Patrick Collins, a star prosecutor whose efforts led to the convictions of former Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Daley’s former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, is leaving the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago after 12 years.
Collins is joining the Chicago office of Perkins Coie, a law firm based in Seattle. He will be a partner in the firm.
He was the lead prosecutor in Ryan’s six-month trial. Ryan is now appealing his conviction.
Collins did the heavy lifting. Fitzgerald gets the credit for all the high profile convictions, but Collins did a whole lot of the work.
A column today by my good pal Phil Kadner at the Daily Southtown highlights a big problem with passing any sort of education funding reform.
The column starts off by noting that Rep. Lou Lang wants to end the property tax in Illinois (a topic we’ve discussed before). Lang tells Kadner, however, that he can’t support a tax swap because…
“I think that bill would harm the schools in my district, which is wealthier than many other districts,” Lang said. “So I couldn’t vote for it as it is currently written.”
I noted that the bill has a “hold harmless” provision, meaning no school district would lose money.
“Yes,” Lang conceded, “but the Legislature could ignore that provision four years from now and change the way the funds are distributed. I don’t think you can trust the Legislature.”
Lang ought to know. He’s been a member of the House of Representatives since 1987.
Lang makes a good point about not trusting the GA, but that’s not what I’m interested in discussing.
Lots of legislators strictly “vote their districts” on just about everything, which makes passing bills for the entire state impossible. It’s often a healthy check and balance, but it can get out of hand (like when members reflexively vote against anything that might benefit another region, even if it won’t cost their own residents a dime).
To the question: What do you think of Lang’s reasoning in this instance? Forget about whether or not you support or oppose a tax swap, and try to discuss this district vs. statewide mentality. Is it out of hand? Is it mostly a positive? Etc.
And, please, this is not about whether Lou Lang is a good guy or a bad guy. It’s about a position. Let’s keep personalities out of it and focus on the subject at hand.
Subscribers know that I’ve been keeping an eye on the Carbondale mayor’s race because Paul Simon’s daughter Sheila is running and may eventually use the job as a springboard for legislative or even statewide office.
Simon finished strong in the primary this week, thumping incumbent Brad Cole and two other contestants with 54 percent of the vote, to Cole’s 38 percent, in a low-turnout race. Mayor Cole is also seen as an important member of the Republican “bench” and he’s being backed by House GOP Leader Tom Cross.
For a non-partisan election, the race has already captured the attention of both parties and state political buffs.
Democrats, hoping to capitalize on the political name of Simon’s father, have backed Simon by holding fundraisers as far away as Chicago. They see a chance to put a potential statewide player in office in what has traditionally been Republican country. […]
Still, political analysts say the Simon legacy brings formidable political cachet. Simon, a law school professor, helped run some of her father’s campaigns for the Senate and the presidency.
“Never underestimate the family thing,” Chicago political analyst Paul Green said. “The Simon name is a golden name statewide and especially in southern Illinois. Anyone running against it is bound for a rough ride.”
Some are already touting Simon as a possible statewide contender. But how many more of these legacy Democrats can Illinois accept? I’m not sure. Your musings are appreciated.
So, where exactly is Senate President Emil Jones on reimposing the electric utility rate freeze? And what does he intend to do about Ameren’s skyrocketing rates?
The top Democrat in the Illinois Senate again doused hopes Wednesday that the General Assembly might somehow roll back huge electric rate increases. […]
“I know one thing for certain: If you freeze your rates for a year you’re still going to have that cliff to fall off a year from now. You’ve got to quit playing games with this particular issue,” said Jones. […]
“I don’t pay too much attention to the House. They play to the cheers of the crowd rather than doing the responsible thing. We intend to do the responsible thing over here,” he told reporters.
But there have been indications that [Senate President Jones] is softening that stance in the face of public outrage over the power bills. Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer said Wednesday that Jones remains “personally opposed” to freezing utility rates, but added: “He certainly realizes that, especially in Ameren territory, there is a very serious problem downstate.”
The question becomes, if he’s “personally opposed,” will that mean he won’t block an attempt to roll back Ameren’s rates?
Then again, even if he does accede to that demand, House Speaker Madigan will likely amend the bill to include ComEd and lob it right back across the Statehouse hall.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is getting behind legislation that would enable voters to oust members of the Illinois Commerce Commission, the state’s utility regulator. Under House Bill 1916, commission members would have to stand for retention or recall on the ballot at the first general election after they were appointed and confirmed.
During the past four weeks I know of three small businesses that have closed specifically because of the electric rate increase. While that might not mean much to folks who live in a large metropolitan area, in a rural area like Southern Illinois the loss of any business is devastating and the trickle-down effect is even more devastating. The latest closure is a daycare center where the electric bill went from $800 in January to $2,300 in February. […]
Even to a small town newspaper hack like me it’s not a great leap to perceive that maybe, just maybe, those hundreds of thousands of dollars are the reason for your stubborn and wrongheaded refusal to call this legislation for a vote in the Senate. As we’re often told, perception is everything and from what I hear coming from other corners of the state the belief that you’re in cahoots with the electric companies is gaining momentum these days. But you have a chance to prove that perception wrong along with a rare opportunity that many people never get - the opportunity to correct a wrong and make it right.
Because of “aldermanic privilege,” the long-standing say over zoning that City Council members have in the wards they represent, Reilly can arm-twist design concessions from developers. His influence will be felt in such projects as the proposed 150-story lakefront “spire” by Santiago Calatrava and coming changes in the Loop’s Block 37.
But from everything he’s shown us, Reilly is unlikely to launch into windy soliloquies about “dog doo,” muse about why “Asian people, for someone reason or other, have a knack for numbers and figures,” issue a call for strip joints to post prices for “all services rendered” or otherwise serve as one of our town’s unofficial colorful characters, as he has for most of his 36 years in office.
If union leaders were sending a message to City Hall about who will fill the political vacuum, Mayor Daley didn’t hear it. That’s even after labor spent more than $2 million, sent 20 mailings in some wards and put 2,000 pairs of boots on the ground on Election Day.
* Mark Brown: Voters seem happy with Daley, but will it last 4 more years?
* Mary Mitchell: A cougar gets played in silk PJ scandal
Even if Wertz were a man and Estes were a woman, this would be a salacious scandal.
It’s even juicier because Wertz is being portrayed as a “cougar” — a powerful older woman who goes after younger men.
* Daley denies report that CTA’s Kruesi is headed out
* Agreement requires state to provide motorized wheelchairs in Illinois nursing homes
* Editorial: Cook County budget a step in the right direction, but toughest road ahead
Now the question is whether the elected officials will view this year’s battle as a starting point or as a one-time-only nod to responsible government. Budget talks for 2008 will begin before the end of summer. There already have been whispers around the county building that this year’s minimal cuts will be cited as the cause of declining services and justification for major tax increases next February.
Even though his drunken driving killed four people, Randy Visor faces no special penalties for driving with his license revoked.
But under a new Illinois House bill, the 34-year-old Aurora man could have been charged with a felony, because his license was revoked for committing reckless homicide.
Visor spent four years in prison after he was convicted in the 1997 drunken-driving crash that took the lives of four people, including three Waubonsie Valley High School students.
In March 2006, Batavia police apprehended him for driving with a revoked license. Under current law, he was charged with a misdemeanor, just like any other people caught driving while their license is revoked.
Rep. Joe Dunn, a Republican who represents the far east side of Aurora and Naperville, now is sponsoring a bill that would upgrade the charge of driving on a revoked license based on a reckless homicide from a misdemeanor to felony. On the first violation, the bill would prohibit reinstating an offender’s driving privileges for at least three years. By the third violation, an offender would have his license revoked for life.
I would assume you support this bill, so that’s not the question. Here’s the question: What other changes to DUI laws could you support? Or do we have enough? Explain
I noticed something last night while doing a bit of instant analysis on the Chicago city council races.
* Brendan Reilly stomped Burton Natarus by nine points, but Natarus refused to concede.
* Sandi Jackson creamed Darcel Beavers by almost 15 25 points, yet Beavers also refused to concede.
* And Ald. Aurenda Troutman was absolutely steamrolled, losing by 30 points, yet she, too, refused to concede. Troutman even claimed there was some sort of evil conspiracy in the counting that somehow deprived her of a victory.
I’m wondering what you think of all this. Are these aldermen just isolated nutballs, are they just so arrogant that they couldn’t imagine ever losing, or do they have no respect for the voters’ wishes? Or is it something else?
We have a couple of other local election threads here, so let’s try to stick to the topic at hand. I really am curious what you make of these clowns (or “buffoons,” as the case may be.)
And, please, don’t try to claim that there weren’t enough results in last night for the three to realize what had happened to them. The Natarus race was over by 8 o’clock, as were the other two contests.
Lawmakers, school officials and mayors lashed out at utility companies Tuesday in a rare public hearing before the full House, saying skyrocketing electricity bills are forcing consumers to choose between food, medicine and heat.
“I can’t begin to describe the crisis and calamity going on,” said Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion), sitting by a bundle of constituents’ bills 2 feet high. “The scales of justice in this state are out of whack.” […]
The hearing unleashed pent-up rage over bills that began arriving in consumer mailboxes about the time House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones reached a stalemate over how to address one of the biggest pocketbook issues the two Chicago Democrats have faced in years.
* Meanwhile, ComEd claimed they don’t have a rate problem up north, and blatantly threw Ameren under the bus…
“Yes, there’s a serious issue in the state of Illinois,†Clark said. “But it’s not all over Illinois and 75 percent of the customer base in Illinois is not having that problem. Now do we need to address the situation in southern Illinois? Absolutely.â€
Madigan said he’s “still very hopeful” that the Senate will support another freeze, even though Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) stymied a similar plan in January.
Ameren and ComEd executives have said another freeze would wreak financial havoc on their companies.
“That auction is nothing more than a fix,†Madigan said. “It’s a fix for Exelon and other large power producers that can produce power at costs so low that when you compare the cost of producing the power against the price set by the reverse clock auction, there’s enough spread (that) the financial houses from New York have become buyers and sellers of power in Illinois. That’s not right.â€
The president of Ameren’s Illinois utilities, facing a roomful of angry state lawmakers Tuesday, vowed one-time partial refunds to Illinoisans who have been socked with unusually high power bills this month — a $20 million gambit apparently designed to persuade the Legislature not to re-regulate electric rates.
* But as I told you last night, when I was the first to run a brief piece on the Ameren proposal, the Speaker turned thumbs down, claiming the Ameren offer (which totaled $35 million) was insufficient.
Making the management of the proceedings even more questionable was the fact that it was 7:30 p.m. before the Ameren CEO took the witness stand to explain why some of his company’s customers are seeing power bill increases of 200 to 300 percent and tell lawmakers what he planned to do about it. Scott Cisel, the Ameren CEO, outlined an 8-point plan of customer relief only to have it largely dismissed by downstate members who openly accuse the company of lying to them about the effects of rate hikes.
But by then, Mayor Daley was being declared the winner of yet another term in Chicago and across the state, media attention was turning to key local races, particularly downstate where there aren’t the resources in many media markets to cover both the hearing and the elections. And, unlike the hearing, the elections were producing results Tuesday night.
At nearly 11 p.m., ComEd’s CEO still had not testified or taken questions.
* Soundclips from committee of the whole hearing [Madigan’s full statement will be posted later this morning in the subscriber-only section]
If it was a bad day for incumbents, it was a good day for the unions that targeted them for opposing the failed big-box ordinance that would have required large retailers to pay their workers more.
“I don’t know how you spin this other than a very big night for organized labor,” said Jerry Morrison, executive director of the Service Employee International Union’s State Council, predicting that Daley will face a more independent Council. “This is a new day dawning, brother.”
For medical practices, however, sales tax and federal excise tax can increase the cost to almost $140 a dose. And then there is the cost of refrigerated storage, insurance and the time it takes to administer the vaccine.
* Bill aims to drop 5% sales tax from textbook sales
* Dan Hynes: Illinois poised to lead on stem cell research
It will allow the state to strengthen its international standing in the field of medical research and claim its place as the preeminent location of stem cell research in the Midwest. And it will spur the creation of thousands of new jobs and tens of millions of dollars in private sector investment.
* 2 admit fake minority venture in $49 million County contract bid
The contract called for 30 percent minority participation in the deal. Siemens said Faustech Industries was a minority business that had a joint venture in the deal. Prosecutors say it was a sham: The companies arranged to pay Faustech a flat fee of $500,000.
* More jobs cut in latest county budget figures, up to 1,700 occupied positions
* Lawmakers decry $70,000 of fomer state worker as chauffeur:
Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, wanted to know “how many more do we have in a position making a lot of money for doing a job that may not need to be done in the first place.”
Mautino sits on the appropriations committee of the House that reviews state agencies involved in public safety. He said he will question each of the agencies to see if they have people in similar positions.
* Rezko trial put off for a year, bond restrictions stay
* Sorry about that disappearing post. Luckily, Paul still had a copy on his browser and we were able to reconstruct it. Let’s start afresh, shall we?
* First, remember to tune into CBS 2 Live Election Coverage by clicking right here: Live Video
* 9:33 pm - Daley won, obviously, but getting more than 70 percent was key. He showed his critics he can still rack up a landslide. The over-under for Dock Walls was 10 percent, and he didn’t make it. At least his delusion is over, for now.
* 9:40 pm - Lots and lots of runoffs, some more unexpected than others and a few that weren’t on very many radar screens: 2 (Fioretti-Haithcock); 3 (Tillman-Dowell); 15 (Foulkes- Simmons-Stovall); 16 (Thompson-Coleman); 18 is a possible (Lane-Stewart); 21 (Brookins-Jones); 24 (Chandler-Dixon); 32 looks like a runoff (Matlak-Waguespack); 35 also looks very likely (Colon-Colom); as does 43 (Vi Daley-Smith); and 49 is right on the brink (Moore-Gordon).
* 9:44 pm - Almost nobody had Brendan Reilly on their possible win lists. Maybe he was at the bottom, but almost no one saw this coming except those of us who bothered to look and get past the notion that Natarus was unbeatable.
Why did Brendan win? Simple. Reilly ran a great campaign. Nearly perfect, even. Ald. Natarus ran a terrible campaign. Right until the end, he was too arrogant to believe he was ever in any real danger. I may have more on this race in tomorrow’s Capitol Fax, or it will be at the blog, depending on space. It’s a heckuva story. Bye-bye, Burt.
