Author: Newsdesk

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:24 p.m.; updated at 5:19 p.m. by Michelle Manchir

Gov. Pat Quinn today tried to turn up the pressure on his fellow Democrats to push through an income tax increase, suggesting lawmakers shouldn’t take off for spring break without first voting on his plan even if no Republicans are on board.

The remarks represent the latest heated rhetoric from the governor, who has tried and failed for a year to convince the General Assembly his party controls to raise taxes to help deal with a looming $13 billion budget deficit.

“I really feel the legislature shouldn’t take a break, a holiday, until
they vote on this tax increase,” said Quinn during an appearance at Morton Community College in Cicero. “I think when you’re in a
crisis, members of the legislature have to have an urgent sense of duty
and an urgent sense of acting.”

The governor, however, stopped short of saying he would call a special session to keep lawmakers at the Capitol the last week of March and first week of April.

This afternoon, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said he’ll take Quinn’s spring break suggestion under advisement and suggested that those watching state government not be "concerned" about the calendar.



"Well, we have that under review. Our thought was that maybe Gov. Quinn could use a nice break for a while. That was our thought."

Quinn also called on Democrats to use their majorities in the House and the Senate to send him a tax increase even if Republicans won’t sign on, saying lawmakers must do “whatever it takes” to implement a tax increase by April 1 or see tens of thousands of pink slips land in teacher mailboxes.

“If it’s all one party, I think that’s unfortunate, I think that it should be bi-partisan, but we must act for the people, for the common good,” Quinn said.



While Democrats control both the House and the Senate and theoretically have enough votes to pass Quinn’s income tax proposal on their own, Madigan has insisted some Republicans must sign on as a way to share the blame for a tax increase during an election year.

Quinn wants to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent — a 33 percent increase — as a way to prevent threatened cuts to education. He also wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 4.8 percent to 5.8 percent. All told, the tax increase is projected to bring in about $2.8 billion a year.

Madigan was asked today if he supported Quinn’s tax increase proposal.





"We haven’t made a decision yet," Madign said. "That’ll come later."

Quinn said he plans to meet with Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton later this week to have a “frank discussion about how important it is for the legislature to act” sooner rather than later.



“There’s some rather timid souls who don’t want to make a decision in Illinois, they want to push the can down the road,” Quinn said. “Some people say ‘Well, we can make this decision after Nov. 2.’ That’s the date of the next election. I don’t believe in that kind of politics. I believe you stand up in the middle of the arena, like we are right here, and say what you’re for. And what I’m for is education for people in Illinois.”

Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:27 p.m.



A coalition of reform-minded Chicago groups today launched a new government accountability Web site it hopes will educate voters in advance of next year’s city elections.



Developing Government Accountability to the People debuted its new site the same day it issued its second city government report card, giving Chicago an overall grade of D.

The organization issued a similarly poor report card four years ago, prior to the 2007 election that brought some new faces to a City Council still largely controlled by Mayor Richard Daley.



The group hopes that its new report card and the Web site will have an impact next year, said University of Illinois at Chicago Professor Dick Simpson, a former independent aldermen involved in the report. All 50 aldermen and the mayor’s job are up on the ballot.



“It’s also a report on the individual alderman, who they are, what they are doing in their communities and, when the site us upgraded, where they’ve gotten their campaign contributions, and what their voting pattern has been,” Simpson said. “This should allow each community to hold its aldermen more accountable than they have been able to in the past, and should have some impact on the mayoral election, as these are probably the issues that will probably stand out in the mayoral election of 2011.”

The site has a section on each alderman and his or her voting history, a “tool kit” that explains government programs and laws like the Freedom of Information Act and a page with reports on basic city issues.

The organization’s leadership panel includes Alianza, the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, the Heartland Alliance, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the Lugenia Burnes Hope Center and the Pilsen Alliance.

 Posted by Ray Long at 7:32 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD–With little debate, the Senate voted today to drop the ban on building nuclear power plants in Illinois. The measure was sent to the House on a bipartisan 40-1 vote, with two lawmakers voting present.

Sen. Mike Jacobs, the East Moline Democrat who sponsored the proposal, said Illinois should take advantage of the efforts by President Barack Obama, a former Illinois state senator, to back some nuclear power projects, citing federal support for a power plant in Georgia. 

The lone opposition came from Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston, who maintained there is no political consensus on whether to reopen shuttered nuclear power plants or build anew.

Business and labor groups supported the legislation, but similar proposals have failed to make it through the legislature in the past.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 4:25 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley made two appointments to vacant City Council seats today, naming a state lawmaker for the 29th Ward and a businessman for the 1st Ward.

