Government

The latest news on laws and lawmakers from around the Midwest region.

Midwest Ranks High In “Contorted” Congressional Districts

National Journal picked Illinois' 7th as one of the nation's "10 Most Contorted Congressional Districts." Credit: Google Map by National Journal

National Journal has a look at who wins and who loses in the Congressional redistricting process that happens every 10 years. The piece, which only subscribers can see, also comes with a sidebar on “Modern Gerrymanders,” including maps of the 10 most contorted Congressional districts.

The Midwest has three of the 10. Chicago alone has two. But, this is a pretty subjective list, and we think some Midwest Congressional Districts were robbed. What about the Illinois 17th? Or Indiana’s 4th?

What do you think? What’s the most contorted Congressional district in the Midwest?

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Politics, congress, congressional districts, gerrymandering, politics

March 30, 2012 | 11:15 AM | By Micki Maynard

Chicago Caught In a “Brutal” Reordering Of Global Cities

We’ve heard a lot in the past few weeks about Chicago and its place among global cities. On Thursday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel set forth his proposal for a “new Chicago” that involves a wide variety of infrastructure improvements, private funding and more debt.

Photo by Simonds via flickr

All that is supposed to put the city back among the list of the world’s best cities. But there are suggestions that Chicago actually needn’t bother.

Urbanist Richard Florida looks at why some cities lose and others win in a sweeping piece today on The Atlantic Cities. He notes that the world’s biggest cities have been dramatically reordered since 1950, when Chicago was the second biggest in the U.S. and eighth largest in the world.

Now, Chicago ranks third largest among American cities and 25th in the world. Florida suggests it probably doesn’t stand a chance to become more important, because it’s now part of the world’s tier of second and third-level cities. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Politics, Chicago, cities, Population

March 29, 2012 | 4:42 PM | By Micki Maynard

Wisconsin Elections Board To Decide Friday on Recall Elections

The petition signatures have all been counted, and now it’s up to Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board to schedule recall elections.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

That is likely to happen on Friday. The board meets at 9 am CT, and you can watch its deliberations live.

The board’s staff released signature tallies on Thursday on recall petitions for Gov. Scott Walker and the state’s lieutenant governor.

There were 931,053 signatures collected for Walker’s recall; 26,114 were discarded by the staff; 4,001 were found to be duplicates and 900,938 were declared valid. That’s far more than required to hold an election. Four state Senators also face recall elections.

If the elections are held, the staff recommended a primary take place on May 8 and the general election, if needed, on June 5.

Read all our coverage of Walker and the Wisconsin elections here.

FILED UNDER: Government, Politics, recall, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

March 29, 2012 | 1:17 PM | By Micki Maynard

States Find Out How Hard It Is To Get People Back To Work

in the case of unemployment rates in the Great Lakes states, headlines do not tell the full story.

This week, we heard that Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent, within shouting distance of the national unemployment rate, and way down from the 14 percent territory it reached during the worst of the recession.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s rate held steady at 6.9 percent for the second straight month, and it’s down from 9.2 percent in June 2009.

But behind the Michigan numbers lies a paradox: the state has 409,000 people out of work, but there are 76,000 job openings that can’t be filled. Gov. Rick Snyder talked about this on Wednesday at a town hall in Detroit, urging job seekers to register with the state’s talent bank.

And in Wisconsin, the unemployment rate actually rose in 27 cities whose population was more than 25,000, and in 66 counties. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Industry, Jobs, jobs, Michigan, Retraining, unemployment, Wisconsin

March 29, 2012 | 11:43 AM | By Dustin Dwyer

Watch Live: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Announces $7 Billion Plan To Improve City’s Infrastructure

chicagomayorsoffice on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Big news out of Chicago this morning: mayor Rahm Emanuel is announcing a three-year, $7 billion plan to rebuild the city’s infrastructure. The Mayor’s office says the plan will create 30,000 jobs, and it won’t require a tax hike.

The mayor will deliver a speech to announce the plan coming up at 11 a.m. Central time. You can watch the speech live right here.

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Jobs, Building a new Chicago, Chicago, infrastructure, Rahm Emanuel

March 28, 2012 | 9:10 AM | By Meg Cramer

To Prepare Workers, Retraining Programs Try To Predict The Future

Sarah Alvarez contributed to this story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Unemployment numbers in the Midwest are bad. Not as bad as when the recession was at its worst, but there are still a lot of people looking for jobs. Even so, we keep hearing that some employers can’t find enough skilled workers. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says in his state alone, there are more than 77,000 job openings that can’t be filled.

Wendy Whitmore. Credit: Preeti Upadhyaya

There is really only one way to bridge that gap. People need training. And the way people are getting that training is changing.

Wendy Whitmore is the CEO of EMR Approved, a company in Chicago that works with doctors and hospitals that are making the switch to electronic medical records.

Four years ago, EMR Approved didn’t exist. Back then, Wendy Whitmore was running SSG Consulting, an IT consulting firm that wasn’t doing so well.

So she decided to try something new, and she took 12 of her employees with her.

Whitmore still runs SSG Consulting, and some of her employees straddle both businesses, but what they’re doing now is totally new.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Industry, Innovation, Jobs, Chicago, economy, jobs, Michigan, Michigan Works, Public Insight Network, Retraining, Rick Snyder, unemployment

March 27, 2012 | 12:48 PM | By Micki Maynard

Job Retraining: Tell Us What Works — And What Doesn’t

Changing Gears is taking a look at job retraining, one of the hottest topics in our region.

Tomorrow, Meg Cramer reports on a new business-focused approach that calls for companies to to oversee training, so that workers get the skills they need. Later on, we’ll also be looking at how to measure whether retraining is effective.

You can help us figure this out. Employees, have you gotten training to acquire new skills, or to start a new career? Companies, is your business training workers to meet its needs, rather than counting on them to have them?

Take our survey and let us know what works and what doesn’t. We’re also hoping you’ll chat with us about retraining. Tell us how we can get in touch with you.

FILED UNDER: Government, Industry, Jobs, Your Story, Government, jobs, Retraining

March 27, 2012 | 12:02 PM | By Dustin Dwyer

Have We Reached The Final Countdown For Detroit?

Detroit's financial review team listened to impassioned arguments during public comment at yesterday's meeting. Credit: screen shot of streaming coverage from wdiv.com.

We told you yesterday would probably be a historic day for the city of Detroit. Well, not so much.

The state-appointed financial review team for the city did hold a meeting, as expected. It was a pretty raucous meeting, as our partner station Michigan Radio reported. The reviewteam was required by law to make a recommendation to the governor about how to handle Detroit’s “fiscal crisis.”

There were basically two options: Recommend a consent agreement with the city, or recommend appointing an emergency manager who has the power to toss out union contracts, sell assets and balance the books. At the time of the meeting, no consent agreement had been reached with the city, so the emergency manager option – an option no one really wants – was starting to look more likely. But instead of taking option 1 or 2, the review team took option 3: Restate that there is a fiscal crisis in the city, restate that the team prefers a consent agreement and restate the obvious fact that there is currently no consent agreement. Not exactly a historic decree.

Essentially, the team kicked the can.

Continue reading →

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