Yesterday, aldermen heard a pitch from the president of InsureNet, the Michigan-based company that sells "instant insurance status verification." Dr. Jonathan Miller, whose company stands to reap 30 percent of whatever the city collects, told the City Council’s Transportation Committee that using his service, Chicago could collect "at least $200 million a year" in fines and fees. While the state currently levies a $500 fine for driving without insurance, the city could pass its own ordinance and keep the fines. If Chicago only charged drivers that also got tickets for running red lights, the city could net as much as $10 million. If Chicago used its existing network of red-light cameras to simply check vehicles for insurance, thereby catching drivers that may be otherwise obeying traffic laws, the city could net enough funds to clear the budget shortfall for 2009. more ›

Those 11 city PR contracts worth $55 million that the city canceled earlier this week? Not everyone is happy about them. In the comment section of a post about the city's move on PR Junkie, Queta Bauer, of Cultural Communications LLC, one of the firms that lost its city contract, let loose on the mayor's move:

Alderman Waguespack should look at the Spanish section of his own website. It is outdated and full of grammatical mistakes. That is the case for many materials the city produces. Many times, in the interest of saving money, they get well intentioned people who think they know Spanish and translate materials that result in real abominations and a waste of materials. more ›

Less than 24 hours after announcing that the Daley administration had signed another $5 million dollar contract for public relations services for the city, (bringing the total number of contracts to 11), the city abruptly canceled all the contracts. Facing criticism from angry aldermen that the city was facing a huge budget crisis this year, Daley back tracked. "They're going back on what they said. They said they were going to freeze these contracts," said 32 Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack. more ›

The governor is scheduled to make an announcement this morning that several state parks, closed by Rod Blagojevich as a cost cutting measure in response to state budget pressures, will be re-opened. The announcement, to be held at at the Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Springfield, will be "good news because that was just a huge economic loss to our district and the rest of the state,” said Dixon Democrat Sen. Tim Bivins. “I think anybody who likes the state parks of Illinois will like what we have to say,” Quinn spokesman Robert Reed told the Peoria Journal Star. more ›

It's not just cracks in CTA buses that have our public transit overlords worried today. Once again, even in the face of record ridership and fare increases, there's another big ol' pesky budget hole to fill. The Chicago Tribune has RTA Chief Jim Reilly and Executive Director Steve Schlickman looking at the RTA having a $58 Million hole, and the CTA with $87 million to make up. more ›