*** UPDATED x1 *** Burke claims he was set up
Thursday, Aug 20, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Jason Meisner at the Trib…
Lawyers for indicted Chicago Ald. Edward Burke alleged in a court filing Thursday that federal investigators bungled the wiretap of Burke’s phones and improperly tried to set him up in a scheme involving the Old Main Post Office that forms the backbone of the case.
The allegations came in a motion to suppress the evidence gleaned from the wiretap on Burke’s cell phone and City Hall office, which allowed the FBI to monitor thousands of conversations the alderman made and received over the course of nearly a year.
The 71-page motion accuses prosecutors of directing then-Ald. Daniel Solis to have “scripted interactions” with Burke and lie about the Post Office deal in an effort to curry favor w/the government. At the time, Solis had himself been recorded “committing a number of different crimes,” the motion stated.
Burke’s lawyer wants those wiretaps suppressed.
…Adding… More…
*** UPDATE *** Seidel…
Burke’s team insisted that Solis told prosecutors “he had never been involved in any criminal wrongdoing with Ald. Burke — with whom he had served in the City Council for almost twenty-five years.” […]
Burke’s lawyers say he was targeted by the feds, and that Solis wasn’t the first government cooperator to work against him. They said that, from Feb. 2, 2015, until Aug. 13, 2015, an unnamed cooperator from another federal case in Chicago was “contacting Ald. Burke regularly in an attempt to develop evidence against him.”
“Here, again, the government came up empty-handed, and yet it zealously pressed on,” Burke’s lawyers wrote.
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* Daily Herald…
Facing a federal tax evasion charge, state Sen. Terry Link has announced he will resign as leader of the Lake County Democratic Party effective Sept. 15.
But some prominent Democrats — including Lauren Beth Gash, a former state representative who’s the first vice chair of the party in Lake County and in line to succeed Link — aren’t pleased with that timetable as campaigns for the Nov. 3 presidential election are heating up.
“We are working hard to elect Democrats who share our values in the fall. We don’t want distractions,” said Gash, of Highland Park. “We are communicating with Terry about an earlier resignation or a special meeting to accomplish that.” […]
“While some of you might assume my resignation is related to what you may have read in the news, those who truly know me and know my character and loyalty to the Democratic Party know there has to be more to the story,” [Link] wrote. “I can assure you that there is a lot more to the story. Unfortunately, at this time I am unable to comment on any of this.”
He won’t be able to appoint his own Senate replacement if he doesn’t resign his legislative seat pronto. No word yet on that.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
Fifty percent of Lake County Democratic precinct committeepersons call for a special meeting
Today, more than 50% of Lake County Democratic precinct committeepersons called for a special meeting of the Lake County Democratic Party to confirm new leadership.
In order to call a special meeting, only 25% of precinct committeepersons are needed, according to Lake County Democratic Party rules. In less than 24 hours, already more than 50% percent of the committeepersons united to call for the meeting.
Lake County Democrats will be setting a meeting shortly to ratify this transition.
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Pritzker will extend eviction moratorium
Thursday, Aug 20, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday to extend the state’s eviction moratorium that’s been in place during the coronavirus pandemic, citing concerns that households need more time to catch up with rent while assistance fund applications are pending.
In a letter to Pritzker and Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Dart urged the current Saturday expiration date be postponed until all city and county rent relief grants are dispersed.
“Like you, I have been tremendously concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, not just on the health and safety of residents, but on the economic future of the entire community,” Dart wrote. “Obviously, it would be incredibly harmful to proceed with evictions when these funds are on their way to rescue so many tenants and landlords.”
Dart, whose office is in charge of enforcing evictions in Cook County, said while the current pause in evictions has helped, struggling renters remain anxious that the looming deadline on the moratorium is too soon. He wrote that waiting until the money is paid out will stop hundreds of thousands of Cook County residents from being pushed out of their apartments.
* I asked the governor’s office for a response. Here’s Jordan Abudayyeh…
The moratorium will be extended at the end of this disaster proclamation.
…Adding… Press release…
Many families are suffering a COVID-related loss of income but so are many of the people who provide them with their homes. In this COVID era, the cost of providing housing has increased while rental income has declined due to the inability of many tenants to pay their rent.
Michael Glasser, president of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance (NBOA), said, “Chicago’s housing market is fragile right now, and housing providers need support. In order for tenants to be secure, housing needs to be stable and we need the federal government to increase relief for struggling renters and housing providers working to keep people in their homes.”
