| $300,000 to BLM Lake CountyWe mentioned before, now the rest of the story the Media & Dems ignore. |
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| Thank you to the Illinois Freedom Caucus for alerting taxpayers to this budget item. The most recent Illinois budget includes a $300,000 grant to Black Lives Matter Lake County. The group is led by a convicted felon and appears to be defunct. Formed in 2017, the organization’s registered agent according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office is Clyde McLemore. Mr. McLemore made news just months ago in December 2022 for apparently being charged with felony bail jumping in Wisconsin. (Felony bail jumping can be charged when someone is out on bond and fails to appear for a court proceeding or when someone violates the conditions of the bond. The law on this is different among states.) Here’s what happened. In February 2021, Mr. McLemore was arrested in Kenosha, Wisc. and “charged with felony battery to a police officer and disorderly conduct after he allegedly kicked a door at the Kenosha Courthouse and threatened to “break the fingers” of a Kenosha police officer.” Read the story here in Lake County Gazette. Before McLemore’s case went to trial in October 2022, he was charged with criminal trespass after he became disruptive at a Waukegan City Council meeting and would not leave. The criminal trespass charge is what apparently led to the bail jumping charge as he was still out on bond for the Feb 2021 charges. Those February 2021 charges of battery to a police officer and disorderly conduct were finally adjudicated in December 2022. He was convicted of only the misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. This isn’t his first run-in with the law. McLemore’s lawbreaking started years ago. According to Court records, he “pled guilty to criminal felony battery and criminal misdemeanor battery multiple times, as well as faced orders of protection over stalking, most recently in 2020 and 2019,” as reported by Lake County Gazette. This also isn’t the first $300,000 Black Lives Matter Lake County has received in taxpayer money. Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave them $300,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds in 2021. Think about that – Pritzker gave them $300k of your money while their leader was under FELONY charges for battery of a police officer! And no legislator said anything. Here’s a screenshot of the December 2021 Report to the Legislative Budget Oversight Committee, page 7 which shows the disbursement. Note the amounts are in millions, so the .3 represents $300,000.(Also, why was COVID money given to the Elite Striders Drill Team?) |
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| THE STORY GETS EVEN WORSEBlack Lives Matter Lake County Appears to be Out of Business We did an internet search for Black Lives Matter Lake County, and we only got links to a few articles and the group’s Facebook page, where there have only been two posts in the last 18 months. The website returns an error message under the “About” section for the Facebook group, and the phone number listed goes nowhere. Additionally, as far as we can tell, they have no physical presence in the community even though they opened an office in 2020. To much fanfare, including a major Chicago Tribune article, BLM Lake County opened up physical offices at 111 N. County St. in Waukegan, across from the Lake County Court House. However, Lake County Gazette reported that “… according to Lake County Court records, building manager Mon Ami Realty filed a commercial eviction notice with the court against McLemore and Black Lives Matter of Lake County on Jan. 3, 2022.” We did a physical inspection of the office location earlier last week, and the building was locked tight, windows were broken in what appears to be office space, and there was no visible activity in the building. We also drove around the block and noticed another storefront with BLM and other identity group signage. We stopped in to ask if BLM had moved offices. They hadn’t. When we asked the shop owner if he knew where the BLM office was, he said no because Clyde keeps moving it. He also said Clyde is bad at establishing and maintaining a physical presence because he is super disorganized. The shop owner said he knows Clyde well and would tell that to his face, but he hasn’t kept up with him. He attempted to call Clyde but got no answer. Here’s a picture of Clyde McLemore from the Kenosha County Eye in this article about his alleged felony bail-jumping charge. |
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| IS THIS WHAT YOU SEND TAX MONEY TO SPRINGFIELD FOR? Democrats just gave a convicted felon who runs a Facebook group for a Marxist organization $300,000 of your money. Here are some questions that should be asked and answered:What did BLM Lake County do with the first $300,000?When did BLM Lake County receive the $300,000? Their IRS 990 form shows an income of only $50,000 in 2021. Who asked that this specific grant line be added to the budget?What does BLM LC plan to do with the next $300,000?What public good does this public money support? This entire story is aggravating. Sounds like it’s a small deal, just $300k in a $50.6 billion budget. It isn’t. The Democrats, and some Republicans, are very cavalier with other people’s money. This story is an illustration of their lackadaisical approach to everything. Not just budgeting – but everything. Here’s a different example of budget malfeasance. The Democrats KILLED SCHOLARSHIPS: Democrats could have voted last week to extend Illinois’s only school choice program, the Invest In Kids scholarship fund, but they chose not to. Governor Pritzker is now saying that the Illinois General Assembly (ILGA) can resurrect it during November’s veto session, but this is FALSE. For school planning and tax purposes, this program needed to be extended with a Spring Session vote. Pritzker wants to turn the tax credit into a less valuable federal tax credit. https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/article_9462c1c4-0092-11ee-91d2-63148eeb6e3f.html We know why it was killed, though, the teacher unions don’t like competition and they say they want public schools funded first. Then I want to know why the budget includes a specifically designated $3,000,000 grant to a private school run by It Takes A Village. Here’s the website: Homepage – ITAV (itavschools.org) And a screenshot of the budget item. I appreciate that the school is run by a former teacher fed up with the educational system, but why is her school directly funded by taxpayers and other private schools aren’t? |
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| I’m hoping that’s another budget expense some legislator investigates. Preschool is getting a big boost in spending too. This year the state budget includes $673,138,100 for Early Childhood Education. That number is up 37 percent in five years. I don’t have the number of kids served, but when Rauner took advantage of a federal grant for early childhood education, costs soared and in CUSD 200 the cost per student for 4-year-old preschool was $17,220 after they received the state and federal grants that year. That’s a preschool cost – not college tuition. Read the article on that HERE. |
