa Dowling are leaving.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced changes at the top of two key state offices, naming new directors of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Insurance.

The Republican governor announced Friday his budget director, Tim Nuding, and Department of Insurance Director Anne Melissa Dowling are leaving.

A day after striking a deal to release 2,700 pages of emails involving public business he conducted on his personal accounts, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he “wasn’t perfect” when it came to transparency but had resolved a lawsuit with a “landmark” agreement.

A review of the mayor’s settlement of a suit brought by a government watchdog group, however, shows that it contains loopholes that open records experts said could allow Emanuel to avoid turning over all the public records that the law requires.

The Illinois Freedom of Information Act says citizens “are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees.”

It does not say, “unless those affairs are conducted on a personal email account.”

Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is seeking a presidential commutation of his 14-year sentence on a corruption conviction.

U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman Dena Iverson said Friday the department has received a petition for commutation from Blagojevich. She declined to comment further.

The attorney for indicted Ald. Willie Cochran said Friday that the South Side alderman may have been “stupid” in how he handled his finances but acted no differently in his dealings with people asking for help in the ward than Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City Council members from wealthier neighborhoods do all the time.

Cochran on Friday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that allege he stole tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions meant for poor children and seniors in his ward, extorted money from a business owner in exchange for help on a zoning issue and took a bribe from developers.

A former state representative was fired from a high-ranking, six-figure corrections job after inappropriately touching state employees at a Christmas party — including an instance caught on surveillance video in which he was pressing against a woman, state records show.

John Anthony was fired on Dec. 7, five days after the holiday party at the Wyndham Hotel in Springfield. Anthony, a Republican from Morris, worked as executive assistant to the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections. His annual salary was about $120,000, records show.

Illinois is almost six months behind in its obligation to give millions of dollars to school districts statewide for transportation, special education and other expenses.

The stopgap spending deal Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled Legislature struck over the summer authorized a full year’s funding for elementary and secondary education, intending to spare public schools from the uncertainty plaguing other state operations, which were only funded for six months, the Herald & Review reported.