///BREAKING/// Former Chicago Ald. Edward Burke, 80, sentenced to 2 years in federal prison in a corruption case that rocked city politics and ended the Democratic stalwart’s storied and controversial six-decade career. pic.twitter.com/PcxScppS6n
…Adding… That sentence seems at odds with what the judge said at the beginning of today’s proceedings and toward the end…
Kendall tells him she intends to fashion a sentence that prevents Burke and others from committing like crimes, promotes respect for the rule of law, and avoids any unwarranted sentencing disparities (all of which is how she is supposed to proceed).
Kendall says it seems askew to think that Danny Solis will get "absolutely no" prison time for his own misdeeds. "It is uncomfortable for me to see that when the government steps up and says you must send a strong message" that Solis is not even getting a conviction.
The sentencing guidelines called for a maximum of 8 years behind bars.
* But…
Kendall says she's never seen so many letters of support. "So many of these actions were unsolicited, small, altruistic acts of kindness. …I have never seen anyone go to so many funerals. He goes to all of them."
…Adding… The BGA points out that the sentence is less than half of what the defense had requested…
Former Chicago alderperson Ed Burke today was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $2 million for his conviction on 13 charges, including racketeering, conspiracy, extortion and bribery. The sentence is a relatively light one, sparing Burke the lengthy prison stay of up to 12 ½ years requested by federal prosecutors.
Federal sentencing guidelines, which are not mandatory, called for between 78 and 97 months, based on the financial cost of his crimes, according to presiding judge Virginia Kendall. The defense had requested between four and five years in prison.
In response to the sentencing, Better Government Association President David Greising stated, “Today’s light sentence calls into question the principle of equality before the law. Despite Ed Burke’s betrayal of public trust, the powerful and connected of Chicago lined up to plead for leniency. Judge Kendall herself said she was influenced by this. But to those who believe in accountable government, it was a disappointing spectacle, putting personal allegiance ahead of the public interest, and should have had little weight on imposing a just sentence. ”
Numerous high-profile political figures wrote letters to the court requesting a lenient sentence, including former and current alderpersons. “Ed Burke was convicted for gross abuses of public trust while serving as one of Chicago’s most powerful alderpeople,” said Greising. “The sentence indicates the vestiges of that power persist.”
The Better Government Association’s policy team has advocated for banning lobbyist contributions to city elections and an end to the use of so-called “aldermanic prerogative” to block zoning changes in an alderperson’s ward. The organization also supports a long-stalled ethics ordinance update that the mayor’s administration has refused to support.
Greising called on City Council to make a statement by quickly approving reforms as a signal of their intent to clean up city government. “City Council has an opportunity to show that abuses of power like Ed Burke’s will no longer be tolerated in their body,” said Greising. “With or without the mayor’s support, the council should move forward on ethics reform.”
…Adding… Burke could use his campaign funds to pay off the fine…
I don't know. But politicians who were around in 1998 - when the state changed the law - can convert whatever they had on June 30, 1998 to personal use.
* Ed Burke’s sentencing hearing is still in progress as I write this. But you can check out these threads from Jason Meisner and Jon Seidel for live updates.
* Sens. Julie Morrison and Celina Villanueva…
State Senators Julie Morrison and Celina Villanueva responded Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld a federal law restricting firearm possession for domestic violence abusers.
“This decision reinforces the intent behind laws like Illinois’ Firearms Restraining Order Act, which I championed to prevent tragedies by keeping guns out of the hands of people who demonstrate threatening behavior,” said Morrison (D-Lake Forest). “When a credible threat to the physical safety of another person is identified, it is imperative that action is taken swiftly — the consequences of not intervening are too great. I commend the U.S. Supreme Court for upholding these lifesaving protections, and I remain committed to advocating for tangible solutions to keep our communities safe.”
“Domestic violence situations can escalate quickly when firearms are involved, and these restrictions are a vital component in the effort to reduce and prevent domestic violence-related homicides,” said Villanueva (D-Chicago). “There is still more work to do when it comes to protecting survivors and their families in Illinois, but I am glad to see these restrictions upheld at the federal level. I am hopeful that this will continue, on a state level, for us to move forward with Karina’s Law.”
Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity(DCEO), local officials and IRONMAN leadership today announced that Rockford will host the IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon beginning next year in 2025 through 2027. Supported by a $800,000 grant to the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (Go Rockford) as part of the state’s $15 million Tourism Incentive Grant Program, this is the first time the IRONMAN will be held in Illinois. The race is expected to generate upwards of $45 million in economic impact over three years.
“I’m thrilled to welcome the IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon to Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “My administration’s Tourism Incentive Grant Program attracted this major event to Rockford, and we look forward to showcasing Illinois’ natural beauty and world-class hospitality to the thousands of athletes and spectators that will join us over the next three years.” […]
The triathlon will consist of a 1.2-mile swim on the Rock River, a 56-mile bike loop that takes athletes through the area north of Rockford and a 13.1-mile run that will take runners from Davis Park on a two-loop journey on the east and west banks of the Rock River. The event is expected to draw in nearly 3,000 athletes and 15,000 visitors during each race. The race is also expected to fill an estimated to 7,000-12,000 hotel room nights.
