As the nationwide mortgage crisis puts the squeeze on homeowners, the Cook County sheriff’s office is on pace to evict more people than ever from foreclosed homes.
At least it was until Wednesday, when Sheriff Tom Dart announced he wouldn’t do it anymore.
Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies.
As it happens, the decision also will spare from eviction those legitimately in foreclosure.
Too many times, our deputies arrive at a home to carry out a mortgage foreclosure eviction, only to find a tenant — dutifully paying their rent each month — who is unaware their landlord stopped using that rent money to pay the mortgage. They had no fair warning that they were about to be thrown out of their home.
That’s because, in many cases, the banks have done nothing to determine, in advance, who’s living in the building — even though it’s required by state law. Instead, those banks expect taxpayers to pay for that investigative work for them.
That stops today.
We won’t be doing the banks’ work for them anymore.
“By ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out ‘vigilantism’ at the highest level of an elected official,” the statement read. “This cannot be acceptable to anyone, regardless of their viewpoints.”
The statement noted numerous laws are in place to protect homeowners and renters, including provisions for giving notice.
* Question: Do you agree or disagree with Sheriff Dart’s decision? Explain fully, please.
* Former Illinois US Senator Peter Fitzgerald went after Barack Obama yesterday on behalf of John McCain’s campaign…
“For Senator Obama, reform and nonpartisanship is something to campaign on but not something he does when he actually gets into office,” said Fitzgerald who served with the Illinois Democrat in the state legislature. Fitzgerald added that Obama was nothing more than “one of those state Senators from Chicago who viewed the Democratic Party as being right 100 percent of the time and the Republican party wrong 100 percent of the time.”
Looking at Obama’s career in Springfield, Ill., Fitzgerald said, “I don’t recall him as being a reformer.” […]
Fitzgerald acknowledged that Obama has collaborated with GOP state lawmakers on legislation, but said the bills probably had prior approval of Democratic leaders. “They weren’t controversial and it didn’t take courage to do that,” he said.
GOP influence in the state is minimal, he said.
“The Republicans there, at this point, have little or no power, and they’re just not relevant,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald, In His Farewell Speech, Noted His Two Years Of State Senate Service With Obama And Said He Was “Almost Unequaled In His Potential And Promise…He May Surprise The Political Pundits By Voting, Crossing Party Lines At Times That You Don’t Expect Him To…” In 2004, Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) said on the Senate floor, “Barack Obama, my successor, I wish him well. It was a privilege to have lunch with him yesterday in the Senate dining room. I served with Barack Obama in the State senate for 2 years. He was coming in, in the legislature in Springfield, in my last 2 years of service there. He is an uncommonly bright and talented young man.
He is 1 year younger than I. He is the first African-American president of the Harvard Law School. He is almost unequaled in his potential and promise. I am confident he will be a credit to the State of Illinois. I think he may surprise the political pundits by voting, crossing party lines at times that you don’t expect him to. It may be a challenge for him with Senator Durbin as his whip. But I see Barack Obama as possibly being a fairly moderate voice, more moderate than many people suspect.” [Congressional Record, 11/19/04]
It is less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
This, McCain and his female Sancho Panza say, is demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist.
But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts — telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans’ accounts have recently shed.
In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign’s attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama’s Chicago associations seem surreal — or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, “like being savaged by a dead sheep.”
The City Council on Wednesday gave lightning-fast approval to Mayor Daley’s $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport, despite an alderman’s complaint that the blockbuster deal was “shoved down our throats.”
By unanimous vote Wednesday, the City Council expanded the 2005 restriction that forbids talking on hand-held cell phones while behind the wheel. Violators could face a $75 fine, with the penalty rising to as much as $200 for violations that occur “at the time of a traffic accident.”
Chicago garbage collection crews work fewer than six hours a day — and get “paid to do nothing” for 25 percent of their time on the clock — costing taxpayers at least $14.3 million a year, according to an internal investigation denounced as a “witch hunt.”
During a 10-ward, 10-week surveillance, Inspector General David Hoffman found that waste and falsification of time in the Bureau of Sanitation is “systemic and pervasive and extends to all wards,” aided and abetted by poor supervision by layer upon layer of middle management.
