* After last night’s escapades, I’m planning to spend more time at the State Fair tonight. Some friends are coming in from out of town and we’re going to see Eric Church. As I’ve already told you, I wasn’t much into pop country until recently. I’m still not really into it, but there are some people I like, and he’s one of them.
I’m most looking forward to seeing Miranda Lambert next week. She’s got an edge to her that I dig a lot…
I got a mouth like a sailor
and yours is more like a Hallmark card
Gov. Pat Quinn visited striking Caterpillar workers on Friday, giving $10,000 toward a food fund but making no promises he could help broker an end to a strike that has entered its fourth month. […]
Quinn said he came to support striking workers and make a donation to the food fund. But he sidestepped questions from one reporters as to whether Caterpillar management was being fair to the workers.
He also did not make any promises to help broker an end to the strike, which began May 1, although many of the strikers urged the governor to get involved in the labor dispute as he walked among them and greeted them personally.
* The Cat workers rejected a second contract offer in May, after the strike began. Some highlights from that proposal…
The six-year contract would freeze wages for workers hired before May 2005 and set pay for those hired afterwards according to “market rates.” The share of health care costs workers would pay would rise from 10 to 20 percent by the end of the contract, and the company’s defined benefit pension plan would be replaced with a worker-contributed 401(k) plan.
Hmm.
Higher health care costs and whacked pension benefits.
Sound at all familiar?
…Adding… When a corporation does it, it’s bad, but when he does it, he’s fulfilling Abe Lincoln’s legacy…
As he opened the Illinois State Fair Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn said tackling the state’s enormous $83 billion pension debt would make the state’s most famous president proud.
“I think that it’s imperative that we do something for history,” Quinn said. “I think Abraham Lincoln would be very proud of us if we use government of the people to solve the problem for the people.”
* Last year, I ran into US Sen. Mark Kirk after the State Fair Twilight Parade. We chatted for a while and then he offered to buy me some chocolate covered bacon. I said I had enough problems in my life without eating that stuff, so he excused himself and went ahead and bought the delicacy.
I’m wondering if he still thinks that was such a great idea. (Like I can talk.)
* I was taking a look at the SJ-R’s State Fair section and found some odd foods…
* The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has a new report on Fiscal Year 2013, and it’s not pleasant…
After exceeding expectations in FY 2012, the largely economically related sources are forecast to slow significantly as the recovery appears to be stalling out. With most econometric prognosticators anticipating little growth, coupled with the continuing disappointing jobs picture, there is little reason to believe underlying revenue growth will be able to match last fiscal year’s pace.
Illinois’ net income tax revenues will be down, according to COGFA, because of the extra tax payments made this past April 15 which weren’t taken out of paychecks immediately after the tax hike took effect in January of the previous year. But net corporate income taxes are expected to grow by $214 million. After a barn-burner year, sales taxes are expected to grow only 1.6 percent.
State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, who is one of 11 legislative members of COGFA, said the new report will put greater pressure on lawmakers to cut spending again next year.
“I think a lot of my colleagues looked at the cuts we made this year and said, ‘We did it. We’re done,’” Frerichs said. “But I think this shows that there’s going to be a lot more pain in the next few years.”
Frerichs said that “next year could potentially be as bad or worse in terms of cuts to important services. It just means we’re going to have to work extra hard to protect the important parts of state government, and make sure our priorities downstate are protected.”
* The budget squeeze is one of the reasons that Gov. Pat Quinn has latched onto pension reform. He pushed it again yesterday…
Gov. Pat Quinn Thursday said lawmakers should consider a comprehensive pension-reform proposal when they return for a one-day special session next week.
Speaking before the start of the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade, Quinn said lawmakers should consider a reform bill introduced this week by Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook.
Nekritz’s bill imposes the same changes on pensions for downstate teachers, university workers, state employees and state lawmakers. A bill approved in May by the Illinois Senate made changes only to pensions for state employees and lawmakers. […]
One problem with Nekritz’s legislation is that it was introduced as a brand-new bill and could not work its way through the General Assembly in a single day. The special session called by the governor is only scheduled to last Aug. 17. Quinn, though, said there are parliamentary techniques available to lawmakers to put the Nekritz proposal onto another bill and pass it in one day.
A retirement funding hole long pegged at $83 billion could hit nearly $93 billion by next summer if changes are not made, the administration projects. In turn, pension payments are gobbling up so much of the state budget so quickly that state government could be spending more on basic annual pension payments than it does on education within four years.
“This is a fire bell in the night,” Quinn said this week. “This is an alarm for all of us.” […]
But the Quinn team estimates that by mid-2016, state government will be spending $5.8 billion on grade schools and high schools and $6.2 billion on pensions. Although it is true that pension payments are scheduled to keep increasing in the coming years, the governor’s analysis also assumes that lawmakers will continue to cut education spending.
That point is disputed by many lawmakers, however. A spokeswoman for Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont dismissed the Quinn estimates as “extremely unreliable.” […]
Depending on one’s point of view, the state already may have reached the schools-pensions imbalance Quinn projects will take place in four years. The state is making a $5.2 billion pension payment this year, but it’s also paying back $1.55 billion in pension-related loans taken out under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and early in Quinn’s tenure. Totaled up, that $6.75 billion is greater than the $6.2 billion the state is spending on schools this year.
* And the Tribune thinks that just passing a SERS and General Assembly Retirement System reform would be a “baby step”…
At best, this bill would be a baby step up Mount Kilimanjaro. But that’s nowhere near enough.
* The Republican Party of Illinois has sent out a new e-mail which implies that retiring Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant was talking about House Speaker Michael Madigan in John Kass’ column today. The e-mail’s headline…
ICYMI: The Madigan Rules??
* From the e-mail…
Grant went on to say that there are politicians “who have networks of relationships, real estate firms, law firms, service firms, and you can’t get a permit passed unless you do business with those entities connected to the family.”
“There are aldermen who have networks of relationships, real estate firms, law firms, service firms, and you can’t get a permit passed unless you do business with those entities connected to the family.”
Speaker Madigan has had more than his share of failures. Just look around you. I’ve called him a walking conflict of interest. There really isn’t a need to make stuff up. Just sticking to the facts is more than enough. But I suppose that’s too much to ask of an organization that sees a Madigan ghost under every bed.
* I raised pigs one year when I was in 4-H. My grandfather and my uncle raised pigs. One of my good friends raised two pigs with his 4-H son this year. I helped out for a couple of days with those pigs and it reminded me that I really don’t like pigs all that much. I did have a lot of fun, and I’ll certainly do it again. They’re great people and I’ve enjoyed being back on a farm again. It’s just that I much prefer cattle. They smell better, at least to me.
Anyway, a friend of mine and I cut through the swine barn at the Illinois State Fair last night to get out of the rain. My friend literally hugged a pig while I took a photo. It was all great fun. Everybody was smiling, including the little girl who owned the pig and another friend who walked by while I was trying to take the picture.
Not long after that we had a conversation which went a little like this…
Me: Hey, did you wash your hands after hugging that pig?
Friend: Ha! No! I’m touching you!
Me: Agh!!! Don’t touch me with those pig hands! Wash your hands, man! Get away from me! Wash! Get away! Wash! Don’t touch me! No! Wash! Help! Mom!!!
I really, totally freaked out. Those who know me are probably laughing because I’m not a germaphobe at all. I can only guess that my dislike of pigs finally got the better of me last night. My friend did wash after my freakout and I’ve since apologized. I’m not so sure that I’ve been totally forgiven, however. I was a bit on the weird side.
The Illinois Department of Public Health says a child in the state has been diagnosed with a new strain of swine flu after attending a fair in Coles County.
As the Illinois State Fair ramps up in Springfield, the department is urging patrons to take precautions to avoid the flu which is spread from contact with pigs. Mark Ernst is the state veterinarian for Illinois. He says the State Fair is doing its part to combat health risks:
ERNST: “We’ve notified our staff that works the livestock exhibits, we do go through and check in the livestock. They’re aware of the possibility of influenza in swine and so they’ll certainly be more vigilent in looking for any type of respiratory infections or conditions that may be present in the swine.”
Hand-washing stations will be set-up in many spots throughout the fairgrounds. The flu’s symptoms are said to be similar to that of the regular seasonal flu. And the Illinois boy with the disease has not been hospitalized. Dozens of cases in other states have been reported. There is no vaccine for this strain of swine flu. The state’s health department says it’s possible, although rare, that the flu can also be spread between humans.
* Back when Rod Blagojevich was in charge, AFSCME showed up to Governor’s Day at the 2008 Illinois State Fair to protest his effort to cut their healthcare during contract negotiations. For a while, the union protesters drowned out the governor, who replied “They’re lucky to have a job.”
* Well, the union is planning yet another rally at this year’s Governor’s Day festivities. From the union’s website…
Wednesday, Aug. 15, is Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair. AFSCME will be there to ensure that fairgoers know about Gov. Quinn’s repeated attacks on working families in Illinois. Gather at the Main Gate at 11:30 a.m.
Quinn is trying to slash public employee pensions, withhold negotiated pay raises, cut retiree health care and push for huge contract concessions.
It’ll be a lot of fun with a very serious purpose-making sure that the voices of working families are heard.
* Two days later, on Friday the 17th, union members plan to rally at the Statehouse to protest pension reforms. The General Assembly will meet for a special session that day to take up the issue.
* AFSCME has been making a huge deal out of just about every incident of prison violence in order to convince people that closing Tamms and other facilities is a very unwise decision.
[Stacey Solano, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections] said that the data that was supplied “clearly shows that there is no statistical correlation between staffing levels, (inmate) population or the closure and assault levels.”
Charts released by the Department of Corrections to the BND showed that inmate assaults on prison staff decreased at two of the state’s three maximum security lockups, the Pontiac and Stateville correctional centers. Pontiac dropped slightly from 108 such assaults in fiscal year 2011 to 98 in 2012 that ended July 1. And Stateville dropped from 95 to 57 during this same time.
At the maximum security Menard Correctional Center, the state’s largest prison, assaults increased over these same two years, rising from 21 to 36. The figures for Menard are lower overall because, since fiscal year 2008, the facility has spent most of the year on lockdown. In 2011, the prison was on lockdown for 235 days, compared to 13 for Pontiac and 75 for Stateville. No reason was given for the high number of lockdown days at Menard. […]
Overall, for the last three complete fiscal years, inmates assaults on prison employees throughout the entire prison system remained fairly steady. There were 420 in 2010, 502 in 2011 and 444 in 2012.
The only thing I’d say is that the number don’t include any incidents from July.
Also, if AFSMCE has a response I’ll be more than happy to publish it.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From AFSCME via e-mail…
Attached and below is data on staff and inmate assaults provided to the union by IDOC. We released this information at our July 19 hearing on prison safety at the Capitol and it was widely reported.
The chart…
More from the AFSCME e-mail…
We had requested FY 2012 data also but the administration claimed it was not available. Readers can decide for themselves if they believe the administration manipulated the subsequent release of that data. (Prison employees also believe these figures understate the human victims of violence behind bars, as the numbers refer to “incidents,” not individuals harmed. In other words, an attack in which an inmate harmed three employees is counted as one.)
In any case, the five-year trend of rising violence against employees and among inmates is clear.
What the administration’s new figures discount is the first-hand, real-life experience of prison employees on the front lines – the men and women who put on the uniform and walk through the prison gates every day. They say that conditions are increasingly volatile and chaotic due to overcrowding, lack of staff, reclassification and transfer of inmates, and other Quinn Administration policies. The testimony given at the July 19 state Capitol hearing showed that in a personal and palpable way. To discount and seek to undermine the credibility of those who serve is deeply disrespectful of the risks they face and the sacrifices they make simply by going to work each day.
With respect to lockdowns, our members have observed on an anecdotal basis the same decline the administration’s figures reflect. But those fewer lockdowns appear to be part of a systematic effort by the Quinn Administration to cut the utilization of such security measures—we believe in order to artificially drive down costs without regard to safety and operational needs. When a facility is locked down (or shaken down for contraband such as weapons), all operations take longer and more intensive staff time is required to conduct meals, count inmates, search cells etc. That leads to increased overtime costs for staff. It has been apparent to our members for some time that lockdowns and shakedowns are being curtailed not because they are not needed but because the Quinn Administration is cutting corners to reduce costs.
Finally, to the administration’s lack of credibility on corrections matters, see the following chart on overcrowding we also issued at the July 19 Capitol forum. These are the true overcrowding statistics as most recently reported to the General Assembly by IDOC – not the misleading “operation capacity” category the Quinn Administration invented to mask the chaotic conditions it has allowed to fester in state prisons where inmates are now housed in hallways, basements, gymnasiums and closets because there is nowhere else to put them.
Click the pic for a larger image…
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Quinn administration responds to AFSCME’s contention that “an attack in which an inmate harmed three employees is counted as one”…
Each assault is counted individually during an incident. So when prison employees indicate they believe the figures understate violence— and say an inmate who harms three employees is counted as one—that’s not true. It is counted as three.
* We’ve discussed this topic here more than once, but Gov. Pat Quinn is still getting away with it, so I decided to raise the issue’s profile by putting it in my Sun-Times column…
Numbers are hard. People hate math. People really hate reading about numbers and math.
This is why politicians are so successful at using numbers to confuse people. The media too often just accept the numbers and move right along.
But there is a number sticking in my craw these days, and it’s driving me nuts that nobody else is really challenging the governor about it, so I’ve decided to talk about it here.
Wait! Don’t turn the page! It won’t be that bad. I promise. This stuff may look hard at first, but it’s really pretty simple.
Gov. Pat Quinn keeps saying the state goes $12.6 million further into the hole every day that a pension reform law isn’t passed. The additional debt is added to the overall unfunded pension liability. That’s a fancy phrase that describes the money the state should’ve paid into the pension systems over the years and didn’t — and still doesn’t. Every day that goes by without catching up on that unfunded liability means a day that the unfunded liability has a chance to grow.
