PEOPLE
Edited by Beverley Scobell

APPOINTMENTS
Brent Bohlen was appointed to the Illinois Commerce Commission. Bohlen, a Springfield attorney, will replace William Dickson. Andrew M. Gorchynsky was appointed chief medical coordinator for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, which investigates and prosecutes physicians. Gorchynsky is an attending surgeon at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. Sue Tohinaka was named executive director of the Judicial Inquiry Board, which investigates allegations of ethical impropriety on the part of Illinois judges. She served the board as general counsel and as acting director. Michael P. Rose was named deputy director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority. Formerly the authority's general counsel, Rose will oversee departments that distribute state and federal monies to help finance low-income housing. Ellen Distelheim will serve as acting general counsel for the agency. Tanner Girard was named to the Pollution Control Board. Girard, of Grafton, is an associate professor of biology and environmental sciences at Principia College in Elsah.

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees appointed David Broski chancellor at the Chicago campus. He had served as interim chancellor after James Stukel was named president of the U of I system. Northeastern Illinois University's Board of Trustees voted to extend President Salme H. Steinberg's contract through August 1999.

Mitsubishi tapped former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin to investigate charges of sexual harassment at the company's assembly plant in Normal. The former Illinois congresswoman also will suggest ways to improve the treatment of women at the plant.

HONORS
Irene D. Antoniou, an Illinois Arts Council member since 1984, is one of the recipients of the 1996 Sidney R. Yates Arts Advocacy Awards. Sponsored by the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation, the awards are given annually to individuals, organizations, media and corporations that have made significant contributions to the arts in Illinois. The other awardees are: Peter Taub of Randolph Street Gallery; WPWR-TV and WPWR-TV Channel 50 Foundation; Bank One; Ella L. Jenkins; and Kartemquin Films, producers of Hoop Dreams. Illinois Issues Statehouse Bureau Chief Jennifer Halperin was a finalist in this year's Peter Lisagor Awards for her article on farm pesticides (see October, page 10). Awards for exemplary journalism are given each year by the Chicago Headline Club, the Chicago chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Kathleen J. Best. who covered state politics for Lee Enterprises and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the 1980s, was named Alumna of the Year by the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She is currently assistant city editor at the Post-Intelligencer in Seattle.

Illinois congressman will chair GOP platform committee
Abortion language could be key to fall strategy

U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will chair the platform committee at the Republican National Convention in San Diego in August.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue are keeping a close watch on the move. Some believe the appointment signals an effort to negotiate changes in the party's anti-abortion plank.

The plank, calling for a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion, has been part of the GOP platform since 1980. It has sparked controversy at past conventions. Hyde is a staunch opponent of abortion, but some observers believe the Wood Dale Republican could affect a compromise.

Bob Dole, the likely presidential nominee, has hedged on the platform's abortion language.

Putting a '30' on a career — and an era
For journalists, "30" traditionally signals the end of the story. So it was hard not to think of that as Peoria Journal Star reporter Bill O'Connell brought to a close his 41-year career as a government reporter. O'Connell, who first arrived in the state Capitol Pressroom in 1955, retired at the end of the spring legislative session. His retirement also brings to a close an era when government reporters saw themselves as advocates for their home towns. Illinois Issues will profile O'Connell and his philosophy on government reporting in an upcoming issue.

40 ¦ June 1996 Illinois Issues

Civic Federation president resigns

William Hudnut

William Hudnut, president of the Civic Federation of Chicago, will leave the organization in July to be a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.

In 1994, Hudnut joined the Civic Federation, a watchdog group that monitors taxes and spending in local government agencies.

Before that he served for 16 years as the mayor of Indianapolis, where he led an economic development strategy that built the Hoosier Dome and lured the Colts football team, hosted the Pan American games and convinced United Airlines to build a $1 billion maintenance facility.

Hudnut will apply his experience to land-use planning.

First lady visits central Illinois
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a day in central Illinois visiting a child care center, speaking to students and staff at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Lincoln Land Community College, and touring a tornado-stricken neighborhood in Decatur. On short notice, Clinton included Springfield and Decatur as a stopover on her way back to Washington from a speech in Denver, Colo. She focused her comments to the university audience on the importance of education. In Decatur, Clinton assured tornado victims of federal help. Clinton and UIS Chancellor Naomi Lynn became acquainted during the United Nations Fourth Conference on Women held last fall in China. U of I Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas Lamont is standing behind Clinton. The picture was taken at UlS by Springfield photographer Terry Farmer.

Democrats nail down convention delegation
U.S. Rep. Richard Durbin of Springfield will head the state delegation at the Democratic National Covention in Chicago in August. Durbin is the party's candidate for U.S. Senate.

Heiple plea bargains, pays fine
Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Heiple pleaded guilty to two traffic violations and paid a $100 fine for each offense. Three other charges were dropped.

Transit chief resigns
CTA President Robert Belcaster resigned from the post after the Chicago Sun-Times revealed he bought stock in a company that had CTA business.

Panel named to study restrictions on teen drivers
At the request of Secretary of State George Ryan, the state Senate called for a task force to develop legislation creating a graduated licensing system for young Illinois drivers. The recommendations of the 18-member panel, which are expected to set new standards for drivers under age 21, will be presented to the General Assembly next year.

Mike Chamness, director of the department of driver services for the secretary of state, will chair the group. The members include:

State Sens. John J. Cullerton, Democrat of Chicago, and Beverly J. Fawell, Republican of Glen Ellyn, and state Reps. Carole Pankau, Republican of Roselle, and Douglas P. Scott, Democrat of Rockford; Terry Gainer, director, Illinois State Police; Frank Gruber, Illinois High School and College Drivers Education Association; Patrick Kelley, Sangamon County state's attorney; Jonathan Lehrer, AAA-Chicago Motor Club/Editors for Traffic Safety; Theresa McGreary-Hill, National Association of Independent Insurers; Don McNamara, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Kevin Martin, Illinois Insurance Information Service; Judge Anthony S. Montelione, presiding judge, 5th Municipal District, Circuit Court of Cook County; Larry Wort, bureau chief, Illinois Department of Transportation.

Representatives to be named from the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the Illinois Sheriffs' Association and the State Bar Association will join the group along with the high school student winner of the AAA-Chicago Motor Club essay contest.

Illinois Issues June 1996 ¦ 41

SIU president hires investigator, probes release of names
Southern Illinois University President Ted Sanders hired a former federal prosecutor to investigate how the names of legislative scholarship winners at that school were released to the news media. The Associated Press reported SIU will pay Frederick J. Hess $200 an hour to question university employees about the matter.

The AP used the university's records to show how lawmakers had given tuition waivers to their families and friends, and to students who lived outside their legislative districts. The information was supplied under the Freedom of Information Act. The students names were blacked out, but some were still legible.

The legislative scholarship program was launched in 1905. Under the program, lawmakers can award up to two four-year scholarships each year, one to the University of Illinois and one to any other state university Since the 1970s, officials at state universities have maintained that legislative scholarship winners are protected under the federal privacy laws.

However, late in the spring session, lawmakers approved legislation requiring recipients to waive their rights to keep their names secret. Edgar is expected to sign it.

Earlier this year, The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette asked several universities for the information in a Freedom of Information request. The newspaper reported one in every five scholarships that legislators awarded between 1989 and 1995 at Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois universities went either to the relatives of political supporters or to students who lived outside the lawmakers' districts. AP's report mirrored those findings.

Sanders apologized to the SIU students. He says the investigation is aimed at determining whether negligence was behind the release of the names.

Hess served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Illinois and for the Southern District of Illinois.

County assessor to head state Democratic effort for fall general election
Thomas C. Hynes, Cook County assessor, was chosen by President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign to be chairman of the Democratic Party's Coordinated Campaign Committee for Illinois.

Other members of the panel are Margaret Houlihan, who is representing U.S. Senate candidate Richard J. Durbin; Emil Jones Jr., state Senate minority leader; Gary J. LaPaille, state Democratic chairman; and Michael J. Madigan, state House minority leader.

Audit faults math and science foundation
The foundation that supports projects at the state-funded math and science academy was criticized in a state audit for reimbursing the academy's executive director for more than $3,000 in political contributions.

Director Stephanie Pace Marshall repaid $3,665 last fall after auditors reported the Fund for Advancement of Education is prohibited from participating in political activities. Marshall made the contributions over a four-year period by buying luncheon and registration tickets.

ICC chairman sparks political furor
Comments made on a national radio program by Dan Miller may have jeopardized his future on the Illinois Commerce Commission. During a discussion about gay marriages, Miller reportedly compared childless gay couples and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole and his wife Elizabeth Dole. The couple has had no children. The comments sparked outrage among state Senate Republicans. Chairman Miller's term is up in January. Gov. Jim Edgar, who chairs Dole's Illinois campaign, makes ICC appointments. The Senate is responsible for confirming or denying such appointments.

Obituaries

Joseph E. Gardner, a commissioner on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, died May 16. Gardner, who ran for mayor of Chicago in 1995, was a community and political activist.

James T. Hickey, the former curator of the state's Abraham Lincoln collection, died May 13. He worked at the Illinois State Historical Library for 25 years before retiring.

John Thomas Elmer, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who served as the paper's bureau chief in Springfield, died on April 28.

42 ¦ June 199 6 Illinois Issues