QUOTE OF THE DAY
Pantagraph: Audit of Quinn program sent to authorities
A scathing audit of an anti-violence program launched by Gov. Pat Quinn in 2010 has been sent to law enforcement authorities.
Republican lawmakers released a letter Friday from Auditor General William Holland. It indicated the audit of Quinn’s $55 million “Neighborhood Recovery Initiative” went to James Lewis, U.S. attorney for the central district of Illinois, and Ricardo Meza (MAY’-zuh), the state’s executive inspector general. The legislators had asked Holland to forward his findings.
The Democrat Quinn initiated the Chicago-area anti-violence program in the fall of 2010. But Holland’s audit found “pervasive deficiencies” in the program which Republicans believe could involve criminal activity. Quinn has said he’s the one who fixed problems.
Chicago Tribune: CPS wants pension reform in Springfield this year
Chicago Public Schools was informed by the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund last month that the district’s required payment for fiscal year 2015 will be $696 million. To put this figure in perspective, this could represent an additional $1 million in spending for the average CPS elementary school.
As Illinois Senate President John Cullerton recently declared, this is the greatest crisis facing Illinois.
If we fail to get meaningful, comprehensive pension reform in Springfield this year, we will face continued deficits, which mean further cuts to school budgets, and the essential educational programs and social services our children deserve. The situation is that urgent.
Bloomberg: De Blasio, Emanuel Bemoan U.S. Indifference to Cities
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said there’s “not a cavalry coming right now from Washington” to solve issues of economic inequality, education and homelessness confronting the nation’s cities.
In an era of Tea Party politics pressing for reduced government spending, responsibility rests with mayors, and it does no good “to curse the darkness,” said de Blasio, who became leader of the most-populous U.S. city in January.
De Blasio, 52, joined Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in an all-Democrat forum yesterday on the future of cities at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. In a friendly, 75-minute discussion before an audience of about 250, they took turns condemning the politics of special interests and bashing the federal government’s neglect of urban challenges.
Chicago Sun Times: Push on as Obamacare deadline approaches
Having dealt with high blood pressure for years, Darren Williams knows all too well how expensive doctor visits and prescriptions can be without health insurance.
He has been uninsured since 2008.
So the 47-year-old Pullman resident was interested in applying for health insurance through President Barack Obama’s health care law.
But until late February, Williams said he hadn’t taken the step to enroll because he hadn’t had the time.
NY Times: Jobs at a Turning Point
Measured against low expectations, the employment report for February was a relief. The news that the economy added 175,000 jobs last month was better than anticipated, and much better than the dismal reports in December and January. That has raised hopes for a spring bounce, a safe bet given the probable hit to employment in the past few months from bad winter weather.
It is also a safe bet, however, that any such lift will be unsustainable. Whatever catch-up businesses play this spring will be against a backdrop of continued high joblessness, poor quality of jobs available and low pay.
The February unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, for example, would have been 10 percent if the 5.7 million workers who are waiting on the sidelines for job openings were included in the jobless rate. The share of jobless workers out of work for more than six months actually increased, from 35.8 percent in January to 37 percent, or 203,000 people, a situation made all the worse by Republican refusal to reinstate expired federal unemployment benefits this year. Nearly half of the new positions added last month were in temporary jobs and low-paying fields, including bars, restaurants and janitorial services.
Real Clear Markets: Economy Remains Anemic Despite ‘Upward Trend’
The White House and the media tell us we should celebrate the 175,000 jobs created in February. Relative to the president’s miserable record on job creation, we suppose this is progress of sorts. But not much.
Remember in January – even with an upward revision – employers added less than 100,000 jobs, so economists are hyping the “upward trend.”
And it’s certainly true that some jobs were lost due to the blizzards and record cold in the East and Great Lakes states.
WSJ: The uninsured aren’t buying what the ObamaCare marketplace is selling
ObamaCare is now in the sixth and final month of its extended inaugural open-enrollment period. If you want to buy medical insurance through the exchange–a big if, we realize–you have until the end of the month to do it, or wait till autumn to buy a policy for next year.
This column has analyzed the disaster of ObamaCare in terms of three phases. Phase 1, the technical failure, was evident as soon as open enrollment began on Oct. 1 and many of the exchange websites proved to have been incompetently designed. Technical problems continue to emerge, including, as noted here last week, the Internal Revenue Service’s tardiness in preparing the final instructions for Form 8960, which taxpayers must file if they owe the new ObamaCare “net investment income tax.”
CARTOON OF THE DAY
