The mayor said the contract cost an additional $74 million — compared with $129 million for the last contract — because of changes in sick days, vacation days and a new wellness plan.
“We have other tough things to do, I never denied that we didn’t have tough things to do,” he said “but I can’t sit here and say in the first five minutes of this contract we negotiated that I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen four or five months from now.”
Emanuel would not speculate whether higher cigarette and amusement taxes would be needed.
“No, we’re going to make other changes,” he said. “I don’t know today and I’m not going to stand here but we know what we can afford and what we’re going to do and we’re going to make changes throughout the system.”
…Adding More… I may have already posted this one, but the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running a TV ad thanking the teachers…
Like millions of Americans, Congressman Jackson and Mrs. Jackson are grappling with soaring healthcare costs and are selling their residence to help defray costs of their obligations. The Congressman would like to personally thank everyone who has offered prayers on behalf of his family.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Unsurprisingly, this move is causing a heckuva lot of speculation about Congressman Jackson’s future. Lynn Sweet…
The Washington D.C. home of Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is for sale, according to several local real estate listings. The asking price for the red brick Victorian row house, just off DuPont Circle, is $2.5 million.
The sale comes as Jackson is recovering from bipolar depression–we’re told at this home–that has forced his absence from Congress since mid-June and treatment at the Mayo Clinic and a facility in Arizona.
While the official residence for the Jackson family is on Chicago’s South Side, their home here is a family base for their two children, who attend a private school here.
The Sept. 8 real estate listing, posted on the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, says the home was built in 1921 and has four bedrooms, three full baths, two half baths, five fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen, a sun room and a rooftop deck with a Jacuzzi.
It notes that the sellers “need to find a home of choice.”
Around the time of the for-sale listing, Mr. Jackson left the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he was diagnosed with Type 2 bipolar disorder and was being treated for gastrointestinal problems related to weight-loss surgery in 2004.
“He is at home in D.C., convalescing with his wife and children,” his Chicago chief of staff, Rick Bryant, said at the time. “We hope to see him back to work on Monday.”
That Monday would’ve been Sept. 10. But he hasn’t been seen on Capitol Hill then or since.
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters on Wednesday that he had spoken to Jackson Jr. two or three weeks ago and did not know anything about his house being listed for sale.
One source in the middle of lots of political maneuvering says there are “strong indications” that Mr. Jackson will retire, either before the November election or shortly after.
That source says Ms. Jackson is interested in getting the job.
If the vacancy were to occur before November, the person to fill it would be chosen by Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Berrios, who holds a majority of the weighted vote in Mr. Jackson’s 2nd District on the South Side and in the southern suburbs.
If the vacancy were to happen later, Ms. Jackson would have to run in a special election.
Jackson’s people have not yet responded to any of my inquiries. I’ll let you know if they do.
An opponent of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in this fall’s election called for the congressman’s resignation on Monday, saying Jackson is unfit to serve the district.
Anthony W. Williams, a write-in candidate of the 2nd Congressional District, complained Jackson is out of touch and outright absent from the district — an absence, he argued, that began well before his June 10 health leave.
For much of the past two decades, Illinois’ child welfare system has been hailed for its dramatic reduction in the number of children in foster care.
But with the state facing one of the most severe budget shortfalls in the nation, some fear cuts could reverse the trend.
Since 1990, the state has dropped more than 35,000 children from its foster care rolls to its current population of about 15,000. A variety of initiatives led to the decline. One prevention program named Intact has been widely credited with keeping thousands of at-risk children with their families and out of foster care.
But a $50 million cut by the Legislature to the Division of Children and Family Services enacted in August threatens to diminish the Intact program, raising protests among local court and police officials in Southern Illinois.
State officials said they had no choice but to cut back the program to serve fewer families and contract the services out to private agencies. The head of DCFS has said the move is likely to drive more Illinois children into costlier foster care while putting others at risk for abuse and neglect.
