* I’m closing down a bit early today. Long week. I’m planning a relaxing weekend, free of stress and work. Hope yours is a great one.
* I downloaded an iPhone doohickey called Shazam the other day. Supposedly, it can identify songs just by holding your iPhone or Blackberry up to the speaker. I was skeptical, but it appears to work.
Somebody Tweeted this video earlier today. I kinda liked it, thought of using it for our end of week post, then realized there was no band name or song title included. It sounded like The Shins, but I wasn’t sure. So, I cranked up the Shazam and - shazam - it worked.
Simply amazing.
I figured I had to use the video so I could tell the fantastic story of Shazam.
Here are some out of towners doing the Chicago tourism thing to The Shins’ “Australia”…
* Rep. Jack Franks, who wants to run for governor as a Democrat, just called to say his campaign committee will report raising a little over $1.3 million in the last six months. His campaign fund has about $1.4 million in the bank, Franks said, adding that $150,000 of the total raised is a loan from himself.
That certainly makes him a player.
* Monday is the campaign finance report filing deadline, and you can watch them come in at this link if you’ve got nothing better to do over the weekend.
* A few reports of note, starting with Chicago Alderman Ed Burke…
Funds available at the beginning of the reporting period $3,794,862.62
Total Receipts $110,010.60
Subtotal $3,904,873.22
Total Expenditures $220,634.52
Funds available at the close of the reporting period $3,684,238.70
Investment Total $1,987,118.48
Add the investment total to available funds for all the money he has. Quite a lot.
* IPACE, which is the Illinois Education Association’s PAC…
Funds available at the beginning of the reporting period $1,556,492.43
Total Receipts $2,419,631.86
Subtotal $3,976,124.29
Total Expenditures $1,736,596.22
Funds available at the close of the reporting period $2,239,528.07
* The pro-choice Personal PAC…
Funds available at the beginning of the reporting period $748,866.95
Total Receipts $101,027.35
Subtotal $849,894.30
Total Expenditures $269,451.73
Funds available at the close of the reporting period $580,442.57
…Adding… In other political news, more political nepotism…
Former Ald. Billy Ocasio said today he wants his wife to succeed him as 26th Ward alderman, and he has withdrawn his recommendation of a controversial minister as his replacement.
Ocasio told the Tribune today that Mayor Richard Daley has interviewed his wife, Veronica Ocasio, for the opening created when he quit the City Council recently to become an aide to Gov. Patrick Quinn.
Veronica Ocasio is an aide to U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). When Gutierrez was elected to Congress in 1993, Daley appointed Ocasio to fill the vacancy on the council. […]
Gay rights activists had opposed the potential appointment of Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus, citing his comments about gays. Today, Ocasio said DeJesus dropped out of consideration because he does not live in the 26th Ward.
I told you several days ago that DeJesus didn’t live in the ward.
…Adding more… I forgot to mention that Rod Blagojevich’s campaign filed a report verifying that he emptied out his campaign fund due to a federal restraining order. All the cash was turned over to the federal clerk of the court. The D2 report is here and the letter explaining the action is here.
* Earlier this week, the House and Senate unanimously approved SB291 and sent it to the governor in a single day.
What does the bill do? From the synopsis…
Amends the Notice by Publication Act and the Newspaper Legal Notice Act. Provides that one of the 5 elements of the definition of “newspaper” is modified to provide that a newspaper consists of not less than 4 pages of printed matter and contains at least 100 (instead of 130) square inches of printed matter per page.
Senate President John Cullerton told reporters this week that the change was intended to make sure the Sun-Times and the Chicago Defender could continue publishing taxpayer-financed legal notices since the papers had altered their designs…
The legislation also makes clear that any legal notices published by the newspapers in violation of existing state law are now to be considered valid…
Provides that any notice published prior to the effective date of the amendatory Act that complies with the amendatory Act is legal and valid for all purposes. Effective immediately.
That’s what you would call bending over backwards for a couple of publishers.
