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The changes upend more than a decade of industry procedures and could impact how real estate agents have traditionally been paid. It could also open up more opportunities for homebuyers and sellers.
A few miles from where Harris will accept her party’s presidential nomination is Collins Career Academy. Not a single student there can read at grade level. It’s not an issue of whether Chicago or Illinois follows the Democrats’ admonition to spend more on public schools. Collins spends $27,000 per student. Chicago Public Schools averages $18,287 per student.
The Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act exempts merchants in the state from paying interchange on sales tax and gratuities levied on credit and debit card transactions. Interchange is the fee merchants pay to processors on card transactions, typically a percentage of the transaction. The lawsuit was brought by the Illinois Bankers Association, The American Bankers Association, the Illinois Credit Union League, and America’s Credit Unions, formerly the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions.
“It’s going to be a mess in Chicago starting Sunday,” said Emad Salem, a Harris delegate from Texas and part of a group called Delegates Against Genocide. “This is not just Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims. We’re talking about tens of thousands of Gen Zers participating, African Americans, Latinos, anti-war protesters from all over the place.”
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation – in charge of licensing for health care, occupational professionals and more than 100 other professions – recently announced it had reached an agreement to secure a new professional online licensing system. Lawmakers have expressed frustration with the delays to receive licenses reaching weeks, if not months, for many.
“This council is willing to help the residents, but please understand municipal government is not general assistance,” 5th Ward Ald. Gardner, who chairs the city’s finance committee, said Thursday. “At the end of the day, this is not a municipal issue, it’s the county and the state … It’s just not our fault.”
Sangamon County also announced the three co-chairs for the commission: Dr. Jerry Kruse, the Dean and Provost of the SIU School of Medicine; Pastor T. Ray McJunkins, the pastor of Union Baptist Church; and Nina Harris, the chair of the Illinois Commission on Equity and Inclusion.
“I understand why people might have some trepidation because you have elements in this world that want to take us back to a very dark path,” Johnson said. “They have not accepted the results of the Civil War, so they are provocating this animus towards justice and democracy.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office is defending the state’s gun ban in federal court. But Illinois is not the only place Raoul is defending gun control laws. He’s filed friends of the court briefs in other federal courts supporting gun control laws in Massachusetts, Minnesota and beyond.
Among the bills is doing so is Senate Bill 684, introduced by state Sen. Dave Koehler, which expands the boundaries of an airport authority. Prior to Koehler’s legislative changes, the Illinois Airport Authorities Act laid out a referendum process for expanding an airport authority’s tax base.
Illinois motorists can expect to pay approximately $328 a year in state gas taxes alone based on American Petroleum Institute gas usage estimates.
“In keeping with (George) Soros’ views on criminal justice, (Kamala) Harris as California Attorney General decided to do away with the old-fashioned business of charging criminals with retail theft. And Kim Foxx, her spiritual sister in Cook County followed suit, dropping the stuffy practice of charging criminals with crimes.”
Prompts will call on guests to share their travel details anonymously, which the convention staff will then tabulate to estimate overall travel emissions. It’s part of a carbon mitigation program convention staff will unveil soon called the Travel Carbon Inset Initiative.
Jim Dey: “Thousands of Democrats from across the country will gather next week in Chicago for their party’s presidential nominating convention. So, too, will thousands of political protesters representing a variety of causes. … So, once again, the question of free speech and its time, place and manner limits comes to the fore. Not only that, but the question of what protesters will be allowed to carry with them also has generated litigation.”
“The legislature should be focusing its efforts on issues like tax relief, reducing regulations on job creators, improving ethical standards, and realigning priorities so that Illinois citizens come first. We should not be in the business of adopting private industry regulations like prohibiting the use of single-use shampoo bottles all in the name of protecting the environment.”
Chicago area native Joel Pollak: There is no turning back; not even repeated federal bailouts can save the city. A fiscal Great Chicago Fire looms — and bankruptcy may be the only solution for the city, and the state, cutting out the cronies and starting over.
Let’s hope private schools follow the trend. Private, “elite” schools have long been the most notorious preference-givers to kids of alumni and donors.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ dismal outcomes for black students as part of their piece criticizing Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis-Gates and her rhetoric embracing the bigotry of low expectations. The reality is Illinois and Chicago kids can’t read…and the union bears much of the blame for that.
On the one hand, the state could increase transit spending to reach the “regional transit” model. On the other, commuters could see their travel times nearly double if the state does not commit more tax dollars to public transit.
The unemployment rate for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area was 6.2 percent in June.
“The tragedy — and, let’s be frank, the outrage — is that the mayor of Chicago isn’t the one representing taxpayers in a battle with an unreasonable union. Instead, an unelected administrator has taken it upon himself to do the job the mayor should be doing. And Martinez’s reward for doing his job is disdain from City Hall and the sharpening of knives.”
“This silence is not just an oversight, it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine the very schools that have given so much hope and opportunity to thousands across the city,” Noble Schools CEO Constance Jones said at the rally. “It is a political effort to dismantle school choice in Chicago.”
“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” said Scott Shapiro, owner of Syd Jerome.
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