* These guys don’t mess around. And now I’m curious what the next escalation is gonna look like…
Gov. Pritzker and AG Raoul Issue Statements on Sterigenics
Stress Risks to Health and Safety of Willowbrook Residents of Continuing Litigation
Statement from Governor JB Pritzker:
“Leader Durkin and other local leaders in the General Assembly were the drafters of Senate Bill 1852, the legislation that imposes the strongest controls on ethylene oxide in the nation. My office made it clear to the legislators that I was – and remain – willing to sign the strongest possible legislation that they can pass. I share the community’s concerns and their health and safety is my top priority. This morning, I spoke with Leader Durkin and I emphasized, based on conversations with the Attorney General, the potential danger to the health and safety of the residents of Willowbrook involved in further litigation, which would not have achieved the same level of protection as the consent order. Leader Durkin seemed to indicate that there were deficiencies in the legislation written by himself and other local leaders in the General Assembly that helped inform the consent order. At this time, the only option remaining is for Leader Durkin to propose new legislation that will fix the perceived shortcomings of the legislation that he sponsored and worked to pass. I made it clear to Leader Durkin this morning that, if he requests it, I will call a special session of the legislature to allow for an immediate vote on a bill that is constitutional and will fix the perceived shortcomings of the legislation he previously sponsored.”
Statement from Attorney General Kwame Raoul:
“As Attorney General, it is my responsibility to enforce laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly, and I applaud Leader Durkin, Rep. Mazzochi, Sen. Curran, and all the lawmakers who worked diligently to craft and pass the strict standards in Senate Bill 1852. The consent order my office filed jointly with the DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin imposes every emissions reduction requirement of the new law and goes further. Under the new law, emissions reduction requirements are not effective until Dec. 18 – under the consent order, Sterigenics will not be able to reopen until it is able to meet those requirements. The suggestion that continuing the litigation over the seal order would provide greater protection to residents is inaccurate and uninformed. The very real risk that continued litigation could result in Sterigenics being able to reopen before installing any new emissions controls – while still operating under its existing permit that authorized it to emit 36,400 pounds of EtO per year – was unacceptable. The new law imposes new certification requirements, but, through litigation, Sterigenics attempted to exploit a loophole in the law to avoid those requirements. Through the consent order, we eliminated that loophole. Sterigenics will now always be subject to the certification requirements that area legislators insisted be included in the law. The final result is that, combined with the Matt Haller Act, the consent order ensures that Sterigenics will not reopen unless and until it installs new emissions controls that will reduce its emissions to no more than 85 pounds of EtO per year. Our office has met with legislators, local officials, and representatives from the community to explain how the consent order implements current law and provides additional enforcement tools, and we will continue to address questions.”
…Adding… These folks have not been happy with Pritzker over the Sterigenics consent order, but they’ve bought into the governor’s move here…
*** UPDATE *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
As I told Gov. Pritzker today, the legislation supported by the Illinois Environmental Council is not the problem. Unfortunately, Gov. Pritzker and his regulators are willing to fast track the reopening of Sterigenics by entering into a settlement agreement with the corporate polluter to lift the seal order. If the Governor is not happy with the legislation he signed into law, I recommend he introduce his own legislation in the General Assembly and call a special session to take it up for consideration.
I stand by my legislation which was signed into law by the Governor.
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Goodwill president resigns
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sen. Andy Manar told me this evening that he and Sen. Julie Morrison told Land of Lincoln Goodwill today “we were ready to use our committee subpoena authority for their records”…
Today, Sharon Durbin, President & CEO of Land of Lincoln Goodwill submitted her resignation to the Board of Directors. The Board accepted her resignation, which is effective immediately. The Board also appointed Ron Culves, current Vice President of Finance, as the nonprofit’s interim CEO.
Land of Lincoln Goodwill’s Board is strongly committed to our mission, to our 400 employees and to those individuals with disabilities, veterans, at-risk youth, ex-offenders and those seeking job training assistance that we serve. The Board fully intends to seek out a strong, compassionate leader for our Goodwill organization who can energize our employees, expand our mission and who can provide the mission-driven leadership necessary to positively impact thousands of lives each year in central Illinois.
Goodwill’s Board of Directors thanked Sharon for her 13 years of service to the organization, noting her many accomplishments and the overall growth of the nonprofit and the number of people served during her tenure.
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* The committee’s name is Jeanne for Congress…
…Adding… DCCC…
Remember how we said Evelyn Sanguinetti’s week couldn’t get any worse after she got outraised 7-to-1 by Rep. Casten in her first fundraising quarter? Apparently we were wrong.
After weeks of speculation, far-right conservative Jeanne Ives officially filed for Congress today in the 6th District – apparently Sanguinetti’s paltry fundraising haul couldn’t scare her off.
After Sanguinetti’s ticket barely survived a brutal challenge by Ives in the 2018 Republican primary, expect another toxic race to the conservative fringes this cycle in a district that President Trump lost by seven points. Sanguinetti has already endorsed President Trump’s re-election, so who knows to what extremes Ives will drag her to over the course of a contentious primary.
“Today’s announcement sets the stage for a brutal race to the conservative extreme in the 6th District between a floundering Evelyn Sanguinetti and a far-right wing Jeanne Ives,” said DCCC spokesperson Mike Gwin. “While Ives and Sanguinetti battle it out over who can bear-hug President Trump the hardest, Sean Casten will remain focused on delivering for middle-class Illinois families by working to keep down the cost of health care and lowering taxes for homeowners.”
…Adding… Sun-Times…
In a statement the Sanguinetti campaign said, “We welcome Jeanne to the race and look forward to showing why Evelyn is the conservative with the best chance to beat Casten.”
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State to replace federal Title X funding
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s…
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is prepared to forgo more than $3 million in federal funds following the Trump administration’s Monday announcement that it will begin enforcing grant restrictions.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ new rule bars family-planning clinics that perform abortions, or refer patients for abortions, from accepting federal family-planning program funds known as Title X. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided not to block the administration from enforcing the so-called gag rule.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois has been preparing for such a rule since President Donald Trump took office, spokeswoman Julie Lynn said.
“There are emergency funds in place, but they won’t be around forever,” she added. “And private donations would never be able to supplement what we’re able to provide with Title X.”
* Center Square…
State Rep. Allen Skillicorn, R-East Dundee, said he expects that to see more state funding for Planned Parenthood of Illinois after Democrats passed a number of policies to protect abortion rights. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he wants Illinois to be the most progressive state for reproductive rights.
* Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker announced Thursday that the State of Illinois will refuse to implement the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule. The gag rule holds hostage federal funding for contraception for low-income women unless providers refuse to refer or provide abortion services along with other reproductive health care.
The State of Illinois will forgo Title X funding from the federal government while the gag rule remains in effect. Instead, the Illinois Department of Public Health will provide funding to the current 28 grantees, an estimated $2.4 million in federal funding, if the gag rule remains in place for the duration of the fiscal year. As we move forward, the state remains committed to the multi-state lawsuit to permanently overturn this damaging rule.
“President Trump’s gag rule undermines women’s health care and threatens the providers that millions of women and girls rely on, and we will not let that stand in the state of Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Under my administration, Illinois will always stand with women and protect their fundamental right to choose. While I’m committed to bringing as many federal dollars to the state as possible, I refuse to sacrifice our values and allow vital care to lapse. In this state, we trust women to make their own health care decisions and will guarantee access to reproductive health care for all of our residents.”
Title X provides a holistic portfolio of critical preventive health services, including HIV prevention and testing, breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment, and reproductive health care for thousands of low-income, uninsured and underinsured Illinois residents and families each year. It’s estimated in Illinois that nearly 773,000 women of reproductive age are in need of publicly supported contraceptive services and supplies.
…Adding… Colleen Connell, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois…
We applaud Governor JB Pritzker for his announcement that the State of Illinois will use state funds to cover health care previously supported by Title X funding from the federal government.
The Governor’s action today protects thousands of women from Zion to Carbondale – and everywhere between in Illinois – who depend on health care funded by Title X funds. Local health departments, health centers, school-based health centers, Planned Parenthood clinics and hospitals all rely on these funds to insure their patients have access to a full range of health care. These caregivers provide critical treatment for many, and reduce incidents of unintended pregnancy across our state. In other words, they provide patient-centered care.
Ignoring the real need for this health care for Illinois women, the Trump Administration has politicized this life-saving health care, placing unnecessary and dangerous restrictions on how grantees under Title X can utilize this funding. We thank Governor JB Pritzker for acting swiftly to protect all women in Illinois – ensuring that the same level of funding for women’s health care will be available in the Land of Lincoln without the strings attached by Donald Trump.
As we cheer this step forward in our state, we will not cease resisting the Trump Administration’s efforts to trade women’s health care for partisan political support. In the courts and in the Congress, we will continue to advocate for removing the limits on how doctors and nurses provide health care. This dangerous policy must be reversed.
…Adding… Jennifer Welch, President and CEO Planned Parenthood of Illinois…
We are grateful to Governor Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ezike for their decision to not accept Title X family planning funding as long as the ‘gag rule’ is in place. The relationship between a patient and their doctor is based on trust and honesty; the gag rule violates that trust and puts patients’ health at risk. Governor Pritzker is, once again, standing up to the Trump-Pence administration because access to health care such as cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and other family planning services should be available to anyone who needs them regardless of their ability to pay.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is committed to providing every patient who walks through our doors with the information and care they need to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. We are glad that the Illinois Department of Public Health is joining Planned Parenthood of Illinois in rejecting the grant because the gag rule is unethical. We look forward to working with the Governor’s office to ensure everyone in Illinois has family planning services available to them, no matter what.
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Sterigenics blowback
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
Attorneys for the victims who have been sickened because they lived close to Sterigenics, a Willowbrook medical equipment sterilization company, spoke out on Thursday after the Attorney General’s Office and the DuPage County State’s Attorney submitted a consent order agreement with Sterigenics in the Dupage County Circuit Court that could allow Sterigenics to reopen its doors for the first time since being shut down on February 15.
The reopening was agreed upon by the Attorney General’s Office despite strong push back from the community and elected leaders. Sterigenics was shut down after authorities found it has long been emitting dangerous levels of the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide, used to sterilize medical equipment. Medical professionals agree and studies have shown that there is no safe level of ethylene oxide.
“This $300,000 slap on the wrist that the Attorney General’s Office has negotiated to repay the people of Willowbrook and the surrounding communities for years of Sterigenics’ illegal behavior isn’t enough to cover the funeral expenses of the innocent victims of this company,” said attorney Antonio Romanucci of Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, one of the law firms advocating for the victims of Sterigenics in a class action lawsuit. “Sterigenics say that we can only have sterilized medical equipment if we are willing to continue to risk the lives and health of those in the Willowbrook community. We know that ethylene oxide causes cancer. We know that it is unsafe at any level. We know that Sterigenics exposed tens of thousands of people, including elementary, middle and high school students and teachers who studied across the street, to ethylene oxide for years and never told them or gave them the chance to protect themselves. Sterigenics has forfeited the right to be in business anywhere, least of all Willowbrook. If they want to continue to sterilize medical products they must now turn to one of the many safer ways to do it or leave this community.”
Victims suing Sterigenics for exposing them to elevated cancer risks though improper ethylene oxide emission control were shocked at the sudden move by the Attorney General’s office. It came just two days after the Food and Drug Administration announced a 2019 innovation challenge, which called for ideas for sterilization alternatives to ethylene oxide that the FDA would help develop. The FDA put forward the challenge in response to the groundbreaking ethylene regulating legislation of the Matt Haller Act, which passed in May in Illinois–a law which advocates thought would shut down Sterigenics for good.
“We are disappointed with this decision to go against the community’s wishes and the years medical and scientific consensus that ethylene oxide is harmful to inhale in any amount. No matter what papers they sign, Sterigenics and will put more lives in danger if they reopen,” said Colleen Haller, widow to Matt Haller, who passed away from stomach cancer earlier this year. “If they want to continue to be in the medical sterilization business, they can do it elsewhere or use any of the alternatives that the FDA and other groups have discussed. There are safer alternatives out there. People’s lives are at risk.”
“Sterigenics has had years to consider safer alternatives, but instead chose to use a deadly carcinogen and emit it into the atmosphere. Even during these last five months that they have been closed, they’ve had an opportunity to consider alternatives that would allow them to continue their operations without poisoning thousands,” said attorney Steve Hart of Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge, who also represents Sterigenics victims. “The continued disregard for the community, and the reckless abandon with which Sterigenics continues to push their narrative of needing to use this cancer causing chemical leave only one safe alternative: find a new location to conduct your business away from schools, homes, and thousands of residents, including children. The community has made it abundantly clear they do not want Sterigenics in their backyard any longer. If ethylene oxide is going to continue to be your trade, consider the health of thousands of residents and go elsewhere.”
The consent order has nothing to do with those civil cases.
It’s also interesting that there’s no mention of DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, who jointly filed the motion to enter a consent order with Sterigenics and who was quoted as saying this yesterday…
“The consent decree entered into today should in no way be considered a license for Sterigenics to reopen,” Berlin said. “The decree will govern Sterigenics going forward and in doing so goes above and beyond the most restrictive regulations in the country placed upon businesses that use EtO in their operations.”
* Rep. Mazzochi didn’t mention Berlin, either…
A standing-room-only crowd showed up for the latest court call in the People of the State of Illinois v. Sterigenics today. State Representative Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) appeared to defend the goals and intent of legislation the General Assembly enacted to combat the adverse effects of ethylene oxide. Representative Mazzochi spoke at a news conference on the DuPage County courthouse steps opposing the State of Illinois’ proposed consent decree with Sterigenics. The decree would allow the company’s medical device sterilization plant in Willowbrook to reopen without the company admitting any fault; and even though the Illinois EPA ordered the facility closed in February citing excessive emissions of ethylene oxide (EO), which is considered carcinogenic.
“The holes in this consent agreement are big enough for Sterigenics to drive a truck through,” Rep. Mazzochi said. “In the Matt Haller Act we passed this spring, legislators gave the regulators the tools they need to protect communities from unhealthy ethylene oxide emissions. I am disappointed Attorney General Kwame Raoul caved in to Sterigenics by signing this agreement without first addressing the serious public health and environmental safety that local families require; and with no meaningful notice or input to the stakeholders involved.” Sterigenics attorneys proposed to the court that once the court entered this consent decree, that would “moot” local municipalities’ efforts to stop Sterigenics pollution and fight nuisance claims. Mazzochi disagreed. “This fight is not over. The next step is to vigorously oppose the current proposed consent agreement in court.”
The Attorney General’s office withheld the terms of the agreement from state representatives until after it was signed. Rep. Mazzochi, an attorney, pointed to several loopholes that Sterigenics could use to reopen immediately, while avoiding the additional oversight and layers of environmental protection the latest legislation requires, which she declared “unacceptable.” Mazzochi also reiterated that “neither the Attorney General’s Office nor the Illinois EPA have released findings contradicting their original Seal Order claim that Sterigenics posed an environmental and public health threat. The Attorney General’s action signals his unwillingness to defend the original seal order finding that Sterigenics is an environmental health hazard, and to fight to keep our local residents safe.”
A court hearing on the state’s consent agreement to reopen Sterigenics is scheduled for Wednesday, July 24 at the DuPage County Courthouse. Rep. Mazzochi intends to file a “friend of the court” brief to discuss the legislative intent that prompted the passage of Senate Bill 1852, known as the Matt Haller Act, to prohibit the renewal of any permits for facilities that violate federal or state standards for ethylene oxide emissions; and which prohibits ethylene oxide use by facilities with egregious violations requiring a seal order.
