* I haven’t read the opinion yet, but this is a serious outrage…
A Cook County judge ruled today that a California technology blogger doesn’t qualify as a reporter and ordered him to turn over information on the tipster who leaked information about a Motorola cell phone.
Gadget blog TechnoBuffalo, a 3-year-old site which says it has one million readers a month, published images in August taken from the user’s guide for the Droid Bionic — a few weeks before the phone went on sale.
The blog’s president, Jonathan Rettinger, has so far declined to turn over any information on the tipster, arguing that it was publishing news and so is protected under journalist shield laws in Illinois and California.
A spokesman for the blog, which has a staff of writers and editors, said the case is the first time in Illinois a judge has been asked to rule whether a blogger is the same as a journalist in the law’s eyes.
Judge Michael Panter, while acknowledging that it was “a fast-evolving issue facing courts everywhere,” ruled that TechnoBuffalo isn’t a news medium and its bloggers aren’t protected under Illinois shield laws for journalists.
Elizabeth Bradshaw, an attorney for the blog, said she plans to appeal and the decision potentially “poses a threat to all news media, including bloggers.” Rettinger issued a statement saying he was “extremely disappointed.”
No court may compel any person to disclose the source of any information obtained by a reporter except as provided in [the other provisions of the shield law].
Sec. 8‑902. Definitions.
(a) “Reporter” means any person regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full‑time or part‑time basis and includes any person who was a reporter at the time the information sought was procured or obtained.
(b) “News medium” means any newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format and having a general circulation; a news service whether in print or electronic format; a radio station; a television station; a television network; a community antenna television service; and any person or corporation engaged in the making of news reels or other motion picture news for public showing.
(c) “Source” means the person or means from or through which the news or information was obtained.
That judge is completely off his rocker.
* Meanwhile, candidates should always make sure to snatch up a domain that matches their name. If they don’t, then bad things can happen. For instance, typing in RosemaryMulligan.com leads to this website, which is not exactly supportive…
At a Chicago news conference on the one-year anniversary of the state’s income tax hike, Cross said a union wage freeze is among the cost-control measures the state should adopt as it continues to struggle with its finances. […]
“The ability to, or need to, freeze those salaries, not give increases, needs to be looked at as the governor starts negotiations with AFSCME,” Cross said. […]
Cross said he is working with House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office to put the wage freeze idea in writing. He wants it incorporated into House Joint Resolution 45, which Madigan introduced last year to set a limit on raises the state will grant unionized employees. […]
“Apparently Leaders Cross and Radogno believe the state should spend tens of millions of dollars on new corporate tax breaks, but nothing to ensure that caregivers, correctional officers and child-protection workers are fairly paid,” said AFSMCE spokesman Anders Lindall. “I think those priorities are upside-down.”
* The Question: Should AFSCME agree to a pay freeze in its new contract? Take the poll and the explain your answer in comments. Thanks.
* The Illinois State Board of Elections has changed its website address from http://www.elections.state.il.us to http://www.elections.il.gov. That’s no big deal, except that the Board is not auto-forwarding links from the old URL to the new one.
In order to make my life a little easier (actually, a lot easier), I’ve bookmarked almost 200 Board of Elections links to candidate contribution reports and other pages within the site that I use quite often.
But now, because the Board doesn’t auto-forward to its new URL, all my links are dead (click here for an example). So, I have to go back and change every single one of those links.
Ugh.
I am not a happy camper.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The old URL appears to be working now. Squeaky wheel, grease, etc. Thanks to whoever changed it back.
*** UPDATE 2 *** I just got off the phone with the State Board of Elections’ executive director and the top tech guy. They explained that they didn’t realize that people were using the old URL (little did I know that they changed their URL five years ago). They also vowed cooperation on whatever they could cooperate on. We talked about some things that I’ve wanted for years, like RSS feeds for various categories and a separate link to latest petition challenges that have been overruled.
It was the most positive conversation I’ve had with the State Board of Elections since they launched their first website in the late 1990s. Things got extremely heated back then for reasons I don’t need to dredge up again, and the relationship kinda went downhill ever since. Hopefully, things are about to get better.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* And speaking of websites that make me unhappy, Gatehouse has found a way around my browsers’ popup blockers so it can load one of those irritating “pop-under” pages every time I visit their newspaper sites. I hate pop-unders and I despise any company that uses them. Stop it, please.
Since Illinois increased its corporate income tax by 46 percent from 4.8 percent to 7 percent this past year, several unexpected and expected changes occurred.
The number of limited liability companies, or LLCs, and corporations registered with the state actually increased, from 71,449 in fiscal 2010 to 73,130 in fiscal 2011, according to the Illinois Secretary of State.
The number of non-farming jobs increased by 1 percent, from 5.6 million in 2010 to 5.7 million in 2011, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
The unemployment rate has risen a full point in the past year, from 9 to 10 percent, while the US rate dropped from 9.1 percent to 8.7 percent. Partly, that’s because as more jobs are being created, more people are actively looking for jobs. 30,000 new jobs were created in Illinois in October alone, the largest number in the nation.
Todd Maisch, vice president of government relations for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the state’s largest business association, said the income tax increases have crippled economic recovery.
“To be honest, if you are really in a hard-hit industry, you’re probably operating at a loss and so you haven’t felt the impact,” Maisch said. “Probably the ones that were hit the hardest were those that were starting to come out of the recession and starting to turn a profit.”
* Then again, slashing the state’s budget in order to immediately repeal the income tax hike would surely result in job cuts…
Rolling back the income tax increases could have a ripple effect.
Illinois House and Senate Republicans say the rollback would foster job creation by creating a more competitive business climate.
But a premature rollback could result in teachers, firefighters and police officers statewide being fired, said Kelly Kraft, Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget spokeswoman.
The tax increases, set to expire by the end of 2014, are estimated to bring in about $7 billion to the state’s coffers.
* Look, it’s more than obvious that Illinois has to do far more to help businesses create jobs here. The Illinois Policy Institute’s latest statewide poll shows that 71 percent of Illinoisans say the state’s business climate makes it more likely for businesses to leave Illinois.
But we aren’t the unmitigated disaster that so many people want to claim we are. I’m not arguing that we should ignore bad economic news. Far from it. I’m just saying we ought to have fair media coverage of both the good and the bad. It’s really easy to tee off on this state. Yet, a lot of us wouldn’t want to live and work anywhere else. Yeah, I’ve had daydreams about moving to South Beach or Hawaii or even the Riviera. That ain’t gonna happen. My home, my family, my business, and most importantly my heart are all right here. It’s where I’ve chosen to make my stand in life. Those of us who’ve made that choice have an obligation to help make our state better. Criticism is an absolutely necessary aspect of that process and blind cheerleading isn’t helpful at all. But too often all we see is the easy bash. It’s like we’re addicted to being known as the worst. We perversely revel in it. We use it to whack the other side and further divide ourselves.
Enough, already.
* And speaking of the income tax hike and the budget, yesterday’s press conference with Republican legislative leaders and the Illinois Policy Institute contained much talk about how the budget could be balanced without the tax hike by reforming pensions and Medicaid. But Leader Cross’ pension reform legislation actually requires an increase in pension contributions of a billion dollars next fiscal year. Cross said later that he could change the bill to lower the pension contribution, but that hasn’t yet been done.
* Aon to move corporate headquarters to London: The company said Chicago will remain its headquarters for the Americas and the move won’t result in job loss in Chicago or the United States. The company employs 61,000 people globally and expects to create 1,000 new jobs this year.
* Today is my first Sun-Times column since before the Christmas break, so I thought I would write about our Golden Horseshoe Awards. Comments were closed when the final awards were announced and the full list was published, so this will give you a chance to do so now…
Every year, commenters at my website (CapitolFax.com) vote on something we call the “Golden Horseshoe Awards.” I started the contest as a tongue-in-cheek lark, so I jokingly named it after Springfield’s most infamous culinary offering.
People took the contest seriously, though, and, unfortunately, the name stuck; just like the Horseshoe’s ingredients (cheese sauce, french fries, meat, toast) stick to your arteries. So now I run what some think is a prestigious annual awards contest which has a completely goofy name. Oh, well. There are worse things in life.
I decided to go with the “best of” the Illinois Statehouse rather than do a “worst of” because we always hear about the worst of state government. Besides, there’d be too many nominations to wade through.
So we have categories like the best “do gooder” lobbyist, which was awarded to Jeremy Schroeder of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Secretary of State Jesse White won best statewide officeholder. Overall, we had 32 categories, way more than when I started the thing.
To me, anyway, the most interesting results were for best state legislators. Whether Republican or Democrat, they all shared some specific traits. They are all effective lawmakers, of course. They know how to pass bills. But they also make it a point to work with members on the other side of the political fence, which is more like a mini Berlin Wall in these times of extreme partisan divides.
The debilitating and paralyzing hyperpartisanship that has long infected the U.S. Congress has seeped into Springfield over the past few years, so I was happy to see that none of my readers nominated the Statehouse’s worst offenders.
Sen. John Millner got the prize for best Republican state senator. The suburban Carol Stream resident is retiring at the end of this term, and he was clearly a sentimental favorite. There’s no doubt that Millner is a conservative, but he has a long history of working with Democrats. As a result, he’s been one of the more effective legislators on his side of the aisle. He’s also a gem of a human being.
Sen. John Sullivan was voted best Democratic state senator. Sullivan is from Rushville, a little town in “Forgottonia,” otherwise known as Western Illinois. His conservatism often puts him more in line with his Republican colleagues (a zero percent rating from Planned Parenthood, endorsed by the NRA), and he regularly works with the other side. Sullivan hasn’t convinced any Republicans to vote for his plan to float bonds to pay off past-due state bills, and the GOP will undoubtedly use that legislation against him this November. But his struggle to find a tiny bit of bipartisan consensus impressed my commenters, and impressed me as well.
Rep. Skip Saviano was a no-brainer choice for best Republican state representative. The man is a bill-passing machine. Saviano had a falling-out with House Speaker Michael Madigan, but it hasn’t really slowed him down. Some people use the term “Republicrat” as an insult. But for Saviano, it’s a badge of honor. As a result, he’s one of the best-liked legislators in the building.
Representatives John Bradley and Frank Mautino tied for best Democratic state representative. Both men are known for working honestly with the other side. Bradley’s almost Herculean bipartisan efforts passed the hugely controversial corporate tax cut package this past fall. Mautino was able to find a bipartisan solution to Gov. Quinn’s veto of regional school superintendent salaries and put together a complicated agreement on unemployment insurance reform. Both men are work horses, not show horses. Actually, all the winners are. We need more like them.
I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.
First, though, I must lament that “truth vigilante” generated way more heat than light. A large majority of respondents weighed in with, yes, you moron, The Times should check facts and print the truth.
That was not the question I was trying to ask. My inquiry related to whether The Times, in the text of news columns, should more aggressively rebut “facts” that are offered by newsmakers when those “facts” are in question. I consider this a difficult question, not an obvious one.
