* The one revelation that has always stuck with me from that statewide gubernatorial bus trip I took last year was my respect for First Lady Patti Blagojevich. She’s smart and down to earth, which is a pleasant contrast with her husband’s personality. She’s also a very good mother to their two daughters, who, by the way, are a couple of great kids. (The biggest fear I had about that trip was spending three days on a bus with a couple of brats. It turned out they were one of the highlights of my little adventure.)
Mrs. Blagojevich was interviewed today by the Southern Illinoisan and the audio is posted here. The first half is mostly about the DuQuoin State Fair, but the second half is more about her own thoughts on the current imbroglio.
Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement following the diagnosis of a brain tumor, a prognosis the Sun-Times’ political columnist describes as “dire.”
“The details are being worked out with the doctors this week, but the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy,” Novak said.
Whatever you feel about Novak (and there’s a lot of negativity about the guy out there), you have to admit that he has driven the news for decades. I don’t know if he knows this or not, but years ago I modeled the Capitol Fax off of the Evans & Novak Report, without the overt partisanship, of course.
In many ways, Bob Novak has been a hero of mine, even though we’ve never met, or even communicated. I certainly hope I get the opportunity to visit with him and tell him what he’s meant to me over the years.
* This may sound counter-intuitive, but I’m also a fan of Sam Zell. Hey, I don’t like a lot of his ideas and I dumped all over that goofy plan to have the state buy Wrigley Field, but it is indisputable that he is bringing an energy and innovation to Mother Tribune that hasn’t been seen there in decades, if ever. So, I mostly agree with this post over at Recovering Journalist…
Tribune’s employees would be a lot better off trying to understand what’s really happening to their industry and papers and redirecting their energy toward improving their newspapers and Web sites to make them more interesting and attractive to readers and advertisers. That’s how to save jobs. Whining–and worse–about Sam Zell isn’t going to change a… thing. It’s just childish behavior.
* And in the spirit of good feelings and personal revelations, here’s a photo of three of my nieces with my grandma…
…Adding… It turns out that Paul McCartney is a pretty cool guy.
* The “revolt” by congressional Republicans over energy prices is getting some media play…
Continuing with their guerilla tactics from last week, House Republicans will be back on the floor Monday to talk gas prices, even though Congress is in recess, and they may stay there all week. […]
“In an urgent memo sent to GOP Members and staff Saturday (“A Call to Action on American Energy”), Republican Leader John Boehner (R-) and Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) hailed Friday’s action, and encouraged House Republicans to return to the Capitol beginning Monday morning to help keep the historic effort going,” said a press release just released by Minority Leader Boehner’s office. […]
Republicans felt they got a lot of good press out of Friday’s “revolt,” so they will be back at it again, and younger GOP lawmakers were clearly energized by the tactic, something not evident among Republicans for most of the 110th Congress
* And, right on schedule, here’s a recent news release from Congresscritter Peter Roskam…
Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) will return to the floor of the United States House of Representatives today to seek an emergency session of Congress to address the impact rising gas prices have on American families. Congress adjourned Friday for five weeks without a vote on solutions to lower gas prices. […]
The unscheduled Monday return to Congress comes on the heels of more than 48 Members of Congress staying past adjournment on Friday. […]
More than 30 Illinois 6th District constituents will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit on the House floor and witness Congress in action.
Roskam will then host a round table discussion with his constituents to discuss how rising energy prices have impacted their family.
A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department. […]
The 1.6 million barrels a day in record petroleum exports represented 9 percent of total U.S. refining capacity of 17.6 million barrels a day.
However, with refiners operating at 85 percent of capacity during the January-April period, the shipments represented a much a larger share of total U.S. oil products produced.
The exports were also equal to half the 3.2 million barrels of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products the United States imported each day over the 4-month period. […]
U.S. gasoline shipments in April averaged 202,000 barrels a day, the most for the month since 1945, when America was sending fuel overseas to ease supply shortages in other countries during World War II. Gasoline exports in April 2007 were almost half at 116,000 barrels per day.
According to the article, the largest share of our exports went to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Singapore and Brazil.
In the last four years, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; yet, in that same time, 18,954 wells were actually drilled. That means that companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.
