**** 10:56 am *** I’m hearing the governor has told some legislative leaders that he’s planning to call a special session next Wednesday and Thursday. Topics: Transit and capital plan.
A spokesperson for Speaker Madigan said Madigan will have to wait and see what happens “and then we’ll do whatever is appropriate.” The governor is apparently having a Chicago press conference at the moment.
I am calling the General Assembly into special session next Wednesday, November 28, to pass a long-term funding plan for the CTA and RTA. With the holidays and the next transit “doomsday” fast approaching, we cannot afford more delays. Transit riders that use the CTA, Metra and Pace to get to work and school are relying on you. […]
The transit agencies have indicated that a third, more severe “doomsday” is looming in January. The transit unions have said that if there is no funding resolution by the end of the year, their contract will be in jeopardy. We cannot let history repeat itself. There are not funds available for me to once again unilaterally avoid a “doomsday” for mass transit riders in the Chicago area. The General Assembly must take action soon. That is why I am calling you into special session after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving and the opportunity to gather with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Rod R. Blagojevich
Governor
* 11:35 am - The AP has a story up, but there isn’t much in it, so I’ll just give you the link for now. No need for excerpts.
* 12:14 pm - From a press release…
Two well-known administrators, former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and longtime University of Illinois President Stan Ikenberry will speak on the topic of School Finance on Thursday, Nov. 29 from Noon-1 p.m. at the University of Illinois College of Law, Max L. Rowe Auditorium, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
**** 1:08 pm *** The second paragraph of the governor’s statement from above says this, in part…
As I have stated before, I support the concept suggested by House Minority Leader Tom Cross, reflected in legislation sponsored by Rep. Skip Saviano, that would redirect revenue from the existing sales tax on gasoline in Cook and the collar counties to the RTA… The revenue could be replaced by closing corporate loopholes that do not benefit the public.
While he doesn’t come out and say it, the guv seems to imply that Cross favors closing corporate loopholes. Asked if that was the case, Leader Cross’ spokesman said, “The answer is no.”
This has been the single biggest problem with the governor’s “plan.” There is no agreement on how to replace that revenue. Until there is a revenue stream deal, there is no plan. Simple as that.
More from Cross’ spokesman…
“We do not support the idea of corporate loopholes, but could go along with possibly some fund transfers, a mild fare increase and small cuts to overall budget.”
**** 1:38 pm *** The Tribune reports this tidbit from the governor’s press conference…
Blagojevich, without offering details, also said he was considering whether he could fund public transit without legislation.
But this is what he wrote in his letter…
There are not funds available for me to once again unilaterally avoid a “doomsday” for mass transit riders in the Chicago area. The General Assembly must take action soon.
Also from the Tribune…
[Blagojevich] poked at unnamed legislative leaders for claiming that they would offer legislation to solve the crisis, but then not acting.
Chicago Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) is making a blunt claim as he campaigns to become the next Cook County state’s attorney:
African Americans don’t trust county prosecutors, he says.
“Many [prosecutors] have forgotten that they were put in that job to do justice,” Brookins told 30 people at a town hall-style meeting in Markham over the weekend. They’ve “created a culture that has caused a distrust among the entire [African-American] community. . . . People are apprehensive to cooperate with the state’s attorney’s office.”
Brookins’ comments came as he discussed confessions from tortured black suspects two decades ago by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s crew. Though the Burge abuses date back to when Mayor Daley was state’s attorney, distrust of prosecutors has continued under outgoing State’s Attorney Richard Devine, Brookins said.
Brookins added this tidbit…
But the office chooses to prosecute too many small cases as felonies, giving the predominantly African-American offenders felony records that make them unemployable, Brookins said.
“Things that used to be childhood pranks have now become felonies,” Brookins said. “Outside the schools, there used to be a fire and police call box. You pull the thing, and the Fire Department came. Once a year, we pulled it. That is a felony now. Once you have that first felony, you can’t get a job.”
The question: Is Brookins on-point or out of bounds? Explain.
Warning: Racist comments will be deleted and those who post racist comments will be immediately and permanently banned. Also, I have always had a hair-trigger when it comes to racism, both in my public and my private life. So if you think there’s the slightest chance that I might delete and ban you, you’re probably right. Think before you write. If you don’t like this rule, go somewhere else. It’s not debatable.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is moving ahead with a broad expansion of state-subsidized health care even though a legislative oversight panel told him “no” last week.
