* 11:41 am - Gov. Pat Quinn just took some bill action that won’t be appreciated by the Republicans. From a press release…
“The people of Illinois provided input at public hearings for both the congressional and state legislative maps. I have carefully reviewed the congressional redistricting map. This map is fair, maintains competitiveness within congressional districts, and protects the voting rights of minority communities. I would like to thank Sen. Kwame Raoul and Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie for their commitment to encouraging public participation in the remap process.”
Pat Brady, the state’s Republican Party spokesman, said Quinn’s signature on the map after the governor had said he wanted fair and competitive boundaries was “a little disingenuous.”
“I wish he would have been more honest and just said that he’d sign the map,” Brady said. “This is what we’ve come to expect from him since he was sworn in.”
The congressional map received the least amount of scrutiny of the political boundaries drawn by Democrats this year. Though Democratic state lawmakers held several public hearings, very little time was devoted to the congressional map that was unveiled for Memorial Day weekend.
“They held a bunch of preliminary hearings and that’s great,” said Whitney Woodward of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. “But throughout the process, what we and other groups asked for were hearings and the data to consider a new map. Instead, we saw a couple of hearings on draft maps without much demographic information.”
* 1:38 pm - From a press release…
Republican members of the Illinois Congressional delegation today issued the following statement after Governor Pat Quinn singed into law the Democrat proposal to re-draw the boundaries of Congressional districts in Illinois:
“We are disappointed that Governor Quinn chose to sign into law this flawed map, thereby proving that his actions do not match his rhetoric. Despite his expressed desire for “openness and fairness,” Governor Quinn instead rewarded his Democrat allies by approving this highly partisan map that tears apart communities and disrespects the will of Illinois voters as expressed in last fall’s election.
“Governor Quinn said that a fair redistricting process required hearings. Yet the map was unveiled on a Friday and passed the following Monday, with no hearings. Governor Quinn said that the way in which district lines are drawn contributes to the success of our democracy. Yet the map he approved seeks to reverse the results of a democratic election. Governor Quinn advocated for a fair and open process. Instead, he has guaranteed an unfair and closed one.
“This map will be challenged in court, and we do not expect to comment further on a matter that now will be the subject of litigation. As we have said before, we do not believe this map will stand.”
Congressman Tim Johnson was the only member of the state’s Republican delegation who didn’t sign the letter.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady says the new congressional district lines the governor has approved is an attempt to “silence” voters.
Brady says voters sent a GOP majority to Congress just last fall. He says the map signed into law Friday by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is unfair to Republicans. […]
Brady says Quinn “lost all claims to the label ‘reformer’” by approving the map and says he hopes courts will overturn it.
“Well, I think that there will be a lawsuit that will likely be brought before a Republican judge who picks two other judges to sit on a panel, and they will review the legality of denying Latino voters their full representation in the Congress. And I expect that lawsuit will come to a decision in October or November,” Kirk said.
Kirk says he believe the chances in a court of law are “pretty good.” [Emphasis added.]
It’s so nice to know that Sen. Kirk believes Republican judges are purely partisan animals.
* A few congressional stories…
* Freeport Mayor Gaulrapp to Announce Bid for 17th District: After falling short in his first bid for congress, Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp is going to give it another try this time in a different district. Gaulrapp tells me he will make an official announcement on Saturday morning that he aims to represent the 17th District in congress. In 2010, the Freeport democrat lost to long time 16th District congressman Don Manzullo. But now Freeport and parts of Rockford is in a district that stretches along the Mississippi River from the Wisconsin border all the way down to the quad cities.
* Some of my most favorite memories in life involve hanging out at parties with musicians, sharing a jug and listening to them play guitar and talk about their craft. Those parties were usually at some run-down house with beat-up furniture and dogs running around loose. The parties would often last all night, and sometimes a group breakfast was prepared come morning. And then it would start all over again.
The documentary film Heartworn Highways is about as close as you can get to having that experience without actually doing so.
Shot on a shoestring budget in late 1975 and early 1976, Heartworn Highways doesn’t really tell a story. Instead, we’re invited to those parties, with empty beer cans strewn across the table, ashtrays overflowing with cigarettes and some of the best young songwriters of their generation playing music straight out of Heaven.
