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* Did you celebrate?…
Really some of my most underrated work. 3D modeling, texturing, and animating an Illinois shaped piece of popcorn has been my greatest achievement. https://t.co/Twuby2FbqD
— Bryant Morrison (@BryantDMorrison) January 20, 2023
* Here’s your morning roundup…
* Capitol News Illinois | At World Economic Forum, Pritzker plays role of Illinois’ ‘best chief marketing officer’: The governor and high-ranking members of his staff joined a bipartisan delegation of U.S. politicians and world business leaders with the goal of “promoting Illinois as a major player on the world stage,” Pritzker said in a call Thursday morning with media outlets back home.
* Sun-Times | Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison took $300K from nonprofit linked to Ken Griffin: What’s clear is that the organization received major funding from the similarly named ballot initiative committee, the Coalition To Stop The Proposed Tax Hike Amendment — supported by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin with more than $53 million and contributions from other wealthy conservatives. w
* WGLT | Watchdog seeks harsher penalties in wake of abuse at Choate: IDHS Inspector General Peter Neumer’s call to action comes on the heels of extensive reporting by Lee Enterprises, Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica last year that revealed a culture of abuse and cover-ups at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in rural southern Illinois. The news organizations detailed how uncooperative staff stymied the state’s ability to hold employees facing serious abuse allegations to account.
* Chicago Reader | City offers relief to Chicagoans saddled with debt tied to administrative violations: Two new programs offer ways to get out from under a pile of tickets for things like playing your radio too loud, littering or having an overflowing dumpster.
* WICA | Danville’s future casino expected to bring in millions of dollars annually: Rickey Williams, Danville’s mayor, knows the income will make a big difference and others feel the same. “There’s going to be people from Indiana, Chicago area, everywhere coming into the casino. Spend money in our community, stay in our hotels, eat our food,” Tim Dudley, Vermilion Advantage’s CEO, said.
* Crain’s | Different visions, different tactics as mayoral hopefuls debate: They agreed that crime has become a huge problem, but disagreed over how huge and what the solution is. They all deplored high taxes and, in general, promised that they would not raise them further. And with one exception, the candidates asserted that incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot has done a bad job—that exception being Lightfoot herself, who gave back as good as she got.
* Tribune | In first Chicago mayoral debate, challengers attack Lori Lightfoot’s record while she aims to ‘finish the job we have started’: The televised debate marked the first opportunity for all nine candidates to explain their positions to Chicago voters and draw contrasts with one another. Lightfoot, who is facing public concerns about crime, dissatisfaction with her leadership style and anger over some broken promises, often took the brunt of attacks as she sought to defend her record.
* Sun-Times | Crowd nine: Lightfoot paints rosy view of future in first TV debate — but eight rivals slam thorny past: The mayor acknowledged “people in the city don’t feel safe,” but urged voters to stick with her for a second term. “We have started to change Chicago around for the better.” But her rivals slammed her over high crime rates they say are scaring families and companies away from the city.
* Tribune | Amtrak is eyeing new rail cars for long-distance trains through Chicago: The purchase, which could be valued in the billions of dollars, would upgrade cars that in some cases have been in use for 40 years, according to the passenger rail service. It could also be one step toward improving on-time performance, though other efforts are also needed, Amtrak board Chair Anthony Coscia said.
* Crain’s | City Council approves fund to redevelop LaSalle Street storefronts: The ordinance, approved unanimously, tweaks the rules of the city’s Small Business Improvement Fund to designate the LaSalle Street corridor, which includes several adjacent streets, as an eligible area to receive the grants, paid for using tax-increment financing funds.
* Crain’s | A worrying sign for U.S. consumers: Discover jolts investors with bleak forecast: Discover Financial Services jolted investors today with a projection that defaults on its consumer loans will roughly double in 2023. Credit card companies like Riverwoods-based Discover experienced extraordinary growth in loan balances from their card customers last year. In Discover’s case, growth topped 20%, and card loans now exceed $90 billion. Investors are jittery about whether consumers are taking on too much debt in the face of inflationary pressures and with the potential for more job losses as the economy slows this year.
* Wall Street Journal | Airlines Are Bumping a Lot More Passengers Lately: More U.S. passengers are being bumped from their flights, reversing steady industrywide improvement and adding to the broader frustrations many have with airlines. The Wall Street Journal’s annual airline scorecard found that airlines have been bumping fliers more often than the previous year, and the comparable prepandemic period. This happens when more people are scheduled to fly than there are available seats.
* Sun-Times | Civilian oversight agency seeking video of off-duty CPD detective shooting at suspected thieves in Irving Park: Just before 3 a.m. on Dec. 6, the off-duty detective called 9-1-1 and reported firing twice at “some auto theft” in the 2800 block of West Grace Street.
* Crain’s | Chicago Bears ‘focused’ only on Arlington Heights stadium: Warren also spoke of the need to come up with a “very creative solution to our stadium situation and create an atmosphere that becomes a 365-day environment.” The Bears have yet to close a 326-acre land deal for the Arlington Heights racetrack, which they agreed to buy for $197.2 million in 2021.
* Illinois Times | New 988 hotline has expanded mental health services: Nonprofit MBH, which has answered calls funneled through the national suicide prevention hotline for years, expanded its resources to do so in summer 2022 with federal funding connected to the July 16 launch of the three-digit crisis-care number.
* Crain’s | MacKenzie Scott reveals her Chicago donation spree: Since 2020, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated around $273.7 million to 30 Chicago nonprofits, schools and other organizations, revealing for the first time the extent of her giving spree here.