The AG’s office and the DuPage SA maintained yesterday that the proposed consent order follows the new state law.
I’ve asked the AG for a response.
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Report: FBI raids McClain’s house
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Speaker Madigan’s best friend and the insider’s insider…
The FBI has raided the downstate home of a high-powered former Springfield lobbyist who for decades served as one of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s closest confidants, the Chicago Tribune has learned.
The raid of Mike McClain’s home in Quincy took place in mid-May, around the same time the FBI executed search warrants at the homes of two other Madigan associates — former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski and political operative Kevin Quinn, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
It’s unclear what agents were looking for when they searched McClain’s house in Quincy, which is about 100 miles west of Springfield along the Mississippi River.
But the search warrant indicates that federal investigators are probing connections to possible criminal acts by some in Madigan’s inner circle. To obtain a search warrant, federal law enforcement must convince a judge there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence of that crime exists in the home.
McClain, 71, who retired in 2016 after years as a top Capitol lobbyist, declined to comment in an emailed response to the Tribune on Wednesday.
There can be no doubt that the G has its sights set on Madigan.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* US Sens. Sanders and Duckworth reacted to the local Goodwill uproar…
* Washington Examiner…
Since the 1930s, employers have been able to ask the government for permission to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage as a way to get them into the workforce so they can build their skills and obtain more competitive work later. Oftentimes that transition doesn’t happen, however, resulting in wages that amount to only cents per hour.
Opponents view the exemption as archaic and say it’s time to phase it out, while proponents of the status quo fear that people with disabilities will lose work opportunities if that happens. In Illinois, for example, the president and CEO of Land of Lincoln Goodwill told workers with disabilities this week that they would no longer be getting paychecks because the state was moving toward a $15 minimum wage.
Through the waiver, employers are allowed to compensate workers based on their productivity level. For instance, if a worker without a disability is paid minimum wage to hang up 100 articles of clothing an hour, then someone with a disability who hangs up 50 articles of clothing an hour would be paid half the minimum wage.
An estimated 195,000 people are paid less than the minimum wage, and 2,000 employers use the subminimum wage waiver, called Section 14(c), that they obtain through the Department of Labor.
The [federal] Raise the Wage Act would set the subminimum wage at $4.25 within the first year of the bill becoming law, and then gradually increasing it every year for the next six years until it hits $15 an hour.
* WLDS highlights a local split…
Pete Roberts, Director of the Springfield Center for Independent Living, didn’t mince words about the news. “It just strikes me as an affront to people with disabilities who are often hired and can perform the essential functions of their job that are often the first people to be laid off by ignorant people.”
Roberts already feels like some of Goodwill’s practices are discriminatory towards disabled workers to begin with. “We are opposed to the sub-minimum wage laws that allow non-profits to pay less than the minimum wage to their employees. We feel that’s wrong. We have situations with people who are performing the same essential functions of a job alongside someone else who gets the minimum wage and they don’t. We feel like that’s a form of discrimination and are opposed to a sub-minimum wage.”
Steven Brundage, Executive Director of Pathway Services in Jacksonville would hope that Goodwill would be making the disabled community a priority. “People with disabilities should be a priority. They should find other ways to cut spending before they take it out on people with disabilities. I’m not exactly sure what their mission statement is but I would hope it would be people with disabilities are a priority.”
Brundage understands Goodwill’s position on having a federal minimum wage waver. He explains the situation that some non-profit organization’s like Pathway and Goodwill face with wages. “Sometimes it’s the only way we can afford to pay people that may have work skills that are very slow or they take a long time to learn a job. It’s the only way we can fiscally afford to offer a job to them.”
State legislators have attempted in the past to do away with the sub-minimum wage, but never succeeded.