Further, despite the federal government=s willingness to make public lands and waters available to energy developers, of the 47.5 million acres of on-shore federal lands that are currently being leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually “in production,” or producing oil and gas. Similar trends are evident offshore as well, where only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently producing oil or gas.
Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land and waters that they are not producing oil and gas. Oil and gas companies would not buy leases to this land without believing oil and gas can be produced there, yet these same companies are not producing oil or gas from these areas already under their control. […]
Proponents of opening additional lands to oil and gas leasing assert that vast quantities of oil and gas are closed to energy development. In fact, according to the Minerals Management Service, of all the oil and gas believed to exist on the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of the natural gas and 79% of the oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.
None of this stuff is being debated in the media or by the Republicans. Just the “Drill here, drill now” slogan.
* Related…
* ‘Major discovery’ from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution - Scientists mimic essence of plants’ energy storage system
Most states have some form of law when it comes to helmets and motorcycles. For example, although Wisconsin does not have a mandatory helmet law for all riders, it does when it comes to motorcycle riders 17 and younger. The only two states in the country with absolutely no helmet laws are Illinois and Iowa.
We realize that the subject of helmet laws is a touchy one. Motorcycle enthusiasts have in the past vehemently opposed mandatory helmet laws. However, we believe that juvenile passengers on motorcycles should be required to wear helmets. Adults can make their own decisions and deal with the consequences. But juveniles are another matter entirely.
The facts support the notion that helmets do help prevent serious injury and death in motorcycle crashes. According to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, helmets saved the lives of 1,658 motorcyclists nationally in 2006. If all motorcyclists had worn helmets, an additional 752 lives could have been saved. Motorcycle helmets are estimated to be 37 percent effective in preventing fatal injuries.
Juvenile passengers on motorcycles should be required to wear helmets. We would urge the Illinois Legislature to address this issue.
* The question: Should Illinois law require all motorcycle riders and passengers under 18 to wear helmets? Explain.
* Rev. Sen. James Meeks is tired of waiting for “some day” to come…
State Sen. James Meeks took to the pulpit Sunday to reiterate his plea for Chicago Public Schools parents to keep their children out of city schools the first day of class and instead go to the New Trier district.
Meeks, pastor of Salem Baptist Church, and other minority clergy are seeking to highlight the inequalities between rich, white and poor, minority school districts in the state. On WLS-Channel 7, Meeks said if the state can draw the Olympics here, it can also come up with a fair funding solution.
* Without a doubt, if you are poor and a minority in Chicago, the school your child attends just plain sucks…
Some parents support the boycott, as they witness first-hand the disparities in school funding.
“I grew up in the CPS system, and as a father, it’s really disgusting to send a child to a school that doesn’t even have toilet paper [or has] 20-year-old books. It’s despicable,” parent Lewis Roy said.
* Kadner doesn’t think Meeks’ boycott plan goes far enough…
Some people will accuse Meeks of grandstanding.
I don’t think he’s going far enough.
In order to launch a protest that would really have an impact, children from every poor school district would probably have to block the entrances to the school houses in every wealthy school district in the state - not for a day but for weeks.
I believe the education crisis in this nation is worse than the terrorist threat.
Money won’t solve the problem, but it’s the only way to start.
The current system works for children who come from good communities and have good parents.
It does not work for those who don’t.
You can keep on punishing them for their misfortune, generation after generation, or improve the schools in an effort to make life better for everyone.
Reduce class sizes. Make the schools safe. Update technology. Invest in the future.
Declare war on ignorance.
You don’t need to fly an airplane loaded with explosive into a tower to destroy thousands of lives.
We’ve been doing it here in Illinois for 20 years.
Read the whole thing. Kadner destroys a whole lot of arguments against doing something to address this crisis.
This week, Meeks says a major organization will file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the State of Illinois regarding the funding issue.
And this week, members of the Illinois Black Caucus will introduce legislation stating Illinois students should be able to attend the schools of their choice.
An analysis of audit reports covering the last three Illinois governors shows that Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration has been plagued by substantially more reports of mismanagement and waste than his two predecessors.
A comparison of audits for 22 major state agencies dating to 1997 found Blagojevich has had nearly as many problems running state government as former governors George Ryan and Jim Edgar combined.
