Hollinger settlement helps Sun-Times recovery?

LawDay reports today that the Securities and Exchange Commission has settled fraud claims against Hollinger Inc., the Canadian company that is the controlling stockholder of the Sun-Times Media Group. The SEC settlement will not require Hollinger to pay any further penalties. However, Hollinger "has agreed, without admitting or denying the allegations, to 'disgorge' $21.3 million in profits and interest received as its share of non-compete fees paid to the company."

Meanwhile, the Sun-Times Media Group has reached a tentative settlement of its claims against Hollinger. According to this press release from the Sun-Times Media Group, subject to approval by interested U.S. and Canadian courts, Hollinger will give up its voting control in the STMG and, in addition, split the proceeds of directors' and officers' claims with the STMG on a 20/80 basis. The STMG press release suggests that the D&O proceeds may amount to as much as $24.5 million "plus interest, less fees and expenses." Also, "certain of the Company's claims against Hollinger will be allowed as unsecured claims, in agreed amounts ('Allowed Claims'). The Company's total recovery in respect of the Allowed Claims will be capped at US$15 million. After the Company receives the first US$7.5 million in respect of the Allowed Claims, 50% of any further recovery received by the Company in respect of the Allowed Claims (subject to the US$15 million cap) will be assigned to Hollinger. Under the terms of the Settlement, the amounts so assigned are intended to be available to fund litigation claims of Hollinger against third parties." Once the settlement is approved by all the courts and other parties that have to sign off, the six Hollinger-appointed directors will resign from the STMG board. And Hollinger is apparently going to reimburse the STMG $1 million in legal fees.

How many real dollars are involved in this settlement is not immediately clear -- but maybe the settlement will help stop the bleeding at the Sun-Times.

Meanwhile, according to the March 25 issue of the LawDay Newsletter, life at a Florida prison seems to agree with Conrad Black. He's serving a 6½ year sentence for "fraud and obstruction of justice over payments he took while he was at the head of the Hollinger International newspaper empire." In what will surely come as a great relief to Sun-Times employees, LawDay quotes an email from Black: "I am doing fine… This is a safe and civilized place and I don't anticipate any difficulty."

Still, all not is rosy for Baron Black of Crossharbour: His recently published biography of Richard Nixon has slipped to #31,200 on Amazon.com. Doing time can really mess up a book tour.

Another Facebook security breach

Yahoo! News posts an AP story today by Business Writer Michael Liedtke, "Security lapse exposes Facebook photos."

Liedtke's story describes how a computer technician from Vancouver, Canada, Byron Ng, found a way around a recent upgrade to Facebook's privacy controls. Writes Liedtke, "the added protections weren't enough to prevent Ng from pulling up the most recent pictures posted by Facebook members and their friends, even if the privacy settings were set to restrict the audience to a select few."

Told of Ng's "computer-coding trick" on Monday afternoon, Facebook claims to have "fixed the bug within an hour."

Still... anybody who posts on Facebook -- no matter what level of privacy protection is used -- must assume that anything that goes on Facebook can be seen by absolutely anybody. And everybody.

Better late than never? Not a chance, I'm thinking

This was in my mail yesterday at home (I've edited out my street address). That's yesterday as in March 24:

Too bad for Rosaire Marie Hall that the primary was seven weeks ago.

My wife reminded me that, many years ago, a stack of 'friend to friend' cards in one of my unhappy judicial campaigns was also lost or diverted by the Postal Service until well after the primary. She remembers people telling her weeks afterward: Why didn't you send these sooner? I would have voted for your husband if I'd known....

Thankfully, I'd suppressed all that.

But this untimely delivery almost brings back frightening memories. Ms. Hall has my sympathies.

Ban aluminum bats? Bill pends in Springfield

Should aluminum bats be banned?

HB4140, now pending in Springfield, would make it "unlawful for any coach, parent, teacher, or other person to knowingly allow the use of an aluminum bat during a recreational baseball or softball game in which a person under the age of 13 is a participant."

Why?

Sara Faiwell's story in the December 10, 2007 issue of the Daily Herald mentions HB4140, sponsored by Chicago Rep. Robert S. Molaro (D 21) -- and a couple of tragic stories involving aluminum bats.

And there have been some horrible, heartrending stories about serious injuries and even deaths at youth baseball games, from balls screaming off aluminum bats.

But baseball can be a dangerous game, no matter what bat is used. Skip Rozin's story for the July 31, 2007 Wall Street Journal starts with the tragedy of Tulsa Driller Coach Mike Coolbaugh -- killed by a screaming line drive -- off a wooden bat -- on July 3, 2007 while standing in the first base coach's box during a AA game. (Because of the Coolbaugh tragedy all Major League Baseball base coaches will be required to wear batting helmets this season.)

Rozin's article contended that there was scant research about the safety of metal bats vis a vis wood bats. He wrote, "The only fatality figures comparing metal to wood bats come from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2002, it reported 17 deaths due to impact with a batted ball between 1991 and 2001. Of those, eight were known to involve nonwood bats and two to involve wood ones, but in the remaining seven cases the type of bat was unknown. That overall group, however, was dominated by players using metal bats--at least 90%, according to bat manufacturers."

I venture into statistics with great trepidation, but it seems to me that if aluminum bats were exactly as dangerous as wood ones, no more dangerous and no less, and if 90% of young players used metal bats, there would still be nine times as many incidents with aluminum bats as with wood. To demonstrate, by this method, the inherent danger of aluminum bats, one would have to find far more than nine times as many incidents.

It turns out that a physics professor at the University of Illinois, Dr. Alan M. Nathan, has looked into the perils of aluminum vs. wood bats -- a number of other 'physics of baseball' issues.

Yes, that's a link to Dr. Nathan's compilation of baseball-related physics research; here is a link to Dr. Nathan's paper evaluating the "procedure used by the NCAA to control the performance of non-wood bats." He concludes that "aluminum bats outperform wood bats in the field." (Dr. Nathan offers this collection of academic papers and other materials for persons wishing to really compare the merits of wood vs. aluminum bats.)

Anyone who's ever played the game, or watched their kids play, is likely to conclude that players hit better and farther with aluminum bats. But it may because aluminum bats are easier to use. This explanation comes from the Ask A Scientist Physics Archive: "Because the aluminum bat is lighter, the batter has more control. It is easier to make 'last-minute adjustments' to his swing. Once a wooden bat is swinging, adjustments are difficult. Also, less time is needed to get the aluminum bat moving. The batter can wait just a little bit longer before deciding how to swing with an aluminum bat. * * * A wooden bat moving at the same speed as an aluminum bat will hit harder. A batter who can get a wooden bat moving fast will hit the ball further, provided he makes contact at all. * * * Overall, the wooden bat has more potential power, but the aluminum bat is easier to use."

Rozin's 2007 WSJ article notes that the "sweet spot" on an aluminum bat is bigger than on a wood bat. That's why major league scouts prefer to evaluate potential players in wood bat summer leagues. Kozin quotes Red Sox director of amateur scoting Jason McLeod,"Some of these kids are in very good leagues--SEC, Pac 10--and they're hitting .400, and they come to the Cape Cod League and they struggle to hit .200." And pitchers can come inside on a player armed with only a wood bat; the same player, wielding an aluminum bat, might fight that same pitch off for a hit. And, Rozin concludes, "It isn't a safety factor for Mr. McLeod and his colleagues. These scouts are just convinced that baseball is a different game with any bat but a wood one."

Aluminum bats cost more than wood bats, as any parent who's given in to a child's plaintive entreaties can tell you. But they tend to last longer and, for park districts and other youth baseball leagues looking to buy equipment that can be used by everyone on the team, aluminum is more cost effective.

