I guess it’s better than “Soy Boy”
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
With its roots deepening in the Chicago economy, Google on Thursday officially opened its second office in the city’s Fulton Market area and announced a partnership with City Hall to bring digital skills to neighborhood-based businesses.
The company hosted Gov. J.B. Pritzker for its celebration. A leading funder of tech companies before getting elected, Pritzker offered a unique endorsement of the tech giant. “I’d like heretofore to be known as Gov. Google,” he said.
Headline explained here.
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* We already discussed Tuesday’s ruling by the 7th Circuit Appellate Court ruling on Janus v. AFSCME regarding Janus’ attempt to recover fair share fees he’d paid over the years. The court also ruled the same day on a similar case filed against the IEA…
Stacey Mooney is a public-school teacher in Eureka (Illinois) Community School District #140. She is not a member of respondent Illinois Education Association (“IEA”), the union that serves as the exclusive representative of her employee unit in collective bargaining with the school district. From the time she started as a public employee until June 2018, the District deducted from her paycheck and sent to the union a fair-share fee that contributed to the costs incurred by the union in its labor-management activities. Both the Illinois Public Relations Act, 5 ILCS § 315/6, and existing Supreme Court precedent, Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Educ., 431 U.S. 209 (1977), authorized this fee arrangement.
That state of affairs came to an end when, in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018), the Supreme Court overruled Abood and announced that compulsory fair-share fee arrangements violate the First Amendment rights of persons who would prefer not to associate with the union that represents their employee unit. 138 S. Ct. at 2460. Following Janus, state employers in Illinois immediately ceased deducting fair-share fees from the paychecks of nonmembers of public sector unions.
Mooney filed suit in the Central District of Illinois on behalf of herself and a putative class of similarly situated persons, seeking restitution pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the fees that had been deducted from her pay prior to Janus. The district court entered judgment for IEA on April 23, 2019, dismissing Mooney’s claims with prejudice. In so doing, it joined the consensus across the country concluding that unions that collected fair-share fees prior to Janus, in accordance with state law and Abood, are entitled to assert a good-faith defense to section 1983 liability.
We heard oral argument on Mooney’s case on September 20, 2019, in conjunction with Janus v. AFSCME, No. 19-1553. We now affirm the judgment of the district court, largely for the reasons set forth in our opinion of today’s date in Janus v. AFSCME, No. 19-1553.
* From the IEA…
The IEA is gratified that the Seventh Circuit has joined the unanimous view of more than 15 courts that have considered this issue, and in doing so have sided with educators in Illinois. These legal attacks are without merit and are solely focused on taking away the freedoms of working people to have a collective voice in the workplace. The court got it right. We will continue to fight to protect the rights of our union
* Related…
* Appeals court says Janus not entitled to recover fair share fees: “The three-judge panel ruled, just as the district court before them, that the union acted in good faith under the law and court precedent that existed at the time to represent every member and to collect only those fair share fees from individuals who chose not to join the union,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall. Lindall said that since last year’s Supreme Court decision, there have been 20 cases filed by people trying to recoup fair share fees from public unions. Unions have prevailed in every one of them, he said.
* Non-Union Workers Can’t Get Fair-Share Fee Refund After Janus: AFSCME had a legal right to charge fair-share fees collected from nonmembers until Janus, the court said. “Mr. Janus has received all that he is entitled to: declaratory and injunctive relief, and a future free of any association with a public union,” it said.
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A-N-N-A
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Logan Jaffe with ProPublica Illinois writing in The Atlantic…
I got into town just after sunset. The lights were on at a place called the Brick House Grill, and if you were out on South Main Street on a Friday night in February, chances are, that’s where you were going. So I went in, too.
I took a seat at the bar. A man two stools over from me struck up a conversation. I told him I was a journalist from Chicago and asked him to tell me about this town. “You know how this town is called Anna?” he started. “That’s for ‘Ain’t No N*****s Allowed.’” He laughed, shook his head, and took a sip of his beer.
The man was white. I am white. Everyone else in that restaurant in Anna was white.
Later that night, I realized what shook me most about our conversation: He didn’t pause before he said what he said. He didn’t look around the room to see whether anyone could hear us. He didn’t lower his voice. He just said it.
Anyone who has ever spent much time in southern Illinois knows about A-N-N-A.
* More…
Hartline grew up in Cobden, the town just north of Anna. He’s been Anna’s mayor for nearly 20 years, and he served in its police department for 15 years before that. He said he can’t think of a single incident in Anna that had race at its center that had taken place in his years of public service.
But these incidents happened. In March 2013, four young white men attacked a black 16-year-old in a parking lot behind a furniture store on Main Street. According to police reports, one of the suspects allegedly tried to sodomize the victim with either a tire iron or an ax handle. Although one of the young men told police they attacked the victim because he was black, the police did not charge the four men with a hate crime.
In 2017, in the aftermath of the white-supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a white Anna resident named Tabitha Tripp said at a Union County board meeting that she was concerned about hate incidents in the county, and she asked the county commissioners to consider a resolution, identical to one that had recently passed the Illinois House, condemning hate groups.
The proposal was never brought up for a vote, in part because commissioners said they didn’t believe it was their job to address such concerns. “The more you talk about it, it just creates that issue more,” Max Miller, Union County’s board chairman, told me. “I just didn’t think it was worth talking about.”
Some sundown towns in the Midwest have begun to confront their legacies. In March 2015, the city council of Goshen, Indiana, voted 6–0 to pass “A Resolution Acknowledging the Racially Exclusionary Past of Goshen, Indiana, as a ‘Sundown Town.’” In late 2016, the mayor of La Crosse, Wisconsin, formally apologized for the city’s history of racial exclusion and signed a proclamation to work toward racial equality. “We’ve got issues and are not shirking away from those issues,” Mayor Tim Kabat, who is white, told the La Crosse Tribune. “We recognize this is a problem and need to do something about it.”
The Union County Board of Commissioners is all white. So is the Anna city council, the Anna Police Department, and every teacher at Anna-Jonesboro High School, the public high school serving Anna. “I wish we had more diversity on our staff,” said Brett Detering, the school’s principal.
There’s lots more, so go read the whole thing.
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A picture is worth a thousand words
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the left, Rep. Joyce Mason, Rep. Mary Edly-Allen, Rep. Rita Mayfield, Gov. JB Pritzker and Rep. Daniel Didech. All Democrats…
The only House member in that pic who voted for the gas tax increase is Rep. Didech. Reps. Mason and Edly-Allen both voted “No” and Rep. Mayfield didn’t vote.
By the way, no reporters showed up for that Lake County event.
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* Tina Sfondeles asked Gov. Pritzker today about his ethics proposals in the coming week and during the spring session…
“We ought to begin with some bills around transparency, making sure that we know what lobbyists are getting paid, making sure we know who lobbyists are representing, that there’s a common database perhaps so that people could look up all the contributions that are related to a specific company and lobbyists and legislators.”
Asked if an outright ban on state lawmakers being lobbyists in any capacity should be part of that package, Pritzker said he’s “absolutely committed to the idea that we have to look into [it].”
“You see that Rep. Arroyo was a lobbyist for other levels of government. I think that is challenging and problematic,” Pritzker said. “Once again I’m not sure we’ll be able to do the proper amount of investigation and hearings in the three legislative days that are left here this year. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t aim at getting the best and most comprehensive ethics reform package through that we can.” […]
[Sen. Don Harmon] said “…It’s long been a source of angst when other elected officials are lobbying the General Assembly, and I would presume that members of other bodies would feel the same way. A more clear standard of what is and isn’t lobbying is probably a good place to start that conversation.”
Discuss.
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Cannabis roundup
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Give the government credit. It has thoroughly indoctrinated a large number of people during the War on Drugs…
“I want to keep our children as safe as possible,” said Wenthe. “I don’t want to increase the number of people in our community already using marijuana. I’ve overheard grown adults right here in our community say that if they do sell it here in Effingham, they may have to try it once to see what it is like.”
Heaven forbid that people might try a legal product to see for themselves what it’s all about.
* Oak Park…
Trustee Jim Taglia, who voted no for the previous marijuana ordinance, was happy the village board will take another look at the issue.
“I do have concerns about the permitted use on North Avenue and our most vulnerable areas, especially perimeter streets,” Taglia said. “I’m glad we’re going to take a look at it.”
And by “perimeter streets” I’m assuming he’s not talking about the border with River Forest. Just sayin.
