Editorial Roundup: Illinois
Chicago Tribune. June 6, 2022.
Editorial: Fighting corruption should be a top priority for Illinois AG. Steve Kim has the right resume.
The last time a Republican held the office of Illinois attorney general, Mayor Richard M. Daley was firmly ensconced in his reign, the musical 'œChicago'ť had become a box office smash and the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, pleaded guilty to trying to take down an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic Ocean.
Jim Ryan was the state's last GOP AG, handing over the reins in January 2003 to Democrat Lisa Madigan, daughter of longtime Illinois House Speaker and Democratic kingmaker Michael Madigan. Democrat Kwame Raoul holds the office now, and in November will face one of three Republicans vying for the GOP nomination in the June 28 primary: Steve Kim, David Shestokas and Thomas DeVore.
The attorney general is the state's chief lawyer. Officeholders historically have also made championing the cause of consumers a signature duty. That's laudable, important work. But in the years Democrats have held the post, fighting corruption has been noticeably missing from the office's to-do list. We've lamented this many times, observing in 2018 that because of her father's all-powerful clout in Illinois politics, Lisa Madigan 'œhad to punt this crucial duty to federal and local prosecutors.'ť
Would a Republican nominee take a much stronger, proactive approach toward corruption?
Kim says that's a top priority. The 51-year-old Deerfield attorney lost to Lisa Madigan in the 2010 general election for state attorney general by a wide 65% to 32% margin. His résumé includes work helping governments in Iraq and other countries promote anti-corruption initiatives. He says the AG's office should make better use of state racketeering laws to go after corrupt politicians, and should work with federal and local prosecutors to enforce those laws.
'œWe need to show and demonstrate to politicians ... that it's not just going to be the federal guys, that it's going to be the attorney general's office that's also going to go after corrupt politicians,'ť Kim told us. 'œWe need to do a full-court press on this.'ť
We're not as impressed with Kim's take on the consent decree, the 2019 court order that lays out steps the city must take to reform the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the 2014 fatal shooting of Black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white police officer. The deficit of trust between police and Black and Latino neighborhoods cannot be bridged without an unwavering commitment to carrying out the consent decree's requirements.
Kim, however, tells us he doesn't support the consent decree 'œbecause it's driving officers away.'ť And he insists the decree's deadlines to implement reform are too strict. Former federal prosecutor Maggie Hickey, the independent monitor tasked with ensuring CPD's compliance with the consent decree, has chastised the department numerous times for missing deadlines that are far from onerous. Case in point: CPD still hasn't met the consent decree's long-standing ask for a permanent foot pursuit policy, even after foot pursuits preceded the Chicago police shooting deaths of Adam Toledo, 13, and Anthony Alvarez, 22, in separate incidents in late March 2021, and most recently a 13-year-old carjacking suspect on the West Side in May.
We'd like to remind Kim that the Illinois attorney general's office plays an integral role in the consent decree. The AG reviews CPD's attempts at reforms, and enforces the decree when the department's actions violate it. We also remind Kim that the consent decree was applied to CPD because of the department's long-running history of police misconduct, a legacy that severely eroded the legitimacy of the department in the eyes of residents, particularly those in minority neighborhoods.
Both Kim and another candidate, former Cook County prosecutor David Shestokas, say they would ramp up the attorney general's role in fighting violent crime. Kim says he would ensure resource-strained counties get the help they need to prosecute violent crimes, and would 'œuse the bully pulpit to go after state's attorneys'ť seen as lax in prosecuting violent criminals. Shestokas wants to go one step further. He would set up an attorney general hotline for police officials to call when those officials feel their local state's attorney isn't aggressive enough in prosecuting serious crimes. We understand Shestokas' passion, but we think collaboration between the attorney general's office and local prosecutors is the better way to go.
We're also troubled by Shestokas' role in 'œLawyers for Trump'ť during the 2020 presidential election. Shestokas says he spent five weeks in Pennsylvania as part of Trump's legal team scouring for evidence of election fraud. 'œWe don't know what the correct result was,'ť Shestokas told us. 'œI don't know who won.'ť
Well, we do. Joe Biden was fairly and legally elected president.
The third candidate in the race, Thomas DeVore, made a name for himself pursuing several challenges to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's pandemic-related executive orders. He chose not to participate in the Tribune's endorsement process.
Whoever wins the GOP nomination faces a tough general election fight against Raoul. We think Kim, with his strong background in battling corruption in far-flung places, is best suited to take on the incumbent Democrat.
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Chicago Sun-Times. June 1, 2022.
Editorial: Bees work for us. They need our help.
Reducing excessive pesticide use and protecting bee habitat can help both pollinating bees and the supply of food.
Bees need help.
About 75% of agricultural crops depend on bees and other wildlife for pollination. But bees - the workhorse of bringing fruits, vegetables, honey, nuts and seeds to our plates - have been declining in numbers for years. According to the Bee Informed Partnership, beekeepers have been losing 40% of their colonies annually.
