* When Google launches a new product, I tend to pay attention. And since most of us here are pretty wired-in, I thought I’d do a bit about today’s launch of Google Buzz.
Go check out a reliable live-blogging of the big announcement by clicking here…
One of Google’s great [insights] was pagerank, which gave websites relevancy. Now, we need to find relevancy in social expressions on Twitter and other social networks. “It’s easy to start drowning in this.” How do we find relevancy in the real world? What signals do we use?
10:36 am: There’s a lot of noise out there but how can Google algorithmically help determine what’s important and relevant? Location is important to drive relevance. Where are you? At work? On road? In a meeting? Conversations and relevance are unlocked by locations. In mobile, there is GPS data today and there are many tools to help us understand location. Three new product experiences being announced today. You can go directly to Google’s main page. On Android and iPhone, you can also go to buzz.google.com. New Google Maps app for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android and others (not iPhone) but more coming soon.
10:44 am: Looking at the Buzz app for iPhone and Android (Vic is using a Nexus One on stage) There’s a Following button and a Nearby button. You might not just want to see the most interesting buzzes based on who you’re following. Let’s say you’re walking down the street and want to see all of the buzz that’s close to you - people who are maybe at the same concert or are in your neighborhood. Of course, all of the posts are geo-tagged. And now, in maps, you can see an icon to see that people there are “buzzing” and you can read them.
* The Illinois Policy Institute, which has often teamed up with the House Republicans on policy issues, has published its new “Piglet Book.” It’s supposed to be a list of pork, but pork, as they say, is in the eyes of the beholder.
For instance, the IPI publication flat-out states while it “exposes” a relatively small grant to WTTW…
Unfortunately, there is no need for public broadcasting in an era of cable television and streaming Internet videos
That’s more than just a debatable point.
* Nurses…
The state is funding nurses’ tuition for $75,000 and nurse educator fellowships for $150,000. There is evidence that aspiring nurses are not in dire need of financial assistance. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics, the median salary for nurses in May 2008 was $62,450, well above the 2008 median family income in Illinois of $54,141. Tax dollars of less well-off Illinoisans should not be funding education for people who will go on to make far more money than they ever will.
OK, first, they aren’t telling the whole story. The $62K figure is for registered nurses. Licensed practical nurses made, on average, $40,110, according to the stats. But that would be below the median family income, so it likely didn’t fit their meme. Nursing aides made $24,620.
What the IPI either fails to understand or ignores is that many, many lower-income people have historically turned to the nursing profession to improve their lots in life. But IPI can’t really come out and say “taxes for well-off people shouldn’t be helping low-income folks improve their lives.”
…Adding… Since the state partially funds universities, law schools and medical schools, how does that hold up to the IPI’s goal of: “Tax dollars of less well-off Illinoisans should not be funding education for people who will go on to make far more money than they ever will”? Using that logic, we’d be putting almost no money into higher education at all, and absolutely zero money into medical schools and law schools.
More tuition stuff…
Overall, the state has paid $1,049,639 from August 1, 2009 through January 7, 2010 in employee tuition and fees. If state employees are interested in taking classes to burnish their resumes or to bump themselves up to the next pay grade, it should be incumbent upon that individual to decide whether the long-term investment in additional schooling is worth the money. Many private employers subsidize education, but not with taxpayer dollars.
* Race and ethnicity play a pretty big role in the IPI report…
The state should be colorblind, treating all of its citizens equally. Unfortunately, in allocating tax dollars to specific ethnic service organizations, it runs the risk of looking, in the words of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, like “some are more equal than others.”
Certainly, many of these organizations are worthy causes; yet the unequal distribution of funds leaves some groups flush, and others underserved. Some ethnic groups should not receive more state money because they are better at applying for state grants. Organizations should be self-sufiicient, raising money from their communities in proportion to their need.
The IPI doesn’t seem to understand that distributing money to human service groups on the ground - like their listed Jewish Child & Family Services, Asian Human Services of Chicago, American Hispanic Wellness Services and Arab-American Family Services - means that the state can save money because it would cost more to deliver the services itself. They have the expertise and the constituencies.
* More race and ethnicity…
To many Illinoisans, preserving their cultural heritage is a priority. In such a diverse state, however, it becomes problematic when legislators start doling out funds to support the artistic legacy of special ethnic groups or regions. Instead of picking “winners” and “losers” based on subjective criteria, the state should encourage communities to work together to honor their traditions.
