Thursday, Apr 6, 2023 - Posted by Advertising Department
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* I think we all need a break from this. But even if you don’t, Isabel and I do. Also, you’ll still have the live coverage feed, the ComEd 4 trial live coverage post and all the news widgets on the right side of the page. Have a great one and we’ll see you again on April 17th…
* Gov. Pritzker was asked today why he became involved in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Pritzker contributed $1 million to the state party and $20,000 directly to Janet Protasiewicz…
First of all, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race was a critically important race. There were election deniers that had been running for offices all over Wisconsin. You know, it’s a swing state. It’s an important state in the general election, in next year’s presidential election. There were moves to invalidate electors in Wisconsin… three years ago. And so having a Supreme Court made up of rational, non-extremist people who will simply evaluate the law and do the right thing is very, very important to all of us across the nation. In addition to that, it happens that one of the candidates was a severely anti-choice candidate, somebody who wanted to abide by an 1800s law in Wisconsin that should have been frankly, not part of the discussion, but that would have literally made women second-class citizens in the state of Wisconsin. And one of the candidates was pro-choice and wanted to make sure that we were upholding the equal rights of women in Wisconsin. So, to me, that’s an important race. I’ve supported Democrats all across the country. She was a Democrat, and I was glad to be one of the leading supporters of of her race. And she won, by the way and then it was literally an overwhelming victory of 11 points.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
* Krishnamoorthi press release…
On Tuesday, candidates of AAPI origin backed by Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D IL-08)- Alderwoman Nicole Lee of the 11th Ward in Chicago, Zubair Kahn, an incumbent school board member for the Community Consolidated School Board District 15, and Samreen Khan, a candidate for U-46 School Board- made history in winning their respective elections. Nicole Lee became the first Chinese-American woman elected to a full term on the Chicago City Council, Zubair Khan retained his seat as the first Muslim-American to serve on the District 15 School Board, and Samreen Khan became the first Asian-American woman to win a seat on the District U-46 school board.
“I’m incredibly proud to have endorsed and supported these stellar candidates and public servants,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. “These critical victories in 2023 follow an historic 2022 election cycle, where we shattered glass ceilings by electing diverse AAPI leaders at the state and local level in Illinois. Nicole, Samreen, and Zubair represent the best of their communities and I know they’ll continue to deliver for the people that elected them.”
“I’d also like to thank Congressman Raja again for his unyielding support of my campaign for School Board, the second largest School Board in Illinois,” said Samreen Khan. “Having the support of Congressman Raja confirms his understanding that ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him during my term on behalf of all of us.”
“Thank you to Congressman Raja and the many state AAPI elected leaders, from Senator Ram Villivalam to Rep. Theresa Mah, who strongly coalesced around my campaign to represent the first majority Asian ward in the history of the City of Chicago,” said Alderwoman Nicole Lee. I am very grateful for the strong support of the AAPI diaspora, and I look forward to serving as their voice on the Chicago City Council.”
“I also want to thank every candidate who ran for local elected office, from Trustee to Park District Commissioner, who wasn’t successful,” Congressman Krishnamoorthi added. “Your leadership will serve as a building block for the future as we collectively work to form a more diverse government that is truly representative of the people it serves. And I will continue to have your back.”
States considering enacting biometric privacy legislation should be “wary” of following Illinois’ example, which has exposed businesses to massive costs, a new study shared exclusively with Bloomberg Law concludes.
Employers using biometric timekeeping technology are especially at risk of litigation under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, according to the analysis of 296 federal and 381 state court filings released Wednesday by the Chamber of Progress. It found 88% of the BIPA litigation arose from employer-employee disputes over biometric timekeeping.
The announcement of a $109 million health sciences building at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville was the highlight of a Thursday morning press conference at SIUE by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pritzker is visiting universities across the state to promote his proposed FY24 budget, which includes an $80 million increase in higher education funding and record investments in MAP (Monetary Award Program) grants.
The funding is made possible by the governor’s bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital plan, the largest capital plan in state history.
* This could be seen as a message to Darren Bailey…
U.S. Representative Mike Bost (IL-12) today announced that his campaign raised over $400,000 in the first quarter and is approaching $700,000 cash-on-hand.
“I am humbled by the overwhelming grassroots and financial support our campaign has received from across the new 12th District,” said Bost. “We are in the midst of a major battle to protect our rights as parents, our rights as law-abiding gun owners, and our rights as citizens who deserve to be safe from crime, drugs, and open borders. We’re taking the fight directly to the woke leftists and extreme liberals who undermine our values at every turn. And we have the conservative record and resources to win.”
Happy Thursday, Illinois. Just 153 days until nominating petitions are due for 2024, folks. h/t John Amdor
Amdor tweeted that petitions can be circulated in 153 days. He didn’t claim that petitions are due in 153 days.
* IML press release…
On April 6th, the Illinois Municipal League (IML), in partnership with the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS), released Volume 7 of the Illinois Municipal Policy Journal. This academic journal addresses critical issues Illinois and its municipalities are facing.
This volume of the Journal includes articles on sustainability and climate action plans, networked supply chains, political civility, population and employment changes, a study on policing and a study on the impact of video gaming. The Journal also includes a book review of Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation.
