* By now, most of us have received a phony spam e-mail from a “friend” who was “stranded” overseas and needed help getting home. I just received another one…
Hello
How are you? i traveled to wales for a conference at the imperial college gallery section, Wales) and unfortunately for me the hotel i lodged got razed by fire.all my valuables including cash, cell phones and my traveling documents were destroyed during the inferno but luckily for me i still have my passport with me.i have contacted the police but they are not responding to the matter effectively they only asked me to write a statement about the incident and referred me to the embassy which is over there in london please i really need your assistance for me to go to the embassy and also to the airline office so i can start processing a new flight ticket.i am also having problems settling outstanding hotel bills and the hotel management are not helping matters at all please let me know if you can help me out
Waiting for your mail
Why is this spammer so despicable? The e-mail was “from” Tom Roeser. Tom died last month.
I’m sure Tom would’ve been amused if he were still alive. He was also pretty careful about his grammar, spelling and punctuation, so nobody would’ve believed it was him if he was still around. But to hack a dead man’s e-mail account is just wrong on so many levels.
* Just about every major bill passed by the Republican legislative majority early in the 1995 session has been struck down by the courts. And the parental notification law has been in limbo ever since…
An unenforced 1995 law that requires physicians to notify a minor’s parent or guardian before performing an abortion should be returned to Cook County Circuit Court to determine its constitutionality, a state appeals court ruled Friday.
“Today’s ruling is extremely significant,” said Lorie A. Chaiten, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois’ Reproductive Rights Project, which represented a Granite City abortion clinic and University of Illinois at Chicago physician in challenging the law.
“The court’s decision recognizes that there are serious constitutional issues raised by the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act and permits our clients to return to the circuit court to present our strong case showing that the act threatens the health and well-being of young women,” Chaiten said.
Abortion-rights advocates turned to the state courts after a federal appeals panel ruled in August 2009 that the Illinois law did not run afoul of the U.S. Constitution. But after that, a Cook County circuit judge refused to permit the lawsuit since the federal courts already had weighed in, prompting the ACLU appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court.
The state appeals court ruling reverses the circuit court decision that lifted a restraining order barring implementation of the law, which was a GOP legislative centerpiece when Republicans last controlled both the Legislature and governor’s office in the mid-1990s.
As of Friday, the attorney general’s office had no comment.
Health care providers are failing to detail abortion complications to the state as required by law, one of many gaps in a surveillance system viewed as crucial to protecting patients, a Tribune review has found.
The state’s system for tracking abortions is so broken that regulators also may be missing more than 7,000 of the procedures per year. […]
• This reporting is the only tool Illinois authorities have to monitor some abortion providers, yet regulators may be allowing doctors and clinics to operate off the books. Regulators collect reports from 26 providers, but the abortion rights research group [Guttmacher Institute] has identified 37 providers doing business in the state.
• Also unknown to officials are the types of abortion-related problems experienced by women. Nearly 4,000 reports of abortion complications involving Illinois residents in 2009 were missing the required description.
• Health care providers who intentionally fail to submit accurate and complete reports are committing a criminal act, and a failure to report abortion complications is grounds for revoking their licenses, but the Department of Public Health has never sought disciplinary action against a provider.
Wrongful convictions of men and women for violent crimes in Illinois have cost taxpayers $214 million and have imprisoned innocent people for 926 years, according to a seven-month investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions.
The joint investigation, which tracked exonerations from 1989 through 2010, also determined that while 85 people were wrongfully incarcerated, the actual perpetrators were on a collective crime spree that included 14 murders, 11 sexual assaults, 10 kidnappings and at least 59 other felonies. […]
The study also revealed that it is far cheaper to incarcerate the innocent than to compensate them afterward.
Over the period of time studied, which covers the past 35 years, the BGA/CWC investigation found that the cost of keeping the 85 in jail and prison for a total of 926 years came to $18.5 million.
To be fair, they seem to have overlooked one financial consideration that would lower the overall cost of wrongful convictions to taxpayers. If police hadn’t impetuously arrested the wrong persons, in some cases they might eventually have arrested the right ones, and the same daily costs of incarceration would have had to be paid.
Government error and misconduct appeared in 81 out of the 85 cases, and purported eyewitnesses fingered the wrong person in 46, according to the investigations.
False confessions occurred in 33 cases, allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel appeared in 23, and incentivized witness testimony in 30 (an incentivized witness is someone who testifies with the expectation of some reward or benefit from law enforcement officials).
