Provided
It isn’t often that state and local government in Illinois get singled out for a pro-business mindset, but that’s the message coming from people connected to a thriving submarket in industrial real estate data centers.
As development projects go, data centers aren’t the flashiest things. Some have occupied space in attractive old buildings, the best example being the old R.R. Donnelley plant at 350 E. Cermak Road, reputedly among the largest such facilities in the world.
The newer ones are custom built in industrial areas, low-slung buildings that are necessarily drab, although some have lately dressed up the designs. They are mostly sprawling boxes for the equipment that makes our daily activities possible, be they streaming movies, storing work in a data cloud, trading stocks or riding in a vehicle tricked out with the latest tech.
A newly released watchdog report on the Chicago Police Department found that "strategic and tactical incoherence" from top officials led to inadequate preparedness for mass protests last summer.
The City of Monmouth is looking for more small businesses that have taken a hit from the Coronavirus pandemic to issue grants to help cover COVID-related expenses. City Administrator for the Maple City, Lew Steinbrecher, tells WGIL that the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity had extended the deadline for the city to issues these grants until the end of June. "And we thought, 'well that's it.' It was the end of January and we couldn't use it anymore until they notified us that they were going to give us till the end of June to go out and help other businesses to try to spend down that [$150,000] we still have left in that grant." Steinbrecher says the city issued about $33,000 to six businesses previously. "Originally it was for $10,000 maximum. Now, they've allowed us to help out businesses up to a maximum of [$15,000.]" He says that the grants can cover PPE expenses, such as Plexiglass barriers, sanitizer, and masks
ICC urges customers to follow winter energy savings tips
Canton Daily Ledger
SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Commerce Commission is continuing to monitor the power situation in Texas and other areas of the country experiencing extreme weather events and warns that increases in wholesale energy prices could have an impact on some Illinois electric and natural gas customers. The ICC is urging customers to follow winter energy-saving smart tips to keep utility bills down.
“Despite all of the recent snow and cold, Illinois has not experienced significantly extended power outages. Each fall, the ICC holds a winter preparedness policy session to make sure the utilities we regulate have adequate supplies on hand to meet the demands of a harsh winter. Advanced planning has served our state well,” said ICC Chairman Carrie Zalewski. “The ICC continues to monitor and learn from the situation in Texas and other areas of the country, and we encourage all consumers to protect themselves from p