On National Coffee Day, we’d like to shine a spotlight on Chicago-based coffee roaster Intelligentsia. Intelligentsia pioneered the Direct Trade purchasing model in which they source directly from coffee roasters and incentivize high-quality cups.

Doug Zell and Emily Manage first opened Intelligentsia Coffee’s doors on Broadway Avenue on Chicago’s North Side in October of 1995. Since then they have expanded from coast to coast, opening shops in LA and New York City.

They have earned several awards for their work and in 2016 were recognized on Thrillist’s list of best coffee roasters in the country.
Intelligentsia works with farmers and coffee producers in 20 countries to develop high quality beans.

UPDATE: President Barack Obama cited this report in his speech to the Illinois General Assembly on February 10, saying:

"I just saw a story the other day showing that if you rank all 50 states across categories like education levels and household incomes, and race and religion, the one state that most closely mirrors America as a whole is Illinois, this state."

Illinois’ diversity catapulted it to the top of a new ranking of states best suited to host the country’s earliest presidential primary contests because they best reflect the makeup of the United States.

Illinois’ finances would look very different today if it adopted tax systems like its Midwestern neighbors do, according to a new video that breaks down the differences.

That’s the message Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has been delivering around the state for years and that the Illinois Economic Policy Institute acknowledged in its new video that explains how Illinois stacks up against Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa.

A star athlete making millions of dollars in St. Louis falls into Missouri’s top, 7 percent tax bracket. Compare that to the flat 3.75 percent income tax in Illinois and you begin to see why the Cubs might be having such success raiding the Cardinals’ of their prized free agents this off-season.

Those who hold up Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan as beacons of successful state economic policy may want to chew on a new report that shows the middle class is shrinking in those states faster than elsewhere in the nation.

That’s according to a Pew Charitable Trusts review of U.S. Census figures, the American Community Survey and other data between 2000 and 2013.

The percentage of middle-class households dropped nationwide, but Illinois is doing a better job of protecting the middle class than some of its Midwestern counterparts, the analysis shows. Middle-class households are struggling more in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan – each of which became right-to-work states under Republican governors during the period that Pew researchers evaluated.