Why not open this option up to newspapers not covered by the federal “grandfather clause” and are still under the ban of cross-ownership of newspapers and TV/radio stations…
Tribune Co., a newspaper publisher and television station owner that operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said Monday that it has combined a newspaper and two TV operations in Connecticut in a bid to become more efficient and cut costs.
The move puts the operations of The Hartford Courant and WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV in Hartford under one roof, an unusual pairing, and places a TV executive in charge of both.
I know there are fears of too much consolidation, particularly among liberals, but can’t we have some limited mergers so we can maybe save some newspapers in this country?
It has gotten to the point where Larry Wert, president and general manager of WMAQ-TV/Channel 5, confirmed the station is considering an arrangement in which it would outsource its sports reports to Comcast SportsNet, effectively eliminating its sports staff.
We do not prescreen or edit comments, but we do reserve the right to delete any we find inappropriate.
So, I suppose that the multitude of insane, racist, over the top and definitely inappropriate comments all over your site are just fine with you. I don’t think the word “inappropriate” means the same to you as it does to me. But maybe I’m missing something. Perhaps you just can’t “find” them? In that case, I don’t blame you for not looking. It’s pretty disgusting stuff. But, hey, it’s your shop, so your rules. Have fun with that.
* Dear American Journalism Review,
Considering that this blog has the word “Fax” in its name, do you think I might also publish on more than one platform?
Most states also have niche publications geared toward political insiders, such as Arizona’s Capitol Times, which publishes on multiple platforms, or online-only outlets such as Illinois’ Capitol Fax blog.
Award-winning journalist Hanke Gratteau has been named executive director of The John Howard Association of Illinois (JHA) , the leading advocate for prison reform in the Midwest. She joins John Howard on April 6.
Gratteau will oversee projects and research aimed at monitoring and improving conditions in the state’s prisons, jails and juvenile detention facilities. She is the seventh person to head the Association since it was founded in 1901.
“My role with The John Howard Association will be a very natural extension of the public policy advocacy that was at the heart of my journalism career,” said Gratteau, former managing editor/news of the Chicago Tribune. “We will aim to shine a bright light on places and issues that are hidden from public view and provide a strong and clear voice for sound public policy grounded in research.
* Setting aside the debate over the actual bill for a moment, do you think this open letter to Catholics from Cardinal George on Archdiocese of Chicago letterhead is appropriate? Please read the whole thing by clicking here, but I’ll give you a few excerpts…
Before the Illinois General Assembly there is a proposal (HB 2354, the “Reproductive Health and Access Act”) that would remove the right to conscientious objection to abortion and related procedures for all health care workers. […]
The enemies of human life and religious freedom in Illinois are well funded. Pressure on legislators is great and is increasing. I ask you to contact your Representative this week to express your dismay that the Illinois legislature, elected democratically, would debate a bill that removes freedom of conscientious decision-making for health care workers as a condition of their employment. If, as we are told, the State should not come between a doctor and a mother, then surely all can agree that the State should not come between a health care worker and God. […]
This proposed law will rend the already fragile garment of our civic unity and further alienate many from our government. Catholics and all people of good will should work to ensure its defeat. I also ask you to thank those legislators who are courageously opposing HB 2354 and to pray for those who are supporting it. To contact your legislator, please go to www.ilga.gov, or call 312-368-1066. Thank you and God bless you.
Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
Just to be clear, a proposed, but as yet unfiled amendment to the bill will significantly change the conscience clause language that the Cardinal discusses.
As a non-Catholic, I’m usually reticent to post my own thoughts on these sorts of things (generally out of a very legit fear of being labled anti-Catholic), but I thought maybe you’d like to discuss this letter yourself.
As always, decorum rules will be enforced. Try to keep your tempers and preconceived notions in your head, not in your typing fingers.
There’s no doubt that Rosemont mayoral candidate Joe Watrach is running a far more visible campaign than has been seen in a long time, if ever, in that town. He’s also pretty feisty, listing $5 million a year in government contracts for people with the name “Stephens” on his website and telling the CS-T…
“Donald E. Stephens made sure that while he took care of his family, all of Rosemont was his family,” Watrach said. “He was making sure the village residents were happy. Before, Rosemont had an endless supply of money. Now we don’t. The difference was his dad never cut the village employees’ health care.”
Watrach argues that before Stephens cuts employees’ health care, he should cut other parts of the budget first, such as contracts to his family members or the $1.3 million for landscaping that goes largely to Krimson Valley Landscaping, which has donated generously to Stephens’ political fund.
“The reason Bradley didn’t want to cut [the] flowers [contract] is they have given him $50,000 over two years,” Watrach said. “In two years, he has raised a million dollars for his campaign fund, all from contractors who hold no-bid contracts at Rosemont.”
But is Watrach viable?
Maybe not so much.
The State Board of Elections website shows that Watrach has raised about $3,200 since he began campaigning.
Nick Blase left the helm of this suburb after 47 years as mayor when he was convicted of taking $420,000 in kickbacks from an insurance company to which he steered businesses that wanted to set up shop in Niles.
Running with Blase’s endorsement to succeed him is Acting Mayor Robert Callero, a retired accountant. Callero got some static for creating an ethics committee in a closed meeting that Attorney General Lisa Madigan said violated the state’s Open Meetings Act. He was also criticized when Niles employees used village equipment to tape testimonials for Blase to be used at his trial. Callero said he agreed that was inappropriate and said he was unaware it was happening.
Challenging Callero are: Luigi Nitti, Carol Harczak, Trustee Kim Sychowski Biederman — who runs with the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky and other local Democrats — and Krzysztof “Chris” Hanusiak, a Polish immigrant who owns a Royal Kitchen and Bath Cabinets store.
That Callero ethics committee thing is hilarious. Biederman is the wife of former House Dem staffer Rob Biederman, which the acting mayor is attempting to use against her…
Callero said that Biederman would use the job to “build a political machine.” Her husband, Rob Biederman, who is running her campaign, once was a political operative for Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, and he now is a public relations consultant. “He will really run Niles,” a Callero strategist said.
I’m so sure. What an insult to Biederman to suggest that her husband will be the guy behind the throne.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9th, state Sens. Dan Kotowski, D-33rd, and Ira Silverstein, D-8th, and state Rep. Lou Lang, D-16th, have all endorsed Biederman’s candidacy, according to her campaign. […]
State Representative Michael MacAuliffe is the lone Republican on Biederman’s list thus far, supporting Biederman because he believes she will keep taxes low, according to a written statement attributed to him by her campaign.
* Laura Washington takes a look at what happens if Lisa Madigan and others decide to move up or off the political ladder, or stay right where they are…
Evanston-based State Rep. Julie Hamos, who represents the 18th District along Chicago’s North Side and North Shore, is already raising money and taking names for a run for attorney general. Hamos may have Madigan’s blessing, but until the AG jumps, there’s nowhere for Hamos to land.
Talk about jumping the ladder. Media outlets across the nation have been touting Chicago Urban League CEO Cheryle Jackson’s anticipated run for Burris’ seat, though all they seem to know is how to spell her name. Her backers, particularly in the black community, are waiting to see if multiple investigations by Fitzgerald, the U.S. Senate and the Sangamon County prosecutor will knock Burris off the ladder.
Jackson doesn’t have a prayer if Burris stands for election. The two will split the black vote and not much else. Things will be even more hopeless if U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky decides to take a shot at the seat. Schakowsky is a powerhouse fund-raiser with a bullet-proof base among female, progressive and Jewish voters.
Ald. Joe Moore (49th) is said to be salivating over a Schakowsky bid, as that would give him a shot at her 9th Congressional District seat. The national thrill of his foie gras crusade is long gone, and he wants it back. Still, since the Rogers Park pol barely won reelection in 2007, he may not be in the best shape to muscle another rung up the ladder.
At 32, Giannoulias may be the youngest straddling his way up the ladder, but he’s moving up fast. He’s formed a Senate exploratory committee, is raising funds nationally from Greeks and Obama-ites, and is turning up regularly on the business channel CNBC. His own chief of staff, former state Rep. Robin Kelly, is gearing up to take his spot. The 52-year-old resident of Matteson is looking to become Illinois’ first African-American treasurer.
I think your first step is to find ways to cut waste, to cut your budget, to find ways to do more with less, to make government more efficient, to streamline services, to technologically advance the way you conduct business.
If there is an income tax increase there needs to be a decrease in property taxes. People are getting decimated by property taxes. And also you can maybe make the school system more equitable. That being said, right now in a recession — and almost any economist can tell you - is not the right time to increase taxes on people. There is never a good, right time.
That’s not a bad political position: Cut more waste, streamline, cut property taxes, improve education, income tax hikes bad. It doesn’t get us very far in this debate, however.
*** Sigh. *** Screwed up something and so I deleted this part of the post. Oops. Gotta slow down. Less coffee.
…I am taking a step that no major Illinois candidate from either party has ever taken in a run for the U.S. Senate. It is a decision that advances us one step closer to that change that we all fought for and believed in last November. I will simply say “NO” to contributions from all federal lobbyists and corporate PACs.
These special interests do not represent the interests of most Americans, and they should not be allowed to buy a seat at the table when it comes to deciding critical issues or determining the direction of our nation, especially in the midst of our current financial crisis.
[Hat tip to a Giannoulias supporter who referenced a Daily Kos piece which contained the link to the above press release.]
* When reading stories like this one, always try to keep in mind that this is Rod Blagojevich we’re talking about. So placing blame on Blagojevich is absolutely paramount. Only some of his targets were complicit…
Four potential candidates for President Obama’s vacant Senate seat were each to be targeted for contributions by ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaign as part of an aggressive, $2.3 million race for cash late last year, an internal campaign document obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times shows.
The four were among about 150 people targeted for contributions by the Friends of Blagojevich campaign organization by the end of 2008, when a new Illinois law took effect that bans taking money from state contractors and appointees, the document shows.
This says it best…
“They may have had him on the list,” [JB Pritzker] spokesman Dave Lundy said. “But they had a lot of quirky ideas that didn’t have a basis in reality.”
During one conversation, Blagojevich brought up with [White Sox/Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf] the possibility of appointing Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President Obama’s election, sources with the Blagojevich camp say. They say he was seeking a way to advance legislation through the Illinois House — controlled by Madigan’s father, House Speaker Michael Madigan
What a stupid idea that was. The plan was to offer to appoint Lisa Madigan to the US Senate in exchange for Speaker Madigan’s support for the governor’s capital plan, health care expansions, etc.
Complete, utter lunacy.
First of all, Speaker Madigan wasn’t even returning Blagojevich’s phone calls. He was also refusing to meet with the guy.
Most importantly, though, Speaker Madigan had absolutely zero trust in Blagojevich’s word. No way would he have cut that deal. No way. When I told Madigan about the “plan,” he laughed incredulously.
* Since we’re on the topic of corruption and, by extension reform, let’s take a look at two other stories worth mentioning…
Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest) said she will consider amending one of the ethics bills in the legislature this year to add new requirements for opening certain legislative meetings. She said the governor’s involvement in a meeting with lawmakers should “trigger” an open meeting requirement because two branches of government are involved. “I think that what’s happened here, and I’m not condoning it, is that it’s a tradition that is followed at the state and federal level,” Garrett said.
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) said she would be surprised if caucuses or meetings with the governor were opened up, saying “in our culture we have been so unaccustomed to that degree of openness.”
Understatement of the week goes to Currie.
* The governor’s extra-legislative reform commission meets again today. Scheduled topics are…
- The powerful role played by the “rules committees” in the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. To a large degree, they decide whether legislation will advance.
- The flawed process used to determine how Illinois redraws its legislative and congressional district boundaries every 10 years after a new U.S. census.
- The rushed, last-minute way that the Illinois General Assembly typically approves a new state budget, generally with little input from rank-and-file lawmakers.
Apparently, former GOP Sen. Steve Rauschenberger is the expert witness today.
And this weird little demonstration will be part of the day’s festivities…
To spotlight the need to get rid of government corruption, members of the [Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service’s] student advisory committee will encourage fellow students to throw water balloons at a 3-by-5-foot sign depicting a mud-stained image of Illinois. The sign will be posted outside the meeting site.
The idea is “to wash the mud off of the state,” said Josh Cox, a Bradley senior who is studying political science. “We’re kind of starting the cleansing process.”
A member of the governor’s reform commission, Brad McMillan, runs that institute sponsoring the water balloon toss. That should give you a good idea of how this commission is running.
* Meanwhile, the Sun-Times has a very good piece about how Blagojevich pal Chris Kelly allegedly made a fortune doing roofing jobs for two major O-hare-based airlines. And the AP takes a look at the alleged “corruption tax” issue, which has been discussed ad infinitum. No real new stuff there.
* The Chicago Tribune editorial board is all-in for Gov. Pat Quinn’s choice to run the Illinois State Police. They’ve run an editorial that literally oozes hostility towards the young man’s detractors…
Last weekend, Gov. Pat Quinn chose 29-year-old Army combat veteran Jonathon Monken to head the Illinois State Police. The selection of a young man with no conventional policing experience provoked anonymous online complaints (evidently from veteran troopers) and on-the-record harrumphing from state senators who’ll decide whether to confirm the appointment.
It was more than just anonymous online complaining, as I told you last week, but whatever.
* The paper apparently sat down with Monken and came away impressed…
Quinn isn’t backing down. And, after hearing Monken handle probing questions about his qualifications during a Friday meeting with the Tribune editorial board, we understand why. We urge the Senate to thoroughly vet Monken and—barring some unexpected surprise—to confirm him. If the choice of Monken upsets some troopers or legislators, tough. They aren’t answerable for Monken’s performance of his duties. Quinn is.
Tough? Wow. And is there no awareness of the constitutional principle of “advise and consent”? Senators are, indeed, “answerable” for Monken’s performance because they will have to vote to confirm him.
* More…
This page often has argued that chief executives are entitled to have their own appointees in such sensitive posts, provided the appointees aren’t kooks or crooks.
Ha! Wrong. Remember how the Tribune flatly and loudly opposed Marty Cohen’s nomination to chair the Illinois Commerce Commission? Here’s a little taste…
State Sen. Rickey Hendon has a message for Gov. Rod Blagojevich: Yank your controversial nomination of consumer watchdog Martin Cohen to chair the Illinois Commerce Commission or risk an embarrassing defeat in the Senate.
Blunt advice like that is a rare commodity in Springfield, especially when it comes from a key member of the governor’s own party. And in this case, it’s good advice.
