Over the past two years, the city of Chicago has struggled to care for destitute migrants arriving from the southern border. The majority, around 30,000, are from Venezuela, a South American country whose economy has collapsed.
But the number of Venezuelans in Chicago hardly compares to how many have migrated over the past decade to neighboring Colombia. Bogotá alone, the capital, has received more than 600,000.
This spring, I flew to Colombia to see how that smaller and less prosperous country has handled its Venezuelan influx. In Bogotá and Cúcuta, the largest Colombian city along the Venezuelan border, I interviewed more than 30 migrants and public officials, humanitarian leaders and scholars, most of them in Spanish. I also asked dozens of regular Colombians for their views on the migrant tide.
I found that Colombia initially rolled out the welcome mat and, by many measures, absorbed this population with little harm and many benefits. Nearly 1.9 million Venezuelans gained paths to formal employment as well as Colombia’s education and health care systems.
Kimberly Brown showed up early Monday morning to submit the signatures she collected to run for Chicago’s school board in District 4 — so early that the doors were closed and windows were covered with brown paper. […]
When the doors eventually opened, Brown was first in line among a couple dozen hopefuls who filed their nomination petitions with city election officials in the Loop for the official kickoff to the first-ever Chicago school board races.
Prospective candidates took turns presenting their piles of papers for counting; officials had to confirm at least 1,000 signatures before they could be submitted. Candidates have until 5 p.m. next Monday to file.
Some spoke with representatives from various special interest groups who were there observing, like the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, Chicago Teachers Union and Leadership with Educational Equity. Others soaked in the moment with family and friends.
As chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Insurance Committee, state Sen. Napoleon Harris III is a gatekeeper on legislation affecting the multibillion-dollar insurance industry.
Now the Flossmoor Democrat, a former NFL player, has joined the industry he’s helping to regulate — partnering with two men who run an insurance brokerage called the Maxx Group in the southwest suburbs, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. […]
[Sen. Harris’ committee] and the rest of the General Assembly recently backed a series of consumer-friendly industry reforms pushed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including banning what are called “short-term, limited duration” health insurance policies. According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, such policies are “designed to fill temporary gaps in coverage when an individual is transitioning from one source of coverage to another,” and generally are not “subject to the consumer protections.” […]
John Patterson, a spokesman for Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, the Oak Park Democrat who has also accepted campaign donations from the insurance industry, says Harris “has shown himself to be a knowledgeable, independent voice and has fostered conversations in the Insurance Committee that have led to pragmatic solutions that work.”
Maurice “Mo” Green, the senior director for civic and community engagement with the Democratic National Convention’s host committee, says efforts are on track to get all 12,000 volunteers needed to put on the convention in August.
“Within 14 days, we’ve had 6,000 applications completed,” he told Playbook. Applications are coming from senior citizens and young people from 16 to 24 years old. “And we’re getting a good amount of folks who are just really sort of nerdy about politics. Folks who want to see their political hero or political star,” Green said, ticking off “AOC, Cory Booker and Delia Ramirez” as some of the notables mentioned.
What they’ll be doing: Green says volunteers will be assigned to hotels, the United Center and McCormick Place, where they’ll be being “walking and talking billboards,” recommending where people can go and what they can do in Chicago.
*** Statehouse News ***
* Investigate Midwest | As Illinois session ends, lawmakers’ attempt to reinstate wetland protections fails: An Illinois bill, SB 771, or the Wetlands Protection Act, that would have reinstated those protections in the state passed in committee, but failed to make it to the chamber floors of the General Assembly. The bill will be considered again during the veto session this fall. “We’re definitely disappointed the legislature didn’t act right away,” said Jennifer Walling, executive director for the Illinois Environmental Council. “They need to. This is an election issue, and we could be in even worse shape with a different president.”
*** Statewide ***
* Crain’s | Illinois is poised to become the country’s quantum computing hub: After strategic early investments in the emerging technology, Illinois is poised to become the country’s quantum computing hub — with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and partners like Intersect Illinois, P33 and others leading the charge. John Atkinson, chairman of Intersect Illinois, and Meera Raja, VP of deep tech at P33, help break down how the state remains at the forefront.
