Jim Nowlan: With Illinois struggling, the Edgar Fellows could draft a vision for a positive future
Situation: After considering thousands of bills, the Illinois legislature paused its brief, frenetic spring session, putting off until the fall action on the really sticky issues, such as how to address a $770 million 'fiscal cliff' shortfall in funding for metro Chicago's critical mass transit.
Legislative bodies exist to resolve conflict, which is time-consuming, challenging, even painful. Politics are largely a game of 'who gets what.' Granting additional money, say, to school kids, requires either, one, taking an equivalent amount from some other spending program; two, taking more in taxes out of the hides of voters; or three, transforming the equivalent expenditure into debt for future generations to pay off. (This assumes no or slow real economic growth in Illinois, as is the case.)
Each of the 177 Illinois state legislators has his or her own bills to shepherd through the two houses of the legislature, and any bill that does anything has its pesky opponents. Members must feel as if they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off — scores of committees, floor sessions, meetings with constituents and lobbyists.
Long-term thinking in Illinois is: 'How do we paper over next year's budget deficit?' There is never time for the big picture, 'the vision thing.'
Where do we want the state to be in 10 to 20 years? How should we respond to climate change (which could be bad and good for Illinois)? What about our jerry-built revenue system, which is rather unresponsive in a services-driven economy? And an education system in which achievement for those on the lower half of the economic ladder is being devalued? (For example, achievement in our rural schools is abysmal, yet few seem to know or care.) How do we reverse state population decline and tepid job growth, which for decades has been slower than for the rest of the Midwest and nation?
The singular piece of really forward thinking in Illinois history came with the Burnham Plan for Chicago of the early 1900s, led by architect Daniel Burnham and commissioned by the Commercial Club of Chicago. The effort followed on the heels of the stupendous Chicago World's Fair of 1893, visited by 27 million folks from around the world. So, the 'city of the big shoulders,' as poet Carl Sandburg described it, knew it could do big things.
After much work, the plan was presented to the City Council, which also labored over the plan, ultimately adopting about half the recommendations. But what marvelous results: Thirty unbroken miles of lakefront open to the public; wide boulevards and spectacular parks, and more. Chicagoans and visitors have benefited every day since its adoption in 1909.
Other states take the long look. With Texas 2036 (the state's 200th anniversary of nationhood), that state's civic and business leaders are shaping a stronger state for the long haul.
I propose an idea for tapping into an incredible but underutilized resource for future thinking. Former Gov. Jim Edgar's greatest legacy may be his Edgar Fellows Program. Each summer for more than a decade, Jim gathers 40 of the state's young leaders, many of whom are now lawmakers, from all walks of life, political persuasions and geography. For a week, the fellows are sequestered near the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where they learn about our state and its government from experts and national leaders. Over bourbon and branch water in the evenings, they bond and come to appreciate one another.
But then they leave town and fail to build on their relationships and any aspirations for a state they will lead in the years to come.
I propose that the 500 Edgar Fellows, rather than simply feel good about themselves, take on the task of creating a vision for Illinois, as with the Burnham Plan. This needs be done outside the hurly-burly of politics, after which they would take their vision into the political arena, where it would be wrestled with, and adopted, if only in part. The fellows have both the smarts to create a vision and the growing clout to see it enacted.
Illinois needs to know where it should be going, for a change.
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CBS News
15 hours ago
- CBS News
After CBP agent is shot in NYC, Tom Homan says sanctuary cities are now ICE's priority
President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, says sanctuary cities are now his priority after the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection over the weekend in New York City. He said Monday he's fed up with the city's sanctuary laws and will now "flood" the area with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest people where ever they find them. Homan said he's especially angry with the City Council, which went to court to stop a deal with Mayor Eric Adams to allow ICE to arrest people on Riker's Island, adding the new policies mean that people who are not criminals could get caught up in the new dragnet. "Sanctuary cities are now our priority. We're going to flood the zone. You don't want to let us into jail to arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail. You want to release him into the street. So, what we're going to do, we'll have more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy," Homan said. The shooting of the 42-year-old off-duty CBP patrol officer in Fort Washington Park late Saturday night has Homan saying he's no longer going to play nice with the mayor, or hope he can convince the City Council or the courts to let ICE agents operate on Rikers Island. "Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want -- more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite. If we can't arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of county jail, we'll arrest him in the community," Homan said, "and when we arrest him in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they're coming, too." It's unclear just how soon Homan plans to flood New York City with more federal immigration agents and just how many asylum seekers who are not on the feds' wanted lists could get caught up in the new actions. It's also unclear whether Homan plans to send his agents into schools, churches, hospitals and other places that so far have been locations where asylum seekers have felt safe. However, one thing is clear: Adams doesn't want innocent people swept up in the raids. He says the feds should limit ICE to going after people who commit crimes. "If he's going to assist us to go after those individuals, I welcome it. If it's going to be to go after everyday individuals who are trying to complete the path to be a citizen, then I don't think we should do that," Adams said. The question now is whether the mayor could pay a political price for supporting sanctuary city laws. In the wake of the shooting of the off-duty CBP officer, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressed displeasure about the city's sanctuary policies. Noem is urging New Yorkers to consider Adams' support for sanctuary city laws when picking the next occupant of Gracie Mansion. "Boy, start looking at the candidates today and see which one is going to start making the city safer, because you've got a mayor today that could have done better, could have done better and maybe he'd have more support today if he had put his people first," Noem said. CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer asked Adams about Noem's comments. "I think that she's accurate. You should look at the mayors and determine the candidates, and determine who's going to do the best for this city when it comes down to migrants and asylum seekers," Adams said. "And, you know, the history is going to show, and the facts are going to speak on my behalf, that how well we've done at the city." Republican Curtis Sliwa says he's the best candidate to work with the feds. "Well, I'm the only candidate running who's opposed to the sanctuary city, but I would have used charter revision, put it on the ballot. Eric Adams had two opportunities to put it on the ballot. Tremendous number of voters would have come in and voted on that," Sliwa said. Kramer reached out to the campaigns of Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to get their positions on sanctuary cities and working with the feds, but did not immediately hear back.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
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ICE will ‘flood the zone' in NYC
NEW YORK — The Department of Homeland Security will 'flood the zone' with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York City after the City Council blocked federal law enforcement agencies from opening an office in the city jails, President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan said Monday morning. Homan joined DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials to deliver that message at One World Trade Center after an off-duty federal customs officer was shot by an undocumented immigrant in an attempted robbery Saturday night, Noem said. 'You don't want to let us in the jails to arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail. You want to release him into the street, which makes it unsafe for the alien, because anything can happen in an on-street arrest,' Homan said. 