* Meanwhile…
In a non-descript building on the outskirts of downstate Dwight, production is ramping up for a revolutionary day in Illinois. Cultivators are trimming, prodding, and pampering cannabis plants, in preparation for marijuana legalization, January 1.
“We are cranking as hard as we can crank,” said Jeremy Unruh, director of regulatory affairs for Pharmacann, which operates the Dwight facility. “The state has given us authority to begin producing adult use products, now it’s just a matter of ramping up production to make sure that we come as close as we can to meeting the demand that we’ll see after January.”
It’s a process which is repeating itself at growing facilities statewide. In Pharmacann’s case, that includes an expansion of the Dwight facility which was built for the state’s medical marijuana program.
“We’re doubling the capacity here in the Dwight cultivation center,” Unruh said, “so we can put out about twice as much product as we currently put out in the medical scheme.”
* But that’s not going to be nearly enough…
[Medical cannabis consultant Kalee Hooghkirk of Full Spektrum Services] showed us product lists from several dispensaries. Typical was a drop from dozens of product options to just three, and price increases included a jump from $50 to $60 for a gram of cannabis concentrate.
“We’ve been promised for the past four years that prices would go down and availability would go up, and unfortunately, we’re seeing the exact opposite,” Hooghkirk said. […]
The Cannabis Association of Illinois, a trade group, explains it this way – over the past year, it’s become easier to qualify for medicinal marijuana, and the list of accepted medical conditions has grown. It’s raised the pool of marijuana patients from roughly 20,000 to more than 80,000.
With state approval needed to grow more supply, the industry is struggling to meet demand – and that doesn’t even include the rush of new customers expected when recreational use begins.
* Related…
* 2 more medical marijuana dispensaries in Chicago approved to sell recreational pot on Jan. 1
* Pot companies shed real estate amid dearth of financing options - Capital-hungry weed firms are increasingly selling off property as other sources of funding dry up.
* Highland City Council approves marijuana dispensaries in city limits
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* WTTW…
When she was campaigning, Lightfoot said the [revenues from a new graduated real estate transfer tax] would go to programs aimed at reducing homelessness in the city. And now 13 Democratic lawmakers – including 10 from Chicago – have signed a letter saying they will not vote for Lightfoot’s proposal unless at least 60% of the revenue the tax generates is “statutorily dedicated” to combatting homelessness.
Lightfoot has balked at that proposal, saying last week: “That’s never going to happen.”
Lightfoot argues that given the budget deficit the city faces it would not be responsible to commit to spending “in perpetuity” 60% of the revenue the new tax would bring in on reducing homelessness, given that there are other worthy causes that also deserve extra funding.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked about the future of the mayor’s RETT proposal today…
I’ve been encouraging lawmakers to work with the mayor. As you know there are some lawmakers who are concerned where the dollars from the real estate transfer tax would go. I want them to work their differences out so that we can get something done. […]
I’m looking for direction from the mayor. We want to make sure we do what’s best for the city as well as the entire state of Illinois. My responsibility extends beyond the border of the city of Chicago. So, I’m relying on the mayor to come back with a plan that will allow us to get the votes that are necessary. But there are Chicago legislators who have real concerns. I think they’re reflecting concerns that are coming from aldermen. And so I’d like them all to get on the same page. And I think that’s something the mayor’s working to do.
* He was also asked about changes to the gaming bill to help the city land a casino…
I’ve been working with the mayor’s team, our team has, to try and craft something that will work and with which we can garner Downstate votes and collar county votes for something that’s good for Chicago. And the mayor, I know, is committed to getting that done. She’s been making calls and I’m hopeful that we’re going to be able to garner enough votes for that next week.
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* Buzzfeed…
Since 2004, more than 2,000 newspapers have closed in the United States, and many local news outlets are struggling to build a digital business. But one remarkable success story is the Albany Daily News, a website that clocked nearly 10 million pageviews in August, roughly five times that of the 160-year-old Albany Times Union newspaper, according to analytics service SimilarWeb.
The most popular news site in Albany has a simple secret to success: Fake just about everything and rake in the advertising dollars.
