Laptops go Green
Monday, Apr 23, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
The environmentally conscious now have another tool to aid in their personal quest to stem the draining our earth’s resources.
Samsung has announced what they are calling the “first ever†hybrid notebook.
The new Hybrid HDD Samsung R55 will cost 1.8M Won ($1923) and will come with:
–Intel Core2Duo T5600 (1.83GHz) CPU
–15.4″ WXGA LCD
–80GB Hybrid HDD (5400rpm + 256Mb OneNAND Flash)
–nVidia GeForce 7400 Graphics card
–Super Multi DL Optical Drive
–Windows Vista Premium OS
Hybrid HDD is a technology that ads a flash RAM chip to the standard HDD. This way most frequently used data can be stored and read from flash memory, reducing the usage (spin) of HDD itself.
According to Samsung, when used for small chunks (up to 10Mb) of data in R55, Hybrid Hard Drive had 26% improvement on data reading and 71% improvement of datawriting speed, 32% lower power consumption and increased HDD longevity by 10%.
More commentary…
Hyrbid laptops have officially arrived, and Samsung’s R55 is the company’s first to feature both an 80GB 5,400rpm drive alongside an additional 256MB flash drive. Samsung claims the hybrid hard drive consumes 32% less power, offers a 26% increase in data reading and boosts data-writing speed by 71%. That kinda talk makes the 15.4-inch notebook worth the $1,923 splurge.
Other hybrid laptops had been around for nearly a year, but they were referred to as “luggable†instead of portable. From Dell in June 2006…
Dell’s new XPS M2010, which starts at $1,999, includes two hard drives with up to 120GB capacity each, a Core Duo processor and 4GB of dual-channel (667MHz) memory.
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More hyperbole from IFI
Monday, Apr 23, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’ve been on the Illinois Family Institute’s e-mail list for quite some time now. Usually, I just chuckle at their hyperbolic press releases. I chuckled a little more than usual today, however, and thought I’d share it with you.
First, the bold-faced headline…
IFI E-Alert: Contact Your State Rep. Today About The “Homosexual/Shack-up Teachers Bill” - Ominous legislation will equate shack-up couples and homosexual partners with married spouses.
Now, the lede, which is fairly sedate…
HB 1331, sponsored by State Representative Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), amends the Illinois Pension Code, to allow a designated domestic partner to qualify as a surviving spouse for purposes of survivor and death benefits.
As amended, HB 1331 changes the Downstate Teacher Article of the Illinois Pension Code as well as the Chicago Teacher Article.
Scroll down a bit, however, and you’ll see this…
The assault on traditional American culture continues. This legislation, HB 1331, might as well be called the “Homosexual/Shack-up Teacher Bill”, as it most certainly will attract non-traditionalists and homosexual activists to Chicago classrooms. Make no mistake, this bill will be provide an incentive to draw non-traditional and homosexual activist teachers to come to Illinois schools.
Do you think this stuff works? If so, please explain it to me.
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Question of the day
Monday, Apr 23, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
First, the setup…
Lakemoor village board candidate Gregory L. LaPlante was arrested April 13 and charged with a pair of felonies less than a week before he finished last in a six-way race for three seats, unofficial results showed.
Lake Zurich Unit District 95 school board President Gary W. Robillard died April 15, two days before he won re-election.
The connecting thread? People who voted early in these races did so without being able to factor the developments into their choices. […]
They are real examples of early voting’s potential problems, election analyst Curtis Gans said.
“A large number of citizens (may not) have had that knowledge when they voted,†said Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C., that scrutinizes voting trends. “And that’s a problem.â€
In Illinois, early voting begins 22 days before Election Day and lasts 17 days. For the recent statewide consolidated election, early voting ran from March 26 to April 12.
Now, the question: Do you support early voting despite these problems? Why or why not?
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* Apparently, Wal-Mart got the message from last week’s city council races…
Despite post-election chest thumping, the first signs of a potential compromise are emerging in the political war between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and union-led advocates of a big-box minimum wage bill.
Sources on both sides say they’re willing to sit down and talk at length, and they raise the possibility of a deal in which Wal-Mart would get zoning approval needed for more Chicago stores in exchange for agreeing to support a wider minimum wage bill that applies to more than the super-sized retail outlets known as big boxes.
But not everybody is convinced that Wal-Mart wants to talk turkey…
One top labor leader, Ron Powell, president of Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, says he would “have to think about” such a proposal and carefully examine its details. Mr. Powell says he doubts Wal-Mart is interested in any compromise.
Another union leader, Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, says he needs to talk to his partners in the coalition that pushed the big-box bill. The main thing needed is a willingness to talk, Mr. Gannon adds. “Wal-Mart has made a decision not to have a dialogue,” he says. Mr. Scott denies that.
