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* Fitzgerald sworn in as next chief justice

Thomas Fitzgerald has been sworn in as the next chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Fitzgerald’s colleagues unanimously chose him in May for the three-year leadership term. Outgoing Chief Justice Bob Thomas swore in the 67-year-old Fitzgerald on Monday.

* Fitzgerald takes over as state’s chief justice

Promising to always “strive to do the right thing,” Thomas Fitzgerald of Chicago embarked Monday on a three-year term as chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.

* State’s high court differs from U.S.’s

* Previous chief justices include pro-football player, telegraph man

* Ex-tollway worker to get $87,500 to drop suit

A former Illinois Tollway employee who filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was improperly disciplined by the agency will get an $87,500 settlement in exchange for dropping his case.

State Toll Highway Authority board members Monday unanimously approved the deal with Scott D. Okun, who was put on unpaid leave as head of the tollway’s I-Pass program in February 2006 before resigning from his $87,000-a-year job.

Tollway officials at that time accused Okun of violating tollway procurement rules in the awarding of I-Pass-related printing work to a firm that employed a relative of his.

“We filed the lawsuit for several reasons, but the primary reason was to try to get some sort of vindication for Scott,” said Okun’s attorney, Howard L. Teplinsky. “Scott didn’t do anything improper, illegal or anything like that.”

* Community college funding cuts hurt - Schools statewide have had to increase tuition on already strapped students

llinois Central College President John Erwin repeated his criticisms of a lack of state funding, saying the state is underfunding veterans grants and have completely cut out money for high school students trying to get an early start on their post-secondary education - leaving community colleges to pick up the tab.

* Study shows District 186 students’ performance poor - Wide racial disparity reflected in report’s data

* African American Student Achievement Report

* Helping students avoid debt

Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois’ treasurer, plans to announce legislation today that would clamp down on promotions that credit card companies gear toward undergrads, including free T-shirts, Frisbees or iPod headphones for filling out a credit card application.

“Basically we want to limit the ability of credit card companies who prey on college students,” Giannoulias said. “Unfortunately this can lead to serious long-term debt for students and their families.”

* Feds say CN can’t acquire EJ&E early

Canadian National Railway cannot purchase the EJ&E Railroad before a final study on the impact of the sale is released, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board said Monday.

In a decision issued late Monday night, the federal board, which approves all railroad sales in the United States, denied CN’s request to take possession of the EJ&E early.

* Nicor customers claim overcharging

* Chicago schools, police officials unveil plans to curb student violence

“The bottom line is that students know who the bullies and gangbangers are; we want to know that too,” Weis said. “In recent weeks, unspeakable tragedies that have claimed the lives of innocent victims have outraged all of us as educators and law enforcement. We must do what we can to prevent violence against our children.”

* Students can txt tips 2 cops

* Bad cops? Let the force be without them

* Chicago public ridership is up, but so are losses

* Kane County likely to soften hiring-freeze plan, stop layoffs

* African American Student Achievement Report

* Justice Burke: George had ‘casual attitude’ about sex abuser priest

In a new book, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke slams Cardinal Francis George for his “lack of honesty” and “casual attitude” about allowing a sex abuser priest to stay in his mansion in 2003. […]

“The cardinal wasn’t honest with me,” Burke tells Kennedy in an interview conducted in the summer of 2007. “Perhaps he was not honest with himself.”

* Constitution Day celebrates our eroding freedoms

* Celebrate your right to vote with the 2008 Election Day Advent Calendar!

* And now for the bad news …

posted by Kevin Fanning
Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 9:22 am

Comments

Carol Brown did not anticipate a fuel cost hike?
What exactly did she anticipate?
This seems like more evidence that she is not fit for that position. Ut needs a real leader and not somebody who’s main task is to provide excuses for failure.

Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 9:34 am
Community Colleges educate 64% of all undergraduate students and receive 14% of higher education funding. Ideally, community colleges should receive 33% of their revenues from the state, local property taxes, and tuition, respectively. State funding has been flat or decreased for the last several years. That effect is especially compounded when adjusting for inflation.

At some point the governor and the GA need to realize that an educated workforce makes the state run and grow, and that community colleges are the entry portal for most of those who want to further their education.

Comment by Fan of the Game Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 9:36 am
CTA Chairman Carole Brown says, “…., as well as really the explosion in the number of senior riders who are going to ride for free.”

Obviously, no one at the CTA ever volunteered to help at a senior citizen picnic. The chemical reaction between the words senior citizen and free are a volatile mixture.

What she really should say is, due to our poor planning and the Governor’s poor approval ratings we will need to stick it to the paying riders because we already stuck it to the taxpayers.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 9:52 am
Perfect case of the fox watching the hen house!

