Boone County Watchdog

Saturday, August 11, 2018

At the Wednesday August 15, 2018 Boone County Board meeting the board will vote on using a temp agency for its planning activities. Below is part of the agreement.

See the complete agreement at: https://www.boarddocs.com/il/boone/Board.nsf/files/B3HVZ37082E2/$file/Employee%20Leasing%20Agreement.pdf

The contract does have a clause whereby the county could hire Ms. Ingalls as a regular county employee.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

For now, Army suspends discharges of immigrant recruits

MARTHA MENDOZA and GARANCE BURKE,Associated Press 4 hours ago

The U.S. Army has stopped discharging immigrant recruits who enlisted seeking a path to citizenship — at least temporarily.

A memo shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday and dated July 20 spells out orders to high-ranking Army officials to stop processing discharges of men and women who enlisted in the special immigrant program, effective immediately.

It was not clear how many recruits were impacted by the action, and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the memo.

"Effective immediately, you will suspend processing of all involuntary separation actions," read the memo signed by Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Marshall Williams.

The disclosure comes one month after the AP reported that dozens of immigrant enlistees were being discharged or had their contracts cancelled. Some said they were given no reason for their discharge. Others said the Army informed them they'd been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.

Early last month, the Pentagon said there had been no specific policy change and that background checks were ongoing. And in mid-July the Army reversed one discharge, for Brazilian reservist Lucas Calixto, 28, who had sued. Nonetheless, discharges of other immigrant enlistees continued. Attorneys sought to bring a class action lawsuit last week to offer protections to a broader group of reservists and recruits in the program, demanding that prior discharges be revoked and that further separations be halted.

A judge's order references the July 20 memo, and asks the Army to clarify how it impacts the discharge status of Calixto and other plaintiffs. As part of the memo, Williams also instructed Army officials to recommend whether the military should issue further guidance related to the program.

Margaret Stock, an Alaska-based immigration attorney and a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who helped create the immigrant recruitment program, said Wednesday the memo proves there was a policy.

"It's an admission by the Army that they've improperly discharged hundreds of soldiers," she said. "The next step should be go back and rescind the people who were improperly discharged."

Discharged recruits and reservists reached Wednesday said their discharges were still in place as far as they knew.

One Pakistani man caught by surprise by his discharge said he was filing for asylum. He asked that his name be withheld because he fears he might be forced to return to Pakistan, where he could face danger as a former U.S. Army enlistee.

The reversal comes as the Defense Department has attempted to strengthen security requirements for the program, through which historically immigrants vowed to risk their lives for the promise of U.S. citizenship.

President George W. Bush ordered "expedited naturalization" for immigrant soldiers after 9/11 in an effort to swell military ranks. Seven years later the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, known as MAVNI, became an official recruiting program.

It came under fire from conservatives when President Barack Obama added DACA recipients — young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children — to the list of eligible enlistees. In response, the military layered on additional security clearances for recruits to pass before heading to boot camp.

The Trump Administration added even more hurdles, creating a backlog within the Defense Department. Last fall, hundreds of recruits still in the enlistment process had their contracts canceled.

Government attorneys called the recruitment program an "elevated security risk" in another case involving 17 foreign-born military recruits who enlisted through the program but have not been able to clear additional security requirements. Some recruits had falsified their background records and were connected to state-sponsored intelligence agencies, the court filing said.

Eligible recruits are required to have legal status in the U.S., such as a student visa, before enlisting. More than 5,000 immigrants were recruited into the program in 2016, and an estimated 10,000 are currently serving. Nearly 110,000 members of the Armed Forces have gained citizenship by serving in the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Defense Department.

