* Illinois political reporters often complain that Gov. Pat Quinn rambles on and on without answering our questions. Well, it’s not just us. Gov. Quinn was at Rich South High School in Richton Park over the weekend and was asked rather banal questions like what his first job was after college and what got him into politics.
He droned on and on and on. He never did answer the question about what got him into politics, but after at least a five-minute soliloquy about nothing, he finally answered the question about his first job - which was with a campaign, but he didn’t say which campaign.
It’s truly painful to watch. I felt sorry for those kids. View if you dare…
* Since you probably didn’t get through all that, I clipped the final question about what he thought his legacy would be. Ramble, ramble, ramble…
Anheuser-Busch reportedly has hired over a dozen Statehouse lobbyists this spring to protect its interests in a long-running battle to control how it distributes its brews in Illinois.
The St. Louis company, in the past, has owned a beer distributorship in Illinois. It sought to buy another one in Chicago, but was blocked by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. So, the company sued in federal court.
In the process, Anheuser-Busch discovered that two relatively small Illinois “craft brewers” were allowed to distribute their own beer in Illinois, but out-of-state craft brewers weren’t given the same privilege. The brewer’s lawsuit tried to use that contradiction to its advantage.
A federal judge decided last September that the contradiction in Illinois practice didn’t allow him to open up the distributor market to Anheuser-Busch. But he did decide that he could stop the small in-state craft brewers from distributing their own product as long as out-of-staters were barred. The judge, however, agreed to stay his decision until the General Assembly could weigh in this spring.
That ruling has set off a furious Statehouse battle. Illinois, like other states, has a three-tiered delivery system for beer — brewers, distributors and retailers — which was set up after Prohibition ended almost 80 years ago.
The Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois is a major player in state politics. Its political action committee has raised almost $1.7 million since January 2008. The distributors usually get what they want in the General Assembly. But, after slowing down a bill to allow in-state and out-of-state craft distributors to self-distribute, they’ve recently had to jump on board or risk allowing Anheuser-Busch to stop the whole process in its tracks.
The craft brewers came into the legislative session asking to distribute a huge amount of beer on their own — 60,000 barrels a year, or almost 2 million gallons. That was viewed in the Senate as a gross overreach, and an amendment was introduced last week to allow them to self-distribute just 7,500 barrels a year. The distributors say, in practice, any brewery that produces more than 2,000 barrels usually ends up turning to the distributors because distribution becomes just too complicated and cumbersome to do it on its own.
Anheuser-Busch is saying it would like to pass a bill to allow it to self-distribute, or at least to buy that Chicago distributorship. But it’s an out-of-state company with little pull in Illinois and no real history of a Statehouse presence. It needed a lot of help, which is one reason it has hired so many bigtime lobbyists, including former state Sen. James DeLeo, who said last week that he is acting as a “consultant” and wouldn’t actually be coming down to Springfield. DeLeo was one of the most influential members of the Senate for years, and he’s still highly respected by members.
Anheuser-Busch also has lobbyists on its team who are close to House Speaker Michael Madigan, including one of the top insiders at the Statehouse, Madigan’s former House Majority Leader Mike McClain.
As with any big move like this, one should always look at what the players really want. And Anheuser-Busch’s real-life strategy appears to be to stop that bill from moving any further in the General Assembly and then take its chances on an appeal of the federal judge’s decision.
If a bill passed that excluded Anheuser-Busch, the company would have a tougher time explaining to an appellate court that state laws are vague enough to grant its requests. A successful appeal could open up the distributor game to the company, which would result in a huge increase in profits by cutting out the middlemen. We’re talking high-stakes and big money here.
Rival brewer Miller-Coors also jumped into the beer wars late last week, reportedly hiring several lobbyists of its own to work against Anheuser-Busch.
Miller-Coors makes a ton of money in the Chicago area (Miller Lite is the far and away top seller), so it doesn’t want Anheuser-Busch to gain any sort of foothold in the region.
It’s always easier to kill a bill than to pass one, particularly when it comes to legislation as controversial as this. The craft brewers still aren’t totally happy with the legislation, and the bill has to navigate some very complicated political waters.
Who will be crowned Springfield’s King of Beers? We’ll know in a few weeks.
Rob Blagojevich could be facing retrial right now.
Instead, he’s a free man, back in his home in Nashville, Tenn., something he attributes to a critical decision made by his lawyer — and the fact that he testified in his own defense in last summer’s trial.
Now, the older Blagojevich has some advice for his kid brother on the eve of his retrial: Take the witness stand.
“I can tell you that Rod can be his best defense.
“There are a ton of tapes that are favorable to Rod that can make a definite reasonable doubt argument. He’s all over the place in the tapes,” Rob Blagojevich, 55, said in an interview last week. “The only way that can get in is if Rod took the stand to defend himself. If he did that, I think he’d knock it out of the park.”
* The Question: Should Rod Blagojevich take the witness stand on his own behalf? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thank you.
* The Sun-Times has been writing about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s attempts to get people selected to associate Cook County judgeships for years. The pool of hopefuls is vetted and winnowed down by a nominating committee, and then selected by secret ballot by full circuit court judges whenever there are enough vacancies to warrant an election. They’ve had five such selection processes since 2003. The Tribune is now playing a belated game of catch-up on its front page…
The letters from Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan are short and to the point.
“Dear Judge,” begins one, written on Madigan’s General Assembly stationery. “I believe that these people would be excellent members of the judiciary.” […]
Since 2003, Madigan has recommended 37 lawyers to become associate judges, and 25 were selected outright, according to documents obtained by the Tribune and interviews. Several more made it to the bench through appointments.
So, a third didn’t make the cut, for whatever reasons. That’s not insignificant when you figure that Madigan plays a big role in helping those circuit court judges get themselves elected in the first place. Still, two outta three ain’t bad. He’s got some pull, for sure. Or he’s at least pushing lots of people who are already favored. But his average isn’t what it used to be.
* The number of people Madigan was able to get onto the bench dropped off a lot in 2007. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that 8 of 15 didn’t make the cut…
But this year, of the 15 names State Democratic Party Chair Mike Madigan sent on a letter to judges’ homes, only seven were chosen. And all 15 had mostly good ratings.
Less than half. That’s not a very good record, which is something not mentioned by the Trib. His letters did help five out of his eight favorites tin 2008. A bit more than half. But only one out of the three he recommended were named to ten open seats in 2009.
Clearly, Madigan’s not as successful as he once was. He’s just 13 for 26 since 2007. And he appears to be slowing down as well, recommending just three people for ten open slots in ‘09.
Also, the Trib never said if any of those judges had ever ruled on Madigan’s cases.
Associate Judge John Thomas Carr was selected after he was named in Madigan’s 2007 letter. He said judges and other lawyers told him being on Madigan’s list would be a good thing, so he wrote a letter to the House speaker stressing his qualifications. He said he heard nothing back.
Madigan has a lot of control over judicial salaries and pensions, so it’s always best to be on his good side, of course.
Take Laura Bertucci Smith, a former Cook County prosecutor whose husband is a regular contributor to Democrats. He gave $1,000 to Lisa Madigan in 2002 and $500 in 2003. Bertucci Smith donated $300 to Ald. Burke in 2004. She wasn’t picked when she was on the speaker’s 2005 list.
* So, to sum up, Madigan’s batting average has fallen over the years, sitting judges think his opinion is important (for several reasons), campaign contributions don’t appear to be a factor and the Tribune established no connections between judicial rulings and Madigan’s recommendations. Other than that, it’s front-page news.
* Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel says he wants to add an hour and a half to Chicago’s school day as soon as possible…
“We’re not going to negotiate or discuss whether children get more instruction — we will work together so that gets done. I’m not deviating from that. I was clear about it,” Emanuel said after speaking at a South Side charter school. […]
“Three or four years ago, [the CTU] rejected a pay raise — 6 percent for 45 minutes of additional instruction time,” Emanuel said.
