-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Nearly 1 in 4 Illinoisans is out of a job. Many are still fighting the state’s Rube Goldberg machine of an unemployment system to get the federal money they were promised. So how fair is it that some of the highest-paid state employees in the nation are getting a raise that must be funded by an economically wounded bunch of taxpayers?
Trump tore into the soaring violent-crime rates in cities including Chicago and Baltimore – comparing them to Afghanistan and Honduras, and saying, “it’s like living in hell.”
Illinois ranked 22nd in the country in the quickest job recovery since last week, and ninth since the pandemic began.
No need to make politically unpopular decisions, because that state gasoline tax automatically goes up on July 1. Same for lawmakers giving themselves $1,800 raises while being able to claim: “We didn’t vote for those. They were automatic.”
Between 2008 and 2017, Chicago sold over $700 million in “police brutality bonds,” more than any other city included in the American Center on Race and the Economy’s report. Over that period, investors reportedly collected $1 billion in interest — and taxpayers spent about twice that much servicing the debt.
A 9mm handgun that was seized during a search of their home last year was located after it went missing.
“The lack of revenues coming in from government means that all the cities in the state, everybody is really strapped for how they make their payments,” said James McNamee, president of the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association.
City officials also have approved permits allowing more than 30 restaurants to use parking lots for outdoor dining for up to 180 days.
The lawsuit says the rule shifts burden from tenants to landlords without subsidizing their costs, landlords say they should have the same protections under state law.
It’s expected to cost about $50 million over the next four years, prioritizing families in need on the city’s South and West Sides. It will be funded through a public-private partnership.
“It’s not like a bar — you can’t just turn the lights on,” said Robert Gomez, owner of Subterranean and Beat Kitchen, which will not host shows anytime soon. “It’s too complicated for us to responsibly consider opening at this point.”
Officers working in the center can monitor over 4,000 surveillance cameras as well as license plate readers in the area in real-time instead of after the fact.
“I have been in somewhat regular touch with Dr. Fauci, not on this subject particularly, but in my next conversation with him I’ll certainly ask him what he thinks the right kind of measurement on goes first is because I really value his opinion,” Pritzker said.
“There’s no punishment involved,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “(W)e have to marshal our resources. When someone’s getting direct federal dollars to cover the very same expenses that would have been covered by the state, it seems logical to me for the time being to use those resources to cover other challenges that we have during this very difficult time.”
Although the unemployment claims data appears to be improved from the past couple of months, Illinois’ economy, which lost nearly 800,000 jobs at the peak of the crisis, is yet to see any substantial jobs rebound.
A study from WalletHub ranks Illinois 50th-most severe on COVID-19 restrictions on bars and restaurants. 233,500 jobs were lost in that sector since February.
Excluding grant funding of $81.3 million in 2020, the Police Department budget totals $1.68 billion. The majority of this amount, $1.64 billion, is accounted for in the Corporate Fund, the City’s general operating fund.
But she also expressed confusion at why in-person interaction with IDES employees isn’t clear yet with Illinois entering Phase 4 of reopening. “There’s restaurants opened and hair dressing salons opened, but this still isn’t?”
With a wave of crises crashing across the country, more than 40,000 Illinoisans applied for a gun permit in a little more than two weeks this month, more than 500% over this time last year, according to Illinois State Police.
“Take a full glass of coronavirus,
Abbott spokeswoman Darcy Ross said today that the North Chicago medical device maker no longer works with Cove Strategies. Last year the company paid Schlapp’s firm $190,000, about 5 percent of Abbott’s lobbying spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Does he assume (as he probably can) that nobody in the press will question him?
“In recent months, the mayor has stood down two of 2020’s most intemperate protest movements — right-wing maskless Covidiots and left-wing statue-toppling vigilantes.”
The state used $1.2 billion of proceeds from a short-term Fed loan to help pay down the bills, said Carol Knowles, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Budget and Management. The Fed established its Municipal Liquidity Facility to help state and local governments bridge funding gaps created by the pandemic.
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