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During an hourlong hearing, U.S. District Judge John Lee methodically dismantled arguments made in the lawsuit. He said, for example, that he saw no evidence that either Mayor Lori Lightfoot or Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker exceeded their authority by imposing mandates earlier this year to slow the spread of the deadly virus.
“I cannot focus on both a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide,” U.S. Rep. Kinzinger said. “I want to make it clear, this isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning.”
“Some people were doing 3-4 doubles a week. Doubles? So that’s 16 hours,” said Stacey Kempf, who’s been running Tazewell’s jail for the past two years, after spending 30 years with IDOC, the Illinois Department of Corrections. “Overtime sometimes drives people away.”
These include short-term notes, accounts payable, amounts due to other funds, accrued payroll and other current liabilities. Rating agencies, financial analysts and the Civic Federation regularly track trends in short-term liabilities to help evaluate the overall fiscal health of governments.
The school’s hallways hadn’t been mopped. Nobody was taking out the garbage from the lunchroom shared by most of the 1,100 kids who, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, had returned to in-classroom learning at Eberhart. One morning, kindergartners entered a classroom littered with animal droppings. But the bathrooms were the worst.
The School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection bill was championed by the state’s teachers unions, who said school employees with young families were being forced to use all of their sick days if they or their children contracted the virus or were required to quarantine.
A total of 30 CPD members and 32 CFD employees have been placed on no-pay status for refusing to say whether or not they’ve been vaccinated, city officials said Friday.
In the motion to transfer and consolidate, Atttorney General Kwame Raoul and Gov. JB Pritzker argue that allowing the cases to proceed as they are currently pending would “waste” judicial “resources,” and could result in “public confusion,” as different judges may hand down “conflicting rulings.”
Democratic state Rep. LaShawn Ford said his amendment to the bill would make Illinois the third state in the nation to allow incarcerated convicted felons, including murderers, to vote in elections.
The watchdog position was vacant for an extended period several years ago and harassment and other complaints against lawmakers and their staff were filed, but weren’t acted upon.
“There are many steps to the legislative process,” Senate President Don Harmon said. “One of them is to get the bill assigned to a committee. I don’t think there’s a majority will to do that at this point.”
“The governor needs to realize that he is the governor of Illinois,” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said. “He is the governor for Democrats, he is the governor for Republicans. He has forgotten that, so I would just tell you this: That the way the governor has handled this whole issue of business development in Illinois has been very sad.”
The final map tightens Democrats’ grip on the state’s congressional seats with a solid 14-3 advantage, taking away two seats from the current five held by the GOP delegation.
Duckworth: “I think that the past 18 months have really drove home to the American people that the AANHPI community is subject to significant discrimination, and I think there’s a lot of real ignorance in terms of the history of AANHPIs in this country.”
Illinois lawmakers in September passed a green energy bill that includes incentives for buying electric vehicles and pays to retrain workers as the state phases out fossil fuel burning. It’s also expected to cause an uptick in residents’ monthly utility bills.
Mark Brown: “But there’s a big complication: how to accommodate a growing Latino community that is seeking greater representation without violating the voting rights of the city’s shrinking African American population, whose leaders say they are determined to keep what they have. Factor in a Chinatown community that’s pushing for the city’s first majority Asian American ward along with a big influx of new mostly white residents near downtown who have overfilled their existing wards, and you can see why there is considerable uncertainty over whether the council can work out its differences by the deadline.”
Educators blame the impact of the coronavirus pandemic for the lower scores, the enrollment decline and higher absenteeism. These declines mirror national trends.
State Sen. Jason Plummer said not having a hearing on any version of the map in southern Illinois meant not hearing from residents in the Metro East; He also raised ethical issues with the redistricting committee being led by someone who flirted with the idea of running in a new congressional district.
Comparing 2021 to 2019, graduation rates remained stable across demographic groups, and Black students remained at the bottom at about 77% — 4% lower than the national average. Ninth-graders on track to graduate dropped 5% from the 2019-20 school year to 2020-21 due to an increase in failing grades, while eighth-graders passing Algebra 1 dipped 5.9%, data show.
“We are following the science. That’s our key,” he said. “And the science has said, according to the governor last spring. once you drop below 5%, he’d open up. Well today we are at 1.6-1.7%. Why aren’t we opening?”
To keep up with emergency response, the CFD is moving paramedics from fire engines to the ambulances. The Union says six companies on Monday and three Wednesday could only provide Basic Life Support, with no paramedic and fewer tools to save a life.
Comment: The blatant lies, willful ignorance and smug condescension shown by the bill’s sponsors and supporters is blood-boiling.
The HCRC Act currently prohibits discrimination against anyone for their “conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.” The bill passed Thursday would add language stating that it is not a violation of the law for an employer “to take any measures or impose any requirements …intended to prevent contraction or transmission of COVID-19.”
An increase to the city’s property tax pie will hit homeowners to the tune of about $38 next year — for those who own a property valued at the average rate of $250,000 — according to budget officials. Opposition to the tax increase was milder than last year, when a $94 million increase translated to about $56 for owners with a property valued at $250,000.
This past week, 91 of the state’s 181 COVID deaths were breakthroughs, meaning cases where the victim was fully vaccinated.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined The Bruce St. James Show on WLS. They went over how the graduation rates at Chicago Public Schools are disconnected from the percentage of students at CPS who can read or do math at grade level.
The House followed Senate approval with a post-midnight, Democratic-led vote of 71-43 — the bare minimum number of votes required for passage. “But I hope that everyone feels represented for the next 10 years in the General Assembly and in Congress as well or better than you have been before,” Senate President Don Harmon said.
The proposal doesn’t require anyone to be vaccinated. It targets the law’s language prohibiting retribution, such as dismissal from a job, in the case of the COVID-19 vaccine. “This means we can keep kids in school, businesses open, neighbors safe, and continue on the path to bring this pandemic to an end,” Pritzker said in a prepared statement.
Only “Tier 1” wagers would be accepted on in-state teams, meaning the wager is “determined solely by the final score or final outcome” of a sporting event, and it must have been filed before the start of the game. No bets would be allowed on an individual’s performance in an in-state game.
Ald. Brian Hopkins, whose 2nd Ward winds through downtown, said rising crime is “driving the sense of unease” and “prevailing fear” among his constituents, some of whom deluge him with emails saying they’re moving away. “I think we’re at the tipping point right now,” Hopkins said.
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