U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced today that the Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center by the end of the year and fully utilize the entire facility.
In a letter (attached) to Durbin, Quinn and Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL), a DOJ official explained that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) plans to make modifications to the prison and hire and train a full complement of staff while the Defense Department and Congress continue to work on authorizing and funding a portion of the Thomson facility for housing Guantanamo detainees.
Durbin and Governor Quinn issued the following statement:
“With this letter today, the Bureau of Prisons has reaffirmed the commitment it made earlier this year to fully utilize Thomson Correction Center and upgrade the facility to make it the safest prison in the nation.
The agency has already begun the process of recruiting for positions at the prison, so having the facility operating at full capacity could result in more jobs for residents of Thomson and surrounding areas.
As we have said many times, this move will have an enormous impact on our state –generating thousands of good paying jobs and potentially injecting more than $1 billion into the regional economy. This is an opportunity to dramatically reduce unemployment, create thousands of good-paying jobs and breathe new economic life into a part of Illinois that desperately needs this.”
The purchase, activation and operation of Thomson Correctional Center is expected to generate more than 3,000 jobs – roughly half of which are expected to be given to local applicants – and inject more than $1 billion into the regional economy. Currently, there is a critical need for a facility to address federal prison overcrowding problems nationwide and a particularly urgent need for supermax-type bed space. More than 209,000 inmates are in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, up sharply from 202,000 last year.
The Thomson facility was built in 2001 by the State of Illinois as a state-of-the-art, maximum-security prison to house the most severe criminal offenders. The facility was never occupied, however, and is sitting vacant. The facility was constructed on a 146-acre reservation has 1,600 beds with eight compartmentalized units designed for maximum inmate supervision and control. Security features include:
* Dual-sided electrical stun fencing capable of carrying 7,000 volts;
* 312 Cameras on a fiber optic surveillance network with motion detection/remote monitoring capabilities;
* Armed outer and inner perimeter towers.
Bottom line: The Dept. of Justice will run the entire facility. No Gitmo prisoners unless Congress decides to act, which will probably be never.
* Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias spoke separately to a Metropolitan Planning Council gathering today. Giannoulias hung out afterwards before and answered media questions, but Kirk beat it outta there in a hurry…
As soon as that was done — with a swarm of TV cameras and reporters moving toward the front of the ballroom– Mr. Kirk bolted for a back door.
With media in hot pursuit, he raced through a Hyatt kitchen and into the back set of a black SUV — I believe it was a Cadillac Escalade — which instantly pealed out.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has dodged reporters for a week after acknowledging he embellished stories about his military service. Today, Kirk ran from a pack of reporters today after speaking for about 20 minutes at a forum held by the Metropolitan Planning Council where Giannoulias had spoken earlier. Kirk ran through a back door through a kitchen prep area and onto a loading dock where a car waited for him.
The rapid departure came after Kirk offered his answers on a series of pre-arranged questions dealing with planning and urban growth issues such as public transit to Lake Michigan’s water levels.
IL GOP’s Executive Curt Conrad said IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the new Finance Committee has raised more funds in the first four months of 2010 than was raised in 2009 altogether.
And its cash on hand was a startlingly puny $55,200.35.
Yikes.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Chairman Brady just called to say they actually raised “close to $750,000″ so far this year through about six accounts and has about $360K on hand in those accounts.
We applaud the policies that our fellow constitutional officers have already instituted for GLBT employees such as insurance coverage, sick time or bereavement leave.
However, we do not believe any others have a similar policy for unpaid FMLA leave, which was the basis of our Executive Order. FMLA allows an employee to take unpaid time off to care for a sick spouse, child or parent. What the State Treasurer’s Office did was to make “domestic partner” the equivalent of “spouse.”
As a result, in practice FMLA-like benefits were extended to GLBT employees so they could take unpaid leave to care for a sick domestic partner, just like a married employee could do to care for a sick spouse. Taking unpaid leave to care for a state employee’s domestic partner is not currently covered by the FMLA. We believe we are the only office to have done this and have it as a written policy –as opposed to leaving it open to interpretation.
Additionally, while FLMA can presently be used for maternity/paternity issues like the birth or adoption of a child, we do not believe that the state employee would qualify for leave to care for a newborn child related to the employee’s domestic partner. Similarly, if the employee’s domestic partner adopts a child but the state employee does not, under most maternity/paternity leave policies, the employee would not qualify for leave. Our policy now extends these benefits to cover such instances and do not believe it is covered in other state offices.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Another day, another embellishment claim in the US Senate race. But this one’s on Alexi Giannoulias. Last week, the state treasurer made a big announcement…
Gay and lesbian employees of the Illinois Treasurer’s office with domestic partners will have the same benefits as married employees under an executive order signed by state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias Sunday.
They’ll get the same family and medical leave benefits, be able to take time off to have or adopt children and take bereavement time on par with married workers. That is in addition to health care benefits that same-sex partners already received.
The order makes the office the first constitutional Illinois state office or state agency to adopt such a policy and one of only nine states and the District of Columbia to implement leave-related benefits for domestic partners, Giannoulias said.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has had benefits in place for same-sex couples since July 2006. Spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said the change was made after CMS extended benefits to include domestic partners working for the governor’s office a couple of months earlier. […]
Ziegler said Madigan changed her office’s employee insurance coverage to include same-sex couples and bereavement leave. She said the maternity and paternity leave did not need updating because it covered people regardless of their sexual orientation.
Ziegler said she is unaware of any employees that have been denied rights under the Family Medical Leave Act because of their sexual orientation.
The Illinois Republican Party pounced with a press release detailing nine false claims. Here are a few. Click to read them all…
1. Falsely claimed to serve on the Board of Directors for a distinguished banking group. “Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias corrected a claim on his website that he served on the board of a banking group when he didn’t…‘Alexi was not that intimately involved to be candid,’ Wingert said.” (Associated Press, “Giannoulias Fixes Bankers Association Board Claim,” 6/9/2010)
2. Falsely claimed to chair a defunct charity. “Giannoulias is currently the state treasurer of Illinois. And, according to his official website, ‘He founded and chairs the AG Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations.’ The problem is, the charity no longer exists. According to the AG Foundation’s tax return, ‘The organization was in existence only for the two-year period from 2005 to 2006.’ So, why is Giannoulias still claiming to be the ‘chair’ of this defunct organization? According to the same tax return, Giannoulias’s formal position with the foundation was ‘president.’ In this capacity, the ‘average hours per week devoted to position’ was 0.15, which amounts to 9 minutes per week and an average of 39 minutes per month.” (Weekly Standard, “Giannoulias’s Embellishment,” 6/3/2010)
3. Falsely claimed Bright Start only lost $85 million. “The losses in a mutual fund that was part of the Illinois Bright Start college savings plan totaled about $150 million in 2008, more than double what the state had previously disclosed. As a result, families will recoup about half of what they lost, where six months ago some expected to recover a higher percentage of their losses.” (Chicago Tribune, “Illinois Bright Start college fund settlement less than expected,” 12/23/2009)
* Meanwhile, do you remember that story last week about how a Republican tracker got manhandled a bit at a Giannoulias fundraiser? Marathon Pundit has identified the person who most vociferously insisted that the tracker leave as Washington, DC lobbyist Michael Kosmas. Here’s his video…
But there’s a catch. Another conservative Internet guy, Doug Ibendahl, looked into Kosmas and saw that he may lean Republican…
But before joining his current law firm, Michael worked for nearly a decade for former U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley – a Republican from Maryland.
However it’s Michael Kosmas’ political contributions that are really interesting. Kosmas has given to Democrats – including his mother. But check out some of his contributions to Republicans:
$500 to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) (6/20/08)
$250 to U.S. Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) (9/28/04)
$3,200 in total contributions to U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California) (2003-2005)
$1,000 to Rudy Giuliani for Presidential Committee Inc. (11/29/07)
$500 to Elizabeth Dole Committee Inc. (7/15/02)
$4,000 in total contributions to former Republican Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich (2003-2006)
$500 to U.S. Senate Campaign of Republican Rob Portman of Ohio (12/16/09)
$75 to Harford County Republican Central Committee (4/25/03)
$200 to Republican State Central Committee of Maryland (10/2/03)
If someone from Illinois had that kind of contribution history – he or she would be considered a generous Republican.
Actually, that person would be called a “lobbyist who works both sides” here in Illinois.
In one of the first major provisions of federal health-care reform, states were supposed to establish temporary high-risk insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions by July 1.
But Illinois won’t make that deadline. It probably won’t start enrolling people in its pool until mid- to late August because legislators in Springfield failed to pass legislation necessary to set up the new program, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
It wasn’t just the GA’s fault. There was no immediate fallback position by the administration. What we have is yet another embarassment.
According to state records, Illinois had set aside more than $3.3 billion in money for public works projects this year. From that $3.3 billion, almost $464 million already has been spent on projects, while another $585 million is reserved under contract.
That leaves $2.3 billion still on the table for dozens of projects around the state.
Quinn said state agencies and public bodies have to go through detailed procedures before releasing the money and starting work.
