The era of cashless bail presents some interesting examples of how the law is applied in different Illinois counties.
According to a search of the Illinois General Assembly’s website, at least 318 laws have an effective date of Jan. 1.
House Bill 2899 will prohibit insurers from applying a higher standard of coverage for proton beam therapy than they would for another form of treatment. The OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria is currently constructing a $250 million facility that will heavily focus on this form of treatment.
<img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="Image flickity-lazyloaded aligncenter" src="https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/7504a4a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3823x2627+0+0/resize/599x412!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F3f%2F96%2F350512a9349708a0bfe681dcc433%2F170eb3c985fb41a68c22e51169fc7eb6" alt="Holiday lights blaze from the headhouse of the former Pillsbury Mills in Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. While awaiting funding and authority to demolish the factory and redevelop the site, the nonprofit Moving Pillsbury Forward has ginned up interest in the history and future of the plant, including installing the lights. Chris Richmond, president of Moving Pillsbury Forward, said the lights “bring an energy to the site that has not been there for years. (They) bring with them a message that something positive is happening.” The mill operated under Minneapolis-based
Every four-year public college in Illinois now guarantees general admission for in-state community college students with a 3.0 GPA and 36 credit hours. For the University of Illinois System, the law was already in place this year. Vickie Cook of the University of Illinois Springfield said “We think that this has helped students in Illinois consider Illinois colleges. We want students to stay in Illinois. We want them to stay in their communities and complete those four-year degrees.”
Meanwhile, license plate readers continue to crop up all around Illinois. Effective Jan. 1, it will be illegal to share data from these devices if a person in the car is seeking abortion services in Illinois.
Another $891 million in gross investment earnings was earned for cities, villages, school districts, counties and other units of government that take part in the highly rated Illinois Funds local government investment pool operated by the State Treasurer’s Office.
In 2022 Illinois gained the most residents on net from New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan and New Jersey. Save for Ohio, all those states have stricter licensing burdens than Illinois, according to the Institute for Justice.
“As a powerful political force in both Chicago and Springfield, residents across the state should be concerned about the hypocrisy and controversies that rocked the union in 2023.”
That averages out to one council member convicted every 16 months.
The Service Employees International Union Healthcare of Illinois/Indiana contributed $200,000 to the initiative, Bring Chicago Home, while the National Association of Realtors donated $100,000 to an opposing committee, Realtors in Opposition to Real Estate Transfer Tax, which also reported $14,000 from Illinois Realtors.
“Instead of being relocated quietly with dignity, as the Department of Homeland Security has done for Ukrainian refugees, my Venezuelan cousins have been made a spectacle by our bigoted federal government. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is using local departments to respond to a crisis of international proportions, rapidly raising up shelter after shelter. Gov. J.B. Pritzker, to date, has created zero shelters. Neither DHS nor the Federal Emergency Management Agency has stepped in to offer support.”
“(Mike) Royko’s (1967 Christmas) column, which ends with Mary and Joe setting off on foot down Route 66, heading as far away as possible from the cold hearts of Chicago, has particular resonance this Christmas Day, the first since busloads of asylum-seekers arrived in Chicago from the U.S. border and got the same kind of welcome that Royko imagined for his fictional domestic migrants in 1967.”
In 2022, Chicago’s 127 TIF districts took in a total of $1.3 billion, according to Cook County Clerk’s office records. With many TIFs on the brink of expiration, a substantial influx of tax revenue is expected to revert to entities like Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District and other taxing bodies.
Scenes like the one in Elmhurst have occurred in other communities across northeast Illinois in recent weeks, including Fox River Grove, Aurora and the Kankakee area. Officials believe they were prompted by Chicago officials announcing in mid-November that bus companies could be ticketed and fined or see vehicles impounded for violating rules about passenger debarkation, including a requirement to schedule such stops. Rosemont and Aurora have enacted similar rules for buses.
The opioid settlement marks the culmination of three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims for state and local governments across the county, and Illinois will receive its full, approximate $760 million share from the settlement. Jackson county’s allotment for the upcoming year is $150,000, and Judge Steven Bost requested $25,000 for the drug court.
“This is a culture issue, not just a criminal one,” said Better Government Association President David Greising. “The despicable conduct detailed during Burke’s trial could only happen within a broken, corrupt City Council culture. The jury is now saying loud and clear: Chicago is ready for reform. In fact, we demand it.”
“We’re just so disappointed in our legislators,” said Dr. Susan Miller, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Peoria. “The reality is that a majority of the public supported Invest in Kids. So it’s hard for me to understand how our legislators looked at that data and still chose to (sunset).” This school year, 605 students across the Diocese of Peoria had scholarships which received funds through Invest in Kids — and more than 780 are waitlisted for the program.
