* The early release scandal won’t go away. From the AP…
More than 1,700 Illinois prison inmates were supposed to get extra scrutiny on parole after they were set free early in a secret program that later embarrassed Gov. Pat Quinn.
But parole agents can’t monitor dozens of them because they can’t find them.
There are about 50 parolees who are AWOL after being let go as part of the so-called “MGT Push” early release program. Several were paroled after serving shortened sentences for violent crimes - or they have violent pasts.
More than three dozen have been missing more than 100 days. The average length of time on the AWOL list is 4 1/2 months.
Yet, Gov. Quinn thinks his Corrections director is doing a fine job.
…Meeks, who in the past threatened to run for governor only to be bluffed out by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, stopped short of endorsing Brady, a Senate colleague from Bloomington, or Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Asked by reporters if a Brady endorsement was possible, Meeks, who also is pastor of Salem Baptist Church, responded: “All things are possible. That’s what the scriptures teach us.” […]
“I’m not making a commitment or an endorsement at this time of either candidate,” Meeks said. “I support many of the initiatives of Gov. Quinn. Gov. Quinn and I both support a tax increase. Sen. Brady does not. Gov. Quinn and I both support many initiatives. So we’re together on many things.”
Meeks said the fact that he and Brady could come together to support Wal-Mart against union opposition in Chicago demonstrated how politics should work.
“I think that the message to those Democrats is that if we’re going to get things done in Springfield, if we’re going to get things done in Washington, it’s time to cross the aisle,” the Chicago Democrat said. ‘Every idea that Republicans have ain’t bad and every idea that Democrats have ain’t good. So it’s time for us to sit down. It’s time for us to cross the aisle. It’s time for us to come together. That’s why the state of Illinois is messed up right now.”
* Alexi Giannoulias has based many of his campaign ads on saving hundreds of jobs at a clothing manufacturer, but those jobs are now in jeopardy…
The overseas firm that controls men’s apparel maker HMX — whose labels include Hart Schaffner Marx and Hickey Freeman, famously favored by the president — is pushing for heavy cost cuts, sparking worries that one of its key US factories might eventually be shuttered, sources told The Post.
India-based textile giant SKNL — which last August led a group of investors in scooping up the company formerly known as Hartmarx out of bankruptcy for $128.4 million — has been so aggressive about slashing costs and moving production overseas that union workers in Des Plaines, Ill., right in Obama’s backyard, are afraid the plant will be closed.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Sun-Times says the NY Post story is bunk…
Owners of HMX men’s suitmaker, formerly run by Chicago-based Hartmarx, are denying a report in today’s New York Post that the Des Plaines factory is again in danger of closing. […]
Doug Williams, CEO of HMX, now based in New York, issued the following statement today: “The Hart Schaffner Marx factory in Des Plaines is running at full capacity to meet customer orders. To fully meet those orders, we have taken the excess required production (primarily sport coats and suit trousers) and are adding it to our Hickey Freeman factory in Rochester, N.Y.
“Today Rochester is also running at full capacity. In addition, we have added a pant sewing shop in our Des Plaines factory to speed our product to market.”
Williams said that owner-partner SKNL “is in full support of management’s strategy and sees our factories as a competitive advantage to our domestic market.”
Lesson finally learned: Never, ever trust the NY Post. I’ve been burned before by them. This one’s on me.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Meanwhile, Giannoulias has a new campaign Internet video. Rate it…
…Adding… In case you’re wondering about the music, it’s “Largo al factotum” from the “Barber of Seville.” Bugs Bunny performed the tune in Long-Haired Hare. The Giannoulias campaign confirmed my suspicion that this was an inside joke because a bunny rabbit is featured in the video. Being a hardcore Bugs Bunny fan, it’s what I immediately assumed.
Instead of obtaining supporters locally, [former East St. Louis Mayor Carl Officer] turned in 3,452 pages of petitions or about 34,000 names gathered in Cook County or in the collar counties to the west and south of Chicago, said a spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections. […]
“I see how our federal government is not upholding our constitution and that’s why I’m running,” said [Constitution Party candidate Randy Stufflebeam] a retired Marine, who said he received nearly 20,000 votes when he ran for governor in 2006. He said he is opposed to those who, “Blatantly violate our constitution.”
I’m hearing some things about how some candidates don’t even have the minimum 25,000 signatures, but I suppose I’ll save that for subscribers.
* For those of you who think that pulling petition sheets and challenging signatures is purely a “Machine” game, well, think again. Green Party gubernatorial nominee Rich Whitney has viewed the petitions of fourdifferentgubernatorialcandidates. However, he hasn’t had copies made yet, so he may not file an objection.
*** UPDATE *** I forgot to add this one. We talked yesterday about how conservative US Senate candidate Mike Niecestro pulled up stakes on his campaign when an unidentified “flake” Republican failed to deliver on his promised petition signatures. I already told subscribers about this today, but Doug Ibendahl also talked to Niecestro yesterday and filed this report…
…the guy who didn’t deliver to Niecestro as promised was Bill Kelly – the same Bill Kelly who just ran unsuccessfully in the GOP Primary for Comptroller. I would definitely agree with the “flake” characterization mentioned by Niecestro.
*** UPDATE - 2:50 pm *** Rod Blagojevich idolized Richard Nixon for most of his life. The supreme irony of both men being brought down by “the tapes” has not been lost on many of us. Now, we get this…
Rod Blagojevich refers to demons and Richard Nixon in brief comments on wiretap recordings played at the former governor’s corruption trial. […]
But he suddenly becomes introspective, comparing himself to former President Richard Nixon and saying they share a tendency to become depressed after winning elections.
Blagojevich also says fundraiser Chris Kelly appeals “to the demons in me.” Without offering details, Blagojevich says there are things he shouldn’t have done.
Creepy, man.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* As I’ve been saying for months now, Rod Blagojevich’s story about how he “really” wanted to appoint Lisa Madigan to the US Senate is merely a false alibi to cover for the criminal allegations against him regarding that alleged seat sale. From the Tribune…
[Blagojevich and chief of staff John Harris] talked about the idea of boosting their position by floating a false story that Blagojevich might want to appoint Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, a political ally, or even Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the daughter of Blagojevich’s nemesis, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Hamilton spent time with Harris chopping away at the Madigan proposal, which Blagojevich has claimed was his intention all along. Following his arrest, Blagojevich said he wasn’t trying to sell the Senate seat but rather was seeking to name Madigan to the post in a political deal to get her father to stop impeding his legislative agenda in Springfield.
Harris, however, testified that it was clear to him that Lisa Madigan’s name was being dangled as a “stalking horse” to make Obama think he might not land the Senate post for Jarrett unless he offered an enticement to Blagojevich.
“(Madigan) would be the person that’s in the race but not necessarily the person we want to win the race,” Harris told the prosecutor. “I believed at the time that she wouldn’t be interested. It was kind of a high-risk strategy.”
BLAGOJEVICH We, you know, then we gotta figure out the Madigan play if there is one, right?
HARRIS Right. […]
BLAGOJEVICH Negotiating with Madigan and suggesting his daughter, and then can’t make a deal with him that I’m gonna be satisfied with, right?
HARRIS Right.
BLAGOJEVICH Then I end up using my ace in the hole and I send myself. Right?
HARRIS Right.
BLAGOJEVICH Among the reasons I ended up having to fall back on this position was I couldn’t get the Democratic speaker and party chairman to agree that if I sent his daughter to the U.S. Senate all he had to do in exchange for that was to provide health care, pass a health care plan that Obama supports, a job’s plan that Obama supports and balance the budget without raising taxes on people which is what Obama was elected on. Right?
HARRIS Right.
This was actually just another goofy Blagojevich scheme to attack Speaker Madigan. But when he learned he was being bugged by the feds, he switched to the idea of appointing the attorney general so he could declare that he was just an innocent actor.
Tim Novak, ace Sun-Times reporter who favors Hawaiian shirts and psychedelic Jerry Garcia ties, stuck his head in my office Tuesday.
“I have a question,” he said, pausing to pop a handful of M&Ms in his mouth. “Has anything surprised you so far in this Blagojevich trial?”
Good question.
My first answer was no.
But I’ve been thinking about Tim’s question ever since.[…]
But on reflection, I am surprised about one thing. I’m amazed at the sheer, unmitigated, mind-boggling incompetence of this man.
His incompetence was there for all to see for six years.
* And his delusions of grandeur are also no surprise. He talked several times with Harris and with his wife about possibly using the Senate appointment to leverage an ambassadorship to India. Yes, India…
In an exchange with his wife, Patti Blagojevich begins doing what appears to be Internet research on the current Indian ambassador — a “white guy right now, David C. Mulford” — and on the ambassador’s residence in New Delhi.
“How are the running routes around there?” Rod Blagojevich is heard asking.
“Congested, I’m sure,” Patti says.
Harris testified he had to explain to Blagojevich that India was a pipedream.
“I just didn’t think a governor from Illinois would be the right person for that,” Harris said. Though he said it was realistic that Obama would “sideline” Blagojevich to some remote country with an ambassadorship position.
* Roundup…
* Andy Shaw: Noon, June 23, 2010. As I was sitting in the courtroom this morning, listening to the audio tapes of Rod Blagojevich brain-storming (and I use the term very loosely) with his chief of staff John Harris in the fall of 2008 about what to ask for from soon-to-be President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for the appointment of Obama’s friend and advisor Valerie Jarrettt to the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat, I was struck by the fact that our ex-governor, the star defendant in this massive corruption case, was living in a fantasy world. One of his top lieutenants, fixer Tony Rezko was awaiting sentencing on his corruption conviction. Another key advisor and fundraiser, Chris Kelly, had been indicted a year earlier on charges of tax fraud. Democratic fundraiser Joe Cari, another pay-to-play partner, was cooperating with the feds after copping his plea on corruption charges. And one of Rezko’s partners in crime, Stuart Levine, entered a guilty plea in his corruption case and was also cooperating with the feds.
* Darrow Abrams On honest services fraud, June 23, 2010. There’s a lot of talk at the Dirksen federal courthouse these days about when the Supreme Court will issue its ruling on the validity of honest services fraud. Given that the Supreme Court is expected to decide the issue by the end of this month, a ruling should be handed down imminently. So what is honest services fraud, and why does it matter in this case? Honest services fraud refers to a theory of fraud liability under the mail and wire fraud statutes. Basically, a government official owes the public a duty of honest services. If this official (a) knowingly participates in a scheme to deprive the public of their “intangible right of honest services,” (b) does so knowingly and with the intent to defraud and (c) uses either the US mail or electronic communications (e.g., phones, cell phones, faxes, e-mails, etc.) to carry out the scheme, then the public official has committed honest services fraud.
* As noted below, our state’s financial position appears to be rapidly worsening and the budget office won’t talk about it. As a “celebration” of that happy confluence, here is a photo of budget director David Vaught…
The cost of insuring Illinois bonds against default rose to a record as lawmakers sought to close a $13 billion deficit in the state’s proposed budget for the year starting July 1.
The cost of a five-year credit-default swap for the state rose 2 basis points today to 304.64 basis points, or $304,640 per $10 million of debt according to CMA DataVision.
There aren’t a lot of credit default swaps traded on Illinois debt, so this may be an unfair comparison.
* However, the Europeans appear to be interested in our debt. The state just finished a European tour ahead of another bond sale. From the Bond Buyer…
Market participants attribute the fresh foreign interest to the perception that U.S. government credits are relatively safe and have value, especially following this year’s European sovereign debt crisis. Also helping is better marketing by broker-dealers with foreign trading desks like Citi and the generally improving view of BABs as an asset class with federal legislation pending to extend the stimulus program.
For Illinois, the need to expand its universe of buyers is all the more urgent as it has asked domestic buyers to digest a steady flow of paper amid an ongoing deluge of negative fiscal news from rating downgrades to columnists raising the specter of insolvency.
* Illinois’ inability to solve its deficit problems, coupled with all the credit problems around the world is making things worse. There’s also a definite psychological aspect out there…
“A lot of our buy-side customers are reporting fatigue. It’s a saturation issue,” said Matt Fabian, managing director at Municipal Market Advisors. “You have unsophisticated buyers who don’t understand the pledge and sophisticated buyers who understand it but are getting fatigued fighting for it” as they have to answer to risk managers and board members who see the negative news.
Because liquidity is a paramount concern for BAB buyers, some investors also might worry about headline risks and the effect on their ability to trade their holdings, Fabian said.
Akin to the authorities in Greece, state and local officials in the US lack the luxury of Washington’s electronic printing press and helicopter “money”. And, again like Greek debt, things deteriorate rather rapidly when the market turns nervous and demands significantly higher yields. Meanwhile, the market’s faith is waning with respect to the ability of recovery to cure structural state and local deficits, as well as in the federal government’s capacity to move forward with numerous additional bailouts.
* The governor’s office is doing what it can to soothe the market, but this is a pretty hollow threat…
The bond offering statement notes that if the Senate doesn’t pass the pension issue, the governor’s options include vetoing the budget and calling a special session.
If he does bring them back, the pension borrowing bill probably won’t pass anyway.
Dale Rosenthal, a former strategist for Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund known for its epic collapse in 1998, and a proprietary trader for Morgan Stanley, has seen his share of financial complexities.
But when shown a seven-page list of derivatives positions held by the Illinois Teachers Retirement System as of March 31, obtained by Medill News Service through a Freedom of Information Act request, the University of Illinois-Chicago assistant professor of finance expressed disbelief.
“If you were to have faxed me this balance sheet and asked me to guess who it belonged to, I would have guessed, Citadel, Magnetar or even a proprietary trading desk at a bank,” Rosenthal said. […]
For the quarter ended March 31, according to derivatives experts who studied TRS’ financial documents, the fund lost some $515 million on its derivatives portfolio. Since then, the fund’s derivatives positions have likely soured further, the experts said, due to worsening financial conditions in Europe. […]
In the balance sheet provided to Medill News Service, TRS’s OTC derivatives portfolio showed that in addition to writing CDSs, the pension fund was selling swaptions and shorting international-based interest rate swaps. For each contract written or sold, TRS received a premium.
TRS claims it made money on the derivatives, but that’s hotly disputed in the article.
I asked the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget for a comment, but they declined. Not bright.
* State Sen. Bill Brady will hold a press conference this morning at the proposed Wal-Mart site in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood with Democratic state Sen. Rev. James Meeks and others. Brady has been a staunch supporter of building new Wal-Marts in Chicago and issued a press release earlier this week praising a deal cut by Mayor Daley that’s still pending in the city council. The deal would require the company to pay starting workers 50 cents an hour above minimum wage. Unions have decried the deal as a sellout. Here’s Brady’s release…
“As the author of legislation aimed at bringing exactly these types of jobs and opportunities to food deserts throughout Chicago, I strongly support the announcement by Wal-Mart and key community leaders of their agreement to create real jobs and more consumer choice in Chicago,” said Bill Brady.
“I’ve met with community leaders who recognize this as an opportunity to create thousands of jobs — both union and non union. I join with them in working to bring this proposal one step closer to reality. Mayor Daley and others have shown tremendous leadership in the effort to bring real private sector jobs that we desperately need. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with those ready to deliver on this agreement and get the job done for Chicago families. If only Governor Quinn was willing to do the same.”
Quinn said Tuesday that he is happy to see so many jobs potentially coming to Chicago. He tried to downplay the politically sticky issue that many of those jobs will not be union jobs, and will pay less than the demanded “living wage.”
Quinn instead focused his comments on the need Wal-Mart could fill in providing supermarkets to Chicago-area residents.
“It’s a municipal issue for the city of Chicago…It puts people to work, gets grocery stores where they need to be located in every neighborhood, and at the same time helps our economy go forward.” […]
“I’ve said all along that I believe…[in getting] a good wage for employees who work in the stores and for those who build the store,” said Quinn.
I’m sure SEIU is gonna be happy with that statement. The union has been in the lead on the Wal-Mart boycott and spent $1.7 million on Quinn in the primary,
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn will sign what his office calls “major economic legislation” Wednesday morning in Marion.
