* Just a quick roundup today because there are so many stories…
* Ban on public sex-harassment payouts moves to House: Rep. David McSweeney says staff members for the House and Senate have told him they’re not aware of any such instances in Illinois. But the Barrington Hills Republican says “I want to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
* Editorial: In fixing one problem, Legislature shouldn’t create bigger one: But, as written, the bill would delete the requirement that an individual’s name be on the front of a summons in every kind of civil proceeding, not just foreclosures. If a person is handed a legal document in which their name appears only on an attachment, it would be tempting to unwittingly just toss it out. Some lawyers worry all kinds of people could lose judgments in court without ever knowing they were sued.
* Illinois lawmakers push to allow 18, 19, and 20-year-olds to be tried as juveniles: In a committee hearing Tuesday, Fine said this age group is unique, considering that studies have shown their brains aren’t fully developed until around age 26. “The goal of this legislation is to make this age group learn from their mistakes to change their trajectory in life instead of paying for the mistakes for the rest of their life,” she said.
* Suggested bills address teacher shortage: A recent survey, done by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, reveals how the shortage has a rippling effect on substitute teachers. It shows, of 400 school districts, schools cannot find subs to cover more than 3,000 absences each week.
* House approves school funding reform cleanup: Rep. Peter Breen, R-Lombard, said the bill appeared to favor the Chicago school system with some of the changes. However, Davis said all of the changes were recommended by the state Board of Education. Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Raymond, also said the bill is necessary to address issues raised by state education officials.
* Beekeepers work on legislation protecting from lawsuits: Leedle and her husband Doug run Leedle Houme Bees in Mulkeytown. She said the increasing popularity of beekeeping has given rise to a new problem. People have began complaining to beekeepers about bees on their property.
* A swarm of citizens has industry has sprung up on Twitter over the past several months to expose this candidate. Their work is finally paying off after a couple of fawning profiles in other publications failed to check into the guy…
Benjamin Thomas Wolf’s congressional campaign office in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood is adorned with framed news stories, touting his service in the FBI.
A Newsweek article features a portrait of Wolf holding a lit marijuana blunt and asks, “Who is Benjamin Thomas Wolf? Former FBI agent smokes weed in Illinois congressional campaign ad.” A Vice story declares, “This former FBI agent is running for Congress to legalize weed.” The Times of Israel says, “Jewish ex-FBI agent makes blunt bid for Congress.”
In a news release last week, the Wolf campaign identified him as a “former FBI agent.”
But the news release and articles got one detail wrong: Wolf was never an FBI agent.
Oops.
* Wolf is running against Congressman Mike Quigley. And he has a dark background…
Katarina Coates, a former girlfriend who interned for his campaign, told POLITICO that Wolf was frequently physically and emotionally abusive, and “doxxed” her by revealing her name and home address on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
“He actually hit me, threw me to the ground, put his foot on my chest. He was really angry. He grabbed my face,” said Coates, who described at least six incidents of physical abuse. […]
In one instance, Coates directly complained to DePaul campus security that she was fearful of him. In a separate instance, in April 2017, she corresponded over email with a security officer who reassured her that Wolf, who was not a student there, had actually been banned from the campus. […]
When he first announced his candidacy, Wolf described himself as an “Iraq veteran.” And on Veterans Day, he responded to a tweet from Quigley saying: “Wolf served multiple terms in Africa and Iraq. Wolf for Congress.”
* The best way for any candidate to get quoted by a reporter these days is to take a verbal potshot at Speaker Madigan. The more outrageous the better…
Shots fired by @Drury4IL "Mike Madigan is the type of evil you can't even imagine" regarding sexual harassment problem. pic.twitter.com/kcNJOp8wGT
The Illinois Democratic machine has unleashed a wave of attacks on fellow Democrats in local races, with state party chair Michael Madigan funding mailers knocking several progressive candidates as Donald Trump stooges and foot soldiers in the tea party.
Madigan’s campaign committee has spent nearly $19,000 on mailers attacking two Our Revolution-backed candidates in State Central Democratic Committee elections, Elizabeth Lindquist and Art Bardsley. The postcards say Lindquist and Bardsley are Trump supporters and “members of a group supported by Tea Party activists.” The group referenced by the mailers is Represent.Us, which advocates for politicians on all sides of the political spectrum who support an end to gerrymandering, open primaries, transparency in campaign financing, and rooting out corruption from politics. […]
Steve Brown, Madigan’s press secretary, defended the mailers. “I would assume the mailers are in districts where we’re supporting incumbents, which tends to be our general philosophy,” Brown said in a phone interview with The Intercept. […]
“I’ve been an FDR-style Democrat my entire adult life, I’m 67 and current second vice-chair for the Winnebago County Democratic Party and never have I been called a ‘fake’ Democrat until the ‘leader’ of my state party attempted to smear me as such by spending at least $16K on not one, but two full-color, front-and-back, full-page flyers accusing me of being everything I have stood against for as long as I can remember,” Bardsley said in an interview. “Madigan knows if I’m elected that I will cast a vote against him for party chairman.”
And that last sentence is why Madigan is spending money in the race. If you click here you’ll see Friends of Michael J Madigan has spent over $51K on a few races, with $13K expended against Bardsley.
In the election for state House District 38, Madigan’s committee spent nearly $3,800 last week on mailers against each of the Democratic Primary candidates Cecil Matthews and Max Solomon. A week before, Madigan spent almost $2,500 on opposition mailers against both candidates, and more than $3,900 a few days earlier. Matthews has pledged not to accept any donations greater than $500 from any individual or corporation per election cycle. The other two candidates in the race are Olympia Fields Village President Debbie Meyers-Martin and Assistant State Attorney David Bonner. They are competing for the open seat vacated by State Rep. Al Riley, who is retiring and has endorsed Bonner.
Asked about Madigan’s intervention in the 38th District, where there is no incumbent candidate, Brown said, “We are working with new candidates who we believe would make better representatives or members of the state central committee.”
Those candidates, like others, have been compared to Trump and Rauner. As subscribers know, he’s doing this in other Democratic primaries as well.
In late 2017, Rauner defended himself to the Chicago Press Corp saying, “I am not in charge…”
Edgar County Watchdogs, Kirk Allen and John Kraft, published an authenticated internal email from First Lady Diana Rauner that suggests Gov. Rauner is correct. He’s not in charge. His wife is.
According to the story, the Watchdogs filed a FOIA inquiry about “protocols” involving Diana Rauner when it came to policy decisions and communications emanating from the Governor’s office. The response from the Governor’s office was that there are no such protocols.
However, in an email from Diana Rauner to the administration’s state communication staff several months before the legislation enacting taxpayer-funding of abortion-on-demand (HB 40) was signed into law by the governor, Diana Rauner clearly indicates she expects to sign off “per protocol”.
Dianna Rauner made it clear August 10th, 2017, at 7:18 pm, several months before HB 40 abortion bill was signed into law, that she will, in fact, sign off on the final version, per protocol.
Per Protocol?
“Happy to discuss further but per protocol I expect to sign off on the final version. Thanks”
While the topic of killing babies in the womb has been a heated debate for years in this country, we find that the Governor’s signing of the Abortion-on-demand bill, with taxpayers picking up the tab, may be the true tipping point in Illinois politics and the Republican Party.
Compound the signing of the bill with the fact his unelected wife affirmed she would sign off on the final version months before it was signed into law, it’s clear there is more to the story as to who is in charge.
The e-mail’s subject was “Statement on HB40.” She sent the e-mail to two press staffers, the governor’s chief of staff and her own chief of staff…
I would suggest:
Governor Rauner is committed to protecting women’s reproductive rights and has a consistent record of standing up for women’s rights. He won’t comment further on a bill that has not been sent to his desk.
Happy to discuss further, but per protocol I expect to sign off on final version. Thanks.
So, yeah, she definitely had some control over the governor’s messaging, but not the content of the legislation. At least, not that we know of.
As for protocols, they don’t have to be written down. Sometimes, you just know.
On March 20th Illinois voters will choose their candidates to run for the office of Governor this November. I am writing today to ask you to join me in voting for my husband, Bruce Rauner. […]
He can win a pivotal second term, but only with your help and support. Bruce will never stop fighting for Illinois, and I am proud to join him. Please vote for Bruce Rauner and join our movement to save Illinois!
Thank you for joining us in this important election!
Women Working for Change (WW4C) is a coalition of women from across the state of Illinois.
We are Democrats, Republicans, independents, doctors, teachers, moms and CEOs.
We joined together on the core principle that if we listen to each other and elevate the conversation above the constant political fighting we can reach real solutions to the problems we face in our state.