I don't much care for the "ping" noise that aluminum bats make -- but I don't know that the case has been persuasively made for banning them.

Parents may be civilly liable for kid's shoplifting

Shoplifting is a crime.

And merchants should have recourse against people who steal from them.

But, assuming the parents didn't actively recruit their offspring to a life of crime, to what extent should parents be punished when their child shoplifts?

A lively discussion on the ISBA Listserv this week highlights the perils parents face when kids shoplift: A merchant can sue the child and the parents for the value of the property stolen, a penalty between $100 and $1,000, and -- and here's the killer -- attorney's fees and costs. The statute is § 16A-7 of the Criminal Code, 720 ILCS 5/16A-7. Here is the text of the statute:

§ 16A-7. Civil Liability. (a) A person who commits the offense of retail theft as defined in Section 16A-3 paragraphs (a), (b), (c), or (h) of this Code, shall be civilly liable to the merchant of the merchandise in an amount consisting of:

(i) actual damages equal to the full retail value of the merchandise as defined herein; plus

(ii) an amount not less than $100 nor more than $1,000; plus

(iii) attorney's fees and court costs.

(b) If a minor commits the offense of retail theft, the parents or guardian of said minor shall be civilly liable as provided in this Section; provided, however that a guardian appointed pursuant to the Juvenile Court Act or the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 shall not be liable under this Section. Total recovery under this Section shall not exceed the maximum recovery permitted under Section 5 of the "Parental Responsibility Law", approved October 6, 1969, as now or hereafter amended.

(c) A conviction or a plea of guilty to the offense of retail theft is not a prerequisite to the bringing of a civil suit hereunder.

(d) Judgments arising under this Section may be assigned.

You may have caught the reference to §5 of the Parental Responsibility Law. Section 5 says, in pertinent part, "No recovery under this Act may exceed $20,000 actual damages for each person, or legal entity as provided in Section 4 of this Act, for each occurrence of such wilful or malicious acts by the minor causing injury, in addition to taxable court costs and attorney's fees." This $20,000 ceiling is relatively new -- and dramatically higher than it used to be: It was originally only $500. It went to $1,000 in 1980, to $2,500 in 1998 -- and this is where the provision for attorney's fees was added on -- then jumped to $20,000 effective July 7, 2005.

Many years ago I used to handle homeowner's subrogation claims for insurers where kids were accused of vandalism. We'd sue the parents, too, because that was usually the only way to get any recovery at all -- but that recovery was limited to $1,000. And that amount might be obtained from the parents' carrier.

Now, though, according to the discussion on the ISBA Listserv, some retailers are hiring attorneys to pursue shoplifting kids and their non-shoplifting parents and demanding exorbitant amounts to settle. And, allegedly, the attorneys involved have very inflated expectations of what their fees should be.

I would think that a retailer would be reluctant to pursue such a punitive policy -- it can't possibly be good for community relations -- but, apparently, some retailers have overcome their reluctance in this regard.

And legislation pending in Springfield would allow municipalities to enact their own ordinances declaring retail theft to be unlawful -- and §16A-7 would be amended to permit civil prosecutions for violations of these ordinances as well. HB3593 was approved by Illinois House in March 2007; it is now pending in the State Senate.

Parents: This might be a good time to have a conversation with your children about the evils of shoplifting.

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I noticed another Chicago lawyer's blog in reading this ISBA discussion. Michael H. Wasserman is the proprietor of The Wasserblawg. He also has a website for his law office at which he says he maintains a "generally civil practice." It's a good line.

And when I steal, er, inadvertently use it, no one can say I forgot to give attribution.

Legislation would ban "robocalls"

Here is the text of HB6323, a bill that would ban most "robocalls" -- especially those annoying calls that just won't stop during election season. Exemptions would be permitted for "(i) a public safety agency notifying a person of an emergency; (ii) a school district to a student, a parent, or an employee; (iii) a subscriber with whom the caller has a current business relationship; or (iv) an employer advising an employee of a work schedule."

The bill was introduced by Republican Reps. Timothy L. Schmitz of Geneva and Ruth Munson of Elgin, presumably in response to widespread disgust over the abuse of robocalls in the recent Oberweis-Foster cage match in the 14th Congressional District.

Since the bill was proposed by Republicans it presumably will sink without a ripple. This would be a shame.

I live in the City of Chicago proper, far away from the 14th District, but we were also besieged by robocalls (also spelled robo-calls) during the Primary season just past.

In one story I saw about this proposal, it was mentioned that House Speaker Michael Madigan expressed concerns that banning robocalls might constitute an impermissible restriction on free speech.

But "robocalls" are merely a means for conveying someone's message; the content of the messages is constrained only by the richness of the vocabulary and checkbook of the person buying access to the autodialer.

And in thinking of it this way, it occurred to me that a case I read about this week in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin might provide a useful analogy.

Patricia Manson's article for the March 12 issue concerned a tattoo parlor that claimed its constitutional rights of free expression were violated when the City of North Chicago denied a special use permit for its proposed location. Manson reported that Senior District Judge James B. Moran dismissed the tattoo parlor's claims.

Moran's opinion can be found in Hold Fast Tattoo, LLC v. City of North Chicago, 2008 WL 656077 (N.D.Ill. 3/7/08). Analyzing the tattoo parlor's free speech claim, Moran wrote, "To determine whether an activity warrants First Amendment protection, the court must determine whether there was intent to convey a particularized message and whether there is a great likelihood that the message would be understood by those who view it." (2008 WL 656077 at *2.)

Moran concluded, "The act of tattooing fails the first prong of this test because the act itself is not intended to convey a particularized message. The very nature of the tattoo artist is to custom-tailor a different or unique message for each customer to wear on the skin. The act of tattooing is one step removed from actual expressive conduct, which is similar to a sound truck, which enables each customer to express a particularized message, but the sound truck vehicle is not expressive. The Supreme Court, in R.A.V. v. St. Paul, noted that a noisy sound truck is a 'mode of speech' because it can be used to convey a message, but 'in and of itself' it is not protected by the First Amendment. 505 U.S. 377, 386 (1992) (quoting Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U.S. 268, 282 (1951)." (2008 WL 656077 at *2.)

It seems to me that eager volunteers working a phone bank are different than a machine repeating one recorded message ad nauseum to anyone foolish enough to answer their phone. Autodialing machines repeating political messages should be accorded no greater constitutional protection than soundtrucks... or tattoo parlors.

With any luck, the leadership will co-opt this bill, or put through a similar one of their own. If I had an autodialer, I'd program it to call their offices and offer encouragement.

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I got more information about HB6323 from this post on OpenlineBlog.com via The Capitol Fax Blog.

Stern files recount suit

John Flynn Rooney reports in this evening's Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that 5th Subcircuit judicial candidate Stephen Stern filed suit Monday seeking to force a full recount in his race.

According to the results certified earlier this month by the Illinois State Board of Elections, Dominique C. Ross received 27,682 votes to Stern's 27,573 -- a margin of only 109 votes. In his suit, Stern claims that a discovery recount identified sufficient errors and irregularities to justify the full recount. According to Rooney's article, Stern's suit estimates "that after a full recount is concluded, Stern would lose about 40 votes, while Ross would lose approximately 200 votes." That would give Stern a 57 vote margin of victory.

Stern and Ross are both solo practitioners with offices in Chicago. Stern, a former President of the Cook County Bar Association, was found qualified or recommended by every bar association; Ross did not participate in bar association evaluations.

Rooney's article also reports that Paula M. Lingo has decided not to seek a recount in her countywide judicial race against Kristyna C. Ryan. According to State Board of Elections results, Ryan received a total of 302,347 votes, only 1,522 votes more than the 300,825 votes that Lingo received.

