Results tagged “lisamadigan”

The Federal Drug Administration and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan want manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks to prove they are safe to drink. The FDA, which hasn't given permission for caffeine to be used in alcoholic drinks, gave manufacturers 30 days to prove their safety on Friday. Madigan, worried that the caffeine and alcoholic combo may be unsafe for "young people," was one of the state attorney generals who asked for the FDA to review the drink's safety. [Tribune]

After working the night shift at Pockets in Lincoln Park, Victorino Valle pulled his minivan in the garage of his Brighton Park home and just before closing the garage door, turned to see his 8-year old son Alexander in a state of shock. Alexander told his father that he heard a baby crying in the alley. His parents discovered a crying newborn lying in a trash can and immediately called 911. According to Chi-Town Daily News, when the police arrived they found a two-week old boy in the trash can which was filling with rain water.

With the announcement that Roland Burris will not seek re-election and Lisa Madigan staying put in the AG's seat, Illinois's Junior Senatorial seat has become somewhat of a political hot potato. And amid the shuffling of names and personalities in potential statewide races that have been subject to speculation for months, the Washington Post reported, incorrectly, that Mark Kirk wouldn't run for the GOP slot in the general. In fact, Kirk has been in a bit of a political standoff with Illinois GOP chair Andy McKenna over who would run for an elected office in Illinois that could actually go to a Republican.

• Our thoughts and prayers to the family of local National Guard soldier Derwin Williams who was killed by a road-side bomb in Afghanistan.
• With Madigan's exit from both the governor's and senate race, it looks like Republican state senator Mark Kirk is taking his aim at U.S. Sen. Burris' seat.
• Meanwhile, the Republican side of the governor's race keeps growing.

In a surprise move, it seems state Attorney General Lisa Madigan will not be running for either the U.S. Senate or Illinois Governor come next year, according to Sun-Times political analyst Lynn Sweet. Instead, Madigan will look to stay put by running again for Attorney General.

While the Republicans are beginning to sort out their candidates for the 2010 governor's race, the nation's top Democrat is starting to help state Dems sort out who's running for what, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Though Madigan has long been rumored as a serious candidate for governor, it seems President Obama is trying to push Madigan into next year's senate race - for the seat Obama once occupied and is now occupied by embattled Sen. Roland Burris - in an attempt to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk. The Sun-Times' Laura Washington has more.

• The University of Chicago has set up a site that allows people in Iran to fax their stories in to share on the web in the wake of the Iranian government's attempt to crack down on Twitter users. [via the Windy Citizen]
• Our pal Steve Rhodes wonders: if Lisa Madigan wants to run for governor, why does Obama want her to run for the Senate?
• An interesting read on the reform initiatives of Gov. Quinn.

• Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan filed suit today against Crestwood mayor Robert Stranczek and his father for lying to the state and their community over tainted cancer-causing water coming from a nearby well.
• The Sun-Times has the story of Mark Clements, a man convicted of four arson-related deaths from a 1981 incident, and his appeal for a new trial.
• There's trouble in Cicero where town president Larry Dominick has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by four former female employees.

2010 is shaping up to be a free-for-all for the U.S. Senate seat that Roland Burris is currently keeping warm in Washington. But, finally, a politician has come out and said she will not run for the U.S. Senate: U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (who had way better seats at the Inauguration than we did). Instead, Schakowsky plans to run to keep her current U.S. House seat. She released a statement that said, in part, "I think the next two years present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make progressive change. I want to devote my energy to help make these things a reality, and decided that I simply couldn't do it if I mounted a campaign for Senate."

Something's up over at City Hall where, according to Crain's Greg Hinz, the GOP's national party has filed a request for communications with Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, State Speaker of the House Mike Madigan (pictured right).

Today the Associated Press is reporting that a few weeks before his arrest, then-governor Rod Blagojevich considered giving the then-vacant U.S. Senate seat to Attorney General Lisa Madigan "in return for concessions on his pet projects." The information came from two aides to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin speaking on the condition of anonymity.

One last, self-indulgent note before we bow out for the day. Chicagoist went live on May 10, 2004 featuring a design you can see above (via the Wayback Machine). Since then, we've had ups and downs but it's been one hell of a ride. Five years is an eternity in internet time, so thanks to Jen, Jake and all our benefactors in NYC, thanks to Rachelle and Margaret for getting the ball rolling here, thanks to every single writer who has posted - past and present - for your hard work, and last but most importantly, thanks to all of you readers who keep coming back every day. We hope to see you tomorrow night at our celebration, and we'll see you back here next week as we start the next five years. - M.G.

     

Chicago's journalism elite gathered together Thursday afternoon for yet another group therapy session, this time bringing Carl Bernstein and our beloved editor-in-chief, Marcus Gilmer, into the mix. Covering a sweeping range of topics, the central theme was the future of the news industry. Conclusion? Doom. Oh, and there's no agreeing on life-saving measures. It wasn't that we didn't have the most brilliant minds of the old guard in the conference room at the Newberry Library for the IFC's Make Media Matter series - Bernstein was joined by editors Gerould Kern (Chicago Tribune), Donald Hayner (Chicago Sun-Times), Tran Ha (RedEye) WBBM-TV news director Jeff Kiernan, columnist/editor/host Carol Marin and WVON's Cliff Kelley - it's just that the old guard doesn't know what's going to happen and the new guard, represented only by Marcus and Ha, can't predict the future of their industry.

Finally, a hearing has been set in the case of the Loop Lab School, which may find itself having to pay back $1 million in grant money in may or may not have been given by mistake. Way back in '06, after Pilgrim Baptist Church burned down, then-governor Rod Blagojevich claimed he pledged the cool million to the church to help rebuild. At the time, the Loop Lab school was renting space in the church and burned along with it. But then-leader of the school, Elmira Mayes, claims Blago made the promise to her. To add another layer of intrigue, the school's current leader, Chandra Gill, was the recipient of a Blago pardon.

