Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » 2007

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

I decided to pick the top three vote-getters in our “Illinois Pledge of allegiance” contest. I’ll be designing t-shirts soon. Any help would be appreciated.

The winners need to contact me so I can send their free shirts to them. Here they are…

* “The Curmudgeon”

I pledge allegiance to Illinoize
To the good old girls and the good old boys
Who run this State for a favored few,
And to their family members
Who will succeed them:
I pledge my wallet and my vote,
I pledge my car, I pledge my boat,
I pledge the Cubs’ famed Billy Goat.
I pledge to pay and pay and then
I pledge to pay and pay again.

* “train111″

I pledge allegiance to the Illinois flag
and to the politicians that top dollar can buy
To the corruption for which it stands
One cesspool
in the heartland
With favors and payouts for the few.

* “Poli-Sci Geek”

I pledge allegiance,
to the flag of the great state of illinois,
cuz some guy sent me,
to work this ward,
for some guy I don’t know,
so I might, someday, get a job.

13 Comments

Question of the day

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* First, the setup…

Should a 10-month-old toddler, barely able to get around on two feet, be permitted to get a Firearm Owner Identification Card?

That was one of the questions raised last spring in several columns written by Howard Ludwig, the Daily Southtown’s Stay-at-Home Dad columnist. Ludwig applied for and eventually acquired a FOID card on behalf of his 10-month-old son, Howard Jr. - Bubba to his closest friends and readers of his father’s weekly column. […]

A spokesman for the state police said the proposed age limit was based on Illinois Department of Natural Resources guidelines that already require children under 10 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian when they attend gun safety classes.

It has yet to be determined whether the change would require a revision in state law or can be made as an administrative rule change. In any case, the Illinois State Rifle Association objects to any age limit, in part because the ISRA likes to start gun safety training when children are as young as 7. In our view, that objection is absurd. You can teach kids about gun safety without actually putting guns their hands. No one would argue you need real sex to teach sex education. The same applies to gun safety education.

The idea a toddler should be entitled to a firearm owners identification card also is absurd, in our view. There’s no reason for a 10-year-old to have such a card.

They should not be available until a youngster reaches a responsible age - perhaps 16, perhaps 18. Anyone under that age should not be permitted to possess a gun except in the presence of a parent or responsible adult with a valid FOID.

Question: At what age should children be allowed to legally own firearms in Illinois (in other words, obtain a FOID card)? Explain, please.

…Adding… There is some misinformation in comments by a couple of people. The law has a clear exemption for minors from the FOID card requirements. Under “exemptions” in the FOID law…

The provisions of this Section regarding the possession of firearms, firearm ammunition, stun guns, and tasers do not apply to…

Unemancipated minors while in the custody and immediate control of their parent or legal guardian or other person in loco parentis to the minor if the parent or legal guardian or other person in loco parentis to the minor has a currently valid Firearm Owner’s Identification Card

[Emphasis added]

98 Comments

The never-ending mess, Part 9,287

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* There are no definite plans yet on when the General Assembly is coming back to Springfield, according to the Post-Dispatch. I’m hearing the House may return on November 1st, but that’s not certain yet….

“People have lives to live. This whole five or six months we’ve spent with people being yanked around like yo-yos is kind of ignorant and disrespectful, so we’ll try to avoid that going forward,” said [Speaker Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown].

With budget issues still unresolved and Chicago-area transit systems insisting they need a state bailout by Nov. 4, it is expected the Legislature will be back before the end of the year.

But Brown said it makes no sense for the House to return until an agreement is reached by negotiators on a mass transit bailout.

Madigan believes it is up to House Minority Leader Tom Cross of Oswego to negotiate a deal with Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Some Republican votes are needed for the bailout because the measure needs a supermajority to take immediate effect.

But Republicans say the bailout and a proposed statewide construction plan must be tied together.

* Cross’ mass transit proposal may be unveiled soon, and it could include fare increases…

Illinois House Republican Leader Tom Cross says he expects a possible funding solution will be introduced early this week

CROSS: We think it’s one that members of the general assembly can vote for and the bottle line is that it doesn’t raise taxes. And that’s what we need to do. We’ve got to come up with some solution that doesn’t raise taxes. People are getting sick and tired of every time they turn around—another tax increase. So we feel like we have to find a different alternative.

Cross says it’s not unreasonable for the CTA to raise fares since gasoline prices have also gone up. The CTA will cut nearly 40 bus routes and increase fares if it doesn’t receive additional funding by November 4.

