QUOTE OF THE DAY
Advocates seeking to change how Illinois draws its legislative districts are following through on a promise to keep trying, even after getting knocked off of this year’s ballot.
Members of the “Yes for Independent Maps” effort cheered when they turned in half million signatures to state elections authorities in May.
It was what they thought was going to land their constitutional amendment question on the November ballot, so voters could decide if, in the future, they wanted to strip lawmakers of the ability to draw their own legislative districts.
SF Gate: Illinois among top in US for campaign ad spending
If it seems as though the number of political ads on television has ramped up markedly this election, now there’s concrete proof.
Fueled by a neck-and-neck contest for governor including a wealthy Republican candidate with money to burn, Illinois has seen a roughly 30 percent increase in the number of TV ads and the money spent to air them this election cycle compared to four years ago, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity.
The review released Wednesday found candidates for Illinois offices spent more than $26.4 million to air an estimated 34,589 ads between Jan. 1, 2013, and Sept. 8 of this year. That’s up from about $20.5 million for an estimated 26,554 ads during roughly the same time period in 2010, the last year Illinois elected a governor and other statewide office holders.
Chicago Sun Times: Ex-Mayor Daley’s firm profits from Lollapalooza’s promoter’s deal
Richard M. Daley was mayor when Chicago first agreed to turn over Grant Park for a summer weekend every year to three guys who all are named Charlie.
Within a year of Daley’s last day in the mayor’s office, the three Charlies would no longer enjoy the break they had been getting from paying local amusement taxes for their Lollapalooza music festival.
Yet the relationship between their company, C3 Presents LLC, and the Daley family has endured and grown.
Merced Sun Star: Auto insurer to market Blue Cross health coverage
Consumers shopping for health insurance in five states will be able to buy one well-known brand from a leading provider of car insurance.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans and State Farm announced Tuesday they’re joining forces for the second year of expanded coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care law. State Farm agents will sell health policies both on and off the new insurance marketplaces, allowing consumers who qualify to take advantage of financial assistance under the law.
More than 3,300 State Farm employees will market Blue Cross policies in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, said Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. and Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm in a news release.
Chicago Business Journal: CF Industries said considering merger with Yara International
CF Industries, the Deerfield, Illinois-based fertilizer manufacturer and distributor, has started discussions about a merger with Yara International, of Norway.
The Associated Press reported that the two companies emphasized the talks are in early stages and could easily go nowhere. That report also noted that should the two companies combine, the new company’s market capitalization of more than $26 billion would place it behind only Canada’sPotash Corporation (NYSE: POT) among fertilizer firms, but with far more robust sales, of about $20 billion.
Together, CF Industries (NYSE: CF) and Yara might realize certain savings thanks to the natural gas boom in the United States, Bloomberg reported. Furthermore — though recent events may have changed the calculations— Bloomberg said CF Industries may have sought a tax-inversion deal, with the new company’s headquarters located in Norway.
Chicago Sun Times: CPS reminds employees of restrictions on political activity
As petitions began circulating to add the president of the Chicago Teachers Union to the mayoral ballot, the head of Chicago Public Schools reminded employees that engaging in improper political activity on the job could cost them their jobs.
Among the activities on paid Board of Education time banned by the board’s ethics guidelines are using school copiers or phones for political activity; soliciting contributions or votes for a particular candidate; an wearing any political T-shirts or buttons or displaying posters in board work space.
That’s according to a letter, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday, from Barbara Byrd-Bennett to officials and employees of the Board of Education.
St. Louis Post Dispatch: Director of Illinois children’s hospital accused of embezzling $500,000
A children’s hospital official in central Illinois faces a charge of embezzling $500,000 from the institution since 2008, according to a published report.
Springfield police on Monday arrested Margaret “Peggy” Curtin, 55, executive director of St. John’s Children’s Hospital, according to the report in The State Journal-Register in Springfield. She is in custody at the Sangamon County Jail on $1 million bond, State’s Attorney John Milhiser said in a news release Tuesday.
Curtin has been charged with felony theft after St. John’s Hospital officials “discovered financial irregularities related to certain hospital operations and contacted law enforcement,” the news release said. “St. John’s Hospital officials are cooperating fully with law enforcement as they investigate the matter.”
The Guardian: Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account
The police hadn’t even come for him. When four fully-armed officers of a Swat team burst into Jacob Elliott’s house in Peoria, Illinois in April they were looking for the source of a parody Twitter feed that had upset the town’s mayor by poking fun at him.
It transpired that one of Elliott’s housemates, Jon Daniel, had created the fake Twitter account, @peoriamayor, and so incensed the real-life official, Jim Ardis, with his make-believe account of drug binges and sex orgiesthat the police were dispatched. Elliott was just a bystander in the affair, but that didn’t stop the Swat team searching his bedroom, looking under his pillow and in a closet where they discovered a bag of marijuana and dope-smoking paraphernalia.
Elliott now faces charges of felony marijuana possession. He has also become the subject of one of the more paradoxical – if not parody – questions in American jurisprudence: can a citizen be prosecuted for dope possession when the police were raiding his home looking for a fake Twitter account?
CARTOON OF THE DAY