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* AP…
The number of laid-off workers seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose to 1.1 million last week after two weeks of declines, evidence that many employers are still slashing jobs as the coronavirus bedevils the U.S. economy.
The latest figures, released Thursday by the Labor Department, suggest that more than five months after the viral outbreak erupted the economy is still weak, despite recent gains as some businesses reopen and some sectors like housing and manufacturing have rebounded. Jobless claims had fallen last week below 1 million for the first time since March, to 971,000. A rising number of people who have lost jobs say they consider their loss to be permanent.
The total number of people receiving unemployment aid declined last week from 15.5 million to 14.8 million, the government said Thursday. Those recipients are now receiving far less aid because a $600-a-week federal benefit has expired, which means the unemployed must now get by solely on much smaller aid from their states. The loss of the federal benefit has deepened the struggles for many, including a higher risk of eviction from their homes.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to provide $300 a week in federal unemployment aid, with money drawn from a disaster relief fund. Twenty-five states have said they will apply for the federal money, though they would need to revamp their computer systems to do so. Other states are still considering whether to take that step; two have said they won’t.
* Illinois…
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 21,956 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 10 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday. […]
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 22,387 new claims in Illinois new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 3 in Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 24,712 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 27 in Illinois.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimated 32,465 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 20 in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported 36,435 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of July 13 in Illinois.
* Meanwhile…
The Illinois unemployment system may not be doing enough to protect benefits recipients from scammers who hijack their accounts and move money in their own accounts.
Some believe the Illinois Department of Employment Security could have prevented this if they had taken one more simple security step: two factor authentication.
Two factor authentication is a text or email sent to a device you possess to confirm you made a change to an account. The text or email includes a code which is used to confirm the change. It’s often used for social media, credit cards and bank accounts, among other things. […]
“It never gives you the opportunity to put in a numbers where you can get an SMS text,” said scam victim Russel McFeely.
McFeely lost $1,800 when a criminal hacked his IDES account and moved the benefits into another account.
*** UPDATE *** IDES…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate fell -3.2 percentage points to 11.3 percent, while nonfarm payrolls added +93,200 jobs in July, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The June monthly change in payrolls was revised downward from the preliminary report, from +142,800 to +142,300 jobs. The June unemployment rate was revised downward from the preliminary report, from 14.6 percent to 14.5 percent.
The July payroll jobs estimate and unemployment rate reflects activity for the week including the 12th. The BLS has published FAQs for the July payroll jobs and the unemployment rate.
The state’s unemployment rate was +1.1 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for July, which was 10.2 percent, down -0.9 percentage points from the previous month. The Illinois unemployment rate was up +7.4 percentage points from a year ago when it was 3.9 percent.
In July, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were: Leisure and Hospitality (+65,300), Education and Health Services (+14,100) and Professional and Business Services (+8,400). The industry sectors with the largest payroll declines were: Manufacturing (-4,600), Construction (-3,300) and Information (-1,200).
“While we’re happy to see the unemployment rate and payrolls moving in the right direction, IDES remains committed to serving our claimants’ needs during this continued unprecedented time,” said Acting Director Kristin Richards. “As we move through this period of uncertainty, the Department is working as vigilantly as possible to rise to the challenge and provide benefits and employment services to those who need them.”
“While data from July demonstrate continued progress in the face of extraordinarily challenging economic times, it’s clear the pandemic is continuing to have an unprecedented effect on our economy. Evidence from other states has shown that ensuring public health is the quickest way to an economic recovery,” said Michael Negron, Acting Director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). “With that in mind, DCEO remains committed to investments that will support Illinois businesses and residents facing the most acute effects of this crisis, while making continued progress under Governor Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan to safely reopen our state economy.”
Compared to a year ago, nonfarm payroll employment decreased by -508,000 jobs, with losses across all major industries. The industry groups with the largest jobs decreases were: Leisure and Hospitality (-164,000), Professional and Business Services (-81,300) and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-62,900). Illinois nonfarm payrolls were down -8.3 percent over-the-year as compared to the nation’s -7.5 percent over-the-year decline in July.
The number of unemployed workers fell sharply from the prior month, a -25.2 percent decrease to 705,600 but was up +179.8 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force was down -3.9 percent over-the-month and -3.2 percent over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work. [Emphasis added.]
