Author: Voxtrend News

As Texas Democrats eye an end to their nearly two-week walkout to block Republican efforts there to redistrict, a growing number of Indiana Republicans have been voicing questions and concerns about redistricting in Indiana. The Texas Democrats announced Thursday they will return provided that Texas Republicans end a special session and California releases its own redrawn map proposal, both of which were expected to happen Friday. Democrats did not say what day they might return. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott still intends to push through new maps that would give the GOP five more winnable seats before next year’s midterm…

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Republicans used their day at the State Fair on Thursday to pledge their allegiance to President Donald Trump and the Trump-backed plan to redistrict Texas’ congressional boundaries to gain GOP seats that led to that state’s House Democrats fleeing to Illinois to try to block it. But as state GOP leaders sought to promote a Republican “renaissance” that could turn Illinois from a blue state to red based on the state’s 2024 presidential results that showed Trump getting 43.5% of the vote, serious problems remain for a political party still trying to elevate itself from the brink…

It’s been a little over six months since President Donald Trump assumed office for his second term. In that time, the economic landscape has shifted quite drastically: The new administration has implemented broad tariffs on U.S. trade partners, the stock market has both plummeted and soared to historic heights, hiring is down, fears of a recession are on the rise and, perhaps most notably for everyday Americans, consumer prices are changing. Now $6.34, the cost of ground beef hit all-time highs for the sixth consecutive month, jumping another 4% since June. But it’s not just backyard barbecues and ballpark dogs that…

MarketBeat.com’s recent poll of more than 3,000 people questioned about locally-owned businesses resulted in Anderson’s, located at 123 W. Jefferson Ave., being among the state’s best. “It’s a neighborhood institution where generations of kids met their favorite authors. You walk in for one title, leave with five, and maybe a signed copy,” MarketBeat.com said in a news release. Nationwide, Anderson’s Bookshop ranks 85 out of 220 of the country’s most beloved businesses as part of the recent poll, the website said. Among the types of businesses on the list, “bookstores quietly crush it,” the website said, adding that “community and…

After listening to Northwestern Memorial Hospital officials outline a proposal to build a 1.2 million-square-foot tower on a vacant lot in Streeterville, residents at a Wednesday night community meeting were mostly supportive of the project. Many also mourned the impending loss of one of the neighborhood’s few green spaces. “It was so nice of the hospital to plant wildflowers there that we can enjoy,” said Deborah Gershbein, president of Streeterville Organization of Active Residents, which co-hosted the community meeting with Ald. Brian Hopkins, (2nd). “But we will all need health care, and we’re so fortunate that the heart of this…

Closing its 2025 season on Aug. 15 and 16, the Grant Park Music Festival argued that the distance between those two poles is rarely as great as it appears. The festival would know that better than most, juxtaposing classical music—and its expectation of monkish silence—with the heart of Chicago’s downtown, and the human mix therein. Where else must a soprano nobly compete with police sirens zooming down Lake Shore Drive? The public face of such an organization needs to understand that — someone who marries musical excellence with a come-as-you-are approachability, so that classical music’s audience base grows rather than…

A long line of severe thunderstorms that swept across Chicago and the suburbs Saturday night and early Sunday left more than 60,000 Commonwealth Edison customers without power as flood warnings continued throughout the area, authorities said. As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, 61,000 ComEd customers were without power, the utility giant said. ComEd said it expects most outages to be restored by 9 p.m. Sunday, with some taking until 2 p.m. Monday to fully resolve. While Sunday’s weather was expected to be tamer, flood warnings and advisories remained in the morning, mostly for the suburbs southeast of Chicago until noon…

TORONTO — Air Canada said it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants said it will defy a return to work order. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening. Canada’s largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening. “Our members are not going back to work,” Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said earlier Sunday outside Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. “We are saying no.” Hancock…

In Carl Sandburg’s famous 1914 poem “Chicago,” he praised the Windy City for its hardworking “Big Shoulders.” He might also have lauded the city’s sturdy and architecturally attractive buildings that arose after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and continued rising into the early 20th century, becoming the birthplace of the skyscraper. Most of those buildings remain today and a number have been repurposed, turned into hotels that are popular with visitors to modern-day Chicago. Eleanor Gorski, CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center, said these hotels in historic buildings are attractive because they are often in a part of town…

Back in 2016, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel wanted to separate bikes from pedestrians on this city’s beautiful Lakefront Trail, so as to alleviate cyclists, joggers and walkers from getting into each other’s way. He called up Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Griffin immediately came through with a $12 million donation. That got the job done fast (especially by today’s standards) and the trail became both safer and more enjoyable for all. We thought of that moment when we read the Chicago Park District’s fascinating new framework plan for the future of Grant Park, the 376-acre verdant space that sits betwixt the majestic…