* Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s spokesperson just called. She claimed the Tribune story quoted below about the Office of Executive Inspector General’s bizarre claims that students are covered under the state ethics law badly misquotes her office.
The state attorney general’s office said it was unclear how the state law applied to university employees and whether it applied to students.
Actually, the attorney general believes that students are not covered under the ethics law and, therefore, should not be subjected to the OEIG’s Orwellian ban of student participation in campus political events and activities.
There is less certainty, however, about university staff and faculty, and they’re looking into it.
However, the Associated Press appears to have picked up the Tribune item almost word for word this evening…
Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office said it’s unclear how the ethics law applies to university staff and whether it affects students.
* We’re done here, but my work won’t stop because the legislative campaigns have kicked into high gear, so I’ll be working the phones most of the weekend and maybe making a couple of site visits. Hope your weekend is a good one, but make sure to stop by Illinoize and say hey.
* This week’s featured InsiderzExchange advertiser is Tom Speedie, who has his resume posted at this link. Tom’s a good guy, so go give that resume a look. While you’re over there, post an ad or calendar event at InsiderzExchange… it’s the place to be seen.
* If humans survive another billion years, there will never be anything approaching this man’s voice and style. Turn it up…
We’re all sensitive people
With so much to give
Go Sox.
* Oops. I forgot to congratulate Liz on her new baby. Ladies and gentlemen, Henry…
*** 2:20 pm *** I just got a call from someone at today’s con-con ballot problem court hearing. They’ve been at it since 9 this morning, and the hearing continues. Attorney General Madigan’s people are reportedly much more subdued than earlier this week.
You’ll know more when I know more.
* 1:02 pm - The US House has passed the financial bailout/rescue bill. The rollcall can be found at this link.
Three Illinoisans flipped from Monday’s vote: Republican Judy Biggert, and Democrats Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Bobby Rush.
Rep. Jerry Weller, the only member who didn’t vote last time, voted “Yes” today. Here are the “Yes” votes. Those who have any sort of opposition this November are in bold…
* 1:46 pm - Judy Biggert’s rationale for flipping…
“The volatility in the market is threatening the financial stability of my constituents,” Biggert said. “It is clear that the time for seeking better options has run out. If we don’t act now, those who are least to blame for this mess will suffer the most.”
Black lawmakers said personal calls from Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama helped switch them from ‘‘no’’ to ‘‘yes.’’
* From a Jackson press release…
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. said today he will support an emergency rescue package for the nation’s troubled financial system after getting assurances from Senator Barack Obama that, as president, they “would aggressively regulate predatory lending and force mortgage modifications to prevent foreclosures.”
FBI agents met with Will County Auditor Stephen Weber for two hours Wednesday morning regarding an investigation the auditor initiated into a countywide office, the Tribune has learned. […]
Sources say the investigation centers on Will County Executive Larry Walsh’s office.
The FBI on Wednesday raided the county offices of a former Illinois state senator who is a poker-playing buddy of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
At 9:45 a.m., Chicago agent Joseph Basile and another man walked into the offices of Will County Auditor Steve Weber. They walked back out again just after 11 a.m.
That was it. They talked to Weber for a bit over an hour and left. There was no “raid” of Walsh’s office. The Washington Times completely flubbed its story.
The Republican challenger to Will County Executive Larry Walsh sparked what has turned into an FBI examination of Walsh’s connections to a county contractor.
* And it apparently has something to do with campaign contributions to a county vendor…
Dan Kennison, Walsh’s opponent in the November election, said Thursday that he began asking questions about $6,500 given to Walsh’s campaign by individuals who turned out to have family connections to Smith Dawson and Andrews, the lobbying firm hired by the county.
“I gave that information to Mr. Weber,” Kennison said. Kennison said he also has spoken with the FBI, but would not provide details.
Kennison denied any involvement with what happened at the auditor’s office.
“I had nothing to do with this investigation. What I know about this is what I’ve read,” he said, but he added that he thought an investigation should be conducted.
What Kennison “read” in at least one paper was his quote about how he started the whole thing.
Looks like a setup to me.
