Hope & History Rhyme

The Stranczeks get their visit from the “G”.  On Casual Wednesday, Crestwood Mayor Robert Stranczek addresses the media as federal investigators ransack his office.

By NATHANIEL ZIMMER

The SouthtownStar

Agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement division executed a federal search warrant today at Crestwood’s village hall and public works department in connection with the village’s use of a tainted well to supplement its drinking water supply.

A total of 15 EPA agents, state police investigators and members of the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigative service unit arrived at 9 a.m. and combed village offices for records until sometime around 5 p.m.

Speaking in the vestibule of village hall, EPA Special Agent in Charge Randall Ashe said the agents were searching for “any evidence of crimes that may have occurred.”

By DAN BALZ

washingtonpost.com

When he began his campaign for the White House two years ago, President Obama acknowledged that he had not been in Washington very long, but at least long enough to know it needed to change. At his press conference Wednesday night marking his 100th day in office, Obama showed how Washington has begun to change him.

The Obama who appeared before the press in the East Room was no less confident than the candidate who decided to take one half of the best brand in the Democratic Party — Hillary Rodham Clinton. From Chrysler to Pakistan, Obama expressed confidence that he could handle the toughest problems thrown his way.

But on one area, he admitted frustration in not making more progress. The political culture of Washington, he said, has been harder to crack apart than he had imagined. He said he hasn’t given up, but he certainly seems to have redefined the terms by which he will judge success. Bipartisanship, as his top advisers have been saying lately, will no longer be defined by how many Republican votes he gets for his programs.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/30/changing_washington_proves_har.html?hpid=topnews

Chrysler files Chapter 11 and allies itself with Fiat to make the world’s worst cars

By JOSH MITCHELL and HENRY J. PULIZZI

The Wall Street Journal

Chrysler LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York Thursday, kicking off what the Obama administration predicts will be a 30- to 60-day restructuring of the third-largest U.S. auto maker.

At the same time, Chrysler entered into a partnership with Italian auto maker Fiat SpA, Mr. Obama said in a noon address. Mr. Obama said the partnership would not only let Chrysler survive “but to thrive.”

 The U.S. government will provide up to an additional $8 billion in aid, including up to $3.5 billion in so-called debtor-in-possession financing, to ensure Chrysler survives the historic reorganization process.

The administration had hoped to keep the car maker out of court but decided it was the only option after a deal to cut the company’s debt was rejected late Wednesday by several of the company’s lenders, a senior administration official said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124109550079373043.html

Illinois Reform Commission Chair, Patrick Collins lobbied for his report’s recommendations at the City Club of Chicago yesterday and made an awkward reference to Governor Patrick Quinn’s cutback amendment, which made Michael Madigan more powerful than God, according to MONIQUE GARCIA and ASHLEY RUEFF in the Chicago Tribune.

The head of a panel charged with suggesting ways to stop state government corruption challenged rank-and-file lawmakers Wednesday to stop seeking political cover from powerful legislative leaders and instead answer to those who elected them.

Patrick Collins, chair of the Illinois Reform Commission, said the responsibility to ensure reform measures are approved this year doesn’t fall just on House Speaker Michael Madigan or Senate President John Cullerton.

“There’s 177 legislators in the House and Senate,” Collins told the City Club of Chicago. “They should not be able to say, ‘Oh, I was for it, but the speaker wouldn’t put it to a vote.’ That’s what they say. We shouldn’t let them say that anymore.

“We should get people in there who will take a position and vote, or we should shrink the legislature even further,” he added.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-illinois-reform-30apr30,0,1247730.story

Puffs of black smoke are being sighted from the budget conclave in Springfield.  Governor Quinn is holding up mass transit funding from an already approved “mini capital bill” that is seen as a good faith payment while a $26 billion capital plan is being negotiated.

 Conspiracy theories abound that one of the negotiators would rather work with his daughter in two years on a capital bill instead of giving her future opponent a major victory.  JON HILKEVITCH and RICHARD WRONSKI with RAY LONG and ASHLEY RUEFF report for the World’s Greatest Bankrupt Newspaper:

Gov. Pat Quinn put a freeze on the transit projects — but not on road and bridge repairs — by holding back on the bonding necessary to finance the transit piece, said state Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

About $900 million of the state funding is pegged for the Chicago area. Transit projects include replacing old CTA tracks, buying new buses for the CTA and Pace, and getting new cars for Metra’s Electric District Line.

Sandoval said word of the funding delay came from Jack Lavin, Quinn’s chief operating officer, and budget chief Ginger Ostro. He said the three transit agencies were ordered to not commit any money and to stop all planning for the projects.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-transit-funding_30apr30,0,4506178.story

In a preview of DAVID LEONHARDT’s article in the New York Times magazine, out on Sunday, President Obama talks about his vision for a diverse American economy:

But I actually think that there was always an unsustainable feel about what had happened on Wall Street over the last 10, 15 years, and it’s not that different from the unsustainable nature of what was happening during the dot-com boom, where people in Silicon Valley could make enormous sums of money, even though what they were peddling never really had any signs it would ever make a profit.

That doesn’t mean, though, that Silicon Valley is still not a huge, critical, important part of our economy, and Wall Street will remain a big, important part of our economy, just as it was in the ’70s and the ’80s. It just won’t be half of our economy. And that means that more talent, more resources will be going to other sectors of the economy. And I actually think that’s healthy. We don’t want every single college grad with mathematical aptitude to become a derivatives trader. We want some of them to go into engineering, and we want some of them to be going into computer design.

And so I think what you’ll see is some shift, but I don’t think that we will lose the enormous advantages that come from transparency, openness, the reliability of our markets. If anything, a more vigorous regulatory regime, I think, will help restore confidence, and you’re still going to see a lot of global capital wanting to park itself in the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html

By JEFF BATER

The Wall Street Journal 

WASHINGTON — The slumping U.S. economy barely improved early this year, with businesses slashing spending and inventories, according to a surprising report indicating the recession didn’t ease as much as expected.

Gross domestic product decreased at a seasonally adjusted 6.1% annual rate January through March despite rising consumer spending, the Commerce Department said Wednesday in its first estimate of first-quarter GDP.

The 6.1% drop was much bigger than Wall Street expected and hardly different than a 6.3% plunge in the fourth quarter, when the recession that began in December 2007 deepened.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124100763955368325.html

By PERRY BACON, JR.

The Washington Post 

The House today passed a $3.5 trillion budget outline that lays the groundwork for President Obama’s ambitious initiatives on health care and education.

The 233-193 vote was largely along party lines. The Senate is expected to pass the budget later today, allowing Obama to commemorate his 100th day as president with a major legislative victory.

“It is a very happy day for our country,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

The budget resolution extends tax cuts for families who make less than $250,000 each year, increases the size of Pell Grants and provides money for “clean energy” initiatives that Obama has proposed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/29/AR2009042901033.html?hpid=topnews