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As long as Dr. Mahmood Ghassemi’s UIC pay was capped at 70 percent of his former full-time salary of about $113,000, Ghassemi’s roughly $7,100-a-month pension wasn’t in jeopardy,
“Mitchell’s first House primary race was a proxy battle between (Cook County Board President Toni) Preckwinkle and the Jesse Jackson family, and man was that close race ever heated. He was a brassy, highly educated amateur boxer who didn’t take any guff whatsoever. Mitchell then went on to win two successive Democratic primary races against a Chicago Teachers Union-backed candidate. The enemies list grew as Mitchell fought all opponents tooth and nail.”
Twelve townhomes are under construction right now and start at $349,900. The developers will build 95 townhomes and 13 single-family homes, as well as apartments.
The River North neighborhood that has seen an increase in shootings and murders even as similar violence has declined state-wide.
The shortage is projected to swell to 15,000 by the end of this year and will likely continue to worsen. More than half of Illinois’ nurses are over age 55, so widespread retirements within the next decade and an aging population will increase staffing demands.
During the spring legislative session, the Teamsters hoped to win language that would have limited the use of rideshares for paratransit within transit reform legislation mostly focused on averting the fiscal cliff and restructuring the Chicago area’s regional transit governing body. But the parties failed to come to an agreement relating to paratransit. And though legislators introduced two different transit reform bills, lawmakers failed to pass either into law.
CPD officials reported officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2024 to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which is required by state law to track all stops made by police officers throughout Illinois. But the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications recorded that officers made an additional 210,622 stops in 2024 that were not documented as required by state law and CPD policy, making it impossible to know whether drivers’ constitutional rights were protected during those stops,
For more than a year, the Illinois Equitable Access Towards Sustainable Systems (IL EATS) connected local farmers with their neighbors in need. Farmers would sell their products to food banks and be reimbursed by the federal government. When the funding ran out earlier this year, the Illinois government stepped in to fill the gap. However, that funding ended July 1, 2025, so now the IL EATS program is done.
Your retirement is likely to look very different. The average American saved $609,230 by retirement age, according to the most recent data from 2022. They will average $22,344 a year from Social Security retirement benefits.
“This tragedy that we are working through today, again, this does not define us as a city. This is still the top destination for people around the globe,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. In recent weeks, the mayor has said repeatedly that his administration is making Chicago the safest and most affordable big city in America.
RTA budget officials say a fare increase is an option to generate about $50 million in new revenue. A potential fare increase could go up to 10 percent and would take effect after Jan. 1 if the RTA approves it.
Now that Gov. JB Pritzker has signed Senate Bill 28 into law, school districts have the option to remove the student growth metric from the evaluation process. Welcoming the new law is the president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who said there’s been too much testing and it’s getting in the way of real learning.
According to a report by Attom Data, the average Rockford resident pays nearly 2.1 percent of their home value in property taxes every year (about $4,500). Last year Rockford had the nation’s second-highest taxes, beaten only by Akron, Ohio. The Chicago metro area took 2nd place with an effective rate of 1.91 percent and a tax bill of nearly $7,800. Peoria took 3rd in the nation with a rate of 1.89 percent and Champaign-Urbana took 4th with 1.88 percent. The Springfield area took 6th place.
Mayor Brandon Johnson recently issued the first veto by a Chicago mayor in 19 years. But Chicago’s 57 mayors have issued at least 1,889 vetoes stretching back to 1851, when it’s believed that mayors got their veto power, according to records from the city clerk’s office.
“I was astonished to learn the city has submitted a request to extend its replacement of lead service lines — 30 years beyond the 20 years the federal government has proposed. The city plans to complete 8,300 replacements annually for 50 years, wrapping up in 2076. This pace defies common sense and is unconscionable.”
Lincoln College has been closed since the spring semester of 2022. State Sen. Sally Turner explained that the money has been part of the budget since 2018 and continues to roll over due to its inclusion in a previously passed law. When asked why a private college would receive state funding, Turner speculated it might be intended “for the betterment of the people.”
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