Afternoon roundup (Updated)
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Congratulations to Leader Evans..
Yesterday the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Legislator Nominating Committee selected the next VP, who will subsequently become the president-elect, then President.
Illinois House of Representatives Assistant Majority Leader and Chairman of the Labor & Commerce Committee Marcus C. Evans, Jr. was selected. NCSL is a bi-partisan, non-political policy focused organization. Speaker Welch and Minority Leader Tony McCombie both supported Leader Evans.
Leader Evans has been actively involved in NCSL leadership since 2017, serving on both the State and Local Taxation Taskforce (SALT) and the Executive Committee.
In 2016 Retired State Senators Toi Hutchinson (NCSL President 2018), Donne Trotter, Pamela J. Althoff and current State Senator Elgie Sims (CSG Vice-President 2023) all were instrumental in encouraging Leader Evans’ initial involvement in national conferences, touting the many policy and legislative development benefits.
* The Cook County Democrats have released their listed of slated candidates. Click here for the list. As expected, Illinois Supreme Court appointed incumbent Joy Cunningham was slated instead of Appellate Court Justice Jesse Reyes. Clayton Harris was slated over Eileen O’Neill Burke. And Mariyana Spyropoulos was slated over incumbent Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez. Precious Brady-Davis, Kari Steele, Marcelino Garcia and Daniel Pogorzelski were slated for MWRD.
Burke will stay in the race…
Today, Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke, Candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney, released the following statement after the Cook County Democratic Committee’s slating vote ahead of the March 2024 Primary Election:
“I’m disappointed that the committee overlooked a woman with thirty years of experience in every corner of the courtroom to support a candidate who most recently lobbied against workers’ rights on behalf of corporate special interests. With the implementation of the SAFE-T Act and other reforms on the horizon, this election is critical to the future of Cook County. As a former prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and judge, I look forward to sharing my vision for public safety and restorative justice with the voters and building the best prosecutor’s office in the country.”
…Adding… Illinois Latino Agenda…
The following is a statement from the Illinois Latino Agenda (ILA), a coalition committed to advocating for equitable representation of Latinos throughout our state government, in response to the CCDP’s slating decision, which was announced today:
“Today, the Cook County Democratic Party missed an opportunity to support a more representative and equitable State Supreme Court. While Illinois’ population is 18% Latino and Latinos are one of the fastest growing demographics in the state, Illinois has never had a Latino Supreme Court Justice.
“Having a Latino Supreme Court Justice with roots in our community, who knows what issues matter to our communities can help the Court make decisions that are more culturally informed and inclusive. While we are disappointed in the Party’s decision, we know it is ultimately up to the voters to choose who will sit on the State’s highest court in 2024.
“The Illinois Latino Agenda remains committed to advancing the wellbeing of Latinos in Illinois, and will continue working to leverage Latino civic engagement and voter turnout.”
…Adding… Harris…
Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Clayton Harris III celebrated the news that the Cook County Democratic Party voted on Tuesday to add him to their official slate for the 2024 election cycle:
“As a lifelong Democrat, I am grateful to have earned the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party. I thank the local Democratic Party leaders and grassroots activists who stepped up to join our diverse coalition as we get ready to launch our countywide petition drive,” said Harris. “I’ve been energized by the opportunity to travel across county, hearing people’s concerns, and listening to their ideas on how to make our communities safer. I’m committed to doing the work to ensure our office focuses on holding violent offenders accountable, and continues to push forward on the urgent work of reform.”
* AG Raoul…
Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with seven attorneys general, is urging a federal court to strengthen a private, consumer class-action settlement with Hyundai and Kia by requiring the companies to recall or buy back the theft-prone vehicles and equip them with engine-immobilizer technology.
In a letter to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Raoul and the coalition argue that the current proposed settlement requirements are insufficient and will not resolve the ongoing Hyundai and Kia thefts that continue to jeopardize public safety in Illinois and across the country. While Illinois is not part of this settlement, Raoul signed onto the letter because in 2022, there were over 7,000 Hyundai and Kia thefts in Chicago, which account for 10% of all registered Kia vehicles and 7% of all registered Hyundai vehicles in the city.
“I am urging the court to strengthen its current settlement with Hyundai and Kia to ensure consumers’ vehicles are recalled or properly equipped to protect against theft,” Raoul said. “I remain committed to protecting consumers and our communities, and both car companies need to do their part by taking robust action to prevent these thefts.”
Among the terms of the settlement are that Hyundai and Kia require a key to be in the ignition to start the vehicle, as well as provide a software upgrade to extend the vehicles’ alarm from 30 seconds to one minute. For vehicles incompatible for this software upgrade, the settlement requires Hyundai and Kia to reimburse consumers up to $300 for their purchase of a wheel lock or anti-theft system.
Raoul and the coalition expressed concern, saying the upgrade is not feasible for approximately 2.3 million vehicles, that it requires consumers to proactively seek out the upgrade, and that it will take months to complete all phases of the upgrade. Additionally, the attorneys general do not think the software upgrade is effective because in the six months it has been available, there are reports of Hyundai and Kia thefts in upgraded vehicles.
Joining Raoul in submitting the comments were attorneys general from the District of Columbia, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.
* Press release…
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group (IERG) applaud Governor Pritzker on the recent signing of legislation to improve the permitting process for businesses in Illinois.
HB 3017 amends the Business Assistance and Regulatory Reform Act by consolidating status updates from state agencies for covered projects in an accessible online portal. With such a portal, businesses seeking certain new and existing environmental permits for industrial projects can access a website to better understand the timeline and process for agency approval.
“This new law will expedite the outdated and lengthy permit issuance process in Illinois,” said State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago). “By increasing transparency for permit applicants and the public via an online dashboard there can be greater clarity on cases so unnecessary steps can be avoided. If we can streamline any process to make Illinoisans’ lives easier, then it’s a win for all.”
* Rep. Rashid…
State Representative Abdelnasser Rashid (D-Bridgeview) has been appointed by Illinois House Speaker Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch to serve as co-chair of the state’s new artificial intelligence (AI) task force.
The task force will consist of legislators, technology experts, educators and other stakeholders to provide informed policy recommendations on AI to the legislature. It will look at the impact of AI on our schools, economy, and civil liberties. Once complete, the task force will submit a report to the General Assembly.
Across the country, state and federal lawmakers are debating how to address the impact of AI technologies. The ramifications of AI use cut across industry. The debate around the proper use of AI features prominently in Hollywood as SAG-AFTRA screenwriters and actors fight for a fair contract.
…Adding… Press release…
Today President Joseph Biden signed a Disaster Declaration, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) to offer Individual Assistance for residents in Cook County, Illinois who were impacted by severe weather in July. FEMA’s Individual Assistance could include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and businesses owners recover from the effects of the storms.
“Thank you to President Biden and FEMA for recognizing the devastating effects of recent extreme weather on Chicago and its surrounding neighbors and taking the appropriate action to ensure impacted residents can get back on their feet,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Residents and businesses, especially those on the West Side of Chicago who were most brutally hit, are now able to access additional resources necessary to rebuild and revitalize, and I know Cook County will build back stronger than ever.”
Beginning June 29, several rounds of severe storms passed through Illinois producing heavy rainfall, flash flooding, hail, tornadoes, and straight-line winds. Central Illinois experienced a derecho that brought damaging straight-line winds resulting in five confirmed tornadoes, along with wind gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour across multiple counties. The tornados and straight-line winds resulted in large debris fields, affecting homeowners, businesses, utilities, and local governments. The storms also caused disruptions to transportation due to flash flooding and debris on the roadways.
On July 2nd, additional severe storms dropped eight inches of water in a short period of time in a historic rainfall total. This caused flash flooding in and around the Chicago area. The storms also downed numerous trees and caused widespread power outages in northern Illinois.
* Media advisory…
What: The Lift The Ban Coalition is holding a news conference at the Illinois State Fair on Wednesday (Governor’s Day) to announce the Let the People Lift the Ban Act (HB4104), new legislation that allows Illinois communities to opt out of the statewide ban on rent control via local referendum. The legislation also extends additional protections to renters across the state.
Who: Speakers will include:
● State Representative Hoan Huynh of the 16th District, Chief Sponsor, IL House
● Springfield residents Quentora Dumas, Tracey Graggs and mobile home resident
Linda Reynolds
The Lift The Ban Coalition comprises more than two dozen groups including community organizations, advocacy groups, service & legal aid organizations, labor unions and more.
When: 11:00 AM, Wednesday, August 16th, 2023
Where: Illinois State Fair in Springfield, IL, Media Center, Building 30 on 8th St
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Tribune | Tim Mapes’ Madigan-era friend from Illinois House set to testify against him in federal perjury trial: Cousineau’s testimony is highly anticipated because he already showed that he can be a valuable witness for the government in the “ComEd Four” case earlier this year, which ended with the convictions all defendants on bribery-related counts, including Madigan confidant Michael McClain, a longtime ComEd lobbyist.
* AP | Man sent to prison for 10 years for setting a fire at an Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic: “I feel for the people who have lost their jobs. I’m not trying to play like I am victim at this. I was sincerely hurt,” Massengill, 32, said in court, apparently a reference to his belief that a former girlfriend had an abortion a few years ago. Prosecutors, however, said the woman told the FBI that wasn’t true.
* Sun-Times | Migrant families kicked out of Rogers Park motel for missing curfew are sleeping in tents: Alejandra Leon said city officials haven’t approached them about relocating to a new location since they were removed from the Super 8 Motel at Sheridan Road and Chase Avenue over the weekend. “I’m asking them to move us to another shelter, somewhere my children can be more comfortable,” Leon said. “We are families with a lot of principles, with a lot of values. We are humble people that came here to work hard. We aren’t bad people.”
* WGLT | Nuclear plant moratorium bill heads to veto session fight in Illinois: Pritzker said the bill, as written, has vague definitions, including an overly broad definition of the advanced reactor that will open the door to more large-scale plants — plants that cost so much they’ll eventually need a state bailout to keep in operation. Republican State Rep. Dan Calkins of Decatur sits on two energy committees in the House. Calkins supported ending the moratorium and said he thinks that’s a false argument.
* AP | States that protect transgender health care now try to absorb demand: “We’re trying our best to make sure we can get those kids in so that they don’t experience an interruption in their care,” said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, medical director of the gender health program at Children’s Minnesota hospital in the Twin Cities. “For patients who have not yet been seen and would be added to a general waiting list, it is daunting to think that it’s going to be a year or more before you’re going to be seen by somebody.”
* Tony Sanders | Open Invitation to Florida and Texas Teachers: Come to Illinois. We Trust You: Here in Illinois, we do not shy away from our complex histories or identities. While Texas tries to ban discussions about race and Florida forbids teachers from “saying gay,” we have revised our social studies standards in the opposite direction. We encourage dialogue from multiple perspectives. We require schools to teach about the contributions of Asian Americans, Black Americans, Native Americans and LGBTQ+ Americans. We protect the freedom and professional judgment of educators to choose instructional materials that represent and affirm the diversity of Illinois’ students.
* CNBC | Retailers say organized theft is biting into profits, but internal issues may really be to blame: Behind closed doors, retailers are facing other issues they can better control, including theft by their own employees, that are contributing to losses, according to two sources who advise major retailers. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about clients.
* Daily Herald | Rosemont reaches $12.7 million deal for last undeveloped property in town: On Monday, Mayor Brad Stephens announced village hall reached a deal with owner Development Resources Inc. for $12,750,000. The village board formally authorized the purchase of 6608 N. Mannheim Road, set to close Nov. 1. “This is a long time coming, and we’re happy to finally have control of it,” Stephens said. There are no immediate plans for the land, but various proposals have come and gone over the decades — all with little movement.
* Crain’s | Chicago publicist, Illinois chaplain snagged in Trump’s Georgia indictments: Trevian Kutti, a former publicist of rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and singer R. Kelly, is charged with three counts: violation of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act; conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings; and influencing witnesses.
* Tribune | Chicago’s first major museum union ratifies contract: Museum staff were joined by employees at the Art Institute’s affiliated school, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, to form the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United. The staff voted to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public service union that also represents staff at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Nontenure-track faculty at the Art Institute’s school later voted to join the union; they are still in the process of bargaining for their first contract.
* ABC Chicago | Southwest Airlines employees picket outside corporate party in Wrigleyville: The crowd of protesters includes include off-duty Southwest flight attendants, who say they are long overdue for a new contract. “It’s been four and a half years since flight attendants received a raise and it’s just been too long and we need to see that we exceed the industry,” Montgomery said.
* Daily Herald | ‘Every chick counts’: Piping plovers’ release part of species recovery in Lake County: After disappearing from Illinois beaches around 1955, the federally endangered piping plover was down to 11 to 14 pairs in the mid-1980s. They have been making a slow, steady comeback with the help of various agencies and a dedicated network of volunteers.
* Crain’s | U of C to pay $13.5 million settlement in financial aid ‘cartel’ lawsuit: The lawsuit, filed in Illinois federal court in January 2022, accuses 17 colleges and universities, including Northwestern University and Ivy League schools, of participating in a “price-fixing conspiracy” that aimed to reduce or eliminate price competition among the schools and artificially inflated the net price of attendance for students receiving financial aid.
* SJ-R | Bird in Logan County tests positive for West Nile virus: According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Logan County is one of 39 across the state reporting West Nile activity, with a batch of mosquitoes also testing positive in Beason on July 18. No human cases have been reported, according to IDPH, but over 1,000 batches of mosquitoes have tested positive statewide, along with seven crows, two bluejays, and three other birds.
* Tribune | Paris Head, 12, returns from Taiwan with a World Cup gold medal — and a surprise party in his Humboldt Park community: Head pitched and played middle infield for Team USA at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup in Tainan, Taiwan. The Americans defeated the host country 10-4 in the final on Aug. 6 to claim their fifth U-12 World Cup title.
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* Sun-Times almost exactly three years ago…
A former celebrity publicist for R. Kelly and confidante of Kanye West has jumped into Illinois politics, lobbying for a major Canadian cannabis firm that wants to start growing weed here.
But Trevian Kutti has already ruffled feathers in just a short time in the fray, lodging a series of incendiary and profanity-laden attacks against Toi Hutchinson, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s top adviser on cannabis issues. While both women are Black, Kutti has vowed to “keep my knee on Toi W. Hutchinson’s neck” and has referred to her as a “slave.”
Kutti says she is furious over the state’s delays in awarding the next round of licenses prioritized for so-called social equity applicants, saying “those in greatest need are being screwed with again.”
More background on that is here.
* Today…
Trevian C. Kutti and Stephen Cliffgard Lee are two of the 19 people charged in the 41-count indictment accusing former President Donald Trump and his allies of a criminal enterprise to overturn his narrow loss in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election.
Kutti and Lee each face three charges of conspiring to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, influencing witnesses and violating Georgia’s RICO Act, the state’s racketeering law. […]
The nearly 100-page indictment alleges Kutti, Lee and other co-conspirators tried to intimidate election worker Ruby Freeman to falsely confess to election crimes she did not commit. Freeman helped count ballots at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on election night. […]
On January 4, 2021, Kutti was recruited to travel from Chicago to Atlanta to also attempt to sway Freeman, the charges allege.
That day, Kutti unsuccessfully tried to visit Freeman at her home. Kutti falsely claimed to a neighbor she was a crisis manager there to help Freeman. She later called Freeman to tell her she was in danger, the indictment said.
More here.
OK, the door has been opened on this topic, so take at least one deep breath before commenting. Thanks.
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* Centralia Sentinel…
Authorities are investigating the death of a young child who passed away in Marion County while traveling with her parents on a bus from Texas to Chicago.
Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon reported that his office is investigating the death of the 3-year-old girl, who was on a charter bus with her parents.
“Preliminary autopsy results from early today (Saturday) are inconclusive, but microscopic studies of tissue samples may provide a definitive cause of death,” according to a statement issued by Cannon. “More information may become available in the coming days, but no further information will be released at this time.”
* ABC Chicago…
Cannon told ABC News that the child had diarrhea, vomiting and a low-grade fever before their death. […]
Before the bus departed from Brownsville, “each bus passenger underwent a temperature check and was asked if they had medical conditions that may require medical assistance,” [Texas Division of Emergency Management] said in its statement.
According to the statement, after no passengers presented medical concerns or a fever, the bus departed, and “each bus is stocked with food and water, which are distributed on board.”
TDEM has not responded to multiple requests for comment and did not disclose whether the security personnel onboard have medical training.
* WICS…
“The reaction is emotional because it’s a little girl,” Ricardo Diaz, of the CI Immigration Forum, said.
Diaz said he’s been supporting the child’s family during this time as they look for answers. He said he’s been helping her family with basic needs.
“The family is very confused because they don’t yet know the cause of death. It’s, you know under analysis and so they don’t even know how they lost their girl,” Diaz said. […]
Illinois State Police are currently investigating.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said they are also working with officials to get answers.
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* In 2021 Sen. Peters sponsored legislation banning law enforcement from lying to minors during interrogations…
The bill received wide support in the Illinois General Assembly and from the state’s chiefs of police, the Illinois State’s Attorneys’ Association and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. […]
Illinois state Sen. Robert Peters said the signing is Chicago’s first step in the “long journey to end the infamy of the false confession capital of the world.”
It was previously legal for police in all 50 states to lie during interrogations. False confessions have played a role in about 30% of all wrongful convictions overturned with DNA evidence, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit working to exonerate wrongly convicted people. People under 18 are two to three times more likely to falsely confess than adults, according to a 2017 article in the New York University Law Review.
* He may pick up another bill this winter requiring lawyers in juvenile interrogations. WBEZ…
In light of video footage that shows a suburban Chicago police officer steering a 15-year-old to confess to a shooting he did not commit, some Illinois lawmakers are pledging to back planned legislation requiring a lawyer for any child being interrogated by police.
The video, released as a result of a WBEZ open-records lawsuit against the city of Waukegan, shows a 43-minute interrogation in which the teen declined an attorney before making self-incriminating statements about the shooting, which injured a dollar-store clerk last year. The police charged the 15-year-old with attempted murder and sent him to jail. He was held until his basketball team proved he was in another town during the shooting. […]
“The current way we are doing things has failed so much and too often,” said state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, pointing to a long history of false confessions in Waukegan and other parts of the state. “Those failed practices include making Illinois a wrongful conviction capital.” […]
With the case fresh in their minds, [Elizabeth Clarke, an attorney who founded the Evanston-based nonprofit Juvenile Justice Initiative] said she expects lawmakers to introduce a bill requiring an attorney for all kids under 18 this coming winter.
State Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, said in an email that she is “interested in sponsoring.”
Peters, the senator, texted that he is interested too.
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Mapes trial roundup
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Sun-Times…
Two months after the feds made a big move on allies of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in 2019, one longtime lieutenant of the Southwest Side Democrat reached out to another. […]
McClain complained to Mapes of “psychological pressure,” and he warned they probably shouldn’t speak.
“I do not think we should talk in person or on the phone for a while,” McClain wrote to Mapes on July 16, 2019. “I cannot explain but trust me this is serious.” […]
McClain was right to be concerned about speaking on the phone, as his had already been wiretapped by the feds for several months. During that time, Madigan had forced Mapes to resign as chief of staff over unrelated bullying and harassment allegations.
* Hannah Meisel…
…Adding… Capitol News Illinois…
In a May 2020 email exchange that centered around McClain’s health and pandemic-related worries, Mapes asked if McClain was “surviving the feds up north.”
“The feds are still after me and our Friend,” McClain wrote, using a euphemism he often employed when speaking about Madigan.
Less than two months later, federal prosecutors announced electric utility Commonwealth Edison – McClain’s biggest lobbying client for decades – had entered into a $200 million deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to cooperate with the feds’ investigation into an alleged bribery scheme aimed at currying favor with Madigan. […]
Despite McClain’s warning to Mapes that the two shouldn’t speak on the phone, FBI special agent Ryan McDonald on Monday testified – after looking at call records on the witness stand – that McClain called Mapes in October 2020. The call lasted a little over 14 minutes, McDonald said.
* Judge Kness allowed Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu into the courtroom yesterday, after the defense named him as a potential witness…
* Jason Meitner on what to expect today…
* More from the Sun-Times…
Cousineau also took the stand in March during McClain’s trial, having secured immunity from prosecutors who made clear he was not a target of the investigation.
During that appearance, prosecutors played a recording the FBI had made of aDecember 2018 call in which Madigan could be heard soliciting strategic advice about who should serve on his upcoming leadership team in the Illinois General Assembly.
“I understand we have a lot of people walking around trying to find things to complain about,” Madigan could be heard saying in the Dec. 9, 2018, chat with his inner circle.
“Every once in a while, the speaker gets to do what he wants to do,” Madigan said. […]
That call took place after Mapes resigned as Madigan’s chief of staff. However, the feds say Mapes remained in close contact with McClain into 2019.
