Illinois Review

Former IL State Democrat gets nearly 5 years in federal prison for bribery scheme

From an FBI press release issued Friday, a former Illinois state representative Democrat was sentenced to federal prison for participating in a bribe scheme involving a Democrat state senator and a gaming company: 

CHICAGO — Former Illinois State Rep. LUIS ARROYO has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for participating in a bribery scheme involving a fellow state lawmaker and Arroyo’s private lobbying client, a sweepstakes gaming company.

Arroyo, 67, of Chicago, pleaded guilty last year to a federal wire fraud charge.  U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger imposed a 57-month prison sentence Wednesday after a hearing in federal court in Chicago.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; and Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Durkin.

Arroyo represented the 3rd District in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2006 to 2019.  He has also managed Spartacus 3 LLC, a private lobbying firm in Chicago.

In 2018 and 2019, Arroyo accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from the gaming company, Collage LLC, in the form of checks made payable to Spartacus.  In exchange for those bribes, Arroyo promoted legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives related to the sweepstakes industry and advised other state lawmakers to support the legislation. 

In August 2019 Arroyo offered to have payments made to an Illinois state senator in return for the senator’s support of sweepstakes-related legislation.  On Aug. 22, 2019, Arroyo met with the senator at a restaurant in Skokie, Ill., and provided him with a $2,500 check from Collage as an initial bribe payment, with the expectation that the senator would receive similar payments for 12 months.  Arroyo told the senator, “This is the jackpot,” and then wrote the name of the senator’s nominee on the company’s check.  The nominee’s name was used for the purpose of concealing the illicit payment.

Di Leo: The Many Lies of a Dishonest Age

By John F. Di Leo - 

The Second Amendment

A former United States Senator and Vice President of the United States, currently pretending to the title of the presidency, Joe Biden said this week that “The Second Amendment is not absolute.”

Wrong, Mr. Biden. The Second Amendment is absolute. The Constitution is absolute. 

It’s our political offices, such as Senator, Vice President, and President, that are not absolute.   Your office is constitutionally limited. That’s the whole point. That’s what living in a constitutional republic means.

Lyons Township Teacher resigns, saying new teaching requirements are "immoral"

LYONS TOWNSHIP - After 17 years of teaching English at Lyons Township High School, Tom Stukel posted online yesterday his resignation and his reasons for his resignation. 

 

Overall, Stukel wrote, "it is immoral to teach the way LT teachers are being asked to work." 

 

The resignation was posted on the LaGrange Patch: 

 

 

Verbatim from the Patch:

 

Effective June 2nd, 2022, I, Tom Stukel, resign from my English teaching position of 17 years at Lyons Township High School because I cannot, in good moral standing, teach students well based on current administrative policies. I care too much about education and too much about students to abide by these policies. Based on my 24 years of experience as a high school teacher, it is my opinion that it is immoral to teach the way LT teachers are being asked to work. Our school has changed the following in recent years:

Leaving Illinois: New IRS migration data shows this state lost another 100,000 residents and a record amount of wealth in 2020

By Ted Dabrowski, President, Wirepoints - 

A Wirepoints analysis of the Internal Revenue Service’s just-released migration data shows Illinois lost, on net, another 101,000 residents to other states in 2020. The state ranked third-worst nationally for net resident losses, both in number of people and per capita.

Illinois’ tax base also took a hit as a result of that flight, losing a net $8.5 billion in taxable income (AGI) to other states in 2020 – a new record. That, too, was the third-worst performance in the country. But when measured as a share of total income, Illinois’ losses were the nation’s 2nd-worst.

In all, Illinois lost people, on net, to 44 other states.

To be clear, the data shown in this piece are migration numbers from the IRS. They are unrelated to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Decennial Census or its 2021 population estimates.

However, this new IRS data does help confirm what the recent 2021 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates for Illinois showed: the state is a severe loser in the competition of people and their wealth. The Census reported Illinois’ population declined by 114,000 in 2021 – more than any other state other than New York and California.

