While the Chicago Police Department insists it doesn’t need to expand the ranks as the new budget comes down the pike, the Chicago Fire Department wants to buttress its ranks against the greatest threat of all—old age.
An audit finds that the cost of the state’s All Kids program is going up, and that errors in the system are causing the state to miss out on federal funding; Michael Madigan is ready to take on pension reform; and more
The famous Chicago director, one half of the team behind Cloud Atlas, opened up about her transition after receiving the Invisibility Award from the Human Rights Campaign.
There is a game that allows you to play a CTA conductor, fulfilling a dream I barely knew I had (though they chose the Brown Line, which is less than optimal). Plus: the history of Chicago’s Belt Railway and a trip through the North Shore in the 1920s.
Carol Felsenthal rounds up Chicago-related items in this week’s politics news
A report on our state’s finances from the bureaucratic dream team of Richard Ravitch and Paul Volker is a lengthy yet concise description of its many problems, but doesn’t provide many ideas for addressing them.
Richard Mourdock defeated eternal GOP stalwart Richard Lugar with a hard Tea Party economic line, putting the Indiana seat at risk—with the reward of a conservative replacing a conciliator. As the most recent major candidate to draw nationwide attention for his comments on abortion, it’s a test to see how far economic conservatives are willing to go for their social counterparts.
Cubs’ ticket prices have gone up 265 percent in two decades; the White Sox have had one of the largest price increases in the past few years, to the extent that they can’t fill a stadium with a competitive team. Tax subsides are in part to blame, but there’s a better way.
A new study finds that the intuitive logic about protected bicycle lanes and bicycle tracks outweighs the received wisdom: the better defined the infrastructure, the safer it is. Plus: a look at Sao Paulo’s bicycle schools.
Illinois has a rep as a high tax state, and by some measures it’s true—a high nominal corporate income tax rate to go along with high property and sales taxes. Our income tax is low, but it’s not low for everyone.