Two stinking news stories

Lloyd's of London has agreed to insure a Dutch winemaker's nose for five million euros. According to the linked Reuters article that comes to about £3.9 million or -- at the rate our the value of the dollar is falling -- who knows how many dollars?

The valuable nose is attached to the face of Ilja Gort, the "owner of Chateau de la Garde in Bordeaux, producer of Tulipe Wines," who claims that his olfactory organ can "distinguish millions of different scents and was essential to guarantee the quality of his wines."

The Reuters story notes that this is far from the first body part to be insured by Lloyd's. It's not even the first nose -- Jimmy Durante's prominent proboscis was once protected as well.

This 2005 article on insure.com recounts other odd policies issued by Lloyd's underwriters -- such as alien abduction insurance.

The other 'stinking story' in the news was reported in the March 17, 2008 issue of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. Patricia Manson's story reports on the 7th Circuit decision, released last Friday, affirming Judge Wayne R. Andersen's grant of summary judgment in favor of the employer in a suit brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213, by Beverly Robinson. In her suit, Robinson claimed that her extreme sensitivity to perfumes and other fragrances amounted to a disability.

However, Robinson provided no medical evidence to back up her contention that she was allergic to perfumes and fragrances. Her treating physician never made that diagnosis, nor did she perform any tests to confirm Robinson's claims. The court found that her failure "to provide medical documentation to Discover would be fatal to her claim even if she was disabled; if a disabled employee's condition is unclear, the employee must provide medical clarification of the accommodations required in response to the employer's request."

The court's decision in Robinson v. Morgan Stanley & Co., 07-3359, is nonprecedential, but it may be reviewed in its entirety on Page Two.

Good news/ bad news about the Federal bench

It's a classic good news/bad news kind of story.

The good news, according John Flynn Rooney's story in this evening's Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, is that, effective April 10, there will be a uniform set of procedures in place for lodging complaints of misconduct or disability against federal judges.

The bad news, obviously, is that the U.S. Judicial Conference thought it was necessary.

The Judicial Conference enacted the new rules in response to a September 2006 report from the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act Study Committee (chaired by Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer). Congress passed the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act in 1980; it is presently codified at 28 U.S.C.A. §351, et seq. A press release issued by the Judicial Conference about the new rules may be found here. The new rules themselves may be found at this link.

Rooney's article this evening quotes Seventh Circuit executive Collins T. Fitzpatrick as saying the new rules are similar to the rules that the Chicago-based court has been following for years. In his experience, Fitzpatrick said, "most of the complaints are filed by unhappy litigants." The complaints "don't amount to judicial misconduct or disability."

Federal courts in other parts of the country may not have been so fortunate. Allegations concerning a pending investigation into the conduct of the Chief Judge of the District of Colorado were recently aired on the generally irreverent blog, Above the Law.

Con-Con cometh?

This morning, the Morning Shorts on the Capitol Fax Blog cited to this post on Illinois Review about a possible Constitutional Convention in Illinois.

Whether to stage a new Con-Con will be put to a vote. Whether that vote will result in a Con-Con being called -- well, it may be too early to guess. But people are starting to talk. To cite just one example, I recently saw a reference on The Sixth Ward blog to this post by Peoria Pundit.

So, just in case, I have my pet Con-Con issues already picked out:

1. Roll back the Cutback Amendment and restore three member districts and cumulative voting for the Illinois House, and


2. Make judicial primaries non-partisan.

Bills to thwart cyber-bullying proposed

Seen on Second City Cop, this post about a proposed Kentucky statute to "make anonymous posting online illegal." Here is a link to the Lexington, Kentucky TV station report cited by SCC.

Closer to home, bills are pending in the Illinois legislature which would amend the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act, 720 ILCS 135/1 et seq., to criminalize "cyber-bullying."

The perils of cyber-bullying were burned into the national consciousness last year when the circumstances of the October 2006 suicide of a 13-year old Missouri girl, Megan Meier, became headline news. Megan allegedly had a falling out with a neighbor girl -- so the girl's mother, Lori Drew, and an 18-year old employee of the mother created a fictional boy on MySpace to find out whether Megan was saying mean things about her former friend. At first the "boy" was attentive and flattering -- but then "he" turned on Megan, culminating in a message, shortly before she killed herself, that world would be better off without her. (Adding insult to the Meier family's tragedy, it has now been reported that no charges would be filed against the Internet trolls posing as Lori Drew, who were responsible for the recent "Megan Had It Coming" blog.)

The Chicago Tribune reports today, in a story by Jeffrey Meitrodt and Ashley Wiehle, about a bill proposed by State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago). Here is a link to Silverstein's bill, SB2426.

Silverstein's bill would criminalize the "[m]aking [of] a harassing statement for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person on at least 2 separate occasions; or [the creation and maintenance of] an Internet website or webpage, which is accessible to one or more third parties for a period of at least 24 hours, and which contains harassing statements made for the purpose of alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing a specific person."

Another bill, introduced by Sen. Linda Holmes (D-Plainfield), would amend the Harassing and Obscene Communications Act to criminalize "[e]ngaging in a course of conduct that consists of contact by a person at least 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense in which the course of conduct demonstrates a knowing disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of the contacted person." Holmes' bill is SB2855. (There may be others in the hopper; these were the ones I found this morning.)

Each of these proposals, including possibly even the Kentucky bill to ban anonymity on line, springs from a laudable purpose. As the father of five, all of whom are now in their teens or 20's, I can testify from experience to how vicious kids can get while hiding behind a computer keyboard.

However, criminalizing a statement that is "alarming, tormenting, or terrorizing" to a specific person creates a whole different set of problems: Some people get alarmed more easily than others. In recognizing a new tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the Illinois Supreme Court nevertheless warned, in Knierim v. Izzo, 22 Ill.2d 73, 174 N.E.2d 157, 164 (1961), "the law should aim to toughen the psyche of the citizen rather than pamper it." Surely that cautionary statement should apply with at least equal force when criminal sanctions are involved.

Some objective standard must be fashioned to determine when obnoxious, insulting, mean-spirited (but still free) speech crosses the line into "cyber-bullying" that can be the subject of constitutional police action. This will not be an easy task.

Survey: Political blogs read by sophisticated, intelligent minority

Admittedly, that may be an extrapolation of the actual findings. Most Americans don't read political blogs, according to a poll which is the the subject of the linked Reuters story by Ellen Wulfhorst.

It is important to note, however, that 20% of Democratic voters, 22% of Republican voters, and 26% of self-identified independent voters do regularly read political blogs, according to the Harris Interactive survey on which Wulfhorst reports. And the age group most likely to read political blogs? According to Wulfhort's article, "The generation most likely to read such blogs are those age 63 or older, 26 percent of whom said they do so. Also, 23 percent of those ages 44 to 62 read them."

Take that, you whippersnappers.

Supreme Court fills Cook County vacancies

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported in its March 6 edition that the Illinois Supreme Court has appointed John C. Griffin and Daniel J. Pierce to vacancies on the Cook County Circuit Court.

Griffin (pictured at right) was a partner in the Palos Hills firm of Griffin & Gallagher. He was appointed to the 15th Subcircuit vacancy created by the retirement of Judge William M. Phelan.

According to the Law Bulletin Griffin has "been active in the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee, the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago and Chicago Gaelic Park Inc., where he has been president since 1991."

Daniel J. Pierce was a solo practitioner in the Loop at the time of his appointment to the countywide vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Daniel J. Kelley.

Prior to having a solo practice, according to the Law Bulletin, Pierce "was an assistant state's attorney in Cook County, legal counsel to the Cook County assessor and in private practice with Pierce, Webb, Lydon & Griffin." The Chicago Lawyer reported in its November 1994 edition that Pierce received the William White Award of Excellence from the Chicago Bar Association for his eight years of service to the CBA's judicial evaluation committee, including a stint as chair.

Earlier this year, in mid-February, Edward A. Arce was appointed to the Reyna vacancy in the 14th Subcircuit. Arce was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for this vacancy in the February primary; he will face no opponent on the November ballot. His appointment will terminate in December, when he takes office in his own right.

In January, Nicholas Geanopoulos was appointed by the Supreme Court to the vacancy created by the January retirement of Judge Philip L. Bronstein. Geanopoulos was a Cook County assistant state's attorney from 1983 to 1992. He went to work for the Vrdolyak Law Group LLC for four years after that until leaving to set up a solo practice in 2006.

Geanopoulos' appointment, and those of Griffin and Pierce, will terminate on December 6, 2010.

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Update September 12, 2009: Judge Pierce was reassigned by the Illinois Supreme Court from the Kelley vacancy to the "A" vacancy in the 14th Judicial Subcircuit pursuant to this September 1, 2009 order.

How not to get out of jury duty

Jury service is one of the few obligations of American citizenship. It's usually not a heavy burden. In Cook County, the Office of Jury Administration takes precautions to ensure that citizens are not called more than once every twelve months. When Cook County residents are called, it is on a 'one day or one trial' basis.

I can't speak to how things are done in DuPage County. I can't believe it is significantly more onerous -- but, according to Jason Meisner's "Blotter" story this evening on the Tribune website, Addison resident Toby Owhoka was allegedly so distraught at the prospect of jury service that she called the DuPage County Jury Commission Tuesday afternoon and "made numerous threats, including one to blow up the courthouse." The courthouse was searched, but no bomb materials were found.

Owhoka was charged with felony disorderly conduct and is being held in the DuPage County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

I wonder if she'll demand a jury trial on this charge.

Declassified docs show Brits used astrologer to try and persuade U.S. to enter World War II

This is Louis de Wohl, a German-born astrologer of Jewish heritage, who pretended to be a Hungarian nobleman and who parlayed his alleged skills at reading the stars into a British Army commission, a hotel apartment on London's exclusive Park Lane, and a 1941 lecture tour in the United States (financed by Britain's Special Operations Executive) designed to try and convince the American public that Hitler could be defeated.

That's the gist of a newly declassified chapter in World War II history, according to D'Arcy Doran's AP story, posted today on the WBBM 780 website and this March 4 story, by Michael Evans, "Defence Editor" of the Times of London.

De Wohl's pre-Pearl Harbor American tour was arranged, according to the AP story, "to counter a convention of pro-German astrologers that had predicted Hitler would win the war. Billing himself as 'The Modern Nostradamus,' de Wohl proclaimed the stars showed the opposite - that Hitler would lose."

Not everyone in the British intelligence hierarchy was taken with de Wohl. According to Evans' story, "Dick White, later head of MI5 and then MI6, noted in March 1941, when asked to comment on the report that de Wohl had been appointed official astrologer to the War Office: 'I don’t like having decisions . . . made by reference to the stars rather than MI5.'"

D'Arcy reports that, after Pearl Harbor, de Wohl was no longer needed to persuade Americans of Hitler's horrible horoscope. He was recalled to London in February 1942, only to find "his hotel apartment stripped bare and his 'department' disbanded." Senior MI5 officers debated proposals about how to 'dispose' of de Wohl, "including interning him in a camp or moving him to a remote corner of the country." Two other options, D'Arcy writes, were "blanked out." Apparently, however, it was decided to merely find de Wohl a desk and ignore him for the duration.

After the war, according to Wikipedia, de Wohl wrote a series of "historical fiction novels of notable Roman Catholic Saints." He died in 1961.

Did you ever catch snowflakes on your tongue?

You may reconsider after reading this post on Yahoo! News about how snowflakes are formed: AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid's article notes that "scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense" into raindrops or snowflakes -- but, according to Brent C. Christner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Louisiana State University, "Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature."

Christner and colleagues are publishing a study of these findings Friday in the journal Science. Schmid reports, "In some samples as much as 85 percent of the nuclei were bacteria." Bacteria were most common in France, but bacteria was "present to a lesser degree in Antarctica."

A particular type of bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae, was most commonly found in the samples. Pseudomonas syringae can cause disease in several types of plants including tomatoes and beans. The article speculates that it may be helpful to combat drought by planting crops that attract these bacteria -- but agriculture is far from most Chicagoans' thoughts this evening.

No, tonight the focus is on tonight's forecast for the 35th measurable snow of this seemingly interminable Winter. Tom Skilling's article on the Chicago Tribune website advises that, whether we get any more snow tonight or not, we have had "well beyond the 30 measurable snows that have occurred in the average complete season here since 1928."

It's not just your perception. It has been a long Winter. And now we find there's bacteria everywhere.

New on Page Two: The Return of Palehose

Cartoonist Carl Skanberg dares to dream the impossible dream. Let's hope his dream becomes a nightmare for Cleveland and Detroit.

The value of newspaper endorsements in the 2008 Cook County judicial primary

Ross Eagle, husband and law partner of Diane L. Kenworthy, who recently won the nomination of the Democratic Party to the Morrissey vacancy in the 10th Subcircuit, wrote me a note analyzing the role newspaper endorsements played in determining the outcome of the recent primaries. "I never seem to see any after-action report from the newspapers about how often their endorsed candidate prevailed," Eagle wrote -- and then supplied one.

Eagle may have been inspired by the fact that his wife was snubbed by both the Tribune and the Sun-Times (both papers endorsed John Mulroe). Whatever his inspiration, Eagle's analysis was quite interesting.

First, Eagle noted, the daily papers' endorsements were a very good predictor of outcomes in the countywide races. Depending on how the Ryan/Lingo contest for the Murphy vacancy comes out (the last coverage I saw was a Law Bulletin article from February 12 which suggested that provisional votes were still being counted and both sides were gearing up for a possible discovery recount -- with Ryan holding a nearly 1,500 vote advantage) the Tribune may have called the winners in every single one of the nine countywide races. Again, depending on the outcome of the Ryan/Lingo race, the Sun-Times will finish either 7-2 or 6-3.

(Paula Lingo was endorsed by both papers.)

Eagle wrote that the newspaper endorsements "might be overrated when it comes to subcircuit races." Certainly the Tribune's endorsed candidates in these races did not fare nearly as well. Eight of 18 candidates endorsed by the Tribune in the subcircuits were defeated -- with another, Stephen Stern, behind by about 100 votes to Dominique C. Ross in the too-close-to-call race for the A vacancy in the 5th Subcircuit.

Candidates endorsed by the Sun-Times fared even worse: The Sun-Times made endorsements in 19 subcircuit races (the Trib chose not to pick a Republican in the 12th Subcircuit race), but at least 10 of these candidates were defeated -- and possibly 11, depending on how Stern fares in a likely recount.

Stern, like Lingo, was endorsed by both papers. According to Eagle's count at least six other subcircuit candidates were endorsed by both papers... and still lost.

Of course, the newspapers chose not to explain their choices, particularly in the subcircuits. The Tribune provided only the job titles of the subcircuit candidates it endorsed ("Judge", "Assistant State's Attorney", the ever-illuminating "Attorney", etc.). The Sun-Times didn't even provide that much; except in six races (one countywide, one subcircuit) the Sun-Times provided only the names of the candidates it favored.