* 9:50 pm - How is it possible that broken-down warhorse Bernie Stone may manage to hold on without a runoff against two very strong challengers?
Stone’s organization is vastly underrated. A couple of years ago, Stone ran a candidate against Rep. Lou Lang in the Dem primary. That candidate carried Stone’s ward against the veteran legislator. I always figured that if they could drag that guy across the finish line they could certainly do the same for the big boss. LATE UPDATE: Stone is just barely heading for a runoff with Naisy Dolar. She has a lot of ground to make up, but the unions could play a major role here if they choose to intervene.
* 9:53 pm - Sandi Jackson’s big win over Darcel Beavers was extra special for Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s organization today. The Shaw brothers brought troops in for Beavers. The Jackson’s and the Shaw’s are old and bitter rivals.
* 10:00 pm - Every Machine goon in town will be in the 32nd Ward for the runoff between incumbent Ted Matlak and Scott Waguespack. This is an old-time Machine ward, but Matlak ran a horrendous campaign. Daley had to bail him out today with 75 paid “volunteers,” but it wasn’t enough to avoid the runoff.
* 10:08 pm - Needless to say, it’s a huge night for organized labor. “I think we did OK,” Chicago Federation of Labor chief Dennis Gannon said tonight. “It was a big night.”
That’s an understatement. All but one of the runoffs forced tonight were the result of organized labor’s support for the challenger. Victors Brendan Reilly and Sandi Jackson were also labor-backed candidates.
Like I said… huge.
* 10:15 pm - That’s all I have for now, except to say I’m floored at how poorly Shirley Coleman and Dorothy Tillman did. And I’m amazed that Aurenda Troutman got just 32 percent (with 88 percent reporting).
According to Aldertrack, Natarus refused to concede tonight. He got thumped and he doesn’t have the stones to admit defeat. He said it, not me… the man is a buffoon.
Here’s an automated news feed for AlderTrack, which has some interesting stuff…
Ameren IL CEO Scot Cissel just offered $35 million in rate relief and conservation programs. The offer came during testimony at the House’s Committee of the Whole meeting today.
But Speaker Madigan’s office immediately rejected the plan as insufficient.
* I’ve added a list of results pages, live media and continuous coverage links in a new pull-down menu to the right. Lots of stuff there, so don’t miss it. It looks like the first radio station to go up with continual election coverage will be WBBM at 7 pm.
* We’ll have CBS-2’s live feed here at 10 pm.
* I forgot to link this earlier, but Crain’s has a new interactive feature that allows you to track Mayor Daley’s contributions in several different ways. Also, Naisy Dolar’s campaign is blogging all day today.
* The Reader’s Clout City blog is going gangbusters today with reports from citizen journalists. I’ve created a continuously updating, automated news feed so you can keep track throughout the day and into the evening. Earlier stories that aren’t showing in the feed can be found here…
*** UPDATE 2 *** AlderTrack has this report from the 42nd Ward…
Several reports suggest that polling place administrators across the Ward have been agressively challenging the credentials of SEIU-related poll watchers. At 515 N. State St. the police were called. The diversion apparently allowed some precinct workers to distribute Natarus palm cards inside the “red zone”
Typical.
*** UPDATE 3 *** For those of you keeping track of Sheila Simon’s bid for Carbondale mayor, here’s a news feed just for you…
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I belatedly added a request for Chicago election predictions at the end of Paul’s local roundup this morning, but I thought I’d close out those comments and move everything to the top so we can consolidate it all here.
Use the comment section to predict results in local elections. Also, file any precinct reports, observations, etc. you may have.
Meanwhile, Irish Pirate, a regular commenter here, has produced a ton of YouTube videos blasting Ald. Helen Shiller. The pirate is backing challenger James Cappleman, the former president of Dignity/Chicago, which his website describes as “a Catholic organization for the GLBT community.”
A couple of things. First, some might find this video too harsh. I can understand and empathize, but it was too funny to pass up, particularly the Daley robocall schtick. Second, there are references to the League of Women Voters and Lincoln Park in the video. Shiller upset the LWV by breaking a promise to the group. And Shiller has been quoted as saying that if people don’t like her ward they should “move to Lincoln Park.”
“Because as I always said, there is nothing more wholesome than a fish.”
The fight to become the state’s “official” soft drink attracted just two bidders, Coke and Pepsi.
“We wish there were 25 bidders, because of the competition, but we’re satisfied there were two,†said Mike Klemens, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Revenue.
What, no RC?
We could have a serious debate about whether this is a good idea, or even whether it’s hypocritical of the governor to force schools to stop selling soft drinks (which brings in big bucks) while encouraging their use statewide so the state could bring in big bucks.
Instead, because I feel like something a little lighter today, here’s the question: Coke or Pepsi?
The Pantagraph has a good story today about the controversy over the federal Real ID program and a legislative resolution that expresses the state’s concerns over the issue.
