Austan Goolsbee, the U of C professor who heads President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, is returning home in time for the next school year.
The White House, which announced the move last night, isn't saying whether Goolsbee resigned or was forced out. His departure comes as Obama is wrestling with stubbornly high unemployment numbers as he gears up for his 2012 reelection campaign.
Goolsbee, a longtime friend of the president, served as Obama's economic advisor during his first U.S. Senate race. He also used to host a History Channel show on economics, and wrote the Economic Scene column for The New York Times.
U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias' campaign this afternoon released new poll results showing he's dead even with G.O.P. opponent Mark Kirk.
Giannoulias had trailed Kirk by six points last month after federal regulators seized Broadway Bank. The bank is owned by Giannoulias' family, and he worked as a senior executive during a period when Broadway wrote a series of questionable loans.
Kirk, a congressman representing the North Shore, is now tied at 44% with Giannoulias, according to Giannoulias pollster Michael Bocian. The campaign attributed the bump to ads painting Kirk as a Washington insider who hasn't done much to fix the economy. Read more...
The impact of the upcoming trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich is already being felt throughout the halls of the Illinois state Capitol.
While the upcoming trial will no doubt bring negative fallout to state Democrats in the coming months, the federal corruption probe into Blagojevich and his administration has spurred numerous ethics-related developments including the formation of a government reform commission headed by former prosecutor Patrick Collins.
The commission proposed campaign finance reform and a renewed push for term limits. Both provisions were rejected by the Democrat majority in the Legislature. Read more...
The Current's May print edition is now available at bars, restaurants and other locations around Chicago. Here's a story from the paper. More to come on Monday.
Mark Kirk entered the U.S. Senate race as a golden child of Illinois’ Republican Party, winning handily in his GOP
primary for Barack Obama’s old seat.
It was the latest victory in his charmed political career. Since 2001, he’s held the 10th Congressional District seat, maintaining favor with moderates among his wealthy, socially liberal North Shore constituency. Read more...
Scott Lee Cohen
Update | 12:23 p.m. Gov. Pat Quinn's campaign has responded to Scott Lee Cohen's announcement in an e-mail to the Current. Campaign spokeswoman Mica Matsoff:
Scott Lee Cohen withdrew his candidacy for lieutenant governor in February amid allegations of steroid use, domestic battery, and failure to pay child support. Today, he painted his entry into the governor’s race as a principled decision to spur economic growth in Illinois. Governor Quinn believes anything that focuses more attention on job creation is a good thing.
But while both Scott Lee Cohen and Bill Brady have talked a lot about creating jobs, neither has a proven track record of accomplishments in this area. By contrast, Governor Quinn has lead the fight to implement a range of measures to boost hiring—from a capital bill that would create 439,000 jobs over the next six years to a tax credit for small businesses. By working with business leaders, he has taken concrete steps to get residents back to work and secure a more prosperous future for Illinois. And unlike Cohen and Brady, Governor Quinn understands that promoting women’s rights and equal pay for equal work are crucial to the well-being of Illinois working families. Read more...
