Question of the day - Golden Horseshoe Awards
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The 2014 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political bar in Springfield goes to DH Brown’s…
Good atmosphere and service. Also agree that it is starting to attract both political parties, which is great to see.
Brown’s used to be known as a “Republican tavern,” but it’s now far more “bipartisan.”
* The 2014 Golden Horseshoe Award for best political restaurant in Springfield goes to Obed & Isaac’s…
Their food is fantastic (leg of lamb sandwich, anyone?!), brews and spirits are some of the tastiest in town, and some of the best political convos among staffers take place there. Not to mention their beer garden is great in April for its bocce ball.
O&I is a tad bit outside the usual “sandbox” area, but it’s still close enough to attract a sizable Statehouse crowd.
* OK, on to our next category, with last year’s winners in parentheses…
* The Beth Hamilton Golden Horseshoe Award for Best House Secretary/Admin. Assistant: (Jody Aiello)
* Best Senate Secretary/Admin. Assistant: (Anita Colvin-Barth)
Remember to explain your vote, please.
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Union local stabs Rahm in the back
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Chicago mayoral hopeful Jesus “Chuy” Garcia more than doubled the amount of cash in his campaign fund Tuesday by depositing a single check from a major government workers union, but it did little to close the growing money advantage Mayor Rahm Emanuel has in his bid for a second term.
Garcia, a Cook County commissioner, reported a $250,000 contribution from the Service Employees International Union Healthcare political fund, driving up the amount he’s raised to $477,000.
* Subscribers know a bit more, but here’s Greg Hinz…
News of the big donation came on the same day that the City Council overwhelmingly approved Emanuel’s plan to boost the city’s minimum wage to $13 an hour over the next five years. Some activists had pushed for a $15 figure, including Garcia.
The SEIU Healthcare donation came even though SEIU’s state council a few days ago tentatively decided to remain neutral in the race for mayor.
* And then Greg updated…
In a statement, SEIU State Council President Balanoff confirmed something he wouldn’t tell me earlier: That last week’s meeting resulted in “a formal vote . . . to remain neutral in the Chicago mayor’s race.”
He adds, “The subsequent contribution to a mayoral candidate by SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana is in direct violation of that vote and the constitution and bylaws of the Illinois State Council. The violation will be addressed through SEIU’s official internal processes.”
Looks like the fight is on.
So, the SEIU Healthcare local spends a fortune on voter registration and GOTV for Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign and his $10 an hour minimum wage proposal, then pushes the state council to endorse Garcia over Emanuel, even though Emanuel is for a $13 an hour minimum wage, but after the state council votes to remain officially neutral, the local violates its own union constitution to give a quarter million bucks to Garcia.
Oy.
And, from what I’m told, SEIU Healthcare now wants to disband the state council, but that can’t be done, either.
* From SEIU’s constitution…
Any Local Union or affiliated body willfully neglecting to enforce the provisions of this Constitution and Bylaws shall be subject to suspension or revocation of its charter or such other sanctions as may be determined by the International President.
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Irony alert!
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You’ve probably already seen this story about Elizabeth Lauten…
“Dear Sasha and Malia, I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you’re part of the First Family, try showing a little class,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Rise to the occasion. Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar.”
The remarks didn’t go over well. After a wave of negative publicity, Lauten on Monday resigned her position with Republican Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher of Tennessee. “After many hours of prayer, talking to my parents, and re-reading my words online I can see more clearly just how hurtful my words were,” Lauten explained in a statement, saying her comments had been extemporaneous.
* The Tribune talked to her former boss…
The staffer, Elizabeth Lauten, has been working for Rep. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee after a 2011 stint as the congressional spokeswoman for controversial one-term U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican.
Walsh, now a radio talk show host, told the Tribune on Monday that “Elizabeth should have kept her mouth quiet.”
Fill in the blank: Joe Walsh saying somebody “should have kept her mouth quiet” is like ______.
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* Tribune…
In residential treatment centers across Illinois, children are assaulted, sexually abused and running away by the thousands — yet state officials fail to act on reports of harm and continue sending waves of youths to the most troubled and violent facilities, a Tribune investigation found.
At a cost to taxpayers of well over $200 million per year, the residential centers promise round-the-clock supervision and therapy to state wards with histories of abuse and neglect, as well as other disadvantaged youths with mental health and behavioral problems. On any given day, about 1,400 wards live in the centers, although far more cycle through each year.
In the best cases, the facilities rebuild and even save young lives. But the Tribune found that many underprivileged youths — most of them African-American — are shuttled for years from one grim institution to another before emerging more damaged than when they went in.
* Just one example…
At Indian Oaks, which specializes in treating children who have endured sexual trauma, the Tribune identified 17 reports of sexual assault or abuse during a 21/2-year period starting in September 2011. Facility reports to DCFS and police dismissed nearly half of those incidents as consensual, even when alleged victims were not old enough to consent or had cognitive impairments.
* And…
The state’s beleaguered child welfare agency, which has had four directors in the past year and seen its budget sliced by more than 10 percent since 2009, is more than a year behind in analyzing facility performance records that show how many days kids go on the run from each center, or are sent to jail or psychiatric hospitals.
Go read the whole thing, but prepare to be thoroughly disgusted.
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* From In These Times…
AFSCME’s and other unions’ efforts failed to prevent Rauner’s victory over Quinn, and Illinois public employees now face an uncertain future. When their contract expires in July 2015, workers will have to renegotiate with a governor who has questioned the very validity of collective bargaining rights for public employees (and even refused to say whether he believes such rights are valid for any kind of worker).
The union is planning to meet with Rauner for the first time in early December to talk contracts. In preparation, the 200-plus members of the AFSCME contract team convened in Springfield, Illinois, last week to hold a “demands meeting.”
No one knows but Rauner how he will engage with AFSCME, says Brent Eliot (not his real name), a delegate from an Illinois city, and this led to a tense demands meeting.
On the one hand, says Eliot, the union emphasized readiness in case “things go badly” with Rauner, setting up a phone tree among members to quickly communicate about workplace actions such as a “button day” (when all employees at a given workplace don pins with a common message), wearing all the same shirt to work, or going out to the street on lunch break to picket.
Because of a no-strike clause in their current contract, AFSCME members are not allowed to strike—Eliot says that AFSCME discourages workers from even using the word “strike.”
“It was stressed to us at the meeting that we’d have to [report] back to our members that we’ve got to get ready—not to strike, but to do something,” says Eliot.
On the other hand, Eliot claims that leadership at the meeting censured some of the more ambitious proposals for demands that came from the contract team, pushing for more “modesty” in their bargaining, though he declined to give details about what those scaled-back proposals were.
Discuss.
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He may very well be underestimating the problem
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From yesterday…
Rauner also outlined a series of financial pressures he said totaled $1.4 billion, citing budget gimmicks mostly identified when the General Assembly left town last spring. The items included borrowing as much as $650 million from state funds set aside for myriad specially designated purposes.
The Republican lashed out at what he called “dishonest” Democrat-approved financial tricks, saying the price tag of the current year’s budget was masked by absorbing some of the costs in a previous budget to make the current one look better. In other cases, Rauner maintained that expenses were deferred and will be pushed into the coming year.
* Here is Rauner’s breakdown. You can click the pic for a larger image…
* But Rauner shouldn’t have been so surprised. This is what I wrote back in June of this year…
I based what follows on what I know about how the budget was crafted. But whatever the final number ends up being, it’s crystal clear that whoever wins the governor’s race will face a monstrous challenge after he’s sworn in next January.
Borrowing $660 million from special state funds, as this new budget does, is a one-off affair. The money is being put into the state’s spending base and will have to somehow be replaced the following year. A two-year repayment plan means another $330 million will also have to be found in the next budget, for a total hole of about a billion dollars.
Using about $500 million in one-time revenue increases from this fiscal year to pay forward some bills in next fiscal year means that same $500 million will have to be found again when the next budget is crafted.
Not funding employee salary and health insurance-benefit-cost increases kicks another $380 million down the road. So, now we’re at $1.9 billion. […]
Also, Rep. Greg Harris, who chairs a House appropriations committee, told reporters last week that the new budget could create as much as a “couple of billion” dollars in past-due bills in the coming fiscal year. If that’s accurate, then the FY16 hole becomes much, much worse, plus there’s all that new debt owed to providers which will eventually have to be paid back.
…Adding… Don’t forget that the state’s pension payment is expected to rise by almost a billion dollars next fiscal year.
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Always bet on nothing
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* That sound you hear is a big House thud…
House Speaker Michael Madigan told fellow Democrats on Tuesday that the 98th General Assembly will adjourn with the end of business, state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said. Lawmakers will next reconvene Jan. 14 with the seating of the 99th General Assembly.
This also means that there will be no January lame-duck session in which legislation can get rammed through by outgoing lawmakers, including any extension of the 2011 income tax increase set to substantially expire Jan. 1.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown confirmed the news, and said that while Madigan firmly believes in raising the minimum wage, the number of different versions and conflicting interests are preventing him from marshaling the needed votes.
Franks said the move also may be a gesture of good faith on Madigan’s part.
“I think maybe he wants to work with the new governor. Who knows?” Franks said. “This might be an olive branch.”
* Greg Hinz…
The “complications” that Brown referenced was a decision by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to move ahead on his own with a city wage hike that is even higher than one that had been contemplated by state lawmakers.
A state bill, raising the current $8.25 figure to $9 to $11 an hour, “is totally dead,” said state Rep. Jack Franks, a McHenry County Democrat, “because of what happened in Chicago.”
Earlier in the day, the City Council voted 44-5, at Emanuel’s request, to raise the minimum wage to $10 in July and $13 by mid-2019. Emanuel said he acted in part because one version of proposed state legislation would have pre-empted action by Chicago, holding the city to a rate no higher than that of the rest of the state.
Mr. Rauner, who takes office in January, has said he’ll sign a wage hike only if it is linked to pro-business moves such as enacting tort reform and changes in the workers’ compensation system.
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Good morning!
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the New York Times…
Bobby Keys, a Texas-born sideman whose urgent, wailing saxophone solos wove a prominent thread through more than 40 years of rock ’n’ roll, notably with the Rolling Stones, died on Tuesday at his home in Franklin, Tenn. He was 70.
His family announced the death, without specifying a cause.
A self-taught musician who never learned to read music, Mr. Keys was a rock ’n’ roller in every sense of the term. Born (almost literally) in the shadow of Buddy Holly, he was a lifelong devotee and practitioner of music with a driving pulse and a hard-living, semi-law-abiding participant in the late-night, sex-booze-and-drug-flavored world of musical celebrity. […]
Mostly playing tenor and sometimes baritone saxophone, he recorded with a Who’s Who of rock including Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, George Harrison, Carly Simon, Country Joe and the Fish, Harry Nilsson, Joe Cocker and Sheryl Crow. He toured with Delaney and Bonnie and was recording with them in 1969 when they shared a Los Angeles studio with the Stones, who were making their album “Let It Bleed.”
* He was our greatest ever rock saxophonist, and here he is at his very best. Turn it up…
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