State Attorney General

Via the Trib (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-illinois-countrywide-financial-suit-jun25,0,2336686.story):

Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed an 81-page lawsuit Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court against Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's biggest mortgage lender, alleging that it engaged in unfair and deceptive conduct in creating, originating, marketing and servicing what turned out to be many unaffordable mortgages for Illinois homeowners.

The lawsuit comes after a nine-month proble by Madigan's office into Countrywide lending practices.

Besides Countrywide and its Countrywide Home Loans Inc. unit, the complaint also names as defendants Countrywide's subprime lending unit, Full Spectrum Lending; the company's servicing arm, Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP; and Angelo Mozilo, the co-founder and former Countrywide whose name has become synonymous with the excesses of the subprime mortgage industry.

The complaint alleges that Countrywide sold risky and costly loans to borrowers who couldn't afford them.

"Countrywide's unfair lending practices have harmed tens of thousands of borrowers who've been placed in unaffordable loans and, as a result, our communities are now being destabilized by a skyrocketing number of home foreclosures," Madigan said in a statement.

The accompanying video is also pretty interesting - she talks in more detail about Countrywide's "hybrid ARMs", which in some cases allowed borrowers to make such low payments initially that their debt increased.

From the Daily Southtown, and dealing mostly with water rates in the suburbs:

Illinois American Water, a private utility that has the distinction of charging the highest rates in the state for water, is asking the Illinois Commerce Commission for another rate hike and for approval to keep money for water that was never used by its customers.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan contends that the utility instead ought to cut its rates by millions of dollars.

Discuss.

Congratulations to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on the birth of her daughter.

Here are the details.  The most significant part is:

Illinois Power Agency (IPA)

• replaces reverse auction
• independent agency, not utilities, control purchase of electricity
• IPA can build plants, or enter into agreements with private or governmental entities, to build plants and sell electricity at cost to governmental aggregators, municipalities, co-ops
• preference for (1) new clean-coal technology that captures carbon; (2) renewable energy facilities; and (3) plants that use Illinois coal
• construction of Illinois plants, using Illinois coal and indigenous renewable resources, means jobs
• encourages aggregated purchasing by municipalities on behalf of residents

Of course, that part will also be the most underreported. 

I am also astonished (although I shouldn't be...) at the unmitigated gall of Senate President Emil Jones flying around the state to take credit for this, after spending six months doing everything in his power to try and kill it.  Of

(Hat tip: CapFax)

The classifieds section of Friday's News-Gazette had 40+ pages devoted to publishing property assessments throughout the county.   I wonder how much such publication costs county government.       But today all assessments are available on-line.   No one needing to lookup an assessment will ever refer to the annual newspaper listings.   Of course state law probably dictates this publication, but it seems that the law needs changing to instead allow internet availability.  

The requirement of annually mailing assessments to each owner of record remains valid.

Today, the Illinois Attorney General filed suit against Carle and Christie claiming that they illegally conspired to turn down Medicaid patients in an effort to pressure the state to raise reimbursements.  Both have denied any wrongdoing, but the wording of their related policies is apparently quite similar and they went into effect on the same day.  The WCFN story is at http://illinoishomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=6570 and the N-G article is at http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/06/14/state_sues_local_clinics

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this.  I know that it's hard for low-income patients to get healthcare in C-U, and Frances Nelson is apparently overloaded.  In fact, it surprised me that healthcare seemed to be more available to the poor In Springfield, since C-U generally seems like a more progressive community.

From WBBM:

Mayor Daley says he has no problem with the Governor's plan to raise revenue with Keno games. He says the City wants the 100 million dollars it would bring in for school construction. But, Democratic candidate for Governor Edwin Eisendrath says putting Las Vegas style gaming in family restaurants is wrong.

State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a Republican running for Governor, refuses to say if Keno is a good idea or not. She says she is crafting a comprehensive proposal dealing with gaming and finding revenue for schools. And she would not answer questions about individual parts of the plan right now. Asked if, in principle, she opposes any expansion of gaming, Topinka noted that she voted against the original legislation authorizing riverboat gambling. She refused to say how she feels about it now.

But, Topinka blasts Governor Blagojevich for breaking his promise NOT to support an expansion of gambling. She says it's the latest in a series of broken promises from the Governor.

Eisendrath is opposed, Topinka is undecided, and I think every other GOP candidate for Governor is opposed.

Blagojevich says that he can implement Keno on his own, without legislative approval, as an expansion of existing lottery programs.  According to the Chicago Tribune: 

Senate Republicans are considering whether to ask Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan for a formal opinion on whether Blagojevich needs legislative approval to enact a keno game or if he can do it on his own, as he contends.

Personally, I'm opposed to more debt without a guaranteed revenue stream to pay for the bonds, but there has to be a better way to find the revenue than expanding gaming again.  But, then again, they're probably going to pass a budget this Spring that already includes a thousand budgetary gimmicks, including skipping another billion or so in payments to pension systems.  Would it have been more appropriate to use some of the money spent on AllKids to fund the construction of schools, etc.?  Would it have been more appropriate to use some of the money given to the Chicago Tollway to pay for construction of roads and bridges and oases, etc.?

