Morning briefing
Friday, Mar 17, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go…
* WBEZ | The 411 on the ‘ComEd Four’ bribery trial: Four people with connections to ComEd and the former speaker go on trial over an alleged bribery scheme to push the utility company’s legislative agenda in Springfield. * Sun-Times | State oversight agency alleges fathers’ rights lawyer Jeffery Leving charged ‘unreasonable fees’ to clients: A complaint filed by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission also accuses Leving of failing to refund unearned fees, in violation of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. * Tribune | Casino at Hawthorne Race Course remains in limbo, while downstate project moving ahead: The general contractor, Pepper Construction, has demolished much of the inside and the front glass face of the Hawthorne’s grandstand in preparation for building the casino with a view of the Stickney racetrack. * Sun-Times | ‘Proof of airport business’ required to enter O’Hare during overnight hours from Blue Line, officials say: People arriving at O’Hare after 10 p.m. must have a boarding pass or employee badge, the city Department of Aviation says. The policy has been in place since 2020. * Sun-Times | Illinois is funding ‘what works’ for public schools, but there’s still more to be done: The state’s ‘evidence-based formula,’ created in 2018 with bipartisan legislation, is sending more money to under-resourced schools, including some Downstate schools. But Illinois is behind schedule on providing the full funding the legislation calls for. * Center Square | Scope of Illinois pension funds’ impact from recent bank turmoil unclear * WBEZ | A former Illinois prison guard gets 20-year sentence for fatal beating: In pleading for leniency Alex Banta said he took a job as a prison guard at 23 and had no idea how it would change him. * Tribune | Mayoral candidates debate who would tax and spend responsibly: ‘You clearly don’t know about budgets’: Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, went first, asking Vallas to disavow a group of demonstrators who crashed one of his campaign events that morning. Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO, did not acknowledge the event and instead said “supporters on both sides” have caused a ruckus during a “rough-and-tumble campaign” in Chicago. * RRStar | Rockford Casino generated near-record revenue in February: Rockford’s temporary casino, 610 N. Bell School Road, raked in $5.1 million in gross revenue in February after winnings were paid out to gamblers, according to data released by the Illinois Gaming Board. It was $1.5 million, or 42%, more than the $3.6 million in revenue it generated in February a year ago. * WTTW | New 400 Theaters Facing Closure After More Than 100 Years in Rogers Park: Fox bought The New 400 Theaters and surrounding storefronts in 2007 as a redevelopment project. Two years later, he began operating the theater, which has been open in Rogers Park for more than 100 years. * Vintage Chicago Tribune | March Madness was born in Illinois. Here’s history of Chicago teams in the tournament: Henry V. Porter, an Illinois High School Association official who was later inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, is credited with originally using the phrase to describe the state’s high school basketball tournament in 1939. * Tribune | Ravinia Festival 2023: Boyz II Men with Isley Brothers, women composers with the CSO: Ravinia Festival on Thursday unveiled an especially broad and star-studded 2023 season, featuring several high-profile debuts and the return of the weekend-long Breaking Barriers Festival of classical music (July 21-23), steered and curated by conductor Marin Alsop.
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- Stuck in Celliniland - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 8:35 am:
==A former Illinois prison guard gets 20-year sentence for fatal beating=
AFSCME, who has had a poor track record in recent years on caring about the health and safety of the workplace, had no comment according to this story.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 8:44 am:
If Dan Proft is gonna start correcting reporting errors, he’s going to be a very busy man.
- cermak_rd - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 9:28 am:
I attend Loyola Lakeshore campus for 4 years in the mid 80s until my graduation and lived in the neighborhood for a couple years afterwards. I spent a lot of time in the new 400.
Favorite story about it is my sister from central IL came to visit me while I was going to summer school one year (get stats & chem out of the way) and a friend called to suggest we go to the movies so we all walk to the theater she objects but the movie started 15 minutes ago. We’re like don’t worry, we won’t miss much. We go in, the theater is dark and the movie hasn’t started yet. This was common! During the movie, the film breaks (something unlikely to happen today!) and the lights come on. My sister looks around, looks at me shocked and says, you did not tell me we were attending a movie in an abandoned building!
- Rabid - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 9:36 am:
WBEZ, ComEd admitted to the scheme. No they plead innocent
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 9:40 am:
===If Dan Proft is gonna start correcting reporting errors, he’s going to be a very busy man.===
That made me laugh…
Dan, “zeroes, commas, and rounding errors”… you’re better than that, no?
Don’t answer that.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 10:51 am:
The People Who Don’t Proofread.
- Nutshell - Friday, Mar 17, 23 @ 11:02 am:
Maybe Proft is taking lessons from Frank’s Mautino on how to fill out those reports. s/