Chicago is literally telling families of highly competitive students to leave public education or reduce their expectations. For those who can afford it, they must now look to private or religious schools…. As a proud Chicago native, it is hard to watch what is happening in the city under Johnson and this city council.”
To make a difference in those neighborhoods, Johnson plans a smorgasbord of resources, including another round of guaranteed basic income targeted this time to maximize outcomes only in those four neighborhoods.
“I’m OK with housing migrants here,” resident Nathalie Magallanes said. “I’m a migrant myself. My parents are. But I’m not OK with being screwed out of my taxpayer money.” The city has paid Favorite Staffing at least $56 million since September 2022. In October, the firm signed its third contract extension with the city, for $40 million through October 2024.
“We understand the difficulty of this cascading crisis for this city…But job one now in Chicago has to be about making conditions on the ground better for these folks, not about trying to deflect responsibility. Alas, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s biggest worry appears to be about who is getting the blame and working to make sure it is not him.”
The measure, sponsored by Ald. Daniel LaSpata, calls on Congress and the president to “facilitate a lasting peace in Gaza starting with a permanent ceasefire.”
Among them, renters will be protected by a series of new laws, including HB 1628, which will keep landlords from requiring their tenants to pay their rent via electronic fund transfers, including such transactions that are automatically debited from accounts.
There have been 607 burglaries so far this year compared to 350 last year, and 105 at bars and taverns compared to 54 last year.
House Bill 3705 places children in suitable permanent family arrangements rather than in suitable adoptive homes, in cases where restoration to the biological family is not safe. House Bill 2861 states that DCFS shall prepare a written report for filing with the court and send copies of the report to all parties involved. Senate Bill 375 requires DCFS to develop and implement a safety-based child welfare intervention system. The laws come amid sustained criticism of the agency’s handling of children in its custody.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford said Democratic leaders need to recognize the problem and start getting competitive. “I think the governor should be looking at our border states and he should be treating this like a business and be very competitive when it relates to policies compared to our border states,” he said.
“A similar revolt against Gotion has been brewing in Manteno, Illinois. This month, amid shouts of ‘traitors’ from incensed residents, officials of the rural community approved a resolution to let the company convert a warehouse site into a plant manufacturing EV battery parts.”
Winnebago County had the highest rates of opioid and other drug overdose deaths in Illinois last year. According to data analyzed by the San Francisco Chronicle, the drug overdose death rate was 53.2 per 100,000 people in Winnebago County in 2022. Vermillion (52.5), Kankakee (44.3), Cook (43.8) and Peoria (43.2) counties round out the top five.
For domestic migration, Illinois lost 83,839 people to other states in the past year, but with inbound migration, births and deaths, the state’s net loss was 32,826. Despite the annual estimated net loss in the hundreds of thousands of people over the past decade, some elected officials in the state deny the state is shrinking. “People who are down on Illinois are not looking at the right indicators of the future of our state. Our future is bright,” Gov. JB Pritzker said.
“The issue is not just how we respond in the city of Chicago. It’s the fact that we have a governor, a governor, an elected official in the state of Texas that is placing families on buses without shoes, cold, wet, tired, hungry, afraid, traumatized,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
Law student Katja Stroke-Adolphe said the university refused a meeting to address student concerns over the university’s investments in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “What is free speech if they won’t listen to what we say?” Stroke-Adolphe said. “What is free speech if they choose to threaten students with disciplinary action? They say they support free inquiry, but they refuse to even engage with our demands, and our demands are urgent.”
“Despite (Mayor Brandon) Johnson and his progressive allies’ demagoguery and insistence, government does not create jobs. Government does play a role, but it is limited to either creating fertile soil for businesses to grow with incentives or stop those who use too much DDT. The no-brainer choice is not part of the Chicago way, unfortunately.”
Editor-in-Chief Jackson Brandhorst said he still hopes that Paxton’s management makes good on promises to maintain news coverage of the region. “But,” he continued, “in terms of watchdog, ‘capital J’ journalism, that’s not a thing that at the moment exists here. And I would hope that the new owners and those responsible for the Southern will try to really lift this place up, really do some investigative journalism, watchdog reporting and accountability within the community.”
The Public Utilities Act — which prohibits utility shutoffs on days where the temperature is above 95 degrees Fahrenheit — will now include extreme heat events, factoring in humidity and the heat index.
Anyone caught using an e-cigarette inside a public place in the state can be fined $100 on the first offense.
Chicago’s natural gas pipelines are some of the oldest in the nation, with some dating all the way back to President Abraham Lincoln’s time. The Illinois Commerce Commission’s decision comes as environmentalists and consumer advocates are calling for the government to transition to cleaner, renewable energy instead of fueling money into aging energy infrastructure projects.
The only state that’s population has been in decline longer, West Virginia, currently is suffering its 11th consecutive year of population decline.
” In the movie, youngster Kevin McCallister is accidentally left behind from the family vacation. Burglars hit the neighborhood. Kevin fends them off with a series of booby traps, but there’s no deterring the taxman.”
Denisha Allen, founder of Black Minds Matter and senior fellow at the American Federation for Children: Every lawmaker in Chicago should be on notice. Faith in public schools and the Chicago Teachers Union is waning, while the need for education freedom increases. Chicago public schools are at a critical juncture, confronting hard truths about the Chicago Teachers’ Union and its role pushing policies that harm education, particularly that of Black students.
“…(T)he other big Democrat pushing for the White House, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, arguably has an even worse record. Like California, his state has fallen behind on unemployment, performing well below its Midwestern neighbours. Due to excessive expenditures and weak incomes, Illinois now places 49th in US News fiscal rankings. “
Pace’s suburban budget for 2024 will operate at about $292 million, roughly 8% higher than in 2023. About $60 million of the budget will be funded through federal coronavirus relief, according to Pace. At its lowest point during the pandemic daily ridership fell to 41-42% of its average, and despite recent growth Pace is still under 60% of its former ridership numbers.
Last month, the City Council approved a plan to purchase the site for $1 to set up a tent camp for up to 1,400 migrants. As part of the agreement, any migrant tent camp built there would have to come down by Oct. 31, 2024, to make way for a housing and retail development project that was in the works before the migrant crisis began. The State of Illinois has already invested $15 million into the project.
Several Ivy League schools have been put under a national microscope recently for applying the right to free speech inconsistently. But what also deserves attention are the growing DEI bureaucracies in Illinois’ universities and the significant financial costs associated with them.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ data on Chicago Public Schools’ student reading proficiencies in its new editorial criticizing the district’s decision to end selective enrollment schools. The board says those schools are on the chopping block because their success undermines the union line that public schools merely need more money.
DePaul University professor Joe Schwieterman said this dispute could lead airlines to take business elsewhere. “The difficult part is O’Hare’s a two hub airport,” he said. “United and American funnel a lot of people through here that aren’t originating in Chicago, and they argue that the rising costs, it just be more cost effective
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