Chicago Sun-Times

Naperville considers pension double-dipping transparency reform

By Brian Costin
11/04/2013
Most public employees in Illinois receive a single pension upon retirement. But some workers don’t just get one pension – they get two or three. This is made possible by either working multiple government jobs at the same time, or retiring from one public job and beginning a second within a different pension system. Both...

TAGS: IMRF: Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Naperville, pensions, Social Security, transparency, TRS: Teachers’ Retirement System

ObamaCare: Millions losing their health insurance plans

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/29/2013
President Barack Obama promised in 2009, “If you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan.”  Yet Americans across the country are receiving notices that their health insurance plans in the individual market are being canceled as a result of ObamaCare. A recent Chicago Sun-Times article featured Sue Klinkhamer, a former...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Medicaid

Census: Chicago slowest growing big city in U.S.

By Hilary Gowins
05/25/2013
The state of Illinois has been experiencing net out-migration for the last decade. That is, the number of people choosing to leave the state is outpacing the number of people moving to Illinois. Illinois had the eighth-lowest population growth in the nation between 2002 and 2012. And compared with its neighbors, Illinois’ population growth is...

TAGS: Chicago, outmigration, population

City of Chicago plan revealed for public funding of private, DePaul University stadium

By Brian Costin
05/17/2013
Maybe you haven’t heard yet, but city of Chicago leaders have unveiled a plan to fund a new stadium for DePaul University – a private school. You may also not have heard of Chicago’s Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, or McPier, but chances are if you have ever been to Chicago you’ve probably paid taxes...

The CPS shuffle: moving students and money, with no promise of better results

05/15/2013
by Josh Dwyer When Chicago Public Schools first announced that it was closing schools, the primary justification it gave was to save money – upward of $500,000 to $800,000 per school. It needed the money to address the looming pension cliff the city is facing next year. When people began questioning those numbers, CPS’s story...

SEC charges Illinois with securities fraud

By Ted Dabrowski
03/15/2013
[updated 3.15.13] Illinois politicians are not honest about the depth of the state’s pension crisis. They chronically understate the scale of the problem to taxpayers and state workers. According to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the state has misled investors as well. Today the SEC announced it was charging Illinois with securities fraud. From a...

CPS school closings: the writing was on the wall

02/28/2013
“Chicago Public Schools on Thursday announced the largest school shakeup in the nation: closing 54 schools and 61 buildings, jostling 30,000 kids and leaving the future of more than 1,000 teachers unclear
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FAQ: How the federal scholarship program would help Illinois students

Illinois students could soon benefit from scholarship money to help them find a tutor, attend ACT or SAT prep sessions, pay tuition, get special education services or assist with other academic needs. That will happen in Illinois only if Gov. J.B. Pritzker lets the state’s schoolchildren benefit from the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, established...

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016