Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2007

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Illinois Civil Service Commission this afternoon refused to accept the findings of an administrative law judge and ordered new evidence be taken in the case of two state employees disciplined for allegedly showing favoritism to politically connected job applicants.

Administrative Law Judge Anthony Dos Santos recommended May 13 that Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey be suspended for 14 days. In doing so, Dos Santos rejected an attempt by the administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fire DeFraties and Casey. […]

It was not immediately clear what additional evidence the five-member Civil Service Commission believes it needs, but the panel apparently wants the earlier hearings to be resumed. The commission’s vote to remand the case for additional evidence was unanimous and followed three hours of discussion behind closed doors.

Carl Draper, the attorney for DeFraties and Casey, said he can’t remember a similar commission ruling in 25 years of handling such disputes. DeFraties and Casey will look into other possible legal options, he added.

This was a sham case from the beginning. The hearing officer’s take - that they should’ve been suspended for two weeks instead of fired - was a slam-dunk.

And it doesn’t do much for the commission’s credibility that the governor’s babysitter sits on the ICSC.

Free the CMS 2!

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY (Part 3) - “No-Growth” letter and important update to the “extra’s” faxed version

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, PART 2 - House Democratic Expenditure Priority Checklist; Chicagoans’ priorities; Cars (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Pay raises; Judges; Ameren; Gas taxes; Paul Powell; Verschoore; UFC; “Seersucker Caucus” (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Support Loved Ones Whose Families Have Been Wrongfully Killed - Support HB 1798

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department

[The following is a paid advertisement.]

Did you know that if a drunk driver killed your daughter you would be unable to recover damages for your grief and sorrow? Special interests are working to prevent you from recovering damages for the grief, sorrow and mental suffering you experience from the sudden wrongful death of a loved one. Advocates for victims and families are working to correct this injustice.

Did you know that under current Illinois law you would not be allowed to mention your grief and sorrow to a jury? Juries are specifically told they cannot consider grief and sorrow. HB 1798 corrects that current injustice in the law.

*IT’S TIME TO UPDATE THE LAW *

Did you know that Illinois’ Wrongful Death Act was written 154 years ago in 1853? Special interests are doing everything they can to preserve the antiquated notion that a jury cannot consider the grief and sorrow inflicted on surviving loved ones.

*RIGHT THE WRONG! *

Did you know that the current law in Illinois allows pet owners to sue for “emotional distress” caused by the wrongful death of a pet, but parents can’t ask for damages for grief and sorrow for the loss of a child? The loss of a loved one from drunk and reckless drivers, murderers, and negligent manufacturers should not go unpunished.

*THAT’S AN OUTRAGE! HB 1798 is long overdue.*

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Question of the day

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

What should Illinois’ theme song be?

[Inspired by Krol’s post at Animal Farm]

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Chicago casino? Not yet

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Don’t get too excited yet about a Chicago casino, or any new casinos for that matter. There’s a whole lot more opposition to any expansion idea than you might think…

Sources told CBS 2 Daley signed off on a tentative deal that could, after years of discussion, finally bring a casino to downtown Chicago, as well as to south suburban Cook County, north suburban Lake County and a site still to be determined within 8 miles of O’Hare Airport.

Chicago’s casino would have up to 5,000 positions for slot machines, card and dice games and roulette. City Hall’s tax take could be 20 percent of the anticipated $1 billion plus annual gross, or more than $200 million a year.

Nine existing casino boats would get thousands of new slot machines and other gambling positions. Horse tracks would share millions in new dollars from a so-called impact fee, tentatively 3 percent of gross receipts of all the new gambling.

The gaming expansion sounds like an easy thing to do for people who aren’t all that concerned with more casinos, but there are religious and moral opponents, the existing casino owners aren’t thrilled and the racetrack owners can never seem to get along.

* Meanwhile, Daley refused to come out and support an income tax hike yesterday…

Pressed on whether he favors a hike in the state income tax, the mayor said, “This is the first time ever in the history of Illinois that the business community has ever come together and said, ‘We’d like to increase the income tax.’ So listen to their voice. They want a better education system.”

Daley said “everything should be on the table,” including his on-again-off-again quest for a Chicago casino.

* One reason for that could be the growing feeling that a tax hike is becoming more unlikely…

“There’s not a whole lot of enthusiasm to raise taxes in the General Assembly,” [House Speaker Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown] said.

* Brown also explained some of the reasons behind Madigan’s refusal to meet with Gov. Blagojevich this spring…

“We take the governor at his word. He wants want he wants, no changes, and anything different he’ll veto and then call special sessions until what we do is repealed. Given that, a meeting doesn’t seem like a productive use of time,” said Brown.

Translation: Until the guv chills out and is ready to seriously bargain, there ain’t gonna be no meeting.

* Into the fray comes a new proposal, from Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson…

New to the mix was a sales tax idea floated by state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, a Crete Democrat. Her plan would reduce the state’s sales tax – now at 6.25 percent – to 3 percent but then expand its scope to include services.

Currently, services like haircuts, lawn mowing, brake jobs and so on are not subject to the state’s sales tax.

Halvorson couldn’t provide details on how much money it would generate, but such a move would result in more money coming into state coffers. However, it also may well run afoul of the governor’s vow to veto any sales or income tax increase. The governor previously has nixed the idea of taxing services.

But see Brown’s comments above while you’re figuring whether this idea has a chance or not.

