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Isabel’s morning briefing
Friday, Sep 8, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go…
* WGN | Immigrant girl on Chicago-bound bus from Texas died from infection, other factors, coroner says: The bacterial infection and aspiration pneumonia along with diarrhea and vomiting led to electrolyte problems, swelling of the brain and eventually the Aug. 10 death of Jismary Alejandra Barboza González, Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon said. […] The child reportedly began experiencing mild symptoms and feeling ill as the family boarded the bus in Brownsville, Texas, Cannon said. At that point, she had only a low-grade fever and was allowed to board the bus. * Sun-Times | Illinois governor’s mansion haunted by history, hijinks, heirlooms and art — but no ghosts: The first lady’s coffee table book is a luxurious 272-page compendium of the mansion’s lore, family life, famous visitors, furnishings, architectural history, tall tales, good vibes, bad plumbing and scary moments during the tenure of 43 gubernatorial administrations since it was built in 1855. * WTVO | Illinois universities get fall enrollment boost: ISU is welcoming its largest freshman class in 36 years. The associate vice president of enrollment management said that there are more than 4,100 freshmen in the Class of 2027. * Scott Holland | State has granted 52 of 146 medical prison release requests: “The eligibility conditions are extremely strict and narrowly tailored to apply to only the sickest and most expensive people in the prison health care system,” said Jennifer Soble, the Illinois Prison Project executive director instrumental in drafting the Coleman Act. “With that in mind, almost every eligible person should be released if we are to realize the Coleman Act’s purpose.” * NPR Illinois | The future of high speed rail in Illinois: Tim Butler, a former Illinois lawmaker, is now head of the Illinois Rail Association, which represents the freight industry. He is also vice-chair of the Illinois High Speed Rail Commission. That panel is putting together a plan to guide the state. We talk with him about the future potential for rail travel. * Tribune | With historic bail reform measures set to take effect, Cook County officials detail court changes: Since Cook County courts have already reduced the use of money bail, the more in-depth detention hearings are likely to be among the most visible changes here as the reforms take effect, with court calls added to accommodate the detention hearings. * Tribune | ‘Poverty simulation’ at Highland Park Country Club canceled amid social media backlash over venue, which isn’t a private country club: The program was expected to draw around 100 participants. The Highland Park Country Club was chosen as the venue because it was the only government-owned space that could accommodate the anticipated attendance, said Amanda Bennett, communications manager for Highland Park. * NBC Chicago | CTU president issues statement after sources say she enrolled teen in private school: Davis Gates’ enrollment of her teenager in a private Chicago school this year was confirmed and reported by NBC Chicago on Thursday after days of questions that went unanswered by Davis Gates and the CTU. NBC Chicago is not naming the school nor the name of Davis Gates’ child out of respect for the family’s privacy. * Sun-Times | Bally’s landlord at Medinah Temple temporary casino hits the $20 million jackpot: Bally’s has to pay [Albert M.] Friedman more than $16.5 million in rent plus a management fee of $330,000, under the terms of its four-year lease, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. Bally’s also must pay Medinah Temple’s Cook County property taxes — a bill that has topped $1.1 million a year. * Sun-Times | Migrants would move from police stations to big tents in ‘winterized base camps’ under mayor’s new plan: During a short interview with the Sun-Times, the mayor offered no specifics on cost or funding. Instead, he described the broad outlines of a plan that includes “base camps” that would provide meals and recreational and educational programming supplied by Chicagoans as a way to reduce what he called the “exorbitant” costs now being paid to a private staffing agency. * Tribune | Chicago City Council to take up $25 million settlement in controversial wrongful conviction case: The lawsuits have lingered for more than seven years as the city has paid outside law firms to fight the allegations, including expending hundreds of thousands of dollars to litigate over potential expert testimony and fighting to have former Gov. Pat Quinn answer questions under oath about his decision to commute Hood’s 75-year prison sentence. * Tribune | Aldermen consider allowing Chicago cops to work security at bars and liquor stores: A panel of City Council members is expected later this month to tackle the controversial idea that is part of a citywide policy that also prevents police officers from owning taverns or being bartenders. The ownership restrictions would remain in place under the proposal. * Center Square | Pritzker weighs in on statehouse staffers attempting to unionize: The workers have stated that Welch has yet to meet with the staffers to discuss what the workers hope to gain. Pritzker said no one wants to stop the workers, but these things take time. * KSTP | A track inspector claimed he was fired for reporting ‘too many defects.’ His secret recordings may cost BNSF millions: A series of phone calls secretly recorded by a track inspector-turned-whistleblower at Burlington Northern Santa Fe is raising more questions about the safety culture at Minnesota’s largest railroad. […] The railroad is currently appealing a multi-million-dollar verdict. BNSF did not respond to requests to comment on the recordings obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES. In a previous statement, a spokesperson said the company “does not retaliate against employees.” * Tribune | Visiting the last Rainforest Cafe in Illinois offers an expedition in nostalgia: It’s 5:30 p.m. on a late-summer Friday. The warm afternoon air cools as you walk through the heavy double doors of Gurnee Mills mall. To the right, a jungle-themed mural guides you down a hallway until you reach a crossroads: Macy’s, or a mother elephant and her baby, flapping their ears.
