AP:
A federal appeals court has granted bail to former Gov. George H. Ryan, allowing him to remain out of prison while he appeals his racketeering and fraud sentence.
The decision by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals was issued without explanation on Tuesday. […]
U.S. District Judge Rebecca L. Pallmeyer had refused to grant bail to Ryan while he is appealing his 6 1/2 year federal prison sentence.
But the appeals court overruled her and said that Ryan may remain free while he is appealing his conviction. He had been due to report to prison Jan. 4.
*** UPDATE *** The AP has a longer story posted now.
Appeal bonds are unusual. Most criminal defendants in federal cases who are sentenced to prison must start serving their sentences soon afterward while their lawyers fight their appeals. Ryan’s lawyers argued that the problems involving the Ryan jury made his case “a close call.”
And Cal Skinner noticed that the appellate court allowed Ryan’s lawyers to file part of the appeal under seal.
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Obama to New Hampshire *** Updated x3 ***
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
[Updated and bumped to the top for discussion purposes.]
Lynn Sweet looks at the tea leaves.
Considering a 2008 White House bid, Sen. Barack Obama will visit New Hampshire, an early presidential primary state, on Dec. 10. Before going to New Hampshire, Obama, an Illinois Democrat, has strategic trips to the West and East coasts on his calendar:
• Obama will hit New York on Monday to keynote a children’s charity event. In return, he was offered control of the distribution of $1 million worth of new products to charitable agencies across the nation. However Obama attorney Bob Bauer said that he declined the offer and “we are not taking control of the gift.”
• In California on Friday, Obama will take a seat on Jay Leno’s couch on the “Tonight Show.” […]
Obama has been to Iowa three times. But he has never set foot in New Hampshire, a state where voters are used to personal contact before they make up their minds on whom to support.
I’ve asked this question before, but it deserves a repeat today. Do you think Obama is in this thing or not?
*** UPDATE *** The pushback against Obama’s efforts to recruit evangelicals is apparently intensifying.
Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to evanglical Christians in preparation for his possible Presidential campaign is running into very stiff resistance from the Christian right. As the Chicago Tribune reported recently, Obama is set to attend a huge evangelical gathering in California on Dec. 1, at the invitation of megachurch Pastor Rick Warren, the evangelical superstar who wrote The Purpose-Driven Life. Analysts have interpreted Obama’s scheduled appearance as a sign he’s working much harder than Dems ordinarily do to win over Evangelicals.
But the appearance is now provoking an intense backlash from leaders of the Christian right. They are calling on Warren to disinvite Obama from the event because of his liberal positions, especially abortion rights — or as one of those leaders put it, Obama’s support of “the murder of babies in the womb.” […]
For instance, an open letter from a group of Christian-Right figures — including Phylis Schlafly, Tim Wildmon and others — criticizes the invitiation by citing Obama’s pro-choice stance and his support for condom distribution in answer to the AIDS epidemic, “not chaste behavior as directed by the Bible.” The letter ends, “No, Mr. Warren, Mr. Obama, we will never work with those can support the murder of babies in the womb.
The National Clergy Council also issued a press release about Obama recently.
“Senator Obama’s policies represent the antithesis of biblical ethics and morality, not to mention supreme American values,” said the Reverend Rob Schenck (pronounced SHANK), president of the National Clergy Council and chair of the Committee on Church and Society for the Evangelical Church Alliance, America’s oldest association of Evangelical ministers. […]
“If Pastor Warren cannot find the courage to rescind his invitation to Senator Obama, he must at least make clear through a public statement that the Senator’s support of abortion stands in contradiction to what the Bible teaches and what the Christian Church has historically taught on the sanctity of life,” said Rev. Schenck.
*** UPDATE 2 *** While we’re on the subject, Insight Magazine has a piece about how Hillary Clinton’s people are worried about an Obama run.
The worst-case scenario, the sources said, would be a Clinton-Obama slugfest in the South, where the New York senator would seek support from black voters who had backed her husband more than a decade ago. But Clinton advisers don’t believe she could compete against Mr. Obama in the black community, which comprises nearly 50 percent of the Democratic vote in the South.
