After the Illinois Senate voted in the wee hours Wednesday to approve an energy policy overhaul that includes a nearly $700 million bailout for Exelon, parent of scandal-plagued Commonwealth Edison, the company gave lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker an ultimatum: finalize a deal in the next 12 days or face the permanent closure of one of the state’s six nuclear power plants. […]
“While we currently have no choice but to continue preparing for their premature retirement, we have established offramps that will allow us to reverse that decision if lawmakers pass legislation with enough time for us to safely refuel the plants,” Exelon spokesman Paul Adam said in a statement Wednesday. “To be clear, Byron will run out of fuel and will permanently shut down on Sept. 13 unless legislation is enacted.”
It’s not like filing up your tank with gas. Refueling a nuclear power plant is a complicated and involved process. They’ll need a bill passed well before the 13th, but I haven’t yet gotten a solid answer on what the actual drop-dead date is. Still checking.
…Adding… The full statement still doesn’t really give us an idea of an absolute deadline date…
*Less than 2 WKS* til @Exelon closes its Byron nuclear plant if lawmakers don't pass an energy bill including already-negotiated ~$700M ratepayer subsidy to keep 3 unprofitable nukes alive. In the spirit of hopefulness, Exelon has taken steps to remain nimble for a last-min deal. pic.twitter.com/HL2w1RMcU6
Just hours after redrawn state legislative maps were passed by lawmakers, attorneys for a group challenging the new boundaries told a federal judge Wednesday that the plan shortchanges Latinos. […]
“Latinos were not rewarded or given their fair share of districts after that population growth,” [Ernest Herrera, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund] told U.S. District Judge Robert Dow. “Latinos were, in fact, penalized.”
Herrera said the number of state Senate districts with a majority Latino voting age population would drop from three to two under the Democratic-drawn maps, and from five to four in the House.
“We believe there are serious constitutional but likely Section 2 claims here,” Herrera said, citing the section of the federal Voting Rights Act which prohibits practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.
According to numbers compiled by my consultant Frank Calabrese, the May House remap plan had 11 majority voting age population Latino districts, but the newly passed August remap has just 10. The House map passed back in 2011 had nine majority Latino VAP districts.
The 2020 Census found that the number of Illinois Latinos of all ages grew by more than 15 percent since the 2010 Census.
A new report from the Illinois Policy Institute shows lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker have adopted tax hikes and fee increases that total $5.24 billion since 2019.
The 24 tax hikes and fee increases include the doubling of the motor fuel tax, raising vehicle registration fees and a cigarette tax hike, among others. […]
Adam Schuster of the Illinois Policy Institute said that instead of raising taxes, the state should look at reallocating funds to programs that increase spending.
“A way to increase spending on these valuable programs is not by raising taxes,” Schuster said. “But by redistributing the money away from unproductive uses like throwing it after pension debt and using the money to fund programs that provide value to Illinois.”
Dollar values represent long-run annual revenue raised unless noted as temporary. Certain revenue sources, such as legal sports betting, will raise less in the first year of implementation and because of COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on live events. * Trade-in car tax repealed in 2021.
Wow, they admit that the virus has an impact on business without mentioning mitigations.
The Illinois Department of Health director allegedly recently said that “masks are as effective as vaccines” amid a push to crack down on mask wearing in schools.
“If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike said last Thursday, according to Chalkbeat. “The bottom line is that masks are as effective as vaccines are.”
“If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet,” Ezike said Thursday. “The bottom line is that masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”
* Instead of, you know, spending a few seconds actually reading the Chalkbeat story, Fox News just took this person’s word for it…
The Illinois Department of Public Health later told Fox News Wednesday that Ezike was inaccurately quoted in the Chalkbeat article, and had actually said during a press conference last Thursday: “If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet. The bottom line is masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”
The original quote, however, ignited criticisms on social media this week, with one Twitter user saying, “If the goal is to increase vax uptake — and we know both Illinois & Chicago, uptake is lowest among Black & Latinx residents — Dr Ezike’s statement is at-odds with equity goals.”
What is goofy Rich is to believe that once the leverage to negotiate keeping Prairie State open is gone, that the green environmentalists won’t demand Prairie State be closed sooner.
Then how do you keep the plant open if the potential for future unfavorable laws is the issue? Adjourn the General Assembly forever? Require legislators to obtain approval from past bill sponsors if they want to amend their laws?
A Texas law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect Wednesday, as a midnight deadline for the Supreme Court to stop it came and went without action.
The court could still grant a request from abortion providers to halt the law, one of the nation’s most restrictive. But for now, abortion providers in Texas, including Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health, said they will no longer terminate pregnancies more than six weeks from a woman’s last period.
Providers said the law — which relies on private citizens to sue people who help women get forbidden abortions — effectively eliminates the guarantee in Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions that women have a right to end their pregnancies before viability, and that states may not impose undue burdens on that decision.
If the Supreme Court declines to stop the law, the most likely challenge would come after it is utilized by a private citizen. Then the person sued could contest the constitutionality of the law, with the backing of abortion providers and abortion-rights groups.
In a phone call with reporters early Wednesday, Marc Hearron, a lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that “as of now, most abortion is banned in Texas.” Hearron said the abortion providers his group represents were still hoping to hear from the Supreme Court.
They have said the law would rule out 85% of abortions in Texas and force many clinics to close. Planned Parenthood is among the abortion providers that have stopped scheduling abortions beyond six weeks from conception. […]
At least 12 other states have enacted bans on abortion early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.
What makes the Texas law different is its unusual enforcement scheme. Rather than have officials responsible for enforcing the law, private citizens are authorized to sue abortion providers and anyone involved in facilitating abortions. Among other situations, that would include anyone who drives a woman to a clinic to get an abortion. Under the law, anyone who successfully sues another person would be entitled to at least $10,000.
* I’ve received several reactions to the development and am posting everything in my inbox. Here’s Governor Pritzker’s campaign…
Today Governor JB Pritzker released a statement condemning the passage and implementation of Texas Senate Bill 8. The legislation that goes into effect today effectively eliminates access to abortion after six weeks, and allows virtually any private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who they view as aiding in violating the new ban.
“An attack on reproductive freedom in Texas is an attack on reproductive freedom in Illinois and every state across the country. I’m proud that we passed the most comprehensive law in the nation to protect women’s rights to make their own health care decisions no matter what happens at the Supreme Court. But make no mistake—abortion rights are on the ballot in 2022 and Republicans will do everything in their power to strip them away. That’s why it’s so critical to elect Democrats up and down the ballot across Illinois.”
Governor JB Pritzker has fought for women’s reproductive rights his entire life and in 2019 he signed The Reproductive Health Act, the most comprehensive abortion rights bill in the country, into law.
* ACLU of Illinois…
Overnight, the Supreme Court of the United States failed to act on a request to block a new, sweeping and unconstitutional abortion ban in Texas from going into effect. The following statement can be attributed to Ameri Klafeta, Director of the Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project at the ACLU of Illinois:
This is a sad day in our country. As a result of inaction overnight by the Supreme Court, a sweeping, clearly unconstitutional abortion ban is now in effect in the State of Texas. After a half-century of constant attacks fueled by misinformation and lies, the right to access reproductive health care is now denied to millions of people today.
The Texas law cruelly bans abortion care as early as six weeks – before many people even know they are pregnant. The measure also allows individuals – literally anyone even if they have no connection to a patient – to sue doctors, health care workers and even friends who support someone in accessing abortion care after six weeks. Such provisions stand in direct opposition to the principles enshrined in Roe v. Wade, making the Court’s inaction all the more disturbing.
Residents of Illinois can take slight solace in this moment. Legislators in recent years have extended critical protections for all seeking reproductive health care in Illinois – measures signed by Governor Rauner and Governor Pritzker. We must continue to defend and expand those protections. We recommit ourselves to this effort today as we think of the millions of people across the United States who now are at risk of losing their access to abortion due to the Court’s failure to act.
* Personal PAC…
Thirty years ago, Illinois was one of the most anti-choice states in the nation with a “trigger law,” spousal consent for an abortion, and bans on IVF while Texas was one of the most pro-choice states in the country. Remember pro-choice Texas Governor Ann Richards?
As of today, Texas is now the state with the most cruel anti-abortion laws in the nation—a ban on abortion after six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant, and with no exceptions for rape and incest. The other provision allows for a $10,000 bounty for turning in anyone who assisted with any aspect of an abortion. It’s called the totalitarian state right in front of our eyes in these United States.
Today, Illinois is almost a state that protects women who seek reproductive health care.
Texas and Illinois are one story: Elections Have VERY SERIOUS Consequences.
Right in front of our eyes, candidates who want for Illinois women what Texas women now live under are running for Governor, Attorney General and the Illinois General Assembly, where 22 Texas-like anti-abortion bills are patiently waiting for a vote—and the next election to seize the opportunity.
We simply can’t let these misogynists win in 2022 like they did in Texas.
* Planned Parenthood Illinois Action…
Access to abortion is hanging by an increasingly thinning thread. With the six-week abortion ban taking effect today in Texas, we can expect many other states to follow their lead. The 2021 legislative season is already the most hostile year for reproductive health and rights in history, with many of our neighboring states enacting medically-unnecessary and extreme laws with the sole purpose of banning abortion. We know that abortion bans don’t stop people from having abortions. Bans only make it more difficult to access essential health care.
Illinois passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019, which ensures abortion will remain legal in our state even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and positions Illinois as a safe haven for the region. Already, we are seeing patients from other states who have been forced to travel long distances to access abortion care, which has been legal in the United States for nearly 50 years.
People who have abortions are our family, friends, and neighbors. Everyone deserves the freedom to make their own medical decisions, in consultation with their families and their doctors and free from political interference. Access to essential care should never depend on where you live or how much money you make.
We will never stop fighting to help everyone access the health care they need and deserve.
So far, anyway, I’ve received nothing from any anti-abortion groups, politicians or political parties.
…Adding… Robin Kelly, Chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois…
“What we are seeing in Texas is an unconstitutional assault on women everywhere. This radical law to essentially ban abortion will hurt women of color and low-come women in particular. Like so many issues, Illinois Democrats lead the nation in protecting and expanding a woman’s right to her own healthcare decisions and our fight is far from over.”
A House Republican who sought “data, studies, scientific or medical articles, and correspondence” from people advocating in support of school mask mandates got her answer in dramatic fashion on Tuesday.
Governor Pritzker’s office responded to an August 10th Freedom of Information Act Request filed by Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) by sending a staffer to her legislative office in Springfield to hand-deliver 870 pages of studies and letters from parents that supported the mask mandate.
Government agencies typically respond to FOIA requests in emails and attachments, but in delivering the papers in such a public manner, the Pritzker administration sought to draw attention to the number of parents who have thanked him for enacting and enforcing mask mandates at the start of the new school year.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this,” an Elmhurst mother emailed to Pritzker’s office on August 4th. “When the Elmhurst 205 School District voted to make masks optional last week, I was devastated and shocked.
McCombie was not in her office when the Governor’s staffer delivered the studies and emails. She responded to Pritzker’s public response to her requests when she came out of a Republican caucus meeting.
“I think it’s absolutely, positively ridiculous that it has become political,” she said. “I think it’s ridiculous that he’s going to showboat and have his staff showboat around empty offices when we’re all in caucus. I mean, have the guts to do it when we’re sitting at our desk.”
An Oak Lawn woman was arrested in Hawaii last week after, court records show, she entered the state with a fake COVID-19 vaccination card that misspelled drug company “Moderna” as “Maderna.”
* We had protests at school back in the day which got zero media coverage, probably because sports ball players weren’t involved…
Dozens of North Mac School District students and parents gathered outside the Macoupin County Courthouse in Carlinville on Tuesday, Aug. 31, to protest the district’s quarantine and remote learning policies.
Tuesday’s court hearing stemmed from whether the district had followed proper COVID-19 exposure and quarantine procedures at North Mac High School, and whether the superintendent’s move to full remote learning at the high school is legal. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four athletes that had been exposed to the virus at school and were forced to quarantine despite testing negative for COVID-19 in Sangamon County. […]
Students also staged a walkout at North Mac High in protest of the testing and quarantine policy on Monday, Aug. 30, where dozens of other students and some staff joined them outside the school.
Later that evening, District Superintendent Dr. Jay Goble announced that North Mac High would go fully remote, citing 30% of the school’s student body in quarantine.
Appellate judge candidate Tom DeVore is the attorney of record. Another Pyrrhic victory.
