* 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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Question of the day
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Pritzker was apparently in Du Quoin today and stopped by the local Walmart…
* The Question: Caption?
Also, if you want to know how to get banned for life from this blog, click here and read through the comments about the same photo over at the Boycott the Du Quoin State Fair Facebook page. Yeesh. Those folks have… issues.
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Students In Springfield District #186 Need Your Help!
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a donated advertisement.]
The 5th Annual Backpack Drive to benefit the students of Springfield District #186 is underway at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum until Wednesday, July 31, 2019.
Receive one free admission to the Presidential Museum for each backpack donation and help students start the school year off right. No time to visit the Museum in July? Vouchers are available, valid until December 31, 2019. Plan now for family visits during the upcoming holiday season.
Donating a backpack could not be easier or more convenient.
Simply bring your backpack to the ticket counter inside the Museum for same day admission.
Two convenient drop-off locations are available.
When downtown, utilize the loading zone at Union Station (500 E. Madison St.) and drop off donation just inside the door to receive a voucher.
A convenient West side location is with our partners, The Real Estate Group. Visit their office at 3701 Wabash Ave. and exchange your backpack for a voucher.
Don’t have time to shop….we understand! Call 217-558-8893 to arrange a cash donation. Those who already have a membership to the museum can still give. We will donate your museum admission to a local non-profit.
Thank you for supporting us as we give back to the community!
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Sterigenics, a leading provider of mission-critical sterilization services, today commented on its agreement with the State of Illinois which will enable the company’s Willowbrook sterilization facility to resume operations and continue sterilization of life saving medical devices for patients and hospitals in Illinois and across the country. The agreement resolves all of the current litigation between the State of Illinois and its representative agencies and Sterigenics, with no finding of liability or fault by either side and with no imposition of penalties.
Under the terms of the agreement, which is subject to court approval, Sterigenics will install additional emission capture and control equipment that will enable the Willowbrook facility to meet the new, stringent standards set by the State of Illinois for sterilization using ethylene oxide (EO). In addition, Sterigenics has agreed to fund $300,000 in community projects designed to benefit the environment and the local community, to be developed in coordination with the State.
The company previously submitted its permit application to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IL EPA) for the installation of the new equipment which will further enhance the state-of-the-art systems already in place at Willowbrook and reduce remaining EO emissions by:
Increasing the number of emission control stages to increase EO capture;
Combining the existing emissions stacks into one common stack at the facility; and Eliminating the release of EO “fugitive” emissions from the plant.
Sterigenics has also agreed to reduce EO usage at the Willowbrook facility and to a combination of continuous emission monitoring, emission stack testing and ambient air monitoring to ensure and to demonstrate that the additional controls are working. The Sterigenics Willowbrook facility will resume operations upon approval by the IL EPA following the installation of the new controls.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which creates a path for our Willowbrook facility to resume its safe operation and includes no finding of wrongdoing on the company’s part nor the imposition of any financial penalties,” said Sterigenics President, Philip Macnabb. “The State Government has gone to great lengths to set new standards for the protection of the public that are more stringent than any other location in the country. While our Willowbrook operations have consistently complied with and outperformed the State’s requirements, we have repeatedly stated our support for evolving regulations and our commitment to enhancing our operations in the interest of protecting public health. We remain committed to abiding by the new regulations established by the State. By resolving this matter, we are one major step closer to resuming the critical work of sterilizing vital medical products and devices in Willowbrook for patients in Illinois and beyond.”
The installation of new emissions controls will firmly establish the Sterigenics Willowbrook facility as having the strictest EO control environment of any facility in the country.
I have asked the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office and the House Republican Leader’s office for comment.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Leader Durkin’s spokesperson…
We were just informed this morning when a meeting was convened by the AG and IEPA offices. Leader Durkin, Senator Curran and Rep Mazzochi voiced their extreme opposition and frustration to the potential of Sterigenics reopening.
Yikes.
Sen. John Curran…
I continue to stand with the residents of Willowbrook and the surrounding communities who are fighting for clean air and a healthy future. For years, as testing has shown, Sterigenics has posed a critical public health risk to our communities. They must remain closed.”
The IEPA had scheduled an August 1 public hearing on Sterigenics. Durkin wanted to wait at until after that hearing to do anything.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Stop Sterigenics…
This is far from over. It’s disappointing the state couldn’t go further to protect a community that has been burdened by this company’s emissions for decades. That the company would rush forward this release ahead of the State being able to inform the community is just one more indication that they don’t care about who they may harm in their drive for profit. We expect better from our leaders, there has been no credible threat of medical disruption and, without a demand to do better, industry will not move from ethylene oxide and propylene oxide.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Press release with emphasis in the original…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul and DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin today filed a motion to enter a consent order with Sterigenics U.S., LLC (Sterigenics). Once it is approved by the court, the consent order would resolve a lawsuit filed by Raoul’s and Berlin’s offices in 2018 against Sterigenics over air pollution violations due to the release of the toxic chemical ethylene oxide (EtO) at its plant in Willowbrook, Ill.
Raoul and Berlin filed the proposed consent order today in DuPage County Circuit Court. The proposed consent order builds off of a new law signed by Governor JB Pritzker, which imposes the strictest limits in the nation on EtO emissions from sterilization facilities and other companies that use EtO. The proposed order prohibits Sterigenics’ Willowbrook facility from resuming sterilization operations unless the company installs new emissions capture and control systems, which must be approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).
“The proposed consent order surpasses the emissions limits contained in Illinois law by incorporating all of the emissions and monitoring requirements included in the Matt Haller Act recently signed by Governor Pritzker. In addition, Sterigenics must comply with the strictest capture and control requirements in the nation and cannot reopen until it is in compliance,” Raoul said. “The proposed consent order, combined with the strict regulations in the new law signed last month, will enable the state to act quickly to hold Sterigenics accountable for violating Illinois’ emissions limits.”
“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. I would like to thank Attorney General Kwame Raoul, his staff and members of my office for their extended efforts the past several months. Their work is what brought us here today. I would also like to thank Governor Pritzker as well as the Illinois EPA for their commitment to the health and welfare of the residents of Willowbrook and the surrounding communities.”
“Illinois EPA is committed to ensuring Sterigenics complies with Illinois’ stringent new law for controlling ethylene oxide emissions, which were established by the General Assembly,” said Illinois EPA Director John J. Kim. “This agreement calls for Sterigenics to not only comply with those new requirements, but also imposes additional requirements to further protect the public and the environment. The Illinois EPA will devote all necessary resources to enforce the terms of this consent order.”
In June, Gov. Pritzker signed a law prohibiting EtO-emitting sterilization facilities, including Sterigenics, from operating in Illinois unless the facility captures 100 percent of all EtO emissions generated by the facility. Additionally, these facilities must reduce EtO emissions to the atmosphere from each exhaust point by at least 99.9 percent, or 0.2 parts per million. The law also requires facilities to conduct annual emissions tests and submit results to the IEPA. If a facility fails to meet the reduced emissions requirements, it must immediately cease operations. It must also notify the IEPA within 24 hours and is required to conduct an analysis within 60 days to determine why the test failed, take corrective actions, and seek IEPA approval before seeking to restart operations.
The proposed consent order prevents Sterigenics from conducting sterilization operations at its Willowbrook facility – comprised of two buildings, Willowbrook I and Willowbrook II – until significant improvements are made to limit EtO emissions. Under the proposed consent order, Sterigenics will be subject to penalties and contempt of court for violating the terms of the proposed consent order. The net effect of the requirements in the proposed consent order will be to reduce the EtO emissions from Sterigenics’ Willowbrook facility to no more than 85 pounds per year. This represents a drastic reduction from Sterigenics’ reported annual emissions from 2006 to 2018, which ranged from 2,840 pounds to 7,340 pounds per year.
The proposed order also requires Sterigenics to perform environmental projects in the village of Willowbrook or neighboring DuPage County communities. Within 30 days of the consent order’s entry, Sterigenics must put $300,000 into an escrow account, and the company will have 60 days to submit project proposals for state approval. The projects, which must include environmental improvements, or educational scholarships or programs, must be completed within one year of the court approving the consent order.
Handling this case for Raoul’s Environmental Enforcement Division are Division Chiefs Matthew Dunn and Christopher Wells, Bureau Chief Elizabeth Wallace, Senior Assistant Attorneys General Kathryn Pamenter and Stephen Sylvester, and Assistant Attorney General Daniel Rottenberg.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Pritzker administration…
In response to increasingly troubling emission tests, the Governor ordered the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to take the extraordinary measure of sealing the Sterigenics facility to protect the health and safety of the people of Willowbrook. The administration made it clear to members of the General Assembly that he would be willing to sign any measure, up to and including a ban, on the use of ethylene oxide in the state of Illinois. Members of the General Assembly drafted legislation that did not prohibit the use of ethylene oxide but did create the most stringent regulations around its use the country. The Illinois EPA will monitor Sterigenics to ensure they operate within the stringent framework lawmakers created in their legislation. Our top priority remains the health and safety of every citizen and we will continue to work with their representatives in the General Assembly, as we have for the past several months. The consent order that will be signed as part of the litigation creates detailed, enforceable mandates that Sterigenics must comply with if it seeks to do business in Illinois. The consent order will ensure swift judicial oversight to protect members of the community.
* Related…
* In a bid to reopen shuttered Willowbrook plant, Sterigenics proposes tighter controls on cancer-causing gas
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Your moment of Zen
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Oscar likes to hang out on a comfy chair just outside my office. He looked particularly cute today, so I snapped a pic…
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* The filing deadline is today and the story below doesn’t say how old or new the numbers are. Human beings, by nature, tend to wait until the last minute to file paperwork, particularly when it costs them money. [Adding: The numbers are from Monday, a few days before the deadline.] Center Square…
An Illinois gun rights group plans to sue the state Wednesday over the new gun dealer certification law set to take effect claiming gun dealers still don’t know the rules.
More than half of the state’s 2,351 federally licensed dealers haven’t applied for the state license, according to numbers provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Illinois State Police.
Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director Richard Pearson said federally licensed dealers in Illinois don’t know the rules because the state hasn’t set up the rules yet.
“They don’t know what they’re getting into,” Pearson said. “They don’t know how much it’s going to cost them. They don’t know what the inspections are going to look like, they don’t know anything. It’s really has a chilling effect on the firearms business in Illinois and it was meant to. That was the idea of the bill.”
ISRA filed the lawsuit to block implementation of the law because the rules aren’t clear, Pearson said.
“If you were to build a building and say ‘I’m going to build a building,’ and the state says ‘you can build the building and we’ll tell you what rules we’re going to put in place after the building is built,’ you wouldn’t do it,” Pearson said. “So right now, more than half of the Illinois dealers are not going to have an Illinois license, so they’ll be out of business.”
State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, who was the chief sponsor of the measure in the previous General Assembly, said he hasn’t reviewed the lawsuit, “although I look forward to doing so.”
“It is my understanding that the State Police are enforcing the law as it was written and signed earlier this year,” Harmon said.
Illinois State Police officials said in a statement that the agency is finalizing and formatting the Gun Dealer Licensing Rules.
* They’re requesting this relief from the court…
1. Enter a declaratory judgment that the Firearm Dealer License Certification Act violates Plaintiffs’ state constitutional right to bear arms and are unenforceable, with regard to the following provisions:
a. The requirement of prohibitively expensive security and alarm systems, as described in Section 430 ILCS 68/5-50;
b. The requirement of purchasing and implementing an electronic recordkeeping system within the next six months, as described in 430 ILCS 68/5-65;
c. The certification fee structure, as described in 430 ILCS 68/5-70.
2. Issue a permanent injunction, without bond required of the Plaintiffs,
enjoining the Defendant from enforcing the challenged provisions of 430 ILCS 68/5; 3. Grant Plaintiffs a recoupment of the costs expended prosecuting this
action and
4. Grant Plaintiffs any and all further relief as this court deems just and
proper.
…Adding… Jordan Abudayyeh…
Governor Pritzker was proud to make SB 337 the second bill he signed into law as governor, keeping his promise to prevent senseless gun violence from tearing apart families. This commonsense, bipartisan law makes sure guns don’t fall into the wrong hands and licenses gun dealers just like restaurants and other businesses. We’re certain the state will vigorously defend this important new law.
* Related…
* Exemption for Sparta World Shooting Complex signed into law
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* Background is here and here. Press release…
Land of Lincoln Goodwill has always been committed to our mission: providing people the skills and resources to become self-sufficient through the power of work. In the past year, Land of Lincoln Goodwill has counseled and supported over 100 at-risk youth, we have assisted 500 veterans and 1,050 ex-offenders in their transition to employment, and more than 7,000 individuals have taken advantage of our career centers and the employment training we provide there. Our Vocational Rehab program supports 50 individuals with intellectual disabilities. We have a long history of supporting people with disabilities. We have wrapped our arms around them and worked side by side with them. We have always honored their contributions and our ongoing support of their needs will always be at the heart of our mission.
The outpouring of comments regarding our decision to refocus the Vocational Rehab program and its impact on 12 program participants has caused us to take pause. While we must be good stewards of our nonprofit, we must remain sharply focused on our mission. Our recent decision regarding the Voc Rehab program and the resulting harm it might have caused falls short of living up to our mission and we apologize for this error in judgment. We are reversing the decision to realign our Voc Rehab program and those participants affected will return to their part time skills training program with pay.
As the leader of this organization, some challenges can be overwhelming to the point where the numbers, rather than those we are working to elevate, become the focus. Their challenges and their needs are personally near and dear to my heart. As the President & CEO of this organization, I want to apologize to our constituents, our clients and our faithful donors.
Moreover, Land of Lincoln Goodwill will continue to work with all stakeholders – our leadership and our legislative representatives to assure a living wage is attainable for all those willing to work. I am committed to exploring how the state’s new minimum wage law can help raise up those we serve as well as the 400 employees in our organization. Regardless of the business and financial challenges ahead of us, Land of Lincoln Goodwill will always, first and foremost, remain true to our ideals and our mission of helping others to help themselves through the power of work.
Thank you.
Sharon Durbin President & CEO
*** UPDATE *** Looks like Sen. Manar isn’t impressed by the apology and reversal…
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* The Tribune reports that Mayor Lightfoot has forwarded the locations of five potential Chicago casino sites to the new consultant…
A state-hired consultant will study the economic feasibility of the sites and report its findings to the state and city. City officials stressed that the casino won’t necessarily wind up at one of the five spots, which it characterized as test sites.
The five are: “Harborside” at 111th Street and the Bishop Ford Freeway; the former Michael Reese Hospital site at 31st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue; a site at Pershing Road and State Street, which was formerly public housing; Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue; and the former U.S. Steel parcel, known as South Works, which is between 79th and 91st streets along South Lake Shore Drive.
The sites all have previously been considered for a casino or other large-scale developments, the city said.
Notably absent from the list were downtown sites, like the McCormick Place Lakeside Center and Navy Pier, which have been bandied about as possible casino locations by real estate experts and newspaper columnists. They argued that putting the casino downtown would maximize revenue and create the most jobs.
* Ed Zotti wrote about the topic this week…
The first is the “island casino” model — the term used by Klebanow and Gallaway in their 2015 report. The casino and related activity — typically a hotel, restaurants and bars, shops, entertainment venues, other attractions and parking — are designed as a single, self-contained complex.
Patrons drive to the casino and don’t leave until they’ve spent their last dime hours later and drive home. They never set foot in the surrounding neighborhood and might as well have been visiting Madagascar. The great majority of U.S. casinos are designed this way, Klebanow and Gallaway found. […]
A casino on the South Side almost certainly would be an island-type facility. The Michael Reese site, among other drawbacks, is separated from downtown by the Stevenson Expressway. The benefit to the surrounding area would be zero.
An island casino might retard redevelopment, suggesting the neighborhood is a dumping ground for uses nobody else wants.
A downtown location would require skillful planning and execution but have greater potential upside. It would check most of the boxes Klebanow and Gallaway cite as “critical success factors for the modern urban casino” — among them a pedestrian-friendly environment, proximity to an existing entertainment/dining district and good transit and highway access.
* Back to the consultant…
Union Gaming Analytics was selected from among three bids, two of which were disqualified because they submitted after the application deadline, the gaming board announced Friday.
Those late bids came in along an aggressive timeline set under the massive gambling expansion signed into law June 28. The state missed its first deadline by four days under that legislation, which had required that a consultant be selected by Monday.
The gaming board is still aiming to stay on track with the legislative timeline, despite the initial hiccup that officials chalked up to state procurement regulations.
That is about as “Illinois” as you can get.
* Meanwhile, in Waukegan…
As the city of Waukegan extends the deadline for interested casino developers to submit their proposals, the would-be developers behind Waukegan’s 2009 effort claim the city cannot contractually go with anyone but them.
The fight centers on a 2004 redevelopment agreement in which the city granted Waukegan Gaming LLC, then under a different name, the “exclusive right” to develop and operate a casino in Waukegan.
The last casino license Waukegan Gaming LLC was vying for ultimately went to Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, in part over concerns raised by the Illinois Gaming Board about the firm’s ties to William Cellini, a political insider indicted on a pay-to-play scheme. […]
The initially short deadline and the long list of requirements was “drafted to discourage not encourage competing proposals,” according to Waukegan Gaming’s draft counter-complaint. “It was designed to ensure that the City would support and approve only one bidder.”
That bidder, the firm argues, is Bond, a former state senator who now owns a video gambling operation with a heavy presence in Lake County.
Sheesh.
* Related…
* Illinois gambling expansion could take a while. Here’s a look at what’s to come.
* Seven groups interested in building casino in Danville; proposals due July 31: Foster also questioned the mayor about the preferred site, located along Interstate 74 near the Indiana border and Lynch Road. Some have wondered why a downtown location wasn’t given top billing, he added. Williams said that because of the tight timeline to submit a final casino development package to the Illinois Gaming Board — about 100 days from now — a site has to be shovel-ready.
* Hard Rock announces casino proposal for Rockford; further details forthcoming
* Business leaders react to Hard Rock Casino Gary: ‘It’s going to be huge’
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Go crawl back under your rock
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WBEZ…
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle took a lot of heat last year about what — and when — she knew of sexual misconduct allegations against her chief of staff John Keller.
She ended up firing Keller shortly before she announced a bid for Chicago mayor, then lost the election in a stunning defeat.
Now, the results of an investigation into how the county handled those allegations appear to clear Preckwinkle’s name. The report released today by County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard said evidence “fails to support the conclusion that the President knew or should have known about the former Chief of Staff’s alleged behavior towards women outside of Cook County employment prior to being made aware of it in 2018.” […]
In an interview, Keller said he felt vindicated in a way.
“I’m glad that [Blanchard] found out the truth,” Keller said. “I acted appropriately at work. In any work environment where there’s lots of people, there were lots of rumors and those all came out to not be true.”
The inspector general launched an investigation last fall regarding allegations that Keller sexually harassed women outside of work during his tenure working for Preckwinkle.
Vindicated, eh? Yeah, I’m thinking not so much.
Nobody, other than himself, claimed that the alleged groping incident did not occur. The IG investigation was focused on Preckwinkle’s office, not about Keller’s off-payroll behavior…
Scott Cisek, a key political adviser, said he told Preckwinkle days after the March 20 primary election that he’d “heard some very disturbing rumors” that Keller “had been behaving badly towards women.” And he warned Preckwinkle that someday “one of these women is going to come forward.” […]
Of all nights, one of the allegations that led to Keller’s ouster happened Nov. 8, 2016, the night Hillary Clinton, the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party, was unexpectedly defeated by Donald Trump.
Leaving a River North bar filled with pro-Clinton political operatives, Keller, just weeks away from being promoted to Preckwinkle’s chief of staff, piled into a cab with a group of at least five people to head to a nearby tavern.
A woman sitting in the crowded back seat said Keller did something that shocked her.
“Basically, he used his hands to grab my legs and my crotch, and I repeatedly was basically trying to move him away from me,” the woman told the Tribune in a recent interview. “But it became very difficult, and it was, honestly, very awkward.”
The woman, who barely knew Keller, said she immediately told two colleagues what had happened when they emerged from the cab. She said she didn’t take her concerns to authorities.
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* Sun-Times…
In a years-long effort to put their allegations of election tampering before a jury, lawyers for [Jason Gonzales] an unsuccessful primary challenger to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan contend the state’s most powerful politician and his organizations “debased” the ballot, “the very crux of democracy.” […]
Gonzales’ lawyers also argue Madigan’s tactics took a deep personal toll on their client, contending that the “sham candidates being on the ballot left him ‘incapacitated,’ ‘ personally and emotionally devastated, hopeless and helpless.’” […]
While Gonzales’ lawyers seek a jury trial to outline a “scheme to corrupt a public ballot,” they are also pushing for monetary damages. Gonzales was deprived of his constitutional right of equal protection, his lawyers argue.
“Gonzales described his depression and anxiety, his bouts of uncontrolled tears, his panic attacks and hopelessness, and his difficulty functioning for over three and one half months,” the filing says. “He went under mediation (sic) from a psychiatrist.” […]
Lawyers for Gonzales claim that Hispanic voters told him personally that “with the multiple Hispanic candidates there was no reason even to vote.” They also claim Hispanic organizations wouldn’t support him and other Hispanics “told him he was a fool for running at all since there would be no two-man race. He also claimed it affected his ability to fundraise and wealthy donors withdrew the support they had promised.
Madigan is what he is. I can totally understand why people are angry or even furious about how he does business. But how this particular thing is actionable is kinda beyond me. And why the plaintiff is claiming to have been surprised stretches all credulity.
Madigan’s operation has put “sham” candidates on the ballot for years. And Madigan is well-known for being a man of strong habits. When something works for him, he keeps doing it until it no longer works. So this shouldn’t have been a surprise which allegedly rocked Gonzales to his emotional core. Good campaigns plan for these contingencies. Bad campaigns whine.
* Indeed, as Team Madigan pointed out in their own filing, Gonzales said he was ready for this possibility during the campaign…
“We’ve come up with a strategy to neutralize these two candidates, and they’re not going to do much harm.”
Also, politics is a very rough business. If every candidate who experienced emotional issues during and after campaigns filed lawsuits seeking monetary damages, the courts wouldn’t have enough time to do anything else.
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* From a Proft website…
Sen. Aquino-sponsored law appropriating $2 from the General Revenue Fund to the GovernorÂ’s Office of Management and Budget for its FY 20 ordinary and contingent expenses now in effect
A new law sponsored by Sen. Omar Aquino (D-2) that was introduced with the purpose of appropriating $2 from the General Revenue Fund to the GovernorÂ’s Office of Management and Budget for its FY 20 ordinary and contingent expenses went into effect on June 5, according to the official Illinois General Assembly website.
