THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Final day of Veto Session (we hope)...SAFE-T Act changes moving...Appellate Court lets DCFS off the hook (for now)...Memorializing Obama (for history)
December 1, 2022
Rabbit, rabbit.
Good morning from Springfield. It’s the final day of veto session and it looks like it’s do or die day for SAFE-T Act changes. It kicks off with the Senate Executive Committee this morning at 9am.
An additional amendment dropped on the bill late yesterday. You can read it here. The assumption (as I write this late Wednesday night) is that law enforcement and state’s attorneys are going to slip as neutral on the amendments. It sounds like Republicans are going to continue to protest and vote no, even though the changes seem to alleviate many of their concerns. But, what do I know?
Here are our stories on the topic from the week so far:
I’ll keep paid subscribers updated on what I’m hearing throughout the day, especially in the House.
The Governor, by the way, won’t be in the Statehouse for much of the final day of veto. He’ll be in Washington attending the State Dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron.
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Let’s get to the Free for All.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Contempt citations against DCFS director reversed by appellate court (Capitol News Illinois)
An appellate court on Wednesday reversed several contempt of court citations that were filed in recent months against Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith for failing to comply with court orders to place state wards in appropriate settings.
The court found that Smith did not willfully ignore a Cook County judge’s order to move children who were discharged from psychiatric hospitals into group homes or residential settings. He was just unable to do it.
The opinion written by First District Appellate Court Justice Joy Cunningham stated that for a judge to find a party in contempt there must be an order of the court and proof of willful disobedience of that order. The appellate court found that DCFS did try to comply with the court orders, but it acknowledged that those efforts “fell woefully short of expectations.”
“We are pleased that the appellate court found the contempt orders were erroneous,” DCFS spokesperson William McCaffrey said in a statement. “As the appellate court described, DCFS has been actively working to secure clinically appropriate placements for these children. Based on the record of DCFS’ actions, the appellate court found it was an abuse of the trial court’s discretion to hold the agency in contempt.”
In each case where Cook County Judge Patrick Murphy cited Smith for indirect civil contempt and fined him $1,000 per each day the kids remained hospitalized, he also acknowledged that DCFS was actively engaged in trying to secure appropriate placements for the minors.
Murphy found that Smith was in contempt for failing to comply with the court’s order, opining that DCFS had “ignored the trial court’s orders.” Cunningham wrote that such a ruling was “inconsistent with the record.”
Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, whose office represents state wards, including eight children involved in 10 contempt citations, said Wednesday that he will ask the Illinois Supreme Court to review the decision.
“We will continue to be aggressive about pursuing contempt of court findings in appropriate cases where DCFS unlawfully forces children to languish in wholly inappropriate placements like psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms, detention centers, offices, ‘temporary’ shelters, and the like,” Golbert said Wednesday afternoon.
While the court opinion was a win for DCFS, Cunningham also called the agency’s efforts to place the children “seemingly inefficient” and “clearly ineffective.”
No matter this ruling, anyone who tells you things are peachy keen at DCFS is lying to you. I argued in my column a couple of months ago the Governor should blow up DCFS and reimagine the agency.
State commemorates Barack Obama’s 2007 presidential announcement with marker at Old State Capitol (Chicago Tribune)
The weather turned frigid in the state capital on Wednesday, just in time for the dedication of a marker commemorating the day nearly 16 years ago when thousands braved single-digit temperatures to see then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama announce his 2008 presidential bid from the steps of the Old State Capitol.
The roughly 47--by-44-inch marker, which stands on the southeast corner of the Old Capitol grounds in downtown Springfield, also commemorates Obama’s 2008 announcement that then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware would be his running mate. It adds historical resonance to a building most famous as the site of Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech to the 1858 Republican State Convention.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who backed Obama’s rival, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, in the 2008 Democratic primary, said the marker honoring the country’s first Black president serves as “a reminder that one of our favorite sons brought a message of hope that resonated at a crucial time to people all across the world.”
Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park, who’s among the handful of current state senators who served in the legislature with Obama, said colleagues “always knew he was bound for bigger things, although even we could not have predicted the meteoric rise from senator to president in four years.”
“He carried to the highest office in the land the same curiosity, demeanor and willingness to ask tough questions that he held while serving here in Springfield,” Harmon said. “He made us proud as he expanded health care for millions, brought our economy out of the Great Recession, joined with global leaders to fight climate change, showed unprecedented support for the LGBTQ community, and updated our country’s immigration policies to make the American Dream more accessible to everyone.”
Illinois’ weed workers are unionizing at a record pace. Now comes the hard part. (WBEZ)
The late November smash-and-grab attempt came as little surprise to the employees of Windy City Cannabis in south suburban Posen. They had been worrying about safety for months.
So when a masked driver backed a white sedan with stolen plates through the garage delivery door, forcing the store to close for several days for repairs, employees said they thought “of course” having already formed a union to help fight for safety protections.
This surge in union election wins in the cannabis industry is a glimmer of hope for organized labor, which has seen its ranks decline for the past half-century, from a high of 35% in 1954 to 12% today. Most of the unionized workforce is now in the more welcoming public sector — and the reason why recent union campaigns at two of the most well-known Fortune 500 companies, Amazon and Starbucks, have captured public attention.
But those efforts can’t touch cannabis organizing when it comes to wins and signed contracts.
Related: Michigan Avenue still haunted by damage and mayhem of 2020 protests (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Remembering Tim Degnan (Chicago Sun-Times)
Tim Degnan, a former state senator and longtime top advisor to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, died last week at his home in Oak Brook. He was 82.
In a 1995 Sun-Times profile, Degnan was described as big-shouldered with a square jaw and a gravelly voice and looking like a character out of a John Wayne movie, chain smoking unfiltered cigarettes.
His understanding of the Chicago political machine allowed him to pierce beyond political noise and attack an issue with acute understanding, said David Axelrod, who served as advisor to President Barack Obama and was a strategist on six of Daley’s mayoral campaigns.
“He had these intensely sort of blue-green eyes that were like headlights that shone through the smoke,” Axelrod said. “He didn’t say much, would listen a lot and then ask the exact right questions to cut to the core of an issue. It was impressive.”
Degnan, who grew up on the Southwest Side, attended St. Ignatius High School, the University of Illinois and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He served as political director of Daley’s mayoral campaign when he was elected in 1989.
As director of intergovernmental affairs for the mayor, Degnan was Daley’s political point man, finding consensus between state and city officials to push the agenda forward.
“He was a really important figure in that administration. A guy who really protected Daley’s priorities,” said Axelrod. “He was a joy to work with.”
Degnan served in the Senate from 1980-1989.
SOME TOP LINKS FROM THE WEEK SO FAR
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