Sanchez’s lawyers had argued a sentence of no time in prison was appropriate.
“I asked Al this morning: ‘Did you ever shut down Outer Drive?’ He said: ‘No,’” attorney Thomas Breen said of Sanchez’s tenure as Streets and Sanitation chief. “He had a plan that kept the Outer Drive open all the time.”
An agitated Sanchez spoke to the judge, saying he had to get things off his chest. He said his goal wasn’t to amass a political army by leveraging city jobs.
“I’m going to have to be able to keep Lake Shore Drive open” and keep the side streets clear of snow. “That was my goal,” not a political organization, he said.
* State Sen. Shane Cultra was interviewed by the East Peoria Times Courier the other day…
[Last] Thursday the Illinois Department of employment Security announced the unemployment rate dropped in the Peoria metro area in December. That continued a trend of declining jobless numbers through 2010.
December unemployment rates fell in every Illinois county for the first time since 1974, according to the state.
Cultra said he was unaware of that news. He said he found that hard to believe
Reality is reality, Senator. Try it sometime. You might like it.
Another Republican blasted from both sides of the spectrum for his record on emissions, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, said he is “not terribly concerned” about taking heat from green groups for his criticism of EPA action on carbon emissions.
“The consensus behind the climate change bill collapsed and then further deteriorated with the personal and political collapse of Vice President [Al] Gore,” Kirk said in a brief interview last week.
So, apparently, the merits of the issue don’t matter to Kirk because Al Gore got in trouble with a “massage therapist.” Thoughtful guy, that.
Flowers has introduced House Bill 104, which would create the Department of Minority and Women Inclusion. The new agency would be in charge of equal employment opportunity in the executive branch, as well as ensuring against racial or gender disparities in state contract awards.
Flowers said the bill will help cut state spending even though a new agency would be created.
Um, OK. I don’t get how this cuts state spending at all.
* Related…
* Reagan day in Illinois proposed: A resolution recently introduced in the state House would have designated Sunday as Ronald Reagan day in Illinois. But state Rep. Jerry Mitchell, R-Sterling, who sponsored the resolution, said it probably won’t go anywhere because the House session was canceled this week due to the blizzard hitting the Midwest. The resolution would have been a “one-time thing,” he said.
* New Beginning for 20 Illinois Representatives: State Rep. Kelly Burke (D-Evergreen Park) has experience as an attorney and also in higher education. What’s more, “I was the president of our local library board, so I have a little local government experience – experience with literacy, things like that.”
* Banking analyst Meredith Whitney boldly predicted “50 to 100 sizable defaults” by states and municipalities amounting to “hundreds of billions of dollars” when she was on 60 Minutes in December. The prediction set off a firestorm, with billions withdrawn from muni funds since then. But as I told subscribers yesterday, Bloomberg News has completely undercut Whitney’s claims by using her own research.
The news service got ahold of a copy of Meredith’s publication (annual subscription rate: $100,000) upon which her claims to 60 Minuteswere based…
A copy of the 43-page report obtained since then doesn’t mention sizable defaults amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. A person who has seen a long addendum that profiles the 15 top states said that the longer portion doesn’t, either.
“We are not calling for any specific defaults within the scope of this report,” the document says on page 42. An opening summary says there will “invariably” be local defaults, without elaborating. […]
Her report, on page 2, says “debt service at the state level is not something we believe is at risk” [Emphasis added]
* 60 Minutes billed Whitney as a visionary, but her record is unimpressive…
Bloomberg News reported in October that about two-thirds of her stock picks since starting her company in 2009 had fared worse than market indexes. Visa Inc. fell 14 percent after she called it her “single best buy,” and Capital One Financial Corp. tripled after she urged clients to sell.
She was also far from the first bank analyst to predict doom for Citigroup, contrary to the 60 Minutes profile.
* This little-discussed factoid is getting lost in the mega-uproar about the thousand or so cars stranded on Lake Shore Drive Tuesday night…
Though some people were stuck in their cars as late as 3:30 a.m., officials said most of those people were drivers reluctant to abandon their cars until firefighters ordered them to do so.
One can only wonder how many times those stubborn dolts were offered assistance before they had to be ordered out of their precious automobiles by cold, exhausted firefighters. That’s time which could’ve been far better spent helping others truly in need.