* Jon Seidel…
* Related…
* Tribune | Tim Mapes perjury trial: Evidence seen and heard by the jury: Tim Mapes, former chief of staff to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, was captured on dozens of undercover FBI recordings talking about his family, political fundraising and his ouster in a 2018 sexual harassment scandal. The conversations shed new light on the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and relationships among key members of Madigan’s inner circle as a series of scandals began to threaten the Democratic speaker’s decadeslong grip on power.
* Tribune | What you need to know — and what’s next for Tim Mapes: Follow [Tribune] writers — Megan Crepeau and Ray Long — for the latest news and see coverage throughout the trial.
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Open thread
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* What’s going on? Keep it Illinois-centric please…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here you go…
* Sun-Times | ‘I do not think we should talk in person or on the phone,’ ex-top aide to Madigan was warned after asking about federal probe: The email and others appeared to underscore the feds’ contention that Tim Mapes was well aware of a federal investigation and its key points before he wound up in front of the grand jury and drew a blank on some questions.
* Tribune | Gun rights group files federal lawsuit against firearm manufacturer liability measure signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker over weekend: The suit was filed on behalf of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which also is one of the main groups behind a federal lawsuit alleging that Illinois’ ban on certain high-powered guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
* WBEZ | Civil rights lawyers call on Illinois to fire private prison health care company: Illinois lawmakers heard testimony on Monday from civil rights lawyers and family members about the dismal state of health care in the state’s prisons: people in wheelchairs left sitting in their own waste, bedsores and falls because of improper assistance and virtually no therapy for people with severe mental illness.
* Scott Holland | Navigating nuclear future remains politically challenging for governor: On the national political scene, energy legislation remains challenging for Democrats. The party’s progressive wing demands much stronger action than the conventional liberals holding power can or will advance. Every possible reform has dramatic economic implications. For Pritzker specifically, translating his Illinois approach to federal office might be challenging because how we get our power varies greatly from state to state.
* WAND | Illinois law blocks police from using license plate readers to track abortion patients: “We created an island on which every human being is recognized and given the dignity of controlling their own body and their own destiny,” said Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago). “That includes people who are traveling into the state of Illinois to seek legal healthcare services.”
* ABC Chicago | Judge rules Cook County properly used $240 million in transportation funds: The legal battle has been raging for years after the Illinois Road and Transportation Builders Association filed a lawsuit, along with numerous other groups, arguing that Cook County was violating the language of the “Illinois Transportation taxes and Fees Lockbox Amendment,” which passed during the 2016 election.
* Jen Walling and Jack Darin | Pritzker was right to keep moratorium on new Illinois nuclear plants: We are no closer to a national solution for the disposal of dangerous high-level nuclear wastes. Illinois already has the most nuclear reactors in the country and bears the burden of storing this waste in our communities, including along the shores of Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. These wastes have significant safety risks and threaten our drinking water and communities. We should not add to the growing stockpiles of hazardous waste.
* Pioneer Press | Highland Park, Deerfield high schools move up metal detector installation following shooting of 16-year-old student: Plans originally called for a random announcement and implementation of the new safety precaution but were moved up to Aug. 16 after a Highland Park High School student was shot and killed over the weekend. 16-year-old Omar Morales-Diaz was shot early Sunday morning on Green Bay Road by a man on the sidewalk. Authorities believe the shooting was intentional.
* Sun-Times | Johnson quotes Tupac, dances around questions about health chief’s firing: Johnson didn’t answer directly, paraphrasing Tupac instead. “You can’t always go by the things that you hear. Right? `Real eyes realize real lies,’ “ Johnson said.
* NBC Chicago | Chicago’s ex-top doctor reveals how she was fired in new wide-reaching interview: “So I got a call from the chief of staff, and I met with him and he said, ‘This is a hard discussion, but you are being terminated,’” Arwady said. “And I said, ‘That is not a major surprise at this point.’ Just knowing the mayor, of course, has the opportunity to bring on whomever he wants. But then what really was disturbing to me, was I said, ‘Let’s talk timeline,’ and he said, ‘It’s effective immediately.’”
* Chalkbeat | Biden taps education researcher known for work on school funding as economics adviser: Some of his other research has found that parents are good at choosing effective schools. Another recent study of his found positive results from a Chicago program to grant principals more autonomy over their schools.
* Sports Handle | Illinois Sportsbooks Continue Strong 2023 With $54.7 Million Revenue For June: The Illinois Gaming Board reported $54.7 million in adjusted gross sports wagering revenue for June, continuing a strong 2023 for sportsbook operators in the Land of Lincoln.
* Sun-Times | Chicago police officer, sister convicted of charges stemming from Capitol riot: Officer Karol Chwiesiuk and his sister, Agnieszka, were convicted of entering and remaining in a restricted building; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
* Crain’s | No, it’s not going to be above 110 degrees in Chicago next week: iPhone users in the Chicago area who checked the Apple weather app Monday morning may have seen a startling prediction at the end of the 10-day forecast. In what would be the city’s hottest day on record, the app predicted temperatures to reach as high as 111 degrees Fahrenheit next Wednesday, Aug. 23. That kind of heat would likely close schools, shut down businesses and pose significant health risks to some residents.
* WBBM | Renovations continue on Illinois Statehouse: ‘Something to be proud of’: Here are some of the timelines related to the work: the Senate is expected to occupy its chamber in January 2025; an underground conference center and new entrance are expected to be ready that August.
* SJ-R | Chris Camp’s shows and other things to do in Conservation World: Camp didn’t have anyone to teach the tricks of how to crack a whip a la Harrison Ford, so he watched “Indiana Jones,” and films like it, he said “over and over and over again” until he got the moves down.
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Live coverage
Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* ScribbleLive is still down. Twitter has stopped allowing people to embed list feeds on websites. So, click here or here to follow breaking news. You can click here to follow the Tim Mapes trial.
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* Background is here if you need it. National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc. filed suit in the Southern District against Attorney General Kwame Raoul over HB218, the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act…
1. This lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a new Illinois statute specifically designed to evade the judgment of Congress—and the Constitution.
2. On August 12, 2023, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law Illinois House Bill 218 (“HB 218”), which radically expands liability in Illinois for members of the firearm industry—and them alone. Under HB 218, the “sale, manufacturing, importing, or marketing of a firearm-related product” anywhere in the country may be deemed to violate Illinois law (and justify the imposition of sweeping liability), even if it complied with all state and federal regulations, if an Illinois judge or jury later finds that such conduct “contribute[d] to a condition in Illinois that endangers the safety or health of the public.” 815 Ill. Comp. Stat. 505/2BBBB-(b)(1).
3. Although the statute purports to be aimed at preventing firearms from being used in such a way that endangers public safety or health, HB 218 does not regulate the use (or misuse) of firearms. Nor does it impose liability on individuals who misuse firearms to the detriment of themselves or others. Instead, HB 218 regulates selling, manufacturing, and advertising lawful (and constitutionally protected) firearms and related products. In other words, HB 218 regulates commerce in and speech relating to arms—even when that commerce and speech takes place entirely outside of Illinois, as will often be the case. HB 218 also removes traditional elements of tort law that ensure that judges and juries do not impose liability on private parties for constitutionally protected conduct. Making matters worse, the statute jettisons traditional proximate cause in favor of allowing state courts to impose liability on licensed industry members for the actions of third- party criminals with whom the industry members never dealt.
4. None of that is consistent with the Constitution. The First Amendment prohibits states from punishing wide swaths of truthful speech about lawful products, even if the products are dangerous or the speech is unpopular. The Second Amendment protects commerce in arms. Numerous constitutional provisions prohibit states from regulating conduct that takes place wholly beyond their borders, even when that commerce has effects within the state. And the Due Process Clause prohibits states from punishing one private party for the conduct of another.
5. All of that is reason enough to invalidate Illinois’ new statute. But there is an even more obvious problem with HB 218: It is squarely preempted by federal law. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several state and local governments sought to use novel applications of common-law theories like negligence and nuisance to impose civil liability on manufacturers and sellers of firearms and ammunition when third parties misused their products. Congress saw these lawsuits for what they were: unconstitutional efforts to stamp out lawful and constitutionally protected activity. To end such incursions, Congress enacted the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act in 2005 by wide margins on a substantially bipartisan basis. The PLCAA expressly prohibits and preempts state-law civil actions “brought by any person against a manufacturer or seller of [firearms or ammunition] … for damages, punitive damages, injunctive or declaratory relief, abatement, restitution, fines, or penalties, or other relief, resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of [firearms or ammunition] by the person or a third party.” 15 U.S.C. §7903(5)(A).
6. Illinois is now trying to resurrect the very kinds of lawsuits that the PLCAA was enacted to eliminate. Under HB 218, state officials and private parties may bring civil actions against licensed manufacturers and sellers of firearms, ammunition, and related products for damages and other relief resulting from the criminal use of a firearm by a third party. HB 218 therefore falls squarely within the express-preemption provision of the PLCAA.
7. For these reasons and those set forth below, NSSF seeks a declaration that HB 218 is preempted and unconstitutional, an injunction preventing Illinois from enforcing it against NSSF and/or its members, nominal damages, and any other relief this Court deems proper.
There’s more, so click here.
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* Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises and ProPublica last month…
The findings about Choate administrators are particularly notable because Pritzker’s administration decided to retain the facility’s top three administrators in March when announcing a plan to reduce the size of Choate and move some residents to community settings or other state-run facilities.
All three administrators were previously indicted on felony charges in connection with their handling of an abuse allegation at the facility. Facility Director Bryant Davis and Gary Goins, who has served as quality assurance and improvements director, were both charged with official misconduct in 2021. Assistant Director Teresa Smith was charged twice with official misconduct and obstruction of justice, in 2020 and 2021. A judge dismissed the first case, finding there was not probable cause to sustain the charge. The prosecutor dismissed the most recent charges against the three administrators. Smith, Goins and Davis did not respond to requests for comment.
In explaining her rationale for keeping the administrators, IDHS Secretary Grace Hou said in March: “We’ve weighed a lot of different perspectives, but I think we need a leader who knows Choate inside and out, who has relationships with the residents and the parents and the staff to lead us through this challenging transition.” Pritzker publicly backed Hou’s decision at the time.
