Written by Luke Hamilton
Did Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kick over another lantern??
Why are residents and businesses streaming out of Illinois in alarming numbers? Over the past several years, dozens of companies have left Illinois; either shifting corporate HQ to more favorable tax climates or moving the entire company itself. Organizations like Jelly Belly, OfficeMax, Baxter International, Jimmy John’s, FatWallet.com, Hostess Brands, Sony Biotechnology, and State Farm Insurance have moved out of the state or have announced their intention to do so in the near future.… Continue Reading
Written by Chris Woodward
Though Congress is getting back to work this month, one organization says constituents still won’t be getting their money’s worth.
After an August recess, David Williams of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) reports that Congress is going to be in session for two weeks before members head back to their home districts for campaigning purposes.
“So, they’re not doing a lot of work, and it’s really showing,” he contends. “We can see that with the debt, with the deficit and just the amount of work that’s not getting done in Washington.”… Continue Reading
Written by Benjamin BanMetre
Illinois began August with a $4.4 billion dollar backlog of unpaid bills. If lawmakers would have kept the promises they made in 2011, the backlog would be zero today – or close to it.
In January 2011, Illinois lawmakers pushed through a record tax hike that raised the income tax rate on individuals to 5 percent from 3 percent, and on corporations to 7 percent from 4.8 percent. They called it the Taxpayer Accountability and Budget Stabilization Act and went on record making the following promises:
“We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our bills, get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing and make sure that our state has a strong economy.”
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Written by Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., NRL Director of Education & Research
Faced with clinic closings and legislative defeats, Planned Parenthood’s political arm (Planned Parenthood Action Fund) is in the process of spending $16 million in this fall’s races. To gin up contributions, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has sent out a fiery but fact-challenged appeal fundraising letter to would-be supporters.
This massive political involvement may come as somewhat of a surprise to those who imagine Planned Parenthood to be just a “women’s health care provider,” the image PPFA so carefully cultivates.… Continue Reading
Written by John Kirkwood
“The analogy we use around here sometimes and is accurate is if a JV team puts on Laker uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” – President Barack Obama to David Remnick on the threat posed by ISIS
Don’t look now Mr. President but the J.V. team just truncated one of our own.
Is the decapitated head of an American journalist somehow less revolting when viewed from the presidential seat in Golf Cart One?
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Written by Michael Lucci
Illinoisans enjoyed a larger paycheck than their Iowa counterparts for 30 years – until 2012.
For the first time ever, the median household in Iowa surpassed its Illinois counterpart, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
If you lined up all households in order of income, the median household would be the one in the very middle. The middle income in Illinois has collapsed by $12,000 in the last 15 years, indicating that the state is hollowing out its middle class.… Continue Reading
Written by IllinoisReview.com
The Illinois Libertarian Party candidates will be on the November 2014 ballot, the State Board of Elections Board decided Friday.
“We’re certified and we’re on the ballot,” Brian Lambrecht of the DuPage County Libertarians told Illinois Review shortly after leaving the hearing in Chicago.
“The Republicans did everything they could to discredit the petition signatures to get us from the 46,000 signatures we gathered to below the required 25,000 signature threshold, but they failed,” Lambrecht said.
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Written by IllinoisReview.com
Neither Governor Pat Quinn nor his Muslim American Advisory Council have commented on, or condemned, ISIS’ beheading of American journalist James Foley.
Quinn’s Muslim American Advisory Council is the only religious group to which the governor has reached out. Although the 500,000 Muslims in Illinois make the state home to the largest Muslim population in America, Catholics are the largest religious group, and unaffiliated evangelicals are the second largest.
No advisory councils or committees representing those two religious groups are listed among the 58 commissions Quinn has created.
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Written by Russ Stewart
Illinois is an anomaly. It is “The Land of Lassitude.” Voters are passive, partisan and forgiving. In state government, there are no checks and balances to Democratic abuses, ineptitude and favoritism.
In any other state, when a governor is impeached, indicted, convicted and imprisoned, the party of that incumbent would be shamed, tarnished and ousted. Not in Illinois.
In any other state, when one party controls all the levers of government — governor, both houses of the state legislature and the supreme court — and that party fails to govern effectively, voters would hold them accountable and they would be ousted.… Continue Reading
Written by Hilary Gowins
The controversy surrounding Chicago’s red-light camera program just got even more interesting. A judge revealed he is dismissing tickets by the fistful while former key players in the program have been indicted on federal bribery charges.
Less than two weeks after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the city will be reviewing more than 16,000 red-light camera tickets, a Chicago judge revealed that he has recently been dismissing as many as 70 percent of contested tickets.… Continue Reading
Written by James Simpson
Elections matter. President Barack Obama proves it every day as he willfully seeks to wreck our nation. But this is very evident elsewhere, too. The 2010 elections reversed decades of Democrat majority control in state houses. Since then, GOP governors and legislatures all over the country have been restoring sanity to state government. Most Americans don’t know this of course, because the media won’t tell you.
One good example is North Carolina.… Continue Reading
