…Adding… Horrible news…
* News Channel 20…
I-55 shut down Monday from milepost 63 to 80 due to a large crash involving more than 20 cars.
Police say they started receiving calls reporting the crash around 10:55 a.m. on Monday. […]
Illinois State Police say the crash involved approximately 20 commercial motor vehicles and 40 to 60 passenger cars.
Police say they have reports of more than 30 people being transported to the hospital and multiple fatalities.
The cause of the crash is excessive winds blowing dirt from fields across the highway, creating zero visibility.
Police say two truck-tractor semi-trailers caught on fire as a result of the crashes.
* ISP press release…
UNIT: ISP Troop 8
LOCATION: Interstate 55 near Milepost 76, north of Farmersville, Montgomery County
DATE and TIME: May 1, 2023 at approximately 10:55 a.m.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Preliminary information indicates the following occurred: ISP Troops 6 and 8 responded to the above area for multiple crashes with injuries. Interstate 55 is currently shut down in both directions from milepost 63 to milepost 80. Visibility in the area is reported to be low due to blowing dust. Traffic is urged to seek alternate routes.
At 10:55 a.m. there was a crash on northbound Interstate 55 at Milepost 76. At the same time, there were numerous crashes on southbound Interstate 55 at Milepost 76. Approximately 20 commercial motor vehicles and 40 to 60 passenger cars were involved. This includes two truck-tractor semi-trailers that caught fire as a result of the crashes.
At this time, we have reports of more than 30 people being transported to the hospital and multiple fatalities. The cause of the crash is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway leading to zero visibility.
This information is still preliminary and the ISP continues to investigate this crash. We will have more information at our next briefing at 4:30 p.m.
…Adding… More from ISP…
Injuries range from minor to life-threatening and ages range from two-years-old to 80-years-old.
Reports show there are six fatalities, all occurring in the northbound lanes. We do not have any additional information on those individuals at this time.
…Adding… Another ISP update…
At this time, 72 vehicles are reported being involved in the crash. A total of 37 people were transported to area hospitals. […]
Reports show there are six fatalities, all occurring in the northbound lanes. At this time, one decedent has been identified as 88-year-old Shirley Harper of Franklin, WI. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office is working diligently to identify the other five individuals and notify their families.
Northbound and southbound lanes remain closed. Once the interstate is cleared of all vehicles, the Illinois Department of Transportation will have to inspect the roadway before it is re-opened.
* Photos and videos from Twitter…
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Meanwhile, in Opposite Land…
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Texas via the Guardian…
The defining experience of Jordan Zamora-Garcia’s high school career – a hands-on group project in civics class that spurred a new city ordinance in his Austin suburb – would now violate Texas law.
Since Texas lawmakers in 2021 passed a ban on lessons teaching that any one group is “inherently racist, sexist or oppressive”, a little-noticed provision of that legislation has triggered a massive fallout for civics education across the state.
Tucked into page 8 is a stipulation outlawing all assignments involving “direct communication” between students and their federal, state or local officials – short-circuiting the training young Texans receive to participate in democracy itself.
Zamora-Garcia’s 2017 project to add student advisers to the city council, and others like it involving research and meetings with elected representatives, would stand in direct violation.
* DeSantis vs Disney continues…
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board announced Monday that it will counter-sue Disney after the company filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis last Wednesday, alleging the Republican orchestrated a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company that violates Disney’s free speech rights.
Disney is challenging the legality of a new board appointed by DeSantis to govern the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District – where the Walt Disney World resort is located.
“Disney sued us, we have no choice now but to respond,” Martin Garcia, chair of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, said Monday, according to Politico. “The district will seek justice in state court here in central Florida where both it and Disney reside and do business.”
* New York…
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is suing the state’s ethics watchdog alleging it doesn’t have the authority to seize $5.1 million from a book he wrote about the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Albany, argues that the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying In Government is not authorized to take money from his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” because the agency lacks the authority under state laws.
Cuomo’s lawyers wrote in the 46-page complaint that the move to create the new ethics commission last year “blatantly violates the separation of powers because it creates an unaccountable agency exercising quintessentially executive powers.”
“The act at issue here is a poster child for a statute that cuts at the heart of the structural protections inherent in the New York Constitution safeguarding the rights and liberties of the people,” Cuomo’s lawyers wrote. “To our knowledge, the act is unprecedented in that it creates a state entity with sweeping executive law-enforcement powers, including the authority to impose penalties, and yet utterly insulates the agency from any oversight by or accountability to the executive branch.”
* Montana…
Montana state legislator Zooey Zephyr is suing the state, House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant at Arms for the Montana House of Representatives Bradley Murfitt after being censured by House Republicans.
“The recent actions violate my 1st amendment rights, as well as the rights of my 11,000 constituents to representation,” Zephyr said in a tweet Monday. “Montana’s State House is the people’s House, not Speaker Regier’s, and I’m determined to defend the right of the people to have their voices heard.”
Zephyr is petitioning for her legislative privileges and duties to be reinstated. […]
Zephyr has since participated remotely in the legislature from the public seating of the state Capitol building.
* Missouri…
A Missouri judge on Monday temporarily blocked a first-of-its-kind rule that would restrict access to gender-affirming health care to children and adults, just hours before it was set to take effect.
St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s emergency rule until a lawsuit challenging it is resolved.
In her ruling, Ribaudo wrote that those suing to block the ruling from taking effect “will be subjected to immediate and irreparable loss, damage or injury if the Attorney General is permitted to enforce the Emergency Rule, and its broad, sweeping provisions were implemented without further fact-finding or evidence.”
She wrote that patients “are at high risk of having their medical care interrupted for an unknown length of time; once the Rule goes into effect, they may lose access to medical care through their current providers until such time as the provider can come into compliance with the Rule’s requirements.”
More from KSDK…
The court’s decision was guided, in part, by concern that Bailey’s restrictions could have the effect of “creating confusion” in hospitals and clinics.
“The Rule promulgated by the Attorney General states specifically, ‘This rule does not contain an exhaustive list of the practices that violate the Act,’” the judge wrote in her ruling. “This leaves significant room for interpretation of what would and would not be covered by the Act, creating confusion for those tasked with the enforcement of the Rule and those required to comply.”
The rule would also require the patients’ doctors to sign off on documents stating the patients had no underlying mental health conditions. Transgender patients and medical advocates said the restrictions were written so broadly, they would amount to an effective outright ban on care.
* Oklahoma…
A year after banning nearly all abortion procedures in the state, Oklahoma lawmakers focused very little on the issue this legislative session.
Bills that would clarify exceptions and others seeking to toughen punishments have not advanced this session.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, who pledged to sign every anti-abortion bill that hit his desk, said during a campaign debate last year there should be exceptions for rape and incest. But lawmakers did not send the governor any bill carving out additional exceptions.
“It was a nonissue to the Legislature this year, which proves that it was always a political issue,” said Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, which supports abortion rights.
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Afternoon roundup
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Some folks who were eligible for Medicaid during the pandemic are no longer eligible because they have jobs again and can get their own insurance. So, judging the success of this effort by raw numbers alone will be difficult. Still, this is a huge test of how well the Pritzker administration can govern…
As the COVID-19 pandemic policy of pausing annual Medicaid renewals for customers comes to an end, the Pritzker administration is committed to protect coverage for eligible Illinois Medicaid customers, as annual eligibility verifications, or redeterminations, resume in Illinois. The first week of May is a critical time, as the first round of customers to go through the resumed renewal process will be receiving time-sensitive redetermination notices in the mail.
In Illinois, there will not be a “coverage cliff,” where everyone loses coverage at one time. Rather, redeterminations will happen on a rolling basis through mid-2024. Everybody’s due date is different, and all Illinois Medicaid customers will have a chance to go through the redetermination process.
“My administration is committed to making this renewal and redetermination process as smooth and efficient as possible, so that every Illinoisan knows the healthcare options that are available to them,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We’ve been preparing for this moment for many months now, from increasing staffing to our widespread Ready to Renew marketing campaign. And we are collaborating with community health centers, local organizations, and public health partners to deliver resources for Illinois residents that will be most impacted by the restart of the Medicaid redetermination process.” […]
In the month of June, approximately 113,600 cases in Illinois are up for renewal. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), which administers the Illinois Medicaid program, has conducted an ex parte screening on all cases using electronic data sources and known information to determine the customer’s continued eligibility. Thanks to robust preparations and enhanced data connections, HFS was able to automatically renew 51% of Medicaid customers due in June. […]
Customers who do not respond or are no longer eligible lose their Medicaid coverage a month after their due date. Anyone who is no longer eligible for Medicaid coverage will be notified and will receive information about how to enroll in alternative coverage.
* ComEd 4 jury deliberation update from the Tribune…
Shortly after resuming talks Monday, the jury sent a note asking the court to “clarify a possible discrepancy with the use of conjunctions and/or” in the indictment and instructions. It was a nearly identical question sent by the jury in the sexual abuse trial last year of R. Kelly, which was also in front of Leinenweber.
“This is precisely the same issue I had with the Kelly case” the judge said. The problem is the indictment is conjunctive, using the word “and” while describing the probable cause for the various elements of the bribery counts, while the instructions use the word “or.”
The judge said he would respond the same way he did in the Kelly case, which is to follow the instructions.
The Kelly jury later acquitted Kelly and his two co-defendants of the conspiracy counts that contained the confusing language.
Defense attorney Patrick Cotter objected on behalf of all ComEd Four defendants, saying “we believe the instructions constitute an improper amendment of the indictment” that lessens the government’s burden of proof.
Leinenweber overruled the objection, but said, “I don’t blame you at all for raising that point.”
* April numbers were up year over year, but the rest of the year was better. WTTW…
The number of shootings and homicides in Chicago are each down more than 10% through the first four months of 2023 compared to the same time last year, according to police department data.
There have been 166 homicides recorded in the city year-to-date, according to the Chicago Police Department. That’s fewer than the same time periods in both 2022 and 2021, but higher than the 156 homicides recorded through the end of April in 2020. […]
According to CPD data, vehicular hijackings are down more than 25% this year compared to last, while violent crime on the CTA is down 6% year-to-date.
* Unreal…
[Cook County state’s attorney’s office’ chief data officer, Matthew Saniie] told the Tribune that prosecutors get digital files from more than 100 municipalities, many of which use wildly different systems. The county maintains one computer that runs Windows 2000 — a technology more than two decades old — because prosecutors still receive files that can only be played on that operating system, he said.
As we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, local public health departments and hospitals were using fax machines to report their data.
* Full video is here. The lack of bollards causes very real dangers…
* NPR…
While the rate at which murders are solved or “cleared” has been declining for decades, it has now dropped to slightly below 50% in 2020 - a new historic low. And several big cities, including Chicago, have seen the number of murder cases resulting in at least one arrest dip into the low to mid-30% range.
“We saw a sharp drop in the national clearance rate in 2020,” says Prof. Philip Cook, a public policy researcher and professor emeritus at Duke University and the University of Chicago Urban Labs who has been studying clearance rates for decades. “It reached close to 50% at that time nationwide, which was the lowest ever recorded by the FBI. And it hasn’t come up that much since then.”
That makes the U.S. among the worst at solving murders in the industrialized world. Germany, for example, consistently clears well over 90% of its murders.
While reasons behind the drop are multi-faceted, Cook and other experts warn that more people getting away with murder in the the U.S. is driving a kind of doom loop of mutual mistrust: low murder clearance rates impede future investigations which in turn potentially drive up killings in some communities where a lack of arrests undermines deterrence and sends a message that the police will not or cannot protect them.
…Adding… People driving back to Springfield today from points south should check ahead…
A portion of Interstate 55 is shut down in both directions Monday afternoon after a dust storm caused a “large crash” in south-central Illinois.
Illinois State Police said a crash involving multiple vehicles happened about 11:40 a.m. from milepost 62 to 80 in Montgomery County.
The National Weather Service said on Twitter that visibility in the area was poor after a “combination of newly plowed fields and gusty northwest winds” generated a dust storm.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Fox Chicago | Illinois residents to begin receiving Medicaid renewal notifications this week: “Here in Illinois, there will be no coverage cliff. Redeterminations and renewals in Illinois are happening through a deliberate and a careful process on a rolling basis over the coming year through mid-2024,” Pritzker said.
* WTTW | Inside Pontiac Prison Where Mental Health Issues, Violence, Officer Shortages and Aging Facilities Are Leading to Calls for Reform: A letter from 28-year-old Jermaine Young says, “On July 26th 2022, Lt. [Timothy] Bowden had assaulted me by kicking me in my chest and hitting me in the head and neck … which is all on camera. … I was in restraints the whole time from my hands and feet so it was nothing I could do even if I wanted to.” Young was held in Pontiac at the time, but has since been moved to Lawrence Correctional Center.
* Sun-Times | Why we’re launching The Democracy Solutions Project: In the runup to the 2024 election, the Sun-Times, WBEZ and the Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago will be collaborating on a project to educate our audience about the threat to our democracy and how we can form “a more perfect union.”
* Crain’s | Brandon Johnson names John Roberson as city’s incoming COO: Roberson, a former 2004 Crain’s 40 Under 40 honoree, said in press release: “I’ve dedicated my career to public service, and it’s an honor to serve incoming Mayor Johnson in this capacity. I look forward to working closely with Mayor-elect Johnson to identify our goals and policy priorities to achieve our vision for a safer, stronger city that delivers for residents.”
* Crain’s | Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson names more appointees to transition subcommittees: Nearly 400 people — including politicians, activists, civic leaders and businesspeople — are on the lists. Among some of the more notable names that were added to the groups: Alds. Jeanette Taylor, 20th; Byron Sigcho Lopez, 25th; and Matt Martin, 47th; as well as state Rep. Will Guzzardi; Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi; Michael Sacks and Choose Chicago’s Lynn Osmond.
* AP | Midwestern hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law, investigation finds: The federal agency’s investigation centers on two hospitals — Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri, and University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas — that in August refused to provide an abortion to a Missouri woman whose water broke early at 17 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors at both hospitals told Mylissa Farmer that her fetus would not survive, that her amniotic fluid had emptied and that she was at risk for serious infection or losing her uterus, but they would not terminate the pregnancy because a fetal heartbeat was still detectable.
* Crain’s | Rivian’s troubles don’t end at a 93% stock price wipeout: The relentless erosion in Rivian Automotive Inc.’s share price is revealing an ugly truth: Investors have little faith left in the ability of the Amazon.com Inc.-backed company to compete in a crowded electric-vehicle market. A market capitalization that exceeded $150 billion days after a blockbuster public trading debut in late 2021 now stands at less than $12 billion after a 93% stock wipeout, reflecting almost no value beyond the company’s cash hoard.
* Block Club | Does CTA Boss Dorval Carter Use Public Transit? Records Show He Swiped Pass Once In 2021: Carter swiped into the CTA system 24 times in the past two years with his agency-issued card, according to CTA data provided through a Freedom of Information Act request. Seven of those 24 swipes were transfers to other trains or bus lines, and another seven were all done the same day at O’Hare.
* Sun-Times | Greyhound terminal makes departure plans. Will riders be kicked to the curb?: “What we’re seeing around the country is, these stations close … and in numerous cases [bus service is] ending up occurring on the curb,” said DePaul University professor Joe Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development. But a city with two major airports, and Union Station west of the Loop for Amtrak travelers, must have a facility for the 500,000 people who arrive here yearly by intercity bus.
* Herald & Review | Webinar to highlight Back to Business grant program: The Back to Business program’s new round of grants has $175 million available to provide to qualifying restaurants, hotels, and creative arts organizations.
* WICS | Gas prices down in Illinois according to GasBuddy: According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Illinois was priced at $3.33/g yesterday while the most expensive was $4.99/g, a difference of $1.66/g. The lowest price in the state yesterday was $3.33/g while the highest was $4.99/g, a difference of $1.66/g.
* Crain’s | Return-to-office numbers haven’t been this high since before the pandemic: More Chicago workers are back in the office now than at any time since pandemic lockdowns turned downtown into a ghost town. That’s according to data from real estate technology firm Kastle Systems, which analyzes building security card swipes and compares current figures to early 2020.
* Daily Herald | After 8-year fight, judge says Barrington Hills horse boarding law is constitutional: A Cook County judge has called constitutional a Barrington Hills ordinance permitting commercial horse boarding as a home-occupation business in the historically equestrian-friendly village, rejecting claims of corruption.
* Sun-Times | WXRT’s Terri Hemmert among patrons at New Orleans restaurant where ‘hail of bullets’ killed a waiter, wounded a friend: “Twenty-eight of my precious friends were hitting the floor,” Hemmert said in a Facebook post. “I looked to my right. Two very special women were on the floor by my feet. There was blood. And a bullet hole on the wall. Two inches from me. And a bullet in my friend’s back. It was surreal. But it was real. Only too real.
* CNN | Why are so many Americans unhappy with the state of the US today? Here’s what they said in CNN’s latest poll: Among the 69% who said things were going either pretty or very badly, dim views of the nation’s economic conditions were a top driver. The smaller share who were more positive often cited their own, rosier takes on the economy.
* Mashable | WordPress drops Twitter social sharing due to API price hike: According to a statement released by WordPress, the platform is removing Twitter from JetPack, an official plugin run by WordPress and its parent company, Automattic. Among its many security and marketing offerings, JetPack Social provides users with the ability to automatically share content directly to an array of social media platforms from their WordPress sites.
* Salon | Political “polarization” isn’t the real problem in America: One pole is a lot worse than the other: This unspoken anti-political and even anti-democratic bias is addressed in a new paper from Daniel Kreiss and Shannon McGregor, both at the University of North Carolina. They argue that the focus on polarization as such, while ignoring the actual content of politics that produces polarization, is fundamentally mistaken: “As a concept, polarization does not provide a normative or even conceptual way of distinguishing between White supremacists and racial justice activists, despite their asymmetrical relationship to liberal democracy.”
* Robert Reiter and Tim Drea | The heart of labor is beating strong in Chicago and Illinois: On Monday we celebrate May Day, also known as International Workers Day, a holiday forged by the Haymarket Affair that took place right here in Chicago in 1886. May Day is a moment to reflect on the vital role that the labor movement in Chicago and Illinois have played — and continue to play — in the battle for economic and social justice.
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[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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* From a WTTW story about Pontiac Correctional Center…
Another Pontiac problem is the number of incarcerated people designated as seriously mentally ill: 26%, according to state data.
Rob Jeffreys, who just stepped down after nearly four years as director of the department of corrections, acknowledges the state has been hit with two lawsuits leading to a consent decree over its physical and mental health care programs.
“Corrections has become default for mental health,” Jeffreys told WTTW News. “Unfortunately, we have 42 to 43% of our population is on some type of mental health caseload. Of that 43%, about 14% are essentially mentally ill diagnosed. And that only increases when we start talking about the female population. I think 70% of our female population is on a mental health caseload.”
But Jeffreys claims the state has been working to address the issues.
From that Jeffreys interview…
Jeffreys says IDOC has partnered with the Department of Human Services on both policies and accreditation to open a treatment center at Joliet, where DHS will operate mental health programming.
“We have to provide programming, out-of-cell time, and to be able to do that we need to be able to consolidate our resources,” he said. “I think Pontiac serves as one of our mental health facilities along with Dixon which has a mental health treatment unit.
Jeffreys said the agency is in the process of hiring a new mental health provider.
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* Associated Press…
The rising Mississippi River tested flood defenses in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois as it neared forecast crests in the area Monday, driven by a spring surge of water from melting snow. […]
The river is expected to crest at around 21.6 feet (6.6 meters) on Monday in the Quad-Cities area, where several neighboring cities sit along the Iowa-Illinois line. Some roads and parks near the river are closed. The record at that spot is 22.7 feet (6.9 meters).
Once the river crests in an area, it may take up to two weeks for the floodwaters to fully recede.
The flooding is expected to ease as the spring surge of water from melting snow works its way further down the 2,300-mile (3,700-kilometer) length of the river on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the tributaries in Iowa, Illinois and other Midwest states are running lower than usual, so they won’t exacerbate the flooding by dumping large amounts of water into the river.
* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…
Cleanup efforts are underway after a train derailed Thursday afternoon in southwest Wisconsin, sending two cars tumbling into the Mississippi River.
Officials said the derailment occurred about 12:15 p.m. near the villages of Ferryville and De Soto in Crawford County, about 30 miles south of La Crosse. Four members of the train crew were transported to the hospital for medical evaluation.
On Friday morning, Gov. Tony Evers tweeted that he was on his way to De Soto to survey the site and speak with emergency personnel.
A spokesperson for the railroad company, BNSF Railway, said the two cars that floated downriver contained non-hazardous “freight of all kinds.” Some of the cars that crashed and remained on land contained paint and lithium-ion batteries.
* Be safe out there…
* STL Public Radio…
Closer to St. Louis the Mississippi is forecast to hit moderate flood stage of 22 feet in the Quincy area midweek. It isn’t cause for major concern, said John Simon, the emergency management director for Adams County.
“There’s going to be some roads that start to get flooded,” he said. “No major thoroughfares until we hit about 23 feet. Where we’re at is really in that monitoring phase.”
Simon said some lower-lying park and open land areas will see some flooding too. The county’s actions to respond to flooding mainly center around when the river hits the major flood stage at 26 feet, he added.
Additional rainfall in the coming days and weeks could make the river’s level rise or mean higher levels last longer, Simon said.
* QC Times…
For decades, Davenport city councils have opposed controversial plans to build a floodwall or levee, citing costs and such a structure impeding access to or views of the river. Instead, the city has opted to rely on a system of temporary sand-filled barriers and pumps, allowing riverfront parks to hold floodwaters, and buying up or tearing down property in flood-prone areas. […]
“When people do talk to me straight up with that, this is what I tell them: How do you want us to do this? Where would you like us to get the money?” [Davenport Mayor Mike Matson] said.
An estimate in 2014 put construction of a flood wall at $174 million, but Matson said more recent estimates would be much higher, more than half a billion dollars.
Instead, the city is just starting to implement a 2021-approved plan that starts underground in the storm sewers and would eventually raise parts of River Drive to protect the city up to river stage 22 feet without temporary barriers.
* Crest forecast…
* WQAD…
Savanna is doubling down its preparation just days from seeing waters approach downtown.
“They’ve built approximately 850 feet of wall in the past 48 hours,” Carroll County Emergency Management Jim Klienefter said.
More than a dozen inmates from prisons in East Moline and Kewanee pitched in to help build roughly 45,000 sandbags.
“The plans have really worked out well over the last 72 hours,” Klienefter said.
* Congressman Sorensen…
* KTTC reports on North Buena Vista, Iowa…
In North Buena Vista, the neighborhood across the railroad tracks from the Mississippi River is several feet underwater, but at least a few area residents are still living in their flooded homes. […]
Scott Blum and Heath Davis are among those who have adapted to living in a semi-aquatic community. […]
“When the river comes up like this, it leaves a lot of mud, silt, you know what I mean, ‘cause it just sits out there,” Davis said. “And so I’m sure we’re going to have to scrape and clean and new rock on everything.” […]
“It’s kind of fun,” Blum said. “Before I lived by the river, and now I live in it.”
* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last week on the flooding…
The Army Corps has closed 18 locks and dams from the Twin Cities to Illinois because of high water levels, halting barge traffic during the river’s busy spring shipping season.
Some of them, like Lock and Dam 4 in Alma, closed because the water has overtopped the lock chamber where boats typically pass through, Moes said. Others closed because the rushing current was pushing barges too close to the dam.
“I’ve been here 13 years and I’ve never experienced the amount of closures we’re dealing with this year,” Moes said. “It’s truly a historic flood.”
A few may open again April 29, but that will ultimately depend on the flood conditions, he said.
* DTN…
So far, locks 1-10 are closed but expect to all be open by May 4. Locks 11 through 18 are closed with no opening dates forecast yet. The Mississippi River at Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois, (lock 15) is nearing record flood stage of 22.7 feet, but the crest is expected to be at 21.6 feet on May 2. However, the river there will be in major flood stage at least through May 8.
* Silver linings…
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It’s just a bill
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Crain’s…
One bill worth watching that you haven’t heard much about: Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s request to convert the state’s Affordable Care Act — aka “Obamacare” — insurance exchange from federal to state control. That would allow the state to, for instance, guarantee coverage for abortion and birth control if the White House were to flip back to Republicans.
If you click the link, keep in mind that session is scheduled to end two weeks from Friday, not one week.
* Politico…
Uber is out with a six-figure radio ad buy that opposes a state House bill that sponsors say would hold rideshare companies accountable for the safety of passengers. Uber opposes the bill, saying it’s more about ending “frivolous lawsuits,” which would make rideshare “more expensive for everyone,” according to the ad.
* Press release…
A new proposal from Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and State Representative La Shawn Ford (8th District – Chicago) would no longer make it illegal for motorists to have items hanging from their rearview mirror, which often serve as a pretext for traffic stops.
Under House Bill 2389, law enforcement would no longer have the authority to stop a motorist for simply hanging items like air fresheners, rosaries or disability placards from their rearview mirror while driving. This legislative effort – which passed the Illinois House on March 24 and is awaiting an expected floor vote in the Senate – follows through on a campaign promise Giannoulias made in 2021.
Current Illinois law prohibits such items from hanging from a rearview mirror, or affixed to a windshield, on the grounds that they obstruct a motorist’s vision. Such unnecessary encounters over minor vehicle code offenses can lead to violent confrontations between police and motorists. Additionally, this arcane law can serve as a pretext for racially motivated traffic stops for minor infractions.
“Pulling someone over for merely having an air freshener attached to the rearview mirror is not only archaic, it’s ridiculous,” Giannoulias said. “Amending the law by prohibiting traffic stops that encourage discriminatory practices will ultimately make our streets safer for both motorists and police officers.” […]
House Bill 2389, which is sponsored in the Senate by State Senator Christopher Belt (57th District – East St. Louis), passed the Senate Transportation Committee 17-1 on April 19, sending it to the full Senate for consideration. If the bill passes the full Senate, it will advance to the governor’s office.
* HB3601 is still in the House Rules Committee and never even received a committee vote. But, here’s WGEM…
Illinois Bill, HB 3601, looks to provide schools the information, tools, spare parts, software, and other means to extend the life of classroom devices.
The Quincy Public School District’s IT Director, Dan Ware said Chromebooks are cheaper to use and buy compared to other laptops. He said it’s also easier for both students, and teachers to use for learning purposes.
However after a certain amount of years, he said Google will no longer support certain Chromebook models which can cost $400 to replace, depending on the model. […]
Ware said their Chromebooks will expire in 2030. He said while it’s possible to put new software on the Chromebooks, it can be tricky to find and would be more expensive than buying a new one. As for parts, it can also be tricky depending on the type. He said keyboards are the most common part they have to replace, which can range up to $15, depending on the condition of it. For other parts, it can vary on prices, and availability. But the bill could make it easier for them.
* WCIA…
A push in the Capitol would require animal shelters and animal control facilities to waive adoption fees for veterans. […]
The bill passed unanimously out of the House and is waiting further action in the Senate.
“This gives our vets who have sacrificed so much, just an opportunity to have that extra support, that extra comfort, that camaraderie, that friendship that we have with our animals, with our pets that become part of the family,” State Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel (D-Shorewood), the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, said. […]
Some shelters like the Animal Protective League (APL) in Springfield work with veterans on a case-by-case basis and have, in some instances, waived or discounted the fees.
* Higher Ed Dive…
An Illinois bill that would establish guardrails on income-share agreements, a controversial method of financing a college education, has stalled in a Senate committee.
Income-share agreements, or ISAs, allow college graduates to pay back their tuition and fees through a monthly portion of their salaries over a set time frame with little to no initial costs. However, ISA critics argue these deals are often difficult to parse, potentially saddle students with greater debt, and have minimal government oversight.
Illinois’ draft legislation would allow ISA providers to take up to a 20% cut of graduates’ income until their tuition is repaid. Providers would also need to ensure graduates wouldn’t pay an effective annual percentage rate greater than 36%.
* Maybe there should be a bill to stop these online newspaper subscription scams…
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* WGN-TV Political Report interview with Gov. JB Pritzker…
Q: You pushed back on [Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s] financial transaction tax, but he’s also looking for state help with the possible real estate transfer tax, changes to the school funding formula. Any negotiation room on those plans?
Pritzker: Well, it’s not something that, obviously, as governor, I’m not the one in the General Assembly, in the committees that are talking about this. But I do not think we’re going to see a lot of movement on the tax front.
But I do think that there are a lot of things that we’re doing at the state level that will be very, very helpful to the new mayor, to the city of Chicago. Always we’ve focused on providing the resources necessary to fight crime, to make sure that they’ve got violence interruption programs that are well funded. We’re providing literally tens of millions more dollars than ever before, each year to help do that. We’ve got to address that issue. That’s certainly one of the top ones and the mayor talks about that as well. And then of course, education funding. We’re increasing education funding, that will help CPS. So there’s a lot that’s coming to the city and we’re going to be as helpful as we can.
Look as Chicago goes, as you know, so goes the economy of the entire state. We need to make sure we’re supporting businesses across the state and job creation and people and working families. But it turns out, as you know, that the majority of the economy of our entire state is in the Chicago area. And so the mayor of Chicago and I and the legislature all need to work together to make sure we’re growing our GDP.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
Thoughts?
…Adding… Yep…
Not to mention the many years that the city refused to allow video gaming and instead allowed gray market sweepstakes machines to establish themselves, even though the machines don’t produce a thin dime of city revenue.
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* The governor, via the Democratic Party of Illinois, supported two candidates for Hinsdale Township High School 86’s board. Only one prevailed, and now the folks who took over the board are up in arms about an upcoming Pritzker visit. Here’s David Giuliani at the Patch…
A Hinsdale High School District 86 board member is asking the district to cancel the half-hour assembly at Hinsdale Central High School with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker as the speaker.
In a text to Patch, Board member Jeff Waters said that as a resident, he was “beyond disappointed” that Pritzker had been invited.
“It is inappropriate, completely lacking in precedence, and fails to serve the interest of students,” Waters said. “At the same time, it drives chaos and distraction to a student body needing nothing but calm and concentration.” […]
On Wednesday, the terms for Held and members Kathleen Hirsman and Cynthia Hanson end. Three new board members take office that night, with the new majority expected to be at odds with Superintendent Tammy Prentiss.
At Thursday’s board meeting, incoming member Catherine Greenspon said the assembly runs the risk of violating the school code. She also said it could be a logistics issue, with up to 40 percent of students who don’t agree with the governor opting out.
With Waters and Greenspon opposed, they would need just two more votes to cancel the assembly. In his statement, Waters suggested the board take action to end the event.
*** UPDATE *** From Jordan Abudayyeh…
We declined the invitation because it’s during the last week of session.
So, apparently the school district got ahead of itself when it announced the visit before confirming the governor’s attendance. And now everyone is angry over nothing.
Hilarious.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Priorities, please
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Block Club Chicago…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is creating a “humanitarian crisis” as his state prepares to resume bussing migrants to Chicago — when the city already doesn’t have room for them.
Lightfoot sent a letter Sunday to Abbott, saying Chicago officials learned he will resume bussing migrants Monday and calling it a “inhumane and dangerous action” as the city has already reached a “critical tipping point” in its ability to help people. […]
Lightfoot said Abbott is attempting to “cause chaos and score political points” by bussing people to Democrat-led cities in protest of federal immigration policies.
The mayor called upon the federal government to freeze all emergency funding to Texas if it resumes buses to Chicago.
“We simply have no more shelters, spaces or resources to accommodate an increase of individuals at this level, with little coordination or care, that does not pose a risk to them or others,” Lightfoot said in the letter. “To tell them to go to Chicago or to inhumanely bus them here is an inviable and misleading choice.”
It is inhumane. But you can’t on the one hand hold your city (and state) out as a welcoming place for immigrants and on the other hand say “We didn’t mean that many all of a sudden!”
They’re just gonna have to deal with it somehow.
* During the mayoral campaign, Chicago police were sent to O’Hare to sweep out homeless people. But then came last week…
About 40 migrants, mostly young women and children, wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to sleep Wednesday morning outside a homelessness center inside O’Hare Airport.
The Venezuelan migrants said they crossed the border into Texas and were offered free flights to Chicago while staying at a shelter in San Antonio. They’re just dozens of the thousands of migrants sent here from Texas since last summer. […]
Upon arriving at O’Hare, the migrants were first directed to Haymarket Center’s O’Hare homelessness outreach program, a nonprofit with an office by the airport’s Blue Line. A Haymarket spokesperson said in recent days they’ve been dealing with a “unique and developing situation,” are unprepared to handle asylum seekers and “doing what they can” to connect them to appropriate social service groups.
The Haymarket Center helps folks deal with substance abuse issues. The group is simply not equipped for this particular task. And it’s taking their staff away from the invaluable services they provide to some of the city’s most vulnerable people.
* And the police aren’t equipped for it, either…
There has been a tenfold increase over the past 10 days in daily arrivals of migrants, said Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services. Migrants — often families with children — are now sheltering in police station lobbies across the city. […]
The city has established 20 shelters since the 108 buses were sent from Texas, Doughtie said. Twelve of them have closed, leaving just eight, he said. […]
But none of this work can be done without appropriate funds at the state and federal levels, said Chicago budget director Susie Park. The total anticipated cost for January through June is $124.8 million, which includes planning for the current surge to reach a peak of 4,700 new arrivals per day, Park said.
Leveraging state and city funding and anticipated funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency still leaves a shortfall of about $53 million to meet needs through June 30 alone, she said.
* Yet, when politicians want the federal government to pay for security at and around their quadrennial party conventions, they act fast to protect the host cities from fiscal pressures…
The city of Chicago is obliged to provide “at no cost” to the Democratic National Convention Committee “police, fire, security, bomb disposal, emergency and rescue service and all other goods or services related to security” according to the contract, obtained by the Sun-Times. […]
The Democratic and Republican presidential conventions are each routinely designated as a National Special Security Event. That opens the door to substantial federal funding. Presidential inaugurations have the same designation, as did the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago.
Since 2004, host cities receive $50 million in federal funds to help pay security costs. Congress is being asked to boost this to $75 million each for Chicago and Milwaukee.
Quigley, D-Ill., is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Illinois lead in asking Congress for more cash. In a letter to House and Senate appropriations leaders, he wrote that “the City of Chicago anticipates the current federal funding of $50 million will not be adequate” for the 2024 convention, “due to inflation, potential supply chain issues, increased public safety personnel and equipment needs and increased insurance costs because of potential security threats.” […]
The contract outlines some of the special security needs: for police escorts to deliver credentials to state delegations and media at their hotels and lots of extra security at convention hotels and convention offices and all kinds of screening equipment for weapons and bombs at convention venues.
They’re gonna use cops to deliver delegate credentials? Are you freaking kidding me?
Also from that contract…
The city will expedite all permits and other permissions needed to build out the convention
Chicago is notorious for over-permitting. One can’t help but wonder if that’s a problem with the migrant housing situation as well.
* Like the convention, the city and state simply cannot afford to handle this migrant influx on their own (and, for that matter, neither can Texas). US Rep. Quigley and others need to put at least the same effort into dealing with this problem as they are to ensure delegates’ credentials arrive safely at their heavily guarded hotels.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker was asked about this today. A couple of his responses…
Just to be clear with everybody, we’ve already provided about 150 million of state dollars and services to serve those asylum seekers that are coming to Illinois. That’s since August and continues on today. In January, we passed an additional supplemental appropriation that included money for the city of Chicago and for other agencies, about $90 million, again, to make sure that we were providing the services necessary. […]
But it is true, and the current mayor said it, that our resources are stretched. And we’ve gone to the federal government. I’ve spoken directly with the President, with the chief of staff, with the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and others, and they are helping to push the money from FEMA out the door to states, but it isn’t enough. […]
We believe, we hope, we’ve heard that perhaps we’re going to receive some of that [federal] money this week, or next week. And we’re hopeful of that, but who knows. Meanwhile, my job is to balance the budget of the state of Illinois and take care of the people that are here in our state, all of our residents.
Translation: Take it up with Joe.
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* Background is here if you need it. Chicago Tribune…
On Tuesday, the Danville City Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance, which is titled “requiring compliance with federal abortion laws.” It’s unclear how the local ordinance, which directly conflicts with Illinois law, could be legally enforced in this rural city of about 30,000 people located roughly three hours south of downtown Chicago.
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.”
The 19th Century law has been largely considered moot for nearly 50 years, while the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade guaranteed the right to an abortion nationwide. But the Comstock Act has been in the spotlight since the high court overturned Roe in June, leaving the matter of abortion rights to be decided by individual states.
“The difficulty here in my opinion is we have state laws and statutes that contradict federal law, specifically the Comstock Act,” Williams said. “We made an oath to uphold the laws of the state of Illinois and the United States, so what do we … do when they contradict one another?”
* The ACLU Illinois argues the Comstock Act is not applicable in Illinois…
The ordinance references the federal Comstock Act, which is a century-and-a-half old federal law that purports to prohibit the sending of abortion-inducing drugs and supplies by mail or common carrier. The ordinance’s attempted reliance on this law is misplaced and misguided.
As the federal Department of Justice has explained, there is over a century of judicial, congressional, and administrative understanding that the Comstock Act’s reach is “narrower than a literal reading might suggest.” Application of the Comstock Act to the Mailing of Prescription Drugs That Can Be Used for Abortions, 46. Op. O.L.C. __ (Dec. 23, 2022) at 5. The Comstock Act does not apply where the sender did not intend the materials to be used unlawfully. Id. at 1, 5-11. It is thus impossible for the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs or supplies to violate the Comstock Act in Illinois as abortion care is lawful and affirmatively protected by law throughout the state.
Furthermore, regardless of the meaning or scope of the Comstock Act, this ordinance exceeds Danville’s authority under state law and is preempted by the RHA
* Illinois Newsroom…
“Proposing an unenforceable ordinance is a political maneuver that causes confusion and that harms people seeking care,” Chaundre White, a lawyer with the ACLU of Illinois, said.
Abortion rights advocates are organizing a protest at the Danville City Council meeting on Tuesday where the council could vote on the ordinance. […]
Many residents said they supported the measure because they want to prevent a proposed abortion clinic from opening in Danville.
“It’s not like the passage of this ordinance prevents women from choosing to pursue their rights in very near locations, unfortunately,” said Josh Hayes, a speaker at the meeting. “But I think it’s an opportunity for us to say this is against federal law and not in our community.”
* WCIA reported on last week’s City Council committee meeting…
Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. explained that anyone shipping or receiving abortion pills or abortion-related supplies would be subject to fines of $1,500 per offense. There was discussion over an abortion clinic that may open up in Danville soon. Williams acknowledged that while he doesn’t think the ordinance would stop the clinic from opening, he said it could provide a means by which they couldn’t perform abortions.
Alderman Tricia Teague noted internal counsel estimates that if litigation was brought against the city, it could cost up to $1 million to defend, or more if it goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. […]
Ultimately, the committee voted 3-1 to recommend the ordinance be considered by the full City Council – the first step toward an outcome many who described themselves as pro-life during public comment are hoping for. That same group of speakers called providing abortions a “grisly business” that doesn’t belong in their city, while the other side says it’s necessary health care – telling the government to stay out of the doctor’s office.
Also during the meeting, Williams mentioned receiving a letter from a lawyer who offered to represent the city if it is met with litigation over the proposed ordinance. WCIA reached out to attorney Anthony Mitchell, who said via email: “Yes, I have offered to represent the city at no charge to the city or its taxpayers in any litigation arising out of the ordinance.”
* Smile Politely…
You can read the full language of the ordinance here, beginning on page 123.
The full vote will happen during the Danville City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 2nd, at 6 p.m., at 17 W Main Street, in case you’d like to voice opposition to this action.
It should be noted that Danville currently has a crisis pregnancy center, the Women’s Care Clinic, with a website brimming with misleading information about abortion.
* From the proposal…
C) Except as provided by subsection (D), it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in conduct that aids or abets the violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1461 or 18 U.S.C. § 1462 described in subsection (A).
(D) This section shall not apply to any conduct taken by a hospital, or by any employees, agents, or contractors of a hospital, that is necessary to ensure that a licensed physician is prepared to perform an abortion in response to a medical emergency.
(E) No provision of this section may be construed to prohibit any conduct protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as made applicable to state and local governments through the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, or by article 1, section 4 of the Illinois Constitution.
(F) Under no circumstance may the mother of the unborn child that has been aborted, or the pregnant woman who seeks to abort her unborn child, be subject to prosecution or penalty under this section.
(G) Any person found guilty of violating any provision of this section shall be fined $1,500 for each offense. In addition to any fine imposed under this chapter, the offender shall be ordered to pay all of the costs and fees incurred by the City in prosecuting the violation, which shall include but not be limited to the costs associated with an administrative adjudication proceeding or court proceeding, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
*** UPDATE *** AG Raoul…
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued the following statement after sending a letter to the mayor of Danville, Illinois regarding a proposed city ordinance that, if enacted, would violate state law.
