With nine weeks to go before the 2022 midterms, local election officials across Illinois are fielding a new wave of baseless grievances and impossible demands from ‘election integrity’ activists who insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In recent weeks, a variety of form letters and emails, most of them including the same language, started arriving in county clerks’ inboxes. The letters often came as open records requests filed under the state’s Freedom of Information Act law, but they included incoherent demands or inaccurate lists of data the clerks don’t collect in their election counting processes. […]
Michelle Turney, a former Chicago police officer who failed to collect enough signatures to appear on the 2022 primary ballot, sent an email to the Iroquois County Clerk’s office under the subject line “Class Action Lawsuit.”
“I am contemplating filing suit against your organization based on credible information I have received regarding your organization’s possible involvement in criminal and/or civil actions pertaining to election integrity issues,” Turney wrote.
Later, in the same email, she told the local election authorities who work in a county two hours south of her hometown that she was their employer and threatened them with criminal consequences.
“I AM CONSIDERING SUING YOU FOR YOUR AND/OR YOUR ORGANIZATION’S INVOLVMENT IN THE FRAUDELENT (sic) ELECTIONS THAT WILL SOON BE PROVEN TO HAVE TAKEN PLACE SINCE 2017,” Turney wrote in all capital letters. “Any attempts by you or your organization to destroy the election records and accompanying relevant documentation that I, as your benefactor and employer, have demanded you retain will be met with the harshest possible criminal and civil repercussions available under the law.”
Isabel has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all the FOIAs filed with the Madison County clerk, which appears to be a top target of election results deniers. We’ll let you know what we see.
Also, Iroquois is about the most Republican county in the state.
A slate of far-right conspiracy theorists have filed to run in June’s Republican primary for nominations for Illinois public offices ranging from governor to a seat in Congress, aiming to amplify baseless claims of rampant voter fraud and to “take back” the government.
Their website features a slogan and symbol linked to QAnon supporters, although one of the candidates sought to downplay the connection. […]
Secretary of state candidate Michelle Turney — a former police sergeant from the Beverly neighborhood — said in an email that her first priority would be to “decertify the 2020 Election on day one of my term.”
Turney, who has more than a thousand YouTube followers, also wrote that all “voting machines will be disassembled, sold, donated, or destroyed.” She’s no longer on the city payroll.
Her failed slate’s website is still active and might conceivably be the source for at least some of the FOIA filings. Click here.
Although team officials continue to say a move to Arlington Heights remains a matter of “if,” not “when,” the Chicago Bears have offered the first sneak peek of their vision for a new stadium complex.
A trio of high-level renderings released by the team on Tuesday demonstrate the scope of the Bears ambition. More than just a new stadium, the team is aiming to turn the 326-acre property into “a multi-purpose entertainment district anchored by a new, best-in-class enclosed stadium, providing Chicagoland with a new home worthy of hosting global events such as the Super Bowl, College Football Playoffs, and Final Four.”
Though the team’s press materials were long on anticipated revenue-generating benefits for Cook County and the state of Illinois — forecasting $1.4 billion in annual economic impact — they were short on projected costs.
The team stated it would seek no public funding for direct stadium construction, but would expect to partner “with the various governmental bodies to secure additional funding and assistance needed to support the feasibility of the remainder of the development.”
Aside from the stadium, the master plan also encompasses entertainment, commercial and retail, restaurants, parks and open spaces, housing and possibly a hotel.
“Whenever anyone is offering up an economic impact number, a good rule of thumb is to move the decimal one place to the left,” [University of Chicago economics Prof. Allen Sanderson] said, noting he hasn’t seen the team’s research. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the Bears, or a local chamber of commerce, or a mayor — 90% of that is hyperbole or just inflated.
“It’s especially true in the NFL, because money affiliated with the team is local in nature. People will be watching the Bears whether they’re in Soldier Field or Arlington Heights. Money gets redistributed, but the net addition is usually minimal,” Sanderson said.
And the sizable “mixed-use” development the Bears are pitching on the rest of the 326-acre plot probably won’t create the massive economic windfall the team has suggested, said Sanderson.
He added that the team’s implication that they’re not seeking public financing for the stadium project “made me scratch my head.”
“Essentially they’re saying, ‘We’re not going to ask for public money for the stadium, but we are going to ask for other money to build next to it.’ In the end, somebody is going to have to fork over something like $2 billion to build this facility. I don’t care what euphemism is used, but it’s $2 billion.”
* The Question: Should the Bears receive any public (state or local) assistance in constructing their multi-purpose project? Explain.
The state on Tuesday announced the award of the first electric vehicle manufacturing-targeted tax incentives made possible by a law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last year.
The incentives come from the Reimagining Electric Vehicles Act, which passed nearly unanimously and became law in November, and will provide an estimated $2.2 million in value to T/CCI Manufacturing in Decatur.
The REV Act passed two months after the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which incentivizes EV adoption, driving Pritzker’s vision to make Illinois “the best place in North America to drive and manufacture an electric vehicle.”
T/CCI’s Decatur plant currently manufactures compressors for gasoline-powered cars. The company plans to retool the Decatur facility to produce compressors for EVs with an estimated $20 million investment. Currently, T/CCI makes EV compressors, a part which cools batteries and powers car air conditioning systems, in China and India.
Pritzker, joined by industry leaders and state and local elected officials at T/CCI’s facility, proclaimed that “if you want to build a career in the electric vehicle economy, you can start right here in Decatur.”
“This is another in-state element to the EV ecosystem of Illinois that we’re building, which is especially crucial given the supply chain challenges of the past year,” Pritzker said. “And thanks to the REV Act, Illinois beat out international competition to bring this deal home. That means new jobs and jobs that would have gone overseas are staying right here.”
It was also announced Tuesday that T/CCI will partner with Richland Community College to create an EV innovation cluster that will include a Climatic Center for Innovation & Research Facility.
About $15.3 million has been allocated to Richland and $6 million to the city of Decatur from the state’s fiscal year 2023 budget for the project.
* Pritzker said the manufacturing of EV parts domestically is necessary to work around supply chain issues. Fox 2…
REV Illinois offers competitive incentives to companies that manufacture EVs, EV parts or components, and EV charging stations. The incentives are contingent upon job creation and retention, capital investments, annual compensation, and continued operation in the state.
“This pivotal moment for our economy, our climate, our communities demand ambition, and Illinois is meeting this moment,” Pritzker said.
The announcement comes as EV infrastructure planning and development grows on both sides of the river.
“It’s coming faster than everybody realizes. It’s not stopping. It’s here” said Gabe Warner, project manager at RJP Electric.
The company will also set up a climate innovation center in cooperation with Decatur’s Richland Community College. State and company officials say the center will serve more than T/CCI, with Deputy Gov. Andy Manar saying he hopes the facility will be the first step in creating a broader EV campus that will spur manufacturing here.
The deal is rather modest, at least compared to multi-billion-dollar EV battery plants that have recently been announced in Ohio and other states. Still, T/CCI will invest more than $20 million and has agreed to keep 103 jobs that now produce compressors for conventional vehicles while adding 50 more.
But officials are hopeful the move is the first of bigger additional announcements to come. “We could have chosen to locate this anywhere. We chose Illinois,” said company Vice President Kara Demirjian-Huss in an interview. The company has facilities in China and India and considered the latter, as well as other facilities, for the new plant. But the new incentives–mostly payroll tax credits–made a difference, she said.
Those incentives will be worth up to $2 million, with another $250,000 tax credit awarded under a different program, Manar said. In addition, another $15.3 million in grants will go to Richland over some years with the city of Decatur getting $6 million for infrastructure improvements.
* While taking questions from reporters, Pritzker played down the notion that the lack of new projects was bad news, but claimed Illinois will see more out of the REV Act and more companies coming to the state…
Well, it’s been less than 10 months. I mean, I think anybody in business can tell you that it takes quite a long time to evaluate facilities’ locations where you’re going to put new manufacturing, and then to make the decision to put the capital into the ground, so to speak, that you need to in the community. So you’ve got to know it’s not just about the financial incentives. That’s obviously a core portion of what businesses consider. We provide it through the REV Act, a very competitive ability to attract companies from a financial perspective.
* Ensuring areas overburdened by past pollution can participate in and benefit from Pritzker’s clean energy law is more complicated in practice, St. Louis Public Radio reports…
But achieving this vision is more complicated in practice, which was on display when dozens of people gathered at Lewis and Clark Community College last week to discuss a local workforce development hub, just one of the key provisions laid out in the law.