There was no breakdown offered of how many of those were errors and how many involved misconduct. But Andy Shaw of the BGA has no sympathy either way…
“These aren’t garbage men; these are highly trained police officers and prosecutors who passed bar exams and took an oath on the Bible to do their jobs,” said Andy Shaw, executive director of the association. “But they didn’t.”
The study recommended several reforms, including the videotaping of interrogations related to all violent crimes, not just murders; an overhaul of error-prone lineup procedures; a ban on court testimony by jailhouse informants; and increased transparency in the review process for complaints of police abuse. Mr. Shaw said the recommended reforms were standard practice in other states.
In the two years since video gambling was legalized in Illinois, some 80 different jurisdictions in the state have “opted out” of the law by approving local ordinances banning the gambling devices in their communities — mostly in Chicago’s suburbs.
That leaves more than 1,100 cities, towns, villages and counties where video gambling operators are still welcome to set up shop — if the state Supreme Court ever clears the way by signing off on the constitutionality of the multi-pronged law that was intended to help pay for a state construction program.
Now there’s discussion of flip-flopping the law so that towns that want to allow video poker machines and the like will have to approve local ordinances specifically legalizing them, instead of the other way around. […]
It was Quinn who I’m told brought up the idea during a meeting this past Thursday with legislative leaders who were trying to convince him to sign the gambling bill
Quinn did mention the idea, but Rep. Lou Lang said today that he told the governor it was a “non-starter.”
Also, you may recall, “opt-out” was Quinn’s idea in the first place. Now he apparently wants to change that to “opt-in.”
* The Question: Should the video gaming law’s “opt-out” provision be changed to “opt-in”? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* There’s something you need to keep in mind when reading this AP report about the problems that will be created by pushing off $1.2 billion in Medicaid payments until after next fiscal year ends…
Illinois is on the verge of approving a Medicaid budget that could mean doctors and hospitals wait months to be paid and poor people have a harder time finding care while state government falls deeper into a financial hole.
The budget passed by lawmakers last month promises doctors and hospitals the same pay they get now. The same number of poor Illinoisans will be entitled to virtually the same services. But the amount of money set aside for Medicaid falls about $1.2 billion short of covering all those costs. […]
The payment delays would mean financial pain for anyone who treats the poor, experts said. More doctors and dentists might choose not to see patients who depend on Medicaid. Hospitals and nursing homes would face pressure to cut staff or delay improvements.
Howard Peters, executive vice president of policy and advocacy for the Illinois Hospital Association, told the house budgeting committee that his members favored a delay in payments over a cut in rates. “We know that extending the payment cycle is not desirable. It’s not desirable for you. It’s not desirable for our members. But it is a far better solution. A far better solution than taking an inadequate Medicaid payment and making it even more inadequate,” Peters said. “Given the choices that you may have before you, we would encourage you to think extending the payment cycle rather than cutting the rates across the board. Much greater harm is done by cutting the rates.” […]
Putting off Medicaid payments would allow the state to cut costs out of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget by pushing them into FY 2013. However some lawmakers have warned that delaying the payments along with a loss in federal dollars could mean trouble on the horizon for Medicaid budget in FY 2013. Chicago Democratic Rep. Sarah Feigenholtz, who chairs the House Human Services Appropriations Committee, said the overall Medicaid budget — which is spread out over several state agencies — is slated to lose $765 million in federal stimulus funding in FY 2012.
“In FY 13, when we come look at our Medicaid numbers, we’re all going to faint. We’re all going to faint,” she said.
It’s not guaranteed that Quinn will deal with the cuts by delaying payments. Spokeswoman Brie Callahan said the governor and aides are still studying the options. One of many possibilities under review would be to continue paying at the normal rate even if it means burning through all available money by March, she said. Then lawmakers might be forced to provide more money rather than see Medicaid services shudder to a halt.
Medicaid isn’t the only budget area that was underfunded. Schools took a $150 million cut even though the General State Aid formula was not changed. That’s just one of the things Senate President John Cullerton was referring to in his press release last week…
“There are still major structural deficiencies in the House budget that will become clear in the months ahead. I look forward to having the opportunity to address issues such as the underfunding of education and social service commitments.”
There are still plenty of places to cut the state budget. If you don’t believe us, ask the Illinois Policy Institute.
We don’t have enough information to unquestionably endorse all 10 actions outlined in the institute’s “Get Out the Veto Pen” report. We don’t know whether some of the suggested cuts would violate terms of contracts or create other problems.
How about picking up the phone and just, you know, asking around? Also, the IPI identified just $49 million in cuts, and the Pantagraph opposed the biggest one…
The biggest ticket on the Top 10 list is $23.8 million for tourism promotion.