Illinois could soon join the chorus of states to “revolt†against a federal law requiring standardized driver’s licenses across the country.
In the past months, a host of states have expressed varying levels of frustration with the Real ID Act — a law that would require citizens to have a federally accepted form of identification to get onto airplanes or into some government buildings.
Some have said having a massive national database of personal information could lead to identity theft problems.
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the Illinois branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, characterized the states’ frustration as a “revolt†and hopes Illinois effort will get federal lawmakers to act.
A resolution that could be debated in the Illinois General Assembly would be similar to some other states in that if it’s approved, the rebuke wouldn’t carry legal weight. It’s designed to send a political message.
Go read the whole thing. Secretary of State Jesse White is scheduled to testify on the resolution this week. The resolution’s text can be found here.
RESOLVED, That the members of the Illinois General Assembly oppose any portion of the Real ID Act that violates the rights and liberties guaranteed under the Illinois Constitution or the United States Constitution, including the Bill of Rights;
OK, just what in the heck is going on over at DHS?
Carlos Estes claims Department of Human Services chief of staff Teyonda Wertz sexually harrassed him, threatening to fire him if he didn’t have sex with her. Wertz denies the charge but a judge ordered that the case continue against her last week.
Wertz is still the DHS chief of staff and has no intention of resigning, but Estes was fired about a month after the incident on what looks to be a trumped up charge of misusing a state vehicle. The governor’s office has completely backed up DHS Secretary Carol Adams’ decision to oust the accuser.
“The secretary did her job. When she learned an employee was misusing state resources, she dismissed him,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said.
According to the original Sun-Times article, Director Adams and chief of staff Wertz are “close friends” and chief of staff Wertz allegedly became upset about the same time Estes was fired because Estes was in a relationship with another woman.
Wertz has a history of misusing Estes…
Adams once disciplined her chief of staff for instructing Estes to pick up her dry cleaning on state time, court records show.
Estes was paid $70,000 a year to basically chauffeur the chief of staff around. His “official” duties were to act as a “liaison to DHS administrators, conducting site visits, research and as a policy-making advisor,” according to a DHS spokesman. But Estes didn’t even have a high school diploma when he was hired.
“Let’s put this in perspective,” Rep. Jack Franks told the Sun-Times of Estes. “He’s making more money than a member of the General Assembly for driving a staff person who has to report to the General Assembly.”
And even Sen. Carol Ronen, who is the governor’s floor leader and top Senate supporter, is having her doubts.
“The facts as they appear in the paper are very, very troubling. But I’d like to reserve judgment until I can learn a little more about them,” said Sen. Carol Ronen (D-Chicago). “It does raise a very troubling issue about the allocation of staff resources.”
When you lose Carol Ronen, you’ve lost all hope.
Director Adams needs to do a clean sweep over there. If she won’t, the governor should.
* Today’s House Committee of the Whole to discuss electric utility rates and deregulation will begin at 1 o’clock. You can listen live by clicking here.
The leader of the Illinois Senate, who in recent months has been the Legislature’s top opponent of attempts to freeze electric rates, may be softening that stance in the face of intense downstate anger over skyrocketing Ameren electric bills.
A freeze “is one of many options that is being looked at,” said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones.
Jones is the main reason the Legislature didn’t freeze electric rates before they jumped dramatically in January, but there have been several indications lately that his thinking on that may be changing.
“Especially with Ameren, we have heard the concerns of a lot of consumers,” Davidsmeyer said Monday.
Jones’ apparent shift comes as the House convenes today a rare special hearing of all 118 members to consider the utility rate hike issue. The House passed a rate freeze once. It’s expected to easily pass a second time if it comes up for a vote, with lawmakers being inundated with calls from angry consumers who are getting their first look at the new rates.
There’s no doubt that Jones is feeling heat from his downstate members in Ameren’s turf. But remember that Jones still wants to protect ComEd, and he moved legislation out of Rules Committee last week that would impose a six-month rate freeze on Ameren only.
House Speaker Michael Madigan wants to extend the freeze to both Ameren and ComEd. As I told my subscribers last week, Madigan told me soon after Jones moved the Ameren-only bill that an amendment would be waiting for that legislation if it made to his chamber.
* Meanwhile, ComEd is offering up some token assistance to help “ease” its rate hikes.
ComEd promises to spend $30 million over the next three years on conservation programs and to help low-income and senior citizen utility customers cope with January’s 24 percent rate increase.
“We’ve done all the things we know how to do to soften the transition to the new rates,” said Frank Clark, CEO of the utility, which serves 3.7 million northern Illinois customers.
$8 per customer. Man, they really dug deep on that one.
State Rep. George Scully, a Flossmoor Democrat who pushed for the special hearing, said it would last for several hours. “Consumers should be confident that their legislators are taking up this task,” he said.
