* What the heck was Chicago State University President Wayne Watson doing when he was Chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago? Well, according to a Chi-Town Daily News report, one thing he did was allegedly use state and federal grant money to produce promo videos for his pals, including former Senate President Emil Jones…
Under orders from then-Chancellor Wayne Watson, the PBS television station at City Colleges of Chicago used its budget to produce free videos of powerful politicians and friends of the chancellor, an internal college e-mail shows. […]
The political programs showcased golf events, a fundraiser and a “State Senate California Trip” in connection with then-State Senate President Emil Jones. […]
The report lists at least 15 programs that were never broadcast and were allegedly “distributed only to friends and associates of the Chancellor.”
The programs showcasing Jones included “Emil Jones fundraiser,” “Emil Jones State Senate California Trip,” “Emil Jones St. Francis Hospital” and four editions of “Emil Jones Golf Promo.”
It truly never ends.
* The online news outlet has been scoopalicious lately. Go check out their story about unlicensed flophouses for the mentally ill. And then there’s this interesting story posted a few hours ago about Latino activists protesting parking meters…
Protesters are now standing atop the holes drilled to install the meters, preventing workers from affixing the meters to the sidewalk.
* The Tribune tackles the state’s new law to tax candy in a cutesy way. Entitled: “Candy or food? Confusion grows as new tax looms,” the article seems to be looking for a problem that probably doesn’t exist.
But as often happens with stories like this, the author editorializes throughout, goes through a whole hand-wringing rigamarole over what is and what isn’t candy, claims the General Assembly “carved out gaping exceptions” to what is and what isn’t candy, then finally reveals near the bottom of the story why the Legislature drafted the language the way it did…
Illinois is hardly the first state to take on the “if it’s got flour, it’s not candy” conundrum. The language was copied straight from a model law drafted by a multi-state organization called the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, which aims to makes sales-tax rules more uniform across the nation.
Scott Peterson, executive director of the Nashville-based group, said the organization struggled over how to define candy for tax purposes because many products that some states saw as cookies, other states saw as candy bars. “It finally came to us throwing up our hands and saying, ‘What in the world can we use as a definition that would be relatively straightforward and easy for a retailer to discern?’” Peterson said.
So, uh, this wasn’t a special “carve-out” done by goofy Illinois legislators after all? Then why were we subjected to the rest of that story?
* And after a whole lot of “this is gonna hurt retailers” stuff, we discover…
But Dave Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said his trade group covets inter-state uniformity in tax laws and pushed lawmakers to adopt the compact’s definitions of candy and soft drinks when the tax issue was up for debate a few months ago.
So the retailers’ own Statehouse lobbying group pushed the idea.
For purposes of this Section, “candy” means a preparation of sugar, honey, or other natural or artificial
sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or
pieces. “Candy” does not include any preparation that contains flour or requires refrigeration.
So, bars, drops or pieces that have flour or require refrigeration - not candy. Seems reasonably straight-forward. And other states do it this way as well, so I’m not sure there’s a big deal here.
* And this part of the Tribune story baffles me…
To make things more complicated, outside Chicago the tax will vary from town to town and county to county. Interpreting the new rules may not be a big deal for giant chains such as Wal-Mart or Walgreens, which have large staffs of legal and product experts on the payroll. It’s a different story for small grocers and mom-and-pop convenience shops.
I would hope that local grocery store owners already know their local sales tax laws backwards and forwards since they have to abide by them every day. But unless local governments have exempted food from their own sales taxes, then it won’t matter at all.
* Yes, there will be some confusion. No doubt. But is paying an extra 5.25 cents for a dollar candy bar really worth this sort of silly journamalism?
* Related…
* Gov. Quinn carts purple and navy tie around state: Since becoming governor, Quinn has worn the ties, on average, two to three times apiece each month. In April, May, June and July, he’s worn them in the same week.
