-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Senator Rachelle Crowe, a moderate former prosecutor who has served in the Senate since 2019, was recommended for the presidential nomination by Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helping move her nomination along at a rapid pace. She will resign her post in the Senate and will withdraw from the November ballot.
Millions of dollars have been committed to anti-violence efforts this summer from both public and private entities, including $250 million from the state of Illinois over the next three years.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has launched a $30 million tourism campaign that he hopes will bring more visitors to Illinois. Molly Hart of AAA said that with fuel prices in Illinois as high as they are, people are having to make some changes.
Following the “Great Resignation” where people left their jobs for various reasons, Dave Herrell, president and CEO of Visit Quad Citie, said a major obstacle that remains is a shortage of workers.
State Rep. Mark Walker explained, “This is an expansion from social workers that work for educational establishments and it was added as a response from local municipalities that they are eligible. We also believe we will have more programs like one for the joint first responders.” Walker acknowledged the cost could be up to $6 million in state taxpayer funds.
“Offering LGBTQ+ families with children a safe place to engage with peers in age-appropriate activities while being supervised by their families is intentional and affirming work that helps to promote and grow healthy social and emotional development,” the LGBTQ+ Center of Lake County said in a statement.
“The Chicago Police Department is down at least 2,000 cops, and recruiting new officers is all but impossible. There aren’t enough police to man the squad cars in the districts. They know City Hall doesn’t have their backs. And the Democrat Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, endorsed for re-election by Lightfoot is fixated upon the myth of ‘mass incarceration.’ It is a lie, a news narrative written by the woke, but what does she care? What’s the incentive for Foxx to help carve out order from chaos?”
The Arizona-based company failed to get buyers their titles withing a 20-day period specified under law, and in some cases were between four and six months late, a spokesman for the Illinois Secretary of State said. He said Carvana unlawfully issued purchasers temporary vehicle registrations from other states, causing some customers to be ticketed after those temporary registrations expired after 90 days.
Pete Stavros, an Arlington Heights native whose dad was a union road grader with a Chicago construction company, developed the model for vesting hourly employees with equity ownership at no cost. In addition to an ownership stake, employees were allocated $1 million per year for enhancing the factory, investing in everything from air conditioning to new break rooms and a cafeteria. Productivity flourished, Stavros said, with revenue growing by 120% and the earnings margin increasing from 21% to 35% during KKR’s ownership of C.H.I.
Principals tried to explain the process by saying they’d had trouble finding physical education teachers or had to cut them due to constraints on the budget, which meant students were put in JROTC instead of in the physical education class that should have been offered to them, according to the report.
The city’s code does not allow the mayor to change an ordinance approved by the City Council. The city’s existing curfew law exempts teens from the curfew if they are “exercising First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution, such as the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and the right of assembly”; going to or from a job or employment activity; being involved in an emergency situation; or running errands at the direction of a parent or guardian.”
That’s approximately $561 million less than the deficit Chicago’s top financial official warned members of the Chicago City Council they would have to deal with unless they quickly approved a Chicago casino.
“Because ghost guns are cheaper and easier to acquire than conventional firearms, they are more accessible to young people,” Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a release. Already this month, two teens in Illinois have been charged with possession of ghost guns, one of which was brought to a high school. Illinois State Police reported working on 28 “ghost gun” cases so far this month.
“Historically, both public and private institutions have been unwilling to directly invest in low-income people without significant restrictions attached,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a release. “This red tape is in place not because any evidence shows that it is necessary, but rather because our society does not trust that people living in poverty have the character or ability to make good decisions for themselves.” She said the county is reframing the way people think about government assistance.
The broad-ranging measure abolishes cash bail beginning in January 2023, reforms police training, certification and use-of-force standards, expands detainee rights, and requires body cameras at all departments by 2025. Since its passage, the measure has been amended twice to accommodate concerns of law enforcement groups, pushing back certain effective dates and changing some of the initial use-of-force language.
Several U.S. states, including neighboring Iowa and Indiana, have passed permeant income tax cuts. But Governor Pritzker favors temporary relief for now. “The truth is that we want to be very careful in Illinois,” said Pritzker, who pushed the shopping cart for Laura Pfeiffer, who was out buying groceries for her family. “We just balanced our budget the last three to four years.”
Amanda Montgomery, RD, wrote that public health’s focus on preventing obesity has brought an increase of negative attitudes at people with larger bodies. The brief adds that although nutrition and exercise are important, racism within the food environment is also a cause of obesity among minorities.
The Bring Chicago Home proposal would more than triple the buyer’s property transfer tax, generating an estimated $163 million in funding for programs that combat homelessness, according to the campaign’s website. Home sellers would continue to pay a transfer tax of $3,000. The proposal is sponsored by nine Chicago aldermen.
While the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been rising in Chicago since March 8 — approximately a week after city and state officials lifted the mask mandate and vaccine requirement for some businesses — the number of people in Chicago hospitals with COVID-19 remain near all-time lows.
How unemployment claims were mismanaged during the COVID pandemic is shaping up as a monumental fiasco. It’s therefore no surprise that the State of Illinois is stonewalling the facts about its share of the problem so aggressively.
Ted joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson this week to discuss the WSJ’s recent editorial “Massacre as Usual in Chicago,” the city’s increasingly poor arrest rates and the fact that neighborhoods are hiring private security for protection.
Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott said, “We’ll continue to improve as the summer goes on, and eventually, we’ll get this right.”
Casino gaming got off to a slow start in Illinois in 2022, with just $181.3 million generated in January and February combined across the state’s 11 venues; The state has collected more than $60 million through the first four months of the year. Those numbers are independent of sports wagering in Illinois, which generated $162.4 million in operator revenue in the first quarter of 2022.
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