From: Dan Hynes, Deputy Governor, Budget & Economy
Subject: Payroll Tax Deferral
Date: September 14, 2020
As you may be aware, the President issued a memorandum in August deferring payroll taxes for certain employees for the period September 1 through December 31, 2020. The President’s action was a deferral, rather than a tax cut, absent an act of Congress making it permanent.
Recent guidance issued by the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS indicates those deferred taxes would need to be repaid by both the wage earner and the employer beginning January 1 through April 30, 2021, or begin to accrue interest and penalties. Such a repayment could pose a tremendous hardship on state workers.
Be advised that the state of Illinois, for agencies under the Governor, will not be implementing this optional payroll tax deferral. Agencies should continue to process payrolls, including the deduction of payroll taxes, as they normally would.
Thank you for your continued service and dedication to the people of Illinois during these challenging times.
Illinois labor groups today launched the Climate Jobs Illinois coalition to advocate for a pro-worker, pro-climate agenda. The coalition will push for a thoughtful but ambitious clean energy transition through practical policies that create union jobs in the clean energy sector to lower the state’s high unemployment rate, reduce its emissions and close the growing income inequality gap in disadvantaged communities.
The coalition represents hundreds of thousands of Illinois working men and women who are best suited to build Illinois’ new clean-energy economy from the ground up. By advocating for bold clean energy investments with comprehensive labor standards, including prevailing wage, apprenticeship requirements, labor peace agreements, project labor agreements and responsible bidder requirements, Climate Jobs Illinois is working to ensure these jobs create more pathways to the middle class, especially for communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
“Every parent’s dream is to provide a better future for their children. Building wind farms has provided my family a roof over our heads, food on the table and a cleaner tomorrow. With Climate Jobs Illinois leading the charge, our state will create more jobs like mine so everyone’s child can have a better future,” said Bob Howard, a wind construction laborer, member of LIUNA Local 362, and resident of Normal, Ill.
“The demand for solar power has been through the roof in Illinois. But without the state acting, my good-paying job and the progress we’ve made to cut emissions will end as quickly as a flip of a switch. Climate Jobs Illinois is going to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Christine Blair, operating engineer-solar projects, member of IUOE Local 150, and resident of DeKalb, Ill.
“The Model T helped create the middle class by providing workers with a pathway to good wages and benefits in a union. I’m a former UAW member that worked at Mitsubishi in Normal, Illinois. I look forward to building the next generation of automobiles in the electric vehicle industry,” said Bob Thompson, a Rivian Press Operator, and resident of East Peoria, Ill.
“Families today are spending more time in their homes and want to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing comfort. The energy-efficient homes we build help protect the environment and save the owner money, and they provide our skilled carpenters with a good union paycheck to support their families. Energy-efficient homes prove that we can solve climate change and simultaneously create jobs, and I look forward to Climate Jobs Illinois helping create more opportunities to bolster our economy,” said Tom Vetter, a qualified installer, member of the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters Union, and resident of Orland Park, Ill.
“This job has been as reliable as the power coming out of the plant. Yes, the plant turns on lights across Illinois and elsewhere, but for us here in Byron, it has created a brighter future. We need our leaders to know that, and I’m grateful Climate Jobs Illinois is around to make sure that happens,” said Stan Bush, Radiation Protection Technician, IBEW Local 15, Byron, Ill.
Climate Jobs Illinois—which is independent of energy developers and utilities—will also focus on supporting workers as the state transitions with new clean-energy sector jobs, while meeting the immediate need to stem record job losses as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Since the pandemic began, Illinois has lost around 600,000 jobs. Nearly half of those will likely never come back. The pandemic has also highlighted the effects of growing income inequality in Illinois and across the country, with disproportionate numbers of black and brown communities suffering job losses and significantly higher rates of COVID-19 infection and death.
Governing Board leadership for Climate Jobs Illinois includes Illinois AFL-CIO President and Chair Tim Drea, Illinois Secretary Treasurer Pat Devaney, Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter and Chicago & Cook County Building & Construction Trades Council President Ralph Affrunti. Executive Committee members of Climate Jobs Illinois are: Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers State Council, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, Laborers International Union of North America Midwest Region, Laborers International Union of North America Great Lakes Region, Service Employees International Union Local 1 and United Auto Workers Region 4.
Climate Jobs Illinois’ members recognize that introducing an ambitious but practical plan to invest in clean-energy infrastructure can drastically address the climate crisis while also closing the income inequality gap. In the coming weeks, the coalition will roll out a series of proposals focused on maximizing emissions reductions that create or sustain union jobs and apprentice programs in areas hit hard by the current economic crisis as well as by historic underfunding and discriminatory policies.
The coalition will put forward innovative proposals that support state renewable portfolio standards, the creation of new investments in wind and solar projects, improving fleet efficiency and enhancing public transit infrastructure, and improving energy efficiency in public, commercial and residential spaces. The plans will leverage Illinois’ clean energy natural resources, strong labor pool, ready-made apprentice programs and manufacturing infrastructure.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said: “Union jobs have built Illinois for decades and opened the door to the middle class for many families. We will need thousands more to tackle climate change and combat inequality — so I welcome Climate Jobs Illinois to the effort to create a cleaner future for our state.”
U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (Ill.-4th) said: “Workers and communities of color must be at the center of Illinois’ strategy to combat climate change. I’m thankful that Climate Jobs Illinois has formed so the state’s efforts result in good-paying union jobs that expand mobility and increase opportunity to the communities I represent.”
State Rep. Marcus Evans Jr. (D-Chicago), Illinois House Labor & Commerce Committee Chair, said: “Our community suffers the most from pollution, and it suffers the most from joblessness. Can we solve both challenges at the same time? I believe we can. But if—and only if—good-paying union jobs build Illinois’ clean energy future. I look forward to working with Climate Jobs Illinois to create those union jobs that provide opportunities to communities like mine.”
State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) said: “We don’t have to choose between a cleaner future and hundreds of middle-class jobs for families. In my district, we’ve delivered both for decades at the Dresden nuclear plant. Having Climate Jobs Illinois around will keep middle class jobs at the center of the debate as our state looks to build a cleaner and better future.”
State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) said: “A union job is the path to the middle class in Illinois, especially Central Illinois. We urgently need more of them. I’m grateful that Climate Jobs Illinois will be in the fight so the state uses our strong labor pool and ready-made apprentice programs to get the job done.”
Climate Jobs Illinois is a state affiliate of the Climate Jobs National Resource Center. CJI has partnered with The Project for Middle Class Renewal at UIUC, Illinois Economic Policy Institute and Cornell University Worker Institute.
“Illinois has a proud labor history fighting for fair wages and job security as a pathway to the middle class. It’s time to continue that tradition by creating the next generation of union jobs as we build a cleaner future for our state,” said Nikki Budzinski, executive director of Climate Jobs Illinois. “While a tall order, this crisis presents a transformative opportunity to reimagine our economy and create a cleaner, fairer future for our entire state.”
…Adding… From Rep. Ann Williams, Chair of Energy & Environment committee and House sponsor of Clean Energy Jobs Act…
As we look for ways to create jobs and spur economic development in the wake of COVID, the clean energy sector can provide significant opportunity, especially in communities disproportionately impacted in terms of economics, healthcare disparities and pollution. I look forward to working closely with Climate Jobs Illinois toward a comprehensive clean energy package which will address the urgency of the climate crisis while creating economic opportunity in the communities that need it most.”
Better late than never, perhaps. But, man is that ever late.
* Press release…
At a press conference today with Loyola University Chicago officials, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) highlighted ongoing testing challenges at schools and universities, and announced he was sending a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asking how the Trump Administration plans to rectify the shortfall in testing supplies it has created at our universities and schools after Durbin learned HHS diverted shipments of COVID-19 tests bound for two Illinois universities.