* Crain’s has an interesting piece on House Speaker Michael Madigan this week. The money graf…
If Mr. Madigan is like many other pols in wanting to keep his power and help his family, what’s rare is how little he uses his power elsewhere. Mr. Lawrence recalls once asking Mr. Madigan if he was passionate about any issue or cause. “His answer was that he was more about being a political strategist.”
As I’ve said many times before, Madigan’s only real legacy so far is that he’s been Speaker longer than anybody else. And that’s a big reason why he opposed Gov. Quinn’s tax hike.
This is also a decent graf…
Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar and other Springfield vets like former Senate President Philip Rock, a Democrat, say Mr. Madigan does have a bit of an ideology, not untypical of what you might expect from an Irish Catholic from the Southwest Side: mildly conservative, both on fiscal and social issues. “At times, he was my only ally (among the four legislative leaders) in trying to hold the line on the budget,” Mr. Edgar says.
But that can change, as the article rightly points out. Madigan has also pushed to underfund the pension systems and borrow way too much money.
* Patrick Collins is right, but he sometimes acts as if he’s the first person to ever notice this stuff…
“It’s all about protecting (Mr. Madigan’s) majority, his power,” says former federal prosecutor Pat Collins, who headed a reform commission that expected much more. “On things that affected his power base, the reform was slight at best.”
A good point…
Some Madigan allies say privately that the state is better off with a speaker who reins in members who might otherwise go astray. In Illinois, it has been governors and Chicago aldermen who have tended to get in legal trouble — not Mr. Madigan’s minions.
A Winnetka attorney eyeing a run for Congress as a Republican may be the first to land a coveted endorsement from the prosecutor who put GOP Gov. George Ryan in prison.
Bill Cadigan, who was raised in Arlington Heights and once worked for U.S. Rep. John Porter, is a longtime friend of Patrick Collins, the federal prosecutor who led the Ryan trial and went on to become a statewide ethics advocate. […]
“If he throws his hat in the ring, he is someone who I think will be a great candidate,” Collins said. “I think he would be good on the issues that are important to me, such as ethics.”
“Well when I testified for it I said it’s a good bill, but it’s not a perfect bill and I suppose you want to get as close to perfection as we can,” Quinn said late last week. “So, I certainly want to strive toward that goal and by working as a team I think we can go pretty far.”
Quinn has repeatedly pointed out to reporters that he has the power to strengthen the bill by rewriting it — a so-called amendatory veto. Pushed about whether that’s his plan, he said “that could be.”
A veto would send the bill back to lawmakers, where it would face an uncertain future amid competing political agendas. The bill would die if lawmakers don’t vote to agree to the changes or else override the changes with a supermajority vote that would require help from Republicans — who refused to support the bill the first time.
But remember how the reform commission and others demanded that local state’s attorneys be given broader powers to investigate political corruption? Well, the state’s attorneys have turned another reform argument upside down, and are working against the FOIA bill. Why? One reason…
Prosecutors are also leery of granting the attorney general new powers to enforce the Freedom of Information Act.
The university needs an objective liaison to field claims that an application was erroneously rejected. Lawmakers, trustees and others who are asked to intervene would then have a legitimate channel for those requests — and no excuse for meddling themselves.
Good idea.
* And, on a somewhat related note, the Daily Southtown slams a local mayor for not opposing video gaming in his town…
THE ISSUE: Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki said in last Sunday’s SouthtownStar that he does not oppose video poker machines in the village, an expansion of gambling recently approved by Gov. Patrick Quinn and the Legislature.
WE SAY: Zabrocki is not taking the negative effects of video poker or the community as a whole into account. Let him know you don’t want it.
* Illinois must act on racial profiling : The response has been silence. On the legislative front, efforts to ban consent searches stalled in legislative committees, despite consistent evidence of the racial disparity in these searches. Rather than take action in the face of “indisputable” evidence, some legislators suggest studying the problem for a longer time before taking any action.
