Los Angeles

Have teachers unions become instruments of injustice? One judge in California thinks the answer is ’yes’

By Paul Kersey

06/12/2014

In a ruling that has already sent shockwaves through public education, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu found in Vergara v. California that five California laws governing the hiring, firing and laying off of teachers – laws that teachers unions favor – violated the California Constitution’s equal protection clause, and should be struck...

U-Haul moving rates shine a light on out-migration

By Michael Lucci

05/05/2014

Illinois has a domestic migration problem. The state is losing too many people. Illinois has lost more people to other states than it gained in every single year since 1985 . And in every year, the people who left earned more money than the people who entered. The Internal Revenue Service released new migration data...

Illinois has the highest sales taxes of its neighbors

By John Klingner

12/20/2013

Illinois has high sales taxes. As of January 2013, Illinois had the 12th-highest combined state and average local sales tax rate in the country at 8.13 percent – higher than all bordering states. Chicago’s combined sales tax rate of 9.75 percent tied with Los Angeles as the highest sales tax among major U.S. metropolitan areas...

TAGS: Chicago, sales tax

Union bosses silence ObamaCare critiques to pander to Democrat allies

By Paul Kersey

10/09/2013

Just a couple of weeks ago the AFL-CIO passed a sharp criticism of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, in a written document at its national convention in Los Angeles. This document was the last of a string of union complaints about the national health insurance law and the way that the...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, AFL-CIO, James Hoffa, LIUNA: Laborers' International Union of North America, Teamsters

Labor law fails to protect whistleblowers

By Paul Kersey

09/26/2013

The ethics of big labor tend to be completely backward, protecting the corrupt while punishing the diligent. One reason why is a federal labor law that fails to protect union officials when they try to protect their members from crime, as James Sherk writes in National Review’s “Corner” blog. In a recent article that appeared...

Chicago only major U.S. city without term limits; Illinois one of 11 states without term limits

By Brian Costin

09/17/2013

Term limits are a foreign concept to most Illinoisans. There are no term limit provisions governing our state legislature or constitutional officers. At least 39 other states have some form of term limits that apply to either state legislators or constitutional officers. Only a few municipalities in Illinois, such as Downers Grove, have any formal term-limits policy. But...

TAGS: Chicago, Committee for Legislative Reform and Term Limits, Mike Madigan, term limits

Union boss calls for ObamaCare repeal

By Paul Kersey

09/16/2013

Before ObamaCare became law, many labor unions – including the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA – supported it. But over the last several months, labor unions have become more and more alarmed over the actual effects of the law. Now Terry Sullivan, General President of LiUNA, has gone further than any other union leader...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, LIUNA: Laborers' International Union of North America

AFL-CIO calls ObamaCare implementation ‘highly disruptive’

By Paul Kersey

09/14/2013

Following complaints about ObamaCare made by many of its constituent unions, the AFL-CIO has rendered its verdict on the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. From the labor federation’s convention in Los Angeles come four pages of finely tuned verbiage spiced with numbing bureaucratic minutia that boil down to “We love...

Unions carefully backing away from ObamaCare

By Paul Kersey

09/13/2013

“We love what you were trying to do but we hate what you actually did.”

TAGS: AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO headed for a breakup?

By Paul Kersey

09/05/2013

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presides over a union establishment that continues to lose members – more than 1.6 million between 2002 and 2012. The Obama administration’s more union-friendly posture hasn’t helped much – union members made up 12.4 percent of the workforce in 2008, but that declined to 11.2 percent in 2012. Making matters worse,...

TAGS: AFL-CIO

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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Los Angeles

Have teachers unions become instruments of injustice? One judge in California thinks the answer is ’yes’

U-Haul moving rates shine a light on out-migration

Illinois has the highest sales taxes of its neighbors

Union bosses silence ObamaCare critiques to pander to Democrat allies

Labor law fails to protect whistleblowers

Chicago only major U.S. city without term limits; Illinois one of 11 states without term limits

Union boss calls for ObamaCare repeal

AFL-CIO calls ObamaCare implementation ‘highly disruptive’

Unions carefully backing away from ObamaCare

AFL-CIO headed for a breakup?

FAQ: How the federal scholarship program would help Illinois students

Report Archive

Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students