James Szalapski’s film wasn’t released until 1981, and it’s hard to find these days, although you can watch it on Netflix if you subscribe. I stumbled across several YouTube videos the other day while looking for something else, so let’s get to it.
* At the beginning of our first video, you’ll see the great Guy Clark saying “Listen to this song,” and pointing with reverence to a babyfaced Steve Earle.
“Listen to that song!” Guy again commands the cameraman, knowing - and wanting all of us to know - that his young protege is destined for a greatness that nobody save him can possibly imagine at the time. Unfortunately, the filmmakers failed to heed Clark’s prescience and the song didn’t make the movie’s final cut. Thankfully, it’s on the bonus DVD.
“Did you hear the verses at all?” Clark asks Rodney Crowell toward the end of the song, shaking his head in wonder and amazement. Earle was just 20 years old at the time and this is his first known recording. Steve later said he wrote “The Mercenary Song” on the back of a menu at a pizza restaurant where he was a cook. It’s probably one of my favorites in his vast repertoire…
I guess a man’s got to do what he’s best at
Ain’t found nothin’ better so far
Been called mercenaries and men with no country
We’re just soldiers in search of a war
* Rodney Crowell has written for many of the greats, including Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Crystal Gale. Bob Seger made a big hit out of Crowell’s “Shame on the Moon.” He’s a Grammy winner, was once married to Rosanne Cash and has a slew of hits, including five number one singles in a row in the late 1980s. But we see him here as a 25-year-old who is still learning at Guy Clark’s feet.
Fair warning: Crowell’s song “Bluebird Wine” will not leave your brain easily or quickly. It’s an incredibly catchy tune that was covered by Emmylou Harris. She eventually asked him to join her band and the rest is history…
The party just started
And I’m drunk on Bluebird Wine
* Richard Dobson never made it big and I don’t know why. But his songwriting is top notch. Johnny Cash covered his song “Baby Ride Easy,” as did Dave Edmonds and Carlene Carter. He also wrote a book called The Gulf Coast Boys. It’s full of stories about his running buddies, including Townes Van Zandt. Dobson lives in Switzerland and tours mostly in Europe, but you can catch him every now and then in Texas. Check his website for info.
Four seasons go around on a pinwheel
And tomorrow ain’t nothin’ at all
* Steve Young wrote the outlaw classic “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” immortalized by Waylon Jennings. But Young also penned the sublime “Seven Bridges Road,” which was beautifully covered by the Eagles. Here he is singing “Alabama Highway”…
Turn supernatural, take me to the stars, and let me play
As Steve Earle tells it, he was just 17 when he met an artist and performer who would mould the shape of his career. The teenage Earle was singing at a club in Houston, Texas, when he was teasingly heckled by an older man in the audience who asked him to play the song Wabash Cannonball, and told him he wasn’t much of a country singer if he couldn’t.
The heckler turned out to be Townes Van Zandt, a legendary Texan singer-songwriter who Earle already admired. Earle was unable to comply with his request, but instead performed a word-perfect version of a tricky, complex Van Zandt song, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold. This playful exchange made them firm friends.
“I met this guy, and I was 17,” Earle recalls now. “It was obvious I was going to write songs and make records, but here I was, meeting someone who was making art for the sake of art, at a really high level. He was committed to continuing to do that, whether he made money or not. That’s the most positive thing I took from him.”
From that day to this, Earle has been a diehard Townes Van Zandt fan. It has not always been an easy thing to be: as Earle delicately puts it, “Townes was a real bad role model.”
* Anyway, Steve Earle says that the musicians in Heartworn Highways wanted to take some revenge on the filmmakers over some broken promises. So, they sent them to Austin to interview Townes Van Zandt. Townes was a little, um, difficult to deal with, and they thought this would be proper punishment. But he ended up stealing the whole show.
I came of age and found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit it on the sly
I tried to kill the pain
I bought some booze and hopped a train
Seemed easier than just a-waitin’ around to die
…Adding… I told you a few years ago about the late underground songwriter Blaze Foley. The documentary about his life is now finished and is in limited release. Click here for more info. There’s even a Facebook page.