“I recently became aware of two troubling incidents involving Illinois universities in which COVID-19 testing kits that they had purchased were commandeered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and diverted to other needy entities,” Durbin said. “At the same time the White House was pressuring our schools to reopen, the Administration was telling schools that the test supplies they had ordered wouldn’t be coming to them anymore, because HHS stepped in and redirected them elsewhere. The lack of a national strategy for access to adequate, reliable, and timely testing has hampered our response to the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning. I will continue working to bring more funding to Illinois schools that are desperately trying to safely reopen.”
A small number of cases impacted the foodservice sector of the Blue Ridge School District late last week, leaving administrators with the only decision to temporarily close their doors for two weeks.
Superintendent Dr. Hilary Stanifer told Regional News Monday they did not have a large number of cases but because of infections in staff, it impacted their ability to feed their students and for that reason, they are beginning a two-week and a day shutdown.
The human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of no bounds. It has surpassed the amount of American lives lost during the 1900 Galveston hurricane, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, the Revolutionary War, the Korean war, the Vietnam War and World War I.
Nationally, about 192,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died this year. Of Illinois’ nearly 8,500 deaths, the majority have been of people living in Chicago and the surrounding area. But this region has not been spared — throughout 21 Southern Illinois counties, 138 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died since April. Following national trends, the majority of deaths here — 96, according to the latest state figures — have been of older adults in nursing homes. But the virus has also claimed the lives of Southern Illinoisans as young as their 40s. While it is well established that the virus is the most deadly to people with underlying health conditions, at least some whose lives it has claimed were considered the picture of health. […]
The Southern Illinoisan spoke with several families throughout the region about their loved ones whose lives were cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several people said they hope their families’ losses serve as a wake-up call to people in Southern Illinois who believe the virus is a hoax or the response to it is overblown.
When the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic shutdowns hit Illinois this spring, experts began to count up all of the ways in which COVID-19 would likely exacerbate an already rising level of need in the state’s child welfare system — a network itself long stressed by budget and leadership turmoil.
The state is barely three years out of a prolonged budget stalemate under former Gov. Bruce Rauner, which left Illinois’ human services sector severely weakened, and resulted in a surge of need in the child welfare system.
As child welfare needs have increased in Illinois, capacity has fallen. Between 2015 and 2019, Illinois’ shelter bed capacity was cut by 71%, from 159 beds to 46, according to DCFS. In that same time period, Illinois lost nearly 500 residential beds and 2,300 foster homes.
Ashley and Ryan Driemeyer are in a rebellious mood.
The Driemeyers continue to serve customers inside their two restaurants in Breese and Pocahontas in defiance of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s directive issued on Sept. 1 for metro-east bars and restaurants to stop indoor service because the southwestern Illinois region’s positivity rate for the coronavirus surpassed 8%. […]
Ashley Driemeyer said other bar and restaurant owners in the area also are still serving customers inside. She also is a longtime friend of Bond County attorney Tom DeVore, who has filed multiple lawsuits against Pritzker alleging the governor does not have the authority to issue orders for multiple months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
* Things are getting weird in Will County. From the Times Weekly…
On the same day the Illinois Department of Public Health dropped Will County from the state’s warning list of regions nearing a Coronavirus positivity rate of 8 percent, some area Republicans held a press conference to denounce the IDPH’s numbers and criticize both Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Will County Health Department officials.
“These numbers are inflated. The people of Illinois and the people of the County of Will deserve true and accurate numbers,” said Nick Ficarello, one of 11 area Republicans to attend Friday’s press conference in front of the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. Ficarello is the Republican candidate for Will County Executive.
Only one at the press conference donned a mask to protect themselves and none practiced social distancing while their colleagues spoke to the press. […]
Asked why he and most of the others were not wearing masks at the press conference, Pearson said with the traffic going by there was too much noise and masks would have made it harder for them to be heard.
