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Chicago Tribune: Chicago losing population, could be overtaken by Houston as 3rd-largest
Chicago, the only city among the nation’s 20 largest to see population loss in 2015, could be overtaken in a decade by Houston as the third-most-populous city if the trend continues, experts said.
The city of Chicago lost about 2,890 residents between 2014 and 2015, bringing the city’s population down to 2,720,546, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Numbers made available in March showed the greater Chicago area, which includes the city and suburbs and extends into Wisconsin and Indiana, lost an estimated 6,263 residents — the greatest loss of any metropolitan area in the country.
Sun-Times: Rauner likely to OK marijuana decriminalization bill
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday said he’d “probably be comfortable” with a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
The bill, approved by a 64-50 vote by the Illinois House on Wednesday, would ensure no one in Illinois could be criminally charged for possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana. The Senate passed the measure in April with a 40-14 vote.
Chicago Tribune: Harvey mayor fined, banned from future bond deals after hotel 'scheme'
The mayor of Harvey has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for his role in allegedly tricking investors into lending his town millions for what turned out to be a sketchy development deal that enriched a key insider, the Securities and Exchange Commissionannounced Thursday.
Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg agreed to pay the fine for what the SEC described in court filings as a “scheme” claiming an old truckers hotel next to a strip club was going to be redeveloped from money borrowed from 2008 through 2010. The hotel remains half-gutted — with some cash diverted to make Harvey payroll while a then-top mayoral aide, Joseph Letke, made $800,000 in fees from all sides of the deal, according to court filings. The deal turned into a “fiasco” for investors and residents, the SEC wrote in court documents.
As part of a settlement that must still be approved by a judge, Kellogg, mayor of Harvey since 2003, would also be barred from ever participating in the issuance of municipal bonds — which is one of the most common ways municipalities borrow money.
Northwest Herald: More in manufacturing seeking to fill skills gap in McHenry County
Looking at the increased popularity of one program at McHenry County College, it seems those in manufacturing are making a comeback.
Specifically, a growing number of people are returning to school to take advantage of the Manufacturing Management AAS Fast Track program, which aims to propel students to positions higher on both the chain of command and the pay scale.
Enrollment in the manufacturing management courses has seen a dramatic increase, climbing 86 percent in five years, according to MCC. This spring, enrollment was at 309 students compared with the 166 who enrolled in spring 2011, officials said.
Although not all students currently are working at a manufacturing company, a majority of enrollees already have a foundation of experience to build upon, said Heather Zaccagnini, an MCC instructor of applied technology and manufacturing management. With the average age of Fast Track students hovering close to 30 years old, many of them have spent time in production and are ready to step into a leadership role.
Chicago Tribune: City Council should hand out playbills, not agendas
The Chicago City Council — without a single dissenting vote — on Wednesday approved borrowing another $600 million, which was in addition to the $650 million aldermen authorized borrowing in January.
The bonds that will be sold later this year for construction projects and legal settlements will be paid off around year 2057, after taxpayers front the cost of hundreds of millions more in interest payments and when most of the council members who approved the measure are long gone.
Quick question: Is this really news anymore?
Bloomberg: Chicago’s Pension-Fund Troubles Just Became $11.5 Billion Bigger
Chicago’s pension-fund shortfall just got $11.5 billion bigger.
Thanks to the defeat of the city’s retirement-fund overhaul by the Illinois Supreme Court and new accounting rules, Chicago’s so-called net pension liability to itsMunicipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund soared to $18.6 billion by the end of 2015 from $7.1 billion a year earlier, according to an annual report presented to the fund’s board on Thursday. The fund serves some 70,000 workers and retirees.
The new figure, a result of actuaries’ revised estimates for the value in today’s dollars of benefits due as long as decades from now, doesn’t change how much Chicago needs to contribute each year to make sure the promised checks arrive. But it highlights the long-term pressure on the city from shortchanging its retirement funds year after year — decisions that are now adding hundreds of millions of dollars to its annual bills and have left it with a lower credit rating than any big U.S. city but once-bankrupt Detroit.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois' unemployment rate rises to 6.6 percent in April
Illinois’ unemployment rate ticked up to 6.6 percent in April as more people continued to join the labor force but didn’t immediately find jobs.
The state added 5,400 jobs last month, but more than half of the growth was in temporary jobs or through employment agencies, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said in a news release Thursday announcing the preliminary April data. The portion of jobs that are full-time is lower than it was before the Great Recession began.
The state’s unemployment rate, which has been increasing for six months in a row, was up from 6.5 percent in March and up from 5.9 percent a year before. It is far higher than the U.S. average of 5 percent, which stayed steady from the prior month.
Bloomberg: You're Gonna Need a License for That
When my mother retired from selling real estate, she toyed with the idea that she — a talented cook who had long made her own croissants — might make a little money on the side by selling homemade baked goods. It’s the sort of business that people have started from time immemorial, letting them share what they love with someone willing to pay for it.
A quick investigation, however, revealed that the thing was impossible. You can’t just bake a little stuff at home and sell it, for fear that you might poison people. If you want to poison people with your deliciously flaky homemade croissants, it must be done on a strictly ad-hoc, volunteer basis.
Welcome to the modern economy, where increasingly, everything not compulsory is forbidden. We are hedged around with rules to protect us, to protect other people, to protect some theoretical victim who exists only in the minds of regulators and judges. And there’s reason to worry that this red tape is getting wrapped so tight that it risks rendering us immobile.