Since last week — and after the jury began its deliberations — there have been four sealed filings in the case, beginning with a prosecution filing that came one day after a media appearance by a former Blagojevich attorney. Lawyers tied to the trial who usually freely discuss it have since late last week kept their mouths tightly shut.
The filings came after attorney Sam Adam Jr. last week, as jury talks were under way, went on TV and radio predicting “20 not guilty verdicts” for his onetime client. Early last week, two Blagojevich lawyers appeared on “Chicago Tonight.”
On June 16, lawyers were summoned to U.S. District Judge James Zagel’s chambers for a private meeting. Also in the courthouse was Adam, who was not part of the retrial but still a listed attorney on the case. Afterward, the typically talkative Adam would not answer questions about the Blagojevich case. A few times when asked a question, he’d put his hand over his mouth.
“I MUST decline to comment,” Adam repeatedly said. “I cannot tell you why.”
Another defense lawyer, Michael Ettinger, who also still has an appearance on file in the case — and typically answers questions about the trial — responded similarly.
* The Question: Who else in Illinois politics would you like to see placed under a gag order? Explain.
* The NRA refused to back a county-by-county concealed carry “opt-in” compromise during the spring session, but some legislators are now going ahead with it anyway…
Three lawmakers who say carrying concealed weapons should be legal in Illinois are pursuing an alternative that would allow individual counties to decide the matter.
Republican state Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, Adam Brown of Decatur and Chapin Rose of Mahomet held a news conference Thursday in Clinton about their proposed legislation. They also made stops Thursday in Decatur, Tuscola, Monticello and Mahomet. […]
The new proposal is the same as HB 148 except it would give each of the state’s 102 counties the authority to decide.
“Our ultimate goal is to have conceal-and-carry throughout the state,” said Mitchell.
An opt-in bill would probably only require a simple majority in each chamber, rather than the three-fifths super-majorities required of the previous bill. The earlier legislation was deemed as overriding local home rule powers. This wouldn’t. Details…
As written, the bill would authorize sheriffs to issue concealed carry licenses — once the county board OKs it — to citizens who meet age requirements, complete training courses and pass criminal background tests. Once licensed, a person could carry a concealed handgun in any county that adopts the local option.
Concealed guns could not be carried in schools, courthouses, government buildings, churches, libraries, bars, stadiums and in gambling venues. Business owners would be able to prohibit concealed carry on their property as well.
Quinn stated that he has no plans to allow concealed weapons in Illinois and will veto any such legislation. Illinois is the only state where it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon.
“In too many places in Illinois there is a violence epidemic, and I believe that we need to address that,” Quinn said. “I do not believe that a law that would allow private individuals to carry loaded concealed weapons on their person in public places is the best way to deal with it.”
“The governor says he’s going to veto it. That’s easy for him to say. He’s got a state taxpayer-funded bodyguard,” Rose said. “There are certain counties in my district where on a Saturday night there is only one deputy sheriff for the whole county. This is about a fundamental right to protect yourself and protect your family from an attacker, an assailant.”
* Southtown Star columnist Phil Kadner supports concealed carry, but with reservations…
Even the thought that civilians are packing is enough to make the average criminal think twice about committing a crime, the concealed-carry crowd contends.
I doubt addicts needing money for a fix think that logically.
As for gang members, the fact that rival gangsters frequently carry guns never seems to deter them from making war on each other.
Would a rapist actually think twice about attacking a woman if concealed carry were the law? That could happen. But aren’t most rapists friends or relatives of the women they attack?
Maybe every person really does need a gun to keep the streets safe.
But if there are so many evil people walking around, if our neighbors cannot be trusted, if our police, courts and jails are inadequate, isn’t there something really wrong with this country?
Shouldn’t we be talking about that more and about concealed carry less?
It surprises me that more people don’t seem outraged by this turn of events.
Yes, carrying a gun may someday save your life. But more guns will not make this country a better place to live.
* Yet another reminder to commenters: This topic always seems to bring out the crazy in people. Bumper sticker slogans and drive-by comments are heavily frowned upon here. Keep your arguments elevated and try to come up with an original thought. Deletions will be swift and banishments will be sure.
Quinn did not specify what changes he will make but identified several areas he will focus on.
“There will be some changes, and we want to make sure we put education and public health, job creation, public safety, those are core priorities and we’re going to do the best we can for those, human services and health care,” Quinn said.
