Why? That is the question people ask when I tell them about this new chapter in my life.
For me my life has always been about giving back by serving others and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I can talk proudly about what I have accomplished in my career, especially with my two sons and that makes all the difference.
Now as I throw my hat into the ring for elected office, it remains about giving back by serving others. Instilling in my sons and all who will listen, that politics is a noble vocation.
* According to Sullivan’s Facebook page, he’s running for the “General Assembly.” Which chamber? He doesn’t say. Check out his favorite books…
The House at Pooh Corner
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Prince
Stickin’: The Case For Loyalty
The “House at Pooh Corner” and “The Prince?” I don’t think I’ve ever seen that combo before. Anywhere.
* Sorry. I know I shouldn’t be picking on this guy, and this is obviously not the most important post I’ve ever created, but his goofy website is driving me a wee bit crazy because I can’t figure out who this Bill Sullivan person is. I called and left a message. I sent an e-mail. Nothing yet. I asked a few people in the area (Palos Park) if they’d heard of him. One person did know him. Rep. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) said that Sullivan volunteered on his campaign last year, but he hasn’t seen or heard from him since election day. Cunningham didn’t know what office Sullivan wanted, but said he was a “nice guy.”
Perhaps I should Tweet him. Yeah. I think I’ll do that right now.
* Anyway, I think I’d better lay off the caffeine for the rest of the day.
*** UPDATE *** From an e-mail…
Rich,
Apparently there are some glitches in our email system. I apologize.
I am seriously considering a run for the Illinois General Assembly. I won’t make a final decision until the incumbents announce their decisions regarding running for re-election. I can say that I’m not running against Bill Cunningham, who is one of the bright stars of the legislature.
I’ve created the website to provide friends and family opportunities to volunteer and donate. It’s a work in progress.
Love the headline in your blog. Clearly, your a bit a Pooh fan yourself.
Let’s keep in touch.
Regards,
Bill Sullivan
* Here’s a campaign roundup…
* Speaker Madigan on Obama: At the DNC meeting held in President Barack Obama’s hometown, Madigan told the nation’s top Democratic leaders that the president’s proposed job-creation plan was important for the incumbent and the party heading into the 2012 elections. “What’s important is that all of us, however possible in a public way, demonstrate our firm support for the president’s policy,” Madigan said. “It’s important for the nation. It’s important for the American people. It’s critical for the Democratic Party in the general election in 2012,” he said. “Let’s think in terms of going to the polls today. We’d be in trouble. We’d be in serious trouble. So we have a window of opportunity between now and November 2012 to right the ship.”
* Burke and Emanuel square off again over Illinois Supreme Court seat: Mr. Emanuel won’t comment, but there’s no doubt he’s behind Justice Theis… Mr. Burke, in turn, is said to back another candidate, Appellate Court Justice Joy Cunningham. Cunningham campaign adviser Dana Houle says he’s “not sure” about Mr. Burke, but “a lot of folks are looking around” for a candidate to back.
* African-American groups seek to defend Democratic map in court: The coalition “is of the belief that the resulting map, which is now being challenged, satisfies the applicable voting rights laws, specifically allowing African Americans statewide to elect candidates of their choice, and to have the real ability to influence the outcomes of elections even in districts where African Americans do not constitute a numerical majority,” according to the request filed Friday.
* Republicans sue to get Democrats’ details on congressional map: As part of the discovery process, the Republican group made 21 requests for information from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for documents involving the DCCC’s role in producing the map, including election and voter data and software.
[Comments opened and one story added and bumped up to the top because of the update]
*** UPDATE - 10:49 am *** Gov. Pat Quinn is speaking now about his veto of the ComEd bill. Click here to watch the feed. Blackberry users should click here. Others can just kick back and watch the live blog…
…Adding… The presser is over. I’ll post stories, Tweets, etc. to the live-blog thingy as they come in…
* The ComEd bill is the only piece of legislation currently sitting on the governor’s desk awaiting action…
SB1652 UTILITIES - DELIVERY SERVICES
08/29/2011 Senate Sent to the Governor
Mike Jacobs
(Kevin A. McCarthy)
* So, it’s pretty obvious what this press conference will be about tomorrow…
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE
**Monday, September 12, 2011**
CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn will take legislative action.
WHEN: 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: James R. Thompson Center
15th Floor - Blue Room
100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, 60601
Peoples Gas is refusing to buy synthetic gas from a pair of politically favored plants on the drawing board for Chicago and Downstate Illinois, jeopardizing the multibillion-dollar projects.
Crain’s has learned the Chicago gas utility and its corporate sibling, North Shore Gas, told state officials Friday they won’t sign long-term purchase contracts with the coal-to-gas plants. State legislation enacted this summer cleared the way for the plants and sought to pressure large natural gas utilities into buying the facilities’ output.
Chicago and Downstate lawmakers, along with coal companies and labor unions, pushed for the plants, which are expected to buy large quantities of Illinois coal and employ hundreds of union workers.
But Peoples and others opposed the legislation on the grounds that gas from the plants would be too expensive, driving up household heating bills.
* Recent related news…
* ComEd eyeing concessions to stave off likely Quinn veto: Ideas on the table include having the utility set up a $50 million fund to help elderly and poor consumers pay their electricity bills, devote $150 million to better insulate the utility’s power grid from weather-related outages and cap ComEd’s annual profits to less than 10 percent during the next three years.
* ComEd officials ‘promise to do better in the future’
* Editorial: ComEd bill needs more consumer protections
* Illinois Town Wants More Precise Smart Energy Language
* ComEd takes more heat, lays out improvement plan at Glenview meeting
* The President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Doug Whitley was quoted saying something interesting the other day…
Whitley said one of the problems facing Illinois is that “Cook County people are out of touch with the pain of the people of downstate Illinois.”
* The Question: Do you agree with Whitley? Take the poll and then tell us why or why not. Also, please tell us which Illinois region you call home. Thanks.
* CME Group is still talking to several other states about moving its headquarters out of Chicago, but there is reportedly some progress here in Illinois…
CME Group Inc. is making progress in talks with Illinois officials about a tax deal to keep its headquarters in Chicago, even as it expects to receive concrete proposals this week from five states seeking to lure the futures exchange operator away, people familiar with the conversations tell Crain’s.
CME Executive Chairman Terry Duffy met with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently to discuss a new way to tax the company based on where its futures market transactions occur, the sources said.
Currently, the tax is tied to the floor trading, even though most of the company’s business is conducted electronically worldwide. The difficulty in tying the tax to those transactions is in linking them to a particular place and doing so despite confidentiality concerns.
CME Group claims to pay more corporate income taxes than anyone else in Illinois. The problem with our corporate tax is the same as our sales tax. It’s too narrowly targeted, so increases have to be high to generate revenues.
About 10 pages into [Comptroller Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s quarterly report on the state’s finances] was a snippet that caught my eye. It was the annual “Illinois Tax Expenditures” report. Essentially, this is an annual review of how much the state gives up in tax revenue by providing tax breaks to individuals, corporations and other organizations throughout the state.
The most recent report shows the state could have collected $6.6 billion more in revenue if it didn’t offer tax breaks. That money would pay off the state’s massive pile of unpaid bills and give Quinn enough cash to avert layoffs and facility closures.
Of course, killing off these tax breaks is just about politically impossible.
The biggest tax break is a reduction in the amount of sales tax charged on certain food, beverages and medical appliances. In fiscal year 2010, not collecting the full tax meant the state didn’t reap $1.5 billion in revenue.
In second place on the tax break list is the state’s decision to not collect income tax from retirement income. That cost the state $1 billion in potential revenue in fiscal year 2010. This figure is only bound to grow as baby boomers head into retirement.