* Walsh’s response to the campaign contribution stuff…
“I have known the Smiths, and Francis and Jim Smith have been very good friends of mine since I started as a state senator representing Kankakee County,” Walsh said. “If I’m guilty of taking a donation from a family friend, then God help us.”
A central Illinois man says Secretary of State Jesse White has given him permission to build a nativity scene inside the Capitol Rotunda in December.
Daniel Zanoza of Lincoln says the scene, which depicts the birth of Jesus, will celebrate Christmas and show religious displays shouldn’t be banned from public buildings.
A spokesman for the Illinois office of the American Civil Liberties Union says the agency is reviewing the state’s policy on religious articles in state buildings.
* The question: Should SoS White have allowed this nativity display? Explain fully, please.
…university students, not just employees, were prohibited from participating in political rallies on campus—an assertion at odds with the University of Illinois’ interpretation of the law.
“Anything that benefits a political campaign is prohibited on state property,” said Gilbert Jimenez, deputy inspector general. The results of any investigations of campus activity would be turned over the university’s board of trustees with recommendations for discipline, including possible dismissal, Jimenez said.
So, that means Republican, Democratic and other student political clubs would likely be banned from meeting on campus, despite decades of precedence. And the clubs’ faculty sponsors would be prohibited from attending or probably even being sponsors. Also, under this interpretation, universities could no longer host candidate debates. If anybody complains, the OEIG would launch an investigation. Wonderful.
The state attorney general’s office said it was unclear how the state law applied to university employees and whether it applied to students.
Great. How about an interpretation, for crying out loud?
* The U of I claims it won’t enforce the law…
Tom Hardy, a University of Illinois spokesman, said Thursday that the university only wanted to inform its employees of the law and had no intention of enforcing it. The university, he said, would take no action against participants in the pro-Obama rally [held yesterday on campus to protest the goofy rules].
The problem here is that the university could selectively enforce the law down the road in order to get rid of particularly problemmatic faculty, staff or students.
Either the General Assembly needs to change the law or the attorney general needs to do her job and give the universities some guidance here.
…Adding… By the OEIG’s insane logic, both of Barack Obama’s rallies at the Old State Capitol were illegal.
Democratic and Republican days at the Illinois State Fair are also therefore illegal, as are the political party tents at the fairgrounds.
If a college student wears a political buton on the U of I’s quad, can s/he be kicked out of school? Could that same person be kicked off the fairgrounds? I’ve seen plenty of private citizens wearing campaign buttons at the Statehouse. Would that be prohibited as well?
One other point. I spoke to a Democratic women’s organization at the governor’s mansion a few years ago (where I was heartily booed for the first and, so far, only time at a speaking engagement). Since members of the group spoke on behalf of specific politicians that evening, would that sort of meeting be against the law now, too?
…More food for thought… Since the constitutional convention is on the ballot this November, and since both sides of that issue have formed and registered their respective official campaign committees with the State Board of Elections and are actively campaigning, it’s also worth wondering if an upcoming debate at UIUC put together by my intern Kevin Fanning would be banned. Here’s Kevin’s comments from below…
I’m hosting a debate on the merits of the Constitutional Convention at the University of Illinois on Oct. 15h, and the Lt. Gov will be participating. Everyone is encouraged to come, especially the Governor and the deputy Inspector General.
* More…
* Column: Pres. White should retract ethics policy
* You may have seen this story on Drudge today about California Gov. Schwarzenegger warning that his state may need a $7 billion emergency federal loan.
Illinois finished the first three months of its budget year with a mountain of unpaid bills and record delays in payments, Comptroller Dan Hynes says in a new report.
Worse, the report said, with the state’s economy still faltering, the backlog of bills and payment delays “will experience an even greater increase by the end of the calendar year and beyond.” […]
As of Tuesday, the report said, more than $1.8 billion worth of bills were sitting in the comptroller’s office that couldn’t be paid because the state didn’t have the money. A year ago at this time, Hynes’ office had nearly $1.4 billion in bills waiting to be paid.
