-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
In Bailey’s first television interview, conducted at his downstate farm, he says he has confidence no matter what the polls show.
“Cleaning up contaminated brownfields is an essential part of achieving environmental justice,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “This program will allow us to directly address historic inequities in terms of the disproportionate effect of past pollution on underserved communities.
“I think we just need, at a base level, an evaluation of why Illinois has so many regulations on these businesses compared to other states,” said Bryce Hill of the Illinois Policy Institute. “So when we see hundreds of thousands of regulations Illinois has, we should consider what kind of effect they have.”
Jill Gonzalez of WalletHub explained, “The Illinois cities on this list did not rank well. We looked at 182 cities, and Aurora ranked 171st and Chicago ranked 154th. The cost of living is high, so when you are living on a fixed income, that is not helpful.”
Prices were up 4% in July in Illinois compared to last year, but the increase was smaller than the month before.
“I can’t walk down the street without being stopped by someone who asks how the SAFE-T Act can be stopped,” state Sen. Don DeWitte said. “People have legitimate concerns and we need to pump the brakes on implementation so the long list of unintended consequences tied to the Act can be addressed.”
Joy V. Cunningham was appointed by the court to serve out Burke’s remaining two-year term. Cunningham, a Democrat like Burke, will be just the second Black woman to serve on the state Supreme Court. Because Illinois’ primaries have already occurred and the general election looms in November, Cunningham won’t face voters until 2024. In fact, of the seven state Supreme Court Justices, only one, Republican David Overstreet, was elected to the court without first receiving an interim appointment.
“Everybody knows that the area in the Chicago, or the megapolis area, you know, is a different cat compared to everybody downstate,” said Danville native and retired veterinarian Wes Bieritz said. “And that’s been well known. It’s very obvious in the voting records as well. So, you know, do we want to be represented by those people up there? Hmm, I don’t think I do.”
The State of Illinois capital plan currently does not include a comprehensive statewide capital improvement plan that establishes priorities to balance capital needs with available resources, pairs capital projects with funding sources, helps ensure orderly repair and maintenance of capital assets and provides an estimate of the size and timing of future debt issuance. Rather, it primarily includes a list of projects.
According to Matt Dietrich with the Illinois Board of Elections, it’s very hard for eligible voters to get kicked off the lists here.
“Experts who have scrutinized the use of subsidies for stadium construction and surrounding redevelopment say it’s usually the team that comes out on top, and taxpayers who end up losing out.”
Atlas Arteria, which owns toll roads in France, Germany and Virginia, will partner with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which is retaining its one-third stake. The current rate for a car is $5.90 per trip, with average daily traffic at about 38,000 vehicles, according to Skyway Concession.
While Metra is not part of the labor dispute, the train operator said in a statement Tuesday that a rail worker strike “may directly impact Metra’s ability to operate on some lines…Four of our lines, the BNSF and Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest and Union Pacific West, are owned by and directly operated by freight railroads.””
Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said Mayor Lori Lightfoot apologized Sunday for not providing notice of the migrants’ arrival, but she told him the state was in charge. Gov. JB said Monday that the state sent the migrants to communities with enough available rooms, and that state taxpayers are footing the bill for the rooms.
Amendment 1 is scheduled to be on the Nov. 8 ballot after a petition filed by parents and teachers from Chicago Public Schools to remove it from the ballot was blocked by a Sangamon County judge in June.
Jim Nowlan: “Public policies should be hammered out among the legislators and governor on the basis of current conditions, not enshrined among fundamental constitutional principles.”
The data also show an interesting phenomenon at work, noted Thomas Aaron, a vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s, who co-wrote the analysis. Once costs approach the 30 percent threshold states tend to step in and assume more of the share. Illinois stepped in to help out Chicago in 2017, and Colorado increased its payments to help alleviate districts’ burdens in 2018.
“Initially, Oak Park’s managed integration effort focused on homeowners, seeking simultaneously to encourage ‘fair housing’—a nondiscriminatory real-estate market—and discourage white flight. To keep the sight of For Sale signs on lawns from triggering panic selling, as had occurred in Austin and other Chicago neighborhoods, Oak Park prohibited them. A 1977 Supreme Court ruling held that such bans violated the First Amendment, but because no Oak Park real estate agent has challenged it in court, the prohibition remains in effect as a practical matter.”
“Public safety in Chicago is a joke,” George Cardenas wrote on Twitter. “Why bother calling [the] Police.” The alderman was responding an article about a recent mugging, in which a car full of thieves robbed a 30-year-old man at gunpoint but were able to get away from Chicago police after a CPD supervisor advised officers to stop chasing them.
Executive Director of the Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition retired Texas Sheriff Clint McDonald said, “The sheriffs on the border right now are living this every day. And they’ve been criticized for asking to help with what they’re going through. And now that major cities are starting to feel this pressure, it seems to be a whole different scenario for them than it is for the people who live it every day.”
Since then, at least 16 more robberies have been reported in waves of crime on Sunday and Monday mornings across Wicker Park, West Town, and the West Loop. Chicago police have said they believe at least two armed robbery teams are actively working the area.
Check out Wirepoints’ new Amendment 1 homepage. It has the facts you need to make an informed decision this November.
Taxpayer funded ESSR money was swiftly approved and distributed with little to no oversight during the pandemic. Districts in New York, California, Illinois, and Minnesota openly spent their pandemic dollars on political endeavors; Illinois has utilized masses of pandemic-relief money to institute equity plans with a specific focus on “anti-racism.”
David Brown seems to be pointing to this number: 253 shooting victims, wounded or dead, age 19 and younger, versus 293 last year at this time. That is a nearly 14% decline. But then CPD’s own data shows the number of juvenile homicide victims in the city is actually up nearly 3% over last year, no matter how they were killed.
Former Public Safety Committee Chair Ald. Ariel Reboyras, one of the police union’s staunchest supporters, is the eighth council member to choose retirement over a difficult reelection campaign. That means 15 of the council’s 50 members elected in 2019 already have left or announced they will be departing.
Two of the teachers agreed to stay for the 2022-2023 school year. But for two others who ignored the warning and left to teach elsewhere, their teaching licenses now are in jeopardy.
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