The governor’s administration has told state social service agencies that health coverage under the FamilyCare program is being expanded, an increase that could reach an estimated 147,000 people. Those state agencies already have begun signing up new participants despite the panel’s rejection of the plan.
Blagojevich’s move is only the latest in testing the extent of his executive authority against a legislature that has shot down his plans to expand health care, citing questions about its affordability.
On Tuesday, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules turned down the state Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ request for an emergency expansion of the Family Care program. The bipartisan panel of lawmakers was established in 1977 to oversee rules proposed for state programs. Its decisions generally are followed.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich contended Friday, however, that the committee does not have the ability to stop the Family Care expansion.
“JCAR’s role is merely advisory - it does not have the constitutional authority to suspend the regulation,” Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail.
She pointed to Gov. Jim Thompson’s amendatory veto of legislation that expanded JCAR’s authority in 1980. Giving the legislative committee the power to determine rules for agencies under the executive branch, Thompson wrote, “would violate the separation and delegation of power provisions of the Illinois Constitution.”
Although the legislature overrode Thompson’s veto, those constitutional concerns still exist, Ottenhoff said.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that there is a legitimate question as to the authority of the Administration to take this path of action, and a legitimate question as to the authority of JCAR to block it. Common sense and decency (both increasingly dwindling commodities in our state capitol) would dictate that a binding legal determination be had BEFORE any attempts to enroll any new FamilyCare participants.
Failure to do so creates a situation in which patients may seek medical care believing that they have coverage only to later learn that they were mistaken (misled?). Health care providers are similarly jeopardized since they have no way of knowing whether a FamilyCare patient is a legitimate one, or one whose status is uncertain. Ironically, this could well lead to providers refusing to treat qualifying patients due to eligibility questions.
In light of this, for the Administration to proceed without clear authority in this critical arena is a reckless and irresponsible course of action. […]
What next? I can’t say for sure. But I would surmise that there exist at least two questions that are ripe for review. First, does JCAR have the authority to suspend the administrative rule at issue? Second, and tangentially related, does the Administration, through HFS, have the authority to undertake this action or does the expansion amount to an unauthorized attempt to expend unappropriated funds.
Controversy has been raging for several weeks over a proposal promulgated by the Illinois State Police that would set the minimum age of issuance for Illinois Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) cards at 10 years of age. […]
Approval or denial of the proposed regulation is the responsibility of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR). As of the issuance of this press release, only a few days remain in the period during which the public may submit comments to JCAR regarding the proposal. Once the comment period expires, JCAR will consider all comments and will issue a ruling on the proposed age limit some time in the next several months.
Although adoption of such regulations is strictly within the purview of JCAR, an investigation conducted by the ISRA has revealed that Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent unilaterally established a minimum age for FOID applicants and began denying FOID cards to citizens less than 10 years of age as early as May 2007. […]
“Director Trent has taken it upon himself to nullify the authority of JCAR,” commented ISRA Executive Director, Richard Pearson. “Last May, he issued a declaration to the FOID division staff that directed the denial of FOID cards to applicants less than 10 years of age. Since that time, the State Police have used this bogus age limit as justification to deny over 200 applications. Of course, Trent’s edict has not stopped the State Police from cashing application fee checks.”
* The Tribune’s restaurant critic has a new piece that makes Detroit’s newest casino look pretty sweet…
Could this be the face of Chicago’s future?
Perhaps. The Illinois General Assembly has yet to grant Chicago a casino license, but the issue is on the front burner. And the MGM Grand Detroit, which opened Oct. 2 to oohs and aahs and a steady stream of gaming-hungry visitors, is precisely the sort of palace that casino advocates envision for Block 37, or any of a handful of other suggested Chicago sites.
Because the MGM Grand Detroit—note the absence of the word “casino” in the official name—is one impressive, $800 million piece of eye candy, loaded with appealing features. A 100,000-square-foot casino floor. An attached 400-room luxury hotel with a 20,000-square-foot spa. Five lounges and bars with tricked-out visual features. And, of course, acres of meeting space.
