Daily Archive : Tuesday September Five, 2017
By JOE McDONALD
China has the economic instruments to pressure North Korea but fears pushing Kim Jong Un’s government so hard it collapses
The Associated Press
A petite Ohio news organization says one of its employees has been shot by a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop
By The Associated Press
Today in History
Sports
The Associated Press
NFL seeks dismissal of Ezekiel Elliott’s challenge to 6-game ban
By THOMAS NAYLER
With Wayne Rooney retired from international soccer, it seems that England may have another hot-headed No. Ten to pack the void
Business
Very first let me embark out by stating that sales is an honorable profession, one of which I have been a member and have loved my entire working life. Unluckily, not everyone sees it that way.
Life & Entertainment
Discuss
By Gov. Bruce RaunerGuest columnistThe bipartisan education reform bill I signed into law last week marks a historic moment for our state and our schoolchildren. Illinois now has a more equitable funding structure that provides all children with the chance for quality education, regardless of their family’s income. This historic accomplishment represents, for me, the reason why I ran for governor in the very first place. Diana and I have spent decades improving education in Illinois. We believe education is the most significant social responsibility we have as a community, and we have dedicated ourselves to supporting teacher training, principal development, and early childhood education.After years of work and charitable investment, I realized that the reforms needed to improve Illinois education could not be achieved from the outside. I ran for governor to develop policies and structures that provide better education for our schoolchildren across Illinois.Our administration came into office with an ambitious agenda for education, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. State funding of public schools has enlargened by over $1 billion under our administration. We have enlargened funding for early childhood education to its highest levels ever. Through the Every Student Succeeds Act, Illinois now has one of the most rigorous student accountability plans in the country. Under the leadership of Secretary of Education Beth Purvis, we established the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission: a bipartisan committee brought together to advise the General Assembly on ways to reform the cracked school funding system. Democrats and Republicans alike have recognized that our school funding formula was violated for decades, but our administration took on this challenge. The fresh evidence-based school funding formula acknowledges that it takes more money to educate children who live in under-resourced communities and assures that fresh state dollars are distributed equitably. At the same time, it holds all eight hundred fifty two school districts harmless from cuts in state support and presents avenues for property tax ease for homeowners. After years of being 49th among states for state support of education, Illinois is now poised to fulfill our obligations to our children regardless of race, income or geography. While the process has taken partisan turns over the past few months, in the end we arrived at a true compromise that not only overhauled the funding formula for Illinois schools, but enacted other historic reforms. School administrators and school boards will have plasticity and ease from unfounded mandates. Charter school parents will no longer have to fight for equitable funding for their children. And parents of limited means who believe that a private or religious school is the best fit for their child will have access to scholarships through a tax credit program. All Illinoisans should be proud that we seized the chance to create this lasting switch for our state’s schoolchildren. I applaud our team and lawmakers for finding the balance that is right for Illinois, and I am honored to have been able to sign this bill into law.Eventually, this compromise is proof of what we can accomplish as a state when we work together. The bill signing last week brought together people and lawmakers from all walks of life, and I hope we can proceed down this path of finding thoughtful bipartisan solutions for our state.Bruce Rauner is Republican governor of Illinois.
By Michael Gerson
PHOENIX — We know that Donald Trump is a virtuoso at the politics of resentment. But does he lead a movement? That is the question to be tested in next year’s Republican Senate primary in Arizona. Pro-Trump compels are wiping the drool off their ties while contemplating a abasing primary defeat for Trump critic Jeff Flake — the Republican incumbent whom Trump reportedly calls “the flake.” (I suspect that Flake has heard that taunt before, but not since third-grade recess.) Professional Trump sycophants Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have endorsed a Republican challenger to Flake named Kelli Ward. Trump moneyman Robert Mercer has already donated $300,000 to Ward’s campaign. And Trump himself implicitly endorsed Ward on Twitter last month, while labeling Flake as “toxic.” Latest polling seems to justify a belief in Flake’s vulnerability. Among likely Republican voters, Ward wins a head-to-head with Flake by dual digits. All this would be deeply disturbing for establishment Republicans — if it were not mostly rubbish. Polling a year away from a primary has as much predictive power as a tarot pack. The most significant factors determining the outcome are entirely contingent. A year hence, Trump could be a vengeful political colossus or headed toward impeachment; America could be at war or at peace; the economy could be in depression or railing a boom. So far, Flake has reason to be pleased with outside interventions in the race. Trump compels in Arizona have not yet lodged on Ward — very inexperienced and gaffe-prone — as their candidate. (“She is not a buffoon,” one close observer of Arizona politics told me, “but she says buffoonish things.”) Outside endorsements of Ward have come as state Treasurer Jeff DeWit and former party chair Robert Graham are discussing which of them might come in the race as a Ward alternative. And Trump himself has since backed off his apparent endorsement of Ward. When Trump visited Phoenix a few weeks ago, he had a backstage meeting with DeWit and Graham. Ward was not invited.Graham would most likely be a stronger candidate than DeWit, who has even less political practice than Ward. Graham gained Trump’s confidence by defending him during the “Access Hollywood” scandal. (True-blue, bona fide Trump loyalists are evidently defined by their preparedness to disregard boasting about sexual onslaught.) But for a Trump challenge to Flake to run slickly, Graham or DeWit would need to persuade the independent-minded Ward to leave the race. (Recently pardoned octogenarian Joe Arpaio — who lost his last election decisively — likes to talk about running but is not a serious possibility.) Even if Arizona Trumpites lodge on a single candidate, it is not clear what support from “Trump compels” indeed means. Does a Trump endorsement bring buckets of money? Does it bring organizational help? Trump organizers were skinny on the ground even during his own campaign. And the power of presidential tweets to help people other than Trump is untested. Can Trump actually go after through on his political threats without the normal architecture of a political movement?
A Schaumburg letter to the editor: In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, 20-plus Texas Republican senators and congressmen voted against federal aid to help Fresh Jersey recover under the guise of excess spending.
A Climb on Prospect letter to the editor: It sickens me to read all the stories about the Southern statues being ripped down.