Lawyers for indicted Chicago Ald. Edward Burke alleged in a court filing Thursday that federal investigators bungled the wiretap of Burke’s phones and improperly tried to set him up in a scheme involving the Old Main Post Office that forms the backbone of the case.
The allegations came in a motion to suppress the evidence gleaned from the wiretap on Burke’s cell phone and City Hall office, which allowed the FBI to monitor thousands of conversations the alderman made and received over the course of nearly a year.
The 71-page motion accuses prosecutors of directing then-Ald. Daniel Solis to have “scripted interactions” with Burke and lie about the Post Office deal in an effort to curry favor w/the government. At the time, Solis had himself been recorded “committing a number of different crimes,” the motion stated.
Burke’s lawyer wants those wiretaps suppressed.
…Adding… More…
After Burke recommended a certain wrecking company, investigators "directed Ald. Solis to begin engaging in conversations with Ald. Burke surrounding the Post Office project and record the conversations," according to the defense motion.
Burke’s team insisted that Solis told prosecutors “he had never been involved in any criminal wrongdoing with Ald. Burke — with whom he had served in the City Council for almost twenty-five years.” […]
Burke’s lawyers say he was targeted by the feds, and that Solis wasn’t the first government cooperator to work against him. They said that, from Feb. 2, 2015, until Aug. 13, 2015, an unnamed cooperator from another federal case in Chicago was “contacting Ald. Burke regularly in an attempt to develop evidence against him.”
“Here, again, the government came up empty-handed, and yet it zealously pressed on,” Burke’s lawyers wrote.
Facing a federal tax evasion charge, state Sen. Terry Link has announced he will resign as leader of the Lake County Democratic Party effective Sept. 15.
But some prominent Democrats — including Lauren Beth Gash, a former state representative who’s the first vice chair of the party in Lake County and in line to succeed Link — aren’t pleased with that timetable as campaigns for the Nov. 3 presidential election are heating up.
“We are working hard to elect Democrats who share our values in the fall. We don’t want distractions,” said Gash, of Highland Park. “We are communicating with Terry about an earlier resignation or a special meeting to accomplish that.” […]
“While some of you might assume my resignation is related to what you may have read in the news, those who truly know me and know my character and loyalty to the Democratic Party know there has to be more to the story,” [Link] wrote. “I can assure you that there is a lot more to the story. Unfortunately, at this time I am unable to comment on any of this.”
He won’t be able to appoint his own Senate replacement if he doesn’t resign his legislative seat pronto. No word yet on that.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Fifty percent of Lake County Democratic precinct committeepersons call for a special meeting
Today, more than 50% of Lake County Democratic precinct committeepersons called for a special meeting of the Lake County Democratic Party to confirm new leadership.
In order to call a special meeting, only 25% of precinct committeepersons are needed, according to Lake County Democratic Party rules. In less than 24 hours, already more than 50% percent of the committeepersons united to call for the meeting.
Lake County Democrats will be setting a meeting shortly to ratify this transition.
Lauren Nichols has been sick with COVID-19 since March 10, shortly before Tom Hanks announced his diagnosis and the NBA temporarily canceled its season. She has lived through one month of hand tremors, three of fever, and four of night sweats. When we spoke on day 150, she was on her fifth month of gastrointestinal problems and severe morning nausea. She still has extreme fatigue, bulging veins, excessive bruising, an erratic heartbeat, short-term memory loss, gynecological problems, sensitivity to light and sounds, and brain fog. Even writing an email can be hard, she told me, “because the words I think I’m writing are not the words coming out.” She wakes up gasping for air twice a month. It still hurts to inhale.
Tens of thousands of people, collectively known as “long-haulers,” have similar stories. I first wrote about them in early June. Since then, I’ve received hundreds of messages from people who have been suffering for months—alone, unheard, and pummeled by unrelenting and unpredictable symptoms. “It’s like every day, you reach your hand into a bucket of symptoms, throw some on the table, and say, ‘This is you for today,’” says David Putrino, a neuroscientist and a rehabilitation specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital who has cared for many long-haulers.
