WBEZ | protest

Lincoln Park High School students walk out in support of teachers

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:46:00 -0500

On Friday morning, hundreds of teenagers poured out of Lincoln Park High School and onto Armitage Avenue.

To be fair, they warned their teachers beforehand.

The participating students wrote a letter explaining that they were going to walk out for a number of reasons--but mostly, they walked out for their teachers.
Before doing so, they presented a letter explaining why they planned to walk out.

“We want to show that we do care about our education and we wish to have a say in it,” it read. “We have been informed that many teachers are being fired so that newer teachers can be hired and we don’t want to sit back and let CPS make a business of our education.”

Senior Abina Redmond was among those gathered.

“We’re protesting the firing of our teachers...eight so far,” she explained.

In December, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Lincoln Park would be converted into a wall-to-wall International Baccalaureate school the following school year.

IB programs were originally crafted for children of diplomats--the rigorous curriculum was designed to get students college-ready.

Currently, 20 percent of Lincoln Park’s students participate in the school’s IB program.

When the school goes wall-to-wall next year, all of its 2100-plus students will have some level of IB coursework.

But it seems not all of their teachers will be joining them.

Any time a Chicago Public School’s academic focus is changed, teachers re-apply for positions. Traditionally, principals have had complete authority over who stays and who goes.

But the Chicago Teachers Union asked CPS to make a deal: CPS agreed to let teachers with exceptional rating stay--those with a satisfactory ranking or lower had to reapply.

Earlier this spring, 128 teachers received offers--eight were recently rescinded.
The letters went out prematurely, before anyone ran the deal by the Board of Education. According to a CPS spokesperson, the board ultimately did not support requiring principals to accept candidates that they found unsuitable.

The same spokesperson added that the district is working to place the eight teachers whose offers were rescinded.

Junior Oswaldl Gomez spoke into a megaphone as he led his fellow students in chants. He then explained that the protest was about much more than their school, their teachers. Because, he said, it’s not just their school that’s changing.

“Our brothers, our sisters, they’re losing their teachers--whether they are five or they are 18,” Gomez said.

Principal Michael Boraz sent an email in response to the walkout. He wrote, “It is imperative for me to make decisions that are in the best interests of all our students and their academic success.”

In another part of the city on Friday morning, students at Williams Middle School staged a sit-in at the school Friday morning to protest the closure of their school. Next year, Williams will close and students will go to Drake, which will relocate in the Williams building.

Katie O’Brien is a WBEZ reporter and producer. Follow her @katieobez

Leaked memo tells principals to keep eye on school closings protesters

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:36:00 -0500

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning a rally downtown Wednesday to protest school closings.

It could be one of the biggest protests against the plan to close 54 of the city’s public schools, but it’s unlikely to be the last.

Union officials are encouraging people to hold nonviolent protests at schools throughout the city. They’ve conducted two trainings on “civil disobedience.”

Now, Chicago Public Schools officials are telling principals what to do if there is a walk-out, a sit-in or and an “Occupy” action at their school.

A memo sent last week to principals on the closure list, and leaked by the CTU yesterday afternoon, tells principals to report the names of any teachers and students involved in protests and to document the information if any media outlets show up. It instructs them to “report all information regarding possible protestors, locations, dates and times.”

A principal at one of the schools targeted for closure, who asked not to be named, said the memo came along with some other paperwork about the school being on the list of closures last week.

“Why are they asking principals to work as agents of this administration when they are the ones who have created a climate of chaos?” CTU president Karen Lewis said in a written statement Tuesday. “We intend to use whatever nonviolence protest actions we have in this fight for education justice.”

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll also issued a statement regarding the memo to principals.

“It's our obligation to put the safety and learning of our children before anything else,” Carroll said. “This is why we're providing guidance to principals to help them manage any acts of civil disobedience at their schools: so they can ensure that their children are in a safe environment with little disruption to their learning, and at the same time allow individuals the right to protest and express their views.”

The union has demanded CPS not close any schools.

But district officials argue there are too many schools and not enough money, forcing them to spread resources too thin. Last week, CPS’s Chief Transformation Officer Todd Babbitz said, “We are spending way more on buildings that we believe are unnecessary in our footprint."

