* Josh Beneze is a friend of mine. He just turned 34 years old. Josh was sent to Rhode Island by the Illinois Community College Board for a conference and had a brain aneurysm. He’s now stuck out there in the hospital in intensive care and facing more surgeries and lots of rehabilitation. His mom flew out from Arizona to be with him.
Nobody is really sure what his prognosis is, but the bills are already starting to pile up. His friends are moving his stuff into a storage room, so he won’t have to continue paying rent, but he’ll have to pay his own health insurance premiums soon (up to $900 a month) and he has a car payment to make every month. His mom isn’t exactly flush with cash, so being in Rhode Island is an expense she can ill afford.
Yes, I know I already hit you up yesterday and your response was fantastic. But life happens. So, if you can spare a few extra bucks, please, click here. Thanks!
* Some of these districts were already “bad” for the Democrats, but their candidates managed to win in the past. Since then, of course, Rauner and his bigtime money and his go-for-the-juggular people arrived on the scene. Donald Trump also certainly helped the Republicans in Downstate districts, doing considerably better in some of these districts than Romney did four years ago (particularly Smiddy, Skoog, Cloonen)…
As I’ve said before, the object of the Republicans this year was to use their millions spent on the “Because… Madigan!” message to prevent legislative losses in the suburbs due to Trump, and keep Trump voters in the fold for Downstate legislative races. In the past, many of those same Downstaters who voted Republican for president would then vote Democratic at the legislative level. Not so much this time around.
A Cook County judge on Wednesday ruled that Plainfield North — not Fenwick High School — should play in the Class 7A football championship on Saturday.
Plainfield North will play East St. Louis for Class 7A state title.
After the ruling, Fenwick Principal Peter Groom said Fenwick won’t pursue the issue, and that the focus should be on the 16 teams playing this weekend.
Judge Kathleen G. Kennedy agreed Fenwick had shown “irreparable harm” but did not prove that the Illinois High School Association had applied its rules inconsistently.
Fenwick had lost the semifinal last Saturday to Plainfield North after a mistake by the officials led to a tying field goal. Plainfield North then won in overtime.
Near the end of regulation in Saturday’s semifinal game, Fenwick was clinging to a 10-7 lead and had the ball at its own 15-yard line. With four seconds left, the Friars’ quarterback threw a deep pass on fourth down for an incompletion, seemingly ending the game.
But the officials ruled that play to be intentional grounding, a penalty. With no time left on the clock, the officiating crew then awarded Plainfield North one play, allowing them to kick a game-tying field goal.
In extra time, both teams scored, but Plainfield North ran in a two-point conversion, setting off a wild celebration for the Tigers and eliciting anger and confusion from the Fenwick faithful.
Several hours after the game, the IHSA issued a statement that stated the officials erred when they gave Plainfield North one final play after the passing penalty.
The IHSA cited bylaw 6.033, which states “the decisions of game officials are final.”
Fenwick’s appeal cited a 2008 case in which the Mississippi High School Activities Association reinstated a team into the playoffs three days after a similar enforcement of an incorrect call on the final play of regulation allowed a team to score an apparent game-winning touchdown. Also in 2008, the IHSA established precedent by overturning results of the Illinois wrestling tournament three days after Edwardsville celebrated beating Granite City by half a point. A recount revealed Granite City actually won 2171/2-217 and the IHSA — after initially clinging to a rule that says results must be corrected within 30 minutes of the end of a tournament — rightly reversed the outcome.
In that case, the Edwardsville coach detected the scoring error himself and contacted the Granite City coach in a display of the type of sportsmanship we all want to define youth sports.
* Official IHSA statement…
Today’s decision by the Honorable Kathleen G. Kennedy in the Circuit Court of Chicago to uphold the result of the IHSA Class 7A Semifinal Football game is not a victory. There is no celebration and there are no winners in this circumstance. It is simply a resolution.
The Fenwick High School community has been dealt a pair of devastating blows over the past few days, while Plainfield North had a historic moment shrouded in controversy simply for following the rules provided for them, first by the game officials, and then by the IHSA.
We will move forward now, in the short-term with eight state championship football games at the University of Illinois this weekend. In the long-run, it is our job as an Association, Board of Directors and membership to look at our policies and rules to see if and how we might be able to prevent instances like this in the future.
We appreciate Judge Kennedy’s ruling from the perspective that we believe it is vital for membership organizations like the IHSA to be able to self-govern within the rules set by our member schools. Judge Kennedy recognized the historic precedent that would have resulted if she had overturned the outcome of the game based on an officiating error. This is the same pitfall our membership foresaw in originally approving the by-law, and that our Board of Directors recognized in their decision not to consider an appeal.
Though Illinois lost some Washington clout on the Democratic side in the Nov. 8 election, downstate Republican Rep. John Shimkus stands to be a big winner if he can pull together the votes he needs.
Shimkus is one of three candidates and, by some accounts, the favorite to take over the chairmanship of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in the new Congress. […]
Whoever wins will succeed Michigan’s Fred Upton. The winner also picks up a powerful slot that gives him a say over not just energy policy (including supervision of Illinois’ sizable nuclear power industry) but telecom, consumer protection and the pending repeal or rewrite of Obamacare.
Shimkus spoke at a high school graduation event I attended earlier this year (another one of my super-smart and talented nieces).
He brought along a tray of tomato plants and used it to illustrate his life lesson, which was, essentially: Plant yourself where you find yourself and grow from there.
Shimkus told the story of how he’d become chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, which he jokingly described as the “garbage committee.” The subcommittee has been working since the 1970s to revise garbage regulations. Shimkus told the audience that he decided to make the best of his assignment and was on the verge of getting the bill passed and signed into law.
I kinda chuckled at Shimkus’ “garbage committee” story back then. But I ain’t chuckling now.
* The first official vote this newly elected Democratic legislator will cast after being sworn in is during the election for House Speaker…
Newly elected 112th state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Glen Carbon, said shortly after being elected that it’s a bit premature to say whether she’ll support Madigan for speaker.
“I don’t know what the options will be,” Stuart said. “You’re asking me a hypothetical question just like I wouldn’t tell you how I would vote on any piece of legislation until I actually read the legislation.”
Rauner beat Quinn 58-37 in that district two years ago. The vast majority of votes in that district come from Madison County, which has been trending more Republican with every passing year. It now has a GOP county board chairman and a GOP county board, for instance.
Not to mention that her regional newspapers, the Alton Telegraph and the Belleville News-Democrat, both despise Madigan.
* Stuart defeated Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) for various reasons. He seemingly equated birth control with promiscuity, for instance, and Stuart proved herself to be an extremely hard-working candidate. Unless he runs again (and few expect that to happen), she’ll have to work non-stop between now and November, 2018 to win reelection. And unless something changes in this state, her vote for Madigan won’t help.
She might wanna consider calling in sick, or at least pray for a Metro East blizzard in early January. /s
* Unpaid state vendors can get 90 percent of what they’re owed up front by using a state program that allows them to borrow cash from private sector interests. They get the rest when the state pays up and the lender keeps the late fees. Those fees are really piling up, according to Reuters’ Dave McKinney and Karen Pierog…
Illinois owes a handful of financial consortia more than $118 million under an obscure program intended to speed up overdue payments to the cash-strapped state’s vendors, an analysis of state records shows. […]
But it comes at a heavy cost with unlimited late-payment fees now approaching 20 percent in some cases for Illinois’ cash-strapped government, whose general obligation (GO) low-investment grade credit ratings are the lowest among U.S. states. […]
Fees on unpaid bills in the program have been growing by more than $2.6 million per week and could exceed $194 million by June 30, according to a Reuters analysis of state data as of Sept. 28. […]
By the end of Rauner’s term in January 2019, total interest on unpaid receivables in the program could exceed $351 million if there is no progress in reducing the bill backlog, Reuters calculations show. […]
As of late September, four participating VSI lenders had bought 15,369 unpaid receivables worth $1.12 billion under the program. Late-payment penalties on those billings surpassed $118 million and continue to grow, Reuters has found.
Illinois law places no limit on how long the late fees can accrue and since 2010 the state has spent about $929 million in late-payment penalties, according to state comptroller data.
* Aside from the obvious about all the forfeitures here, the worst part of this story is that there is no statewide reporting requirement…
A new study says Illinois law enforcement is seizing hundreds of millions of dollars of property belonging to citizens suspected, but not necessarily convicted, of a crime.
A joint study by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the Illinois Policy Institute shows law enforcement agencies have seized $319 million from citizens from 2005 to 2015. In Illinois, people don’t need to be convicted of a crime to have their property seized, a practice typically known as civil asset forfeiture.
ACLU criminal justice policy attorney Ben Ruddell says the number is likely much higher since reporting forfeiture statistics is not required by Illinois law. “That $319 million is a conservative figure that we know doesn’t cover the full picture here,” he said. Typically, seized property goes back to the law enforcement agency that seizes it. Ruddell adds that this creates an incentive for law enforcement to seize more property to boost their budgets.
The study states that automobiles are the most common type of seizure. “Your life can fall apart during that period of time without that transportation,” Ruddell said. “You can lose your job. There is a whole cascade of consequences that can transpire from that.”
Ruddell said the law needs to be changed to remove the monetary incentive to seizing property by, for instance, diverting the proceeds to a state revenue fund. Also, he said the state needs to strengthen the owners right to retrieve their property. “The burden of proof needs to be where it belongs — with the government to prove that there was a crime before they can take it away.” […]
The Rock Island Police Department led the state with 39 forfeitures per 10,000 residents, followed by the Decatur Police Department with 23.6.
1) Provide fair legal standards and procedures in forfeiture cases: Illinois forfeiture laws should require a criminal conviction before property can be forfeited to the government. The burden of proof in a forfeiture action should rest squarely upon the government and should be raised to require clear and convincing evidence. The practice of “nonjudicial” forfeiture, where property may be forfeited without a judge’s consideration of the merits of the case, should be eliminated. The law should require that civil forfeiture proceedings be instituted against the property owner rather than against the property itself, and all known owners of seized property should be named in the complaint and served with process. Finally, lawmakers should eliminate the requirement for the owner to post a cash bond for the right to challenge a forfeiture in court.
2) Remove incentives to engage in “policing for profit”: Any property gained by the government through forfeiture should be auctioned and the proceeds deposited directly into the general revenue fund and appropriated by the General Assembly rather than being awarded directly to police and prosecutors’ offices. Illinois law enforcement agencies should be restricted from participating in federal equitable sharing programs so they cannot circumvent reforms to state forfeiture law and procedures.
3) Increase transparency about how forfeiture funds are acquired and used: Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors’ offices should be required to publicly report information about how much property they seize, where and when the seizures took place, the outcome of all forfeiture cases, and how they spend any forfeiture proceeds.
“I got it down to basically five things now, from 44,” Rauner said. “And we can, you know, throw out one or two. It has to be significant. It has to send a message to job creators that it’s a new day in Illinois, come to Illinois.”
Rauner on Tuesday indicated he was willing to consider other options for alleviating the revenue lost by a property tax freeze.
“I’m willing to change it in whatever way we can get done with the General Assembly,” the governor said. “There’s no one way that it has to be. What we’ve got to do is bring down property taxes. There’s various ways to do it. More local control of bargaining, bidding, contracting is one way. Reducing the number of units of government and government consolidation helps. There’s a lot of different ways to do it.”
