By CHANGE Illinois!

Today, CHANGE Illinois! sent the following letter to all members of the General Assembly. Please call your state legislators today and ask them to tell their legislative leader that Illinois needs legislation that limits campaign contributions and that money from legislative leaders and political parties must be limited, too. The CHANGE Illinois! Hotline will connect you to their offices. Please dial 1-800-719-3020.
October 13, 2009
Dear legislator:
CHANGE Illinois!, a coalition with members representing more than 2 million Illinois voters, has been a strong advocate of legislation to create a contribution limits system that is fair to all, has reasonable limit amounts, more frequent disclosure of contributions and has a strong enforcement mechanism, including random audits of campaign committees.
Although we hope ongoing negotiations will lead to agreement on a system of comprehensive campaign contribution limits and strong enforcement, it is possible that House members will be asked Wednesday to vote on a proposal that has not been agreed to by CHANGE Illinois! and would fall short of the kind of reform that would merit renewed confidence in Illinois government.

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Posted on October 14, 2009

By The Beachwood Reform Affairs Desk
“In August, reform groups stood up for top Illinois politicians as they threw out the state’s first sweeping limits on campaign donations,” the Daily Herald reports. “They all promised to work together to draft an even stronger law.
“Now that lawmakers are set to take up the issue again next week, however, it seems those hopes of agreement are in danger of falling apart.
“The reform groups, united under the banner of Change Illinois!, announced Thursday at a news conference in Chicago that while many advances have been made in the proposed legislation – including caps on contributions, demands for more frequent reporting, fines for violations and random audits – there remains one ‘sticking point’: They haven’t been able to reach an agreement with legislative leaders over campaign finance limits on political parties and their caucus committees.
Here’s what CHANGE Illinois! wants you to know.

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Posted on October 9, 2009

By Michael Grabell/ProPublica
Stimulus money for transportation projects is being spent far more slowly than expected.
When the economic stimulus act passed in February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the U.S. Department of Transportation would spend about $5 billion by the end of the fiscal year, which was Wednesday.
But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday that only $3.4 billion has been spent so far – about a third less than forecast. Rep. John Mica, the top Republican on the House transportation committee, said the spending rate was disappointing, noting that unemployment figures released today were expected to hit 9.8 percent.
“Of the $48 billion in transportation stimulus funds, so far DOT has paid out only $3.4 billion, or 7 percent of the total,” said Mica, R-Fla.

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Posted on October 7, 2009

By Sam Singer
The health care debate is already brimming with needless commentary, so it is with some reluctance that I bring up the latest digression, courtesy of two of the legal community’s most notable agitators.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, conservative lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey argue that Congress is without constitutional authority to enact a law requiring Americans to buy health insurance. Under its Commerce Clause powers, Congress can regulate economic activity that has a substantial effect on interstate commerce. But Rivkin and Casey can’t discern what activity, short of having a pulse, Congress seeks to regulate through a mandatory insurance program.

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Posted on September 30, 2009

By Marcus Stern and Jennifer LaFleur/ProPublica
When it comes to golf, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., has champagne taste.
In California, he’s putted with his back to the thundering surf near the 7th hole at Pebble Beach, where a round of golf costs $495. In Florida, he’s driven the ball down the fairways of the Boca Raton Resort, with its signature island green on the 18th hole and its Waldorf Astoria interior.

PAC Tracker: Find your congressman’s leadership PAC

These are among the dozen premiere resorts where Chambliss played golf in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars. Yet Chambliss is hardly rich. His net worth is between $181,006 and $415,000, according to his 2007 financial disclosure report, ranking him 89th in the Senate in terms of wealth.
Fortunately for Chambliss, a political fund covers the costs of his golf hobby. The fund received $692,618 during the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Almost all of it came from lobbyists, political action committees (PACs) and corporate leaders.
The public might be forgiven for thinking the days are gone when lobbyists and special interests could pay for a lawmaker’s cross-country golf outings. After all, both the House and Senate in 2007 responded to a spate of scandals by banning members of Congress from accepting gifts of any value from lobbyists or the companies that hire them.
But those reforms preserved a major loophole: leadership PACs like Chambliss’ Republican Majority Fund, which have far looser rules and get far less scrutiny than campaign committees. At first, only a few rising stars in Congress had them. Now, 70 percent of the members do. So do a dozen former members.

