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Belleville News-Democrat: St. Clair County proves justice is blind, to anything but big state union’s demands
The largest state employee union was handed a serious defeat by the Illinois Labor Relations Board, declaring an impasse that would allow Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to impose his final, best offer of bonus pay for showing up to work and overtime after working 40 hours like most of us. The savings to Illinois taxpayers was estimated at more than $2 million a day.
The rallying cry across the state was “Negotiate. Don’t dictate.”
So the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees next move was to file suit and ask a judge to dictate. Where would they find such a judge? In Springfield where all the parties have offices and lawyers?
Nope. They picked St. Clair County and got the master of the “resignation for re-election” two-step, Circuit Judge Robert LeChien. Last week he issued a temporary restraining order stopping the state’s Department of Management Services from implementing any changes Rauner might make.
News-Gazette: Our leaders are turning bad into worse
It’s always darkest — just before things get even worse.
That’s supposed to be a joke, a foray into gallows humor that is a takeoff on those optimists who predict happy endings in the midst of thoroughgoing disaster.
Chicago Tribune: FBI told state GOP in June its emails had been hacked
The FBI notified the Illinois Republican Party in June that some of its email accounts may have been hacked, but party officials were not told that it was part of a wide-ranging federal investigation of Russian activity in the nation’s political system, the state GOP’s executive director said Sunday.
Nick Klitzing said the state GOP on its own found 18 of its emails on the website DCLeaks.com. The New York Times reported the website was an outlet that U.S. intelligence officials and private cybersecurity companies believe was created by a unit controlled by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.
WGN: Will the House ever come to mutual agreement?
Statehouse Bureau Chief Amanda Vinicky from Illinois Public radio discusses the latest in the state government impasse.
My Web Times: Why all Illinoisans need action on workers’ comp
At first glance, workers’ compensation reform might seem like small potatoes.
That’s because its effects can be tough for people to see: The payroll of a small trucking business in East Peoria, a routine railroad repair job in Rochelle, salaries at a Springfield steel shop.
This type of blue-collar work is where employers can experience serious pain on their workers’ compensation bills. Those costs, the highest in the Midwest, kill jobs growth and higher salaries. That’s why some state politicians dismiss workers’ compensation as purely an economic issue. They say it should be off the table in budget discussions.
Chicago Tribune: Discipline of cop involved in 2 fatal shootings fell through the cracks
Chicago police sergeant who shot an apparently unarmed man last month — his second fatal shooting in three years — might have been fired years ago, but that disciplinary case fell through the cracks for reasons the Police Department cannot explain, the Tribune has learned.
Chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Superintendent Eddie Johnson has ordered that an audit be done to try to figure out why the internal investigation of Sgt. John Poulos was never completed.
AP: Sen. Raoul aims to solve Chicago gun violence with sentencing
The refrain is heard almost as often as the fatal gunshots: The way to reduce Chicago’s gun violence is tougher prison sentences for repeat gun offenders, keeping them off the streets and decreasing the city’s mounting death toll.
That idea, pushed by the mayor, police superintendent and others, shifts pressure from patrol officers of the city’s West and South sides to the Capitol, where legislators will consider how to balance law and order with finding alternatives to imprisoning young blacks and other minorities.