TO: All Issuers of Health Insurance Coverage and Travel Insurance
FROM: Robert H. Muriel, Director of Insurance
DATE: March 02, 2020
Re: Insurance Coverage for Coronavirus COVID 19
In the midst of the ongoing COVID 19 outbreak, the Illinois Department of Insurance (Department) is issuing this bulletin in recognition of the critical role that health insurance coverage plays in the public’s actual and perceived access to and affordability of health care services. This bulletin does not apply to excepted benefit policies or short-term, limited-duration health insurance coverage.
Balance Billing and Surprise Bills
Members of the public may seek a variety of forms of health care in connection with COVID 19, including physician office visits, laboratory testing, urgent care services, and emergency services, among others. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) have agreed to bear the cost of the lab test for the presence of COVID 19. However, it is possible that hospitals will still charge their own fees for collecting the specimens, which then could be billed to the patient or to the patient’s health insurance issuer. The federal government also may stop covering the cost of CDC lab test at some point. Press coverage of the outbreak has revealed uncertainty for the moment about who will bear the costs arising from quarantines imposed upon individuals returning from overseas, including the hospital stay and ambulance transportation.
Given this uncertainty, it bears a reminder that Section 356z.3a of the Illinois Insurance Code requires health insurance issuers to impose no greater cost-sharing on an enrollee than their coverage provides at the in-network level when the enrollee receives care from certain specialists at participating network hospital or participating ambulatory surgical center, even if the specialists themselves are not participating providers. This requirement does not apply if the enrollee has willfully chosen a non-participating provider specialist when a participating provider was available. These specializations include radiology, anesthesiology, pathology, emergency physicians, and neonatology, some of which could be called upon to address testing or treatment in connection with COVID 19. The enrollee must be held harmless from any of these providers’ charges that exceed the applicable cost-sharing for an in-network provider, regardless of whether the issuer and provider have agreed upon the overall charges.
Additionally, emergency services for an emergency medical condition must be covered at the in-network level regardless of which provider performs the services. 215 ILCS 5/370o, 124/10(b)(7), and 134/65. Emergency services include transportation services, such as ambulance services, as well as inpatient and outpatient hospital services from a qualified provider that are needed to evaluate or stabilize the patient. Many individuals who have contracted COVID 19 are only mildly ill and do not have an emergency medical condition that triggers this consumer protection, but exceptional circumstances may arise.
Barriers from Cost-Sharing
Individuals enrolled in health insurance coverage with a high deductible could be reluctant to seek testing or treatment because of the anticipated cost. The Department encourages health insurance issuers to consider all feasible and prudent options to reduce the barriers of cost-sharing for testing and treatment of COVID 19 during the outbreak.
Prescription Drug Supply
The CDC and American Red Cross have general guidance for disaster preparedness that households should maintain at least a 30-day supply of any prescription drugs used by household members. In the event that individuals are subject to quarantine at home for COVID 19, they could be reliant on their existing supplies. To the extent consistent with clinical guidelines, and in a manner prudently calculated to ensure an enrollee’s ability to maintain a 30-day supply at home during the outbreak, the Department encourages issuers to cover enrollees for prescription drug refills even when the enrollee has not yet reached their scheduled refill date, provided that the prescription itself would remain valid beyond the refill date. This recommendation does not apply to prescription drugs with a high likelihood of abuse, such as opioids that are restricted to 7-day prescriptions.
In the same vein, the Department encourages issuers to consider allowing enrollees the temporary use of out-of-network pharmacies at the in-network benefit level of coverage in the event a shortage of medications occurs at network pharmacies.
Health insurance issuers are also reminded that Illinois law requires that any form of third-party payments for prescription drugs, such as drug manufacturers’ coupons or financial assistance from not-for-profit or government organizations, be counted toward a policy’s applicable cost-sharing limitations, including any copay, coinsurance, deductible, or out-of-pocket maximum. 215 ILCS 5/155.36 and 134/30(d).
Denial or Termination of Coverage
Section 356z.27 of the Illinois Insurance Code prohibits individual or group accident and health insurance from imposing any pre-existing condition exclusions, including in connection with COVID 19. Federal law and state regulations provide protections against preexisting condition exclusions in health insurance coverage, as well. 42 U.S.C. 300gg-3; 50 Ill. Adm. Code 2001.5.
A health insurance issuer may not cancel or nonrenew coverage based on an enrollee’s receipt of, or attempt to obtain, treatment or testing for COVID 19. An issuer also may not deny enrollment in new coverage based on testing for or treatment of COVID 19. See 50 Ill. Adm. Code 2001.4.
Travel Insurance
Unless a travel insurance policy contains an exception applicable to COVID 19, a policy of travel insurance that covers the risks sickness, accident, or death incident to travel presumptively must cover such risks relating to COVID 19. The extent of coverage for health care services, including emergency transportation within a foreign country, as well as the costs of returning to the United States for further treatment, may depend on the terms and conditions of the policy.
Public Education
Issuers have an opportunity to magnify public health education efforts to relay guidance about mitigating the risk for contracting or spreading COVID 19 and to explain options available for covered health care services. Informative communications received from an issuer could reassure enrollees that medically necessary testing and treatment will be covered, and thereby reduce the risk of the virus spreading untracked and untreated. The Department encourages informative engagement with enrollees subject to the guidance of public health officials.
Justice Charles E. Freeman, who had a long and distinguished career on the Illinois Supreme Court from 1990 to 2018 and was the first African American to serve on the Court and as Chief Justice, passed away on March 2, 2020. He was 86.
“It is with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Justice Charles E. Freeman. Charles and I had been acquaintances for several decades before I joined the court, having often attended many of the same social events,” Chief Justice Anne M. Burke said. “However, we became close friends once we became colleagues and I considered Charles to be my mentor. He was a gentleman and a truly gracious individual. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. He was a consensus builder and treated everyone equally and with respect.”
Chief Justice Burke continued: “Justice Freeman was also a trailblazer. He was the first African American to become a member of the court and the first African American Chief Justice, positions he held with dignity and integrity. He was an accomplished jurist as well, serving the court with skill for almost 30 years.
“Justice Freeman was a devoted family man. He was married to the love of his life, Marylee for more than 50 years. Charles once told me that Marylee would slip a little love note into his suitcase every time he travelled to Springfield. I knew then that they had one of those storybook romances – everlasting. Charles was also a loving father to his son, Kevin, and daughter-in-law Cami, and a devoted grandfather to his grandchildren, Skye and Miles.
“He will be greatly missed.”
Born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 12, 1933, Freeman descended from slaves freed by Quakers before the American Civil War. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Union University in 1954 and earned his Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School in 1962.
In private practice from 1962-1976, Freeman also served as an Illinois assistant attorney general, Cook County assistant state’s attorney, and assistant attorney for the County Board of Election Commissioners. He was appointed by Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner as an arbitrator with the Illinois Industrial Commission, where for nine years he heard thousands of work-related injury cases. Then from 1973-1976, under Gov. Dan Walker, he served on the Illinois Commerce Commission.
As the group which represents the state’s mayors and city councils rolls out its legislative wish list for 2020, the cities want a return to the old days for getting money from the state.
River Forest Village President Catherine Adduci wants the “local government distributive fund” returned to ten percent of the state income tax.
“If you can just think, taking another half percent, or another percent, we are talking about $45 million more that can come back to the municipalities. That’s not insignificant,” Adduci told a Capitol news conference Monday. “I don’t think there’s a mayor that is part of the Illinois Municipal League that is not concerned about this constant picking at the possible revenue we have in our budgets”
That LGDF was ten percent for years and was cut to about six percent around ten years ago. The cities want it back at ten percent, whether the graduated income tax passes or fails.
Gov. JB Pritzker recently gave his annual budget address in Springfield. In his speech, he laid out his priorities for funding, and there were certainly some good things in there that we can all agree with. The total price tag, however, adds up to $1.6 billion dollars in new spending. Where will the additional money come from? The majority of it would come from the passage of a tax increase the Governor is seeking. Because that new tax money isn’t guaranteed, the governor has proposed holding a certain amount of spending back, until after he sees if the new tax passes.
Unfortunately, the money he is planning on holding back includes $150 million destined for our schools, an idea with which I strongly disagree.
You may have seen that we recently alerted the public to a very serious concern with funding law enforcement training in the State of Illinois. Without intervention by the Illinois legislature, the responsibility for paying for law enforcement training will be shifted from minor traffic offenses and criminals convicted of more serious crimes paying for this training to, instead, Illinois taxpayers picking up the tab as part of a bigger progressive push to hold criminals less accountable for their actions.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 14 attorneys general, announced settlement agreements under which three national fast food franchisors will cease using “no-poach” agreements, which restrict the right of fast food workers to move from one franchise to another within the same restaurant chain.
The agreements entered with the chains Burger King, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Tim Hortons, which are owned by Restaurant Brands International, are the result of an investigation into national fast food franchises announced by the states in July 2018 over concerns that no-poach agreements hurt low-wage workers by limiting their ability to secure better paying jobs.
“I will continue to push restaurants to end their use of no-poach agreements, which allow businesses to take advantage of low-wage workers,” Raoul said. “These agreements stop employees from seeking higher-paying opportunities and escaping the cycle of poverty.”
Under the terms of the settlements, the franchisors have agreed to stop including no-poach provisions in any of their franchise agreements and to stop enforcing such provisions in any franchise agreements already in place. The franchisors also have agreed to amend existing franchise agreements to remove no-poach provisions and to ask their franchisees to post notices in all locations to inform employees of the settlement.
Raoul and the coalition began their investigation in July 2018 by sending letters to Arby’s, Burger King, Dunkin’ Brands, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Little Caesars, Panera Bread, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, and Wendy’s requesting documents, including copies of franchise agreements and communications related to no-poach provisions. Raoul and the coalition alleged that no-poach provisions make it difficult for workers to improve their earning potential by moving from one job to another or seeking a higher-paying job at another franchise location. Additionally, Raoul and the coalition argued that many workers are unaware they are subject to these no-poach provisions.
In March 2019, the attorneys general announced they had reached settlements with Dunkin’, Arby’s, Five Guys, Little Caesars and Panera under which the restaurants agreed to cease using no-poach provisions in their franchise agreements. These franchisors have reported that all franchisees in the settling states amended their franchise agreements to remove the no-poach provisions. Wendy’s provided confirmation that it never used no-poach provisions in their contracts with franchisees.
A new proposal in Springfield would open up a whole new market of direct-to-consumer wine delivery.
Currently, only the producer of wine can ship bottles into Illinois and deliver them to a customer. A vineyard sending their wine club shipment, for instance. If Senate Bill 3830, sponsored by state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, is enacted, Illinois residents could have wine shipped to them from retailers or wine clubs from all over the world.
The bill is a response to the protectionist and anti-consumer ban on consumers receiving wine shipments from out-of-state retailers and wine clubs, said Tom Wark, executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers.
“When you have an entire group from the middleman wholesaler to the Illinois retailer who don’t have to deal with competition from around the country, what you’ve got is protectionism,” he said.
Should the ban be lifted, Wark said the state’s tax revenue would increase immediately.
“In the first year, the state of Illinois would reap somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million to $6 million in tax revenue,” he said.
It would also put an end to an ongoing lawsuit challenging the ban’s constitutionality.
The team name “Indians” is labeled across Pawnee High School’s football and basketball jerseys and a Native American is depicted on the football scoreboard and on the matted walls in its gymnasium.
But the high school doesn’t offer specific classes geared toward Native American history or culture. It is instead tied into subjects within U.S. history courses.
Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, wants high schools with Native American imagery to provide classes and school-wide programs teaching Native American culture and societal contributions in order to keep its team name and imagery.
West said there are 52 high schools in Illinois that have Native American imagery, with the Pawnee Indians, about 20 miles south of Springfield, being one of them. Under his proposal (House Bill 4783), the schools would also have to receive written consent from a Native American tribe based within 500 miles and renew the consent every five years.
Certain chemicals that are commonly used as sealants on asphalt driveways, parking lots and playgrounds could soon come under state regulation over concerns about their impact on human health and the environment.
A state Senate committee advanced a bill Thursday that would require public entities, including schools and state agencies, to publicly disclose their use of coal tar-based sealants or any other sealants with high concentrations of a substance called “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon,” or PAH, a compound that federal officials say poses risk to both human health and the environment.
“According to the American Medical Association, it increases your chances of developing certain kinds of cancers by 38 times,” said Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 2954. “And so with this legislation, we’re just educating parents of what may or may not be on their child’s playground so they can make that decision for their health.”
The bill requires public schools to inform the public at least 90 days before the signing of a contract to use the chemical. Those entities also must post, for a minimum of 10 years after application, signage on the school’s grounds regarding the dangers the use of the chemical poses.
For many if not most Chicagoans, Pulaski Day is that quirky bonus Illinois holiday that nobody else gets: an opportunity perhaps to take the kids for a three-day weekend getaway to the Dells without having to fight the crowds unleashed on a real holiday.
Not so for our political leaders, who in a fitting payback for this blatant sop to Polish-American voters, must stick close to home.
That’s because no current or aspiring officeholder dare miss the command appearance at the annual Pulaski Day celebration at the Polish Museum of America, 984 N. Milwaukee Avenue.
