* These Morning Consult results are always a bit questionable because their methodology is opaque and they survey over several months, in this case January 1 through March 31, 2022. Anyway…
Across the country, all but eight governors are backed by 50% or more of their state’s voters. And in nearly all cases, the Democrats among them are getting higher approval ratings than Biden, while more often than not drawing more cross-party support than the president and Democratic senators.
But when considering each state, the average GOP governor has a higher approval rating than the average Democratic governor (58% to 51%), boosted by the popularity of a handful of blue-state Republicans.
Thoughts?
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* Christian County? Whew…
State of Illinois, Fourth Judicial Circuit Christian County
Robert Thornton, et al. v. Illinois Department of Corrections, et al.
Plaintiffs argue they cannot be required to vaccinate or test for COVID-19 as a condition of employment without first being afforded the statutory procedures available under Section 2 of the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, 20 ILCS 2305/2.
Plaintiffs also argue that although the vaccination and testing requirements are imposed pursuant to their collective bargaining agreement and the interest arbitration award, they are not bound by the requirements because their union lacks power to waive their rights under the IDPH Act, and the arbitrator lacked jurisdiction to issue the award, under the theory that the requirements are general public health measures, not work safety measures.
Specifically, and in addition, Plaintiffs argued that: “Defendants ask once again for this Court to stay this proceeding in hopes to take it out of the hands of the 5th Appellate District. The Attorney General sets for to this Court the request for stay filed by counsel for Plaintiffs in another matter arguing the case should remain in Sangamon. The suggestion is that this case must be stayed while the Supreme Court is reviewing it because there was a request in another case by Attorney Devore under similar circumstances. First off, that case does not have a TRO pending where emergency relief is being sought. Secondly, and more importantly, that case includes the Governor as a Defendant as it attacks the Governor’s authority. Any case that has included the Governor and his authority to issue executive orders have been transferred to Sangamon County. This case is not such a case as the Governor is not a party.”
Defendants are seeking a stay of the within proceeding, or a dismissal with prejudice of Plaintiff’s Petition: “One day after vigorously opposing a brief stay in this case to allow the Illinois Supreme Court to determine, pursuant to the Department’s Rule 384 motion to transfer whether this case belongs in Sangamon County with dozens of other COVID-related cases, including a case that raises the exact same claim made here, Mr. DeVore admits that this case belongs in Sangamon County. Of course, Defendant’s Rule 384 motion to transfer this case to Sangamon County was necessitated by Mr. DeVore’s decision to file this case in Christian County in the first place, despite his admission that such a filing goes against the clearly expressed intent of the Illinois Supreme Court. In light of Mr. DeVore’s admission, the Court should reconsider its earlier ruling and grant a stay of this case pending the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling on the Rule 384 motion. In the alternative, the Court should deny the motion for temporary restraining order because the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, Plaintiffs’ claims have already been rejected by the Illinois Appellate Court, and Plaintiffs have failed to establish any of the elements necessary for such extraordinary relief.”
This Court, as previously stated, has heard and considered the arguments of esteemed Counsel and finds no need to grant the Motion for Stay. As Plaintiffs’ attorney has cogently argued, the Governor is not a named Party to this cause of action and therefore a transfer to Sangamon County is unnecessary.
Instead, this Court adopts the Defendant’s argument as that argument relates to the prayer for a dismissal. As a result of the prior Fourth District decisions, most recently in Graham v. Pekin Fire Department, 2022 IL App (4th) 220270, issued one day before Plaintiffs filed this case, and in Allen v. Bd. of Educ. of N. Mac Cmty. Unit Sch. Dist. No. 34, 2022 IL App (4th) 220307-U, which was issued on April 20, 2022; this Court is required to follow and adopt the same reasoning stated in those decisions.
The Appellate Court also ruled, three months ago, that the circuit court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this claim, and that exclusive jurisdiction lies with the Illinois Labor Relations Board because the requirements are terms and conditions of employment negotiated between the State and Plaintiffs’ collective bargaining representative. Glass v. Ill. Dep’t of Corr., 2022 IL App (4th) 210740.
This Court is unable to ignore the reasoning set out in Graham and Glass. Both decisions are binding on this Court, and the persuasive authority most recently provided in Allen is further confirmation that this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs’ claims.
The General Assembly has not conferred subject-matter jurisdiction on this court to review the correctness of the interest arbitration award unless either the employer or the exclusive bargaining representative seeks judicial review pursuant to 5 ILCS 315/14. Glass, 2022 IL App (4th) 210740, ffll 49, 51. For the foregoing reasons the Plaintiff’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order is denied, and the within cause is dismissed.
DeVore may be trying to get this issue into the more conservative Fifth Appellate District. But the Christian County ruling and the opinion it’s based on were pretty darned cut and dried.
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Campaign notebook
Thursday, Apr 28, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Didn’t somebody tell us this week that Sen. Darren Bailey was supposed to have a sitdown with former President Donald Trump yesterday? Well, Bailey hasn’t yet posted anything online, including any pics. People did post a few from the Mary Miller endorsement event at Mar-a-Lago, including this one from a few rows back…
Looks like I had better seats at the Wilco show. Alas, I didn’t get a sit-down with Jeff Tweedy, either. But I didn’t try. Stay tuned, I suppose.
* Equality Illinois’ 2022 primary endorsement list is out today and, so far, the group is staying out of the Democratic race for secretary of state. Planned Parenthood Illinois Action endorsed Anna Valencia earlier this week.
* Casten…
Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL) released his first digital ads of the cycle. The ads will run on Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Hulu through Election Day as part of a six-figure digital buy. They are the first in a series of digital ads the campaign will run to highlight Rep. Casten’s work to lower costs for families, fight climate change, and protect a woman’s right to choose.
You can watch the first ad, “Prices”, here.
You can watch the second ad, “Moment”, here.
You can watch the third ad, “Worry”, here.
You can watch the fourth ad, “Marcie, here.
* Levin dropped out of this race earlier in the week…
Speaking of Dordek…
For State House District 13, where LGBTQ+ champion House Majority Leader Greg Harris is retiring, Equality Illinois endorsed out LGBTQ+ candidate Fernando “Sergio” Mojica and super-ally Eileen Dordek.
Planned Parenthood Illinois Action endorsed Dordek as well.
* WHOI…
The press team for GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin has responded to our requests for comment as to why he wasn’t present during the forum Monday night in Washington.
The Central Illinois 2022 Republicans Gubernatorial Candidate Forum distributed six invitations to remaining candidates, including Senator Darren Bailey, businessman Gary Rabine, state Senator Paul Schimpf, attorney Max Solomon, and businessman Jesse Sullivan. All were in attendance at the event except for Irvin.
In an email, Irvin campaign member Eleni Demertzis says the candidate had a “prior commitment” that evening, adding in a statement:
“As a former prosecutor who put violent criminals behind bars, a mayor who cut spending to lower taxes and the only Republican candidate for governor to take on Mike Madigan and win, Mayor Irvin looks forward to sharing the stage with his opponents which will prove he is the best candidate to roll back the crime, corruption and high taxes we’ve seen under J.B. Pritzker.”
Bailey ain’t buying it…
* Two press releases from the Gary Rabine campaign…
“The Schaumburg Township Republican Organization (STRO) has announced its endorsed candidates for the June 28 Republican primary. Chairman Joe Folisi said “We are very pleased to announce that STRO has endorsed Gary Rabine and Aaron DelMar for governor and lieutenant governor, Kathy Salvi for United States Senator and Dan Brady for Secretary of state. These individuals are of high caliber and will serve Illinois well once elected.”
“Continuing the strong momentum gained over the last couple of weeks, we picked up another township endorsement last night. The Republican Organization of Elk Grove Township endorsed my campaign because I am the conservative candidate that can beat JB Pritzker in November. Thank you to all the members of the Republican Organization of Elk Grove Township for all the hard work they do for Republican candidates every day.”
…Adding… CD17…
Today, Jonathan Logemann, Democratic candidate for Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, announced the endorsement of Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara. Mayor McNamara and Alderman Logemann have served Rockford since 2017 in their respective roles and have worked hand-in-hand to improve their local neighborhoods and strengthen the Rockford region’s economy.
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* SJ-R…
Awake Illinois, a right-leaning political organization focused on education, is attracting some candidates for office in Illinois to sign a pledge promising support for, among other things, school choice, requiring schools to provide parents with annual reports about schools’ curriculum and prohibiting schools from teaching about consent, sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Not only do we stand beside you completely, I look forward to working with you once elected as governor to work to begin to rescind the nonsense,” said gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, at a virtual event hosted by Awake Illinois on Sunday. […]
“Our way of life is under attack,” said Bailey in that virtual event with the group’s president and founder, Shannon Adcock. […]
Illinois allows parents to opt their students out of sexual health education classes, according to [Brigid Leahy, vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood Illinois Action]. In addition to the opt-out, SB 818 also requires that schools provide parents with an opportunity to review the sex education curriculum to be used at their children’s schools.
* The prohibition against teaching “inaccurate and false history” is kind of a tell…
Nice bit about lawyer fees, too. Tom DeVore has also signed on. Click the pic for a better view.
Thoughts?
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* Capitol News Illinois…
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a package of bills Wednesday aimed at easing the state’s shortage of teachers and other education professionals, even as a new report shows Illinois just added a record number of new teachers to its ranks.
Speaking in the library of Springfield High School just blocks from the Capitol, Pritzker said that while the education workforce picture is improving, more work still needs to be done. […]
Pritzker noted that the budget bill he signed into law April 19 increases funding for minority teacher scholarships to $4.2 million. And starting next year, the minimum annual salary for first-year teachers will increase to $40,000 due to a bill he signed in 2019. […]
A survey conducted in 2021 by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools found 88 percent of local school districts believed they had a teacher shortage problem while 96 percent reported problems finding enough substitute teachers.
* Fox 32…
Illinois has hired more than 5,600 teachers this school year — a figure greater than the number of hires over the more five years combined.,
The state still has about 2,100 unfilled teaching positions across Illinois.
* Tribune…
Those vacancies are “concentrated in hard-to-staff schools and subjects,” disparately affecting low-income, bilingual and special education students, Ayala said. An additional 2,400 paraprofessional openings are also vacant, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
“As we look forward, we must continue to root our efforts to strengthen the teaching profession in equity,” Ayala said. “Not all schools and not all students are experiencing teacher staffing issues in the same way.”
State Rep. Sue Scherer, a former teacher who sponsored parts of the legislative package, said the new laws will “make a difference” in classrooms even before the current school year ends. The expansion to allow short-term substitutes to spend 15 consecutive days in a classroom, rather than just five, is effective immediately, as is the reduced license reinstatement fee.
“So many politicians will say education is important, but then when you get to the backroom deals and it’s time to finalize the budget, it’s the first thing cut,” said Scherer, a Decatur Democrat. “It’s heartwarming that people are kind of putting their money where their mouth is.”
* WICS…
House Bill 4246
State law currently requires educators to pay a $500 penalty to immediately reinstate a lapsed license. Under House Bill 4246, fees for renewing lapsed educator license will be reduced to $50.
The law is effective immediately.
House Bill 4798
Under current law, substitute teaching candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. House Bill 4798 allows currently enrolled teaching students to obtain additional classroom training by giving them the option to obtain a substitute teaching license if they have completed 90 credit hours.
The law is effective January 1, 2023.
Senate Bill 3988
Currently, the minimum age requirement is 19 for paraprofessional educators who work with students from pre-K to eighth grade. Senate Bill 3988 lowers this age requirement to 18, providing prospective educators with the chance to start a career earlier.
The law is effective January 1, 2023.
Senate Bill 3907
In the event of a disaster declaration, short term substitute teachers are only able to spend 5 consecutive days in the same classroom. Under Senate Bill 3907, this number is increased to 15.
The law is effective immediately.
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* Patrick Smith at WBEZ…
A new study from University of Chicago researchers raises questions about what exactly has driven the recent surge in carjackings in the city.
Chicago police officials have repeatedly laid the blame at the feet of the city’s young people, saying the violent car thefts are motivated by kids seeking joyrides or looking for a vehicle to use in other crimes. […]
In press conferences over the last 18 months, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown has highlighted the extremely young age of some of the alleged carjackers they’ve arrested and called for a combination of more services and more “accountability” for young people as a way to stem the tide of carjackings.
At a March 10, 2021 news conference, Brown said the No. 1 motivation for carjackings was joyriding.
“It’s a shame that you’ll hold a gun to someone’s head just to joyride, but that seems to be what our young people are doing that we’re capturing,” Brown said.
The problem is that CPD is only catching a small percentage of carjackers (15 percent in 2020, for instance), and apparently most of those are joyriding young people.
* But Professor Robert Vargas, director of the UChicago Justice Project, saw something interesting in the data. From his study…
If youth joyrides have, in fact, been driving the carjacking spike, then one would expect most cars to be recovered as the point of a joyride is to drive the car and not sell it.
As it turns out, less than 20 percent of carjacked autos are recovered each year. Lately, it’s been closer to 10 percent. And as carjackings have risen, the percentage of recovered autos has decreased…
* Back to the study…
If the majority of carjacking incidents are cases of youth seeking joyrides, these data indicate that something more is happening. Either these cars are being sold for profit, or carjacking offenders are really good at hiding vehicles after their joyride. Figure 3 is a time series graph that attempts to test alternative explanations for changes in carjacking from 2017-2021. One hypothesis put forward by the Chicago Police Department has been that its carjacking taskforce contributed to a decline in carjackings. Another hypothesis is that the stimulus checks dispersed through the COVID relief bill may have reduced economic incentives for carjacking. Figure 3 illustrates no evidence to support either of these alternative explanations, as the timing of the stimulus checks and implementation of the carjacking task force had no visible impact on carjacking trends.
Figure 3 does appear to show that the joyriding (but not carjackings) may have peaked during the early months of 2021…
* Professor Vargas’ conclusion…
These findings are important for several reasons. The percent of recovered vehicles can shed light on the scale at which carjacking may be motivated by economics. As a panel on carjacking organized by Senator Dick Durbin made clear, carjacking is linked to the informal economy and fueled (in part) by the soaring price of used cars brought on by COVID-19 related supply chain issues (Vinicky 2022). Cars are not only stripped for parts and sold, they are also sold out of state. More information is needed to shed light on what is happening to the cars that are not getting recovered.
It is worth noting a few limitations of our analysis. Just because only 20% of carjacked vehicles are recovered, does not mean that all of those cars have been sold in the informal economy. Some may have been abandoned and never found. Others may be sitting on an impound lot. The best source of information to clarify these issues would be car insurance companies whose claims data can bring greater clarity on what happened to each of these vehicles. Our efforts to reach out to Chicago’s largest private car insurance providers for these data have gone without response.
Vargas also rightly complained that this data should be more widely available to the public. “It should not take a FOIA request and over a year’s worth of time to get an answer to a simple question about carjacking,” he wrote.
* From the referenced WTTW story above…
With demand high and supply low for used cars, criminals can make a profit from stolen vehicles.
“Cars are being stolen here in the United States. There’s VIN swaps that are utilized to resell the vehicles so they’re not known that they are stolen. They’re shipped overseas, Middle East criminal enterprises,” said David Glawe, president of the National Insurance Crime Bureau. “And then cars are also shipped to Mexico. We repatriate hundreds of cars a year…after they’re stolen.”
