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“A big important state like Illinois enshrining this right to their constitution sends a signal across the country that the right to bargain collectively is a fundamental right,” said Daniel Galvin, who teaches political science at Northwestern University and is a faculty fellow at the school’s Institute for Policy Research.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas stated the office had not been funded nor staffed since 2019. He cited a recent U.S. Census report saying Chicago is home to 68,000 veterans which equates to the population of 1.5 wards.
When asked about his administration’s COVID-19 response, Pritzker says that while there are lessons he wants to take forward, he also is proud of the way the state has come out of the worst of the pandemic. “Illinois has one of the highest vaccination rates in the Midwest, and one of the lowest mortality rates in the Midwest. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in this terrible crisis.”
State Rep. Steven Reick said the old process needs to be re-instituted after 35 disaster proclamations have been issued by the governor. “The pandemic is over. It is time for us to get back to the normal way of doing business. And the normal rulemaking process should be the one that is used instead of emergency rulemaking when the time is available to do that.”
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick is concerned about drug addicts being released before treatment. “All these things you never have access to, we’re providing, but come the first of the year, that dries up. Now instead we are going to process someone as quick as possible, bond court them, and then let them out while they are still what they call jonesing.”
Illinois has slipped, but remains in the top ten of a 50-state ranking that measures the amount of time and effort it takes to vote.
An April 2021 poll found 61% of Illinois voters support Invest in Kids. The program helps 7,600 low-income students attend a private school of their choice, but 26,000 more were on the waiting list hoping the program would expand.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students protested conservative speaker Matt Walsh as he screened his new documentary ‘What is a Woman?’ on-campus. Bailey Parks-Moore, UIUC YAF chairwoman, told The Daily Illini that the event was intended to ”bring about another set of ideas.”
On Sept. 19, the Village Board approved a ban gas stations in town being open past midnight in response to reports of criminal activity, including the fatal shooting in June of an 18-year-old Oak Park and River Forest High School graduate at a 24-hour gas station on Chicago Avenue.
“Earlier this month, the state finally agreed to fix its firearm licensing apparatus by ramping up its processing system and clearing the backlog that was preventing Illinoisans from obtaining firearms…It’s a victory for the Second Amendment, but it’s also a reminder that governments at levels use licensing regulations—whether they apply to guns or anything else—to take away people’s basic rights.”
The letter signed by U.S. House Ways and Means Committee member U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood and the committee’s Republican leader, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, warns taxes on employers will increase from $42 to $63 per worker in 2023 unless the federal unemployment insurance loans are repaid.
“We’ve had about 300 checks returned for that smudged ink issue out of the 2 million rebate checks we have sent out so far,” comptroller’s spokesman Abdon Pallasch said. The payments are part of an election year program launched by Gov. JB Pritzker and his fellow Democrats to issue tax rebates ranging from $50 to several hundred dollars.
With three weeks until Election Day, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has reversed himself on school choice. On Tuesday the Chicago Sun-Times released Mr. Pritzker’s answers to a candidate survey. He answered yes to the question: “Do you support Illinois’ tax credit scholarship program that provides financial support for students to attend private and parochial schools?”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2023 budget proposal includes funding for Chicago police to double the size of CPD’s helicopter force from two aging and frequently out-of-service units to four. Proponents, including Ald. Brendan Reilly, argue that the police department needs better air support because vehicle pursuits by patrol cars are dangerous and largely prohibited by CPD policy.
The state’s Housing Development Authority is reopening a mortgage assistance program for homeowners impacted by the pandemic.
A twelvefold growth in the Chicago Police Department’s communications division is one of the key factors in the dramatic cost increase for city PR.
“It’s just a continuation of gentrification along the same lines as it was before, since 1990, but that is accelerating now,” John Betancur, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago, said. “The people that live in those central neighborhoods [near downtown] are being displaced either because they cannot afford increases in rent, or because they are homeowners and they cannot afford the increases in property taxes.”
“While I am Latine, I’m also white; I have access to these white queer spaces. I wholeheartedly acknowledge my contributions to this destructive culture, but also realize that the toxicity of white queer spaces is universal and manifests in workplaces other than The Daily…. This harmful culture is not just about individual staffers, but rather the fact that the newsroom operates as a white queer space. It requires a complete reformation of how The Daily functions, and particularly, a rethinking of who is selected for leadership positions.”
“Under the plain language of the act, all offenses are eligible for release,” Rep. Patrick Windhorst, an opponent of the law, said. “A judge can release anybody who is arrested but a judge can only hold individuals pretrial under certain circumstances.”
The latest $1.8 billion in projects will be bankrolled by general obligation bonds “repaid from the corporate fund.” Highlights include $60 million for lead service line replacement.
Call it Pritzkerville – eerily like Potterville from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with pot stores and a massive casino planned to fill the holes ripped in Chicago due to the loss of great businesses and decent people pursuing their dreams.”
Davis joked that he did not know a tractor from a combine when he came into office, just that “they were slow in front of me on the road.” But he said later, with all seriousness, “Look, I serve with a lot of people who have absolutely no intention of ever doing anything legislatively. It’s about clicks on social media, it’s about how much money they can raise and it’s about the rage machine.”
The city is insisting the double billing issue has been fixed, but has not said what led to the problem. The Finance Department will not say just how much money the city overbilled.
It’s remarkable that as Illinois state lawmakers make police misconduct data more transparent under the SAFE-T Act, they’ve totally ignored needed reforms to bring similar transparency to felony criminal case sentencing. In places like Cook County, where horrific crimes by repeat offenders are daily news, residents should know who’s responsible.
Ted was on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan and Amy to discuss Gov. Pritzker’s 35th Covid Disaster Proclamation. It’s been 950 days that Illinoisans have lived under emergency rules unilaterally set by the governor. Gov. Pritzker has maintained these emergency rules for more than two-thirds of his time in office.
The rivals also traded shots over education, teacher shortages, the troubled Department of Children and Family Services and who was too far to the left or right wings to be governor.
In one case, the treasurer sold taxes for a portion of the Kennedy Expressway that the assessor’s office had wrongly classified as taxable vacant land. The purchaser, a New Jersey-based investment fund, bought $1.6 million in taxes for years 1996 through 2015, according to the report. The company held on to the “taxes for three years before seeking a refund, compiling interest along the way” and claimed in court filings it had “no knowledge” the property was actually a stretch of highway.
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