Cutting out all spending on tourism promotion could do more harm than good. Tourism is a viable industry that brings in revenue and supports jobs in Illinois.
The head of the Illinois Policy Institute, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan research organization dedicated to supporting free market principles and liberty-based public policy initiatives,” is now running a political action committee.
Joining JOHN TILLMAN, CEO of the think tank, in the endeavor is DAN PROFT, listed as treasurer of the new Illinois Liberty PAC.
The address of the PAC on LaSalle Street in Chicago is the same as that of the policy institute, though Tillman said that’s just a convenience to get mail, and there will be a new address soon. […]
According to a 2009 report to the Internal Revenue Service, Tillman was paid more than $175,000 annually as CEO and chairman of the institute, which rails against what it considers wasteful government spending.
Those guys are just way too blatant. And, according to Bernie’s column, they still haven’t issued a retraction for the most bogus story of the year. The IPI claimed that Rep. Bob Rita was ineligible to serve in the House because he’d been convicted of a felony. Except, he was never convicted of a felony and felons who have completed their sentences are clearly not barred from serving in the General Assembly. They also more than implied that I was doing the bidding of the House Democrats because I pointed out their goofy errors. There’s been no public retraction on that one, either. They’ve asked for a private meeting, but I think I’ll wait for the apology first.
* There are two large and relevant worries about Gov. Pat Quinn handing out all these tax incentives lately to big corporations.
1) He’s not a great negotiator’ and
2) He’s negotiating from a position of weakness, considering the recent corporate tax hike and the well-known problems with Illinois’ business climate.
* And now it turns out that Motorola got a far sweeter deal than the public was told. The state would dole out $110 million over ten years to the company in exchange for keeping its corporate headquarters in the state and retaining 3,000 jobs. Turns out, that last little detail was part of what the governor calls an “oral agreement” with the corporation…
What was not disclosed at the time is that the agreement specifically requires Motorola Mobility to retain a workforce here of 2,500 workers. The company disclosed in the contract that it employs 3,290 people at its locations in Libertyville and Chicago, which therefore allows it to reduce the size of its workforce and still get the credits.
That detail was contained in the state’s contract with Motorola Mobility, one of 10 tax incentive contracts the state provided to the Chicago Tribune as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. Motorola Mobility’s contract represents about half of the $217 million in tax credit deals the state has made this year. […]
“We have an oral agreement with them,” Quinn said in a telephone interview Friday. “They told us that they were going to maintain 3,000 employees in their site in Libertyville and we believe them.” […]
The contract also includes a clause that Motorola Mobility is not required to hire any workers to qualify for the incentives. But if it does, the company could keep 100 percent of the taxes the new employees would have paid the state.
No such clause exists in the other nine incentive packages finalized this year under the state’s cornerstone economic development program, based on a review by the Tribune.
Sears Holdings Corp., owner of the Sears and Kmart retail chains, is considering the [Washington DC] area as a place to relocate its corporate headquarters, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans.
The company is one of more than 100 in Illinois with tax breaks that are scheduled to expire and last month suggested that it would considering leaving. It has reportedly been considering several states including Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas. […]
Two weeks ago the company began to inquire about possible sites in the Washington area, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by the company to discuss its plans.
If the company moves from the Chicago area, where it was founded as Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1893, it would mean a colossal relocation of jobs. At its current headquarters in the Chicago suburb Hoffman Estates, Sears occupies 2.4 million square feet and employs 6,200 people. The numbers dwarf those of other high-visibility relocations to the Washington region, such as Northrop Grumman, which will employ about 300 people at a 333,000-square-foot building in Falls Church.
Sears spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said the company would not discuss a possible relocation. “Speculation about whether Sears will remain in Hoffman Estates is not fair to our associates, particularly so early in this process,” Freely said in a statement.
* Other state-business news…
* Illinois senators differ on approach to privatization of public infrastructure - Republican Mark Kirk favors fewer restrictions on public-private partnerships, while Dick Durbin wants to guarantee a return on federal taxpayer investment
* Backlog of Cases Gives a Reprieve on Foreclosures: In New York State, it would take lenders 62 years at their current pace, the longest time frame in the nation, to repossess the 213,000 houses now in severe default or foreclosure, according to calculations by LPS Applied Analytics, a prominent real estate data firm. Clearing the pipeline in New Jersey, which like New York handles foreclosures through the courts, would take 49 years. In Florida, Massachusetts and Illinois, it would take a decade.
