Citizen Suburban TImes Weekly 6-5-2019

Citizen Week of June 5, 2019

| Vol. 2 | No. 43 | www.thechicagocitizen.com

SUBURBAN TIMES WEEKLY

Elected officials from Chicago’s Greater Southland Region have been consistently collaborating to encourage Governor J.B. Pritzker to include funding for the completion of a south suburban airport in next year’s capital bill.

SOUTH SUBURBAN OFFICIALS COME TOGETHER TO GARNER SUPPORT FOR A NEW AIRPORT IN THE REGION

Across the South Suburbs, elected offices are coordinating efforts to encourage Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to designate $150 million of the 2020 capital bill for investment in Chicago’s Southland. The money will be necessary for completing the proposed south suburban airport and will support a new interchange on Interstate 57, local road upgrades, and connectivity to utilities that will accommodate the new airport. SEE PAGE 2

POLITISCOPE

Sims initiatives aim to lower alarming maternal death rate PAGE 4

Kidney Community Applauds Introduction of Bipartisan Senate Legislation PAGE 4

Secrecy versus sunshine: Efforts to hide government records never stop PAGE 2

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Raoul, 20 Attorneys General File Brief in Texas Federal Court To Defend Contraceptive Mandate in the Affordable Care Act PAGE 4

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2 | CITIZEN | Suburban Times Weekly | Week of June 5, 2019

COMMUNITY

South Suburban Officials Come Together To Garner Support For A New Airport In The Region Continued from page 1

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Across the South Suburbs, elected offices are coordinating efforts to encourage Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to designate $150 million of the 2020 capital bill for investment in Chicago’s Southland. The money will be necessary for completing the proposed south suburban airport and will support a new interchange on Interstate 57, local road upgrades, and connectivity to utilities that will accommodate the new airport.

Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly along with Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan recently submitted a letter that outlined the infrastructure needs in the area and again asked for Governor Pritzker to consider including an investment in the South Suburbs in next year’s capital bill.

The letter was signed by three members of Congress, 14 state legislators, 29 mayors, four Chicago aldermen, two Cook County commissioners, and two mayors-elect.

Together, the group represents elected leadership from Cook, Will, and Kankakee counties.

“I’m in full support of the proposed third airport for southern Cook and Will County.

We have witnessed an increase in logistical manufacturing companies who now call Southern Cook County their home. It is only fitting that a cargo airport be constructed to give these companies the added boost needed to enhance their operations,” said Sheila Chalmers-Currin, president of the Village of Matteson. “I truly believe Governor Pritzker understands this need and will do what’s necessary to ensure that the proposed airport becomes a reality.”

The vision for the South Suburban Airport is to create an airfield that will serve the greater Chicagoland area and be located just south of the City of Chicago in the Village of Peotone. The South Suburban Airport will offer travelers and businesses expanded options for air and freight travel to the midwest, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“This has been a fight for probably over 35 years, many of which I’ve been involved [in] as a citizen as an elected official. We have always felt that the third airport would be an economic development tool for the south suburbs and it’s certainly something that we really need,” said State Representative Debbie Meyers-Martin.

In 2017, the governor of Illinois at the time, Bruce Rauner, issued a Request for Information from the Illinois Department

of Transportation. Up until now, Gov. Rauner’s request was the last major move on this project in a long saga of advocating for an airport in the Southland.

Representative Meyers-Martin said that she recently attended a meeting with Governor Pritzker to discuss the proposed airport and said that he understands the airport is a major issue for south suburban legislators and knows that many people are interested in seeing the project completed.

“The Southland legislators have been meeting cohesively to push for this project to be part of the capital bill that we are scheduled to vote on this year. We met with the governor to express our support for the third airport and the fact that we really felt that this was something that needed to be funded through the capital bill,” said Meyers-Martin.

POLITISCOPE

Secrecy versus sunshine: Efforts to hide government records never stop – not just doctors but also dentists, veterinarians and undertakers. Basic information about birth, marriage and deaths is locked away. The pest-extermination industry won a special exemption to keep secret information about bedbug infestations. Oregon’s once-solid disclosure has become so flimsy that it once allowed state officials to declare it was a confidential trade secret to reveal the location of lightning strikes.

BY BRENT WALTH

It’s spring, and in America’s state capitals legislatures are winding up their business and, too often, bringing out the padlocks.

All 50 states give the public the right to see government records and documents, but many state legislatures are weighing changes in their open-records laws.

These changes rarely end up making our government more transparent. Instead, lawmakers often try to conceal public records from the people who own them – that is, you and me.

Public records laws exist to allow us to see into the decision-making of our government. When bureaucrats make efforts to obscure our view into their actions, it serves only to undermine government officials’ accountability.

It also diminishes the public’s understanding of, and faith in, democracy.

Making what’s public a secret In Massachusetts, lawmakers are making it harder for the public to see elected officials’ financial disclosure statements.

