* A jury has found police officer Jason Van Dyke guilty of 2nd Degree Murder (which, the judge explained, is 1st Degree plus mitigating circumstances). He was also convicted on 16 counts of aggravated battery (one for each time he shot Laquan McDonald). He was found not guilty of official misconduct. His bail was revoked.
“Today, Jason Van Dyke was held accountable for his role in the tragic death of Laquan McDonald and justice was finally served for him and for his family, who have already endured so much during this difficult time,” said JB Pritzker and Juliana Stratton. “While there is still so much work to do, we believe this verdict represents an important step — one of many — towards fostering an environment of respect and accountability between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”
This post will likely be updated.
…Adding… Bill Daley…
This brings to an end a tragic, painful episode in our history but must also mark a new beginning for our city. This is a moment when all of Chicago needs to come together, work to rebuild trust between the community and police and re-commit to making every neighborhood safer and stronger.
* Lori Lightfoot…
This is a significant milestone in Chicago’s history. Going against a national trend in which juries almost always acquit on-duty police officers on criminal charges, this jury found the evidence powerful and compelling—as have so many Chicagoans in the years since Laquan McDonald’s tragic death. I commend members of the jury for doing their civic duty in such a difficult environment.
I hope that this decision marks not just a milestone, but a turning point as well. We must pray for Laquan McDonald and his family, and for all those in our city who have been affected by trauma and violence, and we must all work tirelessly to build a Chicago where all can find justice and peace.
* SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Greg Kelley…
“The guilty verdict delivered in the case of police officer Jason Van Dyke doesn’t assuage the deep distrust the Black community has in the criminal justice system and lack of police accountability, but it is a big step in the right direction.
“The city breathed a collective sigh of relief with delivery of the verdict. The murder of Laquan McDonald and the Van Dyke trial poured salt on festering wounds of the Black community caused by decades of city neglect, police brutality and economic divestment.
“For too many, it seemed like Laquan was on trial rather than the officer who shot him 16 times. For too many, it was the same old script with different characters. Now, perhaps, city leaders will gather the courage to address the real issues that keep the city divided.
“This is an opportunity for a mayoral candidate to distinguish himself or herself as a serious agent of change who will not be afraid to raise the issues of divestment from communities of color, lack of opportunities, gentrification and racism.
“We all want to live in a city that is equitable and just. We all want communities that thrive. We must challenge our anger into efforts to unite across our communities to achieve the change we seek.
“The tragic murder of Laquan McDonald — a young man who faced the same personal and external challenges that many young Black men growing up in depressed neighborhoods face — and the conviction of the officer who killed him may be the spark of change so badly needed in this city.
“Let’s hope so.”
* Willie Wilson…
* Toni Preckwinkle…
While nothing can make up for the senseless loss of young life, I am grateful that there is some justice for LaQuan McDonald. Like many, I saw the video and it was devastating. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
This is an important indictment not only of the actions of an individual but of the code of silence within the police department. We cannot have safe communities if we do not have police force accountable to all communities.
* Chicago City Council Black Caucus Chair Ald. Roderick T. Sawyer…
“The death of Laquan McDonald was a wrenching tragedy that has rocked our city to its core. We pray for peace for the McDonald family, and long remained hopeful that they would find true justice through this process. But the truth is, no matter how this verdict came down, the McDonald family lost a son that they can never get back.
“Still, the black community today can find some relief. It appears Jason Van Dyke will be held accountable for his violence.
“Now, we must all recommit ourselves to seeking transformational change to the way policing is done in our city. We must focus now more than ever on demanding the police accountability mechanisms that experts from the Police Accountability Task Force and the Obama Justice Department beseeched the Emanuel administration to implement. And we must continue to reckon with the fact laid bare to us all over and over again since the day the news of Laquan McDonald’s death first broke–that Chicago continues to be plagued by deep inequities and systemic racism. Until we address that underlying reality, the conditions that led to Laquan McDonald’s death will not change.”
It is my hope that LaQuan’s family finds some small measure of peace after their horrific loss. And to the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois, we must work together to move toward justice for all who fall victim to harmful practices for traumatize or silence individuals. I urge law enforcement to take serious the policing reforms implemented in our state 3 years ago and to do what’s necessary to create agencies that have a culture that does not uphold any form of misconduct and abuse of power .
* Chicago Police Board…
Today, the jury returned its verdict in the criminal case brought against Police Officer Jason Van Dyke for his fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. The disciplinary cases brought against Officer Van Dyke and four other officers related to this shooting remain before the Chicago Police Board, but have not been under active review because they are stayed.
In August 2016 the Superintendent filed with the Police Board charges against Officer Van Dyke, Sergeant Stephen Franko, and Police Officers Janet Mondragon, Daphne Sebastian, and Ricardo Viramontes, recommending that each of the five officers be discharged from the Chicago Police Department. In June 2017 the Board ordered these cases stayed because going ahead with the disciplinary cases against these officers at that time could prejudice and potentially jeopardize the pending criminal proceedings and the officers’ constitutional rights.
The Board stands ready to hear these cases once doing so will no longer prejudice or potentially jeopardize any criminal case or constitutional right. The Board will promptly and thoroughly consider any motion to lift the stay, and any hearing on such a motion will be announced at a public meeting of the Board and on the Board’s website at ChicagoPoliceBoard.org.
The role of the Police Board is to serve as an impartial body that makes decisions based on the evidence presented at a disciplinary hearing. The Board takes final action on all cases in public at its monthly meetings, where each Board member’s vote is announced and recorded, and the Board posts on its website its written decisions, which include detailed explanations of the reasons for the Board’s findings.
All charges filed by the Superintendent and detailed information about the Board’s process for handling disciplinary cases are available at ChicagoPoliceBoard.org.
* US Representative Bobby L. Rush…
“Today’s verdict shows that law enforcement will be held accountable for their egregious and unjustified use of force. While this conviction will not bring back Laquan McDonald, it serves as a strong reminder that no one — including law enforcement — is above the law. This tragedy has torn Chicago apart and now is a time for healing and quickly reforming our law enforcement agencies. I call on my fellow Chicagoans to rise to the moment and show the country and the world how we will channel our pain and anger into a constructive force.”
* Whoa…
Illinois Fraternal Order of Police president says the jury was “duped into saving the asses of self-serving politicians at the expense of a dedicated public servant.” Full statement: pic.twitter.com/YBiUS69zbv
* Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson…
For the past several weeks, a jury heard testimony, weighed evidence and considered the facts of the Van Dyke case. Today, the jury reached its verdict. As we absorb their decision, let us continue to hear each other and partner with each other – as public servants, police and members of the public – and let us ensure our collective mission is what endures for generations to come. We come from many neighborhoods, many walks of life and many places throughout the world. But for all of us, this is our home. This is the city we love. We have heard that message countless times in recent days and weeks in church basements, in community meetings and from residents in our neighborhoods. And while the jury has heard the case and reached their conclusion, our collective work is not done. The effort to drive lasting reform and rebuild bonds of trust between residents and police must carry on with vigor.
* Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Chair Kimberly A. Lightford…
“My heart goes out to Laquan’s family as they continue to grieve his loss. This is only a drop of justice in a history full of injustices against Black people and people of color. We still have a lot of work ahead of us in reforming policing, criminal justice, human services and creating opportunities for underprivileged communities.
“Let us continue to organize, continue to let our voices be heard and participate in our democracy wherever and whenever we can.”
* Comptroller Susana Mendoza…
Today our legal system did its job. A jury rendered a verdict that held Officer Jason Van Dyke accountable for the murder of Laquan McDonald.
The tragic events of that fateful night tore our City apart. Yet even in its darkest moments, Chicago, a city of grit and resolve, of faith and family, has shown its ability to come together, heal its broken heart, and move itself forward. We need each other today, more than ever before; to stand together as one family, all of us, and work to heal our great City.
Now is the time for us to focus on rebuilding the trust between police and communities, which has been broken for decades.
Lastly I want to express my sincere condolences to the family of Laquan McDonald and hope that today’s verdict can help bring them some peace and justice.
* Garry McCarthy…
“TODAY’S VERDICT BRINGS TO A CLOSE ONE OF THE DARKEST CHAPTERS IN CHICAGO’S HISTORY.
BUT THIS VERDICT ALSO REMINDS US ALL OF THE NEED TO COME TOGETHER AND RISE ABOVE THIS TRAGIC EVENT.
I’M APPEALING TO EVERY PERSON IN CHICAGO TO WISELY AND COMPASSIONATELY REFLECT ON THE DEATH OF LAQUAN McDONALD AND THIS GUILTY VERDICT OF JASON VAN DYKE.
TOGETHER, THEY OFFER EACH OF US THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEDICATE OURSELVES TO MAKING CHICAGO A BETTER CITY……NOT A BITTER CITY.
IT IS TIME FOR US TO RECOGNIZE THAT WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN IN CONFLICT.
IT IS TIME FOR ALL OF US TO COME TOGETHER AROUND WHAT UNITES US….AND TO STOP PAYING SO MUCH ATTENTION TO THE THINGS THAT DIVIDE US”.
I did not alter that in any way.
* Congresswoman Robin Kelly…
Today, justice was served. While no verdict can bring Laquan McDonald back to his family and friends, we have seen that justice can be delivered to victims and their families.
The process by which this case was brought forward and executed should be an example to other communities around this country. Far too often, the murders of young black men and women by law enforcement make headlines but never make it to a jury trial. This must change.
Many of my family members are in law enforcement and I know the great responsibility and sacrifice that comes with wearing the badge. But that doesn’t mean we should grant automatic deference to law enforcement in deadly force cases. This case must be a catalyst for real reforms at CPD and other police forces around the country.
As a member of bipartisan Policing Strategies Working Group, I remain committed to working toward changing policies and rebuilding the fractured trust that exists between communities and law enforcement because of cases like this.
* Illinois Collaboration on Youth…
We have held our breath awaiting the jury’s verdict in the Laquan McDonald murder trial and can now breathe easier that a conviction has been secured. Justice has been done. But the shooting death of an unarmed 17-year-old African-American at the hands of a Chicago Police officer is a painful reminder of the continued systemic police violence against our youth of color not only in the city of Chicago but across our state and nation. McDonald has been painted by the defense team as a menace, and defendant Jason Van Dyke did not even use McDonald’s name throughout his testimony but rather described him as a black male wearing a hoodie. He was much more than a physical description. The death of McDonald should give us pause and force us to reflect on who he was and what we can do to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.
McDonald was born to a 15-year-old teen who struggled with substance use disorder and a father who was largely absent and incarcerated. He was first placed in foster care at age three and shuffled back and forth between different relative’s homes and been in contact with the justice system 26 times from the age of 14. However, school officials and relatives testified to witnessing McDonald turning his life around by working with a mentor and attending an alternative school in the months leading to his death. McDonald endured significant trauma at a very early age and deserved to have the support and resources that would put him on a positive path and help him to succeed.
Our coalition of youth service providers work with at-risk children and youth every day, but many young people slip through the cracks because we lack the infrastructure to support families in need, especially children and youth of color who are at suspended, arrested and funneled into the child welfare and juvenile justice systems at an alarmingly higher rate than their white peers. Let us turn this tragedy into an opportunity to address systemic racism and generational trauma by investing in education, training and services that are culturally responsive so that we can start the healing process and move forward in the right direction.
* State Senator Mattie Hunter…
I know I join many of you in breathing a sigh of relief that the officer who murdered Laquan McDonald four years ago was brought to justice today.
Nothing can take away the pain his family feels, and my deepest sympathies are with them.
Justice may have prevailed today, but we still have much work to do in improving the damaged relationship between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.
In the coming days and weeks, please be thoughtful about the small acts of peace and progress you can make. And I encourage you to sit down with your family, friends and community members and have conversations about how to improve the relationship between law enforcement officers and citizens of Chicago.
* Gov. Rauner…
In the Van Dyke trial, 12 jurors reviewed the evidence and rendered their verdict. We should all respect their decision. Now is the time to move forward as a community.
“We commend the jurors for fulfilling their civic duty in rendering what I feel was a reasonable verdict albeit not exactly what the community was hoping for. I want to congratulate all the activists, journalists and faith leaders for keeping this issue in the public arena,” Collins said.
“The conviction of Jason Van Dyke lays bare the injustices executed by the Chicago Police Department, and frequently abetted by the criminal justice system. In this case, there was a cover-up, and everyone involved should be held accountable. If we do not tear down the blue curtain of silence once and for all, the Laquan McDonalds of Chicago will continue to die in our city. We must never forget that the video – and the truth – were not simply handed to us. Instead, they were ripped from reluctant hands by journalists, citizens and the courts.
“Four years ago, I protested and pleaded for top-to-bottom change. I was immensely proud of all who protested peacefully in Chicago. I was honored to march alongside young people and veterans of the Civil Rights Movement alike on Michigan Avenue.
“Four years later, I urge all Chicagoans to remember that this is one terrible tragedy that is a symptom of a system in dire need of change. We must not stand by while police officers act as judge, jury and executioner on our streets. We will remain united for justice.
“Today shows that Officer Van Dyke’s gun and badge cannot speak louder than Laquan McDonald’s blood. No one is above the law. Our voices must not die away!”
* ACLU of Illinois…
Jason Van Dyke has been held accountable by a jury for shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times and unnecessarily killing him. Laquan McDonald should still be alive today. We continue to grieve for the McDonald family and broader community, which lost this young man too soon. We also remember the many families who have lost loved ones to excessive force by police officers who have not yet received justice. This burden falls disproportionately across the City—96% of people shot by the Chicago police are Black or Latinx.
No one believes that the conviction of this individual officer repairs the problems in policing – not in Chicago nor in our country. While Mr. Van Dyke will face accountability for his actions, it is critical that the rest of us do not yet look away from the Chicago Police Department. In the aftermath of this verdict, no community should suffer abuse or neglect.
The ACLU of Illinois remains committed to working with our community partners to mend the broken system that has allowed excessive force to happen and made the kind of accountability we see today so rare. We must continue to follow through with the reforms of the CPD that the video of his actions helped catalyze, and which must bring systemic change to how police officers serve Chicagoans.
* Gery Chico…
Like many, I was sickened when I saw the video that showed the tragic killing of Laquan McDonald. Today, a jury rendered a decision that hopefully provides some comfort for the McDonald family and our city.
However, our city is in pain and we need to heal — a healing that can only begin when the trust between our communities and the Chicago Police Department starts to rebuild. We must remember that Jason VanDyke’s actions do not represent the character of the vast majority of our police officers.
My hope is that protests are peaceful to honor the memory of Laquan. Let us work together as a city to ensure this senseless tragedy never happens again.
* Sen. Kwame Raoul…
Justice was done today, as a jury of his peers held Jason Van Dyke accountable for the murder of Laquan McDonald. Our criminal justice system has done its job, but the work of healing and reform is just beginning. While this verdict was about one incident within one city’s police department, it has shed light throughout the state and throughout the country on the need to focus on law enforcement reform. The work towards that end does not stop with this verdict, nor with the consent decree that this case brought about. I appeal to communities throughout the city and state to come together towards improved safety, accountability and mutual respect.
* Senate President John Cullerton…
“Justice is the reason we have the rule of law. This conviction brings justice for the killing of Laquan McDonald. It is my hope that it begins to restore some semblance of faith in our systems and belief that we all have the right to equal treatment and protection under the law.”
Friday, Oct 5, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
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* Bloomberg has a piece up about John Burton, a former opposition researcher turned JP Morgan banker who quit his job and put together a massive network of volunteers…
Over the past year, backed by mysterious donors, he’s organized what may be the most audacious grass-roots project in the age of Trump. Burton has amassed an army of 16,000 amateur sleuths who, with professional guidance, have spent months ferreting out damaging material on scores of vulnerable Republicans in Congress and state legislatures. Now he’s ready to unleash it just in time for the midterms. […]
Oppo works best when its target is unaware, so Burton’s project, dubbed Citizen Strong, has operated by stealth, waiting until just now to publicly declare its existence as a 501(c)4 “dark money” group with three affiliated political action committees. […]
Burton has a trove of anti-Republican material. The art of oppo lies in culling and distributing that kind of information to tell a particular story—a negative story—that will tarnish the incumbent and weaken his or her support. Sometimes researchers will quietly slip it to reporters, hoping it will yield a story and gain the imprimatur of a nonpartisan news outlet. Other times, oppo can be the basis of an ad campaign or used to build a website voters and the media can scrutinize—a bit like WikiLeaks. (Burton says none of his material is obtained through hacking or other illegal means.) With the midterms looming, he’s begun disseminating his “citizen oppo” in three Senate races, 22 House races, and 133 state legislative races across 13 states. He’s hoping these last-minute attacks will help push many of these races into the Democratic column, flipping control of the House—and possibly even the Senate—as well as state legislatures that will play a critical role in redrawing congressional lines in 2020, a process that will shape national politics for the next decade. […]
Burton laughs as he shares more highlights of what his researchers turned up, tidbits he’s not yet willing to put on the record. Sometimes, it’s best to spring the trap at the last moment. “This is what gets found when you have an army who can read every line of every document,” he says.
Why didn’t somebody on Mike Bost’s campaign buy MikeBost.com? What’s wrong with you people? Does your boss look sane to you? He shot a dog. He laughed about it. He fights for fun. If you’re on this list: RUN! Everybody else: get some popcorn.
Hmm.
* By the way, a Bost TV ad claims: “Folks, they’re at it again. I’ve spent 20 years fighting Pelosi and Madigan; my opponent has spent his career supporting them.” That ad was given a “Pants on Fire” rating today.
* Press release with emphasis added and in the original…
According to recent polling by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, Illinoisans believe that there is a better understanding of sexual harassment (51 percent) and that those accused of sexual harassment are more likely to be held accountable (59 percent). Yet, there are significant partisan differences in these views and 34 percent of the 1,001 respondents sampled for the poll say that they would still consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment. […]
The issue has resurfaced at the national level with the hearings for the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh hearings began Thursday, September 27th, addressing allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. The poll was in the field during the week of the hearing, making it especially timely to look at this national issue.
Fifty-one percent of voters surveyed agreed that people have a better understanding of sexual harassment given recent allegations of harassment in the news; 41 percent said no, there is not a better understanding. One in 14 voters, 7 percent, did not know or declined to answer.
Democrats Believe People Have Better Understanding of Sexual Harassment. Higher proportions of Democrats (59 percent) and Independents (48 percent) said that people have a better understanding of sexual harassment. Republicans were least likely to agree that people have a better understanding of sexual harassment at 41 percent.
Among political parties, Republicans were most likely to believe that people do not have a better understanding of sexual harassment given the recent allegations in the news these days – 52 percent. Nearly half, 45 percent, of the Independents said that people do not have a better understanding of sexual harassment. Democrats followed the Independents with 35 percent believing people do not have a better understanding.
Despite significant differences emerging by political party, there were no difference across region or gender. […]
When asked if people were more likely to be held accountable now for sexual harassment than they were before, 86 percent of voters said that people were more likely or just as likely. One in 12, 8 percent, did not know or declined to answer. Six percent volunteered that individuals are less likely to be held accountable for sexual harassment than they were before.
There were no major differences across party, region, or gender.
Overall, 34 percent of respondents said that they would consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people, while 38 percent said that they definitely would not. Significant differences emerged across region, gender, and political party.
Downstate Voters More Likely to Consider Voting for Accused Candidates. Voters in the downstate regions of Illinois, 41 percent, were most inclined to say that they would consider voting for a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people. This was followed by 33 percent of voters in the city of Chicago and 31 percent of voters in the Chicago suburbs. A similar pattern emerged where 18 percent of respondents in the downstate regions of Illinois said that they would strongly consider voting for a political candidate with multiple allegations of sexual harassment. This compared to only 10 percent of voters in the city of Chicago and 9 percent of voters in the Chicago suburbs.
Voters in the city of Chicago, 43 percent, were the most likely to believe that they would definitely not vote for a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people. Voters in the Chicago suburbs responded similarly at 41 percent. Downstate voters, at 30 percent, were the least likely to say that they would definitely not vote for a candidate facing multiple sexual harassment allegations.
Republicans More Likely to Consider Voting for Accused Candidates. Among Republicans, Democrats and Independents, Republicans were most likely, at 60 percent, to say that they would consider voting for a political candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people if they agreed with the candidate on the issues.
Thirty percent of Independents said that they would consider voting for a political candidate who had been accused of sexual harassment by multiple people, followed by 21 percent of Democrats.
Republicans were most likely to say that they would strongly consider voting for a political candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people at 24 percent. This was followed by only 5 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of Independents.
Lastly, over half of the Democrats (51 percent) said that they definitely would not vote for a candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people regardless of if they agreed with the candidate on the issues at. This was followed by 38 percent of Independents, and only 16 percent of Republicans.
Men More Likely to Consider Voting for Accused Candidates. Forty percent of men said that they would consider voting for a candidate that multiple people accused of sexual harassment. This is compared to 28 percent of women. Men were also more likely to say that they would strongly consider voting for an accused candidate.
According to the crosstabs, 15 percent of men, 9 percent of women, 24 percent of conservatives, 12 percent of whites, 7 percent of African-Americans, 13 percent of those making under $50K and 14 percent of union members said they would “strongly consider” voting for a political candidate accused of sexual harassment by multiple people if they agreed with the candidate on the issues.
A day after a second debate with Gov. Bruce Rauner, and hours after a news conference where reporters repeatedly dogged him with questions about a property tax break on a mansion he received, Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker said in Belleville he is working to move on past the issue. […]
“Well, we’re in the last 33 days of the election, I don’t want anybody to be distracted by the real issues that are facing working families, so we thought we would pay that money and keep moving because we’ve got a lot to do over next 33 days to make sure our message and issues are getting out there,” Pritzker said Thursday after speaking to campaign volunteers at his Belleville field office.
Earlier in the day, at a news conference where Pritzker criticized Rauner’s handling of the legionnaire’s disease issues at the Quincy Veterans Home, reporters repeatedly asked questions about Pritzker’s controversial property tax break.
“I wasn’t struggling to keep on message, we were focused on what’s happened, which is Bruce Rauner’s administration is now under a criminal probe for the death, the cover up of what happened at the Quincy veterans home,” Pritzker said.
“This is Bruce Rauner, on the attack, desperate in the last month of the campaign,” Pritzker said Thursday night before attending the annual St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee Dinner. “He’s saying anything, he’ll do anything, he’ll pretend to be anything in order to win. I don’t take it personally. We’re moving forward. We’re talking to the working families of Illinois.”
While two-thirds of Illinoisans live in Chicago and its suburbs, Pritzker has made it a priority to campaign downstate, which is largely Republican.
The strategy behind it is twofold, says Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s campaign manager. There are Democrats and swing voters — as well as Republicans frustrated with Rauner — downstate, clustered in the St. Louis suburbs and the small and mid-sized cities spread across the prairie: Rockford, Peoria, Decatur.
But campaigning downstate is also a good way to reassure voters worried about electing another vertiginously wealthy Chicago businessman four years after sending Rauner to Springfield. “We took a philosophy very early in the campaign that we were going to send him everywhere,” Caprara said. “And I said to him when we first sat down, I think if there’s one thing that’s going to defeat the idea that you’re not gonna work hard or that you’re just coming into this as a billionaire and don’t bring something else to the table, it’s going to be having people actually meet you.”
* Meanwhile…
Rauner campaign says he didn't "cancel." Campaign never confirmed. Spokesman says they ultimately couldn't make the appearance work. https://t.co/KBHUZ1oRVr
Rauner ally Ken Griffin put a half million dollars into Illinois Senate Republican leader Bill Brady’s campaign. The move came after Brady put a $100,001 loan into his campaign fund, busting campaign limits, to allow him to accept unlimited donations to dole out to GOP senators and Senate candidates.
The state’s wealthiest man just contributed a million dollars to House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s campaign fund. He’s given the maximum amount ($5,600) to a half dozen GOP legislative candidates during this cycle and contributed $200,000 to Erika Harold’s attorney general campaign fund.
By contrast, Griffin gave Leader Durkin $5 million in October of 2016. His last contribution to Gov. Rauner was $2.5 million in December of 2017, after giving him $20 million in May of that year.
A creative new lawsuit has been filed in federal court to get at the problem of guns used in crimes.
Studies suggest crime guns cause PTSD in children, especially in minority communities. So, this lawsuit uses the Americas With Disabilities Act and the Illinois Civil Rights Act to demand the state do something about it.
Public interest lawyer Tom Johnson argues the state police could do something, “The law already says the state police have the authority to regulate gun sales. We don’t have to pass a new statute. We don’t have to get the courts to do this. They already have the authority!”
According to the complaint, 40 percent of guns used in firearm-related crimes in Chicago are purchased at gun shops in suburban areas surrounding the city. It names seven specific gun dealers in Riverdale, Lyons, Lincolnwood, East Dundee, Melrose Park, Lansing and Posen.
“Under current law, and without cost, the Illinois Department of State Police can adopt reasonable regulations that would curtail the gun trafficking by these shops, and thereby reduce the gun violence in Chicago, and in turn reduce the terrible effect such gun violence has on the African-American children bringing this case,” the lawsuit states. […]
The complaint outlines several steps that could be taken now without any changes to Illinois law. They include conducting background checks on all gun store and gun show employees; not allowing the sale of guns to people who the seller knows will quickly transfer ownership of the weapon; and preventing those linked to “crime guns” from buying another gun.
The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that Illinois has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not making a “reasonable accommodation to the special needs of the plaintiff children in the conduct of the federally assisted law enforcement programs,” and violated the Illinois Civil Rights Act by not controlling the gun trafficking that primarily impacts black children.
The plaintiffs are wading into uncharted legal territory. They seek to prove that children exposed to violence suffer impairments so severe that the state must impose tougher rules on the businesses that supply guns.
“As far as I know, no one has ever sued the state for the health effects or mental health effects of gun violence based on a violation of the ADA,” Timothy Lytton, a professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law who has studied gun litigation. “This seems an entirely novel approach.” […]
The ATF has the power to inspect gun dealers, but it is legally allowed to conduct only one audit on each business per year. Normally, however, the resource-starved ATF only inspects a minute fraction of them — slightly more than 7 percent in 2016.
Decades of inept governance have eroded Illinoisans’ expectations for their governors. Two of the three governors who preceded Rauner in office have gone to prison on corruption charges. One of them, Rod Blagojevich, is still there after being convicted on charges of, among other things, trying to sell a Senate seat after Obama was elected president. He won’t be eligible for release until 2024. (Pritzker was caught on an FBI wiretap, days after the 2008 election, talking to Blagojevich about the possibility of appointing him as state treasurer, a conversation Rauner has used to batter Pritzker again and again.)
When I asked Pritzker to name the last Illinois governor he admired, he had to reach back two centuries. “It’s Governor Edward Coles, who really prevented Illinois, way back in the 1820s, from ever becoming a slave state,” he said. That was a pretty important turn and something that was courageous to do at the time.”
* The Question: Who is the last Illinois governor you admire? Explain.
When looking at the Republican side of the ledger, there are three races that already appear to be Democratic pick ups. In Illinois, GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner is trailing Democratic billionaire J.B. Pritzker by anywhere from 16 to 22 points. This race has been in the Lean Democratic column, and while we are loathe to kick an incumbent when he’s down, it’s hard to justify such a rating at this point. The race moves to the Likely Democratic column. […]
The race between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and entrepreneur J.B. Pritzker that was billed as the Battle of the Billionaires has fizzled. It’s not that the candidates aren’t spending record sums of money, it’s simply that there doesn’t seem to be a lot to see here. As a Republican in a very blue state who spent most of the first three years of his term locked in an ugly battle with House Speaker Mike Madigan and the Democratic-controlled state legislature over the budget, Rauner has been an underdog since the start of this race. He then faced an unexpectedly competitive primary that he eked out with a 51-percent victory.
Pritzker has been on a roll since the March primary and isn’t content to sit on his lead. The campaign has launched a barrage of negative ads at Rauner. Rauner has hit back, but his attacks haven’t landed the same punch. Despite this, Pritzker is having the worst week of the campaign and it won’t matter. An investigation by Cook County revealed that Pritzker defrauded the county by having all the toilets removed from his home in an effort to lower his property taxes. Illinois voters have a pretty high tolerance for scandal and this one doesn’t appear to clear the bar. Rauner was also hit with another problem this week as questions have arisen as to whether his office sat on information about a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires Disease at a veterans home. Attention quickly shifted from missing toilets to fatalities. In other words, Rauner can’t catch a break.
At this point in the race, there is no path to victory for Rauner. The contest is in the Likely Democrat column.
This state must change, and much of Rauner’s prescription for curing what ails Illinois would make things better. Pritzker’s policy proposals will make a bad situation considerably worse — higher taxes, dramatic spending increases and an even-more-poisonous climate for job creation.
It would be a return to the one-party Democratic misrule of 2003-15 under former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn and a Democratic Legislature ruled by House Speaker Michael Madigan.
If polls are correct, Pritzker is a shoo-in for election. But as those polls have trended in his favor, Pritzker has become more and more vague.
They’re right about Pritzker’s increasing vagueness, as Wednesday’s debate and Thursday’s press conference clearly showed.
* We all know that Gov. Rauner has no respect at all for JB Pritzker. As he said in Wednesday’s debate, Pritzker is a “trust fund baby” without any successes in life. His loathing shined through in an interview with Politico…
Although Rauner and Pritzker are both part of the elite sliver of Illinoisans who are used to lunching in the wood-paneled dining room of the Chicago Club, their passing familiarity with each other hasn’t led to a gentlemanly campaign. Rauner clearly doesn’t like or even respect Pritzker. “He was one of the guys who sort of loafed it and didn’t really chip into the family, didn’t really help run the family business, where all the wealth was created,” Rauner told me. He doesn’t have anything against the rest of the family, he added. “A couple of them are supertalented and I respect them,” he said. “I mean, they’re very accomplished. He is not.”
* Back in August, Rauner sat down for an interview with WCIA TV’s Mark Maxwell. He told Maxwell that Pritzker “has no success in creating value,” adding, “He’s had virtually no business success.”
Maxwell asked Rauner about 1871, the hugely successful incubator that kick-started Chicago’s now-burgeoning tech startup scene. Rauner’s response…
He along with many people pushed Blagojevich to put money into a venture incubator in Chicago. We’ve got about a dozen or more incubators around the state. 1871 is one of many. Pritzker got taxpayer money into that by his pushing with Blagojevich. And then Pritzker puts his own venture capital partner in charge of 1871 to guide those venture deals to his own firm. Conflict of interest. Unfair to use taxpayer money to create an environment to fund his own capital venture efforts, which are mostly, frankly failed. But he tried to set it up to benefit himself. That’s exactly the corruption and the conflict of interest that we’ve got to stop in this state.
Whew.
1871 was founded in 2012, by the way. Three years after Blagojevich was removed from office.
…Adding… I’m told the governor was referring to the I2A (Illinois Innovation Accelerator) venture fund, which was founded in 2007 with aid from DCEO. It’s now called Chicago Ventures.
…Adding… Gov. Rauner visited 1871 in June of 2016…
Just now, came here I’ve been following the progress here at 1871, this is one of the many incubators that we have throughout the state of Illinois to nurture young technology based entrepreneurial businesses. Howard Tullman who is the head of—here of 1871 he’s a 35 year friend of mine and an entrepreneur who my venture capital firm backed when he started one of his big successful businesses back in the early 1980s. Howard’s done a phenomenal job of building 1871 and creating it as an environment where entrepreneurs can come together, where venture capitalists can come together and young technology oriented people here in the city of Chicago can start new businesses can kind of realize their dream, and they’ve begun many and they’re already fledgling and often growing and many are coming back and giving back. There’s a big mentoring and tutoring program where business leaders from around metropolitan Chicago, around the state of Illinois come here to nurture and mentor other young entrepreneurs and help them succeed and do it—they don’t get paid for being mentors but they do it as how I was explaining because they can see the future, they see the new technology and the innovative ideas and then they come up with innovative ways for their businesses to partner and share and grow together. It’s very exciting, this is a model I’d like to see expanded more around the state of Illinois, we have a number of very good incubators down in Champaign, over in Peoria and in Rockford, but I’d like to see these expanded around the state and I’m particularly focused on helping the University of Illinois expand and have its relationships and its networks expand here to 1871, there already is a connection but I want to see it grown.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA) represents more than 20,000 stores across the state that include chains and family-owned and operated stores as well as all types of retail including pharmacy, grocery, hardware and restaurants. Four years ago, IRMA remained neutral in the race for Governor and four years later we will do the same.
In the last month, IRMA representatives met individually with each of the major candidates for Governor. Many issues of importance to the retail community and their customers were discussed. As a result of those meetings, the IRMA Board of Directors unanimously agreed not to endorse a candidate for Governor in this year’s election.
Governor Rauner was recognized for his heartfelt desire to reform Illinois government, revitalize the state’s economy and minimize the need for tax increases and excessive regulations. However, concerns exist over the ability to move the state forward in a bi-partisan fashion and, given the fiscal condition of the State, the feasibility of any tax roll-back. Additionally, there were concerns over positions expressed versus actions taken by his Administration on retail specific issues. Finally, there are continuing concerns that there is not a full appreciation for the economic significance of the retail sector within Illinois, which is the second highest producer of GDP and generates enormous tax revenue for state and local governments.
JB Pritzker was recognized for his stated desire to work with all parties. Mr. Pritzker clearly recognizes the economic importance of the retail sector and the opportunities it provides, and revenue it generates, for state and local governments. There are concerns, however, over his advocacy for issues that would add significantly to the cost of doing business and the impact these issues, combined with increased taxes, would have on retailers and the consumers they serve.
“IRMA’s focus is supporting a ‘retail majority’ and supporting those candidates who understand the value of retail to the state and local governments. Unfortunately, neither candidate’s approach struck the right balance in sustainably moving the state forward and supporting the state’s second largest GDP producer for the state of Illinois. IRMA will, as it always has, work in a positive, consensus building manner with the next Administration and their team no matter who is elected,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO, Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Translation: Rauner couldn’t and won’t deliver and Pritzker wants to increase taxes on upper incomes and boost the minimum wage.
Today, the campaign of Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, Democratic nominee in Illinois’s 13th Congressional District, released a new ad highlighting Congressman Rodney Davis’ attempts to mislead voters about his record on health care — and how his allies were caught lying about Londrigan’s health care positions in TV ads.
“Career politician Rodney Davis took millions of dollars from special interests and insurance companies, then voted with them eleven times to eliminate critical protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Now that he’s running for re-election, Davis and his allies are trying to compensate for his disastrous record by lying about it, and about Betsy,” said Emma Brown, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign manager. “It’s time to replace Davis with someone who is focused on making healthcare more affordable, not lying and playing politics with this critical issue.”
The ad, “Caught,” is began airing today across the district. It highlights Davis’ eleven votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement, which would have eliminated protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Davis also voted for the Republican health care repeal bill last summer, which non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, independent fact checkers, and the AARP have all said would have weakened protections for those with pre-existing conditions, allowing insurers to discriminate against them and make their coverage unaffordable.
Career politician Rodney Davis. Caught lying. Those attacks on Betsy Londrigan? ‘That ad is categorically false.’ What’s worse? Davis is lying about his own health care record. Here are the facts: Davis voted eleven times to gut protections for pre-existing conditions. Eleven times to let insurance companies deny coverage. And eleven times to help his insurance company donors instead of you. Those are the facts. And Rodney Davis’ lies can’t change them.
* Background…
Davis Voted 11 Times To Repeal The Affordable Care Act Without Any Replacement:
Davis Voted For Republican Budget That Repealed Affordable Care Act. [H Con Res 25, Vote #88, 3/21/13]
Davis Voted To Repeal The Affordable Care Act. [HR
45, Vote #154, 5/16/13; CQ Floor Votes, 5/16/13]
Davis Voted For Republican Budget That Repealed Affordable Care Act. [H Con Res 96, Vote #177, 4/10/14]
Davis Voted To Repeal Affordable Care Act. [HR
596, Vote #58, 2/3/15; CQ Floor Votes, 2/3/15]
Davis Voted For Budget Alternative That Repealed The Affordable Care Act. [H. Con Res. 27, Vote #141, 3/25/15; US News and World Report,3/25/15]
Davis Voted For Republican Budget That Repealed The Affordable Care Act. [H. Con Res. 27, Vote #142, 3/25/15; New York Times, 3/25/15]
Davis Voted For Republican Conference Report On Budget That Began Process To Repeal Affordable Care Act.
[S Con Res 11, Vote #183, 4/30/15; Bloomberg, 4/29/15]
Davis Voted To Repeal Major Pillars Of Affordable Care Act, Including Individual Mandate. [HR 3762, Vote #568, 10/23/15; Los Angeles Times, 10/23/15]
Davis Voted To Repeal The Affordable Care Act. [HR
3762, Vote #6, 1/6/16; CNN, 1/6/16]
Davis Voted To Overturn Obama’s Veto Of Bill That Would Repeal The Affordable Care Act. [HR3762, Vote #53, 2/2/16; Washington Post,2/2/16] Note: Reported as 63rd vote
Davis Voted To Begin Process Of Repealing Affordable Care Act. [S Con Res 3, Vote #58, 1/13/17; CNN, 1/3/17]
Asked whether there was criminal negligence in the Quincy response, Rauner said “absolutely not.” Asked about delay in notifying the public that WBEZ outlined, Rauner said “there’s not a delay.”
WBEZ on Tuesday aired a report outlining that state officials waited six days — even though they knew the epidemic was occurring — before notifying residents, families and the public. WBEZ also outlined how Rauner’s former deputy press secretary, who now works for President Donald Trump’s administration, sent an email directing no public notification of the outbreak on Aug. 25, 2015 — four days after people began getting sick.
“As soon as the Legionella infection occurred there, members of our team immediately took action to keep the veterans safe, to keep the staff safe and we brought in national experts and we have done everything that the national experts have recommended we do,” Rauner said.
Rauner said the outbreak was not contagious: “They do not pass from person to person. There’s no risk. It’s not that we have to notify the public, notify the community, notify the neighborhood, notify outsiders,” Rauner said. “This was an internal issue for plumbing inside the building, in particular residential halls. This is not something we had to rush to send out wide press releases and the team made the decisions when they knew all the facts and they could outlined exactly what was happening and what they were doing, what communication should be done.” [Emphasis added.]
“It’s not that we have to notify the residents and their families or anything.” There. Fixed it for ‘ya because that’s exactly what you avoided saying, governor.
People got sick and several died without ever knowing they were in any danger after higher-ups made a conscious decision to stay quiet. Residents’ families didn’t know, either, for the same reason. But the administration knew. They chose not to tell anyone. Not the residents, not their families, nobody. And, yes, the administration should have notified the community. It could’ve been a problem for Quincy, too. Nobody knew what was what at the time.
* Also, you took “immediate action” to keep the staff safe? Really? Remember this?…
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s own administration formally rebuked the state agency overseeing the Quincy veterans’ home for how it told staffers about the fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreak after workers there got sick in 2015.
The workplace safety reprimand issued by the state Department of Labor, first obtained by WBEZ, focused on a pair of emails Illinois Veterans Home administrators blasted out to state workers that seemed to downplay the threat of the disease. The agency reproached the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which oversees the home, saying it “failed to effectively notify all employees” about the outbreak just as it was taking hold. […]
The email, sent by an infectious disease nursing supervisor to nearly 140 staff members, emphasized with all capital letters that there had been “an UNCONFIRMED diagnosis” of Legionnaires’. The correspondence admonished workers not to talk about the case with residents because “the last thing we need is for the residents to get worried and upset.”
Yeah. No need for anyone to worry that they might get sick and die or anything.
* Let’s return to our timeline, which I’ve truncated…
July 24: Earliest known case of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy, according to a report issued later by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
August 21: Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Erica Jeffries later claims that on this date, her department “shut down the water, we removed aerators from all the showers, we shut down our fountains, we started issuing bottled water” because of the outbreak.
August 21: Illinois Veterans’ Home resident Melvin Tucker develops a fever. He is given Tylenol.
August 22: (E)mail, sent by an infectious disease nursing supervisor to nearly 140 staff members, emphasized with all capital letters that there had been “an UNCONFIRMED diagnosis” of Legionnaires’. The correspondence admonished workers not to talk about the case with residents because “the last thing we need is for the residents to get worried and upset.”
August 23: Illinois Department of Public Health notifies CDC of “five laboratory-confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease among residents and staff.”
August 24: Adams County Health Department Director of Clinical and Environmental Services Shay Drummond claims this is the date when “environmental control and mediation” actually starts
August 24: In an email, a state Veterans’ Affairs spokesman alerted the governor’s press staff about the Legionnaires’ test results, saying, “We have a situation at the Quincy home.” The spokesman went on to say he did not intend to publicize details of the test results that day unless “directed or in the case of wide media interest.”
August 25: Rauner does Springfield media event with Veterans’ Affairs Director Erica Jeffries at Springfield airport.
Aug. 25: Rauner’s press secretary at the time, Lindsay Walters, directed press aides in the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and Illinois Department of Public Health not to issue a public statement about the growing Legionnaires’ threat at the home, documents show. “I do not think we need to issue a statement to the media. Let’s hold and see if we receive any reporter inquiries,” she said.
Aug. 26: There are now 28 Legionnaires’ disease onsets, the CDC reports later.
August 26: Three days after CDC was first notified of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, and 2-4 days after remediation efforts began, Gerald Kuhn, 90, is given Tylenol for a fever that reaches 104 degrees. Kuhn asks to go to the hospital and tests positive there for Legionella.
August 26: Last day Dolores French is seen alive. Her military veteran husband lives in another section of the complex.
August 27: “The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (IDVA) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced eight confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease in residents at the Illinois Veterans’ Home - Quincy. There have been no known deaths related to this outbreak.”
August 27: After six days with a fever, Melvin Tucker is still not on any kind of antibiotic and hasn’t yet been tested for Legionnaires’, despite the CDC being notified four days earlier of an outbreak and the state announcing eight confirmed cases that same day.
August 28: “Two residents of an Illinois veterans home have died of Legionnaires’ disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health said Friday…. [both] had underlying medical conditions. Both were among 23 residents of the facility who had earlier been diagnosed with the disease.”
August 29: Dolores French is found dead and her body was decomposed. Her only underlying medical condition was deafness.
28 cases before anyone was told. But, yeah, they acted “immediately.” Right.
Mr. Rauner’s experience as a private-equity investor would benefit Springfield. Government isn’t the same as business, of course. As head of the state’s executive branch, the governor wields real power, but it’s less than that of a chief executive. Still, Mr. Rauner would bring the much-needed perspective of a private-sector leader. And he has a sharp eye for efficiency, something that bloated state government desperately needs.
He is no politician, and that is a good thing.
Mr. Rauner promises reforms that would lessen the burdens on business and promote entrepreneurship, including cutting red tape, making common-sense changes to workers’ compensation and revitalizing the state agency that should be hustling to bring business to Illinois, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. He has said he would become the state’s top recruiter. We believe him.
* By June of 2017, however, Crain’s was having a change of heart…
By nearly every measure, the state is worse off since Rauner took office.
That said, he maintains “the wealthy should pay more”—and that includes himself—and argues that a progressive income tax is unlikely to chase well-heeled Illinoisans out of state if the Legislature enacts much-needed property tax reforms. A graduated income tax, he argues, would stabilize the state’s finances and better fund his top priority—education from K-12 to graduate school—while easing the burden on local and municipal governments to fund schools and maintain infrastructure. If he can ease the property tax burden, which is killing some municipalities, the switch to a sliding-scale income tax makes sense for Illinois.
Regarding the state’s most vexing fiscal problem, its underfunded public employee pensions, Pritzker favors cutting the long-term tab by putting in more money now. Again, he’s not long on specifics, but his rhetoric suggests his plan’s contours may follow those long advocated by the Center for Tax & Budget Accountability, which has called for reamortizing the existing debt. “There is really only one good way to do it, and that is to step up payments,” Pritzker told Crain’s earlier this year. “Think about the principal payments on your home. Step up principal payments earlier than they are due and try to flatten out the amortization schedule on an annual basis. Flatten it. The result of that will be that we can manage the budget of the state. Because that is really what is at stake here.”
As a longtime Democrat, Pritzker’s platform reflects much of his party’s orthodoxy. And yet, Pritzker is a known quantity in Chicago’s moderate business community—in many ways, he’s its unofficial mayor—and he’s widely recognized as a no-nonsense problem-solver more likely to reach across the aisle with an open handshake than a clenched fist. As such, we expect him to govern in the vein of similarly middle-ground businesspeople-cum-politicians: Think Michael Bloomberg, not Scott Walker; Charlie Baker, not Paul LePage. He pledges that creating conditions for business growth will be a factor in every decision he makes, and as someone who has grown businesses for his entire adult life, that pledge carries weight. He promises to veto any legislative remap that is not fair, and he favors term limits on leadership positions in the state House and Senate—not exactly the words of a Democratic apparatchik.
Promoting Illinois as a great place to do business—and delivering on the policies that will make that more than just a sales pitch—is Pritzker’s stated goal. Despite “toiletgate,” a property tax dustup that is troubling and embarrassing but not disqualifying, we believe Pritzker will put the needs of Chicago’s business community and the workers who depend on it first and foremost, and will work hard to do what he’s always done: Make deals and deliver value to stakeholders large and small. Pritzker deserves your vote.
Ask yourself whether another dose of unchecked rule by Democratic leaders will restore Illinois to the prosperity and opportunity for which it once was famed.
Then ask whether a second-term Rauner would do exactly what he has tried to do in his first term: deprive those Democratic leaders of their wretched excesses in spending and taxing.
That answer to that is yes, as the Democrats know.
They loathe Rauner. He often stalemates them. Armed only with a veto pen and a bully pulpit, he blocks their exclusive dominion over lawmaking.
Which is precisely why we endorse Bruce Rauner, and urge you to re-elect him governor of Illinois.
Today, the Rauner campaign is launching a new TV ad titled “Change Doesn’t Come Easy.”
In the ad, Governor Rauner directly addresses the voters of Illinois about how important this election is in the fight for the future of the state. Governor Rauner makes the choice voters face in November clear: “We could give up, and give total control to Madigan, Pritzker and the Machine that made this mess, or do the tough, honest things to save Illinois.”
You sent me to Springfield to fix our state. We’ve done some good. We’ve stopped a lot of bad. But like you, I’m frustrated because we haven’t done enough. After decades of corruption, change doesn’t come easy. We could give up, and give total control to Madigan, Pritzker and the Machine that made this mess, or do the tough, honest things to save Illinois. This might be our last chance.
The prosecutor Republicans want to investigate tax fraud allegations involving Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker received a campaign contribution from the Chicagoan and his wife in 2016.
The Pritzkers gave Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx donations of $5,400 each Oct. 21, 2016, when she was running for her first term, state records show.
“The matter is in the hands of our special prosecutions unit; we have no further comment at this time,” a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office said Thursday.
Pritzker is fighting off an offensive from Republican Bruce Rauner, who called his rival’s property tax break of $331,000 on a Gold Coast mansion “white collar crime” at a campaign stop in Des Plaines
I asked the state’s attorney’s office yesterday whether this move was routine and was told that the public integrity unit is within the special prosecutions bureau. That unit, I was told, handles issues related to alleged misconduct of public officials.
Pritzker: So, let me be clear about this, we followed the rules.
Question: And the rules are to get a break when you can?
Pritzker: We followed the rules.
Question: What are the rules? What are the rules?
Pritzker: I can’t relay them to you, I’m not a real estate lawyer. What I can tell you is…
Question: There are rules that let you take the toilets out of your home?
Pritzker: We’re in the process of that paying that back. But the fact is, the reason we’re paying it, for the last 34 days of this campaign we should be talking about the real issues. The real issues…
Question: But why are you taking so long?
Pritzker: 14 people died. There are people who are seriously, negligence is causing…
Question: You’re deflecting, the question is about your home.
Pritzker: Negligence is causing, negligence is causing the the deaths of our veterans. That is what were here to talk about.
Question: People want to know, who would also love to have a property tax break, what are those rules?
Pritzker: I’m not a real estate lawyer, I couldn’t elaborate.
Question: You said that this is nothing new, that there was nothing new, and yet the inspector general’s report or presentation of the affidavit, the presentation of the inspector, there were things that were new in that, and there were things in there that alleged that your wife wanted the toilets pulled before the inspector.
Question: And you received a proactive tax break.
Pritzker: There were a lot of mistakes in that report, but let me…
Question: What are they?
Pritzker: We are talking today about a criminal probe…
Question: Talking about one for you as well.
Pritzker: Just like…but there isn’t one.
Pritzker: Bruce Rauner is now under investigation, with his administration, there is a criminal probe into that administration to see what it is that caused the deaths of these family members, truly criminal negligence is what seems to be at stake here.
Question: Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx is also reviewing whether or not laws have been broken in your property tax appeal. So there is also…
Question: A criminal investigation.
Pritzker: I’m pointing out there is a criminal probe into the Rauner administration.
Question: Well their office also says there is a review.
Pritzker: You should focus on the fact that people died here, the criminal probe could lead to, like we talked about in the Flint case, there are people who have been charged, there are people who have been, now even, involuntary manslaughter, this is very serious.
Question: Do you wish that you had not asked for that property tax break?
Pritzker: The veterans in Illinois, the veterans in Illinois, their lives are at stake when you have an administration that has ignored them, that has mistreated them, that does not understand how to care for them.
Question: Why does a billionaire need to rip out toilets to save $330,000?
Pritzker: Well, that was not obviously what happened. We renovated the home, renovated the home, I stopped that renovation, we restarted it, we paid the taxes that were assessed on that property.
Question: You took action to make the house look like it wasn’t worth as much, so you could take a cut, correct?
Pritzker: No. No.
Question: Then what was it? Then explain what it was? [crosstalk]
Pritzker: A renovation project.
Campaign: Final question, last question.
Question: Who rips out 5 toilets?
Pritzker: When you’re renovating, and literally gutting, when you’re renovating a home…look, let me remind all of you that this gradual situation that occurred at the Quincy veterans home…
Question: Wait a second, we’re talking about the house, why are you…
Priztker: Because we’re talking today about the Quincy veterans home and I want to remind you that gradual situation which could have been dealt with all along. Someone should have stood up for those veterans, someone in the Rauner administration. But they didn’t, and people died as a result. That’s the fact, those are the things that happened to the service men and women at the Quincy veterans home that Bruce Rauner should have stood up for and he didn’t and people died. It’s criminal.
Question: You told us last night at the debate that parts of the IG report are not accurate, can you tell us what’s not accurate?
Pritzker: I’ve said all along, I said this last night, that we followed the rules. And I’m telling you now what’s important to recognize is that this was a renovation project that literally didn’t know, and the reason it was halted was because as we said, we didn’t know whether the home would be sold, didn’t know whether the home would be rented out, the project was restarted.
Tronc, the parent company of the Chicago Tribune, is changing its name back to Tribune Publishing.
The Chicago-based company, which also owns the Baltimore Sun; Hartford Courant; Orlando Sentinel; South Florida’s Sun Sentinel; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.; the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., announced the decision Thursday. It ends a more than two-year run with the much-derided corporate moniker of Tronc.
The name change will take effect after the market closes Tuesday. Beginning Wednesday, the company’s stock will trade on the NASDAQ under the new ticker symbol TPCO.
The Tronc name was unveiled in June 2016, four months after technology entrepreneur Michael Ferro became nonexecutive chairman and the largest shareholder of the newspaper chain. The name, which stood for Tribune Online Content and was intended to be written in all-lowercase letters, quickly was ridiculed.
The monosyllabic, lower case moniker was meant to stand for “tribune online content” and underscore the company’s shift from newspaper publisher to a “content curation and monetization engine” under then-chairman Michael Ferro. The rebranding also was intended to differentiate Tribune Publishing from Tribune Media, the broadcasting company from which it spun off in 2014.
Ferro stepped down in March, just hours before Fortune magazine published allegations of sexual misconduct against him by two women. (He remains the company’s largest shareholder.) CEO Justin Dearborn, who succeeded Ferro as chairman, moved to change the name back to Tribune Publishing with approval of the company board after the sale of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this year.
“We announced today our decision to return the parent company name to one that’s which [sic] is rich in history, prestige and a recognition of our journalistic foundation – The Tribune Publishing Company,” Dearborn told employees in a memo.
Looks like whoever wrote the memo was undecided on “that’s” or “which is” and then forgot to go back and fix it. /s
Despite running ads calling Pritzker “the Porcelain Prince of tax avoidance,” and his campaign printing “Pritzker Plumbing” T-shirts and featuring toilets at events, Rauner said Pritzker’s tax break is “no joke.” […]
“This is not about toilets. It’s not about toilets. This is not about bathroom humor. This is not a joke. This is not funny. This is not about pink toilets versus purple toilets. You know what this is about? Corruption,” Rauner said.
Did Democratic House candidate Lance Yednock take an illegal campaign contribution from Michael Madigan?
A Peru attorney alleges that Yednock, running against state Rep. Jerry Long (R-Streator), improperly took $55,400 from the House speaker — and she wants the state Board of Elections to look into it. […]
“It is my belief that the Friends of Michael J. Madigan laundered a $55,400 campaign contribution to Friends of Lance Yednock through Friends of Marty Durkan,” she wrote.
As Ajster described it, Madigan gave $55,400 to Durkan, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, on March 19 — a day ahead of the election Durkan won.
An identical sum was later deposited Aug. 19 from Durkan’s committee into Yednock’s.
The attorney is basing her claim on two parts of the state’s Election Code: The contribution cap limit (which is $55,400 this year from a candidate committee) and this…
No person shall make an anonymous contribution or a contribution in the name of another person, and no person shall knowingly accept any anonymous contribution or contribution made by one person in the name of another person.
Basically, she’s arguing that since Madigan has already given Yednock $1,582 he laundered the money through Durkan to get around the cap “in the name of another person.”
* Madigan does this a lot. His 13th Ward committee, for instance, gave Durkan another $55,400 on March 19th. But it’s not mainly from his own account. He appears to direct others to give his members big checks and then they transfer the $55,400 to candidates in need.
Madigan’s lawyers basically wrote the election code, so they know where the loopholes are. But he’s currently facing a federal civil suit for putting up a couple of sham candidates in his own primary and I never thought it would get this far because nobody figured that was against the law, either.
A State Board of Elections spokesperson said this afternoon that the board had not yet received the complaint.
*** UPDATE *** Lance Yednock…
Now that his own party has called on him to resign over his inappropriate conduct with a female staffer, Rep. Long has resorted to simply making things up. Marty and I are both members of Operating Engineers Local 150, and he is supporting my campaign because Jerry Long has proven that he will not stand up for working families and his treatment of women shows he is unfit to represent us. I look forward to serving our community with honesty, independence and integrity which Republicans and Democrats alike agree Rep. Long is clearly lacking.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration says it needs up to two more months to produce a plan to provide three years’ back pay to union workers.
A lawyer for the Republican governor told the Illinois State Labor Relations Board in a letter Monday that determining how much is owed to 20,000 workers is onerous.
Monday was the labor board deadline on the issue involving so-called step increases shut off in July 2015.
The letter says transferring money from other funds could jeopardize feeding prison inmates, providing utilities to the poor or medical care at state facilities.
We’re talking maybe $400 million that wasn’t put into the budget.
The administration stopped awarding step increases after AFSCME’s last contract with the state expired in June, 2015. Step increases are automatic raises given to workers in the first seven to 10 years of their careers.
A compliance officer in August asked the state to document who is owed what for the step increases, including people who no longer work for the state or are deceased. Administration lawyers said computing the information is enormously complex and that more time is needed to comply.
“This foot dragging is taking place despite clear direction from the courts and independent arbitrators to identify costs associated with the contractually established state employee salary adjustments and step increases long overdue to employees,” Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza said.
“Governor Rauner cannot use his own ineptitude as an excuse to ignore court orders and trample basic worker rights,” Comptroller Mendoza said. “His pursuit of an extreme anti-worker agenda that underlines his irresponsible and illegal delay in estimating the contractual liabilities that continue to grow is fiscally unsupportable. The critical issue of basic fairness aside, this information needs to be incorporated into the state’s financial statements and the lack of data complicates budgetary and cash management planning for the current fiscal year and beyond.” […]
“It’s particularly ironic that this Administration has expended hundreds of millions of dollars for Information Technology consultants with the goal of improving administrative functions at the same time he whines that basic payroll costs can’t be calculated because it’s too difficult,” she said.
(T)he administration said it’s got three different reports it’s running: Report 1: assumes step progressions are owed through January 8, 2016, which is the date that impasse occurred; Report 2: assumes step progressions are owed through December 13, 2016, which is the date that the Board ruled on impasse; Report 3: assumes step progressions are owed through the time the report was produced, as if no impasse occurred at all.
The AFSCME union says there’s no impasse and said Gov. Bruce Rauner is playing games.
…Adding… Governor’s press office…
We responded in detail to requests for information from the Labor Relations Board’s compliance officer. The compliance officer did not order the state to start paying employees step increases by October 1st. The state was ordered to “provide information” that the compliance officer believes may be relevant “to obtain the record” of what employees were owed by October 1st.
The process of calculating current steps and backpay is complex and requires many hours of manual labor. The state has supplied voluminous materials to the compliance officer in accordance with his requests. The state is working diligently to calculate the remaining information. Prior experience from the 2012/2013 wage increase case, which predates the Rauner administration, shows how both the state and AFSCME employees can lose when the calculations are rushed and mistakes are made. In addition, the compliance officer recognized that legal disputes remain regarding the amount of step increases that are owed, and that those issues must be resolved by the Labor Relations Board or a court. To aid in resolving those issues, the compliance officer noted that a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge would be scheduled.
We look forward to resolving the remaining issues promptly so we can bring this process to a close and make all the necessary calculations as quickly as possible.
* A pro-life, pro-gun Republican male incumbent vs. a pro-choice, “gun safety” Democratic woman…
Much of [GOP Rep. Tom Morrison’s] campaign literature tries to tie [Democrat Maggie Trevor] to longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan.
“What I remind voters is look, ‘Maybe you vote for Hillary Clinton for president or Dick Durbin for senator, but if you vote for a Democrat for state rep, whether in Palatine or Park Ridge or Schaumburg, you are essentially handing another 2-year term over to Mike Madigan as speaker,’” Morrison said.
Trevor, who runs her own market research and business consulting firm, said she knocked on 5,000 doors to get her name on the ballot and wasn’t slated by party bosses. She’s now focusing her campaign efforts on Democrats, independents and “soft R’s” — those who vote occasionally in Republican primaries.
“I hear a lot of things you’re hearing,” she told Morrison during the interview. “But I’m also hearing the flip side. I’m hearing parents who are afraid to send their kids to school because of guns. I’m hearing women who are terrified of losing their reproductive rights. I do hear people who are upset at Madigan. I hear people who are upset at (Gov. Bruce) Rauner,” Trevor said.
Some Republicans are running as “gun safety” candidates, too. But, other than that, this is pretty representative of everything I’ve been hearing.
* WGEM doesn’t mention it in the report, but Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha is a Republican…
A day after a WBEZ report claimed Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s office contributed to a six-day lag between when state officials knew of a Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak at the Illinois Veterans’ Home and when the public, including residents of the home and their families were told about it.
Wednesday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan launched an investigation. Adams County’s State’s Attorney says Madigan asked him to use a local grand jury.
“There are sixteen people that sit on the grand jury,” said Farha. “Nine of them have to vote for a true bill. They’re presented with the evidence by one witness and all they have to do is find that it’s more likely true then not true that a crime was committed.”
Farha’s office is not involved in any part of the investigation but he believes the timing of the investigation is questionable.
“In no way do I know anything involved in this investigation,” said Farha. “I do feel this is politically motivated.”
Hold everything. Jeanne Ives just weighed in on the governor’s race and boy is she mad. The state rep who lost to Gov. Bruce Rauner in a bitter GOP primary wants the Illinois Department of Revenue to investigate how Democrat J.B. Pritzker got a tax break by pulling toilets out of his second home, thus lowering the property value.
Is this a gift to Rauner? Nope. Ives hasn’t even talked to the governor. “This is my hot-button issue,” Ives told POLITICO.
“It sticks in my craw big-time. Who does that? M.K. grew up in South Dakota, the same state I did,” Ives said, referring to Pritzker’s wife. “No one does this. I don’t know where she learned these kinds of shenanigans. But normal people don’t do it. I’m angry. You don’t cheat this way. If the damned Democrats don’t prosecute this, then why would anyone stay in this state just to be treated unfairly by the political ruling class.” Hiding property wealth, says Ives, just shortchanges schools and leaves taxpayers holding the bag.
No one hides wealth in South Dakota? You mean the notorious tax haven for the rich South Dakota?…
Forget Switzerland; South Dakota is actually one of the best places in the world for the wealthy to stash their cash in secret.
The state’s role as a prairie tax haven has gained unwanted attention since the release of the Panama Papers, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. […]
Great Plains worked with SDTC to learn the ropes, but last year leased a windowless office in a brick and glass building for its two employees. Down the hall is Maroon Trust, which manages the money of Chicago’s Pritzker family.
In 2010, the Pritzker family, whose members include Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, revealed in a securities filing that one branch had moved $360 million of Hyatt Hotels stock to trusts overseen by a native South Dakotan named Thomas Muenster. Muenster, whose sister married [JB] Pritzker, maintains an office in the Kresge building.
Thomas Muenster. Hmm. Where have we heard that name before?
Pritzker’s name isn’t mentioned in the documents the assessor’s office released for the mansions. Both are owned by a limited liability company managed by Thomas Muenster, whose sister is Pritzker’s wife. But the Pritzker campaign acknowledges that the LLC is owned by a trust for Pritzker. Muenster and the law firm Schmidt Salzman & Moran filed the appeals with Berrios.
Muenster signed the property tax appeals document, not JB or MK. And he inserted a very lawyerly claim about how the vacant house “has” no functioning bathrooms. He never actually claimed that this had been the case for years, as the IG report stated. A contractor claims MK said she wanted to put one of the toilets back in after the reassessment, but that didn’t happen. I’m guessing her legal counsel told her it was a big no-no.
Distasteful? Yes. Illegal? I just don’t see it yet. But if it is, you can bet your own house (uninhabitable or not) that the South Dakota brother-in-law is going straight under the bus.
JB Pritzker to hold media availability on the new criminal investigation into Bruce Rauner’s fatal mismanagement in Quincy.
WHEN
Thursday, October 4 at 11:30 AM
* Media advisory…
Governor Rauner will hold a press conference to address JB Pritzker’s “scheme to defraud” Illinois taxpayers. This follows a letter from seven Illinois Congressman to the U.S. Attorney’s Office calling for an investigation into Pritzker’s scheme. […]
WHEN
Today - Thursday, October 4th
Press Check-In at 12:45 PM
Event will begin at 1:00 PM
Predictions?
*** UPDATE *** Pritzker campaign…
“The story of the Legionnaires’ Crisis at the Quincy Veterans’ Home is the story of a failed governor who cost people their lives,” said JB Pritzker. “Bruce Rauner cared more about headlines than heroes. We’ve seen this before. In Flint, Michigan, the Attorney General launched a criminal investigation into the contamination of the water. Now, 15 government officials have been charged and one is facing involuntary manslaughter charges. Here in Illinois, there’s now a criminal probe into the Rauner administration’s mismanagement in Quincy. When 14 Veterans and their family members die, when nearly 70 people get sick, when you wait days to tell people on the ground what’s going on, you better believe crimes were committed. This is criminal negligence that cost people their lives and it’s time we have a grand jury get to the bottom of this.”
Credit should be given to Rep. Stephanie Kifowit for this move by AG Madigan. From this week’s WBEZ piece…
“All aspects of this need to be looked at through the criminal process, whether it be manslaughter, neglect, you name it,” said state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, an Aurora Democrat and chief House sponsor of the disease notification bill.
Kifowit told me yesterday that she’s been pestering the attorney general since late August.
Third-quarter fundraising totals will be released by the FEC in mid-October. On Wednesday, Casten’s campaign said he raised $2.6 million, compared to Roskam’s campaign haul of $1.3 million.
Wow. You’d think a member of the House Ways and Means Committee in a tough reelection fight would raise a lot more money than that.
The House Majority PAC aligned with U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is pouring more money into the suburbs’ two pivotal Congressional campaigns in an effort to flip two Republican-controlled districts. […]
And the same group is spending about $1.9 million for a new commercial targeting U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam in the neighboring 6th District, where Democrat Sean Casten is challenging the incumbent in an expensive duel drawing significant national attention. […]
The DCCC spent nearly $400,000 on advertising in the last two weeks of September. The [Congressional Leadership Fund, backed by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan] spent about $214,000 during the same period. The Casten campaign also benefited from about $75,000 in spending by Planned Parenthood Votes.
* Roskam, Casten disagree on lifting payroll tax cap for Social Security: Casten says solving the Social Security problem will require lifting the payroll tax cap on income that is levied to support the program. The cap now stands at $128,400. Roskam says that change would hurt many 6th District taxpayers, who are far from extravagantly wealthy, and could harm entrepreneurs the most. He says the move would simply be a tax increase, and “a bad idea” at that.
* In some ways, the post-debate press conference was more interesting than the debate. Check this out…
MALDONADO: Will you continue with your strategy, attacking Mr. Madigan and the status quo that is in there? That is going to continue if you’re re-elected? How can assure the voters that we’re not going to go into a next gridlock and no passing a budget and we’re going to be in the same situation we were in for four years?
RAUNER: So Erica that is a great question and the answer is we can now build on the progress and the success we’ve had. We now have a balanced budget. When I became Governor the state was in a $2.7 billion deficit at that time. We fixed that. Now it didn’t get done the way I’d like, but it got done.
Now we have a balanced budget and now all the changes can be incremental. We can take small steps of reform and improvement. We got this done with Speaker Madigan in place. We got education funding reform, criminal justice reform, healthcare reform, the Future Energy Jobs Act. We got tax relief for adoption services, for our veterans.
We can do incremental changes. And I’ve already agreed with Democrats in the General Assembly, not yet Mike Madigan, but many of the Democrats on pension reform using a consideration model. We can do that in my second term and we’ve already proven we can do it. We got it done already. Now we can make incremental change every year going forward.
So… he talked about the 2015 stopgap budget deal (accomplished with no “reforms” and lots of Rauner reticence), skipped over the long impasse and his killing the grand bargain and his 2017 tax hike veto and “Now we have a balanced budget and now all the changes can be incremental.”
Unreal.
Also, he vetoed education funding reform and spent months traveling the state to blast it as a “Chicago bailout.” Had it not been for House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady dragging him to the finish line, he would’ve vetoed it again.
And, by the way, that’s how the budget deal got done this year. Durkin and Brady used the same playbook. Rauner was never in the room with the Democrats after some initial meetings went nowhere and Rauner demanded an official revenue estimate before he’d agree to talks. The two leaders handled him and made sure he signed it - without an official revenue estimate, by the way.
* A few months after Comptroller Susana Mendoza took office, the Illinois Republican Party dispatched a tracker to follow her around Springfield. Click here if you don’t remember it. That unprecedented move is necessary context to yesterday’s Sun-Times editorial board meeting…
But it was a question on whether or not the job of comptroller is a political one — and the tough financial choices that come with being comptroller — that set off the most spirited debate between Senger and Mendoza.
Senger argued that Mendoza often made the office too political by lobbing criticisms at Rauner. There have been some real concerns about turning that office into a politicized office versus keeping it independent, the Naperville Republican said.
“There’s no question that it’s been taken to a level it hasn’t been taken before, and you don’t see Treasurer [Mike] Frerichs or Secretary of State Jesse White do the same thing that you were doing,” Senger said, addressing Mendoza.
“If you’re trying to go out to say ‘I’m being transparent, I’ve got good information for you to share’ you do your 9-to-5 job, but then after your 9-to-5 you’re totally politics on everything, people are going to start thinking ‘hey, are these numbers political?’”
Mendoza argued she felt her approach was necessary when looking at the state’s finances and after meeting with people who were “on the verge of being disconnected from their life-saving medical services.”
Does Mendoza sometimes go over the top? Heck yes, she does. Should she tone some of it down? Yep. But politics ain’t beanbag.
…Adding… Abdon Pallasch sent along this Mendoza quote that didn’t make it into the story…
“The unanimous vote totals on my legislation show how bipartisan I am and I’ve been about as hard on Rauner as I was on Blago and neither of their parties had anything to do with it. I just don’t suffer lying governors no matter what their parties are.”
After days of dramatic, damning headlines, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat J.B. Pritzker came to their second debate Wednesday evening prepared to argue whose week was going worse.
They haggled over a report calling Pritzker’s property tax savings a “scheme to defraud” and a newly launched criminal probe into Rauner’s handling of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a Downstate veterans’ home.
And they exchanged insults about being rich men.
“He is trying to buy political office,” Rauner said of Pritzker. “He’s trying to buy the governorship to be something for the first time of his life because if he wasn’t a trust fund baby he would be nothing.”
With just 34 days before the November election, Rauner dubbed Pritzker a “fundamental part” of corruption and a tax cheat, while Pritzker repeatedly blamed the governor for the budget impasse — calling him the “biggest deficit spender in the history of Illinois because of his unwillingness to work with people.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner, left, and Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker, right, before their televised debate at the ABC 7 studios, in Chicago, on Wednesday Oct. 3, 2018. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune via AP, Pool)
That trust fund baby thing made it into a lot of headlines. If you missed last night’s debate, click here to watch it today.
Rauner attacked Pritzker over the accusations of sexual harassment that have been leveled against officials and operatives aligned with Speaker Madigan’s government and political organizations.
“He (Madigan) has been caught condoning sexual harassment, hiding sexual harassment and abuse of women in his administration, his power structure,” Rauner said. “Mr. Pritzker has not called out Speaker Madigan on it.”
Pritzker praised a report from three Democratic women that recommended state parties withhold funding from campaigns that don’t adopt certain anti-harassment policies.
“I have called out Speaker Madigan and said that he took too long to follow up on the stories that were told to him of sexual harassment within the organization,” Pritzker said. “I’m glad that there were some changes made but it was too long in coming.”
He attacked Pritzker for ripping the toilets out of a home to get a $330,000 property tax break — a move the Cook County inspector general recently called a “scheme to defraud taxpayers.” Rauner said it was corrupt and “may involve criminal behavior.”
“This is the fundamental self-dealing that’s rotted our state at its core,” Rauner said.
Pritzker said he’s repaying the money and that the confidential report was leaked for political purposes.
Rauner also worked to distinguish his wealth and background from Pritzker’s, noting several times that the Democrat inherited his fortune, while he was a “middle-class kid” who worked his way through school and built his own wealth.
Both Rauner and Pritzker found themselves on the defensive due to Pritzker’s trouble with toilets and tax breaks, and a new report showing the Rauner administration delayed releasing information about the legionnaires’ disease deaths at the Quincy Veterans home.
The governor denied a cover-up.
“The team determined the right time we needed to get all the facts, make sure that there was no panic or misappropriate information put out, and again what our focus was, was protecting or veterans, protecting our staff,” Rauner said.
“Well this was a cover-up all along, remember Governor Rauner knew about this, his administration knew about it, days went by without notifying people, people got sick as a result of that,” Prtizker rebutted.
“Mr. Pritzker, shame on you for politicizing the health challenges of our veterans,” Rauner shot back.
Taxes remain a crucial issue and the candidates have a different approach. Rauner vows to fight against raising taxes while Pritzker is proposing a graduated income tax rate, asking top income earners to pay more.
“He’s defending the most unfair tax system in the nation,” Pritzker said.
Rauner interrupted and said, “I pay my taxes and you don’t even pay yours…If Mr. Pritzker gets in office there’s going to be a giant sucking sound and it won’t be from his toilets. It will be the sound of businesses going down the drain in this state.”
Rauner blames House Speaker Mike Madigan for the two-year budget stand off. Pritzker would not answer questions as to whether he thinks Madigan should retire. As for the property tax break Pritzker received, he is in the process of returning the cash.
“I didn’t want to, in the last 34 days, this distract people,” he said. “We followed the rules here.”
Rauner warned not to make light of the toilet controversy.
“This is white collar crime,” he said. “This is not a joke. This is not funny. This is not about thrones and humor. This is serious.”
Taxes continued to dominate part of the debate. The governor says he wants to roll back income and property taxes to grow business and keep more jobs from leaving Illinois. Pritzker wants a graduated income tax where wealthier residents pay more. He claims the middle class will get a tax break, but like in the last forum, Pritzker.. still won’t give a specific rate.
“I believe we need to work out what those rates are with the legislature, Republicans at the table too,” Pritzker said.
“It’s a green light to raise taxes on everyone,” Rauner responded. “The reason Mr. Pritzker doesn’t want to answer the question is because he knows it’s gonna crush the middle class and he doesn’t want to admit it before the election.”
“The city of Chicago has been determined to be the most corrupt city in America, and Mr. Pritzker is a fundamental part of that corruption,” Rauner said, repeatedly trying to link Pritzker to House Speaker Michael Madigan as his “puppetmaster,”
I dont’ recall Pritzker saying before that he wanted Republicans at the table for the tax negotiations.
* You’ll recall that the Illinois Economic Freedom Alliance new TV ads attacking Sen. Sam McCann claim the gubernatorial candidate “voted with Mike Madigan to raise taxes $3 billion.”
I asked the alliance for documentation about that tax hike claim. Click here to read their full response. They sent me news stories which reported that McCann voted against the tax hike, but also voted for the budget that spent all the tax hike’s revenues. You could use that same logic to claim that Gov. Rauner supported the tax hike, too. But I doubt that the alliance, which appears to be run by the Illinois Manufacturers Association, would ever say something like that.
* From the McCann campaign…
Today, Conservative Party gubernatorial candidate Sam McCann delivered cease and desist letters to downstate networks that began airing attack ads this week paid for by the Illinois Economic Freedom Alliance, a “super PAC” linked to the Rauner-allied Illinois Manufacturers Association.
McCann’s letter centered around the ad’s false claim that he voted for a $3 billion tax increase. Vote results provided by the Illinois General Assembly prove that McCann voted “no” on Senate Bill 9, which increased taxes, and also voted “no” to override Governor Rauner’s veto of the bill.
McCann issued the following statement:
The claim that I voted to raise taxes is a bold-faced lie. That the Governor’s allies would spend more than $1.5 million to spread lies on television shows the desperation they feel as voters continue to distance themselves from four years of Bruce Rauner’s catastrophic attempt at leadership.
After consulting with counsel, I delivered cease and desist letters to all stations airing these ads with evidence of their falsehood and am urging them to stop airing the ads immediately.
…Adding… Oops, I forgot to note that McCann’s campaign just got $265K from the Fight Back Fund, which is connected to Local 150 of the Operating Engineers. McCann said this week that he’s spending about $275K on his own TV ad.
* The debate begins at 6 on ABC 7 Chicago. Click here for live video if you need it. Here’s our usual ScribbleLive thingy. I’ll add candidate press releases, other react, etc. to it as we go along…
Democratic Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has opened a criminal probe into how Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration handled deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the state-run Quincy veterans’ home, law-enforcement sources confirmed exclusively to WBEZ on Wednesday.
Madigan’s office contacted Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha to say it had plans to present a case to a criminal grand jury empaneled in the west-central Illinois community where the Illinois Veterans’ Home is based, the sources said.
Who within Rauner’s orbit Madigan may be targeting and what criminal laws may be at issue are unclear, but a spokeswoman for the four-term attorney general who is retiring in January said her office’s probe has been ongoing.
“We are investigating whether any laws were violated in the response to the risks of and outbreak of Legionella at the Quincy veterans’ home, where many people died,” Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley said in a statement.
“There needs to be an investigation to determine if laws were violated and whether residents of the home, their families, veterans’ home staff, and the public were informed in a timely and appropriate manner,” she said.
* From earlier today…
A new report from WBEZ confirms Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Administration withheld information that could have saved lives at the Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy, and State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) is calling for a criminal inquiry.
“This report confirms that the governor’s office deliberately delayed notifying families and the public of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak,” Cullerton said. “This goes beyond negligence. This is willful endangerment of a vulnerable population that it is our sacred duty to protect. This is criminal neglect.”
Legionnaires’ disease claimed the lives of 14 veterans or their spouses at the Quincy home and sickened nearly 70 residents and staff. Now, state records show that Rauner’s administration waited weeks – and in some cases months – in 2016 and 2017 to publicly acknowledge additional cases of Legionnaires’ disease.
“Gov. Bruce Rauner prioritized political games over the lives of our U.S. service men and women and staff at the state-run veterans’ home,” Cullerton said.
Cullerton is urging the Illinois Attorney General’s office to consider criminal charges against Gov. Rauner and any other officials directly involved in the decisions to conceal the truth.
“If residents, loved ones and staff had all of the facts better decisions could have been made that would have saved lives,” Cullerton said. “The governor and his administration need to be held accountable.”
There is precedent for such charges. In Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette brought charges against high-ranking state and former city of Flint health officials related to the Flint drinking water crisis. Cullerton believes similar charges should be considered in Illinois.
“We need to find out how many more deaths were caused by exposure to Legionnaires’ disease at the veterans home. We need a larger investigation to further examine their criminal negligence,” he said.
Cullerton served in the Army from 1990 to 1993 as an infantryman and has been a staunch advocate for Illinois’ veterans, especially those at the Quincy home.
“The state of Illinois has failed to give the veterans at the home the same basic dignity they put their lives on the line to protect for all of us,” Cullerton said. “There has to be some accountability for those that willfully endanger the heroes under our care to save political face.”
…Adding… You may recall not long ago when AG Madigan’s office was asked about investigating corruption stemming from an inspector general probe, her spokesperson said this…
But if we get that referral, we have to ask the permission of the appropriate State’s Attorney to use his or her grand jury - which means we have to ask permission to handle the case and if the State’s Attorney wants to take it or do it jointly with us, we do not have an option.
She’ll be presenting to a standing grand jury that will convene in late October. WBEZ quotes the Adams County State’s Attorney in its piece…
Farha, a Republican, said he would not be participating in any prosecution and that it would be lawyers from Madigan’s office appearing before a grand jury. […]
Asked if he believed election-year dynamics may be at play, Farha responded, “One could wonder.”
…Adding… Funny how all this is happening on the day of a debate that could’ve been dominated by Pritzker’s property tax problems…
“After four years of outbreaks, 14 deaths, and nearly 70 cases of Legionnaires’ at the Quincy Veterans’ Home, Bruce Rauner’s administration is now the subject of a criminal investigation into their fatal mismanagement and cover-up,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner’s own office tried to keep the Legionnaires’ crisis under wraps — delaying notification to the public and selectively releasing state records to the media — Veterans, their spouses, and staff at the home continued to get sick and die on this failed governor’s watch. Their families deserve justice, and Bruce Rauner must be held accountable.”
The Pritzker campaign has been throwing everything it has at Rauner this week to try and move tonight’s debate toward anywhere but the property tax stuff. It’s a good plan. I’m just sayin…
…Adding… WCIA…
AG Madigan's office immediately confirms this criminal investigation w/ me via phone. In contrast, after a day of un-returned phone calls they're still reluctant to comment on allegations of criminal tax fraud facing J.B. Pritzker-"It's unclear if that's w/in our jurisdiction." https://t.co/D3hfdqlray
Madigan opens criminal probe looking for a crime. What crime? They don’t know & can’t say. Earlier today, we asked if they would look into Cook County IG’s report alleging @JBPritzker committed a “scheme to defraud.” They said probably not because he was a private citizen. https://t.co/smSu6s1ekv
“During her 16 years in office, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has done absolutely nothing to address the corruption from Speaker Mike Madigan and Illinois Democrats that has plagued our state for decades. But now that an independent investigation has found her party’s candidate for governor to be a tax fraud, Madigan has launched a clearly partisan investigation into a serious public health crisis that Governor Rauner took swift action on and has been transparent with the General Assembly and the media. This is nothing more than the politicization of the devastating deaths of Illinois veterans to distract from JB Pritzker’s scheme to defraud Illinois taxpayers hours before a debate.” - Illinois Republican Party Executive Director Travis Sterling
Today, the Pritzker campaign released a new TV ad, “Throw,” ahead of the second gubernatorial debate.
In 2014, Bruce Rauner said, “give me four years, and I’ll say to the voters, ‘throw me out of office in four years if I don’t deliver results.’” After four years of failure, it’s clear Rauner hasn’t delivered results.
“For four years, Bruce Rauner has utterly failed Illinois — creating a two-year budget crisis while over a million Illinoisans lost services and holding up funding for neighborhood public schools while property taxes increased across the state,” said Pritzker campaign communications director Galia Slayen. “One thing Rauner might actually accomplish is his prediction from 2014: not delivering results and getting thrown out of office.”
President Donald Trump’s record in office may prove a drag on Republican candidates for state offices and for the US House of Representatives in Illinois. That is one of the findings of the latest Simon Poll® from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois Carbondale.
The results are based on live telephone interviews with 715 likely voters, a subset of 1,001 registered voters polled statewide. The margin of error for the likely voter sample is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
In addition to Trump’s effect on votes for Illinois offices, the tax reform bill passed last December by the Republican-controlled Congress is unpopular among Illinois voters, and may prove to further hinder the success of GOP Congressional candidates.
More than half (54 percent) of likely voters surveyed said “President Donald Trump’s record in office” made them less likely to vote for Republican candidates for state office in Illinois. Most of those (47 percent) said the president’s record made them much less likely to vote for Republican candidates. By contrast, just under a third (30 percent) said the president’s record made them more likely to vote for GOP candidates for state offices; about a quarter (24 percent) said his record made them much more likely to vote for Republicans.
Large majorities in Chicago (69 percent) and the collar county suburbs (59 percent) said the president’s record would make them less likely to vote for Republicans for state office, compared with about four in ten (39 percent) downstate.
Most Republican voters said the president’s record would make them more likely to support GOP candidates (76 percent), while most Democrats said his record would make them less likely (83 percent). Among Independents, about twice as many said Trump’s record would make them less likely to support GOP candidates for state offices (50 percent) than said it would make them more likely (23 percent).
“We’re not surprised that President Trump’s record is unpopular among Democrats and in urban areas,” said Charlie Leonard, a Simon Institute visiting professor and one of the supervisors of the poll. “What has to concern Republican candidates is his negative impact on votes among Independents and in the suburbs—voters the GOP needs for success statewide.”
The results were similar when interviewers asked about Trump’s record and its effect on their votes for Republican candidates for Congress: 54 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for GOP Congressional candidates, while 32 percent said the president’s record would make them more likely to do so.
Impacts were the same as those for state offices by partisan group and geography. Eight in ten (80 percent) Republicans said the president’s record would make them more likely to vote for GOP Congressional candidates, while eight in ten Democrats (84 percent) said it would make them less likely. As before, his record was twice as likely to have a negative impact than a positive impact on GOP votes for Congress among Independents (50 percent negative vs. 25 percent positive).
Most Chicago and collar county voters (69 percent and 59 percent) said Trump’s record would make them less likely to vote for Republicans in Congress. About four in ten downstate voters (39 percent) said its impact would be negative while 47% said its impact would be positive.
The tax reform bill passed last December by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by President Trump is unpopular among Illinois voters, according to the Simon Poll. Half (54 percent) oppose it, and about a third (32 percent) support it.
Among those with an opinion on the tax bill, most (56 percent), as before, say it will make them less likely to support Republican candidates for Congress, while about a third (33 percent) say it will make them more so.
Negative electoral impacts from the tax bill were larger in Chicago (70 percent) and its suburbs (63 percent). Downstate, half (51 percent) said the tax bill would make them more likely to support Republican Congressional candidates, while about four in ten (38 percent) said it would make them less likely.
Partisan differences were predictable, with eight in ten Republicans reporting a positive electoral impact from the tax bill (83 percent), and nearly nine in ten Democrats (86 percent) reporting a negative one. Independents were more likely by 20 percentage points to report that the tax bill would make them less likely to vote for a Republican for Congress than to say it would make them more likely to do so (48 percent vs. 28 percent).
“President Trump’s record in office and the GOP tax cuts are only a net asset for Republican candidates downstate, and only the tax cuts garner a narrow majority for the Republicans there. In Illinois a least, both are unlikely to give a significant boost to Republican candidates”, said John S. Jackson, one of the co-directors of the poll.
Peter Roskam was one of the top drivers of that tax bill and nearly two-thirds of suburbanites oppose it. Oof.