“In recent years, challenges have grown and become more complex for state and local governments,” said Brad Cole, IML Executive Director. “As municipalities continue to push forward, this Journal equips leaders at all levels of government with solid academic research to broaden their understanding of topics to help build stronger, more vibrant communities.”
Since 2016, IML has published the Journal as a resource that provides elected and appointed officials with academic research on issues facing Illinois and its 1,295 cities, villages and towns. Additionally, it provides an arena for academics to publish their scholarly work on important topics, like municipal budgeting, public health and public financing of infrastructure projects.
The Journal is shared with political science and public administration departments at colleges and universities throughout the state. It is also distributed to the Illinois General Assembly and constitutional officers, the Illinois Congressional Delegation and other IML partners.
The Journal is available, free of charge (excluding shipping and handling), at iml.org/publications. An electronic version is also available at iml.org/journal.
* Press release…
Frontline Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) employees are now able to take training to safely and effectively use pepper spray in emergency situations, with the goal of being better able to protect themselves in the field. The training also includes instruction on situational awareness. The new program was created by legislation filed by State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield).
“Frontline DCFS employees need to be able to stay safe while they work to protect vulnerable children and families,” said Senator McClure. “I hope this program gives them vital tools and information that they can use to help protect themselves.”
Recently, Senator McClure was able to take the training course along with DCFS employees and Rodrigo Remolina, the Acting Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs for DCFS. They were trained in how to properly deploy pepper spray against an attacker, as well as how to safely carry the products. They were also sprayed with pepper spray to learn how their own bodies would react to it, so that they can be ready for situations where they deploy pepper spray in self-defense, but wind or other factors cause them to come into contact with the spray.
“Pepper spray is a serious tool for self-defense, and very painful for attackers who are sprayed,” said McClure. “If pepper spray can give an investigator even a few extra moments to escape a bad situation, it could prevent a tragedy.”
In 2022, McClure’s legislation was signed into law, requiring the Illinois State Police to develop a training program for DCFS employees on the proper usage of pepper spray for self-defense. The legislation allows DCFS employees who complete the training to carry pepper spray while on the job. McClure had filed the legislation in response to the deaths of DCFS investigators Pamela Knight and Deidre Silas, who were both tragically killed while on the job. Silas was a constituent of McClure’s.
“DCFS is grateful to Senator McClure and the sponsors of Public Act 102-0990 for their support and commitment to keeping our child protection investigators safe,” said DCFS Director Marc D Smith. “When he attended our training in Bloomington, Senator McClure received firsthand experience with just how potent the OC pepper spray is, even from a distance. This training is critical to ensure the safety of our staff and those we serve and we’re grateful for Senator McClure’s support in these efforts.”
Senator McClure took part in the training session in Bloomington on March 24th.
Video…
* Update to the Twitter issue that I mentioned yesterday…
We’re pleased to announce our access to the Twitter API has been restored. Posting to Twitter has resumed. We appreciate your patience and support. Happy posting!
* Patch | Lake Forest High School Students Walk Out In Gun Violence Protest: About 100 Lake Forest High School students took part in the protest, which was also attended by about 50 adults, the Lake County News-Sun reported, including several Democratic politicians. Organizers Alia Attar, a Lake Forest senior, and Sophia Zar, a Lake Bluff junior, said the turnout exceeded their expectations. There are about 1,500 students enrolled at LFHS.
* Press release | City Of Chicago Held in Violation of Americans with Disabilities Act: In April of 2021, the Justice Department moved to intervene in a disability discrimination lawsuit that people with visual disabilities brought against the City under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. The United States’ complaint in intervention alleged that the city fails to provide people who are blind, have low vision or are deaf-blind with equal access to pedestrian signal information at intersections. Pedestrian signal information, such as a flashing “Walk/Don’t Walk” signal, indicates when it is safe to cross the street for sighted pedestrians.
* Lake County News-Sun | Three newly elected Waukegan aldermen plan to form Hispanic caucus; ‘More people will feel like they’re represented’: Felix said he, Guzman and Martinez plan to form a Hispanic caucus, which he believes will activate the Latinx community now approaching a majority in the city, as well as benefit Waukegan overall. “It’s beautiful to see the three of us going to the council,” Felix said. “More people will feel like they’re represented. More people will pay attention. We’ll hear more Hispanic voices, and when they get engaged in the community it benefits everyone.”
* Naperville Sun | Kelly returned to Naperville council, joined by McBroom and Longenbaugh; Wilson holds lead for 4th seat: Incumbent Patrick Kelly said he’s grateful voters reelected him to a second four-year term on the Naperville City Council. He was the top vote-getter this week in a crowded field of 11 candidates, garnering 13% of the vote, followed by newcomers Allison Longenbaugh, a Naperville Public Library Board member who also received 13%, and Josh McBroom, a former Naperville Park Board commissioner who received 12%, unofficial election results show.
* ABC Chicago | Northwestern submits $800M Ryan Field redevelopment plan to City of Evanston: An informational meeting was held Wednesday with the community, and minority and women-owned businesses, as the university submits its redevelopment application to the City of Evanston for the $800 million project. The project will completely redesign Ryan Field. Although it will lower capacity by 12,000, it will add new multi-use space on the outside in the largest single capital expenditure in Northwestern and Evanston history.
