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* SJ-R | NWS rates Sherman, Riverton tornadoes as EF2; severe weather may return to area Tuesday: The storm system that struck Arkansas, Illinois and Indiana Friday left seven people dead, including a concertgoer at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, just outside Rockford. Five other people were seriously injured when the theatre’s roof collapsed at a heavy metal show.
* NBC Chicago | New Chicago Mayoral Poll Shows Vallas With Slight Lead Ahead of Johnson: The poll, conducted by Victory Research, showed Vallas’ with 49.6% of the potential vote and Johnson with 45.4%. Vallas’ lead widened from two points to 4.2 points, when compared to the previous poll, which was conducted in late March.
* Sun-Times | Census Bureau’s inaccurate population estimates create ‘misleading narrative’ about Illinois: The following year, after the Census Bureau delved deeply into its own numbers, the federal agency admitted it had blundered. The Bureau’s Post-Enumeration Survey, using what the Census Bureau said was a “statistical technique called dual-system estimation,” found that Illinois’ population actually grew by about 250,000 people, an almost 500,000-person shift from that December 2020 estimate. Yet, here we are, back to reading about the results of annual U.S. Census surveys, and nobody seems to remember any of that history or has bothered to remind the public to take these estimates with a gigantic grain of salt.
* WBEZ | Chicago State University faculty to go on strike Monday: University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100, representing more than 160 professors, lecturers, and academic and technical support professionals at Chicago State University, has been in negotiations with administrators since June. Their last contract expired in August.
* Sun-Times | Prosecutors seeking nearly 6-year prison sentence for downstate Jan. 6 rioter: Shane Woods remains jailed in Sangamon County on murder charges in a separate case, in which he allegedly caused a fatal crash during a botched attempt to take his own life rather than face prison time for his participation in the Washington D.C. riot.
* SJ-R | Here’s what Sangamon County voters need to know about Election Day: Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said the office has encountered few problems in the runup to the election. “We’re fully staffed with election judges and registrars,” Gray said. “We have an ample level of backups in place.
* Lisa Castillo Richmond | Illinois legislators have the power to make higher education more affordable: It’s important to remember that the past 20 years have given us little to celebrate for Illinois higher education. Over this period, college and university appropriations were nearly halved, and MAP grants were cut by more than $100 million as college prices rose, denying 1.7 million need-based grants to eligible students. These funding decreases were punctuated by the 2017 budget impasse, in which universities nearly closed and students didn’t know whether they would receive the MAP grants they needed to stay in college.
* Crain’s | McDonald’s shuts down U.S. offices in advance of layoffs: The Chicago-based burger giant said in an internal email last week to U.S. employees and some international staff that they should work from home from Monday through Wednesday so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news. The company asked employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other outside parties at its headquarters.
* STLPR | Renewable energy use is up sharply in Illinois and slightly in Missouri: Wind power accounts for 74% of the renewable energy in the United States. It is the biggest source in Missouri and Illinois, as well. Both are among the top 20 states in the country for wind energy supply.
* Joe Cahill | Illinois needs unity to win Uncle Sam’s cash: That’s the idea behind a coalition organized by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to compete for $80 billion or more in funding that will be doled out across the country under the CHIPS & Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden administration programs. Dubbed Innovate Illinois, the group includes a wide array of business groups, universities and political leaders, such as P33, World Business Chicago, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois. U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth signed on, too.
* Naperville Sun | Wehrli outpacing White when it comes to Naperville mayor election campaign donations: Illinois State Board of Elections records show Wehrli has received more than $207,000 in campaign donations since announcing his mayoral run in July, whereas White has taken in $108,000 since he launching his bid in October.
* AP | Twitter pulls check mark from main New York Times account: Early Sunday, Musk tweeted that the Times’ check mark would be removed. Later he posted disparaging remarks about the newspaper, which has aggressively reported on Twitter and on flaws with partially automated driving systems at Tesla, the electric car company, which he also runs.