* United Airlines returning to normal after computer glitch snarled weekend travel
* Blue Cross profits surge: The parent of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois raked in $1.1 billion in profit last year, a doubling of 2009’s results that is likely to stoke the controversy over skyrocketing health insurance costs.
Nearly 2,000 state employees could be ejected from unions representing them and another 1,700 would be prevented from joining collective bargaining units under a bill that could be called in the Illinois Senate next week.
Tensions between Gov. Pat Quinn and his traditional labor allies have flared up over the legislation. The administration said it needs fewer employees in unions so it can effectively manage state government, but union officials say the bill is an attack on unions.
Senate Bill 1556, which passed the House 62-52 in the wee hours of the legislative session on May 31, will need a supermajority of 36 votes to clear the Senate and head to Quinn’s desk. Legislation considered by a chamber after May 31 needs the support of three-fifths of lawmakers in order to become law immediately.
The Senate is returning on Wednesday to consider a construction spending bill. A spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said the union measure will be discussed by Senate Democrats next week.
The Quinn Administration is alleging that these employees are not committed to their jobs, simply because they belong to a union. This is an insult to every union member in the state of Illinois who gets up every day, goes to work, and gives their very best to the jobs that they do.
Without a shred of evidence, Quinn’s lobbyists are spreading the lie that employees in certain higher level titles cannot be counted on to perform their jobs with diligence and integrity now that they are part of the union. […]
If SB 1556 passes, thousands of state employees could be stripped of union representation. Call your senator today to urge him or her to oppose this assault on basic collective bargaining rights.
Hundreds of thousands of public employees to our north in Wisconsin have had their bargaining rights stripped from them by their Governor. Let’s not let Governor Quinn and his legislative allies get away with it here in Illinois.
The bill has little support among Senate Democrats, however.
…Adding… I forgot to mention that the legislation will now require a three-fifths majority to pass. Unless something drastically changes in the Senate Democratic caucus, that ain’t gonna happen. So, Quinn will get his vote and the unions will likely win.
* The media pretty much ignored the House’s passage of the bill in late May, but as subscribers already know, the Illinois AFL-CIO released a statement shortly after the session ended which was not at all complimentary of the governor...
Governor Quinn has recently taken a more active leadership role in the National Democratic Governors’ Association, particularly in fundraising efforts. He has, as recently as April 2011, chided Republican Governors for stripping public employees’ collective bargaining rights around the country. Behind the scenes, national labor leaders, including National AFL-CIO President Trumka, called Governor Quinn to request further negotiations on this issue. Quinn continued to pursue SB 1556 despite the calls. It remains unclear whether Governor Quinn will be an effective fundraiser for the Democratic Governors’ Association following his pursuit of this anti-worker legislation
Richard Trumka doesn’t make calls to governors on bills he doesn’t care about. That statement was definitely a shot across Quinn’s bow, but he has ignored it. The DGA may pay the price.
Senators are expected to approve pay cuts for lawmakers that include forgoing a yearly cost-of-living increase and requiring them to take 12 unpaid days off in the next 12 months. It’s a continuation of a cost-cutting move they put in place last year and would result in a nearly 5 percent pay reduction for lawmakers. Starting salary for legislators is $67,000. The furlough days alone will save taxpayers about $565,000. […]
The Senate also is expected to act on a handful of recent Quinn appointments, including naming former Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico to head the Illinois State Board of Education.
Otherwise, lawmakers will consider a number of minor issues, including language to clean up drafting errors in a bill that allows the state to borrow millions of dollars in order to capture an increased payment match from the federal government. In all, it’s expected lawmakers will be in town for just 24 hours.
“I don’t expect any fireworks,” said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago.
There actually may be some fireworks. Democrats expect that Jay Rowell’s nomination to run the Illinois Department of Employment Security will be loudly opposed by the Senate Republicans. Rowell ran the Senate Democrats’ campaigns last year.
Gov. Pat Quinn was willing to offer up only the tiniest of face-saving possibilities to the Illinois Senate Democrats last week: Drop your budget demands, and we’ll talk about them this fall, but do it soon or bad things will happen.
On the last day of the spring legislative session, the Senate Democrats tried to add about $430 million in extra state program spending to a bill that was supposed to only pay for construction projects. They tacked on the spending to force the House to bow to their demands. The idea was that the House would want to protect the construction projects so much that they’d be willing to accept the Senate’s increased budget spending.
It didn’t work.
The House Republicans refused to go along, and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan wouldn’t agree either because he’d made a budget pact with the Republicans months earlier. No spending would be approved without both parties first agreeing to it, and the Republicans used their veto power.