A Chicago big business group says it’s going to keep pushing Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan to negotiate a state budget deal, even though neither politician seems ready to blink and the effort itself may not be very popular with some.
In a joint interview, the two top executives of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, President Ty Fahner and Chairman Frederick “Rick” Waddell, said they think they’ve had impact with the $1 million spent so far on ads, billboards and other media, and intend to keep talking.
“I think the campaign has been pretty successful,” said Waddell, who on his day job is chairman and CEO of Northern Trust. Specifically, the committee’s LOL Illinois campaign has reached over 1 million people, they say, led to an active Facebook page with 38,000 comments, and generated 700 letters to Rauner, Madigan and other lawmakers. […]
Fahner said he’s spoken with both the governor and speaker, and he sees no sign yet they’re ready to do a deal.
Neither Fahner nor Waddell nor a third Civic Committee member, retired PricewaterhouseCoopers exec Jan Henderson, would say who’s more to blame, Madigan or Rauner. Nor would they lay out terms of a proposed compromise, with Fahner saying that’s up to the Springfield principals to accomplish.
A million bucks to generate 700 letters works out to $1,428.57 per letter. LOL really needs to work on its ROI.
A school bus driver was speeding and swerving when he crashed on Monday, killing at least five students, the authorities said, in one of the deadliest school bus accidents in recent years.
In an arrest affidavit that the Hamilton County General Sessions Court released on Tuesday, the authorities said the driver, Johnthony K. Walker, 24, had been driving at “a high rate of speed, well above the posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour” at the time of the wreck. Mr. Walker has been charged with five counts of vehicular homicide.
“Mr. Walker lost control of the bus and swerved off the roadway to the right, striking an elevated driveway and mailbox, swerved to the left and began to overturn, striking a telephone pole and a tree,” said the court filing. It said Mr. Walker was being charged because of “the reckless nature” of his driving.
Details of the crash emerged Tuesday as Woodmore Elementary School, whose student body is mostly impoverished, began a day of mourning. Thirty-seven students were on board the bus when it crashed, and Kirk Kelly, the interim school superintendent for Hamilton County, said at least five students had been killed.
According to the driving history report, 24-year-old Johnthony Walker had a wreck in a school bus two months ago.
On Sept. 20, Walker was driving a school bus on Sylvan Drive in Chattanooga. That’s when, according to the police report, he sideswiped a Kia Soul going in the opposite direction. This reportedly happened at a blind curve in the road. He failed to yield.
The private company that owned the bus involved in Monday’s fatal wreck in Chattanooga that killed five elementary school students has 142 crashes with injuries and three fatalities in the last 24 months, according to federal records.
Durham School Services, based in Warrenville, Ill., has more than 13,000 vehicles and 13,000 drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They’re a large company, and they have an overall satisfactory safety rating from the administration, but they still have more problems when it comes to driver fitness than their peers, the records show.
The administration’s records on Durham state “93% of motor carriers in the same safety event group have better on-road performance than this motor carrier.”
A safety event group includes other similar bus and truck companies. In the last 24 months, Durham has been involved in 346 crashes, 201 of which were towaway wrecks. That data was last updated in late October.
We’ve talked about these privatized school bus companies before, but that’s not why I posted this story. The company is based in Warrenville, but that’s not why I posted it either.
* I got a text from Steve Schnorf today. His wife has been a Big Sister to a girl named Zoie for the past four years. Zoie was a “beautiful, delightful, sweet and innocent little girl 3 weeks short of her 10th birthday,” Steve said. She was also on that bus. And she was one of the children who died.
Steve, his wife Jane and Zoie were supposed to all have dinner tonight. The authorities identified Zoie’s body by the jacket and bookbag Jane had bought for her.
* Her sister has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for medical and funeral expenses. Zoie’s brother Zach was injured in the crash and is in critical condition. Click here to give. Here’s a photo…
A Chicago agency that thought it had finally solved its pension woes has been dragged back into a nasty underfunding morass, and the situation is complicating its new budget.
