Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Bears float new tax subsidy for suburban stadium

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Greg Hinz…

The Chicago Bears are floating in Springfield the possibility of creating new form of tax subsidy for their pending redevelopment of Arlington Park, one which would give them financial help but not penalize local school districts as harshly as conventional tax increment financing district.

Under the plan, which has not yet been submitted in writing but has been raised with key legislative players, the Bears would be able to utilize something known as payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT.

PILT originally was developed by the federal government as a means to compensate local units of government for the loss of property taxes due to the existence of tax-exempt federally-owned property within their borders. The concept since has spread to payments for state-owned property in some parts of the country and to some private developments, such as solar-energy generation, that are not feasible with normal property taxes.

The Bears’ pitch is in the preliminary stage and is receiving a mixed reception from Springfield officials. But because PILT payments can be negotiated rather than being set at a predetermined rate, and because they can be shared with schools rather than stay with municipalities, they offer more flexibility than a conventional TIF district.

There’s more.

Discuss.

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Labor news

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* The Washington Post…

Companies that illegally fire or demote unionizing workers can now be held responsible for workers’ financial demise — including credit card late fees, lost housing or cars and health-care costs — in a move that could help some workers who have been fired from Starbucks and Amazon, labor activists say.

In a big win for labor unions, the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Tuesday to expand the fees and penalties the agency can collect from employers that illegally terminate workers for labor activism, both union and nonunion, in a move long sought after by the labor movement.

“Employees are not made whole until they are fully compensated for financial harms that they suffered as a result of unlawful conduct,” said labor board chair Lauren McFerran in a statement.

For decades, employers that fired workers for their involvement in labor organizing — a legally protected activity — have only had to pay for the employee’s reinstatement and lost wages. But labor advocates say that has amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist, especially for major employers with deep pockets such as Amazon and Starbucks.

* Daily Herald…

Employees at the Starbucks coffee shop at 2760 Willow Road in Glenview on Dec. 6 voted 18-0 in favor of forming a union.

“It was honestly my pipe dream of a best-case scenario, so our entire organizing committee is incredibly proud and excited, beyond words,” said [Melissa] Lee-Litowitz, who heads the organizing committee for Starbucks Store No. 247 with fellow shift supervisor Tianna Lavalle.

Full- and part-time baristas, and shift supervisors were allowed to vote, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The Willow and Pfingsten Starbucks has 22 eligible employees, but not all were present to vote in either the morning or afternoon voting slots on Dec. 6. […]

It’s been a busy year for employees seeking to organize as entities of Starbucks Workers United within the Service Employees International Union.

* Interesting insight from the New York Times…

In 2021, as in 2007, Mr. Schultz was no longer chief executive when the company took a turn that clashed with his idea of what Starbucks should be: Its workers began to unionize. Between last December and April, when Mr. Schultz abruptly replaced Kevin Johnson as chief executive, workers at dozens of company-owned stores filed paperwork for union elections.

Mr. Schultz, 69, appears intent on defusing interest in a union before he leaves the company next spring for the third — and, dare one say, final — time. He has thrown himself into providing new benefits and wage increases, but withheld them from employees in the union, which represents about 2 percent of the company’s U.S. work force of more than 250,000. When asked in an interview in June if he could ever imagine embracing the union, Mr. Schultz responded with a single immovable word: No.

He has alluded to a downside for customers, and some labor experts argue that a union could seek to limit the number of syrups, powders and foams that can be added to drinks, as a way to ease the burden on baristas. Such “modifiers” brought in about $1 billion during the last fiscal year and have helped drive record revenues.

But friends and longtime colleagues say Mr. Schultz’s opposition to the union isn’t primarily about the bottom line. It’s emotional. A union clashes with his image of Starbucks as a model employer. “It’s a sore for him, I guarantee you,” said Willard Hay, a former senior vice president at the company. (Mr. Schultz declined to comment for this article.)

The stakes extend far beyond Starbucks. The union campaign has helped give rise to labor organizing at a variety of other companies, including Apple, Trader Joe’s and REI. If the union manages to wring significant concessions from Starbucks, it could accelerate organizing elsewhere and help change the relationship between management and labor across the country.

* School of the Art Institute adjunct professors and lecturers have joined the union wave, the Sun-Times reports…

Adjunct professors and lecturers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago have voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The non-tenure-track faculty at the school will join the union’s Council 31, which has had a string of organizing wins here. It already represents staff at the Art Institute itself and its school.

The faculty’s mailed-in ballots were counted Tuesday in the Chicago offices of the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that supervises union votes. AFSCME said the result was 377-33 to unionize.

AFSCME said more than 600 faculty members will join the other unionized workers at the museum and the school. They call themselves Art Institute of Chicago Workers United.

A faculty committee issued a statement hailing the vote, calling it “an AICWU three-peat that sends a crystal-clear message to our president, provost and board: We know our worth, we know how critical our labor is to our institution, and we know it’s time to put it in writing.”

* The Register-Mail…

Members and supporters of local chapters of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers union (SMART) gathered in the rain Tuesday afternoon for a rally in Galesburg’s central park.

The group of about 30 people included many rail workers who assembled to raise awareness and show support for several quality-of-life measures that have been left out of their new labor agreement with BNSF, particularly paid sick leave and a change to the company’s attendance policy. […]

According to the National Carriers’ Conference Committee, the new agreement will include a “24 percent wage increase, maintain platinum-level health care, add an additional day of paid time off, and address several craft-specific issues, including issues relating to quality of life.”

But for many at the rally on Tuesday, the new agreement lacks critical measures and the 24 percent wage increase only meets the rising cost of living.

* More…

* Sun-Times | Bally’s $1.7 billion River West casino gets final zoning approval from City Council: Burnett, who had been the casino’s biggest champion, threatened to “raise a lot of hell” if he didn’t see in writing the minority hiring agreements Bally’s had made with labor unions. For years, Burnett has criticized those same trade unions for shortchanging minorities. But after being bombarded with phone calls — from top mayoral aides, union leaders and Bally’s officials, Burnett dropped his threat, saying he’s convinced the casino giant will honor its promise to build a workforce composed of 60% minorities and 45% women.

* CBS Chicago | Starbucks employees to rally at Federal Plaza for anniversary of unionization: Starbucks workers in Chicago will rally Friday to mark the first anniversary of a major unionization campaign. Chicago labor leaders will join Starbucks employees at the noon rally in Federal Plaza.

* Sun-Times | UIC faculty union sets strike date: The nearly 900-member union has been working without a contract since mid-August and decisively authorized a strike last month.

* Fairfield Sun Times | Illinois Is Pushing Back Against the Anti-Union Tide: Legal experts anticipate litigation over the amendment, including on issues as fundamental as who and what it actually covers. The amendment protects “employees” – not specifically “public-sector employees” – implying it could govern their private sector counterparts. That’s an apparent conflict with federal labor law.

* Wardsauto | Stellantis Idling Illinois Plant; UAW ‘Deeply Angered’: Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson emphasizes the automaker is not closing the plant. “We are stopping production as of Feb. 28. We are not closing the plant,” she tells Wards. “We have to negotiate that with the union.”

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Addendum to today’s edition

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Afternoon news roundup

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* First, an explainer…

Illinois eliminated parole (except for those people who were sentenced long enough ago that parole was a possibility when they were sentenced) and replaced it with supervised release, a different system entirely. […]

Illinois statute requires a program known as mandatory supervised release. […]

Under a supervised release system, the person serves his or her sentence in prison, and after it is served there is an additional term of supervised release on top of that sentence. The supervised release term is usually two or three years.

Despite what Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown claimed yesterday and pretty much all Chicago news media repeated, Samuel Parsons-Salas wasn’t released early on parole in September. Parsons-Salas did his time and the state wasn’t allowed to hold him any longer.

Parsons-Salas is currently charged with the brutal murder of three people and with kidnapping. The video is here, but I cannot recommend watching it. The shooter fired off 13 rounds in quick succession. Within half a minute, three people were killed and another was shot in the head.