* More tax and spend stories, compiled by Paul…

* Daley lobbies for more funding for schools, CTA

* Daley takes agenda to Springfield

* Schoenburg: Governor’s big-splash style leaves him out of touch

* New plan is old: lease the lottery

* Leasing lottery still alive in negotiations

* New plan is old: lease the lottery

* Editorial: State fiscal reform going nowhere

* Gabel: Affordable health care within reach

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We’re most average!

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is the best reason I can think of to move the primary up as early as possible…

White, rural and homogeneous. New Hampshire and Iowa play big roles in choosing presidential candidates but don’t look much like the rest of the country.

A better bellwether might be Illinois. It’s the most average state, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the Census Bureau.

Illinois is the fifth largest state, with a big city in Chicago, rolling countryside in the south and a lot of sprawling suburbs. And it has Peoria, which, it turns out, really is a barometer of America’s preferences. Many companies continue to use the city in central Illinois as a test market, taking literally the adage about how things play there. […]

The AP ranked each state on how closely it matched national levels on 21 demographic factors, including race, age, income, education, industrial mix, immigration and the share of people living in urban and rural areas. The rankings were then combined to determine the state that best mirrors the country as a whole. […]

Illinois’ racial composition matches the nation’s better than any other state. Education levels are similar, as is the mix of industry and the percentage of immigrants. Incomes in Illinois are a little higher and the state is more urban the rest of the nation. But the age of the population is very close to the country’s mix of minors, seniors and those 18 to 64.

What other “most average” qualities can you think of for Illinois? Snark encouraged.

Or, you might come up with examples of how we aren’t so average.

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A horse is a horse

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Senate passed the horse slaughtering ban yesterday. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk. Gov. Blagojevich supports the ban…

The Illinois Senate approved a ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption Wednesday, sending the legislation to the governor.

The proposal, which won the Senate’s OK 39-16, would stop a DeKalb plant from continuing to ship horse meat overseas. Human consumption is banned in the U.S.

“Horses clearly are recreational, companion animals,” said Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago, the bill’s sponsor. “They are not livestock, raised for food.” […]

But senators representing farmers — and the Cavel International plant in DeKalb — say slaughtering horses is humane and necessary and the legislation will eliminate jobs in Illinois.

I never quite understood this bill. I don’t eat veal by choice. If you saw what they did to veal calves, you probably wouldn’t eat it either. I wouldn’t seek to ban the meat, but I would like to see much more humane treatment of the animals. But the slaughtered horses weren’t treated worse than any other animal, as far as I could tell.

Eating horses is yucky to many Americans. That I understand. But banning their slaughter? C’mon.

Along the way the ban has received support from many who think of horses as companion animals, akin to dogs and cats, and not fit for human consumption.

Meanwhile opposition has come from pro-business lawmakers and from some unlikely sources including the American Veterinary Association and the Horseman’s Council of Illinois who worry about horse overpopulation.

And, yes, horses are “companion animals,” and I would probably be disgusted with the idea of a dog-processing plant down the road. Maybe it’s just because I was raised on a farm and lived in Europe where horsemeat is a part of the diet that I can’t quite grasp this concept…

The bill’s supporters maintained that horses, as “companion animals” with a unique place in America’s cowboy legacy, shouldn’t be treated like pigs, cows or other consumable livestock.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago, summed up the argument that ban proponents have been making for years: “Horses are different.”

Cullerton made sure he extracted as much publicity as possible from the bill, apparently…

First, he called Sneed.

Then state Sen. John Cullerton called actress Bo “10″ Derek, who is fighting horse slaughter for human consumption. […]

Cullerton, who says Gov. Blagojevich is ready to sign the legislation into law, plans to speed the law’s certification process by requesting that Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Mike Madigan certify it immediately. “It is imperative to stop the Cavel slaughterhouse in DeKalb from killing one more horse for meat on someone’s table overseas.”

And, by the way, Bo Derek? Are we such hicks here that we have to bow down to every has-been, over the hill actress who comes prancing into town?

Whatever.

One last thought…

“You’re saying it’s OK to eat Elsie the Cow, Chicken Little and Bambi, you just don’t want us to eat Mr. Ed,” said Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - EMAIL HAS BEEN DELAYED TODAY BECAUSE OF TECH PROBLEMS - ACCESS TODAY’S FAX HERE (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Morning Shorts

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson

* Vrdolyak faces arraignment today

* Illinois House wants limits on utility bill collection practice

* New Ameren rate hike not approved; more here

* Senators want to end gas sales tax

* McQueary: Who knew sign hangers had clout

* Teens largely absent from state politics

* Legislator aims to patch gun safety loophole

* Senate bill could mean lights out for incandescent bulbs

* Bedell: Bill allows gambling on video games

* Editorial: Gun law quirk needs to be addressed

* Treasurer gives federal prosecutors documents on Collinsville hotel

The state says it has uncovered evidence of tax and mail fraud at the Holiday Inn in an accounting of the hotel’s books ordered by Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. Early this year, the state moved to foreclose on the property. The debt now stands at more than $30 million.

* IDOT stalls on illegal airfield

* Tribune Editorial: Get ready to vote in the cold

* Michael Sneed: Rezko & horse slaughter

* Illinois state fire marshal arrested for DUI

* Lynn Sweet: Rezko question dogs Obama

* Kane healthcare project gets OK, but without cash

* Cook Co. approves $11.5 million in legal settlements

* Options narrowed for rail to Rockford

* Suburban officials cleared in 2005 election night beating

* English language law back on hold in Carpentersville

* Some say ‘English-only’ is a safety issue

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