Progress Illinois on the brink of extinction
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Unless a funding angel comes through very soon, a widely read online publication will cease to exist…
It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that Progress Illinois will be publishing its last article on December 31, 2014 due to a lack of funding.
With the goal of adding a progressive voice to Illinois political news, Progress Illinois launched back in March 2008 thanks to a founding sponsorship from the SEIU Illinois State Council.
Starting out as a small, unknown blog six-and-a-half years ago, Progress Illinois has blossomed into a major player in progressive news, shining a light on a plethora of relevant issues including: the battle to keep the Hartmarx factory open; the Republic Windows & Doors controversy; the offshoring of jobs at Freeport’s Sensata Technologies; the Golan’s Movers’ fight for unionization; the mistreatment of Teamsters’ workers at WaterSaver Faucet Co.; the firing of CPS parent and Whole Foods worker Rhiannon Broschat last winter; the push for marriage equality in Illinois; the Fight for $15; the Occupy movement; countless workers’ rights and community actions; numerous elections; and the Chicago Teachers Union strike, which marked the start of the progressive community’s formal push back against education reform. […]
With the exit of Progress Illinois, the Chicago online community will be dominated by outlets funded primarily by conservative sources. Barring the financial support of progressive institutions or individuals, PI will cease operations at the end of this calendar year, leaving a gaping hole when it comes to in-depth reporting on progressive issues and coverage of events important to Illinoisans. We hope to get some 11th hour support to keep the site going, so if you would like to see Progress Illinois continue, make some noise and help PI generate the funds needed to continue providing news that is underrepresented in mainstream media and relevant to the progressive community. Thank you for your years of readership and support, and please direct any questions regarding this matter to me, PI editor-in-chief Aricka Flowers, at Aricka@ProgressIllinois.com.
I actually have semi-regular contact with Fran Eaton over at Illinois Review, but for whatever reason I haven’t interacted much with the PI folks. In retrospect, I wish I had.
Those of us who do this online thing can be fiercely independent and even more fiercely protective of our own perceived turfs. It’s counterproductive, I think, but old habits die hard.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
The sponsor of legislation that allowed same-day voter registration for Illinois’ Nov. 4 election is working to make the change permanent.
Sen. Don Harmon said Wednesday he’s working with House lawmakers on an election law bill that could advance early next month.
The Oak Park Democrat says same-day registration was “an extraordinarily successful experiment and one that’s worth continuing.”
The provision expired after this past election.
* The Question: Should same-day registration be made permanent? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please, particularly if you want some changes made.
online polls
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“Manning” bill clears Senate
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A controversial bill on behalf of firefighters passed overwhelmingly in the Senate today on a bipartisan rollcall. From the synopsis…
the case of fire fighter, and fire department or fire district paramedic matters, the arbitration decision shall be limited to wages, hours, and conditions of employment, including manning and also including residency requirements in municipalities with a population under 1,000,000. Effective immediately.
The “manning” aspect is the most controversial. It would mandate arbitration if contract negotiations failed to produce an agreement on staffing levels.
* Municipalities were steadfastly against it…
Mayor Larry Morrissey says his town has to pay more for firefighting than is necessary because contract language requires that it be negotiated. As a result, when Rockford faced a revenue squeeze during the recession, the town had to cut its police force and other services. […]
In some contract negotiations, the haggling comes down to exactly how many firefighters will be on each truck that is dispatched.
“Our fire chief always says it’s not how many firefighters are on a truck, it’s how many assemble at the scene,” said Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury, who is fighting to bring minimum-manning levels to three per truck to save taxpayer money. “Please don’t tie our hands. It’s expensive.”
The Associated Firefighters of Illinois is one of the most effective lobbying organizations at the Statehouse. Legislators love them some firefighters, man.
The legislation now goes to the governor.
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* Bruce Rauner today called on Gov. Pat Quinn’s staff to “please put in place a hiring freeze, an appointment freeze and a reclassification freeze for all positions within state government.” The Trib has more…
Rauner said he had “no reason” to believe Quinn is “doing anything inappropriate” regarding hiring, but Rauner noted past transitions have seen governors load up the state payroll with friends, appoint political allies to various boards and put vulnerable workers into better-protected jobs.
“We think it’s good practice, it’s good management practice, not at the tail end of an administration to put in people, friends, affiliates, into positions that are permanent or hard to change when we have a new administration,” Rauner said.
