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* ICYMI: Supreme Court hears argument on federal statute that could dent Madigan case. Tribune…
* Related stories…
* Isabel’s top picks…
* Sun-Times | Rancid, unsafe water at Illinois prisons threatens health, violates human rights, groups allege: The allegedly rancid water at Illinois prisons violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and the U.S. EPA should step in, the groups led by the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois said. The issues have been going on for decades at some prisons, the groups said, adding that there were examples of problems reported even in recent weeks and months.
* Daily Herald | Regulators weigh future of gas industry in Illinois, while clamping down on Chicago utility: While Chicago considers passing an ordinance to ban natural gas in some new building construction — following the lead of places like New York City and Seattle — state officials are moving more slowly in an attempt to ensure Illinois meets its goal of having 100% renewable energy by 2050. The ICC launched a process dubbed the “Future of Gas” last week that will inform the governor, legislature and other policymakers on potential policy changes. The process was initiated by the ICC after they tamped down requests for rate increases from all of the state’s major gas utilities.
* Tribune | Gov. J.B. Pritzker creates executive position at state parole board amid controversy over release of man accused of killing 11-year-old boy: The appointment of James G. Montgomery Jr. to the newly created post comes after Pritzker and the board came under intense criticism last month when a man the review board had allowed to be released from state custody allegedly attacked a pregnant woman he once dated and killed her young son. Montgomery, whose appointment requires confirmation from the state Senate, was elected mayor of downstate Taylorville in 1997 and remained in that post until 2005. Most recently, he was the director of administrative services with the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) sheriff’s department, supervising a chief financial officer, as well as directors of human resources and information technology.
* WTTW | Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin Fined $60K for Violating Ethics Ordinance: The board levied the maximum fine of $5,000 for each individual violation of the ordinance, which occurred between September 2019 and September 2022, in accordance with the terms of the Governmental Ethics Ordinance in effect at that time, officials said. The unanimous vote from the Board of Ethics ratifies Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s determination that Conyears-Ervin violated the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance. It is the first time an official elected citywide has been found in violation of the city’s main ethics law by both the Ethics Board and inspector general.
Governor Pritzker will give remarks on the Illinois-Ukraine partnership at 12:20 pm. There will be no additional availability. Click here to watch.
* Here’s the rest…
* Daily Southtown | Former police officer Patrick Sheehan appointed to Illinois House following Timothy Ozinga’s resignation: “I cannot wait to hit the ground running for suburban families by fighting tax hikes, keeping our communities safe, growing our economy and making a more ethical state government,” Sheehan said in a news release. Sheehan lost to incumbent Democrat Michael Hastings by fewer than 1,000 votes in the 2022 race for Illinois Senate. In his concession letter, Sheehan thanked Ozinga for his assistance in his election and John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7.
* WGN | The Workers’ Mic talks tax fraud with Attorney General Kwame Raoul: This week on The Worker’s Mic, Powered by the MCL, Ken Edwards, Ed Maher and Phil Davidson are joined by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and John Jarger, Director of Operations at the Mid-America Carpenter’s Regional Council, to discuss tax fraud and what the Office of the Illinois Attorney General is doing for workers in the state.
* Sun-Times | Chinatown gets a DMV office as Giannoulias jettisons use of driver services facilities name: Illinois famously doesn’t have a DMV, or Department of Motor Vehicles. Residents for decades have applied for and renewed licenses and car registrations at driver services facilities run by the Secretary of State’s office. But at a ribbon-cutting Monday for Chinatown’s first drivers and motor vehicles facility, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias made it clear he wants to call it a DMV.
* Fox Chicago | ComEd grants largest clean energy rebate to Illinois company for record solar installation: The rebate, totaling $2.6 million, was awarded to Bolingbrook-based G&W Electric. The project encompasses nearly eight football fields’ worth of solar panels and houses the largest battery of its kind. The battery, contained within 20 forty-foot shipping containers, represents a significant advancement in renewable energy technology.
* WGN | Mayor, money and mistrust in Dolton: The self-proclaimed “supermayor” of a small suburb south of Chicago has earned enough headlines to fill a month’s worth of newspapers. She’s also earned the attention of federal investigators who have picked-up the trail our reporting uncovered. This is the story of Dolton, Illinois mayor Tiffany Henyard who is equal parts politician and influencer. The two governments Henyard controls have spent tens of thousands of dollars on first class travel, fine dining, an armed security detail and a social media team worthy of a B-List celebrity.
* Rep. Kimberly du Buclet | When will sports betting companies recognize the value of Chicago women’s pro sports teams?: The assumption is these companies don’t value women’s professional sports. While that may not be true, they don’t have the record to prove they do care about women’s teams, including the Chicago Sky, in my district. If we’re going to continue to be a world-class sports town, we need these companies to support the Sky and other women’s teams to match the undeniable momentum these teams are generating right now.
* Investigate Midwest | Farmers have clamored for the Right to Repair for years. It’s getting little traction in John Deere’s home state: When the technician from John Deere arrived at his farm in central Illinois, it took about 30 minutes total to plug in a diagnostic tool, see which sensor was bad, unscrew it, replace it and close everything up in the combine. “If I knew what sensor was bad in that combine, I could have had it fixed in five minutes,” Lieb said. “But if you don’t have the software, it’s impossible to know what’s wrong.”
