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State Journal-Register—Gov. Quinn OKs new budget with extra cuts, “Gov. Pat Quinn cut $376 million Thursday from the already austere state budget lawmakers sent him, reducing spending for Medicaid, school buses and regional school superintendents. However, Quinn signed the rest of the budget without further changes, despite his previous complaints that the budget shortchanges education and human services and is ‘incomplete.’”
- Chicago Sun-Times—Ald. Burke could give up bodyguards, or have them yanked, “Either Mayor Rahm Emanuel will follow through on a campaign threat and strip Burke of the four Chicago Police officers who have chauffeured and protected the alderman for nearly three decades — or, at the very least, cut the bodyguard detail in half.”
- SouthtownStar—Cook County pulls plug on troubled Project Shield program, “Seven years and $44 million questionably spent federal dollars later, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday pulled the plug on Project Shield, a failed Homeland Security program initiated by her two predecessors, John and Todd Stroger.”
- Daily Herald—Editorial: Fewer lawmakers should get stipends, “The stipends add another $1.7 million to the legislative payroll and raise Illinois to fourth in the nation for lawmakers’ total pay, behind Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. The total spent on extra stipends for Illinois legislators is higher than in every state except New York.”
- Peoria Journal Star—Plan to combine Peoria city and county services gets ‘road map’, “City Council and County Board members hope that by creating a formal charter and laying out some necessary decision-making steps, it will serve to further light a fire under people in both governments to take the ideas more seriously.”
- Chicago Tribune—Death penalty dies in Illinois as of today, “The death penalty in Illinois officially ends today, and the 15 prisoners who once faced execution already have been scattered across prisons throughout the state.”
