TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalGlass ceiling isn't a talking point for Clinton, but it is for her supporters
Laura Stegemann watched from across the street as Hillary Clinton’s supporters filled Cowles Commons ahead of the presidential candidate’s visit on Thursday, but didn’t break from her lunch-hour walk to join in.
Although the 55-year-old publications professional plans to vote for the Democratic nominee, she doesn’t count herself as an especially enthusiastic supporter. She admires Clinton’s work for human rights and children, but more than anything empathizes with the challenges she’s endured as a woman in the public eye.
“For her to put up with everything she’s put up with — the misogyny, being treated poorly because she’s a woman, the double standards — it’s the fact that she’s persevered,” Stegemann said. “We’re always expected, of course, to take the higher road. I don’t always. So the fact that she’s been able to keep her wits about her and her composure says a lot.”
Clinton herself said little directly on Thursday about the prospect of being the first female president of the United States, but the promise and the challenge of breaking that barrier were inescapable among partisans at the downtown Des Moines rally and spectators watching from a distance.
Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/29/glass-ceiling-isnt-talking-point-hillary-clinton-but-her-supporters/91266158/
Federal judge won't reverse ruling on Illinois voter registration
CHICAGO -- A federal judge has denied an Illinois attorney general's office request for him to reverse his own decision halting same-day voter registration at polling stations.
A Thursday hearing in Chicago federal court lasted just minutes as Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan told lawyers the request is denied.
He ruled earlier this week that the same-day registration option as written benefited Democratic strongholds, like Chicago, and disadvantaged rural regions
Lisa Madigan's office argued that yanking the option so close to the Nov. 8 election would unfairly deny some citizens voting rights. But in a two-page written explanation Thursday, Der-Yeghiayan says, "This court did not restrict the rights of any voters. The legislation did."
Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20160929/federal-judge-wont-reverse-ruling-on-illinois-voter-registration
Gov. Rauner's deficit projection $2.4B less than lawmakers'
Gov. Bruce Rauner's says the state's budget deficit will be $5.4 billion.
The figure announced Thursday is far below the $7.8 billion that the Legislature's bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability projects.
The Republican governor and lawmakers have been unable to agree on a budget. Court-ordered spending continues, outstripping revenue.
The governor's office says there's about $1 billion in federal reimbursements and another $800 million the commission counted as spending but it didn't count an equal amount of revenue that would come in. The governor's office says it expects Illinois to spend $250 million less than planned and a state law reduces Illinois' cost for the Affordable Care Act by $150 million.
Read more: http://thesouthern.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/gov-rauner-s-deficit-projection-b-less-than-lawmakers/article_c8860af6-59d1-55b4-b517-fb988dc3504b.html
Illinois pays past-due utility bills for state buildings
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield utility company that provides electricity to the Illinois capitol and other government buildings says the state is finally current on its past-due bills.
Springfield City, Water, Light and Power spokeswoman Amber Sabin says the state has paid nearly $19 million in late and current bills. The Springfield Journal-Register reported most of the money was paid in August.
Illinois has operated without a budget for more than a year and the state has fallen behind on bill payments to vendors that provide services.
Springfield's city-owned utility warned state agencies in July that services would be shut off if they didn't pay their bills by Sept. 21.
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/illinois-pays-past-due-utility-bills-for-state-buildings/article_d759feff-f700-589b-b07c-65f8c2a72bd4.html (short article)
Man who spent 20 years in prison gets $15 million settlement
CHICAGO (AP) — A former suburban Chicago gang member who spent 20 years in prison after being convicted of murder on evidence he alleged was fabricated by police has received a $15 million settlement in a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago Heights.
Rodell Sanders, who was freed in 2014, long contended Chicago Heights police knew he wasn't involved in the December 1993 shooting of Philip Atkins and Stacy Armstrong. Sanders, 51, claimed police manipulated evidence to frame him because of his gang ties.
Chicago Heights Mayor David Gonzalez said in a statement the agreement, which conceded no wrongdoing by the city or its police and was approved by a federal judge Wednesday, was entered into "to protect the interests of taxpayers and to forge community unity in our diverse city."
Atkins and Armstrong were asleep inside a car when four men forced them out of the vehicle at gunpoint. According to prosecutors, Armstrong said one of the men she identified as Sanders ordered Atkins killed after he admitted he was a member of a rival street gang, the Mickey Cobras. Armstrong was also shot three times but survived and was the sole witness against Sanders.