For whatever reason, no Irish-American groups are on its pork list. Huh.
* To be sure, as with its Public Television slam, they also go after “elite” culture, like a $61,500 grant to the Art Institute of Chicago.
And they ridicule a $72,750 grant to the grape growers…
Illinois may have good growing conditions, but it is certainly not temperate enough for wine production.
Tell that to all those southern Illinois vintners who are bringing more tourists to the region every year.
* Look, I agree that in extremely tight budget times a lot of this stuff isn’t necessarily affordable. Maybe the state can’t afford to give WTTW a grant, but to just flat-out say things like cable TV and the Internet can replace Public Television tips their hand to where they are really coming from.
…Adding More… From comments…
It appears that about a third of their so-called savings would stem from ending the payments to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Company. I suspect that the $123,000,000 payment that they cite represents the amount of special local sales taxes that go to MPEA that are used, to pay off bonded indebtedness.
So, are they suggesting that the state violate existing law and keep these tax receipts and also cause MPEA to default on the indebtedness?
The “logic” of defaulting on debt in order to save cash that’s statutorially linked to paying off said debt is more than a little bit odd.
* Subscribers were told about this idea earlier today, but it turns out that the Sun-Times also has an editorial on the subject…
The state has been cutting appropriations for higher education for years, but it was not until this year that the state stopped regular payments altogether.
Since July 1, the state has made only sporadic payments on no particular schedule. At Southern Illinois University, for example, the state has paid only 23 percent of the appropriated funds. At campuses throughout Illinois, the state is $735 million behind, and as a result — just as they teach in Accounting 101 — the universities don’t have the money to pay their own bills.
The influx of second-semester tuition money in January is keeping the schools going at the moment, but that will work only until about the end of the month. That’s when the universities hit the falling-off point, the time when all the budget tricks have been played, the furloughs and hiring freezes have been announced, and there still isn’t enough money.
It doesn’t seem likely that the Legislature will suddenly find a way to balance the state’s declining revenues with its mounting pile of overdue bills. So the Legislature should approve a measure now before the Senate to allow public universities to keep going by borrowing against the money appropriated by the state but not yet paid. So far, Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois and Illinois State universities have asked for the borrowing power, and others may do so before the bill is acted on.
It’s not an ideal solution. The universities will have to pay interest on the loans, an extra cost they don’t need right now. And there’s a worry that once the universities can get money through loans, the state will divert additional dollars away from them to put out fires elsewhere.
* The Question: Should universities be allowed to borrow money based on unpaid state appropriations to help them get through this rough patch? Explain fully, please.
* Since December 1st of 2009, campaigns for all state and local offices received almost $10.9 million in loans, according to a search of the State Board of Elections website. That’s almost a quarter of the entire amount reported raised in all forms during that same time period ($44.8 million).
About $2.2 million of the total was lent by GOP gubernatorial candidate Andy McKenna’s wife alone. Another $1.5 million or so was lent by Scott Lee Cohen to his own lt. governor’s campaign. Republican lt. governor nominee Jason Plummer borrowed about $1.2 million from himself and his family businesses. Failed treasurer candidate Justin Oberman took out over $400,000 in loans from himself and others.
But it wasn’t all rich people who borrowed money. Gov. Pat Quinn, for instance, borrowed well over $700,000 since December 1st. The search shows that Sen. Kirk Dillard borrowed $650,000 from various individuals.
I have no problem with wealthy people running for office. It’s a free country and they have a right to spend their money. My problem is that they often loan themselves money. Here’s the rub: If they win, the cash they raise after they take office is going right into their own pockets. Not good at all.
I also have an issue with bigtime borrowing by non-wealthy candidates like Quinn and Dillard. I’ve never believed that campaign contributions automatically meant that the recipients were completely beholden. But borrowed money is different. What happens if Gov. Quinn, for instance, can’t pay that money back right away? Do those lenders have a special hold over him?
* The current law in place will, when it finally takes effect, bar loans like the ones Quinn and Dillard received this cycle. I’m pretty sure it would also bar loans like the ones from McKenna’s wife (although McKenna could’ve probably gotten around the law by loaning himself the money).
Banning big loans might cut down on vanity candidates like McKenna and Cohen. If they know there’s no legal way to get their money back after the election, maybe they won’t spend as much on themselves. After all, the first thing Cohen wanted when the pressure ramped up was to be made whole.
