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Chicago spent $80K to renovate office for first lady Johnson as city faces billion dollar budget shortfall

Chicago spent K to renovate office for first lady Johnson as city faces billion dollar budget shortfall

Invoices and receipts from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration have raised new questions about extravagant spending as the city faces a nearly billion dollar budget shortfall. Documents uncovered by local news station NBC 5 revealed that in the grip of fiscal crisis, the city spent more than $80,000 to redecorate and renovate an office in the Chicago Cultural Center for first lady Stacie Johnson.  “The invoices and receipts, obtained by NBC 5 Investigates through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, show that work order requests began in February and continued through August of this year to renovate and redecorate Room 306 in the Chicago Cultural Center,” the report said.  Electricians, carpenters and painters on the city’s payroll were contracted for the work, according to an invoice from the city’s Fleet and Facility Management department, also called 2FM, NBC 5 reported. The workers accrued more than 350 hours of labor at a cost of over $25,000. CHICAGO PROSECUTOR DECLINES TO CHARGE ‘DANGEROUS’ COLUMBIAN MIGRANT IN SHOOTING DEATH OF 17-YEAR-OLD Another invoice reportedly shows the city paid more than $43,000 for furniture, including a $2,200 office chair and a $4,400 desk labeled the “First Lady’s Desk” on the document. The city spent another $4,600 on a desk for a staffer and more than $8,300 on two club chairs, according to the outlet. The invoice was dated Aug. 13, with a Sept. 12 due date, NBC 5 reported. Mayor Johnson’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.  CHICAGO MAYOR COMPARES VIEWPOINT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM ABOUT SCHOOL SPENDING TO SLAVERY Confronted with the invoices and asked to defend the city’s spending, Johnson told NBC 5, “So, the Cultural Center has always been a location for dignitaries; every first lady has had office space there. Renovations for my office or any other office is standard procedure. Our commitment to invest in people is still to invest in people.” The mayor pushed back against follow-up questions about the optics of excessive spending at a time when his administration is considering layoffs of city workers to cut costs. ENTIRE CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD TO RESIGN OVER TEACHERS UNION DISPUTE WITH DEM MAYOR: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’ “The purchase of a desk is not going to change the financial structural damage that has been in place for a very long time. So this is why we ask – and I mean this respectfully – we ask far more profound questions than that. We ask, how do we make sure that the structural damage that’s been created over the course of decades – we reroute the rivers, if you will, to make sure that we get to the places where there is dry land. And that’s what we are doing,” he said.  When NBC 5 pressed the issue, Johnson criticized the outlet’s questions. “So I’ve been mayor for 17 months, and you have a question of how I feel about optics? Just go back on review the tape. If I were to allow my leadership to be based on someone’s opinion of me, it would be a derelict of duty. I never question my position to invest in people. I don’t do this for optics; I do this to transform lives.”  The mayor said he is more focused on the optics of hiring young people for summer jobs, building affordable housing and ensuring that schools have counselors and social workers, as well as investing in Chicago’s South and West sides.  But Johnson still has not put forward a plan to close the city’s projected $982 million budget gap. 

Mask mandates return for health care facilities in deep blue state

Mask mandates return for health care facilities in deep blue state

Mask mandates are returning for a limited time during cold and flu season in the heart of deep-blue California’s San Francisco Bay Area. With winter fast approaching, several Bay Area counties have recently issued health orders requiring that face makes be worn in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other health care settings beginning on Nov. 1 and extending through either March 31 or April 30, 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The new mandates were put into effect to prevent the spread of the flu, COVID and other seasonal illnesses. The requirements only apply to health care workers except in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, which also require visitors to put on masks. Santa Clara is also requiring that patients mask up, according to the outlet. TOP REPUBLICAN DEMANDS ANSWERS AS BILLIONS IN FEMA RELIEF ARE STILL GOING TO COVID: ‘LEGITIMATE CONCERN’ Localities that have issued health orders include Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Napa counties.  Health care facilities that must abide by the orders include hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, dialysis centers and infusion centers. HEART ATTACK AND STROKE MAY RISE AFTER COVID INFECTION, STUDY FINDS Santa Clara County will exempt children under age 2 and people with medical conditions for whom wearing a mask could obstruct breathing or who are unconscious, incapacitated or otherwise unable to remove a mask without assistance.  Though far less restrictive than pandemic-era COVID mandates, the masking requirements still invited opposition from critics. FORMER NIH OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF MAKING EMAILS ‘DISAPPEAR’ PLEADS FIFTH TO COVID SUBCOMMITTEE  “Mask mandates are making a comeback in California,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., who faces a challenge from Democrat Jessica Morse. “My opponent, a Newsom staffer, supports toddler masking. America’s leading masker of 2-year-olds, Xavier Becerra, is plotting a run for governor. We must elect the right people to assure history doesn’t repeat itself.”  The masking orders are similar to health orders issued during last year’s cold and flu season.  In January, several New York City public hospitals joined health care facilities in states across the country in reinstating mask mandates in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases and influenza infections.  The mandates were lifted once flu season ended. 

