Illinois: If You Like TIF, You're Gonna Love STAR

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Sunday June 07, 2009 · 3:49 PM PDT

2009/06/07 · 15:49

This is STAR as in Sales Tax Anticipated Revenue bonds, and it's a plan only big developers and pocketed or ill-informed legislators could love. I'll put links to other articles after the jump so you can further clarify for yourself exactly how STAR financing works, but if you understand Tax Increment Financing (TIF) -- and how TIF is regularly abused in Illinois -- you've already got the concept. Just add the twist of developers capturing, via rebate, sales tax revenues generated within the district.

yinn

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Saturday December 29, 2007 · 6:39 AM PST

2007/12/29 · 06:39

[I was just reading FishOutofWater's diary, "Solar Power Breakthrough" and thought this post from my blog, published earlier this week, might be of some interest. Not sure if posting the accompanying photos would be OK or not here, so I won't.]

[Quick Update: I widened my search and also found this great, but ignored diary by skids from back in September.]

I don't know about you, but the term "solar energy" has usually made me think about photovoltaics, in which light from the sun is converted into electrical energy. No more. This week I was browsing Bill Foster's energy policy paper (he's a candidate in IL-14) and read the term "thermo-solar energy" for the first time. Also called solar thermal energy, this technology is about using the sun's heat for generating electricity.

yinn

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Sunday May 06, 2007 · 3:26 PM PDT

2007/05/06 · 15:26

I don't know yet whether I want Barack Obama as President of the United States. I do know that I worry about him. That the U.S. Secret Service has decided to provide security is a relief, especially in light of Senator Durbin's comments:

The decision followed recommendations from Obama's colleagues in Congress, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who had reviewed, among other things, racist Web postings and letters.

"Unfortunately, many of the things that concerned me had a lot to do with race," Durbin said last week. "I wish we lived in a country where that is not a problem, but it still is. And the fact that Barack Obama is such a highly visible African-American candidate, I think, increases his vulnerability."

While national surveys suggest the country is willing to elect a qualified black president, the rising tensions so early in the campaign suggest a disquieting side.

yinn

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Sunday March 11, 2007 · 10:41 AM PDT

2007/03/11 · 10:41

A quick check of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) website shows that the ethanol boom continues here. As of the year 2000, four ethanol plants were in operation but by the time I first wrote about ethanol last summer, there were a half-dozen plants operating with about 20 more proposed for our state; and as of February 1, there are 53 plants and expansions in various stages of the permitting process, half of them applications submitted within the past six months.

Ethanol Producer Magazine notes in its February 2007 publication that the 2006 permit total alone represents 4.3 billion gallons of added capacity if all these projects are approved.

I've confronted water usage, mainly, in discussing the downsides of ethanol so far. Just as important is considering the ways this boom might affect how farmers--and others--view and use our land. For example, some farmers are abandoning crop rotation.

yinn

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Thursday December 28, 2006 · 3:40 PM PST

2006/12/28 · 15:40

The diaries so far that comment on John Dean's latest article have focused mainly on the moral imperative to promote impeachment of Bush and Cheney regardless of whether there's a snowball's chance of its happening. I think we should put that aside for a moment and focus on his other idea, that of impeaching the people who have worked for them who have also committed crimes. That would result in real house-cleaning, not to have the same bozos back with every GOP administration. After the fold is a cross-posting from SoapBlox-Chicago to help further the discussion.

yinn

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Tuesday July 11, 2006 · 2:18 PM PDT

2006/07/11 · 14:18

That was some neat trick, how we came to be pumping our own gasoline and pouring our own soda fountain drinks. Nowadays, people can even scan their own groceries. I'll resist that one, thank you. Doesn't matter, you can either call me an old fogey or flatter me by saying that I've boldly drawn a line in the sand.

The worst is the do-it-yourself (DIY) company phone receptionist. All that button-pushing where a few words used to do the trick. We've been robbed, I tell you--slowly and insidiously shafted. People should definitely be paid for this kind of drudgery.

And I felt this way even before I knew all this DIY customer service might help the G-men spy on me. Read More

Blessed Relief: American Conservative Magazine

yinn

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Thursday July 06, 2006 · 2:46 PM PDT

2006/07/06 · 14:46

Trying to find more information last year about Robert Pape's book on suicide terrorism, Dying to Win, I came upon an interview with Mr. Pape at The American Conservative Magazine.

After spending several years convinced that normal conservatives had been replaced by creatures hatched from pods, it was a relief. The founders of AmConMag are as appalled at Bush administration policies as I am. From their mission statement: Read More

New Harvest: Rain (w/Poll)

yinn

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Saturday July 01, 2006 · 6:55 PM PDT

2006/07/01 · 18:55

We have a couple of booming industries here in Illinois and in other parts of the Midwest: Logistics and ethanol. One argument in favor of welcoming logistics to town is that the operation doesn't use much water. The ethanol biz, on the other hand, requires a whole lot.

This article from Live Science Mag describes concerns about the water required in ethanol production:

High oil prices and support from Washington have inspired such interest in the corn-based gasoline additive that the Illinois Corn Growers Association now says at least 30 plants are in various stages of planning across the state.
All will use a lot of water.
It would take about 300 million gallons of water for processing the product and cooling equipment to make 100 million gallons of ethanol each year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

yinn

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Friday April 07, 2006 · 4:26 PM PDT

2006/04/07 · 16:26

The Washington Post reports today that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not rule out a legal basis for U.S. wiretapping of purely domestic communications. Gonzales made the comments during a House Judiciary hearing yesterday.

"You would look at precedent," he said. "What have previous commander in chiefs done?"
Answering his question, he cited Woodrow Wilson's authorizing the interception of all cables to and from Europe in World War I "based upon the Constitution and his inherent role as commander in chief."
Mr. Gonzales said he would use that legal framework to decide whether intercepting purely domestic communications without a warrant was legally permissible. He would not say whether such wiretapping has been conducted.

Meaning BushCo has conveniently drop-kicked "probable cause" out the window. Read More

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 3

yinn

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Sunday March 19, 2006 · 1:06 PM PST

2006/03/19 · 13:06

[Please note if you have been following this series of diaries that I've changed the four mainstreaming factors labels from numbers to A,B,C,D to minimize potential confusion between them and the diary parts.]

Part 3: Superman to the rescue

[Find parts 1 and 2 here]

In Part 2 of this series, I asserted my belief that there are four essential factors that, taken together, will grant a hate group wide or maybe even mainstream acceptance for a time. So far we've discussed the role of rapid immigration/migration in triggering anxiety that can potentially be channeled into hate activities, and the importance of either central leadership or at least coordination of political activities when it comes to mainstreaming efforts. In this part, I'll examine the roles of media and law enforcement in enabling (or not) the ability of a group or movement to poison the mainstream with hate.
Read More

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 2

yinn

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Thursday March 16, 2006 · 4:43 PM PST

2006/03/16 · 16:43

Part 2: Really hostile takeovers

About 1980 I took an introductory journalism course called something Media History or other, and read that one of the first silent moving pictures was D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation," released in 1915. There was no information regarding content or context. Years later, though not yesterday, I discovered that it was based on a play called "The Clansman" and told an American story from the perspective of the Ku Klux Klan. (Imagine; a whole roomful of young people ostensibly interested in journalism and not one shred of curiosity in the bunch. Is college not wasted on the young?)

What I did discover yesterday or so is that the movie was very controversial at the time. Or at least, that part never struck me as remarkable before. There was public outrage; there were attempts to censor it. Griffith had to go to court to save its premier showing. Kind of like what you'd expect today.
Read More

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 1

yinn

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Tuesday March 14, 2006 · 11:31 AM PST

2006/03/14 · 11:31

Diaries at DKos from progressivearlingtonian and from Steven D have already shared about as much information about the founding, membership and activities of the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP) as anyone can possibly uncover. Justice Louis Brandeis said, "Sunshine is the best of disinfectants," and these posts deliver healthy doses of it. What I have to add are some of the other tactics that extremists have been using to infiltrate moderate/mainstream groups, and to haul one or two more of these "stealth" organizations out from the shadows. It's also an(other) indictment of media's role in mainstreaming right-wing groups.
Read More

RSS

Illinois: If You Like TIF, You're Gonna Love STAR

The Other Side of Solar

The "Creativity" of Modern Racism

Ethanol Rules in Illinois

John Dean is Right: Impeach the Minions

How "Self-Serve" May Bite Us in the Butt.

Blessed Relief: American Conservative Magazine

New Harvest: Rain (w/Poll)

Gonzalez, NSA & ATT

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 3

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 2

KKK to CNP: Poisoning the 'stream, Part 1