* 2:14 pm - Earlier today, Alexi Giannoulias’ US Senate campaign sent out a press release bashing Mark Kirk for taking money from Goldman Sachs employees…
On January 13, 2010, Kirk blew off four votes to attend a Wall Street fundraiser, raising more than $150,000 from Wall Street contributors. [FEC; HJRes 64, Vote 2, 1/13/10; HJRes 1002, Vote 3, 1/13/10; HRes 860, Vote 4, 1/13/10; HR 3892, Vote 5, 1/13/10]
Congressman Kirk has taken $54,010 from employees of Goldman Sachs, including $21,600 this cycle for his Senate campaign. In his career, Kirk has raised $1.26 million from the securities and investment industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The company is being sued by the SEC for alleged fraud.
Kirk just announced that he’s returning at least some of the contributions…
Congressman Mark Kirk said he plans to return campaign contributions from employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama in Illinois.
“I will err on the side of caution,” Kirk said at a news conference in Chicago.
Kirk said his campaign is still determining how much Goldman employees donated to him.
I’ve always been leery of returning suspect contributions. It’s far better that they be given to charity. But, it’s good that Kirk is getting in front of this.
It’s also good to see that Kirk finally held a press conference.
* The congressman also did a bit of grandstanding on the Blagojevich case, urging $25 million in stimulus money be spent on corruption investigators…
Republican Mark Kirk wants to spend federal stimulus money to beef up corruption prosecutions although he didn’t vote for the stimulus package.
The congressman and U.S. Senate candidate says using the money in Illinois would be helpful because he says Illinois taxpayers pay a “corruption tax.” […]
Kirk wants $25 million annually for the Justice Department to increase investigators and public corruption prosecutions.
Maybe he could donate the Goldman cash to Fitzgerald. Just sayin…
37 Comments
|
Congrats and best wishes are in order
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Congratulations to my father for getting out of the hospital tomorrow Thursday - nine seven days ahead of schedule. He worked hard on his stroke therapy and it paid off big. [My brother Doug informs me that the date has changed. It’s still a big positive, though.]
* Congratulations to Rep. Mike McAuliffe on the birth of his new baby son, Conor.
* Congratulations to David Dring for finishing the Boston Marathon today with a very respectable time of 3:45:41. Yeah, man.
* Best wishes to Josh Kalven, who is leaving his job as editor of Progress Illinois for other opportunities out West.
* Did I miss anything or anybody? Feel free to post your own best wishes, etc. in comments.
27 Comments
|
Fitz trying to keep lid on expected circus
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Federal prosecutors filed a document today asking the judge to keep Rod and Rob Blagojevich mum about Chris Kelly’s suicide and more…
Prosecutors in Chicago are urging a federal judge to bar former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers from telling the jury at his corruption trial about his chief fundraiser’s suicide.
In court papers Monday, prosecutors say Blagojevich and his attorneys have made remarks suggesting they might bring up fundraiser Christopher Kelly’s suicide at the trial.
The motion shows that prosecutors are expecting a circus, and if the past is any guide, they’re right to be worried. More…
Among the issues, prosecutors want the defense barred from arguing to the jury that it should be able to play all the undercover recordings made of Blagojevich in the fall of 2008. Blagojevich has long called for all the tapes to be played, not just the ones preferred by prosecutors.
“For example, comments by counsel or witnesses along the lines, ‘If it was up to us, we would play all the tapes,’ are improper,” the government said.
Prosecutors also asked the judge to block the defense from making Blagojevich’s impeachment an issue at trial, arguing it has no bearing on the criminal case. The jury shouldn’t consider consequences of the government’s decision to charge the ex-governor, the prosecution argued. […]
Prosecutors also don’t want jurors told about positive actions by Blagojevich as governor because they are irrelevant to his criminal case.
More…
And, while Rod Blagojevich on his radio show may spew tales of misdeeds by other politicians, he can’t do that at trial. The defense can’t ask jurors to acquit the former governor because it was just “politics as usual,” prosecutors argued.
“No one is on trial in this case other than the defendants, and the jury should not be presented with evidence and counter-evidence as to whether other individuals committed similar acts,” prosecutors wrote.
They also said the former governor can’t tell jurors it was a selective prosecution (they can argue that to a judge, not a jury) and can’t try playing on jurors’ sympathies by discussing what a conviction would do to the former governor’s family.
43 Comments
|
Question of the day
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Kankakee Daily Journal…
Sunday night, Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady told guests at the Kankakee County Lincoln Day dinner that Republicans are ahead in both the races for governor and U.S. Senator in Illinois, that they may pick up two congressional seats and that they could even take back the Illinois House.
* The Question: What do you think of Chairman Brady’s prediction that the House Republicans might actually win control of the Illinois House come November? Explain.
…Adding… The HGOPs would need to pick up at least 12 seats to win a majority. They picked up 13 in 1994.
68 Comments
|
* How big is Wednesday’s budget rally by AFSCME, SEIU, the teachers unions and others expected to be? Well, the Secretary of State’s office just sent out a memo asking employees not to leave the building during their lunch hour…
Please note it will be extremely difficult for you to leave the complex on this day during your lunch hour due to the number of people marching and the street closings. From approximately Noon to 1:30 p.m. it will be virtually impossible to leave in your vehicle due to the number of people marching and the parking lots being blocked by them.
Yikes. Organizers are predicting 12-15,000 people will show up, which will probably rank as the largest Statehouse demonstration ever.
* Try wrapping your brain around this story…
Calling the state a “deadbeat entity,” the president of the Indian Prairie School Board is proposing the district not send the state the money it withholds from its employees for income taxes as long as Springfield continues to be delinquent on the money it owes the district.
The district sends the state $5 million to $6 million a year in state income taxes from its employees, with payments of about $500,000 sent every month.
“It’s incredibly ironic to me that we’re sending a deadbeat entity that owes us $13 million, a half million dollars per month,” board President Curt Bradshaw told fellow board members.
“Incredibly ironic” is right. Bradshaw said he’d like to see a law passed to allow the school board to withhold the cash, but that’s unlikely, of course.
* Once again, the Tribune editorializes in favor of slashing pension benefits for current employees…
Chicago law firm Sidley Austin, citing Illinois case law and a 1979 Illinois attorney general’s opinion, has concluded that the state can reduce pension benefits that employees will earn in future years. Former federal Judge Abner Mikva and former state appellate Judge Gino DiVito counter that Sidley is wrong, that employees are entitled to retire with the pension scheme that was in place on the day they were hired.
What we can conclude from all this is that … lawyers often don’t agree. We resolve these issues by going to court. For taxpayers, the stakes are enormous — potentially the difference between state government’s return to solvency and rising pension costs that choke spending on education, health and other priorities.
Aside from the wisdom of passing legislation that many feel is unconstitutional, shouldn’t the Trib disclose that Sidley is its $925 an hour attorney of record for its parent company’s bankruptcy? Far be it from me to suggest that Tribune Co. might be wanting to give a PR boost to a company that has billed it almost $25 million, but what about that “appearance of impropriety” that newspaper editorialists are always writing about?
…Adding… I didn’t notice this at the bottom of a Trib editorial today…
suppressing inconvenient facts is the best way to discredit your cause.
* Related…
* Public defenders face latest challenges in budget shortfall
* Statehouse Insider: Quinn’s managers not helping his cause
* Gov. Quinn’s decisions can cause whiplash
* PJStar: Our View: How can Illinois go on without a canoeing czar?
* IEA’s SOS Rally Day
* Tribune: All talk, no walk
* VIDEO: Illinois Policy Institute “Capitol Update 4/16/2010″
* VIDEO: CapitolView 4/16/2010
* Quinn Says Legislature Will Take Up Tax Increase Proposal
* Can Illinois wring savings out of its Medicaid budget?
* SouthtownStar: Lawmakers, don’t create pension loopholes
* Questions and answers with state’s pension director
37 Comments
|
Odd political news and a campaign roundup
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Weirdest campaign story of the weekend…
According to a Fox Chicago News source Former Lieutenant Governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen and House Speaker Mike Madigan had a private meeting Saturday morning on the South West Side. […]
At the 13th Ward Democratic headquarters, where party Chairman Mike Madigan has an office, we were initially told by an office aide that there was in fact a meeting between Madigan and Scott Lee Cohen Saturday. Then we were abruptly told by another office aide that, “No.”, there was not a meeting.
We asked, “Is it a secret meeting? You guys just have no answers? Is Speaker Madigan here right now?” We were told Madigan wasn’t in the office. After seeing his office door open and asking again, we were told he had just arrived. We were then told Madigan had no comment and the office was being closed for the day.
Madigan’s Spokesperson, Steve Brown had this to say about the alleged meeting, “Mr. Cohen resigned from the ballot. I am not aware of any meeting scheduled today. I am not even sure why there would be a meeting.”
* And while not “new” news, this certainly qualifies as runner-up…
After decades as the sharp-tongued, angry outsider of Illinois Republican politics, conservative businessman Jack Roeser is trying to get on the inside.
He’s given $50,000 to the state GOP. He’s seeking a leading role as the Illinois liaison to the Republican National Committee. And he’s even agreed to help with a big fundraiser honoring statewide Republican candidates, including a man he vilified before the February primary, U.S. Senate nominee Mark Kirk.
Ask the 86-year-old Roeser to explain the sudden change of heart, and he cites new party leadership and a desire to stop the circular firing squad the Illinois GOP had become.
“Very simply, the Republican Party is very different than it was a short while ago,” said Roeser, the wealthy founder of Otto Engineering, a Carpentersville, Ill., manufacturing firm.
Hell is freezing over.
* Campaign quote of the day goes to Democratic state Sen. Willie Delgado for this remark about Gov. Pat Quinn…
“Although I will endorse his administration,” Delgado said of Quinn, “I will do so holding my nose.”
Delgado is still fuming about Quinn’s handling of the mess at the Department of Corrections, including the firing of Sergio Molina, whom Delgado said was made into a scapegoat.
* Republican state Sen. Randy Hultgren’s congressional campaign sent out a press release last week touting its fundraising success…
State Senator Randy Hultgren raised $281,000 in the reporting period ending on March 31, 2010. The figure represents the campaign’s best fundraising quarter to date since Senator Hultgren announced his candidacy in August.
The next day, though, Democratic Congresscritter Bill Foster topped him…
Today, the Bill Foster for Congress Campaign continued to demonstrate its political strength by raising $354,840 during the first fundraising quarter of 2010 (January 14 – March 31). His opponent, State Sen. Randy Hultgren, raised only $261,779. […]
With these first quarter results, the Foster Campaign has raised $1,783,537 for the 2010 cycle and has $1,268,889 cash-on-hand. Hultgren’s campaign has raised a total of $446,861 and has $108,097 cash-on-hand.
That cash-on-hand difference is striking, but can be overcome if the nationals dump bigtime bucks into the race.
The cash-on-hand advantage also applies to freshman US Rep. Debbie Halvorson’s race…
Halvorson raised about $420,000 in the first three months of the year and had $1.25 million on hand. Kinzinger raised about $224,000 and had $299,000 in the bank.
Even so, Stu Rothenberg has moved the Foster/Hultgren campaign into the “Pure Toss-Up” category. The 10th CD was also moved into the category. Halvorson is also now on Rothenberg’s radar, although her race is in the “Democrat Favored” category. [Hat tip: Illinois Review.]
