* I asked below whether anything else was going on out there in Politics Land. Well, yes, there is something else going on out there. I missed Hinz’s post…
…the national Republican Party is up to something at City Hall, where it has formally asked dozens of city departments to turn over copies of any communication they’ve had with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan.
The party’s National Republican Senatorial Committee last month sent identical Freedom of Information requests to 27 city departments, including law, the inspector general’s office, the O’Hare Modernization Program and the police review board.
The letters, signed by Sean Cairncross, the committee’s chief counsel, ask for copies of any documents, written or electronic, of “correspondence to or from” either one of the Madigans.
For the attorney general, the period covered stretches back to January 2003, when she took office. For Mr. Madigan, the panel wants records stretching back decades, to January of 1971.
A couple of state agencies have also received the requests. And I think there are more FOIAs out there. I seem to recall something said to me a couple of weeks ago that got lost in the end of session shuffle.
Whatever the case, that’s one heck of a fishing expedition. And it’s a very strong indication that the Republicans intend to make Speaker Madigan the top issue in next year’s campaign regardless of what the attorney general runs for.
* I’m not sure whether it’s a web admin mistake or what, but this is all that remains of Sneed’s top item in today’s Sun-Times online edition…
Begorrah! The Merchandise Mart’s Chris Kennedy may not yet have “officially” announced his bid for the U.S. Senate in Illinois — but his cousin, Ted Kennedy Jr., did the “unofficial deed.”
The print edition included this…
* To wit: “I was told not to talk politics tonight, but…you here in Illinois can have your own Sen. Kennedy — my cousin, Chris, is running,” Ted Kennedy Jr. said at an Access Living dinner at Navy Pier Tuesday night.
* Backshot: U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s son made the statement while accepting an award on behalf of his ailing father.
* Slipshot: Chris Kennedy, vice chairman of the event, kept quiet. Gov. Quinn, who told Sneed recently that Chris Kennedy was one of his heroes, was also there. And so was first lady Maggie Daley. [emphasis added]
So, he’s in. Or was it a mistake? You got me.
* Speaking of US Senate candidates, I’ve gotten this e-mail twice now, so I’ll post it to get him off my back…
Mr. Stan Jagla, 47 years old, a progressive DuPage county Democrat, government reform advocate and Democratic candidate for the 2010 U.S. Senate election, registered with the FEC on January 2, 2009 for this race. He has been planning this campaign since July 2007, long before his possible primary opponents. He also filed his candidacy with the FEC before Alexi Giannoulias. And unlike the Giannoulias’ campaign, our campaign committee is a campaign committee, firmly committed to the campaign, not just an exploratory committee.
Mr. Jagla will likely face Alexi Giannoulias, and possibly other Democrats, for the Democratic nomination in the primary election, before he will face the Republican candidate in the General election in November 2010. Mr. Jagla has the support of rank and file Democrats, in contrast with the Cook County Democratic Machine candidates, who believe that they can BUY the U. S. Senate seat, through the usual ‘pay to play’ methods.
Mr. Jagla was a life long Independent, who in 2007 joined the Democratic party to help rebuild our Democracy. In February 2008 he was elected Democratic precinct committeeman in Bloomingdale Township. In the 2008 primary for the 6th U.S. Congressional district, against a heavily supported Cook County Democratic machine candidate, in a highly manipulated primary, Mr. Jagla received over 15,000 votes. During the General election in 2008, against a widely respected and heavily supported Republican incumbent in the election for the DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk, Mr. Jagla received over 160,000 votes. Both elections were used as a training ground for the current 2010 U.S. Senate race.
Jagla lost to Democrat Jill Morgenthaler in last year’s 6th CD primary by about 37,000 votes.
* Many kudos to the Illinois Information Service for live-streaming Gov. Quinn’s 11:30 am joint announcement today with his Taxpayer Action Board’s chairman about the board’s budget reform recommendations. You can listen live by clicking here.
Then, at about 1:30 this afternoon, the governor will hold a press availability following his meeting with the legislative leaders. That, too, will be live-streamed. Click here to listen.
If you can live-blog the events in comments, you’d be a big help to others. Thanks.
*** UPDATE - 11:44 am *** You can read the Taxpayer Action Board report by clicking here.
* There are some harsh comments in the “Minority Report” section, which begins on page 107. This is from TAB member Dory Rand…
In the same “Medicaid Spending” section, the report states that “Medicaid is now the largest single state expense in Illinois, accounting for over 40% of general fund appropriations.” This statement of the expenditure level does not account for the large role of federal funds. It is astonishing that this report does not isolate the state funds spending in Medicaid as its sole focus. The TAB was created to deal with state spending. This report deliberately hides the state spending aspect of Medicaid. The dimensions of this error and its potential to mislead the discussion are substantial. In fiscal year 2006, for example, the state money devoted to Medicaid was 19.4% of state general revenue spending and 18.6% of state funds spent in the entire budget (compared to the 40% that the report uses by including the huge federal portion of the program in its sole statement of Medicaid’s part of the budget).
* And this one was written by frequent blog commenter and former budget director Steve Schnorf, with co-signors Woods Bowman, Dory Rand and Richard Sewell…
In three instances at least, I believe you are being directed toward fixing things that probably aren’t really very broken, and that might not be a best use of your time and energy.
Schnorf makes a whole lot of very good points, particularly about Medicaid. His remarks start at page 121. Go read them.
* This is a very interesting recommendation from the majority report…
To dramatically reduce the prison population by reviewing the prisoners’ records to identify inmates that may no longer represent a significant risk to society, and to allow those individuals to re-enter society under state supervision.
* More from the report…
While across-the-board operating cuts are often criticized as a sledgehammer approach, which can miss large opportunities for cost reductions and penalize disproportionately those programs that are already
operating efficiently, a cut of 2-3% in all budget lines from the FY09 appropriation level would save considerable costs and is an option the State should review.
That would actually be a tiny percentage of what the governor’s office is looking at now. In other words, a vast improvement over the current plan.
* Schnorf’s conclusion in his minority report…
You can, and I believe you will, get some savings from the suggestions in this report. It probably won’t equal billions and it certainly won’t all happen over 12-18 months. Good luck.
The board says the state could save $95 million by managing the care of Medicaid patients more effectively and as much as $65 million by releasing some nonviolent offenders from state prisons.
The Senate GOP has claimed that managed care would save $3 billion, and the Tribune editorial page has fully bought into the notion.
…Adding… Here’s what the report claims, with a footnote explaining it…
Promote cost-effective care management strategies that focus on the health of the person, promote prevention and wellness, and provide a medical home. (2) [$95 million savings in FY 10]
(2) Estimates reflect cost savings created by a decrease in the projected growth rate of Medicaid expenditures, not a spending cut from the current budget level.
*** UPDATE - 3:13 pm *** The live presser never happened, but the governor did talk to reporters and there is a downloadable audio file. Listen here.
* In a column defending Patti Blagojevich, Mary Mitchell claims that Children’s Memorial Hospital is somehow hinky…
According to the hospital’s own Web site, it has a “long history of partnering with government and community leaders,” which means top administrators likely weren’t strangers to pay-to-play schemes.
Let’s see. Rod Blagojevich was caught on tape saying he wanted to shake down the hospital’s CEO for a $50,000 contribution in exchange for approving an $8 million expenditure which paid physicians to treat poor kids. But we don’t know yet whether the demand was ever made. We do know the CEO never paid up. And we also know that the entire state grant was bricked until Blagojevich was out of office.
But Mitchell is pretty sure the hospital execs are crooked, or at least familiar with crookedness. So, her logic goes, why shouldn’t Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, which is affiliated with the hospital, take the charity money offered by Mrs. Blagojevich during her self-degrading stint on a horrific reality TV show?
This is exactly what is wrong with Illinois and why reform laws are useless unless attitudes are also changed. Taking blood money from that family would mean the hospital was admitting the shakedown was no big deal and that its forgiveness could be bought with a few pennies. It’s simply amazing to me that anyone would endorse accepting this cash at a time of political crisis. There are more important things in life than a few dollars, for crying out loud. But, hey, this is Illinois…
Still, I don’t know what the former governor’s alleged wrongdoing has to do with his wife’s decision to help a foundation devoted to curing pediatric cancer.
That one graf does more to sum up our problem than anything I’ve seen written in months.
If Mrs. Blagojevich had dumped her husband after his arrest, instead of praying for his delliverance from the “evil and oppression” of federal prosecutors on national TV, then, yeah, take the money. Otherwise, it’s just another bribe.
Quinn’s office told state agencies on Wednesday to begin planning to make do with that budget for the coming year, in case nothing better is approved.
In a letter to the agencies, Chief of Staff Jerome Stermer called it a “very challenging and unpleasant task” because it could mean cutting services that “sustain the lives and well being of hundreds of thousands of our neediest citizens.”
Those cuts may have to be deeper than first thought.
Quinn’s office says the budget passed by lawmakers does not include enough money to match the much-reduced level of spending it contains. In other words, it was designed to eliminate the deficit but contains a deficit of its own. Quinn aides said they were still calculating the size of the gap.
The guv’s office and the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly already know pretty well what the size of that deficit is. And it ain’t pretty. We’re looking at huge cuts (including big cuts to personnel) on top of the “50 percent” funding included in the budget. It’ll be a horror show.
“I think this all becomes a political game,” said Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. “They didn’t cut into the bureaucracy. They cut into the service providers.”
You can be assured that people like Rep. Brauer are about to get their wish…
[AFSCME] is convinced, though, that the budget approved by lawmakers contains enough shortfalls that layoffs are inevitable.
And then some.
* The AP did give me a hat tip in the piece for reporting that Senate President John Cullerton had placed a parliamentary hold on the budget. Thanks for that. But, actually, it was first tipped here in comments.
Cullerton’s press secretary explains why he did what he did…
“Following our meeting with the governor on Monday, it was made very clear to us that the Governor did not support the budget that we sent him, and in fact he may even veto it, so we simply took that option off the table, and we hope to work with the governor and the other caucuses in coming up with a revenue solution that works for everyone.”
* Besides a big rally at the Thompson Center, here’s what we’re looking forward to today…
Gov. Pat Quinn and top lawmakers are supposed to resume their budget negotiations Thursday, the same day a special panel is to suggest ways to streamline Illinois government. […]
They may get some help from the Taxpayer Action Board, which Quinn created earlier this year. The board has spent about two months looking at government operations and ways they could be improved.
Civic groups and think tanks have smothered Springfield in proposals for managed care and other structural reforms that would help patients and taxpayers alike. Statehouse leaders merely bury their heads, as if this staple of private sector insurance is some foreign and dangerous interloper.
But not one word of the budgetary consequences of those moves. And not one acknowledgment of the state’s severe revenue problems…
the state faces about $5 billion less in revenues this year compared to last.
* And here’s what happens when you try to cut something. Even the GOP objects…
The plan, known as “hold harmless”, guarantees that schools will not get less funding than they received in 1997 even if their enrollments drop. Attendance is a key factor in setting the amount of state aid. […]
[Recently] the state education board said schools will likely get half of their “hold harmless” funding for the 2009-10 school year and then none of it the following year. That’s in the proposed state budget, but it has not yet been signed into law. […]
“Well I think it will be very challenging for the districts,” said state Rep. Sandra Pihos, a Glen Ellyn Republican, whose DuPage County district includes several schools that would lose money. “I think they should have had some forewarning and that if the hold harmless was going to go away then it should have been decreased incrementally so they could adjust to those funding levels.”
