* I’ve been trying to avoid posting more than a handful Obama stories lately. You can find that stuff on other blogs. But, there’s a lot of interest in tonight’s primaries, so here’s a handy news feed to help you keep up with things…
* Check out Taegan Goddard’s wrap-up of late Texas polls. Clinton leads Obama in every one of them. Obama has been trying to downplay expectations for days, and that could be why. Meanwhile, Slate has a piece up about some super delegates who could be changing sides very soon. Slate also has this somewhat coincidental video.
*** 2:28 pm *** The essential repeal of last year’s law to require a moment of silence in schools passed the House today 72-31 with 6 abstentions.
The sponsor, Rep. John Fritchey, does not consider the bill to be a full repeal, but his legislation changes the statute back from schools “shall” have a moment of silence to “may” - where it was before the General Assembly changed it last year. That bill was vetoed by Gov. Blagojevich and then overridden in both changes. The title of the statute was also changed from the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act to the Student Silent Reflection Act. A federal judge has been holding up last year’s law until its constitutionality can be determined.
Its fate in the Senate is uncertain.
* 2:38 pm - Mayor Daley dumped on the idea of relaxing landmark restrictions at Wrigley Field today, but didn’t flatly come out against it…
Without flatly ruling out easing landmark restrictions to make way for a Wrigley rehab, Daley said the park is “historical” and added that its special status came a few years ago because “people wanted it.”
“There were concessions on both sides, both the city…and the Chicago Tribune,” the mayor said. “All of a sudden they want to change that…Why do they want to change it? What happened?”
“You can’t tear every building down…Unfortunately, there have been a number of killings — both in and around high schools or elementary schools” as well as colleges, Daley said.
“It wasn’t the building that did it. It was the opportunity of someone getting a gun in Illinois….The access is so easy. That’s what we should be looking at. We should be in Springfield putting $40 million into education. That’s different. Not into tearing a building down because someone was killed in there. If that takes place, that would be a terrible precedent for us to have in Illinois.”
* And Dick Kay is going back to broadcasting. Well, part-time…
Retired WMAQ-Ch. 5 political reporter Dick Kay will begin hosting a weekly, two-hour radio talk show starting Saturday at 2 p.m. on WCPT AM 820.
Kay, 71, retired in 2006 and last year worked briefly as Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s “special advocate for health care.”
*** 3:03 pm *** Is NIU’s president backing away from the Cole Hall demolition idea? Here’s his latest letter to the campus…
We now face the question of what to do with this facility in the future. Our answer should represent a consensus opinion formulated by all members of our campus community. We must decide whether to remove the building or keep it; to reopen it in its present form or change its purpose or configuration. Any decision carries emotional and financial costs. I have expressed my own view that we should decommission Cole Hall as a classroom building. I made that judgment after talking with scores of students, parents, faculty and alumni who told me they could not fathom returning to Cole Hall to teach or study. In the days that have followed that tragic event, different voices and opinions have emerged, and we must take in all those viewpoints before moving forward. In the spirit of shared governance, I pledge to do all I can to facilitate the expression of all opinions.
* 3:05 pm - As I told you below, Dem congressional candidate Bill Foster was planning to unveil a new TV ad today featuring Sen. Barack Obama. The ad debuts just days before Saturday’s special election against Jim Oberweis. Here it is…
The University of Illinois flash economic index in February rose for the second straight month after six months of decline.
“It appears the recession hasn’t arrived in Illinois,” said economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the UI’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. […]
“We’re still moving along at a modest pace, but that doesn’t mean a recession in the state might not be around the corner,” Giertz said.
* 4:14 pm - Steve Stone is one of the smartest broadcasters in baseball, and he’s now with the White Sox…
A former American Major League Baseball player and current sportscaster, Steve Stone, signed Monday night a deal with the White Sox. He is now the team’s full-time radio color analyst for the 2008 season.
* Art Golab had a fascinating story in yesterday’s Sun-Times…
There’s a town, out west, where you’ll find the Mercedes-Benz nameplate on an astonishing 11 of every 100 cars. No, not Beverly Hills — it’s Oak Brook.
