Question of the day
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
State Farm Insurance plans to give its Illinois customers a chance to lower — or raise — their rates depending on their driving habits.
The Bloomington-based insurer said that in September it will start putting a monitoring device in vehicles driven by customers who choose to be part of the program.
Missy Lundberg, a spokesperson for State Farm, said the devices will monitor mileage, acceleration, braking and other factors. Safer drivers will get lower rates and those who aren’t as safe will see rates go up.
* The Question: Should Illinois law allow voluntary electronic driver monitoring programs like State Farm’s? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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More bad news as far as the eye can see
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* There was no progress yesterday on how to end a crisis deliberately created by Gov. Pat Quinn…
Representatives of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools met with Quinn administration officials again Wednesday, but reached no agreement. Association president Bob Daiber said administration officials talked about having legislation prepared to resolve the issue. However, it was not made available to the regional superintendents.
“We don’t know what’s in the legislation. We don’t know if it is good or bad,” Daiber said. […]
Quinn budget spokesman Kelly Kraft said the draft legislation would shift funding for regional superintendents to the personal property replacement fund.
“We continue to have constructive meetings with representatives as we examine mechanisms for payment as quickly as possible,” she said.
* Progress Illinois sees the possibility of a work stoppage in the regional superintendents’ official statement…
The association is committed to finding a solution that suits everyone as quickly as possible. But it’s clear our individual members are facing various growing personal difficulties and may have no choice but to take action on their own to deal with the situation.
* A possible Republican congressional candidate who is also a regional superintendent tried to put the best face on the crisis…
Darlene J. Ruscitti, superintendent of the DuPage Regional Office of Education, has yet to receive a paycheck from the job. Ruscitti was elected in the fall and took office last month.
But continuing to work was “never a question for me,” she said.
“I know it seems silly to work with no pay, but I have to believe in good government and that we will work things out.”
* Not unexpected…
State officials have made it official: Beginning later this month, there will be no more money to help pay funeral and burial costs for poor people.
In a letter sent to 600 funeral directors, cemeteries and coroners Friday, the Illinois Department of Human Services said it would only guarantee payments for funeral and burial claims through Aug. 15. […]
In previous years, the $12.6 million program paid for about 12,000 funerals and burials for deceased people who have been receiving public aid. Funeral homes that participate in the program receive a maximum of $1,103 for a funeral and $552 for a burial.
In the budget approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Pat Quinn, funding for the program dropped to $1.9 million.
* Oy…
The agency overseeing the College Illinois prepaid tuition program will pay former Executive Director Andrew Davis $98,000 to leave and avert potential litigation under his employment contract.
A slate of newly appointed board members by Gov. Pat Quinn removed Mr. Davis as head of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission last month because of his controversial management of the college savings plan. But at the time he was put on paid leave.
* ComEd just can’t catch a break in the media, and for good reason…
The Bears’ third practice in the span of five days was thrown off kilter when a ComEd power outage in sections of Bourbonnais turned out the field lights in the middle of the Bears’ practice. After a wait of some 30 minutes, with no sign of power returning, the team piled into Olivet Nazarene University buses and headed for nearby Bradley Bourbonnais Community High School several blocks away but at least with lights.
* Congressman Bobby Rush held a job fair this week for several dozen railroad openings. It was wildly, and sadly, successful…
Thousands gathered on the campus of Chicago State University to take part in a job fair hosted by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush.
The Chicago Democrat says he was inspired to host Tuesday’s event because of planned railroad improvements on Chicago’s South Side.
Six railroad companies were present. BNSF human resources director Duncan Brown says the railroad has 75 job openings in Galesburg, with starting salaries around $58,000.
* Other news…
* CTA head pledges no fare hikes this year, but won’t say plans for 2012
* No new taxes to plug city budget deficit, Emanuel says
* Judge Does Not Block Traffic Aide Layoffs
* Reserve Fund an Answer for CPS, a Question for Others
* Emanuel defends CPS property tax hike plan
* Schools, union chiefs meet, talk longer school day, school year
* Governor Quinn Signs Electronics Recycling Bill
* New Illinois Law Allows Patient Access to Physician Information, Including Disciplinary Actions
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* The Chicago media has been in an uproar this week about how former legislator Bob Molaro gave legislative scholarships to children of a supporter who lived outside his district. But the nonprofit news site ChicagoTalks.org found last year that this was a widespread problem…
Sixty-two members of the Illinois General Assembly broke the law over the course of six years by awarding free tuition to the state’s public universities to 122 college students who didn’t live in the right legislative district.
