* The Senate Education committee just wrapped up a marathon hearing on the sexual abuse students suffered from faculty and staff at dozens of schools for years. The hearing was called in response to a bombshell Tribune investigation published earlier this month that found hundreds of incidents, either kept under wraps or quietly dealt with.
Six+ hours of testimony yielded both gut-wrenching accounts from former students and angry exchanges between lawmakers and school officials.
Speaking to an audience of at least 20 legislators and dozens of observers, former Walter Payton College Prep student Morgan Aranda said she lost her “sense of wonder and excitement” about school after she reported being groped and kissed at age 14 by one of her teachers. School and district officials repeatedly questioned her about the alleged abuse.
“I’m here to shed light on the re-traumatizing, intimidating interrogations, the questions of my dignity, of my intent, of my character” after reporting abuse, Aranda said, pausing at times to wipe tears away. Payton administrators and Chicago Public Schools investigators, she said, subjected her to a humiliating investigation that undermined her story.
“I was pulled from class to sit alone in a room with an old man who asked not how I felt or what they could do to make me feel safe in my school again — but what I was wearing when I had been assaulted,” said Aranda, now 22. “Do you know what it’s like to be made to feel like a criminal, when you are in fact the victim?”
Tamara Reed, who was an eighth-grader at Black Magnet Elementary when a substitute teacher sent her sexually explicit texts and solicited sex from her, spoke about the way school administrators suggested she was at fault for the abuse and the lasting pain the experience has caused.
“I will never be the same again because of what has been done to me. I struggle to connect with people and to trust them. I constantly wonder if the people around me mean well or mean me harm,” said Reed, also faltering at times as she became emotional.
* Moments from Twitter…
New CPS changes in light of sex abuse investigation: If there's an allegation against an adult, whether it be a staff member, volunteer, or coach, they will be removed from the classroom and restricted from having any access to students.
.@ISBEnews testified it has been waiting for "months" to get information from CPS so it can determine whether 163 situations it learned about from @ChicagoTribune, where educators on CPS "do not hire" list went on to work at charters, warrant state “educator misconduct” cases
4: Radical change needs to occur at CPS, and it needs to happen now. Those employees who sexually abused these students must face the laws of justice and leadership at CPS must be held accountable.
So, an interesting line of questioning, where legislators are realizing that there IS annual training on mandated reporter laws. But CTU is saying, sure, it's amid an "information dump" and gets lost. Training needs to be more frequent, CTU says.
— Jen Smith Richards (@jsmithrichards) June 20, 2018
There's a chair marked for Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson at this morning's legislative hearing on the district's response to sexual abuse — but a spokeswoman says she will not be attending. pic.twitter.com/0G5bPApJhI
* It took a while (large file) to get the video from today’s Black Caucus presser responding to Gov. Rauner’s claims yesterday on WVON that he has done more for the African American community in Illinois than any other governor. Here are a couple comments. The presser videos are linked here and here.
Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields) pointed out the ripple effects that cuts to the Childcare Assistance Program had on economic opportunities for parents, and the community as a whole.
“So whenever we see working class people across the city and across the state, many of them working class folks that are inclusive of who we represent, losing their access to services, losing their access to contracting opportunities, losing their access to higher education, and then hear with a straight face and a little laugh that, ‘I’ve been better than anybody else in the history of the state’ — I said at first that I didn’t have words for that. Unfortunately, we do have words for that because the Black Caucus has been working diligently.”
Rep. Camille Lilly (D-Chicago) disputed Rauner’s claims, citing the closures of health facilities, including mental and behavioral health centers that treat addiction.
“It is not correct that he has done things, particularly in the district that I represent, to help the African American community. He has hurt it. When you remove resources that address the healthcare needs, you have hurt their opportunity to be viable citizens here in the state.”
* Gov. Rauner’s state account this afternoon did an eight-part tweet thread this afternoon under the hashtag #checktherecord, listing progress his administration made for African Americans.
On jobs and opportunity for African Americans. We veto business-banishing tax hikes. We propose reforms to end job-killer property taxes. We cut red tape so government doesn’t get in the way of job creators. #checktherecord
At the Tollway, total payments to African American owned professional services firms has increased by 142% since 2015. At CMS, African American businesses have seen $32.7 million in growth under the Business Enterprise Program. #checktherecord
And isn’t this interesting? Where Cook Co Machine controls government is where black families experience the highest crime, highest taxes, highest outmigration, and lowest employment rates. #checktherecord
* In response, Rep. Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago) and Rep. Chris Welch (D-Chicago) had their own Twitter threads.