Cohen was neither a “kook” nor a “crook,” but that didn’t stop the Trib from blasting the guy.
* More…
But the criticism of Monken’s résumé strikes us as exaggerated: The director’s job is to administer and inspire a big agency—less to make urgent decisions about an unfolding emergency than to have on the ground the best ISP rank officers to make those decisions. Monken wears a business suit rather than the state police uniform that he respects as symbolic of what troopers have struggled and sacrificed to earn.
State Police troopers undergo a rigorous vetting and training program and have to prove that they’re still up to the task on a regular basis. They are some of the best trained cops in the bidness, and rightfully proud of that uniform. That also understandably leads them to distrust outsiders brought in to run the show. But it’s also a cop thing. Just look at how the Chicago coppers have reacted so negatively to Mayor Daley’s pick of a former FBI guy to run that shop.
There are exaggerations on both sides. Unfortunately, the Tribune decided to exaggerate on behalf of the governor’s ISP pick instead of taking a reasonable approach to the subject. This is fast becoming the MO at that paper, and it’s a very disturbing development.
* New State Police chief says he’s up to challenge : “God willing, I will never face as dire a security situation as I did in Kosovo or Iraq,” Monken said. “Frankly, I have leadership experience in security and police operations as challenging as anywhere on the planet.”
Even before the recession hit, economic data backed what the majority were feeling: After a steady climb that lasted more than a generation, the real median income in the United States peaked in 1999 and then dropped. It has yet to return to that peak, making it the longest downturn in modern history. […]
Illinois was not immune to the trend between 2001 and 2008. Weekly wages dropped or remained stagnant in most sectors, according to a December report, “The State of Working Illinois.”
Meanwhile, expenses for things like health care, housing and college have gone up at rates far faster than inflation. Home values (before the recent market crash) in 1970 were typically twice family income; now they are five times as much.
Lincolnshire-based Hewitt Associates reported last month that workers’ yearly health care costs nearly tripled, to $3,800, since 2000; 65 percent of employers plan to reduce health benefits further. That’s if your job offers health care at all, as more than 4 in 10 workers in the state are no longer covered by employer insurance. Employees covered by pensions dropped in Illinois, too.
One problem is that the idea of what a middle class family is has so radically changed over the years. People struggled to keep up with the Joneses while their wages stagnated. That led to a credit overextension, which led to some of the current housing-related woes.
In Chicago, the Heartland Alliance estimated recently that it would take a family of four nearly $50,000 annually just to pay for bare essentials like food, housing and health care — an amount higher than some households at the lower end of the middle class earn. That doesn’t include savings for college or retirement, vacation or preschool or private school costs.
The housing bubble contributed to this problem. For instance, I was looking for a house in 2005 and was appalled at Chicago prices. I just couldn’t see spending that much money for that little house. So, I decided to move back to Springfield (I was also getting sick of the commute during the governor’s seemingly endless OT sessions). But I can live just about anywhere. Not many can do that. Still, if Chicago housing prices forced somebody like me out of the market, imagine the pain of all those who make less than I.
And, considering the financial pressures, it’s no wonder people are so upset at Gov. Quinn’s proposed tax hikes, even if they’re being misinformed or misunderstanding that some of them might actually get a tax cut.
* Some Republicans, like possible US Senate candidate Mark Kirk, are proposing ideas…
Mr. Kirk has scheduled a press conference with several small-business owners at which he is to call for permanent elimination of the inheritance tax. He’ll also call for suspending the mark-to-market accounting rule, arguing that it’s triggered a run on banks. And he wants to reimpose the uptick rule, which bans the short sale of borrowed stocks or bonds.
While Mr. Kirk surely believes in all three populist stances, none would hurt him any in a primary contest for the U.S. Senate next year, a race he appears to be heavily leaning toward.
Would any of that make any difference in the lives of the middle class? I guess it depends on how you define who is middle class.
* GOP Congressman Aaron Schock is touting a different approach to get money into the hands of some who might be struggling…
“As more and more individuals try to increase their household income(s) and a lot of public sector employees take on additional work, whether part-time on the weekends or in the evenings, they are paying into social security,” Schock told News 25.
But because those people (such as public school teachers) have a full-time job with the government, the social security benefits they would receive from their part-time, private employment are reduced. Schock says that has to change.
I know this post is a bit of a ramble, but do you have thoughts about any of this?
But now the company that owns the steel plant - ArcelorMittal, the fourth owner - has decided to close it, and Burress; his dad, Don; and about 285 others are out of a job. Layoffs started Feb. 20, and now only 25 workers are still in the plant, left for “asset protection,” says Duane Calbow, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 7367 and chairman of the Putnam County Board.
The Salvation Army has rolled out its red kettles for holiday fundraising since 1891. But it has never had a year as successful as 2008. At a time when need was skyrocketing, so was generosity.
Donations across the country reached $130 million, up 10 percent from 2007. That’s the biggest single-year jump since 1997. The collection in the Chicago area remained steady at $14.7 million.