An aide to state senator Gary Forby confirms it’s Illinois senate bill 2093, better known as the STAR bonds bill. STAR stands for “sales tax and revenue.”
That bill will divert state sales tax revenue to help finance a major retail and entertainment development along Interstate 57 in Marion. […]
At Local 773, the Marion-based chapter of the Laborers International Union of North America, man hours dropped from around 1.1 million in 2001 to around 412,000 in 2007.
As the recession continued that number shrank to around 380,000 in 2009.
* And the folks who run Churchill Downs are warning that their Arlington racetrack is on the bubble…
Churchill Downs Inc.’s chief executive on Thursday raised doubts about the future of Arlington Park, its Chicago-area track and said the company’s flagship Louisville track may have to further reduce racing dates.
“You can’t run on hope,” CEO Bob Evans said in an interview after the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Louisville. “… If we get to the point where you know ‘not racing’ is the best answer, well that’s the best answer. But we’re not starting there, and I hope we don’t get there.”
During prepared remarks at the meeting and in the interview after, Evans talked of plans for an impending internal review of its four racetracks and said it is difficult to justify racing at tracks that don’t have slot machines or other forms of gambling to supplement purses.
Asked if Arlington Park and Churchill Downs are in jeopardy, Evans said any racetrack without alternative gambling would find it difficult to keep going without some business to make up the difference.
Churchill’s gaming operations now include the Calder Casino and Studz Poker Club at the Miami track and slot machines at Fair Grounds along with video poker at off-track sites. Churchill’s gaming revenues increased 22% in 2009 to $61,227,000.
Evans outlined racing’s $2.47-billion dip in pari-mutuel wagering in 2009 compared to ’07 and noted that foal crops continue to get smaller. The Jockey Club projects an 11.8% decrease in foals in 2010. With that in mind, Evans believes the tracks that will thrive will be the outlets that are able to boost purses with money from added gaming to attract entries from a shrinking pool of horses.
Evans said the company’s comprehensive review of racing operations would not necessarily lead to immediate changes.
“I’m not sure about the timeframe of any of this, but we have to be realistic,” Evans said. “Every track without alternative gaming or some other way to get money into purses is going to be in trouble. There’s no other way to survive.”
Last week, Arlington announced $725,000 in cuts to stakes purses for 11 races and the elimination of another, citing declines in out-of-state betting.
* And speaking of slots at tracks and racing woes…
Harness racing at county fairs like the Perry County Fair has long been a tradition in Illinois, but cuts in state funding and late payments to county fairs are putting the tradition in jeopardy and threatening jobs.
Rita Williams, a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association, said the future of harness racing at Illinois fairs is in “critical mode.” She said Illinois law provides reimbursement of 66 percent to county fairs. Williams said the actual figure is one-third of what it should be. […]
Williams said the purses that draw horsemen to enter races are composed of fees paid by the horsemen and funds the state provides to fairs. In the past several years the harness racing industry has experienced a reduction of more than 50 percent in state funding, which has reduced the purse size for each race and caused some horsemen to seek alternative venues, she said. […]
“If we lose this industry we will lose 35,000 to 40,000 jobs,” Williams said. “What will these people do? That will create another burden on the state.”[…]
A piece of legislation in the general assembly could save harness racing in Illinois, Williams said. Senate Bill 3146 would amend the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975 and allow slot machines at tracks. Williams said the action would not only save the harness racing industry, but provide hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state.
* Apparently, a lot more happened after that Republican video tracker turned off his cam at Alexi Giannoulias’ DC fundraiser the other day. You’ll remember the story. Tracker shows up, gets harrassed, told to leave, GOP makes a big splash claiming foul play. The video…
The first guy to confront the tracker was DC lawyer Michael Kosmas, the party’s host. Politico has a story about what transpired later that evening…
An attorney for a resident of Madrigal Lofts, a condominium building in downtown Washington, D.C., is asking the Senate campaign of Democrat Alexi Giannoulias to investigate an alleged incident of “harassment, intimidation, and assault” that occurred after a recent rooftop fundraising event. […]
The tracker contended that he had been invited to the rooftop by a different resident of the condominium building. And that resident accused Kosmas and several other individuals of showing up at her door later that evening, around 11:00 pm, and confronting her “using inappropriate and threatening terms.”
The accusing resident did not open the door at the time but was later escorted by a building security guard to Kosmas’ condominium to complain, according to accounts by both parties.
According to a letter sent to the Giannoulias campaign by the woman’s attorney, Bobby Burchfield, Kosmas “would not commit to refrain from repeating the situation” and the woman was “knocked on her shoulder” as she walked past him.
The woman was not identified, but according to the article “she has worked for Republicans in the past but is not currently employed by an official GOP organization.”
* As you’d expect, the Republicans have pounced yet again. From a Mark Kirk for Senate press release, entitled: “Kirk Campaign Expresses Serious Concern over Report that Giannoulias Event Host Intimidated Young Woman after Fundraiser”…
“The news that Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign event host intimidated a young woman at her home in Washington following the campaign’s DC fundraiser raises serious concerns with regard to the integrity of the Giannoulias campaign and its associates,” Kirk spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski said. “We call on Alexi Giannoulias to immediately apologize for his campaign affiliates’ intimidation tactics, publicly identify all those involved and terminate all association with them.”
IL GOP…
“We call on Alexi Giannoulias to issue a public apology, identify those involved and cut ties to them immediately,” Chairman Brady said.
“Campaigns should not tolerate the intimidation and harassment of women.
“I hope some of Alexi Giannoulias’ supporters like Dick Durbin and Jan Schakowsky will have the courage to stand with me in condemning all acts of violence, bullying, intimidation and harassment of women by a political campaign or their supporters.”
And from the NRSC…
“Instead of demonstrating leadership by stepping up and denouncing this kind of inappropriate activity, mob banker Alexi Giannoulias simply embraced the Chicago way and condoned it. The people of Illinois deserve better than a mob banker who is willing to turn a blind eye to any type of predatory harassment, intimidation, or violence.” – Amber Marchand, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Press Secretary.
* The Giannoulias campaign isn’t commenting, but Michael Kosmas did issue a statement. Here’s part of it…
On the evening of June 16, 2010, I hosted an event at my Washington residence for Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Illinois. Despite the fact that this was a private event in a private residence building, an uninvited intruder entered the perimeter of the party and videotaped my guests. Building security ultimately escorted him to the outside the perimeter of my private reserved party area. This person continued to videotape the event from afar despite being told repeatedly by the security guard that he was in violation of the building rules.
Following the event I went and complained at the unit whose occupant allowed the videographer upon my roof. She did not answer her door, but instead came to my door with the building security guard a few moments later to complain I was harassing her. The security guard told her in no uncertain terms that if her guests violate building rules, I have an absolute right to go to her unit and complain. Unsatisfied with the guard’s explanation, she then summoned a District of Columbia police officer, who gave her the exact same answer.
On the evening in question this woman refused to identify herself. I have since been given a copy of a letter on her behalf by a Washington attorney to the Giannoulias campaign. Aside from containing many factual inaccuracies, it quite simply doesn’t make sense. If she in fact feels that she was harassed, with inappropriate and potential illegal activity as she claims, where is her complaint to the police? Where is her complaint to the building? This is political opportunism and game playing at its worst.
Kosmas is also distributing a blistering statement by former Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley, a Maryland Republican…
On the evening of June 16, 2010, my longtime senior Congressional aide and chief political operative, Michael S. Kosmas, hosted an event at his Washington residence for Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Illinois. Despite the fact that this was a private event in a private residence an uninvited intruder entered the perimeter of the party and videotaped Mr. Kosmas and his guests.
While these sorts of dirty tricks occur regularly in politics, what disturbs me is the response of the Republican Party. Rather than condemning this trespassing in a private party in a private residence, the Republican Party has lionized the trespasser, and with respect to Mr. Kosmas, the party host, have questioned who he is and his relationship to the Giannoulias campaign.
I am actually quite surprised that national Republicans have to ask this question. Six months to the day before the Giannoulias fundraiser at his home, Mr. Kosmas was an official co-host of an event at the National Republican Senatorial Committee for Rob Portman, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Ohio, at which Senator McConnell was the guest speaker.
For the record, Mr. Kosmas spent nearly a decade as my Congressional aide, and managed many of my successful re-election races to the U.S. House. He served a four year term as elected member of the Republican Central Committee of Maryland. He has donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates over the years, including myself, Bob Ehrlich, Michael Steele, Susan Collins, Dan Burton, Duncan Hunter and others.
I am disgusted that the reward for Mr. Kosmas efforts for so many Republicans over the years is to have political operatives trespass into his home when he does an event for a member of the other party. The Kirk for Senate campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee owe Mr. Kosmas an apology.
* Lawyers and political strategists are now involved, so don’t bet on any apologies being offered by anyone, which is what would normally happen if this wasn’t a campaign thing and was just a dispute between a couple of tenants.
It certainly would’ve helped the GOP’s cause if a formal complaint had been filed with the local coppers about the confrontation and the alleged shoulder-bump, but that doesn’t appear to have happened. Still, confronting a female tenant at 11 o’clock at night is more than just ungentlemanly, not to mention the alleged physical contact. She had a right to be frightened, even though she did play a role in this escapade. But she shouldn’t have allowed somebody to use her name to crash the funder and not expect at least some consequences.
Everybody really needs to calm down and act like human beings. I suppose, however, that’s too much to ask. It is DC, after all.
Mayor Cynthia Stovall-Hollingsworth was not believed to be a target and was not injured, police said. The bullets that hit her house were believed to be stray shots.[…]
Stovall-Hollingsworth came to office in April after the former mayor, John Thornton, was shot to death driving home from work on April 1. Thornton stopped to talk to two men when one got into his car and shot the mayor.
The privately run DuPage National Technology Park — a near-empty west suburban non-profit project that Illinois taxpayers sunk $34 million into — is dead, DuPage County Board chairman Robert Schillerstrom declared today.
Schillerstrom said the tech park will be taken over by the DuPage Airport Authority, which owns the land in West Chicago that backers once hoped the park would turn into a flourishing home for dozens of technology businesses bringing thousands of new, high-tech jobs.
Earlier this month blood marked the grass outside Brian Piccolo Specialty School in West Humboldt Park where a 15-year-old boy was slain. Officials there hope the tragedy won’t taint the progress they have achieved in the past two years.
The school, which had been plagued by violence and low test scores, has seen improvement in both, according to school officials and state data. But Principal Althea Hammond worries that the school’s strides may be overshadowed by one tragedy.
“I always compare schools to a fairy-tale place. It’s an illusion,” Hammond said on a recent morning. “When (students) leave, they are going back to their own reality.”[…]
When it began to rain, Jeremy took refuge near Piccolo along the 4200 block of West Thomas Street, according to an account of the events read by prosecutors in court on June 16. Prosecutors alleged that a 20-year-old began shooting and hit Jeremy in the neck. The suspected shooter has been charged with first-degree murder.
The prosecutor said in court that the area where Jeremy was killed “is the site of ongoing rivalries” between gangs. […]
Even the memorials set up for Jeremy Baggett after the shooting caused stress for the school. What started as flowers and balloons turned into liquor bottles and, eventually, graffiti. City authorities cleaned up the site, but then Hammond heard rumors that people who were angry that the memorial was removed were threatening to shoot out school windows.
And according to a recent survey of statewide DUI arrests, several Chicago suburbs lead in enforcement — Carol Stream, Gurnee and Orland Park, to name a few.
Carol Stream racked up nearly 500 arrests for driving under the influence last year, ranking fourth in the state, a source of pride for its police department, officials said.
In a statement, state police officials said Sheikh Kifah Mustapha, the associate director of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, could not serve as a volunteer chaplain “due to information revealed during the background investigation.” State police declined to be more specific. […]
Shortly after Mustapha’s appointment, Steve Emerson, executive director of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, criticized Illinois law enforcement for ignoring Mustapha’s history as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity.
The foundation’s two founding members were sentenced last year to 65 years in prison each for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled as a terrorist organization.
* Daley, Wal-Mart tout benefits of chain coming to Chicago
Daley tends to display such emotion when he’s in a tough political situation. He’s frequently gotten fired up when discussing the city’s decades-old handgun ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn any day now.
In the case of Wal-Mart, Daley is fighting a long-running battle that could come to a head Thursday when the City Council Zoning Committee votes on the proposed Pullman Park development on the South Side that would be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
It’s not clear if the mayor has the votes to prevail — as he almost always does. “We’re gonna try,” he said.
* Daley wants answers from organized labor over $1 billion Wal-Mart deal
* Lombard will close bridge if Glen Ellyn won’t pay
Lombard plans to close the aging Hill Avenue bridge on July 1 if neighboring Glen Ellyn won’t pitch in on the cost of rebuilding it.
The bridge over the DuPage River just south of the Union Pacific tracks belongs to Lombard, but traffic patterns indicate it has more value to Glen Ellyn residents.
That’s why Lombard is asking its neighbor to split the $600,000 local share of the reconstruction cost - and says it won’t foot the bill alone.
* Bureaucratic housekeeping in Naperville turns into debate over abortion clinics
City planners recently decided to streamline two separate land-use classifications — “medical or dental clinics” and “medical or dental offices” — into one category, to remove repetition and make the city’s zoning code clearer. Their proposal to do so at the June 15 City Council meeting, however, nearly was derailed by concerns by several council members over the possibility that an abortion clinic can operate anywhere that medical or dental facilities currently are allowed, including in the city’s downtown.
Persistence usually pays off, so it’s important that officials in the Rockford region remain persistent if they have any hope of attracting a Navistar facility that is having problems moving to Lisle.
The Northwest Herald reported Sunday that McHenry County has been aggressive in pursuing Navistar and is trying to lure the company to the Motorola site in Harvard.
Motorola closed the Harvard plant in 2003 and it’s been vacant since. The campus employed 6,000 people at its peak in 2000, so there’s plenty of room for Navistar.
* Gov. Pat Quinn celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of Dairy Queen today. During the presentation, Quinn reminisced about how he had stopped at “every single Dairy Queen” when he walked across the state several years ago. That activity earned him a certain nickname from his doctor, Quinn said. Watch…
So, I guess he’s no longer “Soy Boy“? Maybe “Soy Dairy Boy” or something?
Rod Blagojevich’s defense lawyers filed a bid for a mistrial, saying that Judge James Zagel’s repeated rulings against them have kept them from telling their side of the story.
“Defense counsel has been systematically prevented from engaging in meaningful cross-examination by unwarranted sustaining of objections,” Blagojevich’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “The result is the deprivation of a fair trial and a mistrial is warranted.”
They also complained about Zagel’s comments in front of jurors, citing one remark from Zagel: “Don’t do that, now we‟re getting into the mind-reading of the prosecution.”
“Moreover, by ruling on these “mind reading” objections orally in front of the jury, it sends an inappropriate message to the jury (when only the defense is sustained on these questions).”
Defense counsel has been systematically prevented from engaging in meaningful cross-examination by unwarranted sustaining of objections. The result is the deprivation of a fair trial and a mistrial is warranted. […]
The court has ruled that questioning by the defense has gone beyond the scope of direct. In numerous instances, this finding has been erroneous, where indeed the government opened the door to that line of questioning. […]
Defendant moves this court for a mistrial. In the alternative, defense counsel urges this Court to order the government to state the basis upon which it objects, and urges the court to limit the distracting manner in which prosecutors signal to witnesses by persistently standing to object (many times prior to defense counsel even asking a question). It is a distraction for the jury and serves no legitimate purpose.
A barely audible Judge James Zagel is explaining his repeated upholding of prosecution’s objections after Rod Blagojevich’s defense team asked for a mistrial today.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a motion for a mistrial based on objections,” Zagel says. […]
Zagel said he believes lawyers are asking the questions the wrong way — beginning the questions in such a manner that the witness would have to guess what someone was thinking. Zagel noted the defense hasn’t objected much (indeed, today, just one even though the government’s most significant witness has been on the stand all day).
But the bottom line: Zagel said the defense can hand him a list of questions they think he should have allowed and he’d consider them.
Zagel said he saved Sam Adam Jr. and his client a level of resentment from the jury because he kept him from asking of the same questions time and again.