The legislation was introduced in bill SB262 on Jan. 31, when Sen. John J. Cullerton (D-6) filed it with the Senate clerk.
According to the General Assembly website, the bill as introduced was designed to “appropriate $2 from the General Revenue Fund to the GovernorÂ’s Office of Management and Budget for its FY 20 ordinary and contingent expenses”.
After debate, the Senate passed the bill on June 5 and it arrived in the House on May 29, and both chambers agreed to the final version of the legislation on June 1. The bill was sent to the governor and signed into law on June 5. The law went into effect immediately.
Illinois has a bicameral congress. The state enacts laws through bills that can be introduced in either the state House of Representatives or the state Senate, and either chamber of the legislature can reject or amend a bill before it becomes law. Once a bill is passed by both chambers, the bill must be sent to the state governor within 30 days, after which the governor has 60 days to sign it or veto it. If the governor does nothing, it becomes law after the 60 days have passed. [Typos in original]
Weird.
Anybody out there have any theories about what they could be trying to do with absurd stories like these (this is not an isolated incident)? I mean, other than getting it posted here, of course.
By the way, that legislation ended up being the budget bill.
…Adding… A pal explains via text…
The proft bot is some low rent thing because he doesn’t want to pay for real content writing. All the algos are [crud] so auto-writing bots still helps you [manipulate] seo. He just needs the sites to have a high page rank when he actually does want to move [crud].
It doesn’t have to make sense. Computers don’t care about context anyway because they can’t parse it (yet). He just needs to be on news.google.com come campaign season.
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Still no A-List opponent for Durbin
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tom Kacich…
It’s five months out from the filing period for next year’s primary election, and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin still doesn’t have a top-name Republican Party opponent.
The Federal Elections Commission lists three possible Republican opponents, each one less politically fearsome than the next: Peggy Hubbard of Belleville, Thomas Tarter of Springfield and Dean Seppelfrick of Aurora.
Hubbard, a former St. Louis County Police Department court officer, had raised the most money as of March 31: just over $50,000.
Durbin, meanwhile, had more than $2.4 million on hand.
Another Republican recently announced that he hopes to challenge Durbin, although the familiar name Robert Marshall may be even less frightful to the four-term senator from Springfield. Marshall ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010, for Congress in 2016 and for governor last year, each time as a Democrat.
Seppelfrick has reported raising no money and Tarter has reported raising about $1,500 so far.
Hubbard did report raising about $53K, mostly in small, unitemized contributions. But she spent almost all of that money in late February and March. Hubbard reported having just $1,379.65 cash on hand after that spending spree, much of it to out of state consultants.
And she’s not exactly in the political mainstream…
“That’s why, if elected to the U.S. Senate, you can count on me to fight to defund Planned Parenthood — entirely — and also fight to end abortion on demand in America through passage of [Kentucky Senator] Rand Paul’s Life at Conception Act,” she said.
* Meanwhile, as subscribers have known for weeks, Durbin has no primary opponent, either…
Freshman Democratic state Rep. Anne Stava-Murray of Naperville has formally ended her long-shot bid to challenge three-term U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in the March 2020 primary, documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show.
Stava-Murray, who announced her challenge to Durbin even before being sworn in to her state legislative seat, filed a termination notice for her federal campaign committee on Monday. She had only raised $175 since formalizing her candidacy — $150 from herself — and ended the second quarter of the year with a balance of $9.72.
It’s the latest move by the unorthodox Stava-Murray, who in the November election upset a Republican incumbent to win a seat in the statehouse without spending much money or getting any financial assistance from powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan.
She became much more comfortable in the House this spring and actually appeared to be having some fun by the end of the session.
* Related…
* Democrats Casten, Underwood ahead of GOP rivals in fundraising
* Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot raises $2.7 million while Emanuel spends big on parties, makes donations
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Goodwill react roundup
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Background is here if you need it. Looks like the coverage was noticed by the national group…
* Peoria Public Radio…
Peoria-area Goodwill shoppers and donors can do so knowing that all employees will continue to be paid. That’s according to Don Johnson, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois.
Johnson’s comments come after reports that the Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries — which covers 15 locations in Springfield and Southern Illinois — plans to layoff workers with disabilities in order to offset the cost of Illinois’ rising minimum wage.
WCIA-TV originally broke the story, in which the not-for-profit said it was making changes to the Vocational Rehabilitation Program — even though it collects hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from state contracts, pays no taxes and has a federal waiver that allows it to pay less than the minimum wage to workers with disabilities.
But Johnson said not all Goodwills operate the same.
“That is not us. It’s not our territory,” Johnson said. “We pay our employees. Every year, they qualify for raises — in fact, we start them above the minimum wage line.”
* This morning…
State Senator Andy Manar is calling for a full review of state contracts and funding awarded to Land of Lincoln Goodwill following the nonprofit’s decision to pull paychecks from disabled workers.
The nonprofit recently told dozens of workers with disabilities that they would be laid off due to the state’s increase in the minimum wage even though the one dollar per hour increase doesn’t take effect for five months and it is exempt by the U.S. Department of Labor from paying these employees the minimum wage.
“An organization that eliminates opportunity for the most vulnerable people in the state while simultaneously driving up executive compensation should be ashamed of itself,” said Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat. “Blaming a minimum wage increase that hasn’t even gone into effect and that does not apply to these workers after receiving an increase in taxpayer funding is unacceptable.”
According to a WCIA report, the executive director of the Land of Lincoln Goodwill is currently making $164,000. Further tax records show that Land of Lincoln Goodwill raised executive compensation for two positions during the height of the budget impasse by $86,155 over 3 years.
