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Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * From the Democratic Party of Wisconsin…
* WTAX…
* More… * Crain’s | Chinese EV battery maker Gotion inks real estate deal for Manteno plant: Gotion High Tech Co. said its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary has signed agreements to purchase real estate assets including land and factories for an EV battery assembly project it intends to build in Manteno. The Chinese electric-vehicle battery maker disclosed the information in a statement posted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Thursday. * Illinois Times | Springfield jury awards $19 million to former inmate: Nicole Schult, a lawyer for the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, which represented Doe, said this may be a record judgment against the Illinois Department of Corrections. “We had heard rumors of this kind of rampant sexual abuse happening at Logan since it became a women’s facility,” she told Illinois Times. “We also knew that these kinds of things were happening all over the state. … It is really difficult for women in custody to report sexual assault because of the retaliation, and oftentimes, even actual punishment with segregation.” * Center Square | After vagueness hearing, federal judge could strike down Illinois’ gun ban: Judge Stephen McGlynn said the crux is whether the law infringes on a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. After the hearing Wednesday in East St. Louis, Maag said a summary judgment would have teeth. * SJ-R | Illinois taxpayers help fund Pritzker administration’s global trade missions: According to a public records request made by The State Journal-Register, the administration has embarked on six trips since 2021. These trips included several to Japan and the United Kingdom along with South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan. Travel expenses, including hotel and airfare plus a per diem were mostly covered by the state for a total just shy of $93,250 per data from the governor’s office. * WREX | Governor Pritzker announces paid trainee program for state’s tech workforces: Governor Pritzker announced Thursday that the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) is starting a paid trainee program to build a pipeline of tech talent to meet the growing demand. Trainees will receive a minimum yearly salary of $54,000 from DoIT while learning in one of five high-need concentration areas. * WCIA | Frerichs announces $10 million state investment in Israel Bonds: This investment is the latest of several Frerich’s office has made since he became Treasurer of Illinois in 2015, totaling over $100 million. He explained that the investments diversify the state’s portfolio, draw attention to the partnership between the state’s economy and Israel and achieve a good return from what is described as a safe investment – Israel Bonds have never defaulted in their 70 years as an investment. * Block Club | Impacted By Summer Flooding? You Have Until Monday To Apply For Federal Relief : Anyone who was affected by the June 29-July 2 storms — which caused severe flooding, particularly on the West Side and western suburbs — is eligible to apply for support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The deadline is Oct. 16. * Crain’s | Suburban office vacancy nears 30% as workspace cutbacks continue: Fueled by big blocks of sublease space that hit the market, the share of available office space in the suburbs increased to 29.7% at the end of September from 28.9% midway through the year, according to real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle. The new vacancy rate is up from 27.3% a year ago and 22.1% when the COVID-19 pandemic began. * Crain’s | TransUnion agrees to pay $23 million in fines in 2 settlements: TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions and its Chicago-based parent, TransUnion, will be required to pay $11 million, which will be used to compensate consumers, and a $4 million civil penalty. The settlement, which must still be approved by a federal court in Colorado, is the largest amount ever recovered in an FTC tenant-screening matter. * Daily Southtown | Homer Glen to ask voters in March whether to discontinue Homer Township government: “When the village incorporated (in 2001), and was going through the incorporation effort, a lot of residents of the township questioned another layer of government,” said Trustee Sue Steilen, who voted in favor of the referendum. “I think the village has run efficiently, and now it’s time to question whether we need the extra layer of government of a township.” * Chalkbeat | Rising share of Chicago Public Schools graduates are pursuing college, study finds: The study’s findings run counter to national trends of sagging college enrollment during the pandemic; nationwide enrollment in two- and four-year colleges fell by .6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many young people across the nation are questioning whether higher education is worth the cost, said Jenny Nagaoka, one of the study’s authors and deputy director of the Consortium on School Research. * Effingham Daily News | Flex-N-Gate employees told not to report to work for rest of week: A Flex-N-Gate employee at the Effingham plant confirmed Thursday that workers have been told not to come in for the rest of the week. The local development comes after 8,700 members of the United Autoworkers union struck the Ford truck plant in Louisville, Ky. on Wednesday night. The Kentucky strike comes nearly four weeks after the union began its walkouts against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis on Sept. 15, the Associated Press reported. * Shaw Local | New DeKalb solar developments powered by Illinois’ clean energy law:Solar energy developer SunVest Solar unveiled two community solar installations Tuesday along 24 acres off Gurler Road and South First Street. Officials said the solar developments were made possible due to Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in September 2021. * Daily Herald | District 25 to pay at least $1.3 million to hire new kindergarten and gym teachers: At least a dozen teachers will be hired to staff Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 classrooms when expanded kindergarten programming begins next school year, the school board decided this week. * Sun-Times | Man pleads guilty to weapons charges in fatal shooting of Chicago police officer Ella French: Morgan’s brother, Emonte Morgan, is accused of fatally shooting the officer during a Aug. 7, 2021 traffic stop and faces a first-degree murder charge. Emonte Morgan’s trial has been set for early next year, but could still be pushed back. * Crain’s | Walgreens outlines $1 billion cost-cutting plan: The cost savings, expected to be realized in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, include reducing nonessential spending, cutting back on contracted and project work, and optimizing its transportation network, Walgreens leaders told investors Thursday morning. Other cost-cutting strategies include closing unprofitable stores or reducing store hours in locations that can accommodate it. * SJ-R | Springfield Clinic preparing to open two new facilities: The new pediatric center, located along Old Jacksonville Road, is one of two new facilities that the clinic plans to open in the next month. A new lab facility at the corner of 7th Street and South Grand Avenue East will be fully operational at the end of the month, providing a newer, better facility for lab operations that were shunted into the basement of their main campus on South 6th Street. * Tribune | New Louis Armstrong musical ‘A Wonderful World’ sounds its trumpet in Chicago: Armstrong’s years in Chicago also explains the presence this week in a Randolph Street coffee shop of James Monroe Iglehart, a much loved Broadway star best known for his Tony Award-winning performance as the Genie in the original 2014 Broadway production of Disney’s “Aladdin,” a tour de force piece of acting that somehow managed to pay homage to Robin Williams’ vocal performance in the animated movie while physicalizing it entirely as his own. * Sun-Times | Aerial waterfowl survey shows more ducks than usual on IRV: But… strong winds and colder temperatures on the prairies have moved birds into our region, especially the IRV. I estimated 83,580 ducks in the IRV on Monday, 41% more than the 10-year average of ~59,000 ducks. However, early duck abundance along the MS river continues to trend below the LTA. I observed 37,785 ducks along that river this week, 37% below the 10-year average.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Wut… * From the link…
* The Question: Your predictions of Rodney’s questions and RRB’s answers?
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Report shows teacher shortage ’showed signs of stability and even improvement,’ but other problems worsen
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * The full report is here. From Advance Illinois…
The report notes that the state did lower the age requirement for some paraprofessionals and now allows for short-term (3 years) approval before fulfilling the licensing requirement, so that may help. But the supply had dropped and demand soared before the changes were implemented in July of 2022.
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Durbin and the rest of the delegation need to stop this
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Michael Loria at the Sun-Times…
So, they’re using most of their federal funding to send people to Chicago, while Chicago receives a pittance out of that same federal pot. That’s gotta be the dumbest thing I’ve yet seen about this entire mess. …Adding… To be clear here, since some of y’all are getting off on tangents in comments, the federal government needs to stop funding the uncoordinated shipping of asylum-seekers to other states.
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*** UPDATED x1 - Speaker Welch: ‘Not expecting to do a supplemental budget in veto session’ *** I really doubt the mayor’s proposal to cut spending on new arrivals is gonna put pressure on the state
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Normally, I would praise something like this. Crain’s…
But here’s Fox 32…
That’s it? * More from Crain’s…
Um, the city cuts its anticipated new arrivals spending, which was woefully inadequate to begin with, while spending $307 million on advance pension payments? And that’s supposed to somehow put pressure on the state? Sure, Jan. *** UPDATE *** House Speaker Chris Welch was asked about his meeting with Mayor Johnson last week. Speaker Welch said they talked about the migrant situation and how the federal government needed to step up. Asked about whether he was asked about a supplemental budget to help the city, Welch said…
…Adding… Yes, he’s reading it right. The mayor proposes cutting the budget to the committee overseeing this issue…
You gotta wonder what signal he’s trying to send here. …Adding… From Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa…
…Adding… Ald. Andre Vasquez just called. He said he caught that budget number the night before the budget was released and was told the appropriation was in error and he’s now in talks with the city on a revised number that isn’t a cut.
