Editorial Roundup: Illinois

Chicago Tribune. May 26, 2022.

Editorial: How a dirty factory and government meddling left babies crying for food

A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane flew from Germany to Indianapolis on Sunday carrying not troops nor military equipment, but a load of European-made formula for infants and toddlers. It was a mercy mission to heal a self-inflicted wound.

America is struggling to feed its babies.

Shortages of formula, a periodic nuisance during the pandemic, became acute in February, when Abbott Laboratories recalled Similac and other brands made at its factory in Sturgis, Michigan, after four infants developed serious bacterial infections.

The crisis has put a spotlight on the warped market for a crucial infant foodstuff. Shortages are expected to continue for weeks, bedeviling caregivers, rattling Chicago-area corporate giant Abbott and costing President Joe Biden more points off his dismal approval rating. We're hopeful the embarrassment of having failed some of our country's most vulnerable citizens will bring about necessary changes.

Robert Ford, chief executive of Abbott, recently published an apology in The Washington Post. We were relieved to finally see the CEO pay attention to this important local employer's reputation, however belatedly. Abbott needs to keep the message coming that its products are safe and it's taking action to relieve the shortages, assuming it can live up to those and other commitments that Ford made in his mea culpa.

Ford is not the leading villain in this crisis. The wanted poster really should feature a faceless bureaucrat. The current shortage has less to do with the immediate problems at Abbott's factory and more with the over-the-top regulation and centralized planning that govern the U.S. market for infant formula.

For starters, government trustbusters over the years have allowed excessive market concentration, leaving Abbott and a couple other companies with a huge domestic market share. Compounding that problem is overconcentration on the other side of the ledger: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children - better known as the WIC nutrition program for low-income families - is the biggest buyer of infant formula, and federal rules require each state to award all its WIC business to a single manufacturer. The goal of this market manipulation is to secure a low price, but obviously competition is limited when only a few big vendors vie in winner-take-all fashion for a few massive orders.

Trade protectionism also has hurt competition, as capable vendors from Europe and elsewhere have been blocked from the U.S. market by tariffs as high as 17.5%, on top of nit-picky rules about ingredients and labeling that do more to promote political interests and discourage competition than protect babies. It's appalling to think of the cost and effort required for the Air Force to bring in perfectly safe formula manufactured by Swiss-based Nestle that would otherwise be barred from entering the country. It's similarly appalling to subject baby formula ingredients to the overused Defense Production Act, a step the Biden administration has taken, evidently to show it's doing 'œsomething'ť even if that something isn't likely to amount to much.

Given the government meddling in this industry, it's mystifying how sluggishly the Food and Drug Administration responded at the key moment in September 2021, when state-level health authorities said they had traced an infant's infection back to the Abbott plant in Michigan. The agency inspected the facility and found unsanitary conditions. Between September and December, it received additional reports of infections and subsequent inspections noted more contamination problems at the Sturgis facility. A whistleblower complaint alleging violations languished at the FDA for months until someone woke up and alerted the agency's head of food safety.

During this long stretch of dithering, the agency raised no public alarm and waited until Feb. 17 for Abbott to voluntarily recall its formula, a step that kicked off the shortage in earnest. Abbott has said that testing determined its products were not responsible for the four reported illnesses in children, and it's possible a wiser course for the FDA would have been to allow the plant to keep operating but carefully test its inputs and outputs. Wasn't to be.

Instead, Abbott shut the plant and entered into a 33-page consent decree with the FDA, agreeing to a long list of demands before the Sturgis facility could return to full production. The plant is scheduled to restart June 4, though replenishing store shelves could take weeks beyond that.

Infant formula is a uniquely sensitive business. Its marketing needs to be regulated so those who can breast feed are not diverted from that healthier option. The government also has a legitimate role in protecting the youngest Americans from deadly bacterial infections and other potential manufacturing disasters.

Until now, though, we assumed that federal regulators and the large, reputable companies making the product would have a good grip on ensuring a safe supply. Anyone who's been in the same room with a hungry baby understands that practically nothing could be more important. America needs to do whatever it takes to feed her children.

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Arlington Heights Daily Herald. May 29, 2022.

Editorial: Our recommendations for governor in Republican, Democratic primaries

Republicans: Irvin

Republican voters in Illinois have two important considerations when choosing a nomination for governor on June 28. One is which candidate has the best chance to successfully lead Illinois, heading a General Assembly that is likely to remain in Democratic hands even if it loses its current veto-proof majorities in November. The other is which candidate has the best chance this fall to beat J.B. Pritzker.

Among the six candidates vying for the opportunity to face Pritzker, who seems impervious to a primary challenge from a little-known Chicago activist on the Democratic ticket, only one checks both of those boxes, Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin.

We have followed Irvin's leadership in Aurora, of course, so we know him to be a more moderate and collaborative political leader than the tough-talking contrarian he portrays in his speeches and television ads fashioned for a conservative primary-voting audience. To win in November, the Republican candidate will have to be able to attract moderate voters who may have misgivings about the direction of the state but remember only too well the frustrations of the intransigent Rauner administration. Irvin has that potential.

Aside from political considerations, Irvin has a solid record of leadership to offer. If indeed he is a conservative Republican, he has worked effectively with the diverse voices on Aurora's City Council to advance the revival of the city's downtown, produce balanced budgets and respond to crises such as the destructive protests following the death of George Floyd. To be successful in Illinois today, a Republican governor needs to have the capacity to work successfully with a wide range of personalities and points of view. Irvin has shown he can do that.

And he's done his homework. During an editorial board meeting with the candidates, it did not escape our notice that when a question came up regarding infrastructure needs in the state, Irvin showed as much awareness of downstate needs, if not more, as candidates who hail from the region. He is well-versed on all issues confronting the state and articulates his positions thoroughly and forcefully.

Not that he is the lone voice for cohesion and perception among the GOP field. We are impressed with the tone and insights we've witnessed from financial manager Jesse Sullivan, of Petersburg, attorney and ex-Marine Paul Schimpf, of Waterloo, and attorney and minister Max Solomon, of Chicago. But none of them shows the promise Irvin does to successfully lead an adversarial General Assembly, nor do they offer much hope of mounting a successful campaign against Pritzker.

Two additional candidates round out the primary field, Gary Rabine, a highly successful owner of multiple businesses from McHenry, and state Sen. Darren Bailey, a farmer from downstate Xenia whose career in the legislature was most noted for his expulsion from the House floor when, then a state representative, he refused to abide by rules at the height of the pandemic requiring all members to wear face masks.

Be aware: We are not indifferent to the optics or the complications posed by Irvin's well-publicized, well-financed backing by Illinois' richest person, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin. Irvin still has far to go to prove that he is indeed his own person, willing to lead according to the dictates of his own conscience and insights and not those of a well-heeled financial backer.

But we hope he gets more opportunity in a broader campaign to show his full personal political profile.

He gets our endorsement for the Republican primary for Illinois governor.

Democrats: Pritzker

For better or worse, Democrats have a record to defend for the governor's seat in the November general election, and the person who should be defending it is the person responsible for it, Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Pritzker has a legitimately impressive story to tell. Under his watch, the state has consistently managed a balanced budget, made bigger payments than required toward its crushing pension debt, experienced two credit upgrades, passed significant climate legislation and undertaken a major infrastructure program.

Whether the credit for these accomplishments is due to the policies of the Pritzker administration or the windfall of COVID-19 relief money from the federal government will no doubt be a central theme of the fall campaign. And Democrats will also face hard questions over tax increases, the governor's handling of pandemic mandates and an ambitious progressive social issues agenda. There is no more appropriate candidate to respond to such questions than the governor who oversaw the actions.

Pritzker faces a challenge for that opportunity from within his party. Registered nurse and social activist Beverly Miles is mounting a mostly quiet campaign citing her 15-year military service, health care background, organizing work in her West Side Chicago neighborhood and additional focus on education and violence prevention. She is not particularly critical of the incumbent, telling the Chicago Sun-Times last summer she believes Pritzker has 'œdone a phenomenal job.'ť

Miles is obviously a well-meaning candidate, but with only a failed attempt for alderman as political experience to back her up, she really doesn't have the background or stature to challenge Pritzker's record.

Pritzker is endorsed for the Democratic primary.

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Champaign News-Gazette. May 25, 2022.

Editorial: U.S., Illinois ironically dependent on nuclear power

The worldwide fight against climate change has given new life to old nuclear power plants.

Other states have joined Illinois in working to keep low-emission nuclear plants operating.

Fifty years ago this spring, officials with the former Illinois Power Co. announced that a new power plant to be built east of Clinton would not be powered by coal. Instead, the long-gone utility - now a part of Ameren Illinois - decided to build two relatively small nuclear units along the shores of a new lake in DeWitt County.

It did not go well, at least for the next 20 or so years. The plant finally opened far over budget and far behind in its construction schedule. Only one of the two planned units was built. The single unit closed about 10 years after it opened, plagued by operating and safety issues. That fed into reasonable concerns about nuclear power after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and disquiet about the nuclear waste that was (and still is) stored on site.

But after being closed for more than two years in the late 1990s, the Clinton plant eventually became part of Exelon, a larger power generator with a fleet of nuclear plants. And for most of the last 20 years, the plant has operated safely, reliably and efficiently.

Last year, the 35-year-old plant produced more power than at any point in its last 20 years. And as more coal-fired plants in Illinois close, the continued safe operation of the Clinton plant becomes more important for replacement power and for reducing damaging emissions.

The plant's operating license expires in 2026, although it can be extended. Like other aging nuclear plants in the United States, Clinton is needed to help fight climate change and to provide a reliable source of large, base-load energy that solar and wind power just can't yet meet.

It's a scenario being played out in other states, including Michigan and California, where government leaders and others are now fighting to keep open the nuclear plants they once opposed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reversed course and now says he is open to extending the life of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant that he intended to close in 2025.

That's what happens when your state endures blackouts and brownouts and alternative energy is inadequate. The Biden administration, meanwhile, last month proposed a $6 billion plan - a healthy subsidy - to keep aging yet mostly clean energy nuclear plants open as a way of reducing carbon emissions.

Few people are pushing for new nuclear plants; that ship seems to have sailed, largely because Congress couldn't agree on a method of disposing of nuclear waste at a central location. The only nuclear plant under construction in the U.S. is - shades of Clinton - behind schedule and more than 100% over budget.

But the 55 remaining nuclear plant sites in the United States, including Clinton, having survived scare campaigns, federal licensing revisions and an incapacitated Congress, apparently will become energy workhorses for many more years, in some cases far beyond their expected lifespan. Given a choice between more carbon emissions and energy shortages, the old nukes offer a reasonable compromise that will help Illinois and the nation.

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