The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018

Feb. 16, 2018.

Friday E-Edition.

RockRiverTimes.com.

Local

Rockford Police opens youth center thanks to grant ROCKFORD — The Rockford Police Department is housing a support services center thanks to a grant by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICIJA).

The Community-Based Violence and Interruption Prevention program is a trauma-focused initiative that provides support and services to at-risk youth ages 11-16, who have experienced trauma due to violence. The objective of the VIP program is to keep youth and families engaged in order to shift children away from criminal behavior through street intervention, counseling and therapy, case management and developmental services.

The center is housed in Police District 2, 1410 Broadway.

The project is the result of a cooperation between the police department, Youth Services Network (YSN) and the Center for Nonviolence and Conflict Transformation (CNCT).

Rockford Police Assistant Deputy Chief Mike Dalke said the Youth Services Network will provide crisis intervention and outreach to identify youth who qualify for the program. Youth Services Network will work with those selected and their families to develop a case management plan, set goals, and provide advocacy services to include a parent engagement specialist and therapist.

Police officers will engage participants in tutoring, mentoring, leadership, nutritional education and athletic activities. The program began last week and will be held every Wednesday evening. The CNCT will teach participants computer coding, music production, nonviolence leadership and entrepreneurship development every Saturday afternoon. R.

Inside Cliffbreakers says renovations in final stages Page 2 City clarifies report about gaming revenue Page 3 Can middle-class Biss defeat millionaires?

Page 5 Lots of talk, little action after shootings Page 10

Fentanyl deaths ‘skyrocketed’ in Winnebago County in 2017

By Jenna Dooley WNIJ News

Winnebago County Coroner Bill Hintz is growing increasingly worried about the breakdown of drug-related overdose deaths.

According to Hintz, 124 deaths were attributed to drug overdose last year compared with 96 in 2016.

Of those, he says there was a noticeable increase in deaths involving fentanyl with seven in 2016 and 63 in 2017. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which the Drug Enforcement Administration says is 50 times more potent than heroin.

“I don’t believe that these people realize how dangerous they are,” Hintz said. “I don’t think that they realize what is being mixed into the drug that they are buying.”

He says the number of fentanyl-related deaths began to jump starting in July through the end of the year.

The office reported more than 40 different drugs that factored into drug overdose deaths. A pair of deaths were associated with carfentanil, which also is a synthetic opioid, but even more potent than fentanyl.

Also alarming, Hintz says, is the combination of drugs being reported. He says it’s becoming more common to see three or four different drugs in the system at the time of death.

Additionally, he cautions against using

Distribution of the 40-plus drugs found in the blood of 2017 overdose victims in Winnebago County.

WNIJ opioid-reversal drugs, like Narcan, as a “fail-safe” measure to prevent overdose deaths.

“You give the Narcan and you bring the person around, and you are like ‘Okay, everything’s good and no problems,’”

Hintz said. “But when that Narcan wears off and you still have enough of that drug in your system, you can definitely overdose again.”

Hintz projects drug deaths will continue to increase in 2018.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

Local

Cliffbreakers says renovations in final stages ROCKFORD — The banquet and meeting facilities at the Cliffbreakers Riverside Hotel and Conference Center are open for business again.

The 30,000 square feet of events space was renovated as part of a $2.5 million overhaul of the complex along the Rock River in the north end of Rockford. The facility’s management group said it was already accepting reservations for 2018.

“We have been highly intentional in our planning and renovation process to maintain the facility’s elegance, while also taking our vision into an exciting new era,” said Cliffbreakers’ general manager Andy Bridwell. “From our color choices in paint and carpeting to refining our décor, we have made it easy to make the event spaces your own.”

Upgrades to the facility’s 84 hotel rooms are still on track to be completed in the second quarter of 2018, Birdwell added.

Cliffbreakers’ Renaissance Ballroom is home to an antique Brunswick bar that was obtained from a local estate and dates to 1892 and has been restored as part of the renovations.

Thousands of crystals on each of the facility’s 13 chandeliers were polished by hand and new chairs, and place settings were special ordered.

In addition, catering menus have been revamped and the new Catering Director, Sarah Buscemi, is able to work with event hosts to create custom fine dining experiences for their guests to enjoy, said Birdwell.

Redevelopment of Cliffbreakers started in June 2017 and has been paid for by a city-backed HUD Section 108 loan in the amount of $3 million. When complete, the hotel will be renamed as it becomes part of the Ascend Hotel Collection run by the Maryland-based Choice Hotels group. R.

No surveys. No pop ups. No paywalls. Just news.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

Local

City clarifies report about gaming revenue

By Jim Hagerty Contributor

ROCKFORD — A recent report tied to liquor licenses that confused a Rockford alderman Monday was not one showing what the city takes in from its more than 450 video gambling machines.

Officials say a report issued to aldermen during Monday’s committee meetings showed that the city received about $10,000 in the last two quarters of 2017 from nearly three dozen new conditional liquor licenses.

Seeking clarification about the amount and whether the city should have received more than $10,000 from 35 machines, Alderman Frank Beach suggested there was an error in the report.

“That’s the only thing the city got was

$10,000?” Beach, who represents the 10th Ward, said. “That doesn’t make any sense at all, and I really want to see what the numbers are.”

Beach said he expected revenue to be “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” a comment that became the subject of a 23 WIFR report. The clip indicated the Liquor and Tobacco Advisory Board promised to investigate and provide council with overall numbers next week.

Instead, the city responded Tuesday, clarifying the figures Beach questioned.

But not before home rule opponents attempted to use the now-updated media report to further its claim that officials are hiding the city’s true figures.

“Somebody’s cookin’ the books,” one person commented about the report on an

anti-home rule Facebook page.

Another user accused officials of “playing fast a(nd) loose with the facts.”

However, according to terms of the conditional liquor licenses in question, 50 percent of revenue must come from food, alcohol and the sale of general merchandise. It cannot all come from video gaming machines.

“The report was NOT a full report on overall City revenue from video gaming,” City of Rockford Strategic Communications Manager Laura Maher said in a statement.

Data in the full report shows the city took in $1.5 million last year from 459 gaming machines in 95 establishments, Maher reported. Those funds are applied to payments on leased vehicles. The city’s general fund covers the difference between

the total payments due and the gaming revenue received. Last year, lease payments totaled about $3.4 million.

Mathematically, that means $1.5 million was paid with video gaming revenue and $1.9 million was paid by the general fund, numbers readily available from the city upon request.

What Rockford takes in from gambling machines is also listed in the Illinois Gaming Board’s Monthly Video Gaming Revenue Reports. Everything from the number of machines, dollars gamed and how they’re doled is reported by the state.

Under Illinois’ gaming system, machine owners, the state and municipalities share gaming revenue. R.

Our City, Our Story: Live, Saturday at Nordlof DOWNTOWN — Our City, Our Story: Live is bringing back live storytelling to Rockford.

Saturday, Feb. 17, the OCOS: Live series will kick off at the Nordlof Center, 118 N. Main St. from 7:30-9 p.m. Vickie Lynn will be the evening’s emcee and a cash bar will be provided by Prairie Street Brewing Company.

Similar to The Moth, the live storytelling series heard on 89.5 WNIJ, residents are invited to tell true stories pertaining to a certain theme.

The first installment of OCOS: Live will feature storytelling based on the theme of “That One Time.” Between storytellers, Our

City, Our Story episodes will be shown and the episode’s subjects will be in attendance, allowing the audience to interact with the subjects and those telling stories.

OCOS: Live is a partnership between Our City, Our Story and the Rockford Area Arts Council. The event series recently received a $7,800 grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois’ Community Grants Program.

If you wish to be a storyteller at a future OCOS: Live event, email MyStory@ OurCityOurStory.com to be considered.

And look for future Our City, Our Story installments in the pages of The Rock River Times. R.

CFNIL grant brings diplomatic, legal services to migrant workers

By Chase Cavanaugh WNIJ News

A grant will give migrant workers better access to diplomatic and legal resources across several northern Illinois counties.

The Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, or FLAP, fights against “human labor trafficking” of migrant

workers across Illinois.

Executive Director Alexandra Sossa says this exploitation often comes from deceptive employers.

“They were told in Mexico, for example, they were going to be paid twelve dollarsper-hour. They were going to have a house where to live and food and things like that,”

she says. “Once they’re here, they take away their passport and they’re not even getting minimum wage.”

Sossa says the $6,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois will allow FLAP to offer workshops in Winnebago, Boone, Ogle and Stephenson Counties. The events inform migrants of

RockRiverTimes.com.

their rights and help match those who are exploited with legal representation.

The grant will also allow the Mexican Consulate’s mobile office to travel to these areas.

