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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, May 4, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go…
* Capitol News Illinois | Latest state budget forecast puts brakes on previously predicted surplus: While the commission’s $51.2 million estimate is now 1.2 percent below its estimate from early March, the impact on Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal is relatively small because the governor’s plan relied on a more conservative estimate. * Chalkbeat | Advocates call on Illinois lawmakers to fund after-school programs after state error: After-school programs for 27,000 Illinois students may be in danger of running out of money after next year because of an accounting error made by the Illinois State Board of Education. The error has caused a projected $12.4 million shortfall for 2024, according to a spokesperson with the state board. State Superintendent Tony Sanders says the state will use emergency COVID-19 funding to fill in the gap this year, but will not have new funding available in the future. * Tribune | After resounding ‘ComEd Four’ verdict, former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s legacy on the line: In closing arguments last week, federal prosecutors called the ComEd Four defendants the “grandmasters of corruption.” But it was Madigan who allegedly was at the beginning and end of virtually every move. * Sun-Times | Back-channel search for Chicago’s top cop? Not this time, says president of civilian oversight panel: Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s transition team members “have not tried to influence our process. They have not tried to submit names,” said Anthony Driver, president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which is conducting the search. * WBEZ | A Chicago group aims to better track anti-Asian hate crimes in the Midwest: Abbey Eusebio, the center’s manager, said better tracking and more public awareness are needed in this region because Asian American communities are more spread out and isolated. “We’re not as concentrated in these different parts of the city as New York and parts of the West Coast,” Eusebio said. “That really contributes to the struggle” in data collection and connecting victims to resources. * CBS Chicago | Aurora man charged with threatening Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker: An Aurora man was charged with leaving a threatening voicemail message for Gov. JB Pritzker. A judge set bond for Steven Woletz, 46, at $100,000. * CBS Chicago | Organizers go to Springfield to call for new facility for St. Anthony Hospital: “There’s so many limitations because of the technology that we have these days, that we cannot implement fully in such an old building,” said Dr. Javier Fajardo, director of the OBGYN department at St. Anthony Hospital. * The Telegraph | Committee balks at MCT appointment: A sometimes heated meeting of the Madison County Board’s Government Relations Committee resulted in the denial of another request by Chairman Kurt Prenzler to place former state Rep. Dwight Kay on the Madison County Transit (MCT) District Board, and ended in a three-way shouting match Tuesday between county board members who were not members of the committee. * Daily Herald | Lake County considering $1,200 bonus for workers during early days of COVID: A special county board committee considering how to spend remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds has recommended the bonus to cover about 1,000 workers as “premium pay.” * Tribune | Starbucks illegally fired Chicago barista, threatened workers during union drive: judge: The coffee giant also illegally threatened workers at the Hyde Park cafe and another location in Edgewater last year, administrative law judge Geoffrey Carter ruled. Managers at those stores threatened baristas that they could lose benefits or opportunities for raises as a result of the union campaign, Carter ruled. * Evanston Now | More Ryan Field details expected soon: Northwestern University is expected to submit its planned development request to the City of Evanston to rebuild Ryan Field sometime this week. That was the word Wednesday from Ald. Eleanor Revelle, whose 7th Ward includes the stadium.
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- Perrid - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 8:37 am:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the “state error” for the after school program funding was giving programs more money last year and letting more programs start getting funding, right? Seems weird that the people who got the money would be pointing the finger so aggressively. Because kicking programs out of the funding pool seems like it would solve the problem, but for some reason no one’s suggesting that, lol.
Not that I am either, like I said I just think it’s a little shameless for the people who benefitted from the “error” to be bad mouthing the state for giving them too much money.
- Gravitas - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 8:48 am:
Completely mystified at the Ryan Field renovation plans. Northwestern is going to add more luxury boxes and amenities while reducing the total seating capacity of the smallest stadium in the Big Ten Conference by 12,000. Decades ago, with the use of temporary bleachers behind the north end zone, the Wildcats could accommodate 50,000 spectators. After remodeling was completed in 1997, the stadium held 47,130. If the present plan is approved, the stadium will hold only 35,000 fans.
- Keyrock - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 9:07 am:
The same thing happened at Northwestern to what was once McGaw Hall, the basketball arena. It’s latest rehab made it much smaller and fancier, with more amenities and a reduced seating capacity. It is now a worse place to see a game, with much less of a collegiate atmosphere.
But it has more amenities for high rollers/donors. That’s the university’s number 1 concern. Whatever is number 2 is a very distant second.
- Amalia - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 9:15 am:
that’s a lot of “activist” groups looking for something from a new stadium. where did they come from? any astro turfing involved?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 9:16 am:
Wealthy alumni donors are only concerned for their own comforts and prestige. The building is not being built for an overwhelming “home field” advantage, but to celebrate those who have d as n advantage of money.
Plus, the fan base is small, because most B1G schools will graduate numbers as large as all of NU’s student body… every single year.
So, the target audience is the audience most likely to donate or have donated, not a full stadium of 70,000 fans of the school’s football prowess.
Can’t fault NU for knowing who they are, and why the building is being built as it will be.
- Keyrock - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 9:21 am:
One other thing about Northwestern - a smaller stadium has fewer empty seats for some games — and fewer seats filled by fans of the visiting team for some other games.
- Techie - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 9:51 am:
“Starbucks illegally fired Chicago barista, threatened workers during union drive: judge”
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you /s
- Stuck in Celliniland - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 12:24 pm:
Sounds like Chicago’s Big Ten Team chooses to play in facilities that, after their renovations, are on par with those of the Summit League.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, May 4, 23 @ 4:47 pm:
Northwestern has been one of the quietest, least feared stadiums to play on for a very long time.
Their average attendance has been in the low 30,000 for a very long time
- Lynn S. - Friday, May 5, 23 @ 9:08 am:
Something I’ve learned over the last few decades of living in Champaign-Urbana:
In college football, you have ticket sale numbers* and turnstile numbers.
The ticket sales numbers are the numbers of tickets sold for each game, both season tickets and individual game tickets.
Turnstile numbers are the people who actually show up for the game and go through the turnstile to enter the stadium. They are usually different and lower than tickets sold numbers, because not everyone who buys a ticket shows up for the game.
The story was in the News-Gazette a while back, but the basic gist was that the U of I hasn’t sold 60,000 or more tickets to any game for several years. In 2022, I don’t think they sold more than 40,000 tickets to any game, and the highest turnstile was about 35,000. At least one (and maybe a few more games), turnstile was around 25,000.
Lots and lots of empty seats on game days. Even tailgating seems to have dropped off.
So I think Northwestern may be looking at declining ticket sale numbers and seeking ways to maximize revenue from fewer patrons.
As a former business major, it’s hard for me to bash them for that. Some might even argue it’s prudent.
(I put the asterisk behind ticket sales because I think that number may even include the free tickets universities give to students. A co-worker who is a senior down here said that for one game [might have been the first one in 2022] the U of I sent five mass mails over 3 days to all students offering free tickets to the game, in an effort to boost sale and turnstile numbers.
All that begging, and almost no one took the tickets.)