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The decision to potentially house migrants at the closed school building impacts “the value of our land, safety and peace…We have been redlined, Jim Crowed, pushed out,” exclaimed South Shore community advocate Natasha Dunn. “Enough!”
“CPS is $1 billion short of what the state says is required to provide an ‘adequate’ education. Think about that. Our mandated goal is to provide just an adequate education for our young people. And we wonder why young people from our most vulnerable neighborhoods continue to struggle. Here is the truth: We cannot police our way out of the challenges facing Chicago. We must begin investing in our classrooms, in our neighborhoods and in our people…That’s a tall order, but educators are used to doing the impossible. With a teacher in City Hall, I’m confident we can do it.”
The men have known each other for a few months, and both were residents of the emergency shelter that Chicago city officials established at the old Standard Club. Elvis Diaz-Betancourt, 27, was at least the third Venezuelan migrant to appear before Judge Maryam Ahmad in felony bond court last week.
The move has created an unusual dynamic. On one hand, the company’s subsidiary, ComEd, is cooperating with federal investigators and paid a $200 million fine for attempting to “influence and reward” Mike Madigan in a long-running bribery scheme. Yet the Exelon-financed legal teams for former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and former ComEd Executive Vice President John Hooker spent close to two months telling a federal judge and jury that their clients — and the power company — had done nothing illegal. ComEd maintains that no ratepayer dollars are being used for the expenses.
Absent from the Capitol, however, is the flurry of tax-reduction plans Democrats proposed last year, when flush with cash. Pritzker’s plan to relieve inflation with tax breaks and holidays was expanded with legislative Democrats’ help to $1.8 billion.
The first of four orders seeks to boost youth employment by examining resources in the fiscal year 2023 budget that are available to fund youth employment and enrichment programs. Johnson also signed three executive orders establishing new deputy mayor positions, the first of which is a deputy mayor for immigrant, migrant and refugee rights.
Instead of seeking funds for roadway improvements, the bill would implore federal lawmakers to create toll roads to help deter shootings on Chicago-area expressways.
There will be a lot of new faces in the council chambers with 13 wards that’ll be represented by a new alderperson after an exodus of veteran council members last year.
“A bright spot and a hallmark of this program is that children can attend any private K-12 school. Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, science, arts, whatever is the best fit for them,” said Anthony Holter, president of Empower Illinois. Scholarships are not only for the smartest kids. One out of nine students who apply have a unique learning need, he said.
Actuary Mary Pat Campbell: “So that’s the scatterplot highlighting the Chicago plans only … and yeah, they’re about the worst.”
State Rep. Curtis Tarver said the shooting death of 24-year-old Areanah Preston should lead to discussions about penalty enhancements. “While we don’t always want to look at penalty enhancements and things along those lines, when you look at a situation like this, when we’re snuffing out the absolute best and the brightest that we have, individuals who actually want to go and do the right thing, maybe it is time to have a conversation about some of the policies that we pass.”
Michael Masters, CEO of Secure Community Network: “Unfortunately, the way in which the process is being manipulated by certain parties has all the makings of a farce: Police officials are openly campaigning for the job, community stakeholders are working to elevate their preferred candidates and, in at least one case, a potential applicant is lobbying former superintendents for their endorsement. This shouldn’t be a popularity contest….”
CME Group is prepared to leave Chicago if the city and state take steps that are perceived as “ill-conceived,” Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said in an interview. Duffy’s remarks, made in an episode of the Odd Lots podcast, come as Mayor Brandon Johnson is being sworn into office after proposing additional taxes, including one on financial transactions, to help boost the city’s revenue. That plan was fiercely opposed by Chicago’s exchanges and investment firms. A higher levy would also require state approval to pass.
House Bill 1297, fom state Sen. Erica Harriss, would extend the current statute in the pension code to allow teachers the ability to buy up to two years of service credit at a private or parochial school from the Teachers Retirement System.
Fifty years after Chicago pioneered the way to end pay toilets, the city is lacking in public toilet infrastructure. There are fewer than 500 publicly available restrooms that are easily accessible without any restrictions or with minimal restrictions and a significant number of these bathrooms are managed by organizations that cannot provide round-the-clock access to them,
“We don’t want our story to be told that we were unable to house the unhoused or provide safe harbor for those who are seeking safe refuge here because there’s enough room for everyone in the city of Chicago — whether you are seeking asylum or looking for a fully-funded neighborhood,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We cannot afford to get it wrong, Chicago. We don’t want a Chicago that has been so overwhelmed by the traumatization of violence and despair that our residents felt no hope or no
The mayor said, in part, “I’m struck by how much work it took to bring us to this moment. How many decades of slow grinding progress – think about the labor movement, which produced luminaries like my mentor and dear sister Karen Lewis, who modeled true social justice unionism, and helped lead the multiracial, multicultural, working class movement that organized its way to this moment.”