The media has endlessly repeated this $12.6 million number, and some newspaper editorial pages have used it to demand an immediate pension fix.
The trouble is, the number is really misleading.
“We’ve said repeatedly that every day that goes by, $12.6 million is added to the pension liability,” the governor said this week. “Between now and the election, that’s about a billion dollars.”
Quinn wants the General Assembly to pass a pension-reform bill during a special session he called for Aug. 17. Quite a few legislators want to wait until after the election to pass a bill. They’d rather not have big-time money spent against them by public employee and teachers’ unions this fall. And don’t let anybody kid you, this sentiment is widespread on both sides of the aisle. Republicans as well as Democrats would rather just wait.
What Quinn doesn’t say, partly because nobody has pinned him down on it yet, is that none of the pension reform bills currently on the table will immediately stop that $12.6 million from adding up every day.
And since it’s summertime, any bill with an immediate effective date will require a three-fifths majority to pass. There’s no way the state’s legislative leaders can find that many votes.
They’re having real trouble coming up with simple majorities.
So because our state Constitution has a super-majority requirement for bills passed after May 31 with immediate effective dates, no reforms can conceivably take effect until at least June of next year.
Also, the green eyeshade types who run the state’s pension systems want any reform bills to include a July 1, 2013, implementation date to give them time to get everything ready.
In other words, it doesn’t matter if the Legislature approves a bill on Aug. 17 or waits until after the election because that $12.6 million will still accrue every day regardless of what happens.
The very real problem is the danger of a major downgrade from a credit ratings agency. A major downgrade could push the state’s debt into “junk bond” status, and then a whole lot of big institutions that buy government bonds wouldn’t be able to buy any more of ours. One such threat has apparently been issued already.
So, yes, there is a good reason to pass pension reform sooner rather than later. But this $12.6 million number the governor keeps talking about is, in reality, just scare tactic propaganda, and it should be treated as such.
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Quinn was finally asked today about his $12.6 million a day figure and he dodged the question, pointing instead to the last couple of paragraphs in my Sun-Times column. Listen…
This year, the nation’s 16th President will be among the numerous items you can get on a stick at the Illinois State Fair.
Visitors to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s area in the air conditioned Illinois Building at the 2012 Illinois State Fair may pick up free fans bearing the famous Alexander Gardner portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The reverse side of the fan will include a list of central Illinois historic attractions, and by showing the fan at any of these places, visitors will receive special discounts on admission or merchandise from the sites’ gift shops.
* People try to sell their books. That’s no surprise at all. Reporters who write books often try to sell their books by disclosing never before heard “news.” That’s not new, either. But relying on Rod Blagojevich’s veracity about a rumor he’d heard about someone he despised is a new one on me…
An upcoming book about Rod Blagojevich says undercover recordings caught the former governor saying he had heard that convicted influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko secretly channeled $25,000 in cash to Barack Obama, but federal authorities did not deem the claim credible.
The book, “Golden: How Rod Blagojevich Talked Himself Out of the Governor’s Office and Into Prison,” suggests Blagojevich was talking about an undisclosed payment to help Obama with his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
The book says that federal investigators pursued the claim but ultimately gave it little credence. “Never was Blagojevich seen as a credible threat to the incoming president,” says the book, an outside project by two Chicago Tribune reporters. […]
The disclosure of Blagojevich’s comments comes as the president is locked in a tight re-election campaign with Republican Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who has sought to link Obama’s Chicago connections to the city’s culture of political corruption. […]
According to the book, Blagojevich was repeating “a story that (he) had heard that he believed” when he spoke of the $25,000 in cash from Rezko. Talking to his then-chief of staff John Harris shortly after Obama’s election, Blagojevich said he had heard that Rezko had given the cash to Bruce Washington, who has held jobs with the state, Cook County and the city school district.
Drudge linked to the Tribune’s story today and I’m sure it will gain traction on the blogs.
But, really, you use a recording of Rod Blagojevich repeating a rumor in order to sell books? Seriously? Rod Blagojevich? The most delusional man in America? You gotta be kidding me.
The meat of this story — that Blagojevich claimed to have heard a unflattering story about Obama that he believed — is an unsubstantiated, uncorroborated third-hand rumor. Anyone want to argue for the relevance?
* So far, at least, all the speculation about Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. stepping down has been just that. His staff is now trying to change the narrative…
In one move, Rick Bryant, Mr., Jackson’s chief of staff, phoned about 25 south suburban mayors to update them on the congressman’s condition.
