Reporter 1: So, why are you here today and not in Granite City?
Rauner aide: We’re just keeping it on-topic…
Rauner: Well, I’m here because this is a very significant piece of legislation that passed at the end of the General Assembly. And this was scheduled long time ago. Uh, and today, [laughs] my day is very full. I was in Chicago and Itasca and Rockford, and I’m heading back to Springfield tonight.
Reporter 2: You didn’t think it was important to support the president in Granite City today at all?
Rauner: Well, what’s important is that we support economic growth for the entire state of Illinois. And that’s what this legislation does. We need to bring down tax burden in our communities and grow more jobs and that’s what we’re here to do right now.
* So, I asked the Pritzker campaign where the candidate stands on ICE…
Donald Trump’s administration is using ICE to separate families and communities are being forced to live in fear. This policy is contrary to what America stands for. We need real change and to do away with practices that separate families and demonize immigrants. We need to reform the culture in ICE so they’re focused on violent criminals, drug traffickers, and terrorists, not families seeking refuge.
Here in Illinois, Bruce Rauner needs to stand up to Trump and sign SB 35 and enforce and strengthen the Trust Act. Not only do we need comprehensive immigration reform, but we also need a governor who is willing to stand up to Donald Trump.
SB35 is the “Immigration Safe Zones Act.” Click here for a summary. Make sure to read the amendments, which narrowed it. The bill has been on Gov. Rauner’s desk for almost a month.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average of eight hours of sleep per night for adults, but sleep scientist Matthew Walker says that too many people are falling short of the mark.
“Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain,” Walker says. “Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it.”
Walker is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He points out that lack of sleep — defined as six hours or fewer — can have serious consequences. Sleep deficiency is associated with problems in concentration, memory and the immune system, and may even shorten life span.
“Every disease that is killing us in developed nations has causal and significant links to a lack of sleep,” he says. “So that classic maxim that you may [have] heard that you can sleep when you’re dead, it’s actually mortally unwise advice from a very serious standpoint.”
* The Question: On average, how many hours do you sleep per night during a typical week?
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan are close to unveiling a proposed court agreement intended to govern reforms in the Chicago Police Department, attorneys said Friday in federal court.
The lone sticking point, attorneys said, remains whether the department must document incidents in which an officer points a gun at a person.
That is indeed a big sticking point for the cops. But just last month, the Chicago City Council approved a $2.5 million settlement of an excessive force lawsuit filed by the family of a 3-year-old girl after an officer pointed a gun at her chest while striking her handcuffed mother.
CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley reports in New Orleans, a consent decree implemented five years ago had a dramatic effect on brutality complaints. An oversight report last year said, “The monitoring team did not locate any litigation for the past two years, alleging excessive use of force.”
A study of 23 departments under consent decrees, including New Orleans, found lawsuits dropped dramatically – from 23 to 36% each year, in each city.
* The Chicago FOP says that the resulting data on officers pulling their guns could be used to taint cops who are just doing their jobs. But…
[Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson] said police officers shouldn’t oppose the clause, since if they are behaving properly and following department protocols when they pull their guns, the data wouldn’t be held against them.
But the Chicago Police Department and the Fraternal Order of Police oppose the measure. One retired sargent said he believes the policy would just complicate officers’ jobs further.
“We already have a report, every time a police officer has an encounter with somebody, they have to fill out a report, it’s like 70 boxes,” said retired CPD Sargent Peter Koconis. “When you add something else to this mix, you’re taking a good active police officer and you’re putting him down for 20-30 minutes, just filling out paper work for absolutely nothing.”
Ferguson said he doesn’t buy the argument that reporting every instance when an officer draws a weapon would be overly burdensome. He argued that there are “very, very easy technologically-based fixes” for reporting those incidents.
“It is not a significant added burden. And the fact of the matter is, it is far too important to leave on the cutting room floor in terms of what we are monitoring and tracking with respect to use of force,” he said.
The inspector general argued that pointing a gun — “separate from it being an officer” — is a “use of force that under the law constitutes an aggravated assault” because it involves the use of “potentially deadly force.”
That’s why it’s become a “pretty standard provision that those incidents be reported, tracked, analyzed and accounted for,” both in “the context of consent decrees and reforms outside of consent decrees,” Ferguson said.
“Beyond that — and I speak about this both from a professional context and a personal context because I’ve been on the receiving end of a gun being pointed at me in my past, it is a fundamentally perspective-changing event to occur,” Ferguson said. “To think that it has little to do with how the community perceives the police would be blinking reality. So, it’s a really important thing to fold into how it is that we monitor the use of force.”
A robber pulled a gun on Ferguson when he was young, and then the cops pulled their guns on him when they responded.
The Trump administration rightly dismissed the methodology and findings of this DOJ investigation and declined to impose a consent decree.
Despite this, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel broke new legal ground to create their own consent decree. We believe this action is not legal, not moral, politically motivated and is one of the most disturbing examples of how political careers in Chicago are built by attacking the police.
Because so much of Chicago’s media is also deeply allied to the various factions of the anti-police movement, little real debate or discussion of the merits or consequences of this bizarre and dangerous consent decree have taken shape in the City.
Photos from 35th St. viaduct next to Guaranteed Rate Field the night of White Sox Legislative Caucus two weeks ago! Holds up lots of train tracks!!! Right next to the ball park.
Brent Johnson, the president and owner of Midwest Aero Support wrote in a Facebook post that he was notified on Wednesday that Rauner would visit his company.
“I feel honored he selected MAS [Midwest Aero Support] for this occasion. What is even more humbling is that President Trump will be in Illinois the same time tomorrow in a different city,” Johnson wrote. “The governor declined the president’s invitation to join him in Granite City to visit MAS instead. How we were selected is a mystery, but I feel it is an opportunity / experience of a lifetime.”
Rauner’s campaign spokesman Will Allison said both campaign events “had been in the works for weeks.” Allison said the events were planned on Jan. 26. He said there was talk of visiting a different company in Rockford, however.
“If someone is trying to imply that we had nothing on our schedule at then Trump shows up, and we added events, that’s not true,” Allison said. “Both have been in the works for awhile.”
Schuh said the Johnson post appears to be a businessman boasting about the governors’ visit.
Also, the governor’s office denied to Tina that Rauner had declined a formal invitation to President Trump’s event and told her that they’d reached out to the White House and the president’s people knew he couldn’t make it.
*** UPDATE *** Mary Ann Ahern gave the governor what-for today when he refused to take reporters’ questions…
READI is the Rapid Employment and Development Initiative, a radical new experiment from Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization, that could change how Chicago communities treat violence.
Hand-picked by a unique violence-predicting algorithm as well as referrals from outreach workers and partners in the criminal justice system, READI participants are among the most likely to be shot or shoot someone in the city.
For 18 months, these extremely high-risk Chicagoans are given transitional jobs, cognitive behavioral therapy and legal and social services to help them pave a different future. Afterwards, they also receive an additional six months of coaching to help them find full-time work.
Conceived by researchers at the University of Chicago and based on the latest violence prevention research, READI has a four-year budget of $48.7 million funded by 11 groups including the MacArthur and Polk Brothers foundations.
The program is operating in four of the neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence in the city: Austin, West Garfield Park, North Lawndale and Greater Englewood. Since its rollout in September of last year, more than 160 men have started working. Heartland expects to connect 500 men to jobs by spring of next year.
* OK, this is not something you see every day. Reps. Dave McSweeney and Greg Harris filing a bill together. Press release…
State Representative David McSweeney (R-Cary) today introduced bipartisan legislation to protect patients who depend on medical supplies and equipment from the Rauner Administration’s massive reorganization of the Illinois Medicaid program. Assistant Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago) is co-sponsoring the legislation (HB 5930).
“The decision to ram through a multi-billion dollar reorganization of our state’s Medicaid system was done with little forethought and shows no signs of saving taxpayers a dime,” Representative McSweeney said. “MCOs are slashing rates to providers, potentially driving them out of business. This will lead to lost jobs and increased costs to the state in the future. Our bill also prohibits sole source contracts. Requiring competition will help save taxpayers money.”
“This legislation will ensure low-income individuals are guaranteed a minimum quality standard for medical supplies and equipment, while protecting small Illinois businesses from multi-billion dollar insurers seeking to maximize their own profits,” said Representative Harris. “It’s time we take action to protect Illinois’ healthcare infrastructure.”
HB 5930 will:
• Require the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to create minimum quality standards for medical supplies and equipment
• Set a floor on provider reimbursements, to ensure we don’t drive these critical small businesses out of the market
• Prohibit Managed Care Organizations from signing sole-source contracts with providers of medical supplies and equipment
• Save taxpayers money by:
o protecting a competitive medical supply and equipment marketplace
o ensuring that patients have access to high-quality products, reducing the need for more expensive interventions like hospitalizations.
McSweeney’s legislation comes on the heels of several stories from Illinois and throughout the country showing certain managed care companies taking advantage of lax oversight by slashing reimbursement rates to providers, thus resulting in poor patients losing access to vital medical equipment like breathing machines and incontinence supplies.
Recently, the Dallas Morning News wrote several disturbing stories outlining how one Managed Care Organization, mismanaged Texas’s program for Texas Foster Children. Illinois selected the same company, Centene, to manage the healthcare of the children under the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ care. The stories exposed how without oversight, MCOs saved money by denying necessary equipment and care, even for some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
“I look forward to working with members of both parties to pass this bill during veto session and begin the process of ensuring that our Medicaid program works for taxpayers and patients alike,” McSweeney added.
WBEZ aired a story on the legislation this week. Click here.
* Other stuff…
* ADDED: State program can help assure secure retirement for thousands: While many state legislatures are examining this type of program, Illinois is just the second state to implement one, and as with any major change or new idea, there are skeptics. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called Secure Choice “the wrong answer” because its leadership believes state-sponsored plans “are a poor substitute for employer-provided plans” in part because employees “are significantly limited in how much they are allowed to contribute.” This criticism completely misses the point. Whether or not Secure Choice would be better than an employer’s retirement plan is irrelevant to the thousands of small businesses, solo entrepreneurs and employees in Illinois who don’t have access to any retirement plan. Secure Choice cannot discourage employers to end a benefit they do not offer, nor will it dissuade companies from offering a benefit they cannot afford.
* Rauner Vetoes Bill On ‘Jailhouse Snitches’: The bill would have regulated the testimony of so-called jailhouse snitches. In cases involving murder, sexual assault, or arson, defense attorneys would have gotten advance notice, and judges could block the informant’s testimony. John Hanlon, with the Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield, says when Illinois had a death penalty, false informant testimony was the leading cause of wrongful convictions.
* New Law Allows Kids To Unlock Potential: Thanks to an acceleration law championed by Senator Kimberly Lightford and Representative Camille Lilly, thousands of advanced learners from across Illinois will now have a new opportunity to take courses that meet their intellectual needs. The upcoming school year will be the first year the state’s new acceleration law goes into effect; requiring all school districts to allow advanced learners to enter school early, enroll in above grade level courses, or skip grades if they are deemed eligible for acceleration. This means that the 4-year-old who knows how to read can now enter kindergarten; that the sixth grader who understands Algebra can now sit in on an eighth-grade class; and, that the high school junior who has already earned all the credits they need to graduate can now graduate early.
