* I dunno about you, but, to me, this looks pretty darned close to an act of war…
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday in an attempt to stop it from destroying a southeast Missouri levee protecting valuable farmland from the rising Mississippi River.
Koster said the corps is preparing to intentionally breach the levee at Birds Point in Mississippi County in order to relieve upstream pressure on a different levee protecting the Illinois town of Cairo. A decision on whether to detonate the levee is expected Tuesday afternoon.
So, Missouri fields are more important than an Illinois town, eh? Great. I think we need to dust off our quite detailed invasion plans designed to capture territory from St. Louis to University City. The Cardinals kinda suck this year, but they could be ours within days. Maybe the preznit can divert some of those drones he’s sending to Libya to assist our endeavors. Their first mission would be to blow up that levee.
All we need is a catchy name for the invasion, like the Pentagon always has. Any ideas?
The mayor of the southern Illinois city of Cairo says he’s asking its 2,800 residents to leave voluntarily to protect themselves from the rising Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Mayor Judson Childs says he made the request after meeting with police, the Army Corps of Engineers and emergency-management agencies.
*** UPDATE *** Perhaps a clever ruse to disguise a massing of troops? From a press release…
Governor Quinn Activates Illinois National Guard Troops for Flood Assistance
Visits State Emergency Operations Center
SPRINGFIELD – April 26, 2011. Governor Pat Quinn today activated the Illinois National Guard to support flood-fighting and life safety missions in southern Illinois. The initial activation includes up to 125 Guardsmen who are deploying to Marion to assist the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) with emergency response planning. Additional troops may be activated if needed.
“The Illinois National Guard is a valuable asset to the state during disasters,” said Governor Quinn. “During the February snow storm, the men and women of the Guard helped save many lives and I am very grateful for their assistance during the flooding.”
“The Illinois National Guard fully supports Governor Quinn’s activation of our Guardsmen for flood relief,” said Maj. Gen. William Enyart, Illinois National Guard Adjutant General. “These Guardsmen are fully trained and motivated to assist in this mission to ensure Illinois citizens are safe from harm’s way. As always, we stand ready to answer the call for additional support if needed.”
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Grid Modernization will give customers new tools and options that can make a real difference in their monthly energy bills.
This is not guesswork or hyperbole. ComEd has been running field tests on customer benefits where real-time pricing and smart meters are available. Here’s what we found:
• Customers who participated in ComEd’s real-time pricing pilot program saved 10% in 2010 and 15% in 2009. Since the program began, 90% of customers have saved money.
• The savings extend across all demographic groups. Nine in 10 program participants aged 65 and over saved an average of nine percent off their electric bill.
• 70 percent of the 6,000 customers enrolled in dynamic pricing as part of the smart meter pilot have saved money.
• The lowest income group has the highest percentage of customers saving money. In the group earning less than $20,000, 78% of customers saved money under the pilot program, compared to 69% of customers in the highest income group.
It’s just another reason why grid modernization is an important part of Illinois’ future.
Tuesday, Apr 26, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
ComEd President and COO, Anne Pramaggiore:
“While there is great promise here, we’re reluctant to quantify them at this point because they (smart grids) rely on changes in customer behavior and this is a new arena in the electric business. We simply don’t know enough to count on them.”
“Smart grid we are reluctant to embrace because it costs too much and we’re not sure what good it will do… The real issue is are we doing the customers more good by putting money into more advanced electronics or would we do them more good by putting the same money into replacing more old cable? To me that’s an unknown answer. If I had to choose, I’d bet on the cable.”
House Bill 14 is the wrong bill at the worst time. The bill completely ignores ComEd’s current Smart Meter pilot, which was funded by a surcharge on customer’s bills. What would motivate ComEd to rush for full Smart Meter deployment before pilot results are known and analyzed? The answer: profit margins.
* Illinois’ collection of 91 specialty license plates is dwarfed by Maryland’s 700, but more could be on the way…
So far this session, the state Senate has approved the creation of eight new specialty license plates and the House has approved two.
These proposals would still have to be endorsed by the other chamber and signed by the governor, before, say equestrians, could display their love of horses on their cars.
In order for a specialty license plate to be produced, it has to be approved by law and at least 1,500 people have to order one for it to be “worth the state’s time,” said Dave Druker, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office.
The most popular plate is the environmental one, which raises money for Illinois parks, with 43,517 on the road. This is followed by the firefighters’ memorial plate with 33,110.
Because of added fees to purchase them, the plates pay for themselves, Druker said.
* Today, Secretary of State Jesse White unveiled the latest plate, featuring the Chicago Bulls’ logo…
For each plate sold, Twenty-five dollars ($25) will be donated to state public education resources.
[Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s] idea of a universal charity plate with stickers for particular groups never caught on despite its passage in the mid-1990s.
Police have learned to live with the variety of designs and to be careful when entering numbers.
And apparently they have learned to live with lawmakers who argue against having one plate on vehicles because it makes police work tougher while the same lawmakers make police work tougher with more plate designs.