In the 29th Ward, left vacant last month when former Ald. Isaac Carothers pleaded guilty in federal court to a bribery charge, Daley appointed state Rep. Deborah Graham, who now represents residents in the Austin neighborhood and Oak Park.

In the 1st Ward, where former Ald. Manny Flores gave up his post two months ago to become the chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, Daley appointed Proco “Joe” Moreno, the vice president of a graphic arts and printing company who lost a 2008 contest for the state Senate.

The City Council must sign off to make the selections official. 

Graham, 43, who also works as a coordinator of special projects in the in the city Department of Planning and Development, said she will give up that job to become alderman.

Daley cited Graham’s legislative experience in both the city and suburbs. In Springfield, she has backed gun-control legislation favored by the mayor.

She succeeded in a career in social services and government after spending eight months in a shelter as a young woman when she fled a violent husband, Graham said. “Had I not made a decision to leave, I would probably be dead,” she added.

Daley said he picked Moreno, 37, in part because of his business experience. “What I’m going to concentrate on is public safety and constituents services in the ward," Moreno said.

Daley said the city received 59 eligible applicants, many of them from an online job posting. Of those, the mayor said he interviewed 44 people.

"The interesting thing was to listen to people about their concerns" about the city, Daley said.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:35 p.m.

City residents who want to see for themselves what happened at a City Council meeting now can find video archives of the meetings on the Web, city Clerk Miguel del Valle announced today.

Del Valle’s office went live this morning with this link http://www.chicityclerk.com/City_Council_Video_Archive.php, which includes council meetings back to October.

“During the next few months, you will see an improvement in the quality of the recordings,” del Valle said. “This is just the beginning.”

Joining del Valle in announcing his new effort were various government watchdog group leaders, who said making the videos accessible on line would improve transparency and accountability.

“They do a lot, they control a $6 billion budget,” said former Ald. Dick Simpson, now a government professor at University of Illinois at Chicago. “It’s important as citizens that we hold them accountable, and we’re able to see exactly what they do, how they do it and whether they are truly representing us.”

Del Valle had authority to put the meeting archives on line because the council already had given his office the right to stream them live on the Web, as it has done for about two years.

But the council has not signed off on airing the meetings on cable TV, and Andy Shaw, executive director of the Better Government Association, said that step should be taken because 40 percent of Chicago residents don’t use the Internet as their primary source of information.

“These meetings should be televised on the city’s cable channels,” he said. “Let’s take the rest of the steps and do it right."

Posted by Rick Pearson at 4:50 p.m. 

Republican governor candidate Bill Brady promoted support for his candidacy from former rivals Sunday as he launched an effort to win over suburban moderate and independent voters unfamiliar with his record and background as a central Illinois state lawmaker.

Brady also said his pro-business background could help the GOP expand support to an African-American and Latino community looking for private-sector job creation and educational improvement and contended Democrats “turned their backs on the needs of minorities.”

Speaking at a unity event at the Alta Villa banquet hall in west suburban Addison, the Bloomington state senator received a show of support from his Feb. 2 primary rivals for governor—- five of whom have ties to DuPage County including state Sen. Kirk Dillard, who recently conceded a 193-vote defeat to Brady.

“I do know there’s a lot of people that need to know more about what I stand for, what our ticket stands for and what our party stands for,” Brady told several hundred people at the rally. “It’s going to be important that we reach out and sell that message.”

While Brady wants to campaign as an anti-tax increase, budget-cutting conservative, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn will seek to paint him as far to the right on social issues such as abortion rights and church interaction in public schools. On Sunday, Nancy Brady, the candidate’s wife, introduced her husband as “the person that I pray will be the next governor of the state.”

Brady, however, said he’s never been able to win office dependent upon Republican votes alone—even in his conservative GOP base of McLean County.

“This election is our time. It is our time to reach out, to reach beyond traditional Republican boundaries and borders, to reach out to independents and Democrats, to reach out to minorities—-blacks and Latinos—-and share the vision we have for the future of Illinois,” he said.

“Minorities are not, in this state, dependent on government jobs They’re looking for private-sector jobs,” said Brady, a real estate developer with other business interests. “They understand it’s private-sector principles that will bring big-box construction jobs, permanent jobs and affordable quality food to their communities.”

Joined by many of his statewide GOP ticketmates, Brady decried Quinn repeatedly as representing “the party of old” and called him “a candidate who refused to recognize the sins of the last eight years that have blackened the eye of Illinois on every late night talk show”—a reference to indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich whom Quinn replaced in January 2009.

But as he attacked Quinn’s recent call for a 33 percent increase in the state’s income tax—moving the personal rate from 3 percent to 4 percent—Brady also said he would not use his position as a state senator to sponsor his own budget plan.

Brady has called for 10 percent across-the-board cuts in spending as well as a $1 billion reduction in taxes in a state which faces a $13 billion budget deficit and has a backlog of $5 billion in unpaid bills. He has declined to offer budget specifics that go beyond those broad outlines.

“It doesn’t need to be put in legislation. It’s not complex,” Brady said of his fiscal plans. “We’re not going to play (the Democrats’) game. They’re all about politics and game playing.”

From today’s print edition:

Lawmakers get eviction notices

Budget crunch means state is slow to pay office rents

By Ray Long and Michelle Manchir, Tribune Reporters

The state’s money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting
eviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices
back home.





At least five state senators say they’ve piled up so much unpaid rent,
sheepish landlords are asking them when the government plans to make
good on its bills.





"He said, ‘Ira, I’m sorry,’" said Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago,
recalling a visit from his landlord delivering an eviction notice. "And
what am I going to do? I can’t argue with the man."





While none of the lawmakers has actually gotten the boot yet, they are
getting a taste of the frustratingly slow pace at which the state pays
bills as it careens toward a $13 billion budget hole. It’s a pain that’s
magnified exponentially for school districts, drug rehabilitation
counselors and businesses awaiting tax refunds.

"It certainly puts us in a position of looking like deadbeats," said
Sen. Mike Jacobs, an East Moline Democrat who got an eviction notice
last year from a longtime friend who has rented the same building for
years to the senator and his father before him. Payment eventually
arrived — nine months late — but Jacobs was prepared to pay if the state
had failed to come through.





A notice threatening eviction startled freshman Sen. Dan Duffy, a Lake
Barrington Republican. Unsure when the state will cough up the $10,000
it owes his landlord, Duffy is scrambling to see if he can take refuge
in a nearby secretary of state driver’s license outlet or a local
library should he eventually get evicted.





"When they can’t pay the rent of a Senate office, there’s no way they’re
going to be able to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in bills
that they have back due," Duffy said. "It just shows what a tragic
crisis we’re in and how far out of hand this is."





In the grand scope of what ails state government, the lawmakers all said
they recognized late rent for Senate offices is far from the most
pressing budget issue.





Each senator receives $83,063 a year as a district office allowance, and
the bills end up at the comptroller’s office.





Every day, comptroller workers sift through bills for all of state
government and prioritize what must be paid and what has to wait. Each
month, $2 billion is set aside. The state must make payments to schools
and repay short-term loans. It must pay hospitals, nursing homes and
doctors caring for Medicaid patients within 30 days in order to get the
best return from the federal government.





Languishing further back in line are the bills to pay rents for lawmaker
district offices.





Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago,
said he knew of no eviction notices going to House members, but has
heard that some legislators "on the brink" have had to dip into their
own pockets or campaign funds to pay landlords or keep phone service.





Getting utility bills paid in a timely fashion has been a problem for
Sen. John Jones, R-Mount Vernon.





"I’ve heard from collection agencies every month on the power bill and
the phone bill," Jones said. The state once fell seven months behind on
his district office’s $900-a-month rent, and he recalled the landlord
saying, "I gotta pay my bills, and I need my money."





Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, said the state may be as much as one
year and $24,000 behind on his office’s lease payments and that he’s had
to dip into campaign funds to make phone payments.





"Service was shut down," Kotowski said. "I wasn’t able to communicate
with my constituents, and constituents were not able to communicate with
me, and I just decided to use other funds to pay for it."





Silverstein said his landlord did get a payment after the senator
received the eviction notice, at least temporarily defusing the
situation.





But Silverstein’s landlord, Demetrios Spyrakos, said Friday he hasn’t
received rent payments since October. He’s owed more than $12,000 from
the state.





Spyrakos blames Gov. Pat Quinn, who’s tried but failed to get an income
tax increase approved. The Jamestown Realty co-owner said he thinks
Silverstein is a "good person, but I’ve been asking for the rent. He’s
trying, but nobody listens to him or to me."





Silverstein, whose office is in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, might
have to find a new place to work out of soon.





"If I don’t get my money by next month, I have to ask him politely to
leave and try to find another tenant," Spyrakos said. "What else can you
do? I can’t wait forever. Who’s going to pay my bills?"





It’s the first time Spyrakos has rented to a politician.





"And I think it’s going to be my last."

Posted by Monique Garcia and Ray Long at 5:20 p.m.; updated at 6:32 p.m.



Three top officials at the Illinois Department of Corrections are out in a staff shakeup at the prisons agency.



Spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said today that Executive Assistant Sergio Molina, Chief of Staff Jim Reinhart and Northern Regional Supervisor Jac Charlier are no longer state employees. Elman declined to comment further, citing privacy rules regarding personnel decisions.

The changes come after recent struggles for the prison agency under Gov. Pat Quinn. The administration says it’s keeping close tabs on the department following a controversial prisoner early release program implemented late last year.

In the run up to the Feb. 2 Democratic governor primary, Quinn found himself at the center of a firestorm surrounding the program after more than 1,700 inmates were released after serving just weeks behind state bars to save money.

At the time, Quinn put the blame on his corrections chief, Michael Randle, but said he would not fire him. The governor suspended the program and eventually acknowledged the ultimate blame rests with him.



A veteran prison administrator, Molina, 47, got word today that he was being dumped by the Quinn administration as a new corrections team is assembled.



"I received a notice this morning that my services were no longer needed, effective today," Molina said.

Asked if his departure had anything to do with the early release debacle, Molina said: "Director Michael Randle stood with the governor and took full responsibility for the early release program, and that’s precisely where the responsibility lies, with Director Randle."

The Tribune requested an interview with Randle today to discuss the shakeup, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Under the program, called meritorious good time push, Randle could grant any inmate up to 90 days’ worth of credit based on their behavior in prison. Many inmates were granted credit immediately upon entering prison, and as a result only spent weeks in state custody. Lawmakers have since cracked down on the practice, sending Quinn a measure that he later signed into law restricting qualifications for release.



Molina said he has served “at the pleasure of an administration” since he became an assistant warden at Joliet Correctional Center in 1994, meaning he could be let go at any time.

"I’ve been fortunate to have worked for nearly 25 years, starting my DOC career as a correctional officer in 1985, and I’m saddened to see it end."

The news of Molina’s dismissal came as a shock to state Sen. William
Delgado. The Democratic lawmaker from Chicago’s Northwest Side said
Molina was being used as a "scapegoat" to cover larger flaws within the
department that were brought to light following the prisoner release
scandal.





Delgado said Molina represents years of institutional knowledge and
proved to be a value to the corrections community by earning the
respect of several administrations, Democrat and Republican alike. But
Delgado said Molina was "isolated" almost immediately after Randle was
put in place in May 2009. Delagado, a former parole officer, said he
believes the release "blunder could have been prevented" if Randle had
properly consulted with Molina.





“What an atrocious decision by the administration of Quinn,” Delgado
said. “Because he brings in a new director who institutes the release
program, (Molina) gets pushed out. It’s shameful.”

Elman released a statement in response tonight. "There is no scapegoating. The director took responsibility months ago for the MGT-Push early release program. The program was suspended and is currently being reviewed and DOC is well on the way to fixing the challenges that have been identified. As we move forward, we will continue to make the necessary and appropriate changes," the statement read.

Reinhart, the chief of staff, resigned from his position.

"The governor does have to make changes, and in all honesty, there needs to be changes at DOC," Reinhart said. "The governor has recently hired some new staff that are very capable of moving the department forward."

Charlier could not immediately be reached for comment.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 5:28 p.m.

Nearly 60 people applied for two vacant Chicago aldermen jobs, according to a list City Hall released this afternoon.

The list, however, only identifies the candidates by their names, and was released after 4 p.m., making it tough to quickly verify many of the candidates. You can check out the applicant list by clicking here.

The 1st Ward spot has been open since January, when former Ald. Manny Flores went to work for Gov. Pat Quinn. Daley must appoint Flores’ replacement by Tuesday. Then the City Council gets to vote on the candidate.

Among the 35 vying in the near Northwest Side 1st Ward are Jesse Juarez, the ward’s Democratic committeeman; Deborah Lopez, senior government affairs liaison for the Chicago Transit Authority; Proco “Joe” Moreno, a onetime state Senate candidate; lawyer Jesse Ruiz, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education; and Raymond Valadez, who was Flores’ chief of staff.

The other City Council vacancy is in the 29th Ward. That seat came free last month when Isaac Carothers
pleaded guilty to bribery charges in federal court. Daley must appoint
a replacement to represent the West Side ward by April 2.

