Matthew Blake

First-year U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth said at a City Club of Chicago luncheon Monday that that she is already fulfilling her campaign pledge to effect change in a bipartisan way, but that no federal feat of bipartisanship alone would solve Illinois’ pension crisis.

“I don’t think there is a federal bailout anytime soon, nor should there be,” the democratic representative said in response to a question about the state’s unfunded pension obligations, which are currently estimated to be close to $100 billion. “A lot of the states are in this mess.”

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System  has taken 32,000 applications as of March 20 in its landmark expansion of Medicaid through the federal Affordable Care Act. But county and state staffing levels may not be sufficient to handle all the applications, or at least process them in a timely manner.

The Regional Transportation Authority board entered into an agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority today to mail new reduced fare cards for seniors and people with disabilities when CTA rolls out its Ventra fare card system. CTA has said that riders will begin to use the Ventra cards this summer