The state lawmakers – several of whom serve in leadership positions – violated the law they had passed in the 1970s, the last time major changes were made to the century-old legislative scholarship program. Controversy over the program flared again this past year after a series of articles by ChicagoTalks that found repeated instances of scholarships being awarded to campaign donors, politically connected families and, in at least one instance, a lawmaker’s relative. ChicagoTalks also identified five legislators who require scholarship applicants to register to vote, a practice one constitutional lawyer called illegal. […]
ChicagoTalks contacted the offices of all 62 lawmakers. Those legislators or staff who responded to interview requests confirmed they made mistakes and offered explanations like an aide for Rep. Karen May (D -Highland Park) did, saying the student received the scholarship because his application had been delivered by a guidance counselor from a school that was located in the district.
The student moved to a different district, but because he had started the school year at Highland Park he was able to finish the school year there. Since his application came from a school in the district, they assumed he lived in the district as well.
An aide to Sen. Larry Bomke (R-Springfield) said she assumed the senator had all of Rochester in his district, but now realizes that a portion is in another senatorial district.
“I look all of them up, and these two fell through the cracks,” said Lori Bottrell.
Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry) said the five students who received scholarships outside of her district were overlooked because they lived on the borders. […]
Most of the students willing to talk were unaware they applied and received a scholarship out of district. But, one recipient, Jasmine Lindsay, said Rep. Annazette Collins (D-Chicago) gave her the scholarship even though she knew Lindsay didn’t live in district. Lindsay said the representative told her father that students in her district were not taking advantage of the program.
“Annazette wasn’t getting reached out to so she reached out to me,” said Lindsay.
* Hat tip to the Chicago Tribune editorial page, which had this to say today…
We hope the U.S. attorney saw that story.
The law, on the books since 1905, allows each of the state’s 177 lawmakers to award the equivalent of two four-year scholarships to a state university. It’s supposed to help students who might not otherwise be able to attend college. But too many lawmakers have come to regard the scholarships as a personal entitlement, something they can use to reward supporters or please their pals. Who pays for it? Other students. The Legislature doesn’t fund the scholarships, so the universities pass along the costs in the form of higher tuition.
* As you probably already know, Gov. Pat Quinn used his amendatory veto power on a legislative scholarship bill to eliminate the program…
Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday ratcheted up pressure to abolish the state’s oft-abused legislative scholarship program, asking lawmakers to end the century-old perks this fall and to voluntarily stop handing them out now.
For the second year in a row, Quinn used his veto powers on a bill seeking to tighten the tuition waiver program at public universities. Last year, he vetoed the entire bill. This time, he rewrote the measure to ban the scholarships.
What’s also different this year is that the governor acted only days after the disclosure that federal authorities have subpoenaed the legislative scholarship records of former state Rep. Robert Molaro, D-Chicago, who retired in 2008.
* Mark Brown has some history in his column today…
Investigative reporters have been pointing out the abuses since at least the early 1970s, always followed by a movement to eliminate the program. Each and every time nothing has happened.
“I doubt if you’ll ever get rid of it. It’s just considered another plum that you’re entitled to because of your office, and members don’t want to give that up.”
That’s what a prescient Chicago Democratic legislator told my former Sun-Times reporting partner Chuck Neubauer back in 1974. Neubauer, then at the Tribune, had been part of an investigation revealing numerous abuses, including one state senator giving a scholarship to his own wife, another awarding hers to the daughter of a Chicago alderman and a state rep who picked her own daughter.
But Neubauer would be the first to tell you he didn’t invent the genre. Somebody else had done similar stories before him.
* Gov. Quinn said this week that instead of legislative scholarships the state should strengthen the Monetary Award Program. But the state program has its problems as well…
Potentially hundreds of failing Chicago State University students received state financial aid even though their grades were so low that they shouldn’t have been allowed to take classes, according to testimony Wednesday at a state hearing.
The money could have gone to other low-income students in Illinois, Sen. Edward Maloney, D-Chicago, chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said at a meeting to review a troubling financial audit and other campus issues. […]
Maloney, who requested state financial aid information after the Tribune report, said that during the 2008-09 academic year, 449 Chicago State students received state grant money even though, under university policy, an untold number of them should have been dismissed for poor academic performance.
