Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Let’s take a look at the (sorry) field of state attorney general candidates.
DEMOCRATS:
Kwame Raoul: The frontrunner from Day One hasn’t exactly run a confidence-building campaign; he’s been exposed as a creature of the Machine, if there was ever any doubt. CTU-endorsed. AFL-CIO-endorsed. His race to lose, but lose it he may.
Posted on March 19, 2018
By Steve Rhodes
“Here’s an issue on which rich Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker – by far the wealthiest of the Democrats aiming to unseat Rauner next year – find common ground,” Dan Mihalopoulos reported for the Sun-Times last fall.
“Both Rauner and Pritzker are fans of a state tax-credit program for rich investors in startup companies in Illinois.
In fact, Pritzker is more than just a supporter of the program – the venture capitalist has profited handsomely from it.
Pritzker’s companies have gotten tax credits worth more than $1.9 million over four years through the Illinois Angel Investment Tax Credit program, records show.
As he did when his big property-tax breaks were revealed earlier this year, Pritzker says he’s merely availed himself of what the law offers him.
And who writes those laws – and at the behest (and campaign contributions) of whom?
Posted on March 19, 2018
By Steve Rhodes
Look, he has the Pussy Riot endorsement. That’s almost good enough for me. Almost.
*
First, what was Carlos Ramirez-Rosa all about? Really? And I don’t mean that because he’s socialist, I mean that because he’s a 29-year-old first-term Chicago alderman.
And then this. I know it seems like ages ago, but it’s worth remembering and reflecting upon.
Posted on March 19, 2018
By Steve Rhodes
Here’s how it started:
The son of the slain Robert F. Kennedy used a speech to the Illinois delegation to the Democratic National Convention to sharply criticize Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, fueling speculation that the man with the famous political bloodlines might commit to running this time around after previously weighing campaigns for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor.
But after Kennedy wrapped up his polished address, he showed little savvy with the collection of reporters awaiting him outside a hotel banquet room to ask whether he would challenge Rauner in 2018.
“I said what I was going to say inside today,” he said, “and the rest of the convention I’m going to spend listening and learning from other people.”
Kennedy then walked toward a waiting elevator, but a crush of Chicago reporters followed him in, not satisfied with the non-answer.
“This is sort of ridiculous, please,” Kennedy pleaded.
“What’s ridiculous is you don’t answer questions,” WFLD-Ch. 32 reporter Mike Flannery shot back. “You’ve run four or five campaigns in the gossip column. Are you running for governor or not?”
“I don’t have to address you. Please leave the elevator and let me go to my meeting. Please do that. Have some decency,” Kennedy responded. “What have you become? Please, please.”
A furious Kennedy then left the elevator and headed to a nearby stairwell. Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet then chased him into the stairwell doorway requesting to take a photograph of the businessman, who obliged with an awkwardly forced smile.
Dude.
Posted on March 18, 2018
By Steve Rhodes
First in a series: The GOP candidates for governor.
Ah, the irony: Incompetent serial liar vs. Trumpist.
Undercovered – and underappeciated – about the Jeanne Ives campaign (perhaps because reporters love a close race and would love to see an upset just for the drama of it, as well as an earned dislike of the sitting governor) is that she’s not just a hard-right, rock-ribbed conservative, but a full-fledged Trumpist.
“Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives spoke at the [MAGA] rally because she wants voters to know she voted for President Trump and still strongly supports him,” Northern Public Radio reported in November, as just one example. “She said, ‘I believe in the policies that he’s implemented to date. I believe in following our federal laws. I believe in arresting illegal immigration so that we can support workers in our state first.'”
She backs Trump through-and-through. And the sitting governor whom she’s challenging is not about to make an issue of it. That’s where we’re at, as they say.
Posted on March 18, 2018
By Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies/Common Dreams
March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The U.S. military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths.
General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, “We don’t do body counts.”
One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.
Posted on March 16, 2018
Most Cops Not Trained In First Aid
“In 2017,” Vice notes, “[Chicago] had 3,457 shooting victims – 246 of which were children.
“To make matters worse, Chicago’s South Side – where many of these shootings take place – doesn’t even have a trauma center with the ability to treat adult shooting victims.
“To help combat these shortfalls, a grassroots community organization known as Ujimaa Medics has stepped in.
“Ujimaa Medics trains local kids as young as 12 on how to treat gunshot wounds and how to manage crowds at the scene of a shooting.
“Rodney Lucas traveled to Chicago to meet one of the organization’s co-founders and see their training firsthand.”
Posted on March 14, 2018
By Normon Solomon/Common Dreams
Daniel Ellsberg has a message that managers of the warfare state don’t want people to hear.
“If you have information that bears on deception or illegality in pursuing wrongful policies or an aggressive war,” he said in a statement released last week, “don’t wait to put that out and think about it, consider acting in a timely way at whatever cost to yourself . . . Do what Katharine Gun did.”
If you don’t know what Katharine Gun did, chalk that up to the media power of the war system.
Posted on March 9, 2018
By The Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs
Links by Beachwood.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois legislators and county fair officials gathered at the Statehouse to showcase the positive economic benefit county fairs bring to the state and urge the Governor to release $1.4 million in funding that was appropriated as part of the FY18, which passed last year.
The Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs highlighted the results of a University of Illinois Extension Department of Community and Economic Development study, which found that county fairs bring $170 million annually to the state’s economy and support 1000 non-fair related jobs.
“Local county fairs provide both measurable economic benefits and immeasurable community benefits to Central and Southern Illinois communities. I urge the governor and his administration to do the right thing and release this funding, which will help downstate communities that have struggled in the recent past,” said state Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria).
Posted on March 8, 2018
By The Illinois Mental Health Opportunities for Youth Diversion Task Force
SPRINGFIELD, IL – A state task force has delivered a final report recommending 14 action steps to deliver needed services and help keep youth with mental health conditions out of jails and prisons.
“Of the nearly 30,000 youth arrests and 11,000 youth admissions to local jails in Illinois each year, research consistently suggests that approximately 70 percent meet the diagnostic criteria for having a mental health condition, and at least 20 percent live with serious mental health condition, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, and other conditions that severely impair their ability to function,” according to the report by the Illinois Mental Health Opportunities for Youth Diversion Task Force.
“Frequently, a youth’s disruptive or illegal behavior is related to symptoms of a mental health condition that has gone undetected and untreated,” the report states. “Instead of treating these instances as an opportunity to connect these youth to effective community-based mental health services they are too often directed toward law enforcement. These youth – the majority who have lives already marred by racism, poverty, and violence – then cycle through jails, probation offices, courts, and prisons. The opportunity to divert youth early is wasted, and youth end up in a system that is ill-equipped to provide the necessary treatment.”
The task force recommended made the following recommendations:
Posted on March 7, 2018