Even the Senate Republicans made it crystal clear that they were firmly opposed to anything other than a “clean” capital bill with no additional budget spending. The Senate Republicans have long made capital spending a top priority. They even broke ranks with Madigan to side with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich over passing a capital bill a few years ago.
But Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno has been the greatest advocate for keeping contruction spending completely separate from the budget. Two years ago, when Quinn first agreed to that budget/capital separation and then attempted to combine the two anyway, Speaker Madigan publicly warned that Quinn would run into a “buzz saw” of opposition from Radogno. The governor eventually backed off.
Many road builders and the construction unions were also totally opposed to any sort of deal that mixed capital projects and the budget. Their opposition empowered Radogno.
Quinn, who publicly sympathized for months with the Senate Democrats’ desire to spend more money, couldn’t even bring himself to jump on board the final Senate Democratic demand that the construction program be approved for just six months instead of twelve so that a new budget deal could be crafted in January.
The construction projects — including roads, bridges, schools and a host of other things — are just too important to the economy to play games with, the governor reportedly told all four legislative leaders during a meeting last week. He also warned that construction projects would begin to shut down within a few days if a decision wasn’t made quickly.
Quinn’s attempt to tie the capital and budget issues together two years caused him big problems during last year’s campaign. Unions representing the construction industry were so upset at the governor’s games that they refused to endorse him until after Republican candidate Bill Brady moved way too far to the right (Brady eventually backed a “right to work” plank). The governor apparently learned his lesson.
With Quinn on the other side, the Senate Democratic members who pushed for that extra spending were completely surrounded by hostile forces. Failure looked imminent.
Many Senate Democrats who earlier disagreed with tying the extra spending to the construction projects had laid low for weeks. The last two caucus meetings about this topic had been exceptionally brutal. So, they were naturally fearful of being subjected once again to the same way-over-the-top personal attacks that were levied at them during those end-of-session private meetings, which wound up forcing everybody down what turned out to be a dead-end street.
The Senate Democrats met together via teleconference the day after the governor sat down with the four legislative leaders. Without that face-to-face pressure of physically meeting together in Senate President John Cullerton’s Statehouse office, the members who disagreed with the caucus’ course were emboldened to speak out. Democrats who quietly took abuse in previous meetings jumped in early to say enough was enough and the battle needed to end.
The meeting lasted about an hour, and in the end they decided to back off. Quinn’s decision to go against the Senate Democrats turned out to be the deciding factor. When you have a guy who’s pushed for more spending all year suddenly decide to not push for more spending, it quickly became obvious that their attempt to spend more money had become a losing cause.
* Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent out numerous press releases blasting ComEd’s bill that would’ve raised rates by about $3 a month. She was involved in several other legislative negotiations as well, including a bill to relax the new FOIA law a bit. But she said not one public word about workers’ compensation reform, until now, long after the bill has passed…
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says a recently approved legislative overhaul of the state’s workers’ compensation program contains positive factors but misses on a key issue: raising the standard necessary to prove that taxpayer money should pay for an injury.
“To say we’ve reformed the workers’ comp system is a gross overstatement,” Madigan said during an interview with the News-Democrat.
Madigan, a Democrat, said: “Because the causation standard is fairly low, the work accident doesn’t need to be the sole cause, or even a primary cause of the employee’s injury.” […]
To defend against cases where the employee’s duties are not the primary cause of an injury, Madigan said her lawyers must “present independent medical testimony stating that it’s not possible that the work even slightly aggravated a pre-existing condition. That’s very difficult to do, if not impossible, in many of these cases.”
* I find it hard to disagree with the Belleville News-Democrat on this one…
Madigan frequently uses the bully pulpit to advocate for legislative and other changes, everything from cracking down on meth dealers to opening up public records.
This spring she championed bills to strengthen the prevailing wage, protect consumers when a car dealership shuts down, crack down on meth repeat offenders and others. She vigorously opposed a bill to allow automatic rate hikes for public utilities. She called for Apple and Google to address privacy issues and Pabst Brewery to lessen the alcohol level in its new drink Blast.
But not even one press release on workers’ comp reform, which she said is a top issue for Illinois. […]
It’s disappointing that Madigan didn’t lead on workers’ comp reform this spring. Let’s hope she finds her voice in the next legislative session.
Agreed. If she felt this strongly about workers’ comp reform, she most definitely should’ve said something long ago. The General Assembly has been actively working on a bill since last fall. It doesn’t make sense that she would hold her tongue so long. Perhaps she didn’t want to offend her allies in organized labor and the trial bar. Too bad. She should’ve stepped up to the plate months ago.
*** UPDATE *** An e-mail from the Senate Republicans…
Leader Radogno met with AG Madigan on Feb. 23 – and ASKED her to participate in the workers’ compensation reform discussion. She specifically sought her input on the issue of causation. Nothing.
* As you know, I try to stay away from national issues as much as possible here. But, congressional campaigns qualify as state politics, so I do posts on them when appropriate.
The problem, of course, is that national politics brings out the crazy in people. And national political posts bring crazy people to the blog. We had some commenter problems earlier this week with a congressional post, and I just deleted a couple of comments from a rather strange person in today’s post.
* The Question: What advice would regular commenters/readers give to newbie commenters here?
* This is obviously a significant boost for Krishnamoorthi over Tammy Duckworth…
Democratic congressional hopeful Raja Krishmanoorthi just added a big - and often elusive - name to his list of supporters.
He says that former 8th District Congresswoman Melissa Bean, of Barrington, plans to release a statement supporting the Hoffman Estates lawyer and laboratory president. We got first dibs.
“Raja’s priorities are well aligned with the families and businesses of Illinois’ 8th Congressional District. He and his wife have been raising their two sons in Hoffman Estates, so they know the challenges that families here are facing and are invested personally in the success of suburban public schools. As President of a small business, he also recognizes that greater innovation is critical to our economic strength. His candidacy brings extensive public sector experience, an impressive academic background, and a Midwest work ethic to the race,” the statement reads.
Krishnamoorthi is a perpetual motion machine. He never stopped working even after he lost that close statewide primary to David Miller last year. He called me so many times that I started getting irritated. Like I cared about a guy who lost a primary. But I knew he’d be back, I just didn’t know where. Duckworth is a good candidate, but she has her work cut out for her here.
A former state representative from Madison County said he may challenge U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, in the new 13th Congressional District.
Jay Hoffman of Collinsville is the second Democrat to express interest in the race. David Gill, a physician from Bloomington, said Wednesday that he also may seek the Democratic nomination in the newly redrawn congressional district that runs from Urbana through 14 central and southwestern Illinois counties to the Metro East suburbs. It also includes Decatur, Springfield and most of Bloomington-Normal.
“The district is such,” Hoffman said Thursday, “that I think the issues I’ve always stood for — job creation, ensuring that working families have a voice — would be a good fit for me.
“But I’m also looking at other options, including returning to the Illinois General Assembly.”
Hoffman said “a lot of people,” including officials with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have contacted him about the 13th District seat.
Hoffman told me this week that he’d probably decide by the middle of July whether to make the congressional bid. There are those who think that Johnson won’t run again if he draws a tough Democratic challenger. We’ll see. Hoffman, of course, has his downsides. He was Rod Blagojevich’s House floor leader back in the day. But he played no role in the two trials, so that helps his cause.
* And Springfield fixture Gene Callahan’s daughter appears to be gearing up hard for the 17th District seat…
East Moline Alderwoman Cheri Bustos is moving toward a Democratic bid for the 17th Congressional District nomination.
Bustos said Wednesday she will resign her position as vice president of communications for Iowa Health System at the end of the month and tentatively plans to make an announcement about a candidacy on June 30. […]
Bustos, a former Quad-City Times reporter, joined Trinity about 10 years ago and went to Iowa Health System in 2008. She was elected as East Moline’s 4th ward alderwoman in 2007. […]
Already, state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, has announced his candidacy and made his first visit as a candidate to the Quad-Cities on Tuesday. Former Rock Island Mayor Mark Schwiebert, former state Rep. Mike Boland of East Moline and Porter McNeil of Moline have said they might make bids, too. McNeil was the spokesman for former state comptroller Dan Hynes.
* GOP Civil War Erupts: Tea Party Freshman Rips Chamber CEO Tom Donahue: Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) appeared on Fox News, where he tore into Donohue for threatening House Republicans: I found Tom Donahue’s comments outrageous, tone-deaf, totally establishment, and doesn’t understand at all where we’re at right now…If Tom Donahue is more comfortable having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker next year because he wants to get rid of all of us tea party, fiscally-conservative freshman who came here on a mission to save our kids from the debt we’re placing on their backs, then fine. He can have Nancy Pelosi as his Speaker.
* Some deficit hawks have major debts: In other cases, freshman lawmakers had been living on more modest means. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., who squeaked to victory with tea party backing, reported that his assets might be as low as $3,004.