New York gun control regime handed defeat in court

New York gun control regime handed defeat in court

Second Amendment activists scored another win against New York State’s expansive gun control regime on Thursday. A federal judge said a newly enacted state law that bans licensed firearms owners from carrying concealed weapons on all private property, unless the owners permit weapons with a sign or by express consent, violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. “At least as to private property open to the public (the subject of this motion), New York’s restriction is unconstitutional,” wrote U.S. District Court John Sinatra, Jr., a Trump appointee.  “Regulation in this area is permissible only if the government demonstrates that the new enactment is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations,” the judge wrote, citing recent Supreme Court precedent. “New York fails that test here.”  GOP LAWMAKER UNVEILS EFFORT TO BAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM USING IDS TO BUY GUNS The judge also denied a motion from New York for a two-week stay in the ruling while the state Attorney General’s office filed an appeal, reasoning that the state is unlikely to succeed on the merits.  Sinatra said that property owners have a right to exclude legal gun owners from carrying firearms on their property. “But the state may not unilaterally exercise that right and, thereby, interfere with the long-established Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens who seek to carry for self-defense on private property open to the public.”  The Concealed Carry Improvement Act, signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in July 2022, was passed in response to a Supreme Court ruling that declared the state’s previous concealed carry permitting requirements unconstitutional. Last December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit blocked several provisions of the law from taking effect, though it upheld a controversial requirement that concealed carry permit applicants demonstrate good moral character and disclose household and family members on a permit application. The appellate court also let stand a ban on concealed carry in so-called “sensitive places,” including theaters, bars, public parks and other spaces. TRUMP TO HEADLINE NRA EVENT IN PIVOTAL SWING STATE TWO WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION DAY Gun rights activists praised Sinatra’s decision. “This is yet another important victory for Second Amendment rights and another major loss for New York, authoritarian governments, and radical anti-rights organizations like Everytown and Giffords,” said Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition.  “We will continue to fight forward as we work to restore the full scope of the right to keep and bear arms throughout the United States. Hopefully Kathy Hochul is ready to write another check for legal fees,” he added.  The New York Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Earlier this week, Hochul celebrated her administration’s gun control policies, announcing that gun violence in New York State has declined 47 percent since she took office in 2021.  GUN RIGHTS GROUP APPLAUDS AFTER FEDERAL APPEALS COURT DEALS BLOW TO NY CONCEALED CARRY LAW “And you all know what happened when the Supreme Court overturned the laws against concealed carry weapons, stripping away the power of the governor of this state to make her citizens safe. When the Supreme Court did that, we didn’t throw up our hands and surrender. We fought back,” Hochul said.  “We doubled down. We came up with legislation. And we have a prohibition on concealed carry weapons in sensitive places. I personally think every place is sensitive, don’t you? Alright, well, we drew the lines, okay? We decided what was sensitive, and so far we are good.” However, gun rights groups argue that Sinatra’s decision shows Hochul is wrong. “As we’ve said all along, the ‘sensitive place’ carry restrictions imposed by New York post-Bruen are unconstitutional. Hard stop,” said Bill Sack, director of Legal Operations for the Second Amendment Foundation. “We are thrilled that once again, the courts have agreed, and sent this amoral and unlawful ban packing.”