Reader comments closed for the weekend
Thursday, Jul 19, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have a long-scheduled previous engagement for Friday, so I don’t think I’ll be able to blog.
* I always post a video at the end of the week, but there really isn’t a good version of this song on YouTube, so I’m posting the audio version instead. Andy Roose is a singer-songwriter from the St. Louis area. I heard one of his tunes while listening to that city’s fantastic community radio station KDHX not long ago and was knocked out. Have a listen…
The harder you live, the better the song.
…Adding… If you’re in Chicago Saturday night, you ought to go to the third annual “Concert for Carlos.” This is a benefit in honor of our great friend Carlos Hernandez Gomez, who died way too young. More info here. The event will be held at Uncle Fatty’s Rum Resort (2833 N Sheffield Ave) and the doors open at 7 o’clock. Here’s the poster with the lineup…
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Unsolicited advice
Thursday, Jul 19, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dear City of Joliet,
I saw that you posted this on your city’s official Facebook page today…
State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow, will be at Stefanich Restaurant on Scott St. in Joliet tonight night for a campaign reception and fundraiser. Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White will be there too to greet guests. Come by between 5-7 p.m. To say hello to the State’s Attorney and the Secretary of State!
You post campaign fundraiser announcements on the city FB page? On city time?
Are y’all insane?
…Adding… From Ben Benson, the Joliet Assistant City Manager…
Yes it was on the City page briefly, it was posted by mistake, however, not done by the City officially nor on City time,
We actually use a sub-contractor that supports us in marketing & social media matters
Well, the subcontractor is still paid with city funds, no?
* Dear Congressman Joe Walsh,
I saw your press release today about you not attending the Republican National Convention later this month…
“My opponent, Tammy Duckworth, has always been the preferred pick of Democrat Party insiders from Blagojevich to Emmanuel. Despite that, I hope she will join me in skipping the conventions to tour the district to discuss the real issues that matter to real people. The conventions are nothing more than an excuse to mingle with insiders and party with the elite. This district does not want just another insider to represent them; they want an independent who will fight for real solutions to the issues.”
Emmanuel is a college. Emanuel is the mayor.
And just in case your proofreader needs more help, Emmanuelle is a series of films not suitable for children.
* Dear Cub President Theo Epstein,
Your quote made me spit out my iced tea…
With the Rickettses striking out, the Cubs could call on President Theo Epstein to lobby Emanuel. They met earlier this season, and Epstein said Wednesday Emanuel seemed like a “nice guy.”
Have you thought about counseling?
* Dear Republican Party of Illinois Chairman Pat Brady,
From your press release…
Team Madigan continued to support Derrick Smith AFTER he was arrested
House expulsion process is just political cover for Democrats in the fall elections
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady released the following statement regarding this week’s House panel deliberation that State Rep. Derrick Smith be expelled from the Illinois House of Representatives:
“Team Madigan continued to campaign for Derrick Smith during the Democratic primary AFTER Smith was caught red-handed with $7,000 in bribe money in his pocket simply because Mike Madigan feared someone outside of his political control might win the seat. This week’s expulsion hearing is nothing more than giving Madigan political cover for his members in the November election. As usual with Madigan and his cronies, party loyalty trumps principled leadership.”
So, you’re saying that the House Republicans who filed the original charges, the House Republicans who sat on the Special Investigating Committee and the House Republicans on the Select Committee on Discipline are all taking part in an elaborate ruse to cover Mike Madigan’s behind?
Seriously, man, could you be more obtuse?
…Adding… I think Brady was referring to this Sun-Times article, which pretty much debunks the chairman’s claim about the post-arrest help. Also, there were originally no MJM campaign contributions listed after Smith’s March 13 arrest.