Quinn spokeswoman Katie Hickey said the governor “has already directed all cabinet members to manage their agencies in a responsible manner to ensure that the basic operations of the state continue.”
That’s not exactly a “Sure thing, Bruce, anything you say” response.
* Raw video of Rauner’s presser…
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* From IDES…
The October unemployment rate in Illinois was 6.6 percent, unchanged from September, and down from 9.1 percent one year ago, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Private employers added +900 jobs in October, but government job cuts meant -2,000 fewer payroll positions than in September. Illinois employers still reported +39,400 more jobs than on year ago. The labor force grew by +31,800 in October, increasing the number of people working or looking for work to 6,531,100, the highest level since November 2008. The number of unemployed was 429,000, down -324,500 since Jan. 2010.
900 jobs is pretty darned light. Here is the chart…
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Uber is apparent big winner
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This may be more a face-saver than a major compromise…
Two key lawmakers agreed Thursday to work on a new package of ride-sharing regulations that would require background checks of drivers and a minimum of $1 million in insurance coverage when carrying passengers.
The move means sponsoring Rep. Mike Zalewski and Sen. Tony Munoz will not seek an override of Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of legislation the two Democratic lawmakers passed in the spring. They have agreed to a craft statewide proposal for minimal regulations with an eye toward getting a vote in the current General Assembly before newly elected lawmakers take office in mid-January. […]
Along with background checks and the $1 million minimum when a passenger is aboard, the new legislation would also require ride-share drivers to be licensed and ride-share companies to dispatch only drivers with proper licenses. The legislation also would require service to underserved areas, wheel-chair accessibility and other safety and business provisions, according to the lawmakers.
Zalewski said in a statement he has led the discussions between the taxi and ride-share companies and that “both groups have respectfully agreed to work towards a compromise bill to be considered by the current General Assembly.”
* Greg Hinz lays it out…
Zalewski said a little more at a Springfield press conference today, but it’s pretty clear that he’s settling for a tiny fraction of what he originally wanted.
He said he indeed will not move for an override, but is working toward “a compromise bill” that is still being negotiated, but which may come in the Legislature’s January session.
The requirements for licensing “remain to be negotiated,” according to a news release. On insurance, a $1 million liability clause will be required only when a passenger is in a vehicle or a driver is on the way to pick up a passenger, but coverage while a driver is ‘on-app’ but not has accepted a trip request will be limited to $100,000 “unless the personal policy expressly excludes coverage according to its terms.”
Oh, and everyone agrees to serve underserved neighborhoods. But no agreement on how that would be enforced.
Like I said, Uber won the war.
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Today’s quotable
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the twitters…
A recognition of obvious reality or a setup for a “Jim Thompson moment“?
…Adding… Full quote and more from the SJ-R…
“The financial condition of the state of Illinois is stunningly bad. It’s horrible,” Rauner said. “Our financial condition is dire. We need to take strong action to fix it.” […]
Lawmakers last spring passed a state budget based on the fact the temporary income tax increase would start rolling back January 1. Gov. Pat Quinn called the budget incomplete because it provided inadequate funding to state programs, would result in further delays in paying bills and add to the state’s backlog of unpaid bills.
Rauner said some have referred to it as a “booby trap” budget.
“That’s a kind term and it understates the situation,” he said.
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Red light cameras win by default
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m sure this has happened before, but I can’t remember when…
Illinois Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge of Chicago’s red light camera program after two justices “recused themselves and the remaining members of the Court are divided so that it is not possible to secure the constitutionally required concurrence of four judges for a decision,” according to the opinion filed by the court.
The lawsuit, Keating vs. the City of Chicago, claimed the program was illegally enacted.
The two recusing justices were Karmeier and Burke.
* The Tribune has more on Justice Burke…
Burke is married to Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, the chairman of the City Council Finance Committee. Burke has been critical of how Chicago selected its first red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. The company was fired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel amid a $2 million bribery scandal exposed by Tribune reporting.
The Tribune reported last year that Ed Burke wrote letters to the administration of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2007 questioning the way the city awarded the red light camera business to Redflex , calling the relationship “suspect since its inception.” The veteran alderman is a friend and political ally of a longtime City Hall insider with ties to a Redflex competitor.
That rival, American Traffic Solutions Inc., also sought unsuccessfully to replace Redflex after they were fired. But the company, known as ATS, did win the contract to operate the city’s speed camera program.
The appellate court had earlier unanimously upheld a trial court decision in favor of the red light cameras.
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Can you please help me figure this out?
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I have no idea what this Wall Street Journal piece is supposed to mean…
Mr. Rauner faces perhaps the most daunting task of any governor in the country. Illinois has the nation’s worst credit rating, most insolvent pension system and barely any job growth. A Democratic state legislature can override his vetoes, and its chief power broker, House Speaker Michael Madigan, has every incentive to undermine the new governor given that Mr. Rauner’s likely Democratic challenger in 2018 will be the speaker’s daughter, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
First, Mr. Rauner will need to peel off enough Democrats to phase out the state’s 2011 “temporary” income and corporate tax hikes, which will begin to sunset at the end of this year. Democratic leaders want to force Mr. Rauner to break his campaign promise to roll back the tax increases and to sign onto a limited extension next year.
So the onus will be on Mr. Rauner to corral a dozen Democrats in the House and 10 in the Senate to support his tax plan. The good news is that the legislature includes a large faction of moderate Democrats who are fiscally conservative but culturally liberal. The bad news is that the legislators are in hock to Mr. Madigan, who’s also the chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Am I reading this wrong or does the WSJ really believe that the Democrats will unanimously pass a tax hike bill and then override a Rauner veto?
Also, what’s that about corralling a dozen Dems in the House and ten in the Senate “to support his tax plan”? What kind of math is that?
Maybe it’s because I woke up late today, but I just don’t get this at all and my brain really hurts.
A little help?
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Today’s most valuable lesson
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* When your smart phone is also your alarm clock, please make sure it’s sufficiently charged when you go to bed. If you don’t, your phone could run out of power and no morning alarm will sound.
Is there any “wisdom” you’d like to pass along today?
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* The Senate appears poised to move ahead with a minimum wage hike despite GOP opposition…
As the Legislature reconvened Wednesday, Sen. Kimberly Lightford announced her plan to “fulfill the terms of the ballot question” approved overwhelmingly by voters in Republican and Democratic districts alike. Earlier this month, 67 percent of Illinois’ voters approved a non-binding resolution that said the hourly wage should go up to $10 by Jan. 1.
Lightford, D-Maywood, said she filed legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10 by July 1.
Her proposal easily cleared a Senate committee Wednesday afternoon. But not before Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno pointed out, “we do have a new governor.” […]
Lightford’s proposal would not only bump the minimum hourly wage for adults to $10 by July 1, it would continue to increase the wage to $10.50 in July, 2016 and $11 in July, 2017..
* But there’s still a problem in the House…
Rauner’s campaign has said he won’t work against Quinn’s efforts to solely raise the wage, and the voter response could be useful for reluctant lawmakers.
But political experts say the Democratic-controlled Capitol could have raised the wage earlier if there was political will, and lawmakers have little incentive to help shape Quinn’s legacy on his way out, partially because of his frosty-at-times relationship with the legislature.
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, who is a sponsor of the minimum wage bill, doesn’t anticipate much movement.
“We didn’t have the votes to do it in the spring, and I’m not sure even though there was good support for it,” she said.
* More…
Business groups say they’ll continue to fight the measure, as lawmakers are scheduled to return to Springfield in early December and also could come back for last-minute, lame-duck action in early January before a new crop of legislators is sworn in.
“That’s a huge jump for small business owners to absorb,” said Kim Clarke Maisch, Illinois state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “Going all the way to $11 would again push Illinois toward having one of the highest minimum wages in the country at a time when our neighboring states are mostly at the federal rate. We believe strongly that this puts Illinois small business owners at a competitive disadvantage.”
Lightford argues Illinois workers have been paid too little for years, and said businesses with fewer than four employees would only be required to pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
“The business community has had years of relief,” Lightford said. “I think it’s just that they don’t want to do it because they don’t have to do it.”
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Understatement of the week
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Umm…
Beyond that, prospects also appear to be dwindling for Democrats to push for an extension of the 2011 income tax increase, which rolls back next year and eventually leaves Illinois billions of dollars short in revenue. Quinn wanted to keep the 5 percent rate permanent instead of allowing it to dip to 3.75 percent as scheduled, claiming there’d be a major impact on schools and services.
No way were they ever gonna touch that hot potato if Rauner won.
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* Let’s do a quick roundup, starting with Bernie…
“We’ve tried to appeal to everyone, but what we’re going to try to focus on now, after the course of a long campaign where we were fighting for votes, is not we’ll be the treasurer for all 13 million people in the state of Illinois,” Frerichs said. “Partisanship falls aside.”
Frerichs, who plans to meet today with Gov.-elect Rauner, announced that his transition team would be headed by Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, a former deputy treasurer who lost the 2010 race for the post. […]
The Election Day narrative focused almost solely on Rauner topping Quinn, giving the GOP the governor’s seat for the first time in 12 years. But Frerichs’ triumph leaves Republicans with just one other statewide constitutional officer — re-elected Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. That puts a damper on the postelection GOP glow, particularly combined with trends that show Democrats maintaining a veto-proof majority in the House, an advantage they hold in the Senate.
* Natasha…
Frerichs’ spokesman, Dave Clarkin, said Wednesday that while the total was close, the provisional ballots counted in recent days had been trending in their favor. He pointed to “Rauner-Frerichs” voters, describing them as independents in the collar counties and downstate.
“This race was neck-and-neck in polling leading up to Election Day, but we have believed all along that if the trend continued of Mike Frerichs performing strong in downstate Illinois and the suburbs, we would win by an insurmountable margin,” Clarkin said. “What we saw emerge [Tuesday] in the suburbs exceeded our expectations. This race is being decided by tens of thousands of Rauner-Frerichs voters: independents in suburbs from Winnetka to Orland Park, from Waukegan to Joliet in the collar counties, and from Rock Island to deep Southern Illinois.”
* Rick and Ray…
Frerichs, a former Champaign County auditor who has served in the General Assembly since 2007, said congratulations were pouring in, including 142 text messages that he couldn’t immediately respond to during his drive to Springfield for the start of the fall session.
With a win of “less than one vote per precinct, there are any number of people who can claim credit for that victory,” Frerichs said. And he quickly joked that “lots of people have called to claim credit” ever since the numbers started breaking his way. […]
The results of the treasurer’s race, along with locally contested state legislative races, indicate Rauner supplied little coattails in his victory over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Instead, the results show the governor’s race was decided more out of a desire for change among voters unhappy with Quinn’s job performance rather than any Republican or Rauner-inspired wave.
* John…
In Chicago, some invalid absentee ballots were improperly mixed with valid ones, but the city’s Board of Election Commissioners rebutted most of the charges even as Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk sought intervention by the U.S. attorney in Chicago. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney would not comment Wednesday.
In suburban Cook County, the Cross campaign alleged it had examined 8,000 cases people requesting mail-in ballots and found 235 where voters appeared to have cast ballots twice.
But Cook County Clerk David Orr told the AP on Tuesday that his office didn’t find any inappropriately tallied ballots. In 86 cases, mail-in ballots were unsigned, invalidating them, so election officials contacted each voter and they appeared on Election Day.
Orr said he appreciates activists’ involvement in the process, but was irked that the Cross campaign publicized the concern in a news release before alerting authorities. That “hurts democracy,” Orr said.
“I certainly know the old rumors associated with Cook County,” Orr said. “But as we move into the future, we want to be careful about unsubstantiated allegations.”
* Tom K…
As for his successor in the state Senate, a position that will be filled by the Democratic Party chairmen in Champaign and Vermilion counties in the next 30 days, Frerichs said, “It’s not mine to fill.”
Frerichs’ term runs through 2016.
“If people want to hear from me, then we’ll see who comes forward and offers to serve. I think I’m uniquely qualified to tell them what to expect in the office and the race,” he said. “There are a lot of smart, good people in the 52nd District and we’ll look forward to hearing from them soon.”
Frerichs is the first state treasurer from East Central Illinois since Democrat William Ryan of Vermilion County was elected in 1913. And he’s the first Democrat from Champaign County to be elected to any statewide constitutional office in the county’s 181-year history.
Your thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** From the Frerichs folks…
As announced yesterday the co-chairs of Treasurer-elect Frerichs’ transition team are Congresswoman Robin Kelly and Michael T. Carrigan, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO. The transition team’s members will also include:
• Paul Miller, Director
• Zach Koutsky, Deputy Director
• Charise Williams, Deputy Director, Civic Engagement
The transition team is in formation and more details will follow.
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Duckworth announces new arrival
Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From US Rep. Tammy Duckworth…
My husband Bryan and I are thrilled to announce that we are the proud parents of a baby girl. Abigail O’kalani Bowlsbey was born on November 18. Bryan and I were deeply honored that Senator Akaka acted as Hawaiian elder and selected her middle name. We are grateful for the love and support of our family and friends. We also appreciate the respect for our privacy during this important moment in our lives.
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