-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
See our own story on this linked here.
Leon Walker, a second-generation South Side developer, said, “We’ve got a fiscal problem in Chicago because you’ve got to balance this budget on a smaller tax base. The key to solving that problem is expanding the tax base. The key to that happening is making our neighborhoods much more livable and more attractive to working families.”
Amber Taylor said she applied for unemployment benefits over the summer, was approved and finally started receiving them last month. Then a note showed up on her account that read “pending identity verification.” But she cannot fix this on her own. “You can’t talk to anybody. All you can do is wait on them to call you back.”
Sales taxes can exceed 10% in Illinois depending on where consumers do their holiday shopping. The average has been creeping up in recent years.
Illinois ranks third from the lowest – #48 – in the Tax Foundation’s Property Tax rank.
“I have no regrets about forwarding that information on,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said about her role in the transaction being investigated. Lightfoot said she assumes the district properly vetted the purchase.
Restaurant owner/operator Mike Madigan of Urbana is frustrated that the Governor put his own metrics aside. “This just goes to show us all the Governor is more interested in control than ‘following the science’ and standing by his own word about regional metrics for controlling the virus. It is very disappointing that so many small businesses and their employees are having to endure this, especially during the holidays. But honestly, I didn’t expect anything different.”
According to a new study from MoneyGeek, crime cost each St. Louis resident $9,334 in 2019, more than any other city in America. St. Louis recorded the nation’s second-highest violent crime rate — 1,927.3 for every 100,000 residents — and third-highest property crime rate, 6,183 per 100,000.
Pritzker said he and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike will end in-person COVID-19 updates because coronavirus numbers are “moving in the right direction.”
The commission issued its first report this summer without the panel of lawmakers making up the commission even meeting. After several false starts, canceled meetings and closed-door hearings cut short, State Rep. Kelly Burke, D-Evergreen Park, noted the commission dissolves by law at the end of the month.
The manufacturing sector, which was also one of the most affected industries by mitigation protocols, also shed jobs, losing 2,900 jobs. Educational and health services lost 2,000 jobs; financial activities shed 1,900 jobs; while information sector jobs declined by 400, and government payrolls also shrank by 400.
Under the MOA, the city will be required the rehab the English Stone Comfort Station as well as the Statue of the Republic in the park. The eastern chunk of Midway Plaisance will see a new “play area” designed by the city, which also must work up materials to educate the community about the significance of Jackson Park.
Illinois Public Radio Statehouse reporter Hannah Meisel said, “The governor came in, and he had a very rosy first year as being governor, and then basically as soon as his 14th month hit, we got a pandemic. So, it’s hard but as is the saying around Springfield, governors own. Governors own all problems.”
Judge Benjamin Dyer ruled Thursday in favor of the Champaign County Public Health Department and granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting a restaurant from operating as a food establishment without a health permit – which had been revoked for violations of the COVID-19 mitigation restrictions.
The CTA, the nation’s second-largest public transit operator, reported an 80% drop in ridership during the early months of the pandemic. For METRA, the drop was 90%.
“The work we’ve been doing over the last several months in expanding and deepening conversations and partnerships within the native community, we continue to feel really positive about the types of work we can do,” CEO Danny Wirtz said, “the way in which we can be better stewards of the namesake and the history, and to use our platforms to be educators, not only for our fans, but for our internal teams and making sure that we provide that reverence and respect that we talk about.”
“There were a few surprises when we got here,” Iris Martinez says, including cluttered Daley Center hallways and how some employees are paid. She has ordered an audit of the office, to begin early next year, in hopes of learning what else needs attention.
The Chief Administrator of the Police Board has recommended that John Catanzara lose his job over a series of more than 15 offensive Facebook posts between November 2016 and February 2018.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER