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They Want Quarantine Camps

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They Want Quarantine Camps

This is a day of great and bad news. 

The victory of Javier Milei as president in Argentina is a strong sign of changed times. This man, who vocally opposed all Covid controls, campaigned on completely gutting the administrative state. Voters love it. He won by a 12-point split. Will he achieve his goals? The obstacles are massive but at least the messaging is on the right track. 

The bad news from the US: the New York Appellate Court has tossed out the lawsuit against quarantine camps. It’s as if some powers-that-be will accept no limits to government power, essentially waging war on 1,000 years of progress. The fight continues. 

The ebb and flow, this tension and release, this unrelenting struggle between despotism and freedom, is the theme of our times. There is hope for victory but not without work and dedication. Thank you as always for your support

Here is some content since our last email:

Courts Pave Way for New York Quarantine Camps By Bobbie Anne Flower Cox. The reason the public has dubbed this regulation the “quarantine camp regulation” is because the language makes it clear that the DOH can pull you from your home and hold you anywhere they deem appropriate.

How Did Higher Education Become a Cargo Cult? By El Gato Malo. It’s time to re-assess the “need” for half of America to go to college as a vital path to the middle class. For some, sure, it’s a great plan, always was. But for many, this is not a sail; it’s an anchor. It’s just cargo cult baggage.

What is Medical Freedom, Exactly? By Clayton J. Baker, MD. “Medical freedom” has become more than a buzzword. It is also a movement, with its advocates, experts, and critics. Multiple medical freedom conferences have been organized and are taking place in the United States and abroad, and political parties under its banner have formed.

The Emptiness of the Transhumanist Ideal By David Bell. The implication of there being something beyond our immediate self, a shared experience across time, changes everything. It means there is something no longer measurable within all of us, and we can no longer ignore the results of our deeds, or those we condone in others.

Panopticism on Steroids By Bert Olivier. It is no secret, especially since 2020, that we live in a society where surveillance of various kinds and at different levels – optical, audial, text-oriented, administrative – has increased almost unbearably.  

Cutting through the Mist of the Managerial State By John Carter. Use disobedience to claw back whatever personal agency and responsibility you can in your own life, train yourself not to take these people seriously, encourage others to do the same, and if enough people do this, eventually it will become so prohibitively expensive to manage the population that the strangling vines of this parasitic organism we call the managerial state can be hacked back to something manageable.

The Question of Iceland’s Vaccine Policy By Thorsteinn Siglaugsson. Now that the numbers are in, the Icelandic Chief Medical Officer (CMO) claims vaccination against Covid-19 reduced the probability of death from the disease by half, compared with no vaccination. But the actual figures tell a very different story, and the method used to arrive at this conclusion is questionable to say the least. The actual reduction in deaths is negligible at best, and the most worrying result is how those fully vaccinated (two doses) were almost three times more likely to die from the disease than the unvaccinated. 

When Nearly All Governments in the World Met Their Match By Jeffrey A. Tucker. To contain and combat: that was the goal of the policy, in words drawn from the modern history of US warfare abroad. The war finally came home in ways that have broken the American spirit, shattered dreams, and wrecked confidence in the future. The war failed in every way, at least according to its stated aims, but it was still a sure winner for elites.

Witnessing the Media’s Covid Coverage from the Inside By Gabrielle Bauer. Covid media, like so much else in modern life, has become hopelessly fractured: the tall, left-facing trees dominate the landscape, telling the story of a deadly virus that we “did the best we could” to manage. Below the tree canopy lies the tangle of weeds that sway in the wind, whispering songs of freedom and warning against the totalitarian impulses that all too readily emerge during crises.

Looking for Trouble that Doesn’t Exist By Mark Oshinskie. I’ve hated the Scamdemic because, like much of what passes for modern medicine, it centered on looking for trouble that didn’t exist in order to sell products: tests, ventilators, drugs, and shots and to tighten political and social control, not to improve public health. 

Don’t Gaslight Me By Richard Kelly. So what is it that they are only at the start of accomplishing as a newsroom? What is it, other than suppressing some stories and promoting others, that they want to do?

The Cult of Safety Explodes By Thomas Buckley. By worshiping at the altar of the safe, we denigrate, delay, and deny the myriad possibilities for human advancement that are inherent in the concept of risk.

Why So Many Countries Followed China’s Lockdown Example By Ron Brown. If the novel coronavirus isn’t really so novel, this would explain why the lockdowns didn’t work. We had already known that lockdowns don’t work in other viral pandemics. Even China eventually gave up its Zero Covid Policy after it was obvious that lockdowns weren’t working. My friends owe me some explanations to justify their lockdown views. Maybe Fauci isn’t off the hook after all.

Panel Discussions from Brownstone’s Third Annual Conference: Rebuild Freedom By Logan Chipkin. At Brownstone’s third annual conference and gala, aptly called ‘Rebuild Freedom,’ hundreds of scholars, writers, researchers, fellows, and supporters came together in Dallas for a weekend of meals, panel discussions, and solidarity over the civilization-wide trauma we all endured ever since March, 2020. 