Others say it’s too early to tell whether more children will end up in foster care. Mark Testa, a former research director with Illinois DCFS, said policy changes and cuts such as these were being made nationwide because of budgetary concerns. Cuts in prevention programs may more adequately target needier families, or they may backfire, said Testa, now a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
* AFSCME sent out this press release yesterday announcing a protest…
Facing a looming threat of more than 375 layoffs that would end the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Intact Family program that intervenes to preserve families and prevent child abuse, DCFS employees and allies will demonstrate against the cuts at 12:15 p.m. TOMORROW (Wednesday, Sept. 19) outside the Thompson Center in Chicago.
Hundreds of DCFS workers carrying dolls that symbolize at-risk kids will hear remarks from fellow frontline employees describing their work to keep families together and protect at-risk children. At the conclusion of the short speaking program, workers will lay the dolls in front of an image of Governor Quinn and ask, “If we’re not here, who will protect the children?”
WHAT: Demonstration against Gov. Pat Quinn’s threatened layoff of 375 DCFS employees and elimination of Intact Family Services program
WHO: Hundreds of DCFS employees from throughout Chicago; short remarks by three DCFS workers, AFSCME Council 31 associate director Mike Newman, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) staff coordinator Jackson Potter
WHERE: James R. Thompson Center plaza (corner of Clark and Randolph) in Chicago Loop
WHEN: 12:15 p.m. TOMORROW, Wednesday, Sept. 19
VISUALS: Crowd of hundreds of workers carrying dolls, supporters with colorful signs, 8 foot by 8 foot banner with image of Gov. Quinn under headline “Who will protect the children?”
If the layoffs go forward, Intact Family Services will be eliminated. Eligibility has already been curtailed and the few families that now qualify referred to private agencies that lack the capacity to adequately serve them. If the cuts are not reversed, more children will be harmed, more families pulled apart and more children forced into foster care, resulting in more taxpayer dollars expended.
DCFS employees and their union, AFSCME Council 31, are calling on the Quinn Administration to postpone the layoffs, now scheduled for Oct. 1, and urging the Illinois General Assembly to approve a supplemental appropriation to prevent the cuts during its veto session in late November.
* A photo from the rally. Click the pic for a larger image…
* Gov. Pat Quinn was asked about the DCFS cuts today. The governor reiterated his position that he tried to preserve DCFS funding with a $50 million veto of the prison budgets. Listen…
* Republican Congressman Bobby Schilling has a new TV ad that ties Democrat Cheri Bustos to Gov. Pat Quinn and China. Rate it…
* Script…
Narrator: Cheri Bustos and Pat Quinn, killing Illinois jobs.
In Washington, Bustos would support higher taxes on local businesses.
Just like Quinn. Bustos supports a bring-back tax on job creators, resulting in even more area jobs being shipped overseas.
The same Cheri Bustos who personally profits from foreign investments. The top contributor to Bustos’ investment plan? A Chinese overseas land and investment company.
We’re stuck with Pat Quinn. We just can’t afford Cheri Bustos.
Quinn is hugely unpopular everywhere, so that ad ain’t good for Bustos at all. And Schilling employs a clever visual with that fake “Cheri Bustos endorsed by PAT QUINN” billboard in the background…
Like I always say, turn off the sound to best rate a TV ad’s effectiveness. And that billboard works quite well with the sound off.
* I asked the Schilling campaign to provide details of the Chinese company mentioned in the ad. They pointed to Bustos’ financial disclosure statement which lists the Janus Overseas Fund. Bustos reported having between $15,000 to $50,000 invested in the fund.
China Overseas Land and Investment: We believe this leading Chinese homebuilder benefits from its strong brand and capital base, its ability to purchase land well, and a diversified land bank, especially in second tier cities which offer some of the best longterm growth opportunities.
The Schilling campaign didn’t point it out, but this is also from page 4…
Li & Fung: We like the Hong Kong based outsourcing and logistics company for its global leadership position in sourcing logistics for retailers. The company continues to grow through market share gains, new outsourcing customers and acquisitions.