*** UPDATE *** Apparently, House Republican Leader Tom Cross totally disagrees with his state party chairman. From a press release…
“Ever since our members filed a petition to begin a House investigation into the very serious allegations against Rep. Derrick Smith, the Special Investigating Committee and Select Committee on Discipline members, the House Managers and staff have taken their responsibility very seriously and reached the conclusion that Rep. Smith should be expelled from the Illinois House of Representatives. If the full House takes the committee’s recommendation, this will be only the second time since 1900 that a member has been expelled from the Illinois House. This has been a truly historic, but necessary investigation and recommendation. All of the legislators who have been participating in this process should be commended.”
* Your turn…
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Caption contest!
Thursday, Jul 19, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn was joined by Nippon Sharyo executives today to open the company’s new U.S. headquarters and passenger railcar production facility in Rochelle, Illinois. Japanese train car manufacturer Nippon Sharyo is investing $50 million and creating at least 250 new jobs in Rochelle, which will help the company increase its competitiveness by moving closer to its U.S. customers and suppliers. Today’s announcement is a result of Governor Quinn’s efforts to bring new business to Illinois.
* And here’s the governor celebrating with the Japanese consul general…
Thanks to the guv’s office for the pic.
Enjoy.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Jul 19, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The AP picked up on Speaker Madigan’s attempted refutation of the highly critical series of Tribune stories published last month…
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan sent a 13-page letter to members of the General Assembly on Wednesday, rebutting a Chicago Tribune series that examined the intersection of his work as a public official and private lawyer.
The series ran in June and examined several potential conflicts of interest. In one case, Chicago’s largest operator of assisted living homes hired Madigan and later benefited from a state program he supported. In another, banks that his firm represented were unaffected by housing activists’ efforts to make them pay more for damage caused in foreclosures.
At the time, Madigan declined to give interviews to the Tribune or provide documents requested by the newspaper. He did provide a statement calling the stories “garbage.”
But now Madigan makes his case in painstaking detail. His letter resembles a report with headers, budget figures and details showing that he went back to sources interviewed by the Tribune to talk about their comments. […]
A Tribune spokesman didn’t immediately have comment on it.
Madigan did the same sort of thing in 2010 after an earlier Tribune series.
In both cases, the Tribune has not yet responded, according to his spokesman.
* The Question: Should the Chicago Tribune respond to Madigan’s criticisms? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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* Gov. Pat Quinn signed four consumer protection bills into law yesterday, including this one…
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Wednesday to outlaw “cramming,” a practice in which third-party companies place unwanted an unauthorized charges on a customer’s phone bill.
The charges usually go unnoticed by consumers, who are typically billed anywhere from $5 to $45 for services ranging from calling cards to voice mail and extended warranties they never signed up for.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan estimates cramming impacts as many as 20 million households across America each year, raising $2 billion for companies she calls “scammers.”
* The governor made the announcement at the Citizens Utility Board office in Chicago. Here are the other bills he signed, from a Quinn press release…
House Bill 5025, sponsored by Rep. Joe Lyons (D-Chicago) and Sen. John Mulroe (D-Chicago) will help consumers resolve negative action on their credit scores by requiring public utilities to notify credit reporting agencies when a customer has paid off their outstanding balances in full. This measure will allow utility customers to be more quickly relieved of pressure from collection agencies and help them improve their credit scores. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.
Senate Bill 3170 sponsored by Rep. JoAnn Osmond (R-Antioch) and Sen. Suzi Schmidt (R-Lake Villa), allows townships to participate in electrical aggregation the same way counties and municipalities can under current law. Aggregation allows for greater group energy purchasing, which increases competition and lowers costs for consumers. According to the Illinois Commerce Commission, more than 90 municipalities have become power aggregators since 2010, which has allowed for greater consumer savings. The law goes into effect immediately.
Senate Bill 3811, sponsored by Rep. Karen May (D-Highland Park) and Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) protects the ability of certain groups to continue to benefit from “net metering,” which allows customers who generate their own renewable energy to sell excess power back to an electricity provider. The new law takes into account the increased aggregation and alternative energy sources more Illinois communities are now using. The measure provides that net metering customers will be treated equally regardless of the competitiveness of their local energy market. The law goes into effect immediately.
