Group touted by Emanuel trains teachers for the toughest turnaround schools, but critics ask, 'What about the rest?'New Chicago schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard took his listening tour Friday to a network of turnaround schools whose teacher-training program has been praised by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Andrew Davis, executive director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission — which is more than $300 million in debt — has been put on paid leaveThe executive director of the agency that oversees the state's troubled prepaid college tuition program called himself a "political victim" after a newly overhauled board moved to dump him Friday.

Emanuel nominees long on political ties, woefully short on credentialsDr. Anita Blanchard is widely known as the obstetrician who delivered Barack and Michelle Obama's two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Her husband, Chicago businessman Martin Nesbitt, is a basketball-playing buddy of the president and has been described as one of his closest friends.

Agency slates forums on its 10-year capital plan Approached by political leaders throughout the region to help cut congestion, Illinois Tollway officials are moving a step closer to assuming the lead role in building significant new highway projects.

Infraction occurred nearly 2 years ago; administrators deny time lag was politically motivated— A $1,000 fine has been levied against a former top staffer in Gov. Pat Quinn's office for doing political work on state time and state computers nearly two years ago.

Ryan went to prison and Blagojevich likely will as well, but it is their loved ones who sufferSome victims of crime are obvious and others are collateral damage, a maxim sadly made clear this week in rapid-fire succession by the corruption conviction of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the death of his imprisoned predecessor's wife, Lura Lynn Ryan.

'I, frankly, am stunned,' former governor says after jury convicts him on 17 countsA federal jury Monday convicted Rod Blagojevich of sweeping corruption, putting an end to a tragicomic legal and political drama that brought down Illinois' showy and would-be populist former governor.

Voters seemed to view ex-governor as outlierWhen the phone rang inside Rod Blagojevich's home and the FBI arrested Illinois' 40th governor that December morning in 2008, many predicted the bold act would serve as a clarion call for far-reaching reform of the state's political culture. The head of the FBI's Chicago office said Blagojevich's arrest served notice to all Illinoisans that "business as ...

Halfway through her first year on the job, Democratic Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is ready to greet political Chicago at her first major fundraiser since being sworn in.

Housing crisis was final nail in the coffin of once-promising recoveryEnglewood is rapidly being abandoned, many of its blocks now little more than weed-choked and trash-littered urban prairies.

Foreclosure crisis 'is our tsunami,' expert saysThe young woman sat naked and sobbing on the rotting front porch at 5964 S. Lowe Ave. in Englewood when neighbors found her. She had been raped by three men inside the boarded-up house, yanked by her ponytail and pulled inside after walking her children to school.

35-year-old group 'no longer talks about exporting bananas'In the early 1970s, a looming international oil crisis prompted the White House to create an informal gathering of senior finance officials from Europe, Japan and the U.S. It was dubbed the "Library Group" and stuck mostly to economic policies

Illinois may indeed lead the nation when it comes to political corruption, but we're doing lousy in protecting the right of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.

New aldermen don't want to be rubber stamps but face limits to their powerAs Chicago's rookie aldermen settle into their ward offices, they're flush with newfound authority and visions of a new day at City Hall — but a host of political and financial realities is likely to limit their influence.

Current representative says she won't resignMore than three dozen Kane County residents have applied to be the county's next representative on the Metra commuter rail board, including businessman and frequent political candidate Jim Oberweis.

Fake messages are far more funDistinguished reporters began poring over 24,000 pages of email messages from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last week in the outside chance they could make her look really, really stupid.

Mayor must support Daley's selection process or start overA political battle over a multimillion-dollar contract to control what international travelers eat and buy at O'Hare International Airport for the next 25 years is raging at City Hall, and all eyes are on Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Park District delays vote on increase after alderman objectsThe Adler Planetarium's plan to raise admission fees by $2 across the board has turned into a political issue, with the Chicago Park District putting off a vote after a powerful alderman demanded a public hearing Tuesday.

Governor's move is called a 'manufactured crisis' in bid to boost spendingGov. Pat Quinn on Monday threatened to shut down summer road construction if lawmakers don't return to Springfield, a move critics contend is a "manufactured crisis."

Powerful House speaker ushered through measures that squeezed Republicans and boosted Democrats' futures— In his 40th year as a lawmaker and 26th as House speaker, powerful Southwest Side Democrat Michael Madigan was the controlling force of the spring legislative session, from passage of a scaled-back state budget and punishing new political maps to a workers' compensation overhaul whose pa...

Former mayor is joining Katten Muchin Rosenman in 'of counsel' post, so he won't work exclusively for firmFormer Mayor Richard Daley is taking advantage of his long political career by joining an international law firm that hopes to tap his expertise and connections as someone known for leasing public assets and developing ties with China.

Ex-governor says he was only attempting a legal political 'horse trade'Rod Blagojevich was interested in getting something in exchange for naming someone to the U.S. Senate, but only if it was part of a legal political "horse trade," the former governor said Tuesday on the witness stand at his retrial.

Sometimes even the little things can be telling in a criminal trial, and so it was this past week when U.S. District Judge James Zagel delivered a brief discourse on the nuances of political deal-making to lawyers at the corruption retrial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Democrats OK redistricting map, delay action on budget, pensionsSPRINGFIELD — With just three days until a deadline to get out of town and a pile of major issues unresolved, the Democrats who run the General Assembly made sure to take care of their own political futures first.

Judge has shot down some of defense's effortsAs governor, Rod Blagojevich liked to portray himself as a cut above other politicians when it came to ethics. Now his attorneys are arguing that he was just playing the political game.

Rod Blagojevich's legal fate may be up in the air, but witnesses at his corruption retrial testified Monday that he was at least guilty of inartfully talking about government action and political fundraising in the same breath.

Mayor-elect is focus of testimony at Blagojevich trialTestimony in Rod Blagojevich's corruption retrial Thursday concluded with talk of how the former governor tried to squeeze his old political pal, Rahm Emanuel. It was a coincidence that speaks volumes about Blagojevich's fall from grace.

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and the political reformer he selected to run the CTA, Forrest Claypool, are heavyweight policy wonks.

Garry McCarthy navigated a thorny political landscape and is credited with improving Newark's police departmentNEWARK, N.J.—If Garry McCarthy had a honeymoon as Newark's top cop it ended violently on a single day in July 2009.

Bills came from both ends of the political spectrumThe Illinois House defeated attempts Thursday to let people carry concealed weapons and use marijuana for medical purposes following lengthy, contentious and emotional debates over how to make some folks feel safer and some feel better.