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* Land deal, lack of certification behind Howe, mental health center closures

Selling a prime piece of real estate and not being able to get recertified appear to be what’s prompted the state to announce it will close a pair of troubled facilities in Tinley Park, state lawmakers and union representatives say. The Howe Developmental Center and Tinley Park Mental Health Center, which have been stripped of their federal dollars for providing substandard care and lax recordkeeping, could close their doors by next summer.

* Ill. governor targets 2 care facilities for closing

* Tackle what’s dragging kids and schools down

* Governor Agrees to Meet on Education Funding

* Madigan to ICC: Nicor hike too high, unnecessary

Attorney General Lisa Madigan Thursday filed written testimony urging the Illinois Commerce Commission to deny rate increase requests from Naperville-based Nicor Gas that would raise the company’s revenues by $140 million.

* Springfield tourism numbers down; closings won’t help

Even before reductions in hours took effect last month at historic sites statewide, attendance numbers were down more than 10 percent this year compared with last. Among sites showing declines were all of the major Lincoln sites in Springfield.

* Recall question on DuPage ballots

“We believe the Illinois political culture is so shamefully dysfunctional that we desperately need this tool to change behavior of public officials,” Cronin said.

* More than 150 take City Hall buyouts

Some 156 workers in the administration took up the boss on his offer, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Tribune under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

* CHA makeover boost: $10,000 for home buyers

* Police union rips moves to tighten reins on cops

* Chicago school may have to return state grant

* Kane County to cut 2009 budget by 1.5%

* GOP criticism angers community organizers

* Friday Beer Blogging: Alaska Edition

posted by Kevin Fanning
Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 8:45 am

Comments

CPS reported today that 1st day attendance was a record, topping last years 93% to 93.7%

Being fairly familiar with how things work in the fine City of Chicago, I can safely inform my fellow bloggers that someone cooked the books.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 8:57 am
Caring for severely disabled individuals is no doubt one of the more difficult
endeavors society must carry out, and it is absolutely essential that we do it well.

No doubt, finding topknotch care for current residents at Howe will require hard work and intelligence–qualities lacking in state bureaucracies since our Blago and the Democrats took them over–our own little FEMAS, so to speak,
porked up with high-level political hires and completely lacking in a sense of urgency or mission.

For those who decry this decision, remember those 20 or so deaths at Howe which likely could have been avoided if the facility were up to standard.
And the center didn’t lose federal certification overnight. They were warned. But after they did lose it, the state employees staffing the center couldn’t be bothered to make the effort to get re-certified. Too much work, I guess. Eaiser for Illinois taxpayers to make up the $30 million or so a year to replace federal funding and keep a substandard facility going. We taxpayers are not only uncritical of the people we hire to work for us in the state civil service, we continue to be easily plucked.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:04 am
WHy is it even being asked if the school will have to return the money? It should be automatically assumed and they should send in collection agencies, put boots on their vehicles and other things they do for citizens who owe a few dollars.

Comment by Wumpus Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:08 am
So the State closes long term revenue tourism generators in the form of State parks and historic sites. In place of long term tourism dollars thet Gov is angling to spend money on a capital plan that will provide a short term economic boost (just in time to blurb its benefit for the next gov election) but we continue to eliminate long term econimic benefits to the Sate by getting rid of long term state jobs and tourism revenue genrators.

Comment by Ghost Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:18 am
Regarding the community organizers article.

Comment from a PURE poltical point of view. If the vast majority of community organizers are serving largely liberal points of view, was it that much of a political downfall to criticize Obama’s experience as one? Was Palin driving away key constiuencies?

Comment by trafficmatt Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:21 am
You know who the most famous community organizer was?

Jesus

Comment by Scooby Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:28 am
Scooby,

Palin said the difference between Mayors and Community Organizers was lack of responsibility.

Jesus paid the ultimate responsibility.

Little bit of a difference there.

Comment by trafficmatt Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:34 am
===If the vast majority of community organizers are serving largely liberal points of view===

Not necessarily so. What about those Aurora folks who were trying to keep the abortion clinic out of their town? How about the anti 3rd airport groups? Habitat for Humanity. Etc., etc., etc.

