QUOTE OF THE DAY
Daily Herald: Illinois case among 17 Supreme Court has to decide by June’s end
It’s crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases, including union fees for Illinois health care workers, over the next two weeks.
The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.
Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since October.
Chicago Sun Times: Sold! eBay to expand in Chicago, eligible for $12 million in state incentives
Commerce-giant eBay Inc., the multibillion-dollar online auction site, will be expanding into Chicago in the near future, state officials said.
The move comes after eBay snatched up Chicago tech startup Braintree for $800 million in 2013. Now the San Jose-based company will build on that footprint, hiring an additional 360 employees over the next three years and leasing out a 60,000-square-foot office in the Merchandise Mart, said David Roeder, a spokesman for the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
In exchange for making the hires and moving into the new space, eBay will be eligible for an incentives package that should cut $12 million from their tax bill over the 10 years, Roeder said.
Chicago Sun Times: Gov. Quinn signs bill banning ticket quotas for police
Drivers will be interested to hear that Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law on Sunday prohibiting police departments in Illinois from requiring officers to meet ticket quotas.
“Law enforcement officers should have discretion on when and where to issue traffic citations and not be forced to ticket motorists to satisfy a quota system,” Quinn said in a statement released by his office. “This new law will improve safety and working conditions for police officers and prevent motorists from facing unnecessary anxiety when they encounter a police vehicle.”
The law, which applies to local, county and state police, is effective immediately. The bill applies not only to roadway citations. It includes anything for which police can issue a citation — ranging from parking and speeding citations issued by state and local police to hunting and fishing violations issued by Illinois Conservation Police, according to Quinn spokesman Dave Blanchette.
Chicago Tribune: Medicaid applications keep piling up in Illinois
Derek Russell has lupus and high blood pressure and can’t afford his prescription drugs.
Amanda Whitlock works outdoors all summer and is allergic to bees and wasps and concerned about spots on her skin she fears could be pre-cancerous.
Both lost their employer-sponsored insurance. Both make less than $15,000 a year, qualifying them for Medicaid. Both applied more than four months ago.
Chicago Tribune: Your crowded Illinois ballot on Nov. 4 is the pols’ playpen
Should Illinois raise the minimum wage from $8.25 an hour to $10? Should people who earn more than $1 million a year see a bump in their income taxes? Should health insurers be required to cover the cost of contraception?
The politicians who run this state are deeply interested in your opinions on these topics — in a strictly non-binding advisory question kind of way, that is.
But they do not not not want to know how you feel about taking the redistricting process away from state lawmakers, or whether you’d like to limit how many terms they can serve. State power brokers have pulled out all the stops to try to keep those two citizen initiatives off the Nov. 4 ballot.
Crain’s: Former Illinois securities regulator admits to Medicaid fraud
The former No. 2 person in Secretary of State Jesse White’s securities-regulation unit has agreed to plead guilty to federal health-fraud charges.
Marlene Liss, the former $75,000-a-year deputy director of the Office of Securities, signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors in Springfield saying she will confess to being part of a scheme in which she billed the Medicaid program for work as a home-health aide for hours when she was on Mr. White’s clock.
The matter falls under federal jurisdiction because Medicaid is partially funded by the federal government.
PJ Star: Unions push legislatures for labor history courses
Unions and their allies are trying to flex their muscle in state legislatures, pushing for labor history to be included in social studies curriculum and hoping a new generation of high school students will one day be well-educated union members.
But the results are instead shaping up as a reminder of the tough political landscape faced by organized labor. In six states, opponents have pushed back against demands that teachers offer lessons about the first craft unions in the 19th century, the large-scale organizing drives that powered the growth of industrial unions in the 1930s, the rise of organized labor as a political machine and other highlights of America’s union movement.
California and Delaware are the only states with laws that encourage schools to teach labor history.
Chicago Tribune: Quinn signs into law bill banning police ticket quota
Legislation signed Sunday by Gov. Pat Quinn bans Illinois police departments from assigning ticket quotas and evaluating officers based on how many citations they issue.
Quinn, a Democrat, said the new law will allow police to use their judgment in deciding whether to ticket a driver. The law, which applies to local, county and state law enforcement, took effect immediately.
“Law enforcement officers should have discretion on when and where to issue traffic citations and not be forced to ticket motorists to satisfy a quota system,” the governor said in a news release. “This new law will improve safety and working conditions for police officers and prevent motorists from facing unnecessary anxiety when they encounter a police vehicle.”
CARTOON OF THE DAY
