* Let’s start the roundup with a couple of “It’s just a bill” items. From the synopsis of HB1727, which currently has 15 sponsors and co-sponsors, including House Speaker Chris Welch, and was placed on 2nd Reading by the Rules Committee…
Creates the Bad Apples in Law Enforcement Accountability Act of 2021. Provides that a peace officer subjecting another person to the deprivation of individual rights is liable to the person for appropriate relief. Excludes sovereign immunity, statutory immunity, and statutory damages for claims brought under this provision. Provides that qualified immunity is not a defense to liability under this provision. Allows attorney’s fees and costs to be awarded to the plaintiff.
* Our next piece of legislation comes to us from Rep. Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego). Here’s subsection (c) from the original law…
(c) In any case in which a party has any administrative rule invalidated by a court for any reason, including but not limited to the agency’s exceeding its statutory authority or the agency’s failure to follow statutory procedures in the adoption of the rule, the court shall award the party bringing the action the reasonable expenses of the litigation, including reasonable attorney’s fees.
For purposes of this subsection (c), “invalidated” means any action by a court of competent jurisdiction that declares or renders an administrative rule unenforceable or without legal effect for any period of time, whether pursuant to a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, permanent injunction, or final decision on the merits. The changes made by this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly are declarative of existing law.
Since this would make the provision “declarative of existing law” and essentially retroactive, I wonder which lawyer in the news recently for obtaining a TRO on enforcement of a state administrative rule would be entitled to legal fees if this bill became statute? Hmm. The name’s right on the tip of my tongue. Devour? No. That’s not it. Wait. It’ll come to me.
…Adding… From the House Repubs…
Quick FYI, Wheeler’s bill is from ima to get their legal fees paid after the work comp emergency rule was withdrawn as gov office refusing to do so.
There’s even a Democratic copy of this bill in the Senate. I’m told the final bill will not benefit DeVore.
The man who killed Illinois State Police Trooper Layton Davis in 1976 was released from prison Thursday under a new law that allows parole for medical reasons.
Aaron Hyche, 71, who fired the shot that killed Davis, had been denied parole after a hearing in August. A relative of the trooper said the family was initially told the medical hearing would not be until March, and was surprised when Hyche was released before they could object.
“Jan. 1 of this year, a new law gave prisoners the right to request a medical release,” said Effingham Deputy Police Chief Kurt Davis, the slain trooper’s grandson. “If they have major medical issues, they can request early release, which he did. As soon as the New Year struck, his attorney submitted a medical release for him.” […]
“As a result of his health challenges, his memory, speech, and mobility have diminished such that he can only eat soft foods,” says the petition. “… He will soon undergo complex dental surgery to remove all of his teeth, and he is falling so regularly he necessitates a helmet. He requires a wheelchair to move.”
The state in 2020 granted parole to James E. Taylor, Hyche’s accomplice on March 18, 1976. While Taylor held Trooper Davis down, Hyche fired the fatal shot.
ILGOP…
“With each new day, news comes out that Governor Pritzker’s pro-criminal, anti-police agenda has helped a violent criminal escape real justice,” said ILGOP Spokesman Joe Hackler. “In Governor Pritzker’s Illinois, cop-killers like Aaron Hyche are released early while the slain officer’s family is denied the opportunity to object. As violent crime rages on in Illinois, Governor Pritzker’s solution is to take it easier on criminals and demean law enforcement. The real solution is to elect a new Governor in November.”
* But nothing from the ILGOP about this prisoner release, perhaps because, according to this story, a law passed in 2015 during a Republican administration is the reason she got out…
Nancy Rish was released from the Logan Correctional Center in downstate Illinois Thursday morning.
A week ago, the 60-year-old Rish was resentenced for her part in the murder of Kankakee businessman Stephen B. Small in September 1987. […]
Edwards, Rish’s then-boyfriend, kidnapped Small and buried him in a box to extort money from his family. There was inadequate ventilation that caused Small to suffocate. […]
In 2019, Rish’s attorneys requested a new sentencing based on an Illinois law amended in 2015 that benefits people who can show their crimes were related to being abused. In appeal, Rish said that Edwards abused her and her son and threatened to kill them if she did not aid his plan.
Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., is keeping on her campaign payroll — at an unusually high salary for part-time work — the man who is the key witness against her in a pending House Ethics Committee investigation.
Two congressional ethics watchdog groups — FACT, the conservative Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust — and the left-leaning CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — agree that continuing payments to Iymen Hamman Chehade while the House panel is conducting its probe raises ethical questions. […]
Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for CREW, with a focus on Republican ethical lapses, told the Sun-Times, given the ethics investigation Newman is facing, having Chehade “on the payroll in what appears to be such a disproportionately high salary raises serious ethics questions.
“…This continues to make us wonder what is at the heart of this financial relationship.”
The Illinois attorney general’s office and the city of Chicago yesterday urged the Illinois Commerce Commission to more than double the refund Commonwealth Edison should make to ratepayers over its admitted bribery scheme.
In testimony filed with the ICC, the state’s chief consumer advocate, the city and the Citizens Utility Board called for a refund exceeding $49 million. ComEd in December offered to pay $21 million.
A felony charge has been filed against a woman accused of throwing a memorial photograph of slain Chicago police Officer Ella French in the trash.
Anna Kochakian, 26, tore the photograph from a memorial at the Thompson Center the evening of Aug. 19, crumpled it and discarded it in the garbage at a nearby CTA platform, the Illinois State Police said.
Kochakian was arrested Wednesday at her home in Chicago. The state police said she was restrained with handcuffs that belonged to French’s partner, Officer Carlos Yanez, who was badly wounded in the shooting.
Grand jury charges former Madigan chief of staff Tim Mapes with perjury, obstruction of justice: “The charges bring the feds closer than ever to Madigan, who has not been criminally charged and denies wrongdoing. It also lifts the curtain slightly on a grand jury drilling deep into Illinois politics,” by Sun-Times’ Jon Seidel and Better Government Association’s Rachel Hinton.
Clean-tech startup LanzaJet is partnering with an Illinois ethanol producer to build a new plant that will supply more environmentally friendly aviation fuel.
LanzaJet and the Marquis family, which operates an ethanol refinery in Hennepin, will build a plant capable of producing about 120 million gallons of sustainable jet fuel a year. At that size, it would be one of the largest plants of its kind.
Hennepin is on the Illinois River not far from Peoria.
* This Crain’s story should spark lots of state scrutiny…
One of the main bidders to own and operate Chicago’s proposed casino is pitching a plan that would allow it to buy out its minority investors within just a few years—potentially leaving it with no minority ownership long term.
Even as Mayor Lori Lightfoot is seeking diversity in casino ownership, a term sheet being circulated by bidder Bally’s Corp. indicates that, six years after opening its proposed Chicago operation, it “will have the right to purchase” the 25% of ownership shares that the company has promised the city it will make available to minorities.
The minority owners would not have the right to refuse, and the sale price would not be negotiated at the time but based on the profitability of the casino in the preceding year.
— Jonathan Jackson on running for Congress, his famous family: “It’s not a dynasty. It’s a legacy of service,” he tells Sun-Times Fran Spielmana. WITH AUDIO
— State Rep. Delia Ramirez has been endorsed by Rep. Lauren Underwood (14th) in her bid for the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District. “Delia has a proven track record of standing up for Illinois’ working families,” Underwood said in a statement.
* On to the budget. Ralph Martire likes the governor’s proposed budget, but does have one criticism…
In fact, the biggest policy shortcoming with the proposed tax relief is that it isn’t targeted solely to low- and middle-income folks who really need it. Illinois would get significantly more bang for its tax-relief buck if it instead expanded its earned income tax credit, or created a means tested child tax credit, thereby ensuring the full dollar value of the tax relief went to families with the greatest needs. Bottom line though, is while the governor’s proposal may not be perfect, it merits bi-partisan support that it hasn’t received.
Protesters gathered outside the Discovery Center Museum, where Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made an appearance Thursday, to protest children wearing masks in schools.
About 20 protesters held up signs both supporting Pritzker’s Republican challengers and calling for an end to the mask mandate in Illinois schools.