Lawmakers who will play pivotal roles in setting up Illinois’ health-benefits exchange — an entity designed to make health insurance more affordable for consumers and small businesses — are among the top recipients of cash from the insurance industry.
One consumer group says campaign contributions make it likely the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange Legislative Study Committee will issue recommendations later this month that benefit the insurance industry at the expense of consumers. […]
Democrats Frank Mautino and William Haine and Republicans JoAnn Osmond and Bill Brady are co-chairpersons of the study committee, which is expected to make recommendations to the General Assembly by Sept. 30 on how the exchange should be governed and funded.
The four have served on insurance committees in the Illinois House and Senate and have received a combined total of $70,800 from the insurance industry so far this year.
You cannot be blamed for believing that this is a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse.
* Another fox at the henhouse door? That’s what this lawsuit claims…
Noted Knoxville attorney Gordon Ball is co-lead counsel on a blockbuster case filed in the Illinois Supreme Court involving State Farm, a $1 billion class action lawsuit, and an allegedly corrupt judge. Former Senator Fred Thompson, who recently led an effort to block “tort reform” liability limits in Tennessee, is co-counsel.
According to the lawsuit, State Farm and its lawyers got an Illinois Supreme Court Justice elected by pumping $2.5 to $4 million into his campaign through PACs, and six months later the judge cast a deciding vote to reverse on appeal a $1.05 billion class action consumer fraud judgment against State Farm involving bogus replacement parts for wrecked cars.
The plaintiffs seek to have the reversal vacated and the original judgement restored to “correct a judgment obtained through fraud and concealment.” They allege that “State Farm’s extraordinary financial and political support for Justice Karmeier’s 2004 campaign created a constitutionally-unacceptable risk of bias such that his participation and vote to reverse the $1.05 billion judgment deprived Petitioners of their due process rights.” They had previously requested the judge to recuse himself from the case but he refused.
The case introduces new evidence from an investigation into the campaign contributions by retired former FBI Special Agent Daniel Reece, a Knoxville native who spent his 28-year career investigating public corruption and fraud in California, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Illinois.
* House Republicans suggest eliminating state-supported Amtrak trains: According to an Amtrak news release issued Thursday evening, the FY 2012 Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee budget proposal offered by the GOP would prohibit the use of federal money to help pay for any operating costs of state-supported trains.
* State Challenging Hospitals’ Tax Exemptions: All three of the hospitals the state is focusing on provided free and discounted medical care that ranged from 0.96 percent to 1.85 percent of patient-care revenue, according to the revenue department. The state also said that each one had been operating as a “for profit” business when the state’s Constitution says that “only charities are entitled to a tax exemption.”
* Hold banks to account for their role in crisis: It’s critical that the banks not be given an unlimited pass for past transgressions – to ensure that the truth of what happened to our country is revealed and justice is not short-circuited by financial power. To date, front-line public officials appear to be holding firm. For example, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a leader in pursuing cases to help homeowners harmed by bank abuses, recently made it clear that any settlement with the attorneys general will not include the broad waivers the banks are seeking.
* Aurora mom pickets smokeshop selling synthetic pot
* New takes on loyalty programs look to end dependence on incentives - Mobile apps, social media harnessed by startups to let merchants stay in close contact with frequent customers
* Amazon Wins Reprieve Over Charging Sales Tax: For the time being, mega-online-merchant of everything Amazon.com has gotten its way, somewhat. On Friday night, California lawmakers approved a compromise bill granting Amazon.com a one-year reprieve from charging sales tax to its customers in the state. Amazon, which has deemed the compromise bill “win-win legislation,” is to start collecting sales tax on September 15, 2012, provided there is no federal legislation passed that sets a national standard.
* Speaker Madigan says he’ll work with Gov. Pat Quinn to find money to avert facility closures. But there’s a catch. There cannot be any next spending increase…
On Saturday, Madigan indicated that despite the governor’s harsh words about lawmakers, Quinn already had told him about plans to ask the General Assembly to increase spending in some areas coupled with cuts in other areas as part of the fall session next month. Quinn lacks the power to shift money around.
“(Quinn’s) representation to us is that where he proposes new spending, he would have commensurate reductions elsewhere. Now, he hasn’t given us the reductions. But I’ve shared with him that if there are changes in the budget they’ll be revenue neutral,” Madigan said after addressing the fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee at a Loop hotel.
State law requires Quinn to go through a formal facility closure process. But given Quinn’s discussions with Madigan, it raises questions why the governor sought such a public platform to chastise lawmakers and give them what he called “a rendezvous with reality.”
“Well, the governor’s engaged in a certain amount of rhetoric relative to the legislature. I’ve come to expect it from the governor,” Madigan said. “I’m not going to get into a difference of opinion with the governor on something like that. I prefer to devote my time and resources toward working with that budget because that’s where the money is being spent. But again, the House is resolved, we are not going above the lid that we put on spending.”
Quinn suggested Thursday that the legislature simply sustain most of his $376 million in line-item veto reductions of spending in the budget. Lawmakers could then reallocate those funds to avert the $55 million in cuts he outlined this week, $76 million in pay raises for state workers that Quinn canceled that are now the subject of several lawsuits, and $183 million in other unspecified cuts Quinn says he will have to make in the future.
But Mautino said downstate was particularly hard hit in both Quinn’s line-item vetoes and his proposed cuts on Thursday. All but one of the seven facilities targeted for closure are downstate. It will be hard for the region’s lawmakers to sustain Quinn’s line-item vetoes and re-allocate those funds because the vetoes were for services that downstate lawmakers believe are vital, such as regional superintendents and school transportation, Mautino said.
According to state officials, it will take at least $3.8 million to retrofit existing mental health centers in preparation for taking on residents from the shuttered facilities.
Under a plan announced by the governor Thursday, which is subject to action by the General Assembly, Chester Mental Health Center will be closed along with Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford and the Tinley Park Mental Health Center in Chicago’s south suburbs. […]
The facility in Chester, however, is unlike others in the state. It serves as a maximum-security facility for potentially violent individuals who have been deemed unfit to stand trial, not guilty by reason of insanity or unfit to remain in regional mental hospitals because of violent behavior. […]
DHS spokeswoman Januari Smith said the agency will spend the $3.8 million not just on modifications at Alton, but on upgrades to facilities in Elgin and Springfield.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column is essentially a rewrite of a subscribers-only story from Friday morning. Over the weekend, just about every Statehouse journalist who also has a column or who published anything about Gov. Pat Quinn’s shutdown and layoff threats wrote that the governor has a troubled history of making threats and not following up.
To be clear, I’m not taking any credit for this. What I am saying is that if all of us are essentially on the same page, then it’s high time that the Chicago journalists (who are the only ones given access to the governor these days) start pressing this issue as well.
I began to reminisce during Gov. Pat Quinn’s Chicago news conference last week. Quinn had called the media together to announce he was closing seven state facilities and laying off almost 2,000 state employees because the General Assembly had passed an inadequate budget.
Wait, I thought, haven’t I already seen this movie?
Back in May 2009, Quinn warned that if the General Assembly didn’t pass his proposed income tax increase within two weeks he’d have to implement a “doomsday budget” and lay off more than 14,000 teachers, cancel preschool for 100,000 children, cut 400,000 students off of college aid, kick 650,000 people off of health care rolls, eliminate all funding for public transit, slash a billion dollars to local governments, lay off 1,000 state troopers and release 6,000 inmates from prison early.
Two months later, Quinn threatened to lay off 2,600 state workers because the Legislature’s budget was inadequate.
Two weeks after that, Quinn had pared down the total threatened cuts to a billion dollars, including $225 million for college student aid, and said there was no way the government could operate through the end of the fiscal year without a tax hike.
Almost none of that happened, even though Quinn didn’t get his tax hike until almost two years later.
But, come the following spring, Quinn was back with the same playbook. Quinn said he’d have to cut education by $1.3 billion if a tax hike wasn’t approved.
That didn’t happen, either.
This year, Quinn repeatedly threatened huge cuts to human service providers, then somehow found the money to prevent the tragedy. He also warned in late spring that the bipartisan budget being prepared in the Illinois House was full of “radical” cuts and repeatedly vowed to stop it, then signed the bill into law.
And then last week he once again blamed the General Assembly for forcing him to close those facilities and lay off those state employees — all in order to save a paltry $55 million.
Quinn’s playbook is, by now, pretty darned clear: Blame the General Assembly for causing Armageddon, announce horrifically draconian countermeasures, then eventually find a way to somehow prevent the pending disaster.
He’s like an arsonist firefighter. And, frankly, this is really starting to get old, and it’s more than a little disturbing.
Can the governor comprehend what even the threat of a facility closure does to a small downstate town? Fear spreads like wildfire. People immediately stop spending money. The local economy instantly shuts down.
Yet just about everything Quinn has done since the end of the spring session has been aimed directly at downstate.
His reduction veto of the Medicaid budget spared inner-city hospitals. His vetoes of $100 million in school transportation funding and regional superintendents operations left Cook County virtually untouched. Last week’s layoff and closure announcement included just one Chicago-area facility. Every other state facility on his list was in a downstate Senate Republican district.
“Let me know when ‘Good Pat’ rides in on his white horse, wouldya?” cracked an otherwise quite worried state Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) last week. The Mabley Developmental Center is in Bivins’ district and it’s on Quinn’s closure list. Bivins’ wisecrack referred to a recent Chicago Sun-Times column of mine about how “Bad Pat” will deliberately create a crisis so that “Good Pat” can swoop in and solve it.
Yes, there is a budget problem. I get it. I’ve written about it many times. Anyone who doesn’t get it is a fool. But if the governor had done the hard work of governing, rather than just hold a splashy Chicago news conference announcing the end of the world, all of this could have been prevented.
Quinn’s budget staff met with legislative staff a few times over the past several days to lay out the situation. Trouble is, the Quinnsters had a different explanation for how much money they needed to free up at every meeting. A memo handed out to staff late last month, for instance, had the budget hole at $180 million, which is a far cry from last week’s claim of a $313 million hole. It’s no wonder that the House Democrats have said they aren’t willing to adjust their revenue estimates to help Quinn out.
People’s lives are not fun little Chicago news conference games, governor. And you’ve been messing with those lives almost from the moment since you were elevated to your position. Grow the heck up, man.
The problem is that since he became governor, Quinn has issued a series of dire warnings about budget cuts and closures and whatever if lawmakers didn’t do his bidding. Lawmakers didn’t, and the dire consequences didn’t materialize.
The danger now is lawmakers will call Quinn’s bluff, thinking he will once again back down. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t.
Of course, that doesn’t help those 2,000 people who don’t know if they will or won’t have jobs in a couple of months. Nor does it help residents of the mental health facilities or their families who don’t know if they are going to be uprooted because the facilities are closing.
Those potential roadblocks and Quinn’s penchant for backing down from his own threats left many lawmakers figuring the governor’s announcement was just a big bluff.
In the last two-plus years, the Democratic governor repeatedly has issued drastic threats, including cuts in social services, only to back away. […]
Just weeks after taking office in early 2009, Quinn said then-U.S. Sen. Roland Burris should give up his appointed seat within two weeks or risk facing a special election to remove him. But Quinn abandoned that effort within days, saying it was time to “move on.”
When Quinn faced his first budget showdown in summer 2009, agencies under his control sent letters to thousands of social service agencies warning their subsidies would be cut or eliminated because of budget choices by state lawmakers. It didn’t get that bad as the state borrowed to stay afloat.
Later that summer, Quinn said he would fire two University of Illinois trustees who refused his demands to resign amid an admissions scandal. He later relented on the grounds that he did not want to risk a legal fight.
Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, said a long process remains before any of the cuts or closures happen, including a review and non-binding recommendation by the legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.
“He can lay it out … but it’s going to be a process to make that happen,” Sullivan said. “It seems to me like this is an overreaction, a knee-jerk reaction rather than sitting down and thinking this thing through.”
Asked if Quinn’s plan will actually be the reality come March 31, 2012, when the administration says the last of the facility closures would take place, Sullivan said, “I think that would be hard to do.”
Quinn budget spokesman Kelly Kraft said Friday the governor is serious – but that he also remains open to discussing options with lawmakers.
– When he ran for office, he said he wouldn’t support an income tax hike greater than 33 percent. A few weeks after taking office, he signed a tax hike for double that.
– He ran supporting the death penalty but quickly abandoned that position, after getting elected. With one sweep of his pen, capital punishment was abolished in Illinois.
His campaign stances on these issues almost certainly resulted in his razor-thin electoral victory over Republican Bill Brady. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when politicians shed their campaign positions. But how can a voter cast an informed vote if a candidate refuses to keep his word?
…Adding… Emanuel said he didn’t want to get into the claim by CTU President Karen Lewis that during a meeting Emanuel “exploded, used profanity, pointed his finger in my face and yelled.” But, he did say that the two hugged at the end of the meeting.
...Adding More… Gov. Quinn said “it’s very clear that I did not” decide which state facilities to close based on partisanship. He didn’t explain, however, why it’s so “very clear.”
The governor reacted harshly when asked about the Chicago city council voting this week to urge him to sign the gaming bill. “It would be nice if they read the bill,” Quinn said acidly, pointing out that this was the “same city council that approved a parking meter proposal” which he called a “disaster.”
Quinn was also asked about Emanuel’s previous statements that Quinn’s concerns about gaming regulation were easily dealt with. “C’mon,” Quinn sneered. “Chicago? Gambling? Easily dealt with?”
Ouch.
Emanuel had left the room before Quinn took questions, by the way.
Gov. Pat Quinn took a little shot today at Chicago aldermen who passed a resolution urging him to sign into law a major gambling expansion that would net the city a casino.
“This is the same City Council that approved a parking meter proposal. . .I don’t think my neighbors or folks in my neighborhood are very happy with the 75-year parking meter disaster,” Quinn said. […]
“To do things in a hasty, ill-considered way is the wrong way and I don’t do it that way,” Quinn added.
The governor’s comments came after the City Council on Thursday backed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to get Quinn to sign the bill. They argued that a Chicago casino would bring new jobs and generate roughly $20 million a month. Emanuel has pledged to use the revenue to rebuild the city.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is denying Republican claims that partisanship played a role his decision to take steps to close seven state facilities and lay off more than 1,900 workers.
Quinn said Friday “it’s very clear” he didn’t target facilities in Republican areas. Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross has accused Quinn of targeting “Republican facilities and Republican jobs.”
Five of the seven facilities Quinn targeted to close have both a Republican state senator and representative. A sixth has Democrats and a seventh is split with a Republican senator and Democratic representative.
When President Barack Obama dropped in at Chief of Staff Bill Daley’s office on Friday, the conversation with visiting Chicagoans — including former Mayor Richard Daley and his son, Patrick — turned to how Mayor Rahm Emanuel was doing, why Chicago doesn’t have casino gambling and Obama’s own immigration record.
That’s the report I got from Ald. Danny Solis (25th) […]
“Obama could never understand why Indiana and the other states” had casinos and Chicago did not, Solis said.
One thing, I guess, led to another and Obama offered up, Solis said, that his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, “goes once or twice a year to Vegas and really enjoys it.”
An AFCSCME union poster with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s name crossed out and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s penciled in sits in a vehicle window Thursday outside the Jack Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon. The poster is an apparent protest of Quinn’s announcement earlier in the day that the facility was one of seven he proposed to close due to Illinois’ budget deficit.
