The Supreme Court will rule any day now on Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, the anti-union landmark Illinois case, and the justices are expected to side against government employee unions, breaking 5-4 along Republican and Democratic lines.

Long anticipating an adverse outcome, the public sector unions in Illinois and other states have been ramping up drives to retain members and recruit new ones.

The Illinois Department of Corrections indicated Monday it will consider appealing a federal judge’s order that the agency immediately provide sufficient staff and treatment to 12,000 mentally ill inmates, arguing that it has made significant strides in complying with a two-year-old lawsuit settlement.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mihm, in an order dated Friday, ruled that seriously mentally ill inmates are suffering “irreparable harm” from an agency Mihm has determined treats them with “deliberate indifference.”

Millions of Illinois Facebook users are being notified that they could be involved in a lawsuit over the social media giant’s use of its facial tagging feature.

A court-appointed administrator on Monday began sending emails to users who resided in Illinois for at least 60 consecutive days between June 7, 2011, and mid-April of this year, explaining that they could be parties to a class-action lawsuit against the social network, said Nikki Sokol, associate general counsel at Facebook. Separately, Facebook is sending users who meet those criteria a notification via their accounts, letting them know they may be involved in the lawsuit, and an additional item also will appear in their news feed. The notifications must be sent by Thursday.

Efforts to drastically expand gaming in Illinois — and create a Chicago casino — will get another chance on Tuesday after falling short of advancing in an Illinois House committee on Memorial Day.

With adjournment of the Illinois General Assembly just days away, the House Executive Committee voted 5-4, one vote shy of advancing the revived measure that has been in the works since last year.

Disgraced former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, now in prison for a kickback scheme involving millions of dollars in school contracts, accepted lavish meals at some of the city’s priciest restaurants from a CPS vendor whose investors included Deborah Quazzo, who at the time was a Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointee to the Chicago Board of Education.

That’s according to a new report from CPS Inspector General Nicholas Schuler, whose investigation led the FBI to Byrd-Bennett.

McHenry Township isn’t the only place where the road district could land on the chopping block.

Algonquin Township Supervisor Charles Lutzow got a recent phone call from McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks.

With the cost of garbage collection helping to create a nearly $400,000 budget deficit, the village is preparing to start charging a separate fee for pickup beginning this summer.

“It’s strictly a matter of economics,” interim Village Administrator Dustin Sutton said recently. “The village simply can’t afford it any more with looking at cuts to services.”

After a six-year absence, Peoria County may again hold an annual household hazardous material drop-off day for residents.

That’s one of several things county officials plan to spend money on after a sooner-than-expected payment from Peoria Disposal Co. as that company prepares for the opening of a new landfill facility in the county in 2022.

Ambur Petty is now known as a thief. She will have a tough time getting another job after taking $2,850 while working as zoning clerk for the Village of Caseyville.

Some village leaders are upset she only got 30 months of probation for the theft.

Bicentennial Park in Belleville is getting $900,000 in improvements that include a new playground, a new entrance and parking lot off South 21st Street and the dredging of a lake so it can be restocked with fish.

Work began this spring on the playground and new entrance while the dredging is expected to begin soon. The projects are expected to be finished this summer.