* From the Sun-Times…
Prosecutors in the Rod Blagojevich corruption case said today they will move to throw out racketeering counts against the former governor because they’re “duplicative,” and to help streamline the case.
All the underlying conduct in those counts are charged in other counts, however.
They also moved to dismiss a fraud count.
The move came after jurors in Blagojevich’s first trial complained they were confused by the case. […]
“It doesn’t change much for us,” [Blagojevich] attorney Sheldon Sorosky said. “Every wrong is still there, nothing has changed.”
More from Fox Chicago…
The charges in question are racketeering charges, specifically counts one, two and four of the indictment. Act one is conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery, act two involves attempted extortion and attempted bribery and act four includes conspiracy to commit extortion, conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud.
Prosecutors said they decided the counts were redundant and they only need to try Blagojevich on the remaining 20 counts.
Jurors at the first trial needed a super-complicated map to connect all those charges against Blagojevich. The whole case was needlessly confusing.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Todd Wathen of Mattoon and his male partner began planning a civil union ceremony shortly after Gov. Pat Quinn signed the civil unions bill into law. So, they contacted a couple of swanky Downstate bed and breakfasts. Both B&Bs turned them down…
In an e-mail reply to Wathen, Jim A. Walder of the TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast wrote: “We will never host same-sex civil unions. We will never host same-sex weddings even if they become legal in Illinois.
“We believe homosexuality is wrong and unnatural based on what the Bible says about it. If that is discrimination, I guess we unfortunately discriminate,” Walder wrote.
When informed of the new law, Walder replied, “The Bible does not state opinions, but facts. It contains the highest laws pertinent to man. It trumps Illinois law, United States law, and global law should there ever be any.”
There are a couple of public accommodations exceptions in the Illinois Human Rights Act. Owner-occupied inns with 5 or fewer rooms to let don’t have to follow the racial, gender, religion, sexual orientation laws. Timber Creek has more than 5 rooms, so the business apparently must comply with the law of the land. From the statute…
Civil Rights Violations: Public Accommodations. It is a civil rights violation for any person on the basis of unlawful discrimination to:
(A) Enjoyment of Facilities, Goods, and Services. Deny or refuse to another the full and equal enjoyment of the facilities, goods, and services of any public place of accommodation;
(B) Written Communications. Directly or indirectly, as the operator of a place of public accommodation, publish, circulate, display or mail any written communication, except a private communication sent in response to a specific inquiry, which the operator knows is to the effect that any of the facilities of the place of public accommodation will be denied to any person or that any person is unwelcome, objectionable or unacceptable because of unlawful discrimination;
* The Question: What are you thoughts on this story?
Try to be civil in comments, please. I have lots of work to do today and don’t want to spend too much time policing y’all. Thanks.
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Numbers problems everywhere
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I called around yesterday to find out why a provision about possibly seeking federal backing of state pension debt was slipped into a bond offering last week and was told that it never should’ve been included and that it got by the folks who monitor such things. Whether that’s true or not, it’s proving to be an embarrassment…
The No. 4 House Republican in Congress Tuesday shot down Gov. Quinn’s trial balloon of possibly seeking federal help to ease the state’s crushing $86 billion pension shortfall.
Quinn floated the idea in the fine print of his 2012 budget proposal last week, but U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) began laughing Tuesday when asked about the chances of a federal pension bailout for Illinois and other states with retirement systems that are financially underwater.
“There is no appetite in the House for a federal guarantee for a state pension obligation. None. It’s a non-starter,” said Roskam, the U.S. House’s chief deputy whip and highest-ranking Republican in Illinois’ congressional delegation. […]
“Notwithstanding any media reports to the contrary, the state of Illinois has no current plans to request a federal guarantee on any of its bonds or pension debt,” said Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Quinn’s Office of Management and Budget.
“To date, we have not requested any guarantee,” she said in a prepared statement.
And they never will request it, unless DC does a complete 180. What a stupid move.
* I mentioned this numbers problem with Gov. Pat Quinn’s boasts last week on the Illinois Lawmakers TV program after the governor’s budget address…
Gov. Pat Quinn often boasts that Illinois leads the Midwest in job growth. He made the claim at least twice last week and said in his budget address that Illinois is enjoying “an impressive recovery.”