Wouldn’t it be wild if the governor responsible for the state’s recall law was recalled?
I seriously doubt it’ll happen. I mean, look at the requirements just to initiate the process…
The recall of the Governor may be proposed by a petition signed by a number of electors equal in number to at least 15% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election, with at least 100 signatures from each of at least 25 separate counties. A petition shall have been signed by the petitioning electors not more than 150 days after an affidavit has been filed with the State Board of Elections providing notice of intent to circulate a petition to recall the Governor. The affidavit may be filed no sooner than 6 months after the beginning of the Governor’s term of office.
The affidavit shall have been signed by the proponent of the recall petition, at least 20 members of the House of Representatives, and at least 10 members of the Senate, with no more than half of the signatures of members of each chamber from the same established political party.
* I told subscribers about this development on Wednesday…
Talks with McCormick Place labor unions to achieve work-rule changes at the convention center are progressing well, making it unnecessary call a special legislative session next week, Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel stated in a letter to be sent to legislative leaders today.
The letter reports that negotiations between the state, the city, McCormick Place officials and the unions are producing “significant progress” toward an “amicable solution.”
The goal is to achieve show-floor changes that would cut exhibitors’ costs and make Chicago more competitive with lower-cost rivals such as Las Vegas and Orlando. The convention center supports more than 66,000 jobs and $8 billion in spending here each year, the letter states.
“All parties involved in the discussions agree that a negotiated rather than legislative solution is the preferable course of action at this time,” the letter stated. “Should progress on our talks fail to continue in the future, a legislative solution may be appropriate at a later time.”
That’s really good to hear. We don’t need any more drama.
* In other business news, we should know soon if CME Group’s headquarters is leaving Illinois…
CME Group Inc. on Thursday elevated its threats to leave Illinois, making clear for the first time that it is considering the possibility of moving its corporate headquarters out of state.
Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy told Reuters that he will decide “shortly” whether to keep CME Group headquarters in Chicago. He said other states were trying to attract the company and that he expects to have proposals from those states in hand in two weeks. […]
In several instances, companies have used the threat of a departure to negotiate tax incentive packages from the state. The Tribune reported that CME Group was seeking a request for a change to its industry’s corporate income tax formula. Since then, the company has kept the pressure on.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close the Tinley Park Mental Health Center would put nearly 200 employees there out of work and force 75 patients to find new quarters.
But if the state-owned land where the mental health center and the adjacent Howe Developmental Center sit is redeveloped, it could be an economic boon for the village of Tinley Park, officials said. […]
If no other state agency needs the property, nearly 400 acres of land in the prime location just off Interstate 80 could become available.
It’s no secret Tinley Park officials have coveted the land for years.
“The village is extremely interested in that land and its potential development,” Mayor Ed Zabrocki said Thursday. “Getting the land back on the tax rolls would be a major impact for school districts, the village and park district.”
* Dems: Illinois would get millions under Obama plan: It says 260,000 Illinois businesses would receive a payroll tax cut while cuts to workers’ payroll taxes would save a typical Illinois household around $1,640. The analysis also says tens of thousands of jobs would be created or saved in Illinois through more than $4.5 billion in investments in transit projects, school construction and refurbishing vacant and foreclosed homes. There’d also be more money for police, firefighters and teachers.
* Urich: Tax credit could be shifted - Peoria city manager says funds could help aid Pere Marquette revitalization
* Illinois Jobs Tour coming to Olivet: Joining Moore on the panel will be Bruce Rauner, Principal, GTCR LLC; Ed Murnane, President of the Civil Justice League; Marc Levine, a budget and pension expert; and Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute.
* NASCAR-themed carwashes make national debut in Chicago area - Locations in Romeoville, Matteson and Aurora to roll out ahead of Sept. 18 race in Joliet
Not all states use a system of regional superintendents to act as a layer of administration between a state-level education department and local school districts.
A survey by the Education Commission of the States showed 17 states without a system of regional superintendents. The other 33 states did have some level of administration between the state and local school system, although their structures varied widely.
Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hustonville, who is also Hutsonville school superintendent, said direct state-to-state comparisons don’t make much sense.
“States are different. Illinois is a local-control state,” Eddy said.
* The Question: Once the dust finally settles over Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of salaries for regional superintendents of education, do you think the General Assembly ought to change state law and abolish those positions, keep the law as it is, or, as Quinn wants, force local governments to pay for the offices if they decide they want them? Take the poll and then please explain your answer in comments.
* You’ve probably read about the “specific, credible but unconfirmed report that Al Qaeda again is seeking to harm Americans and in particular to target New York and Washington.” Patti Thompson, spokesperson for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, sent out this statement yesterday…
“The federal government did notify the state of Illinois regarding the possible threat. The state of Illinois has been updated through the day and will continue to get any updates as they become available..there have been no indications of any specific threats to anywhere in Illinois. We actually had a plan in place well before the 9-11 anniversary weekend, specifically for this time period and had already enacted it…it includes IEMA position mobile command posts…in northern Illinois, central Illinois and the southern portion of the state in the metro east area. The state’s radiological emergency assessment center will be activated over the weekend. The state’s 24/7 communications center is linked to the statewide terrorism intelligence center and will transfer any calls received from public safety personnel or the public regarding suspicious activities or any other intelligence that law enforcement might have.”
Reacting to an unconfirmed al-Qaida threat on New York or Washington in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Chicago emergency officials said there is “no credible threat” to the city.
“The City of Chicago has been in contact with our state and federal partners,” said Gary Schenkel, executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. “While there is no credible threat to the city at this time, we remain vigilant.
“We encourage residents to also remain alert, and call 911 if you witness any suspicious or unusual activity.” […]
Heightened security presence also will be visible on the CTA, Metra and Amtrak, another regional emergency official said. Key government and private buildings also will receive special attention, he said.
* Chicago’s Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who was a New York cop ten years ago, talks about the new way of doing things…
McCarthy says things are better in Chicago and other major cities when it comes to being protected from a terrorist attack. One reason is the practice of sharing intelligence that developed in the years after the 9/11 attacks. Much more so than before, information gathered by the FBI, the CIA or other national sources is shared with local law enforcement.
Another reason is the improvement in technology that allows law enforcement in Chicago to communicate with the fire department and other emergency agencies, breaking down territorial walls between those groups and bridging technical systems as well. That is a capability that was lacking in New York at the time of the attacks, but that Chicago led the way in developing. […]
McCarthy would never say never again, but he says the public can be confident that the police department is doing everything possible to keep Chicago safe from a terrorist attack.
“I’m very confident that we’re safe. I just had my briefing with the CIA, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, so we’ve got our finger on the pulse of what’s going on, and we’ve got some things in place,” McCarthy said.
* Meanwhile, this press release, sent out before we learned about this possible threat, seems appropriate…
State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont) called upon his local volunteers and precinct committeemen to suspend political petition passing and other political activities this weekend in observance of the September 11th terrorists attacks 10th year anniversary. This is the first week candidates can pass petitions to be on the March 2012 election ballot under the newly drawn legislative maps following the census. Dillard will be attending multiple official ceremonies and church services over the weekend.
“This weekend is the time to transcend politics and partisan activities,” said Dillard in a letter to his local volunteers and committeemen. “Let us count our blessings and remember what is truly important.”
* Besides the different times posted by each man, do you notice anything odd about these two public schedule announcements? First up, the governor…
CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn will join U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other leaders for a panel discussion about Illinois’ recent historic education reforms.
WHEN: 12:30 p.m.
Now, hizzoner…
Mayor Emanuel will join U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan during his national “Back to School” bus tour to discuss the importance of giving students across Chicago more time in the classroom and a longer school day.
