* Gov. JB Pritzker was asked again today about the unionization attempt among some House Democratic employees. Would he support a law that puts legislative employees under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Labor Relations Board to give them a pathway to unionizing?…

Look, I think these are decisions that will get made by Speaker Welch and by the legislators. It’s their chamber, and the General Assembly, in general, that have to make some decisions about this. … I’m not engaging in the discussion other than to say this is something that they’re going to have to work out.

…Adding… I asked AFSCME Council 31 for its response to the organizing effort…

As an affiliate of the Illinois AFL-CIO we echo the support previously expressed by the federation (https://twitter.com/ILAFLCIO/status/1653502000728887297) for the right of these and all workers to come together in unions and have a voice on the job.

* Background is here if you need it. WBEZ…

The head of the Chicago Teachers Union is facing backlash for sending her eldest child to a private high school, a decision she says represents a stark statement about disinvestment in public schools and drives home why the fight to fully fund neighborhood schools is so important. […]

In an interview with WBEZ, Davis Gates defended her decision and said it was the result of “unfair choices” she and other South and West Side parents face.

“It was a very difficult decision for us because there is not a lot to offer Black youth who are entering high school” in Chicago, Davis Gates said. “In many of our schools on the South Side and the West Side, the course offerings are very marginal and limited. Then the other thing, and it was a very strong priority, was his ability to participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, which quite frankly, don’t exist in many of the schools, high schools in particular.” […]

Another big consideration: Her son plays soccer, and the South Side schools with good programs are in Latino neighborhoods far from her home.

Davis Gates said they looked at selective enrollment and magnet high schools, which tend to have healthy enrollments and fundraising that allows them to offer more complete programs. But that would have required her son to spend hours traveling.

This is basically an admission that the city’s public schools are not up to par. Gee, if only she was in a position to do something about that, or perhaps help others in similar situations to attend private schools who don’t have her personal financial resources. Just saying.

Also, she was not asked in the interview about her previous statements like this one...

“I’m also a mother,” Davis Gates said on March 6, 2022. “My children go to Chicago Public Schools. These are the things that legitimize my space within the coalition.”

…Adding… Press release…

The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago today named Mark Hoplamazian, President and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Eric Smith, Vice Chairman of BMO Bank, as the new co-chairs of the Committee’s Public Safety Task Force (PSTF). The two Chicago business leaders are replacing the late James Crown, who led the task force up until his tragic death in June.

* Dave Dahl…

[The Illinois Emergency Management Agency] is hosting more than 600 emergency planners from throughout the state for an annual conference.

[IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau] says a newer responsibility for the emergency professionals is election security. “Really thinking about the physical security of the poll workers who are out there,” she said. “Like anything, our job is to plan. That doesn’t mean that something is going to occur, but our job is to make sure that we prepare.”

* WMBD…

Candidates are starting to declare their candidacy to battle for a seat in Springfield in the 93rd District of the Illinois House. […]

Travis Weaver (R-Edwards) is the incumbent, and is seeking a second term. […]

Weaver says he reached out to his first known opponent, Democrat Zoey Carter of Pekin, on Facebook after she announced her candidacy last week.

He says he wants to keep the race cordial and respectful.

“I think it’s important to have open lines of communication, because Zoey may say something at some point that I believe is untruthful or deceptive, and I’d like to be able to call that out,” Weaver said. “And I also empower Zoey to have that same relationship with me.”

Carter, who other media outlets have reported could be the first transgender person elected to state office, was not available for comment. But in a Facebook post announcing her candidacy, she says she’s running “because I know that we are not getting the proper representation that we deserve.”

The 93rd House District is overwhelmingly Republican. Darren Bailey won it by 26 points.

* Daily Wire…

Democrat state lawmakers are more unified and committed to a leftist ideology than Republican lawmakers are to conservatism, according to a report from the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Republicans voted for conservative policies 77% of the time, while Democrats voted for liberal policies 87% of the time, according to the analysis of all 7,400 lawmakers in the 50 statehouses during last year’s legislative sessions.

The study by CPAC’s affiliated Center for Legislative Accountability concluded that Democrats were more likely to “stick together” on issues important to the party’s base, while Republicans “broke apart.” […]

The most-radical Democrats were in New Jersey, where they had a 0% conservative ranking, followed by Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, and Oregon, at 1%. […]

“The red states are actually the worst” when it comes to moderate Republicans, Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, told The Daily Wire in 2021. “A lot of Democrats know they can’t get elected with a D next to their name, so they put an R next to their name and then vote like liberals.”

Illinois ranked 37th in most conservative Republican legislative voting behavior in 2022, at 72 percent, which is about average and the opposite of what’s portrayed in the last paragraph of that excerpt.

