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'Zucker Bucks'-type manipulation and its new variants threaten Illinois' November election
Americans overwhelmingly say they oppose allowing government offices that oversee elections to accept funding for their operations from partisan, private individuals and groups – Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. It’s a problem exposed in the 2020 election on which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife funded an astonishing $419 million in grants to county and municipal voting offices across America for essentially just that to support Democratic voter turnout. “Local election administration” grants are what supporters called it, but “Zucker Bucks” is what it’s more commonly called. -
The tentacles of city crime spread across Chicagoland: Here's why
Over 2021 and into 2022 major crimes have spread from Chicago’s South and West Sides to the city’s downtown and upscale neighborhoods north and south. Now Chicago’s seemingly intractable crime problem is spreading across city and county lines, as well. This is what happens when basic principles of policing and law and order are subverted by a political establishment which puts the rights of the accused ahead of the rights of victims. -
Pritzker's response to the Jenny Thornley matter is either dishonest, derelict or both
Still deeper into the hole they go. We finally got a response from Gov. JB Pritzker on what he knows about the Jenny Thornley matter, which we are following closely. As reported by The Center Square on Friday, Pritzker said he knows “Nothing other than what I read in the newspaper about it.” He added, “The truth is, if somebody committed workman’s comp fraud, they should be held accountable.” That’s all he said. -
Here are the four most important votes for Illinoisans in November, three of which many know little about
Most Illinoisans will go to the voting booth this November thinking the Darren Bailey vs. J.B. Pritzker contest for governor is the only statewide race that really matters. But three other November 2022 votes matter a lot, too, a couple being arguably more consequential than the governor’s race. -
Skip the glitz: Economic development for Chicago starts with core academic skills, intact families and parenting
Chicago needs to get back to basics on economic development, not half-baked glitzy development proposals from Mayor Lori Lightfoot. -
Pritzker honed his presidential stump speech in Florida - with hatred and dishonesty
Yes, by all reported accounts, the speech was well received by those who attended, as was his speech last month to a New Hampshire Democrats’ convention. It was also as caustic, divisive and dishonest as you will hear in a political speech, bristling with hypocrisy, claims that failures were successes and just plain absurdities. If Pritzker’s goal was to stake out a position as the most hateful toward the half of Americans who are right of center, he couldn’t have done any better. -
Pritzker takes two of his favorite whoppers on the presidential campaign trail
When Gov. JB Pritzker took office, Illinois “was facing unprecedented challenges because we had a Republican governor who decided to hold the state budget hostage.” That’s what Pritzker told New Hampshire Democrats in his recent presidential teaser speech in New Hampshire and he said the same thing in his keynote address Saturday to Florida Democrats. -
Four things you need to know about mass shootings and the new gun control landscape
The July 4 mass shooting at a parade in the northern Chicago suburb of Highland Park which killed seven and wounded 30 was deeply disturbing and tragic, as all such incidents are. A suspect has been taken into custody and charged today. Again a cry is rising for more gun control. But the media and the public need to understand that the ongoing emphasis on mass shootings and gun control is a losing strategy. It’s easier to strategize smartly if you have a clearer view of the landscape. -
Gov. Pritzker is still proclaiming Illinois a Covid 'disaster area:' How does he do it with a straight face?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently declared Illinois a Covid disaster area for the 31st consecutive 30-day period. For more than two years, the governor has invoked a “disaster” to rule by executive order. It’s what allowed him to lock down businesses, impose mask mandates, close schools and micromanage healthcare across the state. -
Illinois economy, jobs suffer under potential presidential candidate J.B. Pritzker
With rumors heating up about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s potential run for president and the federal governments’ recent release of GDP numbers for the first quarter of 2022, it’s a good moment to review the governor’s economic performance since he took office in 2019. Polls today consistently show economic issues as the biggest concern for Americans. -
Illinois has been bleeding its wealthiest residents for years; Now it's Ken Griffin's turn to leave
“First and foremost, respect the taxpayer. Start losing taxpayers and it’s a downward spiral from there.” That’s the advice a wise man from Detroit had for Chicago when I visited the Motor City right after it filed for bankruptcy in 2013. It was just one of five lessons I was told Illinois should learn from Detroit’s collapse. -
Your breakfast costs 45 percent more than it did two years ago: Who's to blame for such sky-high inflation?
The federal government has failed spectacularly to manage the risk of inflation. For many, that’s no surprise given the unprecedented government-enforced lockdowns, the trillions of dollars spent on bailouts and a haphazard implementation of the green energy agenda. -
Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois' public education system
If what follows isn’t an indictment of Illinois’ education establishment, we don’t know what is. Of Decatur’s public school 3rd-graders in 2019, just 2 percent of black and 16 percent of white students could read at grade level. In Rockford, it was 7 percent of black students. In Peoria, 8 percent of blacks. And in Elgin, just 11 percent of Hispanic 3rd-graders could read at grade level. Similar results can be found across the state. -
It's open season on Chicago police: Shootings at cops up fourfold in 2020, 2021
The very public servants we pay to protect us and maintain order in Chicago are increasingly under attack themselves. At an order of magnitude dramatically greater than in years past. -
Beyond ridiculous: Pritzker extends emergency COVID powers another 30 days. Why?
Zero media coverage on this, but on Friday before Memorial Day Gov. JB Pritzker signed yet another COVID Disaster Proclamation, his 28th since the pandemic began over two years ago. Pursuant to those proclamations, he has signed over 112 emergency orders. -
Bleeding people: New IRS migration data shows Illinois lost another 100,000 residents and a record amount of wealth in 2020
A Wirepoints analysis of the Internal Revenue Service’s just-released migration data shows Illinois lost, on net, another 101,000 residents to other states in 2020. The state ranked third-worst nationally for net resident losses, both in number of people and per capita. -
False advertising of Illinois' new 'property tax relief' bill
Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed a new bill providing property tax relief for senior, veteran and disabled homeowners. What nobody said is that those reductions for some mean increases for others. It’s just a matter of shuffling the property tax burden. -
What's price gouging? That doesn't matter in a bill to outlaw it introduced by Duckworth, Schakowsky and Warren
Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, both from Illinois, joined with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday to introduce the Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2022. -
Thirty years of pain: Illinoisans suffer as property tax bills grow far faster than household incomes, home values
Any way you cut them, the residential property taxes Illinoisans pay are punitive. -
The Covid bailouts can paper over Illinois' fiscal mess, but they can't hide Illinois' GDP, employment and population failures
It’s amazing what nearly $200 billion in federal COVID aid can do to paper over a state’s crumbling finances. Illinois’ state tax revenues are temporarily at record levels, the unpaid bills backlog has been cut and Illinois even saw its credit rating saved from the precipice of junk. Comptroller Susana Mendoza recently called the state’s changed circumstances an “absolutely remarkable turnaround.”