* My syndicated newspaper column takes a look at some municipal races…
The real electoral surprise last week was not in Chicago, where five tired, old incumbent hack aldermen went down to defeat. The big shocker was the Carbondale mayor’s race, where Sheila Simon — the daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon — was trounced by Republican incumbent Brad Cole.
* Kristen McQueary takes a look at last-minute mailers and ads against a local property tax referendum and is not pleased…
The problem with these groups — or perhaps the political genius of them — is that they tango beneath the radar screen until days before the election. Then they surface, blast misleading information from the barracks, and go back into hiding until next time.
Bottom line: Beware of last-minute mailings, especially if they don’t include names and phone numbers of the originators. They’re sent the weekend before an election for a reason.
* Color Carol Marin skeptical…
So when I read what Jackson told Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman last week, I had some reservations. ‘’The bullies have left the Council. That pleases me greatly,'’ intoned Jesse Jr.
Really? I don’t think so.
The real bullies aren’t the ones who walk with a swagger stick. The real bullies stroll around like statesmen. They like to run silent and deep, knowing precisely how to kill an ordinance, stall a debate, and stick it to earnest freshmen.
Let’s hear it for the Daley Five.
There’s 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke, the Machiavellian crown prince of Daley’s kingdom who’s had a near 40-year lock in office. The mayor doesn’t like him or vice versa, but they see the same goal line. Burke has huge power as chairman of the Finance Committee. Huge money, nearly $7 million in his political kitties. And an entourage of six Chicago police plainclothes bodyguards who work in two-man, round-the-clock shifts, solicitously holding his coat and getting his door at taxpayers’ expense.
After Burke, there’s 33rd Ward Ald. Dick Mell, who runs the Rules Committee; 36th Ward Ald. Bill Banks, who controls the powerhouse Zoning Committee; 29th Ward Ald. Isaac Carothers, who’s in charge of Police and Fire. And there’s recently re-elected 50th Ward Ald. Bernie Stone, who may be old but can still kick your knees out in a fight.
* Laura Washington takes a look at a major factor in last week’s elections…
Three actors have turned Chicago politics on its ear: Labor, Junior and the New Black Vote. […]
That brings us to the New Black Vote. Is it my imagination, or have black voters been poorly served by their elected officials? Remember, it was black voters who put the Toddster in charge of Cook County government. We voted him in, and now he’s laying off nearly 500 doctors and nurses who care for the county’s poor. We voted him in, and he’s hiring more relatives and public relations flacks while shutting down the county’s long-term care at Oak Forest Hospital.
This is the beginning of the end of the age-old argument in black politics that “you don’t want to put a brother out of a j-o-b.” Our elected officials have to deliver.
People in Madeline Haithcock’s ward couldn’t get her to respond to the simplest of complaints. People in Dorothy Tillman’s ward knew they paid for the edifice she built in honor of Harold Washington, but it is run by Tillman’s daughter. They live near 47th Street and the L, where they’re afraid to walk in the dark. […]
It is a dangerous time to be a black hack in Chicago.
* And the Tribune looks at the money trail…
Seven of the 12 winning candidates received 50 percent or more of their campaign funding during the runoff period from either organized labor or groups allied with Daley. Campaign spending equated to $50 a vote in some races, with totals more typically seen in campaigns for higher offices.
Elections for aldermen, the most local of public offices, once were intimate face-to-face exercises in retail politics, with candidates spending tens of thousands of dollars in a big race. But under the state’s porous campaign-finance rules, candidates have gorged on contributions, which pay for more sophisticated operations featuring slick mail brochures, automated telephone calls and advertising on radio and television. Some labor-backed council candidates were able to import workers from the East Coast to walk in wards — jobs traditionally taken by volunteers, many with city jobs.
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Shenanigans decried *** Updated x1 ***
Monday, Apr 23, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The analyses and the editorials have begun on Friday’s Senate craziness. Kevin McDermott…
Illinois Sen. Gary Forby last week got the kind of political lesson they don’t teach in social studies classes.
The lesson came courtesy of some procedural sleight of hand in the Senate that could leave thousands of outraged electricity customers without the rate relief they have been demanding since prices soared just after the first of the year.
* Doug Finke…
At one point in the debate, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said, “The problem isn’t Senator Emil Jones, the problem is Speaker Mike Madigan.”
He’s only partly right. The problem is Madigan and Jones. You can add Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the mix, too, since he hasn’t exactly been Mr. Leadership on electric rates. They don’t talk to each other. There’s no compromise. There’s only maneuvering for political advantage.
* Daily Herald…
(T)he reality of Illinois state politics dictates that the utilities be treated equally if the goals of offering short-term relief and devising long-range answers are to be reached. Moves such as the one Jones made on Friday simply delay needed work and push those goals further from reach.
