Chicago Daily Observer

n Springfield lately, one of the hottest items of chatter has been heavy buzz that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is getting ready to pretty much shut down the state’s network of foreign trade offices.

Jack Lavin, the state’s economic development chief, insists no final decision has been made as to how to fill a $1.7-million hole in the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s budget.

But during a public appearance in Chicago earlier in the week, Mr. Blagojevich basically confirmed the tale, saying the General Assembly left him with a terrible budget deficit and some tough decisions: it’s either export offices in Brussels, Tokyo, Mexico City and seven other cities, or rape-crisis centers for assaulted women.

n Amsterdam, fliers who arrive at Schiphol Airport can board an express train that will whisk them downtown in 20 minutes or so. The story is the same in London and Paris and Hong Kong and even Moscow, for heaven’s sake: reliable, affordable, fast transport to the city center.

In Chicago, we have the $300-million-and-counting “superstation” under Block 37. Until someone wheels in the tons of additional loot needed to finish it and the high-speed rail link to O’Hare International Airport it’s supposed to anchor, the facility will remain empty — a dank, dark and half-completed mausoleum, useless to anyone except perhaps Hollywood for a bat cave set, as Crain’s editorial writer suggested.

City Hall is planning another subsidy for Block 37 — this time a three-phased bailout of an el station under construction there that’s running more than $100 million over budget.

Under plans that the Chicago Transit Authority board is scheduled to consider on Wednesday, the city would provide roughly $20 million in additional tax-increment financing funds for the “superstation” beneath the mixed-use project rising at Block 37, Crain’s has learned.

In addition, the CTA in several stages over the past year or so has poured an extra $60 million to $70 million of its own money into the project, despite its shortage of capital funds, sources say. And developer Joseph Freed & Associates, which is building the retail and residential structures on top of the station, reportedly has agreed to absorb about $19 million of the cost overruns.

With a bob and a weave and a joke — and a lot of winking — former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas on Monday made it clear that he is interested in running again for governor of Illinois.

In remarks before and after a luncheon of the City Club, Mr. Vallas, repeatedly insisted that, while he would never say never to a race here, his hands are full with his current job as superintendent of schools in New Orleans.

But such insistence quickly crumbled under persistent questions from reporters and from Mr. Vallas’ own hints that he really wanted to say more.

“Would I be open to running again? Yes,” he ultimately concluded. “Am I planning that? No.

In a rebuke to the Chicago Park District, a judge Friday afternoon handed a partial victory to a citizens’ group that has been fighting the district’s deal with Latin School of Chicago to build a soccer field in Lincoln Park.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird ruled that construction of the $2-million field, which is mostly complete, will be allowed to finish by the scheduled May 26 opening. But the judge put at lest a temporary halt to work on the field’s lighting, bleachers and scoreboard, and said that once work is complete, Latin will have to stand in line with any other group that wants to use the facility at about 1800 N. Cannon Drive — at least for now.

The GOP appears to be settling on concrete mogul Martin Ozinga as its nominee to try to hang on to the congressional seat now held by retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris.

Knowledgeable party sources describe Mr. Ozinga, 58, as “the consensus candidate” and say he is likely to be formally made the party’s nominee when 11th-District committeemen meet on April 30. The party’s previous nominee, New Lennox Mayor Tim Baldermann, withdrew after the February primary, creating a vacancy on the November ballot.

Even as the subprime mortgage meltdown continues to roil the nation’s financial markets, debate is warming up in Springfield over an eerily similar lending matter: payday loans.

At issue is whether to close what some consider a glaring loophole in existing law that arguably subjects tens of thousands of folks who don’t have much money to start with to the kinds of high fees and interest rates (as much as 1,200%) that can destroy a family just as surely as foreclosure on their home.

In an action that is scrambling normal political alliances, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has decided to appeal a federal court order that overturned the state’s law on parental notice for abortions for minors.

Ms. Madigan’s office filed paperwork Thursday indicating that it will ask the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reinstate a statute that generally requires underage girls to get parental permission to have an abortion. The law had been tossed out by U.S. District Judge David Coar, who ruled last month that the statute is incomplete and defective.

The city on Wednesday took what it called a “milestone” step toward cashing out on its investment in Midway Airport, announcing that most of Midway’s airlines back a privatization plan and issuing what’s known as a request for qualifications.

The RFQ asks that firms and investment groups interested in leasing Midway for at least 50 years respond by March 31.

For Illinois Republicans used to coalescing early around an easy presidential winner, 2008 is turning out to be a different kind of year.

Even before Mitt Romney’s win in Tuesday’s Michigan primary, Illinois’ business and GOP establishment was dividing its money and support among no fewer than four candidates, with a fifth, Mike Huckabee, appealing to social conservatives, if not LaSalle Street lawyers and bankers.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan formally intervened Thursday in a lawsuit that effectively pits allies of her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, against Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a political and legal dispute over health care spending.

Two of the state’s leading business figures Tuesday sued the Blagojevich administration, alleging that it’s breaking the law by allotting funds for health care initiatives without getting needed legislative approval.

In an action filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield, Illinois Manufacturers Assn. President Greg Baise and former Helene Curtis Industries CEO Ron Gidwitz contend that a controversial fund shift violated both the Illinois Constitution and a law that defines administrative powers.

The massive subway station under construction at Block 37 is running as much as $150 million over budget, a shortfall that has prompted city officials to move to privatize the project. Sources close to the matter say the city has begun discussions with Macquarie—the Australian…