What he doesn’t say is that by another measure, Illinois ranked eighth out of 12 Midwestern states for job growth last year.
The Democratic governor sticks to raw numbers when he discusses jobs. He says, correctly, that Illinois added 46,300 jobs in 2010, more than any other state in the region.
But Illinois also is the largest state, so it might be expected to see bigger job swings. Another way to measure is by looking at the number of jobs compared to the population.
Illinois ranked fourth in the nation for job growth last year. But factor in population, and it ranked 24th - the middle of the pack.
* One of the big problems with Gov. Quinn’s elimination of all non-Medicaid funding for substance abuse treatment programs is that defendants without serious criminal records can often avoid prison by entering a treatment program. Quite often, those people are young, male and poor. Those folks don’t qualify for Medicaid. So, they’ll end up behind bars and learn how to be better criminals. Great…
According to The Illinois Alcohol and Drug Dependence Association, the measure means 80 percent of patients will lose substance-abuse services. It also will mean lost jobs.
An estimated 55,000 people will have their substance-abuse treatments ended, about 32,000 of them under age 21.
“It’s been one crisis after another the last three years,” Ron Howell, executive director of Recovery Resources, said. “We’ll just have to wait until the smoke clears.”
* Ralph Martire looks at the new statutory spending caps and what they mean…
Most items under the cap are hard costs, like debt service and pension contributions, over which neither the governor nor General Assembly have any discretion. Those hard costs increased by more than $1 billion from last year, meaning something had to give. The governor chose [to cut] social services, the circuit breaker and Medicaid reimbursement rates. If he didn’t, he would have had to cut education and public safety. In other words, no good choices were available.
* And the Rockford Register Star swings and misses…
Compared with Illinois’ finances, Wisconsin is on easy street, but you wouldn’t know it from the approaches the governors of these states are taking.
Illinois’ money woes are the worst in the nation, according to a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois is at least $13 billion in debt and can’t pay its bills in a timely manner. Add in the worst unfunded pension liability in the country and you get a truly bleak picture.
Wisconsin is not well off, but its hole is not nearly as deep. Yet, from the way Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are acting, you’d expect the reverse to be true.
Walker is acting with a sense of urgency to fill a projected $3.6 billion budget hole. Wisconsin has a biennium budget process, which means the budget hole is a two-year one.
That NCSL study was conducted before the tax hike, so Illinois’ budget deficit is considerably smaller now. Also, the highly respected National Journal took a look at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal and found it needlessly focuses on the controversial stuff…
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has sparked massive protests by proposing to curtail public-employee unions and give his administration the power to cut back health care and sell state public utilities through no-bid contracts.
But while Walker argues that his budget-repair legislation must be passed soon to avoid job cuts, the most controversial parts of his bill would have no immediate effect.
The state’s entire budget shortfall for this year — the reason that Walker has said he must push through immediate cuts — would be covered by the governor’s relatively uncontroversial proposal to restructure the state’s debt.
By contrast, the proposals that have kicked up a firestorm, especially his call to curtail the collective-bargaining rights of the state’s public-employees, wouldn’t save any money this year. [Emphasis added]
* Roundup…
* High yield may up demand for $3.7B Illinois bond: According to a term sheet, initial price talk for the longest maturity in the offering, dated 2019, is about 2.40 percentage points above comparable Treasurys, for a yield of about 5.85%. That is about 1.79 percentage point more than comparably rated nine-year debt from cigarette maker Philip Morris International Inc., which traded at 0.61 percentage point above Treasurys on Tuesday. It is also 0.05 percentage point tighter than the initial price target on the deal for that maturity.
* Family shelter in dire straits
* Charter school says its exempt from IL labor law: A Chicago charter school that received millions of dollars in public money is now arguing it is a private institution that does not have to follow an Illinois law giving public school workers the right to unionize.
* Ameren asks ICC for electric, gas delivery charge hikes
* Regional school chiefs plot strategy to fight extinction
* School leaders worry about mergers, bus cuts
* Proposed cuts worries local districts
* Unit 5 considering more staff cuts
* Higher car insurance minimums rejected by House committee
* IL panel weighing high school concussion rules
* Evanston leaders prepare for Springfield trip
* More electric cars give consumers options
* Wisconsin gov. warns of layoffs
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Emanuel wants “forensics audit”
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* One day after the election and Emanuel is already having Daleyesque pronunciation problems…
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel told WGN AM 720s Greg Jarrett this morning, “I’m going to order, on day one, a forensics audit of all the departments and all of how the resources are spent.” (full interview mp3)
Either way, that pretty much puts the lie to the claims that the Daley folks backed Emanuel because he wouldn’t dare go so far as to order such a massive audit of city government.
