Thanks for putting up with me this week. I’ll be here for at least part of next as well, so stick around because the show will still go on.
I really enjoyed your “Session” playlist suggestions in yesterday’s question. I found this one while playing through some of them and thought it was too good to not add to our list.
Please be safe if you’re traveling this weekend.
It’s good to get high, and never come down
It’s good to be king of your own little town
Friday, Apr 18, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The cable TV industry is asking lawmakers to place a NEW 5% tax on satellite TV service. This proposal is an unfair, unjustified tax increase on the 1.3 million Illinois families and businesses who subscribe to satellite TV.
Satellite TV taxes will hurt Illinois families and small businesses
• Residential satellite TV subscribers will see their monthly bills go up 5%.
• This tax will impact every bar, restaurant and hotel that subscribes to satellite TV service, which will translate into higher prices, decreased revenues, and fewer jobs.
• Rural Illinois has no choice: In many parts of Illinois, cable refuses to provide TV service to rural communities. Satellite TV is their only option.
This is not about parity or fairness
• Cable’s claim that this discriminatory tax is justified because satellite TV doesn’t pay local franchise fees could not be further from the truth. Cable pays those fees to local towns and cities in exchange for the right to bury cables in the public rights of way—a right that cable companies value in the tens of billions of dollars in their SEC filings.
• Satellite companies don’t pay franchise fees for one simple reason: We use satellites—unlike cable, we don’t need to dig up streets and sidewalks to deliver our TV service.
• Making satellite subscribers pay franchise fees—or, in this case, an equivalent amount in taxes—would be like taxing the air. It’s no different than making airline passengers pay a fee for laying railroad tracks.
Police officers trying to find out who was behind a fake Twitter account set up in the name of Peoria’s mayor have raided a home, seizing computers and phones and hauling several people in to be questioned.
Tuesday’s raid was carried out by four plainclothes officers even though Twitter had suspended the account several weeks ago. Three people at the home were brought to a police station to be interviewed, as were two other people who were met by police at their workplaces.
No arrests were made in connection with the Twitter account, but one of the residents was charged with possession of marijuana, the (Peoria) Journal Star reported. Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard says officers were investigating it as a possible case of impersonating a public official, an offense punishable with a fine of up to $2,500 and up to a year in jail.
The account, @peoriamayor, has been suspended by Twitter administrators. The suspension not only prevents the account holder from using the account to add posts, but it removes all previous Tweets.
* Ironically, a number of new parody accounts for Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and the police chief have popped up since the story became public. The Peoria Journal Star’s digital editor has compiled a list of some of those accounts.
I’m sure this isn’t the last we have heard of this story.
When it was active, (Jon) Daniel used it to portray Jim Ardis, the mayor of Peoria, as a weed-smoking, stripper-loving, Midwestern answer to Rob Ford. The account never had more than 50 followers, and Twitter had killed it because it wasn’t clearly marked as a parody. It was a joke, a lark—but it brought the police to Daniel’s door. The cops even took Daniel and one of his housemates in for in-depth questioning—they showed up at their jobs, cuffed them, and confiscated their phones—because of a bunch of Twitter jokes.
…
Full disclosure: Part of the blame for this situation rests on my shoulders. I loudly promoted @peoriamayor when I first noticed it, having no idea someone I knew was responsible for tweets that mostly had the fake mayor using drugs and partying. It was pretty damn funny. One of Daniel’s roommates told me that the first question police asked him was, “How do you know Justin Glawe?”
…
“Tell them my name. Tell them I did it,” he said, acknowledging the cops have him cornered. “But when they lock me up tell them to tweet using the hashtag #freesleezyd.”
Illinois State House members are advancing a bill that would devote $100 million toward a Barack Obama presidential library. The House Executive Committee meeting in Chicago today voted, by an official tally of 9-0, to authorize using state money for the library…Nine representatives were recorded as voting for the bill, even though there were five lawmakers in attendance at the hearing. That is because Rep. Bob Rita (D-Blue Island), who chairs the Executive Committee, employed a procedural move.
Rita used the attendance record from a previous hearing that occurred Wednesday as the vote for the presidential library cash. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sat in on today’s hearing, clarified Rita’s maneuver, saying the attendance would serve as nine votes in favor of the library, even though the previous committee hearing was on a possible Chicago casino and not related to a presidential library.
No Republicans attended Thursday’s hearing on the presidential library.
Sullivan serves as the Committee’s Minority Spokesperson. Generally when the chairman asks for “Leave of the attendance roll call,” the question is posed to the person in that position. Sullivan did attend the committee’s previous meeting, which was not adjourned but simply recessed to the call of the chair. As you probably know, attendance is not taken at the start of a meeting when the previous meeting is recessed instead of adjourned.
Adding to the mixture is that committee chairs will often instruct clerks to mark committee members as being in attendance if they arrive after roll call. I haven’t spent nearly as many hours in committee as most of those of you likely to comment on this post, but I have yet to see a chairperson instruct a clerk to have someone removed from the roll call if they leave the room or are not present when a recessed committee resumes. That said, I have seen chairpersons exclude absent members from attendance roll call votes. Clearly that did not happen here, and it does not happen all of the time.
Under the rule of House Speaker Michael Madigan (D, Chicago), the House Rules committee often convenes throughout the legislative calendar to alter, change or suspend House rules to move various proposals. In this instance, even the stated rules appear to be violated.
Under current House rules, a committee cannot vote on measures unless a quorum is present and the proper posting requirements have been met. Under a parliamentary review, the following were violated: Rule 32 providing a majority of those appointed constitute a quorum of a committee, Rule 21 authorizing actions by recessed committees but requiring the House to be in session, and Rule 49 providing that no member of a committee may vote except in person at the time of the call of the vote.
“I’m not even a member of the Executive Committee and the Democrats chose to vote on my behalf, which is a blatant violation of House Rules,” said Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon). “This is typical Chicago politics at work. My constituents elected me to vote for them. They didn’t elect the Chicago politicians who stole my vote today.”
On Wednesday, April 16th State Representative Dwight Kay served as a temporary replacement on the House Executive Committee for a hearing in Chicago to discuss gaming expansion in Illinois. Rep. Kay participated in the hearing to express his opposition to an amendment which would exclude Fairmount Race Track from the proposed gaming expansion. After the hearing, Kay traveled back to his legislative district nearly 300 miles south of Chicago and was no longer a substituted member on the Executive Committee. Therefore, he was not present at Thursday’s recessed hearing to vote on the legislation to spend $100 million in public funds on the Obama Presidential Library.
Someone with more legal experience might be able to chime in, but I think technically since the Committee was recessed and Kay was not marked as being absent when it resumed, he would have still been a substituted member.
* Fitch Ratings stuck with its “A-” rating and “Negative” outlook on Illinois’s general obligation bonds. From the explanation…
BUDGET TEMPORARILY STABILIZED WITH TAX INCREASE: Temporary increases in both the personal and corporate income tax rates, coupled with statutory spending limits, have closed a significant portion of the structural gap in the state’s budget through the current fiscal year 2014.
NEED FOR LONG-TERM SOLUTION REMAINS: Due to the temporary nature of the enacted tax increases, the state will need to find a more permanent solution to the mismatch between spending and revenues. The Negative Outlook reflects the critical need to address this issue. The governor’s recommended budget for the coming fiscal year would make these tax increases permanent and provide a basis for the state to achieve fiscal balance.
LARGE BALANCE OF DEFERRED PAYMENTS REMAINS: The state has a large general fund accounts payable backlog, which although reduced still totaled $4.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2013. The state prudently used higher than forecast income tax collections in fiscal 2013 to pay down a portion of the accounts payable balance.
The governor has proposed two alternative budgets for fiscal 2015; one based on current law with expiring tax rates and a second recommended budget that makes permanent the higher tax rates. The current law budget is balanced through large spending cuts. Even with the higher taxes maintained, however, the recommended budget would rely on a small interfund borrowing ($170 million or 0.4% of forecast general fund revenues) to balance. The recommended budget includes a total of $650 million in interfund borrowing, the balance of which would be used to pay down accumulated accounts payable.
* A budget roundup…
* State approves prison hepatitis C drug, likely to cost millions: Officials say there are an estimated 100 to 150 inmates at each of the state’s 25 prisons who have the disease…Documents show the state estimates the cost of treating an inmate with Sovaldi will range from $61,000 to $122,000.
* SIU budget cuts could cost hundreds of jobs: “With a $23.5-million dollar decline in our appropriation it will get into the hundreds of people that we will not be able to rehire,” said Dr. Glenn Poshard. “There may be layoffs, but there certainly will be hundreds of positions left unfilled.”
Since December 2012, GTCR has owned Correctional Healthcare Cos., which got a five-year contract with a five-year renewal option from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in February 2013 to provide medical, dental and mental health evaluations and treatment for the approximately 900 inmates, ages 13 to 20, of six state-run youth detention centers in the Chicago area and downstate.
The state deal is worth as much as $99.3 million.
Grant Klinzman, a Quinn spokesman, says the Democratic governor wasn’t involved in awarding the contract and didn’t know of Rauner’s ties to Correctional Healthcare.
Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf notes that the Winnetka Republican retired as managing director of GTCR in October 2012 — two months before the firm acquired Correctional Healthcare and four months before the state contract was awarded. Schrimpf says Rauner didn’t work on the Correctional Healthcare acquisition and wasn’t aware the company has a state contract.
Rauner has said if elected he would put his investments into a blind trust.
State Rep. SUE SCHERER, the freshman House member from Decatur who faced quiet but — as it turned out — tough primary opposition in March, survived the race with the help of more than $90,000 from committees controlled by House Speaker MICHAEL MADIGAN, D-Chicago.
…
Most of the Madigan support doesn’t show up on Scherer’s campaign finance report, because $89,702 of the total came as independent expenditures from Democratic Majority, one of the committees Madigan controls. Those expenditures, which can’t be coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, included money for staff, polling, insurance, and printing and postage for a barrage of Scherer mailers that went to households in the 96th.
Because they were independent expenditures, that also meant they weren’t capped. Direct contributions from that committee to Scherer could not have topped $78,900 in the primary.
Scherer’s own campaign committee had $58,085 in the bank as of Jan. 1, raised $94,625 in the first three months of the year, spent $86,792, and ended up with nearly $66,000 in the bank as of March 31.
Mike Bell, Scherer’s Republican challenger this November in the 96th House District, reported just $5 on hand at the close of the first quarter. Bell, R-Edinburg, raised $6,730 through the first three months of the year, $2,000 of which were contributions from his mother, Joan Bell, and another $1,200 on a loan taken by Mike Bell. Another $1,000 came from Elizabeth Soldwedel, who uses the on-air name “Liz Willis” at Capital Radio Group in Springfield and works communications with the Illinois House Republicans.
A roundup…
* WALSH: SORRY, SEN. KIRK, THAT TRAIN HAS ALREADY LEFT THE STATION: What’s changed in the past thirty days that caused Mark Kirk to take back his previous statement? And let’s be clear: he didn’t change his mind. He has no interest in supporting Oberweis, and he genuinely wants Durbin to get reelected.
* You may recall last month the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s eavesdropping law. Among other things, the law required a person recording conversations to receive consent from all participating parties before pushing the “Record” button. Now a days, you don’t even need that. It’s all fair game.
“We cannot let this stand, because right now, you can record anybody, any time with or without (their) knowledge and use it for whatever purpose — and there’s nothing to control that,” said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat. “I think that’s a situation we really need to fix.”
…
Ideally, Nekritz said, she’d like to have a new eavesdropping statute proposed before the end of the General Assembly’s spring session on May 31. But with lawmakers focusing more on the state’s finances than criminal law, she’s not confident a bill will advance.
She wants to keep one of the primary provisions in the old law — that all parties in a conversation give their consent before any recording is made — and add in exceptions for conversations that cannot reasonably be deemed to be private.
Question: Are there any provisions in the old Eavesdropping Law you would like to see in a hypothetical new statute?
Cheer up, everyone. We’re talking about the Blackhawks. They aren’t exactly the Cubs offense in New York or Chris Sale’s bullpen support in the ninth. IT’S THE MOTHER FLIPPIN’ BLACKHAWKS! RALLY CAP TIME, CHICAGO!
* Analysis: Pension reforms to cost workers $55 million by 2025: The Anderson Economic Group also calculated the cost to Chicago taxpayers that Emanuel hopes to offset with a $250 million property tax increase if Gov. Pat Quinn agrees to sign the pension reform bill. The city will be required to contribute $530 million by 2025. That’s 9 percent of overall city revenues and $450 million more than the city would otherwise be required to contribute without pension reform. But the cost of waiting even five more years to confront the city’s pension crisis was even worse. It was pegged at $310 million because of lost investment returns.
* Sneed: Cardinal George may preside over his last Easter Mass on Sunday: George’s third and final dose of chemotherapy for his third bout of cancer is Monday, the day after Easter. “Then we’ll see what comes next,” said Dolan. Sneed is told the cardinal’s request a week ago that the Papal Nuncio begin his replacement process was based on more than just his deteriorating health. George, who replaced Cardinal Joseph Bernardin five months after his death, regrets missing the opportunity to seek Bernardin’s opinion and “ask questions,” said Dolan. “He’d like to give his replacement that opportunity.”
* IDNR fires Tony Mayville: The 58-year-old Du Bois resident said officials claimed he began campaigning for the seat before he was cleared to run by IDNR chief Marc Miller. He said his handling of campaign donations from a coal company also played a role in his firing. “I still contend I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Mayville, who was earning $92,642 annually before his ouster.
* Brown: Odds may finally favor a Chicago casino — if Madigan is dealing: In particular, the most important new wrinkle — giving ownership of a Chicago casino to the State of Illinois, which would then split the revenue 50-50 with the city — bore the fingerprints of a solution crafted by Madigan to resolve the city’s problematic demands for public ownership.
* Beaman files new lawsuit against former Normal police officers: Beaman served more than 13 years in prison for the 1993 death of Jennifer Lockmiller of Decatur before the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 2008.
* ISU Students continue to ask questions about Flanagan resignation: Members and supporters of the group I Paid For Flanagan met in Schroeder Hall Wednesday night to lay out exactly what they the university to answer. Organizer and Senior Sociology Major Chris Roehl said it starts with answering where the money for Flanagan’s $480,000 severance package comes from.
So far, break has been just that. However there was one bit of news that came out of the SIU Board of Trustees meeting this morning you might be interested in…
* All week we have seen agency directors and not-for-profit executives featured in media stories about what services they would have to cut if the income tax rate’s sunset dates stand as they are. The school funding card in that equation is a big one, and the Senate Democrats played it yesterday…
If Illinois lawmakers don’t extend the state’s temporary income tax, school districts could see a net reduction of more than $450 million in general state aid next year.
That was the message sent by Democrats in the Senate Wednesday as they released a breakdown of how Illinois schools would fare under a doomsday budget scenario.
Nearly every one of the state’s 800-plus school districts would come out on the losing end of the state funding blueprint at a time when Illinois already is spending 89 percent of what it says it should be spending to guarantee all students get a quality education.
“We don’t believe the scenario they’ve created — that without an extension of their 67 percent income-tax increase the state budget will collapse,” said Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno. “We believe they are attempting to create a crisis to justify going back to taxpayers’ pockets.”
Schuh said Democrats “have not made education a priority” the past 10 years they’ve run the Statehouse.
“The Democrats have chosen to spend taxpayers money in other areas, so who would believe now that education would be a priority?” she said.
The “Why should we believe you?” argument made a regular appearance last week during Executive Committee hearings on the graduated income tax and before Speaker pulled the plug on the millionaire’s tax.
* Related..
* Report: Big cuts to state aid for schools if income tax increase expires: In Springfield alone, the school district would see a reduction of just over $4 million. The Senate Democrats’ figures showed the district getting about $35.8 million in general state aid this year.
Thursday, Apr 17, 2014 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
In any discussion about treating mental illness, patients and their families must come first. But Senate Bill 2187 – sometimes called “RxP” – puts the interests of a small group of professionals ahead of protecting patients.
SB 2187 would allow psychologists who have no medical training to prescribe medications. Current Illinois law allows only people who have medical training – doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants – to prescribe drugs.
Why does medical training matter? Physical illnesses and mental disorders are often intertwined. Additionally, psychiatric medication, such as drugs for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, can interact negatively with medication for chronic illnesses. Finally, many drugs are powerful and have risky side effects. To understand these complexities, psychiatrists go through four years of medical school and four additional years of residency, on top of their college training in the sciences. They learn to treat the whole patient – not just the brain.
“When you talk about prescribing medicine, the Number One point that you want to drive home is safety,” says Dr. Napatia Tronshaw, an Orland Park psychiatrist and medical doctor. “In order to safely approach prescribing medication, there is a certain knowledge base that you should have.”
Psychologists who want to prescribe can follow the route taken by Illinois nurse practitioners, physician assistants and doctors. They can obtain medical training – instead of insisting on a law that would put patients at risk. To become involved, join the Coalition for Patient Safety, http://coalitionforpatientsafety.com.
* A little while back, I created a post on Facebook about what songs I should include on an iTunes playlist called “Session.” For example, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant is there. “Life in the Fast Lane” by The Eagles was a must. Dylan’s “Things Have Changed” is on the list.
You get the idea.
Anyway, the original post didn’t really attract much attention (sad story, I know). So with that in mind…
Question: What songs would you include on a music playlist entitled “Session?”
Please don’t everyone suggest every track on Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album. VanillaMan, it’s your time to shine, buddy!
The existence of the records was first disclosed in the report issued last month by the Northeastern Illinois Public Transit Task Force, appointed last summer by Gov. Pat Quinn to recommend improvements for Metra and the other transit agencies. The task force was created after ousted CEO Alex Clifford alleged that House Speaker Michael Madigan and other power brokers pressured him on issues ranging from hiring to contracts.
The cards date roughly from 1983 to 1991, and relate to people who were referred for jobs, promotions or raises by various public officials or others with political influence, the task force said. Some of those people got the jobs they were seeking and others did not, the task force said.
…
The index cards provide a quirky but incomplete history of hiring at Metra. Each card offers a partial snapshot of job candidates, what positions they were seeking or received and who was listed as their patron.
The jobs range from budget analyst to car cleaner, and the patrons were some of the most colorful characters in Chicago history. They include a host of now-convicted power brokers, from ex-Gov. George Ryan to former Chicago Ald. Ed Vrdolyak and former Metra board member Donald Udstuen. Among the other marquee political names were Madigan, former Gov. Jim Edgar, former Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip, ex-Mayor Jane Byrne and even the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.
* Now if there is a suspicious hiring move or a salary bumps, it’s a headline…
Former Democratic state Rep. Karen Yarbrough has been Cook County’s recorder of deeds for little over a year.