District officials said they estimate closing the 54 schools will bring a total annual savings of $43 million. That's in a district with an annual operating budget of about $5 billion. They also estimate the district will save $560 million in "avoided" capital costs over the next decade.

CPS has promised significant investments in the schools receiving students as a result of the closures—everything from iPads to learning gardens—with a one-year price tag of $233 million.

If the Board of Education approves the closure list, it will be the most any district in the country has closed in a single year.

Becky Vevea is an education reporter for WBEZ. Follow her @WBEZeducation.

Environmentalists protest Keystone XL pipeline

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Roughly 200 Chicagoans rallied in Grant Park Sunday to call on President Barack Obama to reject the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project and take action on climate change, an issue he prioritized for his second term but which remains politically problematic.

The crowd, convened by the Chicago Youth Climate Coalition, demonstrated in solidarity with thousands of protestors gathered at the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital for what is believed to be the largest climate rally in U.S. history.

The proposed XL extension would complete a pipeline from Canada’s Athabasca oil sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. Climate scientist James Hansen has said the carbon dioxide emissions from the vast tar sands reserves would mean "game over for the climate."

Proponents of the $7 billion pipeline tout its property tax benefits and construction jobs, and dismiss or downplay its environmental impacts.

Obama delayed his administration’s decision on the issue last year, citing disputes over the 1,700-mile pipeline’s path, but Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a revised route in January.

Protesters in Chicago marched from Grant Park to the Federal Building at 77 W. Jackson Blvd., home to the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional offices. Climate advocates view the EPA as the most likely vehicle for action on the issue given that Republicans in Congress have continually stymied legislation intended to curb carbon emissions. Thanks to a series of court rulings, the EPA has considerable power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) sent a statement to the protesters in Chicago, thanking them for their advocacy. Schakowsky serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“There should be no doubt that all of us need to get bolder and louder in the call for action,” read Schakowsky’s statement. “Climate change is happening, and its consequences are dire.”

Dozens of protesters, including James Hansen, were arrested at the White House Wednesday in the first act of civil disobedience ever organized by the 120-year-old environmental group Sierra Club.

In Chicago, support for the youth-led rally was not limited to students and environmental groups.

Mike Sinner, a 52-year-old employee of Weiss Memorial Hospital, lives in the West Ridge neighborhood. Toting a “Resist KXL” sign and walking a bike he said had logged 111,000 miles, Sinner likened the present day climate action movement to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

“As you get older you know that in most issues there is no moral black and white,” he said. “But some issues are black and white. Today we’re saying to President Obama that we have his back if he does the right thing and rejects the pipeline.”

A cancer survivor, Sinner said he is hopeful. Despite Obama’s bullishness on fossil fuels like natural gas, Sinner said he was heartened by the President’s call to “act before it’s too late” during the 2013 State of the Union Address.

“I think if we don’t have hope," Sinner said, "then we’re in trouble."

Aborted baby flag removal sparks debate at DePaul University

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Tuesday, January 22 marked the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark court decision on abortion and women’s sexual health, but at DePaul University, that day will be remembered very differently.

In the university's quad, the conservative student group Young Americans for Freedom erected a pro-life memorial to their cited 54 million fetuses aborted in the decades since Roe's passage. To do so, the students hung pink and blue flags in the quad as a form of public protest. To counterprotest, another group of pro-choice students took the flags down, distributing them in garbage cans across campus.

According to a source close to the pro-choice protestors, they thought it was the most peaceful way to respond. Some students planned on writing affirming messages on the flags and returning them to their previous positions, as a reminder that this issue isn’t just about babies, it’s about women’s rights. They hoped that doing so would send a message to pro-life students on campus and start a dialogue at a school that often ignores issues of sexual health. No one expected it would go as far as it did. No one thought it would mean they might not graduate.

The problem began when an article from Fox News, the Pied Piper of American conservatism, threw ideological gasoline all over the conflict, branding the pro-choice students as “vandals” and Young Americans for Freedom as heroes of the GOP and warriors of free speech. Fox writer Todd Starnes—who comes personally endorsed by Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity—used the conflict as a way to bash the pro-choice students as being bigots. Other articles continue to refer to the students as “leftists” and “radicals” (or sometimes both!) and the act as a “trashing” of students' rights.