WHEN: 12:15 PM
The guv and the mayor are appearing together, yet neither mentions the other in their announcement. There’ll be a press conference afterward, which will be the first time these two gentlemen have appeared together in public since their falling out over the gaming bill. Hopefully, we’ll have audio.
The City Council [yesterday] backed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to get Gov. Pat Quinn to sign off on a major gambling expansion that would bring a casino to Chicago.
One after another stood up to say a casino would bring new jobs and generate $20 million a month or so that Emanuel has pledged to use to rebuild the city.
“Governor, sign this bill, it’s a no brainer,” said Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, who has long advocated a casino for the city.
* Legislators are also growing weary of the governor’s inaction on the gaming bill and refusal to say exactly what he wants. So, there could be some movement soon…
Unless Quinn outlines his concerns “in short order,” legislative leaders will present him with their own version of a clean-up gaming bill, known as a trailer bill, that will tighten control over the proposed Chicago-owned casino, according to State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), House sponsor of the bill. Other revisions may be coming as well, Lang said.
The options will be limited: Any change risks losing a vote on a bill that was a delicate balance of interests among Chicago, struggling cities such as Danville and Rockford that want new casinos, the horse racing industry and places like Joliet and Aurora where existing casinos fought the increased competition.
An amendatory veto, which would allow Quinn to change the bill and send it back to lawmakers for a re-vote, would be an unwise choice, Lang said.
“Substantial changes would put the speaker in a position of weighing compliance with the (Illinois) constitution on the amendatory veto,” said Lang, who is House Speaker Michael Madigan’s floor leader. “That’s not a good way to go. If the governor thinks we’re going to have substantial changes by way of amendatory veto, I think he’s mistaken.”
* Let’s go back to education for a moment, shall we?…
The Chicago Teachers Union on Thursday filed its first major legal salvo in the battle over a longer school day, charging that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his education team are waging an illegal campaign to circumvent the union.
CTU President Karen Lewis said Emanuel’s actions amount to a declaration of war.
The union’s complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board came as teachers at a fourth school — Benjamin Mays Elementary in Englewood — voted to waive the existing CTU contract and add 90 more minutes to the school day in exchange for 2 percent raises and other perks.
While the union has a point about Emanuel not having any real plans for how to use a longer school day, if members do end up striking (or trying to strike) they’ll need the backing of parents. And since the longer school day is quite popular in the city, they’d better come up with a much better reason for walking.
* This week, for instance, Ald. Ed Burke, a huge union backer, said “I’m starting to get embarrassed at the attitude of some leaders of organized labor,” over the longer school day topic…
On WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight, Chicago Teachers Union head Karen Lewis replied: “I don’t know what he is embarrassed about. I mean, it’s sort of like Michele Bachmann calling somebody stupid.”
The president of the Chicago Teachers Union says Mayor Rahm Emanuel “exploded” at her during a debate over a longer school day, pointing his finger in her face and cursing.
CTU President made the allegations in a Friday morning press release detailing a complaint filed by the union to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board over the ongoing battle between the union and City Hall.
“A couple of weeks ago I sat down with the mayor in his office to talk about how to roll out a longer school year and what components would go into making it a better school year for our students but he did not want to have that conversation,” said Lewis. “When I explained to him that a longer school day should not be used for warehousing or babysitting our youth he exploded, used profanity, pointed his finger in my face and yelled. At that point the conversation was over — soon thereafter we found ourselves subject to a full-scale propaganda war over a moot point.”
Emanuel was expected to be asked about Lewis’ claims at a school event this morning.
The old Rahm is back.
* Related…
* Chart: How long is your kid’s school day? - Instructional minutes in Illinois’ schools
* Debate over longer day rages at N. Side magnet school - Disney principal ‘hopeful teachers will see this as the right thing to do’
* Arne Duncan: CPS deserves ‘a badge of shame’ for short school day: “Chicago has had the shortest day and year among [large] urban districts for far too long,’’ Duncan told the Chicago Sun-Times in advance of a Friday visit to Schurz High School. “That’s not a badge of honor. That’s a badge of shame.’’
* Warren: Longer School Days Are Just a Start: The staged rollout again left the impression that Emanuel was playing 3-D chess while his union opponent was playing checkers. It even included a title for a new program cum campaign of persuasion: The Longer School Day Pioneers Program.
Friday, Sep 9, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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This is a major reason why innovators and environmental groups support SB 1652. Jay Marhoefer, founder and CEO of Intelligent Generation, believes SB 1652 can provide the foundation his company needs to create a market for solar that doesn’t exist today. ‘…It means green jobs that can’t be exported to install and service these (solar) systems, and when the demand is great enough, it probably means local manufacturing jobs for solar panels and batteries.’
Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club in Illinois, says getting serious about the smart grid and SB 1652 can, in his words, ‘be a big spark to the emerging clean energy economy in Illinois at a time when Illinois needs the jobs and economic development most.’
Bottom line: SB1652 is an early stage investment vehicle designed specifically to help Illinois-based companies.
* Here’s your last chance to win an invite to tonight’s barbeque at Casa de Miller. Pictured below is Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady and his scary eyes…
Our state’s reigning drama queen has struck yet again.
As you know by now, Gov. Pat Quinn held a news conference Thursday to blame the General Assembly for forcing him to close seven state facilities and lay off almost 2,000 employees.
The Legislature, Quinn said, had passed a budget that didn’t provide enough funding for operations. So, he said, he had no choice but to close down three mental health centers, two centers for people with developmental disabilities, a prison and a youth correctional camp.
The governor is right about the budget. The Legislature did, indeed, not provide enough money to run those agencies.
But Quinn took himself out of the budget process early this year by irresponsibly proposing to spend $2 billion more than the state had.
Legislators decided that he could no longer be taken seriously, so he was essentially cut out of the process. He could’ve easily made himself relevant again by facing reality, but he wouldn’t do it.
Instead, he blasted the proposed budget as “radical” and “extreme” and vowed in a series of drama-filled public appearances to stand strong against it. But in the end, he signed that “radical” budget into law while cutting an additional $376 million from an already underfunded bill during yet another drama-packed news conference.
Quinn’s latest pronouncement will free up less than $55 million this fiscal year.
To give you an idea of how small these cuts are in the big picture, his new plan is less than 0.2 percent of the entire state budget.
That’s what is known in the parlance as a budgetary “rounding error.”
Actually, it’s more like a rounding error on a rounding error.
But instead of treating this small change for what it is, he proposed things such as slashing 350 workers from the Department of Corrections by closing Downstate Lincoln’s prison. That will save just $9.2 million this year and, as a result, cram even more inmates into the state’s remaining and terribly overcrowded prisons.
For crying out loud, he could’ve almost found $9.2 million in couch cushions.
OK, that’s an exaggeration. But the governor could’ve proposed canceling cable TV for inmates, streamlining management and eliminating education and job programs for inmates sentenced to life or near-life terms.
But sensible, reasonable, moderate reductions like those wouldn’t have gotten his face on Chicago TV and on the front page of every newspaper in the state. He also could have sat down and talked with legislative leaders about the changes he needed in the budget.
He could’ve asked individual legislators whose facilities were targeted to help him find the votes to patch the budget’s holes. Instead, he decided to hold a news conference and his office directed angry phone calls to those same legislators’ office.
“Quinn is just like Rod Blagojevich without the criminality,” is a phrase I’ve heard for a while.
That’s not fair. Blagojevich’s battles with the General Assembly were long, exhausting wars that wound up putting the state deep into a gaping fiscal hole. As bad as things are in Illinois, we’re now in infinitely better fiscal shape. Also, Quinn has a real heart, not Blagojevich’s cynical proclamations of universal love.
