A new survey shows there has been a sharp increase in the number of Illinois small businesses implementing hiring freezes or laying off workers.

Alignable’s December Hiring report reveals that 82% of small businesses in Illinois won’t be adding staff, the highest percentage in the country.

City Council allies of Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocked an attempt by their colleagues to eliminate an annual inflation-based property tax increase during a committee meeting Monday.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, and 12 co-sponsors backed an ordinance that would permanently roll back Lightfoot’s 2020 initiative to raise property taxes annually at the rate of the consumer price index or 5%, whichever is lower.

Illinois drivers will see increased gasoline taxes next month, with another increase six months after that.

Motor fuel prices in Illinois are down nearly 70 cents a gallon since this time last month. However, the state is set to increase the fuel tax Jan. 1 by 3.1 cents a gallon, for a total of 42.3 cents per gallon, second highest in the U.S. Another increase will occur in the summer on July 1.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to pay for part of the long-sought extension the CTA Red Line south to 130th Street advanced Monday as council members agreed to collect revenue from a special taxing district that spans from downtown to the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood.

In a win that Lightfoot needed to keep the extension plan moving forward, the City Council’s Finance Committee approved the measure with only Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, voting in opposition. The proposal for funding some of the $3.6 billion extension via a new transit tax-increment financing district heads to the full City Council for a final vote, expected Wednesday.

Illinois’ massive criminal justice reform law survived blistering political attacks throughout the 2022 election campaign and a renewed spotlight when lawmakers returned to Springfield a few weeks ago.

With a minimum of debate or fuss, the Chicago Plan Commission today signed off on zoning needed for the proposed Bally’s casino and entertainment complex in River West—sending it to the City Council for final action and handing Mayor Lori Lightfoot a political victory.

Neighborhood foes of the proposal put up a bit of fight in testimony to the commission, citing concerns about density, large crowds and possible safety risks. And one of the casino’s most prominent supporters, Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, in whose ward the facility would be located, threatened to switch his position if he did not receive further assurances that minorities will be hired to build and operate the casino.

Cook County is a Judicial Hellhole and things are quickly spiraling out of control.

Long known as a mecca of non-injury lawsuits and inflated verdict sizes, our county is a favorite of cash-hungry trial lawyers who pursue paydays over justice. It should come as no surprise then that it again made the American Tort Reform Foundation’s annual list of the nation’s most unjust local courts and state civil justice systems.

That same year, Metcalfe convened a blue ribbon panel that issued a report, “The Misuse of Police Authority in Chicago,” outlining the urgent need for serious, lasting police reform. The report garnered national attention, but at the Chicago Police Department, virtually nothing changed.

As the years passed, Chicago endured the likes of disgraced Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge, who tortured suspects, Detective Reynaldo Guevara, who allegedly fabricated evidence and manipulated witnesses, and police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was convicted of second-degree murder after fatally shooting Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014.