* Prominent Congressmen Dumped BP Stock After Oil Spill
* House Retirement Watch Begins: Although both GOP Reps. Judy Biggert (Ill.) and Joe Barton (Texas) have signaled they plan to run for re-election, the proposed maps in their respective states include lots of changes to the territory they represent. Democrats are keeping tabs on both.
* The war of statistics over Chicago teacher pay raises has begun in earnest. The administration points to these numbers…
* Even without the four percent previously-negotiated raises, 75 percent of all teachers will get automatic raises of between 1 percent and 5 percent for adding another year of experience or for increasing their credentials.
* Based on base salary alone, the minimum CPS starting teachers salary of $50,577 is No. 1 among the nation’s 10 largest cities. Its maximum salary, requiring a master’s degree, of $87,673 is No. 2, behind New York City. Its average salary also is among the top one or two, Human Capital Officer Alicia Winckler told board members.
Lewis called some of Winckler’s numbers “ridiculous’’ and claimed the added pay for another year of experience or added credentials amount to. at most, $35 to $50 more in take home pay every two weeks over 26 pay periods. “People tell me, `Oh, I thought I would get a raise and it’s only 20 bucks,’” Lewis said.
She also noted that across the state, CPS teacher pay is not that competitive. Lewis cited a May 31 Chicago Sun-Times report that found that CPS high school teachers average total compensation, with benefits, ranks No. 71 in the state. CPS elementary teachers came in No. 38.
* Private sector worker pay raises, from Aon Hewitt…
Average raise last year for Chicago workers: 2.6%
Average raise last year for U.S. workers: 2.4%
Average raise for Chicago workers this year: 2.8%*
Average raise for U.S. workers this year: 2.9%*
CPS teachers expected raise this year: 4% (rejected by school board)
The Board of Education simply has no more rabbits to pull from its budget hat.
We say that cautiously, knowing that CPS said much the same last year as it tried to persuade teachers to forgo their raise. And then, voila, CPS managed to fill its deficit without increasing class size or scaling back programs significantly.
But the big fixes available in the Great Recession years — including $364 million in extra federal dollars, $160 million in bond restructuring and $400 million in delayed pension payments — are gone.
The union has already notified the board that it wants to reopen the section of the contract regarding salaries, something it has the right to do. That could lead to compromise solutions or to reopening the entire agreement for negotiations. […]
If the board and union reopen negotiations and those talks stall, the new state legislation dictates that the two enter a fact-finding process with a third-party arbitrator. Then 75 percent of the voting union membership would be required to authorize a strike.
The angrier teachers become, the easier it’s gonna be to reach that 75 percent threshold. And comments like these probably aren’t helping…
Chicago public school students “got the shaft” under a union contract that ensured labor peace and guaranteed teachers annual 4 percent raises, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.
A strike may be looming if Chicago teachers’ salaries aren’t increased, but it reportedly is not deterring Chicago Teachers Union chief Karen Lewis from going on a planned vacation. Hawaii?
To wit: Liz Brown, a CTU spokeswoman tells Sneed: “She [Lewis] has a private life and all of us need to take a vacation some time.” Although it was unclear when Lewis was actually leaving on vacation, word is she had scheduled it for this weekend.
Buckshot: Sneed hears Lewis sent new schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard an ultimatum demanding negotiations on teacher salaries Wednesday night. “If Brizard wanted to meet with her for a cup of coffee immediately, it might be difficult if she’s in Hawaii,” said a source.
In 1966, a starting salary of $5,500 was the equivalent of $38,358 in 2011 dollars. By 1972, the starting salary of $9,570 was $51,739 in 2011 dollars—the highest of the nation’s ten largest cities. His successor, Robert Healey, asked for a ten percent raise the next year, which the board’s chief negotiator called “insane”; they settled for a presumably less insane 6.3 percent raise to $10,000, or $50,892. How did a 6.3 percent increase turn into a drop in current dollars? That’s what happens when you adjust to the wild inflation of the 1970s. Accordingly, the CTU came back the next year and asked for a 12 percent raise to compensate. […]
By 1976, CPS faced a budget deficit of $70.8 million ($281 million in 2001 dollars); teachers were then making $11,000 ($43,683) to $22,600 ($89,750), and the school board passed an 8.5 percent salary cut.
1978: teachers were making $11,900 ($41,243) to $24,800 ($85,950), the latter for a teacher with a doctorate and 15 years of experience. […]
1985: the minimum salary was $15,471 ($33,647) for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree. The maximum salary, for a teacher with a doctorate and 15 years experience, was $32,883 ($71,515). The average was $26,296 ($57,189). […]
1993: the minimum was $27,241 ($42,599); the maximum was $48,467 ($75,790); the article made a point to note that the starting salary for CPS was relatively high, while the maximum salary was relatively low. In other words, the pay range for Chicago Public Schools, compared to nearby regional districts, was narrow.
