QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Sun Times: Ex-Daley deputy chief of staff gets probation for charity theft
Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s deputy chief of staff was spared a prison term Thursday for stealing nearly $100,000 from a Chinatown charity.
Gene Lee — a 65-year-old Chinatown leader who for years was an aide to Daley — was instead sentenced to five years probation by U.S. District Judge John Darrah, who said Lee’s 40 years of devoted community service counted in his favor.
Dozens of Chinatown residents who’d packed Darrah’s courtroom to show their support for Lee erupted in cheers and applause as the sentence was announced, prompting a stern rebuke from the judge.
Crain’s: Gloria Jean’s Coffees tries a comeback
Before there was Starbucks, there was Gloria Jean’s. Anyone who spent any time in a shopping mall around Chicago in the 1990s undoubtedly remembers the shops for the smell of sweetly flavored coffees that announced their presence like an industrial-strength air freshener. Then, of course, Starbucks took over America, and Gloria Jean’s faded away.
Today the home-grown original is trying for a comeback. The company, now owned by an Australian businessman, just opened its first non-mall location in Chicago, in a Loop storefront near the Art Institute. It hopes to build scores more in the Midwest soon.
“I used to go to Gloria Jean’s in Golf Mill when I lived nearby,” recalls Frank Hakimian, who popped over to the Loop store from the family-owned gem store he manages around the corner. “I’m glad it’s downtown now. It has a better smell, a better flavor than Starbucks.”
US News: Unemployment rates rise in nearly half of US states in August, though two-thirds gain jobs
Unemployment rates rose in nearly half of U.S. states in August, even as employers in two-thirds of the states added jobs.
The Labor Department says unemployment increased in 24 states, fell in 15 and was unchanged in 11. Hiring picked up in 35 states, while it fell in 15.
Unemployment rates can rise even when hiring increases if more people start looking for work and don’t immediately find jobs. The state figures suggest hiring was broad-based across most regions of the country last month, even as nationwide job gains in August were the weakest this year.
Belleville News Democrat: Highland teachers overwhelmingly vote to accept new contract, end strike
Students will return to Highland classrooms Friday after a six-day teachers’ strike was settled Thursday.
“The Highland Education Association would like to announce that there will be school in Highland tomorrow,” HEA President ShiAnne Shively said about 5:30 p.m. Thursday on the steps of the Highland Masonic Temple, which has served as the union’s strike headquarters.
The HEA ratified the three-year agreement by a 150-2 vote, ending the six-day teachers strike, which started Sept 11. It was the first teacher strike in the history of the Highland school district.
Chicago Business Journal: The wealthy have good news for Chicago, but (much) less of it for startups
Some good news for Chicago. The city’s very rich are bullish on Chicago’s economic future. But about the state of Illinois as whole, much less so, according to a new survey of 326 high net-worth investors in the Chicago area conducted between May and July of this year by Morgan Stanley’s(NYSE: MS) Wealth Management unit. For the purposes of this survey, Morgan Stanley defined “high net worth investor” as one with $100,000 or more in investable financial assets.
Noted Steve Austin, regional director for Morgan Stanley in Chicago: “Investors are beginning to feel more optimistic when it comes to the local economy.”
Indeed, some 85 percent of Morgan Stanley survey respondents said they believe the Chicago-area economy will get better or stay the same over the next 12 months. But only 46 percent of respondents believe the state of Illinois’ economy will improve or stay the same
Chicago Tribune: Clock ticking for Illinois to form state-run Obamacare exchange
Unless Illinois acts quickly, it will leave hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table that would go toward building its own health insurance marketplace, potentially upping the cost of coverage for nearly 170,000 Illinois residents.
State lawmakers, unable to break a yearslong standoff, have not passed a law authorizing a state-based exchange, the marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act that allow consumers to compare and buy health coverage, often with the help of federal tax credits.
As a result, Illinois was one of 36 states that relied on the federal government to host its marketplace on HealthCare.gov, the website that survived a disastrous launch late last year to enroll about 217,000 Illinoisans, 77 percent of whom received federal help.
Chicago Sun Times: More than 1.3 million in Chicago metro area live in poverty
Following a trend seen around the country, the percentage of people in Chicago living below the poverty line didn’t nudge from 2012 to 2013, according to new data.
About 14 percent of people in the Chicago metropolitan area, or more than 1.3 million people, lived below the poverty line in 2013, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. That’s nearly unchanged from 2012.
For children, the poverty rate is significantly higher. One in five children in Chicago lives in poverty.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