* Illinois Department of Human Services today…
“I am pleased to share that, effective August 16, Stephany Hoehner will serve as the Director of the Choate Mental Health Developmental Center (CMHDC). Hoehner, who currently serves as CMHDC Project Manager, brings with her a wealth of knowledge in continuous quality improvement and operational management. Prior to joining CMHDC, Stephany served as Continuous Improvement Specialist and Practice Manager at Southern Illinois Healthcare in Carbondale where she was responsible for leading daily operations, financial stewardship, change management, and continuous improvement. She has already proved to be a valuable team member assisting in quality assurance, investigations, training, and data analysis at CMHDC. I have the utmost confidence in Stephany’s leadership and know that she will be integral in creating positive, transformative change at Choate. I would like to extend my gratitude to Bryant Davis who has served as Facility Director of CMHDC for the past six years. He will provide ongoing support to Choate during a one-month transition period.” Tonya Piephoff, Director for IDHS’ Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD)
“As a native of southern Illinois, I consider Choate to be foundational and instrumental to the betterment of our community. Words cannot express how grateful I am for the opportunity to serve the residents, their families, and staff. As we focus on improving safety, enhancing services, quality of care, and building relationships, I’m excited for the future of Choate.” Stephany Hoehner, incoming CMHDC Director
*** UPDATE *** DHS…
Bryant Davis will no longer work at Choate following a one-month transition period. At this time we are not able to share anything beyond that. Gary Goins and Theresa Smith are employed at Choate as certified State employees in accordance with personnel code and rules.
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Afternoon roundup
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Let’s start with a little ol’ oppo dump. Click here for more background. From a June 15, 2017 Law Bulletin article…
A state appeals panel today rejected a lawsuit brought by 61 human services providers who have received scant funding during the state’s nearly two-year budget impasse. The 1st District Appellate Court rejected all of the claims brought by the providers, who collectively billed themselves as the Pay Now Illinois coalition. […]
The panel rejected the coalition’s assertions that Rauner has acted beyond his gubernatorial authority by entering into contracts which weren’t funded, and then vetoing the appropriations bills that would have funded them.
“The governor was not obligated to approve any or all portions of appropriations bills by the General Assembly,” Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke wrote in the 35-page opinion on behalf of the three-judge panel. “Indeed, both the governor and the General Assembly are constitutionally constrained to propose or pass budgets and appropriations that do not exceed estimated available funds.”
Click here for the opinion. Do you recognize the justice’s name? Former Justice Eileen Burke is now running for Cook County state’s attorney.
* Press release…
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) today issued the fiscal year 2024 Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) allocations, announcing an unprecedented number of fully funded districts. There are also zero districts under the 60% funding adequacy benchmark for the first time in Illinois history.
FY 2024 marks a historic number of fully funded districts. Only 146 districts were at or above 100% funding adequacy in the first year of EBF in FY 2018; that number has increased by 59% with 232 districts now fully funded in FY 2024. An additional 94 districts have met the 90% funding threshold.
* DeVore kicks it back into gear…
Friday’s ruling upholding Illinois’ gun and magazine ban by the Illinois Supreme Court may not be the last word in state-level challenges. […]
Attorney Thomas DeVore said he plans to pursue the three readings rule challenge with his state-level cases consolidated in Effingham County. While temporary restraining orders for thousands of his clients could be dissolved soon, he plans to mount evidence to prove the equal protections argument.
“So what they said is ‘Dan Caulkins, you didn’t bring us any facts to show that you are similar to these exempt categories so for that reason you lose,’” DeVore told The Center Square. “Well, we’re going to build that case in our case if that proceeds.”
Some of the evidence DeVore plans to work at discovering includes the levels of firearms training for those in the exempt class like prison wardens, security guards and those in law enforcement.
“I wanna see the record of every law enforcement officer in the state of Illinois,” DeVore said. “What are they trained on? What guns do they handle, et cetera, et cetera, so we can build that similarity argument that we desperately need in order to win this case in front of the Illinois Supreme Court, to even have a chance to win it.”
Every record? Hilarious. Expect a trial sometime in 2045. At least the pension funds will be fully funded by then. /s
…Adding… As noted in comments, state law now requires DeVore to file his constitutional challenge in either Sangamon or Cook counties. He’ll have to get thru that issue if he stays in Effingham.
* Interesting…
From Mapes’ unsuccessful 2022 motion to dismiss…
These questions have the same hallmarks of fundamental ambiguity as the episodes above. They are ambiguous in their use of the terms “tasks,” “work,” and “assignments.” They are compound.
And, as demonstrated by the sequence of questions and answers both before and after those questions (none of which the grand jury found perjurious), Mr. Mapes’ answers are literally true. For instance, before the allegedly perjurious answer to the question in episode 3, Mr. Mapes testified that he did not “recall anything at the moment” but “something could come up as subject matter if you bring it and it pops my memory.” In his testimony, Mr. Mapes also gave high-level examples of Mr. McClain passing “along pieces of information” in the 2017 and 2018 time frame and before, and Mr. McClain providing his “perspective” to Mr. Madigan on various matters.
The prosecutor did not follow up on any of these matters—nor did the prosecutor attempt to refresh Mr. Mapes’ recollection on any specific subject matters that could “pop[]” Mr. Mapes’ memory.
Kinda wondering if that’ll come up tomorrow.
* Nick Sauer resigned in disgrace from the House way back in 2018…
* Several people have pointed me to HB4120 today…
Creates the Whipped Cream Charger Sales Restriction Act. Provides that no person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, firm, or any other business entity doing business in the State shall sell or offer for sale a whipped cream charger to any person under the age of 21.
Penalty is a civil penalty of not more than $250 for an initial offense and not more than $500 for the second and each subsequent offense.
Whippets were a thing back in the early 90s. Didn’t know they still were.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Tribune | Don Madigan? Ex-FBI agent likens former House speaker to mafia boss in perjury trial of former Madigan aide: “Mr. Madigan ran his organization, as close as I can compare it to, almost the head of a mafia family,” former Special Agent Brendan O’Leary testified, noting that Madigan rarely used the phone, texts or emails to communicate orders. “The ability for us to hear about what happened generally came down to the people on the inside being honest, and that is what we relied on.”
* Sun-Times | Prosecutors accuse defense of playing games with witness list in trial of ex-top aide to Madigan: Over the weekend, lawyers in the case revisited a dispute that surfaced before the trial began. Mapes’ lawyers have named Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu as a witness they might call when it is their turn to present evidence. Bhachu is the chief of the public corruption section of Chicago’s U.S. Attorney’s office and a supervisor of the case against Mapes. He has also played a central role in the Madigan investigation. He gave the final argument last April in the trial of four former political power players who conspired to bribe Madigan, calling them “grand masters of corruption.”
* Sun-Times | Migrant families say Rogers Park motel kicked them out after missing curfew by 7 minutes: Leon, 30, said the two families were asked to leave the motel around 2 p.m. Saturday because they had missed an 11 p.m. curfew the night before by seven minutes after they took their children out for pizza. Leon said they had gone out because the food they had been given was “old” and had made the children sick.
* Tribune | Ex-Northwestern baseball staffers file suit, accuse university of allowing coach to create ‘dangerous environment’: “We reported Coach Foster’s conduct to Northwestern believing that they would do the right thing. Northwestern did not do the right thing,” Chris Beacom, former team operations director, said in a statement read during a news conference Monday announcing the lawsuit.
* Block Club | Emails Reveal How Lightfoot Closed A Backroom Deal To Hand Public Housing Land Over To A Billionaire’s Sports Team: Under the deal, the Fire will lease 23 acres on the Near West Side for at least 40 years so the team can build a new training facility on the site. The Fire are owned by Joe Mansueto, a billionaire business leader and Lightfoot campaign donor. The federal government has long reserved that land for housing, so by law federal officials have to ensure any sale or lease of it is in the “best interest” of low-income residents.
* Daily Herald | ‘We can’t go on this way’: Lisle Township board calls on supervisor to resign: “[Township Supervisor Diane Hewitt] just creates a wave of chaos, and we’re spending so many hours undoing and unraveling the messes,” said Trustee Autumn Geist, a Democrat who ran with Hewitt in 2021. “I really believe her heart is in the right place, but her challenges overshadow her strength.”
* Block Club | Introducing Block Club Chicago’s New Investigative Team, The Watch: The new investigative team will work closely with our neighborhood reporters and be positioned to act on tips and pursue high-impact stories to improve government transparency and accountability. The Watch reporters, Mina Bloom, Rachel Hinton and Manny Ramos, have an impressive track record of serving the South and West sides through their investigative work and have a deep understanding of Block Club’s mission.
* Tribune | Black Chicagoans are tired of waiting for solutions to maternal mortality — so they’re creating their own: In Chicago, where recent hospital closings have rendered entire swathes of the city “birth deserts,” the issue is laid plain: Black maternal health-care conditions remain dismal despite years of criticism, Black health-care officials say. Tired of waiting on others to find answers, Black Chicagoans like Valrie-Logan are stepping up to create their own solutions to the lack of care. Nearly a decade after her miscarriage, Valrie-Logan, a midwife and mother of three, is on track to help open a South Shore birthing center dedicated to Black birthing people and their families by 2025.
* WBEZ | Lots of questions, few answers for Black and brown high schoolers applying to college: Colleges are still planning on collecting racial demographic information, but it’s not clear what admissions officers are going to do with it. And the Supreme Court Justices left the door open for students to write about their race in their personal statements. That raises another question: Are essays a loophole for application readers to give racially underrepresented students a leg up? […] In the end, Izzy decided against it. Instead, she’s writing about her favorite musicians and what their concerts have meant to her. She wants to go into music management.
* Sun-Times | A list of every known Illinois resident charged in the U.S. Capitol breach: More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with the attack in almost all 50 states. That includes Illinois, where at least 39 residents face charges. They come from all around the state and include a onetime CEO, a Chicago police officer and a member of the Proud Boys.
* AP | Judge sides with young activists in first-of-its-kind climate change trial in Montana: District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the policy the state uses in evaluating requests for fossil fuel permits — which does not allow agencies to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions — is unconstitutional.
* Block Club | Famed Cher Impersonator To Headline Lips Chicago Fundraiser For Domestic Violence Victims: ips Chicago, the iconic drag dining spot, is teaming up with Connections for Abused Women and Their Children to raise money for the domestic violence organization. This year’s annual Night of Stars event is 7 p.m. Thursday at Lips, 2229 S. Michigan Ave. Individual tickets are $80 and six-ticket bundles are $425.
* Sun-Times | ‘A feast for the eyes’ comes in a mixed year for summer/fall mushrooms: “Even though the past month overall has been rather wet, the drought of early summer knocked back my beloved chanterelles a good bit this summer,” Jay Damm emailed in an update last Monday. “It just confirms my experience that if a species experiences dry conditions during the pre-season, the true season can be weak to non-existent.
* WCIA | Child injured on ride at Illinois State Fair: A child attending the Illinois State Fair was hurt on Thursday after officials said an object flew off one of the amusement rides and hit them in the leg. […] The child was evaluated by medical personnel at the scene and needed only an ice pack. […] The IDOL’s chief inspector evaluated the ride after it was repaired and permitted the ride to resume operation. The fair’s Amusement Ride and Attraction Safety Division manager revisited the Ring of Fire again Friday morning to make sure things were still operating smoothly.
