Rich Miller: Private meetings prevent public spats in Springfield – Chicago Sun-Times

“Members of the legislature can hammer things out behind closed doors ahead of public debates because the General Assembly has long exempted itself from the Illinois Open Meetings Act…The Illinois House Democrats have 78 of 118 members, but they’re exempt, so they’re all allowed to meet. I’ll leave the judgment of whether that’s good or bad to others, but it was clearly an advantage for (Speaker Chris) Welch’s caucus on the health care issue.”

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Read the Bears’ Full Statement on Exploring New Stadium Sites Besides Arlington Park – NBC5 (Chicago)

The statement reads, in part, “The stadium-based project remains broadly popular in Arlington Heights, Chicagoland and the state. However, the property’s original assessment at five times the 2021 tax value, and the recent settlement with Churchill Downs for 2022 being three times higher, fails to reflect the property is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state.”

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Dayton Illustrates for Chicago: What Happens at the End of a ShotSpotter Contract – Illinois Answers Project

Like stakeholders in Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Brandon Johnson has plenty of data to inform his promise to end Chicago’s SoundThinking contract. Among the Inspector General’s findings: Only 9.1% of more than 50,000 ShotSpotter alerts turned up evidence of a gun-related criminal offense having occurred. Similarly, in Dayton, an arrest happened in less than 1% of the dispatches prompted by a ShotSpotter alert.

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Civic Committee’s Rx for crime is long on investment, short on cops – Crain’s*

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club is pledging to raise tens of millions of dollars and hire thousands of at-risk individuals in a bid to finally curb the epidemic of street crime that has afflicted the city for decades But the group’s five-point program is notably silent on the volatile question of whether Chicago has enough police, a huge subject of recent debate. And it virtually ignores other key players in the city’s crime picture, notably the Cook County State’s Attorney and Cook County Circuit Court, frequently blamed for letting too many criminals go free.

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HUD and Chicago Housing Authority sued over Chicago Fire land lease – Chicago Tribune*

The deal has been mired in controversy from its inception, with the lawsuit being the latest effort to stop the Chicago Fire from building a new training facility on 23 acres of CHA land. The City Council initially blocked the deal and then reversed course in September 2022, but housing advocates have continued to express their disapproval of CHA land being used for non-housing purposes.

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400 Migrants Will Move Into Daley College This Weekend, But Some Neighbors Oppose City’s Plan – Block Club Chicago

There are eight city-run shelters, and they are all near or at capacity, a spokesman said. He said it’s unclear how long buses of people are expected to keep arriving, but the city is seeing about 85 people arrive every day. Since August, 10,502 men, women and children have come to Chicago. About 4,500 people are staying in the city’s temporary shelters, and more than 600 are waiting in police stations for shelter space to become available.

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Boka, Lettuce Entertain You, and One Off Want to Deploy Private Security Patrols in West Loop and Fulton Market – Chicago Eater

An increasing number of private groups in Chicago neighborhoods have begun hiring private security to help deter crime such as carjackings, burglaries, and muggings. For example, in 2021, the co-owner of the Bristol, John Ross, was a victim of a carjacking and hospitalized. A year later, Bucktown Neighbors Association hired P4 Security Solutions in December.

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Growing list of cities and states follow Evanston’s controversial lead on reparations – Washington Examiner

Though the program has received much fanfare, the rollout has been slow, riddled with unforced errors, and has resulted in a number of unintended consequences that at times have left elderly recipients on their own against online predators. Some were also initially kept in the dark that if they took a lump sum payout, it would be taxable and could possibly boot them from other government assistance programs, such as SNAP and healthcare.

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New figures show tourists flocked back to Chicago in 2022 – Crain’s*

Officials from Choose Chicago announced today that visitation to the city during 2022 was up 60% from 2021 as public health restrictions faded and a surge of leisure travelers poured in during peak tourism months. The total, reported by the city’s official destination marketing group using data from travel research firm DK Shifflet, was roughly 80% of the 2019 figure, when the city boasted a record 60.8 million visitors.

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Paul Vallas: By failing to extend the Invest in Kids Act, Illinois is moving to eradicate parental choice – Chicago Tribune*

Surrounded by Ebinger Elementary School students, Gov. Bruce Rauner signs an education funding bill on Aug. 31, 2017.“An analysis of 2021 U.S. census data by Wirepoints shows that Illinois spends 20% to 60% more per pupil than its neighbors and other Midwestern states…One would think that the well-documented strong performance of parochial and other private schools would compel the legislature to not only extend the successful Invest in Kids scholarship program but also make it permanent and even expand it. Not in Illinois.”

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State Rep. Martin McLaughlin: Illinois needs a business climate change – Daily Herald/Barrington Hills Observer

“Our state is located in the center of the United States. Illinois is second only to Texas with the most miles of railroad tracks. Only Texas and California have more miles of Interstate highways than Illinois. We also have access to numerous rivers, and Chicago is home to one of the busiest airports in the nation. Illinois should be a destination for companies not a place these businesses are looking to leave. These companies are leaving not just because of the bad policies in Illinois but also because our state’s leaders continue to refuse to do anything to address our

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14-year-old boy killed, 4 others wounded in Chicago mass shooting that prompted police to return fire – FOX32 (Chicago)

Around 8:21 p.m., a group of people started shooting at another group in the 4200 block of South Wells Street. Officers arrived and saw several people shot on the ground and a male armed with a handgun. The gunman shot in the direction of police and an officer returned fire. The gunman was taken into custody a short time later, police said.

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