* Rep. Julie Hamos points out the shortcomings in the capital projects bill that passed the Senate not long ago…

* The capital budget bill that the Senate recently passed contains 10 times more funding for roads over mass transit than the last capital bond program passed in 1999.

* “The capital bond program passed by the Illinois Senate in SB 1110 is totally inadequate to replace broken-down buses, or fix the CTA “slow zones”, or allow Illinois to compete for federal transit expansion dollars — even if SB 572 is passed for transit operating budgets.”

* Cross was set to propose a gaming proposal as well, but that may have been put off for a bit. Finke touches on something that I went over last week in the Capitol Fax…

[A gaming expansion] bill will almost certainly call for at least one new casino in Illinois and allow all of the existing riverboats to expand their operations. What’s the big deal? Just that in 2005, the House voted 67-42 to get rid of riverboat gambling. Not limit expansion, get rid of it altogether.

Yeah, it was a symbolic vote related to other budget issues going on at the time. It had no chance of passing the Senate, so there was no danger that the state would lose its gambling cash cow. Still, 56 current members of the House are on record as voting to eliminate riverboat gambling.

Don’t think that old vote will be ignored. The anti-gambling Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems is distributing copies of the roll call. ILCAAAP is also distributing copies of its candidate survey from last year’s election. Thirty-one House members responded, and most of them said they oppose new casinos. Most of them also said they oppose slot machines at horse-racing tracks, another idea being floated.

It’s a good bet that at least some of these people will be changing their tunes if an expansion bill tied to capital comes along. That’s when we’ll see some real fancy footwork.

* More stuff, compiled by Paul…

* Rich Miller: Legislative session brings out a different side of Dan Hynes

* Schoenburg: Can’t predict what the future holds with Blagojevich

* Editorial: Time to send in replacement leaders?

* Rep. Eddy not surprised by 900 failing schools

* Country Club Hills Mayor upbeat about casino odds

* Editorial: Lottery limit not a real cure for gamblers

* McQueary: Charity is the new way to reach politicians

* Erickson: Topinka racks up campaign fund violations in run for Governor; and other statehouse news

35 Comments

Two views of silence law and a waiver request

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

Two very different takes from newspaper editorials about the state’s new “moment of silence” law…

* Bloomington Pantagraph, which appears to have actually read the bill…

You would think teachers and school administrators would relish a moment or two of silence in a building of boisterous children.

But some educators are apparently perplexed by the “brief period of silence” that they are required to have with their students at the start of each school day.

The silence became required after lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto of a bill that changed its observation from optional to mandatory.

In vetoing the bill, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he and his wife are teaching their children to “pray because they want to pray - not because they are required to.”

But nothing in the bill requires anyone to pray.

The law states, “This period shall not be conducted as a religious exercise but shall be an opportunity for silent prayer or for silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.”

* SJ-R, which emphasizes the title…

The First Amendment of the Constitution establishes explicitly that government won’t force any religion on any citizen. And it guarantees the government won’t interfere in any citizen’s practice of his or her religion.

While the First Amendment generally is most closely associated with free speech, the protection it affords both in favor of religious choice for all citizens and against religious meddling by government are no less significant.

Given this country’s long history of carefully demarcating government and religion, the Illinois General Assembly’s decision last week to force a symbolic moment of silence on every public school student in Illinois is genuinely puzzling. It would be infuriating, too, had it not so quickly become a joke to many students and a petty nuisance for school administrators.

After the country’s founders fought a war with England to protect religion from government, lawmakers in Illinois found a way to sneak it in. Sure, the new call calls for a “moment of silence,” not a daily prayer. But the bill also bore the title the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. Who are we kidding here?

Not noted in the SJ-R editorial is that the law with that very same title has been on the books for years. The only thing changed was “may” to “shall.”

* Meanwhile, Sen. Schoenberg wants one of his school districts to apply for a waiver from any administrative rules mandating the moment…

State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat, has written a letter to officials at Evanston/Skokie School District 65 urging them to seek a formal waiver of the new state law requiring that their teachers begin each classroom day with a “brief period of silence.” […]

Schoenberg pledged his support for any effort to petition the Illinois State Board of Education for a waiver of a requirement that his letter calls “onerous…troubling…(and) coercive.” Such requests are somewhat routine — more than 4,000 have been granted since 1995 […]

But if certain schools decide to try to opt out — the District 65 board will take up Schoenberg’s request at the regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 5, according to the schools’ communications manager Pat Markham — will the majority of lawmakers who backed the mandatory silence and overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s veto go the extra step of compelling an unwilling school district to perform this daily ritual?

