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* Capitol News Illinois | Democratic Justices, citing Republican predecessor, won’t step aside from assault weapons case: According to campaign finance records, both judicial candidates received $500,000 each from the JB for Governor campaign and another $500,000 each from the Jay Robert Pritzker Revocable Trust. Both also received contributions from Welch’s campaign committee, $350,000 for O’Brien and $150,000 for Rochford.
* Tribune | Bears stadium development could on hinge on TIF money — a financial tool that’s had varying success in Arlington Heights: The Bears’ say they will pay to build a new stadium, but would only proceed with their planned $5 billion mixed-use development if they get tax “certainty” and public funding for infrastructure such as roads, utilities and stormwater management. Apartments, condominiums and other development planned for the site would be built by private developers — and could mean the added expense of more students for local schools.
* Tribune | Illinois Senate committee hears array of ideas on implementing an elected school board in Chicago: “An elected school board will provide our communities with greater accountability, a way to hold CPS leaders responsible for the decisions that impact our children and our neighborhoods,” state Sen. Omar Aquino, a Chicago Democrat who was educated in CPS, said during Monday’s virtual hearing.
* Center Square | Pritzker pitches Illinois bonds to investors in New York: Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other state officials were in New York previewing $2.45 billion in bonds the state is selling. Illinois Director of Capital Markets Paul Chatalas said they’re looking to go to market Wednesday.
* Politico | America’s Looming Conflict: Red Judges vs. Blue Governors: Pritzker, 58, made plain in our conversation that he is not looking for war with the federal judiciary. Yet in many respects war has come to him and other blue state governors, as a cohort of conservative legal activists on the federal bench flex their new power with rulings that strain constitutional credibility.
* BGA | How a FOIA Loophole in Illinois Puts Kids at Risk: A BGA Policy analysis of the 16 county detention centers across Illinois has found that only three successfully have completed audits mandated by federal law to enforce protections against sexual assault. Analysis of those audits, policy manuals and other data provided to BGA Policy shows that in the wake of blowback at the Cook County facility over use of room confinement, that disciplinary action is still commonly used in many facilities, with some confining youth for over 24 hours at a time.
* Sun-Times | Alderman blasts fractious CPD leadership for flat-footed response to violent weekend gatherings: Officials fought amongst themselves and street cops were overwhelmed, Ald Brian Hopkins said, as groups of teens jumped on cars and set fires in the Loop — and at least three teens were shot. ‘Nobody knew who was in charge,’ Hopkins said.
* WBEZ | Can CTA get back on track? New data show a workforce still in flux.: At the monthly meeting of the Chicago Transit Board on Wednesday, President Dorval Carter expressed optimism that the agency has stopped the “hemorrhaging” of employees it experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and has started to fill the hundreds of vacancies on the bus and rail side.
* Sun-Times | Ed Burke Day proposed, then pulled — at Burke’s request: After a political uproar that dragged on for hours, 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez on Monday abandoned efforts to declare May 15 — inauguration day for Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson — as “Ald. Edward M. Burke Day” in Chicago. Lopez said he pulled the plug at the request of Burke, the indicted and now retiring City Council member who apparently had no interest in ending his record 54-year tenure amid a political controversy to match the legal quagmire he is in.
* USA Today | Homeowner charged with shooting Missouri teen who went to the wrong house: An 85-year-old white man has been charged with armed assault after he shot and injured a Black teen who showed up at the wrong address. But charging documents neglect a “racial component” to the incident in which Andrew Lester twice shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl at his front door in Kansas City, prosecutors said.
* AP | Oklahoma officials accused of talk of killing journalists: Oklahoma’s governor is seeking the resignation of four county officials after a newspaper’s audio recording apparently captured some of them complaining about two of the paper’s journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug. A portion of the recording was released by the paper, and it also appears to capture one of the four making racist comments about Black people.
posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 7:46 am
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That Oklahoma story is revolting. I was reading up on it last night. The response from the officials involved is even worse, as they aren’t worried about what they said on the recording, they are instead now trying to criminally charge the journalist for recording what they said.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 8:42 am
“TIF” = Welfare for the Wealthy. Socialist Entitlement. Free Stuff. Whatever you want to call it. If the privately owned thing called the “Bears” want to build a new house in the suburbs, they can pay it for it themselves. No mooching at the public trough.
Comment by Jerry Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 8:59 am
===Dabrowski said Illinois is an outlier as pensions in most other states only eat up about 5% of their budgets.===
The sky is falling! Beginning to think “A stopped clock is right twice a day.” never met Ted.
Comment by Anyone Remember Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 9:09 am
That Burke story is hilarious.
That journalist story is sickening. They have no remorse and doubling-down. So Trump-esque. I’m guessing he’ll be visiting SE Oklahoma soon.
Comment by Lurker Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 9:11 am
An argument for public money, though I’m still skeptical: the increase in name ID for Arlington Heights. It’s going to appear in nationwide media during games, in articles, etc. You go from being a suburb nobody outside of Chicagoland has heard of to plenty of people recognizing it thanks to the Bears. Just a thought! I hope they draft with more success than they’re having with the stadium talk.
Comment by Torco Sign Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 9:29 am
I wonder if the Oklahoma officials realize Tulsa King is a TV show, not real life.
Comment by Lincoln Lad Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 10:02 am
“Nobody knew who was in charge” says Ald. Brian Hopkins of the CPD response to the violent gathering of youth in the loop. Sure seems like CPD needs an overhaul of their chain of command so that everyone knows who is in charge. The Mayor Elect campaigned in part on that topic.
Comment by Corruption Committee Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 10:06 am
As it sits now, with the want of state monies in any form, it’s a horrendous deal with a 40 year window.
If Arlington Heights wants to do this in their own, no state monies, “have at it”… I mean, the Washington Commanders are selling north of $5 BILLION with, you guessed it, a stadium needing “major renovations”… again
The Bears are worth $5.6 billion, with a B, all according to Forbes, only 2% debt…
If the Gillespie Billionaire Bears Bailout eventually hurts schools and school children to appease the grandkids of Papa Bear Halas, than I hope every Republican legislator is “red” on this Bears bailout bill… and every Chicago legislator is “red” too
Find those 60 and 30 without those two groups.
Tough to see a governor whose a billionaire willing to bailout another billionaire at the cost of Arlington Heights school kids…
Let AH go it alone if it’s so important to them
Why you need to make a deal with a truly ignorant company that first bought the land with no guarantees and AH and the state are “over a barrel”? Hardly.
Pay half what is left on the Chicago Park District bonds, as good faith, reorganize the facility with it unattached to the other business proposals, the state guarantees full and complete infrastructure (roads and sewers outside the footprint) to help traffic and such.
The only one making out in a bailout… is the Halas Heirs
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 10:10 am
The original $387M to renovate Soldier Field is now $640M, 20 years later. This is the only information needed for possible taxpayer participation for the Bears in Arlington.
Comment by James the Intolerant Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 10:22 am
Seems the value of the Bears likely jumped over a billion dollars minimum by the sale of the Commanders this week. Look to private partners to help finance the bonanza that results from the new stadium and related development of the land. Open your eyes, McCaskey family…
Comment by Lincoln Lad Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 10:26 am
When we see conservative judges recusing themselves from abortion, voting and environmental regulation cases on the grounds that pro-life, fascist based, stop the steal groups supported them, we can talk about progressive judges recusing themselves from issues before courts. Clarence Thomas would have to recuse on bribery and economic cases as well. Double laughing emojis.
The Oklahoma recordings are chilling. Klanicans are alive and well in Oklahoma, Kansas City and upstate New York. Ugly people with ugly souls.
Comment by froganon Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 11:10 am
The NY Giants are not known as the East Rutherford Giants since they packed up and moved to the suburbs.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 18, 23 @ 11:49 am