Margaret Blackshere

The stale AFL-CIO elects a new president
Veteran union organizer Margaret Blackshere made history last month by becoming the first woman president of the Illinios AFL-CIO. "We can't stay in the traditional bastion of the labor movement," says Blackshere. "There are whole industries out there that have been ignored. That's not going to happen anymore."

Blackshere says the organization will work to expand membership to such nontraditional industries as child care, health care, banking and technology. She says she also plans to promote equal pay for women and push for pegging worker wages to the cost of living instead of the minimum wage.

A former elementary school teacher, Blackshere of suburban Niles has been secretary-treasurer of the 1 million-member union since 1993.

She defeated George Machino of East Alton in the first contested election for the organization's top post.

Shifts at the lop
Former state Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton is the state senator for the 20th District. DuPage County Republican leaders picked Roskam to replace Beverly Fawell of Glen Ellyn. She's now at the State Toll Highway Authority.

RELEASED
Miriam Santos, former Chicago treasurer, will get a new trial. She left a prison in Pekin after a federal appeals court found that "a veritable avalanche of errors" tainted her original trial. Santos was convicted of mail fraud and extortion last spring.

BIG GUYS ON CAMPUS
Frank E. Horton is interim president of Southern Illinois University. A retired academic administrator, he will fill the post until a permanent president is named. Horton stepped in the first of this month after former SIU President Ted Sanders left to head the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, a national education policy group. Horton was SlU's vice president for academic affairs and research from 1975 to 1980.

William Engelbrecht, a former Chicago businessman, was elected chairman of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Engelbrecht's six-year term on the board ends next year. He replaces Jeffrey Gindorf, a Crystal Lake doctor. The board oversees the university's three campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.

James Zerkle was appointed by Gov. George Ryan for a four-year term on the Illinois Community College Board. Zerkle is an attorney with the Springfield law firm of Heckenkamp, Simhauser, Ward & Zerkle.

STATE AUDIT
Illinois Auditor General William Holland will conduct a management audit of the state's troubled child support disbursement unit. The Legislative Audit Commission asked Holland to report back by March 15. The unit has been plagued with problems. Thousands of Illinoisans were left without money. The state issued an estimated $10.8 million in emergency checks through early December. Holland was charged with reviewing authority to issue such emergency payments, as well as the source of the funds.

34 / February 2000 Illinois Issues

Gaming chairman sets sail

Gov. George Ryan named former federal prosecutor Gregory Jones the new chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board after the sudden resignation of Robert Vickrey last month.

Jones will have plenty to do over the next year. On deck, he says, is a management review of the controversial buyer of the Joliet Empress Casino and Harrah's proposed acquisition of a casino in Metropolis. Jones says he also wants the board to look into the issue of gambling addiction and treatment.

He could face a number of gambling proposals from lawmakers this spring. House Republicans are touting an 11-point reform plan that calls for funding compulsive gambling counseling services. In addition, the plan would prohibit loans on the boats and raise the legal age for gambling to 21.

Ruling favors expulsion
U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey ruled last month the Decatur School Board was justified in expelling six black students for fighting during a football game last September. The suit filed on behalf of the students charged that the board's decision violated their constitutional rights.

The case earned national exposure after the Rev. Jesse Jackson marched in Decatur to protest the board's decision. In his decision, McCuskey wrote the student's rights were not violated because they had an opportunity to present their side to the board. The students are now enrolled in alternative ,, schools. Jackson planned to appeal.

0BITS Clyde Walton
Former Illinois State Historian Clyde Walton died last month. He was 74.

Walton, who served as the state's top historian from 1956 to 1967, organized the restoration of the Old State Capitol in downtown Springfield. He also was the executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society and director of the Illinois State Historical Library.

A Chicago native who was living in San Jose, Calif, at the time of his death, Walton counted among his most significant accomplishments the creation of a talking animatronic Abraham Lincoln mannequin for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. The mannequin is now on display at Disneyland.

He was a key promoter of the display. "It was terribly risky," says current State Historian Tom Schwartz. "It took someone who had vision."

During Walton's tenure, the state celebrated several landmark anniversaries, including the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth and the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Walton's background was in university libraries, which Schwartz says allowed him a wider view of historical subjects. "He was able to view topics that had a broad public appeal," Schwartz says. "He was able to bring to the task a certain enthusiasm that was refreshing."

Illinois Issues February 2000 / 35