Health & Fitness

Where's the lottery money and other questions answered; Stantis cartoon: There's a speed limit in Illinois?

Reboot editor Matt Dietrich hits unanswered pension forum questions like "Where does the lottery money go? Upping the speed limit, top Reboot posts this week, clout in CPS and more.

DOESN'T THE LOTTERY FUND EDUCATION? We had many audience questions that went unasked at our pension forum with the Daily Herald on Wednesday. Reboot Illinois editor Matt Dietrich answers some of them in his blog post today. Among the topics: Where's all the lottery money going? Where's all the tax money going? What do you mean pensions aren't taxed? And more.

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LIFE IN THE FAST LANE State Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, says raising the speed limit on Illinois Interstates to 70 would be "business-friendly." Cartoonist Scott Stantis' response: "Illinois has a speed limit?" Check out Stantis' driver's-eye view

Find out what's happening in Palatinewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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TOP 5 In case you missed it, here are the Top 5 most popular posts onrebootillinois.com in the past week:
1.       Video stream of our pension forum with the Daily Herald (replay the full video here)
2.      Adlai Stevenson III: Some candid ideas for helping Illinois lead again
3.      Scott Stantis cartoon: Illinois’ pension stoners
4.      Tax increases and moving past blame focuses of pension forum (our coverage of Wednesday’s Reboot/Daily Herald pension forum)
5.      Illinois Dems up on GOP in humor dept. so far (blog post on funny retorts from Rahm Emanuel and Pat Quinn to Texas Gov. Rick Perry)

Find out what's happening in Palatinewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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ILLINOIS PRIDE Former state representative and college government professor Jim Nowlan is bothered by some recent remarks he heard that put down Illinois in favor of Florida, and not because of the weather. "What has changed? Can we return to the good ol’ days?" he wonders in his weekly column.

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DAILY TIP-OFF Chicago businessman Bruce Rauner is building his exploratory campaign for governor on his status as a political outsider. But Crain's Chicago Business political columnist Greg Hinz cites "multiple sources at Chicago Public Schools" who say he called former CPS CEO Arne Duncan in 2008 to get his daughter into prestigious Walter Payton College Prep High School. Hinz notes this was at the same time Rauner changed his voting address from his Winnetka residence to his Chicago Loop condominium -- qualifying his daughter for admission to CPS schools including Payton. 

Writes Hinz: "According to a report by CPS Inspector General James Sullivan that has not been released to the public, the younger Ms. Rauner had good scores, very good scores. But not quite good enough. Her application was denied. So dad called Mr. Duncan, a Duncan aide called the Payton principal and she was admitted..." Hinz contrasts Rauner's outsider claims with his apparent political insider clout. (Public radio station WBEZ has posted the CPS "clout list" on its website. We have a link in ourDaily Tip-Off section.)

If Rauner decides to seek the GOP nomination in 2014, he won't have U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock as an opponent. The 31-year-old Peoria Republican, a rising star in the party, says he'll seek reelection to Congress, where he can get more done. A formal announcement is expected today.

As if there isn't enough acrimony now between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union (and those entities and various factions of the public), now there's dissension in the union, with Tanya Saunders-Wolffe challenging Karen Lewis for the presidency. Saunders-Wolffe writes in a Chicago Tribune op-ed today: "The cause of the misery lies with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, members of the Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who have made it clear they wish to replace public schools with charter schools and break the Chicago Teachers Union. Much of the blame lies with CTU President Karen Lewis." 

As mentioned earlier, State Sen. Jim Oberweis is behind a bill that would raise the Interstate speed limit in Illinois to 70. He says it's a "business-friendly" move. The Chicago Tribune notes that Oberweis owns a dairy company whose trucks would be able to travel faster under the new limit. The bill passed the Senate easily and awaits a vote in the House.

Links to these and other Illinois news stories are in our Daily Tip-Off section,

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