State Rep. Michael McAuliffe, R-Chicago, was out of town Wednesday morning when a neighbor called with some news. Union members were protesting outside his under-construction Northwest Side home with signs, a billboard truck and a two-story inflatable rat squatting in the parkway.

DePaul University administrators forbade the school’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter from hosting a “free speech ball” event on October 10, because it would create “an environment which invites hate.”

Leaving the board of Truth in Accounting is Rick Jasculca, a political consultant and publicist and prominent Democrat. He says he learned of the organization’s decision to give Chicago finances an F in an email shortly before the report was issued and says he was “disturbed” that it left out details of what Emanuel has done to fill a pension hole that was “decades in the making.”

Researchers have been battling over that for years, and now a new report, linked here, from the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research comes down solidly in the middle of that debate, appearing to give charters an edge, but one that doesn’t always hold up and one that strongly varies with the quality of the charter involved.

Prosecutors indicated for the first time Monday they have information Vrdolyak made cash payments exceeding $1 million to unnamed “individuals and entities” in connection with his own unexplained payday in the state’s $9.3 billion tobacco lawsuit settlement.

Fare hikes have become routine for Metra riders after four consecutive annual increases. But the hike approved by Metra’s board last week is different. It comes with service cuts, marking the first time in many years that the commuter rail agency has reduced service for financial reasons. Along with $17 million in fare increases, Metra is eliminating or curtailing a handful of trains.