Movies Came to Life in 2020 By Charles Krblich. Our philosopher-king ascended the stairs in front of the partially destroyed, but still standing US Capitol Building, and, with raucous delight, begins…Building Back Better.

The Immune System and Vaccines By Peter C. Gotzsche. Vaccines are a complicated area, which is because the immune system is immensely complicated. Targeted vaccines have ancillary effects, and it is not possible to predict what they are. 

The Painless Extinction of Formerly Free Australia By David Bell. We are about to find out whether the frogs really boil to oblivion, or whether they recognize the water is scalding and make the effort to leap to freedom – even risking a fall and injury in the process. After all, standing against tyrants was never actually supposed to be safe. The water is quite hot. It is not the experiment as I imagined it to be, but we are soon to find the answer.

There is Yet Hope for the Beauty of Cities By Naomi Wolf. Go take some action to strengthen your neighborhood, your local culture. Go chat with someone on the street that social media and leaders tells you is unknowable. Make a meal for friends and neighbors. Refuse to be hypnotized. You are thus unmaking your own chains. They can only enslave us if we let them.

Why is Everyone Concerned About the WHO? By Meryl Nass. Over the past two years you’ve probably heard about the attempted WHO power grab. Here’s everything you need to know to understand the status today.

Reflections on Brownstone’s Conference By Rev. John F. Naugle. The 2023 Brownstone Conference and Gala was truly an uplifting experience, with so many individuals from very different backgrounds and belief systems gathering for the noble cause of battling for the truth against those who have pushed an agenda of fear and lies beginning in 2020.

Thanksgiving by M. E. Boyd Miss Constitution

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Thanksgiving

M. E. Boyd

11/20/2023

Without getting into the very tiresome discussions about the origins of Thanksgiving in America, Miss Constitution finds the Proclamations by Abraham Lincoln in March and October of 1863 to be fresh and relevant in addressing today’s quandary about America’s purpose and path.  Part of the following is a call to penitence and reflection and part of the following is a call to gratefulness and appreciation.  Each word, sentence, and paragraph is a testament to the genius of the 16th President of the United States, and each word, sentence, and paragraph is an admonition to “Awaken” delivered to each American person.

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.  May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our reformation as a whole people?

But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.  I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Americans have not only forgotten God, we have forgotten our mission as a nation.  America’s mission is not to make the world safe for democracy; it is not to impose a political system on others that may be antithetical to their culture; it is not to provide positive material rights to anyone who finds his or her way into the country; and it is not to provide positive material rights to those already here.  America’s mission is not about the group; it is not about racial or ethnic status; it is not about equal outcomes; it is not about equality outside equality under the law; and it is not about a presumption that we have “rightful” answers for problems in other nations that we impose by force of arms.

America’s mission is “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. 

This mission is about development of the person, not the group.  It is about the journey each American takes in life on his or her way to finding virtue.  It is about the Liberty granted to each person to get off track; to make mistakes; to injure others but make amends; to take sustenance for granted; to omit kindness where kindness is due; to forget to notice a child; to fail to be proper stewards of God’s creations; and to ignore the development of one’s soul.

America’s mission is unique in the world.  What Lincoln is telling us is that America gains strength when she recognizes she has lost touch with her mission.  America gains strength when her citizens understand and appreciate that the Liberty our society bestows on each of us carries with it the responsibility of gratefulness, humility, and self-control.   Lincoln might also add that we must never be too proud to say “thank you” to the Author of our unalienable rights and the Provider of the Blessings of this Life.

Happy Thanksgiving – first proclaimed by George Washington; crusaded for by Sarah Josepha Hale; articulated by Abraham Lincoln; fixed on the calendar by Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and honored in each American family by all Americans who are grateful for a nation that, by mission, gives each living person a chance to find and practice The Virtuous Life.

GOP Lawmaker Asks Wray About ‘Ghost Buses’ ‘Filled With FBI Informants Dressed as Trump Supporters’ on J6

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GOP Lawmaker Asks Wray About ‘Ghost Buses’ ‘Filled With FBI Informants Dressed as Trump Supporters’ on J6

By Debra Heine

November 16, 2023

During a House Homeland Security hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Clay Higgins (R- La.) attempted to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about two vehicles he described as “ghost buses” that arrived in D.C. in the early morning of Jan. 6, 2021, but was abruptly shut down before he could get an answer.

Higgins, a reserve law enforcement officer in Louisiana, began by grilling Wray about the use of FBI confidential informants on January 6.

“We the people still do not have a definitive answer from you or anyone else in the Biden administration regarding the FBI presence and participation in the months leading up to the November [2020] election and in the weeks and days prior to Jan. 6 and on Jan. 6 here in D.C.,” Higgins complained. “We can’t get a straight answer.”

As investigative journalist Julie Kelly has reported at American Greatness, at least ten and possibly up to fifteen FBI informants were embedded in just the Proud Boys group alone.

Informants participated in numerous group chats, cozied up to leadership, and even accompanied the Proud Boys to Washington.

One known informant, according to a September 2021 New York Times report, was involved in the first breach of Capitol grounds and entered the building that afternoon.

