* Donald Trump told Fox News that Chicago’s crime problem was essentially a no-brainer…
On the show, Trump said the Chicago police force does not have “the right people in charge.” […]
“How? By being very much tougher than they are right now. They’re right now not tough. I could tell you this very long and quite boring story. But when I was in Chicago, I got to meet a couple of very top police. I said, ‘How do you stop this? How do you stop this? If you were put in charge — to a specific person — do you think you could stop it?’ He said, ‘Mr. Trump, I’d be able to stop it in one week.’ And I believed him 100 percent,” Trump said. […]
Trump responded: “All I know is this. I went to a top police officer in Chicago, who is not the police chief, and I could see by the way he was dealing with his people, he was a rough, tough guy. They respected him greatly. … He said, ‘Mr. Trump, within one week, we could stop much of this horror show that’s going on.’”
When pressed, Trump said the officer didn’t say exactly how. “No, and I didn’t ask him because I’m not the mayor of Chicago.”
* The Question: What other problems could Chicago solve in “one week” if they just got “very much tougher than they are right now”? Don’t forget to explain!
Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer has notified a federal court that the imprisoned former Illinois governor plans to appeal his 14-year sentence for corruption imposed at a resentencing earlier this month.
Leonard Goodman filed the brief notice with U.S. District Court in Chicago Tuesday informing sentencing Judge James Zagel that the 59-year-old Democrat will appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
An inmate punched a correctional lieutenant at an Illinois prison, sparking an assault that involved six prison employees and five inmates, the prison workers union said Monday.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said four correctional officers and two lieutenants were treated for scratches, bruises and possible concussions suffered in the incident Sunday at the Pontiac Correctional Center. They have all been released from the hospital.
“An inmate just began punching the lieutenant and knocked her to the ground,” said Joe Lewis, a correctional officer at the Pontiac facility in central Illinois and president of AFCSME Local 494. “Then other inmates joined in the assault, injuring the other employees who had come to her assistance.”
The Illinois Department of Corrections has put the facility on lockdown and is investigating. IDOC spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said Monday that the prison will remain on lockdown until the department finishes its investigation. At that time, the department will refer the case to the Livingston County prosecutor, she said.
* From the union…
A troubling culture of inmate violence at Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Ill. culminated in an assault by multiple inmates on prison staff yesterday afternoon. Four correctional officers and two lieutenants were transported to the local hospital emergency room where they were treated for abrasions, contusions and possible concussions. None suffered life-threatening injuries and all six have now been released from the hospital.
“An inmate just began punching the lieutenant and knocked her to the ground,” said Joe Lewis, a correctional officer at Pontiac CC and president of Local 494 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents employees at the prison. “Then other inmates joined in the assault, injuring the other employees who had come to her assistance.”
Immediately following the incident, Lewis insisted that steps be taken to lock down the correctional facility to ensure the safety of both staff and inmates.
“It’s essential that the facility remain on lockdown until a state tactical team can be brought in to conduct a thorough search of cells and inmates to eliminate any contraband or weapons,” Lewis said.
Pontiac CC is a maximum security correctional facility that houses many of the state’s most dangerous inmates. When the state’s only “super-maximum” facility, Tamms Correctional Center, was closed in 2013, many of its inmates were transferred to Pontiac.
“Since the Tamms’ inmates have been integrated into our general population and allowed unrestricted freedom of movement, there has been a growing level of harassment and violence against correctional employees,” Lewis said.
“Officers have repeatedly had urine and feces thrown on them, been kicked, punched or head-butted, and even stabbed with shanks,” he added. Several of the inmates involved in the most recent incident are believed to have been transferred to Pontiac CC from Tamms CC.
The local union at Pontiac CC had repeatedly called attention to the growing safety issues at the facility—to no avail. Policies and procedures, designed and implemented to keep staff safe in a difficult and dangerous environment, have been ignored or put aside for new practices that, with a very short history to draw from, have proven ineffective and dangerous.
“There have to be consequences for this kind of behavior,” said AFSCME Council 31 Regional Director Eddie Caumiant. “IDOC is allowing these kinds of assaults without any kind of penalty. We believe it is critical that this incident be referred to the local state’s attorney and that criminal charges are filed.”
“Safety must be paramount for all involved,” Caumiant said. “That has to become a priority of the Department of Corrections.”
More here. An informational picket is planned for Friday.
*** UPDATE *** IDOC appears to blame it on the guards…
Officer safety is our first priority. This was a terrible and dangerous incident and we want to thank those DOC employees that quickly responded and brought the situation under control. IDOC will forward the case to the Livingston County State’s Attorney for prosecution once our investigation is complete.
While DOC’s investigation is ongoing, the events that led to this incident do not appear to be the result of a lack of policy or a breakdown in existing policies but rather a failure to follow workplace safety procedures already in place. DOC‘s investigation will include why procedures weren’t followed and how future incidents can be prevented.
Asked Monday to weigh in on U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s recent characterization of President Barack Obama as the nation’s “drug dealer in chief,” Gov. Bruce Rauner literally threw up his hands.
“I heard something about that,” Rauner said. “I don’t want to comment on that.” […]
“I will say that the senator has been a strong advocate, I think a good advocate, for trying to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power,” Rauner said of Kirk, a Republican ally who helped him win election in 2014. “And I applaud him for that work. And also, I’ll make one other general statement and that is I am strongly, strongly opposed to ransom payments of any type for hostages.”
Pressed to address Kirk’s comment about President Obama more specifically, Rauner repeatedly raised his hands in air as he tried to shrug off the questions.
“I won’t comment on word selection,” he said at one point.
You should really watch the video for the full impact. [Fixed link.]
Tuesday, Aug 23, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The State Journal-Register Editorial Board endorsed Independent Map Amendment last week. Here’s what they had to say:
“Hopefully, the Supreme Court will side with the more than half million citizens who signed the petition asking simply that they be given the chance to vote on this idea.
“They’ve had enough.
“Let’s hope the Supreme Court will give them the chance in November to weigh in on how their government works for them, not for those already in office.”
“Maintaining the status quo allows Springfield’s power brokers to manipulate legislative boundaries, which are redrawn every 10 years. Letting politicians do that handiwork allows them to shape districts to influence the outcome of an election. Split up pockets of Republicans, for example. Draw districts to protect incumbents. The system is so rigged that, of this year’s legislative races, nearly two-thirds aren’t even contested.
“That brings us to the Illinois Supreme Court, the last hope for voters to finally get a chance to decide for themselves whether to amend their own constitution.”
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager on Monday night defended the Republican presidential nominee’s pitch to black voters in a heated debate on CNN.
Corey Lewandowski explained on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360″ why he was all right with Trump delivering his pitch to black voters while speaking to predominantly white crowds in places like Wisconsin.
“As a campaign manager, wouldn’t you want your candidate saying some of these things directly to the people he’s supposedly addressing?” Anderson Cooper asked.
“You know what’s amazing to me, is no one remembers Donald Trump went to go have a rally in Chicago at the university,” responded Lewandoski.
“And do you remember what happened? It was so chaotic, and it was so out of control, Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department told him you could not get in and out of that facility safely, and that rally was canceled. And you showed the footage many times of the individuals who attended that rally. Donald Trump had that rally booked,” Lewandowski said.
“That is a black community. He went to the heart of Chicago to go and give a speech to the University of Chicago in a campus, which is predominantly African-American, to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun, and it was not a safe environment,” he said.
* OK, first of all, the rally was at the University of Illinois at Chicago, not the U of C. From the university’s Wikipedia page…
Interim Supt John Escalante confirmed in a press conference that police became aware the event was being cancelled at 6:30pm, adding: “The Chicago Police Department had no role, we were not consulted or provided an opinion as to whether or not the event should be cancelled.
“In fact we did assure the Trump campaign that we had more than adequate resources outside the UIC pavilion and we guaranteed them we could provide save access and exit for Mr Trump.
Two top officials of the Better Government Association resigned this week in a shakeup at the Chicago-based nonprofit investigative news organization and civic watchdog group.
Robert Reed stepped down as director of programming, and Robert Herguth stepped down as director of investigations. Both veteran Chicago journalists joined the BGA in 2010 and oversaw numerous award-winning investigations into corruption, fraud and waste.
Their resignations were prompted by changes in the organization’s structure and revisions in its investigative strategy under Andy Shaw, president and CEO of the BGA.
“Reed and Herguth are outstanding journalists who contributed so much to the BGA’s watchdog work over the past six years,” Shaw said in a statement. “I wish them the best in their future endeavors.”
Investigators, reporters and other staff members of Chicago’s Better Government Association voted unanimously last week to seek representation by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The unionizing move could be seen as a challenge to Andy Shaw, who has headed the nonprofit investigative news organization and civic watchdog group since 2009. It comes just weeks after the resignations of Robert Reed as director of programming and Robert Herguth as director of investigations. Their departures reportedly were prompted by changes in the organization’s structure and revisions in its investigative strategy
Curiously, a leader of the union campaign is Brett Chase, acting director of investigations, who, if he were appointed permanently to that post, would be management. Chase told me Shaw has done a “fabulous job of fund-raising,” while Reed and Herguth “did a fabulous job of investigating.” But with those two gone, and with Shaw indicating he’d like to play a bigger role in the BGA’s investigative work, “I think there’s a conflict,” said Chase. It’s a church-state issue, he explained: ideally, the people who raise the money—that is, Shaw and the board members who open their wallets to him—shouldn’t be speaking to, much less influencing, the people who choose and run the BGA’s investigations.
“Andy did say he thought donors should be heard,” said Chase. “And now he wants to have more say in the operation, and we want to say we believe in the mission, not the personalities.” Shaw’s energy and expansive personality led the BGA back from the brink of death when he took over in 2009 after a career in TV news. But Reed and Herguth led the mission. [Emphasis added.]
Reed and Herguth haven’t commented, likely because of a non-disclosure agreement.
Andy has done a great job of fundraising and generating publicity. I’m the one, after all, who came up with the idea of hiring him.
And as somebody who runs a one-person shop, I know first hand that it’s a constant battle to make sure that advertising and subscriptions don’t influence content. Subscriptions are actually pretty easy. I have subscribers on pretty much every conceivable side of every issue, so I just write what I want and that’s that. Advertisers, however, sometimes think they deserve special treatment, so I try to disavow them of that notion right up front and write what I want. But just this week somebody sent me a pitch e-mail about a story along with a declaration that her group intended to buy a blog ad. I informed her that I don’t do business that way. I don’t think she was trying to be venal, and her group isn’t some massive entity that controls lots of Statehouse votes or anything, but it did make me uncomfortable.
Today, the Thomas More Society filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Chicago over its abortion clinic “bubble zone” ordinance. The law makes it illegal to approach within 8 feet of someone who is walking towards an abortion clinic once they are within 50 feet of the entrance, unless that person consents. This confusing law is being challenged by the Pro-Life Action League and sidewalk counselors who reach out to women who may feel they have no option other than to end their baby’s life. The complaint charges the City, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld with unconstitutionally curtailing the rights of pro-life advocates. A press conference detailing the lawsuit is scheduled at noon (Central) on Tuesday, August 23, 2016, outside of a northside Chicago Planned Parenthood at LaSalle and Division. Speakers include: Thomas More Society Special Counsel Stephen Crampton, Pro-Life Action League Vice-President Ann Scheidler, and sidewalk counselor Veronica Price.
This civil rights action asserts the unconstitutionality of the ‘bubble zone’ law under the First and Fourteenth Amendments both on its face, and as applied by the Chicago Police through selective enforcement owing to a misunderstanding of the law and also prejudice against pro-life counselors, which has caused false arrests and harassment of pro-life counselors and advocates.
“The precious right of free speech — so central to our democracy — is being denied to these individuals on the basis of their pro-life beliefs,” explained Thomas Olp, Senior Counsel at the Thomas More Society. “Pro-life advocates are being singled out and their Constitutional protections are being trampled by Chicago’s ‘bubble zone’ ordinance – a law created solely to discriminate against people who wish to offer abortion-bound women information about alternatives to abortion. No other business or industry is sheltered in this way. Through this law, the mayor and his administration are partnering with abortion vendors to violate the rights of those who wish to reach out to women seeking abortions.”
The court filing document case offers numerous Constitutional violations and other illegal abuses including:
Pro-life advocates being told by a policeman, upon challenging his application of the “bubble zone,” that if he was forced to go get the ordinance from the station he would come back and arrest them.
Police determining and communicating to sidewalk counselors that they were not allowed within 150 feet of an abortion provider’s entrance.
Law enforcement personnel insisting that pro-life advocates could only hand literature to someone who asked for it and deciding that the ordinance prohibited any kind of verbal expression by sidewalk counselors.
Police imposing absolute and illegal buffer zones, telling sidewalk counselors that they were prohibited from approaching within 50 feet of the clinic entrance or with 8 feet of persons heading toward the clinic - even outside of the 50 feet “bubble zone.”
Officers stating that the ordinance banned sidewalk counselors from even standing within 8 feet of anyone approaching the abortion facility door.
The complaint also details several wrongful arrests of pro-life sidewalk counselors under the “bubble zone” ordinance and cites rampant abuse of citizen rights without provocation.
Scheidler rallied the pro-life community, saying, “I feel confident we will prevail in court. Only two years ago, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ‘buffer zone’ law in Massachusetts. Now it’s time for Chicago’s unconstitutional ‘bubble zone’ to burst.”
*** UPDATE *** From Planned Parenthood of Illinois…
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) knows, first hand, the need for bubble zones. These protections help ensure that those giving and seeking health care can safely enter and leave medical facilities, keep entrances open, prevent traffic problems, maintain distance between individuals, minimize physical contact and reduce harassment and intimidation.
“Chicagoans should be able to access health care services without fearing intimidation and harassment,” said Linda Diamond Shapiro, PPIL Interim CEO. “The Chicago Bubble Zone Ordinance enables patients in this city to do just that.”
Chicago’s Health Care Bubble Zone Ordinance ensures that patients and staff have unimpeded access to and from health care facilities. The Bubble Zone Ordinance is part of the City Code regarding disorderly conduct that also provides protections for schools and places of worship. The ordinance protects the free speech rights of protesters while ensuring that patients can exercise their own rights to healthcare.
“As sponsor of this ordinance, I felt it was important to protect a patient’s right to health care while making sure that the rights of others were not infringed,” said former Alderman Vi Daley. “The eight foot bubble allows protestors to be heard while ensuring that a patient can enter a health center without obstructions.”
The first provision of the ordinance is similar in scope to a Colorado law that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The second part reflects language in the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), a law that was passed in 1994 and has also been upheld by each of the eight federal appeals courts.
Recently, protestors have started wearing the same color vests as PPIL escorts (volunteers who provide safe passage for patients) with “Parenthood Volunteer” and an icon that looks similar to Planned Parenthood’s logo. This tactic scares and confuses patients as they try to access the health center.
“A bubble zone of eight feet enables staff and patients to go in and out of health centers without being swarmed by protestors,” Shapiro stated. “This small distance can make an enormous difference in keeping entrances accessible and reducing aggressive confrontations.”
The Chicago ordinance allows protestors to continue to express their right to free speech as long as they do not approach within 8 feet of other people who have not given their consent to be approached within the 50 foot buffer zone.
Last year, a woman was shot and killed on 75th and Stewart in Englewood. Most people have that moment when enough is enough. This was Tamar Manasseh’s.
Manasseh lives in Bronzeville, but she grew up in Englewood. Right after the murder, she decided to organize Mothers Against Senseless Killings, or M.A.S.K.
It’s a mom patrol that camps out on the block of 75th and Stewart every summer afternoon into evening as a form of violence resistance. The moms wear hot pink shirts and black hats. R&B and hip hop music blast from speakers. […]
This is Manasseh’s second summer on the block. She said coming out here daily restores her faith in a city that seems besieged by violence.
“This is the most uplifting thing going on in the city right now because you see all this negative stuff over and over again every day,” Manasseh said. “And I see it and I say I left 75th and Stewart and none of that was happening. I was in Englewood and none of that was happening. It really restores your hope in humanity.”
According to police statistics, this summer the block hasn’t seen one shooting, although crime still happens in the area. Manasseh said she has no plans to stop coming out.
But this story doesn’t have a happy ending. Her group has been ordered to move. Go read the rest.
* Gov. Bruce Rauner was asked yesterday what the state was doing about Chicago’s wave of violent crime…
Gov. Rauner: Well, the one thing we have done with our state police is to up the intensity, the manpower– what we call a surge here for a number of months– where we’ve got more state police working our highways. Unfortunately, gang violence is spilling over onto our expressways in Chicago and under the direct jurisdiction of our state police, we are very engaged.
Gov. Rauner (Cont.): We have had a number of involvements in incidents and we are also using the state police with surveillance, undercover drug work and other forms of sophisticated, police support that our state police are providing to the Chicago police and, in fact, other police in districts around the State of Illinois.
Gov. Rauner (Cont.): I’ll also say– I am not ready to really go into detail publicly– but our administration is in conversations with a number of other leaders in public safety in other communities in other states. What have other communities done to reduce their violent crime? Their gang violence?
Gov. Rauner (Cont.): Other communities have taken action—there are different solutions that have been tried. Some have success. Some have had failure. I am a big believer in learning from others, not trying to re-invent the wheel– and listening and learning all the time. That process is well under way and I hope I will be talking with you and many leaders around the State about that in the future.
* The governor was also asked about legislative talks regarding increasing penalties for gun violations…
I don’t want to speculate about any potential future legislation. I think all of our efforts should be thoughtful and strategic. We should assess that together as a state government and policy makers. What makes the most sense to keep people safe, to reduce the crime in our system and help prevent crime in the future by effectively treating- rehabilitating and treating- these offenders and potential offenders who are on the verge of violence or could go down a worse track than they are on. Try to get them off that track and get them on a more productive track.
He repeatedly refused to say too much about the talks on that bill, which is a good thing.
Say what you want about this governor, and we often do, but he is pretty darned good on criminal justice reforms.
* Related…
* Mitchell: A single mom and ex-con, she’s made a difference: “I knew if I was able to sit down with these different politicians and actually talk face-to-face, I knew they would fight on the side of what was right,” Creason told me. “I had a lot of faith that these individuals would understand this was a counterproductive law.” Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to go to Decatur next week to sign the bill.
* Maybe she was afraid the teachers would force her to take another pop quiz…
After a math flub at the Illinois State Fair last week, Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger skipped a scheduled endorsement session with the political arm of the Illinois Education Association, taking her out of the running for the powerful plug.
Munger, who is in a competitive race for reelection in November against City Clerk Susana Mendoza, canceled at the last minute, said Jim Reed, Illinois Education Association’s director of Governmental Affairs.
Munger also didn’t follow through on submitting a questionnaire, which the campaign initially promised. It’s a needed first step in qualifying for IEA political backing. […]
[Reed] said he offered another date and even a phone interview but she could not attend.
Munger wasn’t getting that endorsement. No way, no how. The comptroller’s race is a proxy war between the pro-union Madigan Democrats and the anti-union Rauner Republicans. So, skipping the meeting isn’t really a big deal, although Bruce Rauner did have the stones to attend an IEA endorsement session with Pat Quinn in 2014.
* Sometimes, when I’m tossing and turning late at night, this song pops into my brain and starts playing an endless loop. It’s a song I grew up with from my dad’s 45 collection. Good tune, great groove, but it occasionally torments me…
* Speaker Madigan was asked today if the impasse has had any impact on Chicago’s violence problem. Some have suggested that the lack of social services could exacerbate some of these problems, the reporter said. Madigan’s response…
Let’s not forget it has been clearly part of Rauner’s plan to underfund social services. He spoke to that at a Republican function a few years ago. Laid out, that was his plan for interaction with the Illinois Legislature.
The Democrats in the Legislature on multiple occasions have passed appropriations bills that would have provided for the same level of support for human service providers in Illinois. The obstacle is Gov. Rauner. And that’s his record. So, to the extent that these human service providers are underfunded, are not able to provide an appropriate level of service to people - it’s not the Democrats in the Legislature, it’s the governor.
Madigan was also asked about his own post-election budgetary plans, but he said he was too focused on campaigns right now to talk about it. Full audio is here, with many thanks to my good buddy Dave Dahl.
Invoking Republicans’ phantom fear of voter fraud, Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a bipartisan measure to make Illinois a pioneer in one of the truly innovative reforms of modern politics — the automatic registration of citizens as they conduct routine business at motor vehicle departments and other state agencies.
In the past 18 months, five states have approved this obvious boon for electoral democracy; others have it under consideration. The state sends proof of registration electronically to local election officials. Voters are thus spared the old bureaucratic paperwork maze and haphazard record-keeping that compounds delays on Election Day. Citizens are free to not register (and, of course, to not vote), but they cannot complain about opportunity denied.
More than 30 states have registration systems that require a voter to opt in at motor vehicle offices. That places the burden on voters. Automatic voter registration (A.V.R.) takes the process a step further, placing the responsibility on the state. As it is, the United States is one of the few democratic nations that place the registration burden on voters, leaving up to a third of eligible citizens unregistered. Canada’s automatic system has registered more than 90 percent of those eligible.
Had the Illinois measure gone forward, it would have added two million potential new voters to the rolls once it began in 2018. A more immediate effect would have been to update the registration of an estimated 700,000 voters in time for this November’s elections.
The bill would have allowed state agencies to add people to the voter rolls as early as January 2018. But advocates who negotiated with the Rauner administration on potential changes to the bill told the Chicago Tribune and other media outlets that talks broke down in early August when Rauner’s team sought to push the start date to January 2019. Rauner, we should note, would be on the ballot for re-election in November 2018.
The governor says the bill created too many opportunities for what he called “inappropriate voting” and “inadvertent voter fraud,” and put the state in danger of violating federal voting laws. He unfurled a checklist of changes that he believes would make the bill more airtight.
The governor’s objections wobble under close scrutiny, however. On Capitol Fax, a political website of Crain’s contributor Rich Miller, Abe Scarr of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, which helped draft the original legislation, knocked down Rauner’s objections one by one, chiefly the worry that eligibility requirements would be inadequately enforced at the DMV and that potential voters would be registered regardless of their eligibility.
The bill’s supporters say they’ll pursue an override. They should.
An alarming number of people are not registered to vote, or they choose not to cast a ballot. That means a relatively small number of people make the decisions that affect the rest of the state. Automatic registration also might help quell lines on Election Day, where same-day registration now is allowed.
The Lee bureau reported that Rauner said he would continue working with supporters to craft a proposal that “meets our shared goals while complying with federal law and preventing voter fraud.”
There is time to get that work done before the fall veto session, and that should be the goal of the governor and the registration supporters.
In the meantime, lawmakers should consider overriding Rauner’s veto and then amending the legislative bill if problems do, in fact, arise.
Governor Bruce Rauner today signed five bills aimed at reforming Illinois’ criminal justice system to focus on rehabilitation to reduce recidivism and help low level offenders find a brighter future. This package of bills specifically helps young people who have fallen on hard times find the help they need to get on a better track.
“We need to approach our criminal justice system with more compassion,” said Governor Rauner. “I want those who did something wrong to face punishment, but we must make sure that the punishment fits the crime. We need to explore new avenues so that we’re balancing punishment with rehabilitation and not needlessly tearing families and lives apart.”
This is the latest step in the Rauner administration’s attempt to reform the criminal justice system in Illinois. Within the first month of the administration, Governor Rauner created the Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform. Its job was to create recommendations that would transform Illinois’ justice system to make it more responsive to the people it served, while also cutting down on the unnecessary incarcerations and costs. These bills, coupled with administrative changes, make reforms in the criminal justice system that will help safely reduce the number of prison admissions, the length of prison stays and reduce recidivism by increasing the chances of successful re-entry.
“Governor Rauner set out to make Illinois a more compassionate state and he is making good on that initiative,” said Illinois Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin. “Today’s bills will help ensure that we are giving young men and women a second chance at life. Instead of focusing on the past, we are attempting to rehabilitate people who have been incarcerated and create opportunities for low level offenders to build a future.”
SB 3164 requires review of a pre-sentencing report, as well as an explanation of why incarceration is appropriate for offenders with no prior probation sentences or prison convictions prior to sentencing. Last year, nearly 60 percent of new prison admissions for Class 3 or 4 felonies had no prior convictions for violent crimes. Sending low-level offenders with no prior probation or other convictions inefficiently uses prison resources and potentially makes low-level offenders more susceptible to reoffending. This legislation was sponsored by Sen. Michael Connelly and Rep. Brian Stewart and was a recommendation made by the Governor’s Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform.
HB 6291 amends the Juvenile Court Act to change the minimum probation period for a youth adjudicated delinquent. The purpose of the bill is to help bring Illinois in line with other states and the latest research by reducing mandatory minimum lengths of probation and treating low level offenses with treatment. This ensures that youth struggling with addictions will have the opportunity to go through the treatment process before being sent to prison.
HB 5017 allows a juvenile to immediately petition the court for expungement when he or she is charged with an offense that is dismissed without a finding of delinquency. Under current law, the statute only allows for a petition of expungement when the youth has reached the age of 18. This bill will help youth who were arrested but not charged get a fresh start and clear their names.
HB 6200 addresses per minute rates of phone calls for inmates. The bill reduces the rate that the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice can contract for telephone providers.
SB 3005 amends the Park District Code to provide that a park district shall not knowingly employ a person who has been convicted of specified drug offenses until seven years following the end of a sentence imposed including periods of supervision or probation. The previous law stated that park districts could not employ any person convicted of the specified drug offenses. It furthermore scales pack prohibitions on employment for convictions of public indecency to Class 4 felonies.
For the first time since 2013, we’ve ranked the overall economic performance of the 50 states. The results show a connection between a state’s economic performance and its governor’s approval ratings.
To determine which states are doing well and which aren’t, we looked at six variables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis: the current state unemployment rate; the improvement in the state unemployment rate over the past year; the per capita state GDP in 2015; the percent change in real state GDP between 2014 and 2015; the percent change in state personal income per capita, from the third quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016; and the percentage growth in year-to-date increases in jobs for 2016.
These variables were chosen to offer a mix of static and dynamic measures of the states’ overall economic performance
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke sometimes goes “undercover” to watch Cook County’s bond court call and says she doesn’t always like what she sees.
On one occasion, she says, she was appalled to watch a woman with “obvious mental issues” brought into a courtroom wearing a garbage bag after she had been arrested in her underwear.
“I was ready to scream in court that day,” Burke says. “How could the judge permit it? How could the public defender? How could the sheriff? How does anybody? It’s so degrading.”
Cook County courts — including those in Rolling Meadows and Skokie — need to address the “cold, mechanical manner” of bond court, says Burke, a member of the state’s highest court since 2006 and wife of powerful Chicago Alderman Edward Burke. She’s also calling for an “audit” of how long judges work each day.
That attendance audit will scare the robes off some judges. Just sayin…
Thus far the governor has been unsuccessful in his paramount objective of forcing the House speaker to knuckle under to the agenda.
The question is whether the long-term costs imposed on the state during the Rauner-Madigan conflict, such as the failure to fund higher education for a year, are worth the benefits he hopes will flow from the uncertainty of success in humbling Madigan.
Rauner appears to have broken the mold for the Illinois governorship. His backers say it had to be done to overcome entrenched failure.
Yet I have my doubts a state as diverse as Illinois can ever be effectively governed by attempted fiat.
