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Chicago’s revenue for the first two months of 2021 was 0.6% below projections in the budget approved late last year, finance officials said Wednesday in their first quarterly update to the City Council since the pandemic began.
“Long known for flooding Springfield with campaign cash and well-connected lobbyists, ComEd is now politically toxic at the Capitol. So this year it’s remaining in the background while labor unions take the lead in selling the Climate Unions Jobs Act as a way to preserve and create high-paying jobs, and help Illinois transition away from energy sources that contribute to climate change.”
“By reimagining our publicly displayed art, Illinois has the opportunity to be on the right side of history and show, through action that our state is inclusive to all,” said Speaker of the House Chris Welch.
The woman and kids weren’t injured, but their rideshare driver did get walloped in the head with a pistol, according to the allegations.
Citing confidentiality reasons, IDPH officials would not comment on whether the 13 who have died had anything in common or had health problems that could have made the vaccine less effective.
“The video clearly depicts a tragedy—but it is far from clear that it depicts a crime, let alone one motivated by racial animus. Consider four freeze-frames from the body-camera footage of Officer Stillman.”
According to the scholarship description on the Oakton website, one of the requirements for the scholarship is financial need. It also notes that the college will give preference to “students who are of color or victims of domestic violence.”
The mayor is nearing the midpoint of her four-year term with crime and violence in Chicago far worse than when she walked in.
“We’re out of runway. We are out of runway with respect to the public’s patience and beliefs that we care to reform. Transparency is about the only thing we have available to us. The costs here are incalculable and enormous,” Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said.
“CPS has excluded all stakeholders since the pandemic and continues to do so,” said Rocio Almazan, a sophomore at Curie High School.
If signed into law, term limits would affect the Speaker of the House of Representatives, president of the Senate, and the minority leaders of the House and Senate. The bill has bipartisan support.
“I think as we see more areas opening up and people getting back into their so-called regular daily lives, we will see inventory increase quite a bit,” said lead researcher Francesca Ortegren.
State Rep. Mike Zalewski, who chairs the House Revenue and Finance Committee, said despite having more than enough cosponsors to pass the measure in the House, he won’t let it out of committee. “Until I’m provided with a funding alternative, I’m not going to willy nilly send every single bill to the floor.”
The clinic will exclusively serve Austin residents.
The second floor of council chambers will be closed to the public so that aldermen who attend in person can sit in a safe, socially distant manner. Instead, members of the public can watch from a third-floor upper gallery, with people selected at random for the public comment portion.
Pritzker hopes that by undoing the SALT cap he will reduce wealthy Illinoisans’ opposition to higher state taxes and maybe even gain some supporters ahead of next year’s election. But in Illinois, where tax dollars flow to a bottomless pension pit, Pritzker’s focus should be on policy. Growing jobs for middle– and low-income residents should be the priority—not politics.
Evanston Ald. Cicely L. Fleming: “Black people know all about governments’ empty promises. Most significant, it does not give those harmed autonomy and self-determination, most often represented by cash payments. Instead, the plan places myriad restrictions on how, when and where the so-called reparations can be used.”
This announcement comes as the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding – which Pritzker created in 2019 – released its Ready Illinois report with recommendations for an overhaul of early childhood funding in the state.
“Here we are with 45 days until session adjournment and the Democrat-controlled legislature has failed to put forth any meaningful or substantive legislation dealing with fighting corruption, providing tax relief and unfortunately no plan put forth to provide a balanced budget,” said Rep. Amy Elik.
Many states, including Illinois, have laws to restrict new car sales to independent dealers. University of Michigan law professor Daniel Crane explained the dealer model in place now doesn’t work for electric automakers like Tesla and Rivian, because dealers make much of their profit servicing cars.
“Kirk Allen and John Kraft started Edgar County Watchdogs, a government-accountability nonprofit, in 2011…In terms of impact, however, the Watchdogs punch well above their weight. Allen and Kraft’s investigative work has resulted in 186 indictments, 28 convictions, and the removal of 425 officials and bureaucrats from public office…They terrify the state’s most corrupt officials.”
Both measures were significant attempts to curb the pandemic’s impact on students, both in the immediate and long-term future and will be welcomed by education advocates and educators. Officials have said they’ll release their plan to address students’ mental health and educational needs in the coming weeks, which could include additional tutoring.
There also won’t be crowd capacity limits or social distancing requirements for large-scale outdoor events, which normally attract tens of thousands to the village every year.
Said Monica Hendrickson, administrator for the Peoria City/County Health Department, “When the mitigation plans were first put forward in the fall, we were in a landscape where vaccines did not exist. Now it looks considerably different, and we are also looking at a different population that is being impacted.”
A spokesperson for IDPH said that officials are “closely monitoring the metrics and evaluating how increasing vaccination rates will impact the need for further mitigation if numbers don’t improve. Local municipalities are still able to put in place more stringent mitigations.”
Near the Wrigley Building, one Chicago Police Officer who did not want to give his name said while things remained calm on Thursday night, he did not feel like the threat was over. “All is calm for now but you never know. Plus, we’ll see what happens next week in Minnesota. I’m just as worried about that.”
First Lady Biden will be joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on a visit to Sauk Valley Community College.
NFIB Illinois Director Mark Grant believes two factors are behind the shortage. “If they haven’t gotten the vaccination, they might still be concerned about getting COVID, and the other of course is that they are getting enhanced unemployment benefits that are going to last for several months.”
The Illinois Department of Employment Security said that preliminary numbers show employers added 32,200 nonfarm jobs during the month, with the biggest gains showing up in the leisure and hospitality sector. The information sector, which includes the media, financial activities and government employment, all posted modest job losses.
Officers in full riot gear responded to the scene in case anything happened, but the protest remained peaceful.
“Remember that last year, there were families at the Ronald McDonald house during the looting, unable to visit their seriously ill children in nearby hospitals, stuck there for safety, with the violent protesters outside in the night smashing at the doors. The parents tried to soothe their children. They could hear echoes of the pounding and they’ll never forget the sound. It just can’t happen again if the city is going to survive.”
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