* Tara Davlin, the daughter of the late mayor, posted this on her Facebook page today…
For all of those that asked what they can do for us: Hug your loved ones tighter tonight for me. When we were down, my father always spoke the words, “This too shall pass.” Please remember that it will. Life is too short.
Words to live by.
* Timmy was a great Irishman, and many of us will never forget our good times with him at some tavern or another. So the Pogues will play us out. Raise your glasses and turn it up…
I am going, I am going
Any which way the wind may be blowing
I am going, I am going
Where streams of whiskey are flowing
UBS, the Swiss banking giant, has issued a new dress code for its workers — and it features some patented Swiss precision.
The 43-page edict is being tested at five Swiss branches. It notes that: “Our body odor cannot be changed. However, we can ensure that it produces only pleasant scents. Strong breath (garlic, onions, cigarettes) can have a significant impact on communication.”
It also includes, according to NBC:
For women:
♦ “Light makeup consisting of a foundation, mascara and discreet lipstick will enhance your personality.”
♦ “Women should not wear shoes that are too tight-fitting as there is nothing worse than a strained smile.”
♦ “A flawless appearance can bring inner peace and a sense of security.”
♦ “The ideal time to apply perfume is directly after you take a hot shower, when your pores are still open.”
The unemployment rate in Illinois fell to 9.6 percent in November from 9.8 percent in October, the eighth straight decline, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said today. But the state lost 2,600 jobs.
The jobless rate is down from 10.9 percent in November 2009 and fell below the national rate for the first time since January 2007. The national rate is 9.8 percent. […]
The biggest job gains over the year were in professional and business services, up 15,400; educational and health services, up 13,900; and trade , transportation and utilities, up 10,100.
The biggest job declines over the year were in construction, down 7,800; financial activities, down 5,300; and leisure and hospitality, down 3,800.
* Progress Illinois’ chart shows that the state’s rate is now below the national average, which is kinda good news, of sorts…
The number of foreclosures in Illinois fell by 24 percent from October to November. A report from Realty-Trac shows 12,941 people filed for foreclosures in November. The number includes default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.
The rate is 21 percent lower than November of 2009. But it’s still an ominously high number; Illinois ranks 9th in the nation in foreclosures.
* Meanwhile, the Illinois Policy Institute takes a different look at tax burden rankings, which traditionally rate Illinois as a low-tax state. The per capita ranking is far higher…
Illinois’s state and local tax burden per capita ranked 14th-highest in 2008, at $4,346. The “tax burden” measure focuses on the total amount residents pay in state and local taxes, as opposed to how much money state and local governments collect. As citizens will pay taxes to bodies both within and outside of their state of residency, this measurement provides a better understanding of which states’ residents are most burdened by state and local taxes by tallying tax payments in taxpayers’ home states.
All neighboring states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Indiana, had lower per-capita tax burdens than Illinois in 2008.
The usual way of measuring is tax revenues as a percentage of personal income. This is why IPI claims that measurement skews the results…
…it’s important to note that income levels can skew rankings. High-income states will show lower collections as a percentage of income than low-income states even if the actual tax bill is exactly the same.
Consider Illinois and Indiana. Looking at state revenue collections per capita, Illinois and Indiana are ranked 27th and 26th, respectively. Illinois collected $2,267 per person in 2009, while next-door Indiana collected $2,320 per person—just $53 more. Yet in the measurement of state tax revenues as a percentage of personal income, Indiana ranked twenty slots higher (17th highest) than Illinois (37th highest). This is largely attributable to income levels: Illinois ranks 13th highest for per capita income, at $46,693, while Indiana ranks 40th highest, at $37,279. Illinois is a higher-income state than Indiana. Chicago’s status as a world financial center drives up income figures, and this in turn affects the rankings.
Two laws aimed at limiting the use of cell phones while driving have resulted in nearly 7,800 motorists being pulled over by the Illinois State Police this year.
In January, Illinois banned the use of cell phones in construction and school zones, as well as took aim at texting while driving. […]
Through Dec. 16, the construction and school zone ban netted 4,236 citations and 2,629 warnings from the state police.
