Community leaders say in order to bring Black residents back, the city must devote more resources to closing gaps in homeownership, wages and life expectancy between Black and white Chicagoans, though admittedly it will be no easy feat.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce says the most popular way employers have brought back staff is with higher pay but that isn’t easy for smaller businesses and often times leaves shoppers left to pay the price.
A vast majority of Illinois’ 102 counties are currently under a “high risk” category in which the CDC recommends residents wear masks regardless of vaccination status.
There are no farms in Fulton Market, but more agriculture companies are calling the Near West Side neighborhood home. Farmers Business Network, a Silicon Valley-based, agricultural technology startup that just raised $300 million, plans to expand its Chicago office to 250 people. Farm equipment giant Deere, based in Moline, has leased space that could hold up to 200 software workers.
Also included in the show (13:50 mark) is a discussion and clips from a Wirepoints Facebook Live discussion of Illinois’ $530 billion pension shortfall, which translates into an average pension liability of $110,000 per Illinois Household. Berkowitz asks if that huge pension liability for future taxpayers will be a barrier to attracting businesses and population from our competitor states, all of which have much lower pension liabilities.
“We need a larger tax base, not a larger tax rate,” Anderson said in response to a comment on social media. “Only way is to cut taxes and regulations to attract people and businesses. Businesses and business growth means more jobs and more jobs mean more revenue.”
“In a district where enrollment largely determines school budgets, these losses threaten to thrust more campuses into a vicious cycle of losing resources, trimming programs and staff, then turning off more families and triggering further cuts. It could curtail the district’s state funding and affect communities where bustling schools are a vital focal point.”
So far this year, 63 people have been shot in the Near North community area, which includes neighborhoods like River North, Streeterville, Cabrini Green, and part of Old Town. That compares to 42 shooting victims in all of last year and 33 for all of 2019.
“The panel’s mission is to help the newsroom identify stories about underrepresented groups and to better reflect them in our coverage, keying in on the important issues affecting those communities, as well as to help monitor our coverage for matters of sensitivity and accuracy.”
Reports indicated Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, at the request of former first lady Michelle Obama’s onetime chief of staff, communicated with a member of Smollett’s family early in the investigation. Foxx recused herself from the case then her office suddenly dropped the charges, and Foxx found herself at the center of a media firestorm as she refuted the suggestion that her office gave the television star a break. All that set the stage for what turned a simple question of Smollett’s innocence or guilt into a convoluted legal saga that has dragged on for nearly three years.
By Mike Lucci, senior policy adviser with the State Policy Network. He previously served as the deputy chief for policy to Illinois governor Bruce Rauner and vice president of State Projects for the Tax Foundation.
“The crime wave has many deep social and economic roots, but it is heightened by two key governmental failures that are capable of remedy.The first failure is the abdication of duty by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx…The second failure is Chicago’s ineffective structure for police management and accountability.”
A Chicago-area judge saved a grandfather’s life with the single question that exposes hospitals blocking doctors from using a safe, FDA-approved drug: Why?
“‘I had one police officer tell me that now he knows how his father, a Vietnam War vet, felt when he came home from Vietnam,’ (state Rep. Marty) Moylan told us. ‘That’s how some of our police officers feel now.’ Moylan is sponsoring House Bill 4159, the Police Protection Act, which would create a new criminal offense called peace officer targeting.”
Investigators say many of the retail raids are controlled by a larger organization that sells the merchandise online and on the black market. With the holidays in full swing, those groups may be looking for more inventory to satisfy buyers’ needs.
The unemployment statewide rate decreased over-the-year in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas in October for the seventh consecutive month according to preliminary data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Jobs were up in all fourteen metropolitan areas.
“We don’t know whether our current vaccine will provide at least partial protection from this variant, which it might very well,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, Co-Lead and Senior Medical Officer with CCDPH.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER