Home Blog Page 580

DOJ Delays Release of Clinton Emails for 2 Years maybe to protect Election desires

After Bill Clinton Met With Attorney General, DOJ Delays Release of Clinton Emails — 2 Years

After Bill Clinton Met With Attorney General, DOJ Delays Release of Clinton Emails — 2 Years
Just days after Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in her jet in Phoenix, Arizona, Department of Justice officials announced a not-at-all suspicious 27-month delay in the release of another segment of Hillary’s emails.
Correspondence between then Secretary of State Clinton’s four top aides — Deputy Asst. Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin, and Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer — and officials with the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s brainchild, public relations firm Teneo holdings are at the heart of the delay.
Those emails, should the delay be permitted by the court, would not be released until October 2018 — nearly halfway through Clinton’s first term if she indeed secures the White House.


As the Daily Caller explained:
“The State Department originally estimated that 6,000 emails and other documents were exchanged by the aides with the Clinton Foundation. But a series of ‘errors’ the department told the court about Wednesday evening now mean the total has grown to ‘34,116 potentially responsive documents.’”
Considering the new figure in conjunction with the estimated 700 times each month those aides corresponded with the Foundation and Teneo Holdings — a firm which the Callernoted Bill Clinton had been both a paid consultant and client — the delay appears more a bulwark for the Clintons than bureaucratic red tape.
In fact, the Obama administration has yet to allot additional funds to the State Department office responsible for handling FOIA requests — despite an exponential increase in inquiries, largely relating to Hillary’s ill-famed emails.
Indeed, the lengthy de facto obstruction had David Bossie, president of Citizens United — the organization fighting to have its original Freedom of Information Act request honored — fuming, calling such a delay “totally unacceptable.”
Bossie asserted the “State Department is using taxpayer dollars to protect theircandidate, Hillary Clinton,” and told the Caller, “The American people have a right to see these emails before the election.”
But perhaps most indicative of possible favoritism, if not outright corruption, theannouncement of the delay came just two days after Bill Clinton’s already controversial private meeting with Lynch — though email hijinx might not have been the sole outcome of the rendezvous.
Bill Clinton might have been seeking some protection of his own.
Former U.S. Attorney Joseph DiGenova exclusively told the Daily Caller the former President “is at least a witness in two criminal investigations, probably a subject in two criminal investigations. He is a person of interest officially to the Department of Justice.”
And as DiGenova emphasized, because both Bill and Hillary stand at the heart of several criminal and corruption probes, the private meeting with Lynch actually violates DoJ policy.
“It’s very important to realize this isn’t just a question of her judgment,” the former U.S. Attorney told the Caller. “The question is the Department of Justice policy on communicating with a side in a case.”
DiGenova explained the DoJ and Lynch have strict obligations to maintain impartiality — and Bill Clinton’s ‘legal status’ as a party to federal investigations should put him off limits for such unofficial and off-the-record meetings.
“Bill Clinton, according to the department is a person of interest,” DiGenova continued.“What the hell is she doing meeting with a person of interest, no matter what the reason. There is no reason to believe her representation about what transpired in that conversation. The whole set of circumstances surrounding how they met on the tarmac, in a plane with no witnesses, is simply appalling.”

He added, “There’s no good reason for her to have met with him. None. Zip.”
Democrats, even those supporting Hillary’s bid for the presidency, hotly criticized the meeting for appearance’ sake, but largely claimed they had faith nothing untoward had occurred. Others weren’t as generous.
“It makes it look like the fix is in and the Obama administration is going to protect Hillary Clinton,” remarked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as the Wall StreetJournal reported.
Sen. John Cornyn noted the incident “does nothing to instill confidence in the American people that [Lynch’s] department can fully and fairly conduct this investigation.”
For her part, Lynch obstinately insisted on Tuesday, “There was no discussion of Benghazi, no discussion of the State Department emails.”
Considering the all-out push to install Hillary as the next President of the once-free world, Bill’s private conference with Lynch — as egregious as it may be — can hardly come as much of a surprise.
Primaries have been wracked with allegations and evidence of blatant fraud, while the mainstream, corporate media apparently worked hand in hand with Hillary’s campaign to all-but guarantee her lock on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Of course, an all-out blitz would almost be necessary with both Clinton’s under intense scrutiny for the ongoing criminal and corruption probes — and all of this lends greater credence to theories an illegal, or at least questionable, arrangement was reached between the AG and Bill Clinton on Monday.
Currently, the FBI has an open “public corruption” investigation attempting to determine whether Hillary courted donors through the Clinton Foundation, and another to parse whether or not she also used the Foundation as a slush fund for certain foreign policy dealings during her tenure as secretary of state.
As Bossie reiterated to the Caller, “the conflicts of interest that were made possible by the activities of Hillary Clinton’s State Department in tandem with the Clinton Foundation are of significant importance to the public and the law enforcement community.”
Answering the firestorm of criticism and controversy over her impromptu discussion with Bill Clinton, on Friday reports indicated Lynch “intends to accept whateverrecommendation career prosecutors and federal agents make in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server,” an unnamed and unverified Justice Department official said, according to the Associated Press.
“The Attorney General expects to receive and accept the determinations and findings of the Department’s career prosecutors and investigators, as well as the FBI director,” the official reportedly stated.
If true, it would appear Lynch may be about to capitulate to growing pressure to recuseherself from various investigations of the Clintons.
While the content of the meeting between Bill Clinton and Lynch will never be known, the 27-month delay in honoring the FOIA request appears to be yet another highly suspicious activity involving the Clinton dynasty and its unwavering lust for power and control.
Courtesy of The Free Thought Project

Obama Just Made A HUGE Move To Keep Hillary OUT OF PRISON!

BREAKING: Obama Just Made A HUGE Move To Keep Hillary OUT OF PRISON!

hillary email
Talk about a major Friday news dump! President Barack Obama’s State Department just filed a motion to wait to release Clinton Foundation emails for 27 months… long after the Presidential race is over.

This news is breaking just a day after it was confirmed that Obama’s AG Loretta Lynch met secretly with former President Bill Clinton on her plane.
This is a massive move by the State Department to work with the rest of the Obama administration to hide critical details of Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of a home email server while using the Clinton Foundation as a foreign money fundraising mechanism.
This is outrageous:

Department of Justice officials filed a motion in federal court late Wednesday seeking a 27-month delay in producing correspondence between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s four top aides and officials with the Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings, a closely allied public relations firm that Bill Clinton helped launch.
If the court permits the delay, the public won’t be able to read the communications until October 2018, about 22 months into her prospective first term as President. The four senior Clinton aides involved were Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Fuchs, Ambassador-At-Large Melanne Verveer, Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin.
The State Department originally estimated that 6,000 emails and other documents were exchanged by the aides with the Clinton Foundation. But a series of “errors” the department told the court about Wednesday evening now mean the total has grown to “34,116 potentially responsive documents.”

Clearly, the Obama White House is supportive of this move, as they can’t have a criminal indictment happen just weeks after President Obama officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.
It’s clear that as long as Obama is in office, anyone with the last name “Clinton” is above the law and will never be held accountable.



Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/hillary-email-obama-move/#ixzz4DGobydYY

Erich Pratt makes mincemeat of CNN’s Carol Costello in gun debate

Watch: GOA’s Erich Pratt makes mincemeat of CNN’s Carol Costello in gun debate

Here’s a hint for CNN anchor Carol Costello: If you’re going to question a knowledgeable guest on your show you need to have more than a few shallow phrases and talking points at your disposal.
Costello, armed with the usual anti-gun banalities, sought to corner Gun Owners of America’s Erich Pratt with sophistic statistics and straw men. Pratt countered with information from a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Academy of Sciences resulting from President Barack Obama’s gun control executive orders following the Sandy Hoax school “shooting” – a study Costello seemed unaware existed even though CNN reported on it, taking CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden to task for not talking about so-called “gun violence” more, just six months ago.
As Pratt noted, the study showed that guns were used  between 500,000 to 3 million times a year for self-defense. That means guns were used 16 to 100 times more often to save lives than they were used to take them. And here’s the Slate article Pratt mentioned.

It is our right, it is our duty, to throw off such government

152157146When celebrating the Fourth of July this Monday, most Americans will fondly assume that we are a free people. After all, we swapped the monarchy that once ruled us for “government of, by, and for the people.” Today’s politicians may be corrupt and nauseatingly repugnant, but at least they’re better than King George III. According to the Declaration of Independence, that mean old tyrant was guilty of everything from “taking away our Charters” to “abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province…” Obscure offenses, but still pretty bad, no doubt.
And yet, when we analyze the Declaration’s allegations against George, his despotism pales to insignificance beside modern American governments’. We languish under exponentially worse dictatorship than the British administration ever dreamed of inflicting on its colonists. Indeed, the Revolutionary generation would scorn us as the most wretched and ignorant of slaves, not only controlled by our political masters, but delighted with our chains.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”
The Declaration imputes to George 27 “abuses and usurpations” (strictly speaking, the document devotes 27 paragraphs to His Majesty’s offenses, but several of those mention numerous “abuses.”). Yet “all of the charges … contain a substantial amount of strategic ambiguity,” as one scholar put it. “While they have a certain specificity in that they refer to actual historical events, they do not identify names, dates, or places. This magnified the seriousness of the grievances by making it seem as if each charge referred not to a particular piece of legislation or to an isolated act in a single colony, but to a violation … repeated on many occasions…”
The first “abuse” illustrates this point: “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Sounds as if His Majesty habitually played hooky from legislating, doesn’t it? But this indictment refers specifically to settlers’ “want[ing] permission … to expand further west and expand laws governing a more complicated society.” Not only was the royal “refusal” limited to one issue, it affected mostly those folks hoping to live on the frontiers.
Contrast that with just one of the billion injuries our rulers deal us: universal surveillance. Governments at every level — local, state and federal — spy on all Americans, all the time, via multiple bureaucracies. Police departments, the NSA, the FBI, theDepartment of Homeland Security, the IRS and even less obvious agencies, such as the EPA and the DEA, constantly monitor us. Nor do these bureaucrats confine themselves to eavesdropping on only some of the population or investigating genuine lawlessness alone.
Similarly, the TSA irradiates all passengers and sexually molests many in its unconstitutional and warrantless searches. Far from restricting these assaults to aviation, the TSA constantly seeks to extend its power to other forms of transportation — and even to other areas of our lives. (That Americans not only tolerate the TSA’s groping, but believe it somehow protects them, would absolutely boggle the founding generation. Indeed, a gentleman then would have horsewhipped — or worse — any lowlife so assailing him, his wife or his children.)
Further down, the list accuses George of “erect[ing] a multitude of New Offices, and sen[ding] hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” Astoundingly, “The ‘swarms of Officers’ that were purportedly eating out the substance of the colonies’ three million people numbered about fifty in the entire continent.” Fifty! Can you imagine? Our ancestors preferred war to tolerating one bureaucrat for every 60,000 Americans.
How tragic the comparison with our time! Millions of sponges now fatten on our taxes at the municipal, state and federal levels — 21 million, in fact. (Worse, that staggering figure “exclud[es] military, subcontractors, and consultants who also work for federal government” because even the Congressional Budget Office can’t count that high). Twenty-one million bloodsuckers lording it over a population of 323 million yields the incredibly depressing ratio of one for every 15 serfs. And who knows how much lower we could drive that correlation — one for every dozen? one for every 10? — if “military, subcontractors and consultants” were included.
Immediately after discussing those “swarms of Officers,” the Declaration cites the “Standing Armies” His Majesty “has kept among us, in times of peace …” Again, a single instance inspired this complaint: following “the Seven Year [sic] War, King George III stationed 10,000 British troops across the Thirteen Colonies...”
Our forefathers damned as intolerable the British government’s unleashing one enforcer on every 300 civilians. Imagine their fury at modern New York City’s quota of a cop for every 248 citizens (“The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated New York City’s population at 8,550,405,” while “the NYPD’s current uniformed strength is approximately 34,500”).
Yet “New York’s finest” are merely the tip of the blue iceberg. More cops lurk in such outposts as the New York City Marshal’s Office. And we finance another battalion at government’s next level, too, consisting of New York State Police (i.e., “troopers”), the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, etc.
Ditto for each locality in every state nationwide. Finally, we must add federal police to the mix (DEA, FBI, TSA, etc). No one knows the precise proportion of all enforcers per citizen, but it certainly dwarfs that of the 1770s.
Crucially, none of those 10,000 soldiers aspired to disarm civilians. Indeed, the British government’s only such attempt sparked the Revolution: when Redcoats tried to confiscate a cache of weaponsrebels had dedicated to defiance at Concord, Massachusetts, Americans protected those public armaments with their personal guns and knives.
What a divergence from current policing! With a few notable exceptions, cops lust to neutralize us. And that when their own firepower is ever more militarized while the IRS and the Department of Veterans Affairs, inter alia, arm their pencil-pushers against us.
Steeped in libertarian philosophy, Revolutionary Americans understood that “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild[sic], and government to gain ground.“ They didn’t wait for 50 officers to mushroom to 21 million or for unjust law to worsen before rebelling.
Why have we?
— Becky Akers

Bill Foster has failed as our Congressman

0
Bill Foster has failed as our Congressman.
He has failed us in constituent services, he has failed us by supporting irresponsible economic policies, and he has failed us by voting for foreign policy actions that put our safety at risk.
Grades are out – and Bill Foster gets an F in his service to Illinois’ 11th District.
We can’t afford his failed leadership any longer. That’s why I want to represent you in Congress.
I want to go to Washington to focus on improving the quality of life for the residents of our district. I’ll do that by making choices that will improve our economy, promote public safety, and lift people up out of poverty.
Bill Foster has been failing us long enough. It’s time to stand up and take action so that we can get back to improving our local communities here in District 11.
Thank you for your help – I couldn’t do this without you.
– Tonia Khouri

Tonia Khouri achieve Young Gun status in a press release by the National Republican Congressional Committee

June 30, 2016
Contact: Mary Kate Knorr
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tonia Khouri (IL-11) Achieves ‘Young Gun’ Status in NRCC’s Recruitment Program
Young Guns reach the program’s final level by “establishing a clear path to victory,” the NRCC said in a press release yesterday.
(AURORA, IL) – Tonia Khouri (IL-11) was named one of 11 candidates nationally to achieve Young Gun status in a press release by the National Republican Congressional Committee yesterday. This marks a third and final stage in the Committee’s Young Guns program, which aims to support challenger candidates in races nationwide.
“To reach the Young Guns stage of our committee’s recruitment program, candidates must meet our high standards of achievement to ensure a path to victory on Election Day,” said NRCC Chairman Greg Walden. “As a committee, we are working to help elect Republicans to maintain our record-breaking majority in the House of Representatives and further put into action our ideas that will build a more confident America. As the November elections approach, I am confident these candidates will continue to work hard for their communities and put America on a better path.”
Since her primary victory in March, Khouri has wasted no time in hitting her opponent, Congressman Bill Foster, on his failures while in office. Most recently, Khouri publicly pointed out Foster’s preference for divisive, partisan politics and his irresponsible votes on foreign policy action. Khouri has also begun a ‘Talk with Tonia’ district tour, which will give her the opportunity to hear directly from constituents all across the district.
“I am so glad people are recognizing how much we have accomplished on the campaign and how vulnerable Bill Foster is in what should be a safe seat for an incumbent,” said Khouri. “We are working tirelessly to spread the message that Bill Foster has failed us in Congress, and I am confident that district residents will see I’m the right person to represent them in Washington.”
# # #
Khouri for Congress, P.O. Box 9007, Aurora, IL 60598

Rauner signed a stopgap budget/ Who pays

IPI160213asusual
Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a stopgap budget and education funding measure into law late Thursday.
After weeks of struggling to come to an agreement, Republicans and Democrats have settled on Senate Bill 1810, which will fund government operations for the next six months and ensure that schools open on time in the fall.
The overall agreement package does give the city of Chicago the ability to raise property taxes by $250 million to fund teacher pensions (Senate Bill 318) and covers $215 million in Chicago teacher pensions in fiscal year 2017 (Senate Bill 2822). But the package of reforms does not provide the full bailout city officials sought initially. If Chicago politicians want to ignore the city’s dire need for spending and pension reform and instead ask taxpayers to cover more of their recklessness, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago aldermen will have to accept the blame for that decision. And the full burden of funding Chicago pensions won’t be borne by taxpayers across the state – Chicagoans will feel the pain if city officials choose to raise property taxes within less than a year of the city’s record tax hike. The unfortunate truth for Chicago residents is that property taxes will have to more than double to be able to fund the city’s $34 billion in pension debt.
Another important feature of the stopgap plan is that it ensures funding for critical human services, road construction, prison operations and veterans care. The bill also provides $1 billion for higher education, including one semester’s worth of Monetary Award Program grants for low-income students, according to the Chicago Tribune.
With the prospect of another Chicago property-tax hike one step closer to reality and no foundational reforms yet achieved, even a compromise like this one can feel deflating. But the good news is that this plan buys six months to get back to work on the real reforms Illinois needs.
“Let’s be clear,” Gov. Rauner said after the vote. “This is just a small step in the process of making Illinois strong and healthy and vibrant.  This is a small step in the right direction. … This is a bridge to reform.”
“Reforms are essential, and our efforts to get significant reform for the people of Illinois will never cease.”
https://www.facebook.com/illinoispolicy/videos/10153827150148667/?utm_source=Illinois+Policy&utm_campaign=59c0014b89-mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121&ct=t(budget)&goal=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121
 

With this critical fight settled, Illinois must still come to an agreement with its largest state-worker union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is asking for a salary and benefits package that would cost state taxpayers an additional $3 billion. Illinois state workers are already the highest-paid state workers in the country when adjusted for the cost of living. Negotiations are deadlocked until the Illinois Labor Relations Board rules on a request from Rauner to expedite impasse hearings.
Illinois needs a balanced budget for 2017
Until the stopgap compromise, the most recent budget proposal overspent by $7 billion, and ultimately failed in the Senate.
The state can’t endure more of the same – Illinois hasn’t had a truly balanced budget since 2001. Illinois politicians continue to spend more money than the state takes in, driven largely by pension costs, which consume 25 percent of the entire state general fund budget. Tax hikes most certainly won’t fix the problem, as 90 percent of the more than $31 billion Illinois took in between 2011 and 2014 from the 2011 income-tax hike went directly to pensions – and the state still has the worst pension crisis in the nation.
Not all lawmakers are pleased with the General Assembly’s vote. State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said Illinois lawmakers were “knowingly and willingly violating the Constitution.” He also warned that “after the election” taxpayers will see “a massive tax increase.”
https://www.facebook.com/illinoispolicy/videos/10153826670603667/?utm_source=Illinois+Policy&utm_campaign=59c0014b89-mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121&ct=t(budget)&goal=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121

Politicians need to come to terms with the fact that taxpayers are providing more than enough money to fund state operations – tax revenues have grown 70 percent more than inflation over the last 33 years. Illinoisans can’t afford to be squeezed even more.
House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago, who continues to stand firm in his support for funding state-worker pay and benefits over all else, said after the House stopgap vote that Illinois must protect the middle class. “Our work is not finished,” he said.
Problem is, Madigan’s “middle class” doesn’t refer to Illinois’ private-sector workers  – Madigan instead wants the private sector to pay for an additional $3 billion in state-worker salary, health-insurance and pension benefits, even as Illinoisans suffer in a state with the nation’s second-worst jobs recovery.
 
 

 

Even during the floor debate over the stopgap measures, it was clear that despite the bills’ ultimate passage, the stage is being set for more conflict in Springfield, including agitation for the Illinois comptroller to resume paying state lawmakers.
“As legislators we should get paid for the work that we do, and I think it’s wrong for our income to be held for months and months and months,” said state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood.
https://www.facebook.com/illinoispolicy/videos/10153826830328667/?utm_source=Illinois+Policy&utm_campaign=59c0014b89-mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121&ct=t(budget)&goal=0_f3fc33056a-59c0014b89-14585121

Lightford went on to note that the Illinois comptroller should prioritize lawmaker pay because they are “not vendors.” Illinois has $7.8 billion in unpaid bills.Despite the continued discord in Springfield, the passage of Illinois’ stopgap spending plan provides an opportunity to pause, reflect and hit reset – and then get back to work fixing a state in desperate need of repair.

Hilary Gowins
Managing Editor

County Board Members can Cary a gun in the County Building with permission of the chief security officer.

County Board Members can Cary a gun in the County Building with permission of the chief security officer.
 
55ea8dc0-7f7a-4c36-b6fd-48d9b3a2e377-medium
There has been discussion of concealed carry in public buildings in Will County since Steve Balich brought forward a resolution he wrote days before the Orlando murders in June to the legislative committee meeting on the Tuesday after that horrid event.
Since presenting the Resolution a more compelling statute was noted by an Attorney Friend of Balich, Ed Ronkowski. Ed wrote:
As you know, if the Illinois Concealed Carry laws prohibit an Illinois Concealed Carry licensee from knowingly carrying a firearm on or into any building or portion of a building under the control of a unit of local government. As you also know, Illinois Criminal Code prohibits a person to possess on or about his person, upon any public street, alley, or other public lands within the corporate limits of a city, village or incorporated town, except when an invitee thereon or therein, for the purpose of the display of such weapon or the lawful commerce in weapons, or except when on his land or in his own abode, legal dwelling, or fixed place of business, or on the land or in the legal dwelling of another person as an invitee with that person’s permission, any pistol, revolver, stun gun or taser or other firearm.
The law that applies to County Board members came about in the early 1970’s. Back then a DePaul law student who had an Indiana Concealed Carry license and an Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card signed a lease and was living at the DePaul University uptown campus on Clifton Ave. while going to law school. One day Chicago Police Officer moonlighting as a security guard mention to the law student that he let the janitor in the law student’s room to check for a leak. The law student told the security guard that he should not do that without him present because he keeps his .380 Belgium Browning Semiautomatic there (it was registered with the City of Chicago). The guard said that was not allowed. The law student said he had asked his Property Law professor if his DePaul lease allowed him to possess a firearm in his dorm room, and was told “yes”. At the end of the school year the law student moved back home to the suburbs and the University got a law passed the next year that eventually morphed into the current law which says:
“Sec. 21-6. Unauthorized Possession or Storage of Weapons.
(a) Whoever possesses or stores any weapon enumerated in Section 33A-1 in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds or in any building on such land without prior written permission from the chief security officer for such land or building commits a Class A misdemeanor.
(b) The chief security officer must grant any reasonable request for permission under paragraph (a).”
(720 ILCS 5/21-6)
So one does not need a resolution for a County Board Member who has a fixed place of business, the County Building at 302 N. Chicago St., Joliet to possess a firearm on or about their person while at their own fixed place of business. Nor do they need a concealed carry license. Any County Board member who has a FOID license can possess a firearm while at their fixed place of business if they get permission of the chief of security of that property if that fixed place of business is supported with public funds. Of course, those County Board members who get a paycheck to work there who have Illinois Concealed Carry licenses can transport their loaded firearm to their own fixed place of business on their person. All the County Board members need do is find out who the “chief security officer” is for the County Building and get permission. And “chief security officer must grant any reasonable request for permission”.
 
