An Illinois lifeline program for suicidal kids has become a bridge to nowhere for many – WBEZ (Chicago)

In Illinois, the number of children who arrived in hospital emergency departments with suicidal thoughts climbed nearly 60% over a nearly six-year period ending in 2021. But the state-run Screening, Assessment and Support Services program is riddled with holes. It’s buckling under the weight of a youth mental health crisis, grappling with staff shortages and greater need. One example: the state couldn’t provide screening outcome data for about 40% of the cases that required the 90-minute response over five years.

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Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades

Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.

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