* Fran Spielman reports on Latino politicians who have turned against Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez…
On Monday, vanquished mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and six of the City Council’s 10 Hispanic aldermen demanded that Alvarez resign for taking 13 months to charge a white Chicago Police officer with the first-degree murder of the African-American teenager.
“As we seek now to heal our city and our county, and as we as a society seek to enact long-overdue reforms of our criminal justice system, we need law enforcement officials who are honest, fair, and professional,” Garcia said.
“Too much is at stake to allow Anita Alvarez to continue in the position of Cook County state’s attorney, and accordingly, we call on her today to resign immediately.”
Joining Garcia at the news conference were four aldermen: Susie Salowski Garza (10th), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Gilbert Villegas (36th) and Ricardo Muñoz (22nd). Two other Hispanic aldermen — Roberto Maldonado (26th) and Proco Joe Moreno (1st) — also joined the call for Alvarez’s resignation, but did not attend.
“Ms. Alvarez’s record as the county’s chief prosecutor has been replete with actions that show a disdain for restorative justice and a petty vindictiveness wholly inappropriate for her office.”
Alvarez’s office later issued a written response to the latest demand for her to leave:
“I am a professional prosecutor and I am not driven by politics. I offer no apologies for enlisting the FBI to investigate Laquan’s murder because obviously the Chicago Police Department could not investigate themselves in this case. And I certainly do not apologize for conducting a meticulous and thorough investigation to build the strongest possible First Degree Murder case against Officer Van Dyke.”
Garcia did not call for the resignation of Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, however, saying he wanted to let a Chicago city council hearing into the matter play out first.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Monday called for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to step down and for Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to be ousted because of their handling of the investigation into the shooting of an African-American teen by a white Chicago police officer.
“I’ve had no confidence in (Alvarez’s) leadership for a very long time,” said Preckwinkle, who is backing her former chief of staff, Kim Foxx, over Alvarez in the March 15 Democratic primary election. “I think the way she has run the office is disgraceful.” […]
Preckwinkle said McCarthy either knew or should have known months ago that 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was not lunging at police when Officer Jason Van Dyke shot him 16 times in October 2014. […]
Alvarez released a statement saying she would not be “driven by politics” or “bullied by politicians who do not have a full understanding of the facts of this investigation.”
Who failed Chicago and how? That question demands an answer, not a scapegoat. It demands an investigation independent of the political stakeholders in the Police Department, the state’s attorney’s office or City Hall.
Since April, the U.S. attorney’s office has been conducting an investigation of the McDonald shooting. We don’t know the nature or scope of that investigation; we do know the feds have a formidable track record for prosecuting wrongdoing that other agencies have dismissed or discounted. This is the place for an investigation of all the circumstances around this shooting.
There will be no accountability until Chicagoans know the truth about what happened to Laquan McDonald — and about what happened next.
* Frankly, getting rid of Alvarez and McCarthy and investigating this particular cover-up isn’t gonna do much to change things if this story is true…
If you did think an officer was lying, even in the most egregious cases where there was a dead suspect, reporting such behavior was met with severe consequences like taking cases away from young prosecutors, marginalization in the office and yelling and reprimand.
In my interviews with more than two dozen prosecutors and former prosecutors, they revealed that management did not support the attorneys who came forward; instead, they acted as henchmen at many levels of command, thwarting and even threatening whistle-blowers.
One prosecutor described a killing hauntingly reminiscent to the shooting death of LaQuan McDonald and how it may have played out if a prosecutor tried to investigate Officer Jason Van Dyke. As this assistant State’s Attorney explained:
A police officer killed a guy and they said he was shooting at them at the time. I could tell that didn’t make much sense, but I put the blinders on. [I got conflicting stories from police officers that came in at two different times]. I told my supervisor, and he asked why I had had them come in separately (I hadn’t, they just came in that way) and told me that I should have them get together and straighten it out. He got mad at me. [I went up the chain of command with the complaint, and didn’t get a response]. One supervisor told me, “You’re a prosecutor, not a defense attorney.” One supervisor got so mad that he threw an ashtray against the wall and broke it. They wouldn’t let me see Daley (State’s Attorney and Former Chicago Mayor) about it. They took the case from me and gave it to another lawyer…
…Adding… State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago)…
To be effective, our outrage must be focused, our demands specific and sharp. Charging Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder is not enough. There was a cover-up, and anyone involved in it must be held accountable. If we do not tear down the blue curtain of silence once and for all, Laquan McDonalds will continue to die in our city. We must never forget that the video – and the truth – were not simply handed to us. Instead, they were ripped from reluctant hands by journalists, citizens and the courts.
Policing reform legislation I co-sponsored this year provides a pathway to the appointment of a special prosecutor in cases such as this one. The law takes effect in January, and it must be used to help bring to justice rogue cops and those who cover for them. In the meantime, we need a fresh start. State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez must step down. She has failed in her responsibility to timely, openly prosecute a heinous crime that not only took a life but betrayed the public trust.
I am immensely proud of all who have protested peacefully in Chicago, and on Friday, I was honored to march alongside young people and veterans of the Civil Rights Movement alike on Michigan Avenue. I am more confident than ever that apathy and self-absorption will not succeed in suppressing the human bent toward basic fairness. Not only people of color, but all people who respect justice should be outraged and engaged, and that is the unity I have witnessed since the release of the video last week.
But if these protests do not result in top-to-bottom change, we will be here again – perhaps a month from now, maybe six months or a year from now. Our voices must not die away. We must not stand by while police officers act as judge, jury and executioner on our streets. We will remain united for justice.
The St. Clair County Circuit Court has ruled in favor of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, which was granted a temporary restraining order against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger. The ruling issued late Wednesday (attached) protects health insurance for nearly 5,000 low-wage home healthcare workers in Illinois. The home healthcare workers serve adults with disabilities in Illinois’ Home Services Program. (Case No. 15 CH 475.)
Despite a contract requiring the State of Illinois to contribute health insurance benefits for home healthcare workers, Gov. Rauner refused to pay the State’s contribution to the workers’ health fund. Rauner’s administration owes the health fund $1.5 million from fiscal year 2015, as well as approximately $11.8 million for work already performed for the months of July through October in fiscal year 2016. If Gov. Rauner failed to honor the State’s contractual obligations to continue health contributions, workers would have lost all of their health insurance after December 31st, 2015.
The state’s 52,000 home healthcare and child care workers-the largest bloc of workers in Illinois-continue to work without a contract.
In response to the temporary restraining order, Keith Kelleher, President of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, issued the following statement:
“We applaud the St. Clair County Circuit Court ruling to protect our home healthcare workers from a potentially devastating economic and health crisis.
“The Court’s ruling is yet another major rebuke to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s extreme agenda and another example of Rauner’s failure in leading and managing Illinois’ finances, contracts and basic state operations.
“Lisa Viti, a home healthcare worker in Berwyn, suffers from diabetes and extremely high blood pressure and must take eight medications daily. She is among thousands of other home care workers whose health insurance was protected by the Court’s ruling. If Gov. Rauner had been successful in stripping away Ms. Viit’s health insurance that she currently gets from the health fund, her life-saving prescriptions would have cost more than $1,000 a month, forcing Ms. Viti to choose between her health or losing her own home. This is an example of Gov. Rauner’s agenda in a nutshell.
“Let’s not forgot how we got here. Gov. Rauner chose to use low-wage home healthcare workers, and their health insurance and economic security, as ‘leverage’ for his extreme anti-worker and political agenda.