* The win…
Emanuel won 40 of the city’s 50 wards, getting more than 70 percent of the vote in the heavily populated lakefront wards. Emanuel also won with more than 50 percent of the vote in wards with large African-American populations, racking up margins of at least 2-to-1 over the major black candidate, Braun.
Chico won the remaining 10 city wards. They were primarily Latino-heavy wards on the Southwest Side, where he was raised, and the West Side. Chico, Daley’s former chief of staff, also won the 19th and 41st wards, both with large populations of police and firefighters, whose unions endorsed him. Still, Chico’s vote advantage over Emanuel in those wards was not significant.
Turnout was 41 percent, nearly 10 points lower than election officials predicted.
* The loss…
Emanuel appeared to be the “consensus candidate” of the black community, garnering a larger share of the votes than former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who came in fourth behind City Clerk Miguel del Valle. Braun had just under 9 percent, del Valle just over 9 percent.
Braun’s collapse opened the door for Emanuel to claim the black vote and made a run-off impossible […]
In her concession speech at the Parkview Ballroom in Bronzeville, Braun said, “It is a very painful thing to lose an election, but I believe that hope springs eternal. We will continue to try to inspire people and get them engaged and involved in government.”
She thanked a supporter and mentioned how she told him minutes before the concession, “I’m really so sorry this didn’t come out better. I’m sorry if I did anything that messed it up.”
Braun also said last night that she hoped someday the city could elect its first female mayor - apparently forgetting that Chicago elected Jane Byrne.
* Mary Mitchell…
The lessons black politicians can take away from Braun’s miserable loss is the same as it has always been: Black voters matter, and you’ve got to be able to raise money.
Black voters turned out in a mighty big way for Emanuel. They didn’t turn out for Braun.
After all the fuss, in the end, being the “consensus” candidate meant nothing.
I think the take-away for black leaders on this campaign should be: Quality black candidates matter to black voters. They have never just “voted black” for mayor because the candidate happened to be the same skin color. They vote for viable African-American candidates who can prove they can win. Braun was a disaster. And the leaders should’ve known that after watching her implode in the US Senate.
* Fran Spielman thinks Emanuel could be a one-termer…
Rahm Emanuel’s Round One victory gives him a running start on confronting problems so severe, the painful solutions could seal his fate as a one-termer.
Whether Emanuel can avoid a one-and-done scenario — assuming he even wants to serve more than four years — will largely depend on how he tackles the biggest financial crisis in Chicago history.
The city is literally on the brink of bankruptcy with a structural deficit approaching $1 billion when under-funded employee pensions are factored in.
Mayor Daley borrowed to the hilt, sold off revenue-generating assets and spent most of the money to hold the line on taxes in his last two budgets. The city even borrowed $254 million to cover back pay raises long anticipated for police officers and firefighters.
The city is only “literally on the brink of bankruptcy” if it refuses to raise new revenues. Failing companies with lousy products can’t just sell more goods as they go down the drain. That’s what makes governments different from private business. They can, and do, raise new reveunes.
The problem with new revenues, of course, is that voters won’t like it. Chicagoans have been blessed with relatively low residential property taxes (even though they think they pay way too much). Those days may have to end unless Emanuel can find another way.
* Meanwhile, big changes are coming to the city council…
Even Oprah Winfrey couldn’t have given Chicago’s City Council a more massive makeover than the one it got Tuesday.
At least 10 new people will fill the Council chambers, and there could be even more fresh faces as at least nine incumbent aldermen appeared headed toward runoffs on April 5.
That included the Council’s oldest member, Bernard Stone, in the 50th Ward.