“I can envision Hillary working out a deal with Obama in which he becomes a leading ally and even promised a major Cabinet post,†the strategist said. “The last thing Hillary wants is to face a popular black candidate for the Democratic nomination.â€
*** UPDATE 3 *** As if on cue, the AP has a new story about the controversy over Obama’s upcoming appearance at the megachurch, “Megapastor defends invitation to Democratic Sen. Obama.”
“Our goal has been to put people together who normally won’t even speak to each other,'’ the Saddleback statement said. “We do not expect all participants in the Summit discussion to agree with all of our evangelical beliefs. However, the HIV/AIDS pandemic cannot be fought by evangelicals alone. It will take the cooperation of all government, business, NGOs and the church.'’
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
What do you think of this idea?
Illinois House Democrats outlined a compromise minimum-wage proposal Tuesday that will push base pay in Illinois to $8.25 an hour by July 2010.
In exchange, there would be no automatic increases in the minimum wage that are tied to the rate of inflation, a key concern of business groups. The compromise also allows employers to pay 50 cents an hour less to anyone under age 18 and to newly hired workers during their first three months on the job. […]
Under the House bill, the minimum wage in Illinois will increase to $7.50 an hour beginning July 1. It will rise another 25 cents an hour each year for the next three, capping at $8.25 an hour July 1, 2010. After that, the General Assembly will have to approve further increases.
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Coup attempt against Kj?
As Illinois Republican Party chiefs prepare to meet Saturday, a fight is intensifying over who ought to lead the them in an increasingly Democratic state.
Shaken by their Nov. 7 electoral trouncing, some party leaders are stepping up their campaign to oust Robert Kjellander as the Illinois GOP national committeeman.
But Mr. Kjellander said he has “absolutely no intention†of leaving.
Meanwhile, some party sources said Michael Stokke, a top aide to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Plano, is maneuvering to grab Mr. Kjellander’s post for himself. Other sources discounted that. […]
(T)wo separate party sources reported that Mr. Stokke has made quiet inquiries in Washington about becoming the Illinois GOP national committeeman. Mr. Stokke has considerable influence as Mr. Hastert’s top political aide but will lose much of that power when Mr. Hastert leaves Congress, something that some insiders believe could occur as soon as this winter.
Kjellander told Crain’s that he has no intention of stepping down and the state central committee can’t force a resignation, and Speaker Madigan says he won’t move legislation to help the Republicans get rid of Kj so they may be stuck with him unless President Bush steps in.
What a mess.
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Reform and renewal - greeting card edition
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Several columnists and bloggers wrote about the governor’s suspiciously timed greeting cards during the campaign. The AP has more today.
Just weeks before Election Day, Jen and Andrew Fitzgibbon got a card from Gov. Rod Blagojevich congratulating them on the birth of their new baby.
The only problem was that the Fitzgibbons’ youngest daughter, Lydia, wasn’t so new anymore — she celebrated her first birthday the week the card arrived.
Batches of greeting cards bearing niceties from Blagojevich and his wife arrived in mailboxes right before the spring and fall elections, raising new ethical questions about the Illinois governor.
As expected, a spokesman denied the timing was political, but check this out:
The state sent a batch of 13,792 cards in February — ahead of the March primary — and three more batches totaling 89,185 cards in the two months before the November election.
Amazing.
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
* SJ-R: Sen. Dick Durbin says he got a “totally inappropriate” demand for government help from Stuart Levine about four years ago but that Levine went away mad.
* Tribune: Outgoing Cook County Board President Bobbie Steele on Tuesday resigned the county commissioner seat she was re-elected to earlier this month, a move that will let her double her annual pension. Steele, 69, now hopes to hand off her commissioner seat to her son Robert, a Chicago Park District administrator.
* Democrats won’t help GOP oust party leader
* Daley stands by Sorich - 4 found guilty are ‘fine’ men, mayor says
* Ex-Daley aides cash in as they depart City Hall - As scandals boil, 13 share in $165,000 for accrued vacation time
* Marin: When is a politician a statesman? And when is he a sellout? State Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago) knew that would be the question when people began to notice who sent the invitations for his Monday fund-raiser in Springfield.