* Business Insider | During summer my family moves from New York City to Illinois. Summer camp is more affordable there: My niece was sampling a wide variety of Parks Department camps — from filmmaking to STEAM to gymnastics to nature exploration, trying something new each week. In New York, such special-interest camps carry the price tag of a semester of college and require an hour of subway commuting for those of us who don’t live in midtown Manhattan. But in Illinois, a five to minute drive could take you to a butterfly farm program, a graphic novel workshop, a cabaret camp — you name it. For half-day programs in my sister’s town, the rates are $100 a week, and non-residents pay $130. Anyone living outside town, whether 10 minutes away or halfway across the country, pays the slightly elevated fee. For a full-day program, the price increases to about $200 (residents) or $230 (nonresidents) a week.
*** Chicago ***
* Bond Buyer | Lawmakers urge new path forward for transit agencies: Transit agencies across the country are being forced to deal with new trends in ridership, new travel patterns, and dwindling federal funds from pandemic- related relief that make the next few years crucial for bringing our nation’s transit system into the new world.
* Block Club | Construction 12 Hours, 7 Days A Week: Here’s What To Expect From Freedom Center Demolition: In May, after 43 years in operation, the Freedom Center printed its last issue of the Tribune. The newspaper company will finish vacating the building next month. Bally’s Casino has five demolition permits for the Freedom Center under review, one for each structure on the property. The demolition of the Freedom Center has been categorized as an “environmentally complex” demolition, which means the Chicago Department of Public Health will need to review and inspect the site for potential health and environmental impacts. If the site passes inspection, the health department will give approval for the Department of Buildings to issue the demolition permits, officials said Friday.
* Sun-Times | Season’s first heatwave arrives in Chicago this week: “Temperatures getting below the 90s is not in the cards until maybe next Sunday,” said David King, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville. Monday and Tuesday will be especially hot as temperatures hit the mid-90s. Making things hotter is the extra humidity headed our way, King said.
* NBC Chicago | Developers break ground at site of failed Chicago Spire project: The hole at 400 Lake Shore Drive at the site of the failed Chicago Spire project is in the process of being filled. A 72-story residential building will go up in its place. “It has been a very, very long time,” Don Biernacki, the executive vice president of Related Midwest, quipped. “But when you have a vision for great development, great architecture and great projects that are going to be meaningful to our great city, it takes a while for that to come to fruition.”
* Block Club | The Bean Scheduled To Reopen At The End Of June: “We are happy to share that final Plaza construction work is nearly completed on a comprehensive rebuild of the Plaza podium including new stairs, accessible ramps, paver replacement, a waterproofing system and accessibility upgrades to Grainger Plaza. Weather-permitting, we expect to reopen the Plaza to the public before the end of the month,” Madeline Long, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events spokesperson, said in an email. If completed on schedule, the Bean will open just in time for the 20th anniversary celebration of Millennium Park, which will run July 18-21.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Daily Herald | ‘Empty does not mean unloved’: Is piece of DuPage’s farming past in jeopardy?: The white clapboard house seems like a pleasant hideaway in the shade of its namesake trees. Oak Cottage has stood empty for decades within the Greene Valley Forest Preserve “But empty does not mean unloved,” lifelong Naperville resident Jane Ory Burke said. Guardians of DuPage County history have long called on the forest preserve district to make the cottage — the center of the home was built circa 1850 — accessible to the public. Earlier this month, the district hired an architectural firm to assess the condition of the structure.
* Daily Herald | After public dust-up between officials, second District 59 school to get cop: After a public dust-up between a Northwest suburban school district superintendent and Elk Grove Village’s mayor over the latter’s push to add a school resource officer to a junior high, now the school board — controlled by the mayor’s son — has approved hiring a cop to walk the hallways of another school. A Mount Prospect police officer will be assigned to Holmes Junior High School for the start of the new school year in August, under an intergovernmental agreement approved last week by the Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 board and pending a vote by the Mount Prospect village board.
