Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning Shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Architect, ex-chief of city parks

* Lawyer for Chicago in O’Hare expansion project has ties to DuPage County chief

* U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear DCFS case

* Still need 200 volunteers for insurance registration

* Keeping children healthy takes insurance — and you

* Prisoner review board under fire

“The incident was an absolutely unacceptable act of political manipulation and patronage that endangers the Illinois public and the political reputations of those pressured into supporting such an effort,” says the letter signed by 12 groups. “We ask your most sincere efforts to prevent patronage and political deal making from being used when it comes to the Prisoner Review Board.”

* Tow industry says anti-pirating law hurts good guys

“These towing companies take advantage of consumers when they have been in an accident and are most vulnerable,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in announcing her lawsuit in February 2007. Her office said it had received 18 complaints about the businesses.

* 2 state lawmakers rally to save Pontiac prison

* Illinois senators hope to keep prisons open

* Jo Daviess mega-farm plan still faces court battle

* We can’t afford to ignore foreclosure crisis

* If you lose it, you lose

* Media: It’s really downer to own a printing press right now

* Belleville paper cuts jobs

* Tribune plans safety net for stations

* Pollution and Chicago waterways

* Second Global Greens Conference

posted by Kevin Fanning
Tuesday, Jun 17, 08 @ 8:43 am

Comments

What a brutal obit of Walter Netsch. Completely lacking in class. That sort of retrospective should have been done in a year, instead of right after his loss.
Condolences go out to his family. We are sorry for your loss.

Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Jun 17, 08 @ 9:11 am
One wonders why the Family Defense Center, which purports to represent families involved, perhaps wrongly, with Illinois’ state-run child welfare system, thought the Supreme Court would become involved in what is essentially a rather mild child welfare intervention…the development of a plan to protect the allegedly mistreated child while an investigation takes place, a plan which must be approved by the child’s caretaker, as well as by the agency.

The Center now claims that they will take the issue to the legislature. Good luck. A politician is going to vote that a child should not be protected while an investigation into his or her possible maltreatment is ongoing. I don’t think so.

Crusades like this one by supposed family advocates tend to divert attention from the real problems in Illinois’ child welfare system. In Illinois African American children are placed into foster care at a rate almost four times their representation in the population. It’s a huge scandal and there is no excuse for it. And yet…a lot of nonprofit child welfare agencies, state bureaucrats, foster parents and “contractors” live off this situation: DCFS has a $1.5 billion dollar budget. Most of it doesn’t go to the kids. And DCFS’ upper echelons are a pork farm for Blago/Emil supporters, that is, those who couldn’t make it into fancier state positions. Like DHS, DCFS bumbles along providing a nice living for
those who made the right political choices for the current Blagojevich era.

The Family Defense Center may have their heart in the right place, but that’s not good enough in the 21st century. They need to find a real issue and pursue it with a level of competence they haven’t shown so far.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Jun 17, 08 @ 10:01 am
Condolences to Dawn on her husband’s death. He’s been in poor health for many years.

Comment by Captain America Tuesday, Jun 17, 08 @ 12:36 pm
Condolences to Mme. Comptroller Netsch and her family.

Skeeter is correct…there is a time, place and appropriate context for such other discussions.

Comment by Inland Steel Building Fan Tuesday, Jun 17, 08 @ 8:34 pm