More HERE

Justice Thomas: 'We are in danger of destroying the institutions ... required for a free society'

(The Center Square) – It’s been two weeks and there’s still no word on who leaked the U.S. Supreme Court draft brief indicating that the court was set to overturn Roe V. Wade and returning the issue of abortion back to the states.

At a recent event in Dallas, Texas, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the Manhattan Institute, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke about the leak and his concern for the rule of law and credibility of the court.

A roughly 8-minute clip of his talk was published by C-SPAN, in which he said, “I think we are in danger of destroying the institutions that are required for a free society. You can’t have a civil society, a free society without a stable legal system.

More HERE

Thorner: Victor Davis Hanson Reveals Unvarnished Truth About Biden/Harris Administration

By Nancy Thorner - 

 

Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favorite commentators.   

 

His commentary, Imagine the Unimaginable was posted on May 12, 2022.

 

In that Hanson's commentary is a powerful one that is now unfolding in real time for most Americans, I felt it necessary to share Hanson's brilliance and insight with Illinois Review readers.

 

Hanson's commentary is shocking to read, but the unvarnished truth of what this nation is now experiencing under the Biden/Harris administration is all so real.

 

What follows was excerpted and adapted from a full original report by Mr. Hanson:

Illinois Planned Parenthood Facility Minimizes Drug Allergy to Abortion Drug

Planned Parenthood in Flossmoor, IL called 911 on April 28, 2022, to report an emergency. The presumed employee who made the call was either not overly concerned about the condition of the patient, or she was downplaying it.

The caller calmly said, “We just need a transfer. We have a stable patient, 20 years old. She [is] having an allergic reaction. And we just want her to get further evaluation.”

When questioned by the dispatcher about the patient’s immediate condition, the caller explained she was believed to be having an allergic reaction to Misoprostol, a drug often used to prepare the cervix for dilation in abortions after 14 weeks. It is also used in chemical abortions to induce contractions.

More HERE

Fauci's researchers find better antibody response from natural immunity than Moderna vaccine

A month before America's top infectious disease bureaucrat conceded that mRNA vaccines offer only short-lived protection against COVID-19, Anthony Fauci's researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) offered a possible explanation why.

These vaccines target COVID's spike protein, whereas natural immunity recognizes the whole of the virus, including the nucleocapsid protein that envelops the RNA core.

Among those infected during the "blinded phase" of Moderna's 30,000-adult vaccine trial, only 40% of those given the vaccine developed anti-nucleocapsid antibodies. The figure was more than twice as high (93%) for those given the placebo.

More HERE

Elon Musk’s Twitter Detractors Were Subsidized With $10.5 Million In Taxpayer Funds

By Adam Andrzejewski - 

Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion has 26 activist and progressive policy organizations urging the platform’s advertisers to demand that Musk do as they say or face an advertising boycott.

But some of these groups have benefited from our tax dollars while critics say they try to limit free speech and control the flow of information on Twitter.

More HERE

With the arrest of a Catholic bishop, is Hong Kong now a police state?

The arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen on the charge of “collusion with foreign forces” signals the further withering away of human rights in Hong Kong, the result of an almost complete absorption of the once autonomous region by the People’s Republic of China.

In less than two years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has asserted almost complete control in Hong Kong. Other than possessing a generally open internet, the “special administrative region” is now like any other Chinese city. Although prosperous, Hong Kong is no longer free. The one country, two systems model promised by Beijing when the United Kingdom returned the territory to China in 1997 has become one country, one system.

More HERE

Dunlap Library punishes two employees for reporting patron allegedly viewing child porn

DUNLAP - An Illinois Review reader drew our attention to a situation in Dunlap Illinois, where two library employees were reprimanded for reporting a man allegedly viewing and using the library printer to duplicate photos of little girls. 

