Here it is again
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Chicago Public Schools are in a cash crunch. Hundreds of teaching jobs could be cut, meaning class sizes would rise. Some special programs are also in jeopardy. Public school officials put next year’s budget deficit at $175 million. Consequently, some Chicago Public Schools teachers are cutting class Wednesday and heading for Springfield to ask legislators for more money. […]
Illinois ranks 49th out of 50 states when it comes to funding education. Teachers are organizing a huge lobbying campaign to convince state lawmakers that more money is needed now. If not, Chicago Public Schools says huge cuts at all schools are necessary.
Go here for an explanation of the title of this post. (Emphasis mine.)
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Laski
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
This is pretty old news, but the Tribune finally got around to it, so here it is:
James Laski, Chicago’s city clerk for the last decade, said Monday he is “leaning very strongly” toward running for state treasurer if Judy Baar Topinka decides to vacate the office to run for governor.
“Everything is based on what [Topinka] does,” Laski said. “She is the incumbent and I personally like the woman.” Although Topinka is a Republican and he is a Democrat, “I have a good relationship with her and I think she does a good job,” Laski said. […]
Laski recently terminated his Laski for City Clerk political fund, transferring the money it contained to a new James J. Laski Jr. Campaign Committee. He has about $400,000 on hand.
Laski, 51, acknowledged that he is not well known Downstate.
“That’s the point of getting into it early,” he said.
What do you think of his chances?
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Just for fun
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Here’s Dick Mell’s full statement about the governor’s plan to forbid his relatives from owning landfills (via the Sun-Times):
Once again, Gov. Blagojevich is using the power of his office to have state legislators introduce a bill aimed at the mistaken notion that I have a financial interest in a business owned and operated by a relative of my wife, Margaret.
According to sources in Springfield, a bill on a specific industry will be sent to the state Legislature which, if enacted, will unfairly target owners of the landfill industry. I have been told that the Illinois EPA scoffed when they saw the first draft, saying it was too riddled with problems to even be considered.
Although I am not a lawyer like the governor, it seems to me such laws are unconstitutional or border on such. Perhaps this maneuver is meant to deflect attention away from the real issues concerning citizens of the State of Illinois: overcrowded classrooms and inadequate resources that threaten to doom another generation of our young people.
The crisis at the Chicago Transit Authority demands action, yet the governor is noncommittal about assistance from the state. The alternatives are grim. Drastic service cuts or massive fare increases face a ridership dependent on buses and trains to get to school, shopping areas and, most importantly, work.
Somehow, the governor does not see the urgency in these matters, yet is so consumed with a single issue that he is laser-focused on our own family tragedy instead of serving the interests of the 12 million others he is supposed to represent. If this were a melodrama, the situation would be comical. But there is no laughter.
I truly sought to have this matter melt from public view. However, the governor’s pollsters have obviously convinced him that there is still mileage in this diatribe. Many years ago, I accepted the fact that all publicity — good or bad — went with the territory of being an elected public official. But I never imagined this.
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Interesting
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Are the VOIP people getting a bad rap?
The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is proposing legislation to get Internet-based phone providers to give customers the same kind of access to 911 operators as those who use regular telephone lines. […]
In the back of everyone’s mind is the incident this past February 3 rd in Houston, where 17-year-old Joyce John called 911 using Internet phone provider Vonage to report that her parents had been shot by home intruders. She got a recording telling her that access to 911 service was unavailable. Help took more than 10 minutes to arrive. Both parents survived.
It was later established that the Johns had multiple opportunities and reminders from Vonage to activate Vonage’s 9-1-1 service but had not done so. In a blatantly emotional vote-troll, the Texas attorney general sued Vonage after the incident, probably since you don’t win many votes suing registered voters who haven’t followed Vonage’s directions on how to activate their 9-1-1.
The FCC warns on its Web site that it “may be difficult” for Internet phone customers to “seamlessly connect” with 911 dispatch centers. According to Blagojevich’s office, that’s because traditional phone companies have not given Internet phone providers access to more than 3,200 emergency call centers nationwide.
Blagojevich spokesman Gerardo Cardenas said the governor said the companies need to figure out how to solve that problem. “We’re not getting into that debate,” he said. “What matters here is when you need police or an ambulance, it has to get there immediately.”
CNet’s report says in a sign that regulators take the problem seriously, the Federal Communications Commission has quietly met with the Bell operating companies to learn why they’ve yet to grant Net phone providers unfettered access to their 911 telephone infrastructure, and by doing so let them offer a competitive 911 service. […]
Sources told CNet that U.S. lawmakers are now being asked to draft rules requiring the Bells open their 911 infrastructure to Net phone providers.
One Man takes a different angle on the same subject. Both are worth reading. (Emphasis added above.)
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Ray LaWolf
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Destined to be an Internet favorite.
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Breaking news
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
A proposal to increase high school graduation requirements was passed by an Illinois Senate committee today.
The bill would require students to take additional math, science, English and writing courses before graduating.
Senator Miguel del Valle (me-GELL’ del VAH’-yay) says many schools meet the standards already, but it is still important to strengthen them.
The bill is part of the education plan Governor Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY’-uh-vich) announced last month. Blagojevich wants to raise standards and pay for it by letting riverboat casinos expand.
The measure approved by the Education Committee does not say how the state would pay for the new standards. It now goes to the Senate floor.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Considering what happened in the ‘04 Senate primary, does Comptroller Dan Hynes get a serious general election opponent next year? If not, why not, and if so, who do you think that might be?
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Sitting pretty
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Yet another battle heats up, and this one puts the governor right where he wants to be.
Both sides are preparing for what may turn into a legal battle over Gov. Blagojevich’s order that pharmacists dispense contraceptives, even those that some pharmacists say kill embryos.
The Illinois Pharmacists Association asked Blagojevich to rescind his order. State Rep. Ron Stephens, a Downstate pharmacist, said, “I will not abide by it.” The conservative Family PAC is urging pharmacists to ignore the order. And Catholic Bishop Thomas Paprocki implored Blagojevich from the pulpit to rescind the order.
The governor is standing firm.
On Monday, he warned Family PAC Director Paul Caprio the state would impose “significant penalties” on any pharmacy that ignores the order.
He’ll play this one to the hilt. He’s inflamed, if not actually started, his own little culture war right here in Illinois. And, on this one, the public is most likely solidly behind the Democrat.
I gotta admit that I’m gaining more respect for his abilities every day. I don’t agree with the way he’s always looking to push a moral hot button (as he defines it), but that certainly makes him a different sort of Democrat.
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Can’t we all just get along?
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Oh, wow, the governor really stuck it to the old man this time.
The bad blood is reaching a rolling boil again between Ald. Richard Mell and his son-in-law, the governor.
After staying quiet for two months about his strained ties to Gov. Blagojevich, Mell is furious at the governor’s new legislative assault on the landfill industry — a maneuver the 33rd Ward alderman said is “laser-focused on our own family tragedy.”
Legislation filed in the Senate Monday by Blagojevich’s forces includes a provision that would bar — among others — relatives of the governor, including his father-in-law, from having any financial stake in landfills or receiving any “personal financial benefit” from waste-disposal operators.
I particularly enjoyed this line:
“This has nothing to do with the alderman,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. “He’s said that he has no involvement or no interest in any landfills, so he won’t even be impacted.”
She got him there.
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Department of redundancy department
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Here is the text of the bill to exempt religious institutions from a law that they are already exempted from.
And, as promised in today’s Capitol Fax, Here is the article from the Alliance Defense Fund’s website that knocks down the argument that churches were ever covered by the employment provisions of the gay rights law.
Churches are still exempt from the Illinois Human Rights Act even after Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed into law a Senate bill Friday that added “sexual orientation†as a protected class, according to attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund.
“Contrary to comments made by the bill’s sponsor, no changes were made to the law that would make it applicable to churches,†explained ADF attorney Joel Oster, referring to comments recently made by Illinois Sen. Carol Ronen. According to numerous media reports, Ronen addressed the subject of the law’s applicability to the Catholic Church by saying, “If that is their goal, to discriminate against gay people, this law wouldn’t allow them to do thatâ€
Oster disputes Ronen’s claim. “Despite the ‘wishes’ of the bill’s sponsor, the bill is inapplicable to churches in the employment context,†he stated Monday after analyzing the issue. […]
ADF is America’s largest legal alliance defending religious liberty through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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MIA
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Whatever happened to these guys?
I thought it was an entertaining blog.
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Quote of the week
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
“Ronald Reagan said the Soviet Union was the focus of evil during the cold war. I believe that the judiciary is the focus of evil in our society today.”
- Alan Keyes, speaking at the recent “Confronting the Judicial War on Faith” conference.
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Attention, all posse members
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Check that last e-mail I sent you.
You have to log on with my username and password. Both are included in my last e-mail.
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Gay rights diluted?
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
The House just passed an amendment that would, opponents say, greatly reduce the protections for gays and lesbians in Illinois that were won earlier this year. More in the Capitol Fax tomorrow.
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COMMENTS RESTORED!
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Good news! I’ve deputized a handful fistful of posse members and am now able to restore the comment function.
The posse is under orders to shoot to kill, so to speak. They are to err on the side of godlike retribution. When in doubt, they’ll delete. So let’s try to be relatively civil to each other here.
