* Tammy Duckworth has often said that her ancestors are soldiers going all the way back to the American Revolution. She said it again during the US Senate debate tonight and this is how Sen. Mark Kirk responded…
“I’d forgotten that your parents came all the way from Thailand to serve George Washington.”
Senator Mark Kirk’s attack on Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth’s family tonight was offensive, wrong and racist. Senator Kirk has been caught lying about his military record over ten times, but he was quick to launch false attacks questioning Congresswoman Duckworth’s family’s long history of serving our country. A struggling political campaign is no excuse for baseless and despicable attacks, and Senator Kirk owes Congresswoman Duckworth and her family an apology.
…Adding… Transcript put into context, which really makes this so much worse…
…Adding More… From Eleni Demertzis, spokesperson for the Kirk campaign…
“Senator Kirk has consistently called Rep. Duckworth a war hero and honors her family’s service to this country. But that’s not what this debate was about. Rep. Duckworth lied about her legal troubles, was unable to defend her failures at the VA and then falsely attacked Senator Kirk over his record on supporting gay rights.”
Several members of the City Council complained about a new ethics rule forbidding them from buying scarce World Series tickets at face value from the Cubs, but Ald. Milly Santiago, 31st, outdid herself, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“We were not the ones reaching out to the Cubs for some freebies or for some special treatment,” the first-term alderman said at a hearing. “The Cubs actually reached out to all of us….”
“First of all, those tickets were not front-row tickets,” she said of the playoff seats she already received. “They were all the way in the upper deck.”
“I’m a poor alderman,” she said. The job pays at least $105,000 a year.
The entire episode has been “kind of insulting, humiliating and embarrassing for us,” she added.
South Side Ald. Willie Cochran (20th) was overcome with emotion on the day Sandi Jackson resigned her City Council seat under the cloud of a federal investigation that eventually would send her and her husband, Jesse Jackson Jr., to prison.
“She was one of my favorite colleagues. It makes me heavy-hearted because of the troubles her family is having,” Cochran said on Jan. 11, 2013.
Now, it’s Cochran who might be in trouble.
The retired Chicago Police officer and community organizer is under federal investigation in connection with his use of political campaign funds, sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times.
As Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown first reported, records show Cochran paid himself more than $115,000 from his campaign fund over a three-year span. In some cases, he reported the payments more than two years after he should have, then amended his campaign finance disclosure reports after the fact to correct the omissions.
Thursday, Oct 27, 2016 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The same utility company that is pressuring Illinois legislators for more than eight billion dollars in ratepayer subsidies illegally avoided paying more than $1.4 billion in federal taxes and penalties.
Meanwhile, Exelon just announced higher than expected 3rd quarter profits of $841 million and bragged to their investors about how successful they’ve been this year. In fact, they’ve made more than $2 BILLION IN PROFITS in the last twelve months.
Why on Earth should Illinois ratepayers be forced to pay billions more for nuclear plants we don’t need while EXELON CAN’T EVEN BE TRUSTED TO PAY ITS TAXES?
JUST SAY NO TO THE EXELON BAILOUT
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses. Visit www.noexelonbailout.com.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – the state’s largest government-worker union – claims to have the best interests of state workers in mind.
But the union has repeatedly rejected provisions that would benefit state workers, such as time off to mourn the loss of a loved one and the ability to earn additional pay based on hard work and performance.
AFSCME and Gov. Bruce Rauner have been deadlocked for months in negotiations over a new contract for state workers. On Nov. 15, the Illinois Labor Relations Board will meet and consider whether the two sides have reached impasse – and if so, Rauner will be able to implement his last and best offer. AFSCME, in turn, could strike.
Why the deadlock? What is AFSCME fighting so hard to obtain? Salary increases of up to 29 percent, for one. Platinum-level health care benefits at little cost to state workers – a level of coverage that is not even available to regular Illinoisans on the state’s insurance exchange, let alone at a rock-bottom price. And a 37.5-hour workweek before overtime kicks in – to name just a few.
Undoubtedly, these are lavish perks that any state employee working under the AFSCME contract would welcome. But of course, these concessions would also further tank the state’s failing economy. It is estimated that AFSCME’s demands would cost taxpayers $3 billion in additional salary and benefit increases. That is a price tag Illinoisans simply cannot afford – a fact AFSCME has completely disregarded.
But the union also has turned its back on more reasonable benefits, to the detriment of the state workers the union claims to represent.
* From Council 31’s Anders Lindall…
Big surprise: The latest phony attack from the Rauner-funded IPI is so full of falsehoods that I can’t tell where to begin.
