STATE & NATION
Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com
Key ruling for casinos in Blago-linked case By MICHAEL TARM The Associated Press CHICAGO – A judge in a long-running civil case has ruled decisively against riverboat casinos that claimed Illinois legislators passed laws benefiting competitors in the racetrack industry under pressure from Rod Blagojevich as the then-governor sought to cut pay-to-play deals. The four casinos filed the suit in 2009 asking the U.S. District Court in Chicago to return $90 million that they paid in an effective tax imposed by the Legislature. The money, which was 3 percent of the casinos’ adjusted gross revenue, went to five financially struggling racetracks. But Judge Matthew Kennelly concluded in a 17-page ruling posted late Monday that the casinos had failed to demonstrate a link between lawmakers’ decision to pass laws in 2006 and 2008 forcing those payments and Blagojevich’s push for campaign donations from racetracks. Evidence entered by casinos that at least one Republican legislator accused his Democratic counterparts in 2006 of caving in to Blagojevich and voting for the legislation wasn’t good enough, Kennelly said. While the judge pointed out that there was abundant proof of wrongdoing by Blagojevich, he said no evidence showed “Blagojevich or anyone associated with him offered any improper inducements to legislators who
changed their votes.” “For all anyone knows, the legislators who decided to vote yes were persuaded by logic, reason, and considerations of sound public policy,” Kennelly wrote. To justify the payments, racetracks claimed the advent of legal gambling in Illinois lured away their patrons and made it tougher for them to make money. Casinos shot back that one better-off sector of an industry should not be forced to subsidize its direct competitors. With his finding, Kennelly tossed the last remaining count of racketeering in the civil case – appearing to dash casinos’ last hope of recouping the millions of dollars paid out to the tracks. All other allegations in the original lawsuit had been previously dismissed. Blagojevich, who was arrested months before the casinos sued, is now serving a 14-year prison term for corruption, including for bribery conspiracy for attempting to extort racetrack owner John Johnston. Johnston is a defendant in the related civil case ruled on by Judge Kennelly. Johnston’s attorney, William McKenna Jr., welcomed the judge’s finding, saying it should finally end the complex, four-year legal saga. “It’s important to understand, my client was a victim,” McKenna said. “Blagojevich’s crime was not getting a bribe – but attempting to extort my client.”
Wednesday, August 21, 2013 • Page A3
Grading system sees slow start By KERRY LESTER The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ slow implementation of a teacher evaluation program aimed at grading teachers partly on whether their students’ test scores are improving is creating problems for statewide school districts that for the first time will be using the groundbreaking reforms beyond Chicago. Problems include the state’s inability so far to obtain a waiver from some of the more punitive tenets of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, including requiring 100 percent of students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. The 34 individual districts making evaluation changes this year also say they’re not getting help in preparing to implement them. “The state board has not given much guidance with
AP photo
Ivan Silverberg teaches his American Studies class Tuesday to eighth- and ninth-graders at the Niles North High School in Skokie. This is the first school year that 34 Illinois school districts beyond Chicago will begin grading teachers on whether their students’ test scores are improving, but the state’s slow method of implementing the new evaluations is creating problems. incorporating the student growth,” said Tim Buss, superintendent of Wabash District 348 in downstate Mt. Carmel, where his 1,600-student district this fall will
begin tying student performance to evaluations for its 125 teachers. “They talked about coming out with a template, we have yet to see that.”
As districts change how they judge teachers, there is little state support available, Eastern Illinois University education chair Marleis Trover said, particularly for districts which don’t have a large administrative staff or can’t afford to hire outside help. “The whole idea is a good idea,” Trover said of the reforms. “But it’s implementation.” Illinois’ 2009 Performance Evaluation Reform Act requires districts to design and implement evaluation systems that assess teachers’ and principals’ professional skills. By 2016, 70 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on observations of classroom performance. The other 30 percent will be based on “student growth” – students’ improvement on a combination of national, district or teacher-developed tests.
Rubio is talking less about immigration these days By MICHAEL J. MISHAK The Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Fla. – On a recent swing through the most conservative parts of his state, Sen. Marco Rubio told a packed banquet hall at the St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club that major policy issues were threatening the American dream: onerous taxes, burdensome regulations — and, above all, President Barack Obama’s health care law.
But all Doc Washburn wanted to know about was immigration. The local radio talk-show host asked the Republican senator why he had worked with Democrats on legislation that would give the estimated 11 million immigrants here illegally an eventual path to citizenship. “We know you, and we’ve always loved you,” Washburn said, “and yet you’re pushing this and it’s a real problem for us.”
The exchange – and Rubio’s reluctance to raise the issue after spending months advocating for comprehensive immigration reform – underscore why the potential presidential candidate has undertaken a sort of image-rehabilitation tour, promoting his conservative bona fides to crowds in Florida’s most Republican bastions. Once embraced by the tea party, Rubio’s name can now elicit boos and catcalls at
rallies. And since he began championing immigration changes, his standing has slipped in some polls. The senator acknowledges the fallout. He told Republicans in Panama City, “Politically, it has not been a pleasant experience, to say the least.” But his aides insist that his pivot to health care is driven by policy, not politics, that he’s simply giving the U.S. House its own space to tackle immigration.
8BRIEFS 5 state prisons locked down for violence
Judge set to announce Manning’s sentence
SPRINGFIELD – Five Illinois prisons have been locked down in the past week because of a spike in violence. The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers reported the incidents involved either full or partial lockdowns at the prisons. Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer said authorities don’t believe any of the violence was related. He said no employees were seriously injured. Menard Correctional Center in Chester was locked down for 39 hours last week after an inmate struck a guard at the maximum-security facility. Other incidents included a fight during a soccer game at the medium-security Pickneyville Correctional Center and a weekend brawl on a basketball court in a medium-security unit at the Pontiac Correctional Center.
FORT MEADE, Md. – A military judge said she’ll announce Wednesday the sentence for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who gave reams of classified information to WikiLeaks. Army Col. Denise Lind said Tuesday she still was deliberating but she was confident she would have a sentence by Wednesday morning. “At 10 a.m. tomorrow I will announce the sentence,” Lind said about 2½ hours into her deliberations. Manning faces up to 90 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department diplomatic cables in 2010 while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq. He also leaked video of an U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad, in which at least nine people were killed, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
– Wire reports
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