* Jobs hang in balance

* Illinois fiscal crisis clouds business climate

* Millions can find only part-time or lower-paying jobs

The latest Labor Department report shows there are nearly 9 million people like Linehan who want full-time jobs but can’t find them. In some cases, their formerly full-time employers have reduced their hours because of a lack of business.

* For many unemployed workers, jobs aren’t coming back

What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come.

The nation’s job deficit is so deep that even a powerful recovery would leave large numbers of Americans out of work for years, experts say. And with growth now weakening, analysts are doubtful that companies will boost payrolls significantly any time soon. Unemployment, long considered a temporary, transitional condition in the United States, appears to be settling in for a lengthy run.

* Report: Chicago-area Staffing Levels are Stable

* Temporary work program may lead to full-time jobs

* 26,000 Illinoisans put to work

* FEMA: Thousands in state register for flood aid

* FEMA: Oct. 18 is Deadline for Flood Aid

* Steinberg: Chicagoans still make stuff in a tough economy

But I’ve read one too many Labor Day joblessness stories, and I feel obligated to point out that gloom itself won’t revive the economy. At some point, it might help to lift our heads and realize that the news isn’t grim everywhere. People still have jobs. Nine out of 10 Chicagoans are working — 40 employees just at Chicago Mailing Tube, manufacturer of cardboard tubes of all sorts, from Parmesan cheese containers to concrete forms.

* Merchandise Mart up for sale

* What’s new at Chicago Public Schools

* Chicago hopes to borrow another $1 billion for O’Hare expansion

Like a poker player who has gone all in on a bet that’s too big to lose, the Daley administration is expected to explain to aldermen on Tuesday why it needs to quickly issue $1 billion in new bonds to prevent the expansion of O’Hare International Airport from folding. […]

Ultimately, the city will need to raise at least $3.3 billion to finish the job — and that’s without new terminals, a People Mover extension and other infrastructure that Chicago officials once deemed integral to building the first runways at O’Hare in almost 40 years.

* Bensenville Could Lose More Land To Expand O’Hare

* Daily Herald: Progress in study of college funding

* Chicago homeless advocates want TIF money for affordable housing

* Sun-Times: New CHA chief has long list of challenges

Reynolds’ most important job will be to help CHA complete its Plan for Transformation, the ambitious effort launched in 2000 to replace or rehab 25,000 apartments and — most importantly — improve residents’ lives.

Ten years into that plan, the CHA has rehabbed nearly all its senior citizen buildings and about 63 percent of a promised 5,000 units in traditional public housing projects.

But it’s woefully behind in building its promised 7,700 apartments in mixed-income communities. The CHA and its private development partners have delivered only 3,000 units, just 38 percent of its goal.

* Stroger pays $11,668 federal tax debt

* Chicago Mayor Daley will Propose Ordinance to Protect Renters

* Tribune: Culture of greed

* Improper pension of $82K paid back

Under the agreement, Pitassi could collect his pension of $8,125 a month plus his consultant’s salary of $65,000 a year, for more than $162,000 a year.

At the time, Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico called the arrangement “a good-government thing.”

Unfortunately for Pitassi, the state didn’t agree, and despite efforts by village officials to make the deal work for Pitassi, he wound up giving the pension money back.

With the deal dead, village officials promptly rehired Pitassi back as police chief in July this year — at $130,000 a year.

* Jesse Jackson’s car stolen in Detroit

* Hinz: Chicago needs to give Jody Weis a break

* Kennedy: Crushing gang violence in Chicago

Misconceptions have flourished since the meeting. It was not secret. The approach does not rely on “gang leaders.” It was not a negotiation. Nobody is or will be framed for anything. It was not even that unusual, even for Chicago, where Project Safe Neighborhoods, launched here by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald some years ago, has been routinely meeting with parolees in very similar settings.

* Wrigley Building high on list of landmarks that aren’t

* DuPage plan to borrow $70 million riles County Board candidates

* County Board will decide Tuesday on $70M bond issue

* State: Kane Co. should hire more jail guards

* Downtown [Aurora] merchants want city’s meters gone

* RR Star: Disagree, sure, but council, mayor should avoid war

* 5 Belvidere aldermen, mayor to back proposed cuts, layoffs

* Decatur council set to examine garbage, recycling proposals

* [Sangamon] County recorder upgrades to electronic filing system

* Mattoon council to vote on firefighter contract, TIF grants

* Charleston council to vote after taxing bodies support TIF extension

* Speed sensors planned for construction zone

* U of I to test cell phone-paid parking meters

* Legal Battle Over Asian Carp To Continue Today

* Tax-exempt groups surprised by IRS filing requirement

* Contracts awarded for $2.4 million project at Illinois Veterans Home

* Herald & Review: Blagojevich, please don’t run again for office

* Blagojevich Doesn’t Have to be Broke for Public Defense

* Publicly Funded Defense Would Limit Blagojevich