A Cook County judge on Friday again shot down a lawsuit that argues consumers should be able to recover costs associated with the ComEd bribery scandal that implicated former House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Circuit Judge Cecilia Horan ruled the court could not consider the class action claims for relief, citing the “separation of powers doctrine” that draws lines between the responsibilities of different branches of government.
Horan had dismissed the case previously, but attorneys got a chance to refine their arguments and come before the judge again.
Last weekend started with a bang, with Governor JB Pritzker putting a jaw-dropping $90 million of his own money into his reelection campaign account on Friday night. The news was followed by Aurora mayor Richard Irvin announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor. Irvin is backed by multibillionaire Ken Griffin, who has reportedly pledged up to $300 million to ensure Pritzker doesn’t get reelected.
But those weren’t the only big money stories this week. Quarterly campaign finance reports were due on Tuesday for the last three months of 2021. We took a look at some key races and committees as the primary season heats up.
It’s been almost a week since Richard Irvin entered the Illinois GOP primary for governor, but he still hasn’t made himself available for interviews. With the clock ticking, one has to assume Irvin is spending his time scrambling to learn what he and his backer Ken Griffin stand for and how to walk back his years of supporting Democratic leadership.
After his “anticlimactic” campaign announcement, Irvin was slammed by a DGA video and his Republican opponents for his past support of Gov. JB Pritzker.
Now that he’s running a Bruce Rauner reboot campaign with the likely backing of Ken Griffin, Irvin is dodging questions about where he really stands.
With opponents nipping at his heels, Irvin won’t be able to stay quiet for long. As the crowded GOP primary gets nastier and more divisive, Irvin will have to answer tough questions like why he’s running against — in his own words — a “great leader” in Gov. Pritzker.
“Richard Irvin is hiding in a back room studying Ken Griffin’s talking points so he doesn’t embarrass his big donor when he opens his mouth,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Irvin can dodge questions all he wants, but Illinois families won’t trade the progress under Gov. JB Pritzker for a repeat of the disastrous Bruce Rauner administration.”
* DPI…
Tomorrow, Jan. 22, marks the 49th anniversary of the decision in Roe v. Wade––the landmark Supreme Court case that affirmed abortion as a constitutional right for all. For nearly half a century, anti-choice extremists have chipped away at reproductive freedoms in an attempt to restrict access to necessary health care. Here in Illinois, Gov. Pritzker’s administration has enshrined Roe v. Wade into state law, but the fight for reproductive freedom is not over.
The anti-choice extremists running for governor are a danger to women across our state and, if elected, would waste no time undoing the tremendous progress we have made in Illinois. Jesse Sullivan said he supports a near total ban on abortion. Richard Irvin called Planned Parenthood “bad for Aurora” and compared it to a “strip club or asbestos company,” while his running mate Avery Bourne called legislation enshrining Roe v Wade protections into law “extremist.” Darren Bailey proudly trumpets his extreme view on choice and claims, “Abortion is not healthcare!”
We cannot allow anti-choice extremist Republicans to drag our state back decades, especially as states like Texas and Mississippi install draconian bans on reproductive freedom. As the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, every statewide Republican candidate must come clean on their radical plans to roll back the clock on women’s healthcare.
* Press release…
In [yesterday’s] hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis titled “A View from the States: Governors Respond to the Omicron Variant,” Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi questioned Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts on his hyperbolic rhetoric against pandemic health measures including vaccine and mask mandates. During his question line, Congressman Krishnamoorthi confronted the Governor on the reckless hyperbole of his claim on Twitter that “President Biden has forgotten we live in America - he thinks we live in the Soviet Union,” as well as the hypocrisy of his opposition to employer vaccine and mask mandates even as the Chicago Cubs baseball team, of which he is a co-owner, has established an employee mask mandate and requires masks in all their facilities.
“As we discussed in today’s hearing, hyperbolic rhetoric and attacks on public health measures, such as those Governor Ricketts has used against commonsense policies like vaccine mandates and masking only detract from our ability to end the pandemic,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. “Comparing federal efforts to counter COVID-19 to the Soviet Union is the type of politicized rhetoric that leads to confusion and mistrust among the public. It has real, dangerous consequences as we enter our second year of this pandemic.”
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth’s (D-IL) reelection campaign announced after a fourth quarter haul of more than $1.5 million that it raised almost $7.6 million last year, with more than 152,000 individual contributions averaging under $40 each. Of those contributions, 97% were $100 or less. The campaign, which ended the year with $6.4 million cash on hand, issued the following statement regarding this announcement:
“We’re energized by how many Illinoisans are eager to keep Senator Duckworth’s unique and powerful voice in the United States Senate and look forward to a successful campaign that enables Tammy to continue executing her mission of advocating for working families, new parents, small businesses, servicemembers and Veterans as our Senator for years to come. As we continue building out our robust campaign over the coming months, we’re thrilled that these numbers will help ensure we can reach Illinoisans in every corner of our state—and we are already hard at work making sure we do.”
Every Republican press release I’ve received since yesterday is already posted.
Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri will soon cut the ribbon on a “regional logistics center” intended to aid out-of-state women seeking abortion services at the organization’s Metro East facility.
Planned Parenthood and Granite City-based Hope Clinic for Women will jointly operate the centralized call center at the Planned Parenthood facility in Fairview Heights. The center will arrange travel and lodging, and connect patients with existing resources, such as abortion funds. […]
Planned Parenthood has projected that an additional 14,000 women from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee would likely travel to Southern Illinois for abortion care if Roe v. Wade is overturned. […]
The center, which currently employs six people, is funded in part by a $10 million investment Planned Parenthood and Hope Clinic made to increase capacity and infrastructure at their Southern Illinois facilities.
Illinois’ leadership in ensuring access to healthcare services has never been more vital than it is today, with reproductive rights under attack throughout the nation. We’ve already seen insidious restrictions in other states lead to more out-of-state patients seeking care in Illinois, with the rate more than doubling in recent years alone. I’m so grateful for partners including Planned Parenthood and the Hope Clinic for Women who have responded to these growing threats with an ever-increasing commitment to serve patients in need. Illinois is, and will continue to be, a beacon of hope in the heart of this nation when it comes to standing up for fundamental rights.
* The Question: Do you consider yourself generally pro-choice or pro-life? Explain. Also, please just let people speak their minds. Keep this about your own opinion and leave everyone else out of it. Thanks.
The seven-day rolling average decrease for ICU beds, a lagging indicator, is now 1.9 percent.
137 deaths were reported today, down from yesterday’s 198. Seven-day rolling average increase for deaths, the ultimate lagging indicator, is 107.
* IDPH…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 183,722 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 746 deaths since January 14, 2022.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 2,773,362 cases, including 29,845 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since January 14, 2022, laboratories have reported 1,539,013 specimens for a total of 49,488,107. As of last night, 6,054 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 972 patients were in the ICU and 560 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 11.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 15.3%.
A total of 20,207,132 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 44,420 doses. Since January 14, 2022, 310,939 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 74% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 65% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and almost 49% boosted according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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.
An Aurora police sergeant has died from complications of COVID-19, the department’s second virus-related death in just more than a week. […]
Under city policy, Aurora police officers are required to either provide proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing to protect against the spread of COVID-19, department spokesman Paris Lewbel said.
When asked if Thurman and Shields were fully vaccinated, Lewbel said the city does not release any information from employee medical files, for privacy reasons. […]
COVID-19 was the leading cause of deaths among U.S. law enforcement in 2021, killing at least 301 officers, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum.
* Apparently, this is becoming a thing in our age of unnecessary rapid test shortages. Please, don’t share your test swabs to pool your results…
Then there’s the ick factor. “From a public-health perspective, the idea of sticking swabs up each other’s noses doesn’t sound like a great thing to do,” Nuzzo said. If one person in a household gets COVID, the others aren’t doomed to infection just from living in the same space. In fact, the “secondary attack rate” within a home—which describes the chance of transmitting a virus from one household member to another—appears to be just 15 to 35 percent for SARS-CoV-2. But intranasal promiscuity is a surefire way to increase those numbers, Nuzzo warns, and spread untold other germs besides. […]
The problem isn’t that pooled rapid tests definitely don’t work; it’s that they don’t definitely work. The tests available to Americans are in “a total data-free zone” in this regard, Nuzzo said.
*** UPDATE *** Scary stuff in this press release…
Just over two weeks after confirming 13,000 COVID-19 deaths in Cook County, the Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) marked another grim pandemic milestone today. The MEO confirmed the County’s 14,000th death due to COVID-19 infection this morning.
The Office noted that six weeks passed between the County’s 12,000th and 13,000th COVID-19 deaths and more than three and a half months passed between the County’s 11,000th and 12,000th COVID-19 death. The latest milestone comes during the third surge in COVID-19 cases across the County and the nation. The Office confirmed 425 COVID-19 deaths for the week of January 10. Those are the highest totals the MEO has seen since November of 2020, months before the COVID-19 vaccine was widely available to residents.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 6,750 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the City of Chicago, accounting for approximately 48% of deaths throughout Cook County. Males account for 57% of the County’s COVID-19 deaths.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate fell -0.4 percentage point to 5.3 percent, while nonfarm payrolls increased by +22,800 in December, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The preliminary report for November monthly payrolls was revised from +19,500 to +19,900 jobs. The November unemployment rate was unchanged from the preliminary report, remaining at 5.7 percent.
The December payroll jobs estimate and unemployment rate reflects activity for the week including the 12th. The BLS has published FAQs for the December payroll jobs and the unemployment rate.
In December, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were: Professional and Business Services (+9,400), Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+8,500), and Leisure and Hospitality (+2,200). The industry sectors that reported monthly payroll declines were: Financial Activities (-1,800), Educational and Health Services (-300), and Government (-100). […]
The state’s unemployment rate was +1.4 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for December, which was 3.9 percent, down -0.3 percentage point from the previous month. The Illinois unemployment rate was down -2.7 percentage points from a year ago when it was at 8.0 percent.
Compared to a year ago, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +262,600 jobs, with gains across nearly all major industries. The industry groups with the largest jobs increases were: Leisure and Hospitality (+126,000), Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+48,300), and Professional and Business Services (+28,600). Financial Activities (-5,000) was the only industry group that reported jobs losses. In December, total nonfarm payrolls were up +4.7 percent over-the-year in Illinois and up +4.5 percent in the nation.
The number of unemployed workers was down from the prior month, a -6.0 percent decrease to 333,100, and was down -32.1 percent over the same month for one year ago. The labor force was up +0.5 percent over-the-month and up +2.0 percent over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work.
Leisure & Hospitality numbers for this month probably won’t be pretty, what with omicron and the complete lack of additional federal and state assistance for laid-off workers, parents of school kids and slammed businesses.
The growth rate for jobs in our state has more than doubled the national growth rate in the past quarter – and tripled it in the last month. Hard #’s & sources below.
• IL gained 23,200 jobs in December (+0.39%), and gained a total of 84,700 jobs during the fourth quarter of CY 2021 (+1.46%).
• This growth roughly doubled that experienced by the US as a whole (+0.13% for December and +0.74% for Q4).
• IL accounted for 7.7% of US job growth during the fourth quarter, compared to its 3.9% share of the population.
* I went over this with subscribers earlier and we may talk about it again next week, so here’s Greg Hinz…
A fight that’s beginning to have a major impact on the 2022 elections turned more contentious today as Springfield Republicans and Democrats traded new charges over who’s responsible for rising rates of violent crime in the Chicago area.
In dueling events, Republicans called for total repeal of the Democrats’ signature criminal-justice reform package enacted last year, asserting it so hamstrings police and frees criminals from penalty that it’s beyond salvaging.
Democrats accused Republicans of playing a racial card and trying to score political points with a crime-weary public, and urged GOP lawmakers to work with them on tweaks to the law, not wholesale changes.
Republicans began the exchange when, in a remote press conference, they called for repeal of the 2021 equity bill, known as the SAFE-T Act, which, among other things, phases out the use of cash bail, sets new standards for when police use force, requires officers to restrain any colleague who uses excessive or illegal force, and requires timely medical care for injured people held in custody.
