Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: City Hall shuffle: Budget director leaves, water commissioner fired
The revolving door at City Hall was spinning Friday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel accepted the resignation of his only budget director, fired his water management commissioner and re-appointed his inspector general and chief procurement officer.
It all happened on the final day of the work week when politicians love to bury bad news.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago water commissioner resigns amid IG probe into racist, sexist emails
Chicago’s water commissioner has resigned amid what City Hall sources say is an inspector general investigation into racist and sexist email messages sent at the agency.
Out is Barrett Murphy, who made $170,000 a year leading the Department of Water Management after taking the job in April 2016. He’s a city government veteran who is married to Lynn Lockwood. She’s the former chairman and treasurer of one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s political funds, as well as a friend of Chicago first lady Amy Rule.
State Journal-Register: Thumbs Way Down: To Illinois lawmakers cheering about not having to work
Thumbs Down: To the Illinois House lawmakers who cheered Wednesday upon learning the planned session scheduled for Friday would be canceled.
“I have an announcement. Perk up, perk up your ears, listen close. Friday’s session has been canceled,” House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, announced Wednesday. She was met with immediate cheers and applause from some of the people in the chamber.
State Journal-Register: UIS faculty unanimously ratify their first contract
Tenured and tenure-track faculty at the University of Illinois Springfield voted unanimously Friday to ratify their first contract, according to a union news release.
Details of the new contract were being withheld until after the ratification vote.
Chicago Sun-Times: For J.B. Pritzker, mansion’s disrepair has saved $230K in taxes
J.B. Pritzker, billionaire would-be governor, bought the historic mansion next door to his even bigger home on Chicago’s Gold Coast, let it fall into disrepair — and then argued it was “uninhabitable” to win what so far have been nearly $230,000 in property-tax breaks, records show.
Pritzker, his wife and their two children live in a palatial, three-story home in the Gold Coast with more than 12,500 square feet of living space and a two-story coach house. They bought that for $14.5 million in May 2006 and spent an additional amount fixing it up — between $11 million and $25 million more, records show.
Chicago Tribune: Democratic group warns candidates to play nice as early Pritzker push causes friction
With early friction emerging in the 2018 Democratic race for governor, the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association is urging the candidates to turn their wrath toward Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner instead of on one another.
The phone call this week raising concerns about the contest’s tone among the campaigns and the group’s leader came as billionaire entrepreneur and investor J.B. Pritzker has launched TV ads and begun amassing endorsements, prompting rivals for the nomination to criticize him.
Chicago Sun-Times: Dorothy Brown sang firm’s praises, now mum on her bosses’ fraud rap
In a highly impassioned pep talk that was more sermon than political stump speech, Dorothy Brown endorsed the 5LINX home-based sales organization when executives announced promotions for the Cook County Circuit Court clerk and her husband.
“I’m a living testimony that you can make it in 5LINX against all odds,” Brown said in the speech at the multi-level marketing company’s “international event” in San Antonio two years ago.
Chicago Tribune: CTU to take confidence vote on schools chief Claypool
The Chicago Teachers Union will stage a districtwide referendum on the tenure of schools chief Forrest Claypool next week, though union leaders have already declared they have no confidence in the mayoral appointee’s stewardship of the system.
The union’s governing body called for Claypool’s “immediate resignation” in February in a symbolic gesture while also denouncing budget cuts and layoffs implemented by the city amid ongoing budget turmoil.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Reader staff authorizes strike, demands higher pay
With hopes of higher pay, the unionized staff of the Chicago Reader voted unanimously Friday to authorize a strike.
The move acts as a formal threat to the weekly newspaper’s owner, Wrapports, that it’s time to get serious in negotiations, music editor Philip Montoro said.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Report: Cook County Short Nearly 190,000 Affordable Rental Units
Cook County’s affordable housing supply has not kept up with demand, according to a report issued by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University.
Through analysis of data from the American Community Survey, the institute found a gap of 187,848 affordable units in 2015.
Bloomington Pantagraph: County still waiting on AG response to Open Meetings questions
A delay in a review by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office of alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act by members of McLean County’s health board could limit the state’s ability to file misdemeanor charges against two current and one former board member.
It’s been almost a year since Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office was asked by McLean County State’s Attorney Jason Chambers for an opinion on whether former Board of Health member Becky Powell and current members Jane Turley and Cory Tello broke the law by routinely meeting behind closed doors with former health department administrator Walt Howe.
Bloomington Pantagraph: ISU board OKs tuition freeze, extends Dietz's contract
Students starting at Illinois State University this fall will pay the same tuition, fees and residence hall rates as last year’s students.
The ISU board of trustees approved the administration’s recommendation to freeze rates at its quarterly meeting on Friday.
News-Gazette: Killeen on UI lobbyist's patronage ties: 'We didn't know'
University of Illinois officials say they were unaware of an investigation into patronage hiring under former Gov. Pat Quinn when two of Quinn’s top aides were hired at the UI.
But they also plan to review the procedures used in those searches, which came before the two UI employees were implicated in a new report on the politically motivated hiring but after an initial inspector general’s report on the problem in 2014.
Belleville News-Democrat: IDOT says long-delayed Illinois 15 project will be done by August — and might end up in court
The long-troubled Illinois 15 project over Illinois 13 near Belleville and west of Eckert’s is now expected to be completed this summer — three years later than scheduled and over the original $14.4 million construction cost, Illinois Department of Transportation representatives say.
How much the long-delayed project is over budget has yet to be determined, IDOT said.
Belleville News-Democrat: Kelvin Ellis’ hearing on parole violation set for May 24
One of prison-bound and former East St. Louis Township supervisor Oliver Hamilton’s advisers could also face incarceration for meeting with him and working for another felon who ran last year for state representative.
Kelvin Ellis, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, will go before a magistrate judge May 24 for violating the terms of his parole, for meeting with another felon — Hamilton. He could also have to answer for taking $4,000 from controversial Belleville radio show host and convicted felon Bob Romanik, who paid Ellis on three separate occasions last year for “campaign work.”