The Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District (BCFPD) Board of Trustees meets tonight at 6:30 PM at 22222 N. Pepper Road in Lake Barrington. Topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.
Posted in Agendas, BACOG, BCFPD, County, Deception, Elections, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Jewel-Osco, McHenry, Pension Funding, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Taxes, Transparency, Unions | Leave a Comment »
An electronic sign captures a driver speeding along Old Litchfield Road in Washington, near one of three locations where town officials plan on rolling out automated traffic enforcement cameras. The small town is the first in the state authorized to use the technology by Connecticut Department of Transportation. | John Moritz/ Hearst Connecticut Media Group
By John Moritz | New Times
WASHINGTON — For years, Ashley MacDonald has dealt with cars that come hurtling past her home facing Baldwin Hill Road in excess of the 35 mph speed limit — and the occasional tragic consequences.
In high school, one of her brother’s friends was killed in a crash atop the hill, in a spot still marked by daffodils in the spring.
More recently MacDonald, 43, says she’s witnessed on several occasions cars “going flying” past school buses stopped on the road to take her two children to school. Nor has the installation of electronic signs displaying drivers’ speeds back at them done much to get people to slow down.
“This is certainly a road where people are not respecting the speed limit,” MacDonald said. “I’m surprised I haven’t seen more accidents, to be honest with you.”
In an effort to address the constant speeding on Baldwin Hill and two other locations in town, Washington officials are preparing to deploy automated cameras along country roads to capture pictures of the speedsters and send them a ticket in the mail. The new program starts next month.
Washington, with a population of 3,646, is known as a rural retreat for wealthy New Yorkers. Residents, however, say that speeding along country roads has become a nuisance. | John Moritz/ Hearst Connecticut Media Group
The Connecticut Department of Transportation signed off on Washington’s plan on Monday, according to an agency spokesman. The town beat out applications from a pair of much larger cities — Stamford and New Haven — to become the first municipality in the state approved to use automated cameras to enforce traffic laws. A one-year pilot program limited to active work zones on interstate highways issued more than 700 fines in 2023, according to DOT.
Both town leaders and local residents concede that Washington, with a population of 3,646 spread out across five villages in the Litchfield Hills, is a surprising candidate to be pioneering the technology.
“Obviously we’re a small town but speeding is the number one [source] of complaints my office gets,” said Washington’s First Selectman James Brinton.
When debating whether to give municipalities the authority to enforce traffic laws with automated cameras, a number of lawmakers and civil rights activists raised concerns about the spread of government surveillance and the potential disparate impact of such systems when deployed in lower-income and minority communities.
In order to alleviate those concerns, the law signed by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2023 was written to require that towns submit plans for DOT approval before they can begin using red light or speed cameras. Those plans must be renewed every three years, during which time towns must submit reports on the number of fines issued and revenue they collected to both the DOT and state lawmakers.
Read more here.
Posted in Big Brother, Clown Car, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Roads & Bridges Committee, School Districts, Topics Of Interest, VBHPD, Village Board, Village Code, Village Government | Leave a Comment »
In the Eaglebrook neighborhood of Farmville, N.C., these homes on Jan. 8, 2024, back up to hole No. 2 on the Farmville Golf & Country Club. This is in Pitt County. |Allan Wooten, The Center Square
By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
Millions of residents in blue states have migrated to red states within the past 30 years, according to federal data. A policy group that analyzed the data says it’s a clear sign that many Americans find Democratic policies unlivable.
From 1990 to 2021, a total of 13 million people left California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts and migrated to Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, and South Carolina over the same period.
American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Edward J. Pinto attributes this “blue state exodus” to progressive policies, with high crime, unaffordable housing, high taxes, and rising levels of homelessness and unemployment driving away residents.
“The trend is undeniable: Americans are fleeing progressive states for conservative ones, and they are bringing their incomes with them,” Pinto wrote in a recent op-ed, published in Newsweek.
The American Enterprise Institute is a free market think tank “dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world,” according to its website.
