Could Paul Ryan Be the Koch Brothers’ Dream Candidate?

Adele M. Stan

March 30, 2016

They've got the machinery in place to run a presidential candidacy. All that's missing is the candidate.

Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, would like you to know two things: He is very, very sorry for those mean things he said about poor people, and he is not seeking the Republican nomination for the presidency. On that second point, though, were there to be a need for a candidate who hadn’t run in any of the 2016 primaries or caucuses, well …
“People say, ‘What about the contested convention?’ I say, well, there are a lot of people running for president,” Ryan told CNBC’s John Harwood on March 15. “We'll see. Who knows?"
His spokespeople were quickly dispatched to Twitter to assert that their boss would never accept such a nomination, words that the speaker himself has yet to utter. The most Ryan will say is “I will not be the nominee,” a statement that sounds more like a prediction than a rejection. And predictions are known to be often wrong.

Makers and Takers

A week after the Harwood interview, Ryan took advantage of an address to a group of Capitol Hill interns to make one of his characteristic “tsk-tsk” statements about the unkindness of Donald Trump without calling the frontrunner by name, and to say that he regretted having, at points in his career, described poor people who accepted public assistance as “takers.”
“But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong,” Ryan told the aspiring politicos. “‘Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependent. And to label a whole group of Americans that way was wrong. I shouldn’t castigate a large group of Americans to make a point.”
What Ryan failed to note is that he famously used that Ayn Rand–style “makers” and “takers” framing in the 2012 presidential race, and often in a context that seemed to lump all recipients of Social Security and Medicare into the “taker” category.

In short, he is the anti-Trump, and much of his speech to the interns could easily be retread into an acceptance valedictory at a nominating convention in which a very nasty guy with a whole lot of delegates behind him—just not quite enough to win on the first ballot—finds himself knocked out of the running.

Now he wants America to know that he is a kinder, gentler, more understanding kind of a leader, one who seeks comity in our politics. In short, he is the anti-Trump, and much of his speech to the interns could easily be retread into an acceptance valedictory at a nominating convention in which a very nasty guy with a whole lot of delegates behind him—just not quite enough to win on the first ballot—finds himself knocked out of the running. If the Republican National Convention goes to a second ballot, most delegates will no longer be bound to the candidate they came in with, and will be free to cast a vote for whomever they choose. And Ryan has said he would respect the choice of the delegates.
Fueled by buzz from such leading Republicans as former House Speaker John Boehner about a potential Ryan candidacy, those of us who spend our days reading tea leaves attempting to prognosticate this year’s crazy electoral contests have been eyeing Ryan as the party’s possible draft pick. (Earlier this month, Peter Dreier made the case for a Ryan candidacy in the Prospect.)

               

   The Cruz Gambit

This speculation may seem confounding as Ted Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, racks up reluctant endorsements for his presidential quest from such notable establishment types as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. But it’s important to bear in mind that Cruz is even less likely than Trump to win the nomination on the first ballot at the convention. These Republican elites, as they’ve come to be known, are more in the business of stopping Trump than electing Cruz. They most likely want to help Cruz win just enough delegates to deprive Trump of the 1,237 he’d need to waltz into Cleveland as the Party of Lincoln’s de facto nominee.
And chances are that the main aim of the meddling pooh-bahs is not to avoid losing the presidential election (though they’d prefer to forgo that fate, of course); it’s to avoid losing control of the Republican Party to Trump and his pugilistic minions. Whoever wins the nomination will have his hands on the levers of the Republicans’ sputtering machine. And Trump makes his own rules, and chooses his own friends.
Since the rise of the Tea Party and the success achieved by the Koch brothers in shaping the GOP in their image, tensions between party regulars and the entities created by the billionaire siblings have sometimes been fraught. Most recently, party leaders have been in a tussle with the Koch network over a voter-data operation, i360, controlled by the Kochs that operates outside the party structure but is used by many Republican candidates who find it superior to the party’s data platform. The bad news for the party is that the data collected on those candidates’ behalf is not shared with the Republican National Committee; it stays within the Koch-linked operation. (Kenneth P. Vogel and Mike Allen have goods on the GOP data wars here.)
Whatever tensions exist, the Koch brothers and the party have a common interest in stopping Trump. However grand the scale of the Koch network of think tanks, field operations, and data mines, it is an extra-party infrastructure built around the Republican Party. Should the Republican Party fracture in unpredictable ways, or simply become something far different in shape than it has been, the Koch network could end up lacking a vehicle through which to achieve its aims. Though the Kochs and their well-heeled allies may despair from time to time of the party’s failure to deliver every jot and tittle of their agenda, they need the party, and the party, as it has adapted to the machinery the magnates built around it, needs the Koch network.

Ryan’s Koch Connections

It all adds up to a scenario that could sweep Ryan onto the standard-bearer’s horse. Almost from the inception of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the largest entity in the Koch field operation, the organization has championed Ryan’s career. In 2008, he received the Wisconsin AFP chapter’s “Defender of the American Dream” award from the hands of a young county executive named Scott Walker, whose political career was all but launched by AFP. Ryan has addressed the group’s gatherings, and regularly receives its accolades. He’s turns up at other Koch-network events. He adheres to the Koch ideology of voucherizing Medicare and privatizing Social Security, which he once described as a “collectivist” scheme. He’s pretty much a climate-change denier, a prerequisite for Koch support.
Those who nay-say the possibility of a Republican presidential nominee who has not run in the state-level nominating contests will tell you that such a candidate is unlikely to emerge for lack of a field operation or voter data. But a Koch-backed candidate needn’t fret; as Politico’s Vogel and Allen reported in 2014:

… Mainstream Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, are trying to reclaim control of the conservative movement from outside groups. The Kochs, however, are continuing to amass all of the campaign tools the Republican National Committee and other party arms use to elect a president.

With the Wisconsin primary a week away, Donald Trump made a campaign stop* on Tuesday in Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville. At about that same time, Ted Cruz picked up a big endorsement—from Paul Ryan’s old buddy, Governor Scott Walker.
*Campaign violence update: The New York Daily News reports that at the Trump rally in Janesville, a teenage girl with a protest sign was pepper-sprayed by a Trump supporter after she slugged a guy whom she said touched her inappropriately.

 

About the Author

Adele M. Stan is a columnist at The American Prospect, and editor of Clarion, the newspaper of Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, a New York City labor union. The views expressed here are her own.

   Above is from:  http://prospect.org/article/could-paul-ryan-be-koch-brothers%E2%80%99-dream-candidate  

 

Illinoisans Speak Out On Nuclear Waste During Energy Department Meeting

 

The U.S. Department of Energy is moving forward with developing a consent-based process for siting nuclear waste facilities. The topic was the focus of a public meeting the DOE held in Chicago Tuesday. Progress Illinois provides highlights from the event.

The U.S. Department of Energy's plans to develop a consent-based siting process for nuclear waste facilities was the topic of a public meeting hosted in Chicago Tuesday. A consent-based siting process is designed to ensure that the public and all stakeholders are involved in determining the location of nuclear waste facilities.
The DOE is gathering written public comments on the topic now through June 30. In addition, DOE is hosting eight public meetings around the country to gather input on the issue, with the first having been held today in Chicago.
Tuesday's meeting featured a panel discussion with a diverse group of speakers, including Zion Mayor Al Hill.
Zion is home to a retired nuclear power plant, which ComEd shut down in 1998. On top of the retired Zion plant, Illinois has six active commercial nuclear plants, the most of any U.S. state.
Hill said the Zion community is housing 2.2 million pounds of spent fuel rods from the retired nuclear plant.
"There was never an understanding that once the plant closed, the Zion community would play host to a radioactive, and I'll be blunt here, a radioactive dump," he stressed. "That wasn't part of the deal that we were gonna be hosting these here. I speak for all of Zion when I say we do not want to be a storage facility for radioactive waste."
Hill said he wants the spent fuel rods removed, or his community compensated for becoming a "defacto interim fuel storage facility."
"With Yucca Mountain being scuttled in 2010, we're not naive enough to believe that these rods are going to be moved anytime soon," he said, referring to the once-proposed, long-term nuclear waste repository site in Nevada. "We therefore believe that in the meantime, until they are moved, our community should be compensated, and we also believe that the federal government should do the compensating."
Almost all existing spent nuclear fuel from commercial electricity generation is currently stored at facilities where it was generated, according to the DOE. Additionally, DOE has five storage sites for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from defense activities.
Last year, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced that the DOE would move forward with what the department describes as a "consent-based siting process to establish an integrated waste management system to transport, store, and dispose of commercial spent nuclear fuel and high-level defense radioactive waste."
Later this year, DOE plans to publish a summary report based on the public input it receives, which will be used to design a consent-based process for siting.
"In a consent-based siting approach, DOE will work with communities, tribal governments and states across the country that express interest in hosting any of the facilities identified as part of an integrated waste management system," according to the energy department.
An integrated waste management system could include a pilot interim storage facility, a consolidated interim storage facility, and a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste, among other potential sites.
"The federal government pays hundreds of millions of dollars a year right now out of something called the 'Judgement Fund' because of the government's inability, or failure, to start receiving nuclear waste as required under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1998," explained DOE's Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy John Kotek. The funds go to pay court judgements to utilities as compensation for storing the waste on their property.
"We think it makes sense to consolidate that material to one location with the capabilities there to manage that material safely for the long term," he added.
David Kraft, director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service, a Chicago-based non-profit focused on ending nuclear power, spoke to the need for "informed consent" in siting nuclear waste facilities. But before any new radioactive waste facilities are sited, Kraft said the DOE and other agency's dealing with nuclear waste in the United States need to fix their "enormous credibility gap."
"The public lacks confidence in everything that's gone on before. Your history is very clear on how selective you are and what treaties, what agreements you will keep and which ones you will break, with or without consequence," Kraft said. "That's very hard to get a community to trust you, and move into an informed consent dialogue, under those circumstances."
Also on the panel was Kim Wasserman-Nieto with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, which helped shut down the Crawford and Fisk coal-fired power plant sites on Chicago's South Side.
She said any consent-based process for siting nuclear waste facilities should be open and transparent and specifically detail the potential health and environmental costs associated with such projects.
"A lot of times, our communities are sold on a notion of jobs and economic benefit," she said. "It's a very good conversation to say, 'This is how many jobs will be created. This is what the tax base is gonna be.' But a lot of times, our community, because we're so caught up in this conversation, because we may be economically distraught or for any number of reasons, nobody ever wants to talk about the health impacts, and the monetary cost of that associated with the other side."
Wasserman-Nieto went on to say that she expects it will be difficult finding communities that would be willing to house a nuclear storage site.
"Until we stop creating this waste, we're gonna continue to be in the same space and having the same conversation," she added.
Another panelist was Ann McCabe, a commissioner on the Illinois Commerce Commission and chair of the Nuclear Issues Subcommittee at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).
NARCU wants to see the administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission complete the process of determining whether Yucca Mountain can be licensed as a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste.
"NARCU believes the goal should be progress on the permanent repository," she said. "The interim site is by definition a temporary, and not inexpensive, measure to bridge the gap to a permanent repository, assuming it can be cost justified."
The DOE will hold its next consent-based siting meeting with the public in Atlanta on April 11, with events to follow in Sacramento, Denver, Boston, Tempe, Boston and Minneapolis.
Obama Hosting Nuclear Security Summit This Week
Today's discussion comes ahead of this week's Nuclear Security Summit, being held Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C.
President Barack Obama is convening the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit with leaders from 56 nations and organizations, with the goal of "advancing tangible improvements in nuclear security behavior and strengthening the global nuclear security architecture." The Obama administration held the first Nuclear Security Summit in 2010.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL,11), the only physicist currently in Congress, spoke on the House floor about the importance of strengthening global nuclear security.
In discussing the past Nuclear Security Summit gatherings, Foster said they have thus far "been instrumental in achieving critical nuclear security objectives, such as minimizing the use of highly enriched uranium in reactors around the world and enhancing membership in international organizations like the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]."
However, Foster stressed that "more remains to be done" on the issue.
"It is no secret that rogue regimes and clandestine organizations continue to exhibit the ambition to acquire nuclear materials that can be used to create crude radiological dirty bombs or nuclear weapons," the congressman said. "I am, however, optimistic that with our allies and partners around the world, we will continue to develop new and innovative ideas to secure vulnerable nuclear material and make the world a safer place."
Activists with Global Zero, an international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons, are heading to Washington this week for demonstrations coinciding with the summit.
The group "will urge participating world leaders to expand their approach to reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism by advancing actionable plans for the phased, verified elimination of all nuclear weapons globally," reads a statement from Global Zero.
Chicago-based Global Zero activist Kylie Allen is among those traveling to Washington this week.
"Securing nuclear material is important, but there's no such thing as 'nuclear security' while there are more than 15,000 nukes in the world," Allen said. "Eliminating these weapons must be at the top of the agenda."