The other aldermen heading to runoffs include Toni Foulkes (15th) and JoAnn Thompson (16th) on the Southwest Side. Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) will go one-on-one with hip-hop artist Che “Rhymefest” Smith on the South Side. In the 24th Ward, first-term incumbent Sharon Denise Dixon will go head-to-head again with former Ald. Michael Chandler, whom she previously defeated in a tight runoff. Roderick Sawyer, the son of former Chicago Mayor and Ald. Eugene Sawyer, appeared to have forced 6th Ward Ald. Freddrenna Lyle into a runoff as well.
* And Carol Marin says a new star has been born…
A star is born out of this Chicago election. And, no, I’m not talking about Rahm Emanuel.
State Rep. Susana Mendoza’s victory Tuesday night over Water Reclamation District Commissioner Patricia Horton for the post of city clerk now lifts Mendoza onto a new path. One where the audience will be wider. And the political possibilities greater.
Mendoza, 38, a Mexican-American who represents Chicago’s Pilsen-Little Village neighborhoods, went to the Illinois General Assembly a decade ago as its youngest member. In her time in Springfield, Mendoza has been a reliable vote for the Democratic agenda, gone from proponent to opponent of the death penalty, and vigorously argued for the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich.
She is energetic, collegial, and more often than not, candid.
* Roundup…
* Mayor-elect greets commuters at South Side ‘L’ stop
* Brown: Time for me to stop underestimating Rahm
* Steinberg: Some Chicagoans unaware of mayor’s race
* Conflict in 45th aldermanic race: Sneed hears state Rep. Joseph Lyons, who backed 45th Ward aldermanic candidate Marina Faz-Huppert, reportedly got into a shouting match with a poll watcher — whom he allegedly chest-butted and chin-slapped, but no charges were filed.
* VIDEO: Emanuel victory speech
* State lawmaker takes city clerk’s office
* Tight City Council races: Veteran aldermen head for runoffs
* Election results summary
* Mayor results, ward-by-ward
* City clerk results, ward-by-ward
* Springfield mayor results
* Houston, Stocks-Smith, Coffey, Kunz advance to mayoral final four
…Adding… More…
* Mayor Alvin Parks Jr. leads all candidates in ESL primary election
* Jakobsson wins Urbana city council Ward 2 primary
* Dixon To Take On Ex-Ald. Chandler In 24th Ward runoff
* Cochran To Face Rapper Rhymefest In 20th Ward runoff
* Lake County coroner quits, pleads guilty in methadone clinic case
…Adding More… A must-read…
* City needs ‘the Carlos treatment’: As the snow fell Tuesday and Chicago residents came out to vote for a new mayor, I recalled my late friend, Carlos Hernandez Gomez, the former political reporter for CLTV.
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* Urbana isn’t far from Springfield, so maybe the Hoosiers could come over to the Statehouse today…
Indiana House Democrats who fled to Illinois like their counterparts in the Wisconsin Senate say they’ll continue their boycott until Republicans assure them they won’t debate public education and anti-union measures the Democrats oppose.
The House Democrats won a small victory on Tuesday when their absence at least temporarily blocked a GOP-backed labor bill. Republicans, who control the House, planned to try again Wednesday morning to resume business.
In a statement Tuesday night, the Democratic caucus said members were in Urbana, Ill., “for the immediate future” to continue reviewing Republican proposals on public education changes and the right-to-work bill that would prohibit union representation fees from being a condition of employment at most private-sector companies.
“By staying here, we will be giving the people of Indiana a chance to find out more about this radical agenda and speak out against it,” the statement said. “We will remain here until we get assurances from the governor and House Speaker Brian Bosma that these bills will not be called down in the House at any time this session.”
* WCIA TV in Champaign caught up with them…
“When your political life and the things you stand for are on the edge, you don’t have many options in the minority,” State Representative Dale Grubb said.
They said they needed to clear their heads.
“We needed a chance to get away and be able to think without interruption,” State Representative Pat Bauer said. […]
“We simply need the opportunity to sit down and negotiate on those things and talk about the areas of concern without it being rammed through and shoved down everybody’s throat,” Grubb said.
* Unlike in Wisconsin, the Republican governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels is trying to calm things down…
Speaking of the Democrats’ tactic of reportedly fleeing for one of Indiana’s borders to shut down the House, Daniels called it “a perfectly legitimate part of the process.” […]
“Even the smallest minority,” he added, “has every right to express the strength of its views — and I salute those who did.”
