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* Tribune…
Jurors in the Michael Madigan corruption trial on Monday got their first look at a secretly recorded video of the then-powerful House speaker soliciting business for his law firm from the developer of a Chinatown hotel project.
“We’re not looking for a quick killing here,” Madigan said near the end of the August 2014 meeting, which was recorded on a hidden camera by developer See Wong, who was cooperating with the FBI. “We’re interested in a long term relationship.”
The video was played during the testimony of former Ald. Daniel Solis, the then-head of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, who told the jury he’d arranged the meeting at Madigan’s request.
At the time, Solis was not cooperating. In fact, the meeting took place nearly two years before the FBI confronted him with evidence of his own wrongdoing, leading to Solis’ decision to go undercover himself.
* Sun-Times…
Solis says that Chinese developer Kin Kuong Chong — introduced to him by See Wong — wanted to build a “franchise Best Western hotel” in Chinatown across Wentworth from Chinatown Square, just north of the Red Line parking lot.
MacArthur shows jurors a picture of the parking lot. Solis testifies that Madigan reached out to him about Chong, asking “if I could bring Mr. Chong over for a meeting so he could make a presentation.” “
I complied,” Solis says. “Were you aware that one of the participants [of the meeting], See Wong, was audio and video recording the meeting?” MacArthur asks.
“No,” Solis says. […]
A key comment from that second part of the meeting came from Solis, who said Chong “will get anything he needs for that hotel” by working with Madigan on his real estate tax bill.
* FOX Chicago…
Solis testified he told the Chinese developer there was no better firm than Madigan’s and if he gave Madigan the real estate tax business, then Solis would make sure the Zoning Change would happen. And it did pass.
The developer said he would contribute to a fundraiser to re-elect Solis.
Madigan’s attorney said the tapes prove that Solis was the real criminal, trading favors, accepting bribes, taking payoffs.
Solis testified he told the Chinese developer to do business with Madigan because the speaker can get anything he wants when it comes to state government. The hotel was never built.
* Dave Byrnes from Courthouse News is covering the trial on Bluesky…
* The Sun-Times’ federal courts reporter Jon Seidel…
* The Tribune’s Jason Meisner…
* The voracious hunger of massive data centers for electricity is most definitely becoming a major issue. Illinois subsidizes their construction, but, other than those construction jobs, they typically employ only a few full-time people.
So, while I was glad to see the Sun-Times tackle this topic, I was confused when I saw this passage...
A large data center uses enough electricity to power entire neighborhoods or even small cities. This is happening as Illinois and other states seek to phase out fossil fuel energy sources to fight climate change.
Linda Young, 68, sees nothing positive about a proposed “quantum computing” project at a long-abandoned steel mill site along Lake Michigan just over 2 miles from her South Shore home. She worries about the effects on the lake and other environmental ramifications from the almost 130-acre development, but is also concerned about the potential for higher property taxes.
The South Side quantum project is separate from AI research and is not a data center. But its electricity use is likely to be similar to that of a “small” data center, a spokesman for the company PsiQuantum said.
Told that data centers and other projects by tech companies are helping to increase ComEd bills because of high electricity demand, Young, a retiree and grandmother of four, said: “Just living is enough of a struggle. Is quantum computing really about making our lives better?”
Emphasis added because what the heck?
Do you know what else can use huge amounts of electricity? Manufacturing. But when a factory expands or is built in Illinois, rarely does anyone even mention the increased strain on the grid. Why? Because new jobs and wealth are created.
Quantum is still a gamble. But it will likely create lots of high-paying jobs in the near term as it develops. Comparing that benefit to a far more power-sucking and near human-less data center is just bizarre.
Anyway, the rest of the story is pretty good. And Illinois most definitely should rethink its data center subsidies.
* Also, a recent Sun-Times editorial mentioned something else that must be in the mix: More high-voltage transmission lines...
Also up for the lame-duck session are proposals backed by the Clean Jobs Coalition for improving energy conservation and writing new rules for the power sector to make it more climate friendly. There also will be legislation to support the construction of large electrical battery storage facilities that can store electricity from peak solar and wind generation and make it available when needed.
Yet another bill would encourage the construction of high-voltage transmission lines to connect clean energy generation facilities to the power grid and distribute the power where it is needed. That’s an important part of any effort to shift to clean energy.
Those measures deserve support from lawmakers. So does improving public transit, which can help reduce pollution from the transportation sector.”
* I've used Change Research in the past for legislative polling. The poll was conducted for a group backed by business and real estate interests called One Future Illinois of alderpersons who have regularly stood in opposition to Mayor Johnson. Click here for more on that. Apparently, the pollster messed up the memo.
Obviously, these numbers are really bad for the mayor (check out his "very unfavorable" numbers), but the CTU doesn't fare well, either.
Also, check out the immigration questions. Whew.
And the city cannot just cut 8-10 percent across the board because much of what it does is required spending (for example, pension payments).
Anyway, I skipped over a few questions, so click here for all the toplines...
* Methodology...
Polling was conducted online from November 18-21, 2024. Using Dynamic Online Sampling to attain a representative sample, Change Research polled 801 2024 general election voters in Chicago. Post-stratification was performed on age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, region, 2020 presidential vote and 2023 Chicago Mayoral runoff vote. You can see a full methodology statement here, which complies with the requirements of AAPOR's Transparency Initiative. Members of the Transparency Initiative disclose all relevant details about our research, with the principle that the public should be able to evaluate and understand research-based findings, in order to instill and restore public confidence in survey results.
..Adding... Crosstabs are here.
* In May, I asked the governor if he’d be open to a tax on services in Illinois. Rich wrote about it in his newspaper column...
As you may know, the Chicago area’s mass transit agencies are facing a $730 million “fiscal cliff” in 2026. The federal government’s COVID-era subsidies will expire that year. While ridership has declined as service worsens, operating costs have increased and average fare prices have fallen. […]
So, my associate Isabel Miller (who contributed to this column) asked Pritzker during an unrelated media event if he wanted to take any state taxes off the table before the talks heat up, including the service tax.
“I have never been in favor of that before,” Pritzker said of the service tax. He has indeed opposed the tax all the way back to his first 2018 gubernatorial campaign, often calling it regressive.
“There may need to be a source of revenue here,” Pritzker said, “but that’s not something that I have favored in the past.”
As far as specifically ruling out a service tax, however, the governor said: “I really don’t want to start saying, ‘We’re not going to do this, we’re not going to do that.’ At this point, there are just so many pieces of this that we have to look at before we’re going to pay for what’s necessary here as we come off of support from the federal government and making sure we’re restoring transit services.”
* Executive Director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability Ralph Martire on Friday…
It’s politically difficult to get tax policy right for one simple reason: No one really enjoys paying taxes, so most politicians disdain the subject. Paradoxically, sound tax policy is the only sustainable path to ensuring adequate investments can be made in the very core services — like educating children and caring for vulnerable members of society — that help build prosperous communities.
For proof, look no further than the projected $3 billion revenue shortfall facing the state’s General Fund next year. That shortfall means Illinois will be hard pressed to maintain its current investments in education, health care, human services and public safety, which collectively comprise over 94% of all General Fund spending on services. […]
Unfortunately, Illinois taxes less consumer spending than any other state with a general sales tax. That’s because Illinois’ sales tax applies primarily to the sale of goods, not services. That’s a loser proposition, considering about 74% of Illinois’ economy — and around 68% of all consumer spending — are transactions involving services, not goods.
Simply expanding the state’s sales tax base to include the same consumer services already taxed in our neighboring states of Iowa and Wisconsin would generate over $2 billion in annual revenue for Illinois. That’s good tax policy, which would go a long way toward eliminating Illinois’ structural deficit.
