* Background is here if you need it. There had been an agreement to hammer out a letter to US Attorney Lausch between the two parties on the special investigative committee. That is no longer operative. Press release…
State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, chair of the House Special Investigating Committee, released the following statement Wednesday:
“Today, in my capacity as chair of the Special Investigating Committee, I sent a letter to U.S. Attorney John Lausch memorializing the contents of our conversation Monday. In particular, my letter reflects our understanding that while the U.S. Attorney’s Office had no objection to witnesses being invited to voluntarily testify as part of the committee’s work, they would object to witnesses disclosing material information or documents related to their federal investigation or grand jury deliberations – specifically information underlying the government’s deferred prosecution agreement with Commonwealth Edison. Leader Durkin’s petition which initiated this committee is inextricably linked to the deferred prosecution agreement.
“My letter followed through on a commitment Representative Demmer and I made to U.S. Attorney Lausch in our conversation. But it’s clear that the Republicans did not get the answers they wanted from U.S. Attorney Lausch and are now attempting to reinterpret the details to fit their political strategy. I sent this letter myself on behalf of the committee when it became clear that Republicans would continue down a path of using this committee as a political stunt. The role of this committee is clear, we are to investigate the charge laid out in the petition filed by Leader Durkin. Their refusal to sign onto a straightforward and factual letter is another attempt to make a serious process political.
“While it’s now clear that my Republican colleagues see this committee solely as a vehicle for partisan gamesmanship, I will not allow the work of this committee to inappropriately interfere with the work of the U.S. attorney, and I will not allow it to be manipulated for petty political gain.”
* The letter…
Dear Mr. Lausch:
As we discussed over the phone, the Illinois House of Representatives has convened a Special Investigating Committee (the “SIC”) pursuant to House Rule 91. At its first meeting, the SIC unanimously concluded that its first course of action would be to communicate with your office. SIC members have made clear their need to obtain as much information as possible but doing so without impeding your ongoing investigation(s).
This letter memorializes our phone call with your Office on September 14, 2020, during which we sought guidance from you as to whether an investigation by this Committee into Speaker Michael J. Madigan’s actions based on the contents of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (“DPA”) entered into by Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”) and your Office would impede any of your ongoing investigations or prosecutions.
The charge is that Speaker Madigan engaged in conduct unbecoming to a legislator or which constitutes breach of public trust, as detailed in the DPA, including engaging in a bribery scheme, an extortion scheme, conspiracy to violate federal and state laws, among other misconduct and misuse of office. The charge against Speaker Madigan relates solely to conduct detailed in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement, thus the Committee needs to review the facts and circumstances included in the Agreement.
The following summarize our understanding of the key takeaways for the SIC from the call with your Office on Monday, September 14, 2020:
* Your office has no objection to requesting certain identified witnesses voluntarily testify or produce documents. However, it was stipulated there would be an objection to any witness disclosing material information or documents related to the federal investigation or grand jury deliberations. Thus, your office would object to the Committee requesting testimony or documents provided to your office in connection with your investigation.
* Your office would object to requests for documents, information, or testimony from your office, as well as other federal agencies, regarding the facts and circumstances underlying the DPA. This includes confirmation of the names of individuals or entities who are identified only by descriptive titles in the DPA and its attachments.
* Your office requested that the Committee consult with your office prior to seeking testimony or documents from any individuals, other than those that have been identified.
The SIC is seeking a formal response from your office clarifying our discussion. We are cognizant of the sensitivity of ongoing criminal investigations and do not want to adversely affect them. Please let us know if any of the information we might seek or actions we may take would constitute interference with your investigation.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to hearing from you. You may send any response by email to our counsel, Margaret Livingston, and you may direct any questions to her as well.
Sincerely,
Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch,
Chair Special Investigating Committee II
Illinois House of Representatives
101st General Assembly
Oh, man. It’s gonna hit the fan now.
*** UPDATE 1 *** “Obviously, we will be sending our own letter,” said House Republican spokesperson Eleni Demertzis in response.
Demertzis said the House Republican members of the committee sent a draft to Rep. Welch yesterday. “Late this morning we got a response that completely ignored our draft,” she claimed. The Republican members responded quickly with more revisions and, she said, at about 4:15 this afternoon the GOP spokesperson of the special committee, Rep. Tom Demmer, was essentially given a “take it or leave it, we’re sending our draft” demand by Welch.
So, the US Attorney will be in receipt of two letters. The next move will be up to him.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Joe Hackler at the ILGOP…
At this point, Rep. Welch is performing as a human shield for his mentor, Mike Madigan. It’s sad and pathetic. Welch should be trying to get those answers instead of doing everything in his power to protect Madigan. If Governor Pritzker and members of the House Democratic caucus who said they wanted answers are actually serious, they would speak up now and stop these antics.
Welch says he took copious notes and stands by his interpretation of what Lausch said. Others also took notes. I guess we’ll all see when Lausch responds.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From comments today (links added)…
When asked by a reporter what positivity level he needed to see to reinstate fall sports (football) the Governor said that positivity rate was not a factor. But yet, when he was asked why other states can participate in sports he constantly brings up the positivity rates of other states in relation to our own. If positivity rate is not a factor, then what is the deciding factor of when such activities will be deemed safe?
* So, I posed the question to the governor’s office…
The governor has always said his decisions are guided by science and experts, as this will be no different.
Dr. Michael Lin addressed this issue at length in today’s update.
Dr. Lin is an infectious disease specialist at Rush University Medical Center who studies how diseases spread.
* From Dr. Lin’s comments today…
I’ve seen firsthand the suffering such diseases can bring and I take care of patients who have had the misfortune of developing life threatening COVID-19 illness. I’m also a lucky father of two kids, ages eight and 11 who love to play sports. This topic is deeply personal to me.
The governor has asked me to comment about the science behind why high school football and other youth contact sports should be postponed this fall. Here’s what the science tells us.
COVID-19 is a deadly illness that spreads from person to person through close contact. Contact team sports such as football and hockey can become super spreading events very easily. Just one youth athlete showing up with the virus can start a chain reaction of spread that can quickly threaten an entire team. While the virus continues to circulate widely in our communities, there’s no practical way to prevent outbreaks from happening in sports such as football, with all the contact that’s inherent in the sport. This is not just theoretical. We’ve seen COVID-19 outbreaks in college and professional sports teams that have much more prevention resources at their disposal.
While contact sport itself provides an easy way on the field for the virus to spread, it is also incredibly important to remember that there are many off the field activities that are associated with contact sports, such as athletes using locker rooms, working out in gyms, and traveling together that provide a perfect storm of conditions to enable the virus to spread quickly. We’re all in this fight to help the spread of the virus and prevention steps such as postponing contact sports, as hard as it may be seeming on our children, will reduce infections and save lives. With every youth athlete, there’s a parent, or maybe a sibling, or a grandparent who may be at risk for terrible outcomes from COVID-19 disease. Youth sports do not operate in a vacuum and if COVID-19 spreads among our young athletes, it becomes a risk for our entire community. […]
I’ll close by saying what I told my son, who was really looking forward to playing contact sports this school year. Each of the things that we do to prevent COVID-19 and others, some small like putting on a face mask, others more significant like changing how we play and how we work, is an act of love and sacrifice to our fellow human beings. And this pandemic will not last forever. At some point with better medical advances, particularly with our hope for effective vaccines, this pandemic will end. But the time to relax is not now, especially as we head into the fall and winter season with so many lives at risk.
* The first question for the governor today was about what Dr. Lin had just said…
Reporter: With no disrespect to Dr. Lin, I understand his point. But you could also have a different position, just like any trial would have an expert who would disagree with him. If these other states and perhaps Minnesota on Monday, all are saying it’s okay to play high school sports, what did they know that you don’t know?
Pritzker: Thank you for asking the question. And I would I would start out by saying is that you could probably find an expert to take a position any which direction that you want. That is true. But I also would say that Dr. Lin is not alone. Indeed, he is among the vast majority of infectious disease experts, epidemiologists, scientists, etc. who are deeply concerned particularly about contact sports, where there is an exchange of sweat, saliva, other things that are going on on the field on a regular basis, not to mention that there’s very little protection once they’re in the locker room. In a typical locker room there’s not that much social distancing as you know. There are concerns about that in addition to the field play. There are obviously other sports that have locker rooms, but I’m just suggesting to you that all of the precautions that are being taken by professional sports, and now by college sports are not available to people who play high school or junior high school sports. And I think the doctors have essentially said, ‘Look, we want to get there as fast as we can. But now is not the time, especially as we’re entering the flu season, especially as we’re entering a season where I think everybody is deeply concerned about a second wave hitting the United States.’
* Here’s more from Pritzker a bit later after WIND’s Amy Jacobson told the governor “You’re hurting our children”…
I know that there are many, many parents and kids who would like to be out on the field. And I want them to be out on the field. And as you’ve seen, sports have been categorized not by me by experts about whether they’re high risk, medium risk or low risk. And I’m simply following the science that’s been provided.
Now, I understand there are other states that have made different decisions. That’s one of the tragedies of not having a national strategy here, or being led by a president or CDC that you could trust, that’s providing some direction for everybody. But what I can tell you is that one of the reasons that Illinois has the lowest positivity rate among all of our neighboring states is because we’ve been very careful, because we’ve listened to the scientists. We have some of the best scientists and doctors in the entire country in the state of Illinois. I have been relying upon that, not to mention Dr. Fauci and others. And these are very difficult decisions, and they are emotional decisions even for me. And all I can say to you is that as the information reveals itself, as the scientists come forward with new information - I just want to remind you all that at the very beginning, the CDC said, ‘Well, if you can’t wear an N95 mask, don’t bother wearing a mask.’ That was something they said at the very beginning. We obviously have all discovered that sciences change. We have studies now that show that even the cloth mask that you have on now is a benefit to everybody if we would all wear one, or a surgical mask as you’re wearing, Craig.
So this is evolving, there’s no doubt about it. And there have been changes. And there was not an understanding over the summer, that when we would allow people to go to sports camps, or join their leagues of the summer, there was not an understanding at the beginning of what the transmission might be that occurs. But the fact is that all over the world, youth sports have proven to be very problematic. And that I think, is why, and I’m not making a political judgment about that. I’m just reading, as I think all of you can about what other countries what other states what other. I understand everybody can make a choice here. There’s no doubt about it. And I and Illinois is making a choice here. We’re making a choice based upon the science, that there are some sports that are less risky than others, and we’re allowing those.
* Pritzker was then asked if he understood “the mixed message of today” with the Big 10 announcement that football will soon return…
When you’re talking about Big 10, and you’re talking about professional sports, much different than high school sports. It just is, because of the amount of testing because, of the amount of the doctors that are available, because of the focus on testing for myocarditis. That’s something that the Big 10 has said that they will do in kids who contract coronavirus. That’s not something that’s happening at the high school level. And so we really need to just pay attention here to the different levels. It’s not football here is same as football over there. If you could put a bubble around each one of these teams, for example, at high schools, and you could provide athe same kinds of services. Perhaps high schools could do that. But look, I’m making decisions for an entire state. We have 855 school districts in the state of Illinois and we have individual schools within those school districts. More than 4000 total schools and, you know, these decisions are they’re difficult to make. But it’s important that I keep in mind anyway how we can best keep our are kids safe and healthy.
Please excuse all transcription errors.
* The Question: Should Illinois allow high school football teams to play this fall? And if so, under what restrictions? And if not, why?
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* From the governor’s office…
Dear Members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation:
As Congress continues its legislative deliberations this week, I write to once again urge all members of our Illinois Congressional delegation to come together in a bipartisan fashion to provide critical support to states and local governments facing disastrous budgetary consequences stemming from unanticipated revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we sincerely appreciate the financial support to respond to the direct impacts of the pandemic derived from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Families First Coronavirus Response Act and other Congressional action, there is unfinished business to address the effects of the virus. Forcing states and local governments to make massive budget cuts is harming our nation’s economic recovery and will have devastating consequences on businesses, schools, first responders, working families and everyday Illinoisans who are already suffering.
This is not just an Illinois problem — or a Florida problem or a Texas problem — nor is it just a red state or a blue state problem: According to estimates at Moody’s Analytics, state governments collectively will have budget shortfalls of $312 billion through the summer of 2022, growing to $500 billion when local governments are included. Illinois alone estimates general fund state revenue losses of over $6.5 billion over fiscal years 2020 and 2021 while facing increasing demands for many health care and human service programs. Making sure that government has the capacity to deliver basic services during these very challenging times for Illinois families is essential to our recovery, and at the core of what it means to come back in a strong fiscal position.
I have never pretended local and state governments don’t need new solutions. Indeed, I’ve worked to deliver them myself. In my first year as Governor, we reduced health care costs to Illinois taxpayers, paid down more than $1 billion of our bill backlog, and reduced taxes on 300,000 businesses. But I can also tell you that there’s a big difference between addressing inefficiencies and cutting vital services for the people we serve. This pandemic has severely reduced revenues to Illinois’ local and state governments, and bringing our budgets back into balance without federal help will mean carving billions of dollars from K-12 education, higher education, and public safety. It will mean slashing funding for our roads and bridges, our state parks, crime labs and anti-violence programs, childcare providers, clean water and clean air, and health care services. Literally millions of middle class, working class, and poor families in Illinois will have their lives further upended by a failure of support from the Congress and the President. And I want to again emphasize that this is not a blue state issue alone. Texas is facing its biggest budget shortfall in history, and Florida’s governor likened their budget situation to the Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones. Similarly, cities and counties are facing massive service cuts that will have immediate effects on residents.
Faced with uncertainty over what direct support it might get from Congress — but with hope that a fraction of the trillions that went to supporting large corporations might come to states, counties and cities — the State of Illinois was forced to pass a fiscal year 2021 budget with zero general funds increases in early childhood, K-12 and higher education. We were able to provide minimal increases to health care and human services. However, this budget scenario is only affordable with nearly $5 billion in support from the federal government. Without such support, the state would have no choice but to cut funding across the board to bring the budget into balance. Setting aside mandatory payments and debt service, this could translate into cuts as much as 15% to all programs and services. This could possibly include over a billion dollars in cuts to PreK-12 schools alone, but also will lead to human services being decimated and thousands of layoffs in state and local government, colleges and universities, first responders, and among human service providers – potentially undoing many of the stimulus benefits that the federal government has worked hard to achieve. Based upon national estimates of Covid-related budget shortfalls for state and local governments, fiscal year 2022 is unlikely to look any better.
As this virus rages on, the fiscal challenges have spread just like the virus. What seemed to some like a problem only plaguing Chicago and Cook and the surrounding counties, now has severely impacted every area of our state. Positivity rates outside of Chicago have been rising at a quicker rate, and the virus’s deleterious effect on our people and our economy is still unknown. But we know that the federal, state and local governments cannot let our people or our economy down.
I do not want to overlook or understate how important the actions of Congress have been to date. Enhanced Medicaid program funding, increased unemployment benefits, and CARES dollars have been crucial to Illinois and its citizens during these unprecedented times. But just as there was massive assistance to the biggest businesses and corporations in America during this crisis – assistance that only the federal government has the power to offer – there must also be funding to replace COVID-related revenue losses for states, counties and cities that are on the front lines of helping working families and our most vulnerable residents.
I have spoken to the leaders of the Illinois General Assembly on multiple occasions about this issue, and together we stand ready to work with you on providing information and support for this undertaking. Many of you began your careers in state or local government, and I know you share my belief that state and local government provide essential front line services to citizens and power local economic activity in crucial ways. I implore you to assist all states and local governments, and especially your home state and your home counties and cities.
I thank you for your hard work and offer whatever assistance you may need as you finish your work for this congressional session.
Sincerely,
JB Pritzker, Governor State of Illinois
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Richard Durbin…
The State of Illinois is not alone facing a serious revenue loss resulting from this pandemic. State and local governments around the country are being forced to slash budgets and cut jobs as they face record revenue losses and increased costs of fighting the virus. Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s refusal to pass a relief bill that includes desperately needed funding for state and local governments threatens the livelihoods of our teachers, EMTs, and firefighters. Will he ever feel the urgency to begin bipartisan negotiations on a bill that so many in Illinois and across the country desperately need?
* Congressional leadership…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer released this statement following President Trump’s tweet calling on Republicans to “go for the much higher numbers” in the next COVID-19 relief package:
“We are encouraged that after months of the Senate Republicans insisting on shortchanging the massive needs of the American people, President Trump is now calling on Republicans to ‘go for the much higher numbers’ in the next coronavirus relief package.
“We look forward to hearing from the President’s negotiators that they will finally meet us halfway with a bill that is equal to the massive health and economic crises gripping our nation.
“By the end of the week, 200,000 Americans will have died from the coronavirus. The lives and livelihoods of the American people depend on Republicans abandoning their obsession with doing as little as possible while the coronavirus rages through our nation.”
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today 1,941 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 35 additional confirmed deaths.
Bureau County: 1 male 80s
Clinton County: 1 male 90s
Coles County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 50s, 2 females 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 male 70s, 1 female 80s
DuPage County: 1 female 60s
Hancock County: 1 male 80s
Henry County: 1 female 60s
Jasper County: 1 male 60s
Kane County: 1 female 70s
Lake County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s
Lawrence County: 1 female 80s
Livingston County: 1 male 80s
Macon County: 1 male 80s
Madison County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Massac County: 1 female 90s
Peoria County: 1 male 90s
Perry County: 1 female 70s
Rock Island County: 1 male 70s
St. Clair County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s
Wayne County: 1 female 50s
Will County: 1 male 70s
Williamson County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 266,151 cases, including 8,367 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 9 – September 15 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 52,311 specimens for a total of 4,863,138. As of last night, 1,565 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 345 patients were in the ICU and 143 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.
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* Gov. Pritzker yesterday when asked why Illinois was the only state in the Midwest that wasn’t playing high school football…
Look at the states that you’re talking about. They all have high positivity rates, double-digit positivity rates in most. And those are states, fine, if they decided to endanger children and families in those states by allowing contact sports to take place, that’s their decision. That’s not something that’s good for the families, the children of Illinois.
He didn’t mention it, but Michigan was the only other holdout. But it has since reversed course and is kicking off its high school games this week.
* Also Gov. Pritzker yesterday…
But the idea, as you know, of focusing on sports - not my idea it’s doctors and researchers - have found that these sports, particularly high school sports and college sports, without the proper mitigations, without the proper prevention, etc. that those sports are dangerous. And evidence of that has popped up more recently in our state, down in Wayne County. I think you may know that the baseball team at the community college at Frontier, unfortunately there was an outbreak. It spread significantly, most of the team now has tested positive. There are many many dozens of people who are now quarantined as a result of their having tested positive, there having been an outbreak.
* Tribune…
But Clark Griffith, administrator of the Wayne County Health Department, said the source of the transmission didn’t appear to be team activities but the dormitory in which the players lived. […]
That is similar to another outbreak that upset the IHSA’s return-to-play plans. In July, days after high school teams were allowed to start summer practice, Deputy Governor for Education Jesse Ruiz told the organization that physical contact between athletes was banned after a cluster of COVID-19 cases among sports camp participants at Lake Zurich High School.
Yet further investigation showed that “for the most part, that outbreak was linked to social gatherings prior to the camps,” said Hannah Goering, spokeswoman for the Lake County Health Department. […]
Sheldon Jacobson, a University of Illinois computer science professor who specializes in risk assessment, has looked at the COVID-19 health risk for athletes participating in various college sports and concluded it is negligible, even for football.
He said as long as players get tested, wear masks and stay inside their “bubble” — avoiding contact with people outside of their teams — they should stave off infection.
That’s all well and good, but the article is supposed to be about high schools. The title is: “With Big Ten set to resume football this fall, why won’t Illinois high schools follow suit?”
Are high schools going to require frequent testing? And how are high school players going to stay inside a “bubble”? They’re not in dorms like college players, after all. Obviously, there was no “bubble” in Lake Zurich.
* Dr. Rishi Desai, a pediatric infectious disease specialist…
“To be honest, a lot of this is still very much theoretical,” he said. “The problem is that getting enough data takes time, and not enough time has passed.”
…Adding… This deserves a mention as well. It’s not just about the players, it’s about what can happen if they spread the virus…
* Maine wedding ‘superspreader’ event is now linked to seven deaths. None of those people attended.
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This Is Illinois
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois being Illinois, one thing you have to keep in mind when reading stories like this (as well-researched as it appears to be), is whether companies that lost out also had political connections. That’s what usually happens here…
A famed restaurateur.
An ex-Chicago police commander.
A longtime Republican Party operative.
A former Chicago Transit Authority official.
A cannabis industry insider related to a former state lawmaker.
A former director of the state agency that oversees weed dispensaries.
What do they all have in common?
They’re working together for Green Renaissance Illinois, a budding firm that was recently named a finalist in the state lottery for the next round of pot shop licenses.
That being said, the governor was likely right to order a look at the bidding process. The more I see, the more I think that KPMG’s approach was flawed or worse.
Also, the license application process to grow cannabis includes the right to appeal. The law gives dispensary applicants no such right. That’s a very real problem and the GA needs to revisit this in the fall.
* In other news…
There are no cannabis-related businesses in Elgin, but city officials hope to recruit a dispensary to the downtown with a rule change that received unanimous support from the planning and zoning commission this week.
Despite following the state’s lead and legalizing dispensaries and cultivation centers during the past six years, Elgin has not lured any medical or recreational businesses.
There have been “a lot of inquiries,” according to Mark Mylott, the city’s director of community development. But restrictions about how close such a business can be to areas where children might gather has kept the most attractive locations, including the downtown, off-limits, he said. Mylott said a dispensary could be the catalyst the downtown needs. […]
City officials want to exclude two “pocket parks” from the 250-foot distance requirement.
Our blue laws are so goofy.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Kilbride touts GOP support
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve been telling subscribers about a Republican bent to Democratic Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride’s campaign for a bit now, but Greg Hinz has some new endorsements…
In an odd turn in a key race, much of the state’s GOP legal establishment is endorsing Justice Thomas Kilbride for a new term on the Illinois Supreme Court, even though he’s a Democrat and the highly partisan issue of legislative reapportionment may soon come before the panel.
In a letter released by his campaign, Kilbride, who is up for retention in his west central Illinois district, won the backing of former Chief Justices Ben Miller and Robert Thomas, former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner, former U.S. Attorneys Dan Webb and Anton Valukas, and ex-lllinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross, among others.
All of them are Republicans, as is the first name on the list, ex-Gov. Jim Thompson, who agreed to back Kilbride before his recent death, according to Kilbride campaign spokesman Ryan McLaughlin, whose firm generally represents Republicans and big business groups. […]
Fahner, in a phone interview, Kilbride has done “a credible job” and is worth retaining, even if the two sometimes disagreed.“He’s an honorable guy, and he’s thoughtful about his opinions,” Fahner said. While Kilbride did, in his view, err in upholding the pension clause in the Illinois Constitution, the court was unanimous in that decision, Fahner said.
Justice Thomas endorsed Kilbride in 2010, so that’s not new. I told subscribers about McLaughlin’s involvement yesterday. Fahner is a bit of a surprise.
* From ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider…
Justice Kilbride is a Madigan pawn occupying a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court, and he must be defeated. Kilbride has been elected by Madigan’s millions and has returned the favor, rejecting every good government reform that has appeared on the docket all in service to Madigan’s stranglehold on Illinois politics. The Illinois Republican Party strongly urges a vote of non-retention for Madigan’s favorite judge, Justice Kilbride.
* And this op-ed is by former Peoria Congressman and former US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood…
I respectfully ask voters to cast a No vote against Thomas Kilbride in this election. Kilbride has already been a state Supreme Court judge for 20 years. He is seeking another 10 years, or 30 years total on the bench. Enough is enough.
Worse, Tom Kilbride is on the bench almost solely because of nearly $4 million in campaign cash provided by Mike Madigan, the corruption-tainted speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and longtime head of the Chicago Democratic Party.
Kilbride has returned the favor to Mike Madigan, by always deciding cases the way Mike Madigan wants. Let me explain.
Illinois and Chicago in particular are known for political corruption. It hurts our state. Now Madigan is again embroiled in scandal. The huge electric utility Commonwealth Edison recently admitted in court that for 10 years(!) it has been bribing close associates of Mike Madigan, including the best man at Madigan’s wedding, in order to get Madigan’s okay to pass its legislation.
LaHood, you may recall, recently endorsed Joe Biden for president.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Today, Illinois Congressmen John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis, Mike Bost, and Darin LaHood released the following statement opposing the retention of Justice Thomas Kilbride of the 3rd Judicial District on the Illinois Supreme Court:
“We strongly urge the voters of the third judicial district to Vote No on the retention of Justice Thomas Kilbride because he is bought and paid for by Mike Madigan and the Democratic political machine.
Speaker Michael Madigan and his allies funneled millions to Kilbride’s campaigns, both in his election in 2000 and his retention in 2010. Kilbride has provided quite the return for Madigan - he was the deciding vote and wrote the decision striking down the Fair Maps amendment in 2016. The vote upheld Madigan’s gerrymandered maps and ignored the will of nearly 600,000 Illinoisans who signed a petition in support of nonpartisan redistricting. The people of Illinois deserve an honest and impartial Supreme Court, not one controlled by Mike Madigan.”
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* Jon Seidel at the Sun-Times live-tweeted former Sen. Terry Link’s court hearing today…
Link’s plea agreement anticipates his cooperation with federal prosecutors. A source has already identified him as the senator who wore a wire against then-Rep. Luis Arroyo. He has denied it.
A prosecutor says Link’s income in 2016 was about $358,000 even though he claimed it was $264,450.
#BREAKING: Longtime Illinois lawmaker Terry Link pleads guilty to filing a false tax return. His plea comes nearly a year after he denied being the unnamed senator who wore a wire on then-Rep. Luis Arroyo in exchange for leniency in court.
Link’s attorney clarifies, for the record, an agreement with prosecutors: The charges in Link’s case are unrelated to his employment as a state senator.
A few more details on Link: Of his 2016 income, he spent $73,000 on personal expenses from an account controlled by his political campaign. His false return in 2016 cost the IRS $25,913 and the IL DOR $3,520.
Link also filed false tax returns from 2012-2015.
The agreement with the feds about the charges being unrelated to his Senate service likely protects his pension.
*** UPDATE *** From the US Attorney…
Former Illinois State Sen. TERRANCE P. LINK pleaded guilty today to a federal tax charge and admitted willfully underreporting his income for several years.
Link admitted in a plea agreement that he willfully underreported his income on his tax returns for the calendar years 2012 through 2016. The conduct caused total losses to the IRS of at least $71,133, and to the Illinois Department of Revenue of at least $11,527, the plea agreement states. For the calendar year 2016, Link admitted that he underreported approximately $93,859, approximately $73,159 of which was money from a campaign fund – Friends of Terry Link – that Link spent on personal expenses, the plea agreement states.
Link, 73, pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return, which is punishable by up to three years in federal prison. He agreed to pay restitution of $71,133 to the IRS, and $11,527 to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., did not immediately set a sentencing date. A status hearing was set for March 30, 2021, at 9:00 a.m.
The guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Stetler and James P. Durkin.
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* Kevin Bessler at Center Square…
The Senate criminal law committee is looking at how changes to the state’s criminal sentencing rules could affect everything from the state’s prison population to public safety in Illinois cities.
The state’s Truth in Sentencing law has been debated since 1998 and it was the center of discussion during a Senate criminal law committee hearing on Tuesday.
The Illinois law requires that nearly all violent offenders serve 85% to 100% of their sentences. Prior to the enactment of the law, offenders served on average 44% of their sentences.
Kathy Saltmarsh, the executive director for the Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, or SPAC, said the law keeps prisoners locked up for years at considerable cost to taxpayers
“The costs are high,” Saltmarsh said. “It’s about a $42,000 to $45,000 cost per year for a year of incarceration.” […]
The Illinois Department of Corrections spends roughly $428 million a year, about a third of its annual budget, keeping elderly inmates behind bars, according to a 2011 Chicago Reader article. The article noted that “while keeping a younger inmate behind bars costs taxpayers about $17,000 a year, older inmates cost four times as much.”
Saltmarsh said under the Truth in Sentencing law, inmates don’t get credit for good behavior.
“What we have now is about 45% of our population that is under a Truth in Sentencing restriction, and as that grows, it makes it harder and harder for the department to reward good behavior and move people out early,” Saltmarsh said.
* Raymon Troncosos at Capitol News Illinois…
Witnesses from the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association agreed with making drug sentencing more equitable. They also advocated for more government-provided resources to underserved communities in terms of education, housing, economic assistance and counseling to reduce crime. The group also said providing more resources to inmates such as work release and work study programs could assist in the rehabilitation effort.
The state’s attorneys, however, pushed back on calls to do away with mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing laws.
“What our concern is as prosecutors, is we are doing our jobs to protect the public from the wolves, not the sheep,” Justin Hood, president of the association, said during his testimony.
He also emphasized that prosecutors do not look at the race or gender of the individual when deciding criminal charges, but instead focus on the crime itself and the defendant’s criminal history.
Discuss.
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Madigan raising more money than ever
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A.D. Quig at Crain’s…
Despite one of the biggest scandals of his tenure, House Speaker Mike Madigan’s campaign coffers are the biggest they’ve ever been with roughly $25 million cash on hand going into the final stretch of the 2020 election season, according to campaign finance records.
Madigan controls four campaign funds, the largest of which – Friends of Michael J Madigan – raised roughly $10 million in the last year alone, despite federal raids on the homes and offices of many of Madigan’s closest associates launching in the summer of 2019. That committee has raised $1 million since the ComEd deferred prosecution agreement implicated Madigan in July, with big donations from the Chicago Land Operators Joint Labor-Management PAC, LiUNA Chicago Laborers District Council and the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters PAC. […[
With less than two months to go until the November election, House Speaker Mike Madigan’s campaign coffers are in better shape than ever. Between the four committees he controls, the speaker has $25 million cash on hand as of September 14. While we won’t know how much Madigan spent this quarter until mid-October, his quarterly totals reported to the state election board exceed the run-up to all other elections so far.
More, including a graph, is at the link.
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* Big Ten…
The Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) adopted significant medical protocols including daily antigen testing, enhanced cardiac screening and an enhanced data-driven approach when making decisions about practice/competition. The COP/C voted unanimously to resume the football season starting the weekend of October 23-24, 2020. The decision was based on information presented by the Big Ten Return to Competition Task Force, a working group that was established by the COP/C and Commissioner Kevin Warren to ensure a collaborative and transparent process.
The Big Ten will require student-athletes, coaches, trainers and other individuals that are on the field for all practices and games to undergo daily antigen testing. Test results must be completed and recorded prior to each practice or game. Student-athletes who test positive for the coronavirus through point of contact (POC) daily testing would require a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to confirm the result of the POC test.
“Everyone associated with the Big Ten should be very proud of the groundbreaking steps that are now being taken to better protect the health and safety of the student-athletes and surrounding communities,” said Dr. Jim Borchers, Head Team Physician, The Ohio State University and co-chair of the Return to Competition Task Force medical subcommittee.
“The data we are going to collect from testing and the cardiac registry will provide major contributions for all 14 Big Ten institutions as they study COVID-19 and attempt to mitigate the spread of the disease among wider communities.”
Each institution will designate a Chief Infection Officer (CInO) who will oversee the collection and reporting of data for the Big Ten Conference. Team test positivity rate and population positivity rate thresholds will be used to determine recommendations for continuing practice and competition.
All COVID-19 positive student-athletes will have to undergo comprehensive cardiac testing to include labs and biomarkers, ECG, Echocardiogram and a Cardiac MRI. Following cardiac evaluation, student-athletes must receive clearance from a cardiologist designated by the university for the primary purpose of cardiac clearance for COVID-19 positive student-athletes. The earliest a student-athlete can return to game competition is 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis.
In addition to the medical protocols approved, the 14 Big Ten institutions will establish a cardiac registry in an effort to examine the effects on COVID-19 positive student-athletes. The registry and associated data will attempt to answer many of the unknowns regarding the cardiac manifestations in COVID-19 positive elite athletes.
“From the onset of the pandemic, our highest priority has been the health and the safety of our students. The new medical protocols and standards put into place by the Big Ten Return To Competition Task Force were pivotal in the decision to move forward with sports in the conference,” said Morton Schapiro, Chair of the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors and Northwestern University President, and Chair of the Return to Competition Task Force Steering Committee. “We appreciate the conference’s dedication to developing the necessary safety procedures for our students and the communities that embrace them.”
“Our focus with the Task Force over the last six weeks was to ensure the health and safety of our student-athletes. Our goal has always been to return to competition so all student-athletes can realize their dream of competing in the sports they love,” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. “We are incredibly grateful for the collaborative work that our Return to Competition Task Force have accomplished to ensure the health, safety and wellness of student-athletes, coaches and administrators.”
The Big Ten Conference will use data provided by each Chief Infection Officer (CInO) to make decisions about the continuation of practice and competition, as determined by team positivity rate and population positivity rate, based on a seven-day rolling average:
• Team positivity rate (number of positive tests divided by total number of tests administered):
o Green 0-2%
o Orange 2-5%
o Red >5%
• Population positivity rate (number of positive individuals divided by total population at risk):
o Green 0-3.5%
o Orange 3.5-7.5%
o Red >7.5%
Decisions to alter or halt practice and competition will be based on the following scenarios:
• Green/Green and Green/Orange: Team continues with normal practice and competition.
• Orange/Orange and Orange/Red: Team must proceed with caution and enhance COVID-19 prevention (alter practice and meeting schedule, consider viability of continuing with scheduled competition).
• Red/Red: Team must stop regular practice and competition for a minimum of seven days and reassess metrics until improved.
The daily testing will begin by September 30, 2020.
Eventually all Big Ten sports will require testing protocols before they can resume competition. Updates regarding fall sports other than football, as well as winter sports that begin in the fall including men’s and women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and wrestling, will be announced shortly.
* Tribune…
Another issue is that some campuses are closed because of COVID spikes. Wisconsin last week announced a two-week shutdown of football workouts, and Michigan State has asked its students to self-quarantine. Maryland athletes are working out again after a pause since Sept. 3.
The games will be played on campus, according to Yahoo Sports, and only family members will be allowed to attend games at the outset.
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First, deal with the virus
Wednesday, Sep 16, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Daily Herald highlights what some suburban restaurants are doing now that cold weather is approaching…
Outdoor dining has been a savior for restaurants hurt by the pandemic. It resumed before indoor dining was allowed. Months later, diners still prefer it as a safer option.
That’s inspired restaurant owners to get creative to keep patrons at outdoor tables for as long as the weather allows. […]
Blankets are also on sale at Spears, a Wheeling bar that specializes in bourbon, burgers and beer. About 80 percent of the customers there have opted for outdoor seating, so owner and manager Ashley Hembree began looking at how she could continue that into fall. […]
Nick Drivas has seen that same commitment to outdoor dining at Grill House in Northbrook. He estimated only about 10 percent of his customers opt to eat inside.
Despite what you may read on social media or hear on talk radio or see on local TV, the vast majority of people are concerned about catching the virus. Smart business owners understand this.
That being said, I don’t know what’s going to happen when the cold weather really hits. All the blankets and space heaters in the world aren’t going to do much good when it’s below freezing and windy. Back to carry-out, I suppose.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Sep 15, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Our greatly missed friend is covering the presidential campaign for Business Insider, but she recently returned to Chicago to pick up a few things…
* The Question: What would you pack? Remember to not exceed 50 pounds.
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* Background is here if you need it. From Elizabeth Clarke, the president of the Juvenile Justice Initiative…
Dear Rich - since I so often benefit from and am grateful for your coverage of IL politics, it seems unfair to reach out to you for the first time with a complaint. But thought your headline that the retention vote was making a “martyr” of the chief judge in juvenile court was a little over the top. Then I read the comments and was really dismayed. For whatever good it may do, here is some background to clarify the concerns in the advocacy community about Judge Toomin’s leadership.
You may not realize this, but the juvenile court in Cook County is an historic legal innovation. It is the oldest juvenile court in the world dating back to 1899 and has been widely copied. Now family courts exist in nearly every nation. As a world leader, it is critical for the court to exhibit leadership, policies and practices that are consistent with the highest global standards. Our children deserve no less.
But for decades the Cook County Juvenile Court has detained children who are nearly exclusively black and brown. Addressing and ending these deeply troubling racial disparities should be at the center of every juvenile court policy and practice. Instead, Judge Toomin has endorsed policies and practices that fail to limit detention and incarceration.
Most troubling was his opinion overturning a Cook County ordinance aimed at ending detention of young children, age 10/11/12 years. These were children who were detained based on their difficulty complying with an electronic monitoring device strapped on their ankle - in one case, for several weeks during the hot month of August. Imagine trying to parent a 12 year old who has to live with a EM device 24/7.
National experts pointed out this was contrary to national trends to end detention of young children based on the lifelong harm from incarceration. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2019-11-10/illinois-court-permits-detaining-preteenagers. Lifelong harm. Detention is short but extremely traumatic and increases the propensity to offend. Community based alternatives are always more effective in the long run.
The article also pointed out that the U.S. is an outlier in its use of detention, especially detention of young children: Despite the recent nationwide shift, the United States remains an international outliner in its treatment of juveniles, according to advocates. The U.S. is one of only two United Nations members who did not ratify the human rights convention on children’s rights. Douglas Keillor, executive director of Juvenile Justice Advocates International, said that after the U.N. creation and agreement on children’s human rights, globally two standards have been widely accepted: Children under the age of 12 [Note – the U.N. has since clarified that children under age 14 should not be prosecuted] should not be treated criminally, and youth should be treated in juvenile systems until the age of 17.
In addition, despite eligibility Cook County lacked the juvenile court judicial leadership to access state funds for alternatives to juvenile prison through Juvenile Redeploy Illinois. Redeploy Illinois is a program utilized by over forty other jurisdictions in Illinois to support services rather than incarceration for juveniles in trouble with the law, potentially making $1,000,000 available annually to Cook County. The most recent opportunity to access funds for new sites was last fall, and the Juvenile Court in Cook County failed to apply.
Finally, last Spring Judge Toomin had to be countermanded for blocking motions by juveniles for release from detention during the pandemic. Instead, he should have been doing everything possible to facilitate release, including mass commutations of lengthy probation sentences and electronic monitoring orders.
Together these actions demonstrate a shocking lack of the progressive and rehabilitative leadership essential for the world’s first juvenile court. Justice must be tempered with mercy and compassion, especially when children’s lives and futures are involved.
I would be happy to answer any questions, but just want to close by saying that unless you have seen the eyes of a young child as they are locked alone in a cell, you can’t appreciate the horror or trauma of incarceration. The police chief in Evanston recently spoke about the trauma of a police encounter for a child, and how the justice system must change to de-escalate conflict and end the policies, including incarceration, that cause trauma to predominately black and brown children.
Happy to answer any questions & thank you for your good work.
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* From today’s press conference…
* Pritzker also mentioned other states today when asked about the failed US Senate bill…
As you know, they put this skinny CARES Act bill in the Senate up. It didn’t have enough votes to avoid a filibuster because frankly it’s not a robust enough bill. It does not take care of state and local funding that is vitally important.
States like Florida have more than $5 billion of a hole in their budget. Texas has said their hole is a historic deficit. And those are two Republican-controlled states, it’s true all across the nation. This is a problem affecting everybody.
It’s clear that the President hasn’t wanted to move forward on this, for some reason. From my perspective, this would be good for him if he moved forward on a [crosstalk].
* Here’s some info on Florida…
Forecasters believe the state will have $3.4 billion less revenue than anticipated to support the state’s general fund this fiscal year due to the severe effects of the coronavirus pandemic particularly on tourism, the state’s top economist said.
In fiscal 2022, there’s expected to be $2 billion less revenue to spend and in 2023 the deficit will be $1 billion, Amy Baker, coordinator of the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research, told lawmakers in a Sept. 10 presentation. […]
The government watchdog group Florida TaxWatch also warned that if the $5.8 billion in CARES Act funds can’t be used for traditional appropriations the state’s expected “deficit will be bigger.”
* Texas…
The economic contraction associated with the spread of COVID-19 and recent volatility in oil markets warrants an update to the Certification Revenue Estimate (CRE) we published in October 2019. We now estimate the state will have $110.19 billion in General Revenue-related (GR-R) funds available for general-purpose spending for the 2020-21 biennium, down $11.57 billion, or 9.5 percent, from our October estimate. This results in a projected fiscal 2021 ending deficit of $4.58 billion, a substantial downward revision from our previously projected surplus of $2.89 billion.
The original projection was a $2.9 billion surplus.
* Problems in Georgia and Maryland…
In Georgia, policymakers approved a 10 percent cut for 2021, including a nearly $1 billion cut for K-12 public schools and cuts to programs for children and adults with developmental disabilities, among others. Maryland’s governor has proposed nearly $1.5 billion in cuts; some have already taken effect, including large cuts to colleges and universities.
More at NCSL’s website.
* The big picture from the National Association of State Budget Officers…
(S)tate revenue forecasts for fiscal 2021 (and fiscal 2022 for those states that have released estimates) are projecting more significant losses, especially without additional federal aid. Overall, state revenue losses resulting from the COVID-19 recession are expected to exceed the 11.6 percent drop states experienced over two years during and following the Great Recession, with some states anticipating revenue declines of 20 percent or more. Moody’s Analytics released an analysis on stress testing state budgets based on its latest economic forecasts, which estimates budget shortfalls through fiscal 2022. According to that analysis, state budgets could experience a fiscal shock (revenue declines plus increased Medicaid expenditures) of $498 billion due to a prolonged economic recovery and continuation of COVID-19 cases in the fall. This analysis assumes flat spending by states with no increases to combat the epidemic or address other needs. […]
State and local governments are major economic drivers. Their spending totaled $3.1 trillion in 2019, representing 14.7% of gross domestic product. As states continue to experience high unemployment rates, the trends seen in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 are expected to further depress state revenues in fiscal 2021 and beyond. Without additional federal aid to mitigate these revenue losses, states will be forced to make deeper cuts to services and spending, as well as turn to tax increases, creating a drag on economic growth at a time when the nation’s economy is attempting to recover.