* Senate President Harmon told me he believes candidates are already required to list their sponsoring entities on their “paid for” messaging. The Board of Elections disagrees, so legislation is likely needed…

Here's the 101 on Sponsoring Entities for all political committees in Illinois. #CampaignDisclosure pic.twitter.com/uAkbL6m54o

— Illinois SBE (@illinoissbe) December 14, 2022

* Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) told WJPF that he’s heading to Taiwan today with a trade delegation. That Cairo port is still in the works, but it’s apparently generating some real buzz overseas.

* Crypto bro fallout bites another candidate. Rep. Buckner press release…

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García isn’t the only candidate in the race for Mayor who welcomed support from corrupt crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried.

Lori Lightfoot literally cut the ribbon this past spring to launch Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange headquarters in Chicago. Bankman-Fried was arrested earlier this week and charged with allegedly defrauding his FTX customers out of billions of dollars to prop up his other ventures.

“Mayor Lightfoot owes this entire city an explanation about her relationship with Bankman-Fried,” said Kam Buckner, candidate for mayor. “It’s been four years since Mayor Lightfoot campaigned on a false promise to ‘bring in the light’ – maybe she can start by explaining her connection to Bankman-Fried and his involvement in the city’s guaranteed basic income program.”

Standing in the FTX office during the ribbon cutting, Lightfoot was quoted as saying, “this is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their financial destiny.”

“In addition to collaborating with a highly corrupt individual whose firm is under investigation by the SEC, this shows that Mayor Lightfoot is highly out of touch with Chicago’s underrepresented communities and what we actually need to thrive,” said Buckner, who in his role as state representative successfully helped pass legislation to help close the racial wealth gap.

In addition to his collaborating with the Mayor, Bankman-Fried contributed to a PAC that spent nearly $200,000 on political mailers for García – a member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee – during his unopposed congressional campaign, ultimately doing García the favor of “introducing” him to his new voters after his district boundaries changed during the remap and before he launched his mayoral campaign.

Just yesterday the Lightfoot campaign released a statement asking García what “Bankman-Fried’s motives were…and what did García promise in return…” The statement also said, “Voters deserve to know the facts when making important decisions about who they can trust. Unfortunately it seems that Chuy García will bring back the old way of doing Chicago-style politics – and we can’t afford that in City Hall.”

“The Mayor’s own campaign statement can be turned back onto Lightfoot,” Buckner said. “Surely she isn’t afraid to answer the very questions she’s asking of García.”

U.S. Prosecutors had Bankman-Fried arrested on Monday, the day before he was slated to testify before García’s House Committee, and allegedly charged him with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering, according to The New York Times.

But even before these new criminal charges and despite multiple media reports, Garcia has long been silent on the issue, ignoring public concern that this clear conflict of interest can influence the decisions he makes in Congress.

* Isabel’s roundup…

New York Times | New Suit Uses Data to Back Racial Bias Claims Against State Farm:

* Press Release | Gov. Pritzker Celebrates Historic Completion of Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago: Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) joined local officials and community leaders today to celebrate the completion of the Jane Byrne Interchange reconstruction, a multiyear effort to modernize a key gateway into downtown Chicago and a critical transportation hub for the region and entire Midwest. One of the biggest projects in state history, the new-and-improved Jane Byrne Interchange eliminates a notorious national bottleneck and improves safety, efficiency, and mobility across multiple modes of transportation while better connecting people and jobs throughout the Chicago area.

* Tribune | United to add 2,600 jobs in Chicago as part of plan to replace its aging fleet : The Boeing order alone will create 2,600 new jobs next year in the Chicago area, as United staffs up to handle the increased capacity the refreshed fleet will enable, the airline said.

* CBS | Fed hikes interest rates for seventh time this year: The Fed’s rate-setting committee hiked its benchmark rate by 0.5 percentage point on Wednesday, lifting its target rate into a range between 4.25% and 4.5% — the highest level in 15 years. The federal funds rate affects the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses throughout the economy. The half-percentage-point increase marks a step-down from a string of bigger interest rate hikes this summer, when the Fed made four consecutive 0.75% jumps in an effort to curb the most ferocious bout of inflation in four decades.

* WGLT | Bill Hauter focuses on constituent services given the Illinois GOP superminority: An incoming freshman lawmaker says it will be hard to pass or hold up legislation in Springfield, given his party’s disappointing election results. Republican Bill Hauter of Morton said he plans to focus on constituent services. “What I can do and what I have been doing as an emergency physician is I’ve been helping people,” Hauter said. “What you can do in the super minority is you can be a voice for your district and you can also help people. You can help constituents.”

* NPR Illinois | Republicans are making plans for Rep. Butler’s replacement: Republican county chairs from that district are seeking applications to serve until the new general assembly is sworn in next month. That would include being installed for what is often called the “lame duck” legislature the first week of January. Butler was elected in November in the newly drawn 95th House District, which includes parts of Sangamon, Macon and Christian counties. Chairs from those counties will select someone to fill the new year term starting January 11.

* NBC Chicago | 10 New Illinois Laws Taking Effect in 2023: Passed in May, the Student Confidential Reporting Act, establishes a program where officials from schools, the state and Illinois State Police can receive reports and other information regarding the potential harm or self-harm of students or school employees. The Safe2Help helpline will involve a toll-free telephone number and other means of communication allowing messages and information to be given to operators.

* Pluribus | Marijuana delivery gains traction as legalization spreads: “I think that as long as it is regulated, as long as we make sure that the person who is ordering it gets it, and that they’re legally allowed to, then it would seem to me like the same as somebody coming into a store,” Pritzker said at an event to celebrate the opening of his state’s first “social equity” marijuana dispensary. Recreational marijuana is now legal in 21 states, two territories and the District of Columbia. Thirty-seven states, three territories and D.C. allow medical use. An estimated 23 states allow the delivery of recreational marijuana or medical marijuana or both, according to tracking by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

* Tribune | Aurora nominating petition challenge hearing continued to next week: A challenge to the nominating petitions of Aurora Ald. Patty Smith was continued Tuesday to next week. Members of the Municipal Officers Electoral Board are expected to make a decision then on whether the complaints about the petitions are enough to keep Smith off the ballot for the April 4, 2023, municipal election.

* Illinois Newsroom | Students say Champaign schools fail to provide menstrual products: Loreal Allen was not surprised when she went into a bathroom at Central High School in Champaign in late November. Everything was as expected. She found soap, paper towels and a white dispenser that was supposed to contain menstrual products. As usual, she said, it was empty.

* Crain’s | Illinois board approves sale of downstate hospitals: The Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board approved Quorum Health’s sale of four southern Illinois hospitals to Deaconess Health System. Evansville, Indiana-based Deaconess, a nonprofit 12-hospital system with facilities in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, plans to acquire Crossroads Community Hospital in Mt. Vernon, Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Union County Hospital in Anna and Red Bud Regional Hospital.

* Crain’s | Red Line extension TIF earns full City Council approval: The City Council on Wednesday approved the creation of a new tax-increment financing district to create $950 million over three decades to help pay for the $3.6 billion extension of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line from 95th Street south to 130th Street.

* Press Release | Department of Human Services Launches Campaign to Help Those with Gambling Problems : The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) launched “Are You Really Winning?” - a campaign to build awareness of problem gambling and to promote helpline services for people experiencing gambling problems. According to research by Health Resources in Action (HRiA), four percent, or nearly 400,000, of Illinois residents have a gambling disorder, and another seven percent, or 700,000, are at risk of developing a gambling disorder.

* Illinois Answers Project | Cook County Office Looks to Shed Anti-Patronage Monitor as Watchdog Raises Alarm: Since it was first brought by attorney and onetime political candidate Michael Shakman in 1969, the lawsuit Shakman v. Cook County Democratic Organization has spurred wave after wave of federal interventions designed to prevent public officials at the city, county and state level from doling out government jobs as rewards to political allies. Shakman, now 80, still oversees the litigation.

* The American Prospect | The Easiest Criminal Indictment Ever : But embarrassingly bad criminals can help speed things along. As current FTX CEO John Ray, a restructuring specialist installed to manage the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy, told a House committee on Tuesday, crimes at Enron, another famously bankrupt company he stepped in to manage, “were highly orchestrated financial machinations by highly sophisticated people to keep transactions off balance sheets.” Enron declared bankruptcy in December 2001, but its former CEO Jeff Skilling wasn’t convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud, and other charges until May 2006. The group home in the Bahamas housing FTX executives, by contrast, “isn’t sophisticated whatsoever, this is just plain old embezzlement,” Ray said.

* FOX 32 | Mother sues Flossmoor school after daughter was allegedly sexually assaulted in class: The alleged attack came months after hundreds of students staged a walkout at the same school over more allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

* Tribune | No charges against students involved in apparent ‘wrestling incident’ at York Community High School: Parents of a special needs student seen pushed to the ground in a video posted on social media have declined a formal police investigation, Elmhurst police announced Tuesday. The Dec. 8 incident in a York Community High School restroom involved five students, including a boy with special needs. Police determined the students engaged in “willful physical contact,” while other students watched. The boy with special needs is on the wrestling team, and two of the boys involved are his teammates, police said.

* Tribune | HIV/AIDS advocate and her family work to promote testing and fight stigma. ‘I feel like I’m not just existing, that I’m living.’: Four years later, the power of going public was on full display Saturday when friends, family and people hoping to learn more gathered at Lawndale’s Jesus Word Center to talk about how the deeply stigmatized disease has touched their lives. Openly sharing about the disease has changed their lives, those gathered said.

* CBS Chicago | Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act, recognizing marriage equality in federal law: Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic and Republican lawmakers and more than 5,000 guests marked the occasion on a frigid White House South Lawn. The signing comes a decade after Mr. Biden as vice president put former President Barack Obama in an awkward position by getting ahead of the then-president and endorsing same-sex marriage on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

* The Center Square | Black carp spreading through the Midwest threatens Illinois waterways: Illinois waterways are being invaded by another invasive species that could threaten the ecosystem. Black carp, which are native to east Asia, were first imported into the U.S. to control snails in fish farms where fish are bred. How they escaped is unknown.

* Illinois News Bureau | Book examines tallgrass prairies’ ecological history, effects on Indigenous cultures: History professor Robert Morrissey wrote the first comprehensive environmental history of the tallgrass prairies and how they shaped tribal cultures in his recently published book, “People of the Ecotone.” The book also examines how those transformations contributed to the Fox Wars

* Crain’s | Walgreens bets its future on an unprecedented reinvention: Walgreens Boots Alliance is betting its future on an unprecedented effort to reinvent itself as a health care company, a venture of immense scale and complexity. There’s no playbook for what the Deerfield-based company hopes to achieve. Never before has a retail pharmacy chain transformed into a full-fledged provider of medical care. Walgreens’ ambitions threaten to disrupt long-standing U.S. health care delivery structures, a status quo guarded by powerful entrenched interests.

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Pritzker says federal government should “step up” and stave off mass transit’s upcoming “fiscal cliff”

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As we’ve already discussed, the RTA put federal into its operating base and now faces a “fiscal cliff” of $730 million a year in 2026 when the money dries up. That’s about 20 percent of the RTA’s operating base. The governor was asked about this today. His response…

Well, let’s back up and recognize that there have been a significant investments by the federal government during this period of COVID-19 that have been designed to assist RTA and CTA through this very difficult time. So our expectation is that many of those dollars will be extraordinarily helpful.

We also have increased because the sales tax dollars that have been coming into the state, we increasec the sales tax base when I became governor, and they are receiving $100 million more per year than they have ever before.

And so the combination of those increased dollars should be helpful in helping to deal with this fiscal cliff, as it’s been called. But I also think the federal government is going to look at, this is happening all over the country. And so I do think the federal government needs to step up and look at how we can get past this in a combined effort.

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Another move to beef up the state’s EV incentive programs

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart talked earlier this week about the company’s plans for its Jeep facility in Belvidere, which is scheduled to be idled in February. The company, he said, is “continuing to look at what we can do to repurpose that facility — but it’s idle, not closed.”

And now all of a sudden, a new electric vehicle bill is being floated. Here’s Greg Hinz…

And this time, other types of businesses would be in line for more help, too, including firms in the clean energy business and those seeking Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, payroll tax credits.

Under the measure, expected to be put to a vote in the General Assembly’s January lame-duck session, Gov. J.B. Pritzker would get the huge “deal-closing fund” that other governors have. Insiders say the lack of such a fund recently cost the state a battery plant which, instead, was won by Michigan. […]

Beyond that, according to a fact sheet and a draft bill shared with legislative leaders, those seeking EDGE grants would no longer have to meet a “but for” requirement showing that they would not have created jobs here without assistance.

Illinois Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Maisch told Hinz that other states have used the “but for” provision against Illinois. “They say if you come here, we can guarantee you these benefits” without attaching any strings.

* From the governor’s office…

The administration has worked closely with the business community to support legislation aimed at expanding economic development throughout the state. A closing fund would make Illinois more competitive in efforts to recruit new business investments in Illinois and would allow us to compete with our neighbors in the Midwest that have closing funds available.

Updating the language used in the EDGE program is a longstanding ask from the business community and this administration is committed to working with stakeholders to reduce red tape and attract even more jobs to the state. The Governor looks forward to discussing these priorities with the General Assembly and moving them forward.

Pritzker has floated the possibility of a $1 billion closing fund.

* The state has approved several incentives already. This bill, for instance, ended up zipping through both chambers during veto session…

Legislation introduced in Springfield today that quickly passed a Senate committee would both widen and extend to up to 30 years payroll tax credits for those who work here under the existing Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois law, known as the Rev Illinois Act.

Other provisions would loosen the definition of an EV worker and appear aimed at existing automakers in Illinois, especially Stellantis and Ford. They have huge conventional auto assembly plants in Illinois that could be converted to EV production, but likely only after years of preparation and work.

Aides to Gov. J.B. Pritzker were not immediately available to answer questions such as whether Rev Illinois has failed to produce the influx the state wanted, as a steady stream of new battery makers, suppliers and assembly plants alike have gone to Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and other states, not Illinois.

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Question of the day: 2022 Golden Horseshoe Awards

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The 2022 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Statewide Staffer goes to the crowd favorite Anne Caprara…

No disrespect to the other nominees, there are quite a few good ones here, but part of this conversation has to be the difficulty of the job. Caprara is too often times written off. She is constantly underestimated. Too many people root for her to fail. She rarely fails and has made her boss one of the most successful Governor’s in the country and one of the most successful in state history (in the first term). Whether you like her or not is immaterial to this question. She is a leader through and through.

* The 2022 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best State Agency Director goes to GOMB’s Alexis Sturm…

I’ll 4th the nomination for Alexis Sturm at GOMB, who deserves more credit than she gets for crafting these ever-improving budgets that could bog down and start losing votes if she did not skillfully put all the pieces together.

Congrats to both!

* Today’s categories…

Best Statewide Officeholder

As always, do your best to nominate in both categories and make sure to explain your nominations or they won’t count. The statewide officeholder can be a federal or state constitutional official. [I deleted “spokesperson” because I forgot that I already did that one. Oops!]

* And after you cast your votes, please click here and donate to Lutheran Social Services of Illinois to help buy presents for foster kids. More about what LSSI does…

We care for children who have been removed from their home by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) due to abuse and/or neglect. We place these children with caring foster families who receive training, licensing, and support from LSSI. The children in our care, and their biological parents, also receive support. In addition to its traditional foster care program, LSSI offers a Therapeutic Foster Care Program for children with histories of severe trauma and emotional/behavioral needs.

Working with LSSI’s child welfare staff, foster parents are part of a team offering loving, safe homes for children. Foster parents support each child’s connection to their family by helping with visits between siblings and biological parents.

Thanks!

