Ameren Illinois, one of the state’s largest electric and gas delivery companies, has filed plans for electric and gas rate increases.
The Illinois Commerce Commission will review the requests for a $160.4 million gas rate hike over a year and a four-year $435.6 million electric increase.
The reasons for the requests are multi-fold, Ameren communications director Tucker Kennedy said Thursday. It partially stems from a requirement in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, a green energy package that puts the state on track to be 100% carbon-free with its energy sources by 2050.
That phrase “partially stems from” stuck out to me. How partial? I asked Citizens Utility Board Executive Director David Kolata for some insight…
Both ComEd and Ameren are going to be saying CEJA requires grid upgrades to integrate renewables and upgrade the grid for electrification of transportation and heat. Over time, that’s true.
But two things on that. First, we have quite a bit of time for that. This doesn’t need to be done all at once, and in fact it shouldn’t be. Given the current pace of electrification and renewable new build there wouldn’t be any issue until the mid 2030s.
But second, and more importantly, the big driver of the rate increase is the excessive profit rate (RoE) they are requesting. So, yeah, there need to be grid upgrades over time…but that isn’t an excuse for a blank check and certainly not an excuse for an RoE of well over 10 percent.
* The AP poses as a babe in the legislative woods…
For all the fanfare and the legal rigmarole of Illinois’ ban on semiautomatic weapons, it might come as a surprise to learn the legislation was titled “Insurance Code-Public Adjusters.”
To thousands of gun owners and merchants who filed lawsuits over it, the title exemplifies the way legislators cut corners last month to enact the legislation prompted by the deadly Independence Day parade shooting in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. […]
“It no longer addressed the issue of insurance adjusters and their contracts, as its new subject was now modifying completely different laws,” alleges a lawsuit led by Rep. Dan Caulkins, a Republican from Decatur, 182 miles (293 kilometers) south of Chicago. As a new bill, it warranted three new House readings, Caulkins argued.
There are other issues state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, is hoping to get addressed in his litigation, and that’s how legislation at the Illinois statehouse seems to circumvent procedural rules.
Caulkins and others argue passage of the state’s gun ban violated the single-subject rule, didn’t properly have three readings and didn’t give the public due process considerations. Courts have either said those arguments don’t have merit, or do have merit but are not being considered at the moment.
“Nobody’s had the guts to hear that. This is a problem,” Caulkins said. “We have the constitution, this is the process we should be going through. It gets violated, not just in this case, but in the SAFE-T Act and the budget. “It goes on and on and on.”
Caulkins said the courts have to address this at some point so the public gets an entire airing of legislation with three public readings, for example.
“This is how it’s supposed to be done,” Caulkins said. “But because of the tyranny of the majority, they just in the dead of night will lay a bill on the desk and then an hour later we have to vote on it and the people of Illinois get no say.”
State Sen. John Curran, R-Lemont, wants to codify the decision of Illinois voters when it comes to a progressive income tax.
“The people have spoken, and they could not have been more clear that they do not want a progressive income tax,” Curran said after introducing a resolution that calls on lawmakers to reject any progressive income tax proposal placed before the chamber.
Illinois’ top law enforcement officer is investigating whether the Chicago Police Department violated state law when it denied hundreds of undocumented immigrants a chance to apply for a special visa for crime victims in the past two years.
In a six-page letter to CPD’s top lawyer, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul demanded all data and documents related to the more than 800 denials acknowledged by CPD. He also urged the department to “develop a plan to contact all individuals who received denials” and allow them to reapply.
Raoul said the inquiry was sparked by a December investigation by Injustice Watch, which revealed how CPD routinely denied certifications to victims of qualifying crimes, such as domestic battery and assault. Those victims are eligible for legal status through a U visa, which provides a path to citizenship for those who cooperate in law enforcement investigations. […]
“Determinations as to whether the victim suffered substantial physical or mental abuse or whether the victim is ultimately eligible … are the exclusive responsibility of federal immigration officials and are not permissible grounds for local law enforcement to deny a certification request in Illinois,” Raoul wrote.
Raoul warned the “improper denials” may “result in legal action” from his office as they could potentially violate the Voices Immigrant Communities Empowering Act, known as the VOICES act, a state law setting rules and procedures for law enforcement agencies statewide on how to adjudicate U visa certification requests.
* From Rolling Stone’s interview of US Rep. Delia Ramirez…
Last week, a coalition of nine states asked the government to end DACA protections for Dreamers. Your husband is a DACA recipient. What has it been like for you both to live with the stress and uncertainty as this program remains in legal limbo?
It’s been emotional. Being a congresswoman, I have privileges that my friends and people in my district don’t have access to, and even with that, we are in the midst of a process for his DACA renewal that’s taking too darn long. I’m hearing calls from constituents who are saying, “I submitted my DACA renewal four months ago, and I still have no response. I lost my job because my work authorization expired.” It becomes paralyzing for people. It’s so draining. And it’s unacceptable because neither party has delivered a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
Two years ago, my husband said to me, right before the election, “Why go through the adjustment status process? That takes so long, it’s so expensive. Let’s just wait until Democrats take the White House because I am convinced that if they do, there will be an executive action that will create a pathway to citizenship for those of us who have lived here almost all our lives.” How do I look into his eyes and tell him, “Oh, honey, I don’t think it’s gonna be that easy”? You know what I did instead? I said, “Okay,” and then I heard about it for about a month, how my party isn’t delivering. So it’s really personal. That is, in part, why I’m here. We need people like me who live these experiences every single day. That is why it is so important that a Democrat like me deliver a response to the Democratic president, affirming the experiences that everyday people are living right now.
Ramirez is delivering the progressive response to President Biden’s State of the Union address tonight.
Paul Bruton has a tough task ahead of him. He faces incumbent Ald. Marty Quinn, who’s been on the City Council since 2011 and is a longtime ally of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, now facing trial on corruption charges. The 13th Ward is Madigan turf, and Bruton acknowledges that when he goes door to door, many residents “aren’t bothered at all” by the charges against Madigan, and Quinn’s strong connections to the one-time Illinois Democratic Party kingmaker. Others, however, tell Bruton that Madigan’s allies in the ward “have to go,” he tells us.
Bruton says he has been a stay-at-home dad since 2018. His previous work experience includes a four-year stint as an analyst at the Chicago inspector general’s office, which provides the crucial function of ferreting out waste, mismanagement and inefficiency in city government. It’s hard to imagine a better lead-up to becoming an alderman.
Bruton says one of the biggest challenges for this Southwest Side ward is the body blow that the pandemic delivered to the 13th’s small businesses. “I will study what types of businesses our ward is lacking, and actively recruit and work with local entrepreneurs to fill those gaps,” Bruton tells us.
Quinn doesn’t try to hide his Madigan alliance. “I’m not going to rewrite history,” he tells us. “We’ve done some good things.” He cites his oversight of nearly $300 million invested in 13th Ward schools, including the Southwest Side’s first selective enrollment school. He adds, “I personally shovel snow and my staff removes graffiti and cleans up shuttered buildings so quickly, they rarely can be found in the ward.”
That’s admirable, but Quinn’s long-standing ties to Madigan are a bridge too far for us, and they should be for 13th Ward voters. Bruton is endorsed.
* Press release…
UNITE HERE Local 1 endorsed Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot for reelection on Tuesday. UNITE HERE Local 1 represents more than 15,000 members who work in hospitality across hotels, airports, restaurants, school cafeterias, stadiums, convention centers, and casinos.
“Mayor Lightfoot has led Chicago with equity and inclusion at the forefront as she has advocated for long-overlooked communities to have a seat at the table,” said Karen Kent, President of UNITE HERE Local 1. “She guided this city through difficult and unprecedented times with tough yet fair leadership that made sure no one was left behind — especially our workers. When the pandemic put our livelihoods in jeopardy, Mayor Lightfoot ensured that our members had the resources they needed to make ends meet, and the protections and protocols to return to work safely. As a union made up of predominantly women, immigrants and people of color, Mayor Lightfoot has gained our confidence in her leadership, and we are eager to endorse her for four more years in office.”
* Politico says this is an ad, but it’s so far just a YouTube video…
Megan Mathias, a challenger in the 45th Ward aldermanic race, is out with an attack ad against incumbent Ald. Jim Gardiner.
I’m told she’s trying to raise the cash to put the YouTube video on streaming services. The video is here.
Also, a Comcast representative tells me that 60 percent of TV viewing in Chicago today is cable television and only 40 percent is broadcast.
Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes yesterday! I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love I received. ❤️ Feeling truly blessed. pic.twitter.com/ars5pu2BpY
— Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (@RepChrisWelch) February 7, 2023
* Isabel’s afternoon roundup…
* Fox Chicago | Illinois officials call for more resources for Black communities on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) joined the Black Leadership Advocacy Coalition for Healthcare Equity to encourage greater state investments in programs targeted towards Black-led community based HIV/AIDS service providers. The advocacy group said that less than $1 million of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s HIV/AIDS budget is going towards Black-led community-based service providers.
* WGLT | Illinois agencies prepare to help uninsured as Medicaid pandemic protections end: Illinois and other states have begun sending redetermination letters to recipients informing them if their coverage will continue. Sergio Obregon, special assistant to the director at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, said this will happen over a couple of months. Not everyone who is ineligible will lose coverage immediately.
* Daily-Journal | State Senator Joyce awarded Railroader of the Year: “Senator Patrick Joyce is a true champion of the freight railroad system in Illinois,” said Tim Butler, president of the Illinois Railroad Association, in a news release. “He understands the importance of what our historic rail system means not just to Illinois, but our nation, our continent and our entire world.
* NBC Chicago | Sandra Bland Was Right: Before she died, Bland had posted several videos to YouTube, mostly full of cheer and encouragement. She started each video with “Good morning, my beautiful kings and queens!” But she also used her videos to talk about what she saw as clear racial profiling by some local police.
* CNBC | Wholesale egg prices have ‘collapsed.’ Why consumers may soon see relief: Prices fell to $2.61 per dozen eggs on Monday — a 52% decrease from the peak around $5.43 on Dec. 19 and a 47% decrease from the beginning of 2023, according to Urner Barry, a market research firm that specializes in the wholesale food industry. Its Midwest Large White Egg price benchmark is a widely cited barometer in the egg industry.
* Herald & Review | Decatur receives, matches $400,000 state grant for low-income home repairs: Eligible uses for the grant funds are forgivable mortgage loans for households making below 80% of the area’s median income and several kinds of repairs for those making 50% or less of the area median income. According to the city, about 220 residents have requested a roof replacement.
* CNN | The fungal threat to human health is growing in a warmer, wetter, sicker world: The number of serious fungal infections has increased partly because of the growing number of immune-suppressed people, studies show. “What’s changing is that more people that are exposed have those high risk factors. We have aging populations, and we were using a lot of chemicals in the environment which are forcing fungi to adapt, and our clinical antifungals are being degraded by antimicrobial resistance,” Fisher said.
* Sun-Times | Vallas gives away campaign contribution from ex-cop in Laquan McDonald case: Speaking outside an event hosted for him by the police union — which has endorsed him in the Feb. 28 election — Vallas said he was unaware of the $5,000 contribution to his campaign from ex-Chicago Police employee Richard E. Hagen until WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times reported on it last week.
* Block Club | Longtime Lightfoot Ally Ald. Pat Dowell Endorses Brandon Johnson For Mayor: Lightfoot defended Dowell later that year after a Tribune report revealed a developer had sought $20,000 in taxpayer reimbursements for donations to the alderwoman’s campaign. But now, Dowell is throwing her support behind Johnson, a longtime Chicago Teachers Union organizer and former teacher from the West Side. Dowell praised Johnson’s leadership style, saying in a statement Johnson’s “willingness to sit at the table with other leaders to find beneficial solutions” is the type of mayor Chicago needs.
* WBEZ | Five takeaways about voter turnout in Chicago ahead of this month’s municipal election: A WBEZ analysis of data from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners shows that fewer than four out of every 10 registered voters have cast ballots in all but one of the last five February municipal elections. The only exception was in 2011 when turnout reached 42%, the city’s first municipal election after longtime mayor Richard M. Daley decided not to seek reelection.
* WaPo | For long covid fatigue, a strategy called ‘pacing’ helps, but at a cost: Experts say the extreme fatigue experienced by many long covid patients has a name: myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), a condition previously known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Researchers estimate that about half of people with long covid have developed ME/CFS.
* AFP | Harmful pollution boosting superbug ’silent pandemic’: Containing and cleaning up environmental pollution, especially in waterways, is crucial to controlling increasingly bullet-proof superbugs which could kill tens of millions by mid-century, a new UN report said Tuesday.
* NYT | The People Onscreen Are Fake. The Disinformation Is Real.: “This is the first time we’ve seen this in the wild,” said Jack Stubbs, the vice president of intelligence at Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation. Graphika discovered the pro-China campaign, which appeared intended to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party and undercut the United States for English-speaking viewers.
* Daily Herald | Who’s going to the State of the Union? Illinois lawmakers reveal their guests: A Midway International Airport worker. A doctor who assists women with abortions. The head of a service for homeless individuals. All three are among guests invited by members of Illinois’ congressional delegation to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight.
* University of British Columbia | Traffic pollution impairs brain function: The peer-reviewed findings, published in the journal Environmental Health, show that just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust causes a decrease in the brain’s functional connectivity – a measure of how different areas of the brain interact and communicate with each other. The study provides the first evidence in humans, from a controlled experiment, of altered brain network connectivity induced by air pollution.
* Pen America | These 176 books were banned in Duval County, Florida: The removed titles were part of the Essential Voices Classroom Libraries Collection, purchased by the district in 2021. This collection “features characters representing a variety of ethnicities, religious affiliations, and gender identities,” and includes children’s picture books such as Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin, and Berenstain Bears and the Big Question by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Today, Illinois State Senators Mike Simmons, Robert Peters, as well as State Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr. introduced new legislation – SB 1444 – that would create an Illinois Child Tax Credit claimable in the 2024 tax season. If passed by Illinois legislators, eligible low-and middle-income Illinois families would receive a $700 tax credit for each child under the age of 17. The policy proposed would benefit joint filers earning less than $75,000 and single filers earning less than $50,000 – nearly half of Illinois households with children.
With Washington having failed to reinstate the expanded federal Child Tax Credit in last year’s budget process, leaders in Illinois are stepping in, advocating for new direct cash programs within their jurisdictions to help working families.
“I am extraordinarily proud to join my colleagues in the Illinois state legislature in introducing a new bill to ease the burden that our communities face in affording everyday expenses,” said State Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr. “In creating an Illinois Child Tax Credit, we join a growing number of statehouses working to ensure parents have a bit more money to keep their homes heated and their children fed.”
Support for the bill is already mounting, as Leader Evans, Senators Simmons and Peters were joined in by their colleagues Senators Ventura, Cervantes, and Preston to support SB 1444. Also in attendance were state advocates and parents who would directly benefit from the proposed credit.
State Representative Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, introduced legislation that would expand access to food assistance for foster families.
“Foster families already face so many obstacles, this legislation will help relieve some of the stress placed on these homes,” said Scherer. “Foster parents carry a great load by caring for our children who are in unfortunate circumstances. We must look for ways to utilize resources to unburden and support them.”
Scherer’s House Bill 1632 would make all foster families eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (SNAP) benefits.
Currently, foster children are ineligible for SNAP benefits.
* Media advisory…
– Women Employed, which has been creating fundamental, systemic change for working women for 50 years, will convene its statewide Illinois Time to Care Coalition and legislative sponsors of the Family & Medical Leave Insurance Act to urge the Illinois General Assembly to pass legislation that will provide workers with paid, job-protected leave to manage longer-term care needs for themselves and their families.
* Rep. Hernandez’s bill that would ban cat declawing is picking up support from animal rights groups. Shaw Local…
If passed, Illinois would become the third state to approve such a ban, according to the nonprofit group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. New York banned cat declawing in 2019 and Maryland did so last year. In addition, several cities across the country ban cat declawing, including Madison, Wisconsin, according to PETA.
Catie Cryar, a spokesperson for PETA, supports the bill.
“Imagine that your fingers were cut off at the first knuckle – that’s declawing, an unnecessary and painful mutilation that involves amputating not just cats’ nails but also their joints, resulting in decreased mobility, chronic pain and mental anguish,” Cryar said in a statement. “Declawing is recognized as cruel and unnecessary in Europe, and it’s been banned in numerous U.S. cities and states – and PETA supports legislation outlawing this cruelty.”
The Schaumburg-based American Veterinary Medical Association discourages cat declawing. It supports non-surgical alternatives to the procedure.
“The AVMA respects the veterinarian’s right to use professional judgment when deciding how to best protect their individual patients’ health and welfare,” it says in a statement on its website. “Therefore, it is incumbent upon the veterinarian to counsel the owner about the natural scratching behavior of cats, the alternatives to surgery, as well as the details of the procedure itself and subsequent potential complications. Onychectomy is a surgical amputation and if performed, multi-modal perioperative pain management must be utilized.”
Legislation from state Rep. Camille Lilly, D-Chicago, would amend the Smoke-Free Illinois Act — legislation that went into effect in 2008 that banned smoking in most public places in the state. […]
House Bill 1540 would add electronic smoking devices to the act’s definition of smoking, which means the use of e-cigarettes or vape pens would not be permitted inside public spaces like a bar, places of employment or enclosed sports arena. It also would not be allowed in student dormitories. […]
Pritzker recently signed appropriation legislation — House Bill 969 — which included $500,000 for a new Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. statue to be built by the Office of the Architect of the Capitol.
Legislation from state Sen. Tom Bennett, R-Gibson City, would add other statutes to the building. Under Senate Bill 348, OAC would “provide for the acquisition and placement” of statues depicting former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
State Sen. John Curran, R-Lemont, wants to codify the decision of Illinois voters when it comes to a progressive income tax.
“The people have spoken, and they could not have been more clear that they do not want a progressive income tax,” Curran said after introducing a resolution that calls on lawmakers to reject any progressive income tax proposal placed before the chamber.
“It is time to move in a new direction,” Curran said. “We are standing behind the people of this state who resoundingly said no, and standing up for families who cannot afford to be overtaxed.”
Curran’s bill comes after voters roundly rejected a so-called a progressive income tax amendment in 2020. It fell more than 360,000 votes short of a simple majority and more than 760,000 votes short of the three-fifths majority needed for passage from those voting on the question.
Amends the Conversion and Formation of School Districts Article of the School Code. Within 3 years after the effective date of the amendatory Act, requires elementary school districts to form new school districts but only with other elementary school districts and high school districts to form new school districts but only with other high school districts, notwithstanding any referendum requirements or any other laws to the contrary. Provides that the State Board of Education shall facilitate the creation of the new school districts by providing recommendations on which districts must consolidate. Sets forth the factors that the State Board must take into consideration. Effective immediately.
…Adding… HB2187, introduced by Deputy House Majority Leader Mary Flowers…
Amends the School Code. Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, allows public schools to include in their curriculum, for students in grades 3 through 12, a course in the history and literature of the Old Testament era and a course in the history and literature of the New Testament era. Provides that the purpose of such courses shall be to teach and study the Old and New Testaments and to familiarize students with the contents of the Old and New Testaments, the history recorded by the Old and New Testaments, the literary style and structure of the Old and New Testaments, the customs and cultures of the peoples and societies recorded in the Old and New Testaments, and the influence of the Old and New Testaments upon law, history, government, literature, art, music, customs, morals, values, and culture. Requires the State Board of Education to adopt a curriculum for each course. Sets forth provisions concerning course requirements, personnel, and monitoring. Effective immediately.
The plaintiffs who are individual active- and retired-beneficiary representatives from multiple suburban and downstate police and firefighter pension funds appeal from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of defendants. We affirm.
In 2019, defendant Governor Jay Robert “J.B.” Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101- 610 (eff. Jan. 1, 2020) (Act) that, inter alia, amended portions of the Illinois Pension Code. Prior to the Act, there were approximately 650 local police and firefighter pension funds for municipalities with populations between 5000 and 500,000. These funds were governed by five-member boards comprised of two appointed members, two members elected by active members, and one member elected by other beneficiaries (i.e., retirees). I Each board was responsible for determining the retirement, disability, and death benefits payable to fund members and other beneficiaries. […]
Plaintiffs filed a three-count complaint seeking declaratory, injunctive, and other relief and a finding that the Act violated article XIII, section 5, of the Illinois Constitution, commonly known as the pension protection clause (count I), and/or article I, section 16 of the Illinois Constitution, commonly known as the contracts clause (count II), and/or article I, section 15 of the Illinois Constitution, commonly known as the takings clause (count III). The trial court granted certain of defendants’ motions to dismiss; all of the named funds were dismissed as plaintiffs for lack of standing, and count II was dismissed against the remaining plaintiffs for failing to state a cause of action under the contracts clause. These rulings are not challenged on appeal. The trial court later entered summary judgment on counts I and III in favor of defendants. It is from this grant of summary judgment that this appeal arises. […]
Plaintiffs first assert that the Act violates the pension protection clause because it impairs the members’ rights to vote in the election of local pension board members “and to have that local board control and invest local pension funds.” According to plaintiffs, voting rights are a benefit that flows from the contractual relationship and, therefore, cannot be changed. […]
We determine that the ability to vote in the election of local pension board members and to have that local board control and invest local pension funds is not of the same nature and essentiality as the ability to participate in the fund, accumulate credited time, or receive health care, disability, and life insurance coverage. Voting for the local board is, at best, ancillary to a participant’s receipt of the pension payment and other assets. The local boards were entrusted with investing the contributions so that payments could be made to participants. However, choosing who invests funds does not guarantee a particular outcome for benefit payments. The local boards also did not have any say in the actual method of funding; contribution requirements were set in the Pension Code. […]
Plaintiffs make no argument as to how the requirement to pay for the administration of the funds would in any way impair or diminish the payment of their pension benefits. The local funds are already required to pay the costs of administration of the local funds, and plaintiffs do not cite any evidence to show that the costs of administration of the new funds, even including startup costs, would be any greater. … Plaintiffs present no evidence that the Act actually reduced the funding available for the payment of benefits. We find no error in the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in defendants’ favor as to count I and grant plaintiffs no relief. […]
Plaintiffs next contend that the Act violates the takings clause of the Illinois Constitution. Article I, section 15 of the Illinois Constitution states: “Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation as provided by law. Such compensation shall be determined by a jury as provided by law.” […]
Plaintiffs are individual active and retiree/beneficiaries of the local funds: they have no right to the investments held by the funds; rather, they are entitled only to present or future payments from the funds. No plaintiff has any right to direct the investment of the monies held by the funds or direct that they receive any different course of payments (either in amount or frequency) beyond that established by statute and the funds. Simply put, plaintiffs do not own the funds that the Act requires to be transferred to the new statewide police and firefighter pension investment funds. The Act does nothing more than require one type of government-created pension fund to transfer assets to another type of government-created pension fund. Plaintiffs’ rights to receive benefit payments are not impacted by these transfers. As the “property” at issue here is not the private property of the plaintiffs, the takings clause is neither relevant nor applicable here. Thus, we find no error in the trial court’s grant of summary judgment on count III.
For these reasons, the judgment of the circuit court of Kane County is affirmed.
This law has been in effect for three years now. And this was a no-brainer case for the trial and appellate courts. Just ridiculous. And the fact that the plaintiffs argued that the public pension funds is their “property” really tells you a lot about the plaintiffs.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced the creation of a $40 million grant program to incentivize the creation of large development-ready areas known as “megasites” across the state.
Megasites are large swaths of land, developed to attract businesses such as manufacturing plants, warehouses and distribution centers. Pritzker said developing these sites will help make Illinois more competitive, especially as sectors including clean energy and manufacturing are rapidly expanding in the U.S.
The Megasites Development Program announced Monday uses Rebuild Illinois capital funds aimed at providing the necessary infrastructure improvements to develop these megasites. Other eligible costs include various land acquisition, clean-up and development expenses. […]
“The idea here is to identify large sites that can be brought up to speed quickly so that we can promote them across the country and even around the world,” Dan Seals, president of Intersect Illinois, said.
To help companies look for these “turn-key” locations in Illinois, Intersect Illinois has created a property finder that has more than 150 investment-ready sites in Illinois and a standalone guide with megasites over 1,000 acres.
The state will give up to $5,000 per acre of development, with totals ranging from $250,000 to $5 million. Applicants must own or have an agreement to own sites of at least 200 acres, and must match grant funds.
“We want these sites cleaned up,” Pritzker said. ” … It’s about providing dollars upfront so that can get taken care of and you can take that off of the expenditure list of things that you need to put in to make a site ready to go, and to get going on whatever it may be in that location.” […]
The megasites program will encourage businesses to locate projects in Illinois rather than neighboring states, Pritzker said.
“I venture to argue to you that they are not cleaning up their sites at the pace that we are cleaning up ours,” he said while pointing out a window toward Indiana, which is several miles from Pullman.