Above is from: https://www.yahoo.com/news/now-army-suspends-discharges-immigrant-recruits-044609723.html

In “closed meeting” Rep Kinzinger says farmers not irate over Trump trade policies

By Paul Westermeyer

Posted Aug 8, 2018 at 9:25 AM

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger attended a closed Livingston County Farm Bureau roundtable meeting Tuesday morning with area agriculturalists. After the meeting’s end, he fielded questions from the press about the meeting, one of the chief subject’s of which was the trade war the U.S. is currently engaged in with China and the detrimental effect it’s had on the trading price of soy.
Kinzinger, R-Channahon, told the media that while the mood of farmers was less than optimistic, he believed they were willing to give the Trump administration a chance to right wrongs the president believes China has committed in terms of unfair trade practices.
“A couple of the points I made in the meeting was that it seemed like, at the beginning, we were fixing to fight the whole world on this (trade war) issue — Canada, Mexico, Europe and China,” he said. “My biggest concern with these is that, if we’re going to fight unfair trading practices, let’s do it one at a time with different nations.
“The good news is that we appear to be closer to a deal with Mexico for a NAFTA renegotiation, which I think is going to drive Canada closer to our position, so we may get a NAFTA renegotiation.”
Kinzinger clarified that he had “very mixed feelings of where we are at.” On the one hand, he opposes tariffs as a roadblock for free trade and that their cavalier usage by President Donald Trump has hurt agricultural communities; however, he did align with Trump on wanting to correct trade imbalances that they believe has resulted from China’s alleged theft of intellectual property.
“There have been some massive abuses by China,” he said. “We understand that the Chinese may have taken aim at ag because these are the people that voted for Donald Trump, so we’ll see ... One of the good things is that the Europeans announced that they would buy more soy, but obviously Europe is ‘x’ population and China is four times that.”
The representative noted that while farmers were appreciative of the Trump administration’s promised $12 billion bailout being used to offset the tanking soy market, he was also aware that they had more of an interest in a long-term solution.
“I think people are grateful for that, but ag doesn’t want that,” he stated. “They ultimately don’t want a situation where they survive because the government’s writing checks. So in the short term, it’s a good thing, but the long-term hope is that since the Chinese economy is on the bubble in certain areas, we think, it would probably behoove them to instead of having all of their imports sanctioned, frankly, or tariffed, to actually come to the table and negotiate.
“We’re not asking for handouts from China; we’re asking that the Chinese be fair and quit stealing our intellectual property.”
Still, the mood among farmers, Kinzinger admitted, was not quite optimistic that the trade war would be resolved sooner before later. He had hopes, however, that other bartering avenues the U.S. was exploring could offset the damage done to the soy trading market.
“I think if we can get NAFTA done and if we can have this kind of detente with Europe, there will be some optimism from that,” he said. “What I’m sensing is that they trust this president and they believe in him. They’re nervous, but they’re willing to give him a little space.
“As of today, I’m not hearing a lot of people in the ag community irate, but if this goes on for a year or two, you might see them get irate, but the hope is that we can come to a deal and end all this.”

Above is from: http://www.pontiacdailyleader.com/news/20180808/kinzinger-discusses-ag-trade-situation

Friday, August 3, 2018

Trump has built a pyramid scheme of public fraud. It's a taxpayer-backed cash grab.

Mindy Finn, Opinion contributor Published 10:49 a.m. ET Aug. 3, 2018

Donald Trump is pulling off a taxpayer-backed cash grab. It's an orchestrated, unprecedented scheme to enrich a president, his family and his friends.

AP TRUMP HOTEL A USA DC

(Photo: Alex Brandon/AP)

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Even after warnings that tariffs would wreak havoc on the economy, Donald Trump has staked his presidency on a series of trade wars that are now coming home to roost. With economic ruin looming over American farmers — a key constituency — he refuses to change course. Instead, he’s mulling a policy of clientelism, a $12 billion cash handout to the victims of his own bad ideas.

It’s a surprising development for many, especially the conservatives who have long lamented bailouts and subsidies, but it’s hardly out of character. On the contrary, it’s a natural fit for a White House that encourages corruption, exploitation and fraud in exchange for loyalty. As with his cabinet officials, he expects that the allure of taxpayer-funded kickbacks will be enough to keep farmers from holding him accountable for his own corruption and failures. It’s not an accident, it’s a strategy: grease the wheels of government so heavily that they spin in place.