* NPR Illinois | Officials mark continued progress on Springfield Rail Improvements Project: This week, work began on new $68.3 million underpasses at Madison and Jefferson Streets. By separating railroad tracks from regular vehicle traffic, the overpasses will reduce congestion and delays, improve safety, provide better access for bikes and pedestrians and cut down on emergency response times. “When all is said and done, $475 million will have been invested in the Springfield Rail Improvements Program — with $262 million already out the door. These investments bring us another step closer to building a rejuvenated, multimodal transportation system that works for everyone,” Pritzker said.
* Kaiser Health News | Gavin Newsom wanted California to cut ties with Walgreens. Then federal law got in the way.: Check Into Cash was an especially abusive example of a practice that has hurt a vulnerable part of the workforce. Because of the contracts, companies can practically own their workers, who would then face greatly diminished prospects if they decide to leave. The FTC has rightly identified these one-sided deals involving low-paid workers as anti-competitive restraints on trade that suppress job mobility and wages. In Illinois, the Check Into Cash case inspired legislation that was surprisingly fair-minded. Rather than ban non-competes, as worker advocates initially wanted, Illinois lawmakers balanced the concerns of employers as well as employees to specifically protect workers earning $75,000 a year or less
* Crain’s | Feds plan demolition between historic State Street skyscrapers: “A recent conditions assessment found the nonhistoric building, which has been unoccupied for several years, is not structurally sound and presents risks, including potential facade collapse that would endanger pedestrians and street traffic,” the GSA’s press release said.
* WCIA | Central Illinois city named top place in state for beer lovers: The website Move.org found that Springfield was named the best city in Illinois for beer lovers. The rankings were determined by highest capita of breweries within city limits for municipalities with populations over 100,000. The site found there are six breweries, contact brewers and microbreweries in the capital city, including Engrained Brewing Company, Obed and Isaac’s Microbrewery, Buzz Bomb Brewery, and Anvil & Forge Brewing and Distilling.
* Daily Herald | A new home for Rocky the coyote: Rocky was born under a deck in Tennessee in 2018 and was mistaken for a German shepherd puppy. By the time people learned he was a coyote, he already had imprinted on humans. He was moved to River Trail Nature Center when efforts to rehabilitate him to live in the wild failed. Despite the efforts of Rocky’s advocates, which include In Defense of Animals and the Chicago Alliance for Animals, to have him moved to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, the Forest Preserves of Cook County has stood firm about displaying the animal as part of the Animal Ambassadors program.
Chicago had 86,725 outstanding mail-in ballots as of Wednesday, according to the city’s election board.
Not all of those ballots will be mailed back in time or postmarked correctly, but Bever said the elections officials expect at least 50-52 percent — about 43,000-45,000 ballots — to be returned and counted over the next two weeks based on figures from the Feb. 28 election.
A Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson told Isabel this morning that their website will be updated every day by 6 pm during the mail-in count.
The [Chicagoland Chamber’s] political wing endorsed Vallas, but now, “We need to look forward,” Lavin said in a phone interview. “We need to bring people together. The city has a lot of challenges. . . .To be successful as mayor, you have to have a relationship with the business community.”
Lavin hinted that, perhaps, Johnson might see his way to back off of some of the items in his tax plan, like reinstating the employer head tax, something that business groups say would send the wrong message to companies considering opening or expanding operations here. “Lots of things are said during a campaign,” said Lavin, who formerly served as chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. “Then you get to governing.”
Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia, who was a strong ally of progressive Ald. Helen Shiller, 46th, said he believes Johnson “has a pragmatic side. He understands the need to communicate.” Toia said his hope is that Johnson appreciates that business “needs a little longer runway on his tax plans. We can’t do it all right away.”
The head of a third group, Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association chief Michael Jacobson, said his group is “moving forward” despite Johnson’s proposal to raise the city’s hotel tax, which at 17.4% already is the highest of any major convention and meeting city. His conversation with Johnson went well, Jacobson said, though nothing final was resolved. “We all want to make Chicago a good place to visit and live. . . .There’s going to be disagreements with any mayor” on policy.
* What’s that saying about how all Chicago maps tell the same basic story?…
Here's a map of violent crime in Chicago over the last five years (left) and a map of mayoral election results by precint (right).
The areas hit hardest by violence voted for Brandon Johnson, who campaigned hard on alternatives to policing, instead of tough-on-crime Paul Vallas. pic.twitter.com/jqQaXcz5p8
“We tend to limit our conversations around toughness and more police officers, and what has been proven over and over again, that is not a recipe for absolute success,” Johnson said. “And so our mission and my platform has been very clear. We get at the immediate dynamic of public safety, but we also set up long-term solutions.”
Johnson did not discuss the policing specifics he had touted on the campaign trail beyond hiring 200 more detectives via promotion from beat cops and ensuring less churn of officer supervisors. But he rebutted a question about Fraternal Order of Police local President John Catanzara’s previous warning there would be “blood in the streets” as the result of a mass Chicago police exodus under Johnson’s administration.