Three years ago, the Chicago Park District reached a precedent-setting deal with its unions that called for both workers and taxpayers to pay more, and for the district’s retirement plan to be fully funded by 2049. But then the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in cases dealing with the state and city that benefits could not be reduced for those already on the payroll, and SEIU sued to overturn the park district deal.
“We believe we will lose the court case,” concedes Steve Lux, the district’s chief financial officer. So, as per a preliminary court ruling, both the district and workers are back on their lower, previous funding schedule, even though as of Dec. 31 the park district’s pension fund was roughly $515 million short of the assets needed to pay promised benefits, and was only 43 percent funded.
In the short run, that means extra money for pensions will not have to be included in the $449.4 million proposed 2017 budget parks Superintendent Mike Kelly is unveiling today. The district will contribute $20.1 million toward pensions, about $7 million less than required under the 2013 deal and less than the $36 million that actuarially is required. […]
If the district ends up following the pattern in the city, new hires will pay more, and taxpayers will pay a lot more. In the city’s case, police and fire retirement funds are getting a $453 million property tax hike that’s being phased in over several years. There are other levies for other employee units.
Illinois has not passed a real budget in over a year, the first state to do so since the Great Depression. The ongoing fight over the budget between Governor Bruce Rauner and the Illinois General Assembly has been covered widely, but what do the effects of this lingering crisis look like in people’s day-to-day lives? This new video series—a collaboration between In These Times and Kartemquin Films—follows the families, workers and students living through the de facto budget cuts, showing the ways it deteriorates the fabric of Illinois communities.
Each episode will focus on a different aspect of the crisis—from higher education to social services to housing—as well as who is benefiting from the crisis and what kinds of solutions could ultimately solve it. The series incorporates data connecting the situation in Illinois to long-term trends of austerity affecting the country at large, and how it ultimately costs taxpayers more in the long run.
With Republicans winning the presidential race and controlling both houses of Congress, federal tax code changes may be on the way, and Illinois should prepare by getting its state tax code in order. One of the first changes Illinois should make is to repeal the state’s death tax. The death tax drives out-migration of high-income Illinoisans, and it reduces economic growth in the Land of Lincoln. This tax particularly harms owners of farms and manufacturing firms.
One area of agreement between President-elect Donald Trump and the Republicans who will control Congress is on the need to repeal the federal death tax. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s tax reform plan includes a full repeal of the federal estate tax, as does the plan put forward by Trump.
A repeal of the federal death tax would put pressure on Illinois, the District of Columbia and the 16 other states that still have a version of the tax. Under the current system, state death taxes can be deducted against federal death taxes. Without the state deduction against federal taxes, the state-based death tax will become an even greater driver of wealth flight from states that still impose the tax.
Over the past two decades, Illinois has sustained a net loss of $50 billion in annual adjusted gross income due to migration losses to other states. More than $14 billion of that loss came during the four years of the income-tax hike. This amounts to a severe loss of both economic activity and desperately needed tax revenue.
The largest recipients of wealth from Illinois are states without a death tax and without an income tax – with Florida and Texas in the lead.
Nowhere does the piece mention that the first $4 million is exempt from the state tax. At an average of $7,450 per acre, the first 537 acres of farmland could be willed tax free.
Second, I’m told that the subsidy for coal-fired power plants will likely be dumped.
Third, enviros are saying the best way to satisfy the governor’s demand that ratepayers not be socked with huge increases to subsidize Exelon’s unprofitable nuke plants is to move forward with an ambitious energy conservation program. Ameren has not been happy with that, however. So, we’ll see.
NRDC estimates that the savings from efficiency outnumber the costs by about 3 to 1.
