Ed Burke was indicted in May of 2019. I know COVID and all, but 4 1/2 years from charges to trial is long even for a federal political corruption case. https://t.co/URb7njM7jP
In his nearly 14 years as a state legislator State Rep Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside) built an excellent reputation in Springfield. He was liked and respected by his colleagues regardless of party and ideological disposition. He was an active legislator who studied issues and liked to talk about policy.
He was more accessible to the news media than most state legislators and he chaired the House Revenue and Finance Committee and was close to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
But all of that didn’t translate into enough votes for Zalewski in last month’s primary election as the seven-term incumbent was defeated in the Democratic primary in the 21st District by challenger Abdelnasser Rashid, who won just over 52 percent of the vote in an extremely low-turnout election.
Zalewski was beaten badly on his home turf in Riverside, where he has lived for the past 12 years. He only received 40.2 percent of the vote in the Riverside portion of his district, which includes all of Riverside north of the BNSF railroad tracks. Zalewski didn’t even win the Riverside Township’s 10th Precinct, where he lives, getting only 42 percent of the vote.
Whew.
I checked and Reps. Denyse Wang Stoneback (D-Skokie) and Kathy Willis (D-Addison) both won their home precincts.
Federal health officials say the COVID-19 risk level has fallen from “high” to “medium” in Chicago and suburban Cook County — but across Illinois, hospitals are admitting the most patients they’ve seen with the virus in almost five months.
And residents are still being urged to mask up when gathering indoors in more than two-thirds of counties statewide, including most of the Chicago area.
The latest troubling numbers were released Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which reported 1,309 people hospitalized with the coronavirus, the most since Feb. 21, when the state was subsiding from its worst resurgence of the pandemic. At least 149 of the latest patients are receiving intensive care, the most since the first week of March.
Hospital admissions have more than doubled since mid-April, following a steady increase in cases since the early spring — a trend playing out in most other parts of the country, too.
To put this into perspective, the all-time hospitalization high was 7,353 on January 10. The previous spike saw hospitalizations hit 6,175 on November 20, 2020. And yes, they went way down this year after the massive Omicron wave infected a kabillion people and more folks got their shots and boosters.
Tellingly, not a single expert was quoted to back up the paper’s hospitalization hype.
ICU usage is also still relatively low. The all-time high was 1,290 on April 28, 2020. Today, it’s 134.
* Remember, this was all an exercise in preventing our hospital system from being overrun. They’re not doing great (for lots of reasons), but they’re currently not being inundated and I’ve yet to see one expert warning that such a thing was imminent or even likely. We have vaccines. We have treatments. And lots of people have been previously infected (more than once). It’s always good to take care of yourselves and others. Use some common sense and don’t be an idiot.
But, if we ever do see a fast-spreading variant that evades vaccines as well as antibodies from prior infections and forces hospitalizations up in a scary way, it’s possible, even probable, that fewer people will believe the danger because of “Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’” stories like that one.
…Adding… Again, people need to use common sense and continue to use caution in congregate settings…
The Illinois Veterans’ Home at Quincy is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases among its veterans and staff. Based on robust rapid testing and the support of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) laboratories, in quick succession the Department identified 16 residents and 10 staff positive for COVID-19. Most of the positive residents are presenting with mild symptoms. However, in the last several days, four veterans were transported to the emergency department out of an abundance of caution. Two veterans remain hospitalized for conditions unrelated to COVID-19 symptoms.
All the residents who tested positive have been moved to the negative pressure isolation unit and are being closely monitored and cared for by dedicated Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (IDVA) personnel. All positive residents have received at least two doses of the vaccine, and 11 of the 16 veterans are up to date with their boosters. A staff physician is assessing residents’ need for anti-viral post exposure medication. Quincy staff are in close communication with the families and loved ones of the residents in the isolation unit.
“Our top priority remains the health and safety of our military veterans and the dedicated IDVA staff who care for them,” said IDVA Director Terry Prince. “The Department continues to adhere to current regulations and is receiving assistance from the local health department and the IDPH. We are grateful to our team for remaining highly vigilant for signs or symptoms of COVID-19 and for responding swiftly, appropriately, and professionally to any potential cases.”
Protocols include continuing daily health screenings of our veterans, rapid COVID-19 testing of staff at shift change and regular testing of residents, use of N-95 respirator masks with eye protection, maintaining social-distancing practices, using gloves and gowns, and intensified cleaning and disinfection protocols. During an outbreak, residents are encouraged to stay in their rooms to minimize movement within the facility. IDPH and the Department’s Infection Control Specialist have been on site, working with the Quincy team to ensure staff compliance with our infection control directives, COVID testing, and care of our veterans.
Communal dining and activities have been curtailed in the affected areas until the outbreak ends. Activities and social services staff continue to provide leisure activities, in accordance with social distancing practices, to care for the psychosocial wellbeing of our veterans. Visitation is allowed to continue, per CDC guidelines however, families have been notified that we are in outbreak status and that rescheduling visitation should be considered.
Governor JB Pritzker has appointed Dr. Sameer Vohra, a distinguished pediatrician and healthcare policy expert, to lead the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) beginning August 1. Dr. Vohra, the Founding Chair of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s (SIU-SOM) Department of Population Science and Policy, follows Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who stepped down in March after leading IDPH and the State of Illinois through the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m proud to announce the Illinois Department of Public Health’s next visionary leader: Dr. Sameer Vohra,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Dr. Vohra is accomplished in every sense of the word. His experience and education transcend sectors and fields, bringing a well-rounded perspective to this agency. As a leader in state and national health policy, I have absolute confidence in Dr. Vohra’s ability to continue shaping a stronger IDPH for the 21st century.”
Dr. Vohra is a general pediatrician who holds degrees in law and public policy. He is a cross-disciplinary leader in state and national health policy formulation, and his recent focus has been on improving health outcomes in Central and Southern Illinois. An Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Public Health, Medical Humanities, and Law at SIU-SOM, he currently serves the State of Illinois as the Interim Chair of the Children’s Mental Health Partnership.
He completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Chicago and earned a Master of Arts in public policy from the University of Chicago. He holds a medical doctorate from SIU-SOM; a juris doctorate from SIU School of Law graduating first in his class; and a Bachelor of Arts in political science and science in human culture with honors from Northwestern University.
“I am humbled that the Governor has entrusted me to serve the people of our State as the 20th Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health,” said Dr. Sameer Vohra. “Governor Pritzker, along with the dedicated staff of IDPH, have served our State admirably during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am honored to lead this agency into the future, continuing to keep us safe from emerging illnesses, supporting our public health workers, and promoting wellness in every community across Illinois.”
Dr. Vohra also serves on IDPH’s Illinois State Board of Health, the Illinois Medicaid Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council, and recently completed a term on the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund Steering Committee. He has previously served on national committees for the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the American Medical Association, and on the Board of Trustees for the Illinois State Medical Society and Chicago Medical Society.
He has received numerous honors including a United States Fulbright Scholarship in 2009, an American Medical Association Foundation’s Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award in 2014, and was named an Edgar Fellow in 2016 as one of 40 emerging political and policy leaders in Illinois. In 2020, he was named a Presidential Leadership Scholar, chosen by the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Clinton Presidential Center, the George and Barbara Bush Foundation, and the LBJ Foundation.
Since Dr. Ezike’s departure, IDPH has been led on an interim basis by Amaal Tokars, PhD., the department’s Assistant Director.
“It has been my great honor to serve the people of Illinois and Governor Pritzker as leader of IDPH during this interim period at a time when we are facing public health challenges on a number of fronts,” said Dr. Amaal Tokars, who will remain as IDPH Assistant Director, having served in that capacity since June 2020. “I applaud Governor Pritzker’s appointment of Dr. Vohra, a distinguished leader in the healthcare policy arena who is well-known among Illinois stakeholders for his expertise and dedication to improving health outcomes and addressing healthcare disparities that have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
IDPH has 200 different programs that benefit each state resident and visitor. With the assistance of local public health agencies, these essential programs and services make up Illinois’ public health system, a system that forms a frontline defense against disease through preventive measures and education.
…Adding… ISMS…
Statement attributable to Clarence W. Brown Jr., MD, JD, President, Illinois State Medical Society:
“The Illinois State Medical Society is pleased to see long-time member Dr. Sameer Vohra appointed to lead the Illinois Department of Public Health. Dr. Vohra is a true public health advocate and is an excellent choice as the next leader of this vital department. Congratulations Dr. Vohra! Your physician colleagues know the citizens of Illinois are in good hands with you looking out for their health and well-being.”
Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Makes it unlawful to deliver, sell, or purchase or cause to be delivered, sold, or purchased or cause to be possessed by another, an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge. Makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly possess an assault weapon, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge 300 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act, except possession of weapons registered with the Illinois State Police in the time provided. Provides exemptions and penalties. Prohibits delivery, sale, purchase or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices. Provides exemptions and penalties.
Full text is here. The bill now has more than 50 co-sponsors.
* The Question: Do you support this bill? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Domestic violence continued to surge in Chicago and across Illinois in 2021, while pandemic-based isolation and economic uncertainty made it harder for victims to get help, a new report released Monday states.
A statewide domestic violence hotline received nearly 30,000 calls in 2021, up [9%], and the number of murders and shootings involving domestic relations in Chicago increased nearly two-thirds from 2020, according to the “Measuring Safety: Gender-based Violence in Illinois” by The Network, a Chicago-based advocacy organization. […]
Despite the increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines from Chicago residents, the number of cases reported to police fell by 5% in 2021, to around 151,000 reported incidents. The decline likely doesn’t represent a downturn in abuse, given the surge in domestic-related shootings, Farrell said, but probably results from a sense of futility by victims. Victims interviewed by study authors reported feeling ignored by Chicago Police, and CPD made arrests in only about 5% of domestic violence calls, a decline of 15% from 2020 and more than a third from 2020.
One positive finding of the report was a marked increase in funding for domestic violence services, which included $35 million allotted by Chicago to address gender-based violence and human trafficking, and $71 million in state funding for domestic violence services.
Sustain Increased Financial Investments in Direct Services
The City of Chicago and State of Illinois recently made new investments in services for gender-based violence which will help service providers expand and improve their programs. These increased investments must be sustained and built on moving forward.
Increase Awareness of, and Connection to, Community-Based Resources
Many survivors reported being unaware of the services available. It is vital that awareness of these resources is raised so survivors can access the services they need.
Increase Gender Based Violence Data Collection and Availability
Many factors connected to gender-based violence are still unknown due to limited data collection. The Network encourages those within all systems who interact with survivors to accurately record information from these interactions that can be utilized for research.
Prioritize Gender-Based Violence Services Over Other Systems of Response
As this report highlights, the majority of survivors receive the strongest support from direct service providers. As officials look to address increasing rates of gender-based violence, emphasis must be placed on these service providers which continue to provide a positive impact on survivors.
* This is legal, but the Chicago FOP president is still gonna have to explain to his members why he spent their cash to help a losing candidate pay back a loan to herself after the election…
This is also one reason why the Chicago FOP funneled $50,000 through a newly formed PAC "United Working Taxpayers" to run negative campaign mailers against Jones' opponent.
— The People's Fabric (@peoplesfabric) July 11, 2022
Jones was clobbered by Sen. Rob Martwick (D-Chicago).
Bailey made national headlines after his comment on the Highland Park mass shooting that left seven dead. Bailey said, “let’s move on and celebrate the independence of this nation”. He later apologized for his comments.
“No, I apologized for that and as a matter of fact that was taken out of context,” said Bailey
THIS RACE IS GETTING WEIRD: Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Dan Brady may face another opponent on the ballot for secretary of state. His name is (drum roll) Jesse White, a Libertarian, who shouldn’t be confused with Democrat Jesse White, who has held the job for 20-plus years.
We discussed a State Journal-Register story about the Jesse White development way back in January.
Democrat Paul Lange, running for Congress in a district that gave Donald Trump 72 percent of the vote in 2020, knows he’s something less than a longshot against incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, who bulldozed another incumbent Republican two weeks ago.
“I think I have a chance,” said the Quincy man who last ran for public office (and lost) as a candidate for state representative in 1994 and 1996. “Is it a large chance? No. But you know, I grew up a fan of the Baltimore Colts and the Baltimore Orioles.” […]
Lange said he isn’t relying on state or national Democratic committees to support his campaign.
He’s not “relying” on them because they’re not going to give him any money. Donald Trump won the district by 38.6 percentage points in 2020 and 38.1 percent in 2016. Bruce Rauner won it by 26 percent. The only statewide Democrat to eke out a victory was Jesse White (the real one, not the Libertarian). JW won by 3.2 percentage points in 2018. All of this reliable data is easily accessible online.
* This is the most Dan Lipinski thing ever. Gin up lots of favorable news media coverage, allow volunteers to collect thousands of signatures and oops…
Lipinski said the law didn’t play into his decision not to run. “I was told a challenge would very likely prevail,” he told Playbook. “And challenging the law would demonstrate how the system is rigged by the two parties against independents.”
* You really can fool some of the people all of the time with nonsense…
* Related…
* Major fundraising underdogs among challengers to unseat incumbents: “You know, I don’t want to say, well, Madigan would have won it and Welch didn’t sort of thing,” Redfield said. “Because you can’t ever go back. Madigan, a couple of cycles ago, you’d be shocked.”
The woman found guilty of bombing a mosque in Minnesota was sentenced on Monday to charges in Illinois.
Emily Claire Hari, formerly known as Michael Hari, is the leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group that authorities say masterminded the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque. […]
On Feb. 9, 2022, Hari pleaded guilty to attempted arson charges in the 2017 attack on the Women’s Health Practice, a women’s clinic in Champaign, Illinois.
On Monday, Hari was sentenced to a total of 14 years behind bars.
Emily Claire Hari, formerly known as Michael B. Hari, 50, of the 200 block of First Street in Clarence, Illinois, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence, attempted arson, unlawful possession of a machinegun, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. Sentencing for Hari has been scheduled on June 13, 2022, at 1 p.m. at the U.S. Courthouse in Urbana, Illinois.
In court before Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long, Hari admitted guilt to all four charges contained in the indictment. During the hearing, the government stated that, during the latter part of 2017, Hari started a militia group, which called itself the “Patriot Freedom Fighters,” and which sometime later went by the nickname the “White Rabbits.” In addition to Hari, who served as its founder and leader, the militia group included convicted conspirators Michael McWhorter, Joe Morris, Ellis J. Mack, and Wesley Johnson. Around the latter part of 2017, the conspirators began engaging in repeated criminal acts of violence, which they referred to as “jobs.” As part of their militia activities, the conspirators obtained materials used to make incendiary devices, provided weapons and uniforms to the conspirators, and assigned rank to the conspirators To assist in their militia activities, the conspirators acquired and/or assembled four shotguns and four assault rifles, some of which were fully automatic. The weapons, as well as thermite (a pyrotechnic composition), were stored in a locked safe in the militia group’s “office” in Clarence.
On November 7, 2017, Hari, McWhorter, Morris, and Johnson travelled to the Women’s Health Practice located in Champaign, Illinois. The Women’s Health Practice provided medical services at that location and purchased and distributed medical supplies. The conspirators went to the Women’s Health Practice for the purpose of using an incendiary device (i.e., a pipe bomb) constructed by Hari to set the building on fire. Hari rented a truck in which the conspirators traveled to the Women’s Health Practice. Once there, Morris broke a window and placed the pipe bomb in the building; the pipe bomb did not ignite, however. On the morning of November 7, 2017, a receptionist at the Women’s Health Practice found the pipe bomb on the floor and called law enforcement officers.
* Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering urge President Biden to push federal action on guns: During his remarks to hundreds of guests on the South Lawn, Biden acknowledged Rotering and Pritkzer and thanked them for their response to the July 4 shooting, which authorities say was carried out with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle. “We had a number of conversations immediately after the attack in Highland Park, and I’ve been impressed with the way they’ve handled things,” Biden said. “It’s been extraordinary. And as the three of us have discussed, we have more to do.”
* Pritzker, other Illinois officials call for more action on gun control at White House event: The new law “will make a difference,” the governor said. “But there is so much more to do. We need an assault weapons ban. We need a ban on high-capacity magazines. The president indicated he will be fighting for that as well. We’re grateful for that.” Asked whether there was legitimate interest in going further than the new law, Pritzker said, “Are you kidding me? I think there is a lot of interest in getting more done. Whether or not they can bring enough Republicans along is a question. Whether or not you have to wait until after November when maybe there will be more pro-gun safety Democrats in the Senate and the House, that may be the case. But for many of us, the fight goes on.”
* Gov. Pritzker pushes president for assault weapons ban: “Well, we expressed to the President our desire to see more done at the federal level, particularly a ban on assault weapons ban on high capacity magazines,” said Gov. Pritzker. “He agrees that more needs to be done and he is passionate about this.”
* Highland Park mayor, Gov. Pritzker visit White House: “We all share a love of freedom. We all share a love of helping our children grow up in a clean and safe society. We also love and share an appreciation for our first responders. Our first responders are out gunned by these combat weapons,” Rotering said. “I think if people listen to what has happened week, after week, after week, in our communities and recognize that this is not what our freedom was fought for. We are, in fact, going in reverse.”
* Highland Park mayor, Gov. Pritzker call for federal assault weapons ban: The legislation will also help states put in place red flag laws that make it simpler for members of law enforcement to take weapons away from people believed to be dangerous. “So the parent, a teacher, a counselor can flag for the court that a child is a danger to themselves and to others,” said the president.
Republican nominee for governor and State Senator Darren Bailey has called for special sessions to address rising crime, inflation, mental health issues, and taxes in Illinois. Unfortunately, instead of acting swiftly to address these issues, Pritzker is again running from his failures to enforce current laws and his pro-criminal agenda that puts Illinois families and jobs in jeopardy to campaign for president in Washington, D.C. Darren Bailey released the following statement:
“J.B. Pritzker is in D.C. hobnobbing with his elite friends when he should be home answering for his soft on crime bills, like the no cash bail and the so-called SAFE-T Act. This morning six men were in a shootout in the South Loop, which is starting to look like the O.K. Corral. Families and jobs are fleeing daily due to rising crime and taxes. This is all on your watch, Pritzker. Stop running for president, J.B., and do your job. It’s time to provide relief, catch criminals and keep families safe. Lives depend on it.”
The scenario is straightforward: Pres. Joe Biden resigns “for health reasons” or is pushed out of office. Vice President Kamala Harris thereby becomes president and, under the 25th Amendment, submits her nominee for a new vice president to Congress, who takes office if approved by both houses by majority vote.
Who would be that nominee?
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker now appears as likely a possibility as anybody, provided you see it through the lens of progressives now in charge. […]
Many Illinoisans will find it absurd to think of Pritzker as a presidential or vice-presidential prospect. That’s because his chances of winning in a general election are an entirely different story. But from the viewpoint of progressives at the national level who dominate the Democratic Party, it’s not absurd.
…Adding… Press release…
The Senate Judiciary Committee released Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton’s prepared testimony during today’s hearing entitled “A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision.” Stratton is the first Black woman to serve as Illinois’s Lieutenant Governor, a position she has held since 2019. Her testimony focuses on the steps that Illinois has taken to protect access to abortion, the challenges of out-of-state patients coming to Illinois to seek care, and the significant racial disparities that already exist for abortion access and maternal mortality.
Key quotes as prepared:
“I come before you today because people throughout the entire Midwest are relying on our commitment to protect and preserve women’s rights—namely the right to an abortion.”
“[Illinois is] not just an oasis of reproductive care, but an island… It looks like disenfranchised yet determined patients coming from every surrounding state, but also from as far away as Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. It looks like the entire staff in our state’s abortion clinics fielding phone calls for appointments because the number of out-of-state patients has doubled since Roe V Wade was overturned.”
“[W]e know that inequities are amplified within the Black and Latinx communities. A post-Roe America will be devastating for Black women, whose maternal mortality rate is already two to three times higher than that of white women because of structural racism and misogyny. One study… projects that without access to safe and legal abortions, that number will increase by over 30 percent among Black women and nearly 20 percent for Hispanic women.”
“We are facing a future rife with needless death, despite 61% of Americans believing abortion should be legal… Before the threats to Roe V Wade were fully realized, Illinois was proactive, upholding bodily autonomy, and protecting the right to an abortion. And still, the overturning of Roe V Wade has sent us down a dark, agonizing path.”
“I say this, not just as the Lt. Governor of Illinois, but as the mother of four daughters. My daughters, who now have fewer rights than I had. And based on Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion, it is likely this may not be the last rights that will be stripped from future generations.”
Full text of Lt. Gov. Stratton’s prepared remarks are available here.
Full hearing on the impact of gun violence on children can be watched live here; on Twitter here; and on Facebook here.
The Extended Pritzker Universe is basically what I was trying to create with my #DuckGang posts about the junior Senator from IL - @SenDuckworth, when Joe Biden was choosing his running mate
Call them the Pritzker Pals. They are left-leaning, politically. They’re depressed by the Biden administration. They are — this is the key — incredibly dangerously online. And they want to meme Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) into the White House.
Launched last month, the “Socialists for Pritzker” account quickly amassed over 10,000 followers, for wisdom like “what if we got J.B. one of those big swords from Final Fantasy.” More irony accounts have sprung up in its wake, like “Anarchists for Pritzker” and “Capitalists for Pritzker,” sharing overlapping memes in which enemies flee from the first-term governor. Most imagine Pritzker the way that 4Chan memes imagine Trump, as a conqueror with supernatural powers; one imagines the governor literally devouring the Secretary of Transportation.
“People see him as a nice placeholder while the left sort of catches its breath,” said the anonymous activist behind the Socialists for Prizker account, in a phone interview. (The account owner was granted anonymity to more openly answer questions about the account and where it came from.) “I don’t think that AOC or any other rising, movement-left star is going to be ready and well-positioned to win in 2024.”
What explains this — a joking-but-not-really groundswell behind the most politically successful member of the Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain? Part of it is left-wing disappointment with the Biden presidency, shared by many Democrats who don’t necessarily want to tweet about it. Part of it is a theory that the Democrats’ frontbench (Biden, Vice President Harris) is too old and/or unpopular to run and win another national election.
And then there is Pritzker’s size, which the advocates see as relatable and endearing, with a nod at how some Pennsylvania voters seem to like 6′8″ Lt. Gov. John Fetterman more than other, smaller, more traditional-talking moderate Democrats. Felix Biederman, a co-host of the left-wing Chapo Trap House podcast, has shared pro-Pritzker takes and called him a “unicorn” for hapless Democrats: “He is enormous, doesn’t come off as particularly intellectual, and has good instincts.”
* The meanies on Twitter have always made fun of Pritzker’s weight, but these #PritzkerPals folks have embraced it…
* If a special session on gun laws and gun violence is called, what should the topics be?…
2/2 We must call a special session to address crime on our streets. We need to demand law and order and prosecute criminals. We need more police on our streets to keep our families safe. Public safety must be a top priority. #twill
— Darren Bailey for Governor (@DarrenBaileyIL) July 4, 2022
* From Dan Lipinski’s recent softball interview on WLS…
For 16 years, I believed that I represented my constituents who put me there. I was not there to represent the Democratic Party and take directions from from Nancy Pelosi.
In 2004 Lipinski’s father ran for re-nomination in the Democratic primary. After easily winning the nomination, the elder Lipinski announced his retirement. As the Democratic committeeman for Chicago’s 23rd Ward—which is virtually coextensive with the Chicago portion of the 3rd district—he was able to persuade the state Democratic Party to select his son to replace him on the ballot. The move was somewhat controversial; since the younger Lipinski had not lived regularly in Illinois since 1989 or run for elected office before, but it allowed him to sidestep the Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district.
Somewhat controversial? Putting it mildly.
And then he breezed through the primaries with strong regular Democratic organization support (including and especially Speaker Madigan) until Marie Newman beat him in 2020, while Madigan was somewhat otherwise occupied.
Q: Do you realize how unhappy this news makes Sean Casten?
A: Well, look, I’ve heard from Democrats, they have been pleading with me not to run because I’m going to hurt Sean Casten, Democratic Party nominee. But I’ve also heard from Republicans who have said that they’ve they’ve done a poll, they’ve seen a poll that shows that I’m going to hurt the Republicans more than than the Democrats. So I have both. I have officials and operatives in both parties urging me not to not to run, but I think that just shows that they are, they’re both scared.
Former Congressman Dan Lipinski said his supporters gathered more than 5,400 signatures to get him on the ballot in November (he needs 5,000) and that he’ll announce today if he’s going to run for Congress as an independent in the newly drawn 6th Congressional District.
“Over the past week I’ve heard from people all over that they’re fed up with the 2 parties & that our country needs a new, better direction,” he tweeted.
However, after careful consideration I have decided to forgo a run this year. Instead, I will focus my attention on helping build the emerging “Independents Movement.” I already have had discussions with U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger about teaming up in this effort. […]
The New York Times reported that a group of donors is looking to raise money and recruit Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to run for president as an independent along with a Republican running mate. This group may also be looking to support candidates running for Congress in 2024 and perhaps start a new party.
*** UPDATE 1 *** An eagle-eyed reader pointed out that Lipinski said earlier this month that he’d taken a Democratic primary ballot in June. That would’ve disqualified him from running for office for anything this year other than as a Democrat…
A person who (i) filed a Statement of Candidacy for a partisan office as a qualified primary voter of an established political party or (ii) who voted the ballot of an established political party at a general primary election may not file a Statement of Candidacy as a candidate of a different established political party, a new political party, or as an Independent candidate for a partisan office to be filled at the general election immediately following the general primary for which the person filed the statement or voted the ballot.
In retrospect, the points where Illinois law broke and failed to stop Crimo are apparent. The problem is that making red-flag laws less porous requires a statute that either is a confusing kludge or raises troubling civil-liberties questions—or both—all in the service of a relatively simple goal of preventing dangerous people from getting guns. In effect, a strong red-flag law risks trampling on Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights in the name of protecting Second Amendment rights, while weaker red-flag laws may barely work at all. […]
But reliance on family members is an inherent weakness in red-flag laws. Relatives are best positioned to know when someone is in distress, and may feel most at risk from a loved one’s threats, yet they are also most likely to forgive a child or sibling or parent and to feel protective, rather than call the police on them.
Maybe, then, police should have more leeway to deny permits or, as in the case of Crimo’s threats, arrest a suspect—but any system that gives police greater discretion risks abuse and replicating existing inequities in the system. A white young man from a prominent local family (Crimo’s father was a candidate for mayor not long ago) might end up getting a pass, while a less fortunate young man of color would be blocked. (I have previously written about how Black Americans do not, in practice, enjoy the same Second Amendment rights as white Americans.)
Eschewing discretion and mandating that police act more strictly might produce more equitable results, but would risk violating due-process rights and protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Writing such a law in a way that would pass muster with a judiciary as hostile to gun control as the current one is unlikely. […]
Red-flag laws as they exist (and as they may expand under the new gun law) are probably a good thing, even if their only effect is to drive down the gun-suicide rate. But the Highland Park shooting demonstrates that existing red-flag laws have important limitations, and trying to strengthen them is likely to present serious downsides. If the goal is to reduce the risk of mass shootings, there is a simple way to do that without disparate effects on different people: Make it harder for everyone to get guns.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked on CNN about what law changes he supports…
I think that there are probably three things that need to be looked at here.
One is changing some of the verbiage in the law on red flags so that something could have been filed, that would have prevented the FOID card from being issued.
Two is that we need to ban assault weapons, not just in the state of Illinois, but nationally.
And then third high capacity magazines. So there’s no reason why someone should have 90 bullets at the ready, 30 in each of the cartridges that he used, and that’s just something that I don’t think civilians should have. And I’ve talked to police since the shooting who would tell you that the size, the caliber of the bullets that were being fired is much larger than the size, caliber and speed of bullets that even police carry with them. Why do civilians need this? You know the name of the weapon that this shooter was using is the Smith and Wesson M&P 15. You know what M&P stands for? Military and Police, and that’s who perhaps should have these weapons, not civilians, being able to just walk in and buy one.
Officials said the DCFS Director of Illinois Marc Smith was held in contempt of court for the 12th time Thursday for failing to place a child in direct violation of court orders.
Officials with the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian, said this is the 12th time the director has been held in contempt. This specific order involves a 15-year-old girl whom DCFS has kept locked up in a psychiatric hospital where she has been ready for discharge since January 14th, 2022.
Thursday, pursuant to a motion filed by Judge Patrick T. Murphy of Cook County Juvenile Court held Marc Smith in contempt of court and ordered fines of $1,000 per day. Fines for this order will begin July 28th.
In February the court ordered Smith to place the girl by 5pm on March 5th. He failed to comply.
On May 12th, DCFS stated to the court she would be by June 15th. Thursday, DCFS stated that the girl would be placed during the week of July 25th.
The girl has been in a psychiatric hospital for more than 170 days since she was able to be discharged. The court found the director in contempt of court.
The head of the Illinois Department of Human Services has been ordered to return to Sangamon County Circuit Court on charges of ignoring another court order to transport a county jail inmate into state custody.
The court ruled Friday that Grace Hou, secretary of IDHS, must appear in court July 15 to respond to charges of ignoring an order to place Christopher Hall, 38, of Beloit, Wisconsin, in the Andrew McFarland Mental Health Center for psychiatric treatment.
Hall, who had been charged last year on four counts of first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm, being an armed habitual offender and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon in the shooting death of Hason Willis, 43, of Springfield, was ruled unfit to stand trial in May and ordered to be placed at McFarland.
However, the order said that as of Friday, he had not been placed there, remaining in custody at the Sangamon County Jail.
Ogden and Fry conducted a poll in the days leading up to former President Donald Trump’s visit to the Quincy area for a U.S. Rep. Mary Miller endorsement in late June.
The poll of Republicans in the Downstate 15th Congressional District taken June 22-24 (Trump’s visit was the 25th) found Miller leading fellow U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis by 8 points, 46-38. When undecideds were pushed to decide, Miller’s lead jumped to 10 points, 55-45. She won by 15 points, 57.6-42.4.
But if you look at the results from each day, you can see a definite trend. On June 22, Miller’s lead was less than 3 points, which is about where many of the pundits speculated the race stood at the time.
On June 23, as word spread more widely about Trump’s impending visit, Miller’s lead expanded to 9 points, 48-39. And by June 24, the day before Trump’s speech, Miller led by 12 points, 48-36.
Now, these are really small subsets in a single poll. But Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey’s results in CD15 in the same poll also showed a slight upward trendline, from 52 on June 22, to 53 the next day, to 55 on June 24.
“Based on where our final polling was on several races, it seems possible that that momentum continued through Election Day,” explained Ogden and Fry owner Matthew Podgorski, who is also a Republican Party official and candidate.
“Candidates that would benefit from a Trump bump all did better than expected just days earlier,” he continued. “If highly motivated ‘Trump/Bailey’ voters showed up on Election Day while others gave up, several other races may have been affected.”
Podgorski’s statewide polling, for instance, had Tom DeVore ahead of Steve Kim in the GOP attorney general’s race by 4 points. DeVore won by almost 10. Podgorski had Kathy Salvi beating Peggy Hubbard, the most visible Trumpist in the U.S. Senate primary race, by “a much larger margin than the [5-point] victory,” Salvi wound up with, Podgorski told me.
Hey, maybe Podgorski’s polls just weren’t accurate and he’s making excuses here. It’s been tried before by others. But I have thought since well before primary day that the Trump visit would likely reverberate throughout the state, up and down the Republican primary ballot.
The 2nd Illinois Supreme Court District might also be a case in point. The regulars and people like far-right Republican activist Jeanne Ives all backed Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes in the primary.
Instead, Mark Curran, who is known for his outrageous public remarks (“We are taking on the Establishment, the Party Hacks, the Freemasons and those that could care less that Individual Liberty and Conscience Protection are no longer cherished or protected,” he told supporters last year) won the race by 2 points with almost no money.
Oops.
Also, unlike with Bailey and, to a lesser extent, DeVore, the Democrats had nothing whatsoever to do with this Supreme Court debacle. The Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Party of Illinois and Gov. J.B. Pritzker himself all paid for advertising that boosted Bailey’s Trump bonafides. The state party paid for mailers doing the same for DeVore.
Bailey, by the way, has repaid the favor by bungling pretty much every statement he’s made since the day after winning the Republican nomination.
Last week, Bailey memorably urged people to “move on and celebrate” shortly after the Highland Park massacre, even though the shooter was still on the loose at the time.
Later in the week, he held a press conference to apologize and try to clean up his own mess but hit the flub trifecta in the space of just 10 minutes. Bailey “conflated state gun control laws, misidentified a neighborhood in Chicago where violence occurred over the weekend and even misquoted a Bible verse,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
And DeVore, the Republican Party’s attorney general nominee, had this to say on Facebook just the other day: “Guess how many of those Republican establishment ‘leaders’, who sat idly by and watched your kids suffer for two years, called me after winning the primary? Zero!! I just might investigate them first before Pritzker!!”
* Synopsis of Rep. Deb Conroy’s newly introduced HB5766…
Amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Provides that a minor who causes or attempts to cause physical self-harm or harm to another is subject to the denial of an application for or the revocation and seizure of a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card. Provides that until the age of 24 years, such a person is presumed to be a person whose mental condition is of such a nature that it poses a clear and present danger. Provides that a physician, clinical psychologist, qualified examiner, law enforcement official, school administrator, or other person who has knowledge of a minor causing or attempting to cause physical self-harm or harm to another shall report the incident to the Department of Human Services. Effective immediately.
This will give us that added layer of protection, and kind of close a loophole within the Red Flag Law and hopefully make some difference while we try to figure out socially what is happening in our country.
* You’ll recall earlier this year that a man was arrested for allegedly making threats against Rep. Conroy. He apparently paid his bond, but his movements are being tracked as he awaits trial. Conroy told me this today…
As I was driving to Wisconsin and working with staff to file this, I was contacted by the county and told the man arrested in my case had penetrated the perimeter of my home. A few minutes later, my son called to say the police were at my home and needed to confirm I was safe. I had protection and still do. I had warning. These innocent families and so many around the country have no warning and no protection.
She later received an all-clear from the county.
* The Question: Do you support this bill? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
* From a reader: “The local gas station here in Springfield on Toronto Road has something a little bigger than a sticker about the gas tax. This 11×17 sign is on top of all of the pumps”…
By a margin of just 69 votes, Connie Cain is on track to be the Republican nominee for the 66th House District in Illinois after her opponent, Arin Thrower, conceded the race Wednesday evening.
Cain, a longtime accountant living in Gilberts, declared victory in a Facebook post Wednesday evening as the unofficial results across Kane and McHenry counties showed Cain with 3,439 votes, or 51% of the vote, and Thrower with 3,370 votes, or 49%.
Cain will face Rep. Suzanne Ness (D-Crystal Lake) in the fall.
* New state Senator appointed and sworn in…
Kris Tharp, a captain and jail administrator for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office with nearly 25 years of law enforcement experience and a life-long volunteer in the Metro East, was sworn in to represent Illinois’ 56th Senate District Friday.
“I’m truly honored and humbled by this entire experience,” said Tharp (D-Bethalto). “We have a lot of important issues to explore this year, and I’m eager to serve the residents of the 56th District in this new role.”
Tharp has worked through the ranks of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and dedicated his life to improving public safety for communities throughout the Metro East. In addition to his roles as a captain and jail administrator, Tharp serves as a Deputy Commander for the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis.
In 2018, Tharp founded Madison County Triad, a partnership between the Madison County’s Sheriff’s Office, area service providers and older residents to improve the safety and quality of life of seniors in the community. He serves as president for the organization.
He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. To highlight his law enforcement credentials, Tharp is an active member of the FBI National Academy Associates, Police Benevolent and Protective Association 118, Illinois Sheriff’s Association, Illinois Correctional Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police and the International Homicide Investigator’s Association.
He is a life-long resident of the 56th District. He lives in Bethalto with his wife, Jaime. The couple has two adult sons.
Tharp, who is familiar with government work in Springfield from his time working on the Illinois Elder Abuse Task Force, is excited to return to the Capitol this fall in a new capacity and advocate for the needs of working families.
The 56th Senate District includes all or parts of Alton, Bethalto, Caseyville, Collinsville, East Alton, Edwardsville, Elsah, Fairview Heights, Glen Carbon, Godfrey, Granite City, Hartford, Maryville, O’Fallon, Roxana, South Roxana and Wood River.
He replaces former Sen. Rachelle Aud Crowe, who resigned after she was confirmed as the region’s new US Attorney.
This appointment has no real bearing on the upcoming election. Chicago Democrat Elites, like Senate President Don Harmon, hand-picked Senator Crowe’s replacement months ago. Ultimately there will be an election to decide who will be the next state senator from the Metro East.
“Voters are going to have the final say in November and there is a very stark contrast between what I stand for and what the Chicago Elite have planned. My message resonates with families who are frustrated with the cost of everything, who are anxious about their children’s future, and who are hungry for leadership,” Erica Harriss, Candidate for State Senate, stated.
“The Democrat Elites have chosen a candidate who will support them and their policies which keep our taxes high, send our high-paying energy jobs to other states and overseas, and release dangerous criminals onto the street.” Erica continued: “That’s not a platform I would want to run on, and this election will be a referendum on the failed leadership of the Democratic Party.”
“Voters need to hear that there is hope for the future of our state and that with good policy we can make great strides together. I have a proven record of voting to safeguard our future by lowering taxes, funding law enforcement, and standing up for local control,” said Harriss.
A week after Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, a comparable trail was blazed Thursday into Illinois’ top court.
Lisa Holder White took the oath in Springfield to become the first Black woman to serve as a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court in the institution’s 203-year history.
Holder White was selected by retiring Justice Rita Garman as her replacement in the central Illinois district, with the six other jurists on the court approving the appointment of the Decatur Republican this spring.
The cartoonized video of an armed Crimo in a bloody standoff with police is one example that researchers point to when explaining how some violent, fringe online communities come to influence users’ behavior.
“There’s this kind of tendency to ‘gore-post,’ which is essentially to post shocking, graphic, violent imagery in an attempt to draw some kind of camaraderie between the users in these spaces,” said Melanie Smith, head of research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue US. Crimo appears to have been active in at least one large so-called “gore forum.”
Experts agree that it’s impossible to determine Crimo’s mental health condition from his online content. Newhouse said that the darker alternate reality communities and gore forums are designed to plant the seeds of hopelessness, nihilism and lower one’s natural reluctance to commit violence. He said he noted an inflection point on Crimo’s timeline that may indicate he had fallen farther away from real-world interaction and further into these online subcultures.
“From what we can tell, he became extraordinarily alienated from both his music audience and his in-person social networks, but clearly began exhibiting the signs of being immersed in these much much deeper Internet communities,” he said.
Crimo was a rap artist who released music online. Newhouse said the style of Crimo’s latest album was also markedly different from earlier ones.
“Something was going on in that period of time,” he said.
* The framing of that NPR article has been sharply criticized…
I happened to have been in touch with the same experts this NPR article quoted, and I reached out to one of them, Sarah Hightower, an independent researcher who specializes in the far right and online extremist movements, to hear what she thought about the piece.
She was worried about how it had been framed.
“You have this entire community, and they’re scared,” she told me. “And now it looks like they’re essentially being told, ‘Oh no, y’all are overreacting because it’s just edgy white boy sh*t.’”
She had explained to the writer, and in all of her interviews, that you can’t separate ideology and bigotry from these online subcultures, she told me, and she shared evidence of the suspect’s racist and antisemitic posts in hate forums.
The suspect was part of a “gore forum,” a place for people to post things like beheadings. He was part of the Nazi Catboy movement, which is… hard to explain. He was part of the far-right anime fandom movement. Hightower confirmed that he had posted on an online forum conveying Holocaust denial, overt antisemitism, the desire for a new Holocaust as well as a desire to wipe out Black people and Asian people. His last and only remaining post on Facebook before it was shut down said simply, “You are all sinners.”
Not only was the suspect visible at multiple Trump rallies, but a Highland Park resident who knew of his activity and called him a “known agitator” said he was known for violently attacking counter-protestors and referring to Black Lives Matter supporters as “monkeys.” According to a Facebook post by this resident, she had previously informed the police, who she says did nothing.
While all hateful communities are complex in their own ways, there is a common bigotry that unites and drives them, and too often spills out into real-world attacks.
Each group is propelled by bigotry against the vulnerable, an ideology of destruction, and ideologies built on white and Christian supremacy. The explicit goal is to cause terror and confusion. Like all terrorists, they want vulnerable populations to suffer not just the physical toll of a mass shooting, but the emotional toll that then follows their attacks.
While we may never fully understand the full motive behind this specific attack, and it would be wrong to label it simply as “antisemitic,” a simple fact remains: The suspect was active in many online breeding grounds for bigoted extremism, he was a known threat to a synagogue in Highland Park, and he had previously expressed hopes to annihilate minority groups.
The FOID card system is simply to pilfer money from people’s pockets. That’s all it does. We have the federal firearm background check. We have age limits. We have waiting periods. We have the Firearms Restraining Act, which was passed to take care of this very issue. It’s not working, the FOID card’s not working and it needs to go.
There were over 1 million opportunities for someone to buy a gun from a licensed dealer without a completed background check in 2020 and 2021, according to an FBI report released last month.
In all, 1,002,274 background checks — or 4.2 percent — took longer than three business days in 2020 and 2021, a higher share than any other period since at least 2014, according to data compiled by NBC News. After the third business day, federal law allows dealers to sell weapons while the background check is still pending, which potentially puts weapons in the hands of people who can’t legally own a gun because of mental illness or their criminal history.
The FBI ultimately completed about one-fourth of those delayed background checks and discovered that 11,564 people were able to buy guns in 2020 and 2021 before the check showed that they should not have been allowed to do so, according to the FBI report. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then had to retrieve the weapons.
But that number only accounts for a fraction of the delayed background checks. The FBI never completed 734,604 checks from January 2020 through November 2021, the most recent data available, because they took longer than 88 days — after which the bureau must stop its research and purge the unfinished checks from its system. […]
Last month, after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Congress extended the deadline to complete a background check to 10 business days for gun buyers under 21. That gives the FBI more time to block a sale to someone who shouldn’t have a weapon. But the new law also requires a more extensive background check for gun buyers under 21, meaning that officials will have more time but also more to do. […]
The new law doesn’t change the tight three-day deadline for gun buyers 21 and over.
General Funds base receipts finished the fiscal year off extremely well growing $730 million in June. This month’s growth came from a combination of all of the major revenue sources – a fitting culmination of above-average receipts that the economically-tied revenue sources have experienced throughout the fiscal year. The increase was despite June having one less receipting day than the prior fiscal year.
As has been the case many times throughout the fiscal year, corporate income tax receipts led the way by adding $373 million, or $287 million on a net basis. After seeing revenues take a temporary tumble last month due to timing issues related to the previous year’s final tax payments, personal income tax revenues responded with an increase of $189 million, or $156 million net. Sales tax receipt growth has slowed in recent months, but still managed to add another $41 million or $23 million net. […]
After dipping last month, base federal sources finished the year off strong with growth of $127 million in June. This figure does not include the $298 million in revenues from the ARPA reimbursement for Essential Government Services that the State received this month.
Year to Date
The strong month of receipts for June caps off a sensational fiscal year of revenues with base receipts totaling $50.334 billion, or $51.070 billion overall. This record-breaking fiscal year of revenues was led by the State’s “big three” revenue sources. As has been mentioned throughout the fiscal year, despite FY 2022 receipts being compared to FY 2021 which contained two periods of income tax final payments, personal income tax receipts finished the year a whopping $2.787 billion above last year’s levels, or $2.314 billion on a net basis. Perhaps more impressive was the $1.844 billion rise in corporate income tax net receipts. Sales tax receipts were just as impressive, with year-over-year growth in net receipts of $866 million.
While there were a few State sources that did see declines in FY 2022, the remaining State sources combined to finish up $82 million. These gains were led by a $153 million increase in inheritance tax revenues, which benefitted from the strong market conditions over the past several years, and a $104 million annual increase in miscellaneous State source revenues. These sources helped offset a notable loss in revenues from the corporate franchise tax [down $106 million]; cigarette taxes [down $27 million]; interest earnings [down $27 million]; and insurance taxes [down $25 million]. […]
FY 2022 ended up well exceeding all “official” projections. In total, including the revenue received from the ARPA reimbursement for Essential Government Services, actual receipts for FY 2022 finished $6.703 billion above the FY 2022 Final Budget Assumption; $2.582 billion or 5.3% above CGFA’s last official March 2022 projection and $1.884 billion or 3.8% above the GOMB revision released in April 2022. […]
A recent report from the National Association of State Budget Officers indicates that 49 states reported FY 2022 general fund revenue collections exceeding original budget forecasts.
In summary, the better-than-expected revenue gains in FY 2022 came from several atypical revenue- enhancing factors that strongly influenced the overachieving nature of the economically tied revenue sources. Those factors include: the one- time influx of federal stimulus dollars to the nation’s economy; the continuation of a pandemic-related shift from non-taxed service-based sales to taxable goods; and strong market conditions as a result of this enhanced activity, thus, creating elevated taxable income and tax revenues from corporate profits and capital gains. The influence of these particular factors is expected to wane as the State enters into FY 2023 resulting in reduced revenue expectations for the upcoming fiscal year.
That’s something Gov. JB Pritzker told Capitol News Illinois last week that lawmakers planned for in April when they projected Fiscal Year 2023 revenues at $46.5 billion – an 8 percent decrease from the final FY 2022 numbers.
“We wrote that into the budget, that is a decrease in revenue just in this coming year,” Pritzker said in an interview. “So, we understand that there were some temporary nature of revenues that were coming in.” […]
A GOMB spokesperson said in an email Wednesday that the surplus has not led to any discussion of amending the FY 2023 budget in the first week of the new fiscal year. But it’s likely to allow for some flexibility.
“FY 2022 revenues continued to outperform expectations through the last quarter of the fiscal year,” GOMB spokesperson Carol Knowles said in an email. “This will allow the state to be better positioned in the coming year as we continue to monitor the national economic outlook.”
On the same day of the mass shooting in Highland Park, five people in Chicago were injured by gunfire and another died. Over the long weekend, Chicago saw 68 people shot and eight killed.
The Chicago violence, down by 14 percent from a year ago. according to the city’s police chief, drew passing attention while the governor of Illinois and vice president converged on Highland Park to offer condolences and raise their voices about how “enough is enough.” Even the pope offered prayers.
Highland Park isn’t experienced with such violence. Not a single murder was logged between 2000 and 2020, according to FBI crime stats, and other violent crime was a fraction of what it is in the rest of the state, The New York Times reported.
But the attention paid to the mostly white suburban town hasn’t been lost on some residents on Chicago’s South and West sides, where the brunt of the city’s violence occurs.
State Sen. Elgie Sims Jr., who carried much of the criminal justice reform measures that lawmakers passed last year, said interns in his office and seniors he visited yesterday have spoken out about the disproportionate attention.
“A woman pulled me aside to say, ‘I appreciate the work you do on gun violence, but when violence happens in our community, where’s the outpouring of support? Where are the national leaders when it happens in my community?’” Sims told Playbook.
“It’s a reasonable question,” said Sims, who has worked with fellow Democratic lawmakers to call out systemic racism in the justice system.
“It’s not to diminish the pain in Highland Park. What happened is horrible and horrific,” he said, “But it’s also horrible when it happens on the South and West sides.”
The goal in the aftermath of the July Fourth Highland Park massacre is to limit military style weapons and keep those and other firearms out of the hands of people considered dangerous to themselves or others. […]
Pritzker’s office is looking at everything from training and education about the Firearm Restraining Order, or the “Red Flag” law designed to keep guns away from those deemed a danger to themselves or others — to putting into state statute the amount of time a “clear and present danger” file should be kept, even if it’s unfounded.
State law requires police and teachers to file such reports when someone exhibits dangerous behavior that should bar them from having a gun.
The state currently keeps such records for just six months but lawmakers are seeking “clarity in the law.”
Pritzker’s office has also had discussions about potentially lowering the levels of proof required for a report to trigger action, according to a source with direct knowledge.
* Sen. Bailey tries to walk back his “move on and celebrate” comments shortly after the Highland Park shooting…
#illinois candidate for governor, @DarrenBaileyIL distinguishes himself as a public servant with a sincere apology for his comments following the Highland Park shootings. Bailey demonstrate that in his every day life, there is something bigger than him. He quotes Psalm 112. pic.twitter.com/HpOK9moLsU
…Adding… This Bailey campaign is a mess, man. Not only did the candidate mistakenly invent a mythical community (Edgefield Park), but the bible verse he quoted today was not Psalm 112. It was Colossians 3:12.
Bailey also appears to have decided to keep Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy on the job instead of moving to dump him for his own candidate, as often happens. Tracy was in Effingham for Bailey’s election night party and the gesture was noted. “If he’ll work with us, we’ll work with him,” says one insider.
Saying Illinois workers need a constitutional guarantee of their right to organize and bargain—and reminding workers of the war former right-wing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner waged against them—leaders of the Illinois AFL-CIO and legislative allies began their drive for voters to pass a proposed pro-collective bargaining constitutional amendment this November.
If approved, the measure would be one of four such guarantees enshrined in the 50 state constitutions. To win, it needs either 60% of the votes on the initiative itself, or an absolute majority–50% + 1–of all votes cast in the election. […]
“We’re getting ready for the inevitable attacks” from the corporate class, Drea told the Peoria crowd. “To counter the attacks, we have to blunt the lies we expect” from those interests. One of the few Republicans to oppose the amendment during last year’s debate, State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Altamont, called it “special interest legislation” designed to “draw campaign contributions.”
The state fed’s campaign for the amendment will include radio and TV ads, plus mailers but will rely on person-to-person contact, Drea said.
* Personal PAC endorsed Judge Rochford’s opponent in the Democratic primary, but Rochford won by 16 points…
The Personal PAC Board of Directors is extremely proud to endorse pro-choice Liz Rochford for the Illinois Supreme Court in the 2nd district, which includes Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Dekalb counties.
We believe Rochford respects the fundamental right to privacy in reproductive decision-making. The November 8th election could not be more important to the future of reproductive rights in Illinois and across the entire Midwest for the 56 million women who will depend on us being here into the next decade and beyond as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Rochford’s opponent, Mark Curran, has been endorsed by the most extreme factions of the anti-choice movement seeking to make abortion illegal in Illinois, even in cases of rape and incest. For this reason Curran has the full support of “Illinois Right To Life,” the political arm of the anti-choice movement. From Curran’s Supreme Court campaign website: “Person of Faith-Devout Roman Catholic and follower of Christ, he founded Bibles, Badges and Business…”
President Biden took the stage at an Independence Day barbecue just a few hours after the latest horrific shooting to upend an American city — but at his first opportunity to address the nation in person about the Highland Park killings, he did so only obliquely.
“You all heard what happened today,” Biden said. “Things will get better still, but not without more hard work together.”
It was not until about two hours later, after singer Andy Grammer finished an acoustic version of “Give Love,” that the president returned to the stage and attempted to respond to the tragedy more fully, calling for a moment of silence and decrying the spate of mass shootings. “We’ve got a lot more work to do,” Biden said, reiterating some of what he had said in a written statement earlier in the day. “We’ve got to get this under control.”
In contrast, J.B. Pritzker, Illinois’ Democratic governor, delivered a fiery response that took direct aim at those blocking gun control legislation. “If you are angry today, I’m here to tell you to be angry,” he said, seething while Biden was consoling. “I’m furious. I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence.”
Illinois conservatives face serious challenges in the gubernatorial race.
In 2014, Bruce “The Deceiver” Rauner beat Pat Quinn in the race for governor by about 140,000 votes. Quinn won only one county: Cook County. Rauner won in large measure by deceiving Illinoisans–including many conservatives–with his dishonest campaign promises. By the time he ran for reelection in 2018, Rauner had been found out and, as a consequence, had little support. He received nearly 58,000 fewer votes in the 2018 election and was trounced by J. B. Pritzker.
Because of his promotion of all sorts of evil, Pritzker was able to energize the Democrat base, thereby beating Rauner by over 700,000 votes in the 2018 race. While Quinn won only one county in 2014, Pritzker won at least 16 counties in 2018 (of 102 total counties in Illinois).
Here was the key for Pritzker over Rauner: He won Cook County by 836,138 votes. Fifty-one percent of his total votes came from just Cook County alone! If you throw in the following 6 counties: DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane, Champaign, and St. Clair counties, Pritzker received more votes than Rauner did statewide. In fact, Pritzker could have given the 611,791 votes he received in the rest of Illinois and donated them to Rauner and still won.
In the 2020 presidential election, Donald J. Trump received 260,608 more votes than Rauner did in those 7 counties. Of course, in a presidential election, the voter turnout is much higher which may account for the discrepancy. However, what is interesting is that in a non-presidential election year, Pritzker still received 32,855 more votes in those 7 counties than Trump did.