Above is from:  http://progressillinois.com/posts/content/2016/03/29/doe-hears-public-consent-based-siting-process-nuclear-waste

A new report shows that farmland prices in Illinois saw a significant decline last year following years of increases

PEORIA, Illinois — Illinois farmland prices saw a significant decline last year following the downward price trajectory of grain produced on the land, according to a new report from the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.
The group's annual farmland value report shows that agriculture acreage across Illinois dropped between 8 percent and 9 percent in 2015.
"This year, there's no doubt that farmland values softened," said the society's general co-chairman, David Klein of Soy Capital Ag Services in Bloomington. "There are certain areas that remain very strong — the Peoria area is still a very strong pocket relative to other areas of the state."
Land rated "excellent" and "good" both saw an 8 percent decline, selling at $11,737 per acre and $8,756 per acre, respectively. Land rated "average" sold for $6,215 per acre, a 9 percent decline.
"We've had over 18 years of increasing farmland values, and that's a historically very long run," Klein said.
For years, prices had increased by 3 to 6 percent annually, with occasional 10 percent increases in a single year recorded, according to Klein.
Farmland value across Illinois first showed signs of softening in 2014, when values remained flat or declined by 2 percent.
The recent decline represents a natural self-correction of the market after nearly two decades of increasing farmland values, and reflects grain prices that have recently dropped 30 percent to 40 percent from peak prices, Klein told the (Peoria) Journal Star (http://bit.ly/1PFo55j ).
Farmland value in 2016 will largely depend on the commodity prices of grain, he said.

Above is from:  http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/591fc64fca7244e186185674f84dff66/IL--Farmland-Prices-Illinois

North Boone, Capron emergency responders in mutual aid talks for ambulance services

 

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Rockford Register Star

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 2:10 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2016 at 2:45 PM

          

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 2:10 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2016 at 2:45 PM

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 2:10 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2016 at 2:45 PM

POPLAR GROVE — Defeat of a proposed property tax in the March primary sparked talks between two dueling ambulance providers, prompting both the Capron Rescue Squad and North Boone Fire Protection districts to consider a mutual aid backup agreement.

If approved, North Boone’s ambulance would provide backup on medical calls. As it stands, the district’s ambulance crew only treats firefighters.

“There has been some contact back and forth,” said Heath Morrall, secretary of North Boone’s Board of Trustees. “As of right now, there is no agreement in place but discussions have been opened up. ... It’s going to be what’s most beneficial to the community.”

The North Boone district works to protect about 13,500 people in Poplar Grove, Manchester and Caledonia townships.

Morrell has spent the past months gathering support for a proposed .05 percent property tax increase to finance future ambulance purchases and give the district legal status for Boone County’s 911 Center to dispatch its crews for patient care.

Voters turned down the proposed tax increase on March 15. It would have required owners of $100,000 homes to pay approximately $16.67 per year in additional property taxes to generate $100,000 a year for ambulance services. The district budgets about $700,000 annually for fire protection services.

After the vote, Capron’s Chief Tony Stepansky sent a letter to North Boone officials saying that the voters’ rejection allowed the departments to “take advantage of an opportunity.”

“While you and I may disagree on a number of things,” he said in the letter, “I know that we do not disagree on our desire to do what is best for providing care and protection to our community.

“Let’s get a simple mutual aid agreement signed. I will gladly use you as primary backup in your district. Let’s sit down and come up with a viable way to use your people and resources in a first response role. It is the right thing to do.”

A mutual aid backup agreement could halt litigation between the Capron and North Boone districts. In January, Capron sued North Boone, asking a 17th Judicial Circuit Court judge to remove the tax question from the ballot. That request failed, but the complaint also asked the judge to prohibit North Boone from providing ambulance service. A hearing is set for April 22.

Capron has three ambulances based out of Capron, Poplar Grove and Candlewick Lake. It has been providing ambulance service to the Poplar Grove area since 1957.

 

Page 2 of 2 - Of about 60 calls in a 30-day period, North Boone Captain Tim Davis has said the district's ambulance was closer to the incident than Capron’s ambulances for about a quarter of the incidents.

The district has several mutual aid agreements in place with emergency responders in communities such as Rockford, Roscoe, Harvard and Sharon, Wisconsin.

Stepansky said that Capron and North Boone began discussing a mutual aid agreement in late 2014. Talks stalled, he said, over how many of the calls would be shared. North Boone wanted every other call or to be the main provider.

“We found that unacceptable,” he said.

Capron officials appeared at the information sessions North Boone hosted regarding the proposed tax increase to state their opposition.

After the election, some residents complained they had received the wrong ballot and were unable to vote on the proposed property tax increase for ambulance service.

Boone County Clerk Mary Steurer has said the mistake was one of "human error" and that “there’s no recourse.”

Susan Vela: 815-987-1392; svela@rrstar.com; @susanvela

Of about 60 calls in a 30-day period, North Boone Captain Tim Davis has said the district's ambulance was closer to the incident than Capron’s ambulances for about a quarter of the incidents.

The district has several mutual aid agreements in place with emergency responders in communities such as Rockford, Roscoe, Harvard and Sharon, Wisconsin.