“Well, first of all, I don’t believe there’s a difference between me and the Police Department,” Johnson said. “Now, what the Fraternal Order of Police leader has said, that doesn’t necessarily reflect the values of the city of Chicago. … We’re not going to base our administration off of what, you know, the police union leader has said.”
Johnson told WTTW News Tuesday that he hoped his victory would reshape the national debate over policing that has raged since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 triggered massive racial justice protests and unrest. Johnson’s margin of victory over Vallas stood at approximately 3 percentage points, according to unofficial returns released by the Chicago Board of Elections.
“What was remarkable about this journey was that people saw public safety in a more holistic way,” Johnson said. “Bringing people together around a holistic approach of how we address public safety that will be the test of my leadership.”
Q: It wasn’t part of your budget plan to slash the Police Department’s budget or defund the police as you were accused of intending to do throughout the campaign. But regardless, I’m sure there are many police officers who voted for Vallas who do believe that that’s in your heart of hearts. And that’s your intention. How do you build a bridge with police officers who see you as the defund candidate?
Johnson: Well, look, I’ve served as a public school teacher in the city of Chicago. And when you serve in the city of Chicago, you see firsthand the type of trauma that causes tremendous turmoil.
And police officers, in many instances, like teachers, are oftentimes asked to do their job and someone else’s. I’m going to understand that better than any other person who was running for office. I’m going to have a conversation with our police officers with our lieutenants, our sergeants to come up with a plan that ultimately places police officers in a position to do their job and not place them in a position where the strain and conflict that exists in communities have pulled us apart.
My job and responsibility is to unite the city and bring people together. I’m going to do that as mayor of Chicago.
* Morgan Elise Johnson got a lot of online props for her appearance on WGN during election night. Here’s what The TRiiBE publisher said at the end of the program…
Forbes published an article in January of this year of the most violent cities. Chicago is not even in the top 15. We’re not the violence capital of America. We are the violence narrative capital of America, and somehow Black Chicago has become the face of violent crime. And for those of us who are dedicated to reshaping the narrative, we’re saying enough with that narrative. We are a community of vibrant people who are very interested in keeping our people safe. I think the vast majority of Chicagoans are open to those strategies and learning more about them and I hope they listened to the young people who are forging that path. We saw a first step with that with the election of Brandon Johnson.
As for the mayor-elect, he spoke Wednesday about the need to unite Chicago, concentrate on public safety and crime, and his desire to bring together City Council.
“What I want to see is that everyone gets to participate; I’m looking to unite and bring people together. The type of divisive nature that has separated our communities in a way that have left us incredibly damaged, we’re gonna put an end to that,” Johnson said.
[Brandon Johnson] won 29 of 50 wards, including a clean sweep of majority African-American wards. He won six Hispanic majority wards to Vallas’ nine. The Latino wards Johnson carried included the 22nd Ward that is home to former mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy Garcia, the Southwest Side congressman who endorsed Johnson. […]
The Cook County commissioner passed the 80% mark in eight African-American wards: the 6th, 8th, 16th, 17th, 20th and 21st, on the South Side and the 24th and 37th on the West Side. The Austin resident scored his highest percentage — 84.2% — in the 24th Ward.
Johnson sealed the deal by padding his Feb. 28 vote totals along the progressive-minded north lakefront, the hipster Milwaukee Avenue corridor and in three Northwest Side wards with Hispanic majorities, two of them represented by Democratic Socialists: the 33rd and 35th. […]
Bowen also pointed to Johnson’s narrow win in Tunney’s home 44th Ward as evidence that attacks on Vallas as a closet Republican did enormous political damage in a ward with a large LGBTQ+ community that also includes a lot of younger voters.
[United Working Families] Executive Director Emma Tai said that its field operation knocked on 555,000 doors, made 1.26 million phone calls, fired off nearly 2 million texts and raised over $400,000 in grassroots donations.
Many of those [UW] volunteers were “true believers” ready to convince voters that while no one thinks police officers have no role to play as part of efforts to increase public safety in Chicago, the solution is not just to hire more police officers, as Vallas promised, Tai said.
“People have a right to expect more, and a fully functioning city,” Tai said.
ShotSpotter (NASDAQ:SSTI) dropped 11% after plunging 22% on Wednesday amid speculation that the newly elected Chicago mayor could look to end the city’s contract with the gunfire detection company.
On Thursday Craig-Hallum downgraded ShotSpotter (SSTI) to hold from buy and its price target was cut to $30 from $48.
The Chicago contract is up for renewal in a less than a year and “we see significant risk the contract will be terminated within six months,” Craig-Hallum analyst Jeremy Hamblin wrote in a note. “While SSTI has diversified its business over the past few years, we are concerned that investors will worry about potential for other Tier 1 cities to terminate ther service.”
Brandon Johnson, who was elected Chicago mayor on Tuesday after a runoff election, has said that he plans to end the use of ShotSpotter (SSTI), as some critics have alleged that it’s faulty and can lead to dangerous police interactions.
How many aldermen will join the council’s formal Progressive Caucus is unclear. In the past, the caucus organized around labor issues, good government reforms, and generally, opposition to Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. The caucus has been less active during Lightfoot’s administration: The domain for its website, for example, apparently lapsed and now directs to a Dutch steroid supplier. Its fundraising also has lagged: According to state records, the caucus’ political action committee has less than $14,000 on hand.
