Illinois Review

Ashland 9-12ers help area needy

The 9-12 Projects throughout Illinois continue to generate "flash mobs of kindness" for the many struggling during this recession.  Here's another, one of Illinois first 9-12 groups, based in Ashland IL:

Congratulations Ashland Area 912 er’s!! Our “Flash Mob” last Thursday night was a huge success! Neither rain nor EXTREMELY close lightning bolts could keep us from blessing 9 families in the Ashland area! Along with a box or two full of groceries, we gave a copy of The 5000 Year Leap, Heather’s wonderful letter, and pocket Constitutions. The families were very grateful, and we were blessed in the process. May we always be looking for opportunities to be a blessing to others! Attached are some pictures of the flash mob getting food ready to go. Out of respect to the families involved, we chose not to take pictures of the actual deliveries. We even had 3 full grocery bags left when we were done, which were donated to the food pantry at the Ashland United Methodist Church.

Congratulations to all groups who've committed to helping the less fortunate ... you're demonstrating a part of what makes America great ... and compassionate.

VIDEO: Honor Flight Chicago Honors WW II Veterans

A non-profit group in Chicago offers to the 30,000 World War II veterans a day long trip to Washington DC to visit the World War II memorial.  This past Wednesday, a crowd of Chicagoans joined Honor Flight Chicago at Midway Airport to welcome and honor these brave men and women that fought for our freedom and liberties:

Gerry Gorman on the public dole? No way !!!!

by Chris Robling

Phil Kadner of the Southtown reports that Gerry Gorman is taking $6000 per month from Illinois taxpayers to tell Illinois municipalities how to do what they already know.

Something very wrong with this picture.

Gorman is the subject of no less than four definitive federal judicial findings that establish unconscionable abuse of federal process and hideous business practices. His name was mentioned continuously at the Vrdolyak sentencing. I will post the four shortly, but let's all tell the office of the Illinois Comptroller that if Illinois municipalities need a hand doing their homework, it isn't from a person with Gerry Gorman's unique, colorful and unsavory background.

Btw, it isn't me talking. The federal jurists are: Arlander Keyes, Virginia Kendall and Frank Easterbrook. There is also a panel of the Illinois appellate court for the 1st district (Cook County).

Developing . . .

Cardinal George: Ball in Pfleger’s court

Two days after he suspended the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Vatican City-bound Cardinal Francis George spoke publicly for the first time about Pfleger’s situation, saying “the ball really is in his corner now.”

And the cardinal asked for understanding from angry parishioners at Pfleger’s St. Sabina Church, who Thursday marched outside the cardinal’s home in protest of the suspension.

“I would hope (parishioners) would understand the necessity to ask the questions about faith and life,” George told CBS 2 at O’Hare Airport Friday. “If I’m not responsible for priests, then why do you come to me when a priest has abused a child or when a priest has stolen money? ...You can’t have it both ways, can you?”

via www.suntimes.com

Black lawmakers should not block the door to education freedom

Dr. Eric Wallace, founder and publisher of Freedom's Journal Magazine shared his dismay with Illinois Black Caucus who are refusing to support Senator Matt Murphy and Senator James Meeks bi-partisan effort to provide a way of escape for Black students in Chicago's failing schools. Using the words, "inconceivable, increduous," Wallace calls on Chicago Black community to rise up and make a way towards success for their children:

"It is inconceivable that 47 years after the civil rights act of 1964, that the Illinois state legislature is having trouble passing a school choice bill. It is even more incredulous that those in the way of this bill are Black legislators. In 1964 White Southern Democrats fought to keep Blacks out of public schools. Today Black Northern Democrats are trapping children in under preforming schools.

If the success of Urban prep is any indication of what can happen with charter schools and school choice then you would think these Black legislators would be beating down the door and marching to the capital building insisting on this bill.

Sticker Shock Part 1

from the Better Government Association

While a growing number of everyday people worry about having enough to live on after they retire, some of the state’s best-known politicians, including former governors and lawmakers, are reaping hefty and guaranteed annual pension payouts backed by Illinois taxpayers.

A Better Government Association investigation found that 27 of the 286 retired office holders—or nine percent—are enjoying annual pensions of more than $100,000. In some cases, retirees draw their pensions while also working in other government-related posts or lucrative private-sector jobs. Thirty retirees, or 10.5 percent, have drawn more than $1 million each so far.