The situation was discussed at a library board meeting Tuesday night. From CIProud: 

After a man was caught printing pictures of young girls, visibly aroused at the library, the community raised concern for the children in the area.

“Is it the policy if the guy were to come back, you’d call the police? Because he’s a sex offender, he’s not supposed to be here, he’s not supposed to be around kids, I would think he’s going to jail,” said one of the public commentators.

The board said they would have no response until their June 27th meeting. 

As gas prices go up, Illinois drivers pay more and more in sales tax

PLAINFIELD – Anyone buying gas in Illinois is paying more, much more than neighboring states. One reason is because of the state's sales tax on gas. It skyrockets as per gallon costs skyrockets. 

In response, State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) produced a new video proposing solutions to alleviate this problem for middle and lower income Illinoisans. His video highlighted his recently introduced legislation on this issue, House Bill 5723, in particular.

“Illinoisans are being hurt by high gas prices we are experiencing today,” said Rep. Batinick. “What is not helping is Illinois’ current system of charging a percentage-based additional sales tax on top of a per-gallon gas tax. I introduced House Bill 5723 to provide immediate relief for those who are disproportionately hurt by the current system. This legislation will provide more lasting, meaningful relief than the motor fuel tax increase pause we passed during our spring session. We need to debate and consider this legislation to provide needed relief for Illinoisans.”

House Bill 5723 caps the sales tax on gas at 18 cents per gallon for motor fuel. During this recent spring session, the bill was not released from the House Rules Committee, preventing debate on it.

According to AAA, the Chicago Metro area experienced the highest regular unleaded gasoline price on May 22nd at $5.203 and the highest diesel price on the same day at $5.313.

UPDATE x1: Anti-gambling group says Chicago's casino license could go to Mexican Drug Cartel link

Distrust Continues to Intensify Over Mayor Lightfoot's Proposed Casino Project as State Board Moves to Hand Gambling License to Alleged Money Launderer With Ties to Mexican Drug Cartel

UPDATE x1: From Crain's -Chicago has officially placed a big bet on Bally's, with the City Council approving a $1.7 billion casino and entertainment venue in River West.

Aldermen approved the project in a 41-7 vote, sending the proposal to the Illinois Gaming Board for further vetting. Despite the lop-sided vote, the debate on the City Council floor was anything but calm, with Mayor Lightfoot and frequent sparring partner Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, 25th, shouting over each other as he criticized the “sham” process leading up to the vote.

While Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration faces growing opposition from Chicago residents over concerns about the transparency and thoroughness of the review process for the proposed Chicago casino, the latest actions by the key state regulatory body responsible for examining the fitness of the Chicago casino is amplifying calls to kill the casino project altogether.

According to a press release from the Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems (ILCAAP), the Illinois Gambling Board, the government agency charged with overseeing the gambling industry in the state, including the Chicago casino proposal, has advanced an application for an online-only sports wagering license for Grupo Caliente.

"Grupo Caliente and its owner Jorge Hank Rhon have been cited by the New York Inspector General as 'the subject of numerous allegations of illegal activities' and Rhon 'has been suspected by U.S. law enforcement and Mexican authorities of illegal money laundering activities related to illicit drug trafficking, particularly with the Arellano Felix drug cartel based in Tijuana,''" the press release said.

Peoria customers get break on gas prices for 2 hours Wednesday

PEORIA, IL —Americans for Prosperity-Illinois hosted a grassroots awareness event Wednesday, May 25 to highlight the “True Cost of Washington” and its impact on hardworking Illinoisans.

Washington’s reckless spending and crushing regulations have Illinoisans paying more and getting less. Inflation in Illinois is topping nearly 11%, a $594 per month cost per household. Meanwhile, gas prices have skyrocketed to the tune of nearly $5 per gallon in the state.