FLAP works statewide, but Sossa says grants like this one help them further focus their work in specific communities.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

State

Schools say pension shift would undo funding revamp

By Sarah Zimmerman SPRINGFIELD — Public school administrators who just last summer were ecstatic over a promise of equitable state financing in a revamped education funding formula were disheartened Thursday by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposal to unload more costs onto local districts, which they said could lead to higher property taxes.

The Republican governor proposed a $696 million savings to the state’s bank account by shifting the employer portion of teachers’ pension contributions to local districts over four years. Generally, employees pay 9 percent of their salaries and this year, the state is paying 10 percent of what’s owed for the year.

Schools argue that picking up the tab would have devastating effects and exacerbate inequity, which last year’s funding change aimed to end. Educators said it would undo many of the effects of that evidence-based funding model, which gives needier districts extra money for educational services.

“The governor just poured water on our campfire,” said Tony Sanders, CEO of Elgin School District U-46. He said that if

his district — the state’s largest outside Chicago — doesn’t raise property taxes, it would have to cut programs just to “make ends meet.”

The plan is part of a $1.3 billion spending cut Rauner suggested, supplemented by $470 million in savings from dictating state health insurance terms, instead of allowing employee unions to negotiate them. Neither plan has much support in a Democrat-controlled General Assembly.

Rauner’s justification for the shift is that if pension costs were paid by local governments, they’d have incentive to reduce the burden. But Ben Schwarm, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said pensions are set by the Legislature, not school districts.

Illinois schools are primarily funded through local property taxes. Historically, school districts in areas with higher property wealth receive more money in taxes than districts in impoverished communities. That setup has led to the largest school funding gap in the nation.

The funding law prioritizes state money to needier districts. Rauner, who initially vetoed the measure, now touts it as a crowning achievement.

“For a man who seized upon school funding reform as his greatest accomplishment as governor, he certainly does not seem inclined to make sure the new formula is given a chance to work,” said Democratic Sen. Andy Manar of Bunker Hill, who sponsored the funding overhaul.

“Once again, the governor’s rhetoric failed to match reality,” said state Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford. “He says he wants to reduce property taxes, but today’s proposal will result in a significant property tax increase on Rockford families.”

Ex-Madigan aide arrested for violating order of protection

Judge OKs evaluation for teen accused in shooting

Judge convicted of fraud, illegally pocketing $300K

Associated Press

CHICAGO — An ex-campaign worker for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s Democratic organization has been arrested for allegedly violating a protective order.

Kevin Quinn was fired this week for allegedly sending inappropriate text messages to a colleague. Alaina Hampton filed a complaint against Madigan-controlled political funds Monday at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, describing how Quinn treated her.

The Chicago Tribune reports the 41-year-old Quinn was arrested Thursday

by Evergreen Park police for violating a protective order by sending text messages and calling another person.

Last month, Quinn pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct for alleged actions during divorce proceedings and received one year of court supervision.

Court records show as part of the plea Quinn agreed to abide by the protective order.

It wasn’t immediately known of Quinn has legal representation.

CHARLESTON — A psychiatrist says an Illinois teenager accused in a high school shooting that injured one student in September suffers from a defiance disorder and other conditions for which he can’t be treated at the state’s Juvenile Justice Department.

The Mattoon Journal-Gazette and (Charleston) Times-Courier reports that a judge approved an evaluation by a state agency for the 15-year-old. But Judge Matt Sullivan said the teen will remain in the custody of the Juvenile Justice Department and won’t be moved to the Department of Human Services for possible placement in a treatment facility.

The teen is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm in the Sept. 20 shooting at Mattoon High School. Psychiatrist Lawrence Jeckel testified that the boy was motivated in part by “perceived bullying” but also acts as a bully himself.

“Once again, the governor’s rhetoric failed to match reality.

He says he wants to reduce property taxes, but today’s proposal will result in a significant property tax increase on Rockford families.”

–State Sen. Steve Stadelman, D-Rockford

CHICAGO — A federal jury in Chicago has convicted a Cook County judge of fraudulently obtaining mortgages for Chicago investment properties and illegally pocketing more than $300,000.

The conviction of Judge Jessica O’Brien on Thursday after a six-day trial should force her off the bench under Illinois law.

The law applies even though the schemes occurred before she became a judge.

