Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker announced the formation and members of the Healthy Children and Families Committee of the transition team at Children’s Home and Aid, the first social service agency JB visited while considering his run for governor.
The committee is the third of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Healthy Children and Families Committee will be chaired by state Sen. Heather Steans, Howard Brown Health President and CEO David Munar, and Children’s Home and Aid President and CEO Nancy Ronquillo and consist of 36 members.
“Our transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee will focus on how we should rebuild social services, identify ways we can help children and families build better lives, and expand health care in this state,” said Governor-elect JB Pritzker. “Over the last few years, state funding for community organizations was cut and families were no longer receiving the services they needed to thrive, but we’re going to reverse course. As governor, I’ll be their partner, and together, we’ll confront challenges head on so families and children can thrive.”
HEALTHY CHILDREN AND FAMILIES COMMITTEE MEMBERS
State Senator Heather Steans co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has represented the 7th district in the Senate since 2008. Steans chairs the Appropriations I Committee and the Special Committee on Oversight of Medicaid Managed Care, vice chairs the Appropriations II Committee and serves on the Executive, Environment and Conservation, Government Reform and Human Services committees. She has passed legislation to bring marriage equality to Illinois, reform the state’s Medicaid program, enact significant nursing home reform and improve the environment by reducing mercury waste, creating commercial composting capabilities and banning microbeads. She also passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 2018, making Illinois the 37th state to ratify it and secured the passage of legislation that ensures Illinois remains a state where women can safely and legally exercise their right to choose.
David Munar co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has served as president and CEO of Howard Brown Health since 2014. Munar has focused on ensuring the delivery of excellent patient services, strengthening finances and operations, and positioning the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ organization for long-term sustainability and growth. Prior to Howard Brown, Munar honed his career at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago where he held several positions, including president and CEO. He serves on the boards of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, AllianceChicago, AIDS United, and the Black AIDS Institute. In 2007, he helped launch a national coalition that led to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy unveiled by President Obama in July 2010.
Nancy Ronquillo co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has served as president and CEO of Children’s Home & Aid since 2001. Ronquillo has been a leader in the human services field for over four decades. She has served as the founding chair of Children’s Home Society of America and Illinois Partners for Human Service, an 800+ member statewide advocacy organization. Ronquillo was named American Business Woman of the Year and received the Woman of Distinction Award. She serves on both national and local boards, including the Children’s Home Society of America and National Veterans Arts Museum (NVAM). Ronquillo serves on the local boards of Chicago Thrive Leadership Council, Chicago Alliance for Collaborative Effort, Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management and Advisory Board and the Chicago Horse Center. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.
Lisa Morrison Butler, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services
Pat Comstock, Executive Director, The Health Care Council of Illinois
Deb Conroy, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Esther Corpuz, CEO, Alivio Medical Center
Chris Cox, Executive Director, Hoyleton Youth and Family Services
Ryan Croke, Executive Director, Illinois Centers for Independent Living
Risa Davis, Vice President of Corporate Development, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago
Andrea Durbin, President, Illinois Collaboration on Youth
Theresa Eagleson, Executive Director, University of Illinois, Office of Medicaid Innovation
Sara Feigenholtz, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
When Colorado voted in 2012 to legalize recreational marijuana, Gov. John Hickenlooper was against it.
To do something no other state had, in opposition of federal law, was a daunting task. Fast-forward six years and his perspective has changed.
“The things we most feared — a peak in teenage consumption, a peak in overall consumption, people driving while high — we haven’t seen,” Hickenlooper said Wednesday, speaking at a lunchtime event of the Economic Club of Chicago. “I’m not quite there to say this is a great success, but the old system was awful.” […]
He also recommended putting strict limits on edibles, going as far as restricting in each dose the allotted concentration of THC, the chemical that gets users high. He warned against overtaxing the drug and driving users back to the black market.
J.B. Pritzker says he supports legalizing recreational marijuana in Illinois, but the state of Iowa has no intention of doing the same right now. If Illinois legalizes it in the future, some in the Quad Cities worry about the drug making its way across the river into Iowa.
Illinois and Iowa are only 5 to 10 minute drives from one to the other if you live in or near the Quad Cities, so Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane thinks it is reasonable to assume the drug will make its way to his home state.
The case for treating pot like alcohol, with licensed retailers and minimum age requirements, has a good deal of logic behind it. But what’s the hurry?
The hurry is people like me have been waiting for this moment all of their adult lives. But, either way, it’s not like a bill is gonna pass in a day. This is too new for that to happen. If the process is indeed too rushed, then say something. Otherwise, sit down, Tribune.
For politicians, the chief appeals of allowing the legal sale and possession of cannabis for mere enjoyment is that (a) it would bring in revenue from taxes and fees, and (b) it would please an energetic constituency.
How about (c) it’s the right thing to do because it puts illegal drug cartels out of business, and (d) will create legitimate jobs where they do not currently exist? Just stop it, already.
