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Specifically, the scheduled Jan. 1 increase in fuel tax rates would be postponed until July 1, 2023. The already scheduled July 1 increase would be nixed to prevent a double increase.
A Canada-based company the district hired started scouring public posts for threats and “cries for help” last month; District leaders say the program is key in efforts to prevent violence and self-harm. But one community advocate responded, “Kids have to have good relationships and trust with adults in their school communities, and that’s how we prevent stuff from happening,” she said. “Spying on kids is not how we do that.”
In an e-mailed statement, Truth in Accounting, which earlier gave state finances an F, challenged the notion that Illinois is in its best financial shape in years. The group particularly picked at pensions, long the state’s top fiscal issue. Despite recent progress, the group claims, Illinois is still annually contributing around $4 billion less than is actuarially required to keep the pension funds from running up debt.
Explains Jayne DeLuce, President & CEO of Visit Champaign County, “While we did see a tremendous recovery in 2021, we are still short of pre-pandemic levels where we were leading in growth across the state.” Overall visitor spending is still down 16.5% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
In a comment letter to the FTC, the AGs urged the FTC to acknowledge how much sensitive data is collected from consumers and what happens to that data. “Americans are utilizing online applications at an increased rate, sharing sensitive information on a variety of issues that if leaked could cause substantial harm to consumers,” Raoul said. “It is vital the FTC lead to ensure consumers have trust that their interactions online are protected and private.”
Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s financial blueprint includes no new taxes or tax hikes. Instead it’s flush with federal pandemic dollars that the county plans to use to make the region a more equitable place to live, work and play. There’s a guaranteed income pilot, as well as plans to erase medical debt and beef up behavioral health care during a pandemic that has exacerbated mental health needs.
Data shows that 95% of gun violence victims of school age were not enrolled in school at the time of their victimization. “The goal is to get these young people back into schools,” said Jadine Chou, chief of safety and security for Chicago Public Schools. “Whether that is with CPS, or if they’re older, we can get them into some education completion opportunity.”
Illinois shoppers taking part in the 37th annual American Farm Bureau Federation’s Thanksgiving cost survey reported a statewide average price of $65.53 for a classic Thanksgiving meal for 10, compared to $58.15 last year, a 12.7% increase. The average price in 2017 was $49.12.
This week, Kwame Raoul announced several actions, including his office’s role in lawsuits against Walmart and Google bringing the state millions of dollars in settlements. Among them, Kaquanice Larry of Mt. Prospect has been charged with filing unemployment benefits with the state using stolen identities, receiving about $75,000 and about $40,000 of Paycheck Protection Program loans in the name of fictitious companies.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program reports show 15.9% of Illinoisans received food benefits in August 2022. That’s 1 in 6 Illinoisans. It is also 5.2% more residents than in August 2021. Nationwide SNAP participation increased just 0.9% during that time.
Together with Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic Governors Association poured around $35 million into swaying the Illinois Republican primary. Though Trump-backed Republican Darren Bailey won that June contest, the far-right nominee was defeated on Tuesday by Pritzker.
Other priorities for her second term, Sen. Tammy Duckworth said, are crop insurance and lead in the water supply.
“The Clerk’s brief proclaims that our suit to have the Clerk follow the election laws was without precedent,” state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi said. “That isn’t true, and our responsive brief gives multiple examples of how Illinois courts have intervened to ensure election law compliance. What is unprecedented is a Clerk who ignores what the Legislature wrote into law, and what our Circuit Court said the law is, to insist that she alone knows best.”
“They called me and told me that I was in Delaware,” one person on electronic home monitoring said. “I was like, no, I’m home. I don’t have any family in Delaware. And to be honest, I have no clue where that is.’” Another person said a deputy told them the electronic monitor showed they were in Lake Michigan in the middle of the winter.
Rebecca Journey, a teaching fellow who earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from UChicago, said her class analyzes whiteness as a social construct and dismissed “disingenuous” claims that it stokes “anti-white hatred…The class is emphatically not about ‘the problem with white people.’ The class approaches whiteness as a problem in the philosophical sense of an open question … whiteness as an object of critical inquiry.”
True debate is expected after Thanksgiving, during the veto session’s final scheduled three days of the veto session – the last time the General Assembly is set to meet before the new year. But questions remain, including if there will be enough votes to support changes, and how far will those changes go.
Issues included the lack of American Indian studies within Illinois schools and making Indigenous Peoples Day in Illinois a statewide holiday.
One of the biggest concerns about the project known as the Invert is that it will require a yearslong excavation of limestone at the former Republic Steel site along the Calumet River. That, residents say, is an end run around Chicago’s ban on mining. But a project spokesman points to redevelopment of brownfield land to create hundreds of construction jobs and even more permanent jobs. The underground space can be used for storage, data centers, light manufacturing and other uses.
The “Tackling Disinformation, Protecting Democracy” forum will be moderated by Renee DiResta, who allegedly helped sway elections through the use of bots and is connected the censorship of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Panelist Nikole Hannah-Jones is the author of the “1619 Project” which claims slavery was the primary cause of the American Revolution, a claim rebuked by historians.
More officers will be patrolling downtown business district stations as stores open earlier and close later, Chicago Police Commander Joe Bird told reporters. The number of violent crimes on the L and buses has risen to levels not seen in more than a decade.
“Behold a case study in how Democrats change the rules to limit political competition and entrench one-party, public-union rule…. Abortion politics and Donald Trump helped Democrats in Illinois as in other states. But Democrats in the Prairie State have also used every lever available to entrench their power. That includes a constitutional amendment they placed on the ballot enshrining the right to collective-bargaining that will augment government
It’s been so long now that most of the media and many Illinoisans no longer care that Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to maintain a Covid disaster declaration for all of Illinois’ 102 counties. And with the elections out of the way, many may care even less.
“When it comes to laws on crime and public safety, we need to rely on the judgment of local prosecutors, men and women whose education and experience qualify them as the most trustworthy voices in our community on what is needed to make our criminal justice system work.”
She will lead a House Republican caucus that is its smallest since the Cutback Amendment slashed the size of the chamber from 177 members to 118 in 1981. She said, “We need some numbers. We need to collaborate on our messages, we need to bring our caucus all together to have opinions. We have, hopefully, 40 talented people that are going to be able to help us to go to the next level.”
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