-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
On Wednesday, the City Council approved the use of the $51 million in 2021 surplus funds in a 34-13 vote. A dozen Democrats joined the lone independent in voting against the bill. Aldermen reportedly yelled over each other numerous times, and members of the crowd were removed by security.
A business’s alderperson will need to sign off on any outdoor dining street permits.
The pressure — in the form of legislation from U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Tammy Baldwin — would require the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct new airplane cabin evacuation tests with more realistic conditions, and issue standards that include the size of and space between seats. Duckworth said, “I mean, for crying out loud, put some carry-on baggage on the (test) aircraft.”
“When there is more poverty in a community, there is more likely to be criminal activity that arises in that community,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “The more we can lift people up, and we are doing that in a number of ways, one
Last September, the state of Illinois announced that more than 1,200 small cities, towns and villages across Illinois would receive $371 million as part of the second round of funding through the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Officials have denied that funds already distributed would be taken back, but money sitting in the U.S. Treasury Department that hasn’t been doled out yet could be recalled.
State Rep. John Efgosky decried the lack of full funding from the Local Government Distributive Fund back to 10%. He said municipalities should also expect a hit from a reduction in Personal Property Replacement Tax funds to cities for a net loss of $600 million statewide. “This is frankly catastrophic,” Egofske said during debate Saturday morning.
Police are not allowed to use drones at political protests, demonstrations or other First Amendment-protected gatherings. Another stipulation of the legislation is that the footage must be erased within 24 hours unless a crime is captured. Police agencies also must publicly post their drone program usage at least 24 hours in advance.
At present, nearly 40% of Cook County workers take less than 12 weeks of leave at a cost to the county of about $2.1 million a year in salary and payroll tax. At nearly $6 million, the new policy is estimated to cost almost three times as much, including factoring in more overtime needed to cover employees taking longer leaves than they can under the current policy.
“The mere fact that a recently elected mayor of Chicago would sit down and talk about the future of Chicago with [Angela] Davis pretty much tells the public that Chicago is now a hopeless place that also poses a dire threat to the rest of the country, for Chicago is a kind of barometer for the rest of the countries big cities.”
Owning retail space on State Street in the Loop has become so tough that the owner of one big property on the shopping strip is signaling that he’s had enough. After trying unsuccessfully to sell a 171,000-square-foot retail space at State and Madison streets, the owner missed its April and May interest payments on the property’s $49.7 million mortgage.
The new bill is based on a value of $95 million, and the reduction is only good for the tax bill due this year and owed by Churchill Downs, said Samantha Steele, the District 2 Board of Review commissioner. Last year, Fritz Kaegi’s office valued the property at just below the $197.2 million price tag the Chicago Bears paid for the property this year.
Situated between the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center and the Washington Park Field House and outdoor pool, the speed camera is tucked behind trees. The camera tickets unsuspecting drivers going west and east bound on a street that has no traffic light or pedestrian crosswalk.
Sen. Robert Martwick’s bills to significantly boost “Tier 2” pension benefits for Chicago firefighters appeared this month to be on the fast track to Pritzker’s desk, facing only tepid resistance in the legislature. Then Martwick got a phone call from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. “He said he just needed some time to get his financial team in place and wrap their heads around the issue,” Martwick said. “He asked for a temporary hold, and so that’s what happened.”
Matt Jungmann, national events director for Farm Progress, inked a deal in the early 2000s that locked in 10 shows over 20 years, estimating that each year would have a $10 million economic impact. “Now we’re up to $31 million, and it feels good to more than fulfill the promise with our upcoming 10th show at the Decatur site,” Jungmann says. Farm Progress reached an agreement to keep the show coming to Decatur on a biennial basis
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie asked Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch to put aside political agendas and allow the House to vote on Republican proposals. “Respect parental rights and respect women who don’t agree with you,” McCombie added. “Address our immense pension liability, high property taxes, and stop growing our government.”
“We cannot send the message that some lies matter and others don’t,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. “It has an enormous impact on the criminal justice ecosystem. Those officers cannot testify in court. They cannot participate in the prosecution of crime. We can’t keep people safe from crimes we can’t prosecute.”
“If there’s enough to go around, then let’s pass an ordinance where we see the ‘enough,’ ” said Ald. David Moore, before voting to reject the funding proposal. Moore represents an underserved, majority-Black ward and has been critical of the city’s approach to the migrant crisis, saying the money should be spent on his residents instead.