More than two dozen Illinois schools are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, weeks after students returned to the classroom for in-person learning at fully reopened schools.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday listed 26 Illinois schools with COVID-19 outbreaks, including several in the suburban Chicago areas of Cook, Lake, Kane and Will counties. […]
Outbreaks reported by IDPH include those that have been identified by the school’s local health department to have two or more COVID-19 cases among people who may have a shared exposure on school grounds and are from different households.
The criteria for an outbreak was previously five or more cases but recently changed, said IDPH spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
* If just three former GOP Reps. like Dwight Kay, Allen Skillicorn, Jerry Long, Grant Wehrli and David Olsen (among others) hadn’t thoroughly botched or tanked their own reelection campaigns in 2018 or 2020, yesterday’s remap vote would not have been remotely possible because the House Democrats wouldn’t currently have a super-majority…
Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly used their supermajority Tuesday to push through revised boundaries for the state’s 177 legislative districts aimed at ensuring their control of the General Assembly through the end of the decade.
The maps, redrawn following the release of hard census data earlier in August, continue to face lawsuits contesting their fairness in representing minority populations and communities with like interests.
While most Illinoisans were sleeping, state senators advanced a sweeping overhaul of the state’s energy sector, kicking the legislation — and further negotiations — to the House.
Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, called the bill the “most complicated” piece of legislation he’s negotiated during his time in the Legislature. He believes Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Gov. J.B. Pritzker agree that lawmakers could get the energy proposal to the governor’s desk “in a matter of days.”
But that will require negotiations to continue and amendments to be filed in the House, which hasn’t yet set a return date to deal with the matter. […]
Exelon has initiated plans to decommission its Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants because of the lack of clean energy legislation. A spokesman for the energy company said they’re still assessing the legislation and did not immediately provide a comment.
Labor Day is Monday and Rosh Hashanah begins Monday evening and ends Wednesday evening, but Tuesday is the key date, I was told by some Jewish legislators last night (I’m not even close to being an expert here, I’m just telling you what was said). So, it appears they can’t really come back next week until Wednesday at the earliest.
Exelon hasn’t formalized the order to refuel the Byron nuclear power plant and hasn’t contracted with the approximately 1,000 workers who will be needed for that task. The company has announced a September 14 closing date, which is two weeks from yesterday.
* I asked Senate President Don Harmon last night what he thought the deadline was for passing a bill to save the nuke plants…
We had assumed it was August 31. And that’s part of the reason we came back to Springfield when we did. The governor’s office has shared with us that they believe it’s more like the 12th or 13th of the month. I hope they’re right, but I don’t want to be testing the boundaries of that deadline.
* The governor gave Harmon a list of legal issues it had with the Senate’s proposal yesterday and none were addressed in the bill. So, I asked Harmon why that didn’t happen…
Without getting too deep into the weeds, there were a host of issues raised. Some of them were fundamental to the underlying agreement among the stakeholders. Some of them seemed fairly remote and things that could be dealt with in the inevitable trailer bill. So we’re not dismissing the concerns, but I don’t know if the governor’s team understood how fundamental some of those provisions were to getting the agreement among all stakeholders. I’m not minimizing, but some of them really were things we could just wait for the inevitable collection of ticky-tack issues that we’d have to deal with.
* I asked Senate President Pro Tempore Bill Cunningham if he thought the goal posts were moved and by whom. Here’s his diplomatic answer…
I would say this, Rich, you wrote this morning that there were three primary, really steadfast goals that the governor laid out. One was a hard 2045 closure date for Prairie State. That’s in the bill. The other was closing of gas plants in 2045 without paper cover with zero emission credits. That box was checked. There was a request that there not be any late complicated add-ons or giveaways in the bill. That didn’t happen. So, those three things were achieved.
And I think because of that, we have a very good bill here. Now, we have some people who believe the bill is not good enough and would like it to be better. And they will have an opportunity to pursue that now in the House. And maybe they can make it better. I for one would like to see a faster decarbonisation schedule for Prairie State, but that’s a long way from where I live, there are no union workers from my district that are working at that plant, there are no municipalities in my district that are part of the consortium. That is not true of every legislator. Many legislators have those concerns. That is the challenge with passing this bill, that is the challenge that we’re going to face in the next couple of weeks to make a good bill better. So I’ll just leave it at that.
* The Senate’s bill earlier this week forced the municipally owned Prairie State coal-fired power plant to follow numerous carbon step-downs over the next several years and didn’t have a hard closure date in the bill. The legislation that popped in the Senate yesterday gave the governor his hard closure date, but allowed the plant to continue polluting full bore until 2045. The governor insisted yesterday on a combination of both step-downs and a 2045 (or even 2047) closure date…
An earlier draft of the energy legislation crafted by Senate Democrats would have established carbon-emission caps on the plant and an eventual closure of Prairie State if it didn’t meet those thresholds. Earlier versions of the bill left open the possibility that the facility could operate indefinitely if it cleaned up its air pollutants, a non-starter for Pritzker.
The Senate bill that passed established a 2045 closure date for Prairie State, but the governor wanted the facility to ratchet down its carbon air pollutants ahead of that date. That language wasn’t contained in the bill that passed.
I think the question is really one of economics, and I had some good conversation with the governor and his team today. They seem to think there’s a pathway. I just objectively as an outsider, the argument why would anybody invest $4 billion in an asset that by law has to close shortly after that investment matures. It just doesn’t make any intuitive sense to me. So we had offered the first model where they would be forced to make the investment and as a result become a zero carbon entity. And then we countered with an alternative that said you just have to close on this date certain in response to the governor’s demand for for that ingredient. We are very open to being proved that some hybrid can work. It’s my intuition is just that’s going to be a real challenge.
* Natural Resources Defense Council…
Illinois now has a path to transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It’s glaring that the bill still lacks near-term standards for the biggest polluter in Illinois, the Prairie State coal plant. Science tells us we cannot wait decades to reduce emissions from coal if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. We look to House leadership to add this simple but crucial missing piece and to pass a bill that our state can be proud of in the next few days.
* The House has not yet formally received the bill from the Senate, but I’m told the bill is dead no matter what, even though organized labor is now fully on board…
Pat Devaney, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, called the latest proposal a “very, very reasonable, comprehensive energy package.”
“It’s going to preserve the existing jobs in nuclear generation, it’s going to create many new jobs in the renewable energy industry, and with the changes and the compromises that have taken place, it is going to combat climate change and tackle that issue head on,” Devaney told the Senate committee.
Pritzker’s office said the current version of the Senate bill would still allow the municipally-owned Prairie State Generating Company and City, Water, Light, and Power coal-fired plants to “continue polluting for 24 years with no restrictions.”
However, Harmon said the bill would make Illinois the “epicenter of the green economy,” and that the Senate had “heard loud and clear the requirements [Pritzker] would have to sign the bill,” including “a hard close of carbon emitting plants, and that there are no special deals.” […]
However, the environmental lobby argued that Hastings and other Senate Democrats had been catering to fossil fuel interests earlier in the week when they attempted to prolong the closure of municipally owned coal-fired power plants if they could invest in costly technologies to scrub, offset, or safely bury their carbon gas deep underground. […]
Senator Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) raised concerns about giving wind and solar companies too much leverage over private land rights under eminent domain, which he called “completely unconstitutional nonsense.”
“Private merchant lines get eminent domain authority over my constituents,” Rose protested. “The United States Constitution is clear on eminent domain: public use and you must pay for it. You must pay fair market value for it. Yet we’re giving private, for-profit companies the right to put up — public utilities, I guess is what we’re calling them now, even though they’re private, for-profit companies — up over my constituents homes.”
Jaclyn Driscoll, a spokesperson for House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat, said: “The Speaker has been very clear that before an energy proposal is called in the House there must be a consensus among the Democratic caucus and stakeholders, as well as include strong, meaningful ethics provisions.”
Driscoll did not respond to a question on whether the bill could be worked out in days. The House left town after the Senate passed the bill, but is expected to return in less than two weeks to approve changes to an ethics bill.
Gina McCarthy, President Joe Biden’s climate adviser, has said some existing nuclear plants are “absolutely essential” to hit U.S. goals to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035.
Incentives are included in the infrastructure bills being considered by the U.S. Congress. But Exelon has said these alone would come too late to save Byron and Dresden. The plants have more than 1,500 workers, many in high-paying union jobs.
There was also opposition from the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, which said the measure will lead to the largest electric rate hike in Illinois history and will hit the manufacturing sector “extremely hard.”
“Manufacturers use one-third of all energy in the United States,” IMA President and CEO Mark Denzler said. “Manufacturers are committed to sustainability and reducing energy usage. In the last decade, manufacturers have reduced emissions by 21% while increasing output by 18%.”
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce also opposes the bill.
The Illinois House failed to muster the votes Tuesday to accept Gov. JB Pritzker’s amendatory veto to an ethics bill that passed nearly unanimously earlier this year.
Pritzker issued the amendatory veto of Senate Bill 539 Friday, saying he supports the legislation but would like to see a minor change in language dealing with the office of executive inspector general.
The Senate approved that technical change unanimously, but the trouble for the governor came in the House as Republicans removed their support for the bill and not enough Democrats remained in the chamber just before 10 p.m. Tuesday to reach the three-fifths vote needed for it to pass. […]
The bill passed the General Assembly on the final day of the spring session, June 1, by overwhelming majorities – 56-0 in the Senate; 113-5 in the House – even though many Republicans complained that they didn’t think the bill went far enough.
Soon after it passed, Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope announced that she would resign, effective Dec. 15, calling the job a “paper tiger” and saying it showed that “true ethics reform is not a priority” for the General Assembly. She specifically alleged the provision limiting her ability to investigate non-governmental ethics violations, and the fact that a complaint would be required for an investigation, tied her hands.
The House Democrats just assumed the Republicans would be for the AV motion and were completely taken by surprise when it failed to garner enough votes to pass.
But this is a renewable motion, so all they have to do is accept it when they come back to town.
…Adding… This is a really good point in comments that my sleep-deprived brain did not consider…
== - King Louis XVI - Wednesday, Sep 1, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
Madigan would not have made such a mistake. He could count. ==
How was it a mistake? Several targeted GOP members voted against prohibiting elected officials from lobbying. I’d say the new Speaker knew exactly what he was doing when they took a roll call vote knowing full well more than a dozen of their members had already left.
* After strong hope for a deal on the climate/energy bill earlier today, the governor and the House Speaker are not going along with the proposal pushed by the Senate Democrats late this afternoon and heard in committee.
At this moment (and things can and do change), it appears that the House will vote on the newly revised remap plan, take up veto messages and then adjourn. It’s still “to be determined” when the chamber will return.
Speaker Welch said yet again this week that he wouldn’t move forward with a bill if all the stakeholders were not in agreement, and they’re not, so that’s that for now.
Stay tuned.
…Adding… The House has passed the remap bill with 73 Democratic votes.
* Leader Durkin…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on the Illinois Democrats’ passage of partisan maps today:
“Today’s vote confirms that the Illinois Democrats have no interest in honest government. Contrary to their campaign promises, the House Democrats passed a legislative map that lacks any transparency or public input. After lying to taxpayers once, the Governor now has the opportunity to live up to his campaign promises and veto this politician-drawn map.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Opposition from House Republicans on a motion to accept the governor’s amendatory veto of the ethics bill caused the sponsor to pull the bill from the record. The Democrats don’t have enough members present to accept the AV (71 votes) tonight. They’ll take it up when they return to town.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Democrats put the motion back up on the board and it failed with just 59 votes. It’s a renewable motion, however.
*** UPDATE 3 *** The Senate has decided to add the climate/energy bill language to a Senate bill and send it over to the House tonight. Doing it that way means the House can amend the bill as well. The ball will soon be in the House’s court, in other words.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Since so many House Democrats cleared out before the ethics motion roll call, it’s pretty safe to assume that there will be no session tomorrow.
…Adding… I’m told SB18 is the new energy bill vehicle.
*** UPDATE 5 *** The Senate approved the climate/energy bill with 39 votes. Its fate in the House is certain: It’s gonna be significantly changed before it’s sent back to the Senate for concurrence. Senate President Harmon said he believes the governor and House Speaker “can get this done in a matter of days.”
*** UPDATE 6 *** Pritzker administration…
The Governor’s Office looks forward to working with members of the House to finalize an energy package that puts consumers and climate first. The Governor’s Office is in discussions with stakeholders to ensure that Prairie State and CWLP’s closure in 2045 includes real interim emissions reductions consistent with previous bill drafts, and is committed to working with the General Assembly to address some drafting errors in the Senate bill that the Governor raised during talks today because they could have unintended legal consequences.
BACKGROUND
Provisions to be reworked
1. The Senate draft requires project labor agreements (i.e. you have to use union labor) on all utility scale projects with public utility REC contracts and there are several places where the bill requires a PLA to even be a regulated entity that gets some benefit from the state (see, e.g. p. 271: you can’t be a high voltage direct current transmission facility unless you have entered into a PLA; p. 368-369: renewable resources are only “deemed generated in Illinois….if the high voltage transmission line was (i) constructed with a project labor agreement…” This is likely preempted by federal law, and is not the only provision with similar issues. If a court finds a provision of the bill unconstitutional, it could delay or prevent every piece of the bill from taking effect: including the critical funding for wind and solar and the right sized subsidy for the Byron and Dresden nuclear plants. The Governor’s office recommended that problematic provisions be removed and the Senate refused.
2. The bill does not update the rollover solar language, despite the fact that refunds began going back to ratepayers last week (on 8/26).
3. Provisions relating to State hiring of displaced energy workers (Page 128, line 10). These interfere with all state hiring practices, including Shakman-related compliance. The Governor’s Office and the Clean Jobs Coalition previously agreed to remove this provision.
4. Remove references and language for several bills that are now law: amendments to the High Impact Business Program, HB 165, which created the Prairie Research Institute carbon capture advisory group, and SB 265, which made critical changes to the Energy Assistance Act. Keeping this language could create conflicts with already enacted law.
Provisions that should be added
1. Alternative Fuels Act rewrite to use existing funds to create a $4,000 rebate for consumers who purchase an electric vehicle.
2. The bill removes the elimination of customer deposit requirements for low-income utility residential customers, a key priority for the Governor’s Office to ensure low income consumers are protected.
* Press release…
Following the Senate’s passage of a landmark piece of legislation that will cement Illinois’ status as a leader in the clean energy sector and save thousands of jobs, State Senator Michael E. Hastings (D-Frankfort) released the following statement:
“After years of difficult negotiations, a broad coalition of stakeholders came to a bipartisan agreement that will define the future of clean energy in Illinois. The Illinois Senate, and the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, refuse to allow ratepayers to foot the bill for a transition to a cleaner energy future that did not include our valued nuclear fleet. We traveled the state, conducted thorough hearings and made clear in negotiations that good-paying jobs and our environment must be preserved at all costs. This starts with our nuclear fleet, the most precious natural resource the state of Illinois can offer.
“We came together to win a must win battle to not only save jobs and generate clean energy, but to create new ethical standards for utility companies. The result of this agreement is the preservation of 28,000 direct and indirect jobs and $149 million in local economic impact, maintaining our dominance in the energy generation market space, and allowing us to reach our renewable goals. Greed has run rampant in Illinois for far too long, forcing many to pay the price for the actions of a greedy few. Under this legislation, those who cast a dark cloud over our state’s government will be held to the highest ethical standards.”
…Adding… Press release…
Path to 100 Coalition Thanks Illinois Senate, Urges Quick Passage of Omnibus Energy Legislation
We thank the Illinois Senate for passing SB18, the strongest clean energy, pro-climate legislation in the country. The renewable energy provisions in this legislation would reverse the job losses happening now, and they would make the state the national leader in growing equitable clean energy jobs and fighting climate change. SB18’s bipartisan support reflects the widespread support for strong clean energy policy in Illinois.
We urge Governor Pritzker and Speaker Welch to act quickly to resolve any outstanding issues while preserving the critical renewable energy policies that all parties agreed to after years of negotiations.
Until this legislation becomes law the Illinois renewable energy program will remain broken. Our industry is losing jobs daily and our state is falling further behind other midwestern states in developing the clean energy sector. Rooftop solar installations in Illinois have fallen by more than 90% since last year, and more than 6,000 solar projects remain waitlisted and will not be built without the policies in SB18. For the thousands of families supported by renewable energy jobs in Illinois, the urgency remains very real.
Speaker Welch and the Illinois House have an opportunity to deliver an energy bill that will make Illinois a model for a just transition to a clean energy economy. But to seize this opportunity, the House must act soon.
Rep. Will Davis (D-Hazel Crest) tells me the House will move to override Governor Pritzker’s veto of a bill that would’ve expedited MCO payments to ambulance companies.
But new hospitalizations just recently started flattening, which is great. And again, I’m very hopeful, and I pray for it every day that we can head back down and fewer mitigations and everybody getting back to a more normal way of life.
But I do want to encourage anybody that’s not been vaccinated, now is the time to do it. This variant is more dangerous than any other that we’ve seen during the COVID 19 pandemic.
* The Question: Are you hopeful about the future? Please make sure to explain your response. Thanks.
“It is sad and unfortunate we have so many people willing to comply,” says one protester who apparently wishes more people would take fewer precautions for their health and safety. pic.twitter.com/vOYUg5AtgV
* My in-box is filled with bill signing announcements, so let’s try to clear some of them out today. The governor signed this bill into law on Friday…
Prior to the 2017 tax law changes effectuated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), an individual could take an unlimited deduction on its federal income tax return for SALT payments. However, the TCJA capped such SALT tax deduction at $10,000 for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026.
Senate Bill 2531, [signed] by Gov. Pritzker, provides owners of partnerships or S corporations with a workaround to the federal $10,000 SALT deduction cap effective for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2021, and beginning before January 1, 2026.
Under the legislation, a partnership or S corporation (each a “pass-through entity”) may elect to pay Illinois income tax at the entity level (which will be allowed as a deduction by the pass-through entity on its federal income tax return), and each owner of the pass-through entity may claim a credit on its Illinois individual income tax return equal to its share of the amount paid by the pass-through entity, effectively bypassing the $10,000 SALT deduction cap.
The IRS issued a notice in 20201 blessing this type of workaround late last year. Approximately a dozen other states have enacted similar workarounds.
“The IRS came out with guidance last year that basically blessed the concept,” [sponsoring Sen. Win Stoller, R-Peoria] said. “It evens the playing field with C-Corps”—or big corporations.
Since the IRS gave the green light, at least 20 other states have enacted or proposed similar steps, including not only New York and Connecticut but our neighbors Wisconsin and Minnesota, said Keith Staats, executive director of the chamber’s Tax Institute. He pointed to a national group, Main Street Employers, that has been actively tracking the introduction and passage of such workaround legislation
The legislation passed both houses of the Illinois Legislature unanimously, a tribute to the fact that shorting Uncle Sam has bipartisan appeal.
Stoller said Illinois now receives about 400,000 individual returns a year that potentially would qualify for the higher deductions on companion federal filings. If each of those can deduct an additional $10,000, they’d save about $80 million in taxes, by one off-hand accounting rule that deductions reduce tax liability by about 2 percent.
Legislators and advocates of removing the state’s lead service lines said Monday a newly signed law moves the state closer to removing that “toxic infrastructure” and ensuring all Illinoisans have clean water to drink.
State Sen. Melinda Bush, a lead sponsor of the legislation, said the lines are a “health threat that not only costs us billions of dollars, but poisons our children and undermines our residents’ confidence” in their water supply.
“Passing this bill with strong bipartisan support demonstrates a fundamental truth about lead in our drinking water — it affects all of us, and every single one of us, especially our children, deserve clean, safe drinking water,” the Grayslake Democrat said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation allowing terminally ill or incapacitated inmates to be released early from prison, after their case is assessed by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
It’s a measure that can be best described as merciful. Illinois is the 49th state to enact such legislation, leaving only Iowa without such a provision in its statutes.
“Unfortunately, so many of these people lose their lives, locked away behind bars without being able to spend their last moments with their family,” state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, told me Monday. “And so many of those folks, especially the people who have been very sick, or are permanently disabled are people who don’t pose any kind of public safety risk to their community.”
Guzzardi was the House sponsor of the legislation. I confided in him that I was stunned that it passed. After all, for most of the time I’ve covered politics a majority of legislators have had a lock ‘em up and throw away the key mindset.
* Press release…
Residents in nursing homes across the state who have not been able to connect with their loved ones or join religious events during the COVID-19 pandemic must now be given a virtual visitation option, thanks to a measure signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker Friday. Senator Donald DeWitte (R-St. Charles) was the leading Senate Republican sponsor of the bill.
Senate Bill 2137 includes a provision that allows nursing home residents to connect virtually with family members, loved ones, and to religious or recreational activities when in-person visits are prohibited or restricted due to federal or state rules or guidance. Prior to its signing into law, SB 2137 passed with unanimous, bipartisan support in the Senate and House.
“The passage of this bill represents bi-partisanship at its best,” said State Sen. DeWitte. “This last year-and-a-half has been incredibly difficult for seniors who have been largely unable to touch or hug their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic, and SB 2137 will ensure that moving forward we place more of a balance between physical and social-emotional health.”
The law comes in the wake of 2020 research that shows that the harsh consequences of isolation and loneliness on a resident’s quality of life are alarming: 50 % increased risk of developing dementia, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a nearly fourfold increased risk of death among heart failure patients.
* Press release…
On Friday, August 27th Governor Pritzker signed Representative Eva-Dina Delgado’s bill into law to open up opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses by cutting red tape on state projects.
Currently, entrepreneurs need to certify with the State of Illinois that their business is minority- or woman-owned, even if they are already certified with the City of Chicago or Cook County. This needless, intrusive paperwork has closed the door for thousands of businesses from working on State or public university projects. Today, with HB132 signed into law, all businesses certified by Chicago or Cook County are automatically eligible to work on State or public university projects as part of their minority participation program.
* Press release…
Illinois today became the first state in the United States to place modest guidelines on how law enforcement can access personal information captured by so-called “smart devices” in our homes after Governor JB Pritzker signed the Personal Household Privacy Act (PHPA) into law. The new law, passed unanimously in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly this spring, is being called critical by the sponsors and the ACLU of Illinois in light of the popularity and expansion of these devices – including virtual assistants, Ring doorbells and smart appliances.
The PHPA requires law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant in order to get data gathered by a personal device from a private third party. Law enforcement can also obtain the data in an emergency situation or when the owner of the data voluntarily consents to it being shared. The devices capture a significant amount of information since the microphones are nearly always “on” awaiting a new command.
* Press release…
Earlier today, Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 2323 concerning the restraint and shackling of youth in DCFS care while being transported. The following statement can be attributed to Nora Collins-Mandeville, Director of Systems Reform Policy at the ACLU of Illinois:
With his signature today, Governor Pritzker significantly improved safety, dignity and respect for youth in the care of DCFS. Illinois now prohibits the use of physical and chemical restraints when DCFS, or private agencies, arrange transport for young people in DCFS’ custody.
Past incidents of DCFS youth being shackled during transports led to an agreement in federal court where DCFS promised not to shackle children, or use drugs to restrain them, unless restraints were ordered by a judge or DCFS first obtained high level medical and practice approvals. The new law goes further – no restraints are permitted for pre-arranged transports of DCFS youth. And in emergencies, DCFS youth will be treated like everyone else, and cared for according to the best judgment of responding medical professionals.
* Press release…
In an effort to lower recidivism rates among formerly incarcerated people, State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago) sponsored a new law that would provide these individuals with information to help them in their reintegration into society.
“Recidivism is caused by instability, period,” Peters said. “When a person is released from prison, they have to reenter a life they’ve been away from for months, years or decades. If they’re not given an opportunity to live their best lives, then they may face challenges that risk further destabilization.”
House Bill 3235 concerns incarcerated individuals who are scheduled to be released from an Illinois Department of Corrections facility. The law requires IDOC to provide these individuals with information on various topics, including how to obtain an ID card, voter registration, job listings, available housing, and any other information the department believes could help prevent recidivism within 45 days of their release.
“The point of a prison sentence ending in the first place is that the person gets to reintegrate into society,” Peters said. “If we make it difficult to do that, we’re only perpetuating the dangerous cycle of recidivism.”
Illinois will no longer be home so-called “puppy mills” after Governor JB Pritzker signed a piece of legislation into law on Friday.
A puppy mill is a large-scale, for-profit pet pet breeding company that often leaves animals in dangerous conditions and subject to disease.
The new law restricts the retail sale of dogs and cats to animal control and shelters only. This means stores couldn’t take and sell pets from certain breeders.
* Press release…
Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 1833 into law, allowing for the designation of cultural districts across the state. Managed by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), this distinction will promote economic development and empower communities to honor their unique identities and economic contributions to Illinois.
“Illinois’ strength lies in our diversity and this legislation helps protect the rich history of cultural communities across the state while providing them with the tools they need to grow and thrive,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Thanks to the efforts of the Latino Caucus, cultural districts in Illinois can now receive an official designation status, opening the door to economic investment and protecting cultural traditions for generations to come.”
Championed by the Latino Caucus, Senate Bill 1833 allows DCEO to establish criteria and guidelines for the creation of state-designated cultural districts. These designations aim to support economic development, preserve historic traditions and landmarks, and encourage cultural education by providing technical assistance such as promotional support and resources for small businesses.
* Press release…
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities will have expanded supports to make their own decisions about their daily lives under a new law sponsored by State Representative Lindsey LaPointe (D-Chicago) and State Senator Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago).
“Making your own decisions about the way you live your own life is a basic human right,” LaPointe said. “Under the new Supported Decision-Making Agreement Act, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities will be able to get support from a trusted advisor when making important life decisions. This new law recognizes the rights and capabilities of people with disabilities in Illinois and creates an alternative to the often-inappropriate restrictions of legal guardianship.”
Under the new law, HB 3849, adults with disabilities can choose to enter into formal decision-making agreements, which identify trusted advisors to help them gather and interpret information, weigh their options, and communicate their decisions about health care, life choices and financial matters.
“Studies have indicated that, when persons with disabilities have increased self-determination, they experience better health and well-being,” LaPointe said. “I am proud that Illinois is joining the ranks of states that are protecting the rights of people with disabilities by passing supported decision-making statutes.”
The law, which takes effect in February 2022, requires the Guardianship and Advocacy Commission to post training and education materials on its website for individuals with disabilities and their identified supporters.
* Press release…
On Friday, pension board legislation introduced by State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) was signed into law by Governor Pritzker. This bipartisan legislation was co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) in the House and taken up by Senator John Connor (D-Lockport) in the Senate with Senators Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) and Laura Murphy (D-Des Plaines) also co-sponsoring the bill.
“I am happy to have worked with Senator Connor to pass this important legislation,” said Rep. Batinick. “House Bill 3004 will bring necessary ethics reform and transparency to pension boards in our state. This bill is one small step towards a more ethical Illinois.”
House Bill 3004 prohibits members of pension funds, investment boards, and retirement systems from being employed by the same fund, board, or system during their service and for 12 months after stepping down from their board membership roles. It also allows board members to temporarily serve in a senior administrative staff position if such a position becomes vacant. However, this service would only be permissible under a certain circumstance and would be served on an interim basis with conditions.
I’ve been asked this the last 48 hours as you can imagine, we all watch the numbers very closely. And when they start to flatten out, that’s always good news. Always good news.
The fact is that I think we’ve all lived through this long enough now to not jump the gun and say, oh, gosh, it’s flattened out, everything is so much better.
We’ve got to really see the curve heading downward. But I’m very hopeful of that.
But I would also encourage you to take a look at hospitalization numbers over the last week. They have been going up, though, a smaller number each day. And when I say hospitalizations, I want to be clear what I’m talking about: new people entering the hospital, because you can have people that have been in the hospital for some time leaving the hospital, that doesn’t tell you very much about where the disease is, how rampant it is. But new hospitalizations just recently started flattening, which is great. And again, I’m very hopeful, and I pray for it every day that we can head back down and fewer mitigations and everybody getting back to a more normal way of life.
But I do want to encourage anybody that’s not been vaccinated, now is the time to do it. This variant is more dangerous than any other that we’ve seen during the COVID 19 pandemic. […]
So, again, I’ll watch numbers like you will, you’ll ask me that question again soon, no doubt. And I hope we’ll be able to say, yeah, things are headed in the right direction.
* I’m not sure this will be a great campaign issue for the ILGOP, but go for it…
The IL Supreme Court, stacked with Madigan loyalists, extended the moratorium. We have a once in a generation opportunity in 2022 to take control of the state supreme court with a 4-3 majority so that rulings like this will be no more! #twillhttps://t.co/DT8ZwB8OZv
Republican gubernatorial candidate for Illinois Paul Schimpf joined this week’s 4 The Record. […]
Schimpf is running on something called a “parents bill of rights” when it comes to masks in schools and vaccines for kids.
He also argued recently that the requirement of vaccines for polio and the measles for kids is different from COVID-19 because there isn’t a serious risk for kids.
* I know Chicagoans who would be great and dedicated firefighters and paramedics but are on an ever-lasting waiting list for a job. Just sayin’…
The union that represents Chicago firefighters and paramedics has voiced its opposition to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate.
“I’m 100 percent opposed to the mandate; it should be a personal decision,” Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 President Jim Tracy told the Sun-Times on Monday.
Last week Lightfoot announced that all city workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15.
“It’s the carrot and the stick, and it drives me crazy when you always use the stick,” said Tracy.
* This press release is just one reason why the General Assembly needs to be extra careful with this climate/energy bill and not make it look like they’re just muscling it through to help big corporations. From AARP Illinois…
As legislators return to Springfield to consider a utility reform bill that could bring the largest rate hike in Illinois history, hundreds of older adults have signed a petition urging elected officials not to forget them when casting a vote.
The concern from older adults across the state comes with good reason: data analyzed independently by AARP Illinois – because a cost analysis was never presented to the public – finds that the bill being debated this week would build up to a $15 monthly increase for Single Family customers and would lead to more than $14 billion in increases to customer bills during the next 10 years.
“Our members are deeply concerned and dismayed about their utility bills, which keep going up without any explanation or consumer input,” said State Director Bob Gallo. “But they are equally frustrated that their elected officials continually act in the best interest of ComEd and other big utilities, which use unfair lobbying practices and not on behalf of the residents.”
Since Aug. 26, more than 500 older adults across Illinois have completed petitions with AARP Illinois, the non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the lives of those 50+. The petition demands that consumer advocacy groups, like AARP Illinois, be included in negotiations about the omnibus energy bill. On Tuesday, AARP Illinois representatives hand delivered stacks of these signed petitions to legislators at the Capitol.
Research compiled by AARP Illinois found that from the current legislation being considered, the largest single cost driver (larger than the next largest cost by $1.5 billion), is not the increase in renewable energy funding or the equitable and jobs training, but it is the increase to ComEd’s profits. That $4.1 billion increase represents only the increase in money going to Exelon over the next 10 years.
L. Reed, a Lake in the Hills resident and single mother of a 13-year-old son, said she put off seeing a doctor and buying groceries for several weeks to cover a $220 electric bill. Reed had to rely on her church to supply food to her and her son, and the high bill was still not enough to keep her home cool. She had to sit in a chair with ice packs on her to keep from overheating.
“There is no reason, with all the technology we have today, that electricity should be so expensive,” Reed said.
Other older adults who shared their utility struggles with AARP Illinois include: People who have had to stay working long into retirement to keep up with increases. Residents who are on the brink of declaring bankruptcy because they are paying hundreds of dollars a month on utilities.
Currently, Illinois utility customers are millions of dollars behind on their utility bills. Meanwhile, ComEd is projected to make record profits this year, even after it admitted to a 10-year bribery scheme that cost consumers $5 billion dollars.
The rate schemes that only benefit the utility companies, bailouts for nuclear plants, forced electrification, and increased rate caps for ratepayers are just a few reasons that electric bills will steadily increase on the citizens who can least afford it.
AARP Illinois continues to support future legislation to:
• End formula rates and all similar ratemaking schemes, and give the Illinois Commerce Commission back control over the ratemaking process;
• Stop additional nuclear bailouts for Exelon, which would lead to even further unfair electricity rates for you and other unsuspecting consumers;
• Put a stop to so-called “charitable contributions” by big utility companies that are actually giving away consumers’ money to make themselves seem benevolent;
• Enact strict ethics reforms and enhance oversight on utilities to ensure greater transparency and accountability and prevent any further illegal actions employed by utility companies that would lead to more ill-gotten rate increases;
• Oppose legislation that raises rates through questionable new spending.
“All Illinois utility customers – and especially older adults on fixed incomes – deserve energy legislation that finally puts them first,” Gallo said. “We urge legislators in Springfield to vote on behalf of the people who put them in office, who are telling them that the largest utility rate hike in history should not be an option.”
The Carlyle, Illinois school district that previously defied Governor J.B. Pritzker’s mask mandate has reversed course after a spike in COVID cases and several students forced to quarantine.
From elementary through high school, Carlyle Community Unit School District No. 1 has fewer than 1,000 kids.
A school board member confirms to 5 On Your Side more than 150 are already in quarantine just two weeks into the year with close to 30 testing positive for COVID-19.
That number could be even higher. The state said Thursday 40 people had tested positive and more than 200 students were going into quarantine.
A judge in Clinton County Court says the Carlyle School District does not have the authority to quarantine students.
As a result, a temporary injunction was issued Monday in favor of two Carlyle Unit School District parents whose children had been quarantined.
The attorney for the parents, Thomas DeVore, says the law is clear that only a county health department can quarantine a student and tell them when they can return to class. He argued the school district could not take over the role of quarantining students just because they were not getting the assistance they wanted from the county health department.
DeVore says while the temporary injunction only covers the two children named in the lawsuit, he doubts the school district would continue with their quarantine practice now that they know a judge has ruled against it.
What DeVore wants to do is force either the local county health department or the state Department of Public Health to go to court to quarantine each and every individual student, which is ridiculous.
* But the joke’s on him. The TRO includes this language...
Nothing in this order shall be construed to prohibit the District from implementing a school wide, or district wide, remote learning program.
And that’s exactly what Carlyle Community Unit School District #1 has done. I called over there this morning and they confirmed the district sent everyone home for remote learning on Friday and it will last throughout this week.
So, the truly bizarre folks who got all upset that their kids would miss school because they caught or have been exposed to COVID-19 have managed to shut down in-person learning for everyone in the district.
Motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the Quincy School District and superintendent Roy Webb were filed at the Adams County Courthouse late Monday afternoon by an attorney representing three Quincy families.
The motions were filed by Thomas Devore, a Sorento, Ill., attorney with Silver Lake Group, Ltd., in Greenville, on behalf of plaintiffs Scott and Jamie Lowary and their child, Christina Terwelp and her child, and Travis and Ashley Oshner and their minor child.
The motion for the temporary restraining order asks to allow the children of the three families to “continue their in-person education upon the premises of the district until such time as an order of quarantine might issue against the children.” The motion for the preliminary injunction would allow the children of the plaintiffs to immediately “resume their in-person education unless the (Adams) County Health Department or the Illinois Department of Health has provided defendants with a lawful order of quarantine.” […]
Oshner wrote on his Facebook page that “QHS kicked (his son) out of lunch for his mesh mask” on Aug. 20.
* Click here for the revised House map released this morning and click here for the new Senate map. The House Democrats have scheduled a 10:45 hearing this morning for the redistricting committee in Room 114.
In the House, Democrats drew the following Republicans into the same legislative districts:
• Representatives Mike Murphy (R-Springfield) and Avery Bourne (R-Raymond)
• Representatives Chris Miller (R-Oakland) and Adam Niemerg (R-Teutopolis)
• Representatives Joe Sosnowksi (R-Rockford) and Steve Reick (R-Woodstock)
• Representatives Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) and Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville)
• Representatives Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) and Seth Lewis (R-Bartlett)
• Representatives C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville) and Randy Frese (R-Quincy)
• Representatives Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) and Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich)
Democrats drew Representative Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) into the same district with his colleague Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville), but Caulkins said he plans to re-establish residency in a district next door to attempt to outmaneuver the gerrymander.
The new maps also spared some Republicans who were bracing for primary battles under the maps that were passed in May. Representatives Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) and Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego) are no longer paired together in the same district, as well as Representatives Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) and Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport), who will each enjoy the benefit of incumbency in safe districts in the upcoming election.
Calabrese projected the Democrats could pick up six or seven House seats under the gerrymandered maps, but could potentially lose one or two seats in the Senate.
“They’re probably gonna have 80 members [in the House],” he said. “I also have the Democrats actually losing seats in the Senate, because what they did is they really catered to their members. And so there’s like no swing districts in the Senate. The seats are either really Republican or really Democratic.”
I struck out the Sosnowksi vs. Reick primary because this morning’s new House map puts them in separate districts. Stay tuned for more changes.
Also, subscribers know more, including about Chesney’s likely GOP opponent.
U.S. District Judge Robert Dow warned Democrats that they should address concerns about undercounted minority populations when approving new maps during Tuesday’s special session.
That’s just what Democrats said they attempted to do with the new proposed boundaries introduced Monday, including an effort to put more of the Orthodox Jewish community into a single House and Senate district. The new maps also make a greater effort to keep more communities within single districts, Democrats said. […]
But Shlomo Soroka of Agudath Israel of Illinois said the newest map actually further divides the Orthodox Jewish community on the Northwest Side and in the northwest suburbs.
“I actually refuse to believe this was done intentionally, but if it was a mistake, it’s not too late to fix,” Soroka said during a hearing on redistricting late Monday.
My consultant Frank Calabrese says there were no changes to that district.
