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Isabel’s morning briefing

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Illinois

* ICYMI: Under proposed agreement, Illinois would drop enforcement of law deterring deceptive anti-abortion practices. Tribune…

* Isabel’s top picks…

* WBEZ | Chicago scraps plans for migrant tent camp in Morgan Park: City officials say a plan to shelter migrants on a vacant lot in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood has stalled because of a “lack of urgency” as the city turns to alternative housing options for migrants. The decision comes less than a week after the state of Illinois rejected the city’s first attempt to house migrants in winterized basecamps on top of contaminated soil in Brighton Park. An outside environmental report deemed the site at 38th Street and California Avenue as toxic. Construction had already begun before the state pulled the plug.

* Center Square | Illinois’ gun ban registry rules in federal court Tuesday: While a three-judge federal appeals panel has since sided with the state, the law is still being challenged. Two cases are pending in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Tuesday afternoon, attorney Kostas Moros said plaintiffs will argue for the Southern District of Illinois federal court to delay the Jan. 1 registration deadline.

* Tribune | Migrants arriving by busload in Rosemont and Cicero are sent away, but welcomed in Oak Park, as suburbs respond differently to crisis: Police in Rosemont allowed migrants to get off the buses if they had someone picking them up, but threatened to impound the bus and arrest the driver for endangering the passengers if he let them out, Mayor Brad Stephens said. The Village Board planned to consider an ordinance Monday to back up such measures. Cicero approved a measure to fine bus companies $750 per person for letting out homeless migrants, spokesman Ray Hanania said.

Governor Pritzker will be in Chicago to celebrate the grand opening of the new mHUB innovation center at noon. Click here to watch.

* Here’s the rest of your morning roundup…

* WCIA | New professional licensing system coming to Illinois: “This new law will move us one step closer to streamlining the state’s licensure process to help connect residents with good jobs and alleviate workforce shortages across our communities,” Senator Suzy Glowiak Hilton (D-Western Springs), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said. “By providing IDFPR with this support, we will help promote an effective and streamlined licensure process for all Illinoisans.”

* Center Square | Prosecutors push back against ex-Madigan chief’s bid for acquittal or new trial: Mapes in November asked for an acquittal, or in the alternative, a new trial in a motion before Judge John Kness. Mapes and his attorney argued that mistakes by prosecutors and the judge required an acquittal. Prosecutors pushed back on those claims in a 50-page motion in response. “At trial, the government presented ample evidence of Mapes’ repeated lies in the grand jury on March 31, 2021,” prosecutors wrote. “His motion for judgment of acquittal … ignores this evidence.”

* Sun-Times | 100 secret recordings, 36 witnesses later, feds winding up case against Burke — but will defense call Solis as ‘hostile’ witness?: Burke’s defense team has promised to summon former Ald. Danny Solis to the witness stand — finally giving Burke the chance to confront the man who famously turned on him while wearing an FBI wire.

* Daily Southtown | Calumet City Ald. Monet Wilson threatens legal action over Mayor Thaddeus Jones’ liaison appointment: Wilson said she recalls the roles being created by Jones when he first came into office but does not recall a more recent conversation that would have triggered the two latest appointments. The role of community liaison does not exist in the Calumet City municipal code.

* Crain’s | Johnson wants recommendations to ’streamline’ city’s development approval process: Johnson will also create a new position of “director of process improvement” within the mayor’s office to implement the proposed changes. In a press release announcing the executive order, Johnson is quoted as saying the city’s current “processes are overly cumbersome and counterproductive for commercial and housing development.”

* Capitol News Illinois | Secretary of State helps launch first-of-its-kind state ID program for inmates exiting Cook County Jail: Inmates released from Illinois prisons have been receiving state IDs at no charge since late 2020 when state leaders launched a pilot program, which was subsequently expanded statewide and codified into state law earlier this year. But doing the same with detainees in county jails has proved much more difficult. Prison inmates have more stable and predictable release dates, but jail detainees may stay for as long as years while awaiting trial, or as short as just a few hours.

* Chalkbeat | Chicago Public Schools is tapping principal Joshua Long to lead its special education department: The department — known as the Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services — serves nearly 52,000 students with disabilities and has been without a chief since June. That’s when Stephanie Jones stepped down amid fallout from Chicago’s violations related to the use of restraint and timeout of students. The department has also struggled in recent years to ensure students with disabilities are getting services they’re legally entitled to under federal law.

* Tribune | Republican National Committee backs effort to block mail-in ballots received after Election Day: The RNC, which is promoting a “bank the vote” program to get Republicans to pledge to vote by mail, joined with the National Republican Congressional Committee in filing a court brief in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the effort to nullify ballots received by Illinois election authorities after Election Day. … The case could have far-reaching consequences. During the 2020 pandemic year general election, when mail-in voting increased, as many as 266,417 votes were counted in the two-week period after Election Day, according to court documents.

* AP | Speculation about eventual rate cuts is rising, but Fed is set to leave interest rates unchanged: With inflation edging closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, its policymakers are facing — and in some cases fueling — hopes that they will make a decisive shift in policy and cut interest rates next year, possibly as soon as spring. Such a move would reduce borrowing costs across the economy, making mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing less expensive. Stock prices could rise, too, though share prices have already risen in expectation of cuts, potentially limiting any further rise.

* NYT | This Economy Has Bigger Problems Than ‘Bad Vibes’: The economy is growing. Wages are up. Unemployment is low. Income inequality is narrowing. The fearmongering about inflation proved to be, well, wrong. According to many economy watchers, Americans should be sending the Biden administration a gift basket full of positive vibes — and votes. Instead, consumer confidence polling paints a different picture. A recent Times/Siena poll found that only 2 percent of registered voters said economic conditions are “excellent,” and only 16 percent said they were “good.” While economic indicators suggest that the economy is healthy and growing, the American public doesn’t feel that way. Why the perception gap?

* AP | Epic Games wins antitrust lawsuit against Google over barriers to its Android app store: Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game, filed a lawsuit against Google three years ago, alleging that the internet search giant has been abusing its power to shield its Play Store from competition in order to protect a gold mine that makes billions of dollars annually. Just as Apple does for its iPhone app store, Google collects a commission ranging from 15% to 30% on digital transactions completed within apps.

* NYT | Texas Supreme Court Rules Against Woman Who Sought Court-Approved Abortion: The court ruled that the lower court made a mistake in ruling that the woman, Kate Cox, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant, was entitled to a medical exception. In its seven-page ruling, the Supreme Court found that Ms. Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the exception requires.” Texas’ overlapping bans allow for abortions only when a pregnancy seriously threatens the health or life of the woman.

* NYT | Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night?: What’s even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities — rarer in number — have generally been declining, not rising.

posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 7:43 am

Comments

I can only guess that in the aftermath of U.S. Supreme Court case NIFLA v. Becerra (2018), followed by the establishment of a 6-3 court created specifically to empower states to regulate and limit access to abortion services, Mr. Raoul is simply reading the tea leaves properly. Can’t wait to learn more, but I am sorry for how men are using control of the courts to oppress women again. I am sorry for the persistence of toxic masculinity.

Comment by H-W Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 8:52 am
Hilarious(bp) How about filling positions, then create new ones. Just a thought.

Johnson will also create a new position of “director of process improvement” within the mayor’s office

Comment by Lurker Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 8:53 am
Even if Mr. Raoul is “reading the tea leaves,” fighting against “deceptive, fraudulent, and misleading information and practices” in the reproductive realm seems worthy. In light of the recent high court ruling in Texas, his failure to mount a defense of this bill seems like more Texas’ exceptions, decoration only.

Comment by BobIsMyUncle Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 9:03 am
==the aftermath of U.S. Supreme Court case NIFLA v. Becerra (2018), followed by the establishment of a 6-3 court==

These did not fall from the sky in the last few months.

Comment by Stephanie Kollmann Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 9:17 am
I’m the furthest thing from a legal expert, but as to the tea reading part raised by H-W, I think that may be spot on here. I just read that Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh were interested in hearing a case to overturn a law banning conversion therapy in a way to make it sound like offering conversion therapy was speech and not conduct which sounds similar to what the Thomas More Society was aiming for here. That said, it might still be worth being on the record to support this law given that this is exactly what anti-abortion legislatures in the US did waiting for the day Roe would be overturned (so they had laws on the books to go into effect immediately), and maybe pro-choice legislatures need to take the same tactic for the same possible reason, just in reverse?

Comment by Blitz Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 9:24 am
Pedestrians getting killed because drivers look at their phones (and don’t admit it when questioned).

Comment by Torco Sign Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 9:41 am
“director of process improvement” will have to start with the processes in the Mayor’s Office.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 9:59 am
===because drivers look at their phones===

That doesn’t explain the night time thing.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 10:28 am
“That doesn’t explain the night time thing.”

It also doesn’t explain it declining in many other countries. They have cell phones too.

Those countries where the rate is declining also have stronger driving tests and license standards, which probably has far more to do with the situation in the US than the easy scapegoat of ‘cell phones’.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 11:41 am
I think the manual transmission detail in the NY Times article is interesting. Almost nonexistent here, but still quite popular in Europe, meaning it’s much more difficult to fuss with your phone while driving.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Tuesday, Dec 12, 23 @ 12:29 pm