Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning launches its GO TO 2040 campaign today. The agency aims to create a comprehensive plan that guides growth and development in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties for the next three decades:

It could be the last chance to get a handle on a population boom of more than 2.8 million people expected by 2040, and planners want the public to participate.

“We’re asking people to take a moment and think about what they want for their children and themselves over the next 20 to 30 years,” CMAP Executive Director Randy Blankenhorn said.

Blankenhorn then states:

Look at the metropolitan region now and you’ll see plenty of room for improvement: Housing prices at odds with low- and middle-income workers. A transportation infrastructure in serious need of repair. A water supply threatened by demand and pollution. Long commutes.

“We’re the third-most congested region in the country,” Blankenhorn said. “If you add 2 million more people in the next 20 years, how will you move them around? And how will they get to work?”

The solutions are out there, planners believe, citing the way they’re addressing traffic jams caused by freight trains traveling through northeastern Illinois.

* The question of the day is what do you want for yourself and possibly your children over the next 20 to 30 years?

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All-Star cast touted in Rezko trial

Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* A lot has been going on in the Rezko trial since last week. I’ll spare you the play-by-play, but the prosecution’s case was greatly buttressed on Friday:

One of the last things jurors heard before heading into the break was Rezko’s voice on a wiretap recording apparently discussing how to manipulate a state hospital board. Prosecutors allege he corrupted the hospital panel and another board that controlled a $30 billion pension fund to extort kickbacks from firms seeking regulatory approval or state investments.

This is important. Several witnesses have testified that they believed Rezko was pulling the strings on the two panels, but the wiretap was the first time that the jury actually got to hear it from Rezko himself.

*While the tapes themselves aren’t incriminating, they help to illustrate Levine’s ongoing tale about his Godfather. Among Levine’s most damaging testimony against Rezko was that he agreed to split a $1.5 million bribe to approve the Mercy Hospital application for a Crystal Lake site.

In a tape of Rezko and Levine made May 18, 2004, Rezko tells Levine to ignore prior direction by Kelly that Levine should be the one to instruct a new board member, Danalynn Rice, on how to vote on key issues. Rezko said when Rice called, Levine should have her call Beck.

“We’ll do it the way we have been handling it in the last few months,” Rezko says. “Tom should not know you and I are having this conversation. You and I will still do what we need to do,” assures Rezko.

* As the State Capitol Notebook says today though, Tony Rezko may be the defendant in an ongoing federal corruption trial, but an all-star cast of Illinois politicos is getting dragged into the case, too:

Star witness Stuart Levine has dropped the names of powerful Illinois political figures such as Chicago Ald. Dick Mell, the estranged father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich; William Cellini, a high-powered Republican insider; Robert Kjellander, a Statehouse lobbyist and another GOP insider; former Chicago Ald. Ed “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, who is charged in a separate corruption case and has pleaded not guilty; and of course, the governor himself.

Levine allegedly arranged for Ald. Mell to receive a cut from a finder’s fee. However, Mell denies the charge, and says that he never received any money.

Cellini and Kjellander joined the fray when Levine testified about how he helped steer clients to the lobbyists’ firm, among other things. Kjellander has denied any wrongdoing, and neither has been charged with a crime.

Levine admitted to two bribes that involved Vrdolyak, who has spent years inside the powerful world of Chicago politics, as a middleman. Vrdolyak quickly denied any wrongdoing.

That’s a whole lot of collateral damage. Finally though, Blagojevich remains as the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Levine told the jury this week that Blagojevich told him, “You stick with us and you’ll do very well for yourself.” Levine said to him, this meant he stood to get a lot of money if he did what the governor wanted.

The governor’s name was all over the case Wednesday, with Levine uttering it at least 30 times in under three hours and in ways that often did not appear to paint Blagojevich in a flattering light. The administration then issued its standard response:

“Stuart Levine’s assertions about the governor are wrong,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said later. “As we’ve said before, that’s not how the governor does business.”

In Rich’s column today, he answers the perennial question of the trial, will the governor be indicted?

It certainly looks that way. It’s more than obvious the prosecution is working its way up the ladder toward him. Rezko is an extremely high rung on that ladder. If U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald convicts Rezko with evidence that shows the governor’s office was corrupted by money and influence, Blagojevich’s goose could be cooked.