* Yesterday’s Sun-Times editorial doesn’t mention the ComEd shenanigans, but it does pore over some bad press that Senate President Emil Jones has received lately…
In the case of Jones, his son was recently hired for a $57,360-a-year job as manager of real estate development at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. His wife was named head of the mental health division at the Department of Human Services in 2005, getting a salary boost of nearly $80,000 to $186,000 a year.
Critics might wonder if there’s a quid pro quo between Jones and Blagojevich, especially since Jones has emerged as the chief advocate for the governor’s gross receipts tax. No, we don’t think so. Jones has always been a key Blagojevich ally and a strong supporter of funding for education, one of the goals of the governor’s proposed tax. We don’t believe the job for his son or promotion for his wife — or a no-bid contract for his stepson — changed his behavior.
But there are curious aspects to both moves. For instance, his son’s job opening wasn’t advertised. It doesn’t require a college degree and he doesn’t have one, but it’s not a big leap to ask whether someone more qualified might have applied had they known about the position. And the state rescinded its rule that the top mental health chief be a medical doctor to clear the way for the hiring of Lorrie Jones, who is not an M.D. but is a long-practicing psychologist.
* And we’re all still waiting for any meaningful coverage or editorializing from the Chicago Tribune.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** From Dave over at Illinoize…
ICPR has posted a spreadsheet… listing each Senator, how they voted on the Forby amendment, if they were targeted in 2006, when their seat is next on the ballot, and how much they received in 2005-2006 from electric companies (and, if 2006 targets, from leadership.). No one explanation likely covers all 59 Senators. But the answers to most of the votes can likely be found in these factors.
The spreadsheet can be found here. [link is now fixed]
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* It looks like House Democratic staff might be putting pressure on members who go too far out on a limb on the governor’s gross receipts tax.
Case in point, Rep. Chuck Jefferson (D-Rockford), who told reporter Aaron Chambers a few days ago, “I’m not saying I’m totally supporting GRT… I’m leaning toward GRT, versus 750.”
But then…
The next day, Jefferson’s staff distributed a statement that Jefferson wanted to set the record straight. The statement, attributed to Jefferson, said the article’s description of Jefferson’s “warm view†was wrong.
On Tuesday, I asked Jefferson to isolate a single inaccurate element of the story, and he did not do so.
He said his staff told him to issue the statement to clarify his view. Business leaders, he said, interpreted the story as an indication of his definitive support for the GRT, and that it was important for him to counter such a perception.
Jefferson’s staff takes its orders from House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who appears cool to the GRT.
I asked Jefferson on Tuesday whether he continued to “lean†in favor of the GRT.
“I don’t know if ‘lean’ is a good word for it,†he told me. “I’m still looking at it in a better light than I am 750. ‘Lean’ is not a good word.â€
I also hear that Rep. Mike Boland (D-East Moline) got an earful from Madigan’s staff after he gushed over the GRT during Gov. Blagojevich’s bus tour a couple of weeks ago.
* Meanwhile, business groups and business owners tell the Tribune that they’re not happy at all with the way Gov. Blagojevich is selling the tax…
“To have your own governor declaring war on you with inflammatory language and citing Armageddon, well, it really sticks in my craw,” said Ron Bullock, chief executive of Bison Gear and Engineering Corp. in St. Charles.
* You mean stuff like this?
“You may not have as many corporate lunches as you did last year, or you may not give out bonuses as high as you did before,†[Blagojevich spokeswoman Becky Carroll] said.
* In the same article, Carroll pointed out a passage that I hadn’t seen before…
Blagojevich is hedging his bets, though. His plan, which is pending before the Senate, states that a gross-receipts tax “is a tax on the taxpayer and may not be separately billed or invoiced to another person.â€
“It’s to prevent them from passing this tax on to con-sumers, and if it’s not written as such they can do so,†Carroll said of this provision. “They could itemize the tax and bill it to a customer as is the case with sales or utility taxes.â€
* And the editorials keep coming. Belleville News-Democrat…
The tax would be applied at each step of the process: wholesaler, subcontractor, general contractor, developer and consumer.
A higher sales price means a bigger down payment, higher mortgage payments, and higher property taxes. In other words, more pyramiding.
Now think about all the products and services you buy, and you get a sense of how costly this proposal will be if it’s enacted.
Contact Blagojevich and your lawmakers about their position on the gross receipts tax.
* Decatur Herald & Review…
The appetite for state funds is always larger than what taxpayers can provide. That appetite will turn into a frenzy if the gross receipts tax continues to be a part of the governor’s plan.
* More tax and spend stuff…
* Tribune Editorial: The pitter-patter of progress toward better schools
* Martire: Boost in earned income tax credit the fair thing to do
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Morning Shorts
Monday, Apr 23, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* George Bonomo: Horsemen ask for slots or bigger share of revenue
* Editorial: Time is right for civil unions in Illinois
Illinois would be doing nothing radical by adopting civil unions. In fact, it would be odd if lawmakers failed to enact this policy. Sound policy arguments and clear public opinion support this policy change.
