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Morning Shorts
Monday, Jan 22, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson * Questions and Answers about electric rate increases * Guv signals health reform goal *Gun packing activist gives up on Illinois * Stroger: Budget fixes are on the way * Splitting Hairs over evaluations * Employee alleges improper hiring at DCFS * Editorial: Fiscal Responsibility taking a beating in Springfield:
* State inmates enjoy long lives * Paul Simon’s daughter forging into politics * Harper college to offer 4 year degrees; must change state law * Stroger’s payroll padding will spark opposition * Public Housing shortage cited * Tribune Editorial: Wiping the Slate clean
* Obama domain name already taken by local blogger * City loses vital voter information: “it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the Board of Elections to retrieve sensitive data physically scattered on more than 100 discs throughout the area.†* Can he deliver? Update on Stroger’s campaign promises * Guv will be listening carefully to State of the Union * Firefighters endorse Brown * Health Insurance for all Illinoisans: “The 29-member panel will submit to the Legislature a final report that recommends expanding coverage to 89 percent of the state’s 1.7 million uninsured residents.†* Daley cousin quits job after breaking city residency requirement * Cook County Treasurer proposes revenue increases with coupons and ads:
* Duckworth encouraged by Vet developments: “Thanks to the governor’s leadership, our state is making sure our veterans get the care they bravely earned and deserve,” Duckworth said. “I would be very happy and content to live at any of our state’s veterans homes someday.” * Illinois measure would ban remote control hunting
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- Gregor - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 7:43 am:
The Hiring thing keeps unravelling and unravelling like a ball of yarn, with Blago at the core. We’re going to see this was a policy set at the very top, no matter how Blago tries to paint it as merely the doings of underlings.
- So-Called "Austin Mayor" - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 7:47 am:
“Paul Simon’s daughter forging into politics”
The second best news of the last 24 hours.
- Squideshi - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 7:53 am:
Regarding the proposed electric rate increase, one thing is clear–the utilities don’t need the increases–they want them. They’re already some of the most profitable utilities in the nation, and this is just about increasing the profit margin.
- Cassandra - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 8:06 am:
In our own local version of FEMA’s Katrina failings, DCFS catastrophes demonstrate the actual human cost of corruption in state government.
Hiring shenanigans at DCFS likely elicit a shrug
from most citizens. Bypassing the Rutan protections in the hiring process…hey, that’s the way it’s always been done in Chicago and now, under Blago, that’s the way it’s done at the state level. Oh well.
But if we consider evidence of hiring fraud at DCFS in conjunction with Lethal Lapses, the Belleville News Democrat (belleville.com) series on DCFS child protection caseworker errors, a different picture emerges. These (very young) children were all under the protection of DCFS, or supposed to be, when they died, often in great pain and distress.
Overnight, under Blagojevich, DCFS was transformed into a pork farm from an agency struggling to reform itself, albeit not always successfully. A secretive pork farm. And when the Blago-appointed director, Bryan Samuels, got a little too independent, out the door he went. The new director is likely to be much more pliable.
And the Blago-appointed DCFS Inspector General is now helping out by cutting even more identifying information from reports the OIG issues on child maltreatment deaths with prior DCFS involvement.
The kids just can’t catch a break under Blago.
- Ahem - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 8:51 am:
I did not find any reference to this commentary on the plan to automat state hiring. I thought that it was pretty interesting — and also the toughest critique of the plan that I have seen so far. I find it interesting that it would come from the tech nerd community, which has been fawning over the Illinois tech initiative so far!
http://government.zdnet.com/index.php?p=2855
“The whole thing sounds like a Web version of those 1940s and ’50s fantasies of completely rational, computer-driven decision making. No messy humans, just data in, decisions out. Computer science professor Keith Miller of the University of Illinois says it won’t be that easy.”
- WARDOG - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 10:43 am:
Didn’t Louanner Peters have something to do with DCFS before shew became “Deputy Governor” ? Ther sure wasn’t the lack of so-called interns in the governors office in Springfield, either. As far as Ms. Duckworths assessment of how good the Veterans homes are–She must be smoking whacky tobaccy or something!! The vet home are understaffed and there are a lot of empty beds and vets waitng in line because of it. WAKE UP, MS DUCKWORTH–your’re already starting to get decribed as a crony.
- Pat Hickey - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 12:48 pm:
I’d like to go where I can carry a gun. Where I can feel more me.” Gun Activist John Birch
Here’s your hat; what’s your hurry; can I buy you a drink? Six Pack to Go?
One activist leaves Illinois - it’s a start. Show me an activists and I’ll show you a boy that really used up a lot of Testors Glue.
- Smitty Irving - Monday, Jan 22, 07 @ 6:49 pm:
The editorial policies of the Bloomington Pantagraph never fail to amaze. As accurate as they may be in their descriptions of the state’s fiscal position, they were a lot more understanding about JRT. And their response to JRT’s illegal and unconstitutional patronage system? To run a series of investigative articles - on Dem Sen Howard W Carroll … . They may play it straight on news, but they bleed GOP on the editorial page.