-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
“So, I’ve decided to stay and try to make a difference, and I encourage my fellow conservatives to do the same. No city can survive if its richest, most highly educated population flees. A city cannot survive if the answer to its problems is to ignore them and to let those who cannot leave fend for themselves.”
The clock is ticking, because federal COVID-19 aid dollars are covering the loss in ticket revenue. That money will run out in two years and Metra will have to find a way to make up for those lost funds.
West Side Republican Bob Fioretti heavily criticized the Promise Guaranteed Income Pilot, calling it a “system designed for failure…We’re not asking people to have job training, seek out jobs or helping them to better their lives, we’re just giving them $500.”
She faces Democrat-turned-Republican former Ald. Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Thea Tsatsos for a fourth term but, as head of the Cook County Democratic Party, is spending most of her time boosting other Democrats’ campaigns ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
As of Monday, the Illinois State Board of Elections had reported 590,333 early votes had already been cast, including 362,604 mail-in ballots, 224,595 early in-person ballots and 3,134 grace period ballots.
A lawsuit over an Illinois law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to two weeks after polls close on election day is advancing after a federal judge ruled against Democrats looking to intervene. It’s unclear when the court could rule on the case, as the case only impacts federal elections.
The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and Illinois Chamber of Commerce said Illinoisans need to vote no on Amendment 1, saying the government union-backed ballot measure would hurt business and prevent fiscal reform by lawmakers.
A new survey has found that New York, California and Illinois are losing more highly paid workers under 35 than they are gaining. Illinois gained 6,527 highly paid professionals during 2019 and 2020, but it lost 9,386 comparable workers, SmartAsset found. That is a net loss of 2,859 top-talent workers.
“If there are good ways to spend the money well right now, what are districts waiting for?” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. “Kids have been hurt both academically and emotionally. We want to know what they are doing now to make kids
In Illinois, the minimum wage was $12 an hour as of July 1, 2022, the 13th highest among states. But many working families are still struggling. According to a study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a working adult in Illinois would need an hourly wage of $38.42 to support a family of four.
While a recent state report warned of oversaturation cannibalizing the market, said Chris Grove, of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, “I don’t think people would embark on these large capital expenditures if they didn’t foresee growth.”
Some are facing shortages of ingredients or have seen fewer customers since COVID-19 hit, while others struggle to hire enough employees to staff the cafe. “It’s like we’re losing public spaces,” said Soren Spicknall, a cafe lover from South Pullman. “Cafes are so social, and it’s interesting to see a lot of folks, like myself, experiencing work days that have become more atomized and more individual…”
“It’s 100% vindictive,” longtime CPD SWAT operator Bob Bartlett said last week. “We were fighting for our labor rights in a city that’s a labor city and you guys are punishing us.”
Translated for the state’s median homeowner, the property tax hike is conservatively estimated at more than $2,100 during the next four years.
A national republication of our Wirepoints column.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments starting Monday on two landmark lawsuits that challenge affirmative action. “It [an overturning] would be a setback for our students from minoritized communities where education really is an opportunity to build generational wealth and build careers. I would hope and expect that ISU will be collaborating with other universities to look at ways to continue supporting and recruiting minoritized students,” said Doris Houston, chief equity and inclusion officer at Illinois State University.
In another example of how education data continues to be bastardized in Illinois, take the recent spin Gov. J.B. Pritzker put on Illinois’ 2022 Report Card data. Rather than give a sober, realistic assessment of the still dismal results – namely, that so few of Illinois’ children can read and do math at grade level – the governor grasped at a host of other metrics to put a spin on how well Illinois is doing.
Militant radicals are chomping at the bit for the constitutional right Amendment 1 will give them: the right to include their vision of a national, Marxist workers’ revolution in their contract demands.
Critics of the law take issue with some of those provisions, including ending cash bail; prohibiting judges from considering a defendant’s previous behavior when determining whether he or she is a flight risk; allowing a 48-hour period between the time a defendant on electronic monitoring leaves home without permission and the time authorities can charge that person with escape; and new police training policies without additional funding for departments.
But beyond that foundational legal argument, there’s a practical matter at issue. Passing the WRA would showcase expanding union power in a state already considered a bastion of organized labor. As corporate headquarters exit Illinois and important players in up-and-coming industries like electric vehicle manufacturing bypass Illinois for other states, an anti-business message is hardly a selling point for the Land of Lincoln. In fact, it’s the very last thing this state needs. Bestowing special constitutional status on unions would give companies one more reason to avoid Illinois.
“While not rising to the level of criminal conspiracy, Republicans like us, fighting to save our state from rising taxes and record crime, feel like we’re up against a similar ‘inside game.’ The players: the Chicago Democratic Machine and the Chicago media.”
Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and state Treasurer Michael Frerichs are facing challenges from Republicans Shannon Teresi and Tom Demmer and Libertarians Deirdre McCloskey and Preston Nelson.
Last weekend 51 people were shot, 10 fatally.
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