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Chicago Tribune: Chicago reaches $10.4M settlement with ride-share companies over background checks, will pay for mentoring
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration reached a $10.4 million settlement agreement with ride-share companies that didn’t perform background checks up to Chicago code and will spend the windfall on a youth mentoring program, city officials announced Thursday.
Emanuel cast the mentoring program decision as his first of the coming budget year, at a time when he faces a challenging re-election campaign and questions about community investment and crime.
Chicago Tribune: 'Twelve students is too small for one class.' Study shows thousands of 9th-grade seats in CPS to remain empty
As of last month, not a single incoming ninth-grader had accepted an invitation to attend Hirsch High School in Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood when classes begin in September. Only one rising freshman took an offer to attend Douglass High School in South Austin.
Hirsch and Douglass were part of a new Chicago Public Schools online application that prompted junior high graduates to rank their most desired high schools out of hundreds of programs.
Northwest Herald: Woodstock seeks to establish new TIF district downtown
The city of Woodstock is in the process of establishing a new tax increment financing district – and some school officials have expressed concerns about the implications of the plan.
Municipalities can establish TIF districts in blighted or underdeveloped areas to attract new economic development using financial incentives generated by the district. When a city establishes a TIF district, the property tax base in that area is frozen for a specified time, typically 23 years.
Northwest Herald: McHenry County Board approves referendums to impose new term limits
The McHenry County Board voted Tuesday to push two binding referendums to the November ballot that could impose term limits on board members and the chairman.
At a special meeting at the county chambers in Woodstock, board members voted, 18-3, to advance a referendum to the ballot that would limit elected members to a cumulative 12 years on the board.
Daily Herald: District 204 plans to address priorities gradually, without major tax increase
Priorities are set in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 after officials spent last year listening to residents through an engagement process.
Now the district plans to spend the next several years “chipping away” at issues the engagement work identified, such as large class sizes, deferred maintenance projects, elementary school air conditioning, replacement of locks and intercoms, additional mental health personnel, increases to teacher salaries and relocation of the alternative school at Indian Plains.
Daily Herald: DuPage voters to weigh in on consolidation, possible taxes
DuPage voters this fall will weigh in on whether the county should continue its consolidation efforts and oppose two tax-hike proposals being considered by the state.
County board members this week agreed to put three advisory referendum questions on the November ballot. The goal is to get public feedback and guidance, especially about what’s happening in Springfield.
Champaign News-Gazette: Tamping down Medicaid costs
Gov. Bruce Rauner wisely made changes to legislation designed to address the chronic delays in Medicaid reimbursements to nursing home operators. As Champaign County officials know all too well, those delays cause financial problems for nursing homes. But the suggested cure went too far.
Late Medicaid payments from the state are part of the reason that Champaign County had to get out of the nursing home business. The county is in the process of selling its long-held nursing home to a private operator and hopes to close on the deal by the end of this year.
As of June, county records show the nursing home — still owned by the county — was owed nearly $900,000 in Medicaid payments. Most residents of the nursing home are covered by Medicaid.