* The allegedly poor performance wasn’t just “aided and abetted by poor supervision,” it was apparently the root cause…
[The inspector general] identified “extremely poor supervision” as the “principal cause” for the waste and fraud that Chicago taxpayers can ill afford.
* The Sun-Times editorial focuses mostly on the workers, but way down in the piece is this truism…
Supervision of garbage crews must improve. As the report notes, any boss “mildly interested” in making sure their garbage crews were working wouldn’t have to do much to ensure they were. It doesn’t take an agent from “CSI” to notice a garbage crew worker sleeping in his car.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to notice when a worker goes missing for two hours for a leisurely lunch — as the inspector general’s team noticed.
Worker productivity is the supervisors’ responsibility. It’s a bit different in a patronage system because workers are often “protected” by their sponsors. But a good supervisor can usually get around that problem. Trouble is, the supervisors are also patronage guys.
* Union leaders point to the mayor’s desire to lay off a bunch of garbage workers as the reason behind this probe…
“My members are out there to do a job, and they do the job well,” said Lou Phillips, business agent for Laborers Local 1001.
He said city officials have told him to expect 302 of his 1,100 members to be laid off after Daley proposes his 2009 budget next week.
Chicago Federation of Labor leader Dennis Gannon thinks the timing of the report is not coincidental. “It’s a cheap shot,” he said.
It’s the attention to minor offenses that raises eyebrows among productivity experts. They say the inspector general would be hard-pressed to find an American office in which workers don’t tackle personal chores on company time or begin their morning chit-chatting.
“That happens in most workplaces,” says John Gallagher, chief executive officer of the Challenger, Grey and Christmas outplacement firm. “To look at what the garbagemen are doing moment by moment is treating them like they’re children. You should treat employees as adults and judge how they’re handling their jobs.”
I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t about an excuse to privatize the system.
* More of that heroic leadership from the governor that we’ve all come to expect…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has approved diverting $221 million in the state budget that lawmakers hope will prevent layoffs and program cuts, but he said Wednesday that it’s up to a potential rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes, to determine whether the money is available.
That leaves in question the fate of 323 state employees, who have been told they’ll lose their jobs soon, and 24 state parks and historic sites that would be shuttered.
Hynes pointed out that the legislation requires him to transfer the money to a “budget relief fund” in quarterly installments. So more than $110 million will be available by today, spokeswoman Carol Knowles said.
Punt to Hynes and let him take the heat from special interest groups for emptying out those state funds.
Further muddying the issue is that Blagojevich still hasn’t signed a companion bill that authorizes spending the money. Even if he does, the administration is not obligated to spend it.
“It isn’t a guarantee he won’t close parks and lay off these people,” said Rep. Gary Hannig of Litchfield, one of the Democrats’ top budget negotiators. […]
Because there is a question about how much money might be available, Quinn said, the governor will not immediately act on the companion bill that authorizes where the swept money is to be spent. She said the administration is proceeding with preparations for the previously announced cuts that will result in the layoffs and site closings.
Hannig said it appears Blagojevich “has made up his mind he wants to close parks and lay off employees and cut human services.” If there are problems with the sweeps bill, they can be fixed before the cuts are implemented, he added.
* And what about the governor’s complaint about transferring money out of those special funds? Well…
Rep. Gary Hanning, a Litchfield Democrat and House member who negotiated the deal, said the bill was in the public domain in the House for a week, and it sat in the Senate for two weeks. Democrats and Republicans of both chambers had an opportunity to voice concerns and ask for changes, some of which were accommodated before they sent it to the governor.
“All through that period of time, the governor and his people sat silently by and never weighed in one way or the other, so we assumed that they were OK with this bill,” Hannig said.
The governor’s office offered another statement that his office made its concerns known in September
September. Late September. After both chambers had passed the bill.
[AFSCME] says the Department of Corrections plans to move 50 prisoners by Friday to a minimum-security prison in East Moline and another 50 next week to a minimum-security facility in Taylorville, meaning its appeal of Wednesday’s decision could come too late to stop the transfers.
