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Change.org has removed from its site a petition sponsored by the Chicago Republican Party that did no more than seek reversal of a policy of CPS on allowing males to use the girls’ bathroom in public schools.
The state school board on Wednesday approved Supt. Carmen Ayala’s recommendation for $475 million more next school year to hire truancy officers, cover additional transportation and early childhood costs, and put more money in the state’s school funding formula. It would bring the total Illinois education budget to $9.7 billion.
The mayor was asked whether she can overcome the political muscle of a beverage industry that mobilized against and ultimately forced a repeal of County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s pop tax. She replied, “What you’re talking about is apples and oranges. That was a tax. And frankly, that wasn’t well thought out, wasn’t well rolled out and all sorts of people had problems with it.”
In 2019, lawmakers passed the IEA-proposed School Threat Assessment Bill which requires schools in Illinois to create a threat assessment team and to develop protocol on school violence and prevention, among other measures. However, they have no oversight system in place or data to detect if any districts are failing to comply with the requirements.
Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts called in to Wednesday’s City Council meeting to urge aldermen to back the sports betting ordinance. “These are not mini-casinos in any way. They will not have slot machines, card games, roulette wheels, or table games. The sportsbooks will, however, have a large and positive impact on the city. This ordinance will create jobs today.”
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin filed House Bill 4275, which would create the crime of organized retail theft with a punishment of up to 15 years in prison if the value of stolen goods is more than $300. The Illinois Retail Merchants Association plans to introduce its own solutions.
The Thompson Center is costly to maintain with annual operating expenses of about $17 million, largely due to the building’s glass envelope. The developer, the Prime Group, will replace the exterior building envelope and transform it into a multi-tenant, mixed-use office building.
The governors of New York and California have set end dates to their mask mandates. Pritzker said Illinoians will continue to follow the science.
“The one thing we know about the application of this Revitalizing Downtowns Act is that in places like Chicago, we know that even today the occupancy of office [space] is below 35%,” said David Downey, president and CEO of the International Downtown Association.
“In Chicago, Soros helped fund the election of super-progressive Cook County DA Kimberly Foxx. In 2019-2020, Chicago homicides rose an astonishing 52.7%, from 505 to 771, representing 115 more murders than if the Windy City had maintained the nation’s already-blistering pace. Under Foxx’s supervision, Chicago will likely end 2021 with 848 murders – on a proportional basis, a record for Chicago.”
Taft’s decision sparked support from teachers, parents and some members of its local school council, while the Chicago GOP and others said the decision is censorship.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said in a statement the federal emergency disaster declaration in Illinois will provide financial support to the following counties: Bond, Cass, Coles, Effingham, Fayette, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Pike and Shelby. As damage assessments continue, Pritzker said, more counties could be identified to qualify for federal assistance, such as Menard County.
For years, Illinois nursing homes have ranked the lowest among states for its staff to patient ratios, with some of the lowest staffing levels in homes that are consistently rated poorly — the same facilities that are also most likely to house the most Black and brown residents, who died from COVID at disproportionate rates compared to white nursing home residents in Illinois.
“We gotta do something with the parents, but in our neighborhood, 80% of the households are single-parent households,” Pastor Corey Brooks said. “We got these moms who are having a tough time with the educational system that is failing their kids.”
Indicted more than 2 1/2 years ago, Ald. Ed Burke has yet to go to trial, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the huge amount of evidence in the case, including records from “the longest wiretap in the United States that concluded in 2018.” In all, investigators intercepted 9,101 calls made by Burke or answered by him during the investigation, according to court records.
“The total price tag to taxpayers has now more than doubled to $2 billion on a plan — more than a decade behind schedule — that has transformed a Black neighborhood to a predominantly white one. By the time it’s done, taxpayers will have spent more than a half-million dollars for each of the more than 3,500 Cabrini-Green families the city kicked out.”
Dan Webb’s team in August 2020 released a 12-page summary of the report, but the judge sealed the complete report citing concerns about grand jury material in the longer version. The investigation found Foxx’s office abused its prosecutorial discretion and that Foxx and other top deputies made false statements to the public about how it was handled, but no evidence of criminal misconduct.
The vice president and general manager of FOX32 calls out Timothy Evans, Kim Foxx, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle.
Dennis Byrne: “He fails, of course, to point out that gerrymandering run by Democrats have infected Illinois with decades of corruption, disastrous economic policy, high taxes and an unprecedented exodus of people and businesses from Chicago and Illinois.”
Pritzker said the new owners will keep the building intact and develop executive offices, retail, and hotel space. He said they will move forward on a “public-private partnership.”
Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon was Mary Ann Ahern’s guest on NBC5 Chicago discussing the New York Times report that Gov. JB Pritzker’s name is in play as a potential presidential candidate.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on Chicago’s Morning Answer. They discussed the outmigration of young people from Illinois, a new round of school closures, and Pritzker’s potential in the White House.
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