Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

[Compiled by Paul Richardson]

* Illinois Teachers Invest in Hedge Funds

* USAToday: Seat belt laws clicking in Illinois:

In January, the group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety named Illinois one of four “best performance states” for passing at least two of 15 laws it says are proven to reduce highway deaths injuries.
“Illinois has been very consistent in its passage of key laws,” says Judie Stone, president of the safety group.

* Iraq veteran struggles to find employment

*Rep. Franks discusses disappointment in electric rate increase

* State launches new ad campaign aimed at young drivers

* The Todd couple: “Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, a fan of old-school clout, has no problem saying he considers himself “the hog with the big nuts.”

* Ex Chicago Park District official gets 3 years for $8 million scam

* Editorial: Right-to-breathe

* Cook County jail medical execs get axed; protests against budget cuts continue:

Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, told commissioners: “There’s nothing left to tax, ladies and gentlemen. The taxpayers deserve better solutions.”

* Editorial: Guv gave hook too quickly to Madigan’s mortgage plan

* Editorial: Selling the lottery not a long term solution for schools: “We’d prefer the governor spend his incredible energy devising a fairer way to pay for schools. The overreliance on property taxes is unfair, especially to those who live on fixed incomes.”

* Mark Brown: Burke’s 1st rival in 36 years isn’t taking the hints

* Blagojevich seeks federal dollars for counties hit by Dec. storm

* Editorial: Cross has solid advice for legislative session

* Actuary predicts Bears win

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jan 30, 07 @ 8:57 am

Comments

Every workplace can cut somewhere, although most workplaces will ardently claim that they are understaffed and claim everybody is grossly overworked. Sure.

The medical staff over at Cook County jail apparently figured that by weeping and wailing about the terrible consequences of cutting back they could skate past another budget crisis intact. The taxpayers are idiots, after all, and that is reflected in their elected comissioners.

So Simon fired the execs. Good for him, although I wonder how long these folks, whose County jobs have likely allowed them ample time to hold a second full time job elsewhere, will stay out. But firing the managers who don’t get with the program is an excellent signal to the system as a whole to actually put on their thinking caps and find ways of doing the job with fewer staff.
There are ways. Maybe the many County employees who hold full time second jobs could cut back to half time on the outside job and actually work full time at the county.

Incidentally, it appears that Cook County jail,
largely filled with first time drug offenders or petty drug salesman, is a virtual nirvana when it comes to health care. Not only do inmates get free housing, food, clothing, and education, courtesy of us, they also get drug treatment and free expensive health care that is only a dream for many (uninsured) taxpayers. And apparently the moms get to go home during the day as well.
Is an expensive full service boarding school what we thought we were funding with our corrections dollars? Maybe a lot of these folks could get the same services in the community, at a lot lower cost to Cook County’s ever gullible taxpayers.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jan 30, 07 @ 9:41 am
It’s the equinox, time again for Lou Lang to make another proposal to expand gambling. He says Blago told him he wouldn’t interfere this time.

Here is a transcript of that conversation:

Blago: ” …here Charlie Br- I mean, Lou: I’ll hold this football down here, and you come running up and kick it!”

Lang: “Now, you said the same thing last time, and I got clobbered later.”

Blago: “Bygones. Underlings did that. That was the Old Way of Doing Business. Ryan was to blame. Or sunspots. Yeah, sunspots in my eyes. This time, though, you have my solemn word, and I NEVER go back on THAT.”

Lang: “Well, okay……. ARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!”

Comment by Pinkie Ring Tuesday, Jan 30, 07 @ 10:25 pm