-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Takeda will depart the area by the end of the year, taking its 1,000 positions to the Boston area. Walgreens and Mondelez International are moving 1,300 and 400 jobs, respectively, to Chicago’s core, following other national and international firms once headquartered in sunny suburban locales.
Concentration benefits firms like Nuveen and Vanguard, as well as some investors, but critics see risks if the market cools.
For more than 50 years, the airport has been plagued by corruption and costly delays. The politically connected cash in. Meanwhile, passengers trudge through a transit hub that persistently underperforms.
Chicago’s fair workweek ordinance aims to be the broadest in the country. It covers employees working in building services, health care, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail and warehouse services. It also includes temporary workers in those fields.
Retail power sellers will need to shift from month-to-month prices to fixed prices for 12 months under reform legislation taking effect next year. Here’s how CleanChoice Energy, which has leaned on variable pricing in the past, is responding. Effectively, CleanChoice is saying that buying renewable energy certificates from Illinois wind farms, which allows it to make its green-energy claims, costs far more than RECs from out-of-state wind farms. That flies in the face of the message that the renewable power industry is delivering, which is that the cost of producing wind power has fallen dramatically in recent years and
A proposed order, introduced today in the City Council by 22 members, calls for hiring a consultant to determine the feasibility of “municipalizing” ComEd in Chicago.
The goal is to use a hike in the real estate transfer tax to boost services and housing for the homeless. Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on a similar proposal but says the sides aren’t on the same page yet.
Chicago police have for years compiled profiles on every citizen who spoke at public meetings of the city’s police disciplinary panel, a process that included running criminal background checks and internet searches on activists, a police union official and even relatives of an innocent woman killed in a high-profile police shooting, the Chicago Tribune has learned.
Politicians can’t afford to ignore growing public resentment of excessive property taxes, a powder keg that needs only a spark to explode into a full-fledged tax revolt with unpredictable consequences.
Records obtained by the Tribune reveal that the checks went to Kevin Quinn, a former top Madigan lieutenant and brother of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, after he was dismissed from the speaker’s political operation in early 2018 amid a sexual harassment scandal. The checks came from accounts linked to five current or former lobbyists for utility giant ComEd, including Madigan’s close confidant Michael McClain, records showed. McClain’s home in downstate Quincy was raided by the FBI two months ago.
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