WHOIS lists the site’s creation date as November 15, 2017. The first story (the First Lady loves stories) was posted on December 7th. I’m guessing this “group” will get a whole lot more visible after the primary is over in a couple of weeks, assuming Rep. Ives is safely dispatched to the sidelines.
*** UPDATE *** The Illinois Review has picked up on the story. Headline…
Rauner campaign funds non-partisan, pro-abortion women’s group website
In August 2016, John Bambenek, a former Republican state senate candidate in Illinois, launched his own clandestine investigation of Guccifer 2.0, the public face of the Russian cyber break-in at the Democratic National Committee. What Bambenek found was that the Guccifer 2.0 persona — believed to be a cover for Russia’s military intelligence arm — reflected a more slapdash chapter in the operation to sow U.S. election chaos than usually presented.
Why it matters: In transcripts of Twitter messages that Bambenek shared with Axios, Guccifer 2.0 seemed to be either careless or indiscriminate, apparently failing to do even a cursory check on Bambenek, and with only a vague understanding of what he was sharing.
How it happened: In June 2016, the DNC told the Washington Post that hackers apparently working for the Russian government had penetrated its computer networks. The day after, Guccifer 2.0 surfaced with the first of a trove of stolen DNC documents, including a 231-page dossier on Donald Trump, the start of a drumbeat of leaks that would dog Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign until she ultimately lost in November.
Not long after, Bambenek approached Guccifer 2.0, asking for documents to help the Republican cause. “I knew I had a good chance of passing the Google test for being a Republican, and it came at a time when Guccifer was probably receiving many inquiries from the press,” he told Axios. […]
The catch: Bambenek wasn’t wearing a GOP hat while conducting the conversation. Instead, he was an executive at Fidelis, a Bethesda, MD, cybersecurity firm that, along with CrowdStrike, had quickly attributed the attack to Russia. Bambenek was more or less just continuing the investigation out of curiosity.
The FBI was in the loop: “Every [direct message] I sent, every [one] I received was turned over to the FBI immediately. I assumed they would have been monitoring the account to begin with,” Bambenek said.
Though Guccifer 2.0 provided him exclusive documents, they focused on almost comedically non-competitive races.
“JB Pritzker has demonstrated time and again that he’s unwilling or unable to stand up to the powers that be in the Democratic Party. He refuses to call out corruption, whether in the office of Mike Madigan or Joe Berrios. That’s not leadership. It’s more of the same self-dealing that has held Illinois back for decades and benefitted the insiders who profit on the backs of hardworking families.” - Rauner Campaign Communications Director Will Allison
Yet another Berrios scandal emerged on Wednesday highlighting a tax break worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the next in a long series of conflicts of interest for the Cook County Assessor. Altria, a tobacco producer represented by Berrios’ lobbying firm (separate from his role as Assessor and Cook County Democratic Party Chair), received an assesment from Berrios’ Assessor’s office that reduced their property tax bill by $370,000.
It seems everyone in Cook County has seen and made note of the corruption that runs rampant in the Assessor’s Office.
Everyone except JB Pritzker that is.
In December, Pritzker made it clear he wouldn’t be criticizing Berrios: “I don’t think it’s my job to foment a war between Democrats”
A month later, in January, he still couldn’t muster the courage to condemn Berrios: “Calling people out individually for their failures is, you know, not productive, and I’m involved in my own primary, not other people’s.”
JB Pritzker has avoided criticizing corruption in Illinois, whether it be Madigan or Berrios. His silence shows that he is part of the same, broken status quo.
Tobacco giant Altria won a lucrative property tax break last year on a Franklin Park factory from the office of Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, who also is the co-owner of a lobbying firm that counts Altria among its longtime clients.
In September, Berrios’ office slashed the real estate assessment on a 500,000-square-foot chewing tobacco warehouse and manufacturing facility owned by the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, part of the Altria Group which is best known for its Philip Morris cigarette brand.
The action shaved about $370,000 off the factory’s 2017 property tax bill. And the value of the break could potentially be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Records show the warehouse was under contract to sell for double the value that Berrios’ office assigned, despite the legal requirement that the standard for such determination is 100 percent of fair market value.
The Berrios lobbying firm, B-P Consultants, has represented the interests of Altria and its subsidiaries in Springfield since 2009, state lobbyist registration records show.