In another, longtime Jackson campaign consultant Kevin Lampe told me that not only is Mr. Jackson running for a new term, but the congressman expects to hit the campaign trail soon.
Mr. Bryant said he made the calls in the past couple of days “at the congressman’s request.”
“I told them that the congressman was feeling much better and that he was looking for updates on several projects in the district,” Mr. Bryant told me in an email. “The congressman also said he expects to be home soon; he is looking forward to getting back to work; and he fully expects to be running for re-election in the fall.”
A similar message came from Mr. Lampe.
The congressman “is on the ballot. The campaign is moving forward,” Mr. Lampe said. “He is running for re-election.”
Mr. Jackson will get out to press the flesh with voters “as soon as he’s better,” Mr. Lampe added.
All those folks who whispered in reporters’ ears that Jackson would be leaving may live to regret their actions. And the folks who’ve floated their own names while Jackson has been down and out will have to rush back to his side if he does indeed return.
* Meawhile, Republican Congressman Bob Dold has a new TV ad that positions himself as a brand new candidate instead of an incumbent and highlights his independence…
As you can tell by the poor quality, this is an Internet ad.
Also, I think The Who might be a bit angry about the ILGOP stealing their stuff.
* But neither ad is the real story, says Greg Hinz…
But the real news was buried at the bottom of Mr. Dold’s press release.
And that’s not about this ad, which will run only on cable TV and will cost just $25,000 or so a week, but the “additional $1.88 million in Chicago network (broadcast) television” that the Dold campaign has purchased in October and November.
Though TV ad buys are a matter of public record, campaigns rarely announce their ad strategy, much less two months in advance. Team Dold clearly is trying to make a point here, and it does have money in the bank, a lot more than does Mr. Schneider. The implied message is that Dold can’t be beaten.
Of course, “reserved” time has not yet been paid for, only put on hold. But the Dold campaign will have to pay a financial penalty if it backs out.
I’ve noticed this year that lots of people are announcing their reserved TV time well in advance of the fall campaign. It helps fill up the news hole during slow periods, but as Greg points out we don’t really know yet whether any of it is real until it actually happens.
A brand new poll in Illinois’ newly redrawn 13th District shows Democrat David Gill continues to lead in the race for Congress. In a poll conducted August 4-7 for Gill’s campaign by Victoria Research and Consulting among 400 registered likely 2012 general election voters, the Bloomington emergency physician holds the lead in the initial trial heat with 36% for Gill to 30% for Republican Rodney Davis and 9% for Independent John Hartman with the remainder undecided. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 4.9%.
The poll’s results indicate that Davis has made no progress since an earlier April poll, in which the Republican got 31% of the vote against Dr. Gill. Gill’s lead continues to grow in additional ballot tests throughout the course of the poll. The poll reflected that Gill has a solid base of supporters in the Champaign/Bloomington area, whereas Davis is an unknown quantity, with 4 out of 5 voters in the district not recognizing his name at all.
The poll’s results also indicate, however, that Gill is losing ground and that the independent candidate may be taking away votes from the perennial Democratic candidate. That April poll taken by the Democrats had Gill leading Davis 41-31, before Davis was even a candidate.
* Also from the press release…
“The last thing voters in central or southwest Illinois want is a career political insider who has been on taxpayer payrolls or bankrolled by politicians since he was 23 years old,” commented campaign manager Mike Richards. “People in the new 13th District know they can’t trust Rodney Davis to clean things up. He was handpicked by Washington insiders who want to keep controlling Congress.”
In recent days, Gill’s campaign received the endorsement of US Senator Richard Durbin on Sunday
Um, I think Sen. Durbin also qualifies as a “career political insider.” Also, doesn’t running for Congress every two years for the past eight kinda make Gill a career wannabe insider?
U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, had a conference call Wednesday to announce the addition of 13 races nationally to what it calls “red-to-blue” status. There are now 51 races nationally they put in that category, and the two Illinois candidates newly named to the list are David GillL of Bloomington in the 13th, who is running against Republican Rodney Davis of Taylorville; and William Enyart, former adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard, who is taking on Republican Jason Plummer in the new 12th District in southwestern Illinois.
“It’s a district that gave President (Barack) Obama nearly 56 percent of the vote,” Israel said of the new 13th, which includes part of Springfield. He said Gill has “put together a … very impressive grass-roots campaign.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Isreal of New York is committee chairman. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Israel says the committee will provide technical expertise to Gill in the 13th District race and what he called other support.
It isn’t clear what that other support is, and Gill spokesman Michael Richards says Gill isn’t yet sure.
Hartman said this morning that he wasn’t surprised by his showing.