The Albany Daily News is an empty husk of a website filled with old content that for months was showered with questionable traffic as part of a digital ad fraud scheme, according to new research from Social Puncher, an ad fraud prevention consultancy. […]
The sites, whose ultimate beneficiary is unknown, provide yet another example of how the digital ad industry is being ravaged by dubious schemes and outright fraudsters who steal money from brands by causing ads show up on sites and apps with fake or manipulated audiences, among other techniques. The fake local sites also illustrate a painful irony that while authentic local news outlets in the US and Canada struggle with business challenges, there’s apparently plenty of money or influence to be gained by masquerading as one.
For crying out loud.
* More…
Google is more than just an advertiser on these sites. Its ad platforms are helping them earn money. The Edmonton and Albany sites make the majority of their ad inventory available via Google’s ad network, meaning the tech giant facilitates the programmatic sale of ads on the sites and takes a cut of revenue when ads are displayed. Along with Google, the sites also list their inventory with AppNexus, another large ad network.
A Google spokesperson said the Edmonton and Albany sites were not violating any of its policies and that they appeared to be receiving some of their traffic by placing ads on other websites via networks such as Taboola and Outbrain. AppNexus declined to comment specifically on the sites.
Ugh.
* From the conclusion of the study…
Brands only receive a report at the end of the month/quarter/year with a list of domains where their ads were displayed. If domain names have the typical pattern of old local media, then it is impossible to understand that this is fake, and therefore it is impossible to avoid such schemes.
So, advertisers are being ripped off, actual news sites which produce real content are missing out on revenue, but the fraudsters and companies like Google rake in the dough.
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* Press release…
State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) was appointed Chair of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee today.
“I look forward to working with Gov. Pritzker and IDOT officials to move forward with our historic Rebuild Illinois plan and other public safety issues to ensure the future of our critical infrastructure across the state,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s leadership will place a renewed focus on improving fairness in the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the Illinois Tollway’s procurement processes. In 2016, she passed legislation creating the Fair Practices In Contracting Task Force, which is charged with making recommendations for removing barriers to minority-owned business participation in state procurement.
“This issue still lacks the appropriate attention from state leaders. Racial disparities in the awarding of state contracts are widening. When African-American businesses are shut out of opportunities, our communities are shut out of economic development and our families are shut out of jobs,” Hunter said. “It’s time to get serious about eliminating racial bias in the bidding process and systemic barriers to equity in state contracting.”
Hunter’s other immediate priorities as Chair of the Transportation Committee include:
Seeking ways to make public transportation more accessible and affordable, particularly in underserved communities.
Reviving the Disadvantaged Business Revolving Loan Program to provide capital necessary for properly certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises – small, minority and female-owned businesses - to finance IDOT project-specific work, acquire valuable work experience and establish or rebuild credit lines.
Conducting a study to evaluate the usage of controversial red-light cameras throughout the state.
Increasing the number of minority-, veteran- and woman-owned businesses engaged in state and local government contracting.
Ensuring transparent and efficient implementation of IDOT’s Multi-Year Plan.
Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) had been chairman until he stepped aside after his Statehouse office was raided by the feds. But the position was never filled. The committee is meeting this coming Tuesday. The only posted bill so far is this red light cam study…
Provides that 30 days after the effective date of the bill, the Department of Transportation shall conduct a study evaluating automated traffic law enforcement systems in this State. Provides that on or before December 31, 2019, the Department shall file a report with the General Assembly with the results from the study, including input from local law enforcement, and any recommendations the Department deems necessary
* Perhaps not coincidentally, I received this from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety earlier today…
Red light cameras are proven safety devices that reduce dangerous red light running, crashes, injuries and deaths. One IIHS study of 79 large US cities found that red light camera programs in those cities saved nearly 1,300 lives through 2014. In the same study, our researchers concluded that the fatal red-light-running crash rate was 30% higher in cities that deactivated cameras than it would have been if the cameras remained on. A summary of research on the topic is available here: https://go.iihs.org/RL-Cameras
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Question of the day
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The House Republican ethics package…
· House Bill 3954 that will revise statement of economic interests to include more details similar to the information required for judicial statement of economic interest forms. This forces full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and provides greater transparency for members of the General Assembly.
· HJRCA 36 will require a special election to fill General Assembly vacancies through the same laws governing our party primaries. This will prevent political powerbrokers from picking their preferred candidates for the vacancies.