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Drivers Sign Up To Drive With Uber As A Flexible Way To Manage Rising Costs
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Two Black state legislators publicly vow to oppose migrant funding bill
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Sen. Preston and Rep. Nichols are both relative newbies (Preston much more so than Nichols), and are both standing before voters next year, and we’re only a month or so into the three-month petition-gathering season. Just an FYI as you read this BlockClub Chicago story…
The veto session is scheduled during petition season as well. As we saw earlier this week, Gov. JB Pritzker is lukewarm (at best) to a supplemental appropriation for the city. And the mayor has not even yet named a director of intergovernmental affairs. Lovely. Mayor Brandon Johnson is not responsible for the crush of asylum-seekers coming to Chicago. His city doesn’t have adequate resources, either. But he is responsible for his repeated failures to address the problem. He has, for instance, been repeatedly rebuffed when he’s attempted to open new shelters without first consulting with local stakeholders, including alderpersons. Instead of realizing his mistake, he has repeated it over and over and over again. * Ald. Villegas said the other day that the city had kept him in the dark about a proposed shelter site. Here’s the Tribune…
Most politicians learn pretty fast how to judge the playing field. Mayor Johnson clearly does little to no advance work on the ground, then abruptly backtracks when locals object. And then the push-back grows as people see that the best way to stop a shelter is to yell loudly enough. So, the ugly and mean-spirited situation snowballs further. And this particular snowball is the size of McCormick Place. Again, this is a horrible national and international problem and the mayor is not at fault for the deluge and nobody expects him to solve everything. But his repeated failures have to stop because he is making things so much worse than they need to be. The Pritzker administration absolutely must start taking more control there.
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Open thread
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * This week is flying by. What’s goin’ on? Keep it Illinois-centric please…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Oct 12, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson released his first city budget. Crain’s…
- Johnson kept his campaign pledge not to raise property taxes. - The mayor proposed a $307 million advance to pension payments on top of the required amount. * Related stories… ∙ Sun-Times: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first city budget offers down payment on campaign promises ∙ Tribune: Digging into the numbers in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget ∙ BGA: 2024 Chicago Budget Overview * Isabel’s top picks… * Sun-Times | Businessman James T. Weiss gets 5 1/2 years in prison for bribing 2 state lawmakers, lying to the FBI: “Mr. Weiss, you added another star to Chicago’s walk of shame on the sidewalk of corruption,” U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger said at the end of a nearly five-hour hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. * Automotive News | UAW expands strike to Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant, adding 8,700 to picket lines: The union announced the walkout on social media, effective immediately, saying Ford “refuses to make further movement in bargaining.” The union telegraphed the move about 45 minutes before the official announcement with a post that it quickly deleted. * Daily Herald | New transit plan clears first hurdle. Next stop, Springfield: Members of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the MPO Policy Committee on Wednesday approved a sweeping proposal aimed at improving the transit system and ensuring stable revenues. […] At the behest of the General Assembly, CMAP prepared the Plan of Action for Regional Transit (PART) report that includes a controversial recommendation to integrate Metra, Pace and the CTA into one supersized agency. * Here are some photos by Rich of Senate President Don Harmon’s special session at FitzGerald’s…
