* Federal judges in Chicago corruption trials have taken to concealing jurors’ names from the media. It’s been pretty much the standard procedure since the media discovered that some George Ryan jurors hadn’t told the truth on their questionnaires.
I have long argued that this is a mistake. Yes, jurors are private citizens, but they are also performing a public act by sitting in judgement of a defendant. And now we have a major consequence of that undemocratic secrecy rule…
Court officials acknowledged Thursday that information revealed by the Tribune appears to show that a member of the federal jury that convicted Springfield power broker William Cellini concealed two felony convictions.
Attorneys for Cellini said the information may be used in seeking to overturn last week’s verdict. […]
Federal law generally disqualifies convicted felons from serving on juries.
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** From the US Attorney’s office…
An article in today’s Chicago Tribune states that ‘Federal law generally disqualifies felons from serving on juries.’ This statement is off the mark. Federal law disqualifies persons who have been convicted of felonies from serving on juries only so long as their ‘civil rights have not been restored.’ Under Illinois law, civil rights are automatically restored upon the ‘completion of any sentence of imprisonment or upon discharge from probation, conditional discharge or periodic imprisonment.’ Thus, a person who has completed his or her sentence on a felony conviction is not disqualified from serving on a federal jury.
We decline to comment on facts specific to the Cellini case because it is appropriate to reserve our comments for the courtroom on matters that could be the subject of litigation. In general, however, federal law appropriately provides great respect for a jury’s verdict, and holds that it should not be lightly disturbed.
* This is what Chicago-based WIND radio co-host Amy Jacobson told Michael Sneed about an encounter she witnessed between presidential candidate Herman Cain and one of his accusers, the Chicago-area’s Sharon Bialek…
They hugged each other backstage in a full embrace like old friends.
She grabbed his arm and whispered in his left ear.
She kept talking as he bent to listen, and he kept saying “Uh, huh. Uh, huh.”
Huh?
“I don’t know if what she was giving him was a sucker punch, but he didn’t put his arm down while she was talking to him,” said the Sneed source. […]
“It looked sort of flirtatious,” said Jacobson. “I mean they were hugging. But she could have been giving him the kiss of death for all I know. I had no idea what they were talking about, but she was inches from his ear.”
* But then Jacobson switched her story and told the Daily Herald something different…
“She was determined to talk to him and she got what she wanted,” Jacobson said, saying it “looked like a tense few minutes. She was talking and he was listening.”
Yet, Jacobson also said Bialek embraced Cain, briefly. “She hugged him. He did not hug her back.”
Jacobson said Bialek “bum rushed” her to get to Cain while backstage at the event. That led to what she described as an intense encounter that you could “cut with a knife.” She said Bialek had Cain’s ear for two to three minutes, and after it was over, Bialek “stormed” off. That has led Jacobsen to conclude that Bialek was, in fact, confronting Cain about the alleged encounter.
* And here’s what Jacobson told CNN about the “hug”…
“It was more like she put her arms around him. She didn’t corner him, but I can use the basketball term, boxed him out,” Jacobson said of the encounter.
* Ms. Jacobson has her own, um, history, of course.
The second and final week of the annual state legislative veto session was a disappointing dud.
Just about nothing came together, except that one tiny part of the massive state budget problem was solved.
Sort of. And only for a year.
Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed $11 million for regional school superintendents’ salaries. The temporary one-year solution involved taking money from a corporate tax fund tapped by local governments. Chicago and suburban Cook County governments get half that fund’s money, so they contributed to half the solution, though Chicago and suburban Cook don’t have a regional superintendent.
Consider it an early Christmas present for Downstate and the collar counties.
The favor wasn’t returned when it came time to give Chicago a new casino, even though Lake County, the south suburbs and two Downstate towns would get in on the action. Quinn hated the bill the General Assembly passed in May, so the bill’s sponsors increased government oversight and significantly pared back the expansion.
Quinn didn’t much care for that bill, either, mainly because it still allowed slot machines at racetracks. Last May’s version of the gaming bill received 65 House votes, which was six votes shy of overriding Quinn’s veto. When the new version was called on Wednesday, it received just 58 votes. That’s not even a majority.