· House Resolution 588 will allow a Chief Co-Sponsor of any bill with five co-sponsors from each party to call it for an up or down vote in a substantive committee.
· House Bill 3947 would ban members of the General Assembly, their spouses, and immediate live-in family members from performing paid lobbying work with local government units. Currently, members of the Illinois General Assembly - state representatives and state senators - are prohibited from lobbying the State of Illinois, but are not prohibited from lobbying local government units, such as a counties or municipalities.
· House Bill 3955 will create mandatory and publicly available documentation of General Assembly communications with any state agency regarding contracts.
* The Question: Do you have any additions, subtractions, amendments, etc. to this list? Explain.
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* Keep in mind that this was happening at the same time that Chicago hotels were booming…
Profits [at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago] fell 89 percent from 2015 to 2018, from $16.7 million to $1.8 million, according to documents filed with Cook County, Ill. Trump’s hotel struggled even as other Chicago hotels held steady or thrived.
“Performance of [the Trump hotel] is clearly disassociated from that of its competitive set,” the company’s lawyers said in a letter to the county seeking to lower the hotel’s taxes.
The lawyers said the problem was a reaction to Trump’s politics. They even quoted a line from a 2018 Washington Post article, in which one small-time investor described the effect of Trump’s candidacy on his buildings thusly: “Then the Embarrassment came.”
Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, which prides itself on indulgent luxury, is trying to keep up by cutting costs. In a presentation to investors, obtained by The Post, the company described leaving jobs open, cutting back on gifts for high rollers and children, and buying cheaper housekeeping supplies.
* More…
* And things are about to get worse as the market has become overly saturated…
Struggling to keep up with a glut of new rooms across the city, Chicago hoteliers faced January’s polar vortex, a cyclical downturn in convention business, lower rates, lower occupancy and at least one high-profile default in 2019.
“There’s no doubt 2019 has been a challenging year for all hotels,” said John Rutledge, CEO of Chicago-based Oxford Development, which has developed 10 hotels in Chicago, including LondonHouse, The Langham and The Godfrey. “It’s time to take a breath and absorb some of that new product.” […]
But demand has not kept pace with supply. After a record year in 2018, hotel occupancy has fallen under 75% through September — a 2.5% year-over-year decline, according to data from research firm STR supplied by Choose Chicago.
Meanwhile, the average daily room rate in Chicago has dropped 3.2% to $205.74, according to STR data. Revenue per available room — a key measure of profitability — is down 5.6% to $153.41.
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Corruption roundup
Thursday, Nov 7, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Seizing on a federal public corruption probe that has embroiled Democrats from City Hall to the state Capitol, Illinois House Republicans on Thursday proposed a series of changes to state ethics rules they say would provide greater transparency and help prevent future abuses of power. […]
The proposals from House Republicans include requiring lawmakers to provide more detailed information about their financial interests on annual statements of economic interest; instituting special elections to fill vacant seats in the House and Senate; loosening the control House committee chairs have over the fate of bills; and barring lawmakers and close family members from working as lobbyists at the local level.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs called the measures “common-sense, straightforward government ethics reforms that are long overdue.”
“If the Democrats are serious about at least trying to restore some confidence in the public, we shouldn’t have to wait till next January, next spring,” Durkin said.
* CBS 2…
Three Joliet Township workers said they were forced to do landscaping work on [Township Supervisor Daniel Vera’s] home. He didn’t answer questions about making the public employees work on his private property
* Sun-Times…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday requested an independent review of a county agency tasked with helping get vacant homes back on the market after the head of the agency admitted a sale involving a building owned by a top aide to 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin never should have been allowed.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported on the insider deal involving the Cook County Land Bank Authority and a building that Austin’s chief of staff Chester Wilson Jr. owned at 103rd Street and Corliss Avenue.
* Hannah Meisel at the Daily Line…
A company linked to the arrest and resignation of former State Rep. Luis Arroyo (D-Chicago) on corruption charges for allegedly bribing a state senator for his support on legalizing “sweepstakes machines” sued west suburban Addison last month after the town passed an ordinance banning the machines.