*** Statehouse News ***
* Daily Herald | The Springfield recap: Highlights from this legislative session: Illinois politicians enacted a law that will support small businesses struggling to hire employees, foster opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals, improve public safety and significantly reduce the costs of reincarceration. Soon small businesses will be able to receive a much higher tax credit for hiring formerly incarcerated individuals to offset the costs of on-the-job training. This hard-earned victory took years to achieve and came to fruition through grit, collaboration, and the leadership of dedicated policymakers.
* Shaw Local | New Illinois program will give incentive to taxpayers who donate to foundation endowments: The Illinois Gives Tax Credit Act will incentivize up to $100 million over the next five years, starting Jan. 1. The funds will be equally distributed among the certified community foundations in the state, including The Community Foundation for McHenry County. Each community foundation will be able to take a maximum of 15% of the $100 million, Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations Executive Director Amanda Standerfer said.
*** Statewide ***
* Fox Chicago | Illinois blood center calls for donations amid shortage: Versiti Blood Center of Illinois issued an emergency appeal on Monday in response to the decreasing state-wide blood supply. Almost 5,000 blood donation appointments at the center were canceled or missed in June. […] Some blood types only have a day’s supply of blood left, which puts local patients in need of blood at risk.
* Tribune | CPD pushes to boost its ‘clearance’ rate in homicide cases, with some success: As part of the city’s new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, CPD’s detective bureau restructured the schedules of homicide detectives across the city in an effort to boost the clearance rate by giving investigators more ownership of a case. Antoinette Ursitti, CPD’s chief of detectives, said the staffing change has made “a profound effect” on the bureau. As of June 20, the department had a clearance rate of more than 65% — a marked increase from the 51.7% clearance rate the bureau recorded in 2023 and well higher than its overall clearance rate of 44% between 2012 and 2022.
* WTTW | Chicago Police Department Revises Plan to Handle Protests Around DNC After Reform Groups Object: Alexandra Block, director of the Criminal Legal System and Policing Project at the ACLU of Illinois, who represents the coalition, said the revised policy represents a “substantial improvement” over the original policy, even though concerns remain. “The coalition does not endorse this policy,” Block told WTTW News on Friday, in advance of a formal summary of their response to the new policy being filed next week with the federal judge overseeing the consent decree. “But it is a policy that we made better.”
* Mass Transit | RTA of Northern Illinois Board of Directors votes in favor of integrated day pass for unlimited rides on CTA, Metra and Pace: The approved agreement sets the pricing parameters for the day pass for unlimited rides on CTA and Pace and on selected fare zones for Metra on weekdays, ranging between $10 and $16. There will be one systemwide price on the weekend days of $10. Riders will be able to purchase this pass using the Ventra App at a discounted price in comparison to purchasing two existing passes separately (the CTA/Pace 1-Day Pass and the Metra day pass). The fare revenue difference will be funded by the RTA of Northern Illinois and distributed to CTA, Metra and Pace.
* Crain’s | Ex-employee sues National Association of Realtors over alleged smear campaign: A former employee of the National Association of Realtors is suing the Chicago-based trade association, claiming that after she was fired over complaining of workplace discrimination, a retaliation campaign ensued, including cyberstalking her and attempting to ruin her career. Roshani Sheth claims that after the NAR fired her on the heels of her internal complaint about sexual harassment — including men in the workplace ogling her breasts and commenting about her body — the organization declined to even confirm her prior employment at the association when potential future employers checked her references.
* CoStar | San Francisco Firm Seeks Sale of Historic Office Building in Chicago After High-Profile Loss: Shorenstein Properties has hired JLL brokers to seek a buyer for the 16-story building at 1 N. State St., which is more than 58% vacant, according to a marketing brochure. The offering does not include separately owned retail space on the lower two floors of the tower that was completed in 1912. It’s a challenging time for deals around the country: Shorenstein in December not only sold the third-tallest building in Los Angeles, the Aon Center, for $153.5 million, far below the $268.5 million it paid in 2014, it recently handed the second-tallest building in Minneapolis, Capella Tower, back to its lender after failing to sell the property and pay off its loan from a $225 million purchase in 2018. Shorenstein also faces a potential loss on the smaller tower it bought in Chicago for nearly $80 million in 2016.
* Tribune | Ann Lurie, one of Chicago’s most prolific philanthropists, dies at 79: Her name and that of her husband Robert, who died in 1990, are affixed most prominently to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. But there have been dozens of other beneficiaries in Chicago and across the world, fueled by Robert Lurie’s success in business but also by Ann Lurie’s deeply altruistic nature. “When I was young, my mother encouraged me to ‘do a good deed daily,’” she said some years ago. “Following her advice as a teenager gave me a great deal of personal pleasure, and now, many years later, it still feels good.”
* Crain’s | After a rocky path to approval, Northwestern breaks ground on new stadium: University and city of Evanston officials gathered, along with members of the Ryan family, for the groundbreaking ceremony today, which included remarks by Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who cast the deciding vote in November to narrowly grant approval for the new football stadium. “The Ryan family is proud to enable this generational, transformational project that will catapult Northwestern to the forefront of athletics facilities while creating a powerful year-round asset for the Northwestern and Evanston communities,” Ryan, whose $480 million donation kick-started the stadium project, said in a written statement.
* Daily Herald | Why Des Plaines may become latest suburb to lift limits on beekeeping: If new rules are approved, Des Plaines would join a slowly growing list of suburbs that have changed course in recent years and now allow people to keep honeybees in backyard hives. The council’s change of heart comes a little more than a year after it softened restrictions for keeping chickens in coops at home. Bees and chickens often are linked as municipal issues, and several aldermen pointed to the earlier decision as a positive development and a reason to allow beekeeping.
*** National ***
* Columbia Journalism Review | When they won’t even say ‘no comment’: The rising tide of nonresponses coincides with the rise of social media, which enables the subject of any news story to bypass pesky journalists by putting out his or her own messages. It also parallels the growing hostility toward the press, at least among some political figures. Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s former press secretary, Christina Pushaw, sometimes posted media requests to her social feeds before bothering to communicate with the reporter; she then all but invited her followers to deride the reporter for seeking her input. Reporters seeking comment from Twitter’s press office in the months following Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform received an automated poop emoji. At least it was a response.
* The Cut | Liz Phair Remembers It All: In the years since, between follow-up albums — Whip-Smart, Whitechocolatespaceegg, Liz Phair, and Soberish — and a memoir, Phair is going back to her roots by celebrating the 30th anniversary of Exile in Guyville with a tour, swinging by Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on November 24. A germaphobe with a father who was an infectious-disease doctor during the AIDS epidemic, Phair says she needed a “really strong sense of purpose” to hit the road again. “When the pandemic came, in my mind I’d been waiting for this, which doesn’t help — sort of like, Oh, God, it’s here,” she admits. “Concurrently, I’m humbled and amazed and grateful that Guyville, this little record that could, is still relevant and powerful to people 30 years later. I’ve watched it be recognized here and there in ways that just stun me.”
* Crain’s | How a cyberattack took 15,000 car dealers offline: The Hoffman Estates-based company is one of just a handful of dealer management system providers that underpin auto retailers’ ability to access customer records, schedule appointments, handle car-repair orders and complete transactions, among other tasks. CDK has confirmed it’s been the subject of a cyber-ransom event, and Bloomberg reported that the company was planning to pay the tens of millions of dollars that the group behind the hacks had demanded in order to restore service.
* Instead of treating the COVID dollars as temporary, some school districts, like CPS, put that money right into the operating budget, with predictable results…
Administrators, teachers and parents in the Chicago Public Schools system and districts throughout the region are grappling with the end of federal pandemic aid, a looming fiscal cliff because of the steep decline in the one-time funding. There’s worry that the loss of funds will stem the progress that’s been made since 2022. And additional funds are sorely needed to increase academic proficiency at districts like CPS that have large numbers of low-income students and English language learners.
The loss is acute at CPS, which spent nearly two-thirds of its $2.8 billion in COVID dollars on salaries and employee benefits. The district aims to preserve positions that enhance classroom learning, primarily in higher-needs schools, while cutting other costs such as central office staff, says Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova. […]
Other districts in the Chicago area took different approaches to spending the federal COVID dollars, allocating less on salaries and benefits to avoid layoffs down the road.
That was the case in District 129 in West Aurora, where the administration spent only 26% of COVID funds on salaries and dedicated 46% to capital outlays such as personal protective equipment and upgrading the heating and cooling systems. It received nearly $43 million in federal funds.
* Association of Illinois Soil & Water Executive Director Michael Woods sent this message on May 30…
Dear SWCD colleagues, stakeholders, and supporters,
Illinois’ 103rd General Assembly has finalized the FY25 budget. While many are celebrating, we on the frontlines of soil and water conservation are yet again disillusioned by a frontal attack that has landed at our doorsteps. As a recap, the governor proposed returning the state’s investment into Soil and Water Conservation Districts to pre-2000 funding levels ($4.5 million) for his FY25 budget, the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture declared in the IDOA appropriations committee that this was the funding level proposed and that increased funding would have to be a legislative member-led initiative. Thus, AISWCD—on behalf of the state’s SWCDs—in partnership with many supporters (Illinois Soybean Association, Illinois Environmental Council, IEC, Illinois Stewardship Alliance, and others) banded together to engage our elected officials in the statehouse on several occasions. Many legislators (in both parties) declared their support and discontent with the proposed funding levels. Sadly, our supporters in the Senate were not able to adjust the funding levels as requested in the final $53.1 billion budget. And, our advocates in the House furthered the Senate by approving the FY25 budget late on Tuesday. It has now advanced to the governor’s office to be signed into law with a roughly 48% decrease in SWCD operational funding. […]
While the outcome we had advocated for did not come to fruition, we will find a path forward to ensure that the state’s essential Soil and Water Conservation Districts remain on the frontlines in protecting the state’s most vital natural resources…soil and water. […]
At this time, we must take the high road and find a path forward, and not dwell in the actions to cut SWCD funding and the attack on intergenerational equity and sustainable investing. Rather we must find a path forward to ensure that we: 1) diversify our treasury to become less dependent on volatile funding; 2) maintain service to our stakeholders to ensure the acceleration of locally-led efforts to conserve, protect, and restore the land and water across the state; and 3) engage those that value the frontline, boots-on-the-ground conservation agriculture essential to protect the stability and sustainability of Illinois.