* Editorial: Focus on real electric rate fix, not knee jerk response
These hikes are a real hardship for many, so a rate freeze may sound appetizing. But knee-jerk responses to complex issues are almost always a bad idea, and a freeze still won’t fix the underlying problem, namely that the Legislature’s 1997 deregulation plan failed to create competition, exposing residential customers to monopolized market forces. Ameren says a freeze would junk its credit rating, force layoffs and jeopardize service reliability.
For his part, Cisel says he will testify in Springfield today and hopes to offer a “workable compromise” on rates, the specifics of which will be divulged then. We’ll be all ears. House lawmakers should be, too. They should avoid posturing in this largely symbolic session and get to work on a real, long-term solution, which means compromising with Senate colleagues and exploring other avenues - including a serious study of re-regulation.
Randy Huckelberry braced himself for a higher electricity bill when the state’s decade-old freeze on rates expired last month.
Huckelberry, 40, looked around at the new windows, insulation and siding he’d installed in his home in Downstate Carrier Mills. His highest bill in the winter months had been $300, maybe $400, so perhaps, he thought, it would go up a few hundred dollars. That definitely would be tough.
But he was floored when the bill turned out to be $870.
* And just remember this last point: February has been much colder than January, and Rep. Scully mentioned to me yesterday that usage is up over 100 percent. Those March bills are gonna cause yet another round of outrage.
[Note from Rich Miller: Despite today’s Committee of the Whole meeting in the House, we do hope to have some updates for you tonight on Chicago election results. Check back around 8ish.]
The 10-minute DVD depicts crowded hallways, outdated classrooms and traffic congestion around both schools. Volunteers wrote and narrated the film, while the village of Addison shot footage and the district conducted interviews with local residents.
Sherri Amsler, District 88 community relations director, said the film is a modern way to get word out to voters.
* Late mailed postcards may be one of several factors to low turnout
A decline in the number of registered voters in the city — now roughly 1.4 million, down about 30,000 since the 2003 election — is perhaps the most significant factor, but bad weather, a one-sided mayoral race and many uncontested aldermanic races also may contribute to voter apathy. Turnout was about 34 percent four years ago.
Traditionally, I vote against Daley purely on the theory that overwhelming electoral mandates–three times he has polled over 70 percent of the vote–are bad for the democratic process. A system in which the man or woman at the top can take re-election for granted might as well be a dictatorship.
*** UPDATE *** Use the comments to predict the outcome of your local races, and any others you know something about. Also, give us an update on your precinct observations.
[Comments now closed so we can consolidate the posts. Go here instead.]
The Republicans said the idea, originally floated last year, was “still on the table” and might be resurrected by Blagojevich or other legislators as a tempting “quick fix” for the state’s budget problems.
As USA Today noted in a lengthy report on teen driving, “Evidence is mounting that a 16-year-old’s brain is generally far less developed than those of teens just a little older.”
An AP story, which is getting picked up all over the place, about Obama’s controversial endorsements of Mayor Daley and Rod Blagojevich ends this way…
Obama‘s decision to support Daley turned off voter Alan Dobry, who‘s part of a Chicago independent-voters group.
“He‘s trying to play with the machine,” Dobry said. “I‘m very unhappy about it.”
They had to dig pretty deep to find that guy. Dobry is not just a “voter,” he’s kind of an infamous former Democratic ward committeeman from Hyde Parke. He has been affiliated with IVI-IPO over the years, but he’s not on the board these days.
Chicago Politics Ward by Ward (1988) has a brief passage on Dobry, who goes back to the old days of fighting Richard J. Daley…
Many of Dobry’s ideas are not shared by his peers on the Democratic Central Committee. For example, he does not bother to maintain a ward office, out of the belief that the alderman is the people’s elected legislative representative and thus the one to whom residents should take their problems.
Thus, when the Machine’s slatemakers came together, only one of the fifty committeemen supported [Harold Washington over Jane Byrne and Rich Daley], and that was the white committeeman of the Fifth Ward, Alan Dobry.
But Paul Green wrote an illuminating piece about Dobry for Illinois Issues back in 1991…
Their [Tim Evans vs. Toni Preckwinkle 4th Ward] runoff was considered a toss-up until the last week of the campaign. Then came the heat. An Evans worker spotted Alan Dobry, a Preckwinkle volunteer and Democratic committeeman from the neighborhing 5th Ward, posting some racist and anti-semitic pro-Evans flyers in a heavily Jewish Hyde Park neighborhood. The crudely lettered flyers accused Preckwinkle of being part of a secret Mayor Richard M. Daley political plan because her husband is white and Jewish (Preckwinkle, like Evans, is black). Preckwinkle’s husband is white but not Jewish […]
Dobry claimed he was not guilty of dirty tricks. Rather he wanted to inform Hyde Parkers about the low level of Evans’ campaign.
He certainly had an interesting way of “informing voters.”