Here’s the reality: Bruce Rauner walked away from negotiations nearly 10 months ago and has refused to even meet with our bargaining committee ever since. We want to negotiate and reach a compromise that’s fair to all, but we can only do that if the Rauner Administration returns to the bargaining table.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is claiming he has the votes to retain his post as the U.S. Senate’s second-ranking Democrat. […]
Durbin long ago was pushed aside by his former D.C. roommate, New York’s Chuck Schumer, in the contest to succeed Reid as Democratic leader. But there’s been considerable speculation as to whether Schumer or the caucus wanted further change.
A new piece in Politico says that Durbin and Washington’s Patty Murray are still “circling” over the second slot. It says Murray is “refusing to rule out any of her options.”
But Team Durbin sounds awfully confident.
Says spokesman Ben Marter, “Durbin would be honored to continue to serve the caucus, and has the support to do that.”
Bruce Rauner will spend maybe $100 million, even maybe $150 million on his reelection bid. So, the Democrats are gonna need somebody with either very high name recognition (which Durbin has) or lots and lots of money with lots of rich friends. Or somebody with both.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Springfield) definitively said he will not be a candidate for governor of Illinois in 2018 against Gov. Bruce Rauner. […]
“I have priorities I want to accomplish in the Senate,” said Durbin. “There are other good people out there. If I take a step back hopefully some of them will emerge and step up.”
One potential gubernatorial candidate Durbin mentioned by name in a DailyNorthShore.com interview was Christopher G. Kennedy of Kenilworth, a former chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.
The son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), Chris Kennedy is also the chairman of the Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc., the investment firm of the Kennedy Family, according to Kennedy’s LinkedIn profile.
“I’ve encouraged him to get out there and talk to people around the state,” said Durbin.
Targeting people with individualized TV commercials using cable or satellite boxes has been promoted as the future of television for at least a decade. But the business, known as addressable TV advertising, has remained on the fringes, usually limited to two minutes of local commercial time an hour on cable shows.
Now, AT&T and Time Warner are pointing to targeted advertising as a major benefit of their proposed $85 billion merger. Jeffrey L. Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, and Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, highlighted the vast trove of consumer data their combined companies would have in a call with investors on Monday, and its usefulness for both marketers and consumers.
Viewers, with new subscription options, could enjoy fewer interruptions and see ads for “the products you’re interested in, not the ones you don’t need to see,” Mr. Bewkes said. National advertisers would presumably pay more to reach them and have an alternative to spending on Google and Facebook.
Targeted advertising has become commonplace on streaming services like Hulu or platforms like YouTube, where, for example, women in their 20s may see ads for birth control, pregnancy tests or certain movie trailers. Advertisers hope things could potentially move even beyond that on TV, with people seeing ads based on, for instance, their location or individual interests, much like what happens on the internet. Still, skepticism over whether the AT&T-Time Warner merger will normalize the practice for traditional TV is rife within the ad industry.
* The Question: The individualized Illinois political campaign ads of the future?
When Lauren Umek heard Illinois was going to allow bobcat hunting for the first time since 1972, she applied for a hunting permit. So did four of her relatives.
But they have no intention of hunting.
“I might pull it out at parties,” Umek said of the permit on Monday, three days after checking a state list online and discovering that she’s one of 500 people who obtained a coveted permit among more than 6,400 who applied. “It’ll be a great conversation starter.”
Umek, 34, an ecologist from Chicago, is among an untold number of the feline’s fans who applied for permits with the notion of reducing the number of cats killed. The move has reheated the debate that turned the bobcat into a political animal last year. […]
Umek said she is the only person in her group of 30 or so like-minded friends and relatives who obtained a permit.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Tim Schweitzer told the Associated Press “if harvest falls short of management goals, IDNR can issue more permits next year.” […]
According to Schweitzer nearly 98 percent of applications were received from existing IDNR hunting and fishing license and permit customers.
So, all the protesters are really doing is possibly forcing the state to issue more hunting permits next year.
Marcella Kincaid has lost count of all the times she’s been told by potential employers, “We really want to hire you, but …”
She knows what’s coming next without listening.
The fact that she’s owned a small business, earned her master’s degree, volunteered in her church and community, received various certifications, held steady employment and stayed out of trouble doesn’t matter.
In 1991, she was convicted of selling cocaine, a felony. Interview over. […]
That could soon be easier for Kincaid, 48, of Springfield. Kincaid was one of five people Gov. Bruce Rauner granted clemency earlier this month.
Clemency allows a person to go to court to seek expungement of his or her criminal record.
What was supposed to be an information session about breast cancer awareness turned into an opportunity to bash Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner after women’s health advocates accused him of ignoring cuts to screening programs caused by the budget impasse.
Before Rauner even began taking questions in his latest Facebook Live chat Wednesday, critics announced they would have a dueling online event to highlight the damage they say has been caused by a lack of state funding. They even took issue with the way Rauner solicited inquiries, which featured a photo of his dog Stella wearing a pink ribbon and declaring, “Stella is doing her part to raise awareness and we are, too.”
“Frankly, I find that insulting. Illinois women need access to lifesaving screening services, not photographs of family pets,” said Beulah Brent, board president of Sisters Working It Out, a Chicago-based group focused on outreach in African-American communities where breast cancer mortality rates are high.
The exchange underscores the tricky political position Rauner finds himself in as the state enters a 17th month without a complete budget. While neither the GOP governor nor Democrats who control the General Assembly have budged enough to reach an agreement, Rauner has taken the brunt of the blame from social service groups that rely on tax dollars.
OK, wait. Stella is a fine dog and she’s Oscar’s friend. Let’s not bash her. And I really don’t see a problem with using her to advertise what was supposed to be an uncontroversial Facebook event. It was a decent bit of spin, though.
Anyway, what the governor just doesn’t seem to always comprehend is that while he might personally support the fight against breast cancer (or whatever other causes he contributes money to), he’s also the governor and that means he takes the heat for the cuts to those programs. And I’ll bet he gave far more money to campaigns the past few years than he gave to charity - which clearly demonstrates that he believes that government is, indeed, at the center of all this.
The solution is a comprehensive, balanced state budget, Rauner said.
“To do that, we need reforms to grow our economy because we can’t have government spending … growing way faster than the pace of growth for our economy,” he said. “It’s unsustainable.” […]
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force also took to Facebook on Wednesday with a video response to the governor’s event.
“While it’s important for us to … balance the budget, it’s important for us to do reform, all of these things, a balanced budget should not come at the cost of a woman’s life,” said Teena Francois-Blue, associate director of community initiatives and research for the task force.
In 2014, the deficit was falling.
What changed? A partially expired income tax hike and no real state budget.
Yes, there would still be problems if the Democrats hadn’t allowed the tax hike to expire. The economy was growing in 2014, but we obviously needed (and still need) far more growth to sustain spending. The tax hike didn’t totally solve the state’s fiscal problems, but it did make those problems far more manageable. Today’s problems are far less manageable without that revenue and without a real budget.
* I didn’t see this press release when it came out last Friday, but I did see the ad last night. It’s pretty darned good…
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis’ (R-Ill.) campaign today launched its first television ad of the 2016 general election telling the story of Jonny Wade, a seven-year-old boy from Jerseyville who lost his battle with brain cancer last Christmas Eve.
The ad features Kim Wade, Jonny’s mother, who reached out to Davis’ office to help carry out Jonny’s mission of receiving more than four percent funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for pediatric cancer research so no other kid has to have cancer.
“As a father of twin boys, Jonny and Jacky’s bond hit home for me,” said Davis. “Jonny’s mission to ensure no kid ever has to have cancer should be this country’s next ‘moonshot.’ Cancer has impacted the lives of nearly every American, regardless of political affiliation. This is an issue Republicans and Democrats in Washington should be able to come together on. I continue to work with my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to advance research and make Jonny’s mission of curing cancer a reality.”
* The entire one-minute spot features Johnny’s mom speaking to the camera, with photos of the child and Congressman Davis interspersed…
A last-minute, high-dollar campaign has surfaced against two Republicans who are seeking seats on the 5th District Appellate Court, which covers the metro-east and Southern Illinois.
A political action committee called Fair Courts Now formed on Oct. 11 and, as of Wednesday, had raised $930,000. Most of it has come from plaintiff attorneys in the metro-east and St. Louis.
The committee’s expenditures, as of Wednesday, consisted solely of mailings and ad buys in opposition to two candidates running for seats on the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon: incumbent Justice Randy Moore of Carterville, and Madison County Circuit Judge John Barberis. Both are Republicans.
Moore is challenged by Democrat Jo Beth Weber, who is a circuit judge in Jefferson County. Barberis is running against Brad K. Bleyer, a Democrat and judge serving in the 1st Judicial Circuit, in deep Southern Illinois.
The top donors to Fair Courts Now are the Edwardsville law firm of Gori Julian & Associates ($235,000), the Alton law firm of Simmons Hanley Conroy ($250,000) and the St. Louis law firm of Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd ($250,000).
I’ve been telling subscribers about this push for several days. Subscribers also have the new TV ad.
Later in the above story, retiring Sen. Dave Luechtefeld (R-Okawville), who chairs Moore’s campaign committee, says the money from mainly asbestos attorneys is no surprise, but that they haven’t been able to raise any cash to counter them. Moore had just $27K in his campaign bank account at the end of the third quarter.
* From a Decatur Herald & Review editorial which eventually gets around to arguing for “state subsidies” for nuclear power plants, including the one down the road in Clinton…
The chips are starting to fall in anticipation of the planned shutdown of the Exelon nuclear power plant in Clinton and the first significant victim is the DeWitt County jail.
As reported last week by Kevin Barlow, jail inmates have been transferred to the Piatt County jail in Monticello as part of a new arrangement designed to save DeWitt County money. […]
In addition to preparing for a substantial loss of tax dollars if the Exelon plant closes, [Dewitt County Sheriff Jered Shofner] said the county also is making a lot less money on its longtime program of housing federal inmates.
When Shofner took over in 2010, the DeWitt County jail took in more than $1 million in revenue for housing federal prisoners and had a staff of 16. Today, that revenue is about $180,000 per year and the staff has dropped to 12 people.
The current DeWitt County jail opened in April 1994 at a cost of about $7 million. It was designed to house 60 prisoners. Last week, the jail reported only 19 prisoners on site.
Um, OK. It looks to me like the county made a huge investment on a jail that was far too big for its actual needs. And handing the immensely profitable Exelon giant taxpayer subsidy checks in order to keep that jail open is not an argument that anyone else will buy.
Think about this: In 1998, George Ryan got 72 percent of the vote in DuPage County. And in 2010, Bill Brady got 52 percent. For the second most populous county, most Republican county, that is an unbelievable amount of attrition in a relatively short period of time.
When demographics change, you incorporate new people into the party. We didn’t do that, partly because we told people to wait your turn. It was an outdated system that pushed talent away and bred corruption and incompetence.
I think Kirk’s problem has nothing to do with Donald Trump. I think Kirk’s problem is he declared war on the conservative base of the party. When you basically tell conservatives if they disagree with you on the marriage issue then you’re a bigot, and if they disagree with you on the junk science behind climate change … that they’re Luddites … and down the line of issues, at some point you reach critical mass.
Madigan is talked about like he’s some kind of mythological figure, he’s 10 feet tall and he breathes fire. He’s a diminutive property tax appeals attorney. The city of Chicago and Cook County have thousands of guys like Mike Madigan. What’s the big deal? We haven’t lost races we should have won because of Mike Madigan. We have lost races we should have won because of the surrender-first approach of the Republican party. Because we have had terrible leadership in the caucuses … and we’ve had some bad candidates at the statewide level, too.
* Protest? Civil disobedience? Dude, all you’re gonna do is sit on your can while you flap your gums on the radio and type goofy stuff on Twitter in order to bolster your talk show ratings. C’mon…
Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh tweeted Wednesday afternoon that he plans to take up arms if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump loses on Election Day.
“On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump,” Walsh tweeted. “On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket,” asking his nearly 80,000 Twitter followers, “You in?” […]
Walsh, who hosts a syndicated radio show on AM-560, later told NBC5 that the tweet was tongue-in-cheek.
“We’re talking about a musket,” Walsh said. “I could’ve said grab your slingshot and let’s go. Metaphorically, I meant grab your muskets, if Trump loses, man, we’re going to do what we have to do. We’re going to protest and boycott and practice civil disobedience. We may start a third party.”
“We’re going to do a lot of things to get our country back, that’s what I meant,” Walsh added.
* Most of the replies to his tweet were not at all supportive. And some were pretty funny, particularly this one…
*** UPDATE *** You can watch the press conference by clicking here.
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Press release…
Senator Mark Kirk To Meet With Whistleblowers Before Debate
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk will be meeting with four whistleblowers that accused Rep. Duckworth of ignoring or retaliating against them when they brought forth scandal, abuse and mismanagement at state and federal levels of the VA.
Two of the whistleblowers, Christine Butler and Denise Goins, said that Rep. Duckworth violated ethics laws for punishing them when they spoke out about mismanagement and veteran abuse occurring at the Anna Veterans’ Home under Rep. Duckworth’s leadership.
The other two whistleblowers, Germaine Clarno and Dr. Lisa Nee, said that Tammy Duckworth ignored and dismissed evidence of mistreatment and corruption at the Hines VA, telling them “it’s just the way it is” at the VA.
All four whistleblowers will accompany Senator Kirk as his guests to the U.S. Senate debate in Springfield on Thursday evening.
Location:
Hilton Garden Inn
3100 S Dirksen Pkwy
Springfield, Illinois 62703
Time:
2:15pm
Date:
October 27, 2016
MEDIA RSVP:
Media must RSVP to [redacted] to confirm attendance.
I wonder if he’ll bring Duckworth’s long lost Nigerian brother to the next debate. /snark
* Related…
* Kirk, Duckworth in second debate tonight: The 7 p.m. forum is the lone Downstate matchup between the two candidates. It will be held at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Sangamon Auditorium and is sponsored by the State Journal-Register, WMAY 970-AM and WICS-TV Ch. 20. The event will be live streamed at SJ-R.com.
