* It’s December, so our annual charity fundraiser for Lutheran Social Services will begin next week, as will the Golden Horseshoe Awards. And, as always in December, every Friday ends with Christmas holiday music…
* Fran Spielman interviewed retiring Majority Leader Greg Harris, and Harris talked about the hostility he endured from his supposed allies during the push to pass a marriage equality bill…
In May 2013, Harris made the difficult and highly emotional decision to call off the House vote that would have sent the bill to then-Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk amid opposition from Catholic leaders and conservative African American ministers.
“Was that a horrible day on the House floor when I was ready to call it, then realized some of my votes were not gonna be there? Oh, yeah. Hell, it was. That was like a horrible day to be booed. There were people saying, ‘Call the bill. You’ve got to put it up there. You’ve got to make a record,’” said Harris, who choked back tears on that fateful day.
“I thought … to put up peoples’ rights for a vote and have them lose and lock votes in that might be with you on a future roll call would have been a huge mistake. It could have set us back years and years. So, we regrouped. We organized in every community. And in November, it passed. Illinois was the last state that was able to pass marriage equality legislatively.” […]
He’s not interested in Pyrrhic victories. He’s not satisfied to introduce a bill, put out a news release and watch the legislation go down in flames.
* I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s amazing how organized this is. WTTW…
A joint task force this week recovered thousands of pieces of stolen retail items, including men’s and women’s clothing, electronics, high-end food items and beauty supplies, totaling more than $1 million in value from multiple Chicago storage containers this week, law enforcement officials announced Friday.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said members of an Organized Retail Crime Task Force and the Chicago Police Department executed search warrants at eight storage units in two Chicago locations Wednesday night, where they recovered “four semitrailers of merchandise” that had been stolen from major national retailers.
“The actual operation of these organized schemes is a lot more sophisticated than might be reflected in the commonly seen smash-and-grab group thefts,” Raoul said Friday during a press conference in Chicago. “Our goal is to disrupt the criminal enterprises that engage in the overall scheme and send a message to these criminal operations that we will identify them and end the destruction they cause to our communities.”
Though officials were light on some specifics, the seizure apparently stemmed from an unrelated gun arrest. CPD Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said an officer arrested that suspect and discovered stolen items in their car. From there, a Chicago retail crime team was notified, as well as the AG’s task force and the items were eventually recovered.
* Some pics…
BREAKING
In a significant development related to my Organized Retail Crime Task Force, hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen merchandise has been recovered from several storage units.
It took eight or nine hours to get all of the goods out of the storage units, Raoul said. Pictures of the recovered merchandise don’t do justice to how much was there.
“Fifteen people spending hours unloading stuff, it’s a lot of items that were recovered,” he said.
Raoul launched his task force earlier this fall, and the recovery announced Friday was its first major bust. The task force aims to bring law enforcement officials from multiple jurisdictions and levels together with retailers and internet marketplace operators to reduce such crimes. Though retailers have long dealt with theft, these coordinated, larger incidents have escalated recently.
Nationally, dollars lost to organized retail crime topped $700,000 per $1 billion in sales in 2020, up nearly 60% since 2015, according to a recent National Retail Federation report. In Illinois, shops lost $3.7 billion to $4 billion worth of merchandise to theft last year, according to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
The bust comes as a number of smash and gran thefts continue at high-end retailers in the Chicago area.
On Thursday, Chicago police said nine people hit a Neiman Marcus store in the 700-block of North Michigan Avenue. […]
Friday morning, three suspects in a silver sedan approached a store in the Roosevelt Collection in the 1100-block of South Delano Court at about 5:55 a.m., police said. The suspects opened the door of a business and took merchandise and cash boxed before fleeingin the sedan, police said.
On Monday, thieves swarmed the Burberry store just down the street on Michigan Avenue, making off with several expensive designer purses.
* Hospitalizations are up 30 percent compared to Wednesday of last week. ICU usage is up 39 percent, ventilator usage is up 47 percent. Last Wednesday the positivity rates were 3.3 and 4.1 percent respectively, so we’re looking at 42 and 37 percent increases there. Cases are way up and the death rate is also increasing…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 42,559 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 182 additional deaths since November 26, 2021.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,835,076 cases, including 26,535 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since Friday, November 26, 2021, laboratories have reported 902,840 specimens for a total of 39,650,009. As of last night, 2,582 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 534 patients were in the ICU and 221 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from November 26 – December 2, 2021 is 4.7%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from November 26 – December 2, 2021 is 5.6%.
A total of 17,508,319 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 54,387 doses. Since Friday, November 26, 2021, 380,710 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, approximately 69% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 61% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Approximately 36% of Illinois’ eligible adults have received a booster dose of vaccine.
All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
Get your shots, people. And wear your masks indoors.
In 2018, the 6½ suburban counties around Chicago cast a total of 2.1 million votes; those in the 95 counties “downstate” cast 1.5 million.
Not sure why he didn’t include the city, where Bruce Rauner received 135,028 votes in the general election.
Whatever. The column prompted me to run the 2018 numbers. In the 2018 general election, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties accounted for 64 percent of the total vote and Downstate made up 36 percent. In the 2018 Republican primary, those counties were 47 percent of the total vote, with Downstate voters comprising 53 percent of the electorate.
This is the basic hurdle that all statewide Republican hopefuls have to overcome. It ain’t easy to do both.
* With that in mind, check out what Sen. Bailey is promoting on social media…
Bailey, who with his wife, Cindy, founded a preschool-through-12th-grade Christian school in southern Illinois, also touched on education during the two-hour rally.
“Public education is under attack,” he said. “My friends, we need to get back to public education.”
Bailey also made a push for people to become election judges.
“Is there election fraud? Yes,” he said. “That’s why everyone of us should be election judges.”
Um, OK.
* Point and counterpoint…
* Now with video…
“Governor of Chicago” JB Pritzker is perfectly content to rule for the wealthy few. Growing up in Central Illinois, I always felt like our politicians never saw the rest of us outside of Chicago. I will be the governor for all Illinoisans.@GovPritzkerpic.twitter.com/51RM939ejL
I think the ideal GOP [gubernatorial] candidate would be a credible, law-and-order prosecutor (think Jim Thompson in the 1970s), because law and order will be a leading issue in 2022. Suburbanites are scared witless by the violence in the city.
Lacking such, or a consolidation of Sullivan, Schimpf, Rabine into one candidacy, Bailey wins the primary, at least as of right now. But in the November general election, Bailey would likely be the darling of downstate, while falling flat in the ’burbs, winning an enthusiastic 40 percent of the total vote.
So, a possible doofus at the top [for US Senate], with Bailey just below, could spell disaster for other races down the long ballot, because of depressed GOP turnout. For example, I have an interest in two, important Illinois Supreme Court races, located in mostly suburban districts. But voters do not go to the polls, or not, because of unknown Supreme Court candidates. Thus, these competitive races, found at the very bottom of the ticket, could be determined at the top of the ballot.
Illinois GOP leaders should get on their knees to top-drawer citizens who might be willing, out of a sense of noblesse oblige, to take on a likely losing U.S. Senate race, and hope that a candidate who can appeal in the suburbs will emerge from the gubernatorial primary.
One thing he’s ignoring is the national mood, which tends to drive turnout more than individual candidates. But his scenario could help undermine any expected GOP midterm wave.
“The real pandemic in Illinois … is the violence that we’re facing here on the streets of Chicago and now spreading all throughout the state,” state Sen. Darren Bailey, a farmer from downstate Xenia and one of four announced GOP candidates for governor, said during a recent stop in Woodlawn on Chicago’s South Side.
Confronting Democrats on crime is a strategy Republicans have employed for decades, notably when George H.W. Bush used the early release of Willie Horton, a Massachusetts murderer who went on to commit other crimes, to paint Michael Dukakis as soft on crime in the 1988 presidential campaign.
But rather than inciting fear to motivate voters as was the case then, Republicans say they are addressing real concerns over rising crime in the city and in the suburbs.
Itasca plan commissioners admitted they underestimated public interest in a proposed addiction treatment center when a crowd representing 16% of the town’s population packed their meeting Wednesday night.
More than 1,300 people jammed the gym and cafeteria at Peacock Junior High School, forcing commissioners to postpone the hearing so village officials can find a venue large enough for an energized opposition group.
Demonstrators marched earlier Wednesday evening through downtown Itasca to pressure a Chicago nonprofit group to abandon plans to convert a hotel into a 200-bed drug and alcohol treatment center.
For months, resistance against the Haymarket Center proposal in the town of 8,700 has taken the form of yard signs, social media outrage, letter campaigns and matching blue T-shirts.
Founded almost 45 years ago, the nonprofit treatment provider is making its second attempt at opening a rehab facility in DuPage County to help meet what advocates say is a rising demand for services. Almost 100 people died from overdoses in DuPage last year. Nearly 2,000 residents from DuPage and other collar counties also were patients at Haymarket clinics from 2017 to 2018.
But Haymarket faced “not in my backyard” protests against a smaller-scale plan to operate a 16-bed satellite program in Wheaton.
More than a year after Wheaton’s city council denied their request, Haymarket leaders told Itasca officials they wanted to buy the Holiday Inn to house hundreds of patients with substance abuse disorders.
Haymarket is now meeting staunch opposition from Itasca residents who maintain their primary concerns have to do with tax revenue loss from a tax-exempt organization replacing the hotel and the potential burden placed on the village’s police and ambulance service.
More than two years after the Haymarket drug treatment center’s initial proposal to build a large rehab in Itasca was greeted with intense protest, the Village Board formally turned down the plan in a unanimous vote Tuesday.
The decision, which drew restrained applause from residents in the meeting room, came as little surprise following steady criticism from officials who say the town of 9,000 can’t afford the projected public safety costs from the 240-bed facility, meant to be housed in a former Holiday Inn hotel. […]
The story is likely not over just yet. Haymarket’s attorney said in an earlier presentation that a rejection would violate federal civil rights laws that protect people recovering from addiction, and president and CEO Dan Lustig suggested after the vote that a legal challenge might be coming.
“These types of issues might have to play (themselves) out in a court of law,” he said. “I think it’s really where important decisions like this really belong.”
We are writing to inform you that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois has initiated an investigation of the Village of Itasca for compliance with the requirements of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”).1 Among other things, the ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including individuals with substance use disorder.
Pursuant to our authority under the ADA, the investigation is related to the zoning application of Haymarket DuPage LLC (“Haymarket DuPage”) filed with the Village of Itasca to use property to operate a treatment center for individuals with substance use and behavioral health disorders.
The Haymarket drug treatment center’s more-than-two-year attempt to open a rehab in Itasca took another turn Thursday when officials said U.S. Attorney John Lausch has launched an investigation into whether the village’s rejection of the center was in keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mayor Jeff Pruyn released a letter Lausch sent last week, in which he announced the probe and noted that the ADA protects people with disabilities — including substance use disorder — from discrimination. […]
Lausch asked village officials to produce a raft of documents within the next 30 days, including zoning bylaws, internal emails related to Haymarket and any relevant communications with the local fire protection district and school systems.
When asked for comment, Haymarket leaders released a brief statement and directed any other questions to the U.S. attorney’s office.
“We welcome an investigation,” Haymarket President and CEO Dan Lustig said.
The issue of ADA compliance was raised in a June 2020 letter to village attorneys from Access Living, a Chicago-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.
Two attorneys for the group said Haymarket should have been allowed to seek a special-use permit to operate as a health care facility..
Police and fire pension costs for DeKalb, Illinois, use up about 20% of general fund revenue, up from 10% in 2014, city manager Bill Nicklas said in an interview. The entire property tax levy for the city’s proposed 2022 budget will go toward the two pension funds and some more revenue from sales taxes may be tapped for the retirement system payments, he said.
“Of the options that are out there, consolidation seems to be a good place to begin,” Nicklas said.
But underscoring how difficult this shift is, the DeKalb Police Pension Fund doesn’t agree with city officials and is listed as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“I don’t think many of us trust the government of Illinois to handle our money given their history,” said Jim Kayes, president of the DeKalb Police Pension Fund board, in an interview.
Yeah, OK. The reason they’re paying such higher pension costs in DeKalb now is because they let their unfunded liability get to 53 percent.
Also, the above-mentioned lawsuit filed by a handful of local pension fiefdoms against the state’s massive consolidation law seems a bit off…
The lawsuit claims that the law takes away the plaintiffs’ local authority and “diminishes and impairs the pension benefits” to which they are entitled. Illinois’ constitution bans any reduction in worker retirement benefits. […]
The state said in a filing in reply that Illinois’s constitution protects the payments that retirees are entitled to, but that doesn’t extend to areas like choosing the entity that manages the retirement plan.
President Biden on Thursday announced new testing protocols for international travelers and extended masking requirements through March as the U.S. prepares to fight the Omicron variant this winter.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked yesterday if he favored that extension…
We have an indoor mask requirement in the state of Illinois and so we’re not lifting that now. Especially not now. I’ve said all along that when I want it lifted is when we start seeing hospitalizations really plunge. We’re not seeing that, it’s going up, in fact, every day.
In light of the Omicron variant and increasing COVID-19 numbers, Governor JB Pritzker says Illinois’ mask mandate is staying in place for now.
“We have an indoor mask requirement in the state of Illinois and we’re not lifting that, especially not now,” Pritzker said.
As of Thursday, COVID metrics continued to surge across Illinois with over 11,500 cases reported in the last 24 hours. That’s an increase from just over 6,000 the day before.
According to a Chicago Tribune analysis, the surge is predominantly being felt by the unvaccinated.
Because of the vaccine, cases aren’t as important as hospitalizations, which are soaring among the unvaxxed, but that’s beside the point of this particular post.
The office of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) asked the state health department on Nov. 1 to study how mask mandates affected COVID-19 numbers in the state, and the health department responded Nov. 3 that its analysis found they saved lives and reduced the spread of the coronavirus. But that analysis wasn’t made public until nonprofit news organizations obtained it through a public records request, The New York Times reports.
The Missouri Independent reported Wednesday that the health department’s analysis found lower infection and death rates in the four areas of Missouri with mask mandates — St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City, and Jackson County — from the end of April until the end of October, the peak of the state’s Delta wave.
There are a number of variables that affect infection and death numbers, but “I think we can say with great confidence reviewing the public health literature and then looking at the results in your study that communities where masks were required had a lower positivity rate per 100,000 and experienced lower death rates,” state Health Department director Donald Kauerauf told Parson in a Nov. 3 email obtained by the Independent.
The Independent’s analysis found that the “masked” areas had 15.8 new COVID-19 cases a day for every 100,000 residents, versus 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents in the areas with no mask mandates, and less frequent deaths.
The study looked at the period from April to October, when the Delta variant was driving an increase in coronavirus infections worldwide.
During that time frame, there were 15.8 cases per day for every 100,000 residents, on average, in the areas that required masks, compared with 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents in unmasked communities, according to The Missouri Independent’s analysis of the data. Regions without mask requirements recorded one death per 100,000 residents every 3.5 days, compared with one death per 100,000 residents every five days where masks were required, The Missouri Independent said.
Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, has said he supports wearing masks to slow the spread of Covid-19, but he has repeatedly spoken out against mask requirements. In July, he said on Twitter that issuing mask mandates while a vaccine is available eroded public trust. “The vaccine is how we rid ourselves of COVID-19, not mask mandates that ignore common sense,” Mr. Parson wrote.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday, Mr. Parson reiterated his opposition to mask mandates and said the requirements “infringe on our personal liberties.”
Attorney General Eric Schmitt has gone a step further, suing St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Jackson County to block enforcement of their mask mandates.
“Jackson County has imposed an unlawful, arbitrary, and capricious mask mandate that is not supported by the data or the science,” the opening sentence to Schmitt’s lawsuit against Jackson County states.
Schmitt has also sued Columbia Public Schools for instituting mask mandates.
The state’s analysis backs up St. Louis’ push to keep its mask mandate, said Nick Dunne, spokesman for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.
“More than anything it confirms for us what our public health experts have been saying, that masks are an effective tool for reducing community transmission,” Dunne said.
Not supported by data or the science?
* Check out the Missouri death rate comparison between mask-mandated areas (in blue) and no mandate (in orange)…
The BMJ, a global health care publisher, released a massive review Thursday that analyzed 72 studies from around the world to evaluate how non-pharmaceutical health measures reduced cases of COVID-19. Researchers found measures like hand-washing, wearing masks and physical distancing significantly reduced incidences of COVID-19. […]
But public health prevention strategies have also been shown to be beneficial in fighting respiratory infections. Researchers found that wearing a mask could reduce COVID-19 incidence by 53 percent.
One experiment across 200 countries showed 45.7 percent fewer COVID-19 related deaths in countries where mask wearing was mandatory, according to the study. In the U.S., one study reported a 29 percent reduction in COVID-19 transmission in states where mask wearing was required.
I have often described the political process as a series of arbitrary deadlines that unnecessarily drives hysteria. See: remap, may 31… https://t.co/T2FfUIsEfq
* In my own opinion, the claim about “impact on academic achievement” is only true if you think the pre-pandemic testing program is relevant in or applicable to a very changed world during a pandemic this past spring…
Illinois families from low-income communities and those living in some of the wealthiest enclaves in the state found common ground this week, with school district results from the state’s 2021 student assessments showing declines in academic proficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic across all demographics.
The data from roughly 90% of Illinois school districts that delivered the mandated Illinois Assessment of Readiness to students in spring in third through eighth grades and the SAT to high school juniors were unveiled this week, revealing a stark yet not unexpected snapshot of the pandemic’s impact on academic achievement. […]
At Crow Island School in Winnetka — a North Shore village that is among the most affluent communities in Illinois — 55% of third graders met or exceeded state proficiency standards on the IAR English language arts assessment.
In 2019, districtwide about 72% of students met or exceeded English language arts proficiency standards, according to the ISBE website.
Right from the start, the tech titans at Twitter and Facebook argued that they were not so much a publisher in the sense that the owner of this newspaper is a publisher but more of a public utility: closer to ComEd than the Chicago Tribune, you might say. This has proved to be a con.
By hiding behind a federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the social networks claimed broad immunity from liability for content created by their users; a protection not afforded this newspaper which always has stood behind the content it chooses to publish on these pages, printed or online.
Um, this is about “content created by their users,” not content created or chosen by the Tribune itself. For the Tribune, and myself, “users” would be commenters. I can be sued for writing something defamatory, but I can’t be sued if a commenter does it or if somebody in one of my live news feeds does it. And neither can my internet provider.
People can be sued for posting defamatory videos or Facebook posts, but YouTube and Facebook currently can’t. The Tribune got rid of its comment section because it was a raging dumpster fire and they couldn’t police it effectively and it was giving the entire publication a bad name. But now they want to make others do what they couldn’t and add the constant threat of civil liability to the mix?
Not only did Pritzker and his Democratic puppets take off to a climate change summit in London while blatantly ignoring the problems at home (what does the Governor of Illinois have to do with the U.N. anyway?) — now it’s come out that he described himself as “the governor of Chicago.”
Check it out:
First of all, if Pritzker had to describe himself to the people at this conference, we would like to reiterate our question: What does the governor of Illinois have to do with the U.N.?
Secondly, we’re not sure if Pritzker is aware, but there is much more to Illinois than just Chicago!
Send Pritzker a Reminder
Maybe if our governor spent more time addressing our lagging economic recovery ALL ACROSS OUR STATE, he wouldn’t forget about the rest of Illinois.
If you’re as tired as we are of Pritzker’s political games, we’re asking you and 54 other patriots in your zip code to step up and PROVE to him there’s more to Illinois than just Chicago!
Thank you,
Illinois Republican Party
Contribute
* The governor was asked about his comment earlier today…
Reporter: Could your rivals have kind of hopped on that that to say ‘See? He doesn’t really represent the entire state’? Would you like to comment on that?
Pritzker: Apparently they don’t have much to complain about. It was a joke. I was pointing out, though, that people know the great global city of Chicago and the name of Chicago everywhere in the world. They may be less frequently aware of what state Chicago is in. You couldn’t tell me, I couldn’t tell you what’s what county Glasgow is in. But people know Glasgow. So I was just pointing out that sometimes when people wondered where Illinois was, it was easiest just to say ‘Chicago.’
When I moved out of Chicago to Springfield, I would still say I was from there or a few hours from there when I traveled abroad. I get it, but maybe the governor shouldn’t say it out loud. Too late now, though.
* On a related note, the leader of the GOP’s donor class, Ron Gidwitz, is hard at work trying to find an opponent for Pritzker who is also acceptable to the state’s wealthiest resident, according to Greg Hinz…
But at the same time, none of the declared candidates have exactly set the world on fire. That’s why some top party insiders, such as former Ambassador Ron Gidwitz, are said to be shaking the trees pretty hard in search of a reform-minded business type who could move voters—and get mega party donor Ken Griffin to follow through on his pledge and actually bankroll a credible challenger to his fellow billionaire Pritzker.
Gidwitz and Kirk Dillard are old pals, so that doesn’t bode well for Dillard’s chances.
Illinois’ $400 million municipal bond sale Wednesday is the first in a string of sales from issuers in the Land of Lincoln this month as the state’s cost to tap the $4 trillion market has shrunk following an improved outlook on increased revenue and billions in federal aid.
“Illinois was able to get much improved spreads in rates compared to where they were a year ago based upon their more positive outlook and the strong demand for incremental yield in the market right now,” said Dan Solender, director of tax free fixed income investments for Lord, Abbett & Co., which holds $36 billion in muni assets including Illinois debt. Deals this week also are benefiting from a drop in Treasuries, he said.
The state sold $400 million in tax-exempt bonds through a competitive deal and saw the penalties over benchmark municipal securities drop sharply from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Morgan Stanley purchased one $200 million series with spreads ranging from 17 basis points for debt maturing next year to 52 basis points for bonds due in 2031 with 5% coupons. Barclays bought the remaining bonds with spreads ranging from 54 basis points for debt with a 5% coupon maturing in 2032 to 116 basis points for bond due in 2041 with a 3% coupon.
Around this time last year Illinois paid much more to borrow from the muni market. In October 2020, a competitive tax-exempt sale by the state drew spreads ranging from 97 to 294 basis points. At that time, Illinois was feeling pressures from the pandemic layered on top of years of self-inflicted financial woes.
* Paul Chatalas, Director of Capital Markets for the State of Illinois…
Our credit spreads were less than half of those on our last GO sale, which were the strongest in many years, and this provides a lower cost of borrowing to the State and its taxpayers.
The spreads on the last sale were the lowest since 2014, just before the Rauner impasse began.
* So I asked for an updated historical comparison on this sale. Carol Knowles at GOMB…
(P)ricing was the lowest relative to rest of the market in at least a decade (back to 2012) and at very low overall interest costs as the whole market is at historically low levels.
* Background…
[Yesterday] the State of Illinois sold $400 million of tax-exempt General Obligation bonds in two series via competitive bid.
The Series of December 2021A bonds, maturing in 2022 through 2031, received 12 bids and the bonds were awarded to Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC with a true interest cost of 1.299 percent.
The Series of December 2021B bonds, maturing in 2032-2041, received 10 bids and the bonds were awarded to Barclays Capital Inc. with a true interest cost of 2.495 percent.
In the 10-year maturity, the winning bid has a credit spread of +54 basis points to the tax-exempt benchmark with a 5 percent coupon, a 66 basis point improvement from the State’s GO March 2021 sale and a 214 basis point improvement from the State’s GO October 2020 sale. The State’s continued improving credit and strong investor demand allowed the State to lock in an extremely attractive overall borrowing rate of 2.15% on a bond issue that has a 20-year final maturity. […]
Approximately $175 million of the bonds will help finance the state’s ongoing accelerated pension benefit buyout program. The remaining proceeds, after cost of issuance, will fund ongoing construction projects, largely for Rebuild Illinois, the state’s $45 billion capital program.
* The guy behind 217 Problems is a business hero of mine. He built something from scratch that gets people talking. And now he’s making a new move courtesy of the Jesse Sullivan gubernatorial campaign. Here’s Mark Maxwell…
In some instances, campaigns are paying for the extra [online] visibility as a way to boost their profiles. Sullivan’s nascent campaign recently paid $1,000 to a popular Central Illinois Facebook page called ‘217 Problems’ to sponsor a series of posts promoting small businesses. In exchange, each post featured a link to Sullivan’s page at the top.
Brian Berns operates the Facebook page and Twitter account as a part-time hobby from his home in Springfield. While he doesn’t necessarily aspire to the term “influencer,” he reluctantly says he probably is one. He describes his page as a “a multi-content platform that touches upon Midwest stereotypes, memes, and community support stuff.”
More than 124,000 people like the Facebook page, and another 42,000 accounts follow his Twitter handle. A few years ago, he realized his audience had grown large enough, he could start to monetize it and supplement his income working for a health insurance company and as a part-time Uber driver.
“Let’s be honest: there’s [TV] news, radio, and then there’s me,” Berns said, describing his view of a fracturing traditional media landscape. “The reality is if I reach four or five million people a month, that’s something.” […]
The Sullivan campaign’s use of social media messaging appears to be reaching its target audience. One business owner who recently launched a watch shop in downtown Springfield said he learned about the first-time political candidate online and the engagement drew him to attend an event for small businesses.
And a Tribune analysis shows this surge is predominantly felt by the unvaccinated, more so than at any point since mass vaccination began. In the most recent week ending Wednesday, those who weren’t fully vaccinated were being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 at a rate of 38 per 100,000 residents. That’s higher than the peak of the fall 2020 surge, when no one was vaccinated, and the weekly admittance rate topped out at 35 per 100,000 residents.
For those fully vaccinated, the weekly admittance rate has hovered between 1 and 4 people per 100,000 residents during both surges since this summer.
* On November 25th of last year, before vaccines were available, the hospitalization rate was 35.2 per 100,000 people. Now, it’s 38 per 100,000 among the unvaxed…
This really isn’t hard to figure out: Get your shots, people.
Without that vaccine, hospitals everywhere would be overflowing with patients again.
A powerful former Springfield lobbyist and close friend of House Speaker Michael Madigan once sought leniency for a state worker in a disciplinary case by arguing that the worker “kept his mouth shut” about an unspecified rape downstate.
In the previously undisclosed, 2012 email, ex-lobbyist Michael McClain urged two top aides to then-Gov. Pat Quinn to avoid firing the worker, also telling them the man was politically “loyal” to Quinn and stayed silent about “ghost workers.” […]
The disclosure of the 2012 email — which WBEZ obtained recently through an open-records request — immediately prompted calls for an investigation from Gov. JB Pritzker and the top Republican in the Illinois House, who called the email’s contents “horrific.” […]
Newly obtained emails plainly demonstrate McClain’s unique level of access and influence. McClain urged Quinn’s aides not to let pending disciplinary action against the state worker “get out of hand.” A day later he thanked them for what he said was the abrupt postponement of a hearing in the case, saying, “Nothing happens accidentally.”
The former employee McClain lobbied for was Forrest Ashby. Like McClain, Ashby lives in downstate Quincy.
* Almost two years later, Ashby is finally talking and he said McClain made up the whole thing…
In an interview, Ashby told WBEZ he knew nothing at all about the alleged rape or what it entailed, said he was “shocked” to learn of McClain’s reference to it and only learned about the assertion when McClain himself reached out as WBEZ was making the email public.