(720 ILCS 5/21-6) (from Ch. 38, par. 21-6) 
    Sec. 21-6. Unauthorized Possession or Storage of Weapons. 
    (a) Whoever possesses or stores any weapon enumerated in Section 33A-1 in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds or in any building on such land without prior written permission from the chief security officer for such land or building commits a Class A misdemeanor. 
    (b) The chief security officer must grant any reasonable request for permission under paragraph (a). 
(Source: P.A. 89-685, eff. 6-1-97.)
——————————————————————————–
 
me Dec 2014
The original Resolution presented by Steve Balich at the Will County Legislative Committee in June:
Where as: There are terrorist attacks happening by the week, County Board/Forest Preserve elected officials are taking votes on issues;
Where as: Some armed security should be present, but it’s unfair to the taxpayer, to pay for sufficient armed security officers at meetings while numerous Will County Board Members/Commissioners have the proper license to carry concealed;
Where as: It’s not the licensed, law-abiding, trusted elected County Board Member/Commissioner  we need to worry about;
Where as:  An exception to Illinois’ weapons ban was carved out for elected or appointed municipal officials in 1872, enabling elected officials to carry firearms, make arrests, interview suspects, and even hold them in custody.
Where as: Public Act 90-0540 and (65 ILCS 5/3.1-15-25) (from Ch. 24, par. 3.1-15-25)
Sec. 3.1-15-25 allow for An Conservator of Peace Designation;
Where as: (60 ILCS 1/100-10) allows for a Township Enforcement Officer appointed by the Township;
Where as: Allowing Elected Will County Board Members/ Forest Preserve Commissioners  with current concealed carry permits the ability to help in securing the safety of everyone at no cost to the taxpayer;
Therefore:  We Do Resolve: Properly licensed Will County Board Members/Forest Preserve Commissioners should be allowed to exercise their right to carry concealed firearms in the County /Froest Preserve properties either by Resolution or Ordinance.
b657c619-0d89-401b-96f3-b768ae36eb61-medium
Statutes backing up original Resolution:
‘Conservator of the peace’
The Conservator of the Peace title is still used in the USA. For example, in Virginia, Special Conservators of the Peace have all the powers of a peace officer or law enforcement and are authorized to perform arrests, carry firearms as part of their duties, direct traffic, use a police logo on their uniform and utilize police style lights on their vehicles. They operate on public property such as court houses, parks and open spaces, housing developments, etc
The Illinois’ weapons ban was carved out for elected or appointed municipal officials in 1872, enabling them to carry firearms, make arrests and interview suspects, and even hold them in custody.
While state law does not offer an exact definition of the term, it generally refers to an official whose primary employment is not as a police officer.
(65 ILCS 5/3.1-15-25) (from Ch. 24, par. 3.1-15-25)
    Sec. 3.1-15-25.  Conservators of the  peace;  service  of
warrants.
    (a)  After  receiving  a  certificate  attesting  to  the
successful  completion  of  a training course administered by
the Illinois Law Enforcement Training  Standards  Board,  the
mayor,   aldermen,   president,   trustees,  marshal,  deputy
marshals,  and   policemen   in   municipalities   shall   be
conservators   of   the  peace.   Those  persons  and  others
authorized by ordinance shall have power  (i)  to  arrest  or
cause  to  be  arrested, with or without process, all persons
who break the peace or  are  found  violating  any  municipal
ordinance  or  any  criminal law of the State, (ii) to commit
arrested persons for  examination,  (iii)  if  necessary,  to
detain  arrested  persons  in custody over night or Sunday in
any safe place or until they can be brought before the proper
court, and (iv) to exercise all other powers as  conservators
of the peace prescribed by the corporate authorities.
(b)  All   warrants   for   the  violation  of  municipal
ordinances or the State criminal law, directed to any person,
may  be  served  and  executed  within  the   limits   of   a
municipality by any policeman or marshal of the municipality.
For  that purpose, policemen and marshals have all the common
law and statutory powers of sheriffs.
(Source: P.A. 87-1119.)
 
Public Act 90-0540
(70 ILCS 1205/4-7) (from Ch. 105, par. 4-7)
Sec.  4-7.   Employees;  police  force.  The board of any
park district may employ  engineers,  attorneys,  clerks  and
other   employees,  including  a  police  force,  as  may  be
required, and  may  define  and  prescribe  their  respective
duties  and  compensation.    After  receiving  a certificate
attesting to the successful completion of a  training  course
administered   by   the  Illinois  Law  Enforcement  Training
Standards Board, the members of the  board  and  all  police
officers  appointed by the board shall be conservators of the
peace within and upon the parks, boulevards,  driveways,  and
property  controlled  by  that  park district, and shall have
power to make arrests subject to the provisions of  the  Park
District Police Act. The exercise of such authority shall not
permit  the  possession  or use of firearms by members of the
board. (Members of the Board must have the certificate to Carry)
(Source: P.A. 89-458, eff. 5-24-96.)
 