IRS data reveals California led the nation in net outward migration between 1990 and 2021, hemorrhaging a total of 4.6 million people during that time. New York lost roughly the same number, many of whom moved to Florida.
More here.
Posted in Crime, Economy, Immigration, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, The Center Square, Topics Of Interest, Unions | Leave a Comment »
His ideas include forcing state pensions to invest 10% of assets in housing and pushing higher density on suburbs. | Courtesy Capitol News Illinois
By Dennis Rodkin | Crain’s Chicago Business
Strict zoning and high construction costs have long hampered the development of new market-rate homes in the middle range — homes that are neither subsidized for low-income people nor built at the high end for affluent buyers.
Now, Gov. JB Pritzker is launching a new effort to tackle those barriers, signing an executive order yesterday creating an Illinois director of housing solutions.
“If we are going to build on this state’s record of growth and prosperity, lower costs for Illinois’ working families, and be a state that everyone can call home, we must build more housing in every Illinois community from Cairo to Chicago,” Pritzker said.
The role of the director, not yet named, will be to work with state and local agencies to promote policies that allow more multifamily homes in single-family areas and programs that pay qualified homebuyers the difference between what they can afford and what it costs a developer to build.
These and other possible solutions were presented to Pritzker in September in a report from the Ad Hoc Missing Middle Housing Solutions Advisory Committee.
Building middle-range housing has become an urgent need nationwide, as the country is reported to be short at least 6.5 million homes. That drives prices up, leaving middle-range people with fewer options.
And Illinois is tied for last among the states in building new homes.
The shortage of new middle-range housing, Pritzker said, “has many causes and it requires comprehensive solutions.” Overall, the goal is to build more new housing, a mission that both contenders in the November presidential election shared.
One Chicago-area developer of affordable housing said he appreciates Pritzker’s effort to reduce obstacles to building new housing.
“We need help getting through,” said Scott Henry, whose Chicago firm, Celadon, has developed several affordable projects, either in new construction or by rehabbing old structures.
Read more here.
Posted in Crain's Chicago Business, Economy, Pension Funding, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Real Estate | 1 Comment »
A report outlining public education reform in Illinois doesn’t address a core issue facing students: reading proficiency. It also lowers standards for students and threatens to muddle the understanding of students’ progress.
By Hannah Schmid | Illinois Policy Institute
A new vision for Illinois public education has been released by eight Illinois education organizations, but it fails to address one of the core issues facing Illinois students: poor literacy.
Neither literacy nor reading specifically is mentioned a single time in the report.
The Vision 2030 report is intended to articulate what “the education community stands for and aspires to realize.” But what it reveals is the stakeholders in Illinois public schools want less rigor, less accountability and less transparency.
A few of the actions recommended by the report include calling for the state to lower proficiency benchmarks for students and switching Illinois’ current state assessments from outcome-based assessments to more holistic assessments.
Just 2 in 5 students in third through eighth grade can read at grade level on state assessments. Even fewer 11th graders met grade-level reading standards in 2024.
Here are four things you should know about the report’s failure to address literacy and recommendations which could ultimately harm students.
There is a literacy epidemic facing Illinois students, especially young Illinois learners.
Yet literacy was not mentioned once in the Vision 2030 report, authored by the Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Principals Association, Illinois Association of School Boards, Illinois Association of School Business Officials, the Superintendents’ Commission for the Study of Demographics and Diversity, Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education and the Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools.
Studies show third grade marks a critical literacy point for students. In Illinois, only 31% of third graders met proficiency standards on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in spring 2024. Research shows these low levels of proficiency threaten the wellbeing of students throughout their lives.
“Students who do not ‘learn to read’ during the first three years of school experience enormous difficulty when they are subsequently asked to ‘read to learn,’” according to the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators. If a student struggles to read at grade level by the end of third grade, up to half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible.
A report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation warns about the harms of a student’s inability to read effectively by the end of third grade. The research shows a student’s likelihood to graduate high school can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by their reading skill at the end of third grade. By the beginning of fourth grade, students transition from learning to read to reading to learn math, social studies and the rest of the curriculum.
