Morning Shorts
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning
* Lawmakers try to cut excessive state overtime
In hopes of forcing the governor’s administration to hire more state workers, a new proposal sponsored by State Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley, would ban state agencies from forcing their employees to work more than a 40-hour work week.
* Residents, legislators voice opinions at budget hearing
* Generation gap in contest to succeed LaHood
* Callahan officially running for Congress
* Our Opinion: Bid to curb pensions comes too late
* Officials want fairgrounds work done by mid-May
* Kayne West’s mother’s death sparks call for plastic surgery laws
One of Davis’ proposals — which could be considered today — would require that board-certified plastic surgeons perform Botox injections and several other procedures, making it illegal for assistants, other medical staff or even medical doctors outside the plastic surgery specialty to do them.
* Seniors, get ready to ride bus for free
* FEMA officials tour Pontiac flood damage
“I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled,” Mayor Scott McCoy said after the reversal was announced late last week.
* Boone County Dems elect new chairman, vice chairpersons
* DuPage election judges waiting on primary paychecks
Technical problems with a new management system and bureaucratic hoops caused the problem, DuPage County Election Commission officials said.
* CN offers to pay for overpasses in EJ & E bid
* Kirk wants to resurrect mortgage aid program
He wants Congress to restart the Home Owners’ Loan Corp. of the Great Depression to buy and refinance troubled mortgage loans.
- Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Mar 11, 08 @ 8:53 am:
Back when the EJ&E ran its first trains in 1886, there were few people or roads in the area except at downtown Aurora, Elgin and Joliet. I don’t know this for a fact, but would guess they were running 20-30 trains a day in their heyday in the age of steam. Nearly all the growth in the area came after the fact of the railroad being there, and was caused in great part by the reliance on automobiles and trucks to commute to jobs and engage in commerce.
Now these same suburbs are up in arms, largely because the railroad (which was there long before they were) will inconvenience their use of automobiles and trucks a few more times a day.
The railroad does bear some responsibility for being a good corporate citizen, and $40 million goes a long way in addressing the most congested rail crossings that would be impacted by running more trains (or more accurately, replicating the train traffic of yesteryear). Maybe their fair share should be a little more. But let’s face it, Chicago has long been a bottleneck in the area’s transportation system and better utilization of this route around Chicago makes all the sense in the world. This is a big Interstate Commerce issue with national transportation, economy and security implications, not strictly a local issue. CN’s plan is also an environmentally responsible way to get more trucks off the road, if the goal is to better utilize and increase the nation’s rail capacity to go green. And the communities and developers owe a share of addressing their congestion problems too, which were mainly caused by their auto-centric success.
- dc - Tuesday, Mar 11, 08 @ 2:15 pm:
It would appear the Mayor of Pontiac, unlike the Goveror, has shown more leadership and commitment to downstate by successfully working with the federal government to solve problems and help people. No big press conferences, lawsuits or executive orders bypassing the legislative process: just good old-fashioned leadership and a commitment to getting things done. Certainly IEMA helped with the appeal, but I don’t remember reading how Blagojevich flew to Washington DC to personally get the deal done. I guess he had too many 6am conference calls from the Ravenswood office to worry about such minor details as flood victims.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Mar 11, 08 @ 4:39 pm:
Rather than sign up more thousands of political hacks to work for state government in permanent, low-work, lifetime jobs, I think the taxpayer is better off with the high overtime. Although likely a lot of that is unnecessary, if the state’s management personnel actually managed the workforce
.
- Could be fired ... - Tuesday, Mar 11, 08 @ 8:28 pm:
Excessive overtime? Because Filan won’t let any new employees be hired, as he sees that as a way to reduce the pension liability. And it will go on until prison guards get hurt.