Illinois incorrectly distributed almost $100 million in unemployment benefits last year and more than $30 million of this money has yet to be returned, reports Sean F. Driscoll of the Rockford Register Star. That's a 35 percent increase in money paid to people who didn't deserve it since 2008. Yet it is hard to pin the blame on the Illinois Department of Employment Security alone.

Yikes. At a time of double-digit unemployment and record budget deficits in Illinois,  an audit reveals that Cook County (which includes Chicago) simply failed to spend $2.7 million in federal stimulus money for jobs.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the deaths of two workers in a northwestern Illinois grain bin could have been prevented. Via the Springfield State Journal-Register, the Associated Press reports that on Wednesday two workers were fatally entrapped in a grain bin in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Run by Haasbach LLC, the bin stores

Here is a possible silver lining thing from Chicago's failed Olympic bid -- a federally-funded job-training program. According to Jon Pletz of Crain's Chicago Business, when Chicago got the news last October that it was fourth among four finalists for the 2016 games, the 2016 Funds for Chicago Neighborhoods was holding $2 million.  Now this $2 million has been turned into $20 million -- and it's going to help a couple thousand Chicagoans get job training.

Here is some good, but not great, news for the Chicago job market: the Obama administration has provided a $11.1 million grant, via the stimulus bill, so the city can expand its summer youth jobs program.

Via Adam Doster of Progress Illinois, Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's top economic adviser, has an impassioned blog post that argues "Put Illinois to Work" and other federally subsidized, state-run job creation programs must be extended past their Sept. 30 completion date.

Reprinted with permission from The Washington Monthly: “We’d be marked men” if we complained about safety problems, a miner at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine recently told a congressional committee. He describes a fear that haunts many miners: blowing the whistle could cost ...

The Chicago Tribune's Tara Malone reports that the Illinois State Board of Education announced almost $300 million of budget cuts yesterday -- or a fraction of the education cuts Illinois has to make in order to balance the state's budget. Illinois has a $13 billion deficit and the state has been unable to assist school districts with their own budget holes. For example, the Chicago Public Schools have a $600 million deficit. The cuts coincide with a strong indication that no meaningful help will come from Washington.

In all the state's major newspapers and blogs today is the story that state unemployment dipped from 11.7 percent in April to 10.8 percent May. But the good news is fleeting -- Illinois unemployment fell because temporary employees were hired to conduct the ten-year census, not because new permanent jobs were created.

Here is a sign that April's West Virginia coal mine explosion could lead to more government scrutiny of mining. Jim Suhr of the Associated Press reports that Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin fired off a letter asking Peabody Energy Corporation, based in St. Louis, to explain how it is ensuring the safety of mines Peabody owns in Illinois.