“I think I’ve met about 8,000 people, when I was petitioning (to get on the election ballot) and I got very good feedback because I was an indepenedent. I was in Carrollton and I asked 20 people to sign my petition and 19 signed. In Litchfield I asked 26 people on the last day of my petition drive and all 26 signed it and wished me well. I know that this is a viable campaign.”
In the feedback he has received, Hartman said, “They just said ‘I’m going to vote for anybody who’s not in there.’
“In this case we don’t have an incumbent, but that’s the mood. I heard that over and over again. ‘We need fresh blood. You can’t be as bad as they are.’ That kind of stuff.”
* Related…
* Durbin calls Gill best choice for 13th District seat
State and union officials agreed Wednesday to postpone further transfer of inmates from prisons and other facilities slated for closure.
The decision is at least a temporary victory for the union representing the state’s correctional officers, who are opposed to Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close the facilities, including the Tamms “supermax” and Dwight prisons, and to consolidate inmates elsewhere.
* It helped, of course, that the union filed its lawsuit in Alexander County, one of the poorest counties in Illinois and home to the Tamms super max prison. You don’t have to possess a great imagination to figure out what went on behind closed doors yesterday…
Wednesday’s agreement came after about an hour of closed-door meetings between the state, AFSCME and First Judicial Circuit Judge Charles C. Cavaness on the day the union’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt closure-related transfers was to be heard. Inmate transfers not related to the closures can continue. […]
Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft said the state remained committed to closures, and it agreed to interrupt the process because of an Aug. 17 court date in Alexander County at which time the sides will update Cavaness and the court on arbitration progress.
“We offered to properly hear AFSCME’s grievances on an expedited basis, and we now look forward to resolving this matter as quickly as possible through the arbitration process set out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement,” Kraft said in an email.
AFSCME has until Aug. 17 to respond to the state’s motion to dismiss the union’s lawsuit. The state has an Aug. 20 deadline to respond to the union’s arguments against dismissal.
“The conditions to which these men at Tamms are subjected are deplorable. Long-term isolated solitary confinement ruins prisoners psychologically and makes it more difficult for these men to re-integrate into society once they are released. There is empirical evidence that supermax prisons, such as Tamms, do not affect the level of violence within a prison system. On the contrary, once Mississippi reduced their supermax population there was a dramatic reduction in prison misconduct and violence.”
That dismissal wasn’t a good sign for the state’s case, either.
AFSCME has sued the state before over prison closings. The union launched three separate lawsuits against the state back in 2008 as a response to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s planned closure of the Pontiac maximum-security prison.
Then, as now, the union accused the state of compromising employee and public safety. “Pontiac is an essential part of a safe prison system, and without it, all Illinois prisons, staff, inmates are at greater risk of violence and personal harms,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer said in 2008, according to the Peoria Journal-Star.
As the Blagojevich administration fell apart, the governor was impeached in January 2009, the Pontiac closing plan also unraveled. In March 2009, Quinn, who had been governor for all of two months, said Pontiac would stay open. Ironically, the governor gave greater fiscal responsibility as the reason, noting that the prison provides 600 jobs and $54.4 million in revenue for the Pontiac area.
The inmate advocacy group Tamms Year Ten will host a protest beginning noon today at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee Council 31 headquarters in Chicago.
Entitled “Reject Torture, Stop the Lies and Remember the Real Story at Tamms,” the protest is a reaction to what Tamms Year Ten described as weeks of AFSCME “scare tactics” used against Gov. Pat Quinn’s planned Aug. 31 closure of the Tamms Correctional Center in Alexander County. Family members of inmates and human rights advocates will attend the protest.
* The guy floated his name in 2001 and 2009. I really doubt he’s gonna pull the trigger this time around, but whatever. It’s August…
Is former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley eyeing a future bid for governor?
It’s the latest rumble in the state’s political jumble — now that Dem insiders tell Sneed Gov. Pat Quinn’s poll numbers Downstate are heading lower than the equator on a cold day — specifically where close legislative races are being fought.
So Sneed called Bill Daley, whose political credentials also include a tenure as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, for a definitive answer.
◆ Quoth Daley … after a rather dramatic Irish sputter:
“What? The race is two and one half years away! This is no time for anyone to be thinking about entering that race now! This is the time to get President Obama re-elected!
“It’s a joke to be talking about that [gubernatorial] race when the focus should be on the presidential race and the problems we face in the country.”
“Right now I’m focusing on that and my family.”
◆ Translation: If Daley starts doing polling after the presidential election is over, the answer is a probable “yes.”
The attorney for George Ryan says the former governor has qualified for work release five months before his July 2013 parole.
Former Gov. Jim Thompson says Ryan’s new home will be a halfway house in the West Loop. The 78-year-old Ryan is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for a 2006 conviction on corruption charges.
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan lost a bid on Monday to cut short his 6-1/2 year prison sentence for corruption, with an appeals court rejecting arguments that prosecutors failed to prove he took bribes.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed the conviction and sentence, finding that Ryan failed to provide honest services to the people of Illinois who elected him, and that he violated this duty by giving state benefits to his friends. […]
On appeal, Ryan argued that the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in a case against former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling unsettled his conviction by changing the law that governs honest-services fraud. In that case, the high court found that honest-services fraud was limited to bribery and kickback schemes.
* This same appellate court upheld Ryan’s conviction a year ago, but the US Supreme Court wanted them to reconsider Ryan’s arguments…
“George Ryan, as a public official, had a duty to provide honest services to the people of the state of Illinois who elected him,” reads the opinoin by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook. ” And the evidence in this case has shown that he repeatedly violated that duty.
“The benefits included free vacations, loans, gifts, campaign contributions, as well as lobbying money that Ryan assigned or directed to his buddies. In short, Ryan sold his office. He might as well have put up a ‘for sale’ sign on the office.”
Defense attorneys had argued that gifts and vacations Ryan received from people who later got state business were based on friendship, weren’t an exchange for financial benefits and, therefore, weren’t bribes.
One of several examples cited in Monday’s ruling was a $3,185 check written by a lobbyist to pay for a band to play at the wedding of Ryan’s daughter.
“Ryan’s lawyers vigorously argued that these benefits were tokens of friendship, and that he did nothing in return for them,” the opinion said. But, it continues, prosecutors had fundamentally argued at trial that they were bribes and, “The verdict shows that the jury found in the prosecution’s favor.”
At an unrelated event, Quinn said that the court has spoken and Ryan had his day in court.
He says Ryan has to “do the time.”
* Meanwhile, Patti Blagojevich is upset that the transcripts still aren’t available from her husband’s trial. Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys can’t file an appeal until those transcripts are finished, but the court reporter has been on a personal leave of absence for over five months and now she’s facing a mountain of unfinished work and has asked for an extension…
In an exclusive interview, she told FOX Chicago News that the situation is “incredibly frustrating.”
“I mean, my girls miss their dad, he’s missing their birthday, my daughter had her sixteenth birthday just the other day,” Patti said.
Mrs. Blagojevich said it’s been bugging her for months. […]
“There sure was a rush to get my husband in jail,” Blagojevich wrote to friends on Facebook, “where he now sits waiting for the long overdue transcripts.”
It’s not like he has a chance on appeal, but I get the frustration.
* It’s probably no surprise that I use the Google News service to keep track of media reports. My “Pat Quinn” search used to flag stories about a former NHL coach of the same name.
Today, though, a different Pat Quinn surfaced. From a press release…
For many students, the new school year marks the start of the school sports season — where aspiring young athletes return to familiar sports or decide to try their hand at a new one. But the high cost of outfitting a child with equipment that he or she will almost certainly outgrow and may very well lose interest in makes many families think twice — and then some — about signing their children up.
“Parents are faced with a couple of reality checks when their child wants to join a school sport,” said Pat Quinn, brand director of Play It Again Sports. “If a child is successful in the sport and wants to continue, chances are he or she will need to replace outgrown equipment regularly. And, if the child doesn’t stick with the sport, then the initial investment in equipment may seem ‘wasted.’ Buying quality used sporting equipment can help parents support their child’s interest in a sport without breaking the family budget.”
Makes sense to me, and prompted me to think of this…
* The Question: What jobs do you think Gov. Pat Quinn is most qualified to do? Explain.
* As I told you yesterday, the Illinois State Police was down at the Tamms prison yesterday to apparently interrogate Department of Corrections workers about recent leaks to the media. After my story was published, other articles began to appear…
Two weeks after officials searched guards and other employees at various state prisons for contraband, the Illinois State Police is conducting an investigation at the Tamms Correctional Center.
The state police probe is the latest wrinkle in Gov. Pat Quinn’s attempt to close the state’s only supermax prison — a controversial move that has been challenged by state lawmakers and is the subject of a court hearing in Cairo today.
A state police spokeswoman confirmed the investigation Tuesday, but wouldn’t divulge its purpose.
“We are not at liberty to comment on a pending investigation,” spokeswoman Monique Bond said in a statement.
One of those interviewed told The Associated Press the encounter lasted a few minutes and said “they were trying to intimidate me.” Gov. Pat Quinn, who wants to close the high-security Tamms lockups, said through a spokeswoman he did not order the investigation. The union representing prison employees called on the Democrat to “renounce these heavy-handed tactics.” […]
A correctional counselor called before the investigators said a police special agent displayed her badge and explained it was a criminal investigation involving a leak of private health information. The employee, who described the scene as “very dramatic,” said the special agent briefly turned over a stack of papers but what it contained wasn’t visible.
