The Illinois House of Representatives has created a new committee to address inequalities in the state’s criminal justice system, while the chairman of the new committee faces his own legal problems.
State Rep. LaShawn Ford is the chairman of the new Restorative Justice Committee.
He’s also been indicted for bank fraud.
Hey, this is Illinois, people.
* But there does seem to be a legit reason to create the committee…
Ford’s fellow Democratic committee members also expressed a desire to use the committee to discuss the variety of issues that relate to the criminal justice system.
“We’ve seen in the debate after the terrible shooting incident in Connecticut how issues of criminal law and mental health and, you know, other different categories sort of intersect,” said State. Rep. Greg Harris. “And I think we need to take a holistic look at all of those things.” […]
“I think often in government, things tend to go in silos where you look at things based on the source who uses the funds and there’s a lot of interrelationships between levels of education and levels of job preparedness and the availability of jobs in the community along with mental health issues and substance abuse and crime,” he said. “So to look at them just in a - isolate the little box may not give you the whole picture.”
After figuring out that she had gotten on the wrong South Side bus last March 9, Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim got off somewhere on 47th Street and “marched for justice towards downtown.”
It was one in a bizarre series of events in a day that ended with her arrest on battery charges after allegedly shoving a sheriff’s deputy outside the Daley Center court complex. That story was told in the testimony that Judge Liam Brennan heard at Brim’s trial Monday at the Daley Center. He decided that Brim — who has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type — was not guilty by reason of insanity. […]
Brim, 54, didn’t talk with reporters after the verdict, but her attorney, James D. Montgomery Sr., said she was eager to get back to work.
Cook County Board President did a robocall for Brim and other judges last year to urge their retentiion.
* I’m not as averse to pork projects as some are. The debilitated, deadlocked US Congress is an example of what happens when you remove pork projects from the legislative give and take. It’s a long tradition, and it works…
An emergency spending proposal being debated in the Capitol this week isn’t just about building new roads and protecting vulnerable children.
Rather, tucked into what could become a package worth more than $1.3 billion is $115,000 to help launch a high school basketball hall of fame in Danville.
The 92-page spending blueprint also contains $1 million to help build a new children’s museum in downtown Springfield, despite the failure of a similar facility just blocks away several years ago.
And, it has $167,148 for a museum in the Southern Illinois town of Rosiclare dedicated to the region’s fluorspar miners.
In a vote Monday, a House panel endorsed the added spending, which is designed to patch holes in the state budget in the second half of the state’s fiscal year. It includes $675 million for various transportation projects, $25 million for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and $12 million for community mental health programs.
Walnut Point State Park north of Oakland and Lincoln Trail State Park south of Marshall have temporarily stopped taking reservations for camp sites due to a staffing shortage but are otherwise open for use.
The two state parks stopped taking reservations about a week ago, said Tom Hintz, who is site superintendent for both Walnut Point and Lincoln Trail. Hintz said he does not have the staffing available at this time time to handle reservations, adding that he is the only full-time employee available for both sites. Hintz said reservations made before last week are still being honored, adding that Walnut Point already has some camp site reservations for the spring. He said Lincoln Trail does not have an reservations in place.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud said Walnut Point and Lincoln Trail, like other state parks, have been affected by the DNR’s land staff being reduced by 50 percent during the last 10 years due to state budget cuts.
McCloud said staffing, facility maintenance, and other needs at Illinois state parks will receive a financial lift later in 2013 when the state starts to collect proceeds from a $2 increase in license plate fees that will generate an estimated $18 million to $22 million for natural resources usage.
A proposal before the state legislature could keep shoppers from having to pay more when using credit cards. Chris Slaby reports.
The plan would prohibit Illinois retailers from adding an extra fee to purchases made with credit cards. It comes after a federal settlement gave businesses the go-ahead to charge up to four-percent extra on credit card transactions, unless states prohibit them from doing so.
So far, ten states have banned the surcharge. […]
David Vite is president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. He says Illinois consumers have nothing to worry about, because Illinois stores will not implement the surcharge.
VITE: “Their interest is in lowering prices to their customer, not increasing costs to the customer.”
Consumer groups, though, say they’re concerned retailers will wait for things to cool down before implementing the fees.
* The Question: Despite the assurances from IRMA, should Illinois ban retailer credit card surcharges? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The son of one of Illinois’ most powerful political families said the plans of a daughter of another political dynasty won’t affect his bid for governor.
Bill Daley told the Daily Herald Monday that “what the attorney general does or what she doesn’t do, that’s not going to affect my decision.” However, he acknowledged, “I know people don’t believe that.” [Emphasis added.]
We’ll see.
* Was there a meeting between Daley and Speaker Madigan to discuss the race? Brown’s not saying…
Steve Brown, Michael Madigan’s spokesman, would not say whether he and Bill Daley have met to discuss who would be on the Democratic primary ballot. Madigan “makes a practice of not commenting on private meetings,” Brown said.
Daley told the Daily Herald that he’d make a decision by April.
* By the way, check out Lisa Madigan’s campaign Twitter page. Her posting frequency has increased a lot in the past few weeks. Not saying this is a sign of anything. Just saying.
* The Tamms super-max prison kept inmates isolated almost all the time. That treatment led human rights groups to label the incarceration torture. When I visited some prisons several years ago, including Tamms, I couldn’t help but notice that the super-max prison was cleaner than the other prisons and, also unlike the other prisons, had decent climate control, wasn’t crowded and was quiet.
So, now that the super-max prisoners have been transferred to Pontiac, some have declared a hunger strike…
The Chicago-based Uptown People’s Law Center said an estimated 10 prisoners are participating in the strike, which comes about a month after the inmates were transferred out of Tamms and into the older facility in Livingston County.