* Interesesingly enough though, CUB hotly opposes another bill that’s sitting on Quinn’s desk right now. Editorial boards throughout the state have been bashing the legislation for weeks. Here’s a representative sample from the Northwest Herald…
Gov. Pat Quinn should veto legislation passed by both the Illinois Senate and House that essentially will drive up costs for natural gas customers in McHenry County and across the state.
Senate Bill 3766 was approved in the waning moments of the legislative session that ended in May after significant lobbying by the Leucadia National Corp., which wants to build a $3 billion synthetic gas plant on Chicago’s southeast side.
Although the measure would create about 1,000 jobs in the short term, it forces Nicor Gas, which serves the suburbs, and Ameren Illinois, which serves downstate, to pay much of the costs to build and operate the plant. Nicor and Ameren also would be required to buy the much more expensive natural gas that this new plant produces.
This, in turn, would significantly drive up rates for all Nicor and Ameren residential and commercial customers.
A diverse coalition of Illinois businesses and environmental, consumer and agricultural groups oppose the legislation, including the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, the Sierra Club, the Citizens Utility Board, and the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois.
“No matter how you look at it, a bad deal is a bad deal. Leucadia would result in one of the largest rate hikes for consumers and businesses in Illinois history,” said Mark Denzler, vice president/COO, Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.
* From CUB…
This is the second time Gov. Quinn could veto a pro-Leucadia bill. Last year, the governor got out his veto pen and forced the company to make concessions, applying a cap on rate increases and creating a $150 million fund to help soften the blow to consumers. But then Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, two Chicago-area utilities, dropped out of the proposal, saying the gas increases would be too punishing for customers. The exit of those two utilities led Nicor and Ameren to complain that its customers would now be forced to shoulder too much of the costs. State regulators agreed with Nicor and Ameren, but legislators responded with the current bill, which would force Ameren and Nicor to cover more of the construction costs.
* And considering all this public heat, it’s even more interesting that the Leucadia bill wasn’t mentioned by reporters during yesterday’s press conference. Raw audio…
The questions were almost all about pensions.
* The other side…
But is has its advantages beyond jobs and $3 billion in industrial development in Chicago, says State Senator Donne Trotter.
“This project not only benefits the city of Chicago, it benefits downstate,” says Trotter. “It creates jobs downstate, utilizing one of our natural resources- coal.”
State Senator Marcus Evans adds it’s technology on which Illinois should get in on the ground floor.
“Currently, almost 100 percent of the gas for Illinois homes and business is produced outside of the state of Illinois; in some instances, outside of the country,” Evans says. “That’s billions of dollars each year that leaves our economy. Let’s build a clean energy project that keeps money in Illinois, where it belongs.”
The legislation commits the plant to using at least 35 percent Illinois coal. Labor groups and sponsoring lawmakers want Quinn to sign the bill before all plants like the Leucadia one are built in other states.
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*** UPDATE *** Levine gets 67 months…
Stuart Levine — who admitted his role in the corruption scandal that sent former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to prison and provided key testimony against Blagojevich and others — was sentenced Thursday to 67 months in prison. […]
In sentencing Levine, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve called him one of the “most corrupt politicians” in northern Illinois.
“The havoc that you wrecked is certainly substantial,” she told him.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* John Kass makes the case that the national GOP ought to think twice about using Chicago corruption against President Obama this week because this week also just happens to be loaded with Republican court hearings…
Former Gov. George Ryan is still in federal prison. His lawyers are scheduled to appear in court for him Friday, to argue that his jury was given improper instructions.
On Thursday in federal court comes Stuart Levine, the financier who used his political influence on state boards and commissions to squeeze profits and is now up for sentencing. […]
The third Republican, and most powerful of all, is William Cellini, the de facto Republican boss who stayed hidden in the shadows for decades and who used his contacts to deal with Ryan’s now-imprisoned successor, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and — wait for it — Obama’s very own personal real estate fairy, the imprisoned influence peddler Tony Rezko.
It was Cellini and Levine and Rezko and their wives who went to the White House for a Christmas party. And it wasn’t the Obama White House. It was the Bush White House.