Wow, .@GovRauner: I don't even know where to start. I understand that lying about your record of destroying the quality of life of working people generally and black folks specifically is like breathing; but that took effort! So lets #checktherecord *THREAD*
3)@GovRauner From 2015-2016, Illinois universities faced significant decreases in freshman class enrollment. Eastern, Western, Northern, SIU, UIC and CSU. Who was Governor? Oops! You!#checktherecord#failedgovernor
— Emanuel Chris Welch (@RepChrisWelch) June 20, 2018
In addition to the executive order, Gov. Rauner has appointed Philip Dalmage as the new Executive Director of the Illinois Human Rights Commission to oversee the commission’s coordination efforts.
…
The newly appointed executive director is a former Chief Administrative Law Judge at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS), and served as the Director of the Business Enterprise Program at the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). Most recently, Dalmage worked as a practicing attorney dealing with civil and family cases, specifically working with IDCFS abuse and neglect cases. He holds a B.A. from Marquette University and a J.D. from the John Marshall Law School.
“It is an incredible honor to be appointed Executive Director of the Illinois Human Rights Commission,” Dalmage said. “I am aware of the long and storied history of the Illinois Human Rights Act in Illinois and look forward to using this role to adjudicate civil rights violations in as fair, just, and expeditious a manner as possible. I thank Governor Rauner for giving me this great opportunity.”
The appointment was announced in conjunction with an executive order issued today that “mandates coordination between the Bureau of Administrative Hearings, IHRC, and IDHR to eliminate backlog and improve due process.” The full text is here.
“I’m not giving that any thought whatsoever,” Rauner said.
Because you made your decision and you are satisfied with what you said in April? Because there are more significant issues to think about than what has become an international black mark for our country?
“We’ve been in communication with the White House. We’ve been in communication with members of Congress,” Rauner said at an event announcing a university partnership and a $500 million corporate sponsor for the proposed Discovery Partners Institute in the South Loop.
Rauner, too, reiterated that he believes the zero-tolerance immigration policy is “bad policy,” “wrong,” “heartbreaking” and “not the moral thing to do.”
He did not specify who is to blame for the policy, or name President Donald Trump or any congressional leaders in his answers to questions.
Asked about the communications with the federal government — whom Rauner spoke with and what he requested — the governor’s office released a statement saying there is “constant communication with our congressional delegation and the White House.”
“By maintaining these relationships we are able to discuss important issues, like ending this bad policy,” Rauner spokeswoman Rachel Bold said in a statement.
If it’s “bad policy” and “not the moral thing to do,” why has he not given any thought to rescinding his National Guard offer?
Look at the language in Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement that he will recall his state’s National Guard…
Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border. Earlier this morning, I ordered our 4 crewmembers & helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico. https://t.co/TEfkUXF7ZN
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) June 19, 2018
He does not name Trump other than to say he should be a part of the solution, he does not assign blame to Democrats, and yet, although he does not specify what the solution is, he backs up his condemnation with action instead of letting us imagine what phrases like “in constant communication with the White House” means.
* What is happening at the border is not going away, and it is not confined to whatever ends up happening with the National Guard. The kids we see being mocked as they cry for Mommy and Daddy lying on floor mats under foil blankets are not staying behind the fences in a warehouse in the middle of the desert. How will the Governor react when these kids make it to Illinois? Very soon, this will be about how we as a society provide for these kids that we put in a situation where they are reliant on us for the most basic human necessities like food, shelter, health care, and education.
“While the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, along with people all over the nation, decry the forced separation of children from their parents taking place on our southern border, the policy is a federal issue and beyond the scope of this department’s responsibilities under law. But for those children who have been separated from their parents and brought to Michigan, the Department of Civil Rights has a duty to make sure their civil rights are protected.”
“This week, I have been in touch with various agencies and organizations working with these vulnerable children. We have received reports and are very concerned that the children arriving here are much younger than those who have been transported here in the past. Some of the children are infants as young as three months of age and are completely unable to advocate for themselves. While we commend the work of resettlement agencies in Michigan attempting to serve these children with dignity and compassion, nothing can replace the love, sense of security and care of a parent.”
“I take very seriously our responsibility under state law to see to it that the civil rights of every person in this state, especially these vulnerable children in crisis, are protected. We will continue to monitor this situation closely to ensure the rights of these children are protected to the fullest extent.”
I asked the Governor’s Office and a few of the executive agencies if they know if any of the children directly affected by this zero-tolerance policy are already in Illinois, what programs and services they might be able to partake in and if they are confident they can provide those services. No response as of yet.
Today, Congressman Krishnamoorthi released the following statement urging Governor Rauner to refuse to deploy the Illinois National Guard to the US Border:
“The policies and procedures that the Trump Administration have taken with regards to separating children from their families when entering this country are immoral and inhumane. This is a moment for every public official to decide if they will be complicit in their detention of children for the sole purposes of extracting pain on their parents. So far, the Governors of Maryland, Massachusetts, and other states have taken the moral stance that they will not allow their National Guard troops to participate in any activities on the border until the situation changes. Today I am formally calling on Governor Rauner not to deploy any Illinois National Guard troops to the southern border until the Administration changes its policy of child detention and family separation.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order on immigration on Wednesday to end the immediate separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has sparked outrage in the United States and abroad.
