Illinois corruption watch, July 2014
The bad news keeps piling up for Illinoisans. Illinois Policy’s “corruption watch” blog series hit a new high in the month of July with nearly 100 corruption-related stories. Chicago and Springfield are the two cities most synonymous with the state’s corruption woes. Unsurprisingly, both cities dominated headlines with the top two corruption stories of the...
The bad news keeps piling up for Illinoisans. Illinois Policy’s “corruption watch” blog series hit a new high in the month of July with nearly 100 corruption-related stories.
Chicago and Springfield are the two cities most synonymous with the state’s corruption woes. Unsurprisingly, both cities dominated headlines with the top two corruption stories of the month.
The city of Chicago ordered a new investigation into their red-light camera program after a Chicago Tribune feature story highlighted the apparent malfunctioning of a number of cameras resulting in unexplained spikes in ticketing. This comes on the heels of the May arrest of former city employee John Bills, who was a central figure in a $2 million bribery scandal associated with the program.
Down in Springfield, Gov. Pat Quinn’s anti-violence program scandal continued to grow. Over 2,000 internal emails concerning the operation of the program were released to the public. Some of the emails showed how politics, rather public welfare, influenced decisions regarding the $54 million boondoggle.
The Sun-Times revealed former top Quinn aids discussed taking funding away from a non-profit that backed a political rival to Maywood’s village president, Henderson Yarbrough Sr., with his wife, former state Rep. Karen Yarbrough. It appears as if the communication resulted in funding being shifted for political reasons.
More internal emails from the Quinn administration, as well as the results from state and federal investigations, will be released in the coming months. It remains to be seen if the issue will affect the governor’s reelection hopes, or if it will result in criminal charges from those in his administration.
95. July 31, 2014
State Journal-Register: Trial for Kincaid mayor postponed again
Kincaid Mayor Doug Thomas’ upcoming jury trial was postponed Thursday due to a newly filed motion for severance.
Thomas stands accused of one count of official misconduct for allegedly using village employees on village time for personal gain, as well as two counts of possession of a controlled substance and a violation of an order of protection. Thomas’ attorney, Mark Wykoff, argued in court Thursday that Thomas’ official misconduct charge filed June 10 is wildly different than the order of protection and possession charges that began the case in February.
94. July 31, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Judge rules fired officer should get new police board hearing
A Chicago cop fired after he got caught up in a plan to plant illegal drugs and a gun in a suburban woman’s car is entitled to another Chicago Police Board hearing to determine his punishment, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday.
But Judge Diane Larsen put no restrictions on how the police board may discipline Slawomir Plewa, meaning the board could simply choose to fire him once more.
In April, Larsen — citing a lack of evidence — ruled the police board went too far when it chose to fire Plewa last year. Plewa was charged in 2008 in connection with a scheme to plant drugs and a gun in a suburban woman’s car. Though a judge later found Plewa not guilty in that case, the same judge blasted Plewa for allegedly lying on the witness stand in a related criminal case.
93. July 31, 2014
Federal Inspector General to Review Obamacare Spending in Illinois
In response to a request initiated by Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville), the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced they will review allegations that Federal grant money may have been misspent on a poorly managed program to market and promote Illinois enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
In a letter from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) dated July 23 and announced by Rep. Senger today, the OIG states they will conduct a “review of potential criminal and civil fraud violations and misconduct related to HHS programs, operations and beneficiaries. On the basis of the review, we will determine the appropriate course of action.”
The State of Illinois has spent $33 million in federal grant money for the marketing of “Get Covered Illinois”, the state’s health insurance exchange under Obamacare; in addition to $36 million spent on recruiting and training “navigators”, temporary workers hired to help consumers sign up for insurance through the exchange.
92. July 31, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Group picked by Quinn administration made no loans, but kept $150,000
As Gov. Pat Quinn’s aides sought to pump up an anti-violence program ahead of his November 2010 election bid, they decided to add to the pot $3.76 million in federal disaster recovery funds from Hurricane Ike to make loans to small businesses.
In the rush to get the program launched, the Quinn administration hired a financially troubled West Side business development group to dole out loans, despite concluding the organization had recently misspent state grant funds.
The group, Chicago Community Ventures did not make a single loan, but was allowed to keep more than $150,000 when the contract was nixed, the Tribune has found.
91. July 31, 2014
WBEZ: CPD leaves commander in post despite assault allegation, DNA match
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is leaving a West Side police commander in his post despite an April recommendation by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority that his police powers be stripped.
The recommendation followed a DNA test bolstering a complaint that Harrison District Cmdr. Glenn Evans, 52, assaulted a South Side arrestee.
The complaint, according to sources close to the case, alleges that Evans threatened to kill Rickey J. Williams, 24, and jammed his police pistol into the man’s mouth. The sources spoke on condition they not be identified because they are not authorized to speak with the media.
90. July 30, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Blogger sues CTA for documents related to Ventra contract
A blogger sued the CTA on Wednesday to obtain copies of the losing bids and other documents related to the transit agency awarding an almost half-billion-dollar contract in 2011 for the new Ventra fare-collection system.
Jason Prechtel filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court, contending that the CTA violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by providing him with “only a small and woefully incomplete subset of records’’ related to the contracting process that led to Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. being hired to run the Ventra open-fare system.
Cubic had previously won a CTA contract to manage the old fare system, which included the Chicago Card.
89. July 30, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: List shows two convicted cops were topic of dozens of complaints
Two of Chicago’s dirtiest cops are at the top of a list of police officers who had generated more than 10 misconduct complaints between 2001 and 2006, according to newly released records.