Even so, Quinn’s behavior is scarily reminiscent. Never admit fault and always blame the Legislature when something goes wrong. Hold big, splashy Chicago news conferences rather than do the actual hard work of quiet governance.
And, no matter what, try to get yourself on Chicago TV as much as humanly possible.
We are so screwed.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R is taking the governor way too literally…
Quinn doesn’t want these cuts any more than do the (mostly Republican) lawmakers in whose districts the targeted facilities are located. He said as much during the spring, when he advocated for a budget more than $3 billion larger than the one ultimately sent to him.
Lawmakers, intent on ensuring that the income tax increase passed in January remains a temporary tax, opted to spend less. Are there less painful ways to find the $54.8 million in savings Quinn announced Thursday?
Is the state, which has had an uptick of $1 billion in tax revenues this year, still too broke to appropriate more funds to prevent these closures and layoffs in vital areas? Are lawmakers prepared to weather another, far larger, round of cuts, when Quinn addresses the remaining $182.8 million gap in “Phase III” of his budget implementation?
There are no easy answers for these questions, but Quinn has set the stage for them to be answered when the General Assembly returns on Oct. 25.
* Madigan’s mouthpiece didn’t seem all that sympathetic…
“Lawmakers approved a spending plan based on the revenues that were realistically coming in,” said Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. “This is recognition by the governor of the very difficult national economic situation that we’re in. The Legislature recognized that several months ago, and the governor is recognizing it now.”
Quinn suggests there’s a way to avoid much of this: Lawmakers should agree with $376 million in cuts he made to the budget this summer and shift that money around to “mitigate the damage.”
The governor could find an ally in Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, who released a statement saying he intends to “revisit the shortcomings of the budget that was passed this spring.”
But Quinn could face a tougher go in the House, where Democrat Madigan has aligned with Republican Leader Tom Cross, of Oswego, to keep spending levels lower and use any extra cash coming in to pay down the state’s multibillion-dollar backlog of bills.
* And this is an accurate depiction of what these threats will do to small town Illinois…
Lincoln Mayor Keith Snyder said Quinn’s announcement will have a psychological and financial effect on the community. People who are worried about being laid off will purchase less gas and groceries and go out for fewer meals.
“You start to watch your expenses,” Snyder said. “That’s a huge deal for Lincoln.”
Parents at the Jack Mabley Development Center in Dixon already are planning to hire an attorney to fight the proposed closure, said Barbara Cozzone-Achino, the mother of two developmentally disabled men who live there.
“It’s going to be devastating, because my sons don’t take change very well,” Cozzone-Achino said.
State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, said even though many of the to-be-closed sites fall in GOP areas, Democratic and Republican lawmakers will fight the governor’s plans.
“When you’re talking about the closure of five (mental health and developmental) centers, there is a local impact regardless of where you’re from,” said Mautino.
Of course, it wouldn’t have been a vintage Quinn news conference without an allusion to how swell it would be if lawmakers let him drive taxpayers deeper in debt by borrowing still more billions to pay those old bills.
No way, Governor. Your borrowing, and your predecessors’ borrowing, have made a terrible mess of this state’s finances. Enough with living today off of tomorrow. You got your fat tax increase. Make do.
Or keep eliminating services and employees until all that’s left is you and the pension system you don’t want to reform.
* Seven state facilities are ordered closed. Tinley Park, Singer and Chester Mental Health Centers. Jacksonville, Mabley developmental centers. Logan prison and Murphysboro youth facility.
* 1,938 employee layoffs.
* Quinn asks that money he vetoed from the budget, $376 million, be reallocated to keep those facilities open and prevent layoffs. The cost of keep the facilities open and preventing layoffs would be $313 million, Quinn said.
A federal judge has dismissed a labor union’s bid to force Gov. Pat Quinn to pay out raises to 30,000 state workers.
In a 26-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough acknowledged that Quinn’s decision to withhold 2 percent raises due to prison guards and other unionized state workers was causing pain, but she said it was not a sufficient enough impairment for her to intervene.
In addition, she said the General Assembly still could give Quinn the estimated $75 million needed to fulfill the contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
“Since the evidence also establishes that special appropriations are regularly approved, AFSCME cannot establish irreparable harm,” Myerscough wrote.
Judge Myerscough’s ruling denies AFSCME’s request for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction and grants the governor’s motion to dismiss the case.
“AFSCME presents no evidence or case law which establish that a failure to provide a relatively small raise constitutes ‘substantial’ impairment” in a contract, the judge wrote. “Because the state enacted the Emergency Rules to constrain expenditures in an effort to prevent insolvency, and AFSCME-represented employees are continuing to get almost full pay and no layoffs despite the state’s dire financial condition, the impairment cannot be deemed unreasonable or inappropriate in light of its legitimate purpose.”
Kinda ironic, since layoffs were just announced.
* 12:43 pm - Back to the presser. Quinn is now answering questions.
Asked why he just didn’t veto the budget, Quinn pointed out that the budget would’ve been “radically cut” even more because the Republicans would’ve been brought into the process. “I certainly didn’t want to give them an opportunity… to make even more radical cuts.”
* Let’s move to the ScribbleLive program. Blackberry users click here. Everyone else can just sit back and watch…
* Stay with me to the end, but you might wonder when reading this Tribune story if the federal charges against Bill Cellini will actually stick…
In the filing, the government alleges that Cellini, who was a presence in Illinois politics for four decades, discussed his longevity in a February 2004 meeting on an upcoming allocation of $4.8 billion in pension board money.
Cellini recounted to the group — which included Stuart Levine, who was also charged with public corruption — about a meeting he had just had with Rezko and Kelly.
“Upon arriving, [Cellini] said he had just come from a meeting with Rezko and Kelly, and he was upset with them,” the document reads. “He told Rezko and Kelly that they were moving too fast and were going to get themselves in trouble. Defendant said he told Rezko and Kelly that they should take [Cellini] as an example: He had been doing this for 30 years and had always stayed above the fray.”
Is that really proof of wrongdoing? Cellini was obviously worried about the Blagojevich guys’ over the top ways…
“He (Cellini) said: ‘I know that their (modus) operandi is different than what ours was. … I know that uh, we would not call somebody after they got something or before they were gonna get something. … As the general rule they do. That will set up a pattern that could be used and then all they (investigators) gotta do is ask some of these people and these guys will cave in like a herd of turtles.’”
The government has charged Cellini with conspiring to commit extortion with Rezko, Kelly and ex-TRS board member and Cellini ally Stuart Levine. Prosecutors said the four men conspired in the spring of 2004 to withhold $220 million in Teachers’ Retirement System investment funds from a firm named Capri Capital unless Thomas Rosenberg, a principal in the firm, made a $1.5 million campaign contribution to Blagojevich or paid a $2 million fee to Rezko, Kelly and Levine.
Cellini has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Dan Webb, said in July that Cellini received no financial benefits, paid no money and didn’t receive any money.
“He didn’t do anything,” Webb said.
You may not remember it, but Tony Rezko was acquitted of the charges related to the alleged Rosenberg shakedown. Levine was the star witness in that particular count. Levine failed miserably because the defense successfully argued that he had concocted the whole thing in his head. Levine’s drug-addled ways and the fact that he was under threat of going to prison for many, many years were both offered as reasons for his lies.
* OK, now let’s switch from the news coverage to the actual federal proffer, which was filed this week and which you can read by clicking here.
This all started when Levine told Cellini he wanted to kill Capri’s Teachers Retirement System deal because he and Rosenberg were enemies. Levine put a brick on Rosenberg’s TRS deal by using his influence at the board. Cellini was allegedly at a private meeting when this was discussed. Rosenberg called Cellini for help, and he agreed, even though he knew what was going on from the beginning. Up until that point, this all was just petty business politics, albeit more than a little tawdry.
