* 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.
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…
* 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.
* 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.
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.
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.
* 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.
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.
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.”
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.
“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.
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.]
* 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.
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.
“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.
“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.”
* 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.
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.
• 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.
* 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.
* 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.”
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.
[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
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.
“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.
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.
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
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.
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
* Do you think Gov. Pat Quinn might’ve been trying to send a message today by mentioning Jim Edgar’s name more often than he did Abe Lincoln’s during his State of the State address? What with all the dissing Edgar’s been doing of Bill Brady lately, Quinn would be foolish to pass up that chance. NBC5 had a little fun with the governor’s Chicago press conference. Take a look…
* As a follow-up to a post I did a ways back, my dad is being released from the hospital next Tuesday, which is nine days early. He’s been working hard with his therapy since the stroke and he’s responding quite well. Good for him, and good for my mom, who has been under more than a little stress lately as well.
* I remember the day my dad brought home Janis Joplin’s Pearl album, shortly after the posthumous record was released. He played it over and over and over and I loved every minute of it. Wow, what an album that was.
Since Pearl was released after Joplin’s death, I didn’t realize that she had the chance to play any of the tracks live. But Janis was a guest on the Dick Cavett show two months before she died and the tape survives. So here’s My Baby…
And when they tell me love is pain
I said it might be true for you, honey,
But not for Janis no more, no, no, no, no.
She did another song from Pearl on the Cavett show that day. It’s here.
* We’ve had some back-and-forth here about what the real reason was behind the refusal of a federal underage drinking grant by the Champaign city council and its mayor. The first time I wrote about the refusal in February, I quoted a council member questioning the “morality of accepting federal grant money for local purposes.” Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart appeared to agree with that logic at the time.
Several commenters questioned their reasoning, pointing out the large number of U of I students living in Champaign and the local taverns that depend on their underage drinking.
Then, last month, the city council voted to accept a big federal broadband grant, which the mayor had said the council ought to be “careful” about accepting back in February. So, we all figured it was about the booze.
But, now, a new CBS2 report has me wondering whether the first take may have been correct…
You can count Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart among those who doubt President Barack Obama’s citizenship.
The third-term Republican was asked Thursday at a Tea Party gathering in Champaign what he thought of Obama and answered, “I don’t think he’s an American, personally.”
“You know, if you’re not willing to produce an original certificate, a birth certificate, then you’ve got something to hide,” he added. “If he doesn’t have something to hide, produce it.”
His statements echo doubts raised by the so-called “birther” movement that has long claimed Obama was born in Kenya and is not eligible to serve as President of the United States.
* Impressive. From a Quinn administration press release…
Participating retailers are reporting they have expended approximately $3 million dollars, or half of the available funds, in ENERGY STAR appliance rebates as of noon today, the first day of the program. A total of $6.2 million in rebates is available through the program. At least $20 million in new appliances were sold in the first four hours of the program.
Consumers are visiting their local participating retailers to take advantage of a 15 percent rebate (up to $400 per appliance) on ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers, dishwashers and room air conditioners. The program is designed to help Illinoisans reduce their energy consumption and provide a boost to local economies.
The state has designated approximately $6.2 million in rebates for the appliance portion of the program. The appliance rebate was made available today starting at 8 a.m.
Illinois received a total of $12.4 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to implement both phases of the program. The first phase, which is no longer available, offered rebates on water heaters and heating and cooling equipment. Since the start of the rebate program on January 31, over $35 million in water heater and HVAC sales have been pumped into the Illinois economy.
The Illinois ENERGY STAR Appliance Rebate Program is being managed by the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) on behalf of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). DCEO has also partnered with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) to enroll and coordinate the retailers in the program. Over 600 retailers throughout the state have signed up to participate in the program.
10) UIS students being asked to pay for construction of student center
* Pick a story and briefly say why you’d like a separate post on that topic later this afternoon. Let’s make the deadline for votes 3:30 so I have time to write it.
Friday, Apr 16, 2010 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Entrepreneurs and business leaders across the state are calling for telecommunications policy modernization this year to sustain investment in broadband, which will create jobs for Illinois residents at no cost to taxpayers. ITP sat down with several of them to get their thoughts on HB 6425, the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act.
The legislature is moving in the right direction to update our state’s 25-year old telecommunications laws, and we need to make sure all harmful regulations that are hindering investment in our state’s broadband infrastructure are removed. This will spur business growth and provide more consumers with access to new technologies at affordable prices.
* Results of a new poll on raising the cigarette tax by a buck a pack has generated some coverage…
Of the 502 people surveyed by the Illinois Coalition Against Tobacco, 74 percent said they support raising taxes on cigarettes by $1 — from 98 cents per pack to $1.98 per pack.
