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· State awards $10 million for stem cells. More here and here.
· Topinka pumps plan to cap state sales tax on gasoline. More here.
· I hope he wins this case so we can finally open up this process, but I’m not sure why he’s bringing it: Parole officer sues to get report criticizing how he got his job
· They’d have more money if they stopped raiding the Road Fund: The escalation in oil prices is affecting virtually all aspects of how Illinois road-building companies bid for and carry out construction jobs, and the likely upshot for motorists is a delay in some much-needed projects because money will run out, experts say.
· Remember Mongo? His owners were so mad at how they were treated (the guv called their daughter a cheater) that they’ve taken their case to the appellate court and won: Mongo the steer wins on appeal
· Editorial: Prison plan shouldn’t be hard cell
· Brown: 11th Ward election high jinks have John Daley crying foul
· Sneed: No names
· Your turn
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 6:31 am
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I want Mike Sneed’s job. I’m serious. She gets something like 26 weeks vacation. Most of her “scoops” are from items trolled from the New York Post’s Page Six column. Her shameless fronting for Judy Baar Topinka should require Judy to file in-kind contributions from Sneed for free, (and here is the “gagsome” part) cheesy blurbs about Judy. I am sorry to say that I read her but I guess her column is like a car wreck, you always look to see just how bad it is.
Signed,
Ageless, Priceless and Sometimes Useless
Comment by Flotsom & Gagsom Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 9:26 am
I’m kind of intrigued by this news from the 11th Ward. I’m not sure what to make of that. Perhaps they’ve met their match.
Comment by Levois Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 10:06 am
Regarding Mark Brown’s column on Comm. John Daley’s whining about Election Day in the 11th Ward: Comm. Daley, as Ward Committeeman, heads the “11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.” If someone wants to call their group the “11th Ward Democratic Party,” they can do so. If Daley’s precinct captains and workers were unable to educate the voters there as to the difference in the two names, then it may be a case of his workers getting lazy after all these years. (One can almost hear John’s father screaming from the Chicago Cloud up in Heaven for letting his precinct workers become so lax and then for responding like a goo-goo.)
Comment by Randall Sherman Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 10:17 am
Mongo’s owners were cheaters. They knew they weren’t allowed to give him any medication without obtaining permission from the official veterinarian. The medicine they gave him may have improved his gait, giving him an unfair advantage over other contestants.
They did not win their case on the merits. They won on the hypertechnical argument that the contest rules should have been promulgated as offical regulations and included in the Administrative Code, which, as the dissent points out, is crazy. Should the rules for the apple pie (and every other)contest at the State Fair be submitted to JCAR and then included in the Code? Of course not.
The legislature wisely amended the law to make it clear that the rules need not be included in the Code.
The rules were available at local extension offices and on the internet. The owners complained that it would take too long to download them on their dial-up modem, but that is true about any large file if you insist on using dial-up modems in 2006.
It should be that the dissent found their constitutional argument to border on the frivolous.
Comment by Not So Fast Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 12:40 pm
Ryan did the prisons (Thomson and Grayville) at least in terms of getting the money, hiring the architects and awarding the construction contracts. Thomson is the one that’s complete. Blago came in and Day One shut down Grayville, which was just coming out of the ground.
The aerial photos of what was left look like an Aztec site. Let’s just say the Governor’s staff who decided to so hastily, completely and irrevocably pull the plug were…under-informed about such things. The State has paid more to shut the project down and clean up the site than it would have cost to just complete the project. The $56 million figure is a whitewash - that’s what it cost to buy out the inventory for yards full of rusting prison cell doors and other already-purchased construction materials that had already been delivered and the state got to buy. It doesn’t count the work that was already in the ground, the cost of stabilizing the site and making it safe, the other contracts that had been signed and had to also be bought out and the fees for people to sort the whole mess out.
And the State has avoided for four years the easiest solution to Thomson sitting idle (and, had they finished it, Grayville) - lease it to another state.
Iowa, for example, is seriously interested in leasing Thomson to house some of their overflow. The State of Texas exports a large number of inmates to, believe it or not Virginia, which has made a great deal of money at it. There are other potential customer States out there.
I do, however, think it’s legit to lay the blame for two $120 million prisons we don’t use at least partly at JBT’s doorstep. Ryan wears the jacket for most of it but his polka partner was not unconnected to the situation and the R’s (Ryan, Pate, Daniels) were running EVERYTHING when the deals were done.
Comment by Someone who knows about dis stuff Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 3:15 pm
Dunkin and McCarthy are now speaking to how hard they work and why they deserve a raise. It is hilarious!
Comment by Watcher Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 3:58 pm
How about Hopkins Park? It was the sister correctional facility to Grayville, also under construction when GRod took office.
The determination to build both of the new facilities was based on the projected population growth in the female population for Hopkins and the desire to reduce the occupancy levels below 180% at Menard, Joliet and Stateville maximum security facilities (using both Thomson and Grayville to reduce those numbers).
Laying blame for starting construction on JBT is about as sensible as laying blame for starting construction on GRod. She had nothing to do with it.
However, the outcomes of the construction stops must be placed on GRod. There was no thought to how construction was stopped, what procedure should be followed and how to dispose of the already ordered materials. Construction companies have gone bankrupt, or are waiting for millions in payment.
It is no way to run a business - or a state.
Comment by Ethel Tuesday, Apr 25, 06 @ 9:39 pm