On the other hand, even in the subcircuit races where the Sun-Times offered some insight into its selections, the paper still went only 2-3. Two of those three 'losses' came in the 10th Subcircuit. Eagle observed that, while the Sun-Times endorsed none of the three winners in the 10th Subcircuit races, the Democratic Party was only 1-2 (Kenworthy being the lone slated candidate to prevail) and the Tribune was only 1-2 as well (it endorsed Ursula Walowski for the Kowalski vacancy).

Further analysis is surely in order.

What's in a name? A scholar offers an opinion

In the course of my primary project, I had the opportunity to correspond with Albert J. Klumpp, PhD, a Research Analyst with the Chicago firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

Dr. Klumpp's 2005 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois (Chicago) was entitled, "Judicial Retention Elections in Cook County: Exercise of Democracy, or Exercise in Futility." He has since published in Chicago legal publications on retention elections including, "Voter Information and Judicial Retention Elections in Illinois," 94 Ill. B.J. 538 (October 2006) (membership required), and "Cook County Judicial Elections: Partisanship, Campaign Spending, & Voter Information," CBA Record, January 2007 (p. 34).

While he continues to study judicial retention elections, Klumpp has developed "a model for analyzing primary elections" that he's only just begun to test. Klumpp wrote that his tentative model "indicates that female candidates had a gender advantage of nearly 200,000 votes. That's for one female candidate running against one or more male candidates; multiple female candidates in a contest split the advantage. That compares to shifts of around 60,000 for slating, 120,000 for a sweep of superior recommendations from the Tribune, Sun-Times, CBA and CCL, and 130,000 for an Irish-name advantage. I don't have final figures on campaign spending so these numbers could change somewhat -- campaign spending may have had an effect in a few contests -- and with only a dozen races it's not exactly a large data set, but the model appears to work very well so I think those numbers will pretty much hold up."

If I understand this correctly, this model would predict that a woman two years out of law school, but possessed of an obviously Irish name, would pretty much always beat a man with a non-Irish name even if the man were (a) slated by the Democratic Party, (b) endorsed by both Chicago daily papers, and (c) rated qualified by both the CBA and CCL.

If this tentative model is even close to accurate, the need for redoubled efforts at voter education in judicial primary elections is clearly demonstrated.

And just one other thing -- only a 60,000 vote boost for being slated?

Wow.

Babcock posts campaign valedictory

James E. Babock, Jr. has posted a "final letter" on his website, expressing his thanks to friends and supporters in his recent unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for the Ryan vacancy in the 13th Subcircuit, offering some observations about events during the campaign and venturing some suggestions for improvement of the election process in the future.

Babcock provides his perspective on the Daily Herald's coverage in this and prior campaigns. An excerpt:

[The Daily Herald's] influence in judicial races became noticed in an article printed on the eve of the 2006 primary wherein it printed an article based on innuendo about Marty Kelly who was the only candidate with a “Qualified” rating from the Chicago Bar Association. It is apparent that the article was not researched. Had the reporter researched it, he would have noticed that the CBA’s evaluation terminology is “Not Recommended”, “Qualified” and “Highly Qualified.” Here is an excerpt of the article:

Judicial candidate ratings in question. Andrew Schroedter, Daily Herald Staff Writer. Republican judicial candidate Martin C. Kelley received a “recommended” rating from the Chicago Bar Association. Jill C. Marisie and Cary J. Collins, Kelley’s fellow candidates in the GOP primary for the Cook County Circuit Court 13th judicial subcircuit were “not recommended.” Kelly, however, is a former investigator for the Chicago Bar Association’s judicial evaluation committee, the same panel that rates judicial candidates. He resigned from the committee when he decided to run for the seat….

The insinuation was that Kelley received the recommendation because of his prior service on the committee -- and that his opponents were somehow disadvantaged by this. Quoth Babcock, "Attorneys volunteer as investigators and it is a time consuming and important task. Each investigation requires calling attorneys and judges listed on a candidate’s application which in some cases may be 28 pages long and preparing an investigative report for the 18 member committee to review for the candidate interview. Those that participate in the process probably spend at least 40 volunteer hours per application. The allegation was baseless, the damage was done with no time to react, and the question remains, 'Who was the source?'" (Babcock does not have an answer to the question -- but his opinion, clearly, is that Kelley's candidacy was damaged, perhaps fatally, by the article: Jill C. Marisie won the nomination and was elected without opposition in November 2006.)

Regular readers of this blog will have seen comments on some prior posts suggesting that this rating or that was personally or politically motivated. There are going to be instances where reasonable people can disagree on ratings -- there are numerous instances just in this past campaign where bar associations, reviewing the same materials on the same candidate, arrived at different opinions. However, I submit that the people of Cook County owe a debt of gratitude to these anonymous evaluators. Lawyers looking for opportunities for pro bono service would be well advised to volunteer to help out on the judicial evaluation committee of the bar association of their choice -- even if, and maybe particularly if, that service inspires the lawyer to someday run judicial office for himself or herself.

Babcock's essay also notes how, just before this primary, the Daily Herald chose to print a table showing only three of the bar associations' candidate evaluations. Here is a copy of that table (click to enlarge):

Babcock makes the point that, in choosing to list the recommendations of only three of the bar associations, and even in the brief description of the three bar associations contained in the table, the Daily Herald was indeed editorializing -- even if it didn't make its own formal endorsements.

If you see any other election post-mortems, leave a comment or send an email to this blog.

Dropping some numbers from the Cook County primary

Anita Alvarez won the Democratic nomination for Cook County State's Attorney and female candidates won most of the contested judicial primaries -- but not all of them.

In the marquee match-up at the top of the ballot, Favorite Son Barack Obama won 72.80% of the City vote -- while the once-presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, could grab only 25.29%. Senator Clinton did better in suburban Cook County -- but she still received only 34.82% of the vote, to Obama's 63.23%. On the other hand, as Abdon M. Pallasch pointed out in a February 11, 2008 article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Clinton carried a number of wards on the City's Northwest and Southwest Sides -- in wards whose committeemen claimed to support Obama over Clinton and 38th Ward Alderman Tom Allen over Alvarez.

It's tempting to generalize from the Alvarez victory, the concentrated pockets of support for Hillary Clinton, and the success of so many female judicial candidates that 2008 was yet another "Year of the Woman."

But it wasn't really the same voters who chose between Senators Obama and Clinton, selected Anita Alvarez, or voted for the judges: There's a drop-off as voters go down the ballot. Just over a million people voted for President in the recent Democratic Primary in Cook County (1,072,357 if you're being precise), but only about 88% of them voted for State's Attorney -- 944,269 in all, or 128,088 fewer.

One out of four Democratic primary voters left the booth before reaching the first of the countywide judicial races: Only 810,588 people voted in the Disko vacancy -- 261,769 fewer than the number that voted for President (75.6%). Only 71.6% of the voters who made a selection in the presidential contest voted in the Thomas vacancy, the last of the countywide vacancies. It wasn't a straightline dropoff down the judicial ballot... but it was close. Here are the percentages of presidential voters who voted in each of the countywide judicial contests, in ballot order:

Disko vacancy -- 75.6%

Glowacki vacancy -- 75.7%

Healy vacancy -- 73.8%

Keehan vacany -- 74.1%

Lott vacancy -- 74.7%

Montelione vacancy -- 72.8%

Murphy vacancy -- 69.4%

Nowicki vacancy -- 72.1%

Thomas vacancy -- 71.6%

The dropoff percentages weren't exact, but they were pretty close whether one looks at City-only or suburb-only numbers. For example, in the suburbs, 89.3% of presidential voters also voted for State's Attorney, 75.7% for the Disko vacancy, and 73.1% for the Thomas vacancy. In the City, 87% of the presidential voters made a choice in the race for State's attorney, 75.5% in the race for the Disko vacancy, and 70.5% in the race for the Thomas vacancy.

Oddly, it does not seem to make much difference whether the ward is solid performer for the regular Democratic Party or whether it strikes an independent pose.

Thus, in the 8th Ward, where 21,065 people voted for President (almost all of them -- more than 95% -- voting for Barack Obama), only 91% of them stayed around to vote for State's Attorney (this was Ald. Brookins' best wards, second only to his own 21st Ward). The dropoff was not as precipitous as it was countywide, but even so, by the time 8th Ward voters reached the Disko vacancy, only 80% remained. Only 76% of the voters who voted for President voted in the Thomas vacancy; only 75.7% of the presidential voters made a choice in the 1st Subcircuit Turkington vacancy.

Ald. Gene Schulter was unopposed in his bid to remain Committeeman of the 47th Ward. Diana L. Kenworthy, who won the race for the Morrissey vacancy in the 10th Subcircuit, received strong support from the 47th Ward Democratic Organization. But the dropoff figures were actually lower than average: Only 84.8% of the presidential voters made a selection in the State's Attorney's race, 71.8% in the race for the Disko vacancy, 66.9% in the Thomas vacancy -- and only 56.6% in the Morrissey vacancy. (The subcircuit figures are a little lower because a few precincts of the 47th Ward are in the 6th Subcircuit.)

Ralph Capparelli, the long-time Committeeman of the 41st Ward, lost his bid to hold his post (losing to Mary O'Connor), so it should hardly be considered an organization stronghold -- but the dropoff figures in the 41st Ward were in line with (and even a little less than) the countywide averages: 93.6% of presidential voters made a choice in the race for State's Attorney, 76.1% in the Disko vacancy, 72.6% for the Thomas vacancy, and between 65.9% and 61.9% in the three 10th Subcircuit races -- the high figure coming also in the race for the Morrissey vacancy, where 41st Ward resident John Mulroe received very strong support.

Lakefront wards also conformed to this pattern. Tom Tunney's 44th Ward underperformed the averages: Only 76.6% of presidential voters made selections in the State's Attorney's race, only 64% in the Disko vacancy, and only 57.9% in the Thomas vacancy. More people actually voted in the 8th Subcircuit race in the 44th Ward than in some of the county races: 8,878 people, or only 62.7% of the presidential voters. Carol Ronen's 48th Ward underperformed a little less: 83.5% of presidential voters expressed their choice in the State's Attorney's race, 69.8% in the Disko vacany, and 63% in the Thomas vacancy. Most of the 48th Ward is in the 8th Subcircuit -- but not all -- which is why only 56% of 48th Ward presidential voters made choices in the 8th Subcircuit race.

Here's the unhappy bottom line for candidates making direct mail buys of primary voting lists: The mailing piece will be wasted on at least one of four recipients, and maybe three of every 10.

When time permits, I hope to go back to prior elections to see how this year's dropoffs compare with those in prior years. Coming sooner: Conclusions that others have drawn from this year's numbers.

New on page two: A letter from the FBI?

The FBI Director, Robert Mueller, allegedly writes a letter supporting a Nigerian bank scheme: Something new in spam?

Cleveland bar associations rate bench candidates

The Clinton-Obama cage match will be the lead story, of course, but voters in Ohio's March 4 Primary will also have the opportunity to vote for a number of judges. In Cleveland, as here in Cook County, a number of bar associations have collaborated on the evaluation of candidates for the Cuyahoga County bench. The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a story about the bar evaluations in its February 12 editions.

Members of the judicial evaluation committees of our local bar associations may be interested in comparing their recent work to the Cleveland evaluations (found at Judge4Yourself.com).

If you check out the link, you'll note that the five cooperating bar associations use standard terms to describe their evaluations (Excellent, Good, Adequate, or Not Recommended) and corresponding point values (4, 3, 2 or 0). The opinion of any one bar association counts no more than any other: "Each organization's rating has been given equal weight in the averages and is not weighted by the number of members that the organization has." Candidates wind up with numerical evaluations: Some have 4.0's -- some have 0.0's -- and many fall somewhere in between.

I think this gives voters an impression of scientific precision -- which is probably not warranted. I submit that a person's "impartiality, integrity, temperament, diligence and professional competence" -- the factors that the Cuyahoga County lawyers are attempting to evaluate -- can not be easily or exactly reduced to simple integers.

On the other hand, the site links to biographical information on each candidate -- and has columns so voters can see who the newspapers endorsed.

The dead guy dented my car: Spanish lawsuit

Catching up on news you may have missed during the recent election campaign....

An AP article that appeared in the January 26 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times described a suit filed in Spain by the driver of a luxury car. Tomas Delgado's Audi A8 was damaged in a collision with a bicycle ridden by 17-year old Enaitz Iriondo. Delgado was cruising along at 100 mph at the time. The car was dented. Iriondo was killed.

But -- apparently because the bicyclist wasn't wearing a helmet or reflective clothing at the time he was run over by Sr. Delgado's Audi -- Delgado sued the dead bicyclist's parents. According to the article, Delgado told the Spanish newspaper El Pais, "It's the only way I have to claim my money back."

The accident happened in August 2004. Delgado's suit was filed in late 2006. But, apparently, almost as soon as this story hit the wires, the suit was dropped. This January 30 AP story cited a Spanish National Radio report that advised, "Delgado's lawyer announced that his client decided to ditch the case because of media pressure." The lawyer "spoke outside the court in the small town of Haro in northern Spain to a crowd of several hundred people," according to the AP story.

The bicyclist's family was said to be "very happy" about the decision to drop the suit.

Utah "Lawn Lady" controversy dries up

With editorial tongue firmly in cheek, the Provo Daily Herald called the trial of the "Lawn Lady," Betty Perry, the "trial of the century."

The trial was to have begun today. And what a trial it would have been: According to the Provo newspaper, "Nearly 100 prospective jurors were called and had to plow through a questionnaire with 115 questions." As many as 20 witnesses were expected to testify in the course of a three day trial.

Friday's Deseret Morning News (from which this picture was obtained) revealed, however, that the case had settled. Perry plea bargained charges of interference with arrest and misdemeanor violation of a zoning ordinance into a single charge of disorderly conduct. The AP story says she pleaded guilty to this lesser charge and agreed to pay a $100 fine. Perry may also face six months' probation.

Betty Perry's legal problems began last July 6 when an Orem, Utah police officer wanted to ticket the 70-year old woman for failing to water her lawn. According to this AP story, Perry "became defiant" when the police officer asked Perry to identify herself. The Provo Daily Herald story explained, "The police version is that [Perry] wouldn't cooperate and tried to get away. [Perry] says she was merely going to call her son. Police claim she stumbled when he attempted to handcuff her; she says the officer pushed her." One way or the other, Perry sustained cuts and scrapes, and wound up in jail... because she apparently failed to obey a law that, in the words of the Provo Daily Herald, "mandates that in a desert in the summer during a fairly dry year lawns must be kept golf-course green."

California attorney Gloria Allred (who has also made news in recent weeks for her participation in the Britney Spears custody case) represented Perry.

Meanwhile, an article in the current issue of National Geographic suggests that the 20th Century was an unusually wet period in history of the American West -- Utah included -- and that the future looks much, much drier.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Update 2/13/08:Ms. Perry has posted her side of this story on a website, Lawnlady.info.

Dear Professor Lubet -- I think you were wrong

That's Northwestern University Law Professor Steven Lubet at left.