Prosecutors say the 50-year-old O’Brien lied to lenders and concealed facts to obtain more than $1.4 million in mortgages. They were obtained for properties she purchased and sold.

Defense attorney Ricardo Meza told jurors earlier that his client made mistakes that weren’t intentional, and thus were not fraud.

O’Brien could face years in prison for the mail and bank fraud convictions, while probation is also an option. Sentencing is July 6.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson had a unique reason to resist the plan. Until this year, Chicago schools paid the employer portion of teacher pensions but in the funding remake, the state took on the city’s share.

“Our state made historic progress just six months ago, and we cannot go backwards,” Jackson said in a statement. “The families, educators and courageous lawmakers who fought so hard to achieve fair funding will not allow their hard-earned progress to be reversed.”

Rauner promised to follow up with legislation giving schools “the tools they need to more than offset the costs.” In the past, he has proposed restrictions on collective bargaining by local government employees, which Democrats don’t support.

Sanders said his plans to use additional money from the funding revamp for new technology and educational programs would likely stay on the drawing board if Rauner has his way.

“We finally got to a place to provide the resources our children need,” he said. “And the budget address just pulled it all away.”

State to get $1.7M from federal for anti-poverty programs

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois will get $1.7 million in federal grants for six anti-poverty programs.

U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin said the money will pay AmeriCorps VISTA members to assist nonprofit organizations conducting the programs. The projects include recruiting donors and volunteers for a housing program, expanding education and workforce training for young people and improving access to health care.

Chosen projects include three in Chicago, one in the western Chicago suburb of Lemont, one in Peoria and one in Lawrenceville, in east-central Illinois.

The AmeriCorps VISTA members will work with the organizations to raise funds, recruit community volunteers and help manage local projects. The members will serve for one year and receive an educational scholarship for their work.

— Associated Press

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

Can middle-class Biss defeat millionaires?

By Sara Burnett

C

Associated Press

HICAGO — In an Illinois governor race that includes a couple millionaires and a billionaire, Daniel Biss likes to tell people he’s given his campaign just $25 — and then his wife decided to one-up him and donate $50.

“We’re pretty well maxed out, but we’ll see what we can do going forward,” the Democratic state senator from Evanston said at a recent event, drawing laughs from some and serious nods from others.

Biss, a former math professor who reported income of less than $35,000 last year, has gained support in recent weeks campaigning as a progressive who’s something the other top candidates are not: part of the middle class.

In TV ads filmed in his family’s modest home, he talks about sending his kids to public school and living on a budget. In another ad, he links wealthy Democratic rivals J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy to two Republicans, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and President Donald Trump, calling them all “rich guys” who’ve avoided taxes.

Several recent polls have shown him surpassing Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, and gaining ground on Pritzker. The billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and perceived front-runner has the support of many Democratic leaders in the March 20 primary — partly because he has the money to take on Rauner.

Other candidates across the U.S. also are making wealth — or their lack of it — a campaign theme.

In Florida, Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum talk s about growing up poor and how he can’t write his campaign for governor a big check, unlike his wealthier rivals. Wisconsin Democrat Mike McCabe, a former director of a government watchdog group who’s long complained about the influence of money in politics, wears jeans to all his gubernatorial campaign functions, and is the founder of Blue Jean Nation, a group he says is dedicated to electing “regular people.”

But none of them has so far faced a financial disadvantage as large as the one confronting Biss, who has raised about $4.8 million, mostly through small donations.

That includes about $1 million he carried over from prior races.

Pritzker has already sunk close to $50 million into his campaign — a number

Photo, Daniel X. O’Neil

Biss notes is more than Trump spent in the GOP presidential primary. Rauner, who’s seeking his second full term, has raised more than $75 million, most from his own bank account. If Pritzker and Rauner face off in the November general election, the contest is expected to be the most expensive governor’s race in U.S. history.

Biss calls the race “a referendum on money in politics.”

“Do we need in the era of Trump and Rauner to just pick another inexperienced billionaire?” he asks.

First elected to the Legislature in 2010, the graduate of Harvard and MIT became known as a numbers guy who tackled issues such as Illinois’ hugely underfunded pension system. He still has a wonky streak, including publishing a series of videos where he does such things as juggle flaming objects while explaining the pension and state budget mess.

His bid for governor was met early on by “a thunderous chorus of yawns,” Biss says. But he has picked up support from several colleagues in the General Assembly and the endorsement of progressive groups, including those who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

He also has drawn the attention of

Pritzker, who’s attacking Biss for leading the charge on a 2013 public-pension overhaul, among other issues, with a series of ads that question his progressive credentials.

