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Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m posting this not only to give y’all a chance to pick it apart, but because I’m wondering if other Republican congressional candidates and incumbents will be using the same template.

Sixth District Congressional candidate Senator Peter Roskam outlined a 4 point health care agenda focusing on more choices, greater quality and reducing costs for suburban families and businesses. […]

“As the brother of 5 doctors, I am a natural advocate for finding innovative ways to make healthcare more affordable and accessible for suburban families and businesses,” said Roskam. “I believe Congress needs to give families and businesses more control over their own
health care decisions. I will work to provide healthcare consumers more choices and greater quality while reducing the cost of health care” […]

Roskam 4 Point Health Care Agenda for Businesses and Families

Step 1: Enact legislation to create Small Business Health Plans

Roskam will support legislation creating “Small Business Health Plans” which provide small businesses the opportunity
to band together to enjoy greater bargaining power and administrative efficiency.

* According to the Small Business Administration, 99% of all employers are small businesses and would benefit from these plans.

* Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that small businesses would see an average premium reduction of 13-25% under Small Business Health Plans (CBO, January 2000).

* This represents a real cost savings of $450 - $1,250 per employee. Most importantly, according to CONSAD Research Corporation, as many as 8.5 million previously uninsured workers would receive coverage thanks to Small Business Health Plans.

Step 2: Expand Tax Free Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s)

Roskam supports legislation expanding Health Savings Accounts by increasing contribution limits allowing families and businesses to contribute the maximum amount under their Health Savings Account.

* Co-Sponsor H.R. 5262, the “Tax-Free Health Savings Act.”

* Under this legislation, HSA’s would allow existing plans such as Flexible Savings Accounts to roll into HSA’s so they can take advantage of the additional benefits of this plan.

* HSA’s offer triple tax savings: 1) tax deductions when you or your employer contributes to your account, 2) tax-free earnings through
investment, 3) tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses (U.S. Treasury Department, April 2005).

* In addition to healthcare cost savings, HSA’s have helped to combat the rising number of uninsured. According to the America’s Health Insurance Plan Trade Organization, 30% of individual HSA purchasers were previously uninsured. While critics seek to paint HSA’s as an option “for the rich only”, Assurant Health data indicates that 50% of purchasers have family incomes of less than $50,000.

Step 3: Promote healthcare efficiency and effectiveness with Health Information Technology

Roskam supports legislation to implement electronic health care records and health information technology.

* Researchers from RAND have concluded that effective health information technology and electronic health record implementation could save more than $81 billion per year, in addition to countless lives.

* Recently, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2005 passed the House with 58 cosponsors and bipartisan support (H.R. 4157). Peter Roskam wholeheartedly supports this effort to provide quality healthcare at an affordable cost.

* Specifically, H.I.T. can reduce the rate of serious medical error by 55% and decrease the rate of potential adverse drug events by 84% (The Center for Health Transformation).

* Electronic Health Records offer a secure, portable way to maintain and share patient information between healthcare providers. These records have shown to reduce the rate of adverse drug events by 34%, decrease unnecessary lab utilization by 9%, and save over $44 billion per year (The Center for Health Transformation).

Step 4: Medicare

Roskam will work to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and crack-down on those who abuse Medicare.

* The corrupt Medicare practices that are costing taxpayers as much as $54.5 million a day.

* According to the HHS Inspector General, waste, fraud, abuse, and improper payments drained as much as $19.9 billion from the Medicare Trust Fund in 2004 alone.

* Support the “Medicare Fraud Prevention Bill” sponsored by Congresswoman Judy Biggert which would reduce erroneous payments and strengthen law enforcement powers relating to Medicare abuse.

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Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

What are your impressions of Sen. Barack Obama’s trip to Africa?

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Bad news for IDOT leaders - Updated x1

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped up because it was posted so late yesterday.]

Have a look at this. [pdf file - fixed link] IDOT Secretary Tim Martin and two of his deputies appear to be royally screwed.

Martin, Mike Stout and Scott Doubet were sued by several former IDOT employees who claimed their firings were politically motivated.

“During the first months of tenure as governor, Rod Blagojevich publicly announced plans to fire employees that he associated with high-ranking members of the prior Republican administration on allegations that they participated in personnel transactions that would protect their continued employment,” states the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

It also says that Blagojevich directed the hiring of people on contract “for the purpose of identifying employees in State agencies that could be targeted for firing based on alleged affiliation” with the administration of former GOP Gov. George Ryan.

The attorney general originally appointed Jenner & Block to handle the case, but J&B backed out and IDOT’s top lawyer ordered the firm not to turn over any documents to AG Lisa Madigan’s office.

