-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The panelists discuss Illinois opting to end cash bail and Chicago encrypting police scanner channels as crime spikes in Chicago.
“Likewise, in Chicago, where an American Civil Liberties Union-instigated lawsuit neutered the Chicago Police Department by curtailing proactive policing, the city saw a dramatic rise in violent crime —police-citizen stops dropped by 82 percent, while murders rose by 58 percent … Progressive criminal-justice policies—and the magical thinking on which they are based—offer nothing but chaos. “
“We are in a pause of uncertainty right now,” said Chris Davis, Illinois state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. “Less than one in five businesses have fully recovered from the pandemic, and you still have inflation being a substantial burden on small business owners.”
“We are aware of the frustrations experienced by countless consumers whose flights have been cancelled or delayed and the inadequate remedies that have been offered to them,” the letter stated. “In fact, our offices have repeatedly brought to the USDOT’s attention complaints from airline passengers impacted by the airlines’ cancellation or significant delay of their flights.”
“It is extremely concerning, it is extremely disturbing what is going to come Jan. 1,” said DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin.
The funding for Illinois projects ranges from $49.3 million to The Army Corps Engineers for improvements to the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois waterway system, to $20,000 for a National Park Service bathroom renovation in Murphysboro. “You’ve got [U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley] up in Chicago with $2 million to the park district and [U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky] with $2 million for the park district so that they can build a new swimming pool,” said Adam Andrzejewski, with OpenTheBooks.com.
The complaint rooted its racial discrimination claim in an alleged disproportionate effect on minority homeowners. It said that in 2021, 75% of homes sold off through Cook County’s tax sale were in Black or Latino neighborhoods, while broader population data shows only 52% of the county’s population identifies as Black, Latino or two or more races.
Teacher at Crete-Money High School: “All you right wing conspiracy theory nut jobs who seem to think the teachers are out here just indoctrinating children into some sort of woke agenda that you can’t actually define, I’m just going to come clean,” Godbout says. “I am, in fact, indoctrinating your children.”
In 2019, six democratic socialists were elected to the City Council; This year, in the February 28 aldermanic elections, the DSA is running four more candidates. Says former alderman Joe Moore, “If there’s a dozen of them, they could have real influence.” Then he adds a dig: “They might not get everything they want, because they don’t have a foot in reality.”
When asked about crime in her city, 70-year-old Diana Dejacimo said, “People are afraid. I mean, we feel completely defenseless…The city doesn’t defend the police. The police can’t defend us and we’re not allowed to defend ourselves. So it’s kind of a hopeless feeling that nothing is going to happen to change it.”
One in three Illinois students missed at least a month’s worth of school last year.
The most recent amendments were passed by the Illinois House and Senate Dec. 1, and signed by Governor Pritzker Dec. 6, into Public Act 102-1104. The amendments are extensive.
The pilot program will start in five Chicago neighborhoods: East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, Englewood, West Englewood and New City families who lose a loved one to gun violence will be eligible for $1,500 to help defray the cost of funeral or burial costs. Shooting victims can get $1,000 grants. And those who sustain debilitating injuries, along with their families, can qualify for up to $1,000 in relocation costs. One caveat: they can not be “identified by law enforcement as the perpetrators of the crime.”
“There seems too much murkiness around Bally’s bid for the public to know what it’s truly getting.”
“If the lottery provides $10 to the school fund, state officials have two choices: they can either spend that much more money on schools, or they can lower the contribution from the general fund by $10,” said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Illinois officials have taken the second approach.”
Jim Dey: “The Dec. 9 death of state Sen. Scott Bennett did more than rob his constituents of a dedicated public servant and his family of a devoted father and husband. It also left two vacancies in Sen. Bennett’s 52nd state Senate district — one for his current term and the other for the two-year term to which he was re-elected Nov. 8.”
The governor will retain all of his deputy governors, including Christian Mitchell, Sol Flores, Martin Torres and Andy Manar — and his chief of staff, Anne Caprara.
Under terms of HB 05581, a section of Milwaukee Avenue will now be designated as the Milwaukee Avenue Polish Heritage Corridor. HB 04986 designates the Theatre in the Park in New Salem the official state theatre of Illinois.
The special education classroom was beginning to show signs of paint chipping in October, according to teachers, and after Thanksgiving break, large amounts of paint peeled and fell from the ceiling. Some teachers tested paint chips using a swab kit bought online and found lead levels last week. CPS followed with its own testing.
EVs are the future, we constantly hear. Maybe they are, but if so they shouldn’t need subsidies and their competition shouldn’t be destroyed.
The victims include two teenagers.
Combined, Chicago will receive the second-largest bundle of grants, after New York City, under a provision in the massive $1 trillion bill that sets aside $1.75 billion for transit agencies to improve their stations’ accessibility. That program was championed by U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who modeled it after CTA’s own 20-year plan to place elevators in all stations.
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