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Supplement to today’s edition

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Morning briefing

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Thank you to all who have donated!…

We have now surpassed $40,000 to buy presents for foster kids! https://t.co/WJPRaFPutD

— Capitol Fax (@capitolfax) December 14, 2022

* Now to your morning briefing…

Sun-Times | Medicare Advantage health plans dodged auditors, overcharged taxpayers millions:

* WCIA | Sen. Bennett’s therapy dog law still making big impact, comforting child victims in Illinois: Prosecutors often hire victim advocates to help comfort victims, Sangamon county’s top victim advocate is so good, he doesn’t have to say a word to do his job. Gibson is a certified therapy dog. He was hired back in 2017, and since then, he’s made a huge impact.

* WAND | Sen. Bennett to be honored at Wreaths Across America: Wreaths Across America honors those buried in national cemeteries in all 50 states including the Danville National Cemetery. On Saturday 4,000 wreaths will be laid on graves with a special wreath honoring State Senator Scott Bennett.

* WILL 100 | Growing Asian American representation in the Illinois Statehouse : Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial demographic in Illinois. In 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Asians make up almost six percent of the state’s population. It also estimated the number of Asian people in Illinois increased by almost a quarter in the prior decade. But for all that growth, representation in state government has lagged. It was only in 2016 that the Illinois General Assembly had its first Asian American representative elected to office.

* Ted Slowik | Lawmakers on both sides face political pressure to oppose Illinois gun violence bill: This week, however, mainstream media paid modest attention to the testimony of survivors who spoke about the human toll of gun violence. It was one small step in a long struggle to wrest control of the narrative and talk about the human pain and suffering caused by guns, for a change.

* The Center Square | Supporters, opponents of Illinois gun-ban legislation prepare for fight: In the ongoing debate around proposed gun control legislation at the Illinois statehouse, advocacy groups on both sides are working to advance their positions… “The ISRA will not be entering into any negotiations on this piece of legislation,” Lombardo said in a video posted to the group’s website. “You’ve wanted to draw a line in the sand for a long time? OK. Now it’s time to draw that line. We will see the state of Illinois in court if this law is enacted. But we have a problem.”

* Crain’s | As Stellantis mulls Belvidere’s future, Pritzker moves to sweeten new EV incentives: Under the measure, expected to be put to a vote in the General Assembly’s January lame-duck session, Gov. J.B. Pritzker would get the huge “deal-closing fund” that other governors have. Insiders say the lack of such a fund recently cost the state a battery plant which, instead, was won by Michigan. The amount is being negotiated with General Assembly leaders, but Pritzker has suggested he’d like to have as much as $1 billion on hand to match offers from other states.

* WCSJ News | Departing Morris State Rep and Wife Now Own Local Business: Morris residents Ashley and David Welter purchased RE/MAX Top Properties from Vicki Geiger and Tana Nordaker on November 28th, 2022. Ashley Welter is the President and will be running the day-to-day operations of the office while pursuing her broker’s license. David Welter has been a broker with the office since October 2018.

* WTVO | New Illinois laws take effect Jan 1, 2023 after carjackings increase 767%: The first law makes it illegal to possess anything that unlocks or starts a car–other than a key fob– without permission of the owner. Such devices are considered burglary tools, the law states. Another law ensures that carjacking victims are not liable for violations or fees involving their stolen vehicles. The third provision that goes into effect on Jan. 1 provides grants and financial support to municipalities to assist with the identification, apprehension and prosecution of carjackers and the recovery of stolen vehicles.

* Tammy Duckworth | President Biden, make site of the 1908 Springfield Race Riots a national monument:Last year, along with my fellow Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, I introduced legislation that would designate the site of the 1908 Race Riots as a national monument. And while despite our efforts, Congressional gridlock has thus far prevented the bill from passing, there is still another path forward. The President can bypass that stalemate and give the bill an alternative way ahead through the Antiquities Act: a law that empowers the President to designate federal lands as national monuments in the hope of preserving and protecting spaces of historical or cultural significance.

* Sun-Times | Mayoral hopefuls agree solving crime is the answer — no matter what the question: Candidates often veered back to crime and public safety when answering questions on the CTA, businesses leaving the city and other matters at the forum, which was held on the Northwest Side.

* WGLT | Connie Beard to resign as McLean County Republican Party chair: Beard said she was resigning “due to a local change of residence and family needs.” The move comes about a month after a disappointing election for McLean County Republicans, in which Democrats achieved an even power-sharing split on the County Board and won seats representing Bloomington-Normal in the U.S. House, Illinois House, and Illinois Senate. Beard herself said “it makes no sense in sugarcoating the results,” which she called a “disappointment.”

* Lake Forester | Lake Forest mayoral race taking shape; ‘I think this is a really crucial time for the city’: Lake Forest is set to have a spirited mayoral race next year as former Alderwoman Prue Beidler has announced an independent candidacy, thus taking on the hierarchy of the Lake Forest Caucus.

* Sun-Times | Jury awards CPD whistleblower nearly $1 million: Isaac Lambert’s lawyers had sought as much as $2 million for veteran detective who was demoted for speaking out about 2017 shooting of an unarmed teen by an off-duty officer.

* Sun-Times | Ald. Sigcho-Lopez calls for hearings on CPD officer suspended over ties to the Proud Boys: The department’s handling of the probe “points out a much bigger problem about how internal affairs — and how, in general, the police department — is accountable to the public,” the alderperson said.

* Block Club Chicago | Proco Joe Moreno Should Be Kicked Off 1st Ward Ballot, Objectors Argue In Complaint: Two neighbors of candidate Sam Royko are challenging Moreno’s bid for office in part because of his criminal history, while a longtime backer of the former alderperson also is trying to get Royko tossed from the race.

* Washington Post | New penalties for companies that illegally fire workers who unionize: Companies that illegally fire or demote unionizing workers can now be held responsible for workers’ financial demise — including credit card late fees, lost housing or cars and health-care costs — in a move that could help some workers who have been fired from Starbucks and Amazon, labor activists say.

* In These Times | Crypto Predators Wage Class War with a Smile: This conjured aura of an urgent fear-of-missing-out propels entire industries. Billions of dollars can be made cultivating people’s fear that an opportunity is passing them by. It amounts to an entire chunk of the economy that does little more than pull up next to consumers in a mysterious van and yell, “No time to explain — get in!”

* Democracy Docket | New York Enacts Law To Count Valid Ballots Cast at Incorrect Polling Locations: On Tuesday, Dec. 6, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed into law S 284, which requires election officials to count provisional ballots cast by eligible voters who voted at the wrong precinct, but within the correct county and assembly district. Previously, New York would reject all ballots cast at incorrect polling locations, one of the factors that has contributed to New York’s exceedingly high ballot rejection rate, the third highest in the nation in 2020.

* CBS Chicago | NBA unveils the ‘Michael Jordan Trophy’ for the MVP: The NBA unveiled the newly designed “Michael Jordan Trophy,” on Tuesday, along with five other trophies trophies named after NBA legends. The winners will be presented to the end-of-season Kia Performance Award winners.

8 Comments

Open thread

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* What’s going on? Keep it Illinois-centric please.

12 Comments

Live coverage

Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Follow along with ScribbleLive…

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Afternoon news roundup

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* This is what happens when your party’s top candidates and former President warn gullible hyperpartisans about voting by mail. It obviously wouldn’t have won the race for Bailey, but it would’ve taken some pressure off whatever election day workers he had…

Democrats locally and nationally have a big advantage in early voting. In Champaign County, for example, more Democrats voted early or voted by mail than on Election Day. Gov. J.B. Pritzker got 10,907 votes by mail in Champaign County; 11,016 in-person early votes; and 18,088 Election Day votes.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey got 17,154 Election Day votes and 6,611 in-person early votes but just 2,296 votes by mail — about one-fifth Pritzker’s total.

* Sun-Times…

More than 130 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to save Illinoisans’ lives by speeding up the state’s transition to electric trucks that will reduce the amount of diesel fuel air pollution.

In a letter to the governor this week, the health professionals asked Pritzker to sign a pact with a group of other states that are setting goals for phasing out diesel fuel engines with near-term targets as early as 2030.

“Emissions from diesel truck engines are particularly harmful for the health of communities,” the doctors wrote in their letter. “This is especially true in lower-income communities and communities of color, which too often bear disproportionate health burdens due to increased pollution exposures from freeways, railyards, warehouses and other freight hubs.”

Pritzker has declined to sign on and, earlier this year, cited concerns about the impact on businesses. Pritzker didn’t provide a direct answer to the request in a statement from a spokesman this week and, instead, pointed to an electric vehicle rebate program now being offered.

Across Illinois, fine particle pollution from trucks will cause more than 400 early deaths, nearly 200 heart attacks and thousands of respiratory illnesses in 2023, a report released last May found.

* Scott Holland…

Seldom have I seen in the state political sphere such an instant outpouring of raw emotion than following the untimely death of state Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign, who succumbed to complications from a large brain tumor Friday. Reading through the statements Rich Miller compiled at his Capitol Fax blog (CapitolFax.com), as well as his Twitter posts and reader comments, was a moving, wrenching way to begin processing the loss of a 45-year-old husband and father who clearly leaves a gaping hole in his home, community and the Statehouse.

It really felt unprecedented. There was an even larger outpouring when Judy Baar Topinka passed, but she was widely known.

* Lightfoot campaign press release…

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy on Tuesday released the following statement in response to the news that cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested on criminal charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations and more:

“The federal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried raise serious questions about his bankrolling of Chuy Garcia’s campaign to the tune of nearly $200,000. What were Bankman-Fried’s motives for spending so much on Rep. Garcia’s reelection, and what did Garcia promise in return – particularly when he was running unopposed at the time? Further, a June 2022 Sun-Times article reported that Rep. Garcia said he’d had a direct conversation with Mr. Bankman-Fried prior to Bankman-Fried’s decision to make his campaign a beneficiary of his wealth. What was said in that conversation that gave Mr. Bankman-Fried the impression that Garcia was such a worthwhile investment for him?”

“Samuel Bankman-Fried has done real harm, and the implications of his donations must be taken seriously. Voters deserve to know the facts when making important decisions about who they can trust. Unfortunately it seems that Chuy Garcia will bring back the old way of doing Chicago-style politics – and we can’t afford that in City Hall.”

US Rep. Garcia got $2,900 in direct contributions from Bankman-Fried, plus this…

The PAC spent $151,420 for direct mail pieces to support Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., even though he is running unopposed in the Democratic primary — and the little known Republican on the ballot in the safe Democratic district is not raising or spending money. That a PAC jumps in a race where a candidate has, for practical purposes, zero real opposition is highly unusual.

Garcia told the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday that Bankman-Fried phoned him about a week-and-a-half ago to discuss one of his issues, pandemic preparedness. Garcia is a member of the Financial Services Committee, which regulates parts of the digital assets industry.

We may never know the extent of SBF’s spending because he gave a lot of cash through dark money groups, including apparently to Republicans.

Either way, I’m guessing the mayor believes the new poll.

* Sun-Times op-ed…

I recently read a story by Sun-Times reporters Nader Issa and Fran Spielman on how the city, under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, is shifting educational expenses the city once covered back to the Chicago Public Schools.

The reason? Starting in 2025, CPS will be governed by an elected school board, not one appointed by the office of the mayor. No oversight, no money. So the financially strapped CPS could soon face a budget deficit of $600 million, with future “school closings and mass layoffs” possible. […]

The governor and legislators need to come up with a long-term funding plan for CPS for the city’s sake. No slap-dash, one-time fixes.

A mayor has deliberately yanked money from her city’s schools after the General Assembly approved an elected school board and now it’s the legislature’s job to fix it? Maybe Rep. Cassidy can come up with a bill /s

* Speaking of Lightfoot…

Today, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s re-election campaign released its third TV ad, “Sacrifices.” In the ad, Mayor Lightfoot describes the impact her parents’ grit had on her and the sacrifices they endured so she and her siblings could lead better lives and how that motivates her every day.

“Sacrifices” also highlights how that motivation guides Mayor Lightfoot to fight for all families in Chicago emphasizing her administration’s key initiative, INVEST South/West. With these historic investments totaling more than $2 billion, progress is happening across the city, as the initiative has begun to pay off.

“Sacrifices” will run on TV and across digital platforms beginning today.

Watch “Sacrifices”

“Sacrifices” Full Transcript

Mayor Lightfoot: [to camera] I’m the youngest of four kids. Both my parents were born in the segregated South. I wouldn’t be sitting here, but for the sacrifices that my parents made for me, and particularly my mom.

Mayor Lightfoot: [announcing to a crowd] My mother.

Mayor Lightfoot: [to camera] My parents sacrificed everything to make sure that my brothers and sister and I could have a better life, a life that they could never have imagined. As mayor, I’m doing everything I can to widen and open up opportunities for those families who are growing up like the ones like mine.

“Widen and open up opportunities” except for cutting K-12 spending.

* Isabel’s roundup…

WBEZ | CPS spent $308 million on school technology since 2020. Now what?:

* Press Release | Gov. Pritzker Announces Sean M. Smoot as Chairman of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board:
“Throughout his career, Sean Smoot has prioritized making Illinois safer, sometimes in extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “I can think of no one who is more qualified for this position, and I wish him the very best of luck as he begins his term.” “Sean Smoot is dedicated and has a wealth of experience as well as a collaborative spirit,” said Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton. “I congratulate Sean and look forward to the continued excellence he will bring to this new role.”

* Axios | Illinois lags in energy efficiency despite new law: Illinois ranked 16th best this year, slipping from 15th and 11th in two previous years. Why it matters: Policies can drive real change, and Gov. JB Pritzker has vowed to make the state a climate leader. Highs and lows: Top scores went to California and Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Maine; Kansas and Wyoming ranked worst.

* Daily Herald | Travel is spiking as gas prices keep dipping, AAA forecasts: “If this trend continues, many states could see their average prices fall below $3 a gallon by early next year.” Gas price averages were $3.55 a gallon in the Chicago region Monday compared to $4.41 a month ago.

* ProPublica | Ken Griffin Spent $54 Million Fighting a Tax Increase for the Rich. Secret IRS Data Shows It Paid Off for Him.: For billionaire Ken Griffin, it was well worth spending $54 million to ensure he and other rich Illinoisans wouldn’t have to pay more tax. By the time Illinois voters streamed into voting booths on Election Day in 2020, Griffin, then Illinois’ wealthiest resident, had made sure they’d heard plenty about why they should not vote to raise taxes on him and the state’s other rich people. His tens of millions paid for an unrelenting stream of ads and flyers against an initiative on that year’s ballot, which would have allowed Illinois lawmakers to join 32 other states in setting higher tax rates for the wealthy than for everyone else.

* Illinois Answers Project | Pritzker will sign into law measure to prohibit state investments in Russian companies : State pension funds would have to pull millions of dollars in investments from Russian stocks and bonds under a measure the Illinois General Assembly has approved and that the governor is expected to sign into law. The measure unanimously passed the House in April of this year following the attack in February by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the turnaround for the Senate to consider it was too quick for it to be made into law by the end of regular session, according to some lawmakers.

* NYT | Republicans Are Breaking With the N.R.A., and It’s Because of Us: Her polling picked up an even more decisive change just recently. “We’ve broadened out the villain,” she said. For decades, Americans saw the N.R.A. as the impediment to gun legislation. But rage is refocusing on Congress, increasingly seen as the N.R.A.’s collaborators: “politicians who actually fail to do anything again and again,” she said, “and have failed to stand up to the N.R.A. And that’s what people actually want — are politicians with a backbone.” It’s why Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa — an N.R.A. darling who ran for office by firing a handgun in a major ad campaign — broke with the organization leading up to the June vote. She said her phone lines were swamped, six to one in favor of the gun safety bill, urgently repeating: “Please do something.”

* CNBC | Consumer prices rose less than expected in November, up 7.1% from a year ago: Stocks initially roared higher following the report, with futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 800 points initially before easing a bit. However, the rally lost much of its steam through the session, and the Dow was up just 50 points or so near 2:30 p.m. ET. “Cooling inflation will boost the markets and take pressure off the Fed for raising rates, but most importantly this spells real relief starting for Americans whose finances have been punished by higher prices,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union. “This is especially true for lower-income Americans who are disproportionately hurt by inflation.