There are several disagreements about Emanuel’s facts. For instance, teachers say they weren’t offered a pay raise for that extra teaching time. The school district says a 2 percent raise was offered for one year, not a 6 percent raise. More…
A fact-sheet issued by the union noted that the school day was extended 15 minutes following contract talks in 2004. The 4 percent pay raises go back seven years, not nine [as Emanuel repeatedly claims].
And while Emanuel said Chicago students get far less instruction than those in Houston, Los Angeles or Boston, Brown said Houston is an “outlier” requiring far more hours of instruction — 1,304 a year — than any major city. Chicago, which requires 946 instructional hours a year, is between Los Angeles, which requires 954 hours, and New York City, which requires 930, Brown said.
* The Sun-Times was concerned enough about the discrepancies to publish an editorial…
The battle to lengthen Chicago’s shamefully short public school day has begun.
In this fight, we stand firmly behind Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. He said Friday he wants schools to be open each day another hour or an hour and a half.
But if Emanuel hopes to persuade teachers to go along, he would be wise to get his facts exactly right.
* Emanuel repeated some of those apparently erroneous statements on Fox Chicago Sunday. Watch…
Rahm Emanuel raised $14.5 million in his successful bid to become Chicago’s next mayor, spending roughly $800,000 to fight an attempt to knock him off the ballot by challenging his residency.
Emanuel raised $2.58 million during the first three months of the year, spent $9 million and had $1.86 million on hand to start April, according to a report his campaign filed Friday with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Emanuel raised nearly $11.8 million in campaign donations during the last six months of 2010. […]
Emanuel, who flooded the airwaves for much of the campaign, spent more than $5.5 million on television advertisements. He spent another $473,000 online and $300,000 on radio advertisements.
All told, the mayor-elect spent more than $12.5 million on the campaign to get 326,331 votes. That comes out to about $38.33 spent per vote.
Gery Chico spent $3.7 million between January 1 and election day. Carol Moseley Braun has still not filed her report as of this writing, and her campaign treasurer announced her resignation on Friday. Miguel del Valle reported spending just $138K between January 1 and election day. Sheesh.
* Related…
* Warren: In Springfield, a Week of Change in Education
* Emanuel and Daley oppose CPS tax hike: As Chicago Public Schools officials continue to refine a budget proposal expected this month, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and outgoing Mayor Richard Daley said they don’t support raising property taxes to reduce an estimated $720 million budget gap for next school year.
* Old allies Rahm Emanuel and Rod Blagojevich in spotlight again - Blagojevich retrial gets under way as Emanuel prepares to be Chicago’s next mayor
* For decades, reformers have been calling for the abolishment of secret, end-of-session budget negotiations between the legislative leaders and the governor. But now, when a process is finally in place to perhaps accomplish that long-sought goal, the Senate Republicans are balking…
Rather than negotiate a budget behind closed doors, Cullerton said the entire Senate will spend the first week of May hammering out a way to distribute the funds to various agencies and programs.
“We’re going to handle things a little differently than we have in the past,” Cullerton said. “We’re going to have a much more open, transparent process.”
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, balked at the new budgeting process, saying it could result in a piecemeal spending plan.
“We need to have a sit-down. And it would be very nice if the governor sat down in the process,” Radogno said.
* Backroom deals mean we don’t know where the caucus leaders truly stand. They can say one thing behind closed doors and another in public. It’s much easier to play games when the talks are secret.
But I do understand why the Republicans would be pushing for bipartisan negotiations. They may have a better shot at getting some of their proposals put into the final budget if they can hold up a backroom deal on something else which requires a three-fifths vote, like some borrowing, for instance.
And I can also understand why they don’t want up or down votes on their cuts and on Democratic cuts. If they vote for their much larger cuts (like a proposed $750 million cut to education or a big cut to local governments) they’ll be hammered in campaign mailers. The same basic principle applies if they vote against the Democratic cuts…
Republican lawmakers have often accused Democrats of spending too freely. They have called for deep cuts to education, health care and more.
Cullerton challenged GOP senators to put those proposals into legislative form so they can be debated, implying Republicans may be afraid to go on the record voting for some of their ideas.
“It would be amazing for them not to actually introduce their proposals,” Cullerton said, while disclosing nothing about where he thinks spending should be cut.
Radogno accused Democrats of wanting to arrange “a series of partisan roll calls and then turn around and use them in campaign brochures.”
While I can see where the Republicans are coming from, I’m not sure that the general public would agree with continuing these secret budget deals. The SGOPs are lucky that their stance has been mostly overlooked by the media or buried way down in the stories.
* Meanwhile, for whatever reason, the Tribune decided to focus its story on the RTA’s opposition to a tax bill, but didn’t mention that Cook County, Chicago and lots of others are also opposed…
The Regional Transportation Authority will kick off a campaign this week aimed at defeating legislation in the General Assembly that opponents say could potentially cost Chicago-area transit agencies hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue.
The measure would allow companies to get around paying some sales taxes in Chicago and the six-county region by effectively migrating the tax to counties where the sales tax rate is lower or no local sales tax is imposed. A Chicago-based company could do this by setting up an office elsewhere and designating it as the point of sale, for example.
The proposed change would not affect direct consumer “cash-to-hand'’ sales, such as buying gasoline at a local station, officials said. But it could apply to a furniture showroom or a catering service where an order is placed.
If the bill passes, the RTA system, which includes the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace, could lose up to $605 million in sales tax revenue annually, a study commissioned by the RTA estimated. Sales tax collections on behalf of the RTA totaled $1.2 billion last year.
Here’s how this works: A large, Chicago-area gasoline retailer contracts for its weekly gas/diesel purchase. It faxes the contract to a one-person “sales office” located in a Downstate county with no local sales taxes. The contract is stamped as “received” and then faxed back up to the Chicago-area office. All local sales taxes - gasoline, transit, retail sales - are then completely avoided. The little Downstate county/town gets a cut of the action. Proponents are hoping to codify a recent Downstate judge’s ruling in favor of that practice. Opponents are not pleased.
* House votes to limit late-career pension boosts - Bill aims to stop salary spikes from pushing up pensions
* Some suburban Republicans vote against state budget plan
* Illinois senators: Cuts are a must to balance budget
* Still no agreement on how to pay off state’s back debts
* As higher tax revenues roll in, backlog still unresolved
* Troubled College Illinois program prompts legislative investigation
* CS-T Editorial: Don’t send university tuition money to Springfield
* Senate gives SW suburbs OK to take over water company: Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) — who represents parts of Lemont, Homer Glen and Woodridge — acknowledged that her stance against the bill could constitute “political suicide” but described Wilhelmi’s bill as an overreach. “I’m not at all sure this will bring water costs down at the end of the day,” Radogno said. “The cost of water is an easily politicized issue, and we don’t do anyone any favors by jumping on that bandwagon and making it any more political.” “This is not the place to try to resolve something like this, and the precedent it sets up — the casual use of eminent domain because we want to use it as a hammer — is just wrong,” she said.
* Local online retailers say ‘Amazon tax’ shouldn’t have much impact
* City refills parking meter reserve fund: Thanks to more money coming in than anticipated, the city will put $50 million back into an account created when Mayor Richard Daley leased Chicago’s parking meters. Even with that bit of good financial news, the city expects to have only about $125 million left in that reserve fund at the end of this year, less than three years after it signed the 75-year lease that came with a one-time payment of $1.15 billion.
* Preckwinkle talks tough on Oak Forest Hospital proposal
* We may have a light week next week here at the ol’ blog because of the legislative break. We’ll see how it goes and what I feel like doing. In the meantime, Lucinda Williams will play us out. Turn it up…
But you got yourself into this mess and there’s nothing I can do
* Senate President John Cullerton called on the Senate Republicans to put their budget proposals into bill form soon, saying his side of the aisle was preparing to do just that in early May. Cullerton said the Senate appropriations committees will be considering amendments and invited the Republicans to offer their own proposals, digging at them a bit for holding press conferences about their budget cuts without introducing any actual legislation. Ironically enough, he said all this during a planned media availability.
“We’re going to go to the Reference Bureau, not the Blue room… and we’re going to vote on bills,” Cullerton said, adding, “I think they proposed cuts in education of something like $750 million. So, go to the Reference Bureau and get their amendment to cut the education budget by $750 million and let’s debate it.” Watch…
* Cullerton also said he was “surprised and disappointed” that Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno wants to sit down over the next two weeks “to meet on an agreed-upon budget.” He said he’d meet with her, but he called it an “odd request,” considering that the committees will be considering legislation to deal with the budget.
“We will offer our amendments, we’ll urge them to vote for it. If they don’t think that we’re cutting enough, they can introduce their own amendments and then we can take votes on cutting some more.” Watch….
Radogno said she was wary about offering up her amendments because she figures the amendments would die in committee and there would be no floor votes on her members’ ideas.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* Meanwhile, you probably already know that a Republican-backed worker’s compensation reform bill went down in defeat yesterday…
The Illinois Senate killed a bill late Thursday evening that would have dramatically overhauled the state’s workers’ compensation system – a system that all parties agree is rife with fraud and abuse. […]
[GOP Sen. Kyle McCarter’s] legislation, Senate Bill 1349, would have reduced the medical fee schedule for workers’ compensation procedures by 30 percent, given employers the right to choose an employee’s doctors and course of treatment for the first 60 days, adopted American Medical Association guidelines for determining impairment and required that the workplace be the primary cause of the injury – a principle known as causation.
Causation was the sticking point for Senate Republicans and the business community.
“If causation is not part of it (reform), it’s likely it will not be strong enough to make a difference,” Sen. David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, said. […]
“I don’t want to pass a bill that will lead to more litigation, not less litigation – that’s not going to save anybody any money,” said Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.
Most Democrats voted “Present.” The media take-aways is they did so to avoid being accused of voting against reform. Likely true, but it’s also a way to show that they’re not completely opposed to working with the Republicans. Sort of a legislative courtesy, I suppose you could say.
Among the stumbling blocks was disagreement over whether injured employees should be required to prove their injuries occurred at the workplace.
While GOP lawmakers argued it would crack down on fraud, Democrats said the clause would allow business owners to challenge claims and limit workers from collecting payments. […]
But Democrats and labor groups complained employees would lose the right to choose their own doctor. They said it also would prohibit many workers from receiving benefits.
Laborer’s International Union officials said the proposal would result in injured workers receiving less medical care and less money to live on while they recover.
Unions, trial lawyers and the docs were against it, so it went down. Not much of a surprise.
Chicago-area officials say the bill could cost them hundreds of millions, and maybe billions, of dollars a year. But the measure involved, S.B. 2194, nonetheless passed its first test at midday Friday, clearing the Illinois Senate with three votes to spare and heading to an uncertain fate in the House.
Technically, all the bill, sponsored by Sens. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, and Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, would do is force the Illinois Department of Revenue to collect sales taxes based on one and only one factor: the location at which the item is purchased.
But local officials including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin and, reportedly, Mayor Richard M. Daley are telling lawmakers that the bill would do far more, threatening their ability to provide services.
For instance, according to an analysis circulated by the Regional Transportation Authority, the bill would allow most any firm to set up a satellite office in a low- or no-tax county, and route all its orders there via computer, even if the item is delivered and used in a higher-tax area, like Chicago or Cook County.
* Related…
* Naperville leaders pleased with workers’ comp reform efforts
* Gov. Pat Quinn spoke at a recent function for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. During his remarks, Quinn talked about his election, saying of his former opponent Bill Brady: “If I wasn’t here we’d have Scott Walker on steroids as our governor.” Watch…
* The Question: Should Gov. Quinn start toning down the rhetoric against Gov. Walker and others, or should he continue full speed ahead? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
A young, once rising figure in the Illinois Republican party has quit the committee that runs the state party after the Sun-Times revealed the man’s ties to an Outlaw motorcycle gang member and a convicted wholesale drug dealer.
Craig Pesek, 34, is a key supporter and adviser to Cicero Town President Larry Dominick and a consultant to the town. A high school graduate who has managed a hot dog stand and a nightclub, Pesek was hired to oversee economic development in town and major building projects there.
Pesek and his older brother Jeff, 38, were caught on FBI surveillance in 2007 talking with Mark Polchan, an Outlaw motorcycle gang member, about Polchan’s fear he would be arrested for a mob-ordered bombing and whether the Peseks would post bond for him.
Last year, at Polchan’s federal criminal trial, a convicted drug dealer, Enrique “Henry” Rendon, testified that he was a silent investor in the Chicago nightclub, Ontourage. Craig Pesek is listed as the sole owner of the nightclub. Jeff Pesek testified under a grant of immunity from prosecution at Polchan’s trial that there were other people who helped Craig Pesek out with the club at the start, but that Craig Pesek never declared them as investors with the City of Chicago. […]
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady said Craig Pesek had done “nothing wrong” but that Pesek offered his resignation Thursday from his seat on the state central committee representing the 4th Congressional District to avoid creating distractions for the party.
Perhaps Brady shouldn’t have been so quick to say that Pesek had done “nothing wrong.” That could come back to bite him.
The resignation of Craig Pesek as GOP State Central Committeeman (3rd Dist.) is yet another example of the decay in the Cook County GOP which could not win even one aldermanic seat, the governor’s race, or any state rep/senate seats in Cook County that matter.
Embarrassing allegations about Craig Pesek lend yet even more credence to the argument for direct election of GOP State Central Committee members. Conservatives and Tea Party members need to use this embarrassment as a clarion call for even greater hands-on action at the grass root level to elect candidates we can be proud of.
“The irony of Mr. Peraica’s comment is that he took tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from Craig Pesek, hosted campaign events at Mr. Pesek’s night club, introduced Mr. Pesek to Republican Party leaders, and then fought tooth and nail to ensure that Mr. Pesek won a seat on the State Central Committee. If Republicans are embarrassed over these recent allegations, they should call Tony Peraica and thank him.”
Oof.
* But Peraica isn’t the only one complaining about the Republican Party these days. So is former Chicago Ald. Brian Doherty…
“They didn’t offer any assistance to us at all, I think shows very poorly on the Republican leadership in the state level, county level,” Doherty said Wednesday.
Doherty said party officials did not return phone calls during the campaign, but the heads of the state and county parties said Wednesday they never got those calls.
“We think it’s important that we do field candidates in these city council races, and we need more Republican representation on the city council,” said Pat Brady, chair of the Illinois GOP. “And that’s what we’re working towards.”
As for resources, Brady said there is only so much money to go around. […]
The head of the Cook County Republican Party, Lee Roupas, noted that his group did get involved in a different aldermanic race. Roupas said it donated $500 and recruited volunteers for 45th Ward candidate John Garrido. Garrido ended up losing by fewer than 30 votes.
* As for Peraica’s call for the passage of legislation to provide for the direct election of state central committee members, the bill passed the Senate the other day on a unanimous roll call. It’s passed the Senate before, but was held up in the House, where House Republican Leader Tom Cross is opposed. Democratic Rep. Lou Lang has picked up sponsorship.
* The accidental nature of former Sun-Times Chairman James Tyree’s death was not exactly played up in the media coverage. But the medical mistake was apparently serious enough to result in a threat from the federal government…
A threat by federal officials to end the University of Chicago Medical Center’s participation in Medicare after the death of Sun-Times Media Holdings Chairman James Tyree was dropped Thursday after a follow-up investigation found that problems identified at the hospital had been resolved.
In a public notice issued this week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) warned the hospital it would no longer make Medicare payments for inpatient services after April 28 because an investigation found “deficiencies . . . so serious they constitute an immediate threat to patient health and safety.”
The notice did not specify what prompted the investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Joint Commission, but sources said it was Tyree’s March 16 death at the hospital of an air embolism during removal of a dialysis catheter.
The investigation “pointed to the issue of training of individuals performing these [catheter] procedures,” CMS spokeswoman Elizabeth Surgener said. “When we looked into that, we found a lack of documentation of training in accordance with hospital policy.”
* Tyree died after an air bubble got into his bloodstream when a dialysis catheter was removed. This sort of mistake is classified as a “never event” by Medicare. But the hospital has apparently addressed the problem…
The U. of C. said it received a notice today that the medical center’s “participation in the Medicare program remains intact” after submitting a “thorough plan of correction to demonstrate continued and sustained compliance with the Medicare conditions of participation.”
Most health facilities that face the loss of Medicare funding eventually address government inquiries before funding is stripped.
Nevertheless, the government’s move shows the increasing seriousness those who pay for health care place on the quality of medical care. The error at the U. of C. that contributed to Tyree’s death falls into a category known as a “never event,” which means it is a preventable situation. […]
“Documentation, which was at the center of the investigation, has been improved and centralized,” the medical center said in today’s statement. “The investigations confirmed that all related personnel have appropriate training, experience, competency and credentialing.”
First, the Canadian man made sure the death penalty had been abolished in Illinois. Then he bugged his victim’s vehicle before tracking her down and shooting her to death. Then he turned himself in. […]
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said Smirnov shot the Westmont woman several times in the head and body as she left her office at 122 W. 22nd St. At one point during the shooting, Berlin said, Smirnov reloaded his .40-caliber handgun and kept firing.
“Clearly, it was premeditated,” Berlin said, calling the fatal shooting a “gut-wrenching, senseless crime.” […]
Berlin said that before the defendant’s return to Illinois, he had researched the death penalty and learned it was recently abolished here. He said Smirnov came back to the area with a “preconceived plan to take life.”
Vesel, 36, and Smirnov, who had once served in the Canadian military, had met through an online dating service in 2008, Berlin said, and Smirnov moved to the Chicago area to begin seeing her. But, after what Berlin called a “brief relationship,” Vesel resumed dating a previous boyfriend, the prosecutor said.
Smirnov returned to Canada but began harassing Vesel, who was living in Berwyn, by phone and the Internet, Berlin said. In 2009, Vesel filed a complaint with the Berwyn Police Department stating that Smirnov had threatened to harm her. She did not file for orders of protection in Cook or DuPage counties, Berlin said.
* I called State’s Attorney Robert Berlin this morning with a question. Did Smirnov decide to murder that poor woman before or after he’d researched whether Illinois had a death penalty?
Berlin said he didn’t yet know whether that was the case, but said an analysis of the alleged gunman’s computer will likely provide some answers. “I’m sure it will give us a lot more information.”
“Make sure Pat Quinn gets a copy of this story,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said Thursday, reacting to Smirnov’s death penalty research. Berlin, a strong advocate of capital punishment, is an outspoken critic of the governor’s recent decision to abolish the death penalty in Illinois.
State’s Attorney Berlin said today that the comment came after the press conference had ended, and that while he didn’t regret saying it, he should’ve said “Governor Quinn.”
“The point I wanted to make,” Berlin said, “is that I want the governor and the General Assembly to be aware of the facts of the case.” Berlin says the state has debated back and forth for years about whether the death penalty is or is not a deterrent to crime. “I think this case proves that it is a deterrent,” he said.
“I do think there’s a good chance that if we still had the death penalty that this victim might still be alive. [Smirnov] might not have gone through with his plan,” Berlin said. Asked, however, if Smirnov had made any direct statements to that effect, Berlin said Smirnov hadn’t specifically said it.
* Obviously, this is a horrible turn of events. We might want to let this play out a little while before we jump to too many conclusions here. And this Smirnov guy is obviously quite disturbed. I can, however, certainly understand Berlin’s frustration and anger with the new law abolishing the death penalty. This is just an awful thing to happen.
So, everybody needs to take a very deep breath before commenting, please. Just because the media is screaming doesn’t mean we have to as well. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** DuPage state Sen. Kirk Dillard is the first out of the legislative gate to use the case to argue that his colleagues need to at least partially reinstate the death penalty…
Dillard said the state needs to reinstate the death penalty for the “worst of the worst,” which he said were serial killers, murderers of children and people who murder witnesses to crimes.
