Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * As you know, Gov. Pritzker has been pushing Illinois as a quantum computing hub…
* Shaw Local…
* Here’s the rest… * Capitol News Illinois | Bill ending state’s tipped wage advances but prospects uncertain amid pushback: While the bill is intended to increase wages for tipped workers and address inequities within the industry, much of the roughly two-hour debate in the committee hearing focused on how the proposal will impact businesses and employees. * WTAX | Giannoulias calls organ donors “Superstars”: A single donor can save or improve the lives of as many as 25 people in need of a transplant, Giannoulias said. We need more Superstar of all ages, ethnicities and racial backgrounds to register and fill the critical need for organ and tissue donors. A more diverse donor pool increases the likelihood of finding suitable matches for those who wait. * WTTW | Chicago Police Continued to Target Black, Latino Drivers With Flood of Traffic Stops in 2023: Report: The vast majority of the more than 537,000 traffic stops made by Chicago police in 2023 were based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans, according to a new report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to reform the Chicago Police Department. * Daily Herald | Pro-Bears-to-Arlington Heights group sends school districts a message: The Bears say they’ve shifted their focus to developing a new domed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront, but a pro-Bears-to-Arlington Heights business coalition isn’t giving up on Arlington Park just yet. In the shadow of the shuttered racetrack property the NFL franchise now owns, Touchdown Arlington hosted a rally and letter-writing party Wednesday night at Jimmy D’s District sports bar to show there’s still plenty of support for a Bears move to the suburbs. * Shaw Local | State Rep. Yednock appointed to Illinois Forestry Development Council: Yednock was appointed to the state’s Illinois Forestry Development Council by House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch this week. “As an outdoorsman and nature enthusiast, I am ready to get to work to protect Illinois’ forests and make them work better for everyone across our state,” Yednock said in a Wednesday news release. “We are in the midst of a climate crisis, and we must do what we can to keep our forests in good condition for future generations.” * WBEZ | Democratic National Committee hires local sustainability firms for Chicago convention: The Democratic National Convention Committee and Chicago 2024 Host Committee selected two Chicago-based firms, Bright Beat and Purpose, to help implement sustainability practices during the four-day, multimillion-dollar convention. Together, the two women-owned businesses will be responsible for cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. * Pensions & Investments | Chicago’s pension funding crisis is a century in the making. 5 grad students could change that: To decrease liabilities, the team proposed introducing a new tier for newly hired city employees that creates an adjusted vesting schedule. According to the team’s presentation, pension fund participants earn between 2.4%-2.5% of their baseline annuity per service year, and the team proposed a graduated percentage: 2% for one to 20 service years, 3% for years 21-25, 4% for years 26-30 and 5% for 31 or more years. This would save between $20 million and $25 million in liabilities annually, according to the presentation. * Daily Herald | Lots of construction angst on I-80 in Will County as rebuild revs up: The $1.3 billion project, which is 16 miles in its entirety, stretches between Ridge Road in Minooka and Route 30 near Joliet. Workers will replace over 30 bridges and multiple interchanges, including a new flyover ramp connecting southbound I-55 to eastbound I-80. * Crain’s | Chicago Fed chief shrugs off inflation pickup in early 2024: The wave of commentary from officials follows remarks by Chair Jerome Powell just a day earlier. Powell emphasized the Fed has time to assess incoming data before reducing rates, signaling policymakers are willing to wait for clearer signs of lower inflation to act. It’s not yet clear whether the pickup in key price gauges at the start of 2024 is a temporary blip on the path to the central bank’s 2% inflation goal or a sign that progress has stalled. * Sun-Times | Sean Tyler proved his innocence but the trauma of wrongful murder conviction has become its own sentence: “It’s still a hurting feeling and I don’t think that’ll ever be gone,” he said. “It’s so many layers and so much hurt wrapped up in it. It doesn’t feel like you can even enjoy it.” Tyler said he can finally walk down the street knowing no one can look at him and call him a murderer — worse, a