* From last May…
Rock River Valley Self Help Enterprises, an Illinois nonprofit, billed itself as a vocational training program for people with disabilities. But it essentially operated as a subcontractor for local factories, providing menial tasks to workers with developmental disabilities, such as scraping debris from metal casts.
Last week, the Department of Labor took action against the company “after finding nearly 250 workers with disabilities were being exploited.” One of the ways they were being exploited? Self Help paid some workers with gift cards instead of money. […]
In addition to sometimes paying workers in gift cards, Self Help also paid them less than the minimum wage. Paying workers with disabilities in gift cards is unlawful; paying them a subminimum wage is legal. That’s because current law allows employers to pay as little as $1 per hour, or less, to workers with disabilities if they can’t perform a job as well as a person who is not disabled
* The Question: Should Illinois phase out the sub-minimum wage for workers with disabilities? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
online surveys
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Reefer madness is alive and well
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Naperville…
Council members were offered the options to begin the process of amending zoning code to allow retail sale of adult-use cannabis, prepare documentation for the city to opt out of the sale, or administer a community engagement survey to get resident input.
The council members chose to start the opt-out process…
Stores selling recreational marijuana will not be permitted to open in Naperville, city council members decided in a split vote, saying they want to protect their family-friendly brand and await data on how adult use affects communities.
“We have a great community here and we need to keep the protection of it paramount,” council member Kevin Coyne said.
The move makes Naperville among the first suburban communities to ban sales of the drug, which will be legal for adult possession and private use across the state beginning Jan. 1 under the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
Council member Patty Gustin on Tuesday sent an email to contacts encouraging them to speak out and said she fears the costs of increased addiction as well as the potential for “big marijuana” to profit from legal sales.
Prohibiting sales, she said, will safeguard Naperville’s families, and losing potential tax revenue won’t hurt the city’s bottom line.
“The true cost is not opting out and sitting on our hands until this is forced upon us,” she said during more than two hours of debate on the topic Tuesday night. “There’s no dollar amount worth selling out our kids.”
Um, your kids are gonna buy it from dealers who don’t check ID cards. The more towns that allow sales, the more pressure is put on the illegal and often violent criminal networks which grow, transport and deliver the product.
* The argument that a couple of dispensaries will kill “the brand” is ridic…
“There is nothing family friendly about recreational marijuana. Family friendly is Naperville’s brand,” resident Jennifer Taylor said.
Councilwoman Brodhead countered that position, saying a handful of marijuana businesses would be unlikely to have any effect on people’s perception of the city.
“I don’t see there is going to be any loss of brand by allowing a limited number of recreational marijuana dispensaries in Naperville,” Brodhead said. “I think we are afraid of something that will not happen.”
The city looks at alcohol in a very serious way, particularly in times when it had to deal with such negatives as bar fights and DUI accidents, but there’s still a lot of alcohol sold in Naperville, she said.
I thought I was finished dealing with the misinformation on this topic when the GA passed the bill. Apparently not. Ignorance and panic abound.
…Adding… A golden nugget from comments…
So, let me see if I’ve got this right. Naperville won’t partake of the tax dollars of legal marijuana, but it will be legal there, so residents will spend their money elsewhere. Good plan.
* On to Springfield…
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said with a medical dispensary already operating in the city, he expects city alderman to find the best place to allow recreational sales.
“What’s that right number of dispensary areas and that’s what we’ll have to determine,” Langfelder said. “We’ll at least have one for the first year. After that, that’s where we’ll really fine-tune things and see how it’s working.”
Existing medical dispensaries can apply for licenses to sell recreational cannabis. The state will then roll out more licenses for additional growing and selling licenses to other applicants.
Langfelder said city leaders will likely be cautious.
“We don’t want the proliferation like video gaming, everywhere,” Langfelder said. “And that’s really the concern. I was at the Levitt [AMP] Concert Series [an outdoor concert in downtown Springfield] and I could smell it in the air so I think people are already testing it out.”
Yeah. People are just now starting to smoke weed. Right.