* And Bruce Rushton wants to give Secretary of State Jesse White the responsibility of legalizing marijuana because his office does such a good job with drivers licenses…
Jesse White, master that he is in issuing driver’s licenses and plates at light speed, surely can do better than the legislature. For one thing, folks seem to trust him. For another, he understands customer service. He knows how to collect money. And he also, likely, wouldn’t want the job, given that he’s said he opposes recreational pot, which is all the more reason to appoint him state marijuana czar – never let someone who says they want to be a drug dealer become a drug dealer. So, let’s just hand it over to White and let him figure out the details. We could all be stoned by the Fourth of July, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Responding to concerns over allegations that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation paid millions for a stovepipe hat that may not have actually belonged to President Abraham Lincoln, State Senator and Legislative Audit Commission Co-Chair Jason Barickman and State Representative Tim Butler (R-Springfield) are calling for an audit to review the financial relationship between the foundation and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM).
“The foundation is asking the state for millions of dollars to cover the purchase of artifacts, including the hat that has been heavily scrutinized,” said Sen. Barickman. “Before we can make a decision on that, we need to better understand the financial connection between the foundation and the ALPLM, as well as what agreements are in place governing purchases made by the foundation.”
“Even after the Illinois House hearing, many questions still remain about the relationship of the Foundation with the Presidential Museum and the money which has been raised for this state agency,” said Representative Butler. “This audit will hopefully shed light on the operations of the foundation and help us plan a path forward to the goal we all desire: ensuring the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is a world-class institution.”
Barickman and Butler said that an audit of how state funds were spent will shed light on whether taxpayer money was misspent or mismanaged. The process may help determine if the foundation bought the famed hat from a former member of the board for $6.5 million without first authenticating its true origin.
The audit could also assess the merits of the acquisition of the $25 million Barry and Louise Taper Collection. The foundation secured a loan in order to purchase the pieces; however, a balance of more than $9 million remains. The loan is due in October 2019.
An audit resolution, SR2179 has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Barickman, and an identical resolution, HR1300, has been filed in the House by Rep. Butler. If either is passed by its chamber, the Auditor General will conduct an audit and report his findings to the Legislative Audit Commission.
I’d also like to see the loan itself looked into. Who provided it? What are the specific terms? How was it negotiated and by whom?
Thursday, Nov 15, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois’ clean energy economy is here but there’s still more we can, and must, do.
In 2016, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition championed passage of the bipartisan Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), the biggest clean energy breakthrough in the state’s history. From Carbondale to Peoria to Chicago and everywhere in between, FEJA is already building a new economy and reshaping Illinois’ energy landscape by reducing pollution, keeping energy bills affordable, and creating new jobs.
But there’s still more the General Assembly can do to make Illinois a leader in clean energy. That’s why earlier this year, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition launched “Listen. Lead. Share. A Conversation About Winning a Clean, Equitable Energy Future.”
Over the last 10 months, local residents, community leaders and businesses participated in 58 Listen. Lead. Share. events across Illinois to discuss how Illinois can:
• Put Illinois on a path to 100% renewable energy by 2050
• Achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2030
• Create sustainable and equitable job growth
• Reduce pollution from the transportation sector
The time to act is now, and together we must work exhaustively on economic policies that build on the success of FEJA, lift up all of Illinois, enact much-needed climate and health protections, and spur investment and job creation in the communities where they’re needed most.
Well. According to several sources, the bomb threat at the Capitol on Wednesday was prompted by a man named Tom who called the tourism desk to ask about visitors. The woman thought he said “bomb,” not Tom. #twill
* By the way, I asked the secretary of state’s spokesman why only the third and fourth floors were evacuated yesterday. I mean, couldn’t the would-be bomber (or, in this case, the Tomer) have been lying about where he placed the device?
I was told that these threats are taken on a case-by-case basis and it was “determined early on in this process that it was not a viable threat,” but that they nonetheless completed their due diligence.
I’m betting Tom asked about tours of the third and fourth floors.
* Back in high school, I was once put in charge of publicity for the annual school musical. I worked part-time at the town’s only radio station, so that was easy to deal with (and probably why I was handed the task). I met with the town’s newspaper publisher/editor and explained what I was doing and what I’d like and he said, “Where’s my ad?”
What?
“My newspaper ad. You want me to run a story you have to buy an ad.”
This is Chicago, after all, so even a billionaire’s campaign had to contend with a shakedown of sorts. A steady flow of vendors came knocking at the campaign’s doors, sometimes with outrageous offers, said Quentin Fulks, who oversaw the Pritzker campaign budget.
In one case, Fulks said an owner of a local publication, which he would not name, asked that the Pritzker campaign pay $300,000 to bankroll the individual’s personal book project that had nothing to do with the campaign or Pritzker.
