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Isabel’s morning briefing
Wednesday, Jan 17, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller * ICYMI: Legislators OK rules for maintaining, enforcing registry of guns covered by state ban. Tribune…
-While Republicans on JCAR failed to stop the rules from being put into place, their motion to object to the rules passed in a 6-5 vote along partisan lines, meaning the state police will have 90 days to address the objection. * Related stories… ∙ Capitol News Illinois : Lawmakers clear path for assault weapon registration rules ∙ Center Square: Despite legislators objecting, Illinois’ gun ban rules remain in effect * Isabel’s top picks… * Axios | Texas paused sending migrant buses to Chicago during extreme cold: City data show no new buses brought migrants to Chicago over the past four days, when extreme cold created dangerous conditions across the region. * WTTW | Emails Show Johnson, City Officials Notified About Sewage, Roaches and Illnesses at Pilsen Migrant Shelter Almost 2 Months Before Boy’s Death Highlighted Problems: However, emails exclusively obtained by WTTW News shine new light on the timeline of when Johnson and his administration were made aware of conditions at the shelter and what exactly those conditions were. The emails also raise questions about how the administration has monitored conditions at migrant shelters and the city’s oversight of outside vendor Favorite Staffing, which manages day-to-day operations at migrant shelters. Governor Pritzker will be at Wieland in East Alton at 10:30 a.m. to announce new investments and then Ellis Elementary School in Belleville at 12:30 p.m. touting Smart Start investments. Click here to watch. * Here’s the rest of your morning roundup… * Journal Republican | Get to know Chuck Erickson, candidate 88th statehouse district: People have been asking me to run for a long time. But I am a public servant interested in serving, not a politician in search of a seat. In 2022, one didn’t have to live in the district in which one wanted to represent but could move their afterwards. I wouldn’t do it. I like where I live. Many encouraged me to run but I said no. I take the view if it is meant to be then it is meant to be. When this seat opened up, I decided to run. I want to serve. * WAND | Illinois Supreme Court announces creation of Pretrial Release Appeals Task Force: The Task Force will hold its first meeting within two weeks and will issue a report of its findings and recommendations to the Supreme Court within the next 45 days. The Chair of the Task Force will be Fourth District Appellate Justice Eugene Doherty. * Center Square | New legislative caucus looks to improve one of Illinois’ largest industries: Lawmakers from both parties will form the first-ever Illinois Manufacturing Caucus, including state Rep. Amy Elik, R-Alton, state Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, and state Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex. * Sun-Times | Family demands answers after veteran dies from self-inflicted gunshot inside Chicago VA hospital: “By the time I was getting ready to leave, again he said, ‘I’m gonna miss you guys,’” Donald Giddens said. “I’m thinking, I don’t have anything to worry about … because I can’t think of a better place for him to be.” On the drive home, Donald Giddens learned his brother might have access to a gun. Minutes later he received a call from the VA: His brother had shot himself. * Sun-Times | Brutal cold claims four lives, but Chicago area hospitals don’t see rise in weather-related problems: The people who died had pre-existing health conditions, and their secondary cause of death was listed as cold exposure, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. * Tribune | Racial equity activist must pay at least $38,000 after judge dismisses her lawsuit alleging harm from Awake Illinois leader: Cook County Judge Daniel Kubasiak on Dec. 14 ordered Jasmine Sebaggala, who works as an assistant principal for Evanston/Skokie District 65 schools, to pay the $38,000 after he dismissed her lawsuit. Sebaggala had sued Helen Levinson, vice president of the board of the conservative group Awake Illinois and, according to her Facebook page, chair of Moms For Liberty Cook County, for defamation and intentionally causing her emotional distress in 2022. * Sun-Times | Failing furnaces, frozen pipes, dead car batteries make surviving the cold no snap: Ben Jungman, the vice president of business development for Four Seasons, said his company has responded to about 2,500 service calls over the last three days, mainly from people who have lost their heat. “It’s been extremely busy,” Jungman said. * BBC | ‘It hasn’t delivered’: The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology: While self-checkout technology has its theoretical selling points for both consumers and businesses, it mostly isn’t living up to expectations. Customers are still queueing. They need store employees to help clear kiosk errors or check their identifications for age-restricted items. Stores still need to have workers on-hand to help them, and to service the machines * Sun-Times | Boos of Jerry Krause at Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremony should have been expected: I know Thelma Krause, a kind and decent woman. And if I worked for the Bulls, I would have told her Friday to be prepared for boos ringing out at the mention of late husband Jerry’s name. The event was the Bulls’ inaugural Ring of Honor induction, and there were 21,153 people at the United Center. Some were going to boo. The Bulls should have been prepared for it. When alive, Jerry Krause had been booed at Bulls events before. * SJ-R | Five places where it’s warmer–and five places where it’s colder than Springfield: Tuesday didn’t provide much of a reprieve, with below zero temperatures reported at 8:52 a.m. at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport – 2 below zero to be exact – and wind chills at 23 degrees below zero. Things should warm up on Wednesday, with high temperatures expected to reach the upper 20s, moving towards something more like normal for this time of year, but still cold.
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- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 8:37 am:
“Racial equity activist must pay at least $38,000 after judge dismisses her lawsuit alleging harm from Awake Illinois leader”
I absolutely despise Awake, but this was the correct decision.
Like it or not, when you willingly choose to insert yourself into matters of public import, you accept all the slings and arrows which come with it. There were no death threats involved here, no doxxing, nothing but heated words. As a public official, and not just a limited-purpose public figure, attempting to silence or retaliate against your opponent through courts means you think courts can be more powerful than your position. In the short term maybe, but in the long term this is always a losing position. Always.
Open and intense public commenting generally acts as a balancing force, to act as a filter to ensure you at least believe your cause is more important than yourself. That’s supposed to be the core purpose of open debate. When you start to put yourself as more important than your cause, it may seem like the right choice to file these types of suits. But even before the case was decided, the filer had already lost.
I’m disappointed the person filed this suit. It weakens their position automatically, and that was the wrong choice. Sometimes egos are hard to get out of the way of, and take over. She needed someone at her side to remind her that her advocacy was more important than her comfort. Because its going to be uncomfortable when advocating for change, otherwise it already would have been done.
“To me, it’s really a shame that almost 70 years after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954, I am still advocating for my daughters to receive equal education opportunities free from racial harm and trauma.”
Except she didn’t sue for anything relating to her daughter. She sued for something purely related to herself.
IL has very strong anti-SLAPP laws, and this person filing was given absolutely terrible advice by her union rep which led to the filing of this lawsuit. I don’t see how this can be reversed on any appeal, unless some magical new evidence is submitted.
- Formerly Unemployed - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 9:31 am:
How can we get CTU to care about migrants so that the mayor will deal with this issue?
- Steve - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 9:54 am:
-How can we get CTU to care about migrants-
Housing can’t be built quick enough for the asylum seekers even though Chicago has vacant land. This is the core of the problem. Poor migrants have no where they can afford to live.
- Lurker - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 10:01 am:
I agree they should have prepared Thelma for boos but wow did I find that so cringe-worthy. Shameful.
- Unedited - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 12:16 pm:
I would’ve never guessed that LA and Orlando are warmer than Springfield. Thanks for that incisive reporting, SJ-R!
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Jan 17, 24 @ 1:54 pm:
@InvisibleMan and @Capitolfax -
I don’t believe the anti-SLAPP decision is so clear-cut.
The Appellate Court for the 1st District ruled that the plain language of the statute runs into Constitutional problems:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2134786010647765667&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr
It’s important to understand that if the goal of anti-SLAPP legislation it to promote robust public debate, should not provide refuge for those who want to take to the internet to make malicious, false claims about other citizens with whom they disagree.
Keep in mind, this teacher was being attacked for what she did in her free time as a private citizen.
It’s also hard to believe the judge could not accept on its face that a public statement that a person is a child abuser is on its face damaging to their reputation, particularly if that person is a teacher, and actionable if it can be proven false.
I can’t imagine judges want to give everyone license to call them child abusers and then hide behind an anti-SLAPP law just because they are a public official.
At the same time, if it’s okay to make baseless claims that teachers are child abusers, does that not mean it’s okay to make baseless, public claims that the officers of AWAKE Illinois are child abusers? Is that what we really want?