Getting rid of those self-loans could also head off potential trouble if any of these candidates eventually take office and start raising money to replenish their own personal bank accounts.
* Mark Brown has a very good column today about late-arriving absentee ballots and uncounted provisional ballots.
According to Brown, the Cook County Clerk received 213 mailed absentee ballots on Monday, DuPage got 5 and Lake got 2. Lake has a total of 302 GOP ballots yet to be counted (232 absentees and 70 provisionals), but not all those provisionals will make it to the final cut. Bill Brady did very poorly in Lake, getting just 5 percent of the vote. DuPage has 126 absentees not yet counted, about three-quarters of which are Republican, and 256 provisionals, but only a fraction of those will survive.
Cook County’s newly posted totals shaved 42 net votes off Brady’s lead, Brown writes. But there aren’t many GOP ballots left to count in Cook.
His conclusion…
While a recount is still a possibility in the Republican race, that would also seem unlikely if the Brady lead holds in the 400 range.
What was less apparent to me on election night than it is in the cold light of day is that even 400 votes is a significant margin in this era of technologically advanced voting equipment.
When I started covering elections, a victory margin of 5,000 votes in a statewide race was cause to seek a recount. Now, nobody is quite certain where the cutoff line is. Is it 500? Is it 200?
Geographically, much of Illinois was for Hynes. Hynes beat Quinn in 88 of Illinois’ 102 counties. Quinn won just 14 counties. Quinn won five others by fewer than 100 votes each – and three of those by fewer than 10 votes each.
They go on to dig into the actual number of Downstate counties won by each candidate - and that’s almost completely irrelevant. This isn’t like the US Senate, where tiny states get two Senators like the big states. Many of those Downstate counties have incredibly small numbers of voters. Better to look at regions than numbers.
Still, the overall Downstate results are very important when looking ahead to the general. Hynes’ message clearly worked Downstate. That gives us a good preview of what’s to come in the fall as more conservative voters weigh in.
This is also important…
Brady received only 5 percent support in Cook County.
Brady’s totals in the all-important suburbs were just horrible. But that’s less to blame on his message than where he concentrated his message. He didn’t have the cash to compete in the Chicago media market.
* Does Pat Quinn want Tammy Duckworth as his running mate? Sneed says so…
Sneed hears former Illinois state veterans chief Tammy Duckworth is Gov. Quinn’s personal pick as lieutenant governor nominee — replacing the scandal-ridden Scott Lee Cohen.
• The upshot: Although Duckworth is at the top of Quinn’s original wish list, he will defer to the choice of the Dem State Central Committee led by state party chief Mike Madigan.
• The backshot: Duckworth, who is now assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, was at the top of Quinn’s list during the infancy of his election campaign, said a top Quinn source. “Veterans groups are already petitioning Gov. Quinn for her to fill the role,” the source added. […]
• The militaryshot: “The governor has an incredibly high regard for Duckworth, a bona fide war hero,” the source said. “Gov. Quinn is dedicated to the American soldier — and the office of lieutenant governor is transformable into taking on that task during this time of war.”
But sources said Quinn has discussed with top Democrats the possibility of selecting Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who lost a 2006 run for Congress in the western suburbs before becoming an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth could not be reached for comment.
Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, noted prior to a Monday meeting of Senate Democrats in Springfield that “half the people here want to be lieutenant governor.”
Some of the also-rans are lobbying hard. Rep. Art Turner, who finished second, worked reporters yesterday…
“Who better than a guy, me, who has worked with all the current leaders?” said Turner, a legislator for nearly 30 years.
Some suburban committeemen contacted Monday said they would consider appointing a downstate candidate to run with Quinn. Every candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket is from Chicago and Quinn didn’t do well downstate in his close primary against Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes.
“We have a ticket packed with Chicago people,” noted Dan Pierce, a former Highland Park mayor and 10th District committeeman.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello of Belleville, a member of the committee that will pick Cohen’s replacement, said through his spokesman that the candidate should come from outside the Chicago area.
State Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline, also wants consideration, saying he won more downstate counties last week than everyone but Cohen.
He notes that with state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington and businessman Jason Plummer of Edwardsville, the potential GOP ticket has two downstate candidates.
“We’re loaded up with Chicago people,” Boland said of Democrats’ statewide nominees. “We need a little balance there.”