Stepansky said that Capron and North Boone began discussing a mutual aid agreement in late 2014. Talks stalled, he said, over how many of the calls would be shared. North Boone wanted every other call or to be the main provider.

“We found that unacceptable,” he said.

Capron officials appeared at the information sessions North Boone hosted regarding the proposed tax increase to state their opposition.

After the election, some residents complained they had received the wrong ballot and were unable to vote on the proposed property tax increase for ambulance service.

Boone County Clerk Mary Steurer has said the mistake was one of "human error" and that “there’s no recourse.”

Susan Vela: 815-987-1392; svela@rrstar.com; @susanvela

 

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Rockford Register Star

By Susan Vela
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 29, 2016 at 2:10 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2016 at 2:45 PM

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160329/NEWS/160329489/0/SEARCH/?Start=2

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Rauner’s Primary Reaction Illustrates His Separation from Reality

Rauner’s Primary Reaction Illustrates His Separation from Reality


Commentary/Politics - Illinois Politics
ShareThis Written by Rich Miller Sunday, 27 March 2016 05:56 It’s almost impossible to make a deal with somebody who won’t accept reality. And that’s been the case in Illinois for more than a year, as Governor Bruce Rauner has made one politically unrealistic demand after another while refusing to negotiate a budget until those demands are met, all the while blaming the entire impasse on the intransigence of House Speaker Michael Madigan. Because the public debate is so wrapped up in partisanship and ideology, it’s been tough for a large segment of the population to wrap its collective mind around what’s really been going on. Many see this fight as the “new, good” Rauner versus the “old, bad” Madigan. While that argument certainly has plenty of merit, it’s not nearly the entire story. It takes two to tango, and the truth is and has always been that Rauner doesn’t even have enthusiastic support among legislative Republicans for a big chunk of his Turnaround Agenda, particularly those demands opposed by labor unions. His complete agenda cannot pass both legislative chambers no matter who the House speaker is. After what happened the day after the March primary election, however, Rauner’s obvious inability to accept some stark political realities might finally help more folks understand what the rest of us have been seeing for the past year or more. There is no doubt that Rauner had a bad March 15. While he wasn’t directly involved in Madigan’s Democratic primary, there’s zero doubt that the people who funded Madigan’s opponent were friendly to the governor’s interests. They made the campaign a referendum on Madigan’s entire career, and Madigan won handily. The same money conduit Rauner used to fund other races, Dan Proft, came up with $1.3 million via a “dark money” group to give directly to Representative Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago). All that other Raunerite money ($1.6 million) spent on Dunkin’s behalf didn’t just appear out of nowhere, either. And nobody really believes that the Illinois Chamber decided without prompting to all of a sudden run an additional million-dollar TV ad supporting Dunkin (who had one of the lowest Chamber ratings of any state legislator) without first consulting its own board of directors. That race became a very public referendum on Rauner, but Dunkin ended up winning just 32 percent of the vote. Oops. And then there’s state Senator Sam McCann (R-Plainview). Rauner personally endorsed McCann’s GOP opponent, Bryce Benton; funneled millions of dollars into Benton’s race (via Proft and through a $50,000 contribution from himself); and personally campaigned with Benton in the days leading up to the election. He threw the kitchen sink at McCann, with a boatload of cash spent to make the race about how McCann was Speaker Madigan’s “favorite senator.” McCann won by more than 5 percentage points. That’s a solid Rauner defeat in anyone’s book. Everyone with even semi-honest eyes could see that Rauner was a big loser. Yes, he won several other primary races, but he basically steamrolled a bunch of unprepared amateurs with overwhelming financial resources and (in most cases) viciously negative ads. Without a doubt it’s important to win those little races (Madigan himself does it a lot), but the marquee contests against formidable foes – who are far more like the legislative Democrats Rauner will face in November – most definitely went south. And yet there he was claiming via press release that Madigan was the primary election’s real loser, even though all of Madigan’s candidates won. “There were many races last night where special interests backed by Speaker Madigan failed to defeat Republican incumbents and candidates who support Governor Rauner’s call for structural reforms,” his post-election press release bellowed. Somehow, in Rauner’s mind, it’s Madigan’s fault that some Republican hopefuls with a smidgeon of union backing lost their races to Rauner’s heavily financed candidates. The excuse I heard afterward was that Madigan had issued his own press release pointing out the governor’s losses, and the governor felt he needed to respond. Okay, I get that. Madigan didn’t have to rub Rauner’s nose in the previous day’s humiliations. But has nobody ever heard of taking the high road, or at least a road that exists in the real world? Like I said at the beginning, accepting political reality is not this governor’s strong suit. If that wasn’t abundantly clear before the primary election, it surely became clear the day after. And this governmental impasse ain’t ever gonna end until that stark fact of life changes. Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax (a daily political newsletter) and CapitolFax.com.
Above is from:  http://www.rcreader.com/commentary/rauners-primary-reaction-illustrates-separation-from-reality/

Agri News: Citizens Express Concerns

Citizens express concerns about proposed railroad

Jeannine Otto, Field Editor

Tuesday, March 29, 2016 5:00 PM

More than 100 people packed the March meeting of the Boone County Board in Belvidere. Concerned residents from Boone County and some of the other 11 counties set to be impacted by the Great Lakes Basin Railroad project gathered to offer comment and hear an update on the project.

Railroad hearings

Public scoping meetings will be held:
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 11, Manteno Sportsmen’s Club Banquet Hall, 851 N. Main St., Manteno, Ill.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 12, Lowell Town Hall, 501 E. Main St., Lowell, Ind.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 13, American Legion Banquet Hall, 203 S. Washington St., Wanatah, Ind.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 14, Civic Auditorium Banquet Room, 1001 Ridge St., LaPorte, Ind.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 18, Craig High School Cafeteria, 401 S. Randall St., Janesville, Wis.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 19, Cherry Valley Fire Station No. 2 Hall, 4919 Blackhawk Road, Rockford, Ill.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 20, Rochelle Township High School Auditorium, 1401 Flagg Road, Rochelle, Ill.
* 5:30 to 8 p.m. April 21, Seneca High School Auditorium, 307 E. Scott St., Seneca, Ill.
The meetings will be held in an open house format for the first hour followed by a brief presentation by the Office of Environmental Analysis. After the presentation, interested parties will be provided an opportunity for public comment. A court reporter will transcribe these oral public comments.
The meeting locations comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act People who need special accommodations should contact OEA’s project manager.