“There’s still more work to be done,” said Hilary Scott-Ogunrinde, executive secretary of Macedonia Development Corp. in East St. Louis. “Community leaders now have to make sure that what’s in the black and white actually ends up in our households, in our businesses, at our city municipal governments and on our table.” […]
Along with Scott-Ogunrinde, union electricians and carpenters, environmental groups, educators, community organizations and local elected leaders gave their ideas on how to best implement such a hub, which will provide education and training for jobs related to solar and other clean energy transitions.
“Let’s face it, it’s a big piece of legislation, it’s very wonky,” said Virginia Woulfe-Beile of the Piasa Palisades Sierra Club in Alton. “It’s got a lot of moving parts, and to get these moving parts going in sync, we need people that understand what the legislation is supposed to do and how we’re supposed to get there.”
And then finally as your children are off to school again today in public schools all across Illinois, unfortunately, they’re being taught woke ideology. They’re being taught CRT, they’re being taught sex education, and these curriculums have been elevated. That’s all that’s been talked about over the last couple of years instead of the math, the science, the reading, all of the history. History. We have got to start teaching our children how to live, how to work, how to thrive. History is very important, the real history because history repeats itself. History is repeating itself right now. History will repeat itself in a dangerous way if we allow it, but we can stop this.
* Vanity Fair interviewed Gov. Pritzker early last month, when people were talking about runs for president and stuff like this…
“I think it is disgusting,” outgoing Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the January 6 committee, told CNN in late July of the strategy [by Democrats to help nominate far-right Republicans in primaries].
Pritzker brushed off the criticism.
An overwhelming majority of voters in the Illinois Republican primary selected Bailey of their own volition, and it’s insulting to their intelligence to suggest they were tricked into it, he told me. What’s more, “the ads that were run in the primaries were all ads that I could run today in the general election,” he said.
The GOP was fighting to “transform the state of Illinois into what Donald Trump wants the country to be transformed into.” What was he supposed to do?
“I was being attacked,” he said. “Don’t tell me I’m not allowed to attack back.”
* Kelly Bauer and Colin Boyle at Block Club Chicago report that US Rep. Chuy Garcia will soon announce a decision about a mayoral bid…
Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García is considering a run for mayor, he said Wednesday.
García — a longtime local politician and community organizer — would be entering an already crowded field, but he could pose a significant challenge to Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In the 2015 elections, when he last ran for mayor, he forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff. […]
“I don’t want to pressure myself,” García said at a news conference where he and other leaders announced who they’re endorsing in various races. “I want to be as deliberate and as understanding of all of the issues that are facing the city of Chicago. The public safety challenges, the promise of new endeavors, and the area of public safety … .” […]
“In all seriousness, I am conflicted because of the responsibility that I have to help save and protect our democracy and our republic,” García said. “The threat against our democracy remains so violent. We’ve been hanging by a thread for the past year now or so. So I’m conflicted.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is already facing a large field of challengers in the upcoming mayoral election, but a familiar face may join that crowd as former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he is mulling a run.
Quinn, who served as governor after the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich and who was defeated by Republican Bruce Rauner in 2014, says that he will make his final decision within a matter of weeks as petitions begin to circulate for candidates.
“I think Chicago needs someone who can step in and rescue our city,” he said.
Quinn says that polling data shows a strong performance if he were to jump into the race.
“I did a poll earlier, just recently, and I had 42% and I think the incumbent mayor had 31%,” he said.
* Yesterday…
Today, the Illinois AFL-CIO criticized Regan Deering, Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, for her tone-deaf and anti-worker comments in her interview with WCIA’s Cole Henke on Labor Day.
Deering said that she “doesn’t believe we need to enshrine union power” when asked if she supports the Workers’ Rights Amendment on the ballot in Illinois this year. Deering, who is worth up to over $142 million was asked if she supports a minimum wage – after previously complaining about having to pay workers $10 per hour – said that she would look at the “$10 to $13” – which would be a decrease from Illinois’ $15 dollar minimum wage that fully goes into effect in less than three years.
“When you’re worth up to $142 million, you probably don’t need to worry about enshrining the right to bargain collectively and fight for fair wages and safe working conditions,” said Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea. “For the rest of us, we do. That’s why organized labor exists – to stand up for the worker against people like Regan that would exploit them.
“Regan left no room for doubt – she is anti-labor and anti-worker. She is advocating to pay workers less than the Illinois minimum wage.”
* Today…
Candidate for the 13th Congressional District in Illinois Nikki Budzinski has spent her career championing policies that cause tax increases, higher gas prices, and inflation, all of which are the triple threat faced by working families today all across Illinois. Now, Budzinski wants to take her attack on middle-class families a step further, and repeal the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
According to Budzinski’s policy agenda, her top economic priority is repealing the 2017 tax cuts legislation that save Illinois families over $1,000 a year.
“This is the absolute worst time to raise taxes on Illinois families,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy. “As families across our state grapple with Gov. JB Pritzker’s high taxes and President Joe Biden’s inflation, the last thing we need in Congress is another tax-and-spend-happy politician. Whether working for Pritzker or Biden, one thing is consistent about Nikki Budzinski - she’s made a career out of championing policies that have caused pain at the pump, higher taxes, and the generationally high inflation that we’re facing today. She will do even more damage if elected to Congress.”
In 2019, while Nikki Budzinski was serving as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Governor, JB Pritzker signed a $45 million package of bills that doubled the gas tax, while indexing annual gas tax increases to inflation. She was also in a senior role in advocating for Pritzker’s failed tax referendum that would have changed the Illinois Constitution to give politicians more opportunities to raise income taxes.
In 2021, Budzinski joined the Biden Administration as Chief of Staff to the Office of Management and Budget to - you guessed it - advance higher taxes and higher inflation while turning a blind eye to skyrocketing energy costs. Budzinski led the office that was in charge of implementing Biden’s vision for America that included canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline, which eliminated more than 1,000 great jobs and cut Americans off from much-needed additional energy resources. Budzinski continues to champion the American Rescue Plan, despite dire warnings from respected Democrat economists that it would cause the severe inflation that we are now seeing.
“Nikki Budzinski’s solution to solving the inflation problem she helped create is implementing higher taxes on working families. Central Illinois families cannot afford Nikki Budzinski,” said Chairman Tracy.
* 3rd Supreme Court District…
Justice Mary Kay O’Brien, candidate for Illinois Supreme Court, 3rd District receives the strong backing of the Coalition of Frontline Police Officers. The coalition comprises Illinois Police Benevolent & Protective Association (“PBPA”), Metropolitan Alliance of Police (“MAP”), Illinois Council of Police and Sheriffs (“ICOPS”), and Association of Professional Police Officers (“APPO”), representing over 20,000 active and retired law enforcement officers across Illinois.
“Judge Mary Kay O’Brien earned our support because she has made the safety and advocacy of law enforcement officers in the line of duty a priority,” said Sean M. Smoot, Chairman of the Coalition and the Director and Chief Counsel of PBPA. “Judge O’Brien’s extensive career serving Illinoisians over the last 25 years as a State Representative and Appellate Court Justice is the experience we need on the highest court in Illinois.”
“I am honored to have the support of the Police Benevolent and Protective Association of Illinois,” said Justice Mary Kay O’Brien. “As an association who protects the rights of our working men and women in law enforcement, I am proud to have the support of law enforcement across the Third District.”
“Accordingly, the Coalition strongly endorses Justice Mary Kay O’Brien to the Supreme Court of Illinois.”
The Coalition of Frontline Police Officers was established in 2022 to provide a voice for frontline officers who serve and protect our communities across Illinois.
* Equality Illinois…
In an unprecedented move, Equality Illinois, the state’s LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, endorsed Judge Elizabeth Rochford and Judge Mary Kay O’Brien for election to the Illinois Supreme Court in the 2022 General Election.
“Equality Illinois has not traditionally engaged in judicial races but the alarm bells are ringing loudly for our democracy and our rights. That’s why we today are proud to endorse Judge Elizabeth Rochford and Judge Mary Kay O’Brien for Justices on the Illinois Supreme Court,” said Justin DeJong, Chair of the Equality Illinois Board of Directors. “We are confident Judge Rochford and Judge O’Brien will ensure every person receives equal protection and due process under the law and that they will also protect the tenets of democracy.”