There are lots of organizers out there on all sides of issues.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 9:37 am
There is a difference between communities organizing about a cause and and outsiders being hired to do a job by a third party with an agenda.

Habitat is not a community organization. It is a national charitable organization.

Community organizers are far more likely to be operating from the left side of the aisle.

Comment by plutocrat03 Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 10:04 am
trafficmatt, this may come as a surprise to you but I don’t consider Sarah Palin the final arbiter of the value of community organizing. So saying that Jesus didn’t fall within the inaccurate parameters set by her means that he doesn’t qualify as the world’s foremost community organizer doesn’t hold much sway.

This is a lot easier to understand once you realize that she has, you know, absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.

Comment by Scooby Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 10:30 am
True Fact: I was offered a job at ACORN one summer in college to be a community organizer. But on my first day, they discovered I wasn’t a Marxist and changed their minds. I think I was the only one that used deodorant too, but it was a hot day. Let’s just say I didn’t fit in, and it was kinda obvious.

I don’t dis community organizers though. They do great stuff. I don’t blame them for feeling slighted by Palin’s joke, but even they know that they are no mayors. Remember, Obama made Palin’s years as mayor an issue by overlooking her work as a governor and belittling her. She was firing back, that’s all. Just politics.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 3:47 pm
Oh, and saying that Jesus was a community organizer is like saying a diamond is a rock. Although some feel that our senator is worthy of a favorable comparison, he is really more like that rock, isn’t he?

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 3:50 pm
I don’t think Obama was annoyed by the reference but I think a great many community organizers were, and that’s a great chance to get as many of those folks as possible on Obama’s side. The fact is, elections are won by organizing, so who better than community organizers to have on your side?

I’ll have to admit, I think community organizer, I’m thinking the guy going door to door making sure kids have their shots; or informing when the first day of school is; or helping people laid off from the factory sign up for benefits; or getting people to organize for a better school or to get a stop sign put up on a corner. They don’t seem that ominous to me.

I don’t think being mayor of a town of less than 10K people makes one capable of being governor, let alone president. I say that as one who used to live in a town of 20K and now live in a suburb of 50K, neither of the mayors of these places are qualified to be president as a result of having done that work. The mayoral job of the 20K town is not even considered to be full time work. My dentist when I was younger was the town mayor.

Mind you, I don’t particularly care whether she’s qualified or not, because her position is VP (our spare) and I doubt McCain will let her anywhere near the levers of power. And McCain’s mother is still alive, so I doubt he’s gonna peg off anytime soon.

Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 4:19 pm
I apologize in advance to anyone who may be offended by my view on this matter.

Seems to me that to the Average Joe (or Sarah,) a Community Organizer is the person cermak rd described-here in the ‘patch we might call that person a Community Volunteer, though. These are the folks from all walks of life who rally together around a cause; here in Springfield, we have a beautiful new community park being developed out of the hard work of a handful of part-time volunteers, to cite just one example.

But to the above-average Barrys of the world, it would appear that Community Organizers tend to be:
-paid, not volunteers.
-full-time, not part-time.
-sufficiently convinced of the Value of their Work that they not only place it on their resume, they attempt to portray it as something which it is not.

Their good work for good causes should be celebrated for what it is, charitable/public service, not passed off as executive or management experience, which in the overwhelming majority of situations it is not.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Friday, Sep 5, 08 @ 10:24 pm
It’s about time the Howe Developmental Center was closed down. It had lost its Medicaid certification and had been operated solely on State dollars for quite a while to the tune of about $54 million/year. Now the State needs to redirect those dollars to community-based service options for individuals with developmental disabilities and, in addition, when it sells the land in Tinley Park, dedicate those dollars to DD services, too. Illinois has a shameful record of complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act
in regard to serving individuals in the most integrative setting appropriate to meet their needs. It ranks 51st among the States and DC(dead last) in funding small community residential options to these individuals. Drastic and immediate changes are needed. The closure of Howe is just the first step to re-balancing the DD services system in Illinois.

Comment by will county wiseguy Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 8:12 am
Sarah Palin represents the interests and concerns of most women the same way Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes represent the interests and concerns of most African-Americans.

Comment by will county wiseguy Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 8:17 am