* Pantagraph | A guide to food at the 2023 Illinois State Fair: Brown, of Gulfport, Miss., specialized in electrical automation and robotics in school. But there came a point where he said “Lord, I need something else.” And his first thought, believe it or not, was flavored watermelon. “A week later, I thought ‘that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of in my life,’” Brown said. “And 12 years later, here I am.”
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More like this, please
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release from last week…
In a year that saw exponential growth in the youth in agriculture movement, the Illinois State Fair, along with Governor JB Pritzker, announced that the Illinois State FFA Officers will serve as Grand Marshals for the annual Twilight Parade.
Since Governor Pritzker announced in 2022 that every student in the state of Illinois taking an agriculture class would have their FFA dues paid, FFA membership increased from 23,000 to over 41,000 members strong. Additionally, 5,500 students not enrolled in agricultural education courses joined FFA, demonstrating an appreciation of the value of the organization.
* SJ-R last week…
For the record, Thursday did mark Thaddeus Bergschneider’s first time being the grand marshal of a parade, one that left him pinching himself.
“I’m looking at all of the cars and the people who are lined up,” said the 18-year-old President of the Illinois FFA, prior to the start of the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade, “and I can’t believe I’m a grand marshal of it. It really makes me proud to be a part of Illinois FFA and a part of the industry of agriculture that’s put us here and that’s valued. That says a lot.”
I happened to meet Bergschneider yesterday after I had a pork burger in the Commodities Pavilion ahead of the Alanis Morissette concert. FFA Vice President Riley Kessler was also part of the parade and was at the pavilion as well. They were both very impressive.
And both of those young people were still so excited about the opportunity to lead that parade last week and about the attention it brought the FFA. Whoever thought up this idea deserves major kudos.
I was in 4-H (Iroquois County, Milks Grove Challengers), but not FFA. It just wasn’t my thing, but my daughter was a member and it had a positive impact on her life.
* Press release…
Today Governor JB Pritzker signed HB3814 into law, allowing students attending work-based learning events like 4-H and FFA programs to count program participation towards school attendance. The bill advances the administration’s work to encourage Illinois students to pursue workforce and career development learning while in school. […]
FFA and 4-H programs encourage both urban and rural Illinois students to participate in hands-on projects across agricultural, STEM, and business development sectors. Students who participate in work-based programs have been shown to make healthier and safer choices and give back to their communities long-term, fostering a culture of collaboration and hard work at a young age.
This bill amends the Illinois School Code to allow students who miss traditional classroom days for events in work-based learning programs to have those events counted towards overall school attendance. The student’s parent or legal guardian are to be responsible for obtaining assignments missed while the student was participating in an eligible program.
* Bergschneider and 4-H youth leader Naomi Dolan spoke at today’s press conference and they did a tremendous job.
Bergschneider talked about how FFA members’ official school attendance records needlessly suffer because of the missed days, even though the kids are out there learning and improving themselves.
Dolan said she missed a month of school her senior year with conferences and other events, “but I was still keeping up on my schoolwork. I stayed up very late to work on my assignments because that’s something that 4-H and FFA tells the youth.”
After they spoke, Pritzker quipped “Couple of future governors here.” I recommend watching it.
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* Gov. Pritzker on the 21st Show…
Brian Mackey: I talk to advocates who say, as you pointed out, the Department of Corrections population peaked at more than 49,000 individuals 10 years ago. Now, it’s fewer than 30,000 this spring. It was even lower than that in the pandemic. We could have closed several prisons, many units within prison facilities. As you said, some of which date back to the 1800s. An advocate I was speaking to said, it doesn’t seem all that complicated, right? Population’s down, staffing is down, $2.5 billion is needed to fix these facilities that are unsafe and inhumane. Why not close them down?
Governor Pritzker: If you assumed that every prisoner was like every other prisoner? Yes, it sounds like a reasonable focus that we would just simply — let’s close some and push people into others. And we’ll have a perfect system. The reality is that we have a lot of different kinds, we have people who are in maximum security with people who are in minimum security, you know, we have facilities that are made more for older populations, we have women’s facilities. It’s just not as easy as I think people would like to think that it is, number one. Number two, we have to think a lot about location. Where are these prisons located across our state? Because as we’ve seen in our healthcare system in, for example, psychiatric hospitals; our need for nurses in developmental disabilities hospitals, and so on. We can’t find the kind of workers that we’re looking for in some parts of the state. That’s not a knock on anything, it’s just that when you get more rural, there are fewer people to choose from; there maybe are fewer people that got the kind of specific training that you need there. And it’s true in in our corrections facilities, too. So I think this has all got to be a public conversation. And it’s one that I think is accelerated by the study that we commissioned, and it’s now been delivered that everybody can read. […]
Brian Mackey: How do we get from here to there? How do we get to you’re making a future budget proposal that says we should have X fewer facilities? We’ve had the public conversation, how do we get from this study to there?
Governor Pritzker: Well, again, you’re assuming fewer facilities — I don’t know if that’s the right answer. I think there’s an argument to be made that having facilities that are less populated within a facility is one of the answers. Maybe we have facilities — the same number of facilities and fewer prisoners. In each one, again, we can talk about the the financial implications for the state of all of that, and we can talk about the implications for the human rights of the people who are incarcerated, not to mention the safety of the workers at a facility. I want the legislature to hold hearings about it, I think they should. And I want advocates on both sides to speak up — including, for example, corrections officers, who know their facilities well and know what works well. I think everybody should be heard here.
* Isabel did a quick roundup…
* WBEZ | Illinois prisons need $2.5 billion in repairs, and that’s just the beginning: Stories of dire conditions in Illinois prisons have been trickling out for years, but a new report from a consulting company hired by the state of Illinois to assess its prison infrastructure shows the situation might be even worse than previously revealed. In the report, obtained by WBEZ, consultants rated three of the department’s 27 facilities as approaching “inoperable” and estimated the prison system has at least $2.5 billion of “deferred maintenance,” the highest of any state agency. That number is expected to double in five years if unaddressed.
* 25 News Now | Consultant recommends reduced prison capacity at Pontiac, closure of women’s lockup in Lincoln: The report says Pontiac, the state’s second oldest lockup, has the second highest deferred maintenance of all state prisons at $235 million.
* Sun-Times | Despite horror stories and deaths, will Illinois keep an expensive prison health care provider?: Fifty percent of the health care provider’s jobs in Illinois are unfilled. Three Wexford doctors lack proper credentials. Patients in need of dental fillings at one prison are on a 104-week waitlist. And in a review of 17 deaths, an outside monitor found that medical staff gave two prisoners medications that contributed to their deaths.
* NYT | US Bureau of Prisons Is Closing Troubled, Violent Detention Unit in Illinois: The bureau plans to open some kind of specialized unit at the site in the future, but not before re-evaluating the prison’s mission, conducting intensive training and making changes to Thomson’s leadership to “better align the institution’s operations with agency expectations,” Ms. Giamusso said.
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Reyes slating push falling flat
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Politico this morning…
U.S. Reps Chuy García and Delia Ramirez are endorsing Jesse Reyes for Illinois Supreme Court. The endorsements come ahead of slating this week by Cook County Democrats for the 2024 election. The county Dems will also consider Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham for the post. Cunningham, who is African American, was appointed to fill an empty seat in December and now must run outright. The Supreme Court and other judicial seats will be slated today.
* As should be expected, that didn’t work out so well. 80 percent of the weighted vote went with the incumbent Black woman on the subcommittee…
Some of Chicago’s Black and Brown political leaders have been fighting over migrants, non-citizen police and the remap. Now this.
…Adding… The tweet I relied on wasn’t quite accurate. This was a subcommittee vote. That subcommittee doesn’t have a lot of Latinos on it. The full endorsement is tomorrow. The headline was also changed.
Thoughts?
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Meanwhile… In Opposite Land
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Mississippi…
In the fall of 2022, Ashley [who was 12] was raped by a stranger in the yard outside her home, her mother says. For weeks, she didn’t tell anybody what happened, not even her mom. But Regina knew something was wrong. Ashley used to love going outside to make dances for her TikTok, but suddenly she refused to leave her bedroom. When she turned 13 that November, she wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. “She just said, ‘It hurts,’” Regina remembers. “She was crying in her room. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she didn’t want to tell me.” […]
[Ob-gyn Dr. Erica Balthrop] told Regina that the closest abortion provider for Ashley would be in Chicago. At first, Regina thought she and Ashley could drive there. But it’s a nine-hour trip, and Regina would have to take off work. She’d have to pay for gas, food, and a place to stay for a couple of nights, not to mention the cost of the abortion itself. “I don’t have the funds for all this,” she says. […]
Mississippi’s abortion ban is expected to result in thousands of additional births, often to low-income, high-risk mothers. Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi’s top health official, tells TIME his department is “actively preparing” for roughly 4,000 additional live births this year alone. Edney says improving maternal-health outcomes is the “No. 1 priority” for the Mississippi health department, which has invested $2 million into its Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies program to provide extra support for new mothers. “There is a sense of following through, and not just as a predominantly pro-life state,” says Edney. “We don’t just care about life in utero. We care about life, period, and that includes the mother’s life and the baby’s life.”
Mississippi’s abortion ban contains narrow exceptions, including for rape victims and to save the life of the mother. As Ashley’s case shows, these exceptions are largely theoretical. Even if a victim files a police report, there appears to be no clear process for granting an exception. (The state Attorney General’s office did not return TIME’s repeated requests to clarify the process for granting exceptions; the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure and the Mississippi State Medical Association did not reply to TIME’s requests for explanation.) And, of course, there are no abortion providers left in the state. In January, the New York Times reported that since Mississippi’s abortion law went into effect, only two exceptions had been made. Even if the process for obtaining one were clear, it wouldn’t have helped Ashley. Regina didn’t know that Mississippi’s abortion ban had an exception for rape.
* Texas…
On a warm November night, Salia Issa had just begun her shift as an Abilene prison officer when she felt the intense pain of what she believed was a contraction. […]
Eventually, two and a half hours after the pain started, the expectant mother said she was allowed to leave the Middleton Unit. As quickly as the pain would allow her, Issa drove to a nearby hospital, where doctors rushed her into emergency surgery after being unable to find a fetal heartbeat. The baby was delivered stillborn.
