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Isabel’s morning briefing
Tuesday, Nov 21, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI:The Illinois Rainy Day fund reaches $2 billion dollars. WCIA…
-At the lowest point in 2017 during Illinois’ budget impasse, the fund had only $48,000, which would fund the state for less than 30 seconds. -The comptroller has also been advocating for a bill that would require payments into the Rainy Day Fund and the Pension Stabilization Fund. * Related stories… ∙ WREX: Illinois’ ‘Rainy Day Fund’ reaches $2 billion milestone ∙ WMBD: Illinois crosses $2 billion Rainy Day Fund * Isabel’s top picks… * Trade Show Executive | Chicago Passes Paid Leave Measure That Will Impact Trade Show Attendees: What this means is if someone attends a trade show or conference in Chicago and is in town for more than two hours, they will begin to accrue one hour of sick time and one hour of time off for each 35 hours they work. Even if the employee does not work a full 35 hours during one particular trip, the employer would have to begin recordkeeping to track when the employee would begin to accrue paid time off during subsequent trips. They would also have to comply with providing a notice to an employee about their rights under the ordinance after spending only two hours in Chicago. * CJR | Warped Front Pages: By the numbers, of four hundred and eight articles on the front page of the Times during the period we analyzed, about half—two hundred nineteen—were about domestic politics. A generous interpretation found that just ten of those stories explained domestic public policy in any detail; only one front-page article in the lead-up to the midterms really leaned into discussion about a policy matter in Congress: Republican efforts to shrink Social Security. Of three hundred and ninety-three front-page articles in the Post, two hundred fifteen were about domestic politics; our research found only four stories that discussed any form of policy. The Post had no front-page stories in the months ahead of the midterms on policies that candidates aimed to bring to the fore or legislation they intended to pursue. Instead, articles speculated about candidates and discussed where voter bases were leaning. * Tribune | Asylum-seekers cleared from once-crowded Chicago police station as city begins to enact new policies: The recent maneuvers paint a picture of the Johnson administration’s evolving response to the thousands of asylum-seekers whose fates have presented some of the mayor’s biggest challenges. Though his office maintains that its goal is to resettle new arrivals, the recent updates and new policies signal Johnson is walking a thin line of both trying to reiterate Chicago’s values as being a welcoming city while prioritizing current residents. * Here’s the rest of your morning roundup… * WAND | New law blocks Illinois lawmakers from running for other office if convicted of certain crimes: Anyone convicted of a felony, bribery, perjury or other infamous crime as an elected official is now ineligible to hold any public office. Lawmakers could run for public office again if their conviction is reversed, they are pardoned or have their rights restored by the governor. * VCE | Two GOP Candidates Enter Race for State Rep Mike Marron’s Seat: The two declared candidates are Retired U.S.M.C. Master Sergeant and current City of Danville Code Enforcement Inspector Brandun Schweizer, and State Rep Marron Legislative Assistant and Former Village of Pontiac Trustee and State’s Attorney and County Board Offices employee Marguerite Bailey. * Lake County News-Sun | Full House Resorts waiting for Pritzker’s signature on extension for development of its permanent Waukegan casino: Now Full House can ask the gaming board to give it another year to operate its temporary facility while it completes plans, builds and opens its luxury gaming resort adjacent to the short-term casino near the Fountain Square Shopping center. * WJOL | Rezin elected president of the National Foundation for Women Legislators: “The NFWL provides elected women an opportunity to collaborate in order to advance public policy ideas that will make a positive difference in the lives of their constituents,” continued Senator Rezin. “I look forward to this new role within the organization as we strive to assist and empower elected women throughout the nation.” * Shaw Local | Joliet mayor says developments are ‘coming fast’ on project at I-55 and I-80: Cullinan Properties is looking at construction next year and a fall 2019 opening for Rock Run Crossings, a lifestyle development that would combine retail, entertainment, office space, hotels and homes on a site at Interstates 55 and 80. * Sun-Times | Former Cook County judge faces