* But then Allison Davis, an associate of Rosenberg’s - “Individual E” in Fedspeak - allegedly approached Tony Rezko about Rosenberg raising campaign money for Rod Blagojevich…
[According to Levine] Rezko said that he had been approached by an African-American man whose skin was white, Individual E, who told Rezko that Rosenberg was interested in raising money for the governor, and had a matter pending before TRS. Rezko said that when Individual E mentioned Rosenberg and Capri, Rezko remembered what Levine had mentioned about Capri at their private meeting a few weeks earlier. Kelly asked Levine about the extent of Capri’s state business, and Levine explained that Capri was due to receive a $220 million allocation at TRS and, overall, was managing hundreds of millions of dollars of TRS’s assets. Kelly responded that with that much state business, Capri and Rosenberg should be contributing a great deal of money to Blagojevich.
Levine suggested that Rosenberg be given a choice: make a $1.5 million campaign contribution to Blagojevich, or pay a $2 million fee.
Levine also told Rezko and Kelly that [Cellini] had already had one conversation with Rosenberg, in which Rosenberg sought [Cellini’s] help to get the allocation. Rezko suggested that Levine call [Cellini] and make him aware that Rosenberg had approached Rezko about raising money for the governor. Further, Rezko suggested [Cellini] should contact Rosenberg to make him aware that by approaching Rezko about fundraising, [Cellini] was no longer in a position to help Capri get its allocation; this was now a fundraising issue that Rosenberg would have to address with Rezko and Kelly.
However, Rezko’s defense successfully claimed during Rezko’s trial that Levine had made up this story as well.
And, more importantly, Allison Davis told the feds that the alleged fundraising conversation with Rezko never happened. Levine, according to Rezko’s defense, made it all up, start to finish.
* Anyway, Rosenberg told Cellini he didn’t send anybody to talk to Rezko and Kelly, and said heads would roll if that had actually happened. After checking around, Rosenberg talked to Cellini again…
Rosenberg told defendant that he would walk away from business at TRS before giving Rezko and Kelly any money for a campaign contribution. Rosenberg told defendant that he would take Rezko and Kelly down, telling the public and the governor himself about the attempted shakedown.
Not long after that, Rezko and Blagojevich allegedly decided that it was best not to mess with Rosenberg any more. The matter was dropped and Rosenberg’s company got its full TRS investment allocation. The Rezko legal team said there was nothing to be dropped because there was no shakedown attempt. Rezko’s jury agreed.
In between the first contact with Levine and the alleged finale, however, Cellini made several phone calls to, as the prosecutors put it, further the the alleged shakedown conspiracy and then covered his tracks.
For instance, Rezko allegedly assigned Levine the responsibility of telling Rosenberg about the details of what they wanted, either the $1.5 million in campaign contributions or the $2 million “fee.” Rezko, of course, denied that this conversation ever took place, and he was acquitted. Cellini did attempt to get Rosenberg to call Levine, but Rosenberg testified at Rezko’s trial that Cellini himself did not try to solicit campaign money from him. Still, according to the feds, what Cellini did was illegal.
Throughout the conspiracy, defendant and his co-conspirators, including Stuart Levine, Tony Rezko, Chris Kelly, Steve Loren, and Individual A (TRS’s executive director), sought to conceal their agreement and acts. Defendant told multiple lies to Rosenberg in an effort to hide his own role, and Levine’s, and Rezko and Kelly’s, in the shakedown attempt. Defendant also took measures to placate people he thought might expose his role in the conspiracy. In addition, defendant and others discussed the possibility of removing the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in an effort to stop any investigation into the co-conspirators and others.
As a result of his actions, defendant was charged in an indictment with participating in a conspiracy. First, the indictment charges defendant with conspiring to defraud TRS beneficiaries and the people of the State of Illinois of their intangible right to Levine’s honest services, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. Second, the indictment charges defendant with conspiring to commit extortion by attempting to obtain political contributions for Blagojevich from Rosenberg and Capri in exchange for releasing the $220 million allocation of funds from TRS, all in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951.2/ Defendant is also charged with attempted extortion under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951, and solicitation of funds under Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B).
* So, what about all those worries that Cellini expressed about the Blagojevich crew? Let’s turn now to the government’s motion in limine…
Defendant’s expressed concerns that Rezko and Kelly were “moving too fast” to place firms at TRS reflect defendant’s consciousness that scrutiny drawn to Rezko and Kelly would harm him as well, and tend to show that defendant had knowingly joined a conspiracy that was at risk of being exposed by the imprudent conduct of defendant’s co-conspirators. Further, defendant’s statement that he had been “doing this for 30 years and had always stayed above the fray” places defendant’s criticisms in context, making it clear that defendant’s beef with Rezko and Kelly was not that they were engaged in exchanging state action for campaign contributions, but, rather, that their methods were too obvious. Defendant’s expressed concern therefore demonstrates the criminal nature of the conspiracy and defendant’s knowing participation in it.
The same holds true for defendant’s recorded statements regarding Rezko and Kelly. Defendant’s criticism of Rezko and Kelly’s methods, and his comparison of those methods to those he had previously employed successfully – i.e., without detection – evince defendant’s consciousness of guilt which, in turn, shows defendant’s participation in the conspiracy (otherwise, the tactics of Rezko and Kelly would not be a cause of concern for defendant). The statements are thus relevant to show the criminal nature of the conspiracy and defendant’s knowing participation therein.
The defense will surely argue that Cellini’s statements made clear that he knew the Blagojevich people were crooks and was doing his best to stay within the law. Whoever wins that argument could win the case.
Rod Blagojevich may have to wait for his day of reckoning.
As it now stands, the former governor’s scheduled sentencing date next month directly conflicts with a trial in a related case.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel set Blagojevich’s sentencing for Oct. 6. However, on Oct. 3, the trial of Springfield power broker William Cellini — which entails allegations involving Blagojevich fund-raisers — is scheduled to start before the same judge and some of the same prosecutors.
While Cellini attorney Dan Webb said Wednesday he believes his client’s trial date isn’t going to move, Blagojevich lawyer Sheldon Sorosky said he wouldn’t be surprised if his client’s sentencing does. […]
In court on Wednesday, a federal judge held firm an Oct. 21 Rezko sentencing date even though prosecutors asked for the date to be moved until after the Cellini trial. They didn’t say why, but the same prosecution team is working on both trials.
Rezko lawyer William Ziegelmueller said he opposed the date being moved again.
A West Side state legislator with a predominately African-American constituency says he is leaning toward breaking ranks with his fellow Chicago lawmakers to support allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons in Illinois.
Rep. La Shawn Ford, a third-term Democrat, told me he is prepared to become the first black legislator from the city to vote for a concealed carry law — if sponsors of the bill will add a provision requiring the National Rifle Association to pay for sensitivity training for police officers.
Ford, who hosted a spirited town hall meeting last week at which supporters and opponents debated the advisability of a such a law, said he believes a majority of his constituents want the right to own a gun.
“Black people want guns, and I know that sounds bad…,” Ford said.
“They’re saying we’re making criminals out of law-abiding citizens,” he said. “They’re saying you’re only siding with the criminals because the criminals could care less about the law.”
Some of them are saying that, and some are saying what I saw one woman tell him in a YouTube video of the meeting: “We put more guns on the street we’re going to have a bigger problem.”
The NRA thought they had at least one African-American vote the last time the issue made it to the House floor. But she either flipped or the NRA got it wrong to begin with. Nobody ever truly figured out what happened.
Rep. Ford voted “Present” on that earlier roll call.
* The Austin Weekly News was also at the Ford event…
Annette Nance-Holt was in the minority.
