-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
As participation in local government continues to shrink, some government policy experts suggest increasing pay for public service might create a larger and more diverse candidate pool. But largely, most suburbs have been hesitant to make that leap. In fact, they have been more apt in recent years to eliminate elected officials’ access to these benefits.
Matt Paprocki, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “The proposed tax promises property tax relief by hitting millionaires. But ‘millionaires’ in Illinois more often than not are entrepreneurs, S-corps, partnerships, LLCs, farmers and sole proprietors that make up a large majority of all business establishments in Illinois. Small businesses are responsible for 60 percent of all the net job creation in Illinois.”
Writing for the majority, Justice Lisa Holder White said the majority believed the governor’s order should be read “broadly” to shield nursing homes and other health care facilities should be shielded from lawsuits claiming injuries caused by “ordinary negligence” if the health care facility operators can show injuries, illness or death occurred while “‘rendering assistance’ to the State by providing health care services” to address the pandemic emergency.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said he endorses a proposal in front of City Council to reduce the default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. “It’s a matter of, how do we implement it so that it’s done in an equitable way?”
Jim Dey: “The county board just spent $40 million on the jail and purchasing a new county government building,” State Rep. Carol Ammons said. “Their mismanagement of one-time American Rescue Plan Act funding from the federal government is proof of their priorities.”
The video shows dozens of people watching cars and motorcycles doing donuts and tricks in the middle of the intersection. Cameras caught an ambulance with its lights and sirens on but still having a tough time getting through for an emergency.
According to her bio on the city’s website, Tiffany Henyard was elected in 2021 with 82 percnet of the vote, making her the “village of Dolton’s first and youngest woman mayor in the village’s 130-year history.” She’s also likely the most controversial mayor ever elected in the town of 20,000, with the two governments under control racking up expenditures on fine dining, first-class travel, an armed security detail and more.
“(T)he Chicago public-school district has increased staffing by 20 percent since 2019 at the same time that student enrollment dropped 10 percent. In what other competitive industry do providers go on a hiring spree when they’re bleeding customers?”
About a dozen students set up the sukkah, calling on the U.S. to enact an arms embargo on Israel and push Northwestern to divest from companies tied to the country amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. A University spokesperson said that Jewish Voice for Peace NU requested University permission for the event, which was denied because “the group is not a recognized student organization, and because the structure violates the University’s display policy.”
In Illinois, a state with one of the nation’s most ambitious climate laws, clean energy’s victorious forward march is often a public — and highly visible — spectacle. But behind the scenes, there are signs of strain. Three years after the state passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, just 7 percent of the state’s retail electricity came from wind and solar – far less than a goal of 22 percent included in CEJA, according to data from the Illinois Power Agency.
“American cities are dying. Chicago’s current marvel is not innovation and prosperity, but murder and crime. The decay of the machine-run cities may or may not be inevitable, but it is arrestable.”
Bozo now ranks among the people and things Chicagoans of a certain vintage speak of with fondness — Frango Mints, Mike Royko, Marshall Field’s, Riverview, ChicagoFest and Harry Caray — because the show represents a time when the city itself felt simpler and more local.
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