Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2005

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Those who predicted an easy victory for Cong. Jesse Jackson’s south suburban airport plan weren’t paying attention.

As Capitol Fax readers know, Senate President Emil Jones said he would wait to see what Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson thinks. And now this:

Will County leaders Tuesday asked local legislators to support the county’s plan for developing and operating a third Chicago-area airport at Peotone.

County Executive Larry Walsh, a Democrat, and Republican County Board member Jim Moustis met with nine local legislators and a representative of House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego). U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), whose district covers the airport site, arranged the closed-door, 90-minute meeting in New Lenox.[…]

State Sen. Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete), the Senate majority leader, will steer the bill through the legislature, Walsh said, adding he “firmly believes” there will be action on it this spring.

The Will County plan contradicts Jackson’s plan in several ways, and an internal IDOT memo throws some doubt on part of the congressman’s proposal, according to the Daily Southtown.

An Illinois Department of Transportation memo casts doubt on whether the state can transfer land set aside for an airport to a group headed by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

The memo, prepared by IDOT lawyers for Transportation Secretary Tim Martin, suggests the land near Peotone should not be relinquished without the blessing of the General Assembly.

The document also questions the legality of how the Jackson group selected two developers to design and build the airport. Illinois procurement laws do not allow design and construction contracts to be lumped together.

1 Comment

Breathtaking, Part 2

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Like I said before, it never helps to look ‘em in the eye and not tell the truth.

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich has dragged his feet on naming members to the Illinois Gaming Board and balked at its plea to hire more investigators, yet his administration has forced the panel to hire a lobbyist that board members say they neither want nor need. […]

Though the Gaming Board is a quasi-independent agency, Blagojevich’s Revenue Department oversees its budget and hiring. In January, before Freveletti formally came on the payroll, [Gaming Board members] Peterlin and Dugan wrote a letter to Revenue Director Brian Hamer to complain they had not been consulted about the possibility she could be hired.

“As the economic shortfalls of the state call for budget tightening, this is a position the Illinois Gaming Board has identified as one that is not required,” the letter read. “We’ve previously informed your office of our position.” […]

As recently as last week, Blagojevich declared his commitment to preserving the independence of the board. “The more independent the better the Gaming Board should be,” Blagojevich told the Tribune.

You see, he was just saying they should be independent. It’s not like he took a solemn pledge or anything.

9 Comments

Groundhog day

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Back in 1975, Mayor Richard J. Daley traveled to Springfield and made an eloquent (no, really) speech to a joint session of the General Assembly on behalf of more funding for schools.

The mayor’s idea passed both chambers, but Governor Dan Walker vetoed it. Daley, fed up, unleashed the dogs and Walker was history.

Is history about to repeat itself?

Mayor Daley chided Gov. Blagojevich on Tuesday for a $53 billion state budget that ignores what the mayor contends should be Illinois’ highest priority: a more equitable way to fund public education. […]

“We should have a discussion on this because, otherwise, it falls upon the local taxpayers and it’s uneven, its unfair,” the mayor said. “If you live in a wealthy area, such as the North Shore, you have all the money you want. But other areas of the state don’t have . . . the financial resources. It’s called unfairness. Until that [tax swap] happens, there’s unevenness in the quality of education in Illinois.”

Governor Blagojevich, you may remember, has vowed to veto any tax swap bill if it makes it to his desk.

If I have time this week, I’m going to dig up that old Daley speech.

6 Comments

Not gonna happen

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The idea of redistricting Illinois’ congressional districts after what the Texas Republicans did a couple of years ago has come up before. Senate President Emil Jones pushed the idea, only to be overruled by House Speaker Michael Madigan, who went through an excruciating post-remap remap debate in the 1970s.

The plan is back, and, according to Roll Call (subscription only), some big muckety mucks in DC are pushing Governor Rod Blagojevich to draw a new map.