“Gov. Rauner manufactured the State’s ongoing government shutdown for over five months now with no resolution in sight. But then Rauner claimed he had no budget authority to pay money into the health fund, putting workers, their families, and adults with disabilities in jeopardy and potentially devastating our vital workforce.
“Rauner’s attempt to manipulate and gamble with peoples’ livelihoods and health security is utterly reprehensible. Rauner’s actions show how little he cares about the struggles of low-wage workers and families in Illinois and how willing he is to use them as pawns in his political game.”
[Chicago politicians] want Alvarez to wear the jacket for it all.
Rahm seems to be throwing her under his bus, but he doesn’t want his fingerprints on her. So his ally, David Axelrod, threw her under.
Axelrod is a Rahm pal, but for years he was also the mouthpiece for former Mayor Richard Daley, and was the top political and media strategist for Obama. It’s a Chicago thing.
“Why did it take a year to indict a CPD officer who shot a kid 16 times?” Axelrod tweeted Tuesday night. “Would it have happened today if judge hadn’t ordered video release?”
That puts it on Alvarez. Does she deserve it?
I don’t think so. To me, she’s not the issue.
The video threatened Rahm Emanuel and his pursuit of power. Alvarez told reporters she’d been waiting for the feds to issue a joint announcement with her office. That didn’t happen.
Funny how things work out.
Axelrod’s tweet legitimizes a self-preservation tactic Chicago politicians have been pursuing for the last day or so: They know people are angry over what happened to 17-year-old McDonald. They want to be safe from that anger. So they’re directing the mob to go against Alvarez.
You’ll get zero excuses about Rahm from me. He was obviously covering things up. But we can’t ignore what Alavarez has done over the years. This was no one-off event.
In announcing the charge against Van Dyke, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said forensic testing revealed no evidence that anyone had intentionally erased the Burger King video. NBC5 News first broke the story about the missing footage.
“We have looked at those videos and … it doesn’t appear that it’s been tampered with,” Alvarez told reporters. […]
The officers stayed on the scene until almost midnight and even brought in their own information technology specialist when it appeared they were having trouble operating the system, [Jay Darshane, a Burger King district manager] said. […]
When the video system kicked back on, it recorded two police officers in the Burger King office who appeared to be looking at something on the monitor over and over, according to Michael Robbins, an attorney representing McDonald’s family.
Yeah, I’m sure they were looking over and over at nothing whatsoever.
She waited over a year to charge the cop, even though this appears to be an open and shut case, and then she says no tampering was done on the BK video and expects us to trust her.
Plus, unlike Emanuel, she’s up for reelection next year. She ought to face some heat.
Others took a more draconian line. Vince Tribo, 84, was out shopping for underwear. He said he lived in Flossmoor but also keeps a downtown condo, and that he “doesn’t really believe in protesting.”
“I grew up in Italy under Mussolini — I wasn’t brought up with all this,” he confided with a smile, gesturing to the crowd, which was chanting that McDonald had been shot 16 times. “There was more discipline and law and order.
“My mother always said that before Mussolini came to power it was lawless,” he added, before gesturing to the crowd again and adding, “it was like this.”
I gave thanks this week for being able to ply my trade in one of the most continually interesting buildings in Illinois.
Heading into the press offices carved in the Illinois Capitol these recent weeks, I’ve been recalling memorable moments that occurred during my tenure as a reporter covering state government and politics in Springfield.
Go read the whole thing. As we’ve discussed before, Kurt is moving to Missouri to report on that state’s capital.
Months after formally endorsing Gov. Bruce Rauner’s controversial turnaround agenda for Illinois, Lincolnshire officials are going further by moving to establish the town as a right-to-work zone.
Trustees are considering an ordinance that would prevent local employers from automatically deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks. Eliminating that mandatory deduction means workers couldn’t be fired if they choose not to pay union dues or fees. […]
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has issued a formal opinion that municipal right-to-work zones aren’t allowed under federal law. […]
The Illinois Policy Institute — a nonprofit research group that focuses on economic and government issues — disagrees. It endorses the right-to-work concept and says Illinois law doesn’t prevent home-rule communities, such as Lincolnshire, from adopting such ordinances. […]
When asked for his opinion of Lincolnshire’s proposal and the potential legal risks, village attorney Adam Simon said officials are relying on the Illinois Policy Institute’s analysis. He declined to comment further.
For the first time in seven months, the small group of people who could bring an end to the state’s epic budget impasse are finally going to meet.
But, rank-and-file lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say Tuesday’s pow-wow with Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Legislature’s four leaders may be more of a public spectacle than a productive meeting.
“So there’s a meeting in Springfield. Great,” said state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton. “What I want to see is a common-sense plan from the governor to lead us out of this impasse that he created.”
“I do not have high hopes for the meeting,” added state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon. “It’s going to be theater.”
* Just a taste of what’s at stake from recent news stories…
* Vendor Payment Program suspended in Illinois budget impasse: Vendors facing payment delays have lost another lifeline for getting what they are owed. The Vendor Payment Program gets cash quickly to vendors who have provided products or services to the state but have not been paid. It has been temporarily suspended because legislators and Gov. Bruce Rauner have not agreed on a permanent state budget.
* Budget impasse traps people dependent on utility help: Unable to work since 2005, the 57-year-old Effingham woman has been relying on the state’s Percentage of Income Payment (PIP) utility assistance program to help her pay her power bill on a $753 disability check. But the state budget impasse has eliminated the PIP programs, at least for the time being. She’s eligible for the Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), but she said that’s not an immediate option.
* Legislators, Rauner must compromise: More than 5,000 NIU Monetary Assistance Program grant recipients are at risk of having to repay MAP grants that were credited by NIU despite no money coming in from the state, and the university plans to spend $300,000 to maintain the Stevens Building — a state project — over the winter to avoid $1 million worth of damage.
* State needs to fund services for people with disabilities: Every day this stalemate goes unresolved social service agencies struggle to keep their doors open. Agencies sign contracts with the state to provide valuable community-based services, and that’s what they continue to do – even though payments are not being processed for state-funded grant programs.
* Enforcement of underage drinking laws slows during Illinois budget standoff: Liquor commission sting operations are among the latest casualties of Illinois’ nearly five-month budget standoff, with only 38 this past August — the most recent month for which figures are available — compared with 208 in August 2014.
* Little interest in loans to cover state shortfalls: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan to offer loans to help cash-strapped local governments weather the lingering budget storm appears to be drawing little interest. According to the director of the Illinois Finance Authority, only two 911 emergency telephone systems have inquired about the loans, and neither has taken the steps to apply for the financial assistance. The lack of business comes as a surprise, Illinois Finance Authority chief Chris Meister said last week. “I was expecting a lot of calls,” Meister said.
* Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti says the savings from her government consolidation task force proposals will be “huge.” But, as always with this administration, there are anti-union poison pills…
One would give local governments the right to decide what should be part of collective bargaining with public-worker unions. Another would repeal or make changes to union-backed laws requiring governments to pay a certain level of wages and benefits to workers on publicly funded projects.
Holmes said she doesn’t understand why the proposals are part of group’s discussion, other than that “attacks on collective bargaining and organized labor are an ongoing theme” for Rauner.
Sanguinetti countered that many of the officials who spoke to the task force — from cities, universities and elsewhere — said repealing those requirements would save money.
“When Bruce and I were chosen to lead, we promised the people we would change Illinois,” she said.
[Rep. Jack Franks] argued that debating those measures is futile, since they have been repeatedly shot down by Democrats who run the Legislature, and even some GOP lawmakers don’t support them.