Forty years ago when the General Assembly enacted Richard Ogilvie’s income tax plan, those who voted in favor largely were run out of office, recalls former Alsip schools Supt. Bill Smith. He was on the Senate floor with former state Sen. Frank Ozinga, of Evergreen Park, during the historic roll call.
“At some point, (Senate Republican Leader Russ) Arrington realized he had the votes necessary, and so he said to (Democratic Leader Arthur McGloon), ‘I’ve got enough votes. Release your people.’
“But McGloon said to Russ, ‘I promised you 12 votes, and you’ll get 12 votes.’”
Smith shared the story to demonstrate bipartisanship of the 1970s. Democratic and Republican leaders worked together to accomplish major reform, a scenario that would never happen today. […]
Most of the 12 Senate Democrats who supported Ogilvie’s income tax lost their re-election bids.
* Finally, the Illinois Times asked to reprint part of my end-of-session wrapup for subscribers. I said OK…
The Democratic Party was given a clear mandate in the past two election cycles, but they completely blew it last week.
The Senate has more than a three-fifths majority, the House is just shy of a veto-proof majority. The governor, who was installed by the Democratic legislature after it ousted his unpopular and obstructionist predecessor by force of law, is a Democrat. The former governor’s sidekick Senate president is gone. They had no excuses this time.
Yet, here we are, once again without a viable budget and in overtime session. The third in a row under Democratic leadership.
And what did the Democrats do? They blamed Republicans for not bailing them out by putting votes on the tax hike plan. The House Democrats, who control 70 seats in that chamber, came up short on a tax hike in the House, yet they tried to claim it was the Republicans’ fault. The Dems demanded the GOPs go along even after House Speaker Michael Madigan spent the past five months jamming the House Republicans every chance he could get.
Yes, the Republicans could have and should have put their state’s interests ahead of their desire to pay back Madigan for all the ill treatment he’s dished out. There are several House Republicans who were willing to make a deal on a tax hike but who were not willing to cross House GOP leader Tom Cross. And the Republicans may eventually end up wearing the jacket for this debacle if the government disintegrates and they show no willingness to do something. But this has been a Democratic show from the beginning of the session and Sunday’s end was a complete and utter Democratic failure. Instead of finding solutions on their own, and on time, they have put the Republicans in a position of control.
You cannot tell me with a straight face that Speaker Madigan did any serious heavy lifting this session. When real leadership was required, he sat back and let the train of government go completely off the tracks.
At issue is the hospital’s Urban Health Initiative, which steers patients who lack private insurance — primarily poor blacks — to other facilities.
In February, the American College of Emergency Physicians said it was concerned that the policy was “dangerously close to patient dumping” and “reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick’ wealthy patients over poor.”
Although the facility is in Rush’s district, the call for an investigation is his first move on the issue.
City Hall has paid nearly $500,000 in the last 15 months to lease space at a South Side industrial site owned by Mayor Daley’s nephew and his partners, who bought the property with city pension money.
Under fire and investigation from all sides, Chicago’s embattled parking-meter contractor is bringing out the big legal guns.
Former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson said [yesterday] that he and four other lawyers from the law firm of Winston & Strawn were hired this week by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure and Chicago Parking Meters LLC to “interact with the mayor’s office, the City Council and the attorney general.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley finds himself again defending the lease of the city’s parking meters. This follows mounting criticism from aldermen and the city’s inspector general.
DALEY: It’s not that complicated. I mean, these are lawyers in there. I don’t mind constructive criticism. Fine. They had opportunities to talk to us. This has been talked about almost for two years.
Alderman Tom Allen says—yes—the council long knew Daley wanted to lease the meters. But without more details…
ALLEN: …that’d be like saying, ‘Well, the Cubs are playing the Sox two months from now’ So what? You know? I mean, we don’t know what the score will be. We don’t know who’s playing right field. So, yeah. We had the information that we were going to try to sell.
Thaddeus Jimenez was arrested for the murder of Eric Morro when he was 13. Jimenez, now 30, was granted Wednesday a certificate of innocence by a Cook County judge.
JIMENEZ: I feel like I was robbed -you know. Nothing is ever going to make that right, but as far as the courts go he [the judge] did the only thing he can do. And according to his ability, he executed justice.
United Airlines on Wednesday reported that May traffic dropped 12.3%, a decline that outpaced a 10.2% drop in capacity, reflecting the continuing struggle of carriers to deal with slumping travel demand.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines also said Wednesday that its traffic dropped 14.3% in May as it reduced capacity 14.5%. Continental Airlines said this week that its May traffic was down 9% on an 8.8% drop in capacity.
Aldridge Electric’s new wind turbine has stopped spinning, while the company attempts to strike a compromise over what neighbors are calling excessive noise.
On Tuesday, a group of nine residents who live near the Libertyville company, 844 E. Rockland Road, obtained a restraining order signed by a judge asking Aldridge to temporarily stop the turbine from spinning.
The National Training and Information Center, 810 N. Milwaukee, was supposed to use taxpayer money to train employees of various community organizations, but the group spent some of that money on sending its own employees to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress — for more money.
Grammy Award-winning blues legend Koko Taylor, 80, died on June 3, 2009 in her hometown of Chicago, IL, as a result of complications following her May 19 surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed.
On May 7, 2009, the critically acclaimed Taylor, known worldwide as the “Queen of the Blues,” won her 29th Blues Music Award (for Traditional Female Blues Artist Of The Year), making her the recipient of more Blues Music Awards than any other artist. In 2004 she received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors given to an American artist. Her most recent CD, 2007’s Old School, was nominated for a Grammy (eight of her nine Alligator albums were Grammy-nominated). She won a Grammy in 1984 for her guest appearance on the compilation album Blues Explosion on Atlantic.
Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper’s farm just outside Memphis, TN, on September 28, 1928, Koko, nicknamed for her love of chocolate, fell in love with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and WDIA blues disc jockeys B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor began belting the blues with her five brothers and sisters, accompanying themselves on their homemade instruments. In 1952, Taylor and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, traveled to Chicago with nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.”
Man, she was something. I saw her play several times, loved every minute of it. Here’s one of my favorites…
I got dust from a rattlesnake,
I got a black spider bone,
If that don’t do it baby,
You’d better leave it all alone
* House GOP Leader Tom Cross urged the governor Monday to sign the capital bill even if the state doesn’t have a workable budget. Watch for more context…
* The Question: Should the governor agree to sign the capital bill before the budget talks are concluded? Explain fully, please.
…Adding… And, yes, I already know that Senate President John Cullerton filed a motion to reconsider on the bare-bones budget. I told subscribers about it today. The AP follows up…
State Senate President John Cullerton quietly used a parliamentary maneuver to block the budget after lawmakers voted on it. That means it’s being held in the Senate instead of going to Gov. Pat Quinn.
The action is mostly symbolic, since Quinn says he won’t sign the budget. He argues it would require massive cuts in services to the state’s neediest people.
Both capital projects bills were also stalled with similar parliamentary holds.
* Our quote of the day goes to perennial candidate Dock Walls…
Some may be merely mulling a run for Illinois governor next year, but William “Dock” Walls says there’s no doubt he’s stepping into the ring.
Walls… told the Defender, “I would drive myself insane” if Gov. Pat Quinn were elected to a full term in 2010. Walls said Quinn is similar to the booted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. [emphasis added]
* We can expect plenty more stories like this one from the Aurora Beacon News…
Soon the state will start sending notices to local agencies that provide a wide array of services, warning they could lose much of their funding.
The Association for Individual Development is still dealing with its massive $750,000 cut in state funding last year that resulted in a hiring freeze. This year, the Aurora-based organization worries that as much as 50 percent of its funding from the state could be cut, AID President Lynn O’Shea said. […]
Darlene Marcusson, director of Lazarus House in St. Charles, also is worried about a loss of state funding. “We truly don’t know what this could mean to us,” she said Monday. […]
Senior Services Associates, which assists the elderly in Kane, Kendall and McHenry counties, could lose funding for its elderly abuse program and community care program, said Bette Schoenholtz, executive director.
And on, and on, and on.
‘
* AARP sent out a press release yesterday detailing some of the budget cuts on the way…
Community Care Program slated to be cut in half, leaving roughly 26,000 without the services they need to remain in their communities, subjecting them to more costly institutional care, such as nursing homes.
Eliminating the Elder Abuse & Neglect Program – meaning 11,000 cases won’t be investigated.
Eliminating the Circuit Breaker program – which helps over 270,000 older Illinoisans struggling with high Rx costs and property taxes.
Closing all four Illinois veterans’ homes – leaving over 1,000 veterans without health care and other services.
Cutting home services for the disabled – leaving over 5,000 people with no community access to the programs that help them remain independent.
* Something important to remember, however. This was a lump-sum appropriation, so keep this point in mind…
The temporary budget doesn’t actually outline these or other specific cuts, but Quinn spokesman Bob Reed said meeting the overall figures would necessitate such program reductions.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, on Tuesday labeled the governors’ budget cutting threats a “parade of horribles” and “nothing more than a scare tactic.”
The Senate GOP has called for cuts in state-funded health insurance expanded under Gov. Rod Blagojevich and moving Medicaid to managed care coverage to help fill the budget hole.
“When is someone going to sit down and do a line by line review of spending?” Dillard asked rhetorically. “It is always unconscionable to ask taxpayers for more without cutting spending, especially during a recession.”
The GOP’s Medicaid plan appears to be mostly a farce. It would kill off the hospital assessment program, which brings tons of federal money into the state, and would lock the state in to an arrangement where if the Medicaid rolls grow, state taxpayers are on the hook for the full cost without a federal match.
* The SJ-R has an editorial today which concludes with this common sense demand…
[House GOP Leader Tom Cross] and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, should spare us any further back and forth over who didn’t invite whom to a meeting or whether discussions with the other one are “fruitful.” It’s like watching a sixth-grade slumber party.
The majority party mistreated the minority? Shocking! The minority party isn’t being helpful? Welcome to representative democracy. You’ll do the same thing to the other guy when roles are reversed. People whose health care might be cut or whose taxes might be raised don’t have the time or inclination to sort out such childish behavior.
Government is the only entity that can increase its revenue whenever the well runs dry. A family cannot raise additional funds on payday. Instead, they must calculate what is important and what they can live without in order to make ends meet. Illinois Government should do the same.
That’s not totally true. When a husband or wife loses their job and family revenues plummet and the repo man comes knocking, cutting back on expenses probably won’t solve the problem. They’ll have to do what my father did, get another job or two. More revenues must be brought in. The state budget is in the same situation. Revenues have plummeted by billions of dollars. Cutting expenses is only part of the solution.
There are cuts that need to be made. Government needs to be more efficient, pensions need to be reformed so that those benefits don’t bankrupt the state, and health-care costs need to be reined in.
Republicans are right to remain determined to see those kinds of changes before agreeing to a tax increase
Except that when the chips were down on pension reform, the GOP wasn’t there. From the Daily Herald…
Even Democratic leaders acknowledge that the current pension system cannot sustain itself. A plan creating the two-tiered system cleared a House committee, ironically on the strength of Democratic votes and over Republican opposition. But the Democrats ran it through a committee filled with GOP members whose local communities are filled with pension-earning public-sector employees. Based on that vote, Democrats concluded there wasn’t enough support among Republicans to get the plan approved through the full House.
*** UPDATE - 10:56 am *** WLS ought to lose its license for continuing to allow this corrupt humanoid to spew his goofiness on the public airwaves [/snark]…
Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation wasn’t the only charity to turn down donations from Patti Blagojevich’s stint on a reality show, according to her husband.
