* 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 Billy Ocasio said today he wants his wife to succeed him as 26th Ward alderman, and he has withdrawn his recommendation of a controversial minister as his replacement.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.
* From CLTV, here’s Gov. Pat Quinn’s press conference from earlier todayWTTW’s videos include press questions, so I’m posting them instead.
Budget questions…
Burr Oak Cemetery…
…Adding… I just checked the blog’s statistics and realized that traffic was as high this past Tuesday and Wednesday as it was during the days leading up to Rod Blagojevich’s removal by the Illinois Senate. Wow.
The best part is, the new server system showed no hints of strain. The fix worked.
Anyway, I thought you’d like to know. Thanks much.
* Swing State Project takes a look at 2nd Quarter congressional fundraising and discovers lackluster numbers for Democratic state Sen. Michael Bond. All the figures, of course, are in thousands…
From the narrative…
Overall, I’m struck by the lackluster sums from many highly-touted candidates on both sides of the aisle. For the Dems, Michael Bond (IL-10), Charlie Justice (FL-10), Paula Flowers (TN-03), and Bill Hedrick (CA-44) in particular will need to step up their game.
Bond only had a month or so to raise that money, but he can’t scare anybody else out of the race with those numbers. Compare his totals to Republican Adam Kinzinger for context and it’s even worse. Kinzinger is an amateur, while Bond is a respected go-getter, so expectations were very high. He was probably hurt by Kirk’s indecision on the Senate race (particularly from the hardcore pro-Israel types and the business lobby who are with the incumbent Kirk). Still, those totals simply should’ve been better. That report puts blood in the water.
Bond told me today he hopes to push hard and fast after Kirk finally announces and quickly report new fundraising numbers. That’s an absolute must.
* On a much brighter fundraising note, a top source says Comptroller Dan Hynes will report raising about $900,000 during the first six months of this year and will have around $3.5 million cash on hand. No word yet on Gov. Quinn’s fundraising, but expectations are low, particularly after that flap over his June fundraisers which had to be canceled.
* Republican state treasurer candidate Sen. Dan Rutherford filed his six-month disclosure report with the State Board of Elections this morning. Rutherford raised $267,000 and had a bit over $400,000 cash on hand.
* GOP state Sen. Dan Cronin, a recently all but declared candidate for DuPage County Board Chairman, filed this morning with $150,000 raised in the past six months and $80,000 cash on hand.
* Moving along to other issues, The Hill reported this week that they couldn’t find any GOP Senatorial candidates who would take a position on President Obama’s Supreme Court nomineee…
Republicans running for the Senate next year, including those scrounging for votes to win difficult primaries, aren’t saying how they’d vote on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Interviews with a dozen Republicans running for Senate seats across the country failed to find one candidate who was willing to offer a clear position, despite the two months of public debate since President Obama picked Sotomayor for the high court.
So, with GOP Congressman Mark Kirk’s Senate campaign kickoff announcement expected this coming Monday, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is trying to make Sotomayor an issue. From a press release…
“I urge all individuals, Democrat and Republican, who have expressed an interest in running for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by President Obama to let Illinois voters know how they would carry out their responsibility on a confirmation vote for Judge Sotomayor.”
* Speaking of Kirk, far right national blogger Michelle Malkin took yet another whack at the Republican this week, and Illinois Review blogger Sam PIerce offered up some tongue in cheek Kirk campaign slogans…
* Mark Kirk Supports Manufacturing… in China and India
* Mark Kirk: Less Liberal
* Mark Kirk: Because Aborted Babies Don’t Vote
* Vote For Mark Kirk: Show Congress Cap and Trade Doesn’t Bother You
* Mark Kirk: A NARAL Republican
* Vote For Mark Kirk, Ignore His Fear of Lisa Madigan
* Vote Kirk: He Is Not Technically a Democrat
* Support Mark Kirk: Follow the McCain Model
* Politics First, Support Mark Kirk
* Conservative, Conshmervative, Vote For Kirk
* Mess With A RINO, Get The Horn
* Donate to Mark Kirk’s Campaign… Before The Cost of Everything Goes Up Thanks to Cap and Trade
* Vote For Kirk: Come On This Is Illinois, What Do You Expect?
