Gov. Pat Quinn says he decided to spend his day remembering fallen Chicago firefighters and honoring veterans rather than listen to public testimony about a plan to bring terrorism suspects to an Illinois prison.
Quinn says his top staff is at Tuesday’s hearing before the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability in Sterling.
Look, it’s hugely admirable that the governor concerns himself with these ceremonial things. I, for one, appreciate it. But there’s also that governing aspect that he’s missing here. This Thomson sale is his baby. He should be at that hearing.
A federal judge today ordered a new trial for former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, the highest-ranking Daley administration official convicted in the hiring investigation of City Hall.
Sanchez, convicted by a jury in March for his role in rigging city hiring, had sought a new trial on grounds that authorities failed to disclose one of the prosecution witnesses was a high-ranking gang leader and drug dealer.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ruled the government was obligated to disclose their witness’ prior gang activity and arrest record. Prosecutors and FBI agents have acknowledged that defense lawyers were not made aware of the extent of the witness’ criminal ties but said that wasn’t a sufficient reason for a new trial.
Not sure what I think of that one. I’m sure there will be more than a little gnashing of teeth.
* And a surprise that I probably should’ve expected: The absolutely horrid 3G reception at O’Hare Airport today. I suppose there’s lots of snow-stranded travelers checking their e-mail, etc., but I really thought I could get a connection faster than dial-up. Nope. Heck, at times I can’t even get that.
Consequently, there will be no holiday video today. Post links to your favorite video in comments, but please keep it holiday related and clean. Thanks much.
Democratic Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson said Friday she wasn’t sure if she would be called to testify in the upcoming corruption trial of her former boss, ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. […]
When asked if she thought there was a possibility of being called to testify in the trial, which could occur before the general election, she said, “I don’t know.”
“I have had no role in any of the issues or political decisions,” she said of her work with Blagojevich. “I didn’t work with the campaign.”
As a former top-level employee in the governor’s office for four years, however, it stands to reason there is a possibility she could be called to testify by either defense attorneys or prosecutors.
Jackson made clear she had no knowledge of any criminal activity in the governor’s office.
In a Daily Herald editorial board interview Monday, Ryan said he never was aware of Levine’s corruption or secret drug use, which surfaced in Rezko’s trial. Levine has not been accused of wrongdoing on behalf of Jim Ryan.
“Stu Levine gave me a lot of money over my entire career,” said Ryan, who also was DuPage County State’s Attorney for three terms. “I thought he did it because he believed in me. He did a lot for me, I didn’t do anything for him except to be his friend.” […]
When asked if he learned anything from having a close friend like Levine turn out to be corrupt, Ryan said, “I guess the answer is Reagan: trust but verify.”
President Ronald Reagan made the phrase famous in describing his diplomacy with the Soviet Union.
“You can completely trust someone and find out you are wrong,” Ryan said. “You think you know someone and you don’t.”
State Rep. Julie Hamos told a debate audience [Sunday] that she’s the best Democrat to win the 10th Congressional District seat because of her experience and ability to woo voters who’ve backed Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk for a decade.
But her two opponents in the Feb. 2 primary scoffed at that notion, suggesting that experience in Springfield might not be so valuable, given state government’s dire straits.
“There are lots of things that are wrong with Washington,” said Dan Seals of Wilmette. “Not being enough like Springfield is not one of them.”
“I’m a nice guy who hasn’t been in Springfield for the past 10 years,” said Elliot Richardson, a Highland Park attorney. “I think that’s a good thing.”
* I’m speechless. The Ron Magers segments with Roe Conn are the one major highlight of daily Chicago commercial radio. And now, Citadel, in all its wisdom, has canceled Magers’ contract…
Citadel Broadcasting’s bankruptcy filing claimed its first Chicago casualty Monday: Ron Magers, No. 1 news anchor at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, has been dropped as a daily contributor to Roe Conn’s afternoon show on news/talk WLS-AM (890).
Today will be Magers’ last day after almost 12 years as a commentator and raconteur on Conn’s program. Magers’ in-studio presence (heard from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday) consistently was a highlight of the show — and often was the best half-hour of conversation in all of Chicago radio. Yes, he really was that good.
* NBC5 asked me to post a few items every day on the company’s revamped web site last year, but I turned them down for various reasons. First, the money was a joke. But, second, I don’t like working for somebody else. Steve Rhodes found that last part out the hard way…
I am no longer contributing to NBCChicago.com and I feel obliged to tell readers why. It’s also a tale that needs to be told in any case.
I was going to start this column this way:
“Tribune Company never interfered with my work after they bought Chicago magazine when I was working in part as an online media critic there. I had to work for NBC Universal for that to happen.”
But to bend over backwards to be fair to Tribune Company, I’m still not certain whether that happened - despite being told so on two occasions by two people.
Rhodes left after the station removed this post from its website about Tribune Company’s new CEO. Go read the whole thing to see what happened to Rhodes, but it looks like Mother Tribune might have flexed some muscle with Rhodes’ former boss. There’s more at WBEZ’s site.
* This isn’t really about the media, but it involves a web site, so I guess it kinda qualifies, and I wanted to post it anyway…
A group of Chicago Bear fans mad at the team’s dismal season isn’t waiting for the head office to review the job of head coach Lovie Smith. Instead they are publicly demanding the coach be fired along with the rest of the Bears staff.
The founder of the new Web site www.bearfansunited.org wants the voice of unhappy Bear fans heard and is collecting donations to erect a billboard urging the McCaskey family to “do the right thing and clean house, and hire an entirely new coaching staff.”
Shouldn’t they just hire a new team while they’re at it? And maybe fire the owners as well? Let’s start over. Nuke the whole operation, top to bottom.
* Related…
* A Very Short List: Publishers That Have Actually Told Google to Take a Hike
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have finally signed off on a $77.25 million settlement for losses in the state’s Bright Start 529 college savings plan.
Families with money in the affected Core Plus bond fund in the period between Jan. 1, 2008, and Jan. 25, 2009, will recoup a substantial portion –but not all — of their losses from OppenheimerFunds, Inc. […]
Overall losses for the plan’s Core Bond fund during that one-year period are estimated at about $150 million. A subsequent market rebound recouped some value. But the settlement restores slightly more than half of the losses shareholders suffered in the mismanaged fund.
I’d still like to see AG Madigan’s report on how this was allowed to happen.
An initiative by Gov. Quinn to save taxpayers about $5 million annually by letting 1,000 inmates out of prison early is off to a rocky start — with dozens of burglars, repeat drunken drivers and financial criminals all being sent home for the holidays.
When the state Department of Corrections announced the program in September, it said that only “low-level, non-violent” criminals were to be let out and placed on home confinement ahead of their planned parole dates.
This is not the secret “Meritorious Good Time Push” plan that is now being investigated by Quinn’s administration after being enacted by Quinn’s administration. This is the very public early release for nonviolent offenders plan. More…
A Sun-Times analysis of the early-release list showed that, as of last week, there were 40 burglars, 18 felony DUI drivers, 28 financial criminals — including forgers and thieves — and one attempted robber among the inmates sent home early. Most of the other early-release inmates were incarcerated for drug crimes. Some had as much as one year shaved off their prison time.
And here are a few of the released prisoners…
VICTOR MORENO, 37
Crime: Financial exploitation of the elderly, disabled in Cook County
Case: Moreno promised to help a disabled person sell a house in the 1900 block of North Natoma in Chicago. The victim gave Moreno $15,000 in earnest money, but no closing date was set, prosecutors said. The victim learned Moreno was not a licensed agent and called police.
Sentence: Seven years
Original release date from prison: Sept. 12, 2010
LEO GUZMAN-RIVERA, 46
Crime: Driving under the influence, fourth offense, in Cook County
Sentence: Three years
Original release date from prison: May 20, 2010
JAMES AUGUSTA, 35
Crime: DUI, fourth offense, in Cook County
Sentence: Three years
Original release date from prison: July 22, 2010
That’s a whole lot of political damage to save $5 million.
* Meanwhile, remember WBEZ’s failed attempt to get the Quinn administration to open up the controversy-plagued Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles to reporters? Well, there was a demonstration at the site yesterday…
A small group of protesters on Monday vowed to keep pressuring the state to investigate and clean up the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles, where a 16-year-old detainee committed suicide in September.
About 20 people from Chicago gathered outside the medium-security male juvenile facility. The group demanded to go inside the center to examine the conditions, and wants Gov. Pat Quinn investigate the facility.
The group ultimately was turned away, but not before airing their concerns.
Protesters said they heard from former inmates that rodents often ate the prisoners’ food and left droppings in shower stalls and other areas.
They said the state needs to improve conditions at the facility, which houses many of the juveniles who enter the state’s justice system, according to its Web site.
Sneed is told the State Police Merit Board, which decides if a bad state cop needs to be fired, is financially impotent.
• To wit: The budget of the five-member board, which is appointed by the governor, “is so far down it’s impossible to conduct the amount of hearings that are needed,” a top source said.
• Translation: So a few state cops, including a handful busted for DUIs — who might otherwise be looking for a new job — are still working.
• The irony: A fully funded merit board, which is paid on a per diem basis, could ultimately save the state money by terminating officers.
Now Quinn forecasts a rebirth of responsible governance after the Feb. 2 primary. However, he will emerge from his battle with Dan Hynes as either the Democratic nominee facing Republican assaults for advocating significant tax hikes or a defeated, debilitated chief executive. That means his resolve to press for potent deficit antidotes could well wither in the heat of a general election contest, or lame-duck status could strip him of the influence he needs to muster sufficient support for them.
Meanwhile, we certainly cannot rely on the legislative branch to bear fiscally healthy fruit. Senate President John Cullerton rallied his Democratic troops to support tax increases in May without bringing Republicans to the table — a move that might have produced a bipartisan solution addressing spending issues as well. For his part, House Speaker Michael Madigan flexed his legendary discipline to suppress any good-government instincts that could stall his drive to build an even more muscular Democratic majority in his chamber. For their part, most Republican lawmakers have refused to help solve a problem that reached epic proportions under Democratic reign — never mind the future gets bleaker by the day for the young and old they claim to serve.
* Related…
* State can no longer leave colleges in ‘crisis mode’ : After seven years of steadily cutting the higher education budget, the state on July 1 stopped regular payments altogether. And while there used to be a capital bill every year to pay for new facilities, this year’s was the first capital bill for university facilities in about 10 years, and much of that money has not been released to the universities. Here are some of the numbers: The state is in arrears $445 million to the University of Illinois system, $125 million to Southern Illinois University, $37 million to Northern Illinois University and $28 million to Western Illinois University. The state’s other universities are in similar straits.
* Fight to keep Asian carp out of Great Lakes reaches Supreme Court - Michigan’s attorney general files a lawsuit that seeks to close two shipping locks near Chicago, sealing off the fish’s most direct route to the Great Lakes.
* Time for answers to the prison mess: No blue ribbon commissions or panels or thorough reviews. No more hemming and hawing. This can only be seen as a serious mistake and a breach of trust that jeopardizes our safety. It’s time to own it, Governor.
* If you’re heading for the hearing today on the Thomson prison sale, expect to be subjected to Illinois State Police “security” precautions…
* Backpacks or extra large hand bags will not be allowed into the auditorium.
* All purses and hand bags will be searched before entering the auditorium.
* Every person entering the auditorium will pass through a metal detector.
* No posters, signs or visual aids will be allowed into the auditorium.
* No type of voice amplification device will be allowed into the auditorium.
State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) has been occupying a rent-free Chicago Board of Education building for seven years and owes more than $500,000 in rent, leaseholder taxes and penalties on it, a new report by the schools inspector general indicated Monday. […]
The Board of Ed sent Davis a letter in 2002 saying it expected her to vacate the building by July 1, 2002, Sullivan said Monday. It followed up with more correspondence in August 2006, September 2007, and April and September of 2008, he said. On Nov. 18, it finally filed a legal claim for back rent and eviction.
After her lease expired in 2002, Davis said, she asked then-School Board President Michael Scott to sign a new lease and he said, ” ‘I’ll get back to you.’ . . . The indication was ‘I’ll get this done for you.’ ‘’ Davis said she needed a signed lease so she could submit it to the state and get reimbursed for the cost of operating a district office.