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, making his daily call to WLS Radio’s Don Wade and Roma Show, said this morning he believes the other charities were worried they would lose state funding if they teamed up with the Blagojeviches.
“I think they’re prudent in being concerned if they were to take our help they might get punished and penalized,” Rod Blagojevich said. “They might lose state funding or not get more state funding or incur the wrath of some of those lawmakers like [Illinois House Speaker Mike] Madigan, for example, who is the type of guy who would take it out on them.”
Everything’s about Madigan to him.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Times are tough, and charitable giving is down, so Bear Necessities deserves a major “thumbs up” for sticking to its principles…
The group announced it would not, even in these tough economic times, accept donations offered by Patti Blagojevich while on her reality TV show stint.
The group is affiliated with Children’s Memorial Hospital — the same hospital former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is accused of shaking down for a $50,000 campaign contribution.
According to federal charges, Blagojevich said he’d hold up state funding for Children’s Memorial if the executive director didn’t donate to his campaign fund.
So Bear Necessities said thanks, but no thanks, to Patti.
Krupa said the offer to Bear Necessities was made by Patti Blagojevich’s publicist, Glenn Selig, and the show’s producers on May 26. The charity’s board considered the offer that night, and rejected it May 28.
The offer was for a split of telephone charges incurred by the voting public as they call the show to eliminate contestants, Krupa said. The winner’s charity would get three shares of whatever was earned that way. The runner-up’s charity would get two shares, and the charities represented by every other contestant would get one share, under the arrangement originally outlined to Bear Necessities.
NBC spokesman Gary Mednick confirmed the charity payout plan and said Patti Blagojevich would be competing instead for the Florida-based Children’s Cancer Center.
If you’d like to contribute to Bear Necessities, click here.
* Meanwhile, a former federal prosecutor writes an op-ed in the Tribune about Rod Blagojevich-appointed US Sen. Roland Burris. The pieces uses a familiar “Where’s the outrage?” refrain…
Where is the outrage? Where is the public outcry for Burris to resign the seat he landed by telling these lies? Is our political system so broken that we simply look the other way when a Senate seat — a Senate seat for goodness’ sake — is obtained through lie after lie after lie? Where are the public demands for Burris to step down?
Um, huh?
Where has this man been living the past six months? Sheesh. Has he missed the innumerable editorials, the press conferences, the drama, the polling?
More…
We repeatedly have left it to law enforcement to clean up our messes, or more precisely, the messes made by the officials we elect. Maybe they’ll bail us out one more time, whether we deserve it or not.
True, but that’s what law enforcement is for, whether we “deserve it” or not. They arrest criminals. Oh, and by the way, Burris wasn’t elected.
* Related…
* Blago: I wish I was eating the bugs on reality show : “If I was swept away in the river, I probably would have been swept away forever,” he said.
BP is facing new questions about its Whiting refinery from federal environmental regulators, who accused the company Thursday of starting a project to process heavy Canadian oil three years before it obtained the necessary permit.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bruce W. Black is expected to sign an order signifying Emerisque as the so-called stalking horse bidder — but Hartmarx is still subject to an auction that could break up the company or lead to liquidation.
Hart Schaffner workers, several of whom sat in on the court hearing, have vowed a sit-down strike if Wells Fargo tried to force the company’s liquidation, especially since Wells Fargo took $25 billion in bailout funds.
It looks like the Associated Press is getting pretty close to deploying that ‘anti-misappropriation’ technology the news agency has been talking about. Ars got an AP editor to give us some details.
As Rockford faces pay reductions and hiring freezes, organizations that receive city funding are going to make sacrifices as well, said Ald. Joe Sosnowski, R-1.
Last week, the Rockford City Council slashed one-third of what it gives to the Rockford Area Arts Council, giving the group only $50,000. Sosnowski said he is looking at similar cuts of 30 percent as “the standard for a variety of things we fund.”
“We can’t trim back city payroll, institute hiring freezes and trim employees while at the same time funding organizations at 100 percent,” Sosnowski said.
In a 5-1 vote late Monday, the Roanoke Village Board decided it was not economically feasible for the village to run its own department.
According to Trustee Jerry Hasler, the police department cost the village $150,000 a year. By contracting with the Sheriff’s Department, Hasler said there would be a $54,000 savings to the village.
The central Illinois community has a population of about 2,000.
“It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel and social economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country,” Easterbrook wrote, quoting the late Justice Louis Brandeis.
Easterbrook and the two other judges on the panel that ruled Tuesday are Republican appointees who might be presumed among the most likely to throw out the handgun ban.
But Easterbrook wrote that the Supreme Court has made clear in previous decisions that it reserves the right to overturn past decisions — not the regional appellate courts. So now, gun owners are expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’re certainly prepared to go to the Supreme Court if we have to,” said city of Chicago spokeswoman Jenny Hoyle. “In the meantime, we will continue to aggressively enforce our ordinance.”
Chicago’s 36,000 parking meters were worth nearly twice as much as the $1.15 billion Mayor Daley got when he rammed through a 75-year lease in a few days without analyzing what the system was worth, the city’s inspector general has concluded.
After a five-month analysis, Hoffman has reached the “conservative” conclusion that Chicago Parking Meters LLC paid the city $974 million less than the system would have been worth to the city if it raised rates by the same amount and kept the meters for the next 75 years.
Instead of buying Daley’s “hurried, high-pressure” argument that the money was needed to fill a gaping, two-year budget gap, Hoffman said the City Council should have conducted its own independent analysis. And aldermen should have considered alternatives, such as a shorter lease with parking meter revenue divided evenly between the city and a private contractor, he said.
A 30-year lease with rate hikes 25 percent lower than those tied to the lease would have produced as much as $396 million, the report states.
Top Daley aide Paul Volpe immediately fired back at what he called a “misguided and inaccurate” report.
“This was a good transaction that protected taxpayers both in the short and long term,” said Volpe, who was the mayor’s point man for the deal and received particularly strong criticism in the report.
“We do not force things through City Council,” said Volpe, who also appeared to suggest Hoffman was out of his depth in analyzing the deal. “I’m sure the inspector general or his team have never conducted a project like this.”
Even as they were voting for the deal, aldermen complained they had little choice because Daley already had built $150 million from a parking meter lease into his budget before a winning bidder emerged. Now some council members say they made a mistake in voting for the deal and want the city to back out.
No matter what you thought you read or heard elsewhere, Hoffman did not, repeat did not, report Monday that the city of Chicago could have gotten an additional $1 billion more for leasing its parking meters.
Nor did he say that the city should have received an additional $1 billion for leasing the meters. He didn’t say that taxpayers were cheated out of $1 billion or suggest that somebody made an illicit $1 billion profit.
What he said was that the city leased the parking meter system “for $974 million less than its value to the city,” a narrowly drawn point that was being misconstrued as soon as he made it. […]
That was the broader point Hoffman was trying to make Tuesday — that if we’re going to do these megabillion-dollar deals that give up control of public assets for generations, we might at least slow down and analyze what we’re doing, consider all the consequences and explain it to the people. And maybe next time, don’t pass a budget based on revenue from a deal where nobody has seen the details.
On Tuesday, Daley sided with Carothers, his longtime ally.
“People are concerned about these allegations. But in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty,” the mayor told reporters after Carothers was a no-show at the unveiling of Chicago’s annual crackdown on summer crime.
The mayor characterized the allegations against Carothers as “serious.” But he said, “He has a right to defend himself.”
Asked how he felt about Carothers wearing a wire to record conversations with developers and elected officials, Daley said, “I don’t know anything about that.”
More than 1,100 city employees — none sworn police officers or firefighters — will start receiving layoff notices later this week after organized labor refused Mayor Daley’s demand for 17 days off without pay and comp time instead of cash overtime.
DALEY: There’s a lot of rumors going. We’re still talking to the unions about this crisis.
A labor unions spokesperson would only confirm talks with the mayor’s office continue. The city is considering ways to close a $300-million budget shortfall.
The License Committee approved the crackdown championed by Natarus’ successor, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), with no dissenting votes or testimony. There was only applause from dozens of business and residential victims.
“I might as well have these bucket boys in my office. I literally can’t work in my office. You can’t hear yourself think. You can’t do anything,” said Dr. Diana Goldstein, who has an office on the seventh-floor of a building at 200 S. Michigan Ave, across the street from the Art Institute.
The Chicago study found that more than 17 percent of gay men in Chicago have HIV; 39 percent did not get tested in the last year because they were worried about the result.
Almost 600 gay men from across the city were tested for HIV/AIDS and interviewed about their lifestyles, including questions about drug use and number of partners. Ninety-one of the subjects tested positive for the virus.
Thirty percent of gay black men in Chicago tested positive, the study showed, while Hispanics and white men had rates of 12 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively.
A quarter of blacks aged 18-24 tested positive. More than 37 percent of blacks aged 25-34 - the highest of any age group - tested positive. The numbers are similar to national figures.
…Quinn did attempt to turn up the heat on fellow statewide office holders, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the daughter of House Speaker Michael Madigan and a potential challenger for the state’s top post next year. He said he was “disappointed” in statewide officials who didn’t stand by him in calling for tax hikes. He said they where “going out the back door, not willing to take a stand.”
While railing against lawmakers who refused to back a tax hike, Quinn repeatedly quoted the Bible and invoked Illinois veterans who rely on state services. He said he expected better from the Democratic Party.
“We do not throw people on the side of the road as the wagon train moves forward,” he said.
The Illinois Republican Party is demanding answers from Attorney General Lisa Madigan and House Speaker Michael Madigan.
GOP spokesman Lance Trover says serious questions have been raised after The Associated Press reported former Gov. Rod Blagojevich had considered Lisa Madigan for President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.
Trover says voters need to know of any involvement by either Madigan in the Blagojevich corruption allegations.
* 12:34 pm - The US 7th Circuit appellate court has rejected a lawsuit brought by the National Rifle Association against Chicago and Oak Park over their handgun bans. You can read the decision and listen to oral arguments by clicking here. And here’s the basic gist of the decision…
Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and BAUER and POSNER, Circuit Judges.
EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge. Two municipalities in Illinois ban the possession of most handguns. After the Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008), that the second amendment entitles people to keep handguns at home for self-protection, several suits were filed against Chicago and Oak Park. All were dismissed on the ground that Heller dealt with a law enacted under the authority of the national government, while Chicago and Oak Park are subordinate bodies of a state.
The Supreme Court has rebuffed requests to apply the second amendment to the states. See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876); Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886); Miller v. Texas, 153 U.S. 535 (1894). The district judge thought that only the Supreme Court may change course […]
The Court did not say that Cruikshank, Presser, and Miller rejected a particular argument for applying the second amendment to the states. It said that they hold “that the Second Amendment applies only to the Federal Government.” The Court added that “Cruikshank’s continuing validity on incorporation” is “a question not presented by this case”. Ibid. That does not license the inferior courts to go their own ways; it just notes that Cruikshank is open to reexamination by the Justices themselves when the time comes.
If a court of appeals may strike off on its own, this not only undermines the uniformity of national law but also may compel the Justices to grant certiorari before they think the question ripe for decision. […]
Chicago and Oak Park are poorly placed to make these arguments. After all, Illinois has not abolished self-defense and has not expressed a preference for long guns over handguns. But the municipalities can, and do, stress another of the themes in the debate over incorporation of the Bill of Rights: That the Constitution establishes a federal republic where local differences are to be cherished as elements of liberty rather than extirpated in order to produce a single, nationally applicable rule. […]
Federalism is an older and more deeply rooted tradition than is a right to carry any particular kind of weapon. How arguments of this kind will affect proposals to “incorporate” the second amendment are for the Justices rather than a court of appeals.
