-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Next year may mark a seismic year in which steady congressional seats are up for grabs. Members of the Illinois General Assembly could also potentially run for some of the available congressional seats, setting up a shuffle at the Illinois State Capitol as well.
The plan received bipartisan support, but the proposal was never sent to a committee by Democratic leadership. Now the bill is considered dead, since no bills can be heard in committees unless they receive approval from the Senate President.
Amazon is opening a warehouse fulfillment center and Frito-Lay is opening a warehouse distribution center. The Amazon facility is already under construction.
The proposed change to the Election Code gives public university students more time to vote on campus, extending early voting from four to six days before the election with set hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day.
The Illinois House gave its approval to legislation that would give high school athletes a limited right to compete in non-school events or on non-school teams during the same season in which they play for their school.
Legislation in front of the General Assembly would create the “Office of State Public Defender” which would primarily be responsible for providing public defender offices around the state with more resources. Illinois has already established similar offices to improve other aspects of criminal court processes, including the Office of State Appellate Defender and the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services.
“You could see the impact of COVID on crime,” said Wesley G. Skogan, an emeritus Northwestern University political scientist who analyzes Chicago’s numbers. Lately, however, society has been healing, Skogan said. “Schools are open. Violence interruption is more common than it was before. Youth and recreational services are back. The police are working more reasonable hours and their activity — traffic stops, arrests, speeding tickets — has been creeping back up toward normal.”
In all three cases — that of the prosecutors, the legislative staff and the elections workers — employers have argued the law bars their staffs from unionizing. Advocates say the real hesitation of bosses to recognize unions is the unwillingness of even self-professed pro-labor employers to give up control over their staff.
Mariyana T. Spyropoulos, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court: “This online tool gives residents direct access to case initiation data dating back to 2020. Users can filter information by area of law, court location and division. This is not simply a tech upgrade. It reflects a core belief: The public deserves clear, timely access to the workings of their courts.”
The ordinance would establish a nonprofit developer arm of the city’s Department of Housing to control a $135 million fund offering developers low-cost loans during construction. The Wednesday AFSCME deal added guarantees that the nonprofit structure created by the ordinance to administer the loan fund would use workers from the city’s Department of Housing if it created jobs similar to ones that already exist in the department.
Friday, April 11, while the Courthouse Annex was being demolished, hundreds of confidential records containing social security numbers of many individuals were spread around Danville.
Two years after securing a $462 settlement from Juul Labs Inc., the Illinois Attorney General’s Office announced it is donating $24 million of that settlement toward efforts to prevent youth nicotine usage.
According to Ald. Brian Hopkins, who represents the downtown area, a compromise would include Chicago police being able to implement emergency curfews. “This would apply anytime – 8 p.m., 6 p.m., 5 p.m. – whenever is necessary,” Hopkins said. “It’s driven by what’s actually happening, instead of an arbitrary time on the clock, which also makes sense. It gives greater flexibility to the police.”
SB 75 would require water utility shareholders to pay more than consumers for new acquisitions.
When Los Angeles reformed its accessory dwelling unit rules in 2016, it removed barriers such as owner-occupancy requirements and permit caps. Seattle’s 2019 changes involved eliminating owner-occupancy requirements, allowing more flexibility for unit and lot sizes, and streamlining their permitting process. The result in both cities was an explosion in new, small-scale housing.
If state workers received coverage more in line with what the private sector gets, it could save around $2.7 billion. The average private citizen in Illinois pays 42 percent of their combined premium and out-of-pocket health care costs, while Illinois state employees pay only 16 percent.
Chicago’s pension plans avoided a reckoning in 2020 after federal covid aid helped the city avoid a fiscal collapse. But reality is back and the financial market’s volatility is a reminder of just how delicate the situation is. The market’s drop this year alone has cost the city an estimated $1 billion-plus in mark-to-market losses, a big deal for a city that already has a $53 billion funding hole.
Ted joined John and Amy to discuss Cook County’s use of federal covid money to fund its guaranteed income program, how politicians use welfare programs to help their election campaigns, Gov. Pritzker’s obsession with putting DEI and transgenderism into education, the costs of the new Chicago teachers contract, and more.
“I will just say, outside of a 2016 Cubs World Series ring, I’m not kissing a ring, OK?” Johnson said. “The president of the United States of America has an open invitation to the fifth floor of the greatest freakin’ city in the world, the city of Chicago. He can come talk to me.”
The DOE announced April 11 it would limit support for indirect costs, or money that is used for administrative and other non-research related expenses, to 15 percent for all research funding. Some universities, such as the University of Illinois, a plaintiff listed in the lawsuit, receive as much as 58.6 percent in indirect funding, the suit says.
In the filing, ICE made the claim that it “received information,” that the mayor’s office hired a company to drive around the city looking for Chicago police officers cooperating with ICE enforcement activities with the purpose of then disciplining those officers. The federal agency also alleges that Chicago police officers, “have expressed to ICE officials willingness to cooperate with ICE but fear they will face discipline for violating these Sanctuary Policies.”
Jim Dey: “Jim Nowlan, a state department head under past Republican governors and a retired University of Illinois government professor, opines that ‘if something isn’t done,’ Republicans will be ‘dead in the water at least until 2041.’ That kind of talk is music to the ears of ruling partisan Democrats. After all, to the victor go the spoils, and there are lot of spoils to go around with the state’s $50 billion-plus annual budget.”
“In recent years, the taxes on the homes of hundreds more seniors than usual have been offered at the sale. That spike was caused by a series of COVID-19-related events — including larger-than-normal increases in Social Security benefits that boosted many seniors’ incomes above the limit for a lucrative tax break called a senior freeze. … I’m backing a bill that would raise the income level for the senior freeze …”
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER