KNOW WHERE YOUR TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING

Rep. Luis Arroyo (D)

RepDistrict3@gmail.com

3rd Representative District

2008 District Spending Report

2008 Total Expended: $68,866.00

2008 Available Balance: $543.00

2009 District Spending Report

2009 Total Expended: $69,404.45

2009 Available Balance: $4.55

Provided by the Illinois House District Accounting System

2010 Base Salary: $64,717.08
2010 “Bonus” Pay: $9,852.12
2010 Total Salary Paid: $74,569.20
Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller
 

2008 Salary: $66,594.48

2009 Salary: $76,366.08

2007 Mileage Funds Received: $4,955.67

2007 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $11,536.00

2008 Mileage Funds Received: $4,052.16

2008 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $6,966.00

2009 Mileage Funds Received: $4,118.49

2009 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $7,920.00
2010 Mileage Funds Received: $3,075.30
2010 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $6,936.00

Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller

2003 – 2008 Rep. Selected: Scholarship Recipients

Provided by the Illinois State Board of Education

Qualifying District Address:

2444 N. Nordica Ave; Chicago, Illinois 60707

Property Index Number (PIN): 13-30-325-010-0000

Assessor Estimated 2010 Market Value: $345,280.00

2009 Property Taxes: $4,462.57
Board of Review: No Appeal on File for 2008, 2009, or 2010 

National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI) Tax Survey Score [95th G.A.]: 23% ( / 100%)
Taxpayers United of America (TUA) Tax Survey Score [96th G.A.]: 0% ( / 100%)
For the Good of Illinois Record Scorecard [96th and 97th G.A.'s]: 10% ( / 100%)

Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford (D)

Westchester

4th State Senate District

2009 District Spending Report

2009 Total Expended: $83,061.80

2009 Available Balance: $1.20

2010 District Spending Report

2010 Total Expended: $79,611.37

2010 Available Balance: $3,451.63

Provided by the Illinois Senate Operations Accounting System
 

2010 Base Salary: $64,717.08
2010 “Bonus” Pay: $19,699.68
2010 Total Salary Paid: $84,416.76
Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller

2008 Salary: $76,731.96

2009 Salary: $86,450.88
2006 Mileage Funds Received: $1,537.92 

2007 Mileage Funds Received: $2,182.68

2008 Mileage Funds Received: $1,037.64
2009 Mileage Funds Received: $1,699.50
2010 Mileage Funds Received: $947.60
2006 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $5,070.00 
2007 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $10,899.00
2008 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $5,418.00
2009 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $8,712.00
2010 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $7,075.00
Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller
  

1983 – 2010 Senator Selected: Scholarship Recipients

Provided by the Illinois State Board of Education

2010 District Office Lease: $950.00/month = $11,400.00/year

2010 LPU Abuse: 
13,500 Brochures and 1,000 Postcards
Taxpayer Production Cost: $2,975.97 for Labor, Materials and Paper
Taxpayer Postage/Mailing Cost: TBD

National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI) Tax Survey Score [95th G.A.]: 8% ( / 100%)
Taxpayers United of America (TUA) Tax Survey Score [96th G.A.]: 0% ( / 100%)
For the Good of Illinois Record Scorecard [96th and 97th G.A.'s]: 9% ( / 100%)

Qualifying District Address:

2110 South 6^th Avenue; Maywood, Illinois 60153

Property Index Number (PIN): 15-14-326-031-0000

Assessor Estimated 2010 Market Value: $308,410.00          

2009 Property Taxes [Paid in 2010]: $11,127.60

Board of Review (BOR) Appeal: 2009 Real Estate Assessed Valuation Complaint

Board of Review (BOR) Analyst: Joey Berrios

Board of Review (BOR) Commissioner: Joseph Berrios

Result: Assessment Reduction
Purchase Price: $329,000.00 [in 2006]

Commentary: Did the Illinois Dream Act (SB 2185 - 97th G.A.) create sanctuary for those volunteers that will run the Illinois DREAM Act commission fund from being prosecuted under federal law...? 

Rep. Cynthia Soto (D)

csoto@ilga.gov

4th Representative District

2008 District Spending Report

2008 Total Expended: $69,408.90

2008 Available Balance: $0.10

2009 District Spending Report
2009 Total Expended: $68,946.11

2009 Available Balance: $462.89

Provided by the Illinois House District Accounting System
 

2010 Base Salary: $64,717.08
2010 “Bonus” Pay: $9,852.12
2010 Total Salary Paid: $74,569.20
Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller

2008 Salary: $76,731.96

2009 Salary: $76,366.08 

2007 Mileage Funds Received: $283.00

2007 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $11,536.00

2008 Mileage Funds Received: $586.00

2008 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $6,837.00

2009 Mileage Funds Received: $447.00

2009 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $8,052.00 

2010 Mileage Funds Received: $300.00

2010 Per Diem/Lodging Funds Received: $7,492.00

Provided by the Illinois Office of the Comptroller

 

2003 – 2008 Rep. Selected: Scholarship Recipients

Provided by the Illinois State Board of Education

Qualifying District Address:

1523 W. Ohio Street; Chicago, Illinois 60642-6103

Property Index Number (PIN): 17-08-121-013-0000

Assessor Estimated 2010 Market Value: $472,320.00

2009 Property Taxes: $6,439.72
Board of Review (BOR) Appeal: 2008 Real Estate Assessed Valuation Complaint
Board of Review (BOR) Commissioner: Joseph Berrios
Legal Representation: None

Article: [Senator] and state Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago), who heads the House Mass Transit Committee, will hold hearings this summer “on the efficiency of Metra,” he said...