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Posted on September 28, 2009

By Sam Singer
Last month Chicago police superintendent Jody Weis asked the city to rethink the way it handles police misconduct claims. At his request, the Law Department amended its settlement policy to reflect a more battle-ready posture. City lawyers will no longer have discretion to settle small claims on behalf of police officers. Now lawyers will need the city’s permission, which presumably won’t come, and until it does they will aggressively litigate each misconduct claim that lands on their desks.
By “misconduct claim” I mean a suit against a police officer arising from actions taken in carrying out his official duties. (You may have heard these suits described as “brutality claims,” but while appropriate on rare occasions, that label is under-inclusive and on the whole a bit brash). Because misconduct suits involve official police conduct, the city is on the hook for most of the damages, which explains why city lawyers can typically represent the joint interests of the city and the accused police officer in one proceeding.
The city has understandably grown weary of elective settlements. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have learned to game the city’s settlement policy by bringing – and in some cases manufacturing – claims that cost more to litigate than to settle. In this way they can effectively force payouts by presenting lawyers with the choice of spending, say, $10,000 to try a misconduct case or $7,000 to make it go away.
But if costly, the city’s old settlement policy had some indisputable, if often overlooked, benefits.

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Posted on September 16, 2009

By Voices for Illinois Children
Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week show continued improvement in health insurance coverage for Illinois children, due largely to enrollment in the state’s “All Kids” health insurance program, according to an analysis of the data by Voices for Illinois Children.
The option of public health insurance for children has become even more critical during a deep recession, as unemployment increases and state revenues decline.
In 2007-2008, the state’s uninsured rate for children was 6.5 percent, compared with 8.1 percent in 2006-2007. The national average in 2007-2008 was 10.5 percent. In 2004-2005, the proportion of uninsured children in Illinois was 10.4 percent – about the same as the U.S. as a whole.
The latest data also show the continued long-term erosion of employment-based health insurance. In 2007-2008, 65 percent of Illinois children had employer-sponsored coverage, down from 66 percent in 2006-2007 and 71 percent in 1990-2000.

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Posted on September 15, 2009

By Christopher Flavelle/Pro Publica
On Thursday, the president’s Council of Economic Advisers released its first quarterly report (PDF) on the economic impact of the stimulus. The next day’s headlines seized on a single number in the report: one million, the council’s estimate of how many jobs the stimulus had created or saved. But how solid is that number?
According to the report itself, not very.

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Posted on September 14, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
In which I talk back to the president.
This text has been edited for length, clarity and comedy.
OBAMA: There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada’s, where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everyone. On the right, there are those who argue that we should end the employer-based system and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.
RHODES: And there are those who believe those aren’t mutually exclusive.
OBAMA: I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both approaches.
RHODES: And I should know, because I’ve made them!

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Posted on September 10, 2009

By Kiljoong Kim

A century ago, Daniel Burnham’s plan to develop and redevelop Chicago after the Great Fire, commonly known as the Plan of Chicago of 1909, was launched with many great ambitions. And it’s been celebrated and studied as a classic model for urban design and development ever since. The Plan created a boulevard system, a lakefront largely accessible to the public, and many other amenities that we enjoy today. What is not well-known is that upon implementation, the rising cost of housing displaced many working class residents near downtown. Those residents were largely first-generation Czechs, East European Jews, Italians and Poles, as well as blacks from the South seeking factory jobs in the new industrial age.
Nearly a hundred years later, under the names of urban renewal, revitalization, gentrification, and globalization, the rising cost of housing begins to displace yet another set of working-class immigrants and racial minorities – primarily Mexicans and African Americans – out of several neighborhoods throughout the city. Such displacement is nearly complete in Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Wicker Park and the South Loop, and the progress is ongoing in Rogers Park, Uptown, Albany Park, Pilsen, Bronzeville and Kenwood/Oakland.
This brings up an interesting question of who gets to live in Chicago.

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Posted on September 7, 2009