* Here’s the raw audio of Gov. Pat Quinn talking to reporters at the State Fair today. The clip includes his quip about “pinheads” who would criticize the way the fair is funded. Don’t miss it…
* Unlike some people [cough***Pinheads!***cough] I love the Illinois State Fair. One day when I’m too old to do this, I wouldn’t mind being director. Nice way to go out. And we could get some good music.
Thanks to state Sen. Dave Syverson, Cheap Trick has kinda become our official state band, so it’s only fitting that they’re playing the fair next week. Turn it up…
* Gov. Pat Quinn just called a conservative think tank “pinheads“…
Gov. Pat Quinn opened the Illinois State Fair Friday by calling the event’s detractors “pinheads.”
The fair cost $2.7 million more than it brought in last year, leading to criticism from some interest groups that the event should be scaled back in tough budget times.
“There are, you know, pinheads who think that we should cut out the state fair,” Quinn said after cutting the ribbon on the 157th running of the fair. “I think they’re all wet. I think the people of Illinois want a state fair to celebrate our agriculture.” […]
“The notion of kicking the state fair in the shins is really wrong,” Quinn said.
Texas stands in stark contrast to how Illinois has been running its state fairs, and Illinois should consider looking to Texas as a model to follow. Otherwise, it may end up having to cancel its fairs because of budgeting problems, as other states have had to do,
Texas’ state fair is held in Dallas, a major metropolitan area which has a huge nearby population base to draw from. It’s apples and oranges.
* The Ottawa paper published a story on the topic this week, and included quotes from some staunch fair defenders…
“Think about it. If we criticize everything the state loses money at, we’d never be done talking,” said Monty Whipple, La Salle County Farm Bureau president. “The Illinois State Fair is a yearly tribute to the state’s No. 1 business — agriculture — and it is an important source of education and entertainment not only for farm kids, but other (metropolitan) youths as well. I think it’s worth every penny we have to put into it.” […]
The Utica farmer said, for the small admission price, ($5 for adults, $2 for children under 12), it is a good deal for a family summertime adventure.
Vaugh Kiner, La Salle County Junior Fair president, agrees with Whipple.
“The State Fair is important for kids to meet other kids from other parts of the state where everyone has an opportunity to show off their accomplishments for the year,” Kiner said from his cell phone while walking along the Springfield fairgrounds this week. “Here young people learn things they can use the rest of their lives.”
The state fair is a big deal for rural kids. Getting chosen to exhibit there is a high honor. I made it once, and it was like going to Hollywood.
But it’s a fraud, and an expensive one. Despite the “back-to-school” label, the exemption applies to most clothing and shoes under $100, even if they are bought by adults who haven’t been inside a school in 40 years.
Will this at least give the state an economic boost? Tax holidays “do not promote economic growth or significantly increase consumer purchases,” concluded the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. They “simply shift the timing of purchases.”
If your kid needs a new notebook and calculator for school, after all, you don’t have much choice but to buy them, even with sales tax attached.
The brief respite helps low-income consumers only by helping lots of affluent shoppers who don’t need the break.
As the first sales tax “holiday” in Illinois heads into its final three days, retailers at suburban stores and malls are crowing that it produced Christmas-caliber crowds this week.
“It has been like the holidays here at Gurnee Mills. The only thing missing was the snow and Santa,” said Director of Marketing Michelle Rice.
Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale reported that traffic was up 12 percent last week compared to a year ago. […]
“People are living on a budget. The money they save through the tax break encourages them to buy that extra pair of shoes,” said Anita Blackford, senior vice president of mall operations at Stratford Square in Bloomingdale.
While retail sales figures are not available, mall officials say they are hearing anecdotally that sales at many stores are up.
“Our retailers are singing the praises. They are dancing to the sounds of the cash register,” Rice said at Gurnee Mills. Area Walmart stores are also reporting large crowds over the past week.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association is also ecstatic.
Illinois has lost out to Texas in a bid for a new Caterpillar plant.
Caterpillar Inc. said Thursday it chose Victoria, Texas, as the site for the new factory, which will make a line of excavating equipment, including some currently built in Aurora.
The new plant will employ about 500 when it opens in mid-2012. Aurora isn’t expected to lose jobs, however, because of Caterpillar’s recently announced plans to build hydraulic mining shovels there.
