* NBC5’s Mary Ann Ahern asked Gov. Pat Quinn today whether he was planning to pick former US Rep. Debbie Halvorson to run the Illinois Department of Transportation. Nope…
“I like Debbie,” Quinn, who appoints the position, said after an event announcing funding for a high speed rail projects. “But I have someone else in mind.”
Halvorson was at the same event, so that couldn’t have been a pleasant moment for either of them. But you can be sure that Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is happy as a clam. He’s in power and she isn’t. Plus, his district voted for Quinn and hers didn’t. Fairly simple.
* Sometimes, Facebook actually motivates people to take “real world” action…
A virtual war of words on a social networking site led to a real fight between two men in Franklin County Monday. […]
“The two had been arguing on Facebook most of the night, which then escalated into a challenge to a fight,” Jones said.
The two met up at the parking lot and went at it in front of several spectators who had gathered for the fight, Jones said.
A crowd gathered, eh? Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the term “flash mob.”
* But sometimes, Facebook just isn’t enough. As I believe I’ve told you before, some tea party folks are organizing “THE ILLINOIS STATE WIDE TAX REVOLT” on Facebook. So far, a bit over 100 people say they’re attending the April 15th march on the Statehouse to protest the tax hikes. That ain’t a whole lot. And there are some other problems…
I have a bus reserved to leave from Rockford Cherry Vale Mall to go to this event on April 15. So far 6 out of 56 seats are spoken for. If this does not change soon I will have to cancell the bus. Seats cost $30 round trip on a charter bus with toilet and DVD player. If you want to go contact me ASAP to reserve your seat. If not we will all be driving down, and gas cost a lot more than $30 round trip!
I have been talking to FOX New Network. They are gathering info so if they call you…let them know. I just got off the phone with… Michele Nunes with Fox.
You’d think as upset as some people are about this tax hike that there would be more interest in the protest. There’s still time, of course, but so far, that Facebook-inspired redneck brawl looks far more interesting to me.
* Speaking of the online world, racist, boorish newspaper website comment sections are causing some folks to take action…
When the Tribune and Sun-Times recently posted stories dealing with immigration, Sara McElmurry saw a familiar dynamic take shape. The online comments following the pieces were heavily negative, with some casting immigrants as parasites or welfare cheats.
So McElmurry, communications manager for the Chicago-based advocacy group Latino Policy Forum, shot an email to her “Comment Corps” — a list of 3,000 people she asks to intervene when she believes online comments have become bigoted or monolithic.
But it doesn’t always work…
She’s part of the Comment Corps, and this month she leaped into the fray after the Daily Herald published a story about a protest over alleged police harassment of Hispanics. The great majority of the comments criticized the protesters, and when Brito tried to present a different opinion, her posts were buried under a barrage of “thumbs down” votes (more than four generally hides the comment from view).
Some of those newspaper comment sections are just totally out of control. The inmates are truly running the asylum. What a stupid business decision that is. Of course, newspaper owners are not exactly known for great business acumen.
* Speaking of newspapers, I sent the Sun-Times an e-mail today asking the higher-ups to please, pretty please with sugar on top, take a look at why so many old stories are suddenly popping up on their RSS feeds as brand new. Just scroll down and look to the right and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I’m breathlessly awaiting a response.
A multimillion-dollar operation under state contract was supposed to be taking care of people with special needs. Instead, its employees are accused of fatally beating two residents and several incidents of abuse. […]
Forty-two-year-old Paul McCann suffered a brutal beating in January. The man called a gentle giant, who functioned at the level of a 6-year-old, was punched, kicked, and struck with a frying pan inside his group home for reportedly taking a cookie.
McCann’s death was ruled a homicide and two men were arrested. The family has filed a lawsuit…
The lawsuit claims that the group home employees would pile heavy books on McCann’s outstretched arms, then beat him when he dropped them.