Professor Lubet commented on this blog's recent project to provide information about Cook County Circuit Court candidates in a January 21, 2008 article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

Pat Milhizer's article quoted Lubet as saying, "I doubt anybody surfs the Web looking for judicial candidates."

But I think there's evidence to the contrary.

There's no question that, at first, the judicial primary project attracted mostly candidates, their friends and families. Still, traffic had grown to 50 or 60 hits a day by the end of 2007; after an early January mention on The Capitol Fax Blog (and it was just a mention -- one line in a Morning Shorts post), traffic ramped up to almost 200 a day. Now look at this:

Now... some 500,000 voters actually voted in the Cook County judicial primary, so even the thousand or so visitors a day on and just before February 5 aren't that many.

But some people clearly were looking on the Web for information to help them make informed choices on Super Tuesday.

And more would have if the newspapers had broken their vow of silence to inform voters that information about judicial candidates was available here -- and in several other places -- on the Internet.

Very few contests for November

In places other than the County of Cook, primaries might be considered the opening act -- they're the playoffs, while the November elections are the Super Bowl.

But not in Cook County. The Republicans didn't field a single candidate countywide; Republican candidates for the Circuit Court bench filed only in the 4th, 12th, 13th and 15th Subcircuits. Thus, there will be only these five contests in November:

Shultz vacancy -- 4th Subcircuit

Maureen H. Masterson-Pulia, Republican














Pat Rogers, Democrat







-------------------------------------------------------------------

Devlin vacancy -- 12th Subcircuit

Laura J. Morask, Republican














Pamela Elizabeth Loza, Democrat








-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryan vacancy -- 13th Subcircuit

Annie O'Donnell, Republican









Ann Catherine Brady, Democrat







-------------------------------------------------------------------

Tobin vacancy -- 13th Subcircuit

Margarita Kulys Hoffman, Republican









Carol Barnes, Democrat



-------------------------------------------------------------------

A vacancy -- 15th Subcircuit

Peter Fera, Republican









Anna Helen Demacopoulos, Democrat

Ward by ward numbers!

We know (most of) the winners now.

But where did the votes come from?

The Chicago Board of Elections has already posted ward by ward breakdowns -- with precinct by precinct numbers beneath!

Computers are an amazing thing.

If you haven't already clicked over to the City site, let's look at some selected races and see where candidates did... and didn't get support.

Subcircuits are spread over a dozen or more wards; many have territory in both city and suburbs. However, there are four or five 'core' wards in each subcircuit with substantial City territory.

Take the 8th Subcircuit, for example. The key wards are 48, 46, 44, 43 and 42. Ann Collins Dole, who won this race, carried roughly 33% in 42, 43, and 46. In the 48th Ward, she had 31.15% of the vote; in the 46th, she received 32.08%. That's a fairly even distribution.

Contrast this to the Morrissey vacancy in the 10th Subcircuit. Diana Kenworthy won this race; she was the slated candidate and hails from the 47th Ward, at the eastern end of this subcircuit. The key wards in the 10th Subcircuit run are 47, 39, 41 and 45. The 41st Ward is on the far Northwest corner of the City. Kenworthy's closest competitor, John G. Mulroe, comes from the 41st Ward.

Unlike the relatively even distribution in the 8th Subcircuit, in the race for the Morrissey vacancy, Kenworthy polled 58.28% of the vote in the 47th Ward, but only 25.87% of the vote in 41. On the other hand, Mulroe received 58.53% of the vote in the 41st Ward -- but only 25.04% of the vote in 47. In the 45th Ward, Mulroe and Kenworthy each pulled close to 40% of the vote -- but in 39 Kenworthy received 41.10% of the vote, about 600 more votes than Mulroe received.

The other two slated candidates in the 10th Subcircuit were appointed Judges James E. Snyder and Kenneth L. Fletcher. But they aren't from 47. Of these four core wards, Fletcher's and Snyder's best percentages came out of 47 -- but these were only 25.54% for Fletcher, 36.01% for Snyder.

Update: the link works... but the numbers seem to have vanished, at least for now. I'll keep looking in....

Only 83 votes separate candidates for 5th Subcircuit A vacancy

These are the 11:31 a.m. numbers.

DEM - Judge, 5th Subcircuit (Additional Judgeship A)

310 out of 315 precincts (98.41 %)

Stephen Stern	26,947	49.92 %
Dominique C. Ross	27,030	50.08 %

It's hard to get closer than this.

Update on the race for the Murphy vacancy

Here are the suburban numbers in the Ryan/Lingo race:

DEM - Circuit Court Judge Full Circuit (Murphy)
Precincts Counted: 2,249 of 2,290 (98.21%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Kristyna Colleen Ryan	132,501	42.64%
Paula M. Lingo	108,743	35.00%
Frank James Ryan	69,467	22.36%

These City numbers were last updated at 11:31 a.m. today:

DEM - Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Murphy)

2535 out of 2579 precincts (98.29 %)

Kristyna Colleen Ryan	160,119	36.69 %
Paula M. Lingo	182,225	41.76 %
Frank James Ryan	94,035	21.55 %

That adds up as follows:

Kristyna Colleen Ryan -- 292,620

Paula M. Lingo -- 290,968

That puts Ms. Ryan 1,652 votes ahead on these unofficial numbers.

Aftermath: Looking for patterns -- and feedback

Maybe it's too soon to talk about it. For a number of the candidates in yesterday's primary, it almost certainly is. But let's start analyzing the results and let people join in as they see fit.

Here are the countywide slated candidates and their fates:

Judge Lauretta Higgins Wolfson -- lost to Judge Dennis J. Burke

Associate Judge Jesse G. Reyes -- former President of the Illinois Judges Association moves to a full Circuit Court judgeship

Judge Maureen Ward Kirby -- appointed judge handily defeats single opponent

Judge Marilyn F. Johnson -- ditto

Thomas J. Byrne -- appears to have bested Joanne Marie "Jody" Rogers by a narrow margin

Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson -- appointed judge falls to Debra B. Walker

Paula M. Lingo -- here are the latest results from the City:

DEM - Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Murphy)

2502 out of 2579 precincts (97.01 %)

Kristyna Colleen Ryan	156,398	36.72 %
Paula M. Lingo	177,880	41.76 %
Frank James Ryan	91,664	21.52 %

And the County:

DEM - Circuit Court Judge Full Circuit (Murphy)
Precincts Counted: 2,221 of 2,290 (96.99%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Kristyna Colleen Ryan	130,743	42.63%
Paula M. Lingo	107,308	34.99%
Frank James Ryan	68,615	22.37%

Ryan holds a lead, on these figures, of 1,953 votes -- too close, presumably, to call. But the gap has grown since I started tracking this last night.

Judge Michael B. Hyman -- appointed judge pulls off a victory in a four-way contest for the Nowicki vacancy that got more ink (in the Sun-Times) than all the other judicial races put together.

Judge Joan Powell -- appointed judge prevails in another four-person contest.

So the slated candidates won in only six of eight contests, with the ninth apparently still undecided.

Is that a good result or a bad result for the Cook County Democratic Party?

Related question: How many wards or township organizations deviated from the slate? In my home 41st Ward, only Judge Wolfson was mentioned on the ward organization's mailing... but, then, the long-time Committeeman, Ralph C. Capparelli, lost his bid for reelection, too (to Mary O'Connor). The 49th Ward strayed from the slate in three of the nine Circuit Court races. Can you provide other examples?

Appointed judges seem to have fared well in the countywide contests... but badly in the subcircuits. What weight does a Supreme Court appointment have with voters? What did you hear yesterday about this? What are your speculations?

