Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Rauner barred from immediately imposing contract terms on public union
An Illinois appellate court has temporarily barred Gov. Bruce Rauner from imposing his contract terms on the state’s largest public employee union.
The 4th District Court of Appeals sided with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 on Friday. The court issued an order prohibiting immediate action by the Republican governor.
Chicago Sun-Times: Court ruling on contract fight pleases AFSCME, disappoints Rauner
The state’s largest employee union on Friday notched a win in its war with Gov. Bruce Rauner after an appellate court put on hold a declared impasse in negotiations to reach a new contract.
The ruling effectively stops Gov. Rauner from being able to implement the state’s final contract offer — and it puts the brakes on the potential for state workers to strike. An appellate court must now rule on whether an impasse exists, and that could take months.
Chicago Tribune: Chance the Rapper, Rauner offer different takeaways from Friday meeting
Bruce the Governor and Chance the Rapper emerged from their much-hyped meeting Friday offering different perspectives on what went on behind closed doors for 40 minutes or so in the upper reaches of the James R. Thompson Center.
The South Side rapper said he was “a little bit flustered” and was disappointed he got “a lot of vague answers” as the two discussed state funding for Chicago Public Schools.
WBEZ: Can The Illinois Senate Negotiate A Budget Deal?
The Illinois Senate’s negotiations to end the state’s historic budget impasse appear to have fallen apart.
Democrats said talks ended when Gov. Bruce Rauner got involved, though Republican senators said negotiations should continue. Talks around the so-called “grand bargain,” a package of bills that must all be approved to take effect, were the only ongoing negotiations to end the 20-month stalemate.
Chicago Tribune: Hundreds of NEIU students to lose jobs as all employees take required furlough days
Hundreds of student employees at Northeastern Illinois University will lose their jobs and nearly all staff will be required to take five furlough days later this month, the latest fallout from the state’s protracted budget impasse.
Northeastern will shut down the week of March 20, during spring break, as about 1,100 employees take five unpaid days off. All university and instructional services, including computer labs, the writing center and the library, will be closed. Only police and engineers will be on campus as needed, officials said.
Chicago Tribune: State to file response to CPS lawsuit against Rauner by end of month
The Chicago school board’s lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state of Illinois over education funding faces “serious problems getting off the ground as a matter of law,” an attorney for the state said in court Friday.
The state said it plans to file a motion to dismiss the case and a response to the district’s request for a preliminary injunction by the end of the month.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Noble Educators Begin Forming Nation’s Largest Charter Teachers Union
Educators within a Chicago charter school network have begun taking steps toward forming what would be the nation’s largest charter teachers union.
Noble Street Charter School teachers turned in more than 130 signatures on a petition to network administration Friday morning. They say those signatures come from Noble employees who are actively trying to form a union across the network’s 17 charter school campuses.
WBEZ: Charter School Leader Says Bid To Become Nation’s Largest Charter Union Could Hurt Schools
Staff at Chicago’s largest and most prominent public charter school network announced on Friday that they want to start a union, but the head of the school network said doing so could hurt its 17 schools.
If successful, the 800 teachers and staff at the Noble Network of Charter Schools would be the biggest charter union in the nation. WBEZ first reported the organizing effort early on Friday.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago State spends $1.2 million on a temporary maintenance fix
Chicago State University spent about $1.2 million to fix a failed campus heating system last month that forced a temporary shutdown of the campus, school leaders revealed Friday.
The unanticipated and untimely expense for the cash-strapped public university came after the school has struggled with its heating system throughout this academic year.
Chicago Tribune: Despite raid by feds, Caterpillar reputation may emerge unscathed, experts say
A day after federal authorities raided Caterpillar’s headquarters, surprising executives, agents were concluding an on-site investigation Friday, and the heavy machine-maker’s share price hadn’t fully recovered.
Nevertheless, experts say the Caterpillar brand will likely emerge largely unscathed.
Peoria Journal-Star: Investigation of Caterpillar may go beyond tax issue
The federal government’s extraordinary decision to seek and execute search warrants at the Caterpillar Inc. global headquarters this week indicates company officials have not been as forthcoming as previously claimed.
That’s the interpretation of former federal prosecutors who spoke generally Friday about the pending criminal investigation of the world’s largest manufacturer of earth moving equipment but who do not have specific knowledge of the government’s case.
Chicago Tribune: Stakes high in Illinois as Congress rethinks Medicaid
Soccer coach Lesly Durand noticed last fall that he was running out of breath more easily on the field, and getting unusually tired carrying bags of equipment.