* The Question: Should Illinois create more specialty charity plates, eliminate them altogether, reduce them or hold the current numbers steady? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* A lot of folks just don’t want to hear it, but House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie made some good points on this video about why legislative district maps aren’t perfectly rectangular in Illinois. Have a look…
* The federal and state Voting Rights Acts, geographical and political boundaries, etc. all make it difficult to draw square maps. For example, take a look at the Mexican-American Legal and Defense Fund’s proposed House district maps for the South Side which I told subscribers about in much detail this morning…
As subscribers know, there was some heavy-duty personalized/politicized gerrymandering involved in at least one of those above districts. The Illinois Supreme Court has allowed maps drawn with incumbent homes in mind, however. And various federal and state laws/rulings require squiggly lines to achieve racial/ethnic representation. Congressman Gutierrez’s 20-year-old map has never been struck down, for instance, despite running all over the place…
* Some folks don’t like this, particularly white people who say we shouldn’t have maps based on race. The problem with that is, the people in power tend to be white, and they tend to draw maps which favor their own tribes. It’s no accident that the 1981 legislative map had to be partially redrawn via court order because white Democrats refused to draw districts to help elect Latinos beyond one “safe” machine candidate (Joe Berrios).
So, that’s the way it is, your reading of the Constitution’s “compact and contiguous” language notwithstanding. Courts interpret the Constitution, and they’ve done so in a way that allows these things. Even the crazy, purely political map drawn for Lane Evans has held up for ten years…
The Republicans, by the way, drew Gutierrez’s map and a lot more Latino legislative districts in concert with MALDEF. Why? Because they didn’t want to risk their map being tossed out by a court. It’s the way it goes.
* There are those who say we should have districts which look like Iowa’s, nicely squared boundaries. But racial requirements and our own state’s rather odd shape and population patters both work against that. That’s not to say that mapmakers shouldn’t try to make legislative districts a bit less bizarre, but they’ll usually do whatever they believe they can get away with.
* Remap roundup…
* Greg Hinz: Latinos ask for more — lots more — in state remap
“The present valuation indicates that state contributions are far from adequate to meet the current requirements of the system… On the basis of the present rate of state contributions, the retirement system is actuarially unsound,” Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS) Actuary Arthur Stedry Hansen, Fiscal Year 1950 Valuation Report. TRS had a funded ratio of 23 percent in FY 1950.
It was 77 percent unfunded? And the world didn’t end?
* Percent of benefit payout was the method used to calculate state contributions to the Illinois pension systems for many years. From FY73 through FY81, state contributions to the five state retirement systems were based on 100 percent of each system’s expected benefit payout. However, funding based on percent of benefit payout bears no relation to the cost of benefits being earned, and this has added to the unfunded liability of the system. In FY82 through FY88, state contributions dropped to an average of 60 percent of benefit pay outs. Eventually, payout was no longer used as the basis of appropriations and the prior year’s funding level (level funding) became the standard of determining state contributions.
* Public Act 86-0273 was enacted in 1989 and called for all state pension systems to be fully funded over 40 years, following a seven-year phase-in period. However, there was no continuing appropriation in the law and the state never complied with the funding requirements. […]
* Public Act 94-0004 became law June 1, 2005. The act specified fixed amounts to be paid by the state in FY06 and FY07, which represented a $2.3 billion cut over two years to the five pension systems.
* Meanwhile, the Peoria newspaper editorialized on behalf of the General Assembly using itself as a test case for cutting pension benefits to current state employees…
Lawmakers also pay into a pension plan, administered by the General Assembly Retirement System; reduce legislator pensions first and make that your test case in the courts. It’s a narrow sample group, so the cost to catch up is smaller if it’s ruled unconstitutional. Beyond that, what better way to show leadership in a budget crisis than to prove you get it by sharing in the pain personally? Just imagine the vote-getting potential for the politician able to brag that he voted to cut his own pension first.
* You may have heard by now that Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent a letter to Apple and Google about their location data collection practices…
llinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is asking Apple and Google to explain why their mobile devices — Google’s Android smartphones and Apple’s iPad and iPhones — collect and store detailed data about their users’ locations in ways that can be mapped, easily accessed and kept for long periods.
“It’s important that these companies ensure that their users’ private information is protected,” Madigan said in a letter asking to meet with Apple and Google executives.
Apple has remained silent, while Google said users get pop-up notices that allow them to turn off location-information sharing.
“All location sharing on Android is opt-in by the user,” according to the Google statement. “We provide users with notice and control over the collection, sharing and use of location in order to provide a better mobile experience on Android devices.”
Google acknowledged today that it collects location information from Android devices, but downplayed concerns about privacy by saying the information is not “traceable to a specific user.”
That claim, it turns out, depends on the definition of “traceable.”
According to detailed records provided to CNET by a security researcher, Android phones regularly connect to Google.com and disgorge a miniature data dump that includes time down to the millisecond, current and recent GPS coordinates, nearby Wi-Fi network addresses, and two 16-letter strings representing a device ID that’s unique to each phone.
“It’s not tied to a user,” says Samy Kamkar, who provided the Android connection logs to CNET. “But it is a unique identifier to that phone that never changes unless you do a factory reset.”
Last week’s discovery that Apple’s iPhone and Google phones track their users’ locations sparked outrage and led to questions about what the data is being used for. Now, the New York Times is reporting that the location data collection is being used not only to improve the accuracy of maps and navigation services, but also for advertising purposes.
Location data is highly sought after for use by advertisers who want to target customers in a particular place, since location-based ads are much more lucrative than other ads. “Google envisions a world where even a small business can promote products to consumers nearby on a mobile device,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of location-based advertising company Placecast. “That is a massive market.” And according to the Times, the market is so massive that Google and Apple have both been willing to push the envelope on privacy to collect user information.