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,466 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 20 additional confirmed deaths.
Christian County: 1 male 90s
Cook County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 80s
Jasper County: 1 male 70s
Jersey County: 1 female 90s
Kane County: 1 female 80s
Kankakee County: 1 male 70s
Macon County: 1 male 80s
Madison County: 1 male 70s
Ogle County: 1 female 70s
Peoria County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 90s
Randolph County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 80s
Stark County: 1 female 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 264,210 cases, including 8,332 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 8 – September 14 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 39,031 specimens for a total of 4,810,827. As of last night, 1,584 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 373 patients were in the ICU and 144 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.
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* The governor was asked today about the small number of suburban rallies supporting fall sports in high schools and the (apparently online) rumors today that Gov. Pritzker was going to make some sort of announcement about that topic. “Will there be fall sports sooner than later?” His response…
Well, let me start by saying, frankly, that I wish we didn’t have this pandemic keeping us back from, frankly, from our small businesses being highly successful as they have been in the state, holding people back from getting their jobs back if they’ve been laid off. The pandemic has had an enormous impact on everybody, not to mention the health and safety of people.
But the idea, as you know, of focusing on sports - not my idea it’s doctors and researchers - have found that these sports, particularly high school sports and college sports, without the proper mitigations, without the proper prevention, etc. that those sports are dangerous. And evidence of that has popped up more recently in our state, down in Wayne County. I think you may know that the baseball team at the community college at Frontier, unfortunately there was an outbreak. It spread significantly, most of the team now has tested positive. There are many many dozens of people who are now quarantined as a result of their having tested positive, there having been an outbreak. This is not an unusual thing, you’ve seen it before in our state.
Look, I’m not willing to sacrifice people’s lives or their health, neither the children, nor their parents who would be affected also. And so we’re being, we’re being careful about it, but I am relying upon doctors and researchers to give us the information. This isn’t a political decision. I know that there are people who would like me simply to make a political decision to allow people to endanger themselves.
* Amy Jacobson from WIND then jumped in to claim Illinois is the only state in the Midwest that isn’t playing high school football. As a reminder, Jacobson spoke at a Chicago rally on May 16th and demanded the economy be fully reopened. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate on that date was 15 percent. And her show posted this claim yesterday…
* Anyway, here’s Pritzker’s response during lots of crosstalk…
We are, we are. Amy. Can I, can I resp… I want to respond to your, to your comment. Let me. Amy. It’s not a. I understand. Amy, I got your question. I’m just pointing out to you, we have the lowest, we have the lowest positivity rate in the Midwest. Still too high.
Look at the states that you’re talking about. They all have high positivity rates, double-digit positivity rates in most. And those are states, fine, if they decided to endanger children and families in those states by allowing contact sports to take place, that’s their decision. That’s not something that’s good for the families, the children of Illinois.
* Related…
* IHSA to allow more than two games per week; extends summer seasons by two weeks
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* Politico…
State lawmakers are focused on November — and not just for the General Election or its expected chaotic aftermath. They are tentatively planning a three-day veto session to begin Nov. 17, depending where the state is in the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m hopeful we’ll be able to return. It’s entirely dependent on the severity of the virus at the time,” Senate President Don Harmon told Playbook. “If the Black Caucus is ready to advance an agenda, it’s even more important that we do everything we can to be in session.”
House Democrats may have more to say about a November session after next week’s caucus retreat in Springfield, where members can attend in person or by Zoom.
“The final plans haven’t been made,” Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, told Playbook. “It will be decided based on the advice we get from health experts. Just like it was in May.”
There are a few ways the General Assembly will return. It could be choreographed like the mini-May session, where senators met in the Capitol building and House members met in a nearby convention center, allowing them to spread out. Or state senators could do their legislative work virtually, since they voted on that option in the spring, while House members meet in the Capitol.
This week, the Legislative Black Caucus is holding two subject matter hearings to narrow down potential legislation — or an omnibus bill — for any November meeting.
The group has already laid out a four-point policy plan that addresses criminal justice reform (including reducing violence and increasing police accountability), education and workforce development, economic access, and health care and human services.
The Black Caucus is being tight-lipped about specifics, not wanting to give opponents — police and law enforcement groups — too much time to organize against the legislation.
1) The scheduled veto session is for six days, not three. The Black Caucus has demanded that the GA meet for the full session.
2) The House Democrats are not having a retreat next week. My phone blew up this morning. Sample text from a House Democrat…
Maybe my invite was “lost in the mail?”
The Senate Democrats are having a retreat next week.
3) The Senate rules allow for remote participation in a session, but not a remote session. From the rules…
The President, in consultation with the Minority Leader, may establish a process by which Senators and members of the public may participate remotely in hearings for standing committees, special committees, subcommittees or special subcommittees, and service committees. […]
In times of pestilence or public danger, the Senate may adopt a motion to allow a member to remotely participate and vote in the regular and special sessions of the Senate, provided that at all times a quorum of members is physically present at the location of session. [Emphasis added.]
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* Some background is here if you need it. From an IDFPR email to reporters…
Good morning,
A number of you have asked to be updated on the date of the lottery. Here is the latest update.
“The final date for the lottery for adult-use cannabis licenses had not been set as of today. As we continue to review questions that have been raised, our goal is to provide time to ensure that the process is fair and equitable. A date for the lottery will be announced by IDFPR.”
Paul A. Isaac
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation
* Meanwhile…
Two Democratic legislators penned a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Sunday proposing a compromise to the potential legal standoff over the upcoming lottery for the next batch of pot shop licenses.
In pitching the plan to Pritzker, state Reps. La Shawn Ford, of Chicago, and Kathleen Willis, of Northlake, said the attorneys representing dozens of losing firms would drop a federal lawsuit seeking to halt this month’s lottery for the 75 new pot shop licenses.
In return, the Pritzker administration would need to give all losing applicants a chance to remedy discrepancies in their applications and address possible scoring inconsistencies.
Just 21 firms qualified for the lottery after submitting perfect applications. Though some of the applicants are clouted and seemingly well capitalized, they all qualified as so-called social equity applicants, a designation created to bolster diversity participation in the overwhelmingly white pot industry.
“As we suspect you have heard from many others, virtually no one is happy with how this is unfolding,” Ford and Willis said of the grading process, which has incensed other social equity applicants who invested considerable resources only to have their prospects go up in smoke.
* WGN…
On Sunday, Ford said attorneys are willing to dismiss the lawsuit if the playing field is “leveled” through changes to what’s called a “deficiency notice procedure.”
Under the proposed changes, applicants would be given a 10-day period to fix any problems on their forms. Ford said some applicants were never given the opportunity to correct any errors.
“Many did not learn their applications were deemed insufficient until they received notice on September 3rd that they did not win,” Ford said.
Another concern is reports of inconsistencies in the way scores have been calculated.
* Law 360…
Pressure has ramped up on Illinois’ cannabis regulators in charge of retail licensing as dozens of businesses shut out of the upcoming lottery for 75 dispensary licenses have turned to litigation to challenge the regulators’ decision-making. A federal suit filed on behalf of a group of would-be Illinois cannabis operators against the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has grown to include more than 70 plaintiffs, and at least three other suits have been filed against the department in the wake of its announcement that just 21 businesses will be able to enter the lottery, court records show.