* EDN | National and State Soybean Organizations announce board elections: Interested applicants should complete the online application by 4 p.m. central time on Friday, July 9. Additionally, the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) seeks qualified candidates to fill board seats representing six districts that are up for election in 2024.
* Tribune | Johnson plan to add $70M for migrant response moves forward: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request for another $70 million to maintain the city’s migrant response advanced in the City Council Monday. The plan passed the Budget and Government Operations Committee in a 20-to-8 vote following contentious debate over the continued costly effort to care for the city’s recent migrants arrivals, including thousands of asylum-seekers who fled crisis in Venezuela. The outcome puts the proposal up for a full City Council vote set for Wednesday.
* Fox Chicago | All migrants officially moved out of Chicago Park District facilities, city officials confirm: All migrants have officially moved out of Chicago Park District facilities that were serving as temporary shelters for new arrivals, city officials confirmed Monday. All residents have been relocated to nearby shelters and the city will now reinstate community programming and operations at those facilities.
* Sun-Times | City Council committee OKs $750K settlement stemming from George Floyd protest: Deputy Corporation Counsel Caroline Fronczak said there is some video from body-worn and other police cameras of the arrest and detention of Mejia, who claims he was also the target of a racial slur from a police officer. But “due to the chaotic nature of those protests,” many officers were deployed without body cameras. “Finding body cam of a police officer in that scenario under those circumstances is basically looking for a needle in a haystack,” Fronczak said.
* Block Club | Top Cop Unveils Plan To Combat Robbery Surge: Supt. Larry Snelling said the police department is deploying “focus missions” that target stolen vehicles, often used as getaway cars, as part of its strategy. Robberies are up almost 30 percent citywide since 2021.
* Harvest Public Media | Newspapers in rural areas are folding, leaving vast news deserts. But there are bright spots: In February, in a unique move, the University of Iowa’s student newspaper bought The Sun from the papers’ owner, Woodward Communications, along with another local weekly. The Daily Iowan, with a reporting staff of about 90 students, is owned by a non-profit and independent of the university. Some of its reporters, along with students from the university’s School of Journalism, will now contribute articles to The Sun and the Solon Economist. Countryman said it’s a relief to know now he’ll have help from student journalists.
* CNN | No link found between COVID vaccinations and cardiac deaths in young people, CDC says: The results come from an analysis of death certificates from Oregon residents who died from any heart condition or unknown reasons between June 2021 and December 2022. Nearly 1,300 death certificates from people between the ages of 16 and 30 were reviewed. Out of 101 death certificates where a cardiac event wasn’t ruled out as a cause of death, 40 people received a COVID vaccine. Only three of those people died within 100 days of vaccination.
* NPR | Sinkhole forces a highway closure south of Hillsboro: The location is between Hillsboro and Coffeen, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The sinkhole has increased slightly in diameter making the area unsafe for travel, IDOT said. A geotechnical consultant will evaluate the situation. Until then, motorists are advised to seek alternate routes.
* WBEZ | Dog trainers stress importance of ‘recognizing yellow lights’ to prevent aggressive behavior: Last year, Illinois ranked eighth in the country in dog bite claims. Insurance companies paid more than $61.8 million for 837 dog-related injury claims, with an average payout of $73,797.
* WSJ | Justice Department to File Antitrust Suit Against Live Nation: The Justice Department is preparing to sue as soon as next month, an antitrust challenge that could spur major changes at the biggest name in concert promotion and ticketing. The agency is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against the Ticketmaster parent in the coming weeks that would allege the nation’s biggest concert promoter has leveraged its dominance in a way that undermined competition for ticketing live events, according to people familiar with the matter.
* Block Club | ‘We Are The Culture’ Explores The History And Magic Of Black Chicago: Arionne Nettles has the soul of the city inscribed in her DNA. She spent her summers riding her bike and scraping her knees on her Englewood block. She learned how to sew and chop wood in a Chicago Park District field house, and completed book reports and Black History Month projects at the Woodson Regional Public Library in Washington Heights.
* Sun-Times | Chris Crane, former Exelon CEO and nuclear energy proponent, dies at 65: Chris Crane, the former chief executive and president of Exelon, the nation’s largest utility company that also owns ComEd, died Saturday after a “short illness and complications with pneumonia,” according to a statement from Exelon. He was 65. In a news release, the company said he will be remembered for his “transformational milestones” on safety and equity, specifically related to his work in the nuclear energy field, as well as expanding the company through mergers with Washington, D.C.-based Pepco; New Jersey-based Atlantic City Electric; and Delaware-based Delmarva Power utilities.
* WaPo | Rural Americans are way more likely to die young. Why?: The USDA researchers analyzed mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from two three-year periods — 1999 through 2001, and 2017 through 2019. In 1999, the natural-cause mortality rate for rural working-age adults was only 6 percent higher than that of their city-dwelling peers. By 2019, the gap had widened to 43 percent. The disparity was significantly worse for women — and for Native American women, in particular. The gap highlights how persistent difficulties accessing health care, and a dispassionate response from national leaders, can eat away at the fabric of rural communities.