* Mark Kirk: At Least He Wasn’t Appointed By Blagojevich
Frankly, “Mess With A RINO, Get The Horn,” is pretty darned good.
* GOP gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kirk Dillard got some good press in the Chicago Tribune today…
A newly proposed law would fire the entire University of Illinois Board of Trustees following an admissions scandal at the state’s most prestigious campus.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) proposed the legislation this week, saying the majority of U. of I. trustees failed to protect the university from the nepotism and patronage practices that plague Illinois politics. Eight of the nine current members were either appointed or reappointed by ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
But one of his primary opponents, Dan Proft, disagrees…
Now that all of this has come to light, Springfield politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, are attempting to foist responsibility onto admissions officers and university trustees whose only error was to go-along-to-get-along under political pressure from those very same politicians.
* 12:22 pm - The news gets even worse. From a press release. All emphasis added…
JUNE JOBLESS RATE INCHES HIGHER TO 10.3 PERCENT
0.2 PERCENT INCREASE TEMPERED BY SLOWING JOB LOSS
CHICAGO – The Illinois seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for June is 10.3 percent, an increase of +0.2 percent over May, according to figures released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
“Although the June unemployment figure has again increased, this number represents a slower pace of job loss for the third consecutive month,” IDES Director Maureen O’Donnell said. “The first part of an economic recovery is actually a slower pace of job
loss. Positive news is on the horizon, but it’s too soon to tell when we will begin to see job growth.”
Total non-farm payroll in Illinois declined by -13,900 jobs in June. While Illinois has lost jobs for nine consecutive months, the rate of that decline has slowed for three consecutive months. The number of unemployed people reached 683,300, the highest since November 1983.
The Construction sector lost -5,400 jobs in June, its largest monthly job loss this year. Employment in the Manufacturing sector declined -2,800. Although that represents the 17th consecutive month the sector has shed jobs, it is the smallest decline in the last
eight months. The Professional and Business Services sector reported its strongest gain in the last 24 months, adding +2,400 workers in June.
As noted below, the state’s unemployment trust fund was down to just $81.8 million in cash earlier this month. That’s a $1.45 billion drop since January.
* Rep. David Winters flies a plane to Springfield most session weeks.
But this week’s flight was out of the ordinary. The plane’s alternator literally fell apart during Winters’ flight, knocking out all electrical power. He was left with no radio, no altimeter, no navigation system, no flaps and no way to pump fuel from the alternative gas tank when the main tank almost ran out of gas.
Moody’s Investors Service put the state of Illinois’s general-obligation bond ratings on review for possible downgrade, saying the state has long-term budgetary challenges.
The firm said the state has a long history of general-fund operating deficits, and liquidity in the fund has been increasingly strained, which it said was evidenced by growing use of short-term debt and delaying payments to Medicaid providers and vendors… Moody’s said some of the proposed measures would help in the short term but be at the expense of future budget years. […]
Moody’s said increasing evidence of strained liquidity, growing structural imbalance, further deterioration of fund balances and other factors could cause a downgrade on the ratings.
The review will focus on consideration of the state’s prospects for restoring structurally balanced financial operations while addressing sizable funding requirements for pensions and retiree health benefits, as well as the state’s liquidity position and growing debt burden.
A focus of the review will be the budget legislation for the current fiscal year.
Our “growing debt burden” is beyond obvious, as is our pension nightmare. If the “focus” of the review is the goofy budget which just passed, then the state could be cruisin’ for a bruisin’.
This action also applies to ratings that are linked to the state’s general obligation rating, including Build Illinois Bonds (rated A1), Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority’s Expansion Project (A2) and Dedicated Tax bonds (A2). In addition, it affects the state’s Aa2 general obligation rating on the global scale.
With unemployment still rising, Illinois has had to borrow federal money to meet its obligations for jobless benefits.
The state has drawn about $9 million from a federal credit line to help replenish its unemployment insurance fund and pay out close to $100 million in unemployment claims. The fund had dwindled to about $81.8 million as of July 5 from $1.45 billion at the start of 2009.