The dispute went to court, and a judge ruled today in favor of Lisa Madigan, ordering J&B to turn over the files.

This is a lose-lose-lose for the defendants, who claimed that Madigan wasn’t representing their best interests. That’s pretty obviously happening, as Madigan appears to be representing the state’s best interests and not necessarily the three individual defendants. They have complained bitterly of this in various pleadings.

[As I just wrote in comments, it seems clear to me that Madigan believes or at least suspects that the defendants acted outside the scope of their employment or she wouldnt have done things like order three IDOT employees to turn over subpoenas and threaten them with contempt of court against the defendants’ wishes.]

[Parenthetical update: I just lost half this post after attempting to update on my Treo. From here on out is a recreation.]

The judge also ruled that they could not hire their own attorney unless they gave up indemnification, which isn’t much of a choice.

The Defendants, in their individual capacities, may always forego indemnification by the state and hire their own attorneys to represent them. If they do so, the Attorney General will still represent them in their official capacities since those claims are against the state of Illinois.

And in a final blow, the judge ruled that Mary Lee Leahy had to answer questions and was not protected by attorney client privilege. The plaintiffs and AG Madigan wanted Leahy to be deposed (which gives you another idea where Madigan is going with this.) Leahy had advised the governor’s office after Blagojevich was sworn in, and had met with top IDOT officials, apparently about the case in question.

Thus, the dispute about Leahyâ€™s deposition is, once again, a strategic one about how to conduct the defense. The Defendants consented to the Attorney General conducting the defense and agreed to cooperate. The Defendants, therefore, gave the Attorney General the authority to make these types of strategic decisions. Again, the Defendants do not assert that the substance of Leahyâ€™s testimony will be adverse to their interests. The Attorney Generalâ€™s strategic decision to let Leahy be deposed, therefore, is not adverse to them and, so, does not create a conflict of interest between the Attorney General and them.

The Sun-Times wrote about this back in May in a story entitled “Gov muzzles his clout-buster.”

At his first press conference as governor, Rod Blagojevich announced he was bringing in a clout-busting lawyer to help take politics out of state hiring. But now the governor doesn’t want her talking about what she did. His lawyers are keeping attorney Mary Lee Leahy from answering questions about whether 17 state employees were bounced in 2004 because of their political ties. […]

Attorneys for the laid-off workers say the administration is muzzling Leahy because it broke rules designed to make sure politics is not a factor in the overwhelming majority of state jobs. The federal government has been investigating state hiring since last fall, when a wave of subpoenas hit the administration.

UPDATE: The AP has a story up now. Not much different than what I have posted, but go see it for yourself.

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No respect should be expected

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Political scientists make the expected predictions.

A third-party candidate for Illinois governor will find out Thursday whether heâ€™ll be on the ballot in November.

But even if the Illinois State Board of Elections rules in Rich Whitneyâ€™s favor, analysts say the Green Party candidateâ€™s effect on the results of the election will be negligible.

“I donâ€™t think thereâ€™s going to be a lot of impact,” said Chris Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois-Springfield. […]

“He may siphon off a couple of thousand votes, but itâ€™s not going to mean anything,” said Roosevelt University political scientist Paul Green.

The most likely scenario is that Whitney will pull votes away from Blagojevich, said John Jackson, an analyst with the Paul Simon Public Policy Center at Southern Illinois University.

Meanwhile, the Illinois Radio Network has turned thumbs down on inviting Rich Whitney to participate in the governor’s debate.

Jim Anderson of the Illinois Radio Network has told candidate for Illinois governor Rich Whitney that he will not be allowed to join the Oct. 2 debate with Gov. Blagojevich and Treasurer Topinka.

That’s not unexpected. The IRN hired burly security guards for a debate a few years ago to prevent an uninvited third party candidate from crashing.

The state Green Party opened its southern Illinois office this week.

Music, food, speeches and a dancing chicken named “Gov. Cluck-o-vich,” are all needed for a successful Green Party headquarters opening. The Greens, lead by gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney, opened the doors to their Carbondale office Saturday afternoon.

Cluck-o-vich?

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Weller

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is classic DC politics.

Rep. Jerry Weller, a sixth-term Republican who grew up on a family farm, represents a district in rural Illinois that’s a far cry from the sandy beaches of the Caribbean.

But in the past three years Weller has become Capitol Hill’s go-to guy for issues dear to the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico, from getting more federal money for its hospitals to lowering a manufacturing tax that business interests say prevents U.S. companies from locating there. […]

Weller’s 11th Congressional District has hardly any Puerto Ricans, according to a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau survey that estimated of its roughly 698,000 residents, only 677 to 3,569 are likely to fall into that category â€” less than 1 percent of the total.

In addition to the manufacturing bill, Weller has also co-sponsored legislation to increase Medicare reimbursements for hospitals in Puerto Rico that advocates say could bring the island by tens of millions of dollars annually and another bill that would let Puerto Ricans vote on whether they want to continue as a U.S. territory.

Meanwhile, back in his actual district…

Today’s celebration of the 22nd anniversary of the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor authorization is bittersweet.

Sweet because, through the years, the canal has become a backyard haven for tourists, history buffs, and outdoor enthusiasts, plus has sparked new commerce and jobs in communities along the 96-mile historic artery from Chicago to La Salle.

Bitter, because the U.S. Senate today has still not authorized $10 million in funding for the corridor in the federal government’s 2007 fiscal budget, noted Ana Koval, president and CEO of the non-profit Canal Corridor Association, which operates the NHC. […]

Koval said Congressman Jerry Weller, R-Morris, who authored the measure in the House, said this was agreed-upon legislation he thought the Senate would pass a couple days later.

“But, the Senate went home without doing it. Until the legislation is actually passed, it doesn’t put the canal in line to be added to the budget,” said Koval.

“Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking. Next to our name now on the appropriations list is a big fat zero. The deadlines for requests is long gone - it’s far along in the budget process.”

And the Chicago Reader had a cover story last week on the Congressman’s marriage to the daughter of a former Guatemalan dictator. The two recently had a baby, and the child was born in Guatemala.

I’ve known Jerry Weller a long time. He’s a natural politician and a great campaigner. With a litany like I’ve just laid out, and with a district that just barely leans GOP, those skills are undoubtedly the main reason he’s not on any political target lists this year. At least, not yet.

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Morning shorts

Tuesday, Aug 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· “The Fix” moves Illinois into play.

15. Illinois: Even Democrats acknowlege that Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) is vulnerable this fall. A cloud of ethical problems hovers over his administration and could counter the prevailing Democratic winds nationally. State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka (R) is far from a world-beater but the race is likely to be focused almost entirely on the incumbent. Topinka has struggled to stay within financial range of Blagojevich — a trend that if it continues will make it tough for her to push her change message. (Previous ranking: N/A)

Â· Study: Ill. tollways lease could mean toll increases for drivers

Â· ‘Sweetheart‘ deal given to gov donor slammed

Â· Editorial: The Cook County jobs machine

Â· Shakman goes after county hiring

Â· Alleged ghost worker gets pension

Â· “Chicago politicians rarely get the chance to lecture others about honest government, and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama took advantage of the opportunity Monday when he urged Kenyans to fight against public corruption.”

Â· Hanania: Reversing Vote Is Not Answer To Big Box Crisis

Â· Apparently, the governor is in southern Illinois.

Â· “Patti Blagojevich laughed and said the DuQuoin State Fair is a place where kids can be kids. ‘This fair is cozier and more comfortable for parents with children,” Blagojevich said. “But still it has everything you can find in Springfield.’”

Â· State’s crime rate drops

Â· Jeff Trigg moves to the National Taxpayers United of Illinois.

Â· Chapman: The wrong road to fuels of the future

Â· Gov’s administration settles union dispute for $1 mil.

Â· “Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean and Republican challenger David McSweeney clashed on stem cell research and tax cuts but fundamentally agreed on the Iraq war and immigration reform at a Monday debate in Waukegan.”

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Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Why gaming?

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

My self-promotion instict has failed once again because I forgot for the umpteenth time to post my weekly syndicated column.

So, why did Judy Baar Topinka go with a Chicago casino idea to help fund her education, property tax and infrastructure proposals? Well, a general tax increase had been all but ruled out months ago. Polling and focus grouping showed high levels of opposition to a tax hike. Plus, Topinka already has enough troubles with her Republican base without doing something like that.

The campaign had already proposed about $3 billion in Medicaid and other state spending cuts over four years, but she can only back so many cuts. Topinka wants AFSCME’s endorsement and is on track to get the Illinois Education Association’s nod. Her pursuit of those tax-eating groups and others like them makes it highly unlikely that we’ll see many more budget-cutting ideas before November.

Topinka has strongly opposed Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s asset sale ideas, so that angle was out of the question. Temporary solutions like the four-year infusion of cash from the lottery sale would make her look too much like Blagojevich, so forget that.

Pretty much all that was left was gaming. Voters don’t like gaming all that much, but when given the choice of a tax increase for schools or a limited version of gaming expansion like Topinka has proposed, they’ll go with gaming more often than not, particularly Republican and independent voters.

Promising something big to Chicago’s mayor never hurts, either. Now that Mayor Daley knows his schools will get more money and his city will get more jobs and tourism, he might not be so eager to campaign extra hard for Gov. Blagojevich.

Read the rest to see why she proposed any details at all.

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Mailers make mainstream press

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Daily Herald coverage finally starts to catch up to Austin Mayor’s stellar job.

The National Republican Campaign Committee is blanketing 6th Congressional District mailboxes with an unusually early barrage of glossy ads attacking Democrat Tammy Duckworthâ€™s views.

With five mail pieces on taxes and one on immigration, the House GOPâ€™s political arm has spent nearly $200,000 before Labor Day, the traditional start of campaign season.

The influx of mail is viewed as a sign Republicans are nervous about the prospects of their candidate, state Sen. Peter Roskam, in the longtime GOP stronghold, which includes parts of northeastern DuPage and northwest Cook counties. Roskam and Duckworth are vying in the Nov. 7 election for the seat left open by the retiring U.S. Sen. Henry Hyde, who has served 16 terms.

â€œThe poll data that Iâ€™ve seen on that race shows itâ€™s a tossup,â€ said Paul Green, political science professor at Roosevelt University. â€œIf they lose Henry Hydeâ€™s seat, the chances are very good that (House Speaker) Denny Hastert will have a lot more time to watch wrestling matches.â€

The national Republicans arenâ€™t denying thereâ€™s at least some worry in the wake of Hydeâ€™s retirement.

You can see copies of several of these mailers at AM’s website here, here and here. You may not agree with his analyses, but you can at least see the whole mailers.

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A family affair - Updated x1

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Apparently, the Secretary of State’s office is being run like a family business. Meaning they hire every relative in sight.

Last week in this space, I wrote about how Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has been spending your money â€” specifically, how he put his biographer on the payroll at $73K a year, tripled his daughter’s salary in seven years and allowed the hiring of his chief of staff’s wife as a $25-an-hour part-time secretary.
Given Mr. White’s reputation as the nice guy of Illinois politics, I figured that would be it. We all mess up sometimes. On to more important stories, like Wal-Mart wages or who’s telling the biggest whoppers about Illinois finances.

As it turned out, last week’s column just scratched the surface.

Thanks to a series of phone calls and e-mails, I now have a fuller picture of who’s drawing taxpayer-funded checks in Mr. White’s office. Bottom line: There’s no need for family feuds here, because everyone’s making a buck. Even Chicago’s famed Roti clan â€” known for having every odd nephew and in-law on the city payroll â€” might be able to learn a few tricks. […]

On the other hand, the 18 job-holders referenced above are related to just 10 suits in the secretary of state’s office: Mr. White and nine senior executives that I specifically asked about. Who knows what else is going on?

Go read the whole thing for the details. There’s a lot more than this, I’m told, but White’s office doesn’t appear to be too concerned yet.

UPDATE: From a Dan Rutherford press release:

…Reconfirmed in published reports was that White accepts cash for Christmas gifts from his top employees, those he determines annual salary increases, like his predecessor George Ryan. He has also received a number of significant campaign contributions from his top staff.

“With just the examples included here, these few employees easily earn over $500,000 in taxpayer-funded salaries and contracts,” said Rutherford. “We are clearly seeing a pattern of impropriety coming to light. The people of Illinois saw Jesse White’s predecessor convicted for improprieties akin to what White is doing today.” […]

Rutherford called on Jesse White to make public his Personnel Policy with regard to hiring and promoting family members and his policy on awarding no bid contracts to family members and friends that do personal favors.

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Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

With the one-year anniversary just around the corner of Gov. Blagojevich’s signing the medical malpractice bill into law, the Post-Dispatch takes a look back and ahead.

Doctors and business advocates want further reforms, as they consider Illinois’ bill only a first step. Lawyers and victims advocates are calling for a repeal of the legislation that they say hinders the rights of injured people. And both sides candidly agree the issue is thorny for elected officials.

“This has become a political football,” said Dr. Harold L. Jensen, chairman of the ISMIE Mutual Insurance Co., the major malpractice insurer in the state.

This was the most interesting quote in the story.

“They’re waiting to find a tragic case, one where it’s going to be very difficult for a jury and for a trial court judge to award only the capped amount of money,” said Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, which strongly supported the legislation.

Read the whole thing, then answer the question: Did the medical malpractice bill go too far, not far enough or was it just about right? Explain.

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Reform and renewal, Part 97,487 - UPDATED x1

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Oy.

How does someone who lost a $250,000 state consulting gig — apparently for doing no work — get a $900,000 no-bid contract a few months later from Gov. Blagojevich’s administration?

That was the good fortune of Chicago lawyer Myron “Mike” Cherry, a major Blagojevich donor who is the main protagonist in yet another story of clout and big money in state government.

Cherry, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser who is linked to at least $60,000 in contributions to Blagojevich, has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.

But a 2004 investment proposal at the state Teachers Retirement System that would have netted Cherry the $250,000 has drawn scrutiny from federal investigators probing corruption at the pension system and under Blagojevich.

The feds have been investigating whether Blagojevich and fund-raisers Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Christopher Kelly were involved in a secret scheme to steer state pension business to top campaign donors — an accusation all three have adamantly denied.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: From a press release:

DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett called on Governor Rod Blagojevich to stop stonewalling on a secret no-bid contract to a top Democratic contributor.

When Crain’s Chicago Business first revealed the existence of a no-bid contract to lawyer Myron “Mike” Cherry on Feb. 22, 2005, the administration refused to comment on the scope of the work. In today’s Sun-Times, the paper revealed that Cherry was paid $900,000 in six months for work the administration refuses to detail.

“The public has an absolute right to know specifically what work was done by Myron Cherry to justify nearly $1 million in payments in six months,” said Birkett, running mate for gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka, the state Treasurer. â€œAt a minimum the administration should turn over Cherryâ€™s billing records.â€

“Cherry is one of the most prolific Democratic fundraisers in the state. He has given Rod Blagojevich in excess of $60,000,” Birkett noted. “We need answers about this sweetheart contract.”

Birkett said the contract is especially suspect because several months before the no-bid contract, Cherry was poised to receive a $250,000 fee from the administration that the Teachers Retirement System determined was not justified. That potential fee is among those under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office, according to published reports.

“Until the Blagojevich administration answers questions about this contract, it will strongly appear that it was determined to reward a major campaign contributor. That is exactly the type of pay-to-play politics Rod Blagojevich said he would halt when he became governor,” Birkett added.

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Poll has mixed results for education funding advocates

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The full poll and some crosstabs are in the subscribers-only section. Here’s a Southtown article on the poll that is to be released today.

Illinois voters say education funding is the leading issue in the race for governor, but only a slim majority are willing to pay more taxes to support low-income schools, according to a poll released today by Speak Out for Illinois Schools, a coalition of education and community organizations.

Forty-four percent of Illinois voters said education was the top issue in the November election, over issues like job creation, government waste and health care.

And nearly two-thirds of voters want to see an increase in the state share of funding for public education, compared to 24 percent who think it should remain at the same level.

But voters are split over whether they want to part with more of their hard-earned cash to fund education.

Just more than half are willing to pay more taxes to increase funding for low-income school districts. Samantha Anderson of Communities for Quality Education is optimistic about that 51 percent.

Funding for low-income schools was the only expense a majority of voters were willing to pay with a tax increase, the poll shows. Teacher training, school construction and programs for wayward youth, for example, garnered just 30 percent in favor of higher taxes.

Discuss.

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Different regions = different ads

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Tribune did a story back in May about about how CMAG has tracked Gov. Blagojevich’s campaign spending, but the Post-Dispatch has a slight twist.

Barely a month after the March primary elections, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich spent $500,000 to go after Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka with a rolling pin. In a major television ad buy beginning in April - far earlier than statewide campaigns usually start spending serious money - Blagojevich’s campaign aired a debate clip about banning assault weapons, in which Topinka says: “It’s very difficult to define what is an assault weapon. I mean, a rolling pin could be an assault weapon if you really want to look at it that way.”

As a photo of a rolling pin appears above Topinka’s head in the commercial, an announcer intones: “Topinka opposes an assault weapons ban … because she says it could ban a rolling pin. What’s she thinking?” […]

The rolling pin commercial, for example, ran almost 500 times over two months in Chicago, where there tends to be strong support for gun control. It didn’t run once in the Metro East area, where even Democrats often consider themselves pro-gun. Instead, Blagojevich has used his St. Louis television buys - almost $100,000 worth so far - to tout his own record on safer issues like education and jobs.

“There are different levels of interest in different issues around the state,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Sheila Nix, explaining why the campaign didn’t focus on the assault weapons issue in the Metro East area.

I didn’t think he had run those ads downstate, and now we know he didn’t run them at least in the Metro East.

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Morning shorts

Monday, Aug 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· “A third former janitor with the secretary of state’s physical services division has pleaded guilty to his part in a scheme that resulted in the three being paid for hours they didn’t work.”

Â· Hiring freeze? What hiring freeze?

Â· It appears that the Daily Herald was hacked again. This time, I made sure to save a screen shot of their front page.

Â· McQueary: TK’s story shows state could do more for vets

Â· Workers with disabilities keep government going

Â· “Downers Grove attorney Carole Doris secured Metraâ€™s top post Friday, continuing collar county oversight of the rail agency critical to suburban commuters.”

Â· Apparently, Greg liked my column. He also has some other ideas worth reading.

Â· Brown: Peraica volunteer learns how it is for GOP in Dem town

Â· Governor changes mind, puts up employees at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel (scroll down)

Â· Grilling the sexes on the GOP bus

Â· Tribune Co.’s Chicago Tribune said it plans to outsource its circulation customer contact center to the Philippines

Â· Hastert defends Congress on budget

Â· Anniversary muted as canal awaits fed funding

Â· “Having gotten a kiss from President Bush, I really insisted on one from the County Board Chairman, Bob Schillerstrom as well,” Topinka said. “I’m collecting. It’s one of the good things of being a female candidate, I guess.”

Â· Danny Stover speech on YouTube

Â· Washington: Tough job awaits new Urban League chief

Â· Suburban officials sold on Wal-Mart

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Bollywood and Johnny Cash

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

If this doesn’t put a smile on your face…

Then this surely will.

Go on… have a smile

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Guv goes back to positive spots

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

The traditional campaign cycle is essentially beginning - start positive, go negative, finish positive.

Team Blago is back on the air this week with another flight of ads. The buy started Wednesday, August 23rd and runs at least through Monday the 28th. In placement it appears much like the waves of ads they ran in April, May, and June before taking most of July and August off: heavy on news and public affairs with a few prime time spots thrown in for good measure.

But these spots are 30 seconds long, and are not bookended. These also seemed intended to prod his positives upward, touting his role in the Amber Alert system, rather than just drive his opponentsâ€™ lower.

And there are a lot of them. Heâ€™s spending $400K in Chicago for this buy, and itâ€™s only 6 days long â€“ thatâ€™s $65K a day on TV spots.

There are actually two new TV ads. “Amber Alert” and “Ethanol”

What do you think?

UPDATE: If he wants to help kids, maybe he should’ve had a talk a while back with one of his biggest supporters.

CHICAGO (Aug. 23, 2006) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement with A. Finkl & Sons Co. on alleged clean-air violations at the company’s steel forging plant, 2011 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. The company agreed to do two environmental projects totaling $620,000, to pay a $75,000 penalty and to comply with the Clean Air Act. […]

The agreement resolves EPA allegations that Finkl violated performance standards for new sources of air pollution by making equipment modifications that caused an increase in particulate (smoke, dust, ash) emissions and by not getting permits that would have required better controls. […]

Inhaling high concentrations of particulates can affect children, the elderly and people with heart and lung diseases the most.

[Hat tip: MV at SoapBlox]

40 Comments

Another landmark lost

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This sucks.

Department store operator Bon-Ton Stores Inc. said today it is closing its Carson Pirie Scott store on Chicago’s State Street.

The company said 300 full time and 150 part-time employees are impacted by the closure. They will be able to interview for available positions at other store locations and receive severance support, Bon-Ton said.

Bon-Ton attributed the closure to sales declines, losses due to rising operating costs, and payment incentives from the building’s owner, who has redevelopment plans for the site.

I was in Carson’s a few weeks ago and it was just about empty. I browsed the men’s suit section, which covers thousands of square feet, for almost an hour and there were no other customers around. (By the way, I didn’t buy anything because even with all those clothes nothing really caught my eye.)

That said, I can’t help but wonder who owns the building and what the dastardly person has planned.

UPDATE: More from Crain’s:

Mr. Bergren said the current owner is working on â€œvery exciting plans for the Carson Pirie Scott building and we think the city and people of Chicago will agree.â€

Â· More from the AP:

The building — with 1 million square feet — is owned by Joseph Freed and Associates, which has been renovating it in recent years — including extensive work on the terra cotta facades and the ornate cornice at the corner of State Street and Madison Avenue.

The company said in a news release that after Carson vacates the structure, it plans to convert 250,000 square feet to new retail space on the lower level, first and second floors. The third through seventh floors will offer 350,000 square feet of new office, school and entertainment space.

“National and international tenants have expressed interest in leasing this historic property, and now we can pursue these opportunities,” said Paul Fitzpatrick, the company’s managing director.

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Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

From the Tribune:

Topinka had been under pressure from the Blagojevich campaign for several weeks to show voters how she would fund her campaign proposals. But Blagojevich campaign spokeswoman Sheila Nix said the governor would not produce his own four-year financial plan before the Nov. 7 election, instead relying on his record of state budgets.

Nix said the proposals Blagojevich has already introduced are fully funded and should give voters an idea of his financial priorities.

After all the grief that Topinka has taken since March for “not having a plan,” should the press and the pundits now turn the tables on Blagojevich and demand more details from him? As a bonus question, should Blagojevich now be pushed hard to address property tax relief?

Explain why or why not.

60 Comments

Judge the contest

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Comments are now closed on yesterday’s caption contest. An astonishing 100 of them made it past my censorious actions.

My personal favorite was from “Scoop,” who wrote:

(AP) â€” Upon exiting her campaign bus during a stop on her statewide tour, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka was told she was under arrest for impersonating a Republican.

Which was your favorite? The commenter with the most votes will win lunch on me at a cheap restaurant of my choosing.

UPDATE: I didn’t see this one:

Wait! A garage sale! Hold the bus!!

UPDATE: OK, based on the votes so far I’m declaring “Garage sale” the winner.

Here’s how this’ll work. The winner should send me an e-mail first with a “secret message” that they’ve made up all by themselves. And then after waiting a few minutes that person should post the same “secret message” here in comments. If the messages and IP addresses match, I’ll send details about the lunch.

21 Comments

Topinka’s plan - UPDATED x1

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Lots and lots of stuff today. Let’s get to it.

This is probably the most cogent critique of Judy Baar Topinka’s plan to expand casino gaming. It’s from Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, who is conflicted because he has a boat in his community, but he makes sense.

…casino owners would have to invest in their existing facilities to build the new stations. As for Elgin’s casino, a new boat at a cost of $150 million would have to be built to accommodate the new spaces or they would have to be built on land - a concept that has so far been rejected by the public, Schock said.

And in Illinois, the chances of seeing gambling giants dump more money into their casinos is slim considering they already pay the highest taxes in the country, Schock said.

Elgin’s casino, for example, pays 73 percent, Schock said.

“Why are you going to invest more in Illinois, so you can pay more taxes?” he said. “For (Topinka’s plan) to work they have to look at the tax structure. That’s why the numbers aren’t realistic, because it’s not all new money. It’s not going to work that way.”

Gov. Blagojevich also made a very valid point.

[Blagojevich] said if Topinka’s plan has any chance of passing in the Legislature, it wouldn’t wind up just being one casino for Chicago because other communities would want theirs and other groups would clamor for gaming, including slot machines at horse racing tracks.

“Then all of a sudden it’s not what it was and suddenly Illinois becomes, to quote Treasurer Topinka, Las Vegas,” he said.

Topinka pretty much confirmed this yesterday.

Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka refused Thursday to rule out new casinos for Waukegan and the south suburbs and slot machines at horse tracks, throwing some doubt on her stated opposition to gambling expansion.

â€œIâ€™d have to see what the legislature sent me,â€ Topinka told the Daily Herald editorial board Thursday when asked if sheâ€™d veto a gambling package that included new casinos for Waukegan and the south suburbs.

Topinka also said sheâ€™d â€œhave to look atâ€ a gambling measure that included slot machines for horse tracks like Arlington Park.

Meanwhile, my Sun-Times column this week is also about the plan.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a serious candidate for governor lay out a detailed budget plan as Judy Baar Topinka did this week.

Incumbents always challenge their opponents to produce an alternative plan of their own, and the opponents usually respond with a few broad ideas and a “vision for the future” label slapped on for good measure.

The reason we don’t ever see specific, detailed proposals is that those details invite tremendous amounts of nitpicking, and candidates who get bogged down in nitpicking usually lose. Before they can respond to one critique, the other side and the media have already moved on to, “But what about paragraph 849?”

Gov. Blagojevich went on the offensive,

Gov. Blagojevich was in Chicago, touting figures that show Illinois added more new jobs than any other state in July, and he called the GOP casino proposal a â€œfraudulent gimmickâ€ that would do anything but balance the budget.

â€œShe would take it back to how it was under Ryan and Topinka with a $5 billion deficit, except thereâ€™d be three times the amount of gambling and fewer kids and senior citizens would have health care,â€ Blagojevich said.

He also said…

“She’s spent the last year or so getting on her high horse attacking my administration, saying things like quote-unquote we have to live within our means, that we shouldn’t have any quick fixes,” the governor said during an event at a Chicago pretzel factory. “And yet, when you propose a massive expansion of gambling that nearly triples the amount of gaming positions that would exist in Illinois, if that’s not a gimmick, I don’t know what is.”

Mayor Daley talked more about the two competing education funding ideas.

The back-and-forth between the candidates came as Mayor Richard Daley appeared to soften his previous demand that a Chicago casino be owned by the city; the state’s nine existing casinos are privately owned.