Kenilworth and Chicago’s Gold Coast aren’t far behind: 10.8 percent of all cars registered in the North Shore suburb sport a Mercedes hood ornament; 9 percent in the pricey city neighborhood. […]
The most popular cars? Here’s what a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of state vehicle-registration data found:
* Throughout the six-county Chicago area, Chevrolet is the most-popular car make. No. 2: Ford (followed by Toyota, then Honda). In fact, Chevy and Fords are tops in popularity in 247 of 294 ZIP codes in the city and suburbs. (The vehicle-registration data includes make of car but doesn’t show particular models.)
* In Chicago, Chevys are the most popular make in the greatest number of ZIP codes (28). No. 2: Ford (18).
* In Cook County, every single ZIP code is dominated by one of five makes of automobile — Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Mercedes.
* Merits aside, the usual Statehouse suspects are on the winners and losers list in this ruling…
A state law requiring parental notification before a minor can get an abortion will remain on hold, a federal judge ruled, the latest in decades of complex legal wrangling. […]
The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was passed in 1984 and updated in 1995 but never enforced because the Illinois Supreme Court refused to issue rules spelling out how judges should handle appeals of the notification requirement. A federal court held that the law could not take effect without the rules in place. In 2006, the Supreme Court unexpectedly adopted the necessary rules.
U.S. District Judge David Coar last week refused to lift a federal court order that has blocked the notification law from taking effect, saying the law would place some minors in “legal limbo.”
The law allows a judge to waive the notification requirement if a waiver is in the minor’s “best interests,” but it doesn’t make clear how the minor may then obtain an abortion, Coar wrote in a 13-page opinion.
“The statute is contradictory and incomplete on its face,” Coar said. Coar rejected several other challenges to the law.
* But the most interesting part of this story is Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s role. Madigan brought this case up the ladder against the wishes of her allies in the pro-choice camp. Since the IL Supreme Court issued the compliance rules, Madigan claimed it was her duty to uphold the law as written. Now, she’ll be under immense pressure from both sides as she decides whether to appeal…
Thomas Brejcha of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society’s Pro-Life Law Center, said he expected Madigan to appeal, if need be, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
* This article claims there’s some weird severability language in the state’s new smoking ban law. Usually, bills state that if part of the law is overturned, the rest of the law remains intact.
The Peoria Journal Star article claims that the smoking ban law stated just the opposite. If even one part is overturned then the whole law is tossed out.
But I checked the actual law and the law appears to have the standard severability claim. So, even though opponents are starting to attack the law bit by bit, the entire law is probably safe from being overturned unless a judge specifically does so…
A Bureau County judge today will begin untangling a case that could potentially snuff out Illinois’ 2-month-old ban on smoking in public places. […]
But Carrington’s lawyer, Peoria attorney Dan O’Day, claims in several motions filed late last week that multiple provisions of the Smoke-Free Illinois Act - from the signage requirements to the likelihood of illegal invasions of privacy and fines - are unenforceable at best, or even unconstitutional. […]
And among several other challenges to the minutia of the law, Carrington’s case also questions the constitutionality of the state’s requirement for businesses to post no smoking signs at entrances and exits - some with the name of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the insignia of the American Lung Association or other logos. The constitutionality of mandated ash tray removal also is challenged.
* Here’s the article’s passage on severability…
O’Day said the severability clause in the Smoke-Free Illinois Act contains a peculiarity that appears to do the opposite: invalidate the entire statute if one of its provisions becomes a courtroom casualty.
* Here’s the severability language in the law…
Section 60. Severability. If any provision, clause or paragraph of this Act shall be held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such validity shall not affect the other provisions of this Act.
That’s pretty much the standard language. Am I missing something here?
* More…
* Saturday, business owner Jon Hemminghaus held what he calls a “smoke-in”. He invited anyone to stand inside or within 15 feet of the front door of his business and smoke to protest the Smoke-Free Illinois Act.
* County officials still unsure how to enforce smoking ban
* Sanity is starting to rear its head as a legislator who stood with Gov. Blagojevich at NIU when he made the announcement about knocking down Cole Hall backs away…
A $40 million plan to demolish and replace the Northern Illinois University building that was the scene of last month’s massacre is “off the table,” a GOP lawmaker said Monday.
But a campus official said the plan remains an option that will be discussed among “university family” along with other ideas for Cole Hall. And Gov. Blagojevich, who first announced the plan, will follow NIU’s lead, his office said.
The Republican legislator, Sen. Bradley Burzynski of Downstate Clare, whose district covers NIU, said he does not favor knocking down the building after being inundated by voters who universally believe it would cost too much and who criticized Blagojevich for bursting out of the gates to announce the plan amid great fanfare.
