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* State Sen. Shane Cultra was interviewed by the East Peoria Times Courier the other day…
[Last] Thursday the Illinois Department of employment Security announced the unemployment rate dropped in the Peoria metro area in December. That continued a trend of declining jobless numbers through 2010.
December unemployment rates fell in every Illinois county for the first time since 1974, according to the state.
Cultra said he was unaware of that news. He said he found that hard to believe
Reality is reality, Senator. Try it sometime. You might like it.
* US Sen. Mark Kirk has gone completely political…
Another Republican blasted from both sides of the spectrum for his record on emissions, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, said he is “not terribly concerned” about taking heat from green groups for his criticism of EPA action on carbon emissions.
“The consensus behind the climate change bill collapsed and then further deteriorated with the personal and political collapse of Vice President [Al] Gore,” Kirk said in a brief interview last week.
So, apparently, the merits of the issue don’t matter to Kirk because Al Gore got in trouble with a “massage therapist.” Thoughtful guy, that.
* State Rep. Mary Flowers wants to create a new state agency…
Flowers has introduced House Bill 104, which would create the Department of Minority and Women Inclusion. The new agency would be in charge of equal employment opportunity in the executive branch, as well as ensuring against racial or gender disparities in state contract awards.
Flowers said the bill will help cut state spending even though a new agency would be created.
Um, OK. I don’t get how this cuts state spending at all.
* Related…
* Reagan day in Illinois proposed: A resolution recently introduced in the state House would have designated Sunday as Ronald Reagan day in Illinois. But state Rep. Jerry Mitchell, R-Sterling, who sponsored the resolution, said it probably won’t go anywhere because the House session was canceled this week due to the blizzard hitting the Midwest. The resolution would have been a “one-time thing,” he said.
* New Beginning for 20 Illinois Representatives: State Rep. Kelly Burke (D-Evergreen Park) has experience as an attorney and also in higher education. What’s more, “I was the president of our local library board, so I have a little local government experience – experience with literacy, things like that.”
* More legislators agree to suspend scholarships
* State Representative Cole Offers General Assembly Scholarships
* Maloney wants home schoolers to register with the State
* Brewer licensing on tap for Illinois legislature
* DeKalb County looks for new treasurer after Johnson heads to Ill. Senate: “The county cannot be without a treasurer, even for a second,” Anderson said.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 7:40 am
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As our neighborhood was coming together to dig itself out of the record snowfall yesterday, Al Gore jokes were numerous. He and Chicken Little. It seems that the merits of the issue got snowbound by Common Sense once again.
And Al did not abuse a chambermaid. She was a professional veteran selected as the best holistic masseuse for visiting celebrities by hotel management. The hotel employs hundreds of chambermaids among their huge staff, Ms. Hagerty is not one of them.
Global Warming, I mean, Climate Change, I mean Climate Chaos or whatever they are calling it this week has as much credibility as Ms. Whitney’s predictions.
Kirk is correctly reading the current political climate.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:00 am
kirk is an idiot. but we already knew that.
there is no question that mark kirk is mitch mcconnell’s puppy dog. just like he did in the house, kirk will vote as he’s told by the republican whip. and when he wants to deviate from the republican caucus position, he will ask for mcconnell’s permission. that’s not leadership, it’s not intelligence, and it certainly isn’t independent. so it can be no surprise that mark kirk has joined the conservative’s jihad on science. because, you know, science is just “someone’s opinion.”
but, heh, he sells it well. voters are stupid. mark kirk is proof of that…
Comment by bored now Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:06 am
Good to see more legislators taking a pass on the tuition waiver scam.
Hopefully, more news outlets will stop referring to them as “scholarships.” There’s no money being paid to the universities.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:08 am
And some Republicans still wonder why the Democrats run the state. Can’t beat something with nothing. Cultra and Kirk are good examples of nothing.
Comment by just sayin' Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:10 am
Mark Kirk : Al Gore :: Larry Craig : Bill Clinton
– MrJM
Comment by MrJM Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:14 am
- He said he found that hard to believe -
Standard Republican misleading constituents. Nothing good ever happens when the other side is in charge.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:46 am
Could the unemployment numbers be dropping because people are rolling off as they now hit 99 weeks and their benefits are ending?
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:48 am
The unemployment rate is survey, not an exact number. In many cases, the survey reflects a feeling rather than a count of the number of unemployment. It is completely possible that Cultra is correct in observing the number of unemployed is higher than a sample indicates.