* Sources: Hull wanted Obama’s Senate seat : But this time, he worked behind the scenes, quietly angling to get appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
* Lawmakers to probe tollway scandals: “We feel strongly that taxpayers need to have a far clearer understanding of certain patterns of behavior that emerge from the tollway,” said state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat and longtime tollway critic who is organizing the hearings with state Sen. Susan Garrett.
While fellow Democrats Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes were hurling insults at each other several days ago about the state budget, I picked up the phone and called Illinois Senate Majority Leader James Clayborne.
Were the rumors true? I said. Was he really thinking about running for governor in the Democratic primary?
Over the previous several days, quite a few people had said they’d spoken with Clayborne, of Belleville, and all claimed that he sounded like a candidate to them.
But Clayborne would only say that he was still just talking to people, mulling it over and considering his options. No decision yet.
Clayborne has floated his name for statewide office on more than one occasion. Four years ago, for instance, he indicated that he might run for lieutenant governor. We’ll see if he pulls the trigger this time. But it’s an interesting proposition.
On paper, Clayborne would be a fascinating candidate, especially if he is the only African-American in the contest.
Sen. Clayborne is not the sort of Democrat that Chicago media types are accustomed to seeing. He’s a downstate attorney with a pretty solid pro-business voting record who is also regularly endorsed by organized labor.
He’s pro-gun, but he’s also pro-choice. He ran and lost for senate president last year, and the campaign exposed some rifts with his fellow black senators, partly over his strong rating from the National Rifle Association.
Gun owner rights are not usually very popular with Democratic primary voters, and particularly with Chicago blacks. Pro-gun southern white Glenn Poshard was able to win the Democratic nomination in 1998, although that issue was used against him in the fall by Republican George Ryan. Just about every likely Republican nominee strongly favors the National Rifle Association’s view of things, so that issue might not hurt Clayborne as much as it did Poshard if he manages to win the primary.
Clayborne’s record on guns will set up an interesting choice for Chicago-area black voters and this black candidate. He’s known to be a solid friend of utility companies, which will also test his popularity with black voters.
African-American talk radio hosts did, however, warm to Clayborne during his race for the Senate presidency last year.
During last year’s presidential primary, exit polling showed blacks were about a quarter of the primary vote - and 93 percent voted for Barack Obama. If Clayborne runs against two white, Chicago-based candidates who split that vote, his gun stance and geography might help him pick up some downstate white voters -although his skin color may give some of those folks an interesting choice as well.
Clayborne’s fundraising during the senate president’s race wasn’t bad. He raised about $580,000, compared to the ultimate victor John Cullerton’s million dollars or so. Clayborne raised $113,000 during the first six months of this year, but had over $650,000 in the bank.
Clayborne will have some trouble explaining why he tried to move a bill this year which would have called for a referendum to consolidate a school his son attends with another school. Clayborne introduced the legislation after his son was reportedly expelled for what appeared to be a minor infraction (allegedly waving around part of a broken pair of scissors).
Questions about whether he used his office for personal revenge with that bill would go directly to his gubernatorial temperament. After all, we don’t need another governor who will put revenge at the top of his “to do” list. Clayborne has denied any revenge motive, saying that if he really wanted payback he would’ve pushed through the consolidation without a referendum.
Unlike Hynes, Clayborne supported a tax increase to balance the state budget. The legislation Clayborne backed included an expansion of the state sales tax to an array of services, plus an income tax hike. Quinn initially supported that bill, then said he was for a different tax hike plan.
Hynes repeatedly has slammed Quinn for proposing a tax hike during an economic meltdown, and that’s part of what the two men were whacking each other for when I called Clayborne. Hynes can differentiate himself against both Quinn and Clayborne on this issue, but supporting big cuts to government programs and services hasn’t exactly been a popular issue in statewide Democratic primaries.
Despite a prime opportunity to turn the Blagojevich years and the state’s fiscal crisis into the issue of failed Democratic leadership, Republicans are facing in Gov. Pat Quinn a rival who raised more money in the last few months than all of them combined.