Keith Herrera and Jerome Finnigan were members of a crew of rogue police officers convicted of home invasions and rip-offs of drug dealers.
Finnigan was convicted in federal court of seeking to have a fellow officer murdered because he thought the cop was a rat.
Herrera was cooperating with law enforcement authorities investigating the crew. He served a short prison sentence, and Finnigan remains behind bars.
88. July 30, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Alderman pushes through watchdog limits week after being probed
Ald. Patrick O’Connor quickly pushed through an ordinance Wednesday that limits the ability of the City Council’s watchdog to investigate aldermen’s campaign finances — a week after that investigator received permission to open an ethics probe of O’Connor.
The measure sponsored by O’Connor — Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader — could hinder Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan’s ongoing campaign finance probes, including the one of O’Connor.
That investigation, spurred by two sworn complaints to Khan’s office, involve allegations that O’Connor violated the city’s rules on soliciting campaign contributions, contract inducement, conflict of interest, improper influence and fiduciary duty, according to a confidential memo that Khan sent to the Board of Ethics seeking approval to launch his inquiry.
87. July 29, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Berrios relatives risk injury for right to crowd county payroll
Joe Berrios believes he’s free to hire whomever, even his dog.
That’s the way a political adviser to Berrios — the Cook County assessor and county Democratic Party chairman — once explained it to me.
That’s why his sister Carmen Berrios was working one evening in April 2007, after normal business hours, at the Cook County Board of Review. That was back when her brother still was one of the tax-appeal board’s three elected commissioners, before he left to successfully run for assessor — bringing his sister and other relatives with him to his new public office, despite county ethics rules barring nepotism hiring.
86. July 29, 2014
State Journal-Register: Lawsuit against Quinn back in court in October
A legal battle between an anti-patronage lawyer and Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration will return to federal court less than two weeks before voters will decide if they want to re-elect the Chicago Democrat.
Anti-patronage attorney Michael Shakman has — as part of a lawsuit — requested an investigation of hiring in Quinn’s Department of Transportation and a monitor to ensure the administration complies with bans on political hiring for nonpolitical jobs. Quinn’s attorneys argue the judge should reject the request because it would be detrimental to state officials’ duties of hiring workers.
85. July 29, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Lawsuit filed by father of boy who drowned at McKinley Park pool
The father of a teen who died at a public pool last year is suing the Chicago Park District, saying officials there failed to properly monitor the swimming pool and render aid to the boy.
Christopher Bowen, 14, died Aug. 9, 2013, after he was pulled out of the McKinley Park pool at 2210 W. Pershing Road.
The wrongful-death lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Court by John Wilson claims, among other charges, that the Chicago Park District failed, through its lifeguards, to monitor and control the premises and help the boy. The suit claims Wilson and the teen’s brother, Joe John Hedge, have suffered as a result of Bowen’s death.
The suit asks for more than $50,000 in compensation.
84. July 29, 2014
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Central Illinois teacher charged with child porn
A teacher and track coach from a central Illinois high school was charged Monday in federal court with possessing child porn and attempting to use minors to create child pornography.
Timothy C. Going, 43, of Fairfield, Ill., already faced state charges after he was accused in June of videotaping an underage student at a motel in Fairview Heights.
Going was indicted in federal court Monday on four counts that include attempted sexual exploitation of a minor or minors and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
83. July 28, 2014
ABC-7 Chicago: CHA ‘Supervouchers” subsidize Chicago’s priciest rents for low-income residents
The Chicago Housing Authority is subsidizing the rent for low-income residents in some of the city’s priciest apartment buildings.
A lifestyle out of reach for most is being enjoyed by some thanks to a CHA subsidy. One person living here at the Aqua Tower pays just 30-percent of their income toward rent, regardless of how little that income is. Who pays the rest of their rent? You do.
It’s the good life: Pools. Gyms. Decks. Doormen. At 500 N. Lake Shore Drive, rent runs roughly $2,400 a month. At the Aqua Tower, it’s $2,500. And at the new and exclusive “Streeter” it’s $3,000 a month.
82. July 28, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Three DUI arrests, revoked license — still on sheriff’s payroll
He’s had a revoked driver’s license for more than 20 years.
He’s been convicted twice of DUI.
And he’s facing trial for his third DUI — accused of driving drunk with his 14-year-old daughter in the car — in the same Skokie courthouse where he works for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
He’s Alberto Aguirre, 57, a former Cook County sheriff’s deputy who has lost his power to make arrests and carry a gun.
What he hasn’t lost is his $70,500 a year job. And he’s just 11 months shy of retirement. He’s now working a desk job for Dart’s office in the Skokie courthouse, where he goes to trial next month on charges of felony aggravated DUI, driving on a revoked license and endangering his daughter.
81. July 28, 2014
Illinois State Fair manager Amy Bliefnick has been fined $1,000 by the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission after she admitted that she accepted $540 in free beer tickets from a beer vendor during the 2013 fair.
The commission also fined former DuQuoin State Fair manager John Rednour Jr. $5,000 after he admitted he solicited up to $8,000 in free beer tickets from the beer vendor at that fair. Rednour no longer works for the state.
The commission determined that both Bliefnick and Rednour violated the state gift ban. It said both had completed state ethics training that specifies officials cannot seek or accept gifts from a state vendor.
Illinois Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza’s office conducted the investigation. Complaints to the inspector general’s office are confidential.