Only a fraction of the thousands of cars on LSD Tuesday night actually got stuck, and nobody was seriously hurt. Closing the Drive early would have undoubtedly caused nightmarish problems on arterial roads. We don’t know if the situation would’ve been worse, but those same cars would’ve been much more spread out than they were Tuesday, and, therefore, more difficult to reach…
“The question was do we eliminate Lake Shore Drive as an option, which would’ve essentially diverted thousands of drivers onto other roads”, [Mayor Daley’s chief of staff Raymond Orozco] pointed out. He says that would’ve created even more traffic and dangerous travel conditions on other city streets.
* Apparently, the guy in charge Tuesday was not Mayor Daley but hizzoner’s chief of staff, who was quickly fed to the angry hordes yesterday…
Aware of the complaints, Orozco took full responsibility for the timing of the Drive shutdown and apologized to the hundreds of motorists who were inconvenienced.
Still, Orozco said he made “the right decision” in waiting until nearly 8 p.m. to close the road. He said he weighed the effect of diverting traffic off Lake Shore Drive sooner and concluded the city would be safer without thousands of cars spilling onto local roads.
“In a storm of this magnitude there is no way to predict from minute to minute what problems may arise,” Orozco said. “But what we know at this time is no serious injuries or loss of life [happened] based upon the option that I chose during what was called a life-threatening storm.
“What we believe is we obtained the best possible outcome.”
“If reports that Mayor Daley was not involved in the actual decision making on the city’s response are true, that’s a disappointment, ”Carol Moseley Braun said through a spokeswoman.
A spokeswoman for Gery Chico said he believed there would be time later to play the role of “Monday morning quarterback.” Instead, Chico saluted the courage of city workers who responded to the weather emergency, especially police, paramedics and firefighters. Their unions, by coincidence, have all endorsed Chico. […]
Referring to the now internationally-notorious traffic mess along the lakefront, Emanuel said in a written statement: “We need to get to the bottom of what happened last night on Lake Shore Drive — with hundreds of passengers stranded for hours, it’s clear that there were mistakes made that we can never let happen again. And we need a comprehensive review to determine what went wrong and what went right throughout the city.”
The last time the city implemented Phase 4 of its snow plan — by calling out private contractors to assist with snow removal — it boosted the total storm tab to a whopping $77 million.
For that 1999 storm, Daley requested federal disaster assistance, as he did again this week. Back then, he was ultimately forced to raise an array of taxes, blaming at least some of it on the snow.
This time, the tab is likely to approach $100 million. The next mayor is already facing a structural deficit in the $1 billion range when pension obligations are factored in. Daley managed to hold the line on taxes in his final budget, only after draining all but $76 million from the 75-year, $1.15 billion lease that privatized Chicago parking meters.
And that’s just for Chicago. Lots of suburban and Downstate communities are gonna be in much worse fiscal shape by the time this thing is over.
* More stuff…
* Next problem: Where to put all that snow - Municipalities scramble to find acceptable dumping sites
* How about the side streets? City officials say “as soon as possible”
* Tips from Ameren on electricity, gas and weather
* Brown: Still, I get tired of the scapegoating. Maybe this one time we could just figure out what went wrong and how to avoid the same problem in the future without insisting that somebody take the fall. This was clearly a unique weather situation.
* Gov. Pat Quinn’s spokesperson Annie Thompson reacting to criticism from Springfield’s Republican state Representatives about discontinuing the $1 million state subsidy to the National High School Finals Rodeo, which means the event will not be held in Springfield this year…
“Republicans keep calling on the governor’s office to make cuts, but when those cuts affect their communities, they want no part of it.”
Pressed once again for the complete list of services he intends to tax, Emanuel said he would “work with the Legislature,” where the sales tax swap must be authorized.
* The Tribune kinda likes the idea, but, like the rest of us, wants more details…
The problem is, Emanuel can’t seem to spell out a bright line for what would be taxed and what wouldn’t. This has turned into a parlor game.
Would he tax limo rides?
Campaign says: You bet.
Car services? Maybe.
Taxicabs? Certainly not!
Huh?
“Huh?” is right. This is a major proposal. Emanuel ought to provide some details.
* Related…
* Chicago mayoral candidates tackle ethics issues - Ideas range from expanding inspector general’s duties to requiring more competitive bidding of contracts
* Mayoral candidates hit the streets, but some community members want more substance
* With early voting in action, mayoral race gets heated
* We asked mayoral candidates: Do you support ‘dibs’ on parking spots?: “Look, if a guy’s out there shoveling for an hour and a half, he’s not shoveling it for someone else to use it,” said former School Board chief Gery Chico, who calls himself unabashedly “pro-dibs,” even though he lives in a downtown condo now. He used to shovel his own place on Loomis, he said. “It’s a civil way to allocate parking and it’s been going on for 100 years in Chicago,” Chico said.
* Braun apologizes for calling rival a crack addict
* Playing Super Bowl in Chicago would be ridiculous: Chico can’t be blamed for thinking big. He’s pushing for the economic benefits a Super Bowl purportedly brings to a city. Tourists would flock to the city. Money would flock with them. But there’s a reason birds flock to the South in the winter: It’s cold in the North. It appears that same cold has caused a bad case of brain freeze for Chico.
* My brother Darian was born just before the Great Blizzard of 1967. He was born premature, so he had to stay in the hospital and the storm hit about the time he was supposed to come home. I don’t remember much about that blizzard except that we were all bummed out that our new brother was still at the hospital.
That storm was a biggie. Huge. 77 Midwesterners died during that one. Here’s a great video documenting its Chicago impact…
The blizzard of 1979 is infamous for bringing down Mayor Bilandic. Here is a wonderful short film about “dibs” back then….
* OK, enough of this cold, snowy stuff. How about something to warm you up? Remember this video from the State Fair?…
* Tuesday, 10:58 pm - Gov. Pat Quinn has ordered all state workers who aren’t serving in “continuity” functions to stay home from work tomorrow. From a press release…
SPRINGFIELD – February 1, 2011. Due to the severe winter storm and extremely hazardous conditions across Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn, in consultation with the Illinois State Police (ISP), Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) and the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS), has implemented the State’s Continuity of Operations/Continuity of Government Plans (COOP/COG). The inter-agency COOP/COG plans will ensure continued delivery of essential state services during severe winter weather conditions.
Based on National Weather Service warnings and hazardous travel conditions, state government employees – except those serving in continuity of government functions – are instructed to stay home on Wednesday, Feb. 2. Regular state operations will resume on Thursday, Feb. 3.
“We have been monitoring weather conditions, and working with a number of agencies statewide to coordinate preparations for the effects of this storm. Across Illinois, essential services will continue without interruption,” said Governor Quinn. “To protect the safety of our employees and the people they serve, we are directing state employees whose duties are not critical to continuity of essential state services to avoid traveling to work Wednesday.”
COOP/COG ensures that employees responsible for continuity of operations observe the hours needed to guarantee continued delivery and availability of essential public health and safety state services, including: Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA) Veterans’ Homes, Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) central health centers and centers for the developmentally disabled, Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) youth centers, Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) correctional institutions, as well as IDOT, ISP and IEMA.
Information on continued essential state services and service locations for the public, as well as situation updates for state employees, will be available online at www.Ready.Illinois.gov starting on Wednesday. Employees without Internet access may call 866-848-2125 (Springfield) and 866-848-2135 (Chicago) for this information.
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) cautions motorists against venturing out unless travel is absolutely necessary. The agency is fully-staffed and equipped to plow and salt roadways as necessary, but the department urges motorists to use extreme caution for the duration of the storm. Motorists can acquire up-to-date roadway conditions information at www.gettingaroundillinois.com or at www.travelmidwest.com.
On Monday, Governor Quinn activated the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Springfield to coordinate the state’s response to the storm. Representatives from nearly a dozen state agencies are staffing the SEOC 24 hours a day throughout the duration of the storm. Governor Quinn also issued a disaster declaration for the entire state in advance of the heavy snow, ice and blizzard conditions expected over the next few days, and today activated more than 500 Illinois National Guard troops to help ensure traveler safety on interstate highways.
Other state assistance includes:
• Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Conservation Police are using all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and four-wheel drive trucks to assist Illinois State Police, perform welfare checks and help motorists and others throughout the storm event.
• The American Red Cross has opened 28 shelters around the state and has nearly two dozen additional shelters on standby. The State of Illinois has also opened a number of shelters (in conjunction with the Red Cross) and warming centers across the City of Chicago and counties across Illinois. More information about shelters and warming centers can be found at: www.Ready.Illinois.gov.
• Supplying generators to local units of governments as requested.
More information about Winter Storm Preparedness is available from www.Ready.Illinois.gov.
* And from the Tollway…
“Travel on the Illinois Tollway is not recommended [Wednesday] morning, “Lafleur said. “We are urging our customers to stay home unless it’s an extreme emergency.