In a brief telephone interview, Berrios told the Better Government Association he “wasn’t involved” in the Altria tax appeal. At the same time, Berrios said he believed the assessment reduction granted to Altria was justified.
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today once again urgently requested Governor Bruce Rauner’s detailed plan of action for ensuring the safety of residents, family, and staff at the Illinois Veterans’ Home (IVH) Quincy. They also pressed Rauner’s Administration to accept the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) offer of technical assistance—including a site visit to IVH Quincy—in tandem with ongoing VA financial support as well as expert assistance that has been provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) recently confirmed four additional cases of Legionnaires’ disease among residents of IVH Quincy—bringing the total number of confirmed legionellosis cases at IVH Quincy to 67 since 2015. According to the CDC, it is rare and worrisome that cases of Legionnaires’ disease are being found at this time of year, when the weather trends colder.
“While recent reports indicate you are considering options—from replacing piping to constructing new buildings on campus—we still do not yet have a detailed plan of action for ensuring the safety of residents, family, and staff at the facility going forward. Once again, we urge you to finalize such a plan without delay,” the members wrote in a letter to Gov. Rauner. “We hope you will uphold your responsibility as Governor and finally provide leadership on this crisis that has tragically resulted in the deaths of 13 residents at IVH Quincy over the past three years. Our veterans, their families, and the excellent staff there deserve nothing less.”
On March 1, 2018, members of the National Infectious Diseases Service at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) communicated with IDVA Director Jeffries. They offered additional technical assistance in the efforts to mitigate and prevent Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at IVH Quincy, in addition to the ongoing substantial financial assistance provided by the VA. We urge your Administration to accept the VA’s offer of expert assistance—to include a site visit to IVH Quincy—in tandem with ongoing expert assistance that has been provided by the CDC.
Vague assurances that next steps are forthcoming “in the near future” are quite simply inexcusable, particularly as it took you three years before finally appointing an advisor to coordinate and oversee efforts for improvements at IVH Quincy. Moreover, claims that a final plan of action to make improvements at IVH Quincy will be presented to the Illinois General Assembly as late as May and that construction of new buildings on campus could take up to five years are insufficient given how long your Administration has already delayed in addressing this public health crisis.
Rauner says his administration is considering replacing old plumbing systems, as well as demolishing residence halls. He says another option could be transferring the existing residents to another facility.
“The challenge with that is they’re very vulnerable– very frail. They’re very elderly and this is their home,” Rauner said. “This is like a family for them. And so you don’t just rip people out of their home and put them in a completely different place. The health risks of doing that are very substantial.”
The state director of Veterans’ Affairs says there are plans to raze residence halls where there have been cases of Legionnaires’ since 2015. That plan is estimated to take three to five years–but there’s no estimate yet for how much it would cost.
Packed room at AT&T center opening on North Side. Mayor Emanuel and Gov. Rauner here. Mayor expected to deliver a letter to Gov urging him to sign gun bill. #twillpic.twitter.com/vWlS0GegA1
He did reiterate his support for “safer schools,” a bump stock ban, a generic call to “support law enforcement” and “do a better job keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill.” He ignored a follow up question about whether or not he’ll act before the primary.
Rauner says he has been “clear” on guns (he hasn’t though). He speaks in generalities: supports a conversation, making schools safer, banning bump sticks, more support for police. Gov has not given explicit answers on his position on bills; his conversations about them unclear. pic.twitter.com/7o6iJWVcRw
Saying he “supports a conversation” is a common @GovRauner tactic that buys him more time, and helps him to not get pinned down on an issue. But delaying staking a side has consequences, and it’s bitten him before. (And no doubt Dems have and will use this habit against him) https://t.co/RygCgJzWlj
Also Tuesday, Raoul said that House Speaker Michael Madigan should step down as head of the Democratic Party of Illinois as a way to “refresh” the party leadership.
But Frerichs declined to take a similar position.
“Today I’m here to talk about supporting Sen. Kwame Raoul and how he reflects the new generation here,” Frerichs said.
Raoul, however, was eager to address the issue, equating Madigan’s 20 years as head of the state Democratic Party with the long political history of Pat Quinn, his chief opponent for attorney general. […]
“I think it’s a healthy thing for us to refresh leadership whether it’s the Democratic Party or Republican Party,” Raoul said. “I’m running against somebody who has run for office every cycle since (Democrat Michael) Dukakis was running for president (in 1988). There’s something wrong with that, and I think we’re in a relay race. I think advocating for people and fighting for good policy is a relay race. And in a relay race you pass the baton.”