Thoughts?
* ProPublica…
In the strongest rebuke yet of Illinois school districts that ask police to ticket misbehaving students, the state attorney general has declared that the practice — still being used across the state — is illegal and should stop. […]
But the attorney general’s office did not alert other districts of its findings, which came in July, and did not issue guidance that the common practice violates the law. That means its findings against the suburban Chicago district could have a narrow effect. […]
State lawmakers have tried several times to pass legislation intended to stop the practice by specifically prohibiting schools from involving police in minor disciplinary matters. But the bills have stalled. School officials have argued ticketing is a necessary tool to manage student behavior, and some lawmakers worried that limiting officers’ role in schools could lead to unsafe conditions.
Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, told ProPublica this month that he plans to try again next year. “We don’t want police doing schools’ work,” Ford said. […]
“What will really address this is a state law that would have an impact on all Illinois schools. That is the only possible way I see because it is so pervasive across Illinois,” said Angie Jiménez, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, which has pushed for reforms in Illinois law.
* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
In the wake of Donald Trump’s national victory and his losing margin dropping to 11 points in Illinois from 17 in two prior races, state legislative Democrats here have different views on how their party should proceed.
Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, told my associate Isabel Miller last week that Illinois Democrats have “forgotten about the people in the middle.”
“I think we have done a lot of really good, progressive things,” Morrison said. “But sometimes I think we have the tendency to not think about the people in the middle.”
Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, told Isabel that stepping back from progressive social issues is not on the table.
“There’s compromise, and then there’s erasing the existence of people,” Cassidy said.
The leaders at the top, however, have been talking about “Trump-proofing” Illinois since Election Day.
Commonly called the “name-change bill,” the legislation would cap the cost of name changes in the state, halve the state residency requirement to three months and allow certain people to ask their name change be exempt from public disclosure. The bill passed the House 67-39 in April but was never assigned to a Senate committee.
Why did it stall out in the Senate? Well, the bill includes several justifications for keeping the records out of the public eye, including the person seeking the name change is transgender; has survived domestic or intimate partner abuse, gender-based violence, human trafficking or conversion therapy; is a refugee; or has been granted special immigrant status or asylum, etc.
The measure is supported by Equality Illinois, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, among others. Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune originally filed in opposition, as did the Illinois Press Association.
Newspapers make money off public notices, of course, but they also stand on general principles of public disclosure with things like this, and they asserted the legislation would get rid of the publishing requirement for everyone, not just these folks.
Somehow, despite all the hot buttons, the bill managed to mostly escape the outrage machine throughout the spring, summer and fall.
A large number of people, including at least some Democrats, believe the party’s stance on transgender rights and immigration hurt them this year.
Other Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker, have strongly insisted the party cannot now back away from supporting vulnerable populations simply because of partisan political considerations.
The bill was scheduled for its first Senate committee vote on Wednesday (Nov. 20). As Isabel reported at the time, the far-right Illinois Family Institute sent a blast e-mail to its followers ahead of the hearing, claiming the legislation would “make it almost impossible to find illegal immigrants with a criminal history and/or those who have committed crimes while on American soil, for the purpose of deportation.”
The group also claimed those who benefit from the legislation include, “Those who have committed rapes and murders who don’t want law enforcement to find them; A man who is pretending to be a woman and a woman who is pretending to be a man.”
Some Democrats waved off the claims as fear-mongering falsehoods, and the bill passed the Senate Executive Committee on a partisan roll call, with nine Democrats voting for it and four Republicans opposed.
But when it came time for the full Senate to vote on the bill and send it to the governor, the chamber decided to set it aside.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, said he had the votes to pass the bill, regardless of Republican opposition and increasing pressure exerted by the IFI. He said some technical process issues were raised during the hearing, and the decision was made to fix those before proceeding.