The texting ban has resulted in a total of 929 citations and warnings over the same time period.
Those figures don’t count citations or warnings issued by county or municipal police agencies.
That’s about 132 a week for cell phones and about 18 a week for texting. Not a whole lot, particularly the texting ban, which is pretty tough to enforce.
To those who know her, it’s no surprise that Hannah Perryman would keep working for stalking victims, though her own ordeal is over.
But the rapid pace of happenings since she came forward to tell her story several weeks ago is daunting even to the teen who specializes in slinging fastballs for Elgin High’s softball team.
After being contacted by 17-year-old Hannah, who, after years of being stalked by a neighborhood teen pushed for a change in state law, Gov. Pat Quinn has issued a proclamation declaring January Stalking Awareness Month in Illinois.
Hannah said she recently e-mailed Quinn at his state of Illinois e-mail address, with links to the Daily Herald’s three-day series of articles telling her story. […]
In less than a week, Hannah said, Quinn wrote back with the news, sending her an official proclamation.
A Tinley Park couple was out of jail and cleaning up their home Thursday evening after being arrested and charged with running a $1 million marijuana lab from their suburban home.
John Gecan, 52, and his wife Darlene, 52, didn’t deny growing the plant, but said they weren’t distributing and seemed most upset about the raid on their 7,000 square foot home, located in the 5300 block of West 175th Street.
“You can’t come into somebody’s home and do that,” said John Gecan as he stood among the belongings strewn about the room. “It doesn’t matter what they found.”
Apparently, these people never anticipated that the coppers might ransack their alleged grow-house, which was pretty sophisticated…
Police showed off the mechanics of the basement operation, illustrating how the family hid a ventilation system in the walls and up four floors into a vent through the attic to get rid of the smell. There was another intake vent to let fresh air in, they said.
And the reason they grew the pot?…
“The real estate taxes went up four grand. My sons are unemployed, they can’t find jobs,” she explained.
Hookay.
* The infestation of Asian carp isn’t actually a crime, but we’ve declared war on the little buggers. And that little war might actually help a lonely little Metro East airport…
With invasive Asian carp teeming in Illinois rivers and growing exports of the fish back to Asia, St. Clair County leaders hope that booming trade may help their underused airport.
The county Public Building Commission approved the framework Thursday of a plan to turn MidAmerica St. Louis Airport into a center for the export of the carp to China.
The 12-year-old airport in Mascoutah has never turned a profit.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that under the plan, carp caught by commercial fishermen in Iowa and Illinois will be trucked to MidAmerica and shipped fresh aboard air cargo planes.
* On a far more serious note, the Tribune editorializes today about a bizarre loophole in Illinois law which may be closed soon…
In California, a doctor convicted of a sex crime automatically loses his license to practice medicine. It is automatic and permanent.
That’s not what happens in Illinois. A doctor convicted of a sex crime here sometimes escapes discipline — even when his victims are patients, as the Tribune’s Megan Twohey has reported. When a doctor is punished, the discipline can be as tepid as a short suspension of his medical license.
A Chicago-area doctor convicted in 2001 of sexually abusing a Villa Park woman who had sought a bikini-line laser treatment at his Oak Brook office can still practice medicine in Illinois.
So can a Downers Grove doctor convicted of misdemeanor sexual abuse and battery of a Lisle woman who came to his clinic seeking treatment for a severe headache.
* The Tribune is still trickling out its poll results…
The survey found 47 percent of Chicago voters now back a city-owned casino while 41 percent oppose it. Those numbers are almost the exact opposite of voters’ views in a similar Tribune survey taken in 2003.
The new poll of 721 registered and likely voters in the Feb. 22 mayoral contest found support for a city-owned casino greatest among voters younger than 50. Fully 56 percent of voters ages 18 to 35 favored a city gambling emporium, the same view held by 51 percent of voters 36 to 49. […]
The survey also found a sharp gender gap on the issue. Among men, 56 percent backed a city casino while only 34 percent opposed it. But 46 percent of female voters opposed a casino while 39 percent supported it.
