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“I wear the jacket, as every [Chicago] mayor does, for violence in this city, for crime in this city. And the notion that we’re gonna outsource that to someone else and have no responsibility — no ability to impact this — I don’t know anybody who thinks that’s a good idea,” Lightfoot said
Rep. Camille Lilly, one of the sponsors of the legislation, suggested the state can use a portion of $7.5 billion of federal stimulus dollars to pay for a portion of the project. “We do have a start as to where revenues are coming from,” she said. “I really believe that the revenue will be prioritized so that we have better health outcomes.”
“Instead of backing down and deescalating, both CPS and CTU are continuing to play the game that has caused so much turmoil over the past two years. It seems they’ve had a hard time forgetting the 2019 strike, or the late Friday night mayoral press conference that trashed the union last month, or the CTU’s vote of no-confidence in Mayor Lori Lightfoot after the reopening agreement was reached.”
“The church believes that 28 family members of parishioners registered for vaccination were ineligible as part of Phases 1a or 1b. That family members registered for the vaccination is an unintended consequence of a well-intentioned effort to vaccinate the elderly and essential workers of the parish, all of whom were eligible.” the church said in a statement.
“I wasn’t expecting Loretto to audit themselves,” Lightfoot said. “There should be an independent investigation to determine the specific uses for every dose they have been allocated…Now it feels like it’s death by a thousand cuts for them.”
Illinois State Representative Anjelica Guerrero-Cuellar, Mike Madigan’s replacement, will receive $5,788.66 for the three and half days she served in February. The state law requiring lawmakers work only one day to get a full months pay.
Lincoln Park, Old Town, Portage Park, Old Irving Park and Dunning are experiencing what Mayor Lightfoot described as an “alarming uptick” in cases in people 18 to 39.
She said IDES is closely monitoring vaccination rates, with a goal to open up and restore in-person services later this summer. “We want to ensure we are not creating an unsafe, chaotic environment for claimants who are visiting our office, so we are going to do it gradually and we are likely going to do it in a way that is piloted, so we can test and see what works.”
“Why on Earth, when we have a scarce supply of vaccine, would I heavy-hand and direct a third-party like Loretto to skip people in line? That’s not who I am,” Lightfoot said. “Of course I did not ever direct any provider, and least of all a third party, to have a list of people to get the vaccine.”
“The goal is to get a change of behavior,” said Brad Wachter of Aurora, one of seven parents listed as a plaintiff. “We want the board to truly be deliberating these important issues, whether it be reopening schools or other future decisions, in public.”
Beth Feeley, of New Trier Neighbors:” This trend in public education toward government-imposed social activism is cause for alarm among Illinois parents on both sides of the aisle who value intellectual diversity and freedom of thought.”
A proposed task force would be assigned with conducting a study on communities underserved by local journalism and making recommendations on how to preserve and restore news coverage in these areas.
Most of the items included in the bill are subject to state appropriation, meaning future General Assemblies will have to decide whether to allocate the money to fund them.
The vote came just hours after a report estimating the state fell more than $1 billion short in its estimate of expected transportation revenue due to the pandemic.
The bill also not apply to lawsuits filed against the state, a local unit of government, a school district, community college district or any other governmental entity.
The changes include allowing election authorities to install drop box sites where voters can submit mail-in ballots without postage before and on Election Day. The bill also permits curbside voting where people can fill out ballots outside the polling place during early voting and on Election Day.
Using a biannual analysis from the Minnesota Department of Revenue, the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois estimates Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year would place an $8.8 billion burden on Illinois consumers in the form of higher prices, reduce wages by $403 million, and reduce profits by $2.3 billion.
Adam Schuster, senior director of budget and tax research for Illinois Policy, said the bill would make sure money goes to the classroom rather than overhead. “It’s time to do what’s best for students, teachers and residents across the state: ensure education dollars make it into the classroom. Illinois’ excessive layers of wasteful and duplicative district bureaucracy are a barrier to this goal.”
