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TexasTowelie's JournalIllinois lottery official resigns after tweeting Trump-like slur about East St. Louis
The Illinois Lottery Control Board chairman has resigned after tweeting a vulgarity to describe East St. Louis that got President Donald Trump into hot water earlier this month.
Blair Garber confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that he resigned and that he used the term to describe the southern Illinois city, which is predominantly black. The Springfield State Journal-Register first reported about his tweet and his resignation.
The paper reports that on Jan. 17, Garber tweeted the vulgarity in a message to country music star Charlie Daniels after Daniels mocked Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who told reporters that Trump had used the vulgar term to describe African countries. Trump has said he was misrepresented.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's office told the State Journal-Register that Garber apologized for the tweet.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-illinois-lottery-official-quits-20180131-story.html
Kennedy, Biss question Pritzker's electability, citing Blagojevich ties
Democratic governor candidates Chris Kennedy and Daniel Biss on Tuesday night questioned rival J.B. Pritzker’s electability in a general election matchup against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, citing Pritzker’s ties to imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
But Pritzker said the eventual Democratic winner in the March 20 primary won’t be immune from attacks by the wealthy governor. Pritzker also questioned whether recent comments Kennedy made crediting Rauner’s attacks on the state’s political culture meant the governor would rather face Kennedy in the fall.
The sparring came during a nearly 90-minute forum at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, hosted by the Daily Herald newspaper group and WSIL-TV in Harrisburg. The first major Downstate forum featured questions of regional interest and saw the candidates criticize the Democratic Party for not working hard enough in an area that overwhelmingly embraced Donald Trump for president in November 2016.
The latest debate followed the theme of previous candidate gatherings, with a firm target being placed on Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who has coalesced much of the Democratic establishment behind his candidacy.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-illinois-democrats-debate-carbondale-20180130-story.html
Rauner tries to reframe with economic message, opponents say he's rewriting history
Coming off a year of bruising political defeats, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner delivered a State of the State speech Wednesday with an election-year message that economic progress is within reach with a little cooperation at the Capitol.
If only for a half-hour, Rauner set aside his harsh attacks of just two days earlier, when he’d called the speaker of the House “corrupt” and warned Illinois was “on the verge of becoming Detroit, hollowed out by corrupt politicians, massive job loss, massive tax hikes.”
In its place, the governor rattled off a list of what the state can brag about — a host of U.S. presidents, 36 Fortune 500 companies and even Twinkies all hail from here. Rauner pointed to Chicago’s bid to land Amazon’s second headquarters, saying that effort, like fixing the state’s financial woes, “is not a prize one wins alone.”
“It takes a collaborative effort, a forget-about-the-politics-and-roll-up-our-sleeves kind of approach,” Rauner said. “It requires a laserlike focus on economic development and job creation and a bipartisan dedication to restore public trust.”
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-bruce-rauner-state-of-the-state-speech-20180131-story.html
Additional coverage of the speech from other media sources:
https://capitolfax.com/2018/01/31/state-of-the-state-coverage-roundup/
Chicago cops stripped of powers as FBI probes ripoffs of drug dealers, sources say
Several members of a Chicago police gang team have been stripped of their police powers amid a federal criminal probe into allegations they ripped off drug dealers, law enforcement sources told the Chicago Tribune.
The nearly yearlong investigation by the FBI and Chicago police Internal Affairs Division focused on a sergeant and several officers on the department's Area Central gang team that operates in much of the South Side and part of the West Side, sources said.
The sergeant and at least three officers were stripped of their police powers, sources said. Authorities conducted searches of at least two of the officers’ homes Tuesday, but no arrests have been made. Criminal charges are expected to be filed, though, according to sources.
Video shot before dawn Tuesday by a neighbor of one of the officers showed agents arriving on their block in Chicago’s Pilsen community in an armored vehicle and shining spotlights on the officer’s single-family brick home. One agent could be seen popping out of a hatch on the roof of the vehicle while others in helmets and fatigues milled in the doorway of the home.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-chicago-cops-stripped-fbi-sting-20180131-story.html
Rep. Cabello (R): 'I think the governor should resign'
ROCKFORD (WREX) - Republican State Rep. John Cabello tells 13 WREX he believes Gov. Bruce Rauner should resign during an interview following Wednesday's State of the State address in Springfield.
Cabello points to the governor's credibility as the main reason for his comments, saying the governor has broken his word, specifically on House Bill 40. Cabello says in meetings with the governor, Rauner told lawmakers he would not sign the bill related to abortion funding. House Bill 40 was eventually signed into law in late September.
"When you tell someone you are not going to do something, you should stick to your word," Cabello said. "I can't trust any words that he says from here on out."
When asked about Rauner's State of the State speech Wednesday, Cabello only responded by saying "I was raised that if you have nothing nice to say you shouldn't say it at all."