Will County Board member Gretchen Fritz, a Republican from Plainfield, suggested the county was being unfairly targeted by “Pritzker and his puppet master Mike Madigan.” She argued that the state’s methods to measure positivity rates was flawed. […]
Fritz and others at Friday’s news conference also criticized the Will County Health Department’s call for residents to use the agency’s hotline to report any restaurants or bars violating the COVID-19 restrictions. […]
The Will County Republican Central Committee, in a news release Friday, charged the health department was relying on Communist methods to get residents to turn in violators.
“This is America, not some third world banana republic,” it read. “You have the constitutional right to face your accusers in open court. To fine or punish a person or business goes directly against this principle.”
I look forward to the Will County GOP demanding an end to the local Crime Stoppers program and the elimination of 911 calls. Wouldn’t want anybody snitching.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,373 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including five additional confirmed deaths.
• Cook County: 1 female 70s
• Madison County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
• Randolph County: 1 female 80s
• Rock Island County: 1 male 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 262,744 cases, including 8,314 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 7 – September 13 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 35,930 specimens for a total of 4,771,796. As of last night, 1,431 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 335 patients were in the ICU and 131 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
* Sunday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,462 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 14 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 40s, 2 males 50s, 1 female 60s
DuPage County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s
Kane County: 1 male 60s
Lake County: 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s
Madison County: 1 male 60s
McHenry County: 1 male 20s
Williamson County: 1 female 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 261,371 cases, including 8,309 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 6 – September 12 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 46,890 specimens for a total of 4,735,866. As of last night, 1,422 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 328 patients were in the ICU and 136 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
* Saturday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,121 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 22 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 40s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 2 males 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s, 2 males 90s
Kane County: 1 female 50s
Lake County: 1 male 70s
Macon County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 100+
Madison County: 1 male 80s
Peoria County: 1 male 90s
Wayne County: 1 female 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 259,909 cases, including 8,295 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 5 – September 12 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 56,594 specimens for a total of 4,688,976. As of last night, 1,509 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 344 patients were in the ICU and 170 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
An official with the Wayne County Health Department tells the radio station that about 30 of the 39 new COVID-19 cases reported in the county Saturday are linked to the Frontier Community College baseball team.
Wayne County Health Administrator Clark Griffith said 62 people within the program were tested Friday with the results coming in Saturday evening. Over 50-percent of those baseball players tested were positives. The Wayne County Health Department says it is working with the community college and local hospitals to keep the healthy members of the program separated from those who have tested positive.
FCC President Jay Edgren says the outbreak is contained to student athletes living in off-campus housing.
Professional athletes are tested constantly and are following strict protocols. That’s not always the case at lower levels, particularly at the community college and high school levels.
Over Labor Day weekend, I got to do my favorite thing as a dad — watch my youngest son play soccer with his local youth team.
Instead of playing in central Illinois, however, we traveled to Indianapolis to play in a youth soccer tournament. Like many others in the state, my sons will be traveling outside Illinois to participate in youth athletics this year to Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin and Iowa this fall to play sports. […]
Our kids want to participate in fall sports, and they can safely do so with the appropriate guidelines in place.
Joe Trost, an advocate for high school athletes, said he estimates one hundred Illinois high school football players have transferred to other states to play this season.
That ain’t many, but I reached out to the reporter to ask about Trost and why he’s labeled as a student advocate. Turns out, he runsfounded a big soccer tournament (Pepsico Showdown) and is a former TVsports reporter.
Student athlete and advocate Joe Trost said players and parents want a changed and safe plan in place for sports now.
Um, he’s not a student athlete. He’s a grownup. And he runs a tournament.
…Adding… Trost in comments…
I am proud to finally made Rich’s blog. For years, I’ve always given him information for the blog. I didn’t know I was a TV sports reporter, I probably have a face more for radio. I thank the one commenter - I loved my time at The Star. I founded Buddy’s HELPERS, which uses the power of sports to engage and educate student athletes about enhancing the lives of others. Google the Making A Difference On AND Off The Field campaign. You can see the stories for years. And yes, I am a student athlete advocate. Just as was the case during the CTU strike last year when kids were caught in the middle and being impacted, I was the voice because at times kids feel intimidated to stand up. With that said, I don’t want to be the face of it - it’s about the kids. That’s why I help media train student athletes and prep them when stuck in these situations. I’ve always had a passion for helping kids through sport. I am a little annoyed that Rich when given my contact info didn’t contact me, but we’re human - we make mistakes. So hey if anyone wants to give me a TV Sports job, I just need some makeup to make my face look better. Then I could actually make Feder’s blog, too, seeing I’ve been reading him since I was kid, too.
The Illinois High School Association on Friday clarified the contents of a letter it sent Thursday to the Illinois Governor’s office.
“There have been no discussions, let alone proposed timelines, for resuming any sports at this time,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said in a release.
On Thursday, Anderson said he sent a letter to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Deputy Governor for Education Jesse Ruiz seeking permission for the IHSA to resume control of determining when sports return.
“With support from the IHSA Board of Directors, I issued a letter … that seeks permission for the IHSA and its Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to resume control over determining the resumption of IHSA sports and activities,” Anderson said. “However, the content of that letter has been greatly misconstrued on social media in a short amount of time.
Dozens of Illinois high school student-athletes, coaches and parents held a rally Sunday demanding the expanded return of fall sports for Illinois schools.
At the McCook rally, Wheaton Warrenville South Student Jaylen Brown said he’s worried about his senior football and basketball seasons.
“This decision will determine if I get a scholarship or not,” high school athlete Jaylen Brown said.
High school sports advocate and rally organizer Joe Trost says these issues can weigh particularly heavy on some CPS students.
And the organizers have asked me to close it with a ‘brave heart’ speech. I’m doubling down & hope you’re in. If you don’t support these rallies don’t complain when you have e-learning & no sports in perpetuity. pic.twitter.com/na4Ky3oTDf
Rep. Sean Casten announced today that his campaign is reserving $2.4M in air time in the Chicago media market and on cable that will run from Wednesday, September 16th through Election Day. This is the first of multiple buys the campaign intends to make during the cycle.
The campaign also released the first ad, “Molecular”. You can watch the ad here.
Rep. Sean Casten released the following statement:
“I spent my career as a businessman taking concrete steps to rebuild the economy and combat climate change — including harnessing the power of clean energy to create jobs. I’ve continued that work in Congress and will never stop fighting for the issues my constituents care about.”
SCRIPT
NARRATOR: Sean Casten — a scientist who built a successful company that used technology to clean up pollution, putting businesses to work fighting climate change.
NARRATOR: Sean pledged to keep people informed, holding more than 40 town hall meetings across the district.
CASTEN: Families have been through a lot this year, and it’s far from over. The way forward is to follow the science to control this pandemic and get our economy back on its feet.
CASTEN (featuring Casten’s family): I’m Sean Casten, and we approve this message.
There’s been much gnashing of teeth since the state announced that just 21 social equity applicants had qualified for regional lotteries that will award 75 cannabis dispensary store licenses.
The 21 winning entities submitted well over 300 applications for those 75 licenses, which has forced a tie-breaking round.
In total, 937 entities submitted 4,518 dispensary site applications, so that’s a whole lot of unhappy people, many of whom have friends in the General Assembly. It really doesn’t matter that 13 of the 21 companies are “majority owned and controlled by people of color and 17 have at least one owner who is a person of color,” as the administration claims. A lot of folks were unexpectedly shut out and people are downright furious.
Even so, the same legislators who are now complaining also voted for the bill, which lays out what applicants had to do to qualify for a license.
