* Wordslinger sent me an email in October of 2017 ahead of the Illinois bicentennial entitled “Bicentennial/Ebert/Prine/Goodman.” He was referring to Roger Ebert, John Prine and Steve Goodman…
I’d like to see those cats carved on the Illinois State Library, because they’re the best Illinois writers of their time.
Amirite?
I’m serious about this, I’m going to ask for your help.
I want to see it before Johnny dies.
Unfortunately, Wordslinger passed away last year and Prine passed earlier this year. We have some unfinished business to attend to here.
I told you in March that when this crazy pandemic was over, I planned to urge Secretary of State Jesse White to consider having Ebert’s and Prine’s names carved into the state library. A high-level official reached out to me later that day to say he would be up for it. Goodman should be on there, too. Let’s get this done.
To commemorate the life of Illinois native John Prine and celebrate his writing and musical contributions, Governor Pritzker has proclaimed Prine an Honorary Poet Laureate of the state. The legendary singer-song writer, who was born in Maywood, passed away on April 7, 2020 after contracting COVID-19. Prine is the first to receive such an honorary designation.
“I have no doubt that John would be proud and delighted to receive this recognition from his home state of Illinois,” said Fiona Whelan Prine, wife of John Prine. “Although he had moved to Nashville in the early 1980’s, he continued to visit Chicago, and Maywood in particular, to spend time with his family. John continued to follow Chicago sports teams and had never found a hot dog, pizza or Italian Beef sandwich to rival the originals. Watching John, as I did many times, play to an Illinois audience was always thrilling. A home boy delighting in the love and approval of his loyal fans - some of them family, longtime friends, old school buddies and neighbors.”
Whelan Prine added, “John had a great respect for Writers of all kinds. He regarded Poets as being among those whose work carried weight, relevance and elevated craft. It is such an honor for me, our sons, and the entire Prine family to acknowledge that our beloved John will be named an Honorary Poet Laureate of the State of Illinois. Thank you, Governor Pritzker, for this wonderful recognition.”
* Prine’s last song was released earlier this month. He still had it…
I remember everything, things I can’t forget
Swimin’ pools of butterflies would slip right through the net
And I remember every night, your ocean eyes of blue
I miss you in the morning light like roses miss the dew
*** UPDATE *** From Henry Haupt at the Illinois SoS…
Rich,
We think this is a great idea. We are looking into this to see what steps are needed and what — if any — other agencies must be involved.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced today the July 1st deadline for issuing adult-use cannabis craft grower, infuser and transporter licenses has been temporarily suspended. Due to the previous application deadline extension and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Pritzker issued an Executive Order to extend the deadline. The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) will announce a new date to issue up to 40 craft grower licenses, up to 40 infuser licenses, and an unlimited number of transporter licenses. View the Executive Order here.
“The Pritzker Administration is committed to creating a fair and equitable adult-use cannabis industry in Illinois. IDOA is helping achieve that goal by providing Illinois residents, specifically those who live in communities that were disproportionately impacted by the failed war on drugs, with multiple entry-points to this new industry,” said Jerry Costello II, Acting IDOA Director. “The COVID-19 pandemic and the 6-week deadline extension granted to applicants have caused unforeseeable delays in the application review process. The Department is working tirelessly to ensure that applications are scored and awarded in a fair, deliberate and equitable manner.”
Once determined, IDOA will publicly announce the new date for issuing licenses.
The deadline is tomorrow and they’re just announcing this today? This, by the way, is the third time the licensing process has been delayed.
The delays could be catastrophic for some applicants, particularly those who were paying to hold real estate for grow facilities. The setbacks also threaten efforts to diversify the largely white industry.
“We’re going to have to write another check to the landlords to hold the building,” said Jamil Taylor, who leased a South Side building for a grow facility through the end of July. “That definitely puts us in a tough spot … We have to shell out thousands and thousands of more dollars.”
Under the law, grow license applicants had to secure property in advance. Taylor, who applied with a group for grow, transporter and dispensary licenses, said some groups won’t be able to afford an indefinite delay, and could lose their properties.
Social equity applicants are particularly at risk, Taylor said.
Unacceptable.
…Adding… Some of y’all in comments just haven’t been paying attention. The authority he has to delay these things is provided for in Sections 7(1) of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act…
Sec. 7. Emergency Powers of the Governor. […]
(1) To suspend the provisions of any regulatory statute prescribing procedures for conduct of State business, or the orders, rules and regulations of any State agency, if strict compliance with the provisions of any statute, order, rule, or regulation would in any way prevent, hinder or delay necessary action, including emergency purchases, by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, in coping with the disaster.
Illinois’ minimum wage will bump up to $10 on Wednesday. The move brings employees one step closer to the state’s checkpoint of $15 by 2025. However, some aren’t happy the state is moving forward with the increase during the current pandemic. The $15 minimum wage plan was the first bill Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in 2019. Workers saw the first increase to $9.25 per hour on January 1, 2020. The momentum isn’t slowing down due to COVID-19, as workers can expect an extra 75 cents an hour next month.
Minimum wage workers will make $10 while tipped employees will get at least $6 per hour. Teen workers will see a boost to an $8 minimum wage. Some business owners are concerned they won’t be able to pay everyone and may have to cut down on staff.
Republican lawmakers hoped Pritzker would pause the payment ramp during the pandemic to lessen the bleed for businesses. However, the state’s Department of Labor is moving forward as planned.
Um, how could the governor or IDOL “pause” the minimum wage increase on their own without legislation? The article doesn’t say.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he won’t delay an increase in the state’s minimum wage, which he pushed for and signed into law during his first year as governor.
That state’s minimum will increase to $10 an hour on Wednesday.
Shortly after taking office in 2019, Pritzker enacted a phased increase to the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. The first of two increases was Jan. 1 of this year going from $8.25 to $9.25 an hour. The second increase this year is set for Wednesday.
Again, how was the governor going to “delay” a minimum wage increase on his own without legislation? The article doesn’t say.
…Adding… From the other end of the spectrum…
Join us in demanding Gov @JBPritzker cancel rent and mortgage payments, especially during this moment of mass unemployment. He can lift the ban on rent control, but he has yet to do so. Click here to get involved from home:https://t.co/mxA3LxijA0
— Grassroots Collaborative (@GrassrootsChi) June 30, 2020
Only 17 states and Washington, D.C. are currently meeting minimum targets for doing enough coronavirus testing, according to a new analysis.
The Harvard Global Health Institute, in collaboration with NPR, finds that 14 states and Washington, D.C. are doing enough testing to mitigate the spread of the virus, meaning it won’t be eliminated but it will not spread out of control. An additional three states are meeting a higher threshold of doing enough tests to suppress the virus and prevent almost any new cases. […]
The 14 states along with Washington, D.C. doing enough testing to mitigate the spread of the virus, according to the analysis, are: Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The three states meeting the higher goal of suppression-level testing are Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska, with West Virginia, Montana, and New Jersey close behind, the analysis finds.
*** UPDATE 1 *** There is, however, a problem with Illinois prisons. Here’s Hannah Meisel…
The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) has tested less than three percent of its prison population for coronavirus — a ratio that criminal justice reform group Restore Justice Illinois says is unacceptable, as Covid-19 cases in a northwest Illinois prison facility spike.
According to IDOC, 71 incarcerated men at the East Moline Correctional Center tested positive for Covid-19, along with five staff members. That number has steadily climbed since Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration first acknowledged the outbreak two weeks ago, when 26 inmates and three staff members had tested positive.
That rapid spread is a symptom of IDOC’s failure to formulate an adequate Covid-19 testing plan, according to a new report from Restore Justice published Tuesday. The group blasted IDOC for not reporting more data to the public, including how many prisoners are currently hospitalized with the virus and timely reports of Covid-19 deaths among incarcerated populations and prison staff.
“More than any other state, [Illinois has] embraced the most vigorous Covid-19 safety measures and protocols,” Restore Justice President Jobi Cates said Monday. “It baffles me how we could be in late June and still have only tested under three percent of prison population.”
The Department has been closely following the CDC guidelines and working with Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) based infectious disease specialists to develop strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID 19 in Department facilities. The guidance we have received has not advised utilizing mass testing. However, the Department tests symptomatic offenders, uses focused prevalence testing, screens selected subpopulations, and screens offenders prior to inter-facility movement and medical furloughs. The Department also requires that staff be screened prior to entering facilities. The screenings include responding to a series of COVID related questions and having their temperatures taken. In the event that staff have any of the COVID-19 symptoms outlined in the screening document and/or have a temperature they must go home. The Office of Health Services constantly reviews the evidence and remains open to modifying current practices based on expert guidance.
The University of Illinois System’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA) today released a report on COVID-19’s impact in the state’s prisons and jails. […]
The Policy Spotlight says testing should be prioritized in areas where there is a greater risk of the virus either being carried into the facility by staff from the region or spilling over into the community. The spotlight suggests that while the Illinois Department of Corrections has made progress on giving inmates some access to cleaning and hygiene supplies and COVID-19 testing, the conditions still need to be improved.
The controversial lawsuit case between Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and Gov. JB Pritzker has regained momentum.
Both parties have waited weeks for a decision on where the case would continue. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gilbert Sison remanded the case back to Clay County on Monday.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office wanted consideration in federal court on May 21. Bailey’s Attorney, Tom DeVore, immediately filed a motion to remand the case to Clay County.
“It is a fundamental principle of federalism that federal courts may hear only certain claims, such as those raising ‘federal questions’ or ‘arising under’ the laws of the United States,” Sison wrote. “A defendant may not remove a case to federal court unless, at the time of removal, a plaintiff’s complaint establishes that there is federal jurisdiction.”
* Bailey’s attorney won’t be awarded legal fees, however. From the opinion…
In his emergency motion to remand, Bailey asks the Court to order the Governor to pay his reasonable fees and costs incurred during the period of time this action was pending in this court. […]
Bailey vigorously argues that Governor Pritzker’s decision to remove this case was frivolous and in bad faith, but the Court disagrees. The removal was timely. The face of the complaint arguably seeks to vindicate constitutional rights, like the right to travel and the right to free exercise of religion, without specifying that it refers only to rights secured by the Illinois Constitution. The Court seriously considered whether Bailey unintentionally pleaded himself into federal jurisdiction by raising a claim under the United States Constitution with this lack of specificity, and the decision in his favor was a close call. As such, the Court does not find that Governor Pritzker lacked an objectively reasonable basis for seeking removal. Thus, the Court will not award any fees under Section 1447(c).
*** UPDATE *** We apparently have a court date…
Thursday July 2, 1:00 pm Clay County Circuit Courthouse, Louisville Illinois. The beginning of the end for J.B. Pritzker!!
A national face mask mandate could act as a substitute to renewed lockdowns that would otherwise deduct about 5 per cent from gross domestic product, Goldman Sachs analysts argue as a number of states in the US have paused or reversed easing measures in response to growth in coronavirus cases.
“We find that face masks are associated with significantly better coronavirus outcomes,” according to Jan Hatzius, economist at Goldman Sachs. “Our baseline estimate is that a national mandate could raise the percentage of people who wear masks by 15 percentage points and cut the daily growth rate of confirmed cases by 1.0pp to 0.6 per cent.”
Goldman said it analysed the impact of face mask mandates in 20 American states and the District of Columbia between April 8 and June 24 and data on mask usage from YouGov and found that they raise the percentage of people who “always” or “frequently” wear masks by around 25pp in the 30 days after the order is signed. They estimate that a national mask mandate would increase usage by “statistically significant and economically large amounts” in states that currently do not require it.
Despite the rise in coronavirus cases mask usage remains a political issue in the US and is voluntary in a number of states. Goldman found that mask usage is highest in the Northeast, which was particularly hard hit by the pandemic, but where conditions have now improved, while the numbers are far lower in the south.
Arizona, Texas and Florida, which were among the first states to reopen and have seen a jump in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, have all reversed easing measures. Indeed, Goldman Sachs analysis found that reopenings have been delayed or reversed for about 40 per cent of the US population, which has raised fears about fresh lockdowns.
• Grundy County States Attorney Jason Helland
• Illinois State Representative Darren Bailey
• Constitutional Lawyer Thomas Devore
• Teacher Tonya Sneed
• Parkview Christian Academy Board President Jed Davis
• Event organizers Dawn Gregory, Kayla Brooks Null and Michael Rebresh
Helland was clobbered by Secretary of State Jesse White in 2018. He’s been a regular at these rallies.
