Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Speaker Madigan: 'I take responsibility' for not doing enough on sexual harassment issue
Amid rising frustration within his party, Speaker Michael Madigan on Friday said he shoulders “responsibility” for failing to do more to ensure equality in the statehouse and on the campaign trail.
The letter sent to lawmakers late Friday afternoon marked a reversal from just a few days ago, when Madigan allowed his campaign attorney to do most of the talking about the speaker’s handling of a sexual harassment complaint against one of his top political aides.
Crain's Chicago Business: Michael Madigan's #MeToo moment
It’s too early to write Michael Madigan’s political obituary, much as many in this state might like to do so. No one living has ever seen a more wily, opportunistic or tenacious civic being than Madigan—Chicago Machine potentate, Democratic Party chieftain, iron-fisted ward boss and speaker of the Illinois House. That said, the scandal that erupted this month within his organization has done more to damage him than any attacks mounted by his eternally frustrated sparring partner, Gov. Bruce Rauner, have done in three almost-comical Wile E. Coyote-style years of trying.
Based on what we know, that damage to Madigan’s armor is well-deserved.
NBC 5 Chicago: Estranged Wife of Ex-Madigan Aide Says She Warned of Alleged Abuse
The estranged wife of high-ranking political operative Kevin Quinn told NBC 5 Friday that she sent a letter to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office, desperately seeking assistance and detailing domestic abuse allegations against her husband, more than six months before Quinn was terminated from his role in the powerful Democrat’s organization over claims that he had sexually harassed another woman. The abuse allegations were also included in court records.
Sarah McKay provided NBC 5 with a letter she said she faxed to Madigan’s chief of staff Tim Mapes on August 3, 2017.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner wants lawmakers' help to cut state workers' health insurance by $470 million
For the fourth time in as many years, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has pointed to state workers’ health care as a way to save money, but this time he’s asking lawmakers to help him get it done.
The governor’s budget proposal unveiled Wednesday calls for cutting $470 million spent on public worker health insurance, an idea unions and the courts have blocked before.
Daily Herald: DuPage mayors want state to stop cutting funding
An organization representing DuPage County’s villages and cities is urging Illinois lawmakers to stop using municipal revenue to fill gaps in the state budget.
When the state budget was approved last year, it included a 10 percent reduction in the amount of state income tax revenue municipalities and counties receive.
Chicago Sun-Times: Ald. Edward Burke benefited, Chicago-style, from Vienna hot dog deals
This is a story about how hot dogs and money are made, Chicago-style.
Nine months after Ald. Edward M. Burke led the Chicago City Council in approving a nearly $5 million tax deal for Vienna Beef to buy a vacant factory in Bridgeport in 2013, Burke’s law firm got a new client — Vienna Beef.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Tollway director resigns
Illinois Toll Highway Authority executive director Greg Bedalov is resigning after more than two years with the agency, the Tollway said Friday.
Bedalov, who has extensive experience in economic development, was tapped to run the Tollway in June 2015 after Gov. Bruce Rauner remade the agency’s board. The Downers Grove resident is expected to begin a new job as chief of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
Chicago Sun-Times: 2 dozen CTA, Metra workers disciplined over speeding trains in past 5 years
Turns out that lead-foots in the Chicago area aren’t just on the Dan Ryan and Kennedy expressways. The CTA, Metra and the Union Pacific Railroad, which operates several routes for Metra, have recorded more than two dozen train-speeding incidents over the past five years.
Though none had serious results — unlike the 2005 derailment near 47th Street and the Dan Ryan in which a Metra Rock Island District train barreled through a track intersection at 69 miles an hour, killing two and injuring more than 100 — most of the incidents from 2013 through 2017 led to re-training or other discipline for crews.
Northwest Herald: State Rep. David McSweeney calls Algonquin Township a 'disgrace'
In response to recent comments from Algonquin Township trustees telling him to mind his own business, state Rep. David McSweeney said the officials “should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Barrington Hills Republican swiped at Algonquin Township trustees after a meeting Wednesday, where a majority of them spoke against the representative’s ongoing efforts to give voters the power to abolish township government at the polls.
Daily Herald: West Chicago teachers could soon vote to ratify tentative contract
West Chicago High School teachers will meet Wednesday to consider a tentative contract agreement reached hours before union members were poised to walk off the job Friday.
The proposed 4-year contract will increase salaries an average of 12.63 percent.
Daily Herald: Will Des Plaines create a TIF district along Oakton Street?
Reopening the downtown Des Plaines Theatre will consume much of the city’s focus this year, but another part of the city is starting to get some economic development attention, too.
The city has budgeted $40,000 to study whether a struggling stretch along Oakton Street from River Road to just past Lee Street should be a tax increment financing district.
Daily Herald: Glen Ellyn might raise local sales tax
Glen Ellyn trustees plan to raise the village’s local sales tax to help offset state cuts in the municipal share of state income tax revenue.
The board has reached a consensus to implement an increase of 0.25 percentage point to bring the home-rule sales tax to 1.25 percent and use roughly $600,000 in reserves to plug a projected deficit in the village’s 2018 general fund budget.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Council looking at fee, tax hikes to replace pool, fix streets
The Bloomington City Council will be asked Monday to weigh in on whether to explore levying a video gambling machine fee and raise the city utility tax to replace the O’Neil Park pool and raising fuel taxes to increase street repair work.
As part of preparing a balanced budget for fiscal 2019, which begins May 1, 2018, interim City Manager Steve Rasmussen is asking the council to vote on whether the city staff should explore those funding options.
State Journal-Register: Mayor Langfelder to propose 4% natural gas tax
Mayor Jim Langfelder has changed course and will soon propose a 4 percent natural gas tax to help with pension payments, according to an e-mail he sent to aldermen Thursday.
Previously, Langfelder said a natural gas tax proposal would need to come from an alderman after the one he proposed last year failed.