They’ve been disagreeing and feuding publicly for months on a variety of topics, but NBC 5 has learned that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met privately on Friday.

“The mayor and governor are working together to bring Amazon’s second headquarters, and its 50,000 jobs, to Chicago,” a spokesman for Mayor Emanuel said. “Our offices have been working closely together for weeks on the proposal, and the mayor and governor met on Friday to discuss the progress that’s been made and the overall strategy behind the Chicago proposal.”

As a state worker, I’m forced to pay money to one of the most powerful political interest groups in Illinois. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees takes a piece of every paycheck I earn.

Thankfully, on Sept. 28, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear my case on why I think that should change.

Illinois’ in-state college tuition and fees ranked fifth highest in the U.S. last year, and a new report says those costs are a major reason that degrees are increasingly out-of-reach for low-income students.

Data from 2014 show low-income families in Illinois must set aside 63 percent of their total income for a student to attend a four-year institution, according to a report from The Partnership for College Completion. Middle-class families must set aside 25 percent, the study found.

In what legal observers describe as a highly unusual move, the Illinois Supreme Court has for a second time in two years removed the same Cook County judge from a pending wrongful death case in civil court.

Last year, the state’s high court took the unusual step of removing Judge Daniel Lynch, a former Cook County prosecutor, from a byzantine case involving a traffic death that ended with Lynch sentencing the deceased victim’s uncle to six years in prison for contempt of court.

Leaders on the Elk Grove Township District 59 school board led the effort to keep voters from deciding whether the district should borrow up to $20 million, according to emails obtained by the Daily Herald.

The emails also show school board members leaned on top local Democrats for advice and resources in an attempt to block the grass-roots effort to put the question of issuing bonds on the March ballot.

A Maine Township trustee is criticizing administrative costs for a program for the poor that are more than three times the amount of aid actually provided to needy residents.

“I think it’s an outrage,” says Trustee Susan Sweeney, a Park Ridge Republican and unsuccessful 2012 candidate for state representative.

Taxpayers recently got a good news-bad news story out of the St. Clair County Board.

Good news: They voted to reduce the financial impact of those getting a county retirement check as well as a current county paycheck.