“We are concerned about how the state will move from here to return to balanced financial operations,” said Ted Hampton, the Moody’s analyst who wrote the report on Illinois. “The state has essentially kicked the can down the road in terms of making decisions.”
Moody’s action drew an immediate reaction from one of the Republicans running for governor, state Sen. Kirk Dillard, who voted against the new state budget.
The action “is not a surprise. Wouldn’t you do this?” Mr. Dillard said in a phone conversation. “It’s time for the state of Illinois to tear up its credit card. We are pushing our obligations out further and are exacerbating our operaqting deficits.”
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office had no immediate response.
* After promising legislative action this week to deal with cemetery regulations, nothing happened, and it’s the usual Statehouse disaster…
State lawmakers left the State Capitol until the fall without addressing promised reforms of the cemetery industry spurred by the discoveries of disinterred remains at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip and political jockeying in the 2010 governor’s race may be a factor. […]
Sen. Emil Jones III, a Chicago Democrat whose district includes Burr Oak, said he agreed to delay potential legislation after a variety of interests raised issues about how to best deal with reforms in the cemetery industry. But Jones also said he felt slighted that he was not asked to help develop Hynes’ reform package.
Jones, however, was quoted in a Hynes’ news release touting the package and a Hynes’ aide said the lawmaker met with the comptroller about the legislation.
But Hynes said that after talks involving the Senate’s Black Caucus, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, state’s attorneys, county recorders and Rev. Jesse Jackson, “everything was lined up” until Quinn “decided to move an amendment that basically threw a wrench in everything and killed the bill.”
* Hynes is a likely Quinn opponent in the Democratic primary, so it’s no wonder that politics might be involved. But there were other reasons…
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), who Tuesday offered up the possibility of a Senate vote this week on the cemetery legislation, backed away Wednesday. Without elaborating, he cited concerns toward the legislation from the cemetery industry and from the Archdiocese of Chicago.
“There are questions raised by the cemetery community, by the Catholic cemeteries who didn’t have a lobbyist here who called in. So, as a result, we’re going to take that up when we come back,” Cullerton said.
* Still, it’s hard to shake the cynical notion that Quinn is trying to milk this issue for all it’s worth. Remember this leak to Sneed yesterday?
Watch for Gov. Quinn to weigh in on the Burr Oak Cemetery nightmare by calling for public hearings similar to the ones he convened to deal with the University of Illinois admissions scandal.
From the governor’s Thursday public schedule…
Governor Pat Quinn will hold a press conference to announce the formation of the Cemetery Oversight Task Force
“We don’t need a committee. We need a regulation,” said Jackson, who called on Quinn to order lawmakers back to Springfield immediately to take up the cemetery legislation. “We don’t need to study this. It’s obvious what the deal is.
But the governor made it clear that he knows what’s best…
“I know all about cemeteries. I go to a lot of funerals.”
- requiring all cemetery staff who sell plots to be licensed, just like doctors, barbers and cosmetologists.
- requiring cemeteries to provide “reasonable maintenance.”
- requiring cemeteries to keep detailed maps and records and to file them with the county recorder of deeds.
- creating a consumer bill of rights.
Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes calls for a plan to give the state new and needed oversight concerning cemeteries. Plenty of legislators are clamoring for the same.
Translation: “This is appalling. This is bad. The public is calling for heads on a pike. We should … DO SOMETHING!
Let’s create new offices! New officials! New documents and processing systems! Let’s pay for it all with new taxes and proudly proclaim we’re leading the charge against this moral assault on our dearly departed, dead citizenry.
Except of course, grave robbing is already illegal.
It’s time to step back here.
Such a stupid, likely isolated criminal scheme simply must not be allowed to create an entire squadron of cemetery functionaries - wandering with global positioning units to track the mostly peaceful, mostly quiet, grave sites of hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans.
Indeed, it’s this kind of misguided thinking that has led Illinois state government into the bloated, fetid bureaucracy it has become.
The budget [which passed yesterday] relies on $3.5 billion in borrowing to help pay state worker pensions. At the same time, the budget acknowledges that more than $3 billion in payments owed to various providers of state services will be carried over into the new budget year.
“It does avoid meltdown … (and) it avoids a tax increase,” Radogno said.
I suppose that depends on your definition of “meltdown.” There are steep cuts in spending included in this thing…
Quinn’s office said that under the new budget, the General Revenue Fund - that is, the money controlled by Illinois officials and not simply a transfer of federal funds - would total $26 billion. That’s down from $30 billion in the previous budget.
What the budget deal will not do is address the state’s multibillion-dollar backlog of unpaid bills. In fact, the spending plan might even create longer payment delays for providers that don’t receive extra federal stimulus funds for Medicaid reimbursements.
The state will maintain payment cycles for providers such as hospitals that capture extra federal stimulus funds. That does not include pharmacists or some grant-funded human services, however.
Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat, said the longer-term structural deficit will continue to plague state-funded services. “One thing that we’ll know with absolute certainty is that all of the hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health and human service providers will continue to experience severe cash flow problems,” particularly as the economic downturn makes it harder for them to access lines of credit, said Schoenberg, who said he’s working on two backup proposals if the borrowing schemes don’t pan out as hoped.
That means unless lawmakers revisit the budget in the coming months or there’s an economic turnaround of gigantic proportions, there’ll be yet another massive hole in next year’s spending plan.
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall warned me Wednesday that Illinois is already in worse financial shape than California, which so far has been the poster child for a state government run off the tracks.
At least Calfornia has started to make some of the tough decisions, Msall said.
In Illinois, we’re making matters worse by postponing them.
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded California’s general-obligation bond rating to Baa1 from A2, citing the state’s ongoing political impasse and its reliance on IOUs to pay bills. It was the second two-notch downgrade this month after Fitch Ratings issued an identical drop last week. […]
Moody’s said in a statement that its downgrade “reflects the increased risk to the legally or constitutionally required payments (’priority payments’) as the state deadlock continues and the controller has begun to make certain payments that are not legally or constitutionally required to be paid on time (’non-priority payments’) with IOUs.”
Even supporters held their noses as the revamped spending plan was introduced in the House, where Democrats failed to get a budget during the regular session.
“That’s seven years of running this state. Those of you on that side of the aisle ought really to be proud of what you’ve done in past seven years,” State Representative Bill Black (R-Danville) said.
After his fiery speech, though, even Black and many other Republicans voted for the budget.
Instead of dictating spending line by line, lawmakers largely decided to let Quinn decide which programs should be funded.
“We have essentially made him king of Illinois,” [Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago] said.
* The governor, however, was mostly unresponsive last night…
After saying he’d have to lay off as many as 2,600 workers if an income tax hike had passed, Quinn refused to be pinned down on how many government employees would be pink-slipped as a result of the budget the House and Senate presented him. He also was cagey when asked about possible state facility closures.
Despite a last-minute bargaining session early Wednesday, two hold-out unions refused to agree to Mayor Richard Daley’s demand for cost-cutting concessions, paving the way for 431 members of Teamsters 726 and AFSCME Council 31 to lose their jobs today.
“I feel terrible for workers losing their jobs and their families,” Daley said at a city hall news conference. “I did not want to lay anyone off. It could have been all avoided. … We held out hope that an agreement could be reached. That did not happen. So we’re forced to take this very sad and unwelcome step.”
Later Wednesday morning, top mayoral aides talked with AFSCME representatives and made it clear the city remained open to an agreement that matched the terms accepted by 25 of the city’s 27 unions.
The two-year deal calls for union workers to take 24 unpaid days through June 30, 2011, substitute comp time for cash overtime and convert all city holidays - nine a year for hourly employees and 12 for salaried workers - to unpaid days.
Daley is no stranger to layoffs. The 431 pink-slipped Wednesday were just the most recent Daley job cuts which, since the year 2000, have reduced the city’s workforce by 15 percent to 33,621 employees.
Mayor Daley on Wednesday denounced as a “phony story” reports that his newly-appointed Streets and Sanitation commissioner has agreed to implement a disciplinary amnesty for Streets and San employees.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that longtime Daley favorite Tom Byrne had agreed to wipe the disciplinary slate clean to help convince Laborers Union Local 1001 to agree to cost-cutting concessions.