Finally, Davis said, board officials produced a lease this year, but in it they wanted Davis to be responsible for all repairs to the building, as well as property taxes.
Jim Madigan is running for state senate, and about 40 supporters were attending a fundraiser at a North Side gay bar when Leo Smith made a surprise appearance.
“And as I looked, ‘I thought God, that looks like my opponent’s husband,’” Madigan said. “He looked a little disheveled. He took awhile to put sentences together, so that was a little bizarre.”
Madigan said Smith sat quietly at the bar for about an hour… went into the men’s room… and then charged out with fire in his eyes and began bullying him.
“And he said, ‘Well I’m Heather’s husband.’ And I said, ‘I know, thanks for coming to my event.’ And he said, ‘I’m not here to support your event. I know you think you’re going to get famous with all your bull____,’” Madigan recalled.
Oof.
* Cook County President candidate Dorothy Brown has denied Sneed’s report about a grand jury investigation into her campaign operation…
Dorothy Brown took to the airwaves [last night] to rebut reports of a grand jury investigation into the petitions she filed to run for Cook County Board president.
Appearing on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight”, Brown said information received by her campaign [yesterday] indicated there was no grand jury probe. She called the rumored investigation a “political placement.”
Stay tuned.
* An endorsement from the pro-choice Personal PAC will bring a few bucks, and it may get some media attention, since the Republican Schillerstrom trumpeted the nod in a press release…
Republican Bob Schillerstrom on Monday welcomed the endorsement of Personal PAC, a bi-partisan organization dedicated to electing pro-choice state and local leaders in Illinois.
Schillerstrom noted the support distinguishes him as the only moderate Republican running for Governor, and positions him as a centrist with the best chance of winning the General Election.
“My top priorities as Governor will be to end runaway spending, create an environment for good jobs, and make government more transparent and accountable,” Schillerstrom said. “Those are the most pressing matters facing our state and should be the primary focus of this campaign.”
Apparently, Schillerstrom was the only Republican candidate to return Personal PAC’s questionnaire.
Personal PAC backed Republican George Ryan in 1998. Republican Jim Edgar was endorsed by NARAL in his first bid for governor in 1990. Schillerstrom is just so unknown and so far behind the pack that this probably won’t make much of a difference.
The oddity here is that the campaign sent the press release to the very conservative Illinois Review site, which published it. Oops.
Terry Cosgrove, the president and CEO of the group, said Quinn got the backing over Democratic primary rival Dan Hynes because the organization has a policy of “sticking with the incumbent when he’s been 100 percent pro-choice.”
“Had this been an open race,” Cosgrove said, “the results could have been different.” In 2002, the organization endorsed all three Democrats in the open-seat race for governor. Quinn became the unelected incumbent governor last January when the Senate ousted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
* Twice in the past week, state legislators have accidentally published single character posts to their Facebook accounts. Rep. David Miller, a candidate for state comptroller, pocket-posted “$” the other day. Sen. Emil Jones, III posted “p.” Both claimed later on their FB pages that their smart phones were in their pockets at the time. I’ve heard of pocket dialing, but this pocket FB posting is a new one on me.
Let’s be careful out there. And lock your smart phones, for crying out loud.
* As you already know, Dock Walls has dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary after his petitions were challenged by allies of Gov. Pat Quinn. Illinois Public Radio reports that Walls is now considering a run as an independent…
Walls said he [dropped out] so he could run as an independent instead.
“I realized I’m not going after the ward organizations, and the Democratic party organizations, because I represent a clean break from the past,” Walls said. “And I can’t align myself with people who are part and parcel of the problem: people who are taking money from special interest groups and big business.”
Yeah, that’s why he dropped out. It had nothing to do with his petitions at all.
* Andy McKenna’s Republican gubernatorial campaign is running Google ads on videos. That can be a pretty random thing. A reader noticed yesterday that a “Very important message from Lady Gaga” was preceded by a McKenna ad. Have a look for yourself.
* Last year, Speaker Madigan provided some late financing to House GOP Leader Tom Cross’ Democratic opponent. Madigan isn’t taking any chances that Cross might fight back in next year’s campaign. Madigan has apparently found his own Republican opponent…
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Illinois GOP has launched a public hunt for one Patrick John Ryan, who has filed as a Republican to run against Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan next year.
In a press release Monday entitled “Has anyone seen Patrick John Ryan?” the GOP notes that though Mr. Ryan filed as a Republican, he lives in Mr. Madigan’s home 13th Ward and pulled a Democratic ballot in the past three primary elections.
Yet, the release adds, Mr. Ryan “is now a Republican who believes in less government, lower taxes, true ethics reform and the need to end business as usual” in Illinois.
Given all of that, “Will Patrick John Ryan call (312) 201-9000 to discuss this historic opportunity?” the GOP asks. “We look forward to providing him the necessary support to win this election.”
* A candidate for the Illinois House is continuing a personal tradition that’s now landed him in a spot of trouble…
Politician Will McGaughy says he’s been mailing envelopes to voters in his precinct at Christmastime for 30 years, wishing them holiday cheer and including a crisp $2 bill as a “keepsake.”
The 76-year-old said it’s a political style he has developed since the 1960s, when he marched with Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggles in Alabama. […]
McGaughy’s own campaign manager, Matt Hawkins, 42, said he advised his candidate not to send the $2 bills, but he doesn’t believe any law has been broken.
“He has skirted most of, if not all of the legal issues,” Hawkins said. “I questioned it myself, but it’s the battle of old (political style) versus new.”
* Related…
* Legislators must tinker with recently changed window tinting law
Mayor Daley on Monday abruptly changed horses in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at the center of the city hiring scandal.
John Dunn, IGA director since 2005, resigned his $158,364-a-year job to take an unidentified “position in the private sector.” He will be replaced by Joan Coogan, an 11-year veteran IGA employee who has worked to advance the mayor’s agenda in the City Council.
Complaints about misconduct, waste and fraud in Chicago Public Schools rose 20 percent last year, to a record high 1,210, the latest annual report by Schools Inspector General James Sullivan indicates.