At the federal level, the Biden administration has showcased a deep understanding and appreciation for conservation by investing an unprecedented amount into agricultural conservation across the nation. As we each are aware, these conservation commitments often fall short, and implementation—the real crux of field level conservation—lags far behind the promises in light of reduced technical assistance (operational) funding for frontline Soil and Water Conservation District staff. Nevertheless, now is the time we shall rise to the occasion and strive to elevate the same level of federal support through understanding at the state level. While the state’s return to pre-2000 funding for SWCD has taken place with the FY25 budget, we cannot allow these actions to decline our individual and collective ability to put in motion our shared mantra of healthy soil and clean water.
It is once again on us as the state’s Soil and Water Conservation District directors, staff, and stakeholders to ensure that we elevate the message across the state. Ensure that Illinois puts in motion the essential efforts to meet objectives of the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS), achieve grassroots conservation essential to protect the states vital natural resources, and raise the bar of climate resiliency across the state. […]
In closing, I remind you that now is the time for decisive, collective action. It’s time to demonstrate that the Illinois SWCD system will stay the course and respond to the immediate conservation crisis while shaping a recovery which prioritizes social and environmental outcomes through intergenerational investments of your time and talents, as we seek the treasures of those that truly value our individual and collective service today for tomorrow. The actions we collectively take over the coming weeks, months, and perhaps even years will lay the foundations for a more stakeholder-driven and sustainable environment — one that aligns conservation of our natural resources with the constituents and commitments of our state’s General Assembly and highest leadership.
“We’re quite disillusioned with basically a frontal attack, you know, that has landed at our doorsteps.” He says, “We’re extremely disappointed that they’ve cut almost 50% of our funding to the direct line, boots-on-the-ground soil and water conservation districts that serve all 102 counties across the state.”
He says the 4 million dollar cut to SWCD operational grants will have an impact on farmers.
“And if we do not have frontline boots on the ground staff,” he says, “they are not able to work with our producers, our communities, our stakeholders all across the state to help them find access to the various cost share programs or just being aware on how do they put conservation into play on the field.”
The operation budget for soil and water conservation districts across Illinois was cut nearly in half, according to Michael Woods, executive director for the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Those funds pay salaries for SWCD technical staff, the folks who leverage millions of dollars in federal conservation funding for farmers and landowners, serving as a conduit for funneling those dollars to conservation-minded landowners. […]
The reduction comes as the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy deadline looms next year. Set in 2015, the NLRS goal is a 45% reduction in both nitrogen and total phosphorus loads, with interim targets set at a 15% nitrogen decrease and a 25% total phosphorus decrease by 2025. Results in 2023 showed nutrient loss numbers trending in the wrong direction, with nitrogen loads up 4.8% and phosphorus loads up 35%.
Woods calls their 2025 operations budget “pre-2000 funding levels.”
Their total budget allocation for 2025 is $7.5 million, and breaks down like this:
- $4.5 million for SWCD operations (salaries for local technical assistance employees)
- $3 million for cost-share initiatives implemented by SWCDs
For comparison, in 2024, the SWCD portion totaled $11.5 million, and all other allocations remained the same.
Soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs) in Illinois are the only locally based infrastructure that protect Illinois’ soil and water. Cuts to these programs have cost taxpayers money through dirtier water and soil erosion, as well as harm to the environment and public health. To protect Illinois’s valuable soil and water, legislators and the governor should fully fund these programs and work harder to bring federal dollars to Illinois conservation programs.
While the state legislature voted to fully fund SWCDs in 2017, Gov. Bruce Rauner announced that he would only pay out a portion of the enacted budget. These cuts have left SWCDs with only one-third of their promised budget so far this fiscal year. Funding for SWCDs has been cut 70 percent since 2002, despite the proven effectiveness of these programs. In 2015, bipartisan support for these programs kept them open, despite the Rauner administration’s drive to zero out the budget for all SWCDs. […]
Illinois has also left millions of dollars in federal funding on the table that could have supported conservation and agriculture. As an example, Illinois has not received federal funding from the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program since 2006. This program matches every dollar that Illinois dedicates to a local landowner with $4 from the federal government. Not participating in the program has meant the loss of at least $50 million to the state. A smaller example of funding loss is the failure of Illinois to apply to the federal government for funding to enact the Food Safety Modernization Act. Illinois was one of only a handful of states not to receive funding — solely because we did not apply.