“Besides being a waste of time it’s a question of credibility at that point,” Franks said.
It’s like they can’t help themselves or something.
Sheesh.
I mean, haven’t these people ever done any marketing? If your pitch involves pointing to an essential ingredient that you know your targeted consumer will hate, then you’re not gonna get very far with your target audience.
Remember the furor nearly three years ago when newly elected state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, was the only Republican in the Illinois Senate to vote for a bill to legalize gay marriage in Illinois?
He was criticized by members of his own party — the Ford County Republican Party passed a resolution expressing its displeasure with his vote and former McLean County Republican Party Chair John Parrott said the young senator had made a lot of enemies.
“The outpouring of dissatisfaction from Republicans in McLean County has been overwhelming, along with other county chairmen calling me and talking to me about how disappointed they are in Barickman’s vote,” Parrott said.
But unless someone files [today] to oppose him, Barickman is going to get a pass in the March 15 Republican primary. Although he hasn’t filed yet, Barickman said he’ll do so on Monday.
We’ll see what happens today, but Sen. Barickman is an otherwise conservative Republican, he diligently works his district and, because of the US Supreme Court gay marriage is a done deal nationally. Ain’t nothing anybody can do about it now. Plus, it was probably an overblown issue to begin with, especially by the time it was passed here.
Also, the very real problems Illinois faces completely overshadow the minor little question about whether two people from the same gender can get married. Live and let live, and all that.
* It’s not that there’s a whole lot of new stuff in this Sunday New York Times article, but I’ve been forwarded the link a kabillion times because, I suppose, it’s in the Sunday New York Times…
The richest man in Illinois does not often give speeches. But on a warm spring day two years ago, Kenneth C. Griffin, the billionaire founder of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, rose before a black-tie dinner of the Economic Club of Chicago to deliver an urgent plea to the city’s elite.
They had stood silently, Mr. Griffin told them, as politicians spent too much and drove businesses and jobs from the state. They had refused to help those who would take on the reigning powers in the Illinois Capitol. “It is time for us to do something,” he implored.
Their response came quickly. In the months since, Mr. Griffin and a small group of rich supporters — not just from Chicago, but also from New York City and Los Angeles, southern Florida and Texas — have poured tens of millions of dollars into the state, a concentration of political money without precedent in Illinois history.
Their wealth has forcefully shifted the state’s balance of power. Last year, the families helped elect as governor Bruce Rauner, a Griffin friend and former private equity executive from the Chicago suburbs, who estimates his own fortune at more than $500 million. Now they are rallying behind Mr. Rauner’s agenda: to cut spending and overhaul the state’s pension system, impose term limits and weaken public employee unions.
Here’s what the Chicago Police Department told the media after LaQuan McDonald was killed by a police officer 13 months ago: A drug-addled black kid lunged at a cop with a knife and was then shot in the chest.
Six months later, and a week after Chicago’s mayoral election, the City Council rushed through approval of a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family, even though no lawsuit had been filed.
Seven months after that, the city finally released the dashboard video from a Chicago police car which clearly showed McDonald walking away from the police when he was shot 16 times—and almost all of those shots were fired as he lay bleeding to death on the pavement.
In addition to the officer who shot him, everybody failed that kid, from his own mother, who lost custody of LaQuan after her boyfriend savagely beat him; to the state’s Department of Children and Family Services, which was supposed to protect and help him as his legal ward; to the city’s mayor, who covered up the gruesome manner of McDonald’s death by fighting the release of the dashboard video; to the City Council, for not demanding answers before approving such a huge settlement; to the mainstream media, for not following up on their denied Freedom of Information Act requests with a lawsuit; to Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, for her all-too-usual slow-walking of investigations of alleged police misconduct; to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who waited until days before a judge finally acted to claim that the city had violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act by sitting on the video.
Other states take much better care of their young wards. Yes, that can be expensive. But if caring for the kids nobody else wants isn’t one of the state’s most important responsibilities, I don’t know what the heck is.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, LaQuan was sexually molested in two different foster homes that were chosen, vetted and paid for by the state.
Two.
If that doesn’t boggle your mind and enrage your very soul, then absolutely nothing will.
Other states release their police dashboard and body cam videos much, much faster than Illinois. While that may lead to some unrest in the streets, it’s infinitely more democratic and honest than our far too encumbered, lumbering process, which overwhelmingly favors the political interests of those who run things.
Citizens can’t hold politicians accountable if they are deliberately kept in the dark, so Chicagoans deserved the right to know about McDonald’s death before they voted last spring.
And most other states license their police officers.
According to an article in Police Chief magazine, 44 states license police officers and have a statewide process for revoking those licenses.
Illinois does neither, but it’s not for lack of trying.
Earlier this year when the General Assembly was debating law enforcement reforms, police licensure was a hot topic. But, according to its chief sponsor, Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), the idea was derailed by the House Republicans. The proposal was dropped in order to achieve a bipartisan victory on some much-needed reforms like body cams and police training.
Cops have an almost impossible job, particularly in Chicago. Between Jan. 1 and Nov. 23, there have been 2,712 Chicago shooting victims, according to the Chicago Tribune. I wouldn’t want to be a Chicago cop for any amount of money.
The number of fatal shootings by Chicago police (70 in five years) pales in comparison to the total of all shootings. For most, our first instinct is to back the police. It’s a natural reaction. They’re our protectors, so we want to believe they are just and good people, and most definitely are.
But more citizens, particularly in high crime areas, have more contact with the police than they do with any other government employees. And, of course, the cops carry guns and are allowed to use them. In Chicago, official discipline of bad cops is so rare as to be almost non-existent, according to some recent studies. It’s a problem that screams for a remedy from above.
We need to do a better job as a state. The nightmare at DCFS needs to be addressed before the government makes more kids’ lives even worse.
Our Freedom of Information Act should no longer be a freedom from information law.
And we as a state should revisit the police licensing issue, since Chicago apparently can’t seem to take care of this very real problem on its own.
Discuss.
…Adding… The attorney general’s office is adamant that “we did our jobs” in this case and they sent along their early November memo as proof. Click here and decide for yourself.
While 86 minutes of the video were missing, the city’s Independent Police Review Authority said there was “no credible evidence” that police tampered with it. Alvarez repeated that assertion Tuesday.
That’s the same IPRA which clears almost every cop it looks at.
“Forensic testing was done on the Burger King surveillance system to determine if anyone tampered with the evidence and the testing did not reveal any such evidence,” she said.
She declined to comment on which agency conducted the tests, however.
Somebody needs to track down Burger King’s Jay Darshane, who made the original allegations.
Darshane told DNAinfo Tuesday that he’s been visited by other authorities since then — and will likely have to testify in the case.
Dasrhane declined to comment further, saying he was told not to speak about the incident.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
2) If you listen to the audio of the snuff video, you can hear what sounds like wind noise, sirens and garbled electronic something or another, but nothing else. So, was this a tech issue (perhaps “ghost” audio that bled through from another source) or what?
…Adding… 3) When, exactly, did Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy and State’s Attorney Alvarez and/or their staff first find out about what was in that police dashcam video? And what did they do immediately after?
…Adding… 4) What was in the reports filed by the other officers at the scene?
*** UPDATE *** I dunno about y’all, but I’m gettin’ rich!!!…
Some years ago my client died leaving behind US$14.7M in my Bank here where I work, nobody has come forward for the claim, and I contacted you because your name and email contact was among the findings, and would love to reinvest the dormant funds to you, since your email contact it’s among the matches. Can I present you as the heir to the deceased?
Since I have all necessary details needed to claim the Funds if interested respond with the following to enable us to proceed this matter. 1 Your Full completed names, 2 Telephone & fax number 3 occupation 4 address and age.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner’s chief of staff Mike Z is an old pal of mine. Some folks don’t like his boss much, and maybe they don’t care for others in that crew [cough!*Goldberg*cough!], but pretty much everybody has a soft spot for Z. So we can’t pass up this chance now that he’s made Crain’s Chicago Business’ esteemed 40 under 40…
Anyone wishing to donate to the JVD Bond Fund may do so at any of the four locations of the Chicago Patrolmens’ Federal Credit Union. Please send a check made payable to Tiffany Van Dyke.
The FOP has a right to aggressively represent its members in contract negotiations, grievances, etc. To me, however, this is just going too far.
After an appalling dashcam video was released to the public, protesters took to the streets to let it be known that they stood for Laquan, and all victims of racist police violence. There have been reports of at least five demonstrators being arrested. The Chicago Community Bond Fund is raising money for their bond. Your donation in any amount is needed.
The whole protest seemed staged to me last night. I mean, the small demonstration appeared confined mainly to the South Loop, perhaps to ensure maximum media coverage. It’s no secret that it could be difficult to convince some reporters to hang out in Englewood at night (not to mention some - not all! - of those protesters).
Anyway, back to the Chicago Community Bond Fund stuff. From the twitters…
Three of our people have been taken and arrested. We are marching to 17th and State to get them released. #LaquanMcDonald
* Just about everybody was peaceful last night. It was (thankfully) the usual staged chanting from the usual folks. But one person does appear to have allegedly gotten out of hand. It would help if the protesters recognized that as well. You can’t blame the cops for everything in life.
Illinois’ credit rating could move even closer to “junk” if its already large pension liability and budget deficit grow, Moody’s Investors Service said on Tuesday.
Last month, the credit rating agency downgraded Illinois just three steps above “junk” to Baa1 with a negative outlook in the wake of a political impasse that has left the fifth-largest U.S. state without a budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1.
“As long as those conditions continue to deteriorate, those are the most likely drivers of the next downgrade,” Moody’s analyst Ted Hampton said on Tuesday, referring to the pension and deficit problems.
Even if Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the legislature were to reach a compromise at this point, it would not immediately improve the state’s credit standing. That is because any deal would not likely result in a balanced budget halfway into the fiscal year, Moody’s said in a report. […]
Moody’s said growth in Illinois’ chronic unpaid bill pile, a barometer of the state’s structural budget deficit, “would elevate liquidity risks and add further credit pressure.” The bill backlog stood at $7 billion as of Monday and Moody’s projected it could top a $9.9 billion peak reached in November 2010 if the state fails to fill its fiscal 2016 budget gap.
When Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Illinois’ credit rating in October, Illinois earned not only the distinction of having the lowest credit score of any state (it had had that for some time) but also became the first state to receive a rating below single-A.
But what does that mean and how can Illinois get out of last place? Can Illinois sink even lower on the credit scale, to a point that investors don’t want to buy our bonds?
“There is no floor for U.S. state ratings, despite states’ inherent credit strengths and typically very high ratings,” Moody’s VP-Senior Credit Officer Ted Hampton says. “The majority of states are rated either Aaa or Aa1, and this concentration at the top of our rating scale reflects states’ powers – such as the ability to cut general spending – and positive features that include prudent governance practices, moderate debt burdens, and stable, diverse economies.”
A month after dropping Illinois to a rating of Baa1 negative, Moody’s has released an FAQ document that explains why Illinois fell into its bad credit situation and how it can rebound. Moody’s succinctly spells out the causes of the state’s credit decline: “governance weaknesses, bill payment deferrals, chronic structural budget gaps, and soaring unfunded pension liabilities.”
Subscribers already have my take, but the full report is here.
The Illinois Department of Commerce says it has reached tax-break deals with three companies following Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent decision to reinstate corporate tax incentives.
The deals through the EDGE tax-credit program, though, would not provide tax incentives until Rauner and Illinois lawmakers agree on the overdue state budget.
The department did not provide the size of the tax breaks the companies would receive.
Under the deals announced Tuesday, Fabrik Industries Inc. of McHenry would add 25 new jobs and invest $5 million. The company now employs 264 people.
The other two companies are in Rockford and Northbrook.
* The reason I’m singling out the McHenry County company is because the Associated Press just ran a long story about corporate tax credits and featured that county’s most prominent state legislator, Rep. Jack Franks…
Though fond of some of the Rauner changes, Franks said they don’t address “the underlying program at all.”
He believes the EDGE program favors big companies far too heavily, something small businesses in the state frequently complain about.
“I think a better approach would be to lower the tax rates on all corporations,” Franks said.
Franks was also quoted in a recent News-Gazette editorial and the Tribune saying this…
“I don’t think the EDGE credit program works,” said Franks, who sponsored the 2003 corporate accountability law and co-chaired a House study last year on state tax policy. “I think it’s a loser, a dead-bang loser.”
* Team Rauner asked if I’d seen the above story and then asked if I’d asked Franks about it. I told Rep. Franks what was going on and he responded via text with a statement…
They have tightened up some regulations but still have no way of measuring if there is a return in the investment. Additionally this is not line itemed and blows another hole in the budget.
I told the Rauner folks about Franks’ statement and they sent me an e-mail exchange from Rep. Franks…
From: [Jack Franks]
Date: August 10, 2015 at 10:42:47 AM CDT
To: [Richard Goldberg], Robert Stefanski
Subject: Fwd: Fabrik Molded Plastics, Inc.
Gentlemen the attached is self explanatory. This is not only an increase of 100 jobs but also the retention of 400
When I spoke with Mr Wagner he said the state was unhelpful and slow to respond. Can we get someone who is a decision maker to meet with him? I’m happy to answer any questions. Jack
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: “Keith C. Wagner”
Date: August 10, 2015 at 10:17:16 AM CDT
To: [Jack Franks]
Subject: Fabrik Molded Plastics, Inc.
Representative Jack Franks,
I appreciate your call and interest in helping Fabrik Molded Plastics with our intentions to grow our business in Illinois. It is good to hear that your willing to put efforts into persuading the state to hear about our plans hopefully offer some assistance to our company. Below is a short narrative regarding what we have been doing so far and what we plan to do in the near future.
Fabrik has been in McHenry County since 1980, 35 years. We are a custom plastic injection molder that employs 400 people and services companies throughout the world. Our primary niche is Automotive products for just about every automobile manufacturer. Our employees range from entry level machine operators to highly skilled executives. We are a growing company that invests within our community and our people. Fabrik continues to pursue interns from high schools and colleges, we also work with local workforce development groups, taking on new hires that have been struggling to find work.
Fabrik is growing our business and our current facility in McHenry will not allow us to meet our customers demands. So as any good business would do, the management team embarked on an analysis of expansion in IL and our options outside of IL. Our intended plan within Illinois, would be to buy the building adjacent to our facility in McHenry and add manufacturing capacity. The growth would cost Fabrik over 5 million dollars and would add 100 jobs in the next 3 years.
As we have been exploring expansion possibilities we have visited several other states and we are considering the potential of utilizing offers that are being made.
