QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chicago Tribune: Hinsdale teachers vote to strike? Really?
One of Illinois’ most successful high school districts is in the midst of a power struggle: teachers vs. the school board.
Teachers at Hinsdale Township High School District 86, which includes Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central high schools, voted to authorize a strike for the fall unless they reach a contract agreement with the board. They met with a mediator Tuesday. Teachers in the district earn on average $105,494, according to 2012 data — the most recent available from the State Board of Education.
The unanimous strike vote among teachers who attended a May 29 meeting of the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association, an affiliate of the Illinois Education Association, comes after a time of leadership turmoil at the district.
Chicago Tribune: Quinn signs Medicaid expansion bill
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a Medicaid expansion bill that will tap $2.4 billion in federal funds over the next several years to provide more health care coverage for the poor.
The money includes approximately $400 million to enroll new patients under the Affordable Care Act, pending federal approval.
The influx of dollars will allow the state to restore several services previously cut due to budget pressures, including dental and podiatric care, the governor’s office said. Supporters say paying for those preventative services will save money by keeping patients out of emergency rooms.
Wall Street Journal: Uber Shocks the Regulators
Maybe going on strike wasn’t the best way for London taxi drivers to protest Uber, the Internet-based car service invading from Silicon Valley. When riders couldn’t get cabs last week, the number signing up for Uber soared to more than eight times the normal rate.
Britain’s Skills Minister Matt Hancock posted a wry comment on Twitter TWTR +1.61% : “Does anyone have details of this #Uber app everyone’s talking about? It sounds awesome. I’d never heard of it until today . . .”
Taxi drivers also clogged city centers and airports in Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Milan in demonstrations that mark a new era of digital dislocation. The Internet first undermined the business models of Yellow Pages, music companies and print newspapers by providing digital alternatives. Now online tools like Uber are changing how industries in the physical world operate.
Chicago Tribune: Federal monitor says lawmakers won’t abide by do-not-hire list
Although Mayor Rahm Emanuel has agreed to close a loophole that for decades allowed city employees fired for misconduct to get hired at other government agencies, aldermen have refused to go along when it comes to the hundreds of jobs they control, according to a federal hiring monitor.
As part of his effort to get out from under the watchful eye of a costly federal court monitor, Emanuel in February secured approval from so-called sister agencies — like the CTA, Chicago Public Schools and Park District — to abide by the city’s do-not-hire list. Former employees are placed on that list after getting fired for misconduct or leaving city employment while facing allegations that are later deemed credible.
“Despite numerous recommendations and letters sent to the City Council by this office, the City Council has not agreed to honor the Ineligible for Rehire list,” monitor Noelle Brennan wrote in a report last month. Brennan does not have oversight of City Council.
CBS: Illinois Investors Jump into Marijuana Business
Investors around Illinois are jockeying for positions in the marijuana business as they wait for the state’s new medical marijuana law to kick in. And some of them are politically connected.
According to the Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises, Sam Borek has reserved at least three-dozen marijuana-related business names. Borek was a college roommate of the legislator who sponsored the law, Democratic state Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie.
Those companies have names like Illinois Medical Marijuana Sales Inc., Illinois Cannabis Realty Inc. and Cannabis Medical Centers of Illinois Inc.
States and cities spend $70 billion a year in an arms race to retain business and attract businesses from other states. Even worse, explains a new Kauffman Foundation analysis, “incentives targeting existing companies miss the economy’s real engine of job creation: new and young businesses, which create nearly all net new jobs in the United States, a fact that also holds true at the state and city level.”
Here is Kauffman’s “create not relocate” agenda:
REEXAMINE PROFESSIONAL & OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING
• Nearly one-third of American workers are required to have a license to do their job. Occupational licensing acts as a barrier to entrepreneurs seeking to bring new innovations and business models to market. Revisit requirements for licensing and explore certification as an alternative to spur entrepreneurial competition and new business creation.
Wall Street Journal: Starbucks to Subsidize Workers’ College Degrees
Starbucks Corp. is planning to foot part of the bill for an online degree for U.S. employees who work at least 20 hours a week in its cafes, corporate offices and roasting plants.
The coffee giant is teaming up with Arizona State University to provide tuition reimbursement and financial aid to U.S. employees who enroll in the school’s online bachelor’s degree program. Starbucks employees can choose among 40 areas of study, ranging from retail management to electrical engineering.
By responding to employees’ concerns about how to afford a college education, the company said, it hopes to retain talent, thereby saving on hiring and training costs.
Chicago Tribune: Federal judge ends monitoring of City Hall patronage hiring
A federal judge today released Chicago from a costly, decades-old consent decree aimed at preventing illegal political hiring at City Hall but warned that vigilance will still be needed to prevent patronage abuses.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier declared from the bench that the city “has taken the actions needed to prove it has achieved substantial compliance” with the decades-old Shakman accord, which bans the city from taking politics into account when hiring, firing, promoting and disciplining appointments.
Schenkier noted that while the federal court monitoring will cease, vigilance would continue to be needed to deter illegal patronage hiring, saying it was evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