Despite the public support, a measure to raise cigarette taxes is about 10 House votes shy of approval, said Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood.
* I asked for the toplines and received all but one of them. Check out the “right track/wrong track” numbers when respondents are asked how they “think things in your area of Illinois are generally headed”…
Right Direction 23%
Wrong Track 64
Don’t Know 13
That ain’t great. Sure would like to see the regional crosstabs.
* Next question: “Now, as you may know, Illinois is facing a significant budget deficit, estimated to be over thirteen billion dollars. I’m going to read several options that have been proposed to help address the budget deficit. After each one that I read, please tell me if you would Support or Oppose that option to help reduce the state’s budget deficit…
[Click the pic for a larger image.]
Notice that huge majorities are opposed to service cuts and an income tax hike, but 70 percent say they could back increasing the tobacco tax.
* There ain’t much downside for candidates on this issue, either. Here are the results from a question about whether respondents would be more or less likely “to support candidates for state or local public office in Illinois if you knew that they supported raising the Illinois Cigarette tax by one dollar per pack”…
Much More Likely 15
Somewhat More Likely 14
Somewhat Less Likely 3
Much Less Likely 8
No Difference 58
Don’t Know 2
* And here’s what happened when they were asked how they wanted the money from a new cigarette tax to be spent. Again, click the pic for a larger image…
* Some internals from the cig tax hike question via the pollster’s memo…
• Support for the tax is similar in all areas of the State, including Chicago (76% support), the Cook County suburbs (72% support), the collar counties (75% support), North (74% support) and South (70% support).
• Voters < age 50 (74% support) and age 50+ (73% support) hold similar opinions. This remains consistent among men and women, with a noticeable upward spike in support among women under age fifty (80% support, 70% strongly).
• Support is high among white voters (71%) and minorities (82%).
• Those with college degrees are strongly in favor of the tax (79% support) while support is high among those without degrees (69%). Those making < $75k per year are as supportive as all voters (71%) while those making more than $75k per year are strongly in favor of it (81%).
• Republicans (71% support) and Independent (68%) voters are solidly in favor of the $1 per pack increase, with Democrats even more supportive (81%). This pattern of strong support among partisans remains consistent among liberals (76% support), moderates (79% support) and conservatives (68% support).
• Even four of ten (42%) smokers support the tax. [Emphasis added.]
That last point is kinda fascinating.
* 80 percent said they supported “taxing other tobacco products such as cigars and smokeless, or chew tobacco at comparable rates as cigarettes” and 77 percent said they were concerned “about smoking and other tobacco use among young people in Illinois.
* Methodology…
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids commissioned the survey. Fako & Associates, Inc., of Lisle, Illinois conducted the survey by telephone on April 5 - 7, 2010 using professional interviewers. F&A interviewed a random sample of 502 registered voters that are likely to vote in the November 2, 2010 General Election in the State of Illinois. A strict screening process was used to ensure that only likely voters in the November 2010 General Election participated in the survey. The interviews lasted an average of 10 minutes. Scientific sampling techniques using a listing of registered voters were used to give all registered voters living in a telephone-equipped household within the State an equal chance of being interviewed. The interviews were conducted in proportion to gender and regional shares of the vote based on past election data and known demographics. Weighting was applied to age to bring this group closer into proportion with known demographics. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.32% at the 95% level of confidence. This means that if the survey were replicated the results would be consistent for 95 out of 100 cases. The margin of error is higher among the various sub-groups.
Among the reasons his lawyers gave was that Rob’s alleged involvement was “approximately 5% of the 84-month conspiracy.” The “spill over” effect from evidence and testimony against his younger brother could also prevent the jury from “making a reliable judgment” on the case.
Rob’s lawyers went on to object to the “the expense of having to sit through a lengthy trial” would be too burdensome. And they provided an estimate of the trial’s length…
This trial will take approximately 5 months.
Five months? I hadn’t seen that estimate before. The last I checked the early June trial was supposed to take three months. But if it lasts five months, that means it’ll be wrapping up on election day. Not good at all for the Dems.
* On Wednesday, Scott Lee Cohen posted a message on his Facebook page…
Just a reminder that I will be speaking at the Erie Cafe at 7pm tonight. The group is reform Chicago NOW, I can’t think of a better event to speak at. I hope to see some of you there.
Earlier in the day, Cohen had posted a link to Michael Sneed’s item about how Cohen was mulling a bid for governor as an independent and about how he would be speaking that night at the RCN event.
But then, less than 90 minutes before the event, Cohen FB’d this…
I’m dissapointed the meeting tonight at reform Chicago now has been cancelled.
“I was planning on talking about what happened … and what the future holds,” Cohen said during a phone call.
