Most Illinois public school districts that tested sinks and fountains for tiny traces of brain-damaging lead as required by a 2017 state law had to tell parents they found the toxic metal quietly lurking in the children’s drinking water.
According to a Tribune analysis of state data, more than 1,800 of the roughly 2,100 public schools that submitted test results identified some amount of lead in their drinking water. That includes more than 1,350 schools where at least one water sample had lead levels exceeding 5 parts per billion, the threshold where parental notification is required.
But despite the widespread nature of the problem — and the threat lead poses to young brains, even in small amounts — the state’s efforts to curtail lead in school drinking water mostly ended there.
The Illinois Department of Public Health, the state agency tasked with overseeing the law, did not make the statewide testing results public. It did not ensure that all eligible schools had conducted testing and submitted their results. And it offered schools conflicting guidance on what steps they should take after finding elevated lead levels in their drinking water.
The law did say that IDPH was to provide guidance on mitigation strategies. But the agency has offered shifting instructions on what was supposed to happen following the lead tests, sometimes telling districts that they had to work to reduce any lead they found and sometimes that mitigation was simply recommended.
The result was a patchwork of responses from Illinois schools, the Tribune found. Some districts spent millions to greatly reduce or eliminate the lead in their school drinking water, while others reported taking little action, even though the toxic metal can hamper brain development even in very small amounts.< [...]
In Illinois, the 2017 law directed schools to notify parents of results above 5 parts per billion but did not set a level where mitigation was required. This left school administrators to navigate a dizzying labyrinth of guidance that shifted as time went by.
* Update…
Among the state's arguments they say "the application should be denied": * Applicants Have Not Shown That This Court Is Likely To Grant Certiorari Or That An Injunction Would Be In Aid Of The Court’s Jurisdiction. * Applicants Have Not Shown That They Are Indisputably Entitled…
* District map-drawing doesn’t work this way. It has to focus on voting age populations, not students…
“The preliminary map that you released yesterday under-represents the Latino population compared to their proportion of the CPS population and over-represents the white population,” Jessica Cañas, representing Kids First Chicago, a children’s and parents’ advocacy group, told the panel of lawmakers.
“CPS is 47% Latino students, yet only 30% of these districts will likely yield Latino board members,” Cañas said.
Black students come in second in the racial breakdown of CPS enrollment with 36% followed by white students at 11%, according to the most recent CPS data. The map that was released on Friday shows that white voting-age residents make up the largest percentage of all voting-age residents in seven of the 20 proposed districts, compared to six with a majority Hispanic voting-age population and seven black voter-dominated districts.
Durbin is about as establishment as it gets nowadays in Illinois Democratic politics, a longtime fixture who crosses many eras and political factions. But Durbin has been catching a lot of heat lately from his party’s resurgent left wing for a few reasons: endorsing Paul Vallas for mayor, squabbling with Gov. J.B. Pritzker over the state party chairmanship and how he’s handled his chairmanship of the federal judge-making Senate Judiciary Committee. […]
Typical of the spot in which he finds himself: a pretty good grilling he got today from Jake Tapper on CNN, who, among other things, asked why Durbin isn’t pushing for Judiciary member Sen. Dianne Feinstein to resign if she can’t soon rejoin his closely divided panel. And Tapper also pressed Durbin on why he isn’t doing more about what many view as an ethics scandal on the Supreme Court.
Durbin didn’t do much to suggest Feinstein, his “friend and colleague of many years,” should call it quits. “I hope she does what’s right . . . soon,” Durbin put it.
He was considerably more assertive on SCOTUS, terming the situation “embarrassing,” calling on Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a code on his own, and declaring that “everything is on the table.” including subpoenaing one or more justices to testify.
Jaime Harrison
Chair
Democratic National Committee
Chair Harrison,
I’m reaching out to make you aware of a proposed bill that we believe could significantly impact our operations in the State of Illinois, so that you can prepare appropriately for the upcoming convention.
If passed as is, HB 2231 could make Illinois one of, if not the only place, in the country to treat rideshare as a common carrier. There remains a lot of uncertainty over what new restrictions drivers could face, but it could lead to new barriers or eligibility requirements for drivers, which could in turn lead to fewer drivers on the road. Fewer drivers may mean higher wait times and less reliability. On extremely busy days, like during the convention, there might not be enough drivers to meet rider demand at all.
The bill could also lead to some of the most expensive insurance requirements in the country, which may lead to significant price increases. That’s despite the fact that Illinois already has some insurance requirements for rideshare 3 times that of local taxis. It’s possible Chicago could become one of the most expensive markets in the country for rideshare. Most of the additional costs would go to cover insurance, increasing prices for riders but not necessarily fares for drivers. It’s especially disappointing that the State legislature rejected reasonable compromises that might reduce costs and allow for the implementation of new safety features. Higher costs could also lead to increased frustration among drivers who see that more and more of their fare is used to cover the cost of government-mandated insurance. Frustrated drivers may opt to leave the app, leaving Chicago with fewer drivers.
We know that planning for the Convention is already well underway, and we don’t want you caught off guard if the availability of on-demand transportation is less than anticipated as a result of the new law. Our hope is that drivers and riders will continue their use of our app as normal. However, given the likely impact this legislation may have on rider pricing and driver earnings, we have significant concerns about how it could affect the reliability of our app.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns.
The bill cleared the Senate and will receive a concurrence vote in the House.
* Press release…
This month, more than 20 students recently accepted into the Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) — the only bachelor’s degree-granting program for incarcerated students offered by a top 10 university in the United States, will begin classes at Stateville Correctional Center.
“NPEP is the gateway, the entrance, into a world of scholars, freedom educators, and amazing, beautiful people,” said Demetrius Cunningham, one of the students recently accepted into NPEP. “It’s a dream come true.”
Donnell Green, another recently admitted NPEP student, shared similar feelings. “When an incarcerated individual says they want to make the best of their situation — being an NPEP student is what they mean.”
This new addition will make up NPEP’s third cohort of students at Stateville Correctional Center. These students will join the first and second cohorts of NPEP students who are currently working on their bachelor’s degrees.
“Cohorts 1 and 2 have welcomed me like family,” said Shawn Thigpen, a Cohort 3 student.
“I finally found a family who loves and truly has care for me,” said Jacob Currey, another Cohort 3 student, of the existing NPEP students. “They connect, assess, respond, and encourage.”
For this most recent round of admissions, NPEP’s Admissions Committee — made up of Northwestern administrators and faculty members— received nearly 400 applications from individuals at facilities across the state of Illinois. In addition to the 20 students accepted into NPEP earlier this year, 20 more students from the applicant pool will join NPEP this summer as members of the program’s fourth cohort.
* Isabel’s roundup…
* Sun-Times | Naperville, state of Illinois urge U.S. Supreme Court not to block ban on assault-style weapons: Robert Bevis, a gun shop owner in Naperville, has challenged a town ordinance and a state law ending the sale of the weapons, arguing that they violate the Second Amendment. Bevis so far has failed to persuade federal judges in Chicago and has asked the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction stopping the laws from being enforced while his case is heard.
* Sun-Times | Top cop’s wife coached slain officer’s high school cheerleading team: ‘She did not deserve this’: His wife, former police Capt. Saadia Carter, said memories and photos quickly began pouring in from members of the cheerleading team she coached at UIC College Prep on the Near West Side. “She always had something funny to say and was guaranteed to pass on her infectious smile,” Carter said of Preston. “She did not deserve this!” Nicknamed “Legs,” Preston played the role of flyer, the team member who’s tossed in the air during stunts. Carter’s daughter — Preston’s friend — was the team’s captain.
* Triibe | Why is the State’s Attorney’s Office hiding ShotSpotter evidence?: The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) has routinely hidden evidence from defendants that was obtained from ShotSpotter, a gunshot-detection system, according to Brendan Max, the chief of the Forensic Science Division at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office (PDO). The CCSAO’s pattern of failing to inform defendants about how ShotSpotter determines noises are gunshots is similar to a 2020 case in which a man was falsely charged with murder based on a ShotSpotter alert.
* Daily Herald | Experts warn of costlier COVID care as emergency declaration ends: “The problem is we’ve been relying on testing, treatments and vaccines being widely available as a public health measure, and those tools were paid for by the emergency declaration,” said Dr. Emily Landon, head of the University of Chicago’s infectious disease prevention and control program. “The last people who should be making decisions about public health is the insurance industry. We don’t want to see these tools become inaccessible.”
* Tribune | McDonald’s faces new lawsuit over its advertising spending with Black-owned media: The lawsuit hinges on a commitment McDonald’s made in the spring of 2021 to increase the share of advertising dollars it was spending with Black-owned media from 2% to 5% between 2021 and 2024. The lawsuit alleges McDonald’s “did not come close” to spending 2% of its advertising budget with Black-owned media in 2021 and that it is not on track to spend 5% by next year.
* Tribune | Chicago Public Schools parents take issue with proposed elected school board map: “The preliminary map that you released yesterday under-represents the Latino population compared to their proportion of the CPS population and over-represents the white population,” Jessica Cañas, representing Kids First Chicago, a children’s and parents’ advocacy group, told the panel of lawmakers.
* Chicago Mag | The Long Game: When it came to fundraising, Paul Vallas had Brandon Johnson beat. Days before the April 4 mayoral runoff, Vallas reported contributions of over $19 million, more than half of that coming from 44 individuals or organizations. Johnson clocked in at just over $11 million, largely from unions. But where Johnson had the upper hand, and what ultimately propelled him to an upset victory, was his community outreach — appealing to supportive voters to turn out to the polls. The person leading that charge was Emma Tai, executive director of United Working Families, a political advocacy organization started in 2014 by social-welfare and labor groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union. Tai spoke to Chicago about the decade-long effort to elect a progressive mayor, how she abandoned a community organizer’s mindset of only going after winnable targets, and why she identifies with a certain rebel in the Star Wars universe.
* WaPo Editorial Board | This is the solution to the covid learning loss crisis: Foremost among those is what’s known as high-dosage tutoring. This is basically what it sounds like. Students get relatively individualized instruction, and they get it often — ideally, three or fewer kids per teacher for three hours each week. The average child in districts that reopened quickly during the pandemic lost the equivalent of about seven to 10 weeks of progress, about a quarter of a normal school year; the average student at high-poverty schools that stayed remote for the majority of the 2020-2021 school year lost the equivalent of about 22 weeks. High-dosage tutoring, done correctly, could compensate, giving kids as much as an additional year of growth every year it’s implemented.
* Daily Herald | ‘On life support’: How Illinois’ horse racing industry is trying to survive after Arlington’s closure: Closure of the grand racing palace in Arlington Heights only accelerated the industry’s decline in Illinois, where there are now fewer equines being bred on downstate farms, many have left to race in other states, and a long-anticipated racino project at Hawthorne — the lone remaining Chicago-area track where both thoroughbreds and standardbreds now race — is stalled amid financing woes. In March, Tim Carey, Hawthorne’s president and CEO, pleaded with state lawmakers to preserve his track’s veto power over the opening of any new harness track within 35 miles, amid a new consortium’s proposal for just that in Richton Park.