* Editorial: State should quit playing games with legal bill
* Best firm in country for female attorneys is in Chicago, survey finds
* Dist. 204 denied quick-take powers
* Editorial: Let Illinois primary voters choose party in secret
* Experts Concerned as Ballot Problems Persist
* Daily Herald: A Kane County judge Tuesday ruled votes cast between 7 and 8:30 p.m. on Election Day are valid. But the fight to have the votes thrown out is not over.
* Ryan should lose pension, internal review says
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Who do you think is the better legislative leader, Senate President Emil Jones or House Speaker Michael Madigan? Define “better” and explain.
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More ads than coverage
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I’m still in catch-up mode this week. A while back, I linked to a study that showed the paltry coverage of politics by local TV news outfits. Well, the Joyce Foundation has a new study with the wholly unsurprising finding that TV viewers received much more political information during TV newscasts from advertisements than from the news programs themselves.
In the month leading up to the recent 2006 mid-term elections,
local television news viewers got considerably more information about campaigns from paid political advertisements than from actual news coverage, a new study shows. Local newscasts in seven Midwest markets aired nearly four and a-half minutes of paid political ads during the typical 30-minute broadcast while dedicating an average of one minute and 43 seconds to election news coverage.
The new post-election analysis also shows that most of the actual news coverage of elections on early and late-evening broadcasts was devoted to campaign strategy and polling, which outpaced reporting on policy issues by a margin of over three to one (65 percent to 17 percent). These findings come amid studies consistently showing that voters look to local television newscasts as their primary source of information about elections.
There’s more below. Click for a larger image.
Hopefully, we can get a breakdown of how Illinois stations fared in this comparison.
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Reform and renewal
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Part 1 comes from the Tribune:
Following two scolding reviews, Illinois must repay $7.7 million in federal funds because of a litany of problems in running a federal job retraining program.
The program is supposed to match workers with training that will help them find new positions quickly after they have lost their jobs to foreign competition.
But the federal reviews found that Illinois officials seemed to ignore schedules and procedures established to make sure workers were not sitting by idly when they could be in retraining programs.
Reviewers found the state took as long as 16 months to approve training plans. Files lacked basic information, such as workers’ educational backgrounds and previous job duties, according to the reports.
And Part 2 is from the Sun-Times:
Pink slips have been handed to two East Coast law firms that made hefty political donations to Gov. Blagojevich and were placed on a preferred list for Illinois pension work.
This month’s vote by the state Teachers’ Retirement System to overhaul the way it hires lawyers for class-action cases followed a Chicago Sun-Times report in September.
That story detailed how federal authorities have been probing Blagojevich’s visits with the two firms during trips to New York in 2003. It also said Blagojevich’s interaction with a third law firm once employed by TRS also is under federal scrutiny. […]
Nonetheless, “We believe that all of our vendor selections should be made strictly on the basis of merit and suitability for the particular work assignment,” said Jon Bauman, TRS’ executive director. “In this particular situation, the campaign contributions … had the effect of placing a cloud over a number of the firms that were eventually selected.”
Bauman, however, stressed that the contributions were not the only factor in the TRS board’s decision to dismantle the preferred list, which also included three law firms not connected to the governor’s New York trips. The fact that none of the firms had brought a successful class-action case on behalf of TRS in three years weighed heavily, he said.
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Tax cap politics
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
The Sun-Times has loads of property tax stories today.
If you own a home or property in Chicago, it’s probably worth more — maybe two or three times more — than it was three years ago, according to the Cook County assessor.
And you’ll be taxed accordingly.
The Civic Federation of Chicago calculates an average 36 percent increase in every property tax bill, or $829 more a year, unless state legislators renew a homeowners’ protection bill that would drop the average hike down to about $255.
The assessor’s office finished its triennial assessment of property in Chicago, and just about every corner of the city is seeing a whopping boost in housing value.
The 7 percent tax cap expires at the end of the year. According to the Civic Federation study, “The average Chicago apartment owner’s tax bill will drop $1,051 a year with the cap and $1,643 without it, the study says. It says that commercial property owners will see their bills drop $216 with the cap and $488 without.”
Speaker Madigan voted for the tax cap extension, but he wasn’t exactly a supporter. Assessor Houlihan has blamed Madigan for the delay. Other stuff is brewing, but that’s for subscribers only.
