-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
In 2018, USPS recorded just two postal employee robberies. By 2022, 32 postal workers were robbed on their routes. Last year was far worse, when 57 postal workers were reportedly robbed in Chicago, many at gunpoint.
“Yet, there is a void of centrist leadership in a city long-known for its blue-collar families, lunch bucket values, and church-lined neighborhoods. Perhaps Chicago grew comfortable with a steady strong-mayor governance model, albeit corruptibly imperfect, that kept extremists at bay. The absence of such a power center has unleashed forces that run counter to what centrists believe in and are antithetical to what our city and state need.”
Kennedy Bartley currently works as the executive director of United Working Families, a political organization closely aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union that serves as an umbrella coalition for various progressive groups and unions. The Mayor created a new role to bring Bartley into his administration.
Lawmakers voted to name the high-rise at 115 S. LaSalle St. the Jesse White State of Illinois Building. State Rep. Harry Benton noted the rarity of a state building being named after someone who is still alive.
“We wouldn’t feel the same if we were in his position and can’t fathom why the Oak Park Democrat is going to bat for this highly unpopular mayor, who has given Chicagoans no reason more than a year after taking office to have confidence in his assurances or even his capacity for good sense.”
“An unpopular mayor making his way through a rough first term needs a solid, working relationship with as many City Council members as possible. But Johnson’s unnecessarily ham-fisted ways have once again gotten the better of him.
“White supremacy and settler colonialism can NOT kill, maim and steal for decades (or even centuries) via genocidal violence and then expect patience and peace — ESPECIALLY when peaceful protest is met with economic, spiritual and literal death,” Professor Steven Thrasher posted two days after Hamas’ deadly attacks against Israel in October.
Attorneys for the six plaintiffs argue that the program awards applicants $25,000 based on their race, without having to prove they or their relatives faced housing discrimination. As such, they argue, the reparations program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which says all Americans are given equal protection under the law.
Restaurants throughout downtown Springfield say their business more than doubles when session is happening. This push helps small businesses stay afloat after coming out of the slow winter season.
“The bill wound up with 57 votes, three shy of passage, as Giannoulias looked on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a legislative chamber reject a bill supported by a statewide officeholder while that official was standing among the members.”
The state says the programs rolled out during the pandemic, providing benefits for low-income immigrant adults and seniors, face funding problems and new restrictions have been implemented.
The legislation would not eliminate physical driver’s licenses but would allow the state to offer them as a companion to a physical card. Several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, and Utah already have digital IDs.
Timothy Pawula, who was state Rep. Tim Ozinga’s chief of staff before Ozinga resigned from the Illinois House last month, has been charged with two counts of harassment through electronic communication, one count of transmission of obscene messages, and one count of obscenity. Illinois State Police said Sen. Michael Hastings filed a harassment complaint.
The Mayor’s office said the safety plan is people-based – focused on those who are most impacted by historic disinvestment and violence. This involves outreach and intervention with people who have been subjected to a “repeated cycle of harm due to purposeful disinvestment,” and support for the victims and survivors of violence, the Mayor’s office said. “We cannot ignore the undeniable correlation between violence and neglect,” Mayor Johnson said.
“Bullies need to know their actions will have consequences, and this bill will create those consequences,” said state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr.
But some service providers say they’ll be forced to lay off staff without increased state and federal support.
In addition to the arrests for having guns at city parks – one at Millennium Park and the other at North Avenue Beach – a man was shot at Montrose Beach.
“As the mayor has publicly provided assurances that there will be no dramatic changes to the role of selective enrollment and magnet schools in the school district, the need for the legislation is obviated,” state Sen. Robert Martwick said. “We don’t need it anymore.”
The plans, which have the backing of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans, call for semi-secure facilities to house youths who judges deem can’t be released to their homes, according to a proposal submitted for a federal grant to support the effort. Officials plan to repurpose the JTDC, which currently houses nearly 200 teenagers in single-occupancy cells, into “less traumatizing dormitory-style conditions” for the fewer than 50 youths expected to require secure detention.
David Orr: As someone who endorsed Johnson and who was in the thick of Council Wars during Harold Washington’s mayoralty, I’d like to offer some clarification.
