Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

READER COMMENTS CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND

Friday, May 5, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Try Illinoize for your weekend blogging fun.

(Image from ILstatehouse.com - a very good photo site for the capitol building.)

Comments Off

Friday afternoon music blogging

Friday, May 5, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Ever since Eric Zorn mentioned Pandora on his blog, I’ve been hooked.

Pandora is an Internet radio station with a major twist. It’s a product of the Music Genome Project, which has spent the past 5 years categorizing the music of over 10,000 artists.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it’s about what each individual song sounds like.

What happens is, you choose an artist and then Pandora programs a station. You can add other artists to the station and create as many as 100 stations.

The service is very interactive. If you don’t like a song, or think it doesn’t belong, just tell Pandora how you feel and it won’t play that song ever again. If you really like the song you can tell Pandora to play more like it.

Right now, I’m decompressing, browsing your comments from today and listening to my Wilco station. Currently playing is a song by Shipwreck Union. I’m a happy man.

I haven’t had a lot of time to tinker with it yet because of session, but here are my stations so far:

Â· Wilco

Â· Waylon Jennings/Robert Earl Keen

Â· Rolling Stones

Â· Bob Dylan/Grateful Dead

Â· Fats Domino

Â· Sinatra

I’ve been a moonshiner
for seventeen long years
and I spent all my money
on whiskey and beer
and I go to some hollow
and set up my still
if whiskey don’t kill me
Lord, I don’t know what will

8 Comments

Question of the day

Friday, May 5, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I’m beat. It’s my own fault, but I’ll try to post more later. What do you think of the budget deal? Specifics, please.

90 Comments

Budget updates

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

UPDATE (4:45 pm): The House just adjourned the spring session. And it’s still daylight. Wow. The party will start around 6pm.

————————————————————-

ANOTHER UPDATE (3:45 pm): Sen. del Valle just emerged from the governor’s office and told reporters that he didn’t think there was a need for an amendment to the budget. He implied, but did not say explicitly, that he was speaking for all the Latinos. He was reportedly promised that there would be much improved communication with the governor’s office and some other stuff. Details later.

————————————————————-

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE: Rumors are running wild today, so let’s try to clear up a couple of them.

1) Nobody got punched. Apparently there was a loud argument during the Senate Democratic caucus (over the Latinos’ refusal to vote for the budget) and two members took it outside. They were eventually separated and things have cooled off a bit.

2) No Latino legislators have been “escorted from the building” by security. The person rumored to have been hauled out of the governor’s office hasn’t even been to the governor’s office today and is on the Senate floor right now.

Now, back to the fun. And, please, don’t expound on those untrue rumors in comments. I’ll ban you from posting forever and hunt you down.

————————————————————-

UPDATE: Sen. Miguel del Valle is in the governor’s office now (3:20 pm). Madigan and Jones were both in there earlier.

————————————————————-

From the AP:

Senate President Emil Jones says he’s not worried that last-minute demands from some senators are stalling a budget vote.

He says he expects those issues will be resolved but he won’t say whether that will happen today.

The House approved the budget yesterday with all Democrat votes. But concerns from Hispanic Democratic lawmakers in the Senate about needing more education spending prevented a vote there last night.

Some Hispanic lawmakers say Governor Blagojevich should address their concerns.

16 Comments

Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Audio of Madigan vs. Cross (Use all upper-case in password)

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Enter your password to view comments

Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Budget; Madigan vs. Cross; Martinez; Meeks (Use all upper-case in password)

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Enter your password to view comments

Question of the day

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Do you think Gov. Blagojevich’s TV ads are working yet? I’m told his own polling now shows him ahead of Judy Baar Topinka. James Meeks’ poll also showed Blagojevich leading.

Also, should Topinka respond now if she has the money or wait until the election is closer?

81 Comments

Ryan juror complains

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

This is interesting spin. “Don’t investigate others because I could get dragged into it.”

One of the jurors who convicted former Gov. George Ryan of racketeering and fraud jumped into the tormented aftermath of his trial Wednesday, telling a federal judge that the proceedings “are degenerating into a tug of war with the jury as the rope.”

“Ms. Losacco’s desire is to return to a normal life outside of the media and the judicial spotlight,” said attorneys for juror Leslie Losacco in a brief filed with the court.

They said interviews with dismissed juror Evelyn Ezell requested by Ryan’s defense team would be guaranteed to set off a chain reaction of events leading to a heavily spotlighted hearing on possible juror misconduct — wrecking Losacco’s hope to get back to her private life.

“Unlike Ms. Ezell, Ms. Losacco has turned down the opportunity to (get) her 15 minutes of fame — she has given no interviews,” attorney James A. Murphy said in a six-page memorandum.

12 Comments

Claypool wonders who’s in charge

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

I wondered if he’d ever get around to this.

After weeks of whispering about who is actually running Cook County government since Board President John Stroger suffered a stroke, a prominent Democrat raised the question in a public setting Wednesday.

“We don’t know, essentially, who’s running this government,” County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said during a board meeting.

Claypool, who lost to Stroger in the Democratic primary in March, asked for, but did not receive, information from the administration about who is making policy decisions.

“I think it’s an important issue to raise. I think it’s the elephant in the room,” said Claypool. “Right now it might appear, and may in fact be, that unelected bureaucrats are making critical, important decisions that should be made by elected officials as a matter of public policy.”

County officials responded by insisting that Stroger is still in charge, although last week Stroger’s son said his father was not running the county.

How long do you think should John Stroger should be given before he has to decide whether he returns to work?

Meanwhile, Sneed has this to say:

Sneed hears Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), son of ailing Cook County Board President John Stroger, is a shoo-in for his father’s job.

20 Comments

I-Pass chief resigns

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

More reform and renewal.

A state employee embroiled in a criminal investigation linked to a firm whose owners have been big political donors to Gov. Blagojevich quietly has left his $87,000-a-year post overseeing the state tollway’s popular I-Pass program.

Scott D. Okun resigned on March 22, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said Wednesday. He had been on unpaid leave since early February, when tollway officials accused him of awarding I-Pass-related printing work to a firm that employed a relative of his.

Involved in the routing of that work was IGOR the Watchdog Corp., whose owners, Michael and Sherry Guthrie, have donated $76,000 to Blagojevich. Okun — who volunteered for the Blagojevich campaign in 2002 but is no longer active with it — oversaw IGOR’s contract to deliver I-Pass transponders to Jewel-Osco stores. […]

The DuPage County state’s attorney’s office is investigating the matter. Tollway officials initially said they weren’t aware of the probe, but McGinnis acknowledged Wednesday “we have been fully cooperative with the state’s attorney’s office.”

23 Comments

Morning shorts

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Â· Police in most DuPage County towns stopped a higher percentage of minority motorists last year than reflected in the racial makeup of their communities.

Â· Soda distributors to end most school sales

Â· Ryan juror wants her life back

Â· Illinois seeks experimental coal power plant

Â· Tuition, fees rise at both SIU campuses

Â· Senate passes tax cap reform

Â· The president of the Illinois Road & Transportation Builders Association has concerns about a longterm tollway lease

Â· NY Times favors “net neutrality.” So do I.

Â· Pretend pandemic: Crews practice for crisis in suburbs

Â· Feds sue firms selling phone records

Â· Program could bring jobs to East St. Louis

Â· Cook Co. may lose its 7% cap on taxes

Â· Topinka stumps in Shorewood

Â· How to pay for a new Mississippi bridge? A few ideas

Â· State submits site proposals for FutureGen

Â· Bill would boost court costs for tickets

4 Comments

« NEWER POSTS