When Rahm Emanuel takes over as mayor next week, Edward E. Gordon will be pushing his long-running theme: Chicago isn't facing a shortage of jobs as much as a shortage of skilled workers.

Gordon, author of Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline, points to a May 3 article by Sun-Times technology writer Sandra Guy that reported Chicago's technology companies are trying to lure employees with everything from free fully loaded computers to an expenses-paid work week at a Michigan beach house to Lollapalooza-themed parties.

"There's a rising tide of jobs, but we can't fill them," says Gordon, who lives on the Near North Side.

Is the job of reforming Illinois complete?

Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, at the end of the month will leave the organization she founded 14 years ago.

Like Mayor Daley before her, Canary says, "It's time."

She plans to take some time off and to do some consulting.