person who killed a child. * Reuters | Bird flu hits Texas dairy cows, hens, human as ducks migrate: The U.S. government since last week has reported cases of the disease in seven dairy herds in Texas and one person who had contact with cows, making it the state most affected by the country’s first-ever outbreaks in cattle. Texas is the biggest U.S. cattle producer. * MSN | Tired of late messages from your boss? A new bill aims to make it illegal.: If passed, the California bill would require employers to establish a companywide policy on what their working hours are and how they will respect employees’ “right to disconnect.” The law would not supersede any collective bargaining contracts and applies only to salaried workers, as hourly and gig workers are protected by other laws. It’s needed to keep laws up to date with the modern realities of work, said Matt Haney, a State Assembly member representing San Francisco who introduced the bill this week. Thirteen other countries, including France, Australia, Portugal and Canada, already have laws like this, he added. * NYT | Ford Slows Its Push Into Electric Vehicles: “We are committed to scaling a profitable E.V. business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, said in a statement. * Sun-Times | Chicago-area solar eclipse hunters plan trek south to take in totality: ‘You have to experience it’: Sanchez, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter, along with his brother’s family will leave their home in Riverside about 4 a.m. Monday to drive to Carbondale, take in the eclipse, then drive home. It should take about five and a half hours to drive there, he said. Sanchez expects about an eight-hour trip home, plus he wants to find some souvenirs for his daughter to “look back on this experience” that he described as “extraordinary.” * SJ-R | Are you hearing about a ‘new’ path of totality in Illinois? Don’t worry about it too much: The reports are based on an article, “Why Your Total Solar Eclipse Map Is Now Wrong (And Where to Find the New One),” by Jamie Carter, a Forbes.com senior contributor. The story cites revised calculations for the size of the sun. It says previous maps of the path of totality might be off by about 2,000 feet at their edges. But the article concedes that those heading far into the path will see little consequence. * Chicago Review of Books | Chicago in Flux: An Interview with Gregory Royal Pratt about “The City is Up for Grabs”: Gregory Pratt: As soon as I started covering Mayor Lightfoot, I understood early in 2018 that we were potentially looking at a big sea change in Chicago, where you had the big bad, established Mayor Rahm Emanuel, leaving. Now, you potentially had a power vacuum and turnover. I thought this could be a great story. I got more serious about writing a book about this in 2020. I would cover Mayor Lightfoot day-to-day then, which I like to think of as our soft apocalypse here. Because it was crazy, right? You had the pandemic, you had civil unrest, you had a lot of institutions being remade and tested. * Tribune | Do they still make pinball machines? They do, in a huge new factory near O’Hare — with most selling to the 1 percent: They still make pinball machines? They do, and Stern is not alone: There’s also Jersey Jack Pinball of Elk Grove Village, American Pinball of Palatine, Chicago Gaming Company of Cicero, as well as several others, in Wisconsin, Texas. But none as large as Stern these days. Stern, by several assessments, controls at least 75% of the pinball market now, internationally. It’s been so successful the past few years, the company has doubled its workforce since 2019 and sold enough new machines that they need to upgrade from a nearby Elk Grove Village factory of 100,000 square feet to this new one, with 160,000 square feet.
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Musical interlude
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Rich Miller * It isn’t every day that a candidate kicks off a campaign while singing a song he co-wrote that won both an Academy Award and a Grammy…
Full song is here.
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Improve Support For Relatives Caring For Youth In DCFS Care
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Question of the day
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* The Question: Can you name one thing the Mayor said he was gonna do and hasn’t done? …Adding… Click here to see an archived version of the mayor’s campaign promises.
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Former PRB Chair says he takes issue with governor’s criticism
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Last month, Governor Pritzker announced the resignation of Prisoner Review Board Member LeAnn Miller…
* Today from WTTW…
Thoughts?
