-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Jim Dey: “One example of the status quo is Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield native who once used his downstate roots to attract downstate votes. But as Durbin has turned his back on downstaters to appeal to growing numbers elsewhere, they have turned their backs on him. Durbin won his 2020 race handily, but lost 88 counties.”
“Ald. Howard Brookins, who turns 59 next month, announced plans to walk away from the backstabbing, one-way street of a world that is Chicago politics…Brookins said his decision has nothing to do with maxing out on his aldermanic pension. Nor is it related to his lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Ethics challenging the $5,000 fine levied against him for allegedly violating the ethics ordinance by defending clients, including Former Ald. Proco ‘Joe’ Moreno in criminal cases involving the Chicago Police Department.”
In a Twitter post, Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez lambasted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “@GovAbbott says he’s pro-life, but clearly for him there is only some life that is worth protecting. We will be sharing additional donation drop off locations around the city soon. Solidarity saves and community heals.”
Executive director of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute Frank Manzo IV said the pandemic may be behind some of the numbers. “The last two years revealed the importance of job quality and the data shows a clear link between union membership and better outcomes for workers, and that is why we are seeing new organized efforts in the workplace.”
“These are the things people are concerned about and are talking about, ‘do I want to raise my family in this environment,’” Illinois Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie said. “Those are the problems that we have to absolutely solve in order to not only keep people in the state but make us a net importer of people once again.”
As voters in Illinois prepare to decide on a state constitutional amendment that would guarantee workers the right to organize, a new study shows union membership in the state grew last year for the first time in four years. The study also showed, however, that the overall percentage of the state’s workforce that was in a union declined from one year ago.
According to data from the Illinois State Board of Education, there are fewer students and more teachers in Illinois today compared to a decade ago.
“Government unions have consistently used their influence to thwart legislation that could have improved the quality of public services or provide tax relief.”
The groups said that while the initial cannabis operators have thrived and grossed over a billion dollars, social equity businesses have languished on the sidelines for three years, losing billions,” according to the group. The groups blame the rules and regulations that are in place.
CPD has publicly linked 22 robberies to the groups, but the offenders – armed with guns – are likely responsible for even more crimes.
The petition, which originated from a section of the Arlington Heights municipal code that allows for resident-generated referendums, calls for the Village Board to consider an ordinance that would prevent the village from extending any kind of financial assistance to any corporation seeking to open in the village. Village officials say such an ordinance would be disastrous for the village, while organizers from Americans for Prosperity call it an “anti-corporate welfare ordinance.”
Ald. Devon Reid said the proposal has been sent to the Equity and Empowerment Committee for review – as there were concerns that it excluded the transgender community.
Jim Dey: “Despite lacking in policy substance in Illinois, the political issue of abortion is a useful tool for stoking voters’ emotions.”
Meanwhile, rents are climbing as landlords and property managers struggle to keep up with rising taxes and building costs amid the pandemic, experts said. “You hear all of these horror stories about New York City … it really feels like that,” broker Maggie Bergin Balcarcel said.
One of the men arrested admitted to being involved in 30 car thefts – all targeting police cars.
Lolla organizers, the company called C3 Presents, has paid $409,695 to restore Grant Park back to its pre-festival condition. The cost is $120,000 more than last year’s bill. C3 has also offered to resurface the tennis courts, something above and beyond what their deal requires.
Brookins is now the 14th member of the City Council to either step down mid-term since the 2019 city elections, or to announce they won’t seek re-election in 2023. This will make for the biggest City Council turnover in almost 80 years.
The owners of two big LaSalle Street office buildings are in danger of defaulting on their loans, potentially adding to the wave of distress among pandemic-thumped properties in the Loop. In the larger of the two, a $105 million loan tied to a 37-story office property at 10 S. LaSalle St. was recently transferred to a special servicer, a signal that the property’s owner could default on the debt or need to restructure its terms to avoid doing so. Same for the kitty-corner building from that property, the historic 47-story office building at 1 N. LaSalle St.
After having received just 125 border crossers on buses from Texas, Lightfoot’s office launched a website pleading with Chicago residents to donate gift cards, clothing, baby formula, and other necessities to the new arrivals. At the same time, Lightfoot has asked the federal government for help.
“He can no more stop campaigning than Rahm Emanuel can stop using the f-word. Quinn has run for every statewide office except comptroller. He was elected treasurer (1990), lieutenant governor (2002, 2006), and governor (2010). He lost races for secretary of state (1994), U.S. Senate (1996), and lieutenant governor (1998). His name has appeared on a ballot at least every four years since 1990. (And as) an Illinois governor who didn’t go to prison, Quinn possessed a lot of professional capital.”
She also took aim at Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Achilles heel: her inability to play well with others: “I have never met anybody who has managed to p— off every single person they come in contact with. Police, fire, teachers, aldermen, businesses, manufacturing.”
An alien worldview has invaded our nation’s schools…. The evidence abounds. First introduced in New York, BLM-inspired curricula teach schoolkids to challenge the nuclear family, resist “white culture,” and free themselves from the “tight grip of heteronormativity.” Schools in Illinois teach grade-schoolers to celebrate the transgender flag; break the “gender binary” established by “white colonizers”; and practice using “ze,” “zir,” and “tree” pronouns.
Ted was on with Dan and Amy to talk about the damage done to students by the school shutdowns during Covid, the ironfisted control teachers unions will have over education if Amendment 1 passes and the continued growth of violence and crime in Chicago.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is lashing out at the Texas Governor, too: “This is part of his effort to gain sort of I think national attention…and he’s using these poor folks as pawns in that larger game, which is despicable,” Preckwinkle said.
State Sen. Terri Bryant, whose district includes Choate, blamed some of the issues at the facility on broader failures of the state of Illinois. It can take months for job applicants to navigate the state’s bureaucratic hiring process, and by the time an offer is made, “sometimes what you’re left with is the folks that couldn’t get a job anywhere else,” she said. “The (OIG) does not have enough investigators. It’s inexcusable.”
“When (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx refuses to prosecute, essentially, no cash bail already exists now,” GOP challenger Darren Bailey said, calling her, Gov. JB Pritzker, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot the “three musketeers of crime, chaos, and tragedy…When this is released all across the state, the whole state is going to face the same mayhem that Chicago has.”
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