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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
11:44am
Thu Apr 25

Voices For Illinois Children Discusses Quinn's Proposed Budget, Offers Revenue Solutions

With a little more than a month remaining in the spring legislative session in Springfield, advocates for Illinois children say it's important to understand the factors driving the state's fiscal year 2014 budget debate and what can be done to help avoid damaging cuts to education and other critical programs.

David Lloyd, senior policy analyst with the Fiscal Policy Center at Voices for Illinois Children, told advocates on a web conference call this week that maintaining funding for their priorities depends on a sustainable state budget that raises necessary revenues.

“These are difficult choices, but I think eventually the math wins," Lloyd said. "Without additional revenues to pay the liabilities such as pensions and Medicaid, Illinois will be forced to cut other programs. There’s just no other way around it."

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
9:45pm
Wed Apr 24

Tax Fairness Advocates Call For An End To Corporate Tax Deferral

It's time for the public to "tap into their anger" and rally against tax loopholes that allow big U.S. corporations to dodge their fair share of American taxes by stashing profits in offshore havens, said leaders from Citizens for Tax Justice and Americans for Tax Fairness.

Congress is currently entertaining a number of tax reform proposals that seek to lower corporate taxes and provide incentives for sending jobs and profit centers offshore, putting billions of tax dollars at stake over a 10-year period, Frank Clemente, campaign manager of Americans for Tax Fairness, said on a conference call with reporters.

The current debate on tax reform comes at a time when corporate profits are at a 60-year high, yet "some of these companies are paying less in taxes than you and I as individuals pay," Clemente said.

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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
4:46pm
Wed Apr 24

Unite Here, Hilton Reach Contract Agreement Without A Lengthy Battle

Four months before their existing contracts were set to expire, more than 600 Hilton Hotel workers represented by Unite Here Local 1 and Local 450 have reached a five-year contract settlement with the hotel chain.

Workers’ from the Drake, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago Hilton, and Hilton O’Hare voted Saturday to ratify the agreement with the Virginia-based hotel chain, well before the August 31 contract expiration date. 

“This is really significant in that this has all been done before the expiration of the current contract,” said Carly Karmel, spokesperson for Unite Here. 

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
3:58pm
Wed Apr 24

Domestic Workers' Bill Of Rights Expected To Go Up For Vote In Illinois Senate Thursday

A measure that would recognize the legal rights of domestic workers in Illinois is expected to go up for a vote in the state Senate Thursday.

The Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights Act, SB 1708, sponsored by State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago), would require that employers of nannies, house cleaners and caregivers pay their workers no less than the  minimum wage and allow for a least one day off a week.

The measure, which has 13 co-sponsors in the Senate, would also require written contracts and guarantee the right to paid time off, pay for all work hours, meal and rest periods, and an environment free from sexual harassment.

“It’s basically time to really cut some of the last remaining, obvious cords connected to slavery that we still have,” said Eric Rodriguez, executive director of the Latino Union of Chicago, one of the lead organizations pushing for the bill.

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
3:28pm
Wed Apr 24
1 comment

Henson Elementary Hosts Unity Rally Against School Closings

Students at Matthew Henson Elementary released dozens of balloons Tuesday afternoon signifying their unity and hope that the school will remain open despite the Chicago Public Schools' plan to shut it down in June.

“Henson is everything a community school ought to be," said Valerie Leonard, of the Lawndale Alliance and the Committee to Save North Lawndale Schools. "They’re the model for what we want to include in all of our schools in North Lawndale."

Henson has a health clinic, a parent resource center, two technology labs and a library, speakers at the rally said.

“The school that they’re going to doesn’t have nearly the number of resources that Henson has," Leonard said. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
5:33pm
Tue Apr 23

Uptown Residents Decry Proposed $220 Million Luxury Housing Development At 46th Ward Zoning Meeting

Opponents of a planned $220 million luxury residential building in Uptown were ignored and not permitted to ask the 46th Ward’s Zoning and Development Committee questions about the project at its meeting Monday night.

Members of the advisory committee, put in place by Ald. James Cappleman (46th), adjourned its monthly meeting at Weiss Memorial Hospital despite multiple people who had waited patiently with their hands raised to comment on the plan, which calls for 842 mostly high-income units.

“We are totally opposed to this plan,” Marc Kaplan of Northside Action for Justice shouted as some committee members quickly filed past him out of the the hospital’s auditorium. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
5:00pm
Tue Apr 23
1 comment

North Lawndale Residents Say School Closures Will Negatively Affect Local Property Values (VIDEO)

Lisa Pugh, the Local School Council chairwoman at Pope Elementary School, walked down the 1900 block of South Troy Avenue directly behind the school, rattling off at least a dozen of her neighbors’ names.

Pugh has lived in her home, which was built in 1909, for more than 12 years. Other homes on the block are also more than a century old, and the residents work hard to keep them well maintained, she said on a windy Friday afternoon.

But the Chicago Public Schools plan to shut down Pope in June has left Pugh and other nearby residents wondering what will happen to their property values and their North Lawndale neighborhood if the building is left vacant.

“Like me, a lot of the property owners don’t want it to close because their property taxes are going into the school, and it’s ridiculous to see (CPS) want to close it down,” she said. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
4:48pm
Tue Apr 23

Parkman Elementary Students Would Be Forced To Cross Gang Lines If School Closes, Parents Say (VIDEO)

More than 200 students enrolled at Fuller Park's Francis Parkman Elementary School will be asked to travel six blocks and cross East Garfield Blvd. to attend their welcoming school, Englewood's Jesse Sherwood Elementary School, if the Chicago Board of Education approves a proposal by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

East Garfield Blvd., according to attendees of Friday’s public forum on the school action, serves as the dividing line between two South Side neighborhoods and gang territories.

“The children are being asked to cross an invisible barrier,” said Carla Smith, 48, a lifelong Chicagoan and 2nd grade teacher of three years at Parkman Elementary.

Smith, one of approximately 75 people who attended the hearing, pleaded with the hearing's mediator to listen to the voice of the community.

“I’m scared for the kids; they can’t cross that line.”

Read more »

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
12:41pm
Tue Apr 23

Chicago's 5th Ward Residents Offer Up Ways To Spend Ward Money To Improve The Community

South Side residents unveiled plans for new sidewalks, a community garden and other infrastructure needs to be created with Ald. Leslie Hairston's (5th) $1.3 million in “menu money” at the ward's final participatory budgeting expo.

The projects are set to go up for a community vote next week.

Aldermen typically decide how to spend their pot of discretionary funds for ward improvements like fixing potholes and adding street signals, but participatory budgeting puts the decision-making process in the hands of the community.

"With your voice and your help, not only do you get a better understanding of how much things cost and what it takes to get a project from conception to completion, but also, I think, it helps to walk down the street and see a light post and know that you had a part in putting that light post there," Hairston told a few dozen residents at the expo, held at the Catholic Theological Union over the weekend. Read more »