Among the 22 who want to succeed Carothers are Democratic state Rep. Deborah Graham; Rev. Marshall Hatch, vice president of Operation PUSH; Mary Russell Gardner, secretary of the Cook County Board of Forest Preserve Commissioners; and Bruce Washington, the county’s capital planning director.

Posted by John Byrne at 4:27 p.m.

City Hall officials today unveiled a revamped Web site, promising information will be easier to find because it’s now organized by types of city services instead of by departments.

The site remains cityofchicago.org, but the updated version features a menu allowing people to choose what they want to do, such as "Pay For/Buy." That link then leads to a list of
things to pay for, including parking tickets and water bills.

On the old site, users had to figure out which city departments handled their specific requests.

The city’s site now also links to other online government offices,
such as the Secretary of State’s office, where people can get information about how to apply for driver’s licenses
and state IDs.


 


"One of the feedbacks we got from Chicagoans is that when they’re
trying to get a service from the city government, they do not have to
need to know which department provides that service," said Chief Information Officer Hardik Bhatt. "They
want that service, and they want to get to that service or the
information faster."


 


The site also provides links to social networking sites like Twitter,
and multimedia online offerings, including Mayor Richard Daley’s
YouTube channel. Links to individual city departments and the City Council remain part of the site, as well.

The yearlong, $1.8 million redesign is the first in nine years. Bhatt said he wanted to make sure it also could handle a higher volume of users as more Chicagoans buy new city stickers online.

Posted by Ray Long at 12:44 p.m.; last updated at 1:41 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers today approved legislation that would put new restrictions on a much-criticized, century-old legislative scholarship program in which the perks sometimes went to to relatives, cronies and political donors.

While the measure contains provisions designed to curb those practices, it also leaves loopholes that would not have prevented some of the politically-connected grants doled out the previous five years, according to a Tribune analysis of state records.

Still, House lawmakers hailed the legislation, which now goes to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk.

"I believe that taking baby steps is better than taking no steps at all," said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, who voted in favor of the ban.



The measure, approved 85-22, with one lawmaker voting present, would ban a legislator from giving a scholarship to someone whose immediate family could be linked to a campaign contribution within the previous five years. In addition, family members of a scholarship recipient could not give a campaign contribution for five years to a lawmaker who distributed the award.



Sponsoring Rep. Bob Flider, D-Mount Zion, said the restrictions go to the heart of scandals in which scholarships have gone to students from families who have given campaign contributions to the lawmaker. He argued the program cost public universities nearly $12.5 million because the schools pick up the costs as tuition waivers.



"If this continues, we need to take the politics out of the program," Flider said.



The scholarship program drew a second look this year as lawmakers wrestled to salvage financial aid for low-income students and Tribune revelations showed legislators have used the waivers to sway admissions decisions at the University of Illinois.



Another key provision responding to the newspaper’s probe would require students getting a scholarship to be accepted at a state university before the tuition waiver is awarded. A scholarship recipient could be required to reimburse a university if it is discovered that information provided when applying for the scholarship was false.



But Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, maintained the restrictions will not stop the abuse of scholarships. Black said the only reason lawmakers were considering the restrictions was to provide opponents of a ban "roll call cover" when constituents complain that they refused to address the scholarship scandal.



Black, who has long refused to take part in the program, said the restrictions represented a charade that should not be given serious consideration.

"I’m not going to vote for this," Black said. "I’ll vote ‘No.’ "

The Tribune reported last month that legislators still would be able to award scholarships to the children of elected officials, lobbyists, campaign workers, office staff and party loyalists. Students whose relatives donate to powerful ward and township organizations also would remain eligible.

A Tribune analysis of scholarship and other public data showed that lawmakers gave free rides to the relatives of at least 35 elected officials from 2005 to 2008. An additional 87 went to the children of people who contributed to the lawmakers’ ward committees, township organizations or county parties.



Each of those waivers would be permitted under the proposed reforms.



The legislative program has raised repeated questions about lawmakers’ doling out scholarships as political plums — most recently in September when the Tribune found legislators gave at least 140 scholarships to relatives of their campaign donors from 2003 to 2008.

Legislators get two four-year scholarships each year, which they carve up any way they choose. Most divide them into eight one-year awards that waive tuition and fees at state schools.



In 2008, the lawmakers awarded 1,509 scholarships totaling $12.5 million, or an average of $8,300 apiece.

The Illinois House also approved legislation to ban the scholarships altogether, but House members were unsure the measure would be called for a vote in the Senate.

A spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said today that the Senate doesn’t have immediate plans to vote on the issue again this session.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, said she "absolutely" wants the Senate to vote on the scholarship program ban. She pushed her own bill to ban the scholarships but was blocked by Senate Democrats when Cullerton sponsored and passed the restrictions as an alternative to eliminating the program.



Radogno, who has suspended her participation in the scholarship program, called the legislation’s set of restrictions "wholly inadequate."



"It’s more evidence that, even when we have a simple opportunity to clean things up in this state, the Democrats refuse to do it," Radogno said.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 10:15 a.m.



Democratic Party officials will vote March 27 on a candidate to replace Scott Lee Cohen as their lieutenant governor nominee, state party chairman Michael Madigan announced today.



In a letter to the 38-member Democratic State Central Committee, Madigan said four hearings to interview prospective candidates for the running mate job will be held a week from tomorrow in Chicago, Hoffman Estates, Bolingbrook and Springfield. A final vote on a nominee by the state central committee is set for a week later in Springfield.

More than 220 people have submitted applications for the job in an online open casting call held by Democrats looking for a running mate for Gov. Pat Quinn in the Nov. 2 general election. Cohen, a Chicago pawnbroker, won the nomination on Feb. 2 but gave it up following controversial revelations about his personal life.

Among those seeking the lieutenant governor’s job is state Rep. Art Turner, a Chicago Democrat who finished second to Cohen in the primary, and Sheila Simon, the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

The state central committee is made up of two representatives from each of the state’s 19 congressional districts.

From today’s print edition:

Restaurant owners charged in check-kiting scheme

Father and son who ran Boston Blackies ripped off banks for $1.9 million, prosecutors say

By Matthew Walberg, John Chase and David Jackson, Tribune reporters

A father and son who operated the Boston Blackie’s burger restaurants
were charged Thursday with ripping off nearly $1.9 million from two
banks in a check-cashing scheme, and authorities said they arrested the
father on the U.S. border as he was trying to enter Canada.





The allegations caused a new round of political embarrassment for
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias,
whose family owns Broadway Bank and has long known the father and son.

The Blackie’s operators are accused of writing bad checks from their
accounts at Broadway to other banks as part of their alleged scheme.
Longtime Blackie’s operator Nick Giannis gave Giannoulias more than
$114,000 in campaign contributions for his treasurer and Senate
campaigns.

Giannoulias was in a state of "shock and disbelief" at the news,
according to his campaign, which announced he would donate an
equivalent amount to local charities.





Giannis, 62, his son, Chris, 38, and restaurant manager Andy
Bakopoulos, 38, were charged with defrauding Charter One and Washington
Mutual banks. Chris Giannis also was charged with two counts of being
an organizer of a continuing financial crimes enterprise.





Nick Giannis was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection
officers in Detroit while attempting to enter Canada after he failed to
surrender to authorities and investigators sent out a nationwide alert.





Prosecutors said the men participated in a so-called check-kiting
scheme in which they wrote checks from bank accounts that didn’t have
enough money and deposited those checks at Charter One and Washington
Mutual. They then withdrew money from their Charter One and Washington
Mutual accounts before the checks actually cleared, or in some cases
stopped payments on the checks.





Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez did not identify a motive
for the alleged scheme. But a law enforcement source said the Giannis
family had overextended itself and was trying to stave off creditors on
bills owed related to the business and some expansions or new ventures
they had planned.





Chris Giannis’ attorney, former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick
Devine, said his client was "caught up in a tough business situation,
and he did the best he could under difficult circumstances." Giannis
was allowed to take out more money than what was in the Charter One
bank account, according to Devine, who said such overdraft protection
is commonly extended to restaurant owners because of the unpredictable
nature of their business.




In a proffer filed by prosecutors, Bakopoulos admitted stopping
payment on checks he had just deposited and acknowledged he knew that
was wrong. But he said he was told to do it by Chris Giannis and needed
the job.





The Boston Blackie’s chain, which expanded from a single restaurant in
the River East neighborhood in the 1980s to eight outlets in the city
and suburbs, has struggled financially. The company filed for
bankruptcy late last year.





The restaurants have remained open during the bankruptcy proceedings,
and Thursday’s charges were not expected to have any immediate impact,
according to an attorney representing the Boston Blackie’s management
company.





Broadway Bank is listed in the bankruptcy case as an unsecured
creditor, owed $1.6 million for a commercial loan to the Boston
Blackie’s restaurant in Lincoln Park.





Broadway Bank was not a victim of the scheme nor was it accused of any wrongdoing, prosecutors said.