Bees face a variety of challenges. For example, beekeepers lose up to 25% to 30% of their hives each year because of varroa mites, which carry viruses deadly to bees. On Wednesday, Science Daily reported that a variant of the fatal deformed wing virus, which causes bees' wings to atrophy, is on the rise worldwide.
That makes it all the more important to help bees - and by extension, us - wherever it is possible.
One important step would be to reduce pesticide use, which harms or kills bees. Last year, the journal Science reported that the toxic impact of pesticides on bees and other pollinators had doubled in a decade. That puts agriculture at risk.
Pesticide use, of course, is key to productive farm fields. But overusing pesticides can be counterproductive.
Illinois Public Interest Research Group is calling for a ban on excessive use of insect-paralyzing pesticides called neonicotinoids, also known as neonics, which have been linked to bee die-offs. Similarly, Environment Illinois is calling for banning consumer use of neonicotinoids in states across the country. In 2018, the European Union expanded its ban of neonicotinoids. According to Environment Illinois, neonicotinoids are neurotoxins that poison bees' brains, making it harder for them to find food or even navigate their way home.
Over the last year, Massachusetts, Maine, New York and New Jersey have banned the consumer sale of neonicotinoids. Environmentalists also are supporting the proposed federal Saving America's Pollinators Act, which would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a Pollinator Protection Board to develop an independent review process for pesticides that pose a threat to pollinators and their habitats.
Another helpful step would be to protect bee habitats. Wild bees are important pollinators of plants. Planting wildflowers and other plants that benefit bees, and protecting bee habitats, can keep bees buzzing as well.
According to Illinois PIRG, bees pollinate 71 of the top 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food.
People might not notice it right away if bees dwindle to smaller and smaller numbers. But it's important to take action anyway - because we will notice it when flowering plants and food crops are suffering for want of pollination.
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Champaign News-Gazette. June 5, 2022.
Editorial: Was a hard lesson learned from coronavirus outbreak?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week signed low-profile but important legislation that has the potential to improve the care provided to nursing home residents.
The word 'œpotential'ť is key because what the legislature decrees in the measures it adopts does not always come to pass. Ideas surely matter, but implementation is crucial to success.
The legislation, known as H.B. 0246, aims to improve care for nursing home residents by holding facility owners accountable by tying funding increases into improved care for its residents, according to news reports.
That means nursing homes will be called upon, among other things, to increase funds for staffing, increase pay for employees based on their experience and improve the quality of care.
'œToday we take a giant leap forward in delivering the care, dignity and respect that our valued seniors deserve,'ť Pritzker said.
That's not necessarily the case. The legislation is dependent on federal funding, which is not yet a certainty.
But while the governor was bragging about the legislation aimed at improving nursing home care, he was still dodging questions about the botched handling of a 2020 coronavirus outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home.
It's been well documented that the state failed utterly in responding to the medical threat, contributing to the deaths of 36 residents and illnesses of dozens of others.
Public officials are never eager to talk about their failures, and that's especially true in an election year.
Pritzker is seeking re-election in November, and that's undoubtedly a factor in his decision to deflect responsibility for his administration's failure to respond quickly and efficiently to reports of a coronavirus outbreak at LaSalle.
There have been two investigations that generated scathing reports about how poorly the medical outbreak was handled.
One, an inspector general's report prepared by the administration, identified mistakes made by employees at the home and top officials at veterans affairs.
But the second report, one ordered by the legislature, revealed that problems went well beyond veterans affairs and into the public health department.
In other words, one report pulled its punches to limit the political damage while the other followed the evidence wherever it led.
Asked about those reports last week, Pritzker said the problem has been fixed while ignoring the cause of the problem.
'œIt requires not legislation but different staffing and leadership, and we have done that,'ť Pritzker said Tuesday. 'œWe not only did our own report, but now there is also the auditor general report, and we pointed out transparently what the challenges were at that home.'ť
That's rich. While he appears to be taking credit for both reports, Pritzker ignored his decision to put a political hack in charge of veterans affairs - former state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia - instead of someone with the skills necessary for the job.
He replaced her with someone qualified, but only after death and disaster had struck at LaSalle.
The governor also ignored the scapegoating of one veterans affairs administrator who repeatedly notified public health officials of coronavirus problems at LaSalle and unsuccessfully sought help.
Pritzker, essentially, contends the whole problem was centered at LaSalle and veterans affairs.
'œThere were challenges at that home, and there were some protocols that hadn't been followed, it appears, and the leadership needed to change, and we did that,'ť Pritzker said.
But that's not what the inspector general's report concluded. The response by managers at the home was poor. But it's equally clear that those responsible sought help and were ignored until the situation was out of hand.
Republicans, naturally, are making an issue out of the mishandling of the LaSalle COVID-19 outbreak, just as Pritzker exploited the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at a veterans home in Quincy during his predecessor's administration.
The lesson here is that bad things happen, particularly when public health is in play. That's why qualifications matter when it comes to filling important positions in departments that oversee vulnerable institutions like veterans homes.
Pritzker ignored that reality when he appointed Chapa LaVia. It appears he understands it now, even if he is reluctant to admit it.
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