Of the long-haulers Putrino has surveyed, most are women. Their average age is 44. Most were formerly fit and healthy. They look very different from the typical portrait of a COVID-19 patient—an elderly person with preexisting health problems. “It’s scary because in the states that are surging, we have all these young people going out thinking they’re invincible, and this could easily knock them out for months,” Putrino told me. And for some, months of illness could turn into years of disability.
Our understanding of COVID-19 has accreted around the idea that it kills a few and is “mild” for the rest. That caricature was sketched before the new coronavirus even had a name; instead of shifting in the light of fresh data, it calcified. It affected the questions scientists sought to ask, the stories journalists sought to tell, and the patients doctors sought to treat. It excluded long-haulers from help and answers. Nichols’s initial symptoms were so unlike the official description of COVID-19 that her first doctor told her she had acid reflux and refused to get her tested. “Even if you did have COVID-19, you’re 32, you’re healthy, and you’re not going to die,” she remembers him saying. (She has since tested positive.) […]
A few formal studies have hinted at the lingering damage that COVID-19 can inflict. In an Italian study, 87 percent of hospitalized patients still had symptoms after two months; a British study found similar trends. A German study that included many patients who recovered at home found that 78 percent had heart abnormalities after two or three months. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that a third of 270 nonhospitalized patients hadn’t returned to their usual state of health after two weeks. (For comparison, roughly 90 percent of people who get the flu recover within that time frame.)
These findings, though limited, are galling. They suggest that in the United States alone, which has more than 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, there are probably hundreds of thousands of long-haulers.
* The 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals has affirmed Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer’s preliminary injunction allowing for far fewer petition signatures for third party and independent candidates…
The eight members of the Illinois State Board of Elections (the “Board”) appeal from the district court’s preliminary injunction and its partial denial of the Board’s motion to reconsider. The Board argues that the district court had no authority to rewrite Illinois’s statutory requirements governing ballot access and deadlines, but ignores the specific circumstances leading to the preliminary injunction. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it entered a preliminary injunction drafted by the Board and agreed to by the parties or when it granted reconsideration in part. […]
Once again in its appellate briefs the Board asks this court to reverse the district court’s decisions and permit the Board to determine the best options for balancing the plaintiffs’ interests with the statutory ballot access requirements in Illinois.
In doing so, the Board devotes not a word to addressing the harm this would cause to candidates and parties who have relied on the agreed preliminary injunction order. Nor does the Board explain how it would make the relevant determinations regarding ballot access, but any change made now, after the deadline for submitting signatures has passed, is certain to severely limit or prevent third-party or independent candidates from accessing the November ballot. The Supreme Court has instructed that federal courts should refrain from changing state election rules as an election approaches.
In reviewing the claims before us, we decline to allow the Board to change the ballot-access requirements on the eve of the deadline for certifying the final contents of the ballot. Indeed, the Purcell principle takes on added force where, as here, the Board seeks to challenge injunctive relief that it initially agreed was necessary and proper. And only after engaging in meaningful delay, including in pursuing this appeal, did the Board change course and put at risk the reliance the plaintiffs have placed in the orders entered by the district court. [Emphasis added.]
Also, the board couldn’t make the changes even if it wanted to. It had already argued that only the General Assembly can do things like change deadlines, etc.
The State Board of Elections meets tomorrow to certify the ballot.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday to extend the state’s eviction moratorium that’s been in place during the coronavirus pandemic, citing concerns that households need more time to catch up with rent while assistance fund applications are pending.
In a letter to Pritzker and Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Dart urged the current Saturday expiration date be postponed until all city and county rent relief grants are dispersed.
“Like you, I have been tremendously concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, not just on the health and safety of residents, but on the economic future of the entire community,” Dart wrote. “Obviously, it would be incredibly harmful to proceed with evictions when these funds are on their way to rescue so many tenants and landlords.”
Dart, whose office is in charge of enforcing evictions in Cook County, said while the current pause in evictions has helped, struggling renters remain anxious that the looming deadline on the moratorium is too soon. He wrote that waiting until the money is paid out will stop hundreds of thousands of Cook County residents from being pushed out of their apartments.
* I asked the governor’s office for a response. Here’s Jordan Abudayyeh…
The moratorium will be extended at the end of this disaster proclamation.