In the first quarter of 2015, Doug Martin of the City of McHenry and Pam Cumpata of McHenry County EDC met at Fabrik to have a conversation on our expansion plans for the company. Included in that conversation was Andria Winters of DCEO. The next step was to complete the State of Illinois Project Profile so that DCEO had information on the company and expansion plans. The Project Profile requested that we supply the offers from the other states, which I have declined to provide to DCEO until an Illinois offer is made. Illinois should make an offer if they intend to compete. Hopefully, Illinois will come through with a package that compares to our other choices.
Following the submission of the Project Profile and during the discussion requesting additional information, a representative from the Governor’s office contacted Pam Cumpata to inform her that the Governor was suspending the EDGE Tax Credit incentive until a State budget was in place and to my knowledge that is still the case.
On a local level, the City of McHenry and other taxing bodies are doing all they can to help create a financial incentive for us to aid in our decision process. The total amount that has been discussed as an abatement of taxes would equal $30,000 a year for 10 years. The abatement discussions are not going well, unfortunately the school districts that amount to over half the proposed abatement are not open to the idea. One of the school districts is not discussing the project with the City of McHenry, so it does not look good for the abatement to reach even half of the original proposed amount.
The timing of the start of this project is coming closer, we do not have the luxury of time that we had when we began this process months ago. We hope to hear from the State of Illinois in the next few weeks so we can begin to make plans to expand here where our roots are. Fabrik is not a big company with resources that can withstand a long period of courtship and legalities, so we can receive an incentive package that will aid us in expanding our business. We are hoping that a simple incentive plan that helps us financially with our growth plans can be offered by the state.
What can the State do to help is the question that needs to be answered. Training credits are welcomed, but do not add up to an incentive worth the time and efforts.
Keith Wagner
President, Fabrik Molded Plastics, Inc.
Jack did the right thing for his district. Good on him. It’s why the Democrat keeps getting reelected in one of the most Republican districts in the state. The man is relentless.
But now he wants to slam the door shut on other districts. Not good.
By the way, I texted Rep. Franks that the governor’s office had released his e-mail and didn’t hear anything back. I’ll let you know if he responds.
*** UPDATE *** From Rep. Franks…
I did not understand your statement that they sent you my email. It had not crossed my mind that they sent you the communication where I asked that they help my constituent.
My criticism of the program remains. It needs to have metrics to determine return on investment It also has to be included in the budget as a verifiable line item. The program needs to be further improved.
Having said that I also have an obligation to help my constituents which were eligible under the guidelines and I did so.
It would serve the governor better to listen to constructive advice instead of attacking the messenger.
To reform Illinois we need to work together. I continue to do so and invite the governor to join me.
A squad car arrived on the scene, and officers spotted the teen — later identified as Laquan McDonald — standing next to a car with a knife in his hand, Camden said. The teen began walking toward Pulaski Road and ignored the officers’ requests to drop the knife, Camden said.
“He’s got a 100-yard stare. He’s staring blankly,” Camden said of the teen. “[He] walked up to a car and stabbed the tire of the car and kept walking.”
Officers remained in their car and followed McDonald as he walked south on Pulaski Road. More officers arrived and police tried to box the teen in with two squad cars, Camden said. McDonald punctured one of the squad car’s front passenger-side tires and damaged the front windshield, police and Camden said.
Officers got out of their car and began approaching McDonald, again telling him to drop the knife, Camden said. The boy allegedly lunged at police, and one of the officers opened fire.
McDonald was shot in the chest and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:42 p.m. He lived in the 500 block of North Springfield Avenue, about 5 miles from where he was shot.
Camden said a knife was recovered from the scene. A statement from Police News Affairs said no officers were injured.
Camden said none of the officers who responded had a Taser to use on the teen and were trying to detain him long enough for one to arrive. He said officers were forced to defend themselves.
“When police tell you to drop a weapon, all you have to do is drop it,” Camden said. [Emphasis added.]
The city of Chicago plans to release the police video of the Laquan McDonald shooting Tuesday afternoon, coinciding with a 4:30 p.m. news conference at Chicago Police Department headquarters, according to sources familiar with the decision.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy will hold the news conference but the video is expected to be released after their remarks.
I’m figuring that WGN will be carrying it live, so click here at the appropriate time.
The Chicago Police Department has ordered most of its force into uniform and warned them of potentially longer hours and canceled days off as the city prepares to release a video of Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
The plan is not unprecedented, and similar plans have been made in the past when the department expects massive protests or potential for civil unrest.
The Pillar of Law Institute has filed a lawsuit against the State of Illinois on behalf of Libertarian Candidates Claire Ball and Scott Schluter which, if successful, would allow them to accept contributions from medical marijuana organizations. As Libertarians, they are supporters of medical marijuana and reforming United States drug law.
As the law stands, Ball and Schluter cannot accept contributions from the medical marijuana industry and medical marijuana companies can be fined up to 150% of the value of any contribution that they make to these candidates or any other along with other fines that can amount to thousands of dollars.
Campaign contributions are a vital way for individuals and companies to coalesce around candidates that share their beliefs and help propel them into office. “A liquor company can donate up to $10,800 to a candidate and so could a tobacco company. Only marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers are censored,” said Lead Counsel for the Pillar Institute Benjamin Barr. The case is assigned to an Obama Appointee, U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee.
* The Question: Should medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation centers be allowed to make campaign contributions? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* Jim Dey interviews Kevin Artl of the Mark Kirk campaign…
Artl said he anticipates the turnout in Illinois to be “more similar to 2004,” when Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry was his party’s presidential candidate.
Although he lost the national election, Kerry handily carried Illinois, collecting almost 2.9 million votes against President George W. Bush.
That number, however, pales in comparison to Obama’s numbers four years later.
Obama collected 3.4 million votes in the 2008 presidential race, compared to 2 million for GOP candidate John McCain, boosting other Democrats on the ticket.
It’s hard to imagine any of the 2016 Democratic presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley — having that kind of emotional appeal to Illinois voters. […]
When Kerry carried 54 percent of the vote in 2004, then-U.S. Rep. Kirk attracted 64 percent of the vote in Illinois’ evenly balanced 10th congressional district.
When Obama carried 60 percent of the Illinois vote in 2008, Kirk carried nearly 53 percent in his district.
Do you know what else happened in 2004? The Republicans had to import Alan Keyes from Maryland because they had nobody else to run against state Sen. Barack Obama for US Senate.
So, 2004 wasn’t so great for the GOP, either.
And President Obama’s numbers were pretty Kerryish in 2012, when he ran for reelection.
Illinois is a tough nut to crack for Republicans in a presidential year. The last Republican to win a statewide office in a presidential year was… ?
* But, Kirk is very good at this sort of thing, as his congressional campaigns showed. And Morning Consult has a new poll out which shows he’s not doing too badly…
David Applegate, a staff member for Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill.) Senate campaign, was walking around at the Columbus Day parade in Chicago when he was approached by a woman with a clipboard.
She asked him if he wanted to sign a petition. That was odd in itself, since Applegate was wearing a Duckworth campaign shirt, and the woman was wearing a campaign shirt for Sen. Mark Kirk (R), whom Duckworth is trying to unseat. It got weirder when she said the petition was about raising the minimum wage, an issue Kirk doesn’t even support.
Applegate, confused, said he worked for Duckworth, and the woman walked away. He saw her again later, standing with another woman who was also wearing a Kirk shirt and holding a clipboard. He got closer and looked over one of their shoulders. There were “raise the wage” stickers covering the tops of their petitions, but peeking out from underneath them was Mark Kirk’s printed name.