The survey looked at yearly audit findings for agencies that are under the governor’s control at similar points in each of their administrations.
For Blagojevich, the survey determined that auditors raised questions about the proper use of taxpayer dollars in 326 instances. Ryan’s administration had 137 findings in the second half of his one term, while auditors found 203 problems within agencies overseen by Edgar during the second half of his second term.
Analysts say the problems uncovered by Auditor General William Holland’s office may indicate how serious a governor is about managing the state’s resources.
That’s an understatement.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R looks at the governor’s touted job creation numbers for his capital construction package, which the governor has claimed would create hundreds of thousands of jobs….
“There would be an increase of manhours in construction, no doubt,” Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President Greg Baise said. “I’m not buying that all of a sudden we’re going to have full employment.”
Baise opposes the current capital bill, which isn’t mentioned in the piece. But he did make a good point.
* Drill down further in the piece and you get this…
If a $35 billion capital plan would create 611,000 jobs, only about 254,000 of them would be direct jobs. Another 68,000 would be indirect. The remaining 289,000 would be induced.
* “Induced” jobs are those allegedly created by construction workers and company owners spending the money they make…
[Southern Illinois University economics professor Subhash Sharma] agreed that “induced” jobs are tied to people’s spending habits, which can change depending on the economy. Right now, for example, people are spending more on gasoline, less on other things. Others may be inclined to save money instead of spend it.
* And then there’s this…
The numbers also measure jobs created, not people working. A person could work on a road project in Peoria, move to Rockford when the Peoria job is completed and get a job in Rockford working on a new project. That is two jobs created by the capital plan, but only one person employed. [emphasis added]
That’s an important thing to note.
In other words, don’t be like so many editorial writers in this state. Take all the capital numbers with a grain of salt.
Want to buy a newspaper company? No? You’re in good company.
The Chicago Sun-Times is the kind of trophy that once appealed to deep-pocketed buyers. It has a big audience in a big market, a storied name, and stars like Roger Ebert and Robert Novak. The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the flagship paper and dozens of smaller suburban papers, said in February that it wanted to sell assets or maybe the entire company. The chief executive, Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr., said May 8 that “a large number of parties” had asked to see the books, and that the company expected to field offers by the end of that month.
Since then, silence.
This is no isolated case. While all publicly traded newspaper companies have seen their share prices fall in the last year — drops of 50 to 70 percent are commonplace — some have tumbled so far that any number of bargain hunters could snap up a controlling interest, despite the credit squeeze. But they haven’t.
* Remember a few years back when Yusef Jackson put together a group that offered to pay $850 million for the Sun-Times? Back then, the paper and its properties were only worth about $440 million. Now, the company is worth less than ten percent of that. The stock has been de-listed from the NYSE, it has closed several papers, laid off a ton of employees and the flagship paper is a bit on the, um, thin side.
GateHouse Media is likely to default under its credit agreement unless it can negotiate an amendment to its covenants or get a cash injection from its largest stakeholder, Moody’s Investor Service says in a report downgrading the community newspaper publisher’s credit and probability of default ratings.
* Billy Dennis notes that one of the ways out is for the conglomerate to sell off papers. But as the top story here shows, nobody wants to buy newspapers right now. This was reinforced by an interview BD did of former Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine…
There are no named buyers for papers right now. Landmark properties have been on the block since the beginning of the year. Big papers like Newsday attract big money buyers who can afford to lose a few bucks. If there are wealthy philanthropic people in Peoria or some corporation with a heart or passion for democracy, they are the likely buyers. No way to value the paper due both to lack of data and no sense of how close we are to the buyer. Being unionized isn’t necessarily an issue as a buyer can buy the assets, close the doors, de-unionize and tell folks to reapply for their job.
* GateHouse is likely on the verge of being delisted from the NYSE, but you’d never know it by reading one of the company’s papers. It’s a virtual blackout, which is one reason why so many people are so worried about the negative impact of media consolidation. If you rely solely on a GateHouse paper for your news, you have no idea that the company is in the toilet. Thank goodness for people like Dennis.
Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. would accept an appointment to the Senate if Barack Obama wins the presidency and leaves Gov. Rod Blagojevich with a vacancy to fill.
“I wouldn’t say no if asked,” said the Illinois Democrat, who serves as a national co-chairman for Obama’s campaign. In the past, he has declined to speculate on Obama Senate succession scenarios.