Illinois has made many short-sighted decisions with respect to its budget and our state resources. This is one of those decisions. Failure to protect these programs now will cost taxpayers in the future, leaving future Illinois residents with unsafe drinking water and less productive soil.
For Liz Rupel, lead organizer with the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, the 2024 legislative season was “a mixed bag” when it comes to conservation in agriculture. While some conservation bills passed this legislative session, including increased funding for socially-disadvantaged farmers, more money for cover crop assistance programs, and funding toward planting native wetland and prairie plants, other bills that could have an impact did not pass, she said.
One of the “most devastating setbacks,” she said, is budget cuts for an important agricultural conservation program. The Soil and Water Conservation District’s operating budget was slashed in half. The organization provides technical assistance to farmers who implement conservation practices, like planting cover crops to prevent dust storms or installing or restoring a wetland on their property to prevent flooding.
The land use programs director with the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC) says the organization is concerned about budget cuts to Illinois Soil & Water Conservation Districts.
Eliot Clay tells Brownfield the 4-million-dollar decrease will have an impact.
“There was a really big setback in Illinois.” He says, “The real world implications of this are going to be people not being able to retain their jobs with the districts, and districts just not being able to hire people in general.”
He says the work of soil & water conservationists is even more important because adverse weather events are increasing.
“We’re now seeing, you know, multiple dust storm warnings and advisories issued in central Illinois over the last two years, including a really devastating one that occurred on I-55 last year that led to a number of people losing their lives,” he says.
A majority of Illinoisans oppose the Chicago Bears’ latest stadium proposal, according to an exclusive new survey conducted for Crain’s — but, deeper down in the data, team leaders may find reason to hope the public is persuadable.
By a 2-to-1 margin, Illinois voters oppose the team’s lakefront stadium plan, one that would include $1.2 billion of public financing. A majority of voters do not support any public funding going to the stadium, which the Bears envision as being part of a broader reboot of the city’s Museum Campus.
* Crain’s is always looking for a silver lining on this topic, but the numbers are nothing to write home about…
* Take note of the “Does not matter” and “Makes no difference” responses…
Monday, Jun 24, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Uber is leading the charge to close critical transportation gaps, ensuring reliable access to its services in places that need it most, such as underserved areas like Englewood. This is a part of Uber’s broader commitment to augment and expand the reach of Chicago’s transportation ecosystem, focusing on overcoming the first-mile/ last-mile hurdles that have long plagued residents in farther afield neighborhoods. Uber aims to extend the public transit network’s reach, making urban transportation more accessible and efficient for everyone. Discover the full story on how Uber is transforming city transportation for the better.
As the two-year anniversary of the demise of Roe v. Wade approaches, an increasing number of medical providers around the country are crossing state lines — including into Illinois — for comprehensive abortion training as large sections of the nation either ban or severely restrict pregnancy termination. […]
State abortion bans or restrictions impact the training of an estimated 44% of obstetrics and gynecology residents nationwide. […]
Since the end of Roe, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has seen a roughly 60% increase in trainees at its clinics, with many traveling here from other states.
“There’s a big-time increase in demand for training,” said Dr. Virgil Reid, associate medical director with Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “We have recently reached a point where we had to put a pause on saying yes to new training requests from universities and other organizations around the country that frankly are desperate to get their doctors — their residents — training in this work.”
The latest data from Illinois officials shows abortions performed in the state soared to more than 56,000 in 2022 as the number of out-of-state patients seeking the procedure in Illinois grew 50% year over year to 16,849 patients.
Abortion providers in Illinois are averaging a monthly increase of more than 1,100 abortions since the Dobbs ruling, according to an analysis published last year by the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry & Innovation in Sexual & Reproductive Health, or Ci3, at the University of Chicago. […]
The Chicago Abortion Fund, a nonprofit organization helping pregnant people secure money, transportation and lodging support associated with traveling for abortion care, has similarly seen an increase in demand for its services.
Since the Dobbs decision, the fund spent nearly $7 million on patient assistance, up from just $200,000 in 2019, Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said at the City Club event. Back then, the fund helped fewer than 200 people a year. It’s now up to 200 to 300 people per week, totaling more than 12,000 patients a year from across 40 states, Jeyifo said. Through donations and grants, the Chicago Abortion Fund has been able to support 100% of its callers since July 2019.
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022, the following year Illinois had 37,300 abortion patients who traveled from other states to have the procedure, according to a study and the New York Times.
The figure was 41 percent of the 90,540 abortions performed in Illinois in 2023.
In 2019, just 8,500 abortion patients traveled to Illinois from six states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.
But in Illinois 37,300 abortion patients in 2023 came from 15 states, including six Southern states, which ban the procedure, according to the study conducted with the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Two years ago, the United States took a giant leap backward. After decades of expanding personal liberties, the Supreme Court ripped them away from women—erasing nearly 50 years of established privacy rights and putting politicians in charge of women’s very personal decisions. The reverberations of the Dobbs case have been enormous—women whose pregnancies endanger their lives forced to flee anti-abortion states, couples required to effectively terminate IVF thus ending their chance to have children, and entire hospital systems shutting down all OB-GYN services in fear of their doctors and nurses being jailed for providing reproductive medical care. Now, women who seek safe, legal abortions are being hurled back to the retrograde reproductive laws of the 1950s, where back alley abortions threaten their lives. The Dobbs decision is a slippery slope that could end in a nightmare state for women. This November, we have a chance at the ballot box to restore reproductive rights and make things right.
