Meanwhile, many office buildings in the usually bustling city were closed after workers were warned to stay home because of heightened security, snarled transportation and the possibility of unruly protests.

National Nurses United officials have said they expect about 2,000 nurses to attend Friday's rally, where they will call for a "Robin Hood" tax on financial institutions' transactions to offset cuts in social services, education and health care. City officials expect the rally to draw more than 5,000 because of a performance by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, an activist who has played at many Occupy events.

In a sign of the building tension, lawyers for protesters said Chicago police, with their guns drawn, raided an apartment building where activists were staying and arrested nine people on Wednesday night. The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said officers broke down doors in the building in the South Side Bridgeport neighborhood and produced no warrants.

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The thought of Chicago in the 1920s usually conjures up images of gangsters, Prohibition and other Roaring 20s clichés, but there was another movement in the Chicago area that encompassed this decade. It inhabits the world of graphic art and has gone relatively unheralded, especially outside the Windy City region – The Insull Transit Posters.

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Where this story goes wrong is in its ideological suppositions about the cities -- and specifically, about Democratic cities. Sure, two or three decades ago, there may have been some truth to the notion that the American city is a union-driven bastion of populist progressive economics. But today, while cities may still largely vote Democratic, they are increasingly embracing the economics of corporatism. The result is that urban areas are a driving force behind the widening intra-party rift between the corporatist, pro-privatization Wall Street Democrats and the traditional labor-progressive "Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party."

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The former White House chief of staff took the oath of office at downtown's Millennium Park, one of the signature accomplishments in Daley's efforts to transform Chicago from an industrial hub into a gleaming global tourist destination. He planned to head to City Hall later to the fifth-floor office that was Daley's lair for 22 years.

"We must face the truth," Emanuel said in his inaugural speech. "It is time to take on the challenges that threaten the very future of our city: the quality of our schools, the safety of our streets, the cost and effectiveness of city government, and the urgent need to create the jobs of the future."

"The decisions we make in the next two or three years will determine what Chicago will look like in the next 20 or 30."

Emanuel inherits a city with big financial problems. His transition team predicted a $700 million budget shortfall next year, but because of some controversial decisions by Daley -- most notably the push to privatize parking meters -- he has limited ways to pay for school improvements or repair the city's aging infrastructure.

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Emanuel was sworn in during a morning inauguration ceremony at the popular downtown Millennium Park, one of the signature accomplishments in Daley's efforts to transform the city. Emanuel later planned to head over to City Hall and, for the first time since he was elected in February, walk into the fifth-floor office that was Daley's lair for 22 years.

"We must face the truth," Emanuel said in his inaugural speech. "It is time to take on the challenges that threaten the very future of our city: the quality of our schools, the safety of our streets, the cost and effectiveness of city government, and the urgent need to create the jobs of the future right here in Chicago."

"The decisions we make in the next two or three years will determine what Chicago will look like in the next 20 or 30."

Emanuel's swearing-in completes an interesting role swap between City Hall and the White House: Emanuel's replacement as Obama's chief of staff is the outgoing mayor's younger brother, William Daley.

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The Springs, as we call it here in the square state, has made national headlines as a Republican bastion with an unwavering commitment to the old tax-cuts-and-budget-cuts theory of growth. During the recession, that has resulted in both comparatively low property tax rates and in darkened street lights, cuts to police and firefighting forces, and an end to basic municipal services.

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Well, in an effort to get more of Middle America (read: non-hipsters) aware of their existence, two members of the group showed up to sing at the seventh inning of a Chicago Cubs game Saturday.

Though lead singer Win Butler wasn't in attendance, the audience gamely put on their happy faces and sang along to the tune.

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"Mariusz don't know English," said Jose, the building manager, "but he's a really good plumber."

When Jose and Mariusz's five-story apartment was built in 1923, the proud developers gave it a Knickerbocker name: the Van Dorn. Now, the Van Dorn was a hive of tiny studios that overheated whenever the oven was dialed to 425. All day, I hauled my satchel up and down the stairwells, deepening the grooves in the steps. My job was to visit every address that hadn't mailed back a census form, which was most of them.

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Emanuel, who overwhelmed the race with truckloads of money and friends in high places from Washington to Hollywood, will take control of a city in deep financial trouble with problems ranging from an understaffed police department to underperforming schools.

On Tuesday, Emanuel won 55 percent of the vote, easily outdistancing former Chicago schools president Gery Chico, who had 24 percent, and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, who each had 9 percent. He succeeds Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is retiring after 22 years in office as the longest-serving mayor in Chicago's history.

But the city he inherits, though perhaps more beautiful than ever after years of extensive urban improvements, is in financial straits that it hasn't seen since before Daley's father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, came to power in the 1950s.

"Not since the Great Depression have the finances of the city been this precarious," said Dominic Pacyga, a historian and author of "Chicago: A Biography." The city's next budget deficit could again exceed $500 million, mostly the result of reduced tax revenue from the recession, and could reach $1 billion if the city properly funds its pension system.

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At issue is whether President Obama's ex-chief of staff manages to secure an outright majority in the preliminary election being conducted today; polls have shown him running around the 50 percent mark. If he clears that hurdle when the ballots are tallied tonight, the game will end on the spot.

If he falls short, there will be a runoff between Emanuel and the second-place finisher, who figures to be Gery Chico, the former chief of staff to outgoing Mayor Richard Daley. While it's theoretically possible that Chico (or Carol Moseley Braun or Miguel del Valle, each of whom might also place second) could corral all of the non-Emanuel voters and overtake him in the runoff, such a scenario is extremely unlikely. In reality, the only major obstacle to Emanuel's coronation was the issue of his residency, which was finally resolved in his favor several weeks ago.

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The six candidates spent Tuesday morning still pushing for votes, shaking hands with surprised commuters and diner-goers and pleading their cases for why they should be picked to succeed the retiring Daley, who will leave office this spring after 22 years on the job.

"This is a critical election for the future of the city of Chicago. We're at a crossroads," front-runner Rahm Emanuel said as he greeted commuters at a South Side train station.

The campaign began last fall when Daley -- with his wife ailing, six terms under his belt, and a future of fiscal challenges facing Chicago -- announced he wouldn't seek re-election.

The candidates who rushed in to fill that void included Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff; former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun; former Chicago public schools president Gery Chico; and City Clerk Miguel del Valle.

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Senate Democrats left town on Thursday to stop Republicans who control the chamber from taking a vote on Walker's proposal that would take away collective bargaining rights from public employees.

Walker told reporters that the Senate Democrats should come back to the Capitol and stop hiding out.

The GOP governor has said that he is not trying to rush things. He told The Associated Press that he's prepared for the stalemate to drag on into next week.

Democrats on the run in Wisconsin avoided state troopers Friday and threatened to stay in hiding for weeks, potentially paralyzing the state government in a standoff with majority Republicans over union rights for public employees.

The party's battle against balancing the state budget by cutting the pay, benefits and collective bargaining rights of public workers is the boldest action yet by Democrats to push back against last fall's GOP wave.

But the dramatic strategy that has clogged the Capitol with thousands of protesters clashes with one essential truth: Republicans told everyone months ago that unions would be one of their targets, and the GOP now has more than enough votes to pass its plans once the Legislature can convene.

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The Grammy-winning rapper is running an unorthodox campaign for City Council in a year that promises major changes in Chicago politics.

Experts say around 10 aldermen are retiring along with Mayor Richard Daley and a similar number are vulnerable to challengers. That includes the South Side ward where Che "Rhymefest" Smith is challenging Alderman Willie Cochran in Tuesday's election.

Rhymefest paints himself as an alternative to business as usual, and his street-wise lyrics have given him a youthful following. He's held fundraisers at nightclubs where he performs.

In a field of five candidates, he's picked up support from the powerful Chicago Teachers Union. Political experts say the rapper has a shot at winning his ward, one of the poorest in the city.

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Humbled by a poor election for his party, sharply defensive about a tax deal with Republicans, Obama kept talking until he finally refocused on his whole purpose for being president. He spoke about the value of compromising, the merits of thinking long term, the point of leadership being to help people have better lives.