* Crain’s…
If the plaintiffs succeed, it would foil the state’s plans to quickly expand the recreational-marijuana program launched in January, limiting a badly needed source of new government revenue at a time when the coronavirus is squeezing tax collections. A delay in issuing new licenses also would extend the oligopoly that existing licensees currently enjoy over marijuana sales, which are growing at double-digit rates.
Illinois officials expected litigation. Lawsuits were filed when Illinois issued medical cannabis licenses in 2015, and winners were able to proceed to build out cultivation centers and dispensaries while the litigation played out. That’s been true in other states, as well.
But rejected applicants have won injunctions or stays in Nevada and New Jersey that put all new licenses on hold. In Nevada, litigation held up licenses for 62 stores for 18 months. The suit was resolved Sept. 3. In New Jersey, 150 applications for 24 medical marijuana licenses remain on hold after a year, awaiting a hearing.
* Meanwhile…
Two more lawsuits have been filed over the state’s process to award 75 new retail marijuana licenses.
Both suits target a provision in the process that gave an extra five points to applicants that were led by military veterans. The state is preparing to hold a lottery to award 75 new licenses. It will choose from 21 applicants who received the maximum 252 points possible, which included the points for veteran status.
The lawsuits note the law that allowed recreational marijuana sales in Illinois set a goal to diversify industry ownership with “social equity” applicants from areas disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs, or those who had been arrested or convicted of minor cannabis crimes.
“One hundred percent of the new dispensary licenses will be distributed to members of one group—military veterans. Military veterans were never identified, lauded or supported by empirical evidence to be a group that was adversely impacted by the war on drugs or required a leg up in the Illinois cannabis industry, let alone one that deserved a monopoly,” according to a suit filed in Sangamon County, home to the state capitol, on behalf of seven unsuccessful applicants.
Yeah, good luck with that in Springfield. The filing is here.
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* Tribune…
The U.S. attorney’s office told state lawmakers probing the conduct of House Speaker Michael Madigan it had no objections to the panel calling on Madigan or others to testify, members of the committee said.
The state House special investigative committee launched its investigation of Madigan over the federal Commonwealth Edison bribery case last week. Three Republican committee members submitted a voluntary witness list that included Madigan and several other people who have been implicated in the federal investigation, including former ComEd executives and lobbyists.
“We wanted to check with the U.S. attorney’s office about whether they would have any objection to us calling Speaker Madigan to testify, or calling any of those other individuals who are part of that deferred prosecution agreement,” said state Rep. Tom Demmer, a Republican from Dixon. “And they informed us today that they have no objection to us calling those individuals.”
* From the committee chairman, Rep. Chris Welch…
The US Attorney made it clear we could seek testimony from whoever we choose; however, they requested we refrain from seeking any materials or testimony related to the DPA that is still confidential or anything in the possession of the federal government. In other words, we can call witnesses, but we can’t really ask them any questions. We also agreed to memorialize today’s call in a follow up letter and Mr. Lausch agreed to respond to us quickly. As soon as I get Lausch’s written response, I will share that with the committee and the media.
As a committee we agreed we would take no actions that could interfere with the work of federal prosecutors. Today myself and Rep Demmer spoke with the US Attorney and agreed we would put our request in writing and they would respond. But once again my Republican colleagues have disrespected the process for political gain. As an attorney, I understand the difficult position we are putting the US attorney in, but I appreciate their willingness to help guide us.
* WBEZ…
“How anyone even found out about the fact that we even had the call [Monday] only tells me that someone’s trying to score political points,” Welch said. “I think the GOP realized that the U.S. attorney said what he said and that we were not gonna be able to get documents and information that they’re seeking. And so they jumped the gun. They’re trying to score political points. They know exactly what he said and they only shared parts of the story.” […]
Demmer, however, said Lausch’s instructions open the door for Madigan himself to be called before the legislative panel, which was convened after Republicans pushed for its creation.
“Members of the committee and other elected officials in Illinois have suggested that this special investigative committee might be a forum in which [Madigan] could provide some sought-after answers,” Demmer said. “And so, the indication [Monday] that there is no objection by the U.S. attorney to us calling Speaker Madigan for a testimony … helps clear the path to getting some of those answers.” […]
A spokesman for Lausch did not respond to a voicemail late Monday.
* From the House Republicans…
What [the US Attorney’s office] said is they did not want ComEd talking about documents they may have gotten from the feds. [ComEd] could talk about the DPA. We also can call the witnesses. Said nothing about not talking about the DPA. They did not object to us calling ComEd to testify about the DPA.
* Back to Welch…
That’s not what Lausch said and more reasons why Demmer should have waited for Lausch’s letter as we had agreed. This entire he say/she say could have been avoided but they wanted to leak it to the media to score political points.
* I followed up again with the HGOPs…
There was no indication we have to stay within the parameters of the DPA. There was no objection to asking witnesses to testify. They didn’t want us asking for docs that a witness (mainly ComEd) would have gotten from the Feds and were not included in the DPA. It was specific to the DPA.
45 Comments
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Cook Democrats make martyr out of judge
Tuesday, Sep 15, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Yeah, this’ll go well…
As the Jussie Smollett case boiled over last year, Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor to look at how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office handled the controversial case, saying it had been botched.
On Monday, the Cook County Democratic Party, which is chaired by Foxx ally Toni Preckwinkle, took the relatively rare step of voting not to endorse Toomin for retention on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The move set off a political firestorm. Toomin called it “retaliation.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it sure looked like payback. But the Democratic leaders who dumped Toomin pointed to what they said was his outdated approach to juvenile justice, finding him “imperial” and “obstructionist” as they declared it was time for him to retire. […]
In 2018, Toomin faced backlash from Preckwinkle, who also is the Cook County Board president, and others after declining to follow a county ordinance that barred youths 12 and younger from being sent to juvenile detention. Two 12-year-old boys with gun charges on their records had been placed on electronic monitoring, but were ordered to detention after they repeatedly damaged their monitors and ran away.
Toomin ruled that the boys would remain confined there, saying they were a threat to society and to themselves, and the county law provided no “viable alternative” to their incarceration. State law, which allows children as young as 10 to be locked up, trumps the county ordinance, he ruled. A state appellate court agreed with him last year, drawing disappointment from Preckwinkle because the confinement of young children can lead to mental health problems, she said at the time.
* Mark Brown…
The Cook County Democratic Party voted Monday to oppose retention of the judge who appointed a special prosecutor to investigate State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case, bringing immediate accusations of retaliation.
Party officials denied any connection to Foxx’s election and said they are seeking to oust Judge Michael Toomin, presiding judge of the county’s Juvenile Justice division, over what they said was his “imperial” temperament and “outdated approach” to juvenile justice.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot was among those who questioned the party’s move, saying she was “deeply concerned” about it.
“The optics of this are terrible,” Lightfoot said. “It looks like retaliation.”
It sure does.
Yes, it does. And with all this free publicity, the party just gave him a big campaign boost.
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Open thread
Tuesday, Sep 15, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Keep it Illinois-centric and polite, please. Thanks.
31 Comments
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