More…
During an afternoon statement outside his office, Governor Mitch Daniels admonished Republicans almost as much as Democrats.
“I thought there was a better time and place to have this very important and legitimate issue raised,” Daniels said, adding there were other items on his agenda more important to accomplish during this year’s legislative session.
The governor said he will not order Indiana State Police to seek out and return those missing lawmakers. Many are in Illinois and Kentucky anyways, where the state police cannot force them to return to work.
Democrats say they won’t come back to Indianapolis until the right-to-work bill is dead. Daniels held out hope that it would be sooner.
“I’m not going to divert a single trooper from their job protecting the Indiana public. I trust that the people’s consciences will bring them back to work. I choose to believe that our friends in the minority, having made their point, will come back and do their duty, the jobs that they are paid to do,” he said.
* And we have a new national poll…
Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law. […]
The poll found people were divided on whether public employee unions were a good thing. A slight majority of 46% said unions were generally more harmful to states while 45% thought they were helpful. […]
Republicans supported limiting bargaining by a 54%-41% margin. However, only 18% of Democrats favored restrictions while 79% were opposed. Independents were against bargaining restrictions by a 31% to 62% margain.
More results. Notice that a majority is against cutting pay or benefits for public employees…
As usual, people are split on cuts, but nobody likes a tax hike.
* Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Dems are still in Illinois. They had a caucus meeting in Harvard, near the border…
Some of the 14 Wisconsin state senators who have been living outside of the state met Monday and Tuesday in Harvard.
The senators continue working while on the road to fight an anti-union bill proposed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“When he’s talking about ‘we need to do this,’ it’s a joke,” Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said. “I think the biggest thing right now is for Walker to take this bill, throw it out, let’s start from scratch, let’s figure out how to tackle this deficit without going after the workers, without going after the working class.”
The Democratic senators caucused and granted TV interviews in a rented conference room at the Heritage Inn and Suites in Harvard, 7 miles from the Wisconsin-Illinois border, although they did not stay in the hotel.
More…
Four [Wisconsin] Democrats who were reached by The Associated Press said none of their daily expenses would be charged to taxpayers, and none will accept any per diem funds. Larson did say his hotel room Monday was paid for by the State Senate Democratic Campaign. He said the group might pay for more nights depending on how long he stays.
Others have donated food, he said, but he declined to name them.
“Let’s just say the senators have friends over here who’ve been more than generous in sharing with us,” Larson said.
Sen. Tim Cullen said he already planned to donate some of his pay to a food pantry in Janesville.
And one WisDem was on the Colbert Report.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker got punked by someone pretending to be billionaire far-right causes financier David Koch. The fake Koch talked to Walker on the phone for twenty minutes yesterday…
FAKE KOCH: What we were thinking about the crowds was, planting some troublemakers.
WALKER: We thought about that. My only gut reaction to that would be, right now, the lawmakers I talk to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this.The teachers union did some polling and focus groups…
It’s unclear what Walker means when he says he “thought” about planting some troublemakers, but it seems fair to ask him for clarification.
NSFW audio of the conversation is here and here. Walker went on and on about his plans. Oops.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The right to work billw as withdrawn in Indiana, but the Democratic Hoosiers still won’t leave Illinois…
Republicans have killed a controversial labor bill that has sparked a Democrat work-stoppage and large union protests at the Statehouse. […]
Democrats, though, were meeting in an Urbana, Ill., hotel room behind closed doors discussing their next steps. Last night they issued a statement saying they had concerns about 11 bills, including other labor-related bills, education reforms and the proposed next state budget. They singled out two in particular: the right-to-work bill and one which lets state tax dollars pay for private school tuition for some families. […]
Brown, who left the private meeting for a short break, said Democrats were not returning to Indiana.
“We don’t value that,” suggesting the decision to move the matter to a study committee would not sway the Democrats because they have additional issues they want to be resolved.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Former GOP Rep. Cal Skinner caught up with the fleeing Cheeseheads yesterday and was quite impressed…
I asked him why he and his colleagues had not been evoking Abraham Lincoln’s jumping out the Old State Capitol’s window to break a quorum in Springfield back in the mid-1800′s.
He replied that was one of the reasons they had come to Illinois. He was really quite elegant and I wished I had had a tape recorder so I could do justice to his rhetoric.
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