Announcer: The scandal of the century. Our president lacks the mental fitness for office, and Eric Sorensen covered it up. Sorensen met privately with Joe Biden. He witnessed Biden’s mental failures up close, but allowed crises to rage under Biden’s frail leadership.
Now, Eric Sorenson ignores our concerns.
Interviewer: You’re confident in his ability to serve another term as president?
Sorensen: I just don’t think that my opinion matters.
Announcer: Tell Eric Sorensen to stop defending Biden when he knows the truth.
Yesterday, the window to apply to be the next chair of the Illinois Republican Party closed. The applicants for the position are as follows in alphabetical order by last name:
Rep. John Cabello
Aaron Del Mar
Kathy Salvi
A meeting will be held on Friday for applicants to make their case. This meeting is not open to press. When voting occurs, the State Central Committee will decide based on a weighted vote system by congressional district. The district with the most Republican ballots cast carries the most weight, and so on down.
The Illinois Republican State Central Committee (SCC) will be meeting tomorrow to consider how to fill the vacancy left by Chairman Don Tracy, who resigned in June. We are only aware of a couple of candidates who are up for consideration. Of course, we want to see someone who is fully committed to uphold the planks on the sanctity of human life, marriage, family, immigration security and religious liberty.
Therefore, we wholeheartedly endorse Kathy Salvi for the next Illinois GOP chair. In fact, we don’t think we could ask for a better person to serve in that role. The 64-year-old mother of six adult children is the wife of former State Representative Al Salvi (1993-1996), who was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 1996 and Illinois Secretary of State in 1998.
We have complete confidence that Kathy is not only a true conservative, but one who will fight to keep the aforementioned planks in the Illinois GOP Platform.
Angry, Bitter Don Tracy Meddling in IL GOP Chairman’s Race as SSC Rushes Selection to Appoint New State Party Chair
With the Republican National Convention just days away, the Illinois Republican State Central Committee is moving at warp speed to appoint a new state party chairman as Republicans across the state raise concerns about the vetting process and the need for transparency as candidates jockey to be the next leader of the Illinois Republican Party. […]
For the last two years, Salvi has defended outgoing chairman Don Tracy, co-hosted state party fundraisers with Tracy, and was endorsed by gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin during the 2022 election cycle. Irvin was the state party’s favorite candidate – and Tracy’s too, although he won’t admit it – during the 2022 primary, but lost in a landslide to the conservative grassroots-backed candidate by 43 points. And during the primary campaign, it was reported by WTTW’s Paris Schutz that in 2018, Irvin sent text messages calling Trump an “idiot” and a “bigoted racist.” Irvin also texted the friend, “I hate Trump too!”
In conservative circles across the state, many believe that Tracy is propping up Salvi to be his heir apparent, and multiple party insiders have shared with this publication that a backroom deal has been struck that gives Salvi the chairmanship and Jason Plummer – a downstate Republican state senator, the vice chair position. Plummer works closely with Tracy’s sister-in-law, State Sen. Jill Tracy, who serves alongside Plummer in the state senate and is the Senate Republican Whip.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation Wednesday that puts new controls on the state’s health insurance industry, including bans on certain practices companies have used to reduce costs by controlling the amount of health care services a patient receives.
The Health Care Protection Act, House Bill 5395, was among Pritzker’s top legislative priorities during the just-completed legislative session.
Pritzker also signed House Bill 2499, which bans the sale of short-term, limited-duration insurance plans in Illinois – policies Pritzker and other critics refer to as “junk insurance” because they are not required to meet the minimum standards under the federal Affordable Care Act. […]
Among other things, the Health Care Protection Act bars the use of a restriction known as “step therapy,” also known as a “fail first” provision, that requires a patient to try and fail on one or more treatments preferred by the insurance company before they can access a treatment recommended by their doctor.
Gov. Pritzker caught on hot mic at Chicago event saying, "I don't like where we are…" about the presidential race. "I mean, we're just going to keep fighting. I don't know what to say. You know, got to do what we have to do." https://t.co/aaDYk8C4K0
“I mean, we’re just going to keep fighting. I don’t know what to say. You know, got to do what we have to do,” Pritzker was heard saying to a man at the event. “I don’t like where we are, but…”
Jordan Abudayyeh, deputy chief of communications for Gov. Pritzker’s office, said it “sounds like [Pritzker] was talking about the state of the presidential race.”
At 11, Governor Pritzker will attend the opening of new St. Clair County Public Safety Center. At 2:15 he will attend SWIC Manufacturing Training Academy ribbon cutting at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville. Click here to watch.
…Adding… Pritzker was asked about the hot mic comments today…
All I was referring to is, I don’t like the polls, right? Joe Biden is behind by a couple of points nationally. I think we should be doing a lot better. I’ve certainly said that President Biden should get out there more talk to the American public, make sure that he’s communicating about the issues that are important to them and that the Democratic Party stands up for. And so I don’t like the fact that we’re behind, and I think we can do much better. And I’m going to go campaign for him and watch him win in November.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Sun-Times | Ahead of DNC, city officials to close, cordon off one of Chicago’s largest, most visible homeless camps: The “tent city” sandwiched for years between the Dan Ryan expressway and the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street will be cleared out on Wednesday and permanently cordoned off, Brandie Knazze, commissioner of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services, told the Chicago Sun-Times. Nearly all of the 22 residents living there recently in a few dozen blue and orange tents have agreed to move to a city-operated shelter of 60 beds at 100 E. Chestnut St., in the former Tremont Hotel. This year’s inaugural summer-shelter arrangement has been funded through Aug. 31, Knazze said, a little more than a week after the end of the convention expected to draw tens of thousands of Democratic leaders and supporters, as well as protesters.
* CBS | $100 million from State of Illinois to go to anti-violence programs in Chicago: Lori Crowder, the executive director of the Alliance of Local Service Organizations, said a coalition of seven community organizations will be able to use $5 million in new funding for outreach, case management, victim services, employment and education, and mental health and behavioral health services. “What we know to be true is this: when jobs go up, violence goes down,” Crowder said. “When education goes up, violence goes down.”
*** Statehouse News ***
* Tribune | Illinois legislators and CUB urge rejection of water rate hikes requested by Aqua Illinois, Illinois American: Later in 2013, a state law was passed that allows Illinois American and Aqua Illinois to buy up depreciated water and wastewater systems, and charge consumers for the acquisition costs, according to CUB. […] State Rep. Nabeela Syed, a Democrat from Palatine, argued against granting water utilities a rate increase, citing poor service experiences reported by her municipality and others.
*** Statewide ***
* Forbes | Illinois Marijuana Sales Hit $1 Billion So Far This Year: Governor JB Pritzker announced on Wednesday that Illinois hit $1 billion in marijuana retail sales on July 1, 2024. This figure includes over $850 million in adult-use marijuana sales and nearly $150 million in medical marijuana sales. […] Additionally, total marijuana sales for the Fiscal Year (from July 1 through June 30) in 2024 exceeded $2 billion, up from $1.9 billion in FY 2023 to $1.8 billion in FY 2022.
*** Chicago ***
* Tribune | Chicago Public Schools’ $9.9 billion proposed budget purports to close $500 million deficit, for now: The total proposed budget’s $500 million increase over last year’s $9.4 billion reflects facility investments that are “vital to keeping facilities operating safely and smoothly,” according to CPS. Representing the lion’s share of CPS spending, school budgets will cumulatively increase by $149 million compared with the start of last year — a margin that the district attributed to the cost of required services for special education students, state-mandated charter school funding increases and expanded bilingual services. Staff salaries and student benefits make up nearly 70% of the total budget, which will fund more than 800 additional full-time employees this year, CPS announced.
* Tribune | School board candidates present platforms during forum: ‘This is a really big deal’: More than half of the candidates running for one of 10 elected seats on the new, hybrid Chicago Board of Education gathered at a virtual forum Wednesday evening to introduce themselves and their platforms. Funding neighborhood schools, improving disability services and literacy rates, and balancing the district’s budget were among the issues discussed at the event, which was hosted via Zoom by the education nonprofit Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.
* WTTW | Illinois Reparations Commission to Host Public Hearings, Starting in Chicago: The state’s reparations commission is kicking off public hearings across Illinois — with the first taking place in Chicago on Saturday. The commission is tasked with researching and reporting on possible reparatory actions for Black residents who are descendants of slavery. Leaders said the public’s input will be used in developing proposals for policymakers.
* Sun-Times | Fact check: Viral tweet wrongly claims Brandon Johnson blamed Richard Nixon for Chicago violence: But Johnson didn’t blame Nixon for violence in Chicago. The mayor’s only mention of Nixon came after reflecting on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty. “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time,” the mayor said. “We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes and people mocked President Johnson, and we ended up with Richard Nixon.”
* Lake County News-Sun | Lake County Forest Preserves District to expand lakefront footprint: The Lake County Forest Preserves District Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of 18.2 acres of the former Ft. Sheridan adjacent to the Openlands preserve Tuesday in Waukegan, creating a larger footprint along Lake Michigan. With a little more of the Lake Michigan shoreline now in the public domain, Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, said planning should be more long-term than the usual strategic planning.
* Daily Herald | Fire ‘buddies’ helping build pool deck for Schaumburg girl with cerebral palsy: Schaumburg firefighters are continuing their friendship with a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and epilepsy by helping build a deck for the beloved swimming pool she recently received through Make-A-Wish. Kelly Boscardin said her daughter Savanah, though nonverbal, has been delighted by the firefighters since even before she was selected for the Project Fire Buddies chapter served by the local union.
*** Downstate ***
* Forbes | Discover The Midwest’s AI Powerhouse: The University Of Illinois: It was no coincidence that Arthur C. Clarke chose Urbana, Illinois, as the birthplace of HAL, the infamous fictional AI from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Back then, the University of Illinois (U of I) was becoming a powerhouse in the fields of technology HAL represents. Today, the U of I’s Grainger College of Engineering and its brand-new Siebel School of Computing and Data Science constitute a world-leading hub of AI innovation beyond anything Clarke could have imagined. Since 2019, the university has conducted over $270 million of AI-related research projects, spurring advancements in agriculture, biotechnology, education, and other fields while equipping the next generation of inclusive experts with hands-on experience.
* NBC Chicago | Rep. Mike Bost, Darren Bailey among Illinois delegates to 2024 RNC in Milwaukee: According to the list released Wednesday, Reps. Mary Miller and Mike Bost will both be among the delegates headed to Milwaukee to nominate former President Donald Trump for the third consecutive election cycle. […] Each of Illinois’ 17 Congressional districts will send three delegates apiece to the convention, according to the Republican Party’s press release. In addition, 13 at-large delegates will also cast ballots during the event, which kicks off Monday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
* Sun-Times | Downstate man who wore Revolutionary War costume and gas mask at Jan. 6 riot gets 2.5 months in jail: Derek Nelson, 31, of Danville pleaded guilty in March to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., that an “indelible” image of Nelson and a companion appearing as “willing foot soldiers of chaos” crystallized the harm caused “to the perceived stability of our republic.”
*** National ***
* AP | EU accepts Apple pledge to let rivals access ‘tap to pay’ iPhone tech to resolve antitrust case: The deal promises more choice for Europeans. iPhone users will be able to set a default wallet of their choice while mobile wallet developers will be able to use important iPhone verification functions like Face ID, Vestager said. […] The changes that Apple is making are to remain in force for a decade, will apply throughout the bloc’s 27 countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and will be monitored by a trustee.
Employment in skilled nursing facilities nationwide as of February was down 8.3 percent compared with February of 2020, the month before the pandemic hit. Although the current staffing levels have somewhat recovered from their lowest point in early spring 2022 – when staffing was down 15.5 percent from pre-pandemic levels – other areas within health care have recovered much faster, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis […]
But with a tight budget year, leaders in the General Assembly can’t promise a huge windfall for the struggling industry. House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, who leads a working group on Medicaid issues, told Capitol News Illinois the industry asked for $75 million to make up for increased property taxes, which the state had at one time subsidized.
But in the waning days of legislative session, Gabel said the working group is still exploring ways to help the industry but was explicit that General Assembly can’t give the industry anywhere near the $75 million it requested. […]
The industry is also fearful a new federal rule designed to implement minimum staffing ratios will have the unintended effect of further closures. […]
But, Gabel said, the state can only do so much when the entire nursing home industry is up against trends that have been festering for years.
A new federal staffing minimum rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was designed to help those stranded without care like Payne. In May, CMS officially published the final rule of the first-ever federal minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities. […]
But just 108 of the 670 Illinois nursing homes that provided the agency data meet all three of these requirements as of June, according to a WTTW News analysis of homes that submitted their staffing data to CMS. Eleven additional homes did not provide data.
-60% of the reporting nursing homes do not meet the total nurse staffing standard.
-41% do not meet the RN standard.
-81% do not meet the nursing aide standard. […]
If a home does not meet these requirements, there is a set of escalating penalties, like corrective plans of action or fines. Termination from the CMS program is the “enforcement item of last resort,” according to Health and Human Services (HHS) officials.
When presented with the low number of homes meeting the new CMS rules, the Illinois Department of Public Health, which regulates long-term care facilities, said the state already has staffing requirements. Illinois requires a minimum staffing ratio of 3.8 hours per resident per day needing skilled care and 2.5 hours per day for residents needing immediate care. However, repercussions for Illinois homes not meeting these requirements have been delayed until 2025.
*** Adding *** Lindsey Hess, the Communications Director at the Health Care Council of Illinois…
Most Illinois nursing homes are in compliance with Illinois’ staffing mandates, which actually require nursing staffing of 3.8 hours per resident per day (versus the proposed federal mandate of 3.48 hours). HCCI is vehemently opposed to CMS’ proposed plan of staffing mandates; one significant reason is the requirement of registered nurses on all shifts. Currently, CMS requires one registered nurse on duty per day, and licensed practical nurses may fill the remaining open shifts. In Illinois, where Medicaid is the largest payor of nursing home services, it would be unsustainable for safety net nursing homes to replace licensed practical nurses with registered nurses and ensure access to care for elderly citizens. In addition, nursing homes are still recovering from a historic labor crisis, and there’s a growing caregiver shortage. We support increasing the nursing home workforce, but a one-size-fits-all approach will not improve quality care.
* Last year, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning issued a comprehensive report on reforming and improving the area’s mass transit system. An important point that is kinda being lost in the din…
Importantly, in isolation, governance reforms cannot address the longstanding financial challenges northeastern Illinois’ transit system faces. The region needs more resources to succeed. Governance reform can, along with a suite of system improvement and funding solutions, maximize the efficiency of transit functions and strengthen responsible financial stewardship of scarce resources.
Option 1: Integrate the RTA and the service boards into one regional transit entity
The service boards’ current service delivery responsibilities would be divided among service units. The regional agency would be represented by one board and one agency executive. To provide additional opportunities for input, the operating units could be represented by service committees that report to the regional board.
Option 2: Empower a regional coordinating agency to lead transit across the service boards
The three service boards would continue to exist as three separate agencies led by a regional coordinating agency. The service boards would provide transit operations and local service planning, while the regional entity would be strengthened with greater authority and resources to develop regional policies, coordinate comprehensive mobility planning, and allocate funding to the service boards. All four agencies would have their own agency executives and governing boards.
* The transit leaders pushed back hard on those ideas today during a Senate Transportation Committee hearing…
Pace Executive Director Melinda Metzger: Quite honestly, we’ve read the report. We all are in favor, I’m going to speak for us all, you guys can say I’m wrong, but we’re all in favor of doing what’s best for the customer. We all want to do the best job we can. I do not believe that combining us into one organization will make us better. First of all, we all have board members who are local, who understand the local needs, and they give us a lot of input. Secondly, we all have different service areas. I cover, you know, 3,500 square miles, 15 times the city of Chicago. To put us all under one board, the needs of the suburban areas of farther away areas will not be met as well as they’re met right now. The system needs more money. And its Pace’s obligation to provide service in the suburbs. And I think putting us all in one service board will make those needs in the outer areas not as important, not because we don’t want to do it. We all want to do a good job, but just there’s pressures in different organizations. I also believe that we have been very adaptive to what’s going on, because we have this vast service area, and we have some dense areas. We go into the city of Chicago and the suburbs around the city of Chicago, we serve in one way. We have other areas that have no density, yet they still need to have service they need to move people. And I believe that the system we have today allows the input so that we can cover all of our service areas.
CTA President Dorval Carter: The model that’s been set up for governance today didn’t come by accident. It was a really, hardly negotiated compromise between the need for accountability as well as the need for local control over the entities that quite honestly impact those residents the most. In my particular case, 90% of the riders of CTA live within the city of Chicago. The Mayor of the City of Chicago believes that he is responsible for public transportation, and the governance model for CTA reflects that. I believe that the City of Chicago and CTA are both of the opinion that the governance model is not the problem here. It doesn’t need to be adjusted. The issue is getting the funding levels to work the way they’re supposed to, which will drive the decisions that I think everybody wants to see happen here, along with the ongoing collaboration I think you have between our agencies as we as professionals work to find ways to make our service better, more convenient and more efficient to our customers.
RTA Chair Kirk Dillard: The president said it very, very well. Funding cures most ills, and as I said in my opening remarks, over a 40-plus-year period, multiple general assemblies, multiple governors and multiple mayors have set up this governance structure with lots of input for a reason. I certainly do not believe the Civic Federation’s number that they put out. As I told you, the RTA might have 90 employees. Of that 90, if you back out those who take care of reduced fares and do the clerical things that we do, it’s a handful of people that really have the oversight responsibility. There’s value in maintaining an oversight responsibility outside of the day to day operations. These folks are up to their eyeballs in alligators every day. It’s very similar to an external auditor reviewing an internal auditors work. One of the reasons we have the lowest operating cost per mile, aside from the fact that we have a funding problem historically, is that the RTA does help hold these folks accountable. And if you let the operations people determine the ultimate budget they’re going to want to spend. So some oversight by us is, but I agree with them, they certainly need more money, but the RTA system does hold costs down, even though we need to really, really ratchet up the operations funding and capital too of the system. But funding cures most of the ills that all of you in the public have spoken about.
Metra CEO / Executive Director Jim Derwinski: I don’t think I could have said anything more than my colleagues at the table here have said, other than the fact we just hit 40 years this year, and looking back and trying to understand how we were formed, why we were formed. I did a lot of reading as well, reading the General Assembly floor remarks from 1983 when we amended the RTA Act. I read a bunch of the materials from 1973 debates, and actually found a thesis paper that went back to the beginning of time, almost 1870 and what transportation looked like here in Chicago. And really the problem has never shifted. It is a funding issue. If we adequately fund the system, the operators can do the right things. And I think the one thing that we all get, maybe victims of our own success. We do operate the leanest system in the country. We keep getting, we keep making it happen when we don’t have the right resources. And because of that, certain other things don’t happen. But we keep being victims of their own success by running as lean as we run. So I don’t know where the savings would be, and the combination of a bigger board … But in either case, I think it’s important that the local representation, meaning in our case, the collar counties and suburban cook have some voice, and what happens with Metro operations, and that could get minimized or lost in a grand board.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
…Adding… ICJC…
In response to today’s Senate Transportation Committee subject matter hearing on how public transit supports the economy, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition (ICJC) released the following statement:
“Today we heard four transit agencies defend a status quo that simply isn’t working for current or potential riders who want a system that is more safe, more reliable, and more affordable. The status quo isn’t working for taxpayers who are paying for duplicate bureaucracies performing overlapping functions instead of funding one agency that improves transit across Chicagoland,” said Dany Robles of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.
“We also heard from everyday riders who spoke about the essential role the region’s mass transit system plays in their lives. Transit is critical to our region’s economic vitality and an affordable, reliable public transit system is an irreplaceable tool to ensure equity and accessibility for everyone.
“The State of Illinois funds just 17% of transit operating costs, well below its peers. We know the path to more state funding starts with the reforms in the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act.
“Without confidence in an efficient and equitable governance structure, we won’t be able to secure the funding to operate the world-class transit system we deserve.”
