By The Beachwood Freedom Affairs Desk

“The Illinois House voted on Tuesday to overturn Gov. Pat Quinn’s amendatory veto on a bill that originally kept private the performance evaluations of all public employees,” Illinois Statehouse News reports.
“In 2009, the General Assembly revamped Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to give the public greater access to government information.
“But in the last year, the General Assembly has taken steps to reduce the amount of information that is available.”
How they voted:

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Posted on November 18, 2010

The Tony Scales Chronicles

From the grief-stricken citizens of Chicago.

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Posted on November 17, 2010

By The Greater Chicago Food Depository

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service reported Monday that more than 50 million Americans, including more than 17 million children, are food insecure – meaning they lack consistent access to a nutritious, well-balanced diet. The findings are based on data collected by the government in December, 2009.
In Illinois, 12.2 percent of households were food insecure at least some time from 2007 to 2009, including 4.4 percent with very low food security – up from 11.1 and 4.1 percent, respectively, in 2006-2008.
The report, Household Food Insecurity in the United States, is a sobering snapshot of the pervasiveness of hunger in our nation. The report shows that child hunger remains critically high. Nearly one in four children was at risk of hunger in 2009.

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Posted on November 16, 2010

By Paul Kiel/ProPublica

When the Obama administration launched its flagship foreclosure prevention program in early 2009, it pledged to spend up to $50 billion helping struggling homeowners. But the government has so far only spent a tiny fraction of that.

A recent Treasury Department report summarizing TARP spending put the total at $600 million through October.

Although the Treasury Department posts the maximum amount that could go to each mortgage servicer on its website, it doesn2019t report the details of the spending. So we filed a Freedom of Information request for the data, and can now show for the first time exactly how much money has gone to each servicer. (A Treasury Department spokeswoman said they’re considering regularly releasing the information going forward.)

The program, which uses TARP money, tries to prevent foreclosures by paying mortgages servicers incentives to make loan modifications. The largest payout, $79 million, has gone to JPMorgan Chase. Next on the list is Bank of America with $45.1 million. That’s a drop in the bucket for BofA, which reported net servicing income of $780 million in the third quarter. (You can use our bailout tracker to see how much money has gone to each mortgage servicer. The figures, which come from our FOIA request, only go through August.)

With the government’s program showing signs of slowing down, the small payout so far shows that Treasury won’t come close to using the full $50 billion, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

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Posted on November 15, 2010

Bringing It All Back Home

“Some of us really care about our communities, and that’s not what’s being promoted. You know, the biggest challenge that I’ve had since the beginning of this campaign is the perception that a rapper can’t be nothing more than an ignorant nigger.”

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Posted on November 12, 2010

By Rob Farley and Michael Grabell

This story was co-reported by PolitiFact and ProPublica.

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“One of the interesting things about the Recovery Act was most of the projects came in under budget, faster than expected, because there’s just not a lot of work there.”

– Barack Obama on Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010 in a 60 Minutes interview

President Barack Obama says the time is ripe for immediate investment in infrastructure projects such as highways and bridges. With the nation recovering from a recession, interest rates are low, competition among contractors for work is intense and the cost of building materials are low.

As evidence, Obama pointed to the government’s experience with the economic stimulus package, saying that taxpayers have gotten pretty good bang for their buck.

“One of the interesting things about the Recovery Act was most of the projects came in under budget, faster than expected, because there’s just not a lot of work there,” Obama said in an interview on 60 Minutes on Nov. 7, 2010. “I mean, there are construction crews all across the country that are dying for work. And companies that are willing to take a very small profit in order to get work done. And so for us to say now’s the time for us to rebuild this country and equip ourselves for the 21st Century. That’s something that could make a real difference.”

In the fall campaign, Republicans assailed the stimulus as wasteful spending, but now Obama is citing it as a example of efficiency. And so Politifact decided to collaborate with ProPublica to see if Obama was right that “most” of the projects funded by the stimulus came in “under budget” and “faster than expected.”

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Posted on November 11, 2010

By The Beachwood Secret Donors Affairs Desk

1. Thank you, Supreme Court.

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Posted on November 10, 2010

By 7-Eleven

7-Eleven Slurpee Trucks Bringing FREE “Purple to the People” Slurpee Drink to Chicago, IL
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What: 7-Eleven deployed five Slurpee Trucks from Dallas headed for Capitol Hill and the trucks are stopping along the way to bring the American people the “Purple to the People” exclusive Slurpee drink FREE.
Why: In the wake of President Barack Obama’s statement that Slurpee is a “very delicious drink,” 7-Eleven and Slurpee are going to bring Slurpee drinks to our nation’s capitol and our nation’s people along the way.
Where: 3407 N. Halsted St. Chicago, IL 60645.
When: Tuesday, November 9 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

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Posted on November 9, 2010

By The Beachwood Democracy Affairs Desk

First, the press release. Then, highlights from the lawsuit.
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The Illinois Green Party and candidates Rich Whitney and LeAlan Jones filed suit in federal court against public television station WTTW, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Service and President and CEO of WTTW Daniel J. Schmidt. Gubernatorial candidate Whitney and Senatorial candidate Jones were both excluded from debates which occurred on WTTW this week. This happened despite the Illinois Green Party being one of only three legally established political parties in the state. Furthermore, Whitney received over 360,000 votes in the 2006 gubernatorial election.
The complaint alleges that WTTW, PBS and the CPB violated their 501(c)(3) status by conducting debates that had the effect of participating in, or intervening in a political campaign “on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” These debates plainly had the effect of supporting the Democratic and Republican candidates, who alone were provided with a forum to propagate their views, to the exclusion of the two ballot-qualified Green Party candidates. The suit also charges these three corporate defendants with having violated the Federal Communications Act, including its Equal Time provisions pertaining to political candidates, by sponsoring a debate that gave the Democratic and Republican candidates more time than their Green Party challengers.

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Posted on November 5, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones received 115,623 votes (3.2 percent); about 30,000 more than Alexi Giannoulias needed to overcome Mark Kirk.
Libertarian Party candidate Mike Labno, however, received 85,607 votes (2.4 percent); enough to have carried Kirk to victory if neither Jones nor Labno were in the race and those voting Green voted Democratic and those voting Libertarian voted Republican.
Of course, that wouldn’t have necessarily happened. If Jones wasn’t in the race, for example, I simply wouldn’t have voted. Alexi would not have gotten my vote.
The real question is, why didn’t those 1,668,690 voters who went for Giannoulias vote for Jones?
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Republicans took two state offices from Democrats: Treasurer and comptroller.
Significance? Now we have to read four more years of Sneedlings from the irrepressible Judy Baar Topinka and wonder if Dan Rutherford will run for governor in four years.
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Dick Durbin must be counting his lucky stars he wasn’t up for re-election this time around, given the environment and the way he mishandled the Roland Burris seating. Durbin won’t face voters until 2014.
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Beachwood contributor Tim Willette sends in this gem:
“Illinois voters didn’t appear overly enthusiastic about either Senate candidate, but Republican Mark Kirk triumphed with help from independents, men and people worried about the economy, an exit poll showed,” AP reports.
In other words, everyone! Is anyone not worried about the economy?
Says Tim: “Ha ha – like writing ‘Kirk received crucial support from people who fear death.'”
*
Me: “Ha! At Filter with Mike Luce, just read this to him. He says ‘Ideological women not worried about the economy, however, went the other way.'”
Tim: “You’re in luck – both of them just tweeted that they’re also at Filter at this very moment. Check the table by the window.”

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Posted on November 4, 2010