To further this indictiment, Fox spoke to Kristopher Del Campo, the DePaul chairman for Young Americans for Freedom. Del Campo said, “It is a sad thing to see that liberal minded students aren’t more tolerant, and don’t respect the views of those who respect the lives of the unborn. It’s really discouraging and I’m saddened by that.”

In a follow-up article in the DePaulia, the university’s student-run newspaper, Del Campo went much further, referring to the flags’ removal as an “act of hate.” (He also says that liberals are more likely to be the perpetrators of hate crimes.)

Despite an apology from the university’s Dean of Students, Art Munin, Del Campo advocated that the university go further, calling for expulsion for all the students involved. Del Campo told the DePaulia that YAF has surveillance footage of the students responsible and that they will show that alleged footage to the police. In the meantime, Del Campo stated that he like to see DePaul take responsibility in hunting down those responsible: “If you really want to find these students, put out pictures…Let other students see it and identify students.”

Del Campo’s advocacy for a student witch hunt isn’t the first time that the school’s faced free speech issues at DePaul, as a “satirical” Affirmative Action Bake Sale in 2006 highlighted the extreme divisions between conservative and liberal students on the nation’s largest Catholic campus.

One of the pro-choice students involved in the incident, who asked not to be identified (and will be referred to as “X"), stated that incidents like these are endemic of a divided campus, an ongoing problem that the university has failed to holistically tackle. When X started at the university in 2009, students put up swastikas in Corcoran Hall, a residence building at DePaul, and in some of the other dorms. In 2011, another incident arose when a student began to shout out anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim slurs in the student center.

According to X, the pro-choice students involved didn’t mean to “fuel this fire” at DePaul. This isn't what anyone wanted. They didn't even know that Young Americans for Freedom existed.

Because pro-choice groups are informally banned on campus, X—like many students I spoke with—assumed that pro-life groups would not be allowed to operate either, due to the university’s strict procedures on sexually charged material and student organizations. Per school policy, student organizations aren’t allowed to distribute condoms, and sex ed is heavily censored.

Currently, the university offers a Sexual Health and Violence Prevention center (that many students don't even know exists) and a undergraduate group called the Student Health Advocates. However, it's hard for these groups to be effective on a campus that won't allow them to hold public demonstrations on Safe Sex 101—and give students the educational resources they need. Because of their strained relationship with sex, DePaul University claimed the title of “Most Sexually Unhealthy University” in 2011.

The DePaul administration claims that the university’s Catholic affiliation precludes amending these policies, even though other religious institutions (like Siena) allow for the distribution of condoms on campus.

However, X believes that the strict adherence to Catholic doctrine in the school’s sexual policies is a strange double standard, as the university allows LGBTQ groups to operate very publicly on campus and has been a champion of queer student visibility. In addition to an LGBTQ studies department, the school boasts three active queer student groups and allows them to throw yearly drag shows, which are a tentpole of the spring quarter. The 2011 show even took place in the DePaul Atrium, the common space of the school's student center.

Because the university's LGBTQ leadership has often been stereotyped as male (which was also an issue when I was a DePaul undergraduate), X remarked that queer visibility has been easier for DePaul administration to swallow.

As a student heavily involved in both LGBTQ and feminist organizing at DePaul, X stated that feminists on campus are "treated differently because they have vaginas." This creates a culture where some female students feel unsafe, which include those students involved in last Tuesday's incident. X put it bluntly: "When you step on this campus, it feels like you don't have a choice."

Because of this gender gap, the student worried that DePaul is going to use the flag removal to further marginalize the school's feminist and pro-choice communities. When X was initially questioned about the event, the student told me that administrators were already looking for links to feminist groups and leaders on campus. They were searching for a target. Currently, the university is seeking possible expulsion for anyone who was involved in the flag removal.

Tracey Harkins, a senior DePaul student in Women and Gender Studies, agreed that gender inequality on campus is a huge problem and said that DePaul should show the same progressive stance to sexuality that they have demonstrated on queer issues. Instead of further silencing women’s voices on campus and scapegoating them for the university's problems, the university should use this as an opportunity to start a conversation on sexual health, a dialogue that should have taken place a long time ago.

According to Harkins, the conflict “speaks to a real issue at DePaul,” causing her to “question how DePaul handles a range of women-related issues.” Harkins cited this incident as yet another failure from the university in regards to its female population, as the school has yet to take action against sexual assaults that occurred on campus last fall. For Harkins, this is representative an ongoing problem at “campuses across the country,” where women are “made to feel devalued” by administrations that don’t take their sexual health seriously. She argued that “women cannot feel safe at an institutional level if they are considered unequal.”

In response to DePaul's sex problems, Harkins is working with a team of student organizers on “Say Yes to Consent,” which hopes to change the culture of sex at DePaul and on Chicago’s campuses. With student members from universities across the city—including the University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College and Northwestern University—the group hopes pressure university administrators to include policies educating students on sexual assault, consent and women's health, rather than sweeping these issues under the rug.

As statistics show that 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted before graduating college, Harkins feels the best way to commemorate Roe v. Wade is to continue the fight for greater awareness: “We’ve come a long way in the past 40 years, but our work is far from over.”

Nico Lang blogs about LGBTQ life in Chicago for WBEZ.org. Follow Nico on Twitter @Nico_Lang or on Facebook.

Anti-Muslim film protest held in Chicago, ignored by media

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Lead Story: On Sunday, protests surrounding the controversial film Innocence of Muslims reached Chicago. Rather than the violent outbursts we’ve seen overseas, this protest was a relatively small, peaceful demonstration. But don’t look for any mention of it in the local media. The closest thing I’ve seen is a paltry 58-word post on ABC 7’s website that completely left out the "who" and "where." Instead, we get this and this. There has been some coverage of local reaction to the film, so it's not as if the story been completely ignored here. But the poor reporting on yesterday's protest is a huge missed opportunity. If you want to inform readers about the world around us, inform readers about the local angles of stories of international import instead of ignoring it like a problem that doesn’t bother us because it's all happens too far away.

Also: We're coming down the home stretch now: Election Day 2012 is just six weeks from Tuesday and both candidates appeared in separate interviews on 60 Minutes Sunday night. The first debate is just ten days away. There's a lot of ground left to cover, but things are looking better and better for President Obama. Mitt Romney's campaign was, of course, hit hard last week by the September Surprise of his now-infamous "47 percent" remarks. But even conservative golden boy Paul Ryan took a hit last Friday when his promise to an AARP audience to repeal Obamacare was met with boos. If Nate Silver's numbers are to be believed — and history tells us Silver's work is worth following — then Obama seems to be slowly pulling away (and the Dems have a chance to keep control of the Senate). But as I said, a lot can happen in six weeks; my colleague Achy Obejas outlines seven things the Dems need to watch out for during that time.

And then: The Bears had little trouble dispensing of the St. Louis Rams 23-6 behind a sterling performance from a stout defense. The Rams were held to only 160 total yards, including just 59 on the ground (stand out runningback Stephen Jackson only had 29 yards). The offense, though, continued to struggle find its rhythym, amassing only 274 yards of their own. Quarterback Jay Cutler again struggled to a 58.9 QB rating, throwing for only 183 yards and an interception and his receiving corp continued to be plagued by dropped passes. Cutler tried to dismiss the performance, saying, in essence, a win is a win and fans and the media should stop their whining. But given what the offense is capable of — we saw it in week one against the Colts — it's not out of the question for fans to expect more. Still, the Bears are 2-1 and have a chance to prove their mettle on national television next week when they take on Dallas on Monday Night Football.

Released: New City’s Art 50 list and Crain’s Tech 50 lists are out. I’m on neither of them. Not that I’m upset or anything at being snubbed for my Honey Boo Boo tumblr again.