* Terrence J. O’Brien: Little-known official running for Cook County Board president
A Tribune analysis of data from 14 suburban intersections found fewer crashes at five of them, little change at two and increases at seven. In Chicago, collisions increased or held steady at nearly 60 percent of camera-equipped intersections, according to figures from the Illinois Department of Transportation. The city’s own figures say crashes were down, but nobody can explain why the numbers don’t match.[…]
As local governments scramble to install more and more cameras, the people paying those fines have begun to question whether this trend is about safety or revenue, especially when cameras are installed at intersections where few crashes have occurred. There have even been scattered reports of towns that were busted for shortening the yellow-light cycle to increase the number of violations.
* Lawsuit contends Illinois inmates get too much soy
* School officials: This year is no worse than previous years
Can you imagine if the state’s leaders showed the same creativity toward job creation here?
Sure, a few candidates have offered plans that include some form of “green” initiative. But mostly we’re seeing the same pitch for lower business taxes and new tax incentives to spur job creation - nothing as out-of-the-box as the project under way by our very own Southland students.
* Last week, I wondered aloud why Rasmussen Reports didn’t bother to match the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates against Republican frontrunner Jim Ryan. Well, RR has now conducted another poll, and the results aren’t encouraging for Gov. Quinn’s backers…
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Illinois voters finds former state Attorney General Jim Ryan leading incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn 46% to 39%. Nine percent (9%) of Illinois voters like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Ryan’s is within two points of Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes, who hopes to wrest the Democratic nomination from Quinn. In that match-up, Hynes attracts 42% of the vote while Ryan gets 40%. Seven percent (7%) opt for another candidate. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.
Quinn and Hynes both polled ahead of the other major Republican contenders last week, although Hynes polled marginally better than Quinn.
Good point from Rasmussen…
It’s important to note that at this stage, the close contest between Quinn and Hynes may be depressing the Democratic vote in match-ups with the Republicans. Once the party selects a gubernatorial candidate in its February 2 primary, supporters of the losing candidate can be expected to begin moving into the winner’s column.
That theory bears fruit in the crosstabs, which I’ll discuss with subscribers tomorrow.
Ryan carries male voters over both Quinn and Hynes. He has a nine-point advantage among female voters against Quinn but loses women by 10 points to Hynes.
Voters not affiliated with either party strongly prefer the Republican over either of the Democrats. […]
In a generic Illinois gubernatorial ballot match-up in October, a Democratic candidate held a 43% to 37% edge over a Republican.
Ryan is viewed more favorably than any other GOP candidate and his favorables are in roughly the same territory as the two Democrats.
“Stu Levine gave me a lot of money over my entire career,” said Ryan, who also was DuPage County State’s Attorney for three terms. “I thought he did it because he believed in me. He did a lot for me, I didn’t do anything for him except to be his friend.” […]
Ryan went on to say he is anticipating a barrage of attacks in the final weeks of the campaign about Levine from others in the seven-candidate primary race.
“I’m not going to cower,” he said. “If people think I’m going to back down because of that, they are wrong.” […]
Ryan also talked his health Monday. The 63-year-old battled non-Hodgkin’s large cell lymphoma cancer three times, most recently during his first campaign for governor eight years ago.
“I think I’m healthy or I wouldn’t do this,” Ryan said. “If that changes, you will know because I will probably won’t stay in the race.”
* Democratic lt. governor candidate Scott Lee Cohen has said he’ll spend as much as $3 million to win the office. He begins his first TV ad buy today, solely on cable. The campaign claims the ad cost $10,000 to make, start to finish, so he apparently hasn’t cut the big check yet. Have a look…
* Are the Quinn and Obama administrations getting ahead of themselves on this prison sale thing? It sure looks that way.
One of the things lost in this entire debate is that Congress will have to approve the move of Guantanamo detainees to US soil before they can be transferred to the Thomson prison. And that legislation isn’t assured…
Durbin hasn’t yet polled colleagues to find out what objections they might have, he said. But as the health-care bill has shown, getting controversial legislation through the Senate — even with Democrats holding a sizeable majority — has been difficult. And, Durbin said, getting the needed changes to close Guantanamo Bay will almost certainly require 60 votes.
“My concern is that it has become a national Republican issue, that they’re going to oppose Thomson, with rare exception,” Durbin said Thursday.
Political boosters of the Illinois budget bailout masquerading as a national security program can’t wait to roll out the jihadi welcome mat
No inflammatory partisan rhetoric there. Move along. Nothing to see. Everything is just fine.
By the way, if this prison move really was a “budget bailout” then I might feel better about it. Right now, the cash is barely a drop in the bucket.
* The next question that should be asked is whether the feds will still want to buy Thomson even if the Gitmo prisoner move is nixed or delayed indefinitely by Congress.
After being forced into a state of limbo when the state refused to fully open the prison, the residents of Thomson might be once again left dangling on a string while the feds dither as well. In other words, they shouldn’t get their hopes up, despite the rhetoric from people like Ray LaHood…
The decision to house both federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay Detention Center at a largely unused prison in northwestern Illinois should be viewed as a “billion-dollar Christmas gift for the people” there, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said Friday.
“There were people who had a hard time adapting to our first stoplight,” said Larry Stebbins, the mayor of Savanna, about five minutes up the road from Thomson. “It’s impossible for me to tell you what this is going to look like, but I do know that we need some kind of change.”
I lived briefly in Savanna, back in 1982 when unemployment hovered somewhere around 20 percent. I think I was able to get the only available part-time job in town - two hours a day cleaning up after the local butcher. That job was about as fun as it sounds. Not at all.
Savanna used to be a railroad boom town, but those days are long gone. The Savanna Army Depot was the one remaining economic engine, but that’s long gone. The nearest prosperity is either Galena to the north or the Quad Cities downriver. And the benefits from this prison may not be huge for the immediate area…
Even after Florence, Colo., landed the “supermax” prison 15 years ago, a ballyhooed building boom was confined to a Super 8 motel, credit unions and antiques shops.
Because the town didn’t have much available housing, most workers moved elsewhere, up to an hour away in Colorado Springs, said Dori Williams, city clerk.
Even so, if that’s all the Thomson-area folks get, they’ll probably still be overjoyed. What they have right now is nothing.