This proposal would require private insurance companies to cover maternal services provided by midwives, doulas and lactation consultants. Private insurance companies would be required to cover home births, home visits and support during labor, abortion or miscarriage as well.
“You can talk about protecting reproductive rights all you wants,” said Sen. Jil Tracy. “But we better get it right and not provide cover for human traffickers, rape and incest of minor children whatever state they’re from.”
The mayor made his promise in a letter sent on Friday to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, asking for Harmon to kill statewide legislation that would protect those schools.
House Bill 4293, which originally dealt with penalties for sex offenders in the massage therapy industry, was gutted and replaced with a bill regulating cannabinoids from hemp. State Sen. Kimberly Lightford said hemp producers aren’t licensed and they are participating in illegal activity.
Overall, the number of assaults has grown each year since the pandemic in 2020. The total number of assaults reported in Chicago increased by 9.6 percent between 2019 and 2023.
While every convention comes with demonstrations, this year’s are “going to be unprecedented, bigger than anything we’ve ever worked on,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago and a leader of the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention. “They want a convention that goes off without a hitch,” Abudayyeh said of Democrats, whom polls show to be deeply divided over Biden’s handling of Israel. But he and other activists, he said, “want to disrupt.”
The newsrooms receiving the funding from the MacArthur Foundation are Borderless Magazine, Chicago News Weekly, Cicero Independiente, Growing Community Media, Injustice Watch, Investigative Project on Race & Equity, Invisible Institute, Lansing Journal, La Raza Chicago, Reparations Media NFP, Respair Production & Media, South Side Weekly and the Windy City Times.
“I’m a big Bears fan,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. “But, you know, when these people make all this money, the value of their team goes up by billions of dollars. For them to turn around and say to the taxpayers,’ Now you foot the bill for some fancy new luxury box,’ which you as a taxpayer would never be able to afford.”
“Running a small business is very difficult. Starting a social equity cannabis business is even more difficult,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. The county is offering $3.6 million in grants to license holders, financed by the Cook County Equity Fund, which the county says “is dedicated to addressing historical disparities.”
During Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s last year in office, one of her allies, Carmen Rossi, ran afoul of city lobbying rules. Rossi got fined $5,000. Lightfoot also gave back his campaign contributions. Under Mayor Brandon Johnson, records show that Rossi, who remains a registered lobbyist at City Hall, is in line for $38.5 million in taxpayer-funded city deals made over the past five months for himself, his business partners and clients.
“Here’s what truly does expose how politically weak this mayor is: Enduring City Council vote after vote on the same issue, even as the technology in question continues to be deployed. The people have spoken, through their elected representatives.”
Americans may have heard that democracy is under threat from MAGA Republicans, but what about from one-party progressive states? Witness how Illinois and other Democratic-controlled states are trying to muzzle their political opponents.
The report released by the University of Chicago reveals widespread violations by the state’s law enforcement agencies of an act that attempts to provide greater access to protections for immigrants who are victims of crime. Those who work with migrants say the crimes against immigrants range from labor trafficking to forced sex acts.
The tension between state and local policy efforts is the latest in a long-running debate on whether a blanket, rather than school-level, decision to remove police from schools should be made.
“Property taxes in Illinois are among the nation’s highest, if not the highest. To call them a financial burden on ordinary homeowners is to badly underestimate how difficult it is to keep up with bills that only increase.”
The list of our columns about how stupidly Illinois manages its cash is getting long.
All other Illinois House members voted for of the bill.
After more than three hours, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, of North Carolina, condemned Schill in her closing remarks. “I’m appalled by the condescension and contempt you’ve shown for the committee and towards your own Jewish students today. You’ve refused to answer basic questions on topics … you’ve given misleading answers that contradict the words of the agreement you signed.”
“Crime has consequences. Crime has victims. Can you imagine being the victim of a serious crime and discovering that the person who committed it was not only not in prison but no longer even called an offender?”
David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “There is particular disdain over Johnson’s flip-flop on the ShotSpotter contract. … South Side Ald. Anthony Beale saw disparity in that decision. ‘If it was good enough to extend through the convention to protect the conventioneers, it’s good enough to protect the residents of this city every single day,’ Beale said.”
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