Progress Illinois

If you've been wondering why there hasn't been much coverage of the Cook County State's Attorney race, The Chicago Reader's Mick Dumke has one possible answer: it doesn't benefit either candidate to directly target each other. Democrat Anita Alvarez is "playing it safe and smart" by keeping a low profile, consolidating party support, and anticipating an Obama-fueled November victory. Meanwhile, Republican Tony Peraica is getting a lot more traction beating up on controversial Cook County Board President Todd Stroger than engaging his actual opponent:

In fact, since the February 5 primaries, Peraica has issued statements about Todd Stroger at least 17 times, by my count. Alvarez only got 14 mentions.

Read the whole analysis here.

Last week, Chicago's Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies shut down its exhibit "Imaginary Coordinates" after museum donors complained that the show portrayed an "anti-Israel" bias. The exhibit had featured maps that conflict with the current national boundaries of Israel. While the curators didn't reveal what specifically had sparked the complaints, they said the decision was based on a desire not to offend members of the Jewish community, its "core constituency." However, many of those criticizing the closure of the exhibit come from the very Jewish community that Spertus claims it did not want to offend.

Blogging at Jewschool, Rabbi Brant Rosen argues that "intelligent exploration and provocative debate is precisely what belongs at a Jewish institution." And at the Sun-Times, columnist Neil Steinberg had this to say:

If the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock teaches us anything, it is the limited benefit of bulldozing forward without regard to conflicting viewpoints. We condemn the Palestinians for feeding their children a narrow view of the world. And then we take a page from them and spike an exhibit because some aspect makes the check-writers uneasy. Shonda fur di goyim. From a Jewish museum, we expect better.

In last week's Time Out Chicago, Lauren Weinberg noted that "Imaginary Coordinates" had been lauded by critics.  She went on to draw a contrast with other museums' handling of similar controversies:

When controversy hit New York’s Jewish Museum in 2002 and the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999, those institutions acknowledged viewers’ sensitivities but kept their exhibitions—and a meaningful dialogue—open.

Interestingly enough, the Spertus website still proudly displays the glowing reviews received by "Imaginary Coordinates."

Many parts of the world have already accepted the link between disastrous weather events and global warming. But during the recent flooding of the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers, public officials and reporters seemed reluctant to discuss the possible connection. While it's easy to simply blame the catastrophe on "mother nature," a growing chorus of scientists, environmentalists, and even the U.S. government are pointing out that global warming models have long predicted flooding of this sort in the Midwest. For instance, there's this statement released today by the National Wildlife Federation:

The big picture is that global warming is making tragedies like these more frequent and more intense. Global warming is happening now. Our dependency on fossil fuels like oil and coal is causing the problem, and people and wildlife are witnessing the effects.

Many from the affected region agree. Gene Tackle, an Iowa State University agricultural meteorology professor had this to say to Reuters News Service:

There has been in the last 30 years a tendency toward more heavy rainfall events in the central U.S. We have a past trend and our models, based on increased greenhouse gases produced by humans, indicate that the trend will continue.

One of the most vocal advocates of climate change awareness is Joseph Romm, a former Clinton official and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Earlier this week, Romm stressed that even global warming skeptics should take note of the devastation in the Midwest:

The [...] conservative interpretation is that this season and other recent disaster years are an aberration, that the disasters are not the result of climate change and that weather will return to “normal”. Even if that were true, the natural disasters underway today are consistent with the predicted consequences of global warming and are very likely a taste of things to come.

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As part of an effort to expand into local news reporting, Arianna Huffington has announced that the famed Huffington Post will be opening up newsrooms in cities across the U.S. The first city on the list? Chicago, naturally:

Huffington said the Chicago site would aggregate news, sports, crime, arts and business news from different local sources as well as contributions from bloggers in what will be the first of a series of projects in "dozens of US cities". The Chicago site will initially be curated by just one editor.

"We are aspiring to be a newspaper in that we want to covering all news, not just the political blogging the way we began," said Huffington, speaking at Guardian News & Media's internal Future of Journalism conference.

The Second City is an obvious choice for this new, hyperlocal HuffPo newsroom (they already have offices in New York, L.A., and D.C.). But you can't help but wonder if the decision to move here was sped up by the recent ascension of a certain local politician.

Illinois is the only state in the country that offers comprehensive and affordable health insurance to all children. The All Kids program covers 1.4 million children, but as many as "376,000 Illinois kids still are uncovered by any health insurance," according to the Sun-Times. That's why the newspaper and Resurrection Health Care are holding a registration drive this Saturday, June 21. The goal is to sign up 1,000 additional children in one day.

While organizers had initially hoped for 300 volunteers to man registration stations throughout Chicagoland, over 400 people have already signed up. As the Sun-Times points out, registering children with All Kids not only protects Illinois' most vulnerable, it saves everyone else money too:

Giving kids who would normally go straight to the emergency room a "medical home" helps to lower health care costs for everyone, said Barry Maram, director of the Illinois Healthcare and Family Services Department.