* Columnist Barb Ickes notes that the East Moline facility is in a residential area and quotes an AFSCME official as saying that these large, last-minute prisoner transfers “are rare, if not unprecedented.”
But Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said it happens all the time. When asked whether the East Moline Correctional Center ever has received 50 inmates in one day, he said, “I don’t know about East Moline.” […]
Asked whether a three-day notice was practical, he answered, “We can give it (notice) the day of. There is no set guideline on notification.”
That’s peculiar. Does the Department of Corrections truly make a habit of simply dumping dozens of inmates on unknowing state prisons? Surely not. The East Moline prison this week has 1,060 prisoners, and the place was built to accommodate 688. A fair warning would seem in order.
Thodos said he doesn’t think the prisoners are going to stick around. More likely, he said, the move is part of Blagojevich’s bigger plan.
“My personal opinion is that this is probably a stop on the way to Thomson,” he said.
The governor wants to eventually close Pontiac and move many of the prisoners to the Thomson facility.
* CBS2, which first reported that the investigation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared to be seriously heating up, had a pretty explosive report last night…
Several sources tell [CBS2] that federal agents are preparing charges of tax fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice against the governor.
The case against the governor reportedly focuses on allegations first made five years ago by his father-in-law Ald. Dick Mell involving alleged trading of jobs for five-figure campaign donations.
Sources claim newly issued subpoenas show First Lady Patti Blagojevich is also under scrutiny. She took nearly $200,000 in real estate commissions – some on deals done with the convicted Tony Rezko. They allegedly coincided with the award of state contracts by her husband’s administration. [emphasis added]
[Rezko defense attorney Bill Ziegelmueller] said Rezko is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, two blocks from the downtown courthouse.
He said MCC officials disagree with the designation as “solitary confinement” but that Rezko is being held in an area often used for punishment and is not allowed to mingle with the general population.
[Rezko] doesn’t get out. There’s no cell-mate, there’s no ability to walk around the cell block and he’s in the area that they have for discipline purposes and he’s been there now for, I guess since June.
Ziegelmueller would not say if he thought it was a tactic by prosecutors to pressure Rezko into cooperating with their investigation into corruption in state government under governor Rod Blagojevich. The Metropolitan Correctional Facility, is — like the U-S attorneys office — part of the department of justice. A spokesman says when designating an inmate, the jail gets information from many sources including the U.S. attorney’s office.
Getting out of that cell to talk to the G must almost seem like a vacation to Rezko.
* Rezko’s defense attorney also had something to say about Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s constant references to a letter written by Rezko which claimed he was involved in no illegal activites with Blagojevich…
On Tuesday, Blagojevich said he hoped Rezko “tells the truth” and said he wasn’t worried about his former adviser and fund-raiser talking about him.
The governor pointed to a letter Rezko sent St. Eve earlier this year saying he wasn’t going to make up lies about Obama and Blagojevich.
Ziegelmueller said both the letter and the governor’s comments speak for themselves.
“I think everyone else can draw their own conclusions,” he said.
A miniature monument commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot will be unveiled at 4 p.m. Saturday during the Illinois NAACP’s 72nd annual state convention at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel & Conference Center.
* Judge denies request to stall transfers from prison
* Waukegan, Des Plaines renew developer partnerships in pursuit of casinos
With a deadline looming, officials in Des Plaines and Waukegan have extended development agreements aimed at luring a casino to their communities.
Applications to the Illinois Gaming Board for the long-dormant 10th casino license are due Tuesday.
The Des Plaines City Council voted this week to renew an exclusive agreement with Chicago developer Neil Bluhm in its bid to land a casino.
In the last 15 months, the village has been tarnished with political scandal and news of the weird.
Three politicians, including two mayors, have been charged with crimes related to how they run the village.
The village also made headlines in the spring after a landowner threatened to turn his property into a pig farm to prevent Island Lake from building a water tower nearby. About the same time, two trustees had a Vietnam veteran arrested because he pointed his finger at them while wearing a Marine Corps T-shirt with a picture of a man pointing a rifle. They claimed it was a veiled threat at a heated board meeting.
Next fall Chicago could have its first high school formed by labor unions. The project is among 18 new schools the district is recommending for Board of Education approval this month.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union Local 73 have formed a nonprofit group to run the school. They’ve agreed to locate the school in West Garfield Park, a mostly African American neighborhood. Carlene Lutz works for the teachers union.
* City leaders to recommend approval of gay high school
A “gay-friendly'’ Chicago public high school that will weave gay and lesbian “heroes” — from James Baldwin to Gertrude Stein — into its curriculum was among 20 new school proposals unveiled Wednesday.
Lawmakers in Will County think they have the solution to what ails the nation’s troubled economy: Build more roads.
County Board members on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious, $300 million transportation package to help unclog crowded roads, repair bridges and improve safety in some of the most dangerous intersections. The seven-year plan could generate as many as 8,400 new jobs in Will County and would be paid for with local, state and federal funds, including the state’s newly approved regional transportation tax, officials said.
Stunned homeowners are lining up at assessor’s offices across Cook County after opening up property-tax bills with whopping increases in recent days.
In a declining real estate market, many mistakenly thought their shrinking home values would lead to a smaller tax bite.
But north and northwest suburban homeowners, along with their counterparts in booming city neighborhoods, are in many cases facing double-digit increases—or worse. In the rest of the county, it’s not quite as bad.
“We have a lot of people who are confused because the current economic circumstances would lead them to believe that their assessment should go down,” said county Assessor James Houlihan. “Their actual tax liability has gone up.”
Fourteen companies statewide are laying off around 2,600 workers altogether, including hundreds from the Chicago suburbs, according to documents filed with the state.
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday moved to ease a credit crunch that’s endangering the economy. But an expert says Chicago may not benefit as much as other big cities.
The Federal Reserve said it would buy massive amounts of what’s known as commercial paper. That’s a form of short-term financing that investors provide large companies for day-to-day operations.
Abol Jalilvand, the dean of Loyola University’s business school, says Chicago has less to gain from the Fed’s move than places like New York or Los Angeles. He says that’s because Chicago has relatively few large companies.
Cook County sales dropped 11.94% in one month after the county instituted its new tax, new data released Tuesday shows, but just how much of that drop had to do with the tax is far from clear.
According to sales tax figures from the Illinois Department of Revenue, Cook County businesses reported $3.360 billion in sales in July, the first month the new 1.75% county sales tax took effect. Sales in June, when the county tax was 0.75%, were $3.816 billion.
However, a look at sales tax data from the last five years shows there has always been a drop from June to July, albeit never as large as this year. In 2004 the drop was 4.61%; in 2005, 7.57%; in 2006, 8.56%; in 2007, 6.67%.
* As you already know, Gov. Blagojevich repeatedly referenced a letter that Tony Rezko sent to his presiding judge. This is a representative quote…
“Tony Rezko sent a letter to a judge. In that letter, he expressly states neither Sen. Obama nor I did anything wrong.”
* That letter will make it impossible to rely solely on Rezko’s word, but it may not rule out Rezko as a witness against the governor. From the Sun-Times’ Eye on Rezko blog…
If Rezko does cut a deal with the feds, that letter — sent to a federal judge — will no doubt haunt him as a witness.
As we reported in an earlier story, it isn’t necessarily a deal breaker.
Former prosecutor Zachary Fardon noted in a June 16th story Scott Fawell, former chief of staff to Gov. George Ryan, wrote a similar letter, saying he wouldn’t make up lies about Ryan.
Fawell was the star witness in Ryan’s trial.
“Do I think he could effectively be crossed on this letter? Yes,” Fardon said. “Does that mean they can’t call him or use him [as a witness]? No.”
One of the matters that prosecutors have been interested in learning is who paid for the renovation of Blagojevich’s Chicago home. Rezko’s now defunct Chicago Construction Services was the contractor on the project. One person familiar with the renovation contacted Monday afternoon, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said he was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors and asked about the project.
“They were looking for basic business dealings, who paid, how much, that sort of thing,” he said. He said the governor’s wife, Patti, paid the bill.
The retiring Jones (D-Chicago) was hailed as nothing short of a hero by those in attendance, from Gov. Rod Blagojevich to interim university president Frank Pogue, who praised Jones for always fighting for South Side interests.
Jones said he was inspired to use his influence to benefit the university by observing how legislators in Springfield banded together to pass projects for other state schools. He blasted news accounts that questioned his motives and said his actions were an attempt at “parity” and “fairness.”
“We learned a lot in Springfield, when they slice the pie,” Jones said of the budget process. “It’s nice to be in the room when you slice the pie. And [sometimes] I get criticized for making sure that a piece of that pie comes back home here, but that’s your job as a lawmaker. To look out for your district, to look out for the young people that attend these institutions.”
CSU isn’t in Jones’ district, but whatever. They named a building after him, so I guess that sorta counts.
“You win by showing the people of Illinois who Dick Durbin really is,” [Sauerberg] said. “He is a divisive, partisan politician who has spent 37 years on the government dole.”
* In that same interview, Sauerberg also revealed why he initially decided to run against Durbin…
Sauerberg said he first considered running after Durbin compared the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners to atrocities committed in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and Cambodia.
“When he compared our troops to Nazis, that pretty much put me over the top,” he said.
Durbin profusely apologized for the remark, but Sauerberg was having nothing of it. His press releases throughout the summer have been some of the most vitriolic I’ve ever seen.
* Sauerberg was therefore furious with Durbin’s first TV ad of the season, which highlights the incumbent’s work on behalf of disabled military veterans…
* Here’s Sauerberg’s press release…
Today, Republican Senate nominee Steve Sauerberg, M.D., sharply criticized Senator Dick Durbin for a new television ad running as part of the Senator’s campaign for re-election. “Dick Durbin, who has been unwilling to stand up for our brave men and women in uniform in his role as a United States Senator, has stooped to shamelessly exploiting our troops for his own political gain,” said Sauerberg. “This is cynical election-year politics at its worst.”
“Time and time again Dick Durbin has failed to stand up for our troops. It’s incredible that Dick Durbin, the same man who compared our troops to Nazis on the floor of the U.S. Senate, pronounced the surge a failure before it began, and would not denounce the slandering of General Petraeus, would now attempt to use our troops as election-year gimmicks,” continued Sauerberg. “One slickly crafted campaign commercial cannot make up for a life-time of failing our men and women in uniform.”
* Yesterday, Durbin had a chance to confront Sauerberg about his attacks during a Chicago Tribune editorial meeting. After months and months of going on the offensive, Sauerberg backed off…
Republican U.S. Senate challenger Steve Sauerberg backtracked Tuesday from questioning Sen. Dick Durbin’s patriotism after the Democrat emotionally accused his rival of employing “the lowest form of politics.” […]
“I apologize if you’re upset with me and I understand, but the fact of the matter is, you shouldn’t say these things,” Sauerberg said. “People are hurt. They’re still hurt.” The Republican said every veteran he has spoken with holds Durbin “in great disdain.”
“You need to meet more veterans,” Durbin said, pointing out he recently received the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
That’s a sharp, spot-on retort by Durbin. The VFW isn’t in the habit of endorsing troop-hating, terrorist-loving commies.
* And then Sauerberg completely capitulated…
Sauerberg acknowledged that Durbin has “done a great job on some of these issues” dealing with veterans. And Sauerberg said a news release issued Monday by his campaign, criticizing Durbin for “shamelessly exploiting our troops for his own political gain” in a campaign TV ad was “a little bit too strong. I think I might take that one back a little bit.”
“I do applaud your efforts on behalf of the troops,” Sauerberg said. And after their editorial board session ended, Sauerberg shook Durbin’s hand and said, “I apologize for any offense.”
Candidates who don’t have the guts to back up their assaults when their opponents are in the same room deserve whatever ridicule results. In Sauerberg’s case, however, he manned up and apologized. We’ll see if his campaign follows suit.
*** UPDATE - 9:53 am *** The governor has quietly signed SB 790, the $220 million special funds sweep bill that will provide funding to keep parks, historic sites and social service programs open and running. The governor’s budget office had repeatedly signaled opposition to the sweeps bill, complaining that some of the sweeps just couldn’t be done.