“It’s just making sure that on the administrative side, on the implementation side that each of the different entities that are involved are able to communicate with one another about these petitions,” Villivalam said.
Whatever the case, there was no “Trump-proofing” vote during veto session. That’ll have to wait until at least early January when the General Assembly returns for its lame-duck session.
By then, the governor’s office hopes to have at least some additional bills for the legislature to work on.
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* ICYMI: The Illinois’ AG said it’s illegal for schools to use police to ticket students. But his office only told one district. ProPublica…
* Related stories…
- Tribune: AG finds Palatine schools broke law by using cops to ticket students, urges other districts to review policies
- ProPublica: An Illinois School District’s Reliance on Police to Ticket Students Is Discriminatory, Civil Rights Complaint Says
- Tribune: Bill to stop student ticketing suffers setback, delaying action to protect families from costly fines
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Tribune | 98% of Illinois residents drink water with fluoride. Why is this mineral’s longtime role being rethought?: “I’d say all of those claims have either been soundly refuted or he is exaggerating what the evidence really shows,” said Scott Tomar, associate dean of prevention and public health sciences in the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Water fluoridation — one of the nice things about it is it doesn’t require any special behavior on people’s part. Just drinking water or preparing your food with fluoridated water confers prevention benefits. And it’s one of incredibly few public health measures that actually saves money.”
* Daily Herald | Aqua Illinois customers to see water bill hike in the new year: The privately owned water utility has not released an estimate of the exact impact the increase will have on customer bills in 14 northern Illinois counties. But the approved increase represents a 43% reduction from the utility’s original request, which would have raised bills by an estimated $30 per month, according to the Citizens Utility Board consumer advocacy group.
* Sun-Times | Chicago’s Wild Mile — an urban oasis built on a dream: Day and night, visitors can descend an aluminum gangway behind the REI Co-op at North Kingsbury Street and West Eastman Street near Goose Island and find themselves seemingly walking on water, wandering across an almost imperceptibly rocking wooden boardwalk, surrounded by five-foot-high plants. This fall, the area of this string of small, human-made islands known as the Wild Mile, drew migrating white-throated sparrows, fall warblers and dark-eyed juncos to feast on the seeds of sedge, prairie clover and Joe-Pye weed. Tropical white and pink hibiscus blooms stood out among the fading greens and rusty browns of summer’s bounty, 60 native species in all.
*** Statehouse News ***
* WHBF | McCombie & Halpin on Illinois veto session & budget deficit: “The purpose of eliminating the grocery tax on the state level was to make sure that the state wasn’t benefitting from that tax, we weren’t getting any money from it, and in a time of high inflation we wanted to make those prices at least a little bit easier for constituents,” Halpin said “The language was amended so they could choose to use that tax for property tax relief, which I think we had already heard several municipalities had kind of hoped to do it that way, but also if they also wanted to use it for public infrastructures they could do that as well,” McCombie said.
*** Madigan Trial ***
* Tribune | Madigan corruption trial turns to the Danny Solis show: Solis, the former 25th Ward alderman-turned FBI mole, took the witness stand late last week to begin what will be a fascinating dive into one of the biggest public corruption cases in Chicago’s sordid history. His testimony — which could stretch well into December — will include clandestine video recordings Solis made in face-to-face meetings with Madigan, where the longtime House leader and head of the state Democratic Party allegedly used his official influence to shake down developers for business for his private tax appeal law firm.
*** Chicago ***
* Tribune | Cook County politician told cops, ‘I’m an elected official’ during DUI arrest: According to the arrest report, officers saw two crashed cars near the intersection. One officer reported that Steele was lying on the sidewalk near the accident and that Steele told him she had hit another car. At that time, the officer wrote in the report that Steele’s “eyes were bloodshot and glassy. I also detected a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from her breath as she spoke.”