* WSJ | Suit Challenging Iowa’s Book Ban Is Backed by Every Major Publisher: The lawsuit was filed by Penguin Random House in November and targets parts of an Iowa law that bans books depicting or describing sex acts from school libraries or classrooms, with the exemption of religious texts. The law also focuses on books that address gender identity or sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
posted by Isabel Miller
Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 7:43 am
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Right to repair would open up room for small local service businesses to keep farmers running. Right now you don’t own the tractor even if you bought it and that’s nuts. Deere et al are artificially holding your repairs hostage.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 7:50 am
– bans books depicting or describing sex acts from school libraries or classrooms, **with the exemption of religious texts.** –
Fine. Every book shall now include these non-bannable passages from religious texts in an appendix.
Religion keeps trying to play this game. Religion will keep losing.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 8:09 am
“Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias made it clear he wants to call it a DMV.” Anyone have any idea why? When I hear DMV, I think of jokes and corruption.
Comment by very old soil Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 8:40 am
Kudos to the governor for making an important and very decisive decision to appoint a person to oversee the parole board.
Comment by Regular democrat Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 8:43 am
Renaming to DMV gives the appearance of making improvements without actually doing anything but spending money on relabeling everything. Alexi is looking for things he’s done to brag about and might not really have any accomplishments to claim that weren’t already in process under Jesse.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 9:06 am
I listened to the hole hearing before SCOTUS and came away thinking they won’t gut the statute but it’s not standing as is. What other past cases might be affected if and when this decision is handed down. One thing for sure it wasn’t a good day for the government. Minutes into the governments lawyer opening argument Justice Kavanaugh told her ( you have a problem ) from that point on she was on it wasn’t good.
Comment by Long time Independent Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 9:12 am
like the attention the Gov is giving to the PRBd The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office used to send ASAs to hearings on old cases to bring that sort of relevant information. Foxx stopped that. sad.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 9:42 am
@Long time Independent, I gave it a listen too and agree with your take. I suspect the court lands somewhere in the middle — establish that a “gratuity” can absolutely be prosecuted as a bribe, but require prosecutors clear a relatively high bar in order to prove a quid pro quo at trial.
Comment by TNR Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 9:51 am
@Amalia, I think Foxx stopped taking positions at traditional parole hearings for the old “C-number” pre-1978 cases. I don’t believe they ever chimed in on the “new” MSR violation hearings that are now the subject of scrutiny.
Comment by Telly Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 9:57 am
“The gap highlights how persistent difficulties accessing health care, and a dispassionate response from national leaders, can eat away at the fabric of rural communities.”
This is such dishonest framing that it amounts to a lie. Really glad I canceled my WaPo subscription.
There are really clear reasons why the working poor in rural red states don’t have access to Medicare or hospitals and it’s got nothing to do with “dispassionate responses from national leaders.”
Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:07 am
=When I hear DMV, I think of jokes and corruption.=
It also makes me think of the Simpsons, and the DMV that Patty and Selma work at.
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:19 am
It is odd that Ozinga resigned without giving any type of explanation.
Comment by Stones Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:22 am
“parts of an Iowa law that bans books depicting or describing sex acts from school libraries or classrooms, with the exemption of religious texts”
Apparently the hypocritical ban has nothing to do with “sex acts” but political ideology and pandering. If the acts were truly objectionable the Bible would be banned also (see Lot and his daughters).
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:30 am
@Telly, yes, the old cases. and she should have continued that. infamously she did not recently oppose parole for a killer of two police officers from the 1970s. but one problem with the public understanding is they still seem to refer to parole for the cases including those under the newer criminal statutes. that is not actually the correct term. the board could do everyone a service by telling folks about the different laws that prisoners are in on and using correct language.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:34 am
Rampant political corruption is part of the fabric of NW Indiana politics. A judge labeled a former mayor’s administration as a criminal enterprise for the Sidewalks for Votes scandal. The mayor was ordered to pay $108 million in restitution to the city. He served no jail time.
A former councilman ducked out to Greece where there is no extradition to avoid jail time.
An article labeled the area a Cornucopia of Corruption. Such alliteration.
Comment by Rudy’s teeth Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:48 am
===When I hear DMV, I think of jokes and corruption.===
Lived in 2 states with DMVs, relatives in other states with DMVs, and NOWHERE do DMVs have anything close to Paul Powell & George Ryan … .
Comment by Anyone Remember Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 10:56 am
–the Bible would be banned also–
Gotta think bigger. There are far more religious texts than just the bible with this type of material. Use those to showcase the absurdity of these laws.
If you want to see heads explode, start filling libraries with the Xuannü Jing. It’s a religious text dealing with these topics, and it’s from China. Or turn the volume up to 11, and use religious texts about Tu’er Shen.
Or probably best of all, religious texts regarding Erzulie Dantor and Erzulie Freda. That pretty much ties everything together under the same roof.
Opportunities abound.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Apr 16, 24 @ 11:03 am