Most intriguing, at least from my perspective, the complex includes three high-end restaurants by Wolfgang Puck and Michael Mina, two critically acclaimed West Coast chefs who have made a lot of money by opening restaurants in casino resorts. (Puck has five restaurants in Las Vegas and one in Atlantic City; Mina four and one, respectively.)
And running Mina’s two MGM Detroit restaurants is executive chef Don Yamauchi, who has spent most of his career cooking in Chicago (Carlos’, Gordon, Le Francais).
When people think of putting a new casino in Chicago, they tend to think of those smallish riverboats that already dot the landscape here. But Detroit shows that a casino can be much more than a dingy gambling hall. It can be a centerpiece.
We reiterate our approval of [House Speaker Michael Madigan’s] insistence that the integrity of Illinois gambling needs to be protected more aggressively. That’s a demand rarely voiced by most of a Springfield crowd that primarily sees gambling as a way for the state to print dollars by the bazillions.
The pluses or minuses of Madigan’s specific agenda will emerge in the final wording. But Illinois gambling thus far has avoided an industry-killing scandal only because of excellent vigilance by understaffed state regulators — and because of some very lucky breaks in uncovering the scandals that already are part of the public record.
Any expansion of Illinois gambling has to mean much more stringent oversight — and much less influence from this state’s pols.
* So who were those “knowledgeable people” whom state Rep. Aaron Schock consulted with on his now abandoned proposal to sell (nonexistent) nuclear missiles to Taiwan to pressure China over Iran? Bernie Schoenburg tried to find out…
“I have listened to knowledgeable people on this issue and they have said I am on the right track with a proposal that has a great chance to diffuse the crisis without military conflict but that I was wrong to include the possibility of selling nuclear arms to Taiwan as a bargaining chip with China,” [Schock claimed in his press release backing down from his proposal].
So I called Schock, a state representative and Peoria Republican, to ask who those advisers were.
There are, he said, “a number of people, both locally, as well as friends I have in Washington, D.C., that have chimed in on it.”
I asked if he was talking to any particular professor or military person.
“Well, they’re not wanting to get involved in the campaign,” he said.
OK, so what about his campaign manager, Steven Shearer, who worked for retiring Congressman Jerry Weller?
“Certainly, as the campaign manager, he has input, as well as other people on my campaign staff,” Schock said.
He said the unnamed “knowledgeable people” also had a part in his announcement speech, presumably including the Taiwan nukes idea.
Here in Peoria — the largest city in the 18th District and the city in which Schock lives — the Journal Star’s coverage of the issue is meager. The PJS’s lead reporter in the 18th District race is Karen McDonald. To date, her byline has appeared above one single article dealing with the controversy, the one in which Schock admitted to a mistake. McDonald attended the announcement in which he detailed Schock’s Taiwan proposal, but her article didn’t even mention it. She did no reporting on the uproar that followed Schoenberg’s column about it and has done no follow up reporting on what has been the single biggest story coming out of the 18th District race so far. She attended a candidate’s forum at which Schock and his two primary foes appeared, and her only mention of the controversy is that no one brought it up.
* And that brings me to my latest syndicated newspaper column, which talks about the influence that political blogs are having on the process here in Illinois…
Political blogs have been getting a bad rap in newspapers for years, but they’re rapidly coming of age and making an impact in campaigns throughout Illinois this year.
* The column goes through the now familiar story of how blogs participated in forcing Schock to back off his wacky idea…
While Schock refused to back down, bloggers kept digging. They found Schock had voted against a bill in the state Legislature to put economic pressure on Iran’s energy business - the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear ambitions - through state pension fund divestment, even though Schock voted for a similar divestment bill for Sudan.
Larry Handlin at ArchPundit.com pointed out Schock’s nuke idea would violate international law. A commenter at my blog noted Schock’s proposal was scarily similar to the Soviet Union’s attempt to put nukes in Cuba (which very nearly triggered a nuclear holocaust).
Billy Dennis, who led the charge on Schock at his Peoria Pundit blog, discovered the Chinese government had helped Schock pay for a trip to that country a few years ago.
It wasn’t until Schock abandoned his goofy proposal that the Peoria paper finally acknowledged almost all of the concerns raised by the bloggers.
* The column then moves on to other races….
Blogs are having a different impact in Congressman Dan Lipinski’s district. Lipinski is a conservative Democrat whose father, former Congressman Bill Lipinski, engineered an unconscionable free ride to Washington, D.C., for his kid, who hadn’t lived in Illinois for years.