BELVIDERE, Ill. — Boone County is ahead of the curve — or the straight track, as it were.
“You folks are way ahead of the issue. You are way more informed,” said Bob Walberg, chairman of the Boone County Board.
Walberg addressed the more than 100 residents who turned out for the regular March board meeting in response to a proposal to run a railroad line through the east side of the county.
The Great Lakes Basin Railroad is a project proposed by the Great Lakes Basin Transportation Corp. The project is a proposed 278-mile rail line around Chicago, from Milton, Wis., to La Porte, Ind., to connect with existing Class I rail lines.
The railroad would travel through 11 counties, including Rock County in Wisconsin; Boone, Winnebago, Ogle, Lee, La Salle, Grundy and Kankakee in Illinois; and Lake, Porter and LaPorte in Indiana.
Five people signed up to speak at the meeting, and their concerns ranged from the route of the railroad and proximity to homes and schools to traffic congestion and what the railroad cars may transport.
“I first learned about it coming through Boone County when a reporter presented me the map, handed me a microphone and interviewed me and a couple hours later it was on TV. We had not earlier knowledge of it going through Boone County than anyone in this room,” Walberg said.
One of the commenters said she thinks information is being kept from the public.
“We feel we haven’t been informed,” said Susan Sack of Earlville in La Salle County.
“There’s been a lot kept from the public’s eye at this point. A lot of plans have been made without consulting the people who would be affected by it directly. We’re worried, and we’re looking for answers,” Sack said.

Close To Home

Ron Nelson of Capron said he was concerned about the proposed route’s proximity not just to his home, but to schools, as well as with what the trains would be carrying.
“This railroad is going to within 300 feet of my house, 275 feet of my yard. It’s going to cut my farm in half, and the Capron Grade School is going to be within 120 rods (about .375 mile) of this thing,” Nelson said.
“I think they ought to take some consideration of it being too close because this is probably going to be an ethanol/oil train, that’s what I think,” he said.
Juanita Hofstrom of Rock County, Wis., said her concern was the impact on her family’s dairy farm.
“I came here to represent is about eight families into which I married, who are all farmers and all of them are being affected by this particular project. It’s all family farms that have been in these particular families for four generations,” she said.
She said the proposed route would run right behind the barn on her farmette, where she milks 30 Jersey cows and raises about 30 head of young stock.
“They could graze on the hill behind the barn, and we could cut grass and hay for part of their feed. Now, all of that is going to stop ... They are not at all thinking of the agricultural programs in which I’ve invested,” Hofstrom said.
“It is going through an established neighborhood that we basically fled to that area to get away from Rockford. There are a lot of people from Byron and Stillman Valley — you will be hearing from us,” said Teresa Lapp of Stillman Valley.
Lapp garnered some of the loudest applause of the meeting when she said she and her family wanted to flee again.
“This thing is going to cost us money. What is this saying? To tell you the truth, I want to get the hell out of Illinois. And I will get out. My neighbors are here from Stillman Valley and every single one of them wants out. They want out of the state,” Lapp said.
Sharon Charlesworth of Garden Prairie said she worries about the impact of the trains on already congested east-west roads that commuters use to travel to and from jobs in and around Chicago, as well as the impact of up to 110 trains a day holding up emergency services.
“I know from experience freight trains can take an excessive amount of time to cross a road. How will these tracks affect Boone County? Disruption of medical services, police services and school bus routes? Disruption of commuter traffic? Disruption of agricultural livelihood?” Charlesworth said.
Great Lakes Basin Railroad filed a notice of intent on March 18 with the Surface Transportation Board, an agency within the direction of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
A series of meetings to gather public comment has been scheduled in the counties affected by the proposed railroad.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 211, or jotto@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.

Update on new Animal Service Building

NEW BUILDING UPDATE:
Photos taken Friday, March 26, 2016

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Above is from:  https://www.facebook.com/boonecountyillinoisanimalservices/

Why Wisconsin is the new New Hampshire

Why Wisconsin is the new New Hampshire

03/29/16 09:08 AM

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By Chuck Todd and Carrie Dann

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter.
O
ne week out, all eyes on the Badger State Battle
Spring break is officially in the rearview mirror for the 2016 candidates, with every remaining presidential hopeful hitting the trail in Wisconsin. The Badger State is almost taking on a role like New Hampshire: Because it’s the only state voting in an otherwise empty stretch, it’s less about delegate math than it is about momentum on both sides. It feels like we’re coming out of halftime and the next scoring opportunity offers the team that seizes it a chance to reset. For Republicans, the #NeverTrump movement has to prove it’s got the juice to slow the frontrunner’s momentum, because they’re going to have a much harder time stopping him if they don’t change this narrative fast. Meanwhile, Trump hopes to make plays in areas like Green Bay and Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville to flex his muscles with traditional and non-traditional GOP base voters alike. By the way, watch for the complex rules of GOP delegate allocation to influence how the campaigns operate. While 18 of the state’s 42 delegates will be awarded to the statewide winner, the majority - 24 delegates - will be allocated to the winners in specific congressional districts. That means that candidates are likely to hammer away at the areas of the state where they feel they have best chance of racking up a CD win. And, of course, keep an eye out today too for Gov. Scott Walker’s “formal decision” in the GOP primary.
And on the Democratic side, Sanders needs a big win
Coming off of his big wins in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington, the burden will be on Bernie Sanders to continue his momentum with a big win in Wisconsin. If we’re looking at the state as a sort of “second-half New Hampshire,” Sanders needs a New Hampshire-style double-digit win. With delegates split proportionally between the two candidates, a small victory doesn’t push Sanders closer to closing the gap with Clinton or bolster his argument about his ability to chip in her lead.
Turf play
Yesterday, reporters were treated to dueling conference calls from the Clinton and Sanders campaigns about their strategies going forward. While Clinton’s team called her delegate lead “nearly insurmountable,” Team Sanders noted that much of that lead comes from states that the Vermont senator “didn’t contest.” It’s absolutely true that Sanders spent few or no real resources in some states where Clinton ran up the score, like Georgia (Clinton net gain of +45 pledged delegates), Texas (Clinton +70 pledged delegates), and Florida (Clinton +68 pledged delegates). But it’s also true that he spent not-insignificant sums on TV and radio advertising in states where Clinton walked away with more pledged delegates. Here are states where Sanders spent $500,000 or more on the air, and their respective net pledged delegate results.