For the Good of Illinois Record Scorecard [96th and 97th G.A.'s]: 10% ( / 100%)  

National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI) Tax Survey Score [95^th G.A.]: 15% ( / 100%)

Mexican military chopper fires on American citizens is true

We first saw the report on Facebook and started the verify if it was true. CNN,  MSNBC, US TODAY and THE RIELY FACTOR all broke with it. So we launched our reporters in to the area and this what was reported.

Mexican military chopper flew into Arizona and shot at border agents before officers phoned to 'apologize'

Authorities said the Mexican military helicopter fired two shots over Tohono O'odham Indian Nation in the Arizona desert near the border, before flying back to Mexico
The Mexican chopper was involved in an anti-drug smuggling operation
Two US agents in the Arizona desert were shot at but not injured
US authorities are investigating
A Mexican military helicopter involved in an anti-drug smuggling operation flew into America before shooting at two US Border Patrol agents yesterday.

KVOA-TV reported the chopper fired over Tohono O’odham Indian Nation in the Arizona desert, before flying back to Mexico early Thursday morning. The agents were not injured.

Border Patrol Tucson Sector union president Art del Cueto said Mexican officials 'contacted US authorities and apologized for the incident' which occurred between midnight and 6am.

He said the incident was under investigation.

Sebastián Galván, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Tucson, told AP the office was gathering information but did not have any details yet.

This was not the first time the Mexican military has veered across the international boundary.

Supreme Court ruled Obama violated the constitution

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court dealt a blow to the powers of the presidency Thursday, ruling decisively that President Obama violated the Constitution by going around the Senate to name key labor and financial watchdogs.

Resolving a longstanding battle between the two other branches of government, the justices declared invalid key "recess appointments" made by Obama in 2012.
But the majority opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer did not go further and strike down most other methods by which presidents fill key jobs when the Senate is unavailable. While the ruling as it affects Obama's appointments was unanimous, four conservative justices would have applied the restriction far more broadly.
Instead, the court stopped short of limiting such appointments to remote periods and circumstances, as a federal appeals court had ruled last year. Still, it nullified actions Obama took while the Senate was holding "pro-forma" sessions every three days for the specific purpose of preventing such executive actions.
"Because the Senate was in session during its pro forma sessions, the president made the recess appointments before us during a break too short to count as recess," Breyer said. "For that reason, the appointments are invalid."
Cast in the hyper-political environment of 2014, the battle pit Obama's brazen appointments against Senate Republicans' unprecedented efforts to block or delay his nominations. It lost its immediate relevance last fall when Democrats changed the Senate's rules to deprive the Republican minority of its ability to block nominations.
If Republicans take control of the Senate in November, however -- and whenever the White House and Senate are controlled by opposite parties -- the high court's ruling will prevent presidents from sidestepping the Constitution's confirmation process during such three-day recesses.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the remaining four justices that a president's recess appointments power should be limited far more than the court allowed, because the Senate always can be called back into session to confirm nominees.
"The majority practically bends over backward to ensure that recess appointments will remain a powerful weapon in the president's arsenal," he said. "That is unfortunate, because the recess appointment power is an anachronism."
After enduring three years of Republican obstruction, Obama opened 2012 by naming three members to the quorum-starved National Labor Relations Board and the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while the Senate was gaveling in and out every 72 hours, usually without conducting any business.
Obama said the Senate, for all intents and purposes, was in recess. Under the Constitution, presidents can fill vacancies during recesses for up to two years without Senate confirmation.
Enter Pepsi bottler Noel Canning of Yakima, Wash., which contested a 2012 decision of the labor board dominated by Obama's recess appointees. It won more than it bargained for at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which ruled that such appointments are constitutional only when vacancies occur and are filled during the annual break between congressional sessions.
The high court's ruling means that hundreds of decisions made by the labor board while dominated by Obama's recess appointees in 2012 and half of 2013 will be called into question. The new five-member board, including four members since approved by the Senate, will have to revisit those cases. Consumer protection chief Richard Cordray has since been confirmed by the Senate, so he can reaffirm his prior actions.
Ronald Reagan made 232 recess appointments during his eight years in office. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush each made well more than 100. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt made more than 160 recess appointments during one short break between congressional sessions.
To date, Obama has made only 32 recess appointments. But in this case, he did so to get around the Senate's intransigence rather than its absence -- something both liberal and conservative justices frowned upon during oral arguments in January.
The recess appointments power was more pertinent when senators left town on "horseback," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said at the time.