They weren’t collecting signatures for a wage campaign; there isn’t even an active wage campaign in Illinois right now. They were collecting signatures to put Kirk on the ballot for the March primary election.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration said Monday it’s preparing to make loans to communities and state vendors after legislation to send communities a long-delayed share of gasoline and gambling tax money stalled. […]
Republicans in recent weeks agreed to a Democratic plan to approve legislation to free up money for local communities, lottery winners and others after Rauner said he’d be OK with the move.
The governor suggested additions to the proposals that Democrats didn’t add, and a lieutenant of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan put a hold on the legislation from state Rep. Marty Moylan, a Des Plaines Democrat, blocking it from moving forward even though the House voted to approve. And the Senate has no plans to reconvene in Springfield to consider it soon if Democrats allowed it to advance.
Moylan called the loan idea “completely ridiculous.”
“We’ll continue to push this bill,” he said.
Um, Marty? You do realize, right, that the Speaker put a brick on your bill? Yes, that very same bill you say you’ll “continue to push”? You already passed the thing.
Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said the Senate has not been given any indication when the House bill might be sent to the Senate for its action. If the bill does get sent to the Senate, she said, the chamber will schedule additional days in order to deal with it. As of now, the Senate is not scheduled to return to Springfield until January.
If there was no brick, the Senate would’ve very likely come back to town next week.
In a letter sent to state lawmakers Monday, a Rauner administration official accused House Democrats of holding hostage a bill that would provide funds to local governments.
This from the same administration which slashed child care funding for months in a failed bid to pry loose a Turnaround Agenda deal.
Yet, now they’re all verklempt about local governments and lottery winners.
In a move so emblematic of this state’s government it makes my eye twitch, the Illinois Lottery bought newspaper ads to thank its players and apologize for its inability to pay its big prizes until the budget crisis is resolved in Springfield.
On behalf of the newspaper industry, let me say thank you to lottery officials.
On behalf of people who live and work in Illinois, however, let me say I can’t say what I want to say because there may be young children around who should learn this sort of language from their own irate parents.
Deep breath. Exhale.
Spending money to say you’re sorry you don’t have access to your prize money? The optics are not good.
The Illinois Lottery is lucky no one has tried to break its thumbs.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy will recommend the Chicago Police Board fire Dante Servin, the officer acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Rekia Boyd, less than a year after Chicago’s top cop said the officer should never have been charged in the 22-year-old’s death.
“After considerable deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that Officer Dante Servin showed incredibly poor judgement in his efforts to intervene in a low-level dispute while off-duty,” McCarthy said in a prepared statement. […]
In April, McCarthy said the charge brought against Servin — involuntary manslaughter — should never have been filed.
“Because of the way that played out, what you didn’t know is the defense and all the intricate details of that particular event. . . . If the details of that case were known, I think it would be a lot clearer” why no charges were warranted, McCarthy said.
Cook County prosecutors say a veteran Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times in an on-duty incident on the Southwest Side in October 2014.
Officer Jason Van Dyke turned himself in to authorities Tuesday morning and is scheduled to appear in bond court at noon at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. […]
The charges would come less than a week after a Cook County judge ordered the release of the video, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration had long sought to keep out of public view. As Emanuel urged prosecutors to conclude their investigation Monday, he met with community leaders and aldermen to defend his handling of the controversy amid criticism that City Hall has not done enough to address police misconduct.
Ordered to release the video no later than Wednesday, the mayor called on religious leaders and activists to encourage peaceful demonstrations even as staff prepared for the public fallout and discussed the best way to unveil the video.
The charges is believed to be the first time in Chicago history an on-duty police officer is charged with such a crime.
And now you know why some cops allegedly erased private video of the shooting. If that had been made public last year in the aftermath of Ferguson… whew.
* Sen. Kwame Raoul…
When I learned that a video of Laquan McDonald’s final moments was to be released to the public, I knew that many would fear its impact, remembering the self-destruction oppressed communities elsewhere have experienced following acts of police brutality and excessive force.
I believe we can do better in Chicago. But I am not calling for calm. There’s nothing to be calm about. Instead, I’m calling for sustained, focused, constructive outrage that demands full accountability but doesn’t destroy community.
Because of legislation I advanced earlier this year, we now have legal protocols in place that mandate independent investigations of police-involved deaths, expose the misdeeds of rogue cops so they don’t quietly move from one department to another, require improved officer training on bias and the use of force and establish funding and protocols for the use of body cameras.
But I know it’s not enough.
Everyone responsible in this atrocity – not only Officer Van Dyke, but any individual who participated in a cover-up that delayed justice for Laquan McDonald and his family – must be held accountable. We should direct our outrage toward asking our local prosecutor whether it would have taken 13 months to resolve this case if the video had shown a civilian committing the same act. We should ask why Office Van Dyke was still on the beat after 17 public complaints were filed against him and the City paid half a million dollars to settle allegations that he had used excessive force. We should question the ability of Chicago’s independent police review authority, which has recent come under scrutiny from the Better Government Association, to do its job with integrity. And as we call on our neighbors to abandon the no-snitch code, in our outrage we demand the same of law enforcement.
Watch the video. Don’t be destructive. But don’t be calm.
* Meanwhile, Northwestern University law professor Max Schanzenbach has some ideas…
Give the police superintendent and the mayor the power to fire any officer for any reason that does not otherwise violate a general employment statute. Problem officers could not escape attention, and city executives could not pass the buck on discipline by pointing to an arbitrator or regulation. Internal human resources departments could monitor and discipline, free from constraining regulations and collective bargaining agreements. […]
A less dramatic reform would be to prohibit local governments from paying for officers’ settlements in civil rights cases. Instead, require officers to buy professional liability insurance, just as we require doctors to carry medical malpractice insurance. Officers with multiple complaints would see their premiums dramatically increase and would be priced out of employment. Liability may also reduce police resistance to cameras and other monitoring devices, which could help protect police officers from frivolous litigation.
Right now, the taxpayers are the insurer, paying for settlements and for lawyers.
More limited reforms would prohibit unions from bargaining over the monitoring of police behavior and would make arbitration subject to judicial review.
Our current system ensures that victims and taxpayers bear all the costs of police misconduct, while the vast majority of hardworking police officers have their reputations stained by the terrible, undisciplined actions of a few.
Gov. Bruce Rauner says Illinois State Police are working with Chicago officials to ensure people remain safe following the release of a video that shows a white police officer shooting a black teen 16 times.
Rauner said Tuesday his office has been briefed on the contents of the video that shows 17-year-old Laquan McDonald’s death in 2014. […]
Rauner says the video is “very troubling” and that he expects public reaction to be “strong.” But he says he hopes and believes the response will be “thoughtful and peaceful.”
The Republican declined to say whether he’s deployed additional troopers to Chicago or put the Illinois National Guard on standby.
*** UPDATE 2 *** And yet it took her a year to bring charges…
Cook County prosecutors said in court Tuesday that a Chicago police officer charged with first-degree murder opened fire six seconds after exiting his squad car as 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was walking away from him.
Officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 rounds at McDonald in about 14 seconds and was reloading when another officer told him to hold his fire, prosecutors said during bond court.
Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered Van Dyke held without bail until the judge can personally view on Monday a police dash-cam video of the shooting from October 2014.
* I could be wrong (again), but I think we may be seeing the same sort of wildly exuberant union overreach in Chicago that we saw in Wisconsin a while back. You’ll recall that the unions managed to recall some Wisconsin state legislators, then failed to recall the governor.
CTU’s success at winning its 2012 strike has it thumping its collective chest during contract negotiations this year. The union held a big rally in Grant Park last night…
Chicago Teachers Union leaders exhorted thousands of members gathered for a rally in Grant Park on Monday to confront the city with the threat of a strike in the face of contract talks that have dragged on for more than a year.
