Last December, Bruce Rauner appeared on a WLS Radio talk show program and revealed that he planned to form a new campaign committee to counter the power of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. “We’re gonna raise a PAC, we’re gonna raise a fund dedicated to the state Legislature, members of both parties who take the […]
Rod Blagojevich
Posted inOpinion
Get Out of Jail cards
Writers of newspaper columns, it turns out, are not the only people who have trouble getting sentences right. Eyebrows, if not voices, were raised when federal judge James Zagel set 14 years in prison as the price Rod Blagojevich must pay for nearly committing a crime. That’s only one year short of the maximum that […]
Posted inNews
Illinois mulls public financing of elections
Illinois needs a system to publicly fund election campaigns, reform advocates told a state committee examining potential campaign finance reforms last week. But one expert says lawmakers probably won’t go for it. The Illinois Campaign Finance Reform Task Force heard testimony Nov. 28 regarding the proposed creation of a statewide system to fund election campaigns […]
Posted inOpinion
Put voters on trial next
At last, we have a verdict on the governor. Within hours of its announcement, deliberations began in the press to decide the guilt or innocence of the people who elected him twice as Illinois’s chief executive officer. The verdict? The voters are guilty of apathy, ignorance, scandal fatigue and an insensitivity to manipulation that rivals […]
Posted inOpinion
Tangible rights
As I write, the jury is still out on Rod Blagojevich. The coming verdict in his second trial for behaving like an Illinois governor will settle for now the question of his criminal culpability. Other questions of perhaps more moment to Illinois are likely to remain unaddressed, much less answered. Blagojevich was tried a second […]
Posted inNews
Labor unions balk at bargaining bill
Labor unions are continuing negotiations over legislation backed by Gov. Pat Quinn that would lift collective bargaining rights from current high-ranking state agency workers and legislative liaisons, as well as their right to apply for future union membership. “We strongly support union representation and collective bargaining for many state workers, but the system only works […]
Posted inNews
‘Lawbbyists’
From shady money transfers by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the return of a missing baseball signed by Babe Ruth, attorney Herman Bodewes has seen it all throughout more than 40 years with a Springfield law firm. Giffin, Winning, Cohen & Bodewes, located on Fifth Street in the Myer’s building, celebrated their centennial year serving […]
Posted inNews
Independent watchdog warns: Illinois needs better accountability
You could call him an immovable object. He has outlasted three governors, called countless state agencies to task, and even survived an attempted hostile takeover of his constitutional office. Illinois Auditor General William “Bill” Holland spoke Oct. 23 to the Citizens Club of Springfield at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, addressing questions about his […]