The foundation warns “if we don’t get dramatically more children on track as proficient readers, the United States will lose a growing and essential proportion of its human capital to poverty, and the price will be paid not only by individual children and families, but by this entire country.”
The low literacy rate among Illinois’ early learners is a core issue facing the Illinois public education system. Education organizations and lawmakers can learn from major advances in states such as Mississippi and Florida to promote meaningful literacy reform in Illinois.
Read the 3 others here.
Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Illinois Policy Institute, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, Topics Of Interest, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? | Leave a Comment »
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Spectacular performances are this weekend
By Luke Zurawski | Daily Herald
Friday, Dec. 13
International Gem & Jewelry Show: Noon to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, 5555 N. River Road, Rosemont. Shop directly from wholesalers, manufacturers and designers in a marketplace setting. Kids younger than 9 not permitted. $6 online, $8 at the door. intergem.com.
“Nutcracker All Jazzed Up”: Noon, 3 and 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13-14, at the Bartlett Community Center, 700 S. Bartlett Road, Bartlett. Presented by the Bartlett Park District and Lisa’s School of Dance, the production includes local dancers performing to Tchaikovsky’s musical score reorchestrated into a modern, up-tempo, family-friendly experience. Tickets required. bartlettparkdistrict.com.
Sons of Serendip Christmas — Beyond the Lights: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, at ECC Arts Center, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin. A finalist on Season 9 of “America’s Got Talent,” this classical crossover quartet includes a harpist, cellist, pianist and lead vocalist. $37. eccartscenter.org/events/centerstage.
Electric Illumination: 8:30-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13-14, at the Morton Arboretum, 4100 Route 53, Lisle. A special late-night experience when ages 18 and older can enjoy a curated playlist of Diva Anthems synchronized to the light displays. A DJ will be stationed in Arbor Court. Hot chocolate, snacks, alcoholic beverages and s’more kits can be purchased in concession tents and enjoyed by the bonfires. Tickets start at $30 at mortonarb.org.
Saturday, Dec. 14
Algonquin Breakfast with Santa: Seatings every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 14, at Cucina Bella, 220 S. Main St., Algonquin. All you-can-eat breakfast buffet, crafts and a visit with Santa. $32 for residents, $42 for nonresidents 13 and older; $25/$35 for kids 3-12; free for kids 2 and younger. rec.algonquin.org.
Lambs Farm Breakfast with Santa: 9 and 10:30 a.m. and noon Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 14-15, at Lambs Farm, 14245 W. Rockland Road, Libertyville. Brunch at the Magnolia Café & Bakery, kids’ crafts and a goody bag. $18.95, $7.95 for kids younger than 2. For reservations, call (847) 362-5050. lambsfarm.org.
Doggy Grinchmas: 9:30 and 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Sheila Ray Adult Center, 225 E. Elk Grove Blvd., Elk Grove Village. Bring your dog and participate in a variety of activities. All participants will receive a souvenir picture with the Grinch. Dogs must be leashed; retractable leashes are not allowed. Registration deadline is Dec 11. elkgroveparks.org.
Santa and Mrs. Claus will visit with kids in Cook Park during MainStreet Libertyville’s Dickens of a Holiday on Saturday, Dec. 14. | Courtesy of MainStreet Libertyville
Dickens of a Holiday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, in downtown Libertyville. Photos with Santa in Cook Park, Children’s Holiday Shoppe at Petranek’s Pharmacy and Victorian Tea from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Libertyville Civic Center. Free; donations of nonperishable food items appreciated. mainstreetlibertyville.org.
Santa Paws: 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 14, at Clayson House Museum & Library, 224 E. Palatine Road, Palatine. Price includes a souvenir photo of your pet with Santa, a stocking full of treats and a craft activity for your dog. For dogs only. Registration is required. $10-$15. palatineparks.org.
Winter Frostival: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, 110 W. Fremont St., Arlington Heights. Meet a real Ice Princess and Ice Queen, plus strolling carolers, winter animals, Santa Claus, storytime, crafts, cookies and cocoa. Free. ahpd.org/event/winter-frostival-2.