* Springfield-area politicos have been saying the same thing since at least 1938…
Sangamon County resisted “reefer madness,” but marijuana finally arrived in Springfield in 1938.
“Brilliant raids” by two Springfield police detectives resulted in the arrests of three men — two locals and one from Youngstown, Ohio — on Aug. 6, 1938, the Illinois State Journal reported the next day. The officers seized “enough marijuana to manufacture more than a thousand of the cigarets that are proving a plague to some of the youth of the nation,” the newspaper said.
The bust seems to have been the first ever in Sangamon County. In fact, county juvenile probation officer Gwendolen Sherman told the Journal in December 1937 she had seen no evidence of marijuana being used locally.
“If there is any marijuana in Springfield, it’s certainly well hidden,” Sherman said.
* That SJ-R lede was totally wrong as well. From the Sangamon County Historical Society…
Marijuana had been a component of some prescription and patent medicines before passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which regulated and taxed marijuana and other forms of Cannabis sativa. The law drove use of psychoactive marijuana underground; it also basically destroyed the production of industrial hemp (which does not have intoxicating properties) in the U.S.
The new costs and red tape led Springfield pharmacists to stop using marijuana in medicines they compounded almost immediately, the Journal reported in November 1937.
* A bit more history…
In the early 1900s an influx of Mexican immigrants came to the US fleeing political unrest in their home country. With them, they brought the practice of smoking cannabis recreationally. And it took off. The Spanish word for the plant started to be used more often too. Marijuana. Or as it was spelled at that time, marihuana, with an “H. This is when the more sensational headlines about the drug began to appear.
In 1936, a propaganda film called Reefer Madness was released. In the movie, teenagers smoke weed for the first time and this leads to a series of horrific events involving hallucination, attempted rape, and murder. Much of the media portrayed it as a gateway drug. […]
Harry Anslinger took the scientifically unsupported idea of marijuana as a violence-inducing drug, connected it to black and Hispanic people, and created a perfect package of terror to sell to the American media and public. By emphasizing the Spanish word marihuana instead of cannabis, he created a strong association between the drug and the newly arrived Mexican immigrants who helped popularize it in the States. He also created a narrative around the idea that cannabis made black people forget their place in society. He pushed the idea that jazz was evil music created by people under the influence of marijuana. […]
In the first full year after the Marihuana Tax Act was passed, black people were about three times more likely to be arrested for violating narcotic drug laws than whites. And Mexicans were nearly nine times more likely to be arrested for the same charge.
* Photo of the folks arrested in that 1938 Springfield bust…
Surprise, surprise.
* Related…
* Naperville gas station worker suspended after telling Latino customers ‘ICE will come’
* Naperville leader calls for Stava-Murray’s resignation over ‘white supremacist policies’ comments
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Consultants “punt” ball back to SIU trustees
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* September of last year…
The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the firm that will reassess the distribution of state funds among SIU Carbondale, SIU Edwardsville and the SIU School of Medicine.
AGB Consulting, a subsidiary of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, will start its system-wide funding study “immediately,” according to SIU System Interim President J. Kevin Dorsey.
AGB plans to deliver findings within this fiscal year, which could begin to impact budgeting and funding distribution as soon as next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2019, Dorsey said. The study will cost the university $97,000.
Calls for such a study have intensified since the Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to reject a controversial transfer of $5.125 million from SIUC to SIUE in April, proposed as compensation for the funding disparity.
* Also…
Duane Stucky, the board treasurer, said the university system has distributed its state money the same way since about 1975. Meanwhile, the number of students studying at the Edwardsville campus has been growing until it surpassed the flagship campus in Carbondale for the first time this fall. […]
It’s expected to be completed within six months, when the trustees can use it to make a decision about how to dole out state cash for the next fiscal year, officials said in a news conference after the meeting.
* The study was discussed by the board of trustees yesterday…
Instead of an updated mathematical formula indicating what share of state funds each campus should get based on costs, the firm AGB Consulting returned a set of policy recommendations to help the board create its own formula.
