Here are excerpts of editorials published in newspapers in Illinois.
August 15, 2020
(Arlington Heights) Daily Herald
Jim Thompson, the last governor to get things done
The state of Illinois may never again see, and probably never before saw, the blend of pragmatism, vision and political skill that combined to make James R. “Big Jim” Thompson the state’s longest-serving governor.
The Chicago suburbs were barely emerging as a political and social force when Thompson was first elected in 1976, but it is not too extreme a stretch to note that they may not have reached today’s prominence without his influence.
One of the Chicago Republican’s most conspicuous accomplishment in that context was, of course, his work to keep what was then the nation’s top retailer, Sears, from leaving the state in 1989, and helping to facilitate the company’s historic move to Hoffman Estates.
The development not only transformed Hoffman Estates, it also cemented a practice of luring and appeasing businesses with tax incentives and government initiatives that individual suburbs would use for decades to help them thrive.
Notably, the Sears deal came as Thompson’s career as Illinois governor was winding down. Three years later, he would leave politics and settle into lucrative private legal practice. But Thompson, who died Friday night at age 84, would leave a legacy of successful deal making that could arguably mark him as the last Illinois governor who really knew how to get things done in Illinois politics.
Succeeding the unremarkable populist Dan Walker, Thompson had a vision for the state that was well-suited to the time. He made the kind of deals that brought a Japanese automaker and thousands of jobs to the state during a period when the loss of manufacturing jobs to Japan was a major national crisis; that helped transform a rundown Navy Pier into an entertainment mecca and the state’s top tourist destination; that built a $172 million government center in the heart of the Chicago Loop; and that kept the White Sox in Chicago.
In hindsight, some of these accomplishments are open to question in the context of a world that has changed much in 30 years. But there is no denying our state would be different without them and would likely not have developed as well as it did.
Thompson would be followed by a competent successor in Republican Jim Edgar, but even Edgar’s steady leadership seemed better suited to keeping the machinery of government running rather than fashioning a transformative vision. And Edgar was followed by a succession of chief executives who, at best, struggled to find ways to produce a prosperous economy or instill well-functioning government and, at worst, devolved into rank opportunism and corruption.
The challenges facing Illinois in 2020 differ from those Thompson faced long ago. Still, it is difficult to imagine a government with him at the helm in which the speaker of the House or any other elected official would be considered the most influential person in state government. With Thompson’s passing, that’s a notion worthy of reflection.
Confronting an atmosphere of economic hardship, dysfunctional legislative operations and an unavoidable health crisis, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has shown some promise as a leader in the early years of his tenure, but he is far from proven.
It is hard to predict whether he or whoever may succeed him can soon find a strategy to repair Illinois government and put the state back on a path to security and prosperity.
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August 16, 2020
The (Champaign) News-Gazette
Fall sports up in smoke
The latest shoe to drop in this spring, summer and fall (please, not winter, too) of our discontent landed with a thud last week.
That’s when the presidents of the Big Ten Conference announced the cancellation of all fall sports, non-events that will create a giant hole in this community’s heart and pocketbook.
The decision did not come as a big surprise. There’s been intense speculation for weeks about the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Could the fall sports seasons on campus - a huge part of day-to-day life - be saved?
In the end, the answer, however controversial it may be, was no. The health threats - and the fear they engender - outweighed other important factors.
The presidents’ decision was not greeted with universal acceptance. A columnist for a Nebraska newspaper indicated that hard feelings are so strong there that the University of Nebraska may leave the Big Ten.
Wow. It’s hard to see that happening, but even speculation about the possibility underscores the depth of the emotions involved.
So what’s next? Who knows?
UI athletic director Josh Whitman tried to put on a happy face, expressing the hope that the basketball season will come off as planned. He’s just trying to be positive because it beats being negative. But he doesn’t know - and can’t know - what lies just around the corner.
No one would have thought circumstances would ever get this bad, both in terms of health and collateral damage to the economy caused by the economic lockdown.
Before everything went south in March, Dr. Anthony Fauci was dismissing the possibility that people might need to wear face masks to protect themselves and others.
In fact, the inability of the powers that be to get a handle on the pandemic indicates that - try as they might - nobody really knows anything about stopping the virus. If a cure or a vaccine are really required to bring this public health threat to an end, there would appear to be no end in sight to the unending uncertainty we all are experiencing.
