North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a landmark budget bill last week – one that is full of education reforms, including the end of teacher tenure in the state. Tenure doesn’t guarantee a teacher a job for life. But it does make it much more difficult for a district to let go of a...
The Open Meetings Act is quite clear as to what a public meeting is. “Meeting” means any gathering, whether in person or by video or audio conference, telephone call, electronic means (such as, without limitation, electronic mail, electronic chat, and instant messaging), or other means of contemporaneous interactive communication, of a majority of a quorum...
As Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union continue to argue about the reasons for the district’s recent school closings, one thing is clear – parents have largely been excluded from the conversation. But they don’t have to be – a new law appearing in seven states across the country, if adopted in Illinois, would...
The Daily Caller reports: Reports indicate President Obama will soon confirm what many of us have long suspected, that Congress wants and will soon have a waiver from Obamacare. Read more…
Mercer County Treasurer Mike Bertelsen has been charged with stealing $13,000 from a county 911 fund. As reported by a local NBC affiliate: The County Treasurer in Mercer County, Illinois has been arrested. Michael Bertelsen, 53, faces a charge of felony theft. On the afternoon of July 31st, the Mercer County Sheriff made the arrest and...
This week, fast-food workers, retail employees and others have been protesting at McDonald’s restaurants and other fast-food restaurants and chain stores in Chicago and cities across the country. The protesters, who are being egged on and funded by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, and other union-affiliated groups, are demanding a $15-an-hour wage; a huge...
Illinois lawmakers stopped getting paid on Thursday. So did Gov. Pat Quinn, who on July 10 used his line-item veto power to halt lawmaker pay until the General Assembly reaches an agreement on pension reform. But a Rantoul-based credit union has come to their aid, offering interest-free loans to state legislators. According to the State Journal-Register,...
At the end of July, about 400 Illinois workers were notified that they might be losing their jobs in the next few weeks. Filings with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity highlighted this number, which includes cuts at major companies throughout the state. According to the Chicago Tribune: Lake Forest-based Grainger Inc. said it...
About a year ago, the city of Chicago released its 2012 Annual Financial Analysis. Back then I noted that many of the city’s challenges, especially high employee costs and growing pension debt, were aggravated by a heavily unionized workforce. With a new year comes newer, more disturbing financial figures – and the same old union problem...
This week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office issued a press release boasting of steps the city has taken to make it easier and faster for small businesses to get city licenses. According to the statement, visitors to the city’s Small Business Center can now take advantage of an express lane, a self-service station and additional “customer service”...
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June. The number of unemployed persons dropped by 263,000 to 11.5 million. Over the course of the year, unemployment and the unemployment rate are down by 1.2 million and 0.8 percentage points,...
Chicago officials are reviewing the state of the city’s finances in preparation for a months-long budgeting process – and the numbers aren’t pretty. The city of Chicago released today its 2013 Annual Financial Analysis. As this document reveals, growing debt payments and unfunded pension liabilities continue to push the city’s budget into the red. As this...
Illinois can’t pay its bills. Lawmakers continue to eat away at the Illinois family budget with higher taxes. And the state refuses to stop ballooning pension payments from crowding out core government services. Yet Gov. Pat Quinn announced that Illinois will invest $54.8 million 27 private colleges and universities in the Chicago area. Some of this spending...
Chicago officials are reviewing the state of the city’s finances in preparation for a months-long budgeting process – and the numbers aren’t pretty. The city of Chicago released today its 2013 Annual Financial Analysis. As this document reveals, growing debt payments and unfunded pension liabilities continue to push the city’s budget into the red. As this...