* From a very serious story about sports concussions we get this…
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn got dinged big time playing quarterback for Hinsdale’s St. Isaac Jogues five decades ago. He wasn’t sure what to do until he heard a referee say, “Get up! Get up! Get up!”
He got up, but it wasn’t easy.
“I never saw the guy who hit me,” Quinn told the Chicago Tribune. “I was flat on my back. I don’t know if I got a concussion, but I really got leveled.”
* As I mentioned last week, there is a longstanding gentleman’s agreement between the two major parties not to challenge each others’ presidential petitions. That’s usually the case within parties as well.
Republican consultant Jon Zahm is behind some of those challenges. Zahm said he filed challenges to Mitt Romney’s petitions after Romney’s people filed challenges to Santorum’s and to petitions filed for Santorum’s delegates. Zahm is working for Santorum’s campaign. According to the Daily Herald, Santorum’s delegate petitions are more than a bit iffy…
Delegates for GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum have filed the minimum legal number of petition signatures to appear on the ballot in just four of Illinois’ 18 available congressional districts.
In 10 others, delegates who filed signatures came far short of the 600 required to appear on the ballot, a review of the signatures found. They didn’t file any delegates in four districts.
* Zahm’s challenge of Romney’s petitions is based on the fact that the candidate apparently left out the name of the state that the Notary Public is authorized to work inused a Massachusetts notary…
Your Objector states that the Candidate has filed a Statement of Candidacy notarized by a Notary Public authorized to take acknowledgements of deeds and documents in the state of Massachusetts. It is a mandatory provision of the Illinois Election Code under 10 ILCS 5/10-5 that a candidate for office in the State of Illinois utilize a Notary Public commissioned in the State of Illinois. Not having a valid and legally sufficient Statement of Candidacy invalidates the entire candidacy of the office seeker.
…Adding… From Zahm…
Rich, the submitted copy of my challenge had Massachusetts written in. The issue is that it was an out of state notary. A granite city case invalidated a candidacy on that point alone due to a missouri notary on an illinois petition
Oops.
* From a Zahm e-mail…
I have reached agreement with the Gingrich camp that there will be a mutual release of challenges [today] at 3 pm. The Romney group is moving forward, at this point, with their delegate challenges so I am moving forward with my challenge to their statement of candidacy. I have attached it for you. I am still hoping for a mutual agreement with Treasurer Rutherford. I am continuing with my challenge against Paul as I have found some evidence of Paul activity against the Santorum petitions in concert behind the scenes with Romney.
Zahm’s challenge to Ron Paul’s petitions is based on the allegation that the petitions “list the purported home residence address of Ron Paul as 8000 Forbes Place, Suite 200, Springfield, VA 22151 By information and belief the actual home residence address for Ron Paul is in Lake Jackson, Texas.”
Oops again.
By the way, wouldn’t it be great if the Board of Elections put the text of these challenges online, along with all generated paperwork from the cases? I’d like to be able to go through the transcripts of some of these hearings. Just saying…
* Meanwhile, Congressman Jackson sent out a somewhat strange e-mail last Friday with a long list of endorsements, including from people who have not yet formally said they were endorsing the incumbent…
Last week, he published a list of re-election campaign endorsers including the president of the United States and the mayor of Chicago, but the nine-term incumbent congressman confidently conceded that the presidential and mayoral endorsements were of the word-of-mouth variety and not officially released by Barack Obama or Rahm Emanuel. The comments came during a brief interview at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast Monday morning.
“I’ve called them specifically and spoke with them and asked them for their support, and they’ve said they’re with me absolutely,” Jackson said.
Former 11th District Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson is challenging Jackson in the newly-drawn 2nd District.
“Everything that comes out of his mouth is questionable and has been pretty questionable for about 17 years,” Halvorson said.
Despite Halvorson’s claims, Jackson’s list seems to hold up…
Jackson has released a list of top elected officials he says are backing his re-election bid, including President Barack Obama, Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. […]
Jackson acknowledged Obama and Emanuel have not publicly endorsed him, but he said they’ve pledged their support in private and he expects public endorsements soon. […]
Halvorson challenged Jackson’s list, but an Obama campaign official said the president told Jackson last fall that he would be endorsing him and Emanuel’s campaign spokesman, Tom Bowne, confirmed Emanuel told Jackson last fall in person that he has Emanuel’s support.
Usually, you want to have a big build up to endorsements from a president, a mayor and a governor. Instead, Jackson released them on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Weird.
*** UPDATE *** Halvorson has a new poll. From Anzalone-Liszt…
* Almost every likely primary voter (96%) can identify Jesse Jackson Junior, compared to only 56% who can identify Debbie Halvorson.
* Despite his 40-point advantage in name-identification, Jackson is polling under 50%, and only
leads by 13 points (48% Jackson / 35% Halvorson). […]
* A large segment of the African-American vote is in play; In spite of his 98% name ID with African-Americans, Jesse Jackson, Jr. only gets 63% of them in the current vote.
* Halvorson’s profile appeals to voters across racial lines. On the informed vote only 52% of her voters are white, while 40% are African-American, and 6% are Hispanic.
48 percent is awful close to 50 plus one. Just sayin…
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The Progressive Change Campaign Committee released a poll of likely 10th CD Democratic primary voters with this gushing statement…
Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly want a bold progressive candidate who will fight for Wall Street accountability and government investment in jobs — not a conservative Democrat like Brad Schneider.
But the actual poll showed no overwhelming sentiment either way…
Q1 If the Democratic primary for Congress were held today, and the choices were Ilya Sheyman, Brad Schneider, John Tree, and Vivek Bavda, for whom would you vote?
Ilya Sheyman…………………………………………. 23%
Brad Schneider……………………………………….. 21%
John Tree……………………………………………….. 5%
Vivek Bavda…………………………………………….2%
Not sure………………………………………………….49%
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.8 percent, but using probability figuring, there’s a 67 percent probability that Sheyman is ahead. But that’s assuming this poll was conducted properly.
* A buddy of mine had an interesting take on the results, however. He believes the polling shows that the new Internet age means candidates are getting their message out before paid or even much earned media kicks in. Ten years ago, unknown candidates like these would barely register a blip on a polling radar screen. Now, half of the polling sample has made up its mind, even though none of the candidates have really spent a whole lot of money.
Illinois Democratic House hopeful John Tree, who jumped in the 10th district primary late–in November–raised $101,000 in the past quarter and on Tuesday released a list of endorsements.
Tree, an Air Force Reservist and businessman, faces major competition from Brad Schneider and Ilya Sheyman for the nomination in the north suburban district. The battle is over who will face freshman Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.) in November.
Tree has about $80,000 cash-on-hand and pumped about $20,000 of his money into the race. Schneider and Sheyman have not released numbers yet for the quarter ending last Dec. 31.
Tree announced backing from David Wilhelm, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and Pete Couvall, Former Vice-Chairman of the Lake County Democrats and Treasurer of the Waukegan Democrats; David McArtin - Grant Township Democratic Committeeman; Rob Nesvacil - President of Wheeling Township Democrats; Kathleen Sances - Wheeling Township Democratic Committeewoman and Sue Walton - Palatine Township Democratic Committeewoman.
* In other news, this Progress Illinois story reminded me to say something about the circuit court clerk’s race…
With two months to go, the race for Cook County Circuit Clerk is an odd mix of wonky discussion on how to run a judicial bureaucracy — and hyberbolic charges and counter-charges by 12-year incumbent Dorothy Brown and challenger Rick Munoz, who has been Chicago’s 22nd Ward alderman since 1993. […]
Munoz’s campaign is fixated on Brown’s mini-scandals, like the incumbent paying her “Director of Investigations” to moonlight as her chauffeur. […]
Brown’s campaign, meanwhile is focused on the “fraud” committed by the Munoz campaign – that the challenger filed 28,000 phony signatures in his petition for clerk. But while Brown continues to publicly make the charge, the formal objection to Munoz’s signatures was actually withdrawn from the Illinois Board of Elections.
* But Chicago Magazine’s exposé on politicians and gangsters took a look at Ald. Munoz…
Indeed, crime in the heart of Little Village is higher than in much of the rest of the city. Statistics show that the police district that covers 26th Street and nearby parts of the 22nd Ward had the ninth-highest number of reported violent crimes and the fifth-highest number of homicides citywide in 2011.