“Earlier this year, an FBI informant was reported to—his quote under oath—’marched to the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members on January 6,’” Higgins said. “He said he was communicating with his FBI handler while people were entering the U.S. Capitol,” he continued. “Can you confirm that the FBI had that sort of engagement with your own agents embedded within to the crowd on January 6?”

“If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation or orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically not,” Wray replied indignantly.

“Are you familiar with, you know, what a ghost vehicle is?” Higgins asked. “Director, you’re director of the FBI, certainly should. You know what a ghost bus is?”

“A ghost bus?” Wray replied. “I’m not sure I’ve used that term before.”

Higgins said the term is “pretty common in law enforcement” and referred to an unmarked vehicle “that’s used for secret purposes and painted over.”

“These two buses in the middle here, they were the first to arrive at Union Station on Jan. 6 at 0500,” Higgins said, pointing to a photo. “I have all this evidence. I’m showing you a tip of the iceberg. These two buses are painted completely white.”

At that point, a Democrat on the committee interrupted to note that Higgins had gone over his allotted time.

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who heads the committee, told Higgins he needed to wrap up his line of questioning.

“I’ve been very fair in letting people finish their questioning, throughout my tenure as chairman, and I’ll continue to be fair on that regard, but I will make a note to the members if you could stay as close within your time as possible, we have a lot of people that want to ask these gentlemen questions,” Green said.

When Higgins asked if he could finish his point about the ghost buses, Green said to him, “No, I think your time is expired.”

“I note that other members across the aisle have been granted time, and I object to my question being closed,” Higgins complained, before quickly adding: “This is a very significant hearing, Mr. Chairman, and these buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters and deployed onto our Capitol on Jan. 6. Your day is coming, Mr. Wray.”

Tiny Township Declares Itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary, Establishes Militia

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Tiny Township Declares Itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary, Establishes Militia

 By Jack Davis  November 19, 2023 at 10:18am

You don’t have to be big to stand tall. Ask Holton Township, Michigan, which has adopted a Second Amendment Resolution declaring itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary.

The Muskegon County community, which had 2,586 people as of the 2020 Census, is a little over 200 miles northwest of Detroit.

The resolutions to declare itself a Second Amendment Sanctuary and form its own militia passed unanimously, according to the Daily Mail.

Township Supervisor Alan Jager said town officials acted to prevent residents’ rights from being violated, according to WOOD-TV.

“Whether they’re trying to pass something where they’re taking your rights away without you having due process. And I want you to be able to have due process,” Jager said.

One catalyst for the action was Michigan’s red flag law, which would allow a court to take away an individual’s guns if a case can be made that the individual is a high-risk person who should not have them.

“All you had to do is go to the right court: you’re going to get the judge to do it,” Jager said.

#2A #Municipal #Militia #enacted !!

Michigan’s Holton Township Boldly Upholds Second Amendment with Formation of Local Militia

In a decisive move to uphold the constitutional rights of its citizens, Holton Township in Muskegon County, Michigan, has taken a stand for the…

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The goal of the militia is not to patrol the township, but offer some protection to gun owners.

“We’re not trying to skirt anything. We’re just trying to make it so you have a fighting chance if you ever go to court. They can’t just take your guns away because you belong to a militia like the United States government says we have a right to do,” Jager said.

The resolution to become a Second Amendment Sanctuary, which opens with homage to the Second Amendment, pledges “to oppose any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict” Second Amendment rights, according to a copy posted on muskegongop.

“Holton Township Board declares and confirms to express its intent to stand as a Sanctuary Township for Second Amendment rights, and to oppose, within the limits of the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Michigan, any efforts to unconstitutionally restrict such rights, the resolution said.

Holton Township dubs itself a ‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’ and establishes a militia: https://t.co/Me0F6CP0fV

Reaching back to the language of the Founding Fathers the resolution declared, “We, the people of Holton Township, Michigan through this resolution, hereby declare our inalienable rights, our freedom and our Liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.”

In an addendum titled the Militia Public Safety Act, the township outlined the requirement to join and vowed to stand up to gun grabbers.

“Holton Township will not acknowledge any new laws that are associated with red flag laws, or any other infringement of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. Holton Township will not acknowledge any new regulation that prohibits open carry or concealed carry,” the addendum said.

Thanksgiving by M. E. Boyd Miss Constitution

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The Will County News

Home  Uncategorized  Thanksgiving by M. E. Boyd Miss Constitution

Thanksgiving by M. E. Boyd Miss Constitution

By

 Steve Balich

 –

November 25, 2023

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Thanksgiving

M. E. Boyd

11/20/2023

Without getting into the very tiresome discussions about the origins of Thanksgiving in America, Miss Constitution finds the Proclamations by Abraham Lincoln in March and October of 1863 to be fresh and relevant in addressing today’s quandary about America’s purpose and path.  Part of the following is a call to penitence and reflection and part of the following is a call to gratefulness and appreciation.  Each word, sentence, and paragraph is a testament to the genius of the 16th President of the United States, and each word, sentence, and paragraph is an admonition to “Awaken” delivered to each American person.

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.  May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our reformation as a whole people?