80. July 28, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Extra alarm over CPS preference in firefighter hiring
Mayor Rahm Emanuel barely caused a ripple of reaction two years ago when he announced Chicago Public School graduates would be given a leg up when applying for city jobs.
But now that the city is preparing to take applications for firefighters for the first time in a decade, Emanuel’s “CPS preference” policy is sparking an outcry from some city residents who say it discriminates against graduates of Catholic and other private schools.
Several elected officials from the city’s Northwest and Southwest sides tell me the issue has heated up in the last two weeks after the city posted its job announcement for the forthcoming firefighters exam.
79. July 28, 2014
The new Illinois General Assembly watchdog has a resume that includes stints as a U.S. attorney and top aide to then-Gov. Jim Edgar.
That blend of political and prosecutorial experience is why J. William Roberts was recently chosen for the job, legislators tell the Better Government Association.
But a deeper look at his background reveals some connections that could force Roberts to recuse himself from probing any complaints against Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and other influential legislators.
As acting legislative inspector general, Roberts is being paid $215 an hour to investigate misconduct complaints against lawmakers. Basically, it’s his job to determine whether legislators misused state funds, accepted gifts from lobbyists, or committed other ethical or perhaps even criminal breaches.
78. July 28, 2014
Chicago Tribune: State watchdog faults Metra for falsifying work logs
The state’s top watchdog issued the results Monday of two investigations at Metra, including a case that found a long-standing practice of falsifying work logs intended to ensure safety by limiting train crews’ hours.
The other investigation determined that a Metra Police Department lieutenant violated the state ethics act by completing a mandatory online ethics training program for four other police officers.
In the first case, Executive Inspector General Ricardo Meza said that a Metra practice called “change of assignment” resulted in the falsification of Federal Railroad Administration hours of service logs.
77. July 28, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago cop wins $540K suit vs. sergeant accused of taunting him
Retired Chicago Police Sgt. Lawrence C. Knasiak was twice commended by the city council for his “dedication, professionalism and personal sacrifice” during a nearly 30-year career with the department.
Apparently that sense of civic duty didn’t extend to cops he supervised, including a Jewish officer Knasiak allegedly called a “bloodsucking parasite.”
On Monday, a federal jury awarded $540,000 to that officer, who was supervised by Knasiak in a Southwest Side police district from 2000 to 2007.
The officer, Detlef Sommerfield, sued the city and his former boss in 2008, accusing Knasiak of taunting him for years with anti-Semitic and racist remarks, according to a federal court complaint.
76. July 28, 2014
Chicago Tribune: FOP seeks to halt release of internal police misconduct files
The union that represents Chicago police wants to halt the release of internal investigation files for alleged police misconduct.
In an injunction filed Monday in Cook County circuit court, the Fraternal Order of Police claims the release of the information would “unfairly and vexatiously harm the individual officers named therein.” The FOP wants to keep the city from releasing the lists until it has reviewed them for accuracy, according to the injunction. The union claims in the injunction that it’s aware of at least 12 officers whose names are improperly included in some of the files.
75. July 27, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Owners raise questions over alleged police shooting of dog
A family dog was allegedly shot and killed in front of a 6-year-old girl by a police officer in southwest suburban Hometown Friday afternoon.
The dog’s owners said their one-year-old German Shepherd mix, named Apollo, had run out the front door of their house on the 8700 block of Beck Place around 2:20 p.m. and had returned to the front lawn when police arrived.
“I walked over and I tried to call him inside. The police officer had his gun out already,” said Nicole Echlin, one of the dog’s owners. Her 6-year-old daughter walked with her.
“He started showing his teeth — that’s when the officer shot him,” said Echlin, 27. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
74. July 26, 2014
Back pay, OT pushes state’s “$100,000 club” to 7,800
Nearly 1,600 more state workers collected $100,000 or more from the state in 2013 than topped that figure just a year earlier.
However, the increase could be a short-lived phenomena, according to state agencies where most of the biggest increases in the $100,000 club occurred.
73. July 25, 2014
Chicago Tribune: City Hall watchdog launches sweeping probe into red light camera program
City Hall’s top watchdog announced Friday he has launched a sweeping probe of the city’s besieged red light camera program in response to a Tribune investigation that found suspicious ticket spikes at dozens of intersections throughout the city.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said his office will examine the shortcomings exposed by the Tribune’s reporting to ensure the program is run “more efficiently, fairly, and in a manner fully deserving of the public’s trust.”
Like most government watchdogs, Ferguson does not usually issue announcements at the start of his investigations. But on Friday, he used a news release to mark his entrance into a controversy that touched a raw nerve with many Chicago-area drivers for more than a week.
72. July 25, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Treasurer’s clout-heavy intern program short on controls
Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s office exercised “inadequate controls” over a controversial summer internship program that cost taxpayers at least $328,000 in just two of the four years it operated, a critical state audit found.
The 2013 audit looked at deficiencies in a program that the Sun-Times examined last month, finding that some of the biggest power players in the state, including elected officials, lobbyists, one-time political workers and donors, helped steer paid positions to dozens of students.
The audit, conducted by Auditor General William Holland’s office, found that the treasurer’s office in 2012 hired 51 interns but failed to produce any applications for the individuals.
71. July 25, 2014
Chicago Tribune: O’Hare worker charged with stealing from military workers
A Cook County judge expressed disbelief this afternoon that a 41-year-old Sauk Village man charged with stealing items that belonged to active-duty military members from O’Hare International Airport had managed to get hired at the secure facility despite a 1991 murder conviction.