Not exactly resounding support, but not a terribly large opposition, either.
More than half of Chicago voters don’t like the idea of spending future gains in city and county ticket taxes on renovating Wrigley Field, a new Tribune/WGN poll shows. […]
Fully 51 percent said they opposed such a plan, while only 36 percent supported it. Another 13 percent said they had no opinion of the proposal. The opposition was steady across gender, racial, age and income lines.
* This week’s WVON mayoral debate appearance by Sen. James Meeks is something of a racially charged goldmine.
For instance, Meeks claimed during the debate that mayoral opponent Rahm Emanuel kept African-American leaders “out of the White House,” and said of Emanuel, “He’s never done anything for African-Americans.”
I asked the Meeks campaign twice yesterday to explain the White House allegation, but did not hear back.
* Also, early in the debate, WVON went to a commercial break and left the video microphones on. It’s a bit tough to hear at first, but Meeks privately explains to Carol Moseley Braun about how “When white people were in the [school] system, resources, you name them. Art, music, all of that stuff was going on. When black and brown people are just in the system, they took out everything.” Watch…
It’s not that he’s necessarily wrong. It’s just that the clip may show how much he sees things as a racial issue.
* And a day after saying that women, Asians and Hispanics are “not people who have been discriminated against,” and aren’t “people of color” and therefore should not receive affirmative action benefits, Rev. Sen. James Meeks tried to calm things down a bit yesterday. It didn’t really work.
His first attempt at backtracking was to say that only white women should be excluded from affirmative action programs. But his comment just fanned the flames…
Hedy Ratner, co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center, was already “furious” at Meeks. She argued Thursday that, if anything, the 5 percent set-aside for women “should be higher.”
“Is he saying that this should be an African-American city with policies only for African Americans? I’m surprised that a candidate for mayor who wants to represent the entire city would exclude a majority of its citizens,” she said.
Paul Cerpa, executive director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA), said the federal government has made it clear that the “presumptive group” of those historically discriminated against includes blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and “women, regardless of ethnicity.”
“To draw the line in the sand and say, ‘This is only mine — not yours’ doesn’t allow everyone to play in the sandbox,” Cerpa said.
In a somewhat ambiguous statement issued Thursday afternoon, he said “all minority- and women-owned businesses deserve their fair share of city contract opportunities.”
However, it immediately adds, “Chicago has a history of systemic corruption in its minority- and women-owned business program and (a history that) that African-American-owned businesses are the most underrepresented among city contractors.”
* Meeks then attempted an apology of sorts on ABC7…
“People are making much ado about nothing,” said Senator Meeks.
Meeks apologized for–as he put it–”a bad choice of words”. The point he says is that African Americans receive only 70 percent of city contracts and have been criminally shortchanged by minority front companies.
“The federal government has deemed that this program is a corrupt one and we need to fix this program,” said Sen. Meeks.
Whatever you think about affirmative action programs and the very real problems with fraud, you can’t argue with the fact that Sen. Meeks has done a terrible job of communicating.
A couple of years ago, Meeks and I sat down to talk after he’d said something or another about some racial thing. I scolded him pretty good, saying he’d been a black preacher for so long and a black legislator for so long that he apparently never bothered to learn how to talk to white people (and, I should’ve added, “everyone else”). I told him that he needed to learn some basic communication skills. Obviously, he never did.
And that’ll about do it, folks, for the mayoral aspirations of Mr. Meeks, which were already a bit of a long-shot due to his social conservatism and the presence on the ballot of three other prominent African American candidates (two if you don’t count Roland Burris, which, come to think of it, you probably shouldn’t).
The question now is whether he’ll drop his increasingly unlikely bid before the election on Feb. 22 and try to gain some political leverage by offering his support to another candidate, or whether he’ll carry on to the bitter end.
My prediction is he’ll drop out.
On the other hand, Meeks could be hoping for a black backlash. We’ll see.
