Politics and Opinion from Champaign-Urbana

Status Quo in Battle of MTDs

Mark Shelden — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:00:13 +0000

Judge Leonhard has issued an opinion and order in the Champaign Southwest MTD v. Champaign-Urbana MTD (05-CH-206) case. Essentially, nothing changes. Attachment below.

My reading here is that on the issue of Constitutionality, Judge Leonhard ruled that CSWMTD had no standing. Whether that is appealable, I don't know. I also don't know if the question could be brought by a citizen who would have standing or if that would be barred by laches.

On the question of whether the statutes allow overlapping districts, Judge Leonhard ruled that they did not have to be read to preclude that and that case law, Bartholf v. Woodward, specifically allows for this. I attended the last hearing in this matter, and I got the sense then that this is where the judge was going. I personally don't think that the law in this instance was intended to allow that. The lawyers for both sides in this case took my position, but whether a trial court judge should fill in the gap for the legislature is certainly arguable. Now, it appears that a panel of appellate justices will be asked to do that.

The judge also made a ruling that the creation of the new district was valid and that the facts of the case did not support the CUMTD's assertion of bad faith on the part of the CSWMTD.

Open Thread (7/9/2009)

IlliniPundit — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:28:32 +0000

Thursday, July 9, 2009.

Dominoes

IlliniPundit — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:26:07 +0000

The dominoes are falling.

First, Lisa Madigan is running for re-election as Attorney General.

Next, Mark Kirk is running for the United States Senate.

Of course, State Sen. Kirk Dillard (whom I'm helping) is announcing for Governor today.

There will be more.

Open Thread (7/8/2009)

IlliniPundit — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:55:40 +0000

Wednesday, July 8, 2009.

The Third Stimulus

Mark Shelden — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:52:54 +0000

Recently there's a lot of talk of a second stimulus. It makes me wonder if anyone can count.

Here are the google news searches for "second stimulus" back in the fourth quarter of last year. Of course, the first stimulus was in May of last year (remember your stimulus check?) and the second stimulus was in February of this year. So if Joe "everyone guessed wrong" Biden and the White House economic team push for another stimulus, it will be our third.

Dillard for Governor

IlliniPundit — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:46:18 +0000

State Sen. Kirk Dillard will announce his candidacy for Governor tomorrow:

KIRK TO ANNOUNCE FOR GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS
Please join us as Kirk officially announces his candidacy for Governor of Illinois.

Wednesday, July 8th
10:00 A.M. - Hinsdale Memorial Building - 19 E. Chicago Ave., Hinsdale, IL
1:00 P.M. - Rockford International Airport - #2 Airport Circle, Rockford, IL
4:00 P.M. - Governor Oglesby Mansion - 421 W. William, Decatur, IL

Thursday, July 9th
8:00 A.M. - Microtel Inn & Suites - 200 S. Third St., Quincy, IL
9:00 A.M. - Washington Park, Fifth & Main, Quincy, IL
11:00 A.M. - St. Louis Downtown Airport - FBO Jet Aviation Terminal, 6200 Curtiss-Steinberg Dr., Cahokia, IL
2:30 P.M. - Williamson County Regional Airport - 10400 Terminal St., Marion, IL
4:00 P.M. - Peoria International Airport - 6100 W. Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway, Peoria, IL

To RSVP for any announcement locations, please contact us 630-571-0390 or email DillardForGovernor@gmail.com.

(Disclaimer: I will be helping Kirk Dillard's campaign for Governor.)

Open Thread (7/7/2009)

IlliniPundit — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:44:51 +0000

Tuesday, July 7, 2009.

Law Profs Respond

Mark Shelden — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:01:30 +0000

Wow. Quite a letter.

Robert Knilands (AKA Wenalway) Still Banned

IlliniPundit — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:25:46 +0000

Robert Knilands, who often posts insulting comments here under the name Wenalway, was banned from IP.com two years ago for being unable to engage in any sort of civilized discussion on here. For some reason, even though he's repeatedly stated how much he hates this site and everyone who posts on it, he has returned and resume posting his repetitive, uncreative and insulting comments.