It’s also taking longer to pay those bills once they reach Hynes’ office. The payment delay is 42 working days, “a historical record at this time of year.” That counts only the time after Hynes office receives a bill for payment. Often, state agencies hold on to bills before submitting them to the comptroller’s office, which is responsible for writing the checks.
That last sentence is extremely important. The payment cycle is not what it appears to be because agencies “manage” their budget by holding onto invoices before submitting them to the comptroller for payment.
The failure of the Illinois Department of Human Services to pay overdue bills of more than $400,000 to Human Services Center of Southern Illinois forced a shutdown on Monday, September 29, the agency announced at a press conference held Friday afternoon.
As of Monday, Human Services Center laid off 27 employees—32% of staff. The staff layoff has reduced mental health and development disability care to 100-300 current clients and denied care to the 35-40 new individuals who seek care each month. […]
“We have pleaded with the Department of Human Services and Secretary Carol Adams for payment of its overdue bills, and we have warned the state that we would have to fire staff, slash care, and turn people away without immediate payment,” said Gary Buatte, Executive Director. “The state has failed to pay—so that day has come.”
Delayed state payments to several social service agencies such as Crosspoint have prompted several to seek bank loans or use lines of credit to make payroll, organizers said.
Until recently, Crosspoint was on the brink of not being able to pay its 200 employees because of slow and delayed state payments.
But legislators intervened to speed up about $820,000 in state payments to the agency.
That, said Executive Director Thom Pollock, “takes us into November.”
If you’re a state worker, or work for a social services provider, please tell us your horror stories in comments.
* Retiring Congresscritter Jerry Weller finally surfaced this week. Weller missed last week’s vote on the financial system bailout bill and wouldn’t return reporters’ calls. He was the only member of the US House who missed the vote. At one point this week, GOP state Rep. Bill Mitchell called on Weller to resign if he couldn’t handle his duties. Weller also missed an important vote on the EJ&E Railroad expansion issue. Not a good thing. Last month alone, Weller missed 71 votes.
“In hindsight, missing votes over the past week was a mistake, and I apologize to my constituents for missing those votes,” Weller said in a phone call from Washington, D.C. […]
Weller…said he stayed home in Morris because of a medical matter concerning his family, reiterating an explanation given earlier by his staff. Weller was in Washington on Thursday, waiting for a vote on a new version of the rescue plan. […]
Several local political and community leaders said they have not talked with Weller or seen him in months. Among those was Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland, who said he tried repeatedly to talk with Weller about the Canadian National proposal.
Weller said he was puzzled by Holland’s inability to reach him.
“If Mayor Holland has called me, I didn’t know he was trying to reach me,” Weller said. “He has my personal cell phone number.”
Maybe so, but Weller could’ve at least called the guy back. I’m sure Weller’s office also has his cell number.
* Weller is in DC and will vote today. The US House will vote on the Senate-approved and renamed “financial rescue” proposal sometime today. But two central Illinois members won’t change their “No” votes to “Yes”…
“I’m a ‘no.’ I haven’t moved,” [GOP Rep. John Shimkus] said. “It fundamentally destroys, or has the possibility of destroying, the free market system in this country.” […]
[GOP Rep. Tim Johnson] spokesman Phil Bloomer said the congressman also won’t veer from his earlier “no” vote.
“He’s even more angry about it than he was before,” Bloomer said, citing the legislation’s inclusion of “special interest tax breaks” such as one targeting rum production in Puerto Rico.
During his answer to the first question of the debate — how the candidates would vote on the bailout bill — Ozinga said, “My opponent (Halvorson) doesn’t understand the seriousness of the situation.”
Ozinga, president of a concrete and material supply company, said he would have voted for the bill.
Halvorson said she did understand the situation, but she would have voted against the bill as presented to the U.S. House on Monday.
In addition to giving her time to answer the question, the debate moderators gave Halvorson the only 30-second rebuttal opportunity of the evening to answer Ozinga’s claim.
“It’s just a shame to continue to point fingers,” Halvorson said in her rebuttal. “Let’s talk about what we are for instead of trying to play the blame game.”