Lipinski has strong opposition from Mark Pera in the upcoming Democratic primary. Pera’s cause is being championed by liberal Democratic blogs all over the country, so every local story that trashes Lipinski is put in front of hundreds of thousands of eyeballs that otherwise wouldn’t see them.
As a result, Daily Southtown columnist Kristen McQueary now has a whole lot more fans than she did before the campaign season began. That coverage, in turn, has raised big campaign bucks for Pera when highlighted by the national blogs.
* And more…
Bloggers in Illinois and nationally are expressing interest in Daniel Biss’ campaign for the Illinois House. Biss faces an uphill race in a district represented by popular Republican incumbent state Rep. Beth Coulson, but he’s raising a ton of cash because he has paid so much attention to online media.
Quite a few Chicago bloggers have been aggressively advocating for a financial bailout of the Chicago Transit Authority. Much of their reporting and analysis has been far superior to anything produced by the mainstream Chicago media.
I promised readers of the column a bunch of links to various political blogs mentioned in the story. I’ll post those later this morning, but loyal readers can help out by putting links to their favorite local political blogs in comments.
*** UPDATE *** As promised in my column, here are a few state and local blogs to keep an eye on. My apologies in advance for all those I missed. If yours isn’t here, or your favorite one isn’t listed, do so in comments…
“Certain state job applications, which appeared to be sponsored by individuals on the basis of the applicants’ political affiliation, received special treatment,” begins a passage on the computerized ethics exam, which was taken by a reporter last week with the consent of the state office that administers the program.
The passage is presented as an example of real-life unethical behavior. It doesn’t name names, but it gives extensive details that match previous allegations against Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey, the Springfield-based state employees whose highly publicized firings later boomeranged on the Blagojevich administration.
* Malpractice caps ruling may send state back to 2005
It’s not that the individual elements of the CNN extravaganza were inherently wrong. For example, debates should take place before a live audience, but one that mostly listens rather than cheers or hoots. I sometimes wondered Thursday night whether there was an applause light cuing the crowd like the audience for a Jay Leno “Tonight Show.” A candidate who commits an egregious faux pas perhaps deserves to be jeered, but surely neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards crossed any red lines in their attacks on Hillary Clinton to warrant the boos they got from what seemed to be a Clinton-admiring audience.
That is revealing of the weakness of these debates as tools for helping voters decide which candidate to support. The TV impresarios are so eager for headlines they rarely pause to ask the candidates for evidence to support their opinions or assertions. It is bang-bang, but rarely because-and-here’s-proof.
Rush, who started working as an assistant supervisor in May 2003, was placed on paid administrative leave June 22 while authorities conducted an internal investigation, according to IDOC spokesman Derek Schnapp.
“He was put on leave promptly when the department got information about potential problems,” Schnapp said. “The findings were referred to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.” […]
Bobby Rush, a Democratic congressman representing Chicago’s South Side and southwest suburbs, recommended state officials hire his son in 2003, Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has said.
* McQueary: Can’t make house payments? March with Jackson
“There is a lot of misinformation about the bill, and it’s always about the interests of the mortgage brokers. No one raises the issue of people going into bankruptcy,” Collins said. “I got a lot of push-back.”
Through four months of arduous negotiations, she heard nothing from Jackson.
“Not once has he mentioned the legislation,” she said. “He’s had these programs at PUSH, and not once has he given me credit or mentioned Senate Bill 1167. I wasn’t even invited to the big rally on Wall Street.”
And yet Collins has been the chief negotiator on legislation Jackson took a significant interest in revamping. She could have used his muscle when faced with the slick mortgage industry’s lobbying tactics in Springfield. Instead, he is organizing a march in New York. That’s good for the cameras, but what about actual policy?
The Blagojevich administration has expanded a state health insurance program to cover more adults, even though a legislative committee rejected the proposal earlier this week. […]
“JCAR’s role is merely advisory - it does not have the constitutional authority to suspend the regulation,” Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail. […]
“The administration may be inviting the legislative branch to sue,” Leitch said.
Ottenhoff would only say that the governor’s office has no plans of its own to challenge the committee’s authority in court.