…Adding… Press release…
Many families are suffering a COVID-related loss of income but so are many of the people who provide them with their homes. In this COVID era, the cost of providing housing has increased while rental income has declined due to the inability of many tenants to pay their rent.
Michael Glasser, president of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance (NBOA), said, “Chicago’s housing market is fragile right now, and housing providers need support. In order for tenants to be secure, housing needs to be stable and we need the federal government to increase relief for struggling renters and housing providers working to keep people in their homes.”
Springfield School District 186 will offer to families two plans–hybrid/blended in-person and remote learning only–as part of its 33-page “Return to Learn” document. […]
“The plan is doable,” [Superintendent Jennifer Gill ] said. “As a parent and as a mom, if my kids were in school, I would send mine because I would never want to vote for something that I also didn’t have my kids participating in.”
Gill and other school superintendents have been meeting with members of the local medical community, including a lengthy meeting Saturday. She said nine of the 11 medical members recommended that schools start the academic year with remote learning.
“My heart goes to both conversations,” Gill said of the choices.
“It will not work,” said board member Micah Miller about the hybrid/blended plan. “If we were truly listening to the Sangamon County Department of Public Health’s guidance, we would have listened on July 23 when they said this was unprecedented and extremely dangerous and our focus needs to shift to our younger population in social settings.
“We’re not listening to anybody in this. We’ve become a hot spot in Sangamon County.”
The head of the Springfield Education Association said he doesn’t think School District 186 has put into place a complete plan “for the safe return of students and staff.”
Gill said that because of the lower number of students, bus capacity shouldn’t be a problem. The “Return to Learn” plan allows for 50 students on a bus.
Springfield Superintendent Jennifer Gill said a rising positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in the county is one reason for the decision. The positivity rate was 6.2% for last week, according to numbers tracked by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“Although we have a strong plan in place to offer the hybrid model for those families who wish to return, we must also consider the impact that this might likely have on our community spread,” Gill said.
She also worried that having students and teachers attend in-person, be screened for COVID-19 symptoms and possibly need to get tested might “drain” testing resources in the county.
District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill learned she was COVID-positive on Wednesday night, according to a statement. Gill and family were tested after having “mild coughs.” Gill worked from home on Wednesday, and last worked at the administrative office on Tuesday.
On Monday, Gill and other board members convened in-person for the school board meeting. Meetings had previously been conducted via Zoom over past months.
After all that, why did they convene an in-person meeting?
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,832 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 27 additional confirmed deaths.
- Champaign County: 1 male 50s
- Cook County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 2 males 90s
- DeWitt County: 1 male 80s
- DuPage County: 1 male 70s
- Jefferson County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 females 90s, 1 male 90s
- Kane County: 1 male 80s
- Lake County: 1 male 60s
- LaSalle County: 1 female 90s
- Madison County: 1 male 90s
- Montgomery County: 1 female 90s
- Morgan County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s
- Peoria County: 1 female 80s
- Perry County: 1 female 80s
- Richland County: 1 male 80s
- Rock Island County: 1 male 90s
- St. Clair County: 1 male 60s
- Whiteside County: 1 male 90s
- Williamson County: 1 female 50s
- Winnebago County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 213,721 cases, including 7,833 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 51,612 specimens for a total of 3,541,183. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from August 13 – August 19 is 4.4%. As of last night, 1,519 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 357 patients were in the ICU and 124 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
Region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties, is getting very close to the 8 percent rate that will trigger mitigation. Right now, the region is at 7.5 percent.
Wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance.
Illinois Republicans plan to send three delegates to their party’s presidential nominating convention next week, but there will be no delegation brunches, news conferences — or just about anything else beyond nominating Donald Trump, apparently.
“No other media advised events organized by the ILGOP are taking place next week,” state GOP spokesman Joe Hackler said in an email to reporters.
The state GOP’s move is the complete opposite of their Democratic counterparts, who were told to stay home, but have streamed state caucus meetings and news conferences for the media and others to follow along. […]
Republicans plan to have 336 delegates at the Charlotte Convention Center, six from each state and territory, according the convention website.
So, the state GOP is sending half its allotted delegates?