But the case brought unwanted attention to a political soft spot for
Giannoulias. He has faced tough questions about loans Broadway Bank
made to people with criminal backgrounds while he was the senior loan
officer and what role he played in financial decisions that have left
the bank on the brink of insolvency.





The charges came on a day when Giannoulias was trying to change the
conversation, holding a news conference at a small business in the West
Loop to promote his jobs plan and slam his Republican opponent, U.S.
Rep. Mark Kirk, about his votes that favored "Wall Street and special
interests." Instead, by the end of the day, Kirk was firing back,
saying Broadway’s mention in the Boston Blackie’s case represented a
"disturbing pattern."





In a 2006 interview with the Tribune, Nick Giannis said he has known
the Giannoulias family for years and was a friend of Giannoulias’
father, Alexis, who oversaw the loans to Giannis. He said he was not
donating to Giannoulias’ campaign to win favor with Broadway.





"I am doing it because the kid is an honorable, hard-working guy,"
Giannis said. "This has nothing to do with the bank or any loans. It’s
just a personal thing."





All three men were in custody Thursday night.





Tribune reporter Annie Sweeney contributed to this report.

From the Breaking News Center:

The
filing also said that some who acted as advisers to Blagojevich while
he still was governor have changed their opinions about whether he
violated the statute, which requires that elected officials perform
their duties honestly.

Read more from Tribune federal courts reporter Jeff Coen by clicking here.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:40 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn spoke at a Springfield middle school today as he continues his push for an income tax increase, warning that thousands of teachers will be laid off if lawmakers don’t go along with his plan.

The governor, however, didn’t pick the best school to illustrate his point. Walter Milton, Springfield’s schools superintendent, said his district could prevent layoffs next year even if Quinn’s proposed education cuts go through.



Milton said the district is finalizing its budget and working to keep cuts “as far away from the classroom as possible.” Milton said while teachers will not face layoffs if education cuts go through, he won’t be able to hire as many new teachers as in the past.

Milton said the Springfield district averages about 100 new teachers each year to keep classroom sizes down, but that likely would fall to 30 or 40 if the state cuts school funding. The state also owes the district about $6 million in payments, though Milton said the district has been able to plug the hole from excess funds elsewhere.



Quinn on Wednesday proposed raising the state income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent — a 33 percent income tax increase — or he says schools will face $1.3 billion in cuts. His plan has already come under criticism as an attempt to scare parents into pressuring lawmakers to raise taxes.



Quinn denied that today, saying the hole is a result of the expiration of federal stimulus funds that “saved” school budgets last year.



“There’s no scaring involved, the bottom line is the federal money is not coming,” Quinn said during his appearance at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. “We have to make it clear to the people what the stakes are.”



Quinn is scheduled to visit a Chicago elementary school this afternoon.

Posted by Michelle Manchir at 12:38 p.m.; updated at 3:20 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ primary election would be pushed back to March under legislation the House sent to Gov. Pat Quinn today.

If the governor signs the measure into law as expected, the state’s experiment with a February primary would end after just two elections.

Lawmakers pushed back the 2008 presidential primary to February to try to help then-Sen. Barack Obama get an early win in a big state. That worked. But last month, the early primary date was partly blamed for the debacle that left Democrats with Scott Lee Cohen as the party’s lieutenant governor nominee before he dropped out under pressure. Democrats are still searching for a Cohen replacement.

"The experience with the February primary, I think, was not a good one for voters or the candidates," said sponsoring Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook. "Coming on so quickly on the heels of the holidays and being in the middle of winder didn’t help turnout and also was a real difficult hurdle for a grassroots campaign. Someone who wanted to rely on volunteers and get their message out that way. This really was an impediment to having a successful campaign."



Supporters contended the change, back to the third Tuesday in March, would help boost voter turnout, which hit a modern record low Feb. 2.



"Anything other than a February primary is better than what we just went through," said Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville,  "The February primary was a disaster, and at least this is a step forward."



The measure would move Illinois’ primary to the
third Tuesday in March, where it had been for decades. The House approved it 114-1, with one lawmaker voting present. The Senate signed off last month.

Quinn supports the legislation and "looks forward to signing it," said Marlena Jentz, the governor’s spokeswoman.

Posted by John Chase at 7:35 p.m.

Republican Senate nominee Mark Kirk and his now ex-wife made more than $232,000 in 2008 – the most since he became a congressman, according to ten years worth of tax returns his campaign made available Wednesday.

Most of the money came from Kirk’s $169,300 congressional salary, but more than $62,000 came from wages earned by his ex-wife, Kimberly Vertolli, who is an attorney, according to Kirk’s campaign. They filed their 2008 return jointly.

