Afternoon roundup (Updated)
Monday, Nov 20, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Press release…
According to the data, 28.46 percent of traffic deaths in Illinois occurred at intersections - 1,611 out of 5,661 - from 2017 through 2021. Drivers need to be more careful, of course, but IDOT and local governments also need to do a whole lot better with their designs. * Tribune…
What’s happened is that the full tax kicks in for the entirety of the sales price if it sells for more than $5 million. Now, scroll way, way down in that long story and you’ll see the Chicago proposal is different than LA’s in two key ways…
Still, it’s complicated. The governor’s proposed graduated income tax also reduced taxes for most people, but voters saw it as a slippery slope to higher taxes for everyone and it was killed. Then again, the Fair Tax found favor with 71 percent of Chicago’s voters. * Press release…
* Press release…
…Adding… Press release…
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Bloomberg | Pritzker chases every federal dollar with new $1 billion EPA bid: “We literally are going after every dollar that’s available,” Pritzker, a scion of the Hyatt hotel fortune, said in an interview. “We should get better than our fair share.” Illinois has recently created a task force to lure federal dollars. That public-private partnership, known as Innovate Illinois, is bidding for the EPA funds with Chicago-based nonprofit National Community Investment Fund. They are also working with the private sector. * Sun-Times | Data center developer Compass hopes business will hum at old Sears site: A source said Compass is planning something that could be classified as a mega project, providing about 250 megawatts of power for users, typically multiple companies that need to manage internet data. It’s similar in size to projects the company has in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Phoenix areas. The project is likely to get a warm reception from Hoffman Estates officials. “We welcome data centers,” Palm said. “We changed our zoning to make data centers a permitted use in certain districts.” * Tribune | Residents call Chicago report that maps neighborhood pollution flawed because calculations don’t include industrial corridors: Not considering industrial corridors has resulted in blatant inconsistencies, according to Michael Cailas, an associate professor at University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health. “Because of the methodologies (the city) applied, some census tracts that should be environmental justice neighborhoods are not considered so,” he said. * Block Club | City Goes After Companies That Owe $15 Million In Rat-Related Tickets After Illinois Answers/Block Club Investigation: The move by the city comes just weeks after an investigation by the Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago showed how the city was failing in its battle against rats, including how the city wasn’t collecting fines issued to the biggest debtors. At the top of the list were the network of companies that have had ties to Suzie B. Wilson, of Northbrook, which amassed more than $15 million in unpaid debts on hundreds of mostly vacant properties located on the city’s South and West sides. * Crain’s | Revamped former Motorola Mobility campus hits the market: The offering will reveal how much investors crave corporate campuses in the suburbs that have been revamped with modern amenities and new tenants. Such properties look attractive to real estate firms if they come with stable cash flow from long-term leases with high-credit tenants. * Crain’s | Evanston officials frustrated by ‘chaotic’ stadium vote, opaque negotiating process: Council members told Crain’s that there was never any formal process to negotiate a community benefits agreement between the City Council and the university, but rather a piecemeal process spearheaded by the city’s mayor, Daniel Biss, and Ald. Jonathan Nieuwsma, 4th, who said discussions between him and the school over the foundations of a benefits agreement began in the summer and included phone calls, emails and in-person meetings with NU representatives. * WLDS | Davidsmeyer, Tracy Blast Pritzker Plan To Provide Additional Aid to Chicago Migrant Crisis: Davidsmeyer and Pritzker’s viewpoints did intersect, saying the federal government had failed to step in and assist with the work. Pritzker placed blame on Congress for not acting, while Davidsmeyer pointed the finger at President Joe Biden’s administration. * WJBD | New member of Marion County Health Board willing to sign orders to keep health department services in place: Marion County Health Department Administrator Melissa Mallow is breathing a sigh of relief. She told WJBD-WSIQ that a newly appointed member of the health board has agreed to become the department’s medical director and sign about 200 orders that allow the department to provide many of its services and vaccinations. […] Board member Brock Waggoner has led the effort to replace the health board members because the health department followed the Governor’s guidelines during COVID-19 which he says led to businesses and schools having to close. * Sun-Times | Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Michigan home spray-painted with the word ‘Nazis’: Emanuel was not at the cottage at the time. “Our family is very proud of how our friends, neighbors and the community have rallied to our support and in a singular voice in condemning hatred and bigotry,” Emanuel told the Sun-Times in a text message. * Tom Kacich | Red Grange, political hitman: For 26 years after the legendary 1924 game against Michigan, Grange’s name was never associated with politics or the administration of the UI. But suddenly, at the August 1950 Illinois Republican Party convention in Peoria, a group of downstate party chairmen overturned the nominees named by a UI Alumni Association committee and substituted Grange’s name for that of Chester Davis, a Chicago banker and lawyer who had previously served as a UI trustee. * Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle | Dropped insurance means no racing car for H-F High students: Homewood-Flossmoor High School has a 1997 Ford Mustang built for racing, but students can’t work on or drive the car because it has no insurance. The car is the pride of the H-F Auto Club. Students have taken the car to Byron Dragway near Rockford. In the 2022 race season, the Mustang raced twice at Byron. * Daily Herald | Escaped African serval cat dies after its capture in Vernon Hills neighborhood: While searching, officers came across others who appeared to be looking for something. They turned out to be the owners, Holubetz said. With the owners’ assistance, the skittish animal was captured at about 10 p.m. several hundred feet from its home. […] Though the serval later died of injuries, no person or animal appeared to have been harmed by it. * WCIA | Lost elk roams Illinois, report sightings to game warden: There is a traveling elk on the loose who has been spotted near Springfield, Illinois. The timing couldn’t be better—you can convince your children that it’s one of Santa’s reindeer now that it’s here—but if you spot it, you should notify the game warden in your county immediately. According to Bond County game warden William Wichern, the elk’s journey began near Coulterville, south of I-64. The latest report places it near Sangchris Lake in Springfield, Illinois. * The Southern | Scientists turn invasive carp into traitors to slow their Great Lakes push: Agency workers turn carp into double agents by capturing them, implanting transmitters and tossing them back. Floating receivers send real-time notifications when a tagged carp swims past. Carp often clump in schools in the spring and fall. Armed with the traitor carp’s location, agency workers and commercial anglers can head to that spot, drop their nets and remove multiple fish from the ecosystem. * WaPo | World’s richest 1% pollute more than the poorest two-thirds, Oxfam says: According to Oxfam’s report, carbon emissions of the world’s richest 1 percent surpassed the amount generated by all car and road transport globally in 2019, while the richest 10 percent accounted for half of global carbon emissions that year. Meanwhile, emissions from the richest 1 percent are enough to cancel out the work of nearly 1 million wind turbines each year, Oxfam said.
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*** UPDATED x2 *** When you’re more interested in a straight uphill legislative fight than finding a win, you’ll likely lose
Monday, Nov 20, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Rep. Dan Didech (D-Buffalo Grove)…
*** UPDATE 2 *** A commenter responds to Rep. Didech…
Seems like that could’ve been a strong incentive to negotiate a wind-down if it was more about the kids than the investors.
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Fundraiser list (Updated)
Monday, Nov 20, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
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