This fall, two newly-redistricted seats on the Illinois Supreme Court are up for election: the 2nd Judicial District (DeKalb, Lake, Kane, Kendall and McHenry Counties) and the 3rd Judicial District (Bureau, DuPage, Grundy, Kankakee, LaSalle and Will Counties). Rochford is in the 2nd Judicial District and O’Brien is in the 3rd Judicial District.
With the United States Supreme Court controlled by justices opposed to the foundational rights underpinning reproductive freedoms and marriage equality, the Illinois Supreme Court is the last line of defense to protect the rights grounded in Illinois law. If anti-equality and anti-family forces take over the Illinois Supreme Court, many hard-won freedoms will be in jeopardy. In Illinois, the non-discrimination protections in the Illinois Human Rights Act, the marriage equality law, the conversion therapy ban, and the requirement to teach LGBTQ+ contributions in public schools are examples of laws that could be annihilated. We are also gravely concerned about judicial attacks on free and fair elections, access to justice, voting rights, reproductive rights, workers rights, and criminal justice reforms.
“For voters in the 2nd and 3rd Judicial Districts, we urge all who care about LGBTQ+ equality and justice to vote for Rochford and O’Brien,” said Brian C. Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois. “Vote like your rights depend on this election. Because they do.”
* AFFI…
Today, the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois (AFFI) announced its endorsement of Judge Elizabeth Rochford in her campaign for Illinois Supreme Court in the Second District. The Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois is the state’s foremost authority on, and advocate for, issues related to professional union firefighters and EMS providers. The AFFI does not base its political endorsements on party affiliation, but on support of issues important to firefighters in general and to their members in particular.
“The Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois recently met to consider the candidates in this race, and it was clear that Judge Elizabeth Rochford is the most qualified to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court in the Second District,” said AFFI President Chuck Sullivan. “Judge Rochford’s extensive experience and qualifications in and around the court system has positioned her to be an excellent Justice, and we are proud to support her campaign.”
This endorsement builds on Judge Rochford’s strong support in both the primary and general elections, including the Illinois State AFL-CIO, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Personal PAC, Secretary of State Jesse White, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Iris Martinez, and multiple pro-choice legislative leaders.
“Our firefighters are an incredibly important part of the fabric of our communities, risking their lives everyday to keep us safe,” said Judge Elizabeth Rochford. “I’m honored to receive the endorsement of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois in my campaign, and am committed to bringing equity and justice to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
* DuPage County…
Dear Honorable Deb Conroy:
The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 150 is a proud labor union with a long history of representing the interests of working men and women on the job, at the bargaining table, and in the halls of government. In addition to workers’ rights, we value commitment to a strong and reliable infrastructure that supports Illinois’ economy and creates job opportunities in every industry.
I am proud to inform you that IUOE Local 150 has endorsed your candidacy for DuPage County Chair in the General Election, and this endorsement will be communicated to our membership.
Hardworking Illinoisans are counting on determined leaders to stand up for their rights and ensure that we have a safe infrastructure that is a strength rather than a weakness when it comes to economic activity and job creation.
Good luck in the upcoming election.
In Solidarity,
James M. Sweeney
President-Business Manager
…Adding… Press release…
Today, three Mayors- Inverness Mayor Jack Tatooles, Gilberts Village President Guy Zambetti, and Rolling Meadows Mayor Joe Gallo- announced their decision to join the “Mayors for Raja” coalition, endorsing Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi’s re-election campaign to continue to represent Illinois’ 8th Congressional District in the U.S. Congress.
“I have been in contact with the Congressman on a regular basis to discuss and address our local issues and needs,” said Inverness Mayor Jack Tatooles. “I am confident our community will be well served by Raj.”
“Congressman Raja reached out to me when I was sworn in as Village President and maintained communication since,” said Gilberts Village President Guy Zambetti. “Being able to pick up the phone when I have questions or concerns means a lot to me.”
“Congressman Krishnamoorthi and his office have been instrumental assisting residents of Rolling Meadows through the immigration process and a path towards citizenship,” said Rolling Meadows Mayor Joe Gallo.
“I humbly accept these endorsements,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. “The new Illinois 8th Congressional District spans across the West and Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, from the 41st Ward in the City of Chicago to St. Charles, Illinois. Having the support of the many bipartisan local leaders who represent these communities is absolutely instrumental, and it speaks to my track record of working collaboratively and in a bipartisan fashion on the pressing economic and social issues impacting working families in Illinois.”
The growing list of 14 Mayors now includes:
• Addison Mayor Richard Veenstra
• Carol Stream Village Mayor Frank Saverino
• Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain
• Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson
• Gilberts Village President Guy Zambetti
• Hanover Park Village President Rod Craig
• Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod
• Inverness Mayor Jack Tatooles
• Itsasca Village President Jeff Pruyn
• Oak Brook Village President Gopal Lalmalani
• Schaumburg Village President Tom Dailly
• Rolling Meadows Mayor Joe Gallo
• Roselle Mayor David Pileski
• Villa Park President Nick Cuzzone
Way back in 1996, I spent a few minutes walking around the Chicago-based Democratic National Convention with then-House Minority Leader Michael Madigan.
Madigan at the time was working to regain his chamber’s majority after the 1994 national Republican wave combined with the Republican-drawn legislative district maps to knock the speaker’s gavel out of his hand.
But even with his lessened official status, Madigan was still hugely powerful within his party, and he was clever enough that many figured he’d somehow find a way back.
At some point that evening, Cook County Recorder of Deeds Jesse White approached Madigan. White had served 18 years in the House with Madigan, so the two knew each other well.
White told Madigan he was seriously considering running for secretary of state. Madigan was polite but non-committal in response.
After White walked away, Madigan turned to me, chuckled, shook his head “no” and sighed, “Jesse.” He clearly had other plans for the office, which had been held by the Republican Party for 15 years by that time and was likely to be an open seat if incumbent George Ryan did as expected and ran for governor.
Long story short, Madigan ended up supporting Tim McCarthy, a former Secret Service agent who took a bullet to his chest while protecting President Ronald Reagan during a 1981 assassination attempt. White ended up winning the 1998 Democratic primary by 13 points. Madigan, by then the House speaker, brought a large campaign check to his first post-primary meeting with the winner and supported White from that point on.
White went on to win the 1998 general election against former state Rep. Al Salvi, whose spouse Kathy is currently running for U.S. Senate, by 13 points.
From that election forward, White became a singularly unifying force in Illinois politics. He routinely managed to win areas where no other Democrat could even hope to compete. In 2002, he won all 102 Illinois counties, raking in 68% of the vote and cementing his legendary status. He won 63% of the vote four years later, then won subsequent elections with 70%, 66% and 68%.
A determined worker, White had gone all-out to defeat Madigan’s candidate in 1998, campaigning everywhere, and he was not happy he lost a few counties in 2006 after sweeping them four years earlier, so he made sure to ramp up his efforts in 2010.
Over six elections, White outpolled his party’s candidate for governor by an average of 13.8 percentage points.
In 2018, he lost just two of Illinois’ 59 state Senate districts, according to the Illinois Elections Data website.
Nobody has ever tried to quantify White’s impact on down-ballot races. Did crossing over for White help nudge Republican-leaning voters to maybe support a Democrat for the legislature or local office? There’s no data to prove such an hypothesis, but I gotta figure he helped, and nobody can ever doubt that White has been a strong net-positive for his party.
And when his preferred candidate to replace him as secretary of state failed after innumerable problems were exposed with how she has run her current Chicago office, the Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias was quick to embrace the longtime incumbent White, knowing he’ll be an asset in the fall campaign.
When White leaves office in January, I just don’t see how we’ll ever see another politician like him. His appeal not only crosses party lines, but he showed Madigan and others in 1998 that people of all colors and origins would eagerly support him.
In 1998, I wrote White was an American hero and predicted Illinois voters would pick up on that. He recruited kids out of neighborhoods that many folks are afraid to even drive through to his eponymous Tumblers team and helped shape them into solid citizens. He’s run that team since 1959, and over all those decades only a tiny handful have ever had serious trouble with the law. His fellow party members aren’t the only ones who owe him a debt of gratitude.
White’s retirement may or may not make a difference for Democrats on Election Day going forward. We simply don’t know what actual impact his huge wins have had on other races.
What we do know is we are losing an elected official whose consistently unifying appeal has no equal in this state’s politics. And we will be the lesser for that loss.
* Meanwhile, from a brand new press release…
Today, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White endorsed Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s re-election campaign for Mayor of Chicago. Secretary White announced his support in a video testimonial.
