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The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Tuesday named an independent consultant to review the agency’s program for providing services to needy families who are not in the child welfare system, according to DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe.

* Sun-Times: Better plan needed to stop carp

* SouthtownStar: Tollway lease needs a look

* Tim Martin’s return

Sources who should know say that former Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Tim Martin is being pushed to become the new executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority.

The push is coming from Mayor Richard M. Daley, for whom Mr. Martin worked in the Chicago Department of Education and at Chicago Public Schools before becoming Rod Blagojevich’s transportation director.

It by no means is certain that Republicans on the RTA board are willing to sign onto this one. But we’ll see.

* Home sales have soared with federal incentive, but what happens after Friday?

Prices in the Chicago area fell 3 percent in February from a year earlier, but that was a major improvement from February 2009, when the annual decline was 17.6 percent.

That followed the Illinois Association of Realtors report that Chicago area home sales surged 37 percent the first three months of this year compared to a year ago.

* Homicide rate jumps in Chicago, Daley pushes for more gun control

Last month, Daley pressed the state legislature to pass a package that, among other things, would strengthen penalties for unlawful gun sales and ownership and require semiautomatic weapons to be stamped with more sophisticated tracking technology. The package is still pending.

Daley is also asking Congress to reinstate the federal ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004.

* Daley Going Global With Anti-Gun Campaign

* WLS-Ch.7 drops anchor Kevin Roy

* Newspaper circulation drops again

* Bad Business News for Chicago Papers

* [Quad City] Times circulation beats industry trend

* City renters could get security deposits back in foreclosures

* Madigan leads sweep at South Side nursing home

The raid on Presidential Pavilion, 8001 S. Western Ave., was the latest in a series of unannounced visits as Madigan and her staff conduct broad safety checks at facilities that house high numbers of felons.

Madigan arrived at the block-square building shortly before 10 a.m. with almost 30 police and state officials. She went from room to room talking to residents and staff about conditions.

* State moves to pull nursing home’s license

* Key vote awaits DuPage Water Commission

Cronin and Ramey both said Tuesday afternoon that a backlash from suburban mayors, however, prompted a proposed comprise. Ramey now is rallying support for an amendment that would allow mayors and township presidents to retain appointment power for six of the board’s 13 members.

* Homer Glen village manager resigns

* Oak Forest aldermen go with separate building department

* Elk Grove OKs a leaner budget

* U of I Extension director says reorganization plan near

For Extension, the fiscal year beginning July 1 and ending June 30, 2011, is going to be full of transition year: Multicounty units become effective July 1, 2011. Mailand believes core programs, like locally run 4-H and the master gardeners, won’t expand and will stay local.

* LeRoy alderman worried about revenue streams drying up

* Obama Visits the Heartland

Kirk’s Democratic opponent, Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, will be there when President Obama makes remarks tomorrow in Quincy, Illinois.

* Obama visits Iowa to start Midwest tour

* Long lines don’t deter people from snagging Obama tickets

* Quincy Tea Party plans ‘peaceful’ rally Wednesday outside civic center

* Energy, agriculture, Wall Street reforms to be focus of Obama’s White House to Main Street tour

* Security detail for Obama visit much more prevalent than when Clinton visited in 2000

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 9:26 am

Comments

Chicago has stricter gun control laws than anywhere in the country. Daley has become a rambling embarresment for the city of Chicago. Every video of this guy stuttering and mumbling gets worse and worse. He was talking about the mayor of Mexico recently. Who is that? Daley has lost what little mind he had.

Comment by fed up Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 9:41 am
Newspaper circulations continue to demonstrate that readers under 50 are no longer reading newspapers. In cities with higher percentages of seniors, such as San Diego, or Tampa, the drop in circulation has been less severe.

The one paper that is growing is the Wall Street Journal. Like FoxNews, the WSJ has found a growing and profitable niche. The Journal has not been rocked by fiscal or news scandals and they have found approval with a growing number of adults interested in having a paper media source. Like Ford, the WSJ is also growing due to the fact that it has survived, and is one of a shrinking list of newspapers available. There may always be a paper, and it looks like it will be the WSJ.

The other papers are demanding governmental intervention. Considering how they have allowed themselves to become mouthpieces as well as political supporters of the current president, the next few years may be their last window of opportunity to have federal protection and fiscal bailouts as they remake themselves into something more fitting their smaller Senior markets.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 9:41 am
Question for Mayor Daley and gun control people. Why does Houston have a lower murder rate than? In Houston nearly everyone is packing.

Comment by Steve Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 9:58 am
How many different ways can one say the leasing of public assets is a bad idea?

The public pays for an improvement and then in exchange for a short term revenue boost gets to pay for it again! This time using public powers to fund a private enterprise.

Can you say Chicago parking meter lease fiasco?

Dumb, dumber and dumbest.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 10:00 am
The extended family support review provides an opportunity for public discussion of whether and how much welfare money taxpayers should pay to provide child support to extended families who are trying to raise grandkids, nephews and nieces, and so on. Should parents be able to leave their kids with the relatives (many do) and expect the government (that’s us taxpayers) to pay for the kids’ care. Even if the parents are living there? Even if they are working but don’t want to pay for the kids’ support. The kids in most cases are getting good care. But who should pay, and how much.

This sounds like back door welfare to me, but in its present form, it is probably a lot cheaper
than the alternative–making them all wards of the state and paying foster care rates to the relatives, plus “administrative expenses.”

Right now, it seems that in order to get this money (and it’s all about money) somebody has to call DCFS and ask for it. DCFS hands out some cash and “facilitates” the application at the welfare office with one of those infamous letters. But the program has not been widely publicized and I would bet a lot of folks who have taken on their relatives’ kids don’t even know about it. In many other cases, as noted above, the parents are probably living with the relatives and the kids. Are the parents of children whose relatives get these special welfare monies means-tested? Who knows.

DCFS, a troubled agency in so many ways, has hired a consultant to tell them what to do since its highly paid executive crew apparently wants to stay out of what could be a costly boondoggle. A hefty no-bid contract, no doubt. But that’s only the beginning.

There is more than one way in which this program could expand and become very very expensive. And as we all know, Pat Quinn has little interest in
what things cost, as long as Illinois taxpayers are paying.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 10:05 am
Congressman Tim Johnson makes TMZ, the world’s most popular celebrity website

http://www.tmz.com/2010/04/27/congressman-tim-timothy-johnson-urbana-hair-illinois-republican-washington-dc-representative/

Comment by UI Chancellor Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 11:17 am
Madigan joins 30 state officers on a raid to a mentally ill nursing home to look for convicted felons. 30?!

Aren’t these the same people they want to take out of these facilities and put in a “community setting” down the block from our homes–no officers included. I don’t think so.

If they’re a criminal risk with supervision, I can’t imagine the risk on their own. Last thing we need is them missing their medication and knocking on my house at 3am.

Comment by James D. Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 12:06 pm
Have to agree with James on this one. These facilities are right next to schools and parks, and while I hope they’re on their way to recovery, the last thing I want is them roaming the streets. Someone has to be watching them. For their safety and ours.

Comment by Gordon Wednesday, Apr 28, 10 @ 3:16 pm