An administration official said Trump would sign an order that would require immigrant families to be detained together if they are caught crossing the border illegally. Trump previously had insisted his hands were tied on the separation policy.
The order also would move parents with children to the front of the line for immigration proceedings but would not end a “zero tolerance” policy that urges criminal prosecution of immigrants crossing the border illegally, the official said.
* For Migrant Families in Mexico, Threat of Separation Puts Plans in Doubt: And an increasing number, migrants’ advocates say, will heed the siren call of human smugglers, who will try to use the separation policy to sell their services, arguing that they are the migrants’ best hope for getting across the border and holding onto their children. The smugglers will even be able to increase their prices for the work as a result of the Trump administration’s policy, advocates predict. “Any restrictive measure in terms of migration and refuge is going to favor the business of the transnational criminal networks,” said Ramón Márquez, director of La 72, a migrant shelter in Tenosique, Mexico.
Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti appeared on WOC AM Quad Cities this morning, as she’s in the area promoting work done by the Illinois Opioid Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force. Late in the interview, the host asked Sanguinetti whether she’d be at the top of the ticket in 2022.
Host: Once Rauner’s done being governor, when are you going to put your hat in the ring, how does that work?
Sanguinetti: Well, we’ve term limited ourselves. So I won’t be running for Lt. Gov. again.
Host: I think you know what question I’m asking, Lt. Gov. Are you going to be the governor after Bruce Rauner’s done?
Sanguinetti: Well I don’t know, but the fact is if I want to —
Host: Can I just say this? If not you then who? ¿Si no tú, entonces quién? [note: this is a hearkening back from an earlier part of the interview in which Sanguinetti says her mother used to tell her in Spanish, “if not you, then who?”]
Sanguinetti: But I’m not ruling it out. And you know what, I’ve been working with Bruce Rauner for the last four years and when we win this election, we’ll be together for another four years. So I should decide that I want to be governor, nothing should preclude me from that.
* Lost yesterday in a flurry of other news (about whether Gov. Rauner would rescind his offer to send Illinois National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and his claim that he’d done more for African Americans than any other governor) was a pretty major announcement involving ~1.3 percent of the state’s overall FY19 budget (yes, did the math).
The Discovery Partners Institute is getting off the ground with $500 million in state support and a $6 million pledge from the University of Illinois over four years. DPI is imagined to be an innovation hub for research and tech, which would help Illinois compete with other hot tech areas like Silicon Valley.
Yesterday’s event was the announcement of the site, “in a large swath of undeveloped land just south of Roosevelt Road near downtown Chicago,” according to the News-Gazette, and an announcement that a DPI office has opened and has planned its first classes for the fall.
More info from the governor’s office…
The anchor project in the plan is the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), an innovation center led by the U of I System intended to be located within The 78, Related Midwest’s 62-acre planned development in downtown Chicago. Bordered by the South Loop, Chinatown, Bronzeville and Pilsen, DPI will be the centerpiece of the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN), a system of research centers across the state tailored to meet the needs of individual regions and lift their economies.
* The governor’s official account was also tweeting artist renderings of the project yesterday…
The 78 will be home to the Institute, projected eventually to cover 1 million sq. ft. on Related Midwest’s 62-acre planned development in downtown Chicago bordered by the South Loop, Chinatown, Bronzeville and Pilsen. pic.twitter.com/zMJI1OZyYy
* Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel were on hand at the event, even complimentingeach other on making the DPI a reality. Rauner has long pushed for the project, even before running for office. Also present: Senate President John Cullerton and Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady.
[UI President Timothy] Killeen said the university wants to recruit 90 new faculty members and up to 1,800 students to the center, whose total cost has not been finalized but potentially would attract hundreds of millions in investment. No opening date has been set, but a location has emerged in the South Loop on highly coveted land to be donated by the development company Related Midwest.
“It’s an attempt to really take advantage of the assets that the state and the city have to accelerate economic development and to provide opportunities for our students to stay in the state and for innovations to flow into our economy,” Killeen said.
* I’m personally running behind schedule after my browser closed all of my new post tabs a few hours after I started working on them. Fortunately, the kids were not present when that went down. Keep checking back with us throughout the day, and follow along…
The story focuses on Clark’s campaign ad, which I cannot find (his other two campaign ads on his website are “unlisted,” an interesting YouTube feature, by the way) *update*click here for the video hosted on Facebook — but footage of the ad in Maxwell’s story shows repeated shots of the Litchfield Fire Department interposed with shots of Clark standing both next to a fire truck and in the driver’s seat.
“As a volunteer fireman, I watched as the budget crisis tore apart our small towns,” Clark says in a narrated video, which shows him climbing into a Litchfield Fire Department Truck, wearing the Chief’s hat, and sitting in the driver’s seat of the fire engine.
However, Clark never served as a volunteer firefighter for Litchfield, or any other fire department in Illinois.
When asked about his campaign costume, Clark confessed that while he wore the chief’s helmet, “I am not a fire chief. The chief let me wear his helmet on that day. But I was a volunteer fire man back in the day and I really enjoyed that. It taught me a lot.”
Clark stated that his stint as a volunteer fireman in Bolivar, Missouri, lasted “one point two years.” Asked to clarify what exactly that meant, he repeated, “One point two years,” which apparently was intended to mean something between 14 and 15 months.
However, the fire chief at the Bolivar Department disputed Clark’s claim, writing in an email that their records show Clark was only on the volunteer roster for seven weeks in the fall of 2010, “during which time he attended one training event and responded to one emergency incident.”
* Clark did not like the WCIA story, and alleged on Twitter overnight that it wasn’t factual.
Just watched an unfounded video saying I embellished my record of being a volunteer fireman. Which is wrong and DEFINITELY a misrepresentation of what actually happened. FULL STATEMENT AND STORY HERE: https://t.co/qSDQVQxFwY…#BoughtBourne#RaunerRobot#Clarkforthe95th
* Another tidbit from Maxwell’s story that didn’t make it to air…
Reporter: Would you vote for Speaker Madigan to retain his title as House Speaker?
Clark: I will say this: I do not care who is the head of Chicago, who is in Chicago, who is the head of Springfield or anything like that.
Reporter: But you’re running to be a House Democrat.
Clark: Yes.
Reporter: As a House Democrat, you get a vote. Would you vote for or against Speaker Madigan to remain Speaker?
Clark: Again, I just want to represent my district. I am solely going to represent my district. I don’t care who’s in charge.
Reporter: But why dodge that question?
Clark: Again, I just want to represent my district.
*** UPDATE 1 ***
* Statement from Avery Bourne…
“Our volunteer firefighters sacrifice so much to serve our communities. It is shameful for my opponent to lie about his experience as a volunteer firefighter for political gain. He should take down the false campaign ad, give us the whole truth, and apologize to our first responders and their families.”
*** UPDATE 2 ***
* Statement from ILGOP Executive Director Andrew Collins…
“Dillon Clark will need to attend more than one training to put this big fire out. Clark shamefully exaggerated his time served as a volunteer firefighter for political gain, doubled down on his false claims, and then blocked a reporter on Twitter who called him out for it. To make matters worse, Clark disagreed with a Missouri fire chief’s assessment of his time served in college. What else is Dillon Clark not telling us?”
*** UPDATE 3 ***
* Earlier this morning I called Clark to ask where he got the “150+ present votes” number he claims about Bourne in his statement. Here’s what he told me late morning:
Our team gathered this information from Ilga.gov by looking through Bourne’s Rauner inspired tenure.
* Also, looks like Clark unblocked Maxwell on Twitter, but also unearthed the fact that Clark was on the Rauner campaign payroll in 2014.
Mark was kind enough to point me toward the Board of Elections website, which indicates Dillon was paid a total of $5,833.33 for “grassroots consulting” and “field consulting” for Citizens for Rauner Inc. between July and November of 2014.
A 2014 campaign source told me that both Clark and Bourne were paid walkers for Rauner.
*** UPDATE 4 ***
* Sen. Andy Manar, who is supporting Clark and even has a campaign event scheduled with him (and Betsy Londrigan) for Monday, told me today that Clark is “one of the hardest working candidates I’ve ever seen.”
“He won incredibly challenging county board race in 2016 in Montgomery County because of hard work and connecting with voters,” Manar said. “[The ad] maybe perhaps insinuated something that wasn’t the case but the fact is he was a volunteer firefighter, and because he lives in a small community he has seen the devastation of Rauner’s cuts. He’s doing one heck of a job knocking on doors. If he were to ask me for advice, I would encourage him to continue to do that.”
*** UPDATE 5 ***
* Clark provided this statement mid-afternoon, and also called me to confirm that yes, he had worked for the Rauner campaign, but had quit in September of 2014 due to Rauner’s position on public employee unions…
As I was just getting into politics, a local state representative I was interning for encouraged me to join the Rauner campaign. He said it would provide me with solid work experience and be a great way to figure out whether I wanted to keep working in politics. I worked on his campaign through September, when I finally decided he wasn’t someone I could continue to support. We disagreed on a lot, but it was his attacks on union workers that drove me to leave his campaign and his new brand of Illinois Republican Party. Families like my granddad’s depended on hard work and a union wage to get by, and here, in one of the most union-member-filled districts in Illinois, Bruce Rauner and Avery Bourne’s anti-union agenda has been awful on our district.
In response I joined the Democratic party and worked hard every day, knocking door after door to defeat the Republican Vice Chairman of the Montgomery County Board.
