* Instead of a music video, here’s the BBC’s mini documentary about Chicago violence. It’s very well done and clearly shows the humanity of a handful of people caught in a bizarre, seemingly impossible cycle of death and destruction. There’s some profanity and it’s quite difficult to endure some of it - and nearly impossible to empathize with some of it - but just imagine what it’s like for our fellow Illinoisans who are trying to survive that extreme insanity…
A new study released jointly from grassroots legal watchdog group Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch (I-LAW) and the Illinois Civil Justice League (ICJL) shows that Illinois personal injury attorneys invested over $35 million into legislative and judicial candidates over the past 15 years.
The study, titled “Justice for Sale,” details the staggering sums personal injury lawyers have lavished on judges and legislators in an apparent attempt to stack the deck in their favor and block lawsuit reform efforts, the groups say.
“We now have 35 million reasons why Illinois continues to attract lawsuits and personal injury lawyers from all over the country while as a result shedding jobs to neighboring states,” said Travis Akin, Executive Director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch. “This new study proves that personal injury lawyers are gaming the system to their advantage by funneling millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Illinois judges, who continue to allow junk lawsuits that have nothing to do with Illinois to move forward here, prompting the question, ‘Is justice for sale in Illinois?’” […]
The study revealed that 98% of the $35 million in campaign contributions personal injury lawyers have spent on judges, legislators and other politicians has gone to Democrats.
That works out to about $4.6 million per general election cycle. Not insignificant, for sure. And in some races, particularly under the radar judicial races, that money can most definitely be the difference between a win and a loss.
* But here is the running total of this year’s campaign contributions to date compiled by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform…
Total Contributions in 2016: $143,292,789
Whew.
*** UPDATE *** From Illinois Trial Lawyers Association’s Christopher Hurley…
The First Amendment protects the Illinois Civil Justice League’s right to call its tired and misleading 16-page propaganda piece a “study” if it wishes, but that makes it no more a work of credible research than calling a Corolla a Ferrari makes the Toyota a sports car.
The amount of donations made by trial lawyers to support candidates who believe that corporations, insurance companies, Wall Street banks, and extremely wealthy individuals should not be allowed to injure, kill or defraud everyday citizens is dwarfed by the tens of millions spent by big businesses that want to change Illinois’ laws so they avoid accountability when they hurt workers and prey on consumers.
Even if trial lawyers contributed what the Illinois Civil Justice League claims – a point that cannot be taken for granted given the questionable source and possibly suspect methodology – it pales in comparison to what one man, Bruce Rauner has spent on his own campaign and supporting candidates who subscribe to his dangerous agenda of reducing benefits for injured workers and shielding corporations from justice when their actions hurt others or pollute the environment.
Governor Rauner spent more than $63 million in one elections, versus the $35 million that trial lawyers are alleged to have donated to candidates over 15 years; in the 2016 election cycle, Rauner is practically the sole source of Republican funding, having given $16 million, or slightly less than half of the figure ascribed to trial lawyers over a decade and a half. There is simply no comparison to what Rauner, his fellow billionaires and businesses spend on elections compared to trial lawyers.
Ultimately, the objective of the Illinois Civil Justice League and its associated front groups is to unfairly shift the burden of caring for the injured, sick and exploited away from those who caused the wrongs and onto the backs of Illinois’ taxpayers. ICJL is promoting the interests of its funders, who want to boost corporate profits, senior executives’ salaries, and the value of their stock options at the expense of everybody else. They make the mess and leave the rest of us with cleaning bill.
The facts are that lawsuit filings across Illinois are down. The insurance industry’s cost of workers’ compensation is down. Illinois businesses do not cite the state’s court system as a significant factor in their evaluation of our business climate.
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and its members will continue to stand on the side of taxpayers and for the constitutionally protected rights of Illinoisans to access the courts their tax dollars fund.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to revive a Michigan law that barred straight-ticket voting.
The court’s brief order gave no reasons. Two justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., said they would have granted a request from state officials to allow them to enforce the law in the coming election.
Illinois Republicans, led by Gov. Edgar, got rid of straight party voting in 1997, days before the House Democrats officially resumed their majority status after two years in the minority. The loss of straight ticket voting has hurt (and helped) both parties since then because they couldn’t fully take advantage of national wave elections (or avoided their full negative consequences).
* The Question: Should Illinois reinstate straight party voting? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The biggest problem facing the state of Illinois is continual economic recovery. … When I went to the legislature in 1971, Illinois was an economic leader in the nation; we were always ahead of everybody else in terms of the economic indicators. But today we either follow the nation or we’re in mid range in the nation. … What I’ve always heard is that the biggest consideration in terms of business investment is the cost of doing business in the state, which is automatically linked to the taxing plan. Contrary to what Gov. Thompson has said, Illinois is not a low tax state. On the contrary, it is either a high tax state or a state which is mid range in the nation in terms of taxation. So I just don’t think that, given the fragile nature of our business environment, that we’re well served by increasing the cost of business when it comes to taxes. […]
I’d like to see Illinois recoup its position of 20 years ago when it was an economic leader in the nation. After you work your way through all of the political issues, you always come down to the No. 1 concern of an ordinary family in this state, which is simply to be able to live decently either in a home or an apartment; to educate their children to the best of their ability; and lastly, to provide for their retirement. Those are the No. 1 concerns of an ordinary family, and the best way for government to respond to those concerns is to work to have a good business environment so that there are economic opportunities for everyone in the state. […]
In my view, the Democratic party should be a party of economic opportunity, where the party works to provide an opportunity to people in America who need an opportunity to get ahead in life. As long as the Democratic party is a party of economic opportunity, it will be the majority party in this nation. When it is no longer a party of opportunity and becomes a “tax and spend” party, then it will be the minority party in the country.
Whatever happened to that guy?
* He was also asked whether Gov. Thompson, who had been in office 12 years, has “been around so long that his longevity has become an issue”…
It’s an issue to the extent that maybe Thompson has become stale; maybe the people around him have lost the level of interest that’s really important for efficient government
* From Republican Congressman Mike Bost’s latest fundraising appeal…
Friend,
Since day one we suspected Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies would be coming after us… And now it’s been unveiled that Nancy Pelosi’s House Majority PAC has placed $325,000 in television ads to spread lies and smear me before Election Day.
We’re concerned but know fortunately we have friends like you… and today I need your help.
Nancy Pelosi and her DC friends are going to run false and negative attacks in every living room in Southern Illinois, and if we don’t push back we don’t win.
Interesting.
A source close to CJ Baricevic’s campaign said today, “I think it’s a sign that national Democrats are coming around to what our polling says.”
The House Majority PAC could just be seeing if they can move some numbers, but stay tuned.
* The New York Times takes a look at immigration policy, Donald Trump and congressional elections, with a focus on Republican Congressman Bob Dold…
Mr. Dold serves in perhaps the most heavily Democratic district represented by a Republican. Stretching along Lake Michigan, this relatively well-educated district sits among the affluent Chicago suburbs. Many of its Hispanic residents live in Waukegan, a blue-collar city toward the northern end of the district.
President Obama won commanding victories here in 2008 and 2012; Mr. Trump’s popularity hangs dismally somewhere between lake-effect snow and ketchup on hot dogs.
About 59,000 Latinos are eligible to vote in Mr. Dold’s district, making up 11.2 percent of the electorate — a key group given that Mr. Dold beat Brad Schneider, a former Democratic congressman who is challenging him again this year, by less than 5,000 votes in 2014. That year, 7.37 percent of those who voted were Hispanic — casting more than 13,500 votes — according to numbers provided by Mr. Dold’s staff. […]
“There’s no way in the world that we are going to send 11 million people out of the United States,” Mr. Dold said. “Many of them — most of them, I would argue — are more American than their next-door neighbors, because many of them are our next-door neighbors.” […]
“As much as they might want to distance themselves from their own party, it says ‘Bob Dold, Republican’ on the ballot,” [Jill Normington, a Washington-based Democratic strategist advising Mr. Schneider] said. “And that is a liability in 2016, not an asset.”
The Latino problem is huge for Dold. No question about it…
I’d venture a guess that Trump’s Latino numbers are even worse in CD 10.
* However, it’ll be pretty tough to convince true independents (and that district has a ton of them) that Trump is a mainstream Republican allied with Dold because Trump is such an obvious outlier. Yeah, he’s the official nominee, but lots of party elders (including Dold, our own US Senator and our governor) are actively running away from him.
While not a perfect comparison, I think Rod Blagojevich was much the same. He was such a total Martian that linking Democrats to him was almost impossible. If I recall correctly, it was only done once with success (Jay Hoffman, but other factors played into his loss).
The national Democrats were convinced a few months ago that Trump’s unpopularity and his fight with the state’s popular Republican governor and its incumbent US Senator would help them win Ohio’s US Senate race, but that isn’t happening and they’re moving money elsewhere. Why? Partly because the Democratic candidate isn’t very good, but also because Trump’s bitter feud with Gov. Kasich and Sen. Portman proved to voters that their guys are not “Trump Republicans.” The same basic scenario played out here when RRB loudly feuded with Madigan and other Democrats.
I still believe Dold is the underdog (and that Latino vote is a major reason why), but he might be able to pull this thing out.
* Even so, that ketchup on hot dogs line is restaurant quality, as Oswego Willy would say.
Six of nine state universities have smaller freshman classes compared to last year, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, where the first-year class is down 5.1 percent, the Tribune reports.
At Eastern Illinois, Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois-Carbondale universities, first-year enrollment has dropped more than 20 percent. Northeastern Illinois, Governors State and Chicago State have not reported figures, but you can guess.
As students shift to schools with deeper pockets, total enrollment at U of I’s three campuses reached an all-time high. That prompted President Tim Killeen to crow, “Despite the headlines about the state budget impasse … students are flocking to our universities in record numbers.”
Don’t get carried away, professor. Your freshman class at the Urbana-Champaign campus rose just 0.4 percent, in addition to UIC’s decline.
* Whet Moser: The Devolution of the Political-Correctness Backlash - What was once a debate about elevating standards in higher education has become a challenge to their existence, and more broadly, an excuse to ignore even the most basic forms of propriety.
This November, it’s not Republican v. Democrat — it’s reform v. status quo.
That’s the bottom line.
In spite of Illinois’ career politicians and their obstructionist ways, progress is being made. Last week Governor Bruce Rauner signed a new law that makes county board members ineligible to receive a state pension. This new law will save taxpayers millions of dollars.
That’s not the only good news. Massachusetts-based Richelieu Foods is opening a factory in Wheeling, Ill., bringing new jobs to the state. Read more about these and other successes below.
This is a critical time for Illinois. We have to choose — the status quo or reform. A failing state or a path forward. Voters will get their opportunity soon; early voting starts in just three weeks. More information about early voting is included below.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s campaign team is seeking to re-label the partisan impasse that has stifled state government ahead of the Nov. 8 Illinois House and Senate races. […]
Rauner’s reframing began during the Illinois State Fair when he blasted the “machine” but didn’t use the term Democrat or the name of his chief nemesis, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. The reframing could be a way for Rauner to try to seek crossover Democratic support without routinely demonizing the opposing party.
That’s pretty good stuff.
I’d add that after over 3 years of constant Illinois bashing, the governor is now pivoting to good economic news of his own doing. As I’ve pointed out before, Rauner’s poll numbers ain’t great, so he needs to boost them to keep himself from becoming a liability to his Republican legislative candidates. It would be nearly impossible for Speaker Madigan to do the same, so any advantage Rauner can get would be helpful.
Children in the state’s welfare system are being warehoused in psychiatric hospitals and emergency shelters hundreds of days longer than they should be in many cases because the agency does not have a place for them, a new report found.
The highly critical review of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services came from the state auditor general’s office, even though DCFS did not track and could not provide most of the information the auditors sought, according to the report released Thursday. The data DCFS did provide were not ideal, as auditors questioned their accuracy and completeness.
The inspectors found that the delays stemmed in large part from a lack of available placements, scheduling and wait lists. One state ward remained in an emergency shelter 357 days last year, which is a staggering 10 times longer than the court-ordered 30 days, according to the report. Last year 380 children stayed in a shelter beyond 30 days, an improvement from 451 children in 2014, the audit found.
During that same period, the number of children who languished in psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity more than doubled to 168 in 2015. The average length of stay for those youths went up to 40 days in 2015, though the report found that one child remained at a psychiatric hospital 184 days after being cleared for discharge.
