October 21, 2019
The (Champaign) News-Gazette
Accountability at DCFS?
When top state officials discuss the need to invest more resources into the Department of Children and Family Services to produce better results, people, generally speaking, understand why.
Assigned a terribly difficult job - protecting children and families from harm within their homes - DCFS employees find themselves overwhelmed with huge responsibilities and terrible problems.
But all the resources in the world can’t protect against the incompetence and indifference that resulted in the death of 5-year-old Andrew “A.J.” Freund of Crystal Lake earlier this year.
His death was a shame, and the circumstances surrounding it a travesty. Or, as a recently filed federal lawsuit alleges, inaction by DCFS employees “demonstrates an inhumane indifference to A.J.’s safety and shocks the conscience.”
Anyone can file a lawsuit, and allegations are just that.
But there have been enough details released in this case to lend considerable credence to the substance of the claims made against two veteran DCFS employees, Carlos Acosta and his supervisor, Andrew Polovin.
(If they are ordered to pay a monetary judgment, taxpayers will pick up the tab.)
The two remain on the state payroll, although they have been removed from the field and put on desk duty pending an internal investigation.
The primary wrongdoers in this case are what passed for A.J.’s parents, Andrew Freund and JoAnn Cunningham. They have been charged with murder and are being held in jail while awaiting trial.
Authorities alleged these chronic drug abusers subjected the child to repeated beatings, freezing showers and long hours of confinement in a locked room.
The lawsuit alleged that Acosta and Polovin conducted cursory inquiries into A.J.’s circumstances, ignored evidence of his physical abuse and wrongfully reported that two hotline callers raised “unfounded” questions about the child’s safety.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the child’s estate, alleges that DCFS employees violated A.J.’s constitutional rights.
Although there is no disputing that DCFS mishandled this case in the worst possible way with the worst possible outcome, that’s a tough legal argument to take.
The child’s lawyers are alleging that state employees had a duty to protect the child, a mandate they breached and for which they can be held accountable.
Courts, traditionally, have been reluctant to ascribe such duties to public employees because of the almost unlimited liability it would create for the public. Nonetheless, the facts in this case are so egregious and the indifference to the child’s safety so grotesque, these allegations could pass legal muster.
Whatever happens, of course, won’t bring back a boy who was failed by his parents and his supposed protectors at almost every stage of his short life.
A.J. was a high-profile victim of the kind of intra-family violence DCFS was put in place to guard against. But he’s just one of the many child-abuse casualties who make this agency’s work - simultaneously - so important and so difficult, requiring the kind of care and concern that was horrifically absent when A.J. needed it most.
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October 20, 2019
The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan
Coal will live on, but we must embrace other energy sources
There was a time when coal was king in Southern Illinois.
Peabody Energy’s Monday announcement that the Arclar Complex in Saline County faces closure is just the latest indication that the king has abdicated.
The closure will cause 225 miners at Wildcat Hills Mine and the nearby Willow Lake Production Plant, a coal processing facility, to lose their jobs. That is a severe blow to Saline County’s already depressed economy.
The official closing date is Dec. 14.
The mine fact sheet provided by peabodyenergy.com states the mine generated $150 million in direct and indirect income for the region. While it’s impossible to nail down an exact dollar figure coming from the mine, it’s inarguable that the loss of 225 jobs will have a devastating effect on Southern Illinois as a whole.
Company officials blamed the closure on “uneconomic mining conditions.”
As tortured as that turn of phrase might be, it is an overdue admission of reality. Generations of Southern Illinoisans fed their families through their labors in the coal mine. It was hard, dirty, illness-inducing work, but coal miners formed the sturdy backbone of the region. For that, we are forever grateful.
As much as we may hope otherwise, the current reality suggests that will never be the case again.
Despite the heated rhetoric of naysayers, renewable energy sources are gaining an ever-increasing slice of the American energy market. Yet, Southern Illinois seemingly has never completely embraced that reality because, well, we owe so much to our coal mining ancestors.
Now, realize that coal mining will not completely disappear from Southern Illinois in the next generation or two. Executives of local coal companies stated last year that if current coal reserves are mined at the current rate mines can produce coal for at least another 35 to 50 years.
However, the number of men and women employed in the mines will continue to dwindle. The causes for that decrease will be numerous - the amount of energy produced by coal will continue to diminish as solar and wind technology advances, coal mines are becoming more automated, plus it takes fewer miners to produce the same amount of coal and, finally, the cost of producing and burning coal will continue to increase.
Perhaps this latest closure will provide impetus for our state and federal legislators to concentrate their efforts on drawing solar and wind production plants to Southern Illinois, or to work with the local community colleges to initiate training programs for the solar and wind industry.
Southeastern Illinois College, located a stone’s throw from the Arclar Complex, seems perfect for such programs. The school sits atop a hill overlooking farmland and coal mines. The site would be perfect for solar fields and its location seems perfect for windmills.
The time is ripe. The region needs jobs and the future looks bright for wind and solar.
Finally, our hearts are with and men and women who lost their jobs. There are few things more devastating for a human being than to lose your livelihood. That is especially true if you are older than age of 50.
Peabody Energy has stated it will stand by its employees, but coal companies haven’t always made good on those promises.
“The company will work with employees at both operations to try to place those employees who are interested and in good standing in positions at other Peabody operations in the Midwest,” the company said in a letter to employees. “Every effort will be extended to provide information about job opportunities with other Peabody mines.”
This newspaper will keep an eye on that situation.
While those promises are good for individual miners, it doesn’t address the immediate economic loss for Southern Illinois.
The king has no fix for that problem.
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October 18, 2019
Chicago Tribune
How jobs-hungry Illinois can lure more ’unicorns’ like Rivian, the electric truck upstart
Illinois doesn’t see many unicorns. But there’s been a sighting in downstate Normal, where an electric truck manufacturer called Rivian operates out of the former Mitsubishi auto plant.
A unicorn is a privately held startup company worth at least $1 billion. Rivian’s unexpected rise is worthy of comparison to the mythological creature: The company, based in Michigan, arrived in Normal several years ago with mysterious plans to develop some sort of advanced vehicle.
Who were the investors? What was the business model? Rivian founder RJ Scaringe has a doctorate from MIT but he wasn’t big on answering questions. He did ask for money, though, seeking property tax incentives from Normal officials, who were desperate to replace the thousands of jobs lost when Mitsubishi bailed. Normal officials took a risk and supported Rivian. “I do believe they are a credible organization,” Mayor Chris Koos said in late 2016.
Rivian eventually unveiled prototypes and confirmed its heady prospects by attracting big-league investors. This year, Amazon led a group that put $700 million into the company. Ford followed with $500 million and a plan to co-develop an electric vehicle using Rivian’s platform. Then Cox Automotive provided $350 million. Rivian, which is developing an electric truck and SUV, is now worth $3.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon has ordered 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles.
A few days ago, Rivian held an open house in Normal to show off prototypes. The company has 156 employees and isn’t scheduled to roll its first electric vehicles off the line for another year. But Scaringe says, “We’re talking about thousands of jobs,” according to the Tribune’s Robert Channick. The company’s getting $4 million in local incentives plus $49.2 million in state tax credits over 15 years if it meets employment and investment targets.
It all still feels slightly unreal - yes, like a unicorn - but that’s the nature of the startup field, where money chases ideas, only some of which lead to profitable, sustainable businesses. What makes the Rivian story compelling is the company’s decision to locate a promising high-tech operation in a shuttered downstate factory. Mitsubishi’s departure in 2015 felt like a death in the family. Here we have a rebirth.
Illinois shouldn’t ever be scrounging for jobs and investment. This is a manufacturing state at the crossroads of America that boasts a highly trained workforce and superb higher education options.
The challenge in attracting businesses to Illinois is the state’s reputation for an unfriendly business environment: high taxes, lots of regulatory red tape and a crushing government debt load scare away investors. Foreign vehicles companies and suppliers would rather locate in places like Indiana, a fiscally sound, right-to-work state.
Mitsubishi left Illinois because its business was ailing, but Indiana is home to Toyota, Subaru and Honda.
Now here comes Rivian. The sooner Illinois makes itself more attractive to other employers, the more success the state will have creating jobs, and luring unicorns.
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