Read more: http://www.wrex.com/story/37398781/2018/01/31/rep-cabello-i-think-the-governor-should-resign
Lawmakers discuss proposal to borrow $107B to pay down pension debt
An Illinois House committee Tuesday afternoon began exploring the idea of borrowing more than $100 billion to both invest and to help pay down the state’s $130 billion unfunded pension liability.
Under questioning, the proposal’s author admitted there is risk to taxpayers.
During a fact-gathering hearing of the House Personnel and Pensions Committee, state Rep. Rob Martwick, D-Chicago, said he’s not sure if the idea is viable or not, but it’s worth investigating.
“I’m not smart enough to know that,” Martwick said. “These matters are far beyond my expertise.”
Martwick has proposed issuing $107 billion in bonds to help pay down the state’s $130 billion unfunded pension liability, which he said could save the state billions of dollars in the long run through investments.
Read more: http://rockrivertimes.com/2018/01/31/lawmakers-discuss-proposal-to-borrow-107b-to-pay-down-pension-debt/
The transportation change we seek around the Obama Presidential Center
At last May's unveiling of preliminary designs for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Barack Obama voiced support for boldly reconfiguring the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed green space to make it more people friendly. The proposal calls for converting most of Cornell Drive, a road through the park that ballooned to six lanes during the urban renewal era, to parkland between 59th and 67th Streets to connect the presidential center site to the rest of the lagoon-filled natural area. A section of Marquette Road would also be removed to unify the two halves of Jackson Park Golf Course.
Some community leaders argued that the road closures would create carmageddon for south-side commuters. But Obama noted that the plans call for building a sledding hill next to Cornell, plus plenty of new open space. He added that it's important not to get so "fixated on traffic that we lose sight of what's possible."
However, when the city of Chicago presented transportation plans for the center in August, the proposal was still fairly traffic obsessed, with relatively little attention paid to improving transit, walking, and bike access to the area as a strategy to reduce driving.
To handle expected rush hour overflow traffic from the Cornell closure (Marquette isn't a major commute route), the proposal calls for widening other nearby roads. Specifically, the city's plan calls for adding a new southbound lane to the five-lane segment of Lake Shore Drive between 57th and Hayes Drive, the southern border of the presidential center site. Parking would be stripped from Hayes to expand it from two travel lanes to four. And parkland would be gobbled up to add two lanes to Stony Island between 59th and Hayes and one lane to Stony from 63rd to 67th.
Read more: https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/obama-presidential-center-transportation-street-widening/Content?oid=40065132
Indiana House votes to allow Gary construction waste site near residences
INDIANAPOLIS — The city of Gary's plan to locate a disposal and recycling facility for construction and demolition waste just 600 feet from residences won overwhelming support Wednesday in the Indiana House.
House Bill 1318, sponsored by state Rep. Earl Harris, Jr., D-East Chicago, was approved 89-3 and now advances to the Senate.
The measure exempts Gary from a state law that only applies to Lake County which requires landfills of any kind be located at least a half-mile from the nearest residence.
Harris said the proposed construction and demolition disposal site is not a landfill in the traditional sense. Rather, it will hold reclaimed building materials, such as brick, stone and wood, until they can be reused, recycled or permanently disposed of.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/indiana-house-votes-to-allow-gary-construction-waste-site-near/article_8752206f-542d-5f5b-b7eb-5d010db265a0.html
Ex-Merrillville councilman pleads guilty to bribery
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A former northwest Indiana town councilman has pleaded guilty to bribery for his role in an influence-buying scheme for towing contracts.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports 51-year-old Thomas Goralczyk entered the plea Wednesday in federal court. He admitted in a plea agreement that he accepted two vehicles from a witness cooperating with the FBI on the promise he would use his influence as a Merrillville councilman to steer a towing contract to the informant's towing company.
His sentencing is set for May 16. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release,
Goralczyk was first elected as a councilman in 2007 and served as president of the council in 2011 and 2015. He lost a re-election bid in 2015.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/ex-merrillville-councilman-pleads-guilty-to-bribery/article_29ee1772-c76c-571f-85a7-1972fcc28578.html
Allegations against Lake County Councilman Jamal Washington surface with protective order
CROWN POINT — A Lake County councilman facing domestic abuse charges is denying he has a history of violence against women, as alleged in a newly released court document.
The Times has obtained a copy of a protective order that a Lake Circuit Court judge issued in 2015 against Jamal Washington by a 24-year-old woman who alleged several violent encounters with Washington, 44, a Merrillville Democrat.
He has served on county government's chief fiscal body since his 2014 election and is running to become a member of the powerful three-member Lake County Board of Commissioners.
The Times attempted to obtain documents associated with two other expired court protective orders issued against Washington more than eight years ago. The clerk's office said those documents were destroyed, as is most paperwork in cases that have been resolved for longer than two years.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/allegations-against-lake-county-councilman-jamal-washington-surface-with-protective/article_8f014ccf-f758-5e39-a698-0587604ae9f8.html
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