“I’d do it again, because I believe it is in the interest of justice to do so,” Zagel said.
As a commenter said earlier, the defense was probably just trying to “work the refs” a bit here. Others have suggested they’re setting up an appeal. There would always be an appeal. That doesn’t mean, however, that RRB is not doomed. He is.
* Alexi Giannoulias’ campaign manager Mike Rendina just sent out a mass text…
Friends,
Meredith and I excited to announce the arrival of our new boy, Benjamin Nathan. Ben was born at 3:50 am and weighed in at six pounds eight ounces. Both Ben and Meredith are in good health and resting comfortably… Thank you all for your love and well wishes.
Way to go, Mike!
* Former top-notch SJ-R reporter and now Vice President of Public Affairs for Mac Strategies Group Ryan Keith just posted this on his Facebook page…
Baby girl Emersyn Gabrielle is here and healthy, along with mom!
Hooray!
* And, while we’re at it, tomorrow is Secretary of State Jesse White’s 76th birthday. Hope it’s a great one.
Heralded since its 1900 completion as the city’s greatest engineering feat, the reversal of the [Chicago River] kept sewage out of Lake Michigan, providing clean drinking water for Chicago to grow.
Republican Kirk wants to keep the river flowing backward. But Democrat Giannoulias wants a massive federal project to re-reverse it to its natural course.
“We lose about 500 million gallons of purified water because of the way the river flows,” Giannoulias said at the Metropolitan Planning Council’s annual luncheon downtown Monday.
“Long-term, it’s smart to try to re-direct that water, to clean it up first and redirect it into Lake Michigan.”
The project would split the Chicago River from its link to the Mississippi River, blocking the route of Asian carp, which threaten Lake Michigan’s $7 billion fishing industry, supporters say.
But Kirk — also speaking at the luncheon — said “we should not reverse the direction of the Chicago River so that it dumps into the source of our water supply.”
* The Question: Which side has the better argument here? Explain.
AT&T today unveiled its Illinois wired and wireless network investment plans for 2010, which include plans for more than 80 new cell sites and the upgrade of nearly 300 additional cell sites to 3G throughout the state.
The announcement comes on the heels of Gov. Pat Quinn’s signing of the state’s new modern telecommunications law designed to attract private sector investment in broadband and wireless to meet consumer demands and attract jobs across all sectors of the Illinois economy.
“With the stroke of a pen, Governor Quinn made Illinois an attractive place for AT&T to invest in broadband, wireless and emerging technologies,” said Paul La Schiazza, president, AT&T Illinois. “His leadership in broadband coverage and job creation cannot be understated.”
But this is really not new…
From 2007 through 2009, AT&T’s total capital investment in its Illinois wireless and wireline networks was nearly $3.6 billion. From 2007 through 2009, AT&T’s wireless network investment in Illinois was nearly $975 million.
They added 70 cell sites in 2009 and upgraded 220 existing towers. That’s before the law was passed. What’s driving this newly announced expansion is network pressure created by iPhone and iPad owners, not state law. On the other hand, the company can now get out of much of its state legal mandate to expand and maintain its wired service. So, expect AT&T’s actual capital investment to decline overall, not increase.
* The last time the state passed a payday loan law, the industry just worked around it. And even though its supporters say this new law is significantly tougher, the financial services industry has some of the brightest minds in the world on payroll, so I’ll wait and see if this really works. From a press release…
Governor Pat Quinn today signed a bill into law that will increase protections for Illinois residents obtaining consumer installment loans. The new law caps interest rates charged by consumer finance companies, which can sometimes be as high as 1,000 percent.
“Many consumers who take out short-term loans are doing so as a last resort to pay their bills and provide for their families. It is all too easy for lenders to take advantage of them by raising interest rates and setting very short repayment periods,” said Governor Quinn. “It is important that we do everything we can to protect these consumers who are already hurting, by helping to make these loans more affordable.”
There was no new estimate on how many jobs might go along with a Thomson prison filled with federal prisoners. The administration’s original estimate said 1,200 jobs, both direct and indirect, would be created by the third year of operation, based on 1,600 federal prisoners.
Nearly 900 of those jobs would be positions at the prison.
Overall, the administration had said, 3,200 to 3,800 jobs could be created in the region, both direct and indirect.
Those “indirect” jobs are very hard to quantify.
* Last month, the Peoria County/City Board of Health laid off 31 employees and cut way back on its state-supported health programs. Last week was the Woodford County Health Department Board of Health’s turn…
The Woodford County Health Department Board of Health voted last week not to renew several state-supported programs after Illinois informed the board it would not pay for services rendered until December instead of July.
“We knew they were behind (in paying bills), and we decided we could make it until July,” said Laurie Schierer, public health administrator. “But then they told us it would come in December.”
The last time the department received a payment from the state was in December 2009, meaning it would have to go 12 months without a payment for services already rendered, and that wasn’t a viable option. Before last year, the state paid for the programs by the month.
Over the weekend, 52 people were shot in Chicago, a stunning tally that the police blame in large part on gangs.
The police will also tell you that the lifeblood of the gangs is the sale of illegal drugs. The gangs are the Al Capones of our day, peddling an illegal product for which the demand is enormous.
We can disrupt the gangs’ operations — as Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart did last week when his officers seized 5,525 pounds of pot worth $20 million — but we will never put them out of business, no more than we could put the bootleggers out of business.
We fill our prisons with young men who have committed drug-related crimes — a shameful waste of human potential and the taxpayers’ money — but nothing changes. For thousands of high school dropouts who might otherwise be washing dishes for minimum wage, the money in drugs is just too good.
The sheriff’s plan is to burn all that confiscated pot, a further reminder of how irrational our drug policies are. We agree with those who say the pot should be used for medical purposes by people living in great physical pain.
Why not just legalize it and put the gangs out of business? Create some new jobs in the process.
* Related and a roundup…
* Quinn expected in Marion Wednesday: There is no word on what the nature of Quinn’s visit will be, but many have been anticipating his signature on a bill that would green light a major development project in Marion.
* Our View: Wrong to punish independent thought in Springfield; Cross was elected to his position seven years ago on a promise of allowing greater independence for members. Even after this vote, he told reporters that while he was disappointed, “I’m not a guy who’s going to force people to vote a certain way.” Really? Incidentally, Democrat Jack Franks of Woodstock broke with his party and still holds his committee chairmanship.
*** UPDATE 1 - 1:52 pm *** Former chief of staff John Harris destroys Rod Blagojevich’s alibi that he wanted to appoint Lisa Madigan to the vacant US Senate seat in order to pass the long-stalled capital bill and his healthcare reforms…
Harris and Rod are heard discussing leaking a potential Lisa Madigan appointment to Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
John Harris explains from the stand: “Michael Sneed is a woman who writes a political gossip column for a local paper — a page that a lot of politicians read before the sports.”
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked, then, if Harris and Rod were talking about leaking “false information” to Sneed.
Prosecutors play yet another tape, this one happened the morning of the presidential election — Nov. 4, 2008.
The senate seat is discussed at length and Rod Blagojevich can be heard talking about making a “tactical play,” involving Lisa Madigan. The play at one point involved pretending he would appoint the Illinois Attorney General to the Senate seat, but really, he’d appoint himself.
The discussion was a strategy session. Blagojevich and Harris were trying to navigate talks with the Obama camp over the senate seat appointment. But they believed Rahm Emanuel and others were acting “cryptic.” They discussed floating other options as real possibilities to force Obama’s camp to talk straight, according to Harris.
Blagojevich on tape: “We need to think about a tactical play…we gotta figure out a Madigan play.”
Blagojevich said they had Illinois Senate President Emil Jones as a “fallback” for an appointment, but “the best he can do for me is raise money.”
Blagojevich also is heard telling Harris maybe they should work the Madigan angle and then: “I end up using my ace in the hole and I send myself.”
[ *** End of Updates *** ]
* They’re doing him in but good. As we learned yesterday, former deputy governor Bradley Tusk helped seal Rod Blagojevich’s coffin…
Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.
Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.
Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”
Emanuel wanted to know where the money was; Tusk told Harris that the governor would not approve the release of funds. So, Harris testified, he spoke to the governor.