.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement Friday that 36 centers in Illinois will use the money to make a number of changes, including expanding their hours and the services they provide.
Durbin said the support for health centers will create jobs in low-income areas.
Congressman Bill Foster announced the money will come via the federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program. That means communities receiving the money must put it toward energy efficiency, conservation or renewable energy efforts. Examples of eligible projects include conducting energy efficiency building audits, installing or retrofitting street lighting or traffic signals with energy efficient bulbs and creating energy efficient transportation programs such as bus rapid transit.
As far as the stimulus package overall, even Foster said the gap between the goals of the stimulus and how states are administering the funds is wider than he’d hoped.
“There’s a difference between how effective the state governments are being about distributing the money,” Foster said. “And I think I’ll leave it at that.”
Other transportation will also benefit when the stimulus money comes in. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $1.3 billion for Amtrak projects nationwide, of which $80 million will be invested in Illinois.
While his views may be shared by many, what sets Renn apart is that he gathered his thoughts into a comprehensive proposal that won a Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce contest aimed at growing transit use to 1 billion rides a year in the region. For his effort, Renn won the first-place prize of $5,000.
County officials recently accepted DuPage’s share of federal funding from the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act in the form of a $5.2 million check.
Thomas Breen, Sanchez’s attorney, said the event was to help Sanchez, not strictly to help pay for legal bills.
“Since the verdict, many, many calls have come in, in support of Al,” Breen said by phone. “It was with my blessing that, if his friends want to assist him in light of the verdict and the loss of his pension, that they should. It’s for Al.”
The deal was ostensibly struck between Chicago 2016, the organization Mayor Daley put together to oversee the games, and the Outreach Advisory Council, a group put together by Chicago 2016. Think of it as Mayor Daley negotiating with himself.
In addition to the various sites of planned venues, the IOC delegation will see two Millennium Park fountains in all their glory — unusual for this time of year.
The IOC is also going to see something that’s been part of the landscape here for as long as anyone can remember: protests. Citizens groups like “No Games Chicago” and disgruntled police union officials, angry over pay, plan to make their voices heard.
Daley told reporters Saturday that the Olympic bid is a vision for Chicago that’s bigger than him or the union. He says officers can demonstrate, but “it won’t have any affect.”
The ruling comes as nose-diving revenues tied to the prolonged recession threaten to poke a $200 million hole in Mayor Daley’s 2009 budget.
Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue says cash damages can and should be substantial.
“Our members have been harmed by not being able to use their comp time because it’s at the discretion of the commander to approve or deny,” Donahue said.
Twenty-nine Chicago Public Schools students have been murdered since September. But most district parents reached in a survey said they’ve never received public-safety information about their local schools.
It’s been almost 12 years since Chicago opened its first charter school. But a report out Friday says many parents in the district still don’t know that the city’s charter schools are public and free.
* Too many things going on this past week. Barely had time to breathe. Glad it’s over. Nap time.
* I love this tune, which comes to us from a fine Chicago band…
Siobhan is on the whiskey, Siobhan is on the gin,
Siobhan is drinking Red Bull and Vodka and won’t be home again.
I stay up late here every night, although it is no sin,
Siobhan is on the whiskey and she won’t be home again
* It turns out, we’re not so bad. At least according to a new report from Ball State University’s Miller College of Business…
The report lists Illinois’ overall attractiveness to manufacturers as 9th of the 50 states. The list is headed by Utah, followed by Indiana, Missouri, Kansas and Alabama.
One problem, of course, is that the much higher ranked Indiana and Missouri are right next door.
Michael Hicks, who headed the research team at Ball State, said that while surveys of overall business climate generally favor Southern and Western states, Illinois and the Midwest contain geographic and infrastructure advantages that are valuable to factory owners.
Thus, while Illinois got a “D” for tax climate, its lowest grade, it received an “A” for global position and a “B” for human capital, with an overall grade of “B-.”
In comparison, Texas, often considered a great state for business, received a grade of “F” on the quality of its work force.
Take that, you illiterate cowboys.
Illinois received a “C” rating in “logistics.” The grade for that category is partially based on “infrastructure spending as the per capita expenditure on highway construction.”
A capital bill would improve our ranking, not to mention create jobs and do a lot of good in the process.
* But how much good will the guv’s capital bill really do?
Greg Hinz shows how the guv’s infrastructure plan is not all it’s cracked up to be, and that mass transit is getting the short end of the stick…
Mr. Quinn says his plan overall would spend $26 billion on roads, transit, schools, broadband and other infrastructure. But only $8.7 billion of that money is new — specifically bonds that would be financed in part by an income tax hike and by increases in vehicle-license fees. And only a fraction of that, $1.5 billion, would be available for transit, state officials confirm.
More…
“The capital plan proposed in Springfield isn’t enough to even keep the current [mass transit] infrastructure in its current condition, much less make the investment needed to meet growing demand,” said Brian Imus, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.