Land of Lincoln Goodwill currently receives nearly $400,000 in taxpayer funded contracts and was slated to receive a 3.5 percent funding increase under the state’s new budget.
Manar sent a letter to the Illinois Department of Human Services, the Department of Central Management Services and Governor JB Pritzker this morning asking for a review of all contracts with the nonprofit.
“When I work to craft and vote to support a state budget to increase funding for human services programs to benefit the well-being of the most vulnerable, it is not my intention to line the six figure pockets of executives at non-for-profit entities like Ms. Durbin. Goodwill’s mission statement explicitly states its intent to enhance people’s dignity by eliminating barriers to opportunity,” Manar said. “There seems to be an abundance of opportunity today for Ms. Durbin but not so much for Goodwill’s now unemployed disabled workers. Unfortunately, local Goodwill executives are on the wrong path and we must now take extra steps to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used properly and for their intended purposes.”
* Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living…
* Finke…
State records show that Land of Lincoln was paid nearly $585,000 in the 2018 fiscal year and $689,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Most of the money came from the Department of Human Services, which pays Goodwill for pre-vocation skill building services.
“It’s like job readiness. It’s getting people with disabilities ready to be employed,” said DHS spokeswoman Meghan Powers.
When DHS learned of the situation, Powers said, the agency contacted Goodwill to see if there was anything the state could do to help.
“We’re planning to work with them as much as they need,” she said. “Obviously, we don’t want these individuals to be let go.”
* News-Gazette editorial…
Durbin’s message is especially galling because she makes about $165,000 as the agency’s CEO and employs her son, Brian Durbin, as the vice president of retail operations at a salary of more than $95,000 annually.
* When people who work for their mom complain about patronage…
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Open thread
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tried to get too many posts together at once and got nothing done. Oops. So, talk amongst yourselves while I try to get myself organized. Please be nice to each other and keep it Illinois-centric. Thanks.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Boycott Du Quoin State Fair Facebook page…
Family legend has it that one of my ancestors was deployed to southern Illinois during the Civil War to put down a Copperhead rebellion. The Copperheads were so vicious that the Illinois governor called out the militia during a state constitutional convention over fears that they might try to seize control of the government.
The QAnon types are also posting on the page, as well as your run of the mill racists, and more than a smattering of separatists. A few folks who’ve spoken up against the hate on the Facebook page were shouted down.
There are now 5,488 members of the group, including former state Sen. Sam McCann.
* From a Southern Illinoisan editorial…
[A boycott] would only be cutting off the region’s nose to spite its own face, seeing as we really wouldn’t be helped any to lose the economic boost the fair brings here annually. (And we can’t help but fear poor fair attendance this year could give the state reason to disinvest in it.)
* The Question: Should the state stop funding the Du Quoin State Fair next year? Make sure to explain your answer in comments.
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* From June 7th…
Businessman and former candidate for Chicago mayor Willie Wilson said he’d like to talk to Governor Pritzker about the new state budget.
Willie Wilson said the increases in the gas tax and license plate fees in the new state budget hurt poor and middle class voters. He said he would like to talk to Governor Pritzker about creating a state budget that takes some of the pressure off of the working class. But right now, he said, his calls are going unanswered.
“Governor, I have sent you three or four emails, I’ve sent you a letter, I’ve called you two or three times. Your people have not responded back to me,” Wilson said.
I sent a FOIA request to the governor’s office that very day asking for any “e-mails, letters and phone log records from Willie Wilson to the governor and/or employees of the governor’s office since April 1, 2019.” The governor’s FOIA person eventually responded that she needed additional time to check the records.
For some reason, I remembered my FOIA request yesterday and fired off an email to the governor’s office asking what the heck ever happened to their response.
* Turns out, they sent it to me on June 25th and I didn’t notice it. Oops. I was in Chicago that day for the cannabis bill signing, which may have been why I didn’t see it…
Re: FOIA Request # 2019-152
Dear Mr. Miller:
June 25, 2019
This letter is in response to your Illinois Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request received on June 11, 2019 seeking: “e-mails, letters and phone log records from Willie Wilson to the governor and/or employees of the governor’s office since April 1, 2019.”
The Governor’s Office conducted a search and found no records responsive to your request.
So, apparently, Mr. Wilson wasn’t telling the truth. No surprise and it means little now because so much time has passed, but I’ll remember that the next time he makes a similar claim.
*** UPDATE *** My FOIA was for attempted contacts dating back to April 1. But the Wilson people sent me some documents showing attempted contacts before April 1…
* Phone logs to governor’s office (March 15, 19, 22)
* Email sent to the governor’s office (March 19)
They also sent me a photo (click here) of Wilson seated next to Pritzker at the 103rd birthday party for Elizabeth Jordan in mid-June, as well as this social media post from the event…
From Wilson’s spokesman…
I was standing beside him on Monday June 17th at a luncheon for this 103 y.o. Woman at 1546 west water st, blue island 11am when he asked the Governor ‘why he had not returned his calls?’ And JB said ‘ he didn’t know and would call him from the car now’ - and never did.
Sorry about that, Reverend! If the governor did promise to call him, he should.
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* Tribune…
A Cook County watchdog’s investigation concluded Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against her former chief of staff was “reasonable,” but said the county needs to come up with a better way to consider complaints of improper behavior by employees when they’re off the clock.
In a summary released Monday, Inspector General Patrick Blanchard noted that the woman who accused then-Preckwinkle chief of staff John Keller of inappropriately touching her in 2016 initially was unwilling to come forward. When the woman decided to do so months later as Preckwinkle geared up to run for mayor, Preckwinkle looked into the woman’s account and took action, Blanchard added.