But, as Montes points out, there are no surveillance cameras posted anywhere along 26th Street. He blames Ricardo Muñoz, the alderman for Little Village. Muñoz, an admitted ex–gang member, has served on the City Council since 1993. Critics cite the alderman’s well-established ties to the Latino gangs in Little Village and also note that Muñoz’s father and his nephew were, on separate occasions, arrested for trafficking fake IDs.
Montes, a gadfly who frequently holds protests to focus attention on the lack of police blue-light cameras in his ward, suspects that Muñoz has intentionally kept cameras out to help protect the gangs—a position shared by several law enforcement sources and Muñoz’s various political opponents. (The installation of surveillance cameras at high-crime corners, according to police figures, has cut drug-related crime by 76 percent and so-called quality-of-life crime by 46 percent. Aldermen can pay for the cameras out of the more than $1 million in discretionary funds they receive every year. Muñoz, however, hasn’t bought one.)
Over time, Montes has gathered more than 1,500 signatures of Little Village residents and business owners supporting the installation of cameras on 26th Street. “My question is: Why does [Muñoz] oppose cameras so much?” Montes says. “Why would you oppose these cameras when you have high crime in your area? You’re the alderman. You see crime going on. Why does he ignore it?”
Muñoz says 26th Street doesn’t need taxpayer-funded cameras: “The business strip should fend for themselves.” He adds that cameras should mostly go around schools and parks. As for the suspicions that he deliberately keeps cameras out to protect street gangs, he answers, “I grew up in the neighborhood, and these statements are coming from haters. They’re just rumors.”
That campaign will get a whole lot nastier if Brown wants it to.
* Kinzinger urges GOP presidentials to “stop attacks on free market”
* Kinzinger, Manzullo dispute over voting records: “What the real issue here is, when you look at the difference between Congressman Manzullo and I, he’s going for his 21st year in Congress and I’m going for my third.”
* “The McLaughlin Group” is not something I generally watch, but my parents are devotees. The host, John McLaughlin, often asks his guests for predictions, and McLaughlin himself offered up this one this past weekend…
“Michelle Obama will run for the United States Senate in 2016 and she will be thereby kind of mimicking, if that’s not the right word [then] duplicating the career of Hillary Clinton,” McLaughlin said.
* AFSCME sent out a harsh press release yesterday morning…
Group meets in secret to plan closing state’s mental health, developmental centers
Meeting in secret with no public input or scrutiny, a small handful of top Quinn Administration officials and state legislators is plotting to close state-run psychiatric hospitals and residential centers for individuals with profound developmental disabilities.
The group’s first targets are the Jacksonville Developmental Center in central Illinois and the Tinley Park Mental Health Center in Chicago’s south suburbs, followed by others including the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in far southern Anna. […]
“I agreed to participate in what I believed would be an open and deliberative process to serve the best interests of the people of Illinois,” Rep. Watson said. “To the contrary, there was no public input and a predetermined conclusion. When I objected and sought to open up the process, I was strongly criticized by the Governor’s staff and denied access to basic documents. This is no way to govern or consider important issues for our state.”
Rather than considering how best to serve the individuals with acute mental illness or severe developmental disabilities who rely on state centers, the Quinn Administration utilized a crude multi-factor evaluation system designed to ensure facility closures. A draft matrix obtained by the union showed the administration simply ranked each psychiatric hospital and developmental center from 1 to 5 on various factors—many of them subjective and others irrelevant, such as when the facility was built—then added the numeric ranks together to yield a “score,” with the highest-scoring facilities targeted for immediate closure.
I asked for a copy of the “draft matrix” yesterday, but the union hasn’t provided it yet. Rep. Watson represents Jacksonville, which he and the union claim is on the chopping block. Watson also claims that the administration was looking for a rubber stamp, rather than collaboration. But not everyone agrees…
Sen. Heather Steans didn’t see it that way. The Chicago Democrat also served on the panel, and she said the goal was to figure out how to balance factors like quality of care, condition of the facility and economic impact when deciding what to close. Any proposal Quinn makes will get a thorough review, she said.