The legislation awarded up to 250 points for things like status as a social equity candidate (50 points), labor-friendly employment practices (5 points), an environmental plan to limit carbon footprints (5 points), an Illinois owner (5 points), a diversity plan (5 points), security and record-keeping (65 points) and 51 percent ownership by military veterans (5 points), etc.
Now, here’s where the unexpected problem comes in. According to the Pritzker administration, all 21 of the successful applicants scored a perfect 250, plus they all earned two extra bonus points for having what the statute calls “a plan to engage with the community.”
That many perfect scores for that many entities and their respective applications absolutely shocked most applicants and the administration.
The 51% veterans requirement, which was added late in the 2019 negotiations after demands by veteran-friendly state Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago) and others, turned out to be a major stumbling block for several applicants.
But, hey, it was in the bill, plain as day. Lots of applicants just didn’t think it was necessary to have a perfect score to make it into the tiebreaker round. Oops.
And now all heck is breaking loose.
“It’s a knife through the heart of the black and brown community,” said former state Sen. Rickey Hendon at a press conference, according to WGN News. The Legislative Black Caucus and the Latino Caucus want the governor to stop the program in its tracks.
Democratic state Reps. La Shawn Ford and Kathleen Willis wrote Pritzker a letter calling the whole system into question.
The state will eventually award 500 dispensary licenses, so this round was “only a test,” as one Pritzker administration official put it. And even the governor admitted that there is significant room for improvement.
Gov. Pritzker told reporters last week that he wants to look at limiting the number of dispensary site applications which can be submitted by each entity. By law, companies can hold only 10 dispensary licenses at once, but a few legally applied for dozens. Some legislators and others say they foresaw this problem and claim the administration flatly rejected the idea on multiple occasions.
This particular issue was preventable, and the governor does deserve blame for not listening to those warnings until it was too late, even though members of his administration deny the claims.
Another change being discussed is allowing applicants to automatically qualify for the lottery if they score, say, at least 90% of the 252 total points.
But even that may not work. Some of the points are won under clearly objective standards (veterans ownership, for instance). But some are subjective, and multiple applicants have claimed that the no-bid contractor that graded their applications for the state, KPMG, inexplicably denied them points that they believe they were entitled to. Unfortunately for them, there is no appeals process — yet another glaring statutory omission that will likely lead to lawsuits.
The fact that a KPMG consultant was part of a successful team that will seek six licenses in the tie-breaking lottery just makes matters worse.
The “test” clearly did not succeed as hoped. But the administration claims it needs to get this part of the process behind it so the state can conduct a “disparity study” to allow it to legally use race in awarding many of the rest of the 500 licenses. Lawsuits, however, could delay this process for years if the lottery doesn’t proceed.
Bottom line: It’s a big freaking mess. And even though lots of legislators are not being completely forthcoming about their own roles, governors own messes.
Some of this is being ginned up by sore losers with political ties. Hendon, for instance, was an unsuccessful applicant.
* But here’s one of the winners…
Today we had our first official meeting as the (future) owners (fingers crossed) of Baked.
* I’ve asked the governor’s office for a response to this, and I’ll post it when I receive it. I’d definitely like to see more details either way…
Dispensary applicants with application problems continued to come forward Wednesday. One applicant, Joline Rivera from the Functional Food Inc. group told Grown In that her team submitted three identical applications, and received discrepancy notices for two of the applications, but no comment for the third.
“I don’t know if they missed it or what?” said Rivera. “I emailed the IDFPR and got a response saying they don’t accept emails.”
“I really believed they were going to do right. I should have known better,” she told Grown In.
Application discrepancy notices questioning the veracity of social equity applicants is also becoming a theme. The Chicago Cannabis Club team, advised by Charlena Berry, is one application group that got a discrepancy notice questioning the social equity status of their team leader, a Latino veteran.
“We provided information to show he was [from] a disproportionately impacted area, then they gave us a deficiency. I thought it was because he served time away. We responded with tax returns, and double and triple checked everything for the deficiency [response],” said Berry. Time away while in the military is not supposed to count against time away from a disproportionately impacted area, according to IDFPR application rules.