Ice Sculpture Cocoa Crawl: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, around the Huntley Town Square. Custom-carved holiday animation-themed ice sculptures will be on display on the sidewalks. Tickets are for sale on the Huntley Area Chamber Facebook page and website for $18 for mug and s’mores, $15 for mug only and $5 for s’mores only. Mugs will not be sold on the day of the event. huntley.il.us.
LeeWards Style Ornaments: Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Elgin History Museum, 360 Park St., Elgin. For decades, LeeWards sold craft supplies and decorations from their flagship store on State Street. Kids 6 or older can make their own LeeWards-style sequin ornament to take home. $5 per ornament. elginhistory.org.
Jingle Bell Zumba: 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Birchwood Recreation Center, 435 W. Illinois Ave., Palatine. Dress in Christmas attire for this Jingle Bell Zumba party. $10-$15. palatineparks.org/event/jingle-bell-zumba-2.
Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Spectacular: 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin. Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Spectacular includes carols, new spins on modern favorites and an appearance by Santa Claus. $20-$65. elginsymphony.org.
The Arlingtones will perform Saturday, Dec. 14, at First United Methodist Church in Arlington Heights. | Courtesy of Arlington Heights Historical Society
Arlingtones Christmas Concert: 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at First United Methodist Church, 1903 E. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights. $5.20-$12.75. arlingtones.net.
Green Oaks Holiday Chorus concert: 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1151 N. St. Mary’s Road, Libertyville. Choral selections, carols and popular Christmas songs. Free. Monetary donations go to PADS. (847) 362-3809.
“Jingle Moms”: 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Raue Center for the Arts, 26 N. Williams St., Crystal Lake. Comedy show featuring Ana Belaval, Jeanie Doogan and Chelsea Hood. $35-$45. rauecenter.org.
Sunday, Dec. 15
Christmas Concert: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at Faith Lutheran Church, 431 S. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights. “Carols Old and New: A Celebration in Song and Scripture” features a combined choir, handbells, organ, piano and a sing-along. Freewill offering. faithlutheran-ah.org.
“Welcome Christmas” by Lake County Symphony Orchestra: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at Village Hall Barn, 2 Lagoon Drive, Hawthorn Woods. Program features Barber Die Natalie and Alfred Reed Russian Christmas music. $40; $10 with student ID; free for kids 5 and younger. lakecountysymphonyorchestra.com.
St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Elgin will hold its Living Nativity on Sunday, Dec. 15. | John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
A Living Nativity: 4-6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 40W720 Plank Road, Elgin. An outdoor Living Nativity with real people and live animals, followed by carolers, cookies, hot cocoa and coffee. Photo opportunities and seating is available for those with disabilities. Free. stpauluccelgin.org.
Northwest Choral Society — A Northwest Christmas: 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15, at Saint Raymond’s Catholic Church, Lincoln Street and Elmhurst Avenue, Mount Prospect. Holiday music and a Christmas bake sale. Cash or check only for tickets purchased at the door. $15-$20. nwchoralsociety.org/concerts/a-northwest-christmas.
Tuesday, Dec. 17
“White Christmas” sing-along: 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 17-18, at the Woodstock Opera House, 121 Van Buren St., Woodstock. Sing along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen at these special screenings of the 1954 Christmas classic. Concessions open at 6 p.m. $10. woodstockoperahouse.com.
Wednesday, Dec. 18
Itasca Holiday Trolley Lights Tour: 5-7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 18-19, starting at the Itasca Waterpark, 100 N. Catalpa St., Itasca. Sip hot cocoa while traveling around town to see the light displays at the Winter Wonderland and other sites. $10. Register: itascaparkdistrict.com.
Itasca Pictures With Santa: 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18, at the Usher Park gazebo, 203 S. Walnut, Itasca. Take photos with Santa and pick up a holiday token. Donate a new, unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots or a nonperishable food donation for the Itasca Food Pantry. itascaparkdistrict.com.