According to an internal memo obtained Friday by GateHouse News Service, Family Care caseworkers were told to begin signing up Illinoisans who earn as much as 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $82,600 for a family of four. The income cap had been 185 percent of the poverty level, or $38,203 for a family of four.
Every now and then, usually when I’m distracted elsewhere, I ask readers to come up with their own ideas for our “Question of the Day” series. That day has arrived yet again.
Question: What QOTD would you suggest? Explain, if you can.
* Yesterday, in an ironic twist, the Southern Illinoisan published a letter to the editor from Christopher A. Koch, the State Superintendent of Education. Koch bitterly complained in the letter that the House had not yet approved a budget implementation bill, which had already passed the Senate…
The price of the House’s unfinished business is hundreds of millions of dollars for local schools - $547,117 for Carbondale Elementary School District 95; $404,485 for Carbondale Community High School District 95; $430,960 for Trico CUSD 176.
By not approving the implementation bill that authorizes the State Board of Education to release these dollars, school districts have to put on hold plans to hire new teachers, reading specialists or tutors, as well as the purchase of new textbooks or laboratory equipment.
This simply isn’t right. I ask you to contact your legislators and urge the House to pass legislation that allows schools to receive the funding they were promised.
Trouble is, the House has, indeed, passed a BIMP bill and the Senate quickly followed suit. The letter had apparenty been sitting in the Southern’s in-box for several weeks and nobody at the editorial page bothered to check if the Superintendent’s complaint was still valild.
Oops.
* But here’s the rub: The governor has not yet signed that BIMP bill, which Superintendent Koch was so impatient to see enacted when he wrote the original letter…
Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch had little to say on the matter Thursday.
“The BIMP is under review,” she wrote in an e-mailed response.
* Over a month ago, Superintendent Koch had this to say…
State School Superintendent Christopher Koch wrote to local school chiefs that general state aid payments would decline beginning in November unless Blagojevich and lawmakers agree to raise the foundation level. Through October, the board intends to make general state aid payments at last year’s levels.
“We cannot continue to pay … at (fiscal) 2007 levels past the second payment in October,” Koch wrote.
* And more than two months ago, Gov. Blagojevich was whacking Speaker Madigan for not hurrying up already…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent letters to every school district in the state Friday, warning local superintendents that inaction by lawmakers means they’ll lose millions in state money.
In the letter, the governor laid the blame squarely on House Speaker Michael Madigan, a fellow Chicago Democrat he has squabbled with all year. […]
“The Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, is the only person who can call an implementation bill for a vote,” Blagojevich writes in the letter.
Get on with it, already.
* More budget and session stuff, compiled by Paul…
* Daley: Republican leaders making CTA a scapegoat
* This isn’t getting a whole lot of play in the big media, but it’s significant…
(S)ix of the 12 [Midwestern] governors signed a greenhouse gas accord that would set up a cap-and-trade system to reduce the gases over the coming decades. The governors haven’t agreed yet on how much emissions will be lowered, but several states are developing plans to cut emissions 60% to 80%.
Environmental groups hailed the agreement as significant because it would put the Midwest in a position to capitalize on its strength in renewable energy, such as wind and biofuels, as movement builds to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Midwest is now breaking the logjam when it comes to changing global-warming policy in this country,” said Howard Learner, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
Congress will take notice that states that rely heavily on coal are ready to reduce emissions, he said
That includes Illinois, where Gov. Rod Blagojevich this week made the “difficult” decision to sign on to the accord, Learner said; the task was tougher for Blagojevich than for most Midwestern governors because Illinois is a coal-mining state with coal-mining jobs and 60 coal-fired power plants.
Those six states were Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Illinois ranks sixth in the nation for the most carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Indiana, which didn’t sign the agreement but did sign onto other pledges, ranks third.
“I’m proud to join my fellow Midwestern governors to strengthen our energy security and fight global warming. America’s heartland is ready to lead our nation toward a smarter, cleaner energy future because Illinois and the Midwest can’t – and won’t – wait for federal action,” said Gov. Blagojevich. “We can have economic prosperity, energy security and a healthy environment at the same time – because innovation and investment in next-generation clean technologies will make us more competitive and create jobs, while saving energy and cutting greenhouse gases.”