Law enforcement leaders throughout Illinois are calling on state decision-makers to strengthen opioid prevention and remediation efforts by investing in early childhood programs that are shown to help with such goals — and doing so with a promising, new source of funding.
The settlement of several national lawsuits against the distributors and manufacturers of opioids will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Illinois over the next two decades. A portion of these resources should be committed to birth-to-3 initiatives helping the youngest and most vulnerable victims of the opioid epidemic, say DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin and other members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois.
“Tragically, children have been hit especially hard by the opioid epidemic,” said Berlin, one of the prosecutors who originally filed some of these lawsuits. He was among the law enforcement leaders participating in a news conference Wednesday. “As our state considers where to most wisely invest its settlement funding, we must prioritize efforts that support vulnerable kids and their families and help prevent future opioid abuse.”
Berlin noted that, every 25 minutes nationwide, a baby is born suffering from opioid withdrawal, or Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. NAS rates skyrocketed by 64 percent in Illinois between 2011 and 2017, alone, before opioid abuse grew even further during the COVID-19 crisis.
“As the adoptive parents of a child who was born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, my wife and I personally know just how significant the toll of opioid addiction can be on infants and toddlers,” added Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley. “Young people born to addicted parents, like my adopted daughter, need support to ensure they can grow up to be healthy and successful.”
Hanley and Berlin are among 100+ Illinois prosecutors, sheriffs, and police chiefs who have joined a public statement from Fight Crime, calling for settlement-funding prioritization of voluntary home-visiting programs that are known by various names, including Healthy Families, Maternal and Child Home Visiting (formerly Parents Too Soon), and Nurse-Family Partnership.
These initiatives work with new and expecting parents in supporting the healthy development of infants and toddlers. The programs can help parents with addiction problems connect with treatment options, and several home-visiting programs have been shown by research to reduce what are known as Adverse Childhood Experiences — such as child abuse and neglect — which, in turn, are linked with a greater likelihood of future opioid abuse and criminal activity.
Fight Crime members similarly support greater investments in Early Intervention services — physical, occupational, speech, and other therapies for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities.
“The programs we are talking about today are backed by clear data and research,” said Rock Island County State’s Attorney Dora Villarreal. “If we want to see significant improvements in public safety, we have to look at evidence about what works best, and act accordingly.”
Unfortunately, Villarreal added, a 2020 analysis showed that 15,000 Illinois families lacked the home-visiting help they needed — one reason why Fight Crime members are looking to forthcoming funding from the settlement of opioid lawsuits.
In February, Illinois Attorney General Raoul — working with several county prosecutors — announced the state would receive approximately $760 million in settlement funding from a national lawsuit against major distributors and manufacturers of opioids, including Johnson & Johnson. Those dollars are intended for opioid prevention and remediation purposes over a period of 18 years, with some of the funding going to counties and municipalities for distribution.
In July, Raoul revealed that two further lawsuit settlements will add to that funding total, once details are finalized. Governor Pritzker issued an executive order creating a statewide office to oversee the distribution of settlement dollars. The executive order also calls for the establishment of an advisory council consisting of experts with experience addressing opioid use and addiction to determine the best use of funding.
“Addressing the needs of pregnant or parenting women and their families, including babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome,” is one approved use of these resources, named in the state’s Opioid Settlement Agreement — and, law enforcement leaders said, further evidence of the relevance of their recommendations.
Fight Crime has shared its recommendations with several key Illinois decision-makers, including officials at the Department of Human Services and a number of legislators. Its law enforcement leaders will continue to monitor these funding determinations and seek further opportunities to support efforts prioritizing the well-being of young people, with an eye toward boosting crime prevention and bolstering public safety.
Emily: When I got the call and it was the doctor, not the nurse, I kind of suspected that there was something not right.
ON SCREEN: Emily and her husband were expecting their second child.
Emily: She said that there was something wrong with your baby. There’s a chromosomal disorder, most likely she’s not going to survive.
ON SCREEN: The condition would have caused the baby to suffocate and die shortly after birth.
Emily: We spoke to many, many doctors and decided that the best option for us was an abortion.
Darren Bailey thinks that should have been his decision, not mine — that I shouldn’t be trusted with that decision.
He doesn’t understand what we went through, he wasn’t the one who got the phone call saying that our daughter was dying. We were.
It’s like saying that a family doesn’t know what they’re doing. Whether it be in the case of fetal health, rape, or incest, women are perfectly capable of making their own decisions.
ON SCREEN: Daren Bailey wants to ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
Emily: Darren Bailey puts his beliefs before my health. And I fundamentally disagree with him on that.
ON SCREEN: Darren Bailey, too extreme for Illinois.
* From Rick Pearson’s story on Darren Bailey’s faith-based campaign…
But changing gears to attract the broader electorate needed to defeat Pritzker may be overthinking Bailey and his campaign, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and a nationally recognized expert on the intersection of religion and politics.
Burge — who was born and raised not far from Bailey’s farming operation and who once taught the candidate’s campaign manager, Jose Durbin, as an undergraduate student — also is a pastor of the First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon.
“I think it’s very important to say that he is not putting on airs when he does this. He really believes this. And I think for him, it would be a betrayal of his principles to do anything but be who he was six months ago,” Burge said. “He is a charismatic, evangelical Christian and he was doing this long before he was running for governor, so I think for him, there’s no going back.”
Burge said Bailey would “rather lose by being 100% who he is and authentic to himself, as opposed to selling out and still probably losing and not be able to look himself in the eye six months from now.”
“If it wins, it wins,” Burge said, citing a political strategy that has advanced Bailey from a rural downstate member of the Illinois House to a statewide candidacy in four years. “If you lose, you become a martyr.”
* From a Darren Bailey press conference yesterday…
When I’m Governor, this is how we will restore law and order across Illinois: For starters, we’ll stop trying to make the police the enemy and we’ll start working with them to keep innocent people safe. We will repeal the SAFE-T Act and we will reinstate cash bail everywhere all across the state. We will repeal limits on pretrial detention for violent criminals. We will surge police support and work with city leadership to find solutions. We will prioritize state funds to hire and retain officers. We will increase signing and retention bonuses for police statewide. We will support police and end anonymous sworn complaints against them. We will support local ordinances to provide scheduling and mental health release for law enforcement. And we will send a strong message to criminals by increasing penalties for individuals who assault law enforcement and reinstate the death penalty for convicted cop killers.
When told that the governor had announced a new ISP regional headquarters in East St. Louis that day and that $250 million in grants were being made available ofr anti-violence programs, Bailey said…
That’s all we ever hear for solutions in Illinois, more money, more spending. And that more money and that more spending never comes with more accountability and more transparency. So all this man’s done is continuing to spend and waste taxpayers money, throwing it at the four winds. We don’t even have the infrastructure to fill a new state police office. We’ve got to start dealing with this.
I want to give special recognition to Director Brendan Kelly and his team at the Illinois State Police. They have demonstrated their dedication to safety here and across the entire state from day one that we the ISP in total by adding troopers modernizing the technology and tools necessary and upgrading equipment and facilities to support law enforcement. Today’s announcement is funded in large part by our Rebuild Illinois capital plan, which includes $120 million for ISP facilities, the largest investment of its kind in state history. Other historic investments at ISP include hiring substantial additional personnel for the Division of Forensic services and acquiring state of the art robotics and software to speed up drug and DNA evidence turnaround time. We are designing and building a new state of the art crime lab in Joliet, Illinois, and we are opening a new lab in Decatur, increasing even further our ability to handle cases. We’re filling those jobs with best in class experts starting at the newly established ISP Forensic Science Institute at the newly expanded Belleville educational campus, another really great development at the Illinois State Police. And this year, I’m directing the highest funding ever to supporting new ISP Cadet classes so that we add significant numbers to the ranks of state troopers. That’s vital to keeping all of our communities safe. Of course whatever policies and procedures we implement, are only as good as the folks who see it through. And the men and women of the Illinois State Police are the best in the nation.
* ProPublica Illinois story written by Beth Hundsdorfer of Capitol News Illinois, and Molly Parker and Brenden Moore of Lee Enterprises Midwest…
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called patient abuses at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in rural Anna “awful” and “deeply concerning,” and he said the future of the facility depends on correcting poor conditions.
Pritzker’s comments at a news conference on Tuesday came on the heels of articles published Friday by Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises and ProPublica outlining a history of egregious patient abuses and other employee misconduct at Choate.