No facilities in Steans’ district are slated for closure, of course. But this is an interesting quote…
Watson said he believes the Jacksonville community is willing to work with the state to make the Jacksonville Developmental Center more cost effective.
“This town would do a lot to make it more efficient for the state to operate that facility, for the sake of those individuals who are there and for the impact it has on the community.”
Would Jacksonville pony up some cash or other subsidies to keep the facility in place?
Thrilled to open the new Riverfront Campus at WIU-Quad Cities
And the pic…
I studied the full-size version for several minutes and never did figure out what the purple thing is in that bearded dude’s hand.
…Adding… The governor’s press office has informed me that the item in question is a WIU Leatherneck purple tie. PQ loves purple ties, but his tend to be in Northwestern’s colors.
* John Garrido lost a Chicago aldermanic race by a tiny handful of votes. But he felt he’d been libeled during the campaign and he sued. His opponent, John Arena, was backed by several labor unions, and SEIU ran an ad blasting Garrido for taking cash “from a corporation making millions from the parking meter deal.”
In reality, Garrido received a contribution from a security firm that works with the parking meter company. So, Garrido sued. But his lawsuit was dismissed because of Illinois’ Citizen Participation Act. From the 2007 law’s preamble…
There has been a disturbing increase in lawsuits termed “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” in government or “SLAPPs” as they are popularly called.
The threat of SLAPPs significantly chills and diminishes citizen participation in government, voluntary public service, and the exercise of these important constitutional rights. This abuse of the judicial process can and has been used as a means of intimidating, harassing, or punishing citizens and organizations for involving themselves in public affairs.
Acts in furtherance of the constitutional rights to petition, speech, association, and participation in government are immune from liability, regardless of intent or purpose, except when not genuinely aimed at procuring favorable government action, result, or outcome.
“The defendant doesn’t have to go to the effort of trying to prove, for instance, that their statements were true, or that for whatever other reason it wasn’t defamation. All the defendant has to do is show that the Citizen Participation Act applies,” [attorney Shari Albrecht] said.
And then the lawsuit is dismissed. Plus, the plaintiff - the person claiming to be defamed - has to pay a chunk of the other side’s legal bills.
And that’s what John Garrido is looking at, according to court documents: $13,164 for lawyers hired by the Chicago Federation of Labor, $34,149 for SEIU Illinois, $34,222 for UNITE HERE Local 1, $62,407 for Comcast and $17,097 for John Arena. All told, those defendants say Garrido owes them roughly $161,000.
In his order last week re-affirming his dismissal of the case, Cook County Judge Michael Panter wrote that courts shouldn’t “police the veracity of our political candidates’ campaign allegations.”
* Garrido plans to appeal. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on one case involving Illinois’ anti SLAPP law a little over a year ago…
In a clash of an individual’s free speech rights versus the right of companies to bring grievances to court, the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the little guy.
John Walsh spoke out about problems with the developers of his Edgewater condo building at a public meeting in his Chicago alderman’s office in 2007. After the meeting, a reporter talked to Walsh, who is president of the building’s condo association, and quoted him in a story about condo horror stories. The developers later sued the 58-year-old accountant for defamation.
The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that Walsh’s speech was shielded from liability under 2007 legislation that protects a citizen’s constitutional rights to participate in government.
It’s a significant ruling because the court broadly interpreted what actions fall within the scope of immunity, said lawyers involved in the case. It’s the first time the court has analyzed immunity granted in the Illinois Citizen Participation Act.
* I won’t be joining this protest in deed, but I will be with them in spirit…
Wikipedia, the popular community-edited online encyclopedia, will black out its English-language site for 24 hours to seek support against proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said threatens the future of the Internet.
The U.S. service will be the highest profile name to join a growing campaign starting at midnight Eastern Time on Wednesday that will see it black out its page so that visitors will only see information about the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).
The SOPA legislation under consideration in the House of Representatives aims to crack down on online sales of pirated American movies, music or other goods by forcing Internet companies to block access to foreign sites offering material that violates U.S. copyright laws. Supporters argue the bill is unlikely to have an impact on U.S.-based websites.