Elsewhere

Police in Houston shot and killed a wheelchair-bound, pen-waving double amputee.
The fight against breast cancer evolves as researchers have determined four different types of the disease.
There is a bacon shortage in Britain. This is not a drill. I repeat: There is a bacon shortage in Britain.
If you have peanut butter purchased from Trader Joe’s, don’t eat it.
The great Zimbabwe Toilet Flush of 2012.

Looking Ahead:

So long CTU strike, hello CSO strike.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has unveiled plans for the former sites of the Crawford and Fisk coal power plants.
Police continue to search for suspects in the killing of an Evanston teen.
Things suddenly don’t look so good for the Portage Theater’s new lease on life. Jim DeRogatis has more on that drama.
Groupon is facing a round of job cuts under new leadership.
The upcoming Chicago Police sergeant’s exam in 2013 could be the largest in the world.

Sports

It’s a big week for golf fans in Chicago as the Ryder Cup comes to Medinah. Everyone else can continue ignoring the sport.
Sox Watch: Mired in a losing streak, the Pale Hose hold a slim one-game lead over Detroit.
Don’t look now but Notre Dame has cracked the top ten of the Associated Press’ college football poll.
Training camp for the Bulls is approaching as the team continues to negotiate contract extensions with both Coach Thibodeau and Taj Gibson.
Apparently there is an upcoming Dennis Rodman documentary and it’s being directed by Penny Marshall.

Finally
Here is your Monday morning inspiration. [via]

Judge denies NATO protesters' permit request

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:05:00 -0500

An administrative law judge has denied protesters' request to march though downtown Chicago at the start of the NATO summit. City officials say they don't have the resources to deal with both motorcades and protestors during the summit's start on May 20.

Protest organizer Andy Thayer says the decision defies logic.

"We are marching on Sunday, May 20th - we're committed to having a peaceful, permitted march, and we are marching on Sunday, May 20th. That you can take to the bank," he said.

Thayer says protestors are meeting to reevaluate their legal options, and he's scheduled a press conference for Friday to make a public anouncement about the decision.

The protest group wants to start their march at Daley Plaza, in the Loop, so they have a bigger audience. The city suggested the march start from Grant Park, but the protesters have refused to agree to that route.

Protesters do have a valid permit for May 19th, the day before the summit.

Weighing the options for what’s next in Syria

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:12:00 -0600

The Arab League wants a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission to end the 11-month conflict in Syria. Damascus "categorically rejected" the resolution. The League's move comes one week after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, tells Worldview what he sees as the next steps for Syria.

Photos: Websites go dark to protest SOPA legislation

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:29:00 -0600

January 18 is a date that will live in ignorance, as Wikipedia started a 24-hour blackout of its English-language articles, joining other sites in a protest of pending U.S. legislation aimed at shutting down sites that share pirated movies and other content.

Reddit.com shut down its social news service for 12 hours. Other sites made their views clear without cutting off surfers. Google blacked out the logo on its home page, directing surfers to a page where they could add their names to a petition against the bills.

Local listings site Craiglist took a middle route, changing its local home pages to a black screen directing users to an anti-legislation page. After 10 seconds, a link to the main site appears on the home page, but some surfers missed that and were fooled into thinking the whole site was blacked out.

The Internet companies are concerned that the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate, if passed, could be used to target legitimate sites where users share content.

The 24-hour Wikipedia blackout is an unprecedented move for the online encyclopedia. The decision was reached after polling the community of contributors, but dissenters say political advocacy undermines the site's mission as a neutral source.

However, it's not complete: the block can be bypassed by changing browser settings to disable JavaScript, or by using the version of the site designed for cellphone screens.

There's also a "mirror" or copy, of Wikipedia called The Free Dictionary, but it's not up to date. %href_on(http://en.m.wikipedia.org/

Wikipedia

Google

Craigslist

Boing Boing

WordPress

Mozilla

Wired.com

MoveOn.org

Occupy UChicago protest deemed a success on a night others face challenges

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:15:00 -0600

A planned protest at the University of Chicago against former Goldman Sachs CEO and former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on without the pair Monday night, while Occupy protestors across the country faced increasing police pressure.