In the ’60s and ’70s, my mother stood up for women’s rights at a time when women could be fired from their jobs for being pregnant, were denied the right to advance in the workplace, discriminated against in college admission, and even prevented from getting a credit card without their husband’s approval. My mother was fighting for abortion rights when I was in grammar school, and she let me tag along to protests and marches when I was too young to be left at home alone. Those experiences shaped my life. I learned early on that showing up, speaking out, and voting for change could make all the difference. It did, and it still does.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, any illusion abortion rights supporters had of the permanency of our hard-fought progress was shattered. Every aspect of reproductive health care is now being undone. […]
This is why I founded Think Big America—to fight back. In the last two years, we have seen that when people have a choice, they vote overwhelmingly to protect reproductive freedom. I want to see that again in 2024. Think Big America stands with the people of Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Montana who are working to guarantee abortion access for over 16 million women in those states.
I’m in this fight because restoring a woman’s right to bodily autonomy is a human right. This November, we can reestablish this fundamental freedom at the state and federal levels.
Think Big America, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, on Monday starts running its first paid advertising campaign of the 2024 election cycle across three “reproductive rights battleground states” where the group is supporting ongoing abortion access ballot initiative campaigns.
The 60-second digital ad, released on the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, is meant to depict “the stark reality pregnant women face in a post-Dobbs America,” according to a spokesperson for the nonprofit group, which shared details of the ad buy first with ABC News.
The spot, part of the group’s six-figure spending targeting and aimed at independent voters, will run on YouTube and connected television platforms in Arizona and Nevada, two states where measures related to protecting abortion will likely be on their November ballots, and in Florida, where an abortion-related ballot initiative is confirmed to appear in front of voters.
“Two years ago, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court not only ripped away abortion access for tens of millions of women, they turned the clock back 50 years on reproductive healthcare,” said Pritzker in a statement.
Two years ago today, the United States Supreme Court released the Dobbs Decision. As we await the end of the Court’s term and an anticipated impact on emergency medical care, we also mark two years of work by the Dobbs Working Group and colleagues in the House and Senate to establish safe access to reproductive and gender-affirming care for the tens of thousands of patients coming into our state for treatment. Over the last two years, we’ve been busy constantly monitoring for new threats from surrounding states and doing everything we can to ensure that patients in Illinois retain access to care while ensuring the safety of providers and patients seeking care from out of state. We passed several bills to ensure our protections are as complete as possible, including a state level bill protecting access to emergency abortion care in the event the Supreme Court drops another late June challenge to access to care. The Dobbs Working Group will continue to monitor for challenges and opportunities to collaborate with national partners to craft policies to expand protections.
Monday, Jun 24, 2024 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Lawmakers in Springfield recently negotiated a back-room deal that could radically change the way small businesses and consumers use their credit and debit cards to give corporate megastores a multi-million dollar giveaway.
This new law could:
- Force separate cash payments on sales tax and tips
- Reduce consumer privacy by exposing more information on your purchases
- Create costly operational nightmares and paperwork burdens for small businesses
This first-of-its-kind, untested mandate would create chaos, removing credit and debit cards as the safe, secure and hassle-free way to pay in Illinois — all so giant, out-of-state corporations can look a little better to their shareholders.
As you’ve probably heard by now, Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy announced his resignation last week, apparently effective the day after the Republican National Convention concludes on July 18.
The announcement came after far-right activists forced out the state party’s vice chair, Mark Shaw, and the resignation of the party’s finance chair, Vince Kolber. Both Shaw and Kolber had made unsuccessful bids for the Republican National Committeeman post days earlier, but were rejected by state convention attendees.
After he first won the chairmanship job in 2021, Tracy said, “Regardless of our differences… Republicans are the only hope for turning Illinois around.”
By last week, Tracy was finally forced to admit the obvious.
“When I took on this full-time volunteer job in February 2021, I thought I would be spending most of my time fighting Democrats,” he wrote in his resignation letter. Now, however, “we have Republicans who would rather fight other Republicans than engage in the harder work of defeating incumbent Democrats by convincing swing voters to vote Republican.”
It has always been thus. This is what I wrote almost six years ago, in late 2018: “The far right has been obsessed with gaining control of the Illinois Republican Party for as long as I can remember. They’ve only really held the party’s reins once, in 2002 when Gary MacDougal was handed the chairmanship after then-House Republican Leader Lee Daniels was forced to step down during a federal investigation into campaign work on state time that eventually nailed his chief of staff.”
But MacDougal didn’t last long: “Before the year was out he was replaced by then-Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the only Republican to win statewide during that year’s sweeping Democratic victories. Topinka spent the next few years in almost constant battle with her right flank. But she prevailed and the far right has been shut out ever since.”