Perpetrators may be looking for an anonymous car to use in another crime, like a drive-by shooting.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart points to that as a common motive.
If criminals were only looking for cars to use in another crime, you’d think the police would find lots more of those cars than they are.
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* ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune…
The courthouse lobby echoed like a crowded school cafeteria. Teenagers in sweatshirts and sneakers gossiped and scrolled on their phones as they clutched the yellow tickets that police had issued them at school.
Abigail, a 16-year-old facing a $200 penalty for truancy, missed school again while she waited hours for a prosecutor to call her name. Sophia, a 14-year-old looking at $175 in fines and fees after school security caught her with a vape pen, sat on her mother’s lap.
A boy named Kameron, who had shoved his friend over a Lipton peach iced tea in the school cafeteria, had been cited for violating East Peoria’s municipal code forbidding “assault, battery, and affray.” He didn’t know what that phrase meant; he was 12 years old.
“He was wrong for what he did, but this is a bit extreme for the first time being in trouble. He isn’t even a teenager yet,” Shannon Poole said as her son signed a plea agreement that came with $250 in fines and fees. They spent three hours at the courthouse as Kameron missed math, social studies and science.
The nearly 30 students summoned to the Tazewell County Courthouse that January morning were not facing criminal charges; they’d received tickets for violating a municipal ordinance while at school. Each was presented with a choice: agree to pay a fine or challenge the ticket at a later hearing. Failing to pay, they were told, could bring adult consequences, from losing their driving privileges to harming their future credit scores.
Across Illinois, police are ticketing thousands of students a year for in-school adolescent behavior once handled only by the principal’s office — for littering, for making loud noises, for using offensive words or gestures, for breaking a soap dish in the bathroom.
Ticketing students violates the intent of an Illinois law that prohibits schools from fining students as a form of discipline. Instead of issuing fines directly, school officials refer students to police, who then ticket them for municipal ordinance violations, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica has found. (Use our interactive database to look up how many and what kinds of tickets have been issued in an Illinois public school or district.)
Another state law prohibits schools from notifying police when students are truant so officers can ticket them. But the investigation found dozens of school districts routinely fail to follow this law.
“Basically schools are using this as a way to have municipalities do their dirty work,” said Jackie Ross, an attorney at Loyola University Chicago’s ChildLaw Clinic who specializes in school discipline. “It’s the next iteration of the school-to-prison pipeline. Schools might be patting themselves on the back and saying it’s just the school-to-municipality pipeline, but it’s the same philosophy.”
At the assembly-line hearings where many of these cases are handled, students have no right to legal representation and little chance to defend themselves against charges that can have long-term consequences. Ticket fines can be hundreds of dollars, presenting an impossible burden for some families, and administrative or court fees of up to $150 are often tacked on.
Unpaid fines are sometimes sent to collections or deducted from parents’ tax refunds. And, unlike records from juvenile court, these cases can’t be expunged under state law.
No government entity tracks student ticketing, either in Illinois or nationally. Though a handful of communities in other states have sought to limit the practice, Illinois has not tried to monitor it, even after lawmakers attempted several years ago to stop schools from fining students as discipline. The Tribune and ProPublica quantified school tickets through more than 500 Freedom of Information Act requests to school districts and police departments, focusing on nearly 200 high-school-only districts and large K-12 districts.
In all, the investigation documented more than 11,800 tickets issued during the last three school years, even though the COVID-19 pandemic kept students out of school for much of that period and even though records show no students were ticketed in the state’s biggest district, the Chicago Public Schools.
The analysis of 199 districts, which together encompass more than 86% of the state’s high school students, found that ticketing occurred in at least 141. In some K-12 districts, tickets were issued to children as young as 8. […]
The chief sponsor of the discipline legislation in the House, Democratic Rep. William Davis, called school-related ticketing “in opposition” to the law. Current House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, also a sponsor, agreed and said legislators should revisit the law.
Emphasis added.
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Open thread
Thursday, Apr 28, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m in dire need of more coffee. How are you?
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