…Adding… The bill was actually introduced by House Majority Leader Barb Currie on behalf of the Hyde Park Herald, where David Axelrod got his start. A Sun-Times employee just said this was the first he’d heard of any benefit for his paper.
* Back in May, both chambers unanimously approved SB1671, which extended the sales tax exemption for graphic arts machinery and equipment until August 30, 2014. The tax credit was set to expire at the end of July.
Just for good measure, the General Assembly made it clear that newspapers were included in this tax exemption…
For the purpose of this Section, persons engaged primarily in the business of printing or publishing newspapers or magazines that qualify as newsprint and ink… are deemed to be engaged in graphic arts production.
Please, keep all of this in mind when you read newspaper editorials about taxes and spending.
* Proud atheist Rob Sherman wrote recently about the new capital bill, which he claims includes…
…hundreds of unconstitutional donations to politically connected houses of worship, ministries, parochial schools and other religious organizations.
Sherman also claims that Gov. Pat Quinn “knows that those provisions are unconstitutional, because he told me so.”
Last fall, when Rod [Blagojevich] was still the Governor, I spoke with Pat, in the parking lot of the State Capitol in Springfield. Pat was sitting in the driver’s seat of his modest, humble, white sedan.
I mentioned to Pat that I was in Springfield, that day, on a hearing regarding my lawsuit against Rod and the State of Illinois over Rod’s proposal to donate one million of our tax dollars to Pilgrim Baptist Church.
Pat said that he was aware of my lawsuit and that he agreed with me: Donating state money to a church is unconstitutional, he said.
Sherman also claimed that his “team of attorneys” is preparing a lawsuit to block the capital projects which benefit religious institutions.
* The Question: Is Sherman right or wrong about these capital grants? Explain.
…Adding…Erickson had a story on this topic a few days ago and I didn’t see it…
In Normal, the St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Newman Center on the campus of Illinois State University is in line for $200,000 in state funds. The under-construction facility, which will serve Catholic university students, is being built for $3.2 million with most of its financing coming from the Catholic diocese in Peoria. […]
State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said the state money is aimed at the student services portion of the Newman Center project.
“I was looking for a way to help ISU and its students,” said Brady, a candidate for governor and a Catholic.
* Basic facts to remember when talking about legalized poker machines. The quotes are from Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie)…
“While you can argue this (video gaming machines) is a dangerous and addictive form of gaming, there are 65,000 of these machines licensed only for amusement throughout the state now. Many are (illegally) paying out.” […]
Lang said by legalizing and regulating gaming payoffs the total number of machines would be reduced across the state from 65,000 to 40,000 and he added establishments violating laws regarding the machines would lose their liquor licenses. […]
Under the new law, net revenues from the machines would be taxed at a rate of 30% with 25% going to the state and 5% going to the local municipality.
The law provides local municipalities the ability to ban the legal gaming machines from their communities through either a vote of the city council or village board or through a referendum vote of the people.
Those amusement licenses on existing poker machines will all expire soon. And then they can’t be renewed. The state has the right under the new law to seize those unlicensed machines and destroy them and take away the liquor licenses of violators. That’s a particularly important point to remember. Tavern owners don’t like to endanger their licenses.
The referendum requirements are probably way too high, but local governments can ban the machines, and I expect at least some will do so.
* The basic problem with the law as I see it is that the GA gave oversight powers to the Gaming Board, which doesn’t have the resources to deal with the new reality. That oversight should’ve gone to the Illinois Lottery, which already has a statewide network and the machines that go with it. The Gaming Board is gonna be overwhelmed…
First up for the Gaming Board is settling on regulations and establishing, among other things, how gamblers will be paid their winnings and determining which bar owners must submit to criminal background checks, board spokesman Gene O’Shea said.
“It’s an understatement to say this is a major undertaking,” O’Shea said.
Then, the Gaming Board will seek proposals from companies to create and maintain a central computer system to keep track of “how much money goes in and how much money goes out,” O’Shea said. All video poker machines will have to come from licensed manufacturers, which have not been selected yet. The whole process could take 18 months or longer, O’Shea said.