• South Carolina - $972k (Clinton net +25 pledged delegates)
• Oklahoma - $1.1m (Sanders net +4)
• Ohio - $2.3m (Clinton net +19)
• North Carolina - $972k (Clinton net +13)
• New Hampshire - $10.2m (Sanders net +6)
• Nevada - $3.6m (Clinton net +5)
• Missouri - $1.4m (Clinton net +1)
• Minnesota - $1.1m (Sanders net +15)
• Michigan - $2.9m (Sanders net +7)
• Massachusetts - $1.6m (Clinton net +1)
• Iowa - $8.5m (Clinton net +2)
• Illinois - $1.3m (Clinton net +6)
• Colorado - $1.4m (Sanders net +10)
• Washington - $1.3m (Sanders +16 so far, with more delegates to be allocated)

We’re scratching our heads a little about what the Sanders’ campaign is trying to argue here. If you’re conceding that you failed to keep your opponent from running up the score because you didn’t play defense, how is that anything but conceding that your strategy misfired?
Where the Democratic delegate race stands
The NBC News Decision Desk allocated additional super delegates in the Democratic race yesterday afternoon. Here’s where the contest stands now:
In pledged delegates, Clinton holds a 259-delegate lead over Sanders (it was 294 before Saturday)

• Clinton 1237 (56%)
• Sanders 978 (44%)

In overall delegates (including superdelegates) Clinton holds a 679-delegate lead (it was 709 before Saturday)

• Clinton 1686 (63%)
• Sanders 1007 (37%)

Clinton must win 34% of overall remaining delegates to reach the 2383 magic number
Sanders must win 66% of overall remaining delegates to reach the 2383 magic number.
Trump scrambles on delegate strategy
While he’s the unquestionable frontrunner (our new NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll out today shows him flirting with 50 percent among Republicans nationwide), but Donald Trump still has a big problem: Delegate strategy is complicated, and it’s hard work. Over the weekend, he threatened to sue over Ted Cruz’s maneuvering to secure additional delegates in Louisiana, and yesterday his campaign told NBC’s Ari Melber that it plans to challenge the state’s delegate slate with the RNC. What’s more, Trump’s campaign is hiring veteran political hand (and 1976 convention guru for Gerald Ford!) Paul Manafort and opening a DC office to streamline its delegate efforts. While those are serious moves, the Trump effort is also earning some snickers for suggesting that Louisiana’s delegate slots were allocated at a “secret meeting” - at the publicly scheduled state GOP convention, which Trump’s two state co-chairmen attended. There’s no question that Cruz is currently outgunning Trump on this front. If Trump is going to blow it, this may be how he ultimately goes down: Dropping the ball again and again on seemingly small-ball delegate fights with big consequences in the aggregate.
Obama chimes in on political journalism and 2016
In perhaps his harshest critique of the media during his presidency, President Obama lit into the “carnival atmosphere” of the 2016 campaign and chastised journalists for failing to adequately fact-check candidates who “can’t possibly deliver his or her own promises.” Speaking at the Toner Award Ceremony in D.C., Obama said that “a job well done is about more than just handing someone a microphone.” And he complained that “just because something is substantive doesn’t mean it is not interesting.” We’ll just point out here that many folks who have covered the Obama White House for seven years may have been rolling their eyes a little bit at the president’s remarks, wishing that perhaps he had practiced what he preached a little more throughout his whole administration.
On the trail
All the 2016 candidates are barnstorming in Wisconsin. All three Republicans will appear at a CNN townhall in Milwaukee after holding various events in the state, while Clinton and Sanders will both rally supporters at several campaign stops.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com

Belvidere aldermen defeat motion to return utility tax revenues to original purpose

  By Susan Vela
Staff writer , Rockford Register Star Posted Mar. 28, 2016 at 9:07 PM

BELVIDERE — With a 5-3 vote, Belvidere aldermen defeated a motion tonight to separate utility tax revenues for street and infrastructure improvements from the general fund.

Ald. Mark Sanderson was disappointed after the vote at the Committee of the Whole meeting. His "yes" vote, along with similar "thumbs ups" from Aldermen Clinton Morris and Clayton Stevens, weren’t enough to enforce stricter use of the utility tax dollars.

They wanted itemized tracking of revenues from the 5 percent tax in the proposed $19.2 million annual spending plan. A new budget year starts May 1.

The utility tax — placed on gas, electricity and telephone usage — was established 16 years ago to help pay for road repairs. Once the Great Recession arrived, there was an official decision in 2010 to place utility tax revenues in the general fund coffers.

“(But) we need to know where it’s being put, not just in the general fund,” Sanderson said. “I’m going to keep fighting to try to get clarity for the taxpayers so they know where their money is going.”

In response to Sanderson’s arguments, Mayor Mike Chamberlain read a memo from Becky Tobin, the city’s budget and finance officer. She indicated that the utility tax revenues should stay in the general fund because they’re still needed to help fund day-to-day operations.

Without the dollars, aldermen would have to deal with some tough decisions, including how to solve a $1.2 million to $1.4 million shortfall. That shortage could force layoffs, higher property taxes or both.

“We are obligated to pay almost $2 million annually for police and fire pensions alone, and this number is only increasing,” Tobin said in her memo. “The local economy is showing some signs of improvement, but our revenues are nowhere near what they were before the Recession, and it is unclear at this time if they will ever fully recover.”