* Belleville News-Democrat | Illinois Youth Police Camp gives teenage boys and girls a disciplined path to success: “The camp definitely helped plant seeds of ambition and fortitude to pursue all my endeavors,” said Hardin, a 2013 Madison High School graduate. “I think the main things the camp teaches are teamwork, commitment and pride. I think those three principles are the most relevant from the camp. I feel a lot of people — especially my generation — lack those team building skills.
* NYT | Asked to Delete References to Racism From Her Book, an Author Refused: When Tokuda-Hall read the details of the offer, she felt deflated — then outraged. Scholastic wanted her to delete references to racism in America from her author’s note, in which she addresses readers directly. The decision was wrenching, Tokuda-Hall said, but she turned Scholastic down and went public, describing her predicament in a blog post and a Twitter post that drew more than five million views.
A veteran police officer in Illinois resigned Tuesday after researchers connected him to a deluge of violent and bigoted social media posts that glorified Adolf Hitler and hate crimes.
The resignation of Springfield Police Department Officer Aaron Paul Nichols, 46, came shortly after his department announced an investigation into the posts, first surfaced by Anonymous Comrades Collective (ACC), a group of anti-fascist researchers.
“If I found a genie and I had one wish? The Jews would be a distant memory in 72 hours,” one of the posts allegedly written by Nichols reads.
The Springfield Police Department said on Friday that it had launched an investigation into Nichols’ “racist comments,” and that his “police powers had been removed.” On Tuesday, the department told HuffPost in a statement that Nichols, who joined the department in 2004, resigned instead of meeting with investigators.
* Washington Post reporter Hannah Allam followed up…
After the meeting, [Springfield Police Chief Ken Scarlette] said it was frustrating that he could not yet deliver an ending for the saga. His biggest play was decertification, a formal request for the revocation of Nichols’s ability to work elsewhere as a law enforcement officer, an option that had not been available in Illinois until the governor introduced it as part of recent criminal justice reforms.
The process was so new, Scarlette said, that when he sent the request — just four days after learning of Nichols’s online posts — his contact at the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, known as ILETSB, told him there were no personnel to consider the issue and likened the office to “flying a plane in the air that has not been put together.”
Twelve months later, ILETSB still had not officially ruled on the matter. Officials there did not respond to a phone message or email seeking comment.
The move might not be monumental, Scarlette said, but it would be an answer to the question that still comes up in every meeting, one concrete win in his year-long fight against hate.
“You don’t get to just resign and this whole thing goes away,” he said. “Because it’s not going away for me as chief. It’s not going away for this agency. It’s not going away for the city.”
The whole thing is worth a read, but the WaPo reporter wasn’t able to reach the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board for whatever reason [Adding: An ILETSB official says the board never received a call or message from anyone at the Washington Post].
I contacted the ILETSB today and was told that because the resignation happened before July 1 of last year, when the decertification statute took effect, the board had no legal means of proceeding with a discretionary decertification.
But, I was told, former officer Nichols is now in a state database, so if he applies for another police job in Illinois, he’ll be flagged as having a misconduct violation when another police agency contacts the ILETSB as required. Also, it will now be essentially impossible for Nichols to be recertified by the ILETSB.
Before February, Jaci Statton wasn’t particularly focused on Oklahoma’s abortion bans. “I was like, ‘Well, that’s not going to affect me. I won’t ever need one,’ ” she says. […]
Then, in mid-February, she started to feel really sick — nauseous and dizzy and weak. The first few pregnancy tests came back negative, but after several trips to the hospital, a blood test confirmed it: She was pregnant. […]
In Jaci’s case, there was a problem. The treatment is a dilation and curettage or D&C — a procedure that clears tissue out of the uterus. A D&C is the most common type of surgical abortion. Even though Jaci’s pregnancy was not viable and the embryo would never develop into a full-term infant, there was cardiac activity. Jaci’s doctor said she couldn’t treat Jaci at the Catholic hospital where she works.
Jaci was transferred to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. Doctors there confirmed the partial molar pregnancy diagnosis and were ready to do a D&C, but Jaci says an ultrasound tech from the emergency department objected because he detected fetal cardiac activity. The D&C didn’t happen. Instead, she was transferred yet again, this time to Oklahoma Children’s Hospital. […]
At Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, she says the medical staff told her that her condition was serious. “You at the most will last maybe two weeks,” she remembers them telling her. But still, cardiac activity was detectable, and the doctors would not provide a D&C.
Eventually, Statton was able to travel out of state to Wichita, Kansas to receive life-saving care.
* Oklahoma Governor Stitt said he will veto a bill set to fund PBS through 2026…
"Why are we using taxpayer dollars to overly sexualize or indoctrinate children?" — Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on vetoing funding for PBS pic.twitter.com/iKOrxfVkq1
Conservation groups across the Southeast United States are urging Gov. DeSantis to veto a bill that would allow the use of radioactive fertilizer waste in road construction across the state.
The bill passed by legislators permits the use of toxic phosphogypsum in “demonstration” road projects in Florida. Critics said this is the first step in a phosphate industry push to eventually use the waste in roads nationwide.
The Environmental Protection Agency prohibits using the toxic phosphate waste in roadway construction because it poses an unacceptable risk to road construction workers, public health and the environment.
The bill would require the Florida Department of Transportation to complete a study on the feasibility of using phosphogypsum as a material for road construction, with a short timeline and completion date of April 1, 2024.
* A thread on banned books in Florida…
2. Duval County has banned "House and Homes" by Ann Morris as porn.
The book is a series of photographs illustrating different kids of homes around the world
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill into law that gives a new board he controls the power to void development agreements its predecessor body signed with Disney - the latest episode in a feud between the conservative governor and the entertainment giant.
Under the bill, which passed the Republican-controlled legislature largely along party lines, the Central Tourism Oversight District Board - whose members are appointed by DeSantis - can cancel any deals signed up to three months before the board’s creation.
“Make no mistake about it, the reason why the legislature had to act was not because of anything we did,” DeSantis said at a news conference Friday. “It was basically born out of Disney’s arrogance that they would be able to subcontract around the duly enacted laws of the state of Florida. That’s wrong.”
The legislature formed the board in February to replace the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District to oversee development in the 25,000 acres (10,120 hectares) surrounding Walt Disney World, effectively wresting control from the company and handing it to DeSantis.
After barely passing a budget on time Friday thanks to a filibuster over a Cass County landfill, legislators still have major priorities to try to pass in the dwindling hours of the session, including restrictions on initiative ballot petitions and gender-affirming care. […]
Missouri lawmakers followed several other GOP-leaning states by pursuing legislation curtailing treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors. But it’s likely that the final product will be less restrictive than in some of those other places.
That’s because Senate Democrats extracted compromises to exempt transgender youth who are already receiving gender-affirming care. And the law would expire after four years, which gives Democrats in the upper chamber a chance to filibuster any effort to extend it.
But House Republicans don’t want gender care legislation that includes an expiration date or exemptions.
One added wrinkle to this debate is emergency restriction rules from Attorney General Andrew Bailey. Since state statutes trump emergency rules, it’s possible that passage of gender-affirming care legislation that only affects minors will supersede Bailey’s guidelines that also affect adults.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is trying to convince the state auditor’s office to increase the projected cost of an initiative petition seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution, according to records obtained by The Independent. […]
Bailey wrote on April 10 that the fiscal note should tally in the billions.
“…because the impact to the State of Missouri is likely to be so drastic but is not reflected in the submissions you received from state and local entities, the fiscal note on which your summary relied is legally deficient,” he wrote. […]
Fitzpatrick pushed back on each Bailey’s claims, writing on April 21 that though he vehemently opposes abortion and would like to be able to say the initiative petition would cost the state billions of dollars, “it wouldn’t.”
“To submit a fiscal note summary that I know contains inaccurate information would violate my duty as State Auditor to produce an accurate fiscal note summary,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
The Sisters, as they call themselves, are the women in the South Carolina State Senate — the only women, three Republicans, one Independent and one Democrat, in a legislature that ranks 47th among states in the proportion of women. As a block, they are refusing to allow the legislature to pass a near-total ban on abortion, despite a Republican supermajority.
Three times in eight months, Republican leaders in the chamber have tried to ban abortion beginning at conception. Three times, the women have resisted, even as fellow Republicans have threatened primary challenges and anti-abortion activists have paraded empty strollers and groups of children heckling the women as “baby killers.”
Before the most recent debate started in April, the anti-abortion group Students for Life dropped off gift bags at the offices of the three Republican women containing plastic spines, infant size but intended to encourage the women to grow one, with notes signed, “the pre-born.”
The women filibustered, taking the gifts to the podium on the Senate floor to declare themselves even more firmly in resistance. “I’ve got one hell of a spine already, but now I’ve got another backup,” Senator Katrina Shealy said, flanked by the two other Republican women, all holding their plastic spines like trophies.
After three days of debate, during which the women spoke for as long as four hours each at a time, Senate leadership acknowledged — again — that it did not have the votes to pass the ban.
North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill into law that allows public school teachers and state government employees to ignore the pronouns their transgender students and colleagues use, the governor’s office announced Monday.
The new law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender. It also prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.
It is effective immediately.
Burgum said in a statement that the new law “largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech … balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers.”
Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., is making it official: He will seek another term, raising the question on Monday of whether Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin will continue exploring a congressional bid, since she had said she would run only if Davis retired.
Davis, 82, will make a public announcement about his 2024 bid for a 15th term in the coming weeks, Davis chief of staff Tumia Romero, who is also his top political adviser, told the Sun-Times.
The impending campaign launch and official announcement seems intended to make it clear beyond a doubt Davis is not going to retire. On Feb. 2, 2023, Davis, filed a statement of 2024 candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.
Conyears-Ervin told the Sun-Times in a statement: “Last month, I announced I was exploring a run for Congress, and that process continues. In the coming months, I will determine how I can best serve the people of the Seventh Congressional District.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is sounding the alarm about a pair of firefighters pension sweeteners poised for legislative approval that, mayoral aides warn, could saddle Chicago taxpayers with $3 billion in additional costs.
The companion bills are co-sponsored by Lightfoot’s legislative nemesis, state Sen. Robert Martwick (D-Chicago) and by Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, the progressive champion who will serve as deputy chief of staff to Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson.
They appear to be on a fast track to reach Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk during the spring session.
One of the bills would increase benefits for Chicago firefighters hired after Jan. 1, 2011, when Illinois created a two-tiered pension system that reduced benefits for newly-hired workers to chip away at the state’s mountain of pension debt.
The second bill would change the final average salary used in calculating a Chicago firefighters pension.
* HB2471 has been placed on the House calendar for a concurrence vote…
Want to help in the effort to ensure every kid in Illinois is able to access healthy school meals? Contact your legislator and ask they support HB2471 and include funding in the budget they'll pass later this month.https://t.co/SN6nQxtFR6https://t.co/A5XhHBkBDk
* Sun-Times Editorial Board publishes an opposite take from the Tribune’s Editorial Board last month. Here’s the CS-T…
Because of Illinois’ unusual geology, many companies throughout the nation’s midsection might want to capture carbon dioxide emissions from their operations and ship the gas to Illinois for sequestration underground.
Before that happens, Illinois should put strong safeguards in place to protect residents, landowners, taxpayers, drinking water and the climate. […]
The Legislature is considering bills to regulate carbon capture, and stakeholders are in the process of negotiation. The Illinois House Energy & Environment Committee held a subject matter meeting on the topic May 1. Any final bill should ensure Illinois is regulating the technology responsibly.
Keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is an important goal. But it needs to be done in a way that is safe for people and the environment.
* HB2 is on Second Reading in the House. Center Square…
A proposed bill moving through the Illinois legislature could legalize the creation of spaces for people to use illegal drugs under medical supervision in an effort to prevent overdoses.
House Bill 2 would allow the Illinois Department of Human Services to create overdose prevention sites, and would connect drug users with treatment programs.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, says fentanyl-laced drugs are killing Illinoisans on a daily basis.
Ford said funds from the opioid settlement with pharmaceutical companies could be used for the program.
Pro-choice group, Planned Parenthood, is pushing for legislation to stop people in Illinois from advertising services from another organization near abortion providers. […]
Director of Advocacy, Rianne Hawkins, for Planned Parenthood gave an example of what happens when advocates from separate groups come near their building.
“Physically, redirecting patients from our health center to their facility,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins explained why she find this deceptive.
“They might advertise that they offer [a] full-range of care, then do not offer that full-range of care”, Hawkins added. […]
The bill has been passed in the Senate and is now the House for legislators to debate on it.
Newly constructed homes in Illinois would be required to include the infrastructure needed for electric vehicle charging stations under a bill now on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
The “Electric Vehicle Charging Act,” passed by the state House Thursday on a party-line 69-38 vote after earlier approval by the Senate, requires that new single-family or small multifamily homes offer at least “one EV-capable parking space for each residential unit that has dedicated parking.” A large multifamily residential building must “have 100% of its total parking spaces EV-capable.” […]
“This is a bill that reflects our future, and future-proofs the future with electric vehicles in this state,” Democratic state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, who represents Chicago’s Lakeview community and was the chief sponsor of this bill, told the Tribune. “This sort of trickles down to my constituents.”
Republican state Rep. Travis Weaver took issue with that reasoning from Feigenholtz, noting that it was led in both chambers by lawmakers who represent parts of Chicago’s North Side and does not suit the interests of all Illinois residents.
“If less than 1% of cars on the road are EVs, and less than 0.1% of cars in my district are EVs, I just don’t see why we’re having people in downstate Illinois pay for this infrastructure,” said Weaver, who represents a swath of central Illinois.
* American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois…
With two weeks remaining in the 2023 Spring legislative session, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois (ACEC Illinois) has launched a grassroots advocacy and digital campaign seeking support for legislative measures that would retain and recruit engineers in an effort to close the skills-gap shortage while protecting Rebuild Illinois.
The organization is seeking support to pass several pieces of legislation including tax credits that will prioritize the development of engineering talent for the workforce, promote engineering innovation, protect engineering companies and ensure Illinois’ road, transportation and physical infrastructure projects continue to be well-funded by the state and completed by the most qualified professionals in the industry. Additional information on the measures can be found at https://illinoisengineeringmatters.com/.
“Illinois needs a competitive edge to recruit and retain engineering talent and make the state the top destination for engineers,” said Kevin Artl, President and CEO of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois. “That is why we are supporting legislation that provides tax credits to attract talent from out of state and encourage professionals to remain in-state to work on the state’s highest priority infrastructure projects.”
ACEC Illinois is calling for support for the passage of legislation such as the State Innovation Tax Credit (HB2423) (SB 2084) that creates a State of Illinois innovation tax credit that would be administered by the Department of Revenue, rather than the IRS, aiding in the state’s goal of attracting more research and development programs to Illinois. This legislation is sponsored by Rep. Marty Moylan and Senator Don DeWitte. ACEC-Illinois is also calling for passage of the Retain Illinois Students of Engineering (RISE) Tax Credit (HB 2425) (SB 2282) which aims to attract and retain engineers as the industry faces a shortage of educated talent. Sponsored by Rep. Marty Moylan and Senator Ram Villivalam, the legislation provides for a tax credit of 10% of the salary paid to recent graduates of Illinois’ engineering schools and 5% of the salary paid to recent graduates of engineering schools outside of Illinois.
Data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and the ACEC Research Institute show the engineering workforce in Illinois is already at full employment with shortages of engineers and land surveyors projected in the near future. ACEC Illinois believes the passage of these bills will give Illinois a competitive edge against every other state in the nation when it comes to recruiting and retaining engineering talent. It will help grow Illinois’ engineering industry sector, help deliver key projects on time and on budget, help resolve engineering workforce shortages; be a huge boost to the economy and improve the state’s bottom line.
Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, who is a member of the unofficial Chicago Police Department caucus and among the most conservative aldermen, said he is “very optimistic” about Johnson’s ability to maintain relationships with the City Council, but that the days of lasting super-majorities held by Chicago mayor’s “are over.”
“The lefty loons are going to be with him, and then you got people that are just against everything and everybody who are going to be against him and then you get some people that will be like, ‘OK, let’s try to work together and, and get some things done,’” he said, pegging the number that will be with Johnson on certain issues at 20.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has forged a compromise to shrink the number of City Council committees from 28 to 20 and replace Finance Committee Chairman Scott Waguespack (32nd) with Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), whose endorsement of Johnson was a turning point of his mayoral campaign.
The plan will also install Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), chair of the City Council’s Democratic-Socialist caucus, as chair of the powerful Zoning Committee. […]
Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Johnson’s transition team, maintained that the mayor-elect’s goal was “not necessarily about stacking committees with our allies, because we think a lot of folks can become our allies.” […]
Instead of increasing the number of City Council committees from 19 to 28, what Johnson is calling the “Unity Plan” would retain the original 19 and create one additional committee: “Police and Fire.” […]
During an interview with the Sun-Times last month, Waguespack warned Johnson to “leave this alone” and make no changes to the City Council reorganization approved on March 30.
Johnson has assigned Ald. Pat Dowell to be the City Council finance chair, bumping Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) from the high-powered position. The move upends Waguespack’s efforts to make the council a fully independent reorganization. Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) will now head the budget committee, according to a list obtained by Playbook. […]
Black aldermen who backed Vallas: Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) and Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) both backed Lightfoot in round one and Vallas in round two, but Johnson surprised and gave both of them committee leadership jobs. Harris will head Rules and Burnett is the vice mayor, a signal that Johnson isn’t holding a grudge.
The list is interesting. Ald. Brian Hopkins, who backed Vallas, will chair the new Public Safety Committee. Sposato will retain the chair on Special Events and Ald. Matt O’Shea keeps Aviation.
“There has been ongoing dialogue and collaboration between veteran City Council members, the mayor-elect, and those conversations have been fruitful and positive,” Ramirez Rosa told Crain’s.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, the chair of the Latino Caucus who was set to take over the Zoning Committee, will instead remain the chair of Committee on Economic, Capital & Technology Development.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, will also be left without a leadership position. A new tourism-focused committee he was set to chair will not exist in the new structure. He is also losing his position as President Pro Tempore to Ald. Sam Nugent, 39th, a moderate who backed Vallas in the election. […]
Ervin, the chair of the Black Caucus and another Johnson supporter, is set to take over for Dowell as chair of the Budget Committee. With Dowell at Finance and Ervin at Budget, Johnson will have two backers atop the two most influential committees, but both aldermen are more moderate than the progressive coalition that put Johnson in office.
Quite the maneuver.
* From a Sun-Times story about the progressive pragmatism of many of Johnson’s early decisions…
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who endorsed Vallas, was equally encouraged.
“He’s trying to strike a balance. He’s clearly determined not to make the mistakes of the previous mayor and alienate people,” Hopkins said.
“Politics is a game of addition. So he’s trying to add to his progressive, Socialist base by appealing to the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party.”
Writing on John Kass’s website, Pat Hickey posits the theory that the moderate Democrat opposing the victorious radical teachers’ union candidate, Brandon Johnson, was undone by his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, a veteran Democrat campaign consultant. He makes a good case that a critical statement put out by the losing candidate, Paul Vallas, on the advice of Trippi, discouraged Republican and conservative voters from turning out for the runoff.
[S]omeone asked Joe Trippi to run the Vallas campaign. Who suggested Joe Trippi, the man who sent the screamer Howard Dean into oblivion? It was someone who wanted to please Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle.
She has no fingerprints on this, but I must believe it to be so. Toni Preckwinkle wields great power and remains a humorless racist with a penchant for political torture. It was Toni Preckwinkle who might have uttered, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome geek (policy wonk)?” One of Toni’s barons must have decided to do the old Thomas Becket on Paul Vallas. The broadsword used to hack Paul Vallas was California Techno-politico Joe Trippi.
Utterly hilarious.
* And for some odd reason, Crain’s gave Matthew Yglesias column space to come up with goofy takes like this…
I think it’s a little weird how invested Chicago is in having plentiful parks, given that the weather is trash most of the time, but on nice days they really are nice parks.
* Crain’s Editorial Board | As Guggenheim exits Chicago, who’s next?: Guggenheim Partners may not be as large as the Citadel market-making and hedge fund empire that pulled up stakes and left Chicago in 2022, the culmination of founder Ken Griffin’s longstanding policy squabble with elected leaders here — most notably his fellow billionaire, Gov. J.B. Pritzker. That said, Guggenheim’s expected exit, first reported by Crain’s on May 1, is almost as great a reputational blow to the city. And Guggenheim’s pending departure should be a wake-up call to Brandon Johnson’s incoming administration — as well as to the governor himself.
* Crain’s | Here’s how the City Council can lead the response to Chicago’s most urgent challenges: Then factor in a major transition in city government, with Chicago breaking in a new mayor, police superintendent and City Hall administration — not to mention 13 new members of the City Council. Add a collection of new police oversight bodies that are still finding their footing, and you get a city that’s not optimally prepared to meet a fraught moment.
* Sun-Times | Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson to meet with elite Democratic donors in North Carolina: In his first trip since being elected, Brandon Johnson, the incoming Chicago mayor, on Tuesday travels to North Carolina to speak to a national network of high-net-worth Democratic donors, the Sun-Times has learned. Johnson, who will take office May 15, will be in Charlotte to speak at a dinner for members of the Democracy Alliance, one of the most elite — and secretive — groups dedicated to bankrolling progressive causes.
* Sun-Times | Lightfoot’s development czar reflects on 4-year fight for balanced growth: “We need a modern approach and the business community, I think, is looking to find its voice in the post-pandemic era of what civic engagement is. There had been a definition of this. I think it was largely philanthropic based.” He said new approaches that align social goals with business opportunities are taking hold, citing investments in Chicago by Discover Financial Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Illinois Tool Works and Northwestern Medicine.
* Tribune | Hope Learning Academy parents push CPS to keep their school open after independent operator announces it will shut down: ‘We’re family’: Hope Institute — the Springfield-based operator of the contract school, which has around 240 students in kindergarten through fifth grade — abruptly opted this spring not to renew its operating agreement with Chicago Public Schools after it expires in June. […] Family members have launched an online petition demanding the school be kept open, signed by around 1,200 people. Several parents and grandparents — including at least one who experienced Chicago’s mass school closures a decade ago as a parent — mobilized to speak out at the April Board of Education meeting.
* Axios | Chicago launches new election sign recycling program: Last month, commissioner Cole Stallard had his staff collect all election signs on public property, separate the plastic from the metal, and recycle it, he tells Axios. Department officials report it diverted 4.47 tons of waste from landfills.