On most Pulaski Days, you will find at least one U.S. senator, several Congressmen, the governor, the mayor, the county board president and numerous lesser figures seated on the stage of the museum’s Great Hall.
* Tribune reporter…
Illinois State Sen. @robertmartwick says he and State Rep. Diane Pappas are forming first Polish-American legislative caucus. To join, you have to represent at least one person of Polish descent. Not too exclusive. pic.twitter.com/ny1CsZTxlh
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs and Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi leading so far in speaking the most Polish at the Pulaski Day celebration, among politicians. @FritzKaegi@ILTreasurer@PRCUA maybe they’ll get the leftover paczki as a prize!
– The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) are today announcing that a fourth Illinois patient has tested positive for COVID-19. The tests conducted in Illinois resulted in presumptive positives for COVID-19. The positive test results will have to be confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lab. The individual is a woman in her 70s and is the spouse of the third case – a man in his 70s. This fourth case is quarantined at home and is complying with health officials. Both cases are reported to be in good condition.
Public health officials are working to identify and actively monitor individuals who were in contact with both patients in an effort to prevent additional transmission. Public health officials will reach out to individuals who may have been exposed.
Governor JB Pritzker has requested that hospitals across the state implement additional testing to improve surveillance for COVID-19. Illinois was the first state to provide COVID-19 testing and Gov. Pritzker announced two more IDPH labs in central and southern Illinois that will be able to test specimens this week.
Illinois’ previously confirmed two cases of COVID-19 and both patients made a full recovery.
Symptoms reported among patients have included mild to severe respiratory illness with fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Right now, the virus has not been found to be spreading widely in the U.S., and the risk to the general public remains low. Public health officials are encouraging the public to not alter their daily routines and remain vigilant about keeping germs from spreading, by covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands with warm soap and water, and staying home when sick.
Easier said than done about that last point. If you don’t have paid sick leave at your job, staying home could mean financial devastation.
Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights confirmed Monday morning a patient who’s tested positive for coronavirus is being treated at the northwest suburban hospital, as a local school district told parents two staffers and their two children were staying home because of exposure to a person who treated someone with coronavirus.
The patient was the third in Illinois to be diagnosed with coronavirus. The hospital issued a statement saying it is following all associated protocol, including examining who the patient may have had contact with and treating the patient in isolation.
The hospital statement said the state is requesting assistance from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team and confirmation of the diagnosis from one of its labs.
Researchers who have examined the genomes of two coronavirus infections in Washington State say the similarities between the cases suggest that the virus may have been spreading in the state for weeks.
Washington had the United States’ first confirmed case of coronavirus, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 20. Based on an analysis of the virus’s genetic sequence, another case that surfaced in the state and was announced on Friday probably was descended from that first case.
The two people live in the same county, but are not known to have had contact with one another, and the second case occurred well after the first would no longer be expected to be contagious. So the genetic findings suggest that the virus has been spreading through other people in the community for close to six weeks, according to one of the scientists who compared the sequences, Trevor Bedford, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.
Dr. Bedford said it was possible that the two cases could be unrelated, and had been introduced separately into the United States. But he said that was unlikely, however, because in both cases the virus contained a genetic variation that appears to be rare — it was found in only two of the 59 samples whose sequences have been shared from China, where the virus originated.
In preparation for a possible outbreak, the Illinois Department of Public Health is assessing hospitals throughout the state for available space should more people require care for coronavirus infection. The department also is assessing the availability of personal protective equipment — gloves, masks, gowns, goggles and the like — for health care workers.
Health care providers and their individual hospitals, meanwhile, are preparing themselves by implementing infection prevention protocols, screening patients for symptoms and risk factors, and running drills on their response to a positive diagnosis of COVID-19.
“We assembled a team representing infection prevention, emergency preparedness, supply chain and other departments to ensure our facilities are prepared with ample supplies and support to keep our patients and team members safe,” said Dr. Gary Stuck, chief medical officer of the Downers Grove-based Advocate Aurora Health hospitals.
* This is a very real problem…
A Florida man tested negative for coronavirus but was billed $3,270–so many will avoid testing. We need universal health coverage: It protects all of us. Same for paid sick leave: You want a sick person to stagger to work to prepare your food? My column https://t.co/x0ReCjqLLTpic.twitter.com/kPkauLNCz1
UPDATED: Daily Public Schedule: Monday, Mar. 2, 2020
What: Governor JB Pritzker and Director of Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike to provide update on COVID-19 cases.
When: 2:30pm
Where: Blue Room, Thompson Center, Chicago
* It has long appeared as though the most high-profile establishment Democrats were holding back on their support for former VP Joe Biden until after he proved he could actually compete. Besides, nobody was going to convince Pete Buttigieg or Tom Steyer to bow out before Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina voted.
But with those four over-hyped smallish contests behind them and with the massive Super Tuesday just around the corner and then the Illinois/Ohio/Florida primaries on March 17th, the time was simply right.
Citing the strength of his experience on foreign policy, Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday morning.
The announcement is the latest in a series of endorsements that has the Democratic establishment in Illinois lining up squarely behind Biden ahead of a primary that is a little more than two weeks away.
Duckworth’s backing came just hours after former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a fellow veteran, bowed out of the race. She also decided to weigh in on the race amid calls for the party’s moderates to unify around Biden in a bid to stop Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders from accumulating an insurmountable delegate lead in the presidential race.
Just a bragging bundler for now, but something to keep in mind…
A Biden bundler also tells me he's personally told @JoeBiden to consider Duckworth as a VP pick, citing her toughness, that she's from the must-win Midwest, a veteran, a high-profile advocate for women's/working mom issues.
Secretary of State Jesse White, the longest-serving statewide official in Illinois, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the March 17 presidential primary.
White, one of the state’s most prominent African American politicians, said the decision came down to which candidate has the best chance to win in November.
“I’ve been asked by a number of candidates for their support,” White said in an interview Saturday afternoon. “I decided I was going to go with Joe Biden, because I believe that he has what it takes to be able to beat Donald Trump and put this country back on a sound footing.”
You may also have noticed that Speaker Madigan’s 13th Ward endorsed three Biden delegate candidates.
A list of all Illinois presidential endorsements is here.
…Adding… The consolidation continues…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amy Klobuchar is ending her Democratic presidential campaign, plans to endorse Joe Biden.
Questions about diversity and judicial reform have marked a contentious campaign to fill the seat of retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Freeman, the only person of color ever elected to the state’s highest court.
Freeman was elected in 1990 and served 27 years, including three as chief justice. Justice P. Scott Neville Jr., who also is African American, was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2018 to complete Freeman’s term and has won the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party going into the March primary.
Neville now faces six opponents — five state appellate judges and one private attorney — in his bid for a full 10-year term. Two of the other candidates are African American, one is Latino and three are white.
Depending on the election’s outcome, the court could have an all-white bench for the first time in 30 years. Going into this year’s elections, 23 states have all-white supreme courts, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive-leaning law and policy institute at New York University Law School.
Diversity has driven the race. If Freeman is not replaced by a minority, the high court will be all white.
“The Chicago Bar Association believes there should be diversity on all our courts from the highest down to the circuit,” said Maryam Ahmad, first vice president of the Chicago Bar Association.
With the exception of Daniel Epstein, the Chicago Bar Association has rated all the other candidates qualified or highly qualified.
Heading into the 2020 campaign season, Republican leaders were concerned about finding a strong candidate to challenge Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 ranking Democrat in leadership.
Representing the GOP on the March 17 ballot is an underfunded group of five candidates, many pursuing unorthodox strategies in seeking the nomination in the only statewide seat up for election this year.
One candidate is a former Democrat and onetime suburban county sheriff who has said he believes that “God had a hand” in electing President Donald Trump.
Another is a Downstate social media agitator who spurred a suburban police investigation after saying she brought a gun and ammunition into a candidate forum at a high school to “prove a point” about safety, only to say at a later event that she “misspoke” and had her gun locked in her car.
There’s a perennial candidate who has run unsuccessfully for a variety of offices from both political parties, most recently as a Democratic candidate for governor, who wants to split Illinois into three states.
Dr. Tom Tarter, Springfield’s entry in the five-way Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, has been taking particular aim at perhaps the best known of his opponents.
In news releases in recent weeks, Tarter, 67, a retired urologist and cancer surgeon, pointed out past comments about President Donald Trump by one of his opponents — former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran.
Lake County is just north of Cook County, in the far northeast corner of the state. Tarter calls Curran a “never-Trumper,” which Curran denies.
“I support the president and think he is doing a solid job,” Curran told me.
Says Tarter: “Mark Curran claims he’s always supported President Trump, yet he’s on record multiple times having opposed Trump since 2015. Is he lying or has he flip-flopped? Either way, he can’t be trusted.”
* Related…
* Five things to know about this year’s bar association ratings: A third of the 117 judicial candidates on the March 17 Cook County primary ballot have received at least one negative rating from the three major bar associations. Here’s what that means.
* ENDORSEMENT: P. Scott Neville Jr. for Illinois Supreme Court in 1st District Democratic primary
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Chicagoans would see much higher utility bills if expected rate hikes for electricity and natural gas are approved even though energy production prices are now low.
ComEd and Peoples Gas are planning significant capital spending that threatens to eat up any savings that might have come from low energy prices.
“There will be a significant effect on customers’ bills,” says Jeff Orcutt, president of the consulting firm Chapman Energy Strategies, which analyzes utilities for the Illinois Public Interest Research Group.
David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, another private, not-for-profit watchdog group, says there’s “no question” ComEd’s latest spending projections will boost customers’ bills. And he says an expected Peoples Gas rate hike could create an “impending crisis” for low-income consumers.
Nicor Gas, the utility delivering natural gas to most of suburban Chicago, is pushing legislation in Springfield to put the rate changes for it and Peoples Gas, the utility serving the city, on the same sort of autopilot that ComEd and downstate utility Ameren Illinois have enjoyed for eight years. Bills were introduced in mid-February in the House and Senate.
For its part, Peoples says the bill is Nicor’s idea and that Peoples is still reviewing it. Sources hear that Peoples intends to file with the Illinois Commerce Commission for a rate hike as soon as this month, so that’s presumably more on the minds of the utility and Wisconsin-based parent WEC Energy Group than Nicor’s bid to convince lawmakers to let it set rates via a truncated annual-formula process. Gas utilities currently must use the traditional route, requesting rate hikes at times of their choosing from the ICC and going through an exhaustive 11-month review process.
Naperville-based Nicor, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern, has obtained ICC approval of two rate hikes in the past two years, together adding $261 million in additional revenue from ratepayers. With Peoples not having received a rate increase since 2015, its request is likely to be a whopper whenever it arrives. And it will come at a time when Chicago households are showing increasing difficulty paying their heating bills. […]
The average residential customer in the city paid $1,222 for natural gas last year. That includes many dwellers of small homes and condominiums, so average usage is less than that of Nicor’s customers in the suburbs.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants Illinois to approve legislation putting the state on the path to 100 percent clean energy in the foreseeable future. But, unlike virtually every other major energy bill the state has enacted in the past two decades, he doesn’t want Commonwealth Edison to write it.
So he’s calling in reinforcements. The governor’s office has hired Doug Scott, former Illinois Commerce Commission Chairman under Gov. Pat Quinn, as a consultant to advise on legislation to advance more clean-energy development in Illinois.
As ICC chair, Scott, now vice president for electricity and efficiency at Minneapolis-based consultancy Great Plains Institute, led Quinn’s ultimately unsuccessful effort to kill ComEd’s smart grid bill in 2011, which permits the utility to raise rates via an annual formula that gives regulators little say.
Before that, he was director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. He spent many years in Springfield before his administrative roles as a Democratic state representative from Rockford.
The fiscal 2021 executive budget recently introduced by Illinois’ governor includes a significant $1.4 billion contingency tied to voter approval of a constitutional amendment in November that would allow the state to implement graduated income tax rates, which are already statutorily approved. Under the governor’s budget proposal, failure of the income tax amendment would trigger fiscal actions that could exacerbate the state’s structural budget challenges and pressure local governments, particularly school districts, says Fitch Ratings. The proposal now moves to the legislature for consideration, and Fitch will evaluate the final budget once enacted.
Illinois’ ‘BBB’ Issuer Default Rating (IDR) reflects an ongoing pattern of weak operating performance and irresolute fiscal decision-making that has produced a credit position well below the level that the state’s broad economic base and substantial independent legal ability to control its budget would otherwise support. The state’s elevated long-term liability position remains a key credit challenge. As of Fitch’s December 2019 State Pension Update report, the state’s combined debt and Fitch-adjusted pension burden was 27.5% of personal income, well above the 5.7% state median and the highest of the states. Fitch estimates the state’s total long-term liabilities at approximately $200 billion with pensions accounting for 80% of the total.
Response to Income Tax Amendment Vote Will be Critical
Fitch has indicated that the credit implications of the November 2020 vote on the income tax amendment depend on whether Illinois uses any increased revenues to address structural budget challenges, or if the state can adequately adjust its budget to work toward structural balance if the amendment fails. In his executive budget, the governor proposes to hold $1.4 billion of budget actions in reserve, dependent on voters’ decision. If the amendment fails some of the governor’s proposals, including deferral of up $400 million in employee health insurance costs and more than $500 million of interfund transfers or borrowings, would risk exacerbating the state’s structural budget challenges. If voters approve the constitutional amendment the governor’s executive budget would avoid such non-recurring measures and appears to continue recent progress towards structural balance.