Also in today’s CS-T package, “Who wins, who loses under 7 percent cap” … “Figure out your taxes” … “Suburban homeowners not getting break, either”
Meanwhile, over at Illinoize, Rep. John Fritchey expressed support for the Houlihan bill.
Interestingly, what I find most telling about the issue has nothing to do with taxes. People, especially conservatives, are always talking about local control. Here we have a bill that is rooted in that very concept. There is nothing mandatory about the bill, it is opt-in legislation that allows a county to implement the provisions if it so chooses. Those county officials eventually have to stand before voters and answer for their actions.
And Greg Hinz has a fascinating column about how Houlihan flexed his political muscle to “effectively take control of both of the regulatory agencies with the power to overrule his decisions.”
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Durbin touts Obama for prez
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
So, what do you make of this?
Sen. Barack Obama’s biggest cheerleader, Sen. Dick Durbin, launched an online petition drive on Monday to persuade his fellow Illinois Democrat to run for president.
Several people tell me that Obama, who is seriously considering a bid, is phoning people he knows to get input — and cold-calling key figures in Iowa and New Hampshire.
He’s not asking people in those two important early primary states for support, since he’s not in the race. Rather, he’s asking them to stay neutral until he decides.
Durbin’s petition drive is a free-lance effort. He sent the e-mails to his list of donors and supporters without an explicit request of, or permission from, Obama & Co., the freshman senator’s small circle of advisers.
Durbin’s online petition can be found here.
As many of you may know, I’m a huge Barack Obama fan. I’ve known Barack since he was first elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, and I’m impressed by what he has accomplished in his relatively short political career. I’m also proud to call him my friend.
Not only does Senator Obama do a wonderful job representing the people of Illinois, in just a few short years he has proven himself to be an incredibly inspirational national leader. From his memorable and unifying speech at the Democratic National Convention to his new book The Audacity of Hope, Barack has shown that he has the best interests of all Americans at heart.
That is why I want to see Barack run for President in 2008. I believe that he is the right man to lead our country at a time of such turmoil around the globe, bringing Americans together at a time in our nation’s history when we need unity more than ever.
Barack has said publicly that he is considering a run, and part of his consideration will doubtlessly include measuring the level of his support from Democrats across the country. So let’s show him how strong that support is.
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Morning shorts
Tuesday, Nov 28, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Blagojevich hasn’t paid for lawsuit
* Journalism.org: With each election cycle come more websites and more political predictions. With a Democratic surge apparent, and more competitive contests this year, the race for prognostications was even more intense than usual. Who fared best in the 2006 midterm elections?
* Rasmussen: When it comes to the issues of taxes and abortion, Democrats hold a very modest advantage over Republicans. However, on health care, Social Security, and education, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans by a double-digit margin. But, despite the difference of degree, Democrats have the edge on all five issues.
* Who Is Middle Class? - Democrats Take Up The Cause, But Group Is Undefined
* Democratic gains in suburbs spell trouble for GOP
* Bouman: The re-election of Gov. Rod Blagojevich in Illinois showed the country that fighting for expanded health care is not only good policy, it’s good politics.
* Editorial: Duckworth a fine choice for vets post
* Editorial: Stripping a racketeer’s pension
* AP: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that dismissed a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA, ending a case that became a windfall for the county where it originated but helped feed its reputation as a “judicial hellhole.”
* Malpractice caps face big challenge
* Tribune: An attorney for Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Thomas said today his client offered to accept a reduced settlement after a $7 million victory in a defamation case against a Kane County newspaper but opposing attorneys didn’t respond.
* Murnane: More to Thomas verdict than victory for chief justice?
* Lawmaker miffed that mayor said ‘no’ to state flood aid; mayor didn’t want to jeopardize federal aid
* “Official Use of the name ‘Republican’â€
* Bill Brady: The GOP of Lincoln and Reagan can rebuild
* McNamee: How our Dirty Dozen would lock up Olympics
* Employee fired by Cook commissioner last year says she did political and personal work on county time, but he says she is retaliating
* American Spectator “analyst” claims that in Illinois, “Republicans are closer to the majority in the state senate”
* Zorn: Pension windfall for Steele is no accident of law
* Media Week: The battle for audience supremacy in the online news category continues to be a fiercely competitive three-horse race, despite efforts by some of the biggest traditional news players to strengthen their digital output.
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