Isabel’s morning briefing
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Here you go… * WTTW | Former IDOC Director on Plans for Pontiac Prison, Home to State’s Highest Concentration of ‘Seriously Mentally Ill’ Incarcerated People: Jeffreys stopped short of suggesting closure of any particular facility. He said the department has hired an outside firm, CGL Companies, to assess the“physical longevity of each facility, it looks at programmatic aspects of each facility, takes into consideration population projections. It also looks at our staffing as well, too.” * Tribune | Downstate Danville has proposed a ban on mailing abortion pills. But civil liberties experts say the ordinance would violate state law.: Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said the proposed ordinance invokes the Comstock Act, an 1873 federal law that barred the mailing of contraception, “lewd” writing and every “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion.” * Tribune | Illinois ban on high-powered firearms blocked by federal judge downstate; Gov. Pritzker’s office ‘confident’ law will be upheld: Writing that “a constitutional right is at stake,” U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn found the plaintiffs in the case showed the law caused an “irreparable harm” by denying them the ability to “purchase their firearm of choice” and “exercise their right to self-defense in the manner they choose.” * Tribune | As Texas plans to resume busing migrants to Chicago on Monday, Mayor Lightfoot blasts Gov. Abbott in letter: Chicago has taken in and cared for over 8,000 migrants with no resources of their own since Texas began sending migrants to the city last August, Lightfoot wrote in her letter to Abbott. Many direly needed food, water, clothing and medical care, while others were women in active labor or victims of sexual assault, she added. * Sun-Times Editorial Board | Lawmakers shouldn’t rush to spend more money on flawed Peotone airport plan: O’Hare, Midway and other airports are already taking on the cargo-handling Peotone’s backers want. The state Senate should reject a proposal promoting a plan that should be grounded. * Tribune | Cook County prosecutors take step to streamline evidence tracking in court system long plagued by delays: A new system is set to be rolled out for adult felony cases Monday, soon after the Tribune published a four-part series chronicling how Cook County murder cases linger on the dockets longer than ever, and longer than any other big-city court that can be measured. * Daily Herald | Kane County explores going big on lobbying: Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog recently told county board members she believes a combination of state money, remaining COVID-19 relief money and cash contributions from neighboring counties will pay off the bond the county issued to pay for Longmeadow’s construction. But that’s only if $12.5 million for Longmeadow stays in the proposed state budget through the final vote. * Tribune | Muslim trustee from DuPage Township faces racist comments during public meeting: “He said something like, ‘You can just go back to eating your lunch,’ because I broke my fast during the meeting,” Townsend, 36, told the Tribune. “So, basically, he was mocking me for practicing my religion. In that moment I heard it, so I stood up and said to him, ‘Excuse me, I’m fasting for Ramadan. We eat this late, and I am going to sit here and eat my food.’” * AP | Mississippi River waters keep rising in Iowa and Illinois: The National Weather Service said many of the crests across the region this season will rank in the top 10 of all time, but will remain well below the records set in past floods. Officials in many cities along the river are optimistic they’ll be able to either keep the floodwaters at bay through a combination of floodwalls and sandbags or contain it to low-lying park areas. But some homes close to the river have been damaged. * AP | Fed failed to act forcefully to head off Silicon Valley Bank collapse and crisis: Fed report: The Fed was highly critical of its own role in the bank’s failure in a report released Friday. The report, compiled by Michael Barr, the Fed’s chief regulator, says banking supervisors were slow to recognize blossoming problems at Silicon Valley Bank as it quickly grew in size in the years leading up to its collapse. The report also points out underlying cultural issues at the Fed, where supervisors were unwilling to be hard on bank management when they saw growing problems. * Tribune | ‘Baseball is a crazy game, man’: Chicago White Sox snap their 10-game skid with a 7-run, 9th-inning rally: Vaughn capped the remarkable rally with a game-ending three-run homer to left field against reliever Garrett Cleavinger. “I was just trying to put the ball in play,” Vaughn said. “We had great at-bats that inning, guys were getting on base, we were scoring runs and my sole purpose up there was to keep the line rolling.” * Sun-Times | Activist Sister Helen Prejean has counseled popes, governors on death penalty: ‘She’s not a scold; she appeals to your reason’: At 84, Prejean remains a devoted activist to the cause that made her something of a celebrity, even before the wave of states dropping the death penalty that began around the time Quinn’s predecessor, George Ryan, commuted the sentences of 167 death row inmates in 2003.
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- Jerry - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 9:22 am:
If Danville revises their proposal to include Erectile Dysfunction pills as they are what causes abortions, I’d say its the perfect solution.
If women have no constitutional right to privacy, neither do men.
- Captain Obvious - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 9:39 am:
Chicago is on record as a city that welcomes illegal immigrants and does everything it can to help them avoid deportation. They should be happy so many are finding sanctuary there, not complaining about having to help them. How they get there is irrelevant. Put your money where your mouth is Chicago.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 10:03 am:
===Chicago is on record as a city that welcomes illegal immigrants and does everything it can to help them avoid deportation. They should be happy so many are finding sanctuary there, not complaining about having to help them.===
Your own buffoonery here is classic.
It’s not that Lightfoot is not in the welcoming thought, Lightfoot would like coordination in getting these folks what they need.
The punishment, chaos, and disorganization to “plopping” is the feature, making actual human beings “props for ploppling”
You know this, but your buffoonery requires, like the governor requires, a political statement
It’s sad to one’s character if the point isn’t about the people but the props people can be made.
- Betty Draper’s cigarette - Monday, May 1, 23 @ 12:10 pm:
I almost stepped on a little red car at a police station and saw the tiny child on the floor, asleep, his little hand curled up by his face.
Or, props, to some people.