Illinois is back, attracting new employers and jobs — and it’s in the best position in many years to further boost its economy. […]
The state’s attractiveness to business “is the best it’s been in a long time,” Pritzker said during questioning by Crain’s Group Publisher and Executive Editor Jim Kirk. “We never had a story to tell. Nobody had put that story together. People didn’t know what was great before about this state. Now they do.”
“We’re now in discussions with 25 companies, big companies with billions to invest and up to 4,000 jobs,” he added. “Companies are coming to us. They want to do business in Illinois.” […]
Illinois in recent years has attracted 20% more people with college degrees than it’s graduated from Illinois colleges and universities, but Florida is 10% short, the governor said. That means Illinois has the young, educated talent that businesses want, and that’s what’s driving the state’s turnaround, despite chatter about Florida’s lower tax rates. Illinois has tried to accentuate those trends by expanding scholarship aid to Illinois residents who stay home for higher education from $400 million a year when he took office to $700 million a year now. Where students had to wait and hope for help before, “Everyone that applies now that is eligible gets a scholarship.”
Nine states in the country have more college graduates in their state today than they graduated. So you’ve got in-migration in nine states of college graduates. Those are the highest value workers, the ones who produce the most income, etc. We’re one of those nine. We have 20 percent more college graduates in Illinois than we produce. Florida has 11 percent fewer college graduates than they produce. So we’re fifth in the country in terms of the in-migration of college graduates … So we’ve got to say, people who are down on Illinois are not looking at the right indicators of our future.
The state and other stakeholders will resolve a looming $730 million annual shortfall facing Metra, Pace and the CTA in 2026, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.
The funding gap emerged after COVID-19 decimated ridership. It’s an issue transit agencies across the U.S. are facing, Pritzker said at a Crain’s event.
“We need subways and trains and buses and it’s vital to our economy. We’re going to do whatever is necessary,” said Pritzker, who also mentioned fares but without specifics.
“The General Assembly and I and the federal government, we all have to address it,” he noted.
During the conversation, Governor Pritzker and Crain’s delved into topics surrounding economic development in Illinois, with a significant focus on electric vehicles (EVs). The discussion kicked off with an exploration of how the recent Stellantis strike was resolved.
Governor Pritzker revealed that his office, in collaboration with the White House, played a role in resolving the strike. The outcome saw the reopening of the Stellantis plant in Belvidere, where the production focus has shifted to electric vehicles and batteries.
Addressing the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant on the city’s Southeast Side, Governor Pritzker mentioned spatial constraints for battery production. However, he expressed optimism about the potential conversion of the plant to build EVs in the future.
“You can convert almost anything, but if you’re gonna have a battery plant nearby, which is typically what’s happened, you’re gonna do it on a larger footprint. I am hopeful that we will get at least the assembly plant continued and growing. Again, battery, not sure,” said Pritzker.
He didn’t express optimism about converting the Ford factory to an EV plant. He said “they haven’t said no” to an EV plant, but there are real space problems at that site. And, in fact, he revealed that he feels only “somewhat confident that we’re going to maintain the plant that is there now.”
“Violent crime has been coming down, actually for three years, but in particular over the last year,” Pritzker said. “Shootings and murders have come down significantly. Again, it doesn’t make anyone feel safer to just hear a statistic; it will take some time, but that is something people should know.”
While Chicago has seen murders drop by 10% in 2023, other major crimes have significantly increased, as car thefts are up 52% and robberies by 25%.
“[Chicago Police Department] publishes statistics where you can see where the problem areas are with car thefts and robberies and so on, but shootings and murders have come down significantly,” Pritzker said. […]
Pritzker also discussed the state of business in Illinois. In the past few years, the state has seen significant companies like Boeing, McDonald’s and Citadel leave. Some are leaving the state because of high taxes and crime.
“Everyone wants to go back and focus on Citadel leaving, but the truth is we have attracted, seriously, like a half of dozen pretty significant expansions and or headquarters,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said they have gained more jobs through these expansions than they lost due to Citadel and others leaving.
“We have many more jobs created as a result of those expansions and the new headquarters than were lost by virtue of the companies you guys like to cite,” Pritzker said. “I know everybody was down in Illinois for so many years, and it was easy to be.”
…Adding… McDonald’s actually didn’t even leave. Last I checked, most of Citadel’s employees are still in Chicago. Boeing still has a large presence.
That article is a mess. I probably shouldn’t have even posted it.
A few years ago, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois told me they wanted to give me an award for raising them some money and highlighting their good works. I thanked them for the nice gesture, but said I wasn’t really into that sort of thing. I eventually told them I would accept it only if I could dedicate the evening to Lynn Greenholdt.