Michael Sneed is getting a lot of business as a messenger these days. First Mike Madigan's daughter (and Illinois Attorney General) Lisa Madigan called her up to tell her that she was considering a run for Roland Burris's senate seat (although not sending any messages whatsoever. Nope. None at all.). Then Chris Kennedy, son of the late Robert F. Kennedy and President of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc tipped her off that he's going to run for the senate seat as well. He even told Sneed that he's hired David Axlerod's consultancy, AKPD, to handle his media, and recently shot his first campaign ad. Lynn Sweet, a Sun-Times counterpart of Sneed's, spoke to Kennedy yesterday, who told Sweet, "I'm keeping my options alive and working through a whole series of issues still."

Perhaps taking a page out of her archenemy's play book, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan told Michael Sneed that she's considering a run for Senate. Lisa told Sneed that she had gotten recruitment calls from the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, saying "they have told me polls show me doing very well." But that's not all! Sneed also learned that Madigan "sent word" to Chris Kennedy, President of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc and son of RFK, who is also considering a run for Roland Burris's seat, that she was thinking of running for senate.

Sheriff Dart isn't the only official going after Craigslist and their nefarious "erotic services." State Attorney General Lisa Madigan is going after the website as well. According to WBEZ, Madigan said, after meeting with other officials and even attorneys for the website, "Hopefully, Craigslist will do more and if they're uninterested in doing more in that regard, they always have the option of simply taking the whole section down." That's all well and good, but does that also apply to the crazy Missed Connections?

Governor Quinn sat down with the St. Louis-Dispatch Editorial Board for an interview recently and he's raised $250,000 so far towards his 2010 reelection fund.

"Yeah," Quinn said, when asked whether he will run in November 2010 to keep the seat he assumed 12 weeks ago. "I think I've done a good job. I plan to do that (run for election). I see no reason not to."

2010 may be a wild election year in Illinois. That is, if anyone can make up their minds about what they want to do. 7th District Congressman Danny Davis hopes Roland Burris will make up his mind already about running for re-election. Davis told Chicago Public Radio on Monday that Burris's decision will affect his decision about whether to run for Senate next year. "That would play seriously in the thinking of any African American who may be interested," he said. "I'm hoping that the senator will hurry up and publicly let people know whether he intends to run for election." Well, we already know how Burris is leaning.

The DISH Network is now facing the wrath of state attorney general Lisa Madigan as well as the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. The group is suing DISH Network for failing to adhere to federal and state do-not-call telemarketer laws, something the Dish Network denies. The company said in a statement: "An independent audit demonstrates that DISH Network is in compliance with 'do-not-call' laws, has proper controls in place, and is well within the safe-harbor provisions of the law." Meanwhile, the FTC says DISH Network is actually one of the law's biggest violators based on complaints.

Even before Gov. Pat Quinn releases details on his proposed income tax hike which he calls "the least bad option," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has already taken a jab at a tax increase, which folks are saying is the "opening shot" in her bid for the governor's office next year:

The Doomsday Clock for Roland "The Lord's Senator" Burris just clicked closer to midnight. A recently released Zogby International poll [.pdf] shows that support for Burris in the 2010 senatorial race stands tall at 5.3 percent. In most elections, we're pretty sure Snoopy gets more voter support than that. Alexi Giannoulias is the frontrunner in the senate race with both Dems and independent voters - although Giannoulias leads with independent voters by only 0.3% over Mark Kirk.

It looks like at least one good thing will come of the whole Blago mess: Advocates are pushing to re-write the state law that governs access to public records. They've generated a wave of support hinged on a former governor who repeatedly denied requests for documents.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued a legal opinion late Wednesday night that says it would be legal for lawmakers to move up the date of the Senate election to choose a replacement for President Barack Obama. The opinion paves the way, at least in theory, for the state legislature to force Burris to run as a candidate in a special election if he wants to retain the seat he was appointed to by former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

28th Ward Alderman Ed Smith cautioned State Attorney General Lisa Madigan that if she walks away from the Jon Burge torture cases that allegedly took place at Area Two Headquarters in the early 80's she'll face a backlash that could have consequences on any campaign she launches for Governor, U.S. Senate, state supreme court, or even re-election. Madigan's office has been handling the Burge cases since 2003, when Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel found that then-State's Attorney Richard Devine had a conflict of interest because Devine once represented Burge. Madigan has asked that five of the 25 cases she's currently handling be shifted back to the state's attorney office. "If this is shifted back, it's gonna get lost in the cracks, put on the back burner and nothing will happen. Those people who are in jail will remain in jail. I want her to follow these cases to fruition and make sure that justice is served from her office" Smith said. "Our community is still upset about these cases. It could give the impression that she just wants to walk away and let it go. It could be an adversity if she ran again."

• The Sun-Times looks at Amber Cremeens, the McHenry native killed last week by her ex-boyfriend Tyler James Martin, who shot himself after a stand-off with police in Logan Square on Friday.
• State Attorney General Lisa Madigan is prepping a lawsuit against Caterpillar, Inc. over the huge oil sludge spill from earlier this month.
• The Arlington Heights-based company responsible for Golden Tee is gambling on a new slot machine.

Chalk one up for pain-in-the-Christian-ass Rob Sherman. The staunch atheist Sherman and his daughter, Dawn, filed a legal challenge against a state law requiring a moment of silence at the start of each school day. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman temporarily banned the law in May while he reviewed the case, and yesterday he completely tossed it out. Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and her crew are reviewing an appeal.

Another fantastic skyline shot from rjseg1