Faced with the prospect of Republicans redrawing Congressional lines in a third state since the initial 2001 round of redistricting ended, a faction of national Democrats is urging an aggressive strategy aimed at striking back at Republican House Members in states like New Mexico and Illinois. […]

Democratic Govs. Rod Blagojevich (Ill.) and Bill Richardson (N.M.) as well as high-ranking Louisiana elected officials have been contacted by members of House leadership led by Hoyer since the Georgia legislature began their re-redistricting.

MYDD has more analysis of what this could mean for Illinois:

Democrats believe that a re-opening of the Illinois lines could yield at least two seats; one could be carved out of the suburbs surrounding Chicago, which are currently represented entirely by Republicans including House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Another gain could come in southern Illinois in areas Phelps represented prior to the redistricting of 2001.

This may become a hot topic on the Internets yet again, but I called Madigan’s spokesman last night and he said the Speaker is still opposed to drawing a new map.

The original 2001 congressional map was drawn after extensive negotiations by the incumbents in both parties. Phelps was the odd man out partly because he wasn’t well-liked, and mostly because nobody wanted to do anything to unduly upset US House Speaker Denny Hastert.

The reasoning goes that there are far more benefits for Illinois with a cooperative Hastert than the Dems could ever get from a couple of extra seats in the US House (with the accompanying vengence by Hastert’s people).

Unless Madigan changes his mind, this idea is still dead.

(Major hat tip to John Deeth for the links.)

13 Comments

“Ten Things I Believe Bloggers Do Wrong”

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Raw360 has some very good advice for all of us who are doing this blog thingy.

1. Only link to what we’ve already read and only say what we’ve already heard. Most bloggers will go through this stage at some point, but ask yourself why they should be reading you instead of InstaPundit if you’re taking all your links from IP and why they should be reading you instead of RightWingNews or Daily Kos when your point of view is virtually identical.

The rest of it is very good and I found myself cringing a couple of times. If you blog, or even if you read a lot of blogs, try to take a minute to look at the entire post.

3 Comments

Buggy

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ve noticed that Firefox is getting a little bit buggy lately. It’s crashing and freezing up more than it did before. Not sure if it’s Firefox or me. Anyone else having problems?

8 Comments

The great white hunter

Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Multi-millionaire Ron Gidwitz wakes up really early, hangs out with regular fellas, dons a goofy hat, borrows a shotgun that doesn’t work and blogs about it on his campaign website:

For whatever reason be it rain, elevated temperatures, too much wind or just plain bad luck, only two geese had the temerity to come within range. On that occasion, I had a regrettable equipment malfunction with my borrowed shotgun. Clark missed but Mike saved the day, bringing both geese down.

The “temerity”? I guess he didn’t pick up on any of the local lingo.

At least that photo is better than the “action shot” of him standing in his hotel room talking to a WGN radio personality Spike O’Dell… on the phone.

8 Comments

Breathtaking

Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Look ‘em in the eye and don’t tell the truth. Good plan.

A day after Gov. Rod Blagojevich told the Daily Southtown that the Tinley Park Mental Health Center would be “fully funded” for the next year, his Department of Human Services announced that one-fifth of the center’s staff will be laid off in May.

The department on Friday notified a public employees union that it intends to lay off 46 workers and an additional unspecified number of managers. The governor’s budget request calls for $20.4 million to operate the mental health center in 2005-06, down from $24 million in the current fiscal year.

Words fail me.

UPDATE: From a friend’s instant message:

See..he “told”..he didn’t sign a pledge or anything..so he’s not really breaking his word

I guess he understands the governor better than me.

