* Hannah and I will have some fresh, totally thought provoking, totally worth your time and comments, and certainly worth wearing out the F5 key content within the next few hours. Meanwhile, here is some of what broke last night…
* State, AFSCME argue over contract impasse
* Appellate court hears case challenging taxpayer-funded abortion in Illinois
* Gun Group Dumps Broken Guns At Police Buyback Event, Uses Cash For NRA Camp For Kids: “They had no effective value in the grand scheme of things,” Boch said. “We went up there to trade our unwanted firearms for perfectly good cash to send young people to a National Rifle Association summer gun camp to teach them about the safe and effective use of firearms.” The Police Department can accept all guns during the event, Guglielmi said. They collected more than 420 guns during the June 2 trade-in.
* Chicago taps Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build high-speed transit tunnels that would tie Loop with O’Hare: Emanuel and Boring officials said it’s too early to provide a timeline for the project’s completion or its estimated cost, but they said Boring would pay for the entire project. That would include the construction of a new station at O’Hare and the completion of the mothballed superstation built at Block 37 under previous Mayor Richard M. Daley, who like Emanuel pushed for high-speed rail access to O’Hare.
* Tollway board approves deal with railroad to allow O’Hare western access
* Elizabeth Brackett, Longtime WTTW Journalist, Critically Injured in Bicycle Accident
* Cook County Sheriff’s Office will enforce assault weapons ban in Northbrook, officials say
* Judge temporarily blocks Deerfield assault weapons ban, which was to take effect Wednesday
* Sheriff: New program will support opioid-addicted inmates after release
* Suburban school districts pay penalties for giving raises over 6 percent: The penalties essentially shift some of the pension burden back to the schools that created it, proponents said. But others argue such a shift has little effect on decreasing the pension fund’s debt, which is about $73 billion, according to TRS officials. “Go ahead and do it, it’s not bad government, but it’s not going to solve the real problem,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a bipartisan government finance think tank based in Chicago.
* Emanuel responds to Quinn’s term-limits petition — with a one-liner: “Right now, I think Amy would like to sign the petition. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
* Indicted Ald. Cochran telling colleagues he’s changed his mind, intends to run
* EDITORIAL: Ken Dunkin, sexual harassment and proportionate justice: Dunkin insists he never made the remark, but given what we know about the sorry culture of harassment in Illinois state government, we’re inclined to believe his accuser. That’s Springfield for you, sad to say, and the political leaders who have been there longest, beginning with House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, have to answer for it.
* Gurnee to consider $4 million tax incentive for Great America
* Decomposed bodies’ odors prompt new calls for new Kane County morgue: Russell first called for a new morgue soon after taking office in 2012. That’s a vision not shared by county board Chairman Chris Lauzen, and the two have waged political battles ranging from Russell’s purchase of promotional items for his office to the number of autopsies performed. Lauzen has even backed candidates seeking to unseat Russell.
* Illinois coroner will no longer hold remains until poor pay
* Ex-treasurer of Illinois town gets 4-year sentence for theft: Ryan Thorpe was indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud and embezzlement from a local government charges.
* William Shatner’s new enterprise: A solar-powered bitcoin mining farm in Illinois: He said Illinois’ policy of requiring utility companies to buy renewable energy made the project economically feasible. It also didn’t hurt that the mayor of Murphysboro, Will Stephens, offered the company a 165,000-square-foot former label-making factory that has been vacant since 2004…the project will involve the creation of a huge solar array on the factory’s 14-acre parcel. The space inside the building will be leased to bitcoin mining companies, he said, with some reserved for a training center that will teach solar panel installation.
* Institute of Politics breaks down intellectual ’silos’ in exchange with downstate college
* Statehouse race preview: McMillan vs. Manar
* Kwame Raoul, Democrat for attorney general, explains his views, and the influences that shaped them
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 8:29 am:
The Elizabeth Brackett news is so terribly awful. Sending good thoughts for her, and prayers for a full recovery.
- Perrid - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 8:31 am:
“Chicago taps Elon Musk’s Boring Company…” I eventually got from the context that it’s a digging company’s name, one that bores holes and so called itself Boring, but at first I thought it was throwing shade at Elon.
- @misterjayem - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 8:50 am:
“officials said it’s too early to provide a timeline for the project’s completion or its estimated cost, but they said Boring would pay for the entire project.”