Cohen didn’t give a specific reason why he didn’t show. But William Kelly, who is organizing the Reform Chicago Now movement, says The Erie Cafe, where Cohen was planning to speak, was concerned it would lose its liquor license.
“I can say with 100 percent certainty that the Erie Cafe would not cancel any event for fear of repercussions from any official,” restaurant manager John Brom told me.
Brom said he wasn’t even aware that Cohen was the featured speaker. He said reservations at the restaurant, in the River North neighborhood just east of the Chicago River, are made by “whoever picks up the phone.”
This isn’t the first time Cohen mysteriously failed to show for an event. It may not be the last, either.
* Meanwhile, Cohen linked approvingly yesterday to a Huffington Post blog item demanding that Democratic US Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias step aside…
* Sen. Brady spoke before the Republican Renaissance PAC of Illinois not long ago, and they’ve posted the video…
* A spot of good news, finally, for Democratic US Senate Alexi Giannoulias. Mayor Daley spoke forefully on his behalf the other day. The event received scant media coverage, however. Watch…
* Giannoulias’ Poor Fundraising Part of National Democratic Trend: Kirk’s comrades in GOPdom, former Reps. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) have doubled and quadrupled the amounts of their rivals, respectively.
* Last year’s “tea party” rallies around Illinois featured few if any GOP speakers. National GOP Chairman Michael Steele was refused his request to speak, for instance. This year, there appeared to be lots more politicians getting into the act…
[The Oswego rally] welcomed speakers like Dan Koukol, running for Kendall County Board, and Keith Wheeler, who ran against State Rep. Kay Hatcher, 50th District.
State Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, riled up the crowd on the issues of state pension reform and a cap on property taxation. Randy Hultgren, Republican candidate for the 14th Congressional District seat, was scheduled to close the rally.
In Chicago, three Republicans running to unseat Democratic House members appeared before a rally of thousands at a plaza outside City Hall. One, Joel Pollak, sang a song he wrote, with the verse: “Don’t tax our freedom away.”
Adam Andrzejewski and Dan Proft also spoke in Chicago. Proft was in Naperville as well. GOP congressional candidate Adam Kinzinger appeared at the Joliet rally. Republican State Sen. Kyle McCarter spoke in Decatur.
* Local GOP organizations are taking advantage of the new synergy…
(T)ea party activists have already begun work at the local level in Lake and Will counties, where they have taken control of some GOP precinct committeemen positions, which help slate candidates, influence party policy, and interact with voters on a face-to-face level.
“One of the big things today, at the Joliet tea party, was (people saying) ‘OK, the rallies have been great, now what do we do?’ ” said Bill Walker, coordinator of the Will County Tea Party. “So we are recruiting people to get involved at the local level. That is the key to victory in November 2010.”
Richard Kavanagh, chairman of the Will County Republican Party, said about one-third of the vacant precinct positions he has filled since March have gone to those active in the tea party.
Bob Cook, chairman of the Lake County Republican Party, said his organization was having some difficulty filling vacancies until they reached out to the tea party activists. Now, Cook said, he has filled nearly half of the 60 vacant precinct positions with those who are active in the movement.
Bill Brady’s campaign worked the Chicago rally. Brady said yesterday that he was in tune with the ralliers…
“I believe that what they’re about is limited government, more efficient, effective government that’s responsive to the people. Ending career politicians,” Brady said. “They’re looking for the same clean break from the politics of the past.”
Democrat-turned-independent Forrest Claypool’s campaign workers gathered hundreds of Tea Party signatures for Claypool’s Cook County Assessor bid on clipboards that said, “Are your taxes too high? Vote for Forrest Claypool.”
Mad Hatter former Democrat Forrest Claypool’s campaign joins with the Tea Party to get on the ballot. Is this his idea of a “big tent”. Do NOT circulate petitions for third parties and do NOT sign for them.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Also of note, some of the crowds were smaller and less visceral. Oswego attendance was way down…
Compared to last year when the bridge was filled from end to end with signs and American flags, about one-fourth of the stretch was filled.
Peoria’s turnout was estimated by organizers at around a thousand, which is down from 3,000 a year ago. The Naperville estimate of 500 is the same as last year. Chicago’s official estimate was 1,500, which appears to be smaller than last year. Less than 100 attended the Decatur rally.
* For the past few decades, Illinois’ unemployment rate has tended to track with the national rate, but just a bit higher. The bad news in the newly released unemployment numbers is that we’re now diverging from the national trend, and not in a good way…
The jobless rate in Illinois rose slightly to 11.5 percent in March and the state was ranked 9th nationally for its foreclosure rate in the first three months of the year, according to data released Thursday that economists say indicate the state’s recovery is sluggish at best.