Two-term state Rep. Lamont Robinson (D-5th) has been elected alderman of the 4th Ward over Prentice Butler, the ward’s current chief of staff.
With all precincts reporting on Tuesday night, April 4, Robinson captured 66.52% of the vote and Butler captured 33.48%, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. They are separated by a little more than 4,000 votes. […]
“We worked endlessly to make sure that our message got out to the residents of the 4th Ward,” Robinson told the crowd. “I want to thank my wonderful team for allowing me the opportunity to make history again in the city of Chicago and in the state of Illinois.”
He went on to thank those who endorsed him, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who made an appearance at the event. Preckwinkle was alderperson of the 4th Ward from 1991 to 2010.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Chalkbeat | Chicagoans want elected school board to better represent Black and Latino students: The hearing was the first of five held by the Illinois’ Senate’s Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board, which is tasked with drawing the districts where school board members will be elected. The board has a July 1 deadline. The first Chicago school board elections will be held November 2024. According to state law, school board districts must reflect the city’s population. In Chicago’s case, public schools serve predominantly Black and Latino students, while the city’s overall population is 33% white.
* WBEZ | How will the Chicago Teachers Union make the transition from agitators to insiders?: In introducing Johnson at the victory party, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates extended an olive branch to entities the union has vigorously opposed — charter schools and police. “Tonight you chose a city where everyone gets a seat,” she declared. “You chose the city where there are charter and public schools. You chose the city where teachers and cops live in the same neighborhood.”
* WGN | Who Might be Chicago’s ‘next’ Top Cop?: Johnson will be part of the initial search process and can submit names for consideration. The mayor-elect has said he wants the next police superintendent to be from the department as opposed to an outsider. “I believe that’s important — someone who is tethered to the rank and file who understands the dynamic nature of the City of Chicago,” Johnson said in an interview with WGN.
* Crain’s | As labor’s ally Johnson takes office, biz owners doublecheck their bottom lines: The restaurant industry, for example, has seen the cost of labor rise since the pandemic struck. Restaurants have also been hit with high costs of goods. Those two factors, along with other changes to the industry that COVID-19 wrought, caused the notoriously low-margin industry to become even less profitable. Gross profit at restaurants around the country sank to 35% from 37% between 2020 and 2022, according to data from market research firm Technomic.
* NYT | How Brandon Johnson Made Up Ground and Won Chicago’s Mayoral Race: Mr. Johnson took advantage of widespread doubts among Democratic voters over Mr. Vallas’s party identification, ever since the emergence of a television interview from 2009 in which Mr. Vallas called himself “more of a Republican than a Democrat.” And Mr. Johnson capitalized on key endorsements to bolster his credibility among voters who did not know him well, especially those from Senator Sanders and Representative Jesús G. García, a progressive congressman with a base of support in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods on the West Side.
* Block Club | Thousands Of Mail-In Ballots Still Left To Be Counted Could Sway Close Aldermanic Races: Chicago had 86,725 outstanding mail-in ballots as of Wednesday, according to the city’s election board. Not all of those ballots will be mailed back in time or postmarked correctly, but Bever said the elections officials expect at least 50-52 percent — about 43,000-45,000 ballots — to be returned and counted over the next two weeks based on figures from the Feb. 28 election.
* ABC Chicago | Newly-elected alderpersons to bring more progressive voices to Chicago City Council: “They are going to come in with ideology, they are going to come in wanted advocate for social change, public policy. It’s not just going to be about picking up the garbage and paving the streets,” said ABC7 Political Analyst Laura Washington. Washington said she expects to see more debate in the city council with fewer moderates and more progressive voices.
* Sun-Times | Firefighter Jermaine Pelt died of carbon monoxide poisoning, autopsy finds: Pelt’s father, John Pelt, said his son had a proud moment in November when he walked his 28-year-old daughter down the aisle. The newlywed had delayed her honeymoon and was about to leave town for Jamaica when tragedy struck, he said. “I would call him a hero. He’s my hero,” John Pelt said. “Right now I’m not feeling that great.”
* Crain’s | As HQ layoffs loom, McDonald’s cuts field offices: Crain’s obtained an email sent to employees Thursday that lays out some details about how certain teams and initiatives are being restructured. McDonald’s plans to close its field office facilities. The email said the facilities are underutilized, as many of the workers based there spend their time in the restaurants. The move largely seems to be a real estate play: Only the physical offices will close, while the 10 field divisions will remain to support restaurants. The email emphasized that the work field office-based employees do is vital and will continue.
* Bill Savage | Writing about Chicago politics? Drop the deep-dish.: One such parachute journalism aerial assault lit up Twitter early on Election Day, when FiveThirtyEight set out to explain us to the world by mapping “The Four Political Neighborhoods of Chicago.” Outsiders’ examinations should not automatically be dismissed. Locals tend to take the standard operating procedure as the given state of nature, rather than something to analyze. But such analysis has to do at least two things to be worth bothering with: It has to be accurate and it has to avoid cliché. FiveThirtyEight’s piece does neither.
