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Wirepoints has learned that at least $139 million — 80% of the public funding for the center — almost certainly will be reimbursed by the federal government.
Don’t think that the Janus ruling by the Supreme Court will change how credit agencies rate Illinois. The decision, which allows public workers to opt out of union membership, didn’t fix any of Illinois’ problems overnight and the state is still on a trajectory towards a junk rating – now just one-notch away.
In late 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration gave a no-bid, five-year deal for $115 million to a politically connected partnership to operate and maintain O’Hare Airport’s in-house transit system — the People Mover.
Nearly seven years later, that partnership, called AOR Transit Joint Venture, is still on the job. That’s after being handed more duties, without competitive bidding, that have helped bring it an extra $58 million, records show.
A day after overturning the legal precedent that allowed public sector unions to use the state to grab a share of non-union workers’ paychecks, the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered a federal appeals court in Chicago to use its ruling to take another look at his decision forbidding a group of home caregivers from suing a labor union to claw back some of the $32 million in similar fees the state had taken from the caregivers and paid to the union.
Centreville, Illinois, is tucked between an airport, rail lines and interstates in the Metro East. For the second time in as many years, 24/7 Wall St. has named it the poorest town in America. It took the top spot from Macon, Mississippi, in 2017.
Comment: We told you they were “toast” years ago.
Comment: Big salute to Jason Huebert, director of litigation for the Liberty Justice Center, a public-interest law firm in Chicago, and Bill Messenger of the National Right to Work Legal Foundation.
The increasingly left-wing politics of leading U.S. cities clashes with the aspirations of middle-class residents.
The board’s 78-page response says “Breuder oversaw an era of waste, fraud and abuse” that “caused real harm to the college and, in many cases, direct benefits to Breuder and those close to him.”
As part of a five-year plan to increase the minimum wage to $13 per hour by 2019, Chicago’s new $12 minimum wage takes effect July 1. Since 2014, the wage has steadily risen from the Illinois minimum of $8.25 to $11 per hour.
And comments from other Illinois Senate Democrats on the Janus decision.
The abusive accrual of sick and vacation time is a problem at all levels of government. Chicago Public Schools paid upward of $100,000 each to more than 300 principals and administrators between 2006 and 2011 as they left the system. Outgoing schools CEO Arne Duncan cashed out more than $50,000 in unused vacation time in 2009. Jody Weis, who served as Chicago police superintendent for three years, left with a $76,000 payout.
Chicago is among the cities seeing steep a decline.
Enraged union leaders and Democratic Party leaders tried to take political advantage of the decision they described as a union-weakening effort that will hurt the middle class. Pritzker accused Rauner of using the Supreme Court to “attack working families.” Chicago Teachers Union leader Jesse Sharkey said despite the ruling, “we’re going to advocate for what’s just.”
“The Supreme Court, the Supreme Court be damned,” Sharkey said.
The search took nine months to complete. The benchmark is for at least half of the subcontractors to be diverse suppliers with set asides for racial minorities and women, veterans, the disabled, ex-offenders and LGBTQ individuals.
As a champion of gay marriage and a fierce protector of a woman’s right to choose, Emanuel says he appreciates the swing vote that Kennedy provided on those crucial issues. But, the mayor maintained that Kennedy’s overall 30-year record on the nation’s highest court is not a record to be duplicated. It’s a record to be condemned.
The new budget becomes effective Sunday.
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