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House Bill 2401 would require school districts to make sure that reading assignments and courses include authors who have diverse backgrounds and cultures. “Now more than ever, it’s critical that we uplift educational standards that represent and positively reflect the rich diversity of our state,” state Rep. La Shawn Ford said.
The statement from the Chicago Republican Party concluded, “Broadly speaking, Mr. Vallas’ proposals are marginally closer to Republican positions on the issues, but more because Mr. Johnson’s are so distant.”
Former Commonwealth Edison Senior Vice President Fidel Marquez told jurors the state’s most powerful politician once demanded that the utility giant raise at least $450,000 to fill the coffers of the Democratic Party of Illinois he controlled, with the request coming at a time when the company was frantically pushing a lucrative utility bill that sailed through in Springfield later that same year.
Under the current proposed rule, the federal government, in light of an anticipated increase in border asylum claims when Title 42 is set to end on May 11, 2023, would largely require migrants to follow the rules specified pathways to secure protection in the United States.
The annual “Makers Madness” contest is a bracket-style competition to celebrate manufacturers across Illinois. The habitat is manufactured by Ingersoll Machine Tools in Rockford. At a height of 23 feet, the structure is designed to house two people at a time on the moon and is the world’s tallest single-piece 3D printed polymer structure.
The change means that a farm with leftover tomatoes can turn them into a marinara sauce to be jarred and sold alongside produce. Fruits can be turned into jams, peppers into salsa, and so on. The changes mean less waste and greater profits for small farms.
In mid-February, Gov. JB Pritzker appointed Fran Hurley, who had been reelected in November, to the Illinois Labor Relations Board. Gill will fill out the remainder of the term.
Initially, the grants of up to $25,000 were restricted to mortgage assistance, renovations or a down payment on a home – and this week, Evanston’s city council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. So far, the city has only spent $326,836 of the $10 million promised.
“Endorsements matter in Chicago, a big city where candidates win by piecing together multiracial and multiethnic coalitions and by mobilizing their base voters with intensive campaigning at the doorstep in diverse neighborhoods. The Vallas and Johnson campaigns well understand this reality. Both candidates are closely identified with the programs of key unions that have backed them.”
The pro-gun control group Everytown ranks Illinois’ gun laws as the seventh-strongest in the nation as of January. However, the state has struggled to restrict the flow of illegal guns, particularly in Chicago, and Illinois officials have also faced legal hurdles to implementing new gun restrictions.
The cloud of uncertainty threatens to disrupt classrooms with just a few weeks to go in the spring semester. The unions have been without contracts since last summer.
General trends are largely consistent with those released in the FY2024 budget, as both the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget rely on many of the same economic sources when formulating their predictions. Overall, COGFA predicts an additional $465 million in revenue above the February GOMB estimates, largely stemming from net individual income taxes and sales taxes.
The teachers’ union has donated $606,000 to 16 City Council candidates since the beginning of 2022. All seven incumbents it backed won reelection in February, and four hopefuls made it to runoffs. That works out to a success rate for the teachers union of 69 percent so far. The police union has a lower batting average.
Susana Mendoza’s office paid another $150 million into the Illinois Rainy Day Fund, also called the Budget Stabilization Fund, for the first time this year. The account now stands at $1.22 billion. The comptroller has also scheduled three more payments before the end of the fiscal year.
Lawmakers created the temporary visitor driver’s license, or TVDL, in 2013 to ensure all drivers on state roads have passed a road test regardless of legal residency; According to the secretary of state’s office, more than 300,000 people currently have a TVDL. While the TVDL is valid as a driver’s license, it was never valid as identification.
“Truly consider all that is on the table, so this election does not come down to coloring in the oval for the person who ‘appears to have similar experiences to us.’ Chicagoans cannot keep voting along racial lines and expecting different results.”
Given that even more election judges will be needed for the 2024 presidential election year, county Clerk and Recorder Aaron Ammons said the county could be in the same situation next year if more don’t come forward.
“…(O)nly 3% of ballots cast on Feb. 28 came from the youngest voters…The latest polls put the April 4 race between Johnson, 47, and Vallas, 69, close enough to conclude that any small factor can determine who wins the race.”
“Remember, Chicago is one of the most hyper-segregated cities in the United States,” said Jaime Dominguez, a researcher at Northwestern University. “Historically, in terms of a governing perspective… Black and Brown communities have been negatively affected by some of the decisions that the previous administrations has made… Granted there’s not like, extreme kinds of linear racial bloc voting … but I think the key here is going to be the Latino vote.”
A sharp crime surge is hitting Chicago and the city’s Hispanic-majority police districts so far in 2023. No wonder a new poll shows a far higher percent of Hispanic voters see crime as a deciding issue in the April mayoral run-off. Hispanics could decide the race, but only if their historically weak voter turnout improves.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how neither mayoral candidate has a vision to turn around Chicago, the importance of spreading real crime and education data instead of rhetoric, how lawmakers in Springfield have embraced the soft bigotry of low expectations, why the Hispanic community has the power to demand a better education for their children, and more.
Police sources say almost every police station across the city at one point has had migrants seeking shelter in its lobby – with no place to sleep. Meanwhile, Chicago is receiving record numbers of arrivals of migrants – and community groups are bearing the burden of it all.
Former ComEd vice President Fidel Marquez told jurors that when he got a request from Mike McClain — a ComEd consultant and Michael Madigan’s longtime trusted ally — he knew he had to act on it with urgency because those directions were really coming from Madigan. During one February meeting, McClain is overheard advising Marquez not to put “anything in writing,” stating that “it’s a favor.”
Among the items taken in the 1100 block of West 47th Street Saturday morning was a BMW sedan, which the crew used to commit its next set of robberies Sunday afternoon. Most of the crimes involve three or four offenders who confront victims at gunpoint on the street, police said.
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