But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.  I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Americans have not only forgotten God, we have forgotten our mission as a nation.  America’s mission is not to make the world safe for democracy; it is not to impose a political system on others that may be antithetical to their culture; it is not to provide positive material rights to anyone who finds his or her way into the country; and it is not to provide positive material rights to those already here.  America’s mission is not about the group; it is not about racial or ethnic status; it is not about equal outcomes; it is not about equality outside equality under the law; and it is not about a presumption that we have “rightful” answers for problems in other nations that we impose by force of arms.

America’s mission is “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. 

This mission is about development of the person, not the group.  It is about the journey each American takes in life on his or her way to finding virtue.  It is about the Liberty granted to each person to get off track; to make mistakes; to injure others but make amends; to take sustenance for granted; to omit kindness where kindness is due; to forget to notice a child; to fail to be proper stewards of God’s creations; and to ignore the development of one’s soul.

America’s mission is unique in the world.  What Lincoln is telling us is that America gains strength when she recognizes she has lost touch with her mission.  America gains strength when her citizens understand and appreciate that the Liberty our society bestows on each of us carries with it the responsibility of gratefulness, humility, and self-control.   Lincoln might also add that we must never be too proud to say “thank you” to the Author of our unalienable rights and the Provider of the Blessings of this Life.

Happy Thanksgiving – first proclaimed by George Washington; crusaded for by Sarah Josepha Hale; articulated by Abraham Lincoln; fixed on the calendar by Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and honored in each American family by all Americans who are grateful for a nation that, by mission, gives each living person a chance to find and practice The Virtuous Life.

Related

Thanksgiving By M.E. Boyd, Esq., “Miss Constitution”November 26, 2019In “#freedom”

Lingering Over Thanksgiving by M. E. Boyd “Miss Constitution”December 7, 2021Similar post

The Myth of Bipartisanship By M.E. Boyd Miss ConstitutionOctober 8, 2023Similar post

RENEWABLES RULE! ILLINOIS LAW SETS UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR APPROVAL OF UTILITY WIND AND SOLAR FACILITIES

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RENEWABLES RULE! ILLINOIS LAW SETS UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR APPROVAL OF UTILITY WIND AND SOLAR FACILITIES

Date: 13 March 2023

U.S. Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources

By: David L. Rieser, Buck B. Endemann

During January’s lame-duck session the Illinois General Assembly enacted, and Governor Pritzker signed into law, HB 4412, which requires counties and municipalities to adopt statewide standards for utility-scale solar and wind facilities. This law requires local zoning authorities to rewrite their zoning ordinance within 180 days to match the standards set in the law and precludes them from adopting bans or moratoria on future approvals of these renewable facilities. 

HB 4412 arose from Illinois’ aggressive renewable portfolio standard (“RPS”) program. The Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (“CEJA”) adopted in 2021 required Illinois to phase out private fossil fueled electrical generation by 2030 and municipal coal-fired power plants by 2045. CEJA required the state to be at 100% clean energy by 2050 with deadlines for 40% by 2030 and 50% by 2040. To meet those goals, CEJA more than doubled funding for the RPS and provided more than $40 million in funding for renewable initiatives. 

The CEJA (along with enhanced federal incentives) had the desired effect of creating an avalanche of proposed renewable facilities. Developers proposed building the majority of these facilities in Illinois’ vast agricultural Downstate (i.e., the areas of the state outside the six county Chicago area), primarily due to the abundance of affordable land and interconnection opportunities. Conflicts have arisen, however, with local communities concerned about their agricultural character. While Downstate could experience increased prosperity from wind and solar lease and tax revenues, local farming communities have sought to preserve a measure of control over their agricultural lands. Recently, some Downstate counties and municipalities began to consider moratoria or outright bans on renewable facilities in an attempt to preserve local land use decision making. 

Concerned that the local backlash to renewable projects could hinder CEJA’s ambitious renewables goals, the state adopted HB 4412 to limit the ability of counties and municipalities to make independent land use decisions in siting utility-scale renewable facilities. The law requires that local zoning authorities adopt a standard zoning ordinance that sets uniform allowable setbacks for solar and wind projects from surrounding houses and fish and wildlife areas. The law precludes local communities from adopting more stringent operational and decommissioning standards than those adopted by state agencies, such as the Pollution Control Board’s noise standards and the Department of Agriculture’s requirements in its Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreements. It also precludes local communities from requiring renewable energy developers to construct earthen berm barriers or offer property value guarantees. The law establishes further standards for considering natural resources issues as well as limits on county and township road agreements. 

HB 4412 also mandates process standards for zoning authorities, requiring hearings to be held no more than 45 days after a proposal is submitted and requiring final decisions to be made no more than 30 days after the last hearing. Zoning authorities cannot adopt moratoria or bans on approving renewable facilities, and all zoning decisions involving utility scale solar and wind projects must comply with HB 4412.  Existing zoning ordinances that are inconsistent with HB 4412 must be revised within 120 days. 

The law does not set out any specific penalties for failing to meet these deadlines, but it does state that a county may not place any restriction on a renewable facility unless it adopts an ordinance that complies with the law’s standards. Whether that means that a noncompliant county cannot impose any restrictions on new facilities or that it can only impose the restrictions in the law may well be the subject of future litigation. 

