Too much like work
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I pay for a Sun-Times subscription like a good person would, but the CS-T site is so clunky it sometimes drives me mad.
Whenever I close out my browser and then reopen it, I will eventually get this message page after I click on several CS-T links…
* OK, no big deal. I’m all paid up, so I dutifully click the “sign in here” link. But the site never remembers my username or password, so I am sent to this page and then have to manually input my info…
* After successfully entering my info (which isn’t every time), I get this congratulations page…
Hooray for me! But, OK, now what?
* Scroll down…
* Clicking that red box very briefly sends me to the story I was trying to read, but then I am always auto-forwarded to this page…
* Now what? Scrolling down is no help. Hmm. Wait. Should I just click the back-button on my browser?…
* Yep. It worked…
Whew.
This happens almost every day.
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* I posted this story earlier today as an update, but this is from WJBC…
The Republican candidate for Illinois Attorney General pledges her independence despite Gov. Bruce Rauner’s endorsement.
Visiting the McLean County Fair Friday night, Erika Harold said she has many disagreements with the Republican governor, including his signing into a law a bill expanding taxpayer support for abortions to include women on Medicaid and state employee insurance.
Sen. Kwame Raoul’s campaign told me that if Harold’s going to distance herself from Rauner on HB40, “it’s only fair that she is forthright and held accountable on just how far away she is.” But as the Raoul campaign rightly notes, she refuses to answer reporters’ questions on the topic.
So, in other words, her views don’t matter except when she’s using those views to separate herself from Gov. Rauner.
* From Bill Cameron’s show…
Cameron: Senator Raoul tries to tag you as being so pro-life, you even include incest and rape of the mother, being pro-life.
Harold: The reality is that this office is about following the law and enforcing the law regardless of your political opinions and your personal views. And I have been clear about that from day one. I understand that it’s my job to enforce the law, and that’s what people want in this state. They understand that there’s a broad spectrum of issues about which we will disagree. We are a very diverse state, but what we need is people who will follow the law, and I’ve made clear I’m committed to doing that.
Cameron: What is your position on abortion?
Harold: Everyone knows that I’m pro-life. I’ve been very clear about that. But I have been equally clear about the fact that I believe in following the law. The reality is also that HB40 includes a trigger provision that in the instance that something changed with respect to Roe v Wade, Illinois would remain a state in which abortion was legal. So focusing on these issues is really a distraction from what the Attorney General will have the power to do. And people, when I’m traveling around the state, they want an Attorney General that will be vigorous in fighting against public corruption, that will address some of the issues with workers compensation reform, and will most importantly follow the law.
Cameron: So you’re anti-abortion even on rape and incest?
Harold: I am pro-life but I will follow the law, and that’s what this is about.
Cameron: You’re dodging me on those two categories…
Harold: I’m not dodging. I’m not dodging at all because my political views and my personal views on this are very clear, and I’ve discussed them during the course of this campaign. But what people want to know is, what are you going to do with respect to the power and the position that you’re actually seeking? And it’s follow the law.
Cameron: But you’re not telling me where you are on rape and incest…
Harold: I believe I am pro-life with the exception being life of the mother. And that is something I have been very clear about, but what’s important for this issue is that I will follow the law. And the other thing that’s important is that HB40 is in place, and it doesn’t matter what the personal views of the person who holds that office is because it’s already, that was part of the point of HB40. And so for people to continue to use this issue as a way to say ‘you have to vote for someone because somehow people’s particular rights are under attack’ is completely disingenuous and is a distraction from the issues that the Attorney General will actually face.
Lots of words.
* She did the same thing with Mark Maxwell…
Maxwell: “In a previous run for Congress, you mention that even in cases of rape and incest - which most Republicans carve those out - you are still opposed to abortion. Have your views at all evolved or changed on that particular issue?”
Harold: “My views are clear. I will uphold Illinois law, and that’s what’s important for voters to know about this.”
Fair hit or not?