The two-year agreement averted the need for 323 layoffs that could have impacted garbage collection. The firings would have forced the city to reduced 100 more garbage collection crews from two laborers-on-a-truck-to-one…
“Essentially, we’re going to give a pass to slackers, people who don’t show up. That’s a complete lie. This is a phony story… And I’m not mad because she’ll say I’m mad and you’ll get a picture.”
Mayor Daley said Wednesday he’ll roll the dice and ask an independent arbitrator to dictate new contracts with police officers and firefighters who must do their part to help solve the city’s financial crisis.
During his annual State of the City address, Daley noted that public safety employees who account for 70 percent of city spending were excused from a cost-cutting plan that required other city unions to choose between layoffs and furlough days and other givebacks.
“They’re not in the boat. We’re in the boat. … They have to come back to the boat. … We’re asking them to get back in the boat. Talk to your taxpayers. Talk to your neighbor. They have to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” he said.
“So we’re gonna go to arbitration with them. And I’ve asked every employee to understand: This is one city and all of us have to come together. It can’t be them and us.”
* Mayor Daley uses State of the City address to ask CPS, CTA, others to hold the line on taxes, fees, fares hikes
The mayor used his annual State of the City address to tackle the issues that have touched a nerve with Chicagoans. They range from higher taxes, youth violence and government corruption to video poker, the Olympics and Chicago parking meters.
“People are upset about a lot of things. They’re worried that they might lose their jobs — or they’ve lost their job or their home or their health insurance. They won’t be able to pay off the student loans or even take a vacation,” Daley said.
“The want to know we can get all we can from every tax dollar and manage government prudently, transparently. They want to know their streets are safe.”
To keep his hand out of taxpayer pockets, Daley urged the Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges, the CTA, CHA and Park District to hold the line on taxes, fees and fare hikes this year and to order their top level executives to join the furlough frenzy.
CTA officials said Wednesday that they would be able to plug a $35 million budget gap without service reductions, which they previously had said may be necessary.
The CTA plans to plug the gap through a hiring freeze overtime reductions, reductions in nonessential travel and seminars and fuel savings through the use of newer buses.
The raging safety-versus-money debate over red-light cameras took another twist Wednesday when a suburban traffic camera company said it wouldn’t agree to a break on fines for violators caught making illegal rolling right turns on red.
Lombard-based RedSpeed Illinois rejected a plan by River Forest to set a lower fine for such violations, as opposed to the more dangerous maneuver of blowing through an intersection.
On Monday, the River Forest Village Board voted conditionally to hire RedSpeed to install two traffic cameras on Harlem Avenue. But board members also said they wanted to limit right-turn-related fines to $50, half the usual $100 for tickets from red-light cameras.
Our four-part series Seeing Red revealed that the majority of tickets issued through the use of the cameras are for improper right turns on red. Also, numerous cameras are installed or planned at intersections where few crashes related to running red lights occur. Those two findings make it clear that, so far, these cameras are about making money rather than improving safety.
Adding to the concern is the troubling fact that the state is not informed of violators (cars are ticketed, rather than the driver) and therefore repeat offenders are not tracked.
“I hate them. I absolutely hate them,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican who voted for the original red-light camera legislation back in 2006. “It is strictly a moneymaking mechanism. I don’t believe it goes to public safety.”
State Rep. Paul Froehlich, a Schaumburg Democrat who voted for red-light cameras, says he will support tighter regulation to eliminate public concern that the cameras are misused to make money.
“This tends to reinforce the public perception that these guys are trying to haul in as much cash as they can,” Froehlich said. “That undercuts public support, and if you lose that, then these things could be gone entirely.”
Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who pushed for red-light cameras, said he is open to tinkering with the law to allay public concerns. But he also said that “would be tricky.”
Public service announcements playing on several area radio stations these days urges listeners to call Lipinski’s office to voice their opinion against a bill moving through Congress.
The announcement urges the congressman to vote against something called the Performance Rights Act. The bill would require radio stations, for the first time ever, to pay royalties to the bands and singers that fill their airwaves.
The spot involving Lipinski is one of six targeting legislators in the Chicago area who support the legislation or remain undecided about it.