1 Comment

The other side of the debate

Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From today’s New York Times:

But for all the worry over higher medical expenses, legal costs do not seem to be at the root of the recent increase in malpractice insurance premiums. Government and industry data show only a modest rise in malpractice claims over the last decade. And last year, the trend in payments for malpractice claims against doctors and other medical professionals turned sharply downward, falling 8.9 percent, to a nationwide total of $4.6 billion, according to data compiled by the Health and Human Services Department. […]

Lawsuits against doctors are just one of several factors that have driven up the cost of malpractice insurance, specialists say. Lately, the more important factors appear to be the declining investment earnings of insurance companies and the changing nature of competition in the industry. […]

Data compiled by both the federal government and by insurance organizations show costs for the insurance companies climbing steadily over the last decade at an average annual rate of about 3 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Over most of that period, premiums for doctors rose modestly and sometimes even dropped as the insurance companies battled for market share in a scramble to collect more money to invest in strong bond and stock markets. But when the markets turned sour and the reserves of insurers shriveled, companies began to double and triple the costs for doctors. […]

And some researchers are skeptical that caps ultimately reduce costs for doctors. Mr. Weiss of Weiss Ratings and researchers at Dartmouth College, who separately studied data on premiums and payouts for medical mistakes in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, said they were unable to find a meaningful link between claims payments by insurers and the prices they charged doctors.

“We didn’t see it,” said Amitabh Chandra, an assistant professor of economics at Dartmouth. “Surprisingly, there appears to be a fairly weak relationship.”

Go read the whole thing.

13 Comments

Condolences

Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’d like to extend my sincere condolences to Sen. George Shadid on the recent death of his son, George Shadid, Jr.

The younger Shadid died after a long bout with brain cancer.

From WEEK TV:

Funeral services include a visitation on Wednesday, February 23, from Noon to 3:00 p.m. and 6:30-9:00 p.m. at St. Thomas Church in Peoria Heights.

His funeral will be Thursday, February 24, at 1:00 p.m. with visitation at 12:30 p.m.

Memorials can be made to St. Thomas Church, Guardian Angel Home (C/O Catholic Charities) or the George P. Shadid, Jr. Endowed Scholarship at BradleyUniversity.

Comments Off

Sgt. Jessica Housby mourned, buried

Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Illinois House also held a moving memorial service for Sgt. Housby last week.

On a knoll overlooking the Rock River Valley, Sgt. Jessica M. Housby was laid to rest Saturday at a service attended by friends, family, fellow comrades-in-arms and top military and government officials from the State of Illinois.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn told the assembly of civilians and solemn ranks of soldiers that the 23-year-old Rock Island soldier, the first Quad-City woman killed in the Iraq War, exemplified the best tradition of service to her nation.

â€œJessica is a true hero. She is among those who are proving that by serving in a dangerous place,â€ he said.

More than 250 mourners attended the 20-minute service at Rock Island Memorial Park Cemetery, where the Rev. Msgr, Dale Wellman of Sacred Heart Church, Moline, delivered the rite of committal. An honor guard snapped to attention, riflemen fired salutes and a bugler sounded â€œTaps.â€ […]

Quinn… noted that 86 members of the armed forces from Illinois, including 11 members of the Illinois National Guard, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the war began two years ago.

Let’s try to keep any comments respectful and not turn it into a war debate. There are times and many other places for that.

4 Comments

Not a great batting average

Monday, Feb 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

“Good to see George Will has his pulse on IL politics again,” a friend cracked wise a moment ago.

He was referring, of course, to the glowing bit of fluff that the national columnist penned about Governor Rod Blagojevich this week.

My friend reminded me that Will also wrote an over-the-top piece about the ultimately disgraced US Senate candidate Jack Ryan in November of 2003. The following sentence fragment pretty much sums up the entire column:

But he is, above all, a moralist…

Heh.

6 Comments

Factoid of the day

Monday, Feb 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From the Daily Herald.

Tuition (at Illinois’ universities) has risen 40 percent since 2002 as the state’s support of higher education dropped 13 percent.

Wow.

30 Comments

The “New Way” that isn’t

Monday, Feb 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

From Crain’s:

A generous donor to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign fund has won a no-bid state contract to investigate insurance brokers in Illinois.