U.S. advertising networks could also be required to stop online ads, and search engines would be barred from directly linking to websites found to be distributing pirated goods.
Three key section of the existing legislation seem likely to remain, a person familiar with the matter says. They comprise provisions aimed at getting search engines to disable links to foreign infringing sites; provisions that cut off advertising services to those sites; and provisions that cut off payment processing.
But critical provisions that would require Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp. to cut off infringing sites through a technology known as DNS blocking are now likely to be eliminated.
Critics have said that such measures would only encourage people to navigate the web in riskier ways, with modified browsers or other tweaks that could lead to their Internet sessions getting hijacked by scammers.
Lawmakers had already been coming around to the realization they would have to hold back on the DNS-blocking provisions.
* And I couldn’t agree more with the American Society of News Editors’ stance against SOPA…
ASNE condemns content piracy, regardless of medium. Our members consider their content to be their most valuable asset. Unauthorized use of this content has always been a problem; its impact has increased with the advent of the Internet and has certainly undercut the financial well-being of America’s news media.
However, our members use the Internet in ways that could be construed to violate SOPA, and that’s not acceptable. Whether utilizing content contributed by third parties, stepping outside the direct reporter-source interaction to acquire and use information from websites around the world, or augmenting our stories through the use of multimedia previously unavailable to print-only publications, ASNE members continue to change the way news is presented. We fear that SOPA will restrict our ability to engage in these activities and stifle our capacity to innovate when we most sorely need the freedom to do so.
Ultimately, however, it is our longstanding dedication to First Amendment rights that drives our opposition to SOPA. Navigating the balance between copyright and free speech demands precision, and in seeking to protect the interests of copyright holders, the First Amendment requires Congress to adopt the least restrictive intrusion on speech available.
SOPA fails this test. It allows individual copyright owners to effect the most onerous restriction on speech — the prior restraint — with little evidence and virtually no due process, utilizing vague and overbroad definitions in the process. While it is directed at “rogue” websites engaged in widespread piracy, the law carries the real potential to go well beyond that narrow target. Without endorsing them, we note that more narrowly tailored alternatives have already been proposed. Their existence calls into question the constitutionality of SOPA and suggests that this Committee must reject H.R. 3261 and continue to examine other, less restrictive alternatives that strike the right balance between preventing piracy and protecting free expression.
We hope you agree. Again, we support your ultimate goal of eradicating online content piracy. We simply feel that this particular formulation is not precise enough to protect legitimate free speech rights. But we believe the right balance can be struck and are committed to working with your Committee and all Members of Congress to accomplish it.
* Considering that some of the most frequent copyright violators in Illinois are Republican Party officials, perhaps this whole thing needs to be rethought. What do I mean about these violators? Well, the Illinois Republican Party posts full-length news stories on its website every day. Here’s an example. The state Senate Republicans do the same.
* My syndicated newspaper column covers some familiar territory for blog readers, but not necessarily for newspaper readers…
As you probably know already, Moody’s recently slapped Illinois with its worst credit rating of any state in the nation.
But while Moody’s report was damaging, S&P’s rating was far more negative about the state’s future.
Moody’s cited Illinois’ “weak management practices” and failure to implement any pension funding reforms and pay off its mountain of overdue bills as the major top reasons for the downgrade. But Moody’s moved Illinois from a “negative” to a “stable” outlook for the future.
A spokesman for Gov. Pat Quinn was quoted as saying that the Moody’s rating drop was an “outlier” because ratings agencies S&P and Fitch had decided not to lower the state’s credit rating. On the surface, that’s true. Underneath, not so much.
Trouble is, S&P’s rating contained much harsher language about Illinois’ credit future, the agency put Illinois on negative watch and it issued a sternly worded warning that the state is in danger of another ratings downgrade this year.
S&P focused mainly on the state’s overdue bills, which the governor estimated at about $7 billion. Without “meaningful changes” to balance the books, S&P warned, “we could lower the rating this year.”
The ratings agency also strongly warned against Quinn’s plan to use long-term bonding to pay off overdue bills.
