Andy Shaw: “For most teachers it is about the kids. But for their union it’s too often not about the kids, and there’s not much the rank-and-file can do about it. They are, unfortunately, victims of a political reality that breeds a painful ambivalence. ”
“Part of his budget cuts are supposed to come from proposed furloughs of state employees that have already been rejected by union leaders. Cigarette tax revenue shifted to the general fund will mean less money available to pay for planned infrastructure improvements. Freezing K-12 education funding won’t be easy in the face of legislative resistance to boost spending.”
House Bill 3653 Senate Amendment 2 impacts many aspects of the criminal justice system including policing, pretrial court processes and sentencing and prison policies.
Health officials hope to improve the situation soon, but say they can only do so if they get enough vaccine and vaccinators to expand into much larger operations. They also say the number of people needing vaccines in the cities and suburbs would dwarf the capabilities of rural counties like Adams County.
In fact, they called on Gov. Pritzker to resume offering tax credits through the 2019 Blue Collar Jobs Act, a bipartisan economic reform package pushed by House Republicans and signed into law as part of Pritzker’s first-year operating budget. It expands certain tax credits that businesses could take for relocating to Illinois or expanding existing facilities in the state.
“We don’t have adequate supply now,” said Sue Olenek, executive director of the Will County Public Health Department. “It will be that much more difficult to meet demand.”
Monroe County Public Health Department Administrator John Wagner says since anthrax and other airborne attacks in the months following 9/11, local health departments have been preparing for mass vaccination site. “The state IDPH is the one who changed the game plan in the middle of a pandemic. It’s hurting the residents and hurting the citizens of this state.”
Union president Jesse Sharkey argued that the negotiations were a “cauldron of tension and difficulty” because Mayor Lori Lightfoot and school CEO Janice Jackson began the negotiations by declaring through a legal filing that they had “no intent to bargain with us about whether or when to reopen.”
Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski joined State Representatives Brad Halbrook, Dan Caulkins, Chris Miller, Blaine Wilhour, Adam Niemerg and Paul Jacobs to present at a town hall meeting on Facebook Live about the controversial new teaching standards.
“I was just trying to turn lemons into limoncello,” said Ron Onesti, the president of Chicago’s Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, laughing. “This was my way of protesting.”
Appointments will be offered based on an “equity-based priority list” established by CPS, according to the school district. If an employee misses their first opportunity to sign up, they will be given more offers in the future.
U.S. attorneys are appointed by presidents and typically new presidents ask for the resignations of nearly all at the beginning of a new administration, but Lausch had rare bipartisan support. When then-President Trump appointed Lausch, the attorney had the support of both Illinois’ Democratic senators — Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.
Despite repeated claims the state was struggling to vaccinate those in Phase 1B due to limited supply, Pritzker touted a 5% increase in doses this week alone, saying “as quickly as we receive enough vaccine supply, we need to waste no time in protecting a broader section of our most vulnerable population.”
State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, said ending business incentives is the wrong approach. “We need to grow the economy. We have been in this horrible position long before my arrival in the General Assembly and it is our job to put a shot in the arm of the Illinois economy and get us moving forward.”
“There are folks looking to live in a state that’s maybe a little more tax-friendly environment, regulatory-friendly environment,” said state Rep. Martin Carbaugh, R-Fort Wayne, who sponsored the bill. “I really look at this as a coupon for people to take a look at us.”
He most recently brought charges against a former candidate for governor, Sam McCann, for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. He will leave at the end of the month at the request of the Biden administration.
“You feel just exhausted at the end of the day,” said Roberto Carlos Menjivar, whose daughter is a high school sophomore. “Why can’t we be better?” Added Natasha Dunn, who has a sixth grader: “Watching the back and forth to a certain extent became extremely disgusting.”
Raise Your Hand for Illinois, an education advocacy group for parents, created a list of demands for the district, calling for more transparency, increased spending on remote learning and a meeting with CPS leadership.
Ted Dabrowski appeared on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight to discuss the controversial new teaching standards that were proposed by the Illinois State Board of Education.
“Chicago property taxpayers fund public education. But their money should follow the kids, not be used only to prop up the adults in the system. It is the civil rights issue of our time. And each day that militant teacher union leaders keep schools closed is another reason why we must not wait any longer.”
Asked why lawyers for the city nearly always asked judges to dismiss charges in cases involving gun-registry violations, a spokesman for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s law department, said, “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the law department has temporarily halted the prosecution of gun-registry offenses.” He didn’t address the lack of enforcement before then.
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