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* Sun-Times…
A Northwest Side man threatened to shoot Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) during a phone conversation with one of the alderman’s assistants on Wednesday, before he showed up at Hopkins’ house later that night, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Jozef Wysocki, 70, faces a felony charge of threatening a public official, court documents show.
Prosecutors said Saturday that Wysocki called Hopkins’ office days earlier to ask why traffic was blocked off for construction at Noble and Chestnut streets, an intersection on the border of Hopkins’ Near North Side ward.
After an assistant in Hopkins’ Wicker Park office told Wysocki the reason for the construction, Wysocki began swearing and mentioned an “armed revolution,” prosecutors said at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. The assistant told Wysocki there was no need to swear before he hung up the phone.
Wysocki called back three minutes later to continue his tirade with a different assistant, but this time he said he would shoot the alderman, claiming to know where he lived, prosecutors said. The assistant hung up and dialed 911 before calling Hopkins.
About 10:30 p.m., Hopkins’ wife — who hadn’t been told of the threats — saw a man lurking in front of their Lincoln Park home, according to prosecutors. She told her husband, who called police.
The minor stuff that puts some people over the edge is just… crazy.
Hopkins and I were college roommates, so I have a bias here. But, really, it’s not biased to be concerned for a government official’s life in the face of this ridiculous nonsense.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Question of the day
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Your own caption?…
*** UPDATE *** From DPI executive director Rep. Christian Mitchell…
Tim is not involved in any campaign activity. Tim has been back to the office four times to clean out 20 years’ worth of files, and he completed that process yesterday.
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* We might be seeing more of these around the state. Stay tuned…
Today, State Representative Avery Bourne (R-Raymond) and State Senate candidate Seth McMillan (R-Taylorville) announced an effort to allow voters in Macoupin, Montgomery, and Christian Counties to voice their opinion on legislation that restricts gun rights. This initiative will place an advisory question on the General Election ballot that will read:
Should the General Assembly pass any additional legislation that restricts a citizen’s ability to own and possess guns or firearms?
Voters will be able to vote “Yes” or “No” on the measure. A “Yes” vote would indicate support for additional gun control legislation. A “No” vote would indicate opposition to additional gun control legislation. Avery Bourne and Seth McMillan will both be voting “No,” as they both oppose additional gun control legislation.
Avery Bourne reacted to gun control legislation and the proposed referendum, saying, “Illinois has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, yet politicians in Springfield keep passing anti-gun legislation that doesn’t crack down on the true cause of gun violence. I’ve been proud to stand with law-abiding gun owners in opposing these efforts. This referendum will allow voters, regardless of their opinions on the 2nd Amendment, to send a direct message to Springfield on where they stand on gun control.”
Seth McMillan, candidate for State Senate in the 48th Senate District, also reacted, saying, “The Second Amendment is under attack in Springfield and Andy Manar has been siding with gun-grabbing Chicago Democrats over the law-abiding, gun-owning citizens of Central Illinois. We need to send a strong message to politicians in Springfield that gun owners vote and we oppose gun control. This referendum is the best way to do it. I will be proudly voting ‘No’ on additional gun control and I urge Manar to do the same.”
This morning, Macoupin County Republican Party Chairman Kevin Polo and Avery Bourne submitted petitions containing 1,600 signatures of Macoupin County voters to Macoupin CountyClerk Pete Duncan (picture below and attached). The minimum signature requirement to place an advisory referendum on the ballot via the petition process is 8% of the total vote for gubernatorial candidates in the preceding gubernatorial election. For Macoupin County, that minimum is 1,256 signatures. If unchallenged by opponents of the advisory question and certified by the County Clerk, the question will appear on the ballot for Macoupin County voters this General Election.
The Christian County Board approved the referendum unanimously on Tuesday, July 17th.
The Coordinating Committee of the Montgomery County Board approved the referendum on Tuesday, July 31st. The full Montgomery County Board is set to vote on the referendum Tuesday, August 14th.
