Chicago Sun-Times

Riding Away on the Taxpayer Train

06/15/2011
by Katherine Casey Taxpayer-funded state lobbying is once again on the rise in Illinois. As the Illinois Policy Institute noted earlier this year in its 2011-2012 Illinois Legislators’ Guide to the Issues, a lack of transparency still plagues the topic of lobbying across the state. Unknown to many citizens, “state-level lobbying” has quickly seeped its way into towns and...

Illinois Needs to Learn to Fix Its Schools

06/13/2011
by Aon Hussain Just last week, the Chicago Sun Times published an interesting article about the state of rising teacher salaries. In some parts of Illinois, it is not uncommon to see some teachers earning six figures. In addition to high teacher salaries, administrators of various school districts are making a lot of money even as school...

Cartoon Blogging: The State’s Ticking Time Bomb

By Chris Andriesen
11/30/2010
by Ashley Muchow Found this cartoon from Jack Higgins of the Chicago Sun-Times from a couple weeks back. Unfortunately, its “ticking time bomb” metaphor is all too accurate a description of Illinois’s state pension fund. See the Institute’s proposed solution to address the state’s $83 billion unfunded pension liability.

Cartoon Blogging: Response to TSA

By Chris Andriesen
11/25/2010
by Ashley Muchow Jack Higgins of the Chicago Sun Times has a fun illustration on the TSA body scan/pat down debacle. Check it out.

Senate Forms Committees to Study Workers’ Compensation and Medicaid Reform

By Chris Andriesen
11/18/2010
by Wesley Fox Senate President John Cullerton announced today that he will form committees to study workers compensation and Medicaid reform, which are initiatives Republicans promoted during the campaign.  The committees would advance legislation for a possible vote in January,according to the Sun-Times. Illinois’s workers’ compensation requirements are costly and discourage employers from hiring or even doing business...

The Latest Chicago Corruption Scandal

By Chris Andriesen
11/01/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson The latest corruption scandal in Chicago, “Operation Crooked Code,” has resulted in the convictions of 21 people. Of the individuals convicted, 15 were city building and zoning inspectors. If you’ve never heard of the Crooked Code scandal, you are not alone. The Chicago Sun-Times explains: Despite those successful cases, Crooked Code hasn’t been as high-profile...