Progress Illinois

On Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn welcomed State Sen. Bill Brady into the gubernatorial general election race by characterizing his voting record in the General Assembly as "extreme." Tribune columnist Eric Zorn asked the Quinn camp to provide a bit more detail on that record. Today, they sent a laundry list of specific votes Brady has taken to back up their statement. There's plenty of reason for voter concern here. On multiple occasions, Brady opposed a minimum wage hike. He was just one of four lawmakers to vote against an extension of the breast cancer research tax write-off. And he opposed a bill requiring health insurance companies to cover contraceptives, even suggesting he would prohibit access to emergency contraception if given the opportunity.

Tomorrow, we're planning on covering a press conference in which several advocacy groups -- Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women, Personal PAC, and others -- will denounce Brady's positions on women's issues. Check back for our full report.

Lost in the shuffle of political news last Friday, Gov. Pat Quinn unveiled a crucially important rail project that will be funded through the stimulus program. Using $133 million in federal funds, construction will begin later this year on the "Englewood Flyover," one leg of the CREATE program, an iniatitive aimed at untangling freight congestion in the Chicago region. (Kari Lydersen provides some background on the underlying problem here.) The flyover is essentially a bridge at 63rd Street near the Dan Ryan that will carry Metra's Rock Island District line over the Norfolk Southern/Amtrak tracks, improving traffic for commuters and cutting delays for freight. According to U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski -- a rail enthusiast who nonetheless voted "present" on the stimulus last year -- the project is expected to create 1,450 jobs.

It's pretty remarkable that one railroad crossing on the South Side can have such a dramatic regional impact.  Indeed, on Friday, Amtrak chair Thomas Carper called it the "single biggest source of delays in the Midwest."