Far from draining the swamp, Trump and his coterie of grifters, fraudsters and co-conspirators have filled it in entirely, dividing the land into personal fiefdoms to exploit.

Team Trump has been playing dirty

The result has been an open season for public funds, private payoffs, and abuses of office. It’s almost quaint to remember that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was fired for using private jets for official travel. The now-resigned Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt exclusively travels in first class, while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is fond of chartered flights. To say nothing of Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s use of military planes to see a solar eclipse with his wife.

It isn’t just about luxury. Zinke’s involved in a land deal with Halliburton which is likely to benefit him directly. Pruitt reveled in petty grift, taking discounted rent from lobbyists and using his government security and employees as personal servants. Pruitt even used his position to try to find his wife a job.

Following the president’s lead, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been less than honest about divesting his assets. The man helming Trump’s global trade war is profiting from it, even short-selling his stocks in a Kremlin-backed shipping company when he learned reporters were writing a story about it.

More: Who pays for Trump's contempt for ethics? USA. USA. USA.

Would Kavanaugh be a check on Trump if he tried to abuse his power?

Scott Pruitt removes his ethical swamp from EPA

The taxpayer-backed cash grab radiates even outside government officials. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski opened a business selling his access to the president, even potentially to foreign governments. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen did similarly, trading a direct connection to Trump for six-figure checks.

All of this is not only permissible to the president, it’s encouraged. That’s what makes our current situation unprecedented. This is an orchestrated effort to enrich the president, his family, and his friends. That’s why the Trump hotel in Washington is now a favorite location for foreign emissaries, reaping tens of millions of dollars from those seeking audience with the president. Membership at Mar-a-Lago doubled in price, because lobbyists and influence peddlers will pay anything to catch the president’s ear. And Trump condos are flying off the market as foreign governments pay exorbitant prices to gain the president’s favor. Even his own party pays the piper. The GOP and affiliated political groups have spent over $3 million at Trump properties since he took office.

In short, Trump has built a clearly organized machine for largesse and corruption. It’s a pyramid scheme of public fraud, and the president gleefully sits at its top, reaping the rewards and doling out the shares.

A new level of corruption in Washington

Still, the president and his defenders deny anything is wrong. Many throw up their hands and say “Washington has always been this way.” That’s certainly what Trump would have us believe. In truth, this level of corruption is rampant in dictatorships across the globe, but unprecedented here.

It’s disturbing to see the president ripping this page from the authoritarian textbook, though entirely in character. All around him he’s traded his blessing of corrupt dealings for a weakening of the agencies which might hold some check on him. Now, as key voters threaten to rebel over his policies, it’s only natural that he’d seek the same bargain with them.

But the American people aren’t so easily bought. We’ve already waged and won numerous battles against the president’s corruption, but our fight is far from over. We must reinvigorate the institutions of transparency and accountability in our government. We must hold our leaders to an even higher ethical standard. And, especially when it starts to feel fruitless, we must do so with Donald Trump.

Mindy Finn, co-founder of Stand Up Republic and founder of Empowered Women, ran for vice president with Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin in 2016 and was an aide in the 2004 George W. Bush and 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaigns. Follow her on Twitter: @mindyfinn

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

Above is from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/03/donald-trump-taxpayer-cash-grab-unprecedented-corruption-column/871902002/

Koch Bro study shows “Medicare for All” could save money

2017 in Washington DC last September. Alex Wong / Getty

Our spring issue, looking at the democratic revolts of 1968, is out now! Subscribe or renew today.

The US could insure 30 million more Americans and virtually eliminate out-of-pocket health care expenses while saving $2 trillion in the process, according to a new report about Medicare for All released by the libertarian Mercatus Center.