Chicago attorney Myron “Mike” Cherry, who individually and through his law firm gave $50,000 over the last three years to the Blagojevich campaign, is questioning large Illinois brokers and reviewing their documents, subpoenaed late last year by the Illinois Division of Insurance.

Read the whole story, but it looks to me like the Dept. of Insurance is not only using an investigator of questionable qualifications, but is investigating something that ought to be handled by the Illinois Attorney General. Wonder why?

8 Comments

HST checks out

Monday, Feb 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

May he rest in peace.

Legendary US author Hunter S. Thompson, a sharp-witted icon of the 1960s counter-culture, has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The 67-year-old writer and journalist, best-known for his 1971 book “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” apparently shot himself at his home in Woody Creek, in the western US state of Colorado.

***

California, Labor Day weekend… early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur.

The Menace is loose again, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe, missing by inches… like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know… Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on.

10 Comments

Sunday night Robert Earl Keen blogging

Sunday, Feb 20, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A friend suggested at a party Saturday night that I move away from Dylan blogging for a while and talk a little about Robert Earl Keen. I thought it was a good idea.

REK is a Texas hero. His music isn’t the new Texas of shopping malls, Top 40 girl singers and extreme patriotism, nor is it about the old Texas of cowboys and horses.

Keen’s music chronicles the lives of working class people. Their ups and, mostly, downs. He writes epic stories about not-so-epic people who find themselves in difficult situations. The fact that none of his songs have ever been made into a movie is a major surprise to me.

His best known song is “The Road Goes on Forever,” about Sonny and Sherry, two casual acquaintances who have both reached dead ends, take a chance on each other and end up changing their lives… forever.

Sherry was a waitress at the only joint in town
She had a reputation as a girl who’d been around
Down Main Street after midnight with a brand new pack of cigs
A fresh one hangin’ from her lips and a beer between her legs
She’d ride down to the river and meet with all her friends
The road goes on forever and the party never ends

You can listen to some of REK’s songs here for free.

Keen got his start in Austin, playing local dives and frat parties. He’s not exactly the frat boy type, but, for whatever reason, they still flock to his shows. Keen eventually made a disastrous move to Nashville, after Steve Earle told him that he needed to suffer for his music. Suffer he did, finally retreating back to Texas where he managed to regroup and then began having fun again.

Keen’s upcoming spring tour doesn’t include a stop in Chicago, where he always packs ‘em in. But if he gets close again, I’ll make sure to let you know.

If I could live my life all over
It wouldn’t matter anyway
‘Cuz I never could stay sober
On the Corpus Christi Bay

2 Comments

Outsiders apparently call just one guy

Sunday, Feb 20, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

First, George Will writes a feel-good column about Rod Blagojevich’s political future without once mentioning the burgeoning scandal over the guv’s nauseating eagerness to raise big money from state contractors, commission members and agency honchos.

He voted for Reagan twice, this son of a Serbian immigrant steelworker was the archetypal Reagan Democrat â€” and still picks his own political paths: He is at daggers drawn with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who wants casino gambling that the governor opposes. â€œIt’s just too easy, all this found money,'’ Blagojevich says. When Daley asked him, â€œDon’t you want the money?'’ Blagojevich replied, â€œFrankly, no.'’

Then, the San Francisco Chronicle includes Blagojevich in a puff piece about future Democratic presidential contenders, using an issue that’s a no-brainer in Illinois:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (pronounced bla-GOYA-vich). Son of a World War II prisoner of war, this former Golden Gloves boxer who grew up on Chicago’s West Side has a compelling up-by-the-bootstraps life story, a Midwestern constituency and an attractive young family. And among the grass roots, he’s viewed positively for extending the moratorium on death row executions established by his Republican predecessor, Gov. George Ryan, in 2000.

Giangreco certainly earned his pay last week.

19 Comments

« NEWER POSTS