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“As for MacGuyvering her way to a balanced budget, Lightfoot had options that she rejected that would have been more fair and lasting. Trimming the city’s workforce — never a blithe suggestion — would have shown a commitment to doing the hard work, to finding efficiencies and to streamlining. She decided against it.”
The IHSA’s stance toward these mitigations is a pivot from the late-October announcement that the IHSA board was defying Pritzker’s desire for basketball to be played in the spring, instead allowing individual school districts and leadership groups to choose whether or not their teams would compete.
Mark Konkol: “‘I’m not a big turkey fan. We do chicken,’ the mayor said. ‘About three years ago, we decided we really don’t like Turkey. So, why make it?'”
“There will be some winners and some losers in this,” property tax attorney Gary Smith said. That is because while rates may change, the total number of property tax dollars needed by taxing bodies will not. Some other property owners have to make up the difference. So the losers in this, at least right now, will be local businesses.
“These are all impossible decisions. We stepped back from a full stay-at-home order,” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said. “I hope everybody sees how much we’re trying to give some people something while trying to make sure that we protect the health and safety of the people of Illinois.”
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th Ward) — an ally of the mayor and chair of the powerful Zoning Committee — accused the budget team of “fearmongering” by warning that if a property tax hike is not approved this year, it will have to be approved next year, when aldermen will be up for election. “I find it a little bit disingenuous.”
“That’s another solid reason for the Legislature to approve remote voting and get back to work, as we urged last week. A safe reopening of our public schools — once the pandemic is under control — must be among our state’s top priorities.”
Bowling, cheer, dance and boy’s swimming and diving are suspended until further notice. The statement also referenced “creating participation opportunities in the new year for student athletes,” so it appears the IHSA will not push to start basketball before January.
Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey called the reopening dates “arbitrary” and “wholly de-linked” from public health data that show a spike in COVID-19 rates. “Just unilaterally picking an arbitrary date in the future and hoping everything works out is a recipe for disaster,” Sharkey said in a statement.
Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools Executive Director Mark Klaisner said school officials know more than they did in the spring. “We do know that schools are not the Petri dishes that people were afraid of. The schools are not the places the kids are getting sick. That’s true, factual, scientific. However, whatever is happening out in the community then comes into school and some students that back home to communities.”
On Tuesday, the governor said he will be in Chicago with his son for Thanksgiving;His wife and daughter are in Florida. Pritzker said they will stay in Florida after propaganda publications made false accusations about his daughter. “I’m the governor. I’m willing to make the hard decisions that sometimes bring on vitriol from political opponents, but my children shouldn’t come under attack.”
“We need this. The public needs this and deserves this. We need hearings. We need audits. And we need formal legislative input,” said State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield).
All five governors said they plan to spend Thanksgiving at home with their own immediate families.
After issuing the fines and citations, the Sangamon County health department suspended the restaurants’ food services licenses, but they continued to operate without licenses. Sangamon County State’s Attorney Daniel Wright asked the court to find that the restaurants violated the county code requiring food licenses, and to issue a temporary restraining order to keep them from operating.
The Legislative Audit Commission, reviewing data from two years ending in 2018, also found numerous instances of an employee using a full day leave the same day the employee worked overtime.
Jim Edgar shepherded the state through another budget crisis in the 1990s. But he says this one is much bigger – and will force lawmakers to choose between things like education, heathcare, and public safety. “Nobody’s going to want to cut those, but if you don’t cut those, you can’t really begin to make up this deficit with out a tax increase – and a pretty good tax increase.”
“The bottom line, you should not be traveling,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday.
The plan is not expected to shut the door on in-person attendance in public and private schools, impose travel restrictions or put the brakes on elective surgeries on a statewide basis, the source said.
“It’s so uncertain whether we can open. How do you schedule people and how to you buy perishable food knowing that it may not be used for several days because the weather is foul?” said owner Michael Roper.
The complaint alleges the city deepened housing segregation by allowing polluting industry to cluster on the Southeast Side over decades. Federal officials have found the complaint — which argues RMG’s Southside Recycling operation would cause “serious and irreparable injury” to residents of surrounding neighborhoods — to be “persuasive.”
Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grishow Monday ruled against a challenge of public health guidelines being imposed on local school districts. And Judge Gail Noll Tuesday combined the case brought by several Springfield restaurants and bars with cases where DeVore is the lead counsel.
The requirements mirror that of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide eviction moratorium requirements.
Political writer and columnist Bernard Schoenburg and statehouse reporter Doug Finke have accepted buyouts and will be departing the paper on Dec. 1.
The MOA, which was made public on the city of Chicago’s website, consists of measures proposed to alleviate some of the adverse effects that the construction of the OPC will have on areas of Jackson Park, the Midway Plaisance and the city’s park boulevard system.
“How long Trump Tower Chicago keeps its name in lights depends on what the New York attorney general finds, how much patience banks will continue to have with him, and whether its presence hurts the bottom line. Then he’ll have to make the decision he struggles with most: his wallet or his ego.”
Even aldermen who are typically aligned with Lightfoot, like Ald. Matt O’Shea (19), have signaled they will not support her proposed property tax hike. The Southwest Side aldermen added that he is “very concerned” about the mayor’s proposal to cut more than 500 vacant positions in the Chicago Police Department. “I’ve got very strong reservations about this current proposal. My community has made clear to me they do not want to see a property tax increase.”
The allegations are based on the experiences of two students at the university. They point to the defacement of religious ornaments, depictions of swastikas drawn on campus property and tense interactions between Jewish students and a student group advocating for liberation and self-determination of the Palestinian people.
Mark Konkol: “Still, let’s commend the governor for telling the truth: He’s comfortable with his hypocrisy, even amid a global public health crisis.”
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