Advocates argue that youth employment is strongly correlated with a decrease in violent crime. A study from the University of Chicago Crime Lab found that the city’s 2012 summer jobs program for at-risk youth reduced violent crime arrests by 43 percent over 16 months.
Prices in Illinois are 19 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 95.1 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.
Matt Paprocki, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “When Illinois loses prime working-age adults, we don’t just lose their talent and value to the jobs market. The state also loses their buying power, meaning a sales tax hit. We lose their investment in local communities, meaning property taxes.”
Jonathan Williams, chief economist with the American Legislative Exchange Council, said the amount of money that left Illinois in 2021 is staggering. “In a typical year, Illinois would lose between $2 [billion], and $6 [billion] or $8 billion, but this is nearly $11 billion in annual wealth that Illinois has lost, more than the 49 other states on net. That is just a cruising blow to the future prospects of Illinois turning it around economically.”
Things aren’t looking up for the commercial real estate market, with the city’s office-vacancy rate reaching a record 22.4% in the first quarter. Even tech companies, once seen as a bright opportunity for Chicago’s future, are retrenching: Salesforce Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. are giving up almost 240,000 square feet of space. “Something dramatic needs to be done,” said Andy Gloor, chief executive officer of Sterling Bay. “Chicago is not going be able to thrive without a dynamic central business district.”
Joshua Hale, of the Big Shoulders Fund: “While some have wondered or expressed concern that this program is diverting money from Illinois’ public schools, thankfully, that simply is not the case. Tax credits have no adverse impact on Illinois’ K-12 education spending and districts are held harmless if a public school student is awarded a scholarship. In fact, since the inception of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program, public school funding has increased every year in Illinois, particularly in Chicago.”
The proprietors of a vintage resale shop in Chicago find themselves targeted by the mob for the crime of selling a portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and sharing right-leaning memes on Facebook . And one of the agitators is a person actually named Karen.
Almost all the states with income taxes that have reported April receipts—including Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Montana—have seen revenue declines. West Virginia is the only exception, reporting a 4% year over year increase in total April general fund revenues.
Mark Robertson and Mike Sullivan, who own four LGBTQ bars on Chicago’s North Side, decided to pull Anheuser-Busch’s products — Bud Light, as well as the Chicago-based Goose Island — from its shelves, as have other Chicago bar owners who feel Anheuser-Busch’s decision was a reversal from its rainbow-branded support of the LGBTQ community.
An awful, unconstitutional piece of legislation that should have been opposed by the left and right passed unanimously in the Illinois House and Senate. It now goes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker for signature. The only significant opposition came from the ACLU of Illinois.
“Escalating grade inflation appears to be public schools’ answer nationally to their increasingly worsening performance. This should be of particular concern given the recent reports that COVID-19 erased 20 years of academic progress…A report by the conservative advocacy group Wirepoints on CPS performance uses Illinois Report Card data to demonstrate how lower standards and grade inflation distort true student performance.”
Gov. JB Pritzker’s staff has said his administration has so far spent $260 million on providing shelter and care for asylum-seekers and recently directed another $10 million to Chicago on top of $20 million lawmakers allocated in January in response to a request from Mayor Lori Lightfoot. With Monday being her last day in office, her successor, Brandon Johnson, will have just four days to work with the General Assembly on any possible reinforcements before its scheduled Friday adjournment.
“Aréanah Preston’s family did everything that a close knit loving family is expected to do. They told their children of the many possibilities in life, not the reasons for failure. They were involved. Preston was days away from graduating with a Masters Degree in criminal justice from Loyola University Chicago. But no matter how hard her parents worked to encourage her, political Chicago was encouraging her alleged killers.”
Current law bars anyone convicted of a felony from holding a state office until they’ve completed their sentence. And a provision of the Illinois Municipal Code bars anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony from holding an elected municipal office. But those people are free to run for the General Assembly, governor or any other constitutional office once they’ve completed their sentence.
Johnson is reminded of what President Joe Biden told him during their first meeting in Selma, Alabama, commemorating Bloody Sunday. “I’ll never forget, and, he said, ‘mayor of Chicago,’ he said, ‘the job is harder than mine.’ And, he said, ‘primarily, people know where you live, and they can access you at home,’ but he also said, ‘local government is one of the most powerful ways in which you can influence daily lives of individuals.’ Here is no greater or faster way to do that, and I appreciate his advice.”
Among them, three people were shot in River North on Sunday morning. They were standing in the first block of West Hubbard Street when they were shot as two vehicles were exchanging gunfire.
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