Key among their grievances is a lack of heat because of some of the retrofitting that was done in order to prepare Pontiac for the prisoners from Tamms. The prisoners are complaining that plexiglass panels installed on their cell doors block heat from entering their living areas, said Brian Nelson prison rights coordinator for the law center. […]
Nelson said the prisoners are upset that they don’t have televisions, radios, cleaning supplies, legal-sized envelopes and razors. In addition, he said they also are being forced to share nail clippers even though some men have illnesses.
“They are requesting that the clippers be sterilized after every use,” Nelson said.
The group says just ten former Tamms inmates are on hunger strike, but the Department of Corrections says that 47 inmates at Pontiac have recently declared they’re on hunger strikes.
* Unlike House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton will send a delegate to the We Are One Ilinois’ pension “summit” this month. But Cullerton had some harsh words for those who believe that tax hikes are the answer to the pension problems…
“This notion of having to have no sacrifice from the pensioneers and have us just raise taxes and then spend it on them …,” Cullerton said. “What if we had $2 billion in new revenue? Why not do a capital bill? Why not spend more money on human services or pay old bills?”
[Cullerton] also singled out Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, for blaming lawmakers for underfunding pensions.
“He forgets about the fact he was negotiating what some would say were generous contracts eating up the money instead of putting it in the pension fund,” Cullerton said.
The relationship between legislative leaders and public employee unions is strained, Cullerton said, “because the unions are opposed to any changes in the law that’s going to go anywhere toward solving the problem.”
State Rep. Joe Sosnowski (R-Belvidere) on Monday introduced a constitutional amendment, House Joint Constitutional Amendment 11, that would strike a 38-word paragraph of the Illinois Constitution that prohibits the reduction of public employee pension benefits.
A key stumbling block in the search for any viable legislative formula to restrain the costs of Illinois public pension costs is the language in the Illinois Constitution that states that public pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”
* I played football in high school and the coach forbade us from having long bangs that he said could interfere with our vision. Hey, it was the 70s and our coach wasn’t exactly a hippie. But I still wanted long hair, so I had to get what is now called a mullet. From 1977…
Man, I loved that shirt.
Best comment wins a $20 gift card at Grab-a-Java in Springfield.
* The Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability’s latest monthly report includes a history of Illinois’ bond ratings dating back to 1973…
So, the last time Illinois’ bond ratings were upgraded was in June of 2000 - but only one agency did so. You have to go back to the Thompson administration to see the last Illinois AAA rating.
* State Sen. Toi Hutchinson has refused to release her NRA questionnaires, undoubtedly because she used to be pretty solidly pro gun rights and is now running as a mostly gun control candidate who supports a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
The questionnaire shows Hutchinson was asked if she would support “state legislation restricting the private possession, ownership, purchase, sale and/or transfer of any semi-automatic firearms.” She responded, “No, I would oppose such legislation.” The question also included the issue of large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Additionally, when asked by the NRA if Hutchinson would support “legislation making it a crime to fail to report the loss or theft of a firearm,” she replied: “No, I would oppose such legislation because it has no demonstrated affect on crime and creates an unwarranted legal presumption that gun owners should answer to the police for their own victimization or misfortune.”
But last week at a forum in Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields, Hutchinson announced she supports a state bill requiring the reporting of lost firearms. […]
Hutchinson maintained that [Robin Kelly] was running “a single-issue campaign” and trying to score “more political points” marketing the state senator’s gun-rights positions “as though they’re the positions that I have right now. And, I’m saying very clearly I’m moderating my positions.”
If that gun issue is resonating with special primary voters, Hutchinson could be in trouble. You gotta figure it’s polling well since the Kelly campaign has so completely latched onto the issue. We’ll see soon enough.
*** UPDATE *** Robin Kelly has issued a response…
“After refusing to release her NRA questionnaire for weeks, we know what Senator Hutchinson was hiding. She didn’t want voters in Chicago and the Southland to know that she promised the NRA that she would oppose an assault weapons ban. That she would oppose outlawing high capacity magazine clips.
“Toi Hutchinson says that Newtown, CT changed her perspective, but she agreed with the NRA’s extreme positions despite the killing happening on our own streets. The only thing that ‘changed’ for Toi Hutchinson is that she entered a race for Congress where her past support of the NRA’s agenda was no longer politically convenient.
“It’s clear now that we can’t trust Toi Hutchinson or Debbie Halvorson to protect our communities against gun violence because both were willing to stand with the NRA when we needed them most. I am the only candidate in the race ready to stand with President Obama to stop the NRA and their pro-gun agenda.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, in other CD2 news, complaints have surfaced that Anthony Beale may be requiring political help from those who want to be contractors on the new Walmart construction project…
[Contractor Reginald Rooks] said Beale’s congressional campaign has asked him to distribute flyers.
Rooks and leaders of the African-American Contractors Association suspect a connection between the hiring consultant and Beale’s political organization.
“I’m handing out your literature,” Rooks said. “Yes, I should get a job.”
Critics blame it on the culture of corruption that Chicago politics is infamous for.
“Its’ just a culture of corruption going on,” the Save Our Community Coalition’s Bob Israel said. “You know how long I’ve been fighting that. It’s just a culture of corruption.”
Beale denied any connection between his political organization and Maurice Williams.
“There’s no connection between my office and Mr. Williams other than he has a company and we direct people to his particular company,” Beale said.
* The conservative Jobs and Progress Fund Super PAC isn’t just running TV ads blasting Congressman Aaron Schock, it’s also sending out mailers whacking the potential gubernatorial candidate. Here’s one [Fixed link]…