In the suit, the pair, who seek punitive damages and injunctive relief, cite research from Alasdair Allen and Pete Warden about the tracking files found within iOS as the source for Apple’s collection techniques.
“Users of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, including Plaintiffs, were unaware of Apple’s tracking their locations and did not consent to such tracking,” the suit claims. “Apple collects the location information covertly, surreptitiously and in violations of law.”
The suit faults Apple specifically for not disclosing that the iOS software records “comprehensive” location data in its iTunes Terms of Service, nor offering end users informed consent of the practice.
“If Apple wanted to track the whereabouts of each of its products’ users, it should have obtained specific, particularized informed consent such that Apple consumers across America would not have been shocked and alarmed to learn of Apple’s practices in recent days,” the suit says.
Windows Phone 7, supported by manufacturers including Dell, HTC, LG, Nokia, and Samsung, transmits to Microsoft a miniature data dump including a unique device ID, details about nearby Wi-Fi networks, and the phone’s GPS-derived exact latitude and longitude.
A Microsoft representative was not immediately able to answer questions that CNET posed this afternoon, including how long the location histories are stored and how frequently the phone’s coordinates are transmitted over the Internet. Windows Phone currently claims about a 6 percent market share but, according to IDC, will capture about 21 percent by 2015 thanks to Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia.
Microsoft does say, however, that location histories are not saved directly on the device. That’s different from Apple’s practice of recording the locations of visible cell towers on iPhone and iPad devices, which can result in more than a year’s worth of data being quietly logged. Google’s approach, by contrast, records only the last few dozen locations on Android phones.
Law enforcement agencies have known since at least last year that an iPhone or iPad surreptitiously records its owner’s approximate location, and have used that geolocation data to aid criminal investigations. […]
One concern is the circumstances under which law enforcement can gain access to location histories. Courts have been split on whether warrants are required to peruse files on gadgets after an arrest, with police typically arguing that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unusual searches doesn’t apply. (The Justice Department under the Obama administration, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position.)
In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has publicly asserted the right to copy all data from anyone’s electronic devices at the border–even if there’s no suspicion of or evidence for illegal activity. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has blessed the practice.
All of this has led to a spike in law enforcement interest in the topic
For the second year in a row, Illinois ranks dead last when it comes to saving money to pay promised worker pensions — and the hole is getting worse.
According to a new report being issued this morning by the Pew Center on the States, Illinois through fiscal 2009 had set aside just 51% of the $126 billion it will need to pay retired workers their pensions.
That ranks the Land of Lincoln last of the 50th states, with only West Virginia at 56% and Oklahoma at 57% within six points of Illinois. Financial experts say a prudent state ought to have 90% of the money on hand for pensions that it will need.
The shortfall actually is probably greater than the $62-billlion figure Pew is reporting because the ‘09 numbers are a blended average of returns over prior years, before the stock market crashed in 2009.
Fiscal Year 2009 ended on June 30th of that year. The Dow dipped to 7062, the lowest it had been since 1997, at the end of February, 2009…
FY 2009 was also Rod Blagojevich’s last budget. He wasn’t exactly responsible.
* But the Pew report is actually way off. According to the Commission on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability, total unfunded liability was $78 billion in FY 2009 (way above Pew’s $62 billion), and almost $86 billion by FY 2010.
Here’s a depressing COGFA chart of the state’s historical unfunded liability…
And check out the percentages for FY 10…
The Pew study estimated the shortfall at 51 percent for FY 09. COGFA has FY 10’s number at almost 62 percent.
When the pension shortfall is combined with the cost of retiree health care, states face a gap of $1.26 trillion between money on hand and what they’ll eventually owe. That’s about $9,500 for every household in the United States. The study did not include many local government pension plans, which face similar problems.
In response to questions from Schoenberg, DHFS said that as of January, nearly 82,000 retirees and survivors get coverage under the state health insurance program. Most of them are covered by Medicare, with state insurance serving as a Medicare supplement policy. But DHFS said more than 27,500 retirees and survivors are not covered by Medicare.
Whether a retiree pays premiums for that health care depends on when the person retired and how long they worked for the state. People who retired before Jan. 1, 1998, do not have to pay premiums. Those who retired after that date have to pay premiums, but the amount is reduced by 5 percent for each year of service. Someone who retires with 20 or more years with the state does not have to pay a premium for coverage. However, they are required to pay for dependents on their coverage and make co-payments and related service charges required by their health plan of choice.
* 4:38 pm - Well, so much for breaking this news to subscribers tomorrow morning. From a press release…
Pat Quinn today announced three top appointments to his executive cabinet. Today’s actions are the latest in a series of appointments Governor Quinn is making as he continues to fulfill his commitment to creating jobs, fostering economic development and increasing efficiency and accountability in all areas of state government.
Governor Quinn today named Salvador “Tony” Godinez to lead the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Acting Director Gladyse Taylor will return to her previous position as assistant director. The Governor also re-appointed Warren Ribley as director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and Major General William Enyart as Illinois’ Adjutant General, directing the state’s Department of Military Affairs.
“Tony Godinez, Warren Ribley and General William Enyart have devoted their careers to public service, and the people of Illinois will benefit from their wealth of knowledge and experience,” said Governor Quinn. “I thank Gladyse Taylor for her dedication and leadership and look forward to her continued work on behalf of the people of Illinois.”
