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“The city is working to figure out where they come from.”
“Pritzker’s first term as governor and his actions toward business owners and economic growth in Illinois offer the best indicators of how his policies might look at the national level. Looking into that crystal ball to see the future, the outlook for the nation and its business sector isn’t good.”
In Sangamon County this past week, a judge issued another order for DHS to show cause why the agency isn’t transferring an inmate for evaluation. The judge ordered DHS secretary Grace Hou to appear in court Sept. 12 to answer why she “should not be held in indirect civil contempt of this Court.”
“So-called reforms have done nothing to eliminate uncertainty that has been a hallmark for a very long time,” tax appeal professional Brian Forde said in a report from DePaul University. “In fact, it seems to be getting worse with policies that focus primarily on shifting the tax burden from residents to commercial property owners rather than getting valuations correct, or equally important, repairing issues with Cook County’s inequitable classification system.”
“This isn’t a fight between environmentalist and farmers,” Durbin said. “We are all in this together, and as the climate does change, it’s a challenge.”
Former Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel says Cook County’s bond court is essentially a revolving door, routinely releasing dangerous suspects. “Bond court in Cook County is completely broken.”
Robert G. Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor: “Now we are on the offensive. This November, it is critically important we keep the pressure on by showing labor’s strength at the ballot box — because workers are on the ballot.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot accused Abbott of “expelling the illegals” (they volunteered to go). “With these continued political stunts, Governor Abbott has confirmed, what unfortunately many of us had already known — that he is a man without any morals, humanity, or shame.”
Illinois ranks second, behind New Jersey.
Cook County plans to use ARPA funds based on its Policy Roadmap: Five-Year Strategic Plan for Offices Under the President. The Strategic Plan focuses on prioritizing health and wellness, community and economic development, criminal justice and community safety, environmental sustainability, public infrastructure and good government.
Even if the Bears leave Chicago, Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox said putting a dome over Soldier Field will remain “one of the options that extends its use for 365 days a year.” He would only say financing the mayor’s $2.2 billion plan to expand, renovate and put a lid on Soldier Field is “pretty complex,” and there are “multiple scenarios for how it could be done.”
A majority of the Illinois Education Association’s roughly 135,000 members are seeing shortages in their districts in both teaching and support staff positions, including bus drivers, custodians, paraprofessionals and secretaries, Griffin said.
From 2020 to 2021, the average amount of resignations went up by 65%, and the retirement rate was up 7% from the normal average per year, which is why some departments are forced to hire officers from other counties. Sixty percent of the 239 agencies in Illinois reported being short-staffed this year.
Nationwide unemployment in August stood at 3.7%, but for Black Americans that rate was 6.4%, roughly in line with a gap that has existed for as long as the Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting that data. And locally, the racial unemployment gap is even starker. While the overall unemployment rate for Chicago is nearly 5.8% in August, the rate for Black residents is more than twice that, at 14.3%.
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