* Block Club | Here’s How You Can Get Tickets To Brandon Johnson’s Inauguration: Tickets are free and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You can reserve them online. The ceremony starts 10:30 a.m. May 15 at Credit Union 1 Arena, UIC Pavilion, 525 S. Racine Ave., according to an email from Johnson’s campaign.
Monday, May 8, 2023 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Support Renewable Energy Credits for Illinois’ public universities to help offset the cost of solar power on campus, help fight climate change and create good-paying union jobs.
* Joe Cahill | The ‘ComEd Four’ trial was an ethical wake-up call for corporate execs: The case shows how corporate ethics can become less than an afterthought under the pressure of financial imperatives that drive ambitious executives. That’s where company directors are supposed to come in; their job is to oversee the conduct of senior executives and step in to head off wrongdoing that can expose the company to criminal liability.
* WBEZ | The ComEd jury foreman says Madigan is a dangerous force in Illinois politics: Through seven weeks on the jury, Goldenberg grew to understand Madigan’s “manipulative” way of wielding power and wringing bribes from one of the state’s biggest employers in exchange for favorable treatment of company legislation. She said Madigan, who was first elected speaker in 1983 and in power until the federal probe involving ComEd led to his ouster in 2021, was “crafty” and embodied a “dangerous force … that we don’t want to have repeated, in my opinion, within the government.”
* WBEZ | What ComEd trial guilty verdicts could mean for Michael Madigan and Illinois politics: Lobbyists rarely face sanctions from the state. Annual reports from the secretary of state’s inspector general’s office documented eight complaints in 2019 for “improper lobbying activity,” eight in 2020 and six in 2021. Most wound up being resolved without fines or other sanctions. The exception was a 2021 sexual harassment case involving a lobbyist for Exelon, ComEd’s corporate parent. In that case, which didn’t come up in the ComEd trial, the state Executive Ethics Commission imposed $6,000 in fines against the lobbyist and suspended his lobbyist registration. Those steps came after he had been fired by Exelon.
* Daily Herald | ComEd convictions send message to Springfield, but are Democratic leaders listening?: So, here we are again. In a state where, by one count, more than 2,100 Illinois public officials have gone to federal prison, four private citizens appear headed for that fate, apparently for determining that in order to get what you want from this state’s government, you play what Mike McClain, a contract lobbyist for ComEd and one of the four defendants convicted, called in a wiretapped conversation a “tier one” game of bribery and favors.
* SJ-R | Following ‘Com-Ed’ trial, lobbying and ethics reform the talk of the Capitol: Chances of reform before the session adjournment were slim at best Reform for Illinois executive director Alisa Kaplan told The State Journal-Register on Friday. The 2021 omnibus bill was “woefully inadequate,” she said, with special attention given towards the “revolving door” pattern where former legislators return to the Capitol as lobbyists within a short window of time.
* Sun-Times | Judge sets sentencing dates for ComEd conspirators: On Friday, a federal judge set McClain’s sentencing for Jan. 11, making him the first of the ComEd defendants to be sentenced. Pramaggiore’s sentencing is set for Jan. 16, Hooker’s Jan. 25 and Doherty’s Jan. 30.
* The Tribune takes a look at the ever-escalating costs of funding health care for undocumented immigrants…
During a Wednesday budget hearing for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which administers the health care coverage for immigrants, state Sen. Chapin Rose, a Republican from Mahomet, said the projected overrun in the program next year “is a significant hit because of the other choices that are now going to have to be made by the General Assembly on how to fill this $880 million gap.”
The program also is running over budget in the current year, with the total tab now expected to be about $690 million, more than three times what was budgeted, according to the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
However, the department expects to be able to absorb the cost due to lower-than-expected spending in other areas, Ben Winick, the department’s chief of staff, told a Senate committee Wednesday.
Rose said the projected current year cost overrun would be enough to cover increased funding for services for intellectually and developmentally disabled residents and put the state in compliance with a federal consent decree. Community service providers have repeatedly requested such funding in recent years, but Democrats have said the state can’t afford it.
The governor’s office wouldn’t say how it proposes to address the exploding costs of the immigrant health care program, or whether options such as closing enrollment in the program or raising taxes to pay for it are on the table.
What a mess.
* And Brenden Moore does a good job laying out many of the budget items demanded by various folks…
Progressives, for instance, have been pushing for the creation of a $700 child tax credit for low- and middle-income families.
The Latino Caucus has been pushing for the expansion of a program that provides health care to non-citizen adults who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid benefits. The program is currently for those who are 42 or older, but some want to make anyone over the age of 18.
Advocates for those with developmental disabilities are pushing for a pay increase for professionals who work with those individuals in community-based settings.
Healthcare providers and industry advocates are pushing for an increase hospital Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Local officials have been calling for a gradual restoration of the Local Government Distributive Fund, which is the share of the state’s income tax that goes towards municipalities, to 10%.
“I know we had these flush years from a fiscal perspective. But from a community perspective, these have been lean years, these have been really difficult years and there’s so much trauma in our communities.”
* Related…
* Illinois’ government has spent billions in federal pandemic aid. What do some programs do when the money runs out?: Some programs started by the state with federal aid during the pandemic could be allowed to continue with funding in the next state budget. One of them involves grants from the Department of Human Services that were intended to help child-care businesses stay open, especially for parents considered essential workers during the pandemic. The grants also created incentives for child-care workers to stay in the industry. “We’ve got folks leaving for higher-paying jobs which have less education requirements, and honestly, less hours,” said Shauna Ejeh, senior vice president of programs for Illinois Action for Children. “And so we know that we’ve got to up our wages and benefits … if we want to attract and retain quality childcare workers, teacher’s assistants, classroom staff — everything from cooks to bus drivers.”
During the last decade, Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, has moved more than 25,000 homeless people directly into apartments and houses. The overwhelming majority of them have remained housed after two years. The number of people deemed homeless in the Houston region has been cut by 63 percent since 2011, according to the latest numbers from local officials. Even judging by the more modest metrics registered in a 2020 federal report, Houston did more than twice as well as the rest of the country at reducing homelessness over the previous decade. Ten years ago, homeless veterans, one of the categories that the federal government tracks, waited 720 days and had to navigate 76 bureaucratic steps to get from the street into permanent housing with support from social service counselors. Today, a streamlined process means the wait for housing is 32 days.
Houston has gotten this far by teaming with county agencies and persuading scores of local service providers, corporations and charitable nonprofits — organizations that often bicker and compete with one another — to row in unison. Together, they’ve gone all in on “housing first,” a practice, supported by decades of research, that moves the most vulnerable people straight from the streets into apartments, not into shelters, and without first requiring them to wean themselves off drugs or complete a 12-step program or find God or a job.
There are addiction recovery and religious conversion programs that succeed in getting people off the street. But housing first involves a different logic: When you’re drowning, it doesn’t help if your rescuer insists you learn to swim before returning you to shore. You can address your issues once you’re on land. Or not. Either way, you join the wider population of people battling demons behind closed doors.
Success, of course, relies on strong and coordinated leadership, which the City of Chicago and other smaller cities across the state simply have not had on this topic, except for one area.
* The Rockford area (Winnebago & Boone Counties) pulled it off…
As unemployment rates rose, so did homelessness. In 2014, roughly 700 of the city’s 147,000 residents were unhoused.
Rockford has been working to reverse that trend since partnering with Community Solutions, a New York City nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness through a housing-first approach, in 2015. As a result, in 2017 Rockford became the first city in the nation to reach functional zero, effectively ending homelessness, for two of the city’s homeless populations: veterans and the chronically homeless.
Reaching functional zero homelessness doesn’t mean that no one in Rockford experiences homelessness. But it does mean that there are more people getting housed than there are people becoming homeless. And that when homelessness does occur, it’s rare and brief.
Developed in large part by the social scientist Sam Tsemberis and the longtime federal administrator Philip Mangano, Housing First has been tried in a growing number of American cities. It still requires cooperative landlords and often employs case managers and other Continuum of Care strategies, but the housing itself comes before anything else. Some of the communities that have tried it have reported remarkable results. Utah County, which includes the city of Provo, has reported that 87 percent of Housing First clients were maintaining their housing for at least a year and that chronic homelessness had declined by 50 percent over several years.
A recent study found that Housing First programs decreased homelessness by 88% and improved housing stability by 41%, compared to Treatment First programs.
Jack Tsai, campus dean and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, writing in the American Journal of Public Health in 2020 stated, “Studies have found that Housing First results in greater improvements in housing outcomes for homeless adults in North America. Housing First may lead to greater reductions in inpatient and emergency health care services but may have limited effects on clinical and social outcomes.” […]
[Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said] “We know that Housing First is not a panacea. Housing First was designed to end homelessness at the individual level — not to solve the structural causes of homelessness, such as the severe lack of affordable housing, ongoing impacts of structural racism, and lack of access to mental health care and drug and alcohol treatment on demand. Blaming Housing First for the ongoing homelessness crisis is like blaming cancer treatments for cancer. It doesn’t cure every person, and we have much more to learn, but we are saving lives on a daily basis.”
Results: Twenty-six studies in the United States and Canada met inclusion criteria. Compared with Treatment First, Housing First programs decreased homelessness by 88% and improved housing stability by 41%. For clients living with HIV infection, Housing First programs reduced homelessness by 37%, viral load by 22%, depression by 13%, emergency departments use by 41%, hospitalization by 36%, and mortality by 37%.
Conclusions: Housing First programs improved housing stability and reduced homelessness more effectively than Treatment First programs. In addition, Housing First programs showed health benefits and reduced health services use. Health care systems that serve homeless patients may promote their health and well-being by linking them with effective housing services.
You cannot solve the homeless problem until you put people into housing. That won’t end the problem, but it has to be done first. Temporary shelter beds are barely even a bandaid, let alone a solution.
The Illinois Senate debated and passed several bills last Thursday dealing with what the news media likes to call “culture war” issues.
Perhaps the least controversial (there was almost no debate) was House Bill 1591, which deletes some anti-miscegenation laws still on the books since 1915. Even so, nine Republicans voted against the bill.
A bill pushed by the American Civil Liberties Union to amend the state’s Children and Family Services Act, House Bill 1596, also attracted GOP ire. The bill is an attempt to address an auditor general’s report about how the Department of Children and Family Services was “failing to meet the needs of the growing number of LGBTQ+ youth under their care.” So, phrases like “he or she” was replaced with “minor” or “the child,” etc.
In language addressing what happens when mothers relinquish their children or neglect or abuse them, the word “mother” was replaced with the word “person,” although “mother” was left intact in a definition of the term “parent.”
A couple of Republican women said they were insulted by the word change. “I earned the right to be called mother,” said Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, adding that she was “offended” the bill was brought to the floor shortly before Mother’s Day, even though most of the language changes were about people who aren’t exactly model parents. The opposition appeared to have an impact because a handful of Democrats took a walk and the bill passed 36-19.
Then came House Bill 2350, which changed some state insurance code language to make sure a small number of people receive Pap smears and prostate cancer screening. The way the current law mandates insurance coverage seems to exclude those who no longer identify with their birth gender. So, the bill changes some words in the statute to make sure nobody is left out of what can be life-saving coverage.
Things got a bit heated. Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, declared the Senate was “wasting our time” on the legislation while good Republican bills were “languishing” in the chamber’s Assignments Committee, which is where bills that aren’t voted on by certain deadlines are sent to die. She also called the bill “bizarre.”