The 61-year-old Evanston man didn’t know why, so he called his doctor. That call led to tests, which led to the discovery of five blocked arteries and then, ultimately, bypass surgery.
Chicago Tribune: J.B. Pritzker can't count on support of billionaire cousin
J.B. Pritzker’s inherited billions would likely make him a serious contender for the Democratic nomination if he makes good on his threat to run for Illinois governor — but he can’t count on the support of all of his famously wealthy clan.
Pritzker’s cousin, Col. Jennifer Pritzker, told Chicago Inc. on Friday that she isn’t ready to commit.
Chicago Sun-Times: CTA buses rack up red-light, speed tickets; you pay
CTA bus drivers racked up more than 400 red-light-camera and speeding-camera tickets the past two years while on the job, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show — and taxpayers were stuck having to pay.
The bill for the citations totaled about $40,000 for 2015 and 2016, the records show.
Chicago Tribune: Layoffs in Philadelphia raise concern about impact of Cook County soda tax
Recent layoffs in Philadelphia attributed to the city’s fledgling soda tax have armed unions and beverage industry groups with new evidence of what they say will come to pass in Cook County this summer.
But county officials aren’t buying it and say the comparison isn’t apples-to-apples. Cook County’s penny-per-ounce sweetened beverage tax — which goes into effect July 1 — was approved in November. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle championed the tax as a means of balancing the county’s $4.9 billion budget, preventing the further erosion of important county services and boosting public health.
Chicago Sun-Times: With agency facing probe, Brown held seminar on seeking office
The day after federal prosecutors said Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown received what they described as bribe money from an employee, Brown hosted a seminar for people interested in running for public office.
For $175 a ticket, plus $19.95 for an optional handbook, the daylong event, held on a Saturday last month, promised “instruction on every aspect of being a candidate.”
Chicago Tribune: For a fairer system, Kim Foxx takes a political risk
For too long, the fear of headlines has perpetuated an unjustifiable pattern of incarceration at Cook County Jail. Nonviolent, indigent offenders get stuck behind bars because they cannot afford bail. But offenders with financial means arrested on more serious charges can waltz out. As the Tribune reported in January, street gangs collect so much in drug profits that “there’s plenty of money to go around when gang members need to make bond” — often for gun crimes.
State’s attorneys, their rank-and-file prosecutors and judges haven’t wanted to ease up on bail thresholds out of fear. If they set bail low enough to allow a defendant to be released, and that defendant commits another crime, the headlines would be aimed at the judgment of those prosecutors and judges. Their careers would be at stake.
Chicago Sun-Times: Tab for clout firefighter’s fight with Chicago cop: $1.6 million
Chicago taxpayers have now spent more than $1.6 million as a result of a fight between a clout-heavy firefighter and a cop at a rescue scene five years ago, records show.
After years in court, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration recently agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that the cop, Joseph Smith, filed against the city and the firefighter, Mark Altman, whose father Edward Altman was fire commissioner under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Chicago Sun-Times: Emanuel, union blame each other for stalling ambulance expansion
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration and the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 are blaming each other for a broken promise to add “at least” five ambulances by July 1, 2016.
“As part of the side letter with Local 2, the Fire Department and union agreed they would form a six- person committee to come to a consensus on the placement of the five new ambulances,” mayoral spokesperson Julienn Kaviar wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Chicago Tribune: Federal judge shoots down argument for firing College of DuPage president
A federal judge has shot down one of the primary legal arguments that College of DuPage trustees used to justify firing embattled President Robert Breuder.
Trustees declared Breuder’s contract void in September 2015 based on the theory that his first extension was approved in April 2009 – four months after he began – by a lame-duck board that knew it was handcuffing incoming trustees with a long-term contract. The trustees insisted that boards in Illinois cannot legally bind future boards to lengthy employment agreements and based that argument on 19th-century case law.
Bloomington Pantagraph: AG asked to review legality of city's Metro Zone meeting
The McLean County State’s Attorney has asked the Illinois attorney general’s office to review whether the Bloomington City Council violated the state’s Open Meetings Act when it discussed in closed session canceling the Metro Zone agreement.
The council, which voted 7-2 Monday to terminate the revenue-sharing deal with the town of Normal, talked about the matter Feb. 20 in an executive session. The council cited the law’s provision allowing closed-door discussions in cases of imminent, pending or probable litigation.