“I’d say this has generated more mail, e-mail and phone calls in my office than any other local issue has in 18 years that I’ve been in Springfield,” Burzynski said.
“It’s off the table for now,” he said.
* The Rockford Register Star broke this story, and here’s its take…
Burzynski said that after he got over the excitement of the governor’s announcement at NIU, he decided the plan for the state to borrow $40 million on behalf of the university was not fiscally prudent.
“Everyone got caught up in the governor’s announcement and willingness to try to help the university,” Burzynski said.
NIU officials did not respond Monday to requests for comment. And Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch would not say whether Blagojevich remained committed to the plan.
“We stand by President Peters and the NIU community and will continue to support their decisions on how best to move forward,” she said in a statement.
1) Propose something big without consulting key legislators
2) Get lots of press coverage
3) Legislators hear from unhappy constituents
4) Legislators tell legislative leaders that they can’t be with the program
5) Proposal falls apart
6) Attack legislators
7) Find a new press pop opportunity and repeat
* Yesterday, the Sun-Times reported that the governor’s 2006 promise to help rebuild the fire-ravaged Pilgrim Baptist Church with $1 million in state money was never fulfilled. Instead, the cash went to a private school that took the money and moved somewhere else.
Oops.
Here’s the initial response…
Blagojevich’s administration said last week the allotment to Loop Lab School fulfilled the governor’s pledge to help the church.
But by late Sunday, aware of criticism from lawmakers and church leaders, the administration changed its tune and was scrambling to figure out what exactly had been negotiated between the state and church.
* Then, after the story broke, the governor threw a couple of former staffers under the bus and promised more money…
Blagojevich attributed the $1 million “bureaucratic mix-up” to the work of a couple of ex-staffers and pledged another $1 million –on top of what was erroneously spent — to help the Bronzeville architectural gem recover from a devastating 2006 fire.
* The guv canceled other plans and rushed to a church property to hold a quickie press conference…
‘’I'm as frustrated as you are,” he told reporters at Pilgrim’s satellite worship space at 33rd and Indiana. “I’m angry about those who work for me who allowed this to happen. We’ve identified a couple of people involved, and they no longer work for us, but I think they made an honest mistake.”
Actually, it was the governor who made the mistake. You’d think he’d want to check up on that church, but the promise he made was so 2006. On to the next press pop. Don’t look back or you’ll risk seeing the wreckage.
“We have no indication this is not a real program,” Blagojevich said. “They went elsewhere, used the money elsewhere.”
* Yet, nobody even knows whether the school is still functioning…
But aides admit they’re still trying to reach the school’s director. They sent a letter to 318 W. Adams, but when CBS 2 went there, the doorman said the school uses this address, but it’s not open, nor is it operating. We couldn’t find a working number.
Public records show the school used the money to buy space on the second floor of a building at 318 W. Adams St.. The seller—who also lent the school $305,000—was Card LLC, a company controlled by John Thomas.
Convicted of federal fraud and money-laundering charges in New York in 2004, Thomas became an undercover FBI mole as part of federal investigations into political corruption and real estate crimes. His role as an informant was revealed six days before the Lab School signed the papers to buy a floor of the 18-story building.
His name, “John Thomas,” was a pseudonym. Thomas, named Bernard Barton, moved to Chicago in 2000. He ran a billboard company and several firms that invested in downtown high-rises or helped other developers obtain bank loans.
His partner in Card LLC, developer Robert Horner, said he and Thomas are selling floors as office condos, and have sold about half the units in the Adams building. Horner confirmed the school bought the entire second floor for roughly $1.3 million in May 2007.
* From last month’s Sun-Times interview of Thomas…
Thomas provided a fly-on-the-wall look inside Rezko’s real estate operations and his desperate attempts to keep his projects afloat.
Sources said Thomas also logged frequent visits to Rezko from Gov. Blagojevich and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Blagojevich and Obama were among the many politicians for whom Rezko raised campaign cash. Neither has been charged with any wrongdoing.
* One more thing. John Thomas’ lawyer is Jeffrey Steinbeck. Steinbeck is also Stu Levine’s lawyer. Steinbeck is the go-to guy if you want to cut a deal with the feds. He also represented former city treasurer Jim Laski.
You may think Chicago is a big city, but in many ways it’s really a small town.
