Complaints from businesses about a city zoning department demand that they install costly decorative fences and make other costly changes has prompted the City Council to consider a moratorium on the fix-up program.
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First, Todd Stroger, the Cook County Board president, lost the backing of the mostly white Democratic power structure that he and his father had served for decades. And now, not long after his failed run for another term, Mr. Stroger has also given up the right to lead the political foot soldiers who long served his family’s South Side political dynasty.
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Times are changing in the South Side enclave of Bridgeport, the longtime power base of the Daley family. Elderly men who gathered to klatch over Dunkin’ Donuts each morning have migrated to the Bridgeport Coffee House. The younger crowd frequents the old neighborhood tavern in the blue-collar area once known as Hardscrabble.
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Chicago Public Schools’ controversial process of closing, consolidating and turning around schools will receive new scrutiny this week.
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Just weeks after being the target of a curt expletive from Mayor Richard M. Daley, Rolando Rodriguez, a Wal-Mart executive, has been transferred out of the state.

During a City Council meeting last month, Mr. Rodriguez asked the mayor if he was committed to Wal-Mart’s plans for more stores in Chicago, prompting Mr. Daley to swear at Mr. Rodriguez and storm off, according to a witness to the exchange.
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The afterglow of victory was brief for the self-styled reformers of Chicago’s 32nd Ward.

State Representative John A. Fritchey helped behind the scenes as Scott Waguespack unseated Alderman Ted Matlak in the 2007 election. Now, Mr. Waguespack has accused Mr. Fritchey, the ward’s Democratic committeeman, of trying to recruit challengers when Mr. Waguespack seeks re-election next year.
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With unemployment high, the staff of an Early Head Start program based in Evanston noticed that some hard-hit families were removing their children from child care and support programs that focus on child care centers. As a result, Early Head Start teachers were losing their ability to help at-risk children.
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Gene Pingatore has won more games than any other high school basketball coach in Illinois history during 40-plus seasons at St. Joseph High School. Alumni of the Westchester school include NBA great Isiah Thomas, “Hoop Dreams” star William Gates and more than two dozen Division I college players. You would think he had just about seen, heard and done it all in basketball, but Pingatore experienced another first this week: junior guards Demetri McCamey of Illinois and Evan Turner of Ohio State, both 2007 St. Joe’s grads, shared the Big Ten Player of the Week award.
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The First Brother-in-Law has raised his hand for the DePaul University basketball coaching job.

A representative of Craig Robinson, head basketball coach at Oregon State University and Michelle Obama’s brother, has approached DePaul about the opening created by the firing of Jerry Wainright last month, according to a high-level person in DePaul’s athletic department not authorized to talk on the record.
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In a conflict between churches and the state of affairs with the city’s new parking meters, a group of black ministers is circulating petitions designed to end the ticketing of parked cars during church events.

The movement started after people leaving a recent community meeting at Israel Methodist Community Church on the South Side found their car windshields littered with tickets.
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