At least 26 employees over the past decade have been arrested on felony charges in relation to their work at the facility, and internal investigations have cited dozens of other employees for neglecting, exploiting or humiliating residents, lying to investigators, or failing to report allegations of mistreatment in a timely manner. In some cases, investigations have languished for years as accused employees have continued to receive their full pay while on administrative leave.
At least one advocacy organization called for the state to close Choate in the wake of the reports. Amie Lulinski, executive director of The Arc of Illinois, an advocacy organization for people with developmental disabilities, said the details of abuse and neglect are “appalling” and called on the state to move residents out of the facility and into smaller community-based living arrangements such as group homes.
Pritzker said the state isn’t currently planning to close Choate, but he didn’t rule it out if safety issues aren’t addressed.
“The question is, can we prevent that in the future? And if not, then obviously that’s not a facility that should remain open,” the governor said in response to a reporter’s questions at an unrelated event in downstate Decatur.
Meanwhile, he said, the “state has an obligation to the people that it serves at that facility right now” and is concentrating on upgrades to the facility and ensuring that appropriate services and personnel are in place. In a statement to reporters last week, Marisa Kollias, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which runs Choate, said that the problems there are the result of “longstanding, entrenched issues” and that the department has taken “aggressive measures” to address them.
The push to close facilities like Choate is controversial, and some residents’ parents are advocating for less severe measures to address safety concerns.
* This is the first Dan Proft ad that actually promotes Darren Bailey. His PAC appears to have spent about a million dollars on the spot…
The People Who Play By The Rules PAC has launched a new ad, “Darren Bailey: Practical Problem Solver.” An ad buy was placed in statewide media markets and the spot is available on YouTube and the PBR PAC Facebook page.
:30 https://youtu.be/noMHJzs5D60
TV Script:
VO: Darren Bailey isn’t popular with the political establishment of either party because he’s from the real world.
Bailey: “I’m proud to be a family farmer. We fix things that are broken, we solve problems, and we grow things.”
VO: Like you, Bailey knows what hasn’t worked.
Bailey: “Decade after decade of mismanagement in Springfield. Back-to-back billionaire governors – and where has that gotten us?”
VO: High taxes, high unemployment and high crime rates.
How much worse does it have to get before we give a practical problem solver a try?
VO: Darren Bailey isn’t popular with the political establishment of either party because he’s from the real world.
Bailey: “I’m proud to be a family farmer. We get up before the sun comes up and we work until after it goes down. We fix things that are broken, we solve problems, and we grow things. And I love to remind people what farmers do: they feed the world.”
VO: Like you, Bailey knows what hasn’t worked.
Bailey: “Decade after decade of mismanagement in Springfield. Back-to-back billionaire governors – and where has that gotten us?”
VO: Bailey got involved in state politics by opposing the income tax increase signed by the previous Republican governor, and then led the opposition to the income tax increase proposed by the current Democrat governor, because high taxes are driving families from Illinois. We’ve tried billionaires from both parties, and they left us with high taxes, high unemployment, and high crime rates. How much worse does it have to get before we give a practical problem solver a try?
* My uncle was in good spirits after his surgery yesterday. He’s looking at several weeks of recovery, but he’s one of the toughest people I know (along with having one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever met), so he should eventually be OK.
Anyway, how are you doing?
…Adding… My brother found these photos in my late grandfather’s wallet while he was visiting my uncle before I got there. My granddad was my uncle’s father…
* My uncle (who is Isabel’s great uncle) is scheduled for surgery today, so I’m going to stay with him today at the hospital. Isabel is working on a project, so she’ll spend her day on that. We’ll talk again tomorrow.
* After listening to Sen. Darren Bailey’s Labor Day message on Facebook, I reached out to the Pritzker campaign to see what else the candidate might have said in the past…
BAILEY SHARED AN INSENSITIVE LABOR DAY MEME FEATURING PRISONERS IN SHACKLES
2019: Bailey Shared A Meme With Prisoners In Shackles With Caption “Labor Day In Illinois … Property Tax … Income Tax … Gas Tax” Compared To “Labor Day In A Free State” With Folks On The Beach. “I couldn’t resist….. thank you Valinda for sharing! Too much truth here! Happy Labor Day! The future is before us!” [Facebook, Darren Bailey for Governor, 9/2/19]
BAILEY ATTACKED UNIONS, SAID HE DID NOT WANT TO TALK TO THE “UNION BOSSES”
October 2021: Bailey Said He Does Not Want To Talk To “Union Bosses” Or “Political Leaders” About The Pension System. “Part of his proposed solution is to converse with the people that matter to him — the public. He wants to hear what people have to say about the problems being faced. ‘I don’t want to talk to the union bosses, and I don’t want to talk to the political leaders,’ Bailey said. ‘I want to talk to the people and offer solutions and see what’s good with them and what’s not. See what ideas they have. We have to come up with a final fix for the pension problem.” [Pontiac Daily Leader, 10/12/21]
BAILEY REPEATEDLY QUESTIONED MINIMUM WAGE, VOTED AGAINST RAISING IT TO $15/HR IN IL
Bailey Questioned Minimum Wage Increase. “Bailey also questions Pritzker’s initiatives to increase the state minimum wage to $15/hour. While the Representative is a proponent of competitive wages and fair business policies, he wonders where the state will find the money for these increases. He is concerned that the lofty minimum wage increase could result in small local businesses having to close their doors.” [Olney Daily Mail, 1/18/19]
Bailey Voted Against Increasing Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour. [SB 1, 2019]
* 1.4 Million Workers Got A Raise From Minimum Wage Increase. “A $15 minimum wage would directly affect more than 1.4 million adult workers in Illinois. Of these individuals, 57 percent are women, 44 percent are African American workers and Latino and Latina workers, 89 percent are U.S. citizens, and 56 percent are workers age 30 or older.” [The Regional Impacts Of A $15 Minimum Wage In Illinois, Illinois Economic Policy Institute, 2/5/19]
Bailey: “Simply Put, Minimum Wage Needs To Be Set Federally. State Has No Reason Of Setting Minimum Wage. … We Need To Stick With That Federal Mandate Of Setting A Minimum Wage. [Bailey Event, 2/19/18 (VIDEO)]
March 2020: Bailey Was Opposed To Pritzker’s Minimum Wage Increases And Said That Illinois’s Businesses Could Not Afford Minimum Wage Increases. According to the Effingham Daily News, “The four candidates also agreed that the mass exodus of people the state is currently facing is because of high taxes and the minimum wage increase implemented by Pritzker. Bailey said in order to end the exodus, the state should look at modeling its government on a neighboring state.‘I see modeling our government maybe after Indiana would be a start where we spread the wealth. We spread business across the state. We have a two-year budget,’ Bailey said.‘Businesses are suffering because we simply cannot afford this minimum wage. I’m telling you, it’s happening as well in Chicago, so I see the day of reckoning coming.’” [Effingham Daily News, 3/15/20]
Bailey Urged Voters To Vote No On Increasing The Minimum Wage To $15. “We’ll be voting on that in November of 2020. We will be educating you on that. So you’ll understand that thoroughly and the importance of why you will need to vote. No, for that, we increase the minimum wage to $15. That’s a that’ll slowly rise, uh, to ’til the year 20, 25. Hopefully we can put a stop to that.” [Darren Bailey for Governor, Facebook, 2020 (VIDEO)]
It’s Labor Day weekend. Be safe out there. Have fun and enjoy family. And let’s celebrate freedom. Let’s celebrate the actual fact that we live in a free land and we get to choose what we do, where we work, how we work. And let’s make it a vow to ourselves to let’s keep more of the fruits of our work instead of letting government continually take so much.
In a move that may dispel some doubts about the viability of his candidacy, mayoral hopeful Paul Vallas has signed up an A-List of nationally-recognized consultants to work on his campaign.
Retained as senior strategist/media advisor is Joe Trippi, a political veteran who served as campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004. He also worked on presidential campaigns for Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Richard Gephardt, Jerry Brown and John Edwards and has advised numerous other ranking pols including ex-Los Angles Mayor Tom Bradley and Doug Jones, who, in 2017, became the first Democrat to be elected senator from Alabama in a quarter century. […]
In a phone interview, Trippi said Vallas “will have the resources” to wage a full TV ad campaign against incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other contenders. He also rejected the notion that Vallas, who has riled the Chicago Teachers Union and consulted for the Fraternal Order of Police, is too conservative to win in a city that has moved to the political left.
“I don’t see him in that way at all,” Trippi said. “He’s a political progressive who’s trying to find ways to get the city working again.”
Trippi hasn’t run a race in years. Lightfoot campaign’s response…
Lightfoot for Chicago campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich released the following statement on so-called “political progressive” Paul Vallas:
“We can’t wait to meet ‘political progressive’ Paul Vallas. The only Paul Vallas Chicagoans know is the one who plays footsie with white supremacists, promotes racist and homophobic tweets, opposes police reform, closed neighborhood schools, and funds his campaign with high-dollar Republican donors. Who, exactly, is this so-called ‘political progressive’ Paul Vallas? We’d love to know – but the Paul Vallas who is currently running is nothing but a Republican with extremist views and a long track record of financial mismanagement.”
* Lopez has a goofy take, but I’ve been wondering lately if the attacks by Darren Bailey on the city and the Abbott bus stunt, etc. are strengthening Lightfoot’s political position…
The news of undocumented, non-refugees arriving by bus in Chicago overshadows an obvious yet amazing point: both @GregAbbott_TX & @chicagosmayor coordinated this delivery.
* GOP congressional candidate blames Highland Park mayor for parade shooting: “Rotering is the reason the shooting occurred,” Severino’s tweet reads. “She was negligent in ensuring that steps were made to confiscate the gun by court order after awareness of the red flag.” … Schneider campaign manager Matt Fried called Severino’s tweet disgusting and accused him of spreading misinformation. “If he had a shred of decency, he would apologize to Mayor Rotering and the families of the victims whose memories he has sullied,” Fried wrote, adding “the bottom line is this: Easy access to dangerous assault weapons and our nation’s failed mental health care systems are contributing to the proliferation of monsters like the one who attacked Highland Park on July 4.”
* DuPage County judge bows out of race for circuit court seat: Republican nominee Kavita Athanikar has bowed out of the judicial race with a little over two months until the November election. Her exit virtually ensures her Democratic opponent, attorney Mia McPherson, will ascend to the court.
With 90 counties in the state at an elevated level for COVID-19, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is urging all who are eligible to take advantage of the new bivalent booster shots that have been authorized by the CDC. IDPH is reporting 26,127 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 70 deaths since August 26, 2022.
“Once the updated booster shots become available next week, I urge everyone in Illinois who is eligible to take advantage of the opportunity to get fully protected before we enter the fall season,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “These new bivalent vaccines are designed to offer extra protection against the omicron variants which are now the dominant strain of the virus. Getting up to date now is especially important for those who are at risk of serious outcomes as the updated vaccines offer protection from hospitalization and even death.”
This week, the FDA granted emergency use authorization for two new bivalent booster vaccines that include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that is broadly protective against COVID-19 and an added mRNA component in common between the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.
The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 18 years of age and older. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older.
IDPH expects to receive 580,000 doses of the new bivalent vaccines for distribution in the next week. This is in addition to 150,000 doses designated for the City of Chicago. The updated boosters will be available at pharmacies, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. The best way to locate a vaccine provider near you is to go to www.vaccines.gov and search for bivalent booster availability.
According to the CDC, 30 Illinois counties are now rated at High Community Level for COVID-19. An additional 60 counties in Illinois are now rated at Medium Community Level.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 3,696,385 cases, including 34,747 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of last night, 1,263 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 154 patients were in the ICU and 46 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators. The preliminary seven-day statewide case rate is 205 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 Illinoisans.
The counties in Illinois listed at High Community Level are Adams, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Grundy, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Lee, Macon, Massac, Perry, Pike, Shelby, Stephenson, Vermilion, Wabash, Wayne, Whiteside, Will, Williamson, and Winnebago.
* The Question: Are you planning to get the new bivalent booster shot?
[Knox County’s Democratic State’s Attorney Jeremy Karlin] states on Jan. 1, all people accused of committing a crime will either be released or will be held in custody without bond.
But only in very specific cases will defendants be held without bond.
One category of who can be held is those accused of non-probational forcible felonies; things like first-degree murder, residential burglary, and aggravated arson.
But in the case of crimes like second-degree murder, robbery, arson, and kidnapping, a person can only be held if it can be established they pose an immediate threat to a specific person or persons.
Just a general threat to the public isn’t good enough.
Also examined were the proportion of cases going through bond court that will be eligible for initial detention under the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), which will become effective on January 1, 2023. Under the PFA there are two groups of individuals who can be considered for initial detention: 1) those eligible based on a “public safety” standard, and 2) those eligible based on a “willful flight” standard. The public safety standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals charged with specific, detainable offenses who are also found to pose “a specific, real and present threat to a person” (i.e., a risk to public safety). The specific detainable offenses under this standard can be categorized broadly into three groups: 1) non-probationable forcible felonies (e.g., first degree murder, armed robbery, home invasion, aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated battery with great bodily harm) and sex offenses, 2) weapon offenses (e.g., illegal firearm possession, unlawful discharge of a firearm, unlawful sale/delivery of a firearm), and 3) domestic violence offenses and violations of orders of protection (VOOP). The willful flight standard allows for the pretrial detention of individuals shown to be a risk for willful flight from prosecution who are charged with either 1) a detainable offense under the public safety standard or 2) any Class 3 Felony or more serious felony offense. The proportion of all cases going through bond court during the study period that were potentially detainable under the public safety standard was 51%, and an additional 26% would be potentially detainable under the willful flight standard.
When someone is in a mental or a behavioral health crisis, a call to 911 can become a crisis in itself.
So what should happen when police, jail, hospital emergency rooms or use of force aren’t the best answers?
New programs with reimagined response teams are aiming to redefine bad or even deadly outcomes.
To deal with the increasing number of mental health crisis calls, police agencies across Illinois are adding social service programs into their departments.
Brain Solache benefited from one such co-responder program in Aurora.
“I probably would have attacked someone just to have the officers be coerced to shoot me,” he explained.
Solache was just 18 years old when he became so despondent he said he wanted to get police to shoot him. Instead, he was talked into living. [..]
Solache explained that an argument with a family member and his unmanaged mental illness sent him spiraling. He had a knife and was he threatening to use it.
“Just cracked… just was done with everything. I was at that point where I was angry at everyone, everything — even myself,” he said. […]
Among the responding officers was the newly formed Crisis Intervention Unit, or CIU, consisting of specially trained police investigators and social workers.
The co-responders spent nearly an hour and a half talking with Solache until he gave up the knife.
Chicago’s extended and expanded teen curfew — touted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot as the way to put an end to a spate of downtown violence among young Chicagoans — was enforced by police only four times between May 17 and Aug. 18, according to data obtained by WTTW News.
The city’s curfew starts at 10 p.m. seven days a week and applies to everyone 17 years old and younger.
In effect since 1992, the city’s curfew had allowed teens to stay out until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and only covered those 16 and younger — until the murder of a 16-year-old in the heart of Millennium Park on May 14 touched off a political firestorm.
No newly covered 17-year-old Chicagoans were reported to have violated the city’s curfew in the first three months that the expanded law was on the books, according to data provided to WTTW News by the Chicago Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
* From Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC…
According to a Fox 32 report this week, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cluelessly claimed that the city’s Black neighborhoods are portrayed as more troubled and violent than they really are. In the story by Mike Flannery, Lightfoot told a crowd at a South Side 8th Ward restaurant that “The media doesn’t tell the true story of Black Chicago.” The piece also quoted Chicagoans in crime plagued black neighborhoods, all but begging the mayor for more police presence in their communities. Their pleas are apparently falling on deaf ears.
He are the top ten Chicago neighborhoods by homicide count in Lightfoot’s “Summer Of Joy,” according to heyjackass.com and the latest U.S. Census demographic data available with percentage African-American (unless otherwise noted):
1. 206 homicides plus wounded in Garfield Park, 91%
2. 200 homicides plus wounded in Englewood: 94%
3. 141 homicides plus wounded in Austin: 84%
4. 127 homicides plus wounded in South Shore: 93%
5. 114 homicides plus wounded in Humboldt Park: 52% Hispanic, 42% Black
6. 112 homicides plus wounded in Auburn Gresham 97%
7. 111 homicides plus wounded in Grand Crossing 96%
8. 90 homicides plus wounded in North Lawndale 87% Black, 9% Hispanic
9. 87 homicides plus wounded in Little Village 83% Hispanic, 12% Black
10. 83 homicides plus wounded in New City 62% Hispanic, 24% Black
PBR PAC President Dan Proft: “The story isn’t how the media covers neighborhoods beset by systemic violent crime. The story is the failure by Lightfoot and Pritzker to keep residents of all races in Chicago safe–and that hits black and brown neighborhoods the hardest as they represent the majority of the victims of this lawlessness. Pritzker and Lightfoot are running a race hustle on the residents of Chicago and Illinois, trying to make a safety issue about race and trying to redirect people’s attention away from who is suffering the most as a result of their coddling of career criminals.”
