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Beginning on Jan. 1, 2025, employers with 15 or more employees must include the pay scale and benefit information in job postings. It’s a result of an amendment to the Equal Pay Act of 2003 passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2023.
Pritzker’s comments addressed the precarious situation the current school board members face, saying he “would hope that their number one consideration is what’s best for the students, and for their parents and families.” And “stability, getting a contract done — those are two very, very high priorities. Let’s get past this contract negotiation as best, as best they can, with the resources that are available to do that.”
In fiscal year 2024, the Illinois Statewide Auto Theft Task Force (ISATT) conducted 1,854 investigations and recovered 1,346 vehicles worth approximately $30 million. Meanwhile, the Chicago Major Auto Thefts Investigations Unit (CMATI) conducted 1,130 investigations, resulting in 440 arrests and the recovery of 1,391 vehicles worth approximately $28 million during the past fiscal year.
It came as Chicago police and federal marshals Monday arrested a 15-year-old charged with murdering Octavia Redmond, who was delivering mail on Chicago’s South Side July 19 when she was shot repeatedly at close range.
State Sen. Chapin Rose said with everything Gov. JB Pritzker has done to make Illinois a “homing beacon” for noncitizens, including free health care options, Illinois must be getting its fair share of undocumented criminals and he wants the state to reveal the numbers. ICE reports that nearly 16,000 noncitizens convicted of sexual assault have been released, and over 56,000 who have been convicted of drug possession were released.
The state appealed an earlier ruling and in a motion said the “the potential safety implications of the Court’s order are highlighted by a recent mass shooting on the CTAs Blue Line, in which four people were murdered with firearms three days after the Court’s order was entered.” In a statement filed Monday, attorneys with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said they “aimed to argue that a stay of the Court’s order is justified by the public interest in maintaining public safety.”
State revenues have increased as Pritzker’s automatic inflationary adjustments kicked in each July, driving the tax from 38 cents to the current 47 cents per gallon. Putting the gas tax hikes on autopilot allows state lawmakers to escape responsibility for imposing unpopular tax hikes.
This development initiative is the latest to be announced as a part of the city’s $1.25 billion bond for economic development and affordable housing. City Council approved Mayor Brandon Johnson’s five-year, $1.25 billion borrowing proposal in April as a vehicle to provide $250 million per year through 2028 for projects helmed by the city’s housing and planning departments.
The meeting follows an active weekend for police, responding to multiple unsanctioned parties near the Illinois State University campus and in public parks. These loosely organized events promoted on social media reached a tipping point during ISU’s homecoming weekend as one of the parties turned fatal.
While the district’s plan revealed its priority is to invest in neighborhood schools, it included a commitment to “continue to invest in successful schools across all models, including neighborhood, selective enrollment, magnet, charter and alternative school options.”
The Illinois Organized Retail Crime Association (ILORCA), a new group under the retail association’s umbrella, was formed to coordinate police, prosecutors, stores’ theft prevention teams and other stakeholders. The organization is funded through a state grant and helps facilitate collaboration with other organized retail crime associations across the nation, helping to build prosecutable cases across state lines.
“While we understand that our constituents, regardless of proximity to larger postal facilities, would still be under the existing one-to-five day service standards, USPS has already been failing to meet these delivery standards for many of our constituents,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski and 18 other lawmakers wrote in their letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “Adding up to 24 hours of additional delays for rural residents will only exacerbate the existing on-time delivery problems our constituents are facing.”
Under the ordinance, passed by the City Council Sept. 17 and taking effect when it’s published by the city clerk Oct. 9, renters have the right to match a buyer’s offer and buy the building, pass their right to buy on to another party, or approve the sale going through as the seller has lined it up. “This nonsense is going to make (investors) have to sit around and wait for months before they find out they have the right to sell a building they own — a right they’ve always had,” said Mike Zucker, managing partner of Peak Properties.
A Kankakee judge ruled against a citizens group that is fighting to stop the opening of an electric-vehicle battery plant in Manteno but left the door open for the lawsuit to continue.
When the covid bailouts hit Illinois, we predicted it would take several years before the state’s financial problems would rear their ugly heads again. Now the covid money is finally running out and the fiscal problems are back. Predictably, politicians are counting on tax hikes or bailouts – meaning tax hikes on someone else – to fill their budget holes.
Mark joined the Ray Stevens Show to discuss Illinois’ looming energy crisis. He outlines when gas and electric bills will rise, the reasons behind the increases, and if there’s any solution on the horizon.
Ald. Anthony Napolitano, who has served Chicago as both a police officer and a firefighter, said he was “extremely excited” about drone technology. “This could be an incredible part of [cracking down on] the open-air drug market that plagues our city — as well as chop shops, as well as gang territories, you name it,” he said.
The body of 19-year-old Sierra Evans was found more than nine hours after she was shot on the Southeast Side. Ald. David Moore said ShotSpotter could have notified police of the gunfire within “less than 30 seconds” after shots were fired at around midnight.
A federal judge this summer ordered state prison officials to move most people incarcerated at Stateville by Sept. 30, after civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit on behalf of inmates arguing conditions were hazardous for people housed there. The state did not contest the judge’s order, which came as Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is moving forward with plans to rebuild both Stateville and Logan Correctional Center.
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