Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Daily Caller: Teachers Union Issues List Of Climate Demands As Students Struggle To Read At Grade Level
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is making climate-related demands in contract negotiations as the city’s students continue to struggle mightily in the classroom, according to E&E News.
The CTU will push the city to include initiatives like electric school buses, green jobs training programs for students and reducing emissions from buildings with solar panels and other retrofits, among other initiatives, according to E&E News. Those demands are being made while 2023 testing data shows that about 75% of Chicago’s public school students were unable to read at grade level and 83% of students were behind grade level proficiency in math, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.
The Center Square: Taxpayer-subsidized medical debt relief program ready for Pritzker’s desk
More than 300,000 Illinois residents stand to be cleared of all outstanding medical debt through the creation of the Medical Debt Relief Pilot Program Fund ready to be sent to the governor.
Sponsored by state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, House Bill 5290 seeks to alleviate medical debt for families across the state residing in households with individuals falling below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level or saddled with medical debt equating to 5% or more of their household income.
The Chicago Tribune: Stakeholders complain about lack of information on plan to shutter and rebuild Stateville and Logan prisons
After two lengthy and occasionally tense public meetings during which employees and others complained about a lack of information from the state on its nearly $1 billion plan to demolish and rebuild two Illinois prisons, a bipartisan legislative panel that was supposed to make recommendations on the proposal adjourned without taking action.
Only three lawmakers on the 12-member Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability showed up at the panel’s meeting Friday, not enough for a quorum to vote on advisory recommendations for the Illinois Department of Corrections’ proposal for Stateville and Logan correctional centers.
Chicago Sun-Times: Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard federal probe is looking into work of contractor who faces prison for bribery
At the urging of Mayor Tiffany Henyard, the village of Dolton paid a Summit construction company that’s been linked to multiple corruption investigations more than $200,000 for no-bid, no-contract work replacing senior homeowners’ roofs and windows.
Now, federal investigators are seeking records from Dolton officials about the construction work by O.A.K.K. Construction Co., owned by Alex Nitchoff. His family was the longtime owner of a restaurant in Dolton, and the Chicago Sun-Times has reported that his late father Boris Nitchoff engaged in a scheme to clear hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes from properties the family owned in the suburb.
The Daily Herald: ‘A far more complex process’: District 79 preparing for Ivanhoe Village mega-development in Mundelein
In December 2022, Fremont Elementary District 79 was preparing to update its short- and long-term strategic plans when news from Mundelein shifted the focus beyond the three-school campus straddling Fremont Center Road.
“Obviously, the scope of our facilities plan grew,” said Superintendent Trish Kocanda. “We recognized this was going to be a far more complex process.”
The State Journal-Register: New study finds Illinoisans willing to pay upcharge for products made locally
How much more are Illinoisans willing to pay for locally made goods, and where do they draw the line pricewise at the farmer’s market checkout?
Walking around the Illinois Product’s Farmers Market in Springfield, Lauvern McNeese and her daughter Libra didn’t really have a cap set on how much to spend, but knew they were searching for smartly priced items to take home.