“Bob’s Last Art Show” will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Nov. 22 at the Cozy Drive-In, 2935 S. Sixth St., Springfield. Mounted color prints and T-shirts with Waldmire’s art will be for sale.
If you don’t know who Bob is, you’ve really missed out. Learn something by clicking here.
Friday, Nov 20, 2009 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
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* Conservative GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft has received yet another endorsement from a Republican township organization…
Last night the Southern Will County Republican Organization (SWCRO) which comprises six rural townships in Will County endorsed conservative Republican candidate Dan Proft for Governor. ]…]
“By endorsing my candidacy, the Southern Will County GOP joined the Republican organizations of Schaumburg Township, New Trier Township and Niles Township in voting for policy revolution.
The Plainfield Township Republican Party has endorsed rival conservative GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Andrzejewski.
It’s becoming obvious that several suburban township organizations have moved far to the Right - at least at the endorsement sessions. New Trier’s GOP organization endorsed Bob Dold over Rep. Elizabeth Coulson and other candidates in the 10th Congressional District. In the past, that would’ve probably been a lock for Coulson. Elk Grove Township also went with Dold, and nobody got enough support in Northfield Township for it to make an endorsement.
Looking for a sign that the conservative ascendancy in the New York special election may be making other moderate Republican candidates across the country antsy?
State Rep. Beth Coulson, one of the most moderate Republican candidates running for Congress, will be meeting with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele [today] in Illinois to discuss her campaign – and the need for Republicans to have a big-tent party so it can compete in Democratic-minded districts.
Notably, she telegraphed her scheduled meeting with Steele and Republican party leaders in Illinois in a press release. It’s fairly uncommon for a candidate to announce a meeting with party officials, especially when it’s closed to the press.
It’s only uncommon when it hurts the candidate. More…
From Coulson: She “will join Illinois’ House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Senate Minority Leader Chris Radogno, as well as Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady in the meeting with the chairman to talk about the upcoming midterm elections in Illinois and how to keep the 10th Congressional District in Republican hands.”
The GOP leaders believe that Coulson is the best shot at holding onto that seat. But she has to get through the primary first. Coulson, for her part, is trying hard to move right…
Coulson campaign spokesman Joe Woodward said that she’s against President’s Obama’s stimulus, cap-and-trade energy legislation and would have voted against the health care bill that narrowly passed through the House.
Brady said he believes a good model for selling the tollway would be what Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels did in leasing that state’s 157-mile I-90 tollway for $3.8 billion.
The 75-year lease allowed the company to almost immediately double tolls for cash payers while raising rates subsequently at least 2 percent a year. Drivers using an electronic payment system, like Illinois’ I-PASS, have been granted a break on the hikes until 2016.
So, he’s apparently writing off some of the suburban vote.
* Back to Gitmo we go. Congressman Peter Roskam is upset that Democratic US Senate candidate Alexi Giannouolias received some sort of briefing by National Security Council staff on moving the Gitmo prisoners to Thomson. From a press release…
“Given Mr. Giannoulias’ disclosure that he received a NSC briefing on possibly moving Guantanamo to Illinois, I urge the Obama Administration to eschew the increasingly political nature of this situation. Moving terrorists to Illinois will have tremendous security and economic implications, and now this situation has been tainted by the appearance of political favoritism given that a Democrat U.S. Senate candidate received a NSC briefing while elected Members of Congress have not. The people of Illinois will be best served by a process that forgoes the behind-closed-doors political approach and instead provides for open and transparent consideration.”
Giannoulias’ campaign says they believe the NSC staffer who did the briefing was the same person who briefed officials at Thomson earlier that day. Doesn’t seem to be a big deal.
The Giannoulias campaign also has a new list of endorsements…
State Senator Edward Maloney
State Senator John Sullivan
State Representative Deborah Graham
State Representative John D’Amico
Alderman Carrie Austin
Alderman Lona Lane
Alderman Bernard Stone
Alderman Joann Thompson
Alderman Howard Brookins Jr.
City of Chicago Treasurer Stephanie Neely
Peoria County Democratic Chairman Billy Halstead
Marion County Democratic Chairman Zach Roeckeman
Lawrence County Chairman Joe Weger
Des Plaines Mayor Martin Moylan
Maine Township Regular Democratic Organization
Maine Township Democratic Committeeman Laura Murphy
Associated Firefighters of Illinois
* Peraica involved in 3 signature challenges: Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica challenges signatures in two races and is challenged in one.