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- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 8:30 am:
CTU president issues statement after sources say she enrolled teen in private school
“Here is the truth: If you are a Black family
living in a Black community, high-quality neighborhood schools have been the dream, not the reality”
This is perhaps the best endorsement yet, for supporting a renewal/extension of the Invest in kids program.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 8:49 am:
Congrats to Illinois for finally getting a big EV battery plant, per Crain’s. Great news.
- supplied_demand - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 8:55 am:
==This is perhaps the best endorsement yet, for supporting a renewal/extension of the Invest in kids program.==
I read it as more of an admission that the highly touted “school choice” movement was a flop.
- Gravitas - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 8:55 am:
EV battery plant: Great news for China.
Can the USA go green without supporting the Reds who violate human rights around the globe?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 8:59 am:
===This is perhaps the best endorsement yet, for supporting a renewal/extension of the Invest in kids program.===
It’s really not. Not even close.
It’s a harsh reminder that it’s about the schools not the “kids” and the monies the schools get to exist.
If it was about the students these schools would be able to easily fundraise the same amount of money… kinda think about the actual advocates… it’s the schools.
“Why?”… it’s about the money.
- Amalia - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:06 am:
public tax dollars funding religious based education is what the angst over Invest in Kids is all about. I’m not buying your Proft tears.
- Steve - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:11 am:
How can CPS have many extra activities for high school students when some high schools don’t even have 200 students?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:19 am:
===don’t even have 200 students? ===
I went to a high school with a graduating class of 13. We had football, basketball, drama, student government, etc. Take a breath.
- Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:24 am:
Back in the day, anyone who had resources would send their kids to a parochial school in Chicago. Now that tuition at those schools has ballooned to over $12-$13k per year per student, there is a much stronger push to improve the public school system.
There is also another dynamic: while everyone generally wants better public schools, active and engaged parents will send their kids to the schools that they feel will be best for their children. Sometimes this is a parochial school. Sometimes, this leads to a move to the suburbs. Sometimes its sending your kid to the selective enrollment high school in your area. At the end of the day, however, your child’s education will be considerably affected by the other students your child goes to school with. If your child’s classmates are poor students, if they don’t have engaged parents, if education isn’t valued in their homes - your child will also suffer. I think that is the part that isn’t being discussed in the public discourse.
- The Truth - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:25 am:
EV battery plant: Great news for China.
2,600 FTE in Kankakee County and megatons of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere. This is great news.
- lake county democrat - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:45 am:
It’s hard to understate how bad the Chinese government is, but addressing that isn’t a state issue.
- Old IL Dude - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:47 am:
SDG could have easily sent her kid to Chicago Ag High School, which has a soccer team, a pool and is Level 1+. It’s a magnet school on the south side. Just sayin’.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:47 am:
“Now that tuition at those schools has ballooned to over $12-$13k”
Yes, there are a few very pricey catholic schools in the Chicago Archdiocese. However, there are many K-8 schools that have tuition that runs between 4-6 K. Most Chicago Catholic High schools do run between 12K-16K. In the burbs, there are many Catholic high schools with tuition that is much lower.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:53 am:
Great news for IL and the Kankakee area. UAW will have a tough time organizing a Chinese-owned joint venture. Of the dozens of EV battery plants only one, a GM/Korean battery operation in Warren Ohio, has been unionized.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:57 am:
===However, there are many K-8 schools that have tuition that runs between 4-6 K===
For some families that might as well be $4-6 million.