Of those students, 106 had a grade-point average of 0.0 and still received aid from the taxpayer-funded Monetary Award Program, known as MAP.
The state’s largest grant program for low-income students is persistently underfunded, and 151,000 qualified students were shut out of aid last year. The maximum MAP award is $4,968 a year. [Emphasis added.]
Oy.
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Moody’s warns Illinois
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Reuters posted a story late yesterday about a new warning from another ratings agency…
Moody’s Investors Services said on Wednesday that most state, local government and public authorities that issue debt in the municipal bond market are “well insulated from shock,” but added that some could be vulnerable to risk during major market volatility.
“Most municipal issuers are somewhat weaker than they were prior to the last major market disruption,” said Moody’s Managing Director Timothy Blake in a statement. “This is why some may face significant stress if hostile market conditions emerge.”
The ratings agency said it doesn’t expect widespread defaults or downgrades of more than a notch. It pointed out that most state and local governments use debt to fund capital projects, which could be put off for a while if access to credit was impaired. However….
State and local governments that issue debt to fund operating deficits or rely on short-term notes for seasonal cash flow needs may have greater exposure to risk, Moody’s said.
These issuers, such as California and Illinois, would be vulnerable if a slowing economy pushed their budgets off balance, leaving them fewer internal sources of funding, or if they could not function without borrowing cash.
Illinois regularly uses short-term notes for cash flow, and the governor’s initial borrowing plan to pay off overdue state bills also included money for operating expenses. That has since been pared back, but the plan has been blocked in the General Assembly.
* I asked the governor’s budget office for a response…
We continue to monitor the situation in the financial markets, but it is yet to be determined how market volatility will impact state economies.
Our focus remains on growing jobs and continuing to put our financial house in order by reducing spending, enacting Medicaid, worker’s compensation and pension reforms, as well as raising revenues to address the decades of fiscal mismanagement in our state.
Discuss.
* Meanwhile…
llinois taxpayers face at least $85 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. But Gov. Pat Quinn seemed to rule out a pension reform proposal pending in the General Assembly on Wednesday.
“Their proposal laid an egg this past year,” he said.
It was the governor’s clearest statement yet that he opposes the pension reform bill sponsored by House Republican Leader Tom Cross, which would not change any retirement credits that have already been earned by current state employees. […]
This year’s tax increase that raised about six to seven billion dollars for the most part all went to this year’s pension obligation,” Cross said. “It’s the elephant in the room.”
Why do we need to address this? Because, that $85 billion figure we cited as the unfunded liability for pensions in Illinois — well, it’s predicated on a really wild and wacky assumption that our investments will earn an average 8.5 percent every year for the next 40 years.
Good luck with that after what world stock markets have just done.
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* TPM has a story about Congressman Joe Walsh…
Last Thursday, Walsh told constituents at a townhall that he plans to “privately and legally” fight his ex-wife’s claims that he owes more than $100,000 in child support, which he called “wildly inaccurate.” A recent Chicago Sun-Times article reported that his ex-wife is suing him for $117,000 in unpaid support.
Yet, even if Walsh owes just $10,000 in unpaid child support, he could face the added headache of House Ethics Committee scrutiny. Walsh, who was elected in 2010 in a narrow victory over former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) in the Tea Party-induced wave, does not list any child support debt on his financial disclosure form, as required for any liability worth more than $10,000.
“Rep. Walsh is required both by law and by congressional ethics rules to list debts in excess of $10,000 on his financial disclosure forms, including child support back payments,” said Public Citizen’s Craig Holman.
“Technically, he could be taken to task by the Ethics Committee or even the Justice Department for failure to file proper disclosure forms, but in all likelihood the Ethics Committee and Justice would be satisfied if Walsh were to file amended forms,” Holman explained.
But Walsh is in a bit of a bind. Filing an amended form would require him to admit to owing at least $10,000 in back child support, what would amount to an ugly political liability that could knock him out of his role as one of the top spokesmen for the Tea Party GOP freshmen class.
* The Question: Is this alleged failure to pay child support issue relevant or should the media downplay it? Explain.
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* This is obviously some pretty big news…
For the first time, a federal judge has ruled former Mayor Richard M. Daley can be sued as a defendant for his alleged role in what plaintiffs claim is a citywide conspiracy to cover up police torture.