For years, reporters and pundits have said that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan preferred Republican governors because Madigan wanted to be the state’s most powerful Democrat.
There is some truth to that. Madigan hasn’t played well at all with the two Democratic governors he’s served under as speaker. He battled constantly with Rod Blagojevich, and he’s made Pat Quinn squirm time and time again, including holding a news conference during which he repeatedly castigated Quinn for “flip-flopping.”
But there always was much more going on than just Madigan’s desire to be the absolute top dog. As we’ve seen time and time again over the decades, Madigan prefers to share the pain of governing with the other party in order to deflect blame from his own party. It’s one way he’s held on to power for so long. And it’s tough to do that without a Republican governor.
A Republican governor usually can bring Republican legislative votes on to a bill that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Every income tax hike that’s ever passed was done under a Republican governor. Some of the biggest ever goodies for Chicago were nabbed because a Republican governor helped the Democrats bring GOP legislators onto the roll calls.
That all ended when Rod Blagojevich became the first Democratic governor elected in 26 years. Since then, we’ve had almost seven solid years of grinding gridlock.
This past year, for instance, Madigan said over and over that he wouldn’t advance important legislation without significant Republican votes, including tax increases and reforms to the pension systems to balance the state’s outrageous $11 billion budget deficit. The Senate Democrats passed a tax hike all by themselves, but Madigan refused to touch the issue without Republican votes even though he had more than enough Democratic votes to pass a bill on his own.
Madigan is so politically cautious because he is so power-hungry. By sharing the pain in a bipartisan manner, voters can’t totally blame Madigan’s majority party. So it’s highly doubtful that Madigan ever will budge on a hugely unpopular but desperately needed tax hike without GOP votes. Voters don’t care much about the deficit, but they would care - a lot - about any drastic measures to erase that deficit.
And right now, anyway, there’s really not much benefit for the Republican Party to cooperate. Why should it “share the pain” by helping the Democrats solve a problem for which the Democrats are universally deemed responsible?
Perhaps the only way this will change is if a Republican governor is elected and decides that a tax hike is necessary. Then, some Republican legislators will feel an obligation to support their governor. A Republican governor also will have all the usual bags of goodies to cajole and pressure the party’s members.
We actually saw a little bit of that during the spring session when two former Republican governors, Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar, made calls to GOP members on the income tax hike plan. It didn’t work, mainly because neither of them has the power to do much of anything. But what we essentially witnessed back then was an admission that these major issues won’t be advanced in the House without a big-time Republican pulling strings behind the scenes.
A few years ago, I asked Madigan why he didn’t just find somebody to run against Blagojevich in the 2006 Democratic primary. Madigan replied the last time he did that (when he was a point person against the anti-Machine Democrat Dan Walker) it led to 26 years of uninterrupted Republican rule, more than just implying that he’d rather have a “bad” Democrat as governor than a “good” Republican.
Some wonder whether Madigan will quietly lie down next fall if the governor’s race looks winnable by the GOP and if the Republicans nominate a candidate who can “do business.”
I was, however, recently reminded by one of Madigan’s guys that the new legislative district maps have to be drawn during the next governor’s term. Madigan will want total control of that process in order to hold on to power, and he’ll need a cooperative, partisan governor to guarantee his control.
In other words, if a Democrat wins the governor’s race next year and Madigan doesn’t radically alter his governing style by actually doing something constructive with his majority no matter what the Republicans say, this horrific gridlock will continue unabated for another four disastrous years.
Sneed has learned that a Cook County grand jury is probing allegations that state public aid recipients were forced to circulate Cook County Board presidential candidate Dorothy Brown’s nominating petitions under threat of losing their welfare benefits.
* The kicker: Several public aid recipients, who have been called before the grand jury twice, complained they feared they’d be dropped from the job-training program (which is administered by the state Human Services Department) if they didn’t circulate Brown’s petitions as part of their training.
* The firing squad: The recipients were receiving job training at Mother’s House, a South Side social service agency managed by Hassan Muhammad, who, until recently, was a field director of Dorothy Brown’s campaign. […]
When complaints were first disclosed by Fox News Chicago in October, Brown said she had no knowledge of the practice and did not condone what was going on.
Keep in mind that a grand jury investigation doesn’t automatically mean guilt, despite the saying that “In this town you’re innocent until investigated.” Also, keep in mind that Brown may not have known anything about this. Yes, the probe could be big political trouble, but don’t jump to too many conclusions just yet.
Stroger isn’t pleased that Madigan has withheld his backing, county insiders say. He took political revenge first by firing longtime Madigan loyalist Richard Bono, a $99,187 county Forest Preserve District maintenance superintendent who also collects a $30,353 city pension.
“They called [Bono] in and said he was out,” a top county source said. “No mention of a reason. No feds. No grabbing computers. He was just out, and that’s it.”
On Wednesday, Cook County medical examiner’s office worker David Foley was fired from his $110,354 executive officer post. During his employment at the medical examiner’s office, Foley bragged that he was Madigan’s “No. 1 precinct captain,” sources said.
* And the Sun-Times continues to look at whether Rahm Emanuel wanted Gov. Blagojevich to find a way to appoint a replacement, a move which would’ve been blatantly unconstitutional…
On the day last year that Emanuel was named White House chief of staff, John Harris, the top aide to then-Gov. Blagojevich, began researching whether Blagojevich had the authority to appoint someone to temporarily fill Emanuel’s Northwest Side congressional seat, according to records that show the Web browser history on Harris’ state government computer.
The records show that Harris, who was Blagojevich’s chief of staff, Googled this exact search term on his state computer on Nov. 6, 2008: “temporary appointment to fill vacancies in the house of representatives.”
The confirmation of Harris’ Google search — which, by the way, yielded 308,000 hits — lends credence to previous Sun-Times reports that Blagojevich’s office was working with Emanuel at that time on a strategy that would enable Emanuel to one day reclaim his old House seat and vie for the powerful post of speaker of the House.
The Constitution thus requires that all House vacancies be filled by special election.
There is no constitutional provision for the appointment of interim Representatives.