Comment by JP Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:55 am
–In many cases, the survey reflects a feeling rather than a count of the number of unemployment.–
What the what? A feeling?
It’s apples to apples, month to month, is it not?
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 8:59 am
I agree with Rep. Flower’s idea of creating an agency for inclusion of minority and women. If you look at the state’s employment numbers and contracts you will see a huge disparity. Currently Hispanics make up less than 3% of the state’s workforce while minority and women owned contractors were awarded less than 12% of the contracts at IDOT. Something needs to give, small businesses is what puts people back to work and this is an effort to diversify the workforce and contracting pool. Hispanics and African American Legislators were the deciding votes on whether or not a tax increase passed both chambers thus we need to make sure that we are all participating at a respectable level. What is that level? I would suggest that the census data is a good barometer to gauge the level at which minority and women should be employed at the state and also how they should be participating on state contracts. Maybe a legislator should propose a bill that states, minority and women owned contractors who work on state funded contracts should pay taxes equal to their participation on state funded contracts. I equate the current status of state contracting as taxation without representation, minority and women owned businesses need not apply.
Comment by Just saying.. Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:05 am
Nope, it is a sense of unemployment rather than actual unemployment numbers that are being counted.
It is some legacy of not having real time calculations of how many people are employed/unemployed at any given. It is not unusual at all for the quantitative measure to be opposite of the surveyed unemployment rate.
You are right though, it is apples to apples. So the survey says it feels like the unemployment rate is less that it felt like before.
The actual could be calculated, but that would mean that journalists would have to use fancy calculators and gather multiple sources of data.
Comment by JP Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:27 am
The unemployment rate is an inexact science. However Mr. Cultra needs to ensure his credibility by knowing what the unemployment rate indicates. While reality is reality and the unemployment rate appears to be headed downwards, the reality also indicate that Peoria still has too many unemployed and those finding work are as likely to be earning less than before.
If Mr. Cultra wished to relate that reality, he did so poorly.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:30 am
To Rep. Flowers’ idea:
There is a DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) office and/or goals in most state departments that have procurement programs. IDOT, Illinois Tollway, Capital Development Board, etc. Creating a new agency won’t really change things. It will only create another agency for the purpose of………creating a new agency.
Comment by Ghost of John Brown Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:33 am
Ms. Flower’s designs are noble and worthy of attainment. In today’s economic world, she should be proposing the enforcement of current rules to reach her stated goal within the current procedures, instead of this enlargement of government.
It is 2011, how about thinking about governmental solutions that do not increase citizen’s burdens? Obviously we have all learned that we are not made of money, and just saying a new government agency will not cost more does not suspend economic realities.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:41 am
Perhaps when the unemployment rate is at historic highs, there’s only one direction to go?
Nah, that couldn’t be it…
Comment by Amuzing Myself Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 9:51 am
The State already pays millions of dollars per year for contractors to assist minorities in obtaining contracts. They also get an advantage in the award process. If look at the Illinois Procurement Bulletin on the DCMS web site, you will see various awards to DBE contractors - look at IDOT “professional services” or consultants & read. Some state employees also have the job of administering these EEOC & DBE initiatives. It appears some of the commenters are not aware.
Comment by Taxpayer Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:06 am
== Cultra said he was unaware… ==
We’ve known that for some time now, Shane.
Comment by Joe from Joliet Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:24 am
Wow!
SilentShane talking in public.
Now that IS news. He also was panting about the need to have the Supreme COurt Ok the capital construction law as is. (aka pleeeeeez don’t ask me to vote for those satanic video poker machines) Pretty funny stuff. Area lost a lot when Rutherford moved up, but this guy at least gives us something to laugh out loud about.
Comment by CircularFiringSquad Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:30 am
Unemployment rate also drops when the unemployed stop looking for work altogether.
Comment by Jim Duggan Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:36 am
I don’t think Onarga’s Lone Tree Leader newspaper covers much state-wide news.
Comment by Way Way Down Here Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:37 am
Cultra said he is hopeful the supreme court will expedite the issue and find in favor of the original bill.
He means the one he voted against, right?
Comment by piling on Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 10:45 am
So Mark Kirk bases his vote based on tabloid stories?
It’s going to be a very long 6 years…
Comment by Jack S. Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 11:09 am
Ahh, Mark Kirk is being sucked into the Grand Old Propaganda…can’t change the facts to justify your wacky political opinion. Snow storm is evidence of climate change. The only collapse is Republican desire to actually govern instead of simply obtain power.
