Chuck Sweeny: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner nixes some cuts he made to day care centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

A day ahead of a vote in the House to strip the power of Gov. Bruce Rauner to control elegibility standards for the state's Child Care Assistance Program, the governor makes a compromise, restoring eligibility level to 162 percent of poverty.

 

| Chuck Sweeny is senior editor of the Rockford Register Star and rrstar.com. RRSTAR.COM FILE PHOTO

 

By Chuck Sweeny
Staff writer

Posted Nov. 9, 2015 at 5:39 PM
Updated at 11:35 PM

The state has had no budget since July 1, and Gov. Bruce Rauner has had to make serious cuts to state services not covered by court orders that bar him from cutting their budgets.

No cuts are popular, but one chop Rauner made prompted a noisy, sustained and, as of today, partially successful lobbying effort to restore the governor's cuts to the popular Child Care Assistance Program. An emergency rule issued by Rauner reduced eligibility so much that 90 percent of parents trying to sign-up after July 1 found themselves ineligible — even those who earn the minimum wage at a full-time job!

The child care assistance program began in the welfare reform era of the 1990s. Championed by Republicans and Democrats alike, the idea was to move people from welfare to work by making sure they could afford decent, affordable day care for their young children. It has worked well and still enjoys broad-based political support. The U.S. provides 60 percent of the program's nearly $1 billion yearly cost; the state contributes a 40 percent match. Before the cuts, the program served 86,400 Illinois families whose 160,700 children benefit from subsidies through the state’s Child Care Assistance Program to more than 29,000 child care providers, according to The State Journal-Register of Springfield.

Today, Rauner walked part way back. His communications advisor, Lance Trover, released a statement saying, “As a result of bipartisan discussions with legislators concerning the future of the Child Care Assistance Program, the Rauner administration today plans to amend the emergency rule it filed at the beginning of the fiscal year. Under the amended rule, income eligibility will rise to 162 percent of the federal poverty level while current co-pays will remain intact. Other eligibility and restrictions will also be lifted pending further review and legislative consultation. Additionally, the governor’s office will establish a bipartisan, bicameral task force aimed at ensuring the long-term stability of the program."

Rauner acted one day before a House vote scheduled Tuesday on Senate Bill 570, which would restore all Rauner's cuts to state-assisted day care and remove his power to change eligibility rules in the future. That power would shift to the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.

Rep. Litesa Wallace, D-Rockford, is a co-sponsor of SB570, which she predicted "will pass in the House with enough votes (71) to sustain a veto."

Wallace cautioned that "there is still no bill I've seen that appropriates the money we need" to continue funding at the pre-cut level.

However, because of Rauner's peace offering, a concurrence vote in the Senate will be delayed until at least Nov. 17, said Senate sponsor Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields.

Chuck Sweeny: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner nixes some cuts he made to day care centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Putin Mulls His Next Move with ISIS, but His Options Are Limited - Yahoo Finance

Increasing evidence that the Russian airliner carrying 224 people that crashed in Egypt on Oct. 31 was taken down by a bomb planted by the terror group ISIS has generated quite a bit of speculation about how Russian President Vladimir Putin might react.

With Russian jets already conducting airstrikes in Syria, at least some of which have been directed at ISIS, would Putin escalate the Russian presence in the Middle East? He could increase the assets dedicated to the air campaign and perhaps even declare that Russian ground troops, taken off the table at the start of the air operations, are now a possibility.

The Kremlin has actively pushed back on Western assertions that the crash appears to be the result of a bomb, delaying the need to deliver a public response if that does turn out to be the case. But a scholar who studies the Russian military says that if Putin is faced with the need to ratchet up the pressure in Syria, his options are actually severely limited.

According to Pavel K. Baev, a research professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the combination of an ongoing military action in Ukraine and an ill-equipped force that went through an incomplete “reform” in the past decade has left the Russian military machine badly overstretched.

“The Russian intervention in Syria is only possible at all because the “hybrid war” in Eastern Ukraine, which has tied up the bulk of Russian combat-capable battalions, has seen virtually no use of the air force,” Baev wrote in a paper published on the Brookings website. “Moscow sought to use this free capacity for staging demonstrations of air power over the Baltic theater but encountered effective containment — it has since scaled down its provocations. Syria appeared an easier option, and the deployment of an air regiment to the hastily prepared Hmeymym airbase outside Latakia went remarkably smoothly. As the air war has moved into the second month, however, issues with its trajectory have emerged.”

He continues, “Escalation will be difficult because few other power projection options are available. The cruise missile salvo by the frigates of the Caspian flotilla on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday was sensational, but it has seriously upset Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and so cannot be repeated. It had little resonance on the battlefield anyway.

“Expanding the scale of intervention would be logistically very difficult. The Russian navy had to lease and purchase eight commercial transports in order to deliver supplies for the operation at the level of up to 50 sorties a day (which means one sortie per aircraft). Its only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is undergoing repairs (as it is most of the time), and the navy command could only dream of building an amphibious assault ship that would compare with Mistral-class ships, which France has refused to deliver.