I’ve asked the Bustos campaign for a response. They’re researching it as I write this. But Bustos should’ve cleansed her portfolio of that fund a long time ago. No excuse there.
* I mentioned the Hong Kong outsourcing company because, as the Schilling ad clearly shows, outsourcing is a huge issue in this campaign. The Bustos operation has a fact sheet on Schilling’s outsourcing record. Click here to read it.
* And speaking of outsourcing, Bustos has a new TV ad which claims that “Congressman Schilling wants to keep using our tax dollars to reward companies for shipping jobs overseas, and I’ll stop them.” Have a look…
* The 17th District contains a whole lot of manufacturing plants and unionized workers…
Democratic Congressional candidate Cheri Bustos turned her attention to job creation and trade policy in a conference call with reporters Monday, enlisting the help of former Maytag employee Dave Bevard to spell out a policy agenda that would reward companies for manufacturing in America.
“I know that we have the best workers and that they can compete with anyone as long as there is a level playing field,” Bustos said. “The problem is, that in Washington, Congress has passed legislation that makes an uneven playing field.” […]
“Congressman Schilling voted for trade deals that will result in more jobs going overseas and he supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs abroad,” she said. “I support common sense reforms to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and I support providing tax incentives to companies that want to move back to the U.S.”
“There’s a reason why John Deere and Caterpillar support me, and why major manufacturers in Rockford support me. We’re in a global market. Five percent of our customers are in America, 95 percent are outside. She wants a ‘bring back tax,’ so that when companies want to bring money back here, she wants to tax them, which incentivizes them to keep that money offshore,” Schilling said.
Schilling said he recently met with the CFO of NCR, Inc., about bringing jobs back to the U.S. from India.
“They’ve got 25,000 jobs in India, and they want to re-shore those. He said we should simplify the tax code, bring the corporate rate down from 35 percent – the highest in the world – to 20 to 25 percent. He said they’re OK with regulation, but not overregulation. Overregulation is crushing them. That’s the only incentives they need,” Schilling said.
* In other 17th District outsourcing news, Bustos’ campaign sent out this press release and video today…
In a stunning display of disrespect, Congressman Bobby Schilling yesterday walked out on voters and refused to answer questions about outsourcing and jobs at a town hall meeting in Freeport, Ill. The video can be seen here: http://bit.ly/PTuYGg
The workers were participating in a Congressman Schilling’s town hall in Freeport, where Sensata Technologies, a company owned by Bain Capital that plans to ship 170 jobs from the Freeport Sensata plant to China. Specifically, the workers asked Congressman Schilling if he would support the “Bring American Jobs Home Act” – common-sense legislation that would closes tax loopholes for companies that send jobs overseas and create tax incentives for companies to bring jobs back home.
Congressman Schilling has protected tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs abroad, while Democrat Cheri Bustos supports the Bring American Jobs Home Act and other efforts to create jobs here in Illinois.
Congressman Schilling’s willingness to walk out on local workers at the same time he became the Number One spender on Capitol Hill for using taxpayers’ hard-earned money on campaign style mass mailings demonstrates he has the wrong priorities.
“It is absolutely inexcusable for Congressman Schilling to walk out on Freeport workers when he supports the failed policies that are costing them their jobs,” said Bustos Campaign Manager Allison Jaslow. “Congressman Schilling has spent more than any other member of Congress on taxpayer-funded mailings to help him keep his job, but when he has to face simple questions about his record of giving tax breaks to companies that outsource jobs, Congressman Schilling walks out.”
“Congressman Schilling has the wrong priorities - he has no problem spending our money in an effort to keep his job while at the same time voting to send good-paying Illinois jobs overseas,” said Jaslow.
Looks like things got pretty darned heated on the workers’ side.
* From Schilling’s campaign manager…
We had requested a meeting with Sensata workers last Thursday. They rejected it because they felt it wouldn’t do any good.
So we had a meeting with farmers at the Stephenson County Farm Bureau. The Sensata people sat in the front row. Bobby opened it up to questions and the next thing I knew, they had 3 video cameras out and started chanting and disrupting the whole meeting.