Ongoing
Long Grove Vintage Holidays: Through Tuesday, Dec. 24, in downtown Long Grove. Holiday walk, horse-drawn carriage rides on weekends, Santa in the village, caroling around town and more. longgrove.org/festival/holiday-season.
Happy Holiday Railway: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 14-15 and 21-22, at Illinois Railway Museum, 7000 Olson Road, Union. Aboard the train you’ll meet Santa, see the light and music show, and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies. Trips at 11:30 a.m., 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 4, 5 and 6 p.m. Plan to arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled trip. $25. Tickets: irm.org/event/happy-holiday-railway.
Brookfield Zoo’s Holiday Magic: 3-9 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, Dec. 12-15 and 19-22, and Thursday through Tuesday, Dec. 26-31, at Brookfield Zoo Chicago, 8400 31st St., Brookfield. Features over 2 million twinkling LED lights, themed lighting areas, Santa visits through Dec. 22, Holiday Market, treats and sips and seasonal attractions. Zoo admission and parking fees apply. Advance tickets are required. brookfieldzoo.org//HolidayMagic.
Illumination Tree Lights: 4:30-9:30 p.m. select days through Saturday, Jan. 4, at The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Route 53, Lisle. See 17 displays of lights set to music highlighting the beauty of trees in winter along a 1-mile, ADA-accessible, paved path. Roast marshmallows for s’mores and enjoy a hot seasonal beverage from the concession tents along the trail. The exhibition is closed select Mondays and Tuesdays and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Tickets: mortonarb.org.
The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe hosts Lightscape through Jan. 5. | Courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden
Lightscape: 4:30-9:15 p.m. select dates through Jan. 5 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake-Cook Road, Glencoe. Take a nighttime stroll through illuminated displays. $32 for members, $34 for nonmembers for adults; $17/$19 for kids 3-12 in advance; $37/$39 for adults, $22/$24 for kids the day of. chicagobotanic.org/lightscape.
Santa House: 5-8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays; and noon to 3 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 22, in the Brink Street Market, Crystal Lake. Visit with Santa Claus. downtowncl.org/events.
Joffrey Ballet’s “The Nutcracker”: 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 and 6 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 27; plus 2 p.m. Thursdays, Dec. 19 and 26, Tuesday, Dec. 24, and Saturday, Dec. 28, at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. $36-$187. joffrey.org.
“The Nutcracker”: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 12-13, and 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 14-15, at the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court, Schaumburg. Schaumburg Dance Ensemble performs Tchaikovsky’s timeless ballet. $30-$48. prairiecenter.org.
Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”: 8 p.m. Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 5 p.m. Sundays; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, through Dec. 29, at the Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. Showbiz buddies and military comrades Bob Wallace and Phil Davis stage a winter pageant to save a struggling Vermont inn owned by their old commanding officer. Ticket prices start at $63. marriotttheatre.com.
“A Christmas Carol”: Various times and dates through Dec. 23 at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights. Appropriate for ages 5 and older; kids 3 and younger will not be permitted. $20-$45. metropolisarts.com/event/christmas-carol-2024.
Find much more here.
Posted in Entertainment, Fundraisers | Leave a Comment »
Dixon woman, Rita Crundwell sentenced to 235 months in prison after stealing $53 million from the city.
By Ben Bradley | WGN News
President Biden’s largest act of clemency includes Rita Crundwell
DIXON, Ill. — President Joe Biden’s decision to grant clemency to nearly 1,500 people Thursday is getting attention because it’s the largest act of clemency by any president.
It’s being received differently in Dixon, Illinois. That’s because Rita Crundwell’s name is on the list.
Crundwell pled guilty to stealing millions dollars from taxpayers in the largest municipal heist in U.S. history. Covid sent her home from prison early; but now Dixon residents have learned she won’t go back.
Crundwell was a humble public servant by day, but lived large in almost every other part of her life. A 20-year fraud on her hometown of Dixon, Illinois total $54 million.