Red-light cameras took more than $1 billion from Illinois drivers in a decade, and promotion of the cameras was linked to federal corruption indictments of four public officials. House Bill 129 would amend the Lobbyist Registration Act so anyone paid to influence adoption of the automated traffic devices by a local government would need to register as a lobbyist.
While Lightfoot has yet to detail how she thinks the funds should be spent — federal officials have yet to finalize the rules governing the American Rescue Plan — Ald. Daniel La Spata said he was not willing to wait and said progressive groups would set their own “timetable” to gather community feedback.
But that effort is complicated by a lack of data on which teachers have received vaccinations, and the local teachers union has been reticent to share that information while a high school reopening agreement is still being negotiated.
The voucher code and website in the message – spreading wildly on social media and text messages – are actually meant to be used by people who live in specific ZIP codes where communities were hit hard by COVID-19. That means the city’s health department staff are having to go through appointments made with the code and cancel those of people who don’t live in those ZIP codes.
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford’s push to make June 19 a paid day off for all state employees and a school holiday passed the senate executive committee and is scheduled to go to the senate floor for further debate.
While the state announced a loosening of restrictions last week, due to this increase in the health metrics, most of Chicago’s indoor regulations will remain in place for now. CDPH will evaluate the metrics again in one week to determine if and how Chicago could loosen regulations and move to a “Bridge to Phase 5.”
According to Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, it appears young adults are seeing the largest increase in cases in recent days, a concerning trend reminiscent of last fall’s surge.
A survey of chief executive officers from KMPG last August showed 69 percent said they would downsize their company’s physical space. When asked this spring, it was down to just 17 percent.
This is a significant decrease from the previous week. There were 71,175 new unemployment claims filed in Illinois during the week of March 8.
“The election of our new progressive council means Evanston is redefining its municipal function as one of wealth redistribution rather than service provider. Winning candidates had progressivism, equity, and reparations as their top priorities, one even declaring that all policies will be viewed through the equity lens. No mention of balancing the budget.”
In all, six schools will have their names changed. The others, in order, will be Harrison Community Learning Center, Washington Gifted Middle School, Roosevelt Magnet School, Lindbergh Middle School and Calvin Coolidge Middle School.
“These may not seem like rough times for public-sector unions, but do not be fooled.”
“I hear a lot of ‘we are trying to cancel Thomas Jefferson’ and this is a part of cancel culture. No one is canceling Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson is a founding father. We will still teach Thomas Jefferson in American history,” said Brandon Ewing, Waukegan School Board President.
“This is a moral issue,” Ald. Roberto Maldonado said. “I think the fees should be much higher, like what we originally proposed … the purpose behind all of this, we hope, is to stop gentrification, stop development and stop displacing us.” He said he wants developers to “stay away” from the 26th Ward.
Right now, Chicago has a record amount of vacant office space. CBRE, a global commercial real estate firm, reports 15.5% of the office space downtown is vacant. By the end of 2022, the company forecasts vacancies can range from 18%, which is the best-case scenario, up to 20%, meaning one-fifth of the city’s office space could be empty.
The suburban city with the most delinquent homes is Harvey. Located 22 miles south of Chicago, Harvey has 4,604 homes that owe nearly $14.5 million in overdue property taxes. Cook County data does not report delinquent homes by ethnic group, but 66 percent of Harvey’s 24,386 residents are Black, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
Dr. Raymond Lechner, retired from Wilmette SD39 in 2019 and already drawing his $218,000 pension, is double-dipping, where a public employee retires with a pension and then goes back to work part time, collecting a salary on top of that pension.
“For a multitude of reasons, the City needs to encourage growth and investment, the least of which are recapturing population loss and, as a result, increase the property tax funds,” Chicago Association of Realtors spokesman Kristopher Anderson said. However, some measures in Lightfoot’s plan, such as a lower income thresholds for affordable units, would create a standard most builders can’t meet and restrict development in Chicago.
In a statement late Tuesday, Jen Psaki, Biden’s spokeswoman, said: “The White House will add a senior level Asian American Pacific Islander liaison, who will ensure the community’s voice is further represented and heard.” Biden previously pledged to build the most diverse Cabinet in history, and about half of his Cabinet picks have been nonwhite.
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