The counselor, who was also questioned several weeks ago by the Corrections investigator after a news report based on internal data, submitted a written complaint Tuesday.
“I felt like I was being harassed, that they were trying to intimidate me,” said the counselor, whose job includes preparing Tamms inmates for transfer. “It creates a hostile work environment and a distraction, and I don’t feel like I can do my job.”
* Meanwhile, some Tamms inmates are attempting to get a lawsuit tossed…
(S)even inmates at the Tamms prison in far southern Illinois are trying to get a lawsuit thrown out of court. The correctional officers’ union last week filed the suit, which seeks to stop Quinn’s plan to close prison facilities throughout the state.
The inmates, in their response, argue conditions at Tamms are deplorable and that closing the facility will not cause an increase in violence in prisons throughout the state, as the correctional officers have asserted.
The Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, representing the inmates, filed motions to intervene in and dismiss the AFSCME suit. Slated for closure are prisons in Tamms and Dwight; adult transition centers in Carbondale, Chicago and Decatur; and youth centers in Joliet and Murphysboro.
AFSCME has requested a temporary restraining order to stop inmate transfers and other closure activities already in motion. A hearing before a circuit judge is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Cairo at the southernmost tip of Illinois.
The facility closures were to be completed by Aug. 31. Quinn has said Illinois cannot afford all of the prison facilities that are open, arguing that Tamms, in particular, is only half full and costly to operate.
AFSCME argues that closing facilities and consolidating inmates will add undue pressure on an already crowded and understaffed system. Violence will increase, and lives are at stake, the union argues.
“The Quinn administration is failing its duty to ensure a safe workplace for its employees. Instead, it is sending men and women to work each day in prisons that the state’s own actions are making more dangerous,” said AFSCME executive director Henry Bayer.
Nicole Schult, an attorney with the law center, said the threat of going to a “super-max” prison does not deter inmate violence within prison systems.
“On the contrary, once Mississippi reduced (its) super-max population, there was a dramatic reduction in prison misconduct and violence,” she said.
State and local lawmakers have argued that the loss of jobs from the closures will be devastating, particularly in southern Illinois, where unemployment remains high.
Quinn said making the decision to shutter Tamms and 56 other small and large facilities “wasn’t easy.”
“We had to do that in order to have a budget that is balanced. I inherited a $10 billion budget deficit. I did not create it, but my job is to repair things,” he said. “I’m doing that.”
* And WBEZ reports that Quinn and his Department of Corrections have blocked their access to a minimum security prison…
Our initial efforts to get inside were denied with one-line emails. Spokeswoman Brooke Anderson eventually had one ten-minute telephone conversation with me explaining their stand. She said I couldn’t go in the prisons because it was a safety and security concern, and it would strain the department’s resources.
I was a little mystified as to how my visit would strain the resources of a billion dollar department, but Anderson said if I visited a prison then they’d have to let other reporters in too. Anderson refused to talk about this on tape. Over the course of weeks she said simply that she was too busy.
When Jerome Suggs was sentenced for driving on a revoked license he was sent to Vienna, a minimum security prison near the southernmost point in Illinois, about 350 miles from Chicago. Suggs was assigned to live on the third floor of a building but there was absolutely no view.
“When I moved up there there was boards up on the windows and I was just looking like, ‘Wow! What is this?” Suggs said. This was Building 19.
Suggs says there was not a single window letting in light and that he was put in a large room with several hundred other men. All of the men were crowded onto bunks with nothing to do. There are 600 inmates in the building and only seven showers and seven toilets, and the toilets often broke and overflowed, resulting in a strong sewage smell.
“The smell that came from the showers and it came into the living quarters and yeah, I used to go to sleep with my pillow over my face, the smell was horrible, man,” Suggs said.
When the weather turned hot the boards came off the windows but then bugs could easily get in through the broken windows. Suggs, who got out just last month, says the place was also overrun with cockroaches.
“Yes! On my bed! Oh yeah. Used to have to swat them off the bed,” he said.
“Okay, my name is Mayo and I was incarcerated for 29 and a half continuous years.” Mayo, who asked that we use just his first name, was convicted in the early ’80s for committing armed robbery. For the last three years of his sentence he was in Vienna and spent some of that time in the now notorious Building 19.
Mayo says, “I thought to myself this is supposed to be a minimum security institution, but this was more like a maximum security institution in that I couldn’t believe that they would actually expect people to live under those type of conditions. The place is infested with rats and the rats were so aggressive that we used to call them kangaroo rats ’cause while I was there quite a few guys had rats actually jump up in bed with them.”