Also, the lawsuit will allege that McCann had been abused before the Jan. 19 beating. Kathleen Slovick, McCann’s sister, noticed McCann had broken his nose in April 2010. In response to McCann’s broken nose, the Illinois Department of Human Services sent Lois McCann, Paul McCann’s mother, a four-word letter response that stated, “The findings were unfounded.”
State records obtained by CBS 2, which date back to 2003, reveal 33 cases of Graywood staff abusing residents. Those cases included sexual abuse, physical battery and alleged coercion of residents to attack each other.
Even worse, in 2008, a resident named Dustin Higgins was murdered by staff. That death prompted an internal memo from the Illinois Department of Human Services Inspector General. The memo warned that Graywood residents were at risk amid an increase of serious allegations of abuse and neglect.
A resident is murdered by facility staff three years ago and it prompted an internal DHS memo, but apparently not much else because human beings were still being sent there, even though it had a “substantiated abuse rate” which was double the state average. Great job, DHS. Raises for everybody!
They found caregivers dumping water on people when they wouldn’t do their chores or get out of bed.
Other cases involved employees biting, punching, and threatening the developmentally disabled clients they were taking care of.
Many only have the capacity of a child.
And, yet, this facility has received $30 million in taxpayer money since 2001? The mind reels. Thankfully, DHS is finally moving residents out of there next week. Too late for McCann and the rest, however. I do not understand how the people at DHS who knew about this place could possibly sleep at night.
One of the government’s prime jobs is to help care for people who cannot care for themselves. The abominable treatment of residents alleged at that facility and the unconscionably slow pace of state action makes me ill.
My great aunt is severely mentally disabled and lives in a facility in Iroquois County. I can’t imagine what would happen if my family found out something like that had happened to her. It wouldn’t be pretty, I guarantee it.
I can feel my blood boiling right now, so I better stop writing.
* The General Assembly is off this week, so the news is pretty darned slow around here, and my mind is on spring training. So, let’s have a bit of fun…
That would be Gov. Quinn with Jennifer Beals, the star of The Chicago Code.
* The Illinois Student Assistance Commission should win an award for boneheaded moves. On Friday, it sent out a notice that applications for MAP grants would be closed on Monday. It was the earliest deadline ever, and caught pretty much everyone by surprise.
Yesterday, ISAC backtracked and extended the deadline to Friday. But the extension may not have been out of the goodness of their little hearts…
One of the reasons for the extension may be due to a malfunction at the processing center.
“The processing center had an outage from Saturday to Sunday,” said financial aid office director Kathleen Brunson. “We told students we needed them to get that FAFSA done when they couldn’t, so I believe that’s the reason for the extension.”
Jordan said students used to be able to mail their FAFSA as late as August to be eligible for the MAP grant. The deadline then was shortened to July, then April 19 and now March 25.
Sheesh.
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this for several days, but haven’t posted anything here. A jumbled mess like this post seems as good a time as any…
The most vocal supporter of a proposed south suburban airport near Peotone is publicly opposing a former colleague’s apparent bid to be named head of the state’s transportation department.
Incumbent Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig has announced he is stepping down after the spring legislative session, which is set to conclude by the end of May.
Former 11th District U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson told the Kankakee Daily Journal she is seeking the position and has the support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and others.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said Halvorson is not qualified to be transportation secretary and that any consideration of her for the post would endanger the airport plan and other state transportation issues.
If you wanna seem something really odd, though, watch Halvorson explain the new book she’s writing. Yeesh.
A top prosecutor said he spent hours filling out questionnaires, editing speeches and tending to other political duties while working for McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi.
Thomas J. Carroll testified Monday that he and other high-ranking staffers frequently did such political work during office hours under Bianchi’s direction.
“We had different tasks assigned us,” said Carroll, who served as Bianchi’s first assistant from 2005 until 2008, before he was demoted to a lower post.
Bianchi, a Republican serving his second term, faces felony charges alleging he ordered employees to do political work for him on county time. He has denied doing anything improper and remains in office.