* Gubernatorial candidates weigh in on education in Illinois
* Exposed to a Tea: But your screamfest Saturday at Oak Lawn Community High School exposed you as nothing more than a small but vocal gang of disgruntled white suburbanites who are ticked off at … well, appear to be ticked off at just about everything.
* It’s Official: Dunkin to Face Schroeder in February Primary Election: The Chicago Board of Elections rejected a challenge to the candidacy of David Schroeder for the State House of Representatives today. This clears the way for Schroeder to appear on the ballot facing incumbent Ken Dunkin, the first time Dunkin will face a Democratic challenger since he was elected in 2002.
* Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) is the epitome of a gentle soul. But his public demeanor may just be a Clark Kentian cover. Check it out…
A state senator from Peoria says he fought off an armed robber who interrupted him while he was doing some remodeling at his business.
Democratic Sen. Dave Koehler says he was painting Thursday night when a man with a gun appeared and demanded money. Koehler says he gave the robber what was in his pocket and told him to leave.
The man demanded Koehler’s cell phone next, but the senator says he instead knocked the man against a wall and took the gun.
* I’m glad to see that the state’s GOP congressional delegation is finally starting to act like grownups…
Illinois’ Republican congressional delegation attempted to tone down their rhetoric Thursday over housing detainees from Guantanamo Bay at a state prison by issuing a series of questions to Gov. Pat Quinn.
“As we move forward with a dignified and precise discussion regarding the cost, security and legal issues…,” the delegation’s letter begins.
The letter is in stark contrast to one the delegation sent to President Barack Obama over the weekend that raised the specter of such a move inviting a local terrorist attack.
“If your Administration brings al-Qaida terrorists to Illinois, our state and the Chicago Metropolitan Area will become ground zero for Jihadist terrorist plots, recruitment and radicalization,” the first letter read.
That first letter, of course, was drafted by Congressman Mark Kirk. It prompted a huge backlash in the media which continues to this day. This, for instance, is the Southern Illinoisan’s “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” for today…
THUMBS DOWN! To the amount of hysteria stirred up by politicians who don’t want detainees from Guantanamo Bay housed at a prison facility in Thomson. Gov. Pat Quinn is attempting to sell the prison to the federal government. The facility would house a lot of federal prisoners and possibly a few hundred detainees from the Guantanamo prison. Closing Guantanamo is a legitimate political issue for Congress and the federal government. But many politicians are making it sound like Al-Qaida operatives will be roaming the streets. There’s always room for reasonable political discussions, with the emphasis on reasonable.
Kirk jumped the gun and assumed several facts not in existence and twisted other facts to the point of no recognition. Here’s one of his more egregious false assumptions from this week…
“Once here, federal law mandates these terrorists have a right to visitors,” Kirk said. “Federal policy allows up to 10 followers or family members per prisoner. With 215 coming to Illinois, that would be over 2,100 Al Qaeda followers and family members connected to Jihad coming to Illinois, likely connecting through O’Hare airport.”
Except, the prisoners won’t be allowed visitors other than pre-approved legal counsel.
Let’s hope things start to calm down. But the damage to Congressman Kirk’s reputation will not heal any time soon. Instead of waiting for the facts and asking sane questions, he went completely off the rails and started screaming about how we were all gonna die if we allowed these prisoners to be sent to Thomson.
…Adding… Related…
* E-poll shows support for housing Guantanamo prisoners in Illinois: A straw poll of 541 voters in state Sen. Susan Garrett’s 29th District indicates 52 percent of respondents are in favor of moving prisoners from the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to an idle Illinois prison. Another 35 percent were opposed, and 13 percent said they were undecided. She received responses from 541 constituents in the poll e-mailed two days ago.
Friday, Nov 20, 2009 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
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* Perhaps the dumbest report I’ve seen in years was former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman’s “analysis” of the city’s parking meter lease deal. According to Hoffman’s report, if the city had just increased parking meter rates on its own, it would’ve reaped twice the amount of money of leasing the meters.
The report was silly because of the political facts on the ground. Cook County’s one percentage point sales tax hike has practically created a revolution - or at least a revolution in the Tribune editorial board’s collective mind. The county board has once again voted to roll back half the tax, and Ald. Toni Preckwinkle promised yesterday that she will eliminate the rest of the tax increase if she is elected county board president.
For good reason, there is little to no enthusiasm in the Democratic-dominated Illinois House to increase the income tax, and the House GOP has pledged to unite against any such move. Every Republican running for governor is promising not to increase taxes, with Dan Proft actually pledging to cut taxes.
