WSJ: Obama’s Email List Costs Group More Than $1.2 Million a Year
Want to borrow President Barack Obama’s campaign email list? It will cost a pretty penny.
The nonprofit group Organizing for Action is paying more than $1.2 million a year to rent what is widely believed to be the largest political email list ever created, according to new tax filings released Friday to The Wall Street Journal.
OFA is paying the Obama campaign — which still exists on paper — just under $5 million for a four-year rental of the campaign’s much vaunted email list and campaign data. OFA has paid about $1.3 million of the total balance, according to tax records.
Fox Business: Rockford exploring partnership with Uber, says smartphone app could fill transportation gaps
The city of Rockford is considering a publicly funded partnership with Uber, the company whose GPS-based smartphone app connects people with the nearest taxi or rideshare car at the click of a button.
Mayor Larry Morrissey sees it as a way to fill gaps in the city’s public transportation network and help residents get to jobs in places not served by buses. Such a partnership would be a first for the 5-year-old tech company, said Uber Chicago General Manager Chris Taylor.
The idea is still in the brainstorming phase, but it is possible the city could use federal grants to help subsidize people’s trips in Uber cars, so long as they are to and from work, Morrissey tells the Rockford Register Star.
Points and Figures: Can We Afford Entitlements?
In her annual pitch, Mary Meeker pointed out that entitlements are consuming 63% of the federal budget and rising. That’s unsustainable. I don’t know when it reaches a crisis level, but if we continue down the path we are going, it will. In October, the Atlanta Federal Reserve bank hosted its annual employment conference. They blogged about it here.
The question of entitlements boils down to a couple of issues. Is the benefit of entitlement programs worth the cost? The other issue is what is a basic Constitutional right?
My own feeling is that there needs to be some sort of safety net for people out there, but that the net our country, states, and cities has weaved today is far to big. In program after program, the bureaucracy that administers the program eats up a large percentage of the dollars so less goes to the actual people that the program was designed for.
Chicago Tribune: Quinn-Rauner fight echoes as lawmakers return for veto session
The campaign is over but remnants of the fight between Gov. Pat Quinn and Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner remain as lawmakers return to Springfield this week, with the Democrat looking to score a final victory by raising the state’s minimum wage while the Republican pleads with legislators to hold off on major votes.
Also simmering is whether or when lawmakers will grant Quinn’s wish to make permanent the 2011 income tax increase he signed into law. That idea already has been dismissed by one Democratic leader even though some rank-and-file members say the state can’t afford the $4 billion-a-year hole that would result if tax rates drop as scheduled Jan. 1.
Whether there will be any movement in the fall veto session on those big issues depends on how willing the majority Democrats will be to push through measures favored by Quinn as he exits office and just how active Rauner will be as he prepares to step in.
ChicagoNow: CTA cracks down on fraudulent use of free and reduced fare cards
The CTA is cracking down on fraudulent rides taken with free-ride and reduced-fare cards.
Since October 2014, the CTA has collected more than 1,800 free and reduced-fare cards during the card-verification efforts. It estimates that the lost potential annualized revenue from the fraudulent use of those cards at $2.8 million.
Last month is when the CTA began performing card-verification efforts at rail stations throughout the city and suburbs, verifying that individuals using any type of free or reduced-fare card were the cardholder listed on the face of the card.
Washington Post: Why public-sector unions lost big in Illinois
A week after the midterm election, Gregg Johnson heaved himself into a chair around a rickety table in a shopfront union hall here and lamented the state of public-sector unions in America.
“Tough week,” said Johnson, who had just retired from three decades working in the supply room of a local prison, where he serves as president of the American Federation of State and Municipal Employees local chapter. His state, after all, had just elected Bruce Rauner –a multimillionaire investor who campaigned on the idea that “government union bosses” were sucking the state dry with their salaries and pensions –as its next governor.
Medium: 1,000 Trips Later: Confessions Of A Lyft Driver
I’m exactly five weeks into launching my startup, and my cofounder and I are still very much bootstrapping. My auto lender and landlord don’t accept equity, bitcoin, or high-fives as currency, so I’ve got to bring in cash in creative ways. Lyft driving in San Francisco is my interim solution, and I’ve racked up over 1,000 rides thus far.
I can usually fit in around 15–20 hours of drive time in on the weekends, while still keeping Monday through Friday to work on my startup, Whttl. A typical weekend brings in about $500. It’s enough to support my extraordinarily bare bones lifestyle. My wife and daughter may not be as receptive to Ramen as I am, but we still keep it on the cheap.
I figured I would break down the questions that I get asked most frequently. Here we go, listed in no particular order:
Chicago Tribune: Memo to Bruce Rauner: Kill the Illiana Expressway
Back in September, when you and Gov. Pat Quinn met with us to talk about the Nov. 4 election, we asked whether the Illiana Expressway would be built if you were elected governor.
The question should have been right in your wheelhouse, given that your campaign was all about fiscal responsibility and the Illiana promises to be a money-sucking fiasco. “Don’t know,” you said. “Have to see the studies.”
Have you had a chance to look at them yet?
New York Times: In Congress, Obama’s Health Care Act Is Still a Target
As President Obama and congressional Republicans profess to search for common ground, both sides are preparing to lob grenades: the president with an executive action on immigration, the new Congress by making the repeal of the Affordable Care Act one of its first initiatives.
The furor over an immigration action, which some Republicans charge would be an impeachable offense, is overdone. Whatever Mr. Obama does could be overturned by Congress or rescinded by the next president; that’s the nature of executive actions.
And a move to repeal the Affordable Care Act is merely a sop to the Republican Party’s right-wing base. It isn’t likely to get through the Senate, and it certainly wouldn’t overcome a presidential veto.