Some of the conditions noted by state auditors more than a year prior had continued at the facility in Benton, as well as in some of the other 15 juvenile detention centers where problems had been identified.
Five voters formally objected to former President Donald Trump’s newly-filed state nominating petitions Thursday on grounds that he helped engineer the fatal mob attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, adding Illinois to the national debate about Trump’s legal status as a presidential candidate. The state election board has openly questioned its authority to invoke the constitutional insurrection clause as a basis to sack a presidential candidate, suggesting the dispute is one that Illinois’ courts or its legislature needs to resolve.
Until recently, the most controversial members of Chicago’s ultra-rich and powerful Pritzker family were the billionaire Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — a longtime Democratic activist and bail reform advocate — and his billionaire transgender cousin Jennifer, who’s funneled millions into universities, medical schools, gender clinics and nonprofits in support of “gender-affirming” medical care.
The arbitrator at the center of the dispute between the city of Chicago and its largest police union doubled down on a ruling allowing for closed-door arbitration panels to decide the fate of officers facing severe discipline in a scathing ruling issued Thursday.
In its finalized 2024 budget book, CPS notes that just over $146 million of the budget will be allocated toward student transportation services. Additionally, the district approved a $4 million contract with Education Logistics, Inc. to improve its transportation challenges through June 2026. In its budget book, CPS noted “increasing the transportation budget so that all schools, regardless of budget and location, may engage students in on-site opportunities” as one of its “key” initiatives for 2024.
The new contract amendment does not specifically state why the spending increase was necessary other than: “That the circumstances said to necessitate the change in performance were not reasonably foreseeable at the time the Contract was signed, or that the change is germane to the original Contract as signed, or that the change is in the best interest of the City and is authorized by law.” The source of the funding for the new spending increase appears to be a state grant from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.
Out of the 160 deaths reviewed by the OIG, 59 were investigations for allegations of death by abuse and neglect. Of those 59, the manner of death was ruled as homicide in 14 of those cases. The number of child deaths is down by 11 from fiscal year 2022, but up from 2021’s total of 122 children.
Data published by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, which includes all invoices paid through Dec. 15, defies predictions released by city officials in mid-October that the cost of the migrant crisis to taxpayers would top $361 million by the end of 2023. The database also contradicts what Johnson told reporters while in Washington, D.C., Nov. 2: “The $40 million that it’s costing the city of Chicago a month to provide care for these individuals who are seeking asylum – that is not sustainable,” Johnson said.
While Mayor Brandon Johnson has recently increased his calls to the federal government for more financial help to deal with the crisis, so far, Chicago has only received $19 million from Washington DC.
Of the 40 high schools that voted on the question of resource officers during the present school year, 39 voted to keep police officers in their schools. President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association Troy LaRaviere said, “The reality they face – at least the 39 principals who voted to keep those SROs – the reality they face is more local, and that’s not what we see on the TV. It’s the violence we see and hear about every single day.”
“For someone who repeatedly has preached the virtues of collaboration, the mayor consistently has done precisely the opposite on a host of issues. He has shown an alarming tendency to ignore reasonable criticisms of proposed policies and opt for centralized, top-down initiatives.”
A local investor last week bought a distressed office building across the street from Willis Tower for 89% less than it was worth just more than a decade ago, another data point showing the extreme loss of value of downtown office buildings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber wrote in a 94-page decision that former state lawmaker and lobbyist Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former contract lobbyist Jay Dohertyweren’t entitled to either. “Ultimately, the Court cannot acquit on any count,” he wrote.
The state’s 2023 Educator Supply and Demand Report found that the global pandemic didn’t hamper the education workforce in Illinois. “The primary finding from this report is that the educator workforce in Illinois weathered the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the report. “Teacher retention remains strong, and the average starting salary for educators is increasing.”
Noah Finley, Illinois state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said many owners are not optimistic about the upcoming year. “A net negative of 42% expect better conditions in the next six months. That’s a deficient number right there…On the regulatory side, they are facing several new mandates at the federal and state levels. Here at the state level, we have the paid leave mandate that went into effect on Jan. 1, which will disproportionately impact small businesses.”
