Last week, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) was kind enough to send us the following letter (see below). Below that letter is our response. Finally, I gave a speech at ALEC last week on the very subject of the campaign to crush dissent to the progressive world view. Here is a brief excerpt that is...
I grew up in Detroit, and as far back as I can remember my hometown was in trouble. But if there was a time when people just gave up on the place, it was probably October 30, 1984 — just a couple weeks after the Tigers won the World Series — when fires on “Devil’s...
As the Detroit bankruptcy unfolds, the attention has started to shift to other big cities such as Chicago. Detroit and Chicago differ in countless ways, but regardless of the disparities, one unfortunate characteristic is shared by both: they’ve been successful in scaring away entrepreneurs. Between 2010 and 2012, Detroit was tied with Philadelphia for dead...
There’s an old saying that goes, “don’t mix politics and business,” and as long as your business isn’t politics that’s some pretty wise advice. Unfortunately, nowadays government is more frequently going out of its way to mix business and politics in the form of tax increment financing districts, or TIF districts, and corporate welfare. For...
The fallout from the Biogenesis scandal in Major League Baseball – New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez fighting a long suspension, a dozen other players accepting 50-game suspensions – reveals a big problem with U.S. labor law: how unions deal with disciplinary problems. How far should a union be willing to go to protect a member...
Running a competitive business can be difficult – unless you have friends in government to help squash competition for you. In late May, Gov. Pat Quinn signed House Bill 2606 into law, which amended Illinois’ Liquor Control Act to prohibit out-of state brewers, distilleries and other alcohol manufacturers from owning any part of an alcohol distributor in...
For years, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, has failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people actually receiving Medicaid benefits are eligible for the program. In 2012, for example, somewhere between 15 percent and 20 percent of Medicaid files were overdue for their annual eligibility checks. The auditor general noted that...
Back in the late 1980s I lived in northwest Detroit (at Seven Mile and Lahser) and worked downtown. I remember a t-shirt slogan that was very popular at the time: “I’m so bad I vacation in Detroit.” It was fitting. The few tourists who visited downtown saw a rundown commercial district with few shops or...
EMCO Chemicals Distributors Inc., a chemical manufacturer, packager and distributor, announced the grand opening of its brand new, 260,000-square-foot-facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. That’s bad news for Illinois, as the company’s headquarters was previously located about 20 miles south in North Chicago. EMCO earns more than $300 million annually in sales, and is now the...
Detroit is already in a severe economic crisis, with more than $18 billion in total debt. But it turns out that the city has lost even more funds – more than $530,000 – due to government worker fraud. According to a press release from U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade: Sandra Campbell, 57, a former Detroit Public Schools contract accountant...
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a landmark budget bill last week – one that is full of education reforms, including the end of teacher tenure in the state. Tenure doesn’t guarantee a teacher a job for life. But it does make it much more difficult for a district to let go of a...
The Open Meetings Act is quite clear as to what a public meeting is. “Meeting” means any gathering, whether in person or by video or audio conference, telephone call, electronic means (such as, without limitation, electronic mail, electronic chat, and instant messaging), or other means of contemporaneous interactive communication, of a majority of a quorum...
As Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union continue to argue about the reasons for the district’s recent school closings, one thing is clear – parents have largely been excluded from the conversation. But they don’t have to be – a new law appearing in seven states across the country, if adopted in Illinois, would...
The Daily Caller reports: Reports indicate President Obama will soon confirm what many of us have long suspected, that Congress wants and will soon have a waiver from Obamacare. Read more…