*** Downstate ***
* WSIL | More than a Dozen Communities Issued Boil Water Orders in Southern Illinois: A boil water order has been issued to more than a dozen communities after a water main break in Benton, Illinois. The Rend Lake Conservancy District (RLCD) stated the water main break occurred on Sunday. The leak was reportedly found in Benton on the water transmission line which serves multiple communities in Franklin and Perry counties.
* SJ-R | Lincoln residents urge state officials to keep state prison in town, halt move near Chicago: Illinois Department of Corrections acting director LaToya Hughes confirmed that the location and facility design have yet to be finalized during a public meeting in Lincoln the prior evening. She and the department are adamant that Logan employees will be able to keep their jobs, stating there will be 850 open positions within a 90-mile radius including the neighboring men’s facility, Lincoln Correctional Center, and the Decatur Correctional Center.
* ABC | Suspect in shooting of 3 deputies in Illinois had multiple firearms, sheriff says: A man accused of shooting and wounding three sheriff’s deputies during a standoff at a home in northern Illinois had multiple firearms in his possession, authorities said. A fixed-blade knife, pepper spray and ballistic armor also were found following Wednesday’s shooting in the Lost Lake community near Dixon, the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
* WSIL | Marion woman talks about being homeless for 13 months and the woman who helped her find a home: Rhonda Sturgeon spent 13 months living in her truck, moving around to different parking lots trying to sleep. And doing so in the heat and the cold, not knowing if, or when it would end. […] “I had it made before I ended up with cancer and then after I went through everything with it and trying to trust people to pay my bills,” she said. […] If you ask assistant director Tammy Dodd, she’d tell you she’s nobody special. But to Sturgeon, Dodd has been one of the few people she can count on.
*** National ***
* WGN | George Strait concert breaks US attendance record held by rock band since 1977: Country music star George Strait broke the record for the most-attended ticketed concert in the United States on Saturday night, playing for a crowd of 110,905 fans at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. […] Strait, whose upcoming album “Cowboys and Dreamers” is due out later this year, is no stranger to the record books. He’s among the top-selling country artists of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and he’s accumulated more gold- and platinum-certified albums than only a handful of artists in any genre.
* Popular Information | Sinclair floods local news websites with hundreds of deceptive articles about Biden’s mental fitness: Articles produced by Sinclair’s National Desk are published at the exact same time on every local website. The June 10 article, for example, was published on each website at exactly 9:24 AM Eastern. This suggests these articles are automatically syndicated, and local journalists at affiliates are not able to exercise editorial discretion. When these articles are syndicated, they appear alongside identically formatted articles on local government, weather, and sports.
Monday, Jun 17, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Retail provides one out of every five Illinois jobs, generates the second largest amount of tax revenue for the state, and is the largest source of revenue for local governments. But retail is also so much more, with retailers serving as the trusted contributors to life’s moments, big and small.
We Are Retail and IRMA are dedicated to sharing the stories of retailers like Mark, who serve their communities with dedication and pride.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA), in partnership with the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, has released a new master plan for the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield aimed at maintaining the core functions of the Fairgrounds while increasing its year-round events, attendance, and revenue generation.
“The Illinois State Fairgrounds draw hundreds of thousands of visitors from all around the world,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “When combined with the $58.1 million we invested in repairs and improvements, this master plan not only creates a future-focused blueprint for continued growth and success, but it also ensures that the Illinois State Fairgrounds are among the best in the nation.”
The partnership to develop a master plan was spurred from a local community visioning initiative called The Next 10 that the Community Foundation launched in 2020 to spark fresh conversations about the Greater Springfield Area’s future. Reimagining the State Fairgrounds emerged as a centerpiece of The Next 10 because of its potential to ignite social and economic activity across the region.
“It is our responsibility to plan today for a strong and prosperous future for the Illinois State Fairgrounds,” said IDOA Director Jerry Costello II. “Partnering with the Community Foundation allowed us to develop thoughtful long-term options to revitalize the Fairgrounds and ensure that generations to come enjoy these 366 acres that showcase Illinois agriculture, the state’s number one industry.”
Proposed improvements to the Fairgrounds include the creation of a “Town Square” south of the Midway to improve aesthetics and navigability of the grounds, development of an onsite hotel property, and expanded staffing to include dedicated sales and marketing functions.
