Page 6 - Rob Martwick News Today

Martwick himself has taken tremendous media heat for sponsoring a pension sweetener bill for the Chicago police, but the police union doesn’t care.

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara is demanding that three of his union’s strongest City Council supporters choose between their loyalties to his group and their allegiance to the firefighters union.

Catanzara wants three former firefighters now on the council — Nick Sposato, Anthony Napolitano and Jim Gardiner — to back Erin Jones, a CPD detective challenging state Sen. Rob Martwick, a favorite of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.

“This validates people who said it was a huge mistake. There’s no savings, no answer where we’re going to come up with $700 million,” says fiscal watchdog Laurence Msall.

Right now, doing business in Illinois is hard. And not just because of COVID-19. At a time when most legislatures are helping their state’s businesses survive the pandemic, Illinois lawmakers are actively working agains...

What was supposed to be a simple exchange turned into a shootout in a Chicago neighborhood.

Since 1999, the Chicago Board of Education has consisted of seven members, all appointed by the citys mayor to oversee and govern CPS. The measure the Senate passed Tuesday would expand the board to 21 members, with 10 elected to four-year terms in the November 2024 general election while the other 10, plus a Board president, would be appointed by the mayor, each to a two-year term. The terms for all 21 members would begin in January 2025, according to the legislation. Then in the 2026 genera...

Chicago Public Schools is currently the lone district in Illinois with a school board appointed by the mayor. But under legislation approved Tuesday evening by the Illinois Senate, the Chicago Board of Education would transition into a fully elected body by 2027.

For the judicial ballot, I look to the various Bar associations for a relatively unbiased recommendation process, which I follow in order to cast a more informed ballot. Where do I look for a roughly equivalent review of choices here? The idea that CPS needs to have separate taxing ability from the city is always kind of nuts to me. I have never gotten a good explanation that I’m happy with as to why Illinois has so many independent taxing agencies. It seems like just a great way to hide g...

Illinois Senate Passes Bill to Create Elected School Board for Chicago © Provided by NBC Chicago The Illinois Senate on Tuesday passed a measure to create an elected school board for Chicago Public Schools, over the objections of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The Senate voted 36 to 15, with two voting present, in favor of House Bill 2908. It now must pass the House and receive Gov. J.B. Pritzkers approval before becoming law. Since 1999, the Chicago Board of Education has consisted of seven members...