Giving the program to the Lottery would’ve also avoided bringing the coin operated machine distributors into the equation. Andy Shaw of the Better Governement Association makes this point in a recent op-ed…
That will be to the delight of the mob, which has its fingerprints all over this business
Saloons provide jobs and sales taxes. The state might get its cut, but will it come at the expense of municipalities?
As noted above, municipalities will get a cut from the games. And now that all the profits will have to be reported, that will likely mean more taxes will be paid.
A 2005 report by the North Carolina Family Policy Council says video gambling is “socially devastating.” Video poker has been legal in North Carolina since 1993. The report says it is difficult for police to monitor illegal payouts, even with regulated machines.
Actually, those NC video poker machines are licensed for “amusement only” - the same as in Illinois before our new law. You can’t use that “study” (which is more of a report than a study, anyway) to compare Illinois’ future with NC’s present. Also, that NCFPC group seems far more interested in limiting “homosexual rights” than video poker.
* In what could turn out to be the most misreported story of the summer, we keep reading that the new budget “deal” funds private social service providers at 87 percent of last fiscal year. That just isn’t so.
Doug Schenkelberg at the Heartland Alliance, for one, claims that some providers will see cuts closer to 30 percent. And it may be a whole lot more once the governor finishes with over $2 billion in mandated spending cuts and agency reserves.
Meanwhile, even the social service agencies supposedly rescued by the budget agreement aren’t confident. The budget supposedly funds community-based services at 87 percent of last year’s level. But how the money is distributed is up to Quinn.
“We’re still in the dark,” said Dale Morrissey, chief executive officer of the Champaign-based Developmental Services Center. “They’re telling us it will be seven to 10 days at the earliest before we’re going to know what’s going on.”
Morrissey said social service providers don’t know how funds will be awarded, so he can’t make any decisions on reinstating laid-off employees.
The budget, which Quinn signed Wednesday, promises cuts of 13 percent instead of 50 percent in grants to service providers. But that’s an average — he could end up giving some programs full funding and slashing others more deeply.
And the governor and legislators warn that the new budget is far from solid. Quinn could order more cuts at the end of the year.
So additional money now will be nice, but no one will rush to spend it, said Janet Hasz, executive director of the Supportive Housing Providers Association, whose members run programs to shelter the homeless and mentally ill, those with chronic physical illnesses or substance-abuse problems.
* And then there’s the $3.2 to $3.6 billion in payments owed to vendors and providers which be delayed even further by this budget. Many social service providers haven’t been paid in months, and they’re gonna have to wait even longer now. It’s a double-whammy. The state cuts what it’s sending them and it’s delaying paying what’s already owed. Not good.
“The state of Illinois may have let these people down, but the citizens aren’t going to let that happen,” said Pekin resident, Suzan Tisdale. Frustrated with the state’s budget issues Tisdale is going around it.
She is organizing a concert in Pekin’s Mineral Springs Park on July 25. The proceeds will benefit four agencies that support Illinoisans with developmental disabilities. “Do it yourself, you’re probably going to raise more money in a faster amount of time and you won’t have all the bureaucracy and red tape to go through,” she said.
There’s no way that little concert will raise “more money” than the state funding unless they get some really big names to Pekin.
Yet, we’re encouraged to look on the bright side. “It does avoid a meltdown,” said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno. “More importantly, it avoids a tax increase.” Apparently that’s Illinois’ new threshold for success: Anything short of a complete and unconditional collapse and our legislators deserve a standing O.
* Republican Ethan Hastert, the son of former US House Speaker Denny Hastert, has begun raising money for a congressional bid. His performance to date isn’t exactly impressive. Hastert raised $86,600 in the second quarter of the year for his campaign against Democratic incumbent Bill Foster, who pulled in $384,173 and had $592,702 on hand.
Hastert’s fundraising expectations were quite high, considering his bloodline, but this report won’t impress anyone.
