Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2006

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

See you ~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday!

If you want someplace to comment, then by all means go here.

There will also be no Capitol Fax until Wednesday.

UPDATE: I’ve restored a couple of news feeds to the list (Illinoize and the Southern Illinoisan) since Thursday’s little problem, but I’ve left off the Google News feed. Not sure we needed two of the same sorts of meta news-search feeds here, and IceRocket was the far superior of the two mainly because Google has way too many duplicate items.

UPDATE 2: Comments are now open.

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This just in… Laski charged

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

From the AP:

Chicago City Clerk James Laski was charged Friday with soliciting payoffs and obstructing justice. Laski, 52, appeared in court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier and was released on $10,000 bond after agreeing to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet so that federal officials can keep track of his whereabouts.

More in a minute.

Hauser wrote that Laski began taking bribes from the owner in 1997, when the owner asked for Laski’s help in getting one of his trucks on a city contract.

“If I get this truck on, I want $500 a month,” Laski said, according the affidavit.

The arrangement took effect in 1998 and continued until 2001 when the owner asked to bring a second truck under contract, the affidavit said.

The second truck was brought on, and Laski began receiving $1,000 a month, Hauser wrote.

The payments typically were made in cash, sometimes at Laski’s home and on two occasions at the City Clerk’s satellite office on South Cicero Avenue, Hauser wrote.

The arrangement continued until 2003, when scrutiny surrounding the Hired Truck program led Laski to halt the payments, according to the affidavit.

Man, that was fast wasn’t it? From investigation to arraignment in just a few months.

Who do you think replaces him?

15 Comments

Quick links

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’ll add more as the day goes on, but GO WATCH THIS VIDEO CLIP NOW!!! Governor Blagojevich singing.

Don’t quit your day job, dude.

(Hat tip: Chicagoist)

UPDATE: Huge throwdown at the Inside Dope. I wonder if this will make it into the article that a certain newspaper is planning on Quad Cities blogging and Sen. Mike Jacobs.

UPDATE 2: Glad to see that the Chicago Reader is finally planning to revamp its immensely sucky website.

UPDATE 3: Congrats!

UPDATE 4: Don’t forget all the fun stuff at Illinoize!

UPDATE 5: Oy.

UPDATE 6: Sen. Mattie Hunter’s Democratic primary opponent has been removed from the ballot. Also, one of Rep. David Miller’s primary opponents, Thaddeus Jones, has withdrawn.

UPDATE 7: A campaign consultant to Chicago city clerk Jim Laski has been charged with pressuring a witness to lie to a grand jury.

UPDATE 8: A few days belated, but welcome back Kristen McQueary!

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Congrats, Boro!

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

My old buddy Boro Reljic is leaving the Illinois Manufacturers Association for a bigtime job with Abbott Labs. He’ll be replaced as legislative director by Mark Denzler.

While we’re at it, Bernie Schoenburg had this in his latest column.

TIM BRAMLET, longtime head of the Springfield-based Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois, began his own consulting business with the new year, and one of his new roles will be as executive director of the Illinois Beverage Association.

Bramlet, 47, whose new business is called Timothy S. Bramlet Consulting, estimated that three-fourths of his time will be spent on the business of the beverage group, which includes manufacturers of bottled water, juice, juice drinks, sports drinks, soft drinks, teas and dairy-based beverages.

Best of luck to all.

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Question of the day

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

We occasionally switch gears on Friday, so let’s do it again today.

What’s your favorite local band? It doesn’t have to be nationally known, but it has to be local. Provide info and any helpful links.

UPDATE: My favorite Springfield band (Tom Irwin Trio) is detailed in comments.

My favorite Chicago bandleader is Pinetop Perkins. Pinetop plays at Rosa’s a lot, but it’s best not to go on Saturday night because he never plays on Sunday (so he stops at midnight, but the band plays on).

If you’re lucky, you’ll see the former Muddy Waters sideman appear with Willie “Big Eye” Smith, who played drums for Waters.

And if you’re really lucky, Sugar Blue will be sitting in. Sugar Blue may be best known for playing harmonica on the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls” album. His haunting, gutteral harp playing on “Miss You” was unreal great.

I once asked Sugar Blue if the legend about him was correct.

The story goes that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards heard Sugar Blue playing on the street and immediately invited him to appear on their next record. True?

Sugar paused for a moment and said, “Did you ever see that movie ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’?”

I said I had. Many times.

“There’s a line in there at the end: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’”

40 Comments

Duckworth stuff

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Two things about today’s Lynn Sweet column.

This afternoon, in a room in the Chicago office of a law firm with a big federal practice in Washington, a “meet and greet'’ will be held for Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth. Fresh from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of Duckworth’s main sponsors, will attend the reception at Holland & Knight, as he gets increasingly involved in her race. […]

Wednesday, Duckworth won the endorsement of the Illinois AFL-CIO, which backed Cegelis two years ago. Illinois AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshere told me Thursday that calls from Durbin to union activists helped Duckworth clinch the endorsement.

I’m told that the DC people are putting Durbin out front on this because of all the backlash from Christine Cegelis’ supporters against Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who they claim is really behind the Duckworth campaign.

Duckworth’s first formal fund-raiser will take place Feb. 16 with former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.), a Vietnam vet who lost both legs and an arm in the war, as the keynoter.

Cleland was a hero to those who were upset at the way the Republicans used the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth against John Kerry last year. Many of those same people are Cegelis supporters.

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More keno revelations

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The State Journal-Register kicks off our review:

Potential cronyism regarding the Illinois Lottery contract for the governor’s keno proposal forced the administration to change course Thursday, while fending off similar concerns of another lottery agreement.

News that John Wyma, a former congressional aide to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, was acting as a lobbyist for lottery contractor GTECH Corp. apparently sparked the administration to seek competitive bids for the potential keno contract.

“The governor’s office felt it was important for due diligence,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. […]

Still more favoritism fodder arose Thursday. The Illinois Lottery’s contractor for its instant, scratch-off games - Scientific Games International - has ties to a Blagojevich fundraiser. Milan Petrovic is president of Advanced Practical Solutions, which serves as the lobbyist for Scientific Games International.

From the Sun-Times:

A $76,000 campaign donor to Gov. Blagojevich could reap a windfall if the state authorizes keno wagering in bars and restaurants by expanding the Illinois Lottery.

IGOR the Watchdog Corp. — whose Springfield lobbyist is a former Blagojevich staffer and fund-raiser — is the lone subcontractor used by GTECH Corp., a Rhode Island firm that holds the lottery’s most valuable contract covering Lotto and similar games. IGOR is responsible for installing and maintaining GTECH’s instant ticket machines.

GTECH has been pitching the idea of adding keno to the lottery’s offerings for several years and even submitted keno revenue projections to the governor’s office. Though Blagojevich plans to put the keno contract out for bid, GTECH is considered a front-runner because of its existing deal with the lottery and its track record operating 10 of the 12 lottery keno games in place nationwide. […]

A potential GTECH rival could surface in the bidding if Blagojevich’s plan takes flight.

The company is called Scientific Games, which provides the scratch-off lottery games in Illinois. Scientific Games is represented in Springfield by Milan Petrovic, a Blagojevich fund-raiser, and donated $10,000 to the governor’s campaign in 2004.

And the Tribune:

On Thursday, Wyma insisted he has never had a conversation with the governor or the administration about keno or GTECH, saying, “No, absolutely not.”

But an administration spokeswoman on Thursday acknowledged that Wyma in December had hosted a Washington reception for Blagojevich.

A co-host of that reception for Blagojevich was a controversial former GTECH lobbyist named Ben Barnes. A former Texas lieutenant governor, Barnes was caught up in a political storm in the mid-1990s in which critics complained about how he used his clout with that state’s lottery officials on behalf of the company.

Barnes also was in the news in 2004, when he claimed in an interview with former CBS anchor Dan Rather that he had used his influence in 1968 to get George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.

The company says it has had no connection to Barnes for years.

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Plug-ins and extensions

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This isn’t Illinois-related, but I thought it might be interesting.

On my Firefox browser, I use DownThemAll, PDF Download, and Tabbrowser Preferences extensions, among others.

On my Treo 650, I use LED-Off, Scroll-Jump, Switch5, Guitar Tuner, OneKey, and several other plug-ins.

What are your favorite plug-ins and extensions?

8 Comments

Trib likes Box

Friday, Jan 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Tribune’s editorial board endorses Charles Box for ICC chairman after helping block Marty Cohen’s appointment.

So the governor appears to have gotten it right on the third try. He booted out his own first choice to run the ICC, Ed Hurley. His choice to succeed Hurley, Martin Cohen, was rejected by the Illinois Senate. Cohen is quite knowledgeable on utility issues, but the longtime head of the Citizens Utility Board could not be expected to be an impartial arbiter.

So we have choice No. 3: Charles Box.

This is, by the way, getting expensive. Blagojevich pushed Hurley to resign, then gave Hurley a consolation prize: a job in the administration at the same pay, $113,836 a year, he earned as ICC chairman. After the Senate turned down Cohen, Blagojevich created a $112,000-a-year job for him as the administration’s first-ever consumer affairs director. So taxpayers are footing the bill, $339,672 a year plus benefits, for ICC chairmen past, present and almost.

Some of that money could have been saved if the Tribune edit board hadn’t been so far in ComEd’s hip pocket during the Cohen debate.

For the Tribune to editorialize that it was a mistake for Blagojevich to push out that disaster of a chairman Hurley shows just how far the Tribune will go for the utility interests in this state.

3 Comments

Slooooowwwwww

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Yes, I know the site has been way too slow for the past couple of days. I just got off the phone with support and they’re working on it as I type this. Hopefully, this won’t happen again. Sorry for any trouble you’re having accessing the site.

UPDATE: I temporarily dropped a couple of news feeds and switched them from php to java (which I think will take some strain off the server) and things are running a bit better. I hope this lasts.

UPDATE 2: I’m not the only one with server problems today. Peoria Pundit is having diffulties as well. He has temporarily moved here.

UPDATE 3: Things seem to be working much better now.

UPDATE 4: I may have spoken too soon.

UPDATE 5: Now the news feeds are down. How fun.

UPDATE 6: Keep your fingers crossed. Looks like everything is running OK now.

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Quick links

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Illinois will temporarily pay for prescription drugs if seniors are having problems with the new Medicare coverage. Appears to be a national problem.

The vultures are already starting to circle over Jim Laski’s political corpse.

Another fight over the separation of church and state, this one at Lane Tech.

Here’s more on that controversy in the 48th Senate District that I told you about in this morning’s Capitol Fax.

A push for increased Amtrak funding.

A peek into the Pritzker family fight.

Buy a piece of White Sox history.

I gotta find a new web hosting service. Any suggestions?

Stroger fundraising hit.

A government watchdog group on Wednesday accused Cook County Board President John Stroger of creating an atmosphere of corruption by collecting too many campaign donations from county employees and contractors.

The Better Government Association says 51 percent of Strogerâ€™s itemized campaign donations over the past six years have come from people on his payroll or doing business with the county.

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Question of the day

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Do you think the governor’s Keno plan will survive? Why or why not?

Remember, he says he doesn’t need legislative approval.

You can read a little more here (Tribune editorial), here (Roeper column) and here (Brown column).

Also, OneMan has a very good post at Illinoize with a lot of informative links, including this one.

Everyone knows the house has an advantage. But most casino patrons don’t realize just how heavily the odds are stacked against them. Take keno, in which you pick a string of numbers, hoping to match them to what the casino randomly generates. The house advantage is at least 25%, increasing with the more numbers you pick, says John Alcamo, author of Casino Gambling Behind the Tables. The odds of hitting, say, the 10 spot â€” a string of 10 numbers â€” are nine million to one. (Getting killed by fireworks is nine times more likely.) Despite those odds, a $2 bet usually pays off at only $50,000 to $200,000.

UPDATE: E-mail from a friend:

Soon you will be able to gamble in taverns but not smoke in them.

25 Comments

First GOP debate

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

We’ll get our first view of the candidates together in two weeks.

The first televised debate among the four Republicans vying for their partyâ€™s gubernatorial nomination is set for Naperville and will center on business-oriented issues.

Candidates state Sen. Bill Brady, former state board of education Chairman Ron Gidwitz, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis and state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka are scheduled to square off in the one-hour forum at 6 p.m. Jan. 25 at North Central College. […]

The candidates will field about 20 questions from a media panel and business leaders in attendance. Topics likely to be raised by Naperville-area business people include health care, taxation and education, said Laura Crawford, the chamberâ€™s vice president of marketing and legislative communications.

CBS-2 plans to televise the event.

Use this as a Republican primary open thread.

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Repubs skeptical of bond plan, governor

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I heard pretty much the same thing yesterday at the Statehouse.

However, Republicans don’t trust Blagojevich, who is expected to run for re-election this year, to follow through with funding on those or other downstate projects if the plan is approved.

“If I was betting, I’d bet most (of the money) was going north,” said Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield. “All I’ve heard is one project for all of downstate, and that’s Illinois 29. We need to make sure where that money is going to be spent.”

Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, said he is still waiting for state grants to communities in his district that Blagojevich froze when he took office.

“For three years, he ignored us. Now it’s an election year, and it’s like: Eureka! He’s found downstate this year,” Mitchell said.

This bond plan will not be an easy sell, especially if it’s inextricably tied to the Keno idea.

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Keno problems

Thursday, Jan 12, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Tribune has the big story of the day.

Two months before Gov. Rod Blagojevich unveiled plans to add keno to the state lottery, one of his longtime confidants became a lobbyist for the gambling company likely to run the new game.

John Wyma, a top aide when Blagojevich was in Congress and later the political director for his 2002 campaign for governor, registered with the state in November as a lobbyist for GTECH Corp.

Wyma said Wednesday that he lobbied no one about keno, and a GTECH official said that when Wyma was hired as a lobbyist in November, the firm was already in discussions with the state about keno.

So, he registered as a lobbyist but he didn’t lobby anyone about a proposal that could reap millions for his client?

There’s also this:

In a 2002 questionnaire, Blagojevich told Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems that he opposed “electronic gambling devices” in bars, restaurants and clubs, according to a copy of the group’s survey. Advocates said that covers keno.

Also, Rep. Mike Boland (D-East Moline) said a Blagojevich official told him two years ago the governor wouldn’t back the lawmaker’s keno proposal because it would be an expansion. A governor’s spokesman also told the Alton Telegraph that keno would be an expansion, according to an article published in August 2003.

Administration officials say they don’t know what Boland is talking about and that the spokesman inaccurately represented the governor’s views in the Alton paper. A Blagojevich spokeswoman said Wednesday the governor was talking about more addictive games like video poker.

Oops.

UPDATE: Eisendrath press release:

â€œThe Governor is asking everyone to take a chance on gaming but he and his political friends have already fixed their winning ticket. Itâ€™s just another example of the way this administration puts its own political ambitions before everything else,â€ said Edwin Eisendrath, Democratic candidate for Governor and former Clinton appointee. […]

Blagojevich wants to install lottery style keno games in bars and restaurants across the state. But for the past four years, he has been on the record as opposing such a move proving once again that the Governor cannot be trusted to keep his word to the people of Illinois.

â€œThe Governor was against it but now that heâ€™s fighting to keep his job, heâ€™s suddenly for it probably because he sees more campaign contributions coming from this,â€ said Eisendrath. â€œWe simply cannot trust him.â€

UPDATE 2: From Ron Gidwitz’s campaign:

â€œYesterday this was a bad idea, today this is just outrageous. This whole thing does not begin to pass the smell test and our lawmakers need to reject this for what it is: a scheme intended to enrich the governorâ€™s friends while providing him the river of cash on which to ride his political showboat during this election season,â€ Gidwitz said.

Gidwitzâ€™s running mate, State Senator Steve Rauschenberger agrees. â€œThis is the biggest expansion of gambling since the introduction of the Illinois lottery and this governor wants to do it without any public debate whatsoever. Expanding gambling under an administration already cloaked in an ethical cloud just takes public cynicism to a new low.â€

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