* Crain’s | O’Hare ranked 4th-busiest airport in the world: Although O’Hare served 19% fewer passengers last year than before the pandemic, it had the fourth-highest number of travelers among the world’s big airports. It’s the same spot O’Hare claimed in 2021 on the annual ranking by Airports Council International. In 2019, however, O’Hare ranked sixth.
* Tribune | 1 food critic, 40 burritos: Finding the best in Chicago: To see the burrito unadulterated from American meddling, visit Gordillas on 26th Street in the Little Village neighborhood, where I experienced my first burrito epiphany. Employees made the flour tortillas fresh before my eyes. Instead of swamping the tortilla with a dozen components, each burrito came smeared with refried beans, topped with a filling, folded over, and griddled until golden. That was it. And it was small, just slightly bigger than a normal taco. Each bite centered on the interplay of the soft tortilla, creamy beans and meaty filling. It was the best burrito I’d ever eaten.
Whether the patient is a human or an animal, a healthcare professional’s first duty is to do no harm. Following that ethic, numerous veterinary providers and practices in Illinois have chosen not to perform elective declaw surgeries on cats.
While a small percentage of declaw procedures are necessary for the health of the cat, the majority of these surgeries are elective, performed for the convenience of the cat’s guardian. But declawing can cause lifelong pain and discomfort for the cat, and often leads to more serious behavioral problems. Meanwhile, guardians can typically control unwanted scratching of furniture and other possessions through humane, non-invasive measures.
Currently, Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill, HB 1533, that would ban elective cat declawing, while still permitting the procedure when necessary for a therapeutic purpose.
* Rep. Ann Williams…
This is not an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s real life now for women and girls in Idaho. And it’s why I’m working with SOS @Giannoulias to pass a bill which limits IL ALPR data from being shared with states like Idaho that prosecute citizens for seeking healthcare. #twillhttps://t.co/wBet5vm8K6
Legislation could soon be introduced in the US state of Illinois that aims to promote the cost-effective deployment of energy storage on the grid.
Sponsored by Democrat Senator Bill Cunningham, Senate Bill 1587 (SB1587) would make energy storage-friendly amendments to the Illinois Power Agency Act, which is the framework for electricity procurement in the service territories of Illinois grid operators ComEd and Ameren.
SB1587 was filed by the Senator in February, when it had its first reading in the Senate. Now being considered by lawmakers, it “makes legislative declarations and findings regarding the deployment of energy storage systems,” according to the bill’s text.
It calls for the establishment of an energy storage credit system, which would be added to the procurement processes of the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), the independent state body established in 2007 with duties that include developing electricity procurement plans and conducting competitive procurement processes, long-term electricity system planning and the development of electric and co-generation facilities.
Through the bill, the agency would be authorised to conduct competitive solicitations for storage credits and execute contracts to ensure the Illinois electric system gets sufficient energy storage resources. It would also be tasked with developing an electricity storage procurement plan within 90 days of the bill’s amendments becoming effective.
What do you get when you cross a “non-religious” person with an eco-freak? You get a devotee of human composting. And by that, I don’t mean humans who compost. I mean humans who are turned into compost—after death, of course. Lesbian Katrina Spade has been promoting the eco-friendly composting of human remains since 2014 when she founded the Urban Death Project, since renamed Recomposed. Get it? Composting humans is recast as re-composing them, kind of like re-purposing them. What the new name loses in forthrightness, it gains in marketability. […]
Isn’t “recomposition” what the “trans” cult believes they can do? Don’t they believe they can recompose male bodies into female bodies? […]
Human composting will be voluntary at first, but how long will that last? Probably about as long as voluntary euthanasia. Doctors are now performing non-voluntary euthanizations. And what comes after non-voluntary human composting? Mandatory human composting.
How long before cannibalism of recently deceased humans is legalized? After all, why waste all that good meat. Maybe we could call it Soylent Green.
Legislation that increases the fines for spraying humans with pesticides has passed the Illinois Senate.
First introduced in 2021, this is the first time the legislation passed a statehouse chamber. The push for higher fines came in the wake of two 2019 incidents involving the same crew of farmworkers. On two separate occasions that summer, an airplane and a helicopter sprayed them with pesticides while they detasseled corn, according to a lawsuit and state investigations.
The legislation, which passed the state senate March 30, now moves to the state’s House of Representatives. The higher fines would apply only if an applicator is spraying “off-label” — meaning they’re not spraying exactly as the product label dictates.
Illinois currently uses a point system to assign fines to pesticide violators. More points means a higher fine. Spraying a human — the current law doesn’t take into account how many — is worth the same number of points as spraying without a permit or falsifying records.
With less than a month to go until Election Day, the libertarian-leaning Illinois Policy Institute filed a lawsuit today challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s graduated income tax amendment, arguing it contains “extremely biased language . . . that deprives Illinoisans of a fair, informed vote on the progressive tax question.” […]
Jack Vrett of Honigman is representing the plaintiffs. He was previously deputy counsel at the Department of Central Management Services in Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration, helping negotiate labor contracts, including the contentious negotiation with AFSCME Council 31 in 2015.
A group of Cook County residents have filed suit to challenge the efforts of labor unions and their Democratic allies in Springfield to rewrite the Illinois state constitution to create an unfettered “right to collectively bargain,” a revision critics say would give labor unions the power to use union contracts to supersede state law, while violating federal law, in the process.