“We told them ‘no’ for the book and they got mad. The same person owns a newspaper publication and ran some pretty negative stuff against us when we didn’t agree to publish,” Fulks said. “You can make a lot of political enemies when people think you have an unlimited budget and you have to tell them ‘no.’ People take that really personally, they feel offended.”
The Senate has voted to override a veto of legislation encouraging immigrants who are victims of crime to cooperate with police.
Senate President John Cullerton’s plan was approved 40-12 Wednesday. It would set a 90-day deadline for law enforcement officials to complete paperwork immigrants need for visas to stay in this country.
The Chicago Democrat says it’s prompted by an illegal sex trade which lures or forces girls and women from other countries to come to the U.S.
Federal law established the visas for cooperative victims. Cullerton says some law enforcement agencies delay completion or ignore it.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the proposal in August. He says setting a deadline could result in mistakes or perjury.
That was a pretty silly excuse by the governor to cover his politically motivated veto.
* The GOP was all about immigration this year and while it backfired in most of the suburbs, it did do the trick in some areas…
Voters in more than a dozen counties recently approved measures urging the state not to pass further gun control measures. And in several counties, the proposals added immigration to the mix.
Some of these ballot questions asked if their county should become a “sanctuary county” for gun owners. This language evokes the term “sanctuary cities,” including Chicago, which have immigration policies that clash with federal guidelines.
In Logan County, in the central part of the state, the ballot question linked immigration and gun control in an even more direct way. The question was a mouthful:
Shall Logan become a ’sanctuary county’ for all firearms unconstitutionally prohibited by the government of the State of Illinois, for everyone except for undocumented immigrants, in that Logan County will prohibit its employees from enforcing the unconstitutional actions of the state government.
Senate President John Cullerton said the legislative push, Senate Bill 34, is necessary because of complaints from immigration advocates that certain local state’s attorneys failed to ever fill out the forms, thus denying immigrants a chance at the visas. Cullerton was unable, however, to cite a specific instance.
“If the authorities don’t think the person qualifies because (they) didn’t cooperate they can say that in the report,” Cullerton said. “All this does is set a 90-day deadline for finishing the report … it closes a loophole in the process.”
Cullerton said Rauner rejected the proposal “over the summer, in the heat of an election campaign with immigration being a political buzzword.”
In his veto message, Rauner called the plan an “unfunded mandate” that would put additional strain on already-stressed law enforcement agencies, subjecting them to “significant liability, even for good faith efforts to certify. Requiring certification within a tight timeline but also subjecting law enforcement to perjury if a mistake is made is an unacceptably risky position to put law enforcement in.”
The bill gained steam from May, when it passed the Senate with 37 votes. The override motion succeeded yesterday with 40 votes.
“Just as lawmakers have come together to raise awareness and fight back against human trafficking, we came together to make sure the existing process works for these victims,” Cullerton said in a statement after the override. “This system was created to empower victims to come forward knowing they’ll be protected if they help us bring to justice the people behind these horrible crimes.”
The federal government in 2000 created special immigration visas for victims of human trafficking and other crimes — such as abduction, kidnapping, female genital mutilation, incest, murder, sexual assault and slave trade — who work with police.
“Immigrants should not be living in fear or hiding in the shadows. Teachers, business owners, social workers, childcare givers, police officers, firefighters, communities depend on them,” state Rep. Juliana Stratton, D-Chicago, said at a press conference prior to the Senate override. “We have to ensure that victims of crime feel safe reporting those crimes to the appropriate authorities regardless of citizenship and when crimes go unreported, the perpetrators of those crimes go unsolved, making communities less safe for the victims and less safe for everyone else.”
* Related…
* Cullerton: Trafficking victims deserve our help, not hateful rhetoric
The Senate has overturned a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner on a measure that would regulate so-called peer-to-peer car-rental businesses.
The vote Wednesday was 39-12 to require the companies to comply with the same safety standards and pay the same taxes as traditional rental-car companies.
Turo and Getaround are examples of businesses that provide online apps for people to rent cars from other people.
Republican Rauner says the measure is too restrictive and could “smother” growth of an innovative new industry. He suggested a rewrite of the regulations.
Illinois lawmakers are set to consider legislation this week that would limit the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals, a practice that has been shown to fuel drug-resistant bacteria that can be dangerous to humans.
On Thursday, the Illinois Senate’s Agriculture and Public Health committees are scheduled to hold subject matter hearings on a bill introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Daniel Biss that would further restrict antibiotic use on the nearly 20,000 Illinois farms with beef cattle, hogs or pigs.
Experts from the World Health Organization have for years warned that the routine use of antibiotics on animals that aren’t sick leads to drug-resistant bacteria that can have deadly consequences for humans.
Each year, millions of Americans get sick with antibiotic-resistant infections, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent study estimates that by 2050, drug-resistant bacteria could kill more people worldwide than cancer kills today.
…Adding… The hearing was postponed due to weather.
Meanwhile, lawmakers started moving a bill aimed at the Chicago mayoral race. A plan that cleared a House committee would open a special election for Cook County board president to more people if Toni Preckwinkle is elected mayor. Now, only Cook County commissioners could run for president if she won and left the board president job.
Also, lawmakers are trying to negotiate a compromise on dueling proposals aimed at companies such as Sterigenics in west suburban Willowbrook that emit dangerous ethylene oxide gas.
Separate bills from House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs and Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills would limit and eventually ban use of the chemical in Illinois. Lawmakers say they’re trying to come up with legislation by the end of the month.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate failed to override the governor’s veto of a measure that would remove the state from the Crosscheck voter registration system. But senators are expected to try again for an override. Democrats say the measure would help protect voter information, but Republicans say the extra check is needed to make sure voters aren’t also registered elsewhere.
Four years after an expert found that the Illinois Department of Corrections failed to provide adequate medical care to prisoners across the state, conditions are “either no better or in fact worse in 2018.” Most disturbing, the medical professionals who conducted a new examination in 2018 finds that the poor care is resulting in deaths that could be prevented. Dr. Mike Puisis and his team – in a damning report filed in federal court today – examined 33 deaths in IDOC facilities. They found that one-third – 12 deaths – were preventable. Another 7 were possibly preventable and the record-keeping in 5 cases were so poor or had missing documents so that the experts could not determine if the death was preventable.
The stories of the preventable deaths are heart-breaking. In one instance, a 24-year-old with mental illness swallowed two plastic utensils (two sporks). Despite being seen by medical personnel for symptoms including abdominal pain and the inability to eat, he went untreated. The patient lost more than 50 pounds and was hospitalized only after being found unresponsive, where he died. The utensils were discovered during an autopsy.
“We knew four years ago that prisoners in Illinois were subject to needless pain and suffering,” said Camille Bennett, staff counsel at the ACLU of Illinois. “This latest report shows that the lack of adequate care is lethal. Illinois must fix this problem.”
The report by Dr. Mike Pusis and a team of court-appointed experts was filed today in federal court as part of on-going litigation in Lippert v. Godinez, a lawsuit challenging medical care in the IDOC system. It builds on a report filed in 2015 (conducted in 2014) by Dr. Ronald Shansky and a team of medical experts.
“This report tells a remarkably ugly story,” added Harold Hirshman, Senior Counsel at the Dentons law firm and counsel in the case. “Once again, a carefully-drafted, professional report concludes that the quality of care provided to Illinois prisoners is atrocious and leads to death.”
Among other detailed findings, the new expert report criticizes DOC for not having enough qualified physicians. At Dixon Correctional Center, for example, 20% of the healthcare positions at the facility are vacant. Staffing shortages exist in every facility operated by IDOC.
The filing of the expert report is the latest development in Lippert, et. al, v. Ghosh.
Illinois moved closer to raising the minimum age to buy cigarettes, vaping devices and other tobacco products to 21 after the state Senate on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the plan. […]
Under the tobacco legislation, it would be illegal to sell tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, to anyone under the age of 21. Retailers who violate the law could be fined, but the state would no longer penalize those caught possessing tobacco while underage.
Chicago boosted the minimum legal tobacco age from 18 to 21 in 2016. Rauner this summer vetoed the plan to do the same thing statewide, but the Senate voted 36-19 on Wednesday to override him, sending the legislation to the House for final review. The 36-vote tally was the bare minimum supporters needed to override Rauner, and their success in the House is far from guaranteed.
The measure, which also raised the age to purchase vaping devices, would make Illinois the sixth state in the country to raise the age, which supporters believe will reduce the number of high school students who use tobacco products.
* One bit thing grand juries do is issue subpoenas. So this was bound to happen…
A downstate grand jury has subpoenaed records from Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office and at least two more state agencies as part of a criminal investigation into fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Quincy veterans’ home, WBEZ learned Wednesday.
Rauner’s administration surrendered copies of the Adams County grand jury subpoenas in response to a series of open-records requests.
The grand jury’s demand for Legionnaires’-related records tied to outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home went to the governor’s office and to the Illinois Departments of Veterans’ Affairs and Labor. Last week, WBEZ reported that the grand jury had also subpoenaed the state public health department.
The subpoenas, which went out Oct. 25, demand that Rauner’s administration turn over the documents by Thursday. No one has been charged with any wrongdoing relating to the outbreaks.
The subpoena sought a sweeping array of public health records about Legionnaires’ cases at the Illinois Veterans Home, where nearly 70 residents and staff have been sickened since 2015, with 14 deaths linked to the illness.
The query for records also sought information about, among other things, agency procedures for providing notice about Legionnaires’ at the facility and any communications by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and officials in other locales that have experienced big Legionnaires’ outbreaks, including Flint, Mich.
Illinois senators have rejected Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of legislation allowing for larger damage awards in lawsuits against the state.