“Biological males cannot get Pap smears! It’s not possible!” thundered Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport.
Well, yeah. Nobody, including the bill sponsors, said they could.
Chesney then went even further by spreading a rumor during debate that has been debunked about a kabillion times.
“This is why your kids are dressing up as furries and want kitty litter in the bathrooms!” Chesney declared about the legislation. The kitty litter thing is a completely fabricated far-right claim that some schools are being forced to put kitty litter in their restrooms to accommodate students. It’s utter nonsense.
Eventually, Sen. Rob Martwick, D-Chicago, had heard enough. “The idea that you would make a stand against simply ensuring that the law provides that human beings, human beings can get life-saving cancer screenings because you have some ideological opposition to the lifestyle that they chose is really nothing short of cruel,” Martwick said. The bill passed 37-17.
House Bill 2389 was called a bit later. It’s an initiative of Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to prevent police from using the excuse of things like an air freshener or parking pass hanging from a driver’s rearview mirror as a pretext to pull drivers over.
Black and Brown drivers have complained for years that police single them out for enforcement of a law that few people even know exist. But you’d have thought the sponsoring Democrats were trying to enable horrific dangers the way the opposition reacted. Drivers with no front view at all could run down kids near schools if this bill passed, one warned.
Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, eventually rose to point out that the extreme scenarios outlined by the Republicans were all addressed in the state’s reckless driving statute. “This is a good bill,” Cunningham, a former Cook County Sheriff employee, said. The bill passed 41-11.
An anti-bullying bill, House Bill 3425, was debated near the end of a long day. The proposal would require school officials to notify parents of alleged bullying incidents involving their children within 24 hours after the officials learn of the allegations.
Sen. Seth Lewis, R-Bartlett, warned that the legislation could exacerbate the state’s growing difficulties with retaining and recruiting school administrators. Lewis wound up voting “No” along with four GOP colleagues. But several Republicans voted for it, and it passed 50-5.
It was quite a day.
* Related…
* Measure barring police from stopping motorists solely for having small items dangling from rearview mirrors heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “There is absolutely no data to support that pulling people over for an air freshener or a rosary hanging from their rearview mirror reduces violent crime or prevents accidents,” Giannoulias said. “Amending the current law will not jeopardize public safety; instead, it will result in greater equity on the road and improve relationships between police and community by eliminating pretextual traffic stops that disproportionately affect people of color.”
* Sun-Times | Mayor-elect Johnson forges ‘Unity Plan’ to reorganize the new City Council: Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has forged a compromise to shrink the number of City Council committees from 28 to 20 and replace Finance Committee Chairman Scott Waguespack (32nd) with Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), whose endorsement of Johnson was a turning point of his mayoral campaign. The plan will also install Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), chair of the City Council’s Democratic-Socialist caucus, as chair of the powerful Zoning Committee. … The plan shrinks the number of Council panels from 28 to 20. … “There was a lot of push back on the 28 committees. A lot of push back on the sustainability and viability of that broad of a committee structure. When it was clear to everybody involved that the committee structure had to be reduced, it’s a game of musical chairs, unfortunately,” said a source familiar with the negotiations. [Adding: Committee chairs are here.]
* WBEZ | Illinois isn’t reimbursing allegedly stolen SNAP benefits: Torres discovered that someone allegedly spent more than $3,000 of her food benefits at a small corner store she says she’s never been to about four miles from her home in South Lawndale on the West Side. […] But in Illinois, advocates that include Legal Council for Health Justice and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law in Chicago say Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration has not agreed to replace stolen funds. And now SNAP recipients are also losing a bump in benefits they received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
* Tribune | An Illinois law required schools to test water for lead. They found it all over the state.: According to a Tribune analysis of state data, more than 1,800 of the roughly 2,100 public schools that submitted test results identified some amount of lead in their drinking water. That includes more than 1,350 schools where at least one water sample had lead levels exceeding 5 parts per billion, the threshold where parental notification is required.
* Tribune | Did your Illinois public school find lead in its water? Look up results here: If a district found a lead level above 5 parts per billion at any fixture, the law required officials to notify parents but didn’t mandate that schools work to reduce lead. To find out what public schools did after finding high lead levels, the Tribune spoke with officials, sent surveys or filed records requests to those districts. The state data for the most part does not include results of voluntary retesting.
* ABC Chicago | Chicago volunteers plead for resources to handle migrant influx as Title 42 set to expire this week: For some migrant families who have arrived in Chicago, their front yard is the entrance to 8th District Police Station. The only place they have to sleep is the station’s lobby floor. “Some of these families have traveled for over a year to get here,” said 8th District Police Response Team lead volunteer coordinator Erika Villegas. “By foot, through jungles, through trains, through so much trauma.”
* WGN | Teamsters oust suburban board after more than $1M in questionable expenses: A letter sent by Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien to local members said an audit found Local 731’s board gave itself nearly $304,000 in bonuses over five years without the required approval of membership. Auditors also questioned nearly $66,000 in spending they said was excessive or unrelated to union business. It includes two visits to Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse that racked up a total tab of $37,000, including nearly $16,000 in alcohol. The audit also questioned $924,000 in donations and contributions the union made in recent years without membership approval.
* Tribune | Aurora City Council considers civility pledge:The pledge says: “In the interest of civility, I pledge to promote civility by listening, being respectful of others, acknowledging that we are all striving to support and improve our community and understanding that we each may have different ideas for achieving that objective.”
* Tribune | Evanston’s groundbreaking reparations plan was stumbling. A brother and sister pushed it forward.: Last year, Kenneth and Shelia, 75, were given the option to become first-time homeowners after they were picked as two of the first 16 Evanstonians to each receive $25,000 in what’s considered the first attempt by a U.S. city to pay reparations to its Black residents. But when their randomly assigned numbers were plucked from a bingo cage on that momentous January day, the Widemans inadvertently exposed a flaw in the fledgling program.
* Sun-Times | Judge sets sentencing dates for ComEd conspirators: On Friday, a federal judge set McClain’s sentencing for Jan. 11, making him the first of the ComEd defendants to be sentenced. Pramaggiore’s sentencing is set for Jan. 16, Hooker’s Jan. 25 and Doherty’s Jan. 30.
* The Intelligencer | Constitution Day bill heads to Pritzker: “Currently, Constitution Day is recognized federally but not by our state and so this legislation ensures that our schools are honoring this commemorative holiday and providing our students with an educational opportunity to learn more about their fundamental rights and our government,” said Harriss.
* Daily Herald | Where did the Arlington Park regulars go? Many ended up at a Prospect Heights OTB: But for a group of local horseplayers, the back patio at a Prospect Heights sports bar/OTB has become their regular meeting spot since the closure of Arlington Park in 2021. It’s where they still get together to play the ponies, share memories, and debate all that went wrong and what could have happened differently to keep their favorite racetrack open.
* Fox 2 | Five victims identified from deadly dust storm crashes in Illinois: The victims identified Saturday include… Joseph Bates, 73, of Crystal Lake, Illinois; Donna Bates, 71, of Crystal Lake, Illinois; Earl LeGrand, 64, of Florissant, Missouri; Michael Zinchuk, 55, of Champaign, Illinois; Amy Zinchuk, 54, of Champaign, Illinois
The Illinois Senate and House Democratic caucuses today released a draft Chicago Elected School Board District map for the public to review ahead of hearings to gather feedback and consider potential changes.
Click here or here if you’re interested in seeing the maps.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson released the following statement on the new arrival of asylum-seekers in Chicago:
“The truth of the matter is that we have governors around the border who have demonstrated they are not open to collaborating, and that of course is a disappointment. I’m prepared to have conversations with everyone — particularly those who have used this as a weapon against cities — because asylum seekers are experiencing extremely difficult conditions, both emotionally and physically.
“What we will do day one is make sure there is a real effort to coordinate our resources at the federal, state, county and city levels. We are already in the process of developing the infrastructure for that type of coordination, but also for engaging in a real community process that allows for our response to not just meet the need, but include all stakeholders in solving what is ultimately a crisis that was engineered by outside forces.
“I’m going to work collaboratively with the people of Chicago and alderpersons who represent areas where we can be supportive for asylum seekers to make sure every community, and every person in it, is protected. Many communities have for too long been denied basic amenities and resources that could help strengthen them, but the stronger our communities are, the better position we are in to support both newcomers, and current residents and families.”
I would like to share with you a quote by Abby Wambach, because this is our vision for the next four years. “I never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.” The Mayor cannot score a goal, without getting a pass or many passes from the other members of the team that are the other twelve elected officials. We are team Springfield, we are going to make many goals, together. Our Team that the citizens have elected are going to take our passions and turn them into actions for a better Springfield.
A bill that would make it easier to move tens of thousands of effectively abandoned residential lots back onto the tax rolls and into productive use has picked up some late-session momentum in Springfield, clearing a House committee this morning.
Under the proposal pushed by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and The Chicago Community Trust, an estimated 50,000 tax-delinquent properties that have not been claimed by anyone, most of them residential lots on the South and West sides, could pass into county control in three years or shortly thereafter, rather than going four, five, six years or longer as a neighborhood blight.
The county still would have to put the delinquent property up for sale once in its annual scavenger sale and give the owner an opportunity to pay off the tax debt. But after one attempt at a sale, the county could acquire the properties, arranging for resale or passing them on to the Cook County Land Bank Authority or Chicago and other municipalities that seek redevelopment of largely empty areas.
The bill would apply statewide, says sponsoring state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, who was able to get the bill through the House Revenue Committee by an 11-6 vote. But the major impact would be in Cook County, which has had a persistent problem with abandoned properties in certain neighborhoods for decades. “We need to do something different,” Buckner said.
* Comptroller Mendoza…
Democratic and Republican state senators unanimously approved Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza’s Act-of-Duty bill to cover Chicago first responders severely stricken by COVID-19 in the days before vaccines were available.
The bill, which was unanimously approved by the state House of Representatives last month, now goes to Gov. Pritzker for his signature.
“My brother and all his fellow officers targeted by the city’s unfair policy are so grateful for today’s vote by the state Senate. We can’t say ‘Thank You!’ enough to Senators Cunningham, Senator Fowler, Representative Hoffman, Speaker Welch and all the legislators who fought for this,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
Comptroller Mendoza’s brother, Chicago Police Det. Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, was the first COVID disability case to go before the city’s police disability board, which adopted a policy of not giving disability pensions to officers disabled by COVID.
“I watched in disbelief as the board’s majority inexplicably ruled against their own doctor’s findings and gave my brother only an Ordinary Disability benefit instead of a Duty Disability benefit, which means he’d only get 50% of his salary for five years and no health care insurance,” Comptroller Mendoza said.
* Sen. Preston…
State Senator Willie Preston passed a measure to remove all references to the death penalty in criminal statutes.
“The language we use influences attitudes and behavior,” said Preston (D-Chicago). “It’s important that we clean up the language used in our laws to avoid creating unconscious biases.”
HB 3762 makes improvements to the language used in certain criminal laws by removing the use of all references to the death penalty. Capital punishment has been abolished in the Illinois since 2011. Removing references that refer to death sentencing and the type of drugs that can be administered to cause death constitutes a vital component of the Illinois culture to avoid unintentional predispositions when determining sentencing for defendants.