"Each year, for the people who do have insurance, $1,059 is added to the cost of our policies because of the uninsured," Maram said, citing a 2005 report from Families USA.

You can find a list of registration locations here. Take a look if you or anyone you know might benefit from this program, or call (877) RES-INFO to find a nearby enrollment center.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has named 14 new candidates to its list of "Red to Blue" races, which already features Dan Seals in Illinois' 10th District and Debbie Halvorson in the 11th. Furthermore, the DCCC rolled out a new list of 20 "emerging" congressional races that are generating substantial enthusiasm. Included are two additional Democratic candidates battling for seats here in the Prairie State: Jill Morgenthaler (IL-6) and Colleen Callahan (IL-18).

The DCCC releases these lists as a way of showing what candidates appear particularly strong, which districts particularly vulnerable, and as a way to generate support for the candidates mentioned. Those campaigns that make the cut also receive "financial, communications, and strategic support" from the DCCC.

In May, the University of Chicago Law School released a report assessing every state Supreme Court in the nation. The researchers used three metrics to rate each court's job performance: productivity (how many cases they hear), national influence (how often their opinions are cited by other courts), and judicial independence (how often a judge of one party will agree with a judge of the opposite party). The researchers concede that overall performance is a hard thing to measure:

The objective measures that we use capture some aspects of judicial quality but not all of it. It would be a mistake to believe that small differences in measured outcomes reflect significant differences in quality. But where the differences are large, it is likely that the lower-ranked judges or courts are inferior, at least unless a good reason can be given to explain the difference.

Illinois' high court fared quite well by the U of C standards. Out of the 52 state Supreme Courts (Texas and Oklahoma have two each), ours was found to be the 15th most productive, the 14th most referenced by other courts, and it ranked 10th in its ability to divorce decisions from current political trends.

Some other findings? New Mexico was deemed the least productive, the Oklahoma Criminal Court the least influential, and Michigan the least independent. While Georgia has the most prolific court, California has the most influential and Rhode Island the most independent.

(H/T Michigan Messenger)

Every now and then you might hear Chicagoans grumble about the lack of national coverage their city receives. We're the third largest metropolis in the country, but sometimes appear to lag behind Boston or San Fransisco in terms of national political relevance. Not for long, reports today's Politico:

Barack Obama’s decision last week to shift vital Democratic National Committee political operations from Washington to his hometown makes it all but official: Chicago is the new capital of the Democratic Party.

Home to Obama, his 33,000 square foot Michigan Avenue campaign headquarters, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, and one of the nation’s most influential Democratic mayors, Richard M. Daley, Chicago once again seems to be at the center of the political universe.

The article goes on to point out that Obama's inner circle of advisers "is loaded with Chicago-based talent." On the flip side, others have wondered whether the increased focus comes with some liabilities for Obama, considering the current state of Democratic politics in Chicago and Springfield.

But the press attention Chicago is receiving now could be just the beginning. What happens when Obama is elected? Check out Laura Washington's Sun-Times column yesterday, in which she ponders how a "Midwest White House" could effect Hyde Park.

A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has been getting a lot of press lately. While showing that Barack Obama enjoyed a noticeable bump in support from women since Hillary Clinton exited the presidential race, the survey appears to indicate that Obama is less popular than McCain among suburban females. Specifically, the poll indicated that suburban women favored McCain by six points, 44-38 percent. The findings were trumpeted most noticeably by MSNBC, which has suggested that Obama has "Woman Trouble."

One little problem though: the poll is likely meaningless. The Huffington Post explains:

MSNBC has now provided The Huffington Post with more information on its "suburban women" finding showing a 44-38 McCain lead over Obama. "This is within the margin of error of 9.34 percent based on a sample size of 110 within the larger poll," an MSNBC source wrote over email. (That's three times the margin of error for the entire poll.) This means McCain's 44 percent figure of support among suburban women could actually be as low as 35 percent, while Obama's 38 percent figure could rise as high as 47 percent. Alternatively, McCain could be leading Obama 53-29. Bottom line: that much variance renders the finding of little statistical use.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has announced that victims of recent flooding in six Illinois counties can qualify for low-interest loans through a state disaster relief program:

Under the Opportunity Illinois: Disaster Recovery Loan Program, the Treasurer’s Office secures below-market interest rates for storm victims in state declared disaster areas which finance their disaster repairs through participating lenders.

Residents and businesses that expect insurance to cover their damages can qualify for one-year bridge loans with interest-only payments. These loans are designed to be paid off in one lump sum when insurance or aid comes through.

Underinsured residents and businesses can qualify for low-interest loans with repayment terms of up to five years. The underinsured storm victims must make payments on the interest and principal for loans exceeding one year. Also, loans with terms longer than two years require a compliance review.

The loans not only save flood victims money, they're available more quickly than traditional insurance or other aid, Giannoulias said in a statement.

Those interested in learning more can call the Disaster Recovery hotline at (866) 523-0641 or email opportunityillinois@treasurer.state.il.us.

(H/T David Ormsby)