“He seemed to be familiar with it and told me not to approve the release of funds, that he had not approved the release of funds,” Harris said. […]
Prosecutor Carrie Hamilton asked if this was the way grant money was usually doled out.
“No, the process was not typical and quite involved,” Harris said. “I didn’t experience that process again.”
Rod Blagojevich told his top aide to cut off two firms, including CitiBank, from state business as retaliation for not giving his wife a job, former chief of staff John Harris has testified. […]
When Harris later learned CitiBank was in line to win a major state deal, he said he purposely kept Blagojevich in the dark.
Former Blago chief of staff John Harris has just given testimony that backs up what Lon Monk told the court earlier this month — that in 2008, Blagojevich was in cahoots with then-state senate Pres. Emil Jones to kill an ethics bill that would have seriously hindered the governor’s fund-raising efforts. […]
“[Blagojevich] thought Emil would hold because he knew something we didn’t,” Harris testified. “He told us that Emil Jones wanted (Barack Obama’s) senate seat” and wouldn’t go back on his “pledge.”
Jones, though, did succumb to political and public pressure and called the bill.
“No way he’s getting the seat now,” Harris said Blagojevich told him.
Sam Adam Sr., the storied trial lawyer, ran aground as he asked Johnston about his relationship with deceased fundraiser Chris Kelly.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Zagel said after sustaining another objection from the prosecution.
Adam apologized to the judge and moved on, but Zagel’s impatience with the defense team’s tactics did not let up.
Defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky encountered more than 20 objections during his cross examination of Tusk.
* And I really doubt that this defense tactic will work…
Answering questions from prosecutor Reid Schar, Tusk said that at the start of Blagojevich’s first term, the governor came into the office regularly. But his attendance dropped off within a few months. So when the constitutional deadline for acting on legislation drew near, Tusk said, he sometimes had to track Blagojevich down to get an answer, one time meeting the governor at his tailor’s. Other times, Tusk said, he just couldn’t get a hold of his boss, and had to personally decide whether to sign a bill or veto it.
Seeming to respond to this testimony, Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky described Blagojevich as a “big picture guy and not a nitty-gritty detail guy,” an observation Tusk agreed with. This makes the point to the jury that Blagojevich left these “detail[s]” (like which bills to sign, apparently) to his aide. That, in turn, furthers a defense that Sorosky acknowledged in open court earlier Monday: that bad acts may have been committed by some people in the governor’s office, but not by the governor himself. “That undoubtedly is a substantial potion of the defense,” Sorosky told Judge James Zagel.
The reason it won’t work is simple. Rod wasn’t much of a governor, but the tapes clearly show that he was intimately involved with all sorts of nefarious details and was actually leading the parade.
Millionaire Mortgage Banker Mike Niecestro, the west suburban conservative who talked for months about running as an independent against Republican Kirk, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and the Green Party’s LeAlan Jones, did not file petitions for a position on the November ballot. Niecestro–who needed 25,000 signatures of registered voters–told me that his petition drive fell way short of its goal because a “certain republican politician” did not make good on his promise to get 45,000 signatures. In fact, according to Niecestro, the politician known as a “flake” in GOP circles, delivered a goose egg.
Retired U.S. Marine Randy Stufflebeam of downstate Belleville did file for the U.S. Senate as part of the Constitution Party slate. But the ultra conservative Stufflebeam, a Tea Party favorite, told me the Constitutions filed only 34,000 signatures. The conventional wisdom among election lawyers and politicians is that you need at least twice the required number to come up with 25,000 valid names.
So self-described moderate Kirk is likely not to have conservatives on the ballot to take away right wing republican votes.
Who the heck was Niecestro relying on and why would he rely on a “flake” to get his signatures? Weird, that.
Asked then his view of the federal Civil Rights Act, the legality of which has been questioned by Paul’s son, Kentucky GOP U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul, [Lex Green of Bloomington, Libertarian candidate for governor] pulled out a copy of the Constitution and said the document provides “no justification” for the law.
“The Libertarian Party stands for civil rights,” Green said. “We are the party of civil rights. But there is no permission given in the Constitution to pass civil rights law.”
Asked if that means a local business would be able to deny service to black customers, Green said, “I guess I would have to say yes.”
* Still, the Democrats are the ones with problems on their hands. Nobody reported it, but former East St. Louis Mayor Carl Officer filed to run for US Senate, as I told subscribers several days ago. Also, Dock Walls filed for governor. Both men are African-American. And then there’s Scott-Lee Cohen…
“I am extremely confident that a majority of the people of Illinois have forgiven some of my behaviors,” he said.
Cohen spokesman John Davis acknowledged that the campaign paid petition circulators $1.50 a signature and that the ballot drive was coordinated by former Gangster Disciples leader Wallace “Gator” Bradley.
Cohen paid people to help gather the immense number of signatures in just five weeks and addressed reports that some of his helpers were drug users and homeless.
“They have just as much right to earn an honest living as anyone else,” Cohen said.
Davis acknowledged that some of the petition circulators have not been paid, and said Cohen planned to deposit money in his campaign immediately after finishing the task of filing in Springfield, and he promised that unpaid workers would received what they’re owed over the next two or three days.
“As we have said all along, we will be doing our due diligence,” said Mica Matsoff, spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn’s campaign. “You have to meet certain requirements to get on the ballot, and it’s important to voters that those requirements are met.”
* Related…
* ADDED: What was unexpected, however, at least to this observer, was that petitions would also be filed by attorney Roger Zamparo, seeking to challenge Ann Finley Collins, the Democratic nominee for the Riley vacancy in Cook County’s 11th Judicial Subcircuit, and by attorney Keith Thiel, challenging Judge Daniel A. Pierce, the Democratic nominee for the “A” vacancy in the 14th Judicial Subcircuit.
* Claypool, Cohen ready for change as filing deadline passes today
* Claypool files paperwork to get in Cook County assessor race
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced today that the Department of Justice (DOJ) intends to acquire the Thomson Correctional Center by the end of the year and fully utilize the entire facility.
In a letter (attached) to Durbin, Quinn and Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL), a DOJ official explained that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) plans to make modifications to the prison and hire and train a full complement of staff while the Defense Department and Congress continue to work on authorizing and funding a portion of the Thomson facility for housing Guantanamo detainees.
Durbin and Governor Quinn issued the following statement:
“With this letter today, the Bureau of Prisons has reaffirmed the commitment it made earlier this year to fully utilize Thomson Correction Center and upgrade the facility to make it the safest prison in the nation.
The agency has already begun the process of recruiting for positions at the prison, so having the facility operating at full capacity could result in more jobs for residents of Thomson and surrounding areas.
As we have said many times, this move will have an enormous impact on our state –generating thousands of good paying jobs and potentially injecting more than $1 billion into the regional economy. This is an opportunity to dramatically reduce unemployment, create thousands of good-paying jobs and breathe new economic life into a part of Illinois that desperately needs this.”
The purchase, activation and operation of Thomson Correctional Center is expected to generate more than 3,000 jobs – roughly half of which are expected to be given to local applicants – and inject more than $1 billion into the regional economy. Currently, there is a critical need for a facility to address federal prison overcrowding problems nationwide and a particularly urgent need for supermax-type bed space. More than 209,000 inmates are in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons, up sharply from 202,000 last year.
The Thomson facility was built in 2001 by the State of Illinois as a state-of-the-art, maximum-security prison to house the most severe criminal offenders. The facility was never occupied, however, and is sitting vacant. The facility was constructed on a 146-acre reservation has 1,600 beds with eight compartmentalized units designed for maximum inmate supervision and control. Security features include:
* Dual-sided electrical stun fencing capable of carrying 7,000 volts;
* 312 Cameras on a fiber optic surveillance network with motion detection/remote monitoring capabilities;
* Armed outer and inner perimeter towers.
Bottom line: The Dept. of Justice will run the entire facility. No Gitmo prisoners unless Congress decides to act, which will probably be never.
* Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias spoke separately to a Metropolitan Planning Council gathering today. Giannoulias hung out afterwards before and answered media questions, but Kirk beat it outta there in a hurry…
As soon as that was done — with a swarm of TV cameras and reporters moving toward the front of the ballroom– Mr. Kirk bolted for a back door.
