Though still well over the 50% mark denoting expansion and contraction, economists polled by MarketWatch expected a 60.8% reading.

The index for production saw the steepest drop in 11 months, falling to 57.1% in April from 68.6% in March. That’s the lowest level since September 2009.

Aviation officials in Chicago said the city’s health department and fire department  responded to a flight that landed at Midway International Airport, but local police and fire officials told Fox News the CDC was handling it.

The allegations are detailed in a six-volume report released by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson as part of a lawsuit she filed in January against Accretive Health Inc., which has contracts with two Minnesota hospital operations. The report accuses Accretive of misusing private patient information and creating “high-pressure, boiler room-style sales atmospheres” in which employees were coached to aggressively collect debt.

One woman whose son needed ear tube surgery at a Fairview hospital was told to make a prepayment and then later told by her insurance provider that she paid four times too much, according to the report. When doctors complained that the collection methods were turning patients away from medical care, a top Accretive official brushed it off as “country club conversation,” according to the report.

“What we’ve uncovered is a culture clash between the mission of a nonprofit hospital, which is to care for the sick and the infirm, and Accretive’s goal of making as much money as possible for its private shareholders,” Swanson said.

Waguespack, Arena and Fioretti, in particular, were among the aldermen asking the hard questions about oversight for the Trust amidst concern the lack of transparency could draw comparisons to Richard M. Daley’s much ballyhooed parking meter privatization deal.

After the vote, Emanuel said the debate over the Trust was “colored”—and “correctly” so—by that bit of how politics works in Chicago.

The company announced on Monday that it had sold two of the Art Deco skyscraper’s three towers to GlenStar Properties, a Chicago property developer, and USAA Real Estate, the property investment arm of USAA, the Texas-based insurance company.

Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian Odom and their mother Kris Jenner arrived in the windy city to promote their new Sears clothing line. While Kim seemed more concerned that her luggage hadn’t gone missing, fans of the reality TV stars clamoured for a photograph with their heroes.

The ladies, who are used to one of two cameras smiled sweetly as they made their way through the airport. They certainly seemed touched by the warm welcome they received with Kris tweeting: “Hi Chicago so excited to be here!!!”

Some fans are so excited to meet the famous family that they were camping out over night before their appearance today.

31 year-old Kim tweeted this message and photo: “Most dedicated fans ever!!! Can’t wait to meet you guys tomorrow! Stay warm! Love you!”

Quenneville criticized the game officials for failing to call a penalty on Raffi Torres after the Phoenix forward left his feet and hit Marian Hossa in the neck and head area in Game 3.

Hossa was carried off the ice on a stretcher and is out indefinitely. The NHL suspended Torres indefinitely Wednesday for the hit.

“It was a brutal hit,” Quenneville said after the game.

“I saw exactly what happened. It was right in front of me. How four guys missed it was hard. The refereeing tonight was a disgrace.”

Quenneville also was fined $10,000 during the 2009 playoffs for criticizing the officiating after a roughing penalty against the Blackhawks gave Detroit a power play in which they scored.

“I think we witnessed probably the worst call in the history of sports there,” Quenneville said after that game. “Nothing play. …They ruined a good hockey game and absolutely destroyed what was going on the ice. … Never seen anything like it.”

The Blackhawks lost the opener by a 3-2 score in overtime, but rebounded with an OT victory of their own in Game 2. Patrick Sharp scored for Chicago with 5.5 seconds left in regulation on Saturday and Bryan Bickell capitalized on a turnover at the 10:36 mark of the extra session to lift the Blackhawks to the 4-3 decision at Jobing.com Arena.

Game 2 marked the second time Chicago was able to tie the game in the final 15 seconds of regulation. In Thursday’s opener, Brent Seabrook tallied the equalizer with 14.2 seconds left in the third period, but the Coyotes won in OT on Martin Hanzal’s tally.

