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* Prairie State Blue: 3rd Illinois Congressional district roundup

* Oberweis has no comment on lawsuit from collision; more here

* Clout Street: Geography lesson doled out in race to succeed Hastert

* Blagojevich’s donor choice frowned upon by Green Party

The Illinois Green Party on Monday slammed Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent appointment of a campaign donor to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Party leaders questioned the decision to name Illinois State University trustee Jay Bergman to the state oversight board, citing his oil company’s pollution record and his more than $40,000 in campaign contributions to the governor since 2002.

* Carle hospital files suit in tax issue

* Zorn: Political song contest winners

* Fed to unveil subprime home mortgage plan

* Editorial: Tough questions about Cook Co. budget would be a lovely idea

* Tribune Editorial: For Cook Co, it’s over

The future is a blend of new technology, fewer employees, lower budgets — and better services for the county’s 5 million citizen-taxpayers. The battle by Stroger, his board allies and the ward bosses to protect the county bureaucracy, and to add 1,100 workers, is a bleat from a dying era.

How long will it be until a single Web page for each parcel unifies all of the county’s property functions — assessor, recorder, clerk, treasurer, Board of Review? How long until an automation plan like that used in federal courts unifies records of the county’s chief judge, state’s attorney, sheriff and clerk of court? We know that future is coming. Taxpayers demand it.

* Clout City: Progress for progressives?

Between the lines, aldermen say that getting an independent/progressive/sometime-opposition bloc together has been slow and tough–or at least slower and tougher than initially expected. Call them smart or write them off as wusses, but several aldermen who’ve worked with Moore, Preckwinkle, and Munoz on particular issues, such as police accountability or affordable housing, have shown only tepid interest in appearing to join a group created as a Daley alternative. Others say they don’t want to give up their independence to the Independent Caucus any more than they want to hand it over to the mayor.

* Editorial: Don’t make letters into minefields

The decision had nothing to do with whether this newspaper leans Republican or Democrat, or if it loves or hates Obama or Oprah, or whether we purposely deny access to the Viewpoint page to those with whom we disagree.

It was the way Roeser wove fact and opinion into the letter. The result was implications that in one portion I considered a smear and in another portion potentially libelous. And though Roeser would be clearly identified as the letter’s writer, we steer clear of content that might result in a court date for The Courier News.

* Mobster pals give to pols

* Martire: Illinois must change approach to education, race

So what does all this mean? Taken together, it’s pretty clear education is truly the key to economic self-sufficiency, just not equally for everyone — particularly African-Americans. It also means it’s well past the hour for Illinois to break the 30-year stalemate on school-funding reform. This is the only way to ensure every child receives the quality education needed to become competitive in the global economy.

But the data also make it clear a quality education won’t eliminate racism — particularly as it affects opportunity for blacks. For that to happen, Illinois needs an honest dialogue recognizing the role of persistent racism, and a thoughtful approach to eliminating it.

* Officials tout tech program

“This new tool offers a great opportunity to help communities and organizations build capacity, improve quality of life and participate in the regional planning process,” said Walsh. “There is no doubt that with the significant growth we’ve experienced in the region and projections of 1.2 million people living in Will County by 2030 — if not before, this Technical Assistance Program can be very beneficial to many.”

* New law will ease use of gift cards

A state law taking effect next month aims to make gift cards and gift certificates more consumer-friendly by giving recipients five years to spend them.

In addition, the recipients won’t be charged fees that diminish the value of the card or certificate. Some gift cards presently charge consumers a fee if they don’t spend all of the card’s value within a specified period of time.

* Suffredin says he’d be tougher on corruption

Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D-Evanston), seeking the Democratic nomination for state’s attorney, will propose a “public corruption strike force” at a press conference today.

The strike force would handle cases involving elected and appointed officials, government vendors and police officers, Suffredin said.

“This kind of investigation has not been a priority for Devine,” Suffredin said.

posted by Paul Richardson
Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 9:41 am

Comments

Blagojevich is so easily bought and sold. If so many other scandals and screw-ups hadn’t been going on with Blagojevich (and the state) in the last two weeks, I think this would have been a larger story. Great job to the Illinois Green Party for not letting it slip by and garnering some press.

Comment by Sacks Romana Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 10:18 am
===The Illinois Green Party on Monday slammed Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent appointment of a campaign donor to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Party leaders questioned the decision to name Illinois State University trustee Jay Bergman to the state oversight board, citing his oil company’s pollution record and his more than $40,000 in campaign contributions to the governor since 2002.===

I still say the Gov could care less what people say or how he appear or comes across. He has the nice work from home job, and its a guaranteed job until 2010, so let them eat cake.

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 10:30 am
Larry Suffredin, the lobbyist for the tobacco industry, lobbyist for the gaming industry, lobbyist for the bar associations, now says he’s the one who will be able to be tougher on corruption? What a sick joke that is.

Comment by fedup dem Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 10:33 am
Martire takes the cake with his oily rhetoric.

He talks about education, but lobbies for the ossified and over fed bureaucracy to get more and more money for its lazy band of teacher’s union drones and featherbedded administrators.

Illinois has spent out the wazoo on education, and yet the achievement gaps and the overall level of education is either flatline or gets worse by the year.

The best way to close the gap is to fund children, not Martire’s friends.

Blaming “racism” when his pet bureaucracy thrives off it is absurd.

Comment by Bruno Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 11:11 am
I thought the Trib editorial was spot on concerning how much less patronage will be available in county government–I can already envision the rats running out of the building across Clark St….

Comment by anon38 Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 11:15 am
Gee, maybe I’m being cynical, but somehow I don’t want to trust a lobbyist to clean up corruption. While we’re at it, who’s campaigning to clean up the LEGALIZED form of corruption known as LOBBYING?

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 12:03 pm
Comissioner Suffredin can propose as he wishes, but it will not change the demographics or racial voting pattern in Cook County, or the fact that Allen and Milan are in the race as well chasing the same votes. It’s going to be “Brookins v. Peraica” coming to a theater near you in November 2008.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 12:11 pm
wouldn’t suffredin’s strike force have to appoint a independent state’s attorney after he’s conflicted out of any investigation

Comment by cheese eater Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 12:14 pm
Isn’t this the same guy who pushed Todd Stroger, and made sure he got his mug in front of the camera every time Todd held a press conference? Maybe he thought it would be easier to clean up corruption if he helped encourage some himself?

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 12:30 pm
Because of her injuries, Villalobos has not been able to bond with her infant… and has suffered a loss of intimacy with her husband, the lawsuit states.

Where is John Edwards when you need him.

Comment by True Observer Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 1:25 pm
To say investigating corruption has not been a priority of Dick Devine has to be entered in some sort of political understatement contest.

O.J. has put more effort into finding the real killer than Devine (and Bob Milan and Anita Alvarez) have put into investigating political corruption.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 1:31 pm
The Tribune’s view of a 21st century lean, mean Cook County bureaucracy coming up soon is absolutely hallucinatory. With the possible exception of Maria
Pappas’ office, just maybe.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 1:45 pm
Larry Suffredin will sweep the major newspaper endorsements because he is far more articulate and has better ideas to revitalize the Office of State’s Attorney than his opponents. If people check their newspapers before voting, they will vote for Suffredin. Allen is going to finish third because of his mediocrity. My opinion is that the “organization” and labor will not be able to deliver for Allen. I sse it as a battle between Suffredin and Brookins - with Allen as an also ran. My guess is that Daley prefers Brookins to Suffredin since Suffredin is probably a bigger threat to the status quo than Brookins.

The lakefront, suburban Cook County, and independent voters are going to vote overwhelmingly for Suffredin - so he has a chance to beat Brookins.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary will slaughter Tony Peraica because his opponent won’t be Todd Stroger.

Comment by Captain America Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 2:42 pm
He may have ideas to “rivatalize” the office, but implementation is another matter. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw him (and he has to weigh well over 250 pounds). Cap, how quickly you forget him running around with Bobbie Steele, getting himself ingratiated as soon as the door opened, while he knew how bad that whole deal stunk and was a professed “reformer.” Gimme a break.

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Tuesday, Dec 18, 07 @ 7:07 pm