Dillard specifically mentioned the case of Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville as a reason for the death penalty to be revived. In July 2009, Brian Dugan pleaded guilty to fatally bludgeoning Jeanine on Feb. 25, 1983, after kidnapping her from her home on a day she stayed home sick from school. A jury later sentenced him to death.
This came years after two other men were convicted of Nicarico’s murder, then later cleared. These wrongful convictions became a significant part of the argument in whether to repeal the death penalty.
Dugan already was serving life prison terms for the 1984 murder of Donna Schnorr of Geneva and the 1985 slaying of 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman of Somonauk.
* Wisconsin and other states really ought to take heed…
Illinois teachers unions have numbers and money that translate into influence at the state Capitol, but they’re still agreeing to major concessions on job security and strikes under legislation approved Thursday by the state Senate.
While union leaders said they were driven by what’s best for kids, they also acknowledge watching high-profile fights over public employee rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.
“It made all the parties more cognizant that everyone was going to have to come away with less than their ideal on some issues,” IEA President Ken Swanson said Thursday. “But at the end of the day, this thing was too important to not come to agreement.”
The Senate showed yesterday that there are real paths to reform which do not require unilateral, partisan, mean-spirited attacks on school teachers. We can only hope that this approach will be applied to the other searing issues facing the General Assembly this year.
But the legislation still must pass muster in the House, where Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) advocated in the late 1990s for the outright elimination of teacher tenure and has bottled up attempts to allow teachers to take tenure from job to job as Lightford’s bill allows.
“For my part, I wasn’t willing to agree that this was the version that wouldn’t have any changes. That would be disingenuous,” said Rep. Roger Eddy (R-Hutsonville), a House GOP point person on education.
State Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, the House GOP’s point person on education, and House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, both praised the Senate bill, but they also said it is unlikely that the House will rubber-stamp the Senate’s version.
“There are two chambers for a reason,” Currie said. “We, of course, will have our own ideas, but I think a lot of what I’ve read about what they plan to do sounds very much in keeping with our own agenda.”
“To expect everyone to summarily agree with something they haven’t read yet, that’s not how this process works,” Eddy said.
However, he added, “this bill, in many ways, achieves the goals that we all had when we started this process in the House (last year).”
Currie said Democrats have resisted some provisions in the bill before. But she also said she hopes changes made in the House “would not so upset the apple cart that we end up with nothing.”
* A unanimous vote in one chamber (in this case, the Senate) offers no guarantee of success in the other chamber. We’ve all seen 59-0 Senate bills fail in the House, and vice-versa. But this is a big deal, not some little “merely” bill, and there is clearly some serious momentum behind this legislation. For instance…
Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said he is pleased with the new reforms because it puts the Chicago Public School students on what he calls a level playing field. Emanuel said he campaigned on the components of the bill so he is relieved state legislators worked together to achieve a common goal.
“Like the police and fire, we will now have responsibility as teachers to provide essential services that make sure to raise the threshold,” Emanuel said.
“The kids in the state of Illinois — the entire state of Illinois — have a chance to get a better education because of this bill,” added Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, who predicted the legislation would help school boards save money and make sure the “better teachers stay and the lesser teachers go.” […]
“The reforms in this bill put Illinois at the head of the class nationally,” said Jessica Handy, policy director of Stand for Children. “Any one of these changes alone would be significant. Together they are monumental.”
When you get Matt Murphy, the Chicago Teachers Union and Stand for Children on the same page, you’ve truly accomplished something.
* The winner of yesterday’s caption contest is an anonymous commenter who contributed this gem…
Our next project is torte reform.
Perfect.
I’m going to have to trust whomever e-mails me to identify myself, but I think I can figure a way to verify the person’s identity. If you want that free lunch at Hickory River Smokehouse, with drinks thrown in by Greg Baise, send me an e-mail using one of the “contact” links on this page. Thanks and congrats. There were a whole lot of funny comments yesterday, by the way. Good job.
*** UPDATE *** OK, well, the winner lives in Chicago and he asked that I award the prize to someone else. Small Town Liberal…
These three may have moved slow, but it was only because these three didn’t have to move for anybody.