This time, the Blackhawks would not be denied as they fired 50 shots at Mike Smith, including 11 in overtime. Phoenix center Antoine Vermette passed the puck behind his own net to Adrian Aucoin, but the subsequent pass along the left boards deflected to Viktor Stalberg. He passed to the slot for Bickell, who buried his second goal of the night.

Corey Crawford made 30 saves for the win and the Blackhawks also got a goal from Brandon Bollig to help even the series at one win apiece.

“We learn in the playoffs that always the next game is always the biggest,” Sharp said. “We’ll enjoy this and be ready for the next one.”

Chicago, which will also host Game 4 on Thursday, had a strong 27-8-6 record on home ice this season.

Phoenix, who are coming off their first-ever Pacific Division title, was 20-14-7 on the road during the regular season.

Vermette scored twice in the losing effort on Saturday and Raffi Torres had the other goal for the third-seeded Coyotes. Mike Smith stopped 46-of-50 shots in the hard-luck loss.

“We never want to give up a game-winner the way we did, but at the same time it’s just one game,” Phoenix forward Shane Doan said. “We have to go in there and win one of those.”

The game turned ugly with 12:49 left in the second when Chicago center Andrew Shaw was given a game misconduct and five-minute penalty for colliding his left shoulder to the helmet of Smith. The Phoenix netminder went to play the puck behind the net when the collision took place. Smith crumpled to the ice and received medical attention, but he continued to play and is expected to start tonight.

Shaw, meanwhile, had a phone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan on Monday and could be suspended for tonight.

That was six years ago, under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Today, though, you can park just a block away in a new garage at the 82-story Aqua building — and it’s cheaper, too.

That’s angered the consortium of investors who took control of the garages and thought they were safe from competition. Their group, known as Chicago Loop Parking LLC, has filed an arbitration claim against the city that could leave Chicago taxpayers on the hook for $200 million or more, documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

The Emanuel administration also is fighting a separate, $13.5 million claim stemming from another privatization move spearheaded by Daley — the unpopular 75-year deal that turned over the city’s parking meters to private investors and led to higher parking-meter rates.

That deal calls for the city to reimburse the private investors — operating as Chicago Parking Meters LLC — for lost revenue from drivers who use, and sometimes misuse, disability license plates and placards to park for free in metered spots. The meter company claims it doled out $13.5 million worth of free parking between February 2010 and February 2011, the Sun-Times has reported, and it’s demanding that City Hall pay up. Emanuel is fighting that. The bill for the past year hasn’t come in yet.

Both parking claims are coming from companies controlled by the Morgan Stanley financial services firm. Partnerships assembled by the Wall Street giant hold a 99 percent stake in Chicago Loop Parking LLC and a 50.1 percent interest in Chicago Parking Meters LLC, city records show.

Instead of settling these disputes in court, the privatization deals spell out that such matters are to be resolved in arbitration hearings, largely outside of public view. Both claims are before the American Arbitration Association, which promises total confidentiality to the parties in conflicts it’s asked to referee.

But the records lay out previously undisclosed details of the $200 million dispute involving the downtown garages.

Morgan Stanley’s newly formed Chicago Loop Parking was the winning bidder for the right to operate — and collect all payments from — the 9,178 spaces in the city’s Millennium Park garage and the Chicago Park District’s Grant Park North, Grant Park South and East Monroe Street parking garages.

Chicago Loop Parking could raise parking rates as high as it wanted under the deal, which the City Council approved 37-8 in November 2006. At the time, Daley called the plan “an outstanding deal” for Chicago taxpayers, and his aides said the competitive downtown parking market would keep rate increases in check.

To protect the investors, the city promised it wouldn’t allow any new garages offering public parking to open within the area bounded by East Wacker Drive, Harrison Street, Lake Shore Drive and State Street.

In the arbitration claim, which records show was filed against the city in March 2011, lawyers for Chicago Loop Parking said the investors “would not have paid the city anywhere near $563 million for the right to operate the parking garage system without this provision.”