* 5:58 p.m. Friday - Well, at least we had a five minute break before the next Friday news dump…
Governor Pat Quinn today made a number of key appointments to the state’s boards and commissions. Included in today’s action is the appointment of James Conway, Associate Chief of the Criminal Division for the United States Attorney’s Office, as the Chief Administrative Law Judge to the Illinois Independent Tax Tribunal. This announcement continues the Governor’s commitment to making Illinois government more accountable, transparent and effective.
…
Conway, of Wilmette, is currently the Associate Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago. He has been a federal prosecutor for 29 years and a supervisor for the last 17 years. Prior to his position as an Assistant United States Attorney, Mr. Conway was a Revenue Agent with the Internal Revenue Service’s Examination Division in Chicago. In addition to being an attorney, he received a B.A. from Loyola University, a J.D. from The John Marshal Law School, an LL.M. in Taxation from DePaul University and he is a Certified Public Accountant.
More…
Commission on the Elimination of Poverty:
Gayle Nelson of Glenview has been an Arbitrator with Cook County Mandatory Arbitration for the past eight years and is a board member of The Harbour, Inc. She was formerly Executive Director of Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers. She holds a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin.
Commission on Environmental Justice:
Tamika Gibson of Chicago is Policy & Outreach Coordinator at the Illinois Environmental Council. She holds a B.S. in Geography & Environmental Resources from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Workforce Investment Board:
Justine Hood of Glenview is Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Centerpoint Properties Trust. She holds an MBA from Loyola University and a B.S. from James Madison University.
Thanks for putting up with me this week. I’ll be here for at least part of next as well, so stick around because the show will still go on.
I really enjoyed your “Session” playlist suggestions in yesterday’s question. I found this one while playing through some of them and thought it was too good to not add to our list.
Please be safe if you’re traveling this weekend.
It’s good to get high, and never come down
It’s good to be king of your own little town
* 4:35 p.m. Friday - Jack Lavin has reportedly left the Governor’s Office to accept a position in the private sector. Deputy COS Ryan Croke has been promoted…
Croke has served as deputy chief of staff to Governor Quinn since November 2009, where he spearheaded a variety of key public safety, economic development and government modernization efforts. In this role, he has served as a senior advisor to the Governor while managing and collaborating with the Governor’s cabinet officers. His responsibilities have included oversight of critical agencies from the Illinois State Police, Department of Corrections, Emergency Management Agency and Fire Marshal’s Office, to the Departments of Veterans’ and Military Affairs, Historic Preservation Agency, and Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture.
The Governor left for Japan this afternoon. I’ll try to have more details.
* 4:46 p.m. - From the Retail Merchants Association…
“The members of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association want to congratulate Ryan Croke on being appointed as Chief of Staff to Governor Pat Quinn.
“We’ve worked with Ryan since he was in the Lt. Governor’s office and we found him to be laser-focused on whatever responsibilities were assigned to him. We look forward to working with him in the administration of Governor Quinn to improve the jobs climate in Illinois.”
* 5:05 p.m. - The word I am getting is that Lavin played his departure pretty close to the chest. People who talked to him yesterday said they had no idea this was coming. Those that work with Lavin on a more regular basis have said they only knew he was headed to the private sector, which was the only clue included in the press release.
“We have enjoyed working with Ryan Croke on a number of issues and have found him to be a talented and dedicated person who always respects Illinois’ working men and women,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael T. Carrigan said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to working together with Ryan in his new role as we continue to help create jobs and build the middle class.”
Governor Pat Quinn today announced that Illinois has set an all-time record for tourism, breaking the 100 million visitor mark in 2012. International visitors rose 11.8 percent last year to set another new record and push the total to 101 million. Tourism in Illinois generated an estimated $33.5 billion and 298,700 jobs for the state’s economy, also new high marks for the state.
The record tourism numbers reflect Governor Quinn’s targeted efforts to showcase Illinois as a travel destination. In the past two years, Illinois has launched a new tourism marketing campaign; promoted Illinois tourism on trade missions to Canada, China, Mexico and Brazil; and worked closely with local convention and visitors bureaus across Illinois to trumpet the unique attributes of their regions.
Help is finally on the way for Illinois State Parks.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is starting to chip away at a $750 million maintenance backlog, as money from a new $2 surcharge on license plate renewals is starting to make its way out to the parks.