“I feel it is important to keep the utility tax reserves and future revenue in the general fund at this time.”

Tobin’s memo convinced Ald. Daniel Arevalo to vote against the motion.

“We’re not being irresponsible to our citizens,” he said.

Tobin has said that about $6.25 million in utility taxes went to police, fire and public works salaries between May 1, 2009, and April 30, 2015.

The tax has generated more than $30 million for the city, and almost $21 million has been spent on infrastructure since the tax was approved, Tobin said. Less than $100,000 has gone toward infrastructure projects since 2011, and motor fuel tax revenues have paid for some repaving, she said.

DeKalb County willing to provide Planning Service to Boone County for $70 per hour

Below is a recent email received by Boone County's Administrator offering planning services for $70 per hour.  This email is from:  http://www.boarddocs.com/il/boone/Board.nsf/files/A8ARSE64A80D/$file/DeKalb%20County%20Fee_201603221313.pdf

 

 

To: Ken Terrinoni

Subject: RE: Findings of Fact

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 9:34 AM

An analysis from our Finance Department has determined that DeKalb County would simply charge a single rate of $70/hour for providing zoning services to Boone County. Please call me if you have any questions.

Paul R. Miller, AICP

DeKalb County Planning Director

110 E. Sycamore St.

Sycamore, IL 60178

(815) 895-7188

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Is Plote now appealing their contempt verdict?

Appears that Plote is taking the case  to a higher court based upon the filings of March 18, March 7 and March 4.  Is this an attempt to delay the case until there is a new States Attorney (December 1, 2016)?  Then with the new States Attorney can decide to drop the case.

Below is from:  http://www.judici.com/courts/cases/case_history.jsp?court=IL004015J&ocl=IL004015J,2014CH170,IL004015JL2014CH170D1


Last Search  | Information  | Dispositions  | History  | Payments  | Fines & Fees  