The National Rifle Association and the Illinois State Rifle Association support the placing of the referendum on the General Election ballot to give voters the opportunity to voice their opposition to gun control. Both organizations have encouraged their members to vote “No.”
I read a little story online a week or two ago that included a passage about how the state Republican Party was hoping to use these referendums to help beat back the “blue wave” in Downstate areas, but I forgot to save it and then couldn’t find it again. Oops.
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* A September, 2016 press release…
Governor Bruce Rauner today announced the state has reached a conclusion in the IDOT patronage hiring scandal that began under previous administrations. IDOT gave the remaining staff assistants layoff notices today.
“Our administration has put an end to the illegal patronage hiring that started under Blagojevich and continued under Quinn,” Governor Rauner said. “Since taking office, we have worked for taxpayers to ensure proper hiring at all of our state agencies. This is an additional step to restore citizens’ faith in state government so it works for them and not the political insiders.”
* Some of them are suing…
Attorney Don Craven says the eight workers suing Rauner eventually made their way into non-political jobs, but that didn’t save them.
He says their firing was political.
“This allegation is that these people were fired by IDOT because they’re Democrats and they refused to become affiliated with the Rauner administration,” Craven says. “That’s precisely what the first amendment says you can’t do — you can’t fire people because of their political affiliation.” […]
Asked for comment, the Rauner administration did not directly address the allegations in the lawsuit. Spokeswoman Patty Schuh says the administration has been “working hand-in-hand with the [Office of the Executive Inspector General’s] hiring monitoring unit and the court-appointed special master to clean up the corrupt political system created by previous governors.”
* From the lawsuit…
Defendant Rauner made comments that expressed his political animus to those individuals who supported Democrats or public-sector unions. Some of those comments were directed at some plaintiffs. […]
The real reason for the termination of these Plaintiffs was that they were employed by the prior administration (under then Governor Patrick Quinn who was a member of the Democratic Party) or that they refused to become affiliated with the Rauner Administration.
* Pretext…
Despite the long-standing policy of IDOT to review and update job descriptions of employees, at no time after their reassignments did supervisory personnel, or personnel in the Bureau of Personnel verify the accuracy of Plaintiffs’ job descriptions or update the job descriptions to more accurately reflect the work being assigned to each Plaintiff.
Defendants then used the job descriptions, which were intentionally allowed to become outdated as the pretense to terminate the employment of these Plaintiffs.
Discuss.
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Stop the presses!!!
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The most important Illinois election season in a generation is under way, and two of the state’s leading newsrooms are joining forces to help voters separate fact from fiction.
Beginning this month, the Chicago-based, nonpartisan government watchdog Better Government Association — the Illinois affiliate of PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking project — will publish its PolitiFact work exclusively with the Chicago Sun-Times.
* Trust me, I know all too well that political news is ultra-slow these days. It’s like pulling teeth out there.
But after a pretty good run, the BGA’s fact-checking is really going small-ball lately, despite its bold claim that we’re in “the most important Illinois election season in a generation.”
Remember its recent full-bore, no-snark investigation into an off-hand remark on a St. Louis radio station by Gov. Rauner’s lt. governor? They followed that barn-burner up with an oh-so-serious deep dive into an off-the-cuff remark by JB Pritzker’s running mate on a southern Illinois radio station.
And now this…
With the incumbent routinely calling into question the state’s ability to attract business, Pritzker recently tried the opposite tack in a video tweeted out by his campaign.
“We have the most educated, dedicated workforce in the entire nation and that is why businesses want to come here,” Pritzker says in the clip, which features footage of the candidate visiting offices, farms and classrooms.
Guess what? Illinois doesn’t have the most educated workforce in the entire nation. But since there’s no way to measure “the most educated, dedicated workforce,” the BGA chose to just skip over the word “dedicated.”
Anyway, I wonder how the governor’s campaign will respond to this revelation. Suggestions?
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* This is the second Trump family visit to the Metro East in recent days…
First Daughter, and adviser to the president, Ivanka Trump is set to visit Godfrey on Wednesday, the White House said.
Trump is scheduled to be at the Weber Workforce Development Center at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey where she plans to participate in a roundtable discussion with 10 to 15 people, including U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, according to the White House.
About 250 people are expected to be in the audience of the invitation-only roundtable, the White House said.
The visit is part of the president’s Council for the American Worker initiative, which was signed via presidential executive order in July.
* In other news, this can’t be helpful…
He’s running (perhaps not the best word in this context) against Mike Bost.
* Meanwhile, the organizers of this suburban event say they have close to 800 people attending, but haven’t been able to convince any media outlets to send reporters…
As the November election of 2018 quickly approaches the state of our healthcare remains a top issue that many people in the 6th District are very concerned about. The future of Medicaid and Medicare, saving and improving the Affordable Care Act, and women’s reproductive health – these are all issues that touch our lives, especially in light of the what will happen with our Supreme Court under a Trump administration.
On August 6th at 7 pm please join us for a 6th District Healthcare Forum at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. In addition to soliciting questions from you, the voters, we will be convening a panel of health care professionals from the 6th district to ask questions of the candidates running for office to find out their positions and ideas for what can be done to improve the health of all Americans.
* Related…
* Rep. Rodney Davis confronted with protesters during office hours: About a dozen protesters said Davis focuses too much on the party and not enough on the issues effecting people in his district. They said there is a lot of miscommunication between his office and voters because he doesn’t hold enough town hall meetings. “Well when you have a job that takes you three weeks out of the state every month, it’s hard to have them all the time,” Davis said.
* Hultgren to host town hall meetings throughout 14th Congressional District: U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren will host a series of town hall meetings in locations throughout the 14th Congressional District while the House of Representatives is in recess for the month of August.
* Why Republicans Aren’t Planning for the Coming Mueller Report: “I can tell you here, in middle America, the majority of people I know aren’t talking about it,” Illinois Representative Rodney Davis echoed.
* Nobama?: The six people endorsed in Illinois were among more than 80 Obama endorsements across 14 states announced last week. As for Londrigan not being there? A source familiar with the process said it is fluid, and there shouldn’t be any assumptions based on this round. Obama’s announcement did say those he listed were the “first wave” of his choices.
* VIDEO: 37 Questions with Lauren Underwood
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Christie throws Rauner under the bus
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos…
PUNDIT: But there have been Republican Governor’s in blue states, particularly in Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont, who have very high approval rating right now because they managed to put distance between themselves and Donald Trump –
CHRIS CHRISTIE: That’s not right.
PUNDIT: They pay attention to their states, and they haven’t got caught in this Trump trap.
CHRISTIE: That is not why they’re popular that they put distance between themselves and Donald Trump. They’re popular because Charlie Baker and Larry Hogan have worked with Democratic legislatures – wait a second – they’ve gotten things done –
PUNDIT: But they haven’t tied themselves to Trump.
CHRISTIE: Bruce Rauner has put great distance between himself and Donald Trump and he is not popular right now in Illinois and faces a really uphill race. That’s not the determining factor. Governors [races] are based, are decided on what they do in their states.
…Adding… Christie isn’t alone…
The Republican candidate for Illinois Attorney General pledges her independence despite Gov. Bruce Rauner’s endorsement.
Visiting the McLean County Fair Friday night, Erika Harold said she has many disagreements with the Republican governor, including his signing into a law a bill expanding taxpayer support for abortions to include women on Medicaid and state employee insurance.
“I support legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use. There are a host of other things that we disagree upon,” Harold said.
“For example, he’s talked about wanting to bring back the death penalty. I strongly disagree with that,” she added.
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* Dispatch-Argus…
[Rock Island County Republican Chairman Drue Mielke] is supportive of most Republican candidates running in the November election, including 17th Congressional district candidate Bill Fawell, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline.
“We support Fawell,” Mielke said. “I know he’s a Constitutionalist. In talking to him, I’ve heard him focusing on the issues of our district. There are a lot of things Bill Fawell could do for our district Cheri Bustos is choosing not to.”