Six years after a catastrophic porch collapse in Lincoln Park killed 13 people and forced a Chicago-wide crackdown on dangerous porches, the city has returned to a more passive vigilance of the hazards. While city officials say their hard work has reduced the potential threats, a shortage of inspection manpower and a continuing stream of newly reported cases mean that bad porches often are discovered only haphazardly — and sometimes too late.
The number of homes hit with foreclosure filings in Cook County in June spiked 23 percent from a year earlier, but dropped 17 percent from May, RealtyTrac said in its monthly report released Wednesday.
In the Chicago metropolitan area, foreclosures soared 38 percent in June to 10,346 from a year earlier, or one in every 363 homes, the report showed. Filings dipped 2 percent from May. One in every 373 homes in Cook County received a foreclosure filing.
Nationally, filings rose 33 percent over the year and 5 percent from May.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15 percent in the first half of the year as more people lost their jobs and were unable to pay their monthly mortgage bills.
The mushrooming foreclosure crisis affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year, according to a report released Thursday by foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.
Once the site of fund-raisers for politicians including soon-to-be president Barack Obama and then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Wilmette mansion of convicted businessman Tony Rezko is on the auction block.
Bank of America, the mortgage holder that won a foreclosure judgment on Rezko’s defaulted $5.9 million note in May, will auction the opulent, two-story, 8,400-square-foot home next month.
Sears Tower undergoes its identity change today. The nation’s tallest building becomes Willis Tower, and the guy who negotiated the switch understands the irritation he has created.
Joseph Plumeri, chairman of Willis Group Holdings Ltd., said that instead of bemoaning a name change for the iconic tower, Chicagoans should celebrate his company’s visibility and local commitment. In a time of corporate cutbacks, he’s bringing 500 jobs to Sears Tower by consolidating five Chicago-area offices.
Chicago’s Sears Tower is getting a new name, later today the skyscraper will be re-christened the Willis Tower. But another, perhaps more significant, change is also on the way for the building. Its owners want to give it a $350-million green makeover…
HUSTON: The windows that are currently installed in the building are single glazed windows; that means they are not insulated glass. Our plan is to change all 16,000 windows to a triple glazed unit…
There are 10 boilers. All of them will be replaced. They’ll also test wind turbines and add solar panels. All told they’re hoping to reduce electricity use by 80 percent.
Huston and his partners won’t say exactly how much of their own money they plan to kick in to accomplish that but they are hoping to get some public and private money for the project. One selling point: they say the rehab could create 3,600 green jobs. Scott Horst is with the US Green Building Council.
Kelci Stringer is suing football helmets and shoulder pads maker Riddell Inc. over her husband’s 2001 heatstroke death at training camp. U.S. District Judge John Holschuh set the trial date Monday in Columbus.
The trial will determine whether Chicago-based Riddell bears any responsibility for Korey Stringer’s death.
Dam Safety Rule 3703 would have created 350-foot exclusion zones around all of the state’s public waterway dams. As originally written, it would have required paddlers to remove their boats 300 feet north of a dam, and not put back in until 50 feet south.
The rule, drafted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, is intended to keep boaters safe from dangerous rolling dams. It was written in response to three drowning deaths near the Yorkville dam in 2007.
But opponents say it goes too far, and doesn’t take into account different types of dams in different locations.
The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules agreed and on Tuesday voted to hold the item indefinitely while the IDNR works out the kinks.
As of March 19, the plant began pumping up to 750,000 gallons a day of untreated wastewater into the Rock River on and off for March and April. The wastewater was pumped into the river because sewage began backing up into some customers’ basements. Cracked pipes, failing pumps and excess groundwater are pushing the plant beyond its capacity of 3 million gallons a day.
South Beloit has until Aug. 4, or 21 days from July 14, to craft a solution to get the treatment plant in compliance, said Charles Corley, water pollution regional manager with IEPA.
Once the solution is created, the problem is typically corrected within six to 12 months. If the city doesn’t correct the problem, the issue will be sent to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
Construction that the Army Corps of Engineers began last week on an island in Peoria Lake is far from the only step needed to restore a waterway that’s long been choking on silt. Despite some disagreements over its likely effectiveness, it does fit into one of the two broad ways in which the Illinois River’s problems can be addressed.