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It’s just a bill
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * WGEM…
* WCIA…
* Illinois PIRG…
* The Coalition for Prescription Drug Affordability…
* Rep. Jed Davis…
* KHQA…
* WAND…
* SJ-R…
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Open thread
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * What’s going on?…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Restaurants push back against bill ending tipped wage. SJ-R…
- Rep. Mike Coffey manager of Saputo’s, expects inflation that will be passed on to the customer. - Sponsor Rep. Lisa Hernandez said the bill will be held on second reading, allowing for further discussion before a full chamber vote in the House. * Related stories…
∙ CBS: Illinois lawmakers, restaurant owners push back at bill to eliminate tip credit for workers * Isabel’s top picks… * Michael Phillips | Is Gov. Pritzker’s sales pitch to Hollywood working?: I talked to Gov. Pritzker and, separately, Illinois Production Alliance executive director Christine Dudley about last week’s flurry of Los Angeles sit-downs and meet-ups; what Georgia offers filmmakers in tax incentives that Illinois doesn’t; and, inevitably, “The Bear,” now filming its third and fourth seasons in Chicago. * Tribune | Illinois lawmakers consider measure to criminalize AI-generated child porn: The measure, which ultimately passed through the House Judiciary Criminal Committee, is being pushed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Its main sponsor is state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, a Glenview Democrat who has been working on ways to have state law keep up with the new technology. […] David Haslett, chief of the attorney general’s office’s high-tech crimes bureau, testified that AI could make it more difficult for law enforcement to bring charges of child pornography because of confusion over whether images were real or computer-generated. * Capitol News Illinois | Lawmakers question Pritzker’s plan for new early childhood agency: The plan, which Pritzker first announced in October and which he included in his budget address in February, would consolidate a host of programs and services currently run by three different agencies under one roof. That would include such things as child care subsidies for low-income families currently housed in the Department of Human Services; preschool block grants administered by the State Board of Education; and the licensing of day care centers, which is currently done by the Department of Children and Family Services. * Attorney General Kwame Raoul…
* Some perspective… With the eclipse approaching in less than a week, over half of U.S. cities along the eclipse's path are fully booked for the night of April 7th according to data from @airdna pic.twitter.com/SLVpyKu2Oe — Jamie Lane (@Jamie_Lane) April 2, 2024 * Here’s the rest… * WREX | $4.3 million in state grants awarded to prepare current high school students for teaching careers: This is the fourth round of funding for this program, which has awarded a total of $5.6 million so far. The grants have benefitted nearly 12,000 Illinois high school students across 212 school districts and three community colleges. * STLPR | Missouri solar power grew significantly last year, but it’s still far behind neighboring Illinois: Solar energy grew faster in Missouri than Illinois in 2023. Missouri generated almost 32% more power from the sun in 2023 compared to 2022, while Illinois’s solar generation grew by about 24%. […] Illinois still produces significantly more wind and solar energy than Missouri does, the Climate Central report said. In 2023, Illinois generated more than 25,500 gigawatt-hours of solar and wind energy, while Missouri produced about 7,700 gigawatt-hours. * Block Club | Mayor Brandon Johnson, 1 Year After Election: ‘Name One Thing … I Haven’t Done’: The mayor, a former public school teacher and union organizer, declined to give himself a letter grade for his performance thus far. Instead, he listed a series of measures he sees as proof he’s fulfilling his campaign promises: phasing out the tipped minimum wage, providing funding to reopen mental health centers, expanding paid time off requirements and not raising property taxes, he said. * Tribune | Mayor Brandon Johnson’s ex-chief of staff joins private security firm that hires Chicago cops: Guidice stepped down as Johnson’s top deputy Monday following a City Hall career that stretched back to the administration of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. He has been replaced by Cristina Pacione-Zayas, a former state senator who was Johnson’s deputy chief of staff since the beginning of his term in office. Guidice led the Office of Emergency Management and Communications before he joined Johnson’s cabinet last spring. Blue Star portrayed Guidice’s city government-heavy resume as unique expertise. * Sun-Times | Johnson’s failed Bring Chicago Home referendum gets boost from unlikely source: Developer Quintin Primo III sounded almost like a cheerleader for the $100 million-a-year tax increase during a news conference called to announce $151.2 million in tax increment financing subsidies to help adapt four Loop office buildings for residential