Gov. Blagojevich is not a huge fan of the congressman, so I’m not sure if this’ll happen.
* Stu Rothenberg reports on a new poll. Republican freshman incumbent Peter Roskam is way ahead of Jill Morgenthaler in the 6th District race….
According to a July 20-22 survey by Public Opinion Strategies for the congressman’s campaign, Roskam leads Democrat Jill Morgenthaler 59 percent to 29 percent in a general election match up. Roskam also appears to be well-liked, enjoying 59 percent favorable to 20 percent unfavorable personal ratings in the survey.
Obama is expected to do very well in the 6th District at the top of the ticket, and is winning it by 8 points, 49 percent to 41 percent, over Sen. John McCain (R). In 2004, President Bush won the district with 53 percent over Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
Last cycle, Roskam won the open seat 51 percent to 49 percent over Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth, in one of the most competitive and most expensive House races in the country. Roskam was an obvious target this cycle because of the closeness of his 2006 race. But Morgenthaler’s candidacy has disappointed. She finished June with $278,000 in the bank, compared to $1.2 million for Roskam.
Very little advertising has been done there, so this isn’t hugely surprising. Roskam’s 59 percent, however, is somewhat surprising considering how tight the race was in ‘06.
And the money is less of a problem if the national Dems jump in with both feet. The lack of any apparent Obama coattails right now also isn’t hugely surprising. If that happens, we’ll see it later.
But, obviously, the best time to win this seat for the Democrats was two years ago, when it was open.
“He just has this confidence that—I don’t know where it comes from or how he maintains it—goes beyond confidence, just outright knowledge that he can make a difference,” says his daughter Trish Oberweis, an associate professor of criminal justice at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
“I don’t believe I would be a normal, average individual legislator,” says Oberweis, who is tall and lumbering, with a slight paunch and a tendency to rap his hand against the table when making a point. “I have a history of making some things happen where people said it was impossible.” […]
It’s unclear whether Oberweis gets discouraged. Patrick Joyce, the executive vice president of Oberweis’s investment firm since 1994, who referred to his former boss as a “visionary,” says, “Maybe a lesser person would’ve stopped . . . but I think his inner desire is so strong that he continues to move forward.” Each of Oberweis’s five children spoke of their father’s unshakable faith in himself, and Oberweis often referenced his entrepreneur’s resilience in bouncing back from blows personal and professional. “Every human being has their breaking point, and I don’t know where that would be for my dad,” Trish Oberweis tells me. “He’s human, so I’m sure it’s out there, but I don’t see it at this point.”
Oberweis resists saying where his breaking point is. The mounting losses and the public sneers do hurt him, Trish Oberweis says, but he seems to view them less as signs than as additional obstacles on his path to inevitable political office. “There was a guy about 130 or 150 years ago who had several losses before he won,” he says. “I can’t quite remember his name, but he went on to become the president of the United States. His first name was Abraham. What was his last name again?”
That’s a bit much.
* I’m really not sure why the Steve Sauerberg US Senate campaign decided to put this video online, but you should definitely take a look anyway, just for snicks…
* Manzullo, GOP Friends, to Keep Talking to Themselves?
* LA Times: In study, evidence of liberal-bias bias - Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias — but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.
* DCCC Money Could Tip the Balance in Races at the Wire
As I write this, Governor Rod Blagojevich is contemplating yet another special legislative session to take up a newly revised $25 billion infrastructure repair proposal for transportation, schools and economic development.
Whatever happens, it certainly appears that any special session would be an exercise in futility. House Speaker Michael Madigan is not budging off his opposition to the governor’s capital construction plan, even in its newly revised and scaled-back form.
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who attended last week’s legislative leaders meeting on Madigan’s behalf, dumped all over the proposal’s remaining funding stream - leasing the Illinois Lottery to a private company. She wasn’t impressed with the fact that the governor had taken gaming expansion off the table as a funding mechanism, and she said Blagojevich ought to sign the “pay to play” bill to ban contractor contributions before anyone should even consider talking about a capital bill that will award tens of billions of dollars to many of those same contractors.
