Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: Daley pension debacle: Where did $54 million go?
Only months after the deals were made a dozen years ago, problems began to emerge.
Chicago Tribune: Aldermen control what gets built. And Chicago's architects shower them with campaign cash.
Chicago architects have long been viewed as more high-minded than developers, who are seen as plying the city’s aldermen with campaign cash to get their projects off the ground.
But that image of political purity bears little relation to reality.
Champaign News-Gazette: Funny talk on outmigration
A funny — meaning peculiar — discussion took place earlier this week after a ratings agency analysis of Illinois’ finances suggested to some that the state’s “outmigration” doesn’t pose an economic problem.
“Growth defies out-migration,” one newspaper headlined declared.
Chicago Tribune: Toni Preckwinkle's former security chief alleges she fired him to save her mayoral campaign
As Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s security chief, Delwin Gadlen’s job was to protect her.
He spent two decades in Preckwinkle’s political orbit, at first volunteering with her campaigns and then for nearly the last eight years working on her executive security detail. But their relationship soured this fall when he was fired amid the fallout of a watchdog report stemming from a bizarre incident the morning after Election Day 2016. A Cook County SUV — nearly exclusively driven by Gadlen — was found vandalized and abandoned near southwest suburban Lemont. A cache of political materials was found inside.
Chicago Tribune: Got a gripe about the state's transportation system? IDOT wants to hear it
If you have a gripe about the state’s transportation system, now is the time to express it outside of the confines of your stuck-in-traffic car.
The Illinois Department of Transportation is conducting its annual Illinois Traveler Opinion Survey, available through Dec. 31. It can be found online at idot.illinois.gov or go.uis.edu/travelersurvey.
Northwest Herald: Huntley officials approve budget, property tax levy
A $4.6 million property tax levy request and a fiscal 2019 budget including an estimated 9 percent drop in total expenditures both were approved Thursday by the Huntley Village Board.
The requests were approved without opposition. Trustee Harry Leopold was absent.
Daily Herald: Plan would help soundproof homes around Chicago Executive Airport
Chicago Executive Airport intends to launch a trial sound insulation program in what officials say would be an effort to help nearby residents most affected by jet noise.
If approved by the airport board later this month, an unspecified number of qualified property owners would receive free windows, doors and other new materials to reduce the noise. Airport Executive Director Jamie Abbott said it would start next year as a roughly $2.7 million effort mostly funded from a federal grant.
Daily Herald: Judge to rule whether Dist. 202 tax-cut question stays on April ballot
A DuPage County judge will decide if a question to reduce Lisle Unit District 202’s property tax levy remains on the April ballot.
The DuPage County Electoral Board last month refused to remove the ballot measure, which would ask voters if District 202’s levy should be lowered by roughly $1.9 million.
Belleville News-Democrat: $10.9 million in demolition, renovations planned for East St. Louis public housing
New construction, renovations and demolition are among $10.9 million in planned work on public housing following a critical few years for East St. Louis Housing Authority.
Ben Carson, head of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, visited the city in August 2017 to announce the return of power and responsibility to local control over the housing authority for the first time since the federal government took it over 1985.