This morning Quinn, a Democrat who wants to succeed Madigan’s daughter Lisa as Illinois Attorney General, told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” that Madigan should step down as party chairman.
“Well, I don’t think he should be the chairman of the Democratic Party”, said Quinn. ” As a matter of fact I think the voters in the primary ought to have a chance to vote for the chairman of the Democratic Party. I believe it term limits. I’ve been passing petitions for that over the years. I think reasonable term limits are needed for everybody and that includes running for Governor and Attorney General.”
Fairley took issue with Cullerton’s financial support for state Sen. Ira Silverstein, who was cleared of sexual harassment allegations by the legislative inspector general but was found to have behaved in conduct “unbecoming of a legislator.”
“If elected, Senator Raoul would be indebted to one of the most powerful politicians in Illinois on Day One of his administration,” Fairley said in a statement. Fairley helped establish the city’s new Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an agency created in response to the scandal surrounding the shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white police officer.
A Raoul campaign spokesman dismissed the attack, noting Fairley has put more than $420,000 into the contest.
“We’re not going to take campaign finance advice from someone who has donated nearly a half-million dollars to her own campaign,” said spokesman Ron Holmes.
* Related…
* Ald Sawyer: Look at term limit for Speaker Madigan: After getting a question at the City Club asking why Democrats don’t stand up to Madigan, Sawyer said “People have a concern about 40 years or 80 years combined in the same thing to be a problem. We need occasional breadth of leadership. I don’t have a personal problem with Speaker Madigan. I just follow my own tune. I vote based on my own conscience and I support people based on how I work and not necessarily on someone telling me I have to do that.”
* Jim Dey: In like Quinn? That’s the fear of younger generation: If Quinn gets in, the Democrats’ geezer generation will further cement itself in control, leaving a younger generation of party politicos angry, frustrated and, most importantly, powerless.
* VIDEO: Attorney General Candidate (D) Kwame Raoul
* Grasso says he is GOP’s best AG candidate: And he does not support the legalization of marijuana, saying it would require “heavy bureaucracy.” “We can’t afford it at this time,” he said. “If we’re going to talk about drugs, let’s solve the heroin and opioid problem first. We have way too many problems to take care of first.”
* Click here for background if you need it on yesterday’s memo from Speaker Madigan to his members warning them against sexually harassing or having sexual relations with staff along with Alaina Hampton’s response. Sun-Times…
“He’s had two meetings with women, staff and lobbyists. One in Chicago and one in Springfield and he came with a sense and thought that it would be prudent to express that to the caucus,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said of Tuesday’s statement.
Madigan’s message to members — which he also released to the media — came about a week after he released a list of nine misconduct complaints that he said demonstrated his office had been there for potential harassment victims and has handled cases “according to protocol.”
And it came after he met with directors of four units of his office — the clerk’s office, issues, research and technical review divisions. Those directors are now speaking with staff on a weekly basis about whether there are any staffing issues, according to a source with close knowledge of the speaker’s office.
It also comes after Madigan met with some House Democratic women in the two private meetings. The group has been talking to lobbyists and staff members to try to both tackle sexual harassment in politics, and empower women to seek higher positions.
As for any pending legislation, Brown said the speaker is “waiting to see what kind of ideas” come from both a group headed by Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, and State Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove – and the group of women Democratic members who have been meeting.
[Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago] said she wasn’t sure what prompted Madigan’s latest message, saying, “he just read it to us in that measured, deliberate tone of his.”
Others said they interpreted it as a stern warning from Madigan as he tries to move ahead on the issue. Madigan repeatedly has said he has no intentions to step aside.
Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a Chicago Democrat who serves on Madigan’s leadership team, said the comments were “a very strong statement about a level of professionalism that he expects.”
“I believe it is a step in the right direction, a clarion call, if you will,” Feigenholtz said.
Still, Feigenholtz called the issue a “work in progress.” “I believe there is a commitment to reframe things around here,” Feigenholtz said.
Meanwhile, the House’s sexual harassment task force Tuesday discussed a draft of a bill authored by House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, and the committee’s minority spokesperson Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, R-Leland Grove, to reform state ethics and human rights law with new regulations in an attempt to decrease instances of sexual harassment and allow for a better pathway to justice for victims.
