Isabel’s morning briefing
Friday, Jan 27, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here’s your morning roundup… * Sun-Times | ‘Badly flawed.” Illinois attorney general files brief with state Supreme Court contesting ruling that blocked bail reform: In its filing Thursday, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office argued that Cunnington’s decision was “flawed,” arguing that the state Constitution not does require Illinois “to maintain a system of monetary bail.” * WQAD | Pritzker signs ‘omnibus’ health care bill — here’s what’s in it: And even though parts of the bill received criticism, many lawmakers who opposed those elements said they felt compelled to vote for it anyway because other parts of the bill were too important. Those necessary provisions included enabling certain rural hospitals to draw upon more federal funds, distributing federal disaster aid to ambulance services impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and extending the deadline for a shuttered hospital in Chicago’s west suburbs to reopen under new ownership. * Fox Chicago | Illinois lawmaker says banning assault weapons masks larger issue: mental health: State Rep. Adam Niemerg said the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines is an attack on Second Amendment rights and an attempt to avoid the larger issue: lack of mental health support in Illinois. “You’re talking about gun violence, and the solution is we are going to strip these folks in this room of their Second Amendment rights.” * WBBM | Pritzker endorses for some City Council races, is silent on others: Pritzker endorses many incumbents, including some who are running unopposed, like Pat Dowell (3rd), Walter Burnett (27th) and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th). But there are no endorsements for other stalwarts like Scott Waguespack (32nd) and Brendan Reilly (42nd). * Politico | College Board: States have not influenced our new African American studies course: Their letter comes as Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed success in potentially changing the course, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has sent his own letter urging the nonprofit that oversees AP exams not to follow Florida’s lead, calling it “political grandstanding.” * Illinois Review | Former Republican Nominee for Governor Darren Bailey Calls on IL GOP Chair Don Tracy to “Step Down”: In a Facebook post on Tuesday, former Illinois State Senator and Republican nominee for governor Darren Bailey publicly called for the first time for IL GOP chairman Don Tracy to “step down,” writing, “Enough with this nonsense! The Republican Party wants to distract from their failures by blaming the candidates that they have no control over! THE PEOPLE PICK THE CANDIDATES! Mr. Tracy, I have been patient with you, but it’s time to follow Jim Durkin’s lead and step down. The Republican Party Platform has the answers to all of our state’s problems. We simply need real leadership and candidates who will stand For The People!!!” * Tribune | Tax evasion trial with ties to ComEd bribery probe gets underway for son of former state Rep. Edward Acevedo: “It was intentional all the way along,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman said during his opening statement in Acevedo’s trial on charges of tax evasion, which has ties to the massive ComEd bribery probe involving ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan. “He knew he was getting the money, and he was spending the money.” * Sun-Times | Highland Park parade shooting: Prosecutors get more time to indict suspect’s father: “Unexpected absences in our office” kept prosecutors from seeking an indictment against Robert E. Crimo Jr., Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeff Facklam said during a short hearing at the Lake County Courthouse. Crimo Jr. is charged with seven counts of reckless conduct for allowing his son to obtain firearms — one count for each of the people killed in last year’s Highland Park Fourth of July massacre. * Tribune | Crime takes center stage at forum as Mayor Lori Lightfoot interrupts opponents and moderator to defend record: At one point in the forum, hosted by WCPT 820-AM, Lightfoot tried to inject an attack on García’s relationship with indicted former House Speaker Michael Madigan into the conversation about crime as host Joan Esposito tried to keep them on topic. * ABC Chicago | Mayoral candidates square off in forum as early voting begins: Mayor Lori Lightfoot faced criticism from several of her challengers but she was also going after some of her closest rivals, including Paul Vallas in particular. * Sun-Times | Mayoral candidate Sophia King unveils education plan: Mayoral challenger Sophia King has a grand plan to breathe new life into a Chicago Public Schools system that has been hemorrhaging students — with more than 82,000 students lost in the last decade. It builds on the plan she has already announced to deliver Chicago from violent crime. * Block Club | Lincoln Park Aldermanic Hopefuls Pledge More Neighbor Involvement, Better Public Transit If Elected: The