* Gregory Pratt, Alice Yin and A.D. Quig at the Tribune…
(A) Tribune review of his social media found his Twitter account @paulvallas liked a series of tweets that used racist language, supported controversial police tactics like “stop and frisk” or insulted the mayor in personal terms.
In a statement Thursday, Vallas said he does not “personally manage” the account and was “shocked when this was brought to my attention because this kind of abhorrent and vile rhetoric does not represent me or my views.” […]
Back in April 2022, the Vallas account liked a tweet insinuating Chicago police superintendent David Brown was a diversity hire and calling the mayor a racist.
“He was hired for one reason and one reason only. He was black,” the tweet said. “Other candidates were more qualified, but they weren’t black. Lightfoot is a racist, big news flash.”
Oh, there’s so much more.
Didn’t know anything about Awake Illinois even after appearing with the group twice. Owns a house in the suburbs and says he lives in a Chicago rental unit. And somebody else close enough to him to have access to his personal Twitter account must’ve liked all those nasty tweets because it most certainly wasn’t him. Nope.
* And check out his likes now…
Clean-up on Aisle 5!
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* Greg Hinz…
The Illinois State Board of Elections has taken the first step to probe whether a political spending group run by Chicago political activist and talk radio host Dan Proft illegally colluded with GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey in last year’s election.
At its meeting yesterday, the board agreed with a hearing examiner that “justifiable grounds” exist “with some basis in fact” to believe that Proft coordinated with Bailey’s campaign in efforts to promote Bailey, then a state senator, and bash his Democratic rival, incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was re-elected. […]
The key matter referenced in the board report was a series of interviews Bailey granted to Proft for his radio show during the campaign. Among other things, the two repeatedly suggested that, because of high crime rates under Democratic officials, Chicago “isn’t a safe place to live.” Proft later echoed that theme in his PAC ads, repeatedly blaming Pritzker for letting crime get out of control. […]
In his rebuttal brief, Proft’s attorney asserted that merely appearing on a radio show and discussing issues of importance “doesn’t indicate any kind of control.” All of the items referenced in the TV ads and in stories in faux newspapers published by a Proft firm were based on information that was readily available to the public without any coordination, the attorney said, accusing Democrats in the case of engaging in “a fishing expedition.” Attorneys for Proft and Bailey had sought to have the board dismiss the case.
There’s more.
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Afternoon roundup
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Shaw Local News Network…
The owner-operator of the nuclear generating stations at Byron and Braidwood said Tuesday that it will invest $800 million in new equipment to increase the combined output of the plants by approximately 135 megawatts.
Constellation, which made the announcement, said the increase is enough to power the equivalent of 100,000 average homes 24-7 for a year. […]
It’s the carbon-footprint equivalent of removing 171,000 gas-powered vehicles from the road per year, or the equivalent of adding 216 intermittent wind turbines to the grid, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. […]
The company said the state legislature’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021 and the congressional Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 paved the way for this investment.
* Hilarious…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his crusade against the proverbial wokeness infiltrating local governments across the country by taking aim at Illinois and Chicago during his visit to Elmhurst on Monday.
During the invite-only event at the Knights of Columbus hall, DeSantis said Chicago and the state was faced with a crime problem because of “woke” policies and an active effort to “defund the police.”
“I know they slashed police spending for a while here in Illinois and in Chicago,” DeSantis said to the crowd. “We said that that’s totally unacceptable in Florida and yes, we were not going to do that at the state level, of course.”
But a look at police budgets in Illinois, Chicago and two other large cities in the state show funding for police has only grown since 2020. During the last three years, state police funding is up 15%; Chicago police funding is up 11%; Aurora police funding is up 17% and Joliet police funding is up 2%.
Some people just love looking for ways to be angry.
Chart…
* Tina Sfondeles…
In the adjacent 23rd Ward, former Madigan ally Ald. Silvana Tabares faces Eddie Guillen. A West Lawn resident, Guillen is a community organizer, small business owner and former chief of staff for state Rep. Angie Guerrero-Cuellar — who was appointed by Madigan to replace him after his resignation in 2021.
Tabares was initially appointed to her City Council seat by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel when Ald. Mike Zalewski retired in 2018. A state representative at the time, Tabares was a close Madigan ally.
But when Madigan relinquished his Illinois House seat, Tabares called for a “transparent” process in appointing his successor — and she didn’t vote for Madigan’s initial choice for the post.
Asked if she believes Madigan put Guillen up to run against her, Tabares said, “the facts speak for themselves.”
“He was on the payroll, and he has been receiving money from labor groups that are closely aligned with Madigan,” Tabares said.
The whole thing is definitely worth a read.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Tribune | Chicago boosters for 2024 Democratic Convention using Georgia gun laws to try to edge out Atlanta: With a decision possibly weeks away, officials involved agree that Atlanta and Chicago appear to lead New York, the third of the finalists still under consideration. Union officials have for weeks pressed President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee to pick the more union-friendly city; Chicago has 45 unionized hotels, while Atlanta has just two, they say.
* WTWO | U of I wants bigger budget from the state but calls Pritzker’s proposal ‘strong commitment’: “Is this enough? You know, we’re asking for more,” he said. “Our budget request is for 10%. Seven percent is a very strong number. It’s a strong commitment. And we’re delighted to see that and very supportive of Governor Pritzker has value-laden budget.”
* Crain’s | State officials eye Akorn Pharma for laying off 400 amid bankruptcy: Akorn Pharmaceuticals, a Gurnee-based maker of generic drugs, is under investigation by the Illinois Department of Labor after the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week and abruptly notified about 400 workers that they’re out of a job.
* WGIL | Knox County a “sanctuary county’ for firearms owners. Board debates assault weapons ban: Board members in a 9-5 split vote on Wednesday night approved the resolution that opposes Public Act 102-1116 – also known as HB5471 or the Protect Illinois Communities Act.
* Sun-Times | Police urge Jewish, other religious communities to be vigilant this weekend as neo-Nazi group declares ‘day of hate’: “At this time, there is no actionable intelligence,” according to the Chicago Police Department. “We continue to actively monitor the situation.”
* Daily Herald | Ice storm leaves nearly 100,000 without power, closes schools: In a statement on the company’s outage map site, ComEd officials said “we expect 80% of outages in your region to be restored by Thursday evening and the majority of our remaining outages restored by Saturday evening.”
* Reuters | U.S. groups suing to ban abortion pill lose bid for early trial: A Texas federal judge on Tuesday refused to set an accelerated trial schedule for a lawsuit by anti-abortion groups seeking to end U.S. sales of the abortion pill mifepristone, in a case that could severely disrupt access to medication abortion nationwide.
* Crain’s | Railroads fought to crush rules that Biden aims to revive after Ohio derailment: Our experience is that “the rail industry pushes back hard on both safety and public disclosure rules — and keeps that opposition up long after the public scrutiny of tragic accidents abates,” said Kristen Boyles, managing attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice. “There should be a renewed push for safer trains and safer rail cars following the disaster in Ohio, and that pressure will need to be applied for as long as it takes to get new safety requirements and regulations in place.”
* NPR | NPR announces layoffs as tough financial outlook impacts media industry: Here & Now‘s Scott Tong speaks with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik about NPR’s plan to cut 10% of the workforce and recent layoffs at other media companies.
* Press release | Illinois churches forgive almost $6 million in medical debt statewide: Thirty three churches and 36 individuals funded the Conference’s primary buy of $41,707 — which wiped out almost $6 million in debt for households in 78 of Illinois’ 102 counties. The donations were sent through the National Setting to UCC partner, RIP Medical Debt, a non-profit which buys up debt on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar.
* Sun-Times | Nearing 100, Artist Laureate of Illinois Kay Smith says her passion for painting keeps her going: Smith was named a laureate along with five other recipients in 1994 by the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, for “contributions to the betterment of humanity that have been accomplished in or on behalf of the State of Illinois.”
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S&P Global upgrades state credit rating
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Some pointy heads are gonna explode… again…
Governor JB Pritzker today celebrated S&P Global Ratings’ upgrade of Illinois bonds. This latest action means that Illinois has received a total of seven upgrades in less than two years under Governor Pritzker. This fiscal progress was achieved due to strong fiscal leadership by Gov. Pritzker and Democrats in the General Assembly.
S&P Global Ratings announced a ratings upgrade to A- for Illinois’ General Obligation bonds, its third upgrade of Illinois’ bonds since July 2021. The last time Illinois had an A- rating from S&P was before May of 2016. Fitch Ratings upgraded Illinois’ bonds by two notches last spring, the first Fitch upgrade for Illinois’ General Obligation bonds since June 2000. Illinois received two upgrades from Moody’s Investor Service in two separate actions in April 2022 and June 2021.
“I am thrilled to see our hard work at righting the past fiscal wrongs of our state reflected in today’s action by S&P with another credit rating upgrade—the third such upgrade in just two years,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Our continued fiscal responsibility and smart budgeting will save Illinois taxpayers millions from adjusted interest rates, and my partners in the General Assembly and I look forward to building on that success.”
The upgrade follows unveiling of the Governor Pritzker’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget which builds on four years of historic progress with balanced budgets, a Budget Stabilization Fund on track to hit $2.3 billion, elimination of the state’s bill backlog and reaching $1 trillion GDP. The proposed spending plan maintains the Governor’s commitment to fiscal responsibility while growing Illinois into an economic powerhouse and makes transformative, generational investments in early childhood education and efforts to fight poverty.
“The upgrade on the GO debt reflects our view that Illinois’ commitment and execution to strengthen its budgetary flexibility and stability, supported by accelerating repayment of its liabilities, rebuilding its Budget Stabilization Fund to decade highs; and a slowing of statutory pension funding growth, will likely continue during the outlook period,” S&P Global stated.
S&P last upgraded the state’s bonds in May 2022 and today’s analysis credited the state’s recent actions in paying longstanding debts, rapid and early repayment debts taken on during the pandemic-induced recession and transparent reporting both from the Comptroller and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
S&P Global upgraded Illinois’ rating on its General Obligation bonds to A- (stable outlook) from BBB+ (stable outlook), and also upgraded Build Illinois sales tax bonds to A (stable outlook) from A- (stable outlook).
The rating of a state’s bonds is a measure of their credit quality. A higher bond rating generally means the state can borrow at a lower interest rate, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
Between 2015 and 2017, the State of Illinois suffered eight credit rating downgrades and sat at the top of many analysts’ lists of the worst managed states in the nation. At its worst, Illinois’ bill backlog hit nearly $17 billion.
…Adding… The S&P report is here…
The GO rating on Illinois reflects our view of the state’s:
- Deep and diverse economic base;
- Adequate liquidity with access to currently untapped interfund borrowing options, and a growing budget stabilization fund (BSF);
- Expectation that open collective bargaining units will be settled in a timely manner; and
- Transparent reporting both from the comptroller and the governor’s office of management and budget that we expect will be sustained or improve.
Offsetting factors, in our opinion, include:
- High pension and other postemployment benefit (OPEB) liabilities and a pension funding practice where the statutory pension funding is designed to attain a 90% funded status in 2045, which is just part of one of the least conservative funding methodologies in the nation among peers;
- Trend of annual financial audits being released later than in most other states; and
- Population declines that are forecast to continue, and if this accelerates could potentially challenge economic growth.
The stable outlook reflects our view that Illinois’ near-term credit profile has stabilized, given improved liquidity, an economy rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic-driven recession, and historic levels of direct federal support.
We could lower the rating if a structural deficit were to increase, derived from economic uncertainties; or if increases in pension, OPEB, or other fixed-cost obligations exceed expectations.
If the state continues to improve pension, OPEB, and BSF funding levels, while shrinking the structural deficit that we believe was created by not funding to an actuarially determined contribution level without experiencing meaningful deterioration in other credit factors, we could raise the rating. Although not required for us to consider an upgrade, a return to a more abbreviated audit-release period would be in line with that of higher-rated peers.
…Adding… The governor announced the upgrade during a speech today. Click here for the video.
…Adding… Speaker Welch…
“Less than two years ago we celebrated Illinois’ first credit rating increase in decades. Today, we celebrate our seventh, and a return to A-level credit. This is further affirmation that Democrats are making fiscally responsible decisions that move our state forward. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and I look forward to continued progress and success for the people of Illinois.”
…Adding… History time with Hannah…
…Adding… Sen. Elgie Sims, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Majority Caucus Appropriations Leader…
“Today’s news is yet another sign the years of fiscal responsibility from the General Assembly is paying off. In recent years, we have been able put money back in the pockets of the state’s hardworking families and provide funding for the people who need the most help – all while paying down our bill backlog. Illinois is a standout state when it comes to putting the needs of our residents first, and we do so in a responsible and equitable way.
“S&P Global Ratings’ upgrade of Illinois bonds shows our fiscally responsible budgeting approach is working and is independent proof that our state is headed in the right direction. Our future looks bright and I look forward to continued collaborative efforts during this year’s budget negotiation process to keep the state on this upward economic trajectory.”
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That toddlin’ town roundup
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As I told you yesterday, it’s within the realm of possibility that Paul Vallas will have the field all to himself in the first days or even much longer after Tuesday. NBC 5…
What’s more, mail-in ballots, which are far outpacing any previous mayoral election in Chicago, could be key. Those ballots can be submitted until midnight on Election Day, and so long as they are postmarked by Feb. 28, they can be counted as long as they are received by March 14.
Results in the election are due to be certified by March 21, and if a candidate finishes within 5% of the top-two spots in the race, then they would be legally allowed to request a recount, according to election experts.
That condensed timeframe would not only mean that Chicago voters may not know who will be on their ballots for the runoff until just weeks prior to the vote, but also would mean that candidates wouldn’t have much time to fundraise, run advertisements and push for votes in that limited turnaround time.
* After repeating the “defund the police” mantra for years, Brandon Johnson is trying to walk away from it…
Asked at a Monday campaign stop if he would reduce the $1.94 billion Chicago Police Department budget, Johnson did not say. Nor would he address his past comments on the defund movement. Instead, he implored reporters to “ask better questions,” such as what actually makes communities safer. […]
In a September progressive candidates forum, Johnson was quick to say “absolutely yes” when asked if he will commit to not raising Chicago police funds “any further.” But his statement last week in response to Lightfoot’s ad against him said his safety plan includes “new investments … not cuts to the CPD.”
Asked this week to clarify if he would adjust the Police Department’s $1.94 billion allocation, Johnson evaded the question. He instead pointed out that his safety plan calls for ensuring $150 million in police funds would “be reallocated” by streamlining the amount of department supervisors. He did not answer whether that money would be reinvested within the department or taken out of its budget, but his campaign confirmed Wednesday the plan “reinvests (the $150 million) within the CPD.”
The ol’ having it both ways to avoid any blowups before what could be a very tight race for the second runoff slot. But the earned media hits will immediately turn into paid media hits if he does qualify for the runoff.
* He does seem to be having the most fun of all the candidates, though…
* She has a real knack for getting under reporters’ collective skin…
* Dan and Amy have been having a sad ever since Vallas denounced DeSantis…
* The other take-away from these numbers is that Madigan’s 13th is still cranking…
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Philadelphia Inquirer | Paul Vallas, a front-runner in the Chicago mayor’s race, was a controversial leader of Philly schools: Vallas’ Philadelphia security policies strike a much different tone when viewed with a modern lens — some districts have abolished their school police forces, and even Philadelphia has softened its stance, rebranding its school police as ”security officers” who don’t wear traditional law enforcement uniforms and focus on mentorship and trauma-informed practices as well as keeping order.
* WGN | Mayor Lori Lightfoot on CPS email controversy, working collaboratively, improving public safety, more: Mayor Lightfoot talks about the challenge of running the city through a global pandemic, the CPS email controversy, her recent suggestion that South Side voters who don’t vote for her shouldn’t vote in the race at all, how she will persuade Chicagoans that she will work collaboratively with CPD, CTU, and the business community, and the progress that she’s made tackling violence and improving public safety.
* Crain’s | City worker union ramps up pressure on Lightfoot to strike a deal as Election Day looms: The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, represented by AFSCME Local 131 in Chicago, is at the bargaining table with the Lightfoot Administration in an effort to reach a new deal covering the union’s more than 3,000 city workers in almost every city department.
* CBS Chicago | Two candidates vie to replace indicted Ald. Ed Burke in 14th Ward: Gutiérrez, a staffer to Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, will run against Reyes, who works as a staff assistant in the City’s Clerk’s Office. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Reyes helped Burke gather signatures on his nominating petitions to get on the ballot ahead of the 2019 election, and also filed an objection against Burke challenger Tanya Patino.
* Ald. Michael Rodriguez | Size isn’t the City Council’s problem: Crain’s rightly noted that each Chicago alderperson represents fewer people than city councils in every other one of the nation’s 10 biggest cities by stating, “Chicago’s 50 aldermen each represent, on average, 53,931 people . . . and in Los Angeles it’s 256,620 people per council member.” But here it omits a crucial piece of the Los Angeles political landscape: Los Angeles has more than 90 neighborhood councils, each serving about 40,000 individuals.
* Marilyn Katz | Want better government? Strengthen the City Council: We don’t need a complicated process or even a city charter to get this part right. As early as 2010, City Council members recommended simple strengthening measures including an independent budget analyst and parliamentarian and legal counsel of their own. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not respond. Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to adopt them but has not acted.
* WBEZ | Chicago is expanding the types of 911 calls that get a mental health response: A pilot program under Mayor Lori Lightfoot aims to curb the police role. The program, Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement, is setting up mobile teams that include paramedics, mental-health clinicians and, in some cases, cops trained in crisis response. The teams aim to de-escalate crises and connect people to the care they need. Since the program’s September 2021 launch, CARE responses have not included any arrests or uses of force.
* WGN | Troubles continue for O’Hare Airport train: Three days before Christmas, on the busiest holiday travel day for Chicago’s airports, O’Hare’s automated train system broke. The outage spanned three days and stranded thousands of travelers some of whom missed connecting flights.
* ABC Chicago | Some candidates dismiss Lightfoot’s assertion race is down to her, Vallas: “I think the mayor likes to construe things to put herself as a contender,” Garcia said. “I think she has serious problems. She’s not had a good week, a good week and a half as a matter of fact. She’s trying to hang on for dear life.”
* Tribune | There’s major turnover on the City Council, but aldermen on West Side look to keep things status quo: It’s certain that 16 aldermen who were elected in 2019 will not join the new council in May, thanks to several retirements, a handful opting to run for other offices and one forced out when he was convicted of federal tax crimes. Several other incumbents on the 50-member council are in tough reelection fights.
* WGN | Ja’Mal Green on why his age shouldn’t bother critics: Ja’Mal Green, candidate for Mayor of Chicago, joins Lisa Dent to make a final pitch to voters on why he’s best suited to replace Mayor Lori Lightfoot in next week’s election. Green talks about his plans to make lives better for the working people in Chicago, and how he would help solve the city’s crime problem.
* CBS Chicago | Roderick Sawyer undeterred by steep odds in mayoral race: Sawyer does not have a big campaign war chest, and he is lacking big endorsements that some of his opponents have. But he told CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov he is not deterred.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Background is here if you need it. A group of Republican legislators held a press conference today demanding legislative hearings on the long-troubled Choate Developmental Center. Here’s Assistant House Republican Leader Charlie Meier…
We’re here today because we have a plan and we want to protect these residents. Our first is installing temporary cameras in common areas. … Implement ongoing staff training to include residents’ rights, abuse and neglect definitions, reporting for Office of Investigator General mandatory reporting and documenting as well. Educate staff on past abuse issues experienced at Choate and train them to be aware of the issues to report incidents and how to take appropriate action.
A mass, and I say a mass hiring of qualified staff. We’ve done hirings before because of COVID bringing in a mass hiring so that we have a group of new workers there that won’t feel threatened maybe from a few bad apples of the past workers that threaten to try to cover up abuse. Let’s train them. Let’s get them in there. Let’s not hire two or four or 10 at a time. Let’s bring in a group of 50 workers or more immediately to help take care of the shortage of workers and to bring some new life blood in there and get things turned around.
Track staff incidents by location and trends. By using the data collected to implement changes, monitor staff identified in the tracking and incorporate supervisory management staff to increase overall observances. Number five, increased administrative and security inspections. The center director and assistant center director along with other professional staff must make unannounced visits on all three shifts, morning, noon, Saturdays, Sundays, four in the morning, two in the morning. This is their job, this is what they’re being paid for. They need to be out there walking the halls seeing their residents and should be after sharp while on a first name basis with them. Security staff must report all incidents of improper behavior. Any staff who bullies or intimidates or threatens residents or other staff should be immediately removed from their job station. There must be zero tolerance of staff intimidating other staff or residents.
Six, improve overall accountability of staff performance to include job duties, Investigator General reporting, active treatment and adherence of policies and procedures. This would require accountability from the administration and the professional staff. Seven, remind employees if they see something is wrong, report it. Employees are mandated reporters. Their position is protected under the Whistleblower Act. They don’t have to be revealed who released this but they need to report it. Too much is going on unreported. Increase the amount of active treatment and activities for the residents. Why? Because individuals who are busy and active have much fewer behavioral issues, which should lead to less negative interaction with staff and individuals. And if additional activity staff is needed, then hire them.
Nine, encourage and welcome parents, guardians and visiting their loved ones by telling them ‘be in there.’ They shouldn’t have to call and set up a time when they’re coming. These are their loved ones. They should be able to visit their family members in their family members home whenever they want. Encourage more groups like the grandparents groups, where individuals come and adopt the resident there and act as a grandparent to them. So we have more oversight going in there. More people around to be seen. Staff should continue to be reminded that Choate is home for these individuals and they should be retreated with respect and dignity. Encourage the decorating of the hallways and room. This is a small thing, but the more the homes are clean, well decorated and welcoming the more staff and residents will take pride in their home. Designate a specific phone line for guardians and families to contact that is available all hours and does not go unanswered for days when they’re trying to get a hold of their loved one or tell them that there’s been a medical change that their doctor wants. …
Assign an interim director, assistant director to Choate Development Center. This director should be someone who has previously supervised employees at another center and is well trained on state rules, regulations and expectations. This interim director can monitor and help retrain the president, director and assistant director reevaluate the Office of Inspector General reporting system as it currently operates. Staff who are mandated reporters are not protected or kept anonymous during the investigation process. This turns into cases has a tendency in reporting. The OIG involvement in allegations needs more protection for the employees and the investigators and they need to happen within a month. We have investigations that don’t start till nine or 13 months later. These employees are placed on paid leave. The state of Illinois paying for them, they’re not working. And we’re not finding out what happened to these residents. Put a person in there permanently from the office and let them start and get these investigations done within a month. If they’re found guilty, they need to be fired immediately.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
Leader Meier said bills have been filed and more will be. He pointed to legislation he’s worked on for several years.
From the reporting, it looks like the biggest problem is a tight-knit cover-up culture of really horrible acts. Everybody knows everybody in that little town. Too many people appear to protect each other no matter what. Employees should be required to report misdeeds and should be severely punished if they don’t, or if they perjure themselves. That’s essentially what the IG wants. And it ought to be in more places than Choate.
Also, where are they gonna get the qualified people the Republicans want to hire? It’s easy to snap your fingers and say “Let’s bring in a group of 50 workers or more immediately.” Actually doing that is quite another thing in the current labor market, and particularly in an area where not enough qualified people live.
Leader Meier blamed this on “bad apples.” I’m sure there are some very good employees at Choate, but the bad apples appear to have long ago spoiled the barrel…
That collusion led the inspector general to find Choate itself negligent. The facility, the OIG said, must be held responsible for “failing to prevent the establishment of a culture in which so many employees chose to protect their fellow employees instead of protecting an abused individual and apparently felt comfortable doing so.”
The OIG report concluded: “That so many employees participated in the cover-up of the abuse of [the patient] suggests that this type of conduct may be endemic at Choate.” Previous reporting by the news organizations revealed credible abuse allegations in which the state’s attorney declined to bring charges because he said that employees would not cooperate in determining what happened.
* The Republicans said today that they want to prevent a Choate closure. Here’s Rep. Paul Jacobs…
We cannot and will not accept a blanket policy that throws our hands up in the air in disgust and close down the facility that means so much to residents in my area and in that area. We have not begun the process of trying to fix the problems, let alone exhaust every single solitary legislative and administrative option that we have. We cannot and will not accept the attitude that nothing can be done. So, Governor, we’re asking you to work with us work with us. Work with your Democrat and Republican partners in the legislature.
* I asked the governor’s office this morning to send me a list of things the administration has done at Choate so far…
Increased security and surveillance
• Cameras installed in approved indoor and outdoor areas that do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy (ongoing).
• Increased security staff by 5 positions including one security officer chief.
• Increased internal security staff by 2 positions.
• Increased management presence in living areas and professional staff presence after hours.
Independent, Third-Party review
• Equip for Equality investigation staff conducting chart reviews, staff interviews, and monitoring of unit conditions.
Training and consultation
• New and re-training sessions for all staff
• Illinois Crisis Prevention Network has provided ongoing consultation to develop individualized behavior plans for residents in need of enhanced support.
Visible, physical improvements to Choate living areas and homes.
• Completed a pilot environmental improvement project in 2 homes – Redbud and Dogwood – which are rolling out Center-wide.
Senior Onsite Visitor/Leadership Reporting Liaison:
• Brought retired CMS Assistant Director Steve McCurdy to report to DD Director to perform an on-site, on-the-ground, common-sense, immediate-term review of the Center.
• Met extensively with residents, families/guardians and staff, focusing on the health and safety of these individuals.
Illinois State Police (ISP) Collaboration
• ISP’s Division of Internal Investigation came on-site to conduct an assessment of the Center including a review of security, physical structure needs, etc.
• Supported updates to staff training with a focus on team building and collective accountability.
NASDDDS Technical Assistance:
• Used ICDD funding to receive technical assistance from the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS) on building additional I/DD community capacity.
• Technical assistance grew from FY22 capacity report – An Evaluation of Community Capacity Barriers and Opportunities for Expansion in Illinois for Adult DD Waiver Services – focusing on support for residents and capacity for SODC system improvements.
…Adding… AFSCME Council 31…
“As the union of Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center employees, we welcome the support and partnership of anyone of good will who wants to work to improve it. Long before the current attention paid to the facility, AFSCME has urged legislators and the Department of Human Services to increase staffing (allowing for more programs and activities), expand staff training and invest in repairing and maintaining the buildings and grounds.
“For some 270 people with multiple challenges that require intensive supports, Choate is home. Its services have no analog elsewhere. That’s why residents’ families value Choate so highly, and it’s a tribute to the dedicated employees who provide compassionate, attentive, round-the-clock care.
“It’s regrettable that it took disturbing media reports of past misconduct to underscore the need for improvements at Choate, but the wrongful actions of a few cannot overshadow the deep commitment of the overwhelming majority of employees to Choate’s residents and to making the facility the best it can be. That must begin with reversing its staff shortage and investing in its physical infrastructure.”
The Question: Do you think Choate Developmental Center is redeemable? Please explain your answer. Thanks.
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More on the new McClain revelations
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Isabel had this Tribune story in her morning briefing, but let’s take a closer look…
Less than two weeks before the federal ComEd Four bribery conspiracy trial, prosecutors revealed in a court filing that a confidant of former Speaker Michael Madigan was interviewed twice by federal authorities before the probe became public about his use of code words to refer to the longtime House leader.
The first interview of Michael McClain, the speaker’s friend and ComEd lobbyist, came in August 2014, the same month that Madigan was secretly recorded by an FBI informant at his law firm discussing a desire to secure property tax business with a Chinatown developer, the filing shows.
The other interview, in April 2016, occurred shortly before federal authorities secured the cooperation of then-Ald. Daniel Solis, who later recorded numerous conversations about a Chinatown land deal that was a centerpiece in the bombshell indictment separately filed against Madigan and McClain.
In both interviews, which were revealed for the first time in the filing late Tuesday, McClain was asked about his use of codes for Madigan such as “our friend,” “a friend” and “friend,” a nickname the Tribune first reported in 2019 that McClain used when sending secret fundraising requests to close allies. In those emails, McClain also referred to Madigan as “Himself” and the prospective donors as “most trusted of the trusted.”
* From the government’s filing…
The indictment alleges that, “in order to conceal the nature and purpose of their conduct, conspirators often referred to [Michael Madigan] as ‘our Friend,’ or ‘a Friend of ours,’ rather than using [Michael Madigan’s] true name.” McClain concedes that the phrase “our Friend” was designed to conceal, but claims that he wasn’t intending to conceal anything from the government because he admitted that he used those phrases to the government.10 Specifically, in two interviews in an unrelated investigation, McClain admitted that “our Friend” was a code word for Madigan designed to conceal. In an August 2014 interview,11 McClain admitted that he “referred to MADIGAN as our friend in e-mails and in public conversations because people might be listening to or reading McClain’s conversations.” And in an April 2016 interview, McClain admitted that he referred to Madigan as “our friend” because he “tries not to use names, such as MADIGAN, in conversation. MCCLAIN never knows who’s listening to MCCLAIN’s conversations. MCCLAIN extends this practice to not using names even in email conversations.” These admissions clearly show that McClain did not want any eavesdroppers to know the true subject of his communications and are therefore wholly consistent with the indictment and the government’s evidence at trial: “our Friends” and “a friend of ours” were terms designed to conceal Madigan’s identity.
McClain wrongly argues that these interviews somehow mean that he could not have subsequently used the phrase “Our Friend” with intent to conceal and could not have concealed anything from the government. He cites to cases in the civil securities fraud context for the proposition that someone cannot be said to conceal something they have previously disclosed. But a company’s concealment of information from the market in a securities fraud case, where the market is presumed to absorb all relevant and public information, is easily distinguished from the circumstances present here. See In re Allstate Corp. Sec. Litig., 966 F.3d 595, 600 (7th Cir. 2020) (citing Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224, 246-47 (1988)). And McClain’s private conversations, when he was being recorded without his knowledge, are certainly not the same as public securities disclosures.
As the Seventh Circuit observed in another bribery case, United States v. Curescu, 674 F.3d 735 (7th Cir. 2012), “Just as dealers in illegal drugs do not name the drugs in their phone conversations but instead use code words, so parties to other illegal transactions often avoid incriminating terms, knowing they may be overheard electronically.” Id. at 740. That’s exactly what McClain did over and over with respect to his work on behalf of Madigan, as the jury will hear at trial. […]
The government intends to introduce multiple conversations in which McClain referred to Madigan as “our Friend.” Those conversations demonstrate that McClain and the other conspirators commonly used these and other coded language to hide the fact that they were talking about Madigan. […]
In short, McClain’s statements to law enforcement in 2014 and 2016 have no bearing on his intent when he used the terms “Our Friend” and “a friend of ours” in private communications.
To the extent McClain claims he had no intent to conceal, this is a factual question for the jury.
10 The Indictment does not state that McClain’s concealment was specifically intended to shield evidence from law enforcement, as McClain misleadingly indicates in his motion.
11 The government does not intend to rely on these interviews the latter of which was proffer-protected but addresses them because McClain discusses them in his motion.
* I’m not sure why McClain was interviewed the first time (the feds went after Madigan almost too many times to count before finally indicting him), but that second interview was during the federal probe into this scheme…
He was a twenty-something wannabe developer, the son of immigrants from India, and he dreamed of building a $900 million hotel and convention complex near O’Hare Airport.
He assembled a team of political heavyweights, including Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, and traveled to China to get investors.
Now, the land sits empty, and Anshoo Sethi awaits sentencing, possibly this week, after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
He’s admitted his role in what federal authorities call a scheme to use fraudulent documents to raise $160 million from Chinese investors willing to bankroll his project in exchange for permanent United States residency under the U.S. government’s much-maligned EB-5 visa program. The program grants residency to foreigners who invest in economic development projects. […]
Sethi also hired attorney Michael McClain, a Madigan loyalist who’s one of the top lobbyists in the state capital.
That Sun-Times article was published on December 2, 2016, the morning after McClain revealed he was “retiring,” which he didn’t really do. And then the feds raided his house in May of 2019.
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* From the IEA…
To coincide with the first day of early voting for Illinois school board elections the Illinois Education Association (IEA) is releasing a portion of its bipartisan annual State of Education poll. The poll finds Illinoisans are opposed to fighting and contention at school board meetings and believe our students should get an honest education.
“The vitriol that is infiltrating public education at all levels is like nothing we’ve ever seen in Illinois,” IEA President Kathi Griffin said. “Fake news and disinformation are fueling fears and that’s pitting school communities against one another, often over something that isn’t even true.”
The data show that overall:
• One in five Illinoisans say there has been fighting, yelling or contention at their local school board meeting.
• 44 percent say they have heard about fighting, yelling or contention at a school board meeting.
• 66 percent of Illinoisans say they do not approve of the fighting, yelling and contention at school board meetings.
“These disruptions distract from the real issue, providing the best education for all our students. This has got to stop,” Griffin said. “School board elections are right around the corner, and there are candidates of chaos on the ballot in Illinois. They are fueled and funded by dark money groups. These candidates are looking to further disrupt and dismantle public education at all levels. We are strongly encouraging all Illinoisans to get involved, educate themselves about their local candidates and vote for those who support our students and public education.”
The IEA poll also asked respondents about Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is taught at the college level and not taught in K-12 schools, honest education and book bans.
The bipartisan poll found:
• Half of all Illinoisans oppose a law that bans CRT.
• 77 percent favor teaching about slavery in the United States and its impacts.
• 72 percent favor teaching about racism in the United States and its impacts.
• 75 percent oppose banning books in Illinois school libraries.
“The people of Illinois have made it very clear they support an honest education for all of our students,” Griffin said. “They believe our students should have access to LGBTQ+ books. All of our students should know the truth about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. They should know the truth about racism as a structure in United States society, history and culture. It is through the understanding of our history that we will be able to move forward successfully and not repeat the mistakes that were made in the past.”
The poll, conducted by Normington-Petts and Next Generation Strategies, surveyed 1,000 Illinoisans between Jan. 19 and 24. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent with 95 percent confidence.
* From the poll excerpt shared this morning…
Let’s change topics again. Have you or have you not heard anything about fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings in Illinois?
Yes 44%
No 47
(Don’t know) 8
To the best of your knowledge, has there been any fighting, yelling, or other contention at a school board meeting in your community?
Yes 20%
No 50
(Don’t know) 29
And do you strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, or strongly disapprove of the fighting, yelling, or other contention at school board meetings that has been happening around the country?
Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose each of the following?
An Illinois state law that bans the teaching of critical race theory in public schools
Teaching Illinois high school students about slavery in the United States and its impacts
Teaching Illinois high school students about racism and its impact in the United States
Banning books from Illinois school libraries
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Here we go again…
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square…
Dozens of Illinois schools are failing to meet standards, according to a new report. While the governor’s budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars more for education, one analyst believes that’s a mistake.
The report by Wirepoints shows that 53 schools do not have any student who can do math at their grade level and that at 30 schools no student can read at grade level.
The report uses data from the Illinois State Board of Education and found that 18% of the state’s 3,547 schools have only 1 out of 10 kids who are capable of reading at grade level. […]
The Wirepoints report lists Spry Community Links High School in Chicago and shows that in the 2022 Illinois Report Card, none of the 87 students at the school could read or do math at their grade level.
Spry is in the Little Village neighborhood. Its students are poor and many use English as a second language.
We’ve done this before, but let’s do it again.
* From Jordan Abudayyeh at the governor’s office…
For people who are interested in facts and in supporting Illinois’ students and communities, it’s important to understand that a school’s proficiency rates correlate exactly with the income levels of the students and families they serve. This “report” singles out schools that serve some of the most underresourced families in the state.
These achievement gaps based on family income level are why Governor Pritzker is investing $300 million over the next four years to expand access to high-quality early learning programs to help close gaps in learning and development before students start kindergarten.
Illinois evaluates schools based on multiple measures of performance, including growth, student attendance, climate and culture surveys, and graduation rates. Illinois has among the most rigorous proficiency standards in the nation. Evaluating schools based on growth in addition to proficiency gives us a more holistic understanding of school quality because even if a student starts school below grade level due to living in poverty, a good school can still help that student achieve significant growth.
More…
For decades, Illinois ranked worst in the nation for funding education, and Gov. Pritzker is reversing that travesty. This uninformed article is clearly a politically motivated attack that uses bad data analysis to try to bash Illinois public schools. Looking at proficiency alone, and looking at performance in a vacuum, is an uneducated and uninformed way to examine student achievement and school performance, and most education experts agree that measuring growth in performance is key to understanding school improvement.
Background:
• Illinois’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress – the gold standard of the nation’s report card – held steady across all grades and subjects from 2017 to 2019 while 31 states saw their scores drop in 8th grade reading and 17 states saw their scores drop in 4th grade reading.
• Illinois has some of the most rigorous learning standards in the nation: ranking fourth most rigorous for 4th grade reading and fifth most rigorous for 8th grade reading. In Illinois, a student needs to earn a level of 4 or 5 to be considered proficient. In comparison, the rigor of Florida’s standards ranks 39th and 42nd, respectively, and a student only needs to earn a level 3 on the state assessment to be considered proficient.
• Up until 2018, Illinois had the most regressive funding system in the nation, in which the poorest school districts had the least funding to educate their students. Gov. Pritzker has invested more than $1.2 billion into increasing funding for Evidence-Based Funding since taking office.
• The funding gaps prior to Gov. Pritzker taking office were so severe that even with these increases in funding, eight out of 10 students in Illinois still attend underfunded schools.
• In FY 2019, which is the year the author focuses on, the three school districts the author highlights – Decatur, Rockford, and Chicago – were among the least funded school districts in the state. They were all Tier 1 districts – the most starved for resources that respectively had only 64%, 61%, and 64% of the funding they needed to provide a basic standard of education to their students.
• In each of these districts, more than two-thirds of students come from poverty, with learning and development gaps that start in utero. Each of these districts in 2019 achieved student growth in English language arts above the 40th percentile.
I highlighted the proficiency part because the pointy wires crowd doesn’t seem to understand that comparing Illinois’ proficiency numbers to Florida’s isn’t really possible because Florida’s standards are much lower than Illinois’. What’s important is achieving growth.
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Open thread
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* What’s going on? Keep it Illinois-centric please…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here’s the roundup…
* WAND | Pritzker administration optimistic about budget plan targeting homelessness: The Pritzker administration hopes this multi-year plan will help everyone get access to housing. More than $155 million could assist unhoused people looking for shelter and support services while $40 million is set aside for permanent supportive housing. The administration told the House Housing Committee Wednesday that this funding could help develop over 90 new permanent supportive housing units that provide families with long-term rental assistance, case management, and other critical services.
* Sun-Times | Chicago groups scramble to find housing for newly arrived immigrants 6 months after busing began: Community groups and volunteers are stepping up to assist — and sometimes take into their homes — new immigrants seeking refuge around the Chicago area as shelters fill up and temporary housing spaces, including shuttered schools, spark controversy.
* Tribune | Madigan confidant was interviewed twice by FBI in years leading up to bombshell indictments: The first interview of Michael McClain, the speaker’s friend and ComEd lobbyist, came in August 2014, the same month that Madigan was secretly recorded by an FBI informant at his law firm discussing a desire to secure property tax business with a Chinatown developer, the filing shows.
* Daily Herald | ‘All-gender multiple-occupancy’ restrooms bill advances in state House: The text of the bill states its purpose is “to promote the privacy, safety, and gender inclusivity of all Illinois residents and visitors,” and that the measure should be “liberally construed” to carry out its purpose.
* WTTW | Chicago Teachers Union Under Fire From Within for Campaign Spending: A Chicago Teachers Union political action committee has donated more than $1 million to Johnson’s mayoral campaign, and union leadership is all in on Johnson, who is a paid CTU officer and Cook County commissioner.
* Daily Herald | Three school districts select lobbyist to fight Bears legislation: All three school districts whose boundaries include the Chicago Bears’ 326-acre Arlington Park property are now all on board in hiring a joint lobbyist to oppose, or at least amend, legislation that would give the franchise a massive tax break there.
* Baltimore Sun | Standardized exams keep Black social workers out, activists say. These Marylanders want to change that.: Starting in May, Wilkerson, 24, took the exam three times in four months. He spent his summer studying. He sank at least $1,300 into test preparation and fees. He failed each time ― by 10 points, by six points, and then by a single point.
* ABC Chicago | Illinois marijuana industry still falling short on social equity: According to the state’s report, in 2022, Black people made up only 1% of majority dispensary owners, as did Hispanic majority owners. Eighty-eight percent of the state’s dispensaries are white majority owned, and the remaining businesses are majority owned by people of two or more, or other races.
* TSPR | Prison classrooms in Illinois open doors to graduate degrees: Following its initial classes in 2015 blending traditional and incarcerated students for a certificate level program, the school launched the four-year master’s degree in 2018. Offering a master’s degree to men with decades or a lifetime left on their sentences was a key component to the program, said Vickie Reddy, a graduate of the first North Park cohort who now serves as North Park’s director of operations.
* Daily Herald | Charlie Kirk event could draw protests, organizers say schools topic ‘isn’t partisan’: Supporters said they see it as an opportunity to educate and offer solutions to problems in the state’s schooling system. Opponents say they view it as a dog whistle to attack certain groups and raise money.
* Sun-Times | ‘It’s a joke!’ City Council members grill Chicago police officials about extremists in their ranks: Chicago City Council members repeatedly expressed frustration Wednesday as police officials gave conflicting, sometimes puzzling reasons why they have not moved more aggressively against officers tied to far-right groups implicated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
* Sun-Times | Candidates in neighboring South Side wards aim to build business to reduce crime: Seven candidates in the 21st Ward are pushing alternatives to conventional policing, while in the nearby 18th Ward, only one candidate is challenging incumbent Ald. Derrick Curtis.
* WTTW | How Byproduct From Local Breweries is Helping Clean Our Wastewater: Using the carbon-rich spent yeast to reduce the amount of phosphorus in the water MWRD treats. If there’s too much phosphorus in the water, that can feed microorganisms that can harm waterways.
* News-Gazette | Schnucks VP who worked her way up returning to Champaign for United Way award: Now in her 26th year with Schnucks and vice president of store operations at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, Brandt will be returning to her hometown of Champaign on Friday to accept an award from the United Way of Champaign County on behalf of Schnucks’ stores in Champaign, Urbana, Savoy and Mahomet.
* SJ-R | Springfield Police, Moving Pillsbury Foward, Public Works, win in city’s 2024 fiscal budget : City council members notably approved an amendment that put $2.3 million into a budget line to boost the salaries of Springfield Police officers.
* Crain’s | Northwestern professor on Biden’s shortlist for Fed vice chair: In the hunt for Lael Brainard’s successor, the White House is “focusing in” on Harvard University professor Karen Dynan, Northwestern University finance professor Janice Eberly and Morgan Stanley Chief Global Economist Seth Carpenter, according to a research note Tuesday from Tobin Marcus, an Evercore analyst who advised Biden on economic policy when he was vice president.
* Daily Beast | Google Just Got a Lot Closer to Unleashing the Power of Quantum Computing: “To our delight, our team was able for the first time to demonstrate in practice that qubits protected by surface code error correction can indeed be scaled to reach lower error rates,” he said. The team published a paper of their findings in the journal Nature on Feb. 22.
* WTVO | Pritzker, lieutenant governor grab funnel cakes in Rockford: Stratton posted pictures to her Facebook page, posing for pictures with Pritzker before they enjoyed some sweet treats. She pointed out the banana pudding and strawberry cheesecake funnel cakes as her favorite.
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Live coverage
Thursday, Feb 23, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Afternoon roundup
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WGLT…
The Illinois Department of Corrections has failed to create and implement a plan to improve medical care at state prisons, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in an opinion that cited a history of delays by IDOC to comply with a 2019 federal consent decree.
In a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division, Judge Jorge L. Alonso reminded the IDOC of its obligation under a 2019 agreement to work with a court-appointed monitor to develop and put in place major improvements to health care. The lawsuit is based on a 2010 complaint from Don Lippert, a diabetic inmate at Stateville Correctional Center who claimed he was denied his twice-daily doses of insulin, that grew into a class action against the state.
“For reasons that the COVID-19 pandemic does not fully explain and that remain unclear to the Court, defendants never prepared and submitted any implementation plan that came close to fitting” the 2019 agreement until December 2021, said the judge.
Efforts to resolve differences between the state and the monitor’s recommendations broke down last year, resulting in the IDOC bringing a new version of the plan for the state’s 29,000 detainees to the table.
“Not only was this not the process that the parties agreed upon and that the Court had ordered, but plaintiffs and the monitor believe this new version of the plan had regressed rather than improved,” the judge said in his ruling.
* This is a good idea…
Republican members of the Illinois House and Senate will hold a press conference on Thursday to call for joint House and Senate Committee hearings to investigate reports of neglect and abuse at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in downstate Anna.
WHO: State Representative Paul Jacobs (R-Pomona), State Representative Charlie Meier (R-Okawville), State Senator Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg), State Senator Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro), State Senator Jil Tracy (R-Quincy)
* “Iffy at best” is a quite charitable prognosis…
As promised, a new proposal for an Illinois graduated income tax has been introduced in Springfield, and though its prognosis is iffy at best, it is has some significant differences from the “fair tax” plan by Gov. J.B. Pritzker that voters rejected in a 2020 referendum.
Under legislation filed by state Sen. Rob Martwick, a Northwest Side Democrat, tax rates on low-income single filers would be cut to as low as 4%, well under the state’s current 4.95% flat rate and the 4.75% rate the governor proposed. The tax rate wouldn’t even hit the 4.75% mark until a person’s annual income tops $100,000.
* Tribune editorial…
Interestingly, DeSantis appeared before friendly law enforcement audiences in suburbs ringing three major cities. He also showed up Monday in Staten Island in New York City and Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. He was hardly playing to stadium-sized crowds, although the panic his appearances caused was demonstrative of just how much he scares politically ambitious Democrats.
Panic? I’ve noticed lately lots of folks automatically claiming that fear or panic is the motivation when somebody goes negative on someone else. Maybe it’s just politics. That’s part of the way it’s been done in this country for centuries. Did DeSantis drag the governor’s family into his Pritzker slam Monday out of some sort of panic?
* Illinois Review…
As Illinois Review reported last month, State Rep. Dan Caulkins of Decatur had filed a lawsuit challenging Gov. JB Pritzker’s Assault Weapons Ban nearly identical to the three lawsuits filed by former Republican AG candidate Thomas DeVore. […]
But in a surprising turn of events, counsel for Rep. Caulkins filed a two-paragraph opposition to DeVore’s consolidation motion yesterday with the Illinois Supreme Court. Joining with Gov. JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Rep. Caulkins is opposing consolidation on the basis that his case – while nearly identical to and filed after DeVore’s initial case – is procedurally different than DeVore’s three cases. […]
An adverse ruling on Rep. Caulkins’ summary judgment motion could threaten DeVore’s three cases and the Temporary Restraining Orders in place for the 4713 Illinoisans and 148 federal firearms dealers, who currently are exempted from the restrictions put into place by the Assault Weapons Ban.
Please continue to follow Illinois Review and DeVore Law Offices for more updates as they become available.
* That’s a lot of dead deer…
Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 158,010 deer during all 2022-2023 archery and firearm seasons that concluded Jan. 15. The total preliminary deer harvest for all seasons compares with a total harvest of 146,438 deer for all seasons in 2021-2022.
During the 2022-2023 deer seasons, hunters took 45.04% females and 54.96% males.
Totals from specific seasons:
• Archery deer hunters took a preliminary total of 69,557 deer during the season that began Oct. 1 and concluded Jan. 15. The total archery harvest during the 2021-2022 season was 66,630 deer.
• Youth deer hunters harvested a preliminary total of 3,339 deer during the three-day Illinois youth deer season Oct. 8-10, compared to 1,847 in 2021.
• Traditional firearm season hunters took a preliminary total of 76,854 deer during the firearm season Nov. 18-20 and Dec. 1-4. This compares to a harvest of 70,456 deer taken during the 2021 firearm season.
• Muzzleloader hunters harvested a preliminary total of 2,856 deer during the muzzleloader-only season Dec. 9-11, compared with a harvest of 3,046 deer during the 2021 muzzleloader season.
• Late-winter seasons: The 2022-2023 late-winter anterless-only and special chronic wasting disease (CWD) deer seasons concluded Jan. 15 with a combined preliminary harvest total for both seasons of 5,404 deer. Season dates for the seven-day late-winter and CWD seasons were Dec. 29-Jan. 1 and Jan. 13-15. During the same seasons in 2021-2022, a total of 4,504 deer were taken.
Sixteen northern Illinois counties were open to the special CWD season, which is used to assist in slowing the spread of chronic wasting disease in the Illinois deer herd. And 24 counties were open for the late-winter anterless season in 2022-2023. Counties that are at or below their individual deer population goal for two consecutive years may be removed from the late-winter season.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* WCIA | Illinois Supreme Court announces date for SAFE-T Act constitutionality hearing: According to a schedule on the Illinois Supreme Court’s website, the court will hear oral arguments on the SAFE-T Act March 14.
* Quad-City Times | Pritzker touts Smart Start Illinois in Rock Island visit: Pritzker was joined by local officials and community members at a news conference Wednesday at the Skip-a-Long Child Development Services in Rock Island, discussing how the child care and early education investments could be transformative in addressing children’s developmental needs in the long term.
* Illinois Newsroom | Illinois food deserts grow as rural grocery stores close: Governor JB Pritzker drew attention to the issue during last week’s State of the State address, proposing a $20 million plan to help independent grocers open or expand in underserved areas.
* Daily Herald | License plate readers won’t be used for traffic enforcement, Des Plaines chief says: Rather, the images will help police in Des Plaines and other communities fight more significant crimes in which automobiles were used, Chief David Anderson told the city council during its scheduled meeting at city hall. He cited burglaries, robberies and catalytic converter thefts as examples of crimes the cameras could help solve.
* Crain’s | Amazon says it has completed $3.49 billion deal for One Medical: Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the FTC, which has been probing Amazon’s market power for years, had decided not to challenge the deal. Instead the agency is issuing a letter warning Amazon and One Medical that the FTC investigation remains open. That paved the way for Amazon to finalize the acquisition.
* Oak Park | Political fund headed by Oak Park Dem faces late reporting fines: A political committee led by a prominent Oak Park Democrat that spent approximately $7.3 million to help Democrats win two crucial Illinois Supreme Court races last fall faces the prospect of thousands of dollars in fines for not properly disclosing the bulk of its spending in a timely manner. The All for Justice independent expenditure committee was founded last August by attorney Luke Casson, a former member of the Triton College Board, political director of the Democratic Party of Oak Park and a close friend and associate of Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon. Casson serves as chairman and treasurer of All for Justice.
* Crain’s | At 66, the Rev. James Meeks launches a second career as a homebuilder: In a long-disinvested neighborhood, revitalization is an uphill battle, fraught with obstacles like financing, high crime, the stability of homeowners who convert from renting and, according to Meeks, “skepticism.” Looking around the blocks on his project map, many of them gap-toothed with vacant lots, it’s difficult to picture the change he foresees.
* Belleville News-Democrat | Illinois fines Troy facility where resident with dementia died after wandering outside: The state has cited the assisted living facility Aspen Creek of Troy and fined it $4,000 after a resident with dementia wandered outside into below-freezing temperatures and died last month.
* WAND | Leaked Akorn video confirms company closure and mass layoffs: We also spoke with an employee leaving the 1222 W. Grand Ave. location who told us she was informed at a meeting Wednesday morning that “everyone” was being let go.
* Crain’s | $225 million U of C lab project underway in Hyde Park: The 302,388-square-foot building is breaking ground after several years of strong growth that made biotech and life sciences one of the strongest sectors in commercial real estate. Unlike technology or other types of office work, life sciences research doesn’t lend itself to remote work.
* The Gazette | GOP advances setting high thresholds for CO2 pipelines: Dozens of landowners and activists Tuesday swarmed the Iowa Capitol, asking lawmakers to ban eminent domain authority for proposed carbon dioxide pipelines as lawmakers advanced a bill that opponents say would be a “de facto ban” on the projects — and the bane of the state’s ethanol industry.
* The Guardian | US local news outlets need tax breaks to help save democracy, says advocate: The Rebuild Local News coalition is pushing for a comprehensive list of tax credits to keep afloat local newsrooms, such as a tax refund for local news digital subscribers, payroll tax credits for hiring and retaining local reporters, and a tax credit for small businesses to advertise in local news outlets.
* ABC | US home sales decline for 12th straight month as rates take bite out of affordability: Existing home sales declined 0.7% in January from the month before, the 12th straight month of decline to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million. Sales were down 36.9% from January 2022.
* Crain’s | A map to unify info from all of the food banks in Illinois: The Thierer Family Foundation announced today it has reached an agreement with all eight food banks in Illinois to power their tech for the map “that covers 100% of the food-insecure population in the state.” The food banks will use the foundation’s Vivery tool, a platform to help the population find resources that are tailored to their needs in a “contiguous map.”
* NBC | Supreme Court skeptical of claim that Twitter aided and abetted terrorist attack: Wednesday’s argument was the second part of a Big Tech double-header at the Supreme Court, where the justices wrestled Tuesday with a related case about whether Google-owned YouTube can be sued for similar conduct in connection with the killing of Nohemi Gonzalez, a U.S. college student, in the 2015 Paris attacks carried out by the Islamic State terrorist group.
* CBS Chicago | Instruments saved from WWII to be played at Illinois concerts: Dozens of musical instruments nearly lost during World War II were recovered and restored. Now they’re being played as a symbol of hope and survival. “Violins of Hope” is a series of concerts, exhibits, and other events coming to Illinois from April through September.
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That toddlin’ town roundup
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Next Tuesday the 28th is election day in Chicago. All votes must be counted two weeks later, on March 14. The final canvass is supposed to conclude a week later. The runoff is April 4. Paul Vallas is a heavy favorite to make the runoff, so he will likely start spending right away. But it’s possible that the city might not know who else is making the runoff for days while mail-in ballots arrive, which could give Vallas a head start.
* Rep. Kam Buckner is VP of Governmental Affairs at billboard company OUTFRONT Media. The company just filed an independent expenditure report of $23,925 to pay for a billboard boosting its employee’s mayoral bid.
* Johnson is doing a house party fundraiser the Saturday before election day?…
Johnson’s gross ratings points have dropped considerably during the final week. Not a great sign. But he does have lots of troops.
* Meanwhile…
* While we’re on the topic of money, here’s NBC 5…
As of Tuesday, Vallas had spent the most on television ads, at $3.5 million, compared to Garcia’s $1.7 million. García has also been outspent by Lightfoot, at $2.9 million; Willie Wilson, a millionaire businessman, at $2.74 million; and Cook County Board of Commissioners member Brandon Johnson, $2.75 million.
García is the only candidate who has been spending on Spanish-language advertising — about $118,000 so far.
Johnson has so far reported raising $2.4 million from teachers unions.
* We haven’t seen much paid media attacking Paul Vallas’ background. I figure that most operatives believe Vallas can’t be prevented from reaching the runoff, so why bother until the race is down to two candidates. But after the runoff, we could see amplifications of stuff like this and maybe this.
* The Get Stuff Done PAC has reported spending $85K to support Aida Flores and $62K to oppose Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez. Press release…
The Get Stuff Done PAC funded by some of the wealthiest white men in Chicago has officially broken the fundraising caps in the 25th ward aldermanic race in an attempt to install their puppet, Aida Flores, as alderperson.
“I fought to unite Pilsen, Little Village, Marshall Square and University Village into Chicago’s largest Latino ward so that our voices can finally be heard in City Council,” said Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez. “In my four years fighting for working class residents, I’ve never once heard from the likes of Michael Sacks, the Crown family or the Duchossois family about their apparently grave concerns for the people of the 25th ward.
“I welcome their input on how to keep long-term residents in their homes, reform the property tax system and combat the violence that tears through our communities, but I doubt they will ever want to have those conversations, much less spend a single day in the ward to gain even an ounce of understanding of the challenges we face.
“Instead, they hide behind their PAC, puppet masters trying to maneuver my opponent into office and return the 25th ward to the corruption and unchecked gentrification we suffered under disgraced former alderman Danny Solis.”
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Fox Chicago | Mail-in votes surge with one week to go: More than 100,000 Chicago voters have already cast ballots, prompting election officials to raise their estimate of how many votes will be cast by next Tuesday, when we count them all up.
* Sun-Times | Lightfoot campaign sent 9,900 emails seeking support from CPS, City Colleges staff, documents show: Four emails were sent to City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado — who reports to the mayor — at his work email address inviting him to a Lightfoot campaign event. In all, the mayor’s reelection campaign sent more than 9,900 emails to CPS and City Colleges staff beginning last April, according to documents obtained through public records requests that reveal the previously unreported breadth of the outreach to government employees. The emails went to at least 64 City Colleges staff members starting in July. It’s unclear how many individual CPS staff members were emailed, as those details were not provided.
* NBC Chicago | Lightfoot Holds Briefing to Address Criticism From Mendoza Over Police Pension and COVID: Pension benefits for police officers impacted by COVID are at the center of criticism from Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who questioned Mayor Lori Lightfoot after her brother was denied disability payments. With just one week before the Chicago mayoral election, Lightfoot addressed Mendoza’s claims.
* Tribune | Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas has promoted his schools resume, but blemishes garner scrutiny: While Vallas has been praised by some for boosting student test scores, straightening out day-to-day finances and restoring discipline to a Chicago school system once deemed the nation’s worst, he also has been criticized for over-stressing the importance of test scores, and he’s been asked to defend his handling of the district’s pension payments and for expanding school privatization and charter schools — ideas that have aged less well as union power has grown.
* Steve Cochran Show | ‘Chicago needs a symphony conductor, not an army general to lead the city.’ -Chicago mayoral candidate Rep. Kam Buckner: Chicago mayoral candidate Rep. Kam Buckner joins the Steve Cochran Show to talk about why Republicans should vote for him, how to encourage businesses to be a part of the resurgence of Chicago, and he shares his action plan to create a safer city.
* NBC Chicago | Chicago mayoral candidate Chuy García wants to make history — and unite a city divided over crime: Three years before he was elected to Congress, García, 66, waged a 2015 mayoral run that galvanized a cross-cultural coalition of voters, many excited about the possibility of the city’s first Latino mayor. He forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff. He lost, but his grassroots campaign energized progressives and Latinos. Now, he’s trying to woo a pandemic-battered city where residents uneasy about crime are forcing him to reassure them he can keep them safe while not rolling back reforms brought about by violence against Black and brown residents.
* Sun-Times | Nine candidates between two neighboring South Side wards look to build businesses to reduce crime: Though the field of candidates for the 21st Ward office has been cut in half, seven still remain, pushing alternatives to conventional policing, while in the nearby 18th Ward, only one candidate is challenging incumbent Ald. Derrick Curtis.
* WGN | City agrees to settle 1 of 3 lawsuits brought by CPD officers against lieutenant: CPD officer Xavier Chism filed a federal lawsuit in March 2022 against the city and Lt. Jason Brown. Chism, who worked under Brown in the CPD’s Narcotics Division, alleged that Brown and another supervisor conducted an unwarranted search of public records that were tied Chism and then retaliated against him after he refused to lie about what happened.
* Chicago Reader | Julian ‘Jumpin’ Perez makes the leap into Chicago politics: I’m a music journalist, and that’s why I’ve come to Humboldt Park to talk to Perez in the middle of December. We’re sitting in the spartan offices on Augusta Boulevard that serve as his satellite campaign headquarters. In July, Perez formally announced a run for alderperson of Chicago’s 26th Ward, whose sawtoothed borders enclose parts of Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village, along with slivers of Logan Square and Hermosa. I wanted to know: Why does he want this office?
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Theater of the absurd
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Yesterday, we talked about a Wirepoints interview of Paul Vallas on Critical Race Theory…
Wirepoints: Yeah, Paul, I often wonder if you’re a Black kid, why wouldn’t you become a criminal if you’re hearing this stuff in school? It’s everybody with white skin is an oppressor, if you have black skin, you’re the oppressed. That makes it pretty easy to justify pretty bad conduct in my opinion.
Vallas: You’re absolutely right. But what you’re also doing, you know, you’re giving people an excuse for bad behavior.
So, I gotta wonder if this Illinois history lesson will push Asian American kids into a life of crime /s…
More here.
…Adding… Rep. Maurice West’s HB1633…
Provides that the State Education Equity Committee shall include a member from an organization that works for economic, educational, and social progress for Native Americans and promotes strong sustainable communities through advocacy, collaboration, and innovation. Requires the State Superintendent of Education to convene a Native American Curriculum Advisory Council. Creates the Native American Curriculum Task Force. Provides that the unit of instruction on the Holocaust and genocides shall include instruction on the Native American genocide in North America. Provides that, beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of the Native American experience and Native American history within the Midwest and the State since time immemorial. Provides that the teaching of the history of the United States shall include the study of the role and contributions of Native Americans and teaching about Native Americans’ sovereignty and self-determination.
There’s something similar to the Pekin mascot issue going on in West’s district.
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It’s just a bill
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Herald & Review…
The Decatur City Council, with a 6-1 vote, urged state lawmakers to maintain the current TIF structure without additional restrictions that have been proposed in legislation filed earlier this month.
“There are certainly some bad examples of how communities have used TIF,” said deputy city manager Jon Kindseth. “I don’t believe that Decatur is one of those and TIFs are working for the city. And so this resolution really would be filed with other cities showing the support to the state legislators urging them to leave it alone, as it is written.”
State Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, filed two TIF-related bills this month.
* Illinois Family Institute press release…
Hello, Illinoisans, it’s baaack!
Yes, an amendment to the “Equitable Restrooms Act” is back thanks, ironically, to a woman—at least I think State Representative Katie Stuart (D-Collinsville) is a woman. It’s hard to tell these days.
Stuart has resurrected a moribund amendment to the Equitable Restrooms Act, which was passed in 2019 and took effect January 1, 2020.
* Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas…
Creates the Freelance Worker Protection Act. Provides that freelance workers must be compensated by hiring parties for their services in a timely manner. Provides that whenever a hiring party retains the services of a freelance worker, the contract between the hiring party and the freelance worker shall be reduced to writing and signed by both parties. Provides that no hiring party shall threaten, intimidate, discipline, harass, deny a work opportunity to, or discriminate against a freelance worker, or take any other action that penalizes a freelance worker for, or is reasonably likely to deter a freelance worker from, exercising or attempting to exercise any right guaranteed under the Act. Contains provisions concerning enforcement; civil enforcement; public policy and intent; public awareness; reports; coordination; and rulemaking by the Department of Labor. Effective July 1, 2024.
* Press release…
A new state legislative proposal will expand opportunities for people to seal their eviction court records, which will increase equitable access to homes.
The eviction sealing legislation, introduced in the House by State Representative La Shawn Ford (HB 1569), and in the Senate by State Senator Karina Villa (SB 242), seals certain eviction cases when:
* The case is dismissed;
* The tenant wins the case;
* A satisfaction of judgment is filed;
* The parties agree to seal; or
* There is no material violation of the lease.
The legislation also seals eviction records older than 7 years old, dismisses and seals open cases where the parties have taken no action for 180 days, and prohibits tenant screening companies from disseminating information about a sealed court file.
“Sealing eviction records does not negate the application process. Landlords will still be able to screen tenants by doing credit and reference checks,” said Representative Ford. “Too often, when an old eviction case shows up on a screening report, the landlord automatically denies housing without allowing the potential tenant to make the case that they will be a good, responsible tenant. That isn’t fair.”
Eviction filings hamper tenants’ ability to find a new home, regardless of the outcome of the case. Based on pre-pandemic data, more than 50% of eviction filings in Illinois do not result in a judgment against the tenant. The mere filing of an eviction does not mean the tenant was actually evicted, did not pay their rent, or cannot meet future rental obligations– filings remain in the public record indefinitely. These filings stain the tenant’s record and ultimately trap people and families in poverty.
National and local data show that Black and Latinx renters are disproportionately at risk of an eviction filing. This is especially true for female headed households.
As part of the COVID-19 Emergency Housing Act (Public Act 102-005), the State of Illinois passed a temporary state law that allowed more people to have their eviction records sealed. However, those provisions sunset in 2022. As a result, tenant eviction records remain publicly available even when there has been no judgment against them. This includes cases that were dismissed, cases where tenants successfully defended against the eviction, or cases when tenants were evicted through no fault of their own.
While the temporary sealing provisions were in effect, The Law Center for Better Housing (LCBH) hosted 15 community-based clinics. Over nine months, LCBH helped hundreds of tenants seal 1,058 old eviction records.
* HB3891 sponsored by Rep. Sonya Harper…
Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that beginning January 1, 2024, all handgun ammunition that is manufactured, imported into the State for sale or personal use, kept for sale, offered or exposed for sale, sold, given, lent, or possessed shall be serialized. Provides that beginning January 1, 2024, any person who manufactures, causes to be manufactured, imports into the State for sale or personal use, keeps for sale, offers or exposes for sale, or who gives or lends any handgun ammunition that is not serialized is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. Provides that beginning January 1, 2024, any person who possesses in any public place any handgun ammunition that is not serialized is guilty of a Class C misdemeanor. Provides exceptions. Provides that beginning January 1, 2024, the Illinois State Police shall maintain a centralized registry of all reports of handgun ammunition transactions reported to the Illinois State Police in a manner prescribed by the Illinois State Police. Provides that information in the registry, upon proper application for that information, shall be furnished to peace officers and authorized employees of the Illinois State Police or to the person listed in the registry as the owner of the particular handgun ammunition. Provides that the Illinois State Police shall adopt rules relating to the assessment and collection of end-user fees in an amount not to exceed $0.005 per round of handgun ammunition or per bullet, in which the accumulated fee amount may not exceed the cost to pay for the infrastructure, implementation, operational, enforcement, and future development costs of these provisions. Effective January 1, 2024, except some provisions effective immediately.
* My Journal Courier…
A bill in the Illinois legislature proposed by state Democrats would give certain families a monthly stipend to spend on diapers.
Senate Bill 1294 was filed Feb. 3 by Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago. If passed, it would give parents with a monthly income at or below 100% of federal poverty guidelines an allowance of $70 per child ages 3 years old or younger to be spent exclusively on diapers.
The bill still is in the early stages of the legislative process; it was assigned Feb. 14 to the appropriations committee for health and human services, where it now sits. It has picked up five co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats. […]
Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, said there are some aspects of SB1294 that he wants to examine, such as the poverty threshold being 100%. The threshold for such programs usually is 200% of poverty guidelines, Davidsmeyer said. He also wants to add certain stipulations to “complicated pregnancies,” such as twins or children born with health issues, he said.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (”IDFPR”) announced today the Consumer Financial Protection and Innovation Package, a pair of legislative initiatives designed to protect Illinois residents from financial fraud and abuse and establish regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies and the broader digital asset marketplace.
The Fintech-Digital Asset Bill (HB 3479/SB 2233) establishes regulations for digital asset businesses and modernizes regulations for money transmission in Illinois, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bill (HB 3483/SB 2232) empowers IDFPR to enforce those regulations and strengthens its authority and resources for existing consumer financial protections. Both measures are sponsored by Representative Mark Walker in the House and Senator Laura Ellman in the Senate.
“States occupy a core role in overseeing the financial marketplace and Illinois stands ready to usher in the future of consumer financial protection,” said IDFPR Secretary Mario Treto, Jr. “These two proposals combined will bring Illinois consumer financial protection into the digital age and provide 21st Century protections for 21st Century threats.”
Like regulation in place in New York and under consideration in the California legislature, the Fintech-Digital Asset Bill requires digital asset exchanges and other digital asset businesses to obtain a license from IDFPR to operate in Illinois. The bill also establishes robust customer protections, including investment disclosures, customer asset safeguards, and customer service standards. Additionally, the bill requires companies to have plans and procedures for addressing critical risks such as cybersecurity, business continuity, fraud, and money laundering, as well as sufficient financial resources to effectively conduct their business in Illinois. Further, the bill replaces the Transmitters of Money Act (205 ILCS 657) with the Money Transmission Modernization Act, thereby harmonizing state licensing, regulation, and supervision of money transmitters operating across state lines. The bill also allows for the creation of trust companies for the special purpose of acting as a fiduciary to safeguard customers’ digital assets.
* Center Square…
State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said her Senate Bill 1345 is an extension of a bill that already allows for undocumented residents to vote on local school councils in Chicago. She said this needs to be expanded across the state because these families have children in public schools where they pay taxes. […]
The bill, if passed into law, would task the Illinois State Board of Education to create a voter registration affidavit as a way for “a noncitizen of the United States” to register to vote in school board elections. […]
State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said Villanueva’s bill goes too far. […]
“People are worried about things like Chinese balloons and so forth, right, so why wouldn’t it be possible for someone to infiltrate our electoral system if they’re not a citizen,” Bryant said. “No, that is a right that is afforded to American citizens.”
* Press release…
State legislators, backed by the Coalition for Plastic Reduction that includes more than 35 organizations, introduced legislation on Wednesday to phase out the use of single-use plastic polystyrene foam foodware.
The EPA estimates that Americans throw away almost 70 million plastic foam cups every day. Twenty-two million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes each year and just over half of that ends up in Lake Michigan alone. The legislation would phase out foam foodware starting in 2024.
“Our constituents have trusted us with the responsibility of enacting policies that protect our state’s most precious natural resources,” said State Sen. Laura Fine, chief sponsor of SB100. “Passing this legislation is necessary to lighten our environmental footprint, reduce single-use plastic pollution, and preserve our environment for generations to come.”
Plastic persists in the environment for hundreds of years. As a result, scientists have discovered plastic pollution in every corner of the globe, from mountain tops to ocean trenches, and inside human bodies.
“A vital part of building a sustainable future is eliminating non-biodegradable pollutants like foam, which create an enduring problem that future generations will have to deal with,” said state Rep. Gong-Gershowitz, chief sponsor of HB2376. “Using greener alternatives to sfoam that break down naturally is an important step forward for Illinois and helps maintain our status as a national leader on environmental stewardship.”
Already, eight states and roughly 200 cities and municipalities have enacted bans on polystyrene foam containers.
* Public News Service…
A pair of Illinois state lawmakers is introducing legislation to phase out what is known as the “subminimum wage” for tipped workers in the restaurant industry.
The measures were introduced on behalf of One Fair Wage, an advocacy organization for service workers, and several other groups pushing for changes in how employees in the hospitality business are paid.
Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Oak Park, said though there are some restaurants which “even up” employees’ tips to make sure they make a minimum hourly wage, many workers still earn incomes below the poverty line.
“Our proposed legislation graduates and phases subminimum wage out of our system here in Illinois,” Lilly explained. “Our workers here in Illinois deserve quality of life, and the subminimum wage does not allow that.”
Lilly noted the bill would phase out tips over the next three years and set the hourly wage at $15 by 2025. Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia opposes the bill, saying safeguards are in place to protect service workers. He argued the additional costs would likely be passed on to customers, hurting businesses and their workers.
* A throwback…
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Today’s number: 703 days
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a slide-show presented today to a legislative committee by Illinois Office to Prevent & End Homelessness director Christine Haley…
…Adding… The governor’s office followed up with some info on the proposed Home Illinois program…
Home Illinois begins with a new investment of $50 million this year, bringing total funding to $350 million in key investments to increase homeless prevention, support crisis response, expand housing units and staff, and ensure every person has the opportunity to thrive.
Investments include:
* $26 million to provide homelessness prevention services to 5,000 more families
More than $155 million to support unhoused populations seeking shelter and services $25 million in Rapid ReHousing services to 1,000 households, including short-term rental
assistance and targeted support services
* $40 million for more than 90 new permanent supportive housing units and wraparound
supports and $37 million to create more than 460 non-congregate shelter units $12.5 million to create 500 new scattered site permanent supportive housing units
* More than $30 million to provide street outreach, medical respite, re-entry services, access to counsel and other shelter diversion supports
* $5 million for a new workforce development pilot to help homeless adults attain and retain employment
And…
$50 million increase to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) so families can afford basic necessities like transportation, electricity, and food
* Increases monthly grant payment from 30% to 40% of Federal Poverty Level, meaning an eligible household with one adult and one child will see their grant increase from $340 to $452 per month
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Pritzker was asked yesterday in Peoria how he intends to spark interest among potential childcare and pre-K workers to alleviate the shortage…
So let me begin by reminding you what it was like to be a childcare worker four years ago. Four years ago, we had a minimum wage in Illinois that was $8.25. Typical child care worker in Illinois was maybe making $9.25, maybe $10. And the opportunity to go get $11 an hour was enough for many families who are living at poverty level to just decide, yeah, I’ve got to move on. I need to bring more dollars home.
And so it’s been obvious to me for a couple of decades now that childcare workers, just picking them for a moment, have been vastly underpaid, too close to minimum wage, and the minimum wage has been too low. And so we’ve worked over the last four years, as you know, we’ve been raising the minimum wage by about $1 a year. We’re going to $15 but now we have to be competitive with other industries. And there are so few people out there looking for jobs as compared to the number of jobs available that wages have gone even higher than $15 an hour.
So we’re looking to first raise wages for people in childcare to $17-$19 to begin with. And then beyond that, because we need people who want to stay in the industry, can stay in the industry with the wages that are being provided.
So wages are one thing. Training is another and we can talk about early childhood educators, those who have a higher education degree, whether it’s for an early childhood pre-K program, or something else. And those folks are, these are teachers. These are teachers just like the teachers that are in kindergarten, just like teachers in fifth grade, just like teachers in high school. They need a degree and they’ve got to be able to justify getting that degree with the wages that are provided.
So lifting up wages across the board is hugely important and then making sure that we’re showing people that there’s a path in early childhood for them to do better and better over time. And that’s one of the reasons that Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, who’s not here with us today, came to me a year and a half ago and said, Let’s take some ARPA dollars and dedicat it to a two-year program to try to upskill people who are in early childhood already, but maybe don’t have a higher degree so that we can bring people along, bring the pipeline of teachers along, which we’re also doing now in K-12. But this is something very important, we put $200 million aside for those scholarship programs. And then what I’m proposing to do in this coming year, and for the next three years after that in FY 25, 26 and 27 is to continue that because we need more and more people to raise up in the early childhood field. Quality teachers, more teachers, better pay, these are all things that make up a better workforce in early childhood so that we can expand and have more kids.
* At a later event in Macomb, Pritzker was asked about some of his own pre-school memories…
Sure. I’ll just say, I was thinking about it today. They didn’t call it preschool back then. I’m just old enough so that, I don’t know 54 or five years ago, I guess, I was in what they commonly called nursery school, which was sort of a year or two before kindergarten. And I remember Mrs. Romes was the person in charge. And honestly, one of the great times of one’s life is those early years, and especially when you feel safe, when someone who’s caring for you and in the classroom is constantly helping you learn without excoriating you for not knowing something and who just exudes love. And I think that’s, that’s what great early childhood teachers, and I could tell a Mallory does that in her classroom as well.
Both of my kids went to preschool as well, two different ones that were different places. One was better for one of my kids, one was better for the other. So fortunately, we were able to afford to pay for it ourselves. And these were private providers that we went to. I’m sure that the one that I went to when I was a little kid was also a private provider. But remember, if you can’t afford a private provider, every child, every child needs early childhood services, needs early childhood learning. And so I want to make sure that everybody in the state of Illinois has that ability.
I didn’t go to preschool, but my mom was a school teacher at the time, as were two of her sisters, so I had my own advantages.
* The Question: What are your own pre-K school memories, if any? This can apply to your personal experiences as well as the experiences of your children/grandchildren.
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* We discussed this Tribune report yesterday about a recent $415,000 loan made by the Chicago Teachers Union’s operating fund to its campaign funds…
“The loan to the CTU’s Political Action funds simply moves money from when we collect it (after the 2023 municipal election) to the time we need it (during the 2023 municipal election),” said an email bulletin to members Feb. 12. “The loans will be repaid with political funds we collect between the end of February and the end of June.”
Campaign finance records show the transfers aren’t without precedent. The CTU contributed around $323,000 in 2015 to the CTU-led Chicagoans United for Economic Security super PAC, which is a committee allowed to raise and spend unlimited funds advocating for or against certain candidates. The union separately gave around $570,000 that same year to then-Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” García’s unsuccessful campaign for mayor. […]
Boyle and Alison Eichhorn, a fellow delegate and former union trustee, claim that only a fraction of the money the union transferred in 2015 — to help a candidate it’s no longer endorsing — has been repaid. Four years later in 2019, the Chicagoans United for Economic Security super PAC transferred around $72,000 back to the union, campaign finance data show. Boyle said a repayment plan for the remainder of the loan was included in the CTU budget that year, but that no budget since then has reflected any payments.
* From a lawyer pal, who is backing a different mayoral candidate…
The loan that CTU took from its operating fund to its political action committee is illegal. There may be no caps on in the mayoral race, but there is a cap on the CTU PAC. Only a loan from a financial institution is not considered a contribution under the campaign finance law.
(B) “Contribution” does not include:
(f) a loan of money by a national or State bank or credit union made in accordance with the applicable banking laws and regulations and in the ordinary course of business, but the loan shall be listed on disclosure reports required by this Article; however, the use, ownership, or control of any security for such a loan, if provided by a person other than the candidate or his or her committee, qualifies as a contribution………
(Source: P.A. 96-832, eff. 1-1-11.)
The remedy is the [committee] must return the contribution or donate it to charity.
The statute is here.
* I sent all this to Matt Dietrich at the Illinois State Board of Elections. His reply…
Since this was described as a loan from the CTU operating fund to its PAC, it would fall under contribution limits. Your lawyer friend is right that only bank loans are not subject to contribution limits. So it appears to be a potential violation, but we won’t know for sure until we notify the committee and give them 30 days to take corrective action. Then, if they don’t do that, we will assess them and see what kind of defense they offer if/when they appeal.
I’ve reached out to CTU for comment.
…Adding… More from Dietrich…
Also, we sent them a letter seeking clarification on Feb. 9, the day the A-1 with the $140,000 was filed. I didn’t know that when I sent the earlier reply.
*** UPDATE *** Matt Dietrich at the Illinois State Board of Elections…
CTU is now saying that the contributions in question were actually aggregated member dues, not loans.
Attorney Larry Suffredin will compose letters in each case to confirm the receipt amounts in each instance were aggregated dues. We’ll make that part of the public filing for each committee. We have asked him to instruct each committee to report such receipts more transparently on the front end in the future (perhaps using parenthetical information after the donor/lender name) to head off a repeat of the confusion here.
I would expect the explanatory letters to appear in the committee files on our website tomorrow. If this is the case, there would be no violation.
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Open thread
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Good morning! What’s going on in your part of Illinois?
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here’s the roundup…
* CBS Chicago | Lightfoot denies Mendoza claims she directed board to deny full benefits for cops disabled by COVID: “Any suggestion that I or anyone in my administration is indifferent to the cause and suffering of first-responders when it comes to COVID issues is just utter nonsense,” she said. “In my administration, we simply don’t play politics with the pension code, and we don’t play politics with the law.”
* WMBD | Pritzker promotes early childhood education proposal in Peoria: Pritzker ackhowledged getting enough people to fill early childhood and child care jobs has been a problem, and raising the minimum wage — as the state has done each of the last several years — may not be enough.
* WTTW | CTA’s Reliance on Overtime Continued to Rise in 2022 as Agency Lost Bus Drivers: Records obtained by WTTW News show that 14.5% of the agency’s operator workforce was paid for average weeks of 50 hours or more in 2022. That’s an increase from 13.6% of operators in 2021.
* Chicago Mag | Nabeela Syed; The Gen Z Legislator: Last spring, during her campaign for the Illinois House of Representatives, Nabeela Syed was knocking on doors when she passed out in front of a potential constituent. “It was Ramadan, and I was fasting,” Syed, a devout Muslim, recalls. “I fainted on someone’s doorstep!”
* Capitol News Illinois | New law allows Illinoisans to change sex on birth certificate without doctor’s affirmation: By removing the need of a health care professional to reaffirm an individual’s gender change status, the law makes it easier for a person’s documents to be consistent, according to a statement from state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, a lead sponsor on the bill.
* WAND | Illinois engineers push for tax credits to attract workers amid shortage: The American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois wants state lawmakers to pass several bills this spring to address a shortage of over 82,000 workers.
* Center Square | Illinois lawmakers eying reappointment of child welfare director: State Sen. Ann Gillespie, D-Arlington Heights, was asked about Pritzker’s appointment, which still needs to be approved by the Senate within 60 session days of the appointment. “We will be taking that up as part of the executive appointments process, so I am not going to get ahead of that,” Gillespie said. “We know there are issues within DCFS that need to be fixed. Nobody is denying that.”
* WAND | Illinois Republicans hope ICC, IPA can help address high energy bills, capacity concerns: An Illinois House Joint Committee had the opportunity to hear from the Illinois Commerce Commission and Illinois Power Agency Tuesday afternoon. The ICC is trying to achieve market reforms to help build up the capacity for customers in the MISO region. The organization understands there is a shortfall right now, but ICC Public Utility Bureau Chief Jim Zolnierek said all hands are on deck.
* Center Square | Group says Illinois’ biometric privacy laws could cripple businesses: “Seventeen billion dollars for statutory violations,” Phil Melin, executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse-Illinois, told The Center Square. “That is going to kill businesses, and the Supreme Court said as much in their decision, I mean literally, White Castle won’t be able to pay that much money.”
* Jim Dey | Governor’s wind-farm reversal rubs more salt in downstaters’ wounds: The legislation also would require municipal officials in the Windy City to “place multiple wind-energy facilities in each public park.” What’s this about? A political double-cross, and a political disconnect.
* Greg Harris | Nation should follow Illinois’ lead and protect patients by banning health copay accumulators: Illinois was one of the first states in the country to ban copay accumulators with a measure enacted into law in 2019. I was proud to sponsor this legislation because patients — not PBMs — should realize the savings from manufacturer coupons and support from nonprofits and charitable organizations.
* Crain’s | Huge jackpots boost Illinois Lottery to record sales: Two of the biggest jackpots in American history apparently were good for business at the Illinois Lottery — and for the state of Illinois treasury. Lottery officials today reported record sales of $1.8 billion in the six months that ended Dec. 31, with proceeds to the state also hitting a high of $468 million.
* KSDK | What the mayor says about St. Louis being labeled the ‘least safe’ city in the country: “Obviously there’s a disconnect,” said Jones. “WalletHub doesn’t live here, and isn’t here, but if they take random statistics from random newspapers then of course. You’re only looking at a population of 300,000 people, so those rates are going to seem like it’s violent.”
* Politico | Joe may not run — and top Dems are quietly preparing: Biden’s past decisions around seeking the presidency have been protracted, painstaking affairs. This time, he has slipped past his most ambitious timetable, as previously outlined by advisers, to launch in February. Now they are coalescing around April.
* Illinois Newsroom | Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen is ‘optimistic’ Congress can pass a new farm bill: In today’s deep dive, we’ll hear from new Illinois congressman Eric Sorensen, who will talk about the chances of getting a new farm bill passed by September.
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Live coverage
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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Afternoon roundup
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Illinois Supreme Court has set a March 14 hearing for SAFE-T Act oral arguments.
* The Daily Herald on the Florida governor’s speech yesterday in the Chicago suburbs…
DeSantis also criticized legislation and policies in other states, including Illinois, that he labeled anti-police, such as a controversial — and legally stalled — plan to eliminate cash bail here.
He blamed crime rates on “politicians putting woke ideology ahead of public safety” and complained about the “woke-ification of law enforcement,” lines that got the expected responses from the audience.
Gov. Pritzker was asked about the woke stuff today…
[Gov. DeSantis] tries to use this word ‘woke’ to describe everything. He doesn’t even know what the word means, and he has no definition of it. It’s just anything he doesn’t like is ‘wokeism.’ And all I can tell you is that I don’t know what that means. And frankly, what I can say about Illinois is that we’re a state that cares about equity. We’re a state that cares about our families. We’re making the investments that are required so that our youngest children will do better and better. And I’m really excited about the direction of our state, as opposed to a state where they don’t make the investments that are necessary to lift up their education system, or their healthcare system.
* Gov. DeSantis also attacked Gov. Pritzker’s family, aided by Politico…
“During Covid, even though your governor would lock you down, his family was in Florida,” DeSantis said, referring to Pritzker family members who retreated to their second home in Florida during the pandemic.
Um, they were in Florida before the stay at home order was issued and then sheltered in place (his kid goes to college there). Did they know what was coming? Probably. Not saying it was the case with them, but I had friends down there who were miserable during the spring. The beaches and pools were closed. The restaurants and taverns were shuttered. And then summer hit and COVID zoomed as people retreated indoors to avoid the Florida heat and humidity. I put off visiting the Sunshine State to the fall, when cases were rising in Springfield as people went back inside and Florida’s dropped because people could enjoy the outdoors again.
* Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker today announced he will join the Reproductive Freedom Alliance (RFA), a non-partisan group of state Governors focused on working alongside one another to identify best practices for legislative and executive action to protect reproductive rights. The RFA will work in partnership with The Raben Group to facilitate conversations and share information on successes and risks in the fight for reproductive justice. […]
Twenty states representing over 167 million Americans have signed on to the Alliance. Members of the RFA will share strategies on advancing legislative and executive action to protect reproductive rights. 11 states have full bans on abortion in place, and many more have restrictions to access that can prevent patients receiving care. Illinois is one of the only states in the Midwest to have maintained protection for abortion services since the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. […]
The states who have signed on to the Alliance include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
* WCIA…
If you live in a rural area, you may have to travel far to get to a grocery store. But the governor has a plan for that.
One part of the State of the State address Wednesday was Governor J.B. Pritzker proposing the Illinois Grocery Initiative.
The Illinois Grocery Initiative is a plan to invest $20 million in local to fight food deserts to expand food access by opening more grocery stores in underserved communities. The governor also wants at least $2 million to go to buying produce from local farmers.
* IMA…
The initial round of voting is now open in the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association’s (IMA) fourth annual “Makers Madness” contest, a bracket-style tournament in which the public will decide what product earns the 2023 title of The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois.
Presented by Comcast Business, the competition celebrates the incredible work of manufacturers across Illinois, which have long served as the backbone of our state’s economy. A recent study found the total economic impact of manufacturing in Illinois is estimated to be between $580 billion and $611 billion every year – the largest share of any industry to the state’s Gross Domestic Product.
Nearly 250 unique products from every corner of the state were nominated for this year’s contest, with nominees ranging from agriculture equipment and COVID testing supplies to iconic pantry staples, sweet treats and a variety of vehicles. Voting throughout the contest will take place at www.makersmadnessil.com, where voters can now choose which products will advance to the Top 16. Voting for this round is open now and runs through 11:59 p.m. on March 5, and participants can vote for up to five times per day. Consecutive rounds of voting in head-to-head matchups will take place each week, culminating with an awards ceremony on March 29 when The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois will be named.
* Before the rumors start, I do not live in Orland Park and I am not running for Orland Fire Protection District Trustee…
No relation that I’m aware of.
* Paczki day!
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Pantagraph | Sen. Duckworth to lead delegation to Indonesia, Japan: While on a congressional trip to South Korea last summer, Sen. Tammy Duckworth was drinking coffee with a vice president at LG Corp when she made an offhand remark that had more impact than she could have known at the time. The remark, about the geology that makes Illinois uniquely positioned for carbon sequestration, ended up being the catalyst for sparking a larger conversation that culminated months later with LG announcing a partnership with Archer Daniels Midland Co. to construct facilities in Decatur that will produce thousands of tons of environmentally-friendly ingredients.
* Our Quad Cities | ‘New Illinois’ sets meetings to pursue forming new state: “The United States Constitution gives us the right to a representative government in Article IV, Section 4,” the release says. “However, in Illinois this is not the case. All power in Illinois government is concentrated in Cook County and Chicago. This leaves the rest of the States’ residents with no real representation.”
* WQAD | Family of man killed by law enforcement in Toulon says deadly force was not necessary: Rodney Williams’ family told News 8 that he had been struggling with mental health for three years after being diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
* The Guardian | US local news outlets need tax breaks to help save democracy, says advocate: Steven Waldman, co-founder of Report for America, said a new initiative, called Rebuild Local News, wanted to revitalize hundreds of local news outlets across America decimated by changes in the industry, shifts in the sector’s advertising revenue structure and more recently, the pandemic.
* Crain’s | Chicago’s Black restaurant owners develop their own recipes for financial success: Hart is among a growing number of Black entrepreneurs in Chicago’s food and hospitality industry, and across the country, who are positioning their businesses for growth. They say it’s time to move beyond the kitchen and mostly menial restaurant and food service jobs, a stigma they’re working to erase as they seek increased economic mobility.
* Sun-Times | Bally’s recruiting dealers for Chicago casino: Classes begin in April. Dealers who complete the course, pass an “audition” and obtain a gaming license will be able to hit the casino floor when it opens this summer at the company’s temporary location at the Medinah Temple, 600 N. Wabash Ave. Bally’s hopes to open its permanent casino, which still needs to be built on the site of the Chicago Tribune Freedom Center publishing site in River West, in 2026.
* WBEZ | Bridgeport Bakery has prepped thousands of paczki, but they won’t last long: This week, Lao anticipates they’ll sell 10,000 paczki when it’s all said and done — although he admits he hasn’t had time to tally up all the orders. It’s scaled back from the bakery’s heyday, when they’d move north of 25,000 pastries on Paczki Day to devotees lined up for blocks.
* NPR | Instagram and Facebook launch new paid verification service, Meta Verified: The monthly subscription service will start at $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 a month on iOS or Android. In addition to a verification badge, the service includes more protection against impersonating accounts, increased visibility in areas such as search and recommendations, and more direct access to customer support, according to a news release.
* Daily Herald | DuPage forest preserve board retains legislative lobbyist: The board on Tuesday approved a one-year, $60,000 contract to retain Government Navigation Group as the district’s lobbying firm.
* SJ-R | Bob Vose, the ‘Korndog King’ and northend stalwart, dies at 94: Vose was known for championing those beautification projects. He became the “unofficial caretaker of Monument Avenue,” the northern extension of First Street, according to SangamonLink, the online history of the Sangamon County Historical Society. Vose raised money for banners and signs and personally tended to trees and flowers in the parkway leading to Oak Ridge Cemetery.
* The Guardian | In Wisconsin’s supreme court race, a super-rich beer family calls the shots: Millions of dollars have been injected into the battle by members of the Uihlein family, a manufacturing dynasty with roots in Milwaukee. The huge sums could help determine the balance of power on the state’s top court and in turn influence critical areas of public life – from abortion to voting rights, and potentially even the 2024 presidential election.
* NPR | An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America : Citizens for Responsible Solar is part of a growing backlash against renewable energy in rural communities across the United States. The group, which was started in 2019 and appears to use strategies honed by other activists in campaigns against the wind industry, has helped local groups fighting solar projects in at least 10 states including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, according to its website.
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It’s just a bill
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Sen. Peters’ SB1887…
Creates the Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act. Provides that upon a valid request from the Attorney General or a State’s Attorney, made pursuant to the substantive or procedural laws of the State, a court may order any appropriate blockchain transaction for digital property or for the execution of a smart contract. Provides that a blockchain network that processes a blockchain transaction originating in the State at any time after the effective date of the Act shall process a court-ordered blockchain transaction without the need for the private key associated with the digital property or smart contract. Provides that upon a petition by the Attorney General or a State’s Attorney, the court shall assess a civil penalty of between $5,000 and $10,000 for each day that the blockchain network fails to comply with the order. Sets forth provisions concerning protection of digital property and contract rights, security interests, and service of process. Defines terms. Effective 30 days after becoming law.
* Coin Telegraph…
A recently introduced Illinois Senate Bill has been ridiculed by the crypto community over its “unworkable” plans to force blockchain miners and validators to do “impossible things” — such as reversing transactions if ordered to do so by a state court. […]
Titled the “Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act,” the bill would authorize the courts — upon a valid request from the attorney general or a state’s attorney that is made pursuant to the laws of Illinois — to order a blockchain transaction that is executed via a smart contract to be altered or rescinded. […]
[Florida-based lawyer Drew] Hinkes described the bill as “the most unworkable state law” related to blockchain and cryptocurrency that he has ever seen. […]
The bill states that any blockchain miners and validators may be fined between $5,000-10,000 for each day that they fail to comply with court orders.
While acknowledging the need to implement bills that strengthen consumer protection, Hinkes said it would be “impossible” for miners and validators to comply with the bill proposed by Senator Peters.
* Press release…
Local families would have expanded access to full-day kindergarten under legislation recently introduced by state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights.
“Requiring full-day kindergarten is a common sense solution to closing the achievement gap and setting our youngest learners up for a lifetime of success,” Canty said. “Full-day kindergarten not only benefits students, but also allows teachers to know their students better and increases access to safe, dependable child care for working parents.”
Currently, school districts may provide either half-day or full-day kindergarten. Canty’s House Bill 2396 requires school districts to establish kindergarten with full-day attendance beginning with the 2023-2024 school year. Research from the National Education Association demonstrates that full-day kindergarten improves students’ academic achievement, strengthens social and emotional skills, and produces long-term educational gains for low income and minority students.
“Our children are our greatest resource and it’s time we start treating them as such. When we invest in our youngest learners, everyone benefits,” Canty said. “We must give Illinois students the classroom time they need to reach their full potential, and full-day kindergarten is the way to do that,” Canty said.”
* WAND…
Illinois could enhance the penalties for impaired drivers who kill someone and injure others. Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) has filed the same proposal several times over the past few years, but his plan has never gained traction. McClure hopes to see “Lindsey’s Law” passed this spring.
McClure wants to honor the life of Lindsey Sharp, a 26-year-old woman hit by a drunk driver in a Springfield Walmart parking lot in 2015. […]
McClure argued that intoxicated drivers should be charged with a Class 2 felony if they kill someone and cause great bodily harm, permanent disability, or disfigurement of others. […]
The driver in Lindsey’s case, Antione Willis, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated DUI. However, McClure said Lindsey’s boyfriend and son deserved justice too, and his bill would require an additional four to 20 years in prison for anyone breaking the law.
While some think this is a common sense change, McClure said his bill hasn’t gained support in the past because many Democratic lawmakers are opposed to penalty enhancements.
* Rep. Blaine Wilhour is sponsoring HB3953…
Amends the Lobbyist Registration Act. Provides that the term “official” as used under the Act includes specified officials of a unit of local government. Modifies the terms “lobby” and “lobbying” to include communications with units of local government for the ultimate purpose of influencing any executive, legislative, or administrative action, and further specifies such actions. Modifies the term “lobbyist” to mean a natural person who, on behalf of any person other than himself or herself, or as any part of his or her duties as an employee of another, undertakes to influence or lobby for any executive, legislative, or administrative action for State government or a unit of local government.
* Rep. Curtis Tarver…
Amends the Illinois Municipal Code. Removes provisions providing that a person is not eligible to take the oath of office for a municipal office if that person has been convicted of certain crimes. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that a person convicted of a felony, bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime (rather than a felony) for an offense committed on or after the effective date of the amendatory Act while he or she was serving as a public official is ineligible to hold any local public office (in addition to being ineligible to hold an office created by the Constitution of the State) unless the person’s conviction is reversed or until the completion of his or her sentence and his or her eligibility to hold office is restored. Amends the Officials Convicted of Infamous Crimes Act and the Election Code making conforming changes.
* Press release…
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse-Illinois (CALA-IL) is calling on Illinois legislators to immediately draft corrective legislation to the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) to clarify the Illinois Supreme Court’s devastating ruling Friday that could lead to the financial destruction of Illinois businesses.
In a 4-3 decision in Cothron v. White Castle, the IL Supreme Court determined a separate claim accrues each time a private entity scans or transmits an individual’s biometric identifier. The ruling increases White Castle’s potential liability from $95 million to more than $17 billion and could destroy the company and other Illinois businesses facing similar claims.
“CALA-IL agrees with the majority and minority opinions in Cothron v. White Castle that BIPA will result in the reckless financial destruction of businesses operating in Illinois,” said CALA-IL Executive Director Phil Melin. “It is vital that the Legislature now heeds the recommendation of the Supreme Court majority and ‘make clear its intent regarding the assessment of damages under [BIPA]’ (Pg. 15). “
Melin added, “The Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is a poorly drafted law that allows trial attorneys to obtain ludicrously excessive damage amounts that are far out of proportion with any sane estimation of harm. The ramifications of this decision will extend beyond the financial destruction of one beloved 102-year-old Midwest restraint chain, as the shock waves of this 4-3 decision ripple through the Illinois economy.”
* Jonah Newman from Injustice Watch…
I first became interested in the judicial FOIA loophole when I was looking into issues at the Cook County juvenile detention center as a reporter at the Chicago Reporter. In 2018, I requested a slew of records from Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans, whose office oversees the juvenile jail. I was shocked to learn that I could more easily access information about the conditions inside the adult jail, which is run by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, than about a detention center holding kids as young as 12. I convened a meeting of journalists, advocates, and lawyers whom I thought might be interested in working to solve this problem. Five years later, several of those organizations have formed the Court Transparency Coalition, which is gathering support for Tarver’s bill. (Injustice Watch is not a member of the coalition but has participated in meetings to discuss issues with court access.)
To Evans’ credit, his office eventually provided detailed data showing every time a young person at the detention center was confined to their room. The data formed the basis of my 2018 investigation into the juvenile jail’s increased use of room confinement as a form of discipline, even as national experts told Evans and the detention center’s leadership that practices were harmful to youths. My story prompted hearings before the county board and led Evans to create a blue-ribbon committee to investigate the use of room confinement. (In a report last year, the committee agreed with outside experts that it was used too often.)
Since I arrived at Injustice Watch in 2019, I have repeatedly requested updated room confinement data from the chief judge’s office to see whether anything has changed. Evans’ office stonewalled me again and again. It was only when I reached out again for a comment from Evans on this piece that his office finally provided me with the data that I’ve been requesting for years. (A spokesperson said in an email collecting the data was “time-consuming,” and my deadline for this commentary “was only one of many factors that determined when it was delivered to you.”)
If HB2455 passes, requests for information from the courts would not just depend on the mercy of the chief judge or the clerk of the court in office at any given time. They would have five business days to respond to a records request — just like every other public agency in the state. The public would be able to appeal denials of FOIA requests to the Illinois attorney general or file lawsuits to force them to comply. The courts could still withhold personal information, juvenile court records, and other types of information already exempt from FOIA or protected by state law, including misconduct complaints against sitting judges, which are confidential under the Illinois Constitution.
This bill isn’t about making our jobs at Injustice Watch easier. It’s about ensuring equal access to justice in Illinois. Every day, thousands of people enter courthouses across Illinois seeking justice. They might be asking for protection from an abuser, fighting to keep their home, working to keep custody of their children, or navigating a criminal case as a victim or a defendant. We know the court system has historically favored people with wealth and racial privilege and disproportionately harmed those without. But the public can only fight for a more fair and just court system if we have complete information about the workings of the courts. Without transparency, it’s impossible to have true accountability.
* BGA…
* Rep. Maurice West…
Creates the Public Official Privacy Act. Provides that government agencies, persons, businesses, and associations shall not publicly post or display publicly available content that includes an official’s personal information, provided that the government agency, person, business, or association has received a written request from the person that it refrain from disclosing the person’s personal information. Provides injunctive or declaratory relief if the Act is violated. Includes procedures for a written request. Provides that it is a Class 3 felony for any person to knowingly and publicly post on the Internet the personal information of an official or an official’s immediate family in a manner posing an imminent and serious threat to the official or the official’s immediate family. Excludes criminal penalties for employees of government agencies who publish information in good faith during the ordinary course of carrying out public functions. Provides that the Act and any rules adopted to implement the Act shall be construed broadly to favor the protection of the personal information of officials. Amends various Acts and Codes allowing an official to list a business address rather than a home address and makes conforming changes. Effective immediately.
* Press release…
As the nation begins the celebration of National Engineering Week, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC Illinois) has unveiled its 2023 Legislative Agenda focused on retaining and recruiting engineers to deal with a skills-gap shortage while protecting Rebuild Illinois.
The agenda includes several pieces of legislation that will prioritize the development of engineering talent for the workforce, promote engineering innovation, protect engineering companies and ensure Illinois’ Road, transportation and physical infrastructure projects continue to be well-funded by the state and completed by the most qualified professionals in the industry. This strong emphasis on developing a pipeline of workers to keep our state competitive follows Governor Pritzker’s remarks during his budget address last week. […]
ACEC-IL 2023 Legislative Agenda
• Preserve REBUILD Illinois: In order to keep Illinois’, promise to citizens to repair, maintain and upgrade Illinois’ infrastructure to support a 21st Century economy, ACEC Illinois will oppose efforts to roll back funding for ReBuild Illinois. Legislation, such as HB 1575, that would undo the state’s infrastructure improvement program would be actively opposed by ACEC Illinois.
• State Innovation Tax Credit (HB2423) (SB 2084): This legislation creates a State of Illinois innovation tax credit that would be administered by the Department of Revenue, rather than the IRS, aiding in the state’s goal of attracting more research and development programs to Illinois. This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Marty Moylan and Senator Don DeWitte.
• Retain Illinois Students of Engineering (RISE) Tax Credit (HB 2425) (SB 2282): Helping attract and retain engineers as the industry faces a shortage of educated talent, this legislation provides for a tax credit of 10% of the salary paid to recent graduates of Illinois’ engineering schools and 5% of the salary paid to recent graduates of engineering schools outside of Illinois. This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Marty Moylan and Senator Ram Villivalam.
• Incentivize Engineering Talent for IDOT (HB 2424) (SB 2190): With shortages in qualified engineers facing the industry, this legislation would enable IDOT to provide student loan repayment assistance to qualifying employees that meet certain requirements, helping to incentivize educated professionals to work on the state’s highest priority infrastructure projects. This legislation is sponsored by Michael Marron and Senator Ram Villivalam.
• Certificate of Merit for Civil Suits (SB 1615): To reduce the cost of frivolous litigation, this legislation would require a civil engineer to sign an affidavit certifying that malpractice may have taken place in his or her professional opinion before a suit can be filed against an engineer or firm. This legislation is sponsored by Senator Don DeWitte.
• Knowledge Transfer Innovation Act (HB 2559): To ensure Illinois’ most innovative engineering firms are able to share their cutting-edge technology and design approaches with state agencies, this legislation allows for greater communication and knowledge transfer between the private and public sector. This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Marty Moylan.
• Commitment to Qualifications Based Selection Process Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) Processes have proven to protect taxpayers, drive innovation, encourage diversity, and deliver projects on-time and on-budget. This resolution will renew the state’s commitment to QBS which is already the long-standing policy of the State of Illinois, considered the industry standard, and is required by law in 46 states. This measure will be introduced as a resolution.
* Rep. Adam Niemerg…
Parents and students deserve an agenda free education and under the Freedom of Education Act, they would be guaranteed that right, according to Illinois Freedom Caucus member State Representatives Adam Niemerg (R-Dietrich), the sponsor of the legislation.
“During the pandemic, parents witnessed the kind of curriculum being taught to their kids and for many of them, it was an eye-opening experience,” Niemerg said. “But opting out of classes parents find objectionable has proven to be more challenging than it should be. The Freedom of Education Act protects the right of conscience for students and parents.”
House Bill 2184 creates the Freedom of Education Act and prevents public school districts and universities and colleges from compelling a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to specified tenets. It also gives students, parents, and legal guardians the right to object to and refuse any unit of instruction or required course of study that directs, requires, or otherwise compels a student to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the specified tenets and requires school boards to review and resolve objections to the school curriculum.
“Education should be about helping students learn how to think rather than teaching them what to think,” Niemerg said. “There is no place in our schools for cultural indoctrination. We must protect and preserve parental rights.”
House Bill 2184 has been introduced and awaits assignment to a legislative committee.
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* From page 58 of the governor’s new Budget Book. I’m told that CMS has some proposed legislation, and “there have been some preliminary meetings with stakeholders”…
The Community College Insurance Program (CIP) is a jointly funded health insurance program for community college retirees. Statute determines the amount paid by the State, community colleges, retiree participants and active community college employees. Current contributions only fund 76 percent of the liability which results in unpaid bills. Without statutory change, the backlog of bills for this program will reach $110 million by the end of fiscal year 2024. This represents a backlog of unpaid bills of 38 months.
Currently, active employees, community college districts and the State each contribute at a rate of 0.5 percent of active employee pay (approximately $5.2 million/year each). Unlike other programs, CIP has no statutory escalator on the contribution rate; as a result, the contribution rate today is the same as it was 20 years ago.
With no rate changes, CMS projects CIP will have a deficit of approximately $214 million by fiscal year 2032, which would create a bill backlog of about four and a half years. The Governor proposes working with stakeholders to address the needs of the program. To demonstrate the State’s commitment to the program, an additional $25 million was contributed from the fiscal year 2023 budget. Future contributions will be determined by the outcome of the work with the stakeholders.
Oof.
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That toddlin’ town roundup
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune reports on a recent $415,000 loan made by the Chicago Teachers Union’s operating fund to its campaign funds…
“The loan to the CTU’s Political Action funds simply moves money from when we collect it (after the 2023 municipal election) to the time we need it (during the 2023 municipal election),” said an email bulletin to members Feb. 12. “The loans will be repaid with political funds we collect between the end of February and the end of June.”
Campaign finance records show the transfers aren’t without precedent. The CTU contributed around $323,000 in 2015 to the CTU-led Chicagoans United for Economic Security super PAC, which is a committee allowed to raise and spend unlimited funds advocating for or against certain candidates. The union separately gave around $570,000 that same year to then-Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” García’s unsuccessful campaign for mayor. […]
Boyle and Alison Eichhorn, a fellow delegate and former union trustee, claim that only a fraction of the money the union transferred in 2015 — to help a candidate it’s no longer endorsing — has been repaid. Four years later in 2019, the Chicagoans United for Economic Security super PAC transferred around $72,000 back to the union, campaign finance data show. Boyle said a repayment plan for the remainder of the loan was included in the CTU budget that year, but that no budget since then has reflected any payments.
* The CTU’s Brandon Johnson had a weekly radio show, and the archives are likely chock full of opposition research possibilities. On this particular episode, Johnson said of “our” move to “redirect and defund” the amount of money that is spent on policing: “I don’t look at it as a slogan. It’s actually, it’s an actual real political goal”…
* New García ad…
* Bit of payback perhaps?…
2023 Chicago mayoral candidate Jesús “Chuy” García endorsed Samie Martinez, a challenger to incumbent Ald. Rossana Rodriguez (33rd Ward), a spokesperson for the campaign confirmed on Feb. 18. The endorsement puts García in bed with allies of former Mayor Harold Washington’s fiercest enemies, including former 33rd Ward Ald. Dick Mell. García was once an ally in the City Council to Washington and frequently refers to that legacy as proof of his own progressive bona fides.
Rodriguez is a member of the Socialist, Progressive Reform and Latino Caucuses. She was among a wave of progressives who were elected to City Council in 2019. She won the seat after defeating Deb Mell, who had been appointed to replace her father Dick Mell, who was the 33rd Ward alder from 1975 to 2013. Laith Shaban, an investment advisor and housing developer, is also challenging Rodriguez.
Along with progressive incumbent alders such as Daniel La Spata (1st Ward), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward), Rodriguez has endorsed Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson for mayor.
* Money…
* Ben Joravsky…
Vallas has certainly won Chicago’s MAGA vote—as well he should. He’s been courting it for the last few years, showing up at an Awake Illinois fundraiser, hanging out with John Catanzara, the controversial Trump-loving president of the Fraternal Order of Police, and appearing on the Jeanne Ives podcast.
Ives is the far-right, anti-abortion zealot who ran against former Governor Bruce Rauner in the 2018 Republican primary because he, Rauner, wasn’t conservative enough. And there was Vallas on her show, sounding like Ron DeSantis, going on and on about masked mandates, evil teachers unions, wokeness, etc.
Vallas has a MAGA-style hatred for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). His voucher proposal to use millions in TIF dollars to subsidize private, non-union schools has the potential to do what even Rauner couldn’t accomplish—destroy CTU and public education in Chicago.
* As a reminder, Darren Bailey said “take back our state” a whole lot during the last campaign. Vallas is not another Bailey, but he does use a lot of the same rhetorical devices and hangs out with some of the same people…
* Paul Vallas talked about Critical Race Theory on a Wirepoints podcast in 2021…
Vallas: When you introduce a curriculum that is not only divisive, but a curriculum that further undermines the relationship of children with their parents, with their families, that’s a dangerous thing. And for White parents, I mean, how are you going to discipline your child when your child comes home and your child has basically been told, you know, that their generation, their race, their parents, their grandparents they have discriminated against others and they have somehow victimized another person’s race. Or for that matter, if you are a Black child, how do you go home and and listen to your parent when your parent has failed to be successful in addressing these historically racist institutional obstacles that have denied them a chance at equal opportunity> So I think it’s detracting from our need to focus on our core subject areas. It’s allowing us to avoid accountability in terms of the quality of our teaching the quality of our schools, and I think it’s not only divisive, but I think it does damage between the children and their own and their own parents, their own family and within their own families.
Wirepoints: Yeah, Paul, I often wonder if you’re a Black kid, why wouldn’t you become a criminal if you’re hearing this stuff in school? It’s everybody with white skin is an oppressor if you have black skin, you’re the oppressed. That makes it pretty easy to justify pretty bad conduct in my opinion.
Vallas: You’re absolutely right. But what you’re also doing, you know, you’re giving people an excuse for bad behavior.
The professional suburban victim and the only White mayoral candidate are oh so worried that Black kids could be convinced by CRT (which is not taught in any K-12 schools here) to become criminals? Great.
* CBS 2…
Vallas also wants to stop the exodus of Chicago residents. He has proposed a property tax cap of 3% per assessment cycle, to keep people from being taxed out of their homes.
The people who will benefit the most from that will be people who live in affluent neighborhoods with rising property values. Guess who they’re voting for? Everyone else will have to pick up the slack.
* Buckner campaign…
Many candidates have talked about their plans to reform City Hall, but no other candidate has offered concrete steps the next Mayor can take to make city government more responsive to residents and representative of the 77 neighborhoods that make up Chicago.
“Today I’m committing to a reform agenda for City Council to make it operate like a true legislative body and not a feudal system governed by arcane traditions,” said candidate for mayor Kam Buckner.
“First and foremost Chicago should have a City Charter. Every other big city in America has one, but here we’ve only ever had ‘the Chicago way.’ City Council shouldn’t be a rubber stamp for the mayor, it should be able to elect its own leadership and be governed by rules that prevent unilateral action by the mayor, which Lori Lightfoot took to an extreme during COVID.”
Buckner’s plan also calls for a better process to enable more resident-lead ordinances, removes the selection of Committee chairs from the Mayor’s purview, sets stricter standards of transparency for the Office of the Inspector General and eliminates Rule 41, which gives the Mayor too much power to shape how the Council conducts its business.
“I am also calling for a community-facing ward map redistricting process ahead of the next census,” said Buckner. “The machine politics of old nearly tore the Council apart this year. While Mayor Lightfoot stood back and let it happen, the next Mayor must start right away together with the Council and community organizations to devise a better, more transparent process.”
Full plan is available on Buckner’s website
* On to other campaigns. Press release…
Today, Alderman Gilbert Villegas received the endorsement of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for his re-election in Chicago’s 36th Ward.
“As Alderman of the 36th Ward, Gilbert Villegas has made expanding access to city services and increasing public safety his top priorities. Alderman Villegas is a voice for his community, a fearless champion for justice, and a trusted leader on the City Council. We need him re-elected for all of Chicago & I’m proud to endorse him for 36th Ward Alderman,” Governor Pritzker said.
Governor Pritzker’s endorsement only further strengthens Gilbert’s robust list of endorsements, which also include Senator Tammy Duckworth, Congressman Mike Quigley, Congressman Danny Davis, Congressman Chuy Garcia, Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Federation of Labor, Better Streets Chicago, Illinois Nurses Association, UNITE HERE Local 1, AFSCME, UFCW Local 881, IUOE Local 150, Chicago Firefighters Local 2, and more.
* And a campaign committee called People For Rogers Park is not set up as an independent expenditure committee, yet the PAC just reported an independent expenditure opposing Chicago Ald. Maria Hadden. Odd.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* ABC Chicago | Mayor Lightfoot: ‘I misspoke’ when telling voters who don’t vote for her not to vote at all: “If I said anything other than everybody everywhere needs to vote then I misspoke in the heat of a campaign rally,” she said. “But I’ve been very consistent all along saying everybody everywhere needs to step up, and they need to vote just as I said today.”
* Tribune | Chuy García gets personal in latest Chicago mayor campaign ad: ‘I nearly lost my son to the gangs’: “I’ve lost friends and neighbors to gun violence. I nearly lost my son to the gangs. We can’t afford to lose one more kid. So I won’t stand for a failed mayor so desperate, all she can do is run a false smear campaign against me,” Garcia says in the ad, while sitting at a table.
* Sun-Times | Where the money’s come from in Chicago’s mayoral race: Campaigns aren’t required to report the names of contributors giving less than $150 per quarter but must report the totals received. Campaigns also can benefit from money collected by outside political action committees — so called “dark money” funds that don’t have to disclose who makes contributions but also aren’t allowed to work with any campaigns directly.
* WTTW | Political Funds Backed by Business Leaders Challenge Push by Progressives to Expand Power at City Hall: The Get Stuff Done PAC — an independent expenditure committee chaired by Michael Ruemmler, an adviser to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel — has raised $1.74 million since early December, including $1 million from Michael Sacks, of Grosvenor Capital Management, one of Chicago’s richest men and a frequent donor and adviser to Emanuel.
* Tribune | City Council members appointed by Mayor Lightfoot find ties to her are a double-edged sword: Though Ramirez had already announced her intention to run for the Southwest Side 12th Ward seat and knew being appointed would give her a three-month head start, Ramirez said she didn’t want Lightfoot’s political baggage.
* CBS Chicago | GoodKids MadCity to host youth-led Chicago mayoral town hall: Leaders of GoodKids MadCity announced Monday they are hosting a mayoral town hall on Wednesday at Northwestern Law School. They are also calling for the City Council to pass the so-called Peace Book Ordinance they created to stop the violence in the city. The group also wants to lower the voting age to 16.
* Block Club | Ranked Choice Voting In Chicago? System Would Save City Money And Be More Democratic, Alderman Says: Ald. Matt Martin (47th) introduced a resolution to City Council last week calling for a hearing to discuss an increasingly popular idea: ranked choice voting.
* Tribune | South Loop high school proposed for former public housing site should be built elsewhere, elected officials and activists argue: At the time of the vote, detractors argued the plans to build the new school were rushed and the expensive project — expected to cost $120 million — meant existing schools wouldn’t get funding. However, Chinatown leaders argued the school is desperately needed in the growing area.
* Block Club | Ald. Jason Ervin No Longer Running Unopposed After 28th Ward Challenger Added Back To Ballot — For Now: Voters who live in the 28th Ward won’t be able to pick up ballots until they can be reprinted to include Walker, who was originally kicked off the ballot because election authorities determined he didn’t submit enough signatures to run. The Illinois Appellate Court ruled Friday that Walker has more than enough valid signatures to run for alderperson and his name should be put back on the ballot, according to court documents.
* The Crusader | 21st Ward candidate fabricated Morehouse academic credentials: A Crusader investigation of Mosley’s academic credentials revealed that the ambitious 31-year-old community organizer never graduated from Morehouse College. He fabricated his academic credentials and got a job as a political advisor with Gov. Pritzker’s office despite having just a high school diploma.
* ABC Chicago | Some say vacant industrial land would be better site for new Near South CPS high school: “Use the land you already have, don’t spend the 10 million of CPS to buy a piece of land, it could go to underfunded schools,” said Roderick Wilson of Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
* Block Club | Ald. Matt O’Shea Declines Multiple Invitations To Debate His 19th Ward Challengers, Frustrating Some Residents: O’Shea’s refusal to participate in political debates is not new to this election cycle. In 2019, he declined an invitation to participate in a Southwest Side GOP forum with challenger David Dewar, citing a scheduling conflict.
* Center for Illinois Politics | Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia Runs for Chicago Mayor Inspired by Harold Washington’s Legacy: “I’m just delighted and feel some major backup in the fact that I was awarded with the Punch 9 ballot position,” laughs Garcia – the same ballot position that Washington drew in his history-making 1987 mayoral race.
* Block Club | Softball Leagues That Called Grant Park Home For Decades Get Booted Due To NASCAR Deal, Big Music Fests: “It looks almost impossible to run a consistent Softball League down at Grant Park this Spring/Summer,” a park supervisor for Grant Park wrote in an email Lally provided to Block Club Chicago. “I know you are aware of the events that are being held in Grant Park this year. We may have a couple windows of time that we could host a quick tournament or a couple games. A full season does not seem doable.”
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The owners will likely ask for infrastructure help down the road, but so far the Bears haven’t asked for any direct state funding…
* The owners instead want a new state law to allow them to essentially negotiate a local property tax payment…
Called a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT, the new subsidy is similar to tax increment financing, with a couple of key wrinkles: Initial tax payment amounts would be negotiated between the company and local taxing bodies rather than tied to property appraisals, and it would be available only for investments of $500 million or more. The Bears’ proposed project is estimated at $5 billion.
Some argue PILTs will help Illinois municipalities land major investments that will create tons of high-paying jobs — like maybe an electric vehicle battery plant. Others say they’re open-ended giveaways to rich companies.
* One very big problem…
It was on November 15, 2000, that then-Mayor Richard Daley called reporters to a skybox at Soldier Field, to unveil his new vision for the stadium. […]
But as the press and public focused on the aesthetics of the stadium, which would become the smallest in the National Football League, few examined the fine print of the deal itself: a $587 million plan where the Bears and the NFL each chipped in $100 million, with the remaining $387 million to be financed by public bonds, backed by a hotel/motel tax levied in the city of Chicago.
Documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show the actual bond issue by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority came to $398 million. But today, more than 20 years after that money was borrowed, the ISFA still owes over $383 million in principal, and more than $256 million in interest.
That’s a total of over $640 million, $63 million more than was originally borrowed, even after making payments for more than 20 years.
Another “ramp.”