The woman’s “hesitancy to come forward was reasonable,” Blanchard wrote. “The president’s assertion that she would not take action against an employee based on unsubstantiated rumor is also reasonable.”
Blanchard went on to note a lack of clarity about how to handle allegations relating to county employees’ behavior outside work that could “bring disrepute on the county.” He recommended the process for such cases “be clarified so to eliminate any confusion surrounding whether a report can be filed under these circumstances and how to do so.”
A Preckwinkle spokeswoman said the office recently received the recommendations and have “taken them under advisement.” Stephanie Henson also said the county is putting in place recommendations from an anti-harassment panel Preckwinkle formed in the wake of the Keller firing.
The full report is here. The IG claimed the investigation turned up no “culture of sexual harassment or discrimination.”
* Our old friend Emily Miller helped bring this case to light and she sent out a statement yesterday…
I understand the desire to believe that the culture of sexual harassment and discrimination are pervasive everywhere other than in Cook County government, and it would be nice if that were true.
Based on my personal experience and the experiences shared with me by other women who I believe, I disagree with the finding that there is no pervasive culture of sexual harassment in Cook County government.
Unfortunately, women will continue to miss out on opportunities for professional advancement because of the culture of sexual harassment. The fact is that I could not consider accepting a position in Cook County government because it would have been dangerous for me to work for a man that assaulted my friend and harassed other women I know. If that’s not indicative of a culture of sexual harassment, we need a new measuring stick.
I look forward to the day when the process works for women and whistleblowers and will continue advocating for culture shifts. This finding is not a setback—it’s a spotlight on the work that lies ahead, and I’m ready for it.
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Separated at birth?
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes speaking at the eighth annual Brookings Municipal Finance Conference Monday night…
* House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown…
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Fun with numbers
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Policy Institute’s Austin Berg…
Illinois motorists over Independence Day weekend were greeted with higher prices at the pump.
The driving cause? Illinois’ gas tax, which doubled overnight, making Illinoisans subject to the highest state and local gas tax burden in the Midwest. This will cost the average driver around $100 more per year. […]
Rush University Medical Center, part of a private health system with annual revenues of $2.4 billion, will receive a $14 million grant from Illinois taxpayers.
The state will send $50 million in capital plan grants to parks and recreational units for improvements, such as pickleball courts. The Chicago Park District will receive $15 million for a new field house at Jackie Robinson Park.
Taxpayers will float $5 million to Northwestern University to purchase new science equipment. The private university boasts an endowment of $11 billion.
Those are vertical projects and therefore not funded by the Motor Fuel Tax increase.
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* A couple of civil suits, a sexual harassment case and a possible federal investigation can do this to you…
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s principal political committee has spend a whopping $1.2 million in legal bills since fall 2017, according to state campaign finance reports.
The majority of those costs was paid to Chicago law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. The most recent quarterly financial report, filed on July 15, showed Madigan’s political committee paid that firm $140,564 for “legal fees.”
In total, Friends of Madigan paid $284,260 in legal fees between April 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019.
The actual number appears to be $1.183 million.
By comparison, a Board of Elections search found that Madigan’s personal committee reported spending no money on legal fees between 1/1/2016 and 7/1/2017. He’s spent $1.3 million on legal fees and services since December of 2002.
* Related…
* Chicago Ald. Marty Quinn says federal investigators have not contacted him, despite raid of brother’s home: ‘I know what you know’
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You just cannot argue with some people
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From an email…
Wait until rank and file state union members realize the new fair tax vote in Nov 2020 will also allow the state legislature to change pension details at will. ASCME leadership is very quiet on this topic so far. Now that will be fun to see hard core Democrat State workers standing with anti tax increase Republicans. Heck, that vote might even put Illinois in play for Trump. It will be like the anti gay marriage ballot feature that Karl Rove used to win six borderline states for Bush against Kerry. Illinois State Republicans will look like geniuses because Democrats are just too inept to get out of their own way. Same problem at the national level. Trump can’t losel because he is up against termites.
Um, what? The graduated income tax proposal has nothing to do with changing the constitutional protections of government pensions.
* I asked if he was insane. His reply…
So you claim the Fair Tax bill does not open the Pension System up for adjustment or you are just too lazy to research it? I’m a ASCME steward and we are starting our plan to protect our pensions from the ground up since leadership seems to be in denial. Trying to educate Media these days against their myopic, biased worldview is always eye opening but never a surprise. Have a nice pointless career.
Anyone who claims to be a shop steward and misspells AFSCME should not call anyone else lazy, particularly since they’re dead wrong about the graduated tax proposal and the pension system. I mean, click here and read it yourself. It ain’t in there.
* I reached out to AFSCME Council 31 for assistance and received this reply from Anders Lindall…
It’s understandable that years of attacks on pensions by powerful political forces have raised the level of concern and vigilance among public service workers and retirees who rely on that modest income in retirement. Even so, this is obviously a very confused person. The fair tax constitutional amendment has nothing to do with pensions and in no way affects any constitutional provision other than fixing the state’s unfair, outdated and inadequate income tax structure.
Union members and every Illinois voter should know, plain and simple, that voting YES for fair tax reform means that 97% of taxpayers will pay less or the same, rich people will pay their share and the state will raise more than $3 billion a year for schools, public services and to pay its past-due bills.
We’ll continue to educate union members on the need for fair tax reform like more than 30 other states and the federal government, where wealthy people pay a higher rate and working people a lower rate. And we’ll continue to correct any misinformation that may arise, making clear that this amendment has nothing to do with pensions or any other issue.