Lynn was my former sister-in-law who passed away in 2014 after a bout with cancer. At one time, Lynn ran an LSSI group home for teen boys. I knew what LSSI was at the time, but Lynn showed me what the organization was really about. The kids were from troubled backgrounds, but you could truly feel the love in that home. I was beyond impressed by the work Lynn and LSSI were doing.
Later, Lynn started a small business which supplied family-style meals to LSSI’s group homes, but she constantly struggled because the state had such horrible problems paying vendors on time. I had written about the bill backlog, but Lynn’s experience showed me how the backlog did so much harm to small businesses.
A big part of my speech at that awards ceremony was about Lynn’s work and how it had informed my own views. At the end, I asked everyone to turn around in their chairs. The LSSI folks staged it so that Lynn’s dad Hank was standing on another stage at the opposite end of the room under a large projected photo of his late daughter. Hank then sang a song in her memory: Sinatra’s “My Way.”
It was a powerful moment.
* All those memories came rushing back the weekend before Thanksgiving when Lynn’s sister Kathy performed a song in Chicago which she wrote not long after Lynn died…
Wow.
Lynn was such a remarkable person. She was fun, smart, caring and strong. As you can tell from Kathy’s song, we all leaned on her.
After the show, I told Kathy that I’d like to use that song about Lynn to kick off our annual LSSI fundraising drive. She loved the idea. So, I’m gonna lean on Lynn’s strength one more time.
* We raise money every year on this website to help Lutheran Social Services of Illinois buy Christmas presents for foster kids. LSSI currently has 2,530 children in its foster care network, and each present costs about $25. Others donate toys and/or help the group raise money, but all of us have become an essential part of LSSI’s annual effort. Please, click here to help.
New arrivals currently in shelters are up from 12,073 on November 17 to 12,482 this past Friday. But the number of new arrivals in staging areas like police stations is down from 2,218 total on Nov. 17 to 1,513 - a very significant 32 percent drop. I’m also hearing lots of progress was made over the weekend as well.
Total exits from the shelter system have increased from 8,280 as of Nov. 17 to 8,908 last Friday, an increase of 628, which is significantly above the recent average.
Keinymar Avila, a tiny 7-year-old with microcephaly who has never been separated from her mother, curled up in the arms of a woman she’d recently met.
Her mother, Yamile Perez, glanced over at her daughter to make sure all was well as she attended a virtual meeting with Chicago Public Schools officials who were evaluating Keinymar’s needs. It is not easy to let someone else hold your child, especially if your child requires special medical care.
No one knows this better than the person cradling the girl, Mary Otts-Rubenstein, a Lakeview resident who has her own child with disabilities. Otts-Rubenstein has taken it upon herself to help over a dozen migrant families with medically complex kids enroll in CPS.
Crews will begin constructing winter tents meant to house up to 1,500 migrants in Brighton Park on Monday, the local alderperson says.
The city is moving forward with the camp at 38th Street and California Avenue despite not sharing a study that shows the former industrial site needs to be cleaned of toxic metals, Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) said in a letter released Saturday night.
Contractor GardaWorld is expected to begin the final phase of construction Monday, Ramirez said in the letter, while distancing herself from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s choice to continue with the project. […]
On Sunday, the mayor’s office said that “the city is confident that the property will be suited for the purpose for which it will be used. Additional details regarding environmental information will be provided this week.”
City officials have said it will take them three days to erect the base camp, which will have separate tents for sleeping, case management services, dining, showers and bathroom facilities. The base camp will open to house 500 people and expand to as many as 2,000 people, officials said
Mayor’s Office Spokesperson Ronnie Reese said late Sunday that construction on the site will not begin Monday despite a Saturday letter from 12th Ward Alderwoman Julia Ramirez saying it would.
Unreal.
…Adding… The mayor needs a comms staff, Part 4,217…
Update: Mayoral spokesman Ronnie Reese says environmental mitigation expected to be finished by the end of this week. "The City is confident that the property will be suited for the purpose for which it will be used." No timeline for opening.
A South Side alderman’s claims that warming centers in his ward will be used as migrant shelters is not true, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said.
Ald. David Moore (17th) released a letter Tuesday addressed to Johnson saying public spaces in his ward will soon become warming centers used to house migrants. The letter circulated on social media, angering South Side residents.
But it’s not true, Johnson’s office said Friday.
“Warming centers are not, nor have they ever, been considered for shelters for asylum seekers in the 17th Ward,” Johnson press secretary Ronnie Reese said in an email.
Those facilities have been used as warming shelters for homeless folks and poor people for years and years. Ald. Moore is just feeding the hate.