With media in hot pursuit, he raced through a Hyatt kitchen and into the back set of a black SUV — I believe it was a Cadillac Escalade — which instantly pealed out.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has dodged reporters for a week after acknowledging he embellished stories about his military service. Today, Kirk ran from a pack of reporters today after speaking for about 20 minutes at a forum held by the Metropolitan Planning Council where Giannoulias had spoken earlier. Kirk ran through a back door through a kitchen prep area and onto a loading dock where a car waited for him.
The rapid departure came after Kirk offered his answers on a series of pre-arranged questions dealing with planning and urban growth issues such as public transit to Lake Michigan’s water levels.
IL GOP’s Executive Curt Conrad said IL GOP Chairman Pat Brady and the new Finance Committee has raised more funds in the first four months of 2010 than was raised in 2009 altogether.
And its cash on hand was a startlingly puny $55,200.35.
Yikes.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Chairman Brady just called to say they actually raised “close to $750,000″ so far this year through about six accounts and has about $360K on hand in those accounts.
We applaud the policies that our fellow constitutional officers have already instituted for GLBT employees such as insurance coverage, sick time or bereavement leave.
However, we do not believe any others have a similar policy for unpaid FMLA leave, which was the basis of our Executive Order. FMLA allows an employee to take unpaid time off to care for a sick spouse, child or parent. What the State Treasurer’s Office did was to make “domestic partner” the equivalent of “spouse.”
As a result, in practice FMLA-like benefits were extended to GLBT employees so they could take unpaid leave to care for a sick domestic partner, just like a married employee could do to care for a sick spouse. Taking unpaid leave to care for a state employee’s domestic partner is not currently covered by the FMLA. We believe we are the only office to have done this and have it as a written policy –as opposed to leaving it open to interpretation.
Additionally, while FLMA can presently be used for maternity/paternity issues like the birth or adoption of a child, we do not believe that the state employee would qualify for leave to care for a newborn child related to the employee’s domestic partner. Similarly, if the employee’s domestic partner adopts a child but the state employee does not, under most maternity/paternity leave policies, the employee would not qualify for leave. Our policy now extends these benefits to cover such instances and do not believe it is covered in other state offices.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Another day, another embellishment claim in the US Senate race. But this one’s on Alexi Giannoulias. Last week, the state treasurer made a big announcement…
Gay and lesbian employees of the Illinois Treasurer’s office with domestic partners will have the same benefits as married employees under an executive order signed by state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias Sunday.
They’ll get the same family and medical leave benefits, be able to take time off to have or adopt children and take bereavement time on par with married workers. That is in addition to health care benefits that same-sex partners already received.
The order makes the office the first constitutional Illinois state office or state agency to adopt such a policy and one of only nine states and the District of Columbia to implement leave-related benefits for domestic partners, Giannoulias said.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan has had benefits in place for same-sex couples since July 2006. Spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said the change was made after CMS extended benefits to include domestic partners working for the governor’s office a couple of months earlier. […]
Ziegler said Madigan changed her office’s employee insurance coverage to include same-sex couples and bereavement leave. She said the maternity and paternity leave did not need updating because it covered people regardless of their sexual orientation.
Ziegler said she is unaware of any employees that have been denied rights under the Family Medical Leave Act because of their sexual orientation.
The Illinois Republican Party pounced with a press release detailing nine false claims. Here are a few. Click to read them all…
1. Falsely claimed to serve on the Board of Directors for a distinguished banking group. “Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias corrected a claim on his website that he served on the board of a banking group when he didn’t…‘Alexi was not that intimately involved to be candid,’ Wingert said.” (Associated Press, “Giannoulias Fixes Bankers Association Board Claim,” 6/9/2010)
2. Falsely claimed to chair a defunct charity. “Giannoulias is currently the state treasurer of Illinois. And, according to his official website, ‘He founded and chairs the AG Foundation, a not-for-profit charity that donates money to treat child-related illnesses, curb poverty and assist disaster relief organizations.’ The problem is, the charity no longer exists. According to the AG Foundation’s tax return, ‘The organization was in existence only for the two-year period from 2005 to 2006.’ So, why is Giannoulias still claiming to be the ‘chair’ of this defunct organization? According to the same tax return, Giannoulias’s formal position with the foundation was ‘president.’ In this capacity, the ‘average hours per week devoted to position’ was 0.15, which amounts to 9 minutes per week and an average of 39 minutes per month.” (Weekly Standard, “Giannoulias’s Embellishment,” 6/3/2010)
3. Falsely claimed Bright Start only lost $85 million. “The losses in a mutual fund that was part of the Illinois Bright Start college savings plan totaled about $150 million in 2008, more than double what the state had previously disclosed. As a result, families will recoup about half of what they lost, where six months ago some expected to recover a higher percentage of their losses.” (Chicago Tribune, “Illinois Bright Start college fund settlement less than expected,” 12/23/2009)
* Meanwhile, do you remember that story last week about how a Republican tracker got manhandled a bit at a Giannoulias fundraiser? Marathon Pundit has identified the person who most vociferously insisted that the tracker leave as Washington, DC lobbyist Michael Kosmas. Here’s his video…
But there’s a catch. Another conservative Internet guy, Doug Ibendahl, looked into Kosmas and saw that he may lean Republican…
But before joining his current law firm, Michael worked for nearly a decade for former U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley – a Republican from Maryland.
However it’s Michael Kosmas’ political contributions that are really interesting. Kosmas has given to Democrats – including his mother. But check out some of his contributions to Republicans:
$500 to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) (6/20/08)
$250 to U.S. Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) (9/28/04)
$3,200 in total contributions to U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California) (2003-2005)
$1,000 to Rudy Giuliani for Presidential Committee Inc. (11/29/07)
$500 to Elizabeth Dole Committee Inc. (7/15/02)
$4,000 in total contributions to former Republican Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich (2003-2006)
$500 to U.S. Senate Campaign of Republican Rob Portman of Ohio (12/16/09)
$75 to Harford County Republican Central Committee (4/25/03)
$200 to Republican State Central Committee of Maryland (10/2/03)
If someone from Illinois had that kind of contribution history – he or she would be considered a generous Republican.
Actually, that person would be called a “lobbyist who works both sides” here in Illinois.
In one of the first major provisions of federal health-care reform, states were supposed to establish temporary high-risk insurance pools for people with pre-existing conditions by July 1.
But Illinois won’t make that deadline. It probably won’t start enrolling people in its pool until mid- to late August because legislators in Springfield failed to pass legislation necessary to set up the new program, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
It wasn’t just the GA’s fault. There was no immediate fallback position by the administration. What we have is yet another embarassment.
According to state records, Illinois had set aside more than $3.3 billion in money for public works projects this year. From that $3.3 billion, almost $464 million already has been spent on projects, while another $585 million is reserved under contract.
That leaves $2.3 billion still on the table for dozens of projects around the state.
Quinn said state agencies and public bodies have to go through detailed procedures before releasing the money and starting work.
“You’ve got to have bidding and you’ve got to have competitive bidding and you’ve got to do all the policies right,” he said. “The bottom line is we have more construction going right now in Illinois that any other time in our state history.”
It doesn’t take a political expert to figure that Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, would be a focus of this arm-twisting [to pass the pension borrowing bill]. He obviously represents large numbers of state employees. He’s in a better position than his GOP colleagues to vote for borrowing as something that’s good for his constituents and to argue that it’s the best of a bunch of bad alternatives.
However, Bomke said last week he hasn’t heard from the governor since the end of May, when the two talked about the pension borrowing and Bomke said he’d keep an open mind.
Every month, the state pays out about $2 billion in bills. The biggest chunk of that money doesn’t go to state services, salaries or to help bring down the backlog.
Rather, every month, the state spends about $500 million simply to pay back loans it took out in an earlier round of borrowing.
* Our chart of the day is from Voices for Illinois Children. Click the pic for a better view…
OK, here’s another one showing some details of the hits within the Department of Human Services budget…
* It’s been an article of faith among conservatives and quite a few moderates that states which hiked taxes on the rich suffered a mass exodus. Ezra Klein points to a roundup of some studies that suggest otherwise…
1) Economist Andrew Leigh did a national study (PDF) looking for effects of state income tax rates on migration patterns. He could not find a statistically significant relationship.
2) After Maryland instituted higher tax rates on wealthy individuals in 2007 and 2008, tax returns from millionaires dropped. But the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found (PDF) that the drop was not due to millionaires leaving, but to the recession making them no longer millionaires.
3) The California Budget Project notes (PDF) that California imposed a temporary tax increase on high earners from 1991 to 1995, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 33.4 percent. Another high-income tax hike was implemented in 2005, and the number of millionaire filers increased by 37.8 percent.
4) New Jersey increased taxes on high earners in 2004, and Princeton researchers did find (PDF) that New Jersey lost $37.7 million in tax revenue after migration by wealthy tax payers. However, that number was dwarfed by the more than $1 billion overall revenue gain from the tax increase, and the number of high-income filers still increased between 2004 and 2006.
* Author shows why closing book on libraries is a bad idea: Legislators didn’t vote to shut down the regional [library] systems; they just didn’t act as the state stopped paying the money it had appropriated. The North Suburban Library System was the first to run out of money, shrinking to a skeleton operation, and others are facing the same budgetary squeeze.
*** UPDATE - 3:24 pm *** From Illinois Review, there are now eight filers for US Senate…
Joliet’s Christopher Pedersen submitted petitions last Monday for the Independent Conservative Party’s nomination and this morning Oak Brook’s Mike Labno submitted petitions for the Libertarian Party, in addition to the Independent Party candidates Will “Willie” Boyd from Greenville and Shon-Tiyon “Santiago” Horton from Alton.
Also joining the pack of U.S. Senate hopefuls is former Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Andy Martin, running on the Illinois Reform party ticket.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Keep in mind that even if he did manage to gather enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, there are still some serious legal challenges ahead for Scott Lee Cohen’s candidacy…
The would-be independent candidate for governor has had teams of signature collectors out of the streets for weeks, trying to gather the required 25,000 by Monday’s deadline.
Just before a Sunday afternoon news conference at his campaign headquarters, Cohen spokesman John Davis said they have the 25,000 — plus more than 100,000 to spare. In total, the campaign says they have 133,170 signatures — more than 5 times the required number.
The lawyers will definitely earn their paydays sifting through all of those signatures.
Considering that Cohen was caught using winos and junkies as petition passers, there is probably a lot of, um, junk in that stack. George Ryan demanded that his highly well-oiled machine gather 100,000 signatures for his 1998 gubernatorial bid. One of his top lieutenants back then told me that the petition drive was the most difficult, grueling experience of his political life.
Forrest Claypool says he has more than the necessary 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Claypool’s a Democratic Cook County commissioner hoping to run for county assessor.
CLAYPOOL: The only way we will not be on the ballot, I believe, is if there’s something wrong with the system.
From a press release…
In a resounding statement of support for independent reformer Forrest Claypool, over 90,000 Cook County voters signed his nomination petitions for Cook County Assessor in just 77 days.
The effort involved 912 volunteer circulators, all of whom signed forms stating that they did not pass petitions for Democrats, Republicans, or the Green Party in advance of the February primary. Many had never volunteered for a political campaign before.
“I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support from Cook County taxpayers who are fed up with politics as usual,” said Claypool.
The filing comprises more than 6,500 pages, stands over 2 ½ feet tall, is bound by metal rounds to ensure a uniform, solitary filing, and weighs approximately 75 pounds.
The Claypool campaign claims they collected an additional 4,200 signatures, but threw them out because they didn’t meet their standards.
Video…
* Related…
* Our View: Tired of laughable candidates’ election wins? Start paying attention: As with Cohen, the wealthy Chicago pawnbroker who briefly held the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in the Land of Lincoln before word spread about a previous arrest for allegedly threatening his prostitute girlfriend with a knife, among other embarrassments, South Carolina’s Alvin Greene brings some hefty political baggage with him.
The big question heading into this morning’s session of the Blagojevich corruption trial was whether Blagojevich’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., and U.S. District Judge James Zagel would again butt heads.
But that was overshadowed by an even bigger development: Former first lady Patti Blagojevich apparently cut her long brown hair over the weekend and showed up in court with a short bobbed hairdo.
Bradley Tusk, a onetime aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is testifying about an alleged shakedown scheme contained in the government’s indictment.
Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.
Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.
Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”
I keep waiting for the big crime to show up in the testimony– and maybe it will, some obvious quid-pro-quo for Obama’s old Senate seat, the “OK, you give me $10 million and you’re a senator” moment. But I haven’t heard it yet. My gut tells me that Blago’s crime is going to boil down to the same crime Miriam Santos was convicted of — the crime of saying on tape what many others say unrecorded.
Neil should listen to the tapes. From my weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Back in 2003, Rod Blagojevich’s former congressional chief of staff Dave Stricklin was asked by Chicago Magazine to recall an example of his former boss’s “goal-oriented approach to his congressional work.”
“Having X amount of dollars raised by X date,” was Stricklin’s response.
The U.S. attorney’s office has posted several audio recordings online related to Lon Monk’s testimony against Rod Blagojevich. I listened to them all last week, some of them twice, and it was beyond obvious that nothing changed for Blagojevich from the time he was a congressman right up until he was arrested.
We mostly knew that already, of course. Blagojevich broke every state fundraising record in the book. And the recordings show he crossed a very big line.
Blagojevich’s voice sounds almost desperate at times on the recordings as he tries to make sure he has $4 million in his campaign bank account by the end of 2008. Dec. 31 of that year was the last day that most state contractors could contribute to his campaign because of a new law, so the push was on.
“(H)ere’s the thing,” brother Rob said during a phone call two days before the dramatic Dec. 8 FBI arrest. “Four million dollars is the target. Right now, when I do my math, we come up short by a quarter of a million, two-fifty, but it, but there’s enough there, like a Pritzker, like a Zell, like a …”
“Oh, this is no good, forget that,” a clearly peeved governor interjected. Blagojevich berated his brother for not making the goal. “This is not good, I mean your, your numbers keep coming down! Your numbers keep coming down! You were safely at … 4 million, now we’re down to 250,000 short of that?”
In the end, they ended up $1.3 million short of that $4 million target. The big money never came in because of that early morning visit by the feds.
There are definitely some “smoking guns” on the tapes. For instance, five days before he was arrested, Blagojevich and Monk talked for the umpteenth time about how best to convince racetrack owner John Johnston to kick in a huge contribution by the end of the year. At the time, Johnston was also hoping that Blagojevich would sign a bill that greatly helped the horse racing industry.
Blagojevich advises that Monk tell Johnston that he will wait to sign the bill until right after the first of the year, suggesting he say that the governor will sign a whole bunch of bills at once and Johnston’s will be included in that stack in order to bury the story.
Monk asks Blagojevich how many bills are still waiting to be signed. Blagojevich guesstimates a hundred and reiterates that Monk relay to Johnston how important it is that December is a “key month” for contributions and that his campaign had been waiting a year for the cash. Blagojevich then says that he needs to speak to his government chief of staff right away.
A call is placed and the governor asks how many bills are awaiting his signature. He’s told there are 30.
“Thirty bills?” Blagojevich asks on the recording. “And they’re all the same timing?… Yeah, so don’t do any of ‘em,” he orders his chief of staff. “I wanna do ‘em all together. OK. In toto. OK. All 30.”
After the phone call Blagojevich asks Monk to rehearse what he plans to say to Johnston and advises “Be careful.” Monk says he’ll tell Johnston to “stop screwin’ around,” and will inform him of the governor’s plan to “group all these bills together.”
Blagojevich suggests that Monk tell Johnston that the governor would “like some separation between (the contribution) and signing the bill.”
“Define separation,” Monk says.
“A week,” Blagojevich replies.
You can’t hardly get busted more clearly than that.
Stricklin, the former congressional chief of staff who so accurately described Blagojevich’s “work ethic” back in 2003, was mentioned on the FBI recordings as well. Blagojevich and Monk talked four days before the arrest about people who should be loyal and pony up but were refusing.
