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* Miller: Is Illinois about to see the mother of all hikes?

* Dave Heinzel has a great pic of the Obamallac

* Sun Times: Hidden cash transfer a lateral tax hike

* Rove praises Lincoln strategy

* Ending STD jail screening is foolish and costly

* Tribune: Rising to Greatness

Leadership on education has been remarkably weak in this state for a long time. Too often, an Illinois legislator’s worldview about education is guided by one question: How much money comes to his district? That’s understandable. Legislators want to get re-elected. But that kind of narrow political thinking has blocked efforts to get a better education system for the state.

* Obama recieves support and disdain from ISU students

* The “numbers” of Obama’s Presidential announcement speech

* Cook County should crack down on health care giveaways

* Clarence Page: Wise, but unnecessary HPV laws:

With emotions heating up, a lot of misinformation and unnecessary anxieties are being stirred. The least grounded appears to be the fear that it will encourage more sexual activity outside marriage. For now, Gardasil appears to be a very important and welcome life-saving step in the fight against cancer. Don’t judge the vaccine by the political confusion it has ignited.

* Editorial: Tax swap will shortchange some areas

* California emissions law inspires Illinois to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020

* Peotone airport likely says aviation chief; Walsh wants Guv to pick IDOT plan

* Editorial: The benefits of regional primaries

* Transit Agency touts tax increases to raise needed billions

* Impact of ethanol on the markets

* States and U.S. at odds for uninsured:

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, a Democrat, said Mr. Bushâ€™s proposal â€œwould seriously hamper the efforts of Illinois and other statesâ€ to ensure that all children had coverage â€” the goal of a state law he signed in November 2005.

* Governor calls for ‘National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Week

posted by Paul Richardson
Tuesday, Feb 13, 07 @ 7:50 am

Comments

If ethanol is seen as a real cure for oil dependence then this countries leaders are dumber than I thought.

Comment by Papa Legba Tuesday, Feb 13, 07 @ 10:13 am
C’mon, how about some more love for “C’s” post today?

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Feb 13, 07 @ 11:45 am
Cook County Hospital should stop giving out free health care to all comers, insured or uninsured, county resident or out of county resident, rich or poor. We can’t afford it.

More importantly, the existence of a massive free health care system in Cook County relieves the pressure on collar counties to provide public health services to their own populations, resulting inevitably in a downward spiral in the quality and amount of those services. It’s hard to run a program or justifying its funding when nobody is using it.

Even more important, collar county hospitals are allowed to escape their responsibility to provide charity care Cook County Hospital is one of the reasons they can honestly say there is no demand for this care and that they are being unfairly
criticized for not providing something for which there is little demand.

Since we are selling government entities in Chicago, why not sell Cook County Hospital.
I bet the billing processes would change really fast. And if there truly is a need for these hospital beds, somebody will buy it, perhaps one of the other hospitals in the area looking to expand. Would this result in thousands left without medical care? No. We would need to make sure that hospitals provided needed charity care but charity care, billing of those who can pay, and billing of insurance providers would likely take care of pretty much all comers. Charity care can likely handle the rest.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Feb 13, 07 @ 5:51 pm
Ask Blagojevich how come the state veterans affairs is requiring the state veterans to submit their DD-214s and the yearly letter from federal VA showing how much they receive in compensation before they can get the state benefit of free hunting and fishing license. This is a Illinois state benefit for veterans and is supposedly a new thing from auditors. IT IS NONE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS BUSINESS HOW MUCH I OR ANY OTHER VETERAN GETS IN DISABILITY OR ANY OTHER COMPENSATION. WHATS GOING ON BLAGO AND DUCKWORTH.

Comment by WARDOG Tuesday, Feb 13, 07 @ 7:03 pm