430 ILCS 65/8) (from Ch. 38, par. 83-8)
Sec. 8. Grounds for denial and revocation. The Department of State Police has authority to deny an application for or to revoke and seize a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card previously issued under this Act only if the Department finds that the applicant or the person to whom such card was issued is or was at the time of issuance…
A person whose mental condition is of such a nature that it poses a clear and present danger to the applicant, any other person or persons or the community
In other words, maybe the state cops should grab Walsh’s musket.
* Mark Kirk originally backed Donald Trump for president, then said he’d write in David Petraeus, then said he’d write in Colin Powell, then went back to Petraeus, and now he appears to be backing away from Petraeus again…
Kirk, who is struggling in his Senate race against Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth, said months ago that he planned to write in former CIA Director David Petraeus for president. But in an interview with a Chicago radio station on Wednesday, he refused to confirm whether that was still his plan.
“I said that largely out of total frustration,” Kirk said. “The joke I’ve seen going around is, ‘If you had a rowboat and it sprung a leak with Hillary and Trump in it and it sank, who would win?’”
Asked if that means he doesn’t have a candidate he’s planning to vote for, the Republican senator replied, “I don’t at this point. Pretty frustrated by the choice that we have now.”
This is all completely silly and useless, by the way. Write-in votes don’t count unless the candidate is registered. So, he’s flip-flopping all over the place about something that means absolutely nothing.
Neck-deep into this political season of flying mud, campaign propaganda is flooding mailboxes in the Illinois Valley.
The leaflets are colorful in language and graphics. Some of their claims are easily fact-checked and others are so outrageous as to be undeserving of fact-checking. Most are sent by political groups, not the candidates.
A bulk of the fliers target candidates in the race for District 76 state representative.
Andy Skoog (D-La Salle) is challenged by Jerry Long, a Republican from Streator. Two years ago, Long challenged Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) and lost by 337 votes. Last year, after Mautino was picked in December as state auditor general, La Salle circuit clerk Skoog was appointed to replace him as state representative.
Too wrong to even be false
Source: Illinois Republican Party
Claim — “Skoog took $16,000-plus from groups who bankrolled a politician guilty of horrific sex crimes against children.”
Misleading — This claim is nearly unworthy of being fact-checked. The advertisement alleges Andy Skoog received campaign contributions from sources that also contributed money to Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) before Farnham was convicted in 2015 of trading images of child pornography. The flier does not mention Farnham by name but it’s well understood that Farnham is who they are talking about. Farnham served five years as a state representative and, expectedly, received campaign donations.
This mailer is claiming that after Farnham’s arrest in 2014 and conviction in 2015, his allegedly crooked donors looked for other sleazy politicians to fund and landed on Andy Skoog. This vaporous connection also has been used in ads against Mike Mathis of Gillespie, a Democrat running for the House seat in District 95, and Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion). Bradley donated $1,000 to Farnham — three years before Farnham was arrested, according to the Chicago Tribune.
I’ve always believed that the content of mailers should be treated as if they came from the candidates’ own mouths. And candidates shouldn’t be able to hide behind the fact that state parties often pay for these mailers. The parties pay for them mainly because state parties get a discount on postage. I would love to see a reform which forces these party mailers to include a statement from the candidate being supported that he or she “approves” of the message.
* Anyway, some media outlets do a good job on this particular topic, most, though, often choose to ignore candidate advertising. If you continue reading the above fact-check, you’ll see a very long list of insane mailers in that district. You may quibble here and there with how the paper judges them, but it’s mostly very solid and thorough work.
Anything that can be hacked will be hacked. Electronic voting machines are no exception. Which raises the question, “Could you hack enough electronic voting machines to influence (rig) the outcome of the upcoming presidential election?” To answer this question, you need to have high confidence in the answers to three additional questions:
1) Are there a sufficient number of electronic voting machines in swing states?
2) Can you identify and tamper with (hack) the right machines in the right locations?
3) Can you infiltrate the required number of the more than 8,000 distributed, local, mostly offline, public polling places, and defraud a sufficient number of ordinary citizen volunteer election monitors, trained and credentialed partisan poll watchers, and the local and state officials who have a system in place to forestall both human error and any type of suspected tampering? […]
There’s a compelling and reassuring post by Chris Ashby, a Republican campaign finance and election lawyer, that clearly explains what would be necessary to “rig” an election. It’s a good read. In it, Chris opines: “To rig an election, you would need 1) technological capabilities that exist only in Mission Impossible movies, plus 2) the cooperation of the Republicans and Democrats who are serving as the polling place’s election officials, plus 3) the blind eyes of the partisan poll watchers who are standing over their shoulders, plus 4) the cooperation of another set of Republicans and Democrats — the officials at the post-elections canvass, plus 5) the blind eyes of the canvass watchers, too.”