“You’ve got to have bidding and you’ve got to have competitive bidding and you’ve got to do all the policies right,” he said. “The bottom line is we have more construction going right now in Illinois that any other time in our state history.”
It doesn’t take a political expert to figure that Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, would be a focus of this arm-twisting [to pass the pension borrowing bill]. He obviously represents large numbers of state employees. He’s in a better position than his GOP colleagues to vote for borrowing as something that’s good for his constituents and to argue that it’s the best of a bunch of bad alternatives.
However, Bomke said last week he hasn’t heard from the governor since the end of May, when the two talked about the pension borrowing and Bomke said he’d keep an open mind.
Every month, the state pays out about $2 billion in bills. The biggest chunk of that money doesn’t go to state services, salaries or to help bring down the backlog.
Rather, every month, the state spends about $500 million simply to pay back loans it took out in an earlier round of borrowing.
* Our chart of the day is from Voices for Illinois Children. Click the pic for a better view…
OK, here’s another one showing some details of the hits within the Department of Human Services budget…
* It’s been an article of faith among conservatives and quite a few moderates that states which hiked taxes on the rich suffered a mass exodus. Ezra Klein points to a roundup of some studies that suggest otherwise…
1) Economist Andrew Leigh did a national study (PDF) looking for effects of state income tax rates on migration patterns. He could not find a statistically significant relationship.
2) After Maryland instituted higher tax rates on wealthy individuals in 2007 and 2008, tax returns from millionaires dropped. But the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found (PDF) that the drop was not due to millionaires leaving, but to the recession making them no longer millionaires.
3) The California Budget Project notes (PDF) that California imposed a temporary tax increase on high earners from 1991 to 1995, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 33.4 percent. Another high-income tax hike was implemented in 2005, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 37.8 percent.
4) New Jersey increased taxes on high earners in 2004, and Princeton researchers did find (PDF) that New Jersey lost $37.7 million in tax revenue after migration by wealthy tax payers. However, that number was dwarfed by the more than $1 billion overall revenue gain from the tax increase, and the number of high-income filers still increased between 2004 and 2006.
* Author shows why closing book on libraries is a bad idea: Legislators didn’t vote to shut down the regional [library] systems; they just didn’t act as the state stopped paying the money it had appropriated. The North Suburban Library System was the first to run out of money, shrinking to a skeleton operation, and others are facing the same budgetary squeeze.
*** UPDATE - 3:24 pm *** From Illinois Review, there are now eight filers for US Senate…
Joliet’s Christopher Pedersen submitted petitions last Monday for the Independent Conservative Party’s nomination and this morning Oak Brook’s Mike Labno submitted petitions for the Libertarian Party, in addition to the Independent Party candidates Will “Willie” Boyd from Greenville and Shon-Tiyon “Santiago” Horton from Alton.
Also joining the pack of U.S. Senate hopefuls is former Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Andy Martin, running on the Illinois Reform party ticket.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Keep in mind that even if he did manage to gather enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, there are still some serious legal challenges ahead for Scott Lee Cohen’s candidacy…
The would-be independent candidate for governor has had teams of signature collectors out of the streets for weeks, trying to gather the required 25,000 by Monday’s deadline.
Just before a Sunday afternoon news conference at his campaign headquarters, Cohen spokesman John Davis said they have the 25,000 — plus more than 100,000 to spare. In total, the campaign says they have 133,170 signatures — more than 5 times the required number.
The lawyers will definitely earn their paydays sifting through all of those signatures.
Considering that Cohen was caught using winos and junkies as petition passers, there is probably a lot of, um, junk in that stack. George Ryan demanded that his highly well-oiled machine gather 100,000 signatures for his 1998 gubernatorial bid. One of his top lieutenants back then told me that the petition drive was the most difficult, grueling experience of his political life.
Forrest Claypool says he has more than the necessary 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Claypool’s a Democratic Cook County commissioner hoping to run for county assessor.
CLAYPOOL: The only way we will not be on the ballot, I believe, is if there’s something wrong with the system.
From a press release…
In a resounding statement of support for independent reformer Forrest Claypool, over 90,000 Cook County voters signed his nomination petitions for Cook County Assessor in just 77 days.
The effort involved 912 volunteer circulators, all of whom signed forms stating that they did not pass petitions for Democrats, Republicans, or the Green Party in advance of the February primary. Many had never volunteered for a political campaign before.
“I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support from Cook County taxpayers who are fed up with politics as usual,” said Claypool.
The filing comprises more than 6,500 pages, stands over 2 ½ feet tall, is bound by metal rounds to ensure a uniform, solitary filing, and weighs approximately 75 pounds.
The Claypool campaign claims they collected an additional 4,200 signatures, but threw them out because they didn’t meet their standards.