When I wrote that story in 2018, Jeanne Ives and the far right were attempting to oust then-party chair Tim Schneider six months after helping broker a deal that made their guy, Lake County Republican Chair Mark Shaw, a state party co-chair with Schneider. Fast-forward to this month, when that very same Mark Shaw was deemed as aloof from the “grassroots” and had to go and Ives is a member of the state central committee.
Party elders have done whatever they could to keep the party out of the hands of the insurgents. The fear was the insurgents would alienate the “donor class,” the wealthy Republicans who only wanted to deal with people who looked and talked like them.
Also, people who spend their lives yelling “No!” and trying to tear things down rarely, if ever, learn to say “Yes” and build things up. It’s no accident that the state party has had 10 different chairpersons in the past 23 years. When you look around the country, though, it’s kind of amazing that the Republican powers that be have held on this long.
Most members of that once-powerful donor class have passed away, retired and/or left Illinois. Kolber, the resigned party finance chair, has contributed more than $1.3 million to campaigns in the past 10 years. The state Republican Party’s latest quarterly report showed that Chairman Tracy, his family’s company and his family members accounted for 76% of all the ILGOP’s individual contributions — $109,600 out of $144,013.
One of the lesser-known, but highly important aspects of state parties is their access to a federal postage discount. By paying for their direct mail through the state parties, candidates can save a lot of money. But that requires a level of trust that the parties will spend the money as intended, which is another reason the people who run things want one of their own in there.
But now, it looks like those perpetually aggrieved outsiders could soon take over the party apparatus.
Palatine Township Republican Chairman and state central committeeman Aaron Del Mar wants to be Tracy’s replacement. Del Mar ran as Gary Rabine’s running mate in the 2022 Republican primary. Rabine finished fifth with less than 7% of the vote.
Del Mar appeared earlier this month on Ramblin’ Ray Stevens’ WLS Radio show where he cracked two jokes about Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s weight. Still, that put him in sync with former President Donald Trump, who also recently mocked Pritzker’s weight.
Needless to say, Trump lost Illinois by 17 points in both 2020 and 2016. But, hey, welcome to what looks to be the new Illinois Republican Party.
* The column sparked a harsh back and forth between former Republican Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville and current Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City…
* ICYMI: Why the Sun-Times traveled to Toronto to learn about immigration…
Nearly half of Toronto’s 2.7 million population identifies as immigrants.
The city’s diversity is visible on its streets. A stretch of a neighborhood includes Asian, Caribbean and Latino retail shops and restaurants. Pedestrians of Canadian, Sudanese or Indian backgrounds mingle while eating Mexican sushi or jerk poutine.
As the United States has doubled down on restrictive immigration policies, particularly around asylum, Canada is viewed as the friendlier neighbor where politicians see immigrants as a possible solution to labor shortages.
“One should see them as nation builders,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told the Chicago Sun-Times about immigrants. “They’ve helped build Canada, they helped build Toronto.”
* Governor Pritzker will join the 2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit “Innovation Ecosystems: Shaping the Future of Tech” panel at 8:10 am. Click here to watch.
The Sun-Times has live updates of Ed Burke’s sentencing, which will begin at 10 am.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Capitol News Illinois | State highway shootings decline as critics sue over ‘dragnet surveillance’: Illinois State Police say an automated license plate reader program has helped the agency identify witnesses or suspects in 82 percent of highway shooting cases this year, including all eight that resulted in a death. But as the state looks to further expand its network of more than 400 cameras this year, it faces a lawsuit accusing ISP of operating “a system of dragnet surveillance” by using the cameras to monitor all traffic that passes them.
* Tribune | ComEd’s computer billing fiasco shuts down community solar program for four months: For nearly four months, subscribers to community solar farms dotting the landscape across northern Illinois have been unable to get credit for the power generated to offset their regular ComEd bills. Meanwhile, the companies that operate the solar installations are not getting paid, essentially shutting down one of the state’s signature clean energy programs. “Our program serves as a model for how community solar could work in other states,” said Sarah Moskowitz, executive director of Citizens Utility Board. “It’s very disappointing to see one of our utilities single-handedly halt the program for several months.”
* Tribune | Illinois may soon return land the US stole from a Prairie Band Potawatomi chief 175 years ago: Rep. Will Guzzardi, who sponsored the legislation to transfer the state park, said it is a significant concession on the part of the Potawatomi. With various private and public concerns now owning more than half of the original reservation land, reclaiming it for the Potawatomi would set up a serpentine legal wrangle. […] Guzzardi hopes the Potawatomi don’t have to wait much longer to see that grow exponentially with the park transfer. “It keeps this beautiful public asset available to everyone,” Guzzardi said. “It resolves disputed title for landholders in the area and most importantly, it fixes a promise that we broke.”
*** Statewide ***
* Crain’s | Two years post-Dobbs, Illinois abortion providers feel the crunch: At a recent event before the City Club of Chicago, Chelsea Souder, co-owner of Hope Clinic for Women in downstate Illinois, laid out what her abortion practice is seeing since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the landmark legislation that protected the right to end a pregnancy. At the Granite City clinic — near the border of Missouri, where abortion is banned with limited exceptions — patient volumes have doubled within the last year, Souder said, with people visiting from about 20 states that have tightly restricted or outright banned abortions.
