The Blagojevich administration has expanded a state health insurance program to cover more adults, even though a legislative committee rejected the proposal earlier this week. […]
“JCAR’s role is merely advisory - it does not have the constitutional authority to suspend the regulation,” Abby Ottenhoff said in an e-mail. […]
“The administration may be inviting the legislative branch to sue,” Leitch said.
Ottenhoff would only say that the governor’s office has no plans of its own to challenge the committee’s authority in court.
According to an internal memo obtained Friday by GateHouse News Service, Family Care caseworkers were told to begin signing up Illinoisans who earn as much as 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $82,600 for a family of four. The income cap had been 185 percent of the poverty level, or $38,203 for a family of four.
Every now and then, usually when I’m distracted elsewhere, I ask readers to come up with their own ideas for our “Question of the Day” series. That day has arrived yet again.
Question: What QOTD would you suggest? Explain, if you can.
* Yesterday, in an ironic twist, the Southern Illinoisan published a letter to the editor from Christopher A. Koch, the State Superintendent of Education. Koch bitterly complained in the letter that the House had not yet approved a budget implementation bill, which had already passed the Senate…
The price of the House’s unfinished business is hundreds of millions of dollars for local schools - $547,117 for Carbondale Elementary School District 95; $404,485 for Carbondale Community High School District 95; $430,960 for Trico CUSD 176.
By not approving the implementation bill that authorizes the State Board of Education to release these dollars, school districts have to put on hold plans to hire new teachers, reading specialists or tutors, as well as the purchase of new textbooks or laboratory equipment.
This simply isn’t right. I ask you to contact your legislators and urge the House to pass legislation that allows schools to receive the funding they were promised.
Trouble is, the House has, indeed, passed a BIMP bill and the Senate quickly followed suit. The letter had apparenty been sitting in the Southern’s in-box for several weeks and nobody at the editorial page bothered to check if the Superintendent’s complaint was still valild.
Oops.
* But here’s the rub: The governor has not yet signed that BIMP bill, which Superintendent Koch was so impatient to see enacted when he wrote the original letter…
Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch had little to say on the matter Thursday.
“The BIMP is under review,” she wrote in an e-mailed response.
* Over a month ago, Superintendent Koch had this to say…
State School Superintendent Christopher Koch wrote to local school chiefs that general state aid payments would decline beginning in November unless Blagojevich and lawmakers agree to raise the foundation level. Through October, the board intends to make general state aid payments at last year’s levels.
“We cannot continue to pay … at (fiscal) 2007 levels past the second payment in October,” Koch wrote.
* And more than two months ago, Gov. Blagojevich was whacking Speaker Madigan for not hurrying up already…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent letters to every school district in the state Friday, warning local superintendents that inaction by lawmakers means they’ll lose millions in state money.
In the letter, the governor laid the blame squarely on House Speaker Michael Madigan, a fellow Chicago Democrat he has squabbled with all year. […]
“The Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, is the only person who can call an implementation bill for a vote,” Blagojevich writes in the letter.
Get on with it, already.
* More budget and session stuff, compiled by Paul…
* Daley: Republican leaders making CTA a scapegoat
* This isn’t getting a whole lot of play in the big media, but it’s significant…
(S)ix of the 12 [Midwestern] governors signed a greenhouse gas accord that would set up a cap-and-trade system to reduce the gases over the coming decades. The governors haven’t agreed yet on how much emissions will be lowered, but several states are developing plans to cut emissions 60% to 80%.
Environmental groups hailed the agreement as significant because it would put the Midwest in a position to capitalize on its strength in renewable energy, such as wind and biofuels, as movement builds to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Midwest is now breaking the logjam when it comes to changing global-warming policy in this country,” said Howard Learner, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.
Congress will take notice that states that rely heavily on coal are ready to reduce emissions, he said
That includes Illinois, where Gov. Rod Blagojevich this week made the “difficult” decision to sign on to the accord, Learner said; the task was tougher for Blagojevich than for most Midwestern governors because Illinois is a coal-mining state with coal-mining jobs and 60 coal-fired power plants.
Those six states were Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Illinois ranks sixth in the nation for the most carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Indiana, which didn’t sign the agreement but did sign onto other pledges, ranks third.
“I’m proud to join my fellow Midwestern governors to strengthen our energy security and fight global warming. America’s heartland is ready to lead our nation toward a smarter, cleaner energy future because Illinois and the Midwest can’t – and won’t – wait for federal action,” said Gov. Blagojevich. “We can have economic prosperity, energy security and a healthy environment at the same time – because innovation and investment in next-generation clean technologies will make us more competitive and create jobs, while saving energy and cutting greenhouse gases.”
* This is part of a national move to try to do something about an issue that has Washington, DC paralyzed…
The Midwestern governors expressed similar impatience with the slow pace in Washington on global warming and energy issues. They have banded together to set up a regional emissions control program, to expand production of biofuels and to cooperate on environmental and energy infrastructure projects, like an interstate pipeline for moving carbon emissions from power plants to underground storage vaults.
Gov. James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, a Democrat who is chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association, said that the individual states in his region were all moving independently toward greater energy efficiency and planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that it made sense to work in concert.
“In the absence of a federal plan we have to move forward,” Mr. Doyle said, speaking from Milwaukee, where he was the chairman of an energy summit meeting of the Midwestern governors. “On top of that, this recognizes that, federal plan or no federal plan, the Midwest is uniquely positioned to be a major force in the developing new energy world.”
He predicted that sooner or later Washington would adopt a national cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, but he was not optimistic that it would act before President Bush leaves office.
2 percent energy efficiency improvement in natural gas and electricity by 2015 and 2 percent annually thereafter. And the leaders pledge to have at least one commercial advanced coal gasification facility delivering power by 2012, capable of being fitted for carbon capture. Also by that year, they agree to site and permit a pipeline to transport that carbon dioxide for use in enhanced oil and gas recovery.
The city this year will collect more than a half-billion dollars in property taxes from little-understood but fast-growing tax-increment financing (TIF) districts — six times as much as the controversial tax hike that won narrow approval Wednesday in the City Council.
A report issued Thursday by Cook County Clerk David Orr said the take from Chicago’s TIFs for the tax year for which bills just went out is $500.4 million. That’s $114 million more than last year, a 29% increase, and represents more than a tripling compared with just five years ago.
* Just how big is this pile?
For instance, revenues from just the two largest of Chicago’s more than 100 TIF districts will exceed the $144 million in property taxes Cook County will spend on its network of public hospitals and health clinics.
After averaging $60 million in annual growth between 2001 and 2005, TIF revenues exploded by $114 million between 2005 and 2006, 57 times the roughly $2 million the entire program took in 20 years ago. The city’s total take since the first TIF was created in 1984? $2,534,701,105.72.
* The Civic Federation has one idea to help deal with this situation…
The federation wants TIF spending to be included in the annual city budget, rather than handled in isolation on a case-by-case basis.
What we have here is an off-budget account controlled almost soley by Mayor Daley. That money could go a long way towards solving a lot of problems, including the CTA and, in Cook County, the public hospital situation. Instead, it’s used for other stuff, like “creating jobs”…
(A)ccording to a recent article in Crain’s Chicago Business, city officials are proposing to fork over a $40 million TIF handout to CME Group Inc., the combine created when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange bought out the Chicago Board of Trade.
As part of the merger, CME plans to fire over 400 employees […]
In this case, the city’s effectively offering CME $100,000 property tax dollars for every job it eliminates.
* TIF districts, which allow municipalities to siphon off all income from property tax growth from schools and other governmental units into tightly controlled accounts, can do a lot of good. But they’ve obviously gotten way out of hand and need to be reined in. With a huge percentage of the city now within TIF districts, taxpayers can expect a whole lot more tax increases in the future and/or reduced services.
* Little Lip’s situation just gets more bizarre all the time. Kristen McQueary had an excellent column this week that we unfortunatley overlooked. The piece is about the all too convenient connections between Congressman Dan Lipinaksi and his father, former Congressman Bill Lipinski. Here’s a little background…
Dan and William Lipinski share office space at 5838 Archer Ave. for political purposes. The building serves as William Lipinski’s headquarters for his business, Blue Chip Consulting, and Dan Lipinski’s campaign office… The All-American Eagle Fund, which the elder Lipinski operates, also lists 5838 Archer Ave. as its headquarters along with the 23rd Ward political operation.
* According to McQueary, Bill Lipinski’s All-American Eagle Fund has made payments to both Dan Lipinski’s chief of staff, Jerry Hurckes and Dan’s former communication director, Chris Ganschow.
Little Lip’s response? “I don’t see how that is an issue.”
Strike one.
Why? Because Bill Lipinski, who runs the All-American Eagles Fund, is also a lobbyist…
You’ve got Dan Lipinski, a congressman, promising to bring a Central Avenue underpass to Bedford Park and serving on the House Transportation Committee, while his father, former U.S. Rep. William Lipinski, collected fees from Bedford Park as a paid consultant to lobby specifically for the underpass.
