Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune calls for honesty in college-readiness standards

11/08/2013
The Chicago Tribune is calling on the state to be honest about how well its students are performing academically: “Illinois has a track record of massaging its school performance numbers to mask reality and make everybody feel good. Last year, 849 schools could boast that 90 percent or more of their students passed statewide reading...

TAGS: college readiness, ISBE: Illinois State Board of Education, No Child Left Behind

UPDATE—Judge allows suit challenging ObamaCare subsidies

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/22/2013
While the media and public are focused on the calamitous ObamaCare rollout and glitch-ridden health exchange websites, several court cases challenging the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, are working their way through the courts. Today, one of those cases could deal ObamaCare a severe legal blow. Judge Paul Friedman of the federal district court for...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Halbig v. Sebelius, IRS: Internal Revenue Service, Judge Paul Friedman

ObamaCare: Quinn touts 100K enrollees; all in Medicaid

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/17/2013
Gov. Pat Quinn has been touting 100,000 new Cook County enrollees as evidence of ObamaCare’s success. The reality is that this claim reflects both desperate and creative government accounting. The governor was referring to 100,000 people who enrolled in the state’s Medicaid expansion program earlier this year under an early pilot project in Cook County....

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Cook County, Get Covered Illinois, Medicaid, Pat Quinn

ObamaCare in Illinois: You have to buy it to find out what it costs

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/13/2013
While rallying public support for the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi famously said that Congress “[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.” It appears that Illinois state officials are taking a page from the Pelosi playbook when...

Outsourcing ObamaCare

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/09/2013
A recent editorial in the Chicago Tribune criticized the state Department of Insurance for not publicly releasing health insurance premium rates for the health care exchange. The exchange is a central feature of ObamaCare in which individuals and small businesses will begin buying private insurance coverage Oct. 1. With rates expected to go up dramatically, it’s no...

If ‘food deserts’ are a problem, blame Chicago politicians

09/03/2013
The Chicago Tribune ran a front-page story lamenting Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s failure to eliminate food deserts in Chicago. A food desert is an area in which residents allegedly lack easy access to supermarkets that offer fresh produce. The exact definition varies depending on who you ask and when – the city used to consider areas without a...

TAGS: Chicago, Rahm Emanuel

Chicago’s Divvy bike-sharing program costing taxpayers big

By Brian Costin
08/22/2013
Divvy bike stations are expanding throughout Chicago, offering riders low membership costs and 24-hour rental fees. But this multimillion-dollar project is bringing in only a fraction of the money necessary to fund it. Last year, the city of Chicago announced a controversial $65 million contract with ALTA Bicycle Share to operate a 4,000 bicycle bike-share program in...

TAGS: Chicago, Divvy

Chicago’s latest money grab: 300 speed cameras could generate up to $4.3 billion in fines from local motorists

08/21/2013
Cash-strapped Chicago is about to get an injection of money from motorists. The city is installing its controversial speed cameras at four neighborhood parks on Monday, and has plans for eight additional locations in the next few months. The city announced the results from a test of the new technology that showed surprising results. During a December trial,...

TAGS: Chicago, speed cameras

Load More

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...

View Report

Report Archive

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