To [Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees Chair Phil Gilbert], that feels like a “punt,” he said, dodging the most controversial aspect of the project: quantifying the differences between SIUC and SIUE. […]
Lacking clear mathematical weighting directions from AGB, the board will now “take the bull by the horns,” Gilbert said at Wednesday’s board meeting, creating an ad hoc committee of trustees and administrators to work out a formula.
That places the board right back at the center of a potentially future-altering decision. […]
The board hopes to agree on a weighting formula by its December meeting, Gilbert said, drawing on internal data and the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s annual statewide institutional cost comparisons.
Well, that was totally worth it.
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It’s gonna be a scorcher
Thursday, Jul 18, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Chicago…
For a while, it felt as though summer had been cancelled in Chicago. Remember that snow in spring? However, beginning on Thursday the temperatures will soar to the high 90s and thunderstorms will make the hot weather even more humid.
The worst of the heat is expected on Friday, but Thursday temperatures will start to rise into the mid-90s. The miserably high temperatures triggered an excessive heat warning, which is in effect until Saturday night. Severe thunderstorms are predicted Thursday morning and Saturday, which won’t provide much relief, but will instead pump up the humidity.
The heat index, which is an estimation of what the temperatures will actually feel like, could hit 104 to 114 each afternoon. A heat warning is issued when the heat index reaches certain dangerous levels—protocols were set after the deadly July 1995 heat wave that killed more than 700 people in Chicago, according to the Tribune.
* Suburbs…
The Village of Palatine is warning residents to take precautions this week as the area will experience dangerous heat Thursday through Saturday, and possibly into Sunday. According to the Village, Governor JB Pritzker is carrying out his Keep Cool Illinois campaign by making more than 120 state facilities available as cooling centers to provide Illinoisans a place to stay cool and comfortable during the season’s hot days.
The Keep Cool Illinois website is here.
* Central Illinois…
According to the National Weather Service in Lincoln, heat indices through Saturday are expected to range from 110 to 112 degrees.
The heat index, said Matt Barnes of the NWS, figures in the air temperature and the amount of humidity in the air.
It is enough, Barnes said, for an excessive heat warning to kick in through Saturday.
The blazing temperatures should be short-lived, Barnes said, with a cold front expected to pass through the area late Saturday evening. There is a chance of thunderstorms late Saturday into Sunday and that will moderate temperatures into the mid to upper 80s, Barnes added.
* Northern Illinois…
In the midst of summer’s high temperatures, DeKalb, Winnebago and Boone Counties are ensuring the public is safe in times of extreme heat.
The Rockford City Market is moving many of its vendors inside the market building and under the Rockford City Market Pavilion on Friday due to the ongoing heatwave.
The DeKalb County Health Department is sharing tips to help the public stay cool, hydrated, and informed.
* Southern Illinois…
The folks at the Massac County Youth Fair, put a lot of effort into keeping livestock cool on hot days.
Peyton Lingle, an exhibitor at the fair says it’s particularly important to keep pigs in a cool environment.
“Pigs don’t sweat so you really do have to have fans and we have a mister thing on our hose so we like to mist them a lot,” Lingle said.
With heat index values in the triple digits again today, the heat becomes a bit of a nuisance for those taking care of the animals, too.
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* Click here for the results. Since it’s Morning Consult, keep in mind that its methodology is, shall we say, a bit on the opaque side. All of the numbers are also quite old since the poll was taken from April 1 through June 30.
Anyway, they have Pritzker’s approve/disapprove at 44-35 with 21 percent undecided. He’s +51 with Democrats and -45 with Republicans. Independents split even. His approval rating alone (not net) ranks him 41st in the nation. He ended the first quarter at 40-39, so more people now have an opinion of him.
* Click here for US Senate results. Again, these numbers are old and the methodology is opaque. Durbin’s approval was 40 percent and his disapproval was 35. He was +45 with Democrats, -45 with Republicans and -6 with indies. His first quarter rating was 50-34, so he has declined.
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