* An endorsement like this could actually help move the ball forward with some more conservative, pro-union Democrats and even some Republicans…
WHEREAS the Illinois AFL-CIO has a long history of supporting full equality and civil rights for all Americans, regardless of their race, their religion, their sex, their national origin, their sexual orientation or gender identity; and,
WHEREAS the Illinois AFL-CIO has worked in support of anti-discrimination protection, domestic partner benefits, and other protections and benefits for our union brothers and sisters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; and,
WHEREAS gay and lesbian workers in same-sex relationships are treated as second class citizens in their workplace, denied family and medical leave, equal insurance coverage and other benefits that build strong families in Illinois, despite the fact that 13 states and the District of Columbia extend the freedom to marry to same-sex couples; and,
WHEREAS, the federal Government Accounting Office documents more than 1,100 federal benefits denied to loving, committed gay and lesbian couples, including Social Security benefits, worker compensation, pension benefits, Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, and many more; and,
WHEREAS President Barack Obama has endorsed the freedom to marry for all Americans, saying “We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well”; and,
WHEREAS the National AFL-CIO filed a “friend of the court” brief asking the Supreme Court of the United States to find the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Illinois AFL-CIO joins with leaders from the faith community, civil rights organizations, President Obama, our own unions and a growing majority of Americans in supporting marriage equality legislation that effectively protects religious freedom; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call on our Illinois state legislators to sponsor and vote for this legislation; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that Illinois AFL-CIO will work to advance legislation and/or support ballot measures, at both the state and federal level, to confer full marriage equality, including health and pension benefits, family and medical leave, tax treatment and disability benefits to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Discuss.
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* 2:32 pm - Wow…
*** UPDATE *** * 2:45 pm - The ruling can be downloaded by clicking here.
* The judge rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that by not vetoing the “total” lines in the appropriations bill he hadn’t really vetoed the money. The judge said it was “abundantly clear” that everybody knew the governor’s intent.
* The judge relied on the Jorgensen case, which involved cost of living increases for judges, to rule that the comptroller must “immediately” pay salaries, plus interest.
* More Judge Cohen…
Governor Quinn invites this court to consider statements made during the 1970 Constitutional Convention in construing the word “changes.” This court declines to do so. It would only be proper to consider the debates… if there was doubt as to the common meaning of “changes.”
That means the judge ruled legislative salaries cannot be raised or lowered during a term of office. The governor had argued that Con-Con delegates only referred to stopping legislators from increasing their pay during their terms.
* 3:17 pm - Cullerton react…
Senate President John J. Cullerton released the following statement on Judge Cohen’s order in Cullerton v. Quinn:
“Today the circuit court vindicated the Illinois Constitution as Judge Cohen ruled to protect and preserve the separation of powers. Now that the governor’s actions have been answered by a court, I trust that we can put aside all distractions and focus on the goal of pension reform.
“Pension reform remains our top priority. Even while this case was pending, the legislature never stopped working on this issue. I applaud the progress of the pension conference committee as its members shape a pension plan that maximizes our savings and upholds a fundamental standard of fairness.”
Any bets on whether Quinn will file an appeal?
*** UPDATE *** * 3:20 pm - I got the answer to my own question. I’m told that Quinn will appeal.
Quinn can ask the judge to stay his ruling during the appeal, which would hold up the checks, but Cohen doesn’t have to comply.
* 3:26 pm - Bruce Rauner react…
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner issued the following statement regarding Judge Neil Cohen’s ruling that Illinois must pay lawmakers:
“When Pat Quinn suspended legislators pay I called it ‘just another political stunt.’ More than two months later, the pension system is still broken.
We don’t need any more political stunts. We need a leader who is willing to take on the government union bosses and special interests that control Springfield, and the crowd in charge now refuses to do it. I’ll get the job done.”
*** UPDATE *** * 3:41 pm - I’m told that Quinn may ask for a stay this afternoon. So, there’s kind of a behind the scenes race going on right now between the comptroller’s office, which is quickly processing the checks, and Quinn’s attorneys, who want an immediate stay.
* 3:45 pm - Quinn statement on his appeal and request for a stay…
Governor Pat Quinn Statement on Judge Ruling Against Suspension of Legislative Pay
CHICAGO – Governor Pat Quinn issued the below statement regarding today’s ruling by Judge Neil Cohen to allow legislators to receive their paychecks:
“I respectfully disagree with the judge’s decision.
“On behalf of Illinois taxpayers, I intend to appeal the decision and seek a court stay that would prevent any legislative paychecks from being issued until this case is considered by a higher court.
