Things are tough over at Giordano's enterprises, the parent company of the stuffed pizza chain. Owners John and Eve Apostolou filed a bankruptcy protection petition with the Illinois Northern District Bankruptcy Court Wednesday, and requested an emergency meeting with vendors and a judge yesterday, to authorize payroll and vendor payments while they move to operate as debtors in possession rather than close the accounts typical with bankruptcy filings. more ›

Sen. Dick Durbin is currently at battle with a new enemy: the for-profit college industry. For-profit schools are "attempting to stop new regulations that would withhold federal education loans and grants from its schools with high student debt and low student loan repayments," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The universal complaint about for-profit schools is that too many students graduate with useless degrees and too much debt. In a new measure being referred to as "gainful employment," funding would stop to individual programs as two-thirds of for-profit school students do not pay down the principal on education loans and do not earn enough to do so. more ›

The Gordian Knot that is Illinois' budget deficit continues to grow to the point where not even bold moves can solves it. The latest addition to the woes is the $289.3 million in delinquent finding from Springfield to the Regional Transportation Authority for this year. That's in addition to $124 million the state owes RTA for next year. more ›

Earlier this week, Governor Quinn signed H.B. 4658, the Employee Credit Privacy Act, into law. The bill prevents employers from using a potential employee’s credit history as a factor in determining hiring, firing or compensation. Furthermore, the law forbids employers from obtaining an applicant or employee’s credit report, with a few exceptions such as banks, insurance companies, debt collectors, law enforcement and other state agency’s where use of credit history is required. more ›

As if the economy and city's financial difficulties haven't been hard enough on the Chicago Public Library, now something out of their control is forcing on Northwest Side branch to close. The Galewood-Mont Clare Library at 6969 W. Grand Ave. is shutting down when it was discovered the landlords of the building - two brothers - owe the city, according to WBBM 780 AM, "$70,000 in overdue fines and fees, including property taxes, water bills and building code violations at 12 commercial and residential properties across the city." Renting from property owners who owe the city is a no-no so the library has to be shuttered; the debt was uncovered as the library was negotiating a new lease. Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey said, "We'll try to have an option open this summer. I don't know if it'll be permanent or not, but we want to get something open for the summer reading program." The library closes for the time being a week from today, Wednesday June 30, and is referring patrons to four other nearby branches for the time being. more ›

In his on-going efforts to stop the bleeding at McCormick Place, Mayor Daley is floating the idea of privatization as a solution to overhauling the city's convention business. The convention center, part of the publicly-run Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which includes Navy Pier and is known as McPier, has been under pressure lately as it has lost conventions and trade shows to other parts of the country, thanks to the high costs of doing business in Chicago. "Bring the private sector in and you manage it and get out of the business of McCormick Place in the sense that it should be fully privatized," Daley told the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association's annual meeting. "Then you can run the costs down." Jodi Kawada, a spokeswoman for the mayor, quickly pointed out that the mayor was not talking about selling McCormick Place off as a city asset. "This is just an idea at this point," she told the Tribune. "The mayor is trying to think creatively about jump starting the convention and tourism industry in Chicago, which will require bold steps." more ›

Even as Illinois voters set out today to begin the process of electing his replacement, U.S. Senator Roland Burris is in trouble. It seems his growing legal debt has grown by well over a half a million dollars since last spring. Yesterday, Politico reported that filings released this week show that Burris' legal debt now tops a whopping $600,000 while money raised was around $6,000 for third quarter 2009 and nothing for the fourth quarter. Burris was scrutinized for perjury during 2009, relating to his appointment to the the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he won the presidential election in the fall of 2010. Last summer, he got off the hook for perjury from the state of Illinois and was ultimately cleared of wrong-doing by the Senate Ethics Committee, even as the issued a letter of admonition against Burris. Burris announced last summer he wouldn't be seeking to keep his seat. more ›

We mentioned earlier today that the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority is in debt but we didn't offer any solutions. Fortunately, WBEZ's Justin Kaufmann put his thinking cap on and came up with a few ideas that might help out. Our one caveat: we like Shakespeare, Justin. Don't mess with the lit nerds. more ›

File this under No Surprise to Anyone: Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, otherwise known as McPier, is deep in debt. Crain's is reporting that according to the new chairman of McPier, more ›

After a lot of hootin' and hollerin', it's finally done: we have a state budget. And one without an income tax hike. But with the state facing somewhere in the neighborhood of a $9 billion budget gap, how will the state actually manage to make ends meet? In a word: borrowing. The $26 billion spending plan depends on borrowing $3.5 billion to pay state worker pensions and around $3.2 billion in bills is pushed off to next year's budget, but the move means that most of the state services that were on the brink of getting cut will now remain. For now, anyway, as Gov. Quinn has the option to cut any additional money as he sees fit. Still, Quinn said the budget still puts the state between $4 billion and $5 billion down. more ›

The City of Chicago is strapped for cash. Some would argue that we're on the verge of bankruptcy. Layoffs, budget cuts and asset sales? Those are all on the table, if they haven't been tried already. But Mayor Daley is ready to throw down the gauntlet on people that shirk their responsibility to pay traffic tickets, municipal utility bills and other debts owed to the City that Works. Daley announced yesterday that the city plans to outsource its debt collection to, well, debt collectors. "We escalated it in the '90s...We've been doing this for 15 to 20 years," Daley told the Tribune. "People refuse to pay...they say it's too much," the mayor said, adding "it's hard, to be very frank. Some went bankrupt, some you can't find, some are just refusing to pay...this is nothing new." more ›

Sen. Roland Burris has had his hands full lately - working on the stimulus package and lobbying for Illinois funds - but according to an interview with WBEZ, the recently sworn-in senator has something else on his mind too: paying off debts. In an interview with Burris on Friday, WBEZ’s Richard Steele asked the junior senator from Illinois if he had decided to run in the 2010 election, noting that according to the Federal Election Commission, Burris signed a statement of candidacy on Jan. 2. “No that means I am in debt,” Burris responded. “I have legal bills, to the tune of $400,000.” more ›

Ever since Oprah told us circa 1998 that we had the power to change our lives by the year 2000, she's come up with various programs over the past decade to help us do so, culminating with this year's Best Life Series. Today the Sun-Times took a look back at some of Oprah's self-improvement workshops that have sought to pull us out of our collective doldrums. Recaps the S-T, she gave us: more ›

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