“Meanwhile, the children are suffering,” said Benjamin Wolf, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “I talked to a child who was trapped in a psychiatric hospital, and he was just weeping because he felt abandoned by everybody. What can you say? He has been abandoned. Like a shelter, it’s a miserable place to spend a big chunk of your childhood.”
• The number of children who remained psychiatrically hospitalized beyond medical necessity was 75 in 2014 and 168 in 2015. The average length of stay beyond medical necessity was 28 days in 2014 and 40 days in 2015.
• The number of children who remained in emergency shelters beyond 30 days was 451 in 2014 and 380 in 2015. The average length of stay for these children, from the date of admission was 72 days in 2014 and 80 days in 2015.
• The number of children who remained in a detention facility solely because the Department could not locate a placement was not available from the Department.
* Just as bad, though, is the fact that DCFS doesn’t seem to be tracking children very well. For instance…
• Psychiatric Hospitals – The Department does not specifically track in its computer systems the date a child is declared “beyond medical necessity.” Because this date is not captured in its systems, we could not obtain a download of children who stayed at a psychiatric hospital beyond medical necessity for calendar years 2014 and 2015. Instead, the Department maintained a list of children, including the beyond medical necessity date, in a spreadsheet that was separate from its computer systems. However, we had no way of verifying the completeness of this information.
• Emergency Shelters – The Department provided data for all children who had been in an emergency shelter in 2014 and 2015; however, we encountered issues that made reporting the number beyond 30 days difficult. The data required manual editing by auditors to determine the number of children in emergency shelters beyond 30 days. This was due to disruptions in stays, such as the child going on the run from the shelter. There is no statutory requirement that DCFS place children within 30 days of entering a shelter. The 30 day standard is outlined in the B.H. Consent Decree. (88 C 5599 (N.D. Ill.))
• Detention Facilities – DCFS was unable to provide this data because it does not track scheduled release dates for youths in detention. Without knowing a scheduled release date, we could not determine if a youth was held beyond that time. (pages 19-22)
Ugh.
*** UPDATE *** From DCFS…
Statement from Director George Sheldon regarding the Auditor General report:
This is one of the most intractable issues we have been dealing with. These are very challenging categories of youth.
To reduce the number of kids in emergency shelters, we have created emergency foster homes. Every child being removed from their own home needs to go to a home setting in their community, not to a shelter. That’s our goal. In June of 2014 we had 136 children and youth in emergency shelters. A year ago it was 91. Today we are at 43.
With respect to youth in detention, we now have two new contracts to provide placements with the supports these young people need, and two additional programs are being developed.
The children and youth in psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity are really very challenging cases. There are two categories here. For children already in our care, we are developing a pilot program to have very sophisticated and knowledgeable experts work with our case managers for these cases to get the kids reunited with their families with appropriate services and supports or stabilized in community placements.
Then there are children who are at risk of coming into our care because their families can no longer handle the cost of care on their own. Those are referred to as lockouts, but this is desperation for many families. Our ultimate goal is to provide families the support they need so parents don’t have to lock children out. We are working with the Department of Health Finance (HFS) and Human Services to develop a program and funding to make it possible for these children to stay in their homes.
Four times as many children and youth beyond medical necessity were discharged from the hospitals during the fiscal year just ended than in the year earlier.
We are developing a therapeutic foster care system, with trained professionals as fulltime foster parents, to work with young people who have severe medical or behavioral health needs. Again, it takes time to build this system, but we have three substantial pilot programs in place.
We have more data tools in place now, and our placement staff is tracking each and every child or youth in these categories.
BMN Youth in hospital
We had 16 discharged last week
2 will be discharged this week
Today, we have 21 BMN youth in hospital.
We have 127 total youth in psychiatric hospitals today. We usually have under 150 youth at any one time.
Right now, there are 10 youth in the hospital that are BMN and have pending lock-out investigations, meaning their families do not wish to have them back in their homes.
They are other children who are in hospital Beyond Medical Necessity who may have a pending abuse or neglect allegation so we have to wait to do our due diligence to determine whether they will enter care.
This is actually a growing problem, because families are struggling to cope with the cost and logistics in these cases. We have an Interagency Agreement signed to help address the challenge of lock-outs by parents who need our help, it will address the issue of children being locked-out of psychiatric hospitals by parents.
