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The mayor said, “I have conversations and text messages with a variety of people, and I’ve communicated to Stacy (Davis Gates, of the Chicago Teachers Union) on a number of occasions of where there are opportunities for us to continue to grow our city through the lens of public education.”
The Startup Ecosystem Star Award solidifies Illinois’ status as a global leader in supporting startups, driving investment and building a competitive economy for the future. “Illinois is proud to be a recognized part of this global startup community,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “With each step we grow closer to conquering our greatest challenges and in the process, we create a stronger, more connected, and more prosperous world.”
The 4-2 majority opinion, written by Justice P. Scott Neville Jr., hones in on the “odor-proof” container requirement. “(A)lthough cannabis may no longer be contraband in all circumstances, ‘users must possess and use cannabis in accordance with’ our laws,” Neville wrote, with a reference to case law.
About 330,000 homes in Illinois sit on top of old abandoned mines. And some say their homes are sinking because of it. In Shanee Carpenter’s Belleville basement, water pours from an unknown source through cavernous cracks. “When I go down there to do laundry, I’m like, ‘Oh Lord, protect me, Lord,’” she said.
Joseph Mapp, the city’s new Director of Re-Entry, said nearly 16,000 people returned home last year from the Illinois Department of Corrections, with a majority of them heading for Chicago. The office is currently funded with a dedicated $5 million revenue source: the city’s Cannabis Regulation Tax fund.
A source close to the budget negotiations says the city has proposed $68 million in property taxes, an increase in the city’s bag tax from 7 cents to 10 cents, and adding a surge tax to rideshares taken in the city’s Central Business District seven days a week instead of five—alongside a parking tax. Also already reported to be on the table are a tax on streaming services, a tax on digital cloud storage, and a change to the city’s permit amnesty system.
Illinois’ gun and magazine ban will stay in effect pending the outcome in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the appeals court ruled Thursday.
“Dramatically within Illinois, we’ve gone from a party-centered kind of process to one that is much more candidate-centered,” said Kent Redfield, professor of political science at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
The five-member Illinois Commerce Commission approved a $110 million increase for the company, a 30 percent reduction from the company’s original request early this year.
“I think that this is garbage,” said state Sen. Michael Hastings, who said he is assisting a candidate in his capacity as an attorney.
Bill Cadigan is a former state board of elections chairman who says the caucus system is legal in Illinois as is holding multiple elected positions. “Will the court look at those perception issues? Probably not. But the voters certainly should,” he said. “It does not look like good government. It looks like more of the same in Thornton Township.”
The number of Chicago-area homebuyers putting properties under contract shot skyward in November, the biggest increase since rising interest rates slowed a multi-year sales boom in 2022.
Modeled off a Cook County program that was supported through funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, this program is using $10 million in state funding in the new fiscal year to purchase the medical debt of up to 300,000 Illinoisans. State Rep. Chris Miller said the state can’t afford it. “One thing we need to remember is that Illinois is broke and people are leaving,” said Miller.
This short-term drop follows a larger trend of progressively declining approvals. During the past decade, Chicago has seen nearly 1 in 5 businesses disappear.
“As residents, we want to know what we’re looking at,” said Anne Holcomb, community resident and co-founder of Environment, Transportation, Health, and Open Space (ETHOS) of South Shore. “Why all the secrets, unless it’s something really bad that they don’t want us to know because they’re afraid of liability.”
Jim Dey: “November revenues jumped by $211 million to $3.274 billion thanks to an increase in federal sources. But the state’s ‘Big Three’ — personal income taxes, corporate income taxes and sales taxes — struggled.”
City Council members are concerned about an assault from the incoming Trump administration on Chicago’s coveted minority set-aside program, and are wondering what the city can do to insulate that program from attack.
This week Palatine became the latest Illinois city to pass a 1% local grocery tax in anticipation of the statewide tax expiring in 2026. That’s reminded us of something that shouldn’t be left unsaid: Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s elimination of the statewide grocery tax was little more than an attention-getting stunt. He says he’s canceled the tax, but all he did was shuffle the impact to somewhere else.
Liberty Steel is temporarily shuttering its Peoria wire mill as the company continues to struggle financially, facing deep debts around the globe amid a challenging steel market. The company has furloughed over 500 employees at its Peoria facility, according to the union representing workers.
“Conventional wisdom says pension funds have been inadequately funded. In a seminal 2018 report, however, the conservative economic research group Wirepoints documented the real culprit: from 1987 to 2016, the Illinois General Assembly increased pension benefits an astonishing 1,061 percent, while state revenues grew 176 percent and median household income 127 percent.”
Special state’s attorney of Cook County Robert J. Milan: “The act encourages judges to bend over backward to release repeat offenders. I believe the act does not allow judges to consider the criminal backgrounds of most felony offenders and thus encourages judges to release offenders despite lengthy criminal backgrounds, resulting in additional violent crimes.”
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