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* Here’s your morning roundup…
* Daily Herald | Bill guaranteeing workers five days of paid leave will head to governor: “Paid leave for all is about the dignity of work,” said Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, a Peoria Democrat and a lead sponsor on the bill. “It’s about humanizing and honoring the realities that we know that adult workers have in our daily lives and providing a space for folks to just do what it is that we all have the luxury and are so blessed to do.”
* Crain’s | Emanuel’s role in ComEd board pick comes to light: A source close to the matter says Emanuel agreed in 2017 to use his influence to help Latino community leader Juan Ochoa get a seat on the Chicago utility’s board. The push—which also involved former U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, a close Emanuel ally—was successful. The source recalls Emanuel said at the time he’d been able to get Ochoa the ComEd board slot.
* WMBD | Illinois county sheriffs refuse to enforce assault weapons ban, deem law unconstitutional: At least 30 county sheriffs are refusing to enforce the newly-passed assault weapons ban because they contend it violates the Second Amendment.
* Tribune | Service upgrades, ethics policy on Alexi Giannoulias’ initial agenda as Illinois Secretary of State: Giannoulias’ goals for his first 100 days in office and beyond are laid out in a report compiled with the help of a transition team comprising business and civic leaders, including elected officials. Some 800 surveys filled out by citizens through his campaign website were also used to assemble the report.
* WBEZ | Student mental health emerges as key issue as UIC faculty strike date looms: Faculty union members who are threatening to strike on Tuesday are asking for increased pay in part to compensate for larger workloads they say have resulted from their students’ heightened mental health needs. They are also asking the university to provide free psychological and neuropsychological testing for struggling students.
* Illinois Answers Project | Feds Probing Massive State Contract that Failed Foster Kids with Inadequate Health Care: An investigation by the Illinois Answers Project found that insurance giant Centene Corp. routinely fell short in providing basic care. Now, federal officials want answers from the two state agencies overseeing the program.
* Sun-Times | Greatest slips? Madigan’s ‘bandits’ remark could join list of ‘golden’ oldies caught spilling from pols’ loose lips: “Some of these guys have made out like bandits,” the former Illinois House Speaker was allegedly recorded saying of associates who benefited from what prosecutors describe as a scheme for jobs and contracts. He’s far from the first Chicago pol to trip over a federal wire.
* Sun-Times | Lightfoot apologizes for campaign’s solicitation to CPS, City Colleges students that was ‘clearly a mistake’: “I’m not just some candidate. I’m the mayor and responsible for the schools. And this is the kind of outreach that never should have happened,” the mayor told reporters.
* WTTW | ACLU of Illinois Says Lightfoot Campaign Emails to Chicago Teachers May Violate Federal Law; CPS Inspector General Opens Investigation: The email from the campaign “is inappropriately coercive and raises First Amendment concerns. The Supreme Court has made clear that government officials cannot use their office or power to coerce participation or to punish for lack of participation in political campaigns,” according to a statement by Colleen K. Connell, executive director of the ACLU of Illinois Thursday.
* Block Club | Greg Mitchell Will Likely Be Reelected 7th Ward Alderman After Challengers Booted From Ballot: Mitchell is all but certain to win a third term representing the South Side ward after challengers Jocilyn Floyd and Tony Blair were knocked off the ballot.
* Sophia Van Pelt | Better Government Association: How Illinois courts are hidden from FOIA: Statistical information from the courts is subject to open access laws in 27 states, and 15 more have court rules and policies that make the data available. But a quirk in the wording of Illinois’ FOIA – it does not explicitly name the judicial branch – has allowed the courts to interpret the law to mean they are exempt from FOIA. In other words, the judiciary has decided it does not need to be held accountable to the public in the same way other parts of the government are. This is a disservice to the people of Illinois and seems contrary to the original intention of FOIA.
* Sun-Times | Lightfoot’s plan to ‘reimagine La Salle Street’ takes shape : The City Council’s Finance Committee approved a $5 million grant program to entice neighborhood restaurants and “cultural” establishments to open downtown.
* CBS Chicago | City now plans to bring migrants at shuttered Woodlawn school on week of Jan. 23: Residents learned Thursday night that the city’s mind is made up. The vacant school is set to open for asylum seekers before the end of the month to the shuttered Wadsworth Elementary School, later University of Chicago Charter School, at 6420 S. University Ave.
* Tribune | Martin Luther King Jr.: Q & A with ‘King: A Life’ author Jonathan Eig on civil rights leader’s year in Chicago: “We forget that King really did challenge us to rethink the whole structure of American society and was pushing us to really go farther,” Eig said. “He was a lot more radical and a lot more courageous than we give him credit for.”
* WTTW | Reflecting on the Road to Death Penalty Abolition in Illinois, 20 Years After Sweeping Clemency: Renaldo Hudson, director of education at the Illinois Prison Project, was one of the 167 people who had his sentence commuted. “It meant I had the opportunity for my humanity to be seen, and not just the act that I committed,” said Hudson, who was given a death sentence for a murder he committed when he was 19 years old.
* KHQA | Pritzker celebrates milestone at Quincy Veterans’ Home: The “Topping Out” ceremony marks a significant milestone in the nearly $300 million renovation and rehabilitation project that will provide a 260,000 square foot residential long-term care facility and 80,000 square foot independent living facility to Illinois veterans.
posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 8:08 am
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The Knox County SA put out a very thoughtful and accurate statement. If only the guys with the guns were as thoughtful and intelligent.
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 8:34 am
Hat tip to David Jackson, Rachel Hinton and the Interns who exposed the Pritzker and his Team’s relationship with Centene.
We have a lot of good reporters in this state.
Comment by Back to the Future Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 9:39 am
Do students at UIC have more acute mental health needs now because there are more stressors in everyone’s life or because they were undiagnosed before?
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 10:12 am
The lack of application of FOIA to the state courts is a real problem. It allows courts to hide, among other things, statistics about individual judges that should be in the public record. A good article about a coalition highlighting this issue.
Comment by Keyrock Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 12:47 pm