Currently the executive director of the Cook County Sheriff’s Department of Corrections, Godinez has spent 37 years working in the correctional system, including as warden of Stateville Correctional Center, as well as chief of operations and chief of staff at IDOC.
Previously, Godinez also served as warden of Ely State Prison, a maximum security facility in Ely, Nevada, and as a corrections administrator in Michigan, Delaware, Louisiana and Puerto Rico. A graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Chicago State University, Godinez has participated in professional associations related to anti-violence and corrections policy nationwide.
Warren Ribley was appointed by Governor Quinn to lead DCEO in March 2009. Since then, Ribley has overseen agency efforts to foster job creation and economic growth in Illinois, by building the state’s green economy, attracting high-growth industries to locate and expand in Illinois, increasing opportunities for global trade and providing support for job training and continuing education. As director of DCEO, Ribley has overseen the state’s efforts to attract or retain more than 100 businesses, leveraging $3.3 billion in private investment and creating or retaining more than 26,600 jobs.
Major General William Enyart was appointed as the 37th Adjutant General of the State of Illinois in 2007. In addition to advising the Governor on military matters and overseeing the Illinois Department of Military Affairs, he is the senior officer for both the Illinois Army and Air National Guard, overseeing 13,500 men and women in uniform. In his military career, General Enyart has earned numerous awards and decorations, serving abroad in Italy, Japan and Ukraine, and completing assignments including service in the infantry, as well as in the Judge Advocate General Corps. [Emphasis added]
Once through security and after replacing his belt - which all have to remove for search - he spotted a shiny copper penny on the floor.
WLS court reporter Holly Garland mentioned to him it was likely a “lucky penny,” Blagojevich promptly picked it up and handed it to Garland.
Returning the penny to him, Garland said, “you’ll need this more than I,” at which point he took it back, said thanks, and clasped his hands around it.
A potential juror who was questioned for Rod Blagojevich’s retrial this morning, noted on her jury questionnaire that she had a potential conflict in May.
“You don’t want to miss Oprah on May 10?” Judge James Zagel asked the woman.
Zagel asked if she had one ticket to attend the Oprah Winfrey Show, whose days in Chicago are numbered.
Referring to a questionnaire one woman juror filled out, Zagel noted she had mused about the difficulty of sorting out the credibility of witnesses who cut a plea deal to testify for prosecutors, something that will play out in the Blagojevich trial.
“There’s no machine that can tell you when they are truthful,” said Zagel, noting that’s what juries must figure out.
The process of sorting out conflicting claims and credibility at the trial is not unlike being a mom, the judge continued. “It actually may not be that dissimilar from the decision you had to make many years ago when you had to decide which child was telling you the truth,” he explained.
A federal judge is questioning everyone from a painter to a teacher to a quilt maker as part of the jury selection process in former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial.
In interviews that lasted about five minutes each, U.S. District Judge James Zagel asked 13 potential jurors Monday morning about how much they followed Blagojevich’s trial last summer.
The Blagojevich prosecutors are seeking to introduce an appearance by the former governor from January 27, 2009, on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.”
The prosecutors want to play the tape, to prove that Blagojevich should have know that his activities were improper. […]
Prosecutors say they need to play that tape, to “rebut the defendant’s defense that he did not realize the nature of his conduct, and that he had ‘no idea’ he could not do what he did.”
MADDOW: Do you agree that it would be wrong, it would be criminal for you to try to exchange Barack Obama’s U.S. senate seat, that appointment, for something that would be of value to you. You agree that that would be wrong.
BLAGOJEVICH: Oh, absolutely.
MADDOW: Yeah. Did…
BLAGOJEVICH: A personal, you know, one for the other personal gain?
The government cannot predict with certainty the contours of the defense to be presented in the upcoming retrial. In the first trial, however, defendant attempted through cross-examination of government witnesses to suggest that he did not know, and had no way of knowing that his conduct was unlawful because, among other things, none of his advisors told him that was the case, and because such conduct was not unusual.
From his own lawyer’s comments at the last trial…
Tell me one piece of evidence that came in here when he said, no, on such and such a date Quinlan said “no, it’s illegal,” or on such and such a date, “Governor, that’s illegal, you can’t do that”? Tell me one time? Just one time. Have them play one tape. You had about 5500 conversations and not one did they play for you where they say, “you can’t do this Governor”? It’s the exact opposite. This man had no idea that you couldn’t do it because everybody told him he could, and not only could, should, and not only should —
While the state won’t catch up on the debt it has incurred for existing teachers’ pensions for at least three decades, by 2036, it will basically stop having to pay for pensions for teachers hired after Jan. 1.
An actuary’s report for the state Teachers’ Retirement System projects that as more teachers come into the system under the second tier of benefits approved by the General Assembly in 2009, the new teachers will pay a big chunk of the debt owed by the state.
“The tier 2 members are really paying more than the benefits are worth,” said Kathleen Farney, TRS’s director of research. “So not only are they paying for their own benefits, but they’re actually helping reduce the unfunded liability that was accrued before they were even hired.”
While the legislature’s intent in creating second-tier benefits for new teachers, state workers, university employees, legislators and judges was to reduce the state’s costs, “they kind of overshot” in the case of teachers, Farney said.
