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Without the levy increase, the city would be about $1.8 million short of fulfilling its public safety pension obligations.
Illinois ranked 16th best this year, slipping from 15th and 11th in two previous years. Illinois got props for passing the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, but lost points for piling on new licensing and registration fees for electric-vehicle owners.
“I voted against the SAFE-T Act when it passed nearly two years ago,,” state Sen. Bill Cunningham said. “These latest changes make the law more workable for officers on the street. The changes to the bill make our communities safer and give law enforcement more clarity.”
“If Chicago were a meritocracy (in which we’re judged by our performance), (Ald. Ed) Burke would have been bounced from the finance chair sometime in the 1990s. But Chicago is more like a kleptocracy in which we publicly worship our leaders. And so Burke not only remained in his finance position, but was hailed as a fiduciary wizard for whom we should be eternally grateful.”
Prices in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), declined 0.6% in November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that the food index rose 0.7%, and the energy index fell 5.1% in November. The all items less food and energy index was down 0.3%.
It’s not like we’re out here eating babies in the State Capitol rotunda, a Temple member said. The holiday ceremony, for instance, did not include goat sacrifices. No one condemned the nation to hellfire. The message was religious diversity.
“When we are looking at nearby places, St. Louis ranks 15th, and the closer you are to number one is a bad thing,” analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area ranks 20th…Some cities are feeling inflation more than others and others are feeling it less. Chicago is one of the few places where it is not rising that much right now.”
The Chinese government controls TikTok and can use TikTok to control users’ devices, for influence or espionage purposes.
In the zip code covering much of South Shore, investors bought up 32% of homes for sale in the third quarter of 2022 – that’s tied for the most in the city. That’s far more than the 17% of homes investors bought in 2015 before Jackson Park was announced as the home of the center and more than double the 14% of homes bought by investors in 2005 in the middle of the housing bubble.
Illinois’ exemption of the judicial branch from FOIA is not the norm nationwide. Statistical information from the courts is subject to open access laws in 27 states, and 15 more have court rules and policies that make the data available. But a quirk in the wording of Illinois’ FOIA – it does not explicitly name the judicial branch – has allowed the courts to interpret the law to mean they are exempt from FOIA.
“More than two newspapers are disappearing each week, on average, and more than a fifth of Americans live in ‘news deserts’ — communities that have lost, or are in the process of losing, their local news providers. As a result, lies and other misinformation proliferate, damaging American democracy.”
John Cusack: “(U.S. Sen. Dick) Durbin has a history of support for the First Amendment and he should be proud of that track record. The PRESS Act, which he can advance as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offers us a rare opportunity to preserve and strengthen press freedoms for the next generation.”
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has refused to meet with members of the Chicago media who have voiced concern this will impact journalists’ ability to cover events as they unfold and warn the public about ongoing threats to safety,” Chicago outlet WGN9 reported. As an example, the media was not able to report in real-time recently when a man armed with a rifle walked through a Chicago neighborhood, later being shot by police.
The Chicago Transit Authority’s plan to establish a special transit tax-increment financing district to raise $1 billion needed to compete for federal grants to build a $3.6 billion rail transit extension could win final approval Wednesday. The City Council’s Finance Committee advanced the measure to establish what would be the city’s second transit TIF district at a Monday meeting, setting the stage for a full council vote Wednesday.
The challenge right now is, in many of Illinois’ counties, they do not have any capacity to provide any kind of pretrial supervision,” said David Olson, co-director of the Loyola Center for Criminal Justice. That’s why he said the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services has been established through the Illinois Supreme Court, to offer that service in parts of the state where it’s not available.
The top five states for vehicular crime – California, Illinois, Florida, Colorado and Texas – accounted for 412,008 cars stolen. More than 1,300 carjackings have occurred in the Chicago area this year. Those who speculated that it was a “pandemic thing” may rethink that notion as the problem continues.
“These laws cover a myriad of topics and will require revisions to employee handbooks and general employment policies.”
The bill covers a wide variety of topics, but its notable features include an increase of the state’s minimum age to purchase or own a weapon, as well as a full ban on assault weapons, extended magazines and other items.
Jim Dey: “November tax receipts were led by increases in revenue of state income tax (up $228 million), corporate tax (up $85 million) and sales tax (up $134 million). (Revenue manager Eric) Noggle attributed increases in sales-tax revenue to a ‘promising start’ of the Christmas shopping season. In addition to the big three, the state also enjoyed smaller increases generated by taxes on cigarettes and inheritances as well as interest on ‘state funds and investment.’”
Gov. Pritzker recently extended his Disaster Proclamation for Illinois for the 37th straight time, a period that now stretches over 1,000 days. Keeping Illinois a “disaster area” gives the state access to extra Medicaid and food stamps, and that’s creating more government dependency and killing jobs at the same time.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ crime research in its new opinion piece about the SAFE-T Act and Illinois’ upcoming abolition of cash bail.
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