Comment by D.P. Gumby Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 11:21 am
Of course unemployment was down in December, largely due to seasonal hiring. Not defending Cultra, but the problem remains the same.
Comment by LincolnLounger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 11:31 am
It seems to me that Kirk said his primary reason for opposing some climate change bill is precisely that the merits of the issue have tilted since the scare-em-to-death days. Democrats can go in for faith-based legislation on this issue, since it will pay out big for their corporate friends, but Republicans are supposed to be about fiscal responsibility.
Comment by Ronald McFirbank Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 11:44 am
Rep. Flower’s bill is probably unconstitutional, and at least violates the federal civil rights laws.You cannot award jobs, contracts, or salary based upon race or gender. DBE rules barely skirt this limit already. Quotas are not legal.
Comment by formerpolitico Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 11:52 am
no new agencies, no new spending initiatives. Rep Flowers - we are out of money.
Comment by always anonymous Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 12:15 pm
VM,
If you do a little research on the Internet, you’ll find plenty of climate scientists saying that it is a mistake to use any one storm — or even a season’s worth of storms — to disprove climate change. Weather is what will happen next weekend; climate is what will happen over the next decades and centuries across the globe. Instead of using a single weather event to question (or even support) climate change, we owe it to future generations to let the scientists do their research work and inform our policy makers as best they can.
Comment by Going nuclear Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 12:55 pm
@Taxpayer, obviously you are neither a minority nor a woman. If you look at IDOT specifically you will see that less than 12% of all DBE dollars went to minority and women owned businesses. If you look at the professional services/engineering services, you will see that less than 4% has gone to African American and Hispanic firms combined. FY 2009 to current, over $450 million dollars has been spent in professional services during that time, guess what, less than $9 million has been awarded to African and Hispanic owned firms during that time. So please don’t say that someone is not informed, go to their website, the info is there, just compile it and the numbers don’t lie.
Comment by Just saying.. Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 1:19 pm
Kirk is correct yet again. The EPA’s overreach on CO2 emissions needs to stopped before they kill off any of the nascent recovery in the works.
Since this week’s storm is only the 3rd most intense on the record, why would this indicate any change in the climate much less weather patterns?
Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 1:29 pm
- Since this week’s storm is only the 3rd most intense on the record, why would this indicate any change in the climate much less weather patterns? -
Because we’re talking about a very complex problem that you should probably stop listening to Charlie Daniels about.
Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 1:35 pm
Kirk got himself Shimkusized. Next thing he will be quoting scripture to justify sticking his head up the GOP echo chamber. Funny how they find light in such a dark hole.
Comment by vole Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 1:43 pm
Let the real scientists debate this, I’m not.
I am noting that Kirk’s political take is correct based on what I heard among voters yesterday.
I’m not claiming that anyone is an idiot.
I’m not claiming that voters are stupid.
I’m not claimimg that the issue is “complex” for normal people or even someone named Charlie Daniels to understand.
I am noting that the issue is not prioritized by voters high enough to sell cures for. Kirk is correct.
If you want to believe, knock yourself out. Sell it. Stop insulting voters who are not buying what you are peddling.
Why must insults be the first response by supposedly intelligent people? Can’t you debate too? Noah did not have to sell arc tickets after the rain started falling. Right now, most voters are not buying any arc tickets.
Kirk is correct.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 2:11 pm
- Sell it. -
Vman, it takes extremely basic research to find out that there is no credible opposition to scientific findings on climate change. Even the American Association of Petroleum Geologists agree that humans are contributing to climate change. All it should take is watching John Shimkus say CO2 is nothing but plant food for a reasonable person to understand that he’s probably not the best source on this. How can you debate with that?
Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 2:39 pm
Just saying - Did you mean 12% of their total or 12% of DBE? I would think the DBE $ has to go to DBE or it is misappropriated. If you are referring to the total, then we would need to look at minority firms population vs non-minority firm population to know if the 12% is reasonable (you may know this?). There are consultants paid by the agencies (quite a bit, too) to assist minorities in bidding etc and that was also my point.
Comment by Taxpayer Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:00 pm
A great number of people are apparently able to see and rightly question the money, politics, influence and suspect “science” behind ethanol and ethanol subsidies. Yet, many of these same people seem blind to the degree of money, politics, influence and suspect “science” behind the global warming based energy industry regs and product subsidies. Different aims, products and constituencies perhaps, but very much two sides of the same coin otherwise IMO. Like VM, I don’t see voters being keen to pay for any of this right now.