“However, this case is about far more than just the Governor’s constitutional authority to suspend the appropriations for legislative paychecks.
“The reason I suspended legislative paychecks in the first place – and refused to accept my own – is because Illinois taxpayers can’t afford an endless cycle of promises, excuses, delays and inertia on the most critical challenge of our time.
“Illinois’ pension crisis is costing taxpayers millions of dollars a day; robbing our children of the education and public safety services they desperately need; and holding our economy back from real recovery.
“I will not accept a paycheck until a comprehensive pension reform bill is on my desk, and neither should legislators.
“Nobody in Springfield should get paid until the pension reform job gets done.”
*** UPDATE *** JBT…
TOPINKA: COURT HAS RULED, PAYCHECK PROCESSING TO BEGIN
Comptroller instructs staff to process payments for lawmakers
CHICAGO - Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka made the following statement Thursday in response to the Court’s ruling to restore compensation for lawmakers:
“In light of today’s Court ruling, I have instructed my staff to begin processing salary payments for Illinois lawmakers. I have consistently said action was required by the General Assembly or the Court to authorize restoration of those payments. That has now occurred, and the Comptroller’s Office will comply. Processing of paychecks for August, September and October begins today.”
* 4:10 pm - From Speaker Madigan’s spokesman…
At this point we will defer comment until issues such as a stay are resolved
*** UPDATE *** * 4:14 pm - Topinka just told Roe Conn of WLS that paychecks will be issued by Monday.
* 4:17 pm - Twitters…
*** UPDATE *** * 4:19 pm - Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno…
“It will be unfortunate if the decision is appealed and a further waste of taxpayer dollars. Pension reform discussions are moving along with committed legislators meeting regularly, negotiating and working toward a compromise. Illinois desperately needs pension reform. Yet another legal maneuver is a distraction we don’t need.”
* 4:22 pm - Sun-Times…
Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady described the governor’s original move to withhold legislative pay as “dirty politics” and said any appeal of Thursday’s ruling by Quinn would be “a waste of money.”
“Clearly, when he did this, his own party, particularly the majority party, the Democrats, were very upset, and it didn’t help us move forward on pension reform,” Brady said in an interview with the Sun-Times. “Hopefully, we can set this aside now, get down to brass tacks and come up with a meaningful pension package that will protect the interests of the people who paid into the system and will give us a financial platform to move forward on.”
The state senator from Bloomington also urged Quinn not to appeal.
“The decision has been made. The judge has looked at it. It would just be a waste of money and further erode any chance we have of a meaningful pension package,” Brady said.
“It’s not something I would have done, although I understand in the public eye the governor may have hit a grand slam. But it’s really kind of dirty politics, and he certainly didn’t help himself,” Brady said.
*** UPDATE *** * 6:33 pm - Comptroller Topinka talked to the media today and compared Quinn’s veto to “blackmail.” She also said legislators signed up for direct deposit would likely get their pay tomorrow morning. Listen…
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Today’s quote
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* James Krohe Jr. wrote about the Statehouse remodeling controversy. He doesn’t think much of it. Krohe’s conclusion…
The Capitol is a singular building. If you want to mock the pretensions of the original conception, go ahead; they verge on the preposterous.
But attempting to aggrandize self-government is not an entirely contemptible gesture, and in this case it left the people with a museum of vanished craftmanship that dazzles by its sheer exuberance if not its taste. It is unique, priceless, irreplaceable. Almost everyone who sees it with unjaundiced eyes realizes that we could never do that today. Sadder still, we would never dare to try.
I for one would like to see Illinois officials try a little harder to be as big as their building.
I’m in total agreement with that last line.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sun-Times…
Corruption-busting former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald Wednesday voiced concern that the region’s four transit agencies seem to have dropped the ball on adequately training staff on how to remove politics from hiring.
Fitzgerald’s comments came during the second meeting of a transit task force formed in the wake of allegations by ex-Metra CEO Alex Clifford that two Metra Board members conspired to dump him because he would not “play ball” on patronage requests — two of them supposedly originating with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). […]
In an exchange with RTA executive director Joseph Costello, Fitzgerald asked whether the RTA keeps any record of politicians who call the RTA to say they’d like someone hired.
Costello said no such record is kept because all such callers are referred to the agency’s website for directions on how to apply for jobs.
* The Question: Should all public agencies document instances when politicians inquire about patronage jobs? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
customer surveys
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* Rhode Island has been held up as a national model for pension reform. But within Matt Taibbi’s fascinating account of how some businesses and groups are taking money they’ve made from pension fund management and using it to lobby for reductions in pension benefits is this astounding segment…
Hedge funds have good reason to want to keep their fees hidden: They’re insanely expensive. The typical fee structure for private hedge-fund management is a formula called “two and twenty,” meaning the hedge fund collects a two percent fee just for showing up, then gets 20 percent of any profits it earns with your money. Some hedge funds also charge a mysterious third fee, called “fund expenses,” that can run as high as half a percent – Loeb’s Third Point, for instance, charged Rhode Island just more than half a percent for “fund expenses” last year, or about $350,000. Hedge funds will also pass on their trading costs to their clients, a huge additional line item that can come to an extra percent or more and is seldom disclosed. There are even fees states pay for withdrawing from certain hedge funds.
In public finance, hedge funds will sometimes give slight discounts, but the numbers are still enormous. In Rhode Island, over the course of 20 years, [Edward Siedle, a former SEC lawyer] projects that the state will pay $2.1 billion in fees to hedge funds, private-equity funds and venture-capital funds. Why is that number interesting? Because it very nearly matches the savings the state will be taking from workers by freezing their Cost of Living Adjustments – $2.3 billion over 20 years.
“That’s some ‘reform,’” says Siedle.
“They pretty much took the COLA and gave it to a bunch of billionaires,” hisses Day, Providence’s retired firefighter union chief. [Emphasis added.]
* And this…
On Wall Street, people are beginning to clue in to the fact – spikes notwithstanding – that over time, hedge funds basically suck. In 2008, Warren Buffett famously placed a million-dollar bet with the heads of a New York hedge fund called Protégé Partners that the S&P 500 index fund – a neutral bet on the entire stock market, in other words – would outperform a portfolio of five hedge funds hand-picked by the geniuses at Protégé.
Five years later, Buffett’s zero-effort, pin-the-tail-on-the-stock-market portfolio is up 8.69 percent total. Protégé’s numbers are comical in comparison; all those superminds came up with a 0.13 percent increase over five long years, meaning Buffett is beating the hedgies by nearly nine points without lifting a finger.
* The Illinois Teachers Retirement System started pumping huge amounts into hedge funds a couple of years ago. From a 2011 Crain’s article…
Springfield-based TRS, the state’s largest pension provider, plans to allocate about a third of its $37.8-billion portfolio to alternative investments such as private-equity and hedge funds, a four-month Crain’s investigation of TRS holdings and practices finds. These unconventional assets typically dangle the potential for higher returns, but only because they also carry greater risks and fees. TRS is shifting its portfolio while it’s still developing an in-house risk-management system.
Gunning for bigger returns exposes the plan to the possibility of bigger losses, further jeopardizing the pensions of 362,121 former and current teachers. The system, which has just 46.5% of the assets it needs to cover promised payments to retirees, is counting on an 8.5% annual return, which many portfolio managers and investors, including Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, say is unrealistically high. If TRS banked on a 7.75% return — the rate that two other Illinois public pensions lowered their forecasts to this year — its assets would equal only 43% of obligations. That would swell its shortfall to $50.1 billion from $43.5 billion.
* And Bruce Rauner’s former investment firm GTCR also takes a 20 percent fee, plus extras…
GTCR has managed money for years for the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System and the Illinois State Board of Investment, the largest and third-largest, respectively, in Illinois, as well as state and municipal pension plans from the San Francisco City and County Employees’ Retirement System to the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board. Its funds have delivered above-average returns for Illinois, according to Preqin Ltd., a London-based investment data provider.
For its work, GTCR takes a slice of returns it reaps from business sales, typically about 20 percent, and charges management fees, up to 1.5 percent. The Illinois State Board of Investment, for instance, reports it paid $280,000 in fees last year on $85 million it has in two GTCR funds.
Combined, TRS and the ISBI have committed $252 million with GTCR since 1993.
Some folks were understandably upset with the Dixon lawyers’ big cut of the Rita Crundwell settlement yesterday, but we need to talk more - a lot more - about these insanely high fund fees. They’re essentially robbing the pension funds of needed dollars and pushing to use benefit cuts to make up the difference.
Ridiculous.
…Adding… From Bruce Rauner’s campaign spokesman…
Rich - saw your post on fees and returns provided by alternative investment vehicles.
There a few important clarifications that would provide context for your readers:
1. GTCR performance for Illinois has far exceeded the pension funds’ returns: “William Atwood, who leads the Illinois State Board of Investment and has invested the state employee pension fund’s money with GTCR…. says the board’s investments with GTCR have generated annual returns of 17.2% since 1984.” Pension fund over that same time period has been closer to 7-8%. Those are annualized returns, so GTCR has made the pension funds a lot of money.
