Chicago Tribune: Segregation declines in Chicago, but city still ranks high, census data show
Racial segregation in Chicago neighborhoods has declined as more African-Americans have opted to move to the suburbs and more whites and Latinos have moved into historically black communities, an analysis based on new census data shows.
But while some Chicago neighborhoods have become more racially diverse, the city remains one of the most segregated large cities in the country, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the data.
Milwaukee ranks highest on the list of most segregated large cities and New York City ranks second, Frey’s data show. Chicago is third, and 76 percent of the city’s African-American population would have to move in order to achieve complete integration, the research shows.
RRStar: In 2016, how can we make local and Illinois government work for us?
Whenever I complain about government inefficiency, my liberal friends accuse me of being in a spell cast by David and Charles Koch. If I argue for government intervention of some kind, all of a sudden I’m criticized for spending weekends at Bernie’s — Sanders, that is. But that goes with the territory.
Actually I look at each issue separately, weigh all sides and make a decision — whose side am I on? Or maybe I develop my own position that incorporates elements of various viewpoints. But I don’t have a campaign, so I don’t have to kowtow to any special interests who give me money. I’m free to think as I want. No, the bosses don’t tell me what to write or what to avoid.
After covering politics, government and the people we elect to run the public sector for three decades and change, I have come to believe that most people are angry at government at some level, but they don’t want it to disappear. Rather, they want government to do efficiently the things that only government can do, let us do the things we can do better, and know the difference.
Chicago Tribune: Six-member juries? Not so fast, Illinois
Bad news for ambulance chasers in Illinois: A judge has thrown out the Plaintiffs Attorneys Enrichment Act, a law that slipped through the General Assembly last year disguised as a pay raise for jurors.
Cook County Associate Judge William Gomolinski ruled last week that lawmakers violated the Illinois Constitution by passing a measure that cut the size of civil juries in half.
The bill was hatched at the end of the 2014 lame-duck veto session, passed by both houses in two days without input from local governments, and signed into law by departing Gov. Pat Quinn.
WSJ: Why I’m Fighting My Teachers Union
I am one of 10 California teachers suing to end compulsory union dues in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which will be heard by the Supreme Court Jan. 11. Our request is simple: Strike down laws in 23 states that require workers who decline to join a union to pay fees anyway. In our view, paying fees to a union should not be a prerequisite for teaching in a public school. No one in the U.S. should be forced to give money to a private organization he or she disagrees with fundamentally. Teachers deserve a choice.
I have taught in public schools for nearly 30 years, mostly in California. I grew up in the Central Valley, and though I’m the son of two teachers and related to eight more, I didn’t think I’d choose a career in education. But when I went off to college, I started tutoring other students in math and realized that I was good at teaching and I really enjoyed it.
I’ve never regretted my decision. Sunday nights are joyous because I know I’ll be going to work in my classroom, with my students, on Monday morning.
The Southern: Illinois farm Bureau: Budget mess will affect 2016 ag priorities
As the state teeters on a fiscal ledge, farm leaders see little hope in sight of normalcy. The government is deep in debt, and few see a light at the end of the tunnel.
“We know that there are going to be tight times for all the ag programs and for agriculture’s operating budget.”
Southern Business Journal: 2015 was big business year; Restaurants, retailers and complexes made their way to the region
The past year in Southern Illinois has shown plenty of growth in the business sector in all parts of the region.
Marion and Carbondale brought in some big name companies, while towns like Murphysboro brought in a few local businesses to boost its tax base. Harrisburg made some big announcements as well with developments opening in 2016.
Sun-Times: Rahm's tax hike will slam 42nd Ward but spare most wards
With gleaming office towers and luxury condo buildings that dominate the skyline, the 42nd Ward is Chicago’s property tax king, paying one of every four tax dollars collected in the city last year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
Seven other wards — most of them ringing the 42nd Ward — accounted for another 25 percent of the city’s total property tax tab.
Al Jazeera: Chicago's historic property tax increase expected to burden working class
Helen Alexander tried to make her new apartment building a little nicer when she moved in a year and a half ago.
The 56-year-old grandmother scrubbed the hallways and planted a garden outside the four-unit building in the Belmont Craigin neighborhood on Chicago’s northwest side. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her 21-year-old granddaughter and shih tzu. A lifelong resident of Chicago, she can name the address of the house in which she was born.
“It’s scary,” Alexander said. “It’s scary when you not knowing where you’re going to be, where you’re going to go, and if you can stay in your apartment.”
News Gazette: Madigan rules by his rules
A reader asked why Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is so powerful in Illinois politics.
The fundamental answer is that virtually no piece of legislation introduced in either the House or the Senate by the other 176 lawmakers can ever be enacted into law without the speaker’s OK.
And this is because the House rules, adopted at the beginning of every two-year legislative session by a majority of House members, give Madigan control over every step in the process.
Sun-Times: IPRA chief Sharon Fairley to shake up senior leadership team
In an effort to boost community trust in the organization that investigates police-involved shootings in the city, the acting head of that agency said Sunday that she’s restructuring her leadership team.
Sharon Fairley, a former federal prosecutor, was expected to detail plans Monday to shake up the “senior leadership team” of the Independent Police Review Authority.
Bloomberg: llinois Record Budget Impasse Makes It Worse for the State's Pension Disaster
As 2015 draws to a close, Illinois marks half a year without a budget. No spending plan has driven up borrowing costs, sunk its credit rating, and perhaps worst of all, exacerbated the state’s biggest problem: its underfunded pensions.
Home to the least-funded state retirement system in the nation, Illinois has $111 billion of pension debt, which breaks down to more than $8,000 per resident. Partisan gridlock has produced the longest budget impasse in Illinois history. The stalemate has not only weakened state finances, it has kept lawmakers from finding a fix for those mounting liabilities.