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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Jul 13, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go…
* Tribune | In fight for Illinois Senate seat, divisions among Democrats on display: The high emotions and big crowd that jammed into the Hamlin Park field house Monday to see Democratic Party insiders name a 20th District replacement for Cristina Pacione-Zayas prove the importance the posts have for some residents, and for a party that’s continuing to separate along ideological lines, with various factions looking to exert their power. * WAND | Pandemic unemployment benefits: IL Auditor General breaks down latest IDES audit: The Auditor General’s office found IDES didn’t create an audit trail to properly document claims according to federal standards. Auditor General Frank Mautino told WAND News that his team requested this data to determine if claimants were eligible for benefits or acting fraudulently. * WMAY | New law motivated by Choate Mental Health Center scandal signed by Illinois Governor Pritzker: The new law requires that people who do not report cases of abuse or who actively obstruct investigative reports will be added to a Registry, letting future employers know their role in silencing survivors of abuse at their job. * BGA | BGA Supports Proposed Improvements to Inspector General Appointment Process: The Better Government Association supports the passage of O2023-1245, introduced by Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward), which brings urgency and accountability to the city’s process for filling a vacant inspector general position. * Record North Shore | Wilmette officials hear Ryan Field opposition ‘loud and clear’: Ten residents addressed the Wilmette Village Board during its Tuesday, July 11 meeting to express their opposition to the school’s proposed plans to reimagine Ryan Field and urge trustees to dispute potential zoning changes under consideration by Evanston officials. * Tribune | Asylum-seekers denounce treatment at Pilsen shelter and deliver letter to mayor; alderman denies allegations: On Wednesday morning, Falcon and a group of mostly migrant mothers went to City Hall and attempted to deliver a handwritten letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson, in which they detailed their concerns and living conditions. Those included prohibiting children from drinking bottled water and eating fresh food donations; forcing asylum-seekers, including a family, out of the shelter without a place to go after alleged rule violations; and failing to provide guidance to find permanent housing. * Sun-Times | Johnson to get names of 3 finalists for top cop Thursday, will have 30 days to make pivotal appointment: The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability will hold an executive session at 3:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss background checks on the six semifinalists for Chicago Police Department superintendent, then choose three finalists from among those names. * Sun-Times | Kamala Harris coming to Chicago July 24 for Democratic fundraiser: Proceeds from the funder will go to the Biden Action Fund, which benefits the Biden/Harris reelection campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. It will be at Rogers’ Gold Coast home with the goal of raising $250,000. * Beacon-News | Aurora mayor starts search for new City Council member in wake of death of Ald. Scheketa Hart-Burns: Mayor Richard Irvin said at this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting that the city will take open applications from any 7th Ward resident for the aldermanic position through 5 p.m. Friday, July 21. * WCIA | Illinois will not have a sales tax holiday for school supplies this year: “Depending on how many children you have, or just what your budget can contain, and with household things that are all costing a lot more these days as well, rent, Tiffany Mathis-Posey, CEO of Central Illinois Boy’s and Girl’s Club, said. “Things have gone up. It makes it a struggle.” * WTVO | Hard Rock Casino reaches new heights with final beam placement: “It’s almost 200,000 square feet inside. It will have numerous restaurants. It has a concert venue called ‘Live’. Can you picture 2,000 people standing there for hard rock acts that travel the nation on tour?” Johnson asked. “Coming to Rockford, there’ll be restaurants, games. It’s going to be Disneyland for adults.” * PJ Star | Peoria unveils multi-million dollar plan to overhaul its riverfront. Here are the details: The Peoria City Council will hear about a riverfront redevelopment plan designed by Terra Engineering at its July 25 meeting. “The plan includes a dog park, kayak launch, sports courts, recreational structures, expanded hardscape for the Riverfront Market, and more,” the city said in a news release. * NYT | With Art Colleges Closing, a Chicago Museum Has an Alternative: The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the educator Romi Crawford have become partners in a new program that focuses on pairing instruction by artists of color with hands-on learning by students working alongside them. This intensive, semester-long course, which its founders announced on Monday, is called the New Art School Modality and will start in September at the museum. * Tribune | Tornado confirmed near O’Hare as evening storms spark tornado warnings in Cook, DuPage: At least one tornado was confirmed as having touched down near O’Hare International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. The poor weather briefly grounded all flights at O’Hare and Midway airports, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. * Tribune | Illinois State Museum’s return of sacred statues to Kenya part of ongoing reexamination of cultural artifacts: Curators at the Illinois State Museum say they don’t know exactly how 38 wooden sculptures made their way from Kenya to Springfield. But the leading theory is that the move wasn’t aboveboard. “We can’t demonstrably state these in particular were stolen, but all the circumstantial evidence sort of points to that,” said Brooke Morgan, the curator of anthropology at the state museum system, a consortium of four museums around Illinois.
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- Lurker - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 8:51 am:
I hope the riverfront revitalization is successful in Peoria. There are some fun breweries and coffee shops moving in down there but not much else at this point and too many rundown, vacant buildings. I hope this changes some of that.
- Back to the Future - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 9:21 am:
Glad to see Peoria has plans to improve the waterfront area.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 9:42 am:
===Glad to see Peoria has plans to improve ===
Civic leadership. Springfield could learn from that. And I’m not talking about the mayor, specifically. Just generally.
