-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Founded in 1872 as the Cook County Herald, the suburban Chicago newspaper has grown into the third-largest daily print publication in Illinois, with a current circulation of 52,410, according to its website.
Chicago’s lobbyist, John Arena, said that sweeping TIF funds is a key tool the city uses to avoid more harmful financial decisions. “This would deprive local taxing bodies of revenues that they could otherwise use to address budget shortfalls, infrastructure needs, and programming taxpayers rely on for Chicago,” Arena said. “That is a terrible limitation on revenue management. The bill would result in tax increases, service cuts, or both for schools, parks, and other taxing bodies.”
The Illinois Department of Employment Security said the unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in April, unchanged from March, and up +0.6 percent from the same month, one year ago, based on data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas says the dramatic increase is due to two AI experts she recently hired. “In the last six weeks, due to artificial intelligence, look at this 28,000 people have gotten $73 million. We are killing it,” Pappas said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson says his plan is also focused on engaging with young people and providing summer jobs and safe spaces for youth. This upcoming holiday weekend, Chicago’s top cop says days-off for his officers have been canceled to provide more resources in targeted areas.
The Illinois State Board of Education waited until April to distribute $18 million, and then told recipients they had only until the end of August to spend the money or else return
Faith Colson, a survivor of abuse by a teacher at her suburban Chicago high school in the early 2000s and the namesake behind Faith’s Law, which strengthens requirements intended to stop grooming in schools. Colson opposes the bill, saying it could make it harder to find a pattern of child abuse if it is not documented in every instance.
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant was behind the wheel of a white sedan when Calumet Park police pulled him over for making an illegal turn. He asked a total of 15 times why he was pulled over before police pulled him from the vehicle and placed him under arrest. During that interaction, police asked him 10 times to provide his license and insurance, but he did not. “You don’t know who you’re arresting right now,” Bryant said after he was handcuffed.
“The district really went on a hiring spree during COVID, against the advice of most financial experts,” said Austin Berg, of the Chicago Policy Center,. “They were adding a lot of recurring costs on one-time revenues that they knew would go away after the pandemic was over.” Berg also said CTU asked too much of the district in the two bodies’ most recent contract.
Judge Erica Reddick’s ruling Thursday came after more than 400 attorneys, clergy members, elected officials and community organizers accused Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke of abandoning her official duties in refusing to investigate widespread allegations of crimes committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in and around Chicago. But Reddick found that it is law enforcement agencies, not the prosecutor’s office, that are tasked with launching such investigations.
The House Gun Violence Prevention Committee voted 9-5 along party lines Wednesday to pass House Bill 4471, which seeks to ban the sale of any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar in Illinois.
Gov. JB Pritzker said most of the BUILD plan would not cost taxpayers anything, but he said it did include $250 million to spur development and help people afford housing.
Senate Bill 3496 was filed in February to ensure proper licensing of nurses, but the bill text was gutted and replaced by House Amendment 1 to establish a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. State Rep. Nabeela Syed there would be an estimated cost of $750,000 for PDAB operations that would be paid back to the state by the fees on drug manufacturers.
“It’s just disheartening that we continually think that government knows better than a parent knows about their children,” state Sen. Jil Tracy said.
Gas prices in Illinois are up 48 percent from last Memorial Day.
“In (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s mind a progressive council aligns with a progressive mayor and that’s how government should function. He is continuing the tradition of giving the council and public too little time and too little information. Major decisions — from asset sales to pension holidays to tax-increment financing and the casino deal — have been shaped behind closed doors, with the council largely rubber-stamping them.”
The major investment is part of a $2.9 billion national funding package from the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency. Illinois received about 10 percent of the federal dollars — the largest allocation among all 50 states.
Chicago developer Mike Reschke is poised to buy a mostly empty downtown office tower at 55 West Monroe St. at a staggering 90% discount from its 2014 sale price, reinforcing both the financial carnage in the local office market and his status as a big bettor on the Loop’s post-pandemic recovery.
“I make my own detritus,” Bradford said, “and then I use the detritus to make a painting.” The debris makes his canvases impressionistic and sculptural, and resistant to linear, literal storytelling.
Tens of millions in public funding may also be required to build a new Pink Line CTA station near the United Center.
The Illinois General Assembly is considering helping educational support staff workers whose incomes dry up each summer by allowing them to collect unemployment benefits between academic terms beginning on June 1. “The discussion we’re having now is how expensive it is,” House sponsor Rep. Marcus Evans said. “Is it a Maserati or a Camry? I think it’s a Camry.”
“You know, it’s not parent-shaming to say that you should know where your children are at 10, 11, 12 o’clock at night, when you have a 12-year-old or a 13-year-old,” he said.
“Chicago Public Schools has an 82.5 percent high school graduation rate, although only 27 percent of students are proficient in math and 42 percent in reading. … Around 43 percent of CPS students going to state community colleges are enrolled in remedial courses.”
Officer Kevin Mangan had responded to a location where three people had pulled up and blocked an ambulance from leaving a separate scene in McKinley Park. When Mangan started writing that ticket, police said a 30-year-old woman started banging on a squad car. Then she and a 33-year-old man attacked Mangan.
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