“Exporting Pritzker to the White House would let him take his Illinois record nationwide. What could go wrong?”
A national republication of our Wirepoints column.
Anthony Younger, 30, presented documentation, purportedly from Amazon, to the Cook County sheriff’s office in 2018 so he could leave home to work for the company while on electronic monitoring, prosecutor Jack Costello said. He is the third person officials have accused of benefiting from a fraud mill allegedly operated by former City Colleges of Chicago basketball coach Edmond Pryor.
One nursing school grad was told that it could take up to 12 weeks to get a license number. “If other states are able to populate license numbers literally as soon as pass results are entered into a computer, surely Illinois can figure out the infrastructure and the software and reformulate this program,” she said.
One new measure allows every public middle or high school student to be provided at least one day of excused absence per school year to take part in a civic event. Another aims to alleviate the statewide substitute teaching shortage by allowing college students enrolled in an education-related field with at least 90 credit hours to start substitute teaching before they get their degree.
A statement from Attorney General Kwame Raoul reads, in part, “To definitively resolve this challenge to the pretrial release portions of the SAFE-T Act, Governor Pritzker, the legislative leaders named in the consolidated cases and I intend to appeal the circuit court’s decision directly to the Illinois Supreme Court, where we will ask the court to reverse the circuit court’s decision…Illinois residents in all counties should be aware that the circuit court’s decision has no effect on their ability to exercise their rights that are protected by the SAFE-T Act and the Illinois Constitution.”
“Grant money doesn’t fall from the sky, it comes from public tax dollars or from generous private donors who expect to see funds use responsibly. Attitudes about grant funds are important as communities throughout the Southland compete in 2023 and beyond for a share of federal infrastructure funds.”
A source said that the current complement of six bond court judges plus a supervising judge at the 26th and California courthouse is being beefed up with the addition of three more judges. Evans is also expected to add two more courtrooms to hear pretrial detention matters on weekends when the Chicago-based judges also handle suburban cases.
“The mayor and board will have to find ways to increase revenue and cut costs with a $600 million shortfall predicted by 2025. Lobbying in Springfield to meet the full promise of the state funding formula will be an important but uncertain tactic to close the gap. As outgoing CPS Board Vice President Sendhil Revuluri notes in his resignation letter, CPS needs to produce a long-term financial plan that serves the students who are learning in the schools now.”
Much of the media’s coverage of the November midterm elections was dedicated to individual races (and their surprising outcomes) that would determine control of Congress . But another critical result that slipped under the radar was Illinois voters’ landmark decision on Nov. 8 to permanently alter the fiscal future of their state.
The grant program, managed by the city’s Department of Planning and Development, awards grants up to $250,000 for development projects supporting “commercial corridors in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods” on the South and West sides. But, “(w)ithout measuring the program’s performance against specific goals … [Planning and Development] cannot establish whether the program actually strengthens commercial corridors in disinvested neighborhoods,” according to the Office of the Inspector General.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez said she’s leading the effort as tenants in her ward — particularly those who are undocumented or low-income — continue to bring issues to her office. “It’s a bad dynamic when housing is driven exclusively by profit.”
The list of allowed uses for the lots includes market-rate or affordable housing, side yards for homeowners living adjacent to those vacant lots; commercial and mixed-use developments; and open space, such as parks or gardens.
According to the Kankakee County State’s Attorney, the ruling means the bail reforms spelled out in the law will not take effect in the 64 counties that filed lawsuits challenging the measure. State Rep. Patrick Windhorst explained, “So we are here now with potential chaos that may ensue beginning Jan. 1. We will have counties throughout the state which will have a cash bail system and counties throughout the state which will potentially not have the cash bail system or it will be eliminated.”
Hundreds of monk parakeets, escapees from the pet trade, have settled beneath the city’s elevated highway. Monk parakeets have established perches in Miami, New York and other cities. But the colony underneath the Skyway, where the birds build their nests among the concrete and steel supports several stories off the ground, is one of the more improbable spots they scratch out a living.
More than one-third of Chicago’s 473 traditional public schools are currently running half empty or worse, and the city’s 20 most-empty schools are operating at 25 percent or less capacity. There’s absolutely no reason for these schools to exist, yet they do for two reasons: the Chicago Teachers Union wants them to and Chicago’s political leaders don’t have the spine to say no.
The state will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, according to a statement from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and
Ted joined Tom Miller on the WJPF Morning Newswatch to talk about Illinois’ population losses in 2022, why our neighbors are growing and the details of domestic migration and what it tells us about Americans’ policy preferences.
But the political stakes are also high for key Democrats — including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Phil Murphy of New Jersey — who have touted their records as fiscal stewards as they angle for a bigger role on a national stage.
Specifically, Circuit Judge Thomas Cunnington’s ruling held that the SAFE-T Act violated the Separation of Powers Clause, the Victim Rights Act, and unconstitutionally amended Article I, Section 9 of the state’s constitution, which codified cash bail in the state. The law will not go into effect on Jan. 1 in the 65 counties that signed onto a lawsuit filed against the administration of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Nubia Willman of the Mayor’s office said migrant arrivals decreased for a while, but now they may ramp up again. The city’s current emergency migrant shelters are above capacity, so renovating the former Wadsworth Elementary School is the best option for those needing shelter.
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