felony charges for allegedly stealing from Tuskegee Airman: Former Cook County Judge Patricia Martin returned to a Cook County courthouse last week to face criminal charges for allegedly stealing several hundred thousand dollars from the accounts of the last-known surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen. Martin appeared at the courthouse in Bridgeview on Friday, where she now faces seven felony counts for allegedly taking more than $100,000 from the accounts of Oscar Wilkerson Jr. * WBEZ | In Illinois, young, conservation-minded farmers race against climate change to save their soil: Jake Lieb drives his John Deere two-seater around his property and across the shallow Camp Creek. The waterway cuts back and forth through miles of farm fields until it reaches the Sangamon River and eventually pours into Lake Decatur 32 miles away — the man-made source of water for 200,000 people. These are troubled waters. The city of Decatur paid $100 million in 2021 to dredge enough polluted sediment out of the lake to fill seven Willis Towers — and much of it was from farms like Lieb’s, swept away by increasingly heavy and unpredictable rains. When those rains pour, they funnel topsoil and costly fertilizer into the creek, the river and miles downstream into the lake. * WTTW | USDA’s New Plant Hardiness Map Puts Chicago in Warmer Company With Kentucky. What Does This Mean for Area Gardens and Natural Areas?: “Overall, the 2023 map is about 2.5 degrees warmer than the 2012 map across the (continental) United States. This translated into about half of the country shifting,” said Christopher Daly, director of the PRISM Climate Group and the map’s lead author. “The central plains and Midwest generally warmed the most, with the southwestern U.S. warming very little.”
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- TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 7:57 am:
“Joliet mayor says developments are ‘coming fast’ on project at I-55 and I-80″
“looking at construction next year and a fall 2019 opening”
Ummm… It’s fall of 2023, and there’s nothing open there yet.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 8:01 am:
I look forward to the online solicitations for ‘Did you attend a convention in Chicago? You may be entitled to compensation. Please get in touch with the XYZ Law Firm.’
Sometimes, I think laws are partly written here with the plaintiff bar in mind.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 8:07 am:
===Sometimes, I think laws are partly written here with the plaintiff bar in mind===
Sometimes? Partly?
Heh.
- Suburban Mom - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 8:18 am:
Every time I get reminded of the budget impasse, I get reminded of how many lives were ruined or irrevocably changed — including two of my family members’ — and get mad all over again. And of course the Rauner administration didn’t care about undoing the damage or making anybody whole; destroying lives was the point of the whole thing.
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 8:46 am:
Quotes that stood out to me from the WBEZ article:
—”The only way to know what’s happening in the field is to walk it…”
“One time I said ‘Grandpa, why you doing this?’ And he goes: ‘For you.’
In 2020, crop prices were high, and an Ohio-based investor wanted to replace a two-acre windbreak with row crops to earn an extra few thousand dollars. Lieb made a case to keep it, but ultimately gave in to keep the contract.
“That was very disheartening,” Lieb said. “We farm for people who live out of state, all they see is the check they get in the mail.” —
As someone who walked our family farm fields in every season and all weather conditions, the importance of that has never left me. The further you are away from the soil, whether just in a pickup cab or just being an absentee landowner who may drive by the land once a year, the less you may view it as something to be preserved, protected, and passed on to future generations as a whole and not a division.
It was truly ironic that one year the land being farmed next to mine had changed rental hands once again. A Wall Street investor owned it now, and the tenant asked if he could take my pasture fence down to access a portion of one of the fields that was, he thought, landlocked. I said no and pointed out that he had a field crossing over the creek that was big enough for his machinery just about 30 feet from the main road. He had passed it many times but hadn’t seen it because he was in his truck and had never taken the time to step out onto the soil he now rented.
- Lurker - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 9:25 am:
That Paid Leave measure seems needed and easy, until they include outsiders. What were they thinking?