“I didn’t know anything about a rape in Champaign prior to that email coming out. Not in Champaign, but anywhere,” Ashby said. […]
“It’s been devastating to me,” he said.
Any friendship Ashby had with McClain has dissolved as a result.
“I don’t consider him a friend for doing something like that after he wrote it. I mean, it was not true what he wrote. I didn’t know about it,” Ashby said.
Fearing he’d be fired, he asked McClain for help, prompting the email to Quinn’s office. Ashby said when asked about the email, McClain had no explanation for it. He said it’s possible McClain didn’t remember writing the email, adding that “he meant well but there was some stupidity as he typed it.”
“I think he stretched it,” Ashby told the AP. “I think that he tried to make it seem like I was over there preventing stuff from happening, don’t fire him.” […]
But if the inspector general ever investigated, Ashby said no one has interviewed him. Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudeyyah confirmed that a referral was made to “the OEIG and law enforcement” and directed questions to “the proper authorities.” […]
FBI agents, however, did approach Ashby for answers. He later had several interviews with investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago. Questions focused on potential state government corruption and whether Ashby had any ties to utility company ComEd, which he said he doesn’t.
One theory I’ve heard that seems somewhate plausible is that McClain sent the email as a warning shot to the Quinn administration in order to get his guy out of trouble. The administration knew that the email could be found through FOIA, so if they didn’t protect McClain’s guy, McClain could tell a reporter how to easily obtain a juicy story about a potential rape coverup. Whether the story was true or not, Quinn would have to defend it, and that wouldn’t be pretty. Ashby received a one-day suspension.
* But if the story really is untrue, then John Sullivan got caught up in some needless controversy. WBEZ in 2020…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sought and received the resignation of a top cabinet official for not reporting a former lobbyist’s 2012 email defending a state worker facing disciplinary action who allegedly kept quiet about an unspecified “rape in Champaign.”
The surprise departure of state Agriculture Secretary John Sullivan was announced Monday by the governor’s office. […]
“This past weekend, Governor Pritzker’s General Counsel notified me that an August 2012 email from Mike McClain to Governor Quinn’s staff referenced my name as state senator and McClain’s advocacy on behalf of my constituent, Forrest Ashby,” Sullivan said. Ashby, who lives in Quincy, is the state employee for whom McClain was advocating.
“That information led me to conduct a review of my own personal emails from that same period of time. My search discovered a forwarded copy of McClain’s July 31, 2012 email reported by WBEZ. I shared this information with Governor Pritzker’s general counsel.”
“The summer of 2012 was a stressful time for me. I was in the middle of a state Senate reelection campaign, as well as preparing for and undergoing cancer surgery in Baltimore, MD. I was already well aware of McClain’s efforts to keep me informed of his advocacy on behalf of Ashby, and l simply did not read the entire forwarded email.”
McClain always told people to never put anything in writing and we’ve since discovered through FOIA and the feds that he violated his own advice numerous times.
It would’ve been helpful, though, if Ashby had spoken up at the time the stuff hit the fan.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held by the Iowa and Illinois departments of transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Quad Cities communities on Wednesday, Dec. 1, to celebrate opening the new I-74 Mississippi River Bridge.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (who had a previous family commitment) provided an official statement and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was joined by federal, state and local officials in making public remarks celebrating the opening of the iconic structure, as well as the future of the QC region.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker paid a visit to Quad Cities International Airport to announce capital funding that will improve airports across Illinois, starting with the Quad Cities International Airport itself.
Pritzker says the state will be investing $94 million in doing work on airports across the state, with over $5 million going to the Quad Cities International Airport. The money will fund an entrance road realignment and expanded aircraft parking at the airport.
“Starting right here in the Quad Cities, we’re launching the largest statewide airport investment program in state history,” said Pritzker.
• Quad Cities International Airport, $3.3 million for entrance road realignment, $2.3 million for aircraft parking expansion.
• Taylorville Municipal Airport, $1.4 million for runway rehabilitation.
• Bolingbrook’s Clow International Airport, $2.4 million for taxiway replacement, $75,000 for replacement of rotating beacon.
• Vermilion Regional Airport, $500,000 for perimeter fence, $350,000 for entrance road rehabilitation.
• Shelby County Airport, $460,000 toward hangar construction.
• Effingham County Memorial Airport, $3.5 million for runway extension, $1.5 million for taxiway extension.
• Crawford County Airport, $4.9 million for new taxiway.
• Kewanee Municipal Airport, $1.1 million for hangar access taxi lane reconstruction, $700,000 to replace fuel system.
• Quincy Regional Airport, $3.5 million to build aircraft apron and road, $2.4 million for T-hangar and taxiway.