In the meantime, the status quo, different in some places than in others, leaves everyone, for the most part, frustrated, irritated and confused.
It’s a bizarre set of circumstances that leaves everyone at loose ends as they cope with the new abnormal.
Of course, things could be worse and, as events have shown, may get even worse before they get better, as they inevitably will. All people can do is grin and bear it, taking the bad with the worse and trying to move forward as best they can.
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August 14, 2020
Chicago Tribune
Why did Kerrigan Rutherford have to die? Could DCFS have saved her?
Illinoisans know the names. Joseph Wallace, 3, hanged by his mother in 1993. Gizzell “Gizzy” Ford, 8, tortured to death by her grandmother in 2013. A.J. Freund, 5, murdered and buried in a shallow grave last year after a tortured life with abusive parents. So many more. They are children betrayed by those responsible for nurturing and safeguarding them.
Add to that list Kerrigan Rutherford, 6. “Kerri,” as family members called her. She was a kindergartner at Boulder Hill Elementary School in Montgomery. Her mother, Courtny Davidson, 32, and her stepfather, James Davidson, 29, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with her July 2 death, along with endangering the life or health of a child. Authorities in Kendall County allege the couple gave Kerri enough of a prescription drug to kill her, according to the NewsTribune of LaSalle, citing court records.
The drug, olanzapine, is prescribed as treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Authorities say Kerri’s mother has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the NewsTribune reported.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the state agency responsible for protecting children from abuse and neglect, had contact with Kerri and her family at their unincorporated Kendall County home as far back as December 2015, following a report of alleged abuse or neglect, according to a DCFS spokesperson.
Six agency investigations into allegations of abuse or neglect followed in 2017, 2018, 2019, and this year. The case was being treated as an “intact family case,” and an outside firm hired by DCFS provided intact family services to the Davidsons and their daughter. In such cases, DCFS provides services to a family to prevent further neglect or abuse, but does not remove the child from the household.
DCFS’ inspector general’s office is now investigating Kerri’s death, and the agency is helping the Kendall County sheriff’s department determine what happened.
There are a host of questions DCFS must answer about Kerri. Why did the agency first get involved with her family? How cooperative were the Davidsons with DCFS? Were there signs of abuse or neglect that investigators and contracted caseworkers missed, or failed to act on? What was the rationale for allowing Kerri to stay in the household?
Beyond those questions, however, Illinoisans should be incensed by yet another case of a child’s death at a household that DCFS had been scrutinizing. We’ve seen this script many times. A child under DCFS’ protection dies, agency chiefs pledge reform, and nothing changes. The result? More defenseless, vulnerable children die.
A report released last winter by the Office of the DCFS Inspector General found that 123 children died within a year of family contact with the agency. That marked the highest number of deaths after DCFS contact since the fiscal year ending in 2005, when the tally was 139 deaths.
The report covered the fiscal year between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019. Two dozen of those deaths were homicides, 13 of which involved victims 5 or younger. The report also listed 37 deaths that were accidental, seven suicides, 34 deaths due to natural causes and 21 deaths in which cause was undetermined.
Part of the problem: a turnstile of DCFS leadership that has seen 15 directors or interim directors take the helm since 2003. That’s a rate of a new director almost every year. An even bigger part of the problem - massive caseloads that overwhelm DCFS investigators.
The budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law in June sets aside an additional $151.7 million for DCFS. That’s in addition to an 11% spending increase that the agency received from Springfield in last year’s budget. Last September, DCFS officials said they would spend a chunk of the additional funding on a 5% rate increase for private social services agencies that contract with DCFS and handle about 85% of the agency’s intact family and foster care cases. The agency also said it would hire 301 more workers, including 71 more child protection investigators.
Pritzker spent $50,000 of his own money in 2019 for a nationwide search for a new director and selected Marc Smith from the south suburbs, an executive with Aunt Martha’s.
Pritzker, the agency and its heavily unionized workforce of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees cannot claim “lack of resources” as an excuse for failed policies and lack of accountability. Not anymore.
The list of young lives failed by this state is unconscionably long. No more new names. That’s a pledge Illinois should -and must - demand.
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