CHP chase ends deadly

Police Shoot and kill a women

A woman was killed by Metro police early Wednesday morning at the Manor Suites on Warm Springs and Las Vegas Boulevard shortly after midnight.

Police responded to multiple calls about a woman with a knife in the apartment complex.

When the officers arrived they saw a woman on a second story balcony with a knife in her hand.

According to Metro, the woman was seen slashing the window screen with the knife and did not follow officers commands.

As officers approached the woman, she went inside the apartment through the window, two officers followed her and found the female suspect standing over another woman stabbing her.

One officer discharged a firearm, the suspect was hit several times and then ran into the bathroom where she locked the door.

Once officers gained entry, they took the female suspect into custody.

She was then transported to the hospital where she died.

There were three small children in the apartment along with the woman who was being stabbed.

The victim's injuries were not life-threatening and she was not taken to the hospital.

The children are now in protective custody.

No word on the relation between the female suspect and the victim.

FOX5 will continue to follow this developing story and will update information as it becomes available.

President Obama used Drones to kill Americans now revealed

WASHINGTON -- The United States can use lethal force against a U.S. citizen overseas if that person is part of an enemy organization seeking to attack the U.S., according to a once-secret memo released Monday.
The 2011 killing of one such American -- al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki -- was justified because it was carried out under applicable laws of war, the memo said.
The Obama administration document became public under a court order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times.
"The release of this memo represents an overdue but nonetheless crucial step towards transparency," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. "There are few questions more important than the question of when the government has the authority to kill its own citizens."

In the memo dated July 16, 2010, then-Acting Assistant Attorney General David Barron wrote that "the U.S. citizen in question has gone overseas and become part of the forces of an enemy with which the United States is engaged in an armed conflict."

In addition, the target of the drone strike "is engaged in continual planning and direction of attacks upon U.S. persons from one of the enemy's overseas bases of operations," Barron wrote.

The drone strike that killed al-Awlaki came in September of 2011. Two other Americans also died in the attack, including al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son; the government said they were not targeted.

The 41-page document included redactions that the government said involved national security secrets.

Jaffer said the ACLU and others would continue pursuing documents about the uses of drones.

"The drone program has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, including countless innocent bystanders," he said. "But the American public knows scandalously little about who is being killed and why."

3 people injured along with the driver who was told by police the cracker jack box drivers license wasn't a real one

CRESTWOOD, Ill.  -- Four people were injured when the car they were riding in rolled over into a creek in southwest suburban Crestwood. All are expected to be OK.

Emergency crews had to extricate at least one of the victims from the vehicle that landed upside down in the creek at Playfield Park.

"Four kids in a car. (It) was rolled over in the creek. Extrication was needed on one. We were able to get three out right away and the fourth person was trapped in the vehicle. We used the jaws of life and got her out of the vehicle," Crestwood Fire Chief Jon Bruce said.

All four were transported to Christ Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Illinois tax grabber fuck you in the ass with no lube breaks law

A reader reached out with this and some photos. 

Pictures taken on I 55 and the 90 94 Wisconsin ramps. It is a legislation plate letter Q on a Nissan convertible. If you look you see a state elected ed official driving while on his phone with out a hands free device.  This is the second politician I caught but the first I photographed.

I must say this to those stupid idiots who write laws.
Do you ever follow the laws you pass.
This is now how we are going to get you.

I encourage anyone with a camera to look for Illinois politicians breaking laws. And submit them here.

Rams football player caught in cross fire

A former Rams player has been caught in the crossfire overnight in North St. Louis.  Around midnight at Lillian and Kingshighway,  someone shot at another car and the cab that the former player was in was hit, along with a Metro bus.  The former Ram was hit by broken glass from a bullet that hit the cab but he was not hurt.  It is believed that he was the only passenger in the cab.  He has not been identified.

There were no passengers on the Metro bus.

The driver says she heard a series of shots, slammed on the breaks and hit the floor.  According to police, a car was turning onto Southbound Kingshighway from Lillian when shots were fired at the car.  Police aren’t certain if the shots came from another car or someone on the street.  Investigators say a 30-year-old black male was hit in the back.  He was taken to the hospital by another person in the car with him.  He is listed in critical but stable condition.  It is unclear if the car was targeted or if it was a random attack.

Police have no suspects.

Armed monkeys shoot police

Two South Side chimps caught stealing fire plugs off the street

Two Chicago men face felony charges after they were caught trying to steal fire hydrants Saturday morning in the Gresham neighborhood, prosecutors said today.

Ned D. Carradine, 50, and Russell L. Mack, 51, each face criminal damage to government property and theft of government property charges in connection to the incident, which took place in the 8500 block of South Loomis Boulevard, according to Cook County court records.

Police responded to a theft in progress call and found Carradine, a South Shore resident, and Mack, of Longwood Manor, in the process of attempting to put one of the hydrants in a vehicle, according to court records.

The two already had “unauthorized control” of a second hydrants, court records state.

One hydrant had been disassembled to fit it into the vehicle, according to court records.

Carradine, of the 7400 block of South Merrill Avenue, and Mack, of the 9700 block of South Emerald Avenue, were each ordered release on their own recognizance Sunday at Cook County Bond Court.