What Chris means by “technological capabilities that exist only in Mission Impossible movies” is that even though hacking an individual machine is relatively easy, hacking the right machines in the right places to successfully and undetectably “rig” a national election would take an almost impossible-to-imagine coordinated effort by an army of technicians and wizened election volunteers from both political parties. […]
Between all of the hacked documents being released by WikiLeaks, the massive Yahoo email hack and the recent super-sized DDoS attack, it’s natural to wonder if a technical hack could impact or rig the upcoming election.
While conspiracy theorists, fear-mongers and attention seekers may want you to believe it’s probable, and while it is true that the chances that hackers might influence the outcome of the upcoming election are non-zero, in practice, it’s just not possible. The thousands of very well-distributed, mostly old-fashioned, partisan-monitored, local election polling places that make up our national election system are on full alert, and it is more than capable of defending our democracy on November 8th. So please, go out and vote with confidence. America needs you.
The emergency medical technician has changed his identity at least twice since 2001. Born in New Jersey with the name Larry Myers, he presented himself to authorities as Michael Trivasano during a series of arrests between 2001 and 2002 — a sequence that ended with a five-year prison term for attempted murder.
Once out of prison, he legally changed his name from Larry Myers to Michael Arquero and began a new life. He married, started a family, got his EMT license — and obtained a firearm owners identification card and later a concealed carry permit, all as Michael Arquero.
Arquero is now charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. A simple fingerprint check would have revealed that he was a felon — albeit one known as Michael Trivasano — and disqualified him from owning a gun. But in Illinois, fingerprinting is not part of the background check required to get a firearm owners identification card or a concealed carry permit. Someone who wants a concealed carry permit has the option of supplying fingerprints to expedite the permit process. […]
Lawmakers could have incorporated fingerprint checks into the language of the concealed carry bill when it passed in Springfield, but they didn’t. They reasoned that someone with a criminal background wasn’t likely to apply for an FOID card or a concealed carry permit anyway. A felon will simply get a gun illegally, they shrugged.
Michael Arquero proved them wrong. It was alarmingly easy for him to defeat the supposed safeguards by misrepresenting his identity and his background. It wasn’t until he was arrested again that his fingerprints were discovered to match those of the felon known to the Illinois Department of Corrections as Michael Trivasano.
Suburban Cook County is poised to join Chicago in adopting a $13 hourly minimum wage, a move critics say is better left to the state but proponents contend is a response to the state’s inaction.
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is expected to pass an ordinance Wednesday that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $13 by July 2020, following its approval by the board’s legislative and intergovernmental affairs committee Tuesday. […]
Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, lead sponsor of the proposal, said the goal is for the state to pass a minimum wage law, but a proposal put forth by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, has languished since 2009. The intention is to encourage the state to move forward.
And almost exactly two years ago, Illinois voters overwhelmingly supported a non-binding referendum to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle appears to have some facts on her side when she suggested too many low-level offenders sit in expensive jail cells because they’re too poor to make bail. […]
Of the 8,222 people behind bars on Oct. 24, Dart’s office says, 298 were being held for failure to post $1,000 or less bond. Included are 62 that need $500, 17 that need $100 and one poor sap who needs just 50 bucks.
That last person is being held for allegedly shoplifting $118.26 worth of shrimp from a Mariano’s grocery store. He’s been in jail since Oct. 18, charged with retail theft under $300. His incarceration is costing taxpayers $162 a day. In other words, in terms of money, taxpayers would be better off to have reimbursed Mariano’s and let the guy go on the first day. […]
In 2015, again according to Dart, the county had 1,024 “turnarounds.” Those are cases in which a person was held so long awaiting trial that their eventual sentence was shorter than the time already served. Collectively, the excess “dead time” was a stunning 222 years in jail.
It’s time more judges got serious about lowering bonds. We understand no one on the bench wants to be the person who allows a suspect to return to the street — only to commit a serious crime. But we are not talking about major infractions here. In one case we’ve written about in the past, a 33-year-old man was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail for possession of two Viagra pills. Should taxpayers foot the $143-a-day cost of jailing someone for such an offense?
Judges set bonds to ensure people show up for trial. If people don’t show up, they forfeit what they have paid. But judges have to be careful that some people without the means to pay aren’t kept in jail while others with more money and charged with the same types of crimes are released. […]
In July, the Sun-Times reported that Cook County judges routinely set bail for crime suspects at levels contrary to what the new risk-assessment system calls for. Last week, two men, one of whom is represented by the MacArthur Justice Center, filed a class action lawsuit arguing “excessive” bail set by Cook County judges is unconstitutional.