* This is part of a national move to try to do something about an issue that has Washington, DC paralyzed…
The Midwestern governors expressed similar impatience with the slow pace in Washington on global warming and energy issues. They have banded together to set up a regional emissions control program, to expand production of biofuels and to cooperate on environmental and energy infrastructure projects, like an interstate pipeline for moving carbon emissions from power plants to underground storage vaults.
Gov. James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, a Democrat who is chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association, said that the individual states in his region were all moving independently toward greater energy efficiency and planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that it made sense to work in concert.
“In the absence of a federal plan we have to move forward,” Mr. Doyle said, speaking from Milwaukee, where he was the chairman of an energy summit meeting of the Midwestern governors. “On top of that, this recognizes that, federal plan or no federal plan, the Midwest is uniquely positioned to be a major force in the developing new energy world.”
He predicted that sooner or later Washington would adopt a national cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, but he was not optimistic that it would act before President Bush leaves office.
2 percent energy efficiency improvement in natural gas and electricity by 2015 and 2 percent annually thereafter. And the leaders pledge to have at least one commercial advanced coal gasification facility delivering power by 2012, capable of being fitted for carbon capture. Also by that year, they agree to site and permit a pipeline to transport that carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil and gas recovery.
The city this year will collect more than a half-billion dollars in property taxes from little-understood but fast-growing tax-increment financing (TIF) districts — six times as much as the controversial tax hike that won narrow approval Wednesday in the City Council.
A report issued Thursday by Cook County Clerk David Orr said the take from Chicago’s TIFs for the tax year for which bills just went out is $500.4 million. That’s $114 million more than last year, a 29% increase, and represents more than a tripling compared with just five years ago.
* Just how big is this pile?
For instance, revenues from just the two largest of Chicago’s more than 100 TIF districts will exceed the $144 million in property taxes Cook County will spend on its network of public hospitals and health clinics.
After averaging $60 million in annual growth between 2001 and 2005, TIF revenues exploded by $114 million between 2005 and 2006, 57 times the roughly $2 million the entire program took in 20 years ago. The city’s total take since the first TIF was created in 1984? $2,534,701,105.72.
* The Civic Federation has one idea to help deal with this situation…
The federation wants TIF spending to be included in the annual city budget, rather than handled in isolation on a case-by-case basis.
What we have here is an off-budget account controlled almost soley by Mayor Daley. That money could go a long way towards solving a lot of problems, including the CTA and, in Cook County, the public hospital situation. Instead, it’s used for other stuff, like “creating jobs”…
(A)ccording to a recent article in Crain’s Chicago Business, city officials are proposing to fork over a $40 million TIF handout to CME Group Inc., the combine created when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange bought out the Chicago Board of Trade.
As part of the merger, CME plans to fire over 400 employees […]
In this case, the city’s effectively offering CME $100,000 property tax dollars for every job it eliminates.
* TIF districts, which allow municipalities to siphon off all income from property tax growth from schools and other governmental units into tightly controlled accounts, can do a lot of good. But they’ve obviously gotten way out of hand and need to be reined in. With a huge percentage of the city now within TIF districts, taxpayers can expect a whole lot more tax increases in the future and/or reduced services.
* Little Lip’s situation just gets more bizarre all the time. Kristen McQueary had an excellent column this week that we unfortunatley overlooked. The piece is about the all too convenient connections between Congressman Dan Lipinaksi and his father, former Congressman Bill Lipinski. Here’s a little background…
Dan and William Lipinski share office space at 5838 Archer Ave. for political purposes. The building serves as William Lipinski’s headquarters for his business, Blue Chip Consulting, and Dan Lipinski’s campaign office… The All-American Eagle Fund, which the elder Lipinski operates, also lists 5838 Archer Ave. as its headquarters along with the 23rd Ward political operation.
* According to McQueary, Bill Lipinski’s All-American Eagle Fund has made payments to both Dan Lipinski’s chief of staff, Jerry Hurckes and Dan’s former communication director, Chris Ganschow.
Little Lip’s response? “I don’t see how that is an issue.”
Strike one.
Why? Because Bill Lipinski, who runs the All-American Eagles Fund, is also a lobbyist…
You’ve got Dan Lipinski, a congressman, promising to bring a Central Avenue underpass to Bedford Park and serving on the House Transportation Committee, while his father, former U.S. Rep. William Lipinski, collected fees from Bedford Park as a paid consultant to lobby specifically for the underpass.