* I don’t quite get the last sentence in this story…
Popular daily coupon website Groupon’s Chicago headquarters was the site of the first meeting of the Illinois Innovation Council.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office says the Monday meeting focused on where Illinois can be a hub for innovation and where Illinois is an emerging leader, like clean energy, biotech and life sciences and information technology. […]
Other entities participating in the council include Reggio’s Pizza, Argonne National Laboratory and Baxter International Inc.
I bet that’s the first time Argonne and Reggio’s Pizza have ever been in the same sentence.
The use of traditional phone service has dropped to the point that broadband connections now exceed the number of landlines in Illinois.
Figures released on Monday by federal and state regulators showed that high-speed Internet connections outnumbered landlines in 2010 for the first time. Landline usage in the state dropped 31 percent from 2001 to 6.2 million, while the number of high-speed connections jumped from 423,000 to 6.4 million in that period.
Landlines have trailed mobile wireless connections since 2005. Illinois had about 11.6 million wireless subscribers last year.
* Those of you with children about to get a driver’s license, beware. Fees may be going up…
The maximum price high schools can charge students for driver’s education might soon be increased, thanks to state Rep. Sandy Pihos (R-42nd).
Pihos is sponsoring a House bill that would push the standard maximum fee from $50 per student to $250 per student for those taking in-school driver’s education classes, beginning with the 2012-13 school year. Waivers would be available to districts who decide they want to charge more than $250.
According to Pihos, 33 percent of the state’s school districts already apply for and receive waivers from the state that allow them to charge more than the $50. Those waivers, Pihos said, range from $75 per student to $500 per student depending on the district. […]
“I’ve worked hard with the teachers association and the drivers ed association; they are in support of the bill,” Pihos said. “In fact, as far as I can remember, there’s nobody in opposition to the bill. Through the years I haven’t had a constituent call…and express a concern.”
This actually makes sense, since so many districts apply for what are generally automatically approved waivers anyway. But some parents may not be so enamored with the fee hike.
Lisa Madigan wants to publish the names of everyone who has a Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) card. The law requires everyone who owns or handles a gun to have a FOID card.
There are many youngsters who shoot in competitions and re-enactments who would be on this list. Publishing names of law-abiding citizens by government decree also reminds me of history, namely 1936-1941 and Hitler.
* Phil Kadner has an excellent column on the late Sun-Times owner Jim Tyree…
James Tyree was about 10 years old when his alcoholic father left home, and he and his mother moved from a house in Chicago’s Beverly community to a basement apartment in Oak Lawn.
“I got the bedroom, and she slept on basically a futon in the living room,” Tyree told me last year.
About 30 years later, having worked his way through Illinois State University, Tyree was managing a multimillion-dollar international investment business. […]
What impressed me was the receptionist in the lobby of the Mesirow Financial building. As I waited for my interview with Tyree, I asked her if she had ever met the man.
“Oh, yes,” she said.
What’s he like? A real jerk, I bet?
“He’s just the nicest person. Down to earth. Talks to everyone like they’re human,” she said.
And that turned out to be an absolutely accurate description. […]
The one thing that everyone I spoke with said about Jim Tyree was this: “He’s just a really good guy.”
Of all his amazing accomplishments in life, I think that may have been his greatest.
And I think he would be darn proud to have that as his epitaph.
The two of us meant to get together to talk about the future of the paper, but I never got around to it and then he got sick. From everything I’ve heard and read about the man, he was truly a decent guy. My heart goes out to his family and his many friends. His widow is having a particularly difficult time right now because her father died just two days after her husband passed away. My thoughts are with her.
* Meanwhile, I’ve spent many a night watching Pinetop Perkins play the Boogie Woogie at Rosa’s Lounge. Often accompanied by Sugar Blue on the harmonica and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums, the last of the great Mississippi bluesmen always put on a fine show. You had to get there early for the Saturday night shows, however, because Perkins stopped playing at midnight. He wouldn’t perform on a Sunday.