* Other campaign stuff…
* Kelly talks Bright Start losses
* Washington: Claypool’s a little late to the party
* Why Young Voters are Lukewarm on Abortion Rights
* Video: Talking Politics: Governor’s Race
* Use of Likely Voter Model Does Not Explain Rasmussen “House Effect”
* Palin speaks in Central Illinois
* Tea Partiers are boiling mad in Illinois
* Tim Kaine: Tea Parties could help Democrats
* Getting on the tea party stage: Who gets in, who stays out
* IL GOP to pick National Committeeman Thursday
16 Comments
|
Not gonna happen
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I really find it repugnant that so many people appear to be so eager to get me to post about Garritt Cullerton’s DUI. Most of the deleted comments here and the e-mails I’ve received this morning were breathlessly excited about this development. Some were even gleeful.
He screwed up. Period. And it certainly didn’t help matters at all that he allegedly took the car assigned to his father the Senate President without authorization.
But if you think we’re gonna discuss this here, you’re out of your freaking mind. Go somewhere else. Maybe a newspaper site that doesn’t care what people post. I have no time to sift through what sure looks to be a flood of partisan schadenfreude. I had to delete several comments when a GOP state Rep. got popped for DUI earlier this year and I don’t want to go through that again today. Live and learn.
Also, if you want to test me on this, go ahead and post on another thread and I may just ban you.
Comments Off
|
The rest of the story
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Where have I heard this one before?…
If 60 is too old for a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, how about a 43-year-old attorney general who used to sit next to President Obama in the Illinois Senate?
Slate.com lists Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, 43, as one of its top 21 Supreme Court prospects.
Madigan at first laughed off her status as a hot prospect for the nation’s top court, saying “only if you have the longest list.” But she then said, “It’s flattering to even be mentioned as someone who might be considered. But we have some other fine people who would be extraordinary for the Supreme Court.”
Turns out, this is really old news. Slate has had AG Madigan on its “short list” since last year, before Sonia Sotomayor was picked. We even had a long discussion about it last May. Madigan remains on its list this year.
* Between December of 2000 and September of 2008, the FDIC seized just three Illinois banks. Since then, it has taken over 25 Illinois banks, mostly in the past 11 months. Something to think about as the Chicago media’s “Broadway Bank Death Watch” heats up.
* Gov. Pat Quinn had this to say Friday about Sen. Bill Brady’s refusal to release his income taxes…
“I don’t know what he’s thinking, to be honest. If you want to be governor and you don’t want to disclose your income tax return, I think you’re really letting the people down.”
Quinn is supposed to release his returns today. But last year, you had to make a reservation to review Quinn’s returns and couldn’t make copies…
Getting a peek at Gov. Pat Quinn’s taxes isn’t as easy as you might think.
Quinn didn’t make copies of them available today when he released the returns, instead requiring people to make appointments to see them at his Chicago or Springfield offices.
Other politicians, including President Barack Obama, e-mailed copies of their returns.
Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said in an e-mail that Quinn prefers viewers take notes from his original documents.
Brady has said that he won’t release his tax returns, but people can find out about his investments by checking his filing with the secretary of state. That filing doesn’t say a whole lot, but you can read it by clicking here.
And Alexi Giannoulias hasn’t filed yet…
“As he has done every year, he has filed an extension,” said a spokesperson. The campaign had no comment on why Giannoulias files late
* And what kind of tool tries to call the governor at 11 at night on New Year’s Eve? Patricia Quinn of Bloomington has been getting calls from folks thinking she’s the governor for months, including that one…
Her calls began in late fall, which is also when the “other” Pat Quinn set off national debate and international protests by announcing plans to sell a little-used Illinois prison to the federal government so it could hold terrorist suspects now held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“The most amazing call,” says Pat, “had to be the one at 11 p.m. … on New Year’s Eve. The man said, ‘I’d like to talk to the governor about selling that prison,’ and I said, ‘This is a different Pat Quinn. You need to call Springfield.’ But he was from Green Bay, Wis., and he just kept talking to me about it.
“I’ve never met him,” Quinn says about the governor, “but I’ve been reading up on him. He’s had a lot of government offices in his life, so when he got to be governor, I was happy for him so he can fulfill his dreams.” She added, “I can tell you, too, he sure gets a lot of phone calls.”
19 Comments
|
* According to Crain’s, “Illinois toll rates are among the lowest in the country, averaging 3.3 cents a mile for passenger cars using the electronic toll lanes.” But a rate hike may be in the cards during an election year…
Faced with up to $4 billion in critical repairs on the I-90 tollway and $7 billion in debt already on the books, agency leaders are quietly considering what they previously declared unacceptable: raising tolls on passenger cars using the system’s electronic I-Pass lanes.
The agency is at a financial crossroads: Toll revenue is flat while expenses continue to rise, leaving less operating cash to meet mounting debt obligations. With I-90 and other improvements demanding attention, the authority has all but shelved a plan to devise “green lanes” for carpooling and mass transit, the capstone of its ambitious conversion to electronic, open-road tolling.
By all accounts, the agency needs more money. For starters, the 63-mile stretch of I-90 between O’Hare International Airport and Rockford needs fixing now. Tollway engineers say 80% of the road requires extensive work as soon as this year, and officials are proposing several options, from patchwork repairs to a massive reconstruction project that would include rail or bus service. The cost could run anywhere from $2 billion to $4 billion. Four new tollways, including a western bypass to O’Hare from Elgin, would add billions more to the authority’s expenses.
Crain’s also published some handy graphs…
* In other news, Greg Hinz does a good job of outlining what’s gone so wrong at McCormick Place…
The unions that work at McCormick Place are the same unions employed at the Stephens Convention Center at Rosemont and the same unions that frequently dispatch members to work shows in Nevada and Florida. On an hourly basis, their members earn roughly the same in each of those locales.
But only in Chicago does the end customer — the trade show or convention — end up paying a ton more. Who gets the difference?
One chunk goes off the top to the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. “McPier” runs McCormick Place and collects a surcharge on just about everything within its halls but argues with some validity that it has cut costs way back lately.
Others point to the two big companies that manage shows for McCormick Place customers, or to the unions, which at times effectively dictate work rules and are divided here into bargaining units that each need to be fed.
But back to my question: Who’s to blame? “All of them,” answers one insider I trust. I suspect she’s right, and I’m guessing the Madigan plan will at least singe all of them.
But the interim McPier board can’t seem to get its act together. The Tribune sums up what the board will bring to Springfield…
• A commitment to slash its profit margins on food and electrical service, and potentially to give customers a choice of providers. Talk of privatizing electrical service hit a wall.
• Support for extracting work-rule concessions from the unions, either by making workers public employees or by pressuring the unions and their private employers to go back to the bargaining table. The board was divided on this matter, as well as on whether contractors should be required to document that they pass along any savings in labor costs to customers.
Electrical service profit margins are out of this world. That has to be a major focus. It’s extremely disappointing that they don’t want to even require contractors to disclose whether they are passing along savings to exhibitors, let alone make pass-through reductions a requirement. As I’ve pointed out here before, Rosemont’s convention center (which is in the top ten nationally) is its own contractor and they don’t have any complaints about over-pricing, despite using the same unions as McPier.
* In other economy news, Chuck Sweeny has an interesting column about how downstate gas prices almost spiked way upwards, but how Gov. Pat Quinn and others stepped in to block new IL Dept. of Agriculture rules.
Also, the Peoria Journal-Star supports a bill backed by Attorney General Lisa Madigan to regulate the burgeoning credit debt settlement industry. But the Sun-Times thinks Madigan’s bill goes too far and supports legislation backed by “responsible” members of the industry.
* Related…
* $6.2M in rebate money gobbled up in 11 hours
* 5 things to know about Illinois’ telecom rewrite
* Daily Herald: Lawmakers, please don’t forget jobs
* Can Cook County homeowners save their homes?: Under the program being rolled out in the county, where foreclosures this year spiked 16 percent over the same period last year, homeowners will be able to meet with their lender to try to work out a modification or other agreement.
