Thursday, July 31, 2014

Sandy G Private Investigator Hunts down the Real Rauners

It can't be both ways - which is it?
researched by Sandy Gresak
 
I wanted to learn more about Bruce Rauner's wife, Dr. Diana Mendley Rauner. Through my research I came across this website:

The Rauners Love Funding Democrats and the Pro-Abortion norauner.com/2013/07/25/the-rauners-love-funding-democrats-and-the...

You can learn a lot about the values and passion of individuals by where they place their donations. Bruce Rauner, and his wife, Diana Mendley Rauner, have given ...

Although it was posted in 7/25/2013 I thought it was worth reading and this is what I saw when I tried to open the site: "IT IS A PROTECTED BLOG SITE"
http://norauner.com/ is marked private by its owner. If you were invited to view this site, please log in below. Read more about privacy settings.
And then I found this article:

Bruce Rauner's Wife Says She Is a Democrat , But Mostly Gives To GOP Candidates | The Huffington Post | By Samantha Lachman
 To Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

IFT Endorses Governor Quinn and More in his Monthly Newsletter


Monthly Newsletter of the Office of the Governor (IL)
Please do not reply to this email. To contact us, click here.

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Governor's Monthly Newsletter

This electronic newsletter is an opportunity for you to learn more about what we’ve accomplished in Illinois government, and how you can get involved. Whether it’s volunteering in a Serve Illinois volunteer project, receiving state services, or learning about new laws and programs, I want to ensure that you know what’s happening in your government.
If you have ideas for improving any State service, program, or this very newsletter, please click here and let us know.
Sincerely,

Pat Quinn
Governor

Featured Articles

Unemployment Rate Drops

Preliminary data released on July 17 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows Illinois’ unemployment rate has dropped to 7.1 percent, the lowest since October 2008 – months before Governor Quinn took office. The drop in the unemployment rate from March to June is the sharpest three-month decline ever recorded in Illinois.

$1.1 Billion Capital Construction

Governor Quinn on July 22 signed a new state capital construction bill that invests $1.1 billion in road and bridge projects to improve transportation and create jobs and boost economic development across Illinois. The bill, which builds on his successful six-year, $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program, will create an estimated 14,300 jobs. In addition to funding $1 billion in projects in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) FY2015-2020 Multi-Year Program, the new capital construction program includes $100 million for municipal and township governments to improve infrastructure at the local level. The funding will help communities throughout Illinois combat potholes and make other critical infrastructure repairs.
For a complete list of projects in the capital program, visithttp://www.dot.il.gov/opp/planning.html.

Governor Quinn Fights for Stronger Gun Laws Across Illinois

Governor Pat Quinn, joined by Congresswoman Robin Kelly, on July 13 visited the site of a recent fatal shooting in Chicago’s Morgan Park neighborhood to urge legislators to stand with families and communities and take action against gun violence. The Governor pushed passage of READ MORE

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Join us on August 7th and a little history of the National Women's Political Caucus.

Join the DPDC Women's caucus for a Women Voter Mobilization Celebration at 
La Tosca on August 7th 
here

History of the Women's Caucus

earlynwpc_0.jpg
 
This early document from the Caucus archives (circa 1979), has been re-typed from original hard copy. It provides important historical information about the founding of the organization:

Founded in 1971, the National Women's Political Caucus is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to increasing women's participation in all areas of political and public life -- as elected and appointed officials, as delegates to national party conventions, as judges in the state and federal courts, and as lobbyists, voters and campaign organizers. With state and local affiliates, our membership today spans across the nation.

Our founders include such prominent women as Gloria Steinem, author, lecturer and founding editor of Ms. magazine; former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm; former Congresswoman and current president of Women USA Bella Abzug; Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women; Jill Ruckelshaus, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner; Ann Lewis, Political Director of the Democratic National Committee; Elly Peterson, former vice-chair of the Republican National Committee; LaDonna Harris, Indian rights leader; Liz Carpenter, author, lecturer and former press secretary to Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson; and Eleanor Holmes Norton, former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Spurred by Congress' failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in 1970, these women believed...