2. Hedge funds and firms like GTCR are different types of businesses. Hedge funds are typically sophisticated (and leveraged) trading entities. GTCR invests directly in private companies and builds them for the long term.
3. The 20 percent fee is only received if/after they sell a company for profit.
Bottom line is comparing GTCR’s performance for Illinois to that of hedge funds in other states is like comparing apples and oranges.
Also, worth pointing out, as one of your commenters did, that the rate of return for pensions is after fees.
Thanks,
Mike
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Quinn gets his way over torture commission
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
The director of a state commission vetting allegations of police torture is stepping down amid controversy after some victims’ families complained the panel violated Illinois law by excluding them from the process.
David Thomas, who has chaired the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission since 2011, told members at the commission’s public meeting at the Thompson Center on Wednesday that he is retiring as of the end of the month.
The move came less than two weeks after Gov. Pat Quinn revealed that he had asked Thomas to resign because of a failure to notify victims’ families about the board’s decisions in violation of the 2009 statute establishing the commission.
* The Sun-Times editorial board was indignant about Quinn’s behavior throughout the entire process…
The commission’s job is to root out any remaining cases in which innocent men are languishing in prison because of statements extracted through police torture in the 1970s and ’80s by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his so-called Area 2 midnight crew. More than 100 men have claimed they were tortured, and so far the commission has made recommendations in about 25 cases, either rejecting them or forwarding them for further judicial review.
But in three cases, the commission’s staff — which consisted of the executive director and a secretary — neglected to notify relatives of victims about the hearings, as the law requires. It was clearly an oversight by an overworked staff and the commission has rectified it by pulling back the cases so that family members may testify. But relatives of victims in one of the cases, the 1983 home invasion, rape and murder of Dean and JoEllen Pueschel and the beating of their son, understandably remain angry that they weren’t notified. […]
After the Legislature authorized the creation of the commission in 2009, it sat dormant for about a year until Quinn finally appointed commissioners.
When the commissioners finally had a quorum, they appointed Thomas executive director, but it took four months for his appointment to get through a lumbering state hiring process. It took two more months to hire a secretary. Then the commission had to devote several months to the complicated state-required process of setting up rules and regulations.
In August 2011, the commission finally was able to begin reviewing claims, but in June 2012, the Legislature stripped all its funding, and work stopped. Funding finally was restored in late March, and the commission was pulled out of mothballs. Now, it’s facing another delay.
The commission’s job is not to decide guilt or innocence, but only to determine which cases contain credible claims of police torture. Those cases are referred to Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who assigns them to judges for further review. Those judges may decide that the torture claims, while credible, are not sufficient to justify an evidentiary hearing. But even those cases that proceed to a hearing won’t necessarily get a new trial, and any new trials won’t necessarily lead to acquittals. And given other strong evidence, the Pueschel case is not a likely candidate for a reversal.
* But Chuck Goudie has portrayed the governor as a hero throughout…
The head of the Illinois torture commission resigned Wednesday after an I-Team report revealed shoddy treatment of the family of a murder victim. Illinois is the only state in the nation with a torture board.
Officially named the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission, appointees of the governor look at a narrow spectrum of murder cases tinged by police brutality and determine whether to recommend the cases be re-examined in court. Late Wednesday afternoon, the embattled executive director of the commission, Dave Thomas, turned in his resignation. Nearly two weeks after the I-Team broke the story that Governor Quinn wanted Thomas out. […]
Thomas is resigning with Governor Pat Quinn’s foot on his behind. As paid director of the commission that reviews cases of police torture, Mr. Thomas had become the focus of angry, emotional complaints from the relatives of murder victims.
Discuss.
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More like this, please
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Senators Kirk and Durbin have been pressing the US Attorney to do more to fight Chicago street gangs. From a media advisory…
U.S. Attorney Gary S. Shapiro, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy, and representatives of the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Division will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. today, Thursday Sept. 26, 2013, to announce federal criminal charges against alleged leaders of a Chicago street gang for engaging in a series of violent drug-related crimes, including murders.
The press conference will be held in the U.S. Attorney’s Office press conference room on the 9th floor, north end, of the Dirksen United States Courthouse, 219 South Dearborn St., Chicago. Media representatives will have access at 2 p.m.
The criminal charges and a detailed press release will be issued early this afternoon in advance of the press conference.
I’ll let you know what happens.