* I forwarded that to my pen pal and he replied this morning…
First, thank you for your efforts here. Secondly, any Constitutional language adjustment that allows a more direct change to taxing Illinois wage earners does indeed put everything on the table. It may be a 1% vale added tax for bailing out pension, it could also be rate changes at any level of the wage scale. What this bill does is open the process protected by the existing Illinois Constitution. In a more competent or less corrupt institution maybe we could roll the dice. In Illinois? No. Maybe you have witnessed something different than most witnesses to our finances since 1980? May I suggest a subscription to Crain’s Chicago Business to begin your recovery from Springfield gullibility. I have worked in Springfield handing envelopes to these dedicated drones. One who voted present and later moved into much larger job. The change in language in this bill does indeed open the options for future bodies and selected tax targets. For this staff member to state otherwise indicts him as either incompetent or a liar. Have him stand up and be identified as such. He has company down there.
#Facepalm
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* Mark Maxwell…
An iconic nonprofit thrift store is crying poor in the face of looming payroll increases, and it is announcing plans to layoff disabled employees in order to take on the extra cost.
However, the 501(c)(3) organization pays no taxes, collects state funding, was awarded state contracts, and has special permission from the federal government to pay disabled workers well below the minimum wage floor.
Sharon Durbin, President and Chief Executive Officer at Land of Lincoln Goodwill, told dozens of disabled thrift store workers they would no longer receive a paycheck as a result of the state’s new minimum wage increase, and she warns future job cuts could still be coming to the last 11 remaining disabled employees still on the payroll.
Durbin runs the Central Illinois nonprofit branch that oversees 15 retail locations and more than 450 total employees. She wrote about “upcoming changes to the Vocational Rehabilitation Program” in a letter dated June 14th. Her letter said the program “is funded through the Illinois Department of Human Services,” but the funding “does not cover all of the significant costs of the program.”
The abrupt shift not only comes as disappointing news to dozens of disabled workers in the area, including some who live in group homes without their parents, but it also threatens to weaken the core promise of Goodwill’s mission statement. […]
Durbin’s son, Brian Durbin, was hired onto the Executive Leadership team and makes an annual salary of $95,747 at the nonprofit. […]
Durbin acknowledged that her group already pays the sub-minimum rate for 27 of 50 disabled workers, however, inexplicably, she says the nonprofit is “progressing away from that.” The federal formula requires employers to pay disabled workers based on a productivity scale at a rate commensurate with the work they complete. […]
The organization’s 990 tax documents from 2018 reveal Durbin takes home an annual salary of $164,849 plus another $6,145 in benefits.
Go read the whole thing.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Looks like a deputy governor and a powerful state Senator are quite displeased…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Another legislator…
Senate Majority Leader…
*** UPDATE 3 *** Ruh-roh…
*** UPDATE 4 *** This info was also posted in comments earlier today…
*** UPDATE 5 *** I followed up and was told that a committee hearing “is something we are currently reviewing”…
News that Land of Lincoln Goodwill in Springfield is laying off dozens of workers with disabilities without a valid explanation is drawing concern from State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield).
“It is disheartening that Goodwill would use false excuses to terminate the employment of reliable, hardworking staff with disabilities in Illinois,” Morrison said.
Morrison – who is chair of the Senate Human Services Committee and founder of the Special Needs Caucus – passed a series of measures this year aimed at increasing state employment of individuals with disabilities, all aimed at breaking down the barriers to employment.
Sharon Durbin, the President and Chief Executive Officer at Land of Lincoln Goodwill in Springfield, communicated to laid off employees the reason for their job loss was due to the state’s recent enactment of a minimum wage increase. Because they hire workers with disabilities, however, Goodwill is permitted by the U.S. Department of Labor to pay these workers below the minimum wage. In addition, the first increase in Illinois’ minimum wage will not take effect until January 1, 2020.
According to a recent WCIA report, Sharon Durbin’s salary at Land of Lincoln Goodwill is more than $160,000.
In 2018, Goodwill received nearly $400,000 in state grants and contracts solely to be used for workers with disabilities.
“What are these contracts going toward if not for the employment of individuals with disabilities?” Morrison said. “That is something we will be looking into. We need Goodwill to return to its mission of working to lift up those experiencing barriers to employment, especially those with disabilities.”
*** UPDATE 6 *** WMAY’s Jim Leach…
This afternoon on the show: we were scheduled to talk to the CEO of the local Goodwill as a firestorm erupts about their decision to cut jobs for disabled people, but we were told moments ago that she’s now unavailable.
*** UPDATE 7 *** From Kathy Carmody, CEO of the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities…
Community agencies across Illinois that support people with disabilities have had to work vigorously to develop creative and mission-driven solutions to the challenges we face in providing quality and essential services. While the pending long-overdue increase in minimum wage will have a significant fiscal impact on all social service organizations, directly impacting the very people we exist to serve should be the last place an organization goes to balance its ledger.
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Chance the Snapper in custody
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Always hire a professional…
CITY OFFICIALS TO PROVIDE DETAILS ON THE HUMANE CAPTURE OF THE ALLIGATOR IN HUMBOLDT PARK TODAY AT 10:00 A.M.
WHO: Leadership from Chicago Animal Care and Control, and the Chicago Park District
WHAT: Officials will provide details about the safe and humane capture overnight of the alligator spotted in the Humboldt Park Lagoon last week.
WHERE: HUMBOLDT PARK BOATHOUSE, 1301 N. Humboldt Blvd. Chicago
WHEN: TODAY, 10:00 a.m.
WHY: The Humboldt Park alligator has captured the imaginations of the entire City of Chicago and beyond and has united residents who have been following this story for the last week. The City’s top priority has been to keep residents and park patrons safe while facilitating the safe and humane capture of the alligator. Officials will inform residents about the plan that led to his successful capture and the next steps for him.
The alligator will be in attendance.
Kind Regards,
Jenny Schlueter
Assistant to the Director
Chicago Animal Care and Control
* I thought he’d be bigger…
…Adding… Florida man…
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