The proposals include extending the period for reporting after a rights violation from 180 days to one year, allowing anonymous reporting and creating an investigator position in more government offices.
Lobbyists and legislators debated parts of the draft, including the statute of limitation clause. As written, it would cover more than just sexual harassment allegations, a concern for an already overstretched complaint system at the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Human Rights Commission, according to Jay Shattuck, a lobbyist for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
“There is a tremendous backlog … that is unfortunately detrimental … to the individuals who have been discriminated against but certainly employers who are stuck in the process for as many as six, seven years before there’s a resolution of a human rights act charge,” he said. “We think we need to address the backlog as well.”
Aren’t you getting tired of Chris Kennedy attacking other candidates for governor while refusing to be accountable for his own record?
Chris Kennedy was the real estate developer of a high-rise condo building in downtown Chicago, but he did it in a way to avoid affordable housing requirements designed to let people on fixed incomes have access to new apartments. Kennedy said people who couldn’t afford to live in his building could work in nearby restaurants, and Kennedy hasn’t only hurt our community as a businessman.
When he ran the board of trustees at the University of Illinois, Chris Kennedy voted five times to raise tuition, while at the same time giving million-dollar contracts and raises for coaches and administrators. Kennedy’s votes to raise tuition led African-American enrollment to drop by over 16 percent, depriving many young people of a chance for a better future.
Chris Kennedy. Shouldn’t we judge him by his record?
* Kennedy campaign response…
JB Pritzker is doing everything he can to try and slow Chris Kennedy’s surge among voters. Pritzker’s just-released negative 60-second radio ad squeezes in four misleading points about Kennedy — because you lob whatever lies you can when you’re as desperate as he and his spiraling campaign are right now.
Pritzker has spent $63 million on his campaign, more than $30 million of which has gone to scripted ads, and he still can’t get his facts straight. We’ll clear up his lies for him:
JB Pritzker: Chris Kennedy developed Wolf Point in a way to avoid affordable housing requirements.
Truth: Chris Kennedy did not develop Wolf Point in a way to avoid affordable housing requirement because there weren’t any affordable housing requirements for him to avoid. Dan Biss tried to tell the same lie.The two of them have been fact-checked by PolitiFact Illinois and the Better Government Association. Like Donald Trump, perhaps JB Pritzker doesn’t trust researchers and media outlets.
JB Prtitzker: Chris voted five times to raise tuition at University of Illinois.
Truth: According to U of I, Chris Kennedy’s leadership while Chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, “fixed tuition increases at or below the rate of inflation and precipitated a downward trend for the rate of tuition increases that continues.”
While the state failed to fully fund its obligation, leaving the University $500 million short of what it was owed from the state, Chris Kennedy’s leadership generated $100 million in new aid for students who couldn’t afford full tuition.
While Chris Kennedy was leading U of I out a governance crisis and a recession, JB Pritzker was caught on FBI tapes asking Rod Blagojevich for political favors and making disrespectful remarks about African-American leaders.
JB Pritzker: Chris gave contracts and raises to coaches and administrators
Truth: Chris never gave an administrator a pay raise. Also, the coaches were paid by corporate sponsors and athletic department revenue; not through student tuition or taxpayer dollars.
Again, while Chris Kennedy was leading U of I out a governance crisis and a recession, JB Pritzker was caught on FBI tapes asking Rod Blagojevich for political favors and making disrespectful remarks about African-American leaders.
JB Pritzker: There was a drop in African-American enrollment at U of I while Chris was board chair.
Truth: There was a drop in African-American enrollment at universities throughout the state at that time, as cited by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Chris took over on the tail end of the recession. He committed to including diversity and inclusion at every board meeting at U of I. In fact, during his five years as the chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, the board stripped patronage from the application process to get qualified students from Chicago Public Schools admitted into the university and worked to move minority professors into tenured positions and made progress toward a more inclusive faculty.
And again, while Chris Kennedy was leading U of I out a governance crisis and a recession, JB Pritzker was caught on FBI tapes asking Rod Blagojevich for political favors and making disrespectful remarks about African-American leaders.
Illinois emergency rooms experienced a 66 percent jump in opioid overdose visits last year, according to a new report that suggests the epidemic of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse is worsening in some states.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released state emergency room data Tuesday in a report that encourages hospitals to do more to combat outbreaks and prevent repeat overdoses.