* We discussed this guy Fawell back in May…
The Republican nominee for a US House seat in Illinois has said the September 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job and that singer Beyonce Knowles has ties to the Illuminati.
* It turns out, however, Fawell is a whole lot more bizarre than that…
Media Matters reviewed Fawell’s main Facebook page and found that he also pushed conspiracy theories about mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Orlando, FL; San Bernardino, CA; and Aurora, CO. He has also promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and claimed late Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was assassinated “for giving 44,000 DNC emails to Wikileaks.”
Fawell has repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Fawell has promoted material that claimed the shooting was a false flag and smeared late Sandy Hook Elementary principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, who died trying to protect students during the shooting. […]
Fawell has pushed conspiracy theories about tragedies including the June 2016 shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL; the December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, CA; and the 2012 shooting in Aurora, CO. […]
Fawell has repeatedly pushed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely holds that prominent politicians have trafficked children through the Washington, D.C., restaurant Comet Ping Pong. In December 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch went to the restaurant and fired a shot inside; he was later sentenced to four years in prison.
Fawell has said that there’s “nothing fake about Pizzagate” and the shooting at Comet was an “inside false flag job on a real live (sic) story the MSM is trying to cover up.” […]
Fawell has claimed that former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was assassinated for “giving 44,000 DNC emails to Wikileaks” and that former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chair John Podesta “ordered the hit.”
They’ve got the screenshots, so go take a look if you can stomach that sort of thing.
Despite all this, he’s backed by several county party organizations in his district, including Peoria, Whiteside, Joe Daviess and, of course, Rock Island.
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LIG sends Sauer case to county prosecutor
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The most interesting part about this story is that the Legislative Inspector General referred the case to his office…
Lake County prosecutors are investigating allegations former state Rep. Nick Sauer of Lake Barrington unlawfully posted nude photos of an ex-girlfriend on a fake Instagram account.
State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim confirmed Sunday his office’s special investigations division is handling the case. The ex-girlfriend initially filed complaints with the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois legislative inspector general’s office.
“We have the investigation,” Nerheim said. “We are coordinating with Chicago police.”
The inspector general’s office brought the complaint to the Lake County state’s attorney’s office, Nerheim added.
Sauer, by the way, has not yet officially withdrawn from his reelection bid as of 10:24 this morning.
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Rauner’s “culture” looks eerily familiar
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
I just about spit out my iced tea the other day when reading Gov. Bruce Rauner’s comments to Chicago reporters.
Rauner made his tea-spewing comments while responding to questions about now-former state Rep. Nick Sauer, R-Lake Barrington, who resigned on Aug. 1 after a woman alleged he’d used her nude photos to “catfish” men on Instagram. Rauner appointed Sauer to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board before Sauer ran for the House. During his campaign kickoff in 2015, Sauer said, “The governor is in my corner.” He was clearly Rauner’s guy, so he was fair game for questions.
The governor has repeatedly slammed House Speaker Michael Madigan for creating a culture of harassment in the Illinois House. Would Rauner admit that both parties have some blame? And would he take any responsibility for his past alliance with Sauer?
Nope.
“There is no culture that I’ve created,” Rauner said. “Madigan in the Legislature has created a culture of abuse.”
You’re not going to get an argument from me about the culture Madigan has created. It’s toxic, harmful and at times disgusting.
But I do have to say that the governor has adopted most if not all of the House Speaker’s tactics since almost Day One, when he met with Senate Republicans, pointed to the $20 million sitting in his campaign account and demanded that they vote for all 10 of his legislative priorities or they’d “have a f-ing problem” with him. Several Republican legislators were subsequently threatened with primary opponents if they didn’t toe the Rauner line, particularly during his fight for business reforms in exchange for a tax hike.
The governor appointed a House Republican to a sweet job at the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he quickly (and totally predictably) found himself embroiled in allegations of sexual harassment and was ousted.