The pension measure aimed to reduce Illinois’ multibillion-dollar unfunded liability, in part by slashing benefits for hundreds of thousands of state workers and retirees. The plan, which the Illinois Supreme Court later found unconstitutional, infuriated labor unions and others in the Democratic Party’s base.

Biss now says he believes pension benefits should not be cut. Asked about the change during an interview with Crain’s, Biss said it was “a long learning process for me, and I wish I’d learned that lesson differently.” The Pritzker campaign pounced.

“Biss can try and ramble and deflect now, but this is someone who needed the Supreme Court to step in before he ‘learned his lesson’ that working families deserve the pensions that were promised to them,” Pritzker spokeswoman Galia Slayen said.

Biss noted Pritzker and his wife gave $20,000 to a political committee created to fund lawmakers who were willing to take on unions. He said Pritzker is worried

because of the shift happening in the race, including the Pritzker campaign’s own poll numbers showing Biss in second place — though that polling also showed Pritzker with a healthy lead.

Pritzker also has been working to repair damage from newly released FBI wiretaps recorded a decade ago for the investigation of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption.

Pritzker is heard on the tapes saying racially insensitive comments while talking with Blagojevich about appointing someone to a vacant Senate seat.

Rabia Amin, a 19-year-old political science major at Elmhurst College, said she plans to vote for Biss. It was his ads set in a home that looked much like her own that sealed her decision.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god. He’s a normal human being,’” she said. “That’s the thing I’ve been getting from him. He understands our problems, because I feel like he’s gone through them, and I really like that.”

Three other candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination: educator Bob Daiber, activist Tio Hardiman and physician Robert Marshall. Rauner faces state Rep. Jeanne Ives in the GOP primary.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

Nation

The CPFB is turning its back on consumers

B

orn as a fiercely independent agency meant to protect citizens, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has quickly been subsumed into the Trump administration.

Banks, student-loan agencies and payday lenders are the winners.

By Jesse Eisinger ProPublica

In early February, the Federal Reserve delivered its most significant punishment of a major bank in a generation, sanctioning Wells Fargo for its pattern of customer exploitation.

A few blocks away, meanwhile, another of the giant bank’s regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has recently displayed a different attitude: It has been softening on scandal-inundated Wells Fargo. After an edict about data handling from Mick Mulvaney, the man Donald Trump installed as acting head of the agency late last year, the bureau’s enforcement lawyers suddenly found their hands tied, according to three CFPB staffers. The attorneys weren’t permitted to upload information the bank supplied about its auto insurance business, one of the areas in which Wells Fargo has been accused of malfeasance.

Another probe of bad behavior — this one involving Wells Fargo’s treatment of its checking customers — has bogged down, ProPublica has learned. And a third investigation of the bank (for mortgage abuses) that was about to yield tens of millions of dollars in fines, according to Reuters, now languishes unresolved. Staffers fear they will be ordered to reduce the penalty that Richard Cordray, the previous head of the agency, approved before he left, according to people familiar with the probe.

The CFPB’s multifront retreat comes despite a December tweet from Trump — two weeks after he named Mulvaney to head the agency — in which the president proclaimed that “fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped.”

The enforcement slowdown isn’t just good news for Wells Fargo. Mulvaney’s team recently asked enforcement lawyers to prepare for a potential settlement of its lawsuit alleging that Navient, the gigantic student-loan servicer, abused borrowers,

Photo, AP according to a high-level CFPB official.

Pulling back before the case proceeds to trial would mark a stark reversal in one of previous regime’s marquee legal efforts.

And the agency has recently dropped cases against multiple financial institutions it previously accused of harming customers.

In just over two months at the helm of the CFPB, Mulvaney has launched a sweeping set of initiatives. The agency is conducting a comprehensive internal review of enforcement and supervision.

Mulvaney ordered a survey of financial firms to get their sense of the “burdens” that the CFPB’s investigative process places on them. He split the fair lending oversight operations in two, putting the heads of the office under his direct control.

And he requested a budget of zero dollars, which was something of a gimmick since the bureau has a sufficient reserve, but a statement viewed as symbolic.