* Political quote of the day goes to GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft…
The 37-year-old graduate of Northwestern University and Loyola Law School spoke fondly of his years caddying at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton and the people he met on the job.
“Caddying was a fantastic experience … I developed a work ethic and learned to respect my elders,” Proft said.
Apparently, Proft does not believe that his fellow Republican candidates are his “elders,” even though they’re all older than him. He’s fast getting the reputation as the junkyard dog in the race.
* Proft does provide a glimpse into the future for Comptroller Dan Hynes, though, with this new press release…
While Burr Oak Was Robbed, Dan Hynes Raised $900K
Illinois government has basic responsibilities to its citizens. The Chicago 9 routinely ignore these core duties and meddle in areas where government has no place, while amassing political war chests for the next political stepping stone. In a Proft Administration government will fulfill its promises and focus on its core mission.
The Burr Oak Cemetery crime reveals in plain view that the Chicago 9 – in this instance Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes – are more concerned with perpetuating their power than with fulfilling their duty.
It would not surprise anyone that grave-robbing is illegal. But the response of Mr. Hynes, the constitutional officer who is responsible for cemetery oversight, is to pass a new law, grab a headline, move out, and move up. Cemetery oversight is the duty of the comptroller; outside of the constitutional responsibility to order state payments from funds maintained by the State Treasurer, oversight of cemeteries is one of the few other core duties of that office and Mr. Hynes has failed to fulfill his duty.
* Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney lays out the campaign ahead…
And with the wind of a faltering state legislature at his back, Whitney said his chances are good. While he acknowledged the failures of state lawmakers in Springfield who, for the third consecutive year failed to pass a budget on time, Whitney said that won’t be the focus of his campaign.
“Such an argument does carry some force and it may be one reason to vote for me,” he said. “But I will not base this campaign on the simple notion that, true as it is, I’m not one of them. This campaign will be about demonstrating to the voters that I am one of you.”
Whitney said he embraces a long-proposed measure that would lower property taxes in favor of an increased income tax as a means of both closing the state’s $11.5 billion deficit and providing more equal education funding across the state.
Among his other proposals Whitney endorsed a single-payer health care system, budget reform and measures to reduce the clout of special interest groups and big-business donors.
* State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) has endorsed Peoria native Raja Krishnamoorthi for comptroller. From a press release…
“Raja Krishnamoorthi has proven his commitment to a more transparent and efficient state government,” Senator Koehler said. “It will be a great honor that the next State Comptroller has deep roots in Peoria. I cannot think of another candidate that could better serve this state than Raja.”
The last person with Peoria roots to hold statewide constitutional office is believed to be John Edward A. Cassidy, who was Illinois Attorney General from 1938-1941, according to the Illinois Attorney General’s website.
* Democratic Cook County Commissioner Joan Murphy sponsored the 1 cent sales tax hike, but her Democratic primary opponent, Nick Valadez of Oak Forest, thinks there are other issues…
“It’s the anger and frustration of people who couldn’t park their commercial vehicles in the driveways of their own homes that convinced me to get in the race,” Valadez said.
“They swarmed my office begging me to run. I have 150 of them willing to campaign for me. They want to give me money for the campaign. They convinced me to get into this race. And that’s going to be one of my key issues in the campaign.” […]
Of course, Valadez is still going to criticize Murphy for backing that sales tax hike and later voting on an unsuccessful motion to repeal that law.
“She represents a district that borders Will County and Indiana,” he said. “If she was representing her constituents, she would have voted against that tax increase.”
Murphy also “stood up with Crestwood Mayor Robert Stranczek and tried to defend the village’s decision to distribute water that was poisoned,” Valadez said.
Target-rich environment.
Murphy reported raising almost $45,000 the first six months of this year and had about $25K in the bank by June 30th.
* I didn’t know this, but Sen. Kirk Dillard, an announced GOP gubernatorial candidate, threw out the first pitch at Rickett’s Field before Sunday’s game against the Cardinals…
If you listen carefully, you’ll hear that the announcer referred to Dillard as “Kurt.” Also, notice that he didn’t throw from the mound. His pitch did make it to the plate, though.
