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* Initial claims for unemployment aid rise to 465K
The rise suggests that jobs remain scarce and some companies are still cutting workers amid weak economic growth. Initial claims have fallen from a recent spike above a half-million last month. But they have been stuck above 450,000 for most of this year.
* Today last day for Illinoisans to apply for FEMA flood help
* Latest State Education Test Scores So-So
Students who took the ISAT, third graders through eighth graders last year, improved a bit. Overall student performance on the ISAT increased from 79.8 in 2009 to 80.9.
Fergus said that points to a bigger trend.“We’re continuing to see gradual increases in student performance over time – that’s what we look for and that’s what we’re seeing,” she said.
* Teachers Union: Chicago Neighborhoods Need a “Marshall Plan”
* CTU survey finds many woes at Chicago Public Schools
Larger class sizes. Inexperienced teachers. Substitute teachers. Trimmed back art, music and after-school programs.
Those are the problems “crippling'’ many Chicago Public Schools and “cutting our students off at the knees,'’ despite the positive spin school officials have put on a financially challenging school year, Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis told school board members Wednesday.
A new survey of CTU delegates at 146 schools - or 24 percent of the entire system - found that one out of three schools surveyed had substitute or “placeholder'’ teachers heading a classroom.
* CTU Survey Says: Chaos
* Sun-Times: A whole lot of room to make improvement
* Duncan on school violence: ‘I think it has gotten worse’
* Railing from riders has Metra rethinking UP North schedule
* Board OKs $111 mil. site for new Jones Prep
* Mayor’s political workers ponder future
“I was there when Harold Washington came in,” she said. “They do tend to get rid of everybody. They want their own people, and they’re entitled to them. But I have a lot of young people with children, and they’re shell-shocked. They probably should be looking [for jobs], but all they’re doing is thinking of looking.”
* Alderman Stone declares for re-election
* LeClercq seeks 2nd term as Oswego village president
* Clifton Mayor Frooninckx resigns; cites health reasons
* Loves Park manufacturing firm seeks TIF designation
* Belvidere schools, support staff reach three-year deal
* Crime up lately in R.I. neighborhood
* QC Leader comes clean about service
* Developer proposes life on the river in floating condos
* Quincy School Board approves $78.4 million budget
* McLean County board member Nuckolls arrested in ‘domestic incident’
* District 87: $1.3M deficit could vanish through taxes
* Peru explains electric rates and fees, responds to critic
* Bill Black won’t run for Danville mayor
* Champaign man considers run for mayor
* More cuts ahead for [Champaign] county government
* State Invests Federal Stimulus Funds to Build Supportive Housing for Charleston Seniors
* Construction begins on $12.5M assisted living facility in Charleston
* Mattoon sees 2.5 pct. rise in sales tax revenue
* Police find 3,650 pounds of marijuana during I-55 traffic stop
* Researcher: Meth decline not linked to campaign
* Decatur Township assessor again denied additional funds
* Madison County will spend $16.6 million to replace two housing projects
* Case of accused pot-dealing So. Ill. sheriff headed to jury
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:07 am
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Previous Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition and a campaign news roundup
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RE: Unemployment Claims
For those of you that watch such things, and to put the 465k new claims into perspective, when new claims are around 350k, the number of new jobs just cancels out the number of new claims. Until the new claims dip below 350k, the economy is shedding jobs.
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:18 am
That Texas trucker has an enemy somewhere along his route. Troopers with drug-sniffing dogs just don’t stop random trucks and miraculously find $3.5 million in pot.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:23 am
You do have to wonder, when you hear about government entitities like Madison County paying many millions to build new or newly rehabbed pubic housing projects if this is the best use of taxpayer money.
If Madison County is like most areas of Illinois post housing bubble has much vacant private housing which is falling apart, in foreclosure, awaiting a short sale, and so forth. When there is so much private housing available to be renovated and made available to those supposedly in need of housing support, why are taxpayers being ask to fund reconstruction of public housing. Somebody must be benefiting, not necessarily the taxpayer. Politicians and developer friends maybe?
Also, I thought we had learned from the Chicago
example that concentrating a lot of low-income folks in one small geographic area doesn’t work very well and, in many if not most cases, inhibits those residents’ movement into the middle class.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:32 am
cassandra,
I think you are on to something (not that the pinheads in government would listen, but that was Cassandra’s legend, right). There are a number of things about your proposal that are good:
Properties are cheap
Removing properties stabilizes housing prices
Unoccupied properties can blight a neighborhood
If tenants had a rent/option to buy deal, people would build equity for the future
Your comments on high-density housing are spot-on. Have we forgotten Cabrini-Green already?
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 10:51 am
First of all, comparing public housing in Madison County to Chicago is an apples to oranges comparison. While I do agree that public housing projects have their share of problems, down in this neck of Illinois it’s no Cabrini-Green.
Second, I get sick and tired of the snarky comments of people like Cassandra towards the poor “who supposedly” need housing support. They don’t “supposedly” need it - they need it. In some cases it isn’t people who are being inhibited from moving into the middle class, it’s people who have been steadily declining and have reached the poorer class. I know - my grandmother is one of them. You have a house one day and as you get older you move and eventually end up in a subsidized apartment as any savings you may have accumulated is drained slowly but surely.
Finally, I can’t stand the cynicism of people anymore. Of course the reason for the construction must be that somebody is on the take. Did you read the story? Did you notice that the project includes private investment? These housing projects are needed b/c it is just not a reality that you move all of these individuals to single-family housing.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:11 am
Despite well known data to the contrary, Madison Cty moves forward with outmoded, bankrupt idea of concentrated public housing? In East St Louis? Can’t we cut that part of the state off and let if float down the Mississippi?
Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:19 am
If Bill Black won’t run for Danville mayor, could he at least consider joining the four-dozen candidates for mayor of Chicago ? That’s an alternate universe in which I would love to live. For at least a day or two.
Comment by Linus Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:43 am
Demoralized,
You most certainly must be.
I do not see much snark in cassandra’s comments. But your comments point out why government is ever increasing in size, costs and burdens which results in huge deficits for ALL the people in Illinois to deal with.
Every program (not just public housing) has its proponents. Every program has beneficiaries. Every program has an anecdotal story like your grandmother’s. EVERY. SINGLE. PROGRAM.
This will sound harsh and cruel, but the government cannot be responsible for EVERYTHING bad in this world. There ain’t enough money in the galaxy to ease the pains of every individual. Given this fact, some must feel pain.
The deal Quinn just made with the state worker union just robbed the state of the ability to bring their pay into line with decreasing state revenue? One could argue that this deal stole money from the more needy.
My point is, government is not an answer, it is sometimes a problem that can only be overcome by individuals, families and friends taking care of one another. Don’t accuse cassandra of snark when (s)he is trying to think out of the box to help those people more unfortunate than (her)himself.
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:43 am
@Cincinnatus
While I agree with your overall assertion that Government is not always the answer, neither is the private sector, i.e. individuals, corporations, etc. There must be a safety net, without which a mass of our citizenry will be on the street, or your front lawn.
Comment by GetOverIt Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 11:59 am
GetOverIt,
Yup. Agreed.
BUT the explosion in the amount of things government is trying to do dilutes the ability of government to provide a true safety net. It seems the argument from out elected officials, and their special interest supporters, is the EVERYTHING is a vital function of government.
Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:08 pm
I didn’t say that affordable housing is not needed although I do think it is fair for taxpayers who must compete for housing in the private market and who also pay the bills of government to ask how government officials at every level define eligibility for free or very low cost public housing.
What I said, I’ll say again. Go for a drive anywhere but the country’s most affluent communities. Both rural and urban America are awash in foreclosed homes, abandoned homes, homes awaiting a short sale (forever), all of which need an infusion of cash in order to be habitable again. Illinois is no exception nor, I suspect, is Madison County in particular. To build new public housing in this environment is a poor use of scarce resources. Especially since we taxpayers will also have to pay for the demoliton of these derelict homes and we’ll have to make up for the loss of revenues caused by blight in the neighborhoods that surround them.
Comment by cassandra Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:14 pm
Cinci and cassandra -
You have a point that maybe we we should put people who need housing assistance into foreclosed homes. But who is going to pay for that? Also, do you think the neighbors are going to want subsidized housing next door?
Comment by late to the party Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 12:24 pm
Cassandra,
I think I may agree with you. I also wonder why more of the construction bubble surplus housing stock cannot be recycled into public or subsidized housing.
Although I keep hearing that the banks et al. have paid back their TARP money — most successful program in history, yada yada — the Fed still owns or is backstopping truckloads of those mortgage backed bonds, isn’t it? One way or another, government (we) wound up paying the bill big for all those unsellable structures. Failure to put empty houses to good use adds to my sensation of having been royally rolled in the great bailout.
I presume some government housing agencies have considered avenues for putting vacant foreclosed properties to public purpose. And as LTTP commented, I presume those agencies encounter people of means who bristle at poor people being subsidized to move in next door. I presume.
Comment by Ivory-billed Woodpecker Thursday, Sep 23, 10 @ 1:38 pm