To Read More: http://www.nwpc.org/history

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

How Koch is affecting the minds of our teen agers



In the spring of 2012, Spenser Johnson, a junior at Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kansas, was unpacking his acoustic bass before orchestra practice when a sign caught his eye. "Do you want to make money?" it asked.
The poster encouraged the predominantly poor students (http://www.city-data.com/school/highland-park-high-school-ks.html) at Highland Park to enroll in a new, yearlong course that would provide lessons in basic economic principles and practical instruction on starting a business. Students would receive generous financial incentives including startup capital  (https://www.youthentrepreneurs.org/ye-academy/and scholarships after graduation. The course would begin that fall. Johnson eagerly signed up.
In some ways, the class looked like a typical high school business course, taught in a Highland Park classroom by a Highland Park teacher. But it was actually run by Youth Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit group created and funded primarily by Charles G. Koch, the billionaire chairman of Koch Industries.
The official mission  (https://youthentrepreneurs.org/about/) of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers...
 

Monday, July 28, 2014

No Surprise here: Big Business Loves Desperate Workers


We don’t think enough about the economic functions of social welfare policy, or about the relationship between the safety net and labor markets, and this hinders our ability to make sense of why some people fight so hard against programs that aid poor and low-income people: We mistake them for anti-welfare ideologues, and dismiss them as cruel or ignorant, but there’s an economic logic to their activism, one that’s revealed if we look at the relationship between welfare and work from both the employee’s and the employer’s perspective. Let me explain.
Imagine that we have two workers, worker K and worker O, each with two young children.
Worker K is laid off when the company “downsizes.” K is nervous, but has some savings, is eligible for Unemployment Insurance benefits, Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP) and TANF, has access to free local day care and lives in a Section 8 apartment, with their monthly rent tied to their income.
While K is not living as well as when working, if K were eligible for all of these programs, which would be highly unusual, K will...

Have You Heard This Word Before?

You might be seeing the word "inversions" in the news headlines a lot lately. It's a specific kind of corporate merger deal -- but it's not exactly the most intuitive name for a corporate tax loophole.
So we're going to break it down for you -- because these loopholes could cost taxpayers nearly $20 billion over the next 10 years. And we could instead use this money to rebuild America, by investing in our roads and bridges, equipping our schools with the resources they need, and defending our country at home.
Learn more about "inversions" and how we can do away with them.
What are inversions?

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Org that is Pressing Need for Corporate Tax Dodgers to come clean

 
Make Corporate Tax Dodgers Pay Their Fair Share
 

NPA is a Grassroots Organization that fights for financial reform, accountable government, and economic and racial justice.

It's time for corporations to pay their fair share. Every day, corporate CEOs are cooking up schemes to lobby our elected officials for giant tax cuts. At the same time, they're planning to balance the federal budget on our backs, trying to cut food programs for hungry kids, gutting support programs for our seniors, and defunding other services our communities need.
That's not right. At NPA, we're fighting back against tax dodging. In the streets, at corporate headquarters, and on Capitol Hill, we're saying it's time for our elected officials to listen to us and make corporations pay their fair share!
Call the National Hotline 888-531-3993 to tell Congress to shut down corporate tax dodging, not the government.

To Read More: http://npa-us.org/make-corporate-tax-dodgers-pay-their-fair-share

Friday, July 25, 2014

A Chance to Turn over Citizens United


If you are interested in getting involved with overturning Citizens United locally (aka Move to Amend), please contact Virginia Wisdom at
Virginia.wisdom@gmail.com or 815-260-7189
Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
Your Company

Remember the Citizens United ruling that corporations are people and have the free speech rights of people?  Remember the days when Congress used to regulate corporate money spent in elections?  
Since the erroneous Citizens United ruling, we have witnessed corporate interest money flooding into our elections.  Now a new constitutional amendment is before the House and the Senate that would restore Congress’s and the states’ authority to regulate campaign money, overturning Citizens United.
Whose vote should count more?  The American voters or corporations?  Please sign this petition now to show that you want Congress to pass the amendment to reverse Citizens United!
Petition Text:  
The petition signatures will be sent to both chambers of the U.S. Congress to show your Representative and Senators that the people disagree with the Court: corporations are not people!  

Wednesday Campaign Wrap-Up

Did you miss last week’s campaign wrap-up?  Catch up here and learn about theIowa U.S. Senate race, which has recently changed from a likely Democratic win to a toss-up. Luckily for progressives, ADA has one of its strongest local operations in that state and it has made electing Democrat and long-time ally Bruce Braley a top priority.  And there’s more: Iowa ADA has just announced an unprecedented partnership with two other local progressive organizations, not only to boost Braley’s chances but to help worker-friendly candidates up and down the ballot. Read all about Iowa’s new liberal alliance inADA’s Campaign Central.  

