By Environment Illinois

As shareholders of Tyson Foods, Inc. consider a resolution on Friday that would require the food giant to institute a “water stewardship” policy, new data shows the company regularly dumps a higher volume of pollution into waterways than companies like ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical.
An Environment Illinois analysis shows Tyson and its subsidiaries released 104 million pounds of pollution to surface waters from 2010 to 2014, nearly seven times the volume of surface water discharges by Exxon during those years.
“Tyson is dumping a huge volume of pollution into our waterways,” said Brittany King, campaign organizer with Environment Illinois. “That’s why Tyson’s shareholders should vote to ensure that the company cleans up its act.”

Read More

Posted on February 4, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

Aided and abetted by the mayor and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Plus: Rahm Sits On Koschman Report; Chicago Police Tricking Their Way Into Your Cell Phone Without A Warrant; Rahm Keeps Red Lights Placed Through Bribery And Causing Traffic Accidents In Order To Collect The Money; Rahm Keeps Schools That Incentivize Fraud; and Beachwood Town Crier™.

Read More

Posted on January 30, 2016

By The Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging a federal appeals court in Chicago to rule that police need a warrant to access cell phone location records that can reveal our everyday travels – when we leave home, where we go and whom we visit.
In an amicus brief filed Friday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of Wisconsin said cell phone location information – data that show where our phones are at a given time and date – generates a comprehensive picture of a person’s movements. Because we carry our phones with us wherever we go, these data can reveal intensely personal information like when we see a doctor, attend a political meeting or visit friends. Americans have the right to expect that this information remain private and beyond the reach of law enforcement officers unless they first obtain a search warrant.

Read More

Posted on January 26, 2016

By Ed Hammer

Some readers might remember a column I wrote back in October of 2010 about how the citizens of Kankakee dedicated at park bench to the native son and convicted felon George Ryan, one of Illinois’s most corrupt governors.
Now a woman’s organization known as the General Federation of Women’s Club of Kankakee wants a life-size bronze statue of Ryan erected in a Kankakee park. It is not enough that Ryan is an ex-con with a litany of ethical and criminal violations hanging around his neck. These ladies also want a statue of Len Small, another native son and Illinois governor. It would be an awe-inspiring panel discussion in a political ethics forum to debate who was Illinois’ most corrupt governor, Ryan, Small or the impeached and imprisoned Rod Blagojevich.

Read More

Posted on January 26, 2016

By Cynthia Gordy/ProPublica

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan – in which the city’s drinking water became contaminated with lead, bacteria and other pollutants – has come to national attention in recent weeks. President Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint, freeing up $5 million in federal aid, but Flint’s water problems have been unfolding for almost two years.
Ron Fonger, reporter for The Flint Journal and MLive, has been writing about the water contamination since 2014, when the city began using the Flint River as its water source. From covering city council meetings and town hall forums, where almost immediately residents complained about discolored, tainted water, he has had a front-row seat to the crisis. On this week’s podcast, Fonger speaks with ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg about what caused the problem, who dropped the ball, and what happens next.

Read More

Posted on January 26, 2016

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And said, Hey! I could shoot you and not lose any votes, bitch!

Read More

Posted on January 25, 2016

By Steve Rhodes

The governor’s uncompromising mission is both naive and cynical at the same time. Plus: Glenn Frey vs. David Bowie; Democrats Own Flint Too; and How Glam And Punk Enabled Reagan.

Read More

Posted on January 23, 2016

By Adam Harris/ProPublica

The outcry over the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, has intensified in recent days, with President Obama promising $80 million in water infrastructure money and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwest region resigning. But the problem has been brewing for years. Here is some of the best reporting we’ve seen on the failures that led up to Flint’s water crisis.

Read More

Posted on January 23, 2016

By Ben Hirschler and Noah Barkin/Reuters

Politicians and business leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps this week face an increasingly divided world, with the poor falling further behind the super-rich and political fissures in the United States, Europe and the Middle East running deeper than at any time in decades.
Just 62 people, 53 of them men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire world population, and the richest 1 percent own more than the other 99 percent put together, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said on Monday.
Significantly, the wealth gap is widening faster than anyone anticipated, with the 1 percent overtaking the rest one year earlier than Oxfam had predicted only a year ago.

Read More

Posted on January 18, 2016

By CHANGE Illinois

Partisan redistricting of Illinois state legislative district maps has created continuing partisan bias in election outcomes while making it far less likely that voters will have a choice between candidates of both major parties in the general election, and voters in primary elections have even fewer choices, according to a new research report published by CHANGE Illinois.
“By any measure, the level of competition and competitiveness in legislative elections under the last four partisan maps is extremely low and getting worse,” according to Partisan Advantage and Competitiveness in Illinois Redistricting.
“These findings call into question the effectiveness of legislative elections in providing a meaningful incentive for citizen engagement. They also undermine the conventional wisdom that the members of the Illinois General Assembly are elected by the consent of Illinois residents.”

Read More

Posted on January 14, 2016