Today, I’m running just as hard to be State Representative in the 95th, because representing people here needs to be about making sure hard workers have jobs and the money to provide for their families, not about which Chicago millionaire is backing you.
(Note from Hannah: I changed the title of this post because upon further reflection, Rauner did not commit to not sending any troops if asked, just that he was “not giving that any thought whatsoever.”)
* After a long day of taking arrows from critics calling on Gov. Rauner to rescind his April offer to send Illinois National Guard troops to the Southern U.S. border in light of the child separation policy, the governor this afternoon told reporters he is not thinking about it.
Reporter: “What kind of thought are you giving right now to the idea of sending Illinois National Guard troops to the Texas border?”
Rauner: “I’m not giving that any thought whatsoever. What I am calling on is for us to end the policy of separating families. It is bad policy, it’s wrong, it’s heartbreaking, it’s not the moral thing to do. We need to secure our borders and stop illegal immigration but separating families is not the right answer. I’m strongly against that and I’ve made my views clear to Federal Government.”
Reporter: “What are you doing to that effect? Have you spoken at all to the Trump administration?”
Rauner: “We’ve been in communication with the White House, we’ve been in communication with members of Congress.”
* Earlier in the day and yesterday, the governor’s office had been less direct answering the question, saying only that the governor did not support the policy, but not going as far as committing to not send National Guard troops.
Two Republican governors in Blue states, Gov. Charlie Barker of Massachuetts and Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, announced within the last day that they would pull resources out and not send more National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
We demand that J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois, pay his organizing fellows. Organizing fellows are student workers who spend at least 15 hours a week doing critical organizing work, from recruiting volunteers, to hosting organizing meetings, to knocking on doors. But despite their critical work, J.B. pays them nothing.
J.B. would have no difficulty paying his fellows. He’s now donated over $100,000,000 to his campaign. His net worth, according to Forbes, is $3.5 billion. The race is predicted to be the most expensive governor’s race in history. Top members of management are feeling it: as of March 30th, his campaign manager alone had earned over $207,000 according to campaign disclosures. But the college students who work for J.B.’s campaign as fellows for at least 15 hours a week, who balance performing essential campaign functions with class work and enormous amounts of student debt, make nothing.
“The Pritzker campaign compensates both our interns and fellows, and they are also provided travel compensation and the opportunity for school credit,” Pritzker campaign communications director Galia Slayen said in response.
When I accessed the “Internships” link (https://www.jbpritzker.com/internships/) in the footer of the Pritzker website at around 3 p.m., the text said the positions are paid and that applicants could “receive school credit depending on degree requirements.”
From LaBounty in an email…
1. The campaign’s fellowship posting, as of yesterday, still listed the fellowship as an “unpaid fellowship opportunity.” Screenshot of that attached. The campaign has clearly changed its line here. Today, they’re saying it’s paid; yesterday, they (through their website) said it’s unpaid.
2. Campaigns will sometimes try to make it possible for more students to work as interns or fellows by offering transportation and meals, either on a weekly, monthly, or per diem basis. Even when this is provided as a stipend, it’s not compensation for hours worked: it is material support to allow the fellow or intern to avoid incurring costs while fulfilling the demands of the position. While not having to pay to work is a step in the right direction, it’s simply not being paid to work. Fair compensation would be $15/hour.
My understanding is that, to the extent to the Pritzker campaign has given such material support, it’s been structured as a stipend for transportation and/or mean;s, not as payment for hours worked. I’ve also heard that it is only being made available to a subset of fellows.
LaBounty said the CWG did not attempt to contact the Pritzker campaign directly before posting its petition. The Pritzker campaign has not spoken directly with CWG since the petition was posted.
Perhaps the two sides should, I don’t know, talk to one another before this escalates any further.
* CBS’ morning show aired a full story this a.m. about the possible sale of Lincoln artifacts to cover the $9.7 million the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation still owes on a $23 million loan the museum used to buy Lincoln artifacts in the first place. By full story, I mean CBS even dispatched a reporter to Springfield.
Finke reported last month that the Foundation was considering auctioning off some of the items, including a stovepipe hat that purportedly belonged to Lincoln, gloves that were in his jacket the night he was assassinated, quill pen and a fan that belonged to Mary Todd Lincoln. The Foundation has paid down more than $13 million on the loan so far, but the rest comes due in October 2019.
The CBS reporter asked Foundation CEO Carla Knorowski whether the museum’s public plea for donations is a kind of “bailout.”
“We would encourage them to not to view it as a bailout but rather as an opportunity to give back to the man who’s done so much for us,” Knorowski said.
However, former Foundation board member Tony Leone is quoted as saying, “Somebody’s got some ‘spaining to do.”
“We really don’t have any serious accounting of how much they raise every year and how much they spend,” he added, saying he thinks it’s reached the level of a scandal.
* Last month the Foundation said it was in talks with Gov. Rauner’s office to secure some state funds to cover the museum’s debt. However, I’m told nothing came of it, and a Ctrl+F search of the enacted budget shows only basic maintenance spending for “ordinary and contingent expenses.”
