There are many reasons why people may not have filed their 2009 tax return. According to the IRS, “Some people may not have filed because they had too little income to require filing a tax return even though they had taxes withheld from their wages or made quarterly estimated payments. In cases where a return was not filed, the law provides most taxpayers with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund. If no return is filed to claim a refund within three years, the money becomes property of the U.S. Treasury.”

So how do you go about getting your long overdue tax refund? Check your records to see if you filed for a return in 2009. If you had not, but were eligible for a tax return, you have until April 15, 2013, to submit your 2009 tax return. If you did not file, you may be missing out on more than just this potential refund. “In addition, many low-and-moderate income workers may not have claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). For 2009, the credit is worth as much as $5,657,” states the IRS website.

Find out more information on this story as well as how you can file your 2009 Income Tax return on the IRS website.

Released Tuesday, the annual list of rankings places Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in a tie with M.I.T’s Sloan School of Management for 4th place, while coming in at 6th was University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.  Topping off the list was Harvard and Stanford University sharing the No. 1 spot, and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School rounding off the ranks at No. 3.  Not only are Illinois schools dominating the Full-Time MBA rankings, they are also at the top of the Part-time programs as well.  Booth was given the 2nd spot on the annual Part Time MBA Program rankings while Kellogg followed closely behind in its No. 3 spot.

Higher rankings are thought to bring in top quality talent from both the United States and Internationally.  As all of Chicago’s major Universities work to boost their credentials, the State of Illinois is also hoping that the influx of talent can help boost local economies, policies, and more.

“If you are collecting federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) has advised that, barring Congressional action, weekly EUC benefits will be reduced by approximately 10 percent effective the week-beginning March 3rd. The maximum amount of benefits that will be collected will be reduced by approximately 10 percent, as well.

The reductions are part of the federal sequestration that begins March 1. The sequester will not affect regular state benefits.

The reductions may require claimants to eventually repay some of the EUC payments they receive for weeks beginning on or after March 3. Other states face the same issue.

Congress could delay or avoid the sequester. Until that happens, the federal reductions must be implemented.

Additional information might be available from your Congressional representative.”

“ A $20 million federal funding reduction and an $8 million state increase in health insurance have stressed the Department’s budget. The office closings are among the results.” claimed the press release.  ”The closings were based on several criteria, including work-load comparisons and lease considerations. The closings bring to 15 the number of offices shuttered for budgetary reasons in the past 18 months, four of which were in Chicago as well as Freeport, Litchfield, Mt. Vernon and Pekin. Additionally, 10 outpost locations were closed and more than 200 intermittent positions have not been scheduled since Oct. 1, 2012, the beginning of the federal budget year.”

The closures are set to take place in Centralia, Dekalb, East St. Louis, Galesburg, Jacksonville, Mattoon and Murphysboro, and will leave 192 employees without jobs, but state officials say that the employees will have a chance to fill open jobs elsewhere in Illinois state government.

If you are among the employees or citizens hurt by these closures, we would like to hear from you. Please post a comment below.

“Belly is a perfect example of the sort of thriving technology company that we’re looking to attract and expand in Chicago,” said Mayor Emanuel. “The company is growing rapidly and attracting bright young people to Chicago. I am encouraged by their growth and I look forward to watching them succeed in the future.

Since launching in 2011, the company has partnered with 4500 business across the country to offer a multi-faceted loyalty program that draws more personal relationships with customers.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone in our short history with the Mayor today. Belly’s growth and early success is a direct result of our ability to build a brilliant, hardworking and disruptive team,” said Logan LaHive, CEO of Belly. “We fully support the Mayor’s continued effort to grow tech and innovation in Chicago and we hope to serve as an example of what’s possible here,

Belly currently employs 100 with 70% of its staff located in it’s Chicago headquarters at 600 West Chicago Avenue.

Francine Knowles at the Chicago Sun Times writes:

Job cut announcements by Illinois employers fell 78 percent in August from July and 46 percent from August 2011, Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday.

Illinois employers announced plans to cut 677 jobs last month, down from 3,003 in July when state agencies announced 725 cuts and DeVry announced 570. That is also down from 1,250 in August 2011.

But the first eight months of the year, job cut announcements by Illinois employers rose 30 percent to 17,889, up from 13,803.

Nationally, job cut announcements hit a 20-month low of 32,239, down 13 percent from July and down 37 percent from August 2011.

Since January, employers have announced 352,185 planned cuts nationally, down 3 percent from the same period a year ago.

“Job cuts slowed significantly over the summer, but it is too early to determine whether this is a trend,” John Challenger, chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The biggest job cut announcements last month nationally were in telecommunications with 4,584. That included 4,000 in the wake of Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that the City is building more than 30 miles of new bicycle lanes in neighborhoods across Chicago this year, part of a planned nearly 650-mile network of biking facilities to be in place by 2020 to provide a bicycle accommodation within half-mile of every Chicagoan.

“Improving our bicycling facilities is critical to creating the quality of life in Chicago that will attract businesses and families to the city,” Mayor Emanuel said. “Our plan lays the framework for Chicago to be the most bike friendly city in the United States and will create economic opportunity and jobs in our neighborhoods and throughout the city.”

It isn’t just shovel-ready labor jobs that Emanuel hopes to create.  He hopes this new initiative will appeal to up and coming businesses looking for a place to establish their industry.

“It will help us recruit the type of people that have been leaving for the coast. They will now come to the city of Chicago. The type of companies that have been leaving for the coast will stay in the city of Chicago.” Emanuel said on Sunday while visiting Malcolm X College.  He cited a recent meeting with executives from the booming internet start-up, GrubHub, who told him that when they recruit new employees from the west coast, they tout the location by showing the new protected bike lanes that Chicago has been installing since last summer.

As the unemployment rate still hovers at around 9.8% in Chicago, city officials are hoping that this initiatives will create construction jobs, green jobs, tech jobs and more.

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS –On Wednesday, Illinois became the third state in the union to pass a law prohibiting companies from forcing employees and job candidates to disclose their usernames and passwords to their social media accounts.  Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill into law which amends Illinois existing “Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act”

The legislation was prompted after the Associated Press published an article in March detailing how Human Resource departments across the nation were beginning to require applicants to disclose their Facebook usernames and passwords. In response, Facebook released a statement saying that it would consider lawsuits against firms that implement such a request.  Since then, a bipartisan group of United States congressmen has introduced bills similar to the one passed in Illinois that prevents employers from accessing such information.

So, as an employee or a job applicant in the state of Illinois, what does this law mean for you?  This means that starting January 1, 2012, employers may not compel or coerce any current or prospective employees into providing their social media or social networking usernames or passwords — even for openings that require thorough background checks.  Doing so could result in civil suit penalties starting at $100.  However, the legislation does not restrict companies from viewing information on a social networking profile that isn’t restricted by privacy settings.  Therefore if your Facebook profile’s public privacy settings are fairly lax, a company cannot be penalized for making a hiring decision based on your public photos and posts.

For tips on how to hide your Facebook persona, click here.