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Quinn flatly rejected those estimates at a Statehouse press conference Wednesday, saying he sticks by the $9.2 billion figure. |
Regardless of the figure, it seems there is one pressing question facing legislators: to tax or not to tax. |
Many lawmakers agree that a mix of solutions including Medicaid reform, program cuts and state worker layoffs are the way to get out of the budget hole. But the real question is whether an income tax increase should be included. |
Syverson says a tax increase isn't necessary to solve the state's budget woes. |
"The Democrats are only looking for a huge amount of tax dollars so they can fund new programs and government pay raises," he said. |
Fellow Republican Sen. Larry Bomke of Springfield disagrees. He says a temporary income tax increase is needed to stave off massive state worker layoffs and more furlough days. |
"Where do state employees come from?" asked Bomke. "Not the suburbs of Chicago. They come from central Illinois. These layoffs will have a significant effect on my district." |
But even before they get to debating that point, Republican lawmakers say a short-term budget should be passed to buy more time. |
"We could do a temporary budget," said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. "We could base it on the '08 level, which would be a reduction of spending from what is currently on the table." |
Rep. Lang, however, is leaning against relying on a month-to-month budget. He says that it is "a recipe for us being here every month and never resolving the problem." |
Another solution that seems to be gaining steam at the Capitol is a plan to borrow against pension funds to free up an estimated $2.2 billion. |
"I'm not happy with that idea. It's the same thing Blagojevich did," said Syverson. "They want to skip the pension payment and borrow money to make it." |
Many lawmakers, despite those questions, agree the plan would free up more money and say it has a good chance of being passed by the legislature this week. |
Gov. Quinn has marked July 1 as the "doomsday" for when the budget ax could come down on human services throughout the state. But despite this warning, many lawmakers from both parties agree that this budget fight will drag on well past Wednesday. |
"The chances of coming to an agreement are not very good," said Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville. "We won't reach an agreement by July 1." |
Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, is hopeful that a vote on some solution could come early next week, though he is less optimistic that vote will actually solve anything. |
"It's very possible we could have something to vote on Tuesday," he said. "It's also possible it could all fall apart. But I think there's a serious effort on everyone's part to try to get this thing done." |
Rep. Lang said Quinn wants an income tax increase vote next week, but he thinks the vote shouldn't take place unless the governor secures "a list of people who he's converted." |
Without some signs that a tax increase has more support, Lang believes many legislators will chose not to stick their necks out politically for it. |
"From the legislative point of view, some will say, 'I'll go out on a limb and I'll vote for that and I'll pay the political price, whatever it is, because it's in the best interest of Illinois,' " he said. "'But why should I do it if I know it's going to fail?'" |
Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, thinks the legislature will come to "a limited solution" that will at least hold off Quinn's threatened doomsday. |
"I don't think we are going to have a complete meltdown of social services, but I don't think we will solve the problem either," Brauer said. |
Regardless of what happens next week, Sen. Gary Dahl, R-Granville, thinks lawmakers have a long, hard fight ahead of them. "We're probably in the middle of the book," he said. "I don't think we're anywhere near the last chapter." |
Andrew Thomason can be reached at (217) 782-6882 or andrew.thomason@sj-r.com. Eric Naing can be reached at (217) 782-3095 or eric.naing@sj-r.com. Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com. |
The Illinois House is in session at 3 p.m. Monday. |
The Illinois Senate is in session at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday. |
Follow the action at the General Assembly's Web site, http://www.ilga.gov, and at The Dome - The State Journal-Register's one-stop shop for state government news: http://thedome.sj-r.com. |
WATERTOWN, MA (March 21, 2014) On Tuesday, March 25, 2014, award-winning print and broadcast journalist, poet and essayist, Judith Valente, will appear on the nationally broadcasted talk show, This is the Day to discuss her new book, Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith. |
Ms. Valente began her work in journalism at the age of 21 as a staff reporter for The Washington Post. She later joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal, reporting from that paper's Chicago and London bureaus. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, first in the public service category as part of a team of... |
For the past eight years, Ms. Valente has been a regular contributor to the national PBS-TV news program "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly." She has won eight broadcast awards for her work on the show. Her work has also appeared on PBS-TV's "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer." She is also a commentator for National Public Radi... |
Judith Valente's interview with the CatholicTV Network will air on This is the Day on March 25, 2014 at 10:30AM ET on CatholicTV and CatholicTV.com. |
Headlines for July 08, 2014 | Democracy Now! |
Violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories is escalating as Israel bombs dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip and threatens a new full-scale assault. Gaza-based journalist Mohammed Omer reports four people were killed earlier today in an Israeli airstrike on a microbus. On Monday, the Israeli military mobilized 1,5... |
Afghanistan is facing a crisis over its disputed presidential election. Preliminary results Monday showed former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani beating opponent Abdullah Abdullah by about a million votes. The results will not be finalized until later this month. Abdullah’s supporters have protested, calling the resul... |
Earlier today in Afghanistan, at least 16 people — including four Czech soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians — were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the eastern province of Parwan. |
In Nigeria, more than 60 girls and women have reportedly escaped from the Islamist group Boko Haram after they were kidnapped two weeks ago in the northeastern state of Borno. More than 200 schoolgirls previously kidnapped by Boko Haram in April still remain missing. |
In Japan, at least one person has died and half a million have been urged to evacuate amidst a powerful typhoon. Typhoon Neoguri brought wind gusts of more than 150 miles per hour and cut off power to tens of thousands of households in Okinawa. |
In Mexico and Guatemala, at least three people are dead after a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake. The quake was centered in southern Mexico, where it sparked landslides and building collapses, killing at least two people in the state of Chiapas. A baby was killed in the hard-hit Guatemalan state of San Marcos when a p... |
In the United States, immigrant advocates gathered at the White House to criticize the Obama administration’s treatment of immigrant children fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. More than 52,000 unaccompanied children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have been seized at the U.S. border since Octobe... |
The Obama administration is poised to ask Congress for $2 billion to pay for more detention centers and immigration judges to handle the influx. The White House said Monday most of the children are unlikely to qualify for humanitarian relief and would be deported. According to the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, 5... |
In a victory for young immigrants in Arizona, a federal appeals court has ordered the state to stop denying driver’s licenses to young people who came to the United States as children and are eligible to remain here. A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Arizona had violated the Constitution b... |
Unnamed U.S. officials have confirmed the CIA was involved in a spying operation that led to the arrest of a German intelligence official accused of being a double agent. German politicians say the agent has admitted to providing a U.S. contact with details about a German parliamentary probe into U.S. spying efforts re... |
President Obama has signed legislation authorizing more than $560 million in spending on U.S. intelligence efforts over the next five years. That figure does not include the vast array of U.S. spy programs that are kept secret. The law also expands whistleblower protections for employees who report concerns through aut... |
The Gulf nation of Bahrain has ordered a U.S. diplomat to leave the country after he met with a Shiite opposition group. Bahrain is a key U.S. ally that hosts the Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The Sunni monarchy there has staged a brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests. Tom Malinowski, U.S. assistant secretary of state ... |
In North Carolina, organizers say more than 1,000 people rallied in the latest “Moral Monday” action to denounce a voter ID law they say is the harshest since the Jim Crow era. The rally came as lawyers for the Justice Department and civil rights groups asked a federal court to block the law, which requires voters to s... |
In California, local prosecutors say they will not bring criminal charges against a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed an eighth grader after mistaking his pellet gun for an assault rifle. The deputy, Erick Gelhaus, shot 13-year-old Andy Lopez seven times last year in Santa Rosa. The killing sparked mass protests. Bu... |
Are you ready for the toilet of the future? |
High-tech toilets, like this one at Tokyo's Narita airport, offer all kinds of luxurious amenities. But some find these potties positively perplexing. |
Earlier in the week I wrote about the Keypurr alternate on-screen keyboard for Android smartphones. In the post I wrote that the initial release had what I called a fatal flaw of not working in landscape. The developer contacted me to let me know that they had released an update that fixed the landscape problem, and to... |
My review of Keypurr has been on a Nexus One running Android 2.2, and I first just updated the app as indicated by the Android Market. The update, however, did not seem to take affect. I then uninstalled the keyboard app and reinstalled it and that finally seemed to work. If you running the first release of Keypurr you... |
Keypurr, which is regularly priced at $3.99, is now on sale until January 10, 2011 for $0.99 and you can find both the free trial and the paid version in the Android Market. |
If you are a filmmaker, you are welcome to make anti-establishment political dramas, as long as you don’t name (and blame) the Central Government. The new Telugu-Tamil political drama Nota starring Vijay Deverakonda which releases this Friday has been instructed by the Central Board Of Film Certification to remove all ... |
In other words, every time Deverekonda makes a reference to the ‘Central Government’ he would now be heard saying, ‘Government’. This is called deflecting the blame if any. |
LAFAYETTE, Ind. – I’m not saying this is the SNL Drunk Uncle case at our house, much less yours, at Thanksgiving, but there’s something that stops me in my tracks when Will Miller starts tossing around the phrase “survival of the fittest” in his holiday table advice in these divisive political times. |
Miller – a Lafayette therapist, comedian and more, known for his “Dr. Will” appearances on the “Bob and Tom Show” these days and “Nick at Night” long ago – says he’s just trying to get you through the conversation until the pumpkin pie is served with “The Thanksgiving Compassion Strategy,” an on-the-house counseling se... |
His twist on Darwinism at the holiday, as family drives hundreds of miles to sit next to cousins they might otherwise curse and block on social media? |
Charles Darwin wasn’t available for a rebuttal – his death in 1882 poses a problem, there. So, here’s Miller – preparing for a one-man show, “Dr. Will Tells the Story of Your Life,” Jan. 13 at the Long Center in downtown Lafayette (tickets available soon, I’m told) – on surviving. At least until the NFL games kick off. |
Will Miller: There’s a premise in psychology that anticipation of what’s going to happen is usually worse than when it comes to pass. I mean, the anticipation of a crisis. |
Q: Wait, so Thanksgiving is a crisis? |
Miller: Your words. But any crisis usually isn’t as bad as you think it will be. |
Q: On to Step 2. Now we’re at the table, or at least waiting for dinner to happen. Get us through this. |
Miller: Typically, what’s hot? What’s the issue du jour? Of course, it’s politics. And if you have some fervent Republican Trumpers or the Hillary gang, you’re just begging for it. … Basically, my word is “futility.” You know you’re not going to change them. So why even engage in it and frustrate yourself? And with fam... |
It’s compassion. It’s about having a compassionate way to choose, very quietly – don’t announce it, it wouldn’t be good to announce it – that you are going to be the voice of peace. And the voice of peace is the one who thinks about how to deflect the conversation and keep it guided to neutral topics that join you all.... |
Just know, inevitably somebody will say something, like throwing a grenade into the table, because someone who doesn’t have your discipline says something idiotic. |
Q: Make a list of good family memories. Got it. |
Miller: The other strategy is to say: You know what, I’ve have had a change of heart. I completely agree with you now. |
In all seriousness, you know where the landmines are. Just think about them, and initiate topics that you know will divert the conversation for 10 or 15 minutes or so to something that is fun and funny. And in a family, there are thousands of those. |
Q: And because you aren’t going to have to see them for another five weeks at Christmas. |
Miller: That’s right. If you’re having a sense of dread about the mood and the ambiance of the dinner, what does it come down to? You know it comes down to one or two individual persons who are provocateurs. They will provoke you. They will provoke others. You know who they are. Uncle Fred or Aunt Mary or whoever. They... |
What you can do is – this is going to sound stupidly obvious – ignore it. Don’t take the bait. Hello, McFly, how hard was that to come up with. But it’s hard to avoid being emotional in the moment. But if you’re prepared for it, and you think about a topic you can switch to – “Hey, Phyllis, so-and-so has a new job? Tel... |
Q: Survive and advance, right? |
Miller: It’s all about compassion. You can survive. |
A new website examining 100 years of fire service history has been launched today (April 9) as part of plans to mark the centenary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). |
Visitors to the site will be able to explore the ways in which the union has contributed to the safety of both the public and firefighters through campaigns to introduce fire safety legislation and develop more effective firefighting equipment. |
A historical timeline highlights major events in the FBU’s history as well as the union’s response to some of the most devastating fires in the UK, including the Rose & Crown hotel fire that led to the deaths of 11 guests in 1969. |
The FBU campaigned for the development of the legislation that still shapes fire safety regulation across all hotels today. |
A series of long-form features explore periods of the union’s history in depth, such as the development of the Auxiliary Fire Service during the Second World War that resulted in a huge membership growth for the union – from 3,500 members to 66,500. |
Users will also be able to browse the historical editions of the union’s journal, Firefighter, dating back to 1932. |
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: “In our centenary year, we want to celebrate the work of firefighters and the FBU who over ten decades have shaped the modern fire and rescue service and have, immeasurably, improved public safety. |
“Far fewer people die in fires today than 100 years ago. This is not a happy accident – it is a result of the union and its members campaigning relentlessly for changes over the last century. |
“When the union was first formed, firefighters had the most primitive protective equipment, were forced to live on stations full time, had no access to pensions and were paid less than unskilled labourers. |
The FBU wants the centenary website to become a hub for fire service history and the site will be updated with new content frequently. |
Award-winning writer/filmmaker, Caryn K. Hayes is joining a host of other indie directors taking a stab at online distribution. |
On August 22, Hayes will be releasing her acclaimed narrative short entitled "Clean Hands" as a digital download & streaming rental making the film directly available to her fans and lesbian cinephiles alike at https://www.reelhouse.org/hardlyworkingtv/clean-hands as well as on her official website: hardlyworkingent.co... |
The New Orleans native (now Los Angeles resident) world premiered the short earlier this year at the 2014 Pan African Film Festival before taking it through the film festival circuit with screenings at The Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the Women's International Film & Arts Festival. |
"Clean Hands" follows Anna and Kirsten, a married couple who are caring for Anna's terminally ill father, Paul. Anna is a woman who is always stuck in the middle- between her homophobic father and her wife, her Christian beliefs and her sexuality - and she is constantly under pressure from all sides. After Paul dies, A... |
A graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Caryn Hayes has been writing fiction since grade school and is a published author. |
The renaissance woman is also a two-time winner of the TV Pilot Award in the original script competition presented by the Organization of Black Screenwriters for "The Ridge" in 2007, and "Dirty Thirties" in 2009. |
In the spring of 2008, Hayes began producing her own work under her multimedia production company, Hardly Working Entertainment (http://HardlyWorkingEnt.com). Her first comedic digital series, "The World of Cory & Sid," was nominated for Best Television or Web Series in 2009 by the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival. |
She received an Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series award for her second series, "Breaking Point," from the 2011 Los Angeles Web Series Festival. To date, "Breaking Point" has been nominated/awarded over 20 times - including nods for Best Drama and Best Directing from the 2012 International Television Festival. Her m... |
Be it her signature of sorts, Hayes clearly has a natural propensity for drama - particularly the kind gravitating towards relationship. |
Whatever hat she is wearing, the filmmaker, writer and producer has certainly carved for herself a successful career, cementing her status as a voice to be reckoned with in the lesbian film community. |
Rwanda on Sunday commemorates the 25th anniversary of the genocide in which at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked or shot to death in 100 days of slaughter. A quarter of a century on, the east African nation has recovered economically, but the trauma still casts a long, dark shadow. On Sunday, as is ... |
A revolutionary cancer treatment pioneered by the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been hailed as the future of fighting the disease — and it has fewer devastating side effects than chemotherapy. |
While chemotherapy destroys cancerous cells along with normal cells —often with toxic and debilitating effects on a patient — immunotherapy unleashes the body´s immune system to target tumour cells. |
James Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of Japan won the Nobel on Monday for identifying two different brakes on the immune system which, when turned off, allow the body´s defence system to attack cancerous cells faster and more effectively. |
Allison was one of two scientists to discover the blocking effect for one such brake — or checkpoint inhibitor molecule — called CTLA-4 in 1995. Honjo discovered another, PD-1, around the same time. |
Once these brakes were identified, researchers were able to work on how to turn them off and get T-cells — white blood cells — to start attacking. |
“The goal is to neutralise these molecules, among them CTLA-4 and PD-1, and these are what the recipients of the Nobel prize have been working on,” said Pierre Golstein, emeritus professor at the Marseille-Luminy Immunology Centre. |
Sheena Cruickshank, an immunology lecturer at the University of Manchester in Britain, said the therapy has “enabled us to harness the power of the body to help heal itself”. |
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