* Illinois weighs rules for liability in civil cases
* Cell phone ‘lemon law’ proposed in Springfield
Mendoza has proposed a bill that would allow customers to leave their contracts, without penalty, if their cell phones need to be repaired or replaced three times because of a manufacturing defect.
* Making Illinois a movie magnet
* Illinois House advance Internet safety bill
* Should judges have to live in their own subcircuits?
The state Senate thinks so. It has unanimously passed a bill that would require judges elected from one of the county’s 15 subcircuits to continue living there — and to win retention from the subcircuit’s voters every six years — as long as they want to keep their seats.
* Editorial: Lawmakers respond to reports of towing abuses
* Full day Kindergarten may end up costing you
* Sun-Times Editorial: New CTA chief helps, but it will be an uphill battle
* Toll signs take new direction
* Editorial: Illinois’s “I-Pass” vs. Indiana’s “I-Zoom”
* 3,350 attend wake for Stephens
* Sunshine needed on Cook Co. Board of Review
The board oversees an ethical cesspool in which attorneys make fat political donations to board members and then win big assessment reductions for their clients. The process is hard for citizens to follow — doubtless by design.
* D.C. chief unsure about returning to Chicago
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The Sun-Times has a series of articles today on yet another relationship between Barack Obama and Tony Rezko…
When Barack Obama took a job at a small Chicago law firm in 1993, the first name on the door of the firm was Allison S. Davis.
Five years later, having left his Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland firm, Davis invested in Antoin “Tony'’ Rezko’s final government-subsidized, low-income housing project, state records show, in a deal handled by Davis’ former law firm.
Davis and Rezko also went into business together, building upscale homes in the booming Kenwood neighborhood where Davis lives. The legal work on those deals was also done by Davis’ former law firm, where Obama was working.
Of course, there’s a Blagojevich connection, too…
Four years ago, Blagojevich appointed Davis to the Illinois State Board of Investment, which controls state pension funds — one of a series of appointments the governor made at Rezko’s request.
* And then there’s this…
For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago’s South Side.
It was just four years after the landlords — Antoin “Tony'’ Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru — had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.
Rezko and Mahru couldn’t find money to get the heat back on.
But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.
* But in the same article…
Just what legal work — and how much — Obama did on those deals is unknown. His campaign staff acknowledges he worked on some of them. But the Rezmar-related work amounted to just five hours over the six years it said Obama was affiliated with the law firm, the staff said in an e-mail in February.
* They have an extensive Q&A with Obama’s campaign…
Sun-Times question: Please explain what legal work the senator performed on each of those Rezmar projects. I have a copy of a legal bill showing Sen. Obama worked on the Central Woodlawn project. Please include the number of hours he spent on each Rezmar deal, the dates he worked on those deals, and to whom he reported at the firm, whether that was Allison Davis and/or William Micelli.
Obama campaign answer: Senator Obama worked on several projects in which the firm’s principal client was a not-for-profit corporation. The projects entailed negotiations between the firm’s primary not-for-profit client and the Rezmar-related entity that served as co-general partner or co-venturer of the not-for-profit.
Once the negotiations between the not-for-profit and Rezmar-related entity were completed, the firm represented the combined entity, usually an Illinois limited partnership or Illinois limited-liability company.
The Senator, relatively inexperienced in this kind of work, was assigned to tasks appropriate for a junior lawyer. These tasks would have included reviewing documents, collecting corporate organizational documents, and drafting corporate resolutions. The Senator reported primarily to former partner Allison Davis and occasionally to William Miceli.
Q: At the time of those deals, Tony Rezko was a client of the senator’s firm, a campaign donor to the senator, a personal friend, and a business partner with the senator’s boss, Allison Davis. But Mr. Rezko was also a landlord to many constituents living in the state Senate district that Senator Obama represented at the time. And many of those Rezmar properties had fallen into disrepair, while Rezmar began to fail financially. Did the senator ever talk to Tony Rezko about the deteriorating status of his housing projects?
A: To reiterate: the firm did represent entities in which Tony Rezko had an interest but never Tony Rezko, personally. Senator Obama does not remember having conversations with Tony Rezko about properties that he owned or any specific issues related to those properties.
Q: In this situation, how did the senator decide whose interests took precedence: Mr. Rezko, Mr. Davis, the senator’s constituents?
A: The Senator, then a junior lawyer, did not have the authority, the assignment or the opportunity to make such decisions. But it is important to keep in mind that the whole enterprise of affordable housing is geared toward improving housing stock for those unable to afford market-priced housing. The goals of the firm’s clients were consistent with the needs of communities benefiting from affordable housing initiatives.
Reading through all the questions and answers, it doesn’t look like there’s much there, as long as Obama’s people are being honest.