On April 21, attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center and from the Illinois Policy Institute, both of Chicago, filed a petition in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield, seeking permission to file a complaint challenging the ability of the Democrat-dominated Illinois General Assembly to place the measure, generally known as Amendment 1, before voters on the ballot this fall.
“Amendment 1 violates the U.S. Constitution and must be taken off the ballot,” said attorney Jacob Huebert, of the Liberty Justice Center, in a prepared statement released when the petition was filed.
Less than a week before the mayoral runoff election between Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, three CTU members filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the union.
Questioning the union’s approximately $2.2 million in donations to Johnson’s campaign for mayor, the complaint alleges CTU “breached its duty of fair representation to its members” in using membership dues for political purposes, contrary to a policy stated in the union’s member handbook. Hancock High School teacher Froylan “Froy” Jimenez, who recently failed to advance to the runoff in his bid to become 11th Ward alderman, is among the complainants.
Not mentioned anywhere in the story is the group’s attorney is Jack Vrett, the same lawyer who handled the Illinois Policy Institute’s failed suit to stop the graduated income tax amendment proposal. IPI was also Vrett’s second-largest direct contributor when he ran against Rep. Mark Walker (D-Arlington Heights) last year (after Jeanne Ives’ committee). Just sayin.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a bill into law Wednesday that makes it a crime for an adult to help a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent, including by traveling to a state where abortion is legal.
The new law brands such involvement by adults as “abortion trafficking.” With a near-total abortion ban already in place in Idaho, the legislation, passed by Republican state lawmakers, adds restrictions to prevent minors from going out of state when their parents aren’t involved. […]
An adult convicted of breaking the law will face two to five years in prison, and the minor’s parents and siblings can sue, as can the person who impregnated the minor and children of the minor.
Even in cases of rape, someone who helps a minor obtain an abortion can be charged, the Associated Press reported, though the person who raped the minor can’t sue under the law.
* The ACLU of Idaho plans to sue the state for also prohibiting medical procedures for youth gender affirming care…
Starting next year, anyone in Idaho who provides gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth could end up a convicted felon, after the state’s Republican governor signed legislation banning the treatment late Tuesday.
At least one organization has already promised to sue over the new law. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho announced Wednesday it was looking for potential plaintiffs for the lawsuit and asked anyone impacted by the legislation to reach out.
Idaho is one of at least 13 states to enact a law restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, and nearly two dozen more are considering similar bills. Under Idaho’s new law, physicians will face up to 10 years in prison if they provide hormones, puberty blockers or other gender-affirming care to people under age 18. […]
ACLU of Idaho executive director Leo Morales said the law is discriminatory.
“For lawmakers to interfere in decisions that ought to be made by families and their healthcare providers is clear government overreach and is unacceptable,” Morales said in a statement.
Indiana’s governor signed a bill banning all gender-affirming care for minors Wednesday, joining at least 12 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning such care.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the legislation after Republican majorities in the Legislature approved it. The law will go into effect July 1, and trans youth currently taking medication to transition would have until the end of the year to stop doing so. […]
Opponents of the legislation said the types of care the bill would ban, such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, are vital and often life-saving for transgender kids. Medical providers say most of the procedures banned in the bill are reversible and safe for minors. Transgender medical treatments for children and teens have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.
But supporters of the legislation have contended such care is not reversible or carries side effects that only an adult — and not a minor’s parent — can consent to.
As teenagers and demonstrators flooded the Tennessee state legislature last week to call for lawmakers to toughen access to guns after a deadly shooting at a Christian school, three Democrats headed to the well of the House chamber.
Holding a hand-drawn sign calling to “protect kids, not guns” and speaking through a megaphone, State Representatives Justin Jones, Justin J. Pearson and Gloria Johnson led chants and called on their colleagues to pass stricter gun laws, forcing the legislative proceedings to a temporary halt.
Now, in what would be an extraordinary act of retribution for the protest, Republicans are poised to vote on Thursday to oust the three Democrats from the General Assembly and carry out the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
The House of Representatives has voted only twice since the Civil War to expel a member, once in 1980 after a sitting lawmaker was convicted of soliciting a bribe and again in 2016 after the House majority whip faced allegations of sexual misconduct while in office.
Despite the absence of any criminal charges or investigation, Republicans argue that the expulsions are warranted because the protest flouted the rules of procedure and decorum, with the House speaker going so far as to invoke the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. And with Republicans holding a supermajority that provides the necessary two-thirds majority for expulsion, Democrats have little recourse to stop the vote.
Here’s video from Tennessean reporter Vivian Jones of the Democratic Reps. today…
Tennessee also advanced a bill in the House to let teachers carry firearms without notifying student’s parents. But…
Even if the Tennessee bill clears the full House, it’s not likely to pass in the Senate this year.
Bucking gun control advocates who have called for an urgent response to the tragedy, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to defer all gun-related legislation — including the companion bill to let teachers go armed — until 2024, the second year of the legislature’s two-year session. Chairman Todd Gardenhire, a Republican from Chattanooga, said he didn’t want to rush legislation as the city mourned the victims and police continued their investigation.