The report found opioid-related emergency room visits rose an average of 35 percent across 16 states between July 2016 and September 2017. The increase was worst in the Midwest and in large metropolitan areas.
In the Midwest, Wisconsin saw a 109 percent jump in suspected opioid overdose visits. Visits rose 35 percent in Indiana, 28 percent in Ohio and 21 percent in Missouri.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has filed a lawsuit against the nation’s three largest opioid distributors, alleging they unlawfully circulated the addictive narcotics in Chicago.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court late Monday, is against AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp., which the city said account for about 90 percent of all revenues from prescription drug distribution and dominate the wholesale market in Chicago.
“These companies have a responsibility under state and federal law to exercise due diligence to prevent the illicit distribution of pharmaceuticals and yet they failed to reject or report suspicious orders and placed profits over public health,” Edward Siskel, the city’s top attorney, said in a statement. “We are filing this suit to hold them accountable.”
Profits can be immense – sales of OxyContin last year totaled a reported $1.8 billion, which was down 50 percent from five years ago. The family that owns Purdue Pharma, the privately held company that invented and sells the drug, was deemed the 16th richest in the United States by Forbes magazine in 2015, with most of an estimated $14 billion fortune based on the exploding popularity of a painkiller blamed for the death and addiction of tens of thousands of Americans. In 2007, the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges for misleading the government, physicians and patients about the dangers of OxyContin. The company was fined $600 million. In addition, three company executives entered guilty pleas as individuals and were hit with an additional $34.5 million in fines. Faced with scores of pending lawsuits, Purdue in February announced that it would end marketing campaigns of OxyContin to doctors.
As part of the supply chain, drug distributors also have fallen under scrutiny, and so H.D. Smith and other wholesalers have been hit with lawsuits and government inquiries, including the letter sent by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January.
Citing data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the committee wrote that H.D. Smith in 2008 sold more than 1.1 million hydrocodone doses to Family Discount Pharmacy in Mount Gay-Shamrock, a West Virgina town that is home to 1,800 people – it works out to more than 3,000 pills per day. That same year, H.D. Smith sold more than 1.3 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone to Sav-Rite Pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia, a town of 406. According to the congressional letter of inquiry, that’s five times the amount that such a rural pharmacy would be expected to need. The company between 2007 and 2008 also sold nearly 5 million hydrocodone pills to two small pharmacies in Williamson, West Virginia, where slightly more than 3,000 people live, the committee wrote. The committee based part of its concerns on stories in the Gazette-Mail, which has reported that H.D. Smith distributed more than 18 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone in West Virginia between 2007 and 2012.
“Data provided to the committee by the Drug Enforcement Administration raises…questions regarding H.D. Smith’s efforts to monitor for, and mitigate, controlled substance diversion in West Virginia,” representatives from both parties wrote in the eight-page letter.
* The tweet below has a typo. Biss doesn’t say this about teachers, he says it about state employees. “As a matter of politics, I can get away with really offending state employees because I don’t represent that many of them.” He said all legislators have lots of teachers in their districts, so that makes for a heavier lift on pension reform…
Video resurfaces from 2013 when @DanielBiss argued it’s okay to go after teachers’ pensions because there aren’t enough of them to hurt him politically. pic.twitter.com/6M208ESxdz
Illinois voters never know which Daniel Biss they’re going to get on any given day. The Daniel Biss who claims to be the middle class governor or the Daniel Biss who tried to rip pensions away from hard-working retirees.
Daniel Biss led pension reform, an effort funded by JB Pritzker. The two of them ignored the state’s legal obligation to fund teacher and state employee pensions, in favor of their own political interests.
Daniel Biss and JB Pritzker cannot operate with the integrity and the independence needed to fix the broken system in Illinois.
Anyway, the ad has reportedly been sent to the stations, so here it is…
…Adding… Script…
Drury: I’m Scott Drury. I’m a Democrat.
[Buzzer sound.]
Announcer: Really? Let’s follow the money. Drury’s taken $395,000 from Republicans and thousands from Trump’s own donors. And what do they get from Drury? He sided with Republicans and Rauner in the budget fight. He voted against working families. And Drury even voted against a tax on millionaires to improve education.
Drury: I’m a Democrat…
[Buzzer sound, Drury’s face x’d out]
Announcer: Drury. He takes Republican money and votes with them. The last thing we need as attorney general.