In a statement Monday, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans said the courts have made significant progress. More I-bonds and electronic monitoring orders have been issued and the average population at the jail has declined, he said. In the first half of 2016, 94 percent of the lowest risk defendants were released pre-trial, he said.
That’s good. But Dart, Preckwinkle and others are correct that we can’t stop pushing until we have a system that treats all poor people fairly.
Republican Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger again tried to link Democratic challenger Susana Mendoza to longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan and the state’s financial woes. And Munger also accused Mendoza of previously double dipping at the public trough by collecting two government paychecks.
In turn, Mendoza painted Munger as a “wingman” for Gov. Bruce Rauner and took her to task for failing to “denounce” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Support of Trump has been a litmus test issue thrown at Republican candidates across the country this fall. Mendoza said Munger enjoys backing from some of the same campaign donors as Trump and that it should take “half a nanosecond” to know where to stand on the controversial candidate.
Munger said she’s “really working very hard to stay out of the issues at the top of the ticket” and “certainly cannot support a lot of the things that Mr. Trump has said.” But she declined to state her choice for president.
“She just accepted, from the person that she’s supposed to be a checks and balances to, a check for $1 million. By constitution, the Illinois comptroller’s office should be an independently elected office that serves as a watchdog for other executive offices,” Mendoza said.
Munger pointed out that some of that contribution was transferred out back to the Illinois Republican Party to fund other candidates’ races, prompting Mendoza to dub it “a legal laundering mechanism.”
Munger countered: “It’s not all coming in to me. My opponent has actually received plenty of money from special interests herself, including contracts that she’s gotten, money from companies she’s given out contracts out to, and money from Speaker [Michael] Madigan himself.”
“The Illinois Democratic Party is run by Speaker Madigan,” Munger said, as Mendoza interjected.
“Can I please finish? I was quiet when you were speaking,” Munger said.
There were numerous interjections during the appearance.
“Comptroller Munger has just admitted that she is allowing her campaign account, Citizens for Leslie Munger to be used as a legal laundering mechanism, so not only has she gone from being the state’s chief fiscal officer, she’s now admitted to being the state’s chief fiscal launderer,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza, a former state legislator and current Chicago city clerk, blasted Munger for accepting millions of campaign contributions from Rauner and business owners with close ties to the governor. The money was used largely to fund television ads that depict Mendoza as a Madigan protégé who will only do the bidding of the powerful Democratic leader if she’s elected. A large chunk of it was also distributed back to the state GOP, which is using it to help fund other campaigns. Mendoza called Munger the state’s “chief fiscal launderer.”
Munger responded by noting that she’s simply following the campaign laws that Mendoza passed when she was a legislator, and adding that she “didn’t need this job” and was doing it as a service to the state.
“The governor has not bought me,” Munger said. “Everything I have done is completely legal and transparent. It’s not illegal because Susana Mendoza voted for the law.”
Mendoza kept up the attack on Munger’s campaign finances for most of the debate and deflected Munger’s complaints that she has accepted campaign funds from Madigan through the state Democratic Party’s $150,000 contribution.
“Speaker Madigan’s campaign funds have not contributed to me, nor have I asked,” Mendoza said. “It’s not the same because the Democratic Party is not the personal piggy bank of Speaker Madigan.”
Incumbent Republican Leslie Munger was appointed to the post by Governor Bruce Rauner. Her Democratic opponent, Chicago City Clerk Susanna Mendoza, says Munger is controlled by the wealthy governor.
“She just accepted — from the person who she’s supposed to be a checks and balances to — last week, a check for $1 million. By constitution, the Illinois comptroller’s office should be an independently-elected office that serves as a watchdog over other executive offices.”
Munger counters that she stood up to Rauner.
“The governor has not bought me. In fact, I’m probably the most independent person here because I don’t need this job. I took this role because I love Illinois.”
* The governor’s bonuses for non-union state workers was also an issue…
Mendoza said the state doesn’t have money to pay its bills or keep open social service agencies, saying they “should be prioritized, certainly over anyone receiving a performance bonus while we’re in the midst of our worst, worst fiscal crisis of all time.”
But Munger said she was under court order to pay state workers.
When moderator Phil Ponce pressed: “including bonuses?” Munger said she cannot make a distinction over salary and bonus when an agency sends the request to her office for payment.
“There is no way to determine, which is bonus, which is pay,” Munger said, accusing Mendoza of not knowing how the office worked.
Mendoza countered that one of her top advisers is former comptroller Dan Hynes, and said Munger should have, upon taking office, immediately reviewed each agency’s expenses so she could make financial distinctions when necessary.
Believe it or not, this year’s crop of election commercials contains fewer really bad ads than in previous cycles. We have, nonetheless, persevered to find some of the most misleading. […]
Medicare scare in Illinois
At first glance, the ad run by Illinois Democrat Kate Cloonen seems like routine stuff. She suggests that her Republican opponent, Lindsay Parkhurst, would take away seniors’ Medicare and Social Security.
Democrats make that case frequently. But normally, they can point to some vote long ago to make modest or necessary reductions in federal spending to support their claim. In this case, the ad is not backed up by the slightest scintilla of evidence.
What makes it even more absurd is that the office that Cloonen currently holds, and that Parkhurst is seeking, is a seat in the state legislature.
Even if Parkhurst wanted to end the two signature federal programs for retirees, she’d have a hard time doing so from her perch in Springfield. Surely, Cloonen can come up with something better than this.
Responding to Governor Rauner’s “Facebook Live” on breast cancer detection and awareness, breast cancer advocates will hold their own “Facebook Live” to talk about how Illinois’ budget impasse has left low-income women without access to mammograms, breast exams, pelvic exams and Pap tests that could save their lives.
“Since FY 2015, the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program has lost $22 million in state funding,” said Teena Francois-Blue, MPH, Associate Director of Community Initiatives and Research for the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce. “This program makes it possible for low-income women to get health screenings that detect cancers early, when there are better treatment options. It is tragic that some Illinois women may have lost their chance for early, successful cancer treatment because our state budget was being held hostage for political reasons.”
“When Governor Rauner announced his Facebook Live session, he illustrated it with a photograph of his dog wearing a pink ribbon around her neck, saying, ‘Stella is doing her part to raise awareness and we are, too,’” said Beulah Brent, Board President of Sisters Working It Out (SWIO). “Frankly, I find that insulting. Illinois women need access to life-saving screening services, not photographs of family pets.”
Francois-Blue added: “Governor Rauner’s mother-in-law was successfully treated for breast cancer in 1987, and she has been cancer-free ever since. We believe that every woman in Illinois should have that same chance for early detection and a long, healthy life. Unfortunately, many low-income women and women of color don’t have access to high-quality screening and treatment services – a disparity that can cost them their lives. Illinois women don’t need an online chat with a nurse-practitioner; they need reliable funding that will give them access to breast exams, mammograms, pelvic exams and Pap smears.”
This Facebook Live event is being presented by the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce and members of the Responsible Budget Coalition, a large, diverse non-partisan coalition of more than 300 organizations unified in support of a fully funded, yearlong state budget with adequate revenue to serve our people and empower our communities.
Emphasis added for obvious reasons.
*** UPDATE 2 *** He did take the question and gave the standard answer…
Asked about impact of budget impasse on breast cancer screenings, Rauner repeats line that state needs reforms to properly fund health care.
Just wanted to follow up on why the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (IBCCP) and Stand Against Cancer (SAC) are so important and the $22 million in state funding cuts are so harmful.
1. One-third of Illinois’ population is Latino. Many immigrants do not have insurance and are not currently eligible for insurance on the ACA exchange or through Medicaid. IBCCP and SAC are two programs that provide lifesaving screenings, diagnostics and treatment for this population.
2. Many women who are newly insured get their screening covered for free, but then face a $1,000+ deductible for diagnostic follow up. Follow-up diagnostic screens can cost a woman anywhere from $300-$700, and a biopsy cost the woman $1,000 in out of pocket costs due to high deductibles. It is well-established that the subsidies assist people with covering their health insurance premiums but that they do nothing to assist with the deductible. The costs of diagnostic services are extremely high and pose a significant financial barrier both to early diagnosis and care.
3. Many small business owners and people who make above a certain income do not receive any subsidies. These individuals must bear the full cost their premiums, deductibles and other out of pocket expenses. Often these costs pose unreasonable barriers to care. These programs provide a safety net for people to assure that they are still able to get swift access to quality care.
Additionally, Rauner’s cut of $22 million to IBCCP and SAC have contributed to significant delays in care for Illinois women and risking women’s lives.
Thanks for your attention to this important matter,
Sincerely
Ariel J. Thomas, MS
Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force
*** UPDATE 4 *** From the governor’s office…
Despite decreasing demand for state support due to requirements of the Affordable Care Act that women be covered free of charge by insurers, Governor Rauner ensured $5 million in additional state dollars was allocated for the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program in this summer’s bridge funding. Governor Rauner agrees that funding for preventative services is of the utmost importance, which underscores why he held today’s Facebook Live highlighting Breast Cancer Awareness Month and signed legislation to improve early detection methods by requiring insurance plans, including Medicaid, to cover 3D mammography.