* I’m pretty sure the governor’s disaster declaration (which isn’t mentioned in ABC 7’s story) overrides this case, but we’ll have to wait for the judge’s ruling. As we all saw during the pandemic, judges can go off-script…
Two South Shore residents will appear in front of a judge after filing a lawsuit against the city of Chicago and how officials are housing incoming migrants.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the city. The plaintiffs want to stop the city from housing migrants in public schools, parks and police stations and even those so-called tent camps.
The legal action could prevent the mayor from disrupting park programs, violating zoning laws and he would have to disclose fully how much money is being spent on supporting incoming migrants. That case goes before a judge Monday morning.
* Tribune | Half full: Migrants struggle to eat in Chicago: Migrants say that, unlike in their home country, there’s a lot of food in grocery stores in Chicago, and they’re grateful for the city’s aid. But the food distribution at police stations is uncoordinated, the meals at city shelters are substandard and often not to their liking, and they have to follow strict rules about what outside food they can bring inside.
* NBC News | Chicago scrambles to house migrants as winter approaches: But Matt DeMateo, the chief executive officer of New Life Centers of Chicagoland, a nonprofit that works with the state on resettlement, said that while the reduction to three months of rental assistance may provide a challenge in finding housing, it could ultimately allow more migrants to benefit from the program. DeMateo believes another aspect of the state’s plan — submitting 11,000 applications for work authorization and temporary protected status by February — also will improve the migrant crisis. “Once that opens up, people can get on a stable path,” he said. “With all of those investments, the idea is how do we better the whole system, so we can get through this and get past these bottlenecks.”
* Tribune | Pritzker administration sought migrant tent camp proposals before Mayor Brandon Johnson took office, records show: But in response to questions from the Tribune, the governor’s office acknowledged last week that the inclusion of tent-like structures in the May bid solicitation was “a collaborative effort” between IEMA and the Illinois Department of Human Services “as they prepared for every possible outcome.” The possibility of housing migrants in tents rather than buildings had “always been on the table” in conversations with City Hall — under both Johnson and the prior administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot — “given the few practical options to house mass amounts of people on an emergency basis and the space limitations on indoor sites,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in an email. “The governor’s concern with soft shelter sites at that time they were announced was because cold weather was just a few months away and the preference has always been to house people in brick-and-mortar shelter sites,” Abudayyeh said. “But as we move closer and closer to winter, people are still sleeping outside police stations in regular tents with no resources so soft shelter sites provide better accommodations, and more importantly, allow asylum-seekers access to caseworkers and a path to independence.”
A grand jury today indicted former Illinois State Senator Sam McCann on charges of fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion related to his alleged misuse of campaign money for personal expenses. The indictment alleges that from May 2015 to June 2020, McCann engaged in a scheme to convert more than $200,000 in contributions and donations made to his campaign committees to pay himself and make personal purchases, and that he concealed his fraud from donors, the public, the Illinois State Board of Elections and law enforcement authorities. […]
McCann organized multiple political committees that were registered with the Illinois State Board of Elections: Sam McCann for Senate; Sam McCann for Senate Committee; McCann for Illinois; and, Conservative Party of Illinois. According to the indictment, from April 2011 to November 2018, McCann and his political committees received more than $5 million in campaign donations.
The indictment alleges multiple instances when McCann used campaign funds to purchase personal vehicles, pay personal debts, make mortgage payments, and pay himself, including the following:
• McCann allegedly used more than $60,000 in campaign funds to partially fund the purchases of a 2017 Ford Expedition in April 2017 and a 2018 Ford F-250 truck in July 2018, which he titled in his own name and used for his personal travel. McCann then used campaign funds for loan payments on the F-250 and for fuel and insurance expenses for both vehicles, while at the same time using campaign funds to reimburse mileage expense claims which he did not incur.
• In April 2018, McCann allegedly used $18,000 in campaign funds to purchase a 2018 recreational travel trailer, and in May 2018, used $25,000 in campaign funds to buy a 2006 recreational motor home, both of which McCann titled in his personal name.
McCann established an online account with a recreational vehicle rental business in Ohio and listed the vehicles for rent identifying Sam McCann as the owner. McCann then established a second account with the same rental business and identified himself as William McCann, a potential renter, with a different residential address and email than those he listed as the owner. From approximately May 2018 to June 2018, McCann, while representing himself as the renter, William, rented both the travel trailer and motor home from Sam, the owner, through the RV rental business. McCann caused a total of approximately $62,666 in campaign funds be used to pay the rental cost of the vehicles. The rental business retained approximately $9,838 for commission and paid McCann, as the owner, approximately $52,827 by direct deposit to McCann’s personal checking account. McCann reimbursed the campaign accounts $18,000, resulting in more than $77,000 in campaign funds used to buy and rent from himself.