* Rezmar deals involving Davis Miner law firm
* Troutman dad got rehab deal - Father of indicted alderman received $500K loan to redevelop apartments
* Top recipients of Rezko campaign cash
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Audio and video feeds can be found here. Bill status, full text and roll call record can be found here. The roll call record for the amendment and the 3rd Reading vote are both now online and can be found here.
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12:35 PM - The Senate Republicans just requested a twenty minute caucus to discuss Sen. Gary Forby’s amendment that would include ComEd in the one-year rate rollback and freeze. Forby’s bill is up next.
1:04 PM - Members are starting to trickle back to their seats. Caucus appears to be over.
1:05 PM - “The Senate will come to order.”
1:09 PM - Here it comes.
1:11 PM - Republicans request a roll call. GOP Sen. Risinger rises to support the amendment. That’s the best indication that the Repubs did not take a caucus position against the proposal.
1:13 PM - I accidentally turned off comments. Oops. They’re back on now.
1:15 PM - Democratic Sen. Clayborne, who has been negotiating with the utilities and generating companies, predicts that if the Forby bill passes, the new law will get “bogged down in litigation.
1:21 PM - Sen. Garrett, a Democrat who said yesterday she was pleased with ComEd’s concessions on rates for condominium public areas, is praising ComEd and blasting Ameren. Asks for a “No” vote.
1:24 PM - Sen. Crotty, another Democrat and previous supporter of extending the rate freeze: “I’ve never been a huge proponent of ComEd,” and adds that Ameren has not been a good corporation. This looks like the new rationale for voting against Forby’s bill.
1:28 PM - Democratic Sen. Sullivan: If this amendment is not adopted, there will be no real discussion on electric rates.
1:30 PM - Dem Sen. Schoenberg: “This has become an exercise in leverage.” “We are settling for pennies on the dollar if we exclude ComEd from this bill.”
1:33 PM - Senate Majority Leader Halvorson said she was one of those who “encouraged” Forby to add ComEd to the bill. Praises ComEd for providing lots of money for “true relief” and thinks it would be “irresponsible” to go ahead with amendment. “I think we should never take the easy way out.”
1:35 PM - Senate President Emil Jones is the last speaker on the amendment. Says he probably voted for the original freeze bill, but now he thinks it was a “mistake.”
1:40 PM - Forby is closing. “Now that they got what they want, to Hell with Forby.” “I need your help.” On Emil Jones: “He’s my president and I think the world of him.” “They talked about Lisa Madigan, they’ve run her down pretty good today.” “If we don’t work together, you’re gonna see some bigtime issues” (as he turns toward Jones). “We can work something out, I’m ready to work something out.”
1:46 PM - Roll call. 33 Yes, 24 No. Amendment is adopted.
Parliamentary action. There was a motion to reconsider the vote on the amendment.
1:48 PM - Sen. Righter asks if there will be a vote on that motion. Answer: The suspension of the amendment automatically occurs when the motion is filed. Righter moves to table the motion. Righter requests immediate caucus.
1:52 PM - Forby is being asked if he wishes to proceed. Forby asks whether his amendment is part of this bill. He is told it is not. “Don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?”
DeLeo: Would you like to proceed or hold it on 3rd Reading?
1:53 PM - Forby: “I would like to leave this on 2nd Reading for now.”
Senate stands in recess to call of the chair.
EXPLANATION - What happened is they used a parliamentary maneuver to put a hold on the amendment even though it was approved by a majority. This is rare, and it’s even rarer that a Democratic Senate President would do that to one of his own members.
FURTHER EXPLANATION - From the Senate’s rules…
A motion to reconsider a record vote on the adoption of an amendment to a bill may be made only on Second Reading. An amendment adopted by the Senate on a record vote may not be tabled by motion until its adoption has been reconsidered.
So, they can’t table the motion until there is a vote to reconsider. Jones will control when that vote will take place.
I’m no parliamentary expert, but there doesn’t seem to be anything in the rules that requires a timetable for a vote on a motion to reconsider. Still checking.
MORE EXPLANATION It looks to me like this amendment has been effectively shackled by Jones, at least for now. I’m not sure if there’s a way to force a vote on the motion to reconsider. Well, there is, but I doubt the motion will be recognized by the presiding officer.
2:14 PM - Senate Repubs are coming back from caucus.
A BIT MORE EXPLANATION - The motion to reconsider means that Forby’s amendment is not considered alive (for want of a better word) until that motion to reconsider is voted on. And since Sen. Hendon made the motion, it’s up to Hendon to call for the vote. Hendon is an ally of Emil Jones.
2:18 PM - Righter: Inquiry of the chair.
Righter requests a roll call vote. Denied. The motion was filed in writing and will be put on the calendar. Righter moves to go to that order of business on the calendar and was told that they would get back to him.
2:21 PM - Forby: “If I live (to be) a hundred years old, I never will forget this day.”
