Features - 4th Qtr 1998

Democrat David Phelps says government has an obligation to teach people how to be more independent and get off welfare. There are all kinds of problems that maybe we could help with. I don't think we need to over socialize this program and say govern is going to be there on every corner and pay for this and that because we do have to teach these people that seemingly have trouble really grasping in the past that you know we're working to be self sufficient independent and take some responsibility on your own. But Republican Brad Winters has a different take he says the government can step aside and let the private sector handle some of the load. The welfare system is there to be taken advantage of and it has been abused for decades. And if if the churches and again other institutions of like kindred spirit charitable institutions missions. They will pick up the slack they are picking up the slack and again the government must allow this to happen and not try to maintain a monopoly on welfare. Wenders believes federal taxes and the size of government should be reduced. He also says strong

families are the key to changing the welfare program. There is no greater or better institution for the health education and welfare of children than families that is the best health education welfare institutions available MannKind the state does what they can but it's not enough it's just a safety net it's not working. Phelps says the private sector can help but government should be prepared to provide them with incentives to hire welfare recipients. Reward through incentives. Private sector small business out there for incorporating these people with a B day care facilities and help or some insurance help or whatever it might be. Phelps believes the government can help people get off welfare by providing for their needs particularly child care needs. He says people on welfare often have a hard time finding and keeping a job while caring for young child. We can help you reach your physical needs. Give them some. Reasonable training to access basic jobs where they can then say look I like this idea of being able to pay my home payment for my car and my kids being able to go to this daycare center. You know I want to I want to know where I'm at five years from now.

But Winter says that issue is mostly for the states to decide. He believes local control is important and should be emphasized as much as possible. This is a state issue in the state of Illinois and knows what's going on local control is more important here we're dealing with children here not cans of beans or chattel. What do people in Washington D.C. know about what goes on in Illinois. Both candidates express a view of lessening government's involvement in the lives of its citizens. But while Phelps supports government programs to move people from welfare to work. Winters is in favor of smaller federal government thus allowing churches and local institutions to handle much of that transition process. Amy Morris AM 580 News. Last month the Senate scuttled the making Feingold campaign finance reform bill. The measure would have put an end to the spending of soft money federal election law allows political parties to spend as much as they want as long as it goes to get out the vote in Issue advertisements. There is no limit to how

much donors can give to a party of soft money account soft money spending during the 1996 campaign totaled two hundred sixty two million dollars three times more than in 1992. Soft money helps challengers and candidates in open districts gain needed exposure among voters. The candidates in the Illinois 19th Congressional district have decidedly different views on soft money. Republican brand winters in his third campaign for the U.S. House. Thanks. Soft money is a constitutional issue and as free speech he says soft money should not be regulated. Where do we draw the line. Well you can't cry cry fire in a crowded theater and all that. But does that mean that a person can't go I can't spend the money I want to spend to produce flyers to hand out to people on the street corner. Let's say I don't get on television all I want to run a grassroots congressional campaign. And I want to distribute 3 million flyers. And they're really nice ones. Should I be limited in my ability to distribute flyers. I think not.

But Democrat David Phelps a state representative in District 1 18 says he waives toward restricting soft money. And he also would establish spending limits on congressional campaigns. I believe we should have a cap especially as state representative scene down in southern Illinois highly depressed economy. Last time just state rep seats spinny were excess of 600 something thousand dollars that's overwhelming to me. So. There's a lot of pressure raising money. It's tough when you look at the ways in which we have to. As of last December neither candidate had even $100000 in their campaign fund when Toure's had about $30000. All but 2000 coming from individual contributors. Phelps had just over ninety five thousand dollars in receipts. Sixty five thousand coming from individuals campaign finance law limits individual giving to $1000 per candidate per election.

Phelps says he supports legislation that would increase the limits when Toure's says he doesn't know if it's a good idea or not. But he says voters need to know more about where candidates get their money. Well we have six million dollars that the Democratic National Committee had to return this last campaign cycle something like that. The Buddhist temple money the Chinese money. And the people there are clamoring so hard for it for campaign finance reform are the ones that have not followed the laws that are in place. Number one let's follow the laws that are in place. And number two let's increase disclosure. Neither Phelps or Wenders said they would prohibit political action committee contributions to federal office candidates. They share the opinion that PAC dollars don't necessarily buy influence with lawmakers. Outgoing Democratic 19th district congressman Glenn but Shar doesn't accept PAC donations opposition either winters or Phelps finds acceptable. Phelps says PAC donations are needed to

win. This is an open seat. The 19th Congressional district being looked at by the national committees as one of the seats that could possibly you know be an opportunity for the Republicans. And I made a decision early on that I would not jeopardize my party by knowing how the circumstances of competing to fund it with a glimmer shard not accepting PAC money. There's so much money out there and I feel like that an open seat could make someone vulnerable if they don't have the proper resources. And winter's ads that Bashar took PAC contributions in his first congressional campaign 10 years ago noting a $5000 PAC donation is a drop in the bucket of a half million dollar campaign. This is Dave Dickey 580 News. Democrat David Phelps already represents a portion of the district as a state representative. He says Illinois especially southern Illinois faces many challenges on health

care issues. So this is a diverse state is a good training ground for what we will be looking at on the on the scene and on the national level. And I represent one of the most medically underserved areas. Now only at the state but in all the midwest perhaps the nation and therefore high senior citizen population medically underserved an ever mentor which you can examine. Phelps chaired the health care committee in the state house and says he's eager to craft legislation at the federal level. Republican Brant Winters says There in lies the danger. He maintains the most important thing a lawmaker can do is block unnecessary legislation. He says a free market is the best way to regulate the nation's health care system. Government involvement seems to complicate the matter as all doctors tell us in hospitals tell us in the regulatory burden is overwhelming it increases the cost of health care in America. Winters says an example of intrusive government involvement is a proposal for a national database of citizens medical records that I did start to finish. Winters says

politicians are the last people who should have free access to sensitive information especially the current administration to administration that. Without hesitation took 900 files from the FBI that they had no right to under the Privacy Act. To say that they should have a database on every citizen of the United States Winter says such a database could violate the Constitution. That's a bill of rights issue a right to privacy. It should be protected at all cost. We don't want to database for every person the United States it will inevitably cause more harm than good. Winters believes state legislatures are the best bodies to regulate health care be it maintaining medical records or monitoring public health and safety outbreaks and threats. Phelps however has a slightly different view of the government's role. He says it's the feds duty to step in when public health or safety is threatened. Now if there is a pattern in the way of TB or hepatitis or something that's more than just an isolated concern then is where we start need to look at the overall policy

what's happening. Listless get people that are health experts in looking at what we can do as a federal government and have some kind of inoculation is for prevention or whatever else and I think that's very important so these are these are big questions that crop up here and there but how appropriate. Should we intervene is what I want to handle very sensibly. Phelps and winters both support patients rights freedom of choice in selecting a physician and giving doctors not HMO has the final say in how a patient is treated. And both candidates acknowledge the tough part is protecting patients while still keeping costs in line. Well therein lies the challenge. You know how far do we get into government regulation or intervention in trying to be fair to the business that we know has to make a profit to exist and we don't want to jeopardize what really would protect us all from the you know opportunity to have health care coverage. But the same time be fair to the consumers.

I'm Cheryl we AM 580 News. Often people on welfare with young children say they cannot find work unless they find affordable daycare. Congressman Tom Ewing says Congress understands the weight of that problem but they also don't think the federal government is necessarily the answer. We're going to have to work through the states and the local governments and through businesses by offering tax credits and other incentives for them to get into the childcare business. Challenger Laurel processing says the federal government must step in especially to make sure the child's parents are the primary caregivers not a daycare center. Processing says it's unreasonable to expect a young welfare mother to work full time. I think the best caretaker are the caretakers are the parents. As I said I don't think a young mother should be asked to work full time. It might be very good for her to work part time. But I think there's going to have to be subsidized childcare. But pricing believes the problem is a lot more serious than lack of daycare she says. Good jobs are hard to find.

There are many people who cannot survive on the minimum wage as it is now and yet it used to be that if someone graduated from high school if they were willing to work they could get a high paying factory job they could work in a steel mill. All those jobs have left this country so we have had a very short sighted view on trade that we are undermining the social stability of this country by exporting good paying jobs. Ewing believes training is the answer. He says if someone has been on welfare and hasn't worked for a while their skills are likely rusty they'll have to work their way through the system to move ahead. We believe that you have to have counseling you have to have job training you have to have organizations and people to direct people from welfare to work. And Ewing says Personal responsibility is key. Many many Americans take the responsibility a lot of it goes back to personal responsibility that they're going to improve their educational skills while they're

working. Welfare recipients aren't any different. They have that same responsibility to themselves and to their families. While Republican incumbent Tom Ewing says the government should have a hand in moving welfare recipients to work. He says they mustn't second guess the state. Instead they should simply work with them to make sure the programs are working. Pressing On the other hand believes government should take a more active role subsidizing childcare training workers and providing early education like Head Start for children and life skills courses for young mothers to make sure they don't wind up on welfare in the first place. I'm Amy Morris AM 580 News. Pressing a former county auditor in Champaign County believes big money from political action committees and efforts to raise individual contribution limits are corrupting the voting system. She favors maintaining the status quo on individual contribution limits. $1000 per individual per election. And she says she would have voted for the shave me hand campaign finance reform bill

a measure that would have banned soft money dollars raised by political parties and spent primarily on issue advertisements. There are currently no limits on the amount donors can contribute to a party of soft money account processing says soft money spending has become indistinguishable from campaign advertising for specific candidates. I think big contributors have too much influence on the system now. Big corporate contributors particularly and it's distorting our democratic process because they're getting a law that they want passed. And I think ordinary people are feeling frozen out of the process. I think campaign spending is going up faster than than health care at this point. And I think it's time for some candidates just to take a stand. Ewing says he recently voted in favor of increasing individual spending limits to twenty five hundred dollars per individual per election and he voted against Shays me had a bill he says was full of problems. Ewing says the measure would

have not stood constitutional scrutiny. And he adds The bill would have eliminated soft money spending for national and state party of but not the president. He could raise all the soft money he wanted while we were debating the bill. He was crisscrossing the country raising soft money. I don't think that is an adequate solution to the problem of soft money or independent expenditures now independent expenditure problem gets back to the same thing as issue advocacy. The constitutional protection of the First Amendment Ewing adds soft money has never been an issue in the 15th Congressional District. But perhaps the biggest campaign finance reform difference between us and processing is their stance on public financing. I think that there should be some form of public financing. Again Laurel processing. You can't according to the Constitution what what the Supreme Court ruled at least you can't say that people can't spend their money but I think there should be an alternative. And states

like Minnesota and Vermont and Maine have had programs where you can have public financing if you raise a certain amount of your own money and you agree to limit your spending when you have people like Paul Simon deciding he's not going to run for public office anymore because of the demands of raising 12 million dollars in the state of Illinois to run for U.S. Senate. I think you've got a real problem. Also when you have elected officials at the federal level spending time every day on the phone asking for money for their next campaign you've got a real serious problem. Ewing agrees with processing that there should be a cap on what lawmakers can spend on a campaign but he disagrees over the issue of public finance. Ewing says public financing will create voter disinterest when the public funds your campaign. Why are the citizens going to be interested. You know one thing that I always felt if somebody buys a ticket to my barbecue or comes to an event they're probably going to

vote for me. They get involved. They play a part in the process. If the federal government writes me a check for my campaign those people need to get involved. They don't need to put up signs for Tom Ewing. They don't need to buy a ticket to a rubber chicken barbecue or whatever. So I think it's counterproductive processing says she's taking no political action committee funding this election. And she had she was asked Are you going to agree with her the spending limits but was refused Ewing says he sees nothing wrong with taking PAC donations adding he has tried to maintain a 50/50 balance between PAC and individual dollars. This is Dave Dickey a 580 News. Health maintenance organizations are at the center of most health care issues facing candidates. Some HMO patients believe care is being sacrificed in order to lower the bottom line. The primary focus of a proposed Patient's Bill of

Rights being considered by Congress is closer regulation of HMO as a Democratic version of the bill would allow patients to sue a HMO that make poor medical decisions. However incumbent congressman hewing thinks that relying on the court system to solve problems is a bad idea. He believes there should be a stopgap measure before disputes go to court. The Republican version was no. You have a review system independent of the HMO by medical experts one that can be done in a matter of a few days. And the more the emergency the quicker it can be done. And then if all else fails you would have regress to the court challenger Democrat Laurel pressing believes more needs to be done than altering regulation of HMO. She says a dramatic overhaul of the country's health care system is in order. And she says no matter what changes are made to the current system it still allows too many people to fall through the cracks.

The congressman from this district has said that all children are covered and there are about 12 million children that are not covered by health insurance now. And I think the wisest use of our resources in health care is prevention of problems instead of waiting until someone goes to an emergency room because they don't have access to a doctor for preventive care pressing favors immediately extending Medicare to make sure everyone has some sort of health coverage. However Ewing says Universal coverage is not the answer. Well the issue I think it is fairly simple how do you get health care to people who really need it. And yet say to people who maybe just want to access the system for whatever the reason then maybe don't need it. That no you're not going to get. Somebody hold your hand this time your care isn't necessary. That's a very personal decision. However pressing says that view places too much emphasis on slashing costs rather than quality of care.

I think the idea that medicine is supposed to be profit based is probably wrong. What we've been taken over politically in this country by the what I call market mania that markets can solve everything and that if you don't make a profit you're a failure. Pressing says the United States is the last industrialized nation to be still without universal health plans for its citizens. Ewing says too much government interference is not a good thing whether it be in regulating the health care industry or in revising public health and safety laws. For example he says health violations that encompass the environment large scale hog farms and food safety are best managed at the local level because in most of these cases the law local health standards were not being followed. So it's like a lot of things passing another rule passing another law won't make the provider a bay the law pressing says there is a place for federal government involvement she touts clean water legislation

passed in Congress. Congress did pass the Clean Water Act. And the idea is to get our rivers and lakes so they're clean enough for fishing or swimming. And there is a problem with drinking water in this country and this is the richest country in the world. We should have a clean public water supply. This will be the second time pressing his challenge during for the 15th District congressional seat the election is November 3rd. I'm sure all week AM 580 News. While both Moseley Braun and Fitzgerald say they would support legislation that would increase for your federal $1000 per election limit on individual contributions. Moseley Braun says increases should be tied to other reforms. A thousand dollar limit would be OK if there were free television time if there were free radio time. You can open up the cap and say people should be able to give you know $10000 for an individual. All that will do is help drive up the cost of the

TV time that the candidates buy. But it just seems to me that because elections are infused with a public purpose it is different than buying time for you know advertising Wheaties or Cheerios. And our democracy is it is what's at issue and that there ought therefore to be some public interest. Engagement by the news media to make that free television time available to candidates for public office. But Fitzgerald favors raising individual contribution limits no strings attached. Federal Election Commission reports from the end of June show Moseley Braun far out distancing Fitzgerald on individual contributions. Three point four million to one million dollars. The same report shows Fitzgerald spending ten point two million dollars of his own money. Eighty nine percent of all his campaign funds trying to unseat Moseley Braun. Those limits were set in the early 1970s. They have not been changed

in the intervening 25 or so years not even to take into account inflation. And what that means is that candidates for federal office are consigned to doing around the clock fundraising and have too little time to focus on the issues that are important to this state and this nation. And I think those limits have been very destructive to our governmental process. Moseley Braun also favors finding a way to establish spending limits on congressional campaigns and any attempt to establish mandatory spending limits likely would face a stiff constitutional challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that money in politics amounts to free speech. But Moseley Braun believes a statutory challenge is possible. I think that it set off an unlevel or set up an unlevel playing field between candidates based on wealth that is at its core Democratic. I don't think it takes a constitutional amendment to fix the problem. I think that it can and should be done. Statutorily and I intend in fact that's one of the things that I very much hope to work on.

Should the voters of Illinois decide to rehire me for this job. On the other hand it still doesn't support campaign spending caps you says he doesn't think that Big Money will disenfranchise lower and middle class voters as those without wealth have their place. They get involved in the elections in other ways whether it's putting up yard signs or handing out brochures contributing money to a campaign is merely one way of getting involved in the political process. And I don't favor laws that would punish people for getting involved. In our political process and I think that just you know misapprehend what our founders intended with our system of government. Fitzgerald also opposes public funding for federal candidates to comply with campaign spending limits. I think that would just be akin to food stamps and welfare benefits for politicians and I don't think that's right to tax hard working citizens of this country to give the money to politicians to run their campaigns.

Moseley Braun was undecided on the issue of public funding on a Project Vote Smart survey but she favors elimination a political action committee contributions to federal office candidates banning soft money banning issue advocacy commercials by outside groups within 60 days of an election and prohibiting non-U.S. citizens are making contributions to federal campaigns repeated phone calls to the Fitzgerald campaign to learn his position on these issues went unanswered. This is Dave Dickey. AM 580 News. Republican Peter Fitzgerald who is running against Democrat Carol Moseley Braun for the U.S. Senate says the best way to move people from welfare to work is to provide adequate job training through already existing programs. The evidence is that many of them have worked very well I know employers in Illinois seem to like those programs and feel that they're necessary often to train someone who has historically been on welfare and to prepare that person for

for a job. But Braun says before parents can be trained for jobs they have to have affordable day care. The focus however ought to be both on providing tax credit support for people who choose to have daycare in their home as well as subsidies for people who choose to put to send their children to quality daycare facilities as well as support for those people who can work out daycare arrangements within the family or within the community. Braun says right now the economy is moving along at a brisk pace. But she says if that ever changes it won't be the adults who receive welfare who will suffer if the economy should take a downturn I think we're going to be in deep deep trouble not just because of the question of where are the welfare recipients going what's going to happen to the welfare recipients when there aren't any jobs out there when the competition for jobs gets even stiffer because of a of a contraction of the economy. But the real question for me is and has always been what happens to the children.

Fitzgerald says daycare is an issue that needs to be dealt with. He believes the federal government should play a limited role in providing daycare alternatives. It's appropriate to have tax credits as we now do for for day care and we need to I think programs that help working moms or dads have some help with their cost of daycare when they go to go to work. Fitzgerald believes the best long term solution to welfare reform is providing the most jobs possible. His concern is if taxes are raised to support more welfare programs that will reduce the number of available jobs feeding the welfare cycle. Braun believes the government is obliged to support options for families who need affordable day care so that parents have a choice and will be able to pick the day care plan that best suits their needs. I'm Amy Morris AM 580 News. Mostly brought in Fitzgerald both admit most crimes are dealt with primarily at the state and

local levels but they both believe the federal government can become more involved in deterring crime Moseley-Braun says a move toward increased federal involvement has already begun in the last crime bill for example it was passed in 1994. We expanded the reach of the criminal the federal criminal law. This is largely in response to the fact that you know the country has changed and as such many of the matters which could be efficiently handled at the local level cannot any longer. And as part of the response you know the Congress response to the popular will and in response to the popular will. We have expanded federal engagement and involvement in criminal law. One area where Fitzgerald sees the federal government becoming more involved is in relieving the overcrowded prison system. I favor building more prisons not letting prisoners out early but instead having more capacity to handle all the prisoners who should be in prison. I think that's one area where our government should spend more money to make sure that we

have enough penitentiaries both at the state and federal level. Fitzgerald says the federal government can also play a role in reducing drug use and gang violence there perhaps could be some role that the federal government could play in making interstate gang activity a federal offense. And with respect to drug use occasionally the federal government of course gets involved in fighting drug crimes when it involves interstate activity and the transportation of illegal drugs. Moseley Braun says the U.S. has not done nearly enough to quash the drug trade. We ought to have a full scale war on drugs. Quite frankly I think it's been you know penny wise and pound foolish the way we we dealt with it it has not been based on reality but rather on demagoguery and a lot of hysteria and Culture Wars. I think that's a real tragedy because the the the scourge of drugs affects us all in very negative ways and we have to deal with

both prevention as well as punishment. We have to deal with giving people alternatives as well as making certain that drug kingpins get punished. But while Moseley Braun feels the federal government needs to step up its efforts to reduce drugs. She points out some progress has been made on the federal level in handling other crime problems. Illinois senior senator says she was directly responsible for developing legislation in the 94 crime bill designed to reduce juvenile crime in America. I'm very proud to have been one of the one of the architects and sponsors not only the cops the community policing part of the crime bill. But also the change the name but what started off as Midnight Basketball which would have given teenagers you know support for community efforts to save their teenagers from gang involvement. The whole idea of missed that Midnight Basketball is not that it happened at 12 o'clock or that the kids play basketball but really to provide some alternatives to gang involvement for four young people.

But Fitzgerald says legislation alone will not stop kids from getting involved in drugs and gangs. We need to address this juvenile youth crime problem from a multifaceted standpoint not just from a criminal law standpoint but also we have to examine what we can do to strengthen families in this country strengthen the involvement of parents in the upbringing of their children and also to strengthen our schools so that they do teach discipline self-respect and held enough allure for our youth that they get more interested in their studies and more interested in their academic and school life and they have less potential to be drawn into criminal activity at an early age. That's Peter Fitzgerald the Republican challenger for U.S. Senate in Illinois. He faces Democratic incumbent Carol Moseley Braun in next month's elections. Tomorrow the candidates views on welfare reform. I'm Craig Cohen AM 580 News. Regulating health maintenance organizations keeping health care costs in line and

ensuring quality care for everyone remain the issues at the tops of voters minds. Just about every candidate Republican or Democrat says the system needs to be reformed and supports some kind of patients bill of rights hero Moseley-Braun supports the Senate version of the plan but she says it doesn't go far enough to overhaul the nation's health care system. Although it is an important step. I believe however that we still have yet to take the steps necessary to make certain that we achieve universal coverage in this country that forty one million Americans who have no health insurance wind up with some coverage only by achieving universal coverage. Will we ever be able to rationalize our health care payment system and and preserve the quality of care that we have always enjoyed. Challenger Peter Fitzgerald a state senator from Inverness says the best way to protect patients and keep costs in line is to treat health maintenance organizations like every other business.

He wants to change laws that protect HMO from lawsuits if HMO this could be sued for a wrongful denial of care that might make HMO so pay a little bit closer attention. And listen more to what the doctors were advising. And because then there would be some liability on the part of the HMO. And so I am leaning toward supporting a repeal of what is known as the a receipt exemption which gives HMO as an insurance company's immunities from from lawsuits by their patients over wrongful denial of care decisions both candidates agree that some of the most underserved patients are the working poor who do not qualify for Medicaid but don't have any other health insurance. Both candidates also agree that Medicaid is too overburdened to be expanded to cover these people. Broad favors creating a program or enhancing an existing program to include the working poor.

Another proposal would be to allow individuals to buy health insurance through something like the what we have at the national level called The F BP the federal employee health benefits plan. Individuals who don't have coverage would be afforded an opportunity to buy into that system. I think that expansion of FVH BP makes sense because that does provide a national standard instead of a state by state because the Medicare Medicaid plans change state by state. Fitzgerald believes a better way to help the working poor is to create a better climate for businesses that provide insurance. We want to encourage employers. To offer it to their employees. And we also want to do what we can to make it easier for self-employed individuals to afford health insurance there's a proposal right now before Congress which would allow self-employed individuals a 100 percent deduction for the cost of a health care policy just like a corporation now has. So I think there are number of things we could do to promote the affordability and availability of health care.

On the issue of mental health both candidates say they strongly support sufficient coverage for mental illnesses. But they both also fear adding too many government mandates will further drive up the cost of health care. I'm sure a weighty AM 580 News. You 1980 Illinois voters changed the state constitution cutting the size of the house from one hundred seventy seven members to one hundred eighteen and increasing the number of districts to 100 in a team. One lawmaker for each district. But one hundred and 18 lawmakers means the House can find itself evenly split. And there are no constitutional or statutory guidelines in the Illinois on what to do in the case of a tie. I don't think anybody really just sat down and said you know what I did 18 members we can have a tie House assistant minority leader Bill Black is a Danville Republican. In all due respect to my colleagues and myself it should have been corrected. It's an oversight

and this possibility may finally bring that to to the fore and we might want to amend the Constitution to provide for leadership in event of a tie. Other states have realized that even numbers of lawmakers means times are possible and have written tiebreakers into their laws. And at one time even Illinois had a way to break a tie before 1970. The old Illinois Constitution allowed the lieutenant governor to cast a tie breaking vote. But without a tie breaking procedure it could become difficult for the Illinois House to elect a speaker. It's first order of business when it returns to Springfield next January. Jack Vander slick is a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield Vandersloot says lawmakers would likely first try to convince someone to vote against their own party. But Charles Hartke a House Democrat from to topple us and a majority conference chair says don't count on someone on his side of the aisle reaching across to vote for Republican Lee Daniels.

If the Republicans have the governorship and the Senate there absolutely will be a very very long time before we ever ever if ever agreed to. You know someone jumping in going with the Republicans mender Slick says if Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked they may eventually decide to share power in the house. I think we're going to have to see some agreement between the between the party leaders and in the two parties of the House and whether or not they could work out some arrangement by which they could jointly. Or. Alternatively a govern the house service speaker. Such an arrangement happened in the late 1980s in Indiana when House lawmakers found themselves deadlocked 50 50 without constitutional or legislative guidance to break the tie. The speakership switched from party to party.

Bill Vargas is with the public opinion lab at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis. He says Indiana's solution was nicknamed speaker does your. That is so one day it would be the Republican and the speaker the next day would be a Democrat. Nobody knew what to do. The bottom line on it was it was sort of every legislator for themselves and they really didn't know quite what to do. It was not a pretty session. And Vargas adds Indiana's solution to elect a speaker in the case of a time I wasn't effective either intercessions first year ties are broken by the governor and in the second year by the secretary of state. Such was the case in 1996 and 97 because everybody knew it was 50/50. He really did not have the power that a speaker in the Indiana General Assembly normally has. And so it was. A partial compromise it was probably better than the spoke speech speaker does your. But I think the general consensus was that it again cause problems.

If Illinois House members can't get somebody to switch party allegiance to name a speaker and if they are hesitant to use the speaker does your model Black says it's possible that some Democrats and Republicans may work together to elect a consensus candidate. It would not be beyond the realm of possibility that a downstate candidate could emerge and draw support from both parties and be elected speaker. Either a downstate Democrat or downstate Republican that could certainly happen because there there is an awareness that the leadership is or is vested in people primarily an issue greater Chicago area black adds. If the House membership is tied on November 4th the political atmosphere will be sult partisan that it will be impossible for lawmakers to decide on tie breaking rules for a future general assemblies. Black says neither party would trust the other convinced it was seeking a political advantage over which would wield leadership power.

This is Dave Dickey. AM 580 News. Both Republican Chris laws than a state senator from the 21st District and certified public accountant and Democrat Dan Hynes a former Chicago ward president an attorney say Illinois taxpayers need to know more about what the comp troller does find accountability through information initiative calls for Illinois ins to receive a taxpayer report with their annual tax forms. Heinz also wants to take advantage of home computers to share information. We're going to have an interactive and comprehensive Web site where people can at the click of a mouse find out where their money is going. You shouldn't have to have an MBA to find out how your tax dollars are being spent. On my website you'll see pipe charts and graphs that will tell you in simple terms how your money is being spent. Lawson also favors more disclosure to the public calling for the establishment of a of semi annual contract versus campaign contributions report to

allow the public to see what businesses are donating to campaigns and laws and wants to reallocate employees. My plan is to gradually evolve the comptroller's office into a public information office where top 10 percent or 25 of the 250 people are dedicated to analyzing information and then sharing it with people. We set up an Illinois information hotline so if you had a question about a school funding or const road construction or any part of the budget you could just pick up the phone and call somebody. And there's another human being who's going to. Attend to your questions. But Hines and laws than differ significantly on other issues. Hines had spent his campaign introducing one initiative after the other. Among them a plan that would require state agencies to prescreen state contractors to ensure they don't owe back taxes or child support a measure that would create a

rainy day fund to ensure state school funding doesn't decrease during recessions. A pledge to consolidate the state's 85 separate accounting ledgers to eliminate duplication and increase paperless transactions. And Hynes says he would use the comp a trailer as office as leverage to persuade health maintenance organizations to reform my plan is going to call on the state to use the 4 billion dollars that we spend in health care purchasing every year. To demand that each of those who want to do business in the state have to reform their practices and put quality of care ahead of their profits. So in order for an HMO to qualify for a state contract again they have to have an HMO patients bill of rights in their internal policies that guarantee the right to emergency care the right to a specialist the right to a second opinion. And Hines says all his plans won't cost Illinois taxpayers one additional cent all of my plans are going to be done under existing revenues I do not want

any more money in my. Budget to do these things because I think it's counterproductive. I don't want to spend more money to save money. That doesn't make any sense. Laws and wants to issue road construction report cards to provide taxpayers on a project by project basis where money is being spent rebuilding Illinois highways used calling for all state agencies to link their computer databases with the comp trollers office to root out deadbeats. He wants state government to sell its bad debt on the open market to collectors and he is calling for the installation of cutting edge software. We can put the software neural network software to cut down on the amount of fraud especially in the Medicaid area. The U.S. Government Accounting Office says that between 10 and 15 percent of all the spending in the state on Medicaid is fraud. That represents 600 to 900 million. If there are only 10 percent right that's anywhere from 50 to 100 million dollars.

Polls a week ago show the comps rollers race a toss up both Hinds and laws and say the race could turn on the downstate vote. This is Dave Dickey and AM 580 News. Project Vote Smart is a nonpartisan organization located in Oregon that publishes the political viewpoints of incumbents and challengers Ewing's trouble with Vote Smart began on October 19th when he and pricing appeared before the Edgar County Farm Bureau in Paris. You could be pro choice and anti late term abortion. My opponent supports late term abortion. This is a classic example. I have never said I think her late term abortions partial birth abortions and I think it is very wrong of Mr Ewing to say that I have answered question to yours. It said that. And you are so certain your last very smart that you supported Roe versus who are ready vs. Roe allows Roe term abortions unless the Congress changes the law. Right you can't have it

both right. Ewing was referring to Project Vote Smart as national political awareness test. A survey sent out to every congressional candidate on the survey processing indicated she supported Roe versus Wade as well as funding for family planning noting prevention reduces abortion. Officials at the U.N. used their name and programs to give credibility to what amounted to a negative attack against processing. And that is not allowed. When we started this a few years ago candidates that did not take the test would look at the candidates that did take the test in a cack them. Richard Kimball is executive director of Project Vote Smart. It happens very rarely one in less than one out of every 200 races nationally because somebody uses our name and the projects name to. Give credibility to an attack or a statement against an opponent. And so when that happens we get very concerned about it and so weve let all the candidates know nationally 13000 in written fashion a couple of times backed up by phone calls that

should they use Project Vote Smart to name any kind of attack that it will get one of two letters from us one letter condemns a candidate for using Project Vote Smart information in a mudslinging attack the other rebukes the candidate for not only using the Project Vote Smart name but then twisting and distorting survey facts. Ewing received the milder rebuke Project Vote Smart faxed the rebuke to processing and invited her to send it to the media. But processing also initiated phone calls to the media last Friday morning to explain the facts which she says is confusing. He said. The fact that I had filled out a questionnaire for Project Vote Smart and said I supported as he said Wade versus Roe meant that I supported partial birth abortion. Ironically in making those calls pressing may find herself condemned Project Vote Smart policy doesn't allow candidates to do more than send their facts to media outlets. Candidates are not supposed to use they vote smart rebuke to gain

political advantage. Project Vote Smart is now trying to verify whether processing went too far. Adelaide Elm is historian I've been involved. Well I'm a board member and I but I've been involved with our media department in the national political where we're in a Test Department for four years now through three elections and I've never seen never seen that before where a candidate taken are released and you know use it in a partisan manner other than giving it to the media that they want to have it. For his part Ewing declined to return repeated telephone calls UN flunked the national political awareness test. This election season because he missed Project Vote Smart questionnaire deadline. This is Dave Dickey. AM 580 News. Early in the evening it looked like 100 in 3rd District Democratic challenger Kathy Annan and Michael Frederick's the Democratic candidate in the 100 4th District might upset Republican incumbents Rick Winckel and Tim Johnson. But Annan and

Frederick's needed strong margins of victory in Champaign County to offset Republican strength elsewhere. And that didn't happen. Johnson edged for Eric's 50 to 48 percent while wangle won going away 57 to 43 percent. When Tcl says Annan may have made a tactical mistake in her campaign in over stressing health maintenance organization reform health care is a very important issue right. But I don't think that you can go out into a community and make it the issue. I don't think that I would call it the top issue or maybe not even the second issue. Third I think the issues were tax really improving our schools and safety in our neighborhoods. But Annan says HMO reform is a major issue and one that got a resounding chime of definitely. In many cases on many of the issues surveys was the one they said don't have anything else home Kathy talk about this. And that's a patient bill of rights health care reform in the last days leading up to the

election campaigning in Johnson's 100 4th District turn better for Erik's ran a number of radio spots stressing Johnson's decision to step down from Republican leadership roles. And here's the missed votes on the public utilities and judiciary one committee gets Johnson countered with a media blitz appearing on both radio and television to defend his record for Ickes says and going on TV. Johnson broke a pledge to limit his campaign spending to forty nine thousand eight hundred six dollars. He didn't disclose. So what's the use of a spending voluntary spending limit if there is no accountability. I've been looking at their billboards and mailings in TV and radio of production costs and I see no way that he could stay within the spending limit. But Johnson says his TV ADVERTISEMENT did not count against his pledge because his campaign did not spend the money. There's always been kind expenditures that other groups make of you know if and if they report those after we do we and we're not aware and I can't speak to that. And in terms of our own spending we're

fine. It wasn't. While Johnson by it was no there wasn't anybody that would bet it would put it over the top. Period. However the agreement Johnson and for IX signed applied to spending from the candidates campaign funds from the House Republican and Democratic committees and all in-kind spending on their behalf first time candidate for Ricks says he's become a little more jaded about the political process. I started this race very idealistic thinking that I would come in. I would get my message out. I would show people that's way to work hard. And they respond to it. And what I found in the past couple of weeks is more politics as usual distortions excuses breaking promises. Quite frankly I will leave this race a little more cynical than I entered it. Will I be cynical enough that I won't continue a future in politics. I haven't decided yet. Tomorrow morning I'll wake up and I'll start those plans. One rumor circulating at the champagne county administrative building last night was that this might be Johnson's last race. Johnson denied the rumor.

This is Dave Dickey and AM 580 News. It was never certain that voters this time around would approve any of the referenda that called for extra money. After all they had turned down previous requests for funds to replace the aging Champaign County Courthouse and upgrade the county's met cab Nine one one system. Many government leaders were angered that the sales tax in the Met cab surcharge were put on the fall ballot as separate questions. They worry that the proposals would cancel each other out. But Stu Trumbo a county board member who actively campaigned for re-election and for the quarter cent tax says the second guessing about separating the issues into two votes was unnecessary. Last year the Met had funding and the the court and youth detention funding were all encompassed under the quarter cent spending. I've heard a couple different. Interpretations of that. The addition of met can hurt us in certain rural constituencies who feel they are underserved by bi met cad.

And I have heard that the boss of met CAD will hurt us in certain urban constituencies that are highly served by by Met CAD the the true experts. Finish making a decision at 7 o'clock Trumbo spent much of last night in the county administrators office quantifying that final decision writing vote totals on a white board and plotting them on a computer comparing the vote to last year's election when overwhelming opposition outside Champaign-Urbana crushed the proposal. Yesterday it got 53 percent of the vote a near 20 400 vote margin of victory. The tax is supposed to raise three point one million dollars a year. The revenue is earmarked for a courthouse which was about to be mandated by a judge a new juvenile detention facility. More sheriff's patrol officers and yet unnamed programs to curb juvenile crime. It's that uncertainty about the programs and other questions that sales tax opponents got Tapley criticized in an unsuccessful campaign against the increase.

There is so much conflicting information out there in confusion. I think it was impossible for the voters to make a real. Clear decisive statement about the course and sales tax. And I think right now the first order of business needs to be finding out how much all this spending is going to cost because right now we have absolutely no idea Tapley things voters approve the quarters an increase because it sounded like county leaders were threatening property owners with a tax increase if the sales tax didn't pass. As it is the sales tax hike will prompt a small break in property taxes. County Auditor Jerry Parr who lent bipartisan support to the proposal as county Democratic chair says supporters were only looking at reality in the forms they attend in the things that I said. I never use that threat. I know that the covered courthouse needs to be fixed. We need new facilities and the judges didn't have to tell us that what we have is unsafe and unsuitable. The work is not over for county board members who now have to allocate the revenue from the tax Tapley says he'll make sure tax supporters are held accountable. Both he and Trumbo won

re-election to the board even while devoting much of their campaign time to the tax issue. Fears of a frustrated public voting against both the sales tax and the Met cat 9 1 1 proposal were unfounded. And that's a relief to met cad director Al Anderson. He says the 75 cent per month phone surcharge will pay for a 10 year upgrade of the 19 year old system. I really believe that the citizens of Champaign County understand that we have to have a modern viable 9:01 center to meet our needs. And if we don't have. A modern one on one center with new equipment and what's going to happen is we're going to have unplanned outages taxpayers were not entirely generous this election season though Rantoul Township High School officials have some tough decisions to make. Now that district voters have defeated a property tax increase for the fifth time the revenue would have helped to raise a $400000 operating deficit. Another school district has said yes to a new method of electing board members. Urbana district 116 will be divided into

districts with one elected official per district all board members are currently elected at large. I'm Tom Rogers AM 580 News. It was show that exploded right close to me. And. Tell me to the ground and took it back in there waiting on my back. In the gym. I just went flying up in the air. About 25 30 feet. I passed out. On in and out and then when I came to I started crawling and I put my hand on a black boot and we didn't have black boots. I mean American toads and I'm black. They had brown and I didn't know what to do. Alfredo look up.

So when I did look up I looked right into my machine and you know he had a right at my head he was going to kill me. Go ahead. I mean I was in so much pain in the ME that I went through what I thought was a little village and a dog came out and barked at me. And a fellow came out asked me if I was American. I gave him my best Dutch I said. He was a polo striped labor and one of the farms. But we were told not to expect help from the post. That. Part of Germany because their. Chances of being discovered were so intense and their. Family is you know what. Oh but I went and I. Was. Very gentle. Pick up cut. Many people had guns pointed at their heads and and a few other things but my case is very simple.

I was lying on a bed in France. They were treating my wounds and these three German soldiers jumped through the window or submachine guns said. You'll have to come with us. It just struck me I wasn't scared or thing I guess I've been through so much. A few hours before it was a relief. Hermann Goering was the second in command under Adolf Hitler. And he came to our prison camp one day and all the men wanted to know it was just your last name. They got us up at 2 o'clock in the morning and we were standing out there and he came by at 7 and we were still standing there. He asked me my last name and I told him and he looked at me and he says could you by any chance have a brother

or some relation in this prison camp. I looked right straight back at him and niceness yester I said. Anything is possible. I says after all there's five of us boys in service and all five of us fighting the Nazis. I thought that was a wrong thing to say but it turned out to be the right thing to say. He turned around rattle some off real fast and German to the guard. Pretty soon I saw the guard come back across the field and early goings on about same time with just over a quarter mile to the gate. They weren't quite to the gate yet Hermann Goring walked over to the gate. He took my brother by the arm and walked him clear back I stood him in front of me and he says You two know each other. That's a gesture. We're brothers. And he turned around he rattled off in real slow German to the guard that we were to be put together and never separated. He said I don't care where they go or what to do but do not separate a

lot of the Jewish soldiers got rid of their dog tags because if they should find a dog tag that they would take them out and we would never see them again. They could kill them too. I mean this is the this is the tragedy of war. I always figured it's up to God who survives and who dies in order to save your own sanity. The one thing that you don't do. I mean I could call you by your name and present can walk up I talk to you I knew exactly where you were from or and what you were doing I knew your parents. Just from what you told me that I could walk over Stark on a map forgot all about you. You had to keep your sanity because if you try to remember everybody you could remember him you know that you would never keep your mind because the next time you see him he may be dead.

And that hurt. We never doubted we would win the war. Even when I was captured and oh I told Germans was very foolish to take the United States on but toward the end of the war we got a lot more concern. I'm afraid there's a lot of people united states don't realize how close we came to lose and. We knew that they were getting closer and closer and the. Day that we were freed. You could hear small arms fire not too far away. And then suddenly the firing had stopped. And then when I went outside there were people pointing. At people maybe a mile away. They saw the American flag go up. And a few minutes later the. Pattens

fifth thing that I my division was at our front gate. We finally were stabbed in there on the 9th of May. I had a good friend whose name is our author. He lived in Chicago area but he told me he says if you ever get out of this alive and I don't. He said Tell my mother or father some good way that I died. Don't tell me I starve to death or was killed by. The Nazis for various reasons or anything he said. Just provide tell him that you were with me when I died and that I got shot in the headers of my cat. He said Make it real fast there. He told me his address in Chicago you know five minutes after that. He died. This was in January 1945 when he'd asked me to do that when we were coming back in

May. We came through Chicago. I happened to think. God that man wanted to go by and tell you mother I can't remember his address but rattled it off just like that. I walked out of the cab driver asking people to take me to this address. So he took me out there and I met this arch mother father. And. I tried to explain to him in a nice way and they said Well as long as we know he's buried and as if he's buried as we made sure of that all of our friends were buried. I couldn't stand her and tell her No he's not buried but we don't know where he's at. All we could do was to bury him in the snow. So that her body would freeze. One of the most sad things you ever do in your life just walk off and leave your friends life. Bill two years ago there was a flurry of last minute activity in the

fall veto session as Republicans passed a number of bills before losing control of the house. What about this year. What we have this time is a governor leaving office in January. I don't expect to spend the number of days that they spent two years ago in session. However I think there will be some big issues that pop up that are not normally on the agenda for a fall veto session or are not supposed to be maybe we should say are totally unrelated to any of the governor's actions on bills. But instead we could see issues emerging from the plausible will be something dealing with early retirement for state employees. At this point nothing included for state universities. The possible will be that then we could take up riverboat gambling and. Maybe out in the outer reaches something could happen regarding a stadium for the Chicago Bears I would say that's probably not going to come up. But the other two have a good chance of coming up. Let's look at the plausible first early retirement package to state employees in

theory. This would save the state money by encouraging older workers to leave what about in fact. Well in fact is much harder to gauge. They did an early retirement program half dozen years ago. The end result that is seems to be that there was not much savings many important people whose jobs were vital that retired ended up coming back on contract for a much higher wage than they were making originally. What we see happening this time around the other thing that's playing into this and the reason Governor Jim Edgar is likely behind it and supporting it is that a lot of people could be facing uncomfortable job situations as the new governor comes in albeit in the same party and a new secretary of state will be coming in one from a different party. You mentioned casinos as well Governor Jim Edgar his idea is to use money from a state operated riverboat casino to prop up the horseracing industry.

That is exactly right the governor has always been a horse race lover. Critics contend that the horse racing business is waning and on its way out and really you're not dealing with natural market forces by propping up the industry. There is a vacant riverboat licens that had been used up in the Galena area. That boat was not too successful and the plan is let the state take ownership of a so-called cash cow move it into the Chicago area and that could be suburbs could be anywhere in that region of the state and let it start generating a lot of money with a lot of the profits to be going towards the horse racing industry and helping out and paying a larger purses to bring in the better quality horses the other part of this and a reason I think this gambling bill may pass this time is that it's also designed at dockside gaming this has been a particular concern over in the Quad Cities. But on any state border really they're going we have to. Illinois law requires us to take the boat out float around a little while bring the people back whereas right across the Mississippi River and Iowa probably really over in Indiana.

People can just walk onto the boat walk off the boat any time they please the boat just stays Mord and they've been calling for this for some time some of these communities who are competing with someone directly across a river or something like that especially in the Quad City area. And so I think that has a good chance of passing. And the governor says he does not support expansion of gambling. None of these fit in his criteria that define expansion. Lawmakers may also decide to wrestle with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act a bill that Governor Edgar used has the mandatory veto on. That's right we have 24 bills that either the governor vetoed or a mandatory only vetoed essentially changed one of those is that Bill that kind of writes out the fact that everybody has guaranteed religious rights and government action should not get in the way of that. But the governor's action got in the way of that of fact he said that prisoners should not be entitled to all religious freedom. And in the past the sponsors of the bill said they

supported the governor's changes or would go along with them and expected a fairly easy vote that of course remains to be seen yet depending on who comes out in protest or anything like that. And the improbable dealing with the Chicago Bears situation. You know there's always that possibility. And. Governor Edgar has always been reluctant to be a wheeler dealer. And while he bristles when people say that he is not the kind of wheeler dealer that Jim Thompson was nor probably that George Ryan will be. This is one issue I think would probably be too big too fast and I don't know if the governor and those guys could get that worked out in time before he leaves office. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The law required states to show a compelling interest in order to restrict religious practices. The high court ruled that Congress had exceeded its authority under the 14th Amendment that it was up to

individual states to deal with issues of religious protections without opposition the Illinois General Assembly passed its own version of referenda and sent it to Governor Jim Edgar last June. But Edgar used his a mandatory veto to exclude prisoners housed in department of correction facilities both those convicted and those awaiting trial as well as juvenile offenders. The trouble with the state law I went much farther than the federal law and our concern was the way the law was written could. Be a great burden on the correctional systems as they try to also administer those prisons and keep disciplined people in prison. Are not going to get all of the freedoms that an individual who is not in prison is going to receive. The people who support this bill was they said they wanted to establish something since a federal law had been removed and we feel they still have safeguards for the inmates.

But because the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal act. Illinois is not compelled to permit inmates religious freedoms once protected by law. There is nothing. In the long history of. A president. That would indicate that the prison system of itself. Is unwilling to grant or accommodate people's religious right Lorie talky is prison chaplain at the Lincoln Correctional Center. Religious Freedoms in prison for more. Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics have almost always been to war. As a result of litigation or political pressure from from interest groups. That is you know the reason that Jewish inmates are able to break out of prisons because Jews in the. Need to stand up protect to protect that right. The Illinois House agreed with talkies viewpoint. Voting 100 in ten to three to override Eggers a mandatory veto and protect the religious rights of prisoners. You're also worried that inmates would use the cover of religion for gang related

activities or as a means to submit frivolous lawsuits. But in a three and a half year period they Illinois abided by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Prisoners filed just 31 religious lawsuits less than one tenth of one percent of all civil cases in Illinois. Yesterday on the House floor lawmakers argued that refer contains built in safeguards to prevent frivolous litigation and maintain prison security. They say inmates bear the burden of proving a sincerely held religious belief and that the government has an opportunity to prove its compelling interest. Legislators also pointed at the court's traditional deference to prisons wardens and correction officials when in 99 percent of the cases brought by inmates under the federal referee while referee passed without objection and both the House and Senate earlier this year. A few lawmakers including Danville Republican Bill Black changed their vote yesterday. Black says there was no need to include prisoners in reference noting inmates already

enjoying numerous religious freedoms. I have a president my gastric. Just look at what some of the prison guards have told me will happen in their opinion. Inmates will most likely refuse to be strip searched on religious grounds. Gangs and other groups in a prison will assert religious beliefs in order to meet organize or distribute information in furtherance of criminal activity has already been attempted by inmate members of the Rukun gang. What I think the governor saw in this bill that maybe we didn't last spring was the definition of exercise of religion. Lauren Beth gash a Highland Park Democrat sponsored the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act vetoed by Ed here although I do understand the governor's concerns I do want to reassure him and anyone else his concerns are adequately more than adequately addressed in reference and in previous state legislation. We shouldn't be denying prisoners access to the one thing that in fact has been proven to change their lives gashes override now moves to the Senate where it will need 36 votes to pass. The

Senate may vote on the bill as early as today. This is Dave Dickey and the 580 News. General Powell says a recent event in the Midwest illustrates the need for more involvement with the nation's youth. You know you look in Wisconsin just a couple days ago and you found some youngsters who are so disaffected so disbelieving in the promise of America. That they were going to go to school one day and kill. The principal teachers and some of their fellow students. There is something wrong with the way those children raised with the way the community has embraced them. With our inability to a dent defy these kind of pathologies at work in these youngsters. And that's the kind of thing I think we have to do more work on. And that's what I'm devoting my energies to. Paul was at Decatur Millikan University to talk about is America's Promise Program an initiative to get communities involved in mentoring young people. The 35 year military veteran and rumored political candidate admits he spent part of his day watching the House

impeachment hearings on television. He says it's important the House Judiciary Committee weighed the facts carefully but they should make an expedient decision. I would be surprised if at the end of the process there are peach mint. Articles written I don't see that yet. I think that's unlikely but let's get to the end of it and do it quickly without confusing the issue live with the debates about what Mr. Starr did or didn't do. Paul says regardless of the committee's decision it is their constitutional duty to hold the hearings then move on to other business like foreign affairs. The general says the recent clash with Iraq underscores the need for a firm hand in the Persian Gulf. I would like to see a policy that says when they're not given full access we will simply destroy any facility that they are not allowed into and not go into this build up every five months which causes us great expense and creates a crisis atmosphere where we ought to put the crisis on Hussein. Powell says the president was correct in halting an attack on Iraq once weapons

inspectors were allowed to resume their work. He says it's all too easy for the public to call for Saddam's assassination. I don't know who replaces him. I don't know. Would you prefer to see his son Uday who is even worse than he or Mr. Aziz who fills our television sets from time to time the deputy prime minister. So taking out Saddam Hussein has a nice clear surgical ring to it. But. Be very careful about anticipating what you do after after that because you know it's not clear that there's a Jeffersonian Democrat hanging around Baghdad waiting to take over. Powell himself is still they lose with questions about his political future. He recently found out about a website entitled Powell 2000. Now it is no accounting for the Internet I mean I'm not God and I don't perhaps we do need censorship on the Internet. Our V-chip the retired general says no matter how many times he's asked to run for office the answer is still the same I'm not moving in that direction in my life. I'm going to serve the nation in a number of ways and I'm trying to do

now working with young people and I will do that not political life for the reasons I gave in 1905 I don't bring to political life the kind of commitment and passion I think you need to have. And it is not something my family wishes to do Paul says his friends in the Republican Party have stopped courting him for candidacy because they realize his mind is made up. Even if the public isn't so sure. The general says he has absolutely no plans to leave his private life or the work he's doing for children. I'm sure a weighty AM 580 News. Going after criminals used to mean hitting the streets but now fighting crime can have a very different sound. Cops are being trained to go online to find criminals. Chris Samp of the National white collar crime center trains police

departments in computer forensics the extraction of evidence from computers he says of criminals use computers then cops need to understand them as well. Stop and look at all the folks just yourself. How many folks have computers in their home. So any time a law enforcement officer goes into any kind of a case they have a 50/50 chance of finding a computer. Obviously if you go into a business and do a search for a business or to find computers there you have to be able to deal with one of the first things officers are taught is the definition of a computer according to keys to fall head of the Illinois attorney general's Internet crime unit. A computer is not an easy thing to define a gas bomb where you put your card in and a process information that way at the Palms. I would argue that's probably a computer and. Smart Card with the chips imbedded into a credit card might qualify at a school your local school or have a dial an attendance system and computers they can access by dialing in a voicemail system.

In fact Illinois statute says a computer is any device that accepts processes stores or retrieves or outputs data to make matters more confusing. There are several areas of computer crime crimes directly related to the computer include tampering fraud deception and theft of data hardware or software. Also illegal is using a computer in a way that risks injuries or death such as shutting down an emergency alarm system. But now with the proliferation of technology police are being taught to look beyond the conventional notions of computer offenses and that can be any kind of crime it can be a theft a convenience for to be drug dealing where the keeping records on a computer. Obviously I'm familiar with the child porn the sex exploitation or the mean people on the Internet. Where they're downloading images onto their computers. It's only limited by the imagination of the other criminal so with criminals becoming so pro fish and using technology the pressure is on police to catch up. Chris Sam says that's not always an easy task.

We are trained from cops who have you know basically type still their reports all the way up to cops who actually do Internet investigations and things like that he says it's not a hopeless task. Most officers learn quickly. For starters he says 80 to 90 percent of the computers cops run into are DOS based PCs. So he trains accordingly. We start at the basics. The officers need to learn about hardware and all the different kinds of hardware they're going to see out there. And the ultimate that we end up with at the end of the week is basically the ability to make a duplicate image to take whatever's on that hard drive and duplicate it at the lowest level so it's an exact copy. That way you don't destroy the evidence you can work on that copy freely knowing that you still have the original evidence. One thing cops discover is that it's rare anything is actually deleted in class they learn to analyze what is called the slack space between data. Small sites a typical case where an Internet child pornographers tracks were easily followed.

We're able to look at all the different places that these images are on there were he added like he had a prison you know go through the steps of learning of a different file or different directory to save it in his AOL directory copies of the e-mail that it sent out saying here's another one for you. You know that he was trying with other people. I got lots more like this. Shaul says that child pornography is rampant on the Internet. And as quickly as technology changes so do the way the criminals operate. Cohen Bruce an assistant United States attorney is an expert in computer crime. It's a very fast developing area. And what can be a cutting edge topic. At one point in time six months later it can be old news wanted something entirely different that they're doing. He spends much of his time investigating threats to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications located at the University of Illinois. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications in CSA is the nation's premier super computer center. They work with both public and private industry developing all sorts of advanced high technology applications computing applications.

As such they're also considered to be a major national security asset and a prime target for hacking the NCSA has the second most reported attacks of any system in the world after MIT. Bruce says protecting huge systems from hackers presents a number of challenges. I refer to hacking as as robbing the night Depository at a bank. You know someone broke in you know something. Was perhaps taken you don't know how much was taken what it was worth. In addition some firms don't want to report the crime for fear of revealing their research or the bad publicity the perception of an unsafe system could generate. Bruce says prosecutors must pursue cases based on what is in the public's interest without regard to publicity. Meanwhile Illinois is recognized as being in the forefront in prosecuting and fighting computer crime. You have some folks at the attorney general's office. You also have some folks at the Illinois state police I believe there's a unit just started down there. A lot of states do not have anybody at the state level who

is involved in this kind of case. According to the Illinois attorney general's office the next goal is to provide a uniform training on computer forensics to every police department in the state. So the cops can keep up with the criminals I'm sure always AM 580 News. What qualities do you think you bring to the board chair. I've been on the board six years and chaired environment and Land Use Committee and the drainage committee and I've been on the policy committee for all time I've been on the board and. I think I had a good reporter with a lot of urban people a lot of rural people and I think I know what we need to get done. I chaired a quarter cent committee that. Passed a referendum to fund a courthouse and a youth detention center and I'd just like to proceed with it. So certainly the building issues are on the table what other issues do you think are

on the table for the next year or two. Well we've got financial problems on our general corporate phone that have got to be addressed immediately and we've got labor negotiations that are ongoing that have. Not been settled and may not be settled for a while and. We've got. Several things going on with champagne Urbana about additional growth. Olympia drive is on the table Curtis Rhodes on the table. There is a lot of things. The last two years have been traumatic for the champagne County Board. There was what many voters felt were delaying tactics over the start of the county health department and there was what many would say is a loss of voter trust from how the county board handled the issue on pensions. Do you feel there's work to be done to regain voter confidence.

I don't think so because they gave us exactly what we asked them for in this last election. The electorate in this county is highly educated and if you go out and and give them. A good reason to support you they do and they did with Matt cad and with the sales tax. I know there was a lot of people that felt like we didn't do our job with that pension thing and that was a flap that a lot I was let go by that we probably should call. The rest of it is I think been an image problem in that. Cities have never really given the county board very much credit for what it did. This is a low tax County we've got the lowest tax rate for any county in the state of Illinois our size by a great deal. The property tax rate here is eight hundred sixty eight 1/2 cents a

hundred. You go to McLean it's a dollar for you go over me and it's over a dollar it's a dollar twenty six and make and I'm not going to apologize for that this this board's been frugal it's done a good job with the resources that we've had and we're trying to reach out now to a wider group of people we've included. Many urban people in positions where they been shot have not had the chance to serve before Deb frying in as the vice chair of a board. The majority of the chairs on the board urban and I know I'm the last farmer on the board. I'm the only one and when I hear about urban rural split I just don't see it on this board and I think we're going to work together and get a lot of good things done in voter confidence is good how do you interpret Democrats gaining three seats on the GOP controlled board. Well in District

9 they had those two seats prior to. The 1994 election and Democrats lost everywhere in that election. The mayor of Urbana and those two people that were successful there diligently they beat on doors day and night and they just they. It was hard work that won those two seats in the one in champagne at one time had been a Democratic seat I just don't see that big a shift we had an 18 9 split on the board the first two years I served on there and that's what we're back to again. The county board too big 27 members and should it shrink when it is redistricted in 2001. I personally don't think it's too big a lot of people do. But you look at the interests that are represented there there's rural there's 3 Ph Ds there's a retired geology professor there's two attorneys.

It's a broad cross-section of. What Champaign Urbana and Champaign County are all about. You've got a man like Bill Fryman that has the capability to serve on this board and has the knowledge to go out and build a jail a youth detention center in a courthouse. And I think if you cut down on the number of individuals that want to serve on this board you're only people like him out of the loop.