* Why is it so good? I didn’t get to this topic yesterday, but we talked a bit about the Senate Transportation Committee’s hearing about the Tollway before it happened. The hearing was called after Marni Pyke wrote a series of stories for the Daily Herald. From her committee coverage…
Amid a call for resignations, Illinois tollway executives fielded questions from state senators about potential nepotism and politically connected PR subcontracts Wednesday at a special hearing.
“You need to fight against conflicts of interest,” former tollway director and former Democratic Sen. Bill Morris of Grayslake testified. “You need to not have these conflicts of interest.”
And to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who appoints the tollway board, Morris said: “This tollway board needs to be asked to resign.”
But tollway officials said they’d “set the record straight.
“What was demonstrated is that the safeguards and mechanisms enacted to ensure transparency and protection against potential conflicts of interest work,” Executive Director Liz Gorman said.
In response to questions about why the Tollway would need a multimillion-dollar public relations contract when it already has an 11-member internal communications team that costs about $1.6 million a year, Tollway officials said additional communications work is needed to reach out to hundreds of homeowners who will be affected by the planned expansion of I-294.
The most critical and colorful statements at the hearing came not from current state senators but from former Democratic state Sen. Bill Morris, a former Tollway board member. Morris has frequently expressed criticism of the current board, appointed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. Morris said Tuesday that board members were not doing their jobs in properly reviewing contracts and should resign.
“There’s never a ‘no’ vote on the Tollway board anymore,” Morris said.
Morris also recommended that the state end the $30,000 annual salaries for Tollway board members and replace them with a limited $150 per diem for attendance at each meeting, and require all board members, administrators and senior executives to regularly disclose to the public any contacts with firms seeking contracts with the Tollway.
Former Democratic state Sen. Bill Morris is also a former Tollway board member. He told the committee that board members weren’t properly reviewing contracts and should resign. Morris is a frequent critic of the current board, appointed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. […]
Morris said the state should require all board members, administrators and senior executives to regularly disclose to the public any contacts with firms seeking contracts with the Tollway.
But even as the Republican governor moved to distance himself from the nonpartisan mayoral challenger — to whom Rauner has given $200,000 in the last year alone — a common political link surfaced. Rauner and Wilson both employ the same man to help with black voter outreach efforts, according to their campaigns and expenditure reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections. […]
Rauner and Wilson have described themselves as friends. And both the Rauner and Wilson campaigns are paying the same man for outreach efforts. It’s not uncommon for consultants to be paid to work for several campaigns. Chauncey Colquitt is working outreach for both campaigns.
Citizens for Rauner paid Colquitt $12,000 in two payments for consulting in late June, with the campaign also paying Colquitt’s The Crescent Group $30,000 for legal services, expenditure reports show. Wilson’s campaign also paid The Crescent Group $9,500 in two payments in late June. Colquitt is the listed agent for the group […]
The Rauner campaign did not elaborate on Colquitt’s role, only saying Colquitt is “not the outreach director for Wilson’s campaign.”
Wilson campaign manager Scott Winslow said Colquitt is a paid consultant focusing on “African-American messaging, what’s going to resonate with different populations.”
* But, wait, there’s more! Colquitt also worked for then-Rep. Ken Dunkin in 2016 (click here). Dunkin, of course, was/is a Rauner ally who lost his 2016 Democratic primary to Juliana Stratton and then failed in a comeback bid last March.
Colquitt’s other job (separate from the campaign) is to help secure guests for WVON talk show host Maze Jackson. Rauner appeared on Jackson’s show June 19 declaring he has done more for the black community than any governor before him. The comment raised eyebrows but it isn’t inaccurate—Rauner has established programs to make sure blacks get a share of state business.
Two days after that radio appearance, Rauner paid $30,000 to Colquitt’s Crescent Group business and $12,000 to him directly, according to campaign expenditure reports. I’m told those payments are for work done since Colquitt was hired in May.