* Dan Lipinksi swears that he and his daddy don’t talk about official business like that project in Bedford Park, even though daddy’s lobbying firm is located in Danny’s campaign office and daddy is paying two of Danny’s advisers from his All-American Eagle Fund, which is supposed to be about helping children, but isn’t doing a lot of that, unless we’re talking about Bill Lipinski’s child.
Strike two.
* Ah, but it gets even better. Dan Lipinski’s campaign fund shows payments to his daddy’s lobbying firm…
“It was for advice I received from Bill Lipinski, just like anyone would pay a political consultant,” [Dan Lipinski] said. […]
The advice was not related to any Blue Chip clients but, rather, some pointers on how, after his election, to put together an office, Dan Lipinski said. He described the advice as “random issues that anyone goes to a political consultant for. I could not go to anyone to get better advice in my current job than to him.”
* OK, so let’s sum up, shall we? Bill Lipinski games the system to get his kid elected to Congress. The son keeps his dad’s cronies on the payroll, and two of them (includng one who remains on the payroll) are getting payments from his father’s childrens’ charity fund, which doesn’t appear to be doing a lot of charitable work except for Dan Lipinski’s benefit. Dan shares an office with his daddy’s lobbying firm and even pays that firm for advice, but he insists he never talked with daddy about a project that the elder Lipinski is working on.
Strike three.
* More congressional stories, compiled by Paul…
* Early departure for Hastert to trigger special election
* Hastert wraps up 20-year House career; more here
Schock showed the kind of swagger reminiscent of President George W. Bush standing beneath a banner reading, “Mission Accomplished,” when he said that “The Chinese will come around, I have no doubt.” Pardon us if we don’t share your confidence, Rep. Schock. We’ll be in the bomb shelter awaiting your all clear.
Two positives came out of this craziness. One, the criticism of Schock’s dangerously naïve foreign policy approach was so strong, that by this week he had acknowledged he was wrong to suggest the sale of nuclear weapons to Taiwan, saying he had gone “too far.” Like to Pluto.
* Confusion over job guarantee for 50 laid off ISAC workers
Walker said the layoffs announced earlier this month are not a result of the loan sale. Rather, he said there are several national factors, including the high cost of borrowing and federal legislation that cut funding.
Still, some lawmakers were skeptical.
“I don’t believe that, no,” said state Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican.
State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said initial guarantees of jobs were “misleading,” but that he remembered ISAC officials conceding that they couldn’t guarantee jobs at committee hearings this year.
“For once, I can’t say I’m surprised or shocked or anything,” Rose said.
The union representing most of the 11,500 Corrections employees points to the change as proof that state prisons need to hire more workers.
“There’s no debating IDOC’s rationale: The prisons are so desperately short of staff that they cannot afford to take employees off their posts for training,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
* Illinois Review: Democrats stand tall, two Republicans bow to Governor on JCAR
With billions of dollars in unpaid medial bills piling up, it’s hard to think of anything less appropriate than allowing the governor to massively increase state health expenditures without the approval of the General Assembly or the people of Illinois.
Representatives Mulligan and Hassert, members of a Republican Party that claims to stand for limited government, have no excuse. Their vote for the governor’s power grab looks like blatant pork-barrel politics at its worst.
* Bernie Schoenburg: Republican presidential delegates, Sen. Rutherford’s recall effort
In reading, where Daley ordered a huge push after his 1995 school takeover, CPS eighth-grade Hispanics topped Hispanics in every other city tested, and CPS low-income eighth-graders beat their peers in all but one other city.
But CPS white students produced the second-worst reading scores among whites, in both fourth and eighth grade. Their math scores weren’t much better.
CPS blacks scored near the bottom of the heap in most tests.
To the thousands of white supremacists who regularly visit Stormfront and its forum, Kelso is best known by his e-moniker, “Charles A Lindbergh.” He signs off all his posts with a quote from Lindbergh, a well-known racist and anti-Semite: “We can have peace and security only as long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood.” […]
In the three years he’s been a senior moderator of the site, it has grown from fewer than 10,000 registered users to, as of mid-June, an astounding 52,566. And while many thousands of that ever-growing total probably haven’t visited in years, independent Web monitors recently ranked Stormfront the 338th largest electronic forum on the Internet, putting it easily into the top 1% of all sites on the World Wide Web.