* Crain’s | Paul Vallas’ anti-crime program takes a turn to the political right: Also on Vallas’ list is reviving the Chicago Transit Authority’s police transit unit and giving it full legal authority to make arrests. “Commuters should be as safe on the CTA as they are in our city’s airports,” he said. “Public transportation in Chicago under my administration will be synonymous with safe passage.” Vallas said he’d get some of the money to hire a force of 600 to 700 officers by replacing private security guards that the CTA recently hired. “This new unit would ensure that all stations and platforms have a police presence,” he said. The promise to enact and enforce, “a robust public nuisance ordinance” aimed at those “who disturb the public peace and threaten to do harm to witnesses, victims and communities” is a bit of a blast from the past—it sounds much like the controversial “broken windows” strategy employed by former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani.

* WBEZ | Delaying access to Chicago police radio calls threatens public safety, media coalition says: The city’s new system prevents news reporters and the public from getting instant access to police scanners that broadcast information about crimes and emergencies — access that had been available for decades.

* Sun-Times | Chicago Plan Commission endorses Bally’s casino plan: The city’s planning agency Monday approved zoning for the proposed Bally’s casino at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, a step in the $1.7 billion project’s journey through government approvals. The approval came despite a last-minute objection from a key alderperson. The Chicago Plan Commission endorsed the Bally’s proposal embraced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, which includes a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater and event center and a riverwalk. The casino would get 4,000 gaming positions.

* Crain’s | Local activist takes her fight for an assault weapons ban to the national stage: The current Senate bill, S.736, passed the House at the end of July but expires at the end of the year with congressional turnover. It needs 60 votes to pass and has the support of President Joe Biden. While both Illinois senators, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, already are co-sponsors, two new ones, Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., are helping further the cause, Brandtner says: “We have time and we have momentum.”

* Tribune | Chicago homicides in 2022: 661 people have been slain. Here’s how that compares with previous years.: The number of people slain so far in 2022: 661. That’s 110 fewer people killed when compared with this same date in 2021.

* Crain’s | Sears Hometown files for bankruptcy: The retailer listed assets of no more than $50 million and liabilities of at least $50 million in its bankruptcy court petition, filed in Delaware. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows companies to continue operating while working on a plan to repay creditors.

* Crain’s | Belvidere Jeep plant to be ‘idle, not closed,’ Stellantis exec says: The Illinois plant that builds the Jeep Cherokee is being shut down in early 2023, but Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart on Monday said the factory still could have a future. Stewart, during an event at a Detroit-area plant, said the automaker is “continuing to look at what we can do to repurpose that facility — but it’s idle, not closed.”

* Daily Herald | Landmark Illinois compiling list of most endangered historic places: Landmarks Illinois is accepting nominations for the 2023 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois, which calls attention to historic and culturally significant sites across the state that are threatened with deterioration, demolition or inappropriate development.

* Tribune | Defensive coordinator Ryan Walters leaves Illinois to be the new head coach at Purdue: Walters, 36, becomes the fourth-youngest coach in the Bowl Subdivision behind Kenny Dillingham (32, Arizona State), Kane Wommack (35, South Alabama) and Dan Lanning (36, Oregon). Walters replaces Jeff Brohm, who left to become the new head coach at Louisville.

* The Guardian | Ninety-year-old woman is oldest person to graduate from Illinois university: Joyce DeFauw of Illinois has given a whole new meaning to the term super senior, used for students who take longer than the usual four years to get their undergraduate degrees. On Sunday, the 90-year-old received a bachelor’s of general studies from Northern Illinois University more than seven decades after she first stepped on campus, becoming what officials believe to be the eldest person to ever graduate from the school.

19 Comments

Legal fight over the meaning of bail

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* From the Illinois Constitution…

All persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for the following offenses where the proof is evident or the presumption great: capital offenses; offenses for which a sentence of life imprisonment may be imposed as a consequence of conviction; and felony offenses for which a sentence of imprisonment, without conditional and revocable release, shall be imposed by law as a consequence of conviction, when the court, after a hearing, determines that release of the offender would pose a real and present threat to the physical safety of any person.

That passage is at the heart of the state’s attorneys’ lawsuit challenging the SAFE-T Act’s constitutionality…

Lawyers for the sheriffs and prosecutors have insisted in their briefs that, “The Illinois Constitution interprets bail, at its core, to include a monetary amount that, though it may take different forms, cannot be abolished altogether without running afoul of the Constitution.”

State lawyers say their opponents have misread the document. Lawmakers sought to clarify things earlier this month, changing the law to note that the “sureties” at issue are meant to be “nonmonetary in nature.”

Still, that doesn’t change the meaning “in the Constitution itself,” the opponents noted in their new brief. […]

“It doesn’t have to be money,” said [Ann Lousin, a professor of law at University of Illinois Chicago Law School who lectures and consults on the Illinois constitution], who also worked on the drafting of the 1970 state constitution. […]

Whether these questions are even hashed out before Cunnington remains to be seen. State lawyers argue the judge shouldn’t consider the sureties question on its merits. They argue that the constitution’s “sufficient sureties” requirement is a right bestowed on criminal defendants — meaning prosecutors and sheriffs can’t claim it as a violated right of their own.

* As I’ve told you before, the Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Pretrial Practices defined bail this way in its final report…

Bail: The process of releasing a defendant from custody with conditions set to reasonably assure public safety and court appearance. […]

“Bail” is often used to refer to the amount of cash that a defendant must post as a condition of release. “Bond” is sometimes treated as a synonym of “bail.” Understood properly, “bail” – which literally means, “release” – is a process of releasing a defendant from custody on conditions designed to assure both public safety and the person’s appearance in court. A “bond” occurs whenever a defendant enters an agreement with the court. The agreement may, but need not necessarily, include a financial condition, but can also or instead include a variety of other conditions such as electronic monitoring, curfews, supervised visits or appointments, etc.

23 Comments

Question of the day: 2022 Golden Horseshoe Awards

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The 2022 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Do-Gooder Lobbyist goes to John Amdor…

SAFE-T Act trailer and expansion of the EITC doesn’t get done without his leadership and those are two big wins in any year, let alone two in one.

Nuff said.

* The 2022 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Legislative Liaison goes to Andi VanderKolk from the Illinois Department of Insurance…

She does an excellent job of balancing all of the varied interests in the issues she works on (including that of her own agency) and does so with professionalism and grace. She single-handedly navigated an extremely ambitious legislative agenda thrust upon her during a shortened session and still managed to remain as responsive and as accessible as she always is. And to top it all off, she is a just a genuinely kind and warm human that no matter how tough the issue, or what side of it one is on, you still want to have coffee or hang out with her and talk about the day, the week or just life in general.

Andi was clearly the crowd favorite and had a ton of solid nominations.

Congratulations!

* On to today’s categories…

Best State Agency Director

Please do your utmost to nominate in both categories and explain your nominations or they won’t count. Thanks!

* After you vote, please come back and read this story: Before 2019, I helped Lutheran Social Services of Illinois raise a little money during my annual Christmas speech. It was usually around a couple thousand dollars plus a bunch of toys for foster kids. But I stopped doing that speech and decided to switch to online fundraising in 2019. Y’all really stepped up by contributing $11,111 to honor our late commenter Wordslinger that year to buy presents for foster kids in LSSI’s programs. In 2020, we raised $12,175 for LSSI’s kids. Last year, we raised $22,700 for presents.

Well, as I write this, you have so far contributed $39,798! That is just amazing, and the folks at LSSI are simply over the moon with joy. Most importantly, though, you’re helping give a whole lot of foster kids a great holiday to remember. Merry Christmas!

As I’ve already told you, because of your generosity, LSSI has revised its fundraising goal to $45,000. We are not the only ones raising money to buy presents for those foster kids, but we’re by far the largest group. So if LSSI is going to make it to their new goal, it’s mainly up to us to help them get there.

Please, click here and help buy presents for foster kids. If you haven’t yet done so, now’s your chance. If you have already given, but could contribute just a little more, that would be so very awesome. Thanks and I love you all.