The hotel, if deemed feasible, would be inside Gate 10, which is on Sangamon Ave. near the western edge of the fairgrounds. The plan also suggests a future Racino, “if desired.”
A. Existing pole barns (opposite Grandstand) and Junior Home Economics Building should be removed.
B. Consider 2 tiers of facilities – those that can attract higher-impact events and the balance that are more affordable and appeal to ag-oriented activities.
C. Although a detailed building analysis was not conducted, renovation of Exposition, Orr, Artisans and Illinois Buildings should be undertaken. Bathroom facilities across the campus need improvement.
D. Conservation World should be cherished and preserved.
E. Route 66 attraction, as proposed, will attract year-round visitation to the Fairgrounds site.
F. Happy Hollow should be enhanced.
G. Proximity and access of parking to facilities needs to be improved. Flooding issues in the infield should also be mitigated to support parking.
H. Campgrounds could be expanded to support events and 365-day utilization.
I. An onsite hotel property with ~200 keys should be contemplated (subject to a detailed market and feasibility analysis).
Operational Improvements
A. Critical to ongoing success is to expand staffing to include dedicated sales and marketing functions.
B. Consider a dedicated funding source.
C. Pursue opportunities for additional partnerships and sponsorships, not only of the Fair but of the Fairgrounds themselves.
Campus Strategies
A. Create a “town square” south of the Midway and develop intentional,
streetscaped “pedestrian malls” - enhance the customer experience and
eliminate “front door”/ “back door” issues.
B. Enhance the entry experience.
C. Improve curb appeal - upgraded and updated fencing and enhanced
landscaping.
D. From a thematic standpoint, all Fairgrounds facilities and uses should be
associated.
E. Create a cohesive and navigable wayfinding system.
Big Ideas for the Future
A. Develop a new +/- 200,000 SF multi-purpose venue that will be a statement building.
B. Industrial property at the northeast of the Fairgrounds, should be acquired and used for empty trailer parking.
C. If desired, a Racino could be contemplated on the Fairgrounds property
The typical Black household in the Chicago area has nothing to fall back on, its assets and debts adding up to zero, according to a new report.
“They’re living check to check,” said Darrick Hamilton, director of the Institute on Race, Power & Political Economy at the New School in New York, which produced the report.
According to the institute’s research, Black households are far less likely to own stocks, individual retirement accounts and homes than most other racial and ethnic groups surveyed, and they have the least in liquid assets. […]
The median wealth of white households in the Chicago area, by comparison, is $210,000. That’s according to “Color of Wealth in Chicago,” a report the institute will release today at the Chicago Community Trust. The trust was the primary funder of the research for Hamilton’s report on Chicago, the sixth in a series covering major U.S. cities. The others were released between 2012 and 2015 and thus don’t compare directly to the Chicago report, Hamilton said, because they’re pre-pandemic and the Chicago data was collected in 2022-23.
Many studies focus on income, but it is wealth that better positions families (and individuals) to finance elite educations, access capital to start a business, pay for expensive medical procedures, reside in higher amenity neighborhoods, exert political influence; purchase better counsel if confronted with an expensive legal system, leave a bequest, and withstand many financial hardships resulting from any number of emergencies or shocks, including a global pandemic.
With the goal of informing policy and systems changes that reduce the racial wealth gap and move the Chicago region toward shared prosperity, our study examines the relative wealth, asset, and debt positions of Black, Mexican (born in the US and abroad), Puerto Rican and White families across 10 counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. […]
White families in Chicago have drastically better wealth outcomes than all others with over five times the amount of wealth as Mexican American families, the group with the next highest level of wealth. Black families have a net worth (or wealth) of $0, which means that at the median, Black families’ debts cancel out their assets.