* Mayor Brandon Johnson chafes at the suggestion that he’s moving too slow on appointments, but I don’t think it’s out of line to ask why CTA President Dorval Carter still has a job…

Yesterday, the CTA L lines ran:
114% Yellow
93% Pink
91% Blue
87% Green
87% Orange
83% Brown
77% Purple
38% Red
… of scheduled trains. Since 2020, CTA L Service has been cut by 18%. Riders deserve frequent and reliable transit, with return to at least pre-2020 levels.

— Commuters Take Action (@ctaaction) September 7, 2023

38 percent of Red Line trains ran? What the heck?

* Isabel’s roundup…

* Illinois Times | Tough choices at Memorial Health: Illinois Times has learned Memorial Health’s recently announced layoffs totaled about 300 – with 120 involving people in leadership positions – and that the cuts will save the Springfield-based health care system an estimated $40 million a year.

* Sun-Times | Toxic Acme site on Southeast Side picked for EPA Superfund cleanup: Cyanide and mercury are among the harmful chemicals and metals found through recent testing of the Acme soil and surrounding areas used for fishing may be contaminated as well, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.

* Center Square | Right-to-work group enters nursing home labor dispute: Officials from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Illinois had threatened to call a strike on Labor Day, but have since gone back to the bargaining table. If talks break down, employees from 11 Infinity Healthcare nursing facilities in northern Illinois will be ordered off the job. National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Vice President Patrick Semmens said workers don’t have to walk off the job if they choose not to.

* Farm Progress | Illinois FFA to help spread the word on mental health: Following the success of a state-supported program to help Illinois farm families access mental health resources, Gov. JB Pritzker announced funding for up to 20 grants at $1,000 each to support FFA chapters implementing local initiatives that encourage access to such resources. All FFA chapters in Illinois are eligible to apply for the grant, and grant applications will be available from the Illinois FFA Foundation in fall 2023.

* NBC Chicago | University of Illinois, 4 other Midwest schools rank on Forbes’ ‘Top 25 Public Colleges’ in US:“University of Illinois is home to more than 9,000 works of art, over 46,000 artifacts, four theaters and four cultural centers,’ Forbes wrote. “Students have the opportunity to be mentored by faculty members who have been awarded Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes and the Fields Medal in Mathematics.”

* WMBD | Tazewell County files to intervene in CO2 pipeline running under central Illinois: “The Tazewell County Board is currently in the process of taking public comment from Tazewell County residents and the developer of the proposed (carbon dioxide) pipeline. The filing of this Petition to Intervene will ensure that Tazewell County will be a participant in all future proceedings,’ said State’s Attorney Kevin Johnson.

* Sun-Times | Committee approves labor contracts for thousands of city workers: The deal’s prevailing wage portion covers 7,000 members of 30 trade unions employed by 16 city departments. Those workers also will now accrue half a day of sick leave per month and be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

* Chalkbeat | Chicago Public Schools is becoming less low-income. Here’s why that matters.: A decade ago, nearly 73% of students at the school, Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies, came from low-income households, according to district data. Last school year, that figure was just over 34%. […] Even though the number of students from low-income families has dropped, nearly three-quarters of the district’s student body is still considered “economically disadvantaged.” But if the downward trend continues, Chicago schools could continue to see fewer dollars than expected from the state, which funds districts in part by considering how many students from low-income families are enrolled.

* WICS | Push for state funding amid learning loss: Illinois schools strive to bounce back post-pandemic: According to the 2022 Illinois Report Card, proficiency in reading and math for Illinois students is running below pre-COVID-19 levels. Federal and state dollars have been dished out to try to help students get caught up. […] Next year, Illinois won’t be receiving federal COVID-19 funds, which has helped pay after school programs. Pritzker said increasing state funds for education is key, along with targeting those in need the most.

* NYT | Who’s really paying to bus migrants from the border?: No. In fact, the migrants boarding the Texas-funded buses represent only a fraction of the thousands arriving at the border each month, and some migrants are wary of accepting a free ride. The Texas busing program has sent about 34,740 migrants to other states since April 2022, enough to populate a small city. But that is a paltry subset of the hundreds of thousands who have crossed the border during that period, most of whom have probably also made their way to destinations outside Texas.

* South Side Weekly | Larry Snelling Garnered Multiple Use-of-Force Complaints in the 1990s: As a beat cop in Englewood and Morgan Park in the 1990s, Larry Snelling was the subject of eight excessive force complaints, two of which resulted in suspensions. Some of the allegations describe Snelling slapping or punching people as young as fourteen in the head, while others detail verbal abuse. The allegations describe behavior that, if true, violated long-standing departmental rules that “prohibit all brutality, and physical or verbal maltreatment of any citizen while on or off duty.”

* South Side Weekly | ‘Doesn’t Make it Wrong’:While he was a sergeant working at the Police Training Academy in 2015, Larry Snelling testified in a civil suit that a lieutenant who allegedly pressed his hand forcefully into a mentally ill woman’s nose because she would not submit to fingerprinting had used an appropriate amount of force for that type of situation, according to documents obtained by the Weekly.

