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Among those expected back, CPS said 28% of those students attended school virtually while the remaining 12% were marked as absent. District data also shows 13% of students who were expected to continue learning remotely were marked absent, while the other 87% were accounted for.
“But given that cars are being taken at gunpoint — and sometimes with fatal consequences — Brown’s new tack also includes a tough side, as it must. The police have beefed-up their Vehicular Hijacking Task Force, the superintendent said, and will work with prosecutors and courts “to make sure there are serious and significant consequences for the offender.”
A year ago Sunday, the city’s top public health official announced the first case of the novel coronavirus in Illinois — a Chicago woman who’d recently returned from a trip to Wuhan, China. In a calm, cheerful voice, Dr. Allison Arwady said it was an isolated case and that the risk to the public “remains low at this time.”
“[CPS Sports Administration] is working closely with our public health officials to determine if we are able to offer these activities and will provide an update as soon as possible,” CPS Sports Director David Rosengard wrote in an email to principals.
Rep. Anthony DeLuca has filed the same joint resolution for term limits at the start of each of the last six sessions. Still, he hopes the legislation could move during his seventh term in office. The Chicago Heights native stressed his proposal never moved out of the Rules Committee under former Speaker Mike Madigan.
Voters have already approved the sales tax four different times, if approved again in February, it will be in place for five years.
Pritzker added that there are 3.2 million people who are eligible to receive shots in Phase 1B, but the state is expecting to receive just 126,000 doses from the federal government next week, meaning less than 4 percent of those eligible will be able to get a shot.
“And so, the message this sends to me is that somebody has decided that two years of a foreign language class are more important than art, more important than music, more important than career and technical education courses, in a school day that is already so full and so very limited with time,” ISBE member Susie Morrison, of Carlinville, said.
The survey by the National Federation of Independent Business also found that nearly 79 percent of small businesses that responded believe the state Legislature should clarify the powers of a governor in declaring emergencies. “That’s why we have the three branches, and that’s what the legislature is there to provide some accountability,” director Mark Grant said. “I think we’re going to see something here in the next session on this.”
In opposing the move, State Rep. Steven Reick noted New York decoupled back in May, so the issue should have been known to Illinois officials back then.
More than 169,500 businesses were started in Illinois in 2020; That was the highest number of business startups in the Midwest and sixth-highest nationally. “We’re seeing women, especially women of color, that are leading the way with new business starts in the nation, and we’re also seeing that in Illinois as well,” said Kristi Dula, head of the Illinois Office of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology.
“And if we don’t get our act together in this country, have these same hard conversations, we’re never gonna get any better. It doesn’t make a difference what we’re teaching our children in school — we’re never going to get any better,” professor Lionel Kimble Jr. said.
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “The final early test involves the right of all people to live and work free from harassment of any kind…These are the steps Welch can take to ease public concerns about any latent ‘Mini-Mikeism.’ Trouble is, the sad state of affairs in Illinois is such that Welch will need to do far more if he wants to succeed at his new job.”
“Currently, juveniles caught with a gun while in school generally would be detained for several weeks while an assessment of their home life is completed. So they are off the streets. The same strict rule isn’t in place for vehicular carjacking, so those suspects are likely to be released on electronic monitoring or to parents within 24 to 36 hours.”
The announcement comes only two days after the OIG confirmed it is now investigating “possible misconduct” by city officials, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office, for how they handled the botched raid on the home of Anjanette Young and the aftermath.
While nearly 60% of the vaccines dedicated for Illinois health care workers have been administered, Pritzker said the same can’t be said for the vaccines intended for long-term care residents and staff, and he blasted the Trump administration for the slow pace of that program; Less than 20% of the 524,050 doses of vaccine set aside for long-term care facilities have actually been administered.
“(W)e can’t change the fact that there are different sports and they have different levels of risk. Sports like basketball or football or wrestling pose a higher risk, compared to those, such as track and field or baseball or gymnastics,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike said. “So we have to make adjustments to best balance the ability to play and the need to stay safe, depending on the conditions in the community.”
Said Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, “Not only will this vaccination plan bolster our safety initiatives as we welcome students and staff back into the classroom, but it will also put our city on the right track to reopening and returning to a sense of normalcy.”
IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike warns precaution must continue. “During the summer, we were on this same path. We know that we must continue to take precautions and be smart about how we relax some of the mitigation measures.”
“That’s $300,000 that we don’t have,” said state Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock. “The Senate has been able to meet in the capitol building and I don’t see any reason why we can’t exercise some social distancing and things like that and get into the capitol building to do that kind of stuff.”
Judge Thomas Durkin further said it makes sense to cover seven industries where demand for workers fluctuates and to apply rules to people who earn less than $50,000 per year or $26 per hour, “given the potentially serious economic and personal impacts a late schedule change could have on them over others with more income. That is especially so because such employees may hold multiple jobs.”
The board is part of the Illinois Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act, which was originally passed in 2003. That law requires cities with at least 1,000 residents and with less than 10% affordable housing to submit affordable housing plans to the state. The law is intended to encourage affordable housing, but resistance is rampant.
Ted Dabrowski was on WJOL’s Slocum in the Morning talking about how Illinois’ last legislative session failed to tackle the items hurting residents the most: COVID-19 and the economy. Instead, politicians passed a slew of bills that will increase the cost of government.
The home-value gap for blacks is particularly big for Chicago — 37% — which is higher than the ten other largest cities in America and well above the national average gap of 16%.
“A ‘yes’ vote would be a vote to disrupt the education of some 6,000 preschoolers and special needs students who have been back in school since Jan. 11. A ‘yes’ vote would say ‘forget it’ to thousands of families that have opted for in-person learning, fully aware of the pandemic and the need to be careful, because remote instruction simply hasn’t worked for their children.”
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