* The Question: Could you support the Bears’ “payment in lieu of taxes” bill if the team is also forced to promptly pay off all the remaining Soldier Field debt? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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Better management, please
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The typical angry, knee-jerk reaction likely prompted by yet another Fox News uproar…
Make no mistake, this is a very real problem. Nobody wants people to be homeless. Some just don’t want to ever see it. Others want to solve it. The powers that be too often try to find some sort of middle ground that just hasn’t worked.
* The mayor’s response via the Sun-Times…
In remarks to reporters Thursday, the mayor acknowledged the seriousness of the problem — which she said was different than encampments beneath viaducts, in parks and elsewhere on city streets — even as she argued that the conservative media had blown the issue out of proportion.
“We have taken and will continue to take the steps that are necessary to move people out of the airports,” she said. “The airports are a very different place than on the street under an underpass.”
I’m sure Chicagoans just loved to hear that last sentence.
* Keep in mind that the area near the airport is also struggling with the problem, according to Block Club Chicago…
The city’s 2022 data suggests the number of unhoused people decreased since 2021. Advocates say the counting strategy vastly underestimates homelessness, not accounting for people more hidden from public view or temporarily doubling up with others.
“On the Northwest Side, we don’t have any of the infrastructure and so there are more publicly-facing homeless people … but we [also] have a lot of people tucked away,” said Monica Dillon, who runs The Northwest Side Homeless Outreach volunteer group. “There’s chronic pervasive homelessness versus transitory homeless folks — and those are the numbers that are through the roof and not always captured by an annual count.”
* Also from the same Sun-Times report…
But a law enforcement source said that starting this week, additional police manpower has been dedicated to offering services to homeless people — and removing those who don’t accept the help.
As we’ve discussed time and time again, police mismanagement has stretched the force way too thin. And now officers are supposedly “offering services” to homeless people when the city already is paying a contractor to do just that?
* Tribune…
While sheltering at the airport isn’t new, the steadily increasing number of people doing it is, said Jessica Dubuar, director of health and specialty services at Haymarket Center. The center has conducted outreach operations out of O’Hare to address homelessness in public transportation since 1990. […]
In addition, the number of beds in homeless shelters was decreased at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and never restored. Meanwhile, migrants who have recently arrived in the city are using homeless shelters, and homeless shelters across the city are overwhelmed.
But just replacing the beds that the city previously cut isn’t gonna work in the long term. Temporary shelter is just that.
* For now, though, they’ve been swept under the rug a week before election day…
As CBS 2’s Marissa Perlman reported Friday night, homeless advocates are wondering where all those people will end up.
But in Terminal 1, they are gone. Near baggage claim in the terminal at 10 p.m. on any given night, you would typically see dozens of homeless community members taking shelter from the cold. Just two weeks ago, homeless people were seen sleeping on heating grates and crowding the terminal.
Out of sight, out of mind. Until they’re once again no longer out of sight.
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Another look at Pritzker’s budget
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
After taking a pandemic-induced hiatus from proposing large, permanent base spending increases and instead using most revenue increases for one-time expenditures, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recently proposed fiscal year 2024 state budget appears to increase base operational spending by at least $2.75 billion, or 7.9%.
Annual pension payments will also rise by a relatively modest $201 million, which ups the total base spending increase to $2.95 billion.
Republicans warned that Gov. Pritzker was setting the state up for a massive tax hike if revenues plummet. But Pritzker and his people repeatedly pointed out their revenue projections actually factor in a recession later this calendar year. Their projections are, the Pritzker folks say, “conservative.”
After raising the current (2023) fiscal year’s revenue projections by $1.24 billion, to $51.36 billion, revenues are projected to fall by $1.4 billion in the coming fiscal year.
Net individual income taxes are projected to rise in fiscal year 2024 by $778 million, or about 3.3%. But corporate income taxes are projected to fall by $175 million, or about 3%. Sales tax revenue will be relatively flat, rising by just $25 million.
The governor’s budget director said one factor in the sales tax projection is the gradual shift of sales taxes on motor fuel purchases from general funds to the road fund, which was negotiated when the capital bill was passed in 2019. She didn’t say, but another aspect of the flat growth is likely the projected recession. Transfers in will fall by about $1.3 billion below the current fiscal year, which the governor’s budget office has been assuming since last year.
And, even if their revenue projections are wrong, “We’ve cut budgets before,” one Pritzker administration official said.
Even Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who spent the past couple of years warning legislators and the governor not to increase permanent spending programs, backed off, depriving Republicans and conservative pundits of a Democratic champion who they had already been using as a cudgel against Pritzker and the super-majority party.
After the governor’s budget address, for example, Senate Republican Leader John Curran issued a statement saying, “We must heed the warnings of Comptroller Mendoza and be disciplined in our fiscal approach at a time when we are likely to experience a recession.”
Instead, Mendoza deemed the large base spending hike as, “careful, strategic and necessary investments.”
Human services will receive the largest spending increase at $912 million. Education, including higher education, will receive the next largest increase at $791 million. Healthcare costs will rise by $709 million, and public safety expenditures will go up by $224 million.
To some, particularly progressives and social service providers, the governor’s proposed increase is a floor, not a ceiling. “The proposed budget’s lack of investment in the home care workers who make it possible for seniors to stay in their homes may force some to forgo needed care or be forced into nursing homes,” claimed an SEIU Healthcare leader.
“We now ask the General Assembly to build on this proposed budget and advance our legislation to increase the wage rate for Direct Support Professionals by $4 an hour to help address the workforce crisis Gov. Pritzker discussed today,” an IARF official said.
The Illinois Education Association wants vision and dental insurance coverage for retirees, and several groups are pushing a $500+ million annual state child tax credit.
The governor’s people say their proposed increases are a hard ceiling. Any new funding proposals will have to come from within the proposed budget framework and forecasts. However, revenue forecasts have been known to change in the past. Often, even.
The two Democratic legislative leaders issued statements in general support of the governor’s outline. The House Democrats’ chief budget negotiator, Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, said she wanted to work toward a “budget that is both fiscally and socially responsible.”
The governor’s budget director, Alexis Sturm, pointed out some other good news.
“For the four years before the governor came into office, the average interest payment was about $400 million,” Sturm told reporters. “We’re running nearly $300 million, if not more, below that average now,” she said.
And Ralph Martire at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability said the revenue this fiscal year is high enough, “to create true balance at the end of FY 2023, with no accumulated deficit carrying forward into FY 2024.” He also claimed the deficit at the end of the coming fiscal year will be the lowest “in nominal, non-inflation-adjusted dollars that it has been in 25 years.”
Not bad.
* Meanwhile, in Opposite Land, here’s the Center Square’s take…
Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey says he’s seeing his worst nightmare come true in the form of Gov. J.B Pritzker’s proposed $49.6 billion state budget.
“When I was a candidate, I warned people this would happen and talked about us having to live within our means or face destroying the state,” Bailey, who lost to Pritzker as the GOP nominee for governor in November, told The Center Square after Pritzker laid out his spending plan last week.
“What the governor is pushing is a bridge to higher taxes for everyone in this state,” he added. “He’s using COVID and federal money to advance his own agenda. There will come a day when these bills are due and the only way to pay will be to raise taxes on everyone or drastically cut services.”
This from the same guy who physically torched a budget and shot another one. Unimpeachable expert there. /s
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* Frank Main at the Sun-Times…
Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza is accusing Mayor Lori Lightfoot of failing Mendoza’s brother and other Chicago cops by instructing her appointees to a police pension board to vote against approving a “duty disability” that would provide pay and health insurance to officers facing career-ending COVID-19 complications. […]
Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, a Chicago cop for 22 years, was hospitalized for 72 days and lost the use of his kidneys and his left arm after contracting the coronavirus on the job, according to his lawyers. They say he hasn’t been able to work since getting sick in November 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines were available.
He sought a duty disability that would have provided 75% of his regular salary and free health care — rather than an “ordinary disability” providing 50% of his salary and no health care and is phased out after five years.
On Feb. 24, 2022, the Chicago police pension board voted 4-3 to deny Mendoza a duty disability and awarded him an ordinary disability.
Since then, the board has denied a duty disability for another officer who got COVID. At least 18 other Chicago police officers have similar requests pending, according to Mendoza’s attorneys.
The bottom line is if a police officer dies from COVID, the law presumes they contacted the virus on the job. If they are “only” permanently injured by long COVID, the city says they don’t qualify for duty disability. As one of Mr. Mendoza’s attorneys told the Sun-Times, “Officers are almost being punished for not dying.”
* Media advisory…
Comptroller Mendoza launches legislative effort to protect Chicago police severely injured by COVID
What: Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza will announce a bill being filed by State Sen. Bill Cunningham and State Rep. Jay Hoffman to protect Chicago police severely injured by COVID. Comptroller Mendoza’s brother, Det. Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, is one of 20 or more officers who could be left without benefits by the city’s policy of refusing full duty disability benefits to the officers severely affected by COVID in the days before the vaccines were available.
When: 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21
Where: Chicago City Hall 121 N. LaSalle St., Chicago, 3rd Floor
Who: Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza will be joined by aldermen, retired police officers, firefighters, officers denied pensions for their COVID injuries; and others.
* Paul Vallas press release…
Mayoral frontrunner Paul Vallas is reacting to the explosive Sun-Times story today that details how Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to stand with members of the Chicago Police Department by refusing to grant a duty disability pension to officers who contracted COVID-19 on the job and have faced serious medical problems. Vallas is releasing the following statement:
“Just like doctors, nurses, EMTs and other first responders, Chicago police officers were on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic putting their lives at risk to do their jobs, and refusing to grant health benefits and a fair pension to officers who face serious health complications from the virus is absolutely heartless. Mayor Lightfoot has consistently failed to provide the support that police officers need in order to make our city safer, from not maintaining the proper amount of manpower to promoting incompetent leadership to imposing oppressive schedules, and now this latest insult. I’m running for Mayor as a lifelong Democrat who will put crime reduction and public safety first, and while I will not hesitate to hold officers accountable when necessary I will also restore the baseline level of trust and support from City Hall to CPD that is necessary to create a safer environment for all of us.”
Thoughts?
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here you go…
* Tribune | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visits Elmhurst as part of visit aimed at showing he’s pro-police: While taking jabs at major cities headed by Democrats, DeSantis promoted laws Florida has passed that support law enforcement, including signing bonuses for new officers and those who transfer from other states, as well as scholarships for family members. His appearance followed visits earlier in the day to New York City and suburban Philadelphia.
* Politico | DeSantis pokes at Pritzker in Illinois: Spotted in Elmhurst: Congressman Darin LaHood, who helped introduce DeSantis to the crowd, GOP National Committeeman Richard Porter, former GOP governor candidate Darren Bailey, state Senate Republican Leader John Curran, House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, state House Deputy Republican Leader Norine Hammond, state Sens. Andrew Chesney, Don DeWitte, Dave Syverson and Sue Rezin, state Reps. Dan Caulkins, Bradley Fritts, Jackie Haas, Jeff Keicher, Adam Niemerg, Travis Weaver, Dan Ugaste and Blaine Wilhour, former lieutenant governor candidate Aaron Del Mar, former Reps. Dave McSweeney and Jeanne Ives, former Sen. Dan Duffy, Appellate Judge Liam Brennan and State GOP deputy executive director Tommy Choi.
* Sun-Times | Federal judge denies bid to block Illinois assault weapons ban, Naperville gun restriction: The decision appears to be the first from a federal judge considering whether the ban meets the standards set out last summer in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling authored by Justice Clarence Thomas.
* Sun-Times | Susana Mendoza: Mayor Lori Lightfoot betrayed Chicago cops disabled by COVID, including Mendoza’s brother: State comptroller says Lightfoot instructed her pension board appointees to deny “duty disability” salary and health benefits to police officers, including Mendoza’s brother, after they got career-ending coronavirus complications.
* Daily Herald | Where suburban GOP megadonors Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein’s $36 million went last fall: Lake Forest billionaire Richard Uihlein was especially generous to the People Who Play By the Rules political action committee, which backed unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey. He gave the organization more than $13.9 million on Oct. 5 — the single-biggest donation he made that month.
* WCIA | Governor J.B. Pritzker proposes Illinois Grocery Initiative: The Illinois Grocery Initiative is a plan to invest $20 million in local to fight food deserts to expand food access by opening more grocery stores in underserved communities. The governor also wants at least $2 million to go to buying produce from local farmers.
* SJ-R | Portions of two townships could be annexed into Springfield: Springfield and Woodside townships are located within the corporate limits of Springfield with populations of 5,813 and 11,688 respectively as of 2020 U.S. Census Data. Their respective portions within the city limits in the 2010 Census were considerably smaller with only 481 Springfield Township residents living in Springfield and 13 residents of Woodside Township living in the city.
* Tribune | More than decade ago, CPD vowed to catch a cop’s killers. Now those cases, plagued by accusations of misconduct, are falling apart.: By 2020, the 10-year anniversary of Lewis’ death was looming. The officer’s daughter, 11 at the time, was a young adult. And the cases against the men charged in Lewis’ murder were unraveling, with serious questions raised about how police handled the investigation.
* Sun-Times | FBI’s secret political support for ex-Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg could be an issue in brother’s upcoming corruption trial: An undercover agent posing as a strip club manager lent $143,300 to a committee that backed Kellogg in his 2007 reelection for mayor — part of an investigation that never resulted in charges against the politician.
* Tribune | Chicago Teachers Union’s big spending on Brandon Johnson for mayor draws criticism over union influence and pushback among some members: So far, CTU has given the Cook County commissioner nearly $1 million in his bid to unseat Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The powerful teachers union is even borrowing dues money against future contributions to its political fund to make sure Johnson has the resources he needs for TV commercials and get-out-the-vote efforts.
* WGEM | Sen. Halpin talks higher education spending at annual McDonough County dinner: Halpin gave support of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recently proposed education budget that calls for a $219 million increase. “The 36th District includes not just Western Illinois University, but Knox College, Augustana College, Monmouth College and then three community college districts,” Halpin said. “It’s really a central focus of the district is higher education.” Halpin said the 7% all-around increase is a win.
* Daily Herald | What change in state law on non-competes means for Illinois businesses: Recently, however, the Illinois legislature enacted a new law affecting the enforceability of non-competes. In its most basic form, a non-compete is an agreement between an employer and an employee that prohibits an employee from working for a competitor for a period of time after the employee no longer works for that employer.
* Sun-Times | Mayor vows to remove unhoused people from O’Hare as more seek shelter at airport: Lightfoot said Thursday that it’s a security risk to allow homeless people to stay at O’Hare. But a law enforcement source said that starting this week, additional police has been dedicated to offering services to homeless people — and removing those who don’t accept the help.
* Daily Herald | What’s up with state-funded capital projects in the suburbs? Inflation, supply issues create delays: More than 500 state-funded capital improvement projects valued at nearly $3.3 billion are in various stages of construction as most deal with inflation and supply chain issues that have sometimes caused delays, increased costs or plan modifications.
* Lake County News-Sun | Thousands crowd into Waukegan’s new casino on opening weekend: The Temporary by American Place officially opened Friday in Waukegan welcoming nearly 10,000 visitors through 4 a.m. Sunday, including 400 invited guests at a pre-opening gala, to its gaming tables, slot machines and restaurant, starting the era of casino gaming in Lake County. … With many Spanish-speakers applying for jobs, Lee said American Place needed to a modification to assist the application process. The Illinois Gaming Board has comprehensive forms for prospective workers to complete. They are in English, and must be completed in English. “We translated the forms into Spanish so we could help people understand them,” Lee said. “Then they filled out the original (English) form in English.”
* Sun-Times | Hope is a tricky thing when it comes to racism: After digesting statistics, anecdotes, history and journalism about anti-Blackness, many are left despondent by the arc of injustice.
* Dodger Blue | Everything To Know About New MLB Rules For 2023 Season: The 2023 MLB season will introduce three new rule changes after they were approved by the joint competition committee this past October: a pitch timer, restrictions on defensive shifts and larger bases. The aforementioned rules are designed to improve the game’s pace of play and increase action on the field. They will immediately go into effect during Spring Training games to provide an adjustment period before Opening Day.
* Daily Herald | A new Robert Reich video suggests slow brakes on any tax money for the Bears: No less than Robert Reich — a Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration — recently lobbed in a brief to be considered with the release of a five-minute YouTube video “The Sports Stadium Scam.”
* Yes Magazine | Why Conservative Parts of the U.S. Are So Angry: Anger is roiling in Republican America, along with conspiratorial fabrications about who to blame for their condition. A harbinger of this trend is Antlers, Oklahoma, where I grew up: a once-thriving town in the southeastern part of the state, bordering the lush Ouachita foothills of dense forests, abundant agriculture, and lucrative tourism resources. The town rebuilt after a devastating 1945 tornado, but it has not weathered 21st century politics.
* ABC Chicago | More than 1K people sign petition opposing $800M Northwestern’s renovation project of Ryan Field: “In the ward meetings, who shows up? Northwestern, to tell us how great their project is,” Evanston resident Trisha Connolly said. “That’s not enough. That’s not leaders getting a holistic approach to what the concerns are and hearing from the community.”
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Live coverage
Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
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