“Now it’s time for us to act. We’ve been here before,” CTU President Karen Lewis, who led a seven-day strike in 2012, told the crowd at Petrillo Music Shell. “No teacher wants to go on strike. We prefer to be in front of our students. But we know that when we must, we will withhold our labor.”
While the union has yet to announce a strike authorization vote, a required step before a walkout can occur, organizers urged members to give them additional leverage.
“We want to remind people in this crowd about sometimes what it takes,” CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said in his speech to the red-clad crowd. “You will have a chance very soon to answer the question of how much resolve you have. And when you do, the answer will be ‘Yes.’”
In front of a screaming crowd of thousands who braved a frigid night to show their strength, and joined by legislators, pastors and other labor leaders, Lewis said, “It is time for us to act.”
“We must show the city, the mayor’s handpicked Board of Education and even our students and parents that Chicago’s public school educators will stand up for what is just and fair, and together we will fight to protect our professions and our classrooms,” Lewis said.
Despite its phony “practice strike vote” earlier this month, I don’t doubt that the union can convince at least 75 percent of its members to hit the bricks.
* What I’m not so confident of is whether the public will support the teachers like it did in 2012.
Chicagoans are being hit with record property tax hikes, with more likely on the way. The CTU has refused to support a bill sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton that would help alleviate the disaster…
“I don’t know the logic of the teachers’ union being opposed to the bill,” Cullerton said. “I think it’s maybe because, you know, the Board of Ed is for it and, therefore they have to be against it. That’s all I can figure, you know? The mayor’s for it, they’re against it because they had a fight with him in the past.”
Remember the 2012 teachers’ strike? That’s the fight Cullerton is referring to. And there’s been talk of a second teachers strike under Emanuel over the district’s current finances.
“Of course this would avoid a strike,” Cullerton said. “There wouldn’t be any need for them to lose their pension pick-up in their contract negotiations. There wouldn’t be any layoffs. I don’t know what else they’re striking about.”
“Three-eighteen is not about stopping a strike. Three-eighteen is about destroying our school system,” said Stacy Davis Gates, the legislative coordinator for the Chicago Teachers Union.
* And the union is resisting all give-backs on pay and benefits…
Negotiations are stuck because the Board of Education is broke and is asking teachers to pay more for health insurance and pensions. That would mean lower take-home pay.
“$653 million dollars of cuts coming out of the pay, coming out of the pockets of people who make the schools go,” said CTU VP Jesse Sharkey.
Chicagoans may be looking for a bit more equity these days. We’ll know soon enough, but the CTU can easily be painted as obstructionists and the real problem now.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Andrea Zopp yesterday zeroed in on an obscure bill moving through Congress as a vehicle to whack her top primary opponent.
ZOPP DINGS DUCKWORTH ON LENDING BILL… Zopp yesterday called on Congress to defeat HR 1737, a bill that she says would make it harder for the Consumer Financial Protection Board to protect American consumers from discriminatory lenders.
“We’ve known for decades that borrowers of color are nearly twice as likely to have higher interest rates than white borrowers with similar credit scores,” Zopp said in a statement. Yet, Congress is attempting to make it worse. HR 1737 undermines the authority of the CFPB to protect minority consumers seeking auto loans.”
Zopp’s real aim was not to rush to defend the federal board, but to undermine her Democratic primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), among heavily Democratic minority voters.
“I find it interesting that while Congresswoman Duckworth has not co-sponsored bills that would address racial profiling or amend the Voting Rights Act, she decided to co-sponsor and vote for a bill that would enable big business to racially discriminate. This seems to be another example of her ignoring the needs of communities of color.”
Bam.
* Maybe not. The Duckworth response…
“Once again Andrea Zopp didn’t do her homework, just like when she rubber-stamped an illegal $21 million no-bid contract that has former Chicago schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett facing jail time. The reality is that 16 members of the Congressional Black Caucus or Congressional Hispanic Caucus also cosponsored this bipartisan bill, and the Congressional Budget Office has stated it will not hurt enforcement of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Zopp can keep cherry-picking legislation to try and score cheap political points all she likes, but it won’t change the fact that Tammy has a proven record of fighting for Illinois families and small businesses.” - Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman
H.R. 1737 Was Supported By Members Of Both The Congressional Black Caucus And The Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Sixteen Members Of The Congressional Black Caucus Or The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Cosponsored H.R. 1737. Cosponsors of H.R. 1737 included: Reps. David Scott, Sanford Bishop, Alcee Hasting, Sheila Jackson Lee, Frederica Wilson, Corrine Brown, Marc Veasey, Pete Aguilar, Ruben Hinojosa, Jim Costa, Henry Cuellar, Loretta Sanchez, Albio Sires, Norma Torres, Juan Vargas, and Filemon Vela. [H.R. 1737, 11/3/15]
Congressional Budget Office Said Bill Would Not Hurt Enforcement Of Equal Credit Opportunity Act
Congressional Budget Office Found H.R. 1737 Would Not Prevent Enforcement Of The Equal Credit Opportunity Act. “Based on information from the CFPB, CBO expects the agency would not prepare a replacement bulletin if H.R. 1737 were enacted. Because the bill would not affect the underlying statue or regulations to implement it, the Bureau can continue to enforce the Equal Credit Opportunity Act without the bulletin.” [Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 1737, 10/14/15]
* The jaded might say that some legislative Republicans are looking for political cover. But, hey, at least they’re making some sort of stand…
Nearly 50 current and former Republican state lawmakers from across the nation recently filed a friend of the court brief, asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to interfere with the role states have in determining whether “fair share” fees have to be paid to unions by non-union members.
It’s a high profile labor case—known as Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association—and one closely watched in Illinois, where GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner opposes “fair share” fees, thinks they’re unconstitutional and has filed his own controversial “amicus brief” with justices.[…]
They include GOP Reps. Rep. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro, C.D. Davidsmeyer of Jacksonville, Norine Hammond of Macomb, Dwight Kay of Glen Carbon, Bill Mitchell of Forsyth and Sen. Sam McCann of Carlinville. Former Rep. Angelo “Skip” Saviano, now mayor of Elmwood Park and a strong union ally in the GOP, also signed the brief.
The lawmakers’ brief asks the court to stay away from the role that “states have long played in determining the content of their own labor laws.”
The lawmakers also believe that “nothing in the Constitution prohibits the agency fee (fair share) arrangements at issue in this case and that whether these arrangements are good policy is a decision that belongs to the relevant state and local governments.”
Reps. Bryant and Kay are looking at big Democratic opposition. McCann has his primary to deal with and Mitchell has drawn a Democratic opponent.
* Can you imagine the uproar from the Tribune and others if Gov. Pat Quinn had stuck his nose this far into Illinois Gaming Board regulations? Wow…
In a move loaded with political implications, Gov. Bruce Rauner is trying to put a brick on efforts to regulate and potentially block fantasy sports sites such as Draft Kings and Fan Duel from accepting bets in the state.
The action appears at least partially linked to poor relations among Rauner, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and her father, Rauner’s arch foe, Mike Madigan, the speaker of the Illinois House. But it also comes after the sports sites retained lobbyist Eric Elk, who hired or supervised several senior Rauner aides when they all worked in U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s office.
The Illinois Gaming Board this fall had publicly expressed its intention to seek a legal opinion from Lisa Madigan, the state’s chief legal officer, on whether the sites can legally operate here. AGs in Massachusetts and New York have recently argued that major consumer protections are needed.