Many tout education as the solution to the racial wealth gap, but often the racial wealth gap increases at higher levels of education. For example, when comparing respondents without bachelor’s degrees, White families have $135,700 more wealth than Black families. However, this gap increases to $260,000 for Black and White respondents with a bachelor’s degree. […]
Chicago’s wealth gaps are primarily driven by assets – specifically, the outsized accumulation of assets by White families. While White families in Chicago have a median asset value of $325,500, the assets of the other groups examined in our survey range from $20,000 to $128,000.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2022, almost 40% of Black Americans owned stock, up from about a third in 2016, per Federal Reserve data. Similarly, a survey by Ariel Investments and Charles Schwab revealed that the growth is led by young investors under 40. Approximately 70% of the survey’s Black participants under 40 were investing, compared to 60% of their white counterparts in that same age group. […]
Despite the notable amount of Black stock buyers, the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances data suggests that the amount of money put into stocks is still small. As previously reported by theGrio, the median wealth for Black families increased by 60% between 2019 and 2022. Yet Black families’ median wealth is still $240,100 less than the median wealth of white families.
Though Black people may not be putting as much money into their stocks, the group’s desire to buy stocks and make good investments continues growing thanks to social media, according to the Finra Investor Education Foundation.
* Mayor Brandon Johnson today announced a $500,000 task force to study the issue…
Ahead of Juneteenth, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed Executive Order 2024-1, establishing a Reparations Task Force to develop a Black Reparations Agenda. This Task Force is an example of the Administration’s dedication to co-governance, and in partnership with members of the Aldermanic Black Caucus, the Mayor’s offices of Equity and Racial Justice and Business, Economic and Neighborhood Development, and other key City departments, will conduct a comprehensive study and examination of all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to present day and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies.
Since Pritzker’s office initially announced the administration’s intent to demolish and rebuild the prisons in March, IDOC has given few additional details on plans, which officials say are still taking shape. But a late April filing to the legislative body that oversees state finances and facility closures revealed the administration is leaning toward rebuilding Logan on the same grounds as Stateville in Chicago’s far southwest suburbs.
Attendees of Thursday evening’s hearing took the opportunity to make their position on that idea clear, frequently mentioning the potential economic impact of losing the prison in the same breath as recent closures of two private colleges in Lincoln.
“Governor Pritzker, if you move forward with your plan, you will be the assassin that kills Lincoln, Illinois,” retired Logan staffer Shannon Kelly said to thunderous applause from the audience.
Legislation banning long-term and costly real estate listing agreements — like those peddled in Illinois by M.V. Realty, a Florida company — has been passed in the state House and Senate and now needs only Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature to become law.
The bill, SB3420, passed in May, would make it illegal for people or companies to enter unfair listing agreements with homeowners. Real estate listing agreements would be prohibited if they ran more than a year into the future. And any agreements could not bind future owners of a property.
Violators could be prosecuted under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
For homeowners who’ve already signed an agreement, the legislation would provide a way out. Homeowners would be able to ask a judge to void the agreement, making it unenforceable.
Transgender Illinois residents may soon have a path to change birth certificates that were issued in other states.
That’s if Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs a bill recently passed by state lawmakers.
The bill allows Illinois residents to get a judicial order to alter the name and sex on birth certificates and other documentation issued in another state.
Currently in Illinois, the process no longer requires certification from a health professional, making it easier to request this change.
Mike Ziri, director of public policy for Equality Illinois, said supporters hope the bill will clear up some confusion over who has the authority to provide these court orders.
More than 300,000 Illinois residents stand to be cleared of all outstanding medical debt through the creation of the Medical Debt Relief Pilot Program Fund ready to be sent to the governor.
Sponsored by state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, House Bill 5290 seeks to alleviate medical debt for families across the state residing in households with individuals falling below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level or saddled with medical debt equating to 5% or more of their household income.
“It makes people afraid to go to the doctor, afraid to follow up on chronic illnesses that need consistent care when people are getting all kinds of bills every time they go to the hospital that they will never be able to pay,” Simmons told The Center Square.
If approved by the governor, the five-year pilot program will work with a nonprofit to use $10 million to pay off up to $1 billion in medical debt.
Legislation that creates a state regulatory framework for carbon capture and storage projects, plus a moratorium on pipeline construction, is headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
The Illinois Farm Bureau supported this legislation for ethanol and biofuel facilitation but not at the expense of private property rights or farmland easements without adequate compensation, Davis said.