Pensions Pose Structural Budget Challenge
Importantly, Fitch notes that pension contributions remain a point of structural weakness for the state, regardless of the income tax amendment vote, as the governor’s proposal continues the practice laid out in current law of underfunding the systems relative to actuarial determinations. The state currently structures its contributions to pension systems to target 90% funding by 2045, short of the actuarially determined contributions (ADCs), which target 100% funding. Fitch considers full ADC contributions to be a crucial element of structural balance.
Based on analysis of the state’s fiscal 2018 CAFR, Fitch estimates Illinois’ actual pension contributions totalled approximately $7.7 billion, 71% of the ADC of $10.9 billion that year, a gap of more than $2.0 billion; the gap likely increased since then given the underfunding embedded in the statutory 90% target. Fitch believes the supplemental annual pension contributions of $100 million-$200 million proposed by the governor if the income tax amendment passes would be helpful. But on their own, they would not materially affect Fitch’s view that the state’s budget remains structurally unbalanced given the sizable gap between actual contributions and the ADC. As with other states, Illinois retains substantial budgetary powers allowing it to manage the associated fiscal challenges at a level commensurate with its ‘BBB’ IDR.
Executive Budget Implications for Local Governments
For local governments, and particularly school districts, the $1.4 billion of reserved items in the governor’s budget proposal pose risks. The 2017 statute establishing the revised evidence-based funding formula (EBF) for K-12 school aid established a target of annual increases of $350 million. In the current year, the enacted budget included slightly more than that, with a $379 million increase. For fiscal 2021, the governor’s executive budget holds $150 million of the suggested $350 million increase, or more than 40%, in reserve, to be released only if voters approve the income tax amendment. The governor’s office notes that a $200 million increase would still reflect a higher annual growth rate than school districts have received over the past decade and the total increase in EBF funding since fiscal 2018 would total $1.3 billion.
Several additional measures could also affect local governments, but generally to a much less significant degree. The governor proposes holding approximately $100 million in combined income tax and sales tax revenue shared with local governments in reserve, pending voters’ decision on the income tax amendment. Additionally, $40 million in increased state funding for school districts for certain mandated categorical items is likewise held in reserve in the executive budget plan.
* Speaking of local government funding…
Municipalities Push for Full Restoration of Local Revenue Sharing in “Moving Cities Forward” Legislative Platform
WHO: Brad Cole, Illinois Municipal League Executive Director
Leon Rockingham Jr., North Chicago Mayor and IML President
Catherine Adduci, Mayor of River Forest and IML second vice president
WHEN: Monday, March 2, 2020
10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Illinois State Capitol Blue Room (basement, room 010)
401 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, Illinois
WHAT: Municipal leaders will unveil their 2020 “Moving Cities Forward” legislative platform designed to ensure the long-term success of Illinois’ cities, villages and towns. The platform includes proposals to reinstate full funding to the Local Government Distributive Fund, empower non-home rule communities and expand the state’s Financially Distressed Cities Law.
After trying and failing to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot, activists hoping to reform the state’s legislative and congressional redistricting process have given up on that tack and are instead hoping to convince three-fifths majorities in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly to put it on the ballot.
To say the well-meaning and sincere proponents are facing an uphill battle is perhaps the understatement of the year. Lots of legislators, particularly in the majority party, prefer the status quo of their leaders drawing the maps to make sure they’re all re-elected with as little effort as possible.
It’s just human nature. If you worked at a private company that issued new personnel rules designed to put your job in jeopardy, you’d be wary, too. On top of that, what if your company said you might also have to sell your house and move a few blocks away because your territory had been changed, and, by the way, there will be no help with your expenses?
Even though the proponents appear to be doomed, they should still try because this is hugely important. But what they’re doing so far doesn’t impress me.
Chicago public radio station WBEZ recently published a story about emails between Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former consigliere, Mike McClain, and top staffers in Madigan’s office. Federal investigators raided the former ComEd lobbyist’s home last year.
The WBEZ reporters culled pretty much all the really good stuff, including discussions about how Madigan was McClain’s “number one client,” getting former Madigan staffers jobs with ComEd and muscling a pro-ComEd resolution through a committee by replacing some Democratic members so that the vote was unanimous.
I decided to take a look at the emails myself to see what else might be there.
The determination to jam that resolution through with a unanimous vote is unusual because it was an “agreed” resolution. ComEd parent company Exelon was pushing legislation in 2014 to bail out their nuclear power plants, but the four legislative leaders decided to just pass a resolution urging various other entities to help Exelon. Speaker Madigan was the chief sponsor and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin was the chief co-sponsor.
An Exelon lobbyist emailed McClain on the afternoon of May 27, 2014 to report that he had nine “Yes” votes out of 16 committee members, with an “outside chance” of flipping one of the “No” votes to his side. McClain forwarded the email to Madigan’s then-chief of staff Tim Mapes and Madigan’s then-Issues Staff director Will Cousineau, among others. And then three hours after the original email was sent, Cousineau replied with what he said would be the final roll call. Five House Democrats on the committee who had been identified as opponents were to be replaced with five supportive Democrats and a sixth had been flipped to Exelon.
“The opponents won’t have contemplated all the subs we’re lining up since I don’t like to rely on Republicans,” Cousineau announced, even though there wasn’t much of any formal opposition.
“I love you,” McClain replied.
Mapes replied to say he’d bet McClain’s lobbyist friends hadn’t given this replacement tactic any thought, and asked if McClain was in charge of Exelon’s lobbying efforts.
“No,” McClain wrote, “but we’re going to have a little bit of a discussion after session about the quality of their lobby.” McClain called Exelon’s Statehouse operation “101 level.”
That the House Democratic staff and the ComEd lobbyist McClain would expend so much effort to make sure that Madigan’s word was gold to a giant energy company tells you much of what you need to know about how that operation worked at the time.
And the internal mindset was further summed up months later when Mapes complained about his workload to McClain.
“We love the guy,” McClain wrote, “but his requests are totally consuming and because we love him we do not want to fail even on the simplest of items. It is what it is. We would not change it but it is what it is.”
That’s Team Madigan in a nutshell.
There were numerous mentions of jobs and other favors in the email exchanges.
Raymond Nice, for instance, is a longtime Madigan precinct worker who also lobbied for ComEd after he retired from Cook County. The town of Merrionette Park, where Nice once had a contract, was recently hit with a federal subpoena. The subpoena also demanded all communications between the village and Madigan, McClain, Mapes and Madigan’s alderman Marty Quinn and Quinn’s brother Kevin.
Kevin Quinn was the beneficiary of a fundraising effort by McClain after he was forced out of his job with Madigan when Alaina Hampton complained about sexual harassment.
I’d heard that Madigan only asked Gov. Bruce Rauner to hire a few people and Nice was one. Just before Rauner was inaugurated, McClain and Mapes exchanged emails about who Madigan had placed on state boards and commissions. McClain led off his list with “Ray Nice….you already know about him, of course.”
The emails reveal just how involved the lobbyist McClain was in House Democratic operations.
Numerous emails were exchanged, for example, after a reform group offered to host a meeting with Gov. Rauner and the four leaders to try and break the budget impasse. McClain was involved in crafting the House Democratic response to Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget veto of legislator salaries as punishment for not reforming pensions. And Mapes summoned McClain to an exclusive upper-echelon meeting with Madigan to discuss what to do about the upcoming spring session with incoming Gov. Rauner.
The emails make crystal clear that McClain was closer to Madigan’s operation than anyone but Mapes. McClain is now gone and so is Mapes after his own sexual harassment scandal. Only Madigan is left.
Earlier this week WCIA covered the mailing of multiple ballots to some absentee voters in Champaign County. The County Clerk claimed that it wouldn’t present any problems because these people couldn’t vote twice.
However, state law requires that every Election Authority (County Clerk) upload to the State Board of Elections the names of everyone who has received a pre-election ballot. Every jurisdiction in the state is complying with this law except Champaign County and Alexander County (literally, the poorest county in the state).
This list allows the state, other jurisdictions, and poll watchers to look for duplicate voting. So right now, a voter who casts a ballot in Champaign County is able to register to vote in another jurisdiction in the state and they would have no reason to believe that they were not entitled to a ballot.
Once again, Champaign County voters are given assurances about the conduct of elections, but once again a major failing exists.
Scaremongering aside, there’s just no reason for this nonsense. Click here and see the full statewide list for yourself.
Building on a strong team of experts in their fields, Governor JB Pritzker appointed Jerry Costello II to serve as the Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
“With farming playing an important role in his family’s history and a career of public service, there’s no better person to lead the Illinois Department of Agriculture at this time than Jerry Costello,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “Our agriculture sector drives our state’s economy to the tune of $19 billion every year, and I’m confident that Jerry’s deep experience will bring a steady hand to the department and continue the impressive growth of this vital industry.”
“I’m honored to continue serving the people of Illinois and excited to take the helm at the department I once oversaw in the state legislature,” said Jerry Costello II, Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. “As a leading producer of soybeans, corn and swine, Illinois is home to the most dedicated farmers in the world, and I look forward to partnering with them to grow our state’s agricultural economy.”
Background
Jerry Costello II will serve as the Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture.* He joins the Governor’s cabinet from his position as the Director of Law Enforcement for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which he had held since May 2019. Costello represented the 116th district in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019, during which he served as chair the Agriculture and Conservation committee. He also served on the Pritzker-Stratton Agriculture Transition Committee. A graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Costello decided to serve his country by joining the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Not long after signing up, he and his unit saw combat during Operation Desert Storm. Following his military service in Iraq, Costello returned to Illinois where he became a police officer and started a family. Initially a patrolman, he would rise through the ranks and become assistant chief of police. Born and raised in Southern Illinois, his family has a small farm in Franklin County, producing crops and raising cattle. Costello lives in Smithton with his wife Lori and their three children.
Costello replaces John Sullivan, who was forced to resign after he admitted opening that now-infamous “rape in Champaign” email from Mike McClain. Sullivan denied having read the entire email.
Worth Township Supervisor John O’Sullivan, who has been under investigation for his role in the SafeSpeed red-light camera scandal, told township officials he intends to resign Friday.
O’Sullivan, a former state legislator and Democratic committeeman, is under federal scrutiny because of his work as a sales consultant for SafeSpeed LLC.
SafeSpeed provides red-light cameras to numerous suburbs, including several where O’Sullivan has helped elect allies to local offices. […]
The Sun-Times reported previously that O’Sullivan, a political associate of [Patrick Doherty, who was indicted on bribery charges and is chief of staff to Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski], lobbied Oak Lawn officials to more aggressively ticket motorists identified by SafeSpeed’s cameras as potential violators.
O’Sullivan has a strong precinct crew that has done work for Speaker Madigan’s operation, among others.
Former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios and his political committees must pay $168,000 in fines after a judge dismissed his complaints challenging the ethics board’s findings and ability to sanction him.
The Cook County Ethics Board previously fined Berrios, the Committee to Elect Joseph Berrios Cook County Assessor and his 31st Ward Democratic Organization $41,000 in January 2018 and $127,000 more that May for accepting campaign contributions in excess of legal limits.
At the center of the ethics board’s rulings was a 2016 county ordinance stating that donors who seek “official action” with the county may contribute no more than $750 in nonelection years. Attorneys for Berrios sought to overturn the rulings, arguing that the county limits are unconstitutional and that higher limits set by state law should apply, among other objections. […]
“My office worked tirelessly to defend the actions of the Cook County Board of Ethics and demand accountability from Mr. Berrios,” Foxx said in a statement.
On a quiet street in Oak Lawn, a brick split-level home with a built-in pool sat empty for years, mold growing in the flood-prone basement.
Federal lenders seized the house after the couple who owned it split up. They sold it to the Cook County Land Bank Authority, a government agency established for just such a circumstance: to find buyers for vacant houses, usually in struggling neighborhoods.
Two developers offered to buy and fix up the home, which an inspector had warned “is not a rehab for the faint of heart or a tight budget.” But the land bank turned down both developers.
Instead, it sold the home in 2018 — at a lower price than what the developers offered to pay — to Natasha Cornog, executive assistant to the land bank’s top boss, and her elderly mother on the condition that they live there. And so the Cornogs paid $150,000 for the home the land bank had bought for $141,786. […]
But Cornog had another problem, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found. She was taking homestead property tax exemptions on that house and also two more she owns, records show. The law allows you to take only one homestead exemption — on the home where you live.
After more than two years’ efforts working with state agencies stalled, six advocacy groups representing the nonpartisan Just Democracy Illinois coalition have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Illinois Secretary of State’s office (SOS) and the Illinois Board of Elections (SBOE) for failing to properly implement Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) and violating federal and state voting rights laws. The coalition is seeking a court order to fix the implementation problems.
