-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
While robberies are down citywide, some sprees continue to take place in certain areas.
The cost of tuition and fees for statewide undergraduates on average has risen 10 percent higher since FY09 than if it had simply kept pace with inflation. For graduate students, that discrepancy is 16 percent. The University of Illinois Chicago is the only school that has seen tuition and fees for both graduate and undergraduate students grow more slowly than inflation.
“I called for people to take out their megaphones and their microphones, to stand up on the soap boxes and get to the ballot box,” Pritzker said. “Now that this culture of timidity is on full display, those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption.”
Illinois GOP Chairman Kathy Salvi said the governor’s comments can’t be taken without the context of two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump during the campaign. “He didn’t say about peaceful protests last night, again words matter and he can’t walk back the words that he used last night,” Salvi said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the city is facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion, but Ald. Scott Waguespack said the budget shortfall is actually going to be $1.5 billion or more. “With the mayor, you know, poking the eye of the governor, it’s not going over well, so we are trying to speak to the governor’s people to really kind of work in a different way, in a different kind of partnership, because we know we’re going to need state assistance and federal assistance to get through this next year,” Waguespack said.
State Rep. Regan Deering emphasized that crops don’t grow in a swamp, they grow in the fertile plains of central Illinois. She added that it’s time the government relocated the USDA to a place where people are focused on planting crops, not just pushing paper.
Senate Bill 1551 would allow financial advisors to delay investments if there is suspicion of financial exploitation. It would also expand mandated reporting requirements by advisors to state agencies.
“Danville is a small town. It consists of about 29,000 people, and if we lose 400 good-paying government jobs, that will devastate our economy here,” said Mickensy Ellis-White, a veteran of the Iraq War from Vermilion County and chair of the Vermilion County Democratic Party. “Where are those people going to go to get new jobs? That’s going to negatively affect all of us.”
Swarms of people filled the streets near Columbus and Illinois on the evening of March 28. It wasn’t long before a 15-year-old boy got shot in front of the NBC tower. An 18-year-old was stabbed during a takeover-related fight in the Loop, too.
“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now,” Pritzker said Sunday night at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner. “These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. The reckoning is finally here.”
“The Broken Windows Theory holds that when small crimes go unpunished, it signals neglect and encourages lawlessness. Today, the damage to public and private property, petty theft, disruption of commerce, trespassing, and the harassment of first responders often go unchecked. The result? A dangerous message to young people that there are no consequences for antisocial behavior.”
In newly released information, the medical examiner says it has been unable to determine how or why the individual died. Investigators couldn’t even determine if the person was a man or a woman, the office said. So, the case has been closed out with both the cause and manner of death being “undetermined.”
Illinois lawmakers are advancing a number of education-related bills, including ones that would restrict the use of cellphones in classrooms, no longer require student test scores to be a part of teacher evaluations, and protect federal rights for students with disabilities in the mediation process with districts. Other proposals, such as new regulations for homeschooling and a task force related to artificial intelligence, appear to be stalled.
“Our concerns extend to state and local politics as well. For example, we view Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch’s informal rule requiring any bill getting a floor vote to be able to pass with only Democratic votes even if it would win approval on a bipartisan basis as an undemocratic restraint. It undermines what a legislature is meant to do: debate ideas on their merits no matter their provenance.”
Inflating Tier 2 benefits risks collapsing the system. Protecting pensions for Illinois workers requires fiscal responsibility.
Career state workers collect among the most generous retirement benefits in the nation. But the top 50 state pensioners earn more than triple the average lifetime payout of the rest of the state’s career pensioners.
“Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors. Do not claim that your authoritarian power grabs are about antisemitism. When you destroy social justice, you are disparaging the very foundation of Judaism,” said Pritzker.
By actuary Mary Pat Campbell.
“Embracing her intersectional identity as a Black woman with Cerebral Palsy, Adams’s art serves as both a reflection and extension of self,” according to herbiography, “challenging narratives of race and representation while exploring personal and collective histories.” And Adams added, “It is my privilege to translate ‘Weary Blues’ for the Obama Presidential Center. The piece will become part of a shared environment at the Center’s café— an atmosphere for gathering, reflection, and rest—extending the piece’s emotional tenor into a communal space rooted in legacy, resilience, and imagination.”
It’s time for an update on Illinois’ educational failures with the state’s 2024 Report Card data available. In 2024, there were 80 Illinois schools where not a single student tested proficient in math and 24 where no student tested proficient in reading. What’s worse, officials in those schools graduated nearly 70% of their students.
“Particularly puzzling is Pritzker’s lack of public enthusiasm for pending good-government proposals or a high-profile reform agenda given his national political ambitions and public challenges to Republican President Donald Trump. Though Pritzker has signed into law smaller ethical upgrades … the governor may be squandering an opportunity to portray himself as someone willing to try to disinfect the political culture of a state often synonymous with public corruption.”
The ages of the victims range from 16 to 50.
In her first few months, Mariyana Spyropoulos told reporters her office organized “over 200 boxes of unfiled civil court documents” and found fines and fees that were owed by defendants but weren’t sent to collections. She hired an accounting firm to do an internal audit to make “sure that our financial situation is sound” and already “let go a certain amount of people” who “did not have the experience necessary to handle financial transactions.”
In an email sent to students, ISU officials said police first received notification of shots fired at 7:40 p.m. during a registered student organization event at the Bone Student Center. The email went on to say the one reported victim is was not an ISU student.
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