-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
School-based health services include, but are not limited to, behavioral health services, preventative care, and physical therapy. The expansion of the program will build on currently-offered health care services available in Illinois schools to children enrolled in Medicaid, as well as training offered to staff, and claiming of federal funds.
“Those policies championed and implemented by the Lightfoot administration are wonky and technical. Unsexy — but necessary in achieving equity. History shows that race-neutral approaches often unwittingly produce racist outcomes. Intentionality must be behind ensuring access to resource-rich communities.”
“While the city was already a haven for illegal aliens under (Mayor Lori) Lightfoot’s leadership, (Brandon) Johnson promises to go even further than his ousted predecessor. In addition to giving illegal aliens access to the franchise, Johnson’s platform calls for giving them permanent housing and taxpayer-funded legal services.”
“…(O)ver 60 percent of Americans believed the feds were not spending enough on education, health care, Social Security or infrastructure, while another 59 percent believed spending was too low on aid to the poor, and another 58 percent thought spending on Medicare should go up. Which means the American public has a pretty poor understanding of what government spends taxpayer money on, and at best is giving mixed signals to politicians about the course of action they’d support.”
Audits for 51 townships in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties show that 19 suburban townships had reserves exceeding a year’s worth of operating expenses last year; Four had enough reserves to cover more than two years of costs. “Most taxpayers are going paycheck to paycheck and certainly don’t have 2½ years’ worth of expenses sitting in savings,” said Bob Anderson, a Wonder Lake resident who has pushed for eliminating townships for decades.
Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago, acting on instinct, knew just what to do: Say “no” to easy revenue that had been coming in for years. The city’s reputation was far more valuable. By dropping a charge of ten cents for public toilet use in 1973, he provided an object lesson in how not to leave a needlessly bad taste in the mouths of residents and visitors.
<img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="article-image article-image-ux-impr aligncenter" tabindex="0" title="Dignitaries listen to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on a stage behind the Shedd Aquarium to celebrate the selection of Chicago as the host for the 2024 Democratic National Convention April 12, 2023. Behind Pritzker is Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, right, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, left." src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1adZY4.img?w=768&h=512&m=6&x=11&y=327&s=717&d=171" alt="Dignitaries listen to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on a stage behind the Shedd Aquarium to celebrate the selection of Chicago as the host for the 2024 Democratic National Convention April 12, 2023. Behind Pritzker is Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, right, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, left."
“Our $3 head tax would go strictly to the city of Chicago,” said state Rep. Marty Moylan. “We want to make the city of Chicago whole.” He said one of the Bears’ lobbyists expressed reservations about the admissions tax, but he dismissed those concerns. “I said: Listen, it’s not going to cost the Bears anything.”
Cal Thomas: “From New York City, where District Attorney Alvin Bragg won’t prosecute certain crimes and reduces some felonies to misdemeanors, to San Francisco and Los Angeles where the streets resemble a flop house, America seems to be coming apart at the seams…The weekly shootings and murders in Chicago have become so routine that it rarely makes national news.”
“What the heck is going on and when is it going to change so that you stop getting sued, so we stop seeing deaths as the headline, and that our public can feel confident that we’re overseeing $2 billion to your department in a way in which they expect a better result,” state Sen. Seth Lewis asked. 171 children involved with DCFS died during Fiscal Year 2022, according to the Inspector General’s report.
Illinois is one of just 12 states that still has a state estate tax. Senate Bill 140 amends the Illinois Estate and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Act to eliminate the state tax for persons dying on or after the effective date of the new law or for transfers made on or after the effective date.
Jim Dey: “There’s no specific quid quo pro — if you give me this, I’ll give you that — that’s been proved or even alleged. The law doesn’t require anything so obvious for jurors to reach their verdicts, just enough smoke to generate a fire that will scorch traditional business-as-usual in Illinois.”
As agents of the Cook County Assessor’s Office, Basilio Clausen, Lumni Likovski, and Lavdim Memisovski accepted bribes from business owners in the form of golf outings, food and drinks. In exchange, Clausen and Likovski circumvented the regular system of random assignment of appeals to route the appeals to Memisovski, who reduced the assessed values on the properties, according to the indictment.
The better state ratings are due in part to the positive effect of federal pandemic aid, which some states used for one-time expenses while others set cash aside for the future. State treasuries also saw an influx of tax revenue from residents — bolstered by US stimulus money sent to individuals — who spent on services at home at the height of the pandemic, and on travel after Covid lockdowns were eased. Still, a slowdown in the US economy this year is causing concern that states can
Politicians who glibly cite the true wishes of “the American people” as the motive for their actions are also simultaneously congratulating themselves for their insight. I think of four Illinois politicians nearest, though far from dearest, to me: Tammy Duckworth, Dick Durbin, Jan Schakowsky and J.B. Pritzker. A smarmy plea for unity rings especially false at a time when the country is so deeply divided.
Former Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey proclaimed a New Chicago Machine would emerge after the election of the CTU’s very own Brandon Johnson. “They attacked the CTU for being a political machine which gave out tax breaks to rich developers and wealthy businesses,” said Sharkey, who is now a citywide delegate teaching at South Shore High School. “It was a cruel ridiculous attack on us. I want to build a different machine.”
Two bills in the Illinois legislature this session will require air conditioning, or at least a common room with air conditioning, in buildings housing seniors.
“While there are several legitimate government interests served by [the law], there is no rational basis for restricting [the law] to McHenry County. The statute is therefore unconstitutional,” Berg ruled.
very teenager out on the streets of the Loop last Saturday night was not there to start trouble. CBS 2’s Terry caught up with a group of supervised youngsters who became swept up in the “takeover” mayhem – and who now fear when, and if, they come back downtown, people will look at them with side eyes because they, in their words, “fit the description.”
Comment: The author, Stuart Loren, is an exceptionally reflective and bright Chicagoan who has taken time to write about our problems in Illinois.
Chicago is historically known as a city of immigrants and a sanctuary city welcoming newcomers, but the reception for mostly Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants has been a mixed bag with not enough shelter capacity or available migrant housing.
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