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Illinois State Police said the automatic renewal of FOID cards will allow staff to focus on clear and present danger reports, firearm restraining orders, and FOID correlations and enforcement.
Chicago is set to get $144 million in grant funds under the bipartisan infrastructure law to help rehabilitate four bridges crossing the Calumet River. Harris lauded the financial package the law will provide.
No one is in custody in any of the shootings.
Standing alongside the 95th Street bridge on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a bold claim: “For years people talked about this problem, but now I am proud to say we will finally fix this problem.”
“There’s no evidence that that actually fixes or solves any problems, it’s just gonna turn regular people into felons in the state of Illinois which is going to lead to stripping people of their Second Amendment rights,” said Madison County Board member Michael Turner said.
“The whole purpose here is fairness, and I think we will continue to fight for that,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “Those of us who believe in this know that there is even more to do, but I am comfortable and confident that this is constitutional.”
In the 30-second ad spot, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign highlights Bankman-Fried’s donations to Representative Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, casting her rival as someone who maintains close relationships with “crypto crooks.”
Legislation to create a 10- to 12-turbine wind farm in Lake Michigan off the Southeast Side has suddenly surfaced in Springfield, with its chief sponsor hoping for a vote by week’s end.
If approved, the rate hike would raise the average residential gas bill by $9.28 per month beginning in January 2024, Nicor spokeswoman Jennifer Golz said Wednesday.
A national republication of our Wirepoints column.
The Illinois Supreme Court has not made public a timeline for when it will act, though justices have said they will act expeditiously. The court will rule with a 5-2 majority of Democrats.
Thanks to the rise of digital mapping, the relative orderliness of different street systems can now be calculated. A measure of zero suggests a city with absolutely no consistent street direction; A measure of one implies a perfect grid, with no interruptions or curves. Chicago hits 0.89, higher than any other city on Earth. London, a city stitched together over millennia from villages on the lines of haphazardly placed Roman, medieval and Victorian thoroughfares, gets just 0.015. This can be shown on a polar histogram. Cities like London are circular blobs; those
The business of Congress cannot get started until a speaker is chosen. Illinois Democrats, including Reps. Robin Kelly and Jan Schakowsky, shared photos of themselves eating popcorn during the proceedings, seemingly relishing the chaotic nature of the vote.
LaHood – whose district now runs from northern border of Illinois south past Peoria – does have bona fides within his party. The Illinois Republican sits on the Ways & Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His name has been mentioned as a possibility to head the NRCC heading into the 2024 election.
Former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush achieved some legislative goals in the congressional lame duck session, including criminal justice reform and economic development efforts targeting underrepresented groups. But a signature effort to open up all FBI files related to its civil rights-era COINTELPRO operations did not pass before time ran out.
“With all due respect, I shouldn’t have to call the alderman to get [police] resources to scared elderly people,” said Sam Kukadia, who co-founded the South Asian Chamber of Commerce of Illinois
“This bill before the General Assembly simply provides the opportunity for people to have the consideration for parole after they’ve served 40 years,” said Lindsey Hammond, the Police Director for Restore Justice Illinois, an organization supporting the bill. “HB 1064 does not guarantee that people will be released into the community or that they will automatically come home, it just gives them that opportunity to have that consideration.”
If the city does move some of the 1,500 immigrants still in its care into the former Wadsworth school in Woodlawn, it will come over the objection of Ald. Jeanette Taylor. Taylor said the Spanish-speaking immigrants would struggle to communicate with their new neighbors. The city should shelter the immigrants in a place where they could start to rebuild their lives, Taylor said.
The top Illinois cities for netting U-Haul customers are Chicago, Melrose Park and Champaign. Other notable net-gain markets include Peoria, Evanston, Joliet, Danville, Rolling Meadows, Arlington Heights, Quincy, Decatur and Carbondale.
Illinois already allows online sports betting, which has been a cash cow for the state. Researcher Heather Fletcher said Illinois is one of five states to watch in 2023 for possible online casino legalization. “Specifically for Illinois, once the market is mature it could mean $240 million, and that is if it’s taxed the same rate as sports,” she said.
“I don’t dispute the idea that agritourism, especially when it comes to wine, is powerful for the state’s economy and important,” state Rep. Michael Zalewski said. “If this helps them with that, then it is all the more reason to get this bill done.”
The typical career state pensioner, which excludes employees also qualifying for Social Security, collected $82,478 in benefits in 2021 while the median working Illinois resident earned just $46,634 a year.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Illinois lawmakers’ triumph with the “Workers’ Rights” amendment may very well condemn Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s commitment to make Illinois “one of the leading EV hubs in the entire nation.” Illinois is already losing big because the EV revolution is largely happening in Right-To-Work states.
Ted was on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan and Amy to review Illinois’ 2022 population losses, the potential consequences of the “Great Re-sort” going on between states, the depressing fact that hundreds of CPS schools are half-empty or less and the corrupt nature of Gov. Pritzker giving out millions in campaign funds to judges and doubling the pay of his state staff.
The post-pandemic hybrid work landscape has left record downtown office vacancies in Chicago, with companies continuing to shed space as long-term leases come up for renewal. For the third quarter, vacancy rates in the central business district rose to 19.6%, while the Chicago metro ticked up to 21.8%, according to a Newmark report.
The lame-duck session is the final chance for legislative action on the thousands of bills introduced over the past two years. Even more bills have already been introduced this week.
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