The governor can use his veto powers to take a scalpel to parts of the spending plan he doesn’t like without jettisoning the whole document, thus freeing up money he can ask lawmakers to spend on other priorities. The House and Senate have the option of endorsing his moves or rejecting them later this year.
International Business Machines Inc. is owed $1.1 million. Office Depot Inc. is waiting for a $660,955 check. And the 17th Street Bar & Grill in Sparta is due $340.52. They are among at least 8,000 vendors including businesses, charities and government agencies waiting months for the state to pay up. At least 114 companies are due more than $1 million, according to documents from Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. […]
“An Illinois phenomenon,” said Ron Ford, CEO of Chicago- based Help at Home Inc., which is owed $43.4 million and hasn’t heard from the state since December. […]
“Banks have refused us a line of credit because of the state,” said David Baker, who runs the nonprofit Open Door Rehabilitation Center in Sandwich, Illinois, and is owed $880,000. “We’ve had a long-time relationship with bankers, but now they wonder ‘What if the state never pays you?’” […]
The consequences of years of ignoring bills fall on organizations such as the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, in the Chicago suburb of East Hazel Crest. The nonprofit has an annual budget of $5 million, and 75 percent of its revenue comes from state funding, said CEO Allen Sandusky.
Sandusky, whose company was owed as much as $1.4 million, has cut his staff to 105 from 155 and obtained a $1 million line of credit at 6 percent interest.
Oof.
As I’ve said before, Illinois’ government is one of the greatest drags on Illinois’ economy.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The budget, of course, isn’t the only legislation that hasn’t yet moved to the governor’s desk. The gaming expansion bill has a parliamentary hold on it. The governor called that “odd” yesterday…
“I mean, if you believe in a bill, and apparently there are members of the House and Senate who believe in this bill, then not to send it to the governor I feel is kind of curious, sort of odd,” Quinn said.
The Constitution says any bill passed by the Legislature “shall be presented” to the governor within 30 calendar days of its passage and that requirement is “judicially enforceable.” That language would seem to create legal questions about Cullerton’s strategy of withholding the legislation to avert the potential of a Quinn veto.
I’m not sure the bill can be classified as “passed” since there’s a legitimate motion filed to reconsider the vote, however. And I doubt the courts will want to jump in on this one, since they tend to shy away from ordering the General Assembly around in this state. Either way, though, it’s an interesting take.
* Meanwhile, the legislative Democrats’ decision to look at the state’s business tax code over the summer won’t be easy, as these comments clearly demonstrate…
“If you are talking only about the corporate tax rate, you are only talking about treating one of the symptoms,” [said Greg Baise, president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association], citing high utility taxes as another area that makes Illinois less competitive.
Both also said it may prove difficult to end tax incentives that are part of the business tax structure.
“Incentives built into the tax code had an interest group that convinced the General Assembly that this was good policy,” [said Todd Maisch, vice president of government affairs for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce]. “It will be very interesting to hear that this will not be a means to an increase in the overall business tax burden.”
“One man’s tax incentive is another person’s loophole,” Baise added.
If legislative hearings lead to a less onerous tax code and a level playing field for all employers, grand. Companies will create more jobs here. That said, two obstacles stand in the way:
First, Madigan’s and Cullerton’s caucuses include Democrats whose Job One is raising state spending, consequences be damned. They usually scorn attempts to make Illinois more competitive for jobs by improving the business climate here, because “more competitive” likely means “less taxation.”
Second, bringing lots of companies to the table forces them to ask whether their problem is state government or … each other. Some will criticize tax policies and loopholes that others will defend.
* Roundup…
* RTA warns of transit cuts - Transit agency says it needs some of $400 million due from state
* Casino Bill’s True Believer Enters the Final Stretch: “We wouldn’t say ‘no’ to Starbucks because we have too many Starbucks and too many people are drinking coffee,” Mr. Lang said. “We would never say to an auto dealer, ‘Don’t expand your business. Go to Indiana.’ This is a business like any other.”
* Illinois’ data website: Lots of numbers, few answers
* Lawmakers to address Illinois’ business tax climate
The Illinois General Assembly was back in Springfield for one day this week, but they might return again.