* So far, media coverage on Illinois Democrats during their convention week has focused mainly on Speaker Madigan…
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has kept a low profile at the virtual Democratic National Convention underway this week, but he was more vocal Wednesday evening.
As Illinois’ Chairman of the Democratic Party Michael Madigan leads Illinois’ delegation to the convention, but is somewhat implicated in an alleged bribery scheme with Commonwealth Edison, he has avoided the spotlight recently. But Wednesday night at an online delegation discussion on racial and economic justice, Speaker Madigan gave more than a welcome.
He said Democrats this week have laid out the case for removing Donald Trump from office, including his assault on the rights of women and workers.
“Among the worst of Donald Trump’s actions is his deliberate efforts to fan the flames of hatred and racial and ethnic division for his own political purposes,” Madigan said.
Pinning down Democratic congressional nominee Marie Newman’s position on state House Speaker Mike Madigan during the Democratic National Convention is not quite as difficult as tracking down the powerful party leader himself — but it’s close.
Two years ago, Newman said the powerful speaker should immediately step down as state party chief because he failed in his handling of sexual harassment complaints in his political organization.
“Anything less would put the Democrats’ political prospects at risk in November,” the La Grange businesswoman said then, before she lost her 2018 primary bid against Madigan ally Dan Lipinski.
But after vanquishing Lipinski in a bitter rematch earlier this year — and after Madigan was implicated in federal investigation — Newman on Wednesday sidestepped a question on whether she would join the growing list of Democrats calling for Madigan’s immediate resignation over the ComEd criminal case, calling it a distraction ahead of a critical election.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Democratic Party in Illinois, House Speaker Michael Madigan, is embroiled in controversy amid alleged ties to a ComEd bribery scheme.
“I’m not going to sit here right now and say that we should decide that someone is guilty for political reasons,” Casten said. “The allegations are extremely concerning. We should make sure we go through, find out what the truth is.”
If the allegations are true, Casten said Madigan should resign. Kelly agrees.
“If he is guilty I think that he should resign, and that’s my bottom line,” Kelly said. “But right now, to be honest, the number one thing I’m focused on is getting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris elected, flipping the Senate and helping the down ballot races.”
ISU on Monday began surveillance testing for asymptomatic students at two sites on campus. There were 259 tests administered on campus on Monday and Tuesday. There were three positive results from Monday’s testing, with Tuesday’s full results still pending as of Wednesday afternoon, spokesman Eric Jome said.
The UI saliva test uses a small amount of saliva drooled into a sterile test tube that yields results in hours, even at high-testing volumes, the UI said.
The university has performed more than 50,000 of these saliva tests since making walk-up testing available to faculty, staff and students in July, and expects to ramp up to 20,00 tests a day when the fall semester starts Monday.
Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University are providing free COVID-19 testing on campus. Other universities, such as Northern Illinois University, are requiring their students to pay for their tests.
NIU wants its students to go to Illinois community-based testing sites to get their tests.
SIU refuses to release the numbers of COVID-19 cases on campus and student employees in housing have been told they could lose their jobs if they tell anyone about cases, according to resident assistants.
University spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said any positive cases associated with the university are reported by the Jackson County Health Department. The university will not report these cases independently, she said.
No federal or state law prevents the university from releasing the information, experts say, and other Illinois and national universities are releasing their case counts.
When the Jackson County Health Department sends out a release regarding the case count for the day, it does not specify location or whether the person attends SIU or lives in the dorms.
[WIU Interim President Martin Abraham] says WIU is planning a testing protocol for all students and staff.
“So that students will get tested. Faculty and staff will get testing as well on some sort of regular basis. But, if we do have an outbreak it all depends on where it is. It depends on who that student has been in contact with. Clearly, if a student develops symptoms, is tested as positive that student will go into isolation.”
7.5% positivity rate; 45.2 recent average daily cases per 100,000. The school’s website says it is offering free testing to new students beginning Wednesday; and then for returning students starting next Monday, Aug. 24 – the day that students begin classes.
Governor JB Pritzker issued a proclamation [yesterday] declaring a statewide day of remembrance in honor of the passing of former Governor James ‘Big Jim’ Thompson and the launch of a virtual guidebook for Illinois residents to electronically sign and share their favorite memory of Illinois longest serving governor. The virtual guestbook can be found online here.
