* Illinois Review…
Joe Walsh for U.S. Senate 2014? While the title is just a teaser but the former Illinois congressman and current talk show host is talking about it. He spoke to about 60 people Tuesday night for the Chicago Young Republicans monthly business at the Hubbard inn.
Walsh brought up the U.S. Senate race. He said he Is giving “serious consideration” to running against Dick Durbin. Of course, he would have to win the GOP primary first.
On the other hand, last Saturday Walsh told Will County Tea Partiers he was focused on helping other candidates in 2014.
FYI, there are also rampant rumors about a possible Walsh primary bid against Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
*** UPDATE *** IR…
Within minutes of posting that former Congressman Joe Walsh told Chicago Young Republicans he’s “seriously considering” a bid against Dick Durbin in 2014, sources told Illinois Review that Walsh associates are telling people he’s taking a serious look at challenging Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and that Club for Growth is encouraging him.
“We won’t confirm to whom we have or haven’t spoken concerning a primary in the 16th CD,” Club for Growth’s Barney Keller told IR, “but we’re certainly interested in talking to a pro-growth alternative to Kinzinger.”
“Adam Kinzinger is one of the biggest RINOs in the U.S. House,” Keller said, and listed several votes Kinzinger made in the past year that were opposite of the Club’s positions. “He voted for the fiscal cliff, opposed the budget conservative Congress members supported. He was one of only ten Republicans that voted for a bill that was one of Nancy Pelosi’s pet projects for her San Francisco district.”
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* This story has been getting some play…
It took more than four days for the Illinois Department of Corrections to capture escaped prisoner Jared Carter. The hunt involved more than 100 department employees, as well as helicopters, airplanes, and state police personnel. But there’s one thing that was left out of the search due to Illinois state budget cuts: a prison canine unit.
To help slash his state’s budget, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn nixed five dog-handling jobs in the department last year, according to information obtained by The Quad-City Times. And, without handlers, that meant Gov. Quinn had to lay off the dogs.
Local police dogs were used in the search, which the Department of Corrections says worked out fine.
* But there were some items in Kurt Erickson’s original story unrelated to the search for the escaped prisoner that stood out for me. For instance…
The unit was in place primarily to search cells for drugs and contraband, and to sniff out problems with visitors and vendors.
Without those dogs, the guards have to do the cell and visitor searches on their own, so contraband could get by them.
* And then there’s this…
Along with having no dogs within the agency to search for fugitives, Shaer confirmed that one of the guard towers was not staffed when Carter walked off.
But, he said, Carter’s departure spot could not be viewed from the tower anyway. “The tower being manned was not a factor,” he added.
Oy.
*** UPDATE *** From AFSCME’s Anders Lindall in comments…
Due to staff cuts, Tower One at Robinson is closed save for three approximately hourlong periods each day. Contrary to Shaer’s claim, frontline employees at Robinson report that Tower One is located just 200 yards from where the escape occurred and has a direct line of sight over the area.
Perimeter security has also been reduced at Robinson due to lack of staff. A van that used to patrol the facility’s perimeter 24-7 is now in use only from dusk to dawn, and even then not continuously as the van driver also performs other duties.
So at the time of this escape, the tower nearest the site was closed, there was no patrol outside the perimeter - and no canine unit to respond.
All this at a facility more than 200% overcrowded. Built for 600 inmates, Robinson had 1,209 at the department’s last quarterly report to the General Assembly.
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Door quotes
Thursday, Sep 12, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* House Speaker Michael Madigan’s press secretary Steve Brown reacting to Gov. Pat Quinn’s angry denunciation of the pricey Statehouse renovations…
“It looks like the governor’s a couple days late, possibly jet-lagged from his trip to Japan, because he took his usual Sunday morning press conference cheap shot and did it on a Tuesday afternoon.”
Ouch.