18 Comments

Minorities upset about cut of the pie

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Illinois Association of Minorities in Government has a new study which claims minorities are underrepresented in the state government’s work force…

…(M)ost minorities who do have state jobs are clustered in a handful of agencies that often serve low-income residents, according to the study, which was compiled from data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, the Secretary of State’s Index Department and other resources. […]

In 2006, the latest full year where figures are available, minorities comprised about 27 percent of the 70,513 state employees, the report states. While 20 percent of state employees were African-American - a figure higher than the 15 percent of the state’s population - only 5 percent were Hispanic, compared with 15 percent of Illinoisans. […]

One-third of the 19,463 minority employees worked at the Department of Human Services, which provides help for low-income Illinoisans or other at-risk populations.

About 12 percent worked in Corrections, 8 percent in Children and Family Services and 4 percent for the Department of Transportation. Three percent work for the Secretary of State’s office, which is headed by Jesse White, an African-American who is the only minority statewide constitutional officer. Those five agencies employ 62 percent of state government’s minority workers, the study shows.

* Meanwhile, in Chicago…

The gravy train of contracts tied to Mayor Daley’s massive O’Hare Airport runway expansion project has left the station — and African Americans are being left behind, aldermen complained Friday.

Black aldermen unloaded on Rosemarie Andolino, executive director of the O’Hare Modernization Project, after learning that only 8 percent — or $96 million of the $1.2 billion in contracts awarded so far — has gone to African Americans.

That’s compared with 69 percent or $838.7 million for whites, $214 million or 17 percent for Hispanics and $60.4 million or 5 percent for Asian Americans.

Of the 20 construction contracts advertised so far, not one black firm bid to become a general contractor.

For years, black aldermen have railed about the 9 percent share of overall city spending going to African Americans. They were furious that the O’Hare project was even worse — even though city officials said they have done everything they could to recruit minority companies.

Discuss.

24 Comments

Morning shorts

Monday, Oct 22, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson

* LaHood’s take on his potential replacements

* Carol Marin: Splitting headache for North Shore Dems in Congressional race

* City crime down for first nine months of the year

* Buyout could save $30 million in Cook Co. salaries

* Editorial: Stroger makes bad tax proposal worse

* No complaints filed against McHenry Co. GOP chair

At a fundraiser Thursday, party Chairman Bill LeFew told supporters that he would resign within 60 days. He said that was because a pending investigation into State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi would force him to choose between his position as county treasurer and Republican chairman.

A letter was sent Thursday to both the attorney general’s office and the Chicago Crime Commission, calling for an investigation into Bianchi, LeFew said. He declined to say who sent the letter. Officials from the Chicago Crime Commission, which generally investigates mob activity, declined to comment Friday.

* Candidates considered for McHenry Co. Republican chairman

* Tribune Editorial: Plagiarism with an asterisk

* Editorial: Perfume applied to a pig

But those “incorrect practices,” 25 of them in a 110-page paper, ought to be allowed to be fixed and SIU President Glenn Poshard should be able complete a new dissertation, the panel said. And the old document should be removed from the SIU Library and replaced with the “corrected” version.

In other words, Poshard gets a big, fat do-over, history is rewritten and the president of the university is given an extraordinary break from a group with an obvious conflict of interest that no one else would get.

And Southern Illinois University’s already diminished academic reputation takes another hit.

* Alice Armstrong: Maybe Glenn Poshard is really a genius

* Clout City: In or Out Congressman Jackson?

It’s just too bad you didn’t have enough commitment to this idea to step up and run your own campaign for mayor.

Look, don’t get too full of yourself: I’m not saying people see you as a savior. I’m not denying that lots of people can’t stand you simply because you have the name Jesse Jackson. I’m not saying you or anyone could get into position to beat Daley in an election.

But I do think that there’s a pretty good chance that if you stopped waffling and started to consistently show that you’re in this fight, you’d win a lot of respect and support. People might even decide they like you a little.

* Chicagoans protests potential tax hikes

* Aldermen to ask judge to release cops’ names accused of excessive force; more here

* Illinois law to protect student media, free speech

* Restructuring today press release: Is Illinois energy marker really open for business?

* State invests $10 million to make Illinois coal more competitive

8 Comments

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