I asked about this topic a couple of weeks ago, and was not informed of the audit, which was completed in early December. Instead, I was told this by TRS, among other things…
The real rub for Tier II members is the “cap” on how much of a Tier II teacher’s salary can be counted toward their pension. Right now the cap is $106,800. It doesn’t affect that many people…now. But over time as the cap increases with inflation, so will salaries…and salaries will probably increase faster than the cap.
In time more teachers than not will have a portion of their salaries not counted toward their pension and that portion will increase every year. And over time as the cap hinders the ultimate size of a person’s pension, it’s expected by our actuaries that the benefit will not be large enough to meet the minimum standards of Social Security for a stand-alone pension plan. At that point it’s expected that the federal government will force teachers into Social Security, which increases school district costs.
Overstating projected revenue would lead to irresponsible deficit spending, but understating revenue would lead to irresponsible spending cuts that hurt everyone from school kids to seniors, while causing job loss in the private sector.
The Senate used revenue estimates developed by the nonpartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Analysis. COGFA is staffed by professionals whose sole job is to forecast and analyze fiscal matters. Over the last decade, COGFA’s revenue forecast has averaged being within 1.4 percent of the actual revenue generated in those years. The last decade includes the Great Recession, making COGFA’s miniscule margin of error that much more impressive.
The House revenue projection is primarily a political compromise reached between some House Republicans and Democrats, who are concerned about overspending. Given the stakes, this is no time for political concerns to get in the way of accuracy. Even using the highly accurate projections made by COGFA, some painful cuts may still be required. Making matters worse in the name of political compromise is not fiscally — or morally — responsible.
But, as I’ve explained before, putting too much into next year’s spending base could have a disastrous impact down the road, when the tax hike is set to expire. Dismissing that very real problem by focusing in on one spending year is not a good idea.
* Rutherford to address Menard County Republicans: “I’ve always been told, if you don’t get 20 percent of the city of Chicago, you don’t win, and we got 22 percent and we won,” he said of the 2010 treasurer race in which he defeated Democratic opponent Robin Kelly with 50 percent of the popular vote.
* Taking great pleasure at small savings: One line-item that caught my eye was “Reduction in mobile phone usage — $14,000.” Rutherford asked his employees with state-paid cellphones to turn them in if they couldn’t justify the need, and 26 out of 36 subsequently surrendered their phones.
* Illinois to start tracking bicycle ‘dooring’ collisions
* Hundreds of Cook County Health Patients Caught Off-Guard By Furlough Day
* Jobe tops in down year for Springfield aldermanic fundraising
* Commissioner John Fritchey owes over $24,000 for property taxes: “My wife acted upon advice from her attorney and ceased payment on the property taxes, as well as the mortgage,” he says. “While I questioned the advice from her lawyer, I have no choice but to accept the decisions she made. Divorce brings a number of hardships. These are among them.”… He says their house is now under contract, and the taxes will be paid when the sale is completed. “They will be paid in full at the closing of the house, which is scheduled to take place in approximately 60 days,” Fritchey says.
* John Boch, President of Guns Save Life, continued to make harsh comments over the weekend about a Jewish state Senator’s request that Boch’s group apologize for comparing an attorney general’s ruling to Adolph Hitler’s actions during the Holocaust. AG Madigan, you will no doubt recall, ruled that the Associated Press’ request for FOID cardholders’ names ought to be granted…
An Illinois Senator is demanding a guns-rights group apologize for using the yellow Star of David to compare gun owners’ problems to Holocaust victims. […]
The gun rights group defended the use of the Star of David by saying the Holocaust began with Jews in Germany being identified, then disarmed, then annihilation. […]
“It’s a horrible analogy. It’s not only Jews but non-Jews that were killed in the Holocaust,” Senator Ira Silverstein said. “They’re trying to make a point, I understand, but the way they’re making their point is totally unacceptable.” […]
When asked if he had the intention of apologizing, John Boch, President of Guns Save Life, replied, “Hell no.” […]
“The mantra is supposed to be ‘never forget’ and ‘never again,’ not ’stick your head in the sand and whine like a little girl when you see Holocaust imagery,’” Boch said.
The group’s twisted logic lays bare a profound disregard for historical truth. It was not the identification of Jews, or the loss of their firearms, that led to their deaths in the gas chambers. It was a maniacal government, supported by powerful cultural forces, that led to mass Jewish deaths.
To liken that march toward death to the simple naming of people who applied for a government ID card in Illinois is absurd.
There are legitimate arguments against releasing the names of gun owners, arguments that have been articulated by thoughtful gun-rights advocates.
But nobody has dared to resort to this kind of craven and offensive twisting of history — until now.
Up until now, the NRA has refused to comment on the matter. But the NRA’s concealed carry bill remains a few votes shy of passing the House, and too much more negative Boch publicity probably won’t help matters much. Ordering Boch to clam up might work, but he doesn’t appear to be the shrinking violet type. It might just all go away if nobody else picks up on it, or the situation might spiral outta control. So…
* The Question: Should Statehouse backers of the concealed carry proposal publicly denounce Boch’s comments or ignore them? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
* Northwest Herald editor Dan McCaleb penned a column over the weekend decrying major cuts to human service programs, then added this…
And at the same time Quinn is proposing these massive cuts to social service agencies, he’s increasing by more than $100 million the wages and benefits of public employees in the Department of Human Services and at state institutions.