It was a thrill to see the 97-years young musician and Smith win a Grammy Award this year. But Perkins passed away in Austin, Texas yesterday. He’s gonna be missed…
Perkins’ skills came not from any sort of formal training but from an innate ability and love for a musical form that arose from the South’s plantation system.
“I didn’t get no schooling. I come up the hard way in the world,” Perkins told The Associated Press in a 2009 interview.
Bob Corritore, a harmonica player who performed occasionally with Perkins and produced some of his work, said, “Pinetop could find the cracks and fill them in and be the glue and mortar of the whole band.”
* For some reason or another, I forgot to post my weekly syndicated newspaper column yesterday. Not sure why. Here it is…
A big question on a lot of Statehouse minds right now is: Why would Senate President John Cullerton all of a sudden decide to string out his members yet again on a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax hike when he surely knows that the House will kill it for the umpteenth time?
Cullerton wants to raise money from the cigarette tax so he can kill off the controversial law legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. Video gaming proceeds are supposed to subsidize part of the state’s massive capital construction plan, but the video gaming program hasn’t got off the ground after two years of preparations because the Illinois Gaming Board is taking its time to develop strict standards.
Part of the answer is that Cullerton loves the cigarette tax hike idea in and of itself. The man just downright loathes cigarettes and believes raising the tax would cause people to stop smoking and prevent kids from starting.
But when the four legislative leaders sit down to cut a deal, they’re supposed to stick to that deal unless the other leaders go along. The capital plan was just such an agreement. Breaking a pact like that is just not done. Ever.
You rarely see stories about the tax and fee hikes that fund the state’s construction program, and you don’t see many articles about some of the more questionable projects in the package. That’s because all the leaders vowed to each other that they wouldn’t stir up any trouble. Those vows are usually as solemn as any priest’s, so they’re never violated, but Cullerton is now doing it. Why?
Cullerton is said to be tired of Democrats being blamed for the video poker law, which has been blasted by most editorial pages in the state. “Maybe now they’ll understand that it was the Republicans who wanted this, not us,” explained a Cullerton aide last week.
The Republicans actually came up with the idea of legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. But the Democrats have worn the jacket for the much-maligned program because they’re in the majority and the hugely controversial Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Berrios was one of the top lobbyists for the video gaming industry.
It didn’t help matters much when former mobster turned government informant Frank Calabrese, Jr. told Fox Chicago the other day that he believed infiltrating the video poker industry would be a piece of cake.
“I mean, I laughed when I seen that,” Calabrese told Fox’s Dane Placko about the video poker legalization measure. “I mean, really. Why? I could go back there and show you how fast I could get in the middle of it,” he said from his Arizona house.
“It’s Math 101, OK? I’m not gonna go in there and put my name on a license and buy a bar and ask for three machines. I’m coming to you who’s totally legit and say you’re gonna buy the machines from this guy, and this is what you’re gonna pay him and that guy’s gonna help me in some way,” Calabrese said.
In the same story, former FBI organized crime director Tom Bourgeois told the channel that the General Assembly had opened the doors to the Outfit.
“You’re just providing an avenue for organized crime to re-root itself and find ways to become more powerful. It’s just too easy to do that and of course, the legislation provides opportunity for very little oversight,” Bourgeois claimed.
In reality, neither Calabrese nor Bourgeois are likely correct. For one thing, the current “amusement purposes only” video poker machines (most of which actually pay out in the real world) are already connected to the mob in one way or another. Legalization is seen by proponents as a way to get the mob out, not let them in.
To that end, the Illinois Gaming Board has spent almost two years attempting to devise a fail-safe plan to prevent organized crime from sticking its nose into the new business. A mobster just couldn’t strong-arm a tavern owner into using a particular machine, as Calabrese claimed, because machine distributors will have to undergo vigorous background checks and deal with strict government oversight — neither of which happens today.
So, publicly disassociating himself from video poker and letting Republicans take the lead in keeping the law on the books has real public relations and partisan advantages for the Senate president. And that’s why he’s doing it.