Sen. Michael Hastings is the sponsor of the measure which would raise the $100,000 limit on damage awards to $2 million. The Orland Park Democrat and military veteran noted the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Quincy veterans’ home where 14 residents have died in the past three years. Families of several deceased victims have filed lawsuits against the state.
Hastings contended that the administration fell short in preventing the problem and notifying the public about what was happening. Rauner has repeatedly said his staff did everything it could and followed national experts’ advice.
Rauner rewrote the bill in an amendatory veto and suggested a $300,000 limit.
The silliest lament we’ve heard this week, from the editorial page of the other big Chicago paper, is that the failure of Chicago and Illinois to win Amazon HQ2 was a repeat of the state’s failure to win Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer now building a plant across the border in Wisconsin.
As if any sensible person cannot see by now what a bad deal Wisconsin struck to get Foxconn — and how lucky Illinois was to lose that bidding war.
The real lesson of Foxconn, worth remembering as we consider what else Chicago and Illinois could have done to win Amazon HQ2, is that there’s a limit to how much a community or state should give away in return. At some point, all those tax breaks and financial incentives become a burden on the local taxpayer, a drag on the local economy and cancel out the value of whatever jobs are gained.
We don’t yet know why Amazon took a pass on Chicago, though it’s pretty clear one big negative was our state’s dysfunctional government during the tenure of Gov. Bruce Rauner. It is telling that the last big question Amazon executives put to officials in New York — the governor and the mayor — before awarding Queens a part of the HQ2 prize was whether they could stop bickering long enough to see the project through.
But to the extent that this was about money, with the subsidies of $2.25 billion offered by Illinois and Chicago falling short, so be it. A prudent city and state, confident in their many strengths — excellent universities, a top international airport, a superb workforce and the like — can’t just write bigger and bigger checks.
The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per-job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press release calculation.
Amazon’s statement contains a classic example of cost-benefit apples and oranges. Citing only one New York State incentive, it says the sum ‘equates to $48,000 per job for 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000…’ Of course, wages cannot be compared to tax breaks since employees pay only a small percentage of their salaries as taxes to offset the tax breaks. And the cost per job in New York is actually at least $112,000 but that is not a full accounting.
* Rep. Art Turner just gave notice to the House chambers to evacuate the third and fourth floors of the Statehouse “immediately.” Senators were also told to leave. Stay tuned.
…Adding… The bomb squad and Springfield K9 are reportedly at the Capitol Complex.
* Outside the north entrance…
..Adding… Yikes…
HAPPENING NOW: Bomb sniffing dog is being escorted into the House. Both chambers have been evacuated after receiving a bomb threat. pic.twitter.com/nAprGz7zV5
Secretary of State's spokesman Dave Druker says a bomb threat was called into a legislative office for the fourth floor of the Capitol. Authorities are searching the fourth floor. House and Senate, with chambers on third floor, have recessed and evacuated.
*** UPDATE *** An “all clear” has been given for the entire building. The SoS office says the threat was called into the tourism office on the first floor about a bomb on the 4th floor.
* Inauguration day for governors is the second Monday of January. The General Assembly’s official start date is the second Wednesday of January. January starts on a Tuesday next year, so the second Monday is the 14th. The legislature’s second Wednesday is the 9th. That means Gov. Rauner, and not JB Pritzker, will be presiding over the Senate on the 9th when its members are sworn into office and elect its president…
Senate Democrats met last night and decided to re-elect John Cullerton as Senate President. The official vote on the Senate floor won’t happen until January 9th. For a brief moment, @GovRauner will preside over the State Senate, as instructed by the state Constitution.
The oddest Senate swearing-in I ever saw was in 2009, when Gov. Rod Blagojevich presided over the chamber after he’d already been impeached by the House and just a few weeks before the Senate removed him from office.
* The Question: Any snarky predictions for the Senate ceremony on January 9?
Sneed has learned that mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza has chosen Kathy Byrne, the daughter of former mayor Jane Byrne, to be the chairperson of her campaign.
Reached by phone, Kathy Byrne said, “I am thrilled that Susana chose me for this job. And I look forward to working for the second woman who may become mayor of Chicago. I’ve been impressed with her for a long time. I’ve watched her performance. She has got some strength [to stand up] against all the bullyboys, and I look forward to fighting on her behalf for the people of Chicago.”
* Garry McCarthy…
The voters have been duped again as another ‘Machine Democrat,’ Susana Mendoza, following the lead of her Democratic Party boss, Toni Preckwinkle, just got elected to one position, but now wants another. Both are entering the mayor’s race after Rahm Emanuel dropped out. My question is, where was their commitment and courage when Rahm was still in the race?
Um, if she’s “following the lead” of her party boss, wouldn’t she stay out of the race?
* Paul Vallas…
Susana Mendoza’s assertion that she fought Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to drastically raise city sticker prices is absurd. As news stories earlier this year by WBEZ and ProPublica painfully show, Mendoza pushed a draconian city sticker penalty program that led to the financial ruin of thousands of Chicago’s neediest families. While she proclaims herself the enemy of bullies, she seems most adept at bullying Chicago’s most disadvantaged into bankruptcy court.
