Get the latest news headlines from around Illinois.
Bloomberg: Illinois, New Jersey Among Most Vulnerable in S&P Stress Test
Municipal-bond investors in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut have good reason to be worried.
The states are among those that S&P Global Ratings has deemed to have “only a limited capacity” to withstand the effect of a moderate recession, according to a report published by the credit-ratings company.
Daily Herald: Rosemont mayor's salary to rise to $260,000 a year next May
Rosemont Mayor Brad Stephens will be in line for a 53 percent pay raise if he is re-elected in April, the village board decided Wednesday.
The board unanimously approved salary increases for village elected officials, which includes Stephens’ projected new annual salary of $260,000, effective May 2017. Stephens, mayor since 2007, plans to run for re-election next April.
The Southern: Former Eddyville treasurer accused of theft, forgery claims she's suffering from amnesia
The former treasurer of this tiny Pope County village of about 100 people has been accused of stealing tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars by forging the signature of the village mayor and cashing government checks made out to herself.
But Kim Smith, 58, of Eddyville, who is facing five felony counts related to allegations of theft, is claiming she can’t remember anything at all about what happened.
A court document submitted by her attorney seeking a psychological examination to determine her fitness to stand trial states that Smith is suffering from retrograde amnesia, a medical condition indicating a loss of memory of all events and information taking place before the development of the condition.
Northwest Herald: Extend Election Day registration
Should voters in Iroquois County have the same voting opportunity as those in Cook County or McHenry County?
We would say yes, and most other Illinoisans probably would, too. Yet a law that makes voting easier for many Illinoisans leaves out voters in the state’s less-populous counties.
In Illinois, a law that was tested in 2014 and became permanent before the March primary requires that voters in counties with more than 100,000 people be able to register at their polling place and vote on the day of the election. The rule applies to 20 Illinois counties, with McHenry County among them. Voters in smaller counties are not locked out if they haven’t registered by Election Day, but they do have to go to the county clerk’s office to register and vote on election day.
Chicago Now: Illinois' slippery slope
Today is a mental health day away from Donald Trump. We can all rest confident and assured he will find some absurd antic to top the last. Finding something more stupid than implying using our Second Amendment Rights to eliminate one’s opponent is a hard act to follow, though.
Former Governor Rod Blagojevich did not get a day of his sentence reduced. It appears Judge Zagel was unmoved by his now gray hair and sided with the prosecution that the former Governor has never taken full responsibility for his crimes, and believes them to be in the gray area of politics.
There is another school of thought that the judge wants to send a stern message to other would-be crooks in Illinois politics. As I write this, it’s early, 7:30 in the morning and it’s always good to start one’s day with a laugh.
Bloomberg: Bill Gross’s Admonishment Supported By Illinois Pension Fund
Illinois’s largest public pension agrees with Bill Gross’s admonishment that it’s time to face up to the reality of lower returns and reduce assumptions about what funds can make off stocks and bonds.
Fund managers that have been counting on returns of 7 percent to 8 percent may need to adjust that to around 4 percent, Gross, who runs the $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, said during an Aug. 5 interview on Bloomberg TV. Public pensions, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest in the U.S., are reporting gains of less than 1 percent for the fiscal year ended June 30.
Illinois’s largest state pension, the $43.8 billion Teachers’ Retirement System, plans to take another look at how much it assumes it will make in the coming year as part of an asset allocation study, said Richard Ingram, executive director. Currently it assumes 7.5 percent, lowered from 8 percent in June 2014. Plans for the study were in place before Gross made his remarks.
The Southern: Now is time for veteran's court
“Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”
These words written by Abraham Lincoln provide a strong directive to us as U.S. citizens on how to treat those who served our country in the armed forces. However, all too often, our men and women in uniform return home afflicted with psychological issues related to their service only to find themselves lost, without guidance as to treatment options, or even ignored. Often times those afflicted with these problems turn to alcohol and drugs, which inevitably leads them through our criminal justice system. One way to help with this problem locally is to implement a veteran’s treatment court in the First Judicial Circuit, which comprises nine of the southernmost counties in Illinois.
A veteran’s court is a diversion court that provides a means to divert eligible veterans from the traditional criminal justice system and provide them support and rehabilitation through comprehensive substance abuse and mental health treatment, education, vocational programs, housing, childcare, and transportation, all while being judicially monitored.
John Kass: Obama's Illinois not the one Blagojevich knows
In the fantasy Illinois that America knows all too well, the political redeemer was found as an infant, floating in a reed basket along the banks of the Chicago River.
He came to manhood by drawing a magic sword from the cornerstone of a corrupt Chicago City Hall. And, later, promising to heal the broken politics of America’s cynical past, he became president of the United States.
But that’s President Barack Obama’s Illinois, a magical place where dreams really do come true.
Sun-Times: Emanuel brushes off renewed threat of a teachers’ strike
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday brushed off the renewed threat of a teachers strike and urged the Chicago Teachers Union to be “part of the solution” to the school system’s pension crisis.
Emanuel defended his decision to sign off on a $5.4 billion school budget that assumes teachers will agree to the two-year phaseout of a 7 percent pension payment by the Chicago Public Schools granted to teachers years ago in lieu of a pay raise.
Chicago Tribune: Who’s financing the fight against fair legislative maps?
If you run for a position on your local school board, Illinois’ campaign finance laws require that you disclose contributions and expenditures. You buy pizza with campaign funds for volunteers? You have to disclose it. You accept free signs from a friend who owns a printing shop? You have to disclose it. You spend $23.56 on gasoline to drive around collecting signatures? You have to disclose it.
That hasn’t been the case with one of the state’s most influential yet obscure groups. The People’s Map, a political organization formed to fight against independently drawn legislative maps, has not disclosed any contributions or expenditures on the forms it filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Little is known about the group — like who finances it, who pays the attorney and court fees, or how the group spends its resources.