Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Sunday, Apr 10, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

This story about my brother Devin’s new radio show has already vanished into the Southern Illinoisan’s paid archives, but it’s definitely worth a mention here.

The roots music movement could have lived and died in 2000 with the release of the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

The Homeric odyssey set in the 1930s Deep South introduced a nearly forgotten soundtrack of American life to pop culture.

Somehow Depression hymns and spirituals, chain-gang songs, spirited bluegrass knee-slappers and old-time folk resonated in a way that surpassed the fad.

“It’s music that was made not necessarily to make the person who wrote it rich. It was an expression of what was going on their life. There wasn’t this artifice that is associated with everything that goes on now,” explains local disc jockey, musician and publisher Devin Miller on the genre’s appeal.

While roots music is resounding on a national level, Southern Illinois sticks out as what Miller calls an “originator.” […]

Miller’s “Original Roots” radio program, which shifts from its home on local indie station WDBX to NPR affiliate WSIU this weekend, celebrates both area and national artists in the blues, bluegrass, rockabilly, zydeco and beyond, representing both old and new creators of roots sounds.

The 9-year-old show moves to bigger markets in an area that not only represents talented makers of such music but ardent appreciators of it as well. […]

“It’s a reaction to a very post-modern society where people feel disconnected,” Miller says. […]

Original Roots: hosted by Devin Miller, airing 7 to 9 p.m., Saturdays starting April 2, on WSIU radio stations FM 91.9, 90.3 and 88.9. Visit wsiu.org for more information.

2 Comments

Comment Posse

Sunday, Apr 10, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

A couple of people have volunteered to serve on the “comment posse,” but not enough to get it off the ground. I figure I need at least five people to make sure the blog is covered all the time.

I want to get away from the new e-mail comment system, which will most likely discourage postings, and go with the posse idea, so I need your help.

The idea is to deputize a handful of people who would then be empowered to immediately delete offensive or unsavory comments from this blog. I’d rather go with people I know, but don’t be afraid to volunteer.

If you’re interested in serving, send me an e-mail. As an added incentive, all approved “members” will be awarded this nifty coffee mug:

UPDATE: I’m just about there. Need maybe one or two more. Any volunteers?

1 Comment

Dave and Janet Stover on HGTV

Sunday, Apr 10, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Ever since I started looking for a house, I’ve been watching Home & Gardens TV for tips on home ownership.

I just caught the end of a program on underground homes that featured Dave and Janet Stover, two friends of mine who co-founded the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities and built an underground home outside of Springfield.

I hope I catch a rebroadcast of the complete program, but here is an Internet link to the show.

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Blogger problem work-around

Sunday, Apr 10, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Frustrated by yet another Blogger meltdown last week, I decided to try using a different browser.

I discovered that I was able to post with my Apple-based Safari browser without any problems, even though my Firefox browser was having all sorts of trouble. I tried it again today, and, lo and behold, I achieved the same results.

Has anyone else had the same experience?

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Poll problem

Sunday, Apr 10, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I can’t see how they can claim broad support for a concept if they word their question like this:

Backers of a plan to raise the state income tax, expand the sales tax and lower property taxes for schools presented a poll last week showing pretty strong support for the idea. The poll showed 69 percent of respondents either strongly or mildly favored the concept.

Here’s how the poll worded the tax hike part of the question: “The increased state funding for schools and other services would be funded by expanding the sales tax to include consumer services and a 2 percent increase in income taxes for the highest 40 percent of income earners.” That’s one way of phrasing it.

The state income tax rate for individuals is 3 percent. Under the tax swap plan, the rate would go to 5 percent. The tax rate goes up by 2 points, but the actual hit to your income taxes is 67 percent. Also, the top 40 percent of income earners means anyone making over about $50,000 a year.

So the other way of phrasing the question is: “The increased state funding for schools and other services would be funded by … a 67 percent increase in income taxes for people earning over $50,000.” Wonder what the response would be to that question?

A “two percentage point increase” would have been acceptable wording, although still a bit misleading. When they said “2 percent increase,” it completely undermined their results.

3 Comments

Weekend way-back blogging

Saturday, Apr 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

My grandfather, George Akers, was a cowboy out West for several years. He also worked the threshing machine circuit throughout the Great Plains. This photo is circa 1928 and was taken at his brother Ernest’s ranch in Colorado.

Click on the pic to get a better view.

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Poll update

Saturday, Apr 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I know I promised to post SEIU’s education funding poll a few days ago, but I forgot about it. Oops. I haven’t written about the poll for Capitol Fax, so I hadn’t even bothered to look at it until just now, when I realized that I don’t have the entire thing. When I do, I’ll post it.

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New Comment Function

Saturday, Apr 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m going to try prescreened, e-mail comments for a while.

I’ll preserve your anonymity unless I deem your comment to be a threat of some sort, and I’ll post all comments as soon as I can, unless they don’t meet my standards.

1 Comment

Finally, a win

Saturday, Apr 9, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Governor Blagojevich hasn’t done all that well with the courts, especially since he tried to freeze judicial pay. This is, if I’m not mistaken, his first real win since he took office.

Former Gov. George Ryan had no right to hand out long-term high-paying state jobs to his friends as he left office, and Gov. Blagojevich had every right to fire Ryan’s midnight appointments, a state appellate court ruled Friday.