Ouch.
* ILGOP…
“Before the election last Tuesday, Susana Mendoza was disingenuous and mislead the public when she said she was focused on her race for Comptroller. A leaked campaign video revealed she was already planning on running for Mayor. Now Mendoza says she’s concerned about high taxes, but she spent a decade in Springfield working with Mike Madigan to raise taxes on hardworking, middle-class families. The last thing the City of Chicago needs is another self-serving politician like Suzana Mendoza.” - ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider
When he first decided to run for Illinois Secretary of State, Grundy County State’s Attorney Jason Helland planned to run a fiscally responsible campaign. He purchased a used Ford Crown Victoria from the Elgin Police Department for $600 with every intention of driving it until it died.
And it did die, at the Love’s Truck Stop in Utica, one night in January as he was heading out to a State of the Union watch party in Henry County. Helland said he opened the hood to see a spark plug sitting on top of the engine.
“I wanted to prove to the taxpayers of the state of Illinois that you need to live within your means and government needs to live within its means and I was driving that car to prove that,” he said.
He was stuck, not even his wife would pick him up. He soon bought a new Ford Fiesta, but even that broke down by election night.
Looks like he was proved wrong about living within your means, especially since not even his own wife would pick him up.
By the way, Helland, who lobbed several ageist attacks against Jesse White, lost his home county to the incumbent by about 1,200 votes.
Because thousands of Democratic votes were miraculously found in Florida’s heavily Democratic Broward County after polls were closed on Election Day.
The Republican candidate for Senate, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, had the votes to declare victory. On Tuesday night. And Republican Ron DeSantis, the candidate for governor, had the votes to win. On Tuesday night.
But after Wednesday morning, and with those thousands of votes coming in, things changed. […]
Ballots were found in abandoned boxes and other mysterious places. And ballots that were supposed to be kept separate from other ballots were mysteriously mixed together.
Further, Rubio shared the account of a lone box labeled “Provisional Ballot Box” left at a county elementary school that served as a polling precinct. But the reporter who originally flagged the abandoned box later walked it back, citing another local reporter who tweeted a photo showing the apparent container filled with little more than supplies.
On Friday, the three-person canvassing board — on which Snipes usually sits — found about 20 of those 205 votes had mismatched signatures and declared them illegal. That means there are at least 20 illegal votes mixed into an anonymous pile of 205, all sitting in a machine that counted them but did not add them to the final count. […]
Republican Party lawyers immediately pressed Snipes about the future of those 205 votes and if they’d be counted. Snipes declined to answer and continued judging signatures on remaining ballots. There is no statute guiding what happens next. [Emphasis added]
Ugh. 185 legitimate voters may now be disenfranchised because of that stupid error.
* Florida is a weird and goofy place and I ain’t gonna ever defend it. I only bring all this up because his entire “On Tuesday night” premise is just flat-out ridiculous and even dangerously undemocratic. Election outcomes aren’t decided on Tuesday night. Outcomes are officially decided when all the votes have been counted by the deadline day. In Illinois’ case, that deadline is next Tuesday.
And as you can see by looking at the far right hand side of this website, Sen. Mike Connelly is now trailing his Democratic opponent by 512 votes. “On Tuesday night” Connelly was leading by 12. Should Connelly have been declared the winner “on Tuesday night”? Absolutely not. Hundreds and hundreds of legitimately cast ballots hadn’t been counted “on Tuesday night.”
Why weren’t they counted? Well, people are humans and they need sleep “on Tuesday night” is one reason. Some mailed-in ballots postmarked by the deadline hadn’t (and some still haven’t) arrived is another. Provisional ballots hadn’t (and some still haven’t) yet been determined to be valid.
If you click here, you’ll see the remaining ballots left to be counted in every Illinois election jurisdiction. They have another six days to figure this out.
Robert Werderich used to pay the property taxes he owed for operating his Illinois Aviation Academy out of space he rents from the DuPage Airport Authority.
But he stopped paying years ago, which explains why his company now owes $187,937 in back taxes to 13 taxing bodies, including the airport itself.
Werderich is exploiting a loophole in the state property tax law that fails to penalize tenants operating businesses on government property who ignore property tax bills because the property can’t be seized for noncompliance. […]
Werderich is among at least seven current or former tenants of the airport that owe nearly $770,000 in back taxes, according to property tax sale information released by DuPage County Treasurer Gwen Henry.
The tax sale is where delinquent property taxes are purchased by investors who will either receive interest from the property owner to clear the debt or — after a couple years of nonpayment — be allowed to claim the deed on the land. However, Henry said, no one wants to buy the tax debt for the airport tenants because they can never claim the deed because it’s government land.
There’s also no mechanism to force the tenants to pay the tax obligation.
