UCDI’s Citizen Bulletin for February 5–11

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Good morning. Our highlights from this week include: Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Chicago Police Department officers will be equipped to provide naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote; State Senator Kwame Raoul announced a bill that would give individual citizens the right to legally challenge permits issued by state regulators, following controversy over a proposed silica sand mine in LaSalle County; President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan budget bill, averting a government shutdown and addressing some congressional spending concerns without providing a DACA fix.

CHICAGO CITY GOVERNMENT

Alderman Leslie Hairston (5th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 324-5555

• [No News]*

Alderman Willie Cochran (20th Ward) ~ call your alderman! (773) 955-5610   

• [No News]*

Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) ~ call your mayor! (312) 744-3300

• Feb 6—Urged that President Trump not add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 U.S. Census
• Feb 7—Met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and discussed trade issues before Trudeau gave a talk at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics
• Feb 8—Announced that CPD officers will be equipped to provide naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote
• Feb 9—Introduced legislation before the City Council to close a loophole in Illinois car theft laws that lessens the charges given to those convicted of the crime

COOK COUNTY BOARD

President Toni Preckwinkle ~ call your Cook County board president! (312) 603-6400

• Feb 7—Issued a proclamation calling on the Trump administration to discourage Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from making civil arrests in courthouses

ILLINOIS STATE GOVERNMENT

Representative Barbara Flynn Currie (D–District 25) ~ call your state rep! (773)-667-0550

• [No News]*

Senator Kwame Raoul (D–District 13) ~ call your state senator! (773) 363-1996

• Feb 6—Announced a bill that would give individual citizens the right to legally challenge permits issued by state regulators, following controversy over a proposed silica sand mine in LaSalle County

 Governor Bruce Rauner (R–IL) ~ call your governor! (312)-814-2121

• Feb 6—Condemned Arthur Jones, the Republican nominee for Illinois’s third congressional district, citing Jones’s denial of the Holocaust
• Feb 8—Denied clemency for a veteran after ICE officials initiated deportation proceedings during the veteran’s drug felony sentence

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Representative Bobby Rush (D–IL1) ~ call your representative! (773) 779-2400

• Feb 5—Co-sponsored a bill that would toughen anti-violence protections for journalists; backers claim that the Trump administration has created a “toxic atmosphere” for the news media

Senator Tammy Duckworth (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 886-3506

• Feb 7—Criticised President Trump’s idea for a military parade, criticizing it as a waste of resources that could be used to protect soldiers abroad
• Feb 9—Introduced legislation that would protect non-citizen veterans from deportation and give them a path to U.S. citizenship

Senator Richard Durbin (D–IL) ~ call your senator! (312) 353-4952

• Feb 6—Called on Congress to pass the Dream Act as soon as possible, before debating any comprehensive immigration reform
• Feb 8—Demanded an explanation for the allegations that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had stopped investigating the Equifax data breach
• Feb 8—Supported a bipartisan Senate budget bill

President Donald Trump (R) ~ call your president! (202) 456-1414

• Feb 6—Ordered the Pentagon to begin planning a military parade
• Feb 9—Signed a bipartisan budget bill, averting a government shutdown and addressing some congressional spending concerns without providing a DACA fix
• Feb 10—Declined to release the Democrats’ classified memo rebutting the GOP House Intelligence Committee report which had cast doubt on the impartiality of the FBI investigation into the president’s ties to Russia

*Our research process involves searching for press releases from the elected representatives, Google News stories, and any Twitter and Facebook posts. If no information is displayed in the Citizen Bulletin, then our research process turned up nothing new from this past week.

The Citizen Bulletin is a product of the University of Chicago Democracy Initiative (UCDI). UCDI is proudly supported by Andrew Goodman Foundation’s nonpartisan Vote Everywhere project. In addition to the UCDI website, you can find past versions of the bulletin here. For news closer to campus, subscribe to the twice weekly newsletter produced by our partners at the Chicago Maroon.

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