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* Questionable deals in Steele’s 16-week tenure

* No board vote means Chief is still U. of I. symbol: says trustee

* Neil Steinberg: U of I made mess with Chief Illiiniwek

* Stroger wins $3 billion budget battle: it appeared Stroger had locked up 10 of the 17 votes necessary, including winning the support of Republicans Peter Silvestri, Gregg Goslin and Liz Gorman, along with surprise support from Mike Quigley.

* Budget debate goes well into the night

* Illinois’ campaign finance laws are nation’s worst says national advocacy group

“Illinois is one of the only places in America where literally anyone can walk in the door and spend whatever they want to influence the outcome of an election. The system is almost an open invitation to corruption,” said Suzanne Novak, lead author of the report.

* Forum to discuss possible gender bias at state agencies

* Steve Huntley: Some rules we ignore

* Campaign worker calls Gorecki voice mails a “shock”

* Audit report call for overhaul of Chicago Regional Transportation Authority

But as the General Assembly prepares to address what the RTA and the three transit agencies portray strictly as a funding crisis, the audit said more money alone would not remedy many core problems.

* Editorial: Make sure Fitzgerald keeps his job

* Eric Krol: Blagojevich getting ready to sock it to business with budget

* Bill introduced to ban horse slaughter

* Friday Beer Blogging

posted by Paul Richardson
Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 8:36 am

Comments

Another “anti-who-he-considers-liberal” editorial by Eric Kroll? Why am I not surprised?

Comment by Squideshi Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 9:08 am
Why is it that these corporations cited in Kroll’s column dont pay any taxes? How is that fair? Why does everybody scream for a tax increase on people’s incomes while these corporations get away with paying nothing? How many more Enrons and Andersons do we have to accept before there is some corporate accountability? Why is it that these big CEOs make multimillion dollar salaries with their golden parachutes while the employees and citizens of the state are left holding the bag?

And, by the way, is Kroll (the pot) calling the kettle (Governor Blagojevich) black here? Kroll accuses Blagojevich of being the one to set up the bad guy and come in as the people’s savior. What did Kroll dointhis article but make Blagojevich the bad guy by insisting that the GRT would be nothing more than a pass through to consumers. I would happily pay $3 more per haircut as long as I know that big conporations are paying their fair share.

This is the best idea to come to Springfield in a long time. Good work governor.

Comment by Number 8 Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 9:11 am
Surely, the business community, many of whose members strongly supported Blagojevich this last election, had at least an inkling that this might be coming. Maybe they don’t care that much. They can pass much of any increase onto consumers. And
if Blago passes universal health care, it may, depending on the plan, be easier to dump the health insurance burden many businesses and service providers still carry. Could end up being an overall win for business.

I suspect there will be some whining and posturing on the part of the affected businesses and providers, but it will be mostly for show.

As to us taxpayers…depends on what Blago spends the money on and how much there actually is. I don’t see property tax relief or schools highlighted in any of the GRT discussions. I could see GRT receipts going mostly to universal health care and to pork up state government with lots more highly-paid political hires. Token amounts to schools and roads. LOTS of money to Chicago earmarks. No property tax relief.

Let the games begin.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 9:26 am
All the info provided today is great…national news on Obama,great…. Statehouse info…ok, local analysis, informative….but where is the Hoffman, Transportation Watch??????

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 12:06 pm
In the middle of the night, 13 Cook County Commissioners helped Toddler Stroger wreck county government for the next decade or two. Even if every hard-working county employee who is to be laid off finds a job immediately elsewhere at the same or higher pay (like that’s going to happen), the impact this post-midnight raid will have on county sevices and on the morale of the reamining county employees (excepting those cronies and relatives of Toddler that just got new jobs and/or raises) will be felt by the people of this county for a decade or more. In some cases, the damage will be irreversable. After all, when the next Joseph Wallace is killed by a crazed and abusive parent because the system designed to protect the child fails due to overworked judges, there will be no second chance for that child.

The same thing will hold true for the poor person out in the suburbs who will his or her health care clinic closed, and dies why trying to make it to Stroger Hospital. The same fate will hold true to an inmate at County Jail who dies from medical neglect or from a riot that breaks out because of staffing cutbacks, which allows a bad situation to completely erupt.

When these things happen, those 13 County Commissioners and President Toddler will need to seek forgiveness for what they did overnight from Almighty God, for there is no forgiveness left within me.

Comment by fedup dem Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 1:29 pm
The election fraud stuff may create the evidence for some lawsuits to overthrow the 2006 primary election. Look for State Rep candidate Darryl Smith, Republicans Maureen Murphy and Commissioner Peraica among others to do a lawsuit that could throw the whole election in 2006 and the current system on it’s head.

Comment by Devine Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 3:37 pm
Arggh!

Could that Bobbie Steele be any more slippery. She should win an award for being the most disingenuous politician of the year. It is even possible that she actually believes the BS that comes out of her mouth.

Comment by Garp Friday, Feb 23, 07 @ 3:45 pm