We want the sites cleaned up. And we want to attract business to these sites. What this is doing is providing the precursor for that. Because as Dan Seals was saying, when we talk to companies around the country, they have the problem in all the other states, too, of finding locations that are nearby the central business districts, but large enough so that they can put in large distribution buildings, facilities, or manufacturing. They want to be nearby, but they also want to be next to transportation. And they have to be ready to go because no one wants to wait 10 years or five years to start construction. And so that’s what these grants are really all about. It’s about providing dollars upfront, so that that can get taken care of. And you can take that off of the expenditure list of things that you need to put in to make a site ready to go and to get going on your new whatever it may be in that location. So we’re making it less expensive to do business in Illinois than it is in other states, I venture to argue to you that they are not cleaning up their sights at the pace that we are cleaning up ours, I’m pointing to Indiana. And it’s frankly, for two reasons, right. One is we’re being more aggressive at attracting businesses to Illinois. And secondly, we are more interested in being environmentally friendly here in Illinois. And frankly, businesses are too, they want to move somewhere where they can get clean energy where they can move to a clean site. And Illinois is offering that.
CNI Corp’s Pullman Park development is one example of a powerful community transformation, serving as home to the Method Soap Manufacturing facility, Amazon and Whole Foods Distribution Centers, Gotham Greens and more. The former shuttered factory site was developed in order to attract more than $700 million investment and creating more than 2,000 jobs.
“CNI’s Pullman Park Development went from a 180-acre brownfield to a new, green manufacturing and distribution hub,” said CNI Corp. President David Doig. “This area is now a model for economic development - creating more than 2,000 jobs - and it all began with a $10 million grant from the State.”
* The trial is set to being March 3, so expect a lot of these. Tribune…
In a flurry of pretrial filings, lawyers for the so-called “ComEd Four” are seeking to keep large swaths of evidence away from the jury next month, including the utility’s admissions of a scheme to influence then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, the millions of dollars in campaign contributions ComEd showered on lawmakers, and a prosecution expert who would testify about machine politics and corruption. […]
In his filing Monday, Pramaggiore’s attorney, Scott Lassar, argued that ComEd’s deal with prosecutors was “irrelevant” when it comes to the defendants on trial, and that allowing the jury to hear evidence about it would be improper.
“Allowing the jury to learn of ComEd’s agreement to pay $200 million would severely prejudice defendants because jurors may conclude that ComEd thought that its officers committed a very serious crime if they paid a $200 million fine,” Lassar wrote. […]
Lassar said [former ComEd Vice President Fidel Marquez] was acting as a government agent when he made the recordings and therefore his statements should be considered hearsay. The fact Marquez was cooperating also “calls into question the truth and accuracy” of his statements, Lassar wrote, “because the language he used may have been suggested by the government or tailored by Mr. Marquez to conform to what he believed the government wanted to hear.”
* More from the author on Twitter…
McClain's attorney reveals the feds want to put on evidence that two alleged subcontractors under Jay Doherty were "separately appointed" to paid public board positions. McClain argues the evidence is irrelevant because it has nothing to do with benefits to ComEd
"The government’s case against Doherty is at best circumstantial—but more accurately it is speculative," his lawyers write. His statements suggest only "as a lobbyist would, that keeping Madigan happy helps ensure access to Madigan so ComEd can lobby Madigan on its behalf."
And now a motion to bar the expert testimony of Professor Dick Simpson, which the defense describes as “unreliable, irrelevant, cumulative, and prejudicial” and a “transparent attempt to paint the four Defendants with the broad brush of Chicago political corruption.”
Getting back to these ComEd Four court filings. Sometimes it’s the footnotes that say it all, like: “The jury needs no special expertise to understand that there has historically been political corruption in Chicago.” pic.twitter.com/uxdqnGduTJ
Hooker's attorney also wants to bar evidence about Kevin Quinn, the Madigan lieutenant who received monthly payments from the speaker's loyalists after he was ousted in a sexual harassment scandal. @RayLong and I broke that story here https://t.co/RgURYPIgxB
* Oh, and there was that time when she was the attorney of record on behalf of Illinois congressional Republicans…
“The map as a whole and several individual districts in particular represent a flexing of Democratic political muscle in Springfield aimed at creating a Democratic majority in the Illinois congressional’ delegation,” the original filing in the case asserts. “(It) effectively reverses the results of the 2010 congressional elections by redrawing districts so that the citizens of Illinois that gave Republicans an 11 to 8 advantage . . . (would be) transformed to one with 12 Democrats and only six Republicans,” after the state’s loss of one seat was included. The filing called the Democratic-drawn map “an outrageous partisan gerrymander.”
In fact, after elections under the new map, it turned out to be 11-7 Democratic, with Duckworth (now a U.S. senator) defeating Walsh, Foster succeeding Biggert and Schneider ousting Dold.
* Yet…
The Lightfoot for Chicago campaign released a new digital ad, “Just Ask Him,” Tuesday, featuring Paul Vallas self-identifying as a Republican and admitting that he would run right-of-center in future races.
Vallas’ conservative comments are from a 2009 interview with Jeff Berkowitz on “Public Affairs,” where Vallas explains that he would be registering for the Republican primary ballot in the next election – cementing his support for the GOP. The interview predates Vallas’ decade worth of ties to the Republican Party and recent alliance with Trump acolyte and FOP President John Catanzara, making it clear just how wrong he is to represent Chicagoans as mayor.
“Just Ask Him” will be released across multiple digital platforms.
Like Garcia’s video, this is not on cable or broadcast TV.
…Adding… Lightfoot was on Rauner’s side on this 2016 fight…
A Cook County judge on Wednesday tossed from the fall ballot a constitutional amendment to take away the General Assembly’s power to draw legislative district boundaries, dealing a loss to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and a win to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Legislation was filed in Springfield on Monday that could help the Chicago Bears finance their proposed development in Arlington Heights by freezing the property tax assessment on the former Arlington International Racecourse property for up to 40 years.
The plan, which would require the Bears to invest at least $500 million in converting the 326-acre site to a stadium and surrounding mixed-use development, has been floated for weeks and is being met with some skepticism, even from the state lawmaker who filed the legislation.
“I’ve expressed my doubts about whether this is an approach … we really want to open the door to,” state Sen. Ann Gillespie said Monday.
The Arlington Heights Democrat said she is sponsoring the proposal in part because she wants to see the concept, which she said mirrors a proposal from the Bears and other business interests, incorporated into a broader conversation about reforming a separate form of tax assistance for development known as tax increment financing. TIFs are a frequently used economic development tool that she contends often results in homeowners and small businesses paying higher real estate taxes.
[Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes] said he spoke with Gillespie about the measure before she filed it and was surprised to hear that it had officially been submitted in Springfield.
“I did not know that she was going to submit the legislation today,” he said. “I did talk to her about it tonight.”
He said their conversation left him optimistic.
“She and as well as I, and everyone involved in this, wants to make sure that it is something that’s going to address everybody’s concerns,” he said.
* Capitol News Illinois | Pritzker announces $40 million grant program to promote development-ready ‘megasites’: The program is open to private entities, nonprofits and local governments, and the application portal is open through April 6. Those receiving the grant must match each dollar granted by the state with other private or local funding. Grant allotments would range from $250,000 up to $5 million, depending on the acreage of the site. Eligible sites must have at least 200 contiguous acres and applicants must own or have an agreement in place to acquire the property when they apply.
* WGLC | Legislators hope to reopen OB unit at St. Margaret’s Health, urges hospital to create plan for mothers: State Representative Lance Yednock says the road to reopening Peru will be very difficult and take longer than hoped and is researching every statute and program to find a solution. If SMH decides to reopen the OB and delivery unit in Spring Valley again, Rezin says it could take months to go through the licensure process.
* Crain’s | Some Illinois hospitals still don’t comply with price transparency rule, report says: The report, published by health care transparency nonprofit Patient Rights Advocate, showed that dozens of hospitals in Illinois—from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago to several owned by Ascension Illinois—are not fully compliant with the Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Implemented in January 2021, the rule requires hospitals to post all service and treatment prices on their websites in detail. The regulation is aimed at giving patients an opportunity to comparison shop and get an idea of how much care costs upfront.
* Herald-Whig | Miller skipping State of the Union: Miller released a statement Monday saying she wouldn’t attend President Joe Biden’s speech Tuesday as a “protest of Joe Biden’s record of lying to the American people.”
* Green Market Report | Curaleaf Employees Asks for Class Action Status Over Stolen Tips: Employees allege that store managers pocketed more than $125,000 in stolen tip jar money. Four dispensary employees asked an Illinois judge to certify a class in their suit against Curaleaf Holdings (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) alleging that MSO store managers pocketed more than $125,000 in stolen tip jar money meant for workers.