While clearly a great boon to the renewable industry, the issues HB 4412 is intended to address are not going away. The state has nearly unlimited power to establish and limit authority of counties and municipalities, but the issues dividing the renewable energy and agricultural communities will persist and potentially be exacerbated by the state’s action. The law does not deprive individual landowners and local residents of their ability to bring private nuisance and other legal actions that could also be used to slow project development. Compliance with the law is also uncertain, as the deadlines both for adopting zoning ordinances and completing local approval are probably unrealistic considering the thinly staffed and voluntary nature of many Downstate governments.  While HB 4412 may expedite and make zoning decisions more consistent in some communities, it will not eliminate the potential for conflict and delay in the local zoning process or bridge the differences between agricultural and renewable energy interests. 

County Executive Breaks Tie votes passing 8,000,000 Property tax increase

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Will County Board approves budget on party-line vote following pay increases for prosecutors, but not public defenders

By Michelle Mullins

Daily Southtown

•Published: 

Nov 17, 2023 at 11:43 am

The Will County Board approved an $814 million balanced total budget Thursday along party lines after Republicans objected to a last-minute amendment to use $350,000 in cash reserves to fund salaries in the state’s attorney’s office and the Regional Office of Education.

State’s Attorney James W. Glasgow’s office requested an additional $1.2 million to address challenges filling vacancies. Democrats approved a change to the budget Thursday, increasing the office’s funding to $1.5 million, with $300,000 of it coming from cash reserves. The Democrat-led changes also included $50,000 for an administrative position for the Regional Office of Education.

County Board Chair Judy Ogalla, a Republican from Monee, said it was irresponsible to take money from cash reserves to boost salaries, and said the board should handle salary increases in increments to be more fiscally responsible.

“I think the whole budget right now is a sham,” Ogalla said.

Board member Katie Deane-Schlottman, a Republican from Joliet, said she believed the board was “opening Pandora’s box” by using reserves for salaries.

The county has $82 million in cash reserves, which is within its targeted amount, said budget director ReShawn Howard.

Ogalla said the push to increase salaries in the state’s attorney’s office was in response to DuPage County raising the salaries in its office. DuPage County is fully staffed, so it’s not likely Will County employees will be hired for positions there, she said.

“I don’t want to be reactionary to what other counties do,” Ogalla said. “I don’t want to be like DuPage County. I want to be like Will County.”

Democrat Leader Jackie Traynere from Bolingbrook said the board has had repeated requests the state’s attorney’s office and the salary increases are necessary due to the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today, or SAFE-T Act, which took effect in September.

Before the vote on the budget, members of the public defender’s office, a separate entity, also requested raises so its attorneys would be paid comparable salaries.

Public Defender Michael Renzi said the judicial system relies on both prosecutors and defense attorneys, and there needs to be parity. A public defender may have 400 misdemeanor cases in a day, he said.

Jaya Varghese, the felony chief at the public defender’s office, said employees are receiving better offers in DuPage, Kane and Cook counties.

Renzi requested and received $250,000 to use for contract attorneys.

Howard said after the budget is passed, the board could create an amendment to address public defender salaries if it chose.

Jim Richmond, chair of the county board’s finance committee, said the board has to come up with a business solution to rectify the problems.

“It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, whether its government or private sector … we are fighting an uphill battle in every industry,” said Richmond, a Republican from Mokena. “I wish I could go to the store and buy another pie, but I can’t. We only have so much to work with.”

Richmond said the budget includes no cuts to county services and no cuts in staff. The county is in good fiscal health, he said.

The Will County sheriff’s office will receive $1.3 million to buy Tasers and a virtual reality simulator to practice using them. The Tasers replace those at the end of their usable life span, said Mike Theodore, a spokesman for the county executive’s office.

The budget includes $4 million to renovate the former Pace garage, 9 Osgood St., Joliet, which would accommodate the operational needs for the public defender, alternative courts and adult probation departments, Theodore said. By moving those offices into the renovated building, it will reduce the space the county leases and save about $400,000 a year, he said.

The Will County Health Department will use about $385,000 to modernize its call center and help accommodate its daily call volume of 382 calls.

The budget includes $100,000 to replace aging wireless equipment at Sunny Hill Nursing Home, and $240,000 to upgrade the radio system network for the Emergency Management Agency.

A landmark jury verdict threatens to upend home buying and selling. In Illinois, changes are already underway.

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Posted on  by steveba2103

A landmark jury verdict threatens to upend home buying and selling. In Illinois, changes are already underway.

By Lizzie Kane

Chicago Tribune

Nov 20, 2023 at 5:00 am

Kate Schumacher in her office at Baird & Warner on Nov. 13, 2023, in Algonquin. Schumacher has been in real estate for 40 years.
Kate Schumacher in her office at Baird & Warner on Nov. 13, 2023, in Algonquin. Schumacher has been in real estate for 40 years. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

In the 40 years Kate Schumacher has worked as a real estate agent, homebuyers have rarely compensated her directly. Instead, the seller has picked up the tab.