The Justices deliberately kicked the case upstairs to the US Supreme Court. An NRA lobbyist just told me the group will definitely appeal.
As always with hot-button issues like this, please do your utmost to avoid canned talking points in comments. And no hostile “drive-by” bumper sticker slogan comments, either. Use your own mind and your own words, please. Thanks.
* Before Pat Quinn became governor, this was a staff only, do not enter sign…
And the staff was quite nice to me when I walked through the door and took a wrong turn.
Well, most of them. Bob Reed, the governor’s top spokesman, didn’t seem all that pleased when he looked up and saw me standing in his doorway. He didn’t throw me out, though, so it was worth the test.
* Question 1: How often do you access this blog via your “smart” phone, if ever? …Adding… Which smart phone do you use?
* Question 2: Is there a particular smart phone-ready, etc. news site that you particularly like which we could use as a model here? Explain.
With the legislative session kinda over, I’m about to embark on a total revamp of this site. I saw tons of lobbyists, staffers, lawmakers, etc. accessing the blog via their phone during session. Conversations in the past few days have often gone like this…
Lobbyist, staffer, etc: “What’s new?”
Me: “35 House Dems voted for Senate tax plan in caucus five minutes ago.”
Lobbyist, staffer, etc: “I know. I saw it on the blog. What’s new since then?”
Me: “It’s only been 5 minutes! lol”
So, naturally I’m wondering if this smart phone usage is also happening a lot outside the Statehouse. The mobile revamp will just be one part of the reconstruction, so let’s stick to that topic right now. We’ll get to the rest in time. Thanks.
* Any time the General Assembly passes a capital bill [which you can peruse here], you’re gonna see stories like this…
Before bolting from Springfield Monday morning, Democrats and Republicans took out their knives and participated in what has become a tradition: carving up a fortune in pork-barrel projects around the state.
The article was entitled: “Illinois lawmakers feast on bigger slice of pork - Legislators take home $500 million chunk for pet projects.” And it even makes this argument…
Legislators also took care of Chicago aldermen, doling out millions to repair roads and lights.
Repairing roads and fixing street lights are now considered pet projects?
* But you’ll also see plenty of stories like this…
The statewide capital bill passed by the Legislature early Monday morning includes $38.1 million to virtually rebuild the Lincoln’s Challenge Academy in Rantoul.
East Central Illinois also gets money for a great number of other projects, large and small, that were submitted by lawmakers as part of the $28.3 billion construction plan. But the money set aside for Lincoln’s Challenge, an Illinois National Guard youth intervention program, dwarfs almost every other project in the state.
For Southern Illinois, that means projects like the $103 million widening of Illinois 13 between Marion and Carbondale will be in limbo until things are sorted out in Springfield.
The following is a rundown of some of the other projects that are part of the proposed statewide construction program.
• $925,000 for Saline Valley Water Conservancy District for improvements to Stonefort Water Supply Line;
• $740,000 for sewer work in Benton;
• $163,000 for a new water tower in Christopher;
• $205,000 for road work in Colp;
Etc.
* There are always gonna be items that can be pointed to with glee. The House Republicans steered me to this one…
The sum of $200,000, of so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the Build Illinois Fund to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for a grant to the Black on Black Love for costs associated with the acquisition and renovation of a new facility.
The sum of $125,000, of so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the Build Illinois Fund to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for a grant to the Southeast Alcohol and Drug Abuse Center for costs associated with replacing the roof at the facility.
Hard to argue with something like that. Trouble is, the state is slashing program money for drug and alcohol abuse centers. So, they may end up with a nice, new roof and no clients.
There were only 42 votes for the temporary tax increase in the 118-member Illinois House, all Democrats. Madigan said Quinn had counted on upward of eight Republicans who would support the tax. He said additional Democrats would have voted for the increase but were unwilling to do so if it was going to be a Democrats-only tax increase.
Now, the challenge for Quinn is finding even more votes if he wants his tax increase. Because lawmakers failed to meet the constitution’s midnight, May 31 deadline, it’ll require 71 rather than 60 votes to approve a tax increase, a budget or just about anything else. In the Illinois House, that means Democrats will need Republican help. There are 70 Democrats and 48 Republicans in the House.
Quinn initially said he thought Republicans would come around and simply wanted to voice their displeasure with the process by voting “no” on taxes.
The governor’s office believed they had 55 House Democratic votes and about 8 GOP votes. But they’ll need a lot more now. I talked to several Republicans who wanted to back a tax hike but didn’t think they could do so because of the House’s political climate.
* Meanwhile, I’ve made this same argument, and I stand by it, but there’s also a problem with it…
House Speaker Michael Madigan shot down the widely held Statehouse belief that he sat on his hands as Quinn’s tax hike failed in a chamber the speaker runs with an iron fist.
“That comes from people that want to be critical of me,” Madigan said.
The governor’s reform commission had zeroed in on Madigan’s tight grip of his chamber. They had good reason to want to loosen that grip but they never really explained it. Had Madigan forced 60 of his nervous members to back a tax hike, that would’ve been some obvious proof.
In some ways, MJM gets a bad rap. On the one hand, people shout: “He’s a bad dictator!” And then when he doesn’t pass something, they shout: “He should be a dictator on this one issue!”
But I think there was a lot more going on here than Pat Collins and his merry band of reformers.
Madigan also denied deliberately leading the state to the brink of a fiscal calamity to complicate Quinn’s 2010 gubernatorial prospects in a potential showdown with Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the speaker’s daughter.
“I’m the speaker of the House. I’m trying to work on adopting a budget for the people of the state of Illinois. I’ve done it for 38 years. OK? Lisa Madigan is going to do what she’s going to do, and she’ll do it on her own. Her record stands,” said the speaker, who said he did not know what his daughter’s plans are.
“…What he did do was cave in to Michael Madigan every step of the way. Quinn said he wanted a budget bill passed before a capital spending bill was passed. Madigan said he wanted a capital spending bill done first, and Quinn gave in.
“Quinn said he wanted to permanently raise the income tax from 3 percent to 4.5 percent. Madigan said he wanted it to be a temporary income tax hike. Quinn gave in.
“Quinn wanted to increase the personal exemption on the income tax from $2,000 to $6,000 and Madigan said he couldn’t pass that bill. So Quinn came down to $3,000.
“The governor acquiesced to the demands of Speaker Madigan every step of the way, and in the end what did he get? Nothing,” Meeks said. “And Mayor Daley didn’t do anything, either. The mayor continually says the Chicago schools need more money and the state should do something. But he didn’t hold a single news conference during this legislative session calling on Chicago officials to support a tax increase. I didn’t hear about a single state legislator from Chicago getting a call from the mayor. He did nothing.”
Watch for Gov. Quinn, whose income tax hike was shot down, to launch a crusade to capture the conscience of the voters.
• • The plan: “I’m going to fight back,” Quinn told Sneed. “This mission will be a real test of our conscience. It’s easy to look the other way. I want to make sure we do not.”
• • The push: Calling his plan the “Good Samaritan Initiative,” an irate Gov. Quinn — furious over the state Legislature’s massive cuts in state services — tells Sneed he plans an “epic battle” for the hearts of the people and a push to reconvene the Legislature.
• • The punch: “Our goal is to rally all those to the principle of the Good Samaritan; to take care of our neighbor in need. Our state has a big heart. But it seems some people in Springfield worry more about campaign contributions.”
• • The pitch: “We’ve got to find a place in our hearts for those who have been dealt a bad blow in life through no fault of their own: like rape victims, foster children who need to be adopted, senior citizens. In the next few days, I plan to summon the good people of Illinois and alert them to what all this means. I’m going to visit the places where the service cuts will be devastating.”
• • The place: Watch for Quinn to launch what he considers “the challenge of a lifetime” at the Illinois Maternal and Child Care Coalition luncheon at Maggiano’s restaurant.
The visits are fine. The rhetoric? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
* Human service programs on state’s hit list: Two of [the GOP’s] primary goals are to put Medicaid recipients into managed care programs and make major changes to state government pensions. The latter could include charging employees more for their pensions and retirees more for health care and putting newly hired state workers into a separate pension program with fewer benefits.
* Governor, lawmakers see long road for budget: Their budget staffs will be together Wednesday to crunch numbers. The governor and leaders will meet Thursday in Chicago to go over recommendations to be made by Quinn’s Taxpayer Action Board. The board is supposed to ferret out waste in government and recommend how to get rid of it. After that, though, no schedule is in place. “Reforms will not happen overnight,” Cross said.
* Patti Blagojevich, when asked why her husband Rod is facing jail time…
“I can’t really get into it too much, except that, yeah, they made a big hoopla about something that wasn’t even the truth,” Blagojevich said. “My husband was governor for six years, and you know was always about doing the right thing for people.”
Discuss.
…Adding… Rod Blagojevich’s trial will likely happen soon after the 2010 primary and before the general election, which won’t be fun for Democrats…
U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel told attorneys he wants the trial to get under way between April and June 2010 and would prefer it closer to April.
Zagel also said he is thinking about “public anonymity for the jury at least until the trial is over.”
“I’ve been getting lots of advice as to how I should rule and what I should do and I would not want members of the jury to be influenced by anything like that,” he said.
Just two weeks before his arrest on corruption charges, then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich floated a plan to give President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat to the daughter of his biggest political rival in return for concessions on his pet projects, people familiar with the plan told The Associated Press.
We’ve known that Lisa Madigan was Senate Candidate 2 in the federal arrest report since Day One.
* And this isn’t new news, either…
Blagojevich also said he wanted a deal in which the elder Madigan would allow a long-stalled capital construction program through the House and take action on a Blagojevich-backed health care plan in return for his daughter’s appointment to the Senate seat, the aides said.
I’ve already reported that, and it can also be inferred from the arrest report…
Advisor B agreed that the three-way deal would be a better plan than ROD BLAGOJEVICH appointing Senate Candidate 2 to the Senate seat and getting more done as Governor. [Emphasis added]
And this is the story Blagojevich leaked to Sneed back in November…
“The latest from Blagoville is Gov. Rod Blagojevich toying with tossing Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who wants Blago’s job?
“*It may endear him to powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan, Lisa’s dad, who is Blago’s political foe.
There was no way that plan would’ve worked anyway. Speaker Madigan wouldn’t even return Blagojevich’s calls and refused to meet with him. No way would he have cut a big legislative deal like that based on a Senate appointment for his daughter.
Blagojevich told Sen. Dick Durbin he was thinking of naming Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to the seat, according to two Durbin aides who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Read down in the story…
A Durbin aide said that in the conversation a number of names were mentioned as possible Senate picks — not just Madigan’s. He said Durbin spoke about the conversation at a news conference after Blagojevich’s arrest and mentioned Madigan’s name but none of the news reports that emerged mentioned Madigan — only Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett.
The only thing that may be new is that Durbin said he’d help. Trouble is, according to the story, Blagojevich told Durbin to “do nothing” and never got back to him.
Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said the two discussed about 20 possible appointments for the senate seat, of which Madigan was one, and Blagojevich had asked the senator’s opinion about the decision.
“Sen Durbin tried to get across two messages. Pick someone who can hit the ground running as a senator, and number two, find someone who can be appointed quickly,” Shoemaker told The Roll Call, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