…Adding… Emily Bittner at the governor’s office…
As we have been from the very beginning, the administration remains committed to launching the Illinois adult-use cannabis industry in a fair, equitable manner that provides a path for Illinoisans from all backgrounds to benefit from legalization, from diversifying the industry and criminal justice reform, to investing proceeds to rebuild communities. We take all of the concerns that applicants have raised seriously, are reviewing all of them and will continue to communicate in a clear, transparent way about the licensure process.
Dear @illinoissbe: Why have you left the wireless modems in IL’s precinct scanners despite the knowledge that they connect the scanners & county central tabulators to the internet?! Why do u allow counties to use them on election night?! #RemoveTheModemspic.twitter.com/FhkB8RC6TF
* So, I sent a quick email to the Illinois State Board of Elections asking if this was true…
No. They do not connect to the internet. They use a cellular signal to send a one-way, handshake-encrypted transmission of UNOFFICIAL results on election night. There is no Internet connectivity on either end.
These are used by a handful of jurisdictions (Cook, Chicago and some of the collar counties; I’m not sure at the moment which ones) for the sole purpose of providing unofficial results as quickly as possible on election night.
I am watching that tweet to determine whether it warrants a reply. Twitter is not a good forum for technical explanations and I’m not interested in an extended back-and-forth that invites virality.
I posted the response and reported the tweet to Twitter, but it’s obviously still up.
* Meanwhile, Brenden Moore has a story about the Trump boat parade on Lake Springfield over Labor Day weekend…
Ward 6 Ald. Kristin DiCenso asked City Water, Light and Power officials and city attorney Jim Zerkle at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting if a permit was necessary for the event and if one had been obtained. […]
The question was asked and answered, and the discussion was seemingly over within five minutes. But, it turns out, it was only the beginning.
On Thursday, DiCenso became the target of fierce criticism from Sangamon County Republican Party chairwoman Rosemarie Long, who was responding to information on a flier that’s been making the rounds on social media.
The flier claimed that DiCenso, following Tuesday’s meeting, had described the boat parade as “horrid and unacceptable” and that she had plans to propose an ordinance that would prevent the displaying of political signs and flags on lake property.
The flier has been distributed to various lake clubs and to lake lease owners. Long, speaking at the party’s committee call, said she was “getting goosebumps because I’m so mad” about the claims.
“I cannot tell you how upsetting this is to me,” Long said. “What happened to freedom in this country, in this town, in this county when they just think about not letting you place your American flag in your yard?”
And, of course, the “flier” is completely overblown. But some people will believe anything they see, apparently.
* I do not possess the talent to come up with superlatives for Carol Marin which are not already mentioned in this Robert Feder story. Gold standard. A beacon. The winner of every major award in broadcast journalism. A true legend. And she has always taken the time to talk with other reporters. The hole this leaves cannot be filled…
Carol Marin, one of Chicago’s most honored and respected journalists of all time, is bringing down the curtain on her legendary TV news career after 48 years.
Marin, 71, surprised colleagues today by announcing that she will step down as political editor at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 and correspondent for “Chicago Tonight” at Window to the World Communications WTTW-Channel 11 after she covers the presidential election November 3.
“It’s time to get off the stage,” she told me. “Everybody needs to know the time for the last performance. I’ve had a great run, but I want to walk off the news stage when I feel great about it still, when I’ve got great relationships still, and when I feel the work is solid. I always wanted to be the one to decide the time, and I’m grateful to be able to do that. […]
Marin said she will continue to serve as co-director of the Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence at DePaul University, which she co-founded in 2016. Don Moseley, co-director of the center and Marin’s longtime producer and reporting collaborator, also will be leaving as an investigative producer at NBC 5.
Since joining the DePaul faculty in 2003, Marin and Moseley have mentored hundreds of young journalists.