James Matthews, who did ten years of a 20 year sentence on the murder conviction yet was hired by airport contractor Swissport International, is charged with two felony counts of theft after he was caught on surveillance video stealing two laptops from a footlocker, prosecutors said.
“He’s got a job at the airport and he’s got a murder conviction – is that correct?” Judge James Brown asked Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti. “In light of 9/11 a company would hire a person with a murder conviction?”
70. July 24, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Quinn disagrees with aides who tied Maywood mayoral race to NRI
Gov. Pat Quinn said Thursday he disagreed with the judgment of former top aides who let an upcoming mayoral race in Maywood dictate how they divvied up anti-violence grant dollars in 2011 under his now-tarnished Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.
“I don’t agree with that in any way,” Quinn said in his first public comments on a Chicago Sun-Times report Wednesday that outlined the NRI funding discussions involving the near-west suburb.
Internal administration emails obtained by the Sun-Times show that Quinn’s former deputy chief of staff, Toni Irving, recommended paring back an NRI allotment to a Maywood social-service provider because of a belief its founder “has his eye” on unseating then-Maywood Village President Henderson Yarbrough Sr. in the 2013 municipal elections.
69. July 23, 2014
A former gang leader who alleged he was framed by corrupt Chicago Heights police officers for a 1993 murder recalled on Wednesday how years ago he asked his family to raise $1,000 to buy legal books, then taught himself the law and wrote the court filings that eventually won him a new trial.
With the help of attorneys from the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project, Rodell Sanders, 49, returned home to his family hours after a Cook County jury acquitted him Tuesday night. He had spent 20 years in prison.
“I studied 10, 11 and 12 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Sanders, surrounded by family. “I wouldn’t go on the yard…I told my family stop coming down on visits so much, and I just committed myself to the law.”
68. July 23, 2014
Chicago real estate developer John Thomas is asking a federal judge to release him on bail for six months so he can repair and then help sell the Riverdale marina project he was convicted of looting of more than $375,000 in taxpayer funds.
The filing, apparently written by Thomas himself, comes weeks after U.S. District Judge James Zagel approved a psychiatric evaluation for him after Thomas’ own lawyer argued he was prone to mood swings and bizarre behavior and might suffer from manic depression.
Thomas, 51, pleaded guilty in May to stealing more than $375,000 in taxpayer money earmarked for the marina development along the Little Calumet River and using the cash to pay off personal debts and other expenses. He could face more than three years in prison.
67. July 23, 2014
Crain’s Chicago Business: Watchdog group shreds Chicago Public Schools’ ‘gimmick’-based budget
An already “unsustainable” financial hole at Chicago Public Schools continues to only get worse, setting the stage for “dramatic and painful” cuts next year, according to a review of its proposed 2015 budget by the Civic Federation.
The watchdog group hasn’t had much nice to say about CPS in recent years — I called its 2014 review “absolutely scathing” — but the review being released today is even more negative, depicting a system that seemingly has lost the will to do anything but spend increasing amounts of money it doesn’t have.
CPS is “fiscally overcommitting itself” and technically balancing its books only via a $600 million “accounting gimmick,” the federation says in an 85-page report on a system in charge of educating roughly 350,000 youngsters. “(The budget) represents a short-term, short-sighted plan in the midst of a grave and ongoing fiscal crisis.”
66. July 22, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Aldermen embrace do-not-hire list in post-Shakman era
Chicago aldermen on Tuesday charged head-first into the post-Shakman era — by following a federal hiring monitor’s recommendation to abide by a “do not hire” list of public employees fired for misconduct.
“This is correcting maybe a loophole in the system. … I can’t think of anybody who would defend hiring somebody who’d been put on a list that’s do-not-hire because of past deeds,” said Ald. John Arena (45th).
Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader, denied that aldermen were embracing the reform simply because the aldermanic election is seven months away.
65. July 22, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Internal Quinn emails: Suburban mayoral jockeying shaped NRI move
Newly released emails from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office show politics appeared to trump credentials when deciding how big a serving some nonprofits should get from his now-tarnished $54.5 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative anti-violence grant program.
Emails from Quinn’s former top aides recount how Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough, a Maywood Democrat who had been the suburb’s state representative, approached Quinn’s administration in January 2011 to oppose giving NRI funding to a longtime social service provider in Maywood.
64. July 22, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Pal of Cicero Town President Larry Dominick to plead guilty
A federally indicted pal of Cicero Town President Larry Dominick plans to plead guilty in the tax fraud case against him.
Plumber George Hunter — whose sewer business has received more than $1.8 million from Cicero taxpayers without a contract — is accused of dodging more than $400,000 in taxes.
Dominick’s political opponents have repeatedly alleged that Dominick was a partner in Hunter’s business, Superior Sewer Solution, which the feds say failed to pay taxes in 2007 and 2008, and which the Sun-Times in 2011 reported got nearly $2 million in work from Cicero without bidding for contracts.
63. July 22, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Daley pal gets lucrative development deal — despite unpaid taxes
Nine months ago, Jack Higgins — a longtime friend of former Mayor Richard M. Daley — had to walk away from his winning bid to develop nine-acres of government land on the West Side because he didn’t disclose his federal tax liens totaling nearly $2.8 million.
On Tuesday, the Illinois Medical District Commission selected a new development team for the $300 million project — and Higgins is part of the team.
62. July 22, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel on red light ticket refunds: ‘Not for me to decide’
Mayor Rahm Emanuel won’t say whether thousands of drivers who received red light camera citations during a series of suspicious ticket spikes should receive refunds for the $100 fines they have paid to the city.