And Daley could be deposed by lawyers representing alleged victims, all African American, who charge their abuse came at the hands of a small band of predominantly white police officers under the command of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. […]
Michael Tillman spent 23 years in prison for murder. He confessed, said Taylor, because he was suffocated and beaten by Chicago Police officers. “They used a form of waterboarding, pouring 7-Up up his nose,” Taylor said. “That’s the kind of torture they used over a four-day period with Michael Tillman.”
When he was released in 2010, Cook County special prosecutors concluded there was no reliable evidence against him. Tillman received a certificate of innocence from the chief judge of the Criminal Courts of Cook County.
In his civil lawsuit, Tillman alleges the city conspired to cover up torture cases.
Burge, 63, already has been deposed by Taylor at the federal prison in North Carolina, where he is serving his sentence. During the deposition, Burge, seen for the first time wearing a khaki prison uniform, repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment.
This case just makes me sick. And Daley has never been held accountable.
* More…
Daley has been named in three other brutality lawsuits stemming from the torture and abuse that Burge is believed to have perpetrated years ago on dozens of African American men in Chicago — many of whom gave coerced confessions. But as they did in the Tillman case, the city moved to remove Daley from the lawsuits.
* Meanwhile…
Fifteen incarcerated men who claim they were sent to prison by confessions that were beaten, burned and tortured out of them by convicted Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge and his officers are getting some high-profile help - including from a former Illinois governor.
In a friend-of-the-court brief to be filed Wednesday with the Illinois Supreme Court, ex-Gov. Jim Thompson and more than 60 current and former prosecutors, judges and lawmakers are asking for new evidentiary hearings for inmates who say their convictions were based on coerced confessions. […]
The brief “gives the Illinois Supreme Court the opportunity to finally and firmly repudiate the Burge era of the Chicago Police Department,” said Thompson, a former Republican Illinois governor and U.S. attorney.
Lawyers are filing the brief in the case of Stanley Wrice, an inmate who has been claiming since 1982 that he falsely confessed to a brutal sexual assault only after Burge’s officers beat him in the face and groin with a flashlight and a piece of rubber.
Wrice, 57, is serving a 100-year sentence. Attorneys say he’s one of the longest-serving inmates with a Burge torture claim.
* From a press release…
Wrice, who remains in prison, was granted a hearing into the torture claims by the Illinois Appellate Court in 2010. In appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court, prosecutors argue that the admission of Wrice’s tortured confession was “harmless error,” because there was enough other evidence to support his conviction.
In their brief, the group of legal luminaries forcefully condemned this argument, writing:
“It is simply intolerable that any person should languish in prison as a result of conviction that rests even in part on a confession that Burge and his men are credibly claimed to have tortured into being. Our commitment to that position cannot be half-hearted – where, for instance, the use of tortured evidence might be rationalized after the fact as not having mattered to the outcome of the case. Instead, we believe Burge’s torture is so profoundly antithetical to our notions of justice and fair play that it cannot be permitted to taint any conviction, no matter the strength of the other evidence against the defendant.”
The group asks the Supreme Court to:
· Direct the Office of the Special Prosecutor to identify every case where a current Illinois prisoner claims his conviction rested at least in part on a false confession submitted under the duress of torture.
· Order the Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court to conduct hearings into evidence of torture and determine, in each case, whether torture occurred.
· Void any convictions that are ruled to rest in whole or in part on confessions obtained illegally through torture.
Discuss.
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Giannoulias lands unpaid chairmanship
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Alexi Giannoulias is back and has a new part-time, unpaid job…
Gov. Quinn on Wednesday will name Alexi Giannoulias chairman of the Illinois Community College Board.
Quinn regularly plugs Illinois’ network of 48 community colleges — the country’s third-largest community college system. For every student at at a public four-year-college in Illinois, two attend a community college, Quinn notes.
Giannoulias, 35, served as state treasurer and narrowly lost a race for U.S. Senate last year to Republican Mark Kirk. Giannoulias ran just two percentage points behind his Democratic ticket-mate, Quinn.
Since losing, Giannoulias has been putting together a political science class he will teach at Northwestern University this fall called “Campaigning versus governing.” He said Tuesday he plans to announce next month a full-time job he’ll be taking.
Thoughts on this?
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Feds get tough with Illinois
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Statehouse News has the scoop…
The federal government is requiring Illinois police to report illegal immigrants who are arrested on any charge from public intoxication to murder, in spite of Gov. Pat Quinn’s opposition.
