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Chicago Tribune: In about-face, Toni Preckwinkle says she'll return $116K from fundraiser held at Ald. Edward Burke's home
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Sunday she would return $116,000 raised at a campaign fundraiser that embattled Ald. Edward Burke hosted at his home last January, an about-face after a week of potentially damaging revelations about her history with him.
Preckwinkle’s ties to Burke have been under scrutiny amid the powerful alderman’s federal legal troubles and her candidacy for Chicago mayor. In the weeks since the FBI raided Burke’s City Hall and ward offices, Preckwinkle has sought to distance herself from the alderman, returning thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and saying she has had “little contact and no relationship with the alderman” despite him having hosted a fundraiser for her at his home. She had previously declined to return all the money from the fundraiser, limiting it to just money she received from Burke’s committees, despite calls from opponents to do so.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel orders audit of workers’ compensation program formerly overseen by Burke
In the latest fallout stemming from the criminal charge against powerful Ald. Edward Burke, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Sunday ordered an outside audit of the city’s $100 million-per-year workers’ compensation program previously handled by the city’s longest-serving alderman.
Burke, who stepped down Friday from his position as chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee after being charged with attempted extortion, has kept the massive program’s operations largely secretive since he became chairman in 1983.
Chicago Tribune: Bill Daley: Shrink Chicago City Council from 50 aldermen to 15
Given all the graft and corruption over the years, mayoral candidate Bill Daley says it’s time for Chicago to overhaul its government, starting with reducing the number of aldermen from 50 to 15.
There is, of course, some irony in Daley, the brother and son of two former mayors who held the office for a combined 43 years, saying it’s time to restructure City Hall. After all, the Daley machine grew from a fiefdom in the heavily Irish 11th Ward in Bridgeport to, under Richard J. Daley, a political power structure of national significance.
WBEZ: Chicago Seized And Sold Nearly 50,000 Cars Over Tickets Since 2011, Sticking Owners With Debt
Sandra Botello moved to Chicago five years ago for what she called “the opportunities.”
Now 42, she and her children had been evicted from her home in Idaho when her landlord’s property was foreclosed.
The move to Chicago indeed delivered opportunities. She earned an associates degree and then enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and now works as an executive administrative assistant downtown. And, two of her four kids snagged scholarships to private schools.
But her time in Chicago has also been mired with a major hurdle. It started with citations for the city road tax collected through “city stickers.” After failing to keep up with ticket payments, the city seized her car and sold it to a private towing company, only to have none of the sale price applied to her debt.
Northwest Herald: $3.6M in renovations set for Fox River Grove School District 3
More than $3.6 million in renovations are coming to Algonquin Road Elementary School and Fox River Grove Middle School over the next two years to create a more collaborative and creative environment for students, Fox River Grove District 3 Superintendent Tim Mahaffy said.
“We’re trying to get away from the desks and rows,” Mahaffy said. “In today’s society, you have a very collaborative, open environment.”
Daily Herald: New Pace leader envisions possible Uber collaboration
Unconventional thinking has kept Pace alive so far but the reinvention of the suburban bus agency must continue, said Rocky Donahue, Pace’s new acting executive director.
“The reality is we have to be different if we’re going to survive,” Donahue said.
Daily Herald: Des Plaines to vote whether to increase tobacco age to 21
Des Plaines could be the latest suburb to raise the age limit for buying tobacco products to 21.
The city council is set to vote Monday, Jan. 7, on an ordinance to increase the age for purchasing tobacco and vaping products. If passed, the city would join 28 towns across Illinois (as of December), plus unincorporated Lake County, in raising the age limit to 21 from 18, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Bloomington Pantagraph: Normal could bill creators to move uptown mural
Normal could bill the creators of a popular mural on the side of an Uptown Circle building if officials determine they legally must move it rather than destroy it to make way for the planned Trail East building.
Some artists who contributed to the mural at 104 E. Beaufort St. questioned whether their work is protected under federal law. The town still plans to displace the art, but it may charge the small business backing the mural as much as $80,000 for the move, pending City Council approval Monday.
Belleville News-Democrat: A growing number of early graduates is costing this school district thousands
At the end of the fall semester, 26 students graduated early from Highland High School, choosing to skip the final semester of their senior year.
“There used to be a lot of emphasis on the senior year,” said Highland Superintendent Mike Sutton. “But more kids are willing to forgo that last semester now than what we used to have.”