The suit charges that implementation of the voter registration law, which was supposed to be implemented in July 2018, has been riddled with problems and massively delayed. Three elections have passed without AVR properly in place. Earlier this year, the Secretary of State’s office revealed that it failed to protect hundreds of people who identified as non-citizens from being accidentally registered. The agency also allowed several thousand 16-year-olds to begin the registration process and sent election officials the information of eligible voters who appeared to decline to be registered.
The lawsuit filed today charges SOS and SBOE with violations under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), the federal Voting Rights Act, and the Illinois AVR statute by failing to provide language access for those with limited English proficiency and failing to automatically update voter rolls when people have moved, among other problems. “The implementation problems layered on top of each other create serious barriers to voter registration access,” according to the complaint.
Ami Gandhi, Senior Counsel at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights which is representing the coalition, said: “By failing to implement AVR properly, these agencies are creating serious barriers to voter registration access.”
Lawrence Benito, CEO/Executive Director of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) said: “AVR is not the problem, the Secretary of State’s office is the problem. SOS was tasked with executing this law and instead it has put individuals at risk and undermined confidence in our voting system.”
Jay Young, Executive Director for Common Cause Illinois, agreed: “We’ve tried meeting directly with officials, giving testimony at public hearings, negotiating a resolution, and sending legal notices to address these issues – but these agencies aren’t meeting us halfway. This lawsuit is a measure of last resort to fix the ongoing problems with AVR implementation and improve the accuracy and security of the state’s voter rolls.”
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago, CHANGE Illinois, Chicago Votes, Common Cause Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Illinois Public Interest Research Group (Illinois PIRG) are steering committee members of the Just Democracy Illinois coalition, which advocated for passage of the AVR law in 2017. AVR was passed on a unanimous, bipartisan vote and signed into law by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The voter registration law was intended to provide fair registration access to over one million eligible, but unregistered voters in Illinois. By automatically registering eligible voters interacting with state agencies, AVR would also address longstanding racial disparities in voting access. According to US Census Bureau data, voter registration rates for Black, Latino, and Asian citizens lag behind the registration rate for White citizens in the state.
“Asian American communities across Illinois continue to lag behind in voter registration rates, largely due to language barriers. That is why compliance with Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act is absolutely essential,” said Andy Kang, Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago. “This is about protecting our communities’ access to the ballot box.”
Niyati Shah, Assistant Director of Legal Advocacy at Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC said: “We want Illinois agencies to fulfill AVR’s promise and expand voter access to these very communities that have been historically excluded from civic participation while complying with federal laws such as the NVRA and the Voting Rights Act.”
Attorneys at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and pro bono co-counsel say that the lawsuit is not intended to suspend the AVR program but rather to get a court mandate to fix these ongoing problems.
* Click here for links to three real-time coronavirus heat maps. And now, a press release…
Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot today joined City and State public health officials to announce a robust and coordinated effort to prevent spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Earlier this month, Illinois became the first state to provide COVID-19 testing in-state, allowing IDPH to produce results within 24 hours. Next week, the administration will expand testing statewide, with new testing labs in the central and southern regions to join the existing testing lab in Cook County. Following the recommendation of the CDC, the state will also partner with hospitals in every region to engage in voluntary testing, which will allow us to diagnose new cases quickly and prevent any further community spread. Under the plan, certain emergency departments will soon begin testing select patients who present with influenza-like symptoms for COVID-19.
“Our top priority is keeping Illinoisans safe and we are using every tool and resource at our disposal to prepare for this virus and contain any spread,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This is a coordinated effort with state, city and local entities working together to put the full weight of our government behind this response. Illinois has a leading public health system that was the first – and remains one of just a few nationally – able to test for COVID-19 and we will continue leading the way forward to protect our communities.”
To date, Illinois has had two confirmed cases of COVID-19 and both individuals have made a full recovery. The immediate health risk to the state remains low. While the latest available information suggests that person-to-person spread will continue to occur and additional cases are likely to be identified in the United States, most cases of COVID-19 cause a mild illness. In very rare cases people infected with the virus have died. Additionally, to date, data shows that children are less likely to become ill.
“For over a month, Chicago has been working daily to strengthen and refine our response to this situation, contain the virus, and protect our residents from any harm,” said Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. “While the chances of contracting coronavirus remain extremely low, we will continue to closely monitor this situation as it evolves, and take appropriate preventive and pre-cautionary measures as needed in coordination with public health agencies, and our many community and healthcare partners.”
“We continue to actively monitor the international and domestic situation closely, plan ahead and strengthen and refine our local public health response,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. “We’ve undertaken these serious, but necessary measures while remaining in close communication with our federal and local partners to ensure all systems in place work efficiently and effectively.”
“Cook County Department of Public Health continues to work closely with IDPH, CDPH and the CDC in our efforts and will use what resources we have to minimize the risk of spread in our communities,” said Dr. Terry Mason, COO of Cook County Department of Public Health. “The collaboration between all the agencies is what resulted in the best possible outcome for the two confirmed cases. This is classic public health at work doing what we are trained and prepared to do.”
The city and state are experienced at responding to infections disease outbreaks and continue to work in lockstep to put systems in place to respond to this new virus. Current efforts include:
Airport screening and monitoring health of travelers returning from China.
Investigating confirmed cases of COVID-19 and monitoring friends and family who may have been exposed.
Planning community measures that can help limit the spread of disease, like having ill individuals stay home (including housing and transportation needs).
Providing regular guidance to hospitals and healthcare professionals, including information on infection control, personal protective equipment (PPE) supply planning, and clinical evaluation.
Working to expand local laboratory testing for COVID-19.
Developing and distributing guidance for childcare facilities, schools, universities, businesses, community- and faith-based organizations, among many others.
In addition to efforts by local health systems, there are important steps individuals and communities can take to help minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread:
Practice everyday preventive actions such as performing frequent hand hygiene, using hand sanitizer or soap and water when visibly soiled; covering your cough and sneezes; avoiding ill people; and staying home when sick (except to seek medical care). These simple actions can prevent the spread of many illnesses, including COVID-19.
Healthcare providers should continue to ask patients with fever and respiratory symptoms about their travel history. Refer to CDC’s Guidance for Healthcare Professionals for more information on screening and evaluating Persons Under Investigation.
Childcare facilities, K-12 schools and colleges/universities should review their emergency operations plans, including strategies for social distancing and online learning.
Businesses and employers should actively encourage all employees to stay home when sick, perform hand hygiene, and cover coughs and sneezes. Businesses should review their emergency operations plan, including identification of essential business functions, teleworking and flexible sick leave policies. For more information see CDC’s Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers.
Community- and faith-based organizations should review existing emergency operations plans, including strategies for social distancing and modifying large gatherings such as concerts and festivals.
Officials also warned against stigmatization toward specific populations and said knowing the facts about COVID-19 will help minimize stigma and misinformation.
This is a rapidly evolving situation and information will be updated as it becomes available. More information can be found on the IDPH website, the CDPH website, and the CDC website and questions can be directed to the IDPH hotline, 1-800-889-3931.
Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower who lawmakers say faced retaliation for reporting concerns.
World Health Organization officials said Friday they are increasing the risk assessment of the coronavirus, which has spread to at least 49 countries in a matter of weeks, to “very high” at a global level.
“We are on the highest level of alert or highest level of risk assessment in terms of spread and in terms of impact,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program. The group isn’t trying to alarm or scare people, he said. “This is a reality check for every government on the planet: Wake up. Get ready. This virus may be on its way and you need to be ready. You have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready.”
The world can still avoid “the worst of it,” but the increased risk assessment means the WHO’s “level of concern is at its highest,” he said at a press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.
World leaders still have a chance to contain the virus within their borders, Ryan said. “To wait, to be complacent to be caught unawares at this point, it’s really not much of an excuse.”
World share markets crashed again, winding up their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and bringing the global wipeout to $5 trillion.
Hopes that the epidemic that started in China late last year would be over in months, and that economic activity would quickly return to normal, have been shattered as the number of international cases has spiralled.
“The outbreak is getting bigger,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
“The scenario of the coronavirus reaching multiple countries, if not all countries around the world, is something we have been looking at and warning against since quite a while.”
* How A Coronavirus Blood Test Could Solve Some Medical Mysteries: Very few kids globally have ended up in the hospital. Is that because they’re not getting infected, or they’re getting infected but not getting sick? An answer to that question will help public health officials figure out whether it makes sense to close schools if there’s a big outbreak.
* What are the novel coronavirus health risks?: It doesn’t get a lot of press attention, but seasonal influenza viruses kill tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. Current estimates of mortality rates for COVID-19 – which may not be completely accurate because we do not know how many unreported or unconfirmed infections there are – suggest that this disease is more deadly than seasonal influenza. However, mortality rates are highly age-dependent and are only high for older people and people with other underlying health conditions. Accurate estimates of these numbers in the middle of an outbreak are hard, but the case fatality rates for confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China are 1.3% for ages 50-59, 3.6% for ages 60-69, 8% for 70-79, and 14.8% for 80+. Mortality rates are much lower for younger people.
* Chicago Area School Districts Putting Together Coronavirus Protocol: The IDPH says the state statute “allows schools districts to use e-learning days in lieu of emergency days if they have an e-learning plan approved by their Regional Office of Education.” … There were lessons learned when the 2009 H1N1 pandemic closed over 100 schools. The CDC said research since then shows that something small like keeping classes smaller and spacing desks further apart could have a big role in minimizing spread of other similar viruses, like coronavirus.
* Springfield businesses not seeing impact of coronavirus — yet: “If we have a suspected case of coronavirus, we know the testing criteria, we know how we isolate that patient, we know where we would place them in our facility, we know how we would contact the state Department of Public Health to get testing done, we know the equipment we will need,” said Raj Govindaiah, chief medical officer at Memorial Health System. “Yeah, we’re prepared.” The hospital has put together a group led by its infection prevention experts to make a coronavirus plan. The group has been meeting for about a month, with Govindaiah describing the effort as analogous to the hospital’s response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014.
* Coronavirus outbreaks worry students studying abroad, while colleges cancel some overseas programs. ‘Doing everything I can to stay safe and healthy.’
Friday, Feb 28, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Today, Mike Bloomberg announced a progressive agenda for the next generation of American farms, reversing the Trump administration’s missteps and restoring respect and opportunity to America’s farmers and rural communities.
As a candidate, Trump claimed he was going to “take care of the farmers,” but he has repeatedly put politics before the best interests of America’s agricultural producers and engaged in a reckless trade war with China that puts the American economy at risk.
Mike will reverse Trump’s needless trade war, promote farms of all sizes, make trade policy fair, and invest in a 21st century agricultural economy.
Chicago’s public schools will no longer observe Columbus Day, replacing that October school holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day. The decision by the Chicago Board of Education has aroused the ire of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. Its president, Sergio Giangrande, on Thursday called the decision a “slap in the face” of the more than 500,000 Italian Americans in Chicago. Grande says his group, which sponsors the city’s annual Columbus Day parade, is moving to reverse the school district’s decision. The five-to-two decision by the Chicago Board of Education follows similar efforts elsewhere, including South Dakota, to recognize the negative effect of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the western hemisphere on the indigenous population.
Um, that 500,000 number is for the entire Chicagoland area, not the city itself. The Illinois portion of the Chicago region is about 8.63 million people, so they’re just under 6 percent of the population. Just 10.3 percent of CPS students are white, and it stands to reason that far fewer are Italian-Americans. That’s not meant to downplay the role of Italian-Americans in society, it’s just pointing out that the number used by Mr. Giangrande and repeated in several news outlets is inflated.
* Meanwhile…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot this morning said she doesn’t plan to support changes to get rid of Columbus Day for Chicago. She said it made sense to celebrate Columbus and indigenous people, which is what CPS did before this week. Would potentially be a big messy fight otherwise. https://t.co/51tSOUroI9
To be fair, Sposato said “The Polish” and “the Irish,” so it’s kind hard to say this was racist. But that’s beside the point. People get all fired up about “their” holiday, so none of this is particularly surprising.
* We talked yesterday about the 13th Ward’s palm card that doesn’t include party-slated State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. More from Hannah Meisel and Alex Nitkin at the Daily Line…
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Kimberly Neely DuBuclet were not included on Madigan’s list of candidates he supports, despite being slated by Cook County Democrats last fall ahead of the March 17 primary. Also missing from the palm card is MWRD Commissioner Cam Davis, who is running for re-election after a successful write-in campaign in 2018.
While the State’s Attorney’s race is totally absent from the palm card, MWRD candidates Eira Corral Sepúlveda and Patricia Therese Flynn are recommended on the card. DuBuclet, Davis and Sepúlveda were slated by the party last year, but Flynn was not, instead entering the race with the support of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, which has given nearly $83,000 to her campaign.
The party did not slate congressional candidates, but atop the palm card is U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, who is an embattled primary race with progressive Marie Newman, who came close to besting Lipinski in the 2018 primary matchup.
The palm card urges voters to back the official choice of the Cook County Democrats for the 1st District seat on the Illinois Supreme Court, P. Scott Neville. Neville was appointed to the high court in 2018 after former Justice Charles Freeman retired. Neville is the only African American on the 13th Ward palm card. […]
The palm card begins with outdated voting instructions to “connect the arrow” on the ballot. Touchscreens will be used at every early voting site and will be available by request on Election Day, with options to select ballots and audio prompts in English, Spanish, Chinese or Hindi, officials said.