Connecting the dots on Maze Jackson: He supported Ken Dunkin, the controversial lawmaker appointed to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Jackson and Dunkin got to know each other when Jackson was a statehouse lobbyist and later when he was executive director of the Black Caucus Foundation. Jackson’s wife is Kari Steele, also a Water Reclamation District commissioner. Jackson’s good friend is Vince Bass, the director of public engagement and civic affairs for the governor’s office. Before that, Bass worked for former state comptroller Leslie Munger. She’s now the deputy governor. Jackson also owns a marketing company called The Intelligence Group, which was paid $91,000 by Munger for campaign work.
Colquitt is present while Maze narrates. Later, Jackson takes the microphone and says, “We’ve got an election in November. Who came to see you? Hey, gov, you want to say a couple of words real quick?” Maze then expresses disappointment that no state legislators showed up.
Rauner, wearing his biker vest, touts his expansion of child care, among other things.
“Remember the people who came to see you and took your vote importantly,” Jackson says when Rauner finishes speaking.
* The advisory is silent on media questions at the governor’s campaign event tomorrow, which starts at 12:30 in the afternoon…
MEDIA ADVISORY: Governor Rauner to Visit Machesney Park Business Tomorrow
Tomorrow, Governor Rauner will visit Midwest Aero Support Inc. in Machesney Park, Illinois. He will tour the facility and speak with employees. […]
Governor Rauner will tour the facility and speak with employees
* No press questions will be allowed at the governor’s Peoria event, according to his official public schedule…
Daily Public Schedule: Thursday, July 26, 2018
What: Gov. Rauner takes action on Senate Bill 3527 regarding the River’s Edge Tax Credit
Where: Peoria Riverfront Museum Plaza, 222 SW Washington St., Peoria
Date: Thursday, July 26, 2018
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Note: No additional media availability
* And there’s good reason why he won’t take questions in Peoria…
President Trump's Granite City campaign rally starts at 2:05 p.m. on Thursday. Gov. Rauner will be in Peoria, more than two hours away, instead signing a tax credit bill. He said Monday that he had no plans to meet with the president. #twill
“It seems to me the governor is avoiding spending any time with the president,” Pritzker said. “On the one hand, he stands with the president in so many ways and is silent in the face of so many of the president’s policies that are bad for Illinois.” […]
In the meantime, while Trump is in Granite City, Rauner will be visiting other areas of the state. Rauner said Tuesday that he was just in Granite City to act on legislation and was not planning to return right away.
“He’s obviously avoiding (Trump),” Pritzker said. “This governor seems to want to play both sides of the issue.”
* Some Illinois Republican officials will be in Granite City, however…
U.S. Reps. who will join Trump: Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro; Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville; and John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.
* And DPI’s new executive director will also be there, but I seriously doubt he’ll be on stage with the president…
DPI Executive Director to Join Local Protests Against Trump’s Proposed Health Care Cuts
Granite City, Ill. — Tomorrow, Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Christian Mitchell will join local protests against Donald Trump’s first visit to Illinois as president. Mitchell will highlight Trump’s attacks on healthcare and attempts to undermine Illinois working families.
State Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton, and state Rep. Monica Bristow, D-Godfrey, are applauding the steel tariffs put in place by Republican President Donald Trump ahead of his visit to the Granite City Works steel mill on Thursday.
“I am glad to see the reactivation of two blast furnaces at the Granite City mill,” Costello said in a news release. “Our region is witnessing the positive results of our country’s new tariffs on steel. As a result, middle-class families, local businesses and others are seeing the real effects of investment in our capable workforce and community. We need to continue to push policies on both the state and national level that will continue to foster the creation of good-paying jobs.”
Bristow commended the President’s efforts to bring back steel jobs in the metro-east.
“One of my main priorities in Springfield has been fighting for local jobs and to restore those that we have seen outsourced overseas,” Bristow said. “I am encouraged and excited to see the reactivation of two blast furnaces in Granite City, restoring local jobs to our communities and providing jobs for middle class families.”