“The outlook also reflects … the possibility that (Illinois) might issue a significant amount of additional debt as part of its effort to address the large accumulated budget deficit,” was the blunt message from S&P, adding that a downgrade could be triggered if “debt levels increase significantly.” In other words, pay off the past-due bills but do so without issuing “significant” new debt.
The state budget office seemed to be taken somewhat aback by this warning, saying that its capital markets manager would have to work with S&P on the structure of a bond plan that would “minimize impact on near-term cash flow.”
But backloading the repayment of such a plan would also likely create howls of protest. In any case, getting a three-fifths vote in both legislative chambers has been next to impossible and is now probably even more unlikely with S&P’s latest pronouncement.
All three ratings agencies also highlighted Illinois’ pension problems. Moody’s focused on funding the pensions, not with the ever-rising costs of paying off old debts to the pension funds. S&P worried about deteriorating “pension funding levels.”
But even with the credit downgrade and all the warnings, Illinois still managed to get the lowest interest rate on its recent tax-exempt bond sale since at least 1976, according to the budget office, which couldn’t find any records before that date.
How the heck did that happen?
Essentially, the strong demand for municipal bonds. Billions of dollars in muni bonds are maturing around the country this month while few are being sold, and investors continue to look for safe havens.
And the current record low interest rates (the rate on the latest federal issue was 1.9 percent) combined to make the bond sale highly attractive to investors.
The predictions of gloom and doom simply didn’t materialize. Illinois beat every published expectation.
Yes, the interest rate probably would’ve been even lower if the state had a better credit rating. And the state’s interest rate was about triple the spread between top-rated bonds and what Illinois got when compared to the state’s last tax-exempt bond sale in 2009. And nobody would say that this sale signals any particular strength in our state’s financial situation.
But as Quinn’s capital markets director told reporters, it would be pretty tough for any state to get an interest rate much lower than the 3.9 percent Illinois got. So, while the Moody’s downgrade did have an impact, it wasn’t nearly as negative as you might’ve thought by reading the editorials and political press releases during the past couple of weeks.
What this state needs is a few more solutions and a whole lot less rhetoric.
* Meanwhile, Finke pulls out an interesting nugget…
The Illinois Policy Institute last week released a copy of its Repeal the Tax Hike Pledge that it wants lawmakers to sign. In it, a lawmaker pledges to vote to repeal the income tax hike and not impose additional taxes in its place.
The number of signees isn’t overwhelming. Only eight senators (all Republicans) and 18 representatives signed it. Rep. Jack Franks of Marengo was the only Democrat on the list. Another 30 candidates for the Legislature also signed the pledge. All of them are Republicans.
So what about Springfield’s lawmakers? A lot of their constituents have state jobs that sort of rely on the state having adequate income. Are they on the pledge?
Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, is not a signer. Bomke is not running for re-election, but he said signing pledges for interest groups isn’t the way he approaches the job.
“It’s a rarity that I sign any of those pledges,” Bomke said. “You can’t sign a pledge today and know what’s going to happen two or three years from now.”
Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, said he opposes the income tax, but isn’t signing the pledge, either.
“I haven’t signed any pledges in the last 10 years,” Poe said. “It locks you in (even) in the case of any emergency. If you sign one 20 years ago, they still have them.”
Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, however, did sign the pledge, even though he said signing pledges isn’t something he likes to do.
There is no doubt the cost of providing pensions for Illinois’ public sector employees has become issue No. 1 when it comes to the state budget.
But with all members of the House and Senate up for reelection in 2012, don’t get too excited about any significant changes being made to the state’s pension systems.
Here are just a few reasons why this political hot potato may be too hot to handle:
A) Public sector employee unions are typically big-time campaign contributors to Illinois politicians.
B) Senate President John Cullerton’s legal staff has written up a pretty compelling analysis that says altering pension benefits of existing state workers is unconstitutional. He controls the majority in that chamber, which means its doubtful something like that would come up for a vote.
C) A plan to alter benefits for existing state workers would cost the state more next fiscal year than it would if lawmakers simply left the system alone.
* Related…
* Not a city employee, ex-Sen. Marovitz denied a city pension
* Editorial: Shifting tax burden not a pension fix
* Editorial: Where is the ’strong economy’ from tax hikes?
* 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.