* Politico | House divided: The megadonor couple battling in the GOP’s civil war: The RNC contest is only the most recent party fight that has seen the husband-and-wife duo land on opposite sides. After Liz Uihlein came out in support of former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in the 2022 Wisconsin governor’s race, Dick Uihlein released a public statement praising rival Kevin Nicholson as an “outsider” who “can shake things up.” And while Dick bankrolled bomb-throwing conservative Josh Mandel in last year’s Ohio Senate primary, Liz financed two other candidates — one of whom, Jane Timken, was the former state party chairwoman.
* Crain’s | Cardinal Blase Cupich weighs in against proposed Chicago labor ordinance: In an unusually public move, Cupich today sent a letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot and all 50 aldermen asking them to oppose a pending proposal that would require Catholic Charities to sign a labor peace agreement with union officials. Such a pact wouldn’t necessarily result in staffers being unionized, but it would likely result in higher wage and related costs—costs Cupich says the archdiocese can’t afford to pay.
* Tribune | In mayor’s race, ‘Chuy’ García floats property tax relief grants while Brandon Johnson unveils public safety plan: Johnson, meanwhile, unveiled a plan Monday that he said would train 200 new police detectives from the existing rank and file, double summer employment opportunities for at-risk youth to more than 60,000 jobs and expand support for victims of crime. Those programs and increased support for homeless people and those with addictions will help curb crime, Johnson said.
* NPR Illinois | Tributes pour in for Laurence Msall, government finance expert and NPR Illinois advisory board member: “Such a loss for good government,” said Randy Eccles, NPR Illinois General Manager. “Through his years on the Illinois Issues and NPR Illinois Community Advisory Boards, he kept us focused on how to make government serve citizens better. During the multi-year budget impasse, Laurence was the first and most adamant to point out the negative impact it was having for people and organizations across the state. We will all miss his counsel.”
* Block Club | Owner Of Chicago’s J.B. Alberto’s Helps Throw World’s Largest Pizza Party, Beating Guinness Record While Helping Kids In Need: The party raised $42,090 for Make-A-Wish Oklahoma, granting eight children’s wishes, according to the news release. “It wasn’t just for the record, even though everyone had fun doing that,” said Troiano, who has owned J.B. Alberto’s since 1978. “Along the way, we raised all that money for kids who really need it, and that was the best part about it. Everybody had a great time; but at the end of the day, it was for a great cause.”
* Southern | SIU awards millions locally in one-day scholarship blitz: That journey began with the presentation of millions of dollars in scholarship to students throughout the day. Lane and a contingent of admissions and financial aid staff members from SIU surprised dozens of students with ceremonial large checks to recognize the awarding of Chancellor’s scholarships.
* NBC Sports | When White Sox pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training: White Sox pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Feb. 15. Position players join them on Feb. 20. Teams are divided into the Cactus League, which is held in Arizona, and the Grapefruit League, which is in Florida. In some cases, teams share a home facility.
* Tribune | Arson. Vandalism. Threats. Abortion clinics, abortion opponents face violence after the fall of Roe.: Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, reproductive rights organizations and anti-abortion groups alike are reporting unprecedented levels of threats, vandalism and acts of destruction. For 12 years, Carol Tobias has served as the president of the Washington -based National Right to Life. While she said groups opposing abortion have always faced threats and risked reprisal, Tobias said “the assault, the violence against pro-life facilities has greatly escalated” since the fall of Roe.
* Daily Herald | Murphy appointed assistant majority leader of Illinois Senate: “I am honored to take on the role of assistant majority leader,” Murphy said in an announcement Monday. “It’s a privilege to be entrusted to represent my colleagues in this capacity, and I look forward to working with them to advance legislation that brings positive change to our great state.”
* Sun-Times | Lemont Mayor John Egofske chosen to replace Republican Jim Durkin in state House: Lemont Mayor John Egofske was chosen Sunday to fill the 82nd District Illinois House seat left vacant by last month’s resignation of former House Republican Leader Jim Durkin. Egofske, who will continue to serve as mayor, said he intends to use his experience as a municipal leader and certified public accountant to address economic and quality-of-life issues while in the state Legislature.
* Chicago Reader | How Chicago fell for crypto: Via Freedom of Information Act requests, the Reader obtained more than 2,100 such complaints that Illinois residents filed with the FTC and other regulatory agencies between January 2017 and June 2022. Complainants alleged that they lost more than $45 million to cryptocurrency scams. In 2022, multiple major cryptocurrency entities toppled, including Voyager, Celsius, BlockFi, and FTX, the latter of which had an office in the West Loop.
* WAND | Illinois State Police expands crisis intervention training: The Illinois State Police is rolling out 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team training for all ISP officers starting this month. ISP said CIT programs create connections between law enforcement professionals, mental health providers, families, and consumer advocates.
* Crain’s | Vallas speaks at FOP event amid criticism from mayoral opponents: Paul Vallas was speaking at a luncheon Monday for retired police officers alongside the controversial head of Chicago’s largest police union as other candidates for mayor continue to attack him as too conservative for Chicago. Vallas was to speak at an 11 a.m. lunch at La Villa restaurant and banquet hall on the city’s Northwest Side.
* Streets Blog Chicago | The dogs used for CTA’s $31M K-9 unit contract are basically very expensive decoys: Last August 22, the CTA announced it had inked a $31 million contract with a private security firm to provide up to 50 K-9 teams, consisting of two unarmed guards and a dog, to patrol the ‘L’ system. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to find out exactly what the purpose of the dogs is, and the transit agency has been stonewalling me.
* The Triibe | Is Chuy out of step with the progressive movement? Black and brown leaders weigh in: The People’s Unity Platform is a multi-racial coalition of neighborhood community organizations and labor unions that have worked on issues such as violence prevention, public health and safety, housing, public education, environmental quality, community safety and worker’s rights. Some groups under the platform’s umbrella are GoodKids MadCity, Chicago Torture Justice Center, Defund CPD, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Treatment Not Trauma and Grassroots Collaborative, to name a few.
* WAND | Budzinski announces Decatur resident as first State of the Union guest: Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski announced her guest for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address will be Andrea Kelly of Decatur. Kelly is a graduate of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) pre-apprenticeship program currently working as a Construction Wireman.
* Press Release | Faraci responds to resignation of two University of Illinois Board of Trustees: “My hope is that the governor will put forth candidates for the appointments who not only reflect the diversity of our community, but understand the needs and priorities of the University of Illinois and our region,” Faraci said. “The University of Illinois provides students with an excellent education and serves as an economic driver for the state. We need to ensure our board is made up of trustees that will make decisions to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff.”
* Crain’s | 50 aldermen may be 40 too many. Here’s why.: “One City, 50 Wards: Does the City That Works Actually Work?“, a joint series from Crain’s Chicago Business and the University of Chicago Center for Effective Government, explores the connections between how Chicago’s city government is designed, how it functions, and how it performs.
* AP | ChatGPT bot channels history to pen State of Union speech: If you’ve heard it once in a president’s State of the Union speech, you’ve heard it 100 times: There is nothing the American people can’t do when they pull together. But you haven’t heard that thought in a State of Union address from William Shakespeare: “Lo,” said the bard. “With kindness, love, and understanding clear, we shall conquer all, and have naught to fear.”
* Eater | A Chicago Hotel Hopes Augmented Reality Doesn’t Bite: Le Petit Chef at Fairmont Chicago utilizes augmented reality (AR) to digitally project animated characters, settings, and foods right onto tables and plates. Diners experience a five-course dinner while an eponymous 2 ½-inch-tall chef (yes, like in Ratatouille) appears in 3D to prepare the meals while whisking them away across time and space to tell the story of the meal’s history and ingredients.
* NBC Chicago | Art Institute Announces New Salvador Dalí Exhibit Coming This Month: Salvador Dalí: The Image Disappears is scheduled to run from Feb. 18 to June 2. Art Institute members will be able to preview the show on Feb. 17. The collection features 25 paintings, drawings, and surrealist objects created by Dalí at the height of his career.
* Vox | Is CBD in trouble?: The limited research into the medical benefits and risks of CBD doesn’t support most of these cure-all assertions. But CBD’s rise in popularity — which began exploding in 2019 due to a confluence of consumer trends, including a boom in herbal supplements and the spread of marijuana legalization — was bolstered by the coronavirus pandemic as people sought out ways to alleviate the unique stresses of recent years. US sales reached $4.17 billion in 2022, and forecasts predicted that the market could quadruple by 2026.
