My Blog

Tag: The Machine

  • Quinn Spends Another $1.5 Billion We Don’t Have

    Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Thursday signed into law an extra $1.5 billion in spending for road construction and child welfare investigations, even as Republicans decried the measure as including ill-timed, pork barrel money. via Chicago Tribune. What is wrong with this guy?  Really? Quinn already stopped a bond auction because the rates for Illinois…

  • What Quinn Didn’t Say

    “Yes, we are going to continue milking Illinois taxpayers like a dairy cow…” what Gov. Quinn didn’t tell you State of State Address February 6, 2013 Word cloud of State of State Address (what we heard) Yesterday, Gov. Quinn gave the “State of the State”. Here’s the rest of the story… The growth of state…

  • Quinn’s Motto: Move Your Business Out

    Today’s Local Bad News: Illinois companies warned in January that they may lay off as many as 1,200 workers in the next two months, according to filings with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. viaChicago Tribune. The economy sucks and the media doesn’t want to talk about it.  Manufacturing in Illinois is on…

  • UNO Charter Schools Engaging in Graft & Corruption

    Kudos for the Sun-Times for shedding light on this. Business as usual.  The friends of the friends get rich on the backs of the taxpayer.

  • More Money 4 Medical Malpractice Lawyers in IL

    Medical malpractice lawyers are poised to make more money after Gov. Pat Quinn quietly signed a law allowing them to collect higher fees. Doctors groups criticize the change, arguing that it will result in less money for injured patients who need it for costly health care and therapy. They also contend the measure was quickly…

  • Illinois Credit — Worst in the Nation

    Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the…

  • Newton CT – Day 3

    I wrote something short on the Facebook page of an old friend who called for more “gun control.”  He wrote back.  I wrote this response.   I actually live on the “West Side” near [omitted.]  My first comment on the Newton matter was to wonder why the events in Newton & Aurora get big news…

  • IL Voters in 10 counties Want Concealed Carry

    Residents in some Illinois counties sent a message to lawmakers this week: Give citizens the right to carry concealed weapons. Measures supporting concealed carry were on the ballot Tuesday in at least 10 mostly rural counties — Adams, Bond, Henry, McDonough, Mercer, Randolph, Rock Island, Schuyler, Stephenson and Warren — and passed overwhelmingly in every…

  • Mike Madigan: Speaker King

    Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan has many advantages as he tries to extend his nearly uninterrupted three-decade control of the Illinois House. His Democrats have more campaign money. His party has home-state President Barack Obama to drive the vote. Perhaps most important, Madigan drew the district boundaries for each of the 118 House contests that will…

  • Pension’s Rate of Return Plummets to 0.76%

    This sounds like a problem: The pension fund for most public school teachers in Illinois generated just 0.76 percent in fiscal 2012, a big drop from the 23.6 percent rate of return in the previous fiscal year, the Teachers’ Retirement System reported on Thursday.  … It is the long-term results that matter and the system’s…