* Deputy House Majority Leader Art Turner will announce his lieutenant governor’s campaign soon. He has a website, but nothing’s there yet. And his FaceBook page announced his appearance on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” yesterday. No talk about campaigns, though. Just the budget…
* Yesterday, we posted a Pat Quinn campaign video featuring his attentiveness to southern Illinois. Today’s video is from the recent Gay Pride Parade in Chicago…
* Related…
* Retired Illinois judge to run for US Senate seat: Sixty-two-year-old Don Lowery of Dixon Springs in Pope County says he’ll be running as a Republican for the Senate seat now held by Roland Burris.
* Family of dead Burris ally-turned-critic seeks answers: “There’s not any paint transfer from another other vehicle, car marks or skid marks,” Kendall Sheriff’s Cmdr. Scott Koster said. Koster said there were no defects in the car and no drugs or alcohol involved. The accident was likely caused “by a few moments of inattentive driving,” Koster said.
(PRNewsChannel) / Chicago, Ill. / The Big 89, WLS-AM is Where Chicago Comes to Talk and for the next two Sundays, that is what Former IL Governor Rod Blagojevich will be doing. Blagojevich will host a two hour talk show on WLS (890 AM) from 12noon to 2pm.
“The personalities on The Big 89 are compelling, knowledgeable, opinionated and often times, controversial.” said WLS-AM Program Director, Bob Shomper. “Former Governor Blagojevich has all of these traits and more. This will be ‘must-listen’ radio.”
Blagojevich filled-in for The Big 89’s Don Wade & Roma morning show earlier this year.
Since his controversial ousting from office, Blagojevich has become a national celebrity who has appeared on TV news channels and programs such as NBC’s ‘Today’ show, ABC’s ‘The View’ and cable news outlets. He was invited and planned to compete on NBC’s ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’ reality show this summer. But when he could not go, his wife Patti, the former first lady of Illinois, went in his place. She came in fourth place and was a fan favorite.
For the outspoken former governor, radio is a natural fit.
“The former governor misses talking with people and getting into the mix on issues that affect Illinois,” says Glenn Selig, Blagojevich’s spokesman. “He wants to empower people by helping them understand what really goes on in Washington, Springfield, Cook County and the city of Chicago. He’s going to be provocative, entertaining and, at times, controversial.”
A “national celebrity”? Sheesh.
Also, he’ll have plenty of time to talk to people in prison. Maybe he could “empower” them by being a prison lawyer. Just sayin…
Three men were fatally shot. One man was fatally stabbed. Police shot one man and at least seven other people were wounded by gunfire — including an 8-year-old boy sitting in his bedroom — during an especially violent six hours late Wednesday and early Thursday mainly on the South and West Sides.
How do you stab and slash someone 61 times, not just killing but slaughtering him, then walk free?
That’s the lingering question in the wake of last week’s acquittal of Joseph Biedermann of Hoffman Estates, who admitted to inflicting numerous fatal wounds on Terrance Hauser during an early-morning altercation in March 2008 in Hauser’s apartment in the complex where both men lived.
The answer, in this case, is that you cast yourself as the victim of an attempted homosexual rape, then you throw in all-or-nothing with the jury.
The unemployment rate in Illinois climbed to 10.3 percent in June, up from 10.1 percent in May, but the pace of job loss slowed for the third straight month, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said today.
Some 13,900 jobs were lost in the state since May bringing the total number of employed to 683,300, the highest since November 1983, the agency said. The state has lost 272,600 jobs over the year and recorded job losses for nine consecutive months.
The state’s jobless rate continued to exceed the nation’s 9.5 percent rate and was well above the 6.6 percent rate reported in June 2008.
The good news, such as it is: Job losses in the Chicago metropolitan area slowed in June. We still lost jobs, though. The unemployment rate stands at 10.3 percent for the state, 10.6 percent for the region.