* Because holding down utility costs also helps manufacturing, let’s take a look at yet another Crain’s story. The governor appears set to appoint his policy director, Michelle Saddler, as ICC chair…
Sources caution that there’s a small chance someone else might emerge as Gov. Quinn’s choice. While Ms. Saddler is described as a “quick study,” she has no experience in the arcane, legalistic field of utility regulation. An announcement is expected within the next few weeks.
Considering that the current ICC Chairman is the former mayor of Rockford, that lack of experience shouldn’t be a huge problem. Still, what is it with the governor’s inexperienced appointments?
This is a very important appointment because of the current ICC makeup…
If she’s appointed, Ms. Saddler is expected to take the commission, which has been accused of being too cozy with utilities, in a new direction. Four of the five commissioners frequently split between consumer- and utility-friendly positions, leaving the chairman, Charles Box, to cast the deciding vote on requests to raise rates. Mr. Box, an appointee of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, often sided with the utilities
Blagojevich always talked a good game about utilities, but he packed the ICC with pro-utility hacks.
Let’s take a short trip down memory lane…
Officials at the state’s largest electric utility have been interviewed as part of a federal corruption investigation with ties to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A spokeswoman for Commonwealth Edison, which serves 3.8 million customers in Northern Illinois, acknowledged the company’s involvement in the probe Thursday, which has targeted Christopher Kelly, a friend and former adviser to the governor. […]
Kelly’s company, BCI Roofing, began doing roofing work for ComEd in 2003, the same year Blagojevich took office as the first Democrat governor in 25 years.
Blagojevich made a ton of pro-utility moves in 2003, and it may not be hard to figure out why.
* Is it too early to talk about baseball season? If not, then how well do you think the White Sox will do? Also, how badly do you think the Flubs will blow it… again?
* I’m not unalterably opposed to proposals like this…
Proposals in both the House and Senate would allow governments in heavily populated counties to install camera-radar mechanisms on accident-prone thoroughfares.
“People are driving just too darned fast,” Rep. Joseph Lyons, a Chicago Democrat who’s sponsoring the proposal with Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, said Thursday.
The cameras would take photos of license plates on cars moving too fast. Violators would get a $100 ticket in the mail, but the infraction would not count against the number of moving violations necessary to suspend a driver’s license.
At a state Capitol news conference, Link and Lyons cited federal statistics showing 520 speed-related deaths in Illinois in 2007. They claimed cameras have reduced accidents in El Paso, Texas, by 80 percent; annual crashes in Dayton, Ohio, by 37 percent; and that cameras monitoring red-light runners in Chicago since 2003 have reduced that problem by 55 percent.
This looks like a good idea which will save lives.
My generic objection to all of these sorts of proposals - including the overuse of home confinement - is that we may be making it too cheap and easy for the government to penalize and incarcerate us.
Now, I don’t wear a tinfoil hat and I don’t believe we’re in immediate or even longterm danger of becoming one big prison, but the easier and cheaper it is to ding us or lock us up, then it is logical to assume that more of us will be dinged or involuntarily confined.
* The Tribune editorialized in favor of the bills today, but offered up a caveat…
Municipalities should use these only in areas that are known to be hazardous, where speeding is a real problem. And they should rig them to catch only the worst scofflaws, not the driver who creeps up to 35 in a 30-m.p.h. zone. Just as the average cop allows drivers a margin over the posted speed limits depending on conditions, so too should these cameras. (In Arizona, cameras on highways are set to issue tickets at 11 m.p.h over the posted limit. Sounds fair.) The point here is to reduce recklessness, not dun every driver who happens to harmlessly drift a few miles over the posted limit.
Still, if not watched carefully, bureaucracies will always tend to take their mandates to a relative extreme.
Again, I’m in no way suggesting that we’re all gonna be imprisoned in a vast, statewide jail. I just wish that legislators would try to think about how they’re making punishment too cheap and easy when voting for bills like this.
* ISPeeved, an anonymous blog for state police troopers, is a bit, um, peeved at the choice of Jonathon Monken as the new Illinois State Police Director. Monken has no police experience and is just 29 years old. He’s been nicknamed J-Kid by the blog administrator.
Dusty Rhodes has the inside scoop on how Monken was picked. Apparently, he’s buddies with the new (and also very young) director of the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs Dan Grant…
[Monken] was interested in something like deputy chief of staff for military relations, or a senior advisor post like the one his buddy Grant had just vacated.
She also has internal react, which mirrors many of the ISPeeved comments…
“We’re all mortified. This is a slap in the face,” one near-retirement-age officer told me. “Being a good soldier doesn’t mean that you’re a good cop. Knowledge would be nice too, especially when a cop-type thing comes up.”
“Who is this guy and where did he come from? No one knows. Everybody’s befuddled. I think everybody’s shocked,” another high-ranking officer told me.
