Hump Day Political News Roundup

By Kevin Robinson in News on Jan 24, 2007 5:30PM

It has been another crazy week in politics, both here in town, and out on the wild plains of the Land of Lincoln. Let's take a look back at the zaniness so far:

• Lt. Governor (and potential future guv if Fitzgerald can connect the dots) is back to his socialist ways. He's planning to file petitions with the ICC next week asking that utility companies restore a sick person’s heat if that it would threaten their health. As it stands now, there is only a 14-day window, a problem if your heat get's turned off in May, but you get sick in October.


• Convicted City of Chicago patronage chief Robert Sorich is back on the streets (no public job is safe!), after a federal judge agreed to delay the start of his sentence until his appeal is heard. Rumors that he is planning a "vacation" to Venezuela remain unfounded.


• In spite of the sweeping Democratic victories, it seems that blue-state Illinois has lost clout in congress this year, thanks to the magic of academic quantification.


• Bad news if you have a social security number in Chicago: the Board of Elections has distributed about 100 discs with voter information, such as birth dates and addresses, as well as social security numbers.


• At least one Illinois legislator wants the state to consider online voting. We think they need to work the "kinks" out of electronic voting before opening it up to a bunch of filthy bloggers.


• Two Cook County Commissioners are suggesting the county raise property taxes to close the holes in the county budget, and keep county health services up and running..