My point here is that if Mayor Daley and the city council had actually voted to double parking meter rates on their own, the outcry would have been so loud and intense that by now those rate hikes would assuredly have been rolled back. If not, lots of aldermen, and even the mayor, would be in extreme danger of losing their jobs.
I’m going over all this again because the first “scoop” of the New York Times’ Chicago Media Cooperative focuses on some revelations about the deal…
After a rocky start hurt their bottom line, Chicago’s new parking meter operators are raking in more than $1.1 million a week and expect even more revenue next year, according to internal company documents obtained by the Chicago News Cooperative.
The parking meter company projects total revenues of more than $75 million and net income of about $58 million in 2010, after a second round of rate increases go into effect across the city on Jan. 1. In the first 10 ½ months of operation ending Dec. 31 of this year, the company expects $32.7 million in net operating profit, for a 70 percent profit margin.
According to the meter deal’s income statement for May 2009, revenues for the month were about 20 percent below projections. At the same time, expenses were far over budget, mostly for “supplemental staffing.”
The rest of the story is mainly about how parking rates will rise next year and the private company will make more money. Nothing really new there.
Illinois, the fifth largest U.S. state by population, postponed selling $3.46 billion of municipal bonds to fund state pensions because of a delay in appointing a new official to oversee debt sales, said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for the state budget department.
Great. The budget spokesperson essentially confirmed that Quinn’s dithering on replacing his Blagojevich hand-me-down caused serious problems.
Sean Sebold, president of Sebold Capital Management and a member of the chamber’s board of directors, said businesses produce jobs, not government and he called an income tax increase a “job killer.”
“You think someone is going to bring a business out of a state to our state with a 4.5 percent income tax?” he asked. “What it will also do is drive retirees out of the state.”
The income tax would still be on the lower side, and retirees do not pay taxes on pension income. The Daily Herald didn’t note that, however.
And this quote, also from that DH story, is why Dan Hynes is having such a tough time knocking Quinn off his perch…
John Schmitt, president and CEO of the chamber, said he was not prepared to comment specifically on Quinn’s income tax proposal but that the chamber doesn’t typically support tax increases. But he was glad the business community had a chance to share its concerns and called the visit productive.
“He seems to be open minded and progressive,” Schmitt said of Quinn. “Because of what his predecessors did to the office of governor he has a tough battle but he’s working to restore confidence in the office and I think he’ll do it.”
Voters want Quinn to succeed, understand he was put in an impossible situation and are willing to overlook the glitches to date. If this attitude survives next year, it’ll be tough for Republicans to beat him as well. But there’s no guarantee of that, of course.
* 10:24 am - Read the Senate Ethics Committee’s report on Roland Burris by clicking here.
From the report, which is technically a “Public Letter of Qualified Admonition”…
The Committee found that you should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading, or incomplete information to the public, the Senate, and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate. The Committee also found that your November 13, 2008 phone call with Robert Blagojevich was inappropriate. Although some of these events happened before you were sworn in as a US Senator, they were inextricably linked to your appointment and therefore fall within the jurisdiction of this Committee.
More…
Your sworn affidavit and sworn testimony before the Illinois House of Representatives were inconsistent, incomplete and misleading.
The letter goes on to claim that Burris’ “shifting explanations” about his sworn statements “appear less than candid.” And that his November, 2008 phone call with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother Rob was “inappropriate,” but that it did not rise “to the level of an explicit quid pro quo.”
Burris’ response…
After months of investigation into the circumstances surrounding the appointment and seating of Senator Roland W. Burris, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics has closed its inquiry and cleared the Senator of any legal wrongdoing.
In a ‘public letter of qualified admonition,’ the Senate Ethics Committee outlined the specific areas of concern that it investigated, and conclusively found no “actionable violations of the law” occurred.
Earlier this year, Senator Burris was also investigated and subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing by the Sangamon County State’s Attorney in Springfield, Illinois.
“I am pleased that after numerous investigations, this matter has finally come to a close. I thank the members of the Senate Ethics Committee for their fair and thorough review of this matter, and now look forward to continuing the important work ahead on behalf of the people of Illinois,” said Senator Burris.
In recent months, Senator Burris has emerged as a key member of the Democratic caucus as they seek to piece together the critical 60 votes needed to pass President Obama’s health care legislation through the United States Senate. He has become a strong voice for the inclusion of a strong public option, and his vote is seen as vital for final passage.