The argument I have is pretty simple… if it’s important to keep these monies for these schools, why can’t these schools merely fundraise from these same altruistic wealthy folks on the merits of the donations… if things are so great and successful, academically?
If it’s really-really about “the kids”, then it should be a slam dunk to approach these same donors in 2024.
- Red Ketcher - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:58 am:
Ironically, Kankakee had a Battery Plant long ago - The land where the factory sat is an eyesore now.
- DTownResident - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 9:59 am:
So if we will always suffer if diverse kids are there how in the world did Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington-Normal, Decatur and others have so many successful graduates in the 70s-90s when schools were integrated?? That is nonsense and is the prominent prejudice that has led to such segregated schools now
- Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 10:24 am:
=== So if we will always suffer if diverse kids are there ===
Who said that?
- 레플리카쇼핑몰 - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 10:25 am:
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- Aaron B - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 10:38 am:
I’m happy that Manteno has gotten this investment but I just hope it doesn’t turn into a repeat performance of the Foxconn fiasco in Wisconsin where the $10 billion project appears to have turned into just a $700 million project.
- JS Mill - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:12 am:
=It’s a harsh reminder that it’s about the schools not the “kids” and the monies the schools get to exist.=
Chicago receives a disproportionate amount of state funding relative to their percentage of students. CPS certainly has high levels of poverty, but that is well accounted for in their funding. Our small district receives 12% of our overall funding from that state. We are not wealth with most of our population just above the poverty line and 42% below. We are forced to heavily tax our local citizens for 82% of our revenue. Our tax rate is more than double the rate CPS levies. Many rural districts tax rates are even higher. CPS also receives 27% of the available funding from transportation before anyone else gets a share. Most of us get about 80% of what we should get based on the transportation reimbursement formula. And CPS gets massive amounts of federal funds.
CPS receives more than their fair share of state education revenue.
As always, with genuine respect.
- DuPage - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:14 am:
I hope Illinois does not get too entangled in high speed rail. Existing track could be upgraded to allow existing passenger trains to run slightly faster for a relatively small cost. A super high-speed train could run way over budget and not be worth continuing. I personally saw the California project earlier this year, and got an earful of details of why it failed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOiB_cUr0Xo
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:19 am:
===CPS receives more than their fair share of state education revenue.===
I’m confused to the context you took my words.
===It’s a harsh reminder that it’s about the schools not the “kids” and the monies the schools get to exist.===
The context is the private schools and raising their own revenues necessary to exist, not about the monies for students.
How CPS gets or receives of raises its own money is outside my ongoing question to a program that may be officially “not revived” and the altruism of these donors to a “successful” school.
If you could elaborate that might clarify my own confusion, granted, it’s likely merely me, lol
- supplied_demand - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:20 am:
== I personally saw the California project earlier this year, and got an earful of details of why it failed.==
Has it failed? Seems to me like it is still being built. https://www.popsci.com/technology/california-high-speed-rail-design/
- DTownResident - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:49 am:
I saw “If your child’s classmates are poor students…” and took the poor to be low income when it meant struggling ng academically..I have heard the ideas about low income students expressed a lot in the past. Central Illinois schools have gotten more divided along racial and income lines a lot since the integration era.
- JS Mill - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:57 am:
=The context is the private schools and raising their own revenues necessary to exist, not about the monies for students.
How CPS gets or receives of raises its own money is outside my ongoing question to a program that may be officially “not revived” and the altruism of these donors to a “successful” school.+
That is my bad. I took it as if it was about underfunding CPS, not the idea that some believe it is ok to take money from public schools and give it to private schools, an idea that is fundamentally anti-American and I totally oppose.
Whatever the private schools choose to charge is their business and funding their schools is their problem. They chose to open the school knowing they would not receive public dollars.
Something I am only now hearing rumblings about as the efforts to give public dollars to private schools (making them publicly supported) is that they should then follow the same requirements as regular public schools. There’s really no logical or good reason not to other than they don’t want to.
Also, maybe @Donnie ELgin could cite the schools he was referencing and what they actually charge. St. Ignatius is north of $20 k per year. That is college tuition territory.
And the CTU president has made her own mess. No sympathy for her.
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 12:03 pm:
Does Ms. Davis-Gates need a refresher course on the history of DuSable High School? Her claim that schools lack resources for the community fails to recognize the history and expertise of Capt. Walter Dyett at DuSable High School in Chicago.
Capt. Dyett taught generations of Black musicians and influenced the careers of musicians as a band instructor and music educator. His students included Nat (King) Cole, Dorothy Donegan, Dinah Washington, Steve Galloway, Von Freeman, Richard Davis, Arthur Prysock, Johnny Griffin and others.
In the early 2000s, we were fortunate to hear Von Freeman as guest artist with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra at the Thorne Auditorium in Streeterville. Von never looked at the charts; all the notes were in his head and heart.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 12:03 pm:
- JS Mill -
All good, upmost respect, no worries.
Until someone can explain “why” these students are at risk of losing monies without any effort by these altruistic folks merely donating directly…
(Between you and I, I know the answer, I want an advocate to say it out loud. It’s the romantic in me, so keep this between us. “Shhh”)
It’s a school problem/issue, not a student issue. Not one thing is stopping direct donations or fundraising.
Happy Friday. Be well.
- Steve - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 12:30 pm:
-I went to a high school with a graduating class of 13.-
CPS small population high schools do have limits on resources and what they can offer. Can’t have certain sports teams if you can’t field a team.
- Donnie Elgin - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 12:47 pm:
@Donnie Elgin could cite the schools he was referencing and what they actually charge. St. Ignatius is north of $ 20k per year.
Brother Rice - ¬ Tuition for the 2023-2024 school year is $14,100.
Nazareth - Tuition for the 2023-2024 school year is $16,500.
Marist - School Tuition: $14,150.00*
Christ the King - Christ the King is committed to making a rigorous, Jesuit, college prep education affordable for every student, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. While it costs approximately $16,800 to educate each CTK student this school year, our families pay an average of $1,200 toward the full cost of education thanks to generous scholarship assistance.
Resurrection College Prep High School – 13 K
https://www.catholichighschoolchicago.org/en/schools
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 12:55 pm:
- Donnie Elgin -
Why are these Invest in Kids students at risk of losing monies without any effort by these altruistic folks to merely donating directly for their educations?
Thanks.
- JS Mill - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 1:11 pm:
=Nazareth - Tuition for the 2023-2024 school year is $16,500.=
Just for clarification- Naz is in LaGrange Park. Athletes can go for free (if offered) and that has been the case since 1981. So they don’t need public money.
- Hannibal Lecter - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 1:39 pm:
=== Athletes can go for free (if offered) ===
Someone should report that to the IHSA. It is illegal for Catholic Schools to give athletic scholarships.
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 2:14 pm:
Just a quick memory about athletic scholarships at Catholic High Schools. Taught Eighth grade students at a public school for years.
The local Catholic high school lured the boys away with “gifts” of athletic gear and new athletic shoes. Since our boys were Conference Champs, the Catholic schools was eager to poach the boys by any means.
When the boys came to school dressed in the latest athletic gear and shoes, we knew they were going to the Catholic school across town.
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 2:17 pm:
Edit…the Catholic school was eager.
- City Zen - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 2:41 pm:
==CPS receives more than their fair share of state education revenue.==
Indeed. A city filled with Winnetkas likes to pretend it’s Harvey.
- DuPage - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 3:08 pm:
@- supplied_demand - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 11:20 am:
== I personally saw the California project earlier this year, and got an earful of details of why it failed.==
===Has it failed? Seems to me like it is still being built.===
The people I know out there said the low bid contractor didn’t know what they were doing, the money is gone, and so is the low bid contractor. The low bid contractor had built a high-speed rail line in Spain, in an earthquake-free area. They were unable to deal with the earthquake-prone areas such as California. California should have hired the Japanese contractor that built the high-speed train lines in earthquake-prone Japan.
The project was supposed to be completed years ago. If many times the original money is found, the project may be completed many decades in the future. There are other pressing demands for money, so enough funding is unlikely.