* After all the hyperventilating in the media last week about Sam Zell’s threats to sell naming rights to Wrigley Field, ask that the park’s historic landmark status be weakened or even tossed out, and then move ahead with the sale of the building to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, I thought I’d call Big Jim and see what he had to say…
Former Gov. Jim Thompson is in charge of crafting the sale. Gov. Rod Blagojevich asked Thompson to get this done, and he’s doing his best, but he admitted last week that he was “presenting this idea at the worst possible time.”
Still, Thompson said, “Everybody should calm down about Zell or destroying Wrigley Field or putting up some sort of name.”
Thompson said he wouldn’t do anything to “destroy the charm” of Wrigley Field if the state buys the park and leases it to the new Cubs owners. “I love the Cubs,” he said.
But what about all that talk of relaxing or even abandoning the stadium’s landmark status? Thompson vowed to “keep those elements of Wrigley which are landmarked and which the city won’t agree to change,” like the signage out front. However, he said, he needed to make sure the park was “habitable” for the teams. Plus, luxury suites need to be added to produce revenues.
“We need to retain the charm and ambiance which brings a full house every game day and make it a decent, inhabitable revenue-producing stadium.”
Even without Zell’s remarks, Thompson would have a tough time. Illinois politics is an absolute mess right now. The Democrats are fighting each other, and nothing is getting done. The budget is deeply in the red. The governor’s adviser Tony Rezko is about to go on trial for corruption. It couldn’t get much worse.
And I admit my inherit bias at the end of the column…
All I know is Thompson’s game this spring will surely be more entertaining than anything played at Wrigley.
After hiring engineers to determine the cost of renovating 94-year-old Wrigley Field, the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority will make an offer to the Tribune Co. next week to buy the historic ballpark, a top official said Monday.
* Blair Kamin of the Tribune is dead-set against relaxing the landmark status…
Like any property owner, Zell has the right to request that landmark status be relaxed or even revoked. But he shouldn’t get special treatment, especially not if it endangers more of Chicago’s architectural gems. Mayor Richard M. Daley and his planners need to step up to the plate. For what’s at stake goes far beyond the name Wrigley Field.
* Since I wrote the above column, the Cubs have sent out a much milder spokesperson to talk about naming rights…
“We’re sensitive and I would think we would get some credit to the way we’ve run the ball park since the Tribune has owned. We haven’t ruined the ball park,” said Crane Kenney, the Tribune Co. executive in charge of the Cubs. […]
“I remember when lights were introduced and a number of people who said, ‘Nothing will be the same, the park will be ruined and the atmosphere is going to change.’ And it hasn’t,” Kenney added.
* The way you read the standard overly-long Tribune story is to scan the first couple of paragraphs, skip over most of the “we’ve gone over this a hundred times before” background in the middle, then head right to the bottom, where some of the more interesting stuff always seems to get buried. It was no different in today’s story about Tony Rezko’s trial…
Also listed as witnesses were Susan Lichtenstein, the former top lawyer in the Blagojevich administration
Lichtenstein walked off the job and took almost her entire top staff with her. It’s been a mystery for years exactly why she left (nobody will talk for publication), but the word was that she and her staff may have been protesting an order from on high.
* I told you about this late Friday, but let’s go over it again…
A judge on Friday ordered prosecutors in the Antoin “Tony” Rezko trial to steer clear of evidence intended to show that the longtime fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich manipulated the state hiring process.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, who will preside at Rezko’s trial when it opens Monday, also prevents prosecutors from seeking to demonstrate Rezko was behind large political contributions to Blagojevich from two members of a corrupt state hospital regulatory panel.
The setbacks for the prosecution, however, do not strike at the heart of its case — that Rezko allegedly exploited his influence with the governor to scheme to illegally siphon millions of dollars from the hospital board and a state pension panel.
I dunno about that last assertion. Those contributions were thought to be key evidence that something was smelled bad at the hospital board. The judge also ruled that prosecutors couldn’t pursue the connection between Rezko and state hiring. Prosecutors, you will recall, were planning to call Jennifer Thomas as one of their main witnesses. Thomas was an assistant to Joe Cini, the governor’s former patronage chief.
[After Kelley had initially ordered the subpoenas relased] Blagojevich administration lawyers then said they had uncovered new evidence and asked Kelley to reconsider. The “new evidence” was a letter from an assistant in U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office asking that the administration not release the subpoenas because it “could impede the investigation … ”
“With two exceptions noted below, the U.S. Attorney’s Office continues to request that you not disclose the fact that the subpoenas have been served,” wrote Julie Rudner, assistant U.S. attorney. “Any such disclosure could impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of law.”