Lori Lightfoot and JB Pritzker’s negligence of Chicago’s black and brown neighborhoods is only exacerbated by their cynical “racism” attacks on their critics, and now the media, implying they are somehow darkening their coverage of violence.
Per the CPD, homicides in the city this year are down about 16% compared to 2021, while the total number of shootings (1,904) is down nearly 19%. For the month of August alone, there was an 18% decline in homicides in the city, compared to the same month last year (80).
Though the Chicago Police Department is years into efforts to reform and rebuild trust among communities, young Black and Latino men persist in having negative perceptions of and interactions with Chicago police officers, according to a special report from an independent panel reviewing the department.
The findings of surveys of men aged 18 to 35 paint a “bleak picture of the relationship” between the department and the men, the report said. […]
Participants in the most recent survey reported most of their interactions with police were negative experiences, even when no enforcement actions were taken, and they lacked trust in their local police department.
Heading into the Labor Day holiday, Attorney General Kwame Raoul yesterday filed a lawsuit against a Bridgeview, Illinois-based construction company over an elaborate scheme to keep its employees off payroll and avoid paying tax withholdings required by law. The Attorney General’s office filed the lawsuit against Drive Construction Inc., its principal officers, and a complex web of entities and individuals for a years-long conspiracy to pay millions of dollars of wages in cash, and skirt laws intended to protect Illinois workers and ensure fair wages.
Drive Construction (Drive), which specializes in carpentry, plumbing and masonry, obtains public works projects worth several millions of dollars each year. Raoul’s lawsuit alleges Drive misclassified workers to avoid paying employees fair rates of pay for the hours they worked and to skirt its obligations to pay unemployment insurance contributions to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Raoul alleges Drive violated Illinois’ Minimum Wage Law, the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act and the Illinois Employee Classification Act. […]
Raoul’s lawsuit follows an investigation based on information provided by the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council, which has a collective bargaining agreement with Drive.
“The Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council worked closely with Attorney General Raoul’s office to shed light on this prime example of wage theft perpetrated against exploited workers,” said Gary Perinar, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council. “The Carpenters Union aggressively pursues wage theft cases because they hurt working families, they hurt Illinois taxpayers, and they hurt our signatory contractors who play by the rules and are at a major disadvantage against unscrupulous contractors who lowball bids by cheating the system. Earlier this year we were proud to introduce wage theft legislation that was signed into law which now holds cheating contractors accountable. We will continue our fight for working families across Illinois.”
Raoul’s lawsuit alleges that between 2015 and 2020 alone, Drive Construction obtained contracts for public works projects, such as schools and public housing apartments, worth nearly $40 million. The contracts required Drive Construction to pay its carpenters at Illinois-mandated prevailing wage. Instead, Drive allegedly paid workers in cash, off the books, for thousands of hours of labor at rates well below the prevailing wage mandated by state law. Additionally, Raoul’s lawsuit alleges that Drive’s employees often worked over 50 hours per week on both public and private projects. The Illinois Minimum Wage Law requires employers to pay employees at time and a half their regular rate for each hour worked in excess of 40 per week. Instead of paying these workers at time and a half their regular rate of pay for overtime hours, Drive paid many of its employees off the books at the same rate of pay for all time worked, regardless of the number of hours employees worked on any given week.
The Attorney General’s lawsuit also names Jesus Cortez, Kelly Byrne, Francisco Guel, Raul Lovera and Juan Carlos Lara, alleging they helped Drive set up various shell companies to funnel millions of dollars of wages to its employees off the books and shield Drive Construction from liability for violating Illinois law. These entities included Accurate Construction, Infinity Construction, R&L Construction of Illinois, and A Lara Construction. According to Raoul, the shell companies relied on currency exchanges to convert Drive Construction’s money into cash and money orders that foremen used to compensate workers under the table.
Officials in Madison County have confirmed a criminal investigation is underway after election judges noticed similar handwriting on roughly 39 mail-in ballots during the Illinois primary election.
Madison County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza, a Democrat, confirmed her office detected the suspicious mail-in ballots during the June 28 primary election and promptly reported the case to the authorities. She said sheriff’s deputies interviewed suspects and took witness statements. […]
So far, no one has been charged in the case, and Haine’s petition to recommend a special prosecutor remains under seal. […]
Mendoza said the mail-in ballots in question were all cast in the Democratic primary. At this time, there is no available evidence that would suggest the ballots in question might have altered the outcome of any election results.
With the November 8 General Election approaching and early voting just a month away, Madison County Clerk’s Office says it has been inundated with FOIA requests for voting records. Madison County Clerk, Debbie Ming-Mendoza, is issuing this statement to the public with information regarding access to voting records. […]
“To track who votes for who or what and provide that information to another party is a real invasion of a person’s privacy,” said Mendoza. “I believe residents want their vote to be confidential and not reviewed,” she continued. ES&S, the vendor which provides technical voting support to the Madison County Clerk’s office, contacted Mendoza and confirmed that the voting machines used in Madison County do not provide the type of records the recent FOIA requests have demanded.
Similar FOIA requests have been filed all over the state of Illinois. Mendoza cited that the cyber security exemptions provision applies to the FOIA law to protect the voting process from individuals attempting to access confidential voting information. Mendoza has complied with all state Freedom of Information (FOIA) policies as Madison County Clerk and will continue to provide information for rationale FOIA requests to the public.
Mendoza assures the public that when they cast their ballot this fall it will be secure and accurately counted.
With ten weeks to go until the 2022 midterms, dozens of state and local officials across the country tell ABC News that preparations for the election are being hampered by onerous public information requests, ongoing threats against election workers, and dangerous misinformation campaigns being waged by activists still intent on contesting the 2020 presidential election.
The efforts, many of which are being coordinated at both the national and local level, range from confronting election officials at local government meetings to training volunteers to challenge the vote-counting process on Election Day, according to election officials. […]
Election officials said that records requests, which are designed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to make the vote-tallying process transparent to the public, have increasingly been used by election deniers to disrupt the system.
At the “Moment of Truth Summit,” a two-day meeting of election deniers hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell last week in Springfield, Missouri, activists instructed attendees on how to request election-related records, and pointed them to templates to make it easier to submit the forms.
* Beth Hunsdorfer of Capitol News Illinois and Molly Parker of Lee Enterprises Midwest have some ProPublica Illinois stories up today about Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center. First, a bit of background on the center…
People from across Illinois come to live at the 270-bed facility on the outskirts of the small town of Anna, Illinois. It serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental illnesses or a combination of disorders. Patients can enter voluntarily or be placed there by a guardian, or a judge may order them to Choate for treatment after finding they’re at risk of harming themselves or others. Many end up living at Choate for years.
Nearly 15% of Choate residents with developmental disabilities have diagnoses in the severe or profound range; about 10% are nonverbal.
“In essence, many of these individuals can be ‘the perfect victim’ for a crime because it is easy to cast doubt on someone who has mental challenges or can’t give a statement due to their mental health status,” said Tyler Tripp, the state’s attorney in Union County.
Choate houses the state’s only forensic unit for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have been accused of a crime and found either unfit to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity. That’s the unit where Reichard, who had been arrested for attacks on his family, police and medical personnel, initially lived; he was moved to the less restrictive “step-down” unit in 2014. Though Choate includes a small psychiatric unit, a review of records shows that most of the alleged mistreatment has involved patients with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
* Much of the story contains graphic descriptions of beatings by employees. But here are some numbers…
Using court records and Illinois State Police case files, reporters found that at least 26 Choate employees were arrested on felony charges over roughly the same time period, including four who were connected to the Reichard case. Employees have since been accused of whipping, choking, punching and raping residents.
Among the more recent arrestees are four employees who were accused of choking and beating another Choate patient in 2020, leading to felony battery charges. Two have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery charges in exchange for probation sentences and two cases are still pending.
In 2020, an employee was charged with felony battery, for allegedly taking off his belt and using it to repeatedly whip a resident. Then, earlier this year, an employee was charged with criminal sexual assault of an intellectually disabled person who lived at the facility. And in another 2022 case, an employee was charged for allegedly grabbing a nonverbal patient with the mental capacity of a 15-month-old by the neck and punching him in the back of the head as a security officer watched, according to court records. These three cases are still pending.