This account was drawn from conversations with current and former staffers, as well as numerous press reports. (No current staffers would talk on the record, citing worries about retaliation. Indeed, the bureau’s inspector general has recently launched an investigation into media leaks, into, as one staffer called it “Dumbledore’s Army,” after the secret band of wizards and witches who resist the evil Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.) The CFPB declined to make officials available for interviews or to respond to a lengthy set of questions sent by email.

The story the staffers tell reveals not just a drastic shift in philosophy; it’s an anatomy of a bureaucratic immobilization — one more often accomplished by well-placed monkey wrenches than by a change of laws.

• The CFPB, famous as the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was created as part of the Dodd-Frank reshaping of financial regulation. Until it was conceived after the financial crisis, no single overseer had responsibility to protect people from deceptive fees and predatory loans. But conservatives, along with the financial industry, assailed the agency immediately as unaccountable bureaucrats stomping into realms the government should not tread.

Mulvaney, then a congressman, called the agency “a joke ... in a sad, sick kind of way.”

Now Mulvaney, 50, is in charge. He has made no concession to the notion that he is simply the “acting” director, or to the fact that this isn’t even his full-time job; he also heads the Office of Management and Budget. (Mulvaney spends Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the CFPB, according to a high-level official.)

Mulvaney’s first significant move as CFPB chief seemed arcane, and came couched in language about protecting privacy. In early December, he froze the agency’s collection of private financial data, known as “personally identifiable information” or PII. Last year, the bureau’s inspector general issued a report saying the

CFPB should handle data more carefully.

However, the report was hardly scathing (it didn’t cite any examples of confidential data actually leaking out, for example) and its recommendations were modest and achievable.

Indeed, the report Mulvaney cited did not recommend a freeze on the use of personally identifiable information. For that reason and others, staffers view his ban as a pretext to curtail the bureau’s activities — and an effective one at that.

“This is freezing enforcement,” said one CFPB attorney. If enforcement lawyers want to determine whether, say, Wells Fargo is taking advantage of checking account customers, they need to examine the checking accounts — which would include PII. At first, no one knew the precise contours of the freeze. What could staffers still request? Did it cover only enforcement lawyers, or everybody? Some interpreted the order strictly, concluding they were not only barred from asking or subpoenaing financial institutions for new information but that it covered ongoing matters as well.

According to three current CFPB employees, that meant lawyers on the Wells Fargo auto insurance investigation initially were not permitted to upload information the bank had delivered to them. Subsequently, the enforcement team on the matter was granted an exception and is now able to examine the material.

Continues >>>

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

The CPFB is turning its back on consumers (continued) Mulvaney’s order has had effects beyond enforcement, hampering the bureau’s efforts to monitor financial firms for compliance with consumer protection rules and conduct research on financial products, according to several staffers. The freeze has even stymied state attorneys general, according to two CFPB staffers and one attorney for a state office. The bureau is responding more slowly to requests for information and giving less up than it did under the previous administration, according to two people inside the bureau and one lawyer at a state office.

Mulvaney and his appointees initially suggested the freeze was temporary. But on Dec. 22, Mulvaney sent an all-hands missive. After some holiday pleasantries, he wrote, “I’ve decided to continue the hold on the collection of PII and other sensitive data.” With some exceptions, he continued, “the default setting is ‘no.’” The extension surprised few inside the agency. Most staffers now expect it to last the duration of his tenure.

• On Jan. 23, Mulvaney laid out his vision for the agency in a memo to the staff.

“When I arrived at CFPB, I told folks that despite what they might have heard, I had no intention of shutting down the Bureau,” he began. He then criticized Cordray for having said “pushing the envelope is a loaded phrase, but that’s absolutely

what we did.” But Cordray had never said that. The quote came from another CFPB employee quoted in an article in Politico.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed that Mulvaney subsequently published based on the memo required a correction.

Mulvaney explained his philosophy in the memo: “We are government employees.

We don’t just work for the government, we work for the people. And that means everyone: those who use credit cards, and those who provide those cards; those who take loans, and those who make them; those who buy cars, and those who sell them. All of those people are part of what makes this country great.”

Many staffers found Mulvaney’s sentiments concerning. “It’s a hell of a document,” said one employee. “I think it very much sets the direction for what he expects us to be doing. I know we are not to push the envelope but it pushes the envelope of ‘Corporations are people, too.’”

