Equal pay advocates gathered at the Daley Center today and said it’s time to end the gender wage gap, which could be closed in part by passage of the federal Paycheck Fairness Act. Progress Illinois was there for the rally.
Hundreds of LGBT advocates marched on Chicago’s downtown streets last
night, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage
equality as it begins to hear arguments today on two cases that
challenge the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
and California’s Proposition 8, which both ban same-sex matrimony. Progress Illinois was there for the candlelight march.
Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new report by the Woodstock Institute, prompting researchers to call for further investigation into gender discrimination in lending practices.
After studying 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)
data for the Chicago six county region, which includes Cook, DuPage,
Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, the Woodstock Institute found than “female applicants overall were about 8 percent less likely to have
purchase mortgages originated and about 21 percent less likely to have
refinance mortgages originated than were male applicants.”
In what has been described by disability-rights advocates as nothing
short of a fight over equal access rights, a coalition of organizations
unveiled plans Wednesday to boycott some of the nation’s leading hotels
over their efforts to delay the enforcement of federal guidelines
requiring the installation of permanent wheelchair lifts that allow
disabled guests entry to swimming pools.
At issue has been debate over specific guidelines set forth in 2010 as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regarding access to pools for people with disabilities. This past January, the U.S. Department of Justice
(DOJ) revised those standards, requiring a number of hotels by March 15 to
install pool lifts that were permanently “fixed” next to a pool at all
times. The deadline, however, was subsequently extended to May 21 — due in
large part to an extensive lobbying campaign by industry trade organizations.
In his annual budget address
this February, Gov. Pat Quinn singled out education as an area that the
state government is not cutting, despite his overall push toward
fiscal austerity.
“I believe in the power of education to create
opportunity in our society,” the governor said. “This is why I have
maintained our basic investment in education, despite extremely hard
times.”
But the budget the Illinois General Assembly sent the
governor includes $857 million or 8.2 percent in state education budget
cuts from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1. The
cuts will especially impact less wealthy school districts that cannot
turn to local property tax revenue in lieu of reduced state money. Read more »
Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans approved than their male counterparts, according to a new 
In what has been described by disability-rights advocates as nothing
short of a fight over equal access rights, a coalition of organizations
unveiled plans Wednesday to boycott some of the nation’s leading hotels
over their efforts to delay the enforcement of federal guidelines
requiring the installation of permanent wheelchair lifts that allow
disabled guests entry to swimming pools. 
In his annual 