• On or about Oct. 4, 2016, McCann allegedly used a $20,000 cashier’s check funded by a campaign account and issued to himself to pay off a personal loan, including legal fees, that had originally been issued to him as an equipment loan in 2011 and was in collection by the bank due to non-payment.
• From May 2015 to August 2020, McCann allegedly used campaign funds to pay approximately $64,750 on two separate personal mortgage loans that were secured by his former residence in Carlinville and an adjoining property used as an office for his construction business.
• In November 2018, after an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Illinois, when he was no longer a candidate for office and did not financially support any other candidate, and continuing to June 2020, McCann allegedly caused the Conservative Party of Illinois to issue approximately $187,000 in payments to himself personally and an additional $52,282 in payments for payroll taxes. Using a payroll service, McCann was allegedly able to conceal himself as the payee for the expenditures from the campaign account.
• The indictment also alleges that approximately $50,000 in campaign funds were used for personal expenses including Green Dot credit card payments related to a family vacation in Colorado and other personal expenses, charges from Apple iTunes, Amazon, a skeet and trap club, Cabela’s, Scheels, Best Buy, a gun store, and cash withdrawals.
In addition to wire fraud and money laundering, the indictment charges McCann with one count of tax evasion related to his joint return for calendar year 2018. McCann allegedly failed to report income from his 2018 rental payments to himself for the RV trailer and motor home. In addition, in March 2018, McCann used a $10,000 check issued by a campaign account to make a down payment to a Shipman, Ill., business for a motor home. When the purchase was not completed, the business issued a $10,000 refund check payable to William McCann, which he deposited to his personal checking account and failed to report as income received.
A public defender representing indicted former senator and one-time gubernatorial candidate William “Sam” McCann Jr. has been replaced, after saying their attorney-client relationship was broken.
That split happened not long after it looked like McCann was about to agree to a plea deal.
A judge, not a jury, will determine whether an indicted former senator and one-time gubernatorial candidate misused campaign money, laundered money and evaded taxes.
Attorneys for William “Sam” McCann Jr. said in a filing Monday in U.S. District Court that he “requests the court try all charges against him in this case without a jury.” […]
McCann was granted a court-appointed defender after telling the court he was unemployed with $53,000 in debt and $500 in his checking account.
The nominal Republican defeated veteran Democratic incumbent state Sen. Deanne Demuzio in 2010 and served in the Illinois Senate until 2018.
But his tenure was marked by his high-profile feuding with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Encouraged and funded by Democrat-backing labor groups, McCann ran for governor in 2018 as a conservative whose goal was to boost J.B. Pritzker’s election prospects by drawing votes from Rauner.
Pritzker, who didn’t really need McCann’s help, easily won the race.
Ironically, the millions of dollars in leftover campaign funds donated to McCann is the source of his legal troubles.
* Doesn’t look like we’ll be able to follow along in real time…
Good morning from the federal courthouse in Springfield, where former GOP state Sen. Sam McCann (who ran third party “Conservative Party” for governor in 2018) is on trial for misuse of campaign funds. Last week the judge granted a bench trial but no electronics in the courtroom. pic.twitter.com/L9MUxFwkNg
After court just now, McCann told @DeanOlsenIT and me that he needed to represent himself because he’s he only one who would take it seriously. He also said he’s not worried about representing himself because “God’s got this.”
Monday morning marks the official beginning of the 2024 election cycle in Illinois, opening up the week-long period when candidates for local, state, congressional and judicial races are required to turn in the signatures they’ve spent the last two months collecting to get on the ballot.
The first day of petition filing has traditionally taken on a party atmosphere, as candidates and staff line up outside the Illinois State Board of Elections office in Springfield, where the line often reaches past the Chuck E. Cheese storefront, roughly 100 yards down from the board’s entrance in the capital city strip mall.
Those who get in line before 8 a.m. are entered into a lottery drawing to be placed atop the ballot for their respective position. The lottery drawing is scheduled for Dec. 13.
Though many candidates line up before filing opens, elections board spokesperson Matt Dietrich said he hasn’t seen any studies that prove being first on a primary ballot actually provides any advantage.
“Primary voters tend to be the most informed voters,” he said. “So these are the voters are most likely to know which candidates are on their primary ballot and they’re the voters who are most likely to have already made up their minds before they go into the polling place.”
Candidates who get in line before 8 a.m. will be entered into a lottery to receive the top spot on the ballot. The drawing is planned for Dec. 13.
The 2024 primary is on Tuesday, March 19.
* Wishful thinking…
Tomorrow is the first day of candidate filing at the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The forecast calls for sub-freezing temps overnight. In true Chicago fashion, the Congressman Danny Davis campaign set out some lawn chairs to declare “dibs” at the front of the line. pic.twitter.com/ofYUjxH7wd
