-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Andrea Saénz, president of the Chicago Community Trust, called the findings a “wake-up call…The fact that if you’re Black or Latinx in Cook County, you’re significantly more likely to be financially vulnerable than the rest of the country, is shocking. It’s something we all need to grapple with.”
“What are the institutions in our country that are consistently blocking the will of the majority of the American people?” U.S. Rep. Sean Casten said. “The answer is the Senate, the Electoral College and the Supreme Court.” So the Illinois Democrat is introducing two bills and a constitutional amendment that would radically change his workplace — he wants to expand the House and Senate, reshape the Electoral College and curtail the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
CPD brass ordered district units to downtown in light of overall tension following the murder of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers and two specific local incidents: a raid on the Canada Goose store near Chicago’s historic Water Tower yesterday morning and a failed attempt by thieves to crash a U-Haul truck into a South Side cellular store over the weekend.
Republican Gretchen Fritz filed the lawsuit Dec. 28, claiming she believes “mistakes and fraud have been committed in the casting and counting of ballots” in the Will County clerk’s race because her opponent, Democratic Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, received more votes than Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Fifth District Appellate Court of Illinois on Tuesday dismissed three procedural counts Thomas DeVore brought against the law, but upheld the count alleging a violation of equal projections under the law because it exempts certain employees of law enforcement and security sectors from the new ban.
Exactly 38 months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, Illinois will no longer be under a disaster proclamation as of May 11 – the same day President Joe Biden will end the national public health emergency. Gov. JB Pritzker declared a public health emergency two days before the WHO’s pandemic determination and has renewed his disaster proclamation every 30 days since then.
Sixty-eight percent of superintendents statewide said they had fewer people apply at the start of this school year than the year before. Among those who did, less than half had the right endorsements for the positions for which they were applying. That means districts have had to eliminate or go remote for some higher level classes in foreign language, science and math.
The Chicago Office of Inspector General determined that Jeffrey Kriv, 56, contested 44 tickets since 2009 in administrative hearings, claiming each time that the citations were issued to his vehicle after his girlfriend stole it, prosecutor Thomas Fryska said. Kriv allegedly made false statements during the hearings and submitted nearly identical false police reports to support his claim each time. All of the tickets were dismissed.
In the 2-1 decision, a three-justice panel of the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon ruled that plaintiffs challenging the gun ban have demonstrated a good chance of success on their arguments that the state violated not only their fundamental rights to keep and bear arms, but also their rights to equal protection under the Illinois state constitution in a “frenzied ‘gut and replace’” lawmaking process “that failed to comply with our state’s constitution.”
“The massive fraud began at the height of COVID during a time when students were not allowed to be physically present in school,” reads a document presented at Vera Liddell’s bond hearing. Court records accuse Liddell of ordering more than 11,000 cases of chicken wings from the school district’s food provider and then picking up the order in a district cargo van.
The candidates answered “yes” or “no” and were also given the option to provide brief written answers that helped explain their positions.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has denied migrants are being turned away from shelters. But as city leaders scramble to find more housing for thousands of people, organizers and local leaders also are hustling to help migrants they say aren’t easily finding support through the city.
School District U-46 Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders also has advocated at the state and federal levels as a member and past chair of the Large Countywide and Suburban District Consortium. He supported the effort to reform Illinois’ school funding formula and enact Evidence-Based Funding and to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act.
About 113 dispensaries now operate across the state, leading to booming adult use cannabis sales in Illinois. In 2022, legal cannabis sales totaled $1.5 billion, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said.
Illinois’ only scholarship-based school choice program is in peril unless lawmakers take action. Since it launched in 2018, the Invest in Kids program has awarded more than 37,000 scholarships worth $280 million.
“I do give credit to the administration for their prioritizing paying down any of the debt that we incurred,” said former Rep. Tom Demmer, the House Republicans’ longtime budgeting point man. “On the other hand, I’m still concerned about some of the spending growth relative to what we expect our economic and revenue growth is going to look like.”
Lightfoot: “We are all laboring to meet out our pension obligations and there has to be some structural solutions… I’m going to and have started to re-up those conversations…his is something that I think Springfield and governor’s office have to take notice of and start the process.”
Last August, the number of sworn officers plunged to 11,611, its lowest level in years. The department was down 1,742 officers from its peak four years earlier. “What we really started to notice over the last few years is we didn’t have the manpower to man the beat cars,” said recently retired Chicago police lieutenant John Garrido.
“We have every intention of ratcheting up our campaign for basic fairness, not just for our members but for every public sector worker in this city who may find themselves on the wrong side of the mayor’s indifference to fairness,” the union declared in a press statement.
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick will not face possible censure from the DuPage County Board after he agreed to enforce “all state and local laws” after a discussion which included talk about the state’s new assault weapons ban with DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy and DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, according to a joint statement from the three released Monday.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER