* The Question: The new gaming law allows the city to put slots at Midway and O’Hare behind the security. Are you in favor of that? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
David Mestel is right. The hotheads appear to be unaware that the parade route is wholly within the fairgrounds (click here for the map). So the only way they can attend is to abandon their boycott.
Also, the executive protection folks might want to take a look at some of those comments.
Twenty-two years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he won an Illinois State Supreme Court case that freed Nance Legins-Costley.
Legins-Costley was an indentured servant in the eyes of the law, but, by all rights, she was a slave. She’d never been free. Neither she nor anyone else ever signed paperwork giving up her liberty. Nonetheless, she was bought and sold, first while still in the womb, when an Illinois state senator bought her parents. But the state Supreme Court ruled her a free woman after Lincoln took up her cause as a lawyer.
“It is a presumption of law, in the state of Illinois, that every person is free, without regard to color,” the court ruled. “The sale of a free person is illegal.”
Carl Adams, a former Alton resident who’s written a book about Legins-Costley, has been looking for her grave since the 1990s. Finally, he says he’s found it, thanks to help from a cast of amateur historians, a librarian and a dedicated genealogist. Legins-Costley, it turns out, may be beneath a Peoria parking lot, next to a muffler shop, alongside Civil War veterans and others whose graves were forgotten over the years.
* And…
* Blood in the Streets: A hundred years ago, Chicago experienced the worst spasm of racial violence in the city’s history. Here’s how the riot unfolded, in the words of those who lived it.
A vandalized Mississippi memorial to civil-rights activist Emmett Till will be replaced by a new bulletproof sign, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission said on Friday. The move comes one day after it was announced that three University of Mississippi students had been suspended from their fraternity for posing with guns in front of the bullet-riddled sign, which marks where murdered 14-year-old Till’s body was found in 1955.
* Senate Bill 2026 was somewhat of a delayed reaction to fears that former Gov. Bruce Rauner would apply for a federal waiver to reduce health insurance coverage, including narrowing pre-existing conditions. Legislators wanted to make sure no governor would do that in the future…
Prohibits the State from applying for any federal waiver that would reduce or eliminate any protection or coverage required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that was in effect on January 1, 2017, including, but not limited to, any protection for persons with pre-existing conditions and coverage for services identified as essential health benefits under the ACA. Provides that the State or an agency of the executive branch may apply for such a waiver only if granted authorization by the General Assembly through joint resolution. Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Prohibits the State from applying for any federal waiver that would permit an individual or group health insurance plan to reduce or eliminate any protection or coverage required under the ACA that was in effect on January 1, 2017, including, but not limited to, any protection for persons with pre-existing conditions and coverage for services identified as essential health benefits under the ACA. Provides that the State or an agency of the executive branch may apply for such a waiver only if granted authorization by the General Assembly through joint resolution. Amends the Illinois Public Aid Code. Prohibits the State or an agency of the executive branch from applying for any federal Medicaid waiver that would result in more restrictive standards, methodologies, procedures, or other requirements than those that were in effect in Illinois as of January 1, 2017 for the Medical Assistance Program, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or any other medical assistance program in Illinois operating under any existing federal waiver authorized by specified provisions of the Social Security Act. Provides that the State or an agency of the executive branch may apply for such a waiver only if granted authorization by the General Assembly through joint resolution.
State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, voted against the bill, but had a mixed reaction to the veto message.
“Great decision by the governor, bad bill, and he’s exactly right that we have to keep that flexibility,” McSweeney said. “The place that I disagree with him is that he says he’s not going to actively seek those waivers. He should be seeking those.”
McSweeney has for years urged the state to seek waivers for ways to save taxpayers money. He said the state could file waivers with the federal government to shore up eligibility for certain programs, or to find innovative ways to capture more federal tax dollars to offset the state taxpayer cost.
“Ways that we can look at improving our access to federal funding, ways to address vouchers, ways to address tightening up eligibility, that should all be on the table,” McSweeney said. “Now I want to be clear, the governor is saying none of that.”
*** UPDATE *** GOP Sen. Sue Rezin, the chief Senate sponsor…
As I am driving to my brother’s funeral today the irony of the Governor’s first veto is not lost. My brother drove a semi truck his entire life. He was a hard worker but like many people lived paycheck to paycheck. Often times he made just enough to get by but too much to be covered by Medicaid. His entire life he struggled to access the healthcare system because of his preexisting conditions and his inability to afford health insurance. Jim did not go to the doctor when he was having symptoms because he couldn’t afford to. This bill was passed unanimously in the Senate and would have guaranteed health insurance coverage for hard working people, such as my brother, who have preexisting conditions.
Jim was 58 years old.
She was not given a heads up before the veto was announced. Bad form.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she will seek public input on possible locations for a Chicago casino in a survey her office plans to release Friday.
“This is going to be a robust survey that is really the first step in thinking about where a casino should be in Chicago,” Lightfoot said during an appearance Thursday on “Chicago Tonight.” “That’s part of what the feasibility study is going to study: where is the best location.”
Last week, the mayor named five potential sites on the South and West sides for an outside group to study, but two aldermen have already nixed sites in their wards. Lightfoot said those sites aren’t the only possibilities – a casino could ultimately land elsewhere in the city. But she says a casino might not even be financially viable, with a structure that calls for a private operator to keep only a third of the revenue, with a third going to the city and a third to the state.
“But really, can we finance a casino based upon this tax structure that the General Assembly has put in place so far. We’re concerned about it. We think it takes too much money out of the pockets of a potential casino operator before the doors would even open. So that’s what we’re concerned about: Can we even finance this deal in the first instance,” she said.
She has mentioned the topic of potential Chicago casino profits, or the lack thereof, several times, going back to when the bill was still being drafted. The revenues will be divided three ways, with the city, the state and the owner all getting a third.
Within 45 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly, the consultant shall prepare and deliver to the Board a study concerning the feasibility of, and the ability to finance, a casino in the City of Chicago.
I asked Sen. Terry Link, the bill’s co-sponsor, about a similar statement from Mayor Lightfoot late last month. His reply…
I think the mayor, with all due respect, is getting a little ahead of herself. Let’s see what the report comes back in… it may say ‘This is a great investment, you’re gonna make a lot of money,’ it may say something else. We don’t know.
If that study finds that the casino wouldn’t make enough money, legislators have pledged to alter the law during the veto session.
Tim Wilmott, chief executive officer of Penn National Gaming Inc., said a high tax rate and other conditions laid down by Illinois legislators could make a casino project in downtown Chicago a bad bet. […]
[W]hichever operator builds the sole Chicago project, including the airport rights, will have to pay $120 million for licensing and fees, and hand over up to two-thirds of the revenue to the city and state, according to Wilmott. Slot machines in airports are less profitable, making those a tougher proposition, he said. […]
A spokesman for Las Vegas Sands Corp. said his company, which specializes in large, convention-oriented resorts, isn’t interested in Chicago. Caesars Entertainment Corp., another Illinois operator, hasn’t taken a public position. Matt Maddox, the CEO of Wynn Resorts Ltd., which this month opened a $2.6 billion resort near Boston, said that property could serve as a model for other big-city casinos. […]
“I’ve always had the mindset that if I had a choice of a great suburban location or a great urban, city location, I would always take the suburban location first,” Wilmott said.
An Illinois lawmaker has filed legislation that would allow legislators to turn down any new salary increases after he saw the backlash over the raise they voted themselves in June coinciding with a number of tax hikes, including a doubling of the state’s gas tax.
Rep. Maurice West, a Democrat from Rockford, says accepting a raise while taking more money from constituents sends the wrong message.
“This is the time that we should focus on ensuring that funds spent are for the benefit of the people that we represent, not ourselves,” he said. “Now is the wrong time and timing is everything.”
His legislation would allow lawmakers to opt-out of their annual cost-of-living increase, sending it to pay down the state’s pension debt instead. State law currently says lawmakers have to accept those pay hikes.
Turning away the pay hike is all the more important, West said, since his district consists of blue-collar workers who are going to feel the effects of things like the doubling of the state’s motor fuel tax to 38 cents a gallon, which he voted for.
Illinois lawmakers are getting the bigger paychecks they voted for themselves in June, but one state representative has sent his back to the state’s coffers.
Illinois lawmakers have received their cost-of-living adjustments that were included in a fiscal year 2019 budget bill.
State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, worked with Comptroller Susana Mendoza to have his raise returned to the state. […]
It’s not legal for lawmakers or constitutional officers to outright refuse their pay. McSweeney said he had been working with Mendoza’s office on sending the raise that he objected to back into the state’s coffers.
“The law says ‘should’ so you have to actually take it,” McSweeney said. […]
“The state’s coffers are happy to accept any little bit of help folks can spare so if anyone wants to donate their cost-of-living adjustment back to the General Revenue Fund, we will be happy to work with them on it,” said Abdon Pallasch, spokesman for Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
No other state lawmakers have inquired about returning raises, Pallasch said.
* This sound reasoning is why legislators in 1998 voted to ban people from using their campaign funds as their own personal bank accounts…
Campaign funds, after all, primarily come from money given by special interests who contribute based on a desire to influence those in power. When campaign money is treated as personal funds, then every contribution is a prospective bribe.
A freshman state Senator by the name of Barack Obama was a co-sponsor of that bill and labeled the practice “legalized bribery.” Click here for background.
But since the law took effect on July 1, 1998, they decided to grandfathered in all campaign account balances as of June 30.
Some of the more brazen types took out loans as the deadline approached to beef up their campaign account balances. Not everyone on this list did so for nefarious purposes, however.
* Mark Brown counted at least 55 people who took money out of their campaign accounts for personal use after the law took effect for a total of more than $5 million…
Sen. James Clayborne Jr., D-Belleville (2019) $42,204
Chicago Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th) (2019) $27,789
Sen. Emil Jones, D-Chicago (2014-19) $210,613
Chicago Ald. William J.P. Banks (36th) (2018) $291,708
Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont (2018) $36,157
Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago (2016) $94,450
Schiller Park Mayor Anna Montana (2016) $45,534
Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele (2016) $28,000
Chicago Ridge President Eugene Siegel (2015) $12,022
A suburban man who, according to his defense attorney, bought over 40 pounds of drug-infused candy to self-medicate as he battled cancer, was sentenced to four years in prison.
Thomas J. Franzen, 37, pleaded guilty to marijuana possession in exchange for the sentence, the Kane County state’s attorney’s office said.
In a statement, prosecutors said they dropped the more serious charge of drug trafficking that carries a minimum sentence of 12 years in “recognition of the seriousness of Mr. Franzen’s medical condition.” […]
In 2014, authorities found a 42 pounds of THC-infused chocolate in a package shipped from California to Franzen’s home in west suburban Montgomery, prosecutors said.
Officers later searched Franzen’s home and found cocaine, over 100 additional grams of marijuana and other items used for drug dealing, prosecutors said. They allegedly found a digital scale, $2,000 in cash, ledgers used to track drug sales and packaging materials.
Franzen has stage four cancer and was using the chocolates to “self-medicate” and relieve himself from symptoms, such as nausea, [defense attorney David Camic] said.
According to an August 2018 court petition for an expert to evaluate whether Franzen was fit to stand trial, Franzen was suffering from testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and abdominal cavity.
According to the motion, Franzen also had a reoccurrence of renal cell cancer in one of his kidneys, and Camic was concerned Franzen could not assist in his defense by providing an “accurate recitation of the facts” of the case. It was unclear whether a judge heard from an expert before Franzen’s guilty plea late last week.
Franzen gets credit for seven days served at the Kane County jail before he could post bond. He also can have his prison term cut in half for good behavior.
After Franzen’s guilty plea, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said members of the North Central Narcotics Task Force, a unit of the state police, searched Franzen’s home after his arrest and found “evidence of drug dealing,” such as ledgers, more than $2,000, a digital scale, hashish oil, paraphernalia, and receipts for packages he mailed across the country and Canada. […]
Camic disagreed with McMahon’s assessment, arguing Franzen was reselling items on eBay and other online sites.
“My client was not selling drugs,” Camic said. “What he was selling was sneakers, vintage clothing, vintage toys and sporting goods.”
A Montgomery cancer patient sentenced to four years in prison for having 42 pounds of THC-infused chocolates mailed to his home in 2014 has petitioned Gov. Pritzker for a pardon or to have the sentence commuted so he can receive treatment at home.
Since he was sent to prison last month, Thomas J. Franzen, 37, has lost 20 pounds and is not getting the medical care he was promised, according to his petition filed by attorney David Camic. […]
In the petition, Camic details his client’s turbulent childhood and history of fighting various forms of cancer, which began with testicular cancer that now has spread to his lungs and other organs. The petition also notes Franzen was one of the first Illinois residents to receive a medical marijuana card in 2016 and this was his first conviction of any kind. […]
“His crime was motivated by an attempt to mitigate his pain and symptoms through the use of cannabis. His medical need to use cannabis is verified and supported by the fact he was granted a medical use card,” read part of the petition.
The petition also included letters and other documentation from his doctor, along with 19 letters of support from friends, his employer and relatives, including his uncle Chuck Nelson, who also serves as Aurora deputy mayor.
On Thursday, Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh confirmed that the governor will “review the request.” David Camic, Franzen’s attorney, said he and his client are “gratified that the governor is reviewing our petition.”
“If he gives it the careful consideration we know he will that he will at minimum commute Mr. Franzen’s sentence,” said Camic, who submitted the petition on behalf of Franzen.
Rosemont and the Stephens family who have run the northwest suburb since its founding are again under scrutiny, with the FBI questioning current and former village employees, sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times. […]
In 2015, Rosemont officials awarded a contract to Monterrey Security Consultants, Inc., to oversee security at public venues including Allstate Arena, the Rosemont Theatre and the village-owned Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Records show Monterrey has been paid roughly $5 million for the work, which was awarded without Rosemont officials seeking competitive bids from other security firms. […]
They said the FBI’s interest appeared to be wide-ranging and included questions about whether members of the department — made up of cross-trained police officers and firefighters — illegally used and distributed narcotic painkillers.
The sources described a raucous, at times violent culture within the public safety department, with off-duty fights, steroid use and excessive-force incidents that yielded no punishment. […]
“Like anything, you’re going to have a few bad apples,” said [Mayor Brad Stephens], whose father, Rosemont’s founding mayor, Donald E. Stephens Sr., was dogged by allegations of organized-crime ties and repeatedly investigated by federal authorities before his 2007 death.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Rosemont spokesperson Ryan McLaughlin…
The FBI has not contacted the Mayor of Rosemont, nor any current Village employees regarding the Monterrey Security contract or the public safety department. The Chicago Sun-Times story is fraught with uncorroborated sources and unsubstantiated charges and includes inaccuracies. They appear to originate from disgruntled former employees of the Village. Rosemont takes any and all allegations of misconduct seriously. The Sun-Times story appears to be nothing more than hearsay.
I asked them to tell me what’s inaccurate about the story.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Gary Mack for Rosemont this time…
The allegations against Rosemont are “all” inaccurate. They are baseless charges founded on hearsay of nameless sources. There is no investigation into Rosemont that we know of or have ever even remotely heard about. As to the culture of the police department, the Sun-Times description is patently wrong. Rosemont’s Police Department is one of best, most professionally run in the state. Indeed, for six months now the department has been getting ready to launch a random drug testing program.
As to the contract with Monterrey, Rosemont did not competitively bid it, true, but anyone who knows the village knows that typically we do not bid contracts. We review credentials and make informed decisions. Rosemont is under absolutely no obligation to bid contracts. The current system has served the village well, making Rosemont the envy of municipal government everywhere.
Rosemont’s attorneys are reviewing the irresponsible Sun-Times story and we are weighing our options.
* From the US Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election…
DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying. Based on the Committee’s review of the ICA, the Committee concurs with this assessment. The Committee found that Russian-affiliated cyber actors gained access to election infrastructure systems across two states, including successful extraction of voter data. However, none of these systems were involved in vote tallying.
Russian Access to Election Infrastructure: Illinois
In June 2016, Illinois experienced the first known breach by Russian actors of state election infrastructure during the 2016 election. As of the end of2018, the Russian cyber actors had successfully penetrated Illinois’s voter registration database, viewed multiple database tables, and accessed up to 200,000 voter registration records. The compromise resulted in the exfiltration of an unknown quantity of voter registration data.
Russian cyber actors were in a position to delete or change voter data, but the Committee is not aware of any evidence that they did so.
[Redacted] DHS assesses with high confidence that the penetration was carried out by Russian actors.
The compromised voter registration database held records relating to 14 million registered voters, [redacted]. The records exfiltrated included information on each voter’s name, address, partial social security number, date of birth, and either a driver’s license number or state identification number.
[Redacted] DHS staff further recounted to the Committee that “Russia would have had the ability to potentially manipulate some ofthat data, but we didn’t see that.”
Further, DHS staff noted that “the level of access that they gained, they almost certainly could have done more. Why they didn’t… is sort of an open-ended question. I think it fits under the larger umbrella of undermining confidence in the election by tipping their hand that they had this level of access or showing that they were capable of getting it.”
• According to a Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC) product, Illinois officials “disclosed that the database has been targeted frequently by hackers, but this was the first instance known to state officials of success in accessing it.”
In June 2017, the Executive Director of the Illinois State Board of Elections(SEE), Steve Sandvoss, testified before the Committee about Illinois’s experience in the 2016 elections.
He laid out the following timeline:
• On June 23, 2016, a foreign actor successfully penetrated Illinois’s databases through an SQL attack on the online voter registration website. “Because of the initial low-volume nature of the attack, the State Board of Election staff did not become aware of it at first.”
• Three weeks later, on July 12, 2016, the IT staff discovered spikes in data flow across the voter registration database server. “Analysis of the server logs revealed that the heavy load was a result of rapidly repeated database queries on the application status page of our paperless online voter application website.”
• On July 13, 2016, IT staff took the website and database offline, but continued to see activity from the malicious IP address.
• “Firewall monitoring indicated that the attackers were hitting SEE IP addresses five times per second, 24 hours a day. These attacks continued until August 12 [2016], when they abruptly ceased.”
• On July 19, 2016, the election staff notified the Illinois General Assembly and the
Attorney General’s office.
• Approximately a week later, the FBI contacted Illinois.
• On July 28, 2016, both the registration system and the online voter registration became fully functional again.
Hindsight is 20/20, but you think maybe they shoulda called the FBI when they realized what was happening?
…Adding… OK, my memory is faulty. Most of the timeline was released a while ago.
* Hacking isn’t limited to election data, however…
A computer server of a vendor with city and state contracts to sell Illinois license plate stickers and Chicago vehicle stickers at currency exchanges was exposed to the Internet in May — although city and state officials insist there was no security breach.
But that’s not enough for one Cook County watchdog, who says officials need to conduct a thorough investigation to determine what exactly was exposed and how the mishap occurred before they can give the all clear sign.
“It sounds like they’re making a guarantee, which always worries me,” Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard said.
Despite provisions in Electronic License Service LLC’s contracts with both the Illinois secretary of state and the Chicago city clerk’s office that outline the steps to take after a potential security breach — including a secretary of state guideline to hire a “forensics expert” to conduct an investigation — both offices say there’s nothing to worry about.
* Afternoon email from the National Republican Congressional Committee…
Hey there –
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is facing serious backlash after she was caught on a hot mic calling a Chicago police official a “clown.”
When asked to apologize for her comment, Lightfoot begrudgingly responded, “I’m sorry that I said it out loud.” Really?
Illinois socialists Cheri “Beltway” Bustos, Sean Casten and Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood have yet to comment on Lightfoot’s despicable remarks, which begs the question:
Will Bustos, Casten and Underwood condemn Lightfoot’s comment? Or will they stand with Chicago’s Mayor in disrespecting a 30-year veteran police officer in one of America’s most violent cities?
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is portrayed as wearing clown makeup. Democratic congressional candidates — including an Air Force combat veteran — are labeled “socialist losers” or anti-Semites. Others have been singled out as Lyin’ Lucy McBath, Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood, Little Max Rose and China Dan McCready.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, with the blessing of House Republican leaders, has adopted a no-holds-barred strategy to win back the House majority next year, borrowing heavily from President Trump’s playbook in deploying such taunts and name-calling. After losing 40 seats and the House majority in November, Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the committee’s new chairman, and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, decided that their messaging needed to be ruthless. […]
Ms. Underwood, Democrat of Illinois, is “Fake Nurse Lauren.” (Ms. Underwood, who earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Michigan and worked as a research nurse, never worked specifically with patients.) Representative Collin C. Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota, is “Cranky Collin.”
* NRCC follow-up…
Greetings -
The New York Times recently confirmed that Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood “never worked specifically with patients.” Yet, in an interview weeks before the 2018 election, she lied directly to the camera, saying “I, as a nurse, have looked into my patients’ eyes.”
Yikes.
NRCC Comment: “Lauren Underwood is a fake nurse.” -NRCC Spokeswoman Carly Atchison
* Another classic…
Hi!
Sexist Sean Casten doesn’t think women belong in rooms where impactful decisions are being made. He also believes the best protectors of women’s rights are… men. Specifically himself.
In a fundraising email, Sexist Sean warns Illinoisans that if his challenger - Evelyn Sanguinetti - wins, a Latina woman will be in “those rooms where decisions are made that will impact our nation,” (terrible!) and goes on to presume she wouldn’t protect women’s rights.
NRCC Comment: “Sean Casten is a sexist misogynist who doesn’t think women, especially Latina women, belong in rooms where big decisions are being made. Blatantly fundraising off his misogyny is a new tactic for sexist Sean and we look forward to seeing how it works out in 2020.” -NRCC Spokeswoman Carly Atchison
They’re entertaining to read, but are news organizations actually publishing them? I checked some of their quotes on Google and it doesn’t look like it. So, they’re apparently just shouting into an abyss for now. Maybe outlets will start picking them up as the election nears.
Extending a trend that’s been developing for several months, the Illinois Department of Employment Security today reported that the state has gained nearly 100,000 nonfarm jobs in the past 12 months. That’s the biggest pop since July 2015, when a year-to-year increase of 105,300 was recorded. Figures shortly before that were much smaller and have dropped off since until now. […]
The specific figures come from household surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and IDES. They show that, between June 2018 and this June, total non-farm employment in the state increased 94,700, to 6.266 million, a rise of about 1.5 percent. […]
The recovery appears to be fairly broad-based, with educational and health services, leisure/hospitality and professional/business services all showing healthy gains.
As a result, the unemployment rate continued to drop, off .3 percent to 4.1 percent in the Chicago area and down .7 percent to 4 percent statewide.
The national unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in June.
Across the country, the escalating costs of medical school have driven young doctors away from lower-paying specialties, such as pediatrics and psychiatry, as well as jobs in rural or less wealthy areas.
The lack of primary care physicians is particularly acute in California, which has a growing aging population and the country’s largest Medicaid population — and one of the lowest state reimbursement rates for doctors in the country. California is projected to have a shortfall of 4,700 primary care clinicians by 2025, according to a 2017 report by the University of California, San Francisco.
The new program aims to change that using revenue from Proposition 56, which imposed a tax on tobacco products, to help physicians pay back their loans. It will disburse a total of $340 million. To qualify, the physicians, who receive up to $300,000 each in debt relief, must agree to spend a third of their time with Medi-Cal patients over the next five years. As part of the first round of funding, announced this month, 247 physicians will receive $58.6 million and 40 dentists will receive $10.5 million in debt relief.
Nearly 1,300 providers applied for the awards, according to the Department of Health Care Services. The program’s administrators said they assessed candidates based on personal statements, work history and specialization, among other factors. Applications for the next round of awards will be accepted in January.
Since the state was flooded with applications, maybe they should increase the mandatory five-year service period to ten.
Illinois also has an aging population, very low Medicaid reimbursement rates and shortages of physicians in certain specialties.
* The Question: Should Illinois institute a similar program? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
The capital bill sets aside $80 million to assist mental health facilities all over the state, according to a recent announcement by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. […]
With diminishing financial support, state psychiatric hospitals and community facilities were forced to close their doors. Chicago used to have 20 community facilities, but is currently down to five.
“We used to have 33,000 state psychiatric hospital beds,” [Mark J. Heyrman, facilitator with the Mental Health Summit and Mental Health America of Illinois] said. “Now, we have fewer than 1,200.” […]
“There are areas of the city [and] there are areas of the state where it’s a long drive to get to a community health provider,” he said. […]
While it is unknown where the $80 million will be directed, Heyrman stated 2019 has been good for mental health services in Illinois due to more money from the Medicaid budget, which will be used to build more physical spaces for provisional services.
“This is the best year we had,” he said. “I can’t remember how long it’s been.”
A new Illinois law aims to ensure that parents of justice-involved youth who need costly mental health services don’t have to trade custody for treatment for their child. […]
In the past, [Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert] said, if a child or teen got arrested and it was found what they really needed was mental health treatment, “the delinquency judge would have to adjudicate the child a ward of DCFS and then that could be paid for, otherwise the parents would have to pay out of pocket.”
That meant if parents couldn’t afford the roughly $100,000 a year for residential treatment, they had to choose: keep custody but forgo mental health services and risk the child entering juvenile detention, or give up custody to the Department of Children and Family Services and get them into treatment. […]
Families facing these circumstances in the future could be spared from having to trade custody for treatment, with one caveat: the family must have a state grant known as the “Family Support Program” to pay for the services, or have an application pending with the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
An AFSCME spokesman said that local union leaders who work at McFarland Mental Health Center and representatives from the Illinois Department of Human Services central office had a “substantive meeting” Wednesday morning.
The meeting laid out “concrete steps to address our concerns and make McFarland safer for employees and patients alike,” said Anders Lindall, the public affairs director for AFSCME Council 31. […]
The workplace safety issue seemingly came to a head early last week when a patient choked an employee until she lost consciousness. […]
An earlier news release indicated that employees accused facility management of routinely dismissing violence against staff as “part of the job.” They also said management ignored calls to increase hiring, improve training, provide needed equipment or make other changes to improve safety. […]
Lindall credited DHS representatives for being “responsive to the situation.”
* Related…
* Illinois To Create Online Database Of Mental Health Resources For Students, Parents And School Staff: “But what makes this interesting, and something that we’re supportive of, is the fact that we can be sharing resources with other districts and see other what resources other districts are using to potentially get new ideas or new interventions or new supports,” [Matt Liberatore, president of the Illinois School Counselors Association] said.
* Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) just called me to announce that the “Restore Illinois PAC and the Eastern Bloc” have booked Confederate Railroad for yet another concert.
After Gov. Pritzker’s administration canceled the band’s Du Quoin State Fair performance, a local Harley Davidson dealership booked it to play on September 5th.
Rep. Miller (no relation) said the band will play at the Effingham Performance Center on August 27th, the same day they were supposed to perform at the fair.
“Our theme is ‘JB may give you 21 new tax hikes, but we’re going to give you Confederate Railroad in concert tonight,’” Miller said.
The Eastern Bloc is probably best known for supporting a resolution calling for Chicago to be kicked out of Illinois.
The Restore Illinois PAC is run by Reps. Miller, Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City). It had just $12.65 in its bank account at the end of June, but Miller and Bailey are well-off (and have received lots of federal farm subsidies), so they can probably recharge that account pretty quick.
The Southern country-rock group Confederate Railroad lost a second summer fair gig after objections over the use of the Confederate flag in its logo.
The band’s Aug. 1 date at the Ulster County Fair in New York’s Hudson Valley has been canceled, a spokesman for Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan said Thursday. Illinois this month canceled a state fair appearance by the band, whose logo features a steam locomotive flying Confederate flags.
“The Ulster County Fair must be an event that everyone can enjoy while representing the values of all members of our community,” Ryan said in a prepared statement. “Any showcasing of a symbol of division and racism runs counter to that principle and will be vigorously opposed by my administration.”
Madigan announced Friday that his political organization had retained an “independent counsel” in Kelly Smith-Haley, of Fox Swibel Levin & Carroll, LLP.
Smith-Haley “will provide independent review of allegations, conduct investigations, and provide recommendations for updating policies and procedures, including clear rules for conduct and penalties for violations,” Madigan wrote in a letter to Democratic lawmakers. […]
Smith-Haley’s two brothers, Mike Smith and Bill Smith, both work at Cornerstone Government Affairs - a public relations and lobbying firm that hired another top Madigan aide, Will Cousineau, eight months ago. […]
Smith-Haley confirmed Tuesday that her brothers work with Cousineau, though she said she has “no ties to Cornerstone” and has met Cousineau “briefly” but “never spoken with him in a one-on-one setting.”
“This is exactly what I do for all my clients,” the employment attorney said, adding, “I would not have taken the assignment if I was not going to be independent.”
Madigan’s longtime attorney Mike Kasper asked Smith-Haley, with assistance from others at her firm, to serve in that role after two high-ranking operatives in the speaker’s inner circle were dismissed over misconduct allegations within a week.
Smith-Haley said she and Kasper know each other because their daughters attend school together, but she has never done any work for him before.
“Our firm has been brought on to help the client look at previous investigations to see if it was handled in accordance with their policies and if not what needs to change,” Smith-Haley said in an exclusive interview Wednesday - conducted just after Kasper and Smith-Haley met. […]
J.B. Pritzker, who has received much of the party’s official backing, has also for the first time shared criticism of Madigan’s handling of the situation, saying, “The people investigating Speaker Madigan’s operation should have no political or other ties to the speaker.”
* The Sun-Times puts all that into context for this week’s news…
A lawyer hired by Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan last year to investigate allegations of sexual harassment within his political organization — including those leveled against longtime political aide Kevin Quinn — is the sister of two lobbyists who reportedly paid Quinn $2,000 earlier this year.
Kelly Smith-Haley was retained by Madigan in February 2018 to “receive and investigate harassment allegations” regarding the speaker’s political staff, according to a Feb. 16, 2018 letter Madigan sent to the House Democratic caucus and to staffers. […]
Smith-Haley’s brothers, Mike Smith and Bill Smith, both work at Cornerstone Government Affairs, a public relations and lobbying firm. Bill Smith is a senior consultant, and Mike Smith is a principal and director at the Washington-based firm, which also operates in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune on Wednesday reported Quinn received two checks for $1,000 each from Cornerstone Government Affairs in January, four months before his home was raided by federal agents. It’s not clear what authorities were seeking in the raid.
Among Cornerstone’s clients is ComEd, which has acknowledged being served with a federal grand jury subpoena seeking lobbyist records. The utility’s large stable of lobbyists include many with close ties to Madigan.
It’s like living in a small town. Everybody knows everybody.
It’s a small town, son
And we all support the team
*** UPDATE 1 *** ILGOP…
“It’s hard to believe that Speaker Madigan had no knowledge of $10,000 worth of payments from his close allies to his disgraced former employee, Kevin Quinn after Madigan had dismissed Quinn for sexual harassment. Yes or no, did Speaker Madigan have any knowledge of these payments? Why were his close allies paying Quinn after his dismissal?” - Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Joe Hackler
*** UPDATE 2 *** NRCC…
In case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune is detailing the shady financial dealings of four ComEd lobbyists who are under federal investigation for providing payments to an ousted Illinois political operative.
What else do these corrupt lobbyists have in common? They’ve all donatedthousands to Socialist Loser* Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s congressional campaign! Betsy even appears to be close friends with one of the men under investigation.
Betsy is the first to decry corporate PAC money (even though she’s accepted hundreds of thousands from the DCCC), but will happily take money from corrupt Chicago lobbyists? Yikes!
NRCC Comment: “Socialist Loser* Betsy Dirksen Londrigan is a hypocrite and she can’t have it both ways. Betsy should return every penny from the DCCC and corrupt Chicago lobbyists, or come clean to voters about who is really funding her socialist campaign.” – NRCC Spokeswoman Carly Atchison
*(U.S. House Election Results 2018, The New York Times, January 28, 2019).
*** UPDATE 3 *** Ouch…
To the Democratic Women’s Caucus:
I have now been waiting for a year & a half for you to support me publicly, or even address me by name in a statement. Where are you? What is your stance? We all want to know.
Hey Rich. FYI some high comedy on the Boycott DuQuoin Facebook page amidst all the racism and off-topic posts. Apparently Black Diamond Harley who is hosting the band instead of the fair has altered the band logo without their permission to replace the rebel flags with American flags, and the Facebook group is going ballistic. My favorites are the amateur lawyers spouting legal theories for the band to sue on when the poster can barely spell.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed but I did. Black Diamond took it upon themselves to alter the Confederate Railroad image by removing the Confederate flags & adding the American flag. Dont get me wrong I love Old Glory. But wasn’t this supposed to be a form of protest against the liberal censorship of this band. Black Diamond scheduled a concert for them & we are boycotting the fair because of the censorship but now BD has jumped on the PC bandwagon & CENSORED the band’s album cover……WOW!!! The Band could of done that themselves & still be playing at the fair…..THE MESSAGE GOT LOST SOMEWHERE!!! Oh well they have a sold out show, guess the message doesn’t matter….. UGH!!!
(N)nearly a month after signing the massive gambling package into law, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has yet to name a chairperson and fifth member to the gaming board, which soon will be responsible for scrutinizing a host of gambling interests licking their chops at a slew of new licenses.
What’s the hold-up on Pritzker’s appointments? The process of “working to identify qualified candidates,” the freshman Democrat’s office says.
And insiders say the job is a tough sell.
That’s the best bet for what’s behind the delay, according to two men who previously led the board currently tasked with licensing, taxing and regulating 10 casinos and the 32,000-plus video gambling machines sprinkled across nearly 7,000 establishments statewide. […]
”It’s not an attractive job. Not at all, especially for the chairman,” says retired Cook County Judge Aaron Jaffe, who led the board for 10 years starting in 2005. […]
[Former chairman Don Tracy] estimates he spent up to 400 hours per year on gaming board business on top of his private practice, making several trips a month from the state capital to Chicago for regular meetings with staff.
It is a lot of work and the stipend is $300 per meeting, twice a month.
Gaming expansion is a huge part of the vertical infrastructure funding package. The board has enough members for a quorum, but the Pritzker administration needs to get on top of this. It’s July, for crying out loud.
On Wednesday, July 17th, [congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan] held a joint press conference call with a campaign finance reform group called End Citizens United. The campaign sent invitations to local media and asked them to RSVP.
WCIA has learned an unpaid volunteer working on behalf of the [US Rep. Rodney Davis] campaign crashed the call, lied about his name to pose as reporter for a college newspaper, and ambushed Dirksen Londrigan with pointed arguments, including jabs at her husband’s career.
The caller identified himself as Jim Sherman with The Alestle, the SIUE student newspaper.
According to a call log provided to WCIA, the phone number used to dial into the conference call matched the cell phone number for Nick Klitzing, the former Executive Director of the Illinois Republican Party who most recently worked as the deputy campaign manager for former Governor Bruce Rauner.
Reached by phone, Klitzing confessed to committing the hoax and said, “I was willing to help. I’m just a volunteer.”
Falsely identifying yourself as a reporter is not only highly unethical, it’s also an amateur move and truly stupid.
Confronted with the established facts of the story and Klitzing’s confession, Davis’ campaign manager Matt Butcher initially tried to deny having any knowledge about the phone call.
WCIA gave Butcher another 24 hours to explain how an unpaid volunteer living in Chicago could have possibly been aware of a closed press call happening downstate, and how that volunteer might have known to parrot Congressman Davis’ talking points. Yet, Butcher still declined comment.
It’s unclear if Congressman Davis has any knowledge of the hoax phone call his campaign commissioned, or if he’s aware of WCIA’s persistent efforts to seek any comment or explanation from his campaign manager. His staff has taken the unusual step of repeatedly ignoring phone calls, text messages and emails from WCIA’s political reporters, and no longer sends press releases or notices of media availability to WCIA’s political staff, despite frequent requests to include them in media releases.
I reached out to Maxwell to ask if his station was just being iced out by the campaign or if the government side was also stonewalling. He said both sides had cut the station off.
So, the congressman is refusing to communicate in any way with the largest TV station in his district.
Really smart.
*** UPDATE *** Clarification…
Just to be clear, the Congressman still appears on WCIA’s morning show on occasion, and his DC office sends some releases to our Champaign newsroom. They have stopped communications with our Springfield bureau, even after repeated requests and attempts to restore contact. https://t.co/Yyp5EgUKAJ