* And not everybody is up in arms about the alleged scandal…
A spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont), whose office is in the newly renovated wing, defended the expenditures and the project, in general.
“At this point in time, any spending on anything can be made to look extravagant,” Radogno spokeswoman Patty Schuh said. “But this is part of a long-term, long-range maintenance and restoration plan for a historical building that has 200,000 people in it every year. The bulk of the project is the beyond-necessary mechanical fixes, ADA access and life-safety and fire code requirements.”
* Meanwhile, there’s more than a little doubt that the governor’s “suspension” of funding for more Statehouse construction actually means anything…
“It’s up to the governor whether to make that money available for bidding and construction purposes,” Blanchette said. “And that’s what he’s doing, is holding up the release of funding for items that have already been placed in the budget by the General Assembly, until such time as things can be carefully examined.”
But no money has actually been appropriated for the north wing yet. So is anything actually being halted?
“No, there’s nothing to stop at this point,” UIS Political Science Professor Kent Redfield said.
Redfield believes this was a purely political move by the governor.
“It’s election season, and the state is having a lot of really bad fiscal problems,” Redfield said. “And so this becomes an issue that you can be against it, and particularly since you can’t have any impact on what’s happened, then it’s a pretty easy thing to take a public stand on it.”
…Adding… I forgot to post this one…
Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, who’s also trying to win the Democratic nomination for governor, says Quinn is ultimately responsible.
“The problem with the governor’s action is, he was asleep at the switch when all this funding was approved,” says Daley’s campaign manager, Tom Bowen. “So this action is typical of Gov. Quinn: too little, too late, reacting to a mistake that’s already been made.”
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* 9:57 am - The Illinois Supreme Court has issued two gun-control rulings that are undoubtedly bringing great cheer to the NRA.
In the first, People v. Aguilar, a person was arrested in his own friend’s Chicago yard because he was holding a pistol. The Supremes cited the Heller decision and the 7th US Circuit’s recent landmark public carry decision (Moore v. Madigan) to knock down the arrest as unconstitutional…
if Heller means what it says, and “individual self-defense” is indeed “the central component” of the second amendment right to keep and bear arms (Heller, 554 U.S. at 599), then it would make little sense to restrict that right to the home, as “[c]onfrontations are not limited to the home.” Moore, 702 F.3d at 935-36 […]
Of course, in concluding that the second amendment protects the right to possess and use a firearm for self-defense outside the home, we are in no way saying that such a right is unlimited or is not subject to meaningful regulation. See infra ¶¶ 26-27. That said, we cannot escape the reality that, in this case, we are dealing not with a reasonable regulation but with a comprehensive ban. Again, in the form presently before us, section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) categorically prohibits the possession and use of an operable firearm for selfdefense outside the home. In other words, section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) amounts to a wholesale statutory ban on the exercise of a personal right that is specifically named in and guaranteed by the United States Constitution, as construed by the United States Supreme Court. In no other context would we permit this, and we will not permit it here either
However, the defendant in the case was just 17 years old at the time of his arrest and the Supremes decided that the statute regarding age minimums was constitutional…
…for present purposes, we need only express our agreement with the obvious and undeniable conclusion that the possession of handguns by minors is conduct that falls outside the scope of the second amendment’s protection
* The second case, Coram v. Illinois, involved a man who pled guilty to domestic battery in 1992 and paid a $100 fine. At the time, there was no prohibition against Coram possessing a firearm or receiving a FOID card. When he applied for a FOID in 2009, however, he was denied based on a 1996 federal law. The Supremes upheld his right to a FOID card. Read it here.
*** UPDATE *** From John Boch of GunsSaveLife.com in comments…
Our take on the decision: The IL Supreme Court has said today that until and unless the Illinois State Police begin issuing carry licenses, Illinois has a flat prohibition on carry of firearms outside the home and that, ladies and gentlemen, has just been recognized and determined to be in violation of the right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the second amendment to the United States Constitution.
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