Yet, this year, the Baird & Warner agent based in Algonquin said she has already had two deals close where the seller did not cover all of her compensation: 2.5% of the selling price of the house. Both of her clients had to make up a .5% difference. One got the $1,315 covered by the seller in the closing costs, and the other paid Schumacher $3,575 in cash.

“We have more and more sellers that are not contributing as much toward the buyer’s agent compensation,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher has long had buyers enter into buyer agency agreements, the contract between the buyer and their agent that states how the buyer’s agent will be paid, guaranteeing a certain amount if the seller only partially compensates the buyer’s agent or doesn’t pay them at all.

Now, Baird & Warner and other local and nationalreal estate firms are encouraging agents to use these contracts more frequently, saying it’s no longer assumed sellers will foot the bill for both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent as litigation surrounding the issue winds its way through court.

Last month, a Missouri federal jury issued a landmark $1.8 billion verdict finding the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors and several large real estate brokerages conspired to artificially inflate commissions on home sales. The association has said itis appealing the verdict, while similar cases are ongoing in Illinois and Missouri.

The litigation has the potential to significantly shake up the real estate industry.In Illinois, changes to home buying and selling were already underway before the jury’s verdict.

Jennifer Ames, an owner of real estate company Engel & Völkers Chicago, which is not involved in the litigation, said her company is in the process of revising its contracts to include how much a buyer will pay their agent.

In the past, the commission was baked into the price of the home, Ames said. Now, it could be included as a credit in a buyer’s closing costs or the buyer might have to come up with additional cash on top of their down payment, she said.

“Going forward, it is going to be a little bit of a wild west,” Ames said.

National Association of Realtors CEO resigns amid new legal pressures ]

Local real estate experts like Ames said they also foresee the potential for longer-term changes if more sellers stop paying buyers’ agents. Some prospective homebuyers could forgo hiring an agent altogether and risk getting a bad deal, they said. But, experts caution it is too soon to tell what the long-term effects will be.

Kate Schumacher shows some of the important disclosure documents enclosed in every buyer's package given to her clients.
Kate Schumacher shows some of the important disclosure documents enclosed in every buyer’s package given to her clients. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

The Missouri jury’s Oct. 31 verdict comes as a federal court in Illinois gears up for a similar, yet potentially more costly, trial next year and as more lawsuits have been filed following the Missouri verdict. Real estate firms RE/MAX and Anywhere Real Estate (formerly known as Realogy Holdings Corp.) already agreed to settle both the recent Missouri and ongoingIllinois cases. Anywhere agreed to pay $83.5 million, and RE/MAX agreed to pay $55 million, though a court must still approve the settlement..

As in the Missouri case, the Illinois suit alleges NAR artificially inflates broker fees by requiring seller agents to make a blanket offer of compensation for buyer agents when listing properties on local multiple listing services and by only giving access to the MLS to agents who agree to adhere to its rules.

The compensation, set in advance, must be offered to every buyer agent regardless of their experience or the service they provide the buyer, the complaint alleges. The plaintiffs, a group of sellers, allege the system creates pressure on sellers to offer high commissions so buyers’ agents don’t steer buyers away from their properties, according to the suit.

While NAR argued in court filings that its rules allow the rates to be negotiated, Judge Andrea Wood said in her 2020 ruling rejecting the association’s bid to dismiss the case that the rules make negotiation “a practical impossibility.”

The suit, filed in 2019, was certified as a class action in March, representing sellers from 20 regions across the U.S. Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate the amount of damages could reach $40 billion.

The U.S. Department of Justice expressed interest in the case, which could go to trial as early as next year.

Meanwhile, Midwest Real Estate Data, which runs the multiple listing service, or MLS, for northern Illinois, has amended its commission policy. The organization now allows users of the database to enter $0 or 0% into the commission field for agents for all listings, according to a September 2023 fact sheet. Previously, Midwest Real Estate Data required at least $1 to be entered into the commission field.

Though the change was made in response to the litigation against NAR and large brokerage firms, it had already been in the works by the time the Missouri jury rendered its verdict, which came down the same day the MLS change went into effect.

Mantill Williams, the National Association of Realtors’ vice president of communications, told the Tribune in a statement that its rules “prioritize consumers, support market-driven pricing and promote business competition,” with the outcome of the Missouri trial “not close to being final.” NAR’s appeal will likely tie up the case for a couple more years.

The jury verdict follows reported allegations of sexual harassment at NAR, which led to the resignation of former NAR President Kenny Parcell. NAR CEO Bob Goldberg announced his earlier than expected retirement shortly after the jury verdict.

NAR declined to make its president, Tracy Kasper, available for an interview, citing the ongoing nature of the lawsuits.

In a video following the verdict, Kasper encouraged NAR members to continue using agreements between sellers, buyers and their agents to explain what services they are providing and to dictate compensation.

National Association of Realtors takes additional steps to address alleged workplace issues ]

Real estate agents are typically compensated 5% to 6% of the purchase price of a house by the seller, an amount that usually gets split in half between the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent. Local real estate agents maintain the commission percentage has always been negotiable. And, as Ames noted, while the seller is paying the upfront costs, the payment is coming from the money the buyer is paying the seller for the house.

