“Ten days of sick leave is going to harm small businesses,” said Brad Tietz, of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “This pits big labor against small business and goes too far, too quickly.”
Last year there were over 11,000 hate crimes nationally – and 300 in Illinois. Of those, about half are race related, 20 percent are related to religion, and the rest are a mixture of motives.
The city is exploring the possibility of converting “The Hotel Chicago” within the Marina City complex into migrant housing, potentially providing shelter for over a thousand migrants.
“The state of Illinois spends $18,000 per year, per child, and Chicago Public Schools spend way north of that at nearly $30,000 per kid…” said Nathan Cunneen with the American Federation for Children. A recent report in Wirepoints highlighted the fact that the Chicago Public School District is asking for over $14 billion to address emergency building repairs and renovations to all 522 public school buildings, yet over one-third of the city’s traditional schools are at less than 50% capacity.
“I don’t know whether to scream or to cry,” Ald. Monique Scott said. “We shouldn’t be out here on a Sunday because 15 victims lay in the hospital because they were shot because someone could not get back into a party. When does this end community? When does the fight stop fighting one another?”
Ultimately, Solis became one of the most productive moles the FBI has ever unleashed on the Illinois political landscape. He recorded countless private conversations with now-indicted Ald. Edward Burke and the developers and business people from whom Burke allegedly tried to muscle business for his law firm, as well as then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who faces his own federal corruption trial, and business people Madigan was soliciting.
Bus ridership has increased 22% in 2023 compared to 2022, the agency said. Train ridership is up 15%.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 budget proposal includes $1.48 billion for the Department of Transportation, which is more than double the 2023 budget. This includes a $15 million federal grant to install electric vehicle infrastructure and purchase electric vehicles.
Video from Saturday’s clash shows pro-Palestinians and Black Israelites physically fighting. Some of the Black Israelites are seen wielding wooden sticks, while the pro-Palestinian crowd brandished flag poles. Both sides were seen throwing punches and wildly swinging the sticks and poles, swatting each other.
Overall, the Illinois Community College System’s opening Fall 2023 enrollments had an increase in both headcount (+5.7 percent) and Full-time Equivalent (FTE) (+5.2 percent) from the previous year. The fiscal year 2024 budget includes a 7 percent increase in operating funds – the highest increase in two decades – and a $100 million increase in the Monetary Award Program (MAP).
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is representing one of the 33 agencies in the lawsuit, claiming that Meta deliberately misled the public about the dangers of its platforms and has knowingly induced children and teenagers into addictive and compulsive social media use.
Residents in the area of 115th and Halsted streets have been adamant about not wanting a migrant camp at the site, and Ald. Ronnie Mosley criticized the Johnson administration for moving forward with the shelter despite the community’s concerns. The site had already been earmarked for a development of housing, retail, and park space, with the state of Illinois setting aside $15 million for that project.
“This year, we see a 5% improvement in chronic absenteeism which is good news, it is headed in the right direction. Still, nearly 30% of students were chronically absent in Illinois last year,” state Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders said. The numbers were higher with Black students at 42%, and with Hispanics at 34.5%
Illinois State Board of Education data on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness reports 35% of third- through eighth-grade students could read at grade level in spring 2023 and 27% were proficient in math. This marks a 17% and 6% increase in proficiency rates since 2022. But proficiency for Illinois students still falls short of pre-pandemic levels. In 2018-2019, nearly 38% of students in third through eighth grades were proficient in reading and 32% in math.
CPD officials have said their operations have not only been strained by a nationwide staffing crunch but also by the need to police events like the NASCAR Chicago Street Race and the Air and Water Show. The city’s police overtime bill could also be swollen by the Democratic National Convention in August.
Johnson’s 2024 plan devotes relatively few additional city resources to keeping the systems that were created during the pandemic in place. Instead, the 2024 Department of Public Health proposal pledges to boost spending on mental health by more than $15 million. The mental health clinic policy is an important one for Johnson’s strong union supporters, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which lost dozens of union jobs when those clinics closed.
![In May 2017, Gotion High-Tech established a joint venture with Shanghai Electric. [Image from Sohu.com]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/imageedit_37_2444209426-e1697490718102.jpg "In May 2017, Gotion High-Tech established a joint venture with Shanghai Electric. [Image from Sohu.com]")
Gotion High-Tech, the Chinese parent company of Gotion Inc., which intends to build electric battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, operates a joint venture in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that contracts with a U.S.-sanctioned entity, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review
The reason for this year’s decline includes a multitude of reasons. As profits stagnate or drop, taxable income levels off or declines. With no deduction cap, businesses report larger losses, which translates to less taxable income. Additionally, state revenue officials said businesses were refunded more tax revenue than anticipated, and that loss is being reconciled this year.
Thousands of demonstrators came together in Chicago’s Loop Saturday for a rally in support of Palestine. Many could be heard shouting “free free Palestine” as they called for a ceasefire in the war with Israel.
The median homeowners in Cook County’s north and northwest suburbs saw their property tax bills rise 15.7% this year, according to a new study just released from Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office. The study also shows the tax burden shifting from commercial properties to residential properties, despite Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s initial campaign promises to shift things in the other direction.
Additionally, the city is collaborating with faith-based leaders to establish emergency staging areas and shelters. Many of the migrants are currently residing in tents, which may not offer adequate protection against the cold weather.
A suspected is in custody after allegedly wounding 15 people while shooting into a crowd at a gathering early Sunday in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said.
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