MALDEF’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Latino voters in four different House districts under the plan Democrats passed in May. The suit alleges those voters have been living in districts that were malapportioned in the 2011 redistricting cycle, and will again live in districts that violate the 14th Amendment principle of “one man one vote” — unless the court steps in.
Of the four districts identified in the lawsuit, three of them saw minor adjustments to their proposed borders under the new district maps Democrats published Monday, compared with the maps passed in May. That includes the 1st House District, which State Rep. Aarón Ortiz (D-Chicago) has represented since 2019 and will continue to represent under the new map, despite the changed territory.
The slight change to the first district does not affect the 22nd House District, represented by freshman State Rep. Angelica Guerrero-Cuellar (D-Chicago). Guerrero-Cuellar, who was appointed to the House seat vacated by longtime former House Speaker Mike Madigan in February, recently filed an unusual motion in the MALDEF suit asking to be added to the list of defendants, along with Democratic leaders.
In the filing, Guerrero-Cuellar said she was asking the court on behalf of her constituents as she wanted to prevent any sort of settlement of surrounding districts that may affect her own. According to internal data, the new 22nd District’s population is nearly 63% voting age residents of Hispanic origin — the third-most largest share in the new proposed map.
“The Representative of the 22nd District has a significant interest in maintaining the current configuration of the map to protect her constituents’ rights to a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice and avoid dilution of Latino/a/x votes,” Guerrero-Cuellar’s attorneys wrote.
Guerrero-Cuellar is represented in the matter by the Del Galdo Law Group, whose namesake Michael Del Galdo has long been close with Madigan.
In court filings seeking to block Guerrero-Cuellar’s legal move, MALDEF included a July 2 letter from Guerrero-Cuellar to Griselda Vega Samuel, the organization’s midwest regional counsel and leader in its Chicago office. The letter asked Vega Samuel to “refrain from taking any legal actions that would disrupt the representation of this community and silence local voices.”
“I am deeply concerned that attempts to overturn the map in court could disrupt the representation this community enjoys and silence our voices,” Guerrero-Cuellar wrote. “It is my sincere hope that you will respect the diversity of this community and the clearly stated will of the people who lives here and forgo any legal challenge to the 22nd Representative District.”
The 1st House District, by the way, went from 75 percent Latino voting age population in the May redistricting bill to 76 percent in the current bill.
Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has announced plans for his first big Chicago fund-raiser since succeeding Mike Madigan, and though I wouldn’t expect Commonwealth Edison execs to pack the place, it does have some similarities to the kind of big-bucks events Madigan used to throw. […]
If Team Welch is imposing any new rules on who can donate, given Madigan’s involvement in the on-going Edison bribery and shake-down scandal, it isn’t saying so. Madigan has not been accused of any misconduct and denies any impropriety. Several of his key associates are under federal indictment. […]
Says a Welch spokeswoman in a statement, “Speaker Welch is excited to have a fundraiser at a new outdoor venue. He will comply with any state/local guidelines, just like every other political committee holding a fundraiser.”
I’m not quite sure why Welch should be singled out here, particularly since Senate President Harmon is the one taking the lead on the energy bill talks.
Your thoughts on any special restrictions that Welch should put on his fundraisers?
At some age, I think we all learn that we lack the ability to control the bad things that come at us.
For me, that was losing my father at the age of seven and losing my mother at the age of seventeen.
Every day that I woke up during this pandemic and looked at how many people had died the day earlier, I knew, thinking about each one of those people, what they were going through, what their families were going through.
And I knew that it was my obligation to do everything that I could to make sure that another person wouldn’t go through that.
Look, I may not have gotten every decision right but at every step along the way I followed the science.
This is a state that cares deeply about keeping each other healthy and making sure that we get through this together.
We have more work to do, there’s no doubt, but Illinois has led in ways that people did not expect. And I’m very proud of that.
* The Senate held a hearing today on the new climate/energy bill. But this thing as written isn’t going anywhere even if the Senate passes it tomorrow. From Gov. Pritzker’s office…
The Governor’s position on a comprehensive energy bill has not changed since discussions at the end of session in May and again in June: any energy package needs to lead with ethics and transparency, needs time to be vetted, and must end carbon emissions by a date certain. HB3666, a bill that was not agreed to by environmentalists nor negotiated with all stakeholders, falls short of that standard, and if it reaches the Governor’s desk, he will veto it. The Governor remains committing to finalizing a bill that put consumers and the climate first, moves us to a zero emission future, and leads with ethics and transparency.
Scientists around the world have said we are at a “code red for humanity” and surely they would agree that we cannot wait to 2040 to cut the emissions of Prairie State Energy Campus - the nation’s seventh largest polluter - in half. And a thousand page energy bill affecting both ratepayers and utility interests that have been the subject of a deferred prosecution agreement should not be released on a Monday and voted on the next day.
BACKGROUND
• The Senate draft was scheduled to be filed at 8:30AM, very shortly after a copy was sent to the administration and stakeholders for the first time.
• Our review of the 900 page plus bill is still ongoing at this hour.
• This bill does not reflect previous agreements, in fact, this draft is worse for the planet and better for industries of polluters.
o The Senate bill does not phase out the dirtier gas plants nearly quickly enough. Even natural gas companies believe the orderly process that would have been created by the Illinois EPA in the Governor’s draft was more workable and responsible.
* House Speaker Chris Welch’s spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll…
The Speaker is still reviewing the language that was filed this morning, but he has always been clear that before an energy proposal is called in the House there must be a consensus among the Democratic caucus and stakeholders, as well as include strong, meaningful ethics provisions. Leaders Evans, Gabel, and Hoffman have been tenacious advocates at the table throughout these negotiations and Speaker Welch will rely on their advice and guidance as conversations continue.
* And one of those stakeholders is the Sierra Club…
Today, an amendment to HB3666 was introduced in the General Assembly, which fails to act on the urgency of the climate crisis and gives a free pass to the Prairie State coal plant, the largest polluter in Illinois. Despite widespread approval for an energy bill that sets firm deadlines to equitably decarbonize our electric grid and grow Illinois’ clean energy economy, legislators continue to cater to fossil fuel interests. The amendment to HB3666 currently allows Prairie State to continue burning coal without any pollution reductions before 2045, leaves frontline communities vulnerable to short-term pollution increases, and allows fossil fuel companies to appeal to the Illinois Commerce Commission for pollution bailouts. Sierra Club joined other environmental advocates in opposing any bill that jeopardizes people and a livable climate.
Despite Governor Pritzker, legislators, and the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition staring down Exelon, ComEd, and Ameren to demand climate leadership for our state, fossil fuel corporations and special interests on behalf of Prairie State continue to hold Springfield hostage.
In response, Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin released the following statement:
“We remain confident that an agreement on a comprehensive energy package is absolutely possible, but as currently drafted, Sierra Club cannot support this bill. This summer alone, we have witnessed the hottest July ever documented, extreme weather, and flooding across Illinois. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounding the alarm of an even graver climate crisis than we thought. This bill must match the urgency of the moment. While it includes many of our priorities to grow an equitable, clean energy economy across Illinois, it does not currently have a decarbonization plan that holds the state’s biggest climate polluters accountable or protects our frontline communities. Coal plants like the Dallman Power Plant and the Prairie State Coal Plant continue to pollute Illinois communities at alarming rates, with the Prairie State Coal Plant killing 76 Illinoisans annually and costing $2 billion a year in damage to our health and environment.
“The fossil fuel industry has time and again left Illinois workers in a lurch and left communities with toxic legacies and broken promises. Other states are tapping the potential of a booming clean energy economy and without action, Illinois will not only fail to meet the challenges of the climate crises, but will deny the opportunity of clean energy prosperity to generations of Illinoisans. We remain committed to working with legislators and stakeholders to come to an agreement that prioritizes equity, clean energy jobs, and decarbonizes Illinois’ electric grid.”
* IRMA, however, has moved to neutral…
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) released the following statement regarding the proposed energy omnibus legislation:
“From safely storing food and medicine to ensuring shoppers have access to needed goods around the clock, retailers and the consumers they serve need reliable and affordable energy. As a result, IRMA has been an active and engaged stakeholder on energy legislation dating back to our support of, and leadership on, the landmark deregulation of the Illinois energy market in 1997. IRMA was the only statewide business group to support deregulation, which has saved businesses and homeowners billions of dollars and created one of the most reliable grids in the nation. As such, we have expressed concerns about various energy proposals put forth over the last two years. Most notably the added cost and potential reliability issues included in earlier proposals,” said Rob Karr, president & CEO, IRMA.
“However, thanks to the strong leadership demonstrated by Senate President Don Harmon and Senate Pro Tempore Bill Cunningham, IRMA is no longer opposing this legislation following good faith negotiations that took place throughout the summer and leading into this week. While no bill of this complexity is ever perfect, much has been done to temper the costs on retailers and consumers. That includes reducing the overall size of the proposal, instituting caps on costs and attempting to safeguard reliability. We are also pleased the current proposal is taking additional steps to reach zero carbon emissions, as retail companies big and small are doing that proactively. Overall, this updated measure meets our goal of trying to ensure reliable and affordable electricity for retailers in Illinois while addressing climate change.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** IEC…
Following is a statement from Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, on the latest climate and energy bill released today:
“We stand on the precipice of passing comprehensive climate and equitable jobs legislation in Illinois. This moment comes after a years-long campaign, and our even longer strategic effort to build the power of the environmental movement in Illinois. We have grown a strong voting bloc of environmental champions, who stand shoulder to shoulder with Governor Pritzker and our community in demanding a bill that truly addresses climate change and that includes meaningful equity provisions.
“But this legislation isn’t there yet. Anything short of what Illinoisans deserve or what science demands would be too costly a mistake to make in the climate crisis, particularly for BIPOC communities most impacted. Illinois must plan a clear and certain timeline for ending fossil fuels–and it must do so in this bill.
“The coming days will determine whether legislators are strong enough to side with their constituents, or polluting fossil fuel industries who have called the shots in Springfield for too long. Our clean energy future and the future of generations to come depends on the decisions legislators make over the next few hours. Our movement won’t stop pushing until the General Assembly has passed equitable, comprehensive climate legislation worthy of the people of Illinois.”
Senate President Don Harmon has tried to marry labor’s interests with the greens. He was sanguine Monday evening.
“The Senate president remains optimistic that we’ll find the winning balance of reliable, renewable and affordable energy policies for the people of Illinois,” a spokesman said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday endorsed ethics legislation that aims to take on Illinois’ pervasive culture of political corruption, but used his amendatory veto power to return it to the legislature to correct what he said was a confusing “technical drafting error” that prevented him from signing it into law.
“Passing real, lasting ethics reform was a top priority of mine going into the 2020 legislative session, and I’m pleased to move forward with an ethics package that includes a number of meaningful changes,” Pritzker said of the measure. […]
But Pritzker said a small provision “confuses and interferes” with the “clear authority” of the executive inspector general’s office to conduct investigations into wrongful conduct. He rewrote the measure to delete the provision.
It will take a simple majority of lawmakers to approve of Pritzker’s change when they reconvene for the fall veto session in October. But his actions could spur greater efforts among groups opposing the package who had sought a total veto in favor of tougher legislation.
* The Question: Do you agree with the governor’s limited AV or do you think he should’ve vetoed out more provisions or vetoed the whole thing? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
…Adding… Keep in mind that the chambers changed their maps after posting their initial proposals on their respective websites. We could possibly see that happen again.
…Adding… You can find the earlier versions of the House maps here and the Senate maps here.
*** UPDATE 1 *** House press release…
The Illinois House Redistricting Committee has released an updated map of legislative boundaries and encourages the public to provide feedback before the General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the proposal this week.
The updated map reflects information from the 2020 U.S. Census that was recently released, as well as suggestions gathered during public hearings. The proposed changes can be viewed at www.ilhousedems.com/redistricting.
The map is designed to comply with federal and state law and ensure the broad racial and geographic diversity of Illinois is reflected in the General Assembly. Among the proposed adjustments is an effort to keep more communities whole, a frequent request from local officials throughout Illinois. The map also reflects testimony received at the public hearings, such as keeping more of the orthodox Jewish community together in one Senate and House district, as well as keeping the airports in Bloomington and Peoria in the district with the bulk of the respective city’s population.
“The changes proposed for the legislative boundaries better reflect the data we recently received from the U.S. Census and ensure communities are represented by the people of their choice, said Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez, D-Cicero, Chairperson of the House Redistricting Committee. “These changes reflect input gathered at public hearings across the state and I’m incredibly grateful to every person who participated to make sure their voices were heard.”