For the month of October, in the Chicago metro area, the typical home was worth$306,750, according to Zillow. For a $306,750 home, a 6% commission would be $18,405, or about $9,202 if split between the buyer’s and seller’s agent.

Alley Ballard, a real estate broker with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate — one of the nation’s largest residential real estate firms and not one that was involved in the lawsuit — said she has not seen commission rates drop from sellers yet on single-family homes or condos.

Ballard said wealthier buyers will be able to afford to pay an agent, while poorer ones may go without one if the seller doesn’t shoulder the cost.

“Therefore, they are left to tweeze apart value; they are left to negotiate on their end; they are basically left to their own defenses purchasing what is usually the most expensive thing that you can purchase in your life, the most important thing,” Ballard said.

Ballard, who has worked in Chicago’s real estate industry for about 24 years, also thinks the properties of sellers who opt not to pay the buyer’s agent — some who may be doing so because they are less financially stable — will be overlooked.

“This is a lose-lose proposition,” Ballard said. “It cannot effectively help buyers or sellers.”

In a policy update fact sheet sent out to agents, @properties said it would make policy changes in light of the verdict and would have new training available to help agents discuss commissions and representation. That includes buyer agency agreements.

“The recent verdict and ongoing litigation involving broker commissions will not alter the central mission of our brokerage, which is to serve our clients with the utmost fairness, integrity, fidelity and transparency,” Thad Wong, co-CEO of @properties, said in a statement.

@properties declined the Tribune’s request to interview its CEOs.

Real estate professionals such as Ballard say prospective homebuyers — especially first-time buyers and low- to moderate-income buyers — could be further hampered in an already challenging and unaffordable housing market by having to come up with more cash, in addition to a down payment.

Chicago home sales down 11% in September, ending tepid summer housing market ]

“Here’s my real worry: people that don’t have a lot of money,” said Laura Ellis, chief strategy officer and president of residential sales at Baird & Warner, which is not involved in the litigation. “The economically disadvantaged will be further disadvantaged … because they will have no one to help them, and they won’t have the cash out of their pocket to pay an agent.”

One group of buyers that could face acute disadvantages if more sellers stop paying buyer brokers are veterans. Per the policy for VA-backed mortgages, veterans buying homes are not allowed to pay for an agent’s compensation.

In a statement to the Tribune, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said, “VA has been closely monitoring litigation related to these sorts of charges and is working with internal and external stakeholders to evaluate the potential effects the litigation may have on Veterans and on VA’s policies and procedures.”

Ames of Engel & Völkers said moving into the new year, sellers need to understand what their options are, and it is the job of real estate professionals to explain that.

“None of us can predict what will be the new norm, but the bottom line is in a couple of years, we’ll settle into the new norm and continue with business as usual,” Ames said.

Jim Speta, a professor at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law who specializes in antitrust law, said there is still a long way to go to see how this all plays out, given appeals in antitrust cases take awhile since antitrust cases are notoriously complex.

As for the trial that could take place in Illinois next year, Speta said while the recent verdict cannot set legal precedent for the future case, he thinks it will still affect the outcome.

“There is now this data point out there — which is the jury was willing to find in favor of plaintiffs after the parties had litigated the case — and that data point will encourage plaintiffs to push hard and should affect, at least preliminarily, the defendants’ assessment of their odds of defeating the Chicago case,” Speta said.

ekane@chicagotribune.com



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As 2023 crime hits post-covid record, what’s next for Chicago?

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As 2023 crime hits post-covid record, what’s next for Chicago?

Posted on  by steveba2103

As 2023 crime hits post-covid record, what’s next for Chicago?

Anyway you cut it, the chances of Chicagoans getting a break from crime isn’t very good. This year the city will hit a post-covid record for major crimes committed, while the ongoing trend of emptier jails continues as no-cash bail takes full hold.

And knowing how Chicago voted for mayor earlier this year, Kim Foxx’s replacement as Cook County State’s Attorney could be even more radical.

Those factors, and the six facts below, can guide expectations for crime in 2024:

1. Chicagoans will be victims of nearly 80,000 major crimes in 2023. That’s about 18 percent over last year. It’s also 29,000 more crimes than in 2019 – an increase of nearly 60 percent.
2. Robberies, car thefts are driving 2023’s record crimes. Motor vehicle thefts still account for a vast majority of the increase in crimes over last year, with Chicagoans losing more than 25,000 cars to theft so far. That’s 56 percent more YTD than in 2022.

Robberies are next, up 25 percent compared to last year. Theft is still up 5 percent and aggravated battery is up 4 percent. Only homicides have seen a decrease, down 11 percent compared to 2022.

3. Recent monthly crime totals have plateaued near 2022’s max. Chicago’s 2023 monthly crime totals were running far higher versus 2022 for most of the year. That changed in the second half of the year, with total crimes now averaging about 7,000 per month for both 2022 and 2023.
4. Robberies continue to soar past their 2019, 2022 levels. Chicago’s criminals began a robbery-spree in June of this year that shows no sign of ending. Robberies have jumped more than 50 percent between June and October, with over 1,200 now happening every month.
5. Chicago’s homicides are down in 2023, but they are down in other big cities, too. Homicide is the only major crime to significantly decline this year. Through the end of October, murders are down 12 percent compared to 2022.