When Mulvaney circulated a draft mission statement in early February, staffers noted that it did not specifically mention protecting consumers. Instead, it hailed the notion of “Free, innovative, competitive and transparent consumer finance markets where the rights of all parties are protected by the rule of law and where customers are free to choose the products and services that best fit their individual needs.”

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The turnabout in the CFPB’s mission has, unsurprisingly, rankled its previous chief. “We balanced interests as well but when people are cheating consumers, there’s no reason to have fair balance” of the cheaters’ interests with those of their victims, Cordray said in an interview with ProPublica.

CFPB enforcement decisions seem increasingly to be trending in favor of financial institutions. A probe into the breach at Equifax that permitted the records of 143 million people to be exposed has stalled.

The CFPB dropped an investigation of World Finance, a subprime lender. The company had donated to Mulvaney when he was a South Carolina congressman. The CFPB said that the decision was made by the enforcement staff, not Mulvaney.

In at least one instance so far, Mulvaney has overruled his staff on an enforcement

case. In mid-January, the CFPB voluntarily withdrew a case against four payday lenders. The bureau initially insisted the decision was made by staff attorneys — then confirmed to NPR that Mulvaney was involved. Mulvaney, who received significant contributions from payday lenders, made the decision over objections of the staff, according to a highly placed official within the agency. The official noted that state regulators are often out-gunned when trying to rein in high-cost lenders and need the CFPB’s help. “We spent four years developing this theory,” the official said, “and working really hard and checking our legal basis for it and coordinating with the states.” Then, with no warning and no explanation to the outside world, Mulvaney’s team ordered the bureau to dismiss the case.

Continues >>>

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

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The Rock River Times. Feb. 16, 2018. Friday E-Edition.

Nation

Lots of talk, little action in Congress after shootings

By Matthew Daly Associated Press

WASHINGTON — For a brief moment after the Las Vegas massacre last fall, Republicans and Democrats in Congress talked about taking a rare step to tighten the nation’s gun laws. Four months later, the only gun legislation that has moved in the House or Senate instead eases restrictions for gun owners.

The October deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas and other mass shootings have sparked debate but have had scant impact on the march toward looser gun laws under the Republican-controlled Congress.

There’s little sign that the shooting deaths of 17 people at a Florida high school Wednesday will change that dynamic.

The conversation at the Capitol Thursday followed a familiar pattern. Many Democrats revived calls for tighter gun laws, while Republicans focused on the mental health of the accused shooter.

“As a parent, it scares me to death that this body doesn’t take seriously the safety of my children, and it seems like a lot of parents in South Florida are going to be asking that same question,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a leading advocate of tighter gun control.

In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting,

Murphy and other lawmakers from both parties pushed to ban bump stocks, the device that allowed the shooter’s semi-automatic rifles to mimic the rapid fire of machine guns.

Those efforts soon fizzled amid opposition from Republican leaders. Instead, the GOP-controlled House approved a bill in December making it easier for gun owners to legally carry concealed weapons across state lines.

The concealed carry measure, a top priority of the National Rifle Association, would allow gun owners with a state-issued concealed-carry permit to carry a handgun in any state that allows concealed weapons.

The bill includes a provision to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers — a response to another shooting in which a gunman slaughtered more than two dozen people at a Texas church in November.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Congress should focus on whether existing laws — including those designed to prevent mentally ill people from getting guns — are working.

“We need to think less about taking sides and fighting each other politically” and should instead pull together, Ryan said in comments that have become familiar.

The Florida massacre was the 17th school

shooting so far this year.

President Donald Trump, in a solemn address to the nation, promised to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” but avoided any mention of guns.

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for “disciplinary reasons,” Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

The latest deadly shooting prompted Florida Sen. Bill Nelson to declare, “enough is enough.”

Addressing those who say it’s too soon to talk about gun violence, Nelson asked, “When is the right time? How many more times do we want to do this? How many more folks have to die?”

Nelson and other Democrats said Congress must do more than talk about mental illness. “Let’s get to the root cause . let’s get these assault weapons off our streets,” he said.

The accused Florida shooter was armed with his own AR-15 rifle, the same type of weapons used in Las Vegas and Texas last fall, as well as in earlier shootings at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida and a school in Newtown, Connecticut.

In a rare comment that appeared unscripted, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would speak to Trump and fellow Cabinet members about gun violence.

Testifying on the president’s budget, Mnuchin called the school shooting a tragedy and said, “I urge Congress to look at this issue.”

Mnuchin’s remark seemed at odds with the White House, which has not sought legislation or additional money to curb gun violence.

