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WGN, Emmerson College and The Hill released a poll showing support falling short of the 60% needed for approval.
“Not long after taking office in 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation that restructured the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, promising ‘transparency and accountability’ and declaring: ‘Our new leadership will uphold the highest ethical standards, deliver the value to taxpayers and serve Illinoisans in every corner of our state.’ A new lawsuit filed by two former high-ranking tollway officials paints a different picture of the state agency under Pritzker’s chosen team.”
Documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show the actual bond issue by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority came to $398 million. But today, more than 20 years after that money was borrowed, the ISFA still owes over $383 million in principal, and more than $256 million in interest.
A white middle school teacher says she is asking a federal court to end a pervasive hostile learning and working environment for white students and teachers at Evanston/Skokie School District 65, not to ban books or shut down classroom discussion surrounding race.
In a rank choice voting system, also known as instant runoff voting, if one candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, they are declared the winner. In the event that there isn’t a majority, the last-place candidate is dropped, and the votes for that person would be automatically redistributed to the voter’s second choice. This process repeats until one of the candidates ends up with the majority.
Vermilion County State’s Attorney Jacqueline Lacy said it will be hard during detention hearings in domestic violence cases with the Pretrial Fairness Act allowing people accused of domestic battery to be released. “Most domestic violence victims fear retaliation by their abuser,” Lacy said, adding that she’s seen how victims would not tell the truth out of fear.
Founder of Project H.O.O.D., Brooks committed to camping on the top of a building across from his church after he said it had become a center of drugs, prostitution and violence.
“Another state might not have the Chicago lakefront, but it can have a lot of things that Chicago has,” said Todd Maisch, of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. “Recruiters from other states say, ‘We’re safer. We’re more stable. You won’t have to worry about the government zigging and zagging on you all the time.’ That’s our competition.”
“Entire cottage industries sprang up to take advantage of Illinoisans’ collective hatred of their state by giving them often-massaged data to feed their rage. Everything is bad all the time to these groups. ‘Death spiral’ was one of their favorite phrases to describe Illinois’ predicament.”
Commercial property taxes are set to rise $1.8 billion by 2026 at the historic rate, but the growth would likely be even faster under Amendment 1.
“For those of us who believe unions have brought benefits to workers they could not have won individually—but who also believe the answer to extremism is not more extremism—a question on the Nov. 8 ballot poses a dilemma.”
In 2021, 97.1 million visitors spent billions across Illinois’ economy. Conde Nast Traveler and Time Out named Chicago the best big city in the U.S. CNN also ranked southern Illinois as one of the most underrated travel destinations in the U.S.
The department’s “funding grows nearly every year, yet there continues to be a serious lack of effort to increase efficiency or transparency over how those resources are being used,” said Loren Jones, an organizer with Empowering Communities for Public Safety.
Carmen A. Rossi’s Chicago Parking Solutions got a two-year contract to park cars at more than a dozen schools even though the school system said another company put in a better bid.
This school year, district leaders focused on increasing staffing levels for a key reason: to help students recover from the pandemic, said CEO Pedro Martinez. At the Chicago Board of Education meeting this week, Martinez shared low state test results for CPS students and explained, “It is not a reflection of our staff’s hard work, but it is the challenges that our families face during this pandemic.”
The Illinois Sports Wagering Act allows for three online-only sportsbooks, each of which is expected to pay a $20 million licensing fee. The state already has nine operating retail sportsbooks, seven of which offer online sports betting.
The unemployment rate for Illinois is down 0.7% from 5.1% in September 2021 to 4.4% in September 2022.
Former 43rd Ward Ald. Michele Smith wrote in an email to her neighbors, “First, this amendment would tie the hands of our legislatures to make even the smallest changes on employment issues…”
Police Supt. David Brown told reporters last month: “Switches that make single-action weapons fully automatic as well as the high-capacity magazines that hold more bullets in them with an extended clip has been really the dynamic that’s changed how shootings and how victimization occurs. Not just here but everywhere in the country has seen just an explosion of switches and high-capacity magazines.”
Regulators greenlighted the increase for energy-efficiency programs. In a little over a month, they’ll consider ComEd’s separate $199 million rate hike request, which they’ll have little choice but to approve.
“Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and her Republican challenger Kathy Salvi couldn’t be further apart on gun control, abortion rights, inflation, or just about any other key issue facing residents in Illinois and beyond…Without any knockout moments in the forum, Salvi continues to face an uphill battle in her bid to unseat Duckworth, who was shortlisted as a potential running mate for Biden in 2020.”
“The progress we made in this city has come because we have banded together, not just put the whole burden on backs of CPD,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot. But with crime on Chicago’s transit system top of mind, police will be there too, anticipating increased ridership and the possibility for festivities to turn violent.
At issue in the lawsuit led by four-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro, is a 2015 state law that allows vote-by-mail ballots to be counted if they are received within 14 days after Election Day if they were postmarked on or before the final day of voting. The suit seeks to have no vote-by-mail ballots counted that are received after Nov. 8, Election Day.
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