Other major cities have seen murders drop more than that. Los Angeles homicides are down 19 percent so far this year. Philadelphia’s are down 20%. Houston’s are down 22 percent. Only New York is down a similar 11 percent.

6. Cook County’s jail population has been cut in half over the last decade. 2013 marked a near-peak in the number of inmates in Cook County jails.Since then, the number of inmates has collapsed by more than half, reaching just 4,817 on Nov. 13, 2023. That’s the lowest number of people in jail in 40 years (excluding covid-impacted 2020). 

Since no-cash-bail went into effect on September 17th, the jail population has fallen 10 percent, to 4,817 from 5,419.
There’s little good news and no real positive action from Chicago’s leadership on crime.

A continuing spike in crime victims should mean a change in approach, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans are all still dedicated to decriminalization and decarceration.

If nothing changes, Chicago’s 2024 could end up as bad as 2023 – with all the misery that entails.

All Illinoisans should know the facts about Chicago crime. Share this piece with others and follow us on Instagram to learn more.

EditPosted in #money#twillcrimeTagged #leadtight#maga#safety#sbalich#tcot#twill@realdonaldtrump

Missouri and 2 Other States Sue Biden Admin Over Approving Mail-Order Abortion

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CV News Feed
 on November 7, 2023

Missouri and 2 Other States Sue Biden Admin Over Approving Mail-Order Abortion

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CV NEWS FEED // The states of Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the agency approved the mail-ordering of abortion-inducing drugs.

“Unelected federal bureaucrats do not have the statutory authority to approve the shipment of these dangerous chemical abortion drugs in the mail,” said Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey via a press release after announcing the lawsuit Monday.

“The FDA’s guidance is not only unlawful, but would cost the lives of both women and their unborn children,” the attorney general continued. “I am proud to be leading a coalition of states to halt the FDA’s illegal federal overreach in its tracks.”

BREAKING: We have filed suit against @POTUS‘ FDA for unlawfully approving the shipment of chemical abortion pills in the mail.

Bureaucrats do not have the authority to issue guidance that would cost the lives of both women and their unborn children. pic.twitter.com/7UqenQTDJK— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) November 6, 2023

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the statutory responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans by rejecting or limiting the use of drugs dangerous to the public,” wrote Bailey in his complaint:

The FDA has failed in this responsibility. Specifically, it failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved risky, untested chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States.

And it has continued to fail them by turning a blind eye to these harms and repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with the use of these risky drugs.

To date, the FDA’s review, approval, and deregulation of chemical abortion drugs has spanned three decades, crossed several presidential administrations, and encompassed six discrete agency actions. Plaintiffs challenge these actions by the FDA and ask that the Court hold them unlawful, set them aside, and vacate them.

The three states challenge three specific FDA actions, which Bailey lists as:

(1) the 2016 rollback of most of the safety precautions FDA had put in place when it approved [the abortion-inducing drug] mifepristone in 2000

(2) the 2019 FDA approval of generic mifepristone

(3) the 2021 and 2023 policy allowing these drugs to be sent by mail

>> HOW THE CLINTONS STRONGARMED THE FDA TO APPROVE THE ABORTION PILL <<

Greg Wehner of FOX News reported that the nation’s two largest pharmacies, Walgreens and CVS, “first announced their intention to distribute abortion pills in the mail” in early January.

This, per Wehner, came after the Biden administration “developed a plan which they announced over a year ago, to change a [FDA] rule in a way that would allow companies like Walgreens and CVS to apply for a certification to distribute a two-step abortion-inducing drug.”

Wehner continued:

Before the rule was changed, mifepristone, the first pill used in the two-part abortion process, could be dispensed only by some mail-order pharmacies or by certified doctors or clinics.

By granting the certification, the FDA would be allowing pharmacists to dispense the pill directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.

In August, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling that ended mail orders for mifepristone. However, the federal court simultaneously upheld the abortion drug’s FDA approval.

The following month, the Biden administration appealed the case, known as Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, to the Supreme Court. The case is separate from the one Bailey filed this week. 

However, per The Daily Caller, Missouri requested the two cases be combined.

The FDA is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has called himself a “committed Catholic” despite his ardent support for abortion on demand and the LGBTQ movement.

Bailey has served as Missouri Attorney General since his appointment to the office in January. He took over for fellow Republican Eric Schmitt, who resigned after being elected to the U.S. Senate.

Less than two months after taking office, Bailey slammed the FBI’s infamous Richmond memo, calling it “a religious attack on Catholics.”

“[It is] clear that [Biden will] weaponize unelected federal bureaucrats to go after any American who doesn’t worship the ‘right way,’” Bailey said at the time. “The First Amendment includes both the right to free speech and religious liberty for a reason, and my office will use any tool necessary to defend the rights of all Missourians to worship as they please.”

Next year, Bailey is up for re-election. He is set to face a well-funded Republican primary challenger.

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