It’s the second time Caterpillar has shuffled some work from Illinois to Texas. Two years ago, the company chose Seguin, Texas, to make engines that previously were manufactured in Mossville, near Cat’s Peoria headquarters.
* What happens to the 2010 campaign environment if Rod Blagojevich - God forbid - walks? For argument’s sake, let’s say it’s a couple of “not guilty” verdicts and a hung jury on the rest.
Do you favor or oppose a bill in which the federal government would provide 26 billion dollars to
state governments to pay for Medicaid benefits and the salaries of public school teachers or other government workers?
Favor 60%
Oppose 38%
No opinion 2%
I’m assuming, since this state is more liberal and more pro-Obama than average and since our budget situation is so bad, that the number is even higher here. Some are calling this a sop to the unions, but most people obviously see it for what it is: A relatively modest attempt to keep states and school districts from meltdowns.
* Bill Brady, however, thinks the bill was a mistake…
Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady said Thursday that Congress was wrong to pass an aid package that will give Illinois nearly $1 billion for teachers and health care.
Brady said the $26 billion legislation will increase the federal deficit and leave Illinois with a bigger budget hole to fill next year.
“These are just typical Washington games, digging a deeper hole,” Brady told reporters as he prepared to march in the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade. “I don’t know where they’re going to get the money.”
But Brady also said the state should take the money to get its fair share.
Gov. Pat Quinn tamped down speculation Thursday that lawmakers would have to return to the state Capitol this summer to deal with a new influx of federal funds.
Speaking to reporters at the launch of the Illinois State Fair parade, Quinn said he doubted a special legislative session would have to be called for the state to spend more than $400 million for education.
“I don’t think there’s a need for that,” Quinn said.
I followed up with the governor’s office this morning to ask how they would appropriate the money without a special session and received this e-mail…
We are reviewing the legislation to determine our options. We hope to make a final determination shortly.
OK, so the guv says no need for a special, but his office says it hasn’t been determined yet. Great.
* Mark Kirk voted against the state aid bill because he said it added to the deficit. He has also repeatedly attacked his US Senate opponent Alexi Giannoulias for opposing an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. But the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has just released a new report showing that extending the cuts would add $36 billion to the deficit next year alone…
A Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the rich would add more than $36 billion to the federal deficit next year — and transfer the bulk of that cash into the pockets of the nation’s millionaires, according to a congressional analysis released Wednesday.
New data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation show that households earning more than $1 million a year would reap nearly $31 billion in tax breaks under the GOP plan in 2011, for an average tax cut per household of about $100,000.
$36 billion added to the deficit in one year for the tax cut extension that Kirk supports, compared to $5 billion or so over ten years for a bill he opposed.
WBEZ asked Kirk about his support for extending those tax cuts, which greatly benefit the wealthy. Kirk gave a short answer about trying to avoid “class warfare.” Here’s a handy graphic which shows the difference between the plan Kirk supports and the president’s proposal. A larger version is here…
Asked by WBEZ where he’d cut the budget to pay for those tax breaks, Kirk refused to be pinned down.
* Other campaign stuff…
* ADDED: Breaking News: Auchi attorneys go after Illinois Review
* ADDED: Brady Can’t Tell Us Where He’ll Cut The Budget. But That’s Quinn’s Fault
Don Wade asked Giannoulias a direct question: “Did you lend any money to anybody who was controlling a nationwide prostitution ring?” Giannoulias answered “No.”
But that answer, as is so often the case here, is only partially true. Giannoulias’ family bank loaned money to Michael Giorango to buy the Lorraine Hotel in Miami. Giorango was busted for promoting (not controlling) that prostitution ring out of the very same hotel. And Giannoulias himself flew to Miami to “inspect” that hotel, and only admitted it after the 2006 Democratic primary when he defeated a Mike Madigan-backed candidate. From an April 27, 2006 story…
Democratic state treasurer nominee Alexi Giannoulias said Wednesday he was “embarrassed” by earlier remarks he made regarding millions of dollars in loans his family’s bank gave to a convicted felon, and he tried anew to explain a relationship that has cast a shadow over his campaign.
Giannoulias, the senior loan officer and vice president of his family’s Broadway Bank, previously described convicted bookmaker and prostitution ring promoter Michael Giorango as “a very nice person” and dismissed his relationship with Giorango as someone he had met at the bank “a few” times.
But on Wednesday, Giannoulias said he traveled to Miami “about a year or two ago” to inspect property the bank had financed for Giorango and met with him there. Giannoulias declined to provide details of that meeting.
“Giannoulias declined to provide details of that meeting.” Classic.
But Giannoulias said that since he became a full-time senior loan officer, he has met Giorango at the bank “a few” times.
He described Giorango as “a very nice person” and questioned whether Giorango actually was a criminal. “Is he a crime figure?” Giannoulias asked. “I don’t know what the charges are that makes him this huge crime figure.”
Nicknamed “Jaws,” Giorango pleaded guilty in 1989 to helping direct a south suburban bookmaking ring that used threats of bombings, beatings and robbery to collect unpaid debts. Then in 1991, he was convicted of additional gambling and tax violations stemming from his role in a separate bookmaking operation overseen by Chicago Heights gambling boss Dominic Barbaro.
In 2004, federal prosecutors convicted him of promoting the Circuit, a nationwide prostitution ring, by encouraging Miami madam Judy Krueger to have prostitutes work from one of his hotels and by using the women to entertain and entice his business associates.
This is the way it usually is with Giannoulias. Wait until after the next election to clear things up and then clear those “misstatements” up after the following election. He said he was a major player at Broadway Bank before the 2006 primary. Now, he says he was a minor player. He didn’t know Giorango before the 2006 primary, afterwards he admitted he knew him and even hung out with the guy in Miami.
He has said that if he and the bank had known about the dark history of Giorango that they wouldn’t have given him the loans. But his brother has said the bank knew at least some of what was going on and went ahead with the loans anyway.
The Miami trip is the closest connection that we know Giannoulias had to a criminal. Most of the other stuff hurled against him isn’t directly traceable to Giannoulias and is way overblown. But that Miami trip is direct. Now, it may turn out to be nothing at all, but Mark Kirk is right to press this issue.
*** UPDATE 4 - 1:43 pm *** Judge Erickson’s report has now been released. Click here to read it. Other info from the press conference follows below…
* Judge Erickson at the press conference: “MGT Push was a total failure… dysfunctional.” “It failed in its basic purpose, which was to help rehabilitate, to protect the public, to deter crime.” MGT Push object was to “save more money.” “No benefit… No deterrent benefit. No benefit to the inmate whatsoever.”
* Erickson: “What push did was it took a broken system and it made it worse.”
* John Bambenek says this in comments and he’s absolutely right…
I just read the entire report… no mention of WHO came up with this idea, WHO authorized it, WHO reviewed it, WHO approved it.
It’s a process-oritented review. It’s needed, sure. But this is not the report we’ve been looking for.
* Erickson: MGT Push “presented dangers to the public safety”
* Quinn has announced a 3:30 press conference in Chicago.
* Erickson claims it wasn’t a “secret” program because a bunch of insiders knew about it. He didn’t say, however, if Gov. Quinn knew about it. Quinn has said he didn’t know.
A report released by Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration today says an accelerated early release program for prisoners was “a mistake” that failed to protect public safety. […]
In a news release, the administration acknowledged the early release program had “serious flaws.”
“The MGT Push program was a mistake. Although focused on reducing costs during a fiscal crisis, it failed to accomplish the overriding goals of the State’s Code of Corrections: protecting the public’s safety and restoring inmates to useful citizenship,” the report states.
Later, the panel concludes the program “was ill-conceived.
* Reporter questions are beginning…
* Director Randle: “The pressure to save money on DoC wasn’t any different from any other state agency… We were asked to look for opportunities to cut costs…”
* Randle said “No” when asked if the governor was aware that violent offenders were being released early. He sid “the governor was clear” that he didn’t want violent offenders released.
* Judge Erickson: “I’ve recommended no one’s dismissal… Personnel matters were not part of my charge…” He said he didn’t know who was responsible for the program.
* End.
*** UPDATE 3 - 1:34 pm *** The report is still not online. Help live-blog in comments if you can. The governor is coincidentally at the State Fair today, so he’s not at the press conference.
*** UPDATE 1 - 1:15 pm *** The press conference will start at 1:30 and live audio and the full report will be available at that time at Illinois.gov. [UPDATED LINK] We do have an advance press release. The headline reads: “Erickson Report Finds Serious Flaws in MGT Push Program, Offers Guidelines for Improved Corrections Procedures.” Click here for the full release…
The review panel’s report sets out four core objectives for any good conduct credit program:
1) Protect public safety by deterring crime, including re-offending by former inmates;
2) Recognize and respect the interests of victims;
3) Offer appropriate incentives and rewards for inmates’ positive behavior while incarcerated, and,
4) Provide inmates with access to relevant rehabilitative programs.
Judge Erickson and the review panel found that MGT Push failed to achieve these objectives. The review recommends three major areas of reform, and further advises that all meritorious credit programs remain suspended until crucial reforms are in place.
Earned and Individualized Awards. The Department of Corrections’ accelerated meritorious credit program discarded an unwritten previous policy requiring inmates to spend at least 60 days in state custody before receiving any awards for meritorious conduct. The MGT Push program also continued the Department’s longstanding practice of routinely awarding MGT credit to inmates who had done little, if anything, to demonstrate good conduct.
Accountability and Transparency. The report found that the Department of Corrections relied on unwritten rules and outdated technology and procedures in its inmate release programs, and further found that the record-keeping and policies related to release decisions varied widely throughout the system.
Some recommendations…
The report recommends a number of measures to enhance the accountability and transparency of both the program and individual meritorious credit awards. The committee calls on the Director to formally delegate authority over earned “good time” programs to the Department’s Chief Public Safety Officer. Program policies and procedures instituted under the Chief Public Safety Officer’s direction should be set forth in formal, written rules, directives, and manuals and should be developed with both notice to and input from community stakeholders.
Communication. The report found that the Department failed to notify local authorities of pending prisoner releases in a uniform and timely manner. In December 2009, Governor Quinn ordered the Department of Corrections to provide local prosecutors with at least 14 days’ advance notice before releasing an inmate with meritorious credit into mandatory supervision. Governor Quinn sought legislation to make this change permanent; this policy was made law when Governor Quinn signed Senate Bill 1013 in January 2010.
In addition to these reforms, the committee recommends that the Department institute a fully electronic advance notification process with appropriate procedural safeguards, to give local authorities time to respond to or prepare for a prisoner’s release. Additionally, updated electronic information-sharing between local authorities, the Illinois State Police, and the Department of Corrections would improve internal decisions on awarding good-conduct credit, expand communication with victims, and alert jail and prison authorities to potential inmate risks.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* 11:01 am - From a press release…
MEDIA ADVISORY
**Friday, August 13, 2010**
CHICAGO - Judge David Erickson and members of Governor Quinn’s administration will release
the Report on the Meritorious Good Time and MGT Push programs.
WHO: Retired Appellate Court Justice and Criminal Trial Judge David Erickson
Jerome Stermer, Chief of Staff, Office of the Governor
John Schomberg, Acting General Counsel, Office of the Governor
Michael Randle, Director, Illinois Department of Corrections
Gladyse Taylor, Acting Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Corrections
Mark S. Prosperi, Public Safety Liaison Officer, Office of the Governor;
Michael J. McCotter, Chief Public Safety Officer, Illinois Department of Corrections
WHEN: 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: James R. Thompson Center
Hearing Room 16-503
100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
This will be broadcast live on the Internet. Come back at 1:30 for the link.
I sure hope this isn’t gonna be a whitewash.
* Background…
* December 13, 2009: Illinois prisons shave terms, secretly release inmates: Repeat drunk drivers, drug users and even people convicted of battery and weapons violations are serving less than three weeks’ total time behind bars under a secret change in policy by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s prison system, The Associated Press has learned.
* December 14, 2009: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn puts prison early release program on hold - Opponents claim some inmates spent only weeks behind bars before being set free
* December 21, 2009: Gov. Quinn Appoints Former Judge To Head Meritorious Good Time Review
* December 30, 2009: Gov. Quinn Overhauls Controversial Prison Release Program, Will Bolster Law and Agency Operations
* January 04, 2010: Ill. governor says early secret prison release was a mistake - Gov. Pat Quinn reversed a secret policy that allowed more than 1,700 inmates to be released early
* January 5, 2010: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn suspends another early release program
* January 13, 2010: House OKs minimum prison term, release notice
* January 13, 2010: 130 back in prison after state’s parole crackdown
* Jan 14, 2010: Quinn stands behind corrections director
* January 22, 2010: Corrections: Wrong early release prisoners listed
* May 18, 2010: Governor blames prison board for early release
* June 23, 2010: Dozens of prisoners released early in Ill. have disappeared, some are violent
* June 28, 2010: Judge still reviewing prison-release policy: But the report has languished as Erickson, a senior law lecturer, took teaching assignments in Texas and Florida last spring. And he said officials decided to include a review of the agency’s computer system. “I’m shooting for just after the 4th of July to be done with my report,” Erickson told The Associated Press.
* The US Attorney’s office has never been quite the same since Patrick Collins left for the private sector. Collins was the heart and soul of that operation. His conviction of George Ryan was a work of art. And while I wasn’t exactly enamored with what he did in Springfield with the botched reform effort, I was in awe of his abilities as a prosecutor.
Collins is doing some TV analysis work, and here he is on WGN admitting frankly that yesterday was a “bad day for the government” in Rod Blagojevich’s trial…
The full segment is here. Let’s hope he’s right about the jury coming back fresh on Monday.
* Roundup…
* Try, try again: It’s a safe bet: The feds will retry Blago on every charge where the jury winds up being permanently deadlocked.
Days after Jim Edgar was elected governor in 1990, he walked into his Chicago office suite to see none other than Congressman Dan Rostenkowski waiting for him.
Edgar barely knew Rostenkowski, but he realized that making one of the most powerful congressmen in the nation cool his heels in his outer lobby probably wasn’t a good thing. So he immediately invited Rostenkowski into his private office, apologizing that his staff hadn’t recognized the chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.
Rostenkowski could be a pretty gruff guy, but he seemed completely unperturbed at the slight, Edgar told me a few months ago.
Once they were inside, Rostenkowski turned quickly to business and said something like: “I was with your opponent during the campaign, but you won and now I’m with you.”
And so began a friendship and strong working relationship that lasted four years and produced numerous projects and dollars for the state.
The two men spoke often, and Rostenkowski almost always came through, Edgar said. He was true to his word and helped Edgar get through some pretty tough times.
When Rostenkowski was under federal investigation during the 1994 Democratic primary, Edgar all of a sudden started hosting ribbon-cutting ceremonies with the suddenly vulnerable incumbent. After Rostenkowski was indicted a few months later, Edgar barely said a negative word.
Almost nobody figured that Rostenkowski could lose re-election, even under indictment. And his legislative abilities, seniority and position made him so important to Illinois and to Chicago that nobody in power wanted to see him go away.
But lose he did, to a hapless, unknown, underfunded kid with no backing other than local voter anger and a national Republican tidal wave.
Edgar stuck out his neck for Rostenkowski, but he has no regrets, and it’s hard to blame him. Those were different times. Most of the corruption cases back then were of judges and lower-level types. And Edgar had such a clean reputation that what little mud splashed on him soon washed off.
We saw the same sort of thing happen when George Ryan was governor.
After the Republican was elected and the federal corruption investigation began to bear down hard, reporters would often ask Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan for comment, and he would always say that he didn’t want to “kick a man when he was down.” Few people of either party ever spoke against Ryan, for that matter.
The reason? Mainly, Ryan had a real knack for getting things done, and he was willing to work with everybody he could to accomplish those goals.
It’s tragic for Illinois that true statesmen such as Ryan and Rostenkowski turned out to be crooked. Their nefarious behavior led directly to Rod Blagojevich’s rise to power. Blagojevich won Rostenkowski’s old congressional seat in the 1996 Democratic backlash and ran mostly against George Ryan when he defeated Jim Ryan in the 2002 gubernatorial election.
That didn’t work out so well, in case you hadn’t noticed. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Blagojevich’s jurors somehow find a way to put that man where he belongs.
And now here we are, stuck with an accidental governor who can’t seem to get anything done and a Republican opponent who appears unable to grasp the very real crisis we find ourselves in. And Bill Brady has never been mentioned as a statesman.
It’s enough to make me want to scream.
Isn’t there anybody left out there who can play this game who isn’t also a crook? Anybody?