Springfield attorney Don Craven, who represents the BGA, argued the letter said an investigation “could” be impeded, not that it would. He also maintained the letter did not constitute new evidence, and Kelley agreed, but added it would be “totally inappropriate” for the subpoenas to be released until the appeals process is completed.
So, we’re down to what “could” means? Full employment for lawyers.
In the end, our choice of Oberweis is based on the fact that he better represents a moderate to conservative district, and has grown into a more responsive and less confrontational candidate. And he did a far better job of explaining and supporting his positions than did Foster, who projected less certainty, less clarity and less confidence than he did before the primary.
So it’s Oberweis with our fingers crossed, and the knowledge that we can review the choice again.
What we hear over and over from Republicans and Democrats in our communities is that people are tired of the bickering and divisiveness in government, whether in Springfield or Washington. Oberweis’ relentless attacks on state Sen. Chris Lauzen in the Republican primary election hint that he is not the right candidate to end government gridlock.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has launched an $850,000 ad buy in former Rep. Dennis Hastert’s (R) district, with an ad accusing Democrat Bill Foster of being a big-government liberal and not representing change.
The NRCC’s investment in next Tuesday’s special election and GOP nominee Jim Oberweis is now up to about $1.2 million — a hefty sum for a committee that only recently got out of debt.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has spent just more than $600,000 on the race.
Foster will unveil a Barack Obama endorsement ad today.
* Andy Shaw did a nice roundup of the race. You can find their debate at that link as well.
* Halvorson mum as her airport deadline for the state passes
The Illinois Department of Transportation did not comply with Halvorson’s demand that it submit its long-awaited master plan for the airport near Peotone to the Federal Aviation Administration by March 1.
“I do not know which I am more appalled by: the lack of security of the ballots or the Election Commission’s failure to follow yet another Illinois election law directive,” Urda said at last week’s County Board meeting, outlining her latest allegation of two legal breaches by the commission during the Feb. 5 election
Extreme vulgarity and taunting by college basketball fans this season raise the question: How much is too much? For schools and conferences, it’s time to act
The project, from north of Clear Lake Avenue south to East Lake Drive, will begin March 9 and includes pavement patching, milling and resurfacing. It also will involve rehabilitation of the bridges on West Lake Drive and on Interstate 72 over South Sixth Street, which means there could be traffic tie-ups at the I-55/72 interchange.
“I will go to Senator (Dick) Durbin’s office and Representative (Tim) Johnson’s office and there are some meetings lined up to see what we can do to make our presence known and to see what we can do,” McCoy said.
“In the performance of his duties, President Stroger submitted his executive budget to the board’s finance committee on October 17, 2007,” says the complaint, filed in county court by Stroger, state’s attorney Richard Devine, and sheriff Tom Dart, naming all 17 board members as defendants.”
“This report confirms what many of us have said for years — that county government is a patronage dumping ground and run for the benefit of political workers and politicians instead of taxpayers,” said Commissioner Forrest Claypool, a Stroger critic. “We’ve seen another unnecessary half-billion-dollar tax increase to pay for the perpetuation of this system.”
* Prayer in Public Schools: Is the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act Constitutional?
The Chicago Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) will host a panel discussion on Wednesday, March 5 at 12:15pm at John Marshall Law School, Room 200, 315 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago.
Even if Schock or state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, win their respective races for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, they are not obligated to close out their Illinois campaign funds, so long as they keep paying the filing fees twice a year.
A watchdog group today filed a complaint alleging that Collins withheld information on the political money she raises and spends. The Campaign for Political Reform wants the State Board of Elections to investigate.
A state legislative panel last week delivered an unmistakable “No” to the governor: You cannot massively expand health coverage in the state without legislative approval.
Barry Maram, the governor’s director of health care and family services, said the administration is not touting free insurance, but the opportunity for people to buy into affordable insurance policies.
* Bernard Schoenburg: Democrat has difficult fundraising battle in 18th District
For Callahan to raise the kind of money she is talking about would certainly be extraordinary for a Democrat in the 18th. But that, in part, is because the district, while changed periodically through redistricting, has been solidly held by LaHood and before him, then-U.S. House Minority Leader BOB MICHEL, R-Peoria, for decades.