That’s why AFP-Illinois says they rolled back the price of gasoline to $2.38, the price per gallon on the day President Biden took office. To highlight this stark difference and the true cost of Washington’s policies, AFP paid the difference for nearly 2,500 gallons of gasoline for Beachlers customers in Peoria.

Lightfoot tells federal court she'll stop refusing interviews with reporters based on race

WGN TV Photo

WASHINGTON DC – Judicial Watch announced this week that a federal civil rights lawsuit they filed on behalf of the Daily Caller News Foundation and reporter Thomas Catenacci against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was dismissed after Lightfoot said she will not in the future limit one-on-one interviews to “journalists of color” (Catenacci et al v. Lightfoot (No. 1:21-cv-02852)).  

In dismissing the case, Judicial Watch attorneys noted:

As testified to by her Communications Director and as stated in her motion to dismiss, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has no plans or intentions in the future to exclusively provide one-on-one interviews with journalists of color.   

Judicial Watch filed the civil rights lawsuit against Lightfoot on May 27, 2021 after Catenacci, a white journalist, emailed Lightfoot’s office requesting a one-on-one interview with the mayor. The mayor’s office never replied to the request or to two additional follow-up emails from Catenacci. Catenacci’s request came on one of the days that the mayor admittedly was discriminating against journalists based on race.

Audit Reveals IRS Secretly Destroyed 30 Million Paper-Filed Taxpayer Documents to Clear Backlog

The Internal Revenue Service has been scolded after auditors found 30 million documents were destroyed.

The IRS said in response that taxpayers were never harmed by the destruction, according to Fox Business.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recently took a close look at IRS operations due to concerns over what was going on amid a backlog of unprocessed records.

More HERE

An Epidemic of Sexual Assaults of Children in Public Schools Has Been Flying Under the Radar

Public schools are quickly becoming even more problematic for America’s children. Not only are progressives desperately trying to use the classroom to indoctrinate kids into their radical ideas on race, sexuality, and gender identity, but now it has been reported that students have become increasingly vulnerable to sexual abuse.

There has been a disturbing uptick in the number of students being sexually assaulted by teachers and other staff members. In 2022 so far, at least 135 teachers and teachers’ aides have been arrested for various child sex-related offenses, ranging from possession of child pornography to child rape.

More HERE

WEF Globalists Debut Their Perfect Future: Carbon Footprint Tracker, 'Recalibration' of Free Speech

Global oligarchs and CEOs arrived for the 2022 conference of the World Economic Forum over the weekend, held in person for the first time in three years.

The annual conference, held in the Swiss luxury ski resort of Davos, has long been criticized as the embodiment of elitism in western politics.

Dozens of mega-wealthy oligarchs fly their private jets to the conference, only to plan measures to limit the carbon footprint of the average citizen the next day.

More HERE

Grassley says new Durham evidence shows FBI misconduct, vendetta against Trump

A key GOP senator who helped unravel the false Russia collusion narrative declared Tuesday that new evidence introduced by Special Counsel John Durham in a criminal trial shows the FBI engaged in misconduct to carry out a "political vendetta" against Donald Trump.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, gave his speech on the Senate floor on the same day that an FBI agent admitted during the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann that he is under criminal investigation by Durham. It was the first admission that current FBI officials face potential criminal liability. 

More HERE

Di Leo: China's Draconian Lockdowns Extend to Tianjin

By John F. Di Leo - 

 

The Chinese government announced on May 19 that they are immediately putting much of the city of Tianjin under the martial-law style Covid lockdowns for which Chairman Xi Jinping will be remembered.

 

As he has previously done in Wuhan, Shenzhen, and other major cities, residents are restricted to their homes and require special permission to leave. While businesses may not be formally closed, they cannot reopen without staff, so they are unable to function unless they are fortunate enough to be completely outside the shuttered zone, and rely on staffs also outside the shuttered zones.

 

Tianjin is the primary seaport for the capital city of Beijing, one of the largest ports in northern China, and one of the busiest ports in the world.