In California, the legislature has been considering the shuttering of records that could reveal mis-

Brent Walth

conduct or conflicts of interest in publicly funded research.

Last year, Washington state lawmakers rushed through a bill that allowed them to hide lawmakers’ calendars and email exchanges with lobbyists. Only after public outrage erupted over the move did the governor veto the measure.

Most efforts to hide public records aren’t as brazen.

Here in Oregon, our once-robust disclosure law, passed in 1973, is now pockmarked with more than 500 exemptions, many chiseled by bureaucrats wishing to avoid scrutiny or lobbyists seeking to protect their clients.

Oregon officials can conceal investigative evidence of wrongdoing by medical professionals

The right to know The fight over public access to government documents has often involved the mundane grist of government, such as studies and budgets and memos and emails.

This tension over what’s called the “right to know” debates back to the country’s founding.

“A popular government,” as James Madison wrote to a friend, “without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both.”

I spent 30-plus years as a journalist and editor, focusing on investigative reporting on the state and federal levels. I’ve filed hundreds of requests for documents and now teach journalism students to do the same. And I believe the best way to protect these laws of transparency is www.thechicagocitizen.com

to put them to use – and show the public why they matter.

In 1966, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act, the first law that required all federal agencies to make documents public when asked. But in some ways, state public-access laws that were passed as post-Watergate, good-government reforms have a greater role in our everyday lives.

What the Defense Department has in its files may be of national import, but it can be just as powerful for a community to find out what the local zoning board – behind closed doors – is planning for a city’s neighborhoods.

Using your rights Journalists do perhaps more than anyone to advertise the power of these laws.

A study looking at more than 30 years of news stories found that almost all investigative reporting relies on government documents, and nearly half of investigative reporters make a point of telling readers these disclosure laws played a role in prying records out of government’s grip.

Researchers, advocacy groups and businesses are among the most common users of these laws, but anyone

can write out a request and hand it to a government agency. (In a pinch, I once scrawled a request on the back of a reporter’s notebook. It worked.)

Today, in most states, public officials must work under a deadline to respond to the request.

And that’s when things can get difficult, because officials have three big ways to block your access to the public’s records.

One is fees. State laws allow government to make you pay for the records, although many have provisions to reduce or waive these costs. In most cases, government can charge only for the actual cost of retrieving, reviewing and copying documents. But those costs can still be high enough to thwart inquiry.

Another method is delay. Most states have deadlines under which agencies should hand over records, but the waits can range from fewer than 21 days in states such as Vermont and Rhode Island to more than 100 days in Arizona, Mississippi and the District of Columbia. The wait for federal records under the Freedom of Information Act can take much longer – sometimes years.

The third way is through more exemptions. Some debates are not easy.

Continued on page 3

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CITIZEN | Suburban Times Weekly | Week of June 5, 2019

POLITISCOPE

BRINGING MOMENTUM TO YOUR SAVINGS.

Secrecy versus sunshine: Efforts to hide government records never stop Continued from page 2 The Florida legislature recently passed a bill that would prevent disclosure of photos, audio or video recordings of mass shootings, such as the 2018 shooting that killed 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Supporters say that this exemption could prevent further trauma.

But others argue hiding these images makes these tragedies sterile and makes them more likely to occur.

The availability of these kinds of images later helped news organizations hold police and school officials accountable for failing to do more to stop the Parkland shooter. The South Florida Sun Sentinel won a Pulitzer this year for its reporting that held those officials accountable.

Records belong to you In recent years, a rise of public-records watchdogs, such as Muckrock, has made filing public records requests easier while shining a light on government efforts to close off records. The Student Press

Law Center offers a public records letter generator.

Journalists are writing about government efforts to hide documents – a move that properly puts the heat on government officials and increases their own transparency by showing readers how journalists go about doing their jobs.

News outlets in Atlanta banded together to expose the mayor’s secret effort to defy the Georgia public records law. The stories led to a criminal charge against the mayor’s press secretary for improperly withholding records embarrassing to her boss.

“Public records are public because they belong to you – you and other taxpayers paid to create them and, of course, you paid for all the work they record and represent,” Kevin Riley, editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said during the unfolding scandal.

“So no one should be looking for ways to keep them secret from you.”

Brent Walth is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.

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NEWS

Kidney Community Applauds Introduction of Bipartisan Senate Legislation Kidney Care Partners (KCP) – the nation’s largest kidney coalition comprised of physician groups, providers, patient groups, manufacturers and researchers – recently praised the introduction of the Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2019 (S. 1676) – a bill to improve the understanding of, and promote access to treatment for, chronic kidney disease and endstage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure. The legislation was introduced

by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).

If passed, this legislation would raise awareness, incentivize innovation, improve care, and empower the more than 30 million Americans living with chronic kidney disease.