* Block Club Chicago | Migrant Barbers Arrested, Ticketed For Cutting Hair Without License Downtown: One of the migrants who was arrested, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told Block Club Wednesday police handcuffed all of the barbers and detained them for eight hours, informing them it was illegal to operate a pop-up barbershop without a license or permit.

* Bloomberg | Chicago Area Faces 30% Transit Cuts Without New Taxes, State Aid: The area’s three transit systems, which average about a million daily rides combined in northeast Illinois, could see collective deficits expand to $1.19 billion in 2031 from about $730 million in 2026 after emergency pandemic funds run out and if no new money is allocated, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning said in a draft report this month.

* Block Club Chicago | Judge Urges Feds To Review Whether Soccer Team’s Deal To Build On Public Housing Land Violates Civil Rights Laws: The advocates want the CHA to fulfill 20-year-old written plans to build hundreds of new homes on and around the Near West Side site. It was once part of the ABLA public housing development where 3,600 families lived. Instead, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot engineered a no-bid deal last year that would let the Chicago Fire lease 23 acres for at least 40 years. The team, owned by billionaire Joe Mansueto, plans to build a state-of-the-art training center on the property.

* Crain’s | Stadium rebuild can’t happen without concerts, Northwestern insists: Until last night, it was unclear to the commissioners and members of Evanston’s City Council, who will have final approval after the Land Use Commission gives its recommendations, on what would happen if a proposal for the stadium was approved by the city, but the separate concert proposal was struck down.

* Facing South | Illinois town offers solidarity to gender migrants fleeing far-right tyranny in Southern states: Right now, C.A.R.E is working with 16 “cases” through its organizational offshoot, Rainbow Refuge. They are mostly from Florida; others hail from Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, according to Carrie Vine, one of C.A.R.E.’s founders and volunteer case managers.

* Tribune | Column: Sheriff ‘frustrated’ after recent fatalities on Kane County roads: While these crashes have all been in different locations and were caused by different reasons, they were “mostly due to the lack of awareness or attention to the surroundings of the drivers,” he said. And even if there had been deputies “on every corner of the county, most of these crashes would’ve still occurred.” […] “People need to stop blaming the sheriff’s office for failing to have a presence” when these crashes are often caused by “sheer negligence or ignorance of traffic laws,” Hain said on Tuesday.

* Tribune | Chicago calls for safety as city prepares for Mexican Independence Day events following problems last year: “Car caravans that create a threat to public safety will not be tolerated,” spokesperson Mary May said in the statement. “We also remind everyone that drag racing and drifting are not only illegal, but dangerous. Anyone in violation of the ordinance will be held accountable.”

* Crain’s | Inside and around the Obama Presidential Center as it rises in Jackson Park: Cement trucks roar around the 19.3-acre site and workers — 53% of them minority, according to the center — scurry about. The shell of the combination 425-car parking garage and Chicago Public Library branch is done, all to be topped with a landscaped green roof. The center’s central tower, which will house a digital presidential library and museum filled with memorabilia from Barack and Michelle Obama’s lives and time in Washington, is now several stories in the air and set to be topped off by April.

* WBEZ | Three big questions, asked and answered, about Chicago’s move to an elected school board: The move to an elected board is the realization of a dream for many organizers who have long argued that parents and communities are shut out of important decisions affecting their schools. They think an elected board will ensure that parent and community wishes and concerns will be heard.

* Farm Progress | Illinois FFA soils judgers win big at Farm Progress Show: The 2023 edition featured the largest participation ever, with over 120 students competing from Indiana and Illinois combined. Sixteen schools fielded around 30 teams combined for the contest. Illinois FFA members competed against other Illinois FFA members for bragging rights and cash awards, provided to the winners by Farm Credit Illinois, one of the contest sponsors.

* Marijuana Moment | Illinois Concert This Weekend Will Be State’s First To Allow On-Site Marijuana Consumption: Kicking off Saturday afternoon, the two-day Miracle in Mundelein festival will feature complimentary rolling papers, lighters and grinders, as well as dab bars and rolling stations for use by attendees. Marijuana products themselves will be available for sale through a retailer located next door.

* Block Club Chicago | ‘DMVs’ In Illinois? Secretary Of State Says So — But It’s Not Quite What You Think: Asked Thursday if “DMV” was part of an official change in terminology by his office, Giannoulias joked that he’s “not creative enough” to launch a rebrand. Instead, the acronym is just a way to specifically refer to the services offered at each location, he said.

* NYT | Philanthropies Pledge $500 Million to Address Crisis in Local News: The initiative, called Press Forward, is spearheaded by the MacArthur Foundation and supported by organizations including the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.