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* Power Construction is moving from Schaumburg to Chicago (15 miles, according to Google) and is getting $2.4 million in state assistance over ten years. That naturally prompted questions…
Dan Seals, the former congressional candidate now serving as assistant director of the Ill. Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, was asked how he justifies giving a tax break to an Illinois company to move a short distance from suburb to city.
“We didn’t give a company a tax credit to move a few miles. What we did is saw a company that we thought was a good company that was looking to leave the state entirely that was receiving several million dollars to come to another state. We wanted to compete. We thought it was a good company to retain. And that’s what we did. And we won,” Seals said.
“You only get [the state aid] if you create the jobs. If you don’t create the jobs, you don’t get `em. And they’re based on the tax revenue that comes off the job. So, the state comes out ahead.”
Power got an EDGE tax credit. About the EDGE credit…
The EDGE program is designed to offer a special tax incentive to encourage companies to locate or expand operations in Illinois when there is active consideration of a competing location in another State.
The program can provide tax credits to qualifying companies, equal to the amount of state income taxes withheld from the salaries of employees in the newly created jobs. The non- refundable credits can be used against corporate income taxes to be paid over a period not to exceed 10 years.
To qualify a company must provide documentation that attests to the fact of competition among a competing state, and agree to make an investment of at least $5 million in capital improvements and create a minimum of 25 new full time jobs in Illinois.
In other words, if a company is being lured by another state and they’re willing to create some new jobs, the state can let them use their employees’ state withholding taxes to lower their corporate income tax bill. Power says it will create 30 new jobs.
Still, it would be nice to know what state was competing with us and how much they were offering.
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* Mayor Rahm Emanuel has some pretty big pension problems on his hands, the result of years of not paying into the funds. So, he’s proposing a new and extended “ramp” to get the payments up to snuff over time. Gov. Pat Quinn vigorously opposed a shorter new ramp last spring, so Emanuel is trying again…
The measure would require a series of small city property tax increases starting in 2018 — three years into what would be Emanuel’s second term as mayor. It also would delay the need for big increases in city pension payments to 2022, three years into what would be Emanuel’s third term, if he decided to serve that long and was able to win re-election. […]
Emanuel needs to press for relief because of the timing of a state law approved while Richard M. Daley was mayor. It would require the city to put in nearly $600 million more in contributions to police and fire pensions starting in 2015. That additional amount is about one-fifth of the city’s day-to-day operating budget. […]
The state law that kicks in requires higher payments into the police and fire pension plans based on what actuaries say the city needs to pay to get up to 90 percent funding by 2040.
And his warning…
Combine City Hall’s pension costs with the huge amount of money needed to fund Chicago Public Schools pensions and the resulting property tax hikes means “there will be a mass exodus” from Chicago, Emanuel said.
“It will be the largest caravan since America settled the West,” the mayor said. Suburban property taxes historically are much higher than those in Chicago, however.
So are Downstate property taxes. Chicago has relatively low residential property taxes because commercial property is taxed at a higher rate.
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Caption contest!
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Treasurer Dan Rutherford tweets…
In @MetropolisIL found my newest supporter
The photo…
Funniest commenter will win a free copy of a new mobile app that I’ll be rolling out before veto session.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This doesn’t look like too bad of a deal for Dixon even with the healthy cut to the city’s attorneys…
The city reached a $40 million out-of-court settlement this morning with its auditors and bank it said were to blame for former Comptroller Rita Crundwell’s theft of nearly $54 million in city funds over two decades.
Mayor Jim Burke made the announcement this morning during a special meeting of the Dixon City Council, during which the council approved the settlement.
The agreement was reached Friday in Chicago, Burke said.
Including about $10 million more the city expects to receive from the sale of Crundwell’s assets, the city could recover about $50 million. The city’s attorneys will receive about $10 million from the settlement, meaning Dixon actually would recover about $40 million.
* Rita Crundwell…
* The Question: Caption?
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Time to get the lead out
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From my old buddy Michael Hawthorne at the Tribune…
Dangerous levels of lead are turning up in Chicago homes where pipes made of the toxic metal were disturbed by street work or plumbing repairs, according to a new federal study that suggests the city’s aggressive efforts to modernize its water system could inadvertently pose health risks.
The problem starts with lead service lines that Chicago installed across the city until the mid-1980s to connect water mains with homes. Researchers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that spikes of lead can leach into tap water when those pipes are altered by water main replacements, meter installations or street work.
High levels can be found in tap water for years afterward, the EPA study found, raising concerns that other cities with lead pipes could face similar problems.