Date	Entry	Judge
Entered Under: PLOTE CONSTRUCTION, INC
03/18/2016	APPELLATE SCHEDULING ORDER Record on Appeal is due 5/6/16	UNASSIGNED
03/07/2016	Notice of Filing Plaintiff's Answer to Defendants' First Request to Admit	UNASSIGNED
03/04/2016	Notice of Filing of Notice of Appeal Notice of Appeal 60.00	UNASSIGNED
02/10/2016	Status hearing set for 04/11/2016 at 1:30 in courtroom 2. Hearing set for 05/09/2016 at 1:30 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
02/08/2016	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Def files in open court Defendant's First Request to Admit. SA requests time to review and respond. Case comes on for entry of proposed agreed order. Argument heard. Item 2 in the proposed order is modified and approved by both parties. Court enters the Order of Adjudication Indirect Civil Contempt as modified. Case is cont to 4-11-16 at 1:30 p.m. for status and to 5-9-16 at 1:30 p.m. for hearing. ORDER OF ADJUDICATION INDIRECT CIVIL CONTEMPT Defendant's First Request to Admit ORDER	PJN
01/27/2016	Status hearing set for 02/08/2016 at 1:30 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
01/25/2016	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on for Pl's Motion to Strike Defendant's Affirmative Defense to Petition for Rule to Show Cause-Indirect Civil Contempt. Arguments heard. Court enters a Memorandum of Judgment regarding Pl's petition for RTSC. Court finds that Pl has shown prima facie evidence of contempt and there was no evidence presented by Def of any legal justification for the conducting of these activities outside the prescribed times or of Def's inability to comply with the prescribed times as ordered by the court. Case is cont'd to 2/8/16 at 1:30 for possible entry of agreed order. MEMORANDUM OF DECISION	PJN
12/08/2015	Motion hearing set for 01/25/2016 at 1:30 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
12/04/2015	Notice of Motion Boone County's Motion to Strike Defendant's Affirmative Defense to Petition for Rule to Show Cause-Indirect Civil Contempt	UNASSIGNED
11/23/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on for decision on Pl's petition for RTSC and Def's motion for leave to file affirmative defenses. Argument heard. Def granted leave to file affirmative defenses. Pl to file a written response within 10 days or by 12-4-15. Case cont to 1-25-16 at 1:30 p.m. for hearing. ORDER	PJN
11/02/2015	Notice of Motion Motion for Leave to File an Affirmative Defense	UNASSIGNED
10/26/2015	Decision set for 11/23/2015 at 1:30 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
10/26/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on Pl's Motion for RTSC and Def's Motion to Strike. Argument heard. Pl calls Drew Bliss from the Boone County Building Dept. Sworn testimony taken. Def calls David Zumbrunn from Beverly Materials/ Plote Construction (Belvidere Quarry). Sworn testimony taken. Based on testimony, Def's motion is heard and denied. Court's decision on Pl's petition for RTSC is continued to 11-23-15 at 1:30 p.m. ORDER	PJN
10/15/2015	Notice of Service	UNASSIGNED
08/21/2015	Motion hearing set for 10/26/2015 at 1:30 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
08/21/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on for status. Case cont to 10-26-15 at 1:30 p.m. for hearing on Def's Motion to Strike and Pl's Petition for Rule to Show Cause. ORDER	PJN
08/17/2015	Status hearing set for 08/21/2015 at 3:00 in courtroom 2.	UNASSIGNED
08/17/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on for hearing. Pl and Def both request that the Judge recuse himself from this case. Judge Tobin recuses himself and reassigns this case to Judge Nicolosi. Case cont to 8-21-15 at 3:00 p.m. for status. ORDER REASSIGNMENT ORDER	CRT
07/28/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for def/Plote Contr. Judge Tobin discloses to the Parties that he had contact with the County Chairman about this case, and told him he could not talk about a pending case. Parties are given time to consider if they would like Judge Tobin to withdraw from the case. No further ruling will be made until parties decide on this matter. Case is continued to 08-17-15 at 8:45 a.m. ORDER Status hearing set for 8/17/2015 at 08:45 in courtroom 1.	CRT
07/22/2015	Notice of Filing Boone County's Response To Defendant's Motion To Strike	UNASSIGNED
07/17/2015	Notice of Filing Motion to Strike Petition for Rule to Show Cause - Indirect Civil Contempt	UNASSIGNED
07/07/2015	SA/Courier pres for pl. Def/Plote Construction not pres, having requested time to respond to the Petition for RTSC. Ct orders that def/Plote Construction is given 7 days to answer the pl's Petition for RTSC. Pl is given 7 days thereafter to respond. Case is con't to 7-28-15 at 10:00 am for hrg. (See Order.) ORDER Petition hearing set for 7/28/2015 at 10:00 in courtroom 1.	CRT
06/24/2015	Notice of Motion Petition for Rule to Show Cause Indirect Civil Contempt	JHY
06/24/2015	Petition hearing set for 7/07/2015 at 09:00 in courtroom 1.	UNASSIGNED
06/12/2015	Notice of Change of Firm and Address	UNASSIGNED
06/02/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Def, Plote Constr. Case comes on for status. Written discovery to be exchanged. Case cont 60 days to 8-17-15 at 8:45 a.m. for status.	CRT
05/26/2015	MEMORANDUM OF DECISION	CRT
05/12/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. By agreement, case cont to 6-2-15 at 9:00 a.m. for status on decision on Pl's motion to dismiss. ORDER	CRT
04/14/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Def. Case comes on Def's Motion to Reconsider, Pl's Request to Admit and Pl's Motion to Dismiss Affirmative Defense-Counterclaim. Def's Motion to Reconsider is heard and denied. Pl's Motion to Dismiss-Argument heard. Court takes it under advisement and will issue a written decision in 14 days. Pl's Request to Admit-Argument heard. Case cont to 5-12-15 at 9:00 a.m.	CRT
03/31/2015	Amended Notice of Motion	UNASSIGNED
03/27/2015	Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Objections and Responses to the Request to Admit	UNASSIGNED
03/11/2015	Notice of Filing Defendant's Response to the County's Motion to Dismiss Affirmative Defense and Counterclaim	UNASSIGNED
03/09/2015	Notice of Filing Defendant's Objections and Responses to Request to Admit	UNASSIGNED
02/12/2015	Notice of Filing Motion to Dismiss Affirmative Defense & Counterclaim Notice of Filing Request to Admit Notice of Filing Boone county's Response to Motion for Reconsideration	UNASSIGNED
01/21/2015	Notice of Filing Verification	UNASSIGNED
01/15/2015	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Def, Plote Construction Case comes on for status on pleadings, discover and Def's motion to reconsider. Pl shall respond to the Def's Affirmative Defenses and Counterclaim within 30 days and the Def shall file verification within that time. Pl shall respond to the Motion for Reconsideration within 30 days and the Def shall respond within 14 days thereafter. Case cont to 4-14-15 at 9:00 a.m. ORDER	CRT
12/22/2014	Notice of Filing Answer to Verified Complaint for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction for Violations of the Boone County Zoning Ordinance, Affirmative Defense and Counterclaim for Declaratory Judgment $100.00 Motion for Reconsideration	UNASSIGNED
11/24/2014	MEMORANDUM OF DECISION	CRT
11/13/2014	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Fuller pres for Def, Plote Construction Case comes on Pl's Motion for Summary Judgment and Def's Motion to Dismiss. Pl's Motion for Temporary Restraining Order/Injunction is granted. Def's 619 Motion is denied. Court to enter a memorandum of decision in 7 days and Def has 28 days thereafter to respond. Case cont to 1-15-15 at 9:00 a.m. for status.	CRT
10/24/2014	Notice of Filing Affidavit of Christopher Kennebeck Affidavit of David Zumbrunn	UNASSIGNED
10/22/2014	Notice of Filing Reply of Plote Construction Inc. to Boone County's Reponse to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss	UNASSIGNED
10/09/2014	Notice of Filing Boone County's Response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss	UNASSIGNED
09/18/2014	SA Courier pres for Pl. Atty Warren Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on Def's motion to dismiss. Pl's response to motion/memorandum is due on or before 10-9-14. Def to reply to response on or before 10-23-14. Case cont to 11-13-14 at 1:30 p.m. for oral argument. BRIEF SCHEDULING ORDER	CRT
09/08/2014	Notice of Motion	UNASSIGNED
08/29/2014	REASSIGNMENT OF JUDGE (Case reassigned to Judge Tobin) Notice	CRT
08/29/2014	SA Michelle Courier pres for Pl. Atty Warren Fuller pres for Defs. Case comes on State's Motion for Substitution. Motion granted as a matter of right and referred to Presiding Circuit Judge Robert Tobin for reassignment. Case cont for status to 9-18-14 at 1:30 p.m. ORDER FOR SUBSTITUTION OF JUDGE	JHY
08/29/2014	Appearance (Atty Warren Fuller for Def's/Plote Construction, Belvidere Materials, LLC & Chicago Title Land Trust Co) 139.00 Appearance (Atty Andrew Fuller for Def's/Plote Construction, Belvidere Materials, LLC & Chicago Title Land Trust Co) Notice of Motion Combined Motion to Dismiss Verified Complaint for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction for Violations of the Boone County Zoning Ordinance and to Deny Plaintiff's Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunctive Relief Prusuant to Section 2-619 (a)(9) of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure and to Enforce Settlement Agreement Status hearing reset to 09/18/2014 at 1:30 in courtroom 1.	UNASSIGNED
08/26/2014	Motion/substitute set for 08/29/2014 at 9:00 in courtroom 3.	UNASSIGNED
08/25/2014	Motion hearing set for 08/29/2014 at 9:00 in courtroom 3. Notice of Motion Motion for Temporary Restraining order and Preliminary Injunctive Relief Notice of Motion Motion for Substitution of Judge	UNASSIGNED
08/21/2014	Verified Complaint for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction for Violations of the Boone County Zoning Ordinance Case Management Conference Notice Summons Issued and Returned to Atty for Service Case mgt conf reset to 02/20/2015 at 9:00 in courtroom 3.