* Housing crisis in the inner city
* Illinois makes millions selling personal information
* State law restricts what can be sold to whom
* Lawmaker support lacking for $1 cigarette tax increase
* Harsh political reality may blunt medical marijuana push
* Attorney general, Citizens Utility Board criticize water rate hike
15 Comments
|
“Fair Map” coalition coming up short
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Fair Map Coalition originally thought it could gather 288,000 valid petition signatures by April 1st. That didn’t happen, so it extended the deadline until last Friday, April 16th. But that deadline has been missed as well…
A coalition wanting to change how the state draws its legislative districts lacks the signatures needed to get a constitutional amendment on the November ballot but is pressing ahead.
Jan Czarnik with the Fair Map Coalition said [Friday] that based on the “volume” of petitions filed so far, they don’t have the required 288,000 signatures to get the item on the ballot.
The coalition chose [Friday] as its self-imposed deadline to receive petitions after extending the deadline from April 1. The official deadline to submit petitions for the ballot to the secretary of state’s office is May 3.
“It’s only mid-April,” she said of the deadline. “There are two weeks left.”
But they remain optimistic…
Jan Czarnik, executive director of the Illinois League of Women Voters, which is spearheading the petition drive, said support for the petitions has been strong.
But, Czarnik said, “We don’t have the 300,000 signatures yet.”
Some Republicans planned to spend the coming days ramping up their collection of signatures. Czarnik said some churches plan to become active in the signature process thisweekend.
More…
[Mary Schaafsma, issues and advocacy coordinator with the League of Women Voters] said the group expects petitions from a wide variety of organizations to come in this week. “We’ll have a better count then,” she said. “I think at the end of the week, or early the following week, we’ll have a good idea of where we are.”
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is about the remap process…
Almost nothing frightens state legislators more than redistricting. The drawing of new legislative district maps after every census causes more bouts of heartburn than just about anything else.
Take a look at the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when several state Senators flocked to a secure computer room to check on their district boundaries just ahead of a critical map-making deadline. The rest of us were still in shock, but those Senators were taking care of business. Their business.
The ultimate goal in redistricting for legislators is not only to get a map that allows them to remain in their current homes and discourage competition from the other political party, but also to draw a district that eliminates primary opponents and includes their strongest precincts and closest allies.
It doesn’t always work out that way. Former Democratic state Rep. Judy Erwin was a highly respected legislator, but the last remap - controlled by her party - put her in the untenable position of running against colleagues and/or running in a lot of unfamiliar turf. She chose retirement. She wasn’t alone.
Legislative leaders look at the map-making process a different way. They please whom they can (or want) and do everything possible to draw maps that guarantee their party’s dominance. This, of course, is much easier for Democrats in Illinois than Republicans because the state has leaned Democratic for so many years. Even though the Republicans drew the map in 1991, the House Democrats controlled the chamber for eight out of 10 years. And the Senate Democrats came within several hundred votes of winning their chamber in 1996.
The Democrats won the right to draw the current map in the 2001 lottery. Since then, their party has dominated legislative elections, mainly because the party has done so well statewide.
Besides completely turning around their party’s fortunes and tweaking some of the more evenly divided districts, the best way legislative Republicans can get back into the game is to trap the Democrats in Chicago as much as possible and keep them from splitting up suburban Cook County towns and strategic Downstate communities into tiny pieces.
The Democrats have successfully used “spoking” to extend their Chicago districts into the Cook County suburbs. Spoking simultaneously dilutes suburban Republican votes and adds to the number of city-centric Democrats who can be elected. Trap the Democrats in Chicago and make sure suburban and Downstate towns are kept whole, and the Republicans might possibly be able to draw maps that give them a halfway decent shot at winning their chambers.
That’s a big reason the Democrats are turning thumbs down on a remap proposal by the Republicans and good government groups such as the League of Women Voters. The “Fair Map Amendment” would all but prohibit mapmakers from crossing municipal boundaries. It’s a GOP dream come true, the Dems say, and the good government types fell for it.
