17 Comments - Anon221 - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 8:08 am: Navigator may have “paused” its pipeline plans, but it has not “paused” its well siting plans according to this table from the EPA. Note that DeWitt County is now included in the Class VI permit applications, but was not included in anything submitted to the ICC. Navigator has informed DeWitt County on several occasions that they are targeted…ahem… planned for a “Phase II” pipeline plan. https://www.epa.gov/uic/current-class-vi-projects-under-review-epa - Suburban Mom - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 8:21 am: ===“Mr. Weiss, you added another star to Chicago’s walk of shame on the sidewalk of corruption,” U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger said === I wonder how long the judge workshopped that metaphor. I did LOL, so it was time well-spent - JoanP - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 8:51 am: A few weeks ago, Rich’s Afternoon Round-up linked to a story about Target closing stores “citing violence, theft and organized retail crime”. Popular Information has a story with stats that show that’s not likely the real reason: https://popular.info/p/target-says-its-closing-9-stores? - TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:03 am: “the number of arrivals from San Antonio, the vast majority of whom are sent by Catholic Charities, still grew by 33%” It’s amazing how this is mostly being left out of the public discussion so far. Catholic Charities is one of the only organizations listed in the Joliet grant who has not made any statements about not knowing about this. They haven’t said anything, in fact. They appear to like all the attention elsewhere. I find it hard to believe the Catholic Charities chapter in San Antonio is operating without any knowledge or communication with the Catholic Charities chapter in Joliet. - Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:10 am: I see that Harmon has the good sense to keep his beverage in a Swirly Gig, the single most useful piece of stage apparatus since the microphone stand itself. - Jerry - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:32 am: Regarding the retail stores blaming theft. There was an article recently that discussed how Lowe’s was combatting it. They have more employees in their stores. - Back to the Future - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:37 am: Congratulations to the federal agents and federal attorneys on their success in the Weiss case. These cases are hard to investigate. You would think at some point some lobbying folks in Springfield would get together and come to the conclusion that they need to be more proactive in working with federal agents to tidy up the lobbying culture. It would probably also help if some GA members got together and started working with Federal agents to move things along in these investigations. We really are fortunate to have the FBI and other Federal Agents in our corner and doing such good work to make our state a better place. - Adam Laroach's Son Drake - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:38 am: “State’s attorneys are not used to having to go in and make a case for keeping somebody in jail who is a flight risk or danger to the community,” Pritzker said. “They’re not used to having to make that case. They would just go in and say ‘we want this much bail.’ Right? Now they have to actually make a case about why somebody has to be kept in jail.” - I have years of experience as both an ASA and criminal defense attorney and feel compelled to point out that this statement is a complete misrepresentation of how the criminal justice system worked prior to the PFA. It is disappointing that the Governor would make such a misinformed statement. The law, and the constitution, always required courts to consider multiple factors for setting bond, beyond just the crime that was alleged. ASA always had to provide justifications for their arguments during bond hearings, this type of rhetoric is unfair to and essentially villainizes the hundreds of hard working public servants who forgo more lucrative careers and instead take on the thankless, difficult and emotionally draining work of an ASA. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 9:53 am: ===Pritzker rose to Biden’s defense on one of the most fraught issues of the president’s re-election: age. === I don’t know how much the folks in the messaging office really thought about Pritzker’s statement, but I suspect there was a manner in which to describe the benefit of a lifetime of experience and decades of demonstrated integrity that didn’t involve a dig at “younger” people. The Democratic Party needs those younger people to vote for them. The median age in this country is just over 38. In the United States House of Representatives it is about 58 and in the Senate it was around 65, however that’s probably decreased a little bit since the figure was published due to the age of California’s new Senator. I don’t think it’s inappropriate for “younger” voters to feel like they’re not well represented within those demographics and I don’t think it is a good idea to defend Joe Biden’s age by making an attack at the idea of it being a criticism and the idea that the criticism is coming from “younger” voters. I have personally heard these concerns expressed by voters in every age group and coming from voters that will absolutely be voting for Joe Biden in November. If you’re trying to make voters feel better about the age of the President of the United States why go out of your way to attempt to attack them for having concerns? Just bad messaging and unless someone chatted with someone else, I am guessing it is also messaging that didn’t get a stamp of approval. - Lurker - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 10:11 am: I find this sentence inane, “We need to stop dismissing concerns about the physical age of a candidate, especially when that concern comes from a young person.” I am concerned about the age and dwindling mental abilities of those wanting to do the job. Move aside please. And no, I am not young. Well, unless you compare me to Biden and Trump. - Former Downstater - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 10:17 am: @Adam Laroach’s Son Drake: If prosecutors were already doing what the Safe-T Act requires, as you claim, why was there so much pushback from prosecutors prior to the law going into effect? - Amalia - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 10:31 am: unfortunately, those who are ASAs under Foxx now bear the ire of many. - JoanP - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 10:31 am: @ Adam Laroach’s Son Drake - I don’t know where you practiced law, but in my 35 years as a public defender, appearing regularly in bond court in two different counties, I can tell you that Pritzker’s description of what actually happened in bond court was dead on. - Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 11:45 am: == and essentially villainizes== I think some SA’s have done a pretty good job of vilifying themselves with their own rhetoric. - Adam Laroach's Son Drake - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 12:55 pm: I’m fine with the new system, I just I disagree with how the Governor described the bond hearing process while also implying that an entire class of public employees are lazy and unethical drones. And if for 35 years your bond hearings consisted of the state just asking for a bond amount without presenting any further evidence or ‘making a case’ for their request, then I imagine you had quite a successful career in bond court. As support for the claim that the law already required non-custodial alternatives, the bail reform act of 2019 made it a requirement for courts to consider and admit into evidence pretrial services reports, which set forth recommendations for non-custodial alternatives, at all bond hearings. That act also established a category of offenses for which pretrial release was to be presumed. - Payback - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 1:02 pm: “We really are fortunate to have the FBI and other Federal Agents in our corner and doing such good work to make our state a better place.” I used to think the feds were infallible also, when I was twelve, watching black and white re-runs of “The Untouchables” with Robert Stack on Tee-Vee. Illinois has a weak Attorney General act by design, which means that we wait around for one hundred years for a county State’s Attorney to indict a cop for murder, like Jason Van Dyke. The other alternative is sit around and hope for the feds to swoop in and save the day every twenty or thirty years, like with George Ryan, Jon Burge or Blago. How about if our AG Kwame Raoul drafts a statewide grand jury act for corrupt cops and politicians? Not holding my breath. - Candy Dogood - Thursday, Oct 12, 23 @ 5:08 pm: ===while also implying that an entire class of public employees are lazy and unethical drones.=== Maybe he’s met more of the upper and middle management at his agencies than I’ve thought. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.