Letter: Governors tell tall tales for Rauner

Letter: Governors tell tall tales for Rauner

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Our billionaire governor, Bruce Rauner, can afford expensive commercials but he cannot afford to tell the truth. Have you seen his commercial featuring three republican governors lying about the booming economy in their respective states?

Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, has waged war on workers, failing to generate new jobs or higher household incomes. Despite his $2 million deficit, he cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires while slashing education. His lavish corporate subsidies have failed to produce any new jobs. He refuses to raise the minimum wage or pass equal pay legislation.

Under Eric Holcomb, governor of Indiana, per capita income has fallen from 33rd to 38th in the nation. Tourism is suffering because Halcomb has continued the unwelcome policies of Mike Pence regarding civil rights for gay, bisexual, and transgender people. He still defends the use of coal energy, denies climate change and strongly opposed the EPA Clean Power Plan.

Eric Greitens, governor of Missouri, stands accused of breaking the law by ousting the state's top school official. He wants to replace her and others with people who will further his agenda of implementing charter schools. This year he announced a $146.4 million budget cut due to a poor state economy. More than half the cuts are coming from the department of higher education that oversees the state colleges and universities.

He also cut $8.6 million from the transportation department of elementary and secondary education.

Betty Murphy,

Orion, Illinois

Above is from:  http://www.qconline.com/opinion/letters/letter-governors-tell-tall-tales-for-rauner/article_c957f9c4-fbee-5034-bf19-db9d6eac25fe.html

Here Are the White House Visitor Records the Trump Administration Didn’t Want You to See

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Here Are the White House Visitor Records the Trump Administration Didn’t Want You to See

By Derek Kravitz, Leora Smith and Al Shaw, November 21, 2017

The Trump White House tried to block public access to visitor logs of five federal offices working directly for the president even though they were subject to public disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act. Property of the People, a Washington-based transparency group, successfully sued the administration to release the data and provided the documents to ProPublica. You can search them below. Related: Koch Lobbyists and Opus Dei — Who’s Dropping in on Trump Budget Czar Mick Mulvaney? | About the data | Download the data

If you have information about these meetings, or who attended them, contact us at visitors@propublica.org or via Signal at (573) 239-7440. Here's how to leak to ProPublica.

230 Days

2,169 Redactions

8,807 Meetings

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING TO SEE THE FULL VISITOR LOG ON MULVANEY:https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/wh-complex

About the Data

The White House complex -- formally called the Executive Office of the President, or EOP -- is made up of more than a dozen offices and about 4,000 staffers who craft White House policy and support the president. It includes the White House itself, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and other federal agencies.

Property of the People, a Washington-based nonprofit transparency group, successfully sued to force the administration to release the visitor logs and calendars of top agency officials from five agencies within the White House complex: the Office of Management and Budget; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Office of National Drug Control Policy; the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and the Council on Environmental Quality.

The court held that these agencies are subject to public disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act, even if the White House itself is not. The Trump administration refuses to release visitor logs for the White House, citing "grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”

The Obama White House also initially refused to release a list of its visitors, as had previous administrations. But in 2009, facing four lawsuits from government transparency groups and increasing public scrutiny, the Obama administration began voluntarily posting records of those who came in and out of the White House itself online.

The dataset covers the period between Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration, and about Sept. 6, although the date ranges differ by agency.

The government redacted the names of some White House complex visitors, citing privacy reasons. Property of the People and the government are negotiating for the release of names currently redacted in some of the visitor logs and calendars. We plan to publish additional data, likely disclosed on a quarterly basis, as it becomes available.

The government noted in its response to Property of the People’s open-records request that it couldn’t guarantee that every visitor’s name was logged. Because the visitor logs and calendars are produced by the agencies themselves, meeting details might be mislabeled or incorrect. In some cases, where we couldn’t confirm the proper spelling of handwritten names or other text, we noted entries as “illegible.”

Additional design and development by Sisi Wei

Koch Lobbyists and Opus Dei — Who’s Dropping in on Trump Budget Czar Mick Mulvaney?

The influential OMB director’s door is open to corporate and conservative interests, according to logs that the White House fought to keep secret.

by Justin Elliott

Nov. 21, 1:56 p.m. EST

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Koch Lobbyists and Opus Dei — Who’s Dropping in on Trump Budget Czar Mick Mulvaney?

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, attends a House Budget Committee hearing on President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal in Washington, D.C., on May 24. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

One of President Donald Trump’s top cabinet officials has met with a long list of lobbyists, corporate executives and wealthy people with business interests before the government, according to calendars the Trump administration fought to keep secret.

The calendars for Mick Mulvaney, the former South Carolina congressman who now runs the White House Office of Management and Budget, offer a glimpse of who has access to the highest levels of the Trump administration.

Among those visiting Mulvaney: Trump friend and casino magnate Steve Wynn; a flurry of officials from the conservative Heritage Foundation; a string of health care and Wall Street CEOs; lobbyists for Koch Industries; a cryptocurrency evangelist; and a prominent member of the Catholic group Opus Dei.

The Trump administration fought in court to block public records requests by Property of the People, a Washington-based nonprofit transparency group, to release the calendars as well as visitor logs from several other White House offices. Lawyers for the group ultimately prevailed and provided the documents to ProPublica, which we are posting in a searchable format.

As OMB director, Mulvaney is the driving force behind the president’s budget and influences regulations and government procurement. It’s been widely reported that he will become the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also has the ear of the president, who is reportedly a fan of Mulvaney’s performances on the Sunday political shows. The calendars, which cover February to September, typically don’t include details on what was discussed at the meetings. In some cases, the timing of contact with Mulvaney line up with OMB business.

Mulvaney appeared on “Meet the Press” on Oct. 8. The president reportedly thinks Mulvaney does a good job on Sunday political shows. (William B. Plowman/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)

“The OMB director is a member of the cabinet and also a senior adviser to the president — because of that, the director often spends a ton of time in the West Wing,” said Kenneth Baer, who was senior adviser and associate director at the agency for several years of the Obama administration.

The quickest way to get access to Mulvaney appears to be to hire his former congressional chief of staff, Al Simpson, who joined the lobbying firm Mercury in February.

Simpson had seven meetings and a phone call with Mulvaney in a four-month period, between April and August. He appears on Mulvaney’s calendars more frequently than anyone who is not a current government official. Often, Simpson brought lobbying clients with him, including representatives from building materials giant Cemex; pharma firm AmerisourceBergen; and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. Those three firms paid Mercury $360,000 in the first nine months of the year, disclosure filings show.

A Mercury spokesman said: “The firm fully complies with all registration and disclosure requirements when representing clients.” The OMB press office did not respond to requests for comment.

In July, Simpson and Koch Industries lobbyists Brian Henneberry and Raymond Paul met with Mulvaney.

In other cases, billionaires themselves came in to meet with Mulvaney. They include Charles Schwab, medical entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong and Wynn, the casino magnate whose relationship with Trump goes back decades. Wynn met with Mulvaney in April. Wynn’s firm has lobbied on tax issues on Capitol Hill. Wynn himself, who has large holdings in Macau, has reportedly been involved in pressing the Trump administration on China issues. Wynn was also named finance chairman of the Republican National Committee in January. Wynn’s spokesman declined to comment.

In late February, Mulvaney had a call with Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court justice and a prominent lawyer at Gibson Dunn. At the time, Scalia was representing business groups that wanted OMB to delay the implementation of a regulation known as the fiduciary rule. Scalia didn’t respond to a request for comment. Many of his meetings with health care executives came as Republicans in Congress tried to repeal Obamacare.

Here Are the White House Visitor Records the Trump Administration Didn’t Want You to See

The Trump White House tried to block public access to visitor logs of five federal offices working directly for the president even though they were subject to public disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act. A Washington-based transparency group successfully sued the administration to release the data and provided the documents to ProPublica.

Mulvaney’s schedule is, to a large extent, a reflection of his politics. A former member of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus, he recently told Politico, “I don’t think anyone in this administration is more of a right-wing conservative than I am.” (The same profile quoted Simpson, Mulvaney’s former chief of staff turned lobbyist, praising him.)

Mulvaney met with few, if any, consumer groups. That’s in contrast to President Barack Obama’s first OMB director, Peter Orszag, whose visitor logs show meetings with both a long string of corporate executives as well as philanthropic and consumer representatives.

Among the more surprising visitors to Mulvaney was Jeff Bell, a former Reagan aide who is marked on the calendar as being with the Catholic group Opus Dei. Bell told ProPublica that his March meeting with Mulvaney, a Catholic, covered “religious and political matters” but declined to comment further.

Another was Valery Vavilov, CEO of Bitfury, a tech company focused on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. When Mulvaney was still in Congress last year, he co-founded a “blockchain caucus” to promote the technology behind Bitcoin

At the May meeting, “Mulvaney expressed his desire to encourage government use of blockchain and he asked our group for suggestions of simple use cases that could be a first step for government adoption,” a Bitfury spokesman told ProPublica.

Do you have information about Mick Mulvaney or the Office of Management and Budget? Contact Justin at justin@propublica.org or via Signal at 774-826-6240.

Above is from:  https://www.propublica.org/article/whos-dropping-in-on-trump-budget-czar-mick-mulvaney

St James Church undergoes third capital campaign

Above is from:  https://content.parishesonline.com/bulletins/01/0294/20171126B.pdf

17th Circuit Selects Debra D. Shafer as New Associate Judge

Marcia M. Meis, Director of the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, and Joseph G. McGraw, Chief Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court, are pleased to announce that the 17th Circuit Judges voted to select local attorney Debra D. Schafer as Associate Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit.  This associate judge vacancy was created as result of the retirement of Associate Judge Fernando L. Engelsma.  Ms. Schafer will take her oath of office on Monday, December 11, 2017.

Commenting on the selection, Chief Judge Joseph G. McGraw stated, “Ms. Schafer is a talented and respected attorney with twenty-six years of legal experience. Her extensive trial experience and professional demeanor makes her well suited for judicial office.  We look forward to her service as a judge within the Seventeenth Circuit Court.”

Ms. Schafer received her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from Illinois State University in 1988, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois in 1991.  Ms. Schafer served as an assistant state’s attorney in the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office between 1991 and 1996. In 1996, she joined the law firm of Sreenan & Cain, P.C. where she focused her practice on state and federal criminal defense.  In May 2017, Sreenan & Cain, P.C. was reorganized as Schafer DeRango & Cain, LLP, recognizing Ms. Schafer as a partner of the firm.

The Winnebago County Bar Association, Boone County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association conducted a poll of local attorneys to evaluate candidates for this associate judge position.  Ms. Schafer received the highest rating of any of the 27 applicants, with 86.66% of respondents finding that she met requirements of the office.  The poll evaluates candidates in areas including legal ability, integrity, and impartiality.

In addition to her law practice, Ms. Schafer has served as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law since 2008.  She currently teaches Advanced Trial Advocacy and has helped coach several teams of law students in scholastic trial competitions. Ms. Schafer has also served as a volunteer mentor in connection with the court’s Lawyer to Lawyer Mentoring Program.

Debra Schafer is a member of the Winnebago County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, the Trial Bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.

Investigation: Radioactive leaks at Illinois nuclear plants

Investigation: Radioactive leaks at Illinois nuclear plants

• By Brett Chase and Madison Hopkins • Better Government Association
• Nov 17, 2017

Radioactive waste continues to pour from Exelon's Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after the discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, an investigation by a government watchdog group found.

Since 2007, there have been at least 35 reported leaks, spills or other accidental releases in Illinois of water contaminated with radioactive tritium, a byproduct of nuclear power production and a carcinogen at high levels, a Better Government Association review of federal and state records shows.

No fines were issued for the accidents, all of which were self-reported by the company.

The most recent leak of 35,000 gallons occurred over two weeks in May and June at Exelon's Braidwood plant, southwest of Chicago. The same facility was the focus of a community panic in the mid-2000s after a series of accidents stirred debate over the safety of aging nuclear plants.

A 2014 incident at Exelon's Dresden facility in Grundy County involved the release of about 500,000 gallons of highly radioactive water. Contamination was later found in the plant's sewer lines and miles away in the Morris, Ill., sewage treatment plant.

Another leak was discovered in 2007 at the Quad Cities plant in Cordova. It took eight months to plug and led to groundwater radiation readings up to 375 times of that allowed under federal safe drinking water standards.

Exelon had threatened to close the Quad Cities plant, but relented last year after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed bailout legislation authorizing big rate hikes.

Representatives of Exelon and its government overseers — the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency — say the leaks posed no public danger and did not contaminate drinking water. Exelon said to prevent leaks it has spent $100 million over the last decade on upgrades at all of its U.S. plants.

Michael Pacilio, chief operating officer of the power generating arm of Exelon, said no one in or around the plants was harmed by radioactivity from the leaks, which he described as minor compared with everyday exposures.

"We live in a radioactive world," Pacilio said.

Critics say that's little cause for relief.

"Best that we can tell, that's more luck than skill," said David Lochbaum, an analyst with the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. "Leaks aren't supposed to happen. Workers and the public could be harmed. There is a hazard there."

Among the 61 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S., more than half have reactors that are at or near the end of their originally expected lifespans — including the Dresden and Quad Cities plants.

Industry watchdogs and government whistleblowers contend oversight is compromised by a cozy relationship between companies and the NRC.

Government regulators concede they must balance the safety needs of aging plants, which require more maintenance, versus ordering cost-prohibitive upgrades at facilities that inherently are just a slip-up away from catastrophe.

No player in the nuclear industry is bigger than Exelon, the Chicago-based energy company that last year reported $31 billion in revenue and operates 14 nuclear plants in Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Five of the six Illinois plants reported leaks over the last decade, records show. Clinton, in DeWitt County, had no leaks and Byron, in Ogle County, reported only one that contained low levels of radioactivity.

The Byron nuclear plant leaked radioactive waste into groundwater under the plant's property in 2014. Byron is one of five nuclear plants in Illinois that reported similar leaks over the past decade. Exelon's Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, according to federal and state record reviewed by Better Government Association. (Madison Hopkins/BGA via AP)

The accidents included in the BGA analysis are separate from government-approved releases into large bodies of water. The state allows Exelon to discharge controlled amounts of tritium into rivers and lakes, where radioactive material gets diluted.

Other releases of tritium, however, can be illegal and subject to fines and government lawsuits — though no accidents from the past decade resulted in either. Government officials say small amounts of tritium — a radioactive form of hydrogen and a potential marker for more dangerous nuclear contaminants — are not harmful to humans but exposure to higher levels may increase the risk of cancer.

At least seven of the 35 documented accidents since 2007 involved contamination of groundwater. Other contamination was found in sewers and other water systems where it isn't supposed to be.

The recent leaks echo the controversy in 2006 when it was revealed that leaks at Braidwood over many years spilled 6 million gallons of radioactive water, some of which found its way onto private properties and at least one private drinking well.

At the time, Exelon and state regulators assured the public radioactivity levels in the private well were far below limits deemed a danger. Neighbors of the Braidwood plant were skeptical then and remain so.

"The NRC gets all its numbers from the nuclear plant. How can NRC trust the numbers?" asked Monica Mack, who lives in Braceville near the Braidwood plant.

Radioactive waste continues to pour from Exelon's Illinois nuclear power plants more than a decade after discovery of chronic leaks led to national outrage, a $1.2 million government settlement and a company vow to guard against future accidents, according to federal and state record reviewed by Better Government Association. The recent leaks echo the controversy in 2006 when it was revealed leaks at Braidwood over many years spilled 6 million gallons of radioactive water, some of which found its way onto private properties and at least one private drinking well. Neighbors of the Braidwood plant were skeptical then and remain so.(Madison Hopkins/BGA via AP)

The BGA investigation also found:

• Of the 35 documented incidents, 27 occurred at Dresden. Following the big 2014 leak, which emanated from an aboveground storage tank, Exelon asked a state inspector whether the public would have access to the incident report under open records laws, a state report showed.

• An NRC report on the 2007 Quad Cities leak noted radiation levels went "well beyond that seen anywhere else in the industry" and that plant staff estimated the leak had been active for years before it was discovered.

• In 2010, Exelon's Marseilles generating plant in LaSalle County reported a spill from a storage tank, initially estimated at more than 150 gallons but later classified as "unknown." Groundwater tritium tests later showed levels 59 times the EPA's drinking water limit. Exelon said no tritium left the plant's boundaries, but records show plant workers continued to monitor a body of highly contaminated groundwater sitting on plant property at least five years after the accident.

• In 2009, Dresden reported another hole in a storage tank led to a leak of as much as 272,000 gallons of radioactive water. Onsite groundwater testing showed levels of tritium 160 times higher than allowed under federal standards for drinking water.

This report was provided to The Associated Press by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Better Government Association of Chicago.

Above is from:  http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/investigation-radioactive-leaks-at-illinois-nuclear-plants/article_5afd12ac-e54b-5b20-be98-b72233c1075c.html

Boone County voters must decide on another public safety sales tax hike

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Posted Nov 15, 2017 at 10:01 PM Updated Nov 15, 2017 at 10:01 PM

BELVIDERE — For the second time in less than a year, Boone County voters must decide whether putting money toward public safety is more important than plunking down more dollars at cash registers.

Board members voted unanimously, 12-0, Wednesday to put a question on the March 20 ballot that asks if the public safety sales tax should be increased from 0.5 percent to 1 percent.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work by a lot of people, and hopefully we have a lot of volunteers,” Board Chairman Karl Johnson said. “The first thing we have to do is we have to get some of our business leaders involved, get them on board and understanding how important better public safety is to Boone County as a whole.”

“While nobody wants to raise taxes, this is the most fair and equitable way that we can improve our public safety.”

The increase would generate about $1.4 million a year for public safety purposes that include building repairs, hiring new deputies and purchasing squad cars and equipment.

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20171115/boone-county-voters-must-decide-on-another-public-safety-sales-tax-hike

Medicare cuts under new federal tax proposal

CBO: House GOP tax plan triggers $25 billion in Medicare cuts

Ethan Wolff-Mann 19 hours ago

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House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. clarified effects of the current House GOP tax legislation with the Congressional Budget Office. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

If the House GOP tax plan passes, it is projected to cut revenue significantly, likely increasing the deficit by $1.456 trillion from 2018 to 2027, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation and Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

With a number that large, Congress’s “pay as you go” rules that prevent unchecked spending would fall into place, a move that could cut Medicare’s budget by as much as $25 billion for 2018.

In a letter to House minority whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the CBO explained that without any more money to offset the fall in revenue, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would be required to issue a “sequestration order” to reduce spending in 2018 by $136 billion.

The effects of this sequestration order would trigger automatic cuts to various programs, including Medicare. According to the CBO, this could be as much as 4% for Medicare, which amounts to $25 billion in 2018. Furthermore, all non-exempt programs would be eliminated, which include some farming subsidies, border security, and student loan help. Others, like Social Security, would remain untouched.

At the same time, the tax plan’s changes to the estate and gift taxes would cut revenue $151 billion from 2018 to 2027, according to the JCT. Only 4,700 estates were large enough to be subject to the estate tax as the 2017, since the exemption is over $5 million.

Because of the rules exempting or limiting how much can be cut from certain programs, the CBO also estimated that the reductions would not make up for the need for money to pay for what Congress “bought.”

Touching Medicare has been traditionally considered explosive, and some have noted the “pay as you go” rules give Democrats leverage in the tax bill debates.

In a response to the CBO’s letter, Rep. Hoyer issued a statement, noting the broad impact beyond the deficit on the program cuts, adding that he actually wrote the “pay as you go” law, and called for a bipartisan lawmaking process.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the “pay as you go rules” were passed with bipartisan support.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Confidential tip line: emann[at]oath[.com].

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/cbo-house-gop-tax-plan-triggers-25-billion-medicare-cuts-195501778.html