-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Nuclear power advocates said thousands of jobs hang in the balance if power plants in the Quad Cities and Clinton shut down. Detractors remain unconvinced.
By: Mark Glennon* Who helped kill the widely popular constitutional amendment to take politics out of how legislative maps are drawn? The assumption all along seems to have been that House Speaker Michael Madigan had just picked up the phone to one of his lawyers to make it happen. The Illinois Supreme Court killed it in August, though supporters had collected over 500,000 signatures to put it on the ballot next month. Turns out Madigan got some help. Tom Kacich at The News Gazette reported the facts earlier this week, though his article has been overlooked. The opposition
Despite the fact that DNC operatives have been exposed as the ones inciting violence at rallies – Robert Creamer and Scott Foval for example – and working overtime to bus in illegal voters and rig the vote – the media is going out of its way to paint Trump supporters and grassroots Americans as the ones plotting violence. Comment: That especially goes for the Illinois media. Not a peep about the Creamer/Foval scandal, but they’ve gone postal over Walsh’s comment, which is the kind of thing I hear many saying, none intending actual violence.
The manufacturer would fill an 80,500-square-foot facility in the Salem Business Park that is being developed by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, the town of Salem and Kenosha County. The company plans to move from Lake Villa, Ill., in June 2017 and have 86 jobs within three years, including those that would move from Illinois. Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. announced the move Thursday. Second manufacturer to leave IL for WI in 8 days.
The company was founded in 2013 and until recently served local Chicago non-profits. They now have over 1 million charities on their site for which they can help raise awareness and funding. They have created, in a sense, a different category of social network.
The mayor included the Catalyst Investment Fund, which is the brainchild of city Treasurer Kurt Summers, in his 2017 budget. Summers likes to call it Fund 77 — a reference to the number of official city neighborhoods. Comment: This is a big mistake. The money will be politicized and much of it lost. Summers said he expects a good return on the investments. Summers said, “It’s not there’s additional real risk. It’s that there’s additional perceived risk.” Nonsense. There are sound reasons why the money is not already going there.
Alderman Milly Santiago, 31st Ward, said, “I’m a poor alderman, I cannot even afford to buy a $1,000 [Cubs] ticket. I cannot afford that.” Santiago earns $116,208 a year.
For reform-minded aldermen, annual budget hearings are an opportune time to address this problem. But at the Chicago Board of Ethics budget hearing Oct. 21, a mere 10 of 50 city aldermen bothered to show up. The hearing lasted less than five minutes.
This illicit industry – along with other kinds of costly health care waste – is the subject of a new report released last week by the Illinois Health Care Fraud Elimination Task Force.
Comment: No, it puts the real minimum wage in sight — zero. This will be a disaster but, then again, disaster is inevitable for other reasons.
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