…Adding… Snark from Team Pritzker…
While Donald Trump makes his first visit to Illinois as president today, Bruce Rauner is playing hooky, stating : “I, uh, I do not plan to go. I was just in Granite City just in the past week.”
Really? He really can’t visit Granite City twice in a week’s time? Everyone knows Rauner is a staunch Trump supporter — whether he’s a silent partner or cheerleader — so what’s the real reason Rauner won’t appear with Trump?
“Bruce Rauner is ditching his partner in crime on his first presidential visit to Illinois, and he’s pretending it’s a scheduling conflict,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “It’s time for this failed governor to level with the voters about the real reason he won’t appear with Donald Trump.”
…Adding… John Shaw, Director of the Paul Simon Institute, on WSIL TV…
“Democrats believe this is a seat they can win. They believe it’s a democratic-leaning seat,” Shaw explains. “While Republicans need to hang on to this seat in order to keep control of the House, and they have incumbents. You can’t lose incumbents in a very competitive year.”
Vice President Mike Pence has already shown his support for Bost by attending a Metro-East fundraiser for him in mid-July. Shaw says President Trump’s upcoming visit to the area will further secure votes for Bost among Republican voters.
“I doubt the president is going to win over new converts to the republican party, that’s just not his style,” Shaw says. “I think he’s going to do a good job in solidifying the republican base, which is the reason I think Bost is welcoming his visit.”
However, Shaw doubts the president’s appearance will have a lasting impact on the mid-term elections. “I think its probably a helpful development for Bost in the short-term, but I’m not sure there’s going to be any permanent change in the structure of the race due to one Presidential visit,” he says.
President Trump’s trade fights with China, Canada and Europe have put some members of Congress in a tough spot. Do they stand with American steelworkers, whose mills might benefit from newly imposed tariffs, or soybean farmers, whose exports are at risk in a trade war? Brian Mackey of Illinois Public Radio reports from the southern part of that state.
Since the state last paid for a majority of road costs in 2000, construction costs have increased 61 percent, according to the Federal Highway Administration. State funds for transportation, however, have fluctuated and on average, remained largely static in that amount of time.
This kind of works like the pension problem: pension costs increase over time, but the state’s appropriation for those costs have simply not kept up. That’s how we end up billions behind in that arena and this one.
Though far less expensive by comparison, even maintaining the roads isn’t cheap. To show just how stretched Illinois’ infrastructure budget is. IDOT Officials are shooting for Illinois roads to be at or better than a “fair” condition between now and 2024. That’s the second to last rating on its pavement condition scale.
[Kevin Burke of the Illinois Asphalt and Pavement Association] says, if that’s the goal, a commute probably won’t get any better; in fact, he warns Illinois roads are probably going get a lot worse.
* A buddy of mine who has worked in southern Illinois for years said he’d driven over three creaky old bridges today in rural Union County. He texted me a pic of one of them…
* Difference between the last impasse and first post-impasse fiscal years…
Table shows State of Illinois General Funds revenues in FY2017 and FY2018. Federal revenues were depressed in FY2017 as the State’s cash flow problems led to delayed payment of Medicaid bills: https://t.co/XW7EZDbPozpic.twitter.com/kOJ9XZ6yxi
— The Civic Federation (@CivicFederation) July 25, 2018
* As I think we’ve already discussed, revenues exceeded expectations by about $900 million…
Federal revenues of $4.0 billion exceeded projections by $614 million, or 18.0%. The federal component of General Funds revenues relates mainly to reimbursements for State Medicaid spending. Budget officials said the federal revenue increase was largely a matter of timing: because the State paid more Medicaid bills before the end of the fiscal year, more matching federal payments were received and booked in FY2018 instead of in FY2019. It should be noted that the federal revenues shown in the table above do not include $1.2 billion of Medicaid reimbursements due to bonds sold in November 2017 to reduce the bill backlog.
