A new film about Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) shines a light on some stories which have been told before — suggesting Madigan’s map-drawing and fund-raising skills – combined with a law practice that gets clients’ property taxes reduced – have made him the most powerful man in Illinois.

Illinois Policy Action, the lobbying division of the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute, commissioned the film, which mainly consists of interviews with people who have known and observed Madigan.

It’s part of a 21st Century in which you do not need a television network or movie studio to get your word out. All you need, really, are an iPhone and a Facebook or YouTube account.

The first downstate mass transit district closed its doors over the weekend, as the buses in Jacksonville, Illinois, stopped running, and dozens of others said they may close as well if they don’t receive more state money soon.

However, there simply isn’t any money to send their way.

Illinois Public Transit Association Chairman Andrew Johnson said downstate mass transit districts rely on state government for two-thirds of their operating budgets, which puts them at the mercy of state government.

Managing sewage and flood control might not seem like the most glamorous job in Illinois, but the financial rewards can be substantial, a Better Government Association analysis finds.

At nearly $100,000 a year, the average salary for employees of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District ranks near the top of public agencies in the state, higher than Cook County, Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Housing Authority.

Other indicators, though, demonstrate a reduced burden on taxpayers despite rising salaries. The district in 2016 is charging property taxpayers in Cook County less to run day-to-day operations than it did seven years ago.

In 2009, the gross property tax levy for the district was $242 million. In 2016, it had declined to $227 million. That’s in contrast to a 30 percent increase in taxes between 2001 and 2010, an earlier BGA report found.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says he’s creating a council that will review state agency rules and regulations with the goal of reducing bureaucracy.

Rauner made the announcement Monday morning in the Chicago suburbs. He says each regulatory agency will have a representative on the newly created Illinois Competiveness Council.

Officials say the council will work to make sure regulations are up-to-date and language is easily understandable. It also is tasked with reducing unneeded requirements on businesses, social service providers and residents. Rauner’s office says the council’s goal is to save taxpayers at least $250 million over the next decade.

Investors are giving up on stock picking.

Pension funds, endowments, 401(k) retirement plans and retail investors are flooding into passive investment funds, which run on autopilot by tracking an index. Stock pickers, archetypes of 20th century Wall Street, are being pushed to the margins.

Over the three years ended Aug. 31, investors added nearly $1.3 trillion to passive mutual funds and their brethren—passive exchange-traded funds—while draining more than a quarter trillion from active funds, according to Morningstar Inc.

As chief executive officer of Caterpillar Inc., Douglas Oberhelman once pushed the company, like one of its trademark yellow-and-black bulldozers, to plow forward into world markets — no matter the obstacles.

Oberhelman saw the growing middle class in China, India and Brazil demanded a better quality of life that included new roads, hospitals and airports. Caterpillar poured almost $20 billion into research and development, capital spending and deals over a couple of years. In 2012, he announced an audacious goal: Boosting sales more than 50 percent to as much as $100 billion in 2015.

A Far South Side man who had been held at the Cook County Jail for four months since being arrested for theft at an Avondale neighborhood Jewel-Osco died in custody Monday morning, in what the sheriff’s office called an example of an “unjust” bond system.

Ryan Hanley, 34, was accused of stealing merchandise valued at less than $300 on June 9 from the store at 3572 N. Elston Ave., according to Cook County Circuit Court records and Chicago Police. Judge Peggy Chiampas set bond at $50,000 for the felony theft charge, records show.

Hanley had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, according to Cara Smith, chief policy officer for the Cook County sheriff’s office. He died at Stroger Hospital at 8:03 a.m. Monday, according to the medical examiner’s office.

If teachers ratify the agreement that barely staved off a strike, then Chicago would become the first American city to cap its number of charter schools using a union contract.

Contained in the deal to be considered this week by Chicago Teachers Union delegates is a provision to impose limits on both the number of charter schools in Chicago Public Schools as well as those schools’ total enrollment over the duration of the four-year agreement.

As she tries to persuade commissioners to vote for a beverage tax, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle wants to give each board member control over a pot of money for local projects.

It’s a page out of the City Hall playbook, where former Mayor Richard M. Daleypopularized the practice of giving the city’s 50 aldermen control over $1.3 million in spending on ward projects each year. Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues doling out that so-called menu money, so named because aldermen choose from a menu of potential projects outlined by the city Department of Transportation, albeit with a few more restrictions on how it can be spent.