 
Township constable/Enforcement Officer  is an appointed position
(60 ILCS 1/100-10)
Sec. 100-10. Township enforcement officer.
(a) The township board may appoint one or more township enforcement officers to serve for a term of one year and may remove an officer with or without cause. Every person appointed to the office of township enforcement officer, before entering on the duties of the office and within 10 days after being notified of the appointment, shall cause to be filed in the office of the township clerk a notice signifying his or her acceptance of the office. A neglect to cause the notice to be filed shall be deemed a refusal to serve.
(b) The sheriff of the county in which the township is situated may disapprove any such appointment within 30 days after the notice is filed. The disapproval precludes that person from serving as a township enforcement officer, and the township board may appoint another person to that position subject to approval by the sheriff.
(c) Every person appointed to the office of township enforcement officer, before entering upon the duties of the office, shall execute, with sufficient sureties to be approved by the supervisor or clerk of the township, an instrument in writing by which the township enforcement officer and his or her sureties shall jointly and severally agree to pay to each and every person who may be entitled thereto all sums of money as the township enforcement officer may become liable to pay on account of any neglect or default of the township enforcement officer or on account of any misfeasance of the township enforcement officer in the discharge of, or failure to faithfully perform, any of the duties of the office.
    (d) The township enforcement officers shall have the same power and authority within the township as a deputy sheriff but only for the purpose of enforcing township ordinances. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Section, township enforcement officers are authorized to enforce county ordinances within areas of a county located within the township pursuant to intergovernmental agreements between the respective county and township to the extent authorized by the agreement. The township enforcement officer shall not carry firearms and will not be required to comply with the Peace Officer and Probation Officer Firearm Training Act. The officer shall attend law enforcement training classes conducted by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board. The township board shall appropriate all necessary monies for the training.
(d-5) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, in all actions for the violation of any township ordinance, township enforcement officers shall be authorized to issue and to serve upon any person who the township enforcement officer has reasonable grounds to believe is guilty of a violation of a township ordinance a notice of violation that shall constitute a summons and complaint. A copy of such notice of violation shall be forwarded to the circuit court having jurisdiction over the township where the violation is alleged to have been committed. Every person who has been issued a summons shall appear for trial, and the action shall be prosecuted in the corporate name of the township. Enforcement of county ordinances shall be in accordance with procedures adopted by the county and any applicable State law.
(2) In all actions for violation of any township ordinance when the fine would not be in excess of $500 and no jail term could be imposed, service of summons may be made by the township clerk by certified mail, return receipt requested, whether service is to be within or without the State.
(e) The township enforcement officers shall carry identification documents provided by the township board identifying him or her as a township enforcement officer. The officers shall notify the township clerk of any violations of township ordinances.
(f) Nothing in this Code precludes a county auxiliary deputy or deputy sheriff, or a municipal policeman or auxiliary police officer from serving as a township enforcement officer during off-duty hours.
(g) The township board may provide compensation for the township enforcement officer on either a per diem or a salary basis.
 

Letter to the editor Concerning Homer Township Assessor

0

taxpayer sign
Although the assessor’s office presents itself like it’s some kind of secret society, in reality its function is quite simple. The office is responsible for putting a value on property and the skill sets required to be an assessor is on par with a real estate appraiser. In Will County, the township assessor is responsible for appraising all of the property in its jurisdiction once every 3 years along with managing individual tax appeals. The office is autonomous and any pressure from other politicians in Will County or the State of IL to influence property values must be ignored.
I am going to make the assumption that Assessor Szynkowski’s silence to our inquiry about her department’s spending is her way of telling me to go away, so I decided to compare Homer Township to 5 other townships in Will County. I have attached a spread sheet that gives us a snapshot of the financial performance each assessor office. I used the audited financials of New Lenox, Wheatland, Plainfield, Joliet and Lockport Townships from the FY 2014-2015 along with the 2010 census report for the population numbers and housing units in each township.
I wish I could tell you that Homer Township is a lean, mean productive machine that is serving the public at the highest levels, but the numbers say otherwise. Homer has the smallest population and number of housing units, yet our assessor office pays the highest salaries. Many of the townships in Will County have almost twice the number of housing units and their office is able to deliver services at lower salaries than Homer. Once you add in the operating costs of the department, Homer ranks third in total spending behind Joliet and Wheatland Townships. Both of those townships have twice the population and housing units.
In order to really understand how much of a premium we pay for the assessor’s office, I broke down the data by cost per housing unit, resident and assessment.
As you can see, Homer is substantially higher across the board. The most disturbing number to me is the cost per assessment. The assessments per year number is generated by taking one third of the total housing units in each township. The number does not include any of the appeals. If you consider we have the smallest number of housing units (which means fewer appeals) and we do not have a large number of commercial properties to assess (which are more complex and time consuming) the assessor’s office performance is totally unacceptable. What is so special about Homer Township that we pay over $30 per assessment more than other townships?
As a citizen and taxpayer of Homer Township, it really is depressing to see how our trusted politicians misspend our money and mismanage our township. Homer Township’s cost structure should be about the same as New Lenox Township. Assessor Szynkowski has been in the assessor’s office since 1990. She has been the township assessor since 2001. She is the President of the Will County Assessor’s Association. It’s not like she is incompetent. She knows exactly what she is doing.
Where are our trustees? Why aren’t they asking questions? Where is Supervisor Meyers? Is she too busy trying to build the perfect dog park to look into a patronage racket running right under her nose? The town board has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers, yet they approve the Assessor’s budget every year. Do the math. All of the assessor’s office revenue is property tax generated. In this one fiscal year, Homer’s cost is $137,000 more than New Lenox. This is happening every year. What is the total cost to the taxpayer over the last 15 years? One million dollars? Maybe more?
This has to stop. Elections are coming up. Last election, Assessor Szynkowski ran unopposed. Supervisor Meyers ran unopposed. 5 citizens stepped up to run for 4 trustee seats in the Republican primary. No Democrats bothered to run in the general election. We can’t have this. Anybody out there interested in community service? Assessor? Supervisor? Clerk? Trustee? Send me a PM.
Assessor Department Comparisons FY 2014 -2015 Township Population Salaries Total w/ Expenses Housing units