Quinn’s people were pleased the gaming bill went down. It was a victory, though there’s no real evidence that the governor was responsible for the bill’s defeat.
The governor may not have killed that gaming bill, but he most certainly kept it from getting more votes than it did last May. He “won” by staying away from the TV cameras.
During the first week of the veto session, a perpetually angry governor raged at lawmakers. All that did was make people mad.
His antics actually helped ComEd override his veto of their “smart grid” bill. By zipping his lip this week, Quinn didn’t create a harmful legislative backlash, so he “won.” Except all that tax money and all those jobs went right out the window.
By now you may be thinking, “Man, Rich, we live in a messed up state.”
Yeah, well, I have to admit, we kinda do live in a messed up state. Just ask Terry Duffy, CME Group’s executive chairman.
Duffy has been complaining about his company’s state tax burden since January. His company pays more income taxes than any other Illinois corporation, though it’s far from the largest.
Duffy has a valid point that CME is overtaxed. Most of its transactions take place out of state, so those transactions shouldn’t be taxed by Illinois.
And though Duffy started threatening to move somewhere else way back in January, nobody bothered to really talk to him about solving his problem until Senate President John Cullerton stepped in back in June. By then, Duffy had been inundated with lucrative relocation offers.
But the proposed solution, a $100 million tax reduction, shocked many legislators. The shock deepened when others began demanding even more tax breaks in return for supporting Duffy’s agenda. At last count, the “Great Illinois Tax Cut Bonanza of 2011” would cost the state budget somewhere around $700 million a year in just three years.
So, of course, that deal fell apart as well. The General Assembly will return for a rare post-Thanksgiving session to work some more. Nobody knows what Duffy will do next.
But, hey, the Legislature did pass a bill to let Chicago install speed-enforcement cameras. Maybe Chicago can give Duffy a ticket as he races out of town.
*** UPDATE *** I’m just gonna put a Statehouse roundup here. It’s a holiday, so I’m gonna take it easy today…
* Mayor gets speed cameras, not much else in ‘slackluster‘ fall session
We’re proud to be celebrating Illinois Review’s 7th anniversary this month, and wanted to take a moment to communicate our sincerest thanks to all the incredible IR contributors we’ve had through the years. It is our goal to remain solid and steady together through rocky times ahead in Illinois’ political future. Our mission to promote limited government, individual rights, free markets, and traditional values remains firm.
We also want to thank you, our readers, for your encouragement, your criticisms and your interest. We proceed full steam ahead into Year Number 7, serving you as the crossroads of Illinois’ conservative community.
I started my own blog about seven years ago, in October of 2004. CapitolFax.com has been around since, I think, 1998. It was mainly a comprehensive link site back then. Many of the pull-down link sets in the middle column originated on that site. Then, somewhere around the early ’00s I started adding a daily “snippet” of subscriber content, but I eventually decided to do the blog thing using the blogspot system. You can see the bare remnants of that blog here. I eventually moved to the WordPress platform so I could moderate comments and block morons from posting their bilge. Not long after that, I caught Gov. Blagojevich’s campaign posing as conservative Republicans in order to attack Judy Baar Topinka. Heh. Ever since I can remember, I always wanted to post headline feeds from newspapers around the state, and as soon as somebody started a company to do that I began displaying them on the blog.
Anyway, enough of this memory lane stuff. I have things to do today. So, let’s get to the question. We’ve done this before, but it was a long time ago…
* The Question: What is your favorite non-Illinois politics/news/other blog or website? Explain.
* There’s been a lot of grumbling out there that maybe the Democrats lining up to run against Republican Bob Dold in the northern suburbs might not be First Tier types. They’ve raised cash, and they’ve been working hard, but they haven’t generated a ton of buzz and local leaders have not rushed to support them.
John Tree, a businessman and Air Force reservist who has worked in Israel with the Israeli Air Force, is jumping in the 10th District Democratic primary, joining the two other major contenders who want to defeat freshman Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.).
Tree’s late entry in the race comes as Democrats Ilya Sheyman and Brad Schneider have been campaigning for months in the north suburban and North Shore communities–but neither has solidified Democratic support.
“Democrats are hungry for a win and ready to work for it,” said Lauren Beth Gash, Democratic state central committeewoman for the 10th District. “…They are looking for a candidate they can get strongly behind.”
Gash said Tree was an “incredibly impressive candidate which is not to say the other candidates in the race aren’t.”
Tree makes his candidacy official on Thursday. He already has mustered a team of political professionals with experience in Illinois campaigns.
“No one has really consolidated Democratic support” in the tenth said Peter Giangreco, a Tree advisor who will also handle his direct mail. “There have been a few endorsements but there is nobody who can really talk about jobs and deliver a critique of Bob Dold in the way John Tree can.”
* The Jewish vote is extremely important in the 10th CD, and Tree’s campaign is emphasizing his work with the Israeli Air Force…
In 1995, Tree served as Chief of West Mediterranean Logistics for the 16th Air Force, responsible for logistics support for Tunisia, Morocco and Israel. John was on the ground in Israel on twelve different occasions collaborating with the Israeli Air Force on military security. His security clearance allowed him to see realities that most Americans don’t see, fueling his strong support for the State of Israel.
Tree is currently a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He’s also and MBA who worked for Procter & Gamble and Kellogg as well as run a small business.
Greene County State’s Attorney Matt Goetten announced today he’s decided to take the plunge and seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House seat in the new 13th Congressional District.
“I am running to serve middle class families by creating jobs and stopping the erosion of our future coming out of Congress today,” Goetten said in a statement.
“Whether it was serving our country overseas or standing up for victims of Greene County, I have risen to the call of duty throughout my life. I can no longer stand by and watch as a passive observer while teaching my children to stand by their convictions. We owe our kids a sound future, but Congress isn’t giving them a chance to get ahead.”
Goetten, 39, who was first elected as state’s attorney in 2004, a member of the Illinois Air National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as a judge advocate general with the Illinois Army National Guard.
* Goetten started out as the backup in case former state Rep. Jay Hoffman decided not to run. A month ago, after Hoffman announced for Johnson’s seat, he predictably dropped out…
“I can still see Afghanistan in my rear view mirror, and that was nine months that I can’t get back with my kids. And so, looking forward at the potential of a fifteen-month congressional race and the time away from home, it was just the determination that I made that my family is more important to me at the current time than seeking higher office in Congress,” he explains.
* But then when Hoffman announced a bid for the Illinois House and dropped out of the congressional race, Goetten decided he’d made his decision and was going to stick with it…
At a recent Champaign County Democratic Party dinner, Goetten repeated that family considerations would keep him from running for Congress in 2012.
* Not long after Goetten’s reiteration, some district politicos announced their support for Dr. David Gill, who has run against Johnson three times before. From a November 2nd press release…
David Gill announced [Nov. 2] that he has been endorsed by State Representative Naomi Jakobsson and Illinois Senator (retired) Deanna Demuzio, as well as by Champaign County Board Chairman C Pius Weibel, Urbana Alderman Eric Jakobsson, former 13th District candidate James Gray and the Jersey County Democratic Party and its chairman, Mark Pohlman. Madison County’s Southern Illinois People for Progress and its chairman, former 19th District state central committee candidate Pam Gronemeyer, also have endorsed and are supporting Gill.
Thursday, Nov 10, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Tenaska is still pushing hard for the legislature to approve their plan to build the Taylorville Energy Center. A look at the numbers makes it clear why the Senate should vote “NO” on SB 678.
No matter what way you do the math, these numbers add up to a raw deal for Illinois consumers.
* Illinois Statehouse News makes a good point about the tax cut debate, including funding part of it for a couple years by decoupling from a federal tax law…
To pay for all of this lawmakers are looking at decoupling the state from a federal tax code that allows businesses to get deductions on capital investments all at once instead of over a series of years. […]
That move, however, would only generate $570 million in the first year and $354 million in the second year before disappearing. […]
There are other businesses that could use the money from decoupling more than CME and Sears, some argue. The state owes between $4 billion and $5 billion in overdue bills to state vendors, schools and small businesses that the state contracts will.
“They employ people (and) we are doing nothing here by way of paying any back bills,” state Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights, said.
Advocates of paying off the state’s old bills say doing so would allow those owed to avoid furloughs, layoffs or even closing, thus keeping tax revenue from those workers and businesses flowing into state coffers.
* The House Revenue Committee met today for a brief hearing and then scheduled more hearings next week. The committee will meet Wednesday and Friday. The delay over finding a resolution to the tax cut package caused the House to add at least one more session day this month…
Before adjourning for the day Wednesday, House members were told the six-day veto session would be extended at least one day. The House has added Nov. 21 to its calendar.
On Wednesday, CME’s executive chairman Terry Duffy backed off his earlier prediction that what happened in Springfield this week would determine whether his multi-billion dollar company would remain in Chicago where it began 163 years ago.
“My board will take as much time as necessary to deliberate where our future headquarters should be or not be,” Duffy told ABC7.
Terrence Duffy, CME Group’s executive chairman, reiterated Wednesday that he cannot make any assurances as to what his board will do now regarding a future location of major operations. But he said his company would remain open to any Illinois proposals that emerge in the next couple of weeks.
“I expressed my disappointment, in that I was told for months now that we’d get an answer in this fall’s veto session,” Duffy said Wednesday evening after a brief meeting with Gov. Pat Quinn. “But as the governor pointed out to us, the fall veto session is not over if they are going to come back. So that was cute.”
The company continues to evaluate offers from other states, which he called “very economically appealing.”
But it’s not an overnight process, he said, adding that “it takes time to navigate something of our size.”
Legislative leaders would like to deal with the problem during a separate special session at the end of the month.
“So if that happens, then we will just make a decision, do we want to stay here and pay $158 million in corporate taxes, 6% of the bill and the number one taxpayer, or reevaluate taking the company somewhere else where it is an environment that respects and understands our business.,” said Duffy.
I’m told that at least one other state has upped its bid and meetings have been scheduled.
Duffy likes to say that his company has been in Chicago for 163 years, so why he can’t wait eleven more days for action seems a bit excessive to me, especially when he said in September that he could wait until January.
Then again, like most businessmen, he does seem raring to go to get something done right now. I don’t blame him for that. But the legislative process requires some patience. And eleven days isn’t really too much to ask.
*** UPDATE 1 *** If you’re watching the veto session live blog, you know that the House has adjourned until November 29th. That date is different than the Nov. 21st date given to House members yesterday. The gaming bill wasn’t called for a vote.
Gov. Pat Quinn scored a victory Wednesday night during an otherwise difficult fall session by helping to defeat a controversial gambling expansion bill in the Illinois House.
The revised gambling bill sponsored by state Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) incorporated many changes Quinn requested, including granting the Illinois Gaming Board tighter control over five proposed casinos in Chicago, the south suburbs, Danville, Lake County and Rockford.
But the legislation kept a provision allowing slot machines to be installed at the state’s five race tracks, which was a deal-breaker for Quinn and for a few lawmakers who changed their minds since the original measure passed in May. The revised bill failed by a vote of 58-53. A roll call vote was not immediately available. The original gambling expansion measure passed in May with 65 votes.
Lang swiftly moved the failed bill to “postponed consideration,” a parliamentary move that would allow him to bring it back for a vote. But Wednesday’s vote may table the controversial legislation for the time being.
* Lang told me this morning that despite the fact that Gov. Quinn “used tons of resources and people in state government,” to work against his bill, Quinn “flipped exactly zero votes.” The Trib says Mayor Rahm Emanuel also worked the roll call…
Quinn called some lawmakers to try to block the measure as Illinois Gaming Board Chairman Aaron Jaffe contended the new version was “still a pile of junk” despite efforts by supporters to craft a bill to meet some of the governor’s concerns.
On the other side, Emanuel talked to legislators in an attempt to gain support.
Lang and other lawmakers harangued Quinn several times during the debate, rants akin to the ones that used to be directed at Rod Blagojevich. Lang accused Quinn of hypocrisy for saying that he is for jobs but against the addition of slot machines at racetracks, which Lang said would save thousands of horse-industry jobs.
“His response was, ‘No! I’m not interested in agribusiness jobs in the state of Illinois.’ ‘No! I’m not interested in helping central and southern Illinois,’” Lang said. “Even though there is already gambling at racetracks, we’re going to count these as new casinos. How ridiculous. How bsurd.
“Aren’t you angry at this slap in the face? Doesn’t it concern you that the chief executive of our state – one who has talked about job creation, one who has talked about economic development, one who has campaigned on these issues – would stand at a microphone and the part of the bill that most affects you – he said that’s the first thing that needs to go.”
* Whether or not this was a win for Quinn, it was certainly a loss for Lang, Emanuel and the other proponents. Lang’s bill received 58 votes yesterday, two shy of a simple majority, seven fewer than his original bill received in the spring and thirteen votes short of a veto-proof majority…
“This bill is a better bill than the one we passed with 65 votes,” Lang said before his bill failed. “It’ll pay $1 billion in old bills. It’ll put $1 billion into state coffers. It’ll put people to work. We took the changes the governor wanted, even though he wouldn’t sit at the table with us, and put those in the bill.”
[Eisenhauer] said some lost votes can be attributed to three legislators no longer there due to death and resignation for two of them, and two who supported the bill in the spring were not there Wednesday.
“I think you can get back to 60 (votes),” Eisenhauer said.
“Like every other hurdle we’ve had to jump over, we will regroup, dust ourselves off and start meeting with (legislators) …,” he added.
Eisenhauer said he’d be surprised if the bill came back up today.
“(Nov.) 21st is a possibility or it could go back to the spring legislative session,” he said.
* In other Quinn vs. the General Assembly news, the Tribune obtained the letter from Legislative Inspector General Tom Homer to the governor about why he closed his “Buttongate” probe. Quinn had demanded the investigation…
The practice of one lawmaker voting the button of his legislative seatmates is widespread, though officially not allowed. In a memo to Quinn, Homer wrote that the voting rule was violated but that he found no evidence of “malicious intent” nor any conspiracy by House leadership or the bill sponsor in how the vote went down.
“As a result, I do not believe the matter rises to the level of an ethics violation actionable by my office. Nor do I recommend that the Legislative Ethics Commission take any official action with respect to the matter,” Homer wrote.
* Remember when Gov. Pat Quinn moved Illinois Power Agency Director Mark Pruitt out of office? Quinn was upset that Pruitt wasn’t moving fast enough on signing long-term alternative energy power contracts. He replaced Pruitt with retired ComEd executive Arlene Juracek. But Juracek quickly voided Pruitt’s work on alt energy and “clean coal” plants…
In an unexpected move, [Juracek] reversed Mr. Pruitt’s plan to solicit offers for 20-year contracts for wind farm developers — a priority of Mr. Quinn, who sees green jobs growth as a major part of his economic development agenda for the state. Instead, she plans to solicit offers for one-year contracts only, which the wind industry has complained won’t foster development of new wind farms in the state because developers can’t get financing unless they have long-term sales contracts. […]
In addition, Ms. Juracek reversed Mr. Pruitt’s plan to solicit bids for power from “clean-coal” plants, a provision aimed at allowing the developers of the proposed FutureGen 2.0 project to finance the part of the project not subsidized by the U.S. Department of Energy. FutureGen is a top priority of Mr. Quinn.
* Well, yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed a measure that essentially fires Acting Director Juracek. From the amendment’s synopsis…
Provides the Executive Ethics Commission with the ability to appoint Acting and Temporary Directors of the Illinois Power Agency, and limits Acting Directors to 60-day terms. Effective immediately.
Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the Executive Ethics Commission from removing an acting Director or from appointing an acting Director as the Director of the Illinois Power Agency.
Gov. Quinn can’t directly control the EEC, which is why the commission was given the authority.
* And just for good measure, the proposal forbids Juracek’s reappointment if the Senate refuses to confirm her…
No person rejected by the Senate for the office of Director of the Illinois Power Agency shall, except at the Senate’s request, be nominated again for that office at the same session or be appointed to that office during a recess of that Senate.
The Senate’s State Government and Veterans Affairs Committee meets today at 10:10 am to take up the proposal.
