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Chicago Tribune: CPS teachers strike will continue into the weekend. Here’s how the first two days unfolded.
As the Chicago Public Schools teachers strike entered its second day Friday and negotiations wrapped up in the evening without a deal, the Chicago Teachers Union said it saw progress, but in almost all cases that was followed by, “It’s not enough.”
Union officials said their CPS counterparts offered a new proposal for staffing of nurses, social workers, special education case managers and bilingual teachers but still not at the levels the union can accept. A number of other outstanding issues also remain.
Chicago Sun-Times: Still no deal as CPS, teachers union wrap up bargaining Friday
Picket. Rally. March. Negotiate. Rinse. Repeat.
The second day of Chicago’s first major teachers strike since 2012 went much like the first, with incremental progress at the bargaining table and displays of union power around the city.
Chicago Tribune: Feds looking at ComEd hiring politically connected lobbyists in exchange for favorable actions, consultant payments
A burgeoning federal investigation into ComEd’s lobbying activities centers on whether the utility giant hired politically connected lobbyists to curry favor with lawmakers in exchange for favorable action at the Illinois Capitol, a source familiar with the probe told the Tribune on Friday.
As part of the investigation, authorities are scrutinizing certain ComEd executives and have zeroed in on payments through the company’s vast network of consultants to some individuals to seemingly circumvent lobbying disclosure rules, the source said. Some of the people who wound up being paid seemed to have done little actual work, the source added.
WBEZ: Source: Feds Focus On Clout Hires At ComEd, Leader Of Chicago’s City Club
Federal investigators are looking into allegations that Commonwealth Edison hired multiple politically connected employees and consultants in exchange for favorable government actions, including electricity rate increases, WBEZ has learned.
A source involved in the investigation said authorities believe many of the clout hires at the state’s largest electric utility got paid but did little or no work, and some of them have ties to Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan of Chicago.
Chicago Tribune: Sen. Martin Sandoval’s daughter took in more than $52,000 during failed County Board bid from people and companies later named in federal corruption probe
The daughter of embattled state Sen. Martin Sandoval received more than $52,000 in political donations in late 2017 and 2018 from individuals and companies whose names have recently surfaced as part of an ongoing, wide-ranging federal investigation into public corruption.
A Chicago Tribune review of the campaign fund created for Angie Sandoval’s unsuccessful Cook County Board candidacy shows that more than a dozen of her donors — individuals and companies — were named in federal search warrants executed in September at Sen. Sandoval’s Capitol office and the village halls in west suburban McCook and Lyons. Both towns are in Sandoval’s Senate district.
Chicago Sun-Times: The clout-heavy ex-city worker and his ties to a ballooning corruption investigation
As a deputy Chicago aviation commissioner, Bill Helm’s job was to oversee city truck drivers who patch, plow and preen O’Hare Airport’s maze-like network of surface roads, taxiways and landing strips.
Now, Helm is part of another labyrinth: a corruption investigation that’s been zigzagging across the political landscape, with federal investigators having raided southwest suburban village halls and appearing to hone in on a host of politicians and clout-heavy businessmen.
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposes doubling city’s tax on food and drinks at restaurants
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will propose a tax hike on all food and drinks sold in Chicago restaurants to help shrink a massive estimated $838 million shortfall in the 2020 budget.
The proposal would double the current .25% tax on food and drinks sold at retail establishments and restaurants, the mayor’s office said. Aldermen will need to approve the increase, which would kick in Jan. 1.
Chicago Sun-Times: No choice but to raise property taxes if Springfield doesn’t help, Lightfoot says
Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged Friday she will have no choice but to raise property taxes — which were more than doubled by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel — if her agenda falls flat in the General Assembly’s fall veto session.
Lightfoot’s heavy-lift requests for a graduated real estate transfer tax and a casino gambling fix — either through city-state ownership of a Chicago casino or a revised tax structure — face long odds in Springfield amid a blockbuster corruption scandal that has spread from Chicago and the south suburbs to Springfield.
Peoria Journal-Star: Unclaimed property program in Illinois continues setting records
It’s easier than ever to get back money the state is holding in unclaimed property for residents, Treasurer Michael Frerichs said on Friday.
In an interview at the Peoria Public Library — where he helped officials claim $243 in funds — the second-term official detailed ways his office has expanded its outreach and boosted by millions of dollars a year the funds returned to citizens through the I-Cash program.
The Southern: A casino resort? Williamson County Board says you bet!
Cynde and David Bunch bet on a vision for a resort and casino at her family homestead, and that bet is one step closer to a payoff.
On Friday, the Williamson County Board approved the $180 million project that will make Bunch’s vision a reality.