Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Crain's Chicago Business: Amazon search team in Chicago next week
A search committee from Amazon will be in Chicago the middle of next week as part of its hunt for its location for a second headquarters that the company says will employ up to 50,000 jobs.
According to sources close to the matter, the company will meet with local civic and corporate leaders, likely on Wednesday, March 21, and tour a handful of proposed locations in the central area of the city.
WBEZ: Rauner: Replace Legionnaires’-Stricken VA Home With New ‘Ultra-Modern’ Facility
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner called Thursday for the construction of an “ultra-modern facility” in downstate Quincy to replace a state-run veterans’ home beset by fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks.
The governor also said his administration is considering a short-term plan to buy a nearby, vacant nursing home and construct temporary housing for some of the 352 residents currently at the Quincy home should a decision be made they need to be moved.
State Journal-Register: Rauner looking into state buying vacant nursing home in Quincy
Gov. Bruce Rauner is looking into buying a new home for veterans in Quincy, as well as adding a new building to the existing veterans’ home campus.
The governor announced the proposal for the two new facilities in a press conference at the home Thursday, calling them efforts to prevent further outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease at the facility, which since 2015 has had 13 Legionnaires-related deaths.
Peoria Journal-Star: Caterpillar closings impact 880 jobs, Illinois plant could be next
Caterpillar Inc. will close facilities in Texas and Panama as part of a plan that could eventually include the shuttering of an Illinois engine manufacturing plant and overall job losses of about 880 positions, according to a Reuters report.
The decision to close the facilities in Texas and Panama is final, and has been internally announced over the last two months, the company confirmed to Reuters.
Chicago Sun-Times: 15 got promotions from Court Clerk Dorothy Brown within 6 months of donations
More than a dozen employees of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office and their family members made campaign contributions to Brown within six months of getting a promotion and pay raise, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
In all, 15 workers and their families made a total of more than 50 campaign contributions to Brown in the six months before or after receiving promotions in the circuit court clerk’s office, the analysis of county payroll and state campaign contribution records shows.
Chicago Tribune: Indicted Ald. Willie Cochran wants charges dropped, says witnesses initially denied he pressured them for bribes
Bribery and extortion charges against Ald. Willie Cochran should be dismissed because the alleged victims initially denied they were pressured by the alderman to make any payments in exchange for official acts, Cochran’s lawyer said Friday in a court filing.
In fact, it was the FBI that put pressure on at least one of the victims — a liquor store owner who’d testified before a grand jury that Cochran never asked him for anything in exchange for the alderman’s help with an ordinance change, the filing alleged.
Northwest Herald: Algonquin Township, Highway Department spend nearly $270,000 on new security system
Algonquin Township officials have spent nearly $270,000 on a new security system.
Three months after trustees audited and approved a $62,000 bill from Tyco Integrated Security to install a key fob system in the township’s main building, the board approved a $205,000 bill to do the same in the road district’s nine buildings.
Daily Herald: District 211 plans more than $13.8 million in summer upgrades
An estimated $13.8 million in summer renovations are coming to Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211’s five schools this year, not including improvements to the athletic fields at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates.
Work on Conant’s playing fields, which would include their repositioning and regrading as well as installation of an underground drainage system and walking path, is still awaiting a cost estimate.