The issue largely centers around the forced acquisition of pore space from the 25% of impacted landowners who do not agree to terms with the company seeking to sequester carbon. Though the bill calls for “just compensation” to be provided, many lawmakers believed the provision to not be strong enough. […]
The legislation does put a pause on carbon pipeline projects until after the federal government adopts final revisions to its pipeline safety rules or July 1, 2026, whichever comes first. On top of required federal permits, companies would also need to obtain a permit for sequestration from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
My wife and I could’ve never guessed a blood test would send our world crashing into a fatal diagnosis for our sweet 2-year-old.
Andrew has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare, degenerative genetic condition that affects 1 in every 5,000 babies, predominantly boys. Duchenne results in wheelchair use by preteen years and death by early adulthood. […]
I don’t want another family to endure the same life-altering recalibration years after their sons are born. They shouldn’t have to wait, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker can make that a reality. Late last month, both houses of the General Assembly unanimously passed Senate Bill 2658, which will add Duchenne to the state’s newborn screening requirements. Sen. Julie Morrison and a group of bipartisan lawmakers led the way.
Now, it’s headed to the governor’s desk. This law would give all Illinois babies with Duchenne a chance at active lives.
* These are all long, involved and vitriolic posts that, I fully admit, I cannot make myself read in their entirety. So, I’m outsourcing the task to you. What the heck is this about?…
Monday, Jun 17, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Uber is leading the charge to close critical transportation gaps, ensuring reliable access to its services in places that need it most, such as underserved areas like Englewood. This is a part of Uber’s broader commitment to augment and expand the reach of Chicago’s transportation ecosystem, focusing on overcoming the first-mile/ last-mile hurdles that have long plagued residents in farther afield neighborhoods. Uber aims to extend the public transit network’s reach, making urban transportation more accessible and efficient for everyone. Discover the full story on how Uber is transforming city transportation for the better.
Chicago – On Tuesday, PETA founder and President Ingrid Newkirk will celebrate her 75th birthday as only she would: by driving through Chicago—once home to America’s largest stockyards—in “Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s life-size pig transport truck covered with images of real pigs crammed into crates on their way to slaughter. The vexatious vehicle will blast actual recorded sounds of the animals’ panicked screams outside The Wiener’s Circle—but the wurst is yet to come for the city’s meat-centric eateries, as Newkirk will cap off the afternoon by giving away delicious vegan Chicago-style hot dogs from Portillo’s along the Magnificent Mile.
Where: Outside The Wiener’s Circle, 2622 N. Clark St., Chicago
“What was supposed to be a simple storage warehouse for the Metra transit agency has now buried the nation’s fourth-busiest commuter rail system in a sinking money pit, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.”
The Chicago broadcast station’s scoop last week is an almost perfect encapsulation of why northeastern Illinois’ mass transit fiefdoms need to be busted and reformed.
For your background, the Chicago regional transit system is facing a steep $730 million fiscal cliff in fiscal year 2026, which starts a year from July 1. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and several legislators are demanding that, in exchange for any new operating money, the management of the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority all be reformed. They’ve all operated as fiefdoms for decades, resisting accountability, cooperation and any attempts to streamline management.
The CTA is the most well-known villain in the transit governance debacles, but it clearly ain’t alone.
Metra bought a south suburban warehouse for $6.8 million in 2020. The purchase did not follow any formal purchasing procedures because, apparently, Metra doesn’t have any. Nobody at Metra would even admit to knowing who touted the property, which was owned at the time by a Metra hand sanitizer provider.
“The [internal Metra report] also stated it could not identify which Metra staffer initially brought the Harvey warehouse property sale option to the Executive Leadership Team prior to its board approval,” ABC7 reported.
Was the property brought to the agency by an independent broker? “No,” Metra’s CEO Jim Derwinski told his board last month. “(T)his was mostly our engineering and materials management team out looking for something that was available,” Derwinski said, according to the ABC7 report.
Unreal.
“Derwinski said the agency was facing potential layoffs of its workforce [during the pandemic], and Metra’s executive leadership team saw the building purchase as an opportunity to repurpose employees to work on and make improvements to the warehouse,” the station reported. Um, they have no union contracts over there?