Through Sunday, 425 people were slain in Chicago, up 50 percent from 283 in a year-earlier period, according to official police statistics. During the same period, shooting incidents rose by 48 percent to 2,136, up from 1,443, the data show.
Other violent crimes such as sexual assaults, robberies and aggravated batteries also have spiked by double digits.
After Sen. Kirk addressed the Naperville Chamber of Commerce, media members were asked to leave the room during the question and answer session. Later, Kirk explained the stroke he survived in 2012 makes question and answer sessions difficult.
“That’s just a Kirk thing. I’ll take the hit for that. Ok,” Kirk said.
Yikes.
…Adding… Kirk’s campaign explains that he has a tough time hearing in environments like that with a lot of background noise, glass clinking, people talking, etc.
Even before the Obama administration late last week said that a $400 million cash payment to Iran was linked to the release of a group of American prisoners, U.S. Sen. MARK KIRK R-Ill., like many Republicans, was calling the payment ransom.
The administration used the term “leverage” to say why it held back delivery of the money it said was owed to Iran because of an arms deal in the 1970s until hostages were released.
Kirk, talking to the editorial board of The State Journal-Register on Tuesday, was critical of the cash payment.
“We can’t have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief,” Kirk said, “giving clean packs of money to a … state sponsor of terror. Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East. …. We’re going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them.”
In a conference call with reporters, two senior administration officials intimately involved with the financial and prisoner negotiations sought to refute what they described as false reports about what happened. They weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
There was no way that Washington could have avoided repaying the money to Iran in the short-term, one of the officials insisted.
The 1981 Algiers Accord between the U.S. and Iran that set up the tribunal made repayment mandatory, and allowed for either claimant to seize assets in international courts if the other reneged on a ruling, the official said. Iran had lived up to its commitment by repaying $2.5 billion awarded for claims by U.S. citizens and companies.
A ruling on the military fund was expected soon, the official said, as Iran asked last year for the tribunal to hear its case and Tehran and Washington had been negotiating proposals for a hearing. Given that interest rates in the early years of the fund were as high as 20 percent, the official said Iran stood to receive a much more substantial award than $1.3 billion in interest. As a result, the U.S. opted to settle with Iran.
Republican Senator Mark Kirk has been endorsed by Americans For Responsible Solutions, an organization started by former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords (D-Az.) and her husband, Mark Kelly, that encourages elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership.
“Senator Mark Kirk has been a steady voice for bipartisan, responsible change that helps keep guns out the wrong hands, saves lives, and makes Illinois a safer place to live. He has stood up to the gun lobby and worked across the aisle for plans that reduce gun violence and protect the rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Peter Ambler, Executive Director of Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC. “We need more Republican leaders in Congress like Mark Kirk, and that’s why we are endorsing him for re-election in 2016.”
Senator Kirk was one of two Republican Senators to receive an endorsement from Americans For Responsible Solutions.
“In the wake of tragedy at Sandy Hook, Republicans Sens. Pat Toomey and Mark Kirk broke from the gun lobby and supported a bill to help prevent felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill from obtaining firearms at gun shows and online,” Giffords and Kelly wrote in a CNN op-ed. “This week, they are earning our organization’s endorsement.”
Senator Kirk has been a leading voice on common-sense, bipartisan gun reforms and legislation. Last year, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence honored Senator Kirk with the Lincoln Award for his efforts in combatting gun violence in Chicago- he was the first Republican Senator to receive this honor.
“I’m honored to have former Rep. Giffords’ group’s support, not only for our campaign but for our effort to make streets, neighborhoods and schools safer,” said Senator Mark Kirk. ” The only way to break through the partisan gridlock in D.C. is by working across the aisle to reach bipartisan solutions, and I remain committed to working with Republicans and Democrats alike to get the job done and end the cycle of gun violence.”
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday used his amendatory veto power to rewrite a bill that would have ended the state’s growing practice of suing prison inmates to recover the costs of their incarceration — effectively killing the legislation, according to the bill’s two sponsors.
The bill from state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, and Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, now goes back to the General Assembly with Rauner’s addition of a financial threshold that would be determined by officials at the Illinois Department of Corrections. Inmates who have less than the threshold in their bank or prison accounts would be shielded from the controversial lawsuits.
The General Assembly can accept Rauner’s rewrite, override it or let it die. Biss and Cassidy said Friday they likely do not have the votes to override the veto.
“The bill is dead now because of the governor’s actions, and that is a travesty,” Biss said Friday, noting that the bill had passed the Senate and House with a narrow margin. “He killed a bill that would have eliminated a wasteful and immoral program.”
Umm, they could just accept the amendatory veto. But that won’t happen because Speaker Madigan is almost always dead-set opposed to doing such a thing. So, they’ll either have to draft a bill that conforms to the governor’s AV or drop the whole thing. The attorney general only rarely files these lawsuits, so it’s not a gigantic problem, unless you’re one of the targets.
…Adding… From Sen. Biss…
Hi Rich –
Just saw your post on the Governor’s AV of SB2465. Just wanted to make the point that beyond the practical challenges in accepting an AV, the language here really does gut our bill.
The AV says that right now:
“the State’s power to recover costs is rarely used”
and also that under the bill:
“The Department would establish a standard for determining [a whole bunch of stuff that then determines whether the State’s power to recover costs would be used]”
In other words, right now, the Department rarely uses this power, presumably because they decide not to. Under the AV, the Department would have the authority to decide when to use this power.
We should be proud of the steps we have taken together to reform our criminal justice system. These efforts will reduce incarceration and recidivism rates, help incarcerated individuals to reenter the community and obtain gainful employment, and reduce costs to taxpayers. I thank the members of the General Assembly for being partners in this work.