Comment away
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“49th in the nation”
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
The art of using statistics.
It may be lonely at the top, but when it comes to education funding, Arizona has plenty of company at the bottom. Or so they say. At last count, more than half a dozen states claimed to be 49th in education funding:
“The political reality is that (Florida) lawmakers are cheap and entirely too satisfied with education spending that ranks 49th of the 50 states.” St. Petersburg Times editorial, Oct. 15, 2004.
·”Illinois ranks 49th in the nation in the proportion of state school funding it provides, caucus officials said.” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 13, 2004.
“Tennessee . . . ranks 49th out of 50 states in per-pupil spending.” Amy Ritchart, the Leaf Chronicle, Oct. 17, 2004.
Add to that list, Idaho, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Utah and, of course, Arizona.
Who’s right depends partly on what you include in education funding. For example, Census Bureau rankings include certain capital outlays. The National Education Association’s “Rankings and Estimates” and Education Week’s “Quality Counts” exclude such funding.
Arizona’s ranking also changes considerably depending on how you define education funding. For instance, the Census Bureau ranks Arizona anywhere from 18th to 51st on 20 funding measures. Such variety makes it possible to pick and choose a state’s ranking and then put it under an ominous “education funding” headline.
The complexity of state public-school finance systems makes it hard to know what’s being spent and easy for people to believe their state is 49th. A 2004 Educational Testing Service poll found that nearly one in two Americans thinks per-student funding averages less than $5,000. However, U.S. Department of Education figures put average state spending closer to $9,000.
Read the whole thing. Pretty good stuff.
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You gotta be kidding me
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
I find this difficult to believe. Nobody’s ever done any poll-watching in Aurora?
Chicago-style election tactics make Aurora debut
Poll watchers: People bused in from as far away as Windy City
By Ed Fanselow
STAFF WRITER
AURORA — Voters here got a taste of big-league politics Tuesday, courtesy of Democratic and Republican poll watchers bused in from as far away as Chicago to get out the vote for their parties’ respective mayoral candidates.
Although recruited partisan poll watchers have been used for decades in places like Chicago and Cicero, Tuesday marked the first time such tactics have made their way west to Aurora, local political observers said.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen this,” said Charles Bolwin, a longtime Republican precinct committeeman on Aurora’s far East Side and a former DuPage County election judge. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”
Is Aurora really that backwater? Poll-watchers have been used for decades, and not just in Chicago or (shiver) Cicero. DuPage County uses them, Sangamon County uses them. The list of places that have never used poll-watchers would be much, much shorter.
I would also assume that both the Democrats and the Republicans used poll-watchers in the highly targeted 2002 House race that was based in Aurora. If they didn’t, they were fools.
I can understand how locals might be wary of imported workers, but that happens so much in legislative races - going back at least 20 years - that I don’t see it as an issue any longer.
And if this is, indeed, the first time that poll-watchers have been used in Aurora, all I can say is, “Welcome to the 19th Century.”
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Falling on deaf ears
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Cross Blog comes down hard against an appeal of a recent court ruling:
Listen….I’m totally a ‘Root, Root, Root for the Hometeam kinda guy’, but if our party is to rebuild we need to get past stuff like this.
In the waning days of his administration, Ryan took care of 60 friends and allies, giving them state jobs and changing the rules so they would have only 60 days’ probation instead of four to six months as the previous rules stated. The hirings came 61 days before Ryan turned the office over to Blagojevich.
I know that he did nothing new and he was just ‘taking care of his friends’, but we need to be the party of ethics.
Let’s not let Blagorgeous raise the ’spector of George Ryan’ any longer. We need to move on. Don’t think for a minute that this won’t be in Rod’s poltical ‘pocket’….
“When George Ryan stuffed the Government with his cronies, I swept them clean!”
I can hear it now.
It’s time to Move the Party Forward.
But it doesn’t look like they’ll get their wish. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, John Kerley, told the Tribune that he would appeal.
Kerley said that he would appeal Friday’s decision to the Illinois Supreme Court and that he expects his clients to hold their jobs while the court considers the appeal.
By the time a final decision on the case is made, Kerley pointed out, the employees may have less than a year left in their four-year terms.
Almost without a doubt, this case is gonna get dragged into the campaign season.
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(The following is a paid advertisement.)
Strong protections for military personnel has earned the support of the Navy-Marine Corp Relief Society Great Lakes for the Monsignor Egan Payday Loan Reform Act (HB 1100).
According to a study by the National Consumer Law Center, military personnel are attractive prey to unscrupulous lenders. HB 1100 incorporates “best practices” of the Community Financial Services Association which include: banning garnishment of military pay, deferring collection action for military personnel deployed to combat zones, prohibiting the contacting of commanding officers to collect debts, and a requirement to honor any repayment plan negotiated with the consumer or through military counselors or other third party credit counselors.