“Today, as a state, we mourn the passing of former Governor Jim Thompson and I invite residents across the state to sign the virtual guestbook with their favorite memory of Governor Thompson,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “’Big Jim’ lived a big life and got big things done for Illinois. But perhaps most importantly, he was a kind and decent man who set the standard for what public service can and should look like in our state. May his memory be for a blessing.”
Governor Pritzker also ordered all persons or entities governed by the Illinois Flag Display Act to lower flags in honor and remembrance of Gov. James R. Thompson.
* Gov. Thompson’s family held a small funeral yesterday at the Cathedral of St. James in Chicago. A family spokesperson supplied a photo…
All rise.
* Mark DePue interviewed Thompson in 2015 for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Here’s an excerpt that illuminates some challenges facing the current governor…
DePue: You start off January also with signing a piece of legislation requiring people in Illinois, citizens of Illinois, to wear seatbelts.
Thompson: Yeah. Boy, today nobody would blink an eye at that. Today, 99.9 percent of the people automatically buckle up. They’ve been persuaded that it saves lives, and they want to save their life. And unless they’re drunk or stupid, they do that. But boy, at the time, it was a hot item. Very controversial. People looked at it as a government intrusion on their lives.
One time I was in southern Illinois where the opposition was the hottest. I was at the Giant City State Park Lodge, and I think we were there either for an occasion or it was Sunday chicken dinner. As I generally did, I walked through the kitchen to say “hi” to the workers in the kitchen. And this old lady was washing dishes in there. She must have been, God, eighty, eighty-five years old. I walked up to her, and she said, “You’re the one!” I said, “I’m the one, what?” “You’re the one with that goddamned seatbelt law! I’ll never vote for you,” and she just went on and on and on. So I said, “Well, thank you very much; I hope you’ll reconsider.” [I] got out of there, and the restaurant manager, who was a dear friend of mine, was apologizing for her. I said, “Why? She’s entitled to her opinion.” But boy, that was typical down there. They didn’t like this intrusion.
Same thing with legislation requiring motorcycle drivers to wear helmets, which still hasn’t passed. Same feeling. But yeah, I signed it, and it’s one of the best things I ever did, I think. And it’s the law today, and it’s the law everywhere. Finally, I believe it was required by federal law, as most of those driving things are. You either follow the federal law or you lose your highway funds. And I can’t remember now whether it was because of the federal law that I signed the state one, or I signed the state one apart from the federal law. But I remember it was really controversial, and I got a lot of complaints and letters and stuff like that about it. I’ll never forget the lady in the kitchen in southern Illinois. And she had to be eighty-five, if she was a day.
DePue: God bless her, she had strong opinions at eighty-five.
Thompson: Yes, she did. Well, they all do down there, southern Illinois, western Illinois…land of strong opinions.
The number of laid-off workers seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose to 1.1 million last week after two weeks of declines, evidence that many employers are still slashing jobs as the coronavirus bedevils the U.S. economy.
The latest figures, released Thursday by the Labor Department, suggest that more than five months after the viral outbreak erupted the economy is still weak, despite recent gains as some businesses reopen and some sectors like housing and manufacturing have rebounded. Jobless claims had fallen last week below 1 million for the first time since March, to 971,000. A rising number of people who have lost jobs say they consider their loss to be permanent.
The total number of people receiving unemployment aid declined last week from 15.5 million to 14.8 million, the government said Thursday. Those recipients are now receiving far less aid because a $600-a-week federal benefit has expired, which means the unemployed must now get by solely on much smaller aid from their states. The loss of the federal benefit has deepened the struggles for many, including a higher risk of eviction from their homes.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to provide $300 a week in federal unemployment aid, with money drawn from a disaster relief fund. Twenty-five states have said they will apply for the federal money, though they would need to revamp their computer systems to do so. Other states are still considering whether to take that step; two have said they won’t.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 21,956 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 10 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday. […]
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 22,387 new claims in Illinois new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 3 in Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 24,712 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 27 in Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimated 32,465 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 20 in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported 36,435 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 13 in Illinois.
The Illinois unemployment system may not be doing enough to protect benefits recipients from scammers who hijack their accounts and move money in their own accounts.