Back to the story…
Surfing the Net, the records show, another Web site Harris visited was www.kingmadigan.com — which depicts Blagojevich’s arch political enemy, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, as a greedy “king” decked out in a jewel-studded gold crown.
* Wouldn’t it be easier if the governor just called in his Department of Corrections director along with the director’s team and made them explain to him why they didn’t follow his orders? Apparently not. We’ve got yet another commission. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today named legal and criminal justice expert Judge David A. Erickson to lead a comprehensive review of the Department of Correction’s Meritorious Good Time program. Governor Quinn recently suspended that program while it undergoes a comprehensive evaluation.
“Judge Erickson is a noted criminal law professor, an ex- judge and a former prosecutor,” said Governor Quinn. “His real world experience and deep understanding of the criminal justice system prepares him for this very important task. On behalf of the people of Illinois, I thank him for taking on this vital mission.”
Judge Erickson, who will be an unpaid advisor to the Governor, will conduct a top-to-bottom review of the Meritorious Good Time program. He will head a team that includes Jerome Stermer, Governor Quinn’s chief of staff and Theodore Chung, general counsel to Governor Quinn.
Judge Erickson will review every aspect of the Department of Correction’s Meritorious Good Time program and present a report to the Governor with deliberate speed. The review’s goals include, creating policies and procedures that make sure the program’s first concern is always public safety and maintaining the integrity of the criminal justice system and the courts’ sentencing of offenders.
*** UPDATE *** From Hynes campaign spokesman Matt McGrath…
Today’s announcement of a “top-to-bottom” review apparently indicates that when Governor Quinn promised an immediate “top-to-bottom” review of the program six days ago, he was being less than truthful, which certainly fits the pattern of the way the Governor and his staff have handled this situation to date. On Monday, Dan Hynes called for a review to be completed within days, given the potential immediate safety risk to communities across Illinois, and encouraged the Governor not to appoint another commission but rather to get to the bottom of this issue directly and immediately —a call which has been echoed by editorial boards numerous times in subsequent days. Clearly, Pat Quinn has chosen to go his own way, as is his prerogative. But the people of Illinois have every right to wonder whose interests are really being served when the Governor draws this process out, and still refuses to answer important questions.
* After blasting Democrats for pandering to union interests and attempting to roadblock a deal to bring a Navistar expansion project to DuPage County, along with hundreds of high-paying jobs, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kirk Dillard has changed his mind…
On Thursday, Dillard sided with a local autism school in opposing the diesel engine research center, “because of the environmental concerns about the project that have come to light.”
“I do not like anything that jeopardizes the environment,” Dillard told the Daily Herald when asked about his change of heart on Navistar. “I always will err on the side of the health of local residents.” […]
“I got autoworker friends as well,” Dillard said in a Senate floor speech on Oct. 30. “But that’s something that ought to be at the negotiation table between Navistar and that particular union. And we should not keep, especially with a ten-and-a-half percent unemployment rate, jobs that pay $60,000, $80,000, $100,000 from coming to Illinois.
“And I would hope that when we come back in January, we’ll be able to have those hundreds of Navistar jobs, the kind of jobs, manufacturing jobs - wouldn’t that be unique here in Illinois? - that we have been hemorrhaging so that you all can pander to the labor unions,” Dillard said during debate.
Rival GOP contender Bob Schillerstrom blasted away via press release…
“Senator Dillard is playing politics with thousands of jobs, and illustrating why employers steer clear of Illinois in the process. I have personally worked with Navistar and local governments in the area for many months to make this relocation a reality, and bring 1,000 good, out-of-state jobs to our region. The project would be the biggest influx of new employees to the state in years and shows what is possible when government works with the private sector to create new jobs.” […]
“This is not Dillard’s first flip-flop, but could prove his most damaging. I encourage the Senator to change his position yet again, and work with us to deliver these important jobs to Illinois.”
* I forgot to post this earlier, but Dock Walls has dropped out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary and Ed Scanlan was removed from the ballot. Walls’ petitions were challenged by Gov. Quinn’s allies and Scanlan’s were challenged by the Dan Hynes campaign.
* From the Tribune editorial board debate, Republican US Senate candidate Patrick Hughes talks about his horrifically low poll numbers, his many policy differences with frontrunner Mark Kirk, how he intends to be competitive, Kirk’s vote on the Iraq surge, the Left’s move away from Kirk, Don & Roma’s fawning ways and Kirk’s wooing of Sarah Palin, among other things. Have a look…
Speaking of former Gov. Palin, she’s finally taken notice of Kirk, at least on her Twitter page…
Appreciate Rep.Mark Kirk’s(Illinois)comments re:Pres Obama not CLOSING Gitmo, merely moving it outside of Chicago!Very,very odd strategy,DC.
And speaking of Hughes, a suburban tea party group is meeting at a country club to endorse the candidate. From a press release…
Illinois’ Tea Party movement has found their candidate for the GOP US Senate primary, and it’s not front-runner Congressman Mark Kirk, it’s attorney Patrick Hughes. On January 5, 2010 the Will County Tea Party Alliance is holding a “Stop Mark Kirk” rally at the Woodbine Country Club in Homer Glen, IL.
* Moving on to an Illinois legislative race, Congressman Mike Quigley has endorsed in the 18th House District Democratic primary. From a press release…
Community leader Jeff Smith picked up two significant endorsements in the hotly-contested Democratic primary for State Representative in the 18th District, winning the approval of the State Board of the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (”IVI-IPO”), and the endorsement of Congressman Mike Quigley (D-5th). […]
“In the 18th District race, Jeff has an unmatched lifetime record of fighting for real political change. He was speaking out about TIF reform long before it was headline news. He shares my commitment to green jobs and a new energy economy, and sees the big environmental picture as few in politics do. For a candidate with real vision of how to clean up and green up Illinois, look no farther than Jeff Smith.”
Smith was also endorsed today by the Illinois Sierra Club. He is up against several opponents, including longtime activist and well-known Statehouse denizen Robyn Gaebel, the only female in the race to replace Rep. Julie Hamos, who is running for Congress.
* Speaking of legislative races, former Sen. Steve Rauschenberger has some ideas about balancing the budget…
Steve Rauschenberger, a former state senator and a budget expert, said it would require, among other things, cutting school spending and switching to a voucher system, reducing the number of prison inmates by one-quarter, trimming higher education and overhauling Medicaid from top to bottom.
