Illinois’s bankers agreed to soften the blow if the state’s bond rating is downgraded to junk.

Barclays Bank Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. revised interest-rate derivative contracts so Illinois won’t face some $38 million in fees as long as it’s not dropped any further than one step below investment grade, Eleni Demertzis, a spokeswoman for Governor Bruce Rauner, said in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg News. That threshold had been one step higher, which would have allowed the banks to cancel the trades and demand payment for the full market value.

Credit rating company Moody’s Corp. downgraded five Illinois universities to the lowest ratings possible Thursday and Friday.

Southern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Governors State University, Northeastern Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University are now at junk status, meaning if they take out loans, they’ll be paying very high interest rates.

Two court hearings this week could shape the future of Illinois’ budget impasse.

The cases involve two groups: one who has been getting paid; and another who hasn’t, but wants to.

You just have to drive around and keep your eyes open to learn that the lack of jobs is particularly clobbering kids in certain neighborhoods, most of them African-American areas of the South and West sides.

A new report released today by the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois does a pretty good job of putting the numbers together. (You can read the full report at the end of this story.) For instance, only 15 percent of African-Americans ages 16 to 19 in Chicago are employed. Roughly 3 in 10 black young adults in the Chicago area lack either a high school diploma or a job, and are not in school trying to get either.

Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios defended his office Monday in response to a Tribune investigation called “The Tax Divide,” which detailed how for years assessments under his watch have been riddled with errors that punished the poor while giving wealthy homeowners a break.

Making his first public statements on the issue, Berrios said the Tribune’s analysis was misleading. But he offered no evidence that the system as a whole is accurate and fair.

Cook County homeowners expect to pay property taxes based on a fair determination of their home’s worth. In short, they want the Cook County assessor’s office to do its job well. Is that asking too much?

Brace yourselves for the answer, taxpayers.

In another nod toward revamping Cook County’s cash bond system, prosecutors will begin to recommend that some people charged with minor offenses be released pending the resolution of their cases, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced Monday.

“Routinely detaining people accused of low-level offenses who have not yet been convicted of anything, simply because they are poor is not only unjust — it undermines the public’s confidence in the fairness of the system,” State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement that chastised the system’s “overreliance” on pre-trial detention.

Bipartisanship isn’t dead in Springfield; it just looks that way.

Gov. Bruce Rauner last week signed into law a bill designed to reform the bail system in Illinois, particularly in Cook County.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was one of the key backers of the bill, pointing out that his jail is filled with individuals charged with committing non-violent and low-level offenses who can’t be released before trial because they can’t make the bond set by the court.

For the first time in more than 40 years, the Cook County Jail is no longer operating under federal oversight after a judge last week found the massive Southwest Side complex had met the terms of a 2010 consent decree.

But the jail’s hospital — which is separately run by Cook County and has struggled with overcrowding and staffing shortages — remains under federal oversight.

Four Chicago Police officers who face firing in connection with the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald will be back on the city payroll, at least until the conclusion of officer Jason Van Dyke’s murder trial.

The Chicago Police Board, which hands out discipline in cases of alleged officer misconduct, voted on Monday to put a stay on the officers’ hearings, saying that evidence used against the officers in their police board hearings would jeopardize the admissibility of evidence in Van Dyke’s trial.

The city council is considering raising taxes across the board.

There are 22 items on the list of possible tax hikes. That includes food and beverage taxes, storm water and sewer fees, and recycling fees. One councilman says, in a tight budget year, these tax increases are not out of the ordinary.

The Illinois Associated Press Media Editors and Illinois Press Association last week honored some of the journalism produced by the staff of the Belleville News-Democrat. We’re proud of our people, but rather than tooting our own horn we’d like to take a moment to offer thanks to those who blow the whistle.

Almost every significant investigation undertaken by this news organization begins with someone seeing something wrong and telling us about it.