The area’s job losses have been on a steady, dreary march this year: 37,200 in January, 37,700 in February, 22,500 in March, 27,000 in April, 37,600 in May, and 2,300 in June, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
More than 200,000 jobs have been lost since the start of the recession.
Yet the company and the alderman face huge resistance from the City Council to a proposal for a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the South Side, at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue just west of the Dan Ryan.
Small business owners all across the city are being ticketed for having signs without permits, even though some of them hung the signs when it was perfectly legal to do so. Nowadays, a business isn’t supposed to hang any sign without hiring a bonded sign erector, paying fees and getting permission from several unconnected city departments as well as the local alderman. As difficult as it is to interpret tow-zone signs pointing every which direction, the permit process to put a sign above your storefront is even more baffling. Your heart sinks when you see that orange envelope under your wiper and know you must pay $50, but imagine getting a signage ticket for $3,000 in a year when your business is just barely hanging on.
If Chicago remains so hostile to start-up businesses and self-employed people when the region has now lost nearly 170,000 jobs in the last year alone, we have no hope of recovering. Instead of fining small businesses at every turn and enforcing confusing regulations that have nothing to do with protecting the public’s health and safety, the government should get out of the way of industrious people who want nothing more than to pursue their American dream. It is time that Mayor Richard Daley and the City Council support entrepreneurs so we can truly become “the city that works.”
“It is someone who has been laid off in manufacturing without any education going back to get their GED. It’s people that have master’s degrees. It’s across the board,” said Peggy Gundrum, director of career services at ECC. “A lot of them are feeling a panic and just want to find a job.”
But two partners recently dropped out of the alliance, reducing membership to nine. American Electric Power Co. and Southern Co. cited concerns about costs. Steve Higginbottom, spokesman for Southern Co., added that the company pulled out to focus on other technology research being conducted by the government and industry partners. The uncertainty of FutureGen also contributed, he said, but added: “We’re supportive of the FutureGen project. We think it has the potential to lead to some developments.”
Midway Games Inc., owner of the Mortal Kombat video game franchise, will close its Chicago headquarters and fire all 60 of its remaining employees at the corporate office (about 20 percent of its total work force) by early September, according to an SEC filing. Midway also has an office in Chicago that develops Mortal Kombat.
Last week, Midway sold its assets for $33 million plus accounts receivable to Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of New York-based Time Warner Inc. Midway filed under Chapter 11 in February, listing assets of $168 million and debt of $281 million.
Jake, one of Chicago’s best-known fashion boutique names, saw its big-spending customers disappear as the recession deepened in spring 2008.
What happened next is a story familiar to ailing businesses: Jake boutiques, run by parent company Price Allen Inc., missed a requirement by its lenders to make a profit one quarter. The bank pulled Jake’s credit line and commercial loan, totaling $1.5 million, and took over the boutiques’ assets.
Chicago has laid off 431 employees to help erase a threatened $300 million year-end shortfall. Those lucky enough to remain on the job have been forced to swallow furlough days and other concessions.
Still, employees at the city’s 911 center are raking in the overtime.
At least 13 police and fire communications operators were each paid more than $10,000 in overtime during the first three months of this year alone, records show. Georgine Murray topped the list with $23,439 in overtime through March 30.
Brennan said 290 city contractors were hired on as city employees in violation of federal court rules and that the city clerk’s office this year hired nine “connected” summer interns who were relatives of city workers — including relatives of three clerk’s office employees.
Kristine Williams, a clerk’s office spokeswoman, said the mayor’s Office of Compliance advised that family members of city employees could be hired as interns if they were not directly supervised by their relative.
The Better Government Association is suing Cook County after it rejected the BGA’s request under the state’s Freedom of Information Act for the county cell phone records for Stroger, Dunnings, Cole and the county’s chief of communications, Eugene Mullins. The Chicago Sun-Times made a similar request, which also was denied.
The county first told the BGA the request was too burdensome, so it couldn’t release the records.
What nonsense.
The county then said releasing the records could jeopardize an ongoing investigation.