Video…
* Related…
* Our View: Tired of laughable candidates’ election wins? Start paying attention: As with Cohen, the wealthy Chicago pawnbroker who briefly held the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in the Land of Lincoln before word spread about a previous arrest for allegedly threatening his prostitute girlfriend with a knife, among other embarrassments, South Carolina’s Alvin Greene brings some hefty political baggage with him.
The big question heading into this morning’s session of the Blagojevich corruption trial was whether Blagojevich’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., and U.S. District Judge James Zagel would again butt heads.
But that was overshadowed by an even bigger development: Former first lady Patti Blagojevich apparently cut her long brown hair over the weekend and showed up in court with a short bobbed hairdo.
Bradley Tusk, a onetime aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is testifying about an alleged shakedown scheme contained in the government’s indictment.
Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.
Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.
Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”
I keep waiting for the big crime to show up in the testimony– and maybe it will, some obvious quid-pro-quo for Obama’s old Senate seat, the “OK, you give me $10 million and you’re a senator” moment. But I haven’t heard it yet. My gut tells me that Blago’s crime is going to boil down to the same crime Miriam Santos was convicted of — the crime of saying on tape what many others say unrecorded.
Neil should listen to the tapes. From my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Back in 2003, Rod Blagojevich’s former congressional chief of staff Dave Stricklin was asked by Chicago Magazine to recall an example of his former boss’s “goal-oriented approach to his congressional work.”
“Having X amount of dollars raised by X date,” was Stricklin’s response.
The U.S. attorney’s office has posted several audio recordings online related to Lon Monk’s testimony against Rod Blagojevich. I listened to them all last week, some of them twice, and it was beyond obvious that nothing changed for Blagojevich from the time he was a congressman right up until he was arrested.
We mostly knew that already, of course. Blagojevich broke every state fundraising record in the book. And the recordings show he crossed a very big line.
Blagojevich’s voice sounds almost desperate at times on the recordings as he tries to make sure he has $4 million in his campaign bank account by the end of 2008. Dec. 31 of that year was the last day that most state contractors could contribute to his campaign because of a new law, so the push was on.
“(H)ere’s the thing,” brother Rob said during a phone call two days before the dramatic Dec. 8 FBI arrest. “Four million dollars is the target. Right now, when I do my math, we come up short by a quarter of a million, two-fifty, but it, but there’s enough there, like a Pritzker, like a Zell, like a …”
“Oh, this is no good, forget that,” a clearly peeved governor interjected. Blagojevich berated his brother for not making the goal. “This is not good, I mean your, your numbers keep coming down! Your numbers keep coming down! You were safely at … 4 million, now we’re down to 250,000 short of that?”
In the end, they ended up $1.3 million short of that $4 million target. The big money never came in because of that early morning visit by the feds.
There are definitely some “smoking guns” on the tapes. For instance, five days before he was arrested, Blagojevich and Monk talked for the umpteenth time about how best to convince racetrack owner John Johnston to kick in a huge contribution by the end of the year. At the time, Johnston was also hoping that Blagojevich would sign a bill that greatly helped the horse racing industry.
Blagojevich advises that Monk tell Johnston that he will wait to sign the bill until right after the first of the year, suggesting he say that the governor will sign a whole bunch of bills at once and Johnston’s will be included in that stack in order to bury the story.
Monk asks Blagojevich how many bills are still waiting to be signed. Blagojevich guesstimates a hundred and reiterates that Monk relay to Johnston how important it is that December is a “key month” for contributions and that his campaign had been waiting a year for the cash. Blagojevich then says that he needs to speak to his government chief of staff right away.
A call is placed and the governor asks how many bills are awaiting his signature. He’s told there are 30.
“Thirty bills?” Blagojevich asks on the recording. “And they’re all the same timing?… Yeah, so don’t do any of ‘em,” he orders his chief of staff. “I wanna do ‘em all together. OK. In toto. OK. All 30.”
After the phone call Blagojevich asks Monk to rehearse what he plans to say to Johnston and advises “Be careful.” Monk says he’ll tell Johnston to “stop screwin’ around,” and will inform him of the governor’s plan to “group all these bills together.”
Blagojevich suggests that Monk tell Johnston that the governor would “like some separation between (the contribution) and signing the bill.”
“Define separation,” Monk says.
“A week,” Blagojevich replies.
You can’t hardly get busted more clearly than that.
Stricklin, the former congressional chief of staff who so accurately described Blagojevich’s “work ethic” back in 2003, was mentioned on the FBI recordings as well. Blagojevich and Monk talked four days before the arrest about people who should be loyal and pony up but were refusing.