Additional public hearings will take place and will include a virtual component to ensure stakeholders from across Illinois can safely participate during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
· Monday, August 30 at 6 p.m. – Joint Senate and House Hearing (Virtual)
· Tuesday, August 31 at 10 a.m. – House Hearing (Hybrid)
Members of the public may request to provide testimony, submit electronic testimony or submit electronic witness slips in advance of the hearings via the General Assembly website www.ilga.gov or via email at redistrictingcommittee@hds.ilga.gov.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
Common Cause Illinois announced today that it is boycotting the hastily scheduled Joint Redistricting Committee hearing, scheduled for this Monday evening, in protest of yet another example of how mishandled and undemocratic the redistricting process has been in Illinois.
The organization, which has repeatedly testified at previous hearings and has mobilized its over 30,000 supporters to participate in the process, will not be engaging its network as lawmakers rush to revise maps in the shadows. The General Assembly is set to vote on revised maps on Tuesday, August 31st.
“Since the beginning, we’ve pleaded with lawmakers to keep the redistricting process open, transparent, and accessible to no avail,” said Jay Young, Executive Director of Common Cause Illinois. “This latest, last-minute hearing provides almost no notice to the public. The new maps have been released less than a day before lawmakers vote on them. It’s shameful, and our organization refuses to add any legitimacy to such an undemocratic process.”
“At each opportunity in this redistricting process, it’s as if lawmakers went out of their way to ensure the creation of these maps had as little public input as possible. Rejecting an independent bipartisan redistricting commission, politicians chose to draw maps themselves. They did so behind closed doors, with a series of hearings attempting to add a veneer of public access. Yet, these hearings were consistently hastily scheduled, poorly noticed to the general public, and sparsely attended. As a result, the maps to be voted on tomorrow will not be crafted of public input, but of pure politics.”
Common Cause Illinois will be continuing its work on the creation of an independent redistricting commission in Illinois to give residents a voice in future mapmaking.
Gov. JB Pritzker announced today a 46-member Urban Search and Rescue Team, and the required mission equipment, will deploy to Louisiana to aid with water rescues caused by life threatening flash flooding and dangerous storm surges caused by Hurricane Ida. These first responders hail from the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS) IL-Task Force 1 from northern Illinois and are made up of members from various fire departments throughout the state. The team will be deployed to the affected area for 16 days.
The Urban Search and Rescue teams work alongside local rescuers to conduct search, rescue, and recovery missions for humans and animals in flooded environments. In addition, the team is capable of providing on-the-spot emergency medical care, emergency transportation for medical necessities and supports helicopter rescue operations in water environments.
“Illinois is ready to help our fellow Americans, and Hurricane Ida is doing untold damage in Louisiana,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This life-threatening storm is creating extremely dangerous conditions for residents who did not evacuate and Louisiana’s first responders. Illinois’ brave first responders are well-trained and will work alongside local rescue teams in the coming days to provide essential support for affected residents.”
Requests for assistance are coordinated through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a mutual aid agreement that allows states to request assistance from other states during emergencies. Officials from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) have been in regular contact with EMAC representative and are currently reviewing the anticipated needs drafted by the state of Louisiana and neighboring states.
The MABAS team will depart Monday morning from Wheeling after receiving event identification, mission and safety briefings and mobilization assistance. This process ensures the accountability and readiness of personnel and state assets prior to departure. All costs associated with these deployments will be paid for by Louisiana.
Illinois, and its public safety agencies, stand ready to provide assistance in response to further EMAC requests as the Gulf Coast and southern states responds to the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
* Related…
* We’re Hitting the Limits of Hurricane Preparedness: While Ida was a well-predicted storm, 60 hours of warning was too short for New Orleans officials to issue a mandatory evacuation order in the days before it landed. The limits of the city’s highways mean that the city must issue an evacuation order at least 72 hours before tropical-storm winds hit land. Officials said last year that the coronavirus pandemic means they may need 82 hours of warning, to account for the increased difficulty of moving and sheltering people.
Two “realities” seem to co-exist in Southern Illinois these days.
One is rooted in denial and full of birthday parties, packed concerts, crowded restaurants and even large, maskless funerals. In this reality, the black-and-white ink of a loved one’s obituary dare not mention the person died from COVID-19.
In this reality, the coronavirus is not a threat.
And then there’s another, more grim reality that health care workers like Darren Ackerman, a registered nurse and day shift supervisor in the intensive care unit at SIH Memorial in Carbondale, have been living in for the last year and a half.
Nurses are mentally, physically and emotionally drained — from picking up double shifts to pleading with the community to take this pandemic more seriously.
In a small town where sports are sacred, Anna-Jonesboro Community High School wants to use nearly half of its $1.9 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to install artificial turf on the football field and to resurface the track.
A significant but smaller portion of the school’s COVID-19 dollars is also going toward a social worker’s salary and benefits for three years; 30 Jet Pack wifi hotspot subscriptions for three years; and a HVAC system for the lower gym and related upgrades, documents show.
The truth is, some balk at being forced to do anything new. Even in a crisis. Even to save lives A stance so selfish that some try a second approach. They wander into the realm of science, so unfamiliar to them, and cherry pick a shiny fact to decorate their infantile “I don’t wanna!” Like a bright ornament on a dead Christmas tree.
“Do the research,” demands one reader. “Find out how large the air openings are on any mask. The ‘smallest’ openings are 3 microns. Now, even Stevie Wonder could see this coming — please tell us how a 3000 nM opening can keep out a 50 nM virus?”
Tell you how? Happily, for all the good it will do. The same way a chain link fence keeps a dog’s teeth out of your ankle, even though the teeth are smaller than the fence links. Because the teeth are in the dog. The viruses are in much larger moisture droplets blasted out of your nose and mouth. Masks catch those.
This did not sway the reader one bit, of course. He immediately waved another deceptive fact. That’s why I try not to argue. What’s the use? That anyone could look at this national crisis — the extra contagious Delta variant surging across the country — and start clutching at himself and conjuring up imaginary harms, it’s just insane. “Those firemen! They’re breaking into my house! They’re pouring water on things!”
From my inbox…
Since you are using Jacobson vs. Mass to justify forced vaxxing, you should study up on the Nuremberg Code
Pop’s in Sauget is joining a growing list of venues that will require concertgoers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations or negative tests taken within 72 hours of show times.
The 40-year-old “dance and night club” posted its new COVID Safety Policy on Facebook last week. It took effect immediately.
“If you are opposed to this, you may have to sit out these shows until things get better. If you feel the need to attack us in the comments, we don’t check them. It may actually raise the rank of our Facebook page due to a high engagement…social media is a nightmare.
“We are just trying to stay open, keep our employees/artists safe and working. We are celebrating 40 years and would like to celebrate 50 in 2031.”
CHAMPAIGN — A case of COVID-19 came and went for Kate Maurer last November, or so she thought.
It was a mild case, with a fever and cold symptoms that went away on their own, Maurer said.
Then, a few weeks after she felt better, she was hit with crushing fatigue, dizziness and insomnia, plus a frightening feeling of motion sickness and being disoriented that seemed to be triggered by driving at higher speeds on interstates.
Nearly 10 months later, Maurer said she’s about 80 percent back to her pre-COVID-19 health, but recovery has taken time.
Illinois legislators are poised to return to the state capitol for a special session Tuesday to potentially approve new legislative boundaries for themselves, even as they face repeated criticism for a closed-door process and a lawsuit that has potential to upend the mapmaking system.
The rare one-day session comes amid fiercely partisan accusations from Republicans that Democrats are attempting to gerrymander state legislative districts in an effort to retain their supermajority status in both the House and Senate. Several community groups have also voiced concerns that the districts do not adequately represent minority populations, and that their criticisms have not been taken into account. […]
The federal government released more complete census data earlier this month, prompting Democrats to restart legislative hearings and call Tuesday’s session. But community advocates are continuing their criticisms of Democrats for seeking input from the public, but not actually releasing maps for the public to consider.
I’m also hearing complaints (including from my consultant Frank Calabrese) that the Democrats’ portal which members of the public can use to submit their own map ideas isn’t working properly and is using 2010 Census numbers. Oops.
Witness who testified didn't receive Zoom link until after hearing began. Her organization testified this spring yet stated they received no notice to testify at this weekend's hearings (contrary to what House Dems stated on record). 2/11
Saturday morning, both Senate and House Redistricting Committees held a joint hearing at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
The group is considering changing legislative boundaries after the 2020 Census data was released.
The current map splits Peoria between different districts. Ryan Spain, Republican State Representative for District 73 and half of the City of Peoria, said he felt the current maps will negatively affect people in Peoria.
“It’s a very curious decision, and I think one that will have very damaging and long-lasting impacts for representation here in the greater Peoria area,” said Spain.
* This was such a no-brainer bill and there was no good reason for it to be controversial except that Rep. Sonya Harper, whose family owns property in the township, tried to block it from passage. The whole thing was just so bizarre. Democratic Senator Mike Simmons said during floor debate against the bill that some of the poorest residents in Illinois had “learned to live in nature.” What? Press release…
To help give the residents of Pembroke Township the ability to heat their homes more affordably, State Senator Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) championed a new law that will bring natural gas service to the area. The law was supported and advanced by a group of stakeholders including the Village of Hopkins Park, Pembroke Township, Congresswoman Robin Kelly, Senator Joyce, Representative Jackie Haas, Rainbow PUSH and Kankakee County.
“Pembroke residents have lived in a community that lacks the basic access to a natural gas service for far too long,” Joyce said. “I’m thrilled to see this transformative legislation signed into law so residents can have a reliable and affordable source of heat in their homes.”
The measure passed with bipartisan support.
“With the governor’s signature today, bringing safe, effective utilities to the people of Pembroke is now one step closer to becoming reality,” said State Representative Jackie Haas (R-Kankakee), the House sponsor of the measure. “This was a great bipartisan effort that had a lot of moving pieces but couldn’t have had a better result. I look forward to continuing to advocate for Pembroke until the job is done.” […]
“Bringing more robust infrastructure to Pembroke Township is an issue of equity for an area that has not seen enough investment,” said Congresswoman Robin Kelly. “I will continue to work to see services brought to this area that improve quality of life and attract jobs for residents.”
For residents who choose natural gas service, Joyce secured $1 million in state funding last year to enable Pembroke Township residents to take advantage of these new service lines. Through the Pembroke Township Natural Gas Investment Fund, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will distribute grants to eligible residents to help cover the cost of converting appliances to be compatible with natural gas.
House Bill 3404 was signed into law Friday and takes effect immediately.
The township supervisor who strongly opposed the pipeline lost reelection to a pipeline supporter and the Hopkins Park mayor supports the pipeline, but some folks at the Statehouse just thought they knew better. This was one of the most paternalistic displays of legislative gamesmanship I have seen in a long time.
* And don’t even get me started about the environmentalists who opposed the bill right up to the end. Check out this Illinois Environmental Council call to action email from July…
A dangerous effort is afoot in Illinois–one that promises to jeopardize human health, skyrocket harmful methane emissions and lock in higher utility rates in under-resourced communities for years to come.
We can’t let gas companies win without a fight. Click here to oppose their dirty energy and even dirtier playbook.
Samuel Payton, Pembroke Township supervisor and a Kankakee County Board member, said this current effort started three years ago, but it’s been an off-and-on effort for a couple decades.
“I’ve been a person for the last 16 years who’s been saying Pembroke needs natural gas,” Payton said. “All the communities around us — Aroma Park, Momence and St. Anne — have got natural gas. They are all thriving communities. We want natural gas.”
Payton said now he pays $750 for propane that lasts a little more than a month.
“In the winter days, I have to spend approximately three times that, so if we had natural gas, I could be on the budget. If we had natural gas, I wouldn’t have to worry about my service getting turned off.”
The week of Governor’s Day and Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair is always packed with political events. And this year was no exception. It’s impossible to attend them all, so one has to pick and choose and go with the flow.
After Governor’s Day at the fairgrounds ended on Wednesday, Aug. 17, I worked for a bit in my air-conditioned pickup truck and then headed downtown to House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s event at a popular tavern. The ceiling fans were on full blast, it wasn’t wall-to-wall people, so I stayed for a bit and then decided I should head home to let my dog Oscar out before returning to the fairgrounds to meet friends. And since Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy’s event was on my route home, I figured I’d stop by to see who was there.
Tracy has a huge, gorgeous home on a big plot of land by Lake Springfield, but it was so hot that day that his event was held indoors.
Those weren’t my first indoor State Fair events. Senate President Harmon’s caucus held a party downtown Tuesday that was both indoors and outdoors, but the party inside wasn’t crowded by the time I got there, doors were open for ventilation and at least some folks were wearing masks. I spent most of the time outside, but popped in for a few minutes to briefly chat with a couple of people for a story I was working on. I attended another event later that night inside and ended up having dinner with several (vaccinated and very pleasant) people on the premises.