* Gov. Pat Quinn talked to reporters during the State Fair’s Twilight Parade about the Blagojevich jury, whether he thinks Blagojevich is guilty, the lack of civility in the campaign so far, Bill Brady’s support for George W. Bush, Brady’s tax returns and when the federal state aid is getting to schools. Watch…
* State Sen. Bill Brady talked to reporters before the parade about the Blagojevich jury, Blagojevich’s guilt, the impact of the trial on the campaign, Quinn’s recent budget cuts, the governor’s staff pay raises, and his position on the federal aid to states bill. Have a look…
* Robert Blagojevich briefly talked to reporters as he walked out of the Dirksen Federal Building yesterday…
* And Scott Lee Cohen talks to Patrick McDonough on CAN-TV…
* US Sen. Dick Durbin underwent surgery to have a small tumor removed from his stomach…
Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, underwent surgery in Chicago to remove a small gastro-intestinal stromal tumor (GIST) discovered during a routine check-up.
The Illinois Democrat’s doctors found no evidence of cancer, Durbin’s office said, and the tumor was able to be removed in its entirety using laparoscopic procedures.
“Senator Durbin went through today’s surgical procedure with flying colors and is resting comfortably,” said Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker. “He expects to be released from the hospital and resume a light schedule in the next couple days and should be able to resume a full schedule as soon as next week.”
The tumor was not present in the lining cells of the stomach and was completely removed, with preliminary biopsy results indicating a favorable prognosis, they said.
Durbin spokesman Joseph Shoemaker struck an optimistic note about the surgery.
“This particular type of tumor is a rare form of stomach cancer, so it is cancer, yes,” he said in an interview.
But he added that the type of tumor that was discovered cannot be classified strictly as benign or malignant since they all have potential to become malignant. “However, small ones such as Sen. Durbin’s can often be completely removed and the patient then runs a totally normal course,” he said.
* Because of the Blagojevich hearing right now, I don’t have a lot of time, but take a look at this Rasmussen poll which has Bill Brady stomping Gov. Pat Quinn 48-35. Here’s the new result along with past Rasmussen polls in brackets….
Thirty-six percent (36%) of Illinois voters now approve of the job Quinn is doing as governor, down seven points from earlier this month. Sixty percent (60%) disapprove. […]
Sixty-four percent (64%) view Brady as conservative, while only 16% see him as being moderate.
Forty-seven percent (47%) say Quinn is politically liberal, but 31% see him as moderate.
Despite these ideological differences, Illinois voters have similar perceptions of the two candidates’ views. Forty-two percent (42%) see Brady’s views as being in the mainstream, and 41% say the same of Quinn’s. But 38% of voters see Quinn’s views as extreme, while 32% feel that way about Brady’s. However, over 20% of voters have no opinion of either man’s views.
Brady is viewed Very Favorably by 16% of the state’s voters and Very Unfavorably by 19%.
Quinn earns Very Favorable marks from 10% and Very Unfavorable reviews from 33%.
“Your Honor,” their note reads. “In response to your communication of 11 August, 2010, we’ve deliberated on all acts and counts with the exception of the wire fraud counts. We have reached unanimous agreement on two counts. We have been unable to agree on any of the remaining counts.”
Judge James Zagel said he wanted to write back and instruct them to deliberate on the wire fraud — even if their final decision is that they cannot agree.
The jury has reached a unanimous decision on two counts, deadlocked on many of the others but still hasn’t deliberated on all 13 wire fraud counts, the judge announced in court.
Sun-Times says there are 11 wire fraud counts. No time to check. Update…
The judge proposed responding with a note that says, in part:
“You should deliberate on the wire fraud counts to the extent necessary to enable you to vote on those counts. We recognize that your stated inability to reach agreement on other counts may have established to your satisfaction that you would be similarly unable to reach unanimity on some or all of the wire fraud counts. Nonetheless, a deliberative decision by you on each of those counts should be made, even if it is a decision that you cannot reach unanimity on any of those counts.”
Back in court, attorneys say they are OK with the wording of the note with the exception of the word “vote,” which they want to change to the word “decide.”
“We don’t want a situation where this is viewed as a supplemental instruction,” a defense attorney tells the judge. Zagel agrees.