If Issa had gotten to the hospital sooner, medical personnel told her, the baby would have survived, the lawsuit claims. […]
But the prison agency and the Texas attorney general’s office, which has staked its reputation on “defending the unborn” all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, are arguing the agency shouldn’t be held responsible for the stillbirth because staff didn’t break the law. Plus, they said, it’s not clear that Issa’s fetus had rights as a person.
* Idaho…
The U.S. District Court decided Thursday that it would temporarily block enforcement of an Idaho law meant to prevent transgender students from using school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Senate Bill 1100, which took effect July 1, would have required public schools to maintain two separate multi-occupancy restrooms, showers, changing facilities and overnight accommodations for students based on their sex assigned at birth. It also would have allowed students to sue the school for a minimum fine of $5,000 if they encountered a transgender student in the bathroom.
But in a legal order Thursday, the U.S. District Court granted a request for a temporary restraining order against the law — preventing schools from enforcing that mandate ahead of the school year.
* Indiana…
Whether a student would like to go by Joe or Joanna — if it’s not the name designated on the school records, parents should be expecting a call from school administrators.
This new policy is due to the passing of House Bill 1608 earlier this year, which requires teachers and school administrators to inform parents if their child requests a change of their name, title or pronoun.
Originally, the law specifically targeted transgender students, but after the bill went through several changes in the legislative process, the current version of the law affects any student who wishes to be addressed by a name other than the one given when their parent or guardian registered them for school. […]
“We are interpreting this to the ‘letter of the law’ that our legislators have written as no guidance has been provided by State agencies,” Shawn Greiner, superintendent of the West Lafayette Community School Corporation explained in an email to the Journal & Courier.
* Florida…
The new regulations have created a bureaucratic tangle, with several counties sending parents forms that must be filled out if they want their child referred to by something other than their legal name.
In Orange County, in and around Orlando, the district told parents that they must fill out the form even if “Robert” wishes to be called “Rob” — or if a trans child now goes by “Roberta.”
But school staff members “may elect” not to use she/her pronouns when referring to Roberta, according to the school district’s attorney, John C. Palmerini. In a memo to district staff, he cited House Bill 1069, a law signed by Governor DeSantis in May, which defines “sex” as corresponding to “external genitalia present at birth,” and also broadly restricts instruction on gender and sexuality. […]
The new state regulations around bathroom use in schools are clearer. Students, staff members and visitors will be required to use either the bathroom corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth, or use a single-stall restroom. Districts that violate this law can be fined up to $10,000.
* More from Florida…
While Florida joins Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, and a handful of other states in proposing crackdowns on immigrants lacking legal residency, no other state has mandated that hospitals question patients about their citizenship.
Doctors, nurses, and health policy experts say the law targets marginalized people who already have difficulty navigating the health care system and will further deter them from seeking medical help. […]
“Imagine if all the hospitals said, ‘This is wrong. We can’t do it.’ But they just stay silent because they may lose state funding,” Carrasquillo said. “We do have political leaders who are very vindictive and who come after you.” […]
Bailey Smith, communications director for the [state’s Agency for Health Care Administration], said in an email the information will deliver “much needed transparency on the burden of illegal immigration on Florida’s health system. Collecting this data allows taxpayers to understand where their hard-earned dollars are being exploited.”
* Arkansas…
* Branson, Missouri…
Drag shows in Branson will have to sashay away from certain parts of town.
The city’s Board of Aldermen approved a measure this week intended to “preserve the city’s values,” and maintain the city’s reputation as a “family-oriented tourist destination,” according to a city fact sheet on the bill.
Drag shows will only be allowed in Branson’s downtown zoning district. Businesses elsewhere that currently host performances will be allowed to continue doing so.
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Question of the day
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Illinois Constitution…
A bill shall be read by title on three different days in each house. […]
The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate shall sign each bill that passes both houses to certify that the procedural requirements for passage have been met.
That second bit triggers the enrolled-bill doctrine. In other words, the courts are to assume the procedure is valid because those two people certify that it’s valid.
* And that brings us to the majority opinion in a 2003 Illinois Supreme Court case: Friends of the Parks vs. Chicago Park District…
Under this [enrolled-bill doctrine] precedent, we will not invalidate legislation on the basis of the three-readings requirement if the legislation has been certified. In this case, plaintiffs acknowledge that Public Act 91-0935 was certified, thus precluding judicial review.
We noted in Geja’s Cafe and again in Cutinello that the legislature had shown remarkably poor self-discipline in policing itself in regard to the three-readings requirement. The same poor self-discipline is alleged to have occurred in this case. The record below has not, however, been sufficiently developed to support or contradict this claim. Nevertheless, because this court is ever mindful of its duty to enforce the constitution of this state, we take the opportunity to urge the legislature to follow the three-readings rule. While separation of powers concerns militate in favor of the enrolled-bill doctrine, our responsibility to ensure obedience to the constitution remains an equally important concern.
* From the Republican dissent in Caulkins vs. Pritzker, which quoted former GOP Justice Heiple in a 1995 dissent…
The interpretation of a constitutional provision depends, in the first instance, on the plain meaning of its language. Next, it depends on the common understanding of the citizens who, by ratifying the constitution, have given it life. A court looks to the debates of the convention delegates only when a constitutional provision is ambiguous.
There is no ambiguity in the provision requiring the legislature to read a bill on three different days in each house […]
If it were deemed desirable to foreclose inquiries into the regularity of the passage of bills, language similar to the enrolled-bill doctrine could have been included within the constitution. There is no such language. … There is no way that a voter could interpret the language of the constitution to mean that procedural requirements for the passage of a bill could be overridden by the signatures of two State officers. In truth, the signatures of the officers are merely prima facie evidence that the General Assembly has abided by the requirements of the constitution. In other words, it raises a rebuttable presumption that the requirements for passage have been met.
* The bill in question, HB5471, was introduced January 28, 2022 as an Insurance Code tweak dealing with public adjusters. It passed the House unanimously on March 4. On that same day, two Republican co-sponsors (Reps. McCombie and Hammond) withdrew their names from the bill, which sat idle until the veto session, when the Senate moved it to Second and then Third Reading.
Senate Floor Amendment 3, which contained the assault weapons ban, was introduced on January 9, as well as two technical amendments. The three amendments were approved for floor consideration by the Assignments Committee the very same day and the bill passed the Senate a little after 6 o’clock that evening.
The bill arrived in the House on January 10, where it was placed on the concurrence calendar. The Rules Committee sent the bill to the floor that same day, where it was approved by the House later that afternoon.
The bill was certified that day by the House Speaker and Senate President and sent to the governor, who signed it that evening.
In other words, a major bill with great import was introduced and passed by both chambers in somewhere around 24 hours.
* Back to the Republican dissent in Caulkins vs. Pritzker…
In this case, the Insurance Code bill that received votes on three different days in the House in 2022 was in no way the firearms bill that passed the House on one vote in 2023. […]
Article IV, section 8, of the Illinois Constitution requires a bill be read by title on three different days in each house. Three different days in each house is all it would have taken for the legislators to consider the firearms bill before passage and thereby comply with the procedural requirements of the constitution. And three different days in each house is all it would take for the House and Senate to conduct the legislative process again if this court were to find a violation of the three- readings rule and declare the Act unconstitutional.
When, as in this case, the work of the legislature directly impacts a fundamental right, which this court has said the right to keep and bear arms is, the people of Illinois deserve nothing less than the procedural requirements of the constitution be followed by their elected representatives and senators.
Because the procedural requirements of the constitution were not met in the passage of HB 5471, I would find the Act unconstitutional in its entirety. Thus, until this court has before it a validly passed act of the legislature, we should make no determination on the Act at issue in this case. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
* The Question: Should the General Assembly follow what the Republican dissent termed the “plain meaning” of the Illinois Constitution, or should the enrolled-bill doctrine continue as-is? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
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A few that I missed Friday
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I posted a ton of bill-signing press releases on Friday, but I did miss a few. Here’s Kathy Byrne, President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association on HB219…
This important law will help deter reckless decisions and conduct that puts the lives of Illinoisans in danger and make Illinois a safer place to live and work.
For decades, Illinois law has allowed living plaintiffs to seek punitive damages in cases where a defendant’s reprehensible conduct causes injury. Punitive damages, while rare, serve to punish defendants for their reckless or intentional conduct, and deter others from engaging in similar conduct. It is up to the courts, on a case-by-case basis, to determine whether the misconduct warrants jury consideration of punitive damages.
The enactment of House Bill 219 provides that punitive damages are now also available when a defendant’s reprehensible behavior results in a victim’s death and are subject to the same burden of proof and standards of review applicable to punitive damages in injury cases. Now the inequity that perversely rewarded the reprehensible behavior of a defendant for killing the plaintiff versus “merely” injuring them has been removed. This law is fair and makes common sense.
We applaud Governor Pritzker for signing this important consumer safety measure, and thank Senate President Don Harmon and Leader Jay Hoffman for championing the bill through the legislative process. We also thank House Speaker Welch, Representative La Shawn Ford, and the many co-sponsors and supporters in the General Assembly that helped get the bill across the finish line.
On the other side of this issue is Andrew Perkins, regional vice president – Great Lakes at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies…
Unfortunately, Governor Pritzker has chosen to protect special interests and add more regulation to Illinois businesses. HB 219 will have a significant impact on Illinois businessowners and consumers by increasing litigation costs through punitive damages. Opportunistic lawyers can now take advantage of these increased costs, opening the current legal system to excessive, unpredictable awards and to fraud and abuse that has been avoided for decades in Illinois. Further, this law unfairly prevents other entities, including state government, from facing similar damages. It makes no sense for state agencies to be excluded from requirements applied to businesses that create jobs and foster economic opportunity for Illinoisians.
ITLA also hailed a bill-signing Friday removing the loophole which allowed rideshare companies to avoid being classified as common carriers.
* On to a different topic…
The Illinois Pharmacists Association and the National Community Pharmacists Association are applauding a new law in Illinois that prohibits retaliation by pharmacy benefit managers against pharmacists and pharmacies for disclosing information to courts, hearings, legislative commissions, law enforcement or other government agencies if there is reasonable cause to believe the disclosed information is evidence of violation of a state or federal law, rule, or regulation. HB3631, which was led by Rep. Hoan Huynh (D) and Sen. Mike Simmons (D), was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Aug. 4, 2023. It has an effective date of July 1, 2023.
The top three PBMs control 80 percent of the market, and decide what medicines patients can take, where they must get them, and how much they pay. In recent years, they have leveraged their market power to implement abusive policies and practices that pad their profits at the expense of patients and pharmacies. Pharmacists who speak out oftentimes experience retaliation measures from PBMs that can include an exponential increase in audits, refusal to access future contracts and removal from preferred provider networks, among other punishments.
“PBMs for too long have been weaponizing contracting and auditing tactics to essentially force pharmacists into silence,” says Garth Reynolds, RPh, executive director of IPhA. “There’s more work to do to truly rein in these middlemen, but with HB3631, we can more freely share with government representatives how PBM policies harm pharmacy practice and our patients. IPhA is grateful to Rep. Huynh and Sen. Simmons for their leadership and support, and to Gov. Pritzker for signing this important bill into law.”
“For a marketplace to be free and healthy, there must be competition and transparency. PBM-insurers are fighting against both, even as policymakers at all levels of government look to crack down on business practices that stifle patient choice and disadvantage independent pharmacies,” says Joel Kurzman, director of state government affairs at NCPA. “This legislation is a great step forward in Illinois. Further PBM reforms and aggressive enforcement of policies like this one will be crucial if patients and taxpayers are to see the difference.”
* Women Employed…
Women Employed, which has been creating fundamental, systemic change for working women for 50 years, today applauded Gov. Pritzker for signing the salary transparency bill into law. The law amends the Illinois Equal Pay Act, and continues the state’s commitment to ensuring equal pay for all workers.
Sponsored by Rep. Mary Beth Canty and former Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, the new law requires businesses with 15 or more employees to publicly post the wage or salary and description of benefits offered for a job, promotion, transfer or other employment opportunity beginning January 2025. It also requires employers to provide employees their current wage or salary range along with a general description of benefits upon that employee’s hiring, promotion or transfer, upon the employee’s request.
“We are grateful to Gov. Pritzker, Rep. Canty, Sen. Pacione-Zayas and all the partners we have worked with to advance pay equity across our state,” said Cherita Ellens, President and CEO of Women Employed. “Today we take a major step forward in closing the racial and gender pay gap for Illinois workers, and ultimately creating more fair and inclusive workplaces for working people across the state.”
In Illinois, closing the gender wage gap would translate into a 16 percent increase in women’s earnings, totaling $20.5 billion, a huge boost for the state’s economy. It also means 1.1 million children would benefit from equal pay, potentially reducing the poverty rate for children with working mothers by 43 percent.
Pay range and benefits information helps prospective employees accurately assess job opportunities and negotiate in an informed manner. Disclosing the salary or salary range for a position helps keep employers accountable, levels the negotiating playing field, and gives applicants, employees, and enforcement agencies information to identify and remedy any unjustified pay disparities.
Pay range transparency also helps businesses of all sizes more efficiently and effectively find and match candidates who are interested and would take the position. This helps save costs and gives small businesses without an HR team an edge, which is why many small businesses already include pay ranges in job announcements. Earlier this year, Adobe’s Future Workforce Study found that the vast majority of recent and upcoming college graduates want to know how much a role will pay before even applying.
Recently, Women Employed was the lead partner for the Illinois FARE Grant project, spearheaded by the Illinois Department of Labor and funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau, which sought to ensure that women across the state, especially those in low-paid jobs, are aware of their equal pay rights, remedies, and resources. The effort reached millions of women across the state, helping them to better understand and advocate for their workplace rights.
In addition to advocating for the salary transparency law, Women Employed has advocated for all of the equal pay laws currently on the books in Illinois, including the No Salary History bill that passed in 2019. The law banned asking job applicants their previous salary and eliminated a practice that had perpetuated racial and gender wage gaps.
Illinois joins Colorado, Washington, and New York City with laws that require pay ranges be included in job postings.
* Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition on Governor Pritzker’s AV of HB 2878…
“We applaud Governor JB Pritzker for his amendatory veto of HB 2878, calling for greater public input into project planning and implementation. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gases and past transportation projects have not adequately considered impacts on communities, and especially environmental justice communities already overwhelmed by pollution from big trucks and other vehicles. That input should, at a minimum, include a greenhouse gas analysis of the project and whether there are alternatives that provide more efficient and affordable transportation options.”
* And I had a release or two Friday on this topic, but this is from the local park district, which has been fending off attacks from the Tinley Park mayor…
The Board of Commissioners of the Park District of Tinley Park today applauded Gov. JB Pritzker’s signing into law House Bill 3743 to transfer the site of the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center to the Park District to finally begin cleanup and redevelopment of the long-vacant land.
Gov. Pritzker’s signature of HB 3743 begins the process of transferring the blighted property to the Park District for $1, saving Tinley Park taxpayers over $4.5 million to purchase the site, which the Village of Tinley Park had previously offered, in addition to an estimated $12-$15 million in cleanup costs to be provided by the state. Now that the bill is signed into law, the Park District can work with the state in the coming weeks to begin the process of effectuating the land transfer to officially own the property.
“After many years of inaction, we are incredibly grateful for Gov. Pritzker’s support to finally begin the process of remediating and revitalizing this eyesore in our community,” said Lisa O’Donovan, Park District Board Commissioner and Chair of a new committee being established to oversee the project. “We are excited and ready to move forward with the many steps it will take to clean up the property and redevelop the site. We look forward to engaging with Tinley Park residents, schools, community organizations, and all stakeholders to create new opportunities for our community and the entire southland area to love our Tinley parks.”
“Transferring the Tinley Park Mental Health Center to the Tinley Park-Park District was one of the best decisions the State of Illinois made this year,” said Sen. Michael Hastings, Senate bill sponsor. “They have a track record of working together with everyone in our community and the south suburban region. More importantly, they are capable and have a plan ready to demolish and redevelop the property when it is ultimately transferred to them.”
“Today is a great day for Tinley Park and all of our southland communities,” said Rep. Robert Rita, House bill sponsor. “I’m proud to have sponsored this bill to allow the Tinley Park-Park District to turn this eyesore into a destination for people across the region, and I thank Gov. Pritzker for his support.”
With today’s action by the governor, the Park District is now taking its first steps as part of the process of cleaning up the property. The Park District is engaging Tetra Tech, which will conduct an updated environmental assessment of the site to determine the extent of remediation
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Do better
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Serabi Medina’s family is currently raising money online to pay for her funeral. You’ve probably read or heard about how the 9-year-old girl was deliberately shot in the head and killed, allegedly by a neighbor in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood earlier this month.
But the fundraising shouldn’t be necessary.
Last year, House Bill 2985 created the Murdered Children Funeral and Burial Assistance Act. The measure unanimously passed both legislative chambers and was signed into law on May 10, 2022. The law was named after Mychal Moultry, a 4-year-old boy murdered in 2021. “My son will be remembered,” Mychal’s mom told a reporter last year.
The law allows the Illinois Department of Human Services to pay up to $10,000 for a murdered child’s funeral and burial starting July 1 of this year, but that spending was “subject to appropriation.”
That legalese means the services can only be paid if the program is specifically added to the state’s budget law with a dollar amount attached to it. And, as so often happens with legislation like this, the money was not properly inserted into the final bill, which means families like Serabi’s might not see a dime — although there is hope that a solution will be found.
]The problem with the system is that the buck doesn’t seem to really stop anywhere. The original Senate sponsor retired. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the bill at a Peoria event, but his budget office and the Department of Human Services didn’t include it in the spending plan Pritzker proposed in February. The legislative staff members also apparently don’t track bills to make sure programs are funded.
It looks like the program slipped through the cracks because, according to the governor’s office, the bill’s House original sponsor apparently made an honest mistake and mistook an appropriation for another burial program to be a funding source for the child burial legislation.
Rep. Camille Lilly is the original House sponsor of the murdered child funeral bill and also chairs the House Health & Human Services Appropriations Committee. She claimed first through a spokesperson and then in a phone conversation with my associate Isabel Miller that the law had been funded last year and, when no money was spent, $5 million was re-appropriated this year.
Trouble is, the law didn’t fully take effect until July 1, 2023, so it wouldn’t have been funded during the 2022 budget process.
More importantly, according to the governor’s office, the $5 million appropriations line Lilly pointed to is for an existing burial program for adults within three different Public Aid Code articles identified in the bill’s language, but not for the children’s program, which is in a different article of the code.
The Department of Human Services is “committed to implementing this law and is planning to utilize some of this appropriation to cover the children’s program,” explained Jordan Abudayyeh at the governor’s office. But the department will have to draft and implement rules to accomplish this because there’s no clear appropriation for the child program.
The rules, Abudayyeh said, will be “retroactive so funeral/burial expenses up to $10,000 may be covered related to tragedies that occurred between July 2022 and July 2024.”
Hopefully, this will all be fixed. But, as I mentioned above, this is all too common in Springfield. Legislators and advocates regularly pass bills that require government spending and then don’t adequately engage during the budget-making process (which is not what appears to have happened here).
The Department of Human Services was required by last year’s law to have new administrative rules in place by last month, but since the funding wasn’t in the budget, DHS put it on the back-burner. That shouldn’t have happened.
Staff members in both the legislative and executive branches are already stretched thin. The House’s appropriations staff is trying to form a union and their director recently announced his pending resignation. There’s lots of flux everywhere. Even so, somebody smarter than me needs to come up with a solution to this.
Separately, Lilly also pointed out to Isabel that the state still has trouble convincing funeral homes to conduct the services and then wait for reimbursement because of the state’s long history of extremely slow payments. State reimbursements flow a whole lot faster now, but it’s hard to live down a bad reputation.
In the meantime, if you would like to help Serabi Medina’s family pay for her funeral and burial, go here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/serabi-medina
…Adding… Another example of “subject to appropriation” from an email I received today…
Rich,
I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog and have done so for years. I am reaching with a legislative question since you are typically “in the know!”
I know that the legislature passed a bill in May ensuring free breakfast and lunch for all students (“Healthy School Meals for All Program”). I checked the status of that bill indicating that Pritzker had signed it:
Bill Number: HB2471
Description: Creates the Health School Meals for All Program to provide free school breakfast and lunches to students in all participating schools. This program is subject to appropriation.
Action: Signed
Effective: Immediately
I was naturally excited to read this and sent a question to my district superintendent and received the following disappointing response: “The bill signed by the Governor was done so with a condition that it was only required if funds were appropriated in the budget. My understanding is that implementation of the bill will cost approximately $200 million which is not currently appropriated in the state budget. If the bill were to be included in the FY25 appropriation, then I believe [redacted] would qualify for participation.”
I don’t understand the purpose of this bill having an immediate effective date with no money allocated. It seems as though school lunches will not be free for all for FY 24. Color me confused…
Thanks,
James
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* March 27th New York Times article on Chicago’s mayoral race quoting Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara on candidate Brandon Johnson…
“If this guy gets in we’re going to see an exodus like we’ve never seen before,” he said, predicting “blood in the streets.”
* From Arne Duncan’s March 24 Tribune op-ed endorsing Paul Vallas for mayor…
Candidate Brandon Johnson has been criticized for being too close to the Chicago Teachers Union, but he has suggested that his close relationship with the union actually puts him in the best position to get CTU to bend. As he said, “Who better to deliver bad news to friends than a friend?” […]
Johnson, on the other hand, has called for shifting funds from police to other social services, and I worry that the FOP would go to war with him on day one, just as the CTU did with Lightfoot after she defeated the union’s preferred candidate for mayor in 2019. We would all continue to pay a devastating price for that conflict.
* Sun-Times yesterday…
“[Larry Snelling, Mayor Johnson’s choice to lead the Chicago Police Department] was the one person that no matter which room we went in — from conservative rooms to progressive rooms to prosecutors to rank and file to community activists to the faith community, you name it — they all had great things to say about Larry Snelling,” [Anthony Driver, president of the new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability] said. […]
Snelling “commands the room. He exudes leadership by his mere stature. The way he carries himself. The way he speaks. He’s a proven leader,” [19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea] said. “The men and women on the Chicago Police Department — they want that. They want a strong leader that they know is gonna walk the walk as opposed to just talking the talk. And they know that Larry Snelling is gonna have their back. Now, more than ever, they need to believe in that.” […]
John Catanzara, the president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, said he was pleased with the mayor’s choice and offered no criticism.
“We’re glad it’s somebody that we know and know we can work with, somebody who I think the membership trusts and has faith that there’s hope in this department still,” Catanzara said.
He noted that Snelling quickly responded to a congratulatory text message on Sunday and called the union boss back to talk about next steps — a “night and day approach” from the past administration. Catanzara acknowledged that morale among the rank and file has already improved over the summer.
“[Mayor Johnson’s interim superintendent Larry Waller] absolutely made a concerted effort to repair the damage done — not only by Lightfoot, but by David Brown, to the FOP,” he said.
Politicians are often reduced to one-dimensional cartoons by opponents, pundits, the news media and the general public. Sometimes, the caricatures are accurate. Often-times, they’re not.
It’s way too early to judge how Johnson is doing his job, of course, and he wasn’t responsible for placing Snelling on the list of three candidates, but the reaction to this pick is quite something and definitely worth noting.
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Open thread
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Hope you all had fun-filled weekends! What’s going on in your part of Illinois?…
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Isabel’s morning briefing
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Here you go…
* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker OK’s measure allowing civil action against gun dealers and manufacturers for improper marketing campaigns: Pritzker and other elected officials discussed the gun marketing liability law in Chicago at McCormick Place during a conference for the national gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the event on Friday. “You know, we hold opioid manufacturers accountable. We hold vaping companies accountable. We hold predatory lenders accountable. Gun manufacturers shouldn’t get to hide from the law and now they won’t be able to,” Pritzker said at the conference on Saturday.
* Patch | Pritzker Signs Bill Giving Mental Health Center Land To Park District: After months of tension between the Village of Tinley Park and the Tinley Park-Park District as both entities vied for the right to purchase the long-vacant Tinley Park Mental Health Center land, Gov. Pritzker on Friday signed a law that will turn the property over to the park district for $1.
* Tribune | Over free speech objections from ACLU, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs measure that targets doxxing: “Like a lot of things involving technology, the law is slow to catch up,” state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, a Glenview Democrat, said in an interview. “Here, the focus isn’t on how you get that information, or even necessarily the information itself, but what that person does with that information.”
* Tribune | In a glimpse behind the curtain, federal prosecutors tell jurors at perjury trial of Tim Mapes how he allegedly shielded his boss, Madigan ‘the wizard’: Formal investigations all but called Mapes’ conduct dictatorial. But you’d never guess that by looking at Mapes last week, sitting meekly and respectfully between his two lawyers in the solemn setting of a federal courtroom.
* The Messenger | Ex Illinois Governor Who Spared Every Death Row Inmate Weighs in on Louisiana Governor’s Attempt to Do the Same: With the lives of 56 of 57 death row inmates in Louisiana hanging in the balance, Ryan says his decision in 2003 — just two days before leaving office — was necessary even if controversial.
* HF Chronicle | Three south suburban legislators say progress is being made on policing:U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, who represents Homewood and Flossmoor in Congress, Illinois Rep. Deborah Meyers-Martin, who represents sections of Homewood and Flossmoor in the Illinois House, and Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, who represents Homewood on the county board, recently sat down for a discussion with the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle to offer updates on topics they discussed after George Floyd’s death in 2020.
* Tribune Editorial | If Illinois redesigns its state flag, what best captures the ‘state’ of Illinois?: Here are some helpful suggestions from political cartoonist and amateur vexillologist Scott Stantis, inspired by things that put the “ill” in Illinois:
* Week in Review | State Gun Ban Decision; Top Madigan Aide on Trial: The Illinois Supreme Court upholds the state’s sweeping gun ban by a 4-3 decision. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris tells a Chicago audience of activists that their generation can end gun violence. More testimony in the perjury and obstruction trial of former House Speaker Mike Madigan’s confidant, Tim Mapes, who ran the Illinois Democratic Party. Mapes faces up to 25 years if found guilty.
* Scott Holland | Task forces can be the early work of significant legislation: Consider Monday’s signing of Senate Bill 1818, which creates the Illinois Flag Commission, or last week’s approval of Senate Bill 2123, which establishes a task force to study ranked choice voting. Strip away the fanfare or pushback to realize neither law actually does anything more than formalize the possibility of change.
* Sun-Times | Illinois Supreme Court upheld assault weapons ban, but there’s more work to do: More states, and Congress too, must stand up to the NRA and others who put the right to own battlefield-style weapons over the rights of everyday people to safely attend a Fourth of July parade, go to the grocery store or a block party or anyplace else in public.
* Sun-Times | Larry Snelling named mayor’s pick for Chicago’s new top cop: Snelling’s appointment by Mayor Brandon Johnson must be confirmed by the City Council. Before that crucial vote, he is expected to be introduced to Chicago residents — and face questions — during at least one public hearing.
* Crain’s | Chicago’s top public health official Allison Arwady is fired by Mayor Brandon Johnson: Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, was removed from her position on Friday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Arwady, who became commissioner in 2019 under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, had previously said she intended to remain in her post at CDPH under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. However, leading up to his election, Johnson criticized Arwady’s public health approach and said he would replace her.
* Daily Herald | Building changes, extra staffing: How suburban schools are spending final COVID grant funds: Like many suburban school districts, Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 officials used a hefty chunk of the final round of federal COVID-relief grant funds to upgrade ventilation systems in schools.
* Windy City Times | Equality Illinois officer files for state Senate seat: Public health, LGBTQ+-rights advocate and Wicker Park resident Jose “Che-Che” Wilson is joining the list of candidates seeking to fill the vacancy in the Illinois Senate for the 5th District.
* Ford County Chronicle | Iroquois County Board’s vice chairman interested in running for Tom Bennett’s state Senate seat: The Iroquois County Board’s vice chairman announced that he is interested in seeking election to the 53rd District Illinois Senate seat being vacated in January 2025 by the retirement of Gibson City’s Tom Bennett. Paul Ducat of Chebanse — one of four District I representatives on the 16-member Iroquois County Board.
* Daily Herald | As more suburban bag taxes come online, local chain flips plastic bag fee into reusable bag credit: After Batavia City Council voted in November to implement a 10-cent bag fee at many of its stores, health food chain Fruitful Yield decided to get ahead of the new policy and encourage its shoppers to bring their own bags by doing just the opposite.
* Herald-Review | Illinois reports 6% drop in uninsured vehicles since rollout of electronic verification: Last month, Sherman resident Joe Tavine was driving through his hometown when a local police officer pulled him over for going slightly over the speed limit. After supplying his license and insurance, Tavine was told that the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office had suspended his registration after being unable to verify his insurance policy back in October. As a result, his vehicle was towed.
* Daily Herald | Purple haze: How defective LED light fixtures are casting spooky glow over some suburban roads: Schaumburg is among the places where the purple lights have appeared. The village plans to replace 117 such fixtures along Meacham and Irving Park roads over the next few weeks.
* CBS Chicago | Chicago police officer reveals what new moms face on the force: For three years, Chicago Police officer Erin Kreho has documented filthy conditions inside rooms she was told to use when she needed to pump breast milk. She faced unsanitary conditions and a lack of privacy after having her children. Kreho also has filed formal complaints about the state and federal violations. Despite that, she says the Chicago Police Department has failed to fix the problems.
* Crain’s | WBEZ names new executive editor: In the new position, Bailon will “oversee editorial decisions regarding enterprise journalism, investigations, daily news and special projects,” according to a news release. Bailon’s duties will also see him partner on collaborative projects with the Chicago Sun-Times, which WBEZ parent Chicago Public Media acquired in 2022.
* News-Gazette | Inside Brooks & Dunn’s rider: 10 dozen bath towels, 17 types of beverage and a box of Cap’n Crunch: Technically, it’s the Vocal Duo of the Year Award — first presented at the 1970 CMA Awards to Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, before Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn’s four-year run. But in country music circles, it’s now informally known as the BROOKS & DUNN Award, named after the dynamic duo that turned 23 nominations into 14 wins, nine more than the next-closest act in that category (Sugarland and last month’s Champaign County Fair headliner, the Brothers Osborne).
* AP | A central Kansas police force sparked a firestorm by raiding a newspaper and the publisher’s home: A small central Kansas police department is facing a torrent of criticism for raiding a local newspaper’s office and the home of its owner and publisher, seizing computers and cellphones, and, in the publisher’s view, stressing his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her weekend death.
* News-Gazette | 4-H opened door to new worlds for newest Illinois Alumni Award Winner: 4-H isn’t just for farm kids, and it isn’t all about raising cattle, says Craig Pessman, who today will be honored as the organization’s 2023 Illinois Alumni Award Winner. The Champaign resident credits 4-H for giving him all kinds of skills he still uses today, plus a drive to dedicate himself to various philanthropic efforts.
* Tribune | As plan for invasive carp barrier hits another snag, scientists and citizens employ creative strategies to protect Lake Michigan: “They’re never going to get rid of them,” said Onedia Wolverton, of Missouri, who has been joining her son and his family at the Original Redneck Fishing Tournament for more than a decade. Her grandson, who is about to start college, has been coming since he was a little kid.
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Live coverage
Monday, Aug 14, 2023 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* ScribbleLive is still down. Twitter has stopped allowing people to embed list feeds on websites. So, click here or here to follow breaking news. You can click here to follow the Tim Mapes trial.
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