All other voters will fill in bubbles to choose their candidates, ending the previous system of asking voters to scribble a thick line.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who doubles as chair of the county Democratic Party, said she has “no control” over the palm cards of individual committeepersons.
“The Cook County Democratic Party slates candidates. It has always been true, and it is still true, that not every committeeman puts on their palm card every candidate slated by the party,” Preckwinkle said. “And the chairman of the party has no control over the individual decisions [made] by a committeeman.”
When asked if that means the speaker isn’t a team player, Preckwinkle, who is also mentor to Foxx, said “I think I’ve said all I’m gonna say.”
Preckwinkle and Mayor Lightfoot are doing an event for Foxx today at the Painters District Council 14 Headquarters, so I figure reporters will be asking more questions about this.
I was made aware of allegations of a potentially serious crime involving public official misconduct and immediately reported it to law enforcement authorities. I have been authorized to report that there is an ongoing investigation into the allegations. When the investigation is complete, I will urge for all the documents and reports to be fully released to the public and will answer all questions authorized by law enforcement officials.
I believe that as a result of my involvement in this investigation, misinformation is being intentionally shared regarding my red light camera ban bills. As such, I want to make it clear that I will not be intimidated and will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement on their important investigation described above. Law enforcement has also been made aware of these concerns.
On a separate note, my HB 322 (bans red light camera for non- home rule units of government) has passed the House and will be sent to the Senate. Yesterday as promised, I officially asked for HB 323 (bans ALL IL red light cameras) to be released from the Rules Committee.
We must end corruption in both parties in IL!
Rep. McSweeney said the potential crime did not involve red-light cameras, but did clarify that “One of the people who has knowledge of my interactions with law enforcement” is involved with spreading the above-mentioned misinformation about his bill.
He said he wasn’t authorized to tell me if this public official was a legislator or which law enforcement agency he notified.
What do you give to a governor who has two mansions and can afford anything he wants? How about a $950 bottle of Japanese whisky. Or $450 worth of tequila. Or a bust of Abe Lincoln?
Those were among the 130 gifts Gov. J.B. Pritzker has logged getting since taking office a little over a year ago, records show. The uber-wealthy Illinois politician also reported getting six hats, a smattering of scarves, 14 shirts and 54 books among a haul that his staff values at an estimated $25,230. […]
Pritzker didn’t keep any of it, according to spokeswoman Jordan Abuddayeh, who says the governor shared anything perishable with his staff and put the rest in secure storage locations at the Thompson Center and the Capitol until they are donated to charity. […]
The logs list Republican former Gov. Bruce Rauner as having gotten just 10 items in his first year in office, 2015. It showed Rauner received chocolates that December, eight books — including one titled “Don’t Sell Yourself Short” — and a painting. It didn’t include prices or say what was done with the items. Rauner representatives didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday forced out three members of the Illinois Racing Board for allegedly making illegal political contributions, leaving the state’s horse racing regulatory agency in flux as the struggling industry jockeys to get back on track with help from a massive gambling expansion.
The abrupt resignations of Racing Board Chairman Jeffrey Brincat and commissioners Edgar Ramirez and Gregory Sronce were the result of apparent violations of a new provision included in the gaming package signed into law by Pritzker last summer, which bars board members from giving money to politicians.
“The Illinois Horse Racing Act states that ‘[n]o member of the Board … shall engage in any political activity,’” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in an email. “Three sitting members of the Illinois Racing Board made political contributions. As a result, they were asked to resign and each has submitted a letter of resignation.”
Brincat, who was appointed by Republican former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2015, gave $1,000 to the campaign of state Sen. Tony Munoz, D-Chicago, on Dec. 15, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records, almost six months after Pritzker signed the gaming expansion June 28. […]
Three seats were already vacant on the 11-person racing board before the abrupt resignations of Brincat, Sronce and Ramirez. That leaves just five members, which is short of the quorum required “for the transaction of any business” under state law.
Sronce, 36, said Friday he agreed to resign from the panel that oversees horse racing in the state but was not aware of the law signed last summer until after he had written a $1,000 check to the Sangamon County Republican Foundation.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed the new gaming law on June 28. Board general counsel John Gay sent the board members a memo on July 15 saying in part “board members and staff are barred from participating in any political activity in support of or in connection with any campaign for state or local elective office or any political organization.”
Sronce produced a copy of a check he wrote July 2 to the GOP foundation. He also noted the group supports local candidates for offices including park and school board.
“It’s a very strange prohibition that as a commissioner you can’t donate to a local park board or school board candidate,” Sronce said, while gaming interests can donate to legislators who make laws concerning the industry and “can put them on the payroll.” He called the situation “ironic.”
Mary Miller says her bid for Congress is a case of “an ordinary person that’s stepping into an extraordinary opportunity.”
Miller is the wife of first-term State Representative Chris Miller. Together, they run a grain and livestock farm outside of Oakland in Coles County. Mrs. Miller, who has a degree in elementary education, also teaches children through a network of home schools.
When comparing herself to Republican incumbent John Shimkus, Miller notes her support for term limits. Shimkus, who signed a term limits pledge when he first ran for Congress, later rejected the idea of self-imposed term limits, and is now completing his twelfth term in the U.S. House. But Miller said that because of her support for term limits, she doesn’t expect to have a long political career. […]
When asked about health care policy, Miller said she wanted to work for solutions to health care that many Americans find unaffordable. She cites the need for more transparency and competition in the health insurance marketplace, but opposes any “single payer” proposals. Miller said she couldn’t answer the question of whether the Affordable Care Act passed by Democrats during the Obama administration needed to be entirely repealed and replaced.
Her Affordable Care Act response was kinda weird. She actually whispered “I, I can’t answer that” like she’d get in trouble or something if she did answer the question. And then the interviewer moved on like nothing had happened.
Thursday, Feb 27, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
While President Trump is focused on polls and politics, Mike will always put the health and safety of Americans first. Mike is an experienced crisis manager who has prioritized public health throughout his tenure as mayor of New York City and in his global philanthropic efforts.
As the U.S. braces for the spread of the Coronavirus, President Trump’s reckless and paranoid leadership continues to put Americans at risk.
While Trump’s mouthpieces cry conspiracy, Trump has disbanded the National Security Council’s Office of Global Health Security and recommended cuts to the CDC’s funding.
Mike has the steady hand and leadership experience to manage a crisis, calm the markets, and save lives.
Read more about Mike’s public health plan here, and watch the newest ad “Pandemic” here.
State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) says Illinois needs a point person to coordinate coronavirus containment efforts with the federal government.
“We need a person with a strong medical background who can serve as a liaison between Illinois and Washington D.C.,” McSweeney said. “Millions of people visit Chicago every year. The impact this coronavirus would have on our state could be severe. It is important that we work with the federal government and make sure all of our state agencies are taking the appropriate measures. Governor Pritzker should immediately appoint someone to coordinate these efforts.”
Illinois currently has two confirmed coronavirus cases both in Chicagoland area.
“The disease is already here,” McSweeney said. “The Governor should be proactive in protecting Illinois citizens from this potentially deadly virus.”
* I asked the governor’s office for a response…
The health and safety of Illinoisans is a top priority for Governor Pritzker that’s why our state agencies have been coordinating to protect our residents since day one. IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau manages all state emergencies and IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who has decades of experience in public health, leads a team of qualified experts. IDPH has a team of seasoned epidemiologists who are working closely with other state agencies like IEMA as well as the CDC, CDPH and other public health partners to implement measures that have been able to successfully contain the virus to this point and they are now working diligently to prepare the state and keep our communities safe in the event of further spread.
As subscribers already know, the state’s head epidemiologist recently resigned.
* IDPH…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is working with local, state, and federal health partners to take all preventative steps available to limit the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). While COVID-19 is not spreading in communities in Illinois or the U.S., there is evidence of community spread in several countries around the world and IDPH is committed to working across local, state, and federal agencies to ensure Illinois is prepared.
IDPH is currently conducting hospital assessments to determine all available capacity in the event more people need medical care. IDPH is also assessing the availability of personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns, and masks for health care workers. Earlier this month, Illinois became the first state to provide COVID-19 testing in-state and IDPH is continuing to work on increasing capacity for testing to ensure rapid results.
“As additional cases of COVID-19 are diagnosed in an increasing number of countries, the Illinois Department of Public Health is working with health care providers and local public health officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other state agencies to coordinate a robust response and take every possible step we can to prepare,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Illinois has already led the charge, becoming the first state to be able to test for COVID-19 at state laboratories. As we move forward, we are working across city, state, and federal agencies to identify all available resources and ensure we are using every tool to keep our communities safe.”
Since January 2020, IDPH has worked closely with local, state, and federal partners to successfully contain the virus in Illinois, with only two confirmed cases. Efforts have included:
* Implementing testing for COVID-19 in Illinois, becoming the first state to do so.
* Setting up a statewide hotline for questions about coronavirus
* Providing guidance and recommendations to local health departments, hospitals, EMS, clinicians, and other partners in a variety of areas:
* Assessment for COVID-19 in patients based on risk due to travel or close contact to a confirmed case
* Evaluation and reporting persons under investigation
* Infection control practices
* Precautions for schools, universities/colleges, and students
* Isolation/quarantine
* Prevention steps for caregivers and close contacts
* Specimen submission and testing
* Recommended strategies for personal protective equipment use
* Emergency department call triage
* Emergency Medical Services and 911 call center response
* Providing routine briefings to the General Assembly
* Communicating with the public by creating a coronavirus disease webpage, issuing news releases, hosting press conferences, conducting interviews, and providing information on social media.
While efforts to contain the number of COVID-19 cases will continue, Illinois will also utilize community mitigation strategies. Community mitigation aims to slow the spread of a novel virus in communities using nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) better known as “everyday preventive actions” including staying home when sick, covering coughs and sneezes, frequent handwashing, and routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces and objects.
In the absence of medications or vaccines, community mitigation measures are the first line of defense against highly transmissible infectious diseases. Preventative actions should be practiced by Illinoisans at all times, but especially as we continue to monitor potential spread of a new virus.
* Coronavirus could lead to drug shortages in US: About 90% of the active ingredients used by U.S. companies in drug manufacturing come from China, which has prompted politicians and public health experts to express concern over potential shortages of common generics. To date, manufacturing disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, haven’t led to reported shortages in the U.S., but the Food and Drug Administration said it’s closely monitoring the situation. The FDA said earlier this week it was tracking about 20 drugs that are manufactured primarily in China. Depending on the drug, stockpiles lasting weeks, perhaps months, have been warehoused, according to supply chain experts.
* Illinois public health officials briefing state legislature on coronavirus developments: “IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike has held conference call briefings with legislators’ offices as new information becomes available,” said IDPH spokesperson Chris Martinez. “[The] director and IDPH staff have also been available to answer questions or to provide an update in person or via phone at any time.”
* Patient screened for coronavirus at Belleville Memorial Hospital: “Following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BJC HealthCare hospitals have processes in place to screen patients for risk of coronavirus, or COVID-19,” a statement from BJC Healthcare read. “Based on medical symptoms and travel history, patients may be referred for further laboratory testing. Memorial Hospital Belleville has referred one patient to the Illinois Department of Public Health for testing and is expecting results in the next few days.”
* Area health departments address increasing coronavirus risk: Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has entered what it calls “full pandemic preparedness mode.” They haven’t done that in more than a decade, since the H1N1 virus in 2009. They’re making plans on what to do if the virus comes to central Illinois. Part of that is by holding meeting with hospitals and doctors and communicating with the public on prevention. … A lot of people are wearing surgical masks as a precaution to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, the CDC does not recommend this for a way to stop yourself from getting it. It is best used for those who are sick and want to keep from spreading whatever they have.
* America’s bad paid sick leave policy could make the coronavirus outbreak worse: There is no federal law guaranteeing paid time off for illness, and paid sick leave is comparatively rare for lower-wage workers. Just 63 percent of people working in service occupations have paid sick leave, versus more than 90 percent of people in management positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For people working part-time, just 43 percent can get sick leave from their employer.
* Is the coronavirus a threat to Southern Illinois? Here are 5 things you should know: The deadliness of an outbreak is often measured by the case fatality rate, or the ratio of deaths to the total number of cases in a given area. Within China, the overall fatality rate is 2.3%. The older you are, the greater the risk, Chinese health officials determined in a study released earlier this month. For those younger than 50, the death rate was less than 1%, a number that increases to nearly 15% for people over 80.
* Pence Picks Top U.S. AIDS Official for Coronavirus Response: Investors anxious about the spread of the coronavirus from its origins in China have sought assurances that the Trump administration is prepared to confront a potential public health crisis. Trump, who in the past has called for budget cuts at the CDC and other health agencies, said Wednesday he would bring in officials from within the government to help with the virus response.
Thursday, Feb 27, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
In Illinois, over 30,000 people suffer from end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This disease imposes a harsh physical, mental, and financial burden on them and their families. That’s why organizations, community groups, health professionals, and businesses from across Illinois founded The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA).
Kevin Cmunt, CEO of Gift of Hope— a founding member of IKCA— recently sat down for an interview with Health News Illinois.