• Schaumburg Regional, $105,000 for fuel system installation, $70,000 for security gate modifications.
• Pekin Municipal Airport, $1.05 million for T-hangar pavement and access road construction, $800,000 to replace fuel system.
• St. Louis Downtown Airport, $5 million for ramp and taxiway access from airfield as well as noise and jet blast mitigation.
• Southern Illinois Airport, $835,000 for apron expansion, $280,000 for road relocation.
The full list is here. Springfield’s airport will receive $3 million from the state for parking lot and roadway improvements.
* And then there was this…
Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Office of Broadband today announced a new planning and capacity building program to help Illinois communities leverage historic broadband infrastructure funding for community-driven broadband expansion. The Accelerate Illinois Broadband Infrastructure Planning Program – a collaborative effort by the Illinois Office of Broadband, Illinois-based Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and University of Illinois Extension – will help local governments throughout Illinois receive expert support as they prepare to leverage new dollars that will be made available by the state as well as through the historic passage of the federal infrastructure program. The collaboration opportunity is made possible through the financial support of Heartland Forward and its Connecting the Heartland Initiative.
The Illinois Office of Broadband is calling on local units of government – particularly cities, counties, and multi-county regions – to apply to receive expert support offered as part of an intensive 14-week community engagement program designed to turn available public broadband funding into sustainable broadband access.
“Access to high speed, reliable internet is not a luxury – it’s a necessity for healthcare, success in school, and to compete in a 21st century economy,” said Gov. Pritzker. “Keeping our communities connected has never been more important than it is today and this pilot will help communities play a direct role in delivering broadband infrastructure improvements to close the gaps on service. With an historic amount of funding available thanks to our own Connect Illinois initiative and with new federal infrastructure dollars coming from Washington we are committed to reaching our goal of delivering universal broadband access across our state.”
A Chicago man charged Wednesday for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6th is also heavily involved in the campaign to elect state Senator Darren Bailey governor. […]
Gary Rabine, who is running against Bailey in the Republican primary contest, reacted to the news of Ligas’ arrest in an emailed statement.
“What happened on January 6th is not acceptable. Anyone convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime on January 6th should be prosecuted,” Rabine said through a spokesman. “Standing up for law and order should unify – not divide – Democrats and Republicans.”
The campaigns for Republican primary hopefuls Jesse Sullivan and Paul Schimpf did not respond to requests for comment about Ligas’ involvement in the January 6 riot.
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who has said he’s considering a potential run for governor, condemned the rioters and suggested Bailey is not fit to lead the state.
“The angry mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 attacked our democracy and they deserve to be held accountable,” Kinzinger said. “Those who would encourage these perpetrators and continue to embrace the Big Lie are not equipped to serve as serious leaders.”
The morning after the insurrection, Bailey told his Facebook followers in a livestream video that he didn’t know who was behind the raid, despite overwhelming video evidence the rioters were Trump supporters.
…Adding… And yes, Rabine seems a bit unclear on this whole prosecution before conviction concept.
Bailey campaign spokesman Joe DeBose said in a statement the campaign is “shocked by this news and we do not condone any illegal activities.”
“[Ligas] has never been a member of our campaign staff,” DeBose said. “We support law and order and trust the court system to ensure anyone breaking the law is held accountable for their actions.”
…Adding… DPI…
Yesterday, news broke that Lawrence Ligas, a Chicago man arrested for his actions at the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection, was also on the campaign team of Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey. New reporting now shows Ligas was also paid by the Illinois Republican Party for campaign work in 2014.
None of the Republican candidates for governor have forcefully condemned the events that took place on January 6 and several of them refused to weigh in on Ligas’ traitorous, anti-democratic actions at all. The Illinois Republican Party, which previously employed Ligas for campaign work, has cowardly decided to not take a stand, calling into question whether they condone Ligas’ dangerous behavior in their party.
“Why is it so difficult for Illinois Republicans to say that the January 6 attack on our democracy was wrong?” said Democratic Party of Illinois Deputy Director Jake Lewis. “Instead of speaking out against those who attacked the U.S. Capitol Police and attempted to overthrow a free and fair election, Illinois Republicans seem to have gone into hiding. Again, we call on the Illinois Republican Party and all Republican candidates for governor to condemn Mr. Ligas’ actions and say that the failed coup on January 6 was wrong. This shouldn’t be that hard.”
…Adding… The ILGOP responded to the DPI release by pointing to its January 6 statement…
ILGOP Chairman Schneider: “Republicans stand for law and order. To support what is happening in DC today is to violate that principle. Supporting violence and rioting is Anti-American. The ILGOP condemns any and all violence towards our government officials and law enforcement.”
