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Supporters said refinancing existing debt at a lower rate will save the city $110 million. They also said every business, government and household uses debt this way. Critics, however, don’t trust the Johnson administration and argue the city should strongly consider making cuts.
Under Andrew Wheeler’s leadership, the Kankakee County Board was one of several taxing bodies that agreed to provide millions of dollars in incentives to lure Chinese-owned Gotion’s $2 billion EV battery plant. Wheeler’s employment by Gotion after the board he sat on helped pave the way for the plant will no doubt create conflict of interest concerns, County Board member Robert Ellington-Snipes acknowledged Tuesday.
The Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies has about 40 students total in its seventh and eighth grades. The financially troubled school district’s Board had already voted in June to close Bessie Rhodes, the district’s sole bilingual school, as of July 1, 2026.
The question on the ballot in November is a proposition to levy a tax for the purpose of funding mental health facilities and services. According to Tony Kirkman, of the Piatt County Mental Health Center, most east-central Illinois counties, with the exceptions of Piatt and Douglas, already have a 708 Mental Health Board established.
Rafael Yáñez, a hate crimes and civil rights investigator for the Chicago Police Department, ran unsuccessfully to represent the 15th Ward on the Chicago City Council in 2015 and 2019. The Chicago Teachers Union contributed more than $69,000 and the SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana PAC contributed more than $62,000 to his campaign account.
DCFS has been under fire recently after allegations of sexual and physical abuse surfaced at Aunt Martha’s Integrated Care Center in Chicago. At least two employees at the facility had been arrested and charged with abusing kids in their care. “We have found that the security company is still being paid by the state even though the facility is closed, so I think it just merits more accountability and investigation,” said state Sen. Jil Tracy.
“My reaction is no technology is perfect,” Ald. Chris Taliaferro said. “No one ever claimed ShotSpotter will catch 100 percent of the shots fired. Cars break down, computers break down, watches break, every form of technology known to man actually breaks at some point and is not 100 percent. I believe the technology fulfills what it’s meant to do and that’s to detect gunfire.”
According to the state’s most recent projections, Illinois needs to dedicate nearly $4.9 billion more on an annual basis to the five state-run pension plans in order to make an actuarially sufficient contribution and begin paying down the state’s unfunded pension liabilities. The state is also projecting a base general funds deficit of more than $1.4 billion in the upcoming 2026 fiscal year.
County officials say the 0.25 percent sales tax hike will go toward public safety spending. The hike would raise $7 million from taxpayers annually if passed, making everyday purchases more expensive for working families already struggling with inflation.
“Now that the federal money is gone, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson is desperately trying to fill that gap. But taking on more loan debt won’t solve his city’s longer-term budget problems. For that, he’ll need to come to terms with the pension challenges and address the staffing imbalance in Chicago schools. “
DuPage County and a group of other large Illinois counties will need to face a potential class action lawsuit accusing them of unconstitutionally stealing homeowners’ home equity by forcibly selling off entire homes over a few thousand dollars of unpaid property taxes and allowing investors to walk off with the profit.
Los Angeles was ranked the second rattiest city in the nation, with New York coming in third.
“The gradual unionization of charters and the implementation of mandates to impose the same obstacles to innovation that undermine the quality of traditional public schools has been accompanied by the deliberate underfunding of public charter schools.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared to cast blame for the current situation on what he described as “stingy and greedy” conservative groups who opposed his failed “Bring Chicago Home” referendum in the spring. “Could this lead to people on the street? Look, I’ll be remiss if I did not acknowledge the financial straits that we are experiencing right now and the impact that that’s going to have on this mission,” he said. “I don’t want to see anyone lose, right? But the harsh reality is that we can do what we can afford. We’ve been stretched to the limits.”
At 5.3 percent, the state’s unemployment rate was 1.2 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for September. The Illinois unemployment rate was up 0.6 percentage point from a year ago when it was 4.7 percent.
It has been credibly hypothesized that quantum computers will revolutionize scientific and technical fields within the next few decades, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, but developers are still struggling to build dependable and scalable basic infrastructure. Gov. JB Pritzker said he thinks it’s already attracting companies to Illinois.
A lawsuit filed in September by DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin seeks a judge’s order to compel DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek to comply with county regulations regarding the payment of bills. In her countersuit, attorneys for Kaczmarek note that the Illinois attorney general’s office has issued “multiple opinions” regarding the clerk’s authority to manage internal operations of her office.
The Cook County Democratic Party is so confident about its candidates’ prospects that rather than knocking on doors in Chicago and the suburbs or stuffing mailboxes with local candidates’ pamphlets, many party officials — and even some candidates on the ballot themselves — are spending time in Wisconsin or Michigan instead, helping turn out swing state voters for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.
This emerging technology has become a cornerstone of government strategies to slash fossil fuel emissions and meet climate goals. But when CCS operations leak, they can pose significant risks to water resources. The pressurized CO2 stored underground can escape and potentially propel brine trapped in the same area toward potable water. The leaks can cause heavy metal contamination and potentially lower pH levels, making water undrinkable. This is what bothers critics of carbon capture, who worry that it’s solving one problem by creating another.
Long before Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was cajoling state legislators to give him $500 million to bet on quantum computing, University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer was pitching the guv.
Gotion’s nearly $4.4bn collective investment in Michigan and Illinois has spawned the No Official Giveaways Of Taxpayers’ Income to Oppressive Nations Act — or ‘No Gotion Act’ for short. This would prohibit CCP-affiliated companies from receiving green energy tax credits under the federal Inflation Reduction Act. Iran, North Korea and Russia also would be prohibited under the act. A co-sponsor of the No Gotion Act, Darin LaHood, a Republican Representative from Illinois, says in a statement that foreign adversaries who have launched “malign efforts” to undermine domestic supply chains and national
“We haven’t had population loss.” It’s a claim Gov. JB Pritzker and his allies have made before, and it’s preposterous. Unfortunately, they get away with it because the media and many of our supposed watchdogs let them.
Ted joined Jeff Daly to talk about the “progressive-income-tax-for-property-tax-relief” initiative on the November ballot, the latest on why Illinois can expect an electricity crisis, why Trump is right to criticize the bad policies and dismal outcomes in blue cities like Chicago, and more.
“The schools want more money from the city. The city wants more money from the state. And the governor says Chicago shouldn’t expect a bailout. Other school districts around the country may soon face similar budget reckonings as the covid relief money runs out, experts say, though most would be challenged to match Chicago’s level of chaos.”
Mailee Smith, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “The CTU’s goal to undermine charters has played out at the Illinois statehouse as well, affecting not just Chicagoans but also students and families statewide. In the six legislative sessions from 2011 to 2022, the union lobbied lawmakers on at least 50 bills related to charter schools and educational choice, according to an Illinois Policy Institute analysis.”
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