The “Fair Map” authors also have steadfastly denied Democratic accusations that their proposed constitutional amendment would dilute minority rights. But during a state Senate committee hearing last week, the proponents admitted they were working on changing their legislative proposal to satisfy groups such as the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund which had objected to the measure.
The “Fair Map” group also is trying to gather signatures to put the proposal on the ballot this fall, and it’s far too late to change the wording on that initiative’s race and ethnic provisions. Last week’s all but admission that their language falls short of protecting minority rights could be used against their petition effort as the submission deadline draws near.
The Senate Democrats passed their own alternative last week, and it has its flaws as well. Far too often, district maps are drawn to allow legislators to choose their voters, rather than the other way around. The Senate Democratic proposal doesn’t really do anything to address this very real problem.
In the end, though, all this may be for naught. The reformers and the Republicans haven’t been able to convince the Democrats to adopt their plan, and the word is that their petition-gathering operation isn’t up to snuff. The House Democrats are one vote shy of a three-fifths majority required to pass constitutional amendments, so it’s unlikely that they could pass the Senate-approved measure even if they wanted to. What we have here is probably an empty debating exercise with no real future.
* Related…
* Nancy Marcus: Stop the politicians; support Fair Map Amendment
25 Comments
|
Morning Shorts
Monday, Apr 19, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Wave of shootings leaves seven dead in 12 hours
The carnage pushed the city’s murder toll to 97 so far this year, up from 81 by this date last year.
* Schmich: Violence puts chill on a city heating up
* Public defenders face latest challenges in budget shortfall
* Graffiti-fighting blasted
Since Daley created the Graffiti Blasters program in 1993, city workers have erased or painted over nearly 2 million graffiti tags, Streets & San spokesman Matt Smith says. At a total price tag of about $9 million a year, that means it’s costing Chicago taxpayers about $76 a blast.
But with City Hall groaning under the weight of a record budget deficit, graffiti removal has declined every month since last October — which also happens to be when the city lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
* Illinois line among fastest growing for Amtrak
“It’s anybody you might see driving on (Interstate) 55. It’s business travelers, it’s leisure travelers,” said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak in Chicago.
* City wins arbitration over police pay raise
Rank and file officers will get an average raise of 2 percent each year for the next five years. However, that is less than the offer Mayor Daley pulled off the negotiating table more than one year ago when the police union pushed for more.
Police officers have been working without a contract since June 2007.
* City police getting just 2% raise under arbitrator’s ruling
Police had been offered 16% over five years during bargaining a couple of years ago, but refused it. Mr. Daley withdrew the offer in 2009 as the economy soured and the matter went to arbitration.
* Chicago police raises to average 2 percent as City Hall wins arbitration
* Chicago’s Police Union Says Wage Increase Should Be Higher
* Daley brushes off police union criticism on new contract
* Houlihan puts Stroger’s cousin on assessor payroll
Donna Dunnings will be paid $79,000 a year to run the Cook County Stimulus and Revitalization Project, which provides funds to help developers return to the tax rolls properties they buy with large delinquent property tax bills, said Eric Herman, spokesman for Assessor James Houlihan.
* Daley orders audit for city’s insurance rolls
The last time the city conducted a health insurance audit, roughly 5,700 people suspected of being falsely listed as dependents of city employees were cut off.
* New city watchdog: Employees rigged hiring, failed to disclose free trip
* City watches as Denver rolls out bike-sharing program
* Des Plaines casino under way
* Quincy Googletown USA
* Decatur woos Google’s fiber optic test
* [Carbondale] City cuts don’t sit well with some
* SIUC taking over St. Louis Journalism Review
* FV Labor News sues competing publication
* White Sox landlord Perri Irmer on sports, ‘The Good Wife’ and Steve Harvey
9 Comments
|
Comments Off
|
|
Support CapitolFax.com Visit our advertisers...
...............
...............
...............
...............
...............
|
|
Hosted by MCS
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax
Advertise Here
Mobile Version
Contact Rich Miller
|