These are among the same public employees who are members of the state unions that backed Quinn in last year’s election.
So we know Quinn is good at taking care of those who take care of him.
As for everyone else, including those who need care the most … well, he just doesn’t care.
Our elected lawmakers need to see through this farce and restore this funding.
Those pay and benefit increases are directly tied to the state’s union contract, which was negotiated and signed by Rod Blagojevich, not Pat Quinn. The Northwest Herald has regularly called for budget cuts, but apparently isn’t quite up to snuff on what the budget actually is. The state spends the most on education, health care, human services, prisons and workers/retirees. Over 95 percent of state workers belong to a union, so their pay cannot be cut in the coming fiscal year. Other avenues must be found. I know it’s fashionable to bash public employees, but a little reality would be nice.
* The Chicago Tribune editorial board appears unclear on the concept of legislating. It wants lots more anti-union provisions in the Senate-approved education reform bill…
• The Senate bill requires a 75 percent vote of approval by teachers to authorize a strike in Chicago. That’s a fairly high bar, but as new school leadership gets established and Chicago sorts through its financial crisis and contract talks, children need a guarantee that they will be in school. The House should set at least a five-year moratorium on Chicago school strikes.
Performance Counts emerged from the Senate after months of bargaining. It’s a very good bill. It could be a great bill. That’s the challenge to House Speaker Michael Madigan, Minority Leader Tom Cross and their members. Make it great.
Take out the right to strike and there goes the teachers’ union support. That may sound just fine and dandy to the Tribune and many others, but passing such a hotly opposed bill would be quite a bit more difficult, if not impossible. It’s the difference between what Wisconsin rammed through and what Illinois is doing, on several fronts. By definition, compromises don’t satisfy everyone, or even anyone. It’s pretty easy to bloviate from an editorial boardroom. It’s a whole lot more difficult to actually pass legislation and get it signed into law. A tiny bit of recognition of this fact of life would be appreciated.
Emanuel isn’t calibrating each move to please this or that group, as Daley often did. Instead, the mayor-elect is trying to recruit the Get-It-Done Brigade. Consider:
His most controversial choice to date, Jean-Claude Brizard, will be CEO of Chicago Public Schools for one reason: Emanuel sees him as a pile-driving force for reform. That is, for putting student performance first. If teachers union officials in Rochester, N.Y., didn’t approve of Brizard, so be it. That tells Emanuel that Brizard probably is steely enough for what comes next; the Chicago Teachers Union plainly intends to resist much of Emanuel’s reform agenda. What’s more, Emanuel has bulwarked Brizard for whatever fight the union wants to instigate.
It sounds to me like it’s not the unions who are doing the instigating here. After all, the CTU signed off on the Senate reform bill, despite taking it on the chin on numerous issues. But the Tribune wants more. Lots more. And they won’t stop until they get it.
Wars always have unintended, unforeseen consequences. So, rather than singing patriotic battle hymns as they attempt to march the city toward the ultimate showdown, perhaps a little sober and rational forethought would be the wiser course.
* And the State Journal-Register wants to push thousands of its subscribers out of their pension plans and let the Supreme Court sort it out…
As the General Assembly returns to work in the coming weeks — the House on Tuesday, the Senate on May 3 — we urge lawmakers to pass House Bill 149 — or some form of it — and initiate the inevitable court challenge that will yield an answer. The bill does not seek to cut benefits directly, instead giving employees hired before this year the option of paying more to keep their benefits the same or choosing between two alternate plans that offer lesser benefits. […]
The constitutional clause in question — “Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired” — could reasonably be interpreted as allowing the state to ask for greater contributions as long as the benefits themselves are not “diminished or impaired.”
Then again, the Illinois Supreme Court could reasonably interpret that the options offered in HB 149 are a back-door form of diminishing or impairing benefits, thus violating the constitution. […]
The only thing certain in this matter is that Illinois needs an answer. The state can’t continue down its present path and expect anything but disastrous results… We see only one route to an answer and it leads directly to the Illinois Supreme Court. Let’s get this process moving.
* Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys are attempting to keep some embarrassing revelations out of his second trial, including the $400,000+ he and his wife spent on clothing…
“There was no impropriety whatsoever surrounding these purchases,” the attorneys wrote in a motion filed Friday night. “The fact that Blagojevich did not spend his money wisely or frugally is of no consequence to the government’s allegations that he schemed to obtain campaign contributions.”
The attorneys also asked judge James Zagel to bar testimony about the former governor’s work habits; specifically, his penchant for staying away from his official offices in Springfield and Chicago.
“This conduct is not illegal, but it is highly inflammatory and prejudicial,” the lawyers write. As examples, they cited testimony of former deputy governor Bob Greenlee, that Blagojevich was at the office as little as six to eight hours a week, and that he once avoided meeting with his finance chief by hiding in a bathroom.
Through his lawyers, Blagojevich also asked the judge to limit testimony about his efforts to obtain a job for his wife Patti, and allegations that he sought the dismissal of members of the Chicago Tribune editorial board in exchange for state help in renovations at Wrigley Field.
But Blagojevich is attempting to use his record in office to his advantage…
In the run-up to his corruption retrial, Rod Blagojevich portrayed himself in a blitz of media appearances as the victim of entrenched interests out to derail his enlightened populist agenda.