The State also brought in more income taxes than expected, which has been attributed to federal tax changes. Corporate income taxes (net of amounts diverted to pay tax refunds) of $2.0 billion exceeded projections by $133 million, or 7.1%. Net individual income taxes of $17.7 billion were $115 million, or 0.7%, above GOMB’s forecast.
Transfers were above projections, largely due to $198 million in additional payments from the Capital Projects Fund to reimburse General Funds for capital purpose debt service costs. Sales tax receipts of $7.8 billion were $141 million below forecast amounts.
Nearly a third of property taxes now collected by City Hall go into 143 special taxing districts controlled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen, according to a new report by Cook County Clerk David Orr.
Orr said a record-high $660 million poured into tax-increment financing funds last year, which was more than 31 percent of the $2.1 billion-plus that city government collected. The veteran clerk called the percentage “stunning.”
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday said he supports the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a politically connected conservative judge, just as Democrats in Illinois and across the country sounded the alarm on potential rulings on abortion restrictions, gun rights and a roll back of Obamacare. […]
“I support the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh. I believe he is highly experienced, well-qualified for the position, and I hope that his nomination is voted on and approved expeditiously,” Rauner told reporters in Schaumburg after touring Amada America, Inc.
Rauner, too, accused Democrats of “trying to play politics with this issue.”
Nearly all of the nation’s Republican governors have signed a letter backing Senate confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In a letter to Senate leaders, first obtained by the AP, GOP governors from 31 states and territories ask that senators move “expeditiously to confirm” Kavanaugh to the court.
They write: “Judge Kavanaugh’s impeccable credentials demonstrate he is worthy of this nomination.”
The letter is part of a coordinated campaign by the White House to build public support for Kavanaugh, in hopes of securing his confirmation in time for the beginning of the Supreme Court’s term this fall.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the letter on Tuesday afternoon.
*** UPDATE *** From Will Allison at the Rauner campaign…
Governor Rauner has supported Judge Kavanaugh as a nominee for the Supreme Court since he was announced earlier this month. The RGA is adding Governor Rauner’s signature to the letter
Those other two aren’t running for reelection this year, so Rauner is the least popular governor in that category. Alaska’s governor is second on that list, according to the poll, with a 54 percent disapproval rating.
Two cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been reported at an Illinois veterans’ home more than two years after an outbreak killed 12 people and sickened 54 at the facility.
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs said Wednesday that two residents at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy contracted the disease. Department spokesman Dave MacDonna said one resident died last week but officials believe the death resulted from other factors.
A new lawsuit alleges medical personnel mishandled testing of a dying Quincy veterans’ home resident last fall, resulting in him not being diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease until just hours before his death.
This is the second lawsuit from the family of Valdemar “Roy” Dehn, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran and ex-Chicago Tribune employee who died from Legionnaires’ last October. The first lawsuit, filed last week, was focused solely against the state of Illinois in the state’s obscure Court of Claims, where families suing the state are limited in their damages. […]
The lawsuit alleges staff at Blessing Hospital ordered Dehn be tested for Legionnaires’ disease on Oct. 8, 2017, but the test wasn’t carried out. Three days later, another doctor questioned why the test had not been completed and ordered it be done a second time, according to the lawsuit. The test result came back positive for Legionnaires’ the next day, about eight hours before Dehn died, according to the lawsuit.
The court filing alleges [Zorian Trusewych, the medical director of the Quincy veterans’ home] also failed to test Dehn, even in the months leading up to the 2017 outbreak as other residents tested positive for Legionnaires’.
So, lemme get this straight. Twelve people died during the 2015 Legionnaires’ outbreak. The facility was hit with another outbreak in 2016. And they still apparently couldn’t get it right during the third outbreak?
Gov. Bruce Rauner doesn’t plan to be there when Donald Trump makes his first visit to Illinois as president later this week.
Asked about his plans, Rauner wasn’t even sure when Trump would visit the state.
“I heard the president is coming to Granite City, I think either Thursday or Friday,” Rauner said Monday in Wheaton.
Thursday, a reporter pointed out.
“I, uh, I do not plan to go. I was just in Granite City just in the past week,” he said.
Hilarious.
* The Question: Which would be worse for the governor: POTUS is upset about the guv’s snub and tags him with an unflattering nickname; or POTUS tells the crowd what a great governor Illinois has? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
The Rauner campaign continues to focus on the corrupt relationship between JB Pritzker and Mike Madigan with a paid digital ad titled “Pritzker Covers For Madigan” highlighting their failure to defend women who have been victims of sexual harassment.
The ad showcases Pritzker’s inability to challenge Mike Madigan throughout the sexual harassment scandal that has rocked Madigan’s official and political organizations. Not only did Pritzker wait days to even name Madigan when pressed on the issue, he has given millions to Madigan’s political groups AFTER harassment allegations were levied against some of the Speaker’s top allies.
* The two brief clips of Pritzker in this ad have him saying “We need to find out what the facts are” and “We need to make sure that all the facts come out.” I just don’t get how that’s supposed to be a negative. The on-screen messages do try to make the case, however, and a lot of people watch these online ads without sound, so maybe all that makes this ad work. I dunno, though. You be the judge…
Also, they haven’t yet settled on a tagline to unify all these ads, except the single word “Madigan.” A catchy, memorable phrase is the usual route, but maybe that one word is enough considering how massively unpopular the guy is.
The bloodbath that wiped out half the editorial staff of the New York Daily News Monday will continue today at other units of Chicago-based parent company tronc. That’s the word from CEO Justin Dearborn, who told employees the cutbacks would “accelerate our company’s transformation into a truly digitally-focused enterprise — one that creates meaningful journalism, delivers it more quickly and more frequently, and develops new approaches to engage our reader.”
* But Tronc execs apparently have no idea how to do that…
When a top executive from frugal newspaper giant Tronc was asked Tuesday about the specific strategy behind draconian cuts to the New York Daily News on Monday, he didn’t have an answer.
On Monday, the company slashed fifty percent of the editorial staff at one of New York’s two remaining iconic tabloids, including dozens of top longtime staffers from virtually every section of the paper.
During a Tuesday meeting with editorial staff that lasted more than an hour, Tronc executive vice president Grant Whitmore and the Daily News’ newly installed editor in chief Robert York occasionally struggled to answer pointed questions about the underlying strategy behind the cuts.
At one point, York asked for 30 days to develop an editorial strategy, which prompted dismay from some staff.
Tronc bought the money-losing Daily News in 2017 for the token price of one dollar in what many saw as a grab for its printing plant and real estate. […]
Insiders say it’s all about getting the company ready for a sale.
Revenue for the first quarter 2018 includes $25.9 million attributable to the NYDN (acquired in September 2017) […]
First quarter 2018 was impacted by fees associated with a consulting agreement that the Company entered into with Merrick Ventures LLC, Michael W. Ferro, Jr. and Merrick Media, LLC. Following Mr. Ferro’s retirement from the Company’s Board on March 18, 2018, the Company fully expensed the $15.0 million contract in the first quarter, which included $500,000 while Mr. Ferro was actively engaged in the business. Including this charge, net loss for first quarter 2018 was $14.8 million [Emphasis added] […]
Adjusted [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization] for first quarter 2018 was $24.4 million, versus $33.7 million in the first quarter 2017, due primarily to an anticipated negative first quarter 2018 adjusted EBITDA at the NYDN and digital investments.
So, the paper was bleeding some money (hard to tell just how much), but paying off that Ferro contract is what apparently put them under water. And it’s much harder to sell a company when it’s not showing a profit.
And just like that, @BruceRauner campaign spokesman now pipes up and says "No, Rauner will not be giving Wilson any more money." https://t.co/s85EAhacE2