* Nun who ‘made the disabled visible’ retires from the Archdiocese of Chicago: A native of Montana, Harrington’s father was injured as a mine worker. She said her first memory at 4 years old was holding up orange juice for her father. “From then on, you know, you knew if somebody couldn’t do stuff, you had to step up,” she said. Harrington continued to step up to help those who needed it, and when a priest needed assistance in bringing disabled parishioners to Mass, Harrington jumped on that opportunity.
* WGN | Indiana Senate passes bill to legalize throwing stars: Senate Bill 77 “actually came from a constituent who owns a putt-putt golf course called Ninja Golf,” explained Rogers. “Nearly everyone that I spoke with said, ‘Hey, look, if we can throw axes, we can certainly throw throwing stars.’”
* Kinda old (January 27 to Feb 2) IZQ Strategies poll…
Paul Vallas - 25%
Brandon Johnson - 15%
Lori Lightfoot - 12%
Chuy Garcia - 12%
Willie Wilson - 11%
Kam Buckner - 5%
Sophia King - 2%
Ja’Mal Green - 2%
Roderick T. Sawyer - 1%
Undecided - 16%
Crosstabs show Vallas was getting 37% of White voters, 21% of Latino voters and 10% of Black voters. Brandon Johnson was backed by 18% of White voters, 5% of Latino voters and 16% of Black voters. Garcia got 14% of White voters, 25% of Latino voters and just 5% of Black voters. Lightfoot had 7% of White voters, 6% of Latino voters and 22% of Black voters. Memo here.
* But rather than focus on the somewhat dated horse race numbers, let’s look at some other toplines…
Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of these public figures?
JB Pritzker 65% Favorable, 33% Unfavorable
Lori Lightfoot 26% Favorable, 72% Unfavorable
Jesús “Chuy” García 44% Favorable, 41% Unfavorable
Brandon Johnson 35% Favorable, 20% Unfavorable
Paul Vallas 46% Favorable, 31% Unfavorable
Chicago Teachers Union 57% Favorable, 40% Unfavorable
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police 35% Favorable, 55% Unfavorable
Chicago Police Department 56% Favorable, 44% Unfavorable
From the crosstabs, CTU’s unfavorables with Black voters were 29% (66% favorable), FOP’s Black unfavorables were 69% (20% favorable) and CPD’s were 49%.
Whites also had favorable views of CTU (57-42) and had negative views of FOP7 (35-55). Latino voters were split evenly on CTU while the majority had a favorable view of FOP7 (55-29).
Black voters were evenly split on CPD, while White (54-45) and Latino (62-37) voters had favorable views.
Shall the City of Chicago reopen all of the closed Chicago Department of Public Health mental health centers in support of a city-wide crisis response program that dispatches mental health professionals and an EMT to mental health emergency calls instead of police officers?
Yes - 82%
No - 18%
Some policymakers in Chicago are proposing reforms that would reassign certain duties currently handled by the police department to another agency. These include reassigning traffic enforcement and certain 911 calls — related to homelessness, mental health, minor crime, and substance abuse — to unarmed civil officers, social workers, and EMTs. Police would still respond to situations that involve serious felonies or significant acts of violence.
Support - 74%
Oppose - 19%
The crosstabs show that both questions were backed by wide margins in every demographic tested.
The “crime” issue is just not as simple as it may appear to some.
1,040 likely Chicago voters using SMS responses, poll conducted in both English and Spanish, MoE was ±3 percentage points.
[Curaleaf Executive Chairman Boris Jordan] asserted that it’s not the idea of social justice that irritates him; it’s the execution of the programs in several states.
“We’re all for social justice and recognize that this industry has been built on some pretty horrific stories from the past,” he admitted, but said the programs in more liberal states – he lists California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania in this category – have gone off the rails to hide financial problems in the programs.
“They went off on these programs, and we’re going to give these assets to felons and people that have two heads and all this kind of stuff,” he lamented.
But, he warns, sooner or later, these states will need more tax revenue from cannabis operators, and to get that, the programs will have to change.
60-30-1, and those numbers ain’t there for you, bub.
Oil refineries are discharging toxic pollutants into our waterways and the Great Lakes with little oversight from regulators.
Three of the very worst polluters are refineries right here in the Chicago area — BP’s Whiting Refinery in Indiana, Exxon Mobil’s Joliet refinery, and Citgo’s refinery in Lemont.
That’s the finding of a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit group that advocates for enforcement of environmental law that analyzed toxic discharge data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Most of the pollution from refineries isn’t subject to any federal standards at all under the Clean Water Act, which is pretty alarming since the Clean Water Act is more than 50 years old,” said Eric Schaeffer, co-founder and executive director at the Environmental Integrity Project. “The few federal standards that we have apply only to a subset of pollutants. They don’t cover some of the more dangerous toxins that refineries discharge. They don’t cover nitrogen, they don’t cover sulfates and chlorides. … And so, not surprisingly, there’s a lot of that pollution coming out of refineries and Illinois has some of the worst in terms of the pollutants we looked at.” […]
Democratic state Rep. Ann Williams, who currently chairs the Energy and Environment Committee in the Illinois General Assembly, described the report as “concerning.”
“I thought the report was really well done and it does seem to me like everything kind of falls into two categories,” said Williams. “First of all, do we need — and it certainly seems like the answer is ‘yes’ — to update our emissions standards for waterways on a federal level, number one? And number two, are we adequately enforcing the regulations that we do have? And that applies at both the state and federal level.”
The report found that together these refineries injected over 1.8 million pounds of dissolved metals into Illinois waterways in 2021 alone, with the Phillips 66 plant also discharging close to 69 million pounds of dissolved sulfates and chlorides. But despite the high levels of wastewater contamination, it’s unlikely that any of the refineries’ corporate owners will face consequences for their polluting any time soon, much less change how they operate.
How can they, when multiple state, county and municipal authorities say they have no power over how the refineries’ environmental impact?
“There’s no real environmental regulations at the county level,” said Mike Theodore, Director of Communications for the Will County Executive. “The county doesn’t have any regulatory power there.” […]
Theodore and Juday’s claim was echoed by multiple other authorities Courthouse News reached out to, including mayors, representatives from state and county public health departments, and local public administrators. All said that authority over the offending refineries rested with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Problem is, the Illinois EPA isn’t going to do anything about it either.
“With respect to Exxon Mobil’s Joliet refinery, Illinois EPA reviewed the… data carefully and further discussed with USEPA the nature and significance of the data,” an IEPA spokesperson said in a prepared statement. “That review and follow up discussion… did not indicate enforcement since the data did not show exceedances of monthly averages.”
The statement did not specify what “monthly averages” meant in terms of wastewater pollutant discharge. The IEPA did not respond to requests for clarification on this point. However, the same statement did make it clear that the agency is not overly concerned with selenium in the Chicagoland area’s drinking water either.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has seized on DeSantis’s latest culture-warring — Florida’s decision to ban an Advanced Placement course in African American studies — to articulate a contrasting vision for what topics should be permitted in classrooms. […]
In coming months, Pritzker will grow more vocal on this front, a source familiar with his thinking tells me. He will amplify the case that restricting classroom topics works against kids’ interests and risks stunting intellectual growth, and that a more open approach sharpens their arguments and thinking, making them more competitive in the quest for higher education.
Pritzker will also argue that Illinois prides itself on refraining from the kind of directives that seem designed to encourage school libraries to remove books to avoid running afoul of the law.
As the source told me, the message will be: “Illinois doesn’t ban books.”
* The governor was asked today at a business-related event: “How does [the above article] square with the focus on your next four years as governor here in Illinois versus these national controversies?”…
Well, I think broadcasting our values here in Illinois is good for the state of Illinois. That we are opposed to banning books in the state of Illinois is something that people ought to know about us. That we are not interfering with the education system in the state and the way that a teacher presents, you know, their information to their classroom, their kids, you know, that we are, we’re lifting up education, we’re not tearing it down. And other states are doing that. And I think that, whether we’re talking about businesses that are thinking about moving here, or people that are thinking about moving here, people are choosing not to go to those states where they’re restricting freedoms, and instead coming to Illinois where we’re protecting.
Please pardon all transcription errors.