Even Rod Blagojevich doesn’t call himself a reformer any longer, having jumped neck-deep into patronage hiring and cronyism. But Dobry, who slams Obama for backing the current Mayor Daley, supported Gov. Blagojevich in the last go-around [also from an AP story]…
Blagojevich’s effort to energize the troops will pay off on election day, predicted compaign volunteer Alan Dobry of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. “They’ll stand out in the cold for an extra hour or so because they talked to the governor,” he said.
Like the man says, nobody’s got totally clean hands in that town. You touch it, you get dirty.
Medical marijuana has had a lot of successes. Eleven states have legalized the therapeutic use of cannabis for people whose doctors think they can benefit from it. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of physicians to recommend pot to their patients. A 1999 report by the federal government’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded, “Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.”
But elsewhere, medical marijuana has stalled. Most states still don’t allow it, and even in those that do, federal laws still ban the possession of cannabis. That means sick people who need marijuana for symptoms that don’t respond to approved drugs must either do without or risk going to jail. Despite the IOM’s call for more research, studies have been few and far between. As a result, the therapeutic value of cannabis remains largely unknown and untapped.
Recently, there were a couple of advances that may help to erode the federal government’s stubborn resistance. The first was a study in the journal Neurology that found smoking pot can relieve pain–including a condition found in AIDS victims that is often impervious to other pain drugs, even powerful opiates. Said Donald Abrams, a physician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, “There is a measurable medical benefit to smoking cannabis for these patients.”
But such research is hard to come by. That’s because the federal government is the only legal source of marijuana for clinical studies, and its monopoly presents some serious problems.
Now, the question: Should medical marijuana be allowed in Illinois? If “yes,” should research here be encouraged or even subsidized? Why or why not?
Because the House has called a rare Committee of the Whole meeting for Tuesday, I asked my intern Paul to put this together. It’ll give you some idea what’s going on out there…
The leadership said legislators are prepared to hear testimony from all interested parties for as long as is necessary. Members of the public, business owners and representatives of social service agencies that have been affected by higher electric rates are encouraged to attend and share their views with lawmakers.
* Democrats call for freeze while announcing Tuesday’s meeting
The proposal House Democrats unveiled at a state Capitol news conference on Friday would roll back electric rates to their 2006 levels and revive the rate freeze for at least three years. It also would require utility companies to give refunds, plus interest, to consumers for the extra money they have been paying with the higher electricity rates.
But the House proposal could be stymied by the Senate, which did not act on a different House-backed freeze extension in January.
Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) has denounced a potential freeze. The Senate last month approved a phase-in plan that would spread the rate increases out over several years, but the plan was never called for a vote in the House.
ComEd issued a statement Friday reiterating previously stated concerns about proposed rate rollbacks or freezes, saying such action “could cause ComEd to lose $1.4 billion annually — or $4 million per day — and put the company on the path to bankruptcy.”
If Scully, who is a legislator in Halvorson’s district, can’t convince her that a rate freeze is needed, I don’t see how he can expect to convince anyone else in the Senate.
And even if the House votes to freeze rates, as it did last fall, it will have no meaning if the bill can’t make it to the Senate floor.
This entire situation is the result of a corrupt regulatory process in Illinois.
The utility companies have far too much political influence in Springfield.
Consumers don’t stand a chance.
But some downstate customers, especially those who don’t use natural gas to heat their homes, have seen much larger spikes. Lawmakers say they’ve heard from people whose January bills doubled or tripled because of the rate increases.
One young man’s bill increased from $190 in January to $365 in February, an increase of $174 or 92 percent, the Mayor reported. “If he delayed to pay for three years, it would add [an additional] $140 on to what is billed in three years.â€
Numbers given in testimony Monday night also included February (and January) totals for comparison: Pauline Rieber - $111.40 ($63.46); Dorothy Pigg - $ 95 ($56); Joyce Marquis - $250 ($137); Steve Free $307.23 ($209); Debbie Walton $301.26 ($150); and Karen Littleton - $365.41 ($192.45.)
John Jarvis owns The Little Store, a small doughnut shop in Troy, Ill., that employs him and his wife. It’s an all-electric building, and his electricity bill rose to $987 in January from $406 in December. “We can’t pay it. Business has been slow because of the winter weather. We’re going to have to put the business up for sale,” Jarvis said.
My syndicated newspaper column takes a look at how the lobbying is shaping up against the governor’s still rumored but most likely a reality “gross receipts tax.” Business ain’t happy.
You probably can imagine the size, intensity and ferocity of the lobbying effort if the state’s largest corporations and its most powerful law firms and medical practices teamed up to fight this tax. A trial lawyer who earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees by winning a case would have to pay gross receipts taxes on all of that, even if the lawyer spent a fortune to move the case along over several years. Medical practices that invested a significant portion of their profits in new equipment or technology would receive no deductions. Giant corporations, which can move headquarters and plants at the drop of a hat, would see their tax bills rise in a big way.