* Monken faces stiff opposition in the Illinois Senate, which must confirm his nomination…
Monken is well-suited to many state government jobs, but his skills don’t match up to what is needed for a state police director, said state Sen. Willie Delgado, D-Chicago, a former parole agent.
“I find it very concerning that Governor Quinn is so adamant about this,” Delgado said.
“I have reservations about having to cast a vote and sleep at night, knowing how it may impact the rest of the team, the state troopers, for morale, discipline and wondering what will it take to get promoted.”
“If he’s never been in any of those agencies, doesn’t know what those agencies do, hasn’t even been a police officer, hasn’t even been to the police academy, it would be very difficult to make those very tough decisions,” said Sen. John Millner, a Carol Stream Republican who was once police chief in Elmhurst.
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) cast further uncertainties about Monken’s chances of Senate confirmation and wants to meet with Quinn and Monken to “address concerns about his background,” Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.
“I think Jon Monken is a very good person for this, and so we are not going to yield at all,” Quinn said. “We’re going to go eyeball to eyeball with some of these senators and ask them to take a second look and examine their conscience.” […]
“I just think that’s very wrong, and we’re not going to let them get away with it,” Quinn said.
* Keep in mind when reading this story about Blagojevich lies and incompetence that Gov. Quinn still has the same budget folks on board who touted this supposedly money-saving idea last year…
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich said closing Pontiac Correctional Center would save taxpayers about $4 million.
But a review of the costs associated with his failed plan to shutter the maximum-security lock-up shows that taxpayers have shelled out at least $4.1 million to pay for something that never happened. […]
The $4.1 million price-tag is based mainly on what the state paid or is under contract to pay in order to prepare Thomson Correctional Center to accept inmates from Pontiac.
The estimate does not account for some of the transportation costs related to the transfer of inmates throughout the state’s sprawling prison system that was under way before Gov. Pat Quinn scuttled Blagojevich’s plan.
According to state purchasing documents and interviews with state officials, it has cost an estimated $2.6 million to hire and house 208 additional correctional officers, all of whom now apparently will be farmed out to other prisons.
* Meanwhile, the CTA wants to pull a Filan and skip a big pension payment…
The Chicago Transit Authority is floating a plan to close a $155-million budget hole without raising fares, cutting service or boosting the size of its public subsidy.
But the proposal faces a very tough sales job in Springfield, where lawmakers would have to agree to allow the CTA to at least temporarily reduce contributions to its employee pension plan.
Details…
But the key to the plan is $40 million Ms. Brown would like to save by reducing mandatory CTA contributions to its pension fund.
Under a deal worked out last year in Springfield, the CTA restructured the plan, with workers agreeing to cut their benefits and the CTA agreeing to refinance it with a large bond issue.
The bonds were issued and proceeds turned over to the fund, which according to Ms. Brown now has a relatively healthy 84% ratio of assets to potential liabilities. But the agency still has to pay $132 million a year in debt service on the bonds and $58 million a year in annual pension contributions.
Ms. Brown says that’s not all needed, and wants to reduce the $58 million payment to about $18 million, at least for now.
Speaker Madigan apparently isn’t enthused, but this is exactly what Gov. Quinn wants to do with state pension plans, which have a far lower assets to liability ratio than the CTA’s pension fund does.
* The SJ-R thinks Quinn’s budget is too hard on state workers and says a Chicago casino is a better alternative…
Quinn told us Thursday that his budget’s critics must offer alternatives and not “chirp on the sidelines.” We continue to believe a downtown Chicago casino is a viable revenue-generating vehicle. While crafting a gambling bill is difficult because of the myriad interests that have to be satisfied, we’re not sure it’s any harder than coming to a deal on these changes with public employee unions.
The Springfield newspaper, which often bashes Chicago politics, is now willing to give the city a casino?
llinois’ budget mess has reached the point that the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture said Thursday it can no longer rely on the state’s general-revenue checkbook to pay for farm programs.
Tom Jennings wants to eventually make the agency self-supporting, and he has proposed starting with fee increases expected to bring in $2.9 million annually. The proposal includes raising more than two dozen fees ranging from fuel-pump inspections to costlier state fair admissions and charges for previously free services.
OK, but what happens when the governor (whomever it might be) inevitably raids the department’s special funds?
A Confederate graveyard and memorial in the Mississippi River city of Alton will be getting a $250,000 upgrade, paid for by the federal economic stimulus measure Congress passed.
Mayor Daley’s son and nephew have hired a criminal defense attorney to represent them in the ongoing investigation of their investment in a sewer-cleaning company that won millions of dollars in no-bid contract extensions from City Hall.
Charles Sklarsky, a former federal prosecutor now with the law firm of Jenner & Block, confirmed Thursday he is representing Patrick Daley and his cousin Robert Vanecko.
Hoffman recently issued subpoenas to three city pension funds for records involving DV Urban Realty. One of those funds, the Chicago police pension fund, is refusing to comply with Hoffman’s subpoena. Hoffman doesn’t have the authority to subpoena records from the pension fund, its attorney David Kugler said Thursday.