Now, another gut punch for the people of Dixon. Crundwell’s name is on the list of people granted clemency means her punishment is over.
Danny Langloss is the city manager in Dixon and was Dixon’s police chief when Crundwell’s crime was exposed.
“We’re just shocked, outraged and as a community we feel betrayed by the justice system and by the president,” he said. “She pleaded guilty to a very serious crime and got the maximum but served 8 years. What message does that send to the victims, to our community and people across the country who think about doing something like this?”
Crundwell was a world-class horseman with a stable and possessions worthy of a queen. She left the impression she served as Dixon’s comptroller to give back. The charade crumbled in 2012.
More here.
Posted in Crime, Deception, Politics, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, WTF | 1 Comment »
By Patrick Andriesen | Illinois Policy Institute
Chicago speed cameras collected $28 million less in ticket revenue through September than during the first nine months of 2023, but two things could drastically change that.
First, city leaders have considered lowering the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 mph.
Second, Mayor Brandon Johnson has an initial OK for more speed cams to raise $11 million next year to restore police positions related to the federal consent decree.
During his campaign, Johnson told voters a lower speed limit was nothing but a “cash grab.” He promised to eliminate speed cameras, calling them “regressive taxation.”
But now that he wants a budget that spends nearly $1 billion more than Chicago will receive, it is clear he sees speed cameras as money machines. Regressive taxation and cash grabs are OK when he needs cash.
Speed cameras issued $54 million worth of fines between January and September 2024, which was $28 million less than during the same period a year earlier. They still slapped motorists with a ticket every 20 seconds, Chicago Department of Finance data shows.
While 1.18 million tickets were issued, just 804,197 carried fines and the rest were warnings, according to a Freedom of Information Act request. Two-thirds of the fines were paid on time, but more than half of the revenue came from late fees.
Late penalties more than double the cost of a speed camera ticket, turning a $35 fine into an $85 ticket or a $100 fine into a $244 ticket.
About $35.2 million worth of the ticket revenue came from $35 fines for driving 6-10 mph over the posted speed limit, with one-third of those tickets incurring a late fee.
The remaining $18.8 million in revenue came from 11 mph-plus tickets, which incurred late penalties at an even higher rate of 41%.
A lower speed limit could hit Chicago drivers hard: one city saw speed camera tickets increase 81% when it dropped its limit. After 18 months, the revenues were still 75% higher, according to the Journal of Public Economics.
That was essentially Chicago’s experience after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot lowered the speed camera threshold to fine drivers for going 6-10 mph over the limit. Chicago speed cameras churned out eight times as many tickets per day in the seven months after Lightfoot’s change.
Read more here.
Posted in Cook, County, Crime, Illinois Policy Institute, Politics, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Taxes, Traffic, Who Cuts Your Hair? | Leave a Comment »
Jackpot justice in Illinois recently drew the ire of two national groups. Cook County was labeled a leading “judicial hellhole.” Lawsuit abuse imposes a $4,281 cost on each Illinois household. State lawmakers, trial lawyers and plaintiff-friendly courts are to blame.
By Jerry Barmore | Illinois Policy Institute
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a judicial watchdog group in new reports have both slammed Illinois trial lawyers and the laws and courts that enable them.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform found Illinois tort costs come in at $4,281 per household. Tort payouts in Illinois totaled over $21 billion in 2022, equal to 2.1% of Illinois’ gross domestic product.
Costs rose by an average of 7.4% per year since 2016. The report noted the U.S. tort system racked up $529 billion in costs in 2022, with growth in tort costs since 2016 outpacing inflation at a rate of 7.1%.
Cook County ranked No. 6 in the U.S. on the list of judicial hellholes compiled by the American Tort Reform Foundation. In 2022, over 50,000 civil cases seeking over $50,000 were filed in Cook County Circuit Court. That was 91% of the big civil cases filed statewide that year – one case for every 94 residents compared to Illinois’ No. 2 county, DuPage, where there was one civil case per 15,608 residents.
