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WBEZ: Cook County Records Third-Consecutive Population Decline
Paolo Cisneros said he faces one of the hardest decisions in his life. He said he was born and raised in Chicago, where he saw the effects of segregation, an experience that influenced him to study community development at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
After he graduates with a master’s degree in May, Cisneros and his fiance will spend a year working in Mexico, but they might not move back to Illinois, he said.
The cost of living seems more reasonable in other places, he said, and local politics have become frustrating, especially when it comes to the gridlock in Springfield over a state budget.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago area leads U.S. in population loss, sees drop for 2nd year in a row
Patrice Bedford had never questioned raising her baby in Chicago.
But on a springtime stroll during the first trimester of her pregnancy last year, a heightened sense of smell — piqued by pungent neighborhood odors — made her view the city differently.
The city’s expensive, she said. Public schools face an unfolding financial crisis and the violence is “terrifying and frightening” to a parent-to-be. It didn’t take long for Bedford, 28, to realize it was time to pack up and leave her Roscoe Village home.
Chicago Tribune: Can budget deal ever get done with Rauner, Madigan at the table?
At the Capitol, the so-called grand bargain proved to be a grand illusion.
Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle haven’t done much to knock down speculation that they’re on the way out of the legislature.
Chicago Sun-Times: Judge: State lawmakers should get paid, even if there’s no budget
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Thursday she will start issuing paychecks to state lawmakers, after a Cook County judge ruled that the law requires legislators get their paychecks even if there is no state budget.
Mendoza has followed her Republican predecessor by withholding paychecks for lawmakers, arguing that because approval of a state budget has been stalled for two years, she is free to decide which of the state’s bills get paid. Four Democratic lawmakers filed a lawsuit last year, contending state law passed in 2014 required them to get their annual salaries of $68,000 no matter what.
Belleville News-Democrat: No poll required to figure out thoughts on Springfield
What’s the solution if you don’t trust the results of a poll? How about another poll?
Illinois voters were surveyed about whether they supported the state balancing its budget strictly by cutting — no new taxes. More than half said yes, according to the poll by the Illinois Policy Institute.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago aldermen try to push Rauner to bargain with union
Chicago aldermen waded into the fight between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state’s largest public employee union Thursday, trying to turn the screws on the governor to continue negotiating a contract.
The City Council has no real power to nudge the Rauner administration and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union toward an agreement in the stalled talks that have been in court for months. And aldermen acknowledged the resolution calling the governor to continue negotiating amounts to an act of shouting from the sidelines.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Supreme Court delivers partial win for hospitals on property taxes
Illinois’ not-for-profit hospitals can continue to skip paying property taxes, for now, after an Illinois Supreme Court decision Thursday that follows years of battles between hospitals and municipalities over those dollars.
The state Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the ruling of a lower court, which had found that an Illinois law exempting not-for-profit hospitals from paying property taxes was unconstitutional. The justices said the lower court didn’t have jurisdiction.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel's Wrigleyville 'surge pricing' for parking could be just the beginning
New higher “surge pricing” at parking meters near Wrigley Field hasn’t even kicked in yet, but a top aide to Mayor Rahm Emanuel told aldermen Thursday that the city could eventually look to broaden the program to areas around Chicago where parking is highly sought-after for other types of popular events.
City Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown said she wanted to increase street parking in Wrigleyville from $2 to $12 per hour during games and concerts at the park this year, but local 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney “looked at me like I was crazy.” Instead, Emanuel got the City Council to approve an increase to $4 an hour as part of this year’s budget.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago City Council member calls colleague 'chump alderman,' takes it back
Things got a bit testy Thursday when a City Council member said his colleague is “a chump alderman” if he lets Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration dictate where red light cameras are installed in his ward.