Metra bought the property “as is” and has since spent another $11.1 million. But the property will require “tens of millions of dollars more to finish” and will take at least two more years, the report continued.
OK, look, Harvey definitely needs investment. And I will be the first to admit our state procurement laws are an unnecessarily complicated mess. Small businesses and nonprofits simply do not have the ability to navigate those laws unassisted, which makes handing out grants an excruciating process.
But, I mean, what the heck is going on over there? Metra is throwing tens of millions of dollars at a warehouse without any sort of purchasing process? The board seemed to be surprised at how deep a hole the agency had dug itself into during its meeting last month. That’s a massive failure by the board, but where the heck are the operating rules?
The thing that just completely blew my mind about the ABC7 story was Derwinski’s cavalier attitude about the taxpayer money it had spent and is committed to spending in the future.
Metra was running short on operating dollars during the pandemic, Derwinski explained, so the agency “saw an opportunity to shift workforce into this building at that period of time to keep them working under capital dollars.” The original purchase was made with state Rebuild Illinois bond funds.
“The fiscal cliff is an operating dollar problem,” Derwinski said. “The capital dollar side about making, taking care of the assets that we’re entrusted to take care of, that’s this conversation right here. The fiscal cliff, it’s real. It’s big. But that really has to do with the operation.”
Excuse me, but how the heck is the state government supposed to trust Metra to spend a massive operations bailout wisely when it’s blowing tens of millions of capital dollars on a boondoggle with no discernible process and almost criminally lax oversight and shrugging it all off as no big deal?
* ICYMI: Speaker Welch asks IL high court to toss ruling barring Dems from blocking many GOP candidates from fall ballot. Cook County Record…
-A notice of appeal filed by Welch and his attorneys said the Speaker is asking the court to vacate the order issued by Sangamon County Judge Gail Noll, which blocked Illinois election authorities from enforcing the new law.
-The case was appealed directly to the Illinois Supreme Court after Noll declared the law to be unconstitutional.
- No documents yet filed offer insight into the arguments Welch and his legal team will use to challenge Judge Noll’s reasoning on appeal.
-Welch’s lawyers followed up with a petition filed June 13, asking the court to accelerate the appeal proceedings so briefing in the case is completed in about a month.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Al Llorens | Illinois just took a vital step forward for safer schools : The General Assembly recently passed legislation, Senate Bill 1400, meant to address the unintended consequences caused by another bill that was passed, SB 100. This is a monumental step toward addressing challenges surrounding student discipline and educator safety. This legislation not only provides much-needed oversight and guidance in handling disciplinary issues but also acknowledges the alarming statistic that 20% of teachers and support staff have been assaulted on the job in the last five years. The fact that 1 in 5 teachers and support staff members have experienced physical and verbal assault is unacceptable and indicative of a systemic problem that demands urgent attention.
* Tribune | CTA could play a key role in reducing Chicago emissions. But first, it will have to get riders back.: The Regional Transportation Authority doesn’t project the region’s ridership will come back this decade. In 2022, the agency estimated ridership could hit 74% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2031 if current circumstances persist, though RTA staff said the figures are likely conservative. In May, the CTA carried 69% of the passengers it transported in 2019.
*** Statewide ***
* Center Square | Pritzker says bump stock ruling won’t affect Illinois: Pritzker said Illinois lawmakers need not take action but elsewhere is a different story. “I do think it’s going to spur action at the state level as well as the federal level to try to once again ban bump stocks,” said Pritzker. “Here in Illinois we’ve already done that, we do not need to take action to fill in what the Supreme Court has taken away from other states.”
* WBEZ | Has performing arts employment in Illinois recovered from COVID-19?: About 1,000 fewer people report being employed by performing arts groups – that is, theater companies, dance companies and the symphony – compared to 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted widespread shutdowns. For the arts, those shutdowns lasted well into 2021. According to inflation-adjusted data, the performing arts industry generated about $555 million for the Illinois economy in 2022, an 11% decrease from 2019.