* In another race, Republican incumbent Mark Kirk is piling up the cash…
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park) said he raised another $850,000 over the summer as he continues to pile up cash in a rematch race against Democrat Dan Seals.
The fundraising totals Kirk’s campaign released say the four-term congressman has collected $4.6 million so far. The campaign says that’s $1.4 million more than it raised during the 2006 race.
The largest deployment of Illinois National Guard troops since World War II is preparing to head to Afghanistan to help battle a growing insurgency, while families ready for life without husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
The 2,700 soldiers of the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team will ship out this month - some for pre-mission training, others to their posts in Afghanistan, where they will help train the Afghan national police force, said Col. Scott Thoele, who commands the brigade.
The shocker: Last month, more than 18,100 homes in Chicago were without electricity, according to the city Environment Department. ComEd — which would not provide statistics, saying that’s against company policy — says the numbers this year aren’t much different from years past. But the Office of Environment tells Sneed 10,000 homes were without electricity last November.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is pushing the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and retailers to do more to publicize recalls. A better informed public, she has found, is the best solution.
“This is why my office initiated a new teen driver safety law, effective January 1, 2008, that gives Illinois one of the strongest graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs in the nation,” White said. “The new law better prepares teen drivers by tripling the length of the permit phase, increasing parental involvement, limiting in-car distractions and strengthening penalties.”
Attention passengers and Cubs fans. We are standing here waiting for a train at Addison to move. Then we’ll pull into Addison and you can watch the Cubs LOSE.
Cook County Assessor James Houlihan is moving to take a lucrative tax break from Loyola University Chicago and the Franciscan Sisters religious order.
In an unusual step likely to draw strong protests from the two prominent Roman Catholic institutions, Mr. Houlihan late last week quietly issued a preliminary ruling that a posh residential retirement development involving the two on the Near North Side is subject to property tax, rather than being exempt, like most land owned by religious groups.
* Dana Milbank of the Washington Post in in St. Louis for tonight’s vice presidential debate. Milbank kicked off a live online chat this afternoon with some characteristic wit…
I feel my arrival here has enhanced my domestic policy experience.
It certainly does, because our next door neighbors here are other states. They’re next to the state that I am in.
Missouri has a very narrow maritime border between another state, Illinois, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with Kansas. We have trade missions back and forth. We do.
It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Illinois as Governor Blagojevich rears his head and comes into the airspace of Missouri. Where– where do they go? It’s Missouri. It’s just right over the border. It is from Missouri that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful state, Illinois, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.
I, myself, have been a strong proponent of going to war with Missouri and seizing territory at least as far west as University City, or perhaps out to the western suburban riverboats. Milbank’s fears are not unfounded.
* This is a vice presidential debate open thread, or you can use it to discuss pending war plans with the Show-Me State. Either way is fine, but, as always, try your very best to keep those stupid DC talking points out of the discussion, please. We like to think we’re better than the rest, so let’s prove it. Thanks.
* Attorney General Lisa Madigan ought to be ashamed of herself today. Her office tried and failed yesterday to convince a Cook County judge to keep the constitutional convention ballot question as originally written. The judge, as I told you yesterday, flat-out nixed that idea, ruling the question and a ballot instruction unconstitutional. As a refresher, here’s the question in, um, question…
In 1988 the electors rejected the call for a constitutional convention, with 75 percent voting against calling a convention and 25 percent voting in favor of calling a convention.
That’s clearly leading language and a completely unnecessary addition. But Madigan’s office argued that it was just fine and dandy.
[Judge Howse] ought to have lowered the lights in his 17th-floor courtroom and issued the attorneys flashlights to hold under their chins to illuminate their faces as they outlined the horrors they said would result from efforts to remedy the problem.
“You’ll be putting the presidential election at risk,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas Ioppolo said. “You’re going to be disenfranchising people. We cannot blow up the whole election over this.”
Ballots already are printed. Absentee ballots already are in the mail. Voting systems vary in Illinois’ 102 counties, and making systemwide changes would pose insurmountable printing and computer programming challenges.
What about creating a new, separate paper ballot with appropriate wording?