Tweaks to the bill, including a measure passed last year diluting some of the use-of-force language in the original bill, aren’t good enough, the Republicans said on Thursday, and the SAFE-T Act should be repealed entirely.
Mazzochi said it would only take a few Democrats to cross over to get it done. “Repeal is a realistic solution. The original, underlying legislation passed with a bare minimum of 60 votes,” Mazzochi said. “ … It almost didn’t pass the first time.” […]
Durkin and Windhorst, both former prosecutors, said the bill made the state more dangerous. Durkin said Democrats would have to answer to their constituents for the bill’s passage and Republicans would use public safety as an issue in upcoming elections. […]
Spain said the Safe-T Act will leave half of the county sheriffs in Illinois leaving their posts and has left city and county police departments scrambling to recruit and retain officers after a wave of resignations in the wake of the bill’s passage.
— The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence (@CMBWNTheNetwork) January 20, 2022
The end of sexual harm includes the end of oppressive practices in the criminal legal system. As survivors and allies who advocate for victims' rights, CAASE wholeheartedly supports the PFA and will fight for its implementation. #EndMoneyBail#DefendPFAhttps://t.co/U2wMXbJAtM
— Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (@TheCAASE) January 20, 2022
Re-upping this critical piece from our ED & @TheCAASE — The Pretrial Fairness Act increases safety for survivors- e#requiring detention instead of release in DV cases and limiting access to survivors in bond court. https://t.co/3eMsQLREYd
— The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence (@CMBWNTheNetwork) January 20, 2022
Repealing the PFA is 👏LETHARGIC👏LEGISLATING👏
If folks are genuinely interested in the rights of survivors, they need to listen to orgs that, ahem, advocate full-time for victims' rights. CAASE supports the #PFA and the coalition behind #EndCashBail — not public manipulation. https://t.co/k9oEjHNwyT
— Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (@TheCAASE) January 20, 2022
There’s no such thing as perfect policy, but we are doing the work to perfect it; it’s what our State deserves & frankly it’s what our constituents voted for. Not REACTIVE RECALCITRANCE. Just calling something “Anti Police” doesn’t make it so. Do the work.
* The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus also issued a statement…
State Rep. Sonya Harper, Joint Chair of The Illinois Black Caucus (ILBC), state Rep. Kam Buckner, House Chair of the ILBC, and state Senator Robert Peters, Senate Chair of the ILBC, released the following statement after today’s Republicans press conference on the SAFE-T Act:
“As usual with the Republican Party, any effort to make the justice system fairer for Black people is called ‘dangerous.’ With this law, we have worked directly with community organizations, legal rights advocates and law enforcement to make our justice system more effective and more just at the same time. That’s why the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement groups continue to work with us on this bill. ”
“Many provisions of the SAFE-T Act have not even gone into effect yet, proving the Republican gambit is all for show. In fact, when fully implemented, experts say the SAFE-T Act will help improve public safety by supporting a more holistic approach for first-responders. Instead of coming up with solutions to address crime, Republicans are just trying the same racial scare tactics we see across the country. Today’s press conference is another instance of the Illinois GOP chasing relevancy after years of budget impasses and budget cuts. We trust the public won’t fall for this. We are improving public safety, supporting law enforcement and ending systemic injustice at the same time. We are not going backwards.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker is also defending the bill and firing back at republicans.
“These are the same people that voted against budgets that provide funding for violence interruption programs, those are the people that held that press conference. They don’t really mean what they said. They’re just trying to bring up some sort of campaign issue and frankly, it’s all pretty false,” Pritzker said.
“Illinois has become the wild wild Midwest,” Durkin said.
Rates of violent crime have increased in the past few years, said Dr. Magic Wade, assistant professor of political studies at the University of Illinois Springfield.
But that increase cannot be attributed to the SAFE-T Act, she said, because most of the act has yet to go into effect, and crime rates in some parts of the state have been rising since 2015.
“Violent crime was going up before the pandemic,” Wade said. “So the pandemic sort of put into overdrive a trend that was already happening.”
