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Outside of Illinois, lawsuits in New York and Maine are fighting workplace vaccine mandates based on the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise of Religion clause. The suits could advance to the Supreme Court.
After a judge granted the request of Chicago’s Police union and slapped a hold on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID vaccine mandate, unions representing thousands of other Chicago city workers have asked a Cook County judge to similarly order the mayor to bargain with them before forcing their unvaccinated workers to take the jab or risk losing their jobs.
The online tool will allow Chicagoans to use map-drawing software similar to the kind that members of the Chicago City Council have been using since the end of July — but Chicagoans have less than three weeks to send in their proposal.
Head of the Veterans Assistance Commission of Lake County Andrew Tagen said there are 160 service officers statewide, tasked with working with about 600,000 Illinois veterans. “Meaning that each veteran service officer currently employed by the state or the local governments of the state of Illinois have to represent 4,000 veterans. That number is a number that is unable to be achieved, to reach each and every one of those veterans.”
Jacksonville School District 117 Superintendent Steve Ptacek has been threatened with those lawsuits; After the fall veto session that he still doesn’t feel like he’s in the clear. “At this point in time, we feel that our legal exposure has increased if we attempt to enforce the executive order with those that have made a claim under the HCRCA.”
But the state continues to grapple with a structural deficit, a built-in imbalance of expenditures over revenue; In spite of the tightfisted monetary policy to which Pritzker lays claim, the GOMB notes the deficits will return in 2023. They’ll be much smaller than originally predicted, but will range from $406 million to over $1 billion in the five-year period.
As of Monday, the U.S. Treasury showed Illinois’ outstanding unemployment trust fund debt is $4.4 billion. The state is one of 11 states that have such debt, and third behind California’s $19.3 billion and New York’s nearly $9 billion. The interest on Illinois’ debt accrued for fiscal year 2022 is $10.7 million. The interest is 2.77%.
“And I think that those people have now certainly in our opinion have lost the right to represent freedom loving citizens all across this state and we’re going to make sure their constituents know about it as these elections come closer and closer,” Illinois Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood said.
Kevin Artl, of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois, said that because state lawmakers from both parties approved doubling of the state’s gas tax several years ago, with annual increases based on inflation, alongside increasing other fees on drivers, more state tax dollars are available to match federal tax funds.
Activists say the needs of struggling communities in Chicago and elsewhere vastly exceed the trillions Congress has spent and the additional trillions it is now considering.
Fearing the classes will be taught with a bias against conservative media, Rep. Adam Niemerg called the law “anti-Trump, anti-conservative” and an attempt by the left “to get into our school systems at a young age. But supporters of the law say it’s not about politics, but giving students tools to develop their own BS detectors.
Paul Vallas: “Work-study at CPS must be a part of a massive city and countywide effort targeting young adults, the chronically unemployed and those previously incarcerated…Work-study will make high school relevant, reclaim those who have left, prepare them for the work world, provide most with their first wages and keep them safe. It is a game-changer and a critical life preserver for Chicago’s most vulnerable teenagers and young adults.”
Mark Konkol: “…(U.S. District Court Judge John Robert) Blakey might not have foreseen that his reassignment suggestion would meet such vigorous objections from lawyers representing Chicago and Cook County.”
“It is accurate to say that shootings as well as homicides are up in that area, but it is still less than the total in a lot of other areas in Chicago,” said Andy Boyle, director of product engineering for the Chicago Sun-Times. “We saw about one shooting victim for about every 4,000 residents in the downtown area, but in West Garfield Park, it was about one shooting victim for every 98 residents for the time period…there is a huge gap in terms of where the violence is in the city.”
The larger Wicker Park and Bucktown area has been hard hit by such crimes since Oct. 11. “And all those 19 events aren’t just a sentence, those are people’s lives,” a victim said.
Gov. JB Pritzker told the international audience, “We’re open for business in the state of Illinois for climate friendliness, striving to become the best state in the nation to drive an electric vehicle…I come from the greatest state in the United States. We produced Barack Obama, and we are, of course, the land of Abraham Lincoln.”
The CTA said that more people are returning to the Loop, with 29,300 average weekday rides in September, compared to 9,800 in January, and that weekend and holiday ridership is at about 60% to 65% of pre-pandemic levels.
Currently, the only states and territories not on the travel advisory are Arkansas, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, and the Virgin Islands.
“Not only is this interstate among the most congested in our nation today, but when it was constructed there was little regard for the lives and livelihoods of many people in our state,” Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said in a written statement. “We must modernize this regional transportation hub and promote economic development. But more importantly, we must do it the right way by reconnecting our communities and repairing the racial inequities and displacement caused by the original construction.”
Paul Luu, CEO of the Chinese American Service League, explained, “They are building grocery stores, housing and investors want to see Chinatown thrive. That’s why it is really important to have an [Asian and Pacific Islander] ward that would allow our residents to have a voice in City Hall.”
One revenue analyst with the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said people are spending as much as $12.9 million a day on sports wagers, both online and in-person. Its popularity has catapulted Illinois into the top three of the 19 states where sports betting is legal, making Illinois a rival of the biggest sports betting states: New Jersey and Nevada.
Our own column about this new school, The University of Austin, is here.Three University of Chicago academics, including longtime president and current chancellor Robert Zimmer, are helping launch it, per this Crain’s column. In addition to the U of C academics, Deirdre McCloskey, an economist and professor emerita in multiple departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago, also serves on the board of advisers,
Join Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski and Founder Mark Glennon along with guest Kristen McQueary on the ninth episode of Wirepoints Podcast: The Dialogue. Kristen provides insight on the future of media in Illinois.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joins Tom Miller on WJPF in Carbondale. They went over pension reform, the veto session, inflation, and much more.
Police Supt. David Brown said the number of officers on no-pay status has fluctuated and is down to 35 from about 50 officers at one point. The increase means almost 78% of the more than 12,000 department employees, a number that includes sworn officers and civilian employees, has disclosed their vaccination status.
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