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“We’d feel more confident that this problem will be fixed if our local officials spoke with one voice, explaining how they’re working together to make us safer and the criminal justice system more fair. But, instead, we’ve seen a lot of blame going around.”
Progressive firebrand Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said Biden, “for the lefties, represents a door, and not a destination…I fully expect our movement to continue once Joe Biden is elected. Donald Trump is a fascist that has to be put down.”
The department’s refusal to follow the law is what has sparked calls from several aldermen and groups to defund the police, Ald. Leslie Hairston said. “I’m mad.”
“It is so enormously frustrating that the state of Illinois has put our communities in this kind of financial jeopardy,” said Lebanon Mayor Rich Wilken.
The new restrictions are stricter than ones being enforced in Region 4, or the Metro East area of Illinois along the Missouri border. They do not apply to schools.
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said, “They should be honest about the fact, and they were, that they dropped the ball on this, they’re trying to take some corrective steps.”
He added it has been over 170 days since the group last held a meeting. Rep. Grant Wehrli, from Naperville, listed 15 state committees, boards and commissions that have met during the COVID-19 pandemic either virtually or in person. Those include the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, the Census Commission and the Senate Transportation Committee.
For number wonks, from actuary Mary Pat Campbell.
The bottom five states on the economic outlook ranking were New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Illinois, and California. “We continue to see this phenomenon where Americans vote with their feet. And they’re voting very strongly away from states with high tax burdens and less economic opportunities,” said economist Jonathan Williams.
In addition to serving in the Illinois House, Arroyo operated a lobbying business that lobbied the city of Chicago on various matters. He was charged in October 2019 with one felony count of bribery for allegedly attempting to buy a senator’s support of gambling legislation that would have benefitted one of Arroyo’s lobbying clients.
The progressive tax’s structure fails to account for inflation and includes a marriage penalty for 4 million Illinoisans. It is designed to creep farther into taxpayers’ wallets.
“What happens in Wisconsin or any other city in our country does affect all of us,” Brown said during a press conference Monday morning. “All of our deployment strategies are being practiced and we are obviously adjusting based on the information coming from, not only what happened in Wisconsin, but what happens here in Chicago.”
The blunt style that initially made the mayor a popular meme is wearing thin for local aldermen. “We get the info about these decisions in the ninth inning and then are forced to respond very quickly, often with little info. That doesn’t work for me on the North Side,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th).
More than 1,000 local workers and 100 companies have been involved with developing Foxconn’s Wisconsin technology park, according to an April letter from the company to the state’s economic-development agency.
Cheryl Johnson, the executive director of People for Community Recovery, says that her South Side community is considered “the toxic doughnut….We always are talking about the City of Chicago just using our community as a dumping ground for so many years. Why do we always have to get polluting industry in our area?”
Said UI chemistry professor and associate dean Marty Burke, “Young people have a very strong drive to get together and have fun. We know that. They know that. The message isn’t ‘Don’t socialize.’ The message is ‘Socialize safely.’”
The tourism office said the money directly supported 344,100 jobs, which is up 1,800 from 2018. It generated $2.5 billion in state sales tax revenue. That’s up nearly 8% over a year earlier.
Even if it’s a robot and not a person doing the work, “now we need the person who builds that robot and programs that robot and maintains that robot,” Illinois Manufacturers’ Association president Mark Denzler said.
Catholic schools are reopening for classroom instruction in Chicago—that is, unless the teachers union can get the politicians to shut them down. But now some Catholic teachers are complaining, and they are being egged on by the Chicago Teachers Union and its allies, especially Arise Chicago. Arise Chicago is a faith-based labor group whose board of directors includes a “political organizer” for the CTU.
Protesters in many of these cities say that bringing their demonstrations to officials’ front doors is the only way to get them to listen. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot doesn’t approve.
A republication of our Wirepoints article.
Catherine Sharp is that rarest of birds, a Streeterville native. Although Sharp is only 24, she’s probably lived in the area longer than most of her neighbors. “I can understand people moving out, but I don’t think homes are going to be vacant for long. This is still one of the most desirable places to live in the city.”
“The irony is, with the passage of time both sides proved to have legitimate concerns, but both sides hurt their own case with violent overreactions and failure to compromise…. People in the streets today may believe their outrage is new, that the country is experiencing these passions for the first time. These people need to study their history. It may feel satisfying to break a window, throw a rock or beat a protester, but in the long run you come out the loser. As philosopher George Santayana wrote,
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