Read more: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/state/2016-09-29/man-who-spent-20-years-prison-gets-15-million-settlement.html
Clinton in Chicago, shrugs off Trump reviving Bill’s sex scandals
While in Chicago on Thursday, Hillary Clinton shrugged off Donald Trump’s effort to inject her husband’s sex scandals into their presidential battle.
She was in town for two fundraisers, which yielded $4 million in campaign cash.
Trump is raising former President Clinton’s infidelities and impeachment on the stump. He may take the risk to bring it up when he debates Clinton for the second time on Oct. 9 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Clinton flew to Chicago after campaigning in the battleground state of Iowa, where early voting started on Thursday. While Illinois is not in presidential play, Chicago is an important source of campaign cash for Clinton, who was born in Edgewater Hospital and raised in north suburban Park Ridge.
Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/clinton-in-chicago-shrugs-off-trump-reviving-bills-sex-scandals/
Obama to headline Chicago campaign fundraiser for Duckworth next month
President Barack Obama will visit Chicago on Oct. 9 to raise money for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Duckworth, a campaign official said Wednesday.
The $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser will be held at the Stony Island Arts Bank in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. The maximum donation is $12,700, which gets the donor a photo opportunity. Hosts include Obama Foundation Chairman Martin Nesbitt and wife Dr. Anita Blanchard.
Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman from Hoffman Estates, is challenging one-term Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Highland Park in the Nov. 8 election. The contest is for the U.S. Senate seat held by Obama before he became president.
Democrats are eyeing the Illinois Senate spot as a likely pickup as Kirk narrowly won in 2010 and the state trends Democratic in presidential election years. But Kirk has been on the attack for weeks with TV ads questioning Duckworth's time as former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's onetime Veterans' Affairs chief.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-barack-obama-tammy-duckworth-fundraiser-met-0929-20160928-story.html
A diabetic gets fired over a $1.69 drink and Dollar General must now pay her $277,656.
For God's sake, if your employee needs a drink, especially if she's diabetic, just let her have it already.
That's what Dollar General learned after a federal jury sided with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a case against the retail giant.
The story goes like this. Back in September 2014, an insulin-dependent diabetic cashier in Dollar General's Maryville, Tenn., store told her supervisor she needed to keep juice near the cash register in case of a hypoglycemic attack. According to testimony at the trial, the supervisor did not allow employees to do this, although the company has a policy that would allow it for those in need.
One day, fearing an oncoming attack, the cashier drank a $1.69 (plus tax) orange juice before paying for it. The cashier said after the symptoms passed she paid for the juice. After a question about inventory arose, the employee confessed to her brazen crime of drinking before buying to the company's district manager who then fired said employee for violating the chain's "grazing" policy.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-dollar-general-diabetic-worker-lawsuit-20160926-story.html#nt=oft13a-21gp1
For additional reference: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-19-16a.cfm
Harken to exit Illinois Obamacare exchange
Harken Health is abandoning the state's Obamacare health insurance marketplace.
Harken, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, said Thursday it will not offer plans on the exchange next year. Insurers Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Land of Lincoln already have announced they won't offer plans on the exchange next year.
"It's just another reduction in options for Illinois consumers," said Phil Lackman, CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois.
Harken's departure will leave Cook County residents who buy insurance through the exchange with three choices of insurers, according to Illinois Department of Insurance data. Harken hadn't planned to offer individual exchange plans in Illinois next year outside of Cook County.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-harken-exchange-obamacare-0930-biz-20160929-story.html
Emanuel: If teachers strike, they choose disrupting children's education over pay raises
If Chicago teachers strike, they will have chosen to turn down raises to deliberately disrupt the education of children and the daily routines of parents, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday as he sought to ratchet up pressure amid talks for a new union contract.
Emanuel's message marked his first public comments since the Chicago Teachers Union set an Oct. 11 strike date raising the prospects of the second walkout of his time as mayor.
"This notion of taking a strike ... it's one of choice, not of necessity. Because you have a 13 percent pay raise on the table," Emanuel said during an afternoon appearance at Skinner North Classical School in the Goose Island neighborhood.
The "strike of choice" line is the same one he used in 2012, when teachers picketed for seven school days, though the mayor's overall rhetoric hasn't been as confrontational this time. Still, Emanuel sought to draw a distinction between the union's position and the sacrifices made by Chicago residents who are getting hammered by his property tax increases to help shore up Chicago Public Schools.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-chicago-schools-teachers-emanuel-0930-20160929-story.html
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