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Residents of Manteno, Illinois were outraged when they found out local and state officials had finalized a deal with a Chinese Communist Party-linked company to construct an electric vehicle battery “gigafactory” in their town. The multi-billion dollar deal, which Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Sept. 8, was hashed out behind closed doors and without any public input, according to over a dozen Manteno residents who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Summary and audio linked here.
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.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Pritzker Is Rolling Out The Red Carpet For Gotion — A Chinese Communist Party Owned Battery Maker — Pritzker Says GOP Questions About Communist Ownership/Control Of Gotion Are — WAIT FOR IT — Racist – Daily Caller
It seems likely that OMA (Open Meetings Act) was violated, because newspapers have reported this evidently done-deal but there is no evidence of public postings, hearings, public comment, conditional use permit re-zoning hearings, etcetera and so on). Now, locals need to get their local elected officials accountable for any violations of OMA which may have occurred. (In part): “What is the Open Meetings Act (OMA)? The Open Meetings Act is a state law that requires that meetings of public bodies be open to the public except in certain specific, limited situations (discussed in more detail below) where the law authorizes… Read more »