* Tribune | Chicago food pantries respond to ‘extraordinary demand’ during Thanksgiving holiday season: Verenice Martinez, director of food distribution services, said Pan de Vida Midway Pantry — which is open Wednesdays and Fridays — has seen a 30 percent increase this year in people seeking assistance. She attributes the increase to inflation and the rising cost of living, including elevated food prices, after the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pandemic is clearly over, but we see that every walk of life is still being affected. There are some people that are still recovering from whatever COVID did to their families,” she said, adding that the pantry wants to get a walk-in fridge and freezer to increase its capacity.
* WBEZ | Aussie pitches fundraising drive to provide 1,632 'backpack beds' for every homeless person in Chicago: Clark was in Chicago then, in 2013, to accept an award for the “backpack bed” he co-designed with his wife for the unhoused. The idea, which he said came to him in church, was to give people “warmth, comfort and dignity.” He helped distribute about 150 of his backpacks that convert into tents with a built-in mattress to homeless people across the city then. Now, Clark has returned to Chicago with the goal of handing out many more of the backpack beds. The goal is 1,632, to be exact. That’s the number of people estimated to be living on the streets, according to the city’s last Point in Time survey.
* Tribune | Man googled synagogues and Jewish community centers prior to West Rogers Park attack, prosecutors say: McCord said the examination of Abdallahi’s cellphone is continuing, but so far, investigators have located more than 100 antisemitic images, videos and screenshots. His search history included a suburban gun store, firing range and two Jewish community centers, she said. He used Google Maps to favorite the locations of two synagogues, according to McCord.
* Block Club Chicago | Family Of Murdered Portage Park Woman Raising Funds For Funeral: On Friday, Lacramioara Beldie’s children, Ani, Antonio and Felix, launched a GoFundMe to raise money for their mother’s burial According to reporting from the Chicago Tribune, Lacramioara Beldie, who friends called Mirela, worked as a nanny. The fundraiser, organized by her daughter Ani Beldie, said she was “a second mother to many.”
* Tribune | Chicago voter turnout was second-lowest rate in 80 years for a presidential election: While election officials initially expected a high turnout, it ended up being markedly low for a presidential election. According to unofficial results, the Chicago Board of Elections reported that roughly 67.9% of registered city voters cast ballots in the election, roughly 3 percentage points less than the 71% turnout in 2016 and 5 percentage points lower than in 2020, when turnout was 73.3%.
* WTTW | Plan to Transform Abandoned Railway in Pilsen Sparks Gentrification Concerns for Some Residents: CDOT recently hosted a community engagement meeting to gather residents’ input on repurposing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railway from West 16th and South Sangamon streets to West Cermak Road and South Laflin Street, near Benito Juarez High School. Officials emphasized that plans remain in early stages, with a final framework not expected until 2026.
* WTTW | Burst of Heavy Snow Made a Mess of the Roadways, But Brookfield Zoo’s Polar Bear Had the Time of His Life: Hudson the polar bear looked positively giddy as he frolicked in the snow at Brookfield Zoo. We should all love something as much as Hudson loves snow.
* Block Club | ‘Waves Of Snow’ Could Impact Thanksgiving Travel, Weather Service Says: The exact location and intensity of the storm system has yet to be determined three days out, National Weather Service meteorologist David King said. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty with it,” King said. “With what we’ve been seeing in the models, it’s really kind of difficult to be able to pinpoint … where the focus is going to be, but there’s at least this kind of consistent signature we’ve been seeing where we’re expecting some sort of winter storm to happen.”