“Any candidate who doesn’t talk frankly about major changes … I don’t think is being realistic,” Rauschenberger said. “You can’t balance this budget simply by looking for easy efficiencies or slight reductions in head count.”
Three things…
1) If you don’t raise taxes, he’s far more on target than any other candidate I’ve heard. But that’s still not enough.
2) Rauschenberger is running for his old Senate seat. He will now have to take the heat for those budget cutting proposals, and those mailers will write themselves.
3) Rauschenberger has endorsed Dan Proft for governor. Proft wants to cut the income tax.
* House Speaker Michael Madigan has apparently noticed that there’s a jobs problem in Illinois. From a letter to his members…
to: All House Members
from: Michael J Madigan, Speaker of the House
re: Bipartisan Job Creation Task Force
Today, I am creating a Bipartisan Job Creation Task Force.
Representative Lou Lang will chair this task force.
Task Force members will travel to key labor markets in various parts of the State to hold several hearings on potential legislative job initiatives.
If you are interested in attending the task force meetings, please complete the form and return to Tim Mapes via fax xxx.xxx.xxxx or xxx Capitol Building, Springfield IL 62706 by January 8, 2010.
Rep. Lang claims that this is a “real” task force.
There are now two lawsuits pending against a state lobbyist registration law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, one claiming higher fees amount to a tax on free speech and the other contending the law is unconstitutionally vague.
A lawsuit filed Thursday in circuit court in Sangamon County by the Illinois Society of Association Executives joins an earlier lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in a federal district court in Chicago.
“There’s a lot of inconsistencies in the law, and it’s very confusing,” said association executive director Pam Tolson. The association represents more than 500 professional and not-for-profit members statewide, many of them based in Springfield. […]
A federal judge in Chicago has scheduled a hearing today on an ACLU request for an order prohibiting the secretary of state’s office from collecting registration fees scheduled to increase to $1,000 on Jan. 1 from the existing $150 to $350.
And the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s latest fundraising e-mail touts the “amazing” success of the new campaign reform bill…
A Special Message from The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
Something amazing happened this month. After a 30-plus-year effort, Illinois finally enacted contribution limits. This is an historic step for reform in Illinois. Even in the perfect storm of corruption and international attention revolving around the impeachment and indictment of Rod Blagojevich, resistance to reform in the General Assembly was extremely strong.
The powerbrokers in Springfield said it would never happen, but people like you proved them wrong. The final product establishes a limit of $5,000 on contributions from individuals each election cycle and $10,000 on contributions from businesses, unions and associations. We also were able to win primary election limits on contributions by parties and legislative leader PACS. In addition, the bill introduces strong new enforcement measures and mandates possibly the best disclosure system in the nation.
To every one of our supporters, we give thanks for what you helped us to accomplish. Of course, there is much more to do. Even the recently passed contribution limits provisions need to be made more comprehensive, and other reforms, like voluntary public financing of state election campaigns, are needed. ICPR will continue its ongoing research of campaign contributions, lobbying practices, the redistricting process and soon will roll out a new website to make it easy for voters learn about candidates and contributors.
But we can only do this with your support.
Please make a special year-end gift to ICPR today. You can make asecure online contribution, or if you prefer you can go here to print off a form you can mail in with your gift. All donations to ICPR are tax deductible.
Paul Simon founded ICPR because he saw the needed for a strong, non-partisan organization to monitor campaign and ethics laws, to conduct independent research about campaign contribution trends and to educate the public about needed reforms.
Paul counseled us to commit to the long haul, recognizing that reform in Illinois is a marathon rather than a sprint. He taught us to savor our victories, while never giving up the fight for good government in Illinois. Soon, his belief that campaign contributions should be limited will become a reality Illinois. Please consider making a contribution to ICPR today, so we can keep up the fight in 2010 to see that Illinois gets the government it deserves.
Considering all the heat that ICPR and others took for cutting this deal, it should be interesting to see how their fundraising base reacts.
* Related…
* Rep. Sara Feigenholtz Endorses State Rep Candidate Ann Williams for John Fritchey’s House Seat
* Top Republicans meet to discuss McKenna-GOP poll
* Senators Righter, Rose endorse Murphy for lieutenant governor: Although Murphy is from the Chicago area, he said endorsements from legislators such as Righter and Rose, indicate that he has earned their respect.
* Cindy Hebda Easily Survives Dem Ballot Challenge in 59th Legislative District in 7-1 Decision
* David Hoffman at the Union League Club Candidate Forum Video
* Senator Toi Hutchinson’s Holiday Greetings Video
* As I told subscribers this morning, Rasmussen has a new poll pitting the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates against three different Republicans. Dan Hynes does better than Pat Quinn against the Republicans. The problem, though, is that for whatever reason Rasmussen didn’t test Jim Ryan against the Democrats. Bizarre.
The top two Democratic hopefuls in Illinois’ 2010 race for governor both beat three leading Republican challengers in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state.
But state Comptroller Daniel Hynes, who hopes to wrest the Democratic nomination from Governor Pat Quinn, runs slightly stronger against all three Republicans. Among just Democratic voters, Hynes draws slightly more support than Quinn.
That’s pretty interesting considering that Hynes is losing so badly to Quinn in the Tribune’s primary poll.
Quinn, who became governor in January following the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich, beats former state Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna 41% to 33%. Hynes bests McKenna by even more, 43% to 30%.
Against GOP State Senator Kirk Dillard, Quinn wins 41% to 30%. But Hyines takes Dillard 42% to 29%.
State Senator Bill Brady, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2006, fares the worst of the three Republicans. He loses to Quinn by 15 points – 45% to 30% - and to Hynes by 19 – 46% to 27%.
Around 20% of voters remain undecided in all of Hynes’ match-ups, with slightly fewer saying the same when Quinn is the Democrat in the race. […]
Quinn is viewed favorably by 52% and unfavorably by 44%. Just five percent (5%) have no opinion of the incumbent governor. Fifty-two percent (52%) also have a favorable view of Hynes, while 30% regard him unfavorably. But 18% don’t know enough about him to venture even a soft favorable or unfavorable opinion.