“The jury is at lunch,” the judge says. “When they return, they will receive this in written form.”
* The jury result so far appears to be: 11 counts deadlocked, 11 not considered and 2 unanimous.
* And that appears to be that. Court is adjourned. Watch the CLTV live webcast for some post-game interviews.
* From OneMan, Robert Blagojevich leaves the building…
* Terry Sullivan confirms on CLTV that the jury isn’t - at this point - coming back tomorrow. They’ve asked for Friday off.
* A group of Republican legislators held an informal hearing yesterday in Peoria to take testimony about the Quinn administration’s botched early release program. The reason they say they had to hold the hearing was that the administration wasn’t providing information and they were being blocked from pressing the matter further in Springfield…
“We introduced bills to have a bipartisan commission to review this type of issue, but we couldn’t even get the bill called for a hearing,” [said Rep. Jim Durkin of Countryside]
Quinn asked retired judge David Erickson back in December to do a thorough review of what went wrong. As subscribers know, Erickson has only been heard from intermittently since then…
“This meeting, hearing - whatever you want to call it - really is out of frustration,” [Sen. Dale Risinger (R-Peoria)] said. “The governor appointed Judge Erickson to get a quick report, a thorough report out of what happened so that we could take a look at what went wrong, why did it happen, how can we make corrections to it, how can we work forward and work through it.
“It’s eight, nine months later and we don’t have a report. I can’t imagine why it takes that long to write the report, release the report, that should have been out months ago.”
You could easily pass last night’s Peoria hearing off as a Republican political stunt, and it probably was. But the local Democrats aren’t fools. They showed up, too…
“I almost didn’t come tonight,” said Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, who along with Reps. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, and Mike Smith, D-Canton, joined committee members on the Arbor Hall auditorium stage. “But I think what happened here was significant.”
Everybody knows the volatility of this issue to the locals, because a prisoner released under the botched MGT Push program was reincarcerated, released again and allegedly committed a murder there. That second release also created a huge local controversy because Gov. Pat Quinn tried to place the blame for that second release on the Prisoner Review Board, but the PRB had documentation showing that a Quinn administration employee had recommended a relatively short incarceration period.
* Every time I write about this issue, some people come to the blog and complain that the director of the Department of Corrections was just doing his job. The real issue, they say, is the state needed to save money and Director Michael Randle did that when he released those prisoners early.
Their arguments are bogus. First, Randle allegedly defied a direct order from Gov. Quinn not to use his office’s discretion to release violent prisoners early without cause, and then allegedly covered it up. Second, the move probably cost a lot more than it saved because Corrections scrambled for weeks to round up all those violent parolees before they hurt an innocent citizen and cost Quinn the primary election.
Judge Erickson needs to release that report, which was due in January. Let’s find out what “really” happened.
* Yesterday, I told subscribers about this newsletter sent out Monday by the state’s school superintendent Christopher Koch. The superintendent’s main message was about the state aid bill which was then pending in the US House. It has since passed and been signed into law. Here’s what Koch had to say…
We believe that if the spending measure becomes law, the Illinois General Assembly would have to come back to Springfield to pass a supplemental appropriation and these funds would likely be distributed through General State Aid.
That certainly looked like we were going to need a special session to appropriate that cash, so I asked the governor’s office, the Senate President and the House Speaker for comment. Nobody was quite sure what they were going to do. The SJ-R has a story today which is essentially a carbon copy of mine…
Illinois lawmakers might have to return to Springfield in a special session if the state wants to spend more than $400 million in education aid it expects to receive from Washington.
Then again, maybe they won’t.
State officials were scrambling Wednesday to figure out just what they need to do and when in order for the cash-strapped state to tap into federal aid money approved by Congress Tuesday. The additional aid is expected to bring $550 million in Medicaid money to Illinois, along with the $400 million in education funds. […]
“We know some people feel (a special session is needed), but from our perspective we are reviewing the legislation, so it’s too early to make that decision,” said Kelly Kraft, spokeswoman for Quinn’s budget office, in a written statement. “It will probably be a few days before that decision is made.”
The reason legislative action could be required is because of the mechanics of the budget process. When lawmakers approve a state budget, they are authorizing the state to spend up to a certain amount in specific areas, like education or health care or public safety. The $400 million in federal education money wasn’t anticipated when lawmakers approved the budget, so at some point they have to formally authorize the spending.