The event, titled "Unwelcoming Paul and Condi - Occupy Hyde Park", had almost 300 people attending on Facebook. The plan was to rally outside the International House in protest of Paulson and Rice, who, in the words of the protestors, represent the "interconnections between corporate money, political power, and academia." Paulson was appointed to the University in July as a distinguished senior fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy.

In a curtailed email to the student body sent Sunday night, University Provost Thomas Rosenbaum supported the University's decision to allow the former United States Cabinet secretaries to discuss, among other things, Rice's recent book No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington.

"We must protect a speaker’s right to be heard, just as we have a responsibility to challenge their ideas with honesty, vigor, and respect," wrote Rosenbaum. "No speaker is to be expected to present all views on a subject, but as a community, we offer the possibility of additional fora for exploration of contrasting opinions, so that taken together inquiry can proceed untrammeled in the service of scholarship."

"We will continue to respect the rights of protesters to express their views in a peaceful manner that does not prevent invited guests from speaking," Rosenbaum continued. "However, should individuals violate these expectations and attempt to shut down the speech of others, we must take action to protect our fundamental values."

But come Monday morning, the talk had been indefinitely postponed "due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict." The Sun-Times credited it to Rice's double-booking; she was also scheduled to attend a fundraising dinner for Illinois Republican Representative Aaron Schock that same evening.

The rally still went on, as these images show, with little police involvement. Organizers credited it for pressuring the cancellation of the talk, and deemed it a "success." Earlier in the day, the protest had drawn supporters from outside the movement, with musician Lupe Fiasco tweeting about Occupy Chicago's protest being held on the South Side, using the hashtag "#occupythehood."

It appears that the event may have inspired protestors within the University community to become more involved in the Occupy movement; as of this morning, about 100 people had joined the UChicago Occupy group. In previous weeks, students from the UofC had not been considered a hugely visible presence in the Occupy Chicago student movement.

Meanwhile Monday night marked the first drastic change within the Occupy movement, as protestors at the hub of the action in New York were ousted from their encampment in Zuccotti Park.

Wisconsin governor interrupted by protest

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:22:00 -0500

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was in Illinois Thursday giving advice on budget reform. But his speech was interrupted by Chicago protestors.

About 30 protesters chanted sayings like, "Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go" and marched with signs in front of the Union League Club starting around 7:30 a.m.

Meanwhile, about 60 more protesters in suits and ties were sitting obediently at tables during Walker's breakfast talk.

The Republican governor kicked off his speech by joking about sports, noting how Illinois and Wisconsin both hate the Minnesota Vikings. Then one of the protesters jumped up, yelling, "Mic check!" The other protesters repeated him while Walker and the rest of the room took in what was happening.

The group, composed of Occupy Chicago protestors and members of the consortium Stand Up! Chicago, used one another like human megaphones. One protester would shout a line out from their collective speech and the rest would repeat it. When Union League workers and Gov. Walker's handlers approached each standing protester delivering their line, another would then pop up and pick up where the speech left off. That process continued for about five minutes until the protesters were ushered out.

As the chant started, Walker at first tried to continue his talk over the chanting. When it became clear they would not stop, the emcee stepped in and attempted to shout over them, asking them to leave. The rest of the crowd also began clapping to drown out the sound of the protesters, and gave him a standing ovation once the protesters were escorted out of the room.

Protesters paid the $20 for tickets for each of their seats. Catherine Murrell, the communications coordinator for Stand Up! Chicago said most protesters paid out of pocket, but anyone who could not afford to pay had their ticket paid for by a pool of money collected by Stand Up! Chicago.

No arrests were made.

Walker continued his talk after protesters cleared out, touting Wisconsin's reforms and slamming Illinois Democrats for the state's budget problems.

Walker mentioned the possibility of getting recalled as governor and said he welcomes the challenge. He also said he could use Illinois government officials' handling of the state's budget crisis as a case study for what not to do.

"Illinois raised taxes earlier this year, rather substantially on both employers and individuals, and instead they didn't solve the budget crisis, Walker said. "They didn't solve their long-term structural crisis."

Ill. Gov. Pat Quinn has said he does not wish to follow Walker's lead. Quinn has frequently criticized the Wisconsin governor for being unfair to unions.