Cellini’s hearing was yesterday. His sentencing was delayed until October.
* Steve Chapman also makes some good points about the hard-right myth that Obama wasn’t properly “vetted” last time around…
If I were conspiracy-minded, I’d suspect Barack Obama has deployed several moles to sabotage his opponent. Take John Sununu, who yesterday attacked the president for having used drugs, spent time abroad and lived in Chicago. Or Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who now claims to have proof Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud. Mitt Romney’s aides are vowing to expose Obama’s past, insisting he wasn’t “vetted” the last time around. If I were David Axelrod, I’d be smiling.
Why? Because we’ve heard it all before. It didn’t keep Americans from electing Obama in 2008 and it won’t stop them this time. These claims do resonate with some voters — but only those who wouldn’t vote for Obama if he were running against Vladimir Putin.
Most Americans just won’t buy it. The president’s personal approval ratings have consistently held up even amid our economic mess. A recent poll found that by a more than 2-to-1 margin, they find him more likable than Romney. Americans know Obama well by now, and they aren’t going to change their minds about him as a person in the absence of powerful new information, which Republicans don’t seem to have.
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*** UPDATE 1 *** That live video link of the Smith hearing is here.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The House managers have recommended expulsion for Rep. Smith.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The House Select Committee on Discipline voted 11-1 to expel Rep. Smith.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Rep. Al Riley (D-Olympia Fields) was the only “no” vote on the expulsion roll call.
…Adding… Here’s a ScribbleLive feed…
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* The Sun-Times matches up dates in West Side Democratic Rep. Derrick Smith’s indictment with session days and finds that Smith could’ve been plotting to accept a bribe while he was on duty in Springfield…
A Chicago Sun-Times review of phone calls between Smith and the mole that federal investigators identified in their criminal complaint and the House journal turned up numerous, unreported occasions when Smith actually was in Springfield, allegedly conversing over the phone with the informant.
That detail could surface Thursday during a key hearing when a legislative panel weighing Smith’s political future hears arguments to punish him with sanctions as severe as expulsion.
“That building is so impressive. You can’t walk in there without thinking it’s the people’s business,” David Morrison, deputy director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said of the statehouse. “If he’s going to be at the Capitol, the notion he was engaging in allegedly corrupt activities is all the more egregious.”
In their criminal complaint against Smith, federal prosecutors outlined 17 secretly recorded telephone conversations between Smith and the mole offering the bribe. Seven of those calls fell on days the House was in session and Smith was on the job. On six of those days, it was Smith doing the calling, according to the complaint.
There’s no way to tell on those seven days what exactly Smith was doing in Springfield when the calls were made because investigators don’t allude to times for the calls in the complaint.
Smith’s lawyer, Victor Henderson, declined comment Wednesday when asked about whether his client had those conversations with the government informant on days the Legislature was in session and Smith was in Springfield.
Henderson is fighting to keep the criminal complaint that refers to all of the calls and tells the narrative of Smith’s alleged crime out of the committee’s record, but the two House managers believe it should be included as a piece of evidence against Smith.
Today’s hearing of the House Select Committee on Discipline will be broadcast live starting at 9:30 this morning, and I should have either the embed or a link to the video. So, make sure to check back.
* Meanwhile, there’s a link between former West Side Democratic state Sen. Rickey Hendon and the two Board of Review employees who were indicted yesterday, according to Mark Brown…
In the latest case, federal agents arrested two employees of Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. for taking bribes to fix property tax appeals. […]
The new arrests came on the heels of Tuesday’s roundup of seven individuals accused of paying kickbacks in exchange for government grants — most of them connected in some way to former state Sen. Rickey Hendon of Chicago.
The latest case also has Hendon connections. Former Hendon campaign treasurer Dean Nichols, an Oak Park accountant who was charged in the grant kickback scheme, is also alleged to have served as the go-between for the dirty cop and the bribe-taking tax appeals analysts. In addition, Hendon formerly worked at the Board of Review under Rogers. Neither of them could be reached for comment.
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