Vanecko and Davis are guaranteed $3 million in fees for managing the pension fund investments under a deal that runs through Dec. 31, 2014. Among the real estate deals in which they have invested so far, they have bought an apartment building at 1212 S. Michigan and loaned $1 million to help restaurateur Matthew O’Malley redevelop the former Chicago Defender building.
Burned before by a faulty computer-aided dispatch system, the Chicago Fire Department waited a year to move into the 911 center and continued to dispatch emergency vehicles manually for months after they got there because of computer software problems.
“Any time you do any computer upgrades, you experience some issues,” Martinez said Thursday. “Considering this is the first major upgrade they’ve done in 10 years, they’ve been extremely pleased with the technology.”
Juan Rivera was promoted to chief of Internal Affairs after most recently serving as deputy chief of the Grand Central Area.
The announcement comes about a month after Hispanic clergy met with Weis about the lack of Latinos in high-ranking positions — noting that three of 25 districts were headed by Hispanics and that there were no Hispanics among the four deputy superintendents and seven chiefs.
Also promoted Thursday were Roberto Zavala, from commander of the Ogden District to deputy chief of the Grand Central Area, and Berscott Ruiz, a lieutenant in the Ogden District, to commander of the district.
* Pedestrian danger zones: Kankakee County town posts highest per-capita traffic accident rate in greater suburban Chicago area
Hopkins Park, a small town in Kankakee County, had more traffic accidents involving pedestrians per capita during a recent three-year period than any other town in the greater suburban Chicago area, according to a study released Thursday.
Facing public outrage and a legislative effort by lawmakers, the tollway board voted unanimously to immediately implement a “toll violation spring cleaning program,” effectively eliminating a $50 surcharge on each fine through June 30.
* My Sun-Times column looks at the governor’s tax increase from a somewhat different angle…
Gov. Pat Quinn’s income tax increase plan may be good public policy, but it’s probably very bad politics.
The governor wants to shield low- and moderate-income working families by tripling the state income tax’s personal exemptions, from $2,000 to $6,000, while increasing the income tax rate by a point and a half.
Too many numbers can make the eyes glaze over, but try to stay with me a few more seconds.
Under Quinn’s plan, a family of four with an adjusted gross income of $30,000 would receive a $390 tax cut. A single person making $30,000 would be hit with a $240 tax increase. A family of four with a $56,000 annual income would pay no extra taxes. A single mother with one child who makes $56K would pay $420 more. Etc.
Clear?
No?
I can relate.
It’s complicated. And complicated tax proposals can scare the daylights out of your average, everyday state legislator.
Heck, even when things aren’t complicated, the voters can often draw the wrong conclusion.
For instance, Ohio has cut its income tax rates by 21 percent since 2005. Yet, a new statewide poll taken by Hart Research Associates discovered that a mere 8 percent of Ohioans knew their income taxes had been reduced. A third of Ohioans actually thought their taxes had increased. The rest either didn’t know or figured their tax rates were about the same.
Ohioans aren’t especially stupid or ignorant, and that poll result isn’t really all that surprising.
Lots of people believed their income taxes were raised by former President Bill Clinton, even though his first-term tax increases focused on the wealthy. People are (rightfully) cynical and just don’t pay very close attention to the news, or, apparently, their pay stubs. They see the words “tax increase,” and figure they’ve been dinged.
Meanwhile, much of the “person on the street” reporting since Quinn unveiled his tax idea has focused on angry, worried folks who were certain that their taxes would increase so high that they’d have to get another job or cut way back on essentials in order to stay even. Many probably have little or nothing to worry about. But you’d never know it by their reactions or the reporting.
And because our current income tax rate is just 3 percent, Quinn’s 1.5 percentage point increase turns out to be a whopping 50 percent increase. “Quinn proposes 50 percent tax increase” is an incredibly scary headline, regardless of the real-life impact on taxpayer pocketbooks.
So, if people will cynically believe that their tax burden will increase regardless of the facts, and the media misreports the tax proposal in the first place, and potential political opponents will undoubtedly take full advantage of all that cynicism, ignorance, anger and confusion, what incentive does the average state legislator have to vote for Quinn’s plan?
Quinn says he’s willing to lose the election in order to do what’s right. But how many legislators will follow him off that cliff?
Because Quinn’s tax increase includes the exemption “reform,” it doesn’t raise much money to patch the state’s gaping budget deficit. So, there’s a lot of talk in Springfield of cutting Quinn’s tax increase way back, forgetting about the exemption reform and raising about the same amount of cash.
Some are willing to phase in the exemption reform over a few years. Others have suggested borrowing money to close the deficit and paying it back with a possible tax increase down the road.
There are sound policy reasons to do what Quinn wants to do. But political reality in Chicago and Cook County — where voters are already super-hostile to any talk of tax increases — means the governor’s idea could use a major rethink.