“How we choose to write and speak on laws plays a big role in how others see the law,” said Preston. “We may perceive something to be harmless, when in reality we are unknowingly influencing the world around us. These improvements help mitigate that.”
Turnout in last year’s midterm elections fell from a century-high point of 50 percent in 2018 to 46.6 percent in 2022, and census data released Tuesday suggest the drop was concentrated among Black voters, younger voters and college graduates.
Black voter turnout dropped by nearly 10 percentage points, from 51.7 percent in 2018 to 42 percent in 2022, according to a Washington Post analysis of the Census Bureau’s turnout survey. White voter turnout slipped by only 1.5 points to 53.4 percent. The 11-point turnout gap between White and Black voters is the largest in any presidential or midterm election since at least 2000.
* Isabel’s afternoon roundup…
* Commerical-News | Marron calls for Project Success funding : State Rep. Mike Marron has called on the Illinois State Board of Education and Gov. JB Pritzker’s office to fix a funding error that resulted in cuts made to Project Success of Vermilion County. Funding for one-third of the nonprofit organization’s after school enrichment programs has disappeared, prompting them to make the decision to cease programming at six sites in Westville, Georgetown and Oakwood come August.
* Daily Herald | Naperville gun shop owner gives city until Monday to start negotiating end to gun sale ban: Naperville officials have declined to comment on the offer, but — with the state law in place — Bevis and his lawyers believe the Naperville law is redundant and unnecessary. “Now (Naperville) can get out of the ordinance even easier,” Bevis said after Thursday’s court ruling was announced. “This might entice them to act quicker.”
* Tribune | Brandon Johnson ran a pro-worker, tax-the-‘ultra-rich’ campaign. Can he and business leaders find common ground?: Johnson during his campaign proposed hiking a tax on hotels, reinstituting a city head tax, tripling the tax on high-end real estate transactions, taxing jet fuel and levying tolls on securities trading. Business leaders also expressed concern about Johnson’s positions on policing following two rounds of civil unrest that ended in wide-ranging theft and property destruction that also diminished the city’s downtown and other commercial corridors.
* Illinois Answers Project | Explained: Chicago’s Migrant Crisis: Last week the city was caught flat-footed when migrants began arriving at O’Hare International Airport. Those arriving were Venezuelan migrants and given a one-way ticket from Texas. About 40 people, mostly young women and children slept outside a homelessness center inside the airport, Block Club Chicago reported.
* Daily Herald | What’s behind the ‘epidemic’ of drivers recklessly fleeing from police?: Instances of drivers recklessly fleeing from police have reached “epidemic” levels, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin says. And the stats back him up. Last year, his office prosecuted 82 cases of aggravated fleeing and eluding, up from 54 in 2021 and 51 in 2020. With 14 cases in April alone this year, the office is on pace to far exceed last year’s total.
* Sun-Times | Gun assault rates for kids doubled in Chicago, 3 other big cities during COVID pandemic, even worse for Black children, study finds: The analysis led by Boston University’s Jonathan Jay, who studies urban health, included a review of gun assaults between mid-March 2020 and December 2021 in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York. It found that Black children were 100 times as likely as white children to be victims of fatal and nonfatal shootings. Pre-pandemic, they were 27 times as likely. The researchers excluded accidental shootings and incidents of self-harm.
* WCIA | Former Sangamon. Co police chief accused of possessing child pornography: An arrest warrant and charging documents made available by the State’s Attorney’s Office show that James Hillyer is charged with eight counts of possessing child pornography, five counts of official misconduct, and one count of grooming. State’s Attorney Dan Wright said Hillyer turned himself in on Thursday following the warrant being issued; he remains in custody at the Sangamon County Jail on a $150,000 bond.
* CBS Chicago | Former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk speaks publicly for first time in more than five years: Kirk served only one term – he lost a bid for reelection in 2016 to Democrat Tammy Duckworth. And in January 2012 – just over a year into that one term – Kirk suffered a stroke. […] “I had somewhat of a speech impediment after the stroke. The toughest thing to do is to keep the attention of a senator - they have strong ADD,” Kirk said. “The thing I most insisted on, that I could speak fast enough to keep their attention.”
* Crain’s | CTA is getting $200 million from the feds for new train cars: “This is a big win for the city of Chicago,” said U.S. Rep. Michael Quigley, the ranking Democrat on the transportation, housing and urban development subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. “This is part of why I wanted to be on this committee, to make a difference.”
* Media Matters | Right-wing conspiracy theories drive GOP-led states to pull out of important interstate voter data-sharing effort: In January 2022, The Gateway Pundit launched a series of articles accusing the Electronic Registration Information Center of being a George Soros-funded “left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up.” Other right-wing outlets followed suit, creating new narratives to frame a once-mundane data-sharing effort as a bad actor. Since this misinformation campaign began, six states have pulled out of ERIC, with Republican elected officials echoing theories promulgated by right-wing media. Former President Donald Trump also chimed in, posting on Truth Social that GOP-led states should “immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up.”
CSL Behring is in the early phases of a 1.8 million-square-foot expansion which will easily require an investment far north of $1 billion.
Although employment projections have not been publicized yet, there is speculation it could come close to doubling the existing 1,600-member workforce.
The Australian-based pharmaceutical company has not asked for a penny of financial assistance or tax breaks from any governmental body.
It has made one seemingly simple request. This request was made 16 months ago, and as of this week, it still has not been satisfied.
CSL wants a traffic light put at its pending new entrance at the intersection at the Lowe’s Hardware store. The company has told the Illinois Department of Transportation it will pay for the stoplight.
Incredibly, a state thirsting for manufacturing development has yet to OK what seems to be a simple request. […]
Abell said CSL is making the largest investment anywhere in the state and perhaps beyond and yet, their request cannot be resolved.
“We can’t get a three-way light to become a four-way light.” […]
Kankakee County Board Chairman Andy Wheeler said he’s been calling IDOT in Springfield, local state political leaders and anyone else he can think of to get the situation rectified.
I kinda lost my cool when I read that story. I’m from that part of the world. They’ve had hard times since the 1980s, when most of the good jobs left. It just about broke me to see how poorly that invaluable company was being treated.
Today, State Representative Lindsay Parkhurst (R – Kankakee) is excited to announce major road and bridge projects for the 79th District stemming from the Rebuild Illinois Capital Plan. […]
The $8.5 million project to improve the efficiency at the intersection of Route 50 and Armour Road has been included in the Capital Plan. … The project includes adding turn lanes, removing the 4-way stop sign at CSL Behring and replacing it with a stoplight, and coordinating stoplights on Armour Road and Route 50 to increase the efficiency of the flow of traffic. The first part of this project is slated for 2020.
I posted the complete press release on the blog at the time and the resulting reader comments actually generated a news story in Kankakee. Heh.
* Anyway, 65 months after CSL Behring first requested a four-way traffic light, 49 months after I first wrote about it and 45 months since the groundbreaking, IDOT is starting an ambitious project. Press release…
Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) were joined today by local officials and community leaders to announce the start of improvements to the intersection of Illinois 50 and Armour Road, a project that will reduce congestion and enhance safety while promoting economic development and job growth. Made possible by Gov. Pritzker’s historic, bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital program, the $13.8 million project is the final step to improving traffic flow in a busy area surrounded by retail, lodging, and CSL Behring, Kankakee County’s largest employer.
“Revitalizing communities, redesigning transit systems — these are the kinds of changes that I’m proud to support — here and all across the state. And it’s the kind of change that sits at the heart and soul of what Rebuild Illinois is all about,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This project has a ripple effect that spreads throughout the county, meeting community needs on many levels. It makes Bradley-Bourbonnais a more welcoming place for Kankakee’s largest manufacturing employer, while also creating new construction jobs and investing money back into local business.”
The project consists of widening and resurfacing the intersection of Illinois 50 and Armour Road with additional dedicated turn lanes. Improvements also include new storm sewers, an updated biking and walking path, sidewalks, new curbs and gutters, improved lighting, modernized traffic signals, and landscaping. The project will improve access from Armour Road to Pharmaceutical Drive/Arthur Burch Drive, an access point for the CSL Behring factory on the intersection’s southwest corner.
The project will eliminate the need for a four-way stop at one of the entrances to CSL Behring’s Bradley facility, which employs more than 1,600 people and recently underwent a $1 billion expansion. The work also removes a bottleneck for the approximately 16,900 motorists who use Armour Road and the 24,000 drivers on Illinois 50 each day. […]
Gov. Pritzker visited the CSL Behring plant in 2019 five months after being elected, pledging his support to help expedite plans to build a new plant main entrance on Illinois 50 and advance improvements to the intersection with Armour Road that are starting this spring. With the plant’s main entrance open and intersection work progressing, chronic backups in the area have diminished, improving traffic flow and safety surrounding a major state employer and tech jobs creator.
* The locals appear to be happy…
On Friday, House Assistant Minority Leader Jackie Haas (R-Kankakee) joined Governor JB Pritzker and other community leaders to launch the reconstruction of the Illinois 50 and Armour Road intersection. This project, funded through the Rebuild Illinois program, will widen and resurface this important intersection in the village of Bradley.
“This is a terrific day to launch such an important infrastructure project for the 79th District and Kankakee River Valley region,” said Leader Haas. “By making this critical intersection easier and safer to navigate, we will help connect constituents and visitors alike to economic engines of our communities in Kankakee County. I urge all traveling in the area during this construction period to be mindful of road workers and their safety, as well as the safety of other drivers.”
In Missouri, the statewide Chamber of Commerce identified the “Top Job Killing Legislation” filed in 2023. Every single bill was a Republican bill. Every. Single. One.
The GOP is not the party of economic growth, and they haven’t been for a long time.
In March, a Texas man, Marcus Silva, sued three women for $1 million each after they helped his ex-wife obtain an abortion last summer using pills. The suit alleged that the termination of the pregnancy qualified as wrongful death under state law, and he presented text messages between his ex-wife and the women as evidence.
In the post-Roe era, the suit horrified abortion-rights advocates and galvanized opponents. Both sides view it as a test case aimed at discouraging anyone from helping women access abortion in states where the procedure is now banned or severely restricted.
This week, two of the women, Jackie Noyola and Amy Carpenter, filed their response in court: They are countersuing Mr. Silva for invasion of privacy in addition to offering a number of defenses to his claims. Ms. Noyola and Ms. Carpenter, who are close friends of Brittni Silva, Mr. Silva’s ex-wife, said he searched her phone without her consent and read their private messages. […]
The suit asserts that under that state law, the rights of a fetus are equivalent to those of an adult. If Mr. Mitchell’s argument succeeds, it would be a legal victory for the concept of fetal personhood — a goal of many abortion opponents.
The Florida legislature passed a bill Thursday that will let the state take transgender minors away from their families if they are receiving gender-affirming care.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 26–13, mainly along party lines, and the House shortly after by a vote of 83–28, again along party lines. The measure now goes to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis, who has previously expressed support for it and will likely sign it into law.
If he signs it into law, the measure will allow the state to take custody of a child if they have been “subjected to or [are] threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care, which includes puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Florida courts could modify custody agreements from a different state if the minor is likely to receive gender-affirming care in that second state. The text refers to gender-affirming care as “sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures” and qualifies this care as a form of “physical harm.”
