In the ongoing conservative debate between supply-siders and deficit hawks, John McCain doesn't seem to be picking sides. In an economic speech delivered from Denver yesterday, the Arizona Republican pledged to balance the budget by the end of his first term and to keep taxes low, a proposition that critics contend is fiscally impossible. McCain also called for more offshore oil drilling and a gas-tax holiday, aggressive efforts to control government spending, and tax credits to spur a private health insurance market.
Next month, Barack Obama will give his own address in Denver, but that will be a larger affair. Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High, a 76,000-seat outdoor football stadium, rather than at the smaller arena where the party's national convention will take place. In 1960, John F. Kennedy gave his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but nobody has attempted such an event since.
Unless Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoes the entire spending plan passed at the end of May, state lawmakers don't expect this summer's special session to drag on for five weeks as it did last year. “I’m betting on two days,” Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, said Monday. “I think we take those votes, and it goes right back to the governor.” An AP analysis estimates that taxpayers can expect to pay at least $80,000 for the extended process.
llinois residents angered about civil liberties abuse at the national level may want to turn their attention to Springfield. According to the Bloomington Pantagraph, Illinois officials are raking in millions of dollars in revenue by selling personal information gleaned from driver’s licenses and other sources.
Mayor Richard Daley’s plan to license “expediters” to curb corruption in Chicago’s Buildings and Zoning departments ran into staunch opposition Monday from aldermen concerned about making an already complex system even more intimidating and costly. The committee delayed a vote until a future meeting.
A transplant is generally the best option for patients with kidney problems, but many African Americans (who suffer from kidney disease at higher rates than whites) face additional hurdles to obtaining the procedure, instead opting for dialysis at disproportionate rates. The Chicago Tribune finds that black patients "are less likely to be referred for transplants, less likely to be placed on a waiting list and less likely to get kidneys once on the list, according to a large body of research."
Chicago air travelers should plan accordingly. Between January and May, just 63.2 percent of flights departed O'Hare as scheduled, giving Chicago's air travel hub the worst on-time departure performance of any major U.S. airport so far this year.
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