Rauner appointed former Rep. Ken Dunkin, a rare Democratic ally, to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board and then feigned surprise when the South Side politician was accused of sexual harassment by the same woman whose harassment allegations took down Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes.
He attended an event in January when Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson handed out cash to people to help them pay their property taxes, then said he was shocked when Wilson did the same thing at an event the two men attended in July.
Rauner was even accused of violating a state law requiring gender balance on state boards and commissions after he packed the tollway board with Sauer and other men.
What we have is a man who has
Click here to read the rest before commenting, please. Thanks.
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* Lot of sizzle in this lede…
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political organization is again on the defensive — this time over possible links to an accused killer who was involved in a Democratic push to unseat the state’s top House Republican.
Politics and murder don’t typically intersect outside of fiction. But those themes came together in a southwest suburban legislative campaign to topple House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, one of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s top allies.
The Dems put the name of CBOT trader Michael Pelko, who lived in Leader Durkin’s district, on a petition challenge to a male Democrat, Tom Chlystek, running against fellow Democrat Elyse Hoffenberg.
The trader apparently had some local political ambitions, according to WBEZ. In mid-December, just days after filing the challenge, Pelko was busted in Will County on felony charges of retail theft and a misdemeanor charge of battery. A couple of weeks later, longtime DPI attorney Mike Kasper filed paperwork to withdraw Pelko’s challenge. Kasper was handling the challenge against Chlystek.
* Back to the story…
“Mr. Pelko was never affiliated with the 13th Ward organization or any of the speaker’s political organizations,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown told WBEZ. “Neither the speaker nor Alderman Quinn know Mr. Pelko.”
WBEZ’s evidence to contradict Brown included the fact that then-Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes inspected Democrat Chlystek’s petitions. But as I’ve already told you, Mapes inspected pretty much all petitions this cycle because the party was building a database of circulators. That database was then used by Local 150 of the Operating Engineers to make sure its circulators for third-party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann hadn’t passed any sheets for Democrats or Republicans before the primary.
Ms. Hoffenberg’s nominating petitions were notarized by Kevin Quinn, Ald. Marty Quinn’s infamous brother. Again, that was standard operating procedure in that part of the world before Quinn was forced out of his job. Rep. Marty Moylan gave her campaign $10,000 in early January, another strong indication of where the HDems stood.
So, yeah, it’s pretty clear that the HDems were backing Hoffenberg in an attempt to challenge Leader Durkin in the fall…
[Sen. Steve Landek, D-Bridgeview], a Madigan confidante and Lyons Township Democratic committeeman, said the order to challenge Chlystek’s nominating petitions came from the state Democratic Party, and the local political organization responded by suggesting Pelko as an objector.
Pelko’s only two political contributions, $400 each, were to Landek’s Bridgeview political organization.
* But it turns out that the trader is alleged to have killed a guy last year and he was charged in January…
A trader at the Chicago Board of Trade has been charged with shooting his longtime friend and leaving his body in the South Side Washington Park neighborhood last summer.
Izat Morrar’s body was found about 3:50 p.m. on July 20, 2017 in an alley in the 5300 block of South Calumet. He suffered two gunshot wounds to the head at close range, authorities said.
Oops.
* And then WBEZ turned to election law attorney Michael Dorf for comment. If you want some history between Dorf and Kasper/Madigan, click here. They’re not exactly buddies, and it shows…
Dorf said the lack of vetting in the Pelko case leaves a blemish on Madigan and the state Democratic Party, particularly given all of the upheaval that has existed this year as the speaker has been forced to clean house because of sexual harassment and bullying allegations within his inner circle.
“This is a huge embarrassment. This is the drip, drip, drip that’s just wearing away the stone. I can’t believe that if they were paying attention, they’d have allowed something like this to happen,” Dorf said.
I dunno. Dude is a CBOT trader, so he probably has some money and wants to get into local politics. They ask him for a favor. He complies. And then… KABOOM! The guy turns out to be an alleged murderer. Even his own family was shocked. I’m not sure what vetting woulda found.