Freshman Ald. Christopher Taliaferro, 29th, was asking city Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown a series of pointed questions during a council committee meeting about the Emanuel administration’s possible expansion of the “surge pricing” program that will double the cost of street parking around Wrigley Field this year to $4 during Cubs games and concerts.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Bloat of Education: The Sequel
A bill that creates an elected Chicago Board of Education has advanced out of an Illinois House committee. We don’t usually predict how Illinois lawmakers may vote. But we expect landslide approval for that bill, should it be called by House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Why? Because the Illinois House passed essentially the same bill last year by a vote of 110-4. Then the state Senate wisely said thanks, but no thanks.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: LSC Members Call on Rauner to Restore CPS Pension Funding
Local School Council members from across Chicago hand-delivered a letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner this week, saying he mischaracterized vetoed pension funding to Chicago Public Schools as a “bailout” and urging “immediate action” from the state to restore those dollars.
Nearly 400 LSC members signed the letter that was turned in Wednesday to the governor’s offices in both Chicago and Springfield. In it, they call Rauner’s veto of SB 2822 eliminating $215 million CPS had counted on in this year’s budget “unacceptable” to district parents and students.
DNA Info: Crossing Guard Jobs Are Vacant Across The City, Raising Safety Concerns
Dozens of crossing guard positions around the city are currently vacant, creating concerns about the safety of young school kids trying to cross busy city intersections.
The city has 65 open spots, a number that’s grown since the start of the year. There are about 560 total crossing guard position in the city budget, with guards making between $17,000 and $22,600.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel's Wrigleyville 'surge pricing' for parking could be just the beginning
New higher “surge pricing” at parking meters near Wrigley Field hasn’t even kicked in yet, but a top aide to Mayor Rahm Emanuel told aldermen Thursday that the city could eventually look to broaden the program to areas around Chicago where parking is highly sought-after for other types of popular events.
City Chief Financial Officer Carole Brown said she wanted to increase street parking in Wrigleyville from $2 to $12 per hour during games and concerts at the park this year, but local 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney “looked at me like I was crazy.” Instead, Emanuel got the City Council to approve an increase to $4 an hour as part of this year’s budget.
Chicago Tribune: Cops escape punishment as officials lose track of cases
In a stunning breakdown of the city’s police disciplinary system, Chicago officers found at fault for misconduct have escaped punishment for years because authorities lost track of their cases, a Tribune investigation has found.
That means an officer who beat his officer wife and threatened to steal her gun kept working, unpunished, eight years after the incident. Another officer who used his police powers to harass his estranged wife remained on patrol, as has a detective who went on a loud, expletive-laden rant about his dress shoes after a solemn honor guard ceremony.
Chicago Sun-Times: Rahm Emanuel gung-ho about U.S. Steel project, alderman says
Top mayoral aides met this week with developers planning to build 12,000 modular homes, along with a factory to manufacture them, on the 430-acre site of the old U.S. Steel South Works plant amid word that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is gung-ho about the project.
“The mayor told me personally that he is committed to helping this project get off the ground,” said Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th), whose ward includes the site.
Decatur Herald & Review: Meda Pharmaceuticals to close Decatur facility
The Meda Pharmaceuticals manufacturing facility in Decatur is scheduled to close with the loss of 90 jobs, it was announced Thursday.
The closure will be phased in over the rest of this year and will finish in 2018, according to a statement from parent company, Mylan.
The Southern: John A. Logan board candidates discuss, budget cuts, layoffs and future of school
April’s consolidated election will see the vacancy of two spots on the John A. Logan College Board of Trustees, and four candidates have stepped up to fill them.
It has been an eventful year for JALC. In March of 2016 the Board of Trustees announced it would be laying off 55 employees, the majority of whom were teaching staff, in response to the state’s ongoing budget impasse, which has reduced school funding to a trickle. The school received $4.3 million in funding last year as the result of a stopgap spending measure passed by the state legislature. JALC’s vice president of business services, Brad McCormick, said this would have gotten the school through March or April of this year were it not for the extra nearly $1 million raised, which will see them through the end of their fiscal year on June 30. He also said the college is operating at 10 percent under budget.