Crime and punishment
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’ve become a big fan of AlderTrack this year for publishing stories that the other media is ignoring, like this fascinating piece…
Public testimony turned into a die-in and shouting match at Tuesday’s Cook County Board of Commissioners hearing on the proposed FY2016 budget, with an unusual heated exchange between Commissioners Robert Steele (2) and Deborah Sims(10), and a young woman advocating for $2 million in funding for restorative justice programs across the county. Roughly 20 activists, many in orange tees from Community Renewal Society, participated. The group also staged a vigil at a public hearing in Skokie.
Commissioners Steele and Sims’ exchanges with one protester, Victoria Crider, lasted more than 30 minutes.
“If you can come up with $7 million to lock people up, you can come up with $2 million to keep them away,” Crider, of FLY (Fearless Leading by the Youth) said, telling commissioners of color they should support a $2 million earmark for restorative justice programs. Steele, who hours before had committed to raising more funds for the program, told protesters, “Don’t depend on Cook County to bail everybody out. Ask foundations and corporations to invest in this.” He told protesters they should partner with commissioners, but was interrupted by Crider. The two, united on the issue a few hours earlier, spoke over each other about funding for the Cook County Jail.
Crider argued with Comm. Sims as well, insisting the County stop funding the jail, “those prisons aren’t stopping shootings from happening… And the police officers that you’ve got on the street, those are the ones that you need to see in prison,” she said, to applause from supporters.
After trying to explain why the County’s jails were necessary to lock up criminals like the shooter who killed a 9 year old boy the day before, Sims eventually lost her patience with Crider, who spoke over her repeatedly. She suggested Crider picked a poor target to argue with about gang violence, putting up her hand mid-sentence, “I live in Roseland, the Wild 100s, so you can’t talk to me.”
Finance Chairman Daley said Crider’s time at the podium was over, and Comm. Schneider spoke up, saying he supported Chicago police. A shouting match started up again, with one protester saying Chicago policemen had raped women in her community, and Crider continuing to argue with commissioners as she and other protesters left the Board room. Daley had the last word. “What are you going to tell the parents of that little baby? Don’t lock that individual up? Give me a break… Next speaker.”
The strong pockets of radicalism in Chicago never cease to fascinate me. Click here to subscribe to AlderTrack. It’s worth it.
* Meanwhile, this story appears to have disappeared from the Sun-Times website, but 2nd City Cop posted it…
Chicago Police officials are concerned the killing of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee could set off a spree of violence targeting gang members’ innocent relatives — who have been considered off limits in the past, a law enforcement source said Wednesday.
The development came as Chicago police said a person of interest in the killing had turned himself in to police for questioning with his attorney this afternoon. Police declined to comment further.
After Tyshawn’s shooting, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy hopes Chicago’s gang conflicts don’t “go to a different level,” the source said.
Officers monitoring social media have flagged discussions of gang members speaking of possible retaliation against other gang members’ families.
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[The following is a paid advertisement.]
EXELON CEO CHRIS CRANE – “A PHENOMENAL YEAR FOR US”
Today, Exelon announced third quarter 2015 profits of $629 MILLION. Yes, you read that right. Exelon has made more than $2.0 BILLION in the first nine months of this year. And yet despite their good fortune, Exelon still demands a corporate bailout even as our state budget crisis goes from bad to horrendous. They have promised to return to the ILGA with a full court bailout push in 2016!
IN THE THIRD QUARTER, EXELON MADE NEARLY SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS A DAY or $284,873 AN HOUR
On this morning’s earnings call, Exelon CEO Chris Crane described 2015 and said, “This is a phenomenal year for us.”
OTHER EXELON NEWS: ALL ILLINOIS PLANTS TO REMAIN OPEN
- Yesterday, Exelon announced that Clinton would remain open through at least 2017.
- Exelon previously announced that because Quad Cities and Byron cleared the PJM auctions, Quad will remain open through at least 2017 and Byron will remain open through at least 2018.