Wednesday’s Republican event on the lake was mostly confined to a large room packed with people, including some (like GOP gubernatorial candidates Darren Bailey and Gary Rabine) who have publicly said they aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19. There were no ceiling fans, the doors were closed and the air conditioner was having real trouble keeping up. It was hot and close. And nobody, of course, was wearing masks.
I didn’t stay longer than 15 or 20 minutes. I talked to a few people about potential stories, said hello to others like Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie, then left. I called a close friend on my way home to say that I’d probably just made a mistake. I’m fully, vaccinated, but if I was going to get one of those “breakthrough” cases, that was going to be the place.
On Friday of that week, Leader McConchie, who is also fully vaccinated, announced that he had a mild breakthrough case. I received a text message later that evening from someone else who was at the lake party at the same time as me to tell me he had been exposed to the virus. He suggested that I get tested.
I never developed symptoms beyond a mild sore throat that I often get at the state fair because of dust, pollen and various, um, activities. I took a rapid test on Saturday and it came up negative. Those tests can have high false negatives, so I got a PCR test at Walgreen’s Sunday and was told the results could take as long as 3 to 5 business days. On Tuesday, tired of waiting, I took one of those University of Illinois saliva tests.
That may sound like overkill, and at times I thought I was paranoid, especially since I’m vaxed and probably won’t get very sick even if I do catch the virus. But I wanted to make extra sure that I was not at all contagious ahead of this week’s special legislative session to deal with redistricting and possibly a major bill on energy policy. If I couldn’t go, I needed to know as soon as possible so I could make other plans.
To be clear, I don’t blame Don Tracy or anyone else for being exposed. Not even one iota. I chose to walk into every one of those indoor events. That’s on me.
The State Fair is such an integral part of our state’s political culture that I think many of us desperately wanted to latch on to some sort of normalcy last week after a year and a half of nothingness. But this clearly ain’t over — though Illinois is doing much better than the southern states — and many of us should’ve known better.
My story has a happy ending, by the way. Three tests, three negative results. Bring on the special session. But lesson learned.
With the American auto industry now rushing toward an electric-powered future, the Pritzker administration is moving to embellish tax and other incentives in hopes of better competing in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand a key growth industry here.
Officials have begun talking to industry leaders and some lawmakers about putting together a package that could be presented to the Illinois General Assembly as soon as its October veto session. […]
Illinois appears to be out of the running for a second American Rivian plant—the company has told officials they want to diversify their labor pool—but is making a major bid for a Samsung battery factory, along with three or four other states, reliable sources said.
The Samsung winner “likely will come down to dollars and cents,” said one well-placed insider. In other words, the state with the best incentive package is the likely winner.
The governor’s office appears to be taking this idea seriously.
The head of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association is calling on lawmakers to get serious about the electric vehicle business.
Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the IMA, says there’s a chance right now for the state to position itself to compete in a growth industry.
“Auto manufacturers are having those discussions today, and they were having them a month ago, about where to locate and what facilities to retool,” Denzler said. “We have the opportunity to invest in some of these facilities in Illinois and be part of that movement toward electric vehicles.”
Denzler says a major hurdle in the efforts to attract the attention of auto manufacturers is the lack of tools available in the recruitment effort.
“Illinois’ incentives oftentimes lack what neighboring states do,” Denzler said. “We have the EDGE credit, which can be effective, but a number of other states provide cash up front, or land, or other types of incentives that we don’t have available in Illinois.”
He’s calling on state lawmakers to take steps during the fall veto session to remain competitive with surrounding states that might also be interested in these facilities.
“The fact is that other states have moved ahead of us and Illinois has not been doing anything to really attract them or change any incentive packages,” Denzler said. “We’re working hopefully to enhance some of the incentives, but we also have to address some of the longstanding concerns that the business community has.”
Taxpayers in the Illinois Quad-Cities may soon be borrowing some of the nearly $330 million they owe to retirement funds for public workers.
Moline taxpayers’ liability on pension promises to retired police officers and firefighters is about 10 times more than what they pay to current emergency responders.
Last year’s wages for the Moline police and fire departments were just shy of $11 million. But Moline’s unfunded obligation to police and fire retirees is more than $120 million.
And East Moline and Rock Island are in similar straits.
All three cities on the Illinois side of the river are considering borrowing money to get caught up on what they owe to public-employee retirement funds, mostly for police and firefighters.
So, the idea is they borrow money, invest it and use the returns to make the payments. The state did the same thing during Rod Blagojevich’s tenure, but they irresponsibly front-loaded the savings to “balance” the budget and it didn’t work nearly as well as advertised (although it wasn’t the disaster some predicted).
But the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. On any other basis organized society could not exist with safety to its members. Society based on the rule that each one is a law unto himself would soon be confronted with disorder and anarchy. Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.
The case was about a vaccine mandate. The decision was handed down in 1905. If you want to read a fascinating thread on the history of anti-vaxxer legal issues, click here. It’s the best I’ve seen.
…Adding… Text message…
I’ve always thought of that 1905 decision as the “your right to swing your arms stops at the other guy’s nose” rule
* My Aunt Marilyn died unexpectedly last Friday. She worked hard, played hard and loved her family and everyone loved her back. She was a rock, but so very human. Here she is several years ago on the left next to her brothers Denny (my uncle) and Richard (my dad) and her mom (my late grandmother)…
My dad and his family always called her Marilyn Rose. It was a fitting name.
Governor JB Pritzker advanced Senate Bill 539, an ethics reform package that passed the General Assembly this session. The legislation includes a variety of measures to restrict government officials from lobbying activities, tighten regulations on registered lobbyists and consultants, and expand economic interest disclosures.
To move forward with this important legislation, Gov. Pritzker issued an amendatory veto to correct a technical drafting error. The fix will ensure that the Executive Inspectors General are able to maintain current processes and procedures regarding investigations. The Governor looks forward to working with the legislature on concurrence and pledged to certify the bill once the amendatory veto passes the legislature. Gov. Pritzker is also committed to working on additional legislation thatreflects the continued urgency of ethics reform in Illinois – which was laid out as a key legislative priority in his 2020 State of the State Address. The full amendatory veto message is attached.
“Passing real, lasting ethics reform was a top priority of mine going into the 2020 legislative session, and I’m pleased to move forward with an ethics package that includes a number of meaningful changes,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We must restore the public’s trust in our government and this legislation is a necessary first step to achieve that goal. I remain committed to making further advancements so the well-connected and well-protected cannot work the system to the detriment of working families across Illinois.”
“While more work remains to be done to restore the faith Illinois citizens have in their government,” said State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr.(D-Chicago). “They demanded real ethics reform like those included in this bill, changes like stopping the practice of legislators using their influence to lobby other governments and working to enact pro-rated salaries for legislators who leave office before the end of their term. Many of the changes included in this bill place Illinois on the path to restoring the faith citizens must have to make our democracy successful.”
“This measure offers bipartisan solutions to target some of the worst abuses of power in our state’s history,” said State Senator Ann Gillespie (D-Arlington Heights). “Our plan closes many of the loopholes that have allowed bad actors to game the system for decades. Our bipartisan team on the Senate Ethics Committee stands ready to continue this vital work to make our government work for everyone, not just a powerful few.
Senate Bill 539 includes the following provisions:
• Bans government officials from engaging in compensated lobbying, including:
o State level: Legislators, Executive branch constitutional officers
o County level: elected or appointed county executive or legislative officials
o Municipal level: elected or appointed municipal executive or legislative officials
o Township: elected or appointed township executive or legislative officials
• Strengthens the Lobbyist Registration Act by expanding the definition of ‘officials’ and adding ‘consultant’ to the definition of compensation that is regulated.
• Increases transparency of lobbying activities by expanding the persons required to register as a lobbyist and establishing a shorter, two-day deadline for registration.
• Requires lobbyists to complete ethics training before their registration or renewal is deemed complete (instead of within 30 days).
• Requires lobbyists to disclose consultants and clients no later than two days after a consultant is retained.
• Restricts appointees to certain offices from being an officer of a candidate political committee or a candidate with the support of such a committee. Members of the State Board of Elections are also restricted from contributing to candidate political committees.
• Expands and clarifies disclosures required in Statements of Economic Interest, including, among others, government units that benefit the filer, lobbyist registration, and the source of gifts.
• Bans political fundraising in Sangamon County during session or the day immediately prior to such day, with limited exceptions.
• Strengthens revolving door provisions in the executive branch and establishes such provisions in the legislative branch.
• Empowers the Legislative Inspector General to undertake investigations without obtaining advance approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission.
• Revokes the provision allowing General Assembly members to receive prorated compensation following a vacancy.
…Adding… Press release…
llinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s “no exit bonus/no signing bonus” reform was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker today as part of a broader package of legislative ethics reforms.
The measure ends the shady practice of legislators leaving the General Assembly in disgrace but dating their exit on the first day of the following month to claim an extra month’s pay for a day’s work.
“This is a matter of common sense and accountability,” Mendoza said. “Waitresses and factory workers don’t collect a month’s pay for a day’s work, and legislators don’t deserve that luxury either – especially on the backs of Illinois taxpayers.”
For years, legislators of both parties exploited a loophole in state law allowing them to resign on the first day of the month and collect the whole month’s pay or get sworn in at month’s end but claim a whole month’s pay.
Former State Rep. Luis Arroyo of Chicago, charged with bribery; the late former State Sen. Martin Sandoval of Chicago, who pleaded guilty to federal bribery and tax charges; and former State Rep. Nick Sauer of Lake Barrington, charged with online sex crimes, all took advantage of that loophole in state law in recent years.
In February, three legislators could all claim a month’s pay in the 22nd Legislative District following the retirement of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. To his credit, former State Rep. Edward Kodatt declined the month’s salary he was entitled to for his two days in office.
The comptroller’s original no exit/no signing bonus measure (House Bill 3104, Senate Bill 484) was incorporated into the legislature’s omnibus ethics legislation (Senate Bill 539), which had overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers and was sent to the governor for his signature in June.
If equity is a top priority in many districts, it is not apparent from the most recent round of state ESSA spending reports, an advocacy organization says.
Only one state, Illinois, provided enough transparent detail to allow advocates to analyze resource inequities and the action being taken to address them, according to “Going Beyond ESSA Compliance,” an interactive report and web tool produced by The Education Trust.
The 49 other states are missing an opportunity to help advocates better assess the fairness of school spending patterns, said Reetchel Presume, Ed Trust’s P-12 data and policy analyst.
“Transparency in school spending is crucial for identifying inequities in school funding that deny students of color and those from families with low incomes the resources they need to excel,” Presume said. “For advocates and policymakers alike, school spending reports could be a tool to see if school systems are shortchanging students.”
* More from the Illinois State Board of Education…
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) received recognition for making Illinois’ school-by-school spending data the most transparent and usable in the nation in a report released by the Education Trust. Illinois was the only state to earn a 100% rating for its development of comprehensive per-pupil school spending reports displayed in the Illinois Report Card, according to Going Beyond ESSA Compliance: A 50-State Scan of School Spending Reports. The Education Trust is a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income families. The Education Trust is a national nonprofit that works to close opportunity gaps that disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income families.
“Data and transparency about school spending are essential to increasing equity and improving students’ opportunities and outcomes,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen I. Ayala. “Equity does not mean equality. Different schools within the same district may have different student needs. One school may serve more students with disabilities. One school may serve more English Learners. School size and grade band can also impact students’ needs and district spending. For a long time, people have talked about equitable spending across school districts. We are proud to be leading the nation in fostering dialogue about equitable spending within school districts as well.”
Public Health Officials Announce 25,636 New Cases of Coronavirus Disease Over the Past Week
Almost 78% of Illinois adults have received at least one vaccine dose and 61% are fully vaccinated
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 25,636 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 174 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, August 20, 2021. Almost 78% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 61% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,508,005 cases, including 23,889 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since reporting on Friday, August 20, 2021, laboratories have reported 495,608 specimens for a total of 28,568,305. As of last night, 2,240 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 500 patients were in the ICU and 253 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from August 20-26, 2021 is 5.2%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from August 20-26, 2021 is 5.7%. However, regional 7-day test positivity averages range from 4.1% to 10.6%. http://www.dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics?regionID=11.
A total of 13,914,213 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 24,056 doses. Since reporting on Friday, August 20, 2021, 168,391 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
*All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
* Comptroller Susana Mendoza held a press conference yesterday and was asked about the state’s bill backlog. She said her office’s oldest voucher is only “10 days old.” And continued…
So we’re well within a 30-day payment cycle. It’s literally, this is the fastest we’ve been paying our bills in the state of Illinois since before the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. So, over 20 years since we’ve been paying this quickly. … I keep saying we have to be fiscally disciplined and continue to experience positive news when it comes to our finances, but we are certainly way better than we were.