And if it’s happening there, you gotta wonder if it’s happening elsewhere.
* I’ve told you about my friend Rob Werden several times…
Rob is a farmer, sportsman, entrepreneur, former high school agriculture teacher, current director of the Madison County Career and Technical Education System and a very good friend of mine who was born and raised in rural Madison County.
As we’ve already discussed, Rob ran for Madison County Regional Superintendent this year to replace retiring incumbent Bob Daiber. You’ll recall that Daiber ran for governor as a Democrat.
Wednesday, Nov 14, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Direct Energy is a proud supporter of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH). Since Direct Energy’s relationship with CMNH began in 2015, the company has donated $116,300 to Lurie Children’s Hospital. In addition to funds, employees from Direct Energy’s Buffalo Grove and Oak Brook offices have volunteered at the Hospital and its outpatient centers.
In January, the Chicago-area offices help Lurie celebrate National Reading Day with a book donation. In the past two years, Direct Energy has donated more than 200 books.
Lurie Children’s is just one of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Direct Energy supports across North America. For the company’s support, CMNH inducted Direct Energy into the Miracle Millions Club, the international recognition program for corporate partners that raise more than $1 million annually.
According to the Illinois State Police, which is in charge of the labs that process evidence, the average time to process DNA evidence for all cases, including sexual assaults, is 285 days. They do not track average processing times specifically for rape kits, but for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2,079 sexual assault and abuse cases were awaiting analysis, and 586 of these had been received between 181 and 365 days earlier.
In 2010, Illinois was the first state to enact a law requiring that all rape kits be tested, and in the years since, forensic scientists have worked their way through the influx of kits at labs. In August, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation requiring hospitals to have nurses trained to collect evidence, which advocates say will improve evidence and bolster prosecutions. […]
The Illinois commission modeled its proposal on a system being piloted in Michigan. There, the state began a tracking system in one county in August and is working toward a statewide launch. Michigan law mandates a 90-day turnaround time if the lab has adequate resources and personnel. In the last year, evidence was processed in an average of 84 days. Michigan’s system costs about $700,000 per year, including technical upkeep and a 24/7 help desk to assist with any technical issues as people try to access updates. […]
Arlene Hall, commander of Illinois State Police’s Forensic Sciences Command, hopes to quicken the pace of processing, ideally to within six months. She said labs are always evaluating how to improve, including the use of robotics to automate more processing. As of June, ISP had 63 forensic scientists working on DNA testing, below the 81 needed to address new cases and reduce the backlog, according to ISP’s annual report. Hall said ISP plans to hire five more forensic scientists in December.
One of the things I discussed with JB Pritzker last week was this “hollowing out” of state government for the past decade or more. Before he runs ahead with new programs, he needs to get everybody else up and walking and eliminate or reduce programs that are soaking up precious resources.
Testing rape kits should simply not take this long. It’s an abdication of responsibility and duty.
* Meanwhile, I love that these good folks are doing this and you should definitely head over there today and buy some tasty treats, but the plight of homeless veterans and their families is yet another responsibility that the government isn’t doing enough about…
House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also chairs the Democratic Party of Illinois, gave indication on Tuesday that Democratic leaders will present a unified front.
He told reporters he’s had several “very friendly and very productive” conversations with Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker since last week’s election, and that he backs two of Pritkzer’s major campaign promises – legalizing marijuana, and moving from a flat to a graduated income tax. […]
Madigan helped to draft the current constitution, which forbids taxing on an income-based sliding scale; it would be difficult to amend the state constitution without his muscle.
It should come as little surprise that the two are in sync; finance records show Pritkzer gave $7 million to Madigan’s campaign committees, funding that helped Madigan achieve the supermajority.
Madigan said he believe Pritzker would pursue the marijuana and tax platforms he campaigned on. Pritzker believes taxes on legalized marijuana could bring in $700 million to $1 billion a year.
For Republicans, there is a cautious optimism about Pritzker’s promise of bi-partisanship.
“I spoke to him last week and I had a very nice conversation with him on election night and I’ll have to take him at his word, and so we will, like anything else I’ll operate in good faith until I’m shown otherwise,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin, House Republican Leader. […]
The same could not be said about the relationship between Speaker Madigan and Governor Rauner who was asked how he thought Rauner would be remembered.
“Oh, I’m not going to get into that, I’m just happy that he’s leaving,” Madigan said.
* Related…
* Barickman: Republicans Split On Legalizing Marijuana: “Republicans are split on this issue,” Barickman said. “There are certain Republican voters who are opposed to any form of legalization, including medical, which is the law of the land in Illinois. They’re opposed for a host of reasons, and I’m very respectful of that. I hear that. I’m not dismissive of their opposition. I’ve also heard from Republican party chairmen to tea party activists to plain old Republican voters who say, look, tax and regulate it. That’s the proper role of government on this one,” he added. “So there’s a group of Republicans who support the position I’ve staked out here.”
* Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker gives $7 million to House Speaker Michael Madigan-backed campaign fund: “It was probably a third of what was spent” on House races, Brown said. “We had a broad array of candidates — very good candidates — up and down the state and it helped up and down the state.” “You had this constant array of smears from the Rauner people and all their different allies, and you had to combat that,” Madigan said, referring to Gov. Bruce Rauner, who along with other Republicans painted the longtime speaker as the poster child for the state’s troubles.
The Abe Lincoln in Springfield on Tuesday was definitely a fake.
The jury is still out on Abe’s beaver-fur stovepipe hat.
But the dwindling patience of state lawmakers was very real.
A Lincoln impersonator helped kick off the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session when he appeared before the House tourism committee along with officials of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Foundation.
It was all part of an attempt to get state funds to help preserve artifacts connected to the 16th president and to remind state lawmakers that Lincoln’s legacy should extend beyond the controversial stovepipe hat.
“I commonly have carried my notes in my hat, but that appears to be a contentious issue right now so I shall forbear it,” the impersonator, Randy Duncan, said before reading his introductory statement.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum staffers who testified before the House Tourism Committee said it would be a “tragedy” if the loan isn’t repaid and the Lincoln memorabilia in the Taper collection had to be sold at auction.
Some skeptical lawmakers, however, said there needs to be greater oversight of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and that the case still hasn’t been made for the state to pay off the remaining $9.2 million owed on the loan to acquire the collection.
“I think we still have questions on how the foundation is going to move forward in paying down the debt,” Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, said after the hearing. “Certainly no plan was presented today.”
He said that “given the questions surrounding not just the history of the hat but the whole operations of the foundation,” it’s a “hard ask” of state government to provide the money to pay off the loan.
Although the loan isn’t due until October, time is of the essence. Foundation executive officer Carla Knorowski said a decision will have to be made by the end of December on whether to proceed with auctioning off additional parts of the collection. Some items not connected to Lincoln or which were duplicated have already been auctioned. She said that even those few items required a lead time of several months for the auction house.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office says it supports a “vibrant” Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum but wants more information before committing state money toward $9 million owed on a collection of 1,500 Lincoln artifacts. […]
The foundation wants $5 million in tourism tax funds to encourage other contributors. Foundation CEO Carla Knorowski told a House committee Tuesday that Rauner’s office had committed the money last spring but backed off.
Rauner spokeswoman Elizabeth Tomev says the governor’s office asked for a detailed business plan and other debt-repayment information. She says, “We continue to work to gather relevant information.”
I dunno, maybe lawmakers could think about a loan? That way, nobody is rewarded for alleged bad behavior, but the entire collection is kept in-state.
Susana Mendoza launched her campaign for Mayor of Chicago this morning, committing to a vision that invests in the future of Chicago and its neighborhoods.
A fiscal watchdog and fierce proponent of government transparency, Mendoza has spent the past two years leading the resistance against Governor Bruce Rauner while expanding government transparency and cutting the state’s bill backlog in half as the twice-elected Illinois Comptroller. Her campaign released a video Wednesday morning announcing her candidacy.
“Chicago is so many things: gritty, hardworking, welcoming,” Mendoza says in the video. “It’s a city of neighborhoods, of all kinds of people. And it must become the city of the future.”
In addition to her work as Comptroller, Mendoza has a long record of public service as a state representative in the Illinois Legislature, where she wrote and passed legislation that saved the jobs of 3,000 teachers who would have lost them due to antiquated immigration rules and created the Illinois School Breakfast Program. As Chicago City Clerk, Mendoza modernized the city’s 105 year-old sticker program so people would not have to wait in line for hours and fought Mayor Emanuel’s efforts to dramatically raise city sticker prices.
Mendoza, 46, was born in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood but at age 7 her family was forced to move after someone was murdered on their block.
“My parents were like so many parents traumatized by gun violence every day in this city,” Mendoza said. “They felt like they had to leave. No family should have to leave their city because their neighborhood isn’t safe.”
After graduating from college, Mendoza moved back to Little Village because she wanted to make a difference there for other families. She was elected to six terms, representing the Southwest side district in the Illinois House of Representatives.
“What happens in any neighborhood, what happens anywhere, affects all of us everywhere,” Mendoza said. “Every parent in Chicago should be able to expect that when they send their child to a neighborhood school, they will get a good education and, most importantly, they’ll come home safely.”
Mendoza certainly understands the importance of safe neighborhoods and a quality education. She and her husband, David, currently live in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood with their 5-year-old son who attends a neighborhood Chicago Public School. And they know what it’s like to get a big property tax hike in the mail.
“The job of mayor isn’t for a caretaker or someone who protects the status quo,” Mendoza said.
“Every Chicagoan deserves a mayor who every waking moment, every day asks herself one fundamental question: Did I do enough?”
“This election is about the next generation, not just the next four years.”