Forby is moving the bill forward without the ComEd amendment attached.
2:22 PM - “I ask for your vote on this Ameren bill… No matter what happens I appreciate the people that did vote with me on this.”
2:32 PM - Putting out an extra. Keep up the good work in comments.
2:41 PM - Notice that, so far, not a single Senate Democrat has stood up to Jones and defended Forby.
2:43 PM - Democratic state Sen. Silverstein is now sticking up for Forby, calling the actions of the day “shenanigans,” before he was cut off by the presiding officer.
2:59 PM - From a stock guy: Ameren sold off about a percent on the amendment, now coming back but not all the way yet… 50.23, down 26 cents on the day, up 50 cents from the low… ComEd (Exelon) up 60 cents, but up over a buck from today’s low.
3:06 PM - DeepFriedOnAStick makes a good point in comments…
Why the heck is Forby moving forward with the bill? Why doesn’t he wait a week and the let pressure continue to build on Jones to allow a vote on the motion?
3:08 PM - Senate President Emil Jones is speaking now. “The House is the reason why those rates are so high for many of the people downstate.”
3:15 PM - Forby to close. Asks for an aye vote. 35-20
The roll call record for the amendment can be found here.
3:25 PM - Democrats voting “No” on Forby’s ComEd amendment: Bond, Clayborne, Collins, Crotty, Cullerton, DeLeo, Delgado, Garrett, Halvorson, Harmon, Hunter, Koehler, Lightford, Link, Martinez, Meeks, Munoz, Noland, Raoul, Ronen, Sandoval, Viverito, Emil Jones. Jacobs and Trotter are listed as “Not Voting.”
Democratic targets who voted “No” were Bond and Noland.
3:33 PM - Paul has been at the Statehouse while I stayed in the office and blogged and put out two “extras”. He’s now busily collecting comments. Hopefully, we’ll post some here later this afternoon, perhaps with audio clips.
3:39 PM - The 3rd Reading roll call is now online and can be found here.
3:44 PM - Democrats who initially voted NO on the ComEd amendment and then voted YES on the Ameren-only 3rd Reading roll call: Clayborne, Collins, Cullerton, DeLeo, Delgado, Garrett, Harmon, Link, Meeks, Ronen, Viverito.
Jacobs, who didn’t vote on the ComEd amendment voted YES on Third Reading.
Halvorson (Majority Leader), Hendon (who filed the motion to reconsider), Trotter (who is out of town) and Emil Jones (Senate President) did not vote on Third Reading.
3:50 PM - Republicans who initially voted YES on the ComEd amendment and then voted NO on the Ameren-only Third Reading roll call: Althoff, Burzynski, Cronin, Hultgren, Murphy, Pankau, Radogno, Sieben, Syverson.
3:54 PM - The AP story has been up for a bit. Hadn’t had time to notice…
Legislation that would have rolled back electric rates across Illinois was sidetracked Friday by maneuvering in the state Senate.
Supporters of a one-year rollback scored an important victory when the Senate voted 33-24 earlier Friday to amend the legislation so that it would include millions of ComEd customers in northern Illinois. Backers then planned to call the revised bill for a vote.
But an ally of Senate President Emil Jones used a rare parliamentary maneuver to suspend the ComEd amendment that had just been added. Jones, a Chicago Democrat who opposes cutting ComEd rates, now can hold the amendment in legislative limbo forever.
“Don’t you think this is a little ridiculous?” the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, asked when he realized what had been done.
4:09 PM - Paul has comments from Sen. Gary Forby…
* Why he decided to go ahead with Ameren only instead of keeping on 2nd reading - “I’d rather have something than nothing at all.”
* Did he feel betrayed by own caucus? - “I was disappointed. If I didn’t have the votes than I wouldn’t have felt that bad, but I did. I’m not sure I’m going to say I felt betrayed.”
* On why he didn’t accept the Ameren deal - “I do what my people want me to do. My people wanted me to freeze the rates.”
* On potential political fallout - “I’m going to work just as hard this election as I have on other ones. I’m not worried about that part.”
4:12 PM - Quotes from Sen. James Clayborne…
“Both sides use rules to maneuver. It has happened before, just maybe not that particular rule.
“I had no part in it.”
“We are in the Major Leagues. We are suppose to think everything out. I guess Sen. Forby just got outmaneuvered.”
“He could have postponed it and allowed it to come back.”
4:22 PM - Comments by Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan…
On the absence of ComEd language - “We’ll address that in a House committee. That’s what the beauty of amendments are.”
“It’s a good step forward. The Senate has now voted on a statewide freeze. I’m going to look at it positively… It will take a couple of weeks to get it done, but we’re hopeful.
* More from the AP…
The maneuver stunned the sponsor of the rollback legislation, a member of Jones’ Democratic majority.