“I am fighting for my life’s work,” Blagojevich declared in a recent live TV appearance, one of many such public comments that prompted prosecutors to complain the impeached former governor was improperly seeking to sway potential jurors with pleas for sympathy.
“For six years I blocked that income tax increase,” Blagojevich told the Tribune in a recent interview. “And had they not arrested me, there wouldn’t be that income tax increase today.”
Ralph Martire, executive director of a Chicago-based fiscal think tank, once served on a Blagojevich budget reform panel but found himself in the governor’s doghouse after publicly floating the idea of a tax increase. Martire said Blagojevich shouted obscenities at him in the halls of the Capitol.
“The most disingenuous and damaging part of Rod’s fiscal legacy is that he reinforced the notion for voters that they could have public services and never pay for them,” said Martire, of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. “Some people are amoral, but he’s a-fiscal.”
There might not’ve been an income tax hike, but the fiscal problems would’ve been far worse. Imagine another two years of that hugely expensive war between Blagojevich and Madigan et al. We’ll be paying off the costs of their guerre politique for years. Decades, even.
* Anyway, jury selection continues today in Blagojevich’s retrial, and Judge James Zagel is keeping the pool pretty wide open so far…
[Zagel] refused defense requests to send home several people who seemed biased against Blagojevich, including a retired auto shop owner who wrote that, “Based on news accounts, my personal bias is - he is guilty.” Zagel said he accepted the man’s assurances in court that he could set aside his preconceptions and focus solely on the evidence.
Ouch.
* Meanwhile, Laura Washington thinks Blagojevich and Donald Trump are a lot alike…
Imagine Blago as a role model. In 2010, before his first corruption trial, Blagojevich hung out with “The Donald” as a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice. His performance was short-lived and ignominious and he washed out of the competition after four episodes.
Blago’s wacky TV “appearances” were thinly veiled ploys to win sympathy from the jury pool. Given how his first federal corruption trial worked out, it may have worked.
It worked for Trump. The “Apprentice” boss man seemed uncharacteristically wistful when he “fired” the former governor. Trump said he felt “sorry” for him, and that Blagojevich had “a lot of courage.”
Blagojevich and Trump are brothers in limelight, both accomplished at mugging, preening and dissembling for the cameras. Each has a deep affection for spending other people’s money — for Blago, it was custom Oxxford suits. The Donald favors casinos and opulent office towers. Both have never met a tall tale they couldn’t top.
* FYI, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady thinks Trump is not a serious candidate…
“No I think he’s irrelevant, and I don’t think he’s serious. This is a guy whose whole life is around branding his name. I mean who else has a building named after him that he built. Who else has a big jet with his name on the side of it,” Brady said.
The head of the Republican Party in Illinois says Rod Blagojevich could still be a political issue in the next statewide elections in 2014… He said the same people who initially supported Blagojevich for governor are still in power, so it’s still a political issue.
“Hopefully, when we put our candidate up to run for governor, we can remind them that Pat Quinn served as his lieutenant governor and, more importantly, the policies that Pat Quinn has pursued in his first year in office,” Brady said.
Bill Brady used Rod Blagojevich in one late TV ad against Pat Quinn, then pulled it off the air after only a day or so. The issue just doesn’t poll well. Brady is merely blowing smoke in advance of the trial, but that doesn’t mean his statements should be bought hook, line and sinker by the media, either.
The Blagojevich “issue” appears to have worked against one Democrat last year - former state Rep. Jay Hoffman, who was Blagojevich’s House floor leader. Other than that, it was a total dud.
House Republican Leader Tom Cross recently announced that he now supports HB 30, the medical marijuana legalization bill. This is very disconcerting. Marijuana activists are working hard to decriminalize marijuana and impede the U.S. anti-drug policy. The first step is for medical use.
Does Cross think the Illinois General Assembly should circumvent the medical and scientific experts at the Federal Drug Administration? Should state lawmakers ignore the many warnings by federal authorities like the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Drug Enforcement Agency? Should lawmakers ignore the law enforcement community objections, including the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and Illinois Sheriffs’ Association, among others? Federal drug laws supersede state laws. HB 30 would create a licensing scheme contrary to federal law, making property owners, landlords and citizens liable to federal action. Lastly, Illinois lawmakers shouldn’t disregard Illinois’s DUI laws. HB 30 allows a medical marijuana patient to operate a motor vehicle after six hours of consuming marijuana, while research shows that a single joint with a moderate level of THC can impair a person’s ability to drive for more than 24 hours!
State Rep. Tom Cross, R-Oswego, and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow teamed up to ban drugs known as “bath salts,” “K2” and “spice.” […]
“These substances can be very dangerous and are being marketed in a way that implies they are safe,” Cross said. “These ‘bath salts’ aren’t your grandmother’s bath salts — they are very dangerous synthetic stimulants. ‘Spice’ is not something that you use for cooking — it is essentially a synthetic form of cannabis.”
If you get behind the wheel with traces of illegal drugs in your body, you potentially could face a prison sentence.
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday handed down the opinion in People v. Martin, reinstating Aaron Martin’s original conviction of aggravated driving under the influence and a six-year prison sentence.
Peoria County Circuit Court prosecutors convicted Martin of a charge of aggravated DUI because he was driving with methamphetamine in his body when his car crashed into an oncoming car, killing two people on Christmas night 2004.
