Articles
Displaying 14 through 26 of 137
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Gov. Pat Quinn has proudly proclaimed that Illinois is the first in the nation in renewable energy use and, while the state has unquestionably earned its bragging rights, policymakers need to do more to ensure that our clean energy sector remains strong.
First, the good news: According to a report by the Environmental Law and Policy Center and other...
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Social entrepreneurs throughout the nation are preparing to gather for this year’s Social Enterprise Alliance Summit 2014. Many are learning that their choice of legal entity can make a big difference for them—in funding, governance, and signaling—as they seek to drive positive social change. The two most popular legal forms, each designed...
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
If Illinois' “King Coal” is deposed as many predict, his subjects should herald the peaceful revolution.
The economics of the state's coal economy have remained virtually unchanged since Francis Peabody founded Peabody Daniels & Co., now Peabody Energy Corp., at age 24 in 1883 and became fabulously wealthy buying coal from established mines...
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
After the Illinois Senate narrowly approved a well-intentioned, but misguided, bill last year to compel publicly traded companies headquartered in Illinois or selling products here to report their state income tax liability to the secretary of state — who would then post that information online — the measure went on to die in the House. If...
Monday, October 7, 2013
The world's first social impact bond, or SIB, was introduced in 2010 to fund innovative social programs that realistically might reduce recidivism by ex-offenders in Peterborough, England, and, with it, the public costs of housing and feeding repeat offenders. Prudently building on the strengths of that initiative, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is rolling out...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
When Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the State's L3C bill into law late in 2009, the leadership of Social Enterprise Alliance's new Chicago chapter - - SEA's first chapter - - seized the opportunity to unite and energize the Chicago area's leading nonprofits, entrepreneurs, socially conscious individuals, foundations, thought leaders and impact...
Thursday, August 15, 2013
In Illinois, victorious politicians secretly pick the voters, not the other way around. Political leaders, the ultimate arbiters of redistricting, game the system by designing districts to produce the results they favor.
Gerrymandering is easy to pull off. All the pols need to do is jam voters who are likely to support the opposition into throwaway...
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Kudos to Gov. Pat Quinn, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District Commission on last month's announcement of a new hub for Chicago's thriving bioscience industry. This latest achievement is proof positive that biotechnology means business in Illinois.
According to Ernst & Young LLP, the industry generates more than $98.6...
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Over the past three years, Illinois courts have heard one claim after another that cities and towns outside the Regional Transit Authority's six-county territory have illegally lured businesses whose headquarters are within the RTA's taxing authority to set up satellite offices merely to reduce the sales taxes they owe. Adding to the controversy, the...
Friday, December 28, 2012
Illinois' 97th General Assembly goes out of business on Jan. 8. Between now and then, it may tackle more divisive issues of moral consequence than any of its recent predecessors. The reform of the state's debt-ridden public employee pension system, the expansion of casino gambling, the legalization of same-sex marriage and the approval of medicinal...
Monday, October 22, 2012
In this political season, it comes as no surprise that objections are being raised over nascent efforts to snag an eventual Barack Obama library and museum for the University of Chicago, where for 12 years the U.S. president was a lecturer in constitutional law.
Skeptics predict that the institution would be celebratory, not scholarly, and that its...
Monday, September 17, 2012
Kudos to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Michelle Boone, Chicago's cultural commissioner, for inviting public debate around their ambitious campaign to revamp and strengthen the city's arts and culture scene. Cultural Plan 2012, the first such program in 25 years, lays out no fewer than 200 proposed initiatives to amp up cultural participation and convert creativity...
Monday, July 2, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a common-sense rule that, for the first time, would set caps on the carbon pollutants that future fossil fuel-fired power plants may lawfully emit. Carbon dioxide emissions from new plants would be limited to 1,000 pounds per megawatt-hour. This would essentially provide the unceremonious end to the age of...
Displaying 14 through 26 of 137