Current law permits the Attorney General to bring legal action against formerly incarcerated individuals to recover incarceration-related expenses on behalf of the Department of Corrections. Senate Bill 2465 would stop this practice altogether. Today I return the bill with specific recommendations for change.
Proponents believe that collection efforts hinder an individual’s successful reentry into the community. Many ex-offenders have few if any assets and struggle to find jobs to care for themselves or their families.
In practice, though, the State’s power to recover costs is rarely used: the State collected approximately $355,000 total in Fiscal Year 2015. While I agree that this power should be used sparingly and judiciously, there are circumstances when it is warranted. Violent offenders with significant assets should compensate their victims and the State. For example, the State used this power to stop serial killer John Wayne Gacy from profiting while in prison.
The changes recommended below would protect low-income persons, while still enabling the State to pursue wealthier or violent offenders. The Department would establish a standard for determining whether a person has sufficient means, whether recovery by the State would inhibit the person’s reintegration into the community, and whether the nature of the crime (such as a violent crime) warrants recovery efforts. The Department’s proposed rules would be subject to public comment and review by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. The State would then be prohibited from pursuing recovery from persons except as allowed by that rule. This strikes the proper balance between protecting taxpayers and facilitating successful post-incarceration reentry.
The Gacey point is a bit weird since the state prohibits inmates from profiting from their crimes, according to the Trib.
* From the twitters…
His comments show he didn't understand the bill. His staff made clear he was afraid to be seen as soft on crime. https://t.co/YipC7kRf8c
* The dude is getting it from all sides these days…
Three candidates for mayor of Aurora have criticized a fund-raising dinner for one of their fellow candidates, state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), Friday night by Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
Aldermen Richard Irvin, at large, and Michael Saville, 6th Ward, and Rick Guzman, Aurora assistant chief of staff, issued a joint statement calling the dinner a “blatant attempt by Speaker Madigan to buy control of the next Aurora mayor …”
“We have no doubt that the politicians in Springfield and its special interest groups will pour money into any candidate they believe can do their bidding – as State Rep. Chapa LaVia has done for Madigan for the past 14 years,” the statement said. […]
Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan’s office, called the statement “a disgraceful cheap shot” by the three candidates, and said Chapa LaVia has served with distinction in the Illinois House of Representatives.
“I think the speaker thinks she has done a great job in the Legislature, and I think the speaker thinks she would do a great job as the mayor of Aurora,” Brown said. “She has a great resume. It’d probably be news if he did nothing.”
As a rule, The Southern’s Editorial Board does not attack fellow journalism publications. So, should this editorial reflect negatively on the Southwest Illinois News publication some of our readers are getting in the mail, this Editorial Board can confidently say that rule has not been broken. […]
Let’s get this out of the way. We reported back in June that the “about us” section of the publication’s website stated that the print version was being funded by Liberty Principles PAC, whose chairman is conservative Chicago radio talk show host Dan Proft. Gov. Bruce Rauner has been a major supporter of the PAC, according to the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s Illinois Sunshine.
The “about us” section doesn’t seem to contain that information, anymore. However, it still reads that “Funding for the publication comes, in part, from advocacy groups that share beliefs in limited government.” […]
So, a group is sending out mailers in the apparent attempt to sway voters to Republican candidates. Cool. If that’s how they want to spend your money, go ahead. What gets our goat isn’t that they support certain candidates. It’s taking on the guise of journalism to push forth clearly biased news.
An editorial at the bottom of their front page attacks a senior reporter for the News Tribune questioning the authenticity of Southwest Illinois News. The writer of the editorial defends against the assertion that there’s a clear political bias by saying, “all newspapers have editorial biases.” The editorial goes on to pessimistically say that newspapers are nothing more than advertising vehicles and that news stories are “mostly filler, something to entice readers to pick up the rags they write for and see the ads.” Whoa. Easy there, tiger.
It’s true. Newspapers, including us, do feature advertisements. Paying people to put said newspaper together requires revenue. We rely on those who wish to advertise their products or businesses and they hope that they can increase their customer base by buying space in our publication. Going out and selling this ad space keeps us from relying on funding from groups such as Super PACs, you see.
As for all newspapers having editorial bias, the author may not know the difference between an editorial board and a news reporter. See, editorial boards do, in fact form opinions and write about them on the Editorial Page. News reporters gather information and simply report it to the best of their ability. The reporters do not write stories with the goal of putting a politician in office, nor does the editorial board attempt to politically sway the reporter into writing articles sympathetic to the causes of their choice.
* A 43 percent admissions price increase for adults, intense rain storms, closed parking lots (due to the constant rain), canceled grandstand events (also due to the rain), high temperatures (when it wasn’t raining) and a massive power outage all contributed to vendors’ woe and ire at the Illinois State Fair this year…
“It’s been a disaster,” said Jim Rewerts, owner of Cajun’s Unlimited, known for its alligator on a stick. “My sales are down 70 percent. This is my last year.”
Jack Sturgeon, who started selling corn dogs at the Illinois State Fair in 1964, added: “This was the worst fair I’ve had in 53 years. I’m probably down 50 percent.” […]
Aside from the admission costs, other fairs Rewerts attends invest in facilities and try to offer new things each year to entice people. In Springfield, the same format seems to be rolled out each year, he said.
For Sturgeon, the weather wasn’t the whole story, either. Bad weather in previous years didn’t stop him from turning a profit.
In recent years, he said, sales have slipped due to the economy, but the problem was exacerbated this year when the admission went up. Next year will be worse if nothing changes, Sturgeon added, when people aren’t caught off guard by $10 admission.
Rewerts is right about the crushing sameness of the fair every year. Some of that sameness is quaint and part of the tradition. Too much of it, however, is just plain boring, particularly when the price (and, therefore, the expectations) went up so much.
One noteworthy addition was the Brew Garden, which was well-received. They should expand the microbrewery offering next year and combine it with the Illinois wine folks and book more (and more interesting) bands. The guy who was playing guitar last night sounded like he’d memorized a bunch of K-Tel records from the 1970s.
And, no offense at all to Rewerts, who sells a good product, but his alligator on a stick schtick just isn’t as “new” as it was when he started selling it several years ago. Practice what you preach.
The beer tents need to book better bands. The new butter cow artist designed a plain-Jane product that just wasn’t up to snuff. The infrastructure is, indeed, severely lacking. I almost have the layout of the commercial building’s tenants memorized. Ethnic Village could probably use a reboot, both in the quality of food it sells and the acts it books.
Put simply, if you’re going to jack up entry prices by that much, you need to offer a significantly better product.
* All that being said, I think they did a decent job considering the challenges. 2015’s vendors had to wait almost a year to be paid, so it’s kind of amazing that any chose to return this year. The fairgrounds crews did a good job of keeping the place clean. The people staffing the gates were harried because attendees were upset over the lack of parking, but everybody else I dealt with was (as usual) friendly and helpful. The grandstand acts, while not my personal cup of tea, seemed to do pretty well when the weather cooperated. Yesterday’s weather was perfect, and the grounds were crowded with happy people.
One out-of-state alligator vendor calling it a “failure” doesn’t make it so. While there’s always room for improvement, I was out at the fairgrounds six different days and had fun every time.
You might think that months of bipartisan cooperation on numerous criminal justice reform bills would make that particular topic off-limits for partisan campaigns this year.
You’d be wrong.
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced early last year that he wants the state to reduce its prison population by 25 percent over 10 years. He has since signed numerous pieces of legislation during the past year or so to help achieve that goal, including recently when he signed the marijuana decriminalization bill into law.
For the most part, House Democrats kept their members who are targeted for defeat by Republicans off those bills. The move was both defensive (to protect their incumbents who represent tight districts from accusations that they are “soft on criminals”) and, as it turns out, offensive.
“In southern Illinois, we value the safety of our neighbors, friends and families,” begins a recent TV ad by Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion. “So why would anyone want to weaken penalties for dangerous criminals? Dave Severin’s biggest supporter wants to let 25 percent of the state’s prisoners loose into our communities.”
Severin’s “biggest supporter” is obviously Rauner, via his massive $11 million in contributions to the Illinois Republican Party so far this cycle. The state party has funneled much of that cash ($5.9 million as of last week) to the House Republican Organization, according to numbers compiled by Scott Kennedy at Illinois Election Data. Bradley’s opponent, Severin, reported raising just $9,335 in the second quarter, but HRO has been running ads on his behalf since early June.
So the Severin campaign’s recent denial that its “biggest supporter” (which it claims is actually HRO) has no such position on releasing prisoners is nonsense. But its claim that Bradley’s ad is reminiscent of the infamous 1988 “Willie Horton” advertisement is pretty close to being true. Horton, you will recall, was given a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison and didn’t come back. In the meantime, he committed murder, armed robbery and rape. The Democratic presidential nominee in 1988 was Michael Dukakis, who was governor at the time of Horton’s escape. He supported the furlough program and was ultimately blamed for Horton’s rampage in a devastating ad that benefited President George H.W. Bush.
Unlike the Horton spot, Bradley’s ad doesn’t mention any specific crimes committed by released prisoners. But there was hope in some circles that these sorts of ads would become a thing of the past in Illinois. A newspaper op-ed co-written by Sen. Kwame Raoul earlier this year cited poll results showing 74 percent of Illinoisans believe our criminal justice system is “broken.”
“While some have questioned whether Gov. Rauner’s goal to reduce incarceration by 25 percent is politically achievable,” Raoul wrote, “it turns out that the voters actually support far-reaching policies that can make a real difference in reducing the number of persons held in Illinois’ prisons.”
Indeed, another poll conducted recently for the Rauner-allied Illinois Policy Institute found that 56 percent of Illinoisans believe that the criminal justice system is “unfair.” And more than 80 percent said politicians should support criminal justice reforms “such as community supervision, mandatory drug testing and treatment programs—instead of prison—that reduce the likelihood the offender would commit a new crime.”
“A generation of candidates for public office have come of age worried about being the subject of a ‘Willie Horton’ advertisement,” Raoul wrote in that March 15 op-ed with Republican state Sen. Karen McConnaughay. “Now it seems that we have public support, political agreement and momentum on our side to fix our broken criminal justice system.”
So, if this TV barrage is successful, will it halt the governor’s policy momentum?
Raoul told me last week he hoped it wouldn’t. But, he warned, it “ain’t going to be easy” to pass more comprehensive legislation as it is, so he’s worried about the potential impact.
Incumbents who are targeted for defeat are rarely part of a controversial “solution” in Springfield—and Bradley has most definitely become a target since Rauner’s election. The heavy lifting at the Statehouse is usually done by those who don’t have to worry too much about electoral opposition. Rauner’s vast cash reserves can help comfort wary Republicans, and it’s highly doubtful that “safe” Democrats will ever draw a primary opponent over an issue like this.
Political organizations always use what works best in campaigns, and this issue apparently polls well enough to include it in a TV spot, so that just might give some folks pause if Bradley wins and the issue is successfully deployed in other legislative campaigns. Let’s hope not.
