-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
There were about 1,600 sexual assault victims in 2022, and Black women made up about 40% of the victims, according to victim data. That trend held true for most violent crimes in the city.
Currently, many of recently arrived migrants are being sheltered at police stations across the state. House Bill 2822 would have required the Illinois State Board of Education to create a new grant program for public schools. This bill didn’t make it past committee.
In reviewing the matter of prejudgment interest, the panel noted the state has allowed such awards in several types of legal matters for more than a century, so the 2021 law allowing for such interest in personal injury and wrongful death suits was a logical expansion. The justices said the law could be justified on the basis that it encourages settlement, rather than trial.
A number of secret recordings made by Link were played Monday in the trial of James Weiss, a politically connected businessman accused of agreeing to pay bribes to Link and state Rep. Luis Arroyo in order to advance legislation that would help Weiss’ sweepstakes gaming business.
Said Interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller, “We are planning on adding some more officers to the Mass Transit Unit. It’s kind of a scarce unit right now. We need to add some more to it. But we’re pulled in so many directions right now. But that’s what the plan is.”
“I have been imploring the White House and the federal government to do two things. One is we need comprehensive immigration reform,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “In the meantime, we ought to be allowing at least the asylum seekers that came here in the latter half of last year to now get work permits. We have jobs available for them.”
Libraries that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that books should not be removed because of partisan or personal disapproval, will continue to get state funding.
Chicago’s lack of a city charter is a striking feature of its government, both because nearly every peer city has a charter — akin to a city constitution — and because a charter could support other reforms. Joe Ferguson, a former Chicago inspector general and now executive director of charter advocacy group (re)Chicago, explains how a charter could help Chicago and outlines the road map to adoption.
“In too many communities, the parents do not have an adequate school and they should be empowered to choose a school that fits their child,” former Gov. Bruce Rauner said. “I believe that very passionately and I’ve devoted a lot of my life to that.”
The legislation was introduced following an investigation into rampant abuses and cover-ups at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, a state-run institution in southern Illinois that houses people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illnesses.
One law makes it a crime to interfere with picketing workers, another limits judges from awarding money for damage to a businesses’ property, while the other awards disability benefits to any police officer, firefighter or paramedic who became ill following the declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Villivalam worked as a lobbyist in Springfield for the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, before his 2018 election.
“The rap on Paul Vallas during the mayoral race was that despite calling himself “a lifelong Democrat,” he really was a not-so-closeted conservative Republican running in a city whose overall political slant is well to the political left…. But today he offered his critics a ton of ammunition suggesting that voters were right about him after all, with the announcement that he has taken a position with the Illinois Policy Institute as a policy adviser. The institute is a Chicago-based libertarian think tank that regularly argues for lower taxes, privatized pensions for government workers and school choice. It
Illinois’ 5th District congressman recently reintroduced what’s called the TRACE Act, which would require background check information to be retained longer by gun dealers. Among other things, it would also make it easier for authorities to obtain background check information and would require new firearms to have a second, hidden serial number.
In a statement, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration said Friday that it was evaluating laws and security policies with other airports to guide what happens at O’Hare. His office also said that Johnson still supports proposed policies like the financial assistance program Bring Chicago Home because he “believes it can deliver real solutions to supporting unsheltered people and reducing homelessness.”
Prices in Illinois are 6.8 cents per gallon higher than a month ago and stand 166.5 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.
For the first time in more than three years, all city boards and commissions are once again meeting in person to handle the city’s business — putting an end to the virtual meetings that became a hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rauner’s portrait depicts him in front of an empty blue background with his ubiquitous Illinois-shaped lapel pin as the only non-clothing item depicted. “I don’t think any portrait summarizes anybody’s legacy very well,” Rauner said when asked of the background choice.
HB 1591 amends the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, which had previously prohibited out of state couples from obtaining and Illinois marriage license. HB 1596 amends the Children and Family Services Act by removing gender specific pronouns.
Vallas will focus on Chicago education, public safety and fiscal policy research as a policy adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker continuously denies Illinois is losing population, but sources all keep pointing in the same direction – people are leaving Illinois for other states in record numbers. More than 146,000 net Illinoisans left for other states in 2021 and now we now know where they moved to.
Thought the Covid emergency was over? Chicago Public Schools agreed with the teacher’s union to extend the five emergency sick days granted during the pandemic to the coming academic year, plus two additional days for good measure.
Shoppers in Cook County have already been footing the fix for county employee pensions since 2015, when Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle successfully backed hiking the sales tax to prop up the pension fund. County voters also have approved raising property owners’ tax bills to help the forest preserve fund, a charge that will show up on second installment of 2023 bills. But under the bill awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature, the county would be able to use any funding source for pension fund contributions, not just property tax revenues.
A least four people were injured in a shooting at a South Side CTA station on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
There’s a complicated and mutually beneficial relationship between Evanston and Northwestern, and the partners get on each other’s nerves. Northwestern touched a lot of them with its plan to rebuild 97-year-old Ryan Field, an estimated $800 million job the school will fund without direct taxpayer subsidies. Northwestern is pushing its plan aggressively in hopes of starting work after the next football season.
A knowledgeable source says the next tranche of refugee aid to be announced early in the week will include $19.3 million for Illinois, with just over half of the aid — $10.5 million — allocated for Chicago. Both surely wanted more; the Chicago City Council just appropriated more than $50 million to pay for food, shelter and other expenses through June. But it’s a lot better than the $8.5 million they had to split in the last award in May.
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