Addison’s village board of trustees moved to ban sweepstakes machines in an ordinance passed by the body in June, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court by Collage LLC on Oct. 2. […]
The lawsuit notes the sweepstakes machines are regulated by the Illinois Department of Revenue, and that each of the six machines within city limits had already paid the state “to operate the machines and paid a licensing fee for each machine.”
The sweepstakes machines’ existing licenses and the fees paid for them establish a contract that Addison cannot preempt, according to the lawsuit.
The company also argues the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, because it only targets digital sweepstakes machines.
* Related…
* Ald. Austin has faith feds won’t find anything in probe, but doesn’t want to talk about it
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* Monday…
More than a dozen runners and the boys team from St. Viator High School will be allowed to compete at the cross-country state finals this weekend after initially being bumped in favor of Chicago Public Schools students prevented from running because of the Chicago Teachers Union strike.
The Illinois High School Association announced Monday night that the runners — eight boys and five girls competing as individuals, and the St. Viator team in Arlington Heights — have been added to the field to compete at the IHSA Cross Country State Championship at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Saturday.
The runners had been displaced by CPS students allowed by a court order to compete in last weekend’s sectionals even though they missed the regional races due to the longest Chicago teachers strike in decades. […]
“After being granted an exemption to run by the courts, the CPS runners and team earned their places in the State Meet,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a news release. “However, given that they were not initially eligible to compete per IHSA rules, it seemed like a fair gesture to reward the individuals and team who lost their qualifier spots to them. We believe this is a fair recourse given the unique circumstances.”
* Tuesday…
Hours after saying Chicago Public Schools runners “earned their places” at the state finals after a judicial intervention allowed them to run in qualifying races, the Illinois High School Association filed a legal appeal that could cause those runners to be removed from the meet.
In a filing late Monday, the IHSA asked the Illinois Appellate Court to reverse a temporary restraining order that allowed CPS runners to compete at last weekend’s sectional meets. The IHSA had initially barred the athletes because the teachers strike forced them to miss an earlier set of regional races that were the first step in cross-country’s postseason.
IHSA policy says athletes whose districts are on strike cannot compete, though an exception is made when strikes begin after the start of the postseason. Cook County Judge Neil Cohen called that an arbitrary distinction in ruling that the CPS runners could compete in sectionals. […]
While the court’s timetable is unclear, [IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson] said in an interview that if the organization wins its challenge before Saturday’s state finals, it might bar the CPS runners from participating.
* Wednesday…
A former Olympian who still holds the fastest time in state cross-country history pleaded with the Illinois High School Association on Wednesday to allow Chicago Public Schools runners to compete in the state meet.
“(Don’t) be hamstrung by rules and laws and bylaws, but use some common sense, use some compassion and, most of all, think about what’s in the best interest of the innocent student-athletes involved here,” said Craig Virgin, who set the record running for Lebanon High School in 1972 and went on to make three Olympic teams. […]
As for the IHSA’s concern about setting a rule-breaking precedent, [Kevin Sterling, an attorney representing CPS runners] said the organization appears to be flexible when high-profile sports are involved.
He cited the IHSA board’s decision to allow the powerhouse football team from Simeon Career Academy to compete in the postseason even though the strike didn’t allow it to play eight games, as required by the organization’s rules.
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* Yvette Shields at the Bond Buyer…
Illinois piled a few billion dollars more onto its unfunded pension tab last year as contributions remain below the actuarial levels needed to keep it from falling further behind.
The unfunded liabilities rose to about $137 billion from $134 billion, according to a review of the preliminary actuarial valuation reports produced by the five funds that make up the state’s system. The reports were released over the last week. […]
The Teachers’ Retirement System accounts for $78.1 billion of the unfunded fiscal 2019 tab, up from $75.3 billion a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Segal Consulting. The funded ratio held nearly steady at 40.6% compared to 40.7% a year earlier. […]
The State Employees’ Retirement System, or SERS, accounted for $30.3 billion of the unfunded tab, down slightly from $30.4 billion a year earlier with the funded ratio growing slightly to 37.8% from 36.5%, according to the valuation report prepared by Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Co. The fiscal 2021 contribution was set tentatively at $2.35 billion, up from $2.3 billion this year and below an ADC level of $2.9 billion.
* Related…
* Competitive Illinois GO deal brings narrower spreads
* Illinois’ municipal market penalty eases in $750 mln bond sale
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