In the wake of a grand jury investigation, raids by cops and a lawsuit to get back nearly $200,000 borrowed from Cook County, Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education Supt. Charles Flowers’ office now is refusing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests from the SouthtownStar.
Three months ago, the newspaper began filing FOIA requests, and though nearly every one came back requesting seven-day extensions, they were eventually filled.
The office has yet to respond to the SouthtownStar’s latest requests - dated June 19 and June 25 - for Flowers’ e-mails and cell phone records. Extensions, the latest of which expires today, were requested.
The nonprofit groups that promote some suburban downtown districts — planting flowers, hosting summer concerts, putting up holiday decorations and marketing the shopping areas — are funded, in part, by tax dollars. So does that mean they are accountable to the public about who runs things and how their money is spent?
But in addition to the tax they assess on themselves, some of these organizations — like the one in Elmhurst — are in TIF districts and get additional funds from taxpayer dollars. In Elmhurst’s case, the City Centre’s annual budget is about $900,000, split almost evenly between TIF dollars and money generated through the special service area.
The Schaumburg Fire Department wants to buy special breathing apparatus that could be used in cave-ins. The Arlington Heights department would like new equipment to clean, dry and disinfect clothing. And Des Plaines is in the market for a firetruck priced at nearly $500,000.
Some of these items are essential for firefighters, especially during emergency rescues, but the costs have officials worried. The weak economy combined with a lack of tax revenue is obstacle enough, but even more troublesome is the prospect that a federal grant program designed to help departments buy equipment may be cut next year by 70 percent.The scope of the cutback was unexpectedly steep, said Arlington Heights Fire Chief Glenn Ericksen.
Mayor Daley’s choice to chair the Commission on Chicago Landmarks has withdrawn from consideration to avoid a potential conflict, creating a leadership vacuum on a panel that will play a pivotal role in any renovation of Wrigley Field.
Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Daley’s trusted floor leader, is the odds-on favorite to replace retiring Zoning Committee Chairman William Banks (36th) at the helm of the City Council’s second most powerful committee, City Hall sources said Thursday.
“I have not talked to the mayor about it at all. [But] I’ve had folks say that’s something that might happen,” O’Connor said.
“If that’s what they want, that’s fine with me. But if they want to go in another direction, that’s fine, too. Oftentimes, you express an interest and it looks like you have this avarice for the position. People tend to say, ‘Forget it.’”
Banks refused to discuss his replacement during a break at Thursday’s Zoning Committee meeting. With one more committee meeting left before his Sept. 1 retirement, Banks is running out of time to train his successor.
A confusing, rambling meeting of the Regional Transportation Authority board ended in a vote to give no additional money to paratransit service for the disabled — which will run out of funds this fall.
Transit advocate Jim Watkins blamed the vote on a “a turf war” between the transit agencies.
“As of right now, come October, there will be no paratransit service,” Watkins said.
* Pace solution to budget woes ruffles feathers on RTA board
At a meeting of the agency’s Finance Committee, RTA Chairman Jim Reilly proposed sharing the deficit burden through Pace using $9 million in capital funds, the RTA allocating $8 million in funds shared by Pace, CTA and Metra and a third component of fare increases for paratransit on Pace.
But, competing priorities between Metra, the CTA and Pace emerged on the RTA board, which is a mix of representatives from Chicago and surrounding municipalities.
Insiders said that CTA and Metra leaders pressured some directors to hold off from backing the $8 million.
Pace Chairman Richard Kwasneski said he could not expect his board to move on the $9 million or ask riders to make sacrifices with fare hikes without the RTA’s cooperation.
A new plan is in the works that would link a long connection of separate south suburban trails so that people can bike, walk or even ride horseback through neighboring communities without the path being disrupted.
The I-355 Area Trails Master Plan is a detailed document recently adopted by officials in Homer Glen, Lemont, Lockport, New Lenox, the Will County Land Use Department, and the Forest Preserve District of Will County. The plan would link a proposed Veterans Memorial Trail that will run parallel to Interstate Highway 355 and other planned trails to existing routes.
