Democratic leaders are looking to change a law that puts a one-year time limit on investigations into claims of wrongdoing against lawmakers after the sexual harassment scandal at the Capitol brought to light that more than two dozen ethics complaints have sat in limbo.

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering represents the latest effort by legislative leaders to respond to widespread complaints about a culture of sexual harassment in Springfield that stretches back decades. Those efforts accelerated after a victim rights advocate alleged at a Tuesday public hearing that she was harassed by a state senator but her complaints went unanswered for nearly a year.

State Sen. Ira Silverstein was ousted on Wednesday from his Democratic leadership position, just one day after a victim rights advocate launched explosive allegations against him.

But a suburban lawmaker who sits on the Legislative Ethics Commission argues that the General Assembly typically acts much more slowly — if at all — in investigating such allegations.

A Republican member of the Legislative Ethics Commission said Thursday she thinks investigations of legislative ethics should be independent of the Illinois General Assembly.

State Sen. Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles, said she is working with others “to completely change the ethics commission.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new borrowing plan was graded AAA on Thursday by two Wall Street debt-rating agencies, which city officials heralded as a sign that the city indeed could save the tens of millions of dollars that the mayor is counting on to balance next year’s budget.

In the case of Fitch Ratings, the AAA score is a 10-notch upgrade on the $575 million in debt the city plans to refinance early next month. Kroll Bond Rating Agency’s improved debt rating was an upgrade of just a single tick. Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, however, was not as bullish, keeping the rating at AA.

Aldermen on Thursday criticized Chicago’s top police brass over the department’s failure to hire African-Americans in proportion to how many take the entrance examination.

During a budget hearing that spanned almost seven hours, aldermen questioned Superintendent Eddie Johnson and his deputies about the racial breakdown of new hires made in during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to expand the department to 13,500 officers, an effort that could require more than 2,000 new hires. Diversity in hiring is a central goal as the department strives to improve relations with minority residents strained by decades of scandals and controversial uses of force.

Cook County Jail wasn’t designed to be a psychiatric facility, but it’s turned into one of the largest mental health institutions in the country, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Dart claims that one-third of the more than 7,000 detainees in Cook County Jail suffer from some form of mental illness.

A monthslong campaign to consolidate a labor group representing Chicago charter school teachers with the Chicago Teachers Union is on hold, for now.

Unionized teachers at 32 Chicago charter schools voted to merge with the CTU this summer. CTU officials planned to have their members take up the unification next month.

When he directed a party bus as a passenger around police traffic cones following a summer concert, Tinley Park’s mayor displayed conduct that was “borderline reckless” but not deserving of criminal prosecution, a law firm investigating an ethics complaint filed against the mayor has determined.

Mayor Jacob Vandenberg’s behavior the night of July 26 following a Paul McCartney concert in the village was “inappropriate and misguided,” but “does not rise to the level deserving punishment under the Illinois Criminal Code’s Office Misconduct Provision,” attorney Charles Hervas wrote in an Oct. 20 report of his investigation into the complaint.

It’s not clear if a proposal to bring Portillo’s to the Peoria area is dead. But the effort to add an extra 1 percent to the sales tax at the Italian-beef-and-hot-dog restaurant appears to be.

Peoria City Council members were told late Wednesday night in a communication from city staff that developer William Torchia intends to withdraw his request for a special service area on the property along Sterling Avenue, just outside Westlake Shopping Center.

On Sunday, if you squinted enough, you got the truth about tax increment financing in Belleville when the annual treasurer’s report was published as a legal notice. We’ve regularly marked the occasion by highlighting the districts’ impact, something you could call “The Running of the TIFs.”

Belleville’s 18 TIF districts collected $19 million in fiscal 2017, which ended in April. That is $425,000 more than the previous year and nearly $8 million more than a decade ago.