-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
A new bill would prevent Illinois schools and sports teams from having a Native American logo or mascot. It has been assigned to the Elementary and Secondary Education: School Curriculum and Policies Committee.
If voters on Nov. 3 pass Pritzker’s signature policy proposal, a progressive state income tax he dubbed the “fair tax,” last year’s jobs gains would be more than wiped out. Illinois would lose 56,366, according to an analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute.
The inspector general found a “connection” between students with unusually large test gains and excessive test length and pauses. But school district officials put out a counter analysis looking at all test scores, not just high growth, and found no correlation between time taken on the exam or pauses and the results. This counter analysis led board members to conclude the report was faulty and to discount it.
“For years, politicians have denied that Illinois has a problem with population loss. Now, most acknowledge the depth of the problem. But few propose solutions.”
The suit wants the city to pay back thousands of people who’ve lost their cars because they couldn’t come up with hundreds of dollars in ticket costs and other fees to get them out of city impound lots.
“Don’t be fooled. There are far better ways to ensure public schools have the money they need to educate students.”
The 20-member task force would also consider creating a specialty court to handle domestic violence cases — such as those that exist for drug offenses and mental health matters — and carve-outs for bail in such trials.
Similar curriculums are mandated in 29 other states and Washington, D.C. — Iowa and Kentucky are the states nearest Illinois to do so.
The measure wouldn’t apply to Chicago or municipalities with more than 25,000 residents that have home rule status.
The Illinois Department of Corrections policy of not holding undocumented immigrants upon release from Illinois prisons could be compounded by a U.S. appeals court ruling on Wednesday that allows President Trump’s administration to withhold federal funds from states and cities with sanctuary policies.
The University of Illinois system, which will break a years-long tuition freeze this fall, requested a total of $657 million in the fiscal year beginning this July – a more than 12 percent increase in state funding from the current year, not including a $303 million request for capital project spending.
In the interim, districts are paring back their expectations and budgets for next year. “You can’t do a mid-course correction and hire more staff, that’s just not possible.”
In one mural in question, Native Americans steer canoes for a white man, who is standing, while one man, wearing a headdress, gestures across the water.
“Unless CPS plans to show the slaughter of indigenous Americans and white invaders passing out Small Pox infected blankets, enslaved Africans in chains being whipped, raped and sold, then remove it all,” another person wrote. “The days
Curley’s situation is a perfect example of the problems with the state’s pension system, said Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, a nonprofit research group that focuses on Illinois’ economy and government. District 181, Dabrowski said, only had to cover the cost of the increases for the two years.
“The pension she’ll get the rest of her life isn’t paid by Hinsdale taxpayers. It’s paid by people in Carbondale, Palos Heights, Rockford. That’s what makes this pension system so ludicrous. It forces taxpayers to support rich pensioners in the suburbs,” Dabrowski said.
Illinois Manufacturers’ Association CEO Mark Denzler said that if the governor’s proposed progressive income tax passes in November, Illinois will have the third-highest corporate tax rate in the country and the second-highest property tax rate in the country. “Ask any business if they can work with an 82% increase in labor cost, the answer’s going to be no,” he said.
Even accommodating for the cross-borders bootlegging, soda consumption in Cook County still dropped by 21% from the tax. But researchers also tracked the sale of milk and 100% fruit juices, curious if consumption of these other drinks spiked as people gave up soda. And what they found was . . . nothing.
“I will candidly tell you that I was very disappointed with the comments of the CDC yesterday and members of the Trump administration around coronavirus,” Lightfoot said.
“We feel very well prepared to address this issue. And I don’t want people to take from the comments … at the federal level that, somehow, they should be worried and that we’re not prepared in this city. We absolutely are prepared.”
“‘The state has a negative $10 billion in working capital. So there are $10 billion the state has already spent, that it doesn’t have money for.’ In layman’s terms, if this were a family that owed this much, they would be facing major trouble. ‘This would be a family that they’re about to be foreclosed on, that their creditors would be coming after things.'”
The city can not figure out whether it’s benefiting the more than 3,000 youth it processes annually or making matters worse, nor whether the $5 million the city spends on it annually is worth it. The Inspector General’s office noted that JISC has no charter, memorandum of understanding, or governing board to establish formal goals and accountability measures.
In his new book, The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World, former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel argues that cities are supplanting polarized national capitals. In the years ahead, he believes, urban centers will continue to grow in power and influence. Yet Emanuel fails to account for his mixed legacy in Chicago. He touts his record, but it’s hardly a model for other mayors.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER