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Friday, October 23, 2015 Akin: Illinois ranks high for creating lawsuits, not jobs By Travis Akin - The University of Illinois football team is struggling once again this year, mired at the bottom of the Big Ten and near the bottom of numerous national rankings. Similarly, the State of Illinois is stuck near the bottom of another set of rankings, only these rankings reflect not just lost games but lost jobs and thus are important to every person living in Illinois. These important but depressing rankings come from a new national study that confirms Illinois’ status as a lawsuit haven,...

Illinois' budget war took another whack out of the state's credit rating today as Moody's Investors Service lowered its review of state debt, moving it to Baa1 from A3. And the firm said its outlook on the state is negative—often a sign that another downgrade is coming in a few months. "The downgrades reflect weakening of the state's financial position during 2015 and our expectation that an ongoing budget stalemate will lead to further deterioration," Moody's said in a statement. ... In bumping Illinois' debt to three levels above junk, Moody's followed the lead of Fitch Ratings, which took a...

As we all know, Illinois is in a complete financial mess. So bad that if you win more than $600 in the lottery you get an IOU instead of a paycheck. With all the talk of budgets, pensions, debt, etc., it sounds as if we will go from bad to worse. I always hear that, yet if things are (or will be) that bad, would Illinois drastically reduce spending on state welfare programs, or has some reduction already occurred?

Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk teamed up with the vast majority of Senate Democrats to block a bill Tuesday that would crack down on sanctuary cities. He was the only Republican to vote against the measure.The bill would increase penalties for illegal immigrants who return to the U.S. after they’re deported, and would threaten to withhold funds from cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement agents. All but two Democrats and Kirk blocked a vote on the bill Tuesday, which fell six votes short of the 60 it needed to proceed to the floor. Democratic senators Joe Donnelly,...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Seven weeks after the mysterious shooting death of Fox Lake police lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz, there may be a solution on the horizon. Officially, the public knows nothing more about why Lt. Joe Gliniewicz died than the day it happened. The police official in charge of that investigation tells the I-Team that conclusions in the case are upcoming, within a few weeks. In an interview with the I-Team, task force commander George Filenko says the case may not be closed until near the end of November.

House Ways and Means Chairman Paul D. Ryan just got an unwelcomed endorsement for speaker. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Tuesday that he hopes the Wisconsin Republican is selected by his colleagues to succeed retiring Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. “He appears to me to be one of the people over there that would be reasonable. I mean, look at some of the other people. I’m a Paul Ryan fan,” Reid said. “I don’t agree with him on much of what he does. I think what he’s done with Medicare and Medicaid, what he’s wanted to do...

Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is claiming “profiteers” are hijacking the conservative message and causing disfunction in Congress. Without naming names, although it should be pretty obvious who he’s speaking of, Kingziner writes in Crain’s Chicago Business (other outlets have picked up the op-ed as well) that all the “profiteers” want is money.

"I do a lot of traveling; I would just jump to the border and go to Wisconsin," said Lobello, 47. "I used to buy lottery tickets in Illinois, but I'm not purchasing them anymore. If they're not paying when they say they're going to pay, I have no confidence in the future." As of Thursday, Illinois Lottery payments for any winnings over $600 are being delayed until the state budget stalemate is resolved. Lottery officials said the agency's check-writing account is depleted and no authority can replenish it, though winnings under $600 can still be retrieved immediately at retail kiosks....

The lottery is akin to the magical kingdom where dreams come true. In New York, their constant advertisements on television assure us that all you need is “a dollar and a dream.” Sure, your odds of hitting the big, top level jackpot are significantly worse than getting hit by lightning while being attacked by a shark, but hey… somebody’s got to win, right? And every week somebody does, leading to a huge weight off their minds if they were financially struggling.Unless, of course, they happen to live in Illinois where the state has stopped paying the winners while still...

For a little over a year, Uber has been operating its UberRUSH delivery service as a pilot program in New York City. Today it’s making it an official part of the company, and expanding the courier service to Chicago and San Francisco, allowing customers to receive deliveries from local businesses. UberRUSH competes directly with Postmates, delivering items like groceries, take-out food, and house supplies, albeit with a much larger fleet of cars on the road. But unlike Postmates, when you open the Uber app, you won’t be flooded with a number of businesses that can deliver something to you.

