U.S. Politics

[Jaeger]

I know Chicago had corruption, just did not how bad it really was until now, it just amazes me. at least I learned something

most Chicagoans love to deny how corrupt their city truly is, because they are tired of hearing all the bad that goes on in the city, Chicago is a very beautiful city, but its corruption is killing its fame. however, some Lightfoot is somewhat progressing on fighting corruption now.

*Chicago Police Dept. has had a major corruption history, probably one of the worst corrupt depts. in the country. earlier this year, people were wanting the local court, PD to drop charges against 88 people, because a unit led by a Sargeant that was falsely planting drugs in people's cars who lived in the CHA (Chicago Housing Authority's) housing projects. Chicago also has COPA (Civilian Office of Police Accountability), which takes all complaints against CPD officers and investigates them. after this unit (that falsely charged 88 people), Chicago also just announced the Civilian Oversight which will oversee the Chicago PD, COPA and Police Board.
88 people say they were framed by corrupt former Chicago cop

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot Announces Introduction of Proposal for Civilian Oversight of the Chicago Police Department

www.chicago.gov

CPD civilian oversight plan passes Chicago City Council, 36-13

The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance to create more civilian CPD oversight.

abc7chicago.com

*Lightfoot also pushed an oversight on Aldermen, and will also tackle aldermen on zoning laws, it includes
-no outside employment, because it can lead to scandals
-more oversight by the Office of Inspector General which can investigate all city employees and audit programs
-violation fines increase: a low violation breach will cost $1,000 while a serious violation breach will cost $3,000
-no lobbying

Lightfoot pushes new oversight on aldermen, and will tackle zoning reform next

The mayor will restrict aldermanic money-making too.

chicago.curbed.com

Aldermen propose lobbying ban for City Council

Aviation Committee Chairman Matt O’Shea and Ethics Chairman Michele Smith are trying to stay one step ahead of the lobbying scandal swirling around ComEd and video gaming interests pushing to legalize sweepstakes machines.

chicago.suntimes.com

*Lightfoot also is considering term limits for mayors, aldermen currently (been going on for at least a year now), in modern history, Daley served mayor for 22 years, she wants it to be 2 4-year terms (8 in total)

Richard M. Daley’s 22 years as mayor

April 4, 1989: Elected mayor over Timothy Evans with 55.4 percent of the vote. April 24, 1989: Inaugurated as Chicago’s 45th mayor, Daley pledges in his inaugural address to justify voters&#8…

www.chicagotribune.com

Lightfoot Talks Term Limits, Criminal Justice at IOP

Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot, J.D. ’89, discussed her policy platform at the IOP on Tuesday.

www.chicagomaroon.com

while I'm not saying that Lightfoot is the best mayor for Chicago, she has tried to make an influence on combating corruption, which is finally a great thing to see in the city.

 

[Strike Eagle]

Harris brushes off question on staff shake-up after senior adviser announces departure | CNN Politics

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday offered praise for her departing senior adviser, Symone Sanders, while brushing off a question about a larger staff shake up in her office.

www.cnn.com

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday offered praise for her departing senior adviser, Symone Sanders, while brushing off a question about a larger staff shake up in her office.
"I love Symone, and I can't wait to see what she will do next, and I know that it's been a, you know, it's been three years of a lot of jumping on and off planes and going around the country, and she works very hard, and I can't wait to see what she'll do next, and I mean that sincerely," Harris told reporters traveling with her in Charlotte.
When pressed on whether Sanders' departure was part of a larger staff shakeup within her office, Harris declined to say more, saying, "Well, I've told you how I feel about Symone. Next question."
Sanders, who joined the White House fresh off of President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, told staff in the vice president's office she'd be departing the White House at the end of the year in a letter Wednesday evening. The senior adviser's departure is the second high-profile staffer to announce their departure from the vice president's office in the last few weeks. Last month, CNN reported communications director Ashley Etienne, a veteran communications professional who's worked previously for then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and then-President Barack Obama, was leaving to pursue "other opportunities."
"I'm so grateful to the VP for her vote of confidence from the very beginning and the opportunity to see what can be unburdened by what has been," Sanders wrote in a letter to her colleagues that was obtained by CNN, in which she thanked Harris chief of staff Tina Flournoy. "I'm grateful for Tina and her leadership and her confidence as well. Every day, I arrived to the White House complex knowing our work made a tangible difference for Americans. I am immensely grateful and will miss working for her and with all of you."
Sanders and Etienne are leaving as CNN has reported significant tension between West Wing aides and the vice president's office.

