Free Republic

Now law is the $750 million in tax increases to fund Illinois’ largest spending plan in state history. But so is a measure increasing the state’s debt by $8 billion while giving schools more taxing authority. Pritzker signed the $53.1 billion budget Wednesday. Friday, he signed the tax measure that includes capping the credit businesses can get for claiming net operating losses and capping the discount retailers get for collecting and remitting sales taxes. Hours later, Pritzker defended another tax increase, the tiered tax on sports betting companies. “In fact, if you look at what we did, really our focus...

The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election. ... Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.

President Joe Biden’s campaign has amassed $155 million in cash on hand for the 2024 election, far exceeding the in-hand total for his Republican opponent, Donald Trump. The president raised $53 million alone last month, which was the strongest grassroots fundraising month since the campaign launched, according to campaign officials. Among those efforts was a contest for supporters to attend a fundraiser on March 28 in New York with Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that raised $4 million last month. “The enthusiasm we’re picking up as we go around the country is real,” Biden said in a radio interview...

All those obnoxious pharmaceutical commercials that get laced into just about every television and cable “news” program that airs in the United States these days might seem like they are simply about selling more drugs and getting people hooked, but Big Pharma’s true agenda is actually much more sinister than that. Former pharmaceutical industry insider Calley Means spoke to Tucker Carlson recently about what he described as an “open secret” within the pharmaceutical industry. In essence, Means says that Big Pharma is buying the media with all those ads, which allows the drug industry to control what gets broadcasted on...

“While in use, solar panels safely generate electricity without creating any air emissions. However, like any source of energy, there are associated wastes that need to be properly recycled or disposed of when solar panels reach their end of life,” said the EPA. “As the solar photovoltaic (PV) market grows, so will the volume of end-of-life panels.” By 2030, the United States is expected to have as much as one million total tons of solar panel waste. For comparison, the EPA says the U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018 was 292.4 million tons. By 2050, the United States is...

Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday joined other major-city leaders from her party supporting a California ballot initiative that would increase penalties for certain retail theft and drug crimes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Our goal is not to keep people locked up,” said Breed, who is running for reelection in 2024, according to the Chronicle. “But when there are no real consequences for crimes that are committed in this city, that’s a real problem.”

The Local Government Revenue Recapture Act, is a law that allows cities, counties, and the state’s hundreds of different taxing bodies to “reacapture” their “lost” revenue [tax appeals] and also to shift the higher tax burden from the disappearing business property taxes to home owners, causing a near 30 percent jump in some cases in the burden on the state’s families. The act allows state taxing bodies to take the amount they “lost” to appeals refunds, total that up, and then just raise taxes that amount, effectively nullifying the appeals decisions and acting as a yearly new stealth, backdoor tax...

Here’s the version you were probably taught: The Pilgrims arrived here after an arduous trip across the Atlantic Ocean. They didn’t know why they were, had no idea what to do. They had nothing. The Indians took pity on them. The Indians saw them, and the Indians saved them. The Indians taught ’em how to do things they didn’t know how to do, like grow food, catch beavers, stuff like that. The Indians saved them, and the Pilgrims thanked them by growing a whole bunch of food and having this big feast. So, the story of Thanksgiving that’s taught is...

Residents looking to sue the state of Illinois on constitutional challenges to state law would only be able to file lawsuits in Sangamon [Springfield] and Cook [Chicago] counties in a measure ready to be sent to the governor. The measure, which does not apply to claims arising out of collective bargaining disputes between the state and unions, can now be sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

Still, that upward [revenue] revision for the upcoming year would not be enough to cover a shortfall created by a cost overrun related to a state expansion of health care to noncitizens who would otherwise be ineligible for Medicaid benefits. Those programs, which provide health care benefits similar to Medicaid to noncitizens aged 42 and older, are now expected to cost about $1.1 billion next year – a 400 percent increase from the original estimate of $220 million included in Pritzker’s February budget proposal.