The six other state justices unanimously concurred with Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis’ 10-page opinion, which overturned the appellate court decision that ruled there was no “causal connection” to prove the drug had caused the crash, since the effects of the drug had likely worn off.
“In this case, it was shown that defendant driver caused the accident. Thus, there was no need to prove that he suffered from any degree of impairment which caused the accidental fatalities,” according to the high court’s opinion.
Marijuana can stay in your body for a month or more. The effect of this new Supreme Court opinion means that you could take one hit off a joint, get in a car crash a month later and then find yourself facing additional criminal charges because of the remaining residue in your body.
According to the National Safety Council, a quarter of all car crashes involve cell phone use, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 9 percent of drivers are on their cell phones at any given moment.
Using the logic of People v. Martin, maybe one day when they discover you were on a cell phone a month before a car accident, they’ll up your penalties.
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this bill for over a week now. It’s quite something…
Some big Chicago-area retailers have found a way to avoid paying high local sales taxes on their wholesale purchases. They’ve essentially set up their own “tax havens” in downstate counties that have no local sales taxes. The havens mostly are just one-person offices with a fax machine.
The retailers contract to purchase mass quantities of fuel or construction equipment or lumber or whatever, and then those contracts are faxed to their little downstate offices, stamped as received and then faxed back to headquarters and — voilà — no local sales taxes are owed.
In January, the Illinois Department of Revenue lost a court case filed by Hartney Fuel Oil Co., Putnam County and the town of Mark, Ill. (population 500).
Hartney is based in Cook County but had a “sales office” in no-tax Mark. The Department of Revenue claimed that Hartney owed sales taxes in Cook County, but a Putnam County judge disagreed.
Nobody really noticed. But then some folks got the bright idea of introducing a bill at the Statehouse to codify the downstate court case to make certain that all Chicago-area companies had the same option.
Bad move.
Introducing that legislation shone a light on the tax-avoidance scheme, and now all heck is breaking loose.
Proponents say this tax haven thing has been standard practice for 50 years and they’re just hoping to codify the judge’s ruling after the Department of Revenue changed its practices. They also claim that if their bill fails, companies will move their headquarters out of the Chicago area to avoid high sales tax rates.
A lobbyist who worked for the bill claimed that after five state audits ruled against his clients, four moved out of Cook, with one going to Indiana.
The bill passed the Senate earlier this month, partly because opponents reacted too late to kill it.
The legislation has received scant media coverage so far, but it is considered a major threat by the Regional Transportation Authority, Cook County, the city of Chicago and several suburban taxing bodies, which worry that the legislation would lead to a vast out-migration of tax revenues.
Some suburban counties thought they could get some of those tax havens, until they realized their inclusion in the RTA’s regional sales tax zone meant they had no chance. So they no longer are supporting the bill.
The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s support was crucial to the bill’s Senate passage, but the chamber reportedly received serious heat from Mayor Richard Daley and Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. So, it is backing away as well.
And the main lobbying firm which pushed the legislation through the Senate has withdrawn from the fight. The firm also represents the DuPage County Board, the chairman of which is now opposing the bill after initially backing it. That position change meant the lobbying firm had a conflict, so it’s out.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman said last week that while opinion is divided in the House over the bill’s future, with some downstaters pushing hard for its passage, Madigan has put the legislation “under very serious review” because the “alarm bells have been sounded.”
That may look like a hedge to you, but Madigan’s people usually don’t tip their hand so clearly. The wheels have come off this bill.
The RTA’s chief lobbyist is Madigan’s son-in-law, which doesn’t help the bill’s chances in the House, of course, but the strong opposition from pretty much the entire Chicago region’s governmental units is hugely important.
Also, the state senator who represents Madigan’s district, Steve Landek, forcefully opposed the tax bill in committee, claiming that much of the construction of the Chicago Fire’s soccer stadium in his district avoided local sales taxes by using those downstate tax havens.
And now, the Senate bill’s opponents are gearing up to introduce legislation of their own in the House that would officially kill off these tax havens. The measure likely will be tacked onto a broader bill dealing with taxation. Doing it that way would make it far tougher to vote against the provision.
The bottom line here is that the backers of the original Senate legislation might have set the stage for exactly the opposite of what they intended.
Instead of just letting the judicial branch handle the issue completely under everybody’s radar, they decided to move the fight into the General Assembly. But then everybody discovered what was going on.
Oops.
* Meanwhile, in other business-related news, ComEd’s big push got Phil Kadner wondering whether the company’s bill sponsor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, is getting anything out of this spring session…
So I asked the ComEd president whether McCarthy had been promised a job in exchange for his support.
She smiled and said ComEd was pleased to have McCarthy sponsoring the bill because he’s smart, understands the issue and is an experienced legislator.
I asked McCarthy if he would promise not to ever accept a job from ComEd or act as a paid consultant for the company or become a lobbyist for the industry.
McCarthy said he has been promised nothing for his work on the bill and has spent years passing tough legislation in Springfield, earning the respect of House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who is confident in McCarthy’s ability to get the job done.
CUB’s Kolata said he has no reason to suspect McCarthy has been promised anything.
Reading between the lines isn’t too difficult there. We’ll have to see what happens, but if McCarthy is looking to get out, this would be a good time to do so, and with a major bill to push himself on to bigger and better things.
* Related…
* State’s decision to drop two HMOs causes worries
