Letter: Gov. Rauner perpetuates a rigged system

Kudos to the Tribune for printing Dan Montgomery's article challenging many of the Tribune’s assertions in supporting Gov. Bruce Rauner's agenda. His quote, “The lowest-earning 20 percent of Illinois taxpayers paid more than 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid only 4.6 percent of their income,” correctly illustrates the income inequality partly responsible for the financial disaster in Illinois.

Rauner has opposed a graduated income tax, a tax on millionaires or a tax on financial transactions. Not only would they adversely affect his income, but his rich friends and supporters would be upset they couldn't amass more wealth and power. I can just imagine what Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers say: These tax plans would destroy the economy, punish job creators and create a socialist country.

So, we continue to follow “the Republican way”: destroy unions, tax the middle class and poor and allow the fat cats to accumulate more wealth via a rigged system. Then blame Barack Obama and the Democrats.

— Tom Minnerick, Elgin

Obama to meet with Muslims on 1st visit to US mosque

 

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a public show of support, President Barack Obama will meet with Muslim community members Wednesday in Baltimore on his first presidential visit to an American mosque.

Obama plans to hold talks with Muslim leaders at the Islamic Society of Baltimore, the White House announced Saturday. The visit will amount to a public embrace of Muslims by Obama at a time when public sentiment against them seems to be growing, largely fueled by fears of terrorist acts carried out by extremist groups.

Obama has largely put distance between himself and U.S. Muslims, opting against fueling the rampant theories that he is a closet Muslim who was born in Kenya, the country of his late father's birth. Obama is American by virtue of his birth in Hawaii and has released his birth certificate as proof. He also is Christian. But segments of the U.S. population still believe neither to be true.

As such, the visit will come during the final year of Obama's two terms in office. The White House said he will go to the Baltimore mosque to "celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life."

In remarks to be delivered at the mosque, Obama "will reiterate the importance of staying true to our core values: welcoming our fellow Americans, speaking out against bigotry, rejecting indifference and protecting our nation's tradition of religious freedom," the White House said.

Obama has been outspoken in pushing back against calls by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and others to block Muslims from being admitted to the U.S. over fears of domestic terrorism linked to radical extremist groups.

Others have cited potential security risks in pushing legislation in Congress to limit the resettlement of refugees from Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State group is active and from which it has exported its brand of terrorism to other regions of the world.

Obama has argued that such efforts are wrong and serve only to incite extremist groups, weaken America's leadership around the world and put U.S. security at risk.

"We're not going to build progress with a bunch of phony tough talk, and bluster, and over-the-top claims that just play into ISIL's hands," the president said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. He spoke to House Democrats on Thursday as they strategized at a meeting in Baltimore. "We're not going to strengthen our leadership around the world by allowing politicians to insult Muslims or pit groups of Americans against each other. That's not who we are. That's not keeping America safe."

It was not immediately clear why the White House chose the Islamic Society of Baltimore for the visit.

_Above is from:  __http://news.yahoo.com/obama-meet-hold-talks-muslims-baltimore-172545110--politics.html

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tentatively agree to four more debates

 

• Agreement must be approved by Democratic National Committee
• Clinton campaign chairman wants one debate in Flint, Michigan

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have agreed in principle to contest four more Democratic presidential primary debates.

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Should the Democratic national committee sanction the move, the new schedule would begin with a proposed “unsanctioned” debate on 4 February in New Hampshire, hosted by the New Hampshire Union Leader and MSNBC.

Three more debates would then follow this spring, in a development that was first reported on Saturday by Buzzfeed.

The Clinton campaign’s chairman, John Podesta, said in a statement on Saturday one of the debates should be held in Flint. The Michigan city is still in the grip of a crisis over lead pollution in drinking water that has brought great pressure to bear on the state’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder.

Podesta said: “We should use the spotlight of the presidential campaign to keep the focus on Flint, and to lift up the historic underlying issues that Flint and too many other predominantly low-income communities of color across America are struggling with every day.

“We want their voices to be heard in this campaign, and holding a debate in Flint would go a long way toward achieving that goal.”

The Sanders campaign proposed adding the four events – one each in February, March, April and May – after criticizing the DNC for scheduling thus far low-rated debates on weekends and holidays.

The third remaining Democratic candidate, Martin O’Malley, has also strongly criticised the DNC for what he says is an attempt to limit the number of debates, thereby tilting the Democratic primary in favour of Clinton.

The addition of four more debates would bring the total of Democratic contests up to 10. The Republicans are due to hold 12 debates.

On Saturday, both campaigns said a final deal had not yet been reached and the DNC had not signed off on the agreement.

A New Hampshire debate on Thursday would give Clinton and Sanders a high-profile encounter before the nation’s first presidential primary.

The next scheduled debate will be held Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 11 February, two days after the New Hampshire primary and less than two weeks before the South Carolina Democratic primary. A debate is also scheduled for Miami on 9 March.

Clinton and Sanders are in a tight race before Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Clinton trails the Vermont senator in New Hampshire but leads healthily nationally.

ABOVE IS FROM:  http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/30/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-presidential-debates

Koch brothers convene donor retreat as dark money spending set to soar

 

Billionaire Republican backers host retreat with other super-rich conservatives as secret donations are forecast to break records in the 2016 election

The leading Republican presidential candidates, minus Donald Trump, at a debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday night. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The billionaire Koch brothers are set to convene one of their famed retreats this weekend for several hundred of their fellow super-rich conservatives in Palm Springs, California, as observers forecast a record year for secret donations, dubbed dark money, to Koch-backed groups and other outfits from the NRA to the League of Conservation Voters.

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“Given the trends we’re seeing, we wouldn’t be surprised if dark money spent on direct advocacy [in the US 2016 election] hit half a billion dollars,” said Viveca Novak, the editorial director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. “Spending by these groups in the 2016 cycle is way ahead of previous cycles, and [dark money groups] are more integrated into campaigns than we’ve seen in the past.”

In 2012, the center has reported, dark money groups spent over $300m, of which more than 80% came from Republican-leaning outfits.

Dark money is the name for cash given to nonprofit organizations that can receive unlimited donations from corporations, individuals and unions without disclosing their donors. Under IRS regulations these tax-exempt groups are supposed to be promoting “social welfare” and are not allowed to have politics as their primary purpose – so generally they have to spend less than half their funds directly promoting candidates. Other so-called “issue ads” paid for by these groups often look like thinly veiled campaign ads.