Noteworthy:

  • Did you know that Walgreens, Pfizer Mylan, Abbvie and other U.S. companies are pretending to move their companies offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes? Corporate "inversion" is a growing problem.  Learn more about the Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2014 in Bob Lucore’s latest blog post.
  • While Republicans are trying to sue President Obama for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are benefiting from the new healthcare law.  Check out the latest reports and stats.
Donate to ADA
ADA: Proudly. Staunchly. Liberal
Click here to donate


Thursday, July 24, 2014

This one deserves to come around again; Executive orders for Sacred purpose

Obama to sign order protecting gay workers 
By Justin Sink - 
President Obama on Monday will sign a new executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
"No current federal law adequately protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workers from employment discrimination," a White House official said, announcing the move. "This is both contrary to our values as Americans, and bad for business."

The executive order will not include any additional exemptions for religious entities, beyond one implemented during President George W. Bush's administration that allows religiously-affiliated contractors...

To Read More:  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/212734-obama-to-sign-order-protecting-gay-workers



The Huffington Post's take
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order banning workplace discrimination against millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors and the federal government.
The executive order has two parts: It makes it illegal to fire or harass employees of federal contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and it explicitly bans discrimination against transgender employees of the federal government. The part targeting federal contractors affects 24,000 companies employing roughly 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation's workforce.
"America's federal contracts should not subsidize discrimination against the American people," Obama said during remarks at the White House just before signing the order. "I'm going to do what I can with the authority I have to act."
The provision affecting federal employees takes effect immediately, while employees of federal contractors will have their new protections in place by early next year, according to senior administration officials.
To the relief of the LGBT community, Obama did not include READ MORE

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Again with the #$^@%&^# Money. The Koch Brother shuffle


Looping Big Money around democracy's neck

 Posted by Jim Hightower

The beauty of our country's present system of government is that anyone is perfectly free to buy a member of Congress. And isn't that what democracy is all about?
Take the Koch brothers. Of course, these multibillionaire industrialists prefer to buy everything in bulk, and they've spent millions of dollars to purchase controlling shares of a whole flock of Republican congress critters. In fact, they have spent so much on so many elections (from Congress all the way down to small-town school board races) that they've made themselves the poster boys of Big Money corruption. By huge margins, the public is demanding that Congress terminate the plutocratic infestation of our democratic system by Kochites.
How have the brothers responded? By buying another senator – this time a former-senator-turned-lobbyists...
 
Read More: http://jimhightower.com/node/8379#.U8lA0PYo7Mw

The Kochs’ Anti-Civil Rights Roots: New Docs Expose Charles Koch’s Ties to John Birch Society 

The Progressive magazine and Center for Media and Democracy have released new documents that show billionaire oil industrialist Charles Koch was an active member of the controversial right-wing John Birch Society during its campaigns against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Charles Koch was following in the footsteps of his father, Fred Koch, a leader of the John Birch Society from its founding. We speak with The Progressive’s Lisa Graves about her new article, "The Koch Cartel: Their Reach, Their Reactionary Agenda, and Their Record." Graves details how the reactionary ideas absorbed during Charles Koch’s youth continue to animate many of his actions decades later. Charles and his brother, David Koch, have used their wealth to push a similar agenda into the mainstream through the tea party and "dark money" political coalitions that allow donors to shield their identity while funding attack ads against Democrats.

Read More: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/8/kochs_anti_civil_rights_roots

Koch-Tied Youth Group Weighs In on Senate Races - 
By Mary Bottari

Generation Opportunity 

Generation Opportunity (Gen Opp), the "millennial" group behind the "creepy Uncle Sam" ads which attempted to scare America’s youth away from health care coverage, is weighing in on the fight for control of the U.S. Senate in a big way. The "nonpartisan" group, which has received almost all of its funding from two conduits tied to the billionaire Koch brothers, has dropped nearly $2.3 million on TV ads since mid-June. The ads, attacking Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Mark Udall (D-CO), indicate that the front group is going to spend a lot of money in the fight for control of the Senate...

Read More: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187765/koch-tied-youth-group-weighs-senate-races
 

Concrete Reasons Why Supporting Women's Caucus and Voting Groups is Important


10 Races That May Hinge on “The War on Women  by Joshua Holland 

As a coherent and consistent political narrative, “the war on women” is relatively new. But the underlying tension between conservative religious beliefs and women’s access to reproductive health care — including legal abortion without overly burdensome regulation and insurance coverage for contraceptives — is not.

Nor is the gender-gap in American politics. In 2012, Barack Obama took advantage of a record 20-point gap between men and women, but similar gaps have been apparent since the rise of the religious right as a force in American politics, as this chart by Nate Silver illustrates:

The Democratic advantage is most pronounced among...

To Read More: http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/18/10-races-that-may-hinge-on-the-war-on-women-2/

Sunday, July 20, 2014

COD VP doesn't address board member Hamilton's charges

College of DuPage Executive VP Joseph Wilson, in his rebuttal letter, didn't address the substance of COD Board Member Kathy Hamilton's letter explaining her June 26 vote, the only one, opposing the new $50 million classroom building at COD. Three weeks after the vote, Wilson argues the building is necessary because COD enrollment is up. He then goes on to say that "for all intents and purposes" COD is out of space for scheduling classes in the prime morning and evening times. That phase, of course, means nothing. It is a rhetorical trick to justify doing what is not substantiated by a thorough study of all existing classroom space in an already overbuilt campus when many students are switching to online classes from their "home" classroom. The absence of a thorough study, and not the undisputed fact that enrollment is up, was the substance of Hamilton's argument and vote. She argues that the taxpayers and the community are not served when such justification is not provided. President Breuder is proud of stating he runs COD like a business. As one who just retired from 42 years in business, I can assure President Breuder and Vice President Wilson that a sound business never spends $50 million on a building that has not been thoroughly researched and vetted. 

Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn 

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Not much Backing for Brownback

Friday, July 18, 2014

Rauner: bad answer to Illinois' challenges

 

A chain of long-term care homes owned by one of Republican Bruce Rauner's...
THESOUTHERN.COM By Lee Enterprise
 
Republican billionaire Bruce Rauner says he wants to run Illinois like a business -- and we just got a glimpse at how one of his businesses was run.
 
This is from a breaking story in today's Southern Illinoisan:
 A chain of long-term care homes owned by one of Republican Bruce Rauner's former companies has faced lawsuits and critical state inspections stemming from the death and mistreatment of residents.
 
It gets worse: To Read More: https://www.quinnforillinois.com/breaking-news


This is why we can't let Bruce Rauner win. http://bit.ly/1m7rBXD

Thursday, July 17, 2014

This made a first round. Time for a second wave.

Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate businessman Bruce Rauner smiles during a debate Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014, in Naperville, Ill. The four candidates vying for the 2014 Republican nomination for governor faced off in a debate on the central issue in the campaign _ the state's economy. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Bruce Rauner (R. IL), you are the gift that just keeps on giving:

Crain's Chicago Business reports that a company once partially owned by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner started making campaign contributions to Illinois Democrats just after it won a multimillion-dollar Cook County contract.
 In 2000 the Cook County Board approved a deal with HealthRev Inc. to collect Medicaid bills. County records show HealthRev was paid $8.8 million. HealthRev was owned until 2004 by GTCR LLC, a firm partially owned by Rauner.
State records obtained by Crain's show that just after the deal was approved the company made the first of $8,000 in contributions to then-Cook County President John Stroger's campaign and a related account. - NBC Chicago, 7/9/14

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Net Neutrality: Info and Primer if you can't admit you don't know much about it.

Dignified Jobs

Dignified Jobs and Decent Wages  The Next 50 Years of Civil Rights and Economic Justice | By Maryam Adamu 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Years of organizing and civil disobedience culminated in a seminal piece of legislation prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex.A few years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, Martin Luther King Jr. asked, “What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger?” It is important to realize what King always understood: The civil rights movement was about both social and economic justice. It was about....Read More:http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2014/07/10/93607/dignified-jobs-and-decent-wages/?

Friday, July 11, 2014

16 year old makes it easy to Follow The Money

Not old enough to vote, 16-year-old builds money-in-politics plug-in  

Nick Rubin was 10 days into a month-long high school trip to China when he decided to come home this week.
And not because he was homesick or got sick of dumplings.
The 16-year-old of Seattle spent the better part of the last year building a database of members of Congress and their campaign contributors. It went live in June, and began generating considerable buzz online. He wanted to be stateside to help promote it.
Here’s how it works: Once you download his plug-in, ( http://www.allaregreen.us/index.html )which he called “Greenhouse,” you can hover your mouse over any member of Congress’s name that shows up in any online story and a pop-up scorecard appears...
To Read More: http://www.allaregreen.us/index.html Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately reported Nick’s last name. The story has been corrected.
 
 

Holding Breuder's feet to the fire

COD students go online; Breuder builds to the sky
Walt Zlotow

Talk about two groups going in opposite directions, consider the COD student body and the COD Board, led by irrepressible building builder Robert Breuder. While many COD students, following a nationwide trend, have gravitated to online classes, COD President Robert Breuder touts his five year, half billion dollar building empire that has turned the COD campus into a veritable city within a city. While most of the dough has gone for brick and mortar as students go for pixels in the comfort of their homes, a near fortune has gone for landscaping that would make Harvard or the University of Chicago proud. In his now infamous May 9 email to the Board agonizing over the need to hastily approve a new classroom building to justify getting a $20 million grant from Governor Quinn, Breuder told the Board they should trust him because, "in the last five years, I have led a $550 million transformation of our physical plant. By now I hope all Board members have confidence in my judgment. But, then again, this may be about something else." You bet this is about something else. It's about constructing a Xanadu of a campus on the backs of taxpayers and students with ever increasing tax levies and tuition, while COD has squired away $72 million in the bank for a 'rainy day.' Breuder told the Chicago Tribune, which editorialized against his machinations to acquire the $20 million grant without a firm construction project in place, 'he was doing what ever college president does: chasing funds.' His last comment tells all we need to know: 'he runs the college like a business.'

The Board and the community need to remind Breuder that COD is not a business, it is an educational institution. And when students are forced out because their tuition is constantly raised to build a permanent legacy for their president, that represents a business that is failing.
 
Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn



Thursday, July 10, 2014

Join Chairman Peickert tonight to Support his Election Bid

 Tonight in Lombard
Show that you are willing to put your money 
where your mouth is and change the 
face of DuPage politics yet again!
Support Bob
Bob appearing Wednesday Night on the
 Norman Goldman Show on WCPT

Last minute walk-ins very welcome!!
Tonight 6:30-9:30 p.m.
45$ at the door 
Make checks payable to Friends of Bob Peickert
Questions call 630-421-2405

King's Hall 
Directly north of DPDC office in Landings of Lombard Mall by the Room Place.
    1. 1000 N Rohlwing Rd, Lombard, IL 60148 


Wednesday, July 9, 2014

A COD Board Member to be proud of.

A COD Board member to be proud of: From Facebook post by Walt Zlotow 

On June 26, the COD Board approved 6-1, President Robert Breuder's proposed new $50 million dollar classroom building, $20 million of which was to be funded by a state grant. That state grant was just cancelled due to embarrassing revelations of Bueuder's scheming to get the state grant, including thanking the Governor publically for it in front of 3,500 people at commencement even though the grant had not yet been made. This state grant / classroom issue publically reveals that President Breuder's $550 million building and landscaping extravaganza has virtually no oversight by a compliant Board seemingly enthralled by the garish opulence of Breuder's endless expansion. Fortunately, we DuPage residents who truly care about educational excellence, reasonable tuition for our children and wise use of tax dollars have one reasonable voice on the Board. The other six Board members would do well to read Kathy Hamilton's op ed and decide when they will exercise the same common sense, fiscal responsibility and true concern for higher education in DuPage County.

***********************************************************************************
Stop expansion for expansion's sake - DAILY HERALD, JULY 8, 2014

Because of board policy restricting member speech, I must assert my First Amendment right in this letter as a citizen.

We all want to meet the educational needs of our community. I take that goal very seriously as the vice chairman at the College of DuPage. Recently, the COD board voted on a $50 million building for new classrooms. I was the only board member that opposed that investment. I felt the project warranted further analysis and definition of scope in terms of funding.

The $50 million project was to be funded by existing COD cash of $30 million and $20 million from the state. The state funding was uncertain and the appropriateness of linking the $20 million to the building project has recently come into question.

The scope of the funding should not determine the scope of the project. The request for additional classroom space should have included a complete assessment of current and future needs. Investments should be measured against a defined business model and strategic plan and should be an open and transparent starting point for decisions. The impact of any investment on a strategic plan should be clear or made clear. This was not done.

It is your money: your state income taxes, your property taxes and your student tuition. It is in the best interest of the community, the college and its students that board decisions as well as the circumstances under which they are made see the light of day. We need to stop expansion for expansion sake. Our community deserves better.

Kathy Hamilton
Vice Chair
COD Board