'So what are we gonna do? We're gonna put more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy. So sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want: more agents in the community.' The alleged shooter entered the country illegally in 2023 during then-President Joe Biden's tenure and had been arrested and released four times in the years since, Noem said. She blamed the shooting on New York's sanctuary city policies that limit the city's cooperation with civil immigration enforcement and Mayor Eric Adams for not changing the policies, despite his good relationship with the Trump administration. 'Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today fighting for his life because of the policies of the mayor of this city and the City Council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe. They refused to do so,' Noem said. Adams has said he wants to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration more but blamed the left-leaning City Council for not letting him. 'I have nothing to do with the rules that are put in place. I just carry out the rules,' Adams said at an unrelated press conference Monday when asked to respond to Noem. Adams said he welcomes more ICE agents in the city if they're going to help the city go after 'dangerous people' like the alleged shooter, but said that 'if it's going to be to go after everyday individuals who are trying to complete the path, who are trying to be a citizen, I don't think we should do that.' The City Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, the Democratic nominee for city comptroller, shot back. 'To be clear: ICE can and does detail people on Rikers,' he posted on X, referring to the island holding the city's jails. 'They just need a judicial warrant. [What] Homan is talking about is sending masked, unidentified agents into our streets to tear apart families and raid workplaces. This is not about safety. It's about instilling fear.' The plan to increase staffing in New York City comes after Trump vowed to focus immigration enforcement on Democratic-led cities. 'What we'll do in a city like this is we'll double down,' Noem said Monday of New York. 'We'll put more agents here. We'll put more personnel here. We'll give them more equipment, more training for situations where they may have to go into a dangerous neighborhood where local law enforcement won't be there to have their backs.' DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on current staffing levels and what an increase would look like. Solve the daily Crossword
San Francisco Chronicle
17 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
After tragedy, a beloved Bay Area festival shut down. Now it's back — but it'll be different
Greg Bozzo stood amid the towering redwoods and lush green hills of Gilroy's Christmas Hill Park, blinking back tears as he wondered aloud: When it mattered most, did he do enough? Nearly six years ago, Bozzo — a tall, gray-haired man with relentless energy — was at this same park, getting ready to break down the 41st annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, when he heard a pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. He glanced up. Droves of people were fleeing what he later learned was a gunman, dressed like a soldier with an assault rifle, near the inflatable slide. What Bozzo witnessed over the next 45 seconds — pure chaos as he rushed toward the slide to help; festival-goers frantically tending to the wounded; people crying out for their loved ones — has stuck with him. 'I refuse to recognize that I'm an emotional person,' Bozzo said while discussing that shooting, which killed three people, including two children.'But this? This one gets me.' Last year, despite having no political experience, Bozzo ran for Gilroy mayor. At the crux of his campaign: a promise to help himself and others heal from the horrific events of July 28, 2019, by reviving the city's iconic festival. For the four decades before its abrupt and tragic closure, it had been an essential source of local pride. Now, about seven months after Bozzo was narrowly elected, he is among a small group of community leaders responsible for the festival's comeback. And the big question for most Gilroyans isn't whether resuscitating the event was worth it. Rather, it's whether a scaled-down version can provide the Silicon Valley suburb's roughly 60,000 residents the closure they need. What's clear is it will feel different. When the three-day festival arrives July 25 at Gilroy Gardens' South County Grove, it will be somewhere other than Christmas Hill Park for the first time since its founding in 1979. It will also be a fraction of the size. Long known for drawing crowds of more than 100,000 people, this iteration is limited to 9,000 guests. Tickets sold out within six hours. 'I think we're ready for this festival so we can show that we can turn the page and move on,' said City Council Member Tom Cline, who served as Gilroy Garlic Festival Association president from 2019 to 2021. 'Boston got to have the Boston Marathon the year after the bombing, and we just weren't able to do that.' Just as that marathon is more than a race, the Gilroy Garlic Festival became more than a place to eat and listen to music. People planned their summer schedules around it. By transforming Gilroy's garlicky stench from a punchline to a point of honor, and raising millions of dollars for charities, the event came to embody the principles residents say they value most: hard work, hospitality, community. With those festivities now shrouded by tragedy, organizers hope to usher in a new era while reminding visitors of their decades-long heyday. Among the many familiar attractions set to return are free samples of garlic ice cream, garlic-themed arts and crafts, and 'Gourmet Alley,' where pyro chefs fire up gigantic skillets loaded with such garlic-infused dishes as shrimp scampi and pepper-steak sandwiches. The ultimate goal: grow this reimagined event in coming years to the point where Gilroy feels like itself again. 