The boom in dark money spending in recent elections came in the wake of the supreme court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which held that the first amendment allowed unlimited political spending by corporations and unions. That decision and other court rulings opened the floodgates to individuals, corporations and unions writing unlimited checks to outside groups, both Super Pacs and dark money outfits, which can directly promote federal candidates. Dark money spending rose from just under $6m in 2006 to $131m in 2010 following the decision, according to the CRP.

Several Republican congressional incumbents and candidates facing tough races are slated to attend the Koch retreat this weekend, and, if recent history is a guide, are expecting to gain support from Koch-backed dark money groups.

Florida congressman Ron DeSantis will be one of the lucky ones, according to conservative sources. DeSantis is seeking to replace senator and presidential candidate Marco Rubio – who is not running for re-election to the Senate in 2017 – and faces a GOP primary in August. As an invitee to the Koch confab, DeSantis has a good shot at benefitting from what the conservative network specializes in: hefty advertising support from the tax-exempt nonprofits that industrialists Charles and David Koch and their wealthy allies underwrite via unlimited and dark money.

DeSantis and other congressional guests are also hoping to see Super Pacs that support them receive checks that donors, thanks to the Citizens United decision, can write with no upper limit. Super Pacs are organizations independent of the candidates’ campaigns which, unlike the campaigns, may since Citizens United raise unlimited amounts of money from individual donors, corporations and unions. Unlike with dark money, these donations do require disclosure.

In recent years politicians attending Koch conferences have been the beneficiaries of considerable dark money support. In 2014, big ad spending by the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity group and other dark money allies proved instrumental in the Senate wins of Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Joni Ernst of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado, all of whom attended a Koch retreat in mid 2014 and praised the donors for their help. And this election season AFP has already spent a few million dollars on ad blitzes to help endangered Republican incumbents including Rob Portman of Ohio and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

AFP and other Koch-network-backed dark money groups are widely expected to spend tens of millions of dollars more on advertising in some six Senate races to help GOP candidates, and will probably also spend money on ads to boost the Republican presidential nominee, despite concerns if the eventual nominee is Donald Trump, according to conservative sources. Charles Koch has stated that their donor network is aiming to spend at least $250m in this year’s elections and another $500m on conservative advocacy and research programs.

Several Koch network donors have voiced strong concerns about the rise of Trump, raising doubts about his conservative bona fides and his angry anti-immigrant rhetoric, which they fear could hurt efforts by the Koch network and the Republican party to appeal to Hispanics and minorities. “I hope he’ll moderate himself,” says Minnesota broadcasting billionaire Stan Hubbard. “He’s a great showman and knows how to get attention. He’s got to know when to turn that off and act like a potential president.”

Hubbard adds: “Trump wasn’t their choice,” referring to the Koch brothers network. “But they’re also realists. I believe you have to work with what you have.”

Historically, the bulk of the Koch network’s spending has flowed to AFP and another larger nonprofit, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, which serves as a vehicle to funnel funds to numerous outfits such as the National Rifle Association and the US Chamber of Commerce, and is the official host of this weekend’s Koch donor retreat. A Super Pac, Freedom Partners Action Fund, which spent $23.4m in the 2014 midterm elections, will also get a chunk of the Koch network’s $250m.

Some Republican presidential campaigns have also been boosted by dark money for this election.

Rubio’s presidential run has benefitted by almost $10m in dark money spending by the Conservative Solutions Project. This nonprofit has spent mainly on ads that feature the Florida senator and tout his stances on key issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and tax increases, both of which he opposes.

Three watchdog groups have filed complaints with the IRS or Justice Department against the pro-Rubio nonprofit, charging among other things that it is providing Rubio a “private benefit” contrary to IRS rules, undermining its “social welfare” status. Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for the Conservative Solutions Project, has dismissed the complaints and stated that its ads are designed to promote conservative issues not Rubio’s candidacy.

Another dark money behemoth, Crossroads GPS, cofounded in 2010 by George W Bush’s former strategist Karl Rove, is expected to spend millions of dollars this year on research and ads to help whoever wins the Republican nomination, says Steven Law, the group’s president. In 2012, the nonprofit poured over $70m into ads to boost Mitt Romney’s campaign and help Republican congressional candidates, according to campaign finance records.

Law also leads another dark money outfit, One Nation, which last year spent millions to help embattled Republican Senate candidates including Ayotte and Portman.

Meanwhile, a few Democratic allied nonprofits including one tied to David Brock, the ex-Clinton foe turned staunch ally, are poised to bolster Hillary Clinton’s campaign, while others like Patriot Majority USA are aimed at helping Democrats regain the Senate majority.

Over the last two years, American Bridge Foundation, the group founded by Brock, has funneled $3.7m into an allied Super Pac American Bridge 21st Century, according to the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation. Brock is also on the board of the pro Clinton Super Pac Priorities USA Action which boasts an allied dark money outfit, Priorities USA.

This tsunami of dark money donations and spending by nonprofit groups does not seem to have been anticipated by the Citizens United decision. Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his majority opinion, envisioned a campaign finance system where all spending would be instantly disclosed via the internet, and outside groups would be completely independent from campaigns, thus limiting potential corruption.

In a recent speech at Harvard Law School, Kennedy acknowledged that disclosure was “not working the way it should”.

Some election law specialists fault the FEC and the IRS for failing to properly oversee the fast growing role of dark money. Ken Gross, a former counsel at the FEC who is now a partner with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in Washington said: “The difficulties that the FEC and the IRS have had investigating the activities of these groups, has given them a fairly wide berth for operating,” which has led some dark money groups to exploit loopholes in order to circumvent political spending limit.

ABOVE IS FROM: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/29/koch-brothers-donor-retreat-dark-money-2016-election

The United States should consider reparations to African-American descendants of slavery, a United Nations working group said Friday

 

 

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States should consider reparations to African-American descendants of slavery, establish a national human rights commission and publicly acknowledge that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity, a United Nations working group said Friday.

The U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent released its preliminary recommendations after more than a week of meetings with black Americans and others from around the country, including Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, the District of Columbia and Jackson, Mississippi.

After finishing their fact-finding mission, the working group was "extremely concerned about the human rights situation of African-Americans," chair Mireille Fanon Mendes-France of France said in the report. "The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the U.S. remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent."

For example, Mendes-France compared the recent deaths of unarmed black men like Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police to the lynchings of black men in the South from the post-Civil War days through the Civil Rights era. Those deaths, and others, have inspired protests around the country under the Black Lives Matter moniker.

"Contemporary police killings and the trauma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynchings in the past," she told reporters. "Impunity for state violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency."

Some of the working group's members, none of whom are from the United States, said they were shocked by some of the things they found and were told.

For example, "it's very easy in the United States for African-Americans to be imprisoned, and that was very concerning," said Sabelo Gumedze of South Africa.

Federal officials say 37 percent of the state and federal prison populations were black males in 2014. The working group suggests the U.S. implement several reforms, including reducing the use of mandatory minimum laws, ending racial profiling, ending excessive bail and banning solitary confinement.

"What stands out for me is the lack of acknowledgement of the slave trade," said Ricardo A. Sunga III, who lives in the Philippines.

The working group suggests monuments, markers and memorials be erected in the United States to facilitate dialogue, and "past injustices and crimes against African-Americans need to be addressed with reparatory justice,"

The group will suggest several U.S. changes to improve human rights for African-Americans, which also include establishing a national human rights commission, ratifying international human rights treaties, asking Congress to study slavery and its aftereffects and considering reparations .

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established in 2002 by the then-Commission on Human Rights, following the World Conference against Racism in 2001.

It also visited the United States in 2010, where its final report found similar problems, including blacks facing disproportionately high unemployment, lower income levels, less access to education, "problematic access to quality health-care services and the high incidence of certain health conditions, electoral disenfranchisement and structural issues in the administration of justice (in particular incarceration rates)."

The current panel will give its final findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in September.

___

Jesse J. Holland covers race, ethnicity and demographics for The Associated Press. Contact him at jholland @ ap.org, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jessejholland.

Above is from:  http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-01-29/un-working-group-suggests-us-work-on-racial-reconciliation

Job Opportunity—Sheriff’s Office

Jobless rate in Boone, Winnebago counties at 7.2 percent for December

•  

• By Georgette Braun
  Staff writer

   

• Posted Jan. 28, 2016 at 12:48 PM
  Updated Jan 28, 2016 at 6:10 PM

  ROCKFORD — The jobless rate in Boone and Winnebago counties in December was 7.2 percent, up from 6.9 percent in the same month in 2014, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said today.

  In November, the rate was 7.5 percent for the two counties.

  Statewide, the unemployment rate increased in 11 regions and stayed the same in three in December. The statewide rate was 5.9 percent.

  Boone and Winnebago counties had one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. Only Danville and Decatur, each at 7.4 percent unemployment, had a higher rate.

  Georgette Braun:

• Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160128/NEWS/160129497/0/SEARCH

Letter: Cathy Ward will act in best interest of Boone County

•  

• 

 

• Posted Jan. 24, 2016 at 9:01 AM

  I have attended many committee meetings as well as Boone County Board meetings and have observed firsthand the politics that have interfered with government for and by the people. The political influence is, if you do not join the political group, you are not loyal to your party.

  Well, we have an exception to that rhetoric with current board member Cathy Ward, who has been on the Boone County Board for over 13 years and is running for another term. I recommend that you vote for Cathy Ward so she can continue her excellent representation for District 2. Cathy does her own homework on any project and then votes accordingly in the best interest of Boone County and its taxpayers. She has only one concern, and that is to do what the people elected her to do.

  Please vote and get involved with local politics.

  — Bob Christianson, Belvidere

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160124/OPINION/160129803/0/SEARCH

• Letter: Please help Cathy Ward get re-elected

• Posted Jan. 27, 2016 at 12:00 PM

  I am writing to ask Boone County District 2 voters to re-elect Cathy Ward to represent them on the Boone County Board.

  For four years, I have attended board meetings and zoning board of appeals meetings. I greatly admire Cathy Ward's servant attitude, her transparency and approachability, her persistence in researching an issue and her God-given gift of articulating both sides of an issue and arriving at the best solution for all Boone County residents.

  Cathy is not on the board to represent one group of people or one agenda. She is not on the board to be a bobblehead or a clone. She is not there just to get a paycheck or become popular. Cathy is on the board to serve and help all people in Boone County enjoy a higher standard of living, promote industry, reduce government taxes and improve government services to it's citizens.

  During a number of hot issues in 2015, I've seen Cathy faithfully and actively listening to people with strong opinions. She does not run away and, when possible, asks questions and offers astute remarks to their concerns.

  Cathy's persistence on researching an issue and her tenacity to often stand alone or almost alone speaks volumes. Too often at meetings, county board members appear bored and don't ask important questions. Meanwhile, Cathy is always engaged, thinking and looking at all perspectives of a problem and asking questions.

  Cathy's biggest gift she brings to the county board is her ability to articulate the problem and give a positive and fair solution. I've marveled at her words and watched others on the board marvel at her assessments and conclusions.

  In my opinion, Boone County has been very fortunate to have a servant like Cathy. Please help Cathy Ward get back on the board and represent all of Boone County.

  — LaVonne Wundrow, Poplar Grove

• Above is from:   http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160127/OPINION/160129617/0/SEARCH

APNewsBreak: US declares 22 Clinton emails 'top secret'

 

By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press 45 minutes ago

.WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes three days before Clinton competes in the Iowa presidential caucuses.

State Department officials also said the agency's Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus are investigating if any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of Clinton's defense of her email practices.

The department will release its next batch of emails from her time as secretary of state later Friday.

But The Associated Press learned seven email chains are being withheld in full for containing "top secret" information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned "special access programs" —highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.

"The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information," State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, calling the withholding of documents in full "not unusual." That means they won't be published online with others being released, even with blacked-out boxes.

Department officials wouldn't describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were stamped "CLASSIFIED" or "TOP SECRET," but reviewers previously designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels. Friday's will be the first at top secret level.

Even if Clinton didn't write or forward the messages, she still would have been required to report any classification slippages she recognized in emails she received. But without classification markings, that may have been difficult, especially if the information was publicly available.

"We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails," Clinton campaign spokesman Brain Fallon said. "Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public. We feel no differently today."

Fallon accused the "loudest and leakiest participants" in a process of bureaucratic infighting for withholding the exchanges. The documents, he said, originated in the State Department's unclassified system before they ever reached Clinton, and "in at least one case, the emails appear to involve information from a published news article."

"This appears to be overclassification run amok," Fallon said.

Kirby said the State Department was focused, as part of a Freedom of Information Act review of Clinton's emails, on "whether they need to be classified today." Past classification questions, he said, "are being, and will be, handled separately by the State Department." It is the first indication of such a probe.

Department responses for classification infractions could include counseling, warnings or other action, officials said. They wouldn't say if Clinton or senior aides who've since left government could face penalties. The officials weren't authorized to speak on the matter and demanded anonymity.

Separately, Kirby said the department is withholding eight email chains, totaling 18 messages, between President Barack Obama and Clinton. These are remaining confidential "to protect the president's ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel," and will be released eventually like other presidential records.

The emails have been a Clinton campaign issue since 10 months ago, when the AP discovered her exclusive use while in office of a homebrew email server in the basement of her family's New York home. Doing so wasn't expressly forbidden. Clinton first called the decision a matter of convenience, then a mistake.

Last March, Clinton and the State Department said no business conducted in the emails included top-secret matters. Both said her account was never hacked or compromised, which security experts assess as unlikely.

Clinton and the State Department also claimed the vast majority of her emails were preserved properly for archiving because she corresponded mainly with government accounts. They've backtracked from that claim in recent months.

The special access programs emails surfaced last week, when Charles I. McCullough, lead auditor for U.S. intelligence agencies, told Congress he found some in Clinton's account.

Kirby confirmed the "denied-in-full emails" are among those McCullough recently cited. He said one was among those McCullough identified last summer as possibly containing top secret information.

The AP reported last August that one focused on a forwarded news article about the CIA's classified U.S. drone program. Such operations are widely discussed publicly, including by top U.S. officials, and State Department officials debated McCullough's claim. The other concerned North Korean nuclear weapons programs, according to officials.

At the time, several officials from different agencies suggested the disagreement over the drone emails reflected a tendency to overclassify material, and a lack of consistent classification policies across government.

The FBI also is looking into Clinton's email setup, but has said nothing about the nature of its probe. Independent experts say it's unlikely Clinton will be charged with wrongdoing, based on details that have surfaced so far and the lack of indications she intended to break laws.

"What I would hope comes out of all of this is a bit of humility" and Clinton's acknowledgement that "I made some serious mistakes," said Bradley Moss, a Washington lawyer specializing in security clearance matters.

Legal questions aside, it's the potential political costs that probably more concern Clinton. She has struggled in surveys measuring perceived trustworthiness and any investigation, buoyed by evidence of top secret material coursing through her account, could negate a main selling point for her becoming commander in chief: her national security resume.

ABOVE IS FROM: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-govt-finds-top-secret-clinton-emails-194823520.html

Obama to address Illinois lawmakers in Springfield next month

 

President Barack Obama will return to his old stomping grounds Feb. 10 and deliver an address to the Illinois General Assembly.

Obama will talk about "what we can do, together, to build a better politics — one that reflects our better selves," according to a travel advisory from the White House.

The visit will come nine years after Obama announced his candidacy for president, and amid a historic budget impasse between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly. Rauner name-checked the president during his annual State of the State address this week, citing his support for term limits and changing how legislative districts are drawn — ideas that ruling Democrats have resisted.

Obama served as an Illinois state senator from 1997 until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

mcgarcia@tribpub.com

Above is from:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-barack-obama-illinois-legislature-speech-met-0130-20160129-story.html

 

Wednesday February 10 is the day

The above is from:  http://abc7chicago.com/politics/obama-to-address-illinois-legislature-amid-budget-impasse/1179105/

Lead Poisoning in Other Parts of Michigan Is Even Worse Than It Is in Flint

The water crisis in Flint has whipped America into a state of righteous outrage, but just look at the rest of Michigan: In at least 30 zip codes in more than 13 cities across the state, elevated levels of lead have been detected in a shocking percentage of local children — sometimes at almost five times the rate of kids in Flint, according to the The Detroit News.

The numbers add a grim layer to an already-devastating story. While Flint struggles to recover, as many as 20% of kids under 6 years old tested in parts of Detroit — and between 7% and 12% in parts of Saginaw, Ludington, Lansing, Highland Park, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck and a handful of other cities in the state — had elevated levels of lead in their blood as recently as 2013, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. 

The percentage of children in Flint who had comparable levels peaked at 6.4% at the end of 2015, Mother Jones reports.

Lead poisoning is irreversible and causes a host of developmental problems in kids. These include poor motor skills, learning delays, difficulty articulating speech and problems controlling behavior. While the extreme government neglect and deceit in Flint made what’s happening there its own unique horror story — residents have been exposed to toxic drinking water for more than a year — statistics from across the state reveal lead poisoning is hardly an isolated issue. 

The reasons for exposure in Michigan differ from place to place. Whereas in Flint the lead comes from old and corroding water pipes, the culprit in most other areas in the state is much more common: paint. In 1977, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission outlawed the use of lead-based paint on toys, furniture and other products, including house paint. But many homes built before then are still coated with the stuff. And as time passes and the paint chips and peels, the dust it kicks up is inhaled by the people around it, poisoning them.

The result is a crisis the state of Michigan has spent millions of dollars trying to solve. Their methods — including varying approaches to lead abatement — have led to a significant drop in lead levels in children’s blood across the state over the last few years, according to the Center of Michigan.

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/health/lead-poisoning-other-parts-michigan-222900551.html

The U.S. economy expanded at an annualized pace of 0.7 percent in the 4th quarter of 2015

 

By Chico Harlan January 29 at 7:49 AM

The U.S.  economy grew at a rate of 0.7 percent in the last quarter of 2015 amid a global slowdown, according to government data released Friday morning.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected that the economy — between October and December — grew at a 0.8 percent annualized rate, marking a step back from the 2 percent third-quarter pace. Other analysts, drawing on a series of recent disappointing industrial data, expected that growth in the fourth quarter was nearly flat.

Wall Street has faced wild swings since the beginning of the year amid worries of a global economic slowdown. (AP Photo)

An anemic quarter would drive new concerns about the nation’s ability to fight off a series of major headwinds, including a downturn in China — the world’s second-largest economy — and an appreciated dollar that has trimmed profits for American manufacturers. Markets have reflected that turmoil in the first weeks of 2016, with the S&P 500 falling more than 7 percent this month. On Thursday, the Federal Reserve acknowledged that economic growth was slowing down, even though the U.S. labor market remained strong.

The gross domestic product figure for the fourth quarter is only a preliminary figure and will be revised over the next two months.

For the year, economists say, the U.S. economy likely expanded by roughly 2 percent, on par with the underwhelming pace maintained in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In 2014, the economy grew by 2.4 percent; in 2013, it grew by 1.5 percent.

Though many analysts figure the nation is in for more of the same in 2016, some — noting the stock market and dwindling industrial production — see still-modest but increasing risk of a recession.

Those risks come mostly from beyond U.S. shores.

Growth is expected to slow globally this year, most notably in China, where the government has strained to deal with an explosion of debt and a seeming stock market bubble. Meantime, a strong dollar has hamstrung U.S. manufacturers, making their products more expensive overseas. Companies from Johnson & Johnson to Apple have partly blamed the dollar for weaker earnings.

“Two-thirds of Apple’s revenue is now generated outside the United States,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said this week, “so foreign currency fluctuations have a very meaningful impact on our results.” Cook said Apple was dealing with “extreme conditions unlike anything we’ve seen before just about everywhere we look.”

Separate government data released Thursday showed that orders for durable goods — long-term products like washing machines or furniture — fell 5.1 percent in December from the prior month, and fell 3.5 percent for all of 2015. That marked the first annual drop-off in demand since the recession.

ABOVE IS FROM:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/29/u-s-to-release-figures-expecting-to-show-fourth-quarter-growth/?wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-economy%252Bnation

Here’s Why the Republican Populist Revolt Will Backfire

 

This makes for a good story—but could there be any truth in it?

 

By Edward Morrissey January 28, 2016 5:15 AM

Barack Obama has a lot to do after he leaves office. Outgoing presidents traditionally start planning presidential libraries -- Obama chose the South Side of Chicago as the location for his archives, and the project has gone out to bid for architects.

Arrangements must be made for a new residence after two terms in the White House, and Obama has hinted at a number of locations, including New York, North Carolina, and home to Chicago. His post-presidential career will almost certainly include writing and speaking tours, the common vehicles for outgoing presidents to secure their retirement wealth. Obama has a head start on a writing career, having already authored two books. 

Still, the President has insisted that he wants to remain in the political mix rather than sit on the sidelines, although he has ruled out any more electoral campaigns. If he won’t run for another office, what about an appointment – say, to the Supreme Court? 

“What a great idea!” Hillary Clinton gushed at a campaign event in Decorah, Iowa on Monday night when an attendee offered the suggestion. “No one has ever suggested that to me, I love that, wow,” Clinton continued. “I would certainly take that under advisement. I mean he’s brilliant, and he can set forth an argument, and he was a law professor, so he’s got all the credentials." 

A great idea? Hardly. 

The big trend in the 2016 cycle thus far has been passionate populist anti-establishmentarianism. The nomination process in both parties has proven susceptible to this anger and backlash to years of partisan gridlock and failed promises. The Republican nomination race has been affected more overtly, as more experienced leaders have either faded or disappeared entirely to the benefit of outsiders such as Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and until very recently Ben Carson -- all of whom have a combined single term in elected public office among them. But Democrats have seen Clinton fall from foregone conclusion to embattled underdog in Iowa and New Hampshire with much less competition, seemingly outclassed by a self-proclaimed socialist backbencher. 

Related: Clinton’s Lead Shrinks as Iowa Caucuses Loom

The frustration driving Bernie Sanders’ rise as a legitimate alternative to Clinton can be traced in significant part back to Obama himself. Obama beat Clinton in 2008 for the nomination by posturing himself a break with the Democratic Party establishment, a fresh voice for a more progressive party. He promised to end the Iraq war and win in Afghanistan, take on the “Too Big to Fail” financial institutions, and take action on a broad front of progressive social-justice issues. In September 2011, Obama pitched his rhetoric even sharper and helped promote the Occupy movement as a counter to the conservative Tea Party. 

Almost eight years later, most of those promises went unfulfilled. Obama was yanked into openly supporting same-sex marriage by Joe Biden after spending nearly four years “evolving” on the issue. Obamacare passed, but it enabled the biggest insurers to gain a captive market. Dodd-Frank has reinforced “Too Big to Fail,” while not a single Wall Street executive has faced criminal charges for the financial-sector meltdown that helped create the Great Recession. Obama hasn’t passed punitive taxes on the rich as he once championed, and he has made common cause with globalists on trade. 

Other than his expansion of the regulatory state, progressives have plenty of reason to feel ignored – which is why they have flocked to Sanders’ populist campaign. Clinton has tried tacking to the Left in the primary without much success, at one time trying to keep arms’ distance from Obama. Suddenly, though, she has chosen to embrace the current status quo, and Obama has in some ways turned his back on 2007-8 to embrace Clinton and the status quo ante. Promising to perpetuate Obama as a policymaker doesn’t make much sense in a primary marked by passionate demands for major change from the present. 

Related: Obama Steps Up Executive Action With Time Fast Running Out

Here’s Why the Republican Populist Revolt Will Backfire

 

It makes even less sense for someone preparing for a general election. Despite the disappointment and frustration on the Left with Obama, he remains a fairly popular figure. Among voters in general, approval of Obama’s work runs significantly lower. Gallup’s weekly polling has him consistently in the mid-40s for the past year or more. Even the suggestion of nominating Obama for the Supreme Court will likely unite Republicans on two of their common passions – judicial appointments and the desire to retire Obama from public life. 

In fact, Clinton provided a welcome reminder of the important stakes for the GOP and conservatives in this election, especially those who do not feel excitement for any of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Four of the current justices are over 70 years of age, two from each wing of the court. The next president will almost certainly need to make one or more nominations to the nation’s top court, and the Senate will have to confirm those nominees. The lifetime appointments may provide the most significant legacy a president can create, one that keeps adding to their public role for decades after leaving office. 

Obama has already established his legacy on the court through the appointments of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The two can be expected to engage in an activist policy role over the next several years, attempting to extend decades of precedent in which the court has encroached on legislative turf. 

Related: Does Mike Bloomberg Know Something We Don’t About the Clinton FBI Probe?

No stranger to executive action that treads on Congressional prerogative, Obama would be only too glad to pursue his policy goals in the same manner. But even if Clinton thought better of putting Obama on the court, it is clear that she will appoint judges and justices of the same ideological and activist bent. 

Let this serve as a wake-up call to those who wish to see Obama enjoy a long and happy retirement from power and reverse as many of his policies as possible in the next four years. It will take a unity that has so far eluded Republicans in this cycle to succeed in this mission. Anti-establishment populism has its place, but complete nihilism on the Right will result in what they oppose most.

Above is from:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-republican-populist-revolt-backfire-101500434.html

Letter to Editor: Republican obstruction continues

• 

 

• Posted Jan. 28, 2016 at 4:01 PM

  While President Barack Obama celebrated his inauguration at various balls on inauguration night, Jan. 20, 2009, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to sabotage his presidency at a private dinner in Washington, D.C.

  That night at the Caucus Room, a high-end D.C. establishment, Republican leadership plotted ways to win back political power by uniting as one to obstruct Obama's entire agenda. Present were prominent Republicans, including Newt Gingrich, Frank Luntz, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Jim DeMint, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and at least eight others. Their goal: a unified pact to filibuster governance, even while the banksters’ generated economic collapse was current event and public enemy No. 1.

  Stifling all of Obama’s “change” or “hope” began inauguration night with their commitment to obstruction by any means necessary. The Republican dinner-date vow to each other that night in January prioritized obstructing any opportunity of the newly elected president to advance his 2008 election landslide mandate. What negatively reflects on the Obama administration is naively failing to recognize how thoroughly congressional Republicans would oppose the priorities the overwhelming majority elected him to pursue.

  Politics trumped governance, dismissing negotiation. Republican politicians prioritized advancing their own voter-rejected political agenda, and that of their billionaire benefactors. Regaining the presidency, not recovery of the American economy, was their primary objective, and it still infects the ongoing state of the union.

  — Michael Cannariato, Rockford

The Bank of Japan is stepping up its efforts to kick-start the country's struggling economy by taking interest rates into negative territory.

 

The central bank announced Friday that it will introduce an interest rate of minus 0.1% and will go even lower if needed.

In theory, negative rates encourage consumers to save less and spend more. They can also weaken a country's currency, helping exporters.

Investors responded positively to the Bank of Japan's announcement Friday. Stocks rose and the country's currency, the yen, fell against the dollar.

Financial markets' turbulent start to 2016 has been particularly punishing for Japan. Prior to the central bank's move, stocks had tanked around 10% since the start of the year, and the yen had strengthened.

The plunge in crude oil prices, meanwhile, has made it even harder for the Bank of Japan to hit its inflation target of 2%.

The central bank said the Japanese economy was in the midst of a moderate recovery, but it expressed concerns about plummeting oil prices and the uncertain outlook for emerging economies, especially China.

Japan has long struggled with deflation, and prices have been stagnating despite the central bank's aggressive stimulus measures in recent years that include a massive bond-buying program.

The Bank of Japan's announcement comes soon after closely watched statements from other major central banks amid the recent market turmoil.

Last week, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi gave stocks a lift by promising that the bank could pump out more money as early as March if necessary.

And on Wednesday, the U.S Federal Reserve said it was "monitoring global economic and financial developments."

CNNMoney (Hong Kong)

ABOVE IS FROM;  http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/28/news/economy/bank-of-japan-negative-interest-rate/index.html

Lots Of Cities Have The Same Lead Pipes That Poisoned Flint

 

And there's no plan to dig them up.

01/28/2016 12:40 pm ET | Updated 1 hour ago

• Arthur Delaney Senior Reporter, The Huffington Post

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) doesn't know how many lead pipes there are in Flint.

Just how many lead pipes are there in Flint, Michigan, where the water has been undrinkable because of high lead levels? Nobody knows.

"A lot of work is being done to even understand where the lead services lines fully are, so I would say any numbers you're hearing at this point are still speculation," Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) said Wednesday. 

It's a problem that's much bigger than Flint: there are millions of lead pipes all across America, putting children at risk of stunted growth, brain damage and a lifetime of diminished potential. Just this week, residents of Sebring, a town of 8,000 in rural Ohio, were told not to touch their tap water out of lead fears similar to Flint's.

"This is a situation that has the potential to occur in however many places around the country there are lead pipes," Jerry Paulson, emeritus professor of pediatrics and environmental health at George Washington University, said in an interview. "Unless and until those pipes are removed, those communities are at some degree of risk."

Roughly 10 million American homes and buildings receive water from service lines that are at least partially lead, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Service lines are the pipes connecting water mains to people's houses. Lead ones are mostly found in the Midwest and Northeast.

Despite the life-altering consequences of lead poisoning, there is no national plan to get rid of those pipes. A top reason for continuing to use lead service lines instead of immediately digging them up is that utilities can treat water so it forms a coating on the interior of the pipes -- a corrosion barrier that helps prevent lead particles from dislodging and traveling to your faucet. But if the water chemistry changes, the corrosion controls can fail. 

That's what happened in Flint after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality told the Flint Water Treatment Plant not to maintain corrosion controls that had previously been in place before the city switched water sources in 2014.  

There is nothing a water utility can do to completely prevent lead leaching from a lead service line.Yanna Lambrinidou, water safety expert

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires water systems and state regulators to monitor lead levels coming out of people's faucets, and if 10 percent of samples have more than 15 parts per billion of lead, then the state has to evaluate its corrosion controls. And if that doesn't reduce the lead levels, then the law requires public water systems to begin replacing 7 percent of their lead service lines every year. 

Even replacing the lines can be trouble, however, as the law only requires replacing the lines on public property -- replacing the portion of a lead service line on private property is up to the owner -- and it turns out that replacing just the public portion of a lead service line can cause lead levels to spike in a homeowner's water. That's because the work involved in replacing just part of a lead service line can jostle free lead in the the remaining part of the pipe.

(The Safe Drinking Water Act originally called for utilities to replace the entirety of a lead service line, but lobbying and a lawsuit by the American Water Works Association watered down the rule.)

"There is nothing a water utility can do to completely prevent lead leaching from a lead service line," said Yanna Lambrinidou, a water safety expert who teaches at Virginia Tech. 

The EPA is currently considering changes to the Safe Drinking Water Act's lead rules, and an advisory panel has proposed a more proactive approach to replacing lead pipes. Instead of just waiting for higher levels of a deadly neurotoxin to show up in people's tap water, the proposal would encourage public water systems to go ahead and replace the pipes. 

Lambrinidou was a member of the working group that crafted the recommendation, but she wound up dissenting because she believed it didn't do enough to force utilities to get lead pipes out of the ground. 

"The rule needs to be such that it enforces actual lead service line replacement," Lambrinidou said. 

What happened in Flint seems to show a weakness of the rule, since state regulators and the EPA agreed there was some ambiguity about whether Flint should have been required to implement corrosion controls. Snyder eventually admitted that his government had made a terrible mistake, and multiple state officials resigned, as did the EPA's regional administrator. 

Flint reconnected to its original water source in October, and officials said yesterday there had been progress in the process of re-coating the interior of the city's aging pipes. 

"Longer term, though, I think everyone understands we'd like to see those pipes replaced," Snyder said. 

This story has been updated with a more recent EPA estimate of the number of lead service lines in use.

ABOVE IS FROM;  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lead-pipes-everywhere_us_56a8e916e4b0f71799288f54

FBI releases video of Oregon occupier's fatal shooting by state police

 

FBI video of Oregon shooting

The FBI and Oregon State Police traffic stop and shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum in Oregon on Tuesday. The video has been edited from the version released Thursday by the FBI.  

The FBI and Oregon State Police traffic stop and shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum in Oregon on Tuesday. The video has been edited from the version released Thursday by the FBI.  

Matt PearceContact Reporter

The FBI released video Thursday that shows Oregon State Police fatally shooting one of the men who occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge. Officials said he was reaching for a handgun that was in a pocket inside his jacket.

The shooting happened Tuesday afternoon during a traffic stop on a rural stretch of Oregon highway, where law enforcement had hoped to peacefully arrest the leaders of the armed group that had occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since Jan. 2.

As of Thursday evening, four holdouts remain at the refuge, officials and one occupier said.

In video taken from an aircraft, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 55, can be seen speeding away from law enforcement officials during an initial traffic stop. He then drives his white truck into a snowdrift near a roadblock, nearly hitting a law enforcement officer.

“Law enforcement showed great restraint, and when the vehicle took off it just about seriously injured a law enforcement officer as it barreled toward that barricade,” Greg Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said at a Thursday evening news conference where officials released the video.

Man killed in Oregon standoff had preached what he called a 'cowboy's stand for freedom'

Nigel Duara

Where some activists at an occupied federal wildlife refuge preached rowdyism and brimstone, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was wistful, almost sad.

Bedecked in his trademark earmuffs and cowboy hat, the Arizona rancher would wonder aloud with a shake of his head why reporters couldn’t simply see the rightness...

Where some activists at an occupied federal wildlife refuge preached rowdyism and brimstone, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was wistful, almost sad.

Bedecked in his trademark earmuffs and cowboy hat, the Arizona rancher would wonder aloud with a shake of his head why reporters couldn’t simply see the rightness...

(Nigel Duara)

It shows Finicum getting out of the vehicle and then lifting his hands in the air as Oregon state troopers approached him with their guns drawn. The video, which is shot from a distance, shows him then lowering his hands toward his body, then falling into the snow as he is shot.

“On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun in that pocket,” Bretzing said.

Bretzing said that because law enforcement officials still had to deal with the other occupants of the vehicle, it took 10 minutes to start giving Finicum medical aid. An official time of death has not been released.

Oregon standoff at national wildlife refuge

About 15 men broke off from a Jan. 2 protest march to seize the unoccupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters to denounce the federal ownership of public lands and the incarceration of two eastern Oregon ranchers.

About 15 men broke off from a Jan. 2 protest march to seize the unoccupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters to denounce the federal ownership of public lands and the incarceration of two eastern Oregon ranchers.

 

The encounter took place on a remote stretch of U.S. Highway 395 roughly halfway between the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and the town of John Day, where Finicum and several other occupiers were headed to attend a community meeting.

Until now, officials had released no information about how Finicum was killed. He wasn’t formally identified by government officials until Thursday, though his supporters had confirmed his death to the media. A major-incident investigative team from Deschutes County, Ore., is reviewing the shooting.

GO TO THE FOLLOWING TO VIEW VIDEO;  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-oregon-occupation-shooting-20160128-story.html

Public Access Counselor-accountable government is the cornerstone of a democracy

 

Posted by RVPEditor / In Belvidere Daily Republican

By Lisa Rodgers
Reporter
SPRINGFIELD- “For democracy to work, citizens need access to the information about what government does,” Mindy Ruckman, of Illinois Policy Institute wrote in an article entitled: “Local Transparency Project.” “Proactive transparency is the best way to educate society about the actions of government.”
“Proactive government transparency is one of the most important tools we have to help prevent, expose and put an end to government corruption,” wrote Director of Government Reform at the Illinois Policy Institute Brian Costin in 2012. “In light of the high levels of corruption in northern Illinois, it is surprising that many county governments are not doing more to provide basic financial and participatory information to their citizens online.”
In 2009, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan together with Illinois Legislators and advocates of open government drafted and passed Senate Bill 189, Public Act 096-0542 on Jan. 1, 2010. The purpose of this updated legislation was to increase transparency and accountability for every level of government in the State of Illinois.
Up until 2010, the public did not have the resources, provisions of the law or tools that would assure the public timely access to public records, meetings or allow the review of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) or Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) concerning a public body. These updated provisions are intended to strengthen the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act in Illinois.
“It is the public policy of this State that public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business and that the people have a right to be informed as to the conduct of their business,”
the Illinois Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120/1 states.
Pursuant to the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of government, it is declared to be the public policy of the State of Illinois that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials and public employees consistent with the terms of this Act.
Such access is necessary to enable the people to fulfill their duties of discussing public issues fully and freely, making informed political judgments and monitoring government to ensure that it is being conducted in the public interest, according to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140/1.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan believes that an open, honest and accountable government, the cornerstone of a democracy, can be achieved only through the free and open exchange of information between government and the public.
In Illinois, our most important transparency laws – the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Open Meetings Act (OMA) – endeavor to open the workings of government to the public, shed light on government actions and, in the process, strengthen our democracy,” according to the http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/Default.aspx.
What is the Public Access Counselor Office of the Attorney General in Illinois?
The Public Access Counselor consists of lawyers and staff while working under the direction and supervision of the Attorney General.
Under the current law, they are provided the authority to resolve disputes pertaining to the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Their mission is to help people obtain public documents and access public meetings as well as enforcing transparency laws that will provide open, accessible and accountable government to everyone in the State of Illinois.
In addition, the Public Access Counselor is responsible for providing Educational Materials, Advisory Opinions, Mediate Disputes, OMA or FOIA Request for Review, the issuing of Binding Opinions and Electronic Training for government and public use.

The Public Access Counselor is a FREE service. Anyone may call (877) 299-3642 during normal business hours and ask questions directly to a Public Access Counselor in regards to the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act.

There is also no charge for their online public or government training of the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act.
In fact, citizens are encouraged to take the online training to become more educated about public bodies and the requirements the law sets forth that they must follow in order to maintain transparency.

The Public Access Counselor Office is more than willing to answer questions and provide accurate information to the people of Illinois.
For more information please visit http://foia.ilattorneygeneral.net/Default.aspx.
Or, contact by mail at:
Public Access Counselor
Office of the Attorney General
500 S. 2nd Street
Springfield, IL 62706

Anyone can also contact Public Access by email: publicaccess@atg.state.il.us; phone: (877) 299-FOIA (3642); or fax: (217) 782-1396.

ABOVE IS FROM; http://rvpnews.com/?p=5404

 

 

: 

Attention Boone County: Scott Reeder’s warning is too late for us

 

The following opinion piece appeared today in the Rockford Register Star. 

If you think that this would not/could not occur in Boone County.  Take a look at the new addition to the Boone County Code which was passed at the January County Board meeting. Not only can your car be confiscated but an impound fee will be charged.

And based upon the Code’s Section 1-12, the woman from Moline would have to pay a $350 Administration Fee if the arrest occurred in Boone County.  She has no defense. And there also are towing and storage fees.

 

My View: Civil forfeiture laws are foul

• By Scott Reeder
  Illinois News Network

• Posted Jan. 27, 2016 at 5:24 PM

• 

• Posted Jan. 27, 2016 at 5:24 PM

   

• “It’s not the job of a police department to make money — it’s our job to enforce the law.”

  I occasionally heard those words grumbled by cops when I was a young police reporter years ago, when the War on Drugs was just beginning.

  That’s when state legislatures across the country began arming police with something called civil forfeiture laws.

  Civil forfeiture is basically a money grab by government. Under these laws, cops can seize property that they say is being used to commit a crime or was purchased with money they say came from doing something illegal.

  The problem: The person doesn’t even have to be convicted of a crime in order for the government to confiscate the property. Instead of seizing the yachts of drug kingpins, too often cops are nabbing the cars from little old ladies.

  Don’t think so? Ask Judy Wiese of Moline. She is a 70-year-old woman who lives on $730 a month. As first reported by the The Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, she lent her 2009 Jeep Compass to a grandson so he could drive to work. The car was seized by police because the grandson’s driver’s license was revoked. She told the newspaper that her grandson had told her otherwise.

  Regardless, Judy hadn’t broken any laws. She was just a grandma helping out a grandson. That was back in August. And this month she was still fighting to get the car back. It seems that even though she did not commit a crime, she had to go to court and prove that her car was not connected to a crime nor was it the proceeds of crime. She couldn’t afford a lawyer, struggled to write legal motions and was scolded by a judge for not having something notarized. When her case ended up in the newspaper, a lawyer volunteered his services and her car was returned after being held for months.

  Most people aren’t so fortunate or so persistent. Unable to afford an attorney, they often just walk away from what is theirs.

  Abuses of forfeiture laws have been reported throughout the United States. The Washington Post recently wrote about a college student who had spent years saving $11,000 for tuition only to have it confiscated in a Cincinnati airport because the cops thought it was suspicious that he was traveling with that much cash.

  It may not be particularly smart to travel with that much dough, but it isn’t criminal.

  Cops and prosecutors have a profit motive because their departments often get to keep the cash and property they seize. And anyone who has ever seen a speed trap in a small town knows revenue can be a powerful incentive for police departments.

  Page 2 of 2 - Government has an insatiable appetite for money, and civil forfeiture is just one symptom of this pervasive appetite. Cops need to be enforcing laws, not seizing money and property from law-abiding citizens. Folks ought to be able to keep what they own unless they are convicted of a crime.

  That’s not just common sense. It’s basic decency.

  And it’s an issue the Illinois General Assembly needs to address.

  Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and a journalist with Illinois News Network, a project of the Illinois Policy Institute. He can be reached at sreeder@ilnews.org. Readers can subscribe to his free political newsletter by going to ILNEWS.ORG or follow his work on Twitter @scottreeder.

Above is from: http://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20160127/my-view-civil-forfeiture-laws-are-foul

 

 

 

Here is the impound ordinance just passed by Boone County.

 Skipping to 1.5--Note such large crime as retail theft are included.

This administrative fee is mandatory. As stated in 1.3, “Shall” is mandatory not discretionary.

 

Medical Condition of the Presidential Candidates

 

First on CNN: Sanders releases doctor's note

By Jeff Zeleny, Senior Washington Correspondent

Updated 12:29 PM ET, Thu January 28, 2016

It is customary for presidential candidates to make public their health records during the campaign season. Sanders, who would be 75 on inauguration day, would also be the oldest president ever elected. Ronald Reagan, the current titleholder, was just a couple days shy of his 70th birthday when he first took office.

"Over the years you have been treated for medical conditions including gout, mild hypercholesterolemia, diverticulitis, hypothyroidism, laryngitis secondary to esophageal reflux, lumbar strain and complete removal of superficial skin tumors," Monahan wrote. "Your past surgical history consists of repair of your left and right side inguinal hernias by laparoscopic technique, and a right true vocal cord cyst excision."

Should candidates' health histories stay private?

Sanders has no history of heart disease, does not use tobacco and consumes alcohol "infrequently."

Read More

Hillary Clinton, Sanders' rival, released her records on last July.

According to her release, signed by Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton "is a healthy female, with hypothyroidism and seasonal allergies, on long-term anticoagulation ... she is in excellent physical condition."

Clinton suffered a concussion in 2012.

Donald Trump released a letter from his physician on December 14 stating that the 69-year-old Republican presidential candidate's latest medical examination "showed only positive results."

Trump's physician of 25 years, Dr. Harold Bornstein, said Trump "has had no significant medical problems" and called the candidate's blood pressure and lab results "astonishingly excellent" in a signed statement Trump released publicly.

How old is too old to be president?

Jeb Bush shared his doctor's note last October.

His physician since 2007, Dr. Alberto A. Mitrani, said, "Mr. Bush is a healthy and vigorous 62-year-old man."

"He is proactive from a cardiovascular perspective and actively engaged in his health care. He is compliant with medical recommendations and maintains favorable lifestyle habits. He is in excellent physical and mental condition and able to serve in any stressful and demanding executive setting including the Office of the President of the United States," he said. "Prior medical history includes vitamin D insufficiency, gastritis, colon polyps, sinusitis, and low back pain. Surgical history includes an appendectomy, a tonsillectomy, and arthroscopic knee surgery."

CNN's Greg Krieg, Jeremy Diamond and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

Above is from:  http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/28/politics/bernie-sanders-medical-records/index.html