Other Republicans stuck largely to a now-familiar script.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called for a moment of silence, adding: “To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement.”

Democrats, meanwhile, urged expanded background checks and renewed their call for a special committee to examine gun violence.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., said the nation is in the midst of a crisis. “You can’t turn around without there being a mass shooting,” he said.

Thompson’s criticized Republicans for failing to respond to the spate of mass shootings. “If I was a Republican member I’d be embarrassed that my leadership wouldn’t address this issue,” he said.

head of a private student-loan company).

It’s unclear whether the two discussed the Navient case. The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The following week, Eric Blankenstein, one of Mulvaney’s appointees, requested that the enforcement team on the Navient case begin to prepare settlement documents, according to one CFPB official. So far, the enforcement team has not made any decisions on whether to settle, according to people involved in the case, who note that extensive and unsuccessful attempts to settle the case were made before the bureau sued. Staffers said they now fear the bureau’s enforcement team will be ordered to agree to terms that let Navient off lightly.

• When Trump tweeted about Wells Fargo, Cordray said he was almost heartened, suggesting that it “sent a signal they should not back away from enforcing the laws vigorously.” But Mulvaney appears not to be taking Trump’s tweet too seriously.

A potential settlement for alleged Wells Fargo mortgage fee abuses is in limbo. (That scandal was first revealed by ProPublica.) Another investigation, which the agency opened after The New York Times reported that the bank forced more than 800,000 customers to buy auto insur-

ance they did not need, has gone nowhere since Mulvaney took over, according to one person familiar with the probe. The same is true of an early look at whether Wells Fargo has been charging customers who have to maintain a certain level of activity in their checking accounts to avoid fees. Though the customers had complied with the rules, the bank appears to have still charged them, according to a CFPB employee. The investigation is in the early stages and no decisions have been made. Since Mulvaney took over, it has not advanced significantly.

Wells said it is cooperating with regulators but declined to comment on ongoing enforcement matters.

Staffers in the bureau seemed dazed by the rapidity of the changes. But many remain stubbornly hopeful that the young bureau can survive the administration and return to what they view as their mission.

“I’m really passionate about my work and the people we serve,” said one CFPB attorney. “I’m going to try to stick it out.

I recall something Cordray said: This part of the agency’s history is as important as the rocky beginnings. We have to be able to survive changes in administration.”

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The CPFB is turning its back on consumers (continued) • The CFPB was conceived as an independent agency, and under the previous administration, staffers took pains to keep the White House at arm’s length. “We were very careful to avoid aligning ourselves with the Obama White House,” said Elizabeth Corbett, who was acting chief of staff under Cordray. “We would take meetings if asked, but never shared anything we wouldn’t share with Congress.”

Under Mulvaney, by contrast, there’s no pretense that the bureau should be independent. For example, he ordered a report on which of Trump’s executive orders the agency could voluntarily comply with.

And Mulvaney himself, of course, is not separate from the White House, given that the other agency he heads, OMB, is part of the executive office of the president.

Many bureau officials said they did not want the place to be politicized — by Republicans or Democrats. “What are we doing to our financial system in the name of deregulation?” asked a current official.

“When the situation flips, everyone expects people to go back to normal. Is President Liz Warren or President Sherrod Brown going to want their appointees to follow their directives? How are banks going to feel about that? It’s just bad for America.”

The CFPB’s integration into the administration seems most visible in the Navient case. In early December, Mulvaney held a meeting to review the bureau’s major enforcement matters. When the case against student-loan servicer Navient was mentioned, he said, “Oh, this is the big one,” according to a staffer. The comment seemed innocuous, and indeed this was one of the bureau’s biggest cases. The CFPB sued Navient, formerly part of Sallie Mae, in early 2017, accusing the nation’s largest student-loan servicer of cheating borrowers out of their right to lower repayments.

Navient says the bureau’s allegations are unfounded.

Some Obama holdovers worr ied Mulvaney would back away from the case.

During a cabinet retreat the first weekend of January, Mulvaney and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos met. Last fall, DeVos announced her department would stop helping the CFPB identify student-loan abusers, and the Education Department has moved to roll back protections for borrowers.

A few days later, Brian Johnson, a senior adviser to Mulvaney, met with Arthur Wayne Johnson, DeVos’ appointee to lead the federal government’s trillion-dollar student-loan operation (and the former