- Jack - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 9:50 am:
Any updates on AFSCME contract details? Ratification meetings started yesterday and I heard some mind boggling things/ numbers from someone.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 10:00 am:
Perhaps JB and the business leaders could try to promote an industry in Illinois that is actually thriving instead of facing tough headwinds worldwide despite huge government subsidies
https://electrek.co/2023/06/28/volkswagen-slows-id4-id7-ev-production-plans-lay-off-hundreds-workers-germany/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2023/05/08/ev-sales-2023-slowing/70188358007/
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/22/chinas-new-ev-subsidies-might-not-be-enough-to-bolster-slowing-growth.html
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 10:35 am:
==could try to promote an industry in Illinois that is actually thriving ==
I thought you’ve argued everything in Illinois is crap. Nice to see you don’t think that anymore.
- DuPage - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 10:45 am:
@- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 10:00 am:
===Perhaps JB and the business leaders could try to promote an industry in Illinois that is actually thriving instead of facing tough headwinds worldwide despite huge government subsidies===
What industry do you suggest?
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 11:14 am:
=What industry do you suggest?=
Don’t feed him, he is a broken record and has no actual ideas.
The EV industry in Illinois is actually thriving, so is Ag and those are among the industries (plural because EV isn’t the only thing although that is all LP singled out) that the governor is promoting.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 11:23 am:
Nuclear reactors, boilers and machinery
Vehicles, parts and accessories
Pharmaceuticals
Electrical Machinery
Optical,medical and surgical equipments
Were the top 5 exports from Illinois in 2022
With the closure of the recently remodeled Chrysler Belvidere facility those numbers will be challenged in 2023
https://stacker.com/illinois/biggest-exports-illinois
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 11:48 am:
I dunno…
Illinois’ GDP is over a Trillion (that one is with a T) dollars, only four other states are over the Trillion (that’s a T) mark.
Tough to say Illinois has so little to offer as a trade partner, no?
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 12:18 pm:
=Illinois’ GDP is over a Trillion (that one is with a T) dollars, only four other states are over the Trillion (that’s a T) mark.=
And yet there are those that want us to be more competitive with Indiana, Iowa and Mississippi. LOL, combined they are a fraction of Illinois GDP.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 12:30 pm:
Imagine how much bigger the Illinois economy would be if there was laser focus by our Governor and Illinois Democrats on our 39 th ranking on business friendliness.
A 40 year high in inflation fueled by billions in new federal government deficit spending has also inflated Illinois GDP
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 12:49 pm:
===Imagine===
No.
The other 44 states need to imagine having an engine that can generate a trillion in GDP.
There’s no 60/30 or 71/36 for your ruinous plans of “competitiveness” which included destroying social services, passively or actively…
===A 40 year high in inflation fueled by billions in new federal government deficit spending has also inflated Illinois GDP===
Then bailing out the Bears is a bad move.
Good on the governor for agreeing with you that Illinois can’t afford to bailout billionaires
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 12:51 pm:
Does inflation only affect Illinois, or all the state’s - LP - likes too?
Unemployment is at record lows, nationally, Illinois is well below 6% which is the universally accepted “full employment” measure.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:11 pm:
And there’s our friend @LP back on track. Seemed like he had turned the corner with his positive comments about Illinois industries. But, nope, now we’re back to his usual schtick that Illinois is crap. It’s so tiresome to put up with him
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:14 pm:
In what universe is improving a dreadful 39 th ranking ruinous?
Drive by the massive empty Belvidere plant some time if you want to see what the effect of ruinous policy looks like
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
@LP
He was talking about your best friend Bruce Rauner’s policies. We tried your way. It nearly destroyed the state. So forgive us if we ignore you.
- Cool Papa Bell - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:31 pm:
=With the closure of the recently remodeled Chrysler Belvidere facility those numbers will be challenged in 2023=
In 2022 the Stellantis Belvidere plant built 6,371 Jeeps that wound up being exported.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:33 pm:
===In what universe===
… is it a failing business state that has a trillion in GDP, in a group of 5, the top 10%… and then thinking being like Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas is improving a business climate.
Comparing to 47 *countries* of Europe, only SEVEN have a higher GDP.
That’s 7, of 47
Whole countries.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:36 pm:
==that wound up being exported.==
@LP isn’t interested in truth. He’s interested in twisting things and being dishonest. He attempts to make a decision that was made due to market issues just as much as anything else and try to sell us all that it was policies that caused it.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 1:36 pm:
===Comparing to 47 *countries* of Europe, only SEVEN have a higher GDP.
That’s 7, of 47
Whole countries.===
So, as an example, the UK trade mission is smart, considering 40 other Euro countries don’t bring the GDP to the table Illinois, as a state, brings.
But tell me again how Right to Work will make, say, the UK, see us “better”
- Cool Papa Bell - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 2:06 pm:
=Drive by the massive empty Belvidere plant some time if you want to see what the effect of ruinous policy looks like=
Who was Governor when Mitsubishi closed in Normal?
- Dotnonymous x - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 4:43 pm:
Note to Lincoln Curators…don’t buy any hats.
- Dotnonymous x - Thursday, Jul 13, 23 @ 5:01 pm:
Just try to imagine how much further along on projects Illinois could be…if not for failed/oppositional Governor Rauner.