But advocates for large commercial users counter that, with energy costs a major concern, industrials have been investing in efficiency for years—well before it became a cause celebre in the age of climate change. They are resentful that they’re being asked to pay so much more for programs controlled exclusively by the utility that likely will benefit peers and competitors that haven’t invested as much in saving electricity.
IMA’s Denzler says manufacturers want the ability to opt out of the utility program and pursue their own initiatives, which they can do in Illinois to comply with requirements to reduce natural gas consumption. The bill doesn’t currently allow for that.
Also raising the costs for power consumers, both commercial and residential, is that ComEd would be allowed for the first time to earn a profit from administering the efficiency programs. Under current law, ComEd recovers its costs via a surcharge on customer electric bills but isn’t permitted to earn a return.
Neme, representing NRDC, says more-efficient use of electricity benefits all customers, whether they participate directly in the programs or not, by holding down prices and lowering their bills. Efficiency gains are a particularly potent price suppressor if they take hold at peak-demand times like hot summer afternoons. “That’s the challenge of efficiency,” he says. “The benefits don’t show up on your bill in as visible a way as the costs do.”
* More specifically, here’s how the company gets its money…
Under existing law, ComEd collects money from ratepayers to help support energy efficiency efforts. If a consumer decides to upgrade to a new thermostat, for example, those dollars allow ComEd to provide a rebate to help defray the cost. Currently, it’s a pay-as-you-go system with ratepayer dollars being doled out as needed.
The proposed change would allow ComEd to instead finance those costs on behalf of ratepayers, and collect a management fee and interest in the process.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has likened it to forcing customers to take out a mortgage they don’t necessarily want. Cara Hendrickson, an attorney in Madigan’s office, told a panel of lawmakers last week that the provision would, for the first time, allow utility companies to build profits into the energy efficiency program.
“Of the $3.6 billion in additional spending (on energy efficiency), roughly $1 billion of that would go exclusively to profit,” Hendrickson said. “We don’t think that is a good use of ratepayer dollars.”
Experts on Illinois energy issues will hold a teleconference Tuesday morning to emphasize the role that energy efficiency would play in lowering the bills for residential, institutional and commercial customers under legislation being considered by the Illinois General Assembly.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) commissioned an analysis with energy efficiency experts which points to $7 billion in savings under the bill.
During hearings held last week and in other public statements, many lawmakers suggested that the scope of the legislation might need to be scaled back, singling out the bill’s support for coal plants and potential changes to rate design as two areas that might need to be changed.
Scheduled to join in the teleconference will be representatives of the NRDC, Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. They will point out that the savings, while significant, would only be available to customers in ComEd’s service territory, and will urge Ameren Illinois to make similar commitments to deliver savings to its customers in Central and Southern Illinois.
*** UPDATE 2 *** From a senior Rauner administration official…
The following is a quick readout from this morning’s productive discussions between Exelon and ComEd senior leadership and senior Rauner Administration leadership.
Exelon and ComEd agreed to remove demand rates and keep the plants open for at least 10 years, potentially 12 years. Following intense discussion regarding potential energy price spikes for both consumers and large employers, Exelon and ComEd committed to working with Ameren on inserting a guarantee into the legislation that would by law protect both consumers and large employers from any significant rate increase.
There are some remaining skeptics, however, so don’t get the champagne out yet.
…Adding… Some headlines were changed as clarity emerged. There’s a “commitment to work on putting a guarantee in a bill” that would cap rates. However, there’s no language yet. And as mentioned directly above, there are still opponents.
*** UPDATE 3 *** Hearing word of a very loud shouting match and real trouble on the deal.
Residents, staff and neighbors of an Uptown shelter, scheduled to close just before Christmas, protested in front of the People’s Church on Monday to call on state legislators to pass a budget when they return to Springfield next week.
The shelter is operated by North Side Housing and Supportive Services and is housed by the church, 941 W. Lawrence Ave. It has 72 beds and serves single men, like Stanley Weatherspoon, who came to the shelter after he was no longer able to afford his rent.
“It’s inhumane to send people out on the streets right as winter arrives,” Weatherspoon said, referring to the planned Dec. 23 closing date. “We need Governor [Bruce] Rauner and the legislators to make the big corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share so that we can keep these shelters open.”
The speakers at the protest support an amendment to House Bill 293, sponsored by Rep. Will Davis, which was filed in Springfield last week. According to estimates, this amendment would raise $2.5 billion by closing corporate tax loopholes. It would also enact a progressive income tax and a [LaSalle] street tax for a total revenue increase of $23.5 billion.
The General Assembly couldn’t (and wouldn’t) pass that stuff when they had veto-proof Democratic majorities and a Democratic governor.
Chicago is wasting a ton of money replacing and repairing garbage carts because “aggressive squirrels” are eating through them, a South Side aldermen said Friday.
Colleagues giggled at the mere mention of what amounts to squirrels on steroids, but Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) was dead serious.
“It’s a pet peeve. It does invoke some giggles. But we are spending too much money on replacing garbage carts because the squirrels continue to eat through ’em,” Brookins, former chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, declared.
“I get calls [with residents saying], ‘I need a new garbage can.’ I just gave you a garbage can. [And the caller says], ‘Well, the squirrels ate through it in two days and nobody wants trash throughout the community. So they keep asking us for garbage cans.”
Ald. Howard Brookins announced Sunday that a “freak bicycle accident” involving a rogue squirrel left him hospitalized last week.
A photo of the accident’s aftermath posted to Brookins’ Facebook page with a brief note shows a squirrel caught in the spokes of the 21st Ward alderman’s front bike tire.
According to Brookins’ staff, the squirrel sent the alderman flying over his handlebars during a ride on the Cal-Sag Trail, leading to a broken nose, a fractured skull and the loss of five or six teeth. All told, Brookins was hospitalized from Nov. 13 to Nov. 17.
“I am okay and I have been recovering in the hospital since the accident,” Brookins said in the Facebook post. “I will, however, require multiple surgeries to recover from damage to my face and body.”
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is challenging a decision by the Teachers’ Retirement System to terminate his pension and go after a refund of $222,808, arguing the federal charges he was convicted of last spring are not directly connected to his time as a teacher.
“No specific charges were ever brought against Mr. Hastert in relation to conduct that occurred while he was a teacher,” lawyer Mark DeBofsky wrote in a letter to the pension system, which the Daily Herald obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Hastert, of Plano, is serving 15 months in a federal prison in Minnesota after pleading guilty to money laundering charges involving payments to cover up sexual misconduct. At his April 27 sentencing, Hastert admitted he had sexually abused teenage boys he’d taught and coached at Yorkville High School, where he worked from 1965 to 1981.
“The applicable limitations period for charging any such offense expired long before the federal indictment was issued,” DeBofsky wrote. He also referenced a 1987 Illinois Appellate Court decision that found it is unlawful for TRS to seek to recoup benefits paid prior to the date of conviction.
At the time Hastert worked in Yorkville, Illinois’ statute of limitations on abuse cases was three years. It later was expanded, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is using the Hastert case in her push to further lengthen the time limit during which charges are allowed.
Is it a stretch to take his pension? I dunno. The charges that he disguised payments to one of his alleged victims in order to avoid IRS disclosures and then lied to the FBI about it do all stem from his time as a teacher.
* We talked yesterday about the Rauner administration’s decision to unilaterally implement an AFSCME bargaining request to grant employees bereavement leave. The SJ-R has AFSCME’s response…
AFSCME said the administration is trying to distract employees.
“By seeking to impose the union’s own proposal providing for bereavement leave, the Rauner administration is again trying to distract state workers and the broader public from the real harm of Rauner’s push to hike employee health premiums by 100 percent while freezing wages for four years, cutting average worker’s pay by $10,000,” AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said in a statement.