* 10:41 am - ABC7’s headline is “Burris cleared by ethics committee.” Apparently, somebody at ABC7 just skimmed through Burris’ press release.
Taking aim at a loophole used to exclude academically weak 11th-graders from state testing, Illinois education officials said this week they want to create a single standard to determine when students are counted as juniors and therefore must take the exam.[…]
Nearly 10,000 students now in their final year of high school — about 7 percent of all Illinois 12th graders — skipped the two-day Prairie State Achievement Exam last spring for no apparent reason, according to a new state analysis.
These students didn’t qualify as juniors in May, and their districts chose not to test them, state records show. But months later in October they were listed as 12th graders — seemingly skipping 11th grade.
Because these low-achieving students did not take the rigorous exam, their home high schools were never held accountable, allowing them to skirt a central tenet of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Tucked into the county’s approximate $3 billion 2010 budget that was approved Thursday night is another $13 million in cuts for the health system, a tough blow to withstand, said Bill Foley, the health system’s chief executive. […]
The system also has slashed 1,350 jobs by eliminating about 700 vacant positions on top of layoffs, according to health officials.
But this week, county commissioners sliced in half the controversial sales tax increase that took effect nearly 18 months ago, meaning about $32 million less in sales tax income during the new budget year.
On Thursday, commissioners passed a measure requiring any department that did not cut its budget by 5 percent, as they were asked to do, to take a 3 percent hit. That includes the health system, which would lose about $13 million.
Waiting until Monday’s veto deadline, Stroger tells the Sun-Times, will give the county’s residents a chance to call their elected leaders and tell them to reconsider the half-penny on the dollar giveback. He has long said the lost revenue stream would decimate the county’s healthcare system.
“I do want to give them time — I want to give the constituents time to talk to their commissioners,” Stroger said.
His only hope of beating back an override, unlikely now even though he’s done it three times before on the issue, is for Cook County residents to speak up.
* Chicago City Council uses stealth payroll for family, operatives, those with heat
Shadowy $1.3 million payroll helps them get around ban on patronage hiring
Operating without scrutiny, one alderman hired the mother of a former top mayoral aide later convicted of rigging city hiring. Another hired a city worker ousted for sexual harassment allegations. Several others hired relatives.
“All of us (aldermen) have family members on the payroll,” said Ald. Isaac Carothers, 29th, who has paid a relative more than $30,000 since January 2008. “That’s nothing new.”
The revelation comes as Mayor Richard Daley prepares to ask a federal judge to end decades of court supervision over City Hall’s clout-heavy hiring practices, arguing that illegal patronage is dead. But the city’s hiring compliance officer told the Tribune he didn’t know about the payroll of about $1.3 million a year.
Mayor Daley on Wednesday re-appointed his nephew and former campaign finance chief to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority mapping plans for a retail development near U.S. Cellular Field.
Peter Thompson helped his uncle raise more than $7 million in less than three months — after Daley took a four-year break from fund-raising in the wake of the Hired Truck scandal — on the mayor’s way to a sixth-term landslide.
Now, Thompson will keep his unpaid seat on the agency that built and improved U.S. Cellular Field through Jan. 1, 2012.
Chicago’s City Council has approved a settlement to claim some land near O’Hare International Airport. The City of Chicago finalized its negotiations with Bensenville earlier this week to take over more than 500 houses as part of an expansion project at O’Hare. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says it’s a good deal for the northwest suburb.
DALEY: All the property in and around O’Hare Field is always - all those suburban areas deal with future developments - it’s very important for them, for their tax base and their jobs.
Daley says transportation is a major economic engine for Illinois. The City of Chicago settled with Bensenville for $16 million after years of legal challenges.
Two dozen Illinois employers connected to public-safety infrastructure face a federal audit of their hiring records. Immigration officials say they have reason to believe the companies are hiring illegal immigrants.
Four months after Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced the destruction of about 200 graves, Burr Oak’s heavy new wrought iron gates opened to the public Thursday.
This month, 1,800 people waited in line at the annual Energy Assistance Fair at Thornton Township Hall in South Holland. Some people waited in line for hours, and the turnout was more than five times greater than last year’s attendance of about 350.
“It’s the Great Depression all over again when you see it up close,” said Robert Storman, who heads community relations for Thornton Township.
Nearly 800 people at the fair qualified for direct donations — ranging from about $200 to more than $1,000 — from Thornton Township to help cover heating costs. Others met with representatives from Nicor, ComEd and other utilities to resolve problems and work out payment plans.