and commercial use. * Crain’s | Why private-equity investors see a target-rich environment in Chicago’s accounting biz: In 2021, private equity made a notable push into the accounting industry, buying national firms like EisnerAmper and Schellman & Co., among others. The trend continued this year with Chicago-based players Grant Thornton and Baker Tilly opening their doors to private equity. “It’s definitely a new trend,” said Michael Minnis, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “There’s certainly been a lot of interest and activity in the accounting space by private equity.” * Sun-Times | Janitors union rallies in Loop for better pay as contract deadline looms: The unionized workers, represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 1, will decide Saturday whether to ratify an agreement or vote to strike before their three-year contract expires on Sunday. The negotiations affect 8,000 janitors in the Chicago area who clean buildings including Willis Tower, Hancock Tower, Merchandise Mart and other iconic sites. * Crain’s | United CEO’s pay soared last year from COVID lows: Kirby received $6.6 million in “non-equity” incentive or cash bonus last year, the biggest factor in his overall compensation climbing to an estimated $18.6 million from $9.8 million in 2022. His $2.9 million bonus from 2022 and $3.7 million bonus from 2023 were both paid out last year, the proxy shows. * Sun-Times | Inside the Chicago court fight on Black hair care: In October 2022, the first of several thousand lawsuits was filed at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in the Loop by a woman from St. Louis claiming that chemicals in hair relaxer products she used — such as Soft Sheen, Just for Me and Dark & Lovely — caused her cancer. Near-identical lawsuits began piling up in state and federal courts across the U.S. The federal cases — now counting 8,500 plaintiffs, with more added every week — were consolidated last year in front of a single federal judge in Chicago. Dozens of cases have been filed in Cook County, and dozens more are in front of judges in local jurisdictions across the country. Love filed a lawsuit of her own in June. * The Hollywood Reporter | Iowa-LSU NCAA Rematch Sets All-Time Record for Women’s Basketball: Iowa’s 94-87 victory over LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers for ESPN, the largest TV audience ever for a women’s basketball game in the United States. The previous record was set more than 40 years ago, when CBS’ broadcast of the 1983 title game — featuring USC legend Cheryl Miller — drew 11.83 million people. LSU’s 102-85 win in last year’s championship game was the previous ESPN record, drawing 9.9 million viewers across ABC and ESPN2. * CBS | Former Gov. Pat Quinn has warning for White Sox, Bears after Kansas City stadium tax referendum fails: “I think the people of Chicago should have the same opportunity as the people of Kansas City,” Quinn said. “In Kansas City, the voters were clear for not raising a sales tax.” Last week, Quinn filed an ordinance with the Chicago city clerk that would ask the City Council to put a referendum on the November ballot allowing voters to decide if their tax dollars should support new stadiums. * TNC | Georgie Geraghty Named Illinois Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy: “Leading The Nature Conservancy in Illinois, alongside committed colleagues and partners in the Midwest and around the world, is a full-circle moment,” said Geraghty, who began her career with General Electric (GE). “We are all seeing and feeling the impacts of climate change and the loss of nature. But I am as hopeful as ever because local communities, decision-makers and influential businesses are pushing for much-needed change.”
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Illinois Is Top Ten In The Nation For Reported Gas Leaks, Fix Illinois’ Aging Natural Gas Lines Now
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department [The following is a paid advertisement.] Illinois ranks #9 in the U.S. for reported gas leaks, shows a study conducted in June 2022 on methane gas leaks. Frequent leaks are resulting in death, injury, and other damage to our health and environment. Pausing critical replacement of our aging natural gas lines is dangerous for everyone. When Governor Pritzker’s appointees on the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) shut down the natural gas line Safety Modernization Program in Chicago, it not only wiped out 1,000 jobs, but also subjected residents and business owners to the unnecessary danger of aged gas infrastructure that is no longer allowed to be replaced. Tell Gov. Pritzker and the ICC to restart the program, lives are at risk. Transitioning to electric without a plan will cost homeowners thousands of dollars. We need to fix our dangerous natural gas lines for our safety. Click on the links to view our ads: Ticking Time Bomb & Real Change. Paid for by Fight Back Fund
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Live coverage
Thursday, Apr 4, 2024 - Posted by Rich Miller * You can click here or here to follow breaking news. It’s the best we can do unless or until Twitter gets its act together.
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