Despite unseasonably warm temperatures during much of the Du Quoin State Fair, officials say the 2013 event may set an attendance record…It’s already been reported that the Du Quoin State Fair had the largest opening day in its 91-year history on August 23rd when more than 50,000 people visited the fairgrounds. The fair ended on Labor Day.
* Laurence Msall of The Civic Federation (not to be confused with Ty Fahner’s Civic Committee) and Speaker Madigan spokesman Steve Brown were featured guests on Chicago Tonight earlier this week to discuss the west wing renovation. Go ahead and guess what part of that project took center stage…
When originally designed, the main entrance to the Capitol was from the east through a long set of 37 steps up to the second floor of the building. These were removed before the building was officially opened when Architect W.W. Boyington converted the Basement into the First Floor. While the first floor doors were oak on the outside and black walnut on the inside, they were heavily carved with bronze ornamentation. Bronze is a metal made primarily of copper. As the western exposure and elements took their toll on the doors, they simply became inoperable and were replaced with a much simpler, non-historic door. In this renovation, we took the cue from the bronze ornamentation from the original doors, and clad a new wood door in copper to give it protection for a time period that should well exceed a century. Aside from an historic standpoint, Copper was chosen for its longevity, natural beauty and because of its tendency to patina to a brown that is similar to a US10B finish, or oil rubbed bronze, the standard finish for the building.
* New doors are mentioned in this project description from two summers ago. You will notice it does not say how exactly they would reflect the building’s history. Beyond the doors, there are much more costly differences between this document, what was being talked about before construction began, and the work that is nearing completion. For example, this document still includes an eatery in the basement and the renovation, not removal, of the Mezzanine. Those doors alone did not boost the listed bids from $43 million to $50 million. As Brown mentioned in the interview, some of that involves the removal of asbestos, which is not cheap.
“The governor is concerned about the architect’s judgment and some of his decisions,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said, adding her boss was “surprised” at the doors’ extravagant look when he first saw them.
“Gov. Quinn believes any capital project must always be conducted in a prudent and cost-effective manner, and it’s important for the architect to sit down with those he reports to and review these decisions,” she said.
More…
“The governor heads the board that approved this wasteful expenditure, so if the governor is not in charge, then who is running this state?” Daley said.
“I think that type of expenditure by whoever and however they did that is inappropriate at this — perhaps at any time — but particularly at this time,” Rutherford said at a news appearance on Thursday. “As the treasurer I just happen to hold the keys to that office at the present. They designed it. I will not move into it until it’s done.”
“My understanding,” Rutherford joked, “is those doors are not to the office of the state treasurer.”
Rutherford’s staff hardly had a chance to get settled into the Treasurer’s executive office before it was relocated to an adjacent office suite in the north wing.
* For those interested, or haven’t seen some of the work that has been done over at the Capitol, I snapped this picture a few weeks ago while moving between meetings. This is the new Press Briefing Room…
* By now you have heard that Bob Schillerstrom has withdrawn his name from consideration for his party’s state Treasurer nomination. From a letter to supporters that became widely reported last night…
To that end, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with House Republican Leader Tom Cross to discuss the future of our state. During the course of that and subsequent conversations, it became clear that we share a vision for the Treasurer’s Office and a desire to hold the line on spending, safeguard family college savings and restore our state’s fiscal integrity.
Those goals will best be achieved through fiscally conservative Republican leadership – and the stakes are too high to lessen our chances with a costly and divisive Primary.
For that reason I have decided not to run for State Treasurer in 2014 and instead do what is in the best interest of our State and Party by unifying behind a candidate, Tom Cross. I hope you will join me in doing whatever is necessary to make his campaign successful.
Schillerstrom, an attorney from Naperville who headed the DuPage County Board from 1998 to 2010, launched his exploratory bid in June and had lined up 50 backers, including former U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and several state legislative and area county officials. Hastert has been a close Cross ally.
* As Rich noted previously, Schillerstrom was a no-show at the State Fair this year, which caused some at Republican Day to scratch their heads as to whether the former Du Page County Board chairman would continue to seek the office.