But in that time, records show, Yarbrough has put one family member on the payroll and hired several people with political ties to her, as well as to her husband, former Maywood Mayor Henderson Yarbrough.
Borrowing a legal argument crafted by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, Yarbrough claims in court papers that the county ethics ordinance — which bars the hiring of family members — doesn’t apply to her as an independently elected office holder.
What’s more, when Cook County Inspector General Pat Blanchard looked into the hires, the employees and ranking staffers lied to investigators and refused to cooperate, Blanchard said in a blistering report released Wednesday.
I think “Don’t lie when they come talk to you” was a tip that came up more than once in yesterday’s Question of the Day.
* Metra’s $2.4 million in non-union raises — here’s the list
* Claypool hires ex-county staffers with past ethics problems: Claypool named James D’Amico to help manage the CTA’s rail maintenance. Though D’Amico has no railroad experience, he is a longtime government worker who late last year left his county management post after the inspector general recommended he be fired for allegedly coercing government workers into donating to Todd Stroger’s campaign. D’Amico joined Gerald Nichols, a top executive under John Stroger, who is Claypool’s general manager of legislative affairs and government and community relations at the CTA. In 2006, Nichols was placed on paid suspension from his county job pending an internal investigation into hiring irregularities following an FBI search of county offices that did not result in any charges. Nichols remained suspended until he left the county later that year.
* Remember the old “I was put on this Earth to fix pensions” days? Whacky fun, right?
Before the state pension bill passed, Gov. Quinn frequently deferred to comment on other issues because it wouldn’t be right to address anything but pension reform. Of course now that there is (at least momentarily) a pension bill in the books, the Governor can’t use that as cover anymore. And sure enough, gaming expansion proponents are back at it. A hearing was held yesterday to discuss the latest amendments to the proposal…
The newest version separates plans for a Chicago casino with up to 10,000 betting positions from a broader package that would add a total of five new casinos across the state and allow slot machines at horse tracks. The shift in strategy is aimed at blunting arguments that the gambling market outside the city is already saturated with existing casinos and video gambling machines at neighborhood bars.
However, peeling a Chicago casino out of a larger gambling package presents its own problems as Downstate and suburban lawmakers may be less inclined to vote in favor unless they get a piece of the gambling pie. But sponsoring Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, said a new provision that would split revenue from a Chicago casino evenly between the city and state should help win support of legislators and the governor, who has vetoed two previous expansion bills.
Crain’s Chicago noted that Governor Pat Quinn might be more amenable to this plan than he has been to previous proposals that involved building casinos throughout the state. However, as both Crain’s and the AP described, putting a single, large casino in Chicago will almost certainly face long odds in the General Assembly; downstate representatives have already objected on the grounds that the primary purpose of a casino bill ought to be revitalizing economies around the state with construction and permanent jobs.
In fact, and as you will recall from last week in one of Rich’s posts, the Governor has lightened up on a Chicago casino. But get this…
#Rahm "not appropriate to talk about gaming until we've addressed pension reform" #twill
Why is one of the most vocal proponents of a Chicago casino recycling lines from one of its biggest opponents?
One theory is the Mayor does not want to upset the Governor while the city’s pension bill is still on his desk.
In the meantime, though…
After years of pushing for slots machines at racetracks, some horse racing advocates are worried the smaller number proposed in a new plan won’t generate enough money.
The current plan would allow for 600 slot machines at Arlington International Racecourse, half the 1,200 called for in previous plans that were vetoed by Gov. Pat Quinn.
“All right, we’ll exist. Horse racing will exist with (600) machines. But we will not flourish. We will not flourish like other states,” said Bob Molaro, an industry lobbyist.
