* Tara Davlin, the daughter of the late mayor, posted this on her Facebook page today…
For all of those that asked what they can do for us: Hug your loved ones tighter tonight for me. When we were down, my father always spoke the words, “This too shall pass.” Please remember that it will. Life is too short.
Words to live by.
* Timmy was a great Irishman, and many of us will never forget our good times with him at some tavern or another. So the Pogues will play us out. Raise your glasses and turn it up…
I am going, I am going
Any which way the wind may be blowing
I am going, I am going
Where streams of whiskey are flowing
UBS, the Swiss banking giant, has issued a new dress code for its workers — and it features some patented Swiss precision.
The 43-page edict is being tested at five Swiss branches. It notes that: “Our body odor cannot be changed. However, we can ensure that it produces only pleasant scents. Strong breath (garlic, onions, cigarettes) can have a significant impact on communication.”
It also includes, according to NBC:
For women:
♦ “Light makeup consisting of a foundation, mascara and discreet lipstick will enhance your personality.”
♦ “Women should not wear shoes that are too tight-fitting as there is nothing worse than a strained smile.”
♦ “A flawless appearance can bring inner peace and a sense of security.”
♦ “The ideal time to apply perfume is directly after you take a hot shower, when your pores are still open.”
The unemployment rate in Illinois fell to 9.6 percent in November from 9.8 percent in October, the eighth straight decline, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said today. But the state lost 2,600 jobs.
The jobless rate is down from 10.9 percent in November 2009 and fell below the national rate for the first time since January 2007. The national rate is 9.8 percent. […]
The biggest job gains over the year were in professional and business services, up 15,400; educational and health services, up 13,900; and trade , transportation and utilities, up 10,100.
The biggest job declines over the year were in construction, down 7,800; financial activities, down 5,300; and leisure and hospitality, down 3,800.
* Progress Illinois’ chart shows that the state’s rate is now below the national average, which is kinda good news, of sorts…
The number of foreclosures in Illinois fell by 24 percent from October to November. A report from Realty-Trac shows 12,941 people filed for foreclosures in November. The number includes default notices, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.
The rate is 21 percent lower than November of 2009. But it’s still an ominously high number; Illinois ranks 9th in the nation in foreclosures.
* Meanwhile, the Illinois Policy Institute takes a different look at tax burden rankings, which traditionally rate Illinois as a low-tax state. The per capita ranking is far higher…
Illinois’s state and local tax burden per capita ranked 14th-highest in 2008, at $4,346. The “tax burden” measure focuses on the total amount residents pay in state and local taxes, as opposed to how much money state and local governments collect. As citizens will pay taxes to bodies both within and outside of their state of residency, this measurement provides a better understanding of which states’ residents are most burdened by state and local taxes by tallying tax payments in taxpayers’ home states.
All neighboring states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Indiana, had lower per-capita tax burdens than Illinois in 2008.
The usual way of measuring is tax revenues as a percentage of personal income. This is why IPI claims that measurement skews the results…
…it’s important to note that income levels can skew rankings. High-income states will show lower collections as a percentage of income than low-income states even if the actual tax bill is exactly the same.
Consider Illinois and Indiana. Looking at state revenue collections per capita, Illinois and Indiana are ranked 27th and 26th, respectively. Illinois collected $2,267 per person in 2009, while next-door Indiana collected $2,320 per person—just $53 more. Yet in the measurement of state tax revenues as a percentage of personal income, Indiana ranked twenty slots higher (17th highest) than Illinois (37th highest). This is largely attributable to income levels: Illinois ranks 13th highest for per capita income, at $46,693, while Indiana ranks 40th highest, at $37,279. Illinois is a higher-income state than Indiana. Chicago’s status as a world financial center drives up income figures, and this in turn affects the rankings.
Two laws aimed at limiting the use of cell phones while driving have resulted in nearly 7,800 motorists being pulled over by the Illinois State Police this year.
In January, Illinois banned the use of cell phones in construction and school zones, as well as took aim at texting while driving. […]
Through Dec. 16, the construction and school zone ban netted 4,236 citations and 2,629 warnings from the state police.
The texting ban has resulted in a total of 929 citations and warnings over the same time period.
Those figures don’t count citations or warnings issued by county or municipal police agencies.
That’s about 132 a week for cell phones and about 18 a week for texting. Not a whole lot, particularly the texting ban, which is pretty tough to enforce.
To those who know her, it’s no surprise that Hannah Perryman would keep working for stalking victims, though her own ordeal is over.
But the rapid pace of happenings since she came forward to tell her story several weeks ago is daunting even to the teen who specializes in slinging fastballs for Elgin High’s softball team.
After being contacted by 17-year-old Hannah, who, after years of being stalked by a neighborhood teen pushed for a change in state law, Gov. Pat Quinn has issued a proclamation declaring January Stalking Awareness Month in Illinois.
Hannah said she recently e-mailed Quinn at his state of Illinois e-mail address, with links to the Daily Herald’s three-day series of articles telling her story. […]
In less than a week, Hannah said, Quinn wrote back with the news, sending her an official proclamation.
A Tinley Park couple was out of jail and cleaning up their home Thursday evening after being arrested and charged with running a $1 million marijuana lab from their suburban home.
John Gecan, 52, and his wife Darlene, 52, didn’t deny growing the plant, but said they weren’t distributing and seemed most upset about the raid on their 7,000 square foot home, located in the 5300 block of West 175th Street.
“You can’t come into somebody’s home and do that,” said John Gecan as he stood among the belongings strewn about the room. “It doesn’t matter what they found.”
Apparently, these people never anticipated that the coppers might ransack their alleged grow-house, which was pretty sophisticated…
Police showed off the mechanics of the basement operation, illustrating how the family hid a ventilation system in the walls and up four floors into a vent through the attic to get rid of the smell. There was another intake vent to let fresh air in, they said.
And the reason they grew the pot?…
“The real estate taxes went up four grand. My sons are unemployed, they can’t find jobs,” she explained.
Hookay.
* The infestation of Asian carp isn’t actually a crime, but we’ve declared war on the little buggers. And that little war might actually help a lonely little Metro East airport…
With invasive Asian carp teeming in Illinois rivers and growing exports of the fish back to Asia, St. Clair County leaders hope that booming trade may help their underused airport.
The county Public Building Commission approved the framework Thursday of a plan to turn MidAmerica St. Louis Airport into a center for the export of the carp to China.
The 12-year-old airport in Mascoutah has never turned a profit.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that under the plan, carp caught by commercial fishermen in Iowa and Illinois will be trucked to MidAmerica and shipped fresh aboard air cargo planes.
* On a far more serious note, the Tribune editorializes today about a bizarre loophole in Illinois law which may be closed soon…
In California, a doctor convicted of a sex crime automatically loses his license to practice medicine. It is automatic and permanent.
That’s not what happens in Illinois. A doctor convicted of a sex crime here sometimes escapes discipline — even when his victims are patients, as the Tribune’s Megan Twohey has reported. When a doctor is punished, the discipline can be as tepid as a short suspension of his medical license.
A Chicago-area doctor convicted in 2001 of sexually abusing a Villa Park woman who had sought a bikini-line laser treatment at his Oak Brook office can still practice medicine in Illinois.
So can a Downers Grove doctor convicted of misdemeanor sexual abuse and battery of a Lisle woman who came to his clinic seeking treatment for a severe headache.
* The Tribune is still trickling out its poll results…
The survey found 47 percent of Chicago voters now back a city-owned casino while 41 percent oppose it. Those numbers are almost the exact opposite of voters’ views in a similar Tribune survey taken in 2003.
The new poll of 721 registered and likely voters in the Feb. 22 mayoral contest found support for a city-owned casino greatest among voters younger than 50. Fully 56 percent of voters ages 18 to 35 favored a city gambling emporium, the same view held by 51 percent of voters 36 to 49. […]
The survey also found a sharp gender gap on the issue. Among men, 56 percent backed a city casino while only 34 percent opposed it. But 46 percent of female voters opposed a casino while 39 percent supported it.
Not exactly resounding support, but not a terribly large opposition, either.
More than half of Chicago voters don’t like the idea of spending future gains in city and county ticket taxes on renovating Wrigley Field, a new Tribune/WGN poll shows. […]
Fully 51 percent said they opposed such a plan, while only 36 percent supported it. Another 13 percent said they had no opinion of the proposal. The opposition was steady across gender, racial, age and income lines.
* This week’s WVON mayoral debate appearance by Sen. James Meeks is something of a racially charged goldmine.
For instance, Meeks claimed during the debate that mayoral opponent Rahm Emanuel kept African-American leaders “out of the White House,” and said of Emanuel, “He’s never done anything for African-Americans.”
I asked the Meeks campaign twice yesterday to explain the White House allegation, but did not hear back.
* Also, early in the debate, WVON went to a commercial break and left the video microphones on. It’s a bit tough to hear at first, but Meeks privately explains to Carol Moseley Braun about how “When white people were in the [school] system, resources, you name them. Art, music, all of that stuff was going on. When black and brown people are just in the system, they took out everything.” Watch…
It’s not that he’s necessarily wrong. It’s just that the clip may show how much he sees things as a racial issue.
* And a day after saying that women, Asians and Hispanics are “not people who have been discriminated against,” and aren’t “people of color” and therefore should not receive affirmative action benefits, Rev. Sen. James Meeks tried to calm things down a bit yesterday. It didn’t really work.
His first attempt at backtracking was to say that only white women should be excluded from affirmative action programs. But his comment just fanned the flames…
Hedy Ratner, co-president of the Women’s Business Development Center, was already “furious” at Meeks. She argued Thursday that, if anything, the 5 percent set-aside for women “should be higher.”
“Is he saying that this should be an African-American city with policies only for African Americans? I’m surprised that a candidate for mayor who wants to represent the entire city would exclude a majority of its citizens,” she said.
Paul Cerpa, executive director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA), said the federal government has made it clear that the “presumptive group” of those historically discriminated against includes blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and “women, regardless of ethnicity.”
“To draw the line in the sand and say, ‘This is only mine — not yours’ doesn’t allow everyone to play in the sandbox,” Cerpa said.
In a somewhat ambiguous statement issued Thursday afternoon, he said “all minority- and women-owned businesses deserve their fair share of city contract opportunities.”
However, it immediately adds, “Chicago has a history of systemic corruption in its minority- and women-owned business program and (a history that) that African-American-owned businesses are the most underrepresented among city contractors.”
* Meeks then attempted an apology of sorts on ABC7…
“People are making much ado about nothing,” said Senator Meeks.
Meeks apologized for–as he put it–”a bad choice of words”. The point he says is that African Americans receive only 70 percent of city contracts and have been criminally shortchanged by minority front companies.
“The federal government has deemed that this program is a corrupt one and we need to fix this program,” said Sen. Meeks.
Whatever you think about affirmative action programs and the very real problems with fraud, you can’t argue with the fact that Sen. Meeks has done a terrible job of communicating.
A couple of years ago, Meeks and I sat down to talk after he’d said something or another about some racial thing. I scolded him pretty good, saying he’d been a black preacher for so long and a black legislator for so long that he apparently never bothered to learn how to talk to white people (and, I should’ve added, “everyone else”). I told him that he needed to learn some basic communication skills. Obviously, he never did.
And that’ll about do it, folks, for the mayoral aspirations of Mr. Meeks, which were already a bit of a long-shot due to his social conservatism and the presence on the ballot of three other prominent African American candidates (two if you don’t count Roland Burris, which, come to think of it, you probably shouldn’t).
The question now is whether he’ll drop his increasingly unlikely bid before the election on Feb. 22 and try to gain some political leverage by offering his support to another candidate, or whether he’ll carry on to the bitter end.
My prediction is he’ll drop out.
On the other hand, Meeks could be hoping for a black backlash. We’ll see.
* Whenever a legislature tries to do some sort of budgetary or policy reform, somebody’s ox is gonna get gored. And sometimes, that certain somebody is a powerful interest group. For instance, the Illinois Hospital Association testified this week against lowering the rates paid for doctor visits for workers compensation patients…
Barb Malloy, consultant and former workers’ compensation administrator for the city of Chicago, said that medical fees employers pay for injured worker’s treatment in Illinois outpace what the state and federal government pay under medical programs for the low-income and elderly residents. Malloy said a standard visit to a doctor costs $24.25 under Medicaid, $42.99 under Medicare and $77.81 under workers’ compensation requirements in Illinois. […]
Mark Deaton, general counsel for the Illinois Hospital Association, said that as some of the largest employers in the state, hospitals are sensitive to costs of workers’ compensation. However, he warned that budget cuts and substantial federal health care reforms make it a dangerous time to do any major tweaking to Illinois’ health care sector. […]
Eugene Munin, budget director for the city of Chicago, said the city has seen workers’ compensation costs rise while the number of city employees decreased. Munin said the city has eliminated around 6,000 positions in the last 10 years because of budget cuts. He said the city had 2,000 workers’ compensation claims in 2005 and had 1,350 in 2009. But workers’ compensation cost Chicago $61 million in 2009 versus $38 million in 2005.
Clearly, the 2005 workers compensation reform bill didn’t save the system any money, and, in fact, raised costs. But changing the law will not be easy at all.
* More often than not, however, those “somebodies” are political nobodies with little power. From a press release…
Community Leaders to Governor Quinn: DON’T BE A GRINCH!
STREET THEATRE ACTION CALLS ON GOVERNOR AND IDOC TO KEEP THEIR PROMISES TO CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS
WHO/WHAT: Community and religious leaders will join Community Renewal Society’s Civic Action Network in a Christmas-themed action calling on Gov. Pat Quinn and Illinois Department of Corrections Director Gladyse Taylor to respond to the needs of children with incarcerated parents. Protesters will perform their adaptation of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” portraying Quinn as “the Grinch.” Protesters will also perform a series of mock Christmas carols and attempt to deliver letters to the offices of Quinn and Taylor. […]
WHY: At an Oct. 9 public meeting, Quinn and Taylor committed to working on behalf of children of incarcerated parents. But at a follow-up meeting, Taylor stated that she no longer felt that these issues fit into IDOC’s mission. Quinn has yet to schedule a meeting with the Children of the Incarcerated team, despite his commitment to meet by Thanksgiving.
Community Renewal Society’s Children of the Incarcerated campaign is advocating for vital resources for the more than 90,000 Illinois children who have a parent in prison or on parole.
* And these sorts of fight are likely to proliferate as the state attempts to solve its budget problems. Illinois isn’t alone…
The worst recession since the 1930s has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record. State tax collections, adjusted for inflation, are now 12 percent below pre-recession levels[1], while the need for state-funded services has not declined. As a result, even after making very deep spending cuts over the last two years, states continue to face large budget gaps. At least 46 states struggled to close shortfalls when adopting budgets for the current fiscal year (FY 2011, which began July 1 in most states). These came on top of the large shortfalls that 48 states faced in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. States will continue to struggle to find the revenue needed to support critical public services for a number of years, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs. States face:
A few charts…
Related…
* State eager to help keep local auto plant going: State officials aren’t saying exactly what they would do to help keep a Japanese carmaker in Central Illinois, but Gov. Pat Quinn hasn’t been shy about doling out big-ticket incentives for other struggling automobile manufacturers.
The real estate manager who helped Rahm Emanuel buy his North Side home testified in a residency hearing today that Emanuel’s renters wanted $100,000 to end their lease early when he returned to Chicago this fall to run for mayor. […]
Levy said he passed the $100,000 figure to Emanuel, who called it “ridiculous.” The counter offer was $5,000 a month for every month early the Halpins left, Levy said. The lease is set to expire in mid-2011.
* And could this $100K gambit by the Halpins been part of the challenge to Emanuel’s candidacy? Maybe…
A lawyer for Halpin called him, [realtor Paul Levy] said, and told him he was concerned that another lawyer Halpin was talking to, Burt Odelson, was speaking to the press about the situation in possible breach of the confidentiality agreement that is a rider on the Halpins’ lease.
Odelson went on to be the lawyer for the lead objectors to Emanuel’s candidacy.
Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.
* Hearing officer Joe Morris is expected to decide today whether to call Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, to the stand. So far, Emanuel’s lawyers have been able to keep her out of it. But after yesterday’s weirdness, Morris may have no choice…
Rahm Emanuel’s tenant, Lori Halpin, testified Wednesday that contrary to Emanuel’s testimony, she has never seen any of the 100 boxes of personal items he says he left in the basement.
Halpin said she has not found any hidden room where such boxes might be stored. There is a piece of plywood behind some shelves against an outside wall that would lead to an area under a porch. But she would not think people would store valuables there, she said. […]
As part of his argument that he is eligible to run for mayor, Emanuel testified Tuesday that he kept 100 boxes of valuable and sentimental personal items – his wife’s wedding dress, a jacket owned by his grandfather – in the Ravenswood home he rented out to the Halpins a year and a half ago.
A friend of Chicago mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel’s wife testified Wednesday that she helped pack away their family heirlooms and other mementos for storage before Emanuel moved to Washington to become President Obama’s chief of staff.
Mee Kim-Chavez spoke at a Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing on residency challenges to Emanuel’s bid for the city’s top job. She said she helped Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, store 20 to 30 boxes in a crawl space under a home addition they’d built.
“She was going to come back,” Kim-Chavez said of the possessions. “There was no need for her to take them with her to D.C.”
On Tuesday, Rahm Emanuel testified that he didn’t know whether his wife checked the box for a “permanent” address change on the US Postal Service’s form to forward their mail to DC. That could also be a reason for her testimony.
If Morris decides not to call Ms. Rule, then he could wrap everything up today.
* Meanwhile, some of the objectors who got all goofy on Tuesday and didn’t seem to understand how to ask a question and that the questions they asked needed to be pertinent to a residency case complained to Morris yesterday about their treatment in the media…
The proceedings sometimes became chaotic as objectors shouted in protest and held Emanuel’s vehicle sticker up to overhead lights to try to see if it was real.
Some of those citizens pointed out Wednesday they did ask some proper questions, complaining to Morris that the news media portrayed them as a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists and “rejects from ‘The Price is Right.’”
Objector Georzetta “Queen Sister” Deloney challenged the media to stop making fun of her behind her back, saying that from there, “you’re in a real good position to kiss my butt.”
Quite a large number of Tuesday’s objectors appeared to have far higher self-esteem than self-awareness. It was positively painful, which may have been the object of the whole charade. It’s not the media they should be upset with, it’s the people who may have put them up to this scam in the apparent hope that their antics could ruffle Emanuel’s feathers.
Burt Odelson, the lead attorney in the case against Emanuel, appeared to be losing his patience with some of the non-attorney activists who have piggy-backed onto his case. Odelson complains that some of the out-of-left-field questions some of them ask cloud the central legal question of the case.
As one challenger, Dr. Lora Chamberlain, asked Levy whether the disputed “storage area” in the house’ basement where the Emanuels say their valuables are stored is heated, Odelson told her that was a “great” question.
Rahm Emanuel’s wife won’t be subpoenaed to testify as the hearing over residency challenges to his mayoral bid grinds on.