* Everything hinges on Levine’s credibility. The defense can argue that Levine was a weasel who made his career by lying and scamming others. Oh, and did I mention that he was in a constant drug induced state that purportedly cost him $25,000 a month and included Special K? No, not the cereal, but a drug that can be enough to sedate a horse.

However, it may be hard to sway a jury against Levine’s testimony when Rezko does such a good job of filling in the gaps himself on those tapes.

More Rezko stuff

* Suit says Rezko, doctor stole man’s mansion
* Rezko trial: Listen to Tony Rezko
* Jurors hear recordings of Tony Rezko talking to Stuart Levine
* Phone tapes give Levine testimony added credibility
* Jury hears Rezko calls
* Sometimes, throwing mud is a dirty game

27 Comments

No Coke. Pepsi.

Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

No Coke

* Lawmakers have asked Auditor General William Holland to look into allegations made by Pepsi rival, Coca-Cola, that the contract was tainted because the administration accepted Pepsi before hearing Coke’s best offer.

Earlier this month the Illinois House of Representatives voted 104-0 to probe the $130 million deal between the state and the soft drink company.

Rep. Susanna Mendoza, who sponsored the resolution, said Coke’s arguments seem compelling. “It makes you ask questions,” she said. “If there’s nothing wrong, we will know that at the end of the audit.”

Last July the state awarded Pepsi the contract. It includes four universities and 2,300 vending machines. Eight months later, Coca-Cola officials are still salty over what they consider an unfair deal.

They say they submitted an initial pop (cheesy pun intended) of about $43 million but could not provide a competitive proposal because the state did not answer certain questions about the contract before awarding the deal to Pepsi.

Rep. Jack Franks, who doesn’t exactly have the fondest memory of the administration after they dumped the Mercy Hospital mess on him and who has recently offered a proposal for a recall amendment, said:

“We have an obligation to make sure this state is getting the best deal and to make sure we’re getting the most income for the residents of the state,”

* However, the administration is defending the deal, and even claiming that it was good for taxpayers:

“We believe that we have followed all the guidelines and done everything above ground,” said Katie Ridgeway, a state Revenue Department spokeswoman. “We’ve gone back and looked at it again. There’s no fuzziness here.”

So the question remains, is this more of their recurring theme of “incompetence not corruption,” is there something deeper, or is the administration in the right?

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University of Illinois to consider raising tuition

Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* This week Trustees at the University of Illinois will be considering a proposal that would bump tuition at its Champaign and Chicago campuses by 8 percent next school year:

The proposal to be taken up next week would push the costs for new undergraduates in Champaign above $20,000 for the first time. The plan would set tuition, fees, room and board at the flagship campus at $20,034. Students paid $18,550 last year.

New undergraduates at the Chicago campus would also see an 8 percent increase, to $18,670.

* All I can say is that I am thankful for the state’s tuition freeze. Four years ago my tuition was no where even close to that proposal. A recently released study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found of the 95 percent of Chicago Public School students who planned to go on to post-secondary education in 2005, only 59 percent applied to a four-year college. Only 41 percent of students ultimately enrolled the fall after graduation.

Jenny Nagaoka, a co-author of the study and researcher at the consortium, had the following to say:

“There’s a huge gap between students accepted to school and those who actually enroll. The primary reason why is because they did not fill out their financial aid forms.”

* The study can be applied to almost any district, including those in suburban Chicago, where immigrants and their children made up 33 percent of the population in 2005.

The majority of those individuals are Latinos living in the Northwest and Western suburbs, and the study concluded that they fared the worst with 46 percent applying to four-year colleges, yet only 30 percent actually enrolling in the fall.

The study concluded that Chicago high schools must be more proactive in structuring the application process during junior and senior years, and commit to a fostering a better college bound environment:

“Tracking (financial aid form) completion is a significant improvement, but it won’t dramatically change outcomes unless schools work earlier to help families and students understand what financial aid is and how funding is available,” Nagaoka said.

* This task will undoubtedly become harder for these schools with ever increasing state tuitions. Discuss.

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Morning Shorts

Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* Stroger’s cousin gets 12% hike

* CTA to expand bus tracking system

Using the system, anyone with Internet access via a computer or hand-held personal digital assistant can determine the real-time location of buses on a route and also the expected arrival time at a specific bus stop.