* Down-ballot fundraising shows big gaps: Democrat candidate Mike Frerichs of Champaign has raised $375,820 since January, giving him more than $1.08 million to spend. That’s compared to the $232,133 raised by his opponent, Republican Tom Cross of Oswego. He currently has $210,000 on hand. … Attorney General Lisa Madigan has an enormous fundraising advantage over her Republican challenger, Paul Schimpf. The Chicago Democrat raised $59,503 last quarter, putting her cash reserves at over $4.7 million. Schimpf brought in $22,135. After campaign expenses for the quarter, Schimpf reports having only $14,649 on hand.
* Quinn with nearly $9 million as Rauner reloads: Democrats held a campaign fundraising advantage in statewide races for secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer, but not for comptroller. In that contest, Republican Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka had $1.1 million left and Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon had $399,000.
* A new report by the Public Interest Research Group says businesses that pay taxes in other countries through shell companies costs individual Illinois taxpayers $1,396 a year. For small businesses, that number is $4,588. From the coverage…
Every year, corporations and wealthy individuals avoid paying an estimated $184 billion in state and federal income taxes by using complicated accounting tricks to shift their profits to offshore tax havens. Of that $184 billion, $110 billion is avoided specifically by corporations.
…
“This is yet another example of why tax reform needs to be more than just campaign rhetoric,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., a co-sponsor of H.R. 1554. “Hard-working middle-class Americans and the small businesses that are the future of this nation should not be forced to carry the tax burden sidestepped by others through the use of offshore accounts. I applaud Illinois PIRG for their exemplary work on this issue.”
Illinois can also take measures to reclaim some of the revenue lost to tax havens. Illinois PIRG found that by passing a simple, proven reform already on the books in other states, Illinois could save $108.3 million annually.
“The Illinois number is striking,” said Illinois state Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago. “If big corporations only paid their fair share for one year, the state’s operating budget problems could disappear overnight, elementary, secondary and higher education would be fully funded, MAP grant scholarships doubled, home and health services for senior citizens and people with disabilities fully restored, after-school and anti-gang programs tripled, and every overdue bill paid. So many of the troubles that face our state and communities would be wiped out in an instant if these loopholes were closed.”
* Lake County GOP chooses new leader: In their own conference, held simultaneously in Gurnee, the Democrats re-elected state Sen. Terry Link as their chairman.
* ComEd asks state for rate hike to help fund smart grid: Electricity customers would pay the higher rate regardless of which electricity provider supplies their electricity because its pays for upgrades to the ComEd-owned system that delivers that power. “These improvements, if done right, should pay for themselves in the long run, but the key moving forward is to hold ComEd accountable,” said Jim Chilsen, a spokesman for consumer advocacy group Citizens Utility Board in Chicago.
* New warden named for Menard prison: Kim Butler, a 20-year veteran of the Illinois Department of Corrections, was named warden of Menard Correctional Center on Wednesday. She is the first woman to serve as warden at the maximum-security prison in Chester.
* Opponents of Murray center closure win round in court: The decision means a public guardian can continue his job of overseeing some residents of the Warren G. Murray Developmental Center. The ruling stems from a decision last year in which attorney Stewart Freeman was named as the legal guardian of 28 Murray residents after questions were raised about the representation they were receiving from a state guardian. In his position, Freeman has the power to block the state from taking certain steps to move the residents out of Murray, potentially stymieing the governor’s push to shutter the facility.
* Fake Twitter account prompts real raid: Police searched a West Bluff house Tuesday and seized phones and computers in an effort to unmask the author of a parody Twitter account that purported to be Mayor Jim Ardis. The account — known as @Peoriamayor on the popular social media service that limits entries to 140 characters — already had been suspended for several weeks when up to seven plainclothes police officers executed a search warrant about 5:20 p.m. at 1220 N. University St. Three people at the home were taken to the Peoria Police Department for questioning. Two other residents were picked up at their places of employment and taken to the station, as well. One resident — 36-year-old Jacob L. Elliott — was booked into the Peoria County Jail on charges of possessing 30 to 500 grams of marijuana and possessing drug paraphernalia, but no arrests were made in connection with the Twitter account.