Illinois won't make its next pension payment; Comptroller Leslie Munger Wednesday announced she can't, because the state doesn't have the cash. Illinois' government pensions are already the worst-funded in the nation. The massive liability grew thanks to the lawmakers shorting the funds. They used the money to pay other expenses instead. Now, Illinois is set do it again. This time, the payment will be delayed because Comptroller Munger says there isn't money in the bank to make it. "The monthly pension payment of $560 million is the largest consistent expenditure that we have throughout the year, and it is one...

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has informed District 211, Illinois’ largest school district, that it is in violation of federal law by refusing to allow a male student who identifies as female to use the girl’s locker room. The student, whose name has been kept private, first filed a complaint with support from the ACLU of Illinois in early 2014. Following precedent in two similar cases in California, District 211 was informed that depriving the student of equal access to facilities violates Title IX’s sex nondiscrimination protections, calling such treatment “inadequate and discriminatory.” At a press...

..........It is not Emanuel’s fault that Chicago’s three largest employers, after the federal government, are the public-school system, the city government, and Cook County’s government. Although Emanuel is a product of the Chicago politics that made Barack Obama, the crisis brought on by such politics now requires Emanuel to take many measures to make Chicago an exception to the nation’s economic lethargy under Obama. Emanuel’s task—condign punishment for any Democrat—is to salvage the blue model by making the private sector dynamic enough to generate tax revenues sufficient to fund improvident public contracts and their pension promises. Hence Emanuel’s focus on...

The Illinois state lottery announced Wednesday it’s no longer a lottery; it’s more of a voluntary collection agency. That’s because the lottery, due to gridlock in passing a new state budget, no longer has the money to pay people who win. Selling lottery tickets? Not a problem. Paying out winning tickets? Problem.

Submitted by the Illinois Tollway. The Illinois Tollway Board of Directors today announced it has created a new committee to guide the development of policies and programs that will continue to encourage and support the agency’s inclusion efforts in contracting, procurement of goods and services and workforce diversity. The Diversity and Inclusion Committee will work to expand and increase the effectiveness of current Tollway efforts to offer small and veteran-owned firms and disadvantaged, minority- and women-owned businesses opportunities to compete for agency contracts and encourage all firms the agency does business with to hire more diverse workforces. “Establishing this new...

The indictment of former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett closes a chapter in yet another sad tale of greedy, cheating city officials. Her lawyer says she has agreed to plead guilty when she appears in court, and I hope the judge throws the book at her. But ethical misconduct is only a part of BBB's legacy. The ex-CEO—along with the rest of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's crack team at the Board of Education—has left us with a whopper of a problem that could hit full force as soon as next month. I'm referring to the nearly $500 million hole in...

It’s beginning to seem like Marty McFly may have been onto something. The Cubs sure are an interesting team to watch. Nothing demonstrates that point more effectively than mad-hatter manager Joe Maddon calling for two suicide squeezes in the second inning on Saturday, en route to a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Now, if you’re like me, you wonder why this isn’t always the play with a runner on third and fewer than two outs. I’ve almost never seen it played correctly by opposing defenses, and isn’t it more reliable than a fly ball to the outfield? But...

The controversial pastor who preached at a church attended by President Obama said on Saturday that “Jesus was a Palestinian,” alluded to Israel as an apartheid state and compared “the youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine” during a speech in Washington, D.C. Jeremiah Wright, who led Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago from 1972 to 2008, spoke at a Nation of Islam event titled “Justice or Else!” on the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March.

Don’t feel lonely, Mrs. Clinton. You’re not the only public official shielding public actions from the public by using private modes of communication — a private email account and server, or texts on a personal cell phone. Meet fellow Democrat and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The Chicago Tribune took the Emanuel administration to court recently for the second time in three months. The paper* charges the mayor with “[violating] state open records laws by refusing to release communications about city business conducted through private emails and text messages.” Still pending is the World’s Greatest Newspaper’s first lawsuit against the mayor’s...

Friday on MSNBC, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) doesn’t want to be House Speaker because he would have to work with the “extreme” Republicans who want to take away the rights of gays, woman and minorities.