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“As SAFE-T Act supporters like (Cook County Board President and County Democratic Party boss) Toni Preckwinkle, Judge (Timothy) Evans, and Mayor (Brandon) Johnson double down on claiming the opponents of pre-trial release were motivated by race, the fact remains that the victims of violent crime in Chicago are overwhelmingly people of color.”
“Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a year ago that he had created a 40-member downtown economic growth advisory committee. According to City Hall, the group ‘will provide business leaders, organizations and key stakeholders with a direct line of communication’ with Johnson’s office and all of the city’s departments. It’s time for this committee to start producing some big ideas and measurable results, especially since the city already has World Business Chicago, the Department of Planning and Development, and civic groups such as Chicago Loop Alliance — all of which are tasked with improving downtown.”
Gordon announced that she will appoint the office’s first deputy clerk of diversity, equity and inclusion, a position that she said will be tasked with making sure “everything the clerk’s office does is rooted in equity.” She said more DEI measures will be integrated into her office after her transition team completes its report next month.
Over the weekend, Northwestern was one of 10 universities placed on a list of schools by the U.S. Department of Justice alleged to be leaving Jewish students and faculty unprotected. The Education Department said in Monday’s press release that the universities must begin to resolve what it called a “backlog of complaints alleging antisemitic violence and harassment.”
“We’ve been able to create an efficient office and modernize it but also create an ambitious legislative agenda. I’m proud of the work we’ve done. I remain focused, halfway through my term, on really being a great secretary of state,” he said.
Ald. Brendan Reilly called for the city’s curfew for teens to be moved back from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m., and criticized city officials for not moving forward on the proposal. He also criticized parents for the unruly behavior of teens at the so-called “takeover” events. “Parents are letting (kids) leave the house with guns in their backpack. It should just never happen, and outrage is an appropriate response for it,” he said.
“Chicago is a Sanctuary City that harbors criminal illegal aliens who are terrorizing the American people. Mayor Brandon Johnson has been a major proponent and defender of Sanctuary cities,” Texas Rep. Brandon Gill continued. “At the same time, he was accepting luxurious gifts from undisclosed sources.”
Roughly 3,864 positions across Illinois are unfilled this school year, while 6,117 positions were filled through alternative solutions. From hiring retirees to shortening the teacher pathway, Illinois schools are easing the effects of the crisis in their own ways.
Craft distilleries are primarily small businesses that employ anywhere from three to 50 people. They found in 2024 their retail sales were down 3.6 percent, according to the American Craft Spirits Association. Craft distillers make 25.3 percent of their revenue from on-site sales, and this percentage is growing. Because of Illinois’ restrictive liquor regulations, local distillers are missing out on some of the benefits of this on-site boom.
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs joined democratic state treasurers from around the country to denounce the Trump Administrations tariffs. Illinois is the third largest exporter of agricultural commodities in the U.S. Total exports from Illinois in 2023 were estimated at $81 billion, of which $13.7 billion was attributed to agriculture.
“All this is happening at a moment when Chicago’s appetite for resistance appears less robust than it was during Trump’s first term. Texas’s busing here of some 50,000 migrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, almost all of them in need of essential services, created tension between Black and immigrant communities over the best use of city resources. … Or the increased attacks could backfire, galvanizing a resistance. Chicagoans, after all, don’t much like being pushed around.”
Jim Dey: “At 78 and still bursting with energy and ambition, a former Illinois Republican state senator who was — presumably — retired and living in Bonita Springs, Fla., has announced he’s running for a Florida U.S. House seat. … Times have changed in Florida over the years. So Oberweis probably will not be seen as a Yankee carpetbagger, but it’s a certainty he’ll be seen as a political carpetbagger by other GOP hopefuls vying for the party’s nomination.”
About 20 minutes after the shooting near Columbus and Illinois, police broke up a second fight in the lobby of a nearby hotel that involved about 40 teenagers. Residents of the area have expressed concern about so-called “large group” incidents in the neighborhood for over a year.
Updated findings shed more light on the probe, which was triggered by complaints of mismanagement, cronyism, sexism and racism at the department.
Take a good look at the book recently read by a teacher to her 4th-grade students at my neighborhood public school in Wilmette. You’ll quickly understand why DEI, and trans-activism in particular, have become so objectionable and divisive and why the backlash at the national level to remove such content from our schools has become so powerful.
Ted joined Jeff Daly for a special can’t-miss, in-studio interview about the dismal state of education in Decatur and across Illinois, what an Illinois DOGE could and should do for taxpayers, what Illinois’ future looks like unless school choice is implemented, and more.
As an example, Douglass Academy High School on the West Side spent more than $93,000 per student. Douglass had about 35 students enrolled and a chronic absenteeism rate of 62 percent. Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said the expenses will likely rise when Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union agree to a new contract. “Teachers are either going to get a 9 percent annual raise or a 12 percent annual raise. That’s what they’re fighting about,” Dabrowski said.
After two years without a Senate-confirmed top federal prosecutor, the office has seen its productivity go into free fall, putting it behind much smaller outposts such as Rhode Island and even tiny Guam when it comes to key metrics kept by the district courts, records show. The bleeding continued last week, with the announcement that Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu, the veteran boss of the Public Corruption and Organized Crime Section who led the prosecution of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, is leaving Friday.
As Illinois’ prison population sits at a near 30-year low, the Illinois Department of Corrections has put out a bid to build two new 1,500-single-celled facilities – part of a $900 million plan to close Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers. But getting leaders on board for further population cuts could be difficult: Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker granted only six clemency petitions out of 535 that landed on his desk. In 2023 he granted 57.
The ages of the victims range from 18 to 57.
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