Tuesday night link blog

Crain's
Housing group gives AG Madigan top grade

In a report released Tuesday, Acorn gave Ms. Madigan an A+ for her work in helping cash-strapped Illinois homeowners hang onto their houses. She was commended for pushing passage of the Illinois Homeownership Preservation Act in 2007 and for investigating whether Countrywide Homes Loans Inc. and Wells Fargo Financial Illinois Inc. violated fair lending and civil rights laws. That investigation is pending.

City taps new HR chief

Mayor Richard M. Daley on Tuesday tapped labor lawyer Homero Tristan as head of the city’s human resources department.

As Chicago’s commissioner of human resources, Mr. Tristan, 37, is charged with reforming the city’s hiring practices as well as recruiting new employees, overseeing promotions and labor relations and enhancing productivity.

Sun-Times
Retired cops subpoenaed, alleged torture probe into Burge ramping up

Retired detectives named in a decades-old Chicago Police torture scandal have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury -- a clear sign a criminal investigation into former Cmdr. Jon Burge and others is ramping up, sources said today.

Five to 10 detectives received subpoenas last week to appear June 19 before the grand jury. The probe is headed by Sergio Acosta, civil rights coordinator in the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, the sources said.

Clout City
Unite and Conquer

You don't need to wait until aldermen approve the plan to move the Chicago Children's Museum to Grant Park to get a glimpse of how the city's executive and legislative branches continue to merge.

Chicago Public Radio
School Funding Rally Planned for Soldier Field

Over the last few weeks, the district has been e-mailing all its principals to recruit students for the event. Though it's not required, one district spokesperson says it could become, quote, "the largest civics class in history." Officials say they expect tens of thousands of students at the stadium. Principal Ken Hunter says about 200 of those will be from Prosser Career Academy. He says the rally's a great chance to teach students about being politically active.

Oh and on this subject by A Chicago Blog

And more from the Chicago Tribune

Thousands of Chicago Public School students were at Soldier Field on Tuesday listening to students, politicians and entertainers ask state officials for more money to help fund programs they believe could lead to reduced violence in the schools.

Taking the form of a combination rally and summertime concert, Mayor Richard Daley, Rev. Jesse Jackson and schools chief Arne Duncan joined the parents of many of the students who were killed in the last few years to appeal for a peaceful summer.

Ronnie Mosley, an 11th-grader at Simeon Career Academy, called on state officials to help pay for districtwide crime-prevention programs beginning in elementary school. A CPS student was killed just outside Simeon this spring.

"If we don't have the funds for the programs that we already have, how can we bring in new programs that would be effective?" Mosley said. "[The violence] affected me greatly. It has become a plague on our generation."

Illinoize
Rob Olmstead: Rezko whistleblower still has no hospital, five years after the fact

Bill Baar's West Side
Rezko International Airport

Capitol Fax
Madigan advises candidates on impeachment talk
Madigan’s impeachment memo
Also the news regarding flooding in downstate Illinois here.