* Tribune | Dobbs, 2 years later: Out-of-state medical providers flock to Illinois for abortion training as opportunities dwindle: Since the end of Roe, Planned Parenthood of Illinois has seen a roughly 60% increase in trainees at its clinics, with many traveling here from other states. “There’s a big-time increase in demand for training,” said Dr. Virgil Reid, associate medical director with Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “We have recently reached a point where we had to put a pause on saying yes to new training requests from universities and other organizations around the country that frankly are desperate to get their doctors — their residents — training in this work.”
*** Chicago ***
* Sun-Times | Wrongful convictions unit failed to look into possible police misconduct in murder case, confidential report concludes: A confidential report by special prosecutors assigned to review a decades-old murder slams an initial assessment of the case by the Cook County state’s attorney’s wrongful convictions unit, saying it failed to look into “the integrity of the police investigation.” “This case presents a microcosm of the many ways in which a police investigation into a serious violent crime can fail,” the special prosecutors wrote.
* Chalkbeat | Chicago to change how it flags disruptive behaviors for its youngest students: Under student code of conduct changes the school board is slated to approve this week, schools would only flag behaviors that represent a serious safety issue, such as bringing a weapon to school. And letters alerting parents about these behaviors will no longer refer to “misconduct” and code of conduct “violations” — language district officials said stigmatized young children and failed to reflect their social-emotional development.
* Block Club | 2 CPS Students, Both 16, Fatally Shot Within 24 Hours In Separate Weekend Incidents: The Amundsen High School community is mourning the death of a 16-year-old student killed Friday evening in a shooting in Budlong Woods on the North Side that wounded two other teen boys. About 6:57 p.m. Friday, the three teens were getting into a car in the 5600 block of North Rockwell Street when they were hit by gunfire, police said. A witness said the three were shot at by a person in a black SUV, which fled the scene, police said.
* Sun-Times | Time for reflection: The Bean reopens after months of construction: The project included a rebuild of the plaza podium, adding new stairs, accessible ramps and a waterproofing system, according to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Construction was initially set to end in the spring.[…] The plaza is still undergoing some landscaping improvements, but that work will not impact access to “Cloud Gate,” city officials said.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* Tribune | Thornton Township Board denies vendor payments sought by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard: Concerns over spending transparency by Supervisor Tiffany Henyard led the Thornton Township Board Thursday to deny payments to certain vendors who completed work for the township. Among the payments debated during the special board meeting, called after a last-minute cancellation of Tuesday’s scheduled meeting, were for lawn mowing services for seniors and media content creation for township events.
* ABC Chicago | Cook Co. Commissioner Dennis Deer dies, family announces: In a statement, the family said, “Dr. Deer’s passionate lifelong dedication made him a tireless servant to the community I areas of healthcare, education, economic development, employment and training, re-entry and affordable housing. “Dr. Deer’s greatest joy and pride were his family, He cherished his roles as husband to his high school sweetheart Barbara Deer and father to his twin sons Kaleb and Kanaan and daughter Trinity.”
* Daily Herald | With money to plan greenway, what’s next for defunct Route 53 extension — and should IDOT get paid?: IDOT began buying land for the expansion in the 1970s to solve traffic congestion. But sky-high costs and fears it would destroy natural areas eroded support, and the Illinois tollway, the project’s last sponsor, pulled the plug in 2019. Come 2022, a state advisory panel recommended transferring the property to IDNR to create a 12-mile green corridor between Long Grove and Grayslake. Looking ahead, the plan will engage local stakeholders, develop a consensus vision for the corridor and approach how to fund it, explained Democratic state Rep. Dan Didech of Buffalo Grove.
*** Downstate ***
* KFVS | Williamson Co. Circuit Clerk speaks out about resignation: Maze had announced on June 18 that he would be resigning from the elected position, citing an upcoming deployment overseas as the reason, which would last more than a year. However, on June 20, the Department of Justice released information about a fraud trial involving Maze. As a condition of the pretrial diversion, Maze was required to resign from his position as Williamson Co. Circuit Clerk and agreed not to seek re-election to any public office.
* WSIL | Authorities Investigate Threats Toward Southern Illinois Schools: Authorities said these reported threats were made via Facebook posts toward several area schools and originated outside of the country. Multiple law enforcement officials investigated and found the threat to be not credible, according to law enforcement and school officials.
* Concord Monitor | In Rockford Illinois – a blueprint for reducing homelessness, 1,050 miles from Concord: But in front of Concord’s city committee to end homelessness, Morrissey shared a different story last week. Rockford has achieved “functional zero” – where episodes of homelessness are rare and brief – for both veterans and those chronically homeless. The two keys to their success were putting together and maintaining clear data on who was experiencing homelessness in the community at a given time and an organized governance structure among city leaders, nonprofits and service providers to address it with people one-on-one.