[I was looking at two synopses at once, and somehow mistook one roll call for another. Headline and content updated to reflect the proper roll call. That’s what I get for doing too many things at once. Oops.]
*** UPDATE *** With a hat tip to a commenter, the proposal was unanimously approved by a Senate committee today. And, yes, the vote was really unanimous. I double checked the status page just to make sure.
* Subscribers know far more details about this, but Kurt Erickson’s story is right. There’s a deal on the table right now to avoid immediate facility closures and layoffs. However, there’s a catch…
As part of an 11th-hour budget agreement being brokered with lawmakers, Quinn would agree to close four state developmental centers and two mental health facilities within the next 2 ½ years, rather than shut down seven facilities next month.
While not explicitly targeting the Jacksonville Developmental Center, a “rebalancing initiative” being put forward by the governor outlines a plan to close up to four developmental centers and at least two mental health facilities in the next two-and-a-half years. It would also move at least 600 residents of developmental centers into community settings. […]
The plan involves selecting one of the state’s eight developmental centers for closure and halting admissions. Assessment of all residents and development of transition care plans would begin in December and 20 residents a month would be transferred starting in January until the first developmental center is able to be closed. The process would then repeat until up to four centers are closed.
For state Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, the potential deal could be a double-edged sword. Although the Murphysboro youth center could be spared, it could put the Choate Developmental Center in Anna in the cross-hairs for future closure.
“It’s frustrating. This has been the way Quinn works. He tests the wind and then changes his mind. We need a leader,” Bost said.
State Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, said Quinn’s actions were similar to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who also threatened to close facilities.
“What is he thinking? He is doing a great job of following Rod Blagojevich’s lead, threatening Vandalia and Pontiac twice, and now he’s responded with two poorly executed closure plans,” Jones said. […]
“Governor Quinn is under fire for his irresponsible push to cut mental health care, force people with severe developmental disabilities out of the homes they have chosen, and destroy thousands of middle-class jobs,” said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall. “Spreading that pain out over the coming years doesn’t make it any less wrong.”
So, the big question now is whether the deal to keep facilities open and provide funding for shorted programs elsewhere in the budget is endangered by the deal to close state facilities down the road. Stay tuned.
Mayor Emanuel will make a brief visit to Claremont Academy, located within two blocks of the W. 63rd Street and S. Western Avenue intersection which records the 6th highest number of pedestrian crashes in Chicago, and is positioned within a new safety zone designated by legislation passed yesterday by the Illinois House that allows Automated Speed Enforcement.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Gov. Pat Quinn has not yet said exactly how he feels about this bill. But if projections are correct, the speed cam legislation could generate an absolute ton of revenue for Chicago. If Quinn vetoes it, following his veto of the gaming bill, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is gonna have a fit…
The Illinois House handed Mayor Rahm Emanuel a lucrative victory at the Statehouse Wednesday, passing to Gov. Pat Quinn a measure authorizing speed-enforcement cameras around city parks and schools. […]
The speed-camera proposal that only applies to Chicago passed the House 64-50 and was billed by its backers as a tool to improve pedestrian safety, particularly among children. […]
Under the legislation, the City Council could approve the cameras after July 1, 2012.
Quinn, who has not voiced opposition to the idea, would not divulge his position on the measure. A spokeswoman would say only that the governor intended to review it.
The follow-up legislation that passed the House and pending in the Senate would make the following changes:
*Speeders going 6 mph 10 mph over the limit would face $50 fines instead of $100. Those going 11 mph and over would face the full $100 ticket.
*The cameras would run in school zones from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. The cameras would only operate on school days in school zones. The cameras near city parks would still run one hour before opening until one hour after closing.
*Money would go toward increasing school safety and school transportation, with some earmarked for after-school programs.
* The Senate is in at 8:40 am, the House is in at ten. Two House committees are meeting this morning, Revenue at 8:30 and Executive at 9:30. You can watch them both by clicking here. COGFA’s hearing on facility closures started at 8 o’clock.
* Live House audio/video is here. Live Senate audio/video is here. BlackBerry users click here. iPad and iPhone users remember to use the “two-finger” scrolling method…