The annual $100,000-plus pension club is a virtual "Who’s Who" of famous Illinois politicians, including former Govs. Jim Edgar and James Thompson; former Senate President Emil Jones; former Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch; and former Attorney General Roland Burris.

More HERE

Hypocrisy? Dems start Rove-style influence group

WASHINGTON (ABC News Radio) - “We don’t control outside groups,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Friday on Air Force One, as the president flew from Washington, D.C., to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “These are not people working for the administration.”

Carney was referring to Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, the new outside groups formed by former White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, who served as chief of staff to then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.  Priorities USA Action will register itself in the tax code as a “social welfare group,” which does not require the disclosure of donors. Or, as Burton and Sweeney put it in a press release: “Priorities USA Action is an Independent Expenditure PAC that supports candidates who will advance policies that provide the strongest and most sound outcomes for middle class families.”

Cross' pension ideas get thumbs up from Daily Herald

The Daily-Herald's editorial department is supportive of House Republican Leader Tom Cross' efforts to reform Illinois pensions:

Cross and other suburban Republicans have a plan that would allow workers to collect what they’ve already earned. With future earnings, they would have to elect to either stay in the traditional system and contribute more, move into the system created last year for new hires, or move into a self-managed, 401(k)-styled plan that would require no more than a six percent state match to an employee’s similar pension payment. This concept seems sound because it gives state workers choices. It seems legal and workable because it applies only to future earnings. And it starts to move public workers toward a more affordable plan that starts to mirror what most private workers use.

Cross suggests such changes would boost pension funding to 90 percent by 2045. We don’t know whether that’s so, or whether this is the best possible option. It seems more than a fine start.

The rest of the Daily Herald's editorial is HERE.

St. Sabina parishioners bused to protest Cardinal George

At least 100 St. Sabina parishioners protested in front of the Cardinal's home Thursday morning, upset about the suspension of their pastor, Father Michael Pfleger. The Sun-Times' post says about 100 protestors were bused in to stand in front of Cardinal George's official residence.

We're wondering two things:

1. Who's behind the protest and who paid for those chartered buses?

2. Why aren't these folks as upset about their children being denied access to schools that are not failing?

Their own community's state lawmakers are suffocating an option for public school students to escape Chicago's worst schools to escape. State Senator Matt Murphy is very close to getting enough votes to get Illinois' first voucher bill out of the Illinois Senate. Murphy and Chris Lauzen have come alongside State Senator James Meeks to carry this admirable effort across the Senate's 50th yard line, headed for the House and the lofty goal of Governor Pat Quinn's desk.

Free our kids from failing Chicago schools

The future of thousands of Chicago kids trapped in failing public schools hangs in the balance with State Senator Matt Murphy's SB 1932. Their dreams of an adequate education that will determine their life paths are in the hands of four or five Illinois state senators. Freedom -- in education, in health care, in religion, in speech -- is always the right choice.

Those four or five lawmakers need to look in the mirror tomorrow morning and ask, "Do I want to live with the daily reminder that my 'no' vote sentenced innocent kids for 12 years to failing Chicago school prisons or that my 'yes' vote opened the door to educational freedom and hope?"

Last year, State Senator James Meeks (D-Chicago) courageously and successfully led the battle for education choice through the Illinois Senate. He's paid a price for leading the charge in his Democratic caucus. It's tough to go against the powers that be in Springfield -- namely teachers' unions that wholly own many lawmakers, and especially the leadership. This year, Meeks is working side-by-side with GOP Senators Murphy and Chris Lauzen, who could face their own challenges in the future for having the audacity to try once again - and possibly for the last time for a while - to allow parents the opportunity to rescue their children trapped in Chicago's failing schools.

We have learned that the key Republican holdouts on SB 1932 are state senators John Millner, John O. Jones with shaky assured yeses from state senators Sam McCann and Larry Bomke. On the Democrat side, almost unbelievably, the Chicago-based Latino caucus -- with five crucial votes that could determine their very own districts' future -- remains undecided. We will work to get statements from these lawmakers over the next few days and will publish them on Illinois Review.

A decision on whether SB 1932 will be called next week could be made over the weekend. The floor vote deadline is next Wednesday. Your phone calls, emails and voice messages today could help open the prison doors for a pilot program that could launch a history-making emancipation for Chicago children trapped in failing schools. Now's the time to do what you can to give these kids a fighting chance.

217.782.2000 is the Capitol Switchboard number. Find your lawmakers' direct info at www.ilga.gov