TIF funds

An applicant who was approved by the Pekin City Council for a $50,000 commercial building improvement grant has turned down the money because it wasn't sufficient for a project.

The city's residential Tax Increment Financing program allows people who build new homes in certain districts to get the cost of their lot paid back over 10 years through the increased property taxes the new home generates.

Students and teachers in Chicago headed back to the classroom after the Chicago Teachers Union, and the nation's third-largest school district, averted a…