Portable Document Format

 

Illinois State Rifle Association EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

Letterhead
 7782e8f9-06f0-42ed-97f5-ad16b3db321c-original Guns and Freedom

ISRA Thursday Bulletin – June 30, 2016

 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
Last week the political pundits, the news media and other big government lovers got a wakeup call they were not expecting, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union (EU). The “BREXIT” forces, tired of seeing their country nibbled away by the EU, pulled out a victory despite the odds.  The main purpose is the EU was to make sure the “Political Class” stayed in power.  This included everyone from the five Presidents of the EU, to the lowest well paid bureaucrats, governing how long your toaster could toast to how hot you were allowed to have your curling iron (no I’m not kidding).  Such useless nonproductive nonsense of course, gives those who do work a crushing tax burden.  I wonder what EU bureaucrats tell their grandchildren when they are asked “What did you do in the great EU government, grandpa?”  “Why, I worked in the very important and prestigious toaster control department!”  Yuk.
Despite the fact that the big government lovers are trying to play down the “BREXIT” vote, people all over Europe are seeing what the Brits did and now there are similar movements in France, Hungry, Holland, Spain and Sweden.  The “BREXIT” movement is related to what is going on in the United States.  We too are seeing our sovereignty and freedoms whittled away by nameless unaccountable bureaucrats who smugly go to their cubical each day until their public pension comes.  The Second Amendment suffers at the hand of bureaucrats also in all kinds of mysterious ways.  All this plays into what is happening in the 2016 General Election campaign.
An example of what happens when the “Political Class” does not get their way occurred in the U. S. House of Representatives last week when a group of Democrats staged a sit in over “gun control”.  They hate the fact that our refugee, immigration and national security policies were called into question over the failures leading up to the shootings in Orlando.  They do not want to talk about that.  They want to change the narrative to the long hoped for goal of draconian gun control for law abiding citizens.  We will see more of these efforts before November.  Be prepared.
June 28th was the second anniversary of the new ISIS Caliphate.  To celebrate in typical terrorist fashion, Islamic radicals attacked the airport in Istanbul, Turkey, killing and wounding dozens.  If you will recall, Turkey dismantled the old Caliphate in 1926.  I don’t have any idea if the attack on Turkey has anything to do with their actions in 1926, but it is certainly a possibility.  I heard today that the reason for this attack is because radical Islam it losing ground and they are disparate; I don’t think so.  ISIS territory may be shrinking in Syria and Iraq but it is increasing in other places on the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa –  a fact some of our leaders seem to overlook.  (You know if there were an “overlooking” contest in the Olympic Games, the American bureaucrats would bring home the gold every time).  This is Ramadan, so I am sure we will see more attacks, maybe some here in the USA.  I don’t think Islamic radicals are a JV team.  I think our problem is we have a JV President.
Summer has just begun but I am already getting advertisements on tree stands, boots, hunting clothing, ammunition and every conceivable gadget for hunting you can imagine. It is hard to believe hunting season is coming soon.  In central Illinois, the wheat harvest is underway and I have watched flights of dove swooping over the harvested wheat fields looking for any leftover morsels.  Pre-hunting season sales may have a few good bargains this year.  Be on the lookout.
Next week is the 4th of July so show everyone that you are a proud American by flying the flag.  As a bonus you get to irritate a few jello spined politically correct organisms at the same time!

RECENT POSTS