“There are too many quality-control issues,” Ioppolo said. “Too many problems. Too much risk. The election judges haven’t been trained. You’re going to have confusion.”
At one point, he said, “I am shouting the sky is falling because maybe it will be falling.”
Please.
So, this is how Lisa Madigan wants to kick off her 2010 gubernatorial campaign? Blatant fearmongering for the powers that be?
The AFL-CIO is part of the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution, which is organizing against Con-Con and had $224,871 in the bank as of June 30.
While the economic downturn may prevent the Alliance from hitting their original fundraising targets, Drea says there will be “plenty of money” to carry out an effective campaign. What does that mean? They’ll hit lots of union and editorial board meetings and also take out print ads in newspapers and bulletins.
“I think there will be some ads. I don’t think you'’re going to see us on network television in Chicago. I’d be surprised to see us on TV downstate,” he said. [emphasis added]
TV ads move voters. Period. The Alliance may go on cable, but it’s hard to tell from that quote. Cable ads are just as good as the nets for targeted campaigns. We’ll see. Downstate polling shows lots more opposition to the con-con there, so maybe that’s why they won’t bother running ads in the region.
But this is certainly an opening for the proponents.
In an unusually candid interview, a top official for the largest union backing Obama said that internal union polling shows that the race remains much more volatile and fluid in key battleground states than public polling suggests. He warned that low-information swing-state voters are saying they still don’t have a firm enough grasp on Obama’s life-story, character and record for the Illinois Senator to close the deal with them. […]
“This election remains extremely volatile in the battlegrounds,” [AFL-CIO deputy political director Mike Podhorzer] told us. “The public polls are giving a false sense of precision about where the race is. That’s a story that’s not really being told.”
Strikingly, Podhorzer said that his union’s internal polls — which push voters hard on the question of whether people are really firmly committed to their pick — show that as many as “15 to 20 percent” of battleground state voters remain “persuadable,” as he put it, despite what public polls say about the level of undecided voters.
“There are more voters than you’d expect who are just starting to pay attention to the election,” he said. “And there’s a lot of room for people to go back and forth.” […]
“Low information voters who haven’t been following this don’t know very much about Obama, in a way that might be different from other elections,” he said. “Voters are saying, `I really don’t want another four years of this, but I don’t know much about him.”
FBI agents met with Will County Auditor Stephen Weber for two hours Wednesday morning regarding an investigation the auditor initiated into a countywide office, the Tribune has learned. […]
Sources say the investigation centers on Will County Executive Larry Walsh’s office. Walsh, who faces Joliet businessman Dan Kennison in the November election, was outraged by rumors that investigators were looking into whether one of his employees was improperly accepting payments from a lobbying firm hired by the county.
Walsh, a Democrat, blamed the accusations on gutter politics. Weber is a Republican who also faces a November challenger, Democrat Kevin Duffy Blackburn.
Walsh has been prominently featured in some of Obama’s TV ads during the presidential campaign.
At 9:45 a.m., Chicago agent Joseph Basile and another man walked into the offices of Will County Auditor Steve Weber. They walked back out again just after 11 a.m. […]
“If you are insinuating that [chief of staff Matt Ryan] is receiving some kind of monetary reimbursement from them, I find that totally preposterous,” Walsh said.
The lobbying firm has secured quite a bit of federal funding for the county, including money to clean up and modernize the water and sewer system in Joliet Township’s Ridgewood neighborhood; to do engineering work at 143rd Street and Interstate 355; and to add laptop computers to the squad cars driven by Will County police. […]
“I have never received one nickel of compensation from anyone, including Mr. Smith, since I have been a county employee,” Ryan said.
Walsh is up for reelection, so this could just be a political game. But the timing isn’t just bad for Walsh, it’s bad for Obama.
Please remember our rule forbidding the use of mindless DC talking points in the comment section. They’ll just be deleted anyway, so you might as well come up with something original to begin with. Thanks.
Presented with a certificate from Gov. Rod Blagojevich for her 100th birthday, Skokie resident Sally Lerner, looking as vital as ever, had this to say:
“That’s very nice. I don’t like some of the stuff he does, but OK.”