Developing…
*** UPDATE - 9:55 am *** The appropriations bill, which would spend the money from the funds sweep bill, has apparently not yet been signed.
*** UPDATE - 10:52 am *** The SJ-R gets a quote from the administration…
“The governor did sign the funds sweep bill yesterday. However, there are some funds included in the bill that agencies have expressed concern over. At this point, we don’t know how much will actually be available, so it’s too soon to say how far this money will go,” [spokeswoman Kelley Quinn] said in the statement.
Quinn said the governor had not decided yet what action to take on Senate Bill 1103. That’s the measure lawmakers approved last month to restore spending so two-dozen state parks and historic sites wouldn’t have to close and hundreds of state workers wouldn’t be laid off.
Blagojevich now has until early December to decide what to do with that bill.
“At this point, we have to see how much money is available to spend,” Quinn said.
***************************
[Everything below was written before I - or anybody else, for that matter - realized that the sweeps bill was signed yesterday.]
* Several conservation groups want the governor to veto a bill that would keep state parks open. Sound strange? Well, it is, kinda, but they do have a point. The bill they want vetoed is the special funds sweep proposal, which skims a bit over $9 million from funds benefitng sportsman’s groups, like the Wildlife and Fish Fund, the Illinois Habitat Endowment Trust Fund and the Illinois Habitat Fund…
Members of Pheasants Forever, National Wild Turkey Federation, Delta Waterfowl, Illinois Audubon Society, among others, are urging Blagojevich to look for another way to fund the state parks, he said.
“It’s not fair to pit two similar groups against each other,” [Dave Grass, president of Winnebago County Pheasants Forever] said.
State park supporters and hunting and fishing supporters are all conservation organizations, said Tom Clay, executive director for the Illinois Audubon Society.
“Funding sources shouldn’t be coming from other dedicated groups,” he said.
They all support land and habitat conservation, he said — several supporters represent both camps.
That’s why he’s hoping Blagojevich vetoes the bill.
“You shouldn’t have to be using habitat money to keep the state parks open,” Clay said.
The problem is that the groups aren’t offering up any alternative. “Don’t cut me, cut the other guy,” ain’t gonna work. There’s a plan on the table that passed both chambers (after weeks of opportunity for public input) and almost nobody uttered a peep until the deed was done.
The bill also provides revenue sources to reverse severe cuts to mental health providers and social service agencies, including money for treatment of substance abuse.
It’s not just about the people facing layoffs because of the governor’s cuts - although that is certainly important.
The bill protects people who need services from these agencies.
Without the additional revenue, they may face longer waits for help or receive no help at all. And when the help needed involves mental health or substance abuse issues, a delay can have a significant negative impact.
* A Rockford Register-Star editorial lays out how payment delays and a big gubernatorial budget cut - which was partially restored with special funds money - is impacting local social service agencies…
The governor cut $55 million — 50 percent — from the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, which sends money on to local agencies such as Rosecrance, Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, and PHASE/WAVE. The General Assembly voted to restore some of those cuts, but the approved legislation has yet to reach the governor.
Those cuts and the payment delays have been devastating to agencies such as Rosecrance.
“Without the restoration of funding and the timely payment for services already provided, these providers of essential service like Rosecrance will have no alternative but to discontinue a number of life-sustaining and life-changing services to people who are most in need of them,” said Susan Rice, Rosecrance public relations director.
Some group homes for developmentally disabled adults in Central Illinois are closing or are not reopening, partly because of the state’s budget crisis.
“It (the problem) is far greater than the public imagines,” said Dreux Lewandowski, executive director of Macon Resources, based in Decatur. “I haven’t seen it this bad since the ’90s.”
Marcfirst, the Bloomington-based agency, is closing two of its nine group homes — one home in Bloomington and one home in Normal, said CEO Rick Glass. Two residents have relocated outside McLean County, five residents will move into Marcfirst apartments, and three residents will be assimilated into the remaining group homes, Glass said. […]
The agency heads said group homes for the developmentally disabled — called CILAs (community integrated living arrangements) — have been underfunded in Illinois for several years. Funding has worsened recently with delays in state reimbursement payments and with a 2.5 percent rate cut for group homes, they said.
The Illinois Senate and House have voted to restore that cut but final action is up to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Tom Green, of the Illinois Department of Human Services, said late Tuesday that the governor’s office is reviewing the legislation.
agencies that have attempted to delay layoffs in hopes funding will be restored cannot deal with continued uncertainty. That’s especially true in these tough economic times when trying to borrow money can be costly - if a business is able to get a loan at all.
So, in the end, does it really make sense to veto the fund transfer bill and worsen an already horrible situation over money that wasn’t being spent in the first place? These conservation groups need to reconsider their decision.
* Related…
* Efforts to stop budget cuts back in hands of governor
* State sends letters to parks detailing what will happen if they close
A downstate Illinois electricity cooperative today will announce plans to offer power statewide, with an eye toward signing up Ameren Corp.’s Illinois customers infuriated by rate hikes.
* Millions of Dollars in Stimulus Checks Go Unclaimed
After a month-long hiatus, testimony resumed Tuesday at an administrative hearing meant to resolve whether the Illinois Department of Natural Resources made a mistake when it granted a permit for a strip-mining project near Banner in Fulton County
His voice quaking with emotion, Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan refused Tuesday to accept an anti-gun violence award, saying “I don’t feel I’ve earned it'’ with student deaths on track to double this school year.
Duncan left the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence on a sidetable, but walked away from the lecturn at the Ritz Carlton to a standing ovation from an obviously moved audience.
More than a third of the Chicago Police positions at the city’s two major airports are vacant, but officials say cops are helping to fill the gap by working overtime.
* DuPage deputies, prosecutors could score big raises
DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba and State’s Attorney Joseph Birkett are pleading for double-digit percentage raises for deputies and assistant prosecutors.
Last school year, Simeon High School senior Bruce Zayas was captain of the volleyball team, a rising star recruited from Mount Carmel, and looking at a volleyball scholarship.
But a paddling by his coach last April for missing serves during a game — a “whupping” that left welts on the 17-year-old — changed that.
DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said the county was prepared to house the makeshift center for as long as it took for all the flood victims from Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Lake, Kane, LaSalle and Will counties to receive help. More than 700 people had registered for assistance after the center’s opening was announced last weekend. DuPage officials estimate the flooding cost the county roughly $10.5 million in personnel costs and infrastructure damage.
The district wants approval to issue $185 million in bonds to acquire land, restore habitats and improve public access throughout a system that has grown to nearly 27,000 acres.
“Typically on the last day of voter registration maybe we see 1,000 voter registrations. Based on morning traffic, we’re projecting 12,000 today,” said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.
Last-minute registration in Cook County suburbs also increased. On Tuesday, the Cook County clerk’s office handled 13,000 voter registration forms downtown, pushing the total over 40,000 since Oct. 1. That’s already more registrations than before the 2004 election and Tuesday “was the busiest day yet,” spokeswoman Courtney Greve said
Young voters are expected to have a hefty turnout this Nov. 4, several analysts have predicted. But Generation Y — those born after 1979 — is still somewhat of a political wildcard
* Renovated Morse Theatre reborn as live music venue
There’s a new player on the Chicago concert stage. The Morse Theatre, 1328 W. Morse, reopens Thursday as a resplendent music hall, restaurant and broadcast studio.
This year’s Lollapalooza rock ‘n’ roll festival was music to the ears of Chicago Park District officials who will accept a $1.6 million check today.
The district’s take for this summer’s Grant Park festival is about $400,000 more than last year’s revenues.
* University of Chicago physicist Yoichiro Nambu wins Nobel Prize
Nambu, 87, was woken up early Tuesday with news that he had received the Nobel Prize for physics in recognition of work from the 1960s that many peers described as decades ahead of its time. He took half of the $1.4 million award, with the rest going to Japanese researchers Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for their work in predicting a third family of the subatomic particles called quarks.
* Berwyn alderman in court over incident with Wal-Mart guard
Ald. Michael Phelan, 39, appeared in local ordinance court in Forest Park last week to face charges of disorderly conduct in connection with an incident in which he was detained by Wal-Mart security guards for allegedly refusing to show his store receipt.
