· MJM to CTA: No

· Tribune: Frustrated by the lack of adequate capital funding from Springfield, Mayor Richard Daley plans to tap city coffers to pay for more than two dozen school construction projects, City Hall sources said Monday.

· Director sees success for All Kids program

· The Republican candidate for Illinois Comptroller says the incumbent is not doing his job.

· The Federal Aviation Administration is pushing for new restrictions that could prevent some planes from landing at Midway Airport in stormy weather.

· Crain’s: Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross is adding his weight to efforts to get Honda Motor Co., Inc., to locate its planned new Midwest production facility near Downstate Champaign.

· This drive-in debate is hot. I mean hot. And I’m not sure that I get it.

· The family of Illinois State Senator Peter Roskam will be reuniting Corpus Christi area Vietnam veteran Rueben Diaz with his lost Vietnam dog tag along with one of his fellow Vietnam veterans in a ceremony on Wednesday, June 21st 2006.

· Seriously. Let’s just invade. We don’t need to take the whole state. Just downtown - although pushing all the way to U-City would have its advantages (great restaurants and nightclubs). They’ll throw rose petals at our feet and welcome us as liberators. It’s a slam dunk operation. And the best part is Illinois will finally have a real National League team. Plus, they have at least four casinos that we could use to fund our schools. Hey, Rod, you could even sell the Arch! I’m telling you, it’s the perfect plan. Larry says our national guard could kick their national guard’s butt. Let’s do it now before we lose a big part of our air force!

· Praxair is moving to Cahokia. Illinois is paying almost a million dollars to relocate the company. Here’s a photo from the St. Louis Praxair explosion:

· Who was the only president since WWII who served in a state legislature?

       

14 Comments - jeff - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 8:16 am: Carter served in the GA legislature. - OneMan - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 8:21 am: Rich, for some more on why the Drive-In thing is hot go to openline.blogspot.com It comes down to a bunch of things, including leaks to the local paper, a really strange annexation agreement, ‘Deals’ being announced at press conferences that alderman learn about from the meida and who purchased really nice looking t-shirts for counter protesters. The whole thing has become rather Mickey Mouse sadly. OneMan - Cassandra - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 8:43 am: Allkids is worth keeping an eye on. How many Allkids recipients were previously covered by private health insurance. Is that private health insurance still available to them (example, are the parents still working for a company which provides family coverage?). What documentation is required to verify that the child does not currently have coverage and s has not had coverage for a year. Will Allkids cover illegals who are not eligible for Medicaid. The Medicaid rules will tighten on July 1, with proof of citizenship required. If the Medicaid applicant can’t prove citizenship, will they get Allkids. My prediction: the verification of one year uninsured status won’t happen; illegals will be enrolled to bring up the numbers, regardless of whether Illinois is a part-time or full-time residence; parents will be encouraged to drop employment coverage and sign up for Allkids. - moderate - half way between crazy and crazy. - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 8:52 am: Johnson served in the Texas Legislature. - Joe - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 9:00 am: Did Hot Rod really say that Praxair was a high-tech business? - Jake from Elwood - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 9:29 am: Praxair collects and produces liquid nitrogen, oxygen, helium and other gases for industrial purposes. Of course the explosions are spectacular. They also burn out relatively quickly. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 10:25 am: HFS will not come anywhere close to 50,000 AllKids enrollees this year without some “innovative” counting techniques (See DCEO methodology for jobs figures). And weak enrollment will likely translate to loose eligiblity enforcement in order to bolster the numbers. Access to care will be one of the biggest weakness for the AllKids program. AllKids is simply program to buy-in to Medicaid, and Medicaid payment cycles are already a major deterrent to accepting KidCare and Medicaid clients. However, the evaluation of the program’s success will come long after the election, so it’s likely to be an non-issue in November. - DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 11:04 am: If I had kids on private insurance i would keep them there.This All-Kids thing will be so expensive the state will not be able to keep it going.Just like his plan to sell the lottery to fund education for 4 years and then no plans for funding after that. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 12:23 pm: Actually, AllKids is a relatively inexpensive initiative because people who currently don’t insure their children generally have pretty healthy kids. I thought it was an excellent move by the Governor because he gets to tout a program that sounds very impressive without a major price tag attached. The truth is that George Ryan spent significantly more for expanded healthcare eligibility to the elderly and disabled than Blagojevich is spending on AllKids. These populations really have significant healthcare costs. The difference between the Ryan and Blagojevich healthcare expansions is the hype. Nevertheless, access to care will be the Achilles heel for this program, and unfortunately parents will pretty quickly discover that AllKids is a relatively unattractive healthcare option. Good idea, bad healthcare policy. But that’s what passes as good government now, so we’ll have to let it play out. - SockPuppetWannaBe - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 5:45 pm: Did Cross’ letter mean he and the sockpuppets will vote for the bond bill to fund the Honda infrastructure? Tried to post this earlier, but agents from Area51 quashed it. Let’s see if it gets through now. If not the MoMilitia will be attacking the CaptFax dock and HQ. BTW has anyone see Rich’s schedule for the free Friday BeerBash boat rides? It is midJune already - zatoichi - Tuesday, Jun 13, 06 @ 8:52 pm: What is the Director of AllKids supposed to say except that it will be a major success? Any other statement would mean someone new as director within days since she would announce her decision to spend more time with her family. Still, I like how Rod claims this is saving money before it even starts. I predict lots of positive rhetoric, very short of projections until new math is applied, several audit studies show internal problems, quietly let it fade after a couple of years. - ArchPundit - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 2:56 am: Damn right you better take U City–that’s where I live. Just take the entire County to the 270. All the culture is within that boundary except the Butterfly House. Though, unless you take the whole County, you only get 1 1/2 casinos. Hell, take St. Chuck’s Casino just because you can. Illinois should have gotten a better deal from Praxair–Slay told them to get the hell out. The explosion occurred just outside of Lafayette Square neighborhood and it is a gentrifying area of old French architecture. Several friends had tanks show up in their yard and a couple had their houses shaken off their foundation. Obviously, they need to go somewhere, but I’m not sure anyone needs to be paying for them to move. - Mad Cou - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:08 pm: I’m all for annexing the City of Saint Louis. Missoura shouldn’t put up much of a fight–they don’t want it anyway. Trackback ArchPundit - Wednesday, Jun 14, 06 @ 7:56 pm: administrative As you can see, for the next week or so, I have some help from some great guest posters who I want to thank. Be nice to them. I also know a bunch of links are FUBAR, but for now,… Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.