* Chicago Children’s Museum ramps up effort to move to Grant Park

* Virginia sisters sell Illinois-shaped corn flake for $1,350 on eBay

* Fawell moved to halfway house

* Aurora crime at 22-year low

* Old State Capitol celebrates anniversary

Taking the building down, then reassembling the exterior around a modern framework while building a new interior wouldn’t be cheap. Kerner challenged Springfield to come up with $250,000. If citizens did that, he promised, he would ask the legislature for $1.6 million to finish the job. The fundraising started on June 4, 1964. The money was in the bank by the end of September.

* State mulls smoothies for 6th-graders

* Cyber bullies could face penalties

* The buzz over alcoholic energy drinks

* Law makes city unions easier

* Ryan, Blagojevich added to book on state governors

“It was more challenging writing about Blagojevich than Ryan,” Pensoneau added. “Ryan had full closure. With Blagojevich, we’ve got a long way to go.”

* Madigan’s office doesn’t back down from student’s FOIA request

* Lisa Madigan: ‘Sunshine laws’ work, but they must be strengthened

* Bernard Schoenburg: Dem county chairmen don’t want governor meddling

But one chairman who has heard the rumor that Blagojevich or his folks are trying to influence the selection of the new leader is JAY BRINEY of Havana, who heads Mason County Democrats.

* Hastert takes consulting post at Naperville firm

Former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has been hired as a consultant and strategic adviser for a Naperville-based firm that contributed to some of his congressional campaigns.

* For Weller’s seat, it’s sauce or cement

* County Democrats see hope in Foster’s victory

* Speculation about who might fill Obama’s Senate shoes

* Can a senator really fix our financial mess?

As the California real estate market sinks into the Pacific Ocean and the New York financial markets slip into the Hudson River, the American electorate is asking one crucial question: Which presidential candidate — John McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton — is best equipped to float America’s economic boat?

* Former Romney campaign co-chair endorses Obama

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READER COMMENTS CLOSED UNTIL MARCH 24TH

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I told subscribers this today…

I’m pretty sure that the last time I took at least two weeks off work was in 2003 when I went to cover the war in Iraq. So, I’ve decided that since the General Assembly is taking a break for the next two weeks, I’ll do the same. The blog will be down for a week, and then my intern Kevin will cover things for the second week of vacation. The automated news feeds will still be up and running, of course, so the blog will be a must-read even without new posts. Take care.

Be nice to Kevin, please.

* Head to Illinoize while I’m gone. I’m not going to put an Illinoize feed in this post because the javascript feeds are having problems loading lately and I don’t want it to mess up the blog while I’m gone, so just go over the and check it out yourself.

* The Sun-Times ran an excellent editorial about Chess Records today. Howlin’ Wolf was one of the top artists at that studio, and here he is singing “Shake It For Me” with Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin and Clifton James…

* My dad asked that I post this one. Professor Longhair & The Meters do “Tipitina”…

Have a good one.

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This just in… Obama does extensive Rezko interviews with Tribune and Sun-Times

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 5:46 pm - The Tribune and Sun-Times have interviewed Sen. Barack Obama today about his ties to Tony Rezko.

* Complete Tribune transcript

* Complete Sun-Times transcript

* Tribune raw audio is here.

* Sun-Times raw audio is here

* The Tribune has posted a few soundbytes at this page.

* The Trib’s story is here.

* The Sun-Times story is here

* Also, Obama has penned a piece addressing the “controversy” over his pastor. Read it here.

Rush Transcript/Summation of Parts of Tribune Audio

* 6:05 pm - I’m listening to the Tribune audio, and here is what I have so far…

[The post got so long that I’ve put the transcripts on another page. So, click here to see the full post.]

* Obama video on his pastor…

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Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Kevin Fanning

* Members of the House Drivers Education and Safety Committee were split Wednesday over a proposal by Rep. Bob Pritchard to curb distracted driving. The problem? How does one define distracted driving?

“A lot of people can do multiple tasks at once and operate their vehicle safely,” Pritchard said. “Other people can be distracted by simply changing the station on a radio. What we tried to do is limit this to four of the most egregious as reported by the state police.”

The legislators really wrangled with the proposal. Rep. Pritchard’s s solution was to define distracted driving as text messaging, reading a newspaper, book, magazine, or map, applying make-up, or changing clothes or tying a tie.

* Question: How would you define distracted driving?

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Congressional stuff *** Updated x1 - Oberweis won’t get NRCC help ***

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Former Gov. Jim Edgar admits the obvious: The Republicans are in big trouble in Jerry Weller’s district…

…Edgar is less confident about the race to replace Weller. The Democratic Party’s chances in that district improved when the Republican nominee dropped out of the race and a new candidate has not yet been slated to take on well-known Democratic state Sen. Debbie Halvorson and Green Party newcomer Jason Wallace.