* The Honest Broker | Did the Music Business Just Kill the Vinyl Revival?: The level of greed is off the charts. Because it’s so hard to make money in music nowadays, the labels have decided to squeeze as much cash as they can from vinyl fans. This is one area where Spotify and Apple don’t call the shots, so why not charge twenty dollars for vinyl? Or maybe thirty dollars is better. Hell, let’s ask for forty, and see who will buy?
* Sun-Times | Why did Charles Manson order killings? NU psychologist, other experts offer a new take: Chicago psychologist Alan Friedman is among experts who reviewed a 1997 prison exam and are challenging the belief that Manson was schizophrenic. Manson was convicted of orchestrating the 1969 killings of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles.
* SJ-R | ‘We’re trying our best to stay in business:’ Home of private, fine dining club up for sale: “I’m not good at predicting the future,” club president Jim Ackerman said about listing the two-story building at 227 E. Adams St. with Hurwitz Enterprises Commercial Real Estate. “We’re trying our best to stay in business.” “We aren’t limiting our options. If somebody buys it and says they’d like us to stay, we’ll stay. If it’s bought and they said go, we’d go. Our membership has shrunk over the past decade. We have more building than we need.”
posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 8:09 am
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Good luck Chicago. That debate showcased awful candidates.
Comment by Amalia Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 8:34 am
I hope the cancellation works out for Des Plaines.
Around these parts a little more than a decade ago, we had the same religious hardliners playing these games in our area. Some of them were the exact same members as those in Awake right now.
They came to the village trying to rent public meeting space, to hold a religious ceremony. They were publicizing their application process before the fact in an antagonistic tone. The goal was to drum up anger and get the local gov to deny them a meeting space based on the religious content, and then file a 1st amendment lawsuit.
Thankfully, smarter heads prevailed and just ignored their antagonism. People they thought would oppose them and demand the village deny their application, instead told them to go ahead with their meeting as long as they had the application fee. The only people who showed up to their eventual meeting were the handful of people who filed the application. Once they finally realized nobody cared about their meeting/ceremony, they stopped trying. The meeting wasn’t their goal, the antagonism to generate a lawsuit was their goal. Later they tried to start lawsuits using the Americans with Disabilities Act, trying to sue public agencies for failures. That didn’t work either.
Similarly, the Awake event with a $5 donation for entrance was never about the meeting. It’s about the antagonism. Hopefully the public safety angle cited by the host as a reason to cancel the contract holds up legally for them. Unfortunately, it also prolongs their victimization claims and will keep them around for a while longer.
Awake is like those commercial mascots in the old Simpsons episode that are destroying the town. The destruction is real, but once people simply stopped paying attention to their antagonism, their interest in continuing went away. Unfortunately, it seems that just meant they went somewhere else to try again hoping to find their mark.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 8:39 am
I did not know that yesterday was National Popcorn Day, but by sheer coincidence I popped some corn for a snack last night.
Comment by JoanP Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 9:01 am
I wish we’d stop talking about the Bears. The Cowboys play in Arlington. The Niners are in Santa Clara. The Jets and Giants are in New Jersey. The Dolphins are in Miami Springs. The Patriots are in Foxborough (having started their lives as the Boston Patriots).
It just isn’t a big deal for an NFL team to be in a suburb of a major city. Let the billionaires go build their megaplex where there is space to do so.
Most Bears fans watched the games on TV. Most of the ones that went to games drove from the suburbs anyways. Life goes on.
(Also, no handouts to billionaires)
Comment by Homebody Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 9:36 am
I am not sure how to respond to the cancellation of the Awake IL gathering.
I am sincerely glad when hate is not given a public forum that reached beyond those who hate. I prefer to maintain boundaries in such cases.
But denying people venues for expressing and navigating their beliefs often serves to entrench those beliefs (e.g., I am certain a lot of Awake IL people feel they are oppressed), and this will reinforce those beliefs. I cannot see hate diminishing as a result of this decision. It will also justify their beliefs that people can be excluded, denied, etc.
In comparing the two symbolic gatherings that have recently been cancelled, the first (the Drag event) was premised on what I refer to as “rules of inclusion;” openness and acceptance. The later (the Awake IL event) was premised on “rules of exclusion.” One was premised on creating community, the other on defining limits on community.
Comment by H-W Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 9:44 am
I’m not in favor of cancelling it, I would rather everyone from the mayor on down treat the event like the joke it is and just ridicule them.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 9:55 am
With four,000 pokies and hundreds of table games, you are sure to come across a game you adore.
Comment by 안전카지노사이트 게임 Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 10:15 am
Morrison has become a gigantic embarrassment to the Cook County GOP and State party. This guy needs to resign from all party leadership positions. After reading the story it’s very conceivable that he might have serious problems with the IRS.
Comment by Old time Independent Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 11:12 am
Th canceling of events is a dangerous precedent whether you agree with the group or not. It allows the message to be set forth that if there is political blow back then your group can’t meet. Isn’t the first amendment supposed to protect the politically unpopular.
Comment by Why IL doesn't work Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 11:16 am
Nice job Isabel!
Comment by Boone's is Back Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 11:20 am
From what little I know about Ron Onesti, but enough to know he’s a (self)promoter, I think this is more of a business decision rather than a public safety or cancel issue. Maybe he thought he would lose more from possible future business from people who might think he’s one of the Awake loonies and would not want to deal with him at the DesPlaines Theater or any other venue than he would make on this one event.
Comment by West Side the Best Side Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 11:43 am
Homebody - you are correct, of course, but I always was happy that in Chicago, if you were at the corner of State and Madison, all our professional sports teams (NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB0) played within 3 miles or so. Times do change though.
Comment by Paddyrollingstone Friday, Jan 20, 23 @ 1:52 pm