2000: the minimum was $35,000 ($49,928); the average was $48,879 ($64,140).
2003: the minimum salary was $34,538 ($42,415); the maximum was $61,451 ($75,466).
Friday, Jun 17, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
How About Illinois?
Illinois lawmakers aren’t the only policymakers talking about benefits of Smart Grid deployment. A new White House report, A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid, says the future of clean energy and its potential for economic development and jobs relies on a smart grid. We agree.
The White House report talks about building a “cost-effective smart grid,” “empowering consumers,” “facilitating a clean energy economy,” and “unlocking the potential for innovation.” Sound familiar? These are the same concepts embodied in Senate Bill 1652, the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act.
SB 1652 seeks to strengthen our economy and create 2,000 jobs by investing an estimated $3 billion in a modern grid — while also strengthening regulatory oversight, accountability by utilities and giving consumers new tools to reduce their own energy usage and costs.
So, as the national conversation grows about the benefits of a smart grid on our economy, the environment, our homes and pocketbooks, Illinois is poised to become a leader rather than a follower. SB 1652 can help us deliver reliable power, bolster our economy and put Illinois at the forefront of innovation.
A $400,000 windfall is expected to allow the city to add a pair of playgrounds and a concession area to the Family Sports Park.
“The money is for a grant application that we filed a year and a half ago,” Parks and Recreation Department Director Mary Jeanne Hutchison said. “We just learned that we’re supposed to get it. But we’re trying not to get too excited because we’re dealing with the state of Illinois.”
Hutchison said the state’s budget woes have caused money for non-essential projects to dry up in many cases. She wasn’t optimistic about getting the grant. And she said she won’t rest easy about the funds until the check arrives in the city’s bank account.
John Micheli of Dalzell is a retired state employee and the state had given him a choice of health care options: Sign with a costly preferred plan or with a discounted HMO.
The savings should have made this an easy choice, but there was a problem. He and his wife Linda couldn’t find a single doctor in La Salle County signed up with the HMO. The state had, effectively, offered him no choice at all.
To make matters worse, Micheli’s wife Linda went to Ottawa on Wednesday for a scheduled meeting with Central Management Services to get some answers. She arrived, John Micheli said, to find the doors “locked tighter than a drum.” Nobody showed.
“I’m disgusted,” John Micheli said, adding sarcastically, “It’s Illinois government at its best.”
In short, back in April the state dropped insurance options offered beginning July 1 by Health Alliance and Humana, and added HMO options offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois under the argument that the changeover could save as much as $100 million a year. But those moves were challenged both legally, by the dropped insurers, and legislatively, by lawmakers upset by both the lack of concrete answers offered by Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration and the dearth of choices available in some downstate communities.
Eventually, the state had to extend the sign-up deadlines, first through Friday, and then through Monday, to help people work through their confusion.
The matter got more complex when a state judge ordered some “open-access” plans dropped last week.
“They couldn’t have messed this up more if they’d stayed up nights trying,” said state Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria. “What they’re putting all these people through is just ridiculous. . . . A lot of elderly and sick people are already in turmoil and already have a lot of things to be worrying about.”
From more than 100 jurors questioned, 11 women and just one man are tackling 20 counts remaining against Blagojevich, charged with fraud, extortion and corruption.
Is that a good thing for the former governor?
Yes, according to a lawyer involved in Blagojevich’s first trial.
“I told Shelly [Sorosky, defense attorney], ‘Knock every man off,’” said Michael Ettinger, the former attorney for Robert Blagojevich, Rod’s brother, campaign fund manager and codefendant before prosecutors dropped charges against him last year. “If I was picking the jury, I’d have excused every man I could.”
Illinois took one more small step Thursday in its Rod Blagojevich detox program.
From now on, politicians of the Blagojevich ilk can no longer use state dollars to plaster their names on state signs in a thinly disguised attempt to boost their political fortunes.
While the dispute over civil unions and foster care languishes between downstate Catholic Charities agencies and the state of Illinois, a child welfare agency based in Ottawa has agreed to take all of the foster care cases and hire all of the caseworkers and staff once handled by Catholic Charities in Rockford.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services will transfer about 300 cases to Youth Services Bureau of Illinois Valley. […]
“We welcome that sort of effort by social work professionals to help children,” said Anthony Riordan, chief operating officer of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Peoria.