“You’ve got to be even more nervous about that,” Edgar said.

As I told subscribers this week, Halvorson continues to raise money at an impressive pace while the Republicans can’t find a candidate and probably won’t settle on one for several weeks.

* That story also has some interesting demographic numbers for Congressman Bill Foster’s district, which was previously held by Republican Denny Hastert…

In 1990, the district had about 571,000 people, compared to an estimated population of more than 770,000 in 2005, according to The “Almanac of American Politics.”

The district also became more Hispanic, according to the Almanac. For example, in Kane County, the district’s largest voting bloc, the Hispanic or Latino population grew from about 96,000 people in 2000 to more than 137,000 in 2006, according to Census data.

* Edgar said he didn’t think these Dem trends meant that another GOP congressman was endangered: “I don’t think anybody should say this means Mark Kirk is in big trouble.”

But the national Dems have now put Kirk’s opponent Dan Seals on their “Red to Blue” list. That means Seals is one of just 13 Dem candidates who will be targeted with cash and other resources…

In 2004, the Red to Blue program raised nearly $7.5 million for twenty seven campaigns across the country with an average of more than $250,000 per campaign. In 2006, the Red to Blue program raised nearly $22.6 million for 56 campaigns with an average of $404,000 per campaign.

This is a 2008 Illinois congressional campaign open thread.

*** UPDATE *** We missed this one earlier today. The NRCC spent well over a million dollars on Oberweis in the special election but is not expected to help Oberweis this fall…

The Republican Party’s congressional war chest, which flooded the suburbs with mailers and TV ads on behalf of Jim Oberweis this month, may back out of the coming rematch with Bill Foster.

Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said Thursday it seems “highly unlikely” the National Republican Congressional Committee will chip in for the general election.

An NRCC spokeswoman declined to say whether the woefully underfunded organization will help Oberweis financially. But she said they still hope he wins the seat once held by veteran House Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Under the bus.

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Blagojevich vs. Obama; Plus: Obama’s AP problem

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My Sun-Times column this week is about race. One always has to tread carefully on this topic, but whoever did the art for the Sun-Times did me no favors by using a photo of the late Rep. Lou Jones instead of Louanner Peters. Oy. My phone started ringing about the screwup at 7:30 this morning.

For the record, I have no control over the Sun-Times page layout.

* Anyway, on to the column, which compares Gov. Blagojevich’s reaction to the stories about how he gave two African-American women pardons/expungements to Barack Obama’s reaction to Geraldine Ferraro’s goofy comments.

First up, Blagojevich…

The Sun-Times story on [Sharon] Latiker never mentioned her race, and no photo was included. But that didn’t stop the governor from sending out one of his top aides to play the race card.

Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters was former Congressman Gus Savage’s chief of staff for 10 years. Savage was the guy who blamed his 1992 Democratic primary loss on the “white racist press and the racist, reactionary Jewish misleaders.”

Anyway, Peters held a news conference last Friday and invited several African-American leaders to attend. She told reporters that the Sun-Times story on Latiker was either ginned up by Madigan or represented a media “focus on African-American women. It has to be one or the other.” The Sun-Times developed the story without Madigan’s input, so that left just race.

* Now, Obama…

Instead of surrounding himself with African-American leaders, as Peters did, Obama scheduled a news conference to announce an endorsement by several retired military leaders. The backdrop to his event was a group of older, (mostly) white men. Obama refused to characterize Ferraro’s remarks as racist. Instead, he said they were “ridiculous.” Which they were.

* Conclusion…

Blagojevich is a fading politician facing the possibility of indictment and is therefore desperate to hold onto the one voting bloc that has yet to completely turn against him. Claiming reporters have racist motives is a tried-and-true and often supremely cynical formula for cranking up the base, but its success may be diminishing in the “Obama Age.” Still, it’s all Blagojevich has left, so he used it.

Obama has a different task. Check out this quote of a 63-yearold Ohio woman from a recent Bloomberg story: “If Obama gets in, it’s going to be a black thing, and it’s going to be all blacks for blacks.”

America obviously still has more than its share of racists. Obama has to show that he’s “post-racial” to allay the fears of people like that Ohio woman. He took another step in that direction this week.

Ferraro may have done “Sen. Lucky” a favor. Peters only reinforced the governor’s image of desperation.

* Meanwhile, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” is the assumption that most political reporters go on these days. That’s not always the case. For instance, check out this AP story posted yesterday afternoon about Barack Obama’s Illinois “pork” projects and whether he was hiding something…

Public records reveal some of the projects he sponsored as a state senator, from literacy programs and park improvements to drill team uniforms and jazz-appreciation events. They add up to more than $6 million.

But that covers just two of Obama’s nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate. State records don’t detail his projects from other years, and his presidential campaign has not responded to repeated requests from The Associated Press for information.

* The Obama campaign was stupid for not responding. When they did, it blew a huge hole in the AP’s conspiracy theory. Here’s the updated AP story…

After repeated requests from The Associated Press for that information, Obama’s presidential campaign said Thursday night that he made no other extra spending requests during the rest of his legislative career. What’s shown in the public record is the only spending he added to the budget, the campaign said.

Along the way, the Chicago Democrat stopped inserting pet projects into the Illinois budget because he felt the system was getting out of hand.

* Obama’s campaign seems to have a real problem communicating with the Illinois AP. Here’s a completely screwed up story posted by the IL AP earlier this week…

Sen. Barack Obama was among eight state officials and others consulted about who should be appointed to a state board that later became involved in what prosecutors describe as a fraud scheme, according to a memo discussed Monday at Antoin “Tony” Rezko’s trial.

Um, no. That’s not what the memo says at all. The memo just says that Obama was a co-sponsor of the bill which rewrote the law that was set to expire at the end of June, 2003. There is no way you can read that memo and conclude what the AP reported. Zero.

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On the media

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Word from inside WLS Radio is that their advertising is tanking and that the people who run the station have no clue that Chicago is a news junkie town.

One of the most experienced city hall reporters is Bill Cameron. WLS let him go a couple of weeks ago and the Chicagoist has an interview…

“I miss the beat,” says Bill Cameron. “But hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it sooner rather than later.” Cameron is no longer on that beat because he was let go by his employers, WLS Radio, a couple Fridays back in what’s being called the Leap Day Massacre.

* Cameron makes a good point in this bit…

That Rezko trial is a good example of how there was such demand to stuff Blagojevich’s campaign coffers with so many millions to scare off any serious competition, that they did things like shaking down investment firms for campaign contributions in exchange for getting a crack at the investment business.

He’s absolutely right about that.

* Another top-notch city hall reporter is Fran Spielman with the Sun-Times. If you want to hear how she gets under Mayor Daley’s skin, just take a listen to this raw audio of hizzoner’s press conference yesterday.

Daley goes out of his way to try to ignore Fran’s questions, but she comes right back at him time and time again. Daley eventually leaves the podium under a hail of questions from Fran, but she continued to pepper staff. Classic. Here’s her story.

* Baseball blogs are all the rage these days, but the brainiacs who think they own the game are making life more difficult for bloggers. Stupid…

Not again. Now Major League Baseball is stepping into the sports versus Web swamp, attempting to limit the degree to which its games are covered online.

Examples, under MLB’s newly announced rules: You can post up to seven photos from a game, but you can’t make a “photo gallery.” You can’t leave them up for more than 72 hours.

“Enjoy the game,” the league might as well add. “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”

* Speaking of blogs, Harris Interactive has a new poll…

Just one in ten (19%) Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31) regularly read a political blog and only 17 percent of Gen Xers (those aged 32-43) say the same. Matures (those aged 63 and older) are actually the generation most likely to be political blog readers as just over one-quarter (26%) say they regularly do so followed by 23 percent of Baby Boomers (those aged 44-62). Also, one hears of the rabid blogs on both sides of the political aisle, but just 22 percent of Republicans and 20 percent of Democrats regularly read blogs. Independents are the ones slightly more likely to read these, as just over one-quarter (26%) say they regularly read political blogs.

Looking at those who regularly do read political blogs, over half (54%) read one or two at least once a week with an additional 22 percent reading 3-4 at least once a week. And, while they may read these, they do not comment on them. Over two-thirds (69%) of those who regularly read blogs did not comment on one in the previous week. Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to comment. One-third of Republicans (34%) commented in the previous week compared to 28 percent of Democrats. […]

When compared to the mainstream media, one-third of regular blog readers (33%) say the information they read on blogs is more valuable, half (49%) say just as valuable and just 18 percent say it is less valuable.

Discuss.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax

Friday, Mar 14, 2008 - Posted by Rich Miller

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