But state officials say there are signs the economy is improving.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security said the state added 3,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month that Illinois saw job growth. However there still were 765,000 people out of work.
The 11.5 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Illinois was a tenth of a percentage point higher than in February, but 2.3 percentage points higher than March 2009. The seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate for March was 9.7 percent.
The latest numbers show that 148,500 fewer people were employed in Illinois in March than in March 2009.
* The state’s foreclosure rate - which is in the nation’s top ten - is at least partially a reflection of those numbers…
Illinois home foreclosure activity during the first quarter of 2010 fell 4.6 percent from the previous quarter, but was still higher than the first quarter of 2009.
A report released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows Illinois with 45,780 foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2010. Filings include default notices, auction-sale notices and bank repossessions.
The filings represent one in every 115 housing units in the state. That rate is nearly 17.5 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year and 9th-highest nationally.
* Daley: Banks should foot bill for foreclosure crisis: Chicago taxpayers spent $7 million last year to board up and secure abandoned properties, Mayor Daley said today, demanding that banks foot the bill for the foreclosure crisis. Daley wants the General Assembly to approve Chicago-only legislation putting banks on the hook for board-up and security costs. He also wants state lawmakers to sharpen the definition of “abandoned” properties to let banks take possession sooner so they can secure buildings sooner.
* Illinois’ report card: We’re No. 44: The state ranks 44th in federal spending, totaling $14.84 per person, on projects deemed “pork” by Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit that describes itself as “America’s No. 1 taxpayer watchdog.” Illinois ranked 45th last year. Hawaii ranked first in the current report, at $251.78 per person.
* Homes, businesses for former South Side steel mill site get thumbs up
* Will board approves fee waiver: The board approved a resolution allowing municipalities — meaning townships, villages or cities — to skip paying the zoning application fee when seeking a zoning change on a piece of unincorporated property. The waiver will be capped at $2,500.
DCFS officials say they have issued “potentially thousands” of such letters to caregivers declaring that they have custody of children, with the expectation that they will soon get a judge’s approval. But because the letters are undated, and because DCFS did not always follow up, some guardians such as Lowe have had years-long custody with no court oversight.
Mayors from Addison and Carol Stream said the proposal is an “overreaction” to the commission’s financial problems and dubbed state Sen. Dan Cronin’s bill a “nuclear option.”…Cronin, who’s running for DuPage County Board chairman, said his proposal is a matter of consolidation as well as transparency. It was approved 39-5.
“If you look at the situation of what’s been happening in DuPage County, this appointed body of government has run amok,” Cronin said.
* DuPage Water Commission OKs budget filled with uncertainty
The $110 million worth of expenses hinges on the financially strapped agency receiving a $40 million loan and a water rate of $2.08 per 1,000 gallons. If the commission is unable to secure the loan, the body will have to increase the rate significantly to cover shortfalls created by the misappropriation of the commission’s $69 million reserve funds. Only Commissioner Liz Chaplin voted against the budget proposal Thursday.
Some commissioners attempted to increase next year’s water rate an additional 24 cents, but the initiative failed.
The Illinois Commerce Commission, which sets customer rates for utility companies throughout the state, voted unanimously to allow Illinois American to collect an extra $41 million annually in revenue, according to a press release issued Thursday. The decision allows Illinois American an overall rate of return of 8 percent, which means the company’s profits on the money it puts into plants, pipes and other infrastructure can’t be higher than that amount.
With Homer Glen now looking to do something similar through a partnership with a few other Will County towns, Illinois American has peppered mailboxes with mailings singling out Felton as an example of public control gone wrong.
At best, the city says it’s something we can’t afford right now. At worst, it’s a $7 million program in violation of state law. They’ve already spent $400,000 on the new technology, and not a single ticket has been written.
Burlock said parents haven’t been given enough information to know if a college prep rejection was due to a technical error.
A letter stating her son won admission to his second choice included his overall admission score but never explained what score was needed at each college prep, said Burlock, a member of the Black Star Project PTA.
Plus, she said, the letter never explained which one of four economic tiers her son’s address fell into. An address incorrectly entered could put a kid in a tier that requires higher scores.
Under the new policy, 40 percent of students at each college prep were picked in rank order of their admission scores on a 900-point scale. The remaining 60 percent were chosen from one of four economic tiers, based on how their scores stacked up against others in their tier.
Officials with both Mayor Richard Daley’s administration and the Fraternal Order of Police said they expect to receive the decision by 8 a.m. Friday. Both sides said they plan to brief reporters later in the day.
* IL Fire Departments Awarded $1 Million FEMA Grants
* Illinois Senior Insurance Program Gets $1.4M Grant
