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Jewish students and their supporters announced Friday the filing of a federal complaint alleging an “unrelenting campaign of anti-Semitic harassment” at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A recent survey of undergrads at 55 major American colleges and universities suggests that students at the University of Chicago enjoy the most robust free-speech rights But undergraduate Evita Duffy claims that if her university was considered a leader on free-speech issues, then the “repression of conservative ideas on campuses is worse than most people think.”
Chicago’s ability to avert a downgrade hinges on honoring its rising pension contribution commitments and continuing to move toward structural budget balance as it navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, S&P Global Ratings said.
Mark Konkol: “So far, Pritzker’s administration has kept the public in the dark about his administration’s contract tracing efforts. The public health department hasn’t joined the 18 states that makes contact tracing data available online. A spokeswoman told Patch the data would be available in coming weeks, but wouldn’t say when. “
“We will serve customers by just taking everything in consideration,” said Kankakee business owner Ari Frunze. “Health and safety is first. We get that it is very important to social distance. We’re doing everything we’re advised to do.”
“My kids were ecstatic to go back to school this week,” one Naperville parent said. “I cannot tell you the gut punch they felt when my wife broke the news to them after dinner that they are now delayed two more weeks.”
“I’ve never run a marathon, but I have the utmost regard for those who’ve been able to train and plan and finish a marathon. But this is a difficult race when you can’t actually see the endpoint, and I’m sorry that that’s the message I have for you,” Ezike said, fighting tears.
Affordable housing proposals have drawn strong opposition in Deerfield and Wilmette in recent years, and dozens of suburbs have yet to meet a state benchmark set in 2003 to push them to increase the amount of affordable housing in their communities.
The state eased restrictions on restaurants, bars and social gatherings on Oct. 9, after the metro-east saw its positivity rate fall below 6.5%.
The union said CPS records show 60% of the district’s school buildings have no central HVAC system, 50% have non-functional critical components of their ventilation systems, and only 9% have air filtration systems that meet public health recommendations for COVID-19 safety.
According to the testimony of Judge Robbin Stuckert, who chaired the pretrial practices commission, “Establishing a robust and effective pretrial system in Illinois is the first and most crucial step towards minimizing and eventually eliminating cash bail. However, simply eliminating cash bail at the outset without first implementing meaningful reforms and dedicating adequate resources to allow evidence-based risk assessment and supervision would be premature.”
More people are being hired to help process the applications, ISP said, but training for the job takes a minimum of six months.
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported the number of counties at the warning level increased to 51 from 34 last week.
House Speaker Mike Madigan has now lost the support of eight Democrats in the House, with most seeking his immediate resignation, since he was implicated in a $1.3 million federal bribery scandal.
“Part of why it grew is because we made a lot of investments in people and places and neighborhoods that hadn’t been made in decades. I make no apologies for investments in affordable housing, in mental health, in homeless prevention and violence intervention.”
“The story that the media haven’t told is that states that have maintained longer and stricter business restrictions have been slower to recover. The unemployment rate in September was 12.6% in Nevada, 11% in California, 10.5% in Rhode Island, 10.2% in Illinois, and 9.7% in New York compared to 6.7% in Arizona, 6.4% in Georgia, 5.4% in Wisconsin and 5% in Utah.”
The new cases are being seen in people of every ethnic/racial group and every age group, and they’re happening in every part of the city, Arwady said.
The Madigan money comes as Kilbride faces an active campaign opposing his retention. The Democratic Party stands to lose its majority on the Illinois Supreme Court if Kilbride loses his retention bid.
Aurora Pancake House owner Uriel Arceo visited the news conference to try to get city officials’ attention. Arceo said it’s not fair that his restaurant has to close, but the Hollywood Casino can stay open: “Is it really about health concerns?”
Property taxes fund local government spending, not the state’s. Illinois’ high property taxes are primarily driven by out-of-control pension costs.
Said Tracy Siska, of the Chicago Justice Project, “On the Cook County data portal, you’re getting their version of what they want you to see about the office. We are suing to push the state’s attorney’s office to live up to the letter of the law. It’s no one single piece of data, it’s about being able to give the public as whole a picture as possible about their activities.”
“The racial and ethnic gaps we’re seeing of who gets the virus and who dies from it are not a surprise,” said Linda Rae Murray, former chief medical officer of the Cook county department of public health. “They are a reflection of structural racism that exists in our society and inequities that are baked into our country.”
“I talked a little bit about how important it is for … leaders in the African American community to no longer just assume that the Democratic Party is on their side,” Blagojevich said. “Too many Democrats like Dick Durbin have taken them for granted.”
The rancor has led Evanston’s NAACP branch to offer to mediate.
“The pandemic has been tough for gyms. Many saw little or no revenue when forced to close this spring, and are still dealing with capacity limits while investing in extra cleaning and new sanitizing equipment. A handful of chains have sought bankruptcy protection since the pandemic began.”
“(T)he flyers sent out by proponents say the ‘fair tax’ will ‘help solve our budget crisis.’ Anybody who has lived in Illinois for a long time shrugs at that claim.They remember how the tollways were going to be free roads, and how lottery proceeds were going specifically for education…Nowhere on the flyers backing the tax change is there any mention of cutting spending in Springfield or of property tax relief.”
The airwaves are being bombarded with emotionally charged ads for and against the progressive tax. Still confused? Here are the 20 facts you should know about the progressive tax amendment.
The state shed 12,000 payroll jobs during the month, with the heaviest losses coming from the Professional and Business Services sector, which shed 12,400 jobs, a decline of 1.4%.
“(T)he cost of keeping children confined to what so many of them feel like prison is high–too high to continue this insane policy…Study after study document the serious and dangerous consequences of the tyrannical and self-satisfied education lobby.”
Jim Tracy, president of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, makes a case for maintaining the minimum staffing rule that requires at least five employees for every piece of fire apparatus: “It can’t be done by two or three people. It has to be by five persons, period. We cannot do our job without it.”
“(P)oliticians make speeches about compassion while raising taxes. They don’t know or care that a restaurant may have only about 10 days worth of operating cash and that about a third of restaurant space goes to storage and kitchen, leaving the rest to generate revenue.”
Despite a swell of visitors during the pandemic, the district’s nontax revenue in 2021 is predicted to drop 26%, mostly due to a continued drop in event permits, campground fees and aquatic centers. There also will likely be less investment income if interest rates dip as expected.
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