six hopefuls for the 43rd Ward race shared similar priorities at a community forum, but they are split on a City Council-backed dispensary slated to replace the former Salt n’ Pepper Diner. * Block Club | Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, Who Fought The Casino, Wants Lightfoot Out As He Eyes 5th Term: The 42nd Ward alderman, first elected in 2007, has never faced an opponent in four reelection bids. In his next term, he wants to kill the deal to bring NASCAR races Downtown streets. * Sun-Times | For fifth time, Jussie Smollett’s lawyers ask for more time to file brief appealing conviction linked to fake hate crime: The attorneys said their brief is ready but they are still waiting on a ruling on whether they can submit a longer filing than is typically allowed. * Illinois Times | Luring new sports gamblers with freebies: Sports betting in Illinois is aggressively marketed by the companies authorized to take bets on sports in Illinois. These “sportsbooks” compete fiercely for gamblers, particularly new ones. One of the tools they use is to boost a new bettor’s wager with bonuses, so that the gambler feels like he’s playing with free money. Addiction experts fear too many will get hooked. * Center Square | School choice movement gaining momentum in Illinois: A survey this month by the National School Choice Awareness Foundation showed that nearly 54% of parents have recently explored or are currently considering new options for their child’s education. * Tribune | Ex-wife of TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau tells Chicago judge he had gold bars, says she’s ‘very scared’ of him: Trudeau is fighting an attempt by federal regulators to have him thrown back in jail for allegedly lying about his assets in an attempt to avoid paying the whopping $37.6 million civil penalty he owes for lying about his controversial weight-loss book. * AP | 5 women, immense power: Can they keep US from fiscal brink?: This year, for the first time in history, the four leaders of the two congressional spending committees are women. Granger is chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, while DeLauro is the top Democrat; Murray is Senate Appropriations chairwoman and Collins is the top Republican. * Propublica | The Museum Built on Native American Burial Mounds: In 1945, the state of Illinois purchased the site and later expanded it into a museum. The exposed human remains were used for decades to teach schoolchildren, visitors and local residents about what the museum presented as a long-gone culture of Illinois Indians. The exhibit closed in the early 1990s, after Congress passed legislation requiring museums to begin returning Native American human remains and funerary objects to their rightful owners. Contractors installed cedar floorboards over the pit. They left no doorway, no hatch.
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- OneMan - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 8:44 am:
Let me fix that for you
If anything you are making the argument for leadership to stick around. Because to a degree the ‘what can I do with this clown show’ is a valid argument.
- Dysfunction Junction - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 8:50 am:
=Enough with this nonsense (verboten punctuation) …THE PEOPLE PICK THE CANDIDATES(verboten punctuation)==
In today’s edition of in “Republicans in Disarray,” we see disgraced gubernatorial candidate and recent Chicago resident Darren Bailey deflect blame for his loss on the people of Illinois.
It’s hard to know what percentage of the Bailey “family treasure” was flushed in this recent vanity project, but there is one thing for certain: his campaign wasn’t a product of Bailey family treasure. It was a result of Pritzker family treasure, without which he never even would have been the GOP candidate. And he of all people should understand the futility of bringing a knife to a gunfight.
- Pundent - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 9:08 am:
=It was a result of Pritzker family treasure, without which he never even would have been the GOP candidate.=
No, 56% of ILGOP voters in a crowded field chose Bailey as their standard bearer. No other candidate was even close. Until otherwise proven Darren Bailey is the ILGOP. And if he’s blaming his loss on the people so too is the ILGOP.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 9:19 am:
===It was a result of Pritzker family treasure, without which he never even would have been the GOP candidate.===
Utter nonsense, not even accurate to the politics of the ILGOP
The amplifying by Pritzker of Bailey *only* reinforced the reality that Bailey *is* the ILGOP, and it he voters concurred throughout the primary thru the election season and through the general election.
It’s poor analysis to read into any or all “Pritzker did” in the ILGOP slate or candidates… otherwise “explain DeVore”
Stop.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 9:23 am:
To Chairman Tracy,
You welcomed the worst of the ILGOP in, even ignored Mary Miller, so you deserved to be eaten up by the elements you refused to eradicate.
Congratulations
- Dysfunction Junction - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 9:55 am:
=No, 56% of ILGOP voters in a crowded field chose Bailey as their standard bearer.=
Yeah, and Bud Light is the top selling beer in the United States. You know why? Advertising, not because it tastes great. No one is contending that Pritzker directly paid people to fill in the bubbles on GOP primary ballots. But you and OW saw the ads Pritzker ran like the rest of us. Let’s not pretend that didn’t happen. It was national news.
You and OW can say that the GOP got the candidate they deserved, and who best fit their current mood. I fully agree. But it is revisionist history to say the $700,000 in Ma Bailey’s “family treasure” was more of a factor in his primary win than the millions in Bailey-centric ads run by Pritzker before the GOP primary.
- Ron Burgundy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:01 am:
-Darren Bailey-
It’s 2023. And… you are… who now?
Loser tells other losers to stop losing so much.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:02 am:
=== You know why? Advertising, not because it tastes great.===
If you’re saying the typical ILGOP voter is a rube or a lemming… LOL
That’s so pathetic. The ILGOP is a victim of the success of telling their voters it’s “cool” to support a racist thinking, insurrection apologizing, conspiracy theorist… and they agreed?
Start the day over.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:05 am:
If “advertising” as the end all..,
… we’d all be drinking “New Coke” like it’s going out of style.
- Dysfunction Junction - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:12 am:
=If “advertising” as the end all..,=
If advertising didn’t work, you wouldn’t see so much of it. And you probably wouldn’t have a golf bag full of Titleists.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:15 am:
=== If advertising didn’t work, you wouldn’t see so much of it. And you probably wouldn’t have a golf bag full of Titleists.===
Advertising works for popular products, otherwise “New Coke” would still be a thing
Bailey is the ILGOP, and his call to oust Tracy is a harsh reminder… Bailey is the base
- Rich Miller - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:17 am:
===If advertising didn’t work===
Richard Irvin spent a fortune of Ken Griffin’s money on advertising aimed at Republican primary voters about how Pritzker was meddling in the race. They knew the Democrat was meddling and they didn’t care. Move on.
- Dysfunction Junction - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:29 am:
Moving on, at your request Rich.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:34 am:
==== You know why? Advertising, not because it tastes great.===
If you’re saying the typical ILGOP voter is a rube or a lemming… LOL=
Masterful. OW, it is a self own on the part of the ILGOP and their faithful, but hey… they’re rolling.
=The Republican Party Platform has the answers to all of our state’s problems. We simply need real leadership and candidates who will stand For The People!!!”=
A bailey self own.
This will be his new shtick to try and remain relevant (?) for another run for office. He has to stay in the news and on FB.
- G'Kar - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:43 am:
==The Republican Party Platform has the answers to all of our state’s problems.==
Oh, Beetle, Beetle, Beetle–the Diet Coke I was drinking almost came out my nose as I was laughing so hard when I read this.
- Appears - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 10:50 am:
Darren Bailey, I thought you said that the Bible had all the answers. Now you say that the Republican Party Platform has all the answers. Are you saying that the Bible and the Republican Party Platform are one and the same.
- Chicago Blue - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 11:57 am:
I’d love to see the actual wording on that School Choice polling.
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 12:38 pm:
What Bailey really meant to say was: Chairman Tracy, you should step down. It was on your watch that a couple loonies like me and Tattoo Tom headed the state ticket that went down with a resounding thud.
- Stormsw7706 - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 12:44 pm:
Interesting statistic from CNN citing a 5 year study of mass shooting killers. 63 percent had a history of domestic abuse with about 15 percent having been convicted for it. Also roughly 43 percent had a history on social media for homicidal or self harm related posts. Seems like a good predictor there. How’s that for mental health. Would be curious of GOP votes for domestic abuse and community mental health services. Or they could say that assault weapons bans deny the right to a gun to domestic abusers, people with homicidal thoughts, and those with suicidal ideation. Also struck by the gap between response to domestic violence issues and the arrest of these individuals.
- Amalia - Friday, Jan 27, 23 @ 3:06 pm:
@Stormsw7706, good information. and frightening.