In Baev’s assessment – and that of a number of other observers – Putin’s intervention in Syria was as much about supporting his own image at home as it was about helping out Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, one of his few allies in the region. The Russian people are still struggling under a dismal economy and over the past two years Putin’s public remarks have seemed increasingly bellicose, casting Russia as a country besieged by its enemies.

Since the advent of the Syria operation, Russian media, mostly controlled by the Kremlin, has been overflowing with pictures and videos of Russian airstrikes and stories outlining their success.

However, aside from a relatively small amount of territory changing hands, the overall effect of the Russian airstrikes appears to have been limited. If Putin was hoping to quickly force peace talks on the rebels fighting Assad and on ISIS, he has failed, and is now faced with a dilemma. He can either remain in Syria and risk taking a large share of the blame if things go south or pull out without a clear victory.

Baev warns that Putin may eventually determine that he needs yet another military adventure to distract from the “quagmire” developing in Syria.

Georgia might be chosen again as a target of convenience, but the fact of the matter is that there are fewer and fewer uncommitted military capabilities to wield.

The bottom line is that, for the sake of regime survival, Putin has fallen back to the “safe” position of military confrontation. But the Russian military is not able to prevail in that confrontation and the Russian economy cannot possibly sustain it.

Putin Mulls His Next Move with ISIS, but His Options Are Limited - Yahoo Finance

Chuck Sweeny: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner nixes some cuts he made to day care centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

A day ahead of a vote in the House to strip the power of Gov. Bruce Rauner to control elegibility standards for the state's Child Care Assistance Program, the governor makes a compromise, restoring eligibility level to 162 percent of poverty

Chuck Sweeny: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner nixes some cuts he made to day care centers - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Illinois explains decision to fire athletic director Mike Thomas - Sports - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By The Associated Press

Posted Nov. 9, 2015 at 2:00 PM
Updated Nov 9, 2015 at 2:01 PM

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois fired athletic director Mike Thomas on Monday, saying he had done nothing wrong but a change was needed after football and women's basketball players alleged they had been mistreated by their coaches.

Thomas, who will be paid $2.5 million to buy out the remainder of his contract, said he believes he acted appropriately but accepts the decision.

"I believe it is a good time to turn the page and put the focus of this organization back on the success and welfare of our student-athletes," Thomas said in a prepared statement.

Thomas is the latest high-profile leader to be swept aside in the turmoil at the university's flagship campus this year, following the resignation of one of his top backers, chancellor Phyllis Wise, and the August firing of football coach Tim Beckman.

The school also released final reports on independent investigations into the players' allegations. The football report found that Beckman pressured players to play hurt and interfered in medical decisions, echoing details that were disclosed when he was fired, but the women's basketball investigation found no evidence of racially motivated player mistreatment as alleged by seven former players.

Interim chancellor Barbara Wilson praised Thomas for leading the athletic department through a difficult six months, but said the university's sports programs needed a fresh start. She declined to offer details on exactly why she decided to fire Thomas.

"It's time to put the distractions of the past months behind us," Wilson said at a news conference at Memorial Stadium. "This has not been an easy decision, but I believe it's the one that will allow us to concentrate on the future."

The move leaves hiring decisions still to be made on a head football coach, where Bill Cubit is serving on an interim basis, athletic director and their boss, the chancellor.

Senior associate athletic director Paul Kowalczyk will take over for Thomas as interim athletic director. He said he planned to quickly meet with coaches on campus and with major donors and business partners to try to assure them that the sports programs and projects such as the renovation of the State Farm Center basketball arena are on track.

"I'm going to take the helm at this point and try to calm the waters," said Kowalczyk, who added that Thomas offered to help him get up to speed. "I feel for the guy."

Allegations of mistreatment by former football player Simon Cvijanovic surfaced in May, and the report found that Beckman "employed tactics that violated standards related to sports medicine protocols and scholarships."

For the women's basketball program, the report said claims that against coach Matt Bollant and an assistant created a racially abusive environment were unfounded. The assistant, Mike Divilbiss, quit months ago, and the players have sued the school, Bollant and Thomas. A former women's soccer player also sued the school, claiming she was improperly cleared to play after a concussion.

Amid all of that, Wise resigned in August, just before the university revealed she used a private email account to avoid scrutiny of her discussions of university business.

Thomas came to Illinois from Cincinnati in 2011, replacing longtime athletic director Ron Guenther. He received a contract extension and a raise a year and a half ago, and university trustees praised him for the $60 million generated when the university sold the naming rights to the Assembly Hall arena to State Farm help pay for its $165 million renovation.

Thomas also moved to shore up the Illini's high-profile struggling teams, firing football coach Ron Zook, men's basketball coach Bruce Weber and women's basketball coach Jolette Law. Fans, however, were lukewarm about his hiring of Beckman, men's basketball coach John Groce and Bollant.

 

Illinois explains decision to fire athletic director Mike Thomas - Sports - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL