Following legislation passed by the General Assembly to impose the nation’s strongest controls on ethylene oxide emissions, the Illinois EPA has issued a construction permit to Sterigenics U.S., LLC. The permit is the first step in a lengthy process and allows the company to begin construction necessary to ensure the facility complies with a strict new state emissions law that requires demonstrating 100 percent capture of all ethylene oxide emissions.
“The Illinois EPA is committed to protecting the health and safety of Illinois communities to the strongest extent possible under state and federal laws,” said Illinois EPA Director John Kim. “This construction permit is a direct result of legislation passed by the General Assembly and will allow Sterigenics to attempt to bring the facility in line with the nation’s strongest emissions control law. This is the first step in a lengthy process, and only following strict testing and monitoring requirements would the facility be permitted to operate. As we move forward, the Illinois EPA will continue to provide technical guidance to legislators as they draft further legislation to strengthen their initial law.”
The construction permit allows Sterigenics to make significant emissions control changes only to the Willowbrook I facility and ensures the company will not operate prior to installing these new controls and demonstrating the ability to meet the new limits established in the permit. Required improvements include installing a permanent total enclosure, capturing all ethylene oxide emissions from Willowbrook I, and installing additional air pollution controls to reduce emissions by 99.9 percent or to 0.2 parts per million. In addition, the permit goes beyond the requirements of the Matt Haller Act by limiting annual ethylene oxide emissions from the facility to just 85 pounds. In conjunction with the permit, Illinois EPA is also issuing, pursuant to the Act, a certification that the facility’s emission control system uses technology that produces the greatest reduction in ethylene oxide emissions currently available.
This permit action by the Illinois EPA follows action by the Pritzker Administration to seal the Sterigenics facility. After passage of the Matt Haller Act by the General Assembly, the State of Illinois and DuPage County State’s Attorney reached a consent order to ensure the toughest requirements of the new Act, as well as additional controls, would be applicable to Sterigenics’ operations in Willowbrook.
Sterigenics is prohibited from using ethylene oxide at Willowbrook I until the facility complies with the new law, the consent order, and the construction permit. This means that before resuming operations, Sterigenics must:
• Submit a stack test protocol for emissions testing for Illinois EPA’s review and approval including written notification of the expected date of the testing, description of the specific procedures to be utilized during stack testing (including how the entire batch sterilization process shall be tested, who will be performing the sampling and analysis, the specific conditions under which testing will be performed and why those conditions are representative, the specific determinations of emissions and operations intended to be made, the specific test methods to be used, and any changes from standard methodology to accommodate specific testing circumstances), a proposed schedule that provides for stack testing within 14 days after any restart of operations, and the submission of the results of such testing (including a summary of the results, a description of the test methods and conditions, and all relevant data and calculations);
• Submit an ambient air monitoring plan for Illinois EPA’s review and approval. This plan must include a description of the process that will be used to collect and analyze air samples, the schedule for implementing the air monitoring plan, and details to demonstrate how the company will comply with the requirement that the results of such testing shall be provided to the Illinois EPA no later than 30 days after the samples have been collected;
• Submit a plan to continuously collect emissions information for the Illinois EPA’s review and approval;
• Complete installation of permanent total enclosure system;
• Demonstrate that the permanent total enclosure system captures 100% of all ethylene oxide emissions;
• Perform stack testing and submit results for Illinois EPA review. These results must demonstrate to IEPA that the company has reduced the emission of ethylene oxide from the exhaust point by at least 99.9% or 0.2ppm;
• Complete installation of continuous emissions monitoring system;
• Submit a construction completion report for Illinois EPA’s approval; and
• Be able to provide certification to the Illinois EPA by the supplier of a product to be sterilized that sterilization by ethylene oxide is the only available method.
Prior to permit approval, the Illinois EPA took written comments on the draft permit for 30 days and held a public meeting on August 1, 2019 to afford concerned citizens an opportunity to provide oral comments. After careful review and consideration of over 500 comments, the Illinois EPA made numerous changes to the draft permit. The Agency concurrently issued a responsiveness summary to lay out its responses to the many comments received – this extensive document may be found on the Illinois EPA’s Ethylene Oxide webpage. A copy of the final construction permit, responsiveness summary, memorandum on technology certification and memorandum supporting modeling are available on the Illinois EPA’s website at https://www2.illinois.gov/epa/topics/community-relations/sites/ethylene-oxide/Pages/default.aspx.
That link is broken. Trying to get a better one. Link is now fixed.
Some heads are gonna explode in the Willowbrook area.
This post will likely be updated with responses.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Press release…
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve the Sterigenics construction permit application:
“The IEPA’s approval of the Sterigenics construction permit is disappointing, discouraging and downright wrong. Our fight is not over – we will continue working to pass new legislation in veto session that will allow municipalities to ban the use of ethylene oxide within their boundaries.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** Sen. John Curran (R-Downers Grove)…
The Illinois EPA’s approval of Sterigenics’ permit is disappointing, but not unexpected. Since the beginning of this public health crisis I have stood with the residents of Willowbrook and worked with them to ensure this facility never again reopens. Today’s decision will not deter us from continuing the fight to close this facility and rid our communities of ethylene oxide. I look forward to working with all of those interested in the General Assembly dedicated to keeping our communities healthy and safe.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Governor’s office…
Today, Illinois has the toughest regulations on ethylene oxide in the nation, but Governor Pritzker is calling on the General Assembly to pass even more stringent restrictions in the veto session to protect residents’ health. Upon taking office, Governor Pritzker’s administration shut down Sterigenics. During the shutdown, the Governor asked the General Assembly to pass the strictest possible law on ethylene oxide emissions. It’s clear now that the legislation was insufficient, so during the upcoming veto session, the Governor expects that the General Assembly will strengthen the law they passed this spring. He is committed to signing the measure and the administration will strictly enforce it.
The former state of Illinois employee who successfully challenged the payment of forced union dues by public workers was back in federal court Friday to ask a judge to force his former union to return about $3,000 in dues he paid while working for the state in a case that could have wider implications for public workers nationwide.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that requiring state employees to pay union dues was a violation of Mark Janus’ First Amendment rights.
The former state child support specialist was in federal court Friday in Chicago seeking reimbursement for some of the union dues he previously paid.
“it’s just a simple matter of, they took the money and I want it back. That’s all there is to it.” Janus said comments outside of a federal courtroom in Chicago.
In court, Janus’ legal team argued that the dues were collected illegally and that he was entitled to receive about $3,000 back from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ Union.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that Janus was not entitled to the dues collected while he was contesting paying them to AFSCME. On appeal, Janus’ lawyer, Bill Messenger, attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, argued that the money was collected illegally. […]
Diana Rickert, vice president of the Liberty Justice Center, said a favorable ruling could cost public employee unions about $100 million to $150 million dollars. She said the legal process could take years to play out.
*** UPDATE *** AFSCME Council 31…
Courts have repeatedly ruled in this and similar cases that in setting fees for representation provided to non-members, AFSCME acted in good faith based on a US Supreme Court ruling in place since 1977 and repeatedly affirmed in the ensuing decades. When the 2018 Supreme Court ruling overturned that previous decision, AFSCME immediately halted all fees. Consequently we have a very strong case, which we made to the appellate panel today.
Mark Janus received wage increases, health insurance coverage, vacation time and other benefits that the union negotiated during his tenure in state government. He never once failed to accept such improvements in his working conditions, nor did he ever object to paying the related fees—until he became the plaintiff in Bruce Rauner’s court case against AFSCME. This prolonged litigation is nothing but another political attack on working people, and on Janus’s part, a greedy grab for more.
* Staff memo from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Chief of Staff Melissa Coultas…
Please be aware that Alan Lowe is no longer in the service of the State of Illinois. I will remain in close contact with the Governor’s Office until a new Executive Director is identified. In the interim, all issues that would normally go to Alan will be handled by Toby Trimmer, Dave Kelm and me.
I’m told he was walked out of the building by a deputy governor.
Lowe came to Illinois from the George W. Bush Presidential Library Museum a few years ago.
Trimmer and Coultas were both hired just last month, so there’s not much institutional knowledge at the top. Kelm, the general counsel, was hired last year during the Rauner administration. He’s worked for Jim Edgar and House GOP Leader Jim Durkin.
I’ve been promised a response from the governor’s office.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum again has gotten cozy with conservative talk show personality Glenn Beck.
Mercury One, a Texas nonprofit founded by Beck, boasts on its website that the ALPLM was a partner in a recent weeklong exhibit on slavery at the institution in Irving. Other partners included the African American Museum of Dallas, the Dallas Historical Society and Frontiers of Flight Museum.
It’s not clear what artifacts, if any, the ALPLM might have loaned. Last year, the museum sent the Gettysburg Address and other artifacts to Mercury One for display with less planning and fewer safeguards than had been employed in past instances when the copy of Lincoln’s famous speech, valued at $20 million, left the building.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
The administration terminated Mr. Lowe’s employment today. We cannot comment further on personnel matters. We look forward to working with the team of museum professionals, historians and librarians at the ALPLM to ensure that the institution is meeting its high standards.
A possible auction of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia displayed at Illinois’ presidential museum in Springfield is being put off due to an apparent uptick in fundraising, according to the private foundation that owns the artifacts.
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Last year’s threatened fire sale by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation shocked the history world. Facing an October deadline, the group was about to sell off some coveted historical artifacts because it was having trouble paying off a $9.7 million loan balance left from the original purchase of the items.
A spokesman for the foundation, which purchases Lincoln artifacts for the presidential museum, attributed the change of heart to a less dour financial picture than what the group foresaw last year.
“I am pleased that our fundraising is going very well,” Nick Kalm, a vice chairman of the foundation’s board, told WBEZ in a statement.
In Illinois, when people have their firearms owners identification cards revoked, they’re supposed to turn them in to law enforcement and surrender their guns. But that only happened less than half of the time in the metro-east and statewide during the last four years.
In St. Clair County, FOID cards were returned just under 36 percent of the time after they were revoked from 2015-18, according to Illinois State Police data obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat.
Madison County was a little better, at 41 percent, while statewide cards were turned in 37 percent of the time during the four-year period.
Police in suburbs that cut a wide swath from North Shore communities like Wilmette and Glencoe, to Oak Brook and Naperville out west, and Palos Heights and New Lenox farther south, have been warning residents for years about the importance of locking cars to prevent vehicular thefts and burglaries. Flyers have been distributed at Fourth of July fireworks displays, roadside electronic message boards erected and cautionary statements delivered to the press, but authorities express frustration at how some suburban residents remain undeterred.
“On any given night, I can head out to Oak Brook, Hinsdale or go up to Lake Forest, and drive off with an unlocked Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes or, if I’m lucky, a Maserati,” said Steven Stelter, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the police chief in west suburban Westchester.
Stelter was for years a member of a state auto theft task force. The task force, which Stelter said was funded by grants from insurance companies, was eliminated during state budget cuts a few years ago.
“People just don’t accept responsibility today,” Stelter said. “They ask, ‘Why are there not more police around?’ When the real question is, ‘Why didn’t you take your keys with you and not leave them in an unlocked car?’”
* The Question: Do you lock your car at night? Explain.
Illinois has not been necessarily a gambling industry-friendly state. You never know what the hell is going to happen. You know, we’ve been [fighting expansion for] 15, 20 years, and it finally got done. But you never knew when it was going to happen, or what it was going to look like from year to year.
* James Marter of Oswego has announced he’s running for Congress against US Rep. Lauren Underwood. First, though, he has to win a Republican primary against a host of opponents [fixed reference]. Illinois Review posted his kickoff video, and I thought you might want to rate it…
Marter got thumped by US Rep. Adam Kinzinger in the 2018 GOP primary and scored less than 30 percent against Sen. Mark Kirk in the 2016 GOP primary.
Hey, it’s Friday and it’s a slow news day so far. Have at it.
One of the great environmental crises today — and there are many — is the loss of biodiversity on planet Earth. Human actions have lead to an extinction rate higher than anything seen on Earth in the last 10 million years, as a sweeping UN report recently explained. It’s estimated the average vertebrate (bird, fish, mammal, amphibian) population has lost around 60 percent of its individual members since the 1970s.
Scientists keep telling us that something is going devastatingly wrong in the natural world. Today, a study in Science focuses on the birds of North America, and the results are again eye-opening and grim.
A team of scientists at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, in collaboration with the US Geological Survey and several conservation groups, have estimated North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970. That’s an estimated decline of 30 percent in the total bird population. In other words: More than one in four birds has disappeared from American skies in the last 50 years.
A 30 percent population decline since I was eight years old. Wow.
Jim Herkert, executive director of the Illinois Audubon Society, has been studying data for our state that further confirms the Cornell study’s findings: “Over the past 10 years, my estimate is that Illinois is losing about 1.4 million birds per year,” Herkert says. That’s a decline, he points out, that is continuing. And though it’s a small percentage of a large population of birds, “it’s big. And it’s certainly not a sustainable rate of decline.” […]
[Doug Stotz, senior conservation ecologist at the Field Museum], who has spent years in the agricultural zones of Illinois documenting bird populations, says the shift to industrialized agricultural starting around the 1970s is a major habitat change for birds that has undoubtedly had an impact on the decline. “The intensification of agriculture doesn’t leave a lot of room for anything else out there.” […]
“Fifty years ago, if you went out into the agricultural fields in Illinois, a lot of the grassland birds were still in them,” says Stotz. “Today, if you go out there, there’s nothing.” […]
Though it seems counterintuitive, “cities can be a refuge for wildlife,” says Stotz. Chicago’s backyards, lakefront and network of forest preserves have helped to nurture wildlife for decades and continue to provide habitat for species such as raptors, a group of birds that rebounded after use of the pesticide DDT was discontinued. “There’s habitat in cities,” Stotz says, “and there’s potential for a whole lot more.”
This week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed that marijuana dispensaries be allocated throughout the city, except not in downtown.
In explaining her decision, Lightfoot said she wants to keep the center of Chicago “family friendly.” The mayor also wants to assure that entrepreneurs from communities throughout the city, including the West and South sides, benefit financially. Lightfoot’s deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development, Samir Mayekar, told the Tribune, “From a public safety standpoint as the industry develops, it was best to exclude (downtown) from operations.” […]
The family-friendly vibe Lightfoot seeks to protect won’t be jeopardized by a small number of new legal businesses that aren’t so different in principle from liquor stores and bars, some of which operate on sidewalks. The city is careful about permitting liquor stores downtown rather than banning them. It can apply similar prudence to marijuana dispensaries. As for the mayor’s office’s broadly stated concern about public safety, that’s an issue across the city for different reasons in different neighborhoods. It’s hard to see how highly regulated cannabis sales exacerbate the challenges. […]
Certainly the idea of newly opened purveyors of sativa buds and the like might be jarring at first. Recreational marijuana sales will mark a new chapter in the city’s evolution. Chicago will need to find its comfort zone. Downtown should be part of the mix.
This is the same Tribune editorial board that complained constantly about how the cannabis legalization bill should be slowed down and saved for another time. Now they’re all about putting weed shops downtown.
New research shows crime rates dropped substantially in areas with marijuana dispensaries, running counter to fears that pot shops drum up crime.
The mayor is either getting some very bad advice, or her gut is just wrong on this one.
* Related…
* Greg Hinz: Downtown is a Chicago neighborhood, too: Though Lightfoot may be tempted to forget it, downtown Chicago is home to 200,000 residents and the city’s jobs engine. Shorting those folks is a bad way to help needier areas of the city.
While the [Illinois] opioid death rate for white people dropped 6.5 percent between 2017 and 2018, opioid deaths increased among African Americans by 9.1 percent last year and by 4.3 percent among Hispanics according to IDPH data..
“In 2018, opioid deaths among Illinois residents decreased for the first time in five years with a 1.6 percent drop from 2,202 in 2017 to 2,167 in 2018,” IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike wrote in a letter accompanying the report, released earlier this month. “However, this decrease was driven primarily by a decline in deaths among non-Hispanic whites. Deaths among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic residents continued to increase between 2017 and 2018, illustrating a persistent disparity.”
The opioid death rate is highest among Black Illinoisans, where there are an average of 32.8 opioid deaths per 100,000 Illinois residents. Whites have the second-largest death rate — 16.8 deaths per 100,000 Illinoisans — and Hispanics have 9.9 opioid deaths per 100,000. […]
Regionally, opioid deaths are decreasing in Cook County and suburban collar counties, according to the IDPH data. Deaths are also on the decline in Illinois’ rural counties. However, 2018 was the first year in which counties classified as “urban” surpassed Cook County in opioid overdose mortality rates per 100,000, according to IDPH.
That racial disparity tracks with national trends, Hannah reports. Turns out that whites are more likely to obtain prescriptions for buprenorphine, which decreases opioid cravings.
East St. Louis this week became the fourth Illinois city to have its public safety pension fund ask Comptroller Susana Mendoza to withhold state money from the city and instead send it to East St. Louis’ chronically underfunded firefighter pension fund.
Officials from East St. Louis’ firefighter pension fund pointed to the city’s failure to pay an actuarily required $2.2 million into the fund in 2017 and 2018, and noted the fund is only 11 percent funded as of January 2018, according to documents obtained by The Daily Line.
Fund officials are attempting to trigger Illinois’ pension intercept law, which allows Mendoza’s office to seize money a municipality receives under the state’s Local Government Distributive Fund, and direct it to the underfunded pension fund. […]
The East St. Louis firefighter pension fund has approximately 90 beneficiaries, according to a recent report on the funding condition of Illinois’ 641 police and fire pension funds. As of 2016, the most recent year included in the COGFA report, The market value of assets within the fund was $7.5 million, versus its $59.8 million in total actuarial liabilities.
The unfunded liability for that one pension fund works out to be $1,962 per city resident.
The trouble began when police officers showed up at Ellen’s house late one night.
He contacted police and requested a wellness check on their young daughter. But police didn’t find anything wrong with the girl, said Ellen.
But then, she said, he became obsessive. He continued requesting wellness checks on the little girl even though police never found anything wrong. In a court filing, Ellen said he would call and text so much — he even started sending letters to her house every day — that she felt like she was being stalked. (WBEZ is identifying her with a pseudonym for her family’s safety.)
She said even the cops eventually got sick of coming out and suggested she get a restraining order against her ex.
With the order of protection in place, Ellen said she also changed her cell phone number and email address. She even bought a new car with a new license plate — all to make it harder for her troublesome ex to contact her.
But a few months later, Ellen’s ex obtained all that information — and much more — without her knowing.
That’s because he opened a court case to which Ellen wasn’t even a party, then subpoenaed the Illinois Tollway for I-Pass transponder records that would show her movements on the state’s tollways.
The tollway complied with that legal request, and also turned over information about Ellen’s new cell phone number, email address, credit card and license plate. Ellen’s ex-boyfriend also requested similar private information about her parents, and the tollway turned all of it over — without ever notifying Ellen or her family.
Only a portion of her credit card number was released, but still.
* Sen. Sue Rezin’s US Rep. campaign about a fellow state Senator’s new poll…
Today perennial candidate Jim Oberweis released a poll his current campaign for Congress conducted that shows him losing to incumbent Lauren Underwood, 47 to 38 percent. Yes, that is correct—Jim Oberweis’ own campaign has publicly released a poll showing him losing yet another campaign in a head to head matchup between incumbent Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and himself.
Oberweis has run for Congress, US Senate and Governor six times and lost six times. He has a virtual PhD in losing elections.
Oberweis’ news release says fellow Republican State Senator Sue Rezin will need a million dollars to catch up to him in name I.D. for the primary election. But the fact is Sue Rezin needs no lessons from Oberweis about how to win elections. Rezin has won five out of five elections—three of them “Tier One” state legislative races. It is Rezin’s legislative record that will appeal to general election voters. For instance, earlier this year she sponsored a bill on preexisting conditions and succeeded in getting the State Senate to pass it unanimously. That was the key issue in the last election. The appeal of Rezin’s legislative record is one her Republican primary opponents simply cannot match.
Again, Oberweis has lost six out of six races for Congress, US Senate and Governor. Oberweis can watch, wait and learn about how Rezin’s effective campaign will surge past him because Sue Rezin has done so again and again and again and again in highly competitive legislative campaigns.
Oberweis’ pollster maintains that if voters are told a series of negative things about Underwood that they will reverse their original position against Oberweis and end up supporting him, but that is nothing more than wishful thinking. It has never worked in any of Oberweis’ previous campaigns for high office.
Oberweis’ pollster is one of the least credible in Washington, DC. In a June 13, 2014 article in The Hill newspaper, the article begins by saying: “National Republicans are warning candidates to stay away from (former) Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s pollster, who predicted just weeks before Cantor’s loss that he was up by a huge margin.”
The Hill article went on to say: “Two weeks before the majority leader’s stunning 11-point loss on Tuesday McGlaughlin’s poll showed Cantor with a 34-poit lead over professor Dave Brat.” That means Oberweis’ pollster was wrong by an astounding 45 percentage points.
The article in the Hill goes on to detail other McGlaughlin polling results that were released publicly and proved to be wildly inaccurate.
Jim Oberweis can dream about the 7th time being the charm but Republican voters would be reckless to bestow a nomination for Congress that is critical to earning back the U.S. House majority on a candidate who has blown more elections for high office than anyone in the State of Illinois.
Just like she did in her first state legislative election, Sue Rezin has what it takes to defeat an incumbent Democrat representative while Jim Oberweis’ epic series of lost elections AND his own poll just released today are the clearest indicators that he would blow this election as well if he somehow became the Republican nominee.
More info on the poll is here. The Republican head-to-head, which has Oberweis leading potential primary opponents by a wide margin, is of just 200 voters. I can’t recall any congressional candidate ever releasing a poll with that small of a sample size.
A new two-year audit of the Illinois Department of Corrections found employee misuse of sick leave, vacation time and overtime, something that a prison watchdog said not only hurts taxpayers, but can put inmates and employees at risk.
The audit showed that the department made some improvements, including establishing a grievance system, but some findings have dogged the state agency for decades. For example, the audit noted the department still doesn’t have an automated payroll or timekeeping system, a finding repeated since 1998.
As has been reported since the Fiscal Year 1998 examination, each correctional center in the Department continued to maintain a manual timekeeping system for several hundred employees. Correctional center employees signed in and out, and these sheets were sent to the timekeeping clerk. Other information, including notification of absences and call-in reports, were also forwarded to timekeepers. […]
Due to the lack of an automated timekeeping system, the Department had encountered significant timekeeping and payroll weaknesses.
Out of a sample of employees, auditors found 20 percent used a full day of leave at least once during the year the same day they worked an overtime shift.
Department management stated generally the reason for employees taking paid leave time and working overtime on the same day is due to competing priorities and employee oversight.
The financial advantage of this practice from the employee’s perspective is that the employee is paid for the leave time shift at the usual rate for that day and then also paid for the overtime shift at 1.5 times the usual rate of pay on the same day. The financial effect on the State, however, is that not only does the State pay the employee at the overtime rate for the shift worked in addition to the regular rate for the leave time taken, but the State must also pay another employee overtime to cover the shift for which the leave time was used. This type of abuse of leave time may be an example of “shift swapping” in which employees knowingly use leave time and swap shifts in order to gain a financial advantage.
The review found the department spent nearly $2 billion in fiscal year 2018, or nearly $700 million more than the year before. The inmate population declined from 45,817 to 41,704 over two years.
Nick Sauer, the former state legislator facing criminal charges alleging he posted lewd images of two former girlfriends online without their consent, is being sued by one of those women.
Attorneys for Melissa Sue Kreithen, who dated Sauer in 2016, said in a statement Wednesday that the ex-lawmaker’s actions were humiliating, degrading and emotionally and mentally damaging to their client.
“She looks forward to her day in court so that Nick Sauer may be prosecuted civilly for the damages he has caused her,” the statement from the Chicago law firm Levin, Riback, Adelman & Flangel reads.
Daniel M. Locallo, who is leading the legal team representing Sauer in the criminal case, did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
Chicago’s newest federal judge has been tasked with handling one of Chicago’s most politically explosive legal actions, brought by [Alaina Hampton] claiming Illinois Democrats, led by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, blackballed her after she complained a Madigan operative sexually harassed her.
On Sept. 16, Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, chief judge of the Chicago-based U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, announced the lawsuit brought against Madigan and the Illinois Democratic Party, among others, had been among more than 340 other cases transferred to new U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger. […]
According to a release from the Northern District announcing his installment as judge, Seeger earned his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College and his law degree from the University of Michigan. After law school, Seeger clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle, a Reagan appointee, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, before Sentelle was succeeded as that circuit’s chief judge in 2013 by Judge Merrick Garland. […]
Alaina Hampton says she is finally starting to heal emotionally, but she still wishes she could afford therapy. And she’s struggling to find work. […]
Hampton grew up downstate near Springfield and moved to Chicago for her first job. A child in a family of lifelong Republicans, Hampton started her career as a staffer for the Democratic Party of Illinois.
Soon, the then-23-year-old campaign staffer began working on underserved, low-income communities. She said she hoped by working to get good people elected she would be able to help improve the circumstances of those communities.
“I’m a political consultant,” she said. “But ever since all of my story became public, it has been obviously very difficult to get work. I spent a lot of time last year traveling and taking care of my mental and emotional health. And now, with campaign season starting, I might do a little bit of political work again, but I also bartend.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot [yesterday] doubled down on her opposition to allowing stores that sell cannabis products downtown, indicating that in her view pot stores more properly belong in outlying neighborhoods.
In questioning after today’s City Council meeting, the mayor said that while keeping shopping streets such as Michigan Avenue “family friendly” is on her mind, she’s more concerned with ensuring that the new wealth the legalized sale of recreational-use marijuana will create gets distributed fairly across Chicago.
Um, the city’s neighborhoods aren’t “family friendly”? Also, every time I’ve walked down Michigan Avenue in the past few years, it smelled kinda skunky. Perhaps the mayor might want to take a stroll herself.
And even if you want to exclude the Magnificent Mile, why should the untold hordes of blotto late-night partiers within the proposed “family friendly exclusion zone” on Hubbard Street be shielded from these alleged reefer horrors? It makes no sense. Take their money.
The Merchandise Mart, though, falls outside the exclusion zone and presumably would be a possible location for a pot shop.
The Merchandise Mart isn’t family friendly??? Paging Chris Kennedy!
* The mayor’s argument is principally about helping neighborhood communities create jobs and businesses. It’s a strong argument. It will help. Legalization is a net good thing if properly handled.
But Ald. Brendan Reilly told the Sun-Times that making people travel to the Fulton Market area (where families apparently don’t exist) to buy cannabis isn’t about neighborhood equity, as the mayor claims. “It’s simply making [hundreds of thousands of commuters and millions of tourists] travel further outside the central core to access it.” Yep.
A well-placed City Hall source who’s already gauged interest among aldermen in Lightfoot’s proposal says the mayor doesn’t have the 26 votes needed to pass the ordinance as it’s written.
I doubt, however, that there’s 26 votes to pass anything specific right now.
Whatever happens, the mayor should stop needlessly stigmatizing this soon to be legal product.
* By the way, I instantly thought about former Gov. Pat Quinn when I saw the mayor’s “family friendly” comment. Remember this?…
Quinn has said that he worries the 366-acre state fairgrounds in Springfield will become less family friendly if gambling on slot machines is permitted for most of the year, as Senate Bill 744 would allow. […]
But William DiMondi, general manager for the Delaware State Fair, said the casino there has not been a detriment to family fun in Delaware.
I asked at one point if Quinn had ever been to a state fair beer tent at night, because there wasn’t a whole lot of family friendly activity going on.
It’s official: the 2019 Illinois State Fair is the most successful in state history with over $6.5 million in estimated revenue. This year’s all-time record exceeds revenue brought in for the 2018 fair by approximately $750,000 and surpasses the previous record of $6.4 million set in 2013.
“I’ve had more fun at the state fair than almost anything else I’ve done in the past eight months, and I’m proud that so many families enjoyed everything the fair has to offer – and it’s no wonder this fair is one for the history books,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This fair brought in record-breaking revenue of over $6.5 million, highlighted our tremendous agriculture industry and supported incredible small businesses from across the state. I’m grateful to our hardworking team at the Department of Agriculture for making this possible and already looking forward to next year’s fair.”
“The success of this year’s Illinois State Fair is a testament to the hard work of our staff, not only during the fair but throughout the whole year,” said John Sullivan, Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. “The buildings and grounds crew made the fairgrounds look more beautiful than ever and State Fair Manager Kevin Gordon came up with new ways to bring more people back to the fairgrounds. After a lot of hard work, Illinoisans have a lot to celebrate.”
Today’s revenue announcement comes on top of a record-setting year at the grandstand with 63,633 tickets sold, bringing in a record $2.3 million. Estimated attendance totals of nearly 509,000 were 37% higher than 2018’s projection of just over 370,000, making it the largest attendance since 2014.
This data represents conservative estimates, with the final numbers being released for 2018 and 2019 in the auditor’s report in October or November.
Amazon plans to sign a pledge to meet the goals of the Paris Climate agreement by 2040 and be net carbon neutral 10 years ahead of schedule, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said on Thursday. […]
Bezos said Amazon was placing an order to buy 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian Automotive LLC and to use 100% renewable energy by 2030, up from 40% today. Amazon and Ford Motor Co are among the investors in the EV startup. Amazon will also invest $100 million to restore forests and wetlands.
At a press conference in Springfield, Illinois Governor Rauner Bruce Rauner fired off harsh words at automotive startup Rivian.
“That plant should have well over 1,000 people today. And that plant should have brought hundreds of millions of dollars today,” said Rauner, in response to a reporter’s question.
Contradictory to Rauner’s comments, Rivian appears ahead of schedule to employ 400 people across the country by the end of the year. The company is also ahead of their employment objectives at the facility in Normal. AdaptBN learned last week that Rivian already employs north of 325 people across the country and is still on track for production in 2020.
This isn’t the first time Rauner has made confusing statements surrounding Rivian’s involvement in the state. In an interview earlier this year Rauner stated, “No auto company wants to invest in Illinois because of Madigan’s power, because of regulations and the taxes.”
Last week, Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes and Budget Director Alexis Sturm issued a directive that, among other things, ordered department heads to find “operational efficiencies” that would total 6.5 percent of their current budget. […]
The Hynes/Sturm memo attributes the unpaid bills to those left over by former Gov. Bruce Rauner. But let’s all remember that the level of unpaid bills stood at $6.8 billion when Rauner took office in January 2015.
That was a fairly common mid-year spike. In the preceding July (just after the end of Fiscal Year 2014), the backlog had been brought down to $4.60 billion. The backlog at the end of Fiscal Year 2015 (before the impasse began) was $5.03 billion. A 30-day payment cycle would leave about a $2.5-3 billion backlog or so (maybe even higher). So the real backlog at the end of the last Pat Quinn budget was about $2 billionish, mainly because the 2011 income tax partially rolled back in the middle of the 2015 fiscal year.
A month after he filed controversial murder charges against five teens whose friend was killed during an alleged burglary, Lake County’s top prosecutor has decided to drop them for lesser charges under an agreement with the families of the suspects. […]
The teens were charged with murder in the shooting of one of their friends by an Old Mill Creek homeowner, who told police the group was in his driveway near one of his cars in the early morning hours of Aug. 13.
The homeowner involved told police that when a member of the group began moving toward him with something in his hand, he fired shots, striking 14-year-old Ja’quan Swopes in the head and killing him. Authorities said a knife was found on the driveway in the area in which the homeowner said the teens were. […]
While Illinois law allows authorities to charge suspects with murder if someone dies during the commission of a felony, Nerheim’s decision to charge the teens with the felony murder of one of their group shot by someone else resulted in a backlash from activist and advocate groups.
* Excerpt from the state’s attorney’s press release…
Let me begin by saying the safety of our community and the enforcement of the criminal laws is paramount. Justice requires that all offenders be held accountable and appropriately sentenced for their crimes. The circumstances and facts outlined in my statement support the charge of Felony Murder. However, after full consideration of all the evidence, mitigation presented by defense counsel as well as the wishes of the victim’s family, my office has entered into an agreement with defense counsel for the five offenders. This agreement ensures all offenders will be held responsible and face appropriate sentences.
Diamond Davis, 18, of Chicago, is expected to appear in Lake County bond court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, where she will be formally charged with a class 4 felony of conspiracy to commit burglary and a class A misdemeanor of criminal trespass to a motor vehicle. Davis is expected today to waive her preliminary hearing, then plead guilty to the two charges next week. The preliminary charge of felony murder will be dismissed today. The case will then be scheduled for a sentencing hearing after she pleads guilty.
The cases against the four juvenile offenders are moving to juvenile court, and the charge of felony murder will be dismissed. However, due to strict laws governing juvenile courtroom proceedings, my office is unable to give details regarding the charges involving the juveniles going forward.
The state’s executive inspector general has found Springfield lawyer Don Tracy, when acting as chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, engaged in prohibited political activity by making campaign contributions. But Tracy is protesting the finding, calling it “an inflammatory political report based primarily on speculation and unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.”
And because the report alleges contributions made by Tracy’s wife, Wanda, during his tenure on the gaming board were done under his direction — and because she was never interviewed by investigators — Tracy calls that allegation “unprofessional, unnecessary, unsubstantiated, baseless and insulting.”
Tracy takes issue with the idea that any political contribution is prohibited by the Riverboat Gambling Act — he said he made a $200 donation before his first board meeting in 2015, about the time he heard contributions should not be made. He said he made none after that — and said some listed in campaign records as coming from him while he was on the board were in error because they also came from his wife.
Part of Tracy’s response to the finding, released with the report, is a letter from Wanda Tracy, who says she wrote campaign checks “of my own free will,” and described her own political activity over the years, including circulating nominating petitions, hosting fundraisers and organizing political parade walkers.
The full report, including a long response from Tracy, is here.
The 12-page report focuses on 30 contributions from Tracy and his wife, Wanda, from the time he became Gaming Board chairman until Oct. 29, including eight contributions totaling $7,600 from Wanda Tracy to Rauner’s campaign fund. Most of the checks were written from the couple’s joint account, though Don Tracy’s name was crossed off on many of them, the report says.
The report says that from 1998 until his appointment to the Gaming Board, Don Tracy made 210 contributions to 67 political committees. Over the same period, Wanda Tracy made only one, a $5,300 contribution to their sister-in-law Jil Tracy’s failed 2014 bid for lieutenant governor.
Given that history, “it is not credible” that Wanda Tracy began writing so many campaign checks “without any direction from her husband, or even discussion with him about it,” the report says.
Tracy dismissed the inspector general’s conclusion as “a bit sexist.” He said the inspector general’s office never spoke with his wife during its investigation.
Tracy — a Springfield attorney who previously made failed bids as a Democrat for the state Senate and as a Republican for lieutenant governor — said he doesn’t think Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office was out to get him. But he hinted it could be tied to his vocal — and financial — support for Rauner over the years.
“A lot of people around here hate Rauner,” Tracy said by phone from his Downstate office.
But the report comes from the office of Susan Haling, who was appointed executive inspector general by Rauner in March 2018.
State law defines political activity as “any activity in support of or in connection with any campaign for federal, State, or local elective office or any political organization.” Members can be removed by the governor “for engaging in any political activity,” the law states.
The inspector general’s office recommended Governor J.B. Pritzker take action he deemed appropriate. Tracy says Pritzker didn’t ask him to resign. The governor’s office had no comment.
* Tracy sent me this response…
The Facts
1. Don Tracy was appointed Chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board on February 2, 2015 by then Gov. Bruce Rauner. Don’s first official meeting and actions as Chairman occurred on March 25, 2015, when the Gaming Board held its first 2015 meeting.
2. Without holding a hearing or other due process, the OEIG accuses Don Tracy of engaging in “political activity” while serving as Chairman of the Gaming Board. The Illinois Riverboat Gambling Act prohibits Gaming Board members from engaging in “political activity”, but does not expressly or specifically define “political activity” to include the mere making of a campaign contribution.
3 Without citing any legal authority, the OEIG has interpreted this ill-defined ban on political activity to preclude Illinois Gaming Board members from making any campaign contributions (even to local and federal candidates) while off duty, off state premises, without using any state resources, while not acting in any state capacity, and without any appearance of quid pro quo or impropriety; and, notwithstanding US Supreme Court rulings that political contributions are a form of free speech and therefore vaguely defined bans on political contributions, like this OEIG interpretation, are unconstitutional.
4 Don was not made aware of this “interpretation” until shortly before or after his first day on the job, March 25, 2015. From and after that time, and until on June 14, 2019, when Governor Pritzker accepted Don’s resignation from the Gaming Board, which Don offered on November 30, 2018, Don did not engage in any “political activity” except for: (a) voting and (b) loaning or contributing $400 to his inactive independent expenditure political committee, Central Illinois for Responsible Government, to pay maintenance expenses including bank account fees and a Board of Elections fine for a late 2014 report.
5 Based only on speculative assumptions, including the false and speculative assumption that Don’s wife Wanda is his political puppet such that she could not have possibly made political contributions to Republicans from their joint account without Don’s consent or direction, and without even interviewing Wanda as Don suggested they do, the OEIG has falsely accused Wanda Tracy of making political contributions under Don’s direction. This is not only sexist and insulting; it also implies that women/spouses are incapable of making campaign contributions without being directed by a man.
6 Illinois has had a long and well-known history of public corruption. Instead of doing the hard and detailed work it takes to root out corruption, the OEIG has in this case wasted limited taxpayer money on an unconstitutional wild goose chase and falsely accused a part-time dedicated public servant of engaging in significant “political activity”” while serving on the Gaming Board. No wonder many good and honest citizens are reluctant to engage in public service.