* But Leader Durkin surely has to be bursting at the seams with schadenfreude this morning. The HDems went after him and wound up being connected to an alleged murderer.
*** UPDATE *** Rauner campaign…
Mike Madigan’s political organization is once again embroiled in scandal and controversy after it was revealed that top Madigan lieutenants assisted and collaborated with an alleged murderer, months after he committed the crime.
Instead of coming clean about unknowingly associating with a suspected killer , Madigan’s spokespeople denied any involvement with Michael Pelko’s petition challenge that aided a Democratic candidate in a legislative race. But WBEZ’s reportin g directly refutes their denials. Key figures in Madigan’s organization, including Tim Mapes and Kevin Quinn, assisted Pelko by reviewing the petitions at the center of his challenge. Longtime Madigan ally Michael Kasper represented Pelko before the State Board of Elections. It is just the latest example of questionable people working in and around Madigan’s operation.
Madigan’s political arm has repeatedly proven that they will do what is required to keep the Machine running and keep Madigan in power, even if it means misrepresenting the truth.
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Mass shootings overwhelm city
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* There are no words…
* Tribune…
The largest shooting, which injured eight people, happened in the South Side’s Gresham neighborhood as a group, including a 14-year-old girl, was standing in a courtyard just before 12:40 a.m.
The crowd had gathered after attending a funeral repass, said Fred Waller, Chicago police chief of patrol. […]
At 16th Street and Avers Avenue, people in lime green T-shirts from an annual block party in the West Side’s Lawndale neighborhood gathered on sidewalks and in streets after a shooting there around midnight. Crime scene tape crossed 16th Street east of Springfield Avenue and stretched far down the block past Penn Elementary School on the south side of 16th.
There, a 13-year-old boy was shot twice in the right arm. A car drove up to the gathering and two people got out and opened fire into the crowd, hitting two more teenagers and a 25-year-old man. […]
The youngest person hurt was an 11-year-old boy shot in the left leg on the West Side — also in the Lawndale neighborhood. He was on the sidewalk with five other people, including a 14-year-old boy, when two men came up to them and started shooting, police said.
* Sun-Times…
The heaviest amount of violence took place between midnight and 3 a.m., when 30 people were shot. Five mass shootings, in which three or more people were shot, accounted for 25 of the shooting victims during the three-hour span. […]
The aftermath of many of the shootings played out inside and outside the emergency room at Stroger Hospital where extended members and friends were prevented from entering as the staff dealt with the influx of trauma patients.
Visitation was limited to immediate family members, leaving dozens of people to mill about the parking lot outside the emergency room, where the sounds of crying, wailing and yelling could be heard every few minutes. Tempers occasionally flared. Nearly two dozen police officers huddled near the entrance to the hospital.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said one law enforcement officer stationed outside the hospital who’s seen similar scenes play out over two decades.
“It’s hot right now. There’s a lot of tension,” said the officer, who asked not to be named. “And it might get worse because you can hear people talking about revenge, saying on their cellphones ‘I know know who did it. You get him.’ ”
* WGN TV…
Dozens and dozens of families waited for word on shooting victims being treated at Stroger Hospital Sunday afternoon. Police blocked the emergency room driveway amid rising tensions.
“This hospital is almost like a trauma center in a war zone,” community activist Eric Russell said.
* CBS 2...
“It’s absolutely outrageous. It’s a state of emergency in our city,” Pfleger said Sunday in response to the series of mass shootings earlier in the day. “Someplace else in the country, the whole country would be talking about that this morning. All world news and national news would be talking about that. Four types of mass shootings going on in Chicago with those numbers, and it’s a weekend in Chicago, a rough weekend. No it’s not a rough weekend! It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s unacceptable.”
* July stats…
60 shot & killed […]
1 homicide-linked arrest
Emphasis added.