Medical facilities would have to give the state Department of Health a signed attestation that they neither provide gender-affirming care to any patients under the age of 18 nor refer people to providers that do. Their medical license renewal is contingent upon sending in this attestation.
North Carolina hastily approved legislation on Thursday that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, setting the stage for a likely test of the Republican Party’s new, but slim, supermajority.
After an emotional, five-hour debate, the Senate, by a vote of 29-20, approved a ban the House had already passed the night before.
The bill now goes to the state’s Democratic governor, who has called it “extreme,” and said he would veto it. He has 10 days to act.
But the legislature has the potential to override his veto if Republicans can keep their party united to muster enough votes.
Tammy Murphy, the first lady of New Jersey, has made infant and maternal health her signature cause during her husband’s tenure as governor. She led the push for free nurse visits for newborns and expanded access to doulas during labor, with a goal of improving New Jersey’s abysmal pregnancy-related death rates.
But a gender-discrimination lawsuit, filed by four female troopers against the State Police, accuses Ms. Murphy of failing to practice what she has so often preached.
The suit claims that Ms. Murphy refused to permit a State Police trooper assigned to protect her to use a carriage house at the family’s riverside estate in Middletown, N.J., to pump breast milk during breaks.
The first lady told the woman’s supervisor, who runs the State Police unit that guards Gov. Philip D. Murphy and his family, that “it was not encouraged because of optics by guests who may be on the premises,” the lawsuit states.
Indiana’s governor on Thursday signed a bill that will require schools to notify a parent if a student requests a name or pronoun change at school, one of the final bills approved in a legislative session that had targeted LGBTQ+ people in the state, especially students.
Critics worry the law could out transgender children to their families and erode trust between students and teachers while supporters have contested the legislation keeps parents empowered and informed about their children when at school.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s approval of the legislation comes in a year when GOP-led legislatures around the country are seeking to curb LGBTQ+ rights, specifically targeting trans people’s participation in sports, workplaces and schools, as well as their access to health care.
Recently, Florida Republicans on Wednesday also approved a bill that would prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don’t correspond to someone’s sex, a bill Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign into law. Meanwhile, at least 16 states, including Indiana,have banned or restricted access to gender-affirming care such as hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries.
House Bill 3413 would streamline the process in which Illinois returns Native American remains and materials to their communities. The bill passed unanimously in the House in March and an amended version cleared a Senate committee unanimously this week, sending it to the full Senate for consideration. […]
For 30 years, the state museum has resisted returning remains and materials back to their original communities, according to a ProPublica investigation. Despite the 1990 passage of the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the state museum still maintains one of the largest collections of Native American remains in the country.
That law provides a process for federal agencies and museums receiving federal funds to repatriate or transfer their collections to lineal descendants or tribes. As of 2022, the Illinois State Museum had only returned 2 percent of the 7,700 remains it reported to the U.S. government, or just 156 individuals. […]
The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, a federally recognized Native American tribe in Kansas with historic ties to Illinois, advocated in favor of the bill.
* HB2203 was re-referred to the House Rules Committee back in March. The deadline hasn’t changed and the sponsor lost one of his co-sponsors, Rep. Debbie Meyers-Martin. From the Sun-Times…
The five biggest auto insurers in Illinois have raised automobile insurance rates a whopping $527 million since January, an analysis by two consumer groups shows. […]
Besides being able to raise rates as they like, only needing to notify state officials of their plans, Illinois insurers can consider non-driving factors in setting those rates — such as gender, occupation and whether a person rents or owns a home. […]
Now, state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, has introduced legislation to address those issues and crack down on insurers. Guzzardi’s bill would:
-Require automobile insurers to get prior state approval for rate hikes.
-Ban “excessive” insurance increases.
-Prohibit using gender, marital status, age, occupation, schooling, home ownership, wealth, credit scores or a customer’s past insurance company relationships in setting car insurance rates.
Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) said his bill could expand education and job training credits for incarcerated people to become eligible for mandatory supervised release sooner. The proposal would also update state law regarding drug testing prior to parole hearings, as drug tests would only be required if there is reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use.
“There are requirements that the Department of Corrections makes certain disclosures to participants so they know what their goals are and what they need to do to successfully complete their term under MSR,” Cunningham said Thursday.
Senate Bill 423 states that parole officers would be required to complete quarterly reports for the Department of Corrections. However, AFSCME leaders told Cunningham they are currently opposed to that idea. […]
Senate Bill 423 passed unanimously out of the Senate Special Committee on Criminal Law & Public Safety. The legislation now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.
Republican lawmakers from both chambers hosted separate news conferences Thursday and outlined what they hope to accomplish before the end of the session, despite being in the minority. […]
State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said one of the ways to do this is by addressing the high cost of energy.
“Senate Bill 2200, that would get rebates into the pockets of the families that need them the most,” Plummer said. “To be clear, this policy has already passed. It’s there. All we have to do is fund it. We can fund it right now. We are spending money on many other things. We can fund Illinois families that are struggling under egregious energy bills that the General Assembly caused.” […]
State Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, said he has a measure related to DCFS he hopes to pass.
“I put forth a bill to require DCFS to institute a caseload tracking system with yearly reports to the General Assembly as to the ongoing case files, operation of the caseload management system itself, the ratio of active files to personnel, and how appropriations can be structured to incentivize caseload management,” Reick said.
A bill supported by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias passed out of the Senate Thursday that would change the law so police can’t pull someone over solely for having something hang on a rearview mirror.
“There is absolutely no data to support that pulling people over for an air freshener or a rosary hanging from their rearview mirror reduces violent crime or prevents accidents,” Secretary Giannoulias said. “Amending the current law will not jeopardize public safety; instead, it will result in greater equity on the road and improve relationships between police and community by eliminating pretextual traffic stops that disproportionately affect people of color.”
The bill passed out of the Senate 41-11. […]
The bill now heads to the Governor J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
Subscribers know more, but the scare tactics used by opponents about completely obstructed views would be covered under the reckless driving statutes.
A new Senate bill amendment backed by the Cook County treasurer’s office and the Chicago Community Trust seeks to reform Illinois’ property tax sale system.
Backers such as state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat, say the bill would cut the cost for homeowners trying to pay off property tax debt in half, close a loophole that critics said allowed private investors and hedge funds to profit off local governments and help get vacant or abandoned properties back on the tax rolls. […]
The treasurer’s office and the Chicago Community Trust introduced separate and overlapping bills aimed at reforming the delinquent property tax system earlier this year. A merged proposal cleared the House Revenue and Finance Committee Thursday and is on track for House floor approval later this month. […]
The amendment, Senate Bill 1675 Amendment 1, would reform the state’s system for selling delinquent property taxes. Under the current system, property owners who don’t pay their bills can see their taxes put up for auction. When sold, a lien is put against the home or business until the owner can pay the taxes back to the buyer, plus interest. Delinquent sales allow taxing bodies to collect revenues they’re owed while giving property owners extra time to pay their bills without losing their homes. Investors, too, can make a profit at a low risk. Most homeowners do eventually pay back their taxes with interest.
A measure amending language in child welfare and juvenile court statutes to be more inclusive has passed in the Illinois Senate.
House Bill 1596 recognizes the growing number of minor Illinoisians who identify as LGBTQ+ and amends the language to better reflect their identities.
The ACLU Director of Systems Reform Policy, Nora-Collins Mandeville said that, “Today’s majority vote in the Senate sends House Bill 1596 to the Governor’s desk for final approval. A few years ago, the Illinois Auditor General reported that DCFS was failing to meet the needs of the growing number of LGBTQ+ youth under their care.” […]
The legislation now heads to the Illinois Governor’s desk for signing into law.
Opioids have been involved in over 70% of fatal drug overdoses in Illinois. State lawmakers hope to pass a package of bills to address the opioid crisis before session ends.
Sen. Paul Faraci (D-Champaign) told reporters Thursday that pharmacists, nurses, and physician assistants are the only people currently authorized to use overdose prevention equipment. Faraci said his plan could allow trained overdose responders to use fentanyl testing strips to help people in need. […]
House Bill 1121 passed unanimously out of the House in March. The plan also received unanimous support from the Senate Public Health Committee on April 19. […]
House Bill 1557 could require most music venues to have Naloxone and other opioid-overdose antidotes on hand. The legislation applies to for-profit venues with an occupancy of 1,000 or more people. Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) said the proposal also requires venue staff to be trained on how to properly use antidotes to safely prevent an overdose. […]
House Bill 1557 passed out of the House on a 105-2 vote on March 23. The Senate Public Health Committee unanimously approved the plan on April 19.
Earlier this week, the “ComEd Four” were found guilty on all charges related to a conspiracy to bribe Former Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“Finally, we are starting to see Illinois Democrats held accountable for their corrupt actions. After decades of Democratic insiders putting their personal interests ahead of Illinois residents, it’s now clear that the Madigan Democrat machine corrupted Illinois State government,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy.
“Former Speaker Madigan may be gone, but we can’t forget that Illinois Democrats across the state – from Gov. JB Pritzker on down – supported, enabled and kissed the ring of Speaker Madigan,” added Chairman Don Tracy.
Former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin, who left the legislature after last year’s elections solidified the Democrats’ legislative supermajorities, said the verdict “opened a window” for GOP candidates to go after Democratic lawmakers who participated in Madigan’s operation.
”We have actually been given a glimpse of how Mike Madigan and his playbook, how they have operated in this corrupt manner for such a long time. It has now been brought to a jury, exposed and convicted of federal crimes,” Durkin said. “So Republicans should be talking of course about Mike Madigan, what he’s done to the state, what he’s done to our reputation, what he’s done to our finances.”
But, Durkin said, the window of opportunity slams shut if the political conversation turns from corruption to social issues.
” ‘Republicans, you’re anti-women, you’re anti-choice.’ We’ve got to stay away from that,” Durkin said, “particularly in the areas where we have to compete and where we should be winning — that is in the suburbs and the collar counties.”
It’s clear from the jurors who spoke after Tuesday’s clean-sweep guilty verdicts that the argument that Madigan and his associates have been pitching to the public — that this was all politics as usual — fell completely flat in a federal courtroom.
“We bought it for a while, but then when evidence started unfolding (we thought) ‘Explain to us how you can turn around and pay these folks gazillions of dollars and they’re not doing anything?’ ” juror Rob Garnes told the Tribune. “What does that have to do with lobbying?”
Hiring a lobbyist based on a leader’s recommendation and then not using that lobbyist could become problematic.
Garnes said the general consensus of the panel was that, while nobody’s perfect, it seemed like no one seemed willing to step in and put a stop to the corruption.
“They just continually do it over and over and over again,” said Garnes, an IT professional who lives in Westmont.
Madigan surrounded himself with people who got the things he wanted done. Nobody in that circle seemed to question him about the line between right and wrong. Hubristically fatal mistake.
The state is suspending the legislative pension of former Commonwealth Edison lobbyist Michael McClain, but the move may not be permanent.
A spokesman for the state General Assembly Retirement System tells WBEZ that it has moved to withhold McClain’s pension following a federal jury’s verdicts against him in the ComEd bribery trial. […]
State law holds that legislative pensions can be revoked if a legislator has engaged in misconduct arising out of or in connection with his or her service in the General Assembly.
That could be a factor against the permanent revoking of McClain’s benefits — the wrongdoing that federal prosecutors focused upon spanned between 2011 and 2019, long after McClain’s time as a Democratic lawmaker from Quincy.
Which brings up the question of whether future legislators’ pensions should be yanked if they’re convicted of a felony. Your thoughts?
But the writing is already on the wall – cut a deal with prosecutors now, or go to trial and risk spending the rest of your life in prison.
OK, cut a deal on what? The feds generally cut deals to avoid iffy trials and/or in exchange for the head of someone higher up the criminal food chain. The unanimous ComEd Four verdict indicates that Madigan’s trial likely won’t be all that iffy, and, as far as the G is concerned, Madigan was at the very tippity top of the food chain.
Unless Madigan agrees to plead guilty and takes a long sentence (perhaps, for instance, if they bust someone truly close to him), I don’t see it happening.
* On another topic…
Following the verdict in the ‘ComEd 4 trial’, Congressman Sean Casten (D) is calling for Michael Madigan to immediately step down as the Committeeman for the 13th Ward of Chicago.
Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) represents thousands of Illinoisans in the 13th Ward of Chicago.
“Mr. Madigan will have his day in court, but the corruption has come too close to his office for him to claim ignorance. Public service is a sacred trust. For the good of our democracy and the Democratic Party, he should step down at once,” said Rep. Casten.
I kinda wonder what US Rep. Chuy Garcia thinks, since his congressional district covers the 13th Ward. So, I reached out and will let you know.
Larry Rivelli is a body in constant motion on the backstretch at Hawthorne Race Course. […]
But his pacing comes to a standstill when it’s time to trot out Two Phil’s, the 3-year-old chestnut colt with the white-striped snout, who commands all of Rivelli’s attention. Other trainers and riders stop to poke their heads over the backstretch gate, too, for a view of one of the horse’s final training sessions before the biggest race in the world.
All eyes in the state’s entire horse racing industry will be focused on Two Phil’s this weekend, too, as he’s poised to become the first Illinois-based horse to compete in the Kentucky Derby since Recapturetheglory finished fifth in 2007. […]
It’s the first Derby run for Rivelli, unquestionably Illinois’ top thoroughbred trainer with 1,772 wins and more than $36 million in earnings since 2000.
A full field of 20 is scheduled to go postward. Two Phil’s — No. 3 with Derby rookie Jareth Loveberry in the irons — is a sixth selection in the morning line at 12-1.
The top opening picks are: Forte (No. 15, trainer Todd Pletcher, 3-1), Tapit Trice (No. 5, Pletcher, 5-1) and Angel of Empire (No. 14, Brad Cox, 8-1). […]
TWO PHIL’S IS JOINTLY OWNED BY Patricia’s Hope LLC (Vinnie Foglia and mother Pat Foglia, both of North Barrington, 80 percent) and former advertising exec Phil Sagan of Bloomingdale, who bred the chestnut charger in Kentucky.
The colt is named for Sagan and eightysomething Phil La Sala of Bensenville. La Sala is the father of longtime Chicago jockey Jerry La Sala, who was instrumental in helping to bring about the breeding of Hard Spun to Mia Torri, a General Quarters mare. Anthony Sagan — the son of the breeder — also played a role.
The group has a live chance on that stage. Two Phil’s got here through winning the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park, which is not traditionally a producer of top Derby contenders, though last year’s winner, Rich Strike did come from it.
However, he’s won at Churchill. He has experience, and his connections think he has the temperament to perform well in an environment that stresses out some runners.
“Real cool,” Rivelli said. “He’s perfect for this type of setting. He’s laid back, he likes to sleep. Nothing really bothers him.”
And if Two Phil’s does the unlikely, a major city will celebrate.
“Everybody back home before we left were patting me on the back, you know, ‘Bring home the Derby,’” Rivelli said. “That’s pretty cool.
While Two Phil’s is now a serious Derby contender, he was once a horse that slipped through the cracks in the sales ring. He was a $150,000 RNA at Keeneland September and he failed to garner much interest the following spring at OBS. The Sagans decided to send the colt to Rivelli, hoping that the conditioner could get a win on his record as a juvenile and they could find a buyer from there. […]
Two Phil’s has never actually raced in Illinois, he has trained out of Rivelli’s barn at Hawthorne Park and shipped to six different tracks, collecting four wins and two more placings from eight career starts. Rivelli decided to keep the same routine for the Derby, with Two Phil’s putting in his final five-furlong prep in :59 flat on Mar 27. at Hawthorne before heading to Churchill Downs on Sunday. […]
Rivelli will readily admit that while Two Phil’s is already a winner at Churchill, having claimed the GIII Street Sense S. last October, the big question surrounding the colt is about just how strong his affinity for synthetic might be. His 101 Beyer Speed Figure at Turfway Park in the Jeff Ruby, which is the biggest number among the Derby contenders, is 13 Beyer points higher than his second-best figure from a second-place finish in the GIII Lecomte S. in January.
Now that Derby week is well underway and the Two Phil’s contingent is in Louisville, the dream is starting to become a reality for Rivelli as he represents his grandfather and uncle that went before him, his fellow Chicago horsemen back home and, perhaps in some ways, his beloved Arlington Park, where he won nine training titles before it closed two years ago.
For years, Arlington Park’s opening day coincided with Kentucky Oaks Day. Then COVID-19 struck, and Arlington didn’t begin a 2020 meeting until July. In 2021, the opener returned to the first Friday in May – a dark day, not a celebration. Churchill Downs Inc., Arlington’s owner, already had decided, strictly for financial reasons, to shed the track from its corporate portfolio. In May 2022, the massive Arlington grandstand, the vast tract of land upon which it rests, stood quiet as a remote Illinois prairie.
No one would have felt the closure more acutely than the trainer Larry Rivelli, the owner Vince Foglia, and the jockey Jareth Loveberry. Rivelli won every Arlington training title from 2014 through Arlington’s end. Foglia, who races as Patricia’s Hope LLC, was the perennial leading owner starting in 2015. Loveberry, late to the party, arrived in 2020, winning the riding title that year and the next.
“I grew up by Arlington Park. I went to the high school nearest Arlington Park,” Foglia said. “The whole thing feels tragic. I drive by it all the time and just say, ‘Wow, what a shame.’ ”
Let the first Friday in May 2023 rouse bittersweet memory. Rivelli, Foglia, and Loveberry have other business on Saturday.
* DRF | Beyer Figures say Two Phil’s shouldn’t be overlooked: Two Phil’s earned a 101 Beyer last out, the highest last-out figure in this year’s Derby field. He did it in a romping victory at Turfway Park, and therein lies the rub. Turfway has an all-weather surface. On dirt, Two Phil’s has never been close to the triple-digit fig he earned on synthetic.
* TRC | ‘Blood, sweat and tears’ – Jareth Loveberry takes on racing’s elite in Kentucky Derby with Two Phil’s: Trained by Illinois-based Larry Rivelli, Two Phil’s has won four out of eight starts. The son of Hard Spun already has a victory at Churchill Downs, landing the G3 Street Sense in October last year, and sealed fifth place in the Derby points standings with a 5¼-length success in the G3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park.
At a joint City Council committee hearing last week, alderpersons were told Chicago is out of money, space and time to handle the “humanitarian crisis” caused by asylum-seekers descending on Chicago, with 40,000 people waiting at the border and a surge that has yet to peak. […]
With “zero dollars” from the federal government for 2023 costs and a $53 million shortfall to meet the [migrant] surge through June, [City of Chicago] Budget Director Susie Park said the Council will soon be asked to approve a “mid-year budget amendment” that applies portions of a nearly $700 million surplus to plug the gap.
Matthew Doughtie, manager of emergency management services for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, told alderpersons 13 options have been identified as additional shelter locations, “none of them great. … Each of them comes at a cost, be they financial personal or political cost. But, they’re options nonetheless.”
* Meanwhile, the state’s estimated costs have grown yet again for a DHFS program to a pretty scarily high number. From Capitol News Illinois…
The estimated cost for Illinois to continue providing health care coverage to noncitizens who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid benefits has been revised upward to $1.1 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
As of the end of March, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services estimated it would cost $990 million to fund the program that provides state-funded health care to individuals age 42 and older who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid if not for their citizenship status.
The new estimate, shared by IDHFS Director Theresa Eagleson in testimony to a Senate appropriations committee Wednesday night, is now $880 million beyond the $220 million estimate included in Gov. JB Pritzker’s February budget proposal. […]
IDHFS chief of staff Ben Winick told the committee that the original estimate relied on the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data to estimate the eligible population, then assumed a certain percentage would enroll. But both the cost of providing care and the number of enrollees have far outpaced estimates.
Obviously, they really need to find a way to get a handle on those costs. It’s starting to remind me of how the Edgar administration was overrun by Medicaid costs in the 1990s.
By the way, there it is again. The ACS always undercounts Illinois.
A day after former Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore was convicted of bribery and conspiracy, ComEd parent Exelon disclosed a likely $173 million cost tied to addressing a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of hiding the scheme from shareholders.
The December 2019 lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago, has proceeded under an agreement with the federal government barring inclusion of company communications with the feds from discovery. That agreement expires May 15, according to Exelon’s U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing today. […]
The plaintiffs, New York-based Local 295 IBT Employers Pension Fund, recently agreed to the $173 million settlement, said Jim Barz, attorney with Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd in Chicago. It remains subject to court approval. […]
This settlement won’t hit Exelon’s bottom line, though, because the company expects the entirety to be covered by liability insurance for directors and officers.
The average household ratepayer in northern Illinois will get a $4.80 credit on their electric bill next April in recompense for Commonwealth Edison’s nine-year-long bribery scheme.
The Illinois Commerce Commission unanimously approved ComEd’s $31 million offer to settle the issue of how much ratepayers should be refunded for the scheme, aimed at currying favor with then-House Speaker Michael Madigan. ComEd is adding another $7 million under Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction, so the total refund is $38 million.
* NBC Chicago | Illinois Residents Debate On Tax Credit Scholarship Program For Private Schools: Families that participate in the Invest In Kids program say it’s an invaluable resource, though critics say the initiative hurts public schools. Tracy Smith of Hyde Park told NBC 5 that her 15-year-old twins are blazing a path to success, and it all began at St. Sabina Academy.
* Tribune | Migrants moved to Park District field houses, as South Shore residents criticize city for shelter plans: There were 207 families residing inside Chicago police stations Thursday morning, said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, citing an unofficial count shared with him by community groups. Dozens of migrants were shown sleeping shoulder to shoulder on the lobby floor of Rogers Park’s 24th District police station in a photo shared on social media and confirmed with police sources by the Tribune.
* Center Square | Illinois lawmakers warn of the rising costs to care for undocumented immigrants: Gov. J.B. Pritzker said since August, the state has provided $240 million for arriving migrants being transported from places like Texas. “To make sure that we were providing the services necessary,” Pritzker said. “We’re talking about shelter, we’re talking about food, we’re talking about health care.”
* Tribune | The Chicago White Sox can’t ruin your summer, no matter how hard they try: So why would anyone come out and watch a Sox team that fell on its face the first month of the season and has little chance of competing in 2023? Maybe because it’s one of the few things from their childhood that remains relatively the same as it was back in the day. They’ve been waiting for months for the weather to turn, and what else is there in Chicago that defines summer like going to a baseball game?