 

[Jagdkommando]

complicated question to be honest, but there IS some ways to fix this
Illinois
1. expose and eliminate conflict of interests: adopt a model that will expose these conflicts
2. banning general assembly members from lobbying, so outright ban lobbying
3. rebalance the power structure, allow every legislator have a yay or nay vote on bills
4. empower citizens to act, allow citizens to introduce amendments of the constitution.
5. term limits, it was already passed for a 10-year term limit, I believe we need a 4-year term limit rather than 10 but it is still a start

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Chicago
1. create a municipal charter and city controller so the city can run more efficiently and the budget can be managed better
2. deprive aldermen from having power in terms of zoning laws, add more aldermen and create 2-year term limits
3. quit allowing aldermen to fight for lobbying interests for outside jobs, start introducing fines

weren't there several times where they wanted Chicago to become an independent state?

 

[Jaeger]

weren't there several times where they wanted Chicago to become an independent state?

it's more of political gimmick used by Illinois Republicans persistently in hopes of winning governor elections, nothing more, nothing less.
the most recent being in 2019, when 23 counties voted on having Chicago and Cook County become its own entity.

23 Counties And Counting: Downstate Separation Referendum Wins Favor In November Election - IPM Newsroom

URBANA – One result of the November 2020 election in Illinois was 20 downstate counties passing an advisory referendum in support of forming their own state that leaves Chicago and Cook County behind. That makes a total of 23 counties where separation referendums have passed this year. (UPDATE...

illinoisnewsroom.org

 

[Jaeger]

Warmer States Lure Cops From Demoralized Chicago Police Department - The Crime Report

Police departments in states like Florida and Texas, as well as local Illinois suburbs, are stepping up efforts to aggressively recruit cops from Chicago, where morale has sunk. So-called “lateral” hiring programs, which have recruited more than 50 in the past three years, save money by getting...

thecrimereport.org

Police departments in states like Florida and Texas, as well as local Illinois suburbs, are stepping up efforts to aggressively recruit cops from Chicago, where morale has sunk, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot felt the need to publicly back Supt. David Brown amid a crisis of confidence among his command staff following the deadliest year in the city in a quarter century, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “Lateral” hiring programs by departments in local suburbs save money by getting trained Chicago cops and have hired away more than 50 in the past three years, with dozens more applications pending.
Meanwhile, a Fort Lauderdale marketing blitz, including a $60,000 billboard campaign that began in December, 2021, has resulted in 42 applications from Chicago police officers over three months, five of whom have been hired in that time. Suburban departments are benefiting from a state law that took effect in August, 2021, allowing Chicago cops to transfer up to five years of active service to a police pension system for suburban officers until the end of 2023. In some suburbs, Chicago officers who transfer don’t have to go through the police academy again. The Chicago Police Department had about 13,000 sworn officers at the beginning of 2021. It now has about 11,900. Last year, about 720 cops retired, dwarfing the 560 retirements in 2020, 475 in 2019 and 339 in 2018. More than 175 other officers resigned last year without full retirement benefits or transferred to other police departments.

 

[Yıldırım]

Florida governor: school districts that defied no-mask mandate to lose $200m

Ron DeSantis is backing a bill that would strip education funding from Democratic counties that retained Covid precautions

www.theguardian.com

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is backing a controversial proposal to strip $200m in education funding from Democratic counties that defied his executive order last year banning mask mandates in schools.

DeSantis, who is widely seen as a leading heir to Donald Trump in the Republican party, plans to send the money instead to mostly Republican counties that supported him.

The plan, which some analysts believe is almost certainly unconstitutional, was part of a budget bill that passed the Republican-dominated Florida house on Wednesday.

It was immediately attacked by teachers unions, school districts and education advocates, who say the penalties will strip further resources from classrooms in a state already in the bottom four of per-student spending nationally.

“This is retaliation by legislators and the governor,” said Jabari Hosey, president of the advocacy group Families for Safe Schools and a parent of school-age children in Brevard county.

“We are down over 150 teachers in Brevard right now. We need more social workers, there’s a performance gap because of Covid that is still present in our community. We need more funds, more opportunities, more instructors.

“To retaliate and to attack the public school system they are supposed to be promoting is very sad. Frankly, it’s embarrassing.”

Under the proposal by the Republican state congressman Randy Fine, school districts in the 12 Florida counties that implemented mask mandates last summer in defiance of DeSantis’s executive order will forfeit amounts based on their size.

Brevard, where Hosey’s children attend school, and which Fine represents, would forgo $4.5m.

Two-thirds of the money would come from south Florida, which votes overwhelmingly Democratic in local, state and national elections. Miami-Dade, the nation’s fourth largest district with 357,000 students, would lose $72m; Broward, the sixth largest with 270,000 students, would forfeit about $32m; and Palm Beach, the 10th largest with 193,000 would give up $28m.

Of the others, Alachua, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Leon, Orange, Sarasota and Volusia counties, all but three backed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Florida, which was won by Donald Trump.

“Following the law is not optional. These school districts broke the law, and they were broken for nothing,” a visibly angry Fine told fellow legislators on Wednesday.

He insisted during a turbulent session of the Florida house appropriations committee last week that the state would cut the salaries of administrators earning more than $100,000 and not “reduce funding for any direct educational service or resource that impacts the education of kindergarten through grade 12 students”.

He conceded, however, that the policy was intentionally punitive to counties who refused to fall in line with the governor. “It is intended to reward the 55 school districts, the overwhelming majority of which followed our state law and respected the rights of parents over the past year,” he said.

Initially, DeSantis, a fierce critic of mask and vaccine mandates, declared himself against the proposal. “My view would be let’s not do that,” he said in an appearance in Jacksonville on Friday, telling reporters he instead preferred to let parents sue school districts individually if they felt children were harmed by “forced masking”.

By Tuesday, however, the governor backtracked, supporting Fine’s initiative and parents’ rights to file lawsuits. “They should get compensated for academic, social and emotional problems caused by these policies,” he said in a tweet.

Having passed the Florida house, the $105bn budget that includes the redistribution of education funds must now be reconciled in the state senate, which also has a Republican majority.

If DeSantis eventually signs it into law, it is likely to face legal challenges. Hosey’s group points out that every Florida county with mandates dropped them as soon as the original executive order became law in November, following a lengthy legal back and forth with districts who insisted they followed advice on masking from the Biden administration and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Additionally, they say, the fines target the salaries of school district administrators who only implemented the mask policies, not the school board members who set them.
John J Sullivan, director of legislative affairs for Broward county public schools, told the Guardian in a statement that students would be directly affected by the withholding of funds.
“We are disappointed in the governor’s reversal. We hope the senate will not agree to penalize administrators who have worked tirelessly to meet the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, always focused on the health and safety of students and teachers,” he said.
“This penalty would have a negative impact on the services the district is able to provide to our students.”
Administrators in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have issued similar statements, and educators’ unions have condemned the plan.
“We have 165 vacancies and a lot of it has to do with the salaries we can offer to teachers. So that money would mean a lot to our school district and it’s a shame that someone would do that. It’s totally punitive and politically motivated,” Wendy Doromal, president of the Orange county classroom teachers association told WMFE radio.

 

[Yıldırım]

What makes small towns and rural areas hated so much?

 

[Strike Eagle]

What makes small towns and rural areas hated so much?

Depends on how you refer to question (politically or personally, it depends on the person) I lived in one and left and here's why I despised it

• People in the town are close knit, you are either family or friends with them. You need to be friends or at least know some of these people to land great jobs

•jobs we had were mostly back breaking and factory work. We had a sawmill, engine manufacturing, 2 steel plants, a cement plant and UPS Warehouse along with Family Dollar and Dollar General. Out of all those only the UPS and Engine Plant paid amazing, the rest were crap

•corruption, people love talking about big cities are crooked, I'd also recommend come to a small town to see firsthand corruption. The township had a chance to bring in a Neighborhood Walmart & Home Depot. They said our town couldn't sustain them due them making no $$$. It was bs, the local hardware store owner was part of the city council and saw it as a way of him losing profit

• the education level is subpar, I mean they always brag they have college level classes but it usually a bust, only 1 to 2 usually actually gets the advantage of finishing it, and going to college. You also have the idiots who think anybody who is intelligent, and is willing to learn is evil in someway.