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“He inherited a seriously broken system from Joe Berrios and has completely turned it around… the other thing I like about this guy is that he has also been a model of transparency, sharing some great data on the impact of his work – and you know how much I like data.”
Ald. Tom Tunney, who chaired the special casino committee, likened the revenue projections to another time politicians looked to gamblers to help fix public finances. “It’s not like we get the lottery and then fully fund our schools,” he said, referencing a move in the 1980s by the state legislature to direct lottery revenue to the state’s common education fund.
State senators Cristina Pacione-Zayas and Robert Peters: “We must channel our energy toward ensuring that families across our state are able to keep a roof over their heads, food in their pantries and gas in their cars. Flash-in-the-pan gas giveaways are as ineffective at addressing this problem as adding 10 extra cops to a beat in hopes they will somehow reduce gun violence.”
“Gov Abbott, instead of coming after my city, take a moment to think about how YOU can stop this carnage,” tweeted Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat. “I work day and night to stop the violence. I see the suffering. Open your eyes. Lives are being lost. Be a part of the solution or get the hell out of the way.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded on Twitter saying “shame on you,” to the Texas governor, posting a news article showing that most of guns used in Chicago crimes come from outside of Illinois. “You are lying about Chicago and what actually perpetuates gun violence,” Pritzker said. “The majority of guns used in Chicago shootings come from states with lax gun laws. Do better. You have 19 kids and two teachers who deserve our best.”
A criminal complaint alleged Arroyo gave a $2,500 bribe to an unnamed sitting state senator who had been cooperating with federal investigators.
The payments are “absolutely” expected to increase moving forward as the city’s MEABF costs go up, though exact figures aren’t yet known, CPS Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Krug said. Preliminary estimates are CPS could be on the hook for $226 million in 2023 and up to $300 million in 2026, Krug said.
Alderpeople who voted against the measure slammed the push outdated, reactive and ineffective. “We need to stop trying to prevent crime based on hunches, and we need to start to prevent crime based on evidence,” Ald. Michael Rodriguez said.
“I understand people have to stand up for their communities,” Ald. Jason Ervin said. “But we have to stand up for the whole city. Government does not run on hopes and prayers.”
“This is, I think, the best sign of economic health or economic problems and that’s, are you winning the battle for people, are you winning the battle for wealth,” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said. “Florida just continues to grow with people and investment and we’re at the other end … we’re losing our people, and we’re losing wealthy people. The people that we lose make a lot more money than the people we’re bringing into this state.”
The bill was sponsored by State Rep. LaShawn Ford, a prostate cancer survivor. The cancer was discovered when Ford was only 48 years old.
Board president Miguel del Valle called on the teachers union to join the district in advocating for more money from the state to help meet these pension obligations, which he said threaten to open up a “humongous structural deficit.”
SB3889 forms a Children’s Mental Health Council to research and recommend legislative action for children with mental and behavioral disabilities, particularly around residential placement needs. HB4306 amends the Children and Family Services Act to require all youth in foster care be assigned a mental health provider to perform well-being assessments and forms the Holistic Mental Health Care for Youth in Care Task Force.
Illinois last year had made a run at the plant, which could serve Stellantis’ Belvidere plant. Insiders say the state fell out of the race awhile ago, and the Kokomo facility will be close enough to Belvidere to serve that factory if it is converted to EV production.
For passengers arriving at the rather faded terminals at Chicago O’Hare, it may not feel like it. But as of last year they are landing at America’s most important port, measured by value of trade. For Chicago, where most flights are domestic, that was not so positive. But when people stopped flying because of the pandemic, the cargo holds of passenger planes were no longer available. Instead, more freight has been flown into specialised cargo terminals, like the one in Chicago. Since 2019 the amount moved through O’Hare has increased by 47% in value, and almost as much in volume.
The city’s new Corridor Ambassador program will hire guides to provide a “welcome presence” for passersby, according to a Mayor’s Office news release: greeting people and providing them with recommendations for parking, eating out and taking in local activities. The program aims to “enhance the vitality and safety of local commercial corridors.”
Jim Dey: “Wirepoints analyst Ted Dabrowski said if one accepts the estimated population growth of 250,000 at face value, Illinois is ‘ninth worst in the country in population growth….All our neighbors are growing far more than we are,’ he said.”
“Covid-related restrictions mandated by the president, governors, mayors and federal agencies – whether ordering businesses and churches closed, requiring masks in schools or on airliners, or requiring people to receive new vaccines, among others – might have thrown up red flags during almost any other time in American history. During the last two years, however, even as governments executed powers they had not deployed in decades, if ever – these constitutional infractions seemed to draw little objection, even from organizations and advocates who long have touted their commitment to defending the rights of those living in America.”
The masking requirement at Mayer Magnet School and 20 classrooms comes as Chicago Public Schools cases have increased in recent weeks, surpassing the mid-January omicron surge. About 1,946 students and 731 staff tested positive for COVID-19 between May 8-14, compared to the mid-January peak where 1,838 students and 545 staff tested positive between Jan. 16-22.
Davis Gates said of the members who elected her, “They made a decision to continue the leadership that is seeking to transform the segregation that blocks out many of our students and families from potential success.” Davis Gates also emphasized the need for COVID-19 mitigations to be in place when school starts in August
Lawyers representing WBEZ successfully argued that the station was not seeking any identifying information from a 2020 complaint letter from a young female lifeguard; They wrote in the suit against the city that, “The public interest in how Chicago Park District employees or senior leadership responded to allegations of sexual assault is significant.”
Of the most serious hit-and-runs from 2015 through this year, Chicago police have made arrests in 9.4% of cases – but stopped actively investigating 83.9% of those crashes. Compare that to the New York Police Department, which has solved 34.7% of serious hit-and-runs over the same time period, while suspending less than a quarter of its investigations.
If you want to know how Democrats maintain their monopoly in the Illinois capital of Springfield despite their flagrant mal-governance, look no further than their legally questionable gambit to conscript businesses into helping them get re-elected. Last week gas-station owners sued the state for violating their speech rights under the Illinois and U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit says the law requires gas retailers “to choose between making a
Nearly five years after iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group unveiled plans for a factory that would transform this corner of southeastern Wisconsin into a high-tech manufacturing hub, only a few buildings occupy the 3,000-acre site, a huge power substation stands largely untapped and new roads are sparsely traveled.
Every year, states across the country compete with each other for people and their wealth as millions of Americans move between states. Florida, the nation’s perennial winner, gained the most people and income overall in 2020. Illinois lost the 3rd-most behind New York and California.
The evidence that matters is from recent years and taxpayers are particularly important. That evidence overwhelmingly continues to show shrinkage, and nothing being cited in the census or the new Census Bureau survey refutes it.
A Wirepoints analysis of the Internal Revenue Service’s just-released migration data shows Illinois lost, on net, another 101,000 residents to other states in 2020. The state ranked third-worst nationally for net resident losses and loss of wealth ($8.5 billion).
Ted joined joined Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson to talk to talk about the confusion surrounding the U.S. Census Bureau’s Post-Enumeration Survey of the 2020 Census. Ted talked about why it was simply wrong for status-quo politicians to claim that Illinois has grown to over 13 million people.
“It’s time to fully recognize that the failings of the public education system, aggravated by its irresponsible response to COVID-19, are a major reason for the escalating crime, and at the same time, schools can and should be a critical part of the solution.”
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