I believe that there’s almost no chance Boland will ever get the nod. Besides the fact that he finished fourth in the LG race, the issue of him giving a legislative scholarship to the daughter of his largest campaign contributor will dog him to death.
State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, said he heard that his name has come up as a potential contender. He said he’s not necessarily pursuing the spot, but that he’d seriously consider it if Quinn and party leaders asked him.
Former Peorian and comptroller candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi wants to be considered for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor and says he can bring the votes to help clinch victory. […]
Krishnamoorthi said the pairing with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Pat Quinn would make sense because he could help Quinn grab more votes, a key concern for Democrats who don’t want to lose the state’s top elected post to a Republican in November.
“Pat Quinn has to feel comfortable with whoever the state central committee picks,” said Steve Powell, an 8th District committeeman and UFCW union leader. “This is a process that will unfold in a public way, and I think there are a lot of potential candidates out there.”
“The person who first and foremost should have input is the governor himself,” Hoffman said. “The governor should be comfortable with the choice. The final decision should be the competency of the person to hold the office.”
“The party does not have to choose one of the five of us who ran,” Hendon says. “They could pick someone outside of the five of us left standing. And I just caution the party to take their time and get it right. We get this one wrong, and we’re done.”
* Related…
* Sullivan, Koehler say no contact about lieutenant governor nomination
* Who Will Replace Scott Lee Cohen?: Gov. Pat Quinn, though, was deeply touched, as so many were, by the obvious pain of 11-year old Jacob Cohen, who sobbed as his father announced he would quit. “I don’t think there’s any more poignant moment, when a young boy is next to his dad who’s making a very hard decision,” Quinn said. “I was certainly touched by that. I think everybody in Illinois knows that was a heartfelt decision by Scott Lee Cohen.”
* Illinois Democrats Look to Fill Sudden Ticket Gap
* Picking Cohen’s replacement: Turner, after all, got only 22 percent of the vote. Had Cohen fallen ill and had to withdraw next September, no one would think Turner would have any automatic claim on the spot. The party would merely choose whomever it deemed suitable, and that’s what it should do now.
* Quinn says no payback for pawnbroker out $2 million for lieutenant governor
* Police called to Cohen party: When Cohen aides “saw I was calling police, they asked me, ‘Please don’t do that. It’s going to cause negative press,’” said Cecili Tomlin, a Cook County medical examiner’s autopsy technician who was at the party with a friend… Tomlin said Monday she’s aggravated not only because the coat remains missing but because she felt hotel staff and Cohen workers weren’t taking her seriously. She also was perturbed by an offer from Cohen’s brother, Randy, to sell her a mink coat from a Cohen-owned pawn shop.
When developers unveiled plans for the 900-acre University Town Center in Glen Carbon and asked the state to create STAR bonds to finance it, they predicted the development would generate millions of dollars in state and local tax dollars.
But the Illinois Department of Revenue says state and local governments could lose money on this project — up to $267 million over 20 years. That’s because 100 percent of taxes generated by so-called destination projects like the rumored Legoland would be diverted to pay for them — an estimated $1 billion to $1.3 billion — and sales would be siphoned away from surrounding areas. […]
We’re all for new development, especially a unique destination development like Legoland, but not if the numbers don’t work.
* ‘No major delays’ after first day of cuts, CTA says
The only reason the compliance office exists is because the mayor and his legal staff didn’t want then-Inspector General David Hoffman poking into what they saw as their — not citizens’ — business…
The move was endorsed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who while appointed by the mayor is considered more independent than the Daley administration’s Office of Compliance….In a report last month, Ferguson said “the dangers of political hiring remain real and constant” and recommended that a city ordinance that bars him from investigating aldermen be lifted.
SuperComm is a telecommunications and digital technology trade show. It was scheduled to hold its event at McCormick in late October. But a spokesperson says the show is being shelved because of low attendance projections.
* White House pledges $78.5 million to keep species out of Great Lakes
The council on Monday discussed $66.4 million in proposed projects for the upcoming fiscal year and $328 million over five years. The city previously had been averaging about $80 million a year.
* East Peoria offering architects blank canvas for Downtown 2010 site
Most of the 89-acre site was home to the first manufacturing plants of Caterpillar Inc. City officials want to transform the space between West Washington and Camp streets into a retail and commercial center by introducing new shops, restaurants, offices, civic buildings and more.