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The DPI has its work cut out for it
Monday, Aug 6, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Last month, Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago, was interviewed by Chicago Public Radio about his new role as interim executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Mitchell was asked at one point about what the state party planned to do to counter Dan Proft’s newspaper empire. Proft, a conservative activist and radio talk show host, operates about 40 news websites, from the Lake County Gazette, to Rock Island Today to the Carbondale Reporter. They all run stories with a decided tilt toward Proft’s favored Republican candidates, who are pro-life, anti-union and pro-gun. Proft receives millions of dollars from ultra-wealthy businessman Dick Uihlein (Proft’s Liberty Principles PAC reported receiving another $3.5 million just last week from Uihlein).
Rep. Mitchell called Proft’s papers “fake news,” and clarified that he didn’t mean to use the term the way President Donald Trump employs it to describe the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and other established national news outlets. Mitchell said his party intends to counter Proft’s pro-GOP, anti-Democratic Party messages with its own messaging.
I use Google to automatically track news stories published about every contested legislative race in the state, and for weeks now, maybe 90 percent of the coverage of all those candidates is coming from just a single information source: Dan Proft.
“Democrat Statehouse hopeful betting taxpayer-funded abortion, property tax hikes popular with DuPage voters,” was the headline on a July 23rd story in Proft’s DuPage Policy Journal about Terra Costa Howard, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard). After noting how many doors she’s been knocking on, the article went on to claim that Howard is “unabashedly touting far-left policies historically unpopular, if not anathema, to the upper-middle-class voters of her district.”
“Madigan spends $67K in July to boost West Chicago Democrat State House hopeful Villa,” another DuPage Policy Journal headline declared last week about in-kind contributions from the Democratic Party of Illinois, which is chaired by House Speaker Michael Madigan. Karina Villa is the Democrat running against Tonia Khouri in retiring GOP Rep. Mike Fortner’s district.
“Batinick opposes Universal Basic Income,” blared a Will County Gazette headline last month, touting the conservative policy position of targeted Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield). Another story in the same publication pointed to how Batinick’s Democratic opponent Mica Carnahan-Freeman received $66,800 in in-kind contributions from Speaker Madigan’s state party operation.
Appointed Democratic state Rep. Natalie Phelps Finnie’s Republican opponent received some favorable coverage the other day from Proft’s SE Illinois News publication. “Republican state House candidate Patrick Windhorst was impressed by Oliver North’s speeches during a recent tour of the area,” the story began, then went on to quote a Windhorst Facebook post. The story claimed that Windhorst is running on “a platform of greater fiscal responsibility and tax reform.”
Another story in the same publication is entitled “Windhorst vows to work for every resident of 118th House District,” and quotes directly from another Windhorst Facebook post. “As your state representative, I will work hard to ensure that every corner of the 118th is given the time and effort demanded by the position.”
They’re not exactly Pulitzer Prize contending articles, but they aren’t designed to do anything like that. The idea appears to be simply publishing flattering stories about the candidates Proft’s political organization supports.
Some stories are more interesting than others, though. One recent piece in the Metro East Sun chronicled Democratic state Senate candidate Brian Stout’s use of an anti-gay slur during a Facebook spat three years ago. Stout is running against the heavily favored Republican nominee Jason Plummer.
But many if not most stories are like this one from the Illinois Valley Times: “Illinois House Speaker and Democrat Party Chairman Michael J. Madigan (D-Chicago) has reported $43,433 in July contributions to Lance Yednock, a Democrat running for the Illinois State House of Representatives against incumbent Rep. Jerry Long (R-Streator).”
And there’s this recent lede in the Chicago City Wire: “Ammie Kessem argues that Rep. Robert Martwick’s actions are proof that he views voters in the 19th House District as second-class citizens.”
Yes, it’s only August. But almost all established local news outlets have slashed their budgets over the years, so their reporting on these races will undoubtedly continue to be sparse throughout the fall campaign.
And if a voter happens to use Google to find out what’s going on in his or her local legislative contests, that voter will be far more likely to be directed to one of Proft’s outlets than anywhere else. Rep. Mitchell and the Democrats have their work cut out for them on this particular front.
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