Get the latest news headlines from around Illinois.
SJR: 386 state jobs could relocate to Springfield
Nearly 400 state jobs could potentially be relocated to Springfield from other parts of the state, a survey of state agencies shows.
The survey was compiled by the Department of Central Management Services after lawmakers last spring passed a resolution directing that agencies under the governor report on where their jobs are located and the potential for relocating some of them to Springfield.
The survey identified 386 jobs that could be relocated to Springfield. It said 267 of those jobs are currently filled and 119 are currently vacant.
Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Springfield, sponsored the resolution.
Chicago Tribune: Long-simmering food truck fight heats up on Chicago streets, in court
For Chicago food trucks, the fight for business begins before dawn, with a race to save downtown lunch spaces in popular, city-sanctioned serving locations.
Not every operator participates in the early morning scramble, but those who don’t run the risk of losing out on the choicest lunch spots.
“The city just hasn’t given us more food truck zones, so we’re all as food truck operators forced to do these crazy things, like using spot cars and getting there at 5 a.m.,” said Sam Barron, who runs the Fat Shallot and Fat Pickle food trucks with his wife Sara Weitz.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois unemployment rate holds steady at 5.5 percent in September
Illinois’ unemployment rate held steady in September at 5.5 percent and employers added 7,400 jobs to payrolls, mostly in professional and business services, according to preliminary data released Thursday by the state Department of Employment Security.
Last month’s unemployment rate was lower than the 5.9 percent recorded a year ago and for the second consecutive month was the lowest since January 2008, at the start of the Great Recession.
The state has had a slower economic recovery than much of the rest of the nation, where the average unemployment rate last month was 5 percent.
Chicago Tribune: Caterpillar opens first Chicago office in Merchandise Mart
Caterpillar has opened its first Chicago office, an innovation-focused space in the Merchandise Mart the company hopes will attract young, tech-savvy talent.
The Digital and Analytics Hub officially opened Thursday.
Morgan Vawter, chief analytics director for Peoria-based Caterpillar and one of the hub’s first employees, said the company’s first-ever Chicago office is an effort to boost talent recruitment.
“Part of it is the innovation pipeline: the connections to 1871 and the universities, being able to pull and tag those resources,” she said.
New York Times: Videos Put Democrats on Defensive About Dirty Tricks
A Democratic operative, wearing a checkered blue shirt and a tie, spoke calmly, explaining exactly how agents could infiltrate the rallies of Donald J. Trump and cause mayhem among the Republican’s nominee team, his security staff and supporters.
Creating an explosive reaction, said the operative, Scott Foval, was “the whole point of it.”
Mr. Foval and Robert Creamer, another operative working for theDemocratic National Committee, were the unwitting stars of undercover videos released this week in which they and others were captured discussing unseemly tactics like instigating violence at Mr. Trump’s rallies and arranging for fraudulent voting.
Daily Southtown: Why the next teachers strike could be at your school
Chicagoans narrowly avoided their third teachers strike in four years.
The Chicago Teachers Union, or CTU, took negotiations to the 11th hour Oct. 10, injecting further chaos into the lives of nearly 400,000 Chicago schoolchildren.
The union offered a long list of reasons for the potential strike. Wreaking havoc on communities across the city requires lengthy rationalization. But at each turn of contract negotiations for the last 22 months, the union refused to budge on one sticking point: the pension pickup. Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, finally caved on that issue and reached a tentative agreement with CTU.
If you think that doesn’t affect your neck of the woods, you’re probably wrong.