The House and Senate had to come back to make sure there were no delays in the state’s massive infrastructure program.
The Senate Democrats had tacked some budget spending onto a bill authorizing the construction, but the House had refused to go along. The Senate backed down this week, so everything is still on track.
The media tended to misinform about the Senate’s add-ons, neglecting to report that the Senate Democrats actually paid for much of that spending by redirecting money within the state budget. And if history is any guide, if the General Assembly has to double-back to Springfield once more this summer, the media will misinform again.
Talk is in the air of a special session to deal with a federal judge’s ruling that the state’s McCormick Place reforms violated federal law.
Unions at McCormick Place have forever been blamed for the high costs of conventions. And while I’d agree that many of the work rules were way out of hand, much of this is overblown.
The biggest problem at McCormick Place is the markup. Federal Judge Ron Guzman went out of his way to point out that problem when he ruled earlier this year that the state’s new “reforms” of union rules violated federal law.
Guzman refused to set aside his ruling this week while McCormick Place appeals, which prompted McPier czar Jim Reilly to suggest Thursday that an emergency legislative session could be needed.
Rosemont’s convention center uses the same unions and the same workers operating under the same rules as McCormick Place. Yet, for example, prices to move exhibits from Rosemont’s loading docks to its convention floor are 38 percent lower than at McCormick Place, according to a Crain’s Chicago Business report.
Rosemont acts as its own contractor. McCormick Place uses private contractors to handle its shows. Two of those contractors, GES and Freeman, are by far the largest.
So, why not just crack down on the contractors? If it were that simple, it would’ve been done already. Two contractors control most of the shows at McCormick Place as well as most of the big shows around the country.
Rosemont focuses on smaller shows. Because it isn’t trying to tap into the really big shows, it doesn’t need to bother dealing with those two contractors. But without those big shows, McCormick Place goes belly up. You might as well turn it into the world’s largest indoor skateboard park. McCormick Place has no choice but to submit to those two contractors.
If it’s that bad, you may ask, then why don’t the exhibitors revolt against the contractors and force them to lower their prices? That happens in some instances, and part of the new reform law allows it.
But most of the exhibitors belong to trade associations, and those trade associations make much of their annual profits with their conventions by jacking up the prices even higher. The trade groups are sometimes even showered with perks by the contractors.
Legislative leaders were deathly afraid of angering the two big contractors when they drafted their reform legislation last year. All proposals to cap contractor markups were ignored. But if the appellate court doesn’t lift Judge Guzman’s stay, then a special session may have to be held.
Gov. Quinn said Thursday that he wants all sides to sit down and negotiate a solution. But if the contractors refuse to budge, there’s nothing much anyone can do.
Whatever happens, it would be nice if the media in this town started reporting the full story.
Convention and trade-show workers at McCormick Place may have to be made public employees if the federal courts continue to quash labor reforms, according to the city’s top convention official.
In his first extensive remarks since a federal judge spiked new state-mandated rules on Wednesday, Jim Reilly said he’s hoping the court order either will be overturned by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals or at least stayed while the appeal is heard.
Mr. Reilly heads the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, which operates McCormick Place and was on the losing end of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman.
If the 7th Circuit will not stay Judge Guzman’s order, “I think we’ll have to seriously consider asking the presiding officers to call the Legislature back” into emergency session, Mr Reilly said. And the most likely option would be to make McCormick Place workers government employees.
The legal maneuver is not a new one, and was once considered by legislators before being abandoned, said Terrance McGann, an attorney representing the Chicago Council of Carpenters. The council and Teamsters Local 727 were the two union organizations that initiated the challenge of the new work rules.
“They wanted to amend a portion of the Illinois code to lump the trades people in with firefighters and police, and it simply doesn’t fit the profile,” he said. “When you talk about the need for public safety, relative to no-strike clauses, it doesn’t fit.” […]
[Gov. Pat Quinn] said he hopes to work with legislators and labor leaders in the coming months to devise McCormick Place reform legislation that meets federal standards.
“We’ll just hash out a law that will survive any kind of legal scrutiny. That’s imperative,” Quinn said. “I want to tell all our conventioneers this is going to happen, and it will happen in a prompt fashion.”