Combine that with large businesses that traditionally operate at extremely low profit margins or whose razor-thin margins are tied to unpredictable commodity prices (like supermarkets, airlines and farmers), add in giant publishing companies with ever-growing fixed costs and declining ad sales (like the Tribune Co.), toss in companies that regularly invest large amounts of their annual revenues into infrastructure and technology (like utilities and hospitals), and that’s pretty much everybody with a lobbyist in Springfield.
Small businesses might be exempted from the tax, according to a State Journal-Register columnist, who reported about a poll several weeks ago that asked people about the gross receipts tax. The columnist claimed the poll mentioned that the tax might exempt the first million dollars of corporate revenue.
Exempting the smallest of businesses probably won’t lessen the Statehouse lobbying effort because the groups that work on their behalf in Springfield also have plenty of big business members. The Retail Merchants Association represents the mom and pop stores on Main Street as well as the big chains like Wal-Mart. The Press Association advocates for tiny newspapers in small towns all over Illinois along with the Tribune. The same goes for the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Pharmacists Association and pretty much every other business group you can name.
There’s more about the push, including some of the governor’s tactics. Read the whole thing and discuss.
* On the other hand, Chicagoist thinks the gross receipts tax idea looks more likely than anything else…
Blagojevich quietly moved his combined State of the State and budget proposal address to March 7. And yesterday the Illinois Board of Education released it’s Fiscal Year 2008 budget (you can read the PDF here), and is asking for an additional $800 million over this year’s budget. You can bet that they wouldn’t be asking for that kind of increase without getting the blessing from the governor’s office first.
G-Rod must feel pretty confident that he will get his new tax plan this session, and be able to beat back the aforementioned power-brokers, without appearing to raise taxes on “regular people†and finding even more money for school children.
We don’t think that selling the lottery is going to happen; that idea will be dead in the water before it even hits the Statehouse. And we’re pretty sure Blago knows this. With so many power hitters lined up for reform, and the monetary pressure building, it may be easier to try to stick the tax bill to businesses than to institute real tax equity in Illinois. At least for now.
A respected Chicago Board of Trade executive from Winnetka and a Long Grove businessman whose family owns the Ben Franklin variety store franchise are among those talking to Illinois Republican leaders about running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin next year.
Both Kevin J.P. O’Hara, the chief administrative officer at the Chicago futures exchange, and Steve Greenberg, the wholesale executive, would seem to have the ability to write a check to cover some or all of the costs of a campaign.
State GOP leaders consider that important in finding an opponent for Durbin, given the political dynamics in play. Whoever runs against Durbin already is getting a late start, a situation made worse by a Democratic plan to move up Illinois’ 2008 primary to Feb. 5 - six weeks earlier than normal.
The practical effect on the political machinery is that candidates could need to file for office as early as mid-October. That means campaign season could start July 4 instead of the traditional Labor Day kickoff. And given federal campaign fundraising limits, candidates already should have started the money sweepstakes.
To that end, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna Jr. said he’s talked to individuals who could self-fund about challenging Durbin, who’s No. 2 in Senate Democratic leadership.
The others, including Oberweis, Brady, etc. are also included. But what do you think about this unknown self-funder idea?
* Editorial: Washing their hands of the school scrub bill; others agree:
The most eloquent response to this well-meaning but over-reaching idea came from Rep. Joe Dunn (R-Naperville): “Every good idea doesn’t have to be a law.”
* Editorial: Crosstown back from the dead, but long haul yet ahead; one town in the crosshairs
* Bill would provide additional consent options for girls under 18: When a minor girl doesn’t talk to a parent before seeking an abortion, Fritchey said, “there’s often a very, very good reason for that.”
* High prices of college textbooks drawing concern
* Tuition heading up again say university presidents:
On Friday, the presidents said tuition for incoming freshmen at ISU, the U of I and Eastern Illinois University next fall will likely rise between 9 percent and 11 percent.
* Large crowd discusses Route 336 plan from Peoria to Macomb
But last year’s elections brought new stem cell supporters to the Senate, and some past opponents have changed their position.
“The politicians have finally caught up with the thinking of the people they work for,” Schoenberg said.
* Editorial: Stroger won battle, now wage war on patronage
* Gianoulias encourages state workers to use debt ridden hotel and conference center:
“We’re encouraging state employees to stay at the hotel,” Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham said. “That will increase the hotel’s value and make the property more attractive to prospective buyers at auction.”
Surely there are exceptions, but limiting cigarette exposure is within my control. More disturbing are pollutants beyond my control, like mercury emissions, sewage discharges and incinerator waste.
Mayor Daley says they help him redevelop downtown and the neighborhoods. It’s his only redevelopment tool, he repeats when confronted with criticism of TIFs.
* Local elections not stirring up interest with college students
But some say there may be an underlying dynamic to the outside attention the contest is getting: that Democrats want to establish a downstate dynasty around Simon’s respected name, possibly setting her up for a future run for higher office; and that Republicans want to stop that dynasty before it starts