In addition to these current CFSA best practices, HB 1100 prohibits any payday loan facility from locating within one mile of any State of Illinois or United States military base or installation.
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Another spam-related death
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Rep. Chapin Rose is flooded with spam. From an e-mail last week:
Dear Friend,
I am very sorry, but do to the inordinate amount of spam related materials hitting my inbox, I am no longer able to publish my email address. In its place, constituents of the 110th district may go to http://www.chapinrose.com/contact and complete an online constituent service form. Upon submission, this form will be immediately reviewed by my staff. Please note that in order for the form to work properly you must accurately submit your zip code indicating residency within one of the five counties served by the 110th legislative district. […]
Thanks again and please visit www.chapinrose.com.
Sincerely,
Chapin Rose
State Representative
I received this e-mail because he’s on my e-mail subscription list. I hope he gives me his new address soon.
And, Chapin, it’s “due,” not “do.”
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Poll results
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
As promised in today’s Capitol Fax, here is most of the poll that was released last week by SEIU and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
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Question of the day
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
What do you think of this?
Voters would be able to cast ballots up to three weeks before Election Day under a measure, designed to boost turnout and make voting more convenient, that passed the Illinois Senate with no opposition Friday.
Pre-Election Day absentee balloting has long been allowed in Illinois, but the measure goes well beyond that. It would authorize in-person early voting to begin the third Saturday before general or primary elections, and extend through the Thursday before Election Day.
The measure, approved on a 57-0 vote, now goes to the House.
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Drug dealers battling judge?
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Is a judge under legal attack because of efforts by drug dealers? Sen. Chris Lauzen thinks so.
A state panel is “siding with criminals” in its complaint against Kane County Judge James Doyle, according to state Sen. Chris Lauzen, who has launched a petition drive demanding to know how much money is being spent prosecuting the case.
The 20-count complaint was filed in February by the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board accusing Doyle of violating defendants’ constitutional rights and intimidating others involved with the county’s drug court program. […]
The complaint accuses Doyle, formerly presiding judge of the Kane County Drug Rehabilitation Court, of violating defendants’ rights and other actions that were “prejudicial to the administration of justice and conduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute.” His attorneys filed a response to the state panel’s complaint this week, denying the allegations. […]
A letter Lauzen has sent to local newspapers urges people to sign a petition to reprimand the JIB. His letter states the JIB is “spending tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars of your taxpayer money to side with convicted drug criminals and just five of their attorneys in trying to destroy Doyle and his work.” […]
“The question is, it is possible that some drug criminals would be willing to lie in Kane County about a judge’s conduct,” he said.
Anyone know anything else about this?
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Rockford analysis
Monday, Apr 11, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller
Chuck Sweeny has a very good analysis of the Rockford mayoral race.
By 2001, the local economy was tanking and the anti-Democrat vote mushroomed to 61 percent. That year, Democrat Doug Scott was elected mayor with just 37 percent of the vote. Independent Morrissey got 26 percent; Republican Dennis Johnson got 35 percent.
Scott didn’t understand this trend toward removing the ruling Democratic machine that had been in place in one form or another since 1973, when school principal and 1st Ward Ald. Bob McGaw became the first Democratic mayor in modern times.
Scott never tried to win over enough Morrissey or Johnson voters to earn re-election. Scott insisted that managing basic city services well during a recession and the July 5, 2003, windstorm was a darned good job.
People didn’t think good management was good enough in 2001; they didn’t think so last week, windstorm or not. But the Illinois Re-publican Party, stung by its collapse in 2004, was in no position to help Rockford GOP’ers bankroll a mayoral candidate, and the local party is in nearly as bad shape. The party couldn’t field a candidate until the last minute.
So, this year’s race amounted to a rematch between Scott and Morrissey, but this time with a weak Republican nominee who lacked her own party’s support — Gloria Cardenas Cudia managed just 4 percent of the vote. […]
Morrissey’s message
Morrissey added GOP voters to his liberal, yuppie base by promising progressive conservative change. Isn’t that an oxymoron? Not really.
Morrissey offered progressive activism on jobs, neighborhood revitalization, downtown development and education. He promised to crusade for better housing and safer streets for the city’s poor.
But he also declared a conservative, pro-business doctrine to grow the tax base and was solidly against casino gambling. That was a smart position to take. A Chicago newspaper poll last year found that two-thirds of Illinoisans oppose more gambling.
Morrissey’s Roman Catholicism also was front-and-center: schooled at Holy Family, Boylan High, Notre Dame. Sicilian mom, Irish dad. That appealed to social conservatives.
Read the whole thing.
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