Struggling Illinois ratepayers have had enough.
Just say no to the Exelon Bailout.
www.noexelonbailout.com
s.
BEST Coalition is a 501C4 nonprofit group of dozens of business, consumer and government groups, as well as large and small businesses.
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Plant Closures Show the Need for Action in Illinois
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
In the past month, two nuclear plants have announced their premature closure - the FitzPatrick plant outside Syracuse, NY and the Pilgrim plant outside Boston, MA - due to economic challenges stemming from a failure to properly value the plants for their reliable, carbon emissions –free energy.
These closures will be devastating to the economies of the communities in which they operate and efforts to reduce carbon emissions resulting in:
• Over 1,200 lost jobs;
• $600 million in lost economic activity; and
• Loss of a leading source of carbon emissions-free energy.
This comes on the heels of similar closures announced in Wisconsin and Vermont in recent years that have produced similar losses to those states.
According to a State of Illinois report, the premature closure of at-risk plants in Illinois would yield even more severe consequences here at home including:
• Nearly 8,000 lost jobs;
• $1.8 billion annually in lost economic activity;
• Up to $500 million in higher energy costs statewide; and
• Up to 38.7 million metric tons in increased carbon emissions at a cost of up to $1.1 billion per year.
Illinois cannot afford to let this happen.
We need policy reforms like the Low Carbon Portfolio Standard that properly recognize and value the significant amount of carbon-free electricity that comes from Illinois’ nuclear fleet to level the playing field for all forms of clean energy and best position our state to meet EPA’s new carbon reduction rules.
Learn more about the benefits of nuclear energy at www.NuclearPowersIllinois.com
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Question of the day
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a Feb. 25, 2015 Tribune story…
Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday convened what was billed as the first meeting of his Cabinet, telling agency leaders that they’ll be asked to do more with less, but that he’s willing to “take the arrows” along the way.
“I wish this year was going to be all happy, and you know, happy feet. This is not going to be a happy feet year,” Rauner told the group of about 50 officials gathered in a Capitol meeting room. “This is going to be pretty rough, but we’re going to get through it. And I tell you, in 24 months we’re going to be on a very different trajectory as a state.”
That means we only have to wait 478 more days until prosperity begins sprouting all over the place!
* The Question: What will Feb. 25, 2017 look like? Snark is heavily encouraged, of course.
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Look past the heat and at the numbers
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* SEIU Healthcare’s child care analyst Beth Berendsen issued a statement to reporters yesterday about the governor’s push against the child care assistance program funding bill. I didn’t post it because, frankly, I’m trying to tone things down a bit and the rhetoric was pretty darned incendiary.
However, the numbers in the release are important, so do your best to look past the foaming at the mouth and instead skim through to the highlighted numbers…
The Bruce Rauner administration’s cynical political screed released today regarding Senate Bill 570, which reverses his arbitrary rules changes to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), exposes a shocking truth: That his unprecedented eligibility requirements, which have made Illinois dead last in the nation in providing safe and affordable child care to working parents, truly are destroying the program.
The Rauner justification, released in advance of an expected vote Nov. 10 on SB570 and most certainly meant to influence wavering members of his caucus, states that more than 90,000 children currently are receiving CCAP subsidies. This number represents a reduction of 80,000 in the average number of children served in the previous eight years. The 90,000 figure also represents a decrease BY HALF of the children that were served in FY2015. This is devastating.
What Rauner did today is reveal a program deterioration so rapid that it is a drop of 70,000 children being served in just three months— down from the 160,000 figure provided by the former state CCAP administrator, Linda Saterfield, in her August 11th testimony to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a statement that led to her dismissal for openly admitting that the impact of Rauner’s cuts would be “devastating.” She was right.
Recent research has shown that more than 1 in 5 children in Illinois are living in poverty, meaning more than 600,000 children. In Illinois, a recent report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute showed that a full-time minimum-wage earner would have to spend 74% of their annual earnings on child care for an infant without assistance. And yet, under the rules justified in what Rauner released today, full-time minimum wage earners no longer qualify for CCAP. How can this be justified?
Work supports, including the Child Care Assistance Program, are vital to helping low-income parents continue to work and access high-quality child care which improve child outcomes and stability, goals to which Rauner has professed. But the number that Rauner now boasts about—90,000 children currently being served— represents a heartbreaking loss of opportunity for 90,000 others without his level of personal fortune. It also reminds us that he is interested exclusively in political power and has no concept or care in investing in real solutions to help the struggling families of Illinois.
Whether wittingly or not, what Rauner released today actually provides complete and compelling *justification* for passage of Senate Bill 570.
Rhetoric like that won’t help with Republican lawmakers, but if the House Democrats have all 71 members in town next week, it will probably help with that caucus.
Even so… whew.
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Charters say they’re doing pretty well
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Other than the fear of competition by existing schools and the lack of automatic union enrollment, I don’t really get the virulent opposition to charter schools. Are there problems with some charters? Heck, yes. But, to me, there ought to be alternatives to the industrial model school system for people who can’t afford private schools. Charters aren’t for everybody, but that’s precisely the point.
Reboot…
Today, there are 145 charter schools in Illinois and 90 percent of them are in Chicago. A recent policy brief from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, “Achieving the Dream: Chicago Charter High Schools Improve Academic and Life Outcomes for Students,” compared the academic performance of Chicago’s 48 charter high schools to the rest of the city’s non-selective district high schools.
Charts…
Discuss.
…Adding… The IFT asks that you click here.
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Yeah, this’ll work
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Kerry Lester…
Rob Sherman, the Buffalo Grove-based atheist and activist, tells me he plans to call Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and demand that GOP state Rep. Jeannie Ives of Wheaton be removed from the House Elementary and Secondary Education Appropriations Committee for having taxpayer-funded kids activity books printed amid the state budget impasse and then sending some to her children’s Catholic school.
The Illinois Constitution forbids using public funds “in aid of any church or sectarian purpose,” but Sherman says his main concern is the books went to a school her children attend.
Ives calls Sherman’s complaint “complete and utter silliness” and says the books cost a total of $130 and have been distributed to children throughout the district. The ones given to the Catholic school, she says, were left over from a kids boot camp she sponsors each summer at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. She also noted she annually returns thousands in office funds to the state.
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The true believers want this war
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s Chicago Business attracts several commenters who know how to write well, and I sometimes find them helpful because they say things that elected officials and others just won’t. For instance, this was posted to a column of mine by a frequent Crain’s commenter who goes by the name of Glenn Farkas…
Sally, I’m not missing the point at all. Rich’s article is a ruse. The state has been run like an organized crime syndicate for decades, so advising Rauner that if he would just stop leaning on the mobsters they might just come around and be altar boys. We elected him to shake up/break up Springfield, and it will probably get worse before it gets better. The single biggest factor in this state’s downfall is directly correlated to the Democratic politicians and their collusion with unions. The unions will never give up their golden goose w/o a fight and the Democrats can’t offend their primary donor base and election workforce. We have no other choice, and if you think the economy is bad now, keep heading down the road we’re on with none of Rauner’s reforms and the state will be in receivership within 5 years.
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Dedication to People – The Credit Union Difference
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Exactly what is the ‘Credit Union Difference’? Just ask Mae Powley, Manager of Pontiac-Dwight Prison Employees Credit Union.
“We really enjoy getting to know our members personally. We consider them part of our extended family. Members are friends, not just account numbers.”
From those who consider their credit union as a trusted place to help meet daily budgetary needs to those who are on the other side of the counter helping fellow members build strong financial futures, credit unions are all about “People Helping People”. So when Mae talks about the credit union as an extended family, she lives it. That’s because she is a member herself along with 1,100 other current and retired Illinois Department of Corrections employees and their family members – and has served alongside them as manager for the past 42 years.
Credit unions are able to better serve their communities because of their not-for-profit cooperative structure and leadership of a volunteer board elected by and from the local membership. Illinois credit unions: putting the “people” behind their fundamental philosophy.
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Unclear on the concept
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Illinois Policy Institute…
[Innovation Illinois’ Elizabeth Austin] also incorrectly described Illinois as having a “regressive flat income tax rate.” This is a contradiction in terms — a tax rate cannot be both regressive and flat. Since Illinois’ income tax rate is flat, everyone pays the same rate on all taxable income.
They can’t really be that clueless, can they?
Investopedia…
A regressive tax is generally a tax that is applied uniformly. This means that it hits lower-income individuals harder.
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Today’s number: $175 million
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Bloomberg…
When Illinois returns to the municipal market after its unprecedented 18-month borrowing drought, it may find its budget impasse will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in the coming decades.
On a $1 billion offering of 25-year tax-exempt bonds, it would cost about $175 million more now than if an equal amount was issued with spreads at 2014 levels, based on data compiled by Bloomberg that assumes the yield equals the interest rate paid. Now in its fifth month without a spending plan, signs are mounting that debt sales for cash-strapped Illinois are only going to get more expensive.
* But, really, this quote shows how this whole thing is a bit rigged…
Long-term, the budget situation is fixable, according to Ty Schoback, a senior analyst in Minneapolis at Columbia Threadneedle Investments LLC, which holds some Illinois debt among its $30 billion of municipal holdings.
“As long as there’s adequate compensation in price, in addition to us having a view that they will ultimately come to a fix and get past this political gridlock, we certainly would consider additional purchases,” said Schoback. “You need to be compensated for the headline risk and the political uncertainty and these BBB+ downgrades.”
“Headline risk”? C’mon. What is that about?
Illinois has some of the strongest bond payback legal requirements in the country. Right now, child care, higher education and other programs are being slashed at least partly so the state can afford to make its bond payments on time.
The only people who truly believe Illinois is about to default on its bonds are newspaper website commenters.
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How can we miss you if you won’t go away?
Thursday, Nov 5, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, and history follows its usual pattern here,her first midterm will be pretty awful for Illinois Democrats. Knowing that, top tier Dems may take a pass on challenging the super-wealthy Republican Bruce Rauner. Maybe I’m wrong, though, and some do emerge because maybe Rauner is super unpopular by then (although the national political mood tends to influence state races more than the state mood). I could be mistaken. But whatever happens, I think that a Hillary win is Pat Quinn’s best hope to win the nomination again. The general election is quite another matter…
The former longtime gadfly-turned-governor is working behind the scenes to get support for what amounts to an “I told you so” re-election campaign, several Democratic sources say, making calls and setting up lunches and coffees to make his pitch. Quinn has also been more visible of late, including on Wednesday when he joined a group of stagehands protesting in Chicago. Sources say that Quinn asked for speaking roles at this year’s Illinois State Fair in Springfield and the county chairmen’s breakfast.
Quinn argues he should have a chance to go before voters again and tell them he was right all along in advocating to make his controversial “temporary” income tax hike permanent. The risky election-year tax proposal sucked up much oxygen in the last months of Quinn’s unsuccessful campaign against Rauner, a political rookie. Rauner, a wealthy private equity investor, asked lawmakers not to extend the tax before he took office. They obliged. […]
But Quinn’s dreams may be dead on arrival. As the operative who described Quinn’s pitch put it, “I haven’t heard anyone who’s taking it seriously. I think everyone is in agreement, our fundamental problem with our last election was our candidate.”
Another major Democratic insider pointed to the numbers, noting that in 2014, “650,000 people voted for the minimum wage referendum who didn’t vote for Pat Quinn. That tells you something.”
When Speaker Madigan said that Bruce Rauner didn’t really win last year, Pat Quinn lost, that was probably as much of a message to the former governor as it was to the current one. Or, at least, it should’ve been.
It’s no secret, by the way, that Quinn has been plotting this race almost since his 2014 defeat. He’s been popping up at events lately, including just this week at a union protest.
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