ICE puts California, Illinois, New York on notice for refusing to cooperate – Center Square

The states’ refusal to comply with ICE detainer requests “will result in thousands of criminal aliens being released” into their communities, endangering their residents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said. As a result, ICE will work “with the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal partners to pursue all appropriate measures against you.”

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Illinois declined to give sensitive voter data to the DOJ. Some GOP states are doing the same – Capitol News IL

Illinois sent the feds the same data it makes available to political parties and government entities. It includes the voters’ names and addresses, their age at the time the registration was completed, and the voting jurisdictions in which they reside. It also contains voting history, including which elections they voted in and, in the case of primary elections, which party’s ballot they selected.

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Reforming Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts – Civic Federation

“Mosquito abatement and vector control are critically important and necessary public health functions. However, the current fragmented, inequitable method of delivering these services is neither efficient nor accountable to the public. … The four Cook County Mosquito Abatement Districts vary in the amount of transparent information about government documents, records, finances, and performance data that is publicly available.”

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Lincoln Park arrest exposes law that lets sex offenders become massage therapists – CWB Chicago

It turns out that Illinois law says state regulators ‘cannot normally consider juvenile offenses or expunged convictions when making licensure determinations,’ according to a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. And that’s how someone who had to register as a sex offender ended up licensed to touch people for a living.”

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Chicago budget rises over 2X faster than other big cities – Illinois Policy

Chicago’s total expenditures have increased by nearly $7 billion, up 62 percent from 2019. Massive pension bills and rising personnel expenses, tied to costly government union contracts, have helped push the city’s spending beyond sustainable levels. Among America’s biggest cities, Chicago’s rapid spending growth stands out. The five most populous U.S. cities averaged only 38 percent spending growth since 2019.

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Editorial: Teachers’ extremist social media posts don’t do their students any good – Chicago Tribune*

“A Chicago Public Schools teacher is receiving national attention for posting a video saying ‘white cis males are the biggest threat to our country.’ An Oak Forest teacher is under internal investigation for a social media post multiple parents flagged that appeared to imply (Charlie) Kirk deserved to be killed. These are just two examples.”

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Brace For Impact: Tax Hikes Loom For South, West Side Homeowners – Illinois Answers Project

“Coming from the top, they want affordable housing in the city,” Austin homeowner Leodus Thomas Jr. said. “But that’s almost impossible with how we’re being taxed.” Thomas saw a nearly 60 percent increase in his assessment. More than 37,000 residential properties on the South and West sides saw their tax assessments more than double between 2023 and 2024.

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Insolvency, Chicago-style – The Last Ward

“Bloomberg broke news last week that the city was forced to provide emergency lending for Chicago’s firefighter pension fund in order to avoid asset sales. Between a delay in Cook County property tax bills and alarmingly low funding levels, the fund literally did not have the necessary cash on hand to pay current retirees. This is what insolvency looks like. And this is exactly why (Chicago CFO Jill) Jaworski and (Mayor Brandon) Johnson should have been screaming from the rooftops to oppose the pension sweetener bill.”

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