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* I’ve been hearing all day that the governor’s “Fair Tax” TV ad blitz is finally starting soon. Well, Comcast’s latest political issue buy report is out and Vote Yes For Fairness has purchased $75K over five days starting tomorrow. Click here.
I gotta figure that broadcast TV will also be announced and that the $75K is a drop in the bucket. Pritzker deposited $51.5 million into the Vote Yes For Fairness account in June.
We’ll have to see what the other side does and when. There are those who believe that waiting to go up on the air has been a mistake. But, again, we’ll see.
*** UPDATE *** The Illinois Opportunity Project has contributed $300,000 to a committee called Say No to More Taxes, which the IOP appears to control. The IOP was co-founded by Dan Proft, who has since moved on to a full-time radio career.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Your daily Big Jim post
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a column I wrote a month after Bruce Rauner took office…
Every governor over the past 25 years—Republican and Democrat—has learned a lesson from Gov. Jim Thompson.
Every governor except one.
Running for re-election in 1982, Thompson was in the fight of his political life, and the Republican speaker of the House was making things worse.
Illinois had plunged into recession under Republican President Ronald Reagan, and Thompson was running against a household name, former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III.
Then, House Speaker George Ryan of Kankakee allowed an anti-union “right to work” bill to move to the House floor. Organized labor was furious. Thousands of workers gathered on the Statehouse lawn in June to angrily denounce Ryan. Thompson was met with a resounding chorus of boos when he took the stage.
But those boos turned to cheers when Thompson vowed to veto the bill. He then invited the crowd to the governor’s mansion for free beer.
In the November election, the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed Stevenson against Thompson. But the incumbent received crucial backing from several individual unions after Stevenson suggested things like replacing unionized highway workers with prison inmates.
Thompson defeated Stevenson by just 5,000 votes. His speech and a sharply divided labor movement were crucial to his success—even though Ryan, whom the unions despised, had become his running mate.
After the election, Thompson signed a bill to legalize collective bargaining for state employee unions. He interceded in contract negotiations to break an impasse, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed his 1986 re-election bid, followed quickly by an AFL-CIO endorsement.
Every governor since then has learned the Thompson lesson: Keep state workers happy.
Well, every governor except the current one. We’ll get to him in a moment.
What ended up happening was that union contracts got better and better for the employees. Republican Govs. Jim Edgar and Ryan were kind to the unions. And AFSCME claimed that Gov. Rod Blagojevich negotiated the most generous contract in the nation. Union negotiations in 2010 were satisfactory enough that AFSCME immediately endorsed Pat Quinn after the talks ended and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign.
Gov. Bruce Rauner deems this history “corrupt.” Quite a few people agree with him. The gazillionaire governor also claims that the millions of dollars he contributed to his own campaign last year and the millions he raised from his billionaire buddies are exercises in “freedom of speech.”
But you can’t on the one hand claim that contributions from billionaires are a constitutional right and on the other hand claim that contributions from working people are corrupt.
Plus, despite all this alleged “corruption,” Rauner won the election. The balance of power has substantially shifted.
His recent attempt to withhold some dues from the unions via executive order probably won’t succeed any time soon. Attorney General Lisa Madigan says Rauner is up against established case law and intends to fight him. Based on Madigan’s legal opinion, Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Rauner appointee, has said she won’t follow the order, effectively nullifying it.
Governors aren’t the only folks who learned from Jim Thompson. Legislators did, too. So, it’s highly doubtful the Democratic-controlled General Assembly will join any fight to undermine public employees’ legal rights.
A more adversarial relationship would be good for taxpayers in the short and the long run. But being adversarial is far different from this comically futile vow to destroy the other side. This could easily backfire and hurt everything else Rauner wants to do.
I asked the former governor what he thought of the current governor’s attacks on the unions. Thompson refused to criticize a sitting governor but said I was free to use any of his past comments.
Here’s one from 2013: “You can disagree with AFSCME, you can disagree with the teachers, you can disagree with other public employee unions without demonizing unions.”
…Adding… Pretty sure I’ve told you this before, but I watched a film of that “right to work” speech in college and it was a masterful performance that has stayed with me ever since.
Thompson was greeted by thunderous booing, but quickly calmed things by saying “Where’s Local (whatever number) from (whatever town)?” The union local members hollered and clapped and the whole tone changed. And by the time he announced that he would veto the bill, he had them eating out of the palms of his hands. I’ve never seen anything like it. That took real guts and real skill.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker just announced that the state has set up an electronic guestbook where you can sign your name and share your memories. Click here.
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