Results tagged “governorpatquinn”

• Adding fuel to the talk that Sam Zell's short reign at the Tribune is almost over, yesterday Trib bondholders filed a motion to probe into the billionaire's takeover of the newspaper.
• DAMMIT! Our bid was $39,999,999.
• Governor Quinn has vetoed a campaign finance bill, saying that it "should go back to the drawing board." Critics have complained the bill has too many loopholes.

• The CTA Board approved plans to extend the Red, Orange, and Yellow Lines, but we'll believe it when we see it.
• U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky's son-in-law died while snorkeling during a family vacation in Mexico.
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois is cutting 650 jobs.

When we mentioned the Trib's investigation into a "clout list" for admissions to the University of Illinois, several readers expressed what's best described as a lack of shock. Pulling strings to gain admittance to a college is certainly nothing new, but if Governor Quinn has his way, it'll soon be a thing of the past. Yesterday, Quinn announced a new seven-member "clout commission" to investigate the shenanigans going on at the University of Illinois which will be led by retired federal Judge Abner Mikva. The panel will be able to investigate the list and must issue a report to the governor within 60 days. Per the Tribune:

Yesterday evening, the other shoe dropped and Rod Blagojevich and five others were indicted on a wide range of fraud and corruption charges. The indictment contains 19 charges in all against Blagojevich, his brother Robert, former Chief-of-Staff John Harris, former adviser Lon Monk, former fundraiser Christopher Kelly, and power broker William Cellini. Here are some of the highlights from the news surrounding the indictments.

While Governor Pat Quinn won't unveil his complete budget until tomorrow, bits and pieces are starting to leak out as the Sun-Times got a hold of a "blueprint" of his plan. We already know about the controversial income tax hike he's planning, but two more tax hikes he's looking at are also raising eyebrows. The first is price of the registration fee for state license plate stickers, which currently cost $78. Quinn wants to raise the price on those by $20. Quinn is also exploring raising cigarette taxes from an existing $0.98 per pack to almost $2.00 a pack within two years.

On the heels of yesterday's revelation that Gov. Quinn plans to propose an income tax hike of upwards of 50 percent comes news that the state budget gap is much larger than had been previously reported: $11.5 billion. According to Crain's Greg Hinz, Quinn's chief of staff Jerry Stermer referred to the deficit as "an unprecedented tsunami of red ink." Hinz continues:

Governor Pat Quinn has called on Roland Burris to resign his senate seat in light of recent revelations about the newly minted senator's contact with impeached governor Rod Blagojevich. But not everyone is ready to call for his resignation just yet. In statements to the press late last week, Mayor Daley, who has been in the Persian Gulf, refused to call on Burris to step down. “Let’s put everything in perspective and give him an opportunity to explain himself," Daley said. "Automatically, every time something happens people want everybody to resign. Is it becoming very common now to tell people to resign after he was appointed?" When asked if Burris can effectively represent Illinois in congress given the controversy, the mayor waxed poetical: “He’ll have to explain that himself,” Daley said. “If there’s a cloud, I guess he’ll have to say what cloud it is. Is it a heavy or a light cloud? It’s up to him … I don’t know," he said, noting that the economic recovery bill "never would have passed" without Burris.

Transparency and accountability are two features sorely lacking in Illinois' political landscape. But they are a big part of Governor Pat Quinn's new Web site urging Illinois residents to bring in their suggestions on how to spend anticipated stimulus funds.

Less than a month since being sworn in as Governor, Pat Quinn is already surprising people with his pick of Jack Lavin as his Chief Operating Officer. While described as a personal friend of Quinn, Lavin also has an extensive past with both former governor Rod Blagojevich and convicted Blago fund-raiser Tony Rezko. Lavin previously served as Blagojevich's director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. That was, of course, after working for Rezko as a COO and receiving $12,000 from Rezko when he mulled over a run for public office. Lavin previously worked with Quinn when Quinn was state treasurer in the early '90's. Quinn defended Lavin in an interview before he became governor, saying, "I don't think there has ever been an iota of information that he did anything improper." State Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno said of the pick, "Certainly he comes with some baggage that we have to be very sensitive about at this moment in our state's history, but personally I want to work with everyone right now to make sure we get through the very serious problems we're facing. I can only hope the governor has fully vetted his association and knows full well that they won't in any way, shape or form interfere."