The governor, for his part, kept up his public attacks on Madigan for refusing to cooperate. After the leaders meeting, the governor’s staff leaked a harsh letter that Madigan allegedly sent to a Teamsters Union official: “I regret that you bought into the bull____ of the Blagojevich people.”
Yep. Another banner day in Illinois government.
The only conceivable reason for bringing legislators back to town would be to continue the Madigan bashing festivities, because it doesn’t look like he’s ready to cave any time soon.
Lots of people wonder why Madigan is refusing to cooperate on a concept that just about everyone agrees is vital to the state’s interests. They also wonder when, or even if, he’ll get off the dime and advance a proposal of his own.
I’ve pointed this out before, but it’s worth repeating. Last year, Madigan slow-walked several big legislative proposals, refusing to close any deal until it was done his way, on his timeline and was completely unconnected to other issues.
The mass transit bailout is a case in point.
Madigan stubbornly pushed the bailout plan, which was hammered out by the Chicago-area transit systems and their unions, when others wanted big changes. He refused demands to connect it to the governor’s health care dreams, or the capital bill and whatever else was brought up. The speaker persevered through a couple of dramatic “doomsday” shutdown deadlines and waited until the last possible moment before finally advancing his proposal. The governor used his amendatory veto powers on the bill to allow seniors to ride free, but other than that Madigan got his way.
Expect the same on the capital projects bill. When Madigan decides it’s time, he’ll do something. The trouble is, nobody knows when he’ll make that decision.
Meanwhile, Madigan is way out on a limb with this thing. He’s more isolated now than he’s ever been on any issue in his entire career. All the other legislative leaders, most of his political allies, and quite a few of his members oppose his current posture. That letter released by the governor’s office is a good example of just how rough he can be on anyone who takes a side other than his, and a whole lot of people have taken sides against him on this capital plan.
Yet, nothing seems to move Madigan. The governor’s evisceration of his daughter Lisa’s attorney general budget provoked ‘nary a peep. Traditional allies are pushed aside, the dire needs of a state slipping into recession are downplayed, editorials are ripped up, critics are scorned, and the end result is always the same: No movement.
Madigan has his reasons for refusing to work with Blagojevich and Jones. Many, many, many of them are sound. He’s been burned repeatedly by both men, and he simply doesn’t trust their word on anything.
“I got taken to school last year,” Madigan told Senate Republican Leader Watson about 2007’s disastrous, record-breaking overtime session. “So I figured while I was at school I might as well learn something.”
That “something” appears to be to refuse to cooperate until he’s ready to push his own plan.
But the bottom line is nobody really has a clue about what he’ll do and when he’ll do it. Madigan likes it that way, of course, but it can drive an observer absolutely crazy.
Illinois voters have a right to expect proactive enforcement of campaign disclosure laws, but the Board of Elections functions more like a repository for whatever bogus paperwork the candidates choose to submit. That’s inexcusable.
The proposal was drafted by members of the Illinois congressional delegation, in response to the potential purchase by the Canadian National Railway of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern rail line.
With gas around $4 a gallon, fair officials hope the $3 daily admission and a list of free activities draw visitors from across the state to the fair, which begins Thursday night in Springfield.
According to a study by the Pew Center on the States, one out of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in prison or jail. And because of the racism of the American “justice” system, the numbers are much higher for people of color–if you are an African American man between the ages of 20 and 34, your likelihood of being behind bars today is one in nine.
* The county that does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it, and taxpayers are doomed to repeat payment
So let’s review: The courts find a strip-search policy unconstitutional, the county pays a settlement, then keeps right on strip searching, imagining — hoping — that the finding only applied to female inmates
Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine has reached an agreement with Bryan Cave LLP to head up the litigation department of its Chicago office when Devine leaves office in December, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Budget deficits are not described on the weekend. You don’t make a decision on the weekend on a budget deficit. You really believe that? On the weekend you’re going to solve the budget crisis? You’re going to solve it in two days or a week or a month? No.
trip I took last year was my respect for First Lady Patti Blagojevich. She’s smart and down to earth, which is a pleasant contrast with her husband’s personality. She’s also a very good mother to their two daughters, who, by the way, are a couple of great kids. (The biggest fear I had about that trip was spending three days on a bus with a couple of brats. It turned out they were one of the highlights of my little adventure.)