Needless to say, a special session could get tricky, because there is so much unfinished business in Springfield. If they’re going to be in town anyway, why not address some of that other stuff, editorial boards, activists and Republicans might say.
* Meanwhile, the Tribune conducted a survey of several school districts and reports that about half the teachers laid off earlier this year will be called back, a number confirmed by the Illinois Education Association. The fight now will be over how this new federal money is used. The teachers unions want to make sure that it’s used to preserve jobs. The state may try to just catch up on overdue school payments. The schools may want to use the money for other stuff. It’s gonna be a battle, for sure. The Trib also looked at recent layoffs and hire backs…
Spring layoffs and summer recalls are part of the normal budgeting cycle because of the mismatch between when districts have to finalize staffing plans and when the legislature firms up a state budget.
In a normal year, the majority of teachers let go in March get asked back in the summer. For example, about 4,700 teachers were laid off during the 2007-08 school year, but nearly 60 percent were recalled. The following year, as the recession deepened, more teachers were laid off — 6,139 — and only about 50 percent were recalled, according to state figures.
This year, many districts plan to hold off hiring until they know exactly how many children enroll for class and how much money they have to pay teachers’ salaries — including the new jobs funding.
* Related…
* Funding from federal jobs bill could restore public school program cuts: Chicago’s financially-strapped public schools are in line for a $105 million windfall from the new federal jobs bill — enough to restore high school class sizes, bi-lingual education and other program cuts — but probably not in time for the start of school Sept. 7.
* A holiday from fiscal reality: It’s an annual ritual known as the sales tax holiday, which lets consumers make certain government-approved purchases without remitting the usual levy to the Department of Revenue.
* State closes 13 tourist centers to save money: The state government has shut down 13 of its 15 tourist information centers to try to save money. Alka Nayyar is a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. She says the closures could be short-term if the agency can get Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget office to sign off on a spending plan for the agency that includes contracts to run the centers.
* Eric Zorn has a pretty good analysis of the reports that the Blagojevich trial jurors asked Judge Zagle what they should do if they can’t agree “on any given count”…
This is a fascinatingly puzzling phrase, if accurately transcribed. If you read “any” as meaning a set that includes all (as in “Glenn Beck and I don’t agree on any issue”), it would suggest that jurors are deadlocked on all counts and that the word “given” is a gratuitous rhetorical flourish; what they meant to ask was what they should do if they “cannot agree on any count,” and “given” was a way of saying “the counts that were given to us by the judge at the conclusion of closing arguments.”
But if you read “any” as meaning “an unspecified item or items from a larger set of items” (as in “just pick any dessert on the menu, they’re all fantastic.”), it would suggest that jurors are deadlocked on just a few of the charges, perhaps even just one. In this translation, the words “any given” work together to underscore the lack of specificity (as in the famous cliche about pro football that “on any given Sunday” an underdog can upset a favorite.
I believe that when the jurors send out a clarifying note later this morning, we’ll find the latter translation is what they had in mind. If they truly were deadlocked on all counts, I doubt they would have indicated this to the judge using a note with gratuitous rhetorical flourishes in it. That note would have read simply, “What do we do if we can’t agree on any of the counts?”
I also believe this is bad news for Rod Blagojevich. A staunch handful of jurors is probably not holding out for convictions on the last few remaining charges after the panel has already voted to acquit on all the other charges. Not after 11 days. Not with that kind of momentum behind “not guilty.” Not without a specific victim crying out (from, say, beyond the grave) for justice. The “well, he’s suffered plenty already, let’s be done with this and go home” sentiment would have prevailed long ago.
Far more likely, it seems to me, is that most or all of the counts that have already been decided against the ex-governor are guilty verdicts, but a minority bloc of jurors is balking either at making it a clean sweep or of convicting Blagojevich’s brother Robert.
Since I tend to believe that Rod Blagojevich is guilty as all get-out, I choose to believe Eric. You?
…Adding… From a friend…
From what we know of that seemingly indecipherable note, the foreman may have a future as a Capitol flak. Not since [George Ryan spokesman] Dennis Culloton has their been such a cryptic message that sent reporters scurrying and yet provided no answers.