Some of the objectors to Emanuel’s Feb. 22 mayoral bid withdrew their requests to subpoena Amy Rule.
A Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing officer also denied a request for a subpoena from another objector who didn’t give a good reason why Rule should be called to testify.
No surprise about the objector’s nonsensical reasoning. Sheesh.
The mayoral-race mystery of where candidate Rahm Emanuel stored boxes of personal items has been solved.
Attorneys for Emanuel visited the house he owns in Ravenswood at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, located the much-discussed “crawl space,” looked inside and found the valuable items Emanuel had maintained he had stored there. They have argued the fact they left the items there while Emanuel went to Washington D.C. to work as President Obama’s chief of staff shows he always planned to return to Chicago — and therefore should be eligible to run for mayor.
Attorney Dana S. Douglas brought photos of the boxes — which include his wife’s wedding dress and other sentimental items — to Emanuel’s ongoing residency hearing just 80 minutes after taking the pictures Wednesday, and he passed copies of the photos around to all the objectors claiming Emanuel is not a bona fide resident of Chicago.
But, of course, one of the objectors refused to be convinced…
“I believe that these photographs are phony and faked. Those could have been taken in my house,” said objector Zakiyyah Muhammad.
* A new school reform proposal working its way through the Illinois House has a section which would severely limit teachers’ right to strike. If there’s an impasse, the state’s Education Labor Relations Board could appoint a fact finding panel which would then come up with a solution. If that’s rejected by both parties, the panel’s proposals are published in local newspapers and the sides then have 10 days to settle. If there is no settlement, the two sides exchange their proposals and then the school boards, by a two-thirds vote, can impose a solution on the unions. If the school boards cannot muster a two-thirds vote, then and only then the union has the right to strike.
However, according to an internal analysis I’ve obtained created by the Illinois State Board of Education, it appears that Chicago’s education board could simply impose their own terms on the teachers union and prevent it from striking. And lots of people believe that this bill is designed to prevent a teachers strike when the current contract expires in 2012.
The legislation would also prevent teachers from including school-year length in their union contracts. Again, this appears aimed at the city, where the school year is one of the shortest in the nation.
* The Question: Should the Chicago Board of Education be allowed to impose its own terms on the teachers union to prevent a strike? Explain.
* Related…
* Illinois lawmakers considering plan to limit tenure, strike rights
Navy Pier officials blame Groupon for a drop in revenue for its biggest annual festival, though they credit the daily-deal site for generating more traffic.
With Winter Wonderfest ticket sales up 12% in volume, but event revenue down about 8% so far, Navy Pier officials are reconsidering whether future partnerships with Chicago-based Groupon are worthwhile.
Groupon offered Winter Wonderland tickets for $9, half the price, one day in early November. Mark Thompson, senior director of marketing for the Pier, estimated some 7,500 Groupons were sold that day — a 283% increase from the same Groupon deal offered for last year’s Wonderfest.
Overall ticket sales are running 12% ahead of last year to date.
But revenue is down considerably: Wonderfest has netted $420,000, compared with $455,000 during the same period in 2009.
While pier officials expect to garner more revenue than last year for the indoor holiday fun fair, which runs through Jan. 2, they plan to evaluate whether to use Groupon again, at least at those deep discount levels.
Well, duh. Groupon claims it is always willing to make a deal with its clients, and that’s what should have been done here to begin with. It’s not really Groupon’s fault that Navy Pier officials didn’t consider that so many tickets could be sold at such a low price.
Groupon has been criticized for this before, but every time I’ve seen a story, it’s about a businessperson who was overwhelmed with the response to its offer and ended up losing money. They either figured that coupon holders would buy other items when they were in their shops (which didn’t happen because the shoppers just wanted the steeply discounted stuff) and/or they simply sold too many items at less than the cost of providing them. From Chicagoist…
We’ve taken advantage of one Groupon that we can remember and have talked with chefs and other entrepreneurs who have felt similarly burned after doing a Groupon. We were also at a recent brunch at a local restaurant where we were also the only person in the restaurant who wasn’t there because of a Groupon deal.
But that’s the Catch-22 with Groupon. It should introduce businesses to valuable new customers, but once the half-off deal is cashed in, does it?
Groupon users are apparently cheapskates. So, buyer beware.
* Speaking of Groupon, they’re helping spark a tech boom in Chicago, according to WBEZ…
In this building, Watermelon Express is like a tiny barnacle stuck to the side of the Groupon battleship.
It’s an example of how Groupon is transforming the culture of Chicago, creating the right atmosphere for small companies like this one to get a start.
RANGNEKAR: I would say the last nine months have been phenomenal. I would not want to be in any other city but Chicago right now.
And here’s the lineage to Groupon.
Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell are serial entrepreneurs who bankrolled Groupon.
They discovered Rangnekar at the University of Chicago business school and funded his company in July.
It’s one of eight startups they’ve invested in this year out of a new $100 million dollar fund.
Keywell says Chicago’s tech scene is starting to get the ego it needs to rival Silicon Valley.
* Rev. Sen. James Meeks has a well-known mouth problem. The problem is he continually inserts his foot into his mouth, particularly on the subject of race. From Fox Chicago…
On Wednesday, Chicago mayoral candidate James Meeks said that only African-Americans should be able to participate in affirmative action programs– and that Hispanics, Asians, and women should be excluded. Later, he tried to clarify his remarks.
Speaking to a candidates’ forum Wednesday on black-oriented WVON radio, the South Side state senator said it’s unacceptable that the share of city contracts going to African-American-owned businesses has shrunk in recent years.
“I think that the word ‘minority,’ from our standpoint, should mean African-American,” Meeks said. “I don’t think women, Asians and Hispanics should be able to use that title. That’s why our numbers cannot improve, because we use women, Asians and Hispanics, who are not people of color, who are not people who have been discriminated against. We fought for these laws based on discrimination. Now, groups that have not been discriminated against are the chief beneficiaries.” […]
Later on Wednesday night, Meeks attempted to clarify his earlier statement, and said that he would remove from City Hall affirmative action set-aside only businesses owned by “white women.”
Video…
React…
“People need those protections that are afforded in that term and the programs that go along with them. I think we need a broader set of protections, not a narrower set of protections,” Gery Chico said.
“I think what is needed is a greater outreach effort to make sure that we have qualified businesses who can contract,” Miguel del Valle said.
“I think the whole point of the set-asides is to integrate and bring people into our economy who had previously been excluded and that includes women and African Americans and Hispanics. There’s a whole list of people,” Carol Moseley Braun said.
* 3 black Chicago mayoral candidates agree on little
* Mayoral hopefuls enlisting help from corporate, civic worlds: “I just accepted this responsibility a week and a half ago,” said Willie Wilson, an entrepreneur and former McDonald’s franchisee, who is volunteering as U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ finance chairman. “By the end of next week, I should have my arms around this thing.”
* Golden Horseshoe for best commenter was pretty easy to choose. Wordslinger gets it. Even Bill, who generally hates everybody, nominated him…
He remembers great stories I haven’t thought about in decades. He seems to have been everywhere when everything happened (or he has a great Wiki link). Plus he plays it straight most of the time and calls them like he sees them.
Honorable mention goes to my old friend Steve Schnorf. Here is Yellow Dog Democrat’s nomination…
Schnorf brings a gravitas to the discussion that no one else does. Amidst the ad hominem arguments, the rhetoric, spin, flakiness, and on-up-manship, Schnorf stands out as a reminder that the issues we debate here are important and that the outcome of the public debate in Springfield has real consequences for real people.
* Best non-political legislative staffer is Jessica Handy of the Senate Democratic staff. Jessica told me she was taking herself out of the running because she left staff last week for another job, but this isn’t a prospective award, it’s for the past year, so she wins…
Jess gets both the policy and the politics and, in an environment where it’s easy to become jaded quickly, she never forgets that what she’s doing affects real people. She’s so invested it’s almost unhealthy.
Tasked with education and pensions over the last few years, she handled a huge workload–not just a large number of bills, but some of the most complicated and controversial bills to come before the GA in recent memory (HB 174, pensions reform, and vouchers, to name a few). President Cullerton has had enough faith in her to call her in to brief not just his own caucus but the House Dems, as well. She’s completely top notch, and the caucus is losing a huge asset.
Honorable mention goes to John Hollman…
John Hollman on House Democratic staff is indispensable! He is organized and works well under pressure, making him a perfect candidate to have his hands in many of the big projects House Democrats deal with each session. His understanding of and familiarity with the legislative process is incredible. He works hard not only on his own committees but staffs the all important rules process as well.
* A roundup of all our winners, with honorable mentions in parentheses…
* Best political bar in Springfield: The Globe
* Best political restaurant in Springfield: Saputo’s
* Best Springfield hotel: Statehouse Inn
* Best campaign staffer - state legislative: Shaw Decremer (Heather Weir Vaught)
* Best campaign staffer - constitutional office or congressional: Eric Elk (Mary Morrissey)
* Best campaign spokesperson: Aaron Chambers (Patty Schuh)
* Best government spokesperson: Steve Brown (Ashley Cross)
* Best Senate secretary/admin assistant: Nancy Beaty (Robin Gragg)
* Best House secretary/admin assistant: : Beth Hamilton (Kristin Milligin)
* Best Illinois state Representative: Bill Black and Greg Harris (tie)
* Best Illinois state Senator: Don Harmon (Gary Dahl)
* Best Statehouse contract lobbyist: Dave Sullivan (Mike Kasper)
* Best in-house lobbyist: Eileen Mitchell (Pat Devaney)
* Best “do-gooder” lobbyist: Jonathan Goldman (Dick Lockhart)
* Best Statehouse “insider”: Mike McClain (Bill Luking)
* Best Illinois state agency director: Julie Hamos (Gary Hannig)
* Best Illinois congresscritter: Dick Durbin (Peter Roskam)
* Best Illinois statewide elected official: Dan Hynes (Bill Holland)
* Best state legislative staffer - non-political: Jessica Handy (John Hollman)
* Best CapitolFax.com commenter: Wordslinger (Steve Schnorf)
Congratulations to all!