Axelrod looked up from his BlackBerry as if someone had jolted him. "That's our guy," Axelrod recalled thinking. "That's the guy I've been working with for almost a decade now."

Since that moment in early December, what's happened in the White House amounts to a presidential rediscovery in the eyes of Axelrod. He considers the last two months a template for the next two years and a re-election campaign in which, he promises, Obama will try to "play big" all over the electoral map and revitalize a weakened coalition.

It all helps explain why Axelrod seems so comfortable about quitting the place.

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Thursday's decision revives the campaign of the former White House chief of staff who was thrown off the Feb. 22 ballot by an Illinois appellate court for not meeting a residency requirement because he hadn't lived in Chicago for a year before the race.

Emanuel lived for nearly two years in Washington working for President Barack Obama until he moved back to Chicago in October to run for mayor.

In their appeal to the state's high court, Emanuel's attorneys called the appellate court decision "one of the most far-reaching election law rulings ever" issued by an Illinois court.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Rahm Emanuel pushed on with his campaign Thursday, including attending a planned a televised debate. But the real debate over his chances of becoming Chicago's next mayor went on behind closed doors.

If Illinois' highest court does not restore the former White House chief of staff to the ballot, Emanuel's other options such as a write-in campaign or an appeal to the federal courts appeared less promising.

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With the election on Feb. 22, Emanuel is now excluded from the ballot unless his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court is successful. (Which actually seems unlikely.)

I'm no huge fan of Emanuel, who pioneered cashing in on years of "public service" in a Democratic administration with a shameless stopover to become a millionaire in the finance industry, and who then helped make a complete mess of the Obama administration's first two years, but this is still silly. The man has spent most of his life in Chicago, and taking a job in D.C. for a couple of years shouldn't disqualify him from running for mayor any more than being from Boston makes Mike Bloomberg unqualified to lead New York. If the good people of Chicago are dumb enough to want to make Emanuel their leader, they should have that right.

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Davis, a longtime friend of Clinton, warned the ex-president on Tuesday that he could jeopardize his "long and fruitful relationship" with the black community if he campaigns for former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel instead of one of the two black candidates running -- Davis or former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

The warning highlights the stakes in what is gearing up to be a contentious race for mayor in the nation's third-largest city. About a dozen people have made it on to the ballot to replace retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is bowing out after more than 20 years in office, giving candidates their first real shot at Chicago's top job for the first time in two decades.

In a news release, Davis, a Democrat from Chicago's West Side, said Clinton's relationship with the black community may be "fractured and perhaps even broken" if he comes to town to stump for Emanuel, who moved back to Chicago this fall to run for mayor and is leading in the polls.

Davis later told The Associated Press that he intended the news release to be a personal appeal to Clinton, friend to friend.

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Lori Halpin spoke to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners one day after Emanuel did in a hearing over the residency challenges to his bid for the city's top job.

Halpin told a hearing officer that she has never seen any of the 100 boxes or some of the other valuable family possessions that Emanuel has said were left behind, including in a locked area of the home's basement.

Emanuel testified Tuesday about belongings in his home, including his wife's wedding dress, clothes his children wore home from the hospital just after they were born, family china and others to defend himself against allegations that he forfeited his Chicago residency when he leased his home and moved to Washington.

But Halpin said she was unaware of any items like that being left in the house.

"I have never found anything locked in the house," Halpin said.

She said the Emanuels did leave some items behind including a piano, their master bed, an old couch, TV and an old cassette player.

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High winds caused 300 flight cancellations Tuesday at the airport, a major hub for American and United airlines. The FAA is asking flights to hold on the ground before taking off for O'Hare to allow the airport to catch up.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro says flights already in the air are being allowed to land at O'Hare.

Delays were more extreme earlier this morning when O'Hare was able to use only two runways for arrivals and one for departures.

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The FBI's Chicago office says Sami Samir Hassoun is charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device.

Hassoun was arrested after midnight Saturday. He had an initial appearance in a Chicago federal courtroom Monday afternoon.

The statement says the arrest was part of an investigation going back at least several months. It says the supposed explosive device was fake and given to Hassoun by an undercover agent.

A message was left at a home telephone number for Hassoun wasn't returned.

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