This is a historical snapshot of BMN
7/1/14 to 6/30/15 75 discharges
7/1/15 to 6/30/16 302 discharges
7/1/16 to date 59 discharges
Sneed hears House Speaker Mike Madigan is planning to ax former Gov. Pat Quinn’s two-term mayoral initiative when it gets filed.
• Buckshot: Madigan, the state’s powerful Dem party chief who equates Quinn to a slug, plans to work at squashing Quinn’s plan to impose a two-term limit on Chicago’s mayor — which he claims is the only big city in the country without it.
• Slingshot: Word is Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel met for lunch recently downtown, and Madigan was overheard telling Emanuel he was going to kill Quinn’s term-limits initiative like he killed Fair Maps.
• Backshot: Last month, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a voter referendum-driven plan on the November ballot to change the state’s political boundaries.
Unlike the state, Chicago allows these sorts of binding referenda, so Madigan likely couldn’t kill it in the courts like he did with the remap plan. He could run a bill, but I highly doubt it would make it into law, considering the mayor’s unpopularity and the governor’s support for term limits.
Madigan’s spokesman said he wasn’t aware of any element of the story and said the lunch aspect “makes it sound suspect.”
ICYMI: Report – Mike Madigan Brags He “Killed” Fair Maps
Report Contradicts Madigan Spokesman
For months, Madigan and his allies have claimed they had no involvement in the People’s Map group’s successful efforts to kill the Independent Map Amendment, even as multiple media outlets described the intimate connection between Madigan, the Democratic Party of Illinois, and the People’s Map.
In July, the Associated Press reported, “Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, has said neither Madigan nor the Democratic Party is involved in The People’s Map.”
But the Chicago Sun-Times reports today:
• Slingshot: Word is Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel met for lunch recently downtown, and Madigan was overheard telling Emanuel he was going to kill Quinn’s term-limits initiative like he killed Fair Maps.
* Comptroller Leslie Munger at the Chicago Tribune editorial board debate with her opponents…
“We have to pass a balanced budget. I don’t know how you pass a balanced budget, unless you literally cut social services completely as an example, cut education,” Munger said. “You cannot get to a balanced budget without a growing economy in our state right now. We cannot do it.”
* Politifact justifiably rated the union’s claim “False.” Its reasoning…
The video includes Munger’s comments in their entirety, though both the title and the description imply the comptroller was saying the state needs to completely eliminate funding for social services to balance the budget.
Despite Munger making clear she was using such cuts as “an example” to illustrate how drastic cuts alone would have to be, SEIU makes it appear as if Munger wants and is proposing to eliminate all funding for social services in the video as well as on its social media accounts.
Munger reiterated her support for an income tax increase as long as it’s “coupled” with reductions in spending, noting the current individual income tax rate of 3.75 percent would have to be hiked up to about 8 percent just to pay down the state’s current $8.1 billion backlog of unpaid bills.
“You cannot cut enough to get to a balanced budget, so you need revenue,” Munger said during the debate. “And you cannot raise revenue enough to get it balanced without a growing economy.”
This statement also debunks SEIU’s contention that Munger wants to “cut social services completely,” and further clarifies she was saying the state never would be able to make cuts as severe as what you would need to balance the budget as things currently stand.
* Running really behind this morning, and this isn’t an Illinois story, but we can have a little fun with it anyway…
Critics of Donald Trump should be ready for a shock if they plan to steal any pro-Trump yard signs from at least one property in Bellingham.
Trump supporter Ray Gilbride had no luck getting response from police after having several Trump signs stolen from his property, so he took matters into his own hands. Specifically, Gilbride hooked up a 1.5-joule electric fence to the signs.
“It’ll light you up a little bit,” Gilbride told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “Especially if you’re standing in wet grass.”
Gilbride caught one female on his surveillance camera attempting to steal the electrified sign. Though the jolt didn’t keep her from following through on her mission, it did provide him with some laughs.
“This young lady came running through and she grabs the signs, pulls them out and that’s where you can see plain as day, the jolt hit her a little bit,” he said. “She just stopped, just a dead stop, and soon as the pulsing was done, she kinda got her senses and ripped them out and took off running down the street. But it was a pretty funny video.”