“I don’t care if it’s private. I don’t care if it’s public. I don’t care if it’s owned by anyone,” Daley said. He still questioned why taxpayers shouldn’t own a casino and enjoy the profits while hiring a private firm to manage it

The Sun-Times editorial was positive for JBT:

This page has long favored a casino for Chicago, as well as more gambling positions for existing casinos, to generate more revenues for state and local governments. And while it is not the ideal way to fund schools, we think it’s better than Blagojevich’s plan to sell or lease the lottery. It gives the state a steady, significant revenue boost that won’t expire a few decades down the road. The state should look to a Chicago casino. Education funding needs more than a casino quick fix, of course, but right now, it’s the best proposal out there.

And an Indian tribe announced plans for a bingo center near DeKalb.

Just months after paying top dollar for a family farm near this southern DeKalb County community, a Kansas Indian tribe announced ambitious plans Thursday night to bring Indian gaming to Illinois.

The Prairie Band Potawatomi of Mayetta, Kan., said they intend to open a 22,000-square-foot bingo hall with electronic gaming stations for 750 players on a 128-acre farm they bought in April. The farm is off University Road, near Preserve Road.

Tribal Chairwoman Tracy Stanhoff conceded that the proposal for the bingo hall would be controversial but said the hall would be good for the region.

UPDATE: I asked some of the other state Republican candidates whether they supported Topinka’s plan. Sen. Dan Rutherford, who previously said that gambling is â€œan inappropriate way to feed the jabberwocky of a hungry government,” is now in favor of JBT’s proposal. From the campaign:

Sen. Rutherford supports the plan as long as it is an allocation of the 10th license, as has been his position in the past.

16 Comments

Natarus continues his dramatic self-destruction

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Chicago Alderman Burt Natarus recently left this voicemail for Tribune columnist Eric Zorn.

I have stood your criticisms for many many years, and quite frankly I donâ€™t regard you as being very innovative or humorous. The fact of the matter is that dog doo is a cause of rats. And rats are a very, very important problem in terms of eradications and keeping my ward clean. I have the cleanest ward in the cityâ€¦.

And before I became the alderman there was no Michigan Avenueâ€¦ all of the buildings that have been built there except maybe the Tribune Tower and the Hancock Center were built during my terms of office.

So you could look at the positive side once in a while Mr. Zorn in terms of some of the work that we do. I have a doctor of law degree and Iâ€™m a member of the plan commission and I work very, very hard.

As far as Iâ€™m concerned you can keep insulting me because quite frankly it may enhance your readership. But it also enhances my vote getting ability. Bye bye.

There was “no Michigan Avenue” before he was an alderman? Was it just empty prairie? Has Burton completely and finally lost it?

Those were rhetorical questions.

29 Comments

Morning shorts - UPDATED x1

Friday, Aug 25, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Notice how this story didn’t come out until after his Bridgeport fundraiser? “Sorich talks to grand jury”

Â· IVI-IPO backs Todd Stroger

Â· “Two of three janitors accused with a secretary of state administrator of a scheme in which they were paid for some 8,000 hours not on the job pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of wire fraud.”

Â· “The state Department of Human Services is not doing enough to verify that low-income residents who receive federal grants deserve them, an audit released Thursday said.”

Â· “This month’s Diageo/Hotline poll should serve as a small splash of cold water on “Speaker” Pelosi and “Majority Leader” Reid. But just a splash. The upshot: our snapshot of likely voters suggests that, nationwide, Republicans may be as ginned up as Democrats. Or both Dems and Republicans may be equally motivated to vote — even if that level of motivation is low. That said, control of Congress won’t be decided by the votes of a majority of likely voters in the country. It’ll be decided by voters in about a dozen states across several dozen congressional districts.”

Â· “But if you are betting on the generic ballot to predict control of the House, even when it looks awfully strong for Democrats, you might want to think again. The relationship has weakened and the uncertainty is huge.”

Â· Champaign Co. Dems change rules to allow party to endorse in primaries

Â· Friday Beer Blogging

Â· It’s funny because it’s true: What your favorite Springfield radio show says about you

Â· Muir: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Â· Hiram: In Illinois 6th Roskam Supports Less Than 1.3% Of Illinois Residents With Estate Tax Repeal

Â· Austin Mayor: NRCC: Taking The Low Road

Â· Morning-after pill OK without prescription

Â· O’Hare flight caps in place through 2008

Â· UPDATE: This is fascinating.

Bill Tancerâ€™s latest post about Hitwise having advance indications of yesterdayâ€™s announcement of a drop in July home sales is fascinating. In short, Bill points out that the National Association of Realtors require 3-4 weeks to put their analysis together, so, even though Septemberâ€™s almost upon us, weâ€™re just now hearing that home sales in July fell.

Except Hitwise saw this coming. The web stats and competitive intelligence company saw a drop in July in searches for terms relating to home sales, and has seen a similar pick-up in August. So Billâ€™s not only saying they saw this coming, heâ€™s predicting that Augustâ€™s numbers will pick up.

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