Please don't respond to his comments, as I'll eventually delete them. If you're interested in judging for yourself the online behavior of Robert Knilands / Wenalway, you can look at the July 3 Open Thread.

Robert Knilands / Wenalway will no doubt stick around for a few days, posting more insults like a monkey throwing feces at the wall of his cage, and he will continue to threaten me with lawsuits for whatever offense he's imagined today.

So please remember, as you read IP.com for a while, that Robert Knilands / Wenalway is banned for repetitive posting of infantile and insulting comments. Thanks, and sorry for the hassle.

Open Thread (7/6/2009)

IlliniPundit — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:59:22 +0000

Monday, July 6, 2009.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Catholic Social Teaching

Mark Shelden — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:51:24 +0000

I’ve avoided religious posts here at Illinipundit. But the controversy with the Catholic Worker House and the news that Pope Benedict XVI is issuing a new encyclical (Love in Truth) makes religion a relevant topic for the site.

The social justice teaching of the Catholic Church is rich, complex, and subject to much misinterpretation, making it hard to encapsulate in a blog post. I think I’ve done more study on this than the average Catholic, but certainly I wouldn’t proclaim myself a scholar on the topic. As I was reading the Catholic Worker post I imagined how a friend who is a scholar on this topic would have responded. The answers to both the supporters and detractors generally would have been “Yes, but....”. There aren’t many simple answers.

This website has a nice summary of some of the principles of the Church teaching. You can go to the EWTN documents library and find everything referenced. Not included in the list of Papal Encyclicals is one issued by Pope John XXIII exactly 50 years ago entitled On Truth, Unity and Peace. While not generally included in the list of social encyclicals, it certainly has some elements of the Church’s social teaching and its anniversary may have been the prompt for the encyclical to be issued tomorrow.

The off political year always leaves a little extra time for reading. The social teaching of the Catholic Church is interesting stuff, regardless of your religion.

UPDATE: The new encyclical is available here.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

Open Thread (7/3/2009)

IlliniPundit — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:44:25 +0000

Friday, July 3, 2009.

Friday Funnies

John Farney — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:17:31 +0000

Happy Independence Day - see everyone at the parade!

Open Thread (7/2/2009)

IlliniPundit — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:52:17 +0000

Thursday, July 2, 2009.

Fireworks Traffic

IlliniPundit — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:12:30 +0000

From the City of Champaign:

Following the event:
Vehicles exiting the parking lots will be routed through the same entrances in which they entered. (See above.) Upon exiting, the traffic pattern will be as follows:

Parkland Way / Mattis Ave exit. All vehicles will be directed to the north. Both lanes open to east bound traffic.

Illinois workNet Center lot. All vehicles will be directed to the south.

Vehicles exiting the Parkland College Main entrance on Bradley Avenue will be directed to the east. Bradley Avenue will be one way (east bound) between Clayton Blvd and Mattis Avenue. Initially, Country Fair Drive south of Bradley Avenue will be closed to allow for business parking lots in the area to clear.

Traffic at Bradley Avenue and Mattis Avenue will be directed to the east and south only.

Duncan Road entrance. All traffic will be directed to the south and west. Both lanes will be open to south bound traffic north of Bradley and traffic in the right lane will be required to turn right.

Mattis Avenue will be closed to north bound traffic between Bradley Avenue and Parkland Way (Mattis Avenue entrance). This will allow for pedestrian crossing.

All vehicles exiting from Clayton Blvd and Edward Hoffman Dr at their intersections with Duncan Road will be directed south.

Officers will be directing traffic at each of these intersections immediately following the event and until the majority of the traffic has cleared the area. Additional officers will be assigned to outlining intersections.

Pedestrians exiting at the main entrance to the college will cross on the west and south sides of the intersection.

An event map that outlines the traffic pattern and plan for this event is attached to this press release and is also available at our website www.july4th.net.