* Here’s the rest of your morning roundup… * WAND | Pritzker, University of Chicago students discuss major political issues: “State’s attorneys are not used to having to go in and make a case for keeping somebody in jail who is a flight risk or danger to the community,” Pritzker said. “They’re not used to having to make that case. They would just go in and say ‘we want this much bail.’ Right? Now they have to actually make a case about why somebody has to be kept in jail.” * ABC | Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tries to turn Biden’s age into an asset: Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker drew national headlines when he wrote a strongly worded letter to President Joe Biden saying his White House needed to step up action on the migrant surge in Chicago. But this week, Pritzker rose to Biden’s defense on one of the most fraught issues of the president’s re-election: age. * Capitol News Illinois | Controversial carbon dioxide pipeline paused following regulatory setbacks: The move came two weeks after regulators in South Dakota rejected the company’s application to build a portion of the pipeline in that state. Among other reasons, officials at that state’s Public Utilities Commission said the company failed to demonstrate that the project was safe, and that it could negatively impact the region’s development. * Times-Republic | Wynn Bence seeking nomination for 53rd Illinois Senate seat: According to a news release, Wynn Bence served as Bennett’s Chief of Staff before accepting a position as the downstate/Springfield director and legislative liaison for then Illinois Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti, where she was appointed the principal staffer for the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council and led working groups on policy in the areas of workforce development, economic development, rural health and education. * Sun-Times | Catholic Charities flights lead to surging number of migrants at O’Hare: Since a phone call with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration in early September about the strain put on the city by the arrival of more migrants, Fernandez said the charity has been encouraging migrants to pick a destination other than Chicago if they don’t have a sponsor. […] In the week after that phone call, the number of arrivals from San Antonio, the vast majority of whom are sent by Catholic Charities, still grew by 33%, according to city data. * Tribune | Metra proposes new set of fares in 2024 budget: The proposal includes no planned substantial changes to schedules, as Metra faces continued low ridership and a looming fiscal cliff once federal pandemic aid runs out, but the agency is eyeing service additions or changes as needed. * Sun-Times | Evanston commission rejects Northwestern plan for Ryan Field concerts: But the school has insisted concert revenue is essential to make the $800 million project viable. During the meeting, Dave Davis, senior executive director of neighborhood and community relations for NU, pressed that point. “This project cannot and will not move forward without this approval,” Davis said. * Shaw Local | New trustee appointed to embattled Joliet Township board: On Tuesday, Antione Edwards was unanimously appointed as a trustee to the board. His appointment followed three hours of public comment where township officials such as Township Supervisor Angel Contreras were heavily criticized by residents over a grant for asylum-seekers. * Tribune | Cook County prosecutors drop charges against man accused in rapper’s slaying amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct: But in the years since, the case has come under scrutiny, with defense attorneys publicly accusing Rolling Meadows police and Cook County prosecutors of hiding “tubs” of evidence. An Illinois appellate court also reversed the convictions and ordered a new trial in 2016, finding that a judge should have allowed Taylor’s lawyers to present testimony from an expert about the potential pitfalls of eyewitness identification. * Sun-Times | Duckworth touts Illinois clean energy advancements in trip to Romania, U.K., tries to reassure allies about Ukraine funding: The Illinois senator is in Europe on a multi-leg trade trip promoting the state’s clean energy advancements. But Duckworth is also reassuring foreign allies that aid to Ukraine remains a top priority for Democrats — no matter what drama ensues among House Republicans. * NYT | As Red States Curb Social Media, Did Montana’s TikTok Ban Go Too Far?: The popular video-sharing app is suing Montana to halt a first-of-its-kind state law that would ban TikTok in the state on Jan. 1. The law was drafted by Montana’s Republican attorney general and signed by its governor in May. TikTok is asking the court to block the ban through a preliminary injunction. * AP | Grand National to reduce number of horses to 34 and soften fences in bid to make famous race safer: The race will also start earlier in the day, so the course stays as soft as possible, and the horses will set off from a standing start. The Grand National has had a field of 40 horses since 1984, which has often been cited — along with the size of the fences — as a key reason why 16 horses have died in the race since the turn of the century. * NBC Chicago | Rolling Stones, MLB partner up for limited edition White Sox-Cubs vinyl records for new album: The rare collector’s item will be available exclusively on The Rolling Stones’ website. Fans have the option to choose a vinyl record with a custom design for all 30 MLB teams. You can preorder the vinyl album now, or wait until the album’s release to purchase the item on their website.
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