Illinois

URBANA – A Champaign County judge this morning urged county officials to give “serious thought” to complying with a Sangamon County court order that restored Provena Covenant Medical Center’s property tax exemption and refunding millions of dollars in tax payments the hospital was forced to make.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s lawsuit against five county officials will continue. Judge Michael Jones declined a motion on the part of the county to toss out the lawsuit the hospital filed to force the county to refund its taxes.

Jones did, however, dismiss the complaint against one county official, Assistant State’s Attorney Susan McGrath.

Covenant, owned by the Catholic hospital system Provena Health, has paid $5.8 million in taxes since 2002, after county and state taxing authorities decided it no longer qualified for an exemption as a religious or charitable organization.

(Read the full post about ‘County loses another round in tax case’…)

DANVILLE – Two individuals with an interest in redeveloping Bresee Tower plan to meet next week with local officials to discuss the building.

“They’ve expressed serious interest from the beginning,” said Rachael Dietkus, director of Downtown Danville Inc., the downtown business association that has taken the lead in finding a developer for the vacant building.

Dietkus did not want to reveal the identity of the out-of-town individuals. They have been interested in Bresee since November, she said, and have given a great deal of thought to design plans and financing of the project.

Dietkus said Danville Mayor Scott Eisenhauer, among others, will be part of next week’s meeting, which will include a recent architectural engineering assessment explaining needed repairs to Bresee’s terra cotta facade and how much that work might cost.

(Read the full post about ‘Developers show interest in troubled downtown Danville site’…)

URBANA – Champaign developer Peter Fox and venture capitalist G. Steven Burrill have pledged a total of $200,000 to help support a new University of Illinois program that provides life science students with training in entrepreneurship and management.

The program is a joint effort of the Institute for Genomic Biology and the College of Business, with the pledged money going toward scholarships, a UI news release stated.

The certificate program is designed to equip entrepreneurially minded doctoral students in the life sciences with skills needed for managing biotechnology ventures.

Classes are scheduled to begin this fall, with the curriculum drawing from management, law, regulatory policy, ethics, marketing and finance.

Students will also cover topics specific to the life sciences, such as managing the Food and Drug Administration approval process and conducting clinical trials.

“We are very grateful for the gifts by Peter Fox and Steven Burrill to support scholarships and internships in the new certificate program,” said Harris Lewin, director of the Institute for Genomic Biology.

Fox, the founder of Fox Development Corp., will donate $50,000 a year for three years.

(Read the full post about ‘Benefactors offer help with entrepreneurship program’…)

For the first time in American history, we have better than a 50-50 chance of electing a socialist as President of the United States.   Some of us are perhaps wondering how we came to this point.  Voters will be faced on November 4 with choosing between a Republican candidate rejected by over sixty percent of the Republican voters during the primaries and one of two socialist (Democratic) candidates, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.  After a decades-long struggle the socialist wing of the Democratic Party successfully gained dominance of the Party after the 2000 defeat of Al Gore.

They immediately began looking to the 2008 election with Hillary Clinton as their chosen candidate.  Former Clinton staffers and supporters assumed key spots in 501(c) 3 organizations, television and print media, and established a strong presence on the internet.  The socialist agitator and organizer, Saul Alinsky — despite the fact he had been dead for thirty-five years — became their chief strategist.  Their immediate task was to solidify the trend toward socialism that had been building in America since the 1930s.  For this they again looked to Alinsky.  In his book “Rules for Radicals” Alinsky wrote:

“Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people.

(Read the full post about ‘The Clinton - Obama Tag Team’…)

by Bill Beckman

A February 11th Chicago Tribune article covered a Kansas grand jury that is investigating late-term abortionist George Tiller for possible violations of Kansas abortion law. The article mentioned a “Jane Doe” who expressed how much Tiller’s services were needed for circumstances like hers where a discovery of serious fetal disability is not made until late in the pregnancy. Mothers such as “Jane Doe” are convinced they could not handle a seriously disabled infant, even for a short time. They often express concern that they could not watch their baby suffer.

(Read the full post about ‘Not Recognizing the Consequences’…)

by Adam Andrzejewski

Starting “An Open Book Revolution In Illinois Government”

In meetings around the state, Illinois citizens are beginning to ask their local school districts to “Open The Books”. The citizens’ request is for the posting of the school district check register on the internet. No change in state law is required, expense is minimal, and implementation time is practically nil. From school districts on the Illinois edge of St. Louis up to the Illinois border with Wisconsin, this “Open Book Revolution In Illinois Government” is resonating across our state.

The Illinois people will lead; the leaders of Illinois will follow.

Because Illinois has local control of school districts, the logical starting point to reform Illinois government begins with education.

(Read the full post about ‘Can Illinois Education Pass the “Open Book” Test?’…)

by Mark Rhoads

The most difficult thing for many of us to understand about Obama followers is that they genuinely think that when they hear him speak they are listening to great oratory. Ditto for some news media. People rave about how inspirational his rhetoric is whereas I hear little but the most banal and empty rhetoric–particularly when you read instead of listen to an Obama sermon.

Part of this can be accounted for by age differences but not all. It might just be that it has been so long since Americans have heard or read any really great oratory that they confuse trite Obamaese with great thoughts.

(Read the full post about ‘Obama Benefits From the Sad State of Education’…)

by John Ruskin

The Daily Herald ran a story today entitled: "Court Hammers GOP Chairwoman’s Husband". In it, reporter Rob Olmstead noted that a federal court appeals panel "chastised the husband" of Cook County commissioner and GOP chairwoman Liz Gorman, saying his companies behaved "like a pack of weasels and can’t expect any part of their tale to be believed."

As noted in a previous post (here), the "tale" the panel referred to is a long and sordid one. This most recent rebuke by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit is only the latest.

(Read the full post about ‘Keeping Up With The Gormans: Postscript’…)

I was so enamored by the first song I heard off of The Brendan Hines new record that it’s no surprise that the whole thing is right up my alley. “Miss New York” was the clever song that stuck out at first (here). As an avowed East Coaster stuck in the Midwest I can relate to the nostalgia that one feels for a hometown.

The new record from The Brendan Hines is called Good For You Know Who. The songs on the record deal with subjects as diverse as drinking yourself to death, suicide, more death and drinking, and selfish behavior of all sorts. Sounds a bit dreary, I know, but musically the songs are fairly jaunty filled with horns, toy instruments, piano and guitar and they mostly come with a pretty big slab of sarcasm on the side.

(Read the full post about ‘New Record from The Brendan Hines’…)

Yesterday, Illinois Family Institute published a post-primary perspective for Illinois’ values voters. Sign up for their newsletter while you visit their website…

Illinois political insiders concerned about family values are bracing for the worse in the fall with the strong possibility of sudden political "giant" U.S. Senator Barack Obama topping the General Election ballot. Values voters — who, for the most part, are not enamored with the emerging Republican nominee — are mulling the possibility of "sending a message" by staying home, leaving pro-life down-ticket candidates hanging in the wind.

(Read the full post about ‘IL Primary Report: Little Faith or Big Hope?’…)