The Emanuel administration has been unable to explain the sudden increases in red light tickets revealed in a Tribune investigation published Friday. Asked Tuesday whether drivers should get their money back, given the problem, Emanuel was non-committal.
“I’m not going to pre-judge stuff. That would be wrong for me to do. I’m not going to do that today,” the mayor said. “That’s not for me to decide.”
61. July 21, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Red light ticket spike fallout at City Hall
A group of aldermen said Monday they will ask City Hall’s top watchdog to investigate Chicago’s beleaguered red light camera program following a Tribune investigation that revealed a series of suspicious ticket spikes around the city that tagged thousands of drivers with $100 fines.
Meanwhile, outraged drivers in the city and suburbs reacted with their own tales of questionable tickets and appeals lost, even as class action lawyers began trolling social media in search of potential clients who were ticketed during the wild spikes.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, which has acknowledged the explosions of tickets should have been detected and resolved as they occurred, declined to take questions Monday. Instead, a transportation spokesman issued a statement saying that “out of an abundance of caution,” the administration on Monday had contacted Inspector General Joseph Ferguson “to seek his help in evaluating the program’s performance and examining management practices moving forward.”
60. July 21, 2014
Illinois Policy: Red-light cameras a case study in Chicago corruption, waste and failure
Chicago has the most red-light cameras of any city in the country. Since 2003, the city’s 352 cameras have levied nearly half a billion dollars in fines.
These cameras are sold to the public as a way to promote traffic safety, but the real outcome of the city’s program has been to grift lawful drivers while making sweetheart deals with poorly run companies.
The Chicago Tribune is now reporting that cameras throughout the city have burdened thousands of Chicagoans with wrongfully issued $100 tickets over the last five years, at least.
59. July 18, 2014
Kane County Chronicle: Circuit clerk hires son for temp job
A Kane County elected official said Thursday he has nothing to hide about hiring his son for a temporary project.
“The county is getting good value for the work he is doing,” Kane County Circuit Clerk Tom Hartwell said.
According to the county’s new hire report for June, David Hartwell was hired June 23 as a deputy clerk in the circuit clerk’s office
58. July 18, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Red light cameras tag thousands for undeserved tickets
The Tribune’s analysis of more than 4 million tickets issued since 2007 and a deeper probe of individual cases revealed clear evidence that the deviations in Chicago’s network of 380 cameras were caused by faulty equipment, human tinkering or both.
A 10-month Tribune investigation documented more than 13,000 questionable tickets at 12 intersections that experienced the most striking spikes; similar patterns emerged at dozens of other intersections responsible for tens of thousands more tickets. Among the key findings:
Cameras that for years generated just a few tickets daily suddenly caught dozens of drivers a day. One camera near the United Center rocketed from generating one ticket per day to 56 per day for a two-week period last summer before mysteriously dropping back to normal.
57. July 18, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: NRI didn’t fuel decisive Quinn vote gains, Sun-Times study finds
Republicans repeatedly have called Gov. Pat Quinn’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative anti-violence grant program from 2010 a “political slush fund” and a taxpayer-funded, get-out-the-vote effort.
But if the anti-violence program’s design truly was about investing public dollars to gin up enough votes for Quinn to win his election that year, a new, first-of-its-kind analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times found the alleged strategy may not have delivered as planned.
Yes, Quinn narrowly won in 2010. But the areas in Chicago and suburban Cook County that got anti-violence money under the program only helped pad the governor’s winning margin over Republican Bill Brady.
56. July 18, 2014
WLS: Lawsuit filed against cop with history of falsifying DUI arrests
A Chicago Police officer who was at the heart of a $325,000 settlement last year for beating a man and falsely charging him with DUI is being sued by another man who claims he was falsely arrested.
Ricardo Cruz filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday against Officer John Haleas, who was indicted in 2008 for falsifying drunken driving arrests. The City of Chicago is also named as a defendant.
According to the suit, Cruz was sitting on a porch with a group of friends on Feb. 15, 2004, when Haleas approached the group and ordered them to leave.
55. July 18, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Police Board fires cop whose gun was used in woman’s death
In a highly unusual move, the Chicago Police Board has overruled police Supt. Garry McCarthy and fired a police sergeant whose gun was used in the shooting death of a Northwest Side woman five years ago.
McCarthy had recommended suspending Sgt. Steven Lesner, a 20-year police veteran, for 60 days. But on Thursday night, the board unanimously voted to fire Lesner, 48, over the 2009 incident in which he bought alcohol for the woman he’d just met while on duty — and for failing to secure his weapon when he returned to her Northwest Side apartment after his shift had ended.
54. July 17, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Panel must delay testimony into Quinn program
As expected, the legislative hearing on Wednesday into Gov. Pat Quinn’s $54.5 million anti-violence program — the program drawing the scrutiny of federal prosecutors — quickly got tied into knots. Lawmakers had a hard time even agreeing on when to break for lunch.
The Legislative Audit Commission sent subpoenas to seven officials, ordering them to appear. Only one showed up. That was Billy Ocasio, a former Chicago alderman and former adviser to Quinn, who told the commission members he wasn’t ready to testify.
53. July 17, 2014
Illinois Policy: Liquor license red tape favors the politically connected
How much political influence should you need to get a liquor license in Chicago?
