Rauner offers $60M in incentives to Feds

 

 

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Letter: Vote Michelle Courier for Boone County state's attorney

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• Rockford Register Star

• Posted Mar. 6, 2016 at 9:01 AM

  Michelle Courier was the chief of the civil division in McHenry County. That included a larger staff of attorneys and professional staff compared to the entire office staff she now leads. She has the leadership experience that Boone County needs.

  I am currently sitting as an elected official on the Boone County board. I have served on the board with both Tricia Smith and Michelle Courier. Her opponent claims she can do better. This election is a no-brainer. The only qualified candidate is Michelle Courier — not just because she is already in the office, but because she has proven she can do the job and do it well.

  I am voting for Michelle Courier, and I hope you will too.

  — Kenneth E. Freeman, Boone County board, District 3

Boone County farmers opposed to Great Lakes Basin Railroad project

 

 

 

Mar. 5, 2016 at 8:29 PM

GARDEN PRAIRIE — A 60-acre farm near Marengo and Denny roads has been in the Daniels family for generations.

It's been a place of solitude and a fertile place to raise cattle and grow corn, alfalfa and soybeans.

"We've spent generations here," Ang Daniels said. "I know nothing other than this area."

Now, she believes the farm is threatened by the proposed Great Lakes Basin Railroad that would slice through the family's property, affecting farmland and causing unwanted noise.

"We chose to live in a rural area, not an urban area," said Daniels, 53. "I do believe it will affect property values."

The $8 billion, 281-mile loop would be the nation's largest railroad project in more than a century. The plan, in its current form, would extend an existing railroad linking Milwaukee and Brodhead, Wisconsin, to a new line through Boone County — with a western spur at the Chicago Rockford International Airport — then south to Lee County and east to Indiana before ending north in Michigan City, Indiana.

The route would bypass Chicago and thus provide quicker transportation of goods from coast to coast. The project's backers say they'll finance the railroad privately. However, they'll have to acquire vast stretches of private land via eminent domain — the right of a government or its agent to take property at fair market value for public use.

That concerns farmers and residents in Boone County who say the project would scar the land, disrupt natural resources and cause property values to plummet.

"I understand you have to have infrastructure, but that's why you have towns," Daniels said. "Farmland is for farming."

An earlier version of the railroad snaked through Winnebago County, but was scrapped after backers determined an environmental impact study to assess the effects along the Sugar River and Winnebago and Rock counties would have delayed the project.

Frank Patton, CEO of Great Lakes Basin Transportation Corp., said he'd like to start building the railway by 2019. He said the project will be a boon to the farming industry.

"What we're trying to do is modernize the logistics system, not just for agriculture but for the entire (railroad) system," Patton said. "In our minds, the farmers are one of the groups that are the big winners."

The railroad, he said, will carry grain, corn, ethanol and the products that derive from them.

About 20 people gathered Wednesday to discuss the project during a Boone County Planning, Zoning and Building Committee meeting. Farmers and other county residents expressed concerns about the impact the project could have on their lives.

Committee Chairman Denny Ellingson said he shares some of the concerns.

"Personally, I think they looked at a map and went, 'This is the least-populated area, so the least people will fight it,' and just drew the line there," Ellingson said.

Daniels told the committee the railroad will "totally distort Boone County as a farming community."

"This is the some of the most fertile ground in the state of Illinois — look at any of the reports," she said. "I understand we have to look at economic development. But at some point, we have to preserve our farmland, because you don't ever get that back. You don't grow that again next year. (When) it's gone, it's gone, and that's my concern."

More meetings will take place, but dates are undetermined.

Patton, meanwhile, defended the concept of eminent domain.

"Without eminent domain, we wouldn't have any roads, we wouldn't have any forest preserves, we wouldn't have anything that is built on land that someone else at one time owned," Patton said. "If people don't like the law, they can change it. That's what democracy is all about. Eminent domain goes back to Abraham Lincoln."

Committee members and county residents said they didn't know the Great Lakes Basin Railroad proposal existed. Patton contends the plan has been discussed publicly for two years.

Last fall, he pitched the project to the Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning board of directors. A Google Earth document detailing the project will be available on the Great Lakes Basin Railroad website in coming days.

"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," Patton said. "We've received ongoing tremendous support from the agricultural (community). They believe (the railroad) will much more efficiently move agricultural products to the user."

For 35 years, Lee Bozeman, 67, has owned 10 acres on Edson Road south of Capron. He rents out seven acres to a local farmer who plants corn or soybeans. He said the railroad would be about 200 feet from his property.

"I don't see any economic (benefit) here in Boone County," Bozeman said. "Boone County won't be getting any dollars out of this."

An oil pipeline buried in Bonus Township in 2007 and upgraded last year caused little consternation, because they "don't see it, don't hear it," Bozeman said.

Kathi Waite owns five acres on Edson Road where she's raising a horse, a cow and chickens. She said the railroad will either run through her property or just west of it.

"If it hits our property, we'll end up losing our home. If they skirt our property, it's going to basically make it impossible to sell our home," Waite said. "Our property is going to devalue. No one wants to live like that."

Waite also is worried about chemical spills.

"This is all farm country out here with very fertile soil," she said. "(If) those chemicals spill into the ground, who knows what could happen?"

Waite said residents should band together to oppose the project.

"This is an issue that is not going to go down without a fight," she said. "I really think some kind of committee has to be formed by Boone County so that we can at least try to fight this. I don't know if it'll do any good."

Adam Poulisse: 815-987-1344; apoulisse@rrstar.com; @adampoulisse

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/article/20160305/NEWS/160309631/0/SEARCH/?Start=3

“402 Conferences” in Boone County

 

Georgette Braun: A step that avoids jury trials at issue in Boone County state's attorney race

By Georgette Braun
Staff writer

Posted Mar. 6, 2016 at 9:01 AM
Updated Mar 6, 2016 at 3:28 PM

A courtroom tool widely used in Winnebago County and elsewhere in Illinois that can avoid lengthy and costly jury trials isn't used in Boone County.

But it would be if Tricia Smith wins her bid against incumbent Michelle Courier on the Republican ballot in the March 15 primary election for Boone County state's attorney. There is no Democratic candidate on the primary ballot.

At issue: so-called "402 conferences," which refer to the long-standing Illinois Supreme Court Rule 402. The rule is usually invoked in a felony case. It allows a judge, prosecutor and defense attorney to meet behind closed doors without the presence of the defendant. The aim is for the judge to suggest an appropriate sentence should the defendant plead guilty.

Courier told me she has a policy not to participate in 402 conferences. It's required that all three parties be involved in such talks. "We believe it benefits the defense more than the state," she said. "I don't know why prosecutors use that, and I don't know how it benefits victims."

Tricia Smith told me that if she's elected state's attorney, she'd participate in the meetings. "I don't think it's not being tough on crime, ... and you get the end result without having to put (victims) through trial," she said. Smith said 402 conferences can be a "good tool to use to help move cases through the system, because part of the problem in Boone County is long wait times" for trials.

Smith said it takes an average of 788 days for jury trial felony cases to move through Boone County court, compared with 563 days to close such cases in Ogle County. Smith said jury trials are expensive considering witness expenses, juror fees and time spent on each trial by the judge, court officials and the state's attorney's office.

Courier said Boone County isn't comparable to Ogle County. "We have twice as many felony cases," she said. And while 402 conferences may "reduce the number of cases, it does not serve justice," Courier said. In addition, she said, "our closure rates are higher now than they have ever been."

Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato said 402 conferences "offer us an excellent opportunity to bring about resolution of a case," noting that "both parties are free to reject" the judge's sentencing recommendation. The meetings typically take less than an hour, he said. His office doesn't keep track of how many times it participates in the meetings.

Courier said the smaller size of Boone County's court system could pose a problem for the conferences. Boone County has a single felony judge who could be "conflicted out of a case," if that judge learns too much evidence through a 402 conference prior to a case, Courier said. "In Winnebago, that is less of an issue because of a number of judges."

A Freeport-based judge says 402 conferences are useful and not one-sided. "I would not say it benefits anyone more than anybody else," said Judge James M. Hauser, associate circuit judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit in Stephenson County. "It benefits the whole system." Hauser said in courtrooms where he presides that use of 402 conferences is "more than occasional."

Here's what typically goes on in the judge's chamber behind closed doors. The prosecution presents facts of the case from police reports and conversations with witnesses. Additionally, the prosecution points out factors of the case that may have bearing on the sentencing, including whether the defendant had been in jail before, lacked remorse, or how much harm had been done to the victim. The defense would then explain the person's involvement in the alleged offense and factors that could make the sentence less serious.

A 402 conference is sometimes held, Hauser said, when a person with a criminal record cooperates with police to provide information on another criminal. "Police have to use bad guys to catch bad guys," he said. The prosecutor and defense attorney go to the judge, who has to determine or approve sentencing, to explain: "This is why we are giving him a sweetheart deal, because he worked with SLANT," Hauser said. He was referring to the State Line Area Narcotics Team. "They don't want to put that out there in open court," he said. But they want the judge to know that the defendant "lived up to his end" of the bargain.

Another situation in which 402 conferences are used: when the victim in a domestic battery case may not want to testify in court, so the prosecutor, defense attorney and judge agree to sentencing that includes getting the accused into counseling. "Should the defendant reject the recommendations of the 402 conference, the case can still precede to trial," Hauser said.

Another judge, though, says 402 conferences should not be used. Robert J. Steigmann is an appellate court justice with the Fourth District. In a court case filed March 4, he said, "As is almost always the case, defense counsel sought to get the trial court involved — ostensibly so that the court could be a 'preliminary feel' about a possible sentence.