A GoFundMe page the Foundation started last month has raised $8,814 as of this afternoon, up from the $7,000 mentioned on-air this morning.
* Gov. Rauner was on Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas’ WVON morning show this a.m. Today is June 19, otherwise known as Juneteenth, the day slavery formally ended. Jackson posted video of the morning show on his YouTube channel, labeling it “Juneteenth, but are we free though?” Rauner is officially recognizing today as Juneteenth Day.
The group started out asking Rauner about the new Pritzker campaign ad, “Porcelain Prince,” and Thomas mentioned that Pritzker in turn repeatedly hammers Rauner as a “failed governor.”
Charles Thomas: Tell us why you’re not a failure.
Rauner: …We’ve done historic things for the Black community, I would argue more than any other governor. Creating economic opportunity, making more equality in contracting. We’ve done historic things and we’re going to keep on fighting —
Maze Jackson: Hold on, Governor. You said you did more than any other governor for Black folks?
Rauner: Exactly.
Jackson: I don’t know, man. I’m going to tell you — Rod Blagojevich. Man, right now we did a poll and we said if Rod Blagojevich got out of jail right now, he could beat Rahm Emanuel in an election.
Jackson then asked if Rauner wouldn’t be the least bit happy if Blagojevich got out of jail, if only for an election boost for himself.
Thomas got the conversation back on track, asking Rauner about a recent executive order targeted at making state contractors within a certain community reflect the actual business ownership. It’s specific to Black-owned business owners and will hold state employees responsible for contracting accountable for awarding contracts to Black-owned businesses when possible.
Rauner: That’s one of the reasons I say I’m fighting — you know, it’s one thing to promote social spending, human services programs. That’s fine. Blagojevich did a lot of that. Okay, great. I respect that and I support a lot of that too.
I support a lot of that too. But I’ve done more for Black business, for Black economic opportunity and Black education opportunity than anybody.
Thomas: As opposed to minorities?
Rauner: I’ve helped all minorities. But especially, I’ve been great for Black businesses and African American schools. No governor’s done more than me.
…Adding…
* Last week’s employment numbers revealed that while statewide unemployment is down, unemployment among African Americans in Illinois is the highest in the nation.
…Also adding…
* More context for the EO the Governor is referring to. A WCIA story from last month reported the Black Caucus was blaming Rauner for shrinking state contracts among Black-owned businesses.
The Illinois Black Legislative Caucus accuses him of showboating for political gain. They say, in reality, his administration only made this problem worse by failing to enforce laws they’ve already passed.
At a press conference Thursday morning, the caucus shared data from the Business Enterprise Program (BEP), a state program designed to help women, minorities and disabled business owners partner with the state. While participation has grown, it shows over the last two years, the amount of money spent on black vendors has dropped 22%.
“All we’re trying to do is ask him to be fair and honest instead of playing lip service with these very important issues and pay attention to a lot of things we put into that bill,“ says Rep. Al Riley (D- Chicago).
Rauner’s office pushed back on the notion he’s hurt black business since taking office. They say compared to Gov. Quinn’s administration, the state is spending $32.7 million more on African-American vendors.
“I want equal opportunity and government that plays fair,” says Gov. Rauner.
*** UPDATE 1***
* Responses from Twitter…
Every single unbalanced budget @BruceRauner proposed had targeted cuts to programs that disproportionately affect our community.
What @GovRauner has done for black ppl: blow up hundreds of black owned child care businesses; have a cabinet w/ less diversity than a country club; refuse to comment on a racist cartoon; called our schools crumbling prisons; cut Ceasefire causing more shootings. You’ve lost it. https://t.co/p3DyEDBvhP
2016: Trump asks Black people what we have to lose. 2018: IL Black unemployment highest in the nation, investment in Black business & contracting down & social services decimated. At every turn, our Prez and Gov use Black people as props for political gain. It's exhausting.
— Senator Toi Hutchinson (@ToiHutchinson) June 19, 2018
6th Ward Ald. and chair of the City Council’s Black Caucus:
— Roderick T. Sawyer (@RoderickTSawyer) June 19, 2018
*** UPDATE 2***
* Was forwarded a newsletter from the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which praised Rauner in its May 21st edition of the newsletter…
There is no elected official in our nation who is showing the commitment of Governor Bruce Rauner, Governor, State of Illinois. His recent Executive Order should be used as an example for all mayors, county executives and governors throughout our nation. We, the federation of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, should show our appreciation and recognize his wisdom. We are preparing a thank you letter and, hereby, ask for all NBCC chapters and other business associations to join in.
*** UPDATE 3***
* Statements from both JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. candidate Rep. Juliana Stratton…
“Bruce Rauner fabricated a track record of standing up for the black community when he’s been nothing short of a failure,” said JB Pritzker. “While Rauner pays lip service, Illinois’ black unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. That’s after Rauner’s budget crisis crushed small businesses, decimated social services, reduced access to child care assistance for working families, and forced anti-violence programs to freeze operations. Rauner tried to exploit divisions between Chicago and downstate with racially charged language and even refused to call KKK leader David Duke a racist. There’s nothing more shameful than a failed governor using a day that commemorates freedom and the fight for justice to grandstand and spread lies.”
“Juneteenth is about freedom and our fight for economic justice,” said State Representative Juliana Stratton. “For Bruce Rauner to take this day and pretend to be a champion for the black community, when he has done nothing but turn the clock back for our communities, is appalling and deeply insulting. This is the same Bruce Rauner who vetoed a $15 minimum wage, disinvested in our small businesses, and drove our state to the highest black unemployment rate in the nation. Illinois deserves a leader who ensures no community is left behind and that is not and never will be Bruce Rauner.”
*** UPDATE 3***
Got a response from the Sen. Kim Lightford (D-Maywood), Black Caucus Chair…
“And here I thought Bruce Rauner, as a white man, wasn’t going to have anything else to say about race. Well, since he brought it up, a true friend of the black community wouldn’t have slashed funding for Chicago State University, wiped out childcare assistance, grossly underfunded Teen REACH, waged a war against the students and teachers in Chicago Public Schools and vetoed an increase in the minimum wage.
Perhaps the self-proclaimed protector of the black community forgot that black-owned businesses didn’t get paid during his impasse.
Maybe he needs to be reminded that African American women get breast cancer, too, and benefit from the screenings he tried to eliminate.
And in the midst of all this exaggeration let’s not forget that under Bruce Rauner’s watch the African American unemployment rate in Illinois is the highest in the nation.
Some friend he is.
Next, he’s probably going to tell us he really liked Black Panther, too.
That movie contains less fiction than Rauner’s claims.”
“We have a very deep pipeline of interested tenants but someone had to be the first,” said Brian Whiting, founder and president of the Telos Group, which is representing 601W in leasing the building.
“It gives us momentum and it gives us credibility, and we are confident that we will be announcing additional commitments in the very near future,” Whiting said in an email.
Walgreens and Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday discussed details of the deal and unveiled renderings of the planned space in a news conference in the historic building’s lobby. The Tribune last week reported Walgreens’ plans to move into the building, and the company later confirmed plans to move 1,800 corporate employees there — 500 from a Loop office in the Sullivan Center and 1,300 from the company’s north suburban campus.
“We’re comfortable that we’re not going to be the only tenant here (in the Old Post Office),” said Joe Brady, vice president of real estate at Walgreens. “Frankly, we’re proud to be a catalyst to help this project go even faster.”
“We’ve been plowing forward with different tenants, so I think at this point—we’re going a different direction,” Whiting said. “We’re not waiting for them, and we’re on to the next and best thing.”
The mayor is trying to play things close to his vest so as not to anger Amazon as he and mayors across the U.S. wait for the company to conclude its lengthy, secretive process to decide where to locate its second headquarters and as many as 50,000 employees.
But asked Monday whether Walgreens’ decision to locate 1,800 employees at the old post office in the South Loop takes that building off the table for Amazon, Emanuel offered some insights.
“I don’t want to violate anything with Amazon, so I think when you — know this, let me do it this way so I’m not (violating), I want to be careful,” Emanuel said. “On our original proposal to Amazon we had 10 sites. When they came, they saw five sites. It is our understanding they like, really like, two sites. So let me say that.”
Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik said she is concerned that they haven’t seen any sort of stormwater management plan for the project, which is set to break ground later this month.
Kovarik said the project will turn hundreds or thousands of acres of farmland into impermeable surface that if not properly managed could increase the amount of rain that runs down the Des Plaines River.
“When that water comes out of Wisconsin, we’re the first community it really hits,” Kovarik said. “We’re built right on the river. We have major arteries that get shut down from flooding.”
* The President is scheduled to meet with Congressional Republicans later today as public pressure mounts to end the Dept. of Homeland Security’s policy of separating migrant children from their families.
The Governor’s Office is responding to requests for comment on whether Rauner supports the policy or not with this statement…
“Governor Rauner does not support this policy. He believes we need to secure our border and end illegal immigration,” spokeswoman Rachel Bold said. “But separating children from their parents is bad policy and heartbreaking. We can and should do better as a nation.”
In April, Rauner had said he would send Illinois National Guard troops to the border, if asked. The governor’s office did not respond to a question if Rauner would follow Baker in reversing that decision.
*** UPDATE 1 *** - The Pritzker campaign has launched a $1 million Facebook ad buy providing people the means to call Gov. Rauner’s office and encouraging him to rescind his position of sending National Guard troops if they are called upon. Per Natasha Korecki…
*** UPDATE 1:32 p.m. ***
* Need to do a correction here. I should have also made sure of this figure. -HM.
Flagging a correction to today's IL Playbook on Pritzker Facebook ads hitting Rauner on immigration: Pritzker campaign is spending enough to reach 1M people (not spending $1M) –> https://t.co/lNuJKpJg0Q
The social media campaign allows readers to call Rauner’s office to complain with one click.
“Months ago, this governor offered the Illinois National Guard to this racist, bigoted president and now refuses to call on Trump to end this horrific policy,” Pritzker said in a statement. “By not rescinding his offer, Rauner is helping Trump enforce a policy that goes against the same values our nation was founded on. He’s carrying on in complicit silence while Trump forces families to live in fear.”
It is the responsibility of every single one of us now — descendants of immigrants and keepers of American values — to speak out. That includes the governor of our state. I’m calling on Bruce Rauner to stand with bipartisan leaders in Illinois to fight against this horrific policy. This is a time for leadership and a moment for all of us who seek to serve the public to truly serve.
The world is watching and history is being written. It isn’t often that we are faced with absolute rights and wrongs, and this is an absolute wrong that goes to the heart of who we are as Americans.
His office on Monday would only say that Rauner wants to end illegal immigration but doesn’t support the controversial policy.
…
Asked by the Sun-Times whether Rauner believes the policy is in place because of the Trump administration, or Democrats, as Trump has suggested, the governor’s office did not respond.
As President Donald Trump defended new procedures at the southern border, Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton said the administration needs “to reverse course immediately.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren of Plano said he is “troubled by the situation at the border” and that he would support legislation to remedy it.
…
Roskam hopes Republican legislation that includes increased border security and a compromise on students brought into the U.S. illegally when they were children will also keep migrant families together.
“There’s an urgency to make sure this happens, either by the administration, and if doesn’t happen by the administration, then it happens by a change in the law,” Roskam said.
A Hultgren aide said the congressman would look closely at whatever legislation comes to the House floor but wants to see it first before deciding.
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, during a stop in Decatur Monday, said the Department of Homeland Security should “absolutely not” be separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“That is going to be part of one of the bills that we are going to debate and hopefully vote on this week. The president is going to speak with the House tomorrow, and I look forward to hearing from him which solution (is) going to get the votes to pass.”
*** UPDATE 11:55 a.m. ***
* Got a response from Rauner campaign spokesman Alex Browning:
“Pritzker is lying. Governor Rauner has already stated that he does not support separating children from their parents.”
* Also got a statement from the Kwame Raoul AG campaign:
“If reading about Donald Trump’s policy to rip innocent children out of the outstretched arms of their parents isn’t convincing enough, I challenge anyone to listen to recently released audio from inside a border facility. Listen to the children’s cries as agents crack jokes and tell me this is what America should sound like. Listen to their fear and their sobbing pleas, and tell me how this is making us safer. This is almost too painful for me as a father to bear, but we can’t look away. We have a responsibility to stand up and declare firmly: This is wrong. This is not who we are, and it must stop.
As the son of Haitian immigrants, I keenly understand how our identity as a nation has been shaped by how we treat those who come to our borders. And as attorney general, I’ll do everything I can to fight Trump’s harmful policies. These children’s cries only sharpen my resolve.”
The Rauner campaign has a new ad hitting the airwaves today, dubbed “Porcelain Prince,” hitting JB Pritzker on the disconnection of toilets in a Gold Coast mansion Prizker owns, which were the basis of a claim to Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios that the home was uninhabitable. The move led to an estimated $230,000 in property tax savings, as the Sun-Times found last spring.
We’re told it’s a seven-figure ad buy on broadcast, cable and digital. The 30-second ad opens with a shot of a toilet with a crown on its seat under a portrait of Pritzker. A narrator tells the abbreviated version of the story over shots of men taking out toilets from a mansion. The ad ends with a man in a suit sitting on a toilet, reading a newspaper on the lawn, surrounded by toilets.
Full script:
Chicago’s Porcelain Prince of tax avoidance: JB Pritzker.
Pritkzer spent millions on his second Gold Coast mansion, then took out the toilets.
To dodge hundreds of thousands of property taxes, Pritzker removed every single toilet from his multi-million dollar second home and claimed it as uninhabitable.
A royal flush of tax avoidance.
Porcelain Prince JB Pritkzer: Lower taxes for him, higher taxes for you.
Notable that it’s a totally separate issue from months’ worth of recent ads tying Pritzker to Blagojevich. Another place the Rauner campaign uses the toilet issue? On its 404 error page, which I discovered while trying to access a 2014 document last month.
*** 10:27 a.m. (by Barton) ***It’s almost like the Pritzker camp expected this line of attack.
Pritzker is up with an ad that hits Rauner for having nine homes, filing his own property tax appeals, and then claims the Governor wants to raise property taxes. It does not address the uninhabitable declaration in the Rauner spot. Have a look…