The Illinois EPA has ordered Sterigenics to cease operations in Willowbrook until their safety investigation into carcinogenic emissions is completed, as political pressure mounts to close the facility.
Sterigenics did not respond publically to this latest move by the state to address concerns residents in Willowbrook and surrounding towns have about emissions of ethylene oxide from the plant. But the political pressure is mounting to shut them down until it’s known whether what they’re doing inside their facilities is safe for the communities around them.
After an Illinois Senate Committee hearing to look into the matter was cancelled Tuesday at the Thompson Center, residents and representatives went outside to demand the closure of Sterigenics.
Among them was Hall of Fame baseball player Jim Thome and his family, who moved to Willowbrook seven years ago
Mrs. Thome has been taking the lead so far, so this is new.
Andrea Thome, wife of baseball Hall of Famer and former White Sox star Jim Thome, said she had a “lightbulb moment” when she heard of the federal report released in August, because her mother had died from liver cancer and her father had suffered a brain tumor after moving into the area.
“Both of my parents were very healthy,” Thome said. “We asked them to move here to help us raise our kids” in the western suburbs, and they settled a mile from the Sterigenics operation. “I’m sorry,” she added, “but I don’t believe in coincidence that much.”
She said she’d written a blog post about her parents’ ailments, and many local residents had responded with similar stories.
“This is personal to us,” Jim Thome said. “Sterigenics has been poisoning the air in our community for a long, long time.”
Today, DPI Executive Director Christian Mitchell and families impacted by Sterigenics held a press conference on the Rauner-owned company releasing cancer-causing toxins into the community and the Rauner administration refusing to take immediate action to shut down the facility and protect our children.
Bruce Rauner downplayed the U.S. EPA report when it came to light on August 28, saying “this is not an emergency, this is not a public health immediate crisis,” as his administration delayed and refused to release key records. But yesterday, 35 days later, Rauner’s administration said, “we believe Sterigenics should pause operations.” Rauner’s 180 may be attributed to weeks of public outcry, impeding lawsuits, and the U.S. EPA conducting more extensive air pollutions tests, but he refuses to come clean.
The Tribune previously reported that quick action is unlikely for a variety of reasons, including steps the Rauner administration took before and after the Willowbrook cancer report was released to the public in late August.
Nearly two months earlier, the Illinois EPA responded to the then-secret report by quietly giving Sterigenics a permit to voluntarily install new pollution-control equipment, making it more difficult for authorities to pursue legal action against the company unless it can be proved that the fix has failed to eliminate health risks from ethylene oxide pollution.
Rauner appointees later refused to provide Madigan’s office with key documents about the Willowbrook facility, required the attorney general’s staff to request the records under the Freedom of Information Act and delayed providing the information until after the Tribune inquired about the dispute on Sept. 20. Even now, Madigan said, the state can’t make an effective case against Sterigenics without more air quality monitoring in surrounding neighborhoods, expert analysis of the results and other information that only the state or federal EPA can provide.
“We are prepared to move forward in court and have told IEPA what evidence is necessary to shut the site down,” Madigan said. “IEPA has not provided any evidence, but we will immediately evaluate any information the agency provides.”
* Also…
This behavior is what makes me thing that this “temporary” shutdown is more election year gymnastics. We will not settle for less than a permanent shutdown. We are watching and we are preparing. #stopsterigenics#twillhttps://t.co/2TMILkUe53
Today, Erika Harold’s campaign for Attorney General is launching a new TV ad titled “Reality.”
Erika Harold knows what it’s like to feel marginalized and powerless. In high school, Erika was the victim of bullying and sexual harassment. That experience of powerlessness is why Erika wanted to become an attorney - to acquire the skills to stand up not only for herself but also for others.
Erika Harold: When I was in high school, #MeToo wasn’t a slogan. It was my reality.
I overcame bullying and sexual harassment with my parents support, but too many women and children suffer alone, unseen or ignored by those in power.
I’m Erika Harold. I won’t rest until we shut down every human sex trafficking ring in Illinois, put every child predator behind bars, and make sure every victim of sexual harassment and assault knows the Attorney General has their back.
* Both Gov. Bruce Rauner and JB Pritzker have said they want to fund a capital construction plan at least partly with money from gaming expansion. But this is a very good point…
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, maintaining Illinois’ existing highway and transit infrastructure will require approximately $1.7 billion in additional annual funding. Additionally, the State faces a $7.0 billion backlog of deferred maintenance at State facilities […]
Initiate a new capital plan with a comprehensive analysis and prioritization of the State’s infrastructure needs, funded by a n increase in the motor fuel tax and potentially by vehicle miles traveled and congestion taxes
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and State Representative and Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) introduced legislation to make property tax vacancy fraud a Class 4 felony in Illinois after a Cook County Inspector General found that J.B. Pritzker knowingly committed fraud to avoid paying $330,000 in taxes.
“The Cook County Inspector General’s report made it very clear that J.B. Pritzker has defrauded all the taxpayers of Cook County.” said Durkin. “The General Assembly needs to address this issue to make sure those who commit fraud are held accountable.”
The report found that Pritzker knowingly removed all the toilets from his mansion to deem it uninhabitable in order to evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. This new legislation will bring forth serious criminal charges to those who think they deserve more of a tax break than the hard-working citizens of Illinois.
“Why should Mr. Pritzker, an inherited billionaire who hasn’t worked a day in his life, get to save hundreds of thousands in taxes when the people of Illinois are working tirelessly just to make ends meet?” asked Wehrli. “It is clear Mr. Pritzker will only put his own self-interests above the taxpayers, and now more than ever we don’t need another Democrat who manipulates the system to benefit his own pockets.”
Provides that a person commits property tax vacancy fraud when he or she knowingly owns vacant property and, for 2 or more consecutive years in which vacancy relief is granted, has not actively attempted to sell, lease, or alter the vacant property. Provides that property tax vacancy fraud is a Class A misdemeanor. Provides that a person commits aggravated property tax vacancy fraud when he or she commits property tax vacancy fraud that leads to the assessment of more than $100,000 in back taxes. Provides that aggravated property tax vacancy fraud is a Class 4 felony.
Wednesday, Oct 3, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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Buoyed in part by a strong stock market, the 400 wealthiest Americans delivered yet another record-breaking year. The minimum net worth needed to join this elite club climbed to $2.1 billion, $100 million more than last year and the highest to date. The group’s total net worth rose to $2.9 trillion, a record high and 7% more than in 2017. The average net worth of a list member: $7.2 billion, up from $6.7 billion last year. That average is boosted by those at the very top of the list: half of the total wealth is held by the 45 richest people in the country.
For the first time since 1994, there is a new No. 1: Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who broke Bill Gates’ 24 year run at the top. Bezos is also the first person to appear in the ranks with a fortune of more than $100 billion –he clocked in at $160 billion. Bezos was also the biggest gainer on this year’s list: his fortune rose $78.5 billion since last year, thanks to the more than 100% runup in the price of Amazon stock, the biggest one year gain since we’ve been tracking fortunes. Gates, now ranked No. 2, trails Bezos by a notable $63 billion. The top 10 richest on the list are together worth nearly $730 billion, up from $610 billion in 2017. At these lofty heights, more than a third of the nation’s billionaires, a record 204, weren’t wealthy enough to crack the club.
45 Ken Griffin $10B hedge funds
114 Sam Zell $5.6B real estate, private equity
172 Thomas Pritzker $4.2B hotels, investments
179 Neil Bluhm $4B 80 real estate
215 Joe Mansueto $3.6B investment research
223 Mark Walter $3.5B finance
251 J.B. Pritzker $3.2B hotels, investments
251 Jean (Gigi) Pritzker $3.2B hotels, investments
280 Patrick Ryan $2.9B insurance
302 Penny Pritzker $2.7B hotels, investments
316 Ty Warner $2.6B real estate, plush toys
328 Joseph Grendys $2.5B poultry processing
328 Eric Lefkofsky $2.5B Groupon
The billionaire no more is Rishi Shah, co-founder of Outcome Health, which puts TV screens airing health information in doctors’ offices. Shah made his debut on last year’s list, ranking 206 with a net worth of $3.6 billion. Since then, Outcome Health has fallen from grace. Last year, investors sued the firm, charging that it had inflated its financial results. The U.S. Justice Department also investigated. […]
Of the Illinois residents on the list, only J.B. Pritzker, Warner and Grendys dropped in the rankings.
Looks like JB’s campaign spending has eaten into that fortune of his. Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.4 billion last year, when he ranked 219th richest. Pritzker has given his campaign $146.5 million.
* Greg Hinz asks a question that’s on a lot of minds: Who leaked Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard’s “confidential” report on JB Pritzker’s alleged property tax scheme?…
Blanchard declined to answer questions about his report. But it states that it went to five—and only five—people: outgoing County Assessor Joe Berrios, who set the tax assessment on the Astor Street house; County Treasurer Maria Pappas, who mailed refund checks to Pritzker’s agents; and County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and two of her top aides.
Someone in that group had to leak the report. Blanchard, Pappas and Preckwinkle say it wasn’t them, and there’s good reason to think that Berrios hadn’t even read it yet. But the damaging report came out just a month to a day before the election, and as one top political insider puts it, “Things like this don’t happen in Chicago by accident.” […]
Which leads back to the question of who leaked the report. It appears not to be Rauner, since all of those who got the report are Democrats.
Some are speculating that Preckwinkle, who now is running for mayor and could use backing from state Democratic Chairman Mike Madigan, let the report out to weaken Pritzker some in the battle for dominance that’s likely to occur between Madigan and Pritzker next year. Preckwinkle’s office denies that.
The other person on that list, of course, is Blanchard, along with anyone else at the IG’s office who worked on the report. But I should stress that I have no knowledge that his office is the source of the leak.
As I told subscribers yesterday, Speaker Madigan probably wouldn’t mind a weakened Pritzker. But, Preckwinkle’s office has denied leaking it. I have no info to the contrary.
Treasurer Pappas flatly denied to me yesterday that she leaked the report, even though I didn’t ask. Assessor Berrios’ spokesman was claiming as late as yesterday afternoon that Berrios had still never even seen the report.
IG Blanchard told me this yesterday…
I emailed the report on Friday at 4:59 pm to Assessor Berrios and cc:d the other recipients in the same email. I did not receive an undeliverable notification from any recipient. The original letter was hand delivered on Monday morning to Assessor Berrios.
Berrios has a reputation for not checking his e-mails, but his spokesman told me that no one from the office says they got the hand-delivered report Monday, including Berrios.
* I’m bound by my word as to how I obtained a copy of the IG report. But I will say I didn’t get it from anyone on the list of senders or recipients or anyone else mentioned above or anyone associated with any of those folks. As far as I can tell, I didn’t get it either directly or indirectly from the reporter who broke the story, Tina Sfondeles, and the Sun-Times didn’t post the full report online until after I did. I don’t know if Tina and I received it from the same person because she’s also bound by her word and I would never ask her to break it. I also have no idea how the person who sent me the report obtained it.
The role private schools should play in Illinois’ public education landscape is turning out to be a major divide in the state’s gubernatorial race, with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner saying he wants to expand a taxpayer-funded program to send children to private schools, while Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker is vowing to shut it down.
“I’d like to have a billion dollar program,” Rauner told WBEZ and Chalkbeat Chicago in a one-hour election special on the future of education in Illinois. “We started with $100 million. Let’s expand it every year.”
A billion dollars? The Invest in Kids program is $100 million now, which would cost the state $75 million in tax credits if the program ever receives $100 million in donations from the public. So, a billion dollar plan would theoretically cost the state $750 million. Yikes.
As of today, however, Illinoisans have pitched in just $46.6 million to the program. If there isn’t enough market support for a $100 million program, I’m thinking a billion is just a wee bit out of reach. And nobody should be talking about any sort of expansion until far more Illinoisans decide the program is worthwhile.
* Over to JB Pritzker…
.@JBPritzker says he's against end-of-career teacher pension spiking, but he says supports union-backed effort to reverse law that caps spiking to 3% (or else district, not state takes on the pension cost) https://t.co/sLIQMtXyxt
The new law reduced the spiking limit from 6 percent to 3. It was the product of bipartisan negotiations. The locals can still give out end of career raises, but they’ll have to pay for them. I’m pretty sure we’re the only state that pays the government’s side of teacher pensions. But, of course, our property taxes here are way too high and shifting costs would only make that problem worse. We really are in a pickle.
* Pat Quinn spent two years gathering tens of thousands of signatures to put a mayoral term limits question on the ballot this year, then went to the trouble of filing a lawsuit, which was tossed out because he didn’t do a very simple thing…
Former governor Pat Quinn’s drive to get a binding referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot imposing a two-term limit on Chicago mayors suffered a setback [last week] when a judge tossed out his lawsuit on a technicality.
Undaunted, Quinn vowed to re-file the lawsuit on Friday; that’s allowed because it was dismissed “without prejudice” after he failed to notify the two objectors.
It turns out Chicagoans can cast a vote on whether to impose term limits on their mayor after all.
The only catch is that, as the situation currently stands, those votes won’t count.
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled earlier this month that two binding referendum questions advanced by former Gov. Pat Quinn were legally invalid and should not appear on the Nov. 6 ballot.
But election officials went ahead and included the referendums on the ballot anyway because of concerns their decision might later be overturned in the courts, a board spokesman said. […]
Although voters will be allowed to vote on the questions, the elections board will not officially report the results unless ordered to do so by the courts, [election board spokesman Jim Allen] said.
Brian Gaines, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, said Pritzker, as the frontrunner in several polls, is in “run-out-the-clock mode.”
“Pritzker will stand by his charge that Rauner’s term was a failure, that the budget mess, and indeed, the awful fiscal situation the state is in are all Rauner’s fault,” Gaines said. “Don’t expect him to open new fronts. Campaigns are usually conservative when they’re out front.”
As for Rauner, Gaines said Rauner must expand on his themes and try to emphasize “Pritzker’s untrustworthiness on taxes,” both his progressive income tax plan and his “vanishing toilets.”
“If it were me, I’d not dwell on the accusation of fraud so much as the point that ‘JB will raise your taxes, viewers and listeners, not only mine, and not his. He will just evade his own tax bill yet again,’” Gaines said.
My own view is Rauner should say something like: “He’ll evade his own taxes by any means necessary, including outright fraud.”
Your thoughts?
By the way, we’ll have live coverage of tonight’s ABC 7 debate, which begins at 6.
The hourlong debate will air live at 6 p.m. on ABC-7 and will stream live on the station’s website. It’s co-sponsored by Univision Chicago and the League of Women Voters of Illinois Education Fund.
Unlike their first televised appearance on Sept. 20, the Wednesday forum will feature only Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Pritzker.
Libertarian candidate Grayson “Kash” Jackson and Republican state Sen. Sam McCann of Plainview, running as the Conservative Party candidate, each failed to receive 10 percent of the vote in independent polls and were not invited to participate.
A decision is expected Thursday on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s move to prop up the coal power industry in Illinois by easing clean-air rules, a change critics say is an unneeded benefit to a large energy company that will lead to more pollution-related deaths and sickness.
The Illinois Pollution Control Board, a state rule-making panel, is expected to decide whether to end current clean-air requirements for eight downstate coal-fired power plants.
Existing rules dictate that owner Dynegy run its cleanest coal plants — those with the best pollution controls — to balance toxins emitted by its dirtiest plants. The board is being asked by the Rauner administration to replace that rule with one that imposes an annual cap on total emissions opponents say will allow greater amounts of toxins to be released into the air.
It’s a plan being driven by economics — coal power plants have a hard time competing with other sources of energy in Illinois, said Gerald Keenan, a former board member and past chairman of the pollution board. […]
The problem with the Rauner plan, according to health and environmental groups and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, is that it would allow the dirtiest plants to operate more frequently. They also criticize what they call the high caps proposed by Rauner’s Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that they say could allow for a doubling of what is already tens of thousands of tons of harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions released into the air every year.
All but one of the pollution panel’s five members were appointed to the board by Rauner. If it sides with the governor, the new coal plan still has one more regulatory hurdle to cross before it can go into effect — approval from a bipartisan panel of House and Senate lawmakers. […]
Dynegy, bought this year for more than $2 billion by Texas-based Vistra Energy, began lobbying Rauner’s EPA in late 2016 to change the rules, pollution board documents show. Other documents, submitted to the board, show Illinois EPA Director Alec Messina and his staff were in contact with Dynegy last year to draft the rule change.
In Illinois, Dynegy argued the rule changes are needed to keep it competitive with energy rivals. Prior to joining Rauner’s cabinet, Messina was a registered lobbyist for a trade group that includes Dynegy as a member.
Messina’s former employer is the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group. Its members include oil and chemical companies, energy producers and manufacturers.
* Related…
* Instead of removing toxic waste seeping into Illinois’ only scenic river, power company wants to wall it off with rocks: Located a few miles downstream from a popular kayak and canoe launch, Vistra’s three coal ash pits were dug into the floodplain by Illinois Power, which built a coal-fired power plant next to the river in 1955 and sold it in 2000 to Dynegy, another Texas-based company. By the time Dynegy shuttered the Vermilion Power Station in 2011, the pits swelled with enough water-soaked coal ash to fill the Empire State Building nearly 2½ times. Dynegy knew more than a decade ago that heavy metals found in coal ash were polluting the river, according to internal company documents. So did the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, but the state did little in response other than file a 2012 complaint that remains unresolved.
Karen Feldman is a Republican, a mom and a real estate agent from Lincolnshire running for the state House. More than two dozen, separate mailers funded by the Democratic Party of Illinois portray her as an extremist who would criminalize abortion and give assault weapons to school children. She carries the outlandish mailers in a folder bound by an overworked rubber band.
Of course, the characterizations are inaccurate. But with the money spigot flowing from billionaire Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker, and not enough nonpartisan fact-checkers, attack ads from House Speaker Michael Madigan’s party are more plentiful and vicious this cycle. The party is emboldened. It shows. […]
Feldman, who served on the Lincolnshire Village Board and faces a well-funded Democrat, is at the mercy of voters who don’t often delineate between national and state politics. On Nov. 6, Election Day, here’s hoping they will. Or at least throw those anti-Karen-Feldman mailers in the trash.
Feldman says she supports abortion rights. She supports common-sense gun legislation. She describes herself as a mainstream fiscal conservative. But with an “R” next to her name, she is constantly fending off questions about President Trump. It appears just about every Republican this election cycle is in the same boat.
* Yeah, well, things are often distorted in campaigns. Check out what Feldman and the Republicans are doing to her Democratic opponent Dan Didech in the mail…
“Like Madigan, Dan Didech has fostered a culture of workplace harassment,” according to the political mailing. “Dan Didech took a page out of the Madigan playbook and didn’t act to protect women in the workplace.”
The reference is to two female employees in the assessor’s office who came to Didech last year with complaints. He charges Feldman with mischaracterizing his actions “to score cheap political points” and says everyone deserves an environment free from sexual harassment and discrimination.
Didech said he acted on the complaints, adopted a comprehensive sexual harassment policy in October 2017 and fired two employees.
“Karen Feldman’s use of these women’s story is not only wrong but sets an incredibly dangerous and reckless precedent of using their story for political gain, and she owes the victims an apology,” Didech said in a news release.
The women issued a public statement defending Didech. The ad, they said, diminishes the importance of stories like theirs and “also makes it harder for victims of harassment to come forward, an incredibly difficult choice that too many women already struggle with.”
* Didech’s full statement…
“Every single person, male or female, deserves to work in a respectful environment, free from sexual harassment and discrimination. I believe this is an issue where we must all stand together on behalf of those who have come forward to say ‘me too,’ and those many more still unable to speak up. Sadly, in an attempt to score cheap political points in her recent mailer, Karen Feldman is unfortunately siding with perpetrators and enablers of harassment by blatantly mischaracterizing the actions I have taken on behalf of the employees and the taxpayers of Vernon Township. The women who were the targets of harassment and bullying have been first in my mind throughout every step of this process and their wishes have come first. They have bravely come forward to speak out, and have supported the actions I have directed in response. I will not ever apologize for standing with them to fight for a workplace free of harassment and discrimination.
No one deserves the kind of treatment that these women were subjected to in the assessor’s office. Sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination have no place in the workplace, in our government, in our schools or anywhere in our society. Karen Feldman’s use of these women’s story is not only wrong but sets an incredibly dangerous and reckless precedent of using their story for political gain, and she owes the victims an apology. The victims have made the decision to come forward and issue a public letter sharing their story and how we worked together to end workplace bullying at Vernon Township. Their story is why my office adopted a comprehensive sexual harassment policy in October of 2017 that we will continue to revisit and revise as needed to ensure the safety and protection of every single township employee.
These brave women came forward over a year ago because they trusted me to listen to their story and take action to end harassment in their workplace. That’s exactly what I did. Now, Karen Feldman is forcing them to come forward again by lying about their story in a desperate attempt to win an election. This campaign stunt has no place in our community, and Karen Feldman should immediately and publicly apologize to these women. Until they receive an apology, I will not be dignifying her campaign by participating in any public events with Karen Feldman.
Today, the Illinois Republican Congressional Delegation sent the following letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. The letter calls for a full investigation into JB Pritzker’s “scheme to defraud” Illinois taxpayers by ripping toilets out of his mansion to claim the property as uninhabitable.
See the letter signed by all seven members of Illinois’ Republican Congressional delegation below:
October 3, 2018
The Honorable John R. Lausch, Jr.
United States Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division
219 S. Dearborn St., 5th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
Mr. Lausch:
We write to call your attention to a recent Cook County Inspector General investigation which concluded that Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker engaged in a “scheme to defraud” Cook County of over $300,000 in improper property tax reductions and refunds.
As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cook County Assessor’s Office in 2015 reduced the assessed valuation of a mansion owned by Mr. Pritzker from $6.25 million to just under $1.1 million. These reductions allowed Mr. Pritzker to claim $132,747.18 in refunds for property taxes paid in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and reduced his property taxes for 2015 and 2016 by $198,684.85.
The Inspector General’s report concluded that the assessment reductions were reduced due to fraudulent affidavits submitted by Tom Muenster, Mr. Pritzker’s brother-in-law, and Christine Lovely, Mary Kathryn (M.K.) Pritzker’s assistant. These affidavits falsely claimed that the mansion had been “vacant and uninhabitable,” with no working toilets, since January 1, 2012. The Inspector General report found that, contrary to the affidavits, the toilets had been removed on October 6, 2015, just ten days before a scheduled appraisal of the property, at the direction of M.K. Pritzker. According to an email obtained by the Inspector General, Ms. Pritzker directed that the toilets be removed for the express purpose of allowing the house to be declared uninhabitable.
The facts described in the Inspector General’s report appear to constitute fraud and perjury. Since the improperly-obtained refund checks were sent to Mr. Pritzker through the U.S. Mail, a violation of 18 USC 1341 (the Federal Mail Fraud Statute) may have occurred.
Illinois, perhaps more than any other state, has suffered greatly due to public corruption. Four of Illinois’ last nine governors have gone to prison. It is important to send a strong signal to the people of Illinois that no one is above the law, not even billionaires running for Governor. For that reason, we urge you to fully investigate this matter with all due speed.
Sincerely,
U.S. Representative Peter Roskam (IL-6)
U.S. Representative Mike Bost (IL-12)
U.S. Representative Rodney Davis (IL-13)
U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
U.S. Representative John Shimkus (IL-15)
U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (IL-16)
U.S. Representative Darin LaHood (IL-18)
State Sen. Sam McCann, running for governor under the Conservative Party banner, has taken to the airwaves with a commercial.
McCann, of Plainview, is seen driving a pickup truck on a two-lane highway and through an unpaved path through a farm field, as well as greeting voters.
“People are tired of being used,” McCann says in the ad, “tired of being promised by the Rauners and the Pritzkers that change is coming. […]
McCann said his campaign is spending about $275,000 for “a robust buy on downstate network and Chicagoland cable” stations.
$275K would be a “robust buy” in a state House race. It’s a tiny buy statewide. Not to mention that a pro-Rauner group just launched a $1.5 million TV ad campaign slamming McCann.
* Anyway, I think I posted this ad here when it was still a YouTube video…
Newly disclosed records from the office of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner document a pattern by the state of slow-walking and soft-pedaling bad news about deadly outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run home for war veterans in downstate Quincy.
That pattern began with Rauner’s office early on putting a kibosh on informing the public about a 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that killed a dozen residents at the veterans’ home, state records show.
July 24: Earliest known case of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy, according to a report issued later by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
August 21: Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Erica Jeffries later claims that on this date, her department “shut down the water, we removed aerators from all the showers, we shut down our fountains, we started issuing bottled water” because of the outbreak.
August 21: Illinois Veterans’ Home resident Melvin Tucker develops a fever. He is given Tylenol.
August 23: Illinois Department of Public Health notifies CDC of “five laboratory-confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease among residents and staff.”
August 24: Adams County Health Department Director of Clinical and Environmental Services Shay Drummond claims this is the date when “environmental control and mediation” actually starts
August 24: In an email, a state Veterans’ Affairs spokesman alerted the governor’s press staff about the Legionnaires’ test results, saying, “We have a situation at the Quincy home.” The spokesman went on to say he did not intend to publicize details of the test results that day unless “directed or in the case of wide media interest.”
August 25: Rauner does Springfield media event with Veterans’ Affairs Director Erica Jeffries at Springfield airport.
Aug. 25: Rauner’s press secretary at the time, Lindsay Walters, directed press aides in the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and Illinois Department of Public Health not to issue a public statement about the growing Legionnaires’ threat at the home, documents show. “I do not think we need to issue a statement to the media. Let’s hold and see if we receive any reporter inquiries,” she said.
Aug. 26: There are now 28 Legionnaires’ disease onsets, the CDC reports later.
August 26: Three days after CDC was first notified of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, and 2-4 days after remediation efforts began, Gerald Kuhn, 90, is given Tylenol for a fever that reaches 104 degrees. Kuhn asks to go to the hospital and tests positive there for Legionella.
August 26: Last day Dolores French is seen alive. Her military veteran husband lives in another section of the complex.
August 27: “The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (IDVA) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced eight confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease in residents at the Illinois Veterans’ Home - Quincy. There have been no known deaths related to this outbreak.”
August 27: After six days with a fever, Melvin Tucker is still not on any kind of antibiotic and hasn’t yet been tested for Legionnaires’, despite the CDC being notified four days earlier of an outbreak and the state announcing eight confirmed cases that same day.
August 28: “Two residents of an Illinois veterans home have died of Legionnaires’ disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health said Friday…. [both] had underlying medical conditions. Both were among 23 residents of the facility who had earlier been diagnosed with the disease.”
August 29: Dolores French is found dead and her body was decomposed. Her only underlying medical condition was deafness.
* OK, let’s get to more new stuff. Fast-forward to 2016, when the veterans home was hit yet again with another outbreak of five Legionnaires’ cases…
Spring/Summer: Between April and June 2016, testing within the home’s water system found the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ between 42 percent and 90 percent of the time, state records show.
September: [Quincy home administrator Troy Culbertson] said no one is hiding information. He explained that we have a big responsibility. What we say and how we say it is very important. There is a responsibility to public safety, to economic development in the Quincy area and tourism.
Cases emerged in March, May and September of [2017], but there was no public acknowledgement of those cases by the state until WBEZ pressed the question last December.
* And then in October of 2017 the home was hit by two more cases, and one was fatal…
No written press release was issued about the two October cases, though a draft press release circulated to the Adams County Health Department alluded to the undisclosed cases earlier in the year, records show. That release never was made public.
Instead, the state initially called media outlets only in Quincy to report just the two October cases. That outreach didn’t happen until about four days after the second positive case that month, records show.
*** UPDATE *** The Pritzker campaign responded last night and I just saw it now…
“We’ve long known that Bruce Rauner fatally mismanaged the Quincy Veterans’ Home, but now we’re presented with the shameful truth that the governor’s office was directly involved in the cover-up that cost Veterans their lives,” said JB Pritzker. “Instead of informing Veterans, their families, and the dedicated staff providing critical care, Rauner’s office kept quiet and hoped no one would ask questions about the deadly bacteria. Lives were at stake, but this failed governor was more worried about bad press coverage than keeping our nation’s heroes healthy and safe. This unconscionable negligence cannot be tolerated, especially at the highest levels of government. Bruce Rauner failed our Veterans, and he must be held accountable.”