Thanks to an alert commenter for pointing out the Stewart Umholtz for Attorney General website.  It's been added to the sidebar.

Tom Kacich is speculating that next year's GOP ticket could be too heavily weighted toward downstate:

Here's how that could play out:

For governor Bill Brady, Bloomington
For lieutenant governor, Raymond Poe, Springfield
For attorney general, Stewart Umholtz, Tazewell County
For secretary of state, Dan Rutherford, Chenoa
For treasurer, Christine Radogno, LaGrange
For comptroller, Carole Pankau, Roselle

I'm all for downstaters on the ticket, but if the GOP comes up with a team that is 67 percent downstaters -- where there is less than a third of the statewide vote -- they're in trouble.

I think that scenario is a little unlikey, as Brady is well behind Topinka and Poe might not even be in the race on Monday.  That said, I could very well envision a ticket that is half-downstate and half-Chicagoland - which is much, much better than the most likely Democratic ticket which will be entirely from The City.

All at the last minutes, but the slots are being filled with good candidates.

Lemont state Sen. Christine Radogno likely will seek the Republican nomination for Illinois treasurer, allowing the GOP to round out its statewide ticket.

For those of you keeping track at home, the GOP ticket is shaping up like this (credible candidates only): 

• Governor:  Brady, Gidwitz, Oberweis, Rauschenberger and Topinka.
• LG:   Poe and Wegman
• SOS:  Rutherford
• AG: Umholtz
• Comptroller: Pankau
• Treasurer:  Radogno and/or Weinberg

By my count, that's five sitting State Senators, one State Rep, a couple of County officials and some from the private sector.  Given the state of the Illinois GOP two years ago, I'd say that's about as strong a ticket as I reasonably expected, although having Edgar at the top would have been nice.  We're a little weaker in one spot than I'd like, but significantly stronger at SOS than I thought we'd be.  All in all, I'm looking forward to 2006 - if the GOP can pull together.

Like Rich Miller at Capitol Fax, I thought that the endorsement that Attorney General Lisa Madigan gave to Governor Blagojevich last year was a huge mistake because it's a lose-lose situation for her.  If the US Attorney indicts someone in the Blagojevich administration and Madigan doesn't, then she loses.  And if she does indict someone in the Blagojevich administration, then people can question the endorsement.  The only way this doesn't hurt her is if no one is indicted, which seems more and more unlikely every day.

Yesterday, while announcing her re-election campaign, the issue of her abilty to independently investigate someone whom she'd endorsed for re-election was raised. And there were a round of stories today discussing her determination to continue investigating Blagojevich despite her endorsement:

During a Capitol news conference to announce her re-election bid, she confirmed the ongoing investigation into allegations the governor traded state jobs for campaign cash.

Those claims were made by Chicago Alderman Dick Mell, Blagojevich’s father-in-law. Mell later recanted when threatened with a lawsuit by one of Blagojevich’s fundraisers.

The attorney general also said her office continues to look into questions raised by a recent state audit that, among other things, found Blagojevich’s central purchasing agency gave state contracts to politically connected donors without properly documenting them.

Although she’s shared the political stage with the governor, the attorney general said there was no reason to turn the investigations over to someone else.

Now, Capitol Fax has a story that indicates Madigan may be seeking to distance herself from that earlier endorsement of Blagojevich:

Later, at the Capitol in Springfield, Madigan declined to endorse her party’s standard- bearer, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who is expected to seek a second term in 2006.

“Today, the only political decisions I’ve made are to run for attorney general for another four years,” she told a reporter who asked whether she backs the governor. Madigan also said she’ll continue to probe allegations of misconduct in the governor’s office.

The governor’s office played down Madigan’s comments.

While Madigan is seen as being nearly invulnerable, indictments in the Blagojevich administration could cause her some headaches. 

Attorney General Lisa Madigan kicked off her re-election campaign yesterday, and her potential challenger has emerged.  Sources say that State's Attorney Stewart Umholtz of downstate Tazewell County will challege Madigan.

UPDATE: Heh. 

"One could have questions about the objectivity of a prosecutor if the prosecutor is running on the same ticket as the person they're investigating," McKenna said.

Wasn't that what doomed Jim Ryan? 

In Chicago, many Alderman have been illegally using their taxpayer-funded Aldermanic offices to host their Democratic Ward Committee headquarters, rent-free. The Cook County GOP, in one of its first signs of life in years, filed complaints with the Illinois State Board of Elections, which, along a party-line vote, declined to hold a public hearing on the allegation.  Rich Miller has more, but this comment sums up the issue well:

If a political organization has the same street address as a government owned office, and the political organization shows no record of making proper compensation to the government entity that owns that office, then that is all the evidence you need. That is illegal. If payments were made by not recorded, then the political organizations are still in trouble for failing to properly report their expenditures.

I wonder if there's any recourse besides the State Board of Elections?  Are we left hoping for the Democrat Cook County State's Attorney or Illinois Attorney General to investigate?  If so, this practice will continue indefinitely.