On Friday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, canceled contracts with the 39 states participating in Secure Communities — a program in which local and state law enforcement officials share fingerprints with the federal government.
ICE, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, did not cancel the contracts to end the program, but rather to assert that ICE doesn’t need a state’s permission, in this case via a contract, to operate the deportation program. […]
ICE’s action came three months after Quinn ended Illinois’ timid two-year participation in Secure Communities. Since the program started in November 2009, 76 of Illinois’ 102 counties abstained from participating, the most notable being Cook County, home to Chicago.
“Illinois remains concerned that the program can have the opposite effect of its state purpose,” Brie Callahan, a spokeswoman for Quinn’s office, said. “Instead of making our communities safer, the program’s flawed implementation may divide communities (and) families.”
The federal program, created under Republican President George W. Bush, was engineered to deport illegal immigrants who’ve been convicted of a felony or at least three misdemeanors in the same year in the United States or a previous crime in their home country.
Go read the whole thing.
Please, take it easy in comments. I have a lot of stuff to do today and won’t be able to monitor the blog all the time. This topic can bring out the worst in people. Don’t let that happen. Thanks.
* Other stuff…
* Doctors’ detailed histories to go online - Patients can check whether physicians have been fired, convicted of a crime or made a malpractice payment in the last five years
* Illinois horse tracks, owners gets $141M windfall after long court fight
* Uncashed checks to be curated by state quicker
* New law creates statewide pool of firefighter candidates
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* Gov. Pat Quinn used his State of the State/Budget speech this past spring to call for the abolition of the legislative scholarship program. He was roundly booed by members. Quinn vetoed a reform bill last year because, he said, he didn’t think reform was enough. Abolition, he said, was the only way to go. Legislators passed another reform bill this year, which would bar legislators from handing out the scholarships to relatives and allowing them to turn over their scholarships to the Student Assistance Commission.
Quinn was asked about the program yesterday by reporters in the wake of revelations that former legislator Bob Molaro’s scholarship records have been subpoenaed by the feds. It sounds like he may use his amendatory veto powers to abolish the program this week…
“The essence of the bill on my desk is that it does not abolish the program, and that’s really what I think we have to do,” Quinn said. “I do want to make it clear that there’s no bigger supporter of scholarships than I am. I believe that we need to enhance our scholarship programs in Illinois, but I think having a program that’s had sort of a cloud of scandal around it for decades is not the way to do that.”
Quinn’s comments follow revelations that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed documents related to scholarships former Rep. Robert Molaro gave to children of longtime supporter Phillip Bruno. The Tribune reported last year that Bruno’s children received more than $94,000 in tuition waivers in recent years despite questions about their residence eligibility.
Even the bill’s chief sponsor wants Quinn to do an AV…
The legislation’s chief Senate sponsor, Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale), urged Quinn Tuesday to tweak the legislation to provide for an outright abolition of the program — something that the governor has called for repeatedly but that has never gained legislative traction over the years.
“Rep. Molaro is the latest in a long string of questionable practices of a program that should have been abolished previously. He’s just one more in a string of abuses,” Dillard said.
“The governor, with his amendatory veto power, can rewrite the bill to end the controversial General Assembly scholarship program. Procedurally, we could kill this program in one day during the veto session,” Dillard said.
* Molaro background, in case you haven’t been keeping up…
[Molaro] previously told the Chicago Sun-Times that there was nothing wrong with the scholarships he awarded.
An April 26 subpoena to the Illinois State Board of Education from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald seeks application forms, nomination forms and other documents related to legislative scholarships granted to four children of a Molaro campaign donor.
A July 20 subpoena to the board of education asks for “all documents relating to the Illinois General Assembly Legislative Scholarships nominated/issued” from Molaro.
The Chicago Tribune reported last year that the Molaro supporter’s four children may not have been eligible for the scholarships because of questions about whether they lived in Molaro’s district.
* I asked the spokespeople for both Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan if their respective bosses believe the program should now be abolished.
From Cullerton’s spokesperson Rikeesha Phelon…
Senate President Cullerton has supported efforts to reform the system by specifically addressing the abuses, rather than abolishing a program that has provided educational opportunities for hardworking students in need of financial support.
So, count Cullerton as a “No.”
From Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown…
I think if you check the roll calls the Speaker has voted to abolish the GA scholarships repeatedly.
Kind of a “Yes,” but not really.
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