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Tuesday, Sep 20, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Khouri zooms into the lead… on improper property tax exemptions

Monday, Sep 19, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Daily Herald has been looking into these sorts of stories for a while now, but they hit the mother lode on a candidate without much hope of winning…

A DuPage County Board member making a bid for Congress improperly claimed a number of homeowner exemptions on properties her family is renting out, a Daily Herald investigation has found.

Republican Tonia Khouri of Aurora, who is running against Naperville Democrat Bill Foster in the 11th Congressional District this fall, listed rental properties in Aurora as supplementary sources of income on the financial disclosure report filed in mid-May with the clerk of the House of Representatives. […]

But the Kane County and Aurora Township assessors offices, where the rental properties lie, confirmed the Khouris also received primary homeowners exemptions on homes on High Street from 2012 through 2015, on North Ohio Street in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and on Elliott Street in 2014 and 2015, all homes which are being rented out by the Khouris. Together, the Khouris have received more than $6,000 in exemptions for the properties, records show. […]

Khouri is not the first candidate to be found to be taking extra exemptions. The Daily Herald reported in 2013 that Gov. Bruce Rauner claimed $1,616 in extra homeowner exemptions on a Winnetka home, a Chicago penthouse and a condo, and that Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth was claiming two exemptions on homes in DeKalb and Hoffman Estates at the same time for a total of $1,928 in extra exemptions. Last fall, the Daily Herald also reported that Arlington Heights Trustee John Scaletta had claimed an extra $4,200 exemption on a second property.

* Meanwhile, in other congressional campaign news…

Watch our latest ad! CJ opposes bad trade deals. Rep. Bost voted to "Fast Track" the TPP trade deal. pic.twitter.com/9SKBhnK8m0

— CJ Baricevic (@CJforCongress16) September 19, 2016

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Question of the day

Monday, Sep 19, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* If you click below and go to about the 8:30 mark [fixed link], you’ll hear Gov. Rauner yet again refuse to answer a question today about who how he’ll be voting for president…

Click to listen

You’ll recall this statement from earlier this year…

“Now is the time to come together, now is the time to unite, up and down the ticket,” Rauner told the convention. “What we can’t do is let Hillary Clinton get in the White House. No way Hillary Clinton is getting elected.”

And this…

Rauner repeatedly had sought to stay out of the presidential race, though he did say that as leader of the GOP in Illinois, he would back the eventual nominee. But Rauner aides stressed there are various levels of “support”

* The Question: Why do you think that Rauner is refusing to respond to this question?

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Another goofy idea

Monday, Sep 19, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I don’t really think that driverless cars are going to be a real issue for quite a long time. If you look carefully at the breathless write-ups about Uber’s splashy “no-driver” car rollout in Pittsburgh, you’ll see that the cars do, indeed, have drivers who had to take control at various points in the demonstrations and the drivers require special two-week training classes before they get behind the wheel.

My main concern is that policymakers shouldn’t succumb to Uber and the other big players’ expected attempts to get the government to somehow subsidize this stuff or set aside big chunks of city streets for the ~~ice cream of the future~~ cars.

But this is a bit much…

Hours after Uber launched driverless cars in Pittsburgh, aldermen proposed an ordinance to ban driverless cars in Chicago.

Aldermen Ed Burke and Anthony Beale proposed the ordinance Wednesday in a City Council meeting, calling it a “preemptive strike” after Uber’s announcement it was beginning a pilot of self-driving cars.

“We do not want the streets of Chicago to be used as an experiment that will no doubt come with its share of risks, especially for pedestrians,” Burke said in an emailed press release from the city’s Committee on Finance. “No technology is one-hundred percent safe.”

Sigh.

They’re not even here yet. They’re not even driverless yet. Take a breath already.

* For whatever reason, Ald. Burke decided to appear on Dan Proft’s radio show. You should really give this a listen. Burke is raked over the coals about his proposed ban and the city’s less than stellar governance. I don’t think he realized what he had gotten himself into…

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*** UPDATED x1 - Duckworth response: “a lie, pure and simple” *** Duckworth “whistleblowers” appear in TV ad for Kirk

Monday, Sep 19, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Tribune…

Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk is launching a new TV ad today featuring the two women who sued his Democratic challenger, Tammy Duckworth, for alleged workplace retaliation during her tenure as head of the state’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

A judge in Union County has not acted on the case, in which the attorney general’s office in June said that a $26,000 settlement had been reached with no finding of wrongdoing, only to see the plaintiffs subsequently say later that they didn’t agree to it.

In the new 30-second Kirk attack ad, the two plaintiffs, Christine Butler and Denise Goins, who work at the Anna Veterans’ Home, try to make their case to the public while an announcer accused Duckworth of “covering up the abuse” of veterans.

* The ad…

* Script…

Goins: She said to me point blank: keep your mouth shut and you won’t be fired.

Announcer: Veterans abused under Tammy Duckworth’s watch. When whistleblowers came forward, Duckworth fired and threatened them - covering up the abuse.

Butler: Director Tammy Duckworth was trying to protect Governor Blagojevich. I believe she put her personal aspirations ahead of the veteran’s care.

Announcer: Duckworth is a war hero. But she’s been a terrible public servant.

Butler: The veteran was not Tammy Duckworth’s top priority.

I’m Mark Kirk and I approve this message.

*** UPDATE *** Response…

“The story this ad purports to tell is a lie, pure and simple, and Senator Kirk knows it. The lawsuit was called a ‘garden variety workplace case’ by a federal judge, and has been dismissed in whole or in part three times. Indeed, the plaintiffs agreed to settle the case for what the Attorney General called ‘nuisance value,’ before Senator Kirk cynically recruited them to star in a political commercial. Tammy Duckworth, a decorated combat veteran, has spent her entire adult life defending our country and assuring that Veterans are treated with respect. Tammy gets her own health care from the VA, and she makes no apology for fighting to assure that Veterans are given nothing but the highest quality care. Senator Kirk, on the other hand, has lied at least ten times about his own military record. He continues to plumb the depths of campaign vitriol, desperately spinning yarns of his own military glory, while baselessly attacking his opponent’s dedication to our Veterans. Kirk’s claims are pathetic. He should salvage what’s left of his dignity, apologize to Veterans, and pull this shameless ad.” — Matt McGrath, campaign spokesman

Background info is here.

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