* Sun-Times | Bears find a new way to lose in heartbreaking fashion, but Caleb Williams offers reasons for hope: The Bears found another creative, cruel way to break your heart Sunday, losing 30-27 to the Vikings in overtime after trailing by 11 with 1:56 to play in the fourth quarter. To get there, quarterback Caleb Williams threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen with 29 seconds left in regulation and a two-point conversion pass to DJ Moore to cut the lead to three. Kicker Cairo Santos converted only the third onside kick in 31 tries across the NFL this season when safety Tarvarius Moore jumped on the ball after it hit a Viking’s foot. Santos then drilled a 48-yard field goal to force overtime.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* WBEZ | A former employee of a Cook County agency sues over his firing, alleging retaliation: The ex-employee, Frank Calabrese, said he was an appeals analyst and communications director for Steele until he was fired in May — after talking about Steele and chief of staff Dan Balanoff with investigators for the county’s independent internal watchdog. In the complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Calabrese also accused Steele and Balanoff of pressuring him “to engage in political activity” against the two other Board of Review commissioners, Larry Rogers Jr. and George Cardenas.
* County Scanner | Officials announce 23 candidates that applied to fill vacant Lake County associate judge seat: The Administrative Office of Illinois Courts notified Lake County Chief Judge Daniel Shanes that 23 local attorneys applied for the associate judge vacancy in the 19th Judicial Circuit. The seat has been vacant since former Associate Judge Theodore S. Potkonjak retired on October 4.
* Daily Herald | ‘He can park anywhere...except his public high school’: District, student in fight over parking in lot: The family emailed the school officials before the school year began to notify them that Gavin had an accessible parking placard and to ask which of the eight designated accessible parking spaces in the lot he should use. Central High officials told them Gavin would not be allowed to park at the school because he did not have a parking pass. Gavin applied for a parking pass through a lottery but was not selected before the school year or in a later lottery when spaces opened following a construction project.
* Daily Herald | Crystal Lake man pleads guilty for part in Jan. 6 assault: Court documents showed Giacchetti attended a rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., and afterward made his way to the U.S. Capitol building. There, while on a restricted walkway on the South side of the Capitol, Giacchetti used a bullhorn to yell profanities and insults at law enforcement officers responding to the riot.
* Aurora Beacon-News | After breaking hip, former Butterball hotline lady from Aurora to be stuck in Turkey for Turkey Day: For more than two decades, Phyllis Kramer was not just a wise and calm voice on the other end of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, the Aurora woman became a recognized face, featured on TV shows and in regional and national news stories at this time of year. The New York Times. Good Housekeeping. Business Insider. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fox News. Rachael Ray. Kramer even worked alongside comedian Stephen Colbert when he flew to the hotline headquarters on Diehl Road in Naperville to tape a segment for his late night show. This holiday, however, her story has taken an ironic twist: The Turkey Lady is stuck in Turkey for Turkey Day.
*** Downstate ***
* WBBM | Springfield Police Department addresses social media rumors about migrants: “We are aware of recent social media rumors circulating concerning potential threats involving Venezuelan gangs,” the department wrote. “The Springfield Police Department did not generate this information and has no evidence to support claims of gang-related activity involving Venezuelan migrants.”
* WPSD | Comptroller Mendoza and staff provide Thanksgiving meals to Cairo families: The Illinois State Comptroller, Susana A. Mendoza, and her staff will distribute 150 turkeys and canned goods for Thanksgiving meals to residents in Cairo from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25, for the 8th year in a row. The effort is in partnership with Arrowleaf, which pre-screens the families in the Cairo area who will receive the meals. Donations from Laborers' Local 773 in Marion and Krispy Kreme in Marion also make the event possible.
Hi all! Thanks for sticking with us through this predicament. You can click here to keep up with the Madigan trial. For our old live coverage list click here and here.
* Welcome to our temporary site. Here's the reason...
Not good. At all. Sorry about that.
Hopefully, the old site will be back up soon. Until then, this will have to suffice.
I actually kinda like the layout of the new place. I may keep it when we get the former site back up and running.
Blogger doesn't have a good way of moderating comments. So, you'll have to sign in with Google and then wait for your comments to be manually approved. Sorry, but I don't wanna open the door to folks who've been banned. I may loosen the requirement as the days progress, but don't count on it.