“As the incumbent who’s not Blagojevich, he can run as the anti-Blago, too,” Mr. Keiser says. “He will be tough to beat.”
Or if Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes is the nominee, the GOP message will bounce off his fiscal-watchdog credentials.
* And Greg Hinz takes a quick look at the top Democratic US Senate hopefuls, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson, and declares them to be “frankly, kind of weak”…
Both are bright, young and articulate. But, at age 33, Mr. Giannoulias may be too young, whatever the comparison to Mr. Obama. And, while he remains tight with the prez, he’s picked up some baggage from the family bank and his running of the state’s college-loan program. Ms. Jackson, in turn, never has run for statewide office, and Republicans (and Mr. Giannoulias) will keep reminding voters that she once served as press secretary to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But she reportedly is getting help from ex-Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm.
That doesn’t necessarily mean either can’t win. After all, Illinois is a deep blue state. It does mean that, at least as of now, it looks like Illinois has a real contest for the U.S. Senate.
* Rep. Art Turner is running for lieutenant governor. From a press release…
House Deputy Majority Leader Arthur Turner (D-Chicago) announced Sunday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor and pledged that he would run an issues-based campaign centered on how to put the state on more solid economic, ethical, and budgetary footing, and ensure that it is able to meet its obligations to Illinois’ citizens.
“I intend to campaign vigorously in the coming months, listening and learning directly from people across our state about what is important to them and how state government can be more responsive to their needs,” Turner said. “We’ve learned firsthand, and seen in other states recently, how much the office of Lt. Governor matters. I believe I have the right combination of legislative, professional and life experiences to do the job effectively and serve as an advocate for the people of Illinois and an ambassador for our great state.”
The issues that Turner would most like to make the centerpiece of the office are the promotion of volunteerism, spurring job creation opportunities and industry growth and sustainability.
Rudy Lozano Jr. vs. Daniel J. Burke. The 2010 matchup for the 23rd Legislative District on Chicago’s Southwest Side is shaping up as a struggle between two storied political families.
Or peg it as the post-Obama generation taking on what’s left of the Richard J. Daley Machine.
On Tuesday, Lozano will launch a petition drive to challenge longtime legislator Burke. The challenger is the son and namesake of a slain progressive hero, Rudy Lozano Sr. The incumbent, Dan Burke, is the clout-heavy brother of one of Chicago’s most controversial and sartorial pols, 14th Ward Ald. Edward M. Burke, chairman of the City Council Finance Committee.
On the surface, Lozano’s challenge looks hopelessly naive at best. While Lozano boasts name recognition among Latino voters and a compelling story line, his opponent, a state rep since 1991, is part and parcel of a political Machine rich with influence and decades of electoral know-how.
* The numbers just naturally work against the GOP in Illinois. Gallup has this state near the top of “Blue” states…
So, despite all that happened this year with the wild-eyed moron Rod Blagojevich, the new governor’s tax hike plan, the failed spring session, the fight over ethics reform and everything else you can think of, this is, according to Gallup, a solid 56-30 Democratic state.
I’d like to see the monthly trend lines on those polls (5,383 interviews), but the end result can’t be heartening for the Republicans.
* So, Paul Merrion is rightfully bearish on the GOP’s gubernatorial chances…
A yearlong effort by big Illinois GOP donors to find and back a strong pro-business candidate for governor has failed, with no consensus in sight for the party’s first wide-open gubernatorial primary in decades.
With business support split among the half-dozen Republicans in the race, the keepers of the party’s purse strings are sitting tight. In fact, party leaders continue to look for candidates who would be widely acceptable to the business community, and two high-level Illinois executives are still pondering a jump into the race, says Chicago attorney Ty Fahner, who, as chairman of the GOP’s finance committee, has been leading efforts to vet potential candidates. […]
By failing to back a single candidate, the GOP risks a messy, expensive primary at best. At worst, some fear a fractured primary could result in a victory for the party’s conservative wing, producing a candidate with an uphill battle to win a Democratic-leaning state such as Illinois.
It’s the same refrain every year with the GOP.
* Speaking of that race, Dan Proft takes a big whack at fellow gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kirk Dillard…
* And Greg Hinz is bullish on the Republicans’ US Senate prospects…
On the Republican side, the big news is that GOP leaders were able to snag what most insiders consider to be the only horse who could carry the party to victory. That’s North Shore Congressman Mark Kirk, who mixes moderation on hot-button social issues with fiscal conservatism and a hawkish streak on military and foreign affairs.
Now, Mr. Kirk will have some primary opposition. Several little-known conservatives are preparing to challenge him, and almost every one of them is making a huge deal out of the fact that Mr. Kirk was one of only eight GOP House members to vote in favor of President Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade carbon tax.
But you don’t get to Congress, much less the Senate, without being able to emphasize and de-emphasize at the right time. So ever since that vote, Mr. Kirk has been winking and nodding about how he really likes drill-baby-drill and nuclear power, America’s security depends on energy independence and the Senate surely will amend what the House sent it. And when November rolls around, most of that dance will have been long forgotten because being pro-environment is a good general election position in Illinois.
More important, the GOP high-rollers have made their selection: Mr. Kirk. Snatching away Mr. Obama’s old Senate seat would put a smile even on Newt Gingrich’s face. And Democrats know that, too, which is why I’ve started to receive a steady stream of Democratic e-mails knocking Mr. Kirk a full 16 months before the election.
The American Civil Liberties Union and courts throughout Illinois are preparing for what could be several hundred pregnant teenagers each year seeking judges’ approval for abortions without notification of their parents.
“We’ll be ready,” Patrick Kelley, Springfield-based chief judge of the 7th Judicial Circuit, said Friday.
He said he has e-mailed administrative guidelines to judges in all six counties in the circuit — Sangamon, Scott, Morgan Greene, Jersey and Macoupin — regarding requests for waivers to the Illinois parental notification law that takes effect Tuesday.
But according to the most recent CN report to the federal Surface Transportation Board, fears about freight traffic on the 198-mile line haven’t yet materialized.
That’s because the bad economy has resulted in freight traffic volumes that have been lower than they were before the EJ&E purchase, according to CN spokesman Patrick Waldron.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Friday accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of discriminating against black and Latino homeowners by employing racially biased lending practices.
“As a result of its discriminatory and illegal mortgage-lending practices, Wells Fargo transformed our cities’ predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods into ground zero for subprime lending,” Madigan said Friday at a Chicago news conference announcing the lawsuit.
The suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court accuses Wells Fargo & Co., based in San Francisco, of selling high-cost subprime mortgage loans to minorities while white borrowers with similar incomes received lower-cost loans.
The 11 campuses are raising tuition by an average of 7.1 percent, the smallest average increase this decade.
The “break'’ comes after the schools walloped new students with tuition bills that were double and triple those from just a decade ago, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of state data finds.
Responding to a report that federal authorities are investigating admissions practices at Chicago’s selective schools, Mayor Daley said he has “full confidence” in schools chief Ron Huberman, who is already looking into the problem.
But the city’s nearly 9 percent across-the-board crime decrease touted by police — including a 3 percent dip in violent crime — doesn’t tell the whole story about crime in Chicago neighborhoods, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of district-by-district crime data shows. […]
• • A collection of West Side neighborhoods in the Harrison District (11th) became Chicago’s new top murder hot spot.
• • Robbers and burglars were so busy in the Chicago Lawn District (8th) that there was an average of 186 burglaries and 106 robberies reported each month between January and June.
• • The Shakespeare District (14th) — home to parts of gentrifying Bucktown and Logan Square — saw violent crime spike by nearly 30 percent. There were double-digit percentage increases in murders, robberies and assaults and batteries with weapons.
Police said the funeral was for Cornelius Robinson, 28, of the 1200 block of North Cicero, was a “self-admitted gang member.” Robinson had died at his home on July 26 from heart problems, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