Most homeowners likely are unaware they could be drinking tainted water. Under federal rules, utilities rarely are required to warn residents that work is being done or tell them they can take steps to reduce their exposure to lead. A potent neurotoxin, lead can damage the brains of young children, lower IQ and trigger learning disabilities, aggression and criminal behavior later in life. [Emphasis added.]
* I bolded that phrase because Kevin Drum wrote a fascinating story earlier this year about how several studies have found a seemingly direct correlation (with an astonishingly accurate 20-year lag) between gasoline lead emissions and the gigantic crime explosion that began in the 1960s. A chart…
Make absolutely sure to go read the whole thing when you have time.
Lead abatement may or may not reduce crime. It may just be too early to tell. But it most certainly will have a positive impact on health.
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* Mark Brown…
Those immigrant advocacy groups that lost funding from a Catholic charity in a tussle with Cardinal George and the Archdiocese of Chicago over gay marriage may get their money after all — but from somebody else.
A group of progressive charitable foundations — active in both the immigration reform and marriage equality movements — will step up Wednesday to announce creation of an emergency fund to replace the $300,000 stripped from member organizations of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
I’m glad to see that somebody has got these folks’ back.
As you’ve read here previously, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, a program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cut off funding to those organizations this summer after the coalition endorsed same-sex marriage legislation pending before the Illinois General Assembly.
The cutoff included funds to such worthwhile programs as Bikes N’ Roses, an initiative of the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, which operates a free bike repair clinic that trains young people as bike mechanics. Punishing them was just plain senseless.
Now coming to their rescue will be the newly-formed Solidarity Fund, which will be operated through the Crossroads Fund of Chicago — with involvement from Fred Eychaner’s Alphawood Foundation, Chicago Foundation for Women, the Gill Foundation and the Pierce Family Foundation.
Look, I understand that some folks were outraged by this, but the Catholic Campaign, like any organization, has the right to withdraw funding from coalition partners that aren’t fully on board with its program. The immediate need was to find alternative funding. It’s been found, at least for now.
…Adding… I put this in comments after some criticism about this post…
I stand by what I wrote.
But what none of you have caught onto yet is that this is exactly what I said when the state cut off funding for Catholic Charities after that group refused to cooperate with the civil unions law on adoption and foster care.
The Cardinal and the Bishops would do well to stop complaining about that state action when they take these sorts of actions against others.
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Beavers gets six months, $10K fine
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* District Judge James Zagel has sentenced Bill Beavers to six months in prison for his conviction on four counts of tax evasion…
Former Cook County Commissioner William Beavers was sentenced to six months in prison this morning for failing to pay taxes on tens of thousands of dollars he took out of his campaign fund and used for gambling and other personal expenses.
The sentence is far short of the 21 months requested by prosecutors. Beavers was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and just under $39,000 in back taxes. […]
In recommending a sentence of 21 months in prison, prosecutors in a recent court filing portrayed the outspoken former police officer and alderman as someone who abused the trust placed in him as a public official despite “maintaining a front row seat for the long and sordid history of public corruption in Chicago and Illinois.”
“As an elected official for over 30 years, Beavers saw many of his fellow Chicago aldermen – as well as numerous state and local officials – convicted of public corruption crimes, and he had reason to appreciate the impact such corruption has had on the public’s faith in government,” prosecutors wrote.
* Background…
Beavers was accused of using his political campaign accounts from 2006 until 2008 as a “slush fund” to swell his pension and for losing gambling sprees at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, then failing to pay taxes on those withdrawals.
But he claimed he’d merely loaned himself the money. Beavers also blamed the county for failing to report $30,000 in expense checks that he took as income. Nevertheless, his conviction cost him his seat on the County Board
Beavers initially claimed that he was being prosecuted because he wouldn’t wear a wire for the feds, whom Beavers said were after John Daley. From last year…
John Daley said he was surprised at what he characterized as Beavers’ attempt to change the story.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Daley said.
He said Beavers never approached him to say that any federal agents had asked Beavers to wear a wire on him. Looking at the indictment against Beavers, Daley said: “It’s pretty obvious what this is about, and this has nothing to do with me. I have never taken my [commissioner’s expense account] from Day 1.”
Daley said Beavers appeared to be throwing Daley’s name up Thursday in an attempt to change the story.
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A totally messed up system
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* More details on Bryon Champ, who was allegedly wounded by a rival gang member before allegedly taking part in a mass shooting in a Chicago park…
Champ’s criminal record includes a 2012 conviction for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and a 2011 conviction for receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to Cook County Jail boot camp for the gun-possession conviction and had received probation in the other case, records show.