In a joint statement from school districts 15, 211 and 214 Friday, officials said they are waiting on the Bears to provide their appraisal of the property by the end of the year so they can discuss next steps. The districts Dec. 8 announced their appraiser valued the property at $160 million.
University Park Trustee Theo Brooks said that, within the past week, several buses have attempted to unload migrants, primarily at the village’s Metra station, which is the farthest southern stop on the Metra Electric Line. His village and Tinley Park have set fines of $750 per passenger against bus operators that don’t register unscheduled passenger drop-offs ahead of time.
The ordinance, similar to one recently approved in Rosemont, would give the city the ability to fine bus companies and impound buses making unscheduled stops in Aurora. The proposal would require bus companies transporting migrants to submit an application for city approval five days prior to arrival.
Jim Dey: “The powers that be in Illinois have shown little to no interest in policy proposals that would encourage the kind of economic growth that would prompt people either to move here or stay here. They apparently just don’t see the population issue as a problem.”
“Li Zhen, the company’s founder and chairman, is a member of the Anhui Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, which is part of the CCP’s United Front system and takes direction from the CCP. His son, Li Chen, who is also Guoxuan’s CEO, is a member of the Baohe District Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, which is an advisory body of the CCP,” Senator Marco Rubio and other lawmakers earlier wrote.
Many lawmakers and advocates hope this change can help address the teacher shortage in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will provide technical assistance, marketing and support with operational costs for groups trying to open stores in food deserts. Gov. JB Pritzker said the state can also help co-ops access capital funding to acquire land, facilities or equipment for future grocery stores.
“When you have these 10,000 rail cars that are idled, some of those were going to come to Illinois,” Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President Mark Denzler said. “You had truck drivers scheduled to have been there Monday to pick up a load. It rippled down — from the railroads to the truck drivers to ultimately the consumers who don’t see a product at their stores right before the holidays.”
“Equity advocates’ complaints give the impression that Chicago’s selective public high schools enroll few or no black and Hispanic students, and that they worsen racial disparities in educational achievement. The opposite is true. Consider Brooks College Preparatory Academy…Of Brooks’s black students, 60.7 percent are proficient in English Language Arts, 46.5 percent are proficient in math, and 80.9 percent are proficient in science. For black students in the district at large, these numbers are 16.5 percent, 8.1 percent, and 24.4 percent, respectively.”
“Fox River Grove is not the only collar county municipality grappling with such situations,” the Facebook post from the village read, in part. “Several other communities have encountered similar challenges, highlighting the need for a coordinated regional approach to ensure the safety and well-being of migrants and residents alike.”
Eight robberies were reported on Monday with another six on Saturday during the overnight hours in the Lincoln Square, Edgewater, Lakeview, West Ridge, Uptown, Horner Park, and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. Police say a group of six to eight men would drive up in two separate cars and box the victims in their vehicle before getting out and robbing them of their cell phones.
The group, led by the “U.S. Palestinian Community Network,” first stopped at the home of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in Evanston, the group said on Instagram. The demonstrators also confronted U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin at his home in Chicago, where they shouted chants of “Long live Palestine!” Then a caravan of nearly 100 vehicles then went toward O’Hare International Airport; both sides of I-190 were temporarily shut down, forcing traffic to remain at a standstill.
This past was updated on December 21, 2023 in light of December 2023 amendments to the ordinance from the Chicago City Council.
“For all the cops of these broken cities who can’t bear what such brutal politics have brought and internalize it and poison themselves and seek an exit. Please don’t. Please don’t go. Reach out, ask for help. There are priests to talk to, your colleagues. Remember that help is out there, and you are loved. And remember, the people need you and rely on you to protect them.”
Gov. Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris, told The Center Square. “Mayor Johnson is flat out lying. If he truly cared about these migrants, he would stop spreading falsehoods and complaining about a few thousand migrants being bused into his sanctuary city. Instead, Mayor Johnson should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border—something the President continues failing to do.”
As new mayors prepare to take the reins in city halls across the country, Mayor Brandon Johnson was among the 29 newly-elected U.S. mayors selected to participate in the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University’s Program for New Mayors.
In late October, as revenue and attendance remained flat, Bally’s quietly added two hourly shuttle bus locations in Chinatown, reviving long-held concerns about local casinos targeting communities with a history of problem gambling. Bally’s has generated about $2.2 million in local tax revenue during its first three months in business – far from the $12.8 million projection of gaming tax revenue for 2023 set by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot before she left office.
Illinois is currently ranked 46th in the nation when it comes to hydropower. With Senate Bill 1474 going into effect, lawmakers hope to shepherd in advancements in Illinois’ renewable energy sector.
The board endorsed a resolution last week to shift focus and resources away from the city’s selective enrollment schools to neighborhood schools. Selective enrollment schools, or high schools that admit students based on middle school grades and standardized exams, have faced intense scrutiny by the notoriously left-wing Chicago Teachers Union over their supposed lack of economic and racial “equity.”
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