-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The subject of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools,” is broad, meaning the superintendents could be asked about almost anything.
Eric Kellogg was never charged in a sprawling federal corruption investigation that engulfed the south suburb, but members of his family keep paying the price. Older brother Derrick Muhammad was sentenced to six months in federal prison for shaking down towing companies while serving as a Harvey police officer. Brother Rommell Kellogg, and a cousin, Corey Johnson, were previously convicted of extorting money from a Harvey strip club.
When the Illinois General Assembly legalized marijuana and turned it into a cash cow, Ald. Gilbert Villegas said it all but invited drug dealers to set up shop near schools and parks to peddle cannabis on the black market to users eager to avoid sky-high taxes. State lawmakers, perhaps inadvertently, made the problem worse by failing to include progressive discipline for illegal marijuana sales and punishing each offense with a citation that’s the equivalent of a parking ticket, he continued.
Federal authorities allege Ryan Ross, 50, and Vanessa Rhodes, 47, concealed the scheme by submitting false proposals, scopes of work and invoices to the Chicago Housing Authority. Prosecutors also allege Ross used some of the kickback money to purchase a vehicle and pay for repairs and renovations on his home.
Of the changes presented in the trailer bill that passed near the end of the spring session was an update to what share of the transportation funds will be allocated to downstate transportation. The bill changes the percentage from 15 percent of the money to 10 percent.
State Rep. Martin McLaughlin’s plan calls for allowing the Bears to spend up to $2.5 billion to build a stadium that the team would own and the state to spend $1.2 billion on infrastructure. McLaughlin’s bill would not include the PILOT and instead would set a value for the property that would increase by 2.5 percent each year over a 30-year deal, and an oversight committee would ensure local governments don’t shift additional taxes toward other residents and businesses.
“First, the media normalized illegal immigration itself. We were told entering the country illegally was merely a civil matter, or an act of desperation, or somehow morally justified. Then the media began attacking anyone who actually attempted to enforce immigration law. ICE became demonized. … Now we are told unlicensed street vending should essentially be tolerated because some of the vendors are migrants or asylum seekers.”
Ald. Timmy Knudsen said concerns about the Lincoln Avenue bar corridor are not new to his office. He said he is “urging city departments to allow us to set new rules on this stretch of businesses to ensure that nothing like this happens again.”
The neighborhood saw 14 shootings, including five mass shootings from April 1 to June 7, according to police data. There were eight shootings in the same period last year, according to police data.
State Rep. Dan Ugaste said key points of the proposed bill include property tax relief for all property owners in Illinois under a “cap and drop” plan, which puts all referendums on the November General Election ballot and stops any future “backdoor” bond rollovers.
Instead of cutting the sales tax on gasoline, lawmakers voted to divert $150 million of the extra revenues to the general fund to balance the budget. “What the budget did was essentially acknowledge that those sales tax revenues have been running much higher than initially expected because they directly move with fuel prices,” said Paula Worthington, a senior policy adviser with The Civic Foundation. “Some people call it the ‘dirty little secret’ around inflation and state tax revenues,” said Worthington, noting that when prices rise, sales tax revenues follow.
By the time the vote came, the commemorative day was 24 days in the past. After assuring State Rep. John Cabello, a Rockford police detective, that the resolution had nothing to do with law enforcement, state Rep. Mary Beth Canty was asked by State Rep. La Shawn Ford to squeal like a pig.
Among them is Deb’s Law. Patients with a terminal disease may ask a doctor to prescribe aid-in-dying medication allowing them to end their life “in a peaceful manner.” Senate Bill 1950 was originally titled “Sanitary Food Preparation” and amended in the last week of the 2025 regular session to the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act.”
“Then, there is Illinois. While valuations in the Prairie State are much lower on average than in Northeast states, this Midwest state has the highest effective tax rate at 1.84%. So it’s no shocker that Illinois is one of the states revolting.”
A mess of uncertainty and litigation is sure to follow.
“For both big corporate rental-apartment operators and small ‘Ma and Pa’ owners, the dinosaur in the room is soaring property taxes caused by exorbitant governmental spending in Chicago and Cook County. However, the Mayor doesn’t mention that issue.”
“Above all, pension funding must be shielded from political interference.”
“Your administration agreed to a binding timeline on behalf of the City of Chicago without informing the body that must vote on the underlying transaction. This is not a procedural technicality. It is a fundamental failure of the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of city government,” the letter states.
You ride the elevator up a dozen floors. When the doors open, a faint earthy smell greets you. Stepping off the elevator, instead of rows of cubicles, you find racks of vegetables growing under LED lights.