By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints
We couldn’t have planned it this way, but our seven most-read stories in 2024 each captured a different facet of what’s wrong with Illinois. Failing schools. Murders. Closing businesses. A bloated, overpaid government sector. Election interference. Population-loss denial. And Chicago’s twisted equity priorities.
Notably missing from the list were the migrant crisis and the DNC convention. We’ve added two heavily-read Wirepoints stories on those issues to round out the list.
Take a quick look at the short summaries we’ve provided. 2024 was another tough year for Illinoisans, even as we put covid further in the rear view mirror. Bad policies and bad politics further ingrained themselves into the state.
Here’s hoping that next year’s most-read pieces will include some truly positive developments.
This piece resonated so much that even Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and Jordan Peterson helped expose it on X. Their engagement revealed to the nation the thousands of students trapped in completely failing schools.
The title speaks for itself. Sadly, Chicago will retain that title again in 2024. Nation’s most murders for 13 straight years.
#3. Lawmakers fiddle as cities burn: Four more Illinois factories close or lay off workers.
While every factory closure is disappointing and another black mark on Illinois’ dismal manufacturing performance, the loss of Danville’s Quaker Oats plant was particularly meaningful to Wirepoints. One of the first articles we wrote in 2017 was about Danville’s struggle to attract and maintain jobs in a state that imposes crippling costs and regulations on both businesses and cities.
#4. Illinois government’s $100K salary and pension club: 150,000 members and rising.
Nearly 150,000 Illinois government workers and retirees took in more than $100,000 in salaries or pensions in 2023. Combine that with the fact that Illinois has the nation’s most units of local government and it’s not surprising Illinoisans pay the highest property taxes in the country.
Read more here.