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* NEW Animal Farm: Tidbits for this week’s GOP meeting

* Opinion: Gambling threatens our security

* State prison’s management woes continue

* Drunken driving is focus of state campaign

* State offering a break on student loans

* Illinois Supreme Court scolds prosecutor over closing arguments

* Sun-Times Editorial: Newborn testing bill deserves quick action

lllinois, like other states, already tests newborns for a variety of diseases, especially those that can be cured or treated if detected early enough. Until recently, there were no early detection tests for the five lysosomal disorders, a family of diseases caused by an inherited deficiency of a particular enzyme. Those tests now are available, and Illinois would be the first state to adopt all of them. Backers say the tests could save or improve the lives of 20 children a year.

* Tribune Editorial: A look at earmarks of Illinois national delegation

* Capitol evacuated after fire alarm goes off

* Judge to determine fate of juvenile center

* Editorial: Todd Stroger’s health vs. public’s right to know

* CPS minority students beat the odds; more here and here

* Burke wants device that reveals cameras banned; more here

* Friday Beer Blogging: Prom edition, pt. 2

posted by Paul Richardson
Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 7:44 am

Comments

Fire alarm probably was Emil trying to sneak a cigar in the kitchen, or Rod touching up with the hairspray.

Comment by and it's mellow tones are these Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 8:22 am
I am surpised more Dems have not released their earmarks. Being that (especially City Dems) will win with 80% of the vote and thats being conservative. Kudos to Kirk and Roskam as they have/will face(d) close races. I am suprised Bean did not show the same courage as she is pretty safe, despite what the GOP is hoping.

Comment by Wumpus Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 8:48 am
How many of those state prison problems are connected to the fact that Illinois puts far too many people in jail, thus overloading a system which was designed to serve a much smaller population. The disproportionality of the prison population (black and Hispanic) shows how dysfunctional the arrest/trial/incarceration process is in Illinois. In fact, it’s downright racist. We never hear much from our lawmakers about this, though. Even from the reps of communities with disproportionately high rates of incarceration.

A lot of people benefit from this state of affairs, of course, including the prison civil service bureaucracy and the numerous contractors who profit from the prisons. They’re all getting fat off the system as is. And that means getting fat off us, the taxpayers.

Once again, our feckless legislators have dropped the ball. Maybe we need Human Rights Watch or some other external organization to tell us what is really going on in Illinois.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 9:02 am
Cassandra: How familiar are you with IDOC?

Comment by Reality Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 9:51 am
blago just got national publicity for his plane flights (at least for those of us who watch MSNBC).

Amy R interviewed James Warren about how much the flights cost so Blago can sleep in his own bed every night.

Comment by smh Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 9:58 am
If the commute between Chicago and Springfield is so important to Blagojevich — why doesn’t he spend his own money? Or why doesn’t he simply fly coach class on a commercial flight?

If he’s “one with the people” — then be a people and do what normal people do.

This would seem a reasonable compromise.

Comment by Macbeth Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 11:11 am
To the contrary of the above post, the Illinois Supreme Court finds the most outlandish reasons to release criminals.

If you have ever been in a courtroom, you well know that the defense can seem to say nearly anything and not back it up with facts. To the contrary, the prosecution must be very cautious.

I was once involved in a large scale cocaine delivery case in which the prosecution was not allowed to tell the jury that the defendant had been convicted, (not just accused), of smuggling in another state. Meanwhile, the defense is telling the jury what a nice person this criminal was and how she had never, ever had any scrapes with the law.

Jurors never hear the whole story from the prosecution. The system MUST be fair to the accused but we have gone way to far in limiting the governments ability to tell the story. Our appellate and Il. Supreme Court are out of touch with the real world.

Comment by Freezeup Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 11:34 am
Cassandra,

In my experience, it is surprisingly difficult to attract enough attention to ones self from law enforcement and the state to find yourself in prison.

Most prison inmates are exactly where they need and deserve to be, and didn’t fall off the back of a turnip truck only to come to rest in an Illinois Department Of Corrections facility, regardless of his or her race.

Comment by Freezeup Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 11:46 am
I’m not saying that the people in IDOC are all in there for crimes they didn’t commit.

I’m saying that not all crimes merit being put in jail to the tune of $30,000 a year in taxpayer money.

And I refuse to believe that blacks and Hispanics somehow “deserve” jail more than other groups. The
racial disproportionality of the prison population is a clear indicator of a racist criminal justice system. A system that does, however, benefit a lot of pols, state bureaucrats, and state contractors. Hence the silence of so many lawmakers on the issue.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 2:37 pm
Cassandra, I agree with you. The incarceration rates in this country are out of control, and that costs us, as taxpayers and as a society, a ton.
According to Pew, the US went from a prison population of 320,000 to 1.4 million between 1980 and 2005. The overall population went from 162.8 million to 222.3 million. The incarceration rate increased 10 times as fast as the overall population (36% increase in population, 357% increase in prison population, and this doesn’t include Probation, Jail, or Parole).

http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/PSPP_prison_projections_0207.pdf

And it costs over $20,000 a year for each inmate. 45,000 people in the Illinois State prison system. $900 million a year. That doesn’t include local jails or parole or probation costs, not to mention the court costs. There’s got to be a better way to manage our criminal justice system. Reform, I say, Reform!

Comment by Jerry Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 2:50 pm
Cassandra, is what you’re saying that not enough whites are arrested for crimes they committ?

Comment by steve schnorf Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 3:38 pm
The legislation requiring newborn testing is an example of governmental goofiness. The claims of saving lives are likely inflated rhetoric.

The medical establishment is highly motivated to provide good service and I expect would be sounding the claxon for the next great medical advance.

Have medically ignorant politicos requiring procedures is as stupid as having the same group selecting where hundreds of millions of dollars are to be directed to do medical research. Oops they toted themselves that right too.

If thay could do something well, I’d admonish them to do what are good at. So far I do not know what they do well…….

Comment by plutocrat03 Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 6:00 pm
http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?rssFeed=news&id=25435

PLEASE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nail Carter can sing this better than me, GIVE ME A BREAK………….

Comment by Mr. Ethics Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 6:34 pm
I don’t get how the criminal justice system is “racist”.

I’ve heard some theories about penalties for selling crack being stiffer than for powder cocaine- there are plenty of white offenders in prison for selling both. It’s tinfoil hat talk as far as I am concerned.

Cops arrest criminals. Prosecutors prosecute them. Usually there are complaining witnesses that set this process in motion or a snitch that has been arrested for another offense that can buy dope from a “bigger fish”. Perhaps those complaining victims of crime or snitches are the real racists.

Cassandra, since you obviously have a different perspective, enlighten me. It better be something better than the flawed logic of “Blacks and Hispanics are over represented in prison so that means the system is racist”.

Jerry- Maybe a prison near you can be emptied of its’ offenders and they can all move into your neighborhood. I hear most of them are really nice people so you won’t mind, will you?

I apologize if I am being a little over the top, but I get more and more frustrated with these accusations against a system and the people who work in it that serves us better than any system anyone has come up with anywhere else.

Comment by Freezeup Friday, Jun 22, 07 @ 8:18 pm