'Gilroy is the garlic festival,' said Gilroy native Patrick Carr, who teaches at a middle school in nearby Watsonville. 'And, it wasn't just what put us on the map. It was supposed to be our safe space.' During his recent visit to Christmas Hill Park, Bozzo leaned against his white pickup in the parking lot as he gazed at the patch of grass where the inflatable slide used to sit. In the more than 2,000 days since he found himself about 100 yards from an active shooter, Bozzo, 58, has confided in people he trusted about the complex emotions triggered by the incident. Those conversations helped him acknowledge his nagging what-ifs for what they are: signs that he hasn't fully moved forward from the tragedy. 'Rationally, I know there was nothing I could do,' Bozzo said. 'But when you go through something traumatic like this, you can't help but question yourself.' As the 2019 festival was winding down on a warm Sunday evening, 19-year-old Santino Legan crept along Uvas Creek, then used bolt cutters to sneak through a fence. After raising an AK-47-style rifle he'd recently purchased in Nevada, he began shooting at festival-goers gathered near the inflatable slide. On top of the three people he killed, Legan wounded 17. Many others, like Bozzo, were left with less visible injuries. Though Legan is believed to have had possible links to the white supremacist movement, authorities couldn't identify a specific motive for the shooting. Perhaps the closest they'll come to knowing what compelled Legan was his four-word response to someone who'd asked him amid the mayhem why he was doing this: 'Because I'm really angry.' The rampage ended less than a minute after it started when, while under fire from police, Legan took his own life. Witnesses recall feeling like the violence had lasted forever. Christian Swain, lead vocalist of the local cover band TinMan, was midway through Grand Funk Railroad's 'We're an American Band' when the shooting began close-by. He tossed his microphone, raced off a 5-foot stage with his bandmates, dropped to his hands and knees, closed his eyes and asked himself: How could this be happening? Gene Sakahara, a retired educator who'd attended the festival since its inception, remembered having a similar thought. After he grabbed two of his young grandsons, Sakahara guided them behind a large barbecue grill and, while clutching a chef's knife, watched for the shooter. Nearby, at the slide, Bozzo heard a woman screaming for her daughter, in Spanish. Almost immediately, he realized that her daughter, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar, had been killed. Before the woman could see her child, Bozzo directed her toward other family members. Salazar, a San Jose resident, had been an aspiring animator. Legan's two other victims were Stephen Romero, a 6-year-old San Jose boy who loved Batman and Legos, and 25-year-old recent college grad Trevor Irby. The Chronicle's attempts to contact the families of Salazar, Romero and Irby were unsuccessful. Within a week of the Gilroy massacre, mass shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a busy entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio, seized national attention. Since then, nearly 4,000 shootings involving multiple homicides have occurred nationwide. Whenever a mass shooting hits the news cycle, many Gilroy survivors feel thrust back in time. 'The events of that day have never fully left me,' Swain said. 'Just when I think I've moved past it, I hear about a shooting at a mall, a church or even another festival, and I'm reliving it all over again.' To some, the way to cope seemed obvious: try to replace the memories with more positive ones. Yet, even as two copycat garlic festivals sprouted in the Central Valley, Gilroy's failed to relaunch. In the wake of the shooting, the event's insurance liability spiked from $1 million to $10 million — a prohibitive sum for its grassroots operators. A lawsuit filed by five of the wounded alleged that poor planning by the city, the festival association and the festival's security firm had made the shooting possible. Then the pandemic arrived. By April 2022, festival organizers were announcing that the event could be canceled for the 'foreseeable future.' Through it all, the festival association tried to keep the spirit of the event alive — and maintain the brand. There have been farm-to-table dinners, golf tournaments, concerts, even a drive-through popup at a Presbyterian church meant to mimic 'Gourmet Alley.' 'The thought of giving up was just too tough for us to stomach,' said Cindy Fellows, the festival association's president last year. In November 2023, a judge dismissed the shooting victims' lawsuit. Soon, the city dropped the festival's insurance liability to $4 million. The following April, Bozzo, a landscape contractor well-known for his community involvement, announced his campaign for mayor. Like many of his neighbors, he felt the city hadn't done enough to resurrect the festival. And, as a former festival association president who'd worked the event his entire adult life, Bozzo figured he was as equipped as anyone to troubleshoot any challenges. Within days of his swearing-in, Bozzo appointed himself to a seat on the Gilroy Gardens Board of Directors, which allowed him to act as a sort of mediator between festival organizers and the city-owned venue. 'As soon as Greg became mayor, I noticed that the overall attitude shifted throughout town about the festival,' said Paul Nadeau, the festival association's current president. 'Before, there were a lot of preconceived notions that the city didn't want it, so it just wasn't going to happen. Greg campaigning on bringing the festival back was really big in making people believe, 'Hey, maybe this really canhappen.'' Bozzo's campaign theme also forced residents to face an uncomfortable question: What is Gilroy without the garlic festival? Nestled at the intersection of two concrete paths, on what locals call Christmas Hill Park's 'ranch side,' three boulders symbolizing those killed flank a huge palm tree. Surrounding this small garden, a wooden fence has 17 markers — one for each person injured. Though Bozzo helped the city construct that memorial, he seldom visits it. Occasionally, while talking about what many Gilroyans still consider the worst day in town history, he remembers just how raw those feelings remain. 'We can't let some crazy guy determine our community's fate,' Bozzo said. 'It's time to have our festival back. It's time for us all to heal.' Community leaders founded the Gilroy Garlic Festival in 1979, after the president of a local college became incensed about a tiny French town proclaiming itself the real 'Garlic Capital of the World.' Within a few years, that celebration of all things garlic was packing the 51-acre Christmas Hill Park the last weekend of each July, receiving write-ups in national magazines and changing people's perceptions about its eponymous allium. Despite being a widely used cooking ingredient, garlic had long been stigmatized as stinky, working-class and old-world. Notorious for the pungent odor that wafted from the garlic processing plants on the east side of town, Gilroy had a similarly unsavory reputation. But the more the garlic festival ballooned in popularity, the more people appreciated the plant for its versatility and flavor. Some culinary experts touted the eclectic dishes from 'Gourmet Alley' as the ultimate showcase of garlic's unifying power. And it wasn't just cuisines that garlic was bringing together. By the time Gilroy-based Christopher Ranch solidified itself in the 1990s as the nation's premier grower of garlic, the festival was going global. Gilroyans love recounting stories about encountering someone in a far-away land who, upon meeting them, shot back some variation of the same response: Gilroy? The garlic capital! For a place some consider Santa Clara County's last bastion of agriculture, the garlic festival represented far more than a quirky niche. It was a reason for residents to puff their chests. Gilroy's official logo features a lowercase 'g' with a garlic bulb depicted as the curly tail. On the side of a prominent building downtown, a giant mural asserts the community's 'garlic capital' status. 'Back when I was a kid growing up in Gilroy, coming from a town that smelled like garlic was embarrassing,' said Sakahara, a lifelong Gilroyan who teams up with Greg Bozzo's father, Sam Bozzo, at every garlic festival to form 'SakaBozzo,' the crowd-favorite cooking demonstration duo. 'Now, thanks to the garlic festival, it's chic to reek.' The festival also brought much-needed tourism to a community often on the brink of a fiscal crisis. For at least three days every year, city leaders could bank on full hotels, gas-station lines and swarmed diners. Though Gilroy is creating a new executive-level position tasked with attracting new businesses and boosting sales-tax revenue, it has no easy way to replicate the cash infusion the festival once offered. Then there's all the money nonprofits and schools have lost without the festival. Throughout its 41-year run at Christmas Hill Park, the garlic festival was Gilroy's biggest fundraiser, generating a total of more than $12 million for local charities. In the process, it pioneered a creative business model. At the end of each festival, event leaders divided festival proceeds among the organizations that supplied several thousand volunteers, doling out checks that covered hourly wages for every worker. For some groups, those four- or five-figure payouts were an indispensable part of their annual operating budgets. 'It has been an ongoing, significant challenge for us to replace the money we got every year from the festival,' said Kelly Ramirez, president of the Gilroy Rotary Club. 'For the first time this summer, we sold fireworks. Of course, that's not as profitable as the garlic festival was.' All these years later, Ramirez can feel her heart drumming in her chest when she discusses the shooting. She had been in a nearby retail booth when Legan opened fire. Another volunteer in her booth was wounded. Like Ramirez, Swain thinks a lot these days about how lucky he is to be alive. Had the shooter just turned a bit to his right, Swain said, he would have seen the stage where the members of TinMan were 'sitting ducks.' Now Swain is preparing to finish what he started. He had only gotten to the second chorus of 'We're an American Band' before TinMan fled offstage. Though the crowd will be smaller, and the venue will be different, Swain and his band are set to perform July 26, at the end of the new-look event's second day. Since its last garlic festival, TinMan has ended dozens of shows with 'We're an American Band.' The next performance figures to be the most memorable. 'I don't care that fewer people will be there this time,' Swain said. 'When my band finally gets to finish that song, all the memories will flood back. It'll feel cathartic. It'll feel right.'
