Six states, including Arizona and Florida, have implemented four out of five best practices for public school open enrollment, but Illinois is one of 34 states that have implemented one or none.
The new contract reflects recently renegotiated rates touted by Johnson’s team, a move that was necessitated because the city brought on Favorite Staffing to work at its migrant shelters by piggybacking off a state contract for the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial prices for Favorite Staffing employees have led several aldermen to criticize the contract and call for the city to audit the invoices.
Cristina Pacione Zayas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first deputy chief of staff, said city officials were pleased that President Joe Biden had sent a request to Congress for an additional $1.4 billion for state and local governments providing food, shelter and medical care to the migrants. But the need will be closer to $5 billion, Pacione Zayas said, and Chicago officials will work to get as much of those funds as possible.
The owner of Boneyard Chicago – whose private security guard was surrounded by the thieves – said in the past he went as far as to install concrete barriers in front of his store, but the city removed them without notice. “This would have never happened if the alderman did not come and take our barricades,” Jacob said. “They wouldn’t have been able to do this. They were blocking the store but now this is going to cost us.”
Jackson is one of only 13 members of Congress to sign onto a resolution to urge the Biden administration to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine and to send aid to Gaza.
Senate Bill 690 from state Sen. Ann Gillespie would allow townships to ask local voters for increased taxes to fund mental health boards in certain townships. A possible tax increase runs contrary to what House Minority Leader Tony McCombie laid out in her veto session plans, which included a goal to lower taxes on Illinoisans.
Scores of families descended onto the Illinois Capitol this week calling for the program to be renewed. Sofia, a young student from Joliet, said eliminating the program midway through the school year would have a negative effect on many. “There’s going to be more people suffering and also being stressed out, so we want to make sure what’s going to happen in our future,” she said.
Illinois Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Jim Kaitschuk said law enforcement cares deeply about victims of domestic violence, but they have concerns about the bill. Not only are there due process and officer safety concerns, Kaitschuk said there are concerns about the limited storage space law enforcement agencies have to store confiscated firearms.
The first, HB 2907, limits the amount of monetary damages an employer can recover stemming from a labor dispute. The second, HB 3396, makes it a Class A misdemeanor with a minimum fine of $500 for anyone to place an object in the public way with the intention of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding a picket or other demonstration or protest.
State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer said Illinois can not ignore “the crisis at our southern border…Illinois has become a safe haven destination for illegal immigrants. They know that if they come here, our law enforcement agencies cannot cooperate with federal immigration authorities to detain or deport them. On top of that, the state of Illinois gives illegal immigrants free healthcare benefits, driver’s licenses, housing assistance, as well as other taxpayer-funded benefits.”
The mock newspaper at Northwestern includes fake quotes from university president Michael Schill “on the situation in Gaza,” poking the president about his refusal to comment, though from the anti-Israel side. The students who put the paper together compared the 200 hostages still held by Hamas to 13 take-out containers missing from the university’s dining halls.
Ald. Julia Ramirez, who was attacked along with her aide by protestors at the site being considered last week, tried to allay the concerns of the crowd. She said: ‘The city is asking a lot of Brighton Park’ and added she had asked for more resources for the area.
Among the actions the group wants elected officials to undertake are providing a “strategic plan and roadmap to reduce crime and increase public safety as soon as possible,” and releasing data showing the effectiveness of violence prevention and intervention programs.
“And, as we make accomplishments, I think it actually brings people together,” Pritzker told an audience at the progressive Center for American Progress annual ideas conference. “If you can make it easier for people to raise their family to save for retirement, to send their kids to college, to buy a house, if we can make it just a little bit easier for people, I think that brings the temperature down and it’s also why you get elected to public office — to step in and get those things done.”
“In the more than a century and a half of immigration into West Town and Chicago, immigration has not been used as a rationale for a municipal government executive to wield ’emergency’ powers depriving current citizens and residents of rights under the law,” the lawsuit states.
The latest unemployment numbers show Illinois’ workforce continues to trail the rest of the nation as the Land of Lincoln finished in the bottom five for September. According to Chris Davis of the National Federation of Independent Business, higher costs, increased rents, increased input costs and supply chain issues have hindered the ability of these businesses to raise wages to attract workers.
Earlier this year, the Chicago Board of Education gave 22 charter schools shorter two- or three-year contracts for the first time. Last year, of 28 charter schools up for renewal, none received a five-year extension. Limiting renewals to two or three years is CTU’s way of effectively wrecking charter schools in Chicago by creating instability.
Ted joined Cities 92.9’s Cat Petersen to talk about the latest attempt by Illinois’ political class to claim Illinois is growing. All the evidence, from the U.S. Census Bureau to the IRS to United Van Lines to U-Haul to Allied Van Lines, shows Illinois losing far more residents to other states than it gains. Illinois consistently ranks at the bottom of most population/migration statistics.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about how the migrant crisis has Chicago in chaos, how Venezuelans are lying in order to get asylum, how researchers set to talk on gender dysmorphia have once again been ‘canceled’, how Pritzker is forcing Illinois residents to beg for an extension of the Invest in Kids Act, and more.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he wants his state to continue its Invest in Kids scholarship program, but only if he doesn’t have to spend political capital to pass it. That’s the message between the lines of his statement last week that he wouldn’t block the program, which gives scholarships to more than 9,000 low-income students, if someone else in Springfield can make it happen.
CPS expects to once again increase property taxes to the cap next year at around 3%, pulling in an additional $166 million. Another $53 million in state funding is estimated to help fund operations and pay for pensions. But CPS projects it’ll lose $118 million in state tax dollars, plus face higher costs because of inflation, health care increases and debt payments. The state doesn’t pay CPS teacher pensions like other districts in Illinois, amounting to another $700 million Chicago doesn’t have available to spend.
The working group formed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in June to tackle Chicago’s acutely underfunded pensions has yet to craft a comprehensive plan to address one of the major fiscal challenges facing the city. The group of state lawmakers, city officials and union leaders aims to craft a comprehensive plan in time to be presented to lawmakers during their spring session, which begins in January, mayoral adviser Jason Lee said.
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“There’s an impending financial crisis looming within the school district. Much like the mayor’s sanctuary city allies, Stacy Davis Gates and the Chicago Teachers Union are also clamoring for a blank check of their own…. CPS receives nearly 56% of all Chicagoans’ property taxes and 25% of all state K-12 funding —yet it is crying poverty.”
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