The ruling reversed the state’s Civil Service Commission and the Cook County Circuit Court, which had reinstated the employees after Blagojevich fired them.

“That’s good news,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff. “The court’s decision ensures that these important civil service positions are filled by the most qualified people, not the most well-connected.”

Attorneys for the 16 Ryan appointees remaining on the state payroll — including Ryan’s former spokesman David Urbanek, now being paid $99,000 a year by the Capital Development Board — hope to file an appeal Monday morning before the Blagojevich administration can evict them from their offices.

2 Comments

Black hospitalized

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Rep. Bill Black was hospitalized yesterday with a blood clot.

Get well soon, Bill!

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Good idea

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I received this e-mail today:

I too enjoyed the comments and was amazed by how rude some of them were (I didn’t appreciate those).

Why don’t you appoint an editorial board of sorts to screen comments? Ask for volunteers and impose a set of criteria and let that group (of your readers) make those decisions.

Just a thought.

I like this idea a lot. Any volunteers?

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Wow

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I give the governor a lot of grief, but this is a marketing coup.

Ernie Banks played shortstop and first base for the Chicago Cubs, but he’ll soon be pitching for Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The original “Mister Cub” has agreed to serve as spokesman for the governor’s discount prescription drug program. He will appear in a series of radio, television and print ads urging senior citizens and people with disabilities to join the Illinois R-X Buying Club.

Banks says he is promoting the program because it could help his friends and family members save money on medication.

I just hope the governor’s office finally follows the law this time around and doesn’t include his own name or image in the advertising. Nobody, even a Sox fan like myself, wants to see Mr. Cub involved in a scandal.

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Kathuria is back

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

It looks like Chirinjeev Kathuria, who ran a miserably awful campaign for US Senate last year and sealed his fate when he sued the Tribune for libel, is running for lieutenant governor.

Insert snarky thought here.

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Guv signs judicial bill

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

March 25, 2005:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Thursday that he was unaware of a measure designed to diversify the bench in Winnebago and other GOP-leaning counties, even though it’s been on his desk for more than six weeks.

“Haven’t seen it,” the Chicago Democrat said when asked during a conversation about an unrelated matter why he hadn’t acted.

“Let me track it down. It just hasn’t come to me yet. What does it do?”

The measure would divide Winnebago, Boone and six other counties into subcircuits for the election of some judges. Democrats backed the measure, which apparently is designed to land more Democrats on the bench in counties dominated by Republicans.

I’m told that the governor and his staff were briefed by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s operation long before he told this to the Register-Star. His self-professed ignorance caused a lot of eyebrows to rise in the Statehouse.

April 8, 2005:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved a measure Thursday designed to diversify the bench in Winnebago and other GOP-leaning counties. […]

If Blagojevich had not signed or vetoed the measure by Sunday, it would have automatically become law.

Apparently, he figured it out.

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Clueless in Normal

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

Looks like this one is gone.

A campus environmental group is kicking off a petition drive Friday aimed at forcing a Joliet businessman off the Illinois State University board of trustees.

The Student Environmental Action Coalition will begin collecting signatures at 3:30 p.m. in the Spotlight Room at Bone Student Center. The group wants Gov. Rod Blagojevich not to reappoint trustee Jay Bergman because of his oil company’s environmental problems.

Bergman, a 1970 ISU graduate and a trustee since 2003, dismissed the group’s efforts.

“From what I understand, they are so far to the left they make Jane Fonda look like Ronald Reagan,” Bergman said Wednesday. “Their concern is to promote a radical, leftist agenda. I just happen to be their target this semester.”

The group’s push comes in the wake of a Pantagraph report in January detailing how Bergman’s company, Petco Petroleum Corp., is fighting an environmental lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.

Blagojevich’s office put Bergman’s reappointment on hold pending the outcome of that case, which stems from oil drilling-related spills of salt water last year in Fayette County.

Read the whole thing. This guy is truly clueless about public relations.

UPDATE: The college president rebukes his boss:

Illinois State University President Al Bowman issued a rare public rebuke of one of his bosses Friday.

Responding to a report in The Pantagraph, Bowman said ISU Trustee Jay Bergman’s criticism of a campus environmental group goes against his belief in “student civic engagement.”

“Although I have not spoken today with Trustee Bergman, I disagree with some remarks attributed to him in today’s edition of The Pantagraph,” Bowman said in a statement released Friday afternoon.

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Job offer for Doug Scott

Friday, Apr 8, 2005 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m glad to hear about this.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday said he offered a job to Doug Scott, his friend and Rockford’s lame-duck mayor.

Blagojevich said he spoke Wednesday with his fellow Democrat and they discussed options for Scott within the governor’s administration.

“He’s got an open mind. Yeah, he’s interested,” Blagojevich said when asked if Scott wanted to work for him. Then, he added: “Whoa, wait a minute. Hold on. You know what? Hold on. You should ask him.

“We had a real nice conversation. He’s a friend, and I told him he’d be a tremendous asset to our administration. I asked him to be willing to think about whether or not that’s something he might be interested in doing and think about some of the areas that he thinks he might be able to make a contribution in. And he promised that he would think about it.”

I hope he gets a real job with real responsibilities. I know he kinda screwed up that mayor’s gig (or, at least, the campaign), but I still think he’d be a great asset for the state. Personally, I’d like to see him as a top advisor, rather than just an agency head.

I’d ask you what you think, but I killed off comments. I miss them already. Bummer.

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