Schillerstrom has not filed a report with the Board of Elections since the June quarterly. However that report shows he has just under $40K in the bank, but outstanding loans valued at over $136K. That’s nowhere near what Cross reported in his quarterly, which is now outdated thanks to a number of other large donations he has received since.
* Rich has talked about potential running mates for Gov. Quinn with subscribers. NBC 5 contacted one of those candidates…
Some political sources say Quinn asked Chicago City Treasurer Stephanie Neeley to join up with his ticket but that she said “no.”
Neely declined to confirm that nugget, but her statement doesn’t appear to deny it either.
* In full transparency, I’m only here to show my wife and parents that my journalism degree wasn’t a waste of time and money. But my being here has allowed Rich to take some time off in order to…
I wasn’t suppose to say, but …
Rich, Tom Cross and I are on a Golf Weekend.
Whew! Keeping secrets is hard!
We may not have any Oscar pictures this Friday, but we can always count on Oswego Willy to have Tom Cross golfing material at the ready. As we’ll discuss in another post, Willy, you appear to have your work cutout for you this cycle.
* OK, enough of that for now. Let’s get to some headlines…
* No movement in IL pension reform: “What the pension committee has been trying to do all summer is patch a hole in the Titanic,” John Tillman, director of the Illinois Policy Institute, said. Tillman, who wants the state to adopt a 401k style system, said the committee is mired in the status quo.
“While they have met and talked and conversed they have not entertained a single proposal that would fix the structural problems with the current system,” Tillman said.
Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Dan Rutherford is not optimistic the conference committee process will produce pension reform, and predicts the issue will not go away any time soon.
“My sense is the next pressure point is going to be the election,” Rutherford said.
* Mayor Emanuel grounds Midway privatization plan: sources: With only two bidders remaining on the runway, one of the competitors “dropped out” this week, convinced the joint-venture would not be able to meet the mayor’s demands. Another source familiar with the negotiations identified the bidder that walked away as the team that includes Industry Funds Management of Australia and Manchester Airports Group.
That would have left the city with only one bidder for a transaction estimated at $2 billion. Emanuel was simply not willing to forge ahead under those circumstances.
The source refused to identify which of the joint ventures had dropped out of the competition a few weeks before formal bids were due.
Bloomberg news has identified the two bidding groups as Great Lakes Airport Alliance, a partnership between Spain’s Ferrovial and Macquarie Group that leased the Chicago Skyway for 99 years, and a team that includes Industry Funds Management of Australia and Manchester Airports Group
* Sun-Times: GIVE WISER PRISON POLICIES A CHANCE: We need political leaders of all stripes to support the idea of diverting nonviolent offenders to destinations other than prison. It’s an issue easy to demagogue because some people who leave prison inevitably again commit crimes, no matter how carefully the risks of release are assessed.
* Thomson prison funding may fall prey to budget battle: Congress must approve the funding and include it in a budget for the new fiscal year that starts October 1. But with another debt ceiling fight looming, funding for the prison could get caught up in the partisan crossfire….It’s unlikely the House and Senate will agree to a budget before October 1.
A temporary spending plan known as a continuing resolution will be enacted if a budget can’t be agreed and Sen. Durbin said that would put the Thomson project “on hold.”
* DuPage chief selects Metra appointee: Zediker, 41, a Naperville Republican, served on the County Board for three years but lost his seat in last year’s election.
* Metra attorneys say board member did not harm agency: Schaffer acknowledged that he gave Clifford a document prepared by the agency’s attorneys about three weeks before Clifford wrote a scathing memo alleging that two other board members engaged in political back-scratching. The accusations led to an $871,000 separation agreement with Clifford and spurred two ethics investigations and five board resignations.
But in a letter sent to board members this week, agency lawyers said Schaffer did not ignore his legal or ethical responsibilities when he sent Clifford information related to the CEO’s performance evaluation. Schaffer believed he was acting in Metra’s best interests by sharing the document, which Clifford would have access to anyway in his role as the agency’s highest-ranking employee, according to the legal opinion.
In the coming months, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce will embark upon a change in leadership. Doug Whitley, our talented and energetic President and CEO, has informed the Chamber Board of Directors that he plans to retire next June. We thank Doug for the long advance notice, which will allow the Board to work with him through a well-planned transition period that will launch the Chamber’s next chapter of strong advocacy for Illinois employers.
