CHICAGO TRIBUNE
— Black market likely to get bigger when pot becomes legal – Kathy Valente,
Director of Operations, Illinois Family Institute, Tinley Park
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/opinion/ct-nvs-naperville-letters-st-1222-20191216-ofpek3zivjec5c4ugihdm7ppai-story.html
— As recreational pot is about to become legal in Illinois, Pritzker
administration warns it will crack down on ‘bad actors’ who affect medical
cannabis availability – Robert McCoppin
https://www.chicagotribune.com/marijuana/illinois/ct-illinois-marijuana-shortages-letter-20191217-jz64jyh3t5htjjtafn63sgouhi-story.html
— Lawsuit filed by Wheaton cop who alleged sex and age discrimination is
dismissed, but judge says dearth of female leaders in department ‘raises an
eyebrow’ – CLIFFORD WARD
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-wheaton-lawsuit-dismissed-20191216-tckmd3xgejgkljoieyahyn7muy-story.html
— Jesse Jackson pushes Nicor to bring long-sought natural gas line to
impoverished Pembroke Township in Kankakee County – John Keilman (DIERSEN:
Pembroke Township was one of the areas that I was assigned to collect
delinquent taxes in while I worked for IRS in its Harvey office 1972-1973.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-pembroke-nicor-gas-jackson-20191217-3lxvyxklwvgshfbxznbh3t5gyy-story.html
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
— Pritzker expected to sign letter consenting to refugee resettlement New
Trump administration policy requires state and local consent. – Peter Hancock
(DIERSEN: What do Illinois Democrats say to refugees about Illinois
Republicans?)
https://chicago.suntimes.com/metro-state/2019/12/16/21025402/pritzker-refugee-resettlement-letter-consent-illinois
— Trump impeachment: Pre-vote skirmish expected at Tuesday Rules Committee
hearing On Monday, a spokesman for Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., said he would
vote yes on both impeachment articles. Lipinski faces two major March
Democratic primary opponents who support impeachment. – Lynn Sweet
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2019/12/16/21025278/trump-impeachment-tuesday-rules-committee-hearing
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: A Trump-hater says “Trump is leading a revolution
that is destroying America.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2019/12/16/21025153/jesse-jackson-trump-republicans-impeachment-trial-house-of-represenatives-2020
DAILY HERALD
— Pritzker expected to give consent for refugees to resettle in Illinois –
Peter Hancock (DIERSEN: What do Illinois Democrats say to refugees about
Illinois Republicans?)
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20191216/pritzker-expected-to-give-consent-for-refugees-to-resettle-in-illinois
(FROM THE ARTICLE:
“As the great grandson of a Jewish refugee from Ukraine, the president’s
attacks on immigrant families are deeply personal to me,” Pritzker said in
an email statement. . .According to a tally kept by World Relief, 24 other
governors and more than 60 municipalities already have submitted consent
letters. Among the local communities listed is DuPage County. . .”It’s not
just the Chicagoland area, in which most people think refugees are going,”
she said “It’s places like Aurora and DuPage and Moline, which is where
Global Relief has offices.)
— FRONT PAGE TOP OF FOLD: DIERSEN HEADLINE: DISGUSTING, TRAGIC: Oakton
Community College promotes pot.
https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20191217/oakton-partnership-offers-students-a-path-to-jobs-in-the-cannabis-industry
https://www.dailyherald.com/submitted/20191216/oakton-leverages-cannabis-curriculum-to-create-stem-pathway
CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS
— DISGUSTING, TRAGIC: Lightfoot floats the idea of weed co-ops As the Jan. 1
start of recreational marijuana sales approaches, the mayor is focusing more
attention on diversity and equity. – JOHN PLETZ
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/marijuanacannabis/lightfoot-floats-idea-weed-co-ops
— Changing the narrative isn’t a credible strategy, Governor It’s a
transparent attempt to substitute political spin for sorely needed action. –
MARK GLENNON
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/changing-narrative-isnt-credible-strategy-governor
MEDILL REPORTS
— AUTO-VOTER REGISTRATION IN ILLINOIS NOT COMPLYING WITH LAW, EXPERTS SAY –
Megan Sauer
https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/auto-voter-registration-in-illinois-not-complying-with-law-experts-say/
CENTRAL ILLINOIS PROUD
— Spending deal would end two-decade freeze on gun research – AP
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/business/spending-deal-ends-two-decade-freeze-on-gun-safety-research/
— GOP governors push Trump to scale back employment licensing regulations –
Trevor Shirley (DIERSEN: I became a licensed CPA in 1981 when I was 32 years
old.)
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/national/gop-governors-push-trump-to-scale-back-employment-licensing-regulations/
POLITICO ILLINOIS
— George P. Bush, the son of Jeb Bush, headlined the holiday luncheon hosted
by Illinois Republican leaders and supporters, including Richard Porter, Jay
Bergman, Sanford “Sandy” Perl and Kim Godden. Bush talked immigration, politics
and baseball. He said even though his family has spoken out against Republican
Donald Trump, he’d be supporting him in 2020. Part of the program included a
word association game that equated Texas with opportunity and Illinois with,
well, none. (Seems harsh.) Spotted in the crowd at the estate of Gene and
Georgetti in Rosemont were business leaders Ty Fahner and Bill Kunkler, state
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, former Congressmen Peter Roskam and Bob Dold,
Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, Rosemont Mayor and state Rep. Brad Stephens,
former state Comptroller Leslie Munger, Kane County State’s Attorney Joe
McMahon, political fundraiser Lisa Wagner, political consultant Thom Serafin
and public affairs consultant Brian Bernadoni. – Shia Kapos
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2019/12/17/bumps-in-cannabis-road-lipinski-will-vote-to-impeach-bradys-big-bucks-487920
DUPAGE COUNTY ELECTION DIVISION
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: Nomination Petition Hearings: West v. DiCianni at 1:30 PM
Tuesday, December 17, 2019; Hooper v. Felice at 2:15 PM Thursday, December 19,
2019; and Tarnowski v. Youngberg at 3:00 PM Thursday, December 19, 2019.
https://www.dupageco.org/Election/61831/
CENTER SQUARE
— Illinois’ treasurer calls on President Trump to support surrendering
billions in unclaimed U.S. savings bonds for states to find rightful owners –
Greg Bishop
https://www.thecentersquare.com/illinois/illinois-treasurer-calls-on-president-trump-to-support-surrendering-billions/article_e7071c4c-2042-11ea-9d5f-93aa1669df2c.html
WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
— Illegals Line Up Early for Newly Available NY Driver’s Licenses Law faced
multiple suits, one of which is ongoing – Graham Piro
https://freebeacon.com/politics/new-york-enacts-law-allowing-illegal-immigrants-to-get-drivers-licenses/
AMERICAN THINKER
— The Left Lines Up With the Terrorists – Civis Americanus
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/12/the_left_lines_up_with_the_terrorists.html
BREITBART
— Impeachment Backfire: Polling Shows Trump Surge Against All Democrat
Contenders in Last Month – HANNAH BLEAU
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/12/16/impeachment-backfire-polling-shows-trump-surge-against-all-democrat-contenders-in-last-month/
DAILY CALLER
— ‘This Will Protect Criminals’: Homeland Security Blasts New York Law
Allowing Illegal Aliens To Get Driver’s Licenses – PETER HASSON
https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/16/dhs-new-york-green-light-allow-illegal-alien-driver-license/
NEWSMAX
— Trump ‘Disdainers’ Worse Than the Haters, But Equally Irrelevant – Conrad
Black
https://www.newsmax.com/conradblack/trump-haters-disdainers-impeachment/2019/12/16/id/946109/
PJ NEWS MEDIA
— New Jersey Gives Illegals Driver’s Licenses. How Long Before They Get the
Vote? – TYLER O’NEIL
https://pjmedia.com/trending/new-jersey-gives-illegals-drivers-licenses-how-long-before-they-get-the-vote/
NATIONAL REVIEW
— Rand Paul vs. Google and Facebook – JOHN MCCORMACK
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/rand-paul-backs-bill-letting-newspapers-negotiate-better-deals-with-google-facebook/
(FROM THE ARTICLE: The
Kentucky senator backs antitrust exemption letting newspapers negotiate better
terms from the tech giants. Kentucky senator Rand Paul is signing on to a bill
attempting to help a struggling industry, print and digital news organizations,
by giving them more power to negotiate the terms under which Google and
Facebook may distribute their content. Current antitrust law forbids news
organizations from banding together to negotiate terms of distribution and
advertising rates, but the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act would
provide a four-year exemption to existing antitrust laws for “news content
creators” to collectively negotiate with “online content distributors” that
have at least one billion active users each month (i.e., Google and Facebook).
“Government threatens the viability of trusted news sources through old and
outdated restrictions on the ability of those sources to survive in an evolving
media environment,” Paul said in a written statement Monday to National Review.
“We need to get government out of the way, which is why in addition to
cosponsoring the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019, I will
also be introducing legislation to free broadcast media from the chains that
restrict their ability to better serve their customers.”)
THE HILL
— GOP set to make life difficult for Democrats on impeachment – OLIVIA BEAVERS
AND MIKE LILLIS
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/474821-gop-set-to-make-life-difficult-for-democrats-on-impeachment
POLITICO
— Trump’s Been President for 3 Years. Why Is Federal Morale Dropping Now? An
annual survey of the federal workforce notches its first decline in employee
engagement since 2014. How bad are things, really? – MICHAEL STRATFORD
https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2019/12/17/government-morale-trump-federal-administration-084835
ASSOCIATED PRESS
— Trump threatens to bypass Commission on Presidential Debates
https://apnews.com/c4e1bbc13ccdec5953a66f3002974899
NEW YORK TIMES
— Moderate Democrats Back Impeachment of Trump as House Vote Nears Several
vulnerable freshmen who had expressed reservations about the effort said they
would vote to impeach President Trump, despite the political risks. – Michael
D. Shear
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/us/politics/judiciary-committee-impeachment.html
— Praise for Rep. Van Drew From Trump, Scorn From Those at Home The New Jersey
Democrat has quickly become anathema to people on both sides of the political
divide after news spread he planned to switch parties. – Tracey Tully
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/nyregion/jeff-van-drew-democrat-republican.html
— FRONT PAGE WITH COLOR PICTURE: As Protests Rage on Citizenship Bill, Is
India Becoming a Hindu Nation? Several people have been killed as unrest
spreads to new corners of the country. Many see the passage of a new law as
anti-Muslim. – Jeffrey Gettleman and Maria Abi-Habib
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/world/asia/india-citizenship-protests.html
WASHINGTON POST
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: A Trump-hater says “Nixon was bad. Trump is much
worse.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nixon-was-bad-trump-is-much-worse/2019/12/16/f1edb280-2045-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html
WALL STREET JOURNAL
— The Voter Theft That Wasn’t A Wisconsin judge enforces the law. Liberals cry
foul. – Editorial
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-voter-theft-that-wasnt-11576540787
— Peter Thiel at Center of Facebook’s Internal Divisions on Politics
Billionaire investor thinks political-ad policy shouldn’t change; some
directors and executives disagree – Emily Glazer, Deepa Seetharaman and Jeff
Horwitz
https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-at-center-of-facebooks-internal-divisions-on-politics-11576578601
— Protests Over India’s New Citizenship Law Widen Critics of legislation,
which disadvantages some Muslim immigrants, say Prime Minister Modi is
undermining country’s secular foundation – Krishna Pokharel and Newley Purnell
https://www.wsj.com/articles/protests-over-indias-new-citizenship-law-widen-11576501527
— Make Your Job Application Robot-Proof It takes planning to make sure AI
gatekeepers don’t bounce your résumé—sometimes for arbitrary reasons—before a
human can make a call – Sue Shellenbarger
https://www.wsj.com/articles/make-your-job-application-robot-proof-11576492201
— Achieving Quantum Wokeness Political correctness barges into a computer
science breakthrough. – Editorial
https://www.wsj.com/articles/achieving-quantum-wokeness-11576540808
FORTUNE
— Paid Parental Leave for Fed Workers Could Spur Wider Changes – AP (DIERSEN:
Government is nasty. Politics is nasty. Democrats are nasty. Virtually all my
superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates in the federal government
had spouses and/or children to support. They hinted/implied/argued/shouted that
employees who had dependents should get preference over employees like me who
never had dependents.)
https://fortune.com/2019/12/16/paid-parental-leave-federal-workers/
FORBES
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: Ever-increasingly, Trump-haters hint/imply/argue/shout
that citizens of foreign countries are better than citizens of America.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2019/12/17/why-immigration-is-so-important-in-the-global-race-for-talent/#40a8ec2f1022
USA TODAY
— 92% of Americans think their basic rights are being threatened, new poll
shows – Joshua Bote (DIERSEN: Democrats want government to take away rights,
money, opportunities, etc. from those who are Trump supporters, Protestant,
conservative, patriotic, Republican, American, White, male, older, non-poor,
gun owners, German American, draft avoiders, and/or those whose ancestors have
been in America for a long time.)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/16/most-americans-think-their-basic-rights-threatened-new-poll-shows/4385967002/
FEDERAL NEWS NETWORK
— Paid federal parental leave will cost $3.3B over 5 years, but that’s not the
whole story – Scott Maucione
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay-benefits/2019/12/paid-federal-parental-leave-will-cost-3-3b-over-5-years-but-thats-not-the-whole-story/
FED WEEK
— DoD Bill Returns Focus to Probationary Period Issue (DIERSEN: My Democrat
GAO superiors, supervisors, coworkers, and subordinates were furious that when
I transferred from IRS to GAO in 1980 when I was 31 years old, because I had
been under a probationary period at IRS, I was not under a probationary period
at GAO. Nevertheless, they did everything that they could to get rid of me. GAO
audits IRS. They kept me off audits of IRS for all but 3 of the almost 18 years
that I worked for GAO. They gave me unfair performance expectations and unfair
performance appraisals. They assigned me to work for, to work with, and to
supervise the office’s most problematic employees. And even worse things. In my
defense, I completed the requirements for a master’s degree in accounting from
DePaul in 1980, passed the Certified Internal Auditor examination on my first
attempt in 1981, became a licensed CPA in 1981, a Certified Fraud Examiner in
1990, a Certified Government Financial Manager in 1994, a Certified Financial
Services Auditor in 1996, and a Forensic Accountant in 1997. In addition, I
completed the requirements for a master’s degree in financial markets and
trading from IIT in 1997.)
https://www.fedweek.com/federal-managers-daily-report/dod-bill-returns-focus-to-probationary-period-issue/
FED SMITH
— Which Agencies are the “Best Places to Work”? (DIERSEN: GAO is on this list.
To attract/retain young Democrat minorities and to attract/retain young
Democrat females, GAO can stress how it gets rid of its employees who are
Republican, White, male, and/or non-veteran who GAO does not promote to GS-13
(currently $98,198) by age 25, GS-14 (currently $116,040) by age 30, GS-15
(currently $136,495) by age 35, and Senior Executive Service (currently
$165,500) by age 40. Further, GAO can stress that it no longer requires passing
the CPA examination to get hired/promoted.)
https://www.fedsmith.com/2019/12/17/agencies-best-places-work/
VANITY FAIR
— ELIZABETH WARREN WANTS BLOOMBERG TO “ANSWER FOR” HIS HISTORY OF SEXIST
REMARKS Warren called for women to be released from nondisclosure agreements
that prevent them from speaking about Bloomberg and the allegedly toxic work
environment he fostered. – ALISON DURKEE
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/12/michael-bloomberg-sexist-comments-elizabeth-warren-ndas
DAILY BEAST
— DIERSEN HEADLINE: Biden sides with “world leaders” who laugh at
Trump.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-campaigns-off-video-showing-world-leaders-laughing-at-trump
GUARDIAN
— Steve Bannon: ‘We’ve turned the Republicans into a working-class party’ –
Steve Bannon (DIERSEN: My critics/opponents look down on the working class. I
was a member of the working class 1964-1997. I did yard work and delivered
newspapers 1962-1964; washed dishes 1964-1966; cleaned golf shoes, chipped
slag, and pumped gasoline in 1966; delivered mail 1966-1969; worked on an
automobile assembly line and as a security guard in 1970; sold tires,
automotive services, and major appliances 1970-1971; pumped gasoline 1971-1972;
collected delinquent taxes 1971-1980; and audited federal agencies 1980-1997.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/17/steve-bannon-working-class-republicans-labour
THE HINDU
— Indian-American to run for Congress Krishna Bansal said his major policy
issues are free enterprise, fiscal discipline, family values and a firm foreign
policy.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/indian-american-to-run-for-congress/article30327061.ece