To serve these migrants, city officials are currently operating 10 shelters and respite centers in neighborhoods across the city — including the Inn in Streeterville. Some of these shelters have been met with pushback because residents argue the resources dedicated to asylum-seekers should instead be poured into their own disinvested communities. But no neighborhood or section of the city is exclusively bearing the responsibility of providing a place to eat and sleep for asylum-seekers.
Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said that Senate Bill 1559 didn’t pass in part due to disagreements around delta-8 THC, a synthetic psychoactive substance typically manufactured from hemp-derived CBD.
Illinois is in the minority of states graduating a higher percentage of students during the first two years of the pandemic. But state data shows those high school students’ SAT scores are dropping and a smaller percentage are immediately continuing onto higher education.
A former public school teacher documents the profound betrayal of America’s students. “Today, the union is a captured institution, and it argues that the country must be remade for education to even be possible. Favoring ideological indoctrination over academic achievement fundamentally devalues teaching and learning. It is this devaluing that was the nail in the coffin for the school system.”
The regional index of the manufacturing economy plunged in May from 48.6 to 40.4 (against expectations of 47.3). That is the ninth straight month below 50 (in contraction).
Ramona Burton, one of the first 16 recipients chosen for Evanston’s historic program, said her identity was stolen after her name was publicly released. She is the target of online scammers, and she has largely had to navigate the cyber landmines alone. Robin Rue Simmons, the architect of the reparations program, said she, too, has been targeted but stated there simply aren’t enough resources available to shield awardees from nefarious actors.
Jim Dey: “While citing a litany of errors detailing the squandering of many millions of dollars, the report (from the Illinois Auditor General) soft-pedaled its final conclusion. It said the BIG program and its purported safeguards ‘failed to work as advertised.’ That was a line originally used by spin doctors of the early 1900s regarding the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which also failed to work as advertised.
Illinois and other states with the most lead service lines are getting substantially less federal money per line than those with far fewer toxic pipes. For instance, Alaska, with 1,454 lead lines, and South Dakota, with 4,141, will get $19,704 and $6,919 per line respectively during the coming year. The federal money headed to Illinois amounts to $221 per lead service line, a review of EPA data shows. Michigan and Wisconsin are getting $241 and $238 a line.
In one instance in the city’s Hermosa neighborhood, the suspects’ armed robbery of a man on the front porch of his residence in broad daylight is caught on camera.
In the final hours of their spring session last week, lawmakers approved a controversial measure that would give existing power companies in downstate Illinois, notably Ameren Illinois, the first crack at installing new transmission lines. Critics of the proposal said that it would reduce competition, leading to higher costs for construction projects and ultimately higher costs to energy consumers. But proponents said that it will streamline the billions of dollars of construction planned for the coming years while creating union jobs for Illinoisans.
Cook County and the city of Chicago each have their own minimum wage ordinances, and both are higher than the state’s current rate.
The legislation also works to address a potential issue under the current statute where increases in the pensionable salary cap for members hired after January 1, 2011 (Tier 2) have not kept pace with increases in the Social Security Wage Base.
The real measure of success isn’t what the governor says it is, but rather how the state’s residents are faring under his leadership. And that, by most measures, has been a failure. Fewer people are employed today than when Pritzker took office. Illinois’ economic growth is stagnant, at best. Tax burdens are higher than ever. And residents are fleeing in record numbers.
The Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on Equality has quietly established a special subcommittee on “Pronoun and Preferred Name Usage/Gender Identity Policy” to presumably investigate further new rules for courts in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois, however, is just one of several states currently at some stage in the process of revising or creating rules specifically to address pronoun usage.
The progressive uprising of recent years has given Chicago the largest democratic socialist caucus of any American city.
Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer complained that while hospitals will see their reimbursement rate increase by 10%, it’s not enough to keep struggling rural medical centers from “hemorrhaging dollars,” even as he said that the spending plan is riddled with $150 million in giveaway “pork” projects. “The priorities are giving people just enough so you’re not hurting ‘em, and then giving yourself stuff that helps you get reelected,” Davidsmeyer said. “And that’s what disgusts me around here…”
“If we want to level the playing field for the American people and maintain our place as the global economic leader for the rest of the 21st century, we need to protect ourselves from unfair trade practices by the Chinese Community Party. At the same time, we must up our own game and enhance our competitiveness.”
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