Doug has served the Illinois Chamber since September 2001, guiding the organization through one of the most turbulent periods for business in the Chamber’s more than 90-year history, meanwhile restoring the leadership status of the Illinois Chamber as the unifying statewide voice of business in Illinois.
….
Looking ahead, the timing of Doug’s retirement offers the Illinois Chamber an opportunity to establish new leadership and set its agenda prior to the 2014 gubernatorial election. Additionally, my term as board chairman ends next June, which means the incoming Illinois Chamber Board Chair and the new CEO will be able to begin their terms together.
Here’s good news for all you expatriates of Qo’noS.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security exists to help all of its residents, not just the human ones. Which is why, on their website, if you want to ask a question regarding a claim, you may, in fact, sign into the website in Klingon. So you may read the site, ask questions and get answers, even if your foreign language happens to be foreign enough to be from another planet.
Question: What else should the state consider implementing from science fiction?
I mean, I can’t be the only one slightly concerned about our lack of Sharknado preparedness.
Garman would be the second woman to head the Illinois Supreme Court — and in fact, only the second woman to lead one of Illinois’ three branches of government.
Based in Danville, Garman has been a lawyer since 1968, a judge since 1974, and on the Supreme Court since 2002.
Unlike on the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief justice of Illinois serves a three-year term. The position usually rotates among the justices based on seniority.
In the fiscal year that just ended, the state let $135 million worth of no-bid, “emergency” contracts. That’s $34 million more than the year before, and 300 times the amount spent the last year of former governor Rod Blagojevich…A member of the state’s Procurement Policy Board suggests all the no-bid contracts could be the result of worker indifference or personnel shortages or “general incompetence.” Those are the most positive possibilities. This could also be corruption — a sly way to give contracts to friends, family and political cronies.
Whatever the explanation, it means that the taxpayers likely are overpaying for goods and services.
More than 700 pages of emails the Tribune obtained through an open records request provide new insight into Scott’s recommendation and business dealings with Ahmad.
Before he arrived at City Hall, Ahmad served as Ohio deputy treasurer and awarded Scott’s firm $165,000 in bond business. After Scott joined the Emanuel administration, she selected a firm that employed Ahmad’s onetime boss, former Ohio treasurer Kevin Boyce, for hundreds of thousands of dollars in city bond work.
Boyce, too, recommended that Emanuel hire Ahmad. That backing came more than five months after he learned that federal authorities in Ohio were investigating his office, records show. A subpoena sought, among other things, the cellphone records of Boyce and Ahmad.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has reversed course and will reappoint Inspector General Joseph Ferguson as City Hall’s top watchdog oversees a lengthy audit of work done by the mayor’s former comptroller, who abruptly resigned amid a federal bribery probe related to a previous government job in Ohio.
The mayor’s office confirmed Tuesday that Emanuel plans to reappoint Ferguson to a second four-year term. The decision comes after Emanuel earlier had suggested that Ferguson, who often criticizes the administration, would have to reapply for his job with his current term set to expire in November.
Emanuel aides maintain that Ferguson plans to serve only one more year, and in a statement, Ferguson suggested that’s about right. But once the inspector general’s appointment is approved by the City Council, the mayor would be at a loss to enforce a one-year limit if Ferguson decides there’s reason to stick around.
In its endorsement of the move, the Tribune editorial board said the episode was a distraction from “raising the bar on public schools, repairing the city’s disastrous finances, stemming the bloodshed in its streets.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has fired a top county ethics official who was trying to punish Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios for putting relatives on his payroll.
MaryNic Foster was quietly dumped from her $110,355-a-year post in May after five years as executive director of the county’s Board of Ethics…Foster said top aides to Preckwinkle didn’t give her a reason for removing her from the post she’s held since 2008 — a job that’s exempt from rules that ban political considerations from influencing county hiring or firing decisions….Maribeth Vander Weele, one of five ethics board commissioners, said she agreed with Preckwinkle’s decision because “the office needed to be professionalized. It has no investigative procedures. Case notes are hand-written. There are no standards for professional conduct. As aggressive as this office is, we need to make sure every investigation is thorough and objective.”
People who are appointed to any one of the more than 70 units of government by the chairman of the Lake County Board will now have to sign a “Standards of Conduct” saying they agree to follow ethical standards.
Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor announced the plan last week for the 300 appointees that sit on various boards and commissions and it will be voted on Sept. 10 by the full County Board.
A longtime Springfield power broker went to prison in Kansas after being convicted in a shakedown scheme at the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, but that very pension fund still cuts him a tiny check because he briefly taught at a public school decades ago.
The taxpayer-supported retirement checks keep flowing to ex-Rep. Roger Stanley and insider William Cellini because their crimes were not tied to the public jobs in which they earned the pension credit.
An anonymous website is hosting numerous documents related to the St. Clair County Board, including minutes from a closed session discussing drug testing of county employees….The unknown publisher hopes the website enhances “government transparency and inform the residents of St. Clair County about what their representatives are doing.”
It’s too soon to tell if Reboletti will face a Republican opponent during the March primary. One person considering a bid is former state Rep. Chris Nybo, who was Dillard’s opponent for Senate in the 2012 primary.
“I have not decided,” Nybo said on Wednesday. “I will begin the process of collecting signatures to get on the ballot. I’m giving it a lot of thought, but I haven’t made a final decision yet.”
Nybo’s most recent quarterly report shows he did not raise any money this spring. In fact, his campaign fund appears to still owe just over $39k to family members. He reported a $1,500 donation a couple of weeks ago, but that still only puts him at roughly $3k in the bank.
Reboletti has been looking to move up for some time now. Subscribers know more.
Much of the start-up work has been done with the help of Decatur Mayor Mike McElroy, who ran for the state Senate in 2012 against current state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. While McElroy is not an official member of his campaign team, Bell said the mayor helped identify people to know and put on committees, how to set up campaign structure and personal advice from the 2012 Senate run.
Support has also come from local Republicans, including state Rep. Bill Mitchell of Forsyth, who said he is firmly behind Bell’s campaign.
Bell has reportedly raised $5k in the last few weeks while Scherer has almost $40k in the bank.
Round Lake attorney Gerald Dietz has announced he intends to seek the Republican nomination for a state representative seat in the March primary.
Dietz, 44, said he plans to run in the 62nd House District currently represented by Democrat Sam Yingling of Round Lake Beach. Yingling and Dietz previously worked together for Avon Township.
Yingling posted some strong poll numbers when he beat incumbent Sandy Cole in November 2012. Dietz has roughly $7k on hand but still owes himself $5k. Yingling has more than $25k in the war chest.
* The first time I ever heard tourism used in a pro-same sex marriage argument was more than five years ago. Since then, other Midwestern states, such as Iowa and Minnesota, have legalized same sex marriage. So if there is any part of this story that is surprising to me, then it is that something like this did not happen sooner…
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who recently married 46 same-sex couples following his state’s passage of a law legalizing gay weddings, will appear in a predominantly gay Chicago neighborhood Thursday to launch a campaign called “Marry Me in Minneapolis.” He plans to follow with campaigns in Colorado and Wisconsin, two other states that haven’t approved same-sex marriage.
Rybak is trying to convince Chicagoans that rather than take a long — and expensive — plane trip to one of the coasts, just drive six hours to his city.
One has to wonder if this will ignite similar campaigns by officials from cities even closer to Illinois than Minneapolis, like Des Moines or even Davenport.
I suppose some were expecting the Governor to be more upset with this campaign, and treat it like a Scott Walker or Rick Perry poaching blitz. But the Governor has lobbied for SSM since he signed the civil unions bill, and this campaign isn’t trying to pry dollars out of the Illinois economy like Walker/Perry. These are dollars, as the Governor and Mayor Emanuel stated, that Illinois is simply missing out on…
The mayor, governor and Chicago tourism advocates cited the potential economic impact of legalizing same-sex marriage in Illinois, singling out a UCLA School of Law Williams Institute study.
That organization’s study estimated that Illinois’ wedding business would grow by $74 million during the first three years of legalized same-sex marriages. It also would generate $29 million in tourism dollars from out-of-town guests and boost state and local tax revenues by $8.5 million.
The Governor also blamed Republicans for not putting enough votes on the SSM bill in the House this spring. But as you know, and as subscribers know a little bit better, the HGOP not putting up votes was not the only reason that bill was not called for a vote.