The Chicago Sun-Times highlighted the role of “clout” in helping Pete’s Fresh Market, a grocery chain opening a new location on Chicago’s underserved West Side, get one. On its face, the article is a critique of how well-connected people use political ties to circumvent the law, but what it also shows is how state and local governments hold far too much power over personal and business decisions.
Pete’s Fresh Market recently opened a new shopping center in a “food desert,” a neighborhood where residents lack access to fresh produce, and wanted a liquor license for the new location. But Illinois’ Liquor Control Act bans alcohol sales within 100 feet of churches, and the new Pete’s is 75 feet away from one. Thinking, like most property owners, that they should have the right to sell whatever they want on their own land, they sought an exemption from the Act.
52. July 16, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Did hot mic pick up Topinka clout request?
It began as a typical bill-signing ceremony.
It ended in what appeared to be a brazen clout request — caught on a hot microphone.
Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, a Republican, stood beside Gov. Pat Quinn at the July 7 public event in Downstate Washington, announcing $11.6 million in state money to boost communities hit by the 2013 tornados.
When the event concluded, Topinka, who may not have known her microphone was still live whispered to Quinn about her son, asking if the Democrat could help “… get my son to SIU? He loves to teach. He’s got the qualifications.”
51. July 16, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Recorder of Deed staffers accused of political motive in firing
Top staffers to Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough are under fire for allegedly firing an employee for political reasons and then trying to thwart inquiries into the matter.
In a report released Wednesday, county Inspector General Pat Blanchard found Yarbrough’s senior staffers had politics in mind when they fired a male employee shortly after Yarbrough took the elected office in Dec. 2012.
What’s more, when a federally-appointed hiring monitor made inquiries into the firing, Yarbrough’s staff “acted with intent to mislead” the federal monitor, according to the report.
Few landmarks in the city of Chicago have become more iconic than Millennium Park, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this Wednesday. It’s a true symbol of everything Chicago has to offer: beautiful lakefront space, innovative art and design, and of course, corruption.
Originally slated to cost $150 million, the price tag now rings in at $490 million and counting. And now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to void a sweetheart deal with the private operators of Park Grill, the restaurant of the park. The deal, the biggest in park district concessions history, was made without disclosure of the fact that an owner of Park Grill was the father of an unborn child with a Chicago Park District official who oversaw concessions.
The Millennium Park saga, filled with insider deals and ballooning costs, is all too familiar to Illinoisans. It is only one of 50 corruption-related stories in the state that the Illinois Policy Institute has tracked throughout July thus far.
Other stories include the finding that over 100 cases have been uncovered in which lawmakers intervened in Illinois’ teacher licensing process as well as investigations into Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s internship program revealing interns were hired based on the clout of wealthy and politically connected individuals, including convicted Rep. Derrick Smith.
50. July 16, 2014
A former North Chicago school board member was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for pocketing at least $566,000 in kickbacks in return for steering millions of dollars in contracts to companies that bused students.
Gloria Harper, 63, bowed her head and wept silently as U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered that she serve her 10-year prison term on top of a 2 ½-year sentence she received in Louisiana in 2012 for fraud.
“When you repeat an offense over and over for nine years, it isn’t stupidity anymore,” Coleman said of the kickback scheme at the impoverished North Chicago school district. “That’s greed, pure greed.”
49. July 16, 2014
Reboot Illinois: Top 10 campaign donors for Quinn, Rauner provide inside into nature of gov race
This fall, Illinois voters will decide whether Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn remains at the helm of the state’s top office, or if wealthy businessman Bruce Rauner can become the first Republican governor to win an election since 1998.
As the 2014 Illinois gubernatorial race kicks into high gear, both candidates are busy accelerating their campaigns, slinging political attacks at one another and amassing campaign war chests that almost certainly will make this the most expensive gubernatorial race in Illinois history.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Rauner has raised roughly $25.6 million; Quinn has pulled in $13.6 million as of the July 15 second quarter filing deadline.
Rauner is his own biggest contributor, putting in nearly $6.6 million of his own money into his campaign thus far.
While most of Rauner’s biggest contributions come from individuals, nine of Quinn’s 10 biggest donations come from organizations such as unions and political action committees.
48. July 16, 2014
Herald-Review: Overtime costs in Illinois prison again top $60 million
Just months after state prison officials predicted skyrocketing overtime costs would be dropping, new figures show taxpayers were again billed over $60 million for overtime in the most recent fiscal year.
That’s the second time in as many years that the ongoing manpower shortage in the Illinois Department of Corrections has led to a $60 million-plus payout.
This time, officials are blaming the problem on a combination of unanticipated retirements by guards and a rise in payroll costs linked to a labor agreement inked 18 months ago.
“That resulted in millions in would-be savings being eaten up by the difference in pay scales,” Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer said in an email.
47. July 15, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Editorial: Prying open police misconduct files
When public officials refuse to provide information about the alleged misconduct of police officers, they invite some damning conclusions:
They’re hiding something. They’re protecting bad cops. They’re more worried about appearances than about investigating complaints.
That’s especially true in Chicago, where such suspicions, too often, have turned out to be well-founded.
So we’re happy to hear that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has given up the battle to keep those investigations secret. Courts had ruled — twice — that records of police misconduct complaints are public under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. But the city had vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
46. July 15, 2014
Chicago Tribune: More questions on state grants
Back in late 2010, Apostle Carl White helped pick who would receive a lucrative state grant — then got $5,000 from the winning recipient.
“It didn’t seem like a big deal to anybody,” White recalled.
But now the state is seeking to recover the cash in response to a Tribune investigation that found questionable expenses in a key south suburban township during an examination of Gov. Pat Quinn’s $54.5 million anti-violence program.
The findings come as the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, the program’s official name, is under scrutiny from prosecutors. A bipartisan legislative panel is set Wednesday to discuss how much deeper it can dig into a searing state audit that ignited the growing criticism of the program as Quinn runs for re-election.
The governor has said he’s fixed problems once he found them. Republican opponent Bruce Rauner has argued that his Democratic rival used the grants as a political slush fund, which the governor denies. Still, one grant recipient told the Tribune that the program’s timing seemed geared to get out the Democratic vote.
45. July 14, 2014
Chicago Tribune: DCFS sued over girl’s ‘torture’ death
The family of an 8-year-old Chicago girl beaten and strangled last summer is suing the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, alleging the agency missed “telltale signs” of abuse.
The tortured body of Gizzell Ford was discovered July 12 in her paternal grandmother’s trash-strewn Austin apartment. The grandmother, Helen Ford, 52, and her son, Andre, 29, the child’s father, are charged with murder and remain held without bail.
A 2013 Tribune investigation into Gizzell’s death found that a DCFS investigator failed to spot signs of trouble after visiting the ramshackle home one month earlier while the straight-A student was being brutalized.
44. July 14, 2014
Reboot Illinois: Nine signs of fishiness afoot in the redistricting reform effort
Clearly, the next effort to try to get redistricting reform on the ballot and before voters will need a much stronger petition-gathering validation process. No question there were significant problems with the signatures turned in by people paid to collect them and that’s why the effort folded.
But it’s also true, as I’ve pointed out before, that there are some things in our election laws and procedures that make little sense, unless you’re purposefully trying to make access to the ballot as difficult as possible.
William J. Cadigan, a Republican, and William Dorf, a Democrat, were the lawyers who represented the Yes for Independent Maps group as it sought a ballot spot. Once the dust settled, I called Cadigan to ask him for some examples in the Illinois election code or in elections board procedures that seemed out of whack with promoting fairness and democracy:
43. July 14, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Lawyers: Conspiracy kept mom from suing
A 10-year “cover-up” by police and prosecutors prevented Nanci Koschman from learning that former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew killed her son, so she should be allowed to sue them, her lawyers said in a court filing Monday.
“The barrier to a fair disposition of Mrs. Koschman’s wrongful-death claim was not removed until [Richard J. “R.J.”] Vanecko’s conviction on Jan. 21, 2014. Until that occurred, the false official version — in which Vanecko was the victim of [her son] David’s aggression — posed a formidable impediment to the fair disposition of any claim Mrs. Koschman might have made against Vanecko,” Koschman’s lawyers wrote in asking U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to reject four separate motions to dismiss Koschman’s lawsuit.
Lawyers for Vanecko, the city of Chicago and Cook County want the case thrown out, saying that the statute of limitations for Koschman to sue passed years ago. David Koschman died May 6, 2004, but Vanecko wasn’t charged until December 2012 after a series of Chicago Sun-Times reports prompted the appointment of a special prosecutor who re-investigated the case.
42. July 14, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Lawsuit filed by man trapped in Cook County Jail for 30 hours
A man who was trapped inside the Cook County Jail for more than 30 hours earlier this month filed suit against the county Monday, saying he was handcuffed and questioned after he was found.
The detail came out at a Monday news conference with Farad Polk, 51, of Chicago, who was trapped in a room in the jail, where he had gone July 5 to visit his incarcerated son.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Court, alleges that county officials were negligent in allowing Polk to enter an 8-by-8-foot room he thought was a visiting area and then get stuck inside of it alone without food, water, bedding or a toilet for 32 hours. The suit also alleges county officials “willfully and wantonly” allowed the incident to occur, among other allegations.
41. July 14, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Millennium Park costs show the ‘Chicago Way’
Ten years after it opened, Millennium Park is the crown jewel of Chicago, but emblematic of how Richard M. Daley got things done as mayor.
The story behind its construction involved Daley’s vision for the city, the well-heeled philanthropists who backed him, mayoral friends who benefited financially and people going to prison. And it was built with money the city didn’t have, leaving a debt that lingers today.
40. July 14, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Rauner invested in troubled fund linked to Daley’s son
Cardinal Growth — the Chicago venture capital firm seized by the federal government after bankrolling companies tied to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s son — had many wealthy investors, including Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor.
As a result, Rauner and 33 other investors found themselves in the cross hairs of federal prosecutors seeking to recover $21.4 million in government loans Cardinal Growth got from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Cardinal invested those loans in companies including Municipal Sewer Services, which was handed no-bid deals from City Hall while Daley’s son and a nephew were among its undisclosed owners.
Under the threat of a lawsuit two years ago, Rauner agreed to pay the feds $50,000 — the final payment of $200,000 he promised to invest in Cardinal Growth a decade earlier, according to his campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf.
39. July 14, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Quinn also had ties to seized firm
Like his Republican opponent Bruce Rauner, Gov. Pat Quinn also has connections to Cardinal Growth, the venture capital firm that was seized by federal authorities after bankrolling deals with City Hall.
Robert Bobb Jr., Cardinal’s co-founder, has been a Quinn campaign contributor. And Quinn appointed Bobb’s partner Joseph McInerney to the board of the Illinois Finance Authority, which helps local governments borrow money by issuing bonds.
The governor “does not know Bobb,” Quinn spokeswoman Katie Hickey said. “He was introduced to McInerney nearly a decade ago, and they have not been in contact in recent years.”
38. July 12, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Lawmakers used clout in teacher licensing
State lawmakers have intervened repeatedly in Illinois’ teacher licensing process, going to bat in some cases for candidates who did not meet state requirements and applicants with criminal pasts as well as for relatives, donors and constituents, a Tribune investigation revealed.
The newspaper found nearly 100 cases in the past five years in which lawmakers got involved in the system that determines who can work as classroom aides, teachers and school administrators or hold other jobs.
The cases are outlined in hundreds of pages of documents and email exchanges obtained by the newspaper, dating to 2009, when House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office helped push a young woman’s licensing case to the head of the line.
37. July 11, 2014
Crain’s: Mystery deepens over political donations by Rauner venture
HealthRev, which did business under various names, got a contract early in 2000 that netted it nearly $9 million over the next three years. Almost immediately, it began contributing $14,000 to political funds run by Messrs. Stroger and Madigan, who at the time had huge influence in county government.
A second contract increased the total payment to $10.7 million. The contributions stopped in 2004 around the time that GTCR sold HealthRev.
In the wake of that story, I heard from a variety of people with knowledge of the company, and some of them pointed me to Martin Craig, who says on his LinkedIn page that he was a founder, CEO and board member from 1987 to 2001 of Argent HealthCare, a later name for HealthRev.
36. July 11, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Mystery Loan Lets Ex-Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Wife Keep Both Their Homes
A year ago, former Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s attorneys said his family was in “significant financial peril” as he and his wife, Sandi, awaited sentencing for looting $750,000 from his campaign coffers.
Jackson had to come up with that amount to pay a court judgment. Prosecutors wanted to seize the equity in the couple’s two homes if he didn’t.
The Chicago Democrat ponied up $200,000 before he entered prison last fall. Then he paid off the balance with a $550,000 wire transfer in late May, while keeping both his houses.
The Jacksons aren’t saying where the $550,000 came from, but a Chicago Tribune investigation points to a mysterious lending company created at a law firm used by Michael Milken, the convicted “junk bond king” of the 1980s who is a longtime friend of the Jackson family.
35. July 11, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: A treasurer’s trove of internships: Rutherford’s clout-heavy list
Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford’s office has offered an expansive college internship program during his tenure, giving more than 100 students tens of thousands of dollars in summer pay — and a plum for their resumes.
But the path to those jobs is often layered in clout, according to a Chicago Sun-Times review of the office’s program.
Documents obtained by the Sun-Times show the treasurer’s office maintained a list of applicants, alongside a notation indicating their referral.
Who made those referrals?
Some of the biggest power players in the state, including elected officials, lobbyists, onetime political workers, donors.
34. July 11, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: West Side liquor-license flap a study in clout
At last month’s grand opening of a shopping center anchored by a Pete’s Fresh Market grocery, Mayor Rahm Emanuel hailed the supermarket as an oasis in what had been a “food desert” on the West Side.
Besides food, Pete’s also sells liquor — even though the new store is next door to a church, the Greater Bethlehem Healing Temple, and state law bans liquor sales within 100 feet of churches or schools.
So how can Pete’s be selling beer, wine and spirits?
With a little help from influential friends including Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), who’s gotten tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the grocer in the past two years.
33. July 10, 2014
WBEZ: Prison health care worker finds request for medical care after inmate dies
On July 28, 2012, Elawndoe Shannon put in a request for sick call at the prison where he was housed in Lawrence, Illinois. Two days later, he died. The day after his death a nurse in the health care unit finally got his request slip for medical care.
“That means somebody took it and just said, ‘Oh it don’t matter, ain’t nothing wrong with him.’ That’s crazy!” said his sister Jackie Shannon in a recent interview on the front porch of her house on Chicago’s South Side.
“Everybody’s entitled to see a doctor. I don’t care, you could live in a hole somewhere. If you come out of that hole and you’re sick, you should be able to see a doctor. How many other ones in there that need to see the doctor are not seeing a doctor?” she said.
32. July 10, 2014
State Journal-Register: Former state rep. charged with child porn talking possible plea deal
A lawyer for a former Illinois state representative charged with child pornography has told a federal judge his client is talking with prosecutors about a possible plea agreement.
That word came Thursday at a status hearing in Chicago for Keith Farnham. The 66-year-old Elgin Democrat has pleaded not guilty to possessing, receiving and transporting child pornography.
Attorney Terry Ekl told reporters later that he’ll know more by the next status hearing on Sept. 2. He says he’ll either announce a deal’s done or ask for a trial date.
31. July 10, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Firm accuses city of ‘civil conspiracy’ in airport landscape flap
Outgoing Department of Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino allegedly sought to improperly oust a company contracted to landscape the city’s airports in order to replace it with a firm she and other city officials wanted, according to court documents filed earlier this week.
The amended complaint to the lawsuit, which was originally filed last year, claims CityEscape Garden Center & Design Studio was targeted by officials. They allegedly made up requirements not found in the contract to landscape O’Hare and Midway airports in an attempt to force the landscaping company to “default or abandon its contract,” according to the court document filed Tuesday.
The city also sought to re-bid the lucrative airport landscaping contract despite CityEscape’s existing agreement and the three years it had left, according to the lawsuit, which alleges Andolino and others were involved in a “civil conspiracy” to harm the landscaping company financially and to interfere with its work.
30. July 10, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Insider in Park Grill deal didn’t reveal baby’s father
Laura Foxgrover, a Chicago Park District official who oversaw concessions, testified Thursday that she never put in writing that the father