Therefore, two things must happen if GOP nominee Senator Darren Bailey is to beat Pritzker. He must get as many votes as Trump did and hope that the turnout for Democrats decreases by 5 percent or more or to make up the rest of the difference downstate. This will be a challenge for Bailey.
To say the least. Also, turnout across the board is always much higher in a presidential year. Bailey matching the Trump numbers would take a political hurricane and a perfect campaign run by Bailey. Trump received over 2.4 million statewide votes in 2020, while Pritzker took about 2.5 million and Bruce Rauner and Sam McCann combined received less than 2 million votes in 2018.
* Speaking of turnout, here’s the Chicago Board of Elections…
Updated Voter Turnout: 338,402 – 22.58% of registered voters in Chicago (1,498,813)
Democratic Turnout: 302,605 (89.42%)
Republican Turnout: 34,769 (10.27%)
Libertarian Turnout: 1,022 (0.30%)
Nonpartisan Turnout: 6 (0.001%)
32,461 additional votes have been counted and added to this total since the last summary report I sent on 7/1/22 , with 30,101 new Vote By Mail ballots included (received on Election Day 6/28/22 up through Tuesday 7/5/22). In total, 90,431 Vote By Mail ballots were returned and counted so far for the June 28th Primary Election.
So far, 173,571 Chicago voters chose to Early Vote or Vote By Mail (51.3% of voters), and 164,831 Chicago voters chose to vote on Election Day (48.7%).
These results will remain unofficial until the July 19th Proclamation of Results. The Board will now begin to process and count 3,662 Provisional Ballots, and will continue to count properly postmarked Vote By Mail Ballots sent to our office through July 12th. There are 34,154 Vote By Mail ballots that were sent and not returned (though we do not expect most of these will be returned with the proper postmark).
Four years ago, which featured hotly contested gubernatorial primaries in both parties, 452,529 voters chose Democratic ballots and 31,535 Chicagoans chose GOP ballots. So, Republican turnout was up this year by about 10 percent and Dem turnout dropped by 33 percent. Also, Chicago voter registration has fallen ever so slightly (0.3 percent). That lack of Democratic enthusiasm is being pointed to by some as a possible warning sign for the Pritzker campaign, but if Darren Bailey doesn’t right his ship soon, he’s gonna deflate his momentum in a hurry.
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas dropped $836,500 into his mayoral campaign fund on Wednesday in the first significant fundraising report filed by any of the seven candidates vying to unseat Mayor Lori Lightfoot. […]
They include $500,000 from prominent Republican donor and golf course magnate Michael Keiser; $100,000 apiece from John Canning and James Perry of Madison Dearborn Partners; $50,000 from Noel Moore, managing partner of Endurance Asset Management; and $25,000 from Edgar Bachrach of Bader Clothing.
Vallas also reported receiving $10,000 contributions from Petco Petroleum’s Jay Bergman; the O’Donnell Family LLC; and Edward J. Wehmer, president and CEO of Wintrust Financial.
After a first-quarter fundraising frenzy — her best since taking office — Lightfoot still had just $1.7 million in cash in her primary political account.
We are selling raffle tickets for four popular firearms (one raffle per firearm). Cost is $20 per ticket. Click a link below to buy a ticket for that firearm. The drawing (and last date to buy tickets) will be on July 24th at 2 PM at Mike & Denise’s in Yorkville.
To be eligible to buy a raffle ticket, you must be a FOID card holder, at least 21 years old, and legally allowed to own a gun.
• Smith & Wesson 642 38 Special
• Smith & Wesson 5.56/.223
• Glock G19 G5 9MM
• Viper G2 Silver 28 Gauge
…Adding… Edgefield Park is the new Lincoln County?…
.@DarrenBaileyIL said it in his press conference this a.m. and I thought it was just him misspeaking. But it’s in his press release about the press conference just now and in the prepared remarks (https://t.co/lQCiWhZ8hj) so I’ve gotta point out: there’s no such “Edgefield Park.” pic.twitter.com/AkjwxgUQpW
.@DarrenBaileyIL spox called to tell me "Edgefield Park" was a typo; it was meant to say "Englewood." (He also pointed out that Pres. Biden last week briefly mixed up Sweden and Switzerland re: NATO membership, to make the point that gaffes happen.) https://t.co/nIMLfN97dz
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s reelection campaign announced today that it raised more than $1.25 million for the second quarter of 2022, ending the quarter with $2.5 million cash on hand.
“I’m so grateful to the supporters who are Ridin’ with Lori and have joined our reelection campaign,” said Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. “When I announced my reelection bid last month, I promised to never back down from the tough fights that lie ahead. I will continue to tackle our biggest problems head on, like continuing to bring down violent crime, standing up for women’s bodily autonomy and access to high quality reproductive care, helping bridge the financial burdens that too many Chicagoans face and continuing investments in neighborhoods that have been neglected for decades. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but we are seeing what happens when we join together and focus on making a difference in people’s lives. I am honored by the support of so many Chicagoans and I will keep fighting everyday for you.”
Amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Provides that the Department of State Police shall conduct a search of the purchasers’ social media accounts available to the public to determine if there is any information that would disqualify the person from obtaining or require revocation of a currently valid Firearm Owner’s Identification Card. Provides that each applicant for a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card shall furnish to the Department of State Police a list of every social media account.
The bill was filed in 2019 and went nowhere. A total of 3,575 people submitted electronic witness slips against the bill, compared to just 29 in support. Rep. Didech said his staff was inundated with communications from angry opponents.
* Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) said Didech’s proposal would “create unnecessary bureaucracy, unacceptable delays and is an outrageous infringement on law-abiding citizens exercising both their Second and First Amendment rights” at the time.
A gun shop owner told WAND back then he was against the bill and was wondering, “Who’s going to make that judgement? What’s the parameter? What are they looking for?”
“It seems much more likely to end in profiling of people, rather than catching a possible school shooter,” Rebecca Glenberg, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, told CNN.
In an increasingly online world, we must have an open discussion about the tools law enforcement may use to keep our communities safe, and my intention is to continue that discussion so we can find the right balance that respects the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners while at the same time keeping our children safe from gun violence.
And today, in the wake of the Highland Park massacre, Sen. Darren Bailey seemed to at least endorse the concept of the Illinois State Police proactively monitoring gun owners’ social media accounts.
* The Question: Do you support the concept of police agencies proactively monitoring social media accounts of Illinois gun owners? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Since 2011, Illinois lawmakers have promised to save taxpayer dollars, improve care for low-income patients and give them more choices when selecting doctors and clinics by privatizing its Medicaid program, which was completed in 2018.
Before then, the state paid each doctor, clinic or hospital a fee for every Medicaid service rendered. Now, the state contracts with private insurance companies to make reimbursement decisions.
Under their current contracts with the state, four for-profit MCOs are supposed to quickly reimburse practitioners who care for Medicaid patients. Medicaid rules say the MCOs must pay 90% of providers’ uncontested claims within 30 days and 99% within 90 days.
But Saint Anthony Hospital, a safety net hospital on Chicago’s Southwest Side, and many providers allege the MCOs deploy bureaucratic dodges and opaque billing error codes to skirt the federal rule, make partial payments, pay years late or deny claims without explanation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled Saint Anthony Hospital “alleged a viable claim for relief” when it sued state officials for not adequately overseeing the insurance companies they contracted as managed care organizations.
The panel overturned a lower court decision to toss out the case and underscored widespread claims from hospitals and caregivers who say they have been driven to near bankruptcy by the failure to reimburse them fairly. […]
The appeals court panel overturned a district court judge who ruled the hospital could have first arbitrated each billing claim against the insurance companies individually — a task providers said is costly, cumbersome and unachievable.
The State has tools available to remedy systemic slow payment problems—problems alleged to be so serious that they threaten the viability of a major hospital and even of the managed‐care Medicaid program as administered in Illinois. If Saint Anthony can prove its claims, the chief state official could be ordered to use some of those tools to remedy systemic problems that threaten this literally vital health care program. We therefore reverse in part the dismissal of the case and remand for further proceedings.
The state essentially claimed a loophole in the definition of the term “health care providers” that allowed it to delay payments to hospitals but not to physicians. The court pointed to ample evidence to the contrary…
Given this evidence, it would seem odd to construe a provision Congress intended to assure timeliness of provider payment as not applying to many providers, as HFS advocates. That would appear to defeat the statute’s evident purpose in most cases. We decline to read the text in such a manner.
The court was split 2-1. According to the article, the state hasn’t decided on its next move.
“Firearms restraining order” means an order issued by the court, prohibiting and enjoining a named person from having in his or her custody or control, purchasing, possessing, or receiving any firearms or ammunition, or removing firearm parts that could be assembled to make an operable firearm. […]
“Petitioner” means:
(1) a family member of the respondent as defined in this Act; or
(2) a law enforcement officer who files a petition alleging that the respondent poses a danger of causing personal injury to himself, herself, or another by having in his or her custody or control, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm.
Let’s be clear, Governor Pritzker, this happened on your watch. You’ve got more gun control laws than almost anywhere else in America. Our problems are more complex than just more restrictive gun laws on law abiding citizens.
