* 12:10 pm - We’ve topped ten percent unemployment. From an IDES press release…

The Illinois seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for May reached 10.1 percent, an increase of +0.7 percent over April, according to figures released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Unemployment in Illinois and nationwide has reached 25-year highs.

Total non-farm payroll in Illinois declined by 17,400 jobs in May. Although the pace of job loss lessened compared to the previous six months, Illinois recorded its eighth consecutive month of job losses. The number of unemployed people reached 671,400, the highest since June 1983. […]

The Manufacturing sector lost -9,500 workers in May, and has suffered the largest job loss of any sector in four of the last five months. Job loss leaders also include trade, transport and utilities as well as the construction sector. With summer approaching, job growth was reported in the Leisure and Hospitality sector.

Nationally, the May unemployment rate climbed to its highest level in more than 25 years to reach 9.4 percent and the total number of unemployed workers reached 14.5 million.

* 12:17 pm - You can read the entire opinion by clicking here. AP has a brief bit online…

The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out a law setting a mandatory retirement age for state judges.

Until now, Illinois had required judges to step down at the end of the term in which they turn 75. A Chicago judge challenged the law.

The Supreme Court didn’t entirely reject the idea of mandatory retirement, but it found that the law was written in a way that created constitutional problems.

For instance, a sitting judge couldn’t run for re-election after age 75, but someone who had never been a judge before could run, no matter how old.

* 12:31 pm - There’s a protest against the budget cuts at the Thompson Center today. Here’s a pic and OneMan is live-Tweeting the event…

Clark now blocked with protesters…

Police clearing Clark

* 12:56 pm - Henry has posted a couple more pics from the protest here and here… and here and here. Sample…

       