McKenna has the highest favorables (42%) among the GOP candidates, while 34% view him unfavorably. Thirty-eight percent (38%) have a favorable opinion of Dillard, with another 36% who see him unfavorably. Brady is regarded favorably by 36% and unfavorably by 37%.
But roughly one-in-four Illinois voters don’t know any of the Republican contenders well enough to express an opinion of them.
Illinois Survey of 500 Likely Voters Conducted December 14, 2009 By Rasmussen Reports. Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence
* Meanwhile, a Dan Hynes spokesman claims that yesterday’s endorsement of Quinn by Secretary of State Jesse White looks like it was held back in order to spring at the most opportune moment…
[Hynes spokesman Dan McDonald] said the governor wants to change the subject as questions arise about an unpublicized early release program for state prisoners. He charged that Quinn has flip-flopped on his knowledge of the program and let criminals off easy.
Earlier this week, Quinn ordered a “top-to-bottom” review of the release program, but said it was a Department of Corrections issue.
Since then, the Hynes campaign has continued to raise questions about it, first in connection with a plan to bring Guantanamo detainees to Illinois and now in light of the timing of White’s endorsement.
“I think it says that the governor doesn’t want to talk about his convoluted policies,” McDonald said. “He’d rather try to roll out an endorsement than answer questions.”
And Quinn’s campaign has a new video of the White endorsement. Watch it…
* A coalition of human service providers held a press conference yesterday to demand that Gov. Pat Quinn, Comptroller Dan Hynes and Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias set aside their differences and approve a short-term borrowing plan to help out their most desperate members. From a press release…
“There is no sign that the legislature will raise meaningful new revenue in the immediate future to pay the state’s unpaid bills,” said Marge Berglind, President & CEO of the Child Care Association of Illinois. “Without a short-term loan, payment delays will grow even further, guaranteeing the collapse of programs and agencies in Illinois.”
Agencies represented by the Child Care Association are alone owed approximately $23,545,000 from various state departments, Berglind noted.
“They are running on fumes,” Berglind said.
Specifically, for example, the state of Illinois owes $1.1 million to the Children’s Home Association of Illinois in Peoria, which cares for children with mental health needs and youth with delinquency support needs throughout Central Illinois. The state has failed to pay most bills since the beginning of July.
The states also owes $743,00 to Kids Hope United in Springfield and Chicago, which provides youth services and family supports to young mothers at risk of child abuse and neglect statewide. Again, the state has failed to pay most bills since July.
The Peoria Journal Star closed its Statehouse bureau the other day, so the paper didn’t cover the dire straits of the group in its town. The paper did have space to rewrite an Aaron Schock press release, however.
The State Journal-Register still has an active bureau, but there was no coverage in the paper about the press conference. There was a story about possible snowfall in Springfield today and the fact that a state-backed resort was closed six months ago because of mold.
Tom Pollock, who runs a social service agency based in Danville, said the backlog could mean missed paychecks for his workers next month. […]
At an event in Springfield on Thursday, Hynes said he hasn’t changed his mind. He said the Quinn’s proposal to borrow $500 million wouldn’t come close to paying all of the state’s unpaid bills.
“The borrowing proposal that was put forward really doesn’t solve the problem,” Hynes said. “It doesn’t solve the cash-flow problem; it doesn’t solve the underlying budget problem. In fact, it gives false hope to providers who are waiting to be paid.”
[Don Moss, who represents United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois] and others say the disagreement between Hynes and Quinn is rooted in their bids for governor.
The Illinois Human Services Coalition warns that some local providers have shut their doors and many more will go out of business soon.
I wrote in my syndicated newspaper column this week that the extreme financial crunch on social service providers was a “ready-made story for the [holiday] season.” Apparently, I was wrong. At least for now.
* On Monday, Cheryle Jackson’s Democratic US Senate campaign sent out a blast e-mail to supporters touting her second place finish in the Tribune’s latest poll. The campaign asked for cash to put a new TV on the air.
Yesterday, Jackson sent another blast e-mail to supporters crowing about they had raised a bit more than $7,600…
With your help, we have blown past the $3,500 goal we set on Monday and are quickly approaching $10,000! We now stand just $2,367 away from our new goal of $10,000 by midnight on Friday. Can you help us reach our new goal and get Cheryle up on the air with a contribution of $250, $100 or $50 right now?
Those ain’t exactly Barackian fundraising numbers. I’ve seen state legislators raise far more than that in a week.
And the TV ad she wants to air ain’t exactly Barackian, either. Watch it…
Without the sound on, it doesn’t look bad, and that’s important since most people get most of their TV information from the visuals. But, geez, could they turn the background music up any louder?
CQ Politics claimed yesterday that the ad is already airing. I don’t see any evidence of that.
Discuss.
…Adding… Just to refresh your memory, I wrote this about a recent Rasmussen poll of Illinois voters…
Afghanistan is becoming somewhat of an issue in the Democratic US Senate primary, with Cheryle Jackson and David Hoffman questioning the president’s new plan. But the crosstabs show large support for the president’s proposal among Democrats. 62 percent of Democrats “overall” favor the plan, 60 percent of liberals back it and 82 percent of African-Americans support it as well. Jackson is the most opposed of all the candidates, but that issue doesn’t appear to work well with African-American voters.
In a special Sun-Times/NBC5 News report in Thursday’s Sun-Times, Carol Marin and Don Moseley wrote that a consulting company run by the stepson of former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr. has not filed a single one of the weekly reports it is required to produce under its contract, which has run for 21 months.
After two years and countless headaches for drivers, work on the Tri-State Tollway is finally expected to be finished before this weekend, tollway officials said today.
Faced with screaming parents and enraged aldermen, Chicago school officials trimmed back their admission plans for the most coveted schools in the system Wednesday — and said they might tweak them again once they see the results.
* Health gap kills 3,200 black Chicagoans every year
Already lagging far behind whites on most key measures of health, blacks in Chicago have fallen even further behind in 11 of 15 areas reviewed by Chicago’s Sinai Urban Health Institute between 1990 and 2005 — including infant mortality, heart-disease deaths and diabetes.
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