What could possibly go wrong?
– MrJM
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:02 am:
Yep, that what this city needs another hole in the ground. How did that work out for the Block 37 subway station? But if Mr. Musk wants to throw money down a hole have at it, just as long as there is no taxpayer money involved. Sure sounds like it is rapidly moving into silly campaign promises season. Lots of bread and circus stuff but please don’t pay attention to city debt, budget deficit, and schools where kids aren’t safe but out of the streets isn’t much better.
- Northsider - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:03 am:
Whenever I hear about the Boring Co., or hyperloop, I remember that we’ve been here before: Check out the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:14 am:
===What could possibly go wrong?===
Aw, it’s not for you. It’s more of a Shelbyville idea.
- Angry Chicagoan - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:27 am:
The Musk boring company deal is a historic mistake. For one thing, the capacity is a tiny fraction of the Blue Line or the Kennedy Expressway; if Metra would simply put two or more trains an hour on North Central they’d have more capacity. But it also dilutes traffic that should be going on an improved and upgraded commuter rail and makes it less likely that improved commuter rail to O’Hare, which would have many times the capacity, will ever happen–by removing a slice of the best customers.
That, of course, is if it ever happens. It seems risky indeed to dilute other opportunities for transportation to O’Hare on a scheme that hasn’t even been prototyped, even if no taxpayer dollars are going on this particular scheme.
I have to blame Metra somewhat. They could take the initiative but they seem too stuck in the past to do so.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:29 am:
AFSCME’s lawyer is spot-on, to argue against the ILRB’s single-issue impasse ruling (subcontracting). The union was trying and willing to bargain over other issues, such as wages, when Rauner declared impasse.
It’s ludicrous to say that one issue derailed the entire negotiations. The court indicated this when it issued a stay. Here’s hoping that the court will follow through and rule correctly.
- SAP - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:37 am:
47th wins the day.
Monorail…monorail…monorail
- Annonin' - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:40 am:
Barton & Hannah
Its summer, Just let know when you have the beer iced and the combo lock hacked off the pontoon so the CaptFaxFast (sans Capt Fax) can proceed.
Let let the tech geeks fill the time on the Musk HiSpeed Tube project.
- Exclamation Point Deleted - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:52 am:
“Boring Company” sounds like a fictional manufacturing firm in a Monty Python skit/movie.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 9:57 am:
==Elizabeth Brackett, Longtime WTTW Journalist, Critically Injured in Bicycle Accident==
She is in good hands at Stroger. Hopefully her spinal cord is intact. Her athleticism should help her recover faster. Godspeed.
- A guy - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 10:32 am:
==CaptFaxFast (sans Capt Fax) ==
I’m sure you meant “FEST”. It’s hard to imagine any “fasting” going on there. lol
- Skeptic - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 10:36 am:
“firm in a Monty Python skit/movie.” I was thinking more “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
- wordslinger - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 10:37 am:
Really? John Boch rates straight “objective” coverage, but if I call him out by posting what he’s written in the past, I get blocked?
He needs to be protected from himself?
Why?
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 10:59 am:
NRA camp for kids? After nap time, milk and cookies, then crayon drawings of a good guy with a gun shooting a bad guy with a gun. The bad guy could be a man who wears a mask and has a striped shirt or your annoying baby sister.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jun 14, 18 @ 10:06 pm:
“Gun Group Dumps Broken Guns At Police Buyback Event, Uses Cash For NRA Camp For Kids…”
Back in the 1990s before John Boch sold out Otis McDonald, the Champaign County Rifle Association DBA Guns Save Life started as a grassroots chapter of ISRA, and Boch was one of the young turks who ripped on Richard Pearson and ISRA every chance he got.
In 2010/2011 prior to the adoption of Rep. Brandon Phelps’ concealed carry bill, Boch was in the room with NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde and Valinda Rowe from (southern) Illinois Carry, where this triumvirate of mental giants voluntarily gave Duty to Inform to the IL Chiefs of Police, because all gun owners are “good guys” who are “on the same side” as the police.
Boch has since conned the GSL board into paying him a stipend to blow hot air, and annointed him with the title of “executive director” (barf), thus becoming Richard Pearson, the man Boch used to love to hate.