But at a meeting two weeks ago, the gaming board abruptly backed away from its request, with its spokesman saying the fantasy sports operations are “currently under review.”
The reason is Rauner. “We suggested to the Gaming Board that they should gather more information and complete a review before seeking an opinion from the AG, just as a matter of good practice,” Rauner Communications Director Lance Trover told me in an email. Rauner appoints the members of the gaming board.
“The administration believes there are laws on the books to deal with this issue,” Trover added. “As to requesting an opinion from the attorney general, that’s up to the IGB once they complete their review.”
I’m sure there’s zero coincidence that Eric signed up as a lobbyist for Draft Kings and Fan Duel earlier this month.
Elk said he had nothing to do with it, but again, this is a highly unusual move by a governor.
…Adding… As pointed out in comments, it probably doesn’t help Rauner’s position that he’s a part owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFL has been a player in those fan sites.
States do not have the authority to turn away refugees, whose resettlement to the U.S. is overseen by the federal government. But Rauner was among a wave of mostly Republican governors who declared the program suspended in their states anyway, citing concerns about the government’s ability to adequately screen applicants. Rauner said he would “consider all of our legal options pending a full review of our country’s acceptance and security processes by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”
Left unclear was what exactly Rauner wanted from federal officials, and how his administration planned to suspend the program in Illinois. By the end of last week, even refugee advocates who opposed Rauner’s decision couldn’t point to any services that had been cut off as a result.
A set of email statements on Monday indicates the political fight is still going, even as it’s unclear what will be the practical effect, if any.
Emphasis added for obvious reasons.
Refugee advocates caved in Indiana when that state’s governor demanded that they not resettle refugees, but no such order has so far been issued by Gov. Rauner that we know of.
In a way, that’s a hopeful sign because the governor is apparently all about the politics here. On the other hand, he’s helping to needlessly gin up paranoia and angst about the refugees, so that’s all on him.
Pick a lane, dude.
* From US Sen. Dick Durbin…
The Honorable Bruce Rauner
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Dear Governor Rauner:
I urge you to end your opposition to the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Illinois and instead join me in working to close loopholes in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and federal gun laws that truly endanger the safety of Illinoisans.
The conflict in Syria is the epicenter of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. More than half of Syria’s 23 million people have been forced from their homes, and more than four million are registered as refugees, including approximately two million Syrian children. This tragedy was seared in our memory by the heartbreaking image of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean.
The United States has a long tradition of providing safe haven to refugees, and Illinois has played an important role in this proud history. Since the international community’s tragic failure to shelter Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi genocide, the American people have welcomed millions of refugees fleeing war and totalitarian regimes. We should not abandon the good work of generations of Americans who came before us.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson sent you the attached letter responding to your concerns about the security vetting of Syrian refugees. The facts are clear. Refugees are the most carefully vetted of all travelers to the United States, with in-person interviews and extensive biometric, biographic, and intelligence checks involving numerous agencies, including the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State and the Department of Defense. No refugees are admitted to the United States until after successful completion of this stringent security screening regime, which can take 18-24 months. Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, the United States has admitted more than 2,000 Syrian refugees. None have been charged with involvement in terrorism, and only two percent are single men of military age.
Please during this holiday season take the time to meet the Syrian refugees living in Illinois and personally learn their plights. You will learn that the careless and mean-spirited rhetoric from many political leaders does not reflect the reality of their sad lives.
Our shared highest priority is the safety of the people of Illinois, but let’s be clear about where the greatest terrorism threat lies: not with children and families fleeing ISIS, but in glaring loopholes in the law that could allow what happened in Paris to happen somewhere in America. One significant concern is the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which allows about 20 million foreign nationals, more than one-third of all foreign visitors, to travel to the United States before checking biometrics like fingerprints. Chicago, which hosts about 1.4 million foreign visitors every year and is home to the busiest airport in the world, is at particular risk. Every participant in the Paris attacks who has been publicly identified held a passport from a VWP country. Terrorists such as Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber,” and Zacarias Moussaoui, a 9/11 co-conspirator, have sought to enter the United States through the VWP.
Only biographic (name-based) checks are conducted before VWP travelers are allowed to board airplanes and travel to the United States. Prior to departure, there are no checks against databases that use biometrics such as fingerprints. Fingerprint checks are conducted upon arrival in the United States, which is too late for a terrorist who might try to detonate an explosive on a plane. As U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said:
“I would tell you, from a threat standpoint, I’m probably more concerned with the visa waiver program today. Were I in Europe already, and I wanted to go the United States, and were I not on a watch list or a no-fly list and I wanted to get there, the likelihood is I would use the visa waiver program before I would try to pawn myself off as a refugee.”
Vulnerabilities in the VWP are aggravated by a loophole in federal law that permits VWP travelers to buy firearms. Current law prohibits visa holders from other countries from purchasing guns, but excludes travelers from the 38 VWP countries. In 1998, I authored a federal law that prohibits visiting foreign nationals from buying or possessing a firearm in the United States if the foreigner “has been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa.” In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel determined that under the statute VWP travelers can legally purchase firearms because they have not technically “been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa.”
Last week, I introduced S. 2323, the Visa Waiver Program Firearms Clarification Act, legislation that would close this loophole and clarify that the prohibition on buying firearms applies to foreign visitors whether they enter with a visa or not.
Congress also must address another critical gap in our gun laws. Current federal law prohibits nine categories of dangerous people from possessing firearms (e.g., felons, the mentally unstable, fugitives, etc.) but not suspected terrorists. The Government Accountability Office found that from 2004-2014, people who were on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist tried to buy guns from American gun dealers at least 2,233 times. In 2,043 of those cases – 91 percent of the time – these suspected terrorists were able to successfully buy the gun. I am an original cosponsor of S. 551, the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015, which would close this “terror gap” in our federal gun laws.
In conclusion, I respectfully request that you support the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Illinois and encourage your Republican allies in Congress to work with Democrats to address the critical gaps in our security infrastructure outlined above. Rather than targeting a few thousand refugees who are themselves fleeing from terrorism and are the most thoroughly vetted travelers to the United States, you should focus on 20 million VWP travelers who travel to our country and our state every year without adequate security checks, as well as an unknown number of suspected terrorists who are able to legally purchase firearms and dangerous explosives.
Bryce Benton, a state trooper and member of the Prairie Capital Convention Center’s board who sought last week to fill a vacancy in the Illinois House, said Monday he’s circulating petitions to run against state Sen. Sam McCann in the March Republican primary.
“The thing that I’ve been hearing … is the senator’s put himself in a position with the governor and the members of his own party and the legislature in general that he’s going to have a tough time advancing the interests of the people of central Illinois,” Benton said. […]
McCann also said he’d heard Benton was claiming Rauner’s support, but Benton denied having such support at this time. […]
McCann was the lone Republican in the Senate to vote with Democrats, and against Rauner’s position, when there was a 38-15 vote to override a Rauner veto of a bill that could have sent labor talks with state employee unions to arbitration.
Benton said he would have voted against the override – which ultimately failed in the House.
There will be a tendency for commenters to get all riled up and dismiss Benton today. But you should keep in mind that there is a ton of oppo on Sen. McCann out there. And that ain’t gonna look good in mailers.
He’s done a decent job of raising money this year, but McCann is gonna need lots more to make sure he can overcome the substantial negatives from that oppo if Benton taps into the Rauner bank account. There’s more to that district than state workers, so McCann has his job cut out for him.
