Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2006

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

From a press release.

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today appointed longtime consumer advocate Martin R. Cohen as his first Director of Consumer Affairs, responsible for advising the Governor and coordinating state agenciesâ€™ actions on consumer matters ranging from privacy protection and identity theft, to energy policy. […]

Mr. Cohen will provide the Governor with timely advice regarding initiatives and laws that can help protect the stateâ€™s consumers, and will help coordinate State agenciesâ€™ policies regarding issues of consumer fraud, identity theft, privacy protection, and energy and telecommunications policy.

Cohen, you will recall, was appointed to chair the ICC, but the state Senate rejected the nomination after the electric utility industry and the Chicago Tribune editorial board turned thumbs down.

27 Comments

State cops not following law

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

If you call 217.782.7980 you’ll get this message (as of early this morning):

You’ve reached the Illinois State Police Firearm Services Bureau. FOID cards are being processed within 8 weeks of receipt. If you have not allowed the 8-week processing time, please call back after 8 weeks.

The trouble is, the state is mandated by law to process FOID cards within 30 days.

(430 ILCS 65/5) (from Ch. 38, par. 83â€‘5)
Sec. 5. The Department of State Police shall either approve or deny all applications within 30 days from the date they are received, and every applicant found qualified pursuant to Section 8 of this Act by the Department shall be entitled to a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card upon the payment of a $5 fee.

As I’ve already told you, the State Police is under fire for laying off workers who processed the cards.

The delay is crucial because if you are caught possessing or transporting a weapon in Illinois without a valid FOID card, you can be hit with a felony.

The Rifle Association is considering filing a lawsuit over the delays and has asked members who have had a problem to come forward. Stay tuned.

21 Comments

Question of the day

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times and others report today that the governor wants to install a Keno network in Illinois.

To fund part of his $3 billion borrowing plan, Gov. Blagojevich offered Tuesday to open up bars and restaurants throughout the state to Las Vegas-style keno gambling.

The controversial idea, which the governor once opposed, would raise as much as $80 million annually and support $500 million in borrowing for school construction projects. About $100 million of that total would go toward Chicago’s public schools.

Keno is a cross between bingo and a conventional lottery game where gamblers pin their hopes on matching a randomly selected set of numbers that are typically chosen every 10 or 15 minutes, though specific details of Blagojevich’s plan remain unclear.

His administration said the state lottery has the authority to launch keno without new legislative approval and that it would really be no different than the new breast cancer research lottery game started this week, except that schools would be the winners.

No different than the lottery? Not quite. Check out Missouri’s Keno page to see what the program is really like.

Club Keno is a daily Numbers Game that provides drawings every five minutes and gives players a chance to win up to $100,000 per $1 ticket. The game is offered in approximately 725 age-controlled environments throughout Missouri. The drawings are shown on television monitors (video only; no audio) at the retail location.

Lottery is a solitary game. Keno is a group experience. Big, big difference.

Anyway, the question is, what do you think of this idea? Should the General Assembly intervene and block the governor from installing the Keno network?

44 Comments

Church and state

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

There’s been a lot of huffing and puffing in the comments here and elsewhere about the governor’s pledge of $1 million in state money to help rebuild the fire-destroyed school and administration building of Pilgrim Baptist Church.

I dealt with the big picture in today’s Capitol Fax, but most of the people who are complaining about separation of church and state don’t know much about the way the state operates.

The Tribune fills us in.

Pilgrim Baptist itself–along with a school that was renting space from the church–has received more than $2 million in state funds since 2001 for providing child care and teen outreach programs, according to the state comptroller’s office.

And all sorts of places of worship, which often serve as community centers in neighborhoods and towns around the state, have been the beneficiaries of state funds for decades.

In the last few years, Concordia Lutheran Church on Chicago’s North Side received a $2 million state grant for the construction of a campus in Avondale for infant, after-school and teen programs, while Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary received a $50,000 grant to expand the parish’s social center.

Blagojevich pointed out that the state recently gave $2 million to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago to deal with “homeland security issues.”

Not to mention the billions of dollars in Medicaid money that is given annually to Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and the Jewish Federation for their hospitals, clinics and social service programs.

16 Comments

More money doled out on trip

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Rod Blagojevich’s expensive fly-around continues.

~~Today~~ Tomorrow, the governor will travel to Decatur to ostensibly promote his $3 billion borrowing plan for construction. This was leaked late last week.

Richland Community College will receive a $2.18 million state grant to construct a $3 million occupational training center, money that has been frozen for three years by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The mayor of Taylorville will also be present at today’s Decatur event.

A planned $1.1-billion site where coal from a mine near this central Illinois community would be converted into synthetic gas got a $5 million boost Monday, half of it coming from the state, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced.

The Democrat said in a statement that $2.5 million from the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has been devoted to help engineer and design the ERORA Group’s planned 777-megawatt Taylorville Energy Center. The other $2.5 million is to come from the public-private Illinois Clean Coal Review Board.

Meanwhile, the governor was targeted by pickets on his fly-around yesterday.

As Gov. Rod Blagojevich approached his Macomb stop Tuesday, he was met by picketing construction workers who say they are losing their jobs because of state policies and union harassment.

A handful of employees from Hillyer Inc., a Macomb contractor, set up across the street with signs painted with statements such as “Thanks Gov - No job, no $$, no votes.”

10 Comments

Laski out?

Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Sun-Times reports that Jim Laski is in mucho trouble.

City Clerk James Laski has been secretly recorded as part of the federal Hired Truck investigation, and two of his close associates are cooperating with investigators, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Laski has allegedly made incriminating statements on the secret tape recordings, according to people familiar with the matter.

Federal prosecutors played selections of the secret recordings last month in a meeting with Laski to show the strength of their case against him and persuade him to cooperate with the investigation, sources said. The outcome of the meeting could not be determined.

“He’s leaning toward working something out and resigning. Is it a done deal? No,” said one source close to Laski. “His only dilemma is trying to work out a deal to save his pension.”

Just a few months ago, it looked like Laski would be running for state treasurer. That was a quick fall.

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