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David Glockner used his confirmation hearing to differentiate himself from his predecessor. He said he won’t hesitate to “call balls and strikes,” but he added he plans to try to minimize clashes with the mayor’s office by emphasizing “problem-solving over fingerpointing.”
Asked whether she’d be comfortable wearing the hat if the legislation failed and the Bears chose Hammond, Indiana instead, Davis Gates said the bill should have nothing to do with whether or not the Bears choose to go to Arlington Heights. “I have no idea how school funding and the Chicago Bears Stadium are intertwined. Our position is property tax dollars currently go to fund our schools. That’s what we want to happen,” she said.
Johnson appeared to argue that pushing for property tax breaks for the Bears was antithetical to lawmakers’ responsibility to their constituents. “The difference or the disconnect is, look, we do come from different experiences,” Johnson said. “I’m not a billionaire. I’m not the heir of billions of dollars. I’m a working-class brotha that was teaching middle school a handful of years ago.”
Tom Demmer and Ravi Mishra, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “A Medicaid-style program for undocumented immigrants ended up costing billions more than expected, and corporate tax changes were adopted without meaningful analysis of their economic effects. That’s not budgeting. It’s guesswork.”
“Hard work used to be enough for a middle-class working family to be able to afford a home and put down some roots. Now, with housing prices skyrocketing, young people feel like they’re failing to reach an essential benchmark in life. The truth is, this isn’t about a personal failure; it’s about a policy failure.”
“Strengthening both policing and prosecution of property crimes is the key to bringing Walgreens and other businesses back to the South Side. Rhetoric like (Ald. William) Hall’s, by contrast, continues to send the message that Chicago is closed for business.”
“There is something profoundly bizarre about the mayor of a financially struggling American city darting off to the Vatican to deliver a White Sox baseball cap to the Pope while the transit system back home increasingly resembles a rolling crime scene.”
“The rejection of her petition came without dissent or comment from any Supreme Court justices. And the rejection came despite warnings from Jeanne Hedgepeth’s attorneys and other legal observers that to allow the lower courts’ decisions to stand would essentially give the green light to public school districts to censor and potentially fire teachers and other school staff, should they say things that might offend the political sensibiities of students, other faculty or others in the ‘school community’ who may cause a commotion in protest of the disfavored speech.”
“Imagine having to tell a victim’s family the technology that could have identified the suspect was taken off the table by lawmakers,” state Rep. Patrick Sheehan of Homer Glen said on social media last month.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced the lawsuit Tuesday against Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, challenging the constitutionality of the Illinois Firearms Owner’s Identification Card.
If the full council approves the $5 million TIF sweep when it meets Wednesday, the move would follow a roughly $1 billion sweep of TIF funds to CPS by the council last December. Days earlier, the Chicago Board of Education raised its property tax levy from 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent during what board president Sean Harden called a “special” meeting held during the district’s winter break.
The short time for a budget to be reviewed can deter debate and largely eliminates opportunity for scrutiny from taxpayers and even lawmakers themselves. The tactic is used despite laws that outline how a budget bill should be passed.
The new system will use the term “consistent attendance,” the percentage of students present 90 percent or more of the school year. But the revised system also changes attendance from a “core indicator” in the rankings to merely an “elevating indicator.” Why that matters: Strong “consistent attendance” will raise a school’s rating, but a weak performance won’t hurt it.
South Holland city leaders said “a physical altercation occurred among a group of attendees” during the graduation ceremony Sunday at the Thornwood football field. Video of the ceremony shows several people running, throwing punches, including someone in a cap in gown.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Senate Bill 2873, introduced by state Sen. Mike Simmons, would create the Illinois Health Services Program, a single, state‑administered health care system designed to replace most private insurance and expand access to care statewide. Eligibility under the plan is based solely on residency, not citizenship or immigration status.
State Reps. Nicolle Grasse and Kevin John Olickal, and state Sen. Rachel Ventura: “Long term, we need to move to an income tax system that requires the wealthiest to pay their fair share. But urgent action cannot wait for a constitutional fix. That’s why the Affordability and Tax Justice Coalition, a group of more than 40 state lawmakers, has put forward several targeted reforms that would generate the revenue Illinois needs to protect families — without asking working people to chip in one additional dollar.
A group of Black state lawmakers is calling for accountability at CPS after video of a play at Carver Military Academy on the South Side depicting Latino students auctioning off Black students as slaves went public. In response, the district sent leaders at Carver a pamphlet entitled “10 Practices for Culturally-Responsive and Inclusive School Celebrations.”
Separately, police responded to a large teen gathering in Hyde Park Sunday night. Police say a 14-year-old girl was arrested and charged with aggravated battery after she ignored verbal warnings and hit an officer on the head.
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