Comment by Responsa Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:02 pm
It was cold today, so there is no global warming.
OK . . . I know someone who has a job, so there is no unemployment problem.
**sigh**
Comment by Ray del Camino Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:19 pm
Responsa, oddly enough, global warming isn’t a big topic to voters when its 10 degrees and there’s 20 inches of snow on the ground.
I think the original point wasn’t debating the science of climate change, but that Kirk is a windsock on the subject of emissions — also known as air pollution, for you breathers out there.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:20 pm
I’m against global warming, and air pollution, but I’m really glad I had my diesal tractor yesterday, and that the coal burning power plant down the road kept the lights on.
Comment by Jaded Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:31 pm
diesel
Comment by Jaded Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:35 pm
Jaded, I grew up amongst the greatest concentration of nuclear plants in the world, and my third eye comes in handy.
Seriously, there’s no question we need the energy. But there’s not a problem in trying to make its use more efficient and cleaner, is there?
I, personally, wouldn’t mind not contributing so much to the oil companies and their pals in Riyadh, Teheran and Caracas, either.
That strikes me as a conservative approach.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:43 pm
Word–I imagine you meant “windsock” as a pejorative, but really, aren’t our lawmakers such as Kirk supposed to adapt to their constituents’ goals and wishes as seen through the voters’ social and economic lenses– and communicated to their representatives?
Now, despite his imperfections, I am unabashedly a Reagan fan, and this is one of my favorite quotes of his, taken from his farewell address:
“We the people’ tell the government what to do, it doesn’t tell us. ‘We the people’ are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast.”
Comment by Responsa Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 3:45 pm
You have to love how people who believe that humans have significant impact on climate (correctly) berate those who point at a single storm or even a single season as contrary evidence, but ignore the fact that the evidence of climate change is based on only about 100 years of good data for only a part of the globe. They respond to “I know someone who has a job, so there is no unemployment” with “I know 5 who don’t, so it’s a major depression.”
Comment by Pat Robertson Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 4:03 pm
–Word–I imagine you meant “windsock” as a pejorative, but really, aren’t our lawmakers such as Kirk supposed to adapt to their constituents’ goals and wishes as seen through the voters’ social and economic lenses– and communicated to their representatives?–
I did mean it as a pejorative. Ideally, in a representative democracy, you’re elected to make tough calls, not blow with the popular winds. Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, can give you the down-low on that.
Please don’t put Kirk in with Reagan in any way, shape or form. Reagan was no windsock; he took and stuck to many positions that honked off most of the people most of the time — yet somehow, when it came time to vote, he rolled like Sherman through Georgia.
The quote’s pretty weak, too.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 4:26 pm
Wordslinger,
I can’t disagree with anything you said (on this issue that is). By the way, the coal burning plant down the road supplies my geo-thermal heating and cooling system, so hopefully that will more than cancel out my diesel tractor.
Comment by Jaded Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 4:46 pm
Mary, get a meeting with Quinn staff, bring a few of your colleagues, demand answers on percentages on a regular basis, ask your colleagues to do the same in budget hearings. And spend the money for that agency on something better. Like fighting heart disease, or cancer, or violence. Feminism does not require needless bureaucracy.
Comment by amalia Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 4:58 pm
A new law won’t make any difference. There are already preference programs that, as others rightly point out, skirt the edges of being illegal / discriminatory. Even if you enacted a perfect / legal law, it still wouldn’t work … people have been gaming the current rules for 37 years I know of by incorporating companies in their wife’s names to take advantage of the “women’s preference” rules. Other companies use a person of whatever ethic type as a front man, either as a figurehead or a legit but small company with a sub-contracting arrangement with one of the “connected” big boys. Hate to be cynical but I saw a lot of that done over the years.
Global warming … rather than Al Gore, I’ll believe an 80 yr old friend who is a credentialed environmental scientist; he used to believe it was man made and we could fix it, now he believes a lot of our clean-up efforts have just made it worse and he has charts and data showing it plus he’s leaning towards other causes such as long and short term sun spot cycles as the major mover … and we can’t do much about that. Now that the hysteria has gone away, you’ll hear principled people like him start to whisper maybe they didn’t get it right the first time.
Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Thursday, Feb 3, 11 @ 5:01 pm