In the 2012 case, police had responded to a report of someone being shot and saw Champ running through a gangway with a gun in his hand, according to court records. When police arrested Champ a short while later, he was carrying a .40-caliber semi-automatic gun loaded with 10 rounds and one in the chamber, records show.
So Champ gets sent to boot camp, but Edward Hambrick, who had a valid FOID card and an out of state concealed carry permit, languished 14 months in the Cook County jail after being busted for having a loaded gun in his car.
It makes me wanna scream.
* And then there’s this…
Brian Otero spent nearly two years in Cook County Jail waiting to go to trial for a burglary. The jury found him not guilty, but he didn’t get to leave the courtroom like they do on TV. No, he was brought back into the Cook County Jail to be “processed” out. He was put in a small cell just off the front of the courtroom, to eventually be brought back into the jail.
Now remember, at this point, there are no charges against Otero, yet he’s being detained against his will because that’s just how we’ve always done it in Cook County. Defendants who have been held in jail awaiting trial are brought back into the jail. They can be handcuffed, searched, and locked back up in their cell even though there are no charges against them.
Sheriff Tom Dart and county officials are doing little to change the seemingly unconstitutional practice and that could cost taxpayers millions
On his way back into the jail after acquittal, Otero was put in a holding cell with a number of other inmates and three men attacked him.
“They approached me and asked me, ‘Did you win your case, are you going home today?’” Otero said in an interview in his attorney’s Loop law office. “Upon me saying ‘yes’ one of them swung at me and when he swung at me the other two grabbed me and they started hitting me all over my body.” […]
Otero was eventually brought back to his cell, to wait. Ten hours after he was acquitted he was finally released from the jail.
Fingers are pointing everywhere…
But even if the sheriff’s office makes the technological leap to the 1990s in all 17 courthouses, the rest of the Cook County court system under Clerk of Courts Dorothy Brown is pretty solidly stuck in the 70s. The whole court system is paper and carbon copies. That presents a problem for Lt. Charles Luna when he’s supposed to release someone from the jail.
And…
While it’s Sheriff Dart who is detaining people, it’s Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez who tells Dart what he needs to do to comply with the constitution. For two weeks Alvarez’s office has failed to provide WBEZ with any explanation as to whether the current practices are constitutional, or what her office is doing to ensure Cook County doesn’t have to pay out millions in settlements arising from this practice of detaining people after they’ve been found not guilty.
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It’s never as simple as it looks
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a Tribune editorial…
[Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy’s] point: Illinois needs stricter gun laws, and it needs to enforce its gun laws, to ensure that criminals know possessing a gun on the street carries dire consequences.
Here’s the frustrating part: A bill to do just that went nowhere in the legislature this year. The bill, introduced by state Rep. Michael Zalewski, D-Chicago, would have set stiffer sentences for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and for gun crimes committed by felons. It would have required that offenders serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.
McCarthy, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel supported the bill. Had it been in place last year, Champ would have been sent to prison, not boot camp, for running around his neighborhood with a loaded gun. […]
This spring, the General Assembly was intensely preoccupied on legislation to permit the concealed carry of firearms. Zalewski’s bill to crack down on illegal gun possession got out of a House committee but then languished. Some Democrats opposed the stiff mandatory sentencing requirements, and some Republicans refused to back it before they passed a concealed carry law. Zalewski tells us he didn’t have the votes to pass his bill. […]
So here we are. Another national embarrassment for Chicago. Another senseless crime. Thirteen people wounded. The trauma extends well beyond those 13 people. It extends to their friends, to their families, to their neighbors, to everyone who has to think twice about whether he or she will catch a random bullet when gangbangers go after each other. […]
Zalewski said he plans to reintroduce his bill during the fall veto session. It should pass without a single “no” vote. Not … one.
* But Todd Vandermyde of the NRA posted a couple of notes in comments yesterday about that bill. I’ve fixed most of the typos to make it easier to read…
We offered the City an 85% 3-year term on Felons in possession last session, we were turned down because they wanted the whole thing to include those without a carry permit when we didn’t have one.
And…
We as the NRA could work on and support the “felons in possession” issue. The Cook County State’s Attorney often tosses the Aggravated UUW or UUW as part of the plea deal for whatever reason.
I tried to pare down the issue to “bad guys with guns.” But they were so invested in the Plaxico Burress version they didn’t seem to care.
* I asked Rep. Zalewski for a response…
As I mentioned to the Chicago Tribune, a number of members expressed concern last Spring about voting for HB2265 in light of the ongoing conceal carry debate.