Over the years, advocates have called for the facility to be closed. “It’s a purely political decision to keep Choate open,” said civil rights attorney Thomas Kennedy, who has provided legal services to Choate patients on and off for decades. “It’s not about helping people. It’s not about habilitating or rehabilitating people. It’s about keeping jobs in the community. Period. They have failed miserably at any other mission.”
IDHS’ inspector general recommended the installation of cameras in the course of 21 investigations into abuse and neglect allegations at Choate between fiscal years 2015 and 2021, according to a review of internal records by the news organizations. Each time, Choate officials responded to the inspector general that it was “not an option due to budget concerns.”
This summer, advocates and insiders praised Hou’s announcement that IDHS would finally install cameras.
But in response to reporters’ questions, Kollias, the agency spokesperson, clarified that the cameras would go outside the facility.
One former investigator with the inspector general’s office, when told of the plan to put cameras outside, called it “a waste of money and time.” Almost all abuse and neglect allegations stem from incidents that occur inside.
Unbelievable. What the actual heck?
…Adding… I’m told this letter sent to stakeholders yesterday by IDHS Director Grace Hou indicates that the department is moving away from its decision to keep the cameras outside…
Adding approximately 10 surveillance cameras to public areas (in process).
UPDATE: A contract for camera purchase, plus related equipment and installation is being finalized. The vendor has assessed wiring needs for installation on campus. Work is underway to install cameras in public locations where there is a low, or no reasonable expectation for privacy. Guardians who wish to install cameras in their loved ones’ rooms may also do so– and have done so in several facilities.
This election season, we have a historic opportunity to enshrine our right to organize and bargain collectively with coworkers in our state constitution when we vote yes on the Workers’ Rights Amendment. Doing so would send a powerful message that Illinois is and always will be a workers’ rights state while protecting Illinoisans from the whims of any anti-worker politician that may come along in the future.
Protecting collective bargaining has benefits for everyone in our state. When we protect the right to organize, we’re putting more money into the pockets of working people. A recent study from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that union construction workers, emergency responders like firefighters and registered nurses, and teachers earn anywhere from 5 to 35 percent more in Illinois compared to anti-worker states.
And those middle-class jobs are available to working people of all backgrounds across our state, no college degree necessary. Plus, collective bargaining raises wages for all workers, union or not. When pay goes up for union workers, non-union workers often see the benefits, as well as employers, compete with one another in a tight labor market.
For our first responders like firefighters, police officers, and nurses, the Workers’ Rights Amendment will protect their ability to collectively fight for better training and equipment on the job, keeping them safe while they keep our communities safe. These heroes know how to protect our communities, and when we strengthen their ability to collectively bargain, we protect their right to fight for the tools they need to get the job done.
* Illinois Policy Institute Executive Vice President Amy Korte…
Business owners will pay a high price if they vote for a proposed law at the top of the ballot on Election Day.
Amendment 1 is a potential change to the Illinois Constitution up for a vote Nov. 8. Proponents disingenuously refer to Amendment 1 as a “Workers’ Rights Amendment,” yet no Illinois worker would lose their rights if the amendment fails. Business owners would face hefty costs if it passes, though. […]
Uncertainty is a business person’s enemy, and here, too, the amendment presents a threat. The language is so broad that it attempts to regulate union bargaining powers in the private sector, but the federal government already regulates private-sector union workers. This could entangle private business owners in costly and time-consuming litigation, as the employers may need to go to court to determine which laws and protections apply to their businesses and unions.
More tax dollars for government unions and potential legal costs for private businesses translate into less money to hire workers or pay general operating expenditures. Amendment 1 wouldn’t just cut into Illinois businesses’ bottom lines: it could hinder operations as well.
Instead, ever since Congress first passed national legislation allowing workers to form unions and bargain collectively, we’ve seen a steady and successful effort to erode these same rights in the courts and in dozens of states. Over the past 60 years, this has led to a historic low in the share of American workers represented by labor unions, even as unions enjoy historic highs in public opinion polling. […]
This has not been a good trend for workers or our economy. Research has shown that states where politicians have weakened unions and collective bargaining suffer from slower economic growth and lower levels of workforce productivity. Indeed, recent research from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign revealed that workers in these states earned lower wages; faced higher rates of poverty and income inequality; and were less likely to have health insurance, more likely to rely on government welfare programs and significantly more likely to be injured or killed on the job. […]
The Workers’ Rights Amendment to the Illinois Constitution offers a similar check on the structural power imbalance that has long existed at the workplaces where we spend so much of our lives.
Importantly, it will finally guarantee rights that have long proven to deliver higher job quality, better safety outcomes and a stronger overall economy.
* Adrienne Alexander and Father Clete Kiley writing for Chicago Catholic say support for the amendment is “not in doubt” in Catholic teachings …
The purpose of this article is to highlight relevant principles of Catholic social teaching that faithful citizens should take into consideration as they decide how to vote.
First, the right of workers to organize in unions is one of the oldest principles of modern Catholic social teaching. It was first articulated by Pope Leo XIII in 1891.
Observing the exploitation and abuse of the working classes during the early industrial revolution, the Holy Father observed in his encyclical “Rerum Novarum” that “workingmen’s unions” were helping redress cruel and inequitable conditions in the workplace and wished “that they should become more numerous and more efficient” (49).
This teaching has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the church ever since. “Among the basic rights of the human person is to be numbered the right of freely founding unions for working people,” according to the Second Vatican Council’s “Gaudium et Spes.” “Included is the right of freely taking part in the activity of these unions without risk of reprisal” (68).
Supporters of Amendment 1, the so-called Workers’ Rights Amendment, are all over the place with contradictory, outlandish claims about what the amendment would do if approved by voters in November.
The latest is their first TV ad featuring a private-sector health care worker at a children’s facility. He says, “These kids are fighters. We work with them so they can make it to their next birthday. We see these kids as family, but hospitals see them as dollar signs. They cut corners. Fewer nurses, longer shifts. It’s not safe for these kids. When we speak up, we risk being fired. But the Workers’ Rights Amendment will protect us as we stand up for our patients. I shouldn’t lose my job for putting them first. That is my job.”
But hold on. Applying the amendment to the private sector flatly contradicts what the lead sponsor of the resolution for the amendment told the Illinois Senate. In discussion on the Senate floor, state Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, said, “as federal labor law stands today, the amendment could not apply to the private sector.”
Which is it?
* Lake County News-Sun Managing Editor Charles Selle…
A vote in favor of Amendment 1, also called the benign Workers’ Rights Amendment, establishes a state constitutional right for Illinois employees to bargain collectively to negotiate wages, hours and working conditions. While Illinois is not a right-to-work state, there is nothing in the state’s Constitution to ensure it never becomes one.
The proposal is opposed by business interests and conservative organizations who maintain, if adopted, it will give too much power to unions and result in higher taxes. Opponents also claim the amendment is quite vague and tip the negotiating scale in favor of organized labor.
Less than a handful of states have similar amendments protecting collective bargaining in their constitutions. More than 30 states have right-to-work laws, despite studies showing the relationship between union membership, and higher salaries and benefits.
Currently, about 11.2% of U.S. workers belong to unions. A few years ago, it was 13%. The figure is even worse in the private sector, where just one in 15 employees is a union member.
Billed as the “Workers Rights Amendment” by its proponents, particularly within the publication from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign titled “The Workers’ Rights Amendment and Its Impact on Protecting Quality Jobs and Essential Industries in Illinois” published on August 11, this response will urge a “NO” vote on Amendment 1.
The reason for the “NO” vote is simple, and 3-fold.
It is the honest opinion of the author of this response Amendment 1 should not pass for the following reasons:
-Current Illinois law already guarantees the freedoms the proponents say are needed through passage of Amendment 1
-The proponents present their case focusing heavily on labor unions and not the workers across Illinois or the changing economy for workers choices and entrepreneurships which no longer need representation through a labor union
-With the current organized labor movement within Illinois, other states and within the current Administration and the United States Congress, the risks for all workers under the current Amendment outweigh the benefits proponents claim
Finally, all workers freedoms can be protected through a holistic approach to reforming current labor law at the national level and within the state of Illinois without the need for a constitutional amendment. As witnessed at the Port of Oakland in July where 1099 independent contractors and rank-and-file union members stood side-by-side, so can all stakeholders work respectfully together to build the long-term solution to ensure workers rights, while protecting the American workers’ freedoms within and outside of a labor union.
