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Out of the 20 cities S&P had surveyed, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Chicago have the highest current pension costs, “though they have budgetary flexibility that we view as strong-to-very strong, which could help incorporate expected increasing annual costs following declining asset returns in 2022,” the analysts said.
Fiscal Year 2021 saw bettors place $5.1 billion in wagers over 147 million different transactions. The state generated $380 million in gross revenue and $57 million went into state coffers. The trend continued in FY ‘22, with 60 percent more revenue over the previous year: $8.5 billion in bets placed over 227 million wagers, generating $610 million in gross revenue and $92 million for the state.
“Pushing forward on a project that’s controversial, that nobody’s happy with, that’s pretty nakedly about the mayor getting an election year win and using resources that she thinks are available to create that win, is just offensive,” state Rep. Theresa Mah said. Mah had been among the strongest backers of the idea to build a new high school, spearheading a proposal in the General Assembly two years ago to secure $50 million in state funding.
State’s Attorney Jacqueline M. Lacy filed the motion on Tuesday requesting a court find that the SAFE-T Act is in violation of the Illinois Constitution and should be declared null and be voided. Comment: This is the fifth Illinois state’s attorney to file a similar lawsuit.
The customer assistant booths at each CTA stop will have monitors showing live feeds from that station’s security cameras.
CPD Supt. David Brown said the department’s clearance rate reached 50% in 2021 — the highest in a single year in two decades; The uptick in solved murders came as Chicago recorded more than 800 killings last year. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has called on the CPD to bring its murder clearance rate up to 60% in 2022.
Senate Bill 4228 aims to clarify language and improve how officials can enforce the new law, which will allow most people charged with a crime to be released from jail as they await trial, even violent offenders.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform analyzed nearly 1,400 verdicts in personal injury and wrongful death cases and found that Illinois juries delivered 75 reported nuclear verdicts to the tune of more than $3 billion.
Illinois in fiscal year 2021 generated $1.36 billion in state taxes from gambling. New forms of gambling have tended to come at the expense of older ones, except for the continued dominance of lottery proceeds.
Many have said they are from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The city expects more people to arrive.
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez is vowing to boost the district’s tiny high schools as part of a broader plan to revitalize neighborhood schools with input from their local communities. He promised more details later this fall, but has made it clear salvaging these campuses will cost the district and has called on the state to chip in.
Jim Dey: “The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization dedicated to improving reproductive health and rights, describes Illinois law as ‘protective’ of a woman’s right to have an abortion. An anti-abortion organization — the Thomas More Society — contends that Illinois law is so protective that ‘abortion is legal throughout pregnancy.’ Both descriptions are accurate, as demonstrated by the language in the Reproductive Health Act that Pritzker signed in 2019 and zealously defends.”
A robust economy has played a key role, said Kristin Richards, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security. “Statewide payroll jobs are up compared to a year ago. We are seeing significant gains in the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, trade, transportation and utilities industries. We are also seeing over the year decreases in unemployment in 97 counties across the state.”
“A lot of people who have been there for a long time keep waiting for it to get better,” veteran political consultant Delmarie Cobb said. “They may have served under Daley and then thought Rahm would be better. Then they served under Rahm and thought Lori would be better.”
The governor said Tuesday’s payment is 25% of the total balance owed and it will reduce interest costs by $10 million. The state still owes more than $1.3 billion.
Brian Israel, president of the River North Residents Association said Wednesday that they support Ald. Brendan Reilly’s push for “stronger enforcement of standards of conduct for operators.”
Google’s land grab — and looming employee grab — are both a boon and a potential beast for a local tech scene that has blossomed over the last two decades, spawning high-flying startups such as Grubhub, Groupon, Relativity and SpotHero, along with an array of venture funds, incubators and accelerators.
Illinois is fifth highest.
David Doig, a former superintendent of the Chicago Park District, now heads the nonprofit CNI – one of two organizations tapped by the state to give out the grants. CNI has gotten $4.75 million in grant money from the state. So far, CNI has only awarded $2.6 million in grants, but has actually only given out $249,000 to qualifying business owners and recipients.
“The reason that this is so disruptive is that we have a segregated community,” board member Kathy Shannon said. “If we had a community where rich and poor were regularly mixed throughout the community, we could do traditional boundaries and it wouldn’t matter. Every school would have a relatively equal mix of low and high” socioeconomic status. “And so, I hate that this is going to be very disruptive — this is going to be very hard for people — but I want us to keep in mind that we’re doing this for the good of our students, and long
The arguments for tearing apart Chicago Public Schools and replacing it with a universal school choice program continue to pile higher. The system is an abject failure any way you cut it.
Illinois Congressman Raj Krishnamurthy voted last week along with all Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee to kill a request by GOP committee members to get documents related to the Biden family’s international business deals.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s offer to subsidize that transformation will require housing developers to set aside 30% of the new units for low- and moderate-income residents, to fulfill what Lightfoot said was her commitment to equity — and ensure all Chicagoans can live near places to work, eat, play and shop.
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