In the dark of night between Thursday and Friday, an anonymous citizen, or group of citizens, made a bold statement concerning Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s current plans to shut down or cut open hours for many of Illinois’ historical sites.
Julia Dent Grant, the proud statue next to the [Ulysses S Grant] home, was discovered on Friday morning with a bandage around her head, cotton up her nose, her arm in a makeshift sling. On her pedestal was taped a sign that read, “Thanks Gov’ner.”
* Some citizens were not so successful at expressing their displeasure, perhaps because they overreached…
Although she is disappointed Oprah Winfrey and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn won’t attend the Save the Park Rally on Saturday at Gebhard Woods State Park, rally organizer Rachel Pfaff says it is not going to stop her or the community from fighting to keep the parks open.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced in August that 11 state parks and 13 historic sites would be closed to accommodate the state’s deficit. The Senate voted last week to take $221 million from dedicated accounts to restore funds to save the parks and human service programs.
The bills to dedicate and appropriate the funds are going through the process to hit the governor’s desk for approval, changes or veto.
“It still has to go on. We still have to fight this fight,” Pfaff said.
That hug between [Speaker] Madigan and Blagojevich at the Democratic National Convention? No doubt Madigan took a Silkwood shower afterward.
* And on a day when no new stories about the sped-up federal investigation of the governor were published, Tony Rezko was back in the news…
A federal judge on Wednesday froze more than $100,000 belonging to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, saying the money may be needed if she orders the prominent political fundraiser to forfeit a big chunk of his assets as punishment for masterminding political corruption.
“There is a substantial probability that the United States will prevail in its request for entry of a money judgment against the defendant,” U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve, who presided at Rezko’s trial, said in her order freezing the money.
* And a former deputy chief of staff who is now running for congress, Jill Morgenthaler, wasn’t exactly heaping praise on the guy at the Tribune editorial meeting this week…
Morgenthaler said Blagojevich “has been good in some areas and bad in other areas.”
Civil wars drown even innocent bystanders in brotherly bloodshed. So before Chicago’s outer suburbs place orders for cannons, before inner-ring communities float a navy, let’s all chill and take a fresh look at Canadian National Railway Co.’s offer to buy the underused Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.
In just a few years, Mayor Daley’s wife has built one of the fastest-growing charities in Illinois.
The charity — After School Matters — has seen its revenues soar 243 percent from 2003 to 2006, from $5.3 million to $18.2 million, according to the latest reports it’s filed with the Internal Revenue Service. […]
The charity gets donations from city contractors who can no longer give money to Mayor Daley’s campaign fund as a result of the reforms he imposed three years ago in the wake of the Hired Truck scandal.
* City expected to ban driving while texting - Web surfers would be fined $75, too
Distracted driving has come a long way in the 95 years since the invention of windshield wipers prompted fears that drivers would be “hypnotized” by the back-and-forth motion.
* Planned Parenthood marks 1 year in Aurora amid controversy - Supporters, opponents of clinic claim successes; protests continue near its doors
“This group has invested a lot of money. They’re gonna want to maximize that investment. It’s gonna be up to me to see how many flights they’re talking about. That’s why the soundproofing is so important. That’s very important to me and my consituents,” Zalewski said.
Chicago taxicab fares will be going up in 2009 for the first time in four years, but not because cabbies are threatening to “paralyze the city” if they don’t get an increase, a top mayoral aide said Wednesday.
Consumer Services Commissioner Norma Reyes said she’s sympathetic to the United Taxidrivers Community Council’s request for a 16 percent fare increase.
* Ex-Lake County chief judge must stand trial on DUI charge, court rules - Judge says police had cause to stop David Hall, who resigned after being arrested in April
James Munger ran the Garrick Restaurant in the Loop for 20 years and helped start an association that harnesses the buying power of hundreds of Greek restaurateurs in the Chicago area.
Mr. Munger, 82, died Tuesday, Sept. 30, of complications from leukemia at his Deerfield home, said his son Andrew.
* Tropicana Field: Orange-ja glad you’re not there?