“Today, I sent a letter to the mayor of Danville urging the city to reject a proposed ordinance that would violate the Illinois Reproductive Health Act by purporting to ban or severely limit access to abortion care in the city of Danville.
“The Reproductive Health Act enshrines the fundamental rights of individuals to make autonomous decisions about their reproductive health. The act clearly states that units of local government cannot limit abortion rights, and Danville has no authority under Illinois law to enact a municipal abortion ban.
“The ordinance proposed in Danville violates state law. I am calling upon the city’s elected officials to refrain from passing or attempting to enforce this unlawful ordinance and avoid exposing the city and taxpayers to unnecessary and potentially costly legal liability.
“Illinois law could not be clearer. Our state is a proud safe haven for access to reproductive health care that respects bodily autonomy and fundamental rights. I will continue to stand up for the rights of everyone in Illinois to access reproductive health care, and my office stands ready to take appropriate action to uphold Illinois law.”
* More…
* Scientific American | This 19th-Century Obscenity Law Is Still Restricting People’s Reproductive Rights: The law forbids the sending of obscene materials through the mail. Comstock was enforcing the law by ordering thousands of items through the mail, from contraceptives and sex toys to erotic images and abortifacients [substances that end a pregnancy]. Then, after receiving the items, he would prosecute the people sending them. He was targeting people who were known to be selling the raw material but also, more importantly, people who were selling any kind of information that was education-related, not obscene—literally things like “Here’s how to make a baby” and also information about birth control and abortion.
* WBBM | ACLU could sue city of Danville over abortion clinic ordinance: “You won’t know until the finality, which could go beyond potentially to the Supreme Court level,” said Alderman Ethan Burt. “My response to that would be are we willing to donate a million dollars to find out? Is it worth a million dollars to find out?” Alderwoman Tricia Teague asked.
* Fox Illinois | Danville committee recommends ordinance restricting abortion to city council :“Illinois law is very clear that Danville does not have the authority to do this. In 2019, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Reproductive Health Act, which ensures that abortion remains legal in the state of Illinois, that law applies to municipalities like Danville,” explained Ameri Klafeta, director of Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project with ACLU Illinois.
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The ball’s in your court, leaders
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
We’re going to talk some history today.
According to testimony at the federal ComEd Four trial, then-House Speaker Mike Madigan’s former 13th Ward Ald. Frank Olivo was brought on as a subcontractor under then- ComEd Chairman and CEO Frank Clark.
Clark retired in September 2011, almost a dozen years ago. He has never been charged nor has it ever been claimed he did anything illegal. And Olivo didn’t officially register as a lobbyist until the beginning of 2012, according to a 2019 report by NBC Chicago.
Olivo was put on ComEd lobbyist Jay Doherty’s payroll as a subcontractor, according to a secretly recorded video of a conversation Doherty had with ComEd’s top in-house lobbyist at the time, Fidel Marquez. Doherty explained that John Hooker, ComEd’s former top in-house lobbyist, was the person who carried the news to him.
It didn’t stop there, of course. The alleged ComEd scheme was drastically expanded and even perfected under Clark’s successor, ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, who appeared to express surprise when she was told by Marquez how, long ago, Olivo had been hired and by whom. “Oh my God,” she said on a secret government recording when told the news.
Pramaggiore, Doherty, Hooker and former statehouse lobbyist Mike McClain are now all on trial for allegedly carrying out a massive scheme to bribe Mike Madigan.
Give Madigan an inch, and he would always try to take a mile. But this sort of thing often happens with big bureaucracies, private and public. Assign a bureaucracy a task, and it’ll tend to stay on that path, sometimes to a ridiculously absurd conclusion — although rarely does that conclusion wind up with a federal criminal trial, as it has here.
Putting Olivo on the payroll eventually led to a level of absurdity that surpassed anything seen before or since, even if there are legitimate arguments the behavior was not criminal.
Needless to say, this is not how it was all supposed to end when Olivo was awarded a $4,000-a-month Doherty subcontract a dozen years ago.
But there’s an aspect to this lobbying topic that isn’t really being addressed at the ComEd Four trial.
Over the decades, Madigan built a giant “farm system” that became the backbone of his political and statehouse organization. Young people either started out on campaigns before they were put on Madigan’s issues staff or were subsequently sent out to work on campaigns after joining the staff.
The most favored were moved up to the top of the in-house food chain, and the most favored of them were eventually sent forth into the lobbying world, where they could make very good money and continue overseeing campaigns, training the young people hired for the next cycle.
Every other legislative leader had a similar operation, although none were nearly as extensive as Madigan’s far-flung operation. Madigan, as was his habit, “perfected” it to the point where companies and other special interests believed they had to hire his people as contract or in-house lobbyists or their bills wouldn’t advance.
A buddy of mine recently recalled a conversation with a former legislative leader who only half-jokingly predicted a certain bill wasn’t going anywhere because the proponents hadn’t yet hired enough Madigan people to work the legislation.
None of the current legislative leaders have been around long enough yet to set up anything like that. Senate President Don Harmon is the most senior leader, but he’s had the job a little over three years. House Speaker Chris Welch has led his chamber for a bit more than two years, and the two Republican leaders just started in January.
The ComEd Four trial should put a damper on such things going forward. Madigan and the other leaders branded this practice as building “goodwill,” and the accused have used that in their defense. Those who wanted something done did favors for people close to the leaders to grease the skids, and what could possibly be so horrible about that was the feeling.
But doing such things now could well be seen as attempted bribery by the feds.
To be clear, many of the lobbyists themselves are not the issue here. They participated in a tradition that started long before they came to the legislature. And none of them were charged by the feds in this case, after all.
But now the statehouse leaders need to figure out where to go from here.
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Open thread
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* I hope y’all had a relaxing weekend! What’s going on?…
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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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Live coverage
Monday, May 1, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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