Among the most notorious sources of recent tort litigation is Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Under this law, an employer was held liable for collecting biometric identification from an employee, such as a fingerprint scan used to access a computer or clock in. As originally written, the law allowed damages for each instance without proving harm and threatened to bankrupt the White Castle fast food chain.
State lawmakers this year changed the law to allow for just one violation per individual. That significantly curtailed the damages that could be sought.
The group noted trial lawyers have been busy buying state lawmakers to keep the lawsuits flowing. The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC put over $616,000 into state lawmakers’ campaigns during the 12 months ending in September, part of $11.8 million invested since 1994.
Read more here.
Related: “Report: Illinois home to 2nd worst judicial hellhole in the country”
Posted in Cook, County, Deception, Ethics, Illinois Policy Institute, Politics, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way | Leave a Comment »
In El Paso in 2022. | Paul Ratje for The New York Times
By David Leonhardt | The New York Times
My colleagues and I worked with government officials and outside experts in recent weeks to analyze the magnitude of the recent immigration surge in the United States. We published the results of that analysis this morning.
In today’s newsletter, I’ll give you seven highlights, with help from charts by Albert Sun, a graphics editor at The Times.
1. The immigration surge since 2021 has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing even the levels of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Total net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — will likely exceed eight million people over the past four years, government statistics suggest. That number includes both legal and illegal immigration.
Never before has annual net migration been close to two million for an extended period, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office.
2. Even after adjusting for today’s larger population, the surge is slightly larger than that during the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, when millions of Europeans came to the United States. This chart tells that story:
3. The share of the U.S. population born in another country has reached a record high as a result. That share hit 15.2 percent in the summer of 2023 (and continued rising over the past 18 months). The previous high of 14.8 percent occurred in 1890, and the share remained high for decades afterward.
It began to decline after the passage of a tough immigration law in 1924. That restrictive era lasted until 1965, when a new law expanded immigration. (On a recent episode of “The Daily,” Michael Barbaro and I told the story of that 1965 law and its unintended consequences.)
4. President Biden’s welcoming immigration policy has been the main reason for the recent surge. During his 2020 campaign, Biden encouraged more people to come to the U.S., and he loosened several policies after taking office.
Biden administration officials sometimes argue that outside events, such as the turmoil in Haiti, Ukraine and Venezuela, have been the main cause of the surge, and those events did play a role. But the sharp decline of migration levels since this past summer — when Biden tightened the rules — indicates that the administration’s policies were the biggest factor:
5. More than half of net migration since 2021 has been among people who entered the country illegally. Of the roughly eight million net migrants who came to the U.S. over the past four years, about five million — or 62 percent — were unauthorized, according to an estimate by Goldman Sachs.
6. The unprecedented scale of recent immigration helps explain why the issue played such a big role in the 2024 election. Polls showed that the sharp rise in immigration was unpopular with most Americans, especially among working-class voters, some of whom complained of strained social services, crowded schools and increased homelessness.
The issue appears to have been Kamala Harris’s second biggest vulnerability, after only the economy. Donald Trump made striking gains near the border in Texas, winning six counties along the Rio Grande that he lost badly only eight years ago. And Democrats who outpaced Harris and won tough congressional races — in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, New York and elsewhere — often criticized Biden’s immigration policies.
7. The recent immigration surge has probably ended. Trump has promised to impose even tougher border rules next year than Biden recently imposed. Trump also campaigned on a plan to deport millions of immigrants who entered the country illegally.
It remains unclear how far Trump will go and whether his plan will remain popular once he begins to implement it. Either way, the pace at which immigrants enter the U.S. has already fallen significantly from the peak levels of 2022 and 2023 and may continue to fall after Trump takes office. Historically, in both the U.S. and other countries, very high levels of immigration often cause a political backlash that leads to new restrictions.
Our full story includes more details, including an explanation of why experts believe recent census numbers underestimate the size of the immigration surge.
Related: “Chicago to be ground zero for mass deportations, Trump border czar tells Illinois Republicans”
Posted in Economy, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Taxes, The New York Times, Topics Of Interest | Leave a Comment »
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