* Unless he wants to activate our relative small number of National Guard military police, this could turn out to be a disaster…
That rumor was everywhere yesterday, but an administration official told me the idea sounded “crazy.” Even so, there is some support within GOP leadership.
* I briefly embedded with the 233rd Military Police Company of the Illinois National Guard in Iraq back in 2003. Many of the soldiers were cops back in the real world. They were also incredibly well trained and some of the lessons they taught me have stayed with me ever since. From my story back then…
“The infantry would have lit him up,” said a member of the 233rd during the patrol. The MP was referring to a night not long ago when an Iraqi teenager aimed a red laser pointer at his face.
“I found him in three seconds,” the soldier said. The teenager was immediately determined to be nonhostile, so he was given a stern warning and let go.
The differences between MPs and the infantry were repeatedly evident during the all-night patrol. The MPs, the soldiers said, are trained to clearly identify a threat before opening fire. And they are warned against firing back if it could injure any innocent bystanders. The infantry, they claimed, is just not suited to the task of policing.
Late that night, the MPs were driving up the “wrong” side of a four-lane boulevard when a dark-colored van came speeding toward them from around a curve.
The van driver, perhaps blinded by the oncoming headlights, did not stop immediately but slammed on his brakes shortly before slamming into one of the MPs’ two Hummers.
The tension was high during the split second when it appeared that a head-on collision was imminent, but the MPs calmly exited their vehicles, politely ordered the man out of his van, gently frisked him, quickly searched his car, asked why he was out after the 11 p.m. curfew, and then sent him on his way with smiles on their faces.
Activating the National Guard to deal with Chicago violence is an old idea. Some Democrats demanded it back when Rod Blagojevich was governor. Blagojevich was eventually convinced not to do it.
The Guard can be useful for things like protecting a certain piece of property, or controlling large crowds or distributing food and other aid. But if we send them out on neighborhood patrols, some bad things could happen.
*** UPDATE 1 *** The Rauner administration just reiterated to me that these rumors are not true and the governor is not calling out the National Guard.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Mary Ann is sticking by her story…
But Gov. Rauner was asked today whether a poll was commissioned about calling out the National Guard. “Absolutely not,” he said.
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* One of the reasons why I haven’t posted any candidate statements on Chicago’s violent weekend is that most of them were just empty finger-pointing. Rex Huppke’s new column takes aim at several folks on this very topic, including JB Pritzker…
I’d like to ask each and every Illinois politician and political candidate scrambling to condemn this past weekend’s outbreak of gun violence in Chicago to please shut up.
All of you. Please. You’re flapping your gums and pointing fingers and tossing out useless bromides and generally making nuisances of yourselves.
Take Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, who on Tuesday saw fit to leverage Chicago’s insanely violent weekend — 74 shot, 12 killed — to go after Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, blaming the governor for the shootings. Pritzker said funding cuts to social service programs under Rauner’s watch have led to an uptick in gun violence across Illinois.
Please explain to me, Mr. Pritzker, how that’s helpful right now? I’m one of the last people anyone would expect to stand up for Rauner, and I agree that properly funded social service programs are a key to stemming violence in Chicago and elsewhere, but what good does a transparently political jab like that do in this moment?
I’ll answer that: None.
Rauner’s campaign called Pritzker’s comment “shameful,” and I agree. Unless your mouth is able to utter some sensible, well-thought-out, comprehensive solutions to a problem that has plagued Chicago for decades — a problem no politician or political candidate past or present has seen fit to properly address — then silence is your best option.
* But, to be fair, Pritzker and his running mate did do more than just point fingers…
Pritzker said “violence interruption on the streets” is probably the quickest way to address the gun issue in Chicago. “These are all things that can be deployed if the state will have funds available and make funds available for those. Those are things that can happen this weekend, next weekend and should happen on a consistent basis,” he said. […]
“In terms of this specific weekend, it’s nothing that’s just going to be a Band-Aid approach where you can say, ‘OK. Let’s just do something, just kind of, you know, address an issue really quickly,’ ” Stratton said. “We have to make sure there’s investment and that requires a long-term vision for these communities.”
* And connecting the impasse to the violence spike is not a new thing…
In 2013 and 2014, the years before Rauner took office, the number of homicides in Chicago dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s with 420 and 415 killings in those years respectively. In 2015, Rauner’s first year as governor and the first six months of the budget impasse, the number of homicides grew to 468 before surging to 750 in 2016 — a level that had not been seen in two decades.
In 2017, there were about 650 homicides. Through the first half of this year, Chicago was on pace for a double-digit drop in the number of homicides compared to last year but still on track to far outpace the numbers in 2013 and 2014, statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune showed.
But is it causation or correlation? According to the Tribune, Pritzker said yesterday the violence spike was “almost concurrent with the defunding.” He also said the defunding of human service progrms “has led to this problem.” And he said that when those programs are defunded, budgets are vetoed and violence interruption programs aren’t prioritized, “then gun violence will increase.”
Fair or unfair hit?
…Adding… To clarify, I meant was the hit on Pritzker fair, but I suppose we could expand this to mean was Pritzker’s hit on Rauner also fair or unfair.
…Adding… From October of 2013…
The city of Chicago has cut funding for a model anti-violence program, deciding to focus instead on community policing and other strategies to combat the city’s high murder rate.
The program, CeaseFire, sends former gang members into targeted neighborhoods to defuse conflicts before they erupt into violence. FRONTLINE featured some of the CeaseFire operators earlier this year in The Interrupters, tracking their efforts to intervene in gang violence, stopping revenge shootings and curbing fights.
Plenty of blame to go around here.
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Caption contest!
Tuesday, Aug 7, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Last week…
The governor signed the bill the very next day. Why 21 stars? We were the 21st state, so that’s how the flag would’ve looked after we were admitted in 1818.
* Today…
* I asked the bill’s sponsor Rep. Tim Butler if he had a photo…
[Originally posted photo was replaced with a much better one.]
Photo credit: Brian Bowles.
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* AP…
The Libertarian candidate for Illinois governor, who’s campaigned against the state’s child-support system, engaged in a shouting match with a judge about money he owes his ex-wife and access to child visitation.
The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports Grayson Jackson balked at scheduling a meeting with his daughter at a neutral family visitation center. Lake County Judge Joseph Salvi questioned whether Jackson would show up as his gubernatorial campaign was taking a lot of time.
Jackson replied he was forced to run because of his treatment and wouldn’t be treated as a second-class citizen.
* The AP brief doesn’t really catch the full flavor of the original story, however…
“If I say you can see your daughter two or three times a week, will you show up?” Salvi asked, adding “this governor thing is taking up a lot of your time.” […]
A shouting match started as Salvi questioned Jackson’s statement he was “forced” to run, and Jackson reiterated the legal system is rigged against him. The argument ended when Salvi threatened to incarcerate Jackson for contempt of court.
“I handle over 650 cases in this courthouse, and I have never met someone as self-centered or egotistical as you,” Salvi said. […]
Jackson was in court because he owes $6,067 in fees to his ex-wife for child support, education and other related expenses. Salvi told Jackson in May at least $3,067 needed to be paid by Monday or Jackson would be jailed.
He told Salvi the money was paid through a third-party internet child support program. Salvi agreed to wait two weeks to see if the payment surfaces.
Jackson also asked Judge Salvi to recuse himself because his brother Al Salvi once mused on Facebook that he’d like Jackson to step aside so he could run for governor.
*** UPDATE *** I’m thinking Judge Salvi is gonna get the last word on this one…
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* JB Pritzker a year ago…
“One of the things you may or may not like about my candidacy is I’m not raising money. The reason that I chose not to do that was predominantly because Bruce Rauner, who people think self-funds, actually takes tens of millions of dollars from the Koch brothers’ network,” Pritzker recently said.
“And I want you to know that when I stand up in front of you and tell you that I’m for a progressive income tax, and that I’m gonna fight for $15 and that I’m gonna make sure we legalize marijuana, that those are the things I really believe,” Pritzker said. “And there’s nobody who’s gonna call me in the middle of the night who backed me, who wrote me a check or something, who’s gonna say to me ‘You can’t do that thing you said you were gonna do because we won’t back you in the next election.’”
* Last week…
Democrat J.B. Pritzker’s governor campaign reported more than $120,000 in donations, ostensibly aimed at his “Blue Wave Illinois” effort to help build the state party and help its lower-ballot candidates in November.
The donations reported Wednesday include $89,200 from Robin Loewenberg Tebbe, chief marketing officer of the Magellan Development Group. She’s been a past donor to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, giving him a total of $10,700 in contributions in 2014 and 2016.
Pritzker received an additional $25,000 from Chicago attorney and consultant Sheli Rosenberg. She’s previously given nearly $44,000 to retiring Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s campaigns since 2006 and an additional $40,650 to the abortion-rights group Personal PAC since 2000, state campaign finance records show.
* So, I asked the Pritzker campaign how the candidate reconciles his statement swearing off contributions last year with his current fundraising, even if it is for his “Blue Wave Illinois” campaign. The response from Galia Slayen…
JB has been an independent leader and thinker his entire life and that won’t change when he is governor. While JB continues to fund his own campaign, he is proud to be supporting Democrats up and down the ballot with field, digital, and fundraising through Blue Wave Illinois 2018. This is a statewide, grassroots operation ready to beat Bruce Rauner, elect candidates who will fight for working families at all levels, and lay a foundation of both donors and volunteers that will help elect Democrats for years to come.
I’m thinking that’s not really an answer.
I’ve asked the Rauner campaign for a response.
*** UPDATE *** From Will Allison at the Rauner campaign…
Pritzker is fully embracing his corrupt relationship with Mike Madigan by funding Madigan’s candidates.
Well, at least he stayed on message.
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* We’ve seen a lot of political/campaign reaction to the mass shootings in Chicago this past weekend. But I wanted to focus on the Chicago City Council Black Caucus’ press release yesterday that had their reaction. Here’s an excerpt…
We know that the public, particularly in the neighborhoods most directly afflicted, supports strong, coordinated and collaborative efforts between the Chicago Police Department, neighborhood organizations and congregations, and social services. We need to significantly increase investment in recreational programs and opportunities for our young people to be employed. We need means of intervention and interruption and de-escalation of conflicts between groups of young people. The organizations which do gang-intervention work and help young people to walk away from violence need increased support and funding in order to do the work that can help stem the warfare.
We call upon the Mayor and our colleagues in the City Council to take immediate action to release emergency funds and make sure that the police, the violence interrupters, the social workers and the health care workers have every resource to increase the peace and stop the carnage on our streets. Let’s treat this emergency which is taking the lives of our people, with the same urgency as we would a hurricane or an earthquake.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** Greg Hinz interviewed a couple of BC members…
What the city most needs to do is ramp up its closure rates on crimes and shootings for which no one has been arrested, Dowell continued.
“The criminals are emboldened. They don’t think they’ll get caught.” The answer likely includes more police detectives, Dowell said, but also requires more cooperation by community members with police.
Sawyer, who hopes to hold a caucus meeting later this week to come up with a specific plan, underlined Dowell’s point about “solving the crimes that already are on the books.”
In many cases, “People know who did these shootings. But no one wants to police what’s going on,” for reasons including distrust and fear of gang retaliation,” Sawyer said. “Investment always is important. But if you don’t solve the crime, it won’t work.”
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* 2017…
Phil Gonet, president of the Illinois Coal Association, said the state produced 62 million tons of coal in 1990 and employed about 10,000 people in the industry. By 2014, though, he said, coal employment plummeted to about 4,500 workers statewide, while overall production budged only slightly, to 58 million tons.
“We produced about the same amount of coal as we did in 1990, with about half the people,” he says.
And in 2015, Gonet said, more than 57 percent of Illinois’ coal production came from a handful of mines that use longwall mining, a highly mechanized technique that removes large sections of coal at a time.
The increasing use of mechanization means that even if the industry were to recover, there would be fewer jobs to be had.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, 3,219 people were employed in Illinois coal mines in 2016.
* From the US Department of Energy…
(N)et generation from coal sources declined by 53 percent between 2006 and September 2016, while electricity generation from natural gas increased by 33 percent and solar by over 5,000 percent —from 508,000 MWh to just over 28,000,000 MWh. The solar growth only includes utility-scale facilities. In fact, between September 2015 and September 2016 alone, distributed solar photovoltaic generation increased 35 percent nationwide, while estimated total solar —both utility-scale and distributed generation—increased by 52 percent across the country.
These shifts in electric generation source are mirrored in the sector’s changing employment profile, as the share of natural gas, solar, and wind workers increases, while coal m ining and other related employment is declining . It is important to note, however, that the majority of U.S. electrical generation continues to come from fossil fuels (coal and natural gas) and that, under latest EIA modeling in the Annual Energy Outlook 2016, will continue to provide 53% of total U.S. electricity in 2040.
* With that in mind…
…Adding… BND…
You’d be hard-pressed to find a town more closely identified with coal mining than Marissa, Illinois.
More than a dozen coal mines operated within a 3-mile radius of the village during its first 100 years. Its annual homecoming is known as the Marissa Coal Festival. A massive miners monument stands in the park, and a “Coal Country” exhibit greets visitors at the entrance of the history museum. […]
Enter Chad Easton, Marissa’s new 37-year-old mayor. He has found himself in the unlikely position of promoting solar energy as a way to help the former coal community cope with high power costs.
Plans call for construction of two solar farms, one 5 acres and one 11 acres, on village property on the west edge of town. Officials expect them to eventually provide all the electricity for the wastewater-treatment plant and most of it for other village buildings, saving thousands of dollars a year.
“That’s a big change,” said Easton, who got interested in solar while serving as a village trustee, before he was appointed to replace retiring mayor Jerry Cross last month.
The future is not coal.
*** UPDATE *** From the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition…
Republicans and Democrats who worked to pass the Future Energy Jobs Act recognize that the foundation of Illinois’ jobs economy lies in renewable energy. There is nothing “radical” about this rapidly growing industry, its job creation rate that outpaces Illinois’ overall jobs growth, billions of dollars in new private investment, workforce development training, and the cost savings it brings to consumers and communities throughout the state.
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