Results tagged “economiccrisis”

Amid the myriad financial problems facing the state of Illinois these days, paying for social services is one more. Both the Courier-News and the Batavia Sun profiled social services in the state - a women and children's domestic violence shelter in Elgin and a senior services group in the Fox Valley, respectively - that depend on state funding to carry out their missions. Both are struggling with covering expenses, including payroll, that the state hasn't paid for since this summer. While the Elgin Community Crisis Center was able to raise about $160,000 through community contributions, Executive Director Gretchen Vapnar knows it won't be enough to keep operating long-term.

The state's unemployment rate rose for the sixth month in a row in March, breaking nine percent, the highest in 24 years. Governor Pat Quinn announced that state unemployment benefits would be extended an additional 13 weeks for workers that had exhausted their access to unemployment insurance. Illinois currently offers 26 weeks of benefits, in addition to the 33 weeks provided by the federal government.

After yesterday's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Sun-Times Media Group tried to put a positive spin on the proceedings. Jeremy L. Halbreich, the STMG Chairman of the Board and Interim CEO, said he hopes the proceedings are all done by the end of the year and the situation will not interrupt the publication of the group's many newspapers and their corresponding websites.

The infamously embattled Chicago Spire may have found new life in its battle to simply get built. While right now it remains Chicago's most famous hole in the ground, developer Shelbourne Development Groupis scheduled to meet today with members of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trusts to discuss using some pension funds to get the building's construction going again. Construction was halted last fall and, earlier this year, the financial woes of the developer deepened thanks to fallout from the economic crisis in Ireland.

Have a little cash sitting around just waiting to be spent on an HDTV? Well, don't head to Circuit City. The electronics chain, which had previously closed several area locations already, the chain has shut down completely nationwide.

As if they didn't have enough problems these days, the CTA is dealing with another: too much space. The CTA has added another floor to the space they're attempting to sale or lease at their building, located at 567 W. Lake Street. With the 11th and 12th floors of the building already on the market, the CTA has added the 10th floor, which has become available due to recent staff cuts; each floor is 35,000 square feet. While anyone can buy the space, potential renters are must be "other government agencies or qualified non-profit groups."

Acco Brands, the Lincolnshire-based office products company, is taking an unusual step in these tough economic times to avoid layoffs: pay cuts. Acco plans to cut the pay of its U.S.-based salaried and hourly employees, as well as the executive officers by 20 percent begining February 23, through June of this year. It will also impose an additional two-week salary reduction, while maintaining a regular five day work week. The company's chief executive will take a pay cut of 57 percent through April, and a reduction in salary of 30 percent through June.

In what has become a rite of passage for Chicagoans, like that first glorious spring thaw or the annual Cubs collapse, it's time again for another CTA Doomsday warning. This time, the culprit seems to be the economy and according to the Trib's Jon Hilkevitch, "The new numbers are so bleak that the "doomsday" service cuts and fare increases threatened more than a year ago appear mild in comparison to the sweeping measures that would be needed to fill gaping budget holes the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace are facing." Yikes. The CTA, Metra, and PACE are all facing huge tax revenue shortfalls which mean huge funding reductions for both 2008 and 2009.

Mayor Richard Daley's chief of staff Paul Volpe by announcing more spending cuts and that more city job cuts will be likely.

The city will try to save $6 million by making a 3 percent reduction in spending on "non-personnel costs like commodities, materials, supplies and services" across city government, said top Daley aide Paul Volpe.

Continue reading "Volpe Warns of More City Job Cuts"

• Police continue to investigate the death of a three-month old baby who was found in a crowded, dirty apartment on the Northwest Side.
• Yesterday was a dark day for businesses nationwide with tens of thousands of jobs cut. Among them, 20,000 by Illinois-based Caterpillar.
• The ACLU has filed suit against the Illinois Department of Vital Records for refusing to issue new birth certificates to transgenders who have their sex change operation performed overseas.

Motorists chatting away on their cell phones could pay up to $500 under a new ordinance designed to strengthen Chicago’s cell phone ban. Ald. Vi Daley of the Lincoln Park area is pushing to increase fines from $75 to $100 for drivers caught yapping without a hands-free device. Fines for drivers who cause an accident while using a cell phone could increase from $250 to $500.

In spite of the city's effort to tax the ever-loving shit out of anything and everything, a bad fourth quarter of 2008 means the city's revenues were off by over $30 million for the year. According to Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe, Daley's new chief-of-staff, "We're some $31 million below what we actually thought." One precipitous drop came from real-estate transfer tax collections; instead of the $30 million the city expected to collect in the last quarter of 2008, it received only $20.5 million. And despite the seeming lack of side-street plowing, Volpe says the large amount of snow so far this winter required the city to spend $4.3 million more on plowing than had been planned.

Early indications are that the economy will continue to put a crimp in retail sales including the coveted after-Christmas sales.

Though many retailers opened before dawn and advertised bargains aggressively, malls appeared relatively quiet Friday. The number of people visiting shopping centers declined an estimated 19 percent from the day after Christmas last year, according to NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm, based on visits to 26 malls nationwide....

Continue reading "Retail Sales Continue to Underwhelm"

For the first time since being elected, Sen. Barack Obama addressed the press on economic issues from a downtown Chicago hotel this afternoon and then took questions from reporters for a short time. Obama was quick to make sure he didn't step on the toes of the current administration, saying:

The United States has only one government and one President, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current Administration. I have spoken to President Bush, and I appreciate his commitment to ensuring that his economic policy team keeps us fully informed as developments unfold.

He then outlined his economic concerns that will be facing the Obamistration. Following the statement, he fielded a few questions from reporters, nothing particularly hard-hitting, though he did seem to make an instant celebrity of the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet who discussed with the President-Elect an injury she sustained at Obamapalooza. Check out the entire conference after the jump. And if that's not enough Obama for you, WTTW is replaying the Bob Sirott interview with Obama from 2004 tonight at 7:30 p.m.