The Firearms Restraining Act would have prevented the tragedy on the Fourth, but you buried it. You left it moldering in some bureaucratic basement somewhere. Your watch, Governor. It’s not enough to pass laws. You have to do the hard work to make sure that the laws do what they were intended to do. Gun owners, let’s get real. The Firearms Restraining Act exists and we need to stop pretending that it doesn’t. If we have to amend it to make sure that it protects our constitutional rights, let’s take a look at that. But for Pete’s sake, let’s use it. […]
I’m telling the people that the law is on the books and it was ignored. We didn’t know one government, starting at the top with government, Governor Pritzker ignored it. It wasn’t used, and if it would have been used, it could have prevented this. And that’s why I’m calling for special session. […]
The FOID card system is simply to pilfer money from people’s pockets. That’s all it does. We have the federal firearm background check. We have age limits. We have waiting periods. We have the Firearms Restraining Act, which was passed to take care of this very issue. It’s not working, the FOID card’s not working and it needs to go. […]
I want to find out why government didn’t enact this and it starts at the top. Governor Pritzker failed in enacting this Firearms Restriction Act. […]
We have a law on the books, the Firearm Restraint Act. And as far as I can tell, that bill looks like it should have caught it, but it’s not being used. It’s another law. People come here to Springfield. They want to pass more laws. They think passing laws is the solution. That time is wasted if we don’t have a leader that holds people can hold these laws accountable and make sure that they work, thats where the system messed up at.
Following Bailey’s logic, every time cops are called by third parties regarding an alleged threat that family witnesses denied ever happened (as was the case with the Highland Park shooter in 2019), the Illinois State Police should go to court and petition a judge to force the alleged offender to surrender their firearms. And if the person doesn’t own or possess any firearms (as was also the case with the Highland Park shooter in 2019), then… what?
The Highland Park shooter was posting violent videos with an intent to attack. The shooter could have been stopped and would have been stopped if Governor Pritzker and the government were living up to their true duty to protect the innocent
OK, so Sen. Bailey wants the Illinois State Police to monitor all social media at all times to see if Illinois residents and gun owners are posting any violent videos online, like, I dunno, perhaps, posting a video of shooting a printed Illinois state budget with a high-powered rifle, or defiantly proclaiming a willingness to “die on my porch before I give up my guns,” or repeatedly raffling off weapons of war to help fund a political campaign, and then take every single incidence of that to a county judge?
See how that works, Darren?
If the ISP had received a tip or otherwise stumbled across the fact that the Highland Park shooter was posting videos threatening to kill certain people or shoot up an event and didn’t do anything about it, then that’s most definitely on the ISP. Otherwise, what Bailey is proposing is a huge government overreach and intrusion with almost unlimited potential for abuse.
…Adding… The Firearms Restraining Order Act was expanded last year. Sen. Bailey voted “No.”
* “Some of the state’s richest people spent big to defeat a ballot initiative that would have enabled a higher tax rate on the rich. Using IRS data, ProPublica estimated how much some of the biggest backers saved when the measure failed”…
In the ongoing investigation into the shooting in Highland Park on July 4, 2022, the Illinois State Police (ISP) continue to provide information to the public.
Clear and Present Danger reporting was established by Illinois law in 1990 and expanded incrementally to include school administrators and law enforcement. This law is distinct from the Firearms Restraining Order which became law in 2019. Clear and Present Danger is a mechanism used by the ISP to revoke or deny a Firearm Owner Identification Card (FOID). On the other hand, the Firearms Restraining Order is a court ordered restriction on firearms possession. Clear and Present Danger status is only one of many factors that can result in the revocation and denial of a FOID card. Other factors can include criminal records, mental health prohibitors, and other orders of protection.
Upon receipt of a Clear and Present danger report submitted to ISP, officers determine if the subject of the report has a FOID card or a pending FOID application and review all information submitted by the local reporting police department.
For a Clear and Present Danger determination, the legal standard for review ISP must meet is a preponderance of the evidence, which is a higher legal burden than probable cause. Granting a Firearms Restraining Order has an even higher burden of proof requiring “clear and convincing” evidence.
If the reviewing officer determines there is sufficient evidence to establish a clear and present danger posed by the subject of the report, then the subject’s FOID is revoked, or a pending FOID application is denied. If there is insufficient evidence, the status of the FOID or pending application is unaffected.
For the individual charged in the Highland Park shooting, in September 2019 ISP officers confirmed the individual did not have a FOID card or pending application. According to the report submitted, the threat of violence allegedly made by the individual was reported to Highland Park Police second hand. When police went to the house, both the individual and his mother disputed the threat of violence. The individual told police he did not feel like hurting himself or others and was offered mental health resources. Additionally, the report indicated the knives did not belong to the individual and were ultimately turned over to the father who claimed they were his. As stated by Highland Park Police, there was no probable cause to arrest. Upon review of the report at that time, the reviewing officer concluded there was insufficient information for a Clear and Present Danger determination.
In December of 2019 the individual applied for a FOID card. The application included a parental legal guardian affidavit signed by the father of the individual applying.
Illinois law dictates that the Illinois State Police shall issue a FOID card to an applicant who meets the statutory requirements and who has no firearms prohibitor. At the time of FOID application approval for the individual in question there was no new information to establish a clear and present danger, no arrests, no prohibiting criminal records, no mental health prohibitors, no orders of protection, no other disqualifying prohibitors and no Firearms Restraining Order. The available evidence would have been insufficient for law enforcement to seek a Firearms Restraining Order from a court.
Much of the reporting so far has focused on the Firearms Restraining Order law, but, as indicated above, that misses the point.
[Lake County Major Crime Task Force spokesman Christopher Covelli] said in April 2019, an individual contacted Highland Park Police after learning that Crimo had attempted to commit suicide. Police responded to his home but the situation was already being handled by mental health professionals and was not deemed a police matter at the time.
That report happened several months before the report of the alleged threat of violence.
Perhaps the “preponderance of the evidence” requirement could be eased by the General Assembly.
On behalf of the members of Illinois Latino Agenda 2.0 and our respective organizations, we are once again grief-stricken and outraged by the gun violence epidemic shattering the lives of families and crippling our communities with fear.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and survivors of the awful Fourth of July mass shooting in Highland Park.
Celebrating Independence Day is a welcomed tradition of time spent making memories with family enjoying music, cookouts, fireworks, parades, and other festivities. It is also a day of reflection to contemplate what freedom means to us as members of this beautiful quilt of blended cultures united by the American flag, embracing American values.
Now the images of young and old smiling faces lining the streets of Highland Park to cheer floats and marching bands that quickly turned to looks of horror and screams of terror are unfortunately part of July Fourth memories.
The downrush of gun violence that has become frighteningly commonplace in America continues to deny us freedom of assembly, freedom to enjoy and have productive lives in our society, and freedom to live.
This weekend in Chicago, where living in violence is sadly commonplace, eight people were killed and 68 wounded, a reduction of 18 dead and 92 shot in 2021. But the Summer has just started, and we are bracing for the number of victims to soar.
As Highland Park joins Buffalo, Uvalde, and other communities forever broken by mass shootings and national attention again focuses on our country’s unique gun problem, we demand better.
We demand a special legislative session in Springfield for lawmakers to immediately address:
● Ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines.
● Create an assault weapons registry.
● Demand mandatory fingerprinting on FOID cards.
It is time to bring about policies to keep all our communities safe from gun violence. Once again, we have proved that guns and assault weapons in the wrong hands are lethal and have no geographical boundaries, and do not discriminate
While Congress tried to develop a landmark bipartisan bill addressing gun violence after 26 years, our concerns were barely met.
The killing of seven people and 37 wounded in Highland Park are sadly part of the prevalent gun violence culture in the U.S. We are disheartened to learn that among the victims are the grandfather and the boyfriend of health volunteers at the non-profit Mano a Mano.
After 2 1/2 years of Covid19, the isolation, violence, and gun violence have increased, and it is also cause for immediate action in our cities and state’s mental health services.
ILA 2.0 is compelled to DEMAND better self-monitoring of platforms that, while enjoying their success, should fully embrace the responsibility that comes with their growth and how it affects vulnerable minds and people searching for a place and ideology to fit in. It can not only be about profits…it’s about lives.
We once again urge our local governments and philanthropy to increase resources for mental health services so that no person who needs it goes without. A number of our organizations provide mental health services– with language and cultural competence– to victims of crime and potential perpetrators. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the value of reducing crime through trauma-informed services.
The members of the ILA 2.0 are dedicated to making impactful change. By supporting common-sense gun measures, greater access to mental health services, and holistic youth programming, we aim to ensure that all recently lost are remembered through collective action.
…Adding… The Gun Violence Prevention PAC has also been calling for inclusion of specific issues during any upcoming special session…
Specifically, we call upon them to act quickly to regulate weapons of war that make mass shootings like today’s in Highland Park more deadly, including registration of assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns as well as limiting high capacity ammunition magazines.