“This is not fair, ladies and gentlemen. I want to tell you right now, it’s not fair,” said Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton. […]
But moments after the Senate voted to add ComEd to the legislation, a Jones ally took the rare step of making a motion to reconsider the vote. Under the Senate’s complex rules, that immediately nullified the previous vote and put the amendment into limbo.
As president, Jones controls whether the ComEd amendment ever emerges from that limbo. Forby was then forced to either push ahead with the Ameren-only measure, or wait and take the chance that Jones would never allow it to come up for a vote again.
* Pantagraph…
Now, a measure to roll back rates for only Ameren customers moves to the House, where leaders immediately slammed the door on approving it without ComEd being included.
“No, it’s a statewide issue so we’ve got to deal with it in a statewide manner,†said House Speaker Michael Madigan spokesman Steve Brown. […]
“The Ameren Illinois utilities believe this legislation, if enacted, violates the United States Constitution and is not in the best interest of its Illinois residential or business electric customers, or the state’s economy as a whole,†read an Ameren statement released Friday.
* Small Newspapers…
“I think I had a fast one pulled on me,” Sen. Forby said afterwards. […]
Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said Friday’s maneuvering was “raw, naked political power,” but said Sen. Jones may have done Sen. Forby a favor since his real fight is with Ameren.
* Daily Herald…
“My goal was to find immediate relief for my constituents, and that’s what I voted for,” state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, said afterward. “Is it a perfect situation to be in? No. But I don’t know what freezing ComEd rates really does for my consumers right now.” […]
Not even AARP was impressed, given the way things played out in the Senate.
“Whether you are 22 or 92, residential customers know when they are getting a raw deal,” said Bob Gallo, the senior group’s Illinois director.
* If you were looking for Tribune coverage of Friday’s atrocities, you were out of luck. There’s nothing. Nada. Not a single story from the paper’s Statehouse reporters. The website carried an AP analysis, but since I don’t buy dead tree versions of newspapers, I’m not even sure if that made it into the paper. Why would the Trib ignore such a huge story?
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Pat Quinn spills
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
Chicagoist has just published its interview with Lt. Governor Pat Quinn.
* On the rate hikes…
In the current case, the ICC has really dropped the ball, and has done a very poor job in my opinion in dealing with ComEd and Ameren downstate, and the reverse auction that the ICC blessed, there’s not a word of approval for that in the statutes, you know, they just came up with this out of whole cloth.
* On taxes and the governor…
(T)he governor wants to raise taxes. When he first announced, he didn’t have a penny of tax relief. Lately he’s talking about, well, he said I raise the tax some more and give you some tax relief. Well to me that’s cart before the horse.
* On his own ambition…
C: Have you ever considered running for Governor?
PQ: No. No I haven’t.
C: Why not?
PQ: Because I like this job. [Leans forward and picks up a book off the coffee table.] Paul Simon, right below you there, that’s the book. He was an excellent public servant in my opinion. His daughter gave me one of his bowties. [Holds up the bowtie] And Paul Simon was Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. That was his only executive office his whole life. He was State Rep, State Senator, US Congressman, US Senator, and also Lieutenant Governor. And he did that job well.
I was in college when he got started, he got sworn in, and he said he wanted to be an ombudsman. I didn’t exactly know what that word meant, so I looked it up. It means the people’s person in Swedish. So that’s what I want to be, in his footsteps. I think this job, you can be the people’s person.
Actually, Quinn mused briefly about running against Blagojevich in the ‘06 Democratic primary. But that’s another story.
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Question of the day
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
We’re well into baseball season and I have yet to do a Friday White Sox Blogging edition, so I’ll take care of that today.
Question: Of the White Sox, Cardinals and Cubs, who will have the better record at the end of the season?
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Overtime and Dick Kay
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
It could be a long, hot summer, campers…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Wednesday he will keep the legislature in session “as long as it’s necessary” to pass his sweeping new health care proposal.
Speaking at the annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blagojevich told an audience of business, community and political leaders that he is “determined” to push through a $2 billion-a-year Illinois Covered health care plan during the spring legislative session. […]
Blagojevich previously called a series of special sessions in 2004 to hammer out a budget agreement.
But Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said “we’re cautiously optimistic” that the health care plan will pass during the regular legislative session.
The Statehouse consensus is that we’re heading for a long OT session. However, quite a few people still believe that Blagojevich can be convinced to back off his health insurance plan.
Not gonna happen. The governor is certainly open to compromise on the details, but if I learned anything on that bus tour it is that the man is bound and determined to get this thing done come Hell or high water.
Meanwhile, Dick Kay took off after the media in a Daily Southtown column today…
In my 38 years of reporting for NBC 5 Chicago, I was known as a curmudgeon, but I also was considered objective. Now that I am a special health care advocate for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and no longer in the thick of reporting, I have been carefully watching the debate of the governor’s health care plan.