* Northwestern Now | Gov. JB Pritzker, Morton Schapiro and three others to receive honorary degrees: Along with Pritzker and Schapiro, the following recipients will receive their honorary degrees at the ceremony: Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, retired vice chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), Rwanda; Sharon Bowen, commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and chair of the Board of the New York Stock Exchange; and Luis Valdez, playwright, director and founder of El Teatro Campesino.
* Crain’s | How a woman working in her basement created the 7th largest publisher in the U.S.: When the blockbuster $2.2 billion merger of book publishing giants Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster was blocked late last year for antitrust reasons — in what would have been a combination of two of the Big Five in New York publishing — nobody noted at the time that Random House had already taken a big stake in the nation’s No. 7 ranked publisher, Sourcebooks in Naperville.
* Sun-Times | White Sox show what they can be when talent is on the field, gain series split with Astros: Talent was never an issue for the underachieving White Sox last season. Keeping it on the field was. Luis Robert Jr., Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson reminded everyone of that in the Sox’ 6-3 victory Sunday against the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
* Sun-Times | San Diego State’s Dutcher took an extra-long route — starting at Illinois — to the Final Four: As many NCAA Tournament watchers have heard over the last couple of weeks, Dutcher, 63, didn’t become a head coach until deep into his career; he was 57 when SDSU finally promoted him. Before that, he was an assistant to Steve Fisher for 27 years, nine of them at Michigan — where he recruited the heck out of the “Fab Five” — and 18 with the Aztecs.
posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 7:31 am
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=found that Illinois’ population actually grew by about 250,000 people, an almost 500,000-person shift from that December 2020 estimate.=
Yikes.
And imagine what the count would have been if the previous administration had not scared the **** out of all the immigrants.
Comment by TinyDancer(FKASue) Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 7:59 am
Interesting story about McDonalds.
I’ve never rooted for anyone to lose their jobs, but if the majority of their restaurants are managed like the one in Anna, I’m not surprised.
Comment by Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 8:01 am
===Vallas’ with 49.6% of the potential vote and Johnson with 45.4%.===
Vallas inches closer to that “50% in polling” number, and if turnout of “over 50” continues to dominate, and as Frank Calabrese highlighted in Black Wards their support for Lightfoot also finding Vallas, tough way to find a path for Johnson.
It should be noted, however, that those who were adamant in saying Proft, Ives, Bailey and the GOP are not what “Illinois wants” now share their own problems as they seemingly agree with those folks on Vallas.
Here I thought the GOP had a Proft, Ives, and Trump problem.
*IF* the worst elements of politics are celebrating with you, and a Vallas win, please don’t take it upon yourselves mocking or laughing at the Eastern Bloc or other elements of the GOP.
Tomorrow will be incredibly interesting, this poll adds to the intrigue
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 8:09 am
Re: Crain’s Report on McDonald’s
Scary times. Ever since COVID hit, the two stores in Macomb have struggled to keep pace with customer demand.
A long time ago, I was an assistant manager at a burger joint (Wendy’s), and I remember trying to always manage staffing decisions so as to not have more people that needed at any given half hour. We used the previous year’s sales data for that date.
In the end, we always had multiple moments when there were not enough workers. I can only imagine that the COVID epidemic really made it hard to predict, and it seems anecdotally, that the stores I am familiar with have always erred on the side of not enough employees, routinely.
Lots of other effects for sure, but when McDonald’s is considering layoffs, the economy nationwide must be a lot worse than it appears here in West Central Illinois.
Comment by H-W Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 8:33 am
=Lots of other effects for sure,=
Their previous CEO (brought in from London IIRC) has done damage to the golden arches that will be felt for years to come. The talent drain was immense, and the standards have dropped dramatically.
Comment by JS Mill Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 9:23 am
Saw some cell phone cam video of the roof collapse at the Apollo Theater. Just walking around filming people trying to lift debris off of people. Not helping one bit. What a jack—.
Comment by Demoralized Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 9:47 am
Good on the Sox getting a split in a difficult place against the World Series champs. It’s tough out there, you know? (h/t late, great Rodney Dangerfield)
Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Apr 3, 23 @ 10:05 am