“There are tens of thousands of Illinoisans who suffer from end-stage renal disease. It’s really expensive. It’s cost our society and our state, and it’s just a really crummy disease,” Cmunt told HNI.
For dialysis patients fortunate enough to have insurance, ESRD can still be an annual out-of-pocket expense in excess of $7,000. And many patients with advanced kidney disease are low-income.
Read more of Kevin’s interview and learn more about IKCA, kidney care in Illinois, challenges faced by those with ESRD, and next steps for the Alliance here.
The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance is proud to have Kevin Cmunt and Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network advocate for those with ESRD. For more information visit our website.
* I also told subscribers about this earlier today. The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board’s executive director Brent Fischer testified at a House appropriations committee yesterday and was asked about Forrest Ashby. He was the guy Mike McClain was trying to protect when he vouched for him to two Pat Quinn administration officials. McClain said Ashby “kept his mouth shut on Jones’ ghost workers, the rape in Champaign and other items. He is loyal to the administration.”
“You’re saying that you paid Mr. Ashby $60,000 a year not to actually do the curriculum review and development but to just observe some classes and hire some interns?” Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, asked Fischer.
“Well I mean he could participate but it wasn’t like he was gonna be the ultimate decider as far as what the curriculum was,” Fischer responded.
“Right,” Mazzochi shot back. “So what’s his value add for $60,000?”
Fischer said he did not publicly post the contractual position, but instead offered it directly to Ashby since the two already had a rapport. Fischer testified that he knew Ashby because he had volunteered on one of Fischer’s own campaigns. But he added that nobody from Pritzker’s campaign, the governor’s office, the speaker’s office, or McClain recommended he hire Ashby on contract.
* Just before the House adjourned today, Rep. Mazzochi rose to say this…
I would like to alert all the members of this chamber that back in January many of you were extremely upset about the fact that a man named Forrest Ashby was being given political insider privileges and perks in connection with potentially keeping his mouth shut about ghost-payrollers and covering up knowledge about a rape in Champaign.
Yesterday at the Public Appropriations Committee hearing meeting was the first time we have on our side of the aisle had an opportunity to actually ask someone from the administration, what was going on with that. And as it turned out, this same person was given a $60,000 a year, no-bid job, based on his personal connections to the executive director of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board.
We have called for investigations, we have called for transparency, as to what this person did, what did he know, and more directly, what was Mike McClain doing. Who was he getting into these political positions. We don’t agree with ghost-payrolling and if you don’t think that this kind of thing isn’t ghost-payrolling, I don’t know what you think is.
We’ve called for investigations, and you’ve done nothing. You haven’t convened any committees, you haven’t done any investigations, you haven’t made sure that this is not happening throughout all levels of our government. And I would like this body, because you said you were upset, you said you were concerned, to actually do something.
This was two months ago, that you found out about this, and you’ve done nothing. It’s unacceptable, and I would really like to know when you’re going to finally tell your leadership that this kind of corrupt culture is not acceptable here in Springfield, and finally start doing something about it.
* I asked the ward’s PR firm, Boyce Possley Communications, why the party-slated incumbent state’s attorney was not on the 13th Ward’s palm cards. Eileen Boyce…
We’ve weighed in on these races to date, and will continue to monitor all of the races.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Looks like I stepped on Hannah. Sorry!…
Have also been chasing this. The palm card also leaves off Kim DuBuclet for @MWRDGC, meaning the two non-judicial candidate Black women slated by the Cook County Dems were not included. https://t.co/hTjuzy5Hp3
…Adding… Lightfoot and Preckwinkle actually agree on something…
With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, union members and labor leaders are joining together with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and President Toni Preckwinkle for a Labor Get Out The Vote Rally tomorrow, Feb. 28 at 11:30 a.m., in support of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
The rally will be held at the headquarters of Painters District Council 14, 1456 W. Adams St. in Chicago, who will be announcing their endorsement of Kim Foxx. Speakers to include Painters District Council 14 Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer John Spiros, Mayor Lightfoot, President Preckwinkle, and State’s Attorney Foxx.
WHO: Labor leaders and union members from the Painters District Council 14, SEIU, the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Chicago Teachers Union, and other unions along with Mayor of the City of Chicago Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx
WHAT: Labor GOTV Rally for Kim Foxx
WHERE: Painters District Council 14 Headquarters
A Cook County grand jury has subpoenaed city election records related to 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn’s challenge to a college student’s nominating signatures during the last City Hall campaign, the Tribune has learned.
Quinn, the hand-picked alderman of House Speaker Michael Madigan, the 13th Ward’s Democratic committeeman for decades, soundly defeated David Krupa, a DePaul University student, in the Feb. 26 City Council race.
State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), the newly appointed chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, sent a letter to his colleagues inviting them to reintroduce any legislation that Villivalam’s predecessor refused to give an open hearing.
“It has been widely reported that the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee from 2009 to October of 2019 conducted meetings and approached policy, as it relates to transportation issues, without making the public good and/or public policy his top priority,” Villivalam said. “As the new chair, I have vowed to create and implement an open, transparent and accountable process for legislation that will maintain and improve our transportation and infrastructure system in a data-driven, equitable way.”
Villivalam pledged to provide an open, fair and transparent process for all legislation assigned to the Transportation Committee this year. He also encouraged his colleagues in the General Assembly to notify him if a bill in the Transportation Committee was assigned to the committee in a previous year but never heard.
“I am committed to holding hearings throughout the state to enable local people to comment on the transportation issues that matter most to them,” Villivalam said. “The government works for the people, so it works best when everyone gets a chance to voice their opinions, and we legislators make the best, most informed decisions when we talk to both experts and the people whose everyday lives are effected by our decisions.”
The Senate Transportation Committee normally meets on Tuesdays at 5 p.m.
The REACH Act would require all public schools to implement health curricula tailored for each grade level. Here’s the proposed breakdown:
• Grades K-2: Personal safety, identifying trusted adults children can rely on for guidance and support, respecting others
• Grades 3-5: Continues on personal safety and healthy relationships, discusses bullying, harassment and abuse, and covers topics such as anatomy, puberty, hygiene, body image, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression
• Grades 6-12: Builds on prior instruction about healthy relationships by covering issues like consent, sexual harassment, abuse, and interpersonal violence, provides additional information on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and covers the benefits of abstinence, behavioral changes, barrier methods like condoms, medication, contraception, and sexually transmitted infection prevention methods.
[…] The Illinois Association of School Boards plans to oppose the bill because the group is against all new curricular mandates, said Thomas Bertrand, IASB executive director.
The ACLU has a competing bill that would not be a state mandate. I’m hearing tensions are high between the two sides and that may prevent anything from passing this spring.
* Pete Janko, candidate for the Illinois House…
It used to be that millionaires and billionaires would just buy our politicians to do their bidding. But with so many special interests competing to buy favors from our elected officials, it’s becoming too much work for some of the rich to get the first in line spot with our elected officials. As the old saying goes, “If you want something done your way, you do it yourself,” right? So it looks like the rich are simply cutting out the middleman, spending huge amounts of money flooding the airwaves, the internet, and your mailbox with their propaganda, trying to buy elections.
No doubt we need to get Citizens United and Buckley v Valeo reversed. But, until that happens, I that the States should levy a so-called ‘sin tax’ on politicians, which I call the “Excessive Political Campaigns Tax” (EPC Tax).
How The Tax Work Would Work.
Every year, IRS Form 1040 asks taxpayers if they would like $3 to go to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. Let’s interpret $3 as the suggested value of a single voter. We take that $3 and multiply it by the number of registered voters that can vote for a specific candidate (district, county, city, etc.). That becomes the amount of money raised in the election cycle that would be exempt form the EPC Tax. Any money a campaign raises above that amount, including any of the candidate’s own money spent on the race, would be considered “excessive” and taxed – let’s say at 15%.
For example, a given district has 50,000 registered voters. Multiplied by $3 equals $150,000 that will be exempt from the EPC Tax. The last thing anyone wants to do is hinder in any way a grass-roots campaign or just a traditional campaign. But as we can see, the vast majority of campaign will not pay the EPC Tax .
Illinois’ solar industry is sounding the alarm on a dwindling source of state money that supports hundreds of solar energy projects, leading renewable energy advocates to warn of a solar energy “bust.”
The 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act provides approximately $235 million in grant funding annually for renewable energy projects including solar and wind. But that fund — fueled by fees paid by utility customers— has failed to keep up with demand for solar energy projects from both large-scale companies and homeowners.
Those pushing a bill referred to as the “Path to 100” are asking the state to gradually increase renewable energy fees from 2 percent to 4 percent by 2020. Advocates said the change would mean the average residential customer would pay approximately $1.75 per month to support solar and wind energy.
Earlier on Wednesday, the House Transportation Committee voted to send another red-light camera bill that would prohibit employees of red-light camera companies or employee-created PACs from contributing more than $500 to any political candidate in a given year to the full House for a vote.
* Press release…
State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) has filed a constitutional amendment to create retroactive term limits in Illinois. HJRCA44 provides that each General Assembly office is limited to 12 years and each executive branch office is limited to 8 years, specifically:
· A State Senator may not be elected to office for more than 12 years
· A State Representative may not be elected to office for more than 12 years
· An individual can serve a combined 24 years in the General Assembly
· No person can be elected to an Executive Branch office for more than 8 years
· Time served prior to the adoption of this amendment would also be considered in the calculation of years of service
Batinick has long advocated for term limits in the General Assembly, but with the uptick in corruption plaguing the statehouse, the Representative deemed the retroactive addition necessary to firmly part with the status quo.
“No amount of laws will make us immune to corruption, but we can minimize the root cause,” said Rep. Batinick. “If we are serious about ethics reform, this is a strong start to prevent concentrated power—and the influence peddling that goes along with that. To part with the corruption that has become the norm for us and the disappointment of our taxpayers, we need change.”
The purpose of this legislation is to make retroactive term limits a constitutional amendment to be put on the ballot in the November 2020 election. Should HJRCA44 pass, those who currently exceed these term limits would be able to finish out their term, but cannot run for reelection.
“We need term limits in Illinois to move forward to responsible and transparent government,” continued Batinick. “Until that happens, we will continue to wade through the old ways of governing that made Illinois synonymous with corruption.”
As legislative session resumes, Representative Batinick will continue the push for ethics reform, including HJRCA44. Currently, the legislation is awaiting further consideration in the Rules Committee.
* Other stuff…
* Why Supreme Court’s denial of term-limit referendum is a big win for Elk Grove’s mayor: The unanimous decision reverses a Cook County judge’s Jan. 15 ruling that found a state law barring retroactive term-limit measures to be unconstitutional. Instead, the high court sided with Elk Grove’s electoral board — and ultimately Gov. J.B. Pritzker — which upheld an objection to the referendum question on the basis it violated the recently-enacted state law.
Some voters in Champaign County are concerned after getting more than one ballot sent to them. They all chose to vote by mail. Now they’re worried other people may be able to vote more than once.
All of them have voted by mail at the same address more than once before. They never had any issues until now. We talked to three people: two who got two ballots and another who got three.
Janet Gravlin has lived at the same address in Urbana for 54 years. She has voted by mail for several years. This year, she got two ballots, each with a slightly different address. Sharon Petersson, on the other hand, got three ballots sent to her. All of them with the exact same address.
“When you stop and think how many people are getting duplicates that… maybe send them all back, I don’t know how they check if it does go back,” said Janet Gravlin.
What’s missing in the story is how mailed-in ballots are checked before they’re accepted at the county clerk level.
* I’ve never voted by mail, so I reached out to Matt Dietrich at the Illinois State Board of Elections…
The ballot is specifically for the voter who requests it and you return it in a special envelope with your signature, which is verified by an election judge just like if you get a ballot in a polling place.
Federal prosecutors are asking for a prison sentence of about three years for a Chicago lawyer accused of scheming with former Ald. Edward Vrdolyak to reap millions of dollars in legal fees from the state’s massive settlement with the tobacco companies despite having done no work on the case.
Daniel Soso, 67, pleaded guilty last year to one count of income tax evasion for his role in the scheme, which prosecutors said netted Soso and Vrdolyak at least a combined $10 million in illicit payments from the historic $9.3 billion settlement beginning in 1999.
Soso is scheduled to be sentenced next week by U.S. District Judge Robert Dow. Vrdolyak, 82, who also pleaded guilty, faces up to about 2½ years in prison when he is sentenced April 2.
In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors said that sparing Soso from a significant term behind bars would “contribute to the current climate of cynicism that well-heeled white collar criminal defendants and the politically connected are held to to a different standard than others.”
Gee, I wonder what white-collar, politically connected criminal recently in the news for being held to a different standard they might be referring to here? Any guesses?
Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to take an epic trip to visit three or four of the states that have legalized cannabis, he told reporters in New York City on Thursday.
This trip is not the fulfillment of the governor’s tenth grade bucket list, however. Rather, the journey is to help him prepare for similar legislation in the state’s budget this year.
Cuomo said that he’ll be bringing his team to Massachusetts, Illinois and California or Colorado, “to meet with them, discuss what they’ve done, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked.
* The Question: Your suggested itinerary for Gov. Cuomo?