* Asked if he was concerned about restrictions in Illinois…
I am. I think you see it in some of the school board candidates and library board candidates that are running, that, you know, there are organizations that are anti-LGBTQ, that are racist, they’re anti Muslim, that are supporting candidates for these local boards. And they’re trying to take over at a local level, and build up candidates at the local level that they can run, then run for the state legislature and for other offices. And we’ve seen some of them actually elevated to running for governor. So it’s important without naming names. And it is important, I think, for people to pay attention to it, for us to elevate it to you in the media and for us to talk about it. Because number one, it’s good for the state when people outside of Illinois hear about, and number two, when people in Illinois you know when they go to the voting booth, they may not be prepared to vote for candidates for school board or library board. And they need to be. They need to know that these people, some of the people who are running are actually part of these organizations trying to restrict freedoms.
* Told the Republicans are pushing candidates and asked whether the Democrats have a plan and are putting resources into the races…
We are supporting candidates that are standing up for freedom.
I’ve seen lots of Pritzker aldermanic endorsements, but not any in school board races. No money, either. And I don’t recall receiving anything from the state party on that specific topic.
Your thoughts on this?
…Adding… Meanwhile, the Illinois Policy Institute has a “Parents Union” group that is focusing on elections and has some real winners posting there…
* Equality Illinois CEO Brian Johnson gave the audience a history lesson at the group’s annual gala Saturday night. From Johnson’s remarks as prepared for delivery…
I want to start this evening by telling you the story of Albert Cashier, who served in Illinois’ 95th Regiment during the Civil War. […]
Cashier fought in the heart of the deep South – in the Battles of Atlanta, Vicksburg, and Natchez – where thousands of soldiers died. His lieutenant remarked about his “bravery, courage and patriotism” during these terrible battles.
After the war – he spent decades working odd jobs, even working for a state Senator, and collecting a veteran’s pension.
In 1911, when he was 66 years old, he suffered a workplace injury and was sent to the Illinois veterans home in Quincy.
While living here, more of his identity was discovered. Albert Cashier had been assigned female at birth. He was moved to an asylum where he was forced to wear women’s clothing.
But months before he died in 1915, a hospital physician took Cashier to a parade for Union veterans where the physician dressed him in his old Union uniform and he walked proudly through the streets of Moline as his true self.
You see, LGBTQ+ people have always been a part of the fabric of Illinois.
Ours is the story of soldiers like Albert Cashier and the estimated 1,000 other trans men who fought in the Civil War.
Ours is the story of Chicagoan Jane Addams – the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize who lived with her love Mary Rozet Smith.
Ours is the story of Henry Gerber who 99 years ago founded the nation’s first queer rights organization – the Society for Human Rights –here in Chicago.
Ours is the story of Alfred Finnie who hosted the famous Finnie Halloween Balls in Bronzeville from the 1930s through the 1950s. At these balls – which were feted in national magazines like Ebony & Jet – drag was celebrated.
Why do I share this with you? You see, anti-family; anti-equality hate is on the rise; fueled by local groups like the Proud Boys and Awake Illinois and emboldened by national political leaders like Ron DeSantis. They peddle the lie that we LGBTQ+ people are a recent abomination whose stories must be purged from the public square. They want to rewrite our nation’s history. They try to shout us down at School Board meetings, they show up with guns at our Pride festivals, and they call us groomers for merely wanting to see our families represented and our kids honored.
Let me be clear. We are not new. Our demands for justice are not new. We have been here since before the founding of Illinois and our aspirations that our dignity will be recognized have been here as long as we have.
So to Awake Illinois, Ron DeSantis, and all the other hatemongers, I say buckle up; because we’re not going anywhere!
* Background is here if you need it. From the back and forth late last week over Paul Vallas’ record…
Vallas has tied his personal opposition to abortion to his Greek Orthodox faith.
But he has emphatically insisted he is firmly committed to upholding a woman’s right to choose while maintaining Chicago’s role as a safe haven for women who have been descending on the city since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
As evidence, Vallas pointed to statements he made and the endorsements he received from Planned Parenthood and Personal PAC while running for governor in 2002 and lieutenant governor in 2014 as a Democrat.
Garcia doesn’t buy it.
“His words and his likeness speak clearer than anything else about where he stands on issues. He said he ‘fundamentally opposes abortion.’ Not sometimes opposes abortion. Not in certain circumstances. He said ‘fundamentally’ he opposes abortion. Chicagoans deserve to know that,” Garcia said.
Chicago has a choice. Paul Vallas, a lifelong Democrat who will bring accountability to City Hall. Protecting our values. Ensuring Chicago is a safe haven for women whose abortion rights are denied in other states. Putting your safety first. Enforcing the governor’s assault weapons ban. And confronting the violence that threatens our neighborhoods. Paul Vallas will hold our police department and everyone at city hall, including himself, accountable. Paul Vallas, accountability. Protecting our values. Putting crime and your safety first.
Man, that ad really clicks a lot of the right boxes for that race.
* When the Sun-Times asked candidates: “Would you earmark annual funding to support Chicagoans or visitors seeking abortion and other reproductive health care?” Vallas was one of two candidates who said “No,” but clarified…
“I would provide funding through the general appropriation process. The money can be decided through regular budget processes.”
State records show that Dan Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC spent almost $36 million during the second half of 2022, mostly on advertising boosting Sen. Darren Bailey’s gubernatorial bid and opposing Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Of that, $2.4 million was spent on consulting. Former ABC-7 political reporter Charles Thomas was paid $100,000 in two $50,000 installments. Thomas appeared in some of Proft’s ads praising Bailey.
Tyrone Muhammed, the controversial founder of Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, which bills itself as a violence interruption group, was paid $250,000 for consulting work.
Proft’s Starfish Consulting was also a recipient of almost $535,000.
But the highest-paid consultant for Proft’s PAC during the last six months of 2022 was a Chicago company called Salvo Page LLC, which got $800,000, plus another $111,000 for website services.
Salvo Page is not registered as a company with the state of Illinois. The only campaign payments to the company disclosed to the state were made by Proft’s People Who Play by the Rules PAC. Google searches turn up nothing. Proft did not respond to repeated requests for comment over several days.
A search of Salvo Page’s Chicago address on the State Board of Election’s website turned up a clue.
Salvo Page shares a Chicago street address with Pipeline Media. The Columbia Journalism Review’s Tow Center has done extensive reporting on Pipeline and similar companies. According to that reporting, the company is run by Brian Timpone, a longtime Proft associate. I wasn’t able to reach Timpone.
Richard Uihlein, who was the principal funder of Bailey’s campaign via Proft’s PAC as well as some direct contributions, controls a committee called Restoration PAC, which paid Pipeline and an affiliate company well over $1 million last year for various services, CJR’s Tow Center reported last October.
And that brings us to Republican Illinois attorney general candidate Tom DeVore.
When DeVore busted the campaign contribution caps in his race last August with a $250,00 personal loan to his campaign committee, some thought he might be opening the door to large contributions, perhaps from the billionaire Uihlein.
Instead, all DeVore really did was allow Democratic incumbent Kwame Raoul to take a $1 million contribution from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign fund — $940,100 more than Pritzker could’ve contributed had the contribution caps been in place. A few labor organizations also contributed sums slightly above the previous cap limit of $59,900, but it wasn’t much.
DeVore received a $10,000 contribution from James Hoeg in late October, which was $4,000 more than he would’ve been able to receive had it not been for the caps being lifted (Hoeg, by the way, recently contributed $50,000 to Paul Vallas’ Chicago mayoral campaign).
DeVore also received a $50,000 contribution in late September from the Anthony Marano Company, which sells produce to Chicago-area restaurants. The contribution was $38,000 above the by-then-negated limit.
And that’s it. $42,000 is all DeVore appears to have netted from his cap-busting loan.
There’s often an expectation when candidates loan money to their campaigns that they’ll spend most of it. Instead, DeVore reimbursed himself almost all of that cash, including a $200,000 payment on Oct. 14, even though the campaign was entering its final few weeks, and then another $15,000 the day after election day.
DeVore reported $226,072 in contributions starting the day after he loaned himself that money, which was just about $11,000 more than what DeVore reimbursed himself.
Outside of the loan repayment, DeVore reported spending less than $142,000 in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31. By contrast, Raoul reported spending almost $1.9 million in the same quarter.
DeVore spent just $8,642.98 on advertising during the fourth quarter. Raoul reported spending almost $1.7 million.
In other words, DeVore did not run a campaign designed to win. But we pretty much knew that during the campaign itself. He got thumped by Raoul.
DeVore did manage to elevate and give voice to some folks on the far right. Shannon Adcock was a significant DeVore contributor, kicking in $2,500 during September. Adcock is one of the founders of Awake Illinois, a far-right group that opposed pandemic mandates in schools that has since morphed into firing up moral panic over gay and trans people in schools, libraries and coffee shops. Vallas spoke at one of her events.
DeVore is now busily lining up clients to fund a third lawsuit against the state’s assault weapons ban at $200 a person. He raised more than half a million dollars with that same flat fee to fund his first two suits.
Maybe we need a law that prohibits campaigns from paying businesses that aren’t registered with any state.
* This is a massive failure on every level. The unions who chose to set up this committee instead of contributing directly to what turned out to be some pretty well-run Supreme Court races failed. Harmon’s operation failed. The State Board of Elections failed. The Republicans failed for not noticing the lack of reporting. And, more importantly, those of us in the news media failed to see it and call it out in real time. Here’s Ray Long and Rick Pearson…
A political committee, funded in part by Senate President Don Harmon’s campaign that helped expand the Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court, failed to file timely campaign reports as required by state law and didn’t disclose the bulk of its $7.3 million in spending until after the election.
The committee — All for Justice — spent heavily on television ads in support of winning Democratic Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien. The commercials painted Republican opponents as virulent anti-abortion candidates, politically potent attacks given the U.S. Supreme Court decision that sent the issue of abortion rights to the states only months earlier.
The failure of All for Justice to follow the disclosure guidelines mandated by state election law obscured its pro-Democratic spending in the critical months preceding the November races in which the partisan balance of the Illinois Supreme Court was up for grabs.
“It’s amazing,” said Kent Redfield, an Illinois campaign finance expert and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. “It denied the public, the news media and the people who participated in the campaigns full knowledge of what’s going on.”
Unreal.
Also, as subscribers know, All for Justice was forced off Chicago broadcast TV near the end of the campaign because they messed up their ad buys.
* Bond Buyer | Illinois reverses decade-long fiscal tide in interim 2022 audit: The state’s net position of governmental activities, which covers government services and tax collections and provides a deeper view of the state’s assets measured against debts and other obligations remained deep in the red at a negative $185.4 billion but it was improved from fiscal 2021’s $199.2 billion deficit.
* Sun-Times | Pritzker sets aside $40 million for industrial growth:A spokesman for Pritzker was asked if the Chicago Bears could apply for their proposed stadium and associated development in Arlington Heights. He said the Megasites program is limited to industrial development.
* SJ-R | From repealing the weapons ban to no smoking here are five new bills lawmakers introduced: Through House Bill 1564, Republicans seek to repeal several provisions of the Protect Illinois Communities Act — signed into law as Public Act 102-1116 by Pritzker during the lame-duck session. Specifically, the bill from state Rep. Dave Severin, R-Benton, would remove the act’s language that prevents an individual’s ability to “knowingly possess an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge,” as of Jan. 1, 2024.
* SJ-R | Ameren Illinois cites clean energy act, COVID-19, war for electric, gas rate hike request: The Illinois Commerce Commission will review the requests for a $160.4 million gas rate hike over a year and a four-year $435.6 million electric increase. The reasons for the requests are multi-fold, Ameren communications director Tucker Kennedy said Thursday. It partially stems from a requirement in the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, a green energy package that puts the state on track to be 100% carbon-free with its energy sources by 2050.
* NPR | At least 30 minutes of recess is now required at Illinois elementary schools: The 30-minute recess law passed in 2021. Surprisingly, the recess requirement was somewhat divisive. It only passed 60-52 in the Illinois House of Representatives. Most of the “nays” were from Republican lawmakers, but a handful of Democrats voted “no” too. That’s mostly because they were concerned about two things. One, will schools be able to staff that much recess time? And two: will schools be able to fit that extra time into an already very-structured school day without sacrificing academics?
* Daily Beast | The Democratic Party’s Tortured Relationship With Corporate PAC Money: Republicans, meanwhile, aren’t sweating this question. Of the more than 70 politicians who ran for Congress last year with a “no corporate PAC money” pledge, all but a few were Democrats. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) have all sworn off corporate PAC donations. But for Senators Cruz and Hawley, that’s because corporate PACs have sworn them off, after their support for overturning the 2020 election.
* News-Gazette | Strapped city officials look to state for pension bailout: No one has ever accused Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot of being a shrinking violet. She seems to court trouble going out of her way to attack those she perceives as her political opponents. But Lightfoot recently topped her previous political performances by taking the statewide stage and urging the financially struggling state of Illinois to bail out underfunded municipal pension funds, including those in Chicago.
* Tribune | Civic Federation chief Laurence Msall dies at 61: Msall, whose gentlemanly demeanor and thoughtful speaking were coupled with an intense passion for budgeting and tax policy, died Saturday. He was 61. News of his death spurred a wave of reactions from many in Illinois government as well as the financial community in Chicago.
* Shaw Local | Livingston County board member chosen as Illinois state rep for 106th District : Bunting will succeed Tom Bennett, who was recently appointed to the Illinois State Senate to replace Jason Barickman. “I am honored to serve as the state representative for the 106th District,” Bunting said. “As farmers and small business owners, my family has seen firsthand how bad policies from Springfield have hurt the business climate in Illinois and have driven families and job creators away. I promise to work tirelessly to bring the conservative values of the residents of this district to Springfield.”
* Vandalia Radio | Rep Wilhour talks about widening divide between Northern & Downstate Illinois: There has always been a big divide in Illinois—with a large metropolitan area in the northern part of the state holding the majority of the state’s population. And, then the vast amount of the state being one of the leading agriculture producers in the country. But, over the past few years that divide has gotten bigger. And, the political divide has also gotten larger-with downstate being mostly Republican, but Democrats holding a super-majority in both the House and Senate. State Representative Blaine Wilhour says it is apparent there are issues.
* NPR | How the chip shortage is affecting the credit card business: It used to take seven to 10 business days to get a new credit card. Because of an ongoing chip shortage, deliveries can take almost two months, and that could be the case through the end of the year.
* Center for Illinois Politics | Three Black Justices, Five Women, Two Men: Breadth of Experience Marks Diverse Illinois Supreme Court: The depth of the state’s highest bench is far deeper than the above broad-brush descriptions convey. The court’s new chief justice is a former public defender and longtime law school professor passionate about the law’s methodical approach to solving complicated problems. One of the state’s first female Black justices worked as a nurse as she was studying to become a lawyer. Others taught English, and served multiple terms in the Illinois House of Representatives. One remains a Church of Christ Deacon.
* USA Today | A corrupt Chicago cop destroyed hundreds of lives. Now victims want justice.: Nile was among nearly 200 people who have been cleared of charges tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his Chicago Police Department team. It’s the largest series of exonerations in the city’s history, said Joshua Tepfer, a lawyer with the University of Chicago Law School’s Exoneration Project, which has represented most of the victims.
* Crain’s | Illinois weed sales picked up in January: Illinois marijuana sales started off the new year with their strongest growth in seven months. Recreational cannabis sales rose 9% in January from a year earlier to $127.9 million, according to the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation. That’s the strongest year-over-year growth since June, when marijuana sales increased 10%.
* Southern | SIU stops Missouri State with 73-53 win: SIU rejoined a four-way tie for first place atop the Missouri Valley Conference Sunday, pulling away in the last 10 minutes to stop Missouri State 73-53.
* AP | Beyoncé emerges as Grammys queen; Styles wins album honor: The Grammys spread its top awards among other artists, leaving Beyoncé off stage at the end of the night. But the superstar was a constant presence throughout the night, even when she wasn’t in the room, especially once she won her 32nd award and surpassed late composer Georg Solti in all-time wins.
* Block Club | Holy Plow! Here Are The Winning Names For Seven Chicago Snowplows: More than 7,000 possible plow names were then melted down to 50 finalists, with Chicagoans welcome to vote on winners through Jan. 31. More than 80,000 votes have been counted, according to a Friday city news release. A near-tie for sixth place means the city will dedicate a seventh plow to the people, according to the city.
* Sun-Times | Shame on Illinois’ ‘Orange Krush’ for foiled Iowa scheme? Only if they don’t try it again: Illinois’ “Orange Krush,” a student spirit group with a delightfully maniacal presence at home basketball games, has an annual tradition of traveling in large numbers to a Big Ten road game and, often, taking the opposing school by complete surprise. At Iowa in 2015, for example, a mobile Krush unit — stealthily clad in black and gold — climbed to their seats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, waited for the action on the court to begin and then, all at once, tore off their outermost garments to reveal their orange jerseys and go absolutely bananas for the Illini. The Hawkeyes won anyway, but still — come on — the takeover of a section of the stands was great stuff.
