By Paul Kersey
09/25/2014
Over the course of the summer, the Illinois Policy Institute has been attempting to assess how many teachers have made use of their Hudson rights – their legal right to prevent their dues from being used for union politics – and how well Hudson rights are understood in Illinois public schools. Do teachers even know...
TAGS: FOIA: Freedom of Information Act, labor
By Paul Kersey
08/10/2014
Aug. 11 marks the start of National Employee Freedom Week, when nonprofit organizations in 44 states reach out to workers across the country to let them know they have choices when it comes to union membership. Even in states that do not have a Right-to-Work law, such as Illinois, workers don’t have to join a...
TAGS: labor, nonprofits, unions
Unfortunately for taxpayers, June was a groundbreaking month for corruption in Illinois. In June alone, there were reports of 85 corruption-related stories in the state. Some of the record-breaking highlights include the following: For the first time in 33 years, the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission exercised its subpoena powers in the issuance of a subpoena...
By Bryant Jackson-Green
07/09/2014
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, filed a lawsuit against Chicago State University, or CSU, last week, accusing the university of “[engaging] in an ongoing campaign to silence … criticisms of how the university is run” when it tried to shut down an independently operated faculty blog. Since at least last year,...
TAGS: Chicago, CSU: Chicago State University, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
By Paul Kersey
06/25/2014
As early as today, the U.S. Supreme Court could announce its decision in the case Harris v. Quinn. Legal experts and unions across the country are watching closely as it could be a landmark decision on the issues of unionization and freedom of speech. The lead plaintiff, Pam Harris, is a suburban Chicago mom whose...
TAGS: Chicago, Harris v Quinn, SEIU: Service Employees International Union
Feds find 7 big problems in Rahm’s proposed Uber law In February, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed an ordinance for regulating transportation network providers, or TNPs, such as Uber and Lyft. But his proposal is loaded with anti-competitive restrictions that would harm consumers. Now regulators at the Federal Trade Commission have weighed in on Emanuel’s...
By Bryant Jackson-Green
04/17/2014
Sen. Dick Durbin, long known for his anti-smoking campaigns, released a new report Monday alleging that e-cigarette companies target youth smokers, and then proposing a new set of Food and Drug Administration regulations for the products. Durbin’s 40-page report urges a slew of restrictions on e-cigarette marketing and sales. Durbin commented upon release of the...
TAGS: Dick Durbin, ecigs, nanny state
Should this Twitter ad be illegal? State Rep. Chapa LaVia, a Democrat from Aurora and head of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, thinks so. She’s the chief sponsor of a bill that would prohibit “any and all marketing and advertising to the public for charter school enrollment and recruitment made by a charter...
Free speech won at the Supreme Court today as the court struck down a federal law that limited how much money a person could give to federal candidates and political committees. Under Supreme Court precedent, the government can only limit campaign contributions if doing so is necessary to prevent quid pro quo corruption – that...
In February, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office proposed an ordinance that would force popular ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft to severely change the way they do business, if not shut down entirely. We pointed out some of the proposal’s many serious problems, and Chicago aldermen reported thousands of people emailing them asking them...
TAGS: Lyft, rideshare, Uber