The mother of a slain 16-year-old teen, Nance-Holt was among a handful of people last week speaking out against carrying a concealed handgun during a West Side town hall meeting. She lost her son, Blair, to gun violence in May 2007 when a teen fired shots into a crowded CTA bus. Blair Holt was killed while four others were wounded. At an Aug. 31, town hall hosted by state Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-8), Nance-Holt said greater access to guns does not equal increased safety.
“Had everyone had a gun on the bus that day, there would have been a whole lot more people dead besides my son,” she said. “So I understand that people are scared…but I lost everything, and I still don’t want a gun.”
The meeting drew more than 200 attendees to an Austin banquet facility at 4630 W. Augusta. The majority there supported carrying a concealed firearm for self-protection. While the discussions were heated, the event remained civil between panelists and the audience.
[GOP state Sen. Sue Rezin] said one plan being considered is exempting the Chicago area, or perhaps Cook County, entirely from any concealed carry legislation.
“This might be our best shot as seeing such a bill passed,” she said.
State Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, agreed.
“I also think the best thing we could do is not make the new law stronger than existing home rule city ordinances,” he said. “Any concealed carry law would be easier to pass that way. I believe that might very well happen.”
If a Pittsfield chiropractor gets his way, his neighbors will be allowed to be armed in public.
Dan Mefford is spearheading a petition drive to have an initiative addressing the weapons issue placed on the March primary ballot.
“The initiative essentially bypasses the Chicago Machine that is currently ruling Illinois,” Mefford said. “I recommend that each county in Illinois get on board and pass the same gutsy version for the constitutional carry of arms.”
An initiative is a process that enables a specified number of voters by petition to propose a law and submit it to voters in a general election.
Still, there are hurdles to clear before carrying weapons in Pike County is legal.
If the initiative makes the ballot and passes, Mefford said the courts will decide if it is constitutional.
A person commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons when he knowingly… Carries or possesses in any vehicle or concealed on or about his person except when on his land or in his own abode, legal dwelling, or fixed place of business, or on the land or in the legal dwelling of another person as an invitee with that person’s permission, any pistol, revolver, stun gun or taser or other firearm
The Second Amendment’s “right to keep and bear arms” is proving to be a right to keep a gun at home, but so far not a right to bear a loaded firearm in public.
The Supreme Court breathed new life into the amendment when it struck down strict handgun bans in Washington and Chicago and spoke of the “inherent right of self-defense.”
But to the dismay of gun rights advocates, judges in recent months have read those decisions narrowly and rejected claims from those who said they had a constitutional right to carry a loaded gun on their person or in their car. Instead, these judges from California to Maryland have said the “core right” to a gun is limited to the home.
New Yorkers do not have a constitutional right to carry a concealed handgun in public, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
In a case brought by four New Yorkers challenging the denial of “concealed carry” gun permits by four state judges, Southern District Judge Cathy Seibel said she found persuasive the reasoning of the Illinois’ Court of Appeals in People v. Marin, 795 N.E.2d 958 (2003), that the overriding purpose of gun statutes should be to prevent innocent people from being victimized by gun violence.
As such, Judge Seibel ruled, that granting licenses to carry concealed firearms is a matter of discretion to be decided by state authorities and is not a right.
The US Supreme Court will undoubtedly have to get involved here.
* As always with this issue, take a deep breath before commenting. This topic always brings out the hothead in people. No bumper-sticker slogans, either. Keep your prepared talking points to yourself. We’ve heard it all before, so you don’t need to tell us again.
* Related…
* VIDEO: West Side Chicago Town Hall meeting for Concealed Carry part 1 of 3
* VIDEO: West Side Chicago Town Hall meeting for Concealed Carry part 2 of 3
* VIDEO: West Side Chicago Town Hall meeting for Concealed Carry part 3 of 3
* Kenn Blanchard Preaching Both God & Guns In Chicago Sept 10th
*** UPDATE *** Check out the huge number of court filings in this divorce case over the years by clicking here.
As a friend of mind just told me, “This guy has supported his lawyer’s kids more than his own.”
He’s about right.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* As you already know, Congressman Joe Walsh allegedly owes his ex-wife over $100,000 in back child support payments. But Walsh has also been demanding a trove of financial documents from his ex-wife which he may not be entitled to. And since she hasn’t forked over everything he wants, he’s now asking the court to sanction her…
Walsh’s attorneys sought the sanctions against Laura Walsh because they said she had not complied with their request in February to provide them voluminous documentation of her employment and salary records at pharmaceuticals manufacturer Eli Lilly as well as bank statements, tax returns and expense reports. […]
Laura Walsh’s attorney, Jack Coladarci, called that request “harassment” and said the issue was why Joe Walsh was not paying $117,000 of back child support and interest. Laura Walsh had no corresponding obligation to pay Joe Walsh any support, and so the extensive requests for documents were inappropriate, Coladarci said.
Child support payments can be modified based on the “financial resources and needs of the custodial parent,” but I have to figure she’d probably have to make a whole lot of money before a judge would reduce her child support payments.
The sanctions Joe Walsh’s attorneys asked in a filing file-stamped August 2 include asking Laura Walsh to pay Joe Walsh’s attorney’s fees.
* Jerry Clark will be running Congressman Randy Hultgren’s GOP primary campaign against Walsh. Jerry was born to run this race. Slash and burn all the way to March, baby. Perhaps he could suggest this remedy…
If child support is not paid the state of Illinois can request to have the non-custodial parent’s passport denied.
* Meanwhile, kudos to Sen. Mark Kirk for this rebuke of his fellow Republican Walsh for refusing to watch the president’s speech before a joint session of Congress…
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), asked what he thought about Walsh skipping the joint session, said Tuesday, “The joint session of Congress is in the Constitution. Even if you campaigned against [President Obama] you respect the office.”
This “boycott” is pretty goofy. Ronald Reagan spoke before two joint sessions about the economy, for instance.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democratic candidate for the 8th congressional district, is challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-8) to a debate on how to handle the jobs crisis. Krishnamoorthi says the debate can happen tomorrow night, directly after President Obama’s speech on the issue, at the jobs forum Walsh says he is attending in lieu of being in Washington. The candidate says he is also open to other dates, insisting that he is not only seeking the debate as a candidate, but is interested in the discussion as a constituent and small business owner as well.
* 6:58 pm - Gov. Pat Quinn has announced a press conference Thursday which will apparently outline his plan to close facilities and lay off workers. From a press release…
GOVERNOR’S PUBLIC SCHEDULE
**Thursday, September 8, 2011**
CHICAGO – Governor Pat Quinn will discuss the next steps in managing the budget.
WHEN: 12 p.m.
WHERE: James R. Thompson Center
15th Floor Blue Room
100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, 60601
ADDITIONAL: This event will be streamed online at www.illinois.gov.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration says it considered deep cuts to parole officers and tax collectors while looking for ways to balance the Illinois budget.
Programs moving people with disabilities and mental illness into community care were also considered for cuts.
But Quinn aide Kelly Kraft said Wednesday those ideas have been discarded. She says they never rose above the level of brainstorming.
*** 7:15 pm *** An apparently outdated memo containing considered-then-abandoned cut ideas obtained by Lee Enterprises’ Statehouse bureau also included this…
The memo says the governor wants an estimated $180 million to avert facility closures and layoffs.
All this craziness over $180 million? I really hope that’s not accurate - partly because I was told Tuesday night by the administration that they needed “in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but less than a billion” to prevent closures and layoffs. But also because that’s a rounding error in the context of the state budget.
*** 8:25 pm *** I just talked to an administration spokesperson who hotly disputed the number in the Lee report, saying it was outdated. The person would not say what the actual number is, except to say that it was more in line with the “in the hundreds of millions” figure I was told by a more senior administration person Tuesday night.
…Adding… Budget stories…
* Rural IL school districts strapped by budget cuts
