Illinois

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

Unions take advantage of Illinois’ prevailing wage law

By Paul Kersey
10/28/2013
When a state construction project goes up for bid, a union outfit often ends up with the contract. This is one of the seamier aspects of Illinois government. State laws and common practices for bidding are designed to cover up for union firms’ disadvantages and steer projects their way. The unions are always ready to...

TAGS: BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics, IDOL: Illinois Department of Labor, International Union of Operating Engineers, IUOE, prevailing wage

Illinois Obamacare grant goes to California

By Jackson Adams
10/28/2013
A California group with a history of making political contributions to Illinois politicians and connections to the Obama administration was awarded a federal “navigator” grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to help Illinoisans enroll in the Obamacare health insurance exchange. The East Los Angeles Community Union, or TELACU, was awarded...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

Nearly 200K Illinois Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program

By Jonathan Ingram
10/26/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Medicaid

Illinois General Assembly ignores citizens on term limits

By Brian Costin
10/26/2013
“It is a safe bet that the General Assembly will never pass a bill limiting its own members’ ability to seek re-election.” – Christopher Mooney, University of Illinois Springfield professor, term-limits expert Overwhelmingly, Illinoisans support term limits. A recent poll showed 78.7 percent of Illinois voters support term limits. But good luck convincing Illinois legislators...

TAGS: term limits

Trapped in Chicago’s worst schools: Education outcomes in Chicago’s lowest-performing public schools

10/24/2013
THE PROBLEM More than 21,000 students in Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, are being left behind. They are attending schools that fail to prepare them for life. A majority of students attending the lowest 10 percent of elementary schools and high schools in Chicago don’t have basic competence in reading, science and math. They’re significantly...

TAGS: CPS: Chicago Public Schools, CTU: Chicago Teachers Union, Illinois Standard Achievement Test, ISAT: Illinois Standards Achievement Test

1 in 6 Illinoisans dependent on food stamps

By John Klingner
10/22/2013
The number of Illinoisans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, remained above 2 million in July. This is the 10th month in a row enrollment has exceeded 2 million, or one-sixth of Illinoisans. And the number of Illinoisans who seem permanently stuck on government assistance is growing larger. Illinois puts more people...

TAGS: EBT: Illinois Electronic Benefit Transfer, SNAP

Flat is Fair

By Benjamin VanMetre
10/22/2013
State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, recently revealed a new progressive tax proposal with rates that hit Illinois’ middle and working classes hard. Under current Illinois law, the individual income tax rate will be 3.75 percent in 2015. Under Jakobsson’s new plan, however, a higher 4 percent rate kicks in for people earning just $18,000. That income tax...

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

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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