“The tollway doesn’t admit any fault,” spokesman Michael King said. “We’re very stringent and extremely rigid in following our guidelines for procurement.”

- Now that’s laughable!

Comment by Wacker Drive Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 10:50 am
Here’s a link from the Belleville News-Democrat on another social service agency going under:

http://www.bnd.com/homepage/story/465732.html

Comment by Vote Quimby! Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 10:59 am
Community colleges are a real mixed bag in this state though. Harper seems like a really nice school with a lot of variety in its classes. Morton doesn’t really stack up with that, it’s mostly vocational stuff like air conditioning repair, which is important, but if a student wants a head start on a 4 year college or a technical training class, it doesn’t have much on offer. Lakeland College in Mattoon, I remember being a pretty good jr. college. It seems to just depend on your neighborhood what you get.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 12:35 pm
Rich,

thanks for the link to the quicky IL Supreme Court backgrounder in the J-R.

I’m confused by our veto process. I’d like to understand it better. Can you write a 101 or recommend a primer? I mean for general audiences, not a link to our constitution.

Thanks again.

Comment by BannedForLife Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 5:09 pm
I’m surprised at the lack of play to the Anne Burke/Cardinal George story. The Trib buried it in Metro.

Here’s the deal: A daughter of RFK (Kerry) has written a book about American Catholics. In the book Anne Burke (Supreme Court Justice, founder of the Special Olympics, wife of Ed Burke), special scandal commitee member) makes damning statements regarding Cardinal George and his handling, and frankly, well-documented indifference at best, to the sex abuse scandal.

That’s a big story, folks. What gives?

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 5:42 pm
===Can you write a 101 or recommend a primer?===

here and here

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 5:50 pm
word, because the Burkes are covered in Teflon?

Just a guess.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 6:49 pm
AA, I hadn’t really thought about it that way. Maybe the Burkes aren’t too happy with the book.

Given a Kennedy, a Burke, a Cardinal, the Catholic population, and the scandalous story subject, I would have thought it would have gotten a lot of play. I was a reporter once, and I think I could craft a pretty good lead for this market with those elements.

Or how about a Sun-Times headline: “Burke rips Cardinal on sex scandal in Kennedy book.”

But now rereading, perhaps Justice Burke had second thoughts on her comments and the story got downplayed. I noticed she could not be reached for comment.

The Burkes are something, aren’t they? They’re on my list of people I hope one day leave us an honest book on what’s really been going on.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 7:22 pm
Nicor’s estimated readings are a bunch of bunk.

I came home one day to find a tag on my door knob, stating that I had to call Nicor to turn my gas back on because they realized–almost a year later–that there was something wrong with my meter. Therefore, they replaced it with a NEW ONE that day, but couldn’t turn the gas back on until they could inspect the pilots.

When the guy came out, he stated that my actuals were SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER than the previous year, so it HAD to be a bad meter. (Checking my bills–stupid me–I saw that they had been “estimating” my readings for an entire year. Live and learn, though I don’t think that finding out sooner would have made a difference and you’ll see why.)

Upon inspection, it was obvious that the meter had NOT been replaced–it was the same old rusted piece of trash that had been there since gosh knows when. The guy even admitted that it didn’t look as if it had been replaced. Didn’t even offer an excuse like “they use refurbished meters because he knew it was the same one. I could tell by the rust spots. The next day, my neighbor told me she watched the guy who came out earlier and he certainly hadn’t carried any equipment back and forth, indicating again that the meter had not been replaced.

The claimed the readings were bad because they were MUCH LOWER than the previous year’s.

Here’s the punch line: I was the only one living in the house during the last year (part-time), and therefore, kept the house warm enough during the last winter for the pipes not to freeze. When I was at home, I used electric heaters in the rooms I used, having close the others rooms off.

Therefore, my electric bill went up, and my gas consumption HAD gone DOWN–SUBSTANTIALLY as they claimed–over the last year. BUT, because I guess they were counting on my consumming the same amount as the previous year at their increased rates, they came up with a bogus meter problem that had NOT even been replaced that day.

The guy from Nicor even had the audacity to tell me that HE wasn’t the guy who replaced it, so he knew nothing about it. After supposedly checking the records, he couldn’t even find out who had because there was no name on the record. BUT he assured me someone HAD come out earlier, because the gas was obviously off.

Therefore, the estimate based on the previous year–when the house was full and used each day STOOD.

They’re so corrupt that they don’t even TRY to make up a feasible lie anymore to steal your money.

There’s only one word to describe them–THUGS.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 11:14 pm