*Bruce Rauner stood by his previous statements about same sex marriage during a radio interview yesterday…
Rauner: I will never…I have not supported gay marriage, and I will never advocate for it. What I’ve said is this should be decided through a voter referendum, and I will support what the voters decide through a referendum. If the majority of voters want to accept gay marriage, I will support them in that decision. If the voters through a referendum decide they don’t want to accept gay marriage, that’s what I will support.
* Speaking of which, Both Gov. Quinn and Kirk Dillard came out against the Rauner term limit proposal yesterday. First from the Governor…
“The Illinois Constitution was adopted by the people of Illinois in a referendum, and they decided — in their wisdom — that to override a veto it takes three-fifths of the members of the General Assembly,” Quinn says. “So I think that’s a pretty important provision … (and) I don’t think there’s a need to change that.”
Quinn says he also doesn’t see the need for another aspect of the plan, which would increase the number of representatives in the Illinois House, while decreasing the number of state senators.
“I think it’s a real slap in the face to downstate Illinois to downsize the state Senate because the districts become so geographically large, your chances of having input face to face to your state senator are greatly diminished,” Dillard says.
Rich is still out, but rest assured he shall return early next week from…
He may be looking for a new “intern emeritus.”
Hey, I’m all for new members to the Capitol Fax Intern Caucus.
* We’re going to get off to a slower start today. I have a class on Wednesday nights that runs into the early morning hours. I have a couple posts lined up that I’ll try to push out by this afternoon. Until then, here’s a rundown on some of today’s headlines…
* Biss: UPDATE: Pension conference committee: This process has been lengthy, partly due to the difficult and contentious nature of the issue — even as we hone in on a recommendation, conference committee members are hashing out every aspect of the topic carefully, and many components require significant compromise from all participants. Perhaps even more importantly, we are taking very seriously the need for a robust, credible actuarial evaluation of our final product. Consequently, we are requesting very thorough — and, yes, time-consuming — studies of our ideas.
* Pension fund buys River North apartment tower: The pension fund acquired a majority stake in Kingsbury Plaza, a 47-story tower just north of the East Bank Club in River North, according to people familiar with the transaction. TRS acquired its interest from GE Asset Management, which built the 420-unit high-rise in 2007 in a joint venture with Chicago-based apartment landlord Habitat Co.
* Study: Poverty increases fast in Chicago suburbs: The number of suburbanites living in poverty had grown to 629,564 by 2011, according to a review of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Heartland Alliance, a nonprofit group that fights poverty. That’s 95 percent higher than the 1990 number, the report said. That increase was faster than the 29 percent overall suburban population growth during the period.
* ‘I’m the guy you’re looking for’: Escaped prisoner with Glen Carbon ties recaptured: Carter was spotted by local police in Palestine, Ill., on Tuesday afternoon walking down the street about seven miles from the prison. When stopped, Carter told police, “I’m the guy you’re looking for” and surrendered without confrontation, then asked for water. Carter was part of a mowing detail at the minimum-security prison, located about 110 miles southeast of Champaign near the Indiana border. While assigned to the work crew cutting grass on the prison grounds, he walked away.
* Report: Farmers Could Do More To Lessen Impact Of Drought: The Natural Resources Defense Council says farmers could have greatly reduced losses, if they had been working to improve soil health. The NRDC suggests that planting certain grasses and legumes, and implementing a set of soil conservation practices, could nearly drought-proof fields. That would save farmers a lot of headache and taxpayers a lot of money
* Illiana expressway gets red light from planning group: “The current plan for the Illiana does not demonstrate significant transportation or economic benefits in exchange for high and uncertain costs,” the council said in a statement. “MPC opposes the Illiana.”
* Whole Foods developer gets $10 million city subsidy: (Walter) Robb promised to “learn and listen” to Englewood residents, serve “what the community wants, so long as it meets our quality standards” and offer “affordable” prices. “I don’t yet know exactly how we’re gonna do that . . . But, we’ve had some experience in the last year in Detroit,” he said of the 21,000-square-foot store now exceeding expectations in Midtown, one of that bankrupt city’s more vibrant communities.
* Houston: I’ll Start Thinking About Re-Election Next Spring: But half-way through a term he had said would be his last, Mike Houston is now hinting at the possibility of re-election.