- Donnie Elgin - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 9:43 am:
‘the employer would have to begin recordkeeping to track when the employee would begin to accrue paid time off during subsequent trips…after spending only two hours in Chicago.’
Makes Vegas and Orlando look even better.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 9:49 am:
Anon221, as a guy who lives near farmland (slowly becoming housing) and had to look at farmland in the collars for something, I was surprised by how ‘broken-up’ the land was and how disparate the ownership was.
Never realized that what appeared to be ‘one farm’ from a distance was a bunch of different plots, with different owners.
- Benniefly2 - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:14 am:
I would love for the Trade Show People to tell me how many employees work for a company that is willing to A) Pay for employees to travel to Chicago to attend a Trade Show but B) Does not already actually provide paid time off to said employees as a part of their regular employment.
I guess it isn’t impossible for those two things to be true at once, but it isn’t very likely.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:32 am:
“The central plains and Midwest generally warmed the most”
Noticed in the last decade or so strange happenings in the yard and garden, plants sprouting in winter. Nature is confused.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:56 am:
== I would love for the Trade Show People to tell me how many employees work for a company that is willing to A) Pay for employees to travel to Chicago to attend a Trade Show but B) Does not already actually provide paid time off to said employees as a part of their regular employment. ==
Yes, but you still have the notification requirement. Also, it enforces a schedule for acquiring sick leave. So, for example, a company may have a different schedule for acquiring it. It appears there is a reporting requirement for employers as well, so if my kid, who is now in Kansas City working for a small manufacturing company, comes to a trade show in Chicago, their employer would now have a record-keeping requirement. That is the case under the old rules.
Also, the old rules seem to allow rollover, not everyone allows rollover. So how would that work if you get more sick days than you would get under the city ordinance are your ‘city days’ used first or your ‘extra’ days used first in terms of roll-over considerations?
As I implied earlier, it’s gonna be a field day for lawyers.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 10:58 am:
There are plenty of industries with commission sales people who pay their own expenses to attend trade shows to meet with customers and prospects
The Cook County Democrats strike again with their hostility to employers with more regulations and reward their special interest trial lawyers
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 11:40 am:
@LP
Why do you hate workers so much? Your level of hatred and shilling for the rich is just pathetic
- thisjustinagain - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 11:48 am:
It is easy to say laws are written “for plaintiff’s/defendant’s lawyers” until you are a plaintiff or defendant. What’s far worse is a law so badly written nobody actually knows what it means, be it judges or parties counsel.
As for the ads by lawyers for people suffering loss of vacation/sick time while temporarily working in Chicago for an entire 2.0 hours…I’m sure something is being storyboarded right now.
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 12:00 pm:
Employee’s who work in Chicago must accrue one hour of paid leave and paid sick leave for every thirty-five hours worked.
Just add it to the T&E form and be done with it.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 12:01 pm:
That is your characterization and of course you have it backwards.
Chicago used to be one of the top destinations for trade shows that have a huge multiplier effect on our economy. Now we rank #5
Onerous regulations on businesses, that no other state imposes, will actually hurt workers in Illinois by making Chicago less competitive with competing cities.
https://www.tradegroup.com/ranked-the-7-most-popular-cities-for-trade-shows-in-north-america/
https://www.cvent.com/en/press-release/cvent-announces-top-50-meeting-destinations-united-states
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 12:36 pm:
Lucky Pierre - Next time supply links with quantitative analysis instead of clickbait.
- Tradegroup - “Chicago is one of the most popular midwestern cities for trade shows, conferences, and events. In terms of cultural influence, it’s only behind New York and Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA. Did you know the first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885?” That’s quite an analysis.
Next your Cvent link is over 11 years old and is more focused on Cvent than actual trade shows.
Do better.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Nov 21, 23 @ 12:42 pm:
===Do better. ===
Unpossible.