“KCP applauds Senators Cardin and Blunt for their leadership in protecting this patient population with serious health conditions,” said

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Dr. Allen Nissenson, chair of Kidney Care Partners. “We look forward to our continued work with bipartisan lawmakers in both the Senate and the House to ensure that individuals with kidney disease have the resources and care they need to live quality, healthy lives.”

Specifically, the legislation does the following: · Increases access to the Medicare kidney disease education benefit. · Requires the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on the current utilization of palliative care services in treating individuals with kidney disease. · Expands kidney care access in underserved areas by adding nephrology health professionals to National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Programs. · Improves care coordination for individuals on dialysis by requiring

hospitals to provide information to their dialysis providers. · Maintains an economically stable dialysis infrastructure while incentivizing innovation for new drugs, biologicals, devices, and other technologies. · Improves patient decision making and transparency by consolidating and modernizing quality programs. · Guarantees access to Medigap policies to all ESRD beneficiaries, regardless of age.

“The Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2019 provides a clear roadmap for the future of kidney care,” added Dr. Nissenson. “By focusing on patients and supporting expanded access to and improved quality of care, this legislation will help millions of individuals living with chronic kidney disease and ESRD achieve the quality of life they want and deserve.”

Researchers Find 28% of 35­-50 Year Old Men Studied Are At-Risk for Osteoporosis Research published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found 28 percent of men and 26 percent of women between 35 and 50 years of age had osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis.

The findings surprised the participants and researchers, who did not expect the condition to be more prevalent in men. Osteopenia occurs when bones are weaker than normal, but do not yet break easily.

Bone mineral density (BMD) is measured to determine bone health. Nutrition, lifestyle, environment, physical activity and genetics all contribute to BMD. Peak BMD is believed to be established by 30 years of age.

Sims initiatives aim to lower alarming maternal death rate Two bills sponsored by State Senator Elgie R. Sims Jr. (D-Chicago) to help lower the alarming maternal death rate in Illinois passed the General Assembly. According to the Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report released by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) in October 2018, an average of 73 women die annually within a year of giving birth, and black women are six times more likely than white women to be one of them because of a pregnancy-related condition.

HB 2896 was approved by the legislature recently and awaits the governor’s signature to become law. HB 2895 was sent back to the House for approval of Senate amendments. If they approve those amendments, the bill will then be sent to the governor.

Raoul, 20 Attorneys General File Brief in Texas Federal Court To Defend Contraceptive Mandate in the Affordable Care Act Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 21 attorneys general, filed an amicus brief urging a Texas federal district court to reject a request that would effectively deny tens of thousands of women across the country access to birth control guaranteed to them under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Raoul and the coalition recently filed the brief in DeOtte v. Azar, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

In the case, the plaintiffs have sought a permanent injunction that would bar the federal government from enforcing the ACA’s requirement that employer-provided insurance include birth control coverage. The challenge takes aim at the special accommodation for employers with religious objections to contraception that enables the employees of such entities to obtain seamless access to alternate coverage.

“The Affordable Care Act already allows employers with religious objections to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage,” Raoul said.

“Employers do not have the right to stand between their female employees and the reproductive health care they need.”

Kwame Raoul

To date, the district court has certified nationwide plaintiff-classes of employers who have religious objections to providing contraception, and individuals who object to paying insurance premiums to insurers whose plans cover contraception.

Recently, the state of Nevada moved to intervene in the case to defend the contraceptive mandate.

In the amicus brief, Raoul and the attorneys general argue the www.thechicagocitizen.com

ACA’s contraceptive mandate does not violate the plaintiffs’ rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because it does not impose a substantial burden on their own exercise of religion. A ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor could take away access to alternative coverage from women who work for employers with religious objections.

The brief also urges the court to grant Nevada’s motion to intervene in the lawsuit.

Since the ACA was enacted in 2010, employers who provide health insurance coverage to their employees have been required to include coverage for contraception, at no cost to the employee, with narrow exceptions for religious non-profit organizations and for closely held, for-profit companies. The ACA also provides seamless alternative contraception coverage to employees of objecting religious employers. The ACA gives more than 55 million women in the United States access to birth control with no out-ofpocket costs.

According to the brief, the current accommodation in the ACA allows employers with religious objections to birth control to opt out

of “providing, paying for, referring, contracting or arranging contraceptive coverage” and does not force the organization to play any role in providing contraception coverage.

The plaintiffs’ arguments are in line with those the federal government is making to justify new regulations that seek to authorize employers with a religious or moral objection to block their employees and their employees’ dependents from receiving insurance coverage for contraceptive care and services.

A nationwide injunction granted in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has stopped these regulations from going into effect while litigation is pending. A separate case out of the Northern District of California has produced a preliminary injunction covering all of the plaintiff states challenging the rules.

Joining Raoul in filing the brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

CITIZEN | Suburban Times Weekly | Week of June 5, 2019

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