* 11:53 am - That poll I told you about earlier today had a couple of other items that weren’t originally published…
Over half of Illinois voters (55%) said that Gov. Blagojevich is doing a “poor” job in office. Just under a third (31%) said he’s doing a “fair” job, while 13% said he’s doing a “good job.”
The General Assembly fared only slightly better: 26% said it was doing a “poor” job while a majority (52%) said the General Assembly is doing “fair” and 17% ranked its performance as “good.”
Remember, this poll was conducted before the Tony Rezko verdict and the end of session meltdown. Oof.
[402 interviews were conducted… by telephone April 21 through May 4, 2008… The margin of sampling error for the Illinois survey is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points at the 95% level of tolerance… The survey was funded by the Joyce Foundation]
* 12:00 pm - Via the SJ-R’s flood blog, check out the interactive news map for the Flood of 2008.
* 12:09 pm - From a press release…
Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today added St. Clair and Edgar counties to a state disaster declaration, a move that will expedite state assistance needed to help Edgar County in southeastern Illinois recover from recent storms and flash flooding and St. Clair County battle flooding along the Mississippi River. The Governor also announced that the state’s public health director will be visiting public health departments in western Illinois Thursday to ensure medical and health needs are being met in counties affected by historic Mississippi River flooding.
* 12:54 pm - Guv orders cancellation moratorium…
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich directed the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to impose a 60-day moratorium on the cancellation of any insurance policy for late payment by policyholders who live in counties impacted by the recent storms and flooding. The moratorium covers the insurance policies of families and business owners in all of the counties designated as disaster areas by the Governor since June 10, 2008.
* 1:53 pm - With a hat tip to PI, MSNBC reported about an hour ago from Quincy…
* 3:36 pm - From a press release…
Several thousand state employees, retirees and their families will rally at the State Capitol in Springfield on Monday morning, June 23, then march to the Hilton hotel downtown, site of scheduled negotiations over a new union contract between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.
The state workers and their families will come from all over Illinois to express their growing impatience with the slow pace of contract negotiations and the Blagojevich Administration’s insistence on massive economic concessions from workers, including higher pension contributions and sharply increased health insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays.
* 4:46 pm - I’ll bet 20 bucks he never pulls the final trigger on this…
A rumor that State Rep. Jack Franks plans to announce a 2010 gubernatorial bid at a Monday fundraiser is not true, the Democrat from Woodstock said Thursday.
Franks, a long-time and harsh critic of embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said he is mulling a run for the office. But he said any decision he makes will not come until after the presidential election. […]
The rumor stemmed from a Sunday column by Sun-Times gossip columnist Michael Sneed, who said she heard that Franks would enter the race at an annual fundraiser held for him by Chicago 33rd Ward Alderman Richard Mell and other Democratic politicians. […]
“I think that Sneed just got a bit overzealous,” Mell said.