Officials from three of the state’s public universities went before a Senate committee on Wednesday to detail their funding requests, including one double-digit increase.
Public universities had a difficult during the two-year state budget impasse brought on by the stalemate between former Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratically-controlled General Assembly. With Democrats firmly in control of all levers of state government, some of the state’s universities are asking for more funding than they had received in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first state budget.
Representatives from Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University, and the University of Illinois presented requests to the Senate Appropriations II Committee on Wednesday.
The University of Illinois system, which announced it would break a years-long tuition freeze this fall, requested a total of $657 million in the fiscal year beginning this July, a more than 12 percent increase in state funding from the current year, not including a $303 million request for capital project spending.
“We deferred upgrades during the budget impasse, we had to,” U of I President Timothy Killeen said of the steps the system was forced to take in recent years due to lack of state funding.
Higher education funding would remain level in Gov. Pritzker’s budget unless the graduated income tax is approved by voters in November.
“Adjusted for inflation, this increase would still be below … our fiscal 2015 funding level,” said U of I System President Timothy Killeen. “And I want to remind you, we now have many thousands more students in our classrooms than we did back then.” […]
But some members of the committee were skeptical of the need for that large of an increase. Among those was Sen. Scott Bennett, a Champaign Democrat, who noted that U of I recently announced plans to raise tuition starting in the fall of 2020 after going five years with no tuition increases.
“When, by then, you had to increase tuition, it was at the same board (of trustees) meeting in which certain administrators also got increases,” Bennett said. […]
Killeen, however, noted that during the budget impasse, U of I eliminated about 300 higher-level administrative positions and that the school’s focus would be building up its teaching faculty by hiring 100 new faculty per year for the next five years.
The amount of ground lost by the state’s higher education system during the previous three administrations did incalculable harm. And the impasse darned near killed them off. Yes, I know this is a maintenance budget and there just isn’t a lot of money out there to be had. But the same Democrats who spent four years complaining about the damage done by Bruce Rauner should be stepping up now.
* Related…
* MAP is back - Increased funding to help low-income college students
The future of red-light cameras in non-home-rule municipalities is in question after the Illinois House passed legislation partially banning the devices Wednesday. […]
Democratic State Rep. Mark Walker of Arlington Heights voted no, saying the bill does not include Chicago or most of his district, where many suburbs have home-rule authority.
“It doesn’t cover any of the communities where corruption has been uncovered. There are better bills soon to come out of committee — to outlaw red light cameras across all counties and cities,” Walker said.
Democratic State Rep. Diane Pappas of Itasca voted no because the bill “takes away a safety tool and source of revenue from some of the communities that are most constrained in the state. It’s easy to pick on the little guys.”
The House vote was 84-4 in favor of the legislation, but the measure will likely continue to face pushback in the suburbs and the Illinois Municipal League.
Rep. Diane Pappas, a suburban Democrat, said the measure is less a red-light camera issue and more a “local control issue.”
“What we’re doing by passing this bill is not banning evil red-light cameras, we are depriving non-home rule communities of rights that home rule communities will continue to have,” Pappas said. “People will continue to be ticketed for running red lights in home rule communities but not in non-home rule communities.”
Krzysztof Wasowicz, mayor of southwest suburban Justice, called the lawmakers who passed the bill “a bunch of idiots” who are unfairly punishing non-home rule municipalities such as his.
“The program could be administered better, things could be tweaked, things could be worked out differently,” Wasowicz said. “So why do you want to throw the baby out with the bathwater?” […]
“We don’t want to lay off people and cut services because of some rash decision by the House, [North Riverside Village President Hubert Hermanek Jr.] said. […]
“I think anybody who voted for this is more concerned about pandering to voters than the safety of residents,” [Libertyville Mayor Terry Weppler] said.
Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, suggested that taking away red light ticket revenue might cause affected municipalities to raise property taxes, but McSweeney said those communities should cut costs.
DeLuca said the red light camera program should be reformed rather than partially banned.
“I believe you’re doing this bill to create a headline, you’re not doing this bill to solve corruption,” Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, said.
Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, however, strongly supported the measure, saying red light cameras “have been a crux in the black and brown communities for years.”
Sponsoring State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) is tying this to former State Sen. Martin Sandoval, who pleaded guilty in a scheme to protect red light vendors from a ban on their products.
“This is the bill I passed in 2015,” McSweeney said on the floor, “This is the bill that is so dangerous to the red-light camera companies that they acted to bribe a state senator. They have a roomful of lobbyists. This is a good first step.”
*** UPDATE *** Rep. McSweeney filed a motion to reconsider the vote on his red-light cam bill. I asked him why…
So that Team Durkin couldn’t do it. I’ll release it next week.
…Adding… Yep…
When we tallied up the tickets, the suburban mayors said “it’s about safety, not money.”
Now that their cash cows are threatened, they’re crying, “How will we make up for the money we’ll lose?” https://t.co/ZVZps7GbAk
Thursday, Feb 27, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Healthy Youth Act builds upon the current requirement that instruction be medically accurate, developmentally and age appropriate to include instruction that is also culturally and linguistically appropriate and adapted for students with disabilities and non-English speaking students for grades K-12.
It also removes outdated, stigmatizing language and updates the current 6-12 standards for health and sexual health education courses by including information on healthy relationships and decision making; STIs including HIV; puberty, growth, and adolescent development; gender identity, gender expression; and sexual orientation; personal safety; and pregnancy and reproduction.
It would remove the “birth date restriction” that has prohibited roughly 2,200 active and retired [Chicago] firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966 from receiving a simple, 3% annual cost of living increase. Instead, they get half that amount — an annual increase of 1.5% that is not compounded.
On the eve of a committee hearing on the bill, Martwick noted that the “birth date restriction” has already been moved five times as a way of masking the true cost to a firefighters pension fund with roughly 25% of assets to meet its future liabilities.
“Remember, they have traditionally given that 3% simple COLA [Cost-of-living adjustments] to these firefighters. They’re going to get that. This just writes it into law. It’s really not adding cost. It’s making that cost transparent,” Martwick said.
Basically, the city has been agreeing to pay firefighters a pension higher than what the firefighters are legally entitled to. Since the state calculates the city’s pension contributions based in state law, the city doesn’t have to account for the difference, which artificially inflates the unfunded liability.
The city’s financial atrocities never cease to amaze me. I did not realize they were doing this. Unbelievable.
So, the city has three choices: 1) Only give retired firefighters a 1.5 percent annual increase and don’t ever increase it to 3 (which I’m not sure they can do for firefighters that already are receiving that 3 percent and doing so would invite a lawsuit); 2) Continue to give retired firefighters 3 percent increases, but pay into the system like they’re only getting 1.5 percent, thereby driving up the unfunded liability every month; 3) Continue giving retired firefighters 3 percent annual increases and pay into the pension fund accordingly.
The mayor’s office argued that the bill would add “anywhere from $18 million to $30 million” in added costs to a pension liability imposed on Chicago taxpayers that is already scheduled to rise by $1 billion by 2023.
The Illinois House today took a bold step toward ending corruption in Illinois by approving legislation State Representative David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) is sponsoring to ban red light cameras in non-home rule communities in Illinois.
House Bill 322 would prohibit non-home rule units of government from enacting or enforcing red light camera ordinances. McSweeney passed the same bill in the House in 2015 and it was killed by former Senator Martin Sandoval.
“I am fighting hard to end the corrupt Illinois red light camera program,” McSweeney said. “These cameras are not about safety. They are all about producing revenue and lining the pockets of political insiders. It is wrong; it is corrupt and it must stop.”
Rep. McSweeney has long been a proponent of banning red light cameras. He believes that red light cameras are more about revenue than improving safety. He said the bribery charges against former State Senator Martin Sandoval provide even more evidence of the need to ban red light cameras.
More than $1 billion in fines have been collected from red light cameras over the past 10 years and multiple people have been indicted for crimes connected to the red-light camera industry.
“When I passed this bill in 2015 in the House, Senator Sandoval helped kill it,” McSweeney said. “Of course, we did not know then what we do know now. This time, I’m hoping for a different result. This legislation is a significant step forward in ending the corrupt red-light camera scam in Illinois.”
The Illinois House approved House Bill 322 by a vote of 84-4. The bill moves to the Illinois Senate for further consideration.
Several members rose during debate to criticize the bill for not applying the ban to home rule jurisdictions. But, in the end, only Reps. Avery Bourne, Will Davis, Diane Pappas and Mark Walker voted “No.”
Voting “Present” were Reps. Jim Durkin, Mike Halpin, Thaddeus Jones (who has a primary opponent), Margo McDermed and Mike Zalewski.
An unusual number of members didn’t vote, including Reps. Tom Bennett, Terri Bryant, Kelly Burke, Anthony DeLuca, Fran Hurley, Stephanie Kifowit, Theresa Mah, Charles Meier, Debbie Meyers-Martin, Lindsey Parkhurst, Bob Rita, Andre Thapedi, Art Turner, Larry Walsh, Chris Welch, Jawaharial Williams and Patrick Windhorst.
An aide to Speaker Madigan just removed this old exercise bike from his apartment to make room for a new one from Walmart. This relic must be a piece of Springfield history. Can we get the Antique Roadshow to weigh in here? pic.twitter.com/wpAt5dmtA6
To be clear, the bike was removed from Madigan’s apartment. And Mark told me it was a Democratic Party staffer, so it wasn’t on state time. Maxwell lives in the same building as Madigan during session.
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Illinois Kidney Care Alliance (IKCA) urges the passage of Senate Bill 2501. IKCA is committed to protecting the needs of Illinois’ kidney patients, and we know SB 2501 would benefit them.
IKCA believes that, when crafting policy that impacts people’s health care, the well-being of patients should come first – before the interests of any industry group or business sector.
SB 2501 aims to amend the Illinois Insurance Code by providing that a Medicare supplement policyholder is entitled to an annual open enrollment period lasting 60 days or more, starting with the individual’s birthday, during which time that person may purchase any Medicare supplement policy that offers benefits equal to or lesser than those provided by the previous coverage. Importantly, it also holds that, during the open enrollment period, the issuer of a Medicare supplement policy cannot deny coverage based on an existing medical condition.
We’re focused on the 30,000-plus patients in Illinois who have serious kidney disease. But SB 2501 would help all Medicare beneficiaries in Illinois avoid having to turn to the state for assistance.
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The Healthy Youth Act builds upon the current requirement that instruction be medically accurate, developmentally and age appropriate to include instruction that is also culturally and linguistically appropriate and adapted for students with disabilities and non-English speaking students for grades K-12.
It also removes outdated, stigmatizing language and updates the current 6-12 standards for health and sexual health education courses by including information on healthy relationships and decision making; STIs including HIV; puberty, growth, and adolescent development; gender identity, gender expression; and sexual orientation; personal safety; and pregnancy and reproduction.
* Appointed Sen. Patrick Joyce (D-Essex) is in a four-way primary. This cable ad is running in the south suburban, Kankakee and Frankfort zones, I’m told…
He looks so much like his dad, former Sen. Jerry Joyce, who was my state Senator when I was a kid.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s political arm has donated $57,800 to Margaret Croke’s campaign for the 12th District state House seat, and separately, he and his wife, M.K. Pritzker, have each donated $5,800 to Croke.
Sure, this ratchets up the contest between Croke, a leader in the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and Jonathan “Yoni” Pizer, who was appointed a few weeks ago by party bosses to fill the seat. But it also ramps up the tension between Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who’s endorsed Pizer and has put $2,500 toward his campaign.
Loyalty and maybe some pride are guiding the state’s two top Democrats. Pritzker wants his employee — who also worked on his campaign — to succeed. And Lightfoot is doing what she can to help Pizer, who was a campaign donor.
Their political jousting raises questions about whether a mayor or governor should get involved in contested primaries at all. By backing neophyte candidates in a contested race, Pritzker and Lightfoot are taking a fair amount of political risk by putting their names on the line. After all, someone has to walk away the loser.
Pritzker campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks recently told Playbook: “The governor will not be making any contributions to anyone in the Illinois state legislature — House or Senate — during the session.” But supporting a challenger in a contested race is OK.
A loss may not mean so much this time, but lose a few races and one could be seen as a paper tiger.
* The Question: Should the governor and the mayor be involving themselves in legislative primaries? Please make sure to explain your answer.
Wednesday, Feb 26, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
As Mike said, when it comes to the big issues facing our country, we’ve got to do something about it, not just demagogue about it.
Last night, America saw the Mike Bloomberg that fought for New Yorkers for 12 years, took on the gun and coal lobbies, won every one of his campaigns, and will win the fight against Donald Trump in November.
Mike showed why he has the message and the platform to untie the party - from gun safety to education to healthcare - and why his candidacy will lift up Democrats up and down the ticket, in stark contrast to the radical policies, half-baked ideas and inexperienced leadership of the other candidates.
Mike showed why he is the steady leader who New Yorkers know, and who will deliver for all Americans.
As Super Tuesday approaches, click here to get involved with Mike Bloomberg 2020 and join a growing team across the country who know Mike will get it done for America.
Though there is no immediate threat of contracting the [COVID-19] disease in the U.S. and all of the cases are contained, the Department of Homeland Security’s website offers a number of specific ways that people can prepare for a pandemic and what to do during one.
These proactive measures include:
* Stocking a two-week supply of water and food.
* Ensuring you have a continuous supply of regularly needed prescription drugs.
* Stocking up on nonprescription drugs and other health supplies. This includes pain relievers, cough and cold medicines and vitamins.
* Locating and storing copies of personal health records from doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and other sources for personal reference.
* Having a plan with family members and other loved ones on how they will receive care if they get sick or what will be needed to care for them in your home.
During a pandemic, health officials urge practicing good hygiene to limit the spread of germs and prevent infection. This can be done by:
* Avoiding close contact with people who are sick
* When sick, keep your distance from others to keep germs from spreading.
* Covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
* Avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth to prevent infection.
* Getting plenty of sleep, being physically active, managing your stress, drinking plenty of fluids and eating nutritious food.
I would also add avoiding shaking hands. That’s going to be tough for me.
Don’t go crazy and panic, but use your common sense.
A state lawmaker advanced a bill Tuesday that would lift a 1911 state prohibition of alcohol consumption on trains because, she said, the existing law is not enforced or obeyed.
“As most people probably don’t realize, … this bill was passed in 1911, pre-Prohibition,” Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, said during a House transportation committee hearing, “and it prohibits the drinking of alcohol on any train, train station; it also requires our engineers to make arrests.”
She said the 1911 law is not only not enforced, but public transit is generally viewed as an alternative to drunk driving.
“Isn’t there a bar car on the train?” asked Rep. Natalie Manley, a Joliet Democrat who was one of two lawmakers to vote against Costa Howard’s House Bill 3878 in committee.
“On some trains, yes there are,” the bill’s sponsor replied.
Fresh off of a legislative win capping the price of insulin in Illinois, State Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) and State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) are working to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would limit what Illinoisans would pay for certain medications.
Guzzardi originally introduced HB 3493 last spring as part of a six-bill package aimed at bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, tackling an issue typically reserved for federal lawmakers. But the bill failed to advance out of the House’s Prescription Drug Affordability Committee in March, as three Democratic lawmakers voted against the measure.
A new amendment to the bill addressed some of the concerns that stalled the bill last year, Guzzardi said, adding he hoped to see the bill pass out of committee in the coming weeks. However, a hearing on the bill set for Wednesday by the Prescription Drug Affordability Committee was cancelled.
The bill establishes a five-person board to oversee drug prices in Illinois and set the upper limit based on what most Illinoisans can afford to pay for prescription drugs. Using market data and research compiled by a 21-member Prescription Drug Affordability Stakeholder Council also created by the bill, the board would essentially provide drug companies with a figure representing the maximum amount they should sell their medications for in Illinois.
Cook County leaders vowed Tuesday to fight a proposed state law that would merge the independent police department for the county Forest Preserves District with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Sponsored by State Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates), HB2297 would eliminate the Forest Preserves District’s “authority to appoint and maintain a police force.”
Crespo said he filed the bill after a 2018 incident in which a woman wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rican flag on it was harassed by a man repeatedly asking her if she was a U.S. citizen. Video the woman shot on her phone shows a forest preserve police officer nearby ignoring her requests to intervene in the harassment. The officer resigned from the department without being disciplines.
Since then, the Cook County Inspector General issued a report finding an unnamed county commissioner had pressured a forest preserve officer to throw out a political ally’s $250 parking ticket issued for parking in a spot reserved for people with disabilities.
The Illinois Sheriffs’ Association held a press conference today with several legislators where they revealed a new policy by the Illinois Department of Corrections ordered by Governor Pritzker. The policy change prohibits local authorities from communicating with ICE officials when they release felons who are undocumented. ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider released the following statement in response:
“Governor Pritzker has decided to prioritize the release of violent criminals onto the streets over the safety of our communities and families. His decision is appalling. This is the policy implication behind the Governor’s apparent belief that illegal immigrants who commit felonies should not be deported from this country. That is a misguided and radical belief espoused by presidential wannabes like Bernie Sanders.
Should any of these illegal immigrants and convicted felons commit another violent crime upon release, Governor Pritzker must explain why he put their freedom over the safety of the victims and all Illinoisans.”
In 2017, then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed into law the Trust Act, which prohibits state and local police in Illinois from arresting or detaining a person solely because of their immigration status, or based on a federal immigration detainer. Under the law, authorities are able to hold someone if a judge has issued a warrant.
* The main critic of the new policy is this sheriff…
“I’m here to sound the alarm that a recent policy change by the Illinois Department of Corrections is making our communities and neighborhoods less safe,” Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said Tuesday at a Capitol news conference with House and Senate Republicans.
Downey said his department contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate the pickup, transfer and detainment of people released from state prison but still subject to federal detainers due to immigration status.
Prior to the change, IDOC would transfer them to the Pontiac Correctional Center, where the Kankakee County Sherriff’s Department would pick them up an hold them at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee County until their immigration case is reviewed and adjudicated.
But because of the policy change, which sheriffs said they learned of indirectly on Jan. 30, all such transfers at the request of ICE are no longer allowed, Downey said.
Two county jails in Illinois set a record for receiving $959,000 in federal revenue.
Kankakee County’s jails in May broke its previous 2013 record when it received $957,000 in outside inmate bed rental money, the Daily Journal reported.
Nearly all of the money comes from federal agencies. Kankakee County gets $80 daily for each inmate from the feds
* Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights…
ICIRR supports the new IDOC policy and any further efforts by Governor Pritzker’s administration to distance state and local governments in Illinois from federal immigration enforcement. IDOC and other law enforcement agencies are barred by the Illinois TRUST Act (which ICIRR led the campaign to pass) from holding any individual solely based on a warrant or detainer issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
To be clear, individuals are being released because they have done their time. Sheriffs Downey and Childress are claiming that: 1) state law should be violated, and 2 ) the time served that the criminal justice system deems appropriate is insufficient and there should be different standards depending on a person’s place of birth. It is highly problematic that these law enforcement agents don’t believe in actual enforcement of the law.
We are pleased that IDOC is complying with the TRUST Act, and urge all other law enforcement departments throughout the state to follow suit. We will continue to work with Governor Pritzker to ensure that our state is welcoming for all.
* PASO…
West Suburban Action Project applauds Governor Pritzker’s compliance with the TRUST Act, a law signed by former Governor Rauner that PASO advocated for and passed in 2017. Limiting local law enforcement collaboration with immigration agencies improves the safety and security of all Illinois residents. All law enforcement agencies are bound by and should comply with the TRUST Act that prohibits unlawful arrests. Local law enforcement may not comply with requests from immigration authorities to hold immigrants, unless immigration agencies comply with the Constitution and present lawful criminal warrants. Immigration enforcement agencies are appropriated billions of dollars each year and Illinois agencies should not bear the cost of enforcing federal immigration laws. Illinois residents released by the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) have served their sentences and should be able to reintegrate into their families and society to live full and dignified laws irrespective of immigration status. Communities of color should not be further penalized with immigration enforcement. PASO and our partner organizations will continue to work closely with the Governor to ensure that Illinois is the most welcoming state in the country.
* National Immigrant Justice Center…
NIJC applauds Governor J.B. Pritzker for recognizing that we are all safer when our leaders embrace policies that protect and support community wholeness and family unity. Ending cooperation between the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is in accordance with the Illinois TRUST Act, a law that NIJC advocated for when it was passed in 2017. Imposing the second punishment of deportation and exile on those who have already made their way through the criminal legal system disrupts family units and destabilizes communities, leaving us all less secure. We are pleased that our state is upholding the rule of law, and will continue to work to ensure Illinois is a welcoming state, free of the reckless and racially charged immigration enforcement practices that terrorize our communities.
Also, if you click here you can search for state inmates and get a projected discharge date. As the governor’s office notes, ICE could just use that search.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus released the following statement in response to the Republican attempts to misrepresent legislation preventing the extrajudicial detention of immigrants:
“While we have made tremendous progress to protect the civil rights of all Illinois residents, the Republican Party is falsely claiming that individuals that are a danger to the public are being released back into communities. This is a bigoted lie and they should be ashamed of themselves. Ultimately this comes down to the fact that local police departments are no longer able to benefit from their lucrative contracts with ICE to oppress immigrants. The Trust Act ensures that people are treated fairly in our criminal justice system, so that once they serve their time, they are released just like everyone else. That’s it.
“Every time people of color have achieved a step toward equity under the law, there are those who actively seek to undermine that progress through fearmongering and grossly distorting the truth. This sort of rhetoric has no place in Illinois and it must called out for what it is, inflaming racial tensions for the sake of political gain and preservation.
“We will continue to stand with those on the front line doing the work to protect our communities and do the work in the Legislature to advance laws that reflect our values of equality and justice for all.”
* If these awful ingrates expended just half this energy walking precincts or raising money then maybe their favored candidate might be more than an after-thought. But, no, they have to pull stunts like this for whatever stupid and dangerous reasons…
Bizarre. Watch these Bernie Bros stalk @BetsyforIL and then surround her car last night, while they shout, "Block her in!" They scream at her to debate a fringe far-left candidate who only has 2 donors from Illinois. pic.twitter.com/CAw9aKu56R
Smith’s campaign has not yet responded directly to requests for comment about the incident, but she posted a response to her campaign’s Facebook page.
“It was a non-violent protest,” Smith wrote, “and if Betsy can’t handle a few people demanding a conversation about the life or death issues facing many of is [sic] in this district, she should quit now because she will not be able to handle Davis and Trump.”
She also posted a rambling video to her Facebook page appearing to further condone the actions and tactics of her supporters.
“I can’t tell you how much it meant to me when I watched the video of what happened,” Smith said.
“Apparently, people are expecting me to make a statement,” she said launching into a series of attacks against what she perceived as slights from Londrigan’s campaign.
The guys in the video describe themselves as democratic socialists. They posted this Facebook Live video last night after staking out a public event. This is precisely the kind of aggressive bullying @PeteButtigieg and @EWarren chided @BernieSanders for during the last debate.
More response from the Londrigan campaign: "A few aggressive individuals are not going to deter her from continuing to have important conversations with the voters of the 13th district." 2/2
Today the Democratic Party of Illinois warned Illinois voters about a deceptive mailer being distributed by the Republican Party claiming to be Census questionnaires. State party leaders are urging people to beware of these fake Census mailers that serve to track voters, obtain private information and suppress Census participation.
An accurate Census count is critical for Illinois and fair representation in Congress of all our diverse communities. The mailer recently distributed by the GOP is not an official Census document and uses the Census as a tool for soliciting donations. In fact, this is a paid campaign mailer from the national Republican Party.
“Using the Census a guise to engage voters is extremely concerning and in reality will either scare people away from participating in a real Census questionnaire or collect data on voters the GOP wants to exclude from the November election,” Michael Madigan, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, said. “These are shady tactics from the GOP, and we encourage voters to keep an eye out for this phony Census mailer.”
“Communities in the Second Congressional District have a lot at stake in the upcoming Census count and we can bet the GOP would like to scare or intimidate them from participating in this critical count,” Democratic State Central Committee member Al Riley said. “We are asking voters to be on the lookout for questionable mailers and alert the state party if you feel you’ve received anything deceptive.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a real Census questionnaire will never ask for:
* A full Social Security number
* Bank or credit card numbers
* Donations or money of any kind
Other tips for spotting a fake Census document include:
* Be sure to check any web addresses for a .gov extension and an https prefix. The site you use should have both of these things and the official U.S. Census Bureau website is https://www.census.gov.
* Any mail you receive should have a return address of Jeffersonville, Indiana – if it doesn’t, it’s not from the Census Bureau.
* If someone comes to your house, they should have a valid U.S. Census ID badge. If they don’t, they aren’t from the Census Bureau.
More information about spotting scam Census questionnaires can be found here. If you think a communication you received is a Census scam, please inform the Census Bureau at 800-354-7271 for English or 800-833-5625 for Spanish. When in doubt, you can also reach the Democratic Party of Illinois at 312-578-1554.
* This may be an overreaction, particularly with all the stuff that Madigan has pulled over the years. Click the pic for a larger image…
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) told me he filed a bill earlier this month after he received a complaint from a constituent about the above mailer…
Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Provides that a person commits a false personation if he or she knowingly and falsely represents himself or herself to be a census worker employed by the federal or State government, or their regional intermediary, grantee, subgrantee, or temporary volunteer for the purpose of effectuating identity theft or in furtherance of the commission of a felony. Provides that a violation of false personation of a census worker is a Class 4 felony. Clarifies that the offense applies to both false personation accomplished in person or by any means of communication. Effective immediately.
A mailer circulating in Montana labeled “2019 congressional district census” notifies voters “you have been selected to represent voters in Bozeman, Montana,” with an enclosed letter that reads, “President Trump has requested that a Census of every Congressional district be conducted immediately.”
But the form, one of many sent to residents in at least four counties across the state, is not for the official U.S. census.
It is instead a survey, commissioned by the Republican Party, as written at the top of the form, to solicit donations for President Trump’s re-election campaign. […]
The so-called “imitation census” is putting state officials on edge about potentially confusing Montana’s more than 711,000 registered voters and by possibly dampening participation in the actual census in 2020, which comes after a tumultuous year for the U.S. Census Bureau.
