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Champaign News-Gazette: Feds move on another front
Another day, another corruption probe.
In a reprise of Illinois-style politics, FBI agents Tuesday conducted a very public raid of the home and offices of a member of the Illinois Senate.
The move raised a host of questions, not just about why the feds are looking into the activities of Chicago-area state Sen. Martin Sandoval, but about where Sandoval’s suspected misconduct fits into the continuum of public corruption in Chicago and the state.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Senate President John Cullerton says FBI raids of colleague’s offices are ‘very troubling’
Senate President John Cullerton on Wednesday called the FBI raids on longtime Democratic state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s home and government offices “very troubling.”
“It doesn’t look good, but we don’t know what it’s about,” Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, said. “We don’t know if he’s the subject matter, but it looks like it’s a criminal investigation.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Mayoral ally makes no apologies for rally video in which she swears, advocates for teachers’ strike
When Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th) signed on to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s City Council leadership team, she did not agree to forfeit her independence or sever her deep roots at the Chicago Teachers Union.
That much was painfully obvious this week when Garza, Lightfoot’s hand-picked chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development, introduced Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at a CTU rally called to rev up a rank-and-file casting a strike vote.
Crain's Chicago Business: Here’s how O’Hare’s $8.5 billion makeover is moving along
In a sit-down interview late Wednesday, Chicago Aviation Commissioner Jamie Rhee described a possible new approach to how food concessions are awarded at O’Hare, starting with work in Terminal 5.
WBEZ: Top Chicago Schools Less Diverse 10 Years After Order To Desegregate Ends
Chicago Public Schools funnels extra money to magnet and test-in schools, and continues an expensive busing program for them, even as the schools do less to accomplish their goal of creating pockets of integration in an otherwise segregated school system, a WBEZ analysis shows.
The analysis looks at who is attending these schools and who is being bused to them a decade after a federal judge ended a court order that dictated the school district take steps to integrate them by race. That court order, called a desegregation consent decree, had been in place since 1980.
Peoria Journal-Star: Peoria County approves pot tax and zoning changes
Unlike their city brethren, there wasn’t a long heated debate regarding taxing recreational pot at a special Peoria County Board meeting where the measure passed by a wide margin.
Also approved at the 5 p.m. meeting was a change to the county’s zoning codes that would allow such facilities to exist within certain areas.
Bloomington Pantagraph: District 87 approves deficit budget, seats new member
The Bloomington District 87 school board approved a $65.6 million budget with a $2 million deficit Wednesday night, but the district’s financial chief had positive news.
Colin Manahan, chief financial and facilities officer, said the Illinois Department of Revenue estimates the district will be receiving about $4.9 million in revenue from the Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax, an increase of more than $632,000 from the revenue estimate in the tentative budget approved last month by the board.
The Southern: Carbondale District 95 asks for negotiating dates from teachers' union
With a potential strike date looming on Oct. 4, the Carbondale Elementary School District 95 board has asked for earlier negotiating dates with the Carbondale Education Association.
The CEA, which is a union that represents 136 teachers, social workers, and other licensed professionals, filed its intent to strike on Sept. 24 after not making desired progress with the district on its contract negotiations. The two parties are at odds over language regarding school safety and salary increases.