Morask beats Ryan for Republican nomination in 12th Subcircuit

These are the latest available numbers from the Cook County Clerk:

REP - Cook Circuit Court Judge 12th Sub (Devlin)
Precincts Counted: 321 of 339 (94.69%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Laura J. Morask	10,168	53.06%
Michaela Nolan Ryan	8,996	46.94%

Cliffhanger for 5th Subcircuit A vacancy

These are City numbers as of 11:57 p.m. This one won't be over for some time.

DEM - Judge, 5th Subcircuit (Additional Judgeship A)

308 out of 315 precincts (97.78 %)

Stephen Stern	26,470	49.91 %
Dominique C. Ross	26,566	50.09 %

Bumped up upon update.

Rogers leading Gomolinski in 4th Subcircuit

Another appointed judge is in trouble: Here are the latest available numbers from the Cook County Clerk:

DEM - Cook Circuit Court Judge 4th Sub (Shultz)
Precincts Counted: 309 of 347 (89.05%)

Candidates	Votes	%
William Edward Gomolinski	11,167	26.38%
Pat Rogers	12,771	30.17%
John M. Allegretti	5,198	12.28%
Deirdre Ann McGuire	6,918	16.34%
Carmen Kathleen Aguilar	6,271	14.82%

Kristyna Colleen Ryan takes lead over Paula Lingo for Murphy vacancy

It may have been "Paczki Day" in Chicago today, not the Feast of St. Patrick, but it was still a great day to be Irish if you were running for judge.

And/or female.

Apparently.

The race for the Murphy vacancy provides another illustration of this point (scroll down for more). Here are the City numbers in the race for the Murphy vacancy:

DEM - Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Murphy)

2334 out of 2579 precincts (90.50 %)

Kristyna Colleen Ryan	145,329	36.75 %
Paula M. Lingo	165,121	41.76 %
Frank James Ryan	84,967	21.49 %

The County numbers give Ryan a similar lead:

DEM - Circuit Court Judge Full Circuit (Murphy)
Precincts Counted: 2,063 of 2,290 (90.09%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Kristyna Colleen Ryan	120,176	42.62%
Paula M. Lingo	99,228	35.19%
Frank James Ryan	62,582	22.19%

These numbers give Ryan an 1,156 vote lead over Lingo.

Paula M. Lingo was the slated candidate of the Democratic Party, endorsed by the newspapers, by the FOP, by the Firefighters, by the Chicago Federation of Labor, rated qualified or recommended by the bar associations -- but she holds only a 10,000 vote lead at this juncture over Kristyna Colleen Ryan, who did not submit her credentials to any bar association.

Bumped up upon update.

Anita Rivkin-Carothers holds seat in 7th Subcircuit

It wasn't all bleak for Supreme Court appointees. Anita Rivkin-Carothers was appointed in the 7th Subcircuit, and she seems to have held off a crowded field of challengers. These are the City numbers:

DEM - Judge, 7th Subcircuit (Vacancy of Young)

226 out of 255 precincts (88.63 %)

Anita Rivkin-Carothers	21,084	53.91 %
Melanie Rose Nuby	8,090	20.68 %
Kevin Kenneth Pechous	1,881	4.81 %
David H. Latham	2,943	7.52 %
T. Lee Boyd Jr.	5,113	13.07 %

These are the Suburban numbers:

DEM - Cook Circuit Court Judge 7th Sub (Young)
Precincts Counted: 68 of 75 (90.67%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Anita Rivkin-Carothers	3,514	36.99%
Melanie Rose Nuby	2,118	22.29%
Kevin Kenneth Pechous	1,680	17.68%
David H. Latham	1,569	16.52%
T. Lee Boyd Jr.	619	6.52%

Peter Fera leads for Republican nomination in 15th Subcircuit

Here are the numbers:

REP - Cook Circuit Court Judge 15th Sub (Add. Judge A)
Precincts Counted: 319 of 373 (85.52%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Donald Theodore Lyman	5,876	44.38%
Peter Fera	7,363	55.62%

Powell bests O'Neill for Thomas vacancy

Not all the appointed judges fared badly this evening.

In addition to Judges Marilyn F. Johnson and Maureen Ward Kirby, appointed Judge Joan Powell turned back a strong challenge from E. Madeline O'Neill to take the Thomas vacancy. These are the City numbers as of 10:58 p.m. (no, they haven't updated for awhile now):

DEM - Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Thomas)

2334 out of 2579 precincts (90.50 %)

E. Madeline O'Neill	107,625	27.43 %
Joan Powell	193,395	49.30 %
David John Mulvihill	23,894	6.09 %
Patrick Dennis Riley	67,386	17.18 %

These are the suburban numbers:

DEM - Circuit Court Judge Full Circuit (Thomas)
Precincts Counted: 2,063 of 2,290 (90.09%)

Candidates	Votes	%
E. Madeline O'Neill	80,604	28.68%
Joan Powell	124,994	44.47%
David John Mulvihill	21,380	7.61%
Patrick Dennis Riley	54,101	19.25%

It's not a good night for some appointed judges

LaGuina Clay-Clark was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Turkington vacancy in the 1st Judicial Subcircuit... but it looks like her bid to hold that seat has been thwarted this evening by Donna L. Cooper. Here are the City numbers as of 10:50 p.m.:

DEM - Judge, 1st Subcircuit (Vacancy of Turkington)

265 out of 300 precincts (88.33 %)

Donna L. Cooper	27,866	52.62 %
LaGuina Clay-Clark	21,488	40.58 %
Zedrick T. Braden III	3,602	6.80 %

These are the suburban numbers:

DEM - Cook Circuit Court Judge 1st Sub (Turkington)
Precincts Counted: 54 of 59 (91.53%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Donna L. Cooper	6,445	60.48%
LaGuina Clay-Clark	3,378	31.70%
Zedrick T. Braden III	834	7.83%

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Martin D. Coghlan was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the A vacancy in the 15th Subcircuit, but he too seems to have been unable to hold that seat:

DEM - Cook Circuit Court Judge 15th Sub (Add. Judge A)
Precincts Counted: 306 of 373 (82.04%)

Candidates	Votes	%
Thomas R. Mahoney	6,760	13.63%
Thomas ''TJ'' Somer	8,024	16.18%
Mary Louise Ryan Norwell	5,677	11.45%
Anna Helen Demacopoulos	11,326	22.84%
Michael Emmett McGinnis	2,197	4.43%
Carl Evans, Jr.	7,880	15.89%
Martin D. Coghlan	1,033	2.08%
William Joseph McGann	1,868	3.77%
Scott E. Lipinski	4,825	9.73%

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Laura Bertucci Smith was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to the Figeuroa vacancy in the 6th Judicial Subcircuit, but she, too, seems to have been unable to hold that seat. Here are the City results as of 10:50 p.m.:

DEM - Judge, 6th Subcircuit (Vacancy of Figueroa)

265 out of 288 precincts (92.01 %)

Mary Katherine M. Moore	9,549	27.04 %
Stuart M. Brody	3,260	9.23 %
Laura Bertucci Smith	8,432	23.88 %
Nancy Hallihan Horodecki	3,345	9.47 %
Mauricio Araujo	10,729	30.38 %

Other appointed judges who seem to have lost their bids to hold their seats are Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson (Montelione vacancy countywide), Judge Thomas R. Mulroy (12th Subcircuit, Devlin vacancy), Judge Kenneth L. Fletcher (10th Subcircuit, Pucinski vacancy), Judge James Edward Snyder (10th Subcircuit, Kowalski vacancy), Judge Furmin D. Sessoms (5th Subcircuit, Bush vacancy), and Judge James A. Shapiro (8th Subcircuit, Sheehan vacancy).