Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Senate Republican leader frustrated by lack of action

* CTA dramatizes ‘crisis’ in store without funding

* John Hilkevitch: Hidden cost of CTA cuts

The cash-strapped CTA would be forced to spend thousands retesting laid-off employees who are eventually reinstated if “doomsday” service cuts set for Sunday and Jan. 6 are implemented as a result of funding shortfalls.

The retesting costs could be a maximum of $92 per employee, depending on whether the CTA manages the testing in-house or hires an outside firm, said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney. About 2,400 CTA employees have been sent layoff notices.

CTA officials have said more than $2 million has been spent on contingency planning for service reductions and fare increases Sunday.

* Opinion: What will you be getting for the CTA’s planned fare hike?

* One week and counting for CTA doomsday

* CTA Tattler: Funding outlook before deadline is bleak and bleaker

* Editorial: Amid Springfield follies, Metra faces cuts, fare hikes

* No bids for wireless plan at interstate rest stop

* Editorial: The chief and free speech

* Kiyoshi Martinez: Chief Illiniwek comes back for Homecoming

* Editorial: Spotlight on pay to play politics

* Dan Walker: Ryan conviction should be spur to halt pay to play

* Editorial: taxpayers should welcome the tool to ‘follow the money’

* Carol Marin: Local heroes keep fighting the good fight

* Without save, ex-Gov Ryan to prison on Nov. 7th

* Editorial: Ryan needs to start doing his time

* Attorney seeks more freedom for ex-Governor Ryan

* Tribune Editorial: Forcing silence on schools

* Atheist’s teen daughter fights moment of silence law

* Editorial: Moment of silence, frivolous bill or welcome break?

* Illinois preschool program still in its early stage

“Nothing is more important to parents than their children,” Blagojevich said in a written statement when he unveiled Preschool for All. “And nothing is more important to a child’s future than getting a good education. And that’s where preschool comes in.”

Not everyone agreed with the governor.

In a column published in The State Journal-Register in March 2006, Collin Hitt of the Illinois Policy Institute cited the claims of some researchers that “early formal education is ineffectual.”

“Whether a student attends public or private preschool, whether she enters kindergarten with skills superior to her classmates, she likely will lose that edge by the end of kindergarten,” wrote Hitt. “And it is all but guaranteed that that child’s prekindergarten education will have been a nonfactor by the time she exits elementary school.”

* Sun-Times Editorial: Hey Hoosiers, keep it clean

But even under wider public scrutiny after the BP controversy, U.S. Steel Gary Works hopes to cash in a new proposed wastewater permit that likely would increase the levels of chromium and other toxic chemicals it is permitted to discharge into the Grand Calumet River — which flows into Lake Michigan.

Once again, the Illinois contingent, including Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama and Representatives Rahm Emanuel and Jan Schakowsky, is shouting no. And this time, so is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

* State EPA sues over toxic chemicals in North Chicago

* Think illegals are more likely to be involved in crime? Think again.

* UIS’ Government Accountability and a Free Press project to start

* RedEye to expand circulation to suburbs

* Steve Huntley: Aldermen don’t need names of accused officers to examine citizen complaints

posted by Paul Richardson
Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 7:54 am

Comments

How does the new Web site developed by Hynes’ office - www.openbook.ioc.state.il.us help the taxpayers with what has gone on the last five years within the Blagojevich administration with regards to pay-to-play politics?
Answer is simply ZERO! Blagojevich and his gang of thugs have already gotten away with millions of taxpayer dollars.
Dan Hynes and Patrick Fitzgerald are going to have to dig a lot deeper than this.

Comment by Frontlines Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 8:09 am
ILLINOIS - Wireless access at interstate rest stops is on hold after Illinois officials failed to woo anyone willing to provide the service. The Illinois Department of Transportation said no vendors submitted bids.
This has Lon Monk written all over it.

Comment by Wacker Drive Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 8:12 am
Just go away George Ryan.

Comment by Willis Kids Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 8:35 am
that Dan Walker op-ed is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. He fits in a book plug, a mention of sodomy and then starts bragging about his ethics achivements??? Dan, you’re a weird old man and a little more than a footnote in Illinois political history.

Comment by L.S. Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 9:09 am
I doubt very much if the Ryan family will be on bread and water rations for the next six years. If so, time for all their friends to step it up.
Good Bye George.

Comment by K3 Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 9:22 am
So by Dan Walker’s logic, being a politician in your 70s is basically a license to steal, since it doesn’t make sense to lock up someone that old.

Sounds like appropriate ethics for Illinois

Comment by Leroy Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 9:22 am
“Steve Huntley: Aldermen don’t need names of accused officers to examine citizen complaints”

For too long I thought Huntley was merely a George W. Bush apologist but now it is clear that he is against ANY legislative review of authoritarian abuses of power.

As long as you’re carrying a gun and wearing a uniform when you brutalize civilians, Steve Huntley has your back.

– SCAM

Comment by so-called "Austin Mayor" Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 9:36 am
CTA fare hikes should not affect smoker riders — one pack a day less is all it takes.

Comment by Truthful James Monday, Oct 29, 07 @ 10:34 am