But the one-semester class has gone full-time because of “strong demand from students to make this a year-long course,” Peng said. Peng’s course has been such a hit that state lawmakers are considering making it mandatory, statewide. What grabbed Peng’s eye in 2021 was an editorial in the school paper written by Anisha Singhal, who asked, “Calculus Before Checkbooks?” When Peng introduced the class in 2022, it was so popular that even Singhal ended up on a waitlist to get in. The class covers mortgages, tax returns, student loans, and more. Singhal said that “If there was an empty seat...

The student, who says she is non-binary and goes by the name B Hayes, posted a photo on Instagram holding a cardboard sign that said, “They wouldn’t let me in because I’m in a suit.” In the post’s caption, she wrote, “My senior prom was today and i wasn’t allowed in the doors because i was wearing a suit. i should not have to conform to femininity to attend my senior prom. i will not compromise who i am to fit in a box. who are you to tell us what it means to be a woman?”“I greatly appreciate the...

"In an effort to align our curriculum with our equity policy, teachers will be using gender inclusive language throughout this unit. With any differences, we strive to use 'person-first' language as best practice," she added. The letter outlined some examples of the new politically correct language. "Person who produces sperm in place of boy, male, and assigned male at birth," the letter explained. "Person who produces eggs in place of girl, female and assigned female at birth," she added.

A new report has found that the millions of taxpayer-funded Chromebooks that flooded schools during the pandemic are being discarded because of their expiration dates. Chromebooks were an affordable way to help educate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they weren’t programmed to last. Chromebooks have a built-in “death date,” after which software support ends. Once laptops have “expired,” they don’t receive updates and can’t access secure websites. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund shows replacement parts are both expensive and hard to obtain. In numerous cases, replacement keyboards would cost around $90, roughly half the cost of...

As the global community prepares to celebrate Earth Day, NASCAR today announced its commitment to achieve net zero operating emissions by the year 2035. The announcement coincides with the launch of NASCAR IMPACT, a new umbrella platform designed to align and advance the sport’s collective efforts around sustainability, community engagement and other impact-driven social initiatives. NASCAR plans to reduce its carbon footprint to zero across all scope 1 and 2 emissions over the next 12 years through strategic investment, collaborative partnerships, and operational changes. “As a sport, NASCAR has a responsibility to serve and impact the communities where we live...

Several top Republican lawmakers and energy industry groups blasted the Biden administration Wednesday after it announced aggressive regulations cracking down on gas-powered car emissions. Critics of the sweeping emissions standards, unveiled Wednesday morning by the White House and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), argued the announcement revealed President Biden is seeking to effectively ban traditional gas cars in favor of electric vehicles (EV). The White House said the rules would "accelerate the clean vehicle transition" and reduce pollution by nearly 10 billion tons by 2055.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday that despite his million-dollar donations to two Illinois Supreme Court justices last year, they are independent and should not have to recuse themselves from two high-profile cases before them in which the governor is a defendant. Pritzker donated a total of $2 million from two separate accounts to then-Illinois Supreme Court candidates Mary O’Brien and Elizabeth Rochford, $1 million each. Those candidates are now justices on the bench of seven who will hear separate challenges to the state's no-cash bail provision (next week) and to the state's gun ban and registry (in May). Pritzker signed...

Fox News unveiled a redesign of its website yesterday to highlight more non-hard news and politics coverage to its audience coming to the homepage and provide more “brand safe” content to advertisers, said Porter Berry, evp and editor-in-chief of Fox News Digital. Three advertising agency executives who spoke with Digiday said these changes have the potential to draw in new advertisers and budgets. They declined to share if their clients were currently advertising on Fox News’ sites. “Anytime a publisher is taking a moment to think about what is going to be the best way for consumers to experience their...

President Joe Biden told Polish President Andrzej Duda that he wanted to add a 'ski' to his last name as a kid, because he grew up surrounded by so many Polish immigrants. ... 'I was born in a coal town of Scranton... When coal died, we moved to a town called Claymont, which was a working-class town, everybody in town was either Polish or Italian,' Biden said. 'I grew up feeling self-conscious that my name didn't end in an "ski" or an "o."'