Some believe the Illinois Department of Employment Security could have prevented this if they had taken one more simple security step: two factor authentication.
Two factor authentication is a text or email sent to a device you possess to confirm you made a change to an account. The text or email includes a code which is used to confirm the change. It’s often used for social media, credit cards and bank accounts, among other things. […]
“It never gives you the opportunity to put in a numbers where you can get an SMS text,” said scam victim Russel McFeely.
McFeely lost $1,800 when a criminal hacked his IDES account and moved the benefits into another account.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate fell -3.2 percentage points to 11.3 percent, while nonfarm payrolls added +93,200 jobs in July, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The June monthly change in payrolls was revised downward from the preliminary report, from +142,800 to +142,300 jobs. The June unemployment rate was revised downward from the preliminary report, from 14.6 percent to 14.5 percent.
The July payroll jobs estimate and unemployment rate reflects activity for the week including the 12th. The BLS has published FAQs for the July payroll jobs and the unemployment rate.
The state’s unemployment rate was +1.1 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for July, which was 10.2 percent, down -0.9 percentage points from the previous month. The Illinois unemployment rate was up +7.4 percentage points from a year ago when it was 3.9 percent.
In July, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were: Leisure and Hospitality (+65,300), Education and Health Services (+14,100) and Professional and Business Services (+8,400). The industry sectors with the largest payroll declines were: Manufacturing (-4,600), Construction (-3,300) and Information (-1,200).
“While we’re happy to see the unemployment rate and payrolls moving in the right direction, IDES remains committed to serving our claimants’ needs during this continued unprecedented time,” said Acting Director Kristin Richards. “As we move through this period of uncertainty, the Department is working as vigilantly as possible to rise to the challenge and provide benefits and employment services to those who need them.”
“While data from July demonstrate continued progress in the face of extraordinarily challenging economic times, it’s clear the pandemic is continuing to have an unprecedented effect on our economy. Evidence from other states has shown that ensuring public health is the quickest way to an economic recovery,” said Michael Negron, Acting Director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). “With that in mind, DCEO remains committed to investments that will support Illinois businesses and residents facing the most acute effects of this crisis, while making continued progress under Governor Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan to safely reopen our state economy.”
Compared to a year ago, nonfarm payroll employment decreased by -508,000 jobs, with losses across all major industries. The industry groups with the largest jobs decreases were: Leisure and Hospitality (-164,000), Professional and Business Services (-81,300) and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-62,900). Illinois nonfarm payrolls were down -8.3 percent over-the-year as compared to the nation’s -7.5 percent over-the-year decline in July.
The number of unemployed workers fell sharply from the prior month, a -25.2 percent decrease to 705,600 but was up +179.8 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force was down -3.9 percent over-the-month and -3.2 percent over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work. [Emphasis added.]
Today, Vote Yes For Fairness released its first television ad on why Illinoisans need to pass the Fair Tax in this election. The ad, “Lived In,” highlights how our current tax system is unfair, forcing Illinoisans, including our essential workers, to pay the same tax rate as millionaires. The Fair Tax would set things right, while keeping taxes the same or less for at least 97% of Illinoisans and only asking those making more than $250,000 a year to pay more.
“Illinois has one of the most unfair tax systems in the country, forcing our working families to pay the same tax rate as millionaires and billionaires,” said Quentin Fulks, Chairman of Vote Yes For Fairness. “Illinoisans don’t have to accept the status quo any longer, and can bring fairness to our tax system in this election by voting yes on the Fair Tax. With only 75 days until Election Day, we’re committed to ensuring Illinoisans know the truth about the Fair Tax and how it will help our families, our communities, and our state.”
Vote Yes For Fairness is funded by Gov. JB Pritzker.
If you’re not a billionaire, why are you taxed like one?
You didn’t mismanage the state budget. Why should fixing it fall on you?
The flat tax we have is hurting Illinois workers and families. And it’s not fixing the budget. New tax money has got to come from somewhere, so why not from the people with the most?
Vote “Yes” on the graduated income tax to raise taxes on the top 3 percent, generate almost $3 billion a year and protect your retirement income. That’s the fair way to fix this.