As a retired journalist and current advocate, I unequivocally can say there is something missing in the debate. What’s missing is any discussion of need. The media is filled with stories about business’ view (mostly negative) of the gross receipts tax. That is to be expected. Corporations, through their highly paid lobbyists and large special-interest associations have greater access to the media. […]
I would think the media’s long tradition of honest, accurate, fair and balanced coverage should include in this debate the stories of those who need access to affordable quality health care as proposed by Blagojevich. Working families and individuals in the middle class who are doing without are facing financial ruin. In some cases, access to health care or the lack of it might be a matter of life and death.
He does have a point. The stories covering business complaints about the GRT have overwhelmed what coverage there’s been of the health care debate.
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Was it a labor win or not?
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
Jerry Roper is right in one sense…
Labor unions are claiming victory after this week’s twelve aldermanic runoffs in Chicago. Most candidates who received union backing won their races.
But Jerry Roper with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce says it’s not that cut and dried.
ROPER: With all of the money that was spent on these elections, look how close they were. So there was no real huge victories there.
Roper says election results reflect voter dissatisfaction with specific aldermen. He says they’re not a mandate for labor issues like the so-called big box living wage ordinance.
The victorious challengers did not win based on labor’s top issues like the big box ordinance. They won mainly because they ran very good campaigns and the incumbents were out of touch hacks.
But most of those challengers would never have even been in the game without labor’s money and precinct work. Labor recruited several of the candidates and dumped millions of dollars into their races. They ran good campaigns at least in part because organized labor helped them do so.
Meanwhile Eric Krol tells us that the Milk Man came up short yet again…
Dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, a three-time statewide electoral loser, still can’t catch a break. The two candidates he backed in the big District 214 school board race both lost.
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Teachers back off GRT bill
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
This was my top story yesterday in the Capitol Fax. No hat tip, of course, but that’s expected….
The 1 million-strong Illinois AFL-CIO has backed off its support of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $7 billion tax plan for education and health care because of a flap over charter schools.
The labor organization had been poised to lobby for the tax plan, but it switched its position to “neutral” after learning of a provision that would double the number of charter schools allowed in Illinois, said spokeswoman Beth Spencer.
Concerns were raised by an affiliate, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which opposes an expansion of charter schools. Spencer said that if one affiliate is opposed to the governor’s plan, the organization as a whole must be neutral until concerns are resolved.
Gail Purkey, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, would not discuss the situation other than say, “We’re talking to legislators and working on it.”
The teachers will almost certainly find a way to compromise. They want that money. But the labor move has most definitely hurt any momentum that the GRT supporters were hoping to build.
Meanwhile…
Also, Thursday, Jones’ office released data showing the impact of the governor’s plan around the state. Chicago-area school districts outside of Cook County would see a 28 percent increase over the current year in the state’s main education programs, including the per-pupil state aid and special education — the largest increase in the state.
The data also show how grants for $1 billion in property tax relief would be distributed. The south Cook County area represented by Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) would get $47.5 million — more than any other Senate district.
Meeks has been pushing an alternative plan to the gross-receipts tax.
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Morning Shorts
Friday, Apr 20, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* IDOT says road are in maintain mode
* IDOT unveils 5-year plan
* Funds for new roads stuck in quaqmire
* Bills would delay utility shutoffs
* End of line for CTA boss
* New CTA boss leader’s track record
For the last two years as Daley’s corruption-fighting chief of staff, Huberman wore out his housecleaning broom while keeping a lid on future troubles.
* Huberman’s CTA transit itinerary
* Can new CTA director get you to work on time
* A shift in tone at CTA’s helm
* Tribune Editorial: Throwing Kruesi from the train
And while there’s sure to be much chatter in Chicago about all that Huberman should do as head of the CTA, his first task is to … not be Frank Kruesi. Legislators, if they do send more money to the agency, probably will dictate their own reform agenda in return for the bucks.
* Chicago spire gets plan commission OK
* Naperville passes indoor smoking ban
* Sun-Times Editorial: Big Box ordinance is best left on shelf
The store’s policies are far from perfect, but in providing goods (including many generic drugs) at lower costs, creating jobs and feeding the city with those tax revenues, Wal-Mart is a force for good. Its plans to build more stores in neighborhoods in need of economic development should be encouraged, not stonewalled.
* Long-time state board employee named schools superintendent
* House votes to ban sex offenders from voting at schools
* Bill would restrict sex offenders at the polls
* New report blasts use of TIF districts
* Pending legislation on pet protection in spousal abuse cases
* Section of I-90 to be named Jane Addams Tollway
* Scare sends two to the hospital at Illinois Department of Revenue
* Olympic organizing committee looking for top executive
* Rosemont casino debate plays out in court
* Editorial: The life and legacy of Donald Stephens
* Cook Co. fires medical examiner
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