-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
California, Illinois and Pennsylvania could run into budget trouble in a few years, because they’ve been using a one-time surge of money from the federal government to pay for long-term expenses, fiscal experts warned Wednesday.
With early voting set to begin across Illinois on May 19, a large group of voters is still up for grabs. About 36.9% of respondents say they are undecided about the top of the ticket.
In comments directed at the new leader of Choose Chicago, the city’s official tourism arm, Mark Hoplamazian, CEO of Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels, said: “You’ve got your work cut out for you.”
“The sheer number and political stature of the Illinois elected officials and business leaders who were implicated, indicted or convicted in 2020 is staggering,” University of Illinois at Chicago professor and former 44th Ward Ald. Dick Simpson, who co-authored the report, said.
The president visited a farm in Kankakee to highlight measures he hopes will boost crop production, including increasing the number of counties eligible for insurance for double cropping. Over 600,000 acres of wheat was harvested in Illinois in 2021, and this year’s crop is expected to fetch a hefty price.
With 82 statehouse races expected to be contested – the most in at least 24 years – the number of ballots cast could reach 4.3 million. That would be the highest non-presidential year figure in recent history.
Pritzker said other precedents set by the Supreme Court, such as marriage equality, are also threatened and that Congress is going to need to protect and codify a lot more rights in response to the “radical right-wing Supreme Court.”
Former Sens. Michael Noland and James Clayborne have been successful so far in their legal efforts, prevailing in 2019 in Cook County Circuit Court before Judge Franklin Valderrama. But Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, the defendant in the case, filed a direct appeal to the state’s highest court arguing that Valderrama got the decision wrong.
“While most of the bills were uncontroversial and broadly supported, the floor debate prior to the passage of several of them mirrored the rhetoric of an ongoing campaign season in which every constitutional office and seat in the General Assembly will be up for a vote in November.”
Of the 1,213 days Pritzker has been in office, 790 have been under a disaster proclamation. That means he’s had emergency powers for more than 65% of his term.
DuPage County has missed out on 18 months of marijuana tax revenue — a potential loss of up to $4 million — from a failure to properly notify the state to collect the money on the county’s behalf. County board members back in October 2019 imposed a 3% retail tax on all sales of recreational marijuana in municipal areas of DuPage.
“To hear our mayors, Chicago has an almost magical ability to build stuff for no cost to the public. Even as the public winds up paying for it with rising property taxes year after year. In particular, Chicago’s mayors are skilled at underestimating a project’s cost and overestimating its benefits.”
In Illinois, philanthropic organizations are stepping in to help pay for transportation, lodging and child care for patients coming from out of state, and the city of Chicago is allotting $500,000 to help pay for those costs as well.
Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, says that the city’s positivity rate has soared to nearly 5% in recent weeks, and she expects metrics to continue to rise in the coming days.
“It remains to be seen what type of opposition she’ll draw in 2024. Democrats can certainly be expected to mount a vigorous campaign to win the seat, particularly if partisan control of the high court is up for grabs.”
State law requires Chicago wards to be “nearly equal as practicable” while being as “contiguous” and “compact” as possible while complying with the Voting Rights Act, which is designed to protect the voting rights of Black, Latino and Asian residents.
After hearing the allegations, details about the federal case, and that Sergio Barron was released on federal parole just four days earlier for shooting into an occupied car and threatening cops with a gun, Judge Maryam Ahmad told Barron he could go home by posting a $1,000 bail bond. That’s the exact amount his public defender said he could afford, according to court records.
At least 21 people have been shot, two fatally, since 4:30 p.m. Monday, and two armed robberies happened within an hour of each other in Uptown Tuesday night. Time off for officers is cancelled in the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend.
Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said “it’s worth celebrating for a second,” but there’s a long way to go. “I think we need to temper the excitement from the government. We had 22 downgrades before we finally saw these recent six upgrades, so we have 16 more to go just to get back to the levels we were in 2009.”
At the University of Illinois alone, there are 71 DEI personnel, which is four out of every 100 faculty members. At Northwestern University, there are 52 DEI faculty members.
Several Chicagoans we’ve spoken to recently have said they feel their city is being stolen from them, and they want it back. But real political leadership has gone missing and their patience is wearing thin.
Wirepoints’ Matt Rosenberg joined Garry Meier to talk all about Chicago – its crime, its economy, its people and its politics.
The President’s schedule includes stops in Chicago and Kankakee.
The CTU election comes at a pivotal moment for education in Chicago, with schools still grappling with the effects of the pandemic, a mayoral election looming and the city’s first school board elections nearing. And it leaves teachers and support staff asking themselves a vital question: Should the union continue its role as a progressive force fighting for wider social justice issues inside and outside the classroom, or should it instead solely focus on classic teacher concerns such as pay, preparation time and pensions?
“Until we have more police on the streets, we need to be a community response. It’s a community problem, not just here but everywhere else in the City,” said Brian Comer, president of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association.
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