In the report, Charles Blahous attempts to roughly score Bernie Sanders’s most recent Medicare-for-All bill and reaches the somewhat surprising (for Mercatus) conclusion that, if the bill were enacted, the new costs it creates would be more than offset by the new savings it generates through administrative efficiencies and reductions in unit prices.

The report’s methods are pretty straightforward. Blahous starts with current projections about how much the country will spend on health care between 2022 and 2031. From there, he adds the costs associated with higher utilization of medical services and then subtracts the savings from lower administrative costs, lower reimbursements for medical services, and lower drug prices. After this bit of arithmetic, Blahous finds that health expenditures would be lower for every year during the first decade of implementation. The net change across the whole ten-year period is a savings of $2.054 trillion.

When talking about Medicare for All, it is important to distinguish between two concepts: national health expenditures and federal health expenditures. National health expenditures refer to all health spending from any source whether made by private employers, state Medicaid programs, or the federal government. It is national health expenditures that, according to the report, will decline by $2.054 trillion.

Federal health expenditures refer to health spending from the federal government in particular. Since the federal government takes on nearly all health spending under Medicare for All, federal health expenditures will necessarily go up a lot, $32.6 trillion over the ten-year period according to Blahous. But this is more of an accounting thing than anything else: rather than paying premiums, deductibles, and co-pays for health care, people will instead pay a tax that is, on average, a bit less than they currently pay into the health care system and, for those on lower incomes, a lot less.

At first glance, it is strange that the Mercatus Center, which is libertarian in its orientation and heavily funded by the libertarian Koch family, would publish a report this positive about Medicare for All. The claim that “even the Koch organizations say it will save money while covering everyone” provides a useful bit of rhetoric for proponents of the policy.

But the real game here for Mercatus is to bury the money-saving finding in the report’s tables while headlining the incomprehensibly large $32.6 trillion number in order to trick dim reporters into splashing that number everywhere and freaking out. This is a strategy that already appears to be working, as the Associated Press headline reads: “Study: ‘Medicare for all’ projected to cost $32.6 trillion.”

Messaging strategy aside, there is room to quibble with Blahous’s positive findings. He assumes administrative costs will only drop from 13 percent to 6 percent for those currently privately insured. But, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare’s administrative costs have consistently been below 2 percent. He assumes utilization of health services will increase by 11 percent, but aggregate health service utilization is ultimately dependent on the capacity to provide services, meaning utilization could hit a hard limit below the level he projects.

But even if you take the report’s headline figures at face value, the picture it paints is that of an enormous bargain. We get to insure every single person in the country, virtually eliminate cost-sharing, and save everyone from the hell of constantly changing health insurance all while saving money. You would have to be a fool to pass that offer up.

Above is from: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/30/1784653/-Bernie-Koch-Bros-Study-Shows-MfA-Will-Save-More-than-2-Trillion-and-Cover-Millions-More?detail=emaildkre

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Time to bring congressman’s tenure to an end

By Sharon McLane Grand Detour

July 30, 2018

Who is Adam Kinzinger’s boss? You are!

You pay his $174,000 salary. You have sent him to Washington, D.C., the past 6 years to represent your interests. Yet, he feels no obligation to meet you in a public forum where you can ask questions that are of interest to you.

Imagine telling your boss that you have no interest in hearing his opinions or thoughts about how you are doing your job!

Have you sent Rep. Kinzinger a letter or email? Have you posted on his Facebook page about an issue that concerns you? Then you have received the same impersonal form letter response that I have! Clearly, he thinks he knows better than you, his boss, how to do his job.

You don’t have to put up with being represented in Congress by someone who has no interest in knowing who his boss is. You don’t have to put up with a representative who doesn’t represent you, or who takes his orders from people who have probably never been to the Sauk Valley!

Please give Kinzinger a serious performance review. You can terminate him for failure to perform on Nov. 6! I encourage you to do so.

Above is from:: http://www.saukvalley.com/2018/07/19/time-to-bring-congressmans-tenure-to-an-end/axvvbt4/