Archive for January 15th, 2008
January 15th, 2008
Last week I told you about how Rep. Lou Lang hastily dismissed the idea of having voters decide on gambling expansion through a referendum.
I also told you the referendum idea was proposed by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn — Illinois’ reigning king of ballot referendums.
Well, a recent poll shows that despite Lang’s objections, Quinn wasn’t too far off the mark.
Now, as you may know, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn has called for a ballot referendum to directly ask Illinois’ voters if the State should allow an expansion of casino-style gambling in Illinois.
Would you Support or Oppose the State of Illinois placing a referendum question on the ballot to determine if Illinois should allow an expansion of casino gambling?
Strongly Support……………………………………………………47%
Somewhat Support…………………………………………………30
Somewhat Oppose…………………………………………………..7
Strongly Oppose…………………………………………………….13
Don’t Know…………………………………………………………….2
Refused………………………………………………………………….–
The poll also included some interesting approval ratings.
January 15th, 2008
Indeed, about 25 people packed into the Illinois Supreme Court’s oral argument room to hear Alan Beaman’s appeal this morning. That’s an extraordinary showing for an individual case.
Among them were his parents, who graciously stopped and spoke extensively to the media afterward (more on this later).
Beaman, a Rockford native, contends he was innocent of the murder for which he was convicted. He says he was in Rockford at the time and couldn’t possibly have committed the murder at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, about a two-hour drive south of Rockford.
More background here.
Much of the argument Tuesday centered around phone calls made from the Beaman family home on the morning of the murder. The defense maintains Alan Beaman did make the calls at 10:37 a.m. and 10:39 a.m. and that he therefore couldn’t have been at ISU at noon — the official time of the victim’s death.
Prosecutors dispute the possibility that Beaman made those calls, and say that perhaps his mother made them (she says she did not). As evidence, prosecutors note that Beaman had visited a bank on the other side of Rockford on the morning of the murder and say he couldn’t have made it from the bank to his family home in time to make the calls.
The defense responds that prosecutors testing the time from the bank to the home drove the wrong route — through downtown Rockford. They say Beaman likely would not have taken that route and that he instead would have taken the U.S. 20 bypass around Rockford. Therefore, the defense maintains, he could have made those calls.
UPDATE 1
Carol Beaman, 63, said she definitely did not make the phone calls (see below post).
“I know I didn’t make the phone calls. That’s the key,” she said.
“For us, it’s also the key in terms of how we can support Alan at this stage and all along because as soon as we saw those phone calls, we knew we hadn’t made them. We knew that put him at our house. The second phone call was disconnected at 10:41. To get from our house on the far northwest side of Rockford to Bloomington-Normal between 10:41 and noon is just plain impossible. That’s an hour and 19 minutes to travel 139 miles. It’s just not possible.”
Alan’s father, Barry Beaman, joined his wife at the court. Barry, 64, is quality manager at Ingenium Aerospace in Rockford. He said there was no way to know whether the oral argument went in his son’s favor but added this:
“Certainly, the questions were I think appropriate. And the judges seemed to be extremely knowledgeable of the case. And if we have that, that’s certainly a good sign.”
UPDATE 2
Here’s Beaman’s mom on Alan’s relationship with Jennifer Lockmiller, Alan’s girlfriend and the murder victim:
“Very tumultuous, up and down. She was an extremely jealous young lady. They would break up and start up their relationship once every couple weeks. That was for 13 or 14 months they went together. Just a very rocky relationship, what I would call an unhealthy relationship. When he discovered that she was sleeping with his roommate, that was a good reason to break up with her not deal with her ever again. And that was a month before she died that he finally said, ‘I’m not going to have anything to do with her again.’”
And here’s what she said about her son’s character:
“I don’t believe he could have (committed the murder). He’s a very gentle kind of guy. Yeah, he has flyups like everybody does. But he’s really a very gentle kind of guy – the kind of person who would nurse a bird back to health if it flew into our window.”
His dad interjected: “He did that with a rabbit.”
His mom continued, “Right now he is a hospice volunteer at the prison. Dixon is one of two programs in the United States that have hospice programs, and he’s doing hospice there because he feels it’s something he can give back to people.”
UPDATE 3
The Illinois Supreme Court recently started posting video of oral arguments on its Web site. According to the court, video of the Beaman argument should be posted by Wednesday afternoon.
January 15th, 2008
Last week Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced that he was going to make lemonade out of the mass transit bill the Legislature had sent him.
The governor inserted a provision to let Illinois’ citizens, aged 65 and older, ride on mass transit anywhere in the state for free. The legislation provided necessary money to bailout Chicago mass transit – a funding crisis that has been brewing for years.
Now that the smoke has cleared a bit and the governor’s office has released the official language, Blagojevich’s meaning of free is not so clear.
The official language states that any senior citizen could hitch a free ride on the transit system in his or her district. For example, a Rockford senior citizen would be able to ride on the Rockford Mass Transit buses. If that same senior citizen goes to the doctor or visits relatives in Chicago, he would have to pay just like his fellow younger commuters.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the governor’s intent was to let seniors get free rides within their transit district, but he is encouraging individual transit authorities, such as the Rockford Mass Transit District, to let all seniors ride free regardless of where they live.
Venita Hurvey, vice president of the RMTD board, said most of the people who ride mass transit in Rockford are elderly, and this is a good proposal for them.”You have to wonder how people on fixed income can stay ahead of the curve,” Hurvey said.
Hurvey also said she would have to look into the cost of such an idea.
Fortunately Rockford transit does have a bit more money coming its way.
When senators last week were having problems getting the votes necessary to avoid a shutdown of Chicago transit on Jan. 20, the bill’s sponsors gave downstate transit districts, including Rockford, additional money to get more legislators to approve the bailout measure.
The bill narrowly passed the Senate with a 30-25 vote, and as a result, Rockford mass transit is poised to receive $1.2 million more.
However, the measure, and the money for Chicago and downstate transit, is still in limbo because the governor added his free ride provision. If lawmakers approve the governor’s changes when they return to Springfield Thursday, senior citizens in Rockford could get their free ride.
UPDATED x1:
Two Rockford lawmakers are split about the governor’s proposal to give seniors a free ride.
Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, said he favors the proposal because senior citizens deserve it.
“Seniors have made this country what it is today, and if anyone should be given a break, if you will, it should be the seniors,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson was the lone Rock River Valley lawmaker in either chamber who voted last week for the original mass transit legislation. Some media outlets (here and here) have reported some legislators who voted for the bailout last week may be getting cold feet as it gets closer to Thursday, the day lawmakers return to vote on the governor’s change to the bill.
Jefferson said he will decide how to vote when he returns to Springfield on Thursday.
“It’s not a selfish vote that I made for the CTA,” Jefferson said. “Sometimes you have to make decisions that are good for the state of Illinois.”
Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, did not vote for the transit legislation on Thursday and said he won’t vote for it this week either, unless, a capital construction bill is attached.
Syverson said he is surprised that the governor’s proposal would be limited to a senior citizen’s transit district.
“(The governor) doesn’t think about the ramifications and the complexities when you do something off the cuff like this,” Syverson said of the proposal that took most in the Capitol by surprise.
He said if senior citizens do need free transit, then it should be addressed in separate legislation, rather than “a blanket political maneuver.”
January 15th, 2008
The Illinois Supreme Court’s oral argument room is packed, apparently with folks gathered to hear Alan Beaman’s appeal.
The argument starts around 11 a.m. and should last about an hour.
We’ll have more as soon as it’s over.