* Crain’s | Intersect Illinois appoints members to new ‘CEO-centered’ board: The organization announced three new appointments to its board of directors. Michael Sacks, chairman and CEO of GCM Grosvenor; Smita Shah, president and CEO of SPAAN Tech; and Kevin Warren, president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, were all named to the board to “help advance Intersect Illinois’ mission to attract new jobs and investment to Illinois,” the organization said in a press release.
* Farm Progress | State of Illinois cuts conservation funding: The operation budget for soil and water conservation districts across Illinois was cut nearly in half, according to Michael Woods, executive director for the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Those funds pay salaries for SWCD technical staff, the folks who leverage millions of dollars in federal conservation funding for farmers and landowners, serving as a conduit for funneling those dollars to conservation-minded landowners.
* Tribune | Will Bally’s planned $1.7 billion Chicago casino get built by 2026? The odds may be shrinking.: Responding to doubts raised this week by Mayor Brandon Johnson about the viability of the ambitious project selected by the previous administration to be the first Chicago casino, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said that the River West entertainment complex will be built as planned. […] Analysts and investors, however, are increasingly concerned that the permanent Bally’s Chicago Casino may be delayed or downsized, given an $800 million funding gap and a more challenging financing environment than when the project was awarded two years ago.
* Tribune | Chicago Teachers Union holds first-ever public bargaining session with CPS on ‘Green Schools’: The meeting, held Friday evening at Marquette Elementary School in Chicago Lawn, was the first of roughly six sessions in which the public was invited to participate between the district and the more than 30,000-member union of teachers and school employees. CTU’s proposal includes retrofitting buildings to fix aging infrastructure, adding central air conditioning for days of extreme heat, removing lead pipes, and installing solar or heat pumps to mitigate pollution in South and West side schools located near industrial corridors.
* Tribune | Verbal abuse, a ‘sex-driven’ culture: Ex-employees describe toxic environment at Guaranteed Rate: Multiple women who used to work at Guaranteed Rate, meanwhile, described working in a sexualized atmosphere where some male loan officers and managers made sexually explicit remarks to female employees, hit on them in the office or at work events, and commented inappropriately on their appearance — even, in one case, encouraging a woman to use her looks to help close a loan.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Daily Herald | Officials decry census’ population loss estimates in Northwest suburbs: “I don’t know how they’re looking at it,” said Palatine Village Manager Reid Ottesen. “It defies logic and defies the data we have.” While the census bureau estimates Palatine has lost more than 3,000 residents since 2020 — a 4.5% drop — Ottesen said the town has seen an increase of 47 residential water customers in the past 12 months alone.
*** Downstate ***
* Daily Southtown | Landmarks: Oldest standing bank in Illinois among ‘endangered’ state sites: The imposing structure, erected in 1838, that housed the state’s first bank now stands nearly alone in a place most residents abandoned more than 80 years ago. But it’s one of the properties at the heart of legislation awaiting the signature of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The bill would establish an appointed State Historic Preservation Board within the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, tasked with taking a hard look at the state’s historic properties.
* WREX | Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss Byron Generating Station 2023 safety performance: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold an open house and discuss the 2023 safety performance of Byron Generating Station. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its staff responsible for plant inspection and oversight, will be at the event to answer any questions and provide information to the community.
*** National ***
* The Hill | 171,300 patients traveled out of state for abortions in 2023: Out-of-state care accounted for more than 15 percent of the estimated 1 million clinician-provided abortion procedures between 2023 and March of this year, according to the data. That figure has more than doubled since 2020. […] States that border those with recent near-total bans, such as Kansas and New Mexico, saw a majority of abortions in their state be from out-of-state patients. Texas’s abortion ban is one of the most restrictive in the country.
* STLPR | Missouri is in the center of a national drug pricing battle — with billions on the line: In a battle that pits some of the biggest players in health care against each other, the Missouri General Assembly has come down on the side of hospitals who want unlimited access to discounted drugs for their pharmacies. On the last day of this year’s legislative session, the Missouri House passed a bill making it illegal for pharmaceutical manufacturers to refuse to supply the discounted medications to qualifying hospitals and health clinics and their contracted pharmacies.