"But defense counsel's transparent motive was to convince the court that it should tell the prosecutor he should go along with defendant's request for probation and not insist on at least a three-year prison sentence. When the court indicated that it thought the State's offer of three years was 'a very good offer,' the case ultimately proceeded to a jury trial. ... The easiest way, of course, is for trial courts never to be involved in plea bargaining."

In his 12 1/2 years as a trial judge, he said he never participated in 402 conferences and "was able to achieve the same number of negotiated pleas as judges who participated in such conferences."

Lou Bianchi, McHenry County state's attorney, told me 402 conferences should be used "sparingly and cautiously. We don't want to use (the judge) as a mediator," he said.

Ryan Swift, a Rockford-based defense attorney, told me he participates in 402 conferences in 5 percent to 10 percent of the cases he handles. "In my experience, more often than not, it is beneficial to do it," Swift said.

Rockford-based defense attorney Jerry Lund said he participates in 402 conferences at least once a week on behalf of his clients, mostly in Winnebago County. With regard to Boone County's policy, he said: "If a prosecutorial agency has a policy to not do 402 conferences, it really impedes ... the opportunity to seek a resolution to the case prior to trial."

Georgette Braun: 815-987-1331; gbraun@rrstar.com; @GeorgetteBraun

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160306/georgette-braun-step-that-avoids-jury-trials-at-issue-in-boone-county-states-attorney-race/?Start=3

Koch as Koch can

 

It remains unclear why Global TV managers were alarmed by my story about the billionaire Koch brothers. Is the future of investigative journalism begging for money online?

by Bruce Livesey

March 6, 2016

8

Hramovnick Getty Images/iStockphoto

As parts of the Republican Party establishment roil over the realization that Donald Trump might be the party's nominee for president, one big question that's arisen is what will Charles and David Koch do about it, if anything?

The billionaire Koch brothers, the ninth richest people in the world, each worth more than (US) $42-billion, are famous for pouring their vast fortune into influencing the American electoral system to further their corporate and conservative goals. They have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get a Republican elected to the White House this year.

In fact, twice a year, the brothers host conclaves of hundreds of wealthy conservatives at swanky resorts in southern California. Among the attendees at one of last year’s gatherings were Republican presidential hopefuls Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. 

At one of these events last year, the Kochs and their wealthy friends pledged to spend some $250-million on political activities during the 2016 election cycle. The Koch-guided effort employs a network of some 1,200 full-time staffers in 107 offices nationwide, or more than triple the number employed by the Republican National Committee.

Also on their bankroll are some 17 different groups that, between elections, run attack ads, fund conservative think tanks, university programs, and organizations including the NRA. Some Koch money even comes to Canada, helping to finance the efforts of the Fraser Institute, an influential Vancouver-based conservative think tank.

Among the Kochs’ most famous causes is climate change denial groups and scientists – which they have funded to the tune of almost (US) $80-million since 1997. (Trump has called climate change “bullshit” and a “hoax”).

Jane Mayer, an investigative journalist with the New Yorker and author of Dark Money, a recently-released book about the Kochs, argues the brothers have helped foster the Tea Party movement, while winning tax breaks and regulatory concessions behind the scenes from Congress. 

What’s less well understood is the Kochs’ influence in Canada. It was only revealed in recent years that the brothers control from 1.1 million to two million acres of Alberta’s tar sands – one reason they’re eager to see the Keystone XL pipeline built.

Yet news about the brothers and where their money flows is often difficult to find.

Last year, I produced a 22-minute story for Global TV’s newsmagazine program 16x9 called the Koch Connection which explained their ties to Canada and the tar sands. 

Two days before the piece was to air – having been lawyered, fact-checked and approved –  senior Global management yanked it from the schedule. A week later, I was let go as a contracted producer, despite having worked on the show for more than two years. 

It remains unclear why Global TV’s managers were so alarmed about the story, although one could guess: at the time Global TV was a subsidiary of Shaw Communications Inc., a Calgary-based media conglomerate, which receives advertising dollars from oil companies, including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, of which Koch Industries is a member.  

Producing investigative journalism aimed at the rich and powerful has become increasingly difficult, especially for television. With ad revenues falling, networks don’t have the resources, or appetite, to bite the hand that feeds them.

This has occurred as wealth has become increasingly concentrated in fewer hands and the need to scrutinize what the 1 per cent are doing with their money is more necessary than ever. 

After my Koch story was killed, I was contacted by Paul Jay, the Canadian television producer and founder of The Real News Network (TRNN), an on-line TV network. Jay established TRNN so he wouldn’t be hampered by the strictures of corporate advertising. 

Based in Baltimore, TRNN proudly boasts that it survives with “no advertising, government or corporate funding." Instead, it relies on fundraising from viewers and sympathetic donors.

Jay told me he wanted to make the Koch documentary for his network. And for the past year we’ve worked on putting together a crowd-funding campaign which got underway last week.

Is this the future of investigative journalism, begging for money online?

It might well be as publicly-owned broadcasters like the CBC and private sector networks like Global and CTV cut their news-gathering budgets and programming – although, admittedly, it’s a far from ideal way to keep the powers that be honest. 

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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