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Funding was split among 179 organizations in 25 Illinois counties.
“In Chicago, the teachers’ union is fighting a plan to begin returning some students to schools early next year. ‘Obviously, if school is continuing remote, there’s less urgency around the vaccination,’ said the Chicago Teachers Union’s president, Jesse Sharkey…Sure, reopening the schools could add some urgency to get vaccinated, but you know what’s really causing most of the urgency around the vaccination? The contagious virus.“
ISBE officials said the standards aim to foster classroom and school environments in which every student feels that they belong, which is critical to improving academic and behavioral outcomes for Illinois’ diverse students. Opponents of the requirements said they prevent teachers and students from holding diverse points of view and will force everyone to follow one perspective.
Outgoing Sen. Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo), said Pritzker is unwilling to accept that both Republicans and Democrats voted against his graduated income tax amendment. “Instead, Governor Pritzker decided to throw another tantrum blaming everyone but himself for the budget crisis facing the state…Times of crisis are when real leaders step forward. Instead, we’re stuck with a Governor who can’t get past his own failures and move forward for the betterment of the people of this state.”
Mark Konkol: “What needs to change is the unchecked authority for City Hall attorneys to cling to the status quo precedent of going to extensive lengths to hide behind public records exemptions that keep videos like those of the wrongful raid on Young’s home from public view. The City Hall law department has a long history of erring on the side of secrecy.”
“The city made its most egregious screw-ups when it hit the gas pedal. Think of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s fiasco of a parking meter deal in 2008 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s hasty 2013 decision to close 50 public schools.”
“The people spoke. They knew exactly what they were doing and to whom they were sending the message. To imply they were bamboozled by “Republicans” is an insult to the 3,059,411 who voted against your plan — with intent.”
State Rep. Lance Yednock, D-Ottawa, said more hearings are needed to get to the bottom of what caused an outbreak that killed at least 33 residents. “Let’s not talk around the edges of it, let’s just say this is what we think happened and support it.”
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said increasing taxes will push people out of Illinois and the proposed cuts are gimmicks and real reforms are needed. “It means looking at the whole budget and changing how we do education, changing how we do the retirements, changing how we do healthcare. It’s a real, real big problem and it takes a big solution, not one-year gimmicks.”
Thank you to ZeroHedge for republishing our Wirepoints column.
Total gas taxes and fees are closing in on $1 per gallon.
“Rock Island, like many municipalities in the state, are feeling the squeeze of budget obligations (particularly steadily rising public safety pension costs) that are increasing faster than revenues…But as a budget presentation last month showed, the city has struggled to keep up with rising expenses even as it has steadily trimmed its workforce.”
Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, says legislation concerning COVID-19 in the state cannot move forward until a speaker is chosen. “We cannot conduct business until we have a speaker, and the speaker has to have 60 votes.”
“Kinzinger, in short, could be Exhibit A for the case that Americans can be simultaneously conservative and devoted to the principles that hold our nation together…If his Republican Party is to emerge from the stain left by four years of assault and two months of relentless derision by its leader, it is the Kinzinger model — certainly not the Bost-LaHood model — it must adopt.”
State Rep. Mike Marron decided to stand in front of the IDES office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each work day until he got some answers. He spent Monday there and then moved Tuesday morning to the front of the governor’s mansion.
Jim Dey: “he refuseniks say House Democrats need new leadership because of the pall of corruption he has cast over the General Assembly. But Madigan argues he’s pure as the driven show and has no plans to do anything other than fight to retain his positions of power. That raises the possibility of stalemate, wherein House Democrats might not be able to elect anyone speaker and, as a consequence, function as legislative body.”
Approximately 1,000 sidewalk café permits will be extended until June 1, 2021, allowing sidewalk cafés to continue operating through the spring without having to renew their licenses. The city also will continue to reduce sidewalk café permit fees by 75%.
“Our union will have to have an internal discussion about what to do next if we can’t reach agreements on how to make our schools safe for everyone,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey told the school board Wednesday. “When we have those discussions, all options are going to be on the table.” Sharkey said the lack of a clear public health metric and mechanisms to enforce health and safety protocols “is going to make our union campaign in a way which is going to have very real consequences in this whole city.”
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson pushed back on CTU during Wednesday’s meeting, saying it’s parents who are driving the return to the classroom. “We are serving a large swath of our families who believe this is the best choice for their students, and we believe we have a moral obligation to do so.”
The Illinois House Special Investigating Committee did little that was special or investigative before ending their probe of Mike Madigan.
This increase raises the minimum wage to $11 an hour statewide. Cook County has a higher minimum wage than the state, currently $13 an hour. And the city of Chicago minimum wage is $13.50 an hour for small employers (4 to 20 employees) and $14 an hour for large employers (21 or more employees).
The Illinois Restaurant Association also reported 65 percent of restaurant owners expect to be laying off more workers in the next three months.
The unanimous advisory opinion issued Monday by the Chicago Board of Ethics is the first public enforcement of rules governing the use of social media by elected officials in Chicago issued by the board in January 2019. The official was not named, nor was the office they hold identified, in keeping with the board’s rules.
The Illinois public health region consisting of Lake and McHenry counties Tuesday met the set of COVID-19 caseload metrics to make the area eligible to loosen restrictions on businesses and gatherings.
How the rest of the process will play out is unknowable, but it will be long and painful. Budget cuts and structural reforms have long been inevitable for Illinois. But the same powers and interests that crippled the state hold the scalpel. Their blame game and incrementalism will continue until they are forced to stop.
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