* Dan Lipinksi swears that he and his daddy don’t talk about official business like that project in Bedford Park, even though daddy’s lobbying firm is located in Danny’s campaign office and daddy is paying two of Danny’s advisers from his All-American Eagle Fund, which is supposed to be about helping children, but isn’t doing a lot of that, unless we’re talking about Bill Lipinski’s child.
Strike two.
* Ah, but it gets even better. Dan Lipinski’s campaign fund shows payments to his daddy’s lobbying firm…
“It was for advice I received from Bill Lipinski, just like anyone would pay a political consultant,” [Dan Lipinski] said. […]
The advice was not related to any Blue Chip clients but, rather, some pointers on how, after his election, to put together an office, Dan Lipinski said. He described the advice as “random issues that anyone goes to a political consultant for. I could not go to anyone to get better advice in my current job than to him.”
* OK, so let’s sum up, shall we? Bill Lipinski games the system to get his kid elected to Congress. The son keeps his dad’s cronies on the payroll, and two of them (includng one who remains on the payroll) are getting payments from his father’s childrens’ charity fund, which doesn’t appear to be doing a lot of charitable work except for Dan Lipinski’s benefit. Dan shares an office with his daddy’s lobbying firm and even pays that firm for advice, but he insists he never talked with daddy about a project that the elder Lipinski is working on.
Strike three.
* More congressional stories, compiled by Paul…
* Early departure for Hastert to trigger special election
* Hastert wraps up 20-year House career; more here
Schock showed the kind of swagger reminiscent of President George W. Bush standing beneath a banner reading, “Mission Accomplished,” when he said that “The Chinese will come around, I have no doubt.” Pardon us if we don’t share your confidence, Rep. Schock. We’ll be in the bomb shelter awaiting your all clear.
Two positives came out of this craziness. One, the criticism of Schock’s dangerously naïve foreign policy approach was so strong, that by this week he had acknowledged he was wrong to suggest the sale of nuclear weapons to Taiwan, saying he had gone “too far.” Like to Pluto.
* Confusion over job guarantee for 50 laid off ISAC workers
Walker said the layoffs announced earlier this month are not a result of the loan sale. Rather, he said there are several national factors, including the high cost of borrowing and federal legislation that cut funding.
Still, some lawmakers were skeptical.
“I don’t believe that, no,” said state Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican.
State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said initial guarantees of jobs were “misleading,” but that he remembered ISAC officials conceding that they couldn’t guarantee jobs at committee hearings this year.
“For once, I can’t say I’m surprised or shocked or anything,” Rose said.
The union representing most of the 11,500 Corrections employees points to the change as proof that state prisons need to hire more workers.
“There’s no debating IDOC’s rationale: The prisons are so desperately short of staff that they cannot afford to take employees off their posts for training,” said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
* Illinois Review: Democrats stand tall, two Republicans bow to Governor on JCAR
With billions of dollars in unpaid medial bills piling up, it’s hard to think of anything less appropriate than allowing the governor to massively increase state health expenditures without the approval of the General Assembly or the people of Illinois.
Representatives Mulligan and Hassert, members of a Republican Party that claims to stand for limited government, have no excuse. Their vote for the governor’s power grab looks like blatant pork-barrel politics at its worst.
* Bernie Schoenburg: Republican presidential delegates, Sen. Rutherford’s recall effort
In reading, where Daley ordered a huge push after his 1995 school takeover, CPS eighth-grade Hispanics topped Hispanics in every other city tested, and CPS low-income eighth-graders beat their peers in all but one other city.
But CPS white students produced the second-worst reading scores among whites, in both fourth and eighth grade. Their math scores weren’t much better.
CPS blacks scored near the bottom of the heap in most tests.
To the thousands of white supremacists who regularly visit Stormfront and its forum, Kelso is best known by his e-moniker, “Charles A Lindbergh.” He signs off all his posts with a quote from Lindbergh, a well-known racist and anti-Semite: “We can have peace and security only as long as we band together to preserve that most priceless possession, our inheritance of European blood.” […]
In the three years he’s been a senior moderator of the site, it has grown from fewer than 10,000 registered users to, as of mid-June, an astounding 52,566. And while many thousands of that ever-growing total probably haven’t visited in years, independent Web monitors recently ranked Stormfront the 338th largest electronic forum on the Internet, putting it easily into the top 1% of all sites on the World Wide Web.
If you’re sending me a press release, please try mightily to avoid sending me pdf and .doc documents. It’s a lot more helpful to me if you’d just paste the darned text into the body of the e-mail so I don’t have to download your “pretty” files. I’m receiving more and more press releases every day in the form of attached files and it’s starting to get frustrating. If you want your release posted somewhere on this blog, then you might want to try to make my life a little easier. Thanks.
PS: Overly long file names get massively messed up on AOL Mail. Keep the file names short, please.
PPS: Attachments that include supporting documents are fine. But keep the press releases in the body of the freaking e-mails.
* 1:14 pm - That last thread was getting a bit unwieldy and buried, so here’s a new one with some fresh news. CTA union threatens job actions…
“We are about at wits’ end,” said Rick Harris, head of the CTA’s rail union, at a morning press conference in Chicago. “Maybe we have to show you exactly what a doomsday looks like. Maybe that is the signal that needs to be sent.” […]
…the seriousness of the CTA union’s threat of strike-like actions remains unclear. Under state law, transit unions are not allowed to strike, but local AFL-CIO president Dennis Gannon said unspecified “job action” could stifle the system.
“Responsible people have to act now before the end of the year,” said Jim Reilly, head of the Regional Transportation Authority, as he slammed his hands repeatedly on the podium. […]
Reilly said he wasn’t sure using casino money would be politically viable because it would mean downstate residents might end up footing the bill for Chicago area transit. However, he did open the door to a modest fare hike as part of the deal, a concession Republicans see as a bit of sugar to help the tax hikes go down.
* 1:55 pm - The Tribbies reported a little funny last night about the leaders meeting with Mayor Daley…
Meeting with the four legislative leaders and Mayor Richard Daley, Blagojevich hinted that legislative inaction was rooted in endless political sniping. The governor told reporters he opened the meeting by joking with Mayor Daley that “I’ll trade my legislature for his” after Daley’s City Council on Tuesday easily passed a sweeping tax increase package to increase city revenues.
But they didn’t provide the full quote. Here it is…
“We began the meeting by me trying to cut a deal with the mayor: Basically I’ll trade him my legislature for his, because his can vote for all kinds of onerous, terrible tax increases for people, and I’m trying to get mine to save the CTA.”
A bit different, don’t you think? Here’s the relevant audio clip…
[audio:1348.mp3]
* 2:02 pm - Reaction of Sen. Jeff Schoenberg to a federal judge’s blocking of the “moment of silence” law…
“Judge Gettleman has made the right call in questioning whether this unnecessary state mandate is constitutional. For teachers and their students, minutes in the classroom are like precious grains of sand, so we in the General Assembly should instead be concentrating our energies on providing greater investment and innovation into our schools rather than look for new ways to fix the ill-conceived ‘Moment of Silence’ mandate.”
Schoenberg also argued that the ambiguous new law has potential to jeopardize teachers and administrators who could be challenged by individuals or organized political advocacy groups who did not feel that they were sufficiently carrying out the new state classroom requirement, and failed to adequately protect students from overly enthusiastic teachers who might seek to emphasize prayer in their classrooms.
“The expression of faith plays a central role in the lives of many families in our communities and its intrinsic value in shaping our children’s value systems cannot be discounted. These intensely personal experiences should be realized in our homes and in our communities’ fine houses of worship, not in our public schools,” he said.
* 2:04 pm - Sen. Schoenberg was reacting to this news…
A federal judge today ordered the superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education not to enforce a new state law mandating a moment of silence at the start of the school day, but stopped short of a statewide injunction.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said his move was meant to preserve the status quo while a lawsuit against the law goes forward. The order today prevents the schools superintendent from issuing any directions or orders for the moment of silence to be held, but only Township High School District 214 in the northwest suburbs is under a preliminary injunction barring the moment from being held.
*** 3:18 pm *** Democratic state Rep. John Fritchey and GOP Rep. Roger Eddy have just introduced new legislation that could address many of the problems the federal judge has had with the state’s current moment of silence law.
HB 4180 changes the title of the law from the “Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act” to the “Student Silent Reflection Act.” It allows, rather than mandates, a teacher to conduct a brief period of silence at the opening of every school day. It removes language about “silent prayer” and leaves it up to individual pupils. Here’s the actual language striking out the old stuff and inserting the new…
The trouble they’re going to run into is it dilutes the original law, before it was even changed this year. The sponsors of the embattled law wanted to make things mandatory and they wanted the word “prayer” to remain in the statute (where it was before).
* 4:05 pm - It looks like they had a smaller meeting instead…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich did end up meeting with some top lawmakers about mass transit funding as service cuts and fare increases loom for Chicago-area commuters. […]
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said later in an e-mail that the governor went ahead and met with Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Senate President Emil Jones.
Mayor Daley today accused Republican legislative leaders of demanding unwarranted fare hikes and trying to make the CTA the “scapegoat” for their failure to agree on long-term funding for mass transit. […]
Daley said he walked out of a Wednesday transit summit called by Blagojevich — and refused to attend a second meeting that was scheduled for today but was abruptly canceled — because the primary focus was gambling, not transit.
“This is not all about casinos and gambling and poker machines and slot machines. . . . The highest priority is not about . . . who gets a casino or where the casino’s gonna be. The highest priority deals right now [with] people who use public transportation,” Daley said.
Pressed on why he refused to attend today’s follow-up meeting, Daley said, “My role is not to be the governor of the state of Illinois. That’s his role and not my role. . . . That’s their role to figure this out.”
Daley walked out of Wednesday’s summit at the Thompson Center, disgusted that he had been lured to the meeting in what a top mayoral aide later called a “classic bait-and-switch.”
CLICK HERE or the banner below at 1:30 pm Central for a live CBS 2 broadcast of Former House Speaker Denny Hastert’s Farewell Remarks [Coding changed at 1:34, so if it’s not working, refresh the page and try again.]
Aides to Hastert say the resignation will not be official until later this month, a deadline Hastert wanted to meet in the hopes that a special primary could be held on the same day as this spring’s regular primary.
* There’s been an attempt recently to try to pivot on Barack Obama’s statements about the Clinton archive records…
Barack Obama, who’s been scolding Hillary Rodham Clinton for not hastening the release of records from her time as first lady, says he can’t step up and produce his own records from his days in the Illinois state Senate. He says he hasn’t got any.
“I don’t have - I don’t maintain - a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn’t have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records,” he said at a recent campaign stop in Iowa. He said he wasn’t sure where any cache of records might have gone, adding, “It could have been thrown out. I haven’t been in the state Senate now for quite some time.”
Obama’s statement that he has no papers from his time in the Illinois statehouse - he left in 2004 - stands in stark contrast to the massive Clinton file stored at the National Archives: an estimated 78 million pages of documents, plus 20 million e-mail messages, packed into 36,000 boxes. While any file from Obama’s time in the state Senate would be far smaller, the idea that no papers exist at all is questioned by one historian.
“Most of those guys do keep this stuff, especially the favorable stuff. They’ve all got egos,” said Taylor Pensoneau, a historian who has written about Illinois legislators and governors and worked with them as a lobbyist for the coal industry. “It goes in scrapbooks or maybe boxes. I don’t think it’s normal practice to say it’s all discarded.”
The real issue, Clinton’s campaign said, is the availability of “schedules, memos and other documents” from Obama’s time in the state senate.
On Meet the Press Sunday, Obama said he did not have a scheduler and therefore there are no schedules to be had. A spokesman for the Obama campaign said Obama passed along many of his files to his successor, Kwame Raoul.
* I sent an e-mail to a handful of legislators this morning asking about their record-keeping practices. Here are the responses I’ve received so far…
* Rep. Lou Lang…
I think we all have large file cabinets and diaries that we keep for a while but there is not a special requirement that we keep any particular records in any particular way
* Rep. John Fritchey…
I would venture to say that I keep better files than most, but the only record of my meetings would be on the personal calendar that I keep. I do keep most substantive correspondence going back several years though. I would doubt that at the state legislative level, anybody keeps the type of contact records that they are referring to. There is a big difference between the state house and the White House.
* Sen. Jacqueline Collins…
As it relates to records. No, I don’t keep an account of who I meet with. My secretary may have the information jotted down on a daily schedule but I don’t think she retains that information because of the volume of paper we receive on a daily basis.
* Rep. Sara Feigenholtz…
We have old message books and my Chicago staff puts everything in outlook. I keep a lot of stuff… but after 13 years we have to purge so we don’t hoard.
* I’ll post more as they come in, but it looks to me like this Obama thing is just another national non-issue.
* Rep. Susanna Mendoza…
…I don’t religiously keep a detailed file or anything; it’s more like folders on bills with corresponding notes or info in them. Regarding my scheduling, I definitely don’t keep records of that and don’t really know anyone who does. So many of the meetings we end up having are not even scheduled and end up being with people who drive to Springfield to meet with legislators without a previous appointment. I’d be surprised if anyone keeps detailed records of their schedules and definitely believe Obama when he says that there probably aren’t any files or records of his to look over.
The leaders meeting originally scheduled for 10:00 has been cancelled. Speaker Madigan and Mayor Daley declined the invitation. We’ll try to reschedule a meeting with the leaders soon.
Madigan had a prior commitment and offered to send a surrogate. Daley apparently had enough of the crud yesterday.
* 10:00 am - I just noticed this tidbit in today’s Sun-Times…
State Comptroller Dan Hynes’ new Web site that allows people to search campaign contributions made by state contractors logged 171,768 hits in its first 21 days. The site — www.openbook.illinoiscomptroller.com — went live Oct. 2.
Wow.
Also…
A Web site set up by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn to encourage Gov. Blagojevich to sign a bill aimed at curbing pay-to-play drew several hundred hits in the two weeks it was online.
Not so wow.
* 10:04 am - Yet another round of Hastert’s impending resignation stories has appeared…
Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will announce on Thursday that he is retiring from Congress soon, although the exact date of his departure is still unclear, according to House insiders.
Hastert is expected to tell the House Republican Conference of his decision on Thursday afternoon, and then make his final floor speech sometime after that.
Sources told Fox News the former House speaker’s resignation is expected to become effective in December or January, although no date had been set for a formal announcement. Hastert had said in August he planned to leave Congress but at that time didn’t disclose whether it would be before the end of his term.
* 10:54 am - Those Hastert rumors may be true. From an e-mail sent by Hastert’s chief of staff…
Hey everyone. Tomorrow, Thursday, November 15, Speaker Hastert will
deliver his farewell address on the House Floor. Many people have called me to express interest in seeing him do this from the House gallery. We have secured space for people who are interested.
So…. If you want to do this, please let me know.
Speaker Pelosi’s office is telling us that it will happen at approximately 2:30pm; however, I suggest you be in the gallery by 2:10, which means you need to pick up your gallery ticket in H-164, The Capitol by 2:00pm at the latest (1:45pm would be preferable). As you know, timing is never perfect around this place.
Thanks everyone, and PLEASE, email the many others in this town I have
probably left off this email that you think would want to do this.
Thank you.
Sam Lancaster
Chief of Staff
Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
* 12:01 pm - From the Union League Club…
Seven of the eight declared candidates for the office of Cook County State’s Attorney will appear in a Candidate’s Forum at the Union League Club of Chicago , 65 West Jackson Blvd., 5th floor parlor, tomorrow, Friday, November 16 at 10 a.m.
I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head all week…
I was a big Thin Lizzy fan when I was 15 or so, and went to see them open for Styx in concert around the same time. Yeah, that dates me, I know. Still, I can’t for the life of me figure out why this song keeps dancing in my brain. It’s not even my favorite Thin Lizzy tune.
Anyway, somebody told me once that if you share a song that’s been playing in your head you can get rid of it. Consider it shared.
Question: Have any songs been pestering your mind lately? Share.
* The post-meeting spinning was apparently fast and furious in Chicago yesterday. Mayor Daley left the meeting with the four leaders and the governor saying nothing but positive things. But his people told a different story to reporters later in the day. Here’s the Sun-Times’ take..
But City Hall sources said Daley departed angry and frustrated because he kept being stymied in his efforts to discuss bailing out the CTA well ahead of the agency’s latest deadline for fare increases and service cuts: Jan. 20.
The mayor walked out after a little more than an hour.
“It felt like a classic bait-and- switch,” one City Hall source said. Daley “was led there to believe they were talking about the CTA when the aim was to talk about gaming.”
A frustrated Daley offered little after exiting the governor’s Chicago office, but his spokeswoman later said Daley left the bi-partisan meeting when the discussion turned to gambling expansion rather than fixing the mass transit crunch, with service cuts looming Jan. 20.
“Clearly the mayor understands that gaming is likely a part of the overall solution to the transit issue, but everybody knows it would take at least two years for that to happen,” Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said. The mayor “kept trying to bring the conversation around to that this morning, but to no avail … I think he felt he said all he needed to say, and there apparently was little interest in talking about the immediate crisis.”
The powerful house speaker stormed out of the meeting after a heated exchange with state Senator Rickey Hendon about how to guarantee that minority investors and communities benefit from an expansion of gambling in Illinois, which was also part of the discussion.
“There was just a lot of nonproductive shouting, threats and allegations,” Madigan said.
“I didn’t raise my voice. You guys know me. I talk loud just naturally. I come from the West Side. You have to talk loud to be heard. That’s all,” said State Senator Rickey Hendon, (D) Chicago.
The meeting was supposed to be for the principals and their top staff, but Jones brought Hendon with him and, well, Hendon is Hendon.
* As I told you yesterday, the governor couldn’t help but jump into the fray…
Speaker Madigan is the only one who doesn’t agree that African Americans ought to participate in the ownership of the [casino licenses],” Blagojevich said.
Madigan denied that through his spokesman, Steve Brown.
Madigan, Brown said, backs a proposal by the House black caucus that minority and women casino owners would be selected through lotteries. Those lotteries, Madigan says, would help prevent problems that plagued the failed Emerald Casino project in Rosemont. When asked whether he perceived Blagojevich as trying to accuse Madigan of being racist, Brown said, “He’s trying to, but it doesn’t wash.”
Abby Ottenhoff, the governor’s spokeswoman, said the governor simply was trying to explain what took place between Madigan and Hendon.
Meanwhile, Cross and his Republican counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Frank Watson of Greenville, said transit riders should pay a modest fare increase as part of a funding solution. Democrats oppose a fare hike.
Listen to the raw audio and you’ll hear Senate President Jones dodge questions about whether he could support a fare hike.
* And this, from the same article, is a drastic understatement….
Cross continued to push an alternative idea to tap a share of state gasoline sales tax revenue for mass transit, but that would require filling a hole in the state budget. There are differences of opinion on how to offset that deficit.
There are not only “differences of opinion,” there is no real plan yet.
Democratic Senate President Emil Jones was optimistic the governor and legislative leaders were close to a deal to bail out mass transit agencies and pay for construction projects around the state.
“I believe we can wrap this up in the next day or two, really, because the issues that are separating us are very, very minute,” he said.
The addition of Mayor Daley to the group was supposed to be a positive sign because it would bring all the major decision makers directly into the discussion of how to solve the public transit funding riddle — the ulterior reason for the meeting being to isolate Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in his running dispute with Gov. Blagojevich.
But the big summit meeting apparently devolved into the same sort of failure to communicate that makes me think we’re going to need to bring in “Dr. Phil” to sort out all the ill feelings before there’s going to be any deal to fund the Chicago Transit Authority. And Daley continued to back Madigan’s play, anyway.
Splitting Daley from Madigan is not gonna be nearly as easy as Blagojevich has hoped.
* More session stuff, compiled by Paul…
* Lawmakers summit ends with angry words, no progress
* Officials discuss transit funding; still no deal
* I had this on the blog yesterday, but the news came in so late that many of you may not have seen it or had a chance to comment…
A federal court judge Wednesday found that a new state law ordering a moment of silence for prayer or reflection at the start of the school day was “likely unconstitutional.”
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman blocked a northwest suburban school district from following the mandate, and he could extend the ban to schools statewide today. In his preliminary ruling, Gettleman found that the law was vague and questioned how teachers and school officials were supposed to follow it and how it was to be enforced.
Gettleman said the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act isn’t specific enough about what is a “moment” and when it should take place. It also may cross the line into unconstitutionality by giving students a choice to pray, the judge said.
The statute states that students shall be given an opportunity for silent prayer or reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.
That would in essence tell a child “you’ve got to think about praying,” the judge said.
Gettleman said he also is concerned about whether a child could or would do something physical in an act of prayer, such as take out a Bible or a Muslim prayer book.
There are only two choices given by the statute, he said. “One is an endorsement of prayer,” he said. “If that’s the way it’s being interpreted, then I think we have a problem.”
* What will the attorney general do? Uknown at this point, but she has already kinda sorta intervened…
The attorney general’s office had been asked at an initial court hearing two weeks ago whether it intended to defend the law, and it had no specific answer then, either.
“The Attorney General has declined to intervene … from what I can tell,” Gettleman said Wednesday.
He encouraged the office’s representative, Thomas Ioppolo, to come back to court today at 11 a.m. with a more definitive answer.
Lisa Madigan’s office said it never intended not to defend the law, but was simply deciding which legal avenue was best to pursue. Because the statute so vastly deviated from normal legislation in that it did not name any party responsible for enforcing the law, there is technically no constitutional officer responsible for it. The office must now determine if it wants to file a motion to intervene or pursue some other avenue of defense. […]
[Madigan’s chief of staff, Ann Spillane] said Ioppolo had written a 15-page brief defending the constitutionality of the law and had argued as much in court Wednesday.
In fact, Gettleman said, for someone who hadn’t officially intervened on behalf of the law yet, Ioppolo’s brief was so persuasive that it forced Sherman’s lawyers to concede to much of his arguments.
* Meanwhile, Eric Zorn wants the General Assembly to step in and rewrite the law…
The state can either fight for this unnecessary and intrusive law by waging an expensive court battle, or members of the General Assembly can attempt to re-write and pass a similar law that overcomes the Constitutional objections.
* Buried way down in this well-done article is some disturbing news…
Meanwhile, the administration is spending its Medicaid dollars at a fever pace. Lawmakers appropriated $6.9 billion for Medicaid spending through June 30, the end of this fiscal year, said Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for state Comptroller Dan Hynes. But by Nov. 8 — roughly one-third of the way through the fiscal year — the state’s health-care agency had spent 45 percent of that money, she said.
“It has been common for that agency to run out of appropriation authority sometime in the spring,” she said. “But at the pace that the agency is going, it likely will run out earlier than ever before.”
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said lawmakers may need to approve additional spending in the spring, but it’s not clear where the state might find the money. […]
“I don’t know where he finds the money for a supplemental appropriation,” Brown said.
Rep. Dave Winters, R-Shirland, predicts the administration will slow its payment cycle to stretch its dollars.
With the ink barely dry on a new state budget, two recently released financial reports already are raising concerns about whether state revenues will keep pace with spending.
Both the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability and Comptroller Dan Hynes issued reports warning that income from some state revenues — particularly the sales tax — could be lower than expected. […]
COGFA does economic forecasting for the General Assembly. It found that for the first three months of the state’s new budget year — July, August and September — sales tax receipts are down by $55 million from a year ago, a 3 percent drop. Corporate income taxes also dropped by $18 million during the period, a 4 percent decrease.
A bright spot was that personal income taxes increased by $120 million. But officials are worried about the drop in sales taxes, which provide more than 25 percent of the state’s revenue. […]
Worse, COGFA doesn’t think things will turn around. The report says both the sales tax and corporate income tax “may well find growth elusive over the remainder of the fiscal year.”
The budget was pretty flush this year and we still saw terrible problems getting things done. Imagine the nastiness if cutbacks have to be made. Not pretty.
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* NEWRuss Stewart: Shills, proxies set to do battle in primary
* NEWPress Release: New Study Finds African Americans, Low-Income Voters, Students and Seniors Least Likely to Have Valid Voter ID at Issue Before Supreme Court
Absent from Wednesday’s debate was any discussion on Schock’s earlier proposal to sell nuclear arms to Taiwan as a way to get China to go along with U.S. policy toward Iran. Schock retracted that statement on Tuesday.
* 18th District Republican candidates participate in forum
* Clout Corner: Co defendants out alleged Troutman target
After the last municipal election, many of the aldermen privately boasted that they intended to be the big, bad wolves of City Hall. No longer would the mayor’s every whim go unchallenged. Evidently, though, much of that was empty bravado […]
Maybe the museum folks will step away from their fixation on Grant Park. Maybe the mayor will offer them any of several alternate sites in wards longing for new development and not so burdened with traffic congestion.
Or maybe the Chicago City Sheep will beg Daley to tell them his wishes — and anxiously bleat their approval.
* Dick Simpson: Chicagoans have a lot to say No about
Joe Chicago, Mary Chicagoland and Aunt Molly need us now to amplify their voices to Bush, Daley, Stroger and all the powerbrokers. The people are possessed of more common sense and idealism than many of their leaders.
Chicagoans are saying no. No more Iraq war. No scapegoating immigrants. No corruption taxes. Chicagoans have always been willing to work and willing to sacrifice. We are willing to have a higher, fairer state income tax. But we won’t support bad wars, bad policies and unfair taxes.
Unfortunately, too often we elect bad politicians who don’t listen to the little people anymore.
At the time, three years ago, City Hall had an unwritten policy against hiring ex-cons. But Felske had clout: He was helping register voters for the Hispanic Democratic Organization, then a powerful patronage army delivering votes for Mayor Daley.
“I don’t regret the protest because I brought a lot of people to this question — about Iraq and what it’s doing to our country,” senior Joshua Rodriguez said.
He and other suspended students and parents protested the possible expulsions, along with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and other activists, garnering national attention.
Rodriguez and others insisted their protest — both against the Iraq war and military recruiters at their school — was peaceful.
Listen to Mayor Daley, Speaker Madigan, Senate President Jones and Gov. Blagojevich talk to the Chicago press about today’s meeting. Audio is from Chicago Public Radio…
* 11:14 am - Miracle upon miracles, I’m told the governor actually showed up on time for the big confab this morning with the four legislative leaders and Mayor Daley. The AP has a quick brief…
Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Transit Authority officials are in a morning meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich and top legislative leaders in the governor’s Chicago office.
Blagojevich and lawmakers have yet to agree on a plan on how to get money for the cash-strapped CTA and suburban mass-transit agencies.
The governor is supposed to travel to Wisconsin today for a “summit” on energy and climate change, so I’m not sure how long Blagojevich is planning to stick around.
* 11:26 am - There’s been a lot of chin-scratching about where a Chicago casino might be, with reporters and columnists speculating about Navy Pier and Northerly Island, among other places. This is from Chicago Public Radio today…
DALEY: First of all, you can’t select a site. You can’t do that, you can’t select a site, because every real-estate developer would rush in there and buy around the site.
But Daley will say what’s off limits. It’s a no-go for McCormick Place, Navy Pier and Northerly Island. That leaves plenty of real estate left for developers to wonder about.
I’ve been hearing for months that the Congress Hotel is a prime spot. The workers there have been on strike forever, so organized labor would like to turn it into a more union-friendly locale by snatching it away from the owners. The place is a dump, so it would have to be completely gutted out, providing lots of construction jobs. I haven’t seen it mentioned in print before, but keep your eye on that spot.
* 11:29 am - Mayor Daley just left the leaders meeting. The others are still inside.
According to a friend who is there, the mayor said he is optimistic about the future and claimed that the CTA had done its job. More later.
Mayor Richard Daley says he’s “very optimistic” after meeting with Governor Rod Blagojevich and top legislative leaders about mass-transit funding.
But House Speaker Mike Madigan walked out of the meeting, saying it deteriorated to shouting and threats, NBC 5’s Mary Ann Ahern reported.
Daley emerged from Wednesday morning’s meeting in the governor’s Chicago office after more than an hour without saying what was being discussed. He said he left because lawmakers and the governor were getting down to the particulars.
* 12:15 pm - The meeting is over.
*** 4:04 pm *** There’s more in the subscriber section, but here’s a Daily Herald story about today’s “action”…
“It is not a one person show,” said Senate President Emil Jones, a Chicago Democrat, of Madigan’s refusal to go along. “If he wants to kill money for the CTA, the monkey will be on his back.”
The backdoor meeting also included Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who laid out his preferences for a city-owned casino and transit bailout. Daley declined to publicly back any specific plan to bailout the transit agencies.
Meanwhile, Madigan refused to comment further on the shouting and accusations, but he said he was unhappy most of the talk focused on casinos instead of transit.
Jones said the dispute was between Madigan and Democratic state Sen. Ricky Hendon over mandatory minority ownership and revenue sharing rules tied to the new casinos.
Blagojevich used that dispute to indicate Madigan was racist.
“Speaker Madigan is the only one who doesn’t agree that African Americans ought to participate in the ownership of the casinos,” Blagojevich.
*** 4:48 pm *** Another leaders meeting is scheduled for 10 o’clock tomorrow morning. All leaders are invited. As a consequence, the governor is not going to Wisconsin for the energy summit after all.
A federal judge today found that a new state law requiring school districts to begin each day with a moment of silence or prayer is “likely unconstitutional” and he will for now stop a northwest suburban school district from following the requirement, a ban that the judge could extend statewide Thursday.
The preliminary ruling by U.S. District Court Robert Gettleman was a win for atheist activist Rob Sherman, who filed a lawsuit concerning the new law being applied at Buffalo Grove High School, where his daughter is a freshman.
Gettleman asked the parties in the case to return to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Thursday when he could consider making the injunction statewide. The Illinois attorney general’s office is considering stepping into the litigation.
Gettleman said the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act isn’t specific enough about what is a “moment” and when it should take place. It also may cross the line into unconstitutionality by giving students a choice to pray, the judge said. […]
Gettleman said he also is concerned about whether a child could or would do something physical in an act of prayer, such as take out a Bible or a Muslim prayer book.
There are only two choices given by the statute, he said. “One is an endorsement of prayer,” he said. “If that’s the way it’s being interpreted, then I think we have a problem.”
The state can either fight for this unnecessary and intrusive law by waging an expensive court battle, or members of the General Assembly can attempt to re-write and pass a similar law that overcomes the Constitutional objections.
Cardinal Francis George and one of his top bishops are stirring up controversy because of statements they recently made criticizing lawsuits from victims of priest sexual abuse.
In a letter obtained by the Sun-Times, the cardinal earlier this year wrote to the parents of a victim and apologized “for the terrible abuse suffered by your son at the hands of Ken Ruge and Robert Becker,” two Chicago area priests who are now dead.
The cardinal also wrote that money was the motivation for proposed state legislation that would allow adults who were abused by priests as children to sue their perpetrators in cases where statutes of limitation have expired.
“This is irresponsible, is not about the safety of children as the sponsor claims, and is clearly, to me at least, about money,” he wrote. […]
State Sen. Terry Link, a Lake County Democrat who introduced the legislation earlier this year, said Monday that the measure isn’t targeting the Catholic Church, but all victims of sexual abuse.
Link, who described himself as a devout Catholic, has heard similar remarks from the cardinal about money being behind the bill, and told him they were offensive.
Question: Who’s right, the Cardinal or the Senator? Explain as fully as possible.
Also, let’s try to avoid attacks on the Catholic Church as a whole, OK? Attempt mightily to stick to the topic at hand.
Talk of recall is all the rage in Illinois these days, fueled in major part by the Chicago Tribune, which in an Oct. 28 editorial said voters should add a recall provision to the Illinois Constitution as an opportunity to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
I respectfully disagree.
I have been a vocal critic of this governor, both in terms of style and substance. But the beauty of representative government is that if the voters don’t like someone, we can vote him or her out of office next time around.
Voters also have the frequently used opportunity, in mid-term elections, to handcuff an underperforming executive by voting his or her party out of power in the legislature.
And finally, in cases of serious abuse of power, our state constitution already allows for impeachment.
Then there’s the recall. Setting aside logistical burdens and cost factors (California’s recall cost an estimated $60 million), I have a larger concern. Good government advocates (and editorial writers) have for years fought to diminish the influence of special interests in politics. They have also decried the proliferation of the poll-driven politician, and bemoaned the increasingly “permanent election cycle.” These reformers are right on all three counts.
Ironically, however, a recall provision would promote each of these blights upon the political process. People love to say politicians make too many of their decisions with one eye on the next election, and that the closer the election comes, the more that becomes true. Now imagine a political landscape in which any aggrieved, well-funded special-interest group has the potential power to shorten any election cycle via a recall.
That group would have just exponentially expanded its political influence. The offending politician would be more poll-driven, and less policy-driven, than ever. And the election cycle would never end.
But - and this is a big “but” - any amendment to the Illinois Constitution implementing recall would have to either be passed by both chambers of the General Assembly or enacted through a Constitutional convention, which voters will have a say on next November.
It’s more than doubtful that the state House and Senate would voluntarily open that can of worms. Any convention, if it happens, wouldn’t take place until 2009 at the earliest, and even then a recall provision isn’t guaranteed.
In other words, you might want to recall him, but you’re almost undoubtedly stuck with Blagojevich as your governor through the end of his term in January 2011.
* While the coverage of yesterday’s tax hike vote in the Chicago City Council was pretty good, the most interesting part - at least to me - was not delved into.
The Sun-Times’ Mark Brown, for instance, listed all 29 members who voted for the tax hikes and the 21 who voted against. Brown also mentioned that the mayor’s budget passed on a 37-13 vote, as did the other stories.
What I’d like to know, though, is who were the wimps? Which members of the city council voted against the tax hikes and for the mayor’s budget? That info is nowhere to be found. It doesn’t even appear to be available online.
* Even so, Brown’s column was darned good and summed up the lapdog situation pretty accurately…
If you’re sitting at home trying to figure out how the City Council could approve $276 million in tax and fee increases — including an $83 million property tax hike — when you’re already ticked off about what you’re paying now, then that may be the problem. You’re sitting, when what you really ought to be doing is moving forward.
Confused? Let me try to explain it the way the aldermen explained it.
Mayor Daley needs the additional tax money so he can continue to “move the city forward,” said Budget Chairman Carrie Austin, the first of many to invoke the mayor’s pet phrase.
“We can move the city forward,” followed Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th).
“Do we sit still, or do we move forward,” said Ald. George Cardenas (12th).
“We must continue to move this city forward,” said Latasha Thomas (17th). “If you believe that the city needs to move forward . . . then you must vote yes.”
Ald. Ginger Rugai’s version: “I think we have to, as I think everybody has said, move forward.”
Or Ald. Leslie Hairston: “This city is at a critical point. We can decide to move forward or stand still.”
“I’m going to vote to continue to move our city forward,” said Ald. Tom Tunney (44th).
Ald. Ike Carothers (29th) set the record, invoking at least six variations on moving the city forward.
* More city council stories…
* Sun-Times: Twenty years after the death of former Mayor Harold Washington, the City Council honored Chicago’s first African-American mayor on Tuesday, then cast a vote that stirred the ghosts of Council Wars.
* Tribune: Brushing off a rare show of opposition, Mayor Richard Daley won easy City Council approval Tuesday of a spending and tax plan that will tap into the wallets of just about everyone who lives, works or plays in Chicago.
* CBS 2: City Council Passes Budget, Tax Hikes - Big Property Tax Hike, New Tax On Bottled Water Approved
* ABC 7: City Council votes to increase taxes, fees
*** UPDATE *** Thanks to a couple of commenters, I found the roll calls on all votes at the Tribbie blog. They don’t break it down, but I did. According to that list, here are the “wimps” who voted against the property tax hike but for the mayor’s budget…
Brookins (21st), Suarez (31st), Waguespack (32nd), Banks (36th), Allen (38th), Laurino (39th), Daley (43rd) and Levar (45th).
* And here are the seven aldermen who consistently voted against the property tax hikes, against the mayor’s budget and against the other tax hikes as well…
Fioretti (2nd), Preckwinkle (4th), Jackson (7th), Foulkes (15th), Munoz (22nd), Reilly (42nd), Moore (49th).
*** UPDATE 2 *** Ald. Carothers talks about “heavy lifting”…
* The Peoria Journal-Star editorial page spanks Aaron Schock today, finally going over most of the serious flaws with his Strangelovian idea to sell nuclear missiles to Taiwan to force China to help stop Iran from getting nuclear technology. It’s a pretty comprehensive whacking…
At any rate, Schock has been in damage-control mode ever since. First he issued the standard defenses: that his words were “misrepresented” - they weren’t - and that at least he has a specific plan, unlike his opponents, whom he described as “soft on Iraq, Iran and China.” Buried in all that was a semi-retraction: “I do not want to sell nuclear weapons to Taiwan. I want China’s cooperation in dealing with Iran.” On Tuesday his mea culpa went a bit further, saying that “maybe I’ve learned a lesson. … In retrospect, I believe I overstated the remedy. I regret mentioning nuclear weapons … It was a mistake, and I recognize that.” If he seemed nonchalant about the use of nukes before, he’s not anymore.
Nonetheless, Schock is still on his “freedom fighters” kick as his solution for Iran, pointing to previous successes with the strategy, notably Poland’s Solidarity movement in the 1980s. But the picture he paints is not complete. If he would read up on the Iran-Contra scandal, he’d discover that funding those freedom fighters was not one of this nation’s - or Reagan’s - proudest moments. John F. Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs was a fiasco. As for those U.S.-assisted freedom fighters he praises for beating back the Soviets in Afghanistan, who’s alleged to be the most famous one of all? Schock drew a blank, when asked. The answer is Osama bin Laden.
“I’m not an expert,” a defensive Schock said Tuesday. But when you don’t know something, don’t try to fake it, not at this level. No one gets it right all the time, newspaper editors included. But they’re not running for Congress and aspiring to make laws for the rest of us; Schock is. He’s shown potential, but if he wants his campaign to be taken seriously - he’s being ridiculed on statewide blogs as “Aaron Strangelove” - he need not be perfect but he must be better. He’s dug quite a hole for himself.
Not to mention that the Polish “freedom fighters” were peaceful union leaders and not armed insurrectionists.
* The Journal-Star also criticized Schock’s opponents for copping out on big issues and concludes…
If the candidates don’t recognize it by now, this is the big leagues, and we’re not off to a promising start.
* While they don’t mention it, we can only hope that the PJ-Star also now recognizes this “big leagues” fact and will start covering Schock like a congressional candidate instead of lavishing fawning praise on their local boy wonder state legislator.
Schock is only part of the problem. The PJ-Star, remember, completely ignored his outrageous nuclear proposal in its original reporting and glossed over it until today. That’s inexcusable.
But the paper’s story today doesn’t give much hope that any lessons have been learned over there. Check out the lede…
State Rep. Aaron Schock regrets his proposal to sell nuclear arms to Taiwan as a way to get China to go along with U.S. policy toward Iran, he said Tuesday, adding he “went too far.”
The moral of today’s stories is that like it or not, if they are sincere in trying to accomplish the goals that they claim to be seeking, both the Administration and the proponents of damage caps are going to have to find legal and constitutional means to reach those goals.
Doctors and insurers blamed lawyers, particularly the active plaintiffs’ bar in the Metro East area, saying lawsuits drove up rates. Lawyers said the courthouse was becoming a scapegoat as the insurance industry chased profits.
But dozens of doctors retired or left the area rather than pay continually rising insurance rates, and in some instances hospitals and patients were left scrambling to find a physician. The issue became a political firestorm as hundreds attended meetings around the state to complain. President George W. Bush came to Collinsville in January 2005 and told an audience of doctors that medical litigation was tilted in favor of plaintiffs’ lawyers.
This could be the year that the state really does put a casino in Chicago. But at what expense to Joliet casinos?
State legislators at least broach the subject of a Chicago casino almost annually. But talk has seldom been as intense as it is this year, with legislators and the governor looking at a casino in Chicago and at least one other undetermined location to fund future roads, bridges and other infrastructure work.
* Editorial: Hasty state construction plan could hurt more than help
This state has a long enough history of construction programs with catchy names that broke the bank, from Jim Thompson’s Build Illinois to George Ryan’s Illinois FIRST. We don’t need another one with wastefulness similar to those.
Instead, the state needs a plan that helps finance projects based on need, not political favoritism or vote-trading.
State Sen. Dan Rutherford has outlined three elements that must be part of the capital bill and we agree: Any plan must identify a reliable revenue stream to pay for it; include a list of projects on which the money will spent, not a lump sum allotment to leaders; and specify when money would be released.
* Governor’s ‘emergency’ health care rule is rejected
* Panel derails governor’s ‘end run’ to expand health insurance
State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, who also voted against the change, said a significant expansion of health care might be a laudable goal, but it shouldn’t be put in place without more debate from the legislative branch.
“Yeah, but go through the process,” Rutherford said.
The governor’s proposed emergency rule would provide discounted health care benefits to about 147,000 Illinois residents with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level.
State Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Clare, said the change could mean a family of four that has a family income of at least $80,000 would be getting health care from the state.
“Should those 20,000 people find themselves without health coverage, it would be because of the inaction of the administration, not the actions of [this committee],” Fritchey said.
Ottenhoff said the administration is “working on ways to make sure the 20,000 parents do not lose coverage,” but she did not offer details.
Blagojevich may portray this as another “up” for his agenda. He’s evidently trying to convince people that he’s a man of compassion who won’t let stingy legislators stop him from giving taxpayer-funded health coverage to middle-income families. He says he’s “simply doing my job and setting the right priorities.”
But the people of Illinois, through their elected representatives, are talking back. They’re unequivocally, and repeatedly, saying to Blagojevich: Don’t write a blank check and create debts that will come due for generations.
So what now? Well, the governor can attempt another end run. Or he could sue.
* Wisconsin supporting Illinois for FutureGen plant
Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky have also backed Illinois’ bid. But it’s unknown what influence other states will have on the final decision.
Both Illinois and Texas have offered substantial financial incentives to help try to charm decision-makers. And Illinois officials have gone has far to spend more than $300,000 on a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm.
* Editorial: Teen advice good, but licensing rules are working
There is hope, however. The American Academy of Pediatrics last year cited a study of graduated licensing programs in 13 states that found the programs reduced crashes by as much as 41 percent. Illinois recently toughened its graduated licensing by lengthening the learner’s permit period to a minimum of nine months from three months; moving up curfew; and making teens wait a full year until they can have more than one nonfamily teen passenger in their car. The waiting period is now six months.
“Most states are performing about as well or better than most foreign countries,” said Gary Phillips, who wrote the report. “We’re kind of in the middle of the pack. However, our highest-achieving states are significantly below the highest-achieving countries. There was no state that did as well as the highest-achieving countries.”
* The heat may have been getting too much for Schock’s “deeply thought out” position…
State Rep. Aaron Schock today admitted he was wrong to suggest selling nuclear arms to Taiwan as a bargaining chip with China to go along with U.S. policy toward Iran.
Schock held a news conference at his campaign headquarters to retract a statement he made during an announcement speech last month. The Congressional candidate said he “overstated the remedy with regard to telling China we would sell Taiwan nuclear weapons if China continued to stall on voting for the third set of sanctions on Iran as the time for Iran producing nuclear weapons gets closer and closer.” […]
“… When I make a mistake, I’m going to be mature enough to explain it and come forward and say that … but that doesn’t mean that Iran is not a threat, that doesn’t mean that China is not the entity stopping us from a third set of sanctions, that’s not to mean that we shouldn’t find a way to encourage China to come along with those economic sanctions,” Schock said.
I loved this line from the piece…
Schock’s comments follow intense scrutiny he’s received the past few days from his opponents and the press following published reports of his plan to sell nuclear missles to Taiwan for their defense.
That “intense scrutiny” was coming from everywhere but the Peoria Journal-Star, of course.
Also, there was more coming. Schock took a trip to China that was partially paid for by the Chinese government.
Plus, you gotta figure the folks at Caterpillar (who essentially rule the Peoria political world) choked when they saw his initial comments…
According to the Wall Street Journal, Caterpillar sold more than $1 billion of goods in China in 2006, and hopes to quadruple that number by 2010.
First, he said it. Then he defended saying it, adding that opponents who disagreed weren’t being tough enough on terrorism. Then he said the plan was being misinterpreted.
He also said that anyone who disagreed with him was running in the wrong primary and compared himself to Ronald Reagan. Schock went way, way out on a limb on this one, only to walk it all the way back today. For his sake, let’s hope he learned some lessons.
* 12:33 pm - Expect plenty more appeals before this is over…
CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - A judge here has thrown out Illinois’ law placing caps on some medical malpractice lawsuit awards, reigniting debate over 1 of the Legislature’s most contentious issues.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Joan Larsen today sided with plaintiffs’ argument that the caps on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases violate victims’ rights.
The 2005 caps law limits damages victims can collect for pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. It followed complaints from doctors about soaring malpractice insurance rates.
The state Supreme Court had deemed previous caps unconstitutional. The latest caps only cover malpractice cases.
* 12:39 pm - The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules voted to suspend (block) the governor’s proposed emergency healthcare rules this morning. The governor’s rules would vastly expand eligibility for the state’s Family Care program. Background on the rules is here.
All JCAR members voted to suspend the guv’s proposed emergency rules except House Republican members Brent Hassert and Rosemary Mulligan, who both voted “No.” Sen. James Clayborne was not present.
* 1:39 pm - Statements from interest groups regarding the above med-mal decision…
JCAR members encouraged Hoffman’s department to file an emergency rules that would cover an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 individuals who are at risk of being cut from a federal-state program known as “SCHIP.”
Hoffman said her agency had no plans to do that. The department, however, has filed identical rules for the healthcare expansion that will go through JCAR on a slower, non-emergency basis, officials said.
The governor’s only support on JCAR — a 12-member legislative panel evenly split by Democrats and Republicans — came from two Republicans: state Reps. Rosemary Mulligan of Des Plaines and Brent Hassert of Romeoville. One panel member was absent from today’s meeting.
Hassert said the discussion was clouded by animosity between lawmakers and the governor, who had a particularly contentious legislative sessions this year.
“I just felt it was appropriate,” Hassert said of the governor’s plans.
* 2:01 pm - Is Louisville’s police chief on the short list for Chicago police superintendent? Local Kentucky media sure thinks so.
Mayor Jerry Abramson said this morning that a team looking for a new police superintendent in Chicago has contacted Louisville Police Chief Robert White about the job.
In her 10-page opinion, Judge Larsen ruled that the law violates the Illinois Constitution’s “separation of powers” clause — essentially finding that lawmakers interfered with the right of juries to determine fair damages.
The ruling means the case likely will go directly to the Illinois Supreme Court as early as next summer. The court has twice before struck down laws that limit payments to malpractice victims: once in the 1970s and again in 1997.
* 2:22 pm - This press release reminds me that I have to make up some t-shirts for our charity store…
On Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 11:00 a.m. at the James R. Thompson Center, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn will launch a weeklong cell phone recycling campaign where all used phones and equipment will be donated to victims of domestic violence.
“This recycling drive serves the twofold purpose of making it easy to properly recycle your old cell phone while providing a safe line of communication for victims of domestic violence,” said Quinn, chairman of the Illinois Green Government Coordinating Council. “We want to encourage state employees and everyone to look through their closets and drawers and bring in those old cell phones. There are people out there who need them.”
In honor of America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, the Lt. Governor’s office is joining with Verizon Wireless HopeLine to collect used cell phones, batteries and accessories at state office buildings. The recycling drive will take place from Nov. 13-Nov. 16 and boxes will be placed throughout the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago and in the Stratton and Howlett buildings in Springfield.
Verizon Wireless began its HopeLine program 11 years ago by donating voicemail boxes so that women in shelters could receive confidential messages from their families and prospective employers. Today, the HopeLine program has collected more than four million phones, donated more than $4 million in financial grants and provided more than 45,000 wireless phones to local domestic organizations nationwide.
* 2:51 pm - From the Illinois Green Party…
Today two concerned voters in the 3rd Congressional District filed objections to the candidacy of Mr. Richard Mayers of Berwyn. The Illinois Green Party fully supports these objections, and will do what it can to ensure that Mr. Mayers is removed from the primary ballot.
The Illinois Green Party wishes to make it clear that Mr. Mayers is not a member of the Illinois Green Party, and the party disavows Mr. Mayers’ candidacy. Furthermore, the Illinois Green Party calls on the Illinois Board of Elections to overrule each of the frivolous objections filed by Mr. Mayers against candidates in all three parties.
Mayers has been described as a “white supremacist connected with Matt Hale’s Creativity Movement.”
The City Council today approved Mayor Daley’s $5.9 billion 2008 budget precariously balanced with $276.5 million worth of increased taxes, fines and fees. It includes a revised $83.4 million property tax increase that’s the largest in Chicago history.
Daley loves to “pitch a shut-out” on the budget, the most important City Council vote of the year. Six of his previous budgets have been approved unanimously. It didn’t happen Tuesday. The budget passed 36 to 14, but the property tax package vote was much closer: 29 to 21. It was the narrowest victory for any of Daley’s budgets.
Proposed rules for the state of Illinois smoking ban call for no smoking within 15 feet of the entrances and exits to enclosed buildings - including the entrances and exits to beer gardens and outdoor patios.
Some bar owners are still unsure of exactly how the rules will affect them when the ban takes effect Jan. 1. […]
Jeannie Boren, bar manager for Boone’s Uptown Grill, 301 W. Edwards St., said Boone’s believes it will have a legal smoking area, but owners aren’t sure how big it will be. […]
Barry Friedman, owner of The Alamo, 115 N. Fifth St., which also has a sizable beer garden, said “stepping a few more steps isn’t going to hurt anyone. If I have to paint a stripe and say you can’t smoke before this line, I’ll do that.”
From the proposed state rules…
A proprietor may designate smoking and non-smoking sections of an outdoor patio only if the smoking section is clearly and conspicuously separated from the non-smoking section and if the smoking area is at least 15 feet away from the entrance, exit, windows that open, and ventilation intakes.
If a proprietor designates an area where smoking is permitted, the proprietor shall not permit tobacco smoke to drift into areas where smoking is prohibited through entrances, windows, ventilation systems, or other means.
* Pat Quinn has a notoriously brief attention span, so I’m not sure whether he’ll follow up on this or not…
A war of words and finger-pointing broke out Veterans Day, as Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn asked Gov. Rod Blagojevich to investigate the firing of 17 veterans and three others from security jobs at National Guard armories across the state. The governor blamed federal cuts and asked Washington to change its policies.
“The governor proclaimed this ‘Hire a Veteran Month,’” Quinn said at a Sunday morning news conference. “He didn’t say ‘Fire a Veteran.’”
Later, Blagojevich offered criticism of his own. […]
“It’s an outrage that at a time when we are working to support our veterans and make their lives better, the federal government would change the rules and cut funding to make it harder for veterans to work,” the governor said in a statement released after Quinn’s news conference. “We are calling on our United States senators and congressional delegation to reverse the Bush administration’s cuts.”
* I’m hearing that the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which represented those fired workers, may be planning some action, so the story may not go away soon…
Terry Reed, field service director for Illinois Federation of Public Employees Local 4408, which represents the union guards, believes the layoffs have less to do with funding and everything to do with retaliation.
The union has filed grievances regarding the department’s decision to contract with private security companies, and that still is tied up in arbitration, Reed said. He also is critical of the department laying off the guards, 17 of whom are military veterans themselves.
An attempt to lay off the state security guards several years ago was blocked at the final hour by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The union is calling on the governor to do the same this time as well, but Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said there appears to be little the governor can do since it was the federal government that decided to pull federal funding.
* There appears to be a long history of bad blood between the union and the people who run the program. The governor stressed the money aspect of the situation, but that’s not how the layoffs were first explained…
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Military Affairs said the 20 guards laid off Wednesday were not trained to carry weapons and therefore didn’t meet required standards.
Under their job classification, the state guards do not carry weapons, but Siefert, a union steward at Marseilles, said he and others have repeatedly asked for training so they could be re-classified.
Something definitely doesn’t smell right there.
* The majority of those vets have found other state jobs, but the complaints continue…
State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, said he wondered why Blagojevich, who cut hundreds of millions from the state budget in an attempt to fund health care programs couldn’t have found more.
‘’Gov. Blagojevich certainly found $500 million pretty quickly for a healthcare program,'’ he said.
A Department of Military Affairs spokeswoman said that of the people laid off, 12 had taken other jobs within state government and three retired. Others are either on disability or still awaiting a resolution.
No matter how the details of the fired guards play out, there’s little doubt those in charge at all levels are far more interested in pointing fingers than actually supporting troops.
We ought to be embarrassed and angry and demand that there be real truth behind the easy words. Instead, we’ll slap a yellow magnetic bow on our cars and call it “support.”
Now, with the specter of a recession looming over the economy and talk of a troop withdrawal still swirling in Washington, D.C., many veterans’ advocates fear a repeat of the devastating aftermath of the Vietnam War, when unemployment among young veterans rose as high as 19.8%, pushing thousands of ex-soldiers to homelessness.
“There isn’t any option,” says Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who’s been a vocal advocate for veterans. “We have to make a Herculean effort” to find them jobs.
A full-on troop withdrawal would bring as many as 9,700 service members home to Illinois. Only about 1,000 of those will return to jobs protected under federal law. Many of the others, having enlisted in the military straight out of high school, will enter the civilian workforce for the first time. Upon their discharge they get, at most, a three-day course of career advice and other counseling.
While many will have military experience they believe can translate into a valuable skill in the private sector, those who have already returned from the war have found employers to be largely unimpressed by service experience.
Six years ago, Allison S. Davis, an ally of Mayor Daley, got two city blocks of free land to build homes in the Woodlawn neighborhood. And the biggest, most expensive house went to Davis’ son.
Chicago could generate $2.7 million a year — and maybe nearly twice that much — by cracking down on what has become a “widespread black market” in counterfeit city stickers, Inspector General David Hoffman has concluded.
After a yearlong investigation that identified 388 counterfeit stickers — 94 percent of them found at city auto pounds and at least one on a car that belonged to a city employee — Hoffman is recommending stiff new penalties for those who sell and manufacture bogus stickers and against motorists who purchase and display them.
I’m not condoning counterfeiting in any way, but the city conducts a year-long investigation of city stickers and finds less than 400 of them and that’s a huge problem? Priorities, people.
The city of Chicago is under-reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes it pulls in every year. That’s according to a new study by the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog group. It says there needs to be more transparency.
Barring last-minute changes, the Chicago City Council is poised to hike taxes, fees and fines by more than $275 million when it votes Tuesday on Mayor Richard Daley’s proposed 2008 budget.
The chief concern for aldermen and homeowners is Daley’s plan to raise property taxes by $86 million, by far the largest hike since he took office in 1989.
As a young lawyer, Allison S. Davis was a City Hall outsider.
He criticized Mayor Richard J. Daley over the 1968 riots. He worked to integrate Chicago neighborhoods. And he fought to elect judges based on legal ability, not political connections.
Today, Davis is a consummate City Hall insider.
He’s a loyal ally of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who appointed Davis to Chicago’s prestigious Plan Commission. Davis has gotten deal after deal from the mayor, helping to make Davis one of the city’s top developers. And Davis has forged strong ties to the Daley family, doing deals with one of the mayor’s nephews and giving legal business to Daley & George, mayoral brother Michael Daley’s law firm.
This year, according to the Law Department, as of Sept. 30, Chicago had paid out more than $27 million in police misconduct judgments and settlements on claims ranging from sexual harassment to excessive force and illegal search.
Wind turbines on Sears Tower and a “green” roof on the Merchandise Mart are two high-profile concepts on the drawing board as part of a wide-ranging, environmentally friendly development plan under consideration by the city.
* But basic stuff like a decent city recycling program is still out of reach…
But the fact is, we’ll never be able to claim we’re green giants until we have an effective, citywide recycling program. And we still have a long way to go.
Recycling, after all, is the most basic of environmental programs. It’s probably the first thing someone does when they start to think green, because of the variety of benefits, from saving natural resources to saving energy to saving landfill space. “What’s good about recycling is that it’s something everyone can do and actually make an impact,” said Julie Dick, a board member at the Chicago Recycling Coalition. But people who move to Chicago from the suburbs or other big cities, nearly all of which have better recycling programs than Chicago’s, are often surprised at how hard it is here.
* OK, so far, we know that state Rep. Aaron Schocks “deeply thought-out” proposal to threaten China with nuclear holocaust if it doesn’t cooperate on halting Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons is deeply flawed on just about every level…
* The United States doesn’t even have any of the missiles that Schock wants to sell to Taiwan to pressure China because those Pershings were all destroyed after Ronald Reagan signed a treaty with the Soviet Union. Ironically, Schock’s spokesman claims that this China gambit is Reaganesque.
* Schock voted for a Sudan pension fund divestment proposal but voted against a similar proposal to divest from Iran’s energy companies, which are developing that country’s nuclear weapons.
* As expected, Monday’s political column in the Peoria Journal-Star doesn’t mention any of this stuff except to use Schock’s spin…
Schock is doing what he thinks voters want, giving details. Thus far, at least, other candidates have only scratched the surface on any issues.
State Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, is worth somewhere up to $1,245,000, including between $500,000 and $1 million owed to Busey Bank to finance Old Orchard Land trust - an apartment complex, according to reports. […]
He mostly carries investments in real estate, securities and stocks valued between $933,000 and $1,995,000, with income from those assets producing at best $17,600 annually, according to reports.
His annual salary was reported at $132,704, including about $42,463 from the state, $25,000 from Junction Ventures, for which he no longer works, and $65,240 from Peterson Healthcare.
“I think this hopefully demonstrates that while I’m not rich, I certainly know the importance of saving and investing, and I tried to be responsible with the money that I earned and have tried to do the same as a public official,” Schock said.
Meanwhile, here in the real world, there’s a word to describe people with $1 million: “Rich.”
* On another congressional race, the Politico had this…
Marketing executive Dan Seals holds a commanding lead over former Clinton administration aide Jay Footlik by 52 points for the Democratic nomination to challenge Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), according to a poll released by his campaign.
The poll found that 58 percent of likely primary voters would vote for Seals, while only 6 percent preferred Footlik.
Seals, by virtue of his Congressional campaign last year, tallied higher name identification: 69 percent of respondents recognized his name, while only 24 percent could identify Footlik.
The poll, conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group surveyed 404 likely Democratic primary voters between November 5-7.
* But commenters over at Team America blog question the wording of the survey.
* Ex-legislator’s fund owes $80,000 but gov hires him anyway
Giles, a Blagojevich ally while in the Legislature, served seven terms before losing his 2006 re-election bid. He’s now northern region manager for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, an $84,996-a-year post in which he oversees nine work force services offices and about 250 employees. The job was vacant before Giles was hired.
Giles’ defunct political fund, Citizens for Calvin L. Giles, still owes $80,250 in election fines for improperly filing disclosure documents in 2000 and 2002.
* State police probe donation to Blagojevich ; more here
A Chicago pharmacist first told state police in 2005 that he made a $25,000 contribution to Blagojevich as a form of protection from a state Medicaid probe.
The Illinois State Police told the Tribune last month they had already investigated those allegations and determined they were unfounded.
But after repeated inquiries from the Tribune about the thoroughness of that investigation, state police said last week they were taking another look.
Election law changes that call for more pay for election judges, more teenagers and college students as monitors and safeguards to ensure absentee ballots are counted were announced Monday by the Chicago Election Board.
Riding the crest of his 31 percent approval rating (or less, depending on the poll), Blagojevich apparently intends once again to push his universal health plan in the General Assembly. Won’t that be fun? It got next to no support in the General Assembly this year, and there doesn’t seem to be a sudden groundswell to support it now. Not to mention that no one has figured out how to pay for it. Are we going to have Son of Gross Receipts Tax? It’s going to take some kind of tax hike to pay for Illinois Covered. How many lawmakers do you think will be lining up to support any kind of tax hike in an election year?
* Legislators balk at Blago’s health care expansion
The administration insisted Thursday evening that the plan would cost $43 million through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. But Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, said his staff analysis shows it would cost $367 million annually once it’s fully implemented. Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac, concurred.
* Editorial: Governor again bypasses system to get his own way
If Blagojevich’s push for universal health care is so important, why didn’t he mention it while he was campaigning for re-election less than a year ago? We can’t believe the idea suddenly popped into his head after Nov. 7, 2006.
Pension reform, school finance reform and a capital program still need to be addressed, but this governor is bound and determined to get his way, even if it bankrupts the state.
Eleven months ago, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago warned that Illinois faces “a financial implosion.” The highly respected business group reported that the state owed $106 billion, much of it for pensions and health-care costs.
The state made no progress in the last year on those dire financial problems. Yet Blagojevich is doing an end-run on the legislature to impose more spending on health care.
Given the chance, Oregon voters said, “not so fast.” But Illinois voters, and their elected representatives, have been left as bystanders.
* State to hire auditor to look at all-time low test scores
“Any time you see a drop like this, it’s a concern,” said Illinois State Board of Education spokesman Matt Vanover. “We want to take a close look at the whole testing process and see if we can determine if there was a problem with the test, or if this is a real decline in scores.”
The Edgar County Board was warned Wednesday morning a potentially budget busting bill is moving through the Illinois General Assembly. Tim Shumaker, Edgar County Chief Probation Officer, advised county board members the proposed law would change the the age limit for charging youths as adults from the current 17-years-old to 18.
It’s impossible to prove what relatives and friends of some of the victims have been asserting to Chicago reporters: that a fully funded CeaseFire could have prevented one or more of the five high-profile killings of young Chicagoans in the past four weeks.
What’s easy to prove, though, is that CeaseFire is a politically neutral organization with no business being caught in the political crossfire that now passes for governance in Springfield. The unending struggle over who writes the state budget of Illinois — the legislature or the governor — isn’t CeaseFire’s fight.
* Carol Marin: State GOP may need strange alliances
If Pat Robertson, the televangelist who believes God made heaven for righteous right-wingers and hell for everyone else, can bless the thrice-married, pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun Rudy Giuliani for president, what other water can the GOP turn into wine this election season?
Could this kind of radical rapprochement between an ideological conservative and a social liberal catch on? Could it possibly spread to schizoid Illinois, where conservatives consider centrists Communists? Where wacko Alan Keyes was imported from out of state to run for U.S. Senate in 2004 against Barack Obama? Where moderate Republican Judy Baar Topinka was eaten alive by the right wing of her party, bludgeoned worse by them than by her 2006 Democratic opponent, Gov. Rod Blagojevich?
Just asking.
* McQueary: Journalism ’shield’ laws a want or a need?