46 Comments

Chicago poll shows crime and public safety far above any other issues for voters

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Heather Cherone at WTTW…

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García is the “front runner” in the race for Chicago mayor, according to a new poll commissioned by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 obtained Monday by WTTW News.

“Chuy Garcia is the frontrunner today in the race for Chicago mayor, leading Mayor Lori Lightfoot by 7 points in the first round and 31 points in the second,” the poll concludes. “He is the most popular candidate for mayor and is the favorite to win.” […]

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who has the backing of most of Chicago’s progressive organizations, the Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employee International Union Local 73 and SEIU Healthcare Illinois, is largely unknown. More than 70% of Chicago voters do not have an opinion on his candidacy, according to the poll.

More than 70% of voters rated crime and public safety as their No. 1 or No. 2 most important issue, with no other issue coming close, according to the poll.

* OK, let’s focus on crime and public safety. Here’s how the polling question was asked…

Of the following, which would you say is the most important issue in Chicago for the Mayor and City Council to address?

You will recall that crime was not a huge issue for voters in the fall campaign except in Chicago, where it consistently ranked at the top of the list. But now, when the question is about what city leaders should be doing, it has rocketed up even further.

57 percent said their number one issue was “crime and public safety.” Affordable housing and homelessness was second, but it came in at just 10 percent.

As noted in Heather’s article, when you combine respondents’ first and second choices, crime and public safety came in at a whopping 71 percent. Affordable housing and homelessness was still second at 24 percent. Again, when you combine 1st and 2nd choices together, schools and education were next at 22 percent, inflation and rising costs were at 19 percent, taxes were at 17 percent, jobs and the economy were at 14 percent, government corruption and ethics were at 11 percent, racial equity was at 10 percent and roads and infrastructure were at 7 percent.

Also of note, respondents were read favorable talking points about some of the candidates and then they were asked to reevaluate their votes. The needle barely moved on any of the candidates.

* I was asked not to post the poll itself, but here is the polling memo…

• Garcia is in first place, ahead of Lori Lightfoot and Paul Vallas. In a full, ten-way vote Garcia comes in first with 25% followed by Lightfoot (18%), Vallas (14%), and Wilson (10%), while 14% are completely undecided. No other candidate garners more than 10%. Garcia leads with Latinos, leads among both college-educated and non-college whites, and is tied for second with Black voters (32% Lightfoot / 18% Garcia / 18% Wilson).

• Garcia is broadly popular across groups. He is broadly popular with white (53% fav / 32% unfav), Black (58% fav / 21% unfav), and Latino (60% fav / 30% unfav) voters. His support spans ideology, with good numbers among self-described progressive Democrats (74% fav / 12% unfav) and moderate/conservative Democrats (50% fav / 31% unav).

• Lori Lightfoot is deeply unpopular. Voters rate her job as Mayor negatively by 40 points (29% positive / 69% negative). 84% of white voters and 72% of Latinos rate her job as Mayor negatively, while Black voters are closely divided on her (50% positive / 48% negative).

• In a runoff, Garcia leads Lightfoot by a whopping 31 points (55% Garcia / 24% Lightfoot). He is tied among Black voters, up 52 among whites, and up 40 among Latinos. He leads her in the Lakefront (+52) and on the Northwest side (+51).

* More runoff results…

Lori Lightfoot 34%
Paul Vallas 41%
[VOL] Undecided 25%

Lori Lightfoot 24%
Chuy Garcia 55%
[VOL] Undecided 21%

Lori Lightfoot 31%
Pat Quinn 37%
[VOL] Undecided 32%

Quinn has dropped out, but I included him to give you an idea of how unpopular Lightfoot is, except maybe when it comes to Willie Wilson.

…Adding… Wanted to front-page something I wrote in comments…

Just because people say public safety is a top issue, that doesn’t mean they’re siding with Dan Proft and Darren Bailey’s version of how to deal with crime.

The people in the city and elsewhere are generally ahead of the mainstream media on this topic. It ain’t the 1990s any longer. And addressing it is not an either/or choice.

62 Comments

First House hearing held on new assault weapon proposal

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Mike Miletich…

When will enough be enough? It’s a question many people ask following the hundreds of mass shootings that make headlines each year. Survivors of recent mass shootings in Illinois are demanding a ban on the weapons used to kill their family members, friends, and neighbors. #twill pic.twitter.com/nD81s0MjE8

— Mike Miletich (@MikeMiletichTV) December 13, 2022

* The Sun-Times…

House Democrats on Dec. 1 introduced legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons immediately, prevent sales of ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds and raise eligibility for a state firearm owner identification card for most Illinois residents to 21.

Sponsors need just 60 votes come Jan. 1, and they plan to take up the measure during the lame duck session early next month. […]

After the Highland Park shooting, legislators began meeting in a working group to try to come up with legislative solutions to prevent another mass shooting tragedy. Police say shooting suspect Robert Crimo III used a Smith & Wesson M&P15, an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle whose initials, M&P, stand for “military and police” to kill seven people and injure 48 others.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he would support passage of an assault weapons ban. Gun control groups have also formed a new nonprofit group called “Protect Illinois Communities,” which is helping to drum up support via television ads and mailers.

* The Tribune…

On the surface, Highland Park and East Garfield Park don’t have much in common.

But in the past six months, both the affluent, largely white North Shore suburb and the impoverished, largely Black neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side have been devastated by mass shootings. In both cases, assailants fired into crowds, killing seven and wounding dozens more in Highland Park on the Fourth of July and killing one and injuring 13 others in East Garfield Park on Halloween night.

Two survivors of those shootings — Lauren Bennett, who was shot twice in Highland Park, and Conttina Phillips, who was shot in the leg in East Garfield Park — were among those voicing support Monday for a proposal from Illinois House Democrats to ban the sale of certain assault-style guns and large-capacity magazines and to bar most people under 21 from getting gun permits.

Bennett and Phillips shared their stories during the first of three planned hearings on the measure, which House Democrats hope to pass when they return to Springfield for a brief lame-duck session just after the new year. Gun rights advocates are expected to testify at a future hearing. […]

While Democrats control the General Assembly, whether they can move such a politically charged proposal through both chambers in the few scheduled days before a new set of lawmakers is sworn in Jan. 11 remains uncertain. Gun control measures have a history of breaking down along regional as well as partisan lines, and top Democrats in the Senate have yet to weigh in publicly.

* Capitol News Illinois…

But many other people came to the hearing to remind lawmakers that Highland Park – an upscale, predominantly white suburb north of Chicago – is not the only community in Illinois to experience a mass shooting and that Black and brown communities are far more likely to be the scenes of such violence.

“On July 4 of this year, when the tragedy occurred in Highland Park, my heart went out to them. …I continue to pray for them,” said Jaquie Algee, a South Side resident who lost her only son in a different shooting. “But at the same token, in Black communities around the city and state, there were 10 – in this city – 10 Black kids that were shot and killed that day. There were 62 that were shot and injured.”

“We don’t have people rushing to give us therapy and counselors and people who will work with our children and our communities, and people to help to recover from this pain,” she added. “That doesn’t happen for us. And that’s a shame.”

Among other things, HB5855 would make it illegal to manufacture, sell or purchase an assault-style weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50-caliber rifle, or .50-caliber cartridge. And starting 300 days after the bill takes effect, it would make it illegal to possess such a weapon or ammunition unless it is registered with the Illinois State Police.

* State Journal-Register…

Rep. Bob Morgan’s legislation lists more than 100 weapons that would be banned, including the AR-15 rifle which was used to kill seven people and injure 48 others during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park. The bill also increases the age for most Illinoisans to carry a firearm from 18 to 21.

“Gun violence is destroying families and communities from East St. Louis to Highland Park to Chicago, and this moment demands urgency,” said Morgan, who was walking in the Highland Park Parade when the shooting began. “It is time that we had the political courage to admit that guns are a problem and that we can do something about it. This gun reform package will reduce gun deaths in Illinois, and it is long past time for us to step up and reform the laws which have enabled this gun violence to continue.”