As I’ve told you many times before, Illinois’ fiscal decline has been almost continuous since the economic crisis caused by those terrorist attacks.
* Related…
* Press Release: Comptroller Susana Mendoza to resume payments to contractor fined for violating Illinois’ Prevailing Wage Act
* Background is here and here if you need it. Press release…
The following was released by SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Greg Kelley on Gov. Pritzker’s recent announcement of Vaccination Requirements for Healthcare and Educational Workers:
SEIU Healthcare Illinois continues to maintain our ongoing efforts to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of our 90,000 members. We are committed to promoting every measure available in protecting not only our members, but our entire community, from the life-threatening impacts of the COVID-19 virus. As a result, we are in support of Gov. Pritzker’s recent announcement of the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare and educational workers.
As a union of healthcare and childcare workers, we understand how critical it is to ensure that our members are working in safe environments, while also protecting our most vulnerable populations.
In addition to our support of vaccinations and scheduled testing, it is our expectation to partner with employers to foster a collaborative approach in providing resources that enable workers to be vaccinated without negative economic impacts. These resources would include comprehensive educational programs which include channels for employee communication regarding the implementation of the vaccination.
We are dedicated to working with employers to help respond to worker needs as we combat this devastating disease.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Pharmacists Association, Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists, and Illinois Association of Long-Term Care Pharmacy Providers support Governor Pritzker’s action of issuing Executive Order 2021-20 to protect the healthcare workforce, our communities, and patients that we serve.
Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare providers and provide patient care in a variety of settings: from intensive care units, to emergency rooms, to long-term care facilities, to the corner neighborhood pharmacy. As healthcare providers, pharmacists took an Oath to uphold “the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering” as our primary concerns and that we hold ourselves and our colleagues “to the highest principles of our profession’s moral, ethical, and legal conduct” as entrusted to us by the public.
Through these darkest hours of the pandemic, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been there. We never closed; never stopped providing vital services for patients and continued to evolve our practices for safety, ensuring that needed medications, testing, and critical vaccines are accessible to the public. Despite these risks and dangers from the virus, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have put themselves directly in harm’s way to guarantee that our patient’s medication and healthcare needs are met.
As our pharmacy teams continue to deliver patient care and battle against the coronavirus and its deadly variants, we expect all healthcare providers and healthcare workers to protect ourselves and our patients by taking the COVID-19 vaccine and wearing a mask to decrease spread of disease.
Illinois is counting on us. Our communities are counting on us. Our patients are counting on us.
* As we’ve already discussed, Gov. JB Pritzker recently extended the eviction moratorium through September 18. But the US Supreme Court recently put a stop to the CDC eviction moratorium…
In a statement late Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions - from cities and states to local courts, landlords, Cabinet Agencies - to urgently act to prevent evictions.”
Under Pritzker’s latest order, courts won’t start hearing cases related to unpaid rent again until Sept. 18. [Michael Robin, an organizer with Autonomous Tenants Union] cautioned that landlords can sometimes abuse the process by getting emergency hearings on the pretext of health and safety issues. There’s also an exception for tenants who already had a hearing scheduled. They must show up to court or risk receiving an eviction judgment against them.
Does the federal eviction moratorium apply in Cook County?
Not anymore.
On Thursday night, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s moratorium, blocking an order issued through the CDC in early August that had banned evictions in counties experiencing “substantial” or “high” Covid-19 transmission rates through Oct. 3, a description that fits every Illinois county, according to the CDC’s Covid Data Tracker.
But the federal order wasn’t very robust, to begin with, said Michelle Gilbert, legal director of the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, or LCBH. The order only shielded tenants from being physically removed from their homes — the final stage in the eviction process that is carried out in Cook County by the sheriff. That left a lot of gray areas for local courts and judges to interpret.
With Lightfoot this week announcing that all city employees will be required to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 15, Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told the Sun-Times Wednesday that the mayor had “lit a bomb underneath the membership” and began comparing the order to actions by Nazi Germany.
“We’re in America, G-ddamn it. We don’t want to be forced to do anything. Period. This ain’t Nazi f—ing Germany, [where they say], ‘Step into the f—ing showers. The pills won’t hurt you.’ What the f–k?” he said. […]
“What he said is factually incorrect and deeply offensive to the millions of people and their families of people who were killed at the hands of the Nazis. Not only that, but it’s the latest in the FOP president’s incendiary, offensive, disgusting, racist, xenophobic comments that he’s made,” David Goldenberg, regional director of ADL’s Midwest office, told the Sun-Times. “He needs to apologize and he needs to end the continued use of such offensive and indefensible language.”
Another statement by Sarah van Loon, the director of the Chicago AJC, called Catanzara’s “offensive and categorically false comparison … an insult to every Holocaust survivor and to the memory of the millions of lives lost during one of the darkest periods in human history.”
* Press release…
Jewish Caucus Calls for Catanzara to Apologize, Resign
The Illinois Legislative Jewish Caucus released the following statement in response to FOP Lodge #7 President John Catanzara’s recent remarks:
In a long career of inappropriate comments, John Catanzara has truly outdone himself. Leave aside the fact that he’s wrong about vaccine mandates - they’re a vital public health instrument, especially for government workers with whom the public has no choice about interacting.
But the comparison of vaccine mandates to the Nazi genocide is despicable. While we don’t need to belabor the distinctions between poison gas and an FDA-approved vaccine, it bears saying: Vaccines are safe. They save lives. And the Holocaust is an unimaginable tragedy that happened to our people, not a flippant metaphor for the airing of ignorant, petty, aggrieved opinions.
Catanzara has shown once and for all that his voice does not belong in civil public discourse. We call upon him to resign immediately and to issue an apology for his intolerant and intolerable remarks to Jews everywhere.
* Members…
Illinois State Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz
Illinois State Representative Denyse Wang Stoneback
Illinois State Senator Laura Fine
Illinois State Senator Ram Villvalam
Illinois State Representative Jonathan Carroll
Illinois State Representative Kelly Cassidy
Illinois State Representative Margaret Croke
Illinois State Representative Daniel Didech
Illinois State Representative Robyn Gabel
Illinois State Representative Will Guzzardi
Illinois State Representative Anna Moeller
Illinois State Representative Bob Morgan
Illinois State Representative Sam Yingling
Illinois State Senator Sara Feigenholtz
Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison
Next year’s primary in Illinois has been moved to June. Filing doesn’t start until January. Regardless, the Democratic supermajority at the state house is preparing to revise maps that community groups say need more time to review.
Maps determining legislative boundaries for the next ten years have been enacted, but they’re being challenged in federal court. With the final Census data out, the Democratic majority has called a special session.
Before the maps were approved, groups were demanding two weeks to review the drafts and provide input. They didn’t get that. It now appears likely that they’re not going to get that now, as the state is moving to pass revised maps for the Aug. 31 special session.
The first hearing on Thursday featured civic groups demanding more time to review maps.
Ami Gandhi with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights said lawmakers are doing an injustice.
“We’re uncomfortable with this redistricting process, with this huge rush, with this lack of transparency,” Gandhi said. “People are not being assured that their rights are being respected.”
Jay Young with Common Cause said the process resembles the rushed maps in May.
It’s of their own making, of course, but Democrats are now under the gun of a federal judge who essentially paused those lawsuits until after the special session ends. There will be no delays.
The mapmaking process that lawmakers have used is already the subject of two federal lawsuits being heard by a three-judge panel in Chicago. One, filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, argues that the maps lawmakers passed in May dilute the voting power of the state’s Latino population. Another filed by Republican leaders in the General Assembly argues, among other things, that lawmakers failed to enact legal maps by the June 30 deadline set out in the Illinois Constitution and, therefore, should be thrown out and redrawn by a bipartisan legislative commission.
Republicans on the committees, meanwhile, alleged Thursday that Democrats who control the General Assembly have already started drawing new maps behind closed doors and that the public hearings now taking place are only for show.
“I literally witnessed with my own eyes a member of the General Assembly looking at the map, talking to staff about whether it was square enough or not, which is what I overheard,” said Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican. “There was many members of the majority in that room, looking at the maps. And I would ask you, the people who are going to testify today, have you been invited into those meetings so far to look at the maps? Are you having solid input on what these maps are going to be? No. They’re being drawn by the majority as we saw in the spring with partisan intent.”
Later, when asked what data was being used to draw the new maps, House committee chairwoman Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, said she didn’t know and that she hadn’t seen the maps that Butler was talking about. But she said Democrats were determined to draw new districts that would reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of Illinois.
Nobody knows anything when it comes to maps. Chasing that story involves a whole lot of brick walls. Even so, subscribers know a bit more.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Illinois House Redistricting Committee Spokesperson Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) released the following statement after this morning’s abysmal public hearing on redistricting:
“This morning’s House Redistricting Committee hearing was an abuse of a free and fair democratic process. Despite hearing testimony from countless advocacy groups yesterday asking for more time, the House Democrats, who had no members in attendance [in-person], held a hearing with little notice that resulted in NO public attendance in person or even on Zoom. This continued approach from the Illinois Democrats to jam through yet ANOTHER partisan map to retain control over the state is disgusting and offensive to all the residents of our state. Let’s hope that Governor Pritzker will not lie to voters twice and will veto whatever sham map the General Assembly passes next Tuesday.”
The flip side is that everyone who wanted to say something spoke yesterday and citizens aren’t all that riled up about this as much as the commentariat might have us believe.
Kraft Heinz’s expectations about how often employees will work in the office changed during the pandemic. So will the office itself.
While some employers are waiting to see how the return to the office goes before making significant changes to their spaces, others, like Kraft Heinz and United Airlines, are moving forward with renovations meant to adapt to new ways of working.
Kraft Heinz, which plans to transition from full-time office work to a hybrid model that will see employees spend three days in the office and two at home, recently began renovating its Chicago headquarters. Individual desks and cookie cutter conference rooms are out, in favor of a wider variety of spaces for workers to meet and work together.
“If the purpose of the office is really collaboration, we need to rethink the office,” said Melissa Werneck, Kraft Heinz’s global chief people officer.
I’ve worked from home (except for session, of course) for a very long time. I see no problem with it and I don’t think I could go back to an office environment. Your thoughts?
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Republican Mark Curran, who lost the U.S. Senate race in 2020 to Sen. Dick Durbin, says God wants him to run for the Illinois Supreme Court, so he’s following the call.
“We are taking on the Establishment, the Party Hacks, the Freemasons and those that could care less that Individual Liberty and Conscience Protection are no longer cherished or protected,” he told supporters in an email that was forwarded to Playbook.
Dude is kinda 19th Century. I suppose John Quincy Adams would approve, though.
*** UPDATE *** With thanks to a commenter, here’s video of then-Lake County Sheriff Mark C. Curran receiving a donation for “Shop with a Cop” from Barrington Masonic Lodge #522 in 2017…
…Adding… Great comment…
Did God say anything else to him? Since there was some sort of dialogue going on, it’d been nice of Mark Curran had asked for advice on how to get out of this pandemic. I think Mark Curran really missed an opportunity here.
* Rick Pearson, Lisa Schencker and Joe Mahr at the Tribune…
A Tribune analysis of state and federal data has found that the rate of hospitalization for the unvaccinated [in Illinois] has risen nearly sevenfold since the end of June. The weekly rate of hospital admittance for that group is now above 28 per 100,000 residents, approaching the peak of 35 last fall.
The vaccine doesn’t stop every bad case, but the analysis found that for those fully vaccinated, the weekly hospital admittance rate is far lower, barely 2 per 100,000 residents, albeit still about four times higher than it was at the end of June before the surge in delta cases. […]
When averaged over the past week, the southern region’s ICU availability was just 4% of all its staffed ICU beds — far lower than the 20% threshold that the state had previously set as one marker for considering mitigations. Half of the state’s other 10 regions also averaged lower ICU availability than that threshold, including Chicago (17%), suburban Cook (17%) and North Suburban (15%).
A little over half the population here is fully vaxed, so the surge isn’t putting the same pressure on hospitals as it was last fall, when nobody was vaccinated. But it’s really getting bad out there, particularly in the south. As we have seen time and time and time again, things can always get worse before they get better…
URBANA — As more of their beds fill up with COVID-19 patients, administrators at local hospitals are appealing to the thousands of unvaccinated people in their communities to get their shots.
“The hospital is filling up,” said Matthew Kolb, Carle Health’s chief operating officer.
