By Steve Rhodes

“For months, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, brushed aside the notion that it would be a conflict of interest if she served as governor while he continued to run the General Assembly,” the Tribune reports.
“But on Monday, she ended the rampant political speculation by announcing she’ll skip a run for governor and seek re-election, noting that her choice was largely due to the inherent conflict of concentrating too much power over state government in the hands of one family.

“I feel strongly that the state would not be well served by having a governor and speaker of the House from the same family and have never planned to run for governor if that would be the case,” Lisa Madigan said in a statement. “With Speaker Madigan planning to continue in office, I will not run for governor.”

If this is indeed the reason why Lisa Madigan bowed out, doesn’t that make Mike Madigan the Worst Father Ever? I mean, she’s clearly saying her dad wouldn’t step aside for her.

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Posted on July 16, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Jenny McCarthy will officially be joining The View as co-host, Barbara Walters confirmed Monday on the ABC talk show,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Though she launched her own little-watched talk show on VH1 earlier this year, McCarthy has remained in the spotlight in recent years mostly due to her support for the discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.”
And let’s not forget about the Daily Jenny. I’m dying to know how things worked out for Jordan.

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Posted on July 15, 2013

By Natasha Julius

If only we had Malala Day here in Chicago.
Market Update
Dream all you want; you’ll have to wake up sometime.

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Posted on July 13, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

In yesterday’s post about the implausible but routinely repeated claim that CPS officials have cut central office spending by $600 million since Rahm Emanuel came into office, I wrote that “I hope someone who isn’t me goes back and adds up all the claimed cuts, because I’m certain it won’t take long until we’re dealing with negative numbers.”
Well, guess what?
Reader Eric Skalinder did the hard work and found that “[I]n the last six years CPS has completely eliminated central office 5 times over.”
Click through to the post and see Skalinder’s work appended as a comment.

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Posted on July 12, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Ousted Metra CEO Alex Clifford implicated at least two board members in a patronage complaint shortly before he began negotiating a generous severance package with the commuter rail system, officials publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday,” the Tribune reports.
“Those board members – whom Metra has refused to name – also voted on the $718,000 severance deal despite Clifford’s threats to file a lawsuit if he could not reach a financial settlement with the agency.”
So instead of reporting the allegations to the proper authorities, like, say, the U.S. attorney’s office, Clifford used them to extort a better severance package.

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Posted on July 11, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Gov. Pat Quinn said today he is suspending state lawmakers’ pay until they come up with a comprehensive solution to the state’s public pension mess, a dramatic gesture that is likely to increase tension with the General Assembly and the fellow Democrats who lead it,” the Tribune reports.
Quinn also threatened to send lawmakers to bed without their per diem.

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Posted on July 10, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“Illinois lawmakers returned to the State Capitol today to consider Gov. Pat Quinn’s changes to a bill authorizing the concealed carrying of firearms in the state,” the Tribune reports.
“Sponsoring Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat, has accused Quinn of using the governor’s amendatory veto powers to tighten the restrictions as a move aimed at bolstering political support for re-election among city and suburban voters who support gun-control.”
Phelps is right – and so is Quinn.

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Posted on July 9, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

I’m working on a lot of different posts right now so Papers today or not, be patient. Resources are stretched thin here at Beachwood HQ.
Meanwhile:

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Posted on July 8, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say,” the New York Times reports.
“The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court’s classified decisions.
“The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.”

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Posted on July 7, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

1. Did that lyric just go “It only hurts when I’m sober?”
Why yes, it did.

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Posted on July 5, 2013