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Bloomberg: Battle for Coding Talent in Cornfields of Illinois Lures CME
The world’s largest exchange operator is going to college.
To ramp up its recruiting efforts, CME Group Inc. will on Sept. 9 open an office at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’sResearch Park, a technology epicenter that already hosts 101 finance, technology and agriculture companies. Students tapped to work on projects ranging from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to cloud computing.
By putting down roots in the cornfields of central Illinois, CME is drawing attention to the lengths that the giants of finance are going to to win programming talent. Quants and coders have driven trading toward the speed of light, a battle few firms can afford to ignore. Wall Street firms are fighting the likes of Google for the best hires, meaning any edge — say, an outpost 140 miles from CME’s Chicago headquarters — could help.
Sun-Times: Rauner signs bill creating human trafficking task force
Gov. Bruce Rauner labeled human trafficking a form of “modern day slavery” Sunday as he signed two bills targeting on a statewide level the crime of forced sexual exploitation.
“This is going to be a long-term battle,” Rauner said during an appearance at the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center. “But we have got to end this horrible crime, bring justice for everyone, stop — stop the abuse of our women and people who are vulnerable.”
Post-Dispatch: Where were you in '83? Michael Madigan was speaker of the Illinois House. And still is.
I want to spend a few minutes looking at 1983.
If you are younger than about 35, you probably cannot remember it at all.
But if you are like me, just a little older than that, you might recall “Scarface,” with Al Pacino, as the top movie. (Second: “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”) The top song? “Every Breath You Take,” by The Police. MTV was playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
Courier-News: Elgin adds 'transparency' page to city's website
The city of Elgin added a feature to its website Friday that officials hope makes it easier for people to find and request public information.
The transparency page at www.cityofelgin.org is based on community feedback and the Elgin City Council’s direction, Elgin multimedia specialist Molly Center said. It is designed to help residents quickly and easily find commonly requested public information and to reduce staff time involved with processing Freedom of Information Act/ requests, she said.
“The development of this page was requested by the City Council. While the majority of the information listed on the page was already available on our website, the city now has a one-stop shop for this commonly requested information,” City Manager Rick Kozal said.
Northwest Herald: Win for open government
Public records are public, even if they are stored in private locations such as a home email server or personal smartphone.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan earlier this month ruled in a binding opinion that Chicago police officers’ emails regarding the October 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald are a matter of public record even though they were transmitted from personal email accounts.
Indianapolis Business Journal: Hogsett seeks to eliminate city pensions
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett wants to do away with traditional pensions for future employees and replace them with a retirement option more like a private-sector 401(k) as a way to help erase the city’s multimillion-dollar deficit.
Current employees wouldn’t lose their pensions or be pushed into the new option. But those hired in the future would have only one choice: an annuity-based, defined-contribution plan that would include a smaller contribution from the city.
The change is allowed under a state law passed in 2015 and could save the city millions of dollars annually. It also means new employees would be in charge of how their money is invested, and they would become vested in the plan in five years rather than the current 10, something Hogsett hopes will attract younger employees.