* Anyone up for a holiday party? It’ll probably have to be in Springfield, unless we do it the week between Christmas and New Years Eve.
* I have a meeting with State Police Acting Director Jonathon Monken later today to ask him about yesterday’s worthless and perhaps even harmful press conference….
Illinois State Police refused Tuesday to release any details about the death of Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin, whose body was found Tuesday morning in his home on Apple Creek Drive.
Sources told The State Journal-Register that Davlin, 53, died from a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted, but State Police Director Jonathon Monken refused Tuesday afternoon to confirm that or say even whether the mayor had been shot. […]
Monken did not rule out foul play.
“It’s always considered when you’re looking at a death investigation,” Monken said.
Asked during a Tuesday afternoon news conference whether residents in the area should be concerned about the possibility of homicide, Monken did not give a direct answer. […]
Monken would not say why he would not tell reporters whether the mayor had been shot. He also refused to be specific when asked whether anyone else was in Davlin’s home. […]
Speaking more than six hours after the mayor’s death, Monken said police also had not yet determined who called 911 or what telephone number the call came from.
Not good at all. There’s really no excuse for withholding all information from the public. Last I checked, this was still a democracy. But we’ll see what Monken says.
* Todd Renfrow just said on the radio that Mayor Davlin’s wake will be at Blessed Sacrament tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The funeral will be at 10 o’clock on Friday.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Strike those times and dates. Renfrow may have made a mistake. Checking.
Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin died Tuesday of a gunshot wound to the chest, apparently self-inflicted, according to Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone’s office, which conducted an autopsy Wednesday morning.
* I’m sure they’ll find a way to do it, but I don’t think anyone can say that Joe Morris was unfair to the people objecting to Rahm Emanuel’s candidacy during yesterday’s 11-hour hearing.
Morris only lost his cool a couple of times. Objector Jeffrey Joseph Black was going on and on about some weird thing or another and claiming that Morris was helping covering up for Emanuel, Morris finally said “I don’t know if I have contempt powers, but I’m getting close to wanting to find out.”
He probably should’ve done that before the hearing. Check out this exchange with Black…
“Did you travel to Waco, Texas three days prior to or three days after April 19, 1993?” Objector Jeffrey Joseph Black asked, referring to the government’s raid on a cult compound during the Clinton administration.
“No,” Emanuel said.
“Have you ever heard the term, ‘Smiling like a butcher’s dog?’” Black asked Emanuel.
Hearing officer Joe Morris cut off Black, saying, “You are allowed to treat the witness like a hostile witness — you are not allowed to be hostile to the witness.”
Emanuel enjoyed an extended laugh.
Another objector asked Emanuel if he was a citizen of Israel and if he was a “freedom fighter” for Israel.
Another, a woman named Zakiyyah Muhammad, wanted to know what role Emanuel played in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s request that Shirley Sherrod leave her job as Georgia’s director of rural development after comments she made in March were misconstrued as racist.
Sheesh.
* If you have time, take a look at the video of some of the objectors’ oftentimes bizarre and almost uniformally ill-informed “questions”…
* Black Alleges Conspiracy Involving Emanuel, Election Officials: Perhaps the most combative of all the objectioners, Black goes after Joseph Morris, the election hearing commissioner, and alleges a wide cover-up to allow Emanuel on the ballot. Morris continually strikes Black’s questions and statements and takes him to task for his line of questioning.
* Queen Sister Georgetta Deloney Offers Statements, Few Questions: This activist makes arguments, rather than asks questions of the witness. She asks Emanuel how, if it’s been a life-long dream to be mayor of Chicago, he wouldn’t have had the forethought to make sure he had residency in the city. Morris jumps in and clarifies that it’s exactly what Emanuel thought he’d done.
* Paul McKinley Asks About Residency, Communism: After asking questions that had already been addressed earlier in the day, election commissioner Joseph Morris seems to nearly beg for an appropriate question from objector Paul McKinley. He ultimately asks: “Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”
Just imagine Daley in Emanuel’s spot Tuesday with citizens brazenly asking questions. He’d have been a jabbering pile of goo after only an hour, pulling at his collar, sighing, perhaps threatening to take his pants off as he’s done at least twice in the past.
Or he could very well have done a full-blown Mayor Chucky, striking terror into everyone at the board of elections hearing.
That same thought crossed my mind about Daley as well. Can you imagine? Oy.
* But Kass is completely wrong to claim that state law is cut and dried on this issue…
The wacky behavior helped Rahm by diverting attention away from the facts and the law. And though some pundits and Rahministas develop a terrible case of hives when I mention it, Illinois law is quite clear on this residency issue.
It simply states that anyone wishing to run for mayor of Chicago must have lived in the city for at least a year prior to the election. And we know Rahm did not.
The law doesn’t say “lived” it says “resided,” and “resided” is a legal term. Legal terms are open to interpretation and that’s what this case is all about. The statute…
A person is not eligible for an elective municipal office unless that person is a qualified elector of the municipality and has resided in the municipality at least one year next preceding the election or appointment, except as provided in subsection (c) of Section 3.1-20-25, subsection (b) of Section 3.1-25-75, Section 5-2-2, or Section 5-2-11.
What’s left here is a legal question of whether Emanuel did enough to preserve his Chicago residency, an issue Emanuel admitted Tuesday he’d never even contemplated until lawyer Burt Odelson raised the matter after Emanuel signaled his intention to run.
Emanuel says he and his family always intended to return here and kept the Ravenswood house as their official legal residence. Odelson, an election law specialist who I would characterize as the one serious objector, maintains Emanuel abandoned his legal residency when he rented out the house and didn’t take another place.
As I’ve said, I think it’s a legitimate question to raise, although one that ought to be eventually resolved in favor of Emanuel. He shouldn’t have forfeited his right to run for public office here on the basis of serving the president of the United States. It’s certainly possible that the Supreme Court of Illinois will decide otherwise.
* The end of the hearing was interesting, however. Emanuel has so far succeeded in convincing Morris not to call his wife to the stand. But he was forced to admit that perhaps his wife would know more about certain aspects of the case under questioning. We’ll see.
* In other news, the Chicago Tribune has a new poll showing Rahm Emanuel leading the pack with 32 percent. Gery Chico and Danny Davis are tied for second, but are in single digits at 9 percent…
Davis, an African-American political veteran who also served on the City Council and the Cook County Board, was backed by 21 percent of black voters, but just 2 percent of Hispanics and 1 percent of whites.
Among blacks, 30 percent are undecided, 19 percent back Emanuel, 13 percent favor Meeks and 10 percent are for Braun. Burris, once a popular African-American politician, had just 3 percent support among blacks.
Chico — of Latino, Greek and Lithuanian heritage — had 15 percent support among whites, 12 percent among Hispanics and just 2 percent among blacks.
Chico and del Valle combined trail Emanuel in the Latino community. Among likely Hispanic voters, 36 percent are undecided, 27 percent favor Emanuel, 14 percent del Valle and 12 percent Chico.
The Chico campaign is claiming that Emanuel is losing support even as he spends cash. From an internal campaign memo…
After spending well over a million dollars on television ads, our internal polling shows that Rahm’s support has actually decreased by four percent – and despite not having run a single campaign ad – Gery’s numbers have risen by five percent. A nine- point swing before Christmas is a great start.
* Related…
* The ‘Waco’ wacko and other goofballs make high comedy of the Emanuel hearing
* Chicago neighborhood integration grinds to halt, according to Census data: Here, 81 percent of blacks would have to move in order to be distributed as evenly across the city as whites, down slightly from 83 percent in 2000, according to a Sun-Times analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s 5-year American Community Survey. For Hispanics, that figure is 49 percent for 2009 compared to 47 percent in 2000… Nationwide, a similar index calculated by professors from Brown University and Florida State University showed an average of 65 percent for black-white segregation and 52 percent for Hispanics.
* Lincoln-related tourism drops after 200th anniversary of birth: A post-bicentennial drop in tourism numbers reduced attendance by more than a third at some Lincoln sites this year. Hotel stays also fell. But tourism and historic-site managers say the fall-off from the 200th anniversary celebration in 2009 of Abraham Lincoln’s birth was anticipated. They remain encouraged that numbers in most cases were ahead of 2008
* Center for women shuts down: One of the city’s pioneering social service entities to combine non-profit and for-profit strategies to train low-income women for work has folded — a victim of the economy.
* Mitsubishi workers set to vote on contract changes
* Cook County orders audit for promotions and pay hikes
* Preckwinkle makes financial checks in first Cook County Board meeting
* Former Chicago revenue inspector accused of soliciting bribes
* Northwestern attorneys seek to seal evidence in wrongful conviction case
* Career prosecutor sworn in as DuPage state’s attorney - Robert Berlin was sworn in Tuesday morning as DuPage County state’s attorney after a 17-0 vote
* Cahnman found not guilty in solicitation case: Springfield defense attorney Dan Fultz argued to the seven-woman, five-man jury that Cahnman didn’t solicit the women, but simply accepted the offer they made to him. “You can think he was stupid, you can think that he was morally wrong, but he’s not on trial for any of that,” Fultz said.