They also reported rental real estate income of more than $3,900 for property they rented out in Alexandria, Va., the return shows. A Kirk spokesman said the property belonged to Vertolli.

Kirk, who was elected in 2000 to represent the North Shore in Congress, released his taxes Wednesday. Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias, the state’s treasurer, released his tax returns last year during his primary race. Giannoulias’ reports showed he made millions of dollars from his family’s bank, Broadway Bank, much of it from payouts related to his father’s 2006 death.

Kirk and his ex-wife paid $38,160 in taxes during 2008 and had to pay nearly $5,300 more when they filed. They also gave more than $2,600 to charity, the report shows, including to Goodwill, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and the Kenilworth Union Church.

The couple also had investments with Charles Schwab, Fidelity Contrafund, MetLife and Newfield Bancorp, which reports show earned them about $2,000 a year dating back to 2003.

Kirk’s joint income rose steadily over the years, the reports show, from $124,000 in 2001 when he first entered Congress to $201,800 in 2007, when the couple saw a $50,000 increase due mostly to Vertolli increasing her legal business, his campaign said.

From the Cityscape blog:

Just days after the co-architect of Chicago’s renowned Inland Steel Building
died, Mayor Richard Daley’s administration introduced a measure Wednesday to
give the delayed rehab of the modernist landmark a multi-million-dollar property
tax break.

Located at 30 W. Monroe Street, the Inland Steel Building was co-designed by
architect
Bruce Graham, who died Saturday. Graham, a former partner at the Chicago
office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, also designed the Willis (originally
Sears) Tower and the John Hancock Center.

Read more on Blair Kamin’s Cityscapes blog by clicking here.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 2:40 p.m.



Mayor Richard Daley signaled today that controversial recommendations for reforming the city’s employee pension systems will be coming soon.



The announcement came more than two years after the mayor appointed a commission to of top financial managers to find ways to strengthen pension funds for the city, Park District, Chicago Housing Authority and City Colleges of Chicago.



“I expect these recommendations to come very shortly,” Daley said. “We all recognize that the status quo will not work. . . . It’s time to reform a system that isn’t working for our city’s budget, our city’s taxpayers or for some of our employees, for that matter.”

Daley went on to suggest the recommendations won’t be timid. “I hope it’s controversial,” he said. “It has to be. If it’s not controversial, then it’s not worth anything.”



Earlier this week, the Civic Federation, a non-partisan government budget watchdog group primarily funded by business interests, released a report indicating local unfunded government pension liabilities in Chicago have grown nearly five-fold in the past decade.



Inadequate pension funding long has been recognized as a growing problem threatening the solvency of local and state budgets in many parts of the country.



“I cannot overstate how important this is,” Daley said. “We need pension reform to protect Chicago taxpayers and their interests.



“Remember, people across the nation and in Chicago, they are angry at what they see as a system that puts government bureaucrats ahead of taxpayers. At this very same time, they are threatened with losing their jobs and pensions.”



Daley said he had yet to see the recommendations, but suggested one target of reforms would be “double dipping,” in which someone retires from a government job and gets hired for another government post while receiving a pension.

Posted by John Byrne at 1:05 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley today threw his support behind state Rep. Art Turner for the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination vacated by troubled Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen.

The mayor said it makes sense to add the veteran lawmaker to the statewide ticket as Gov. Pat Quinn’s running mate because Turner came in second place in last month’s Democratic primary election.

 

"Well, like anything else, there’s only one winner for the lieutenant governor’s position, and that’s Turner, Art Turner, he won second," Daley said while talking with reporters after the City Council meeting at City Hall. "If you run for public office and the person drops out before the election or even after the election, the person who was second moves automatically up. If you forfeit a game, you win the game."

Turner finished second to Cohen among six candidates in the Feb. 2 primary. Cohen subsequently withdrew under pressure from Democratic leaders amid revelations that he has been accused of abusive behavior, falling behind on support payments, and having a relationship with a prostitute.

 

The 38-member Democratic State Central Committee gets to vote on a replacement for Cohen, and officials have discussed nominating a white candidate from downstate rather than Turner, who is black, in a bid to balance the ticket.

 

But Daley said Turner should move up.

 

"(Turner) put his name, his career on the line for the public good," the mayor said.

 

"Whether you voted for him or not, he came in second place," Daley added.

The state Democratic party also is taking online applications for the lieutenant governor spot. So far, more than 220 people have submitted their names, including Sheila Simon, the daughter of late former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.