Wade, who studies the criminal justice system, said the increase in crime observed in Illinois is part of a nationwide trend. Criminologists do not agree on why crime rates rise and fall, which leaves room for people to interpret data in more partisan ways.
Yet, many of the frequent talking points about the skyrocketing crime center around eliminating cash bail. The “Pretrial Fairness Act” doesn’t take effect until 2023. House Lead Sponsor Justin Slaughter (D-Chicago) said Republicans need to stop the divisive rhetoric about the law.
“A lot, if not all, of the SAFE-T Act is steeped in strong research and is evidence-based,” Slaughter said in an interview Thursday. “That’s what we relied on, and that’s what we leaned on.”
Slaughter also said it’s important not to turn back the clock on criminal justice reform. He feels the Republican’s approach to “lock ‘em up and toss away the key” hurts communities of color. He nicknamed the GOP effort the “Dangerous Act.”
While some Democrats were hesitant to support the SAFE-T Act, it’s doubtful enough Democrats would join Republicans to repeal this law.
“It’s not going to be repealed,” Slaughter said. “As long as I’m chairing the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee, the Dangerous Act will not see the light of day. I will tell you that.”
Criminal justice legislation that passed a year ago is an anti-cop, anti-safety albatross that some Democrats already want to repeal, according to Illinois House Republicans.
That lede is emblematic of why the Democrats have so much work to do this year, both here and in DC.
The noise problems for the Weglarz brothers began in 2014 after a near-accident at the nearby Belt Railway switching yard — the largest in North America — prompted officials to add a second set of brakes to the rails.
After that work was completed, patrons at the Weglarz brothers’ three hotels in Bedford Park complained about sleepless nights due to screeching train brakes, which peaked at 92 decibels, far exceeding the 65 decibel maximum allowed by village ordinance.
For years, the Weglarzes passed along to authorities the complaints of hotel guests including flight crews laying over from Midway. They got local tax dollars to help pay for sound insulation at the hotels. They hired noise consultants, as did suburban officials. They complained to the state’s pollution control board.
They also enlisted the help of Bedford Park Village President Dave Brady, who says he decided to ask Madigan for the money “on a whim.”
“I was stunned when we got the call,” Brady says of the earmark, the largest Rebuild Illinois allocation with direct ties to Madigan.
A spokesman for the Belt Railway yard says the company didn’t request the $98 million grant, under which the Illinois Department of Transportation has begun assessing the noise issues and whether the company’s noise-reduction measures have helped.
Madigan & Getzendanner, the former speaker’s law firm, has represented the Weglarz brothers’ Bedford Park hotels for years, saving them $3 million in property taxes over three years, according to Cook County records.
The hotels are an important source of revenue for Bedford Park and other government bodies, paying $4.1 million in state and local taxes a year, according to a brief the Weglarz brothers filed when they made their since-dropped noise complaint to the pollution control board.
The Illinois Republican Party calls on JB Pritzker to answer questions about his role in authorizing taxpayer money be spent on secret infrastructure projects at Mike Madigan’s request.
Specifically, Governor Pritzker should start by:
1. Releasing all communications between the Office of the Speaker of the House and the Governor’s office, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, and/or the Illinois Department of Transportation;
2. Releasing all communications between the Governor’s Office and both the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Transportation regarding Rebuild Illinois projects; and
3. Release the full list of projects that fall under the category “Leadership Additions.”
Kinda wonder if the ILGOP realizes it’s throwing their own leaders under the bus here. They got “additions” as well. Also, all the projects are line items.
Please be advised that in-person session next week (January 25-27) is canceled. All committee work will continue to be conducted virtually.
For planning purposes and with the cautious optimism from public health experts that we have reached the peak, the House plans to return to in-person session the week of February 1 - provided that COVID cases continue on a sustained downward trend.
Stay healthy and warm!
Thank you,
Jaclyn
The Senate was never scheduled to be in session next week anyway, but, as with the House, I’m told the Senate hopes to return to in-person session on Feb. 1. Wednesday, February 2 is the governor’s scheduled State of the State/Budget Address.