45 Comments - Scooby - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:17 pm: The doors to the JRTC have been closed on the Randolph street entrance because the size of the rally is so large. Also the gate has been lowered separating the JTRC lobby from the CTA entrance on the Lake Street side, so the only open entrance to the JRTC is LaSalle Street. - Dudeman - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:28 pm: Come on citizens of Illinois, lets pass that state income tax increase. We can make it to 12-14% unemployment easy. I know we can do it! At least we are above the national average in something, lets make our new state motto, “Illinois: More State and Local Govt., More Unemployment!” Go team! - I wish I were Mrs. Guillen - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:51 pm: I’d like to hear from DudeMan again, but next time - a well thought out argument. Can you imagine how bad things will be if these cuts actually occur? Whoaaa… Unless you’re selling drugs, I think you’ll be out of luck. Then, to clean up all the mess that it will cause, taxes will have to be raised in another few months…maybe a year. Tops. - Princess - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:57 pm: Wow, that last picture posted on in his live blog. Does anybody really think these protesters care who is at fault for the budget mess, Democrats or Republicans? They don’t appear to care if Cross wants to stand strong and keep asking ‘if not now, when?’, or if Madigan wants more than Dems votes on tax increases or if one side or another has an advantage in mapped districts. - collar observer - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:58 pm: Dudeman - 100,000 more out of work if we DON’T raise responsible new revenue - all of the protestors either losing jobs - or the services provided Illinois General Assembly - Speaker and Minority Leader - raise the income tax - expand the sales tax base to include non-essential services - and do it before July 1! - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 12:59 pm: This is great! More protests like these are required. Perhaps in front of particular legislators offices. - Niles Township - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:03 pm: Clark is open again. - Niles Township - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:03 pm: As many signs asking to “raise my taxes” as “no cuts”. - wordslinger - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:10 pm: Maybe this new number can turn up the heat for a capital bill and get a budget deal done. How about some dump trucks and bulldozers clogging up Clark Street? Where are those union guys, anyway, on this? - stilldontgetit - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:16 pm: Hows this Obama stimules working for you? This is what Obama had to spend 2 TRILLION dollars to get us to? God help us. - Ghost - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:17 pm: Thinmgs are going well. Record unemployment, no capital bill to provide jobs. The poor guy with the sign complaining about the FBI has been squeezed off his plaza…. TII - dave - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:17 pm: This is great! More protests like these are required. Perhaps in front of particular legislators offices. Those have also been happening. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:22 pm: stilldontgetit, Did you check out the last time unemployment was this high? During Reagan. And I think about 18 months elapsed between his tax cuts, budget increases (and the fed’s interest rate cuts) and the beginning of that recovery. - Mover631 - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:22 pm: All of these Government employees in the streets demanding higher taxes? Wonder if their boss’s sent them out there? If they have time to protest maybe they don’t have enough work to do and we can find some cuts in their offices! Go back to work! - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:23 pm: ===All of these Government employees in the streets demanding higher taxes?=== These are mostly social service employees, not gvt employees. Also, it was lunchtime. Perhaps you should go back to work. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:24 pm: Also, Mover631, please post under one screen name. Posting under two in the same post within minutes of each other can get you banned. Final warning. - Princess - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:26 pm: Mover, I’m seeing parents and students ect. But I also think if any gov. workers are out there that their lunch time is their own. - Rob_N - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:27 pm: still, 90% of the national deficit is from Bush policies + lost revenue due to the recession. Only 10% of the current deficit is from Obama. And he said all along (campaign, after the election, since the inauguration) that it was going to get worse before it gets better. As conservatives are fond of pointing out (not)… Only a sliver of the Stimulus Package has even been implemented yet. Heck, Rich keeps pointing out that the state budget is a bit hamstrung due to Stimulus matching funds requirements/protocols — which means those portions of Stimulus funds haven’t been implemented yet. Can ya get back to Illinois talk now? - Concerned Observer - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:34 pm: As I pointed out in the other thread — the organizers did a heck of a job with this protest. - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 1:48 pm: Rich, please don’t put facts in front of stilldontgetit’s ideology. It can get confusing. - Give Me A Break - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:05 pm: Our youngest daughter is a Downs child. We were notified that her SPARC Summer Day Camp will end on June 30th due to the budget mess. We don’t receive state funds to send her there, we pay out of own pocket because we can afford to. But out of the over 75 special needs children, most need some monetary helps. What I’d like to hear Mover631 explain to me is where are parents like us (and those who do get some state support) going to send their special needs children? How many are you going to open your home up to? Most of those at the protest work at places like The ARC and UCP, they are underpaid but choose to work with special needs children out of their dedication to them not to get rich. Mover631, try to know something about what you are talking about before posting your thoughts. - Steve - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:15 pm: Anyone have any idea if this protest is as big as the recent tea party protest in Chicago? - ding - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:24 pm: this rally was a big one; people were fired up, buses kept arriving and the crowd was diverse - more than home based child care providers were there: i saw whole families, kids, lots of small children from home based day care, folks from SEIU, United Way, drug/alcohol rehab, disability orgs, rape crisis, small community orgs serving culturally specific populations - it was awesome. and we’re going to do it again on Tuesday in the rotunda in Springfield. - Skeptic Cal - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:28 pm: JUDGES : Rich, the unemployment figures, budget cuts and other things in this section are HUGE issues. The blurb about the Supreme Court is interesting, but pales in comparison. Would you open a new thread just on that topic so it can get attention without distracting from this pressing issue. I guess the question is, given that decision, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and the general nature of corrupt politics potentially affecting the judiciary, is now the time to consider an alternative way to select judges… a way that the people control, but without the influence of fundraising and political power brokering? Just wondering if others have a concern. - OneMan - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:51 pm: Steve, Having been and twitter this one was much bigger. (Not even close) - I wish I were Mrs. Guillen - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:52 pm: Tuesday in Springfield will be HUGE especially if the “session” is in. Give Me A Break — my thoughts are with your family and families like yours. I do hope this mess can get cleaned up… and fast. - dave - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 2:53 pm: Anyone have any idea if this protest is as big as the recent tea party protest in Chicago? This protest may have been 10 times bigger then the recent tea party protest. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 3:23 pm: I was in Chicago earlier, walked past JRTC just before noon, it was the largest rally I’ve ever seen at the Thompson Center. - OneMan - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 3:33 pm: I meant to say have been and having twittered both this one was much bigger than the Tea Party. Also more organized groups at this one by far. - Ghost - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 3:50 pm: OneMan I jst assumed u wr foLowN d txtN rwl of uz as few wrds as posbL! - Holdingontomywallet - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 3:50 pm: It is too early to evaluate the Obama stimulus package, but there sure are some miscalculations that are appearing. Part of the justification for passing the stimulus so quickly was to keep unemployment under 8% nationally (says Obama). Now we are looking at 10% and climbing for unemployment. Don’t get me started on the $60 billion bail-out for Government Motors — and READ THE BILL next time. That isn’t too much to ask, is it? - afamily - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 3:52 pm: We were there and it was huge but no media coverage except a photo at the chi trib that stated it was an anti-violence rally. We were there because we have a child w severe disabilities. The small amount of help we get (which will end on the 30th) is a heck of a lot cheaper for the taxpayers than having him live in an institution. When they close the 4 of the 9 institutions for individuals w disabilities and the 6 of the 9 psychiatric facilities where do you think all of these people will end up? - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 4:09 pm: Probably no chance for disclosure as to who was paying for all those busses. Was it good hearted citizens or the porkmasters who feel a danger to their taxpayer revenue stream? - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 4:10 pm: porkmasters? Care to be more specific? Would you be talking about Catholic Charities? - dupage dan - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 4:51 pm: The ramifications regarding care for our most vulnerable citizens can not be overstated. The many private providers/contract agencies as well as the state operated facilities are already winding down their services in preparation for partial/total closure. This includes services for minors who are in foster/adoptive homes. Where are the families/providers going to turn to when the funding stops and the services cease? This is what makes it so difficult to believe that the GA/Gov will “allow” this to happen. The brinksmanship and demagoguery involved here is breathtaking. MJM/dems are playing chicken with the rest of us waiting to see who will blink. All in order to protect their fiefdom. They are not fit to serve. The GOP has a golden opportunity here to show the state how it can be done right. So far they have not shown brilliance but are showing some moxy. Time will tell if they can pull it off. - How Ironic - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 4:56 pm: @Dupage Dan If you think that the Gov is “playing games” please explain how exactly the GA can give the Gov a budger for 12mos at 50% and NOT have draconian cuts? Would you prefer that the Gov just spend willy-nilly until the agencies are forced to have a 0% budget? Quinn is unfortunatly the only one being rational in this process. People just can’t/won’t belive that it is really happening. Doomsday has been predicted before but never passed. This time it was predicted, and IS NOW HAPPENING. - dupage dan - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 5:02 pm: I would place most of the blame on the GA in this matter at this time. Quinn has stiffened his positions recently and that puts him in a better light. I should perhaps have not put him in the same league as the GA. He is not being believed by many, right now, with his doom and gloom prophecies. That may or may not be his fault - it is what it is. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 5:21 pm: U are really funny Rich. We can start with everyone who does not understand the concept of shared pain. I bet there has never been a bus paid for by Catholic Charities for lobbying purposes. I have been involved in numerous labor negotiations. Showing them that there are limited funds does not phase them. They just want more each year. In our area it has been at least twice the fake COLA which is extorted at more than 3% per anum regardless what the real rate of inflation is. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 5:22 pm: Plutocrat03, your post made no sense. - Princess - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 5:36 pm: Plutocraft03, it is the ‘good hearted’ taxpaying citizens of this state that will be paying for the many trips back and forth to lay-off meetings for state employees. Lord only knows how long that might take to get correct. Last year’s ’show’ took a number of restarts (not to mention the mailings and copying and manhours and all those little things) and we were just laying off a handful compared to the numbers they are running by us this year. One might wonder what work will get done as employees troop down from 8 to 5 day after day? The overtime? The gasoline and tie-up of state vehicles? Will all this be going on as Cross keeps looking for the coins in the cushions (wordslinger, that was hilarious) ? And then for what? Will it all be ‘oops, let’s forget it’ like last year if GA comes to their senses come January? Or maybe this time we’ll go thru with it. We’ll close the state offices/sites across the state, pitch the citizens depending on services out in the street, put ‘closed’ signs on the social agencies windows who have rolled up and disappeared long before January? Their old employees joining the ranks of the unemployed alongside all the state employees and fellow citizens. And then what? Those tax payers won’t have gotten a tax increase this summer, but they will have paid a far higher price than a few hundred a year out of their pockets. If I were Quinn I would order each and every lawmaker back to Springfield, tell them to bring their bedrolls (too broke for comfy accomendations)and settle themselves in as nobody going anywhere until they either come to an agreement or one side or the other blinks. Get it done, guys/gals. - Six Degrees of Separation - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 5:37 pm: No doubt there could’ve been more cash infused into the economy earlier by the federal stimulus - some questionable choices were made… And theres no doubt that IL’s current foibles don’t help. Where’s the Jump Start Capital Bill, never mind the real Capital Bill! Still, these things take time to turn around. The economy is more like a battleship than a PT boat. - 815Sox - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 7:05 pm: Great, unemployment is rising (I’m in Rockford so I’m used to being it above 10) and our social services look like they are going to be cut. Guess when we tend to get more kids coming into care? Hint: Its not when people can find work. - state employee - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 9:04 pm: More protests coming to Springfield next week… - state employee - Thursday, Jun 18, 09 @ 9:12 pm: If these massive cuts go through…I want to be one of the ones to receive a pink slip. I can’t imagine what chaotic stressful hell it will be after so many employees are let go, when already our caseloads are way over 1,000 and it’s very fast-paced and tough to get even the urgent work done between all the people coming in. (I determine Medicaid and Food Stamp eligibility, and yes, demand for services is way up in this economy, there has been a hiring freeze for about two years now, and many people have left and retired and not been replaced.) State of IL already has the worst ratio in the U.S. of 50 to 1, people serviced per state employee. I wonder what the new ratio will be, if they cut half of us as threatened, it will be 100 to 1? - out in the stykes - Saturday, Jun 20, 09 @ 3:36 pm: Well …. continually grow the government with no income stream to support it , duplicative programs, big afscme contracts & this is what happens. What did they think was going to happen. I don’t think people would object to tax increases if it stopped the the debt & paid some of this down. But ??….got the feeling that more tax $$ in the hands of the legislature & the “accidental governor” will think they’re “rich” again & start spending. It’s sad but it’s true & unfortunately people are going to suffer as a result. 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