“At the risk of getting lost in government lexicon, and making sure not to praise bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake, the report sheds light on concerns about how increased remote work influences the value of commercial properties as well as how state-by-state variations in rules dictating municipal financing complicate the ability to craft broad solutions…But any Illinois community with a central business district, even just a few blocks, has a stake in what happens in Springfield with regard to funding mechanisms and local control.”
Last week, CPD warned that a robbery crew has been targeting Uber and Lyft drivers on the West Side. Police issued a community alert about the crime pattern, but they did not include the two murders in the list of crimes. According to the alert, seven ride-share drivers have been robbed in the neighborhood since December 3, mostly during overnight hours.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB1909 in July, but an anti-abortion group immediately challenged the law and sued Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to block it. Raoul agreed not to enforce SB1909 as part of a settlement in the lawsuit in December. Even without the law, the attorney general can investigate reports of fraudulent experiences at crisis pregnancy centers under the state’s existing consumer protection laws, Raoul’s office said in a statement.
Tom Pritzker, chairman of Hyatt Hotels and CEO of the Pritzker Organization, allegedly slept with prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, according to a newly released transcript of a deposition from Giuffre in May 2016.
The State Health Improvement Plan is part of a larger five-year plan that Illinois officials will use to outline and address five major public health issues facing the state: racism as a public health crisis; maternal and infant health; mental health and substance use disorders; chronic disease; and COVID-19 and emerging diseases.
“We will continue to ensure that they are met with dignity and compassion while we call for increased coordination and funding from the federal government to provide a federal solution to this federal challenge,” Governor JB Pritzker said in a prepared release. In recent weeks, bus drivers have dropped off migrants in nearby suburbs including Hinsdale, Highland Park, Schiller Park, Cicero, Woodstock, Joliet, Rosemont, and others, in what officials with the City of Chicago believe is an effort to skirt the recently adopted bus safety ordinance and any repercussions that come with it, including hefty fines.
“Right now, 15 BIPA class-actions are getting filed everyday because it’s kind of the wild, wild west and potentially it can crush these employers or these companies and right now they are kind of exploiting the system,” said attorney Jerry Maatman, chair of the Duane Morris Class Action Defense Team. At least 15 states are considering modeling their future biometric privacy laws from the Illinois statute.
According to the Illinois Office of Tourism, the 24-foot-tall float took three months to build with almost 22,000 volunteer hours. The float also incorporated products from the state’s agritourism industry like pumpkins, corn, soybeans, lavender, sunflowers and prairie grass. It features the state’s official flower as well: blue violets.
Mark joined the The Shaun Thompson Show to talk about the growing hypocrisy of Illinois’ political leaders regarding the migrant crisis, how crisis nationwide is reaching a tipping point, the vast difference between Democrat and Republican fundraising dollars, why Chicago is the nation’s homicide capital, and more.
Across Lake County and the region, government bodies late last year announced property tax extension increases will be coming fast and furious in the new year. From Tony Kenilworth on Cook County’s North Shore, to west suburban Aurora, to Round Lake Unit School District 116, taxing bodies are seeking more funding.
New York City Hall data shows that the top destination for migrants leaving New York City is Illinois, for which 2,369 plane tickets have been issued. More than 1,800 migrants have sought tickets to Texas, suggesting that many are returning to the state that likely sent them up north to begin with.
“From the beginning, it was obvious that chickens would begin coming home to roost about now, and the situation was only deepened as lawmakers continued to dip into pension funds when crises loomed rather than sharply cutting spending.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="Image aligncenter" title="Then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker speaks during a news conference in the Commission Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium on July 12, 2016. The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)" src="https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/a47c5a3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1826+0+0/resize/630x383!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Ffe%2Fd1%2F4de754fe402db36aebd2114c9a31%2Fap23257622967917.jpg" srcset="https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/a47c5a3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1826+0+0/resize/630x383!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Ffe%2Fd1%2F4de754fe402db36aebd2114c9a31%2Fap23257622967917.jpg 1x, https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/205f257/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1826+0+0/resize/1260x766!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Ffe%2Fd1%2F4de754fe402db36aebd2114c9a31%2Fap23257622967917.jpg 2x" alt="Then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker speaks during a news conference in the Commission Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium on July 12, 2016. The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker
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