I, as the sponsor, had numerous constructive conversations with those members, along with Todd Vandermyde, chief legislative liaison for the NRA, in an effort to see if those members’ concerns could be addressed in the bill.
Unfortunately, there was never a meeting of the minds. As is my practice, I will continue to look for common ground in an effort to get the bill passed.
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Racing board wants state to pony up big bucks
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Uncertainty reigned Tuesday after the Illinois Racing Board drafted the 2014 thoroughbred and harness racing schedules.
Taking into account the possibility that funds may not be available to enable the Racing Board to regulate racing, Chairman William Berry made a motion to approve four alternative schedules and it passed by an 8-1 vote.
•Under the best-case scenario, the 2014 schedule will bear a striking resemblance to the 2013 slate with 466 dates at the state’s five pari-mutuel tracks.
•Under the worst-case scenario, next year’s schedule will bear no resemblance to this year’s thoroughbred and harness dates, consisting of a combined total of 87 programs and leaving the state with only one harness track. [Emphasis added.]
Not mentioned in the Trib’s dot points is that the “best-case scenario” includes a “supplemental state payment” of at least $725,000.
* The problem has been the lack of Internet wagering income for over five months this year and uncertainty over next year…
The board depends on account-wagering handle for part of its funding and lost about $725,000 when the law permitting account-wagering companies to operate in Illinois was allowed to expire Jan. 31 and wasn’t restored until June 7. Unaltered, the law expires again on Jan. 31, so the board can’t know if it will have enough money to fulfill its statutory obligations for a full racing season.
The board will request a supplemental payment from the state to plug the hole left by the 2013 account-wagering shutdown, and the legislature, when it meets for a fall session starting Oct. 22, will be asked to extend the account-wagering law. How racing is conducted next year in Illinois depends on how much of that money actually flows to the IRB. Because of the uncertainty the board approved four possible schedules.
What a screw up this was.
* In other news, Phil Kadner looks at video gaming’s growth…
There now are 9,794 [video gaming] machines operating at 2,402 locations, according to the Illinois Gaming Board, which is the equivalent of adding nine casinos. […]
But an entirely new industry has emerged in recent months, video cafes, designed specifically to appeal to the gambler.
Although most of these offer food and alcoholic drinks, they’re marketed as places where suburbanites can lose their money in comfortable surroundings without being bothered by drunks.
Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury is so concerned about the increase in video gambling in her village that she has asked the state senator from the area to introduce legislation that could limit the number of locations.
Oak Lawn appears to be the leader in the Southland in the number of sites with video gambling, having 18 locations and 83 video machines.
In August, gamblers lost $319,338 in the machines, producing $15,966 in tax revenue for Oak Lawn and $79,834 for the state.
I was talking with somebody who owns several locations that have video gaming machines, and he said he hopes the Legislature passes a bill to limit the number of new machines and locations. Why? Because such a law would mean less competition for him.
* Back to Kadner…
I’ve always been a free-market guy when it comes to legalized gambling. So long as the operations have no ties to organized crime and the machines pay off as advertised, I think they should be allowed to proliferate.
By limiting the number of casinos, all the state has done is give a small group of people a license to make lots of money.
Now, they have some competition in video gambling, and businesses in the suburbs are getting a piece of the action.
But the law of supply and demand is still being denied by elected officials, who seem to believe they can limit vice by tightly regulating it.
Agreed.
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* From CBS Money Watch…
Using data compiled for CBSNews.com by a real estate analytics provider, we looked not only at cities where home prices have the farthest to go to climb back to their pre-bubble peak, but also where prices are still declining.
* At the “top” of their list are two Illinois cities. Ranked second least likely to recover from the real estate crash is Rockford…
Growth needed to match peak: 31.5 percent
Growth this year: -3 percent
And number one is Kankakee…
Growth needed to match peak: 39.2 percent
Growth this year: -3.5 percent
* Back to the narrative…
Residents of two cities in Illinois have the bleakest prospects of seeing home prices rebound. The state’s high unemployment rate is the biggest factor restraining prices. At the peak of the recession, Rockford’s jobless rate shot up to a whopping 20 percent unemployment rate, and it remains high at around 10 percent.
Kankakee faces a similar problem as Rockford, Ill. The population is stagnant and its unemployment rate hasn’t been below 10 percent since mid-2008. Even selling the city’s many foreclosed properties is unlikely to boost home prices much. Unless the city sees a serious economic turnaround, it will be nearly impossible to recover that 39 percent drop in home values.
Oy.
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