We faked them out and continued the meeting after they pulled their stunt.
If they were serious about getting their jobs back, they would have taken us up on our offer to meet last week.
A bit on the harsh side, but he was frank, at least.
Pollsters at the Rothenburg Political Report have moved the dial on their prediction for the 17th District from “lean Democrat” to “tossup/tilt Democrat.”
The change is good news for U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Colona, who has a battle to hold onto his seat against Democrat Cheri Bustos in a district widely viewed as favoring Democrats.
In changing its rating on the 17th District, the Rothenburg Political Report said, “This Quad-Cities seat may be Republicans’ best chance of saving their trio of surprise freshmen in the Land of Lincoln, and both parties are already spending heavily and will continue to do so. The district looks like a Democratic bastion on paper, but Schilling is a terrific campaigner.”
The poll, conducted for the Democratic House Majority PAC and SEIU, shows retired Gen. Bill Enyart (D) leading former lieutenant governor candidate Jason Plummer by 49 to 41 percent. The same poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by 50 to 41, a slight dip from the 11-point margin of victory he had in the district four years ago.
* I’m not so sure I buy into those numbers totally because Obama is leading by so much in the poll. We Ask America’s polling from earlier this month had Obama ahead of Romney by just one point, 47-46, in the 618 area code. The area code covers a huge swath of Illinois, and the 12th is a Democratic-leaning district, but nine points is quite large, although, I suppose, not totally out of the question because the poll was conducted before the end of the Democratic convention.
We Ask America had this at 45-34 for Plummer back in July. But that was before many people knew who Enyart was.
* Average the two known polls together and we get 43 for Plummer and 41.5 for Enyart. I’m hearing from other sources that this has indeed become a very close race, so the average may be nearer to what we actually have there.
Plummer dismissed the poll results during a conference call Wednesday morning.
“What we have here is, Nancy Pelosi has to save a little face and Bill Enyart and his liberal allies are doing what they can to carry a message that the voters of Southern Illinois just aren’t buying,” Plummer said. “The only number I’m concerned about is the 10-and-half percent unemployment rate that this district is facing.”
After I posted this story, I talked to some more people and I’m more convinced than ever that this is a very tight race.
* A super conservative Super PAC is spending super bucks on Joe Walsh…
The group, which was formed earlier this year to support Sarah Steelman in the Missouri Republican Senate primary, released a new TV ad Tuesday supporting Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., possibly the most endangered incumbent member of Congress. The spot is running on five broadcast stations in Chicago for a cost of over $810,000, according to Federal Election Commission filings — more in one buy than the group spent in total for Steelman, who lost her primary.
Unlike most third-party ads, this spot is completely positive, touting Walsh’s record of holding town hall meetings and turning down congressional perks — just like Walsh’s minute-long opening TV ad released in August. To get a sense of the size of the buy, Walsh had just over $830,000 cash on-hand at the last FEC disclosure deadline at the end of June.
Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said Tuesday that the recent arrest of a Muslim teenager from Hillside for allegedly plotting to detonate a car bomb outside a downtown bar proves his point about radical Islam is a real threat that exists in the Chicago suburbs.
WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports 18-year-old Adel Daoud is accused of trying to set off what he thought was a car bomb outside a downtown tavern on Friday. […]
Last month, the 8th District Republican said at a town hall meeting that “there is a radical strain of Islam in this country – it’s not just over there – trying to kill Americans every week. It is a real threat, and it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11.”
The congressman went on to claim that radical Islam had found its way into the Chicago suburbs, including parts of his district. […]
“I’ve been very disappointed in Tammy Duckworth, because she sort of wants to score political points, and said that the fact that … I brought this issue up is reckless. I hope now that she’s been reminded that this is a serious threat,” he said. “We know this is going on in towns big and small throughout the country. And here we’ve got a young man who belonged to worship at a mosque in Villa Park; in, you know, the 8th District.”
