The state agency responsible for protecting the children in Semaj Crosby’s home assigned unmanageable caseloads to investigators in its Joliet field office and allowed supervisors there to intimidate and mistreat workers, the Tribune has found.

As allegations of child abuse poured in from the Joliet Township house where 17-month-old Semaj would be found dead in April, investigators in the Department of Children and Family Services’ local office sometimes handled 30 or more new cases per month — well over nationally recognized standards.

Democratic state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie won’t run for re-election in 2018, sources with knowledge of her decision said, signaling a career ending for Illinois’ first female majority leader and a longtime ally of House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Her decision comes more than 20 years after Madigan first named her to the influential post in early 1997 and nearly 40 years after she first entered the House in 1979.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday made the case for Chicago to win the heated competition for Amazon’s second North American headquarters and said he plans to join forces with Gov. Bruce Rauner in an “all hands-on-deck, all-resources-to-bear” bid.

“It’s gonna be Chicago, county and state with one voice and all of the resources, all hands on deck and all creativity to that effort,” the mayor said after speaking at the launch of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial at the Cultural Center.

Illinois incomes were slightly higher than the rest of the nation in 2016, but those in Madison and St. Clair Counties were thousands of dollars below both figures, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

New population numbers also showed that populations have declined slightly in both counties in the past five years.

Are the people of Illinois, particularly its elected officials at all levels of government, paying attention to what’s going on in the Nutmeg State, once dubbed the richest of all 50 states?

It is sinking into a financial abyss, one driven by years of profligate government spending that long ago outstripped its financial resources.

The vast majority of grade school students did not meet the passing mark on statewide reading and math exams in 2017, and performance was largely flat compared to the year before, according to preliminary data released by the state Thursday.

Those results show that challenges lie ahead as the Illinois State Board of Education pushes students on a trajectory to improve, with a goal of 90 percent of third- through eighth-graders passing the state exams in 2032.

Lawrence Wyllie, the former Lincoln-Way superintendent who led the south suburban district into academic prominence, then set it on a course of fiscal ruin, has been charged with fraud.

Federal prosecutors allege Wyllie, 79, hid the “true financial health” of Lincoln-Way High School District 210 by misusing millions in bond money and fraudulently spent school district funds on personal projects, including Superdog, a dog-training school he ordered built.

The mass exodus of African Americans out of Chicago increased last year. The U.S. Census Bureau says 40,000 black residents left town.

Every other group grew in size, especially Latinos.

One big factor: the high unemployment rate among African Americans. A new program hopes to help change that.

People of Hispanic or Latino descent have overtaken African-Americans as Chicago’s second-largest racial or ethnic group, according to U.S. Census data released on Thursday.

The city’s Hispanic population jumped from about 786,000 in 2015 to more than 803,000 in 2016, accounting for 29.7 percent of the city’s 2.7 million residents, the data shows.

Starting next year, Illinois school districts and charter schools will be required to provide feminine hygiene products in bathrooms to female students, for free.

The new state law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, requires that products such as tampons and sanitary napkins be provided at no cost in bathrooms of schools with grades 6 through 12.

An exploratory step to privatize McHenry County’s Valley Hi Nursing Home sparked debate about a lack of communication, the need for more transparency and political bickering.

County officials debated the matter, which had prompted a faction of McHenry County Board Republicans to call for special meetings on the topic. The last time this was discussed, the group wanted to censure McHenry County Chairman Jack Franks and County Administrator Peter Austin. The special meeting Aug. 23 failed to establish a quorum, and no action was taken.

Freshman enrollment at Northern Illinois University has increased for the first time in six years. However, total enrollment at the university located in DeKalb is down.

The Daily Chronicle reports NIU welcomed 1,852 freshmen for the 2017-18 school year, a 3 percent increase from last year. Because of the departure of larger graduating classes, however, NIU’s total enrollment decreased by 5 percent.

University of Illinois law professor Laurie Reynolds says Rockford would be a better city if residents restored home rule and gave local leaders more authority to tax and solve problems creatively.

If there is to be a grassroots effort to restore home rule, it may have begun during a Next Rockford meeting this morning. Reynolds was invited to give the group an overview of home rule, how it works and how it might benefit Rockford. Next Rockford is a nonprofit that brings together 25- to 45-year-old professionals working to improve the city.