The Protect Illinois Communities Act has more than 25 co-sponsors as of Friday and is expected to be a priority for the Illinois General Assembly when lawmakers return in January for the lame-duck session or early in the regular session. […]

“Whether it happens during the lame-duck session, which I know is the expectation, or it happens during regular session … it’s important that we do it as fast as possible, there’s no doubt,” Pritzker said last week. “But I just want to be clear that our aim is to get it done in the first half of the year.” He originally called for action following the Highland Park shooting.

* WTTW…

The initial testimony came from survivors like Lauren Bennett, who was with her family, including her young sons, at the Fourth of July Parade in Highland Park when she heard what initially sounded like fireworks.

It wasn’t. […]

“Imagine a hot, metal dart-like projectile tearing through your body at supersonic speed. Faster than the speed of sound. You’ll feel it burn through your skin and likely you’ll grab whatever part of your body was hit because you know that something’s not right, only to feel excessive amounts of blood draining out of you and soaking everything,” she said. “At this point, you most likely feel like you are dying, maybe wondering if this is how it all ends. I can assure you that is what I was thinking.”

She was shot once in her lower back and hip, then as she got up to run she was shot again, in her upper back, nearly missing her spinal cord. […]

“My husband was running with our 6 and 9-year-old boys, literally for their lives, shielding them while exposing himself to shooting bullets, because we all know that their innocent young lives are far more precious than our own,” Bennett said. “These boys dodged bullets, jumped over fallen bodies while running behind me, looking at my blood-soaked body, and they assumed their mother was probably bleeding to death.”

* The Center Square…

Public health officials said gun restrictions are necessary, including expanding the firearms restraining order from six months to a full year as Morgan’s bill would do. Representatives from Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago also advocated for increasing the age to get a Firearm Owner’s Identification card to 21.

* ABC 7…

“Ten of my family members were shot, including three kids, ages from 3, 13 and 11,” Patterson said. “There is an epidemic out there, the spread of gun violence is everywhere.”

A resolution is also being introduced Monday morning, honoring Highland Park first responders and officials for jumping in to help the victims of the July Fourth mass shooting.

Republican state representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the legislation.

* Sen. Robert Peters…

“Every time there's a mass shooting, you look at Wall Street, and an investor is making a buck. It keeps happening, and those same people, those same investors, tell us, 'It's an individual's fault. It's your community's fault.'"https://t.co/EEBg2GRdVS

— Robert Peters (@RobertJPeters) December 13, 2022

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Services announced for Sen. Bennett

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller

* WTAX…

Funeral arrangements have been announced for State Senator Scott Bennett.

A spokesperson from the Office of the Senate President confirmed that a memorial service for Senator Scott Bennett will be held on Monday, December 19 at 10:00 a.m. at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (500 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801).

* Also from the Office of the Senate President…

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations in Senator Bennett’s memory to CU Able or Champaign-Urbana Autism Network, as his priority for the upcoming legislative session was going to center around assistance for people with disabilities.

And you can click here to help Sen. Bennett’s family via Meal Train. Their friends have so far raised more than $29,000 for Sen. Bennett’s spouse and two kids. Several others have pledged their time to help out with meals and child care.

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Morning briefing

Tuesday, Dec 13, 2022 - Posted by Isabel Miller

* Here you go…

Sun-Times | SAFE-T Act faces next test in court, where opponents say it violates state Constitution:

* Ford County Chronicle | A life remembered: Sen. Scott Bennett made his native Gibson City proud: Indeed, a lot of people loved Sen. Bennett, D-Champaign, whose sudden, unexpected death Friday afternoon shocked and saddened countless people from his native Gibson City to across Illinois. From state officials and professional colleagues to constituents and friends, condolences came from around the state Friday for Sen. Bennett’s family, including his wife, Stacy, and their two young children, twins Emma and Sam.

* SJ-R | Illinois Democrats want to act with ‘urgency’ on proposal banning assault weapons : First introduced during the final week of the veto session by House firearm safety and reform working group chairman Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, House Bill 5855 would outlaw the manufacture, possession, delivery, selling, and purchasing of assault weapons, .50 caliber rifles, and .50 caliber cartridges. The proposal comes as firearm homicides increased by 35% from 2019 to 2020 nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

* WTTW | García Claims ‘Front Runner’ Status by 7 Points in Race for Mayor, Says Poll Commissioned by Operating Engineers Union: “Local 150 commissioned a comprehensive poll as an in-kind contribution to Garcia’s campaign,” said Ed Maher, the union’s spokesperson. “The poll made clear that García has broad support across the city of Chicago and that voters understand all of the positives that he will bring as mayor.”

* ABC Chicago | Chicago mayor race: Hearings held as Willie Wilson, Ja’Mal Green try to kick each other off ballot: Several candidates challenged the petition signatures of their rivals in attempt to disqualify them from the February election. There were a total of six hearings on Monday involving the race for mayor, but the two of note have pitted businessman Willie Wilson against community activist Ja’Mal Green as they try to boot another off the ballot.

* BGA Policy | How Illinois Courts Are Hidden From FOIA: To help shine light on Illinois’ judicial branch, BGA Policy is proud to lead the Court Transparency Coalition, which recommends that the judicial branch be added to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The Coalition, composed of BGA Policy, The Civic Federation, the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, Chicago Community Bond Fund, Chicago Council of Lawyers, Chicago Justice Project, Illinois Justice Project, the League of Women Voters of Illinois, Common Cause Illinois and Reform for Illinois has committed to advocating for change to FOIA by amending the FOIA law to include the judiciary.

* The Center Square | Illinois drivers can expect two gas tax increases in 2023: Motor fuel prices in Illinois are down nearly 70 cents a gallon since this time last month. However, the state is set to increase the fuel tax Jan. 1 by 3.1 cents a gallon, for a total of 42.3 cents per gallon, second highest in the U.S. Another increase will occur in the summer on July 1.

* Tribune | The Satanic Temple of Illinois has the right to build a holiday display in Springfield. Members say it’s about religious freedom.: For the fourth time since 2018, the Satanic Temple of Illinois — a statewide chapter with about 100 members, part of a religion boasting half a million followers internationally — was in Springfield on an early December morning, not to worship a devil or perform a ritual sacrifice. Odd as it sounds, the Satanic Temple does not recognize a Biblical Satan. It is a self-described nontheistic group dedicated to the pursuit of religious plurality, free thought and pushing back against any form of conformist doctrine.

* Tribune | Moms, rejected applicants decry new Chicago Fire Department exam procedures that shrink testing pool for city firefighters: Gone is the old-school method where tens of thousands of applicants sat at once for a written exam resulting in a hiring list whittled in the hiring process. City officials have abandoned wide-open hiring events of the past for smaller, more diverse pools of candidates, adding that those rejected could reapply to take the test in two years instead of the approximately 10 years between each exam.

* The Center Square | Lawmaker says Illinois has work to do for better senior care: Pritzker spoke at the event and promised to continue working to prioritize senior care. “Over the past year, I have partnered with CHA to provide more than $137 million to help finance the creation and preservation of nearly 1,400 affordable housing apartments across Chicago,” Pritzker said. “Many of those are set aside for seniors.”

* Sun-Times | Chicago Plan Commission endorses Bally’s casino plan: The action sends the zoning proposal to the City Council, but 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.’s objection could delay its consideration.

* FOX Chicago | Naperville man put stickers in the shape of swastikas on campaign signs: prosecutors: Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 16, Klingeman allegedly defaced two campaign signs for Gustin with swastika stickers he created with a marker and other stickers, prosecutors said.

* Tribune | NBA renames its MVP trophy after Michael Jordan — a 5-time winner of the award with the Chicago Bulls: The MVP trophy honors Jordan’s illustrious career, which included six NBA championships during his 13 seasons with the Bulls. Widely considered the greatest player in league history, Jordan received 11 All-NBA honors and 14 All-Star selections and won 10 scoring titles. In addition to the five MVP awards, he was named NBA Finals MVP six times, Defensive Player of the Year in 1988 and Rookie of the Year in 1985.