Chicago

Chicago bans e-cigarettes from indoor public places

By Bryant Jackson-Green

01/15/2014

Chicago City Council passed new e-cigarette regulations on Wednesday, 45–4. E-cigarettes will now be banned from indoor public places, including bars and restaurants, as well as within 15 feet of building entrances. Last month it looked like the Chicago City Council would do the right thing for once and back off plans to regulate e-cigarettes...

TAGS: Chicago, e-cigarettes, nanny state, smoking ban

Illinois metro areas still suffering from joblessness

By John Klingner

01/14/2014

In a repeat of last month’s disappointing employment news, eight of Illinois’ 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, saw their unemployment rates rise compared to November 2012, according to November’s metropolitan area unemployment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Decatur and Danville regions are still suffering the highest unemployment in the state,...

Chicago moves to ban e-cigarettes where smoking is prohibited

By Bryant Jackson-Green

01/14/2014

Last month it looked like the Chicago City Council would do the right thing for once and back off plans to regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products. On Monday, however, the city’s Joint Health and Finance Committee changed course, voting 14-5 to approve additions to Chicago’s Clean Indoor Air Ordinance that would severely restrict the use...

TAGS: e-cigarettes

Taxpayers to foot big bill for pointless legislator pay stunt

01/13/2014

In July, Gov. Pat Quinn used his line-item veto power to suspend Illinois legislators’ salaries, pledging to withhold their paychecks until they solved the state’s pension crisis. This predictably provoked a lawsuit by House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and other legislators. A Cook County Circuit Court judge then ruled in September that...

TAGS: lawmaker pay, Pat Quinn

ObamaCare limbo: Thousands of Illinoisans trying to get out of Medicaid while many more trying to get in

By Naomi Lopez Bauman

01/10/2014

Last month, USA Today reported that thousands of people are being mistakenly enrolled in Medicaid due to continued glitches in the healthcare.gov website. Now, it is being reported that more than 100,000 people in five states, including 30,000 in Illinois, have not been able to enroll in the Medicaid program directly from the government site....

TAGS: Get Covered Illinois, health insurance, Medicaid

ObamaCare: A ‘catastrophic’ plan by any other name is still bronze

By Naomi Lopez Bauman

01/08/2014

According to a recent Crain’s Chicago Business analysis, the cost of some “catastrophic” health insurance plans offered under the ObamaCare health insurance exchange in Illinois actually cost more than the supposedly more generous plans in 13 counties across the state. That should not be surprising as the improperly named “catastrophic plan” offered on the exchange...

Chicago Public Schools’ overcrowding dilemma

01/03/2014

Chicago Public Schools’ plan to alleviate overcrowding in schools on the city’s west and north sides is a costly, jumbled mess. Its initial decision to provide $20 million to Lincoln Elementary to alleviate overcrowding at the school, even though it’s the 17th most overcrowded school in the city, was met with fierce resistance. Teachers and...

TAGS: CPS: Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools’ school closings: too many mistakes

01/02/2014

Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, displayed plenty of bad judgment last year: in the way it managed its budget, the school closings fiasco and the adoption of a new promotion policy that pushes students to the next grade even when they’re not ready. More recently, CPS continued its poor decision-making by providing $20 million to...

TAGS: CPS: Chicago Public Schools

Enacting Right to Work would help halt business exodus from Illinois

By Paul Kersey

01/01/2014

There is a virtual caravan of businesses leaving Illinois. Office Depot, which announced that it would be setting up its headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., rather than Naperville, Ill., is only the latest. A string of smaller companies, mainly manufacturers such as Modern Drop Forge or Food Warning Equipment Company have been relocating – sometimes...

How the Liberty Justice Center fought for freedom in 2013

12/31/2013

With two court wins, no losses and many other activities to advance liberty in Illinois, the Liberty Justice Center, the Illinois Policy Institute’s public-interest litigation center, had a good year in 2013. In April, our client Steven Wailand, a Western Illinois University student, won his lawsuit against the city of Macomb, where officials tried to...

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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