Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2005

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A decidedly mixed bag, to say the least. Just announced via press release.

# Friday, August 12th The Illinois State Fair kicks off with 2005 County Music Association Award winners Rascal Flatts taking the stage. […]

# Saturday, August 13th: Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform over thirty years of hits. […]

# Sunday, August 14th: Classic Rock group REO Speedwagon returns to the grandstand.[…]

# Wednesday, August 17th: The Illinois State Fair presents Velvet Revolver: Scott Weiland (lead vocals), Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), Matt Sorum (drums), and Dave Kushner (guitar) - - are touring arenas in connection with their platinum-plus debut Contraband album. [..]

# Friday, August 19th: Award winning country music artist Brad Paisley will perform on the Grandstand stage. […]

# Saturday, August 20th: Simple Plan will take the stage. […] Jesse McCartney will open the show. […]

# Sunday, August 21nd: The grandstand entertainment concludes with a free concert by the Illinois Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m.

Update: I put this in comments, but it’s worth repeating here:

[The comments on this post] prove what my good friend Keith always says.

“Rich,” he says, “Music is like food. We all have our own tastes.”

I should have known better than to make that wisecrack in the post. Everyone is entitled to their own tastes and opinions. I just wish there was something on the buffet table for me besides Velvet Revolver (and the symphony).

18 Comments

Weird

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I hadn’t heard this one before. (Via The So-Called Austin Mayor)

They’ve got a house in rural Texas and a nice home-office setup on Pennsylvania Avenue. But for tax purposes, President Bush and his wife, Laura, claim a Chicago post office box as their “home address.”

On the 1040 they signed, which the White House released last week, the listed home address is “Northern Trust Co., P.O. Box 803968, Chicago, IL 60680.”

White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said Tuesday that’s because Northern Trust handles the blind trust the couple uses for their holdings since Bush took office.

So, does this mean that the president is supposed to pay Illinois state taxes?

5 Comments

Question of the day

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Who is Peter O’Malley?

Archpundit asked the same question of his readers after spotting some comments posted over here about O’Malley’s likely primary bid against Christine Cegelis.

Cegelis, of course, is the Democrat who lost to Henry Hyde last time around and is planning another run. I don’t know much about O’Malley, but he comes highly recommended by a good friend of mine.

Also, does he have a chance in the primary?

8 Comments

New blog

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Tim Johnson Watch. Doesn’t appear to be a very flattering look at the incumbent congressman.

(Hat tip to Illini Pundit.)

4 Comments

Get it out yourself, Part II

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

It looks like the Tribune agrees with my assessment yesterday that the governor’s office was trying to get out in front of a negative story by telling a reporter that it was conducting an internal investigation.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s showcase efficiency initiative aimed at saving the state tens of millions of dollars may become a major embarrassment with the anticipated release of what sources said Wednesday will be a scathing independent audit that raises questions about waste and mismanagement.

Blagojevich’s administration has already announced an internal investigation into suspect spending conducted under a $28.4 million contract awarded to a consortium of politically connected firms to recommend ways to consolidate state property and sell off excess real estate. […]

Blagojevich’s aides have declined to explain what prompted their investigation. However, sources familiar with the audit said the administration’s allegations of wasteful spending by a firm hired to save the state money were lifted from Holland’s work.

Some lawmakers questioned whether the Blagojevich investigation was little more than an attempt to blunt the anticipated embarrassment of the long awaited and more comprehensive state audit of Central Management Services operations.

17 Comments

Education stuff

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Daily Illini’s editorial board doesn’t think much of the governor’s plan to toughen high school graduation requirements.

If anything, this bill is three decades late. Thirty years ago, the cost of higher education was not as prohibitive as it is now. Thirty years ago, these requirements would have been enough to just graduate high school, not go to college and yet still earn a substantial salary.

All this bill does now is make Blagojevich look good without accomplishing the goal of getting more students into college. A huge amount of money gets pumped into the secondary education system and yet does not achieve what is needed - giving kids the money to go to college. Many careers today require not just a bachelor’s degree, but a professional degree, as well. Repeated studies have shown that a high school graduate will earn substantially less than those with a college degree.

Archpundit has more, but focuses on the funding split.

9 Comments

As promised

Thursday, Apr 21, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Here’s the link to DJWriter’s story about a near run-in between his dog and the governor’s security detail that I wrote about in today’s Capitol Fax.

(Hat tip to Eric Zorn.)

UPDATE: A tip in the comment section led me to this fun little guv sighting:

So Iâ€™m running by the Governorâ€™s house this morning, and a secret service guy, who was not very secretive with his jacket off, displaying his â€œpieceâ€ strapped to his belt, but was in service, tried to figure out how to collapse the Governorâ€™s golf bag cart in order to place it in the official golf bag cart transporter — in the form of a black Ford sedan.

Heh.

7 Comments

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