Kansas is banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports from kindergarten through college, the first of several possible new laws restricting the rights of transgender people pushed through by Republican legislators over the wishes of the Democratic governor.
The Legislature on Wednesday overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s third veto in three years of a bill to ban transgender athletes, and came a day after state lawmakers passed a broad bathroom bill. Nineteen other states have imposed restrictions on transgender athletes, most recently Wyoming.
The Kansas law takes effect July 1 and is among several hundred proposals that Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued this year to push back on LGBTQ rights. Kansas lawmakers who back the ban are also pursuing proposals to end gender-affirming care for minors and restrict restroom use.
The measure approved by Kansas lawmakers Tuesday would prevent transgender people from using public restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities associated with their gender identities, and bars them from changing their name or gender on their driver’s licenses. Kelly is expected to veto that.
The legislation requires children to participate in school activities based on the gender they were assigned at birth, from elementary school to college. Challenges could require them to undergo genital inspections, or require a birth certificate for proof of the child’s gender.
The Texas Senate on Wednesday voted in favor of two bills that would restrict, and at times criminalize, drag shows and anything else deemed a “sexually oriented performance.”
Both bills were expanded broadly during debate on Tuesday, which was punctuated by contention and raucous reaction from members of the public gathered in the Senate gallery. Both bills now head to the House for more debate.
Senate Bill 12 by Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, would criminalize performances that occur or could occur in front of a minor if they appeal to the “prurient interest in sex” or meet several other definitions for “sexual conduct,” including real or “simulated” touching of the buttocks, breasts or genitals, real or simulated sex acts or the “exhibition” of sex toys.
Performers could be charged with a class A misdemeanor, and businesses who host them would face $10,000 in fines.
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* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker says Brandon Johnson’s victory part of a ‘sea change’ in Midwestern politics: “I do believe that this is a change for the city, something new. But you know what? It’s a new generation of voters that came to the polls,” Pritzker said during an unrelated news conference on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. “I think he’s part of a kind of a sea change that’s going on in what I guess politically we’d all call ‘the Blue Wall.’ ”
* The Pantagraph | Chicago’s mayor still matters in Springfield — but not like it used to: “Looking at it historically, the mayor of Chicago has about maybe 10% of the influence now, the impact in Springfield now, than when I started as a reporter 50 some years ago,” said Charlie Wheeler, retired director of the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield.
* Center Square | Illinois hopes to lure renewable energy storage companies to the state: State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, who has introduced Senate Bill 1587, said not enough attention is being paid to energy storage. “The essence of the bill is that it would require the Illinois Power Agency to facilitate the procurement of energy storage credits in order to promote storage,” Cunningham said.
* Axios | Illinois to get more lead removal money: Illinois will get an extra $143 million for lead water line removal this year in the wake of new changes to the federal funding formula that now take into account how bad the lead problem is in each state.
* KFVS | First trans person to serve on a city council in Illinois elected in Carbondale: Killman said she came to Carbondale seeking a better life, and did not imagine she would be rewarded with the opportunity to give back to the city. “The prospect of being the first transgender person ever elected to a city council in Illinois is one that I hope will stand as a testament to what it means to be an Illinoisan,” Killman said.
* Illinois Answers Project | Bill for New State-Backed Tax Credit Could Yield Thousands More Affordable Units per Year: New housing construction has lagged for residents across the income spectrum for decades — especially in Illinois, where the D.C.-based nonprofit Up for Growth calculated a unit underproduction of 120,000 homes last year. The shortage is especially acute for low-income renters, who are often unable to afford to live in buildings without government subsidies. The advocacy group Housing Action Illinois last month counted more than 450,000 “extremely low-income” renter households in the state, but only about 150,000 affordable rental units available to them.
* Tribune | Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will face early examination from newly emboldened City Council: And a majority of the council just last week got a jump on the new term by throwing down their own council reorganization plan. In their latest bid to prove they’re more than patsies for the fifth floor, aldermen vastly expanded the number of council committees and handed out chairmanships to themselves rather than waiting for Johnson to do so. It will be up to Johnson to respond to that proposal. But while veteran aldermen expect him to soon proffer his own committee leadership plan, they may not be as willing to hand the keys to him as they have for decades when mayors dictated council committee leadership posts.
* Shaw Local | Did you vote? Would a cookie have changed your mind?: Two-plus decades spent encouraging readers to make positive societal contributions by providing a pint or marking a ballot yields plenty of thoughtful explanations for why people don’t engage in one or both, which serves as a helpful reminder my experiences are mine alone, and perhaps the fact voting took five minutes and giving blood about 30 doesn’t come close to moving someone else’s needle.
* Tribune | A Winnetka man spent years trying to prove he had found a Raphael painting. Was he right?: Twenty-seven years, reams of research and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, Ayers’ associates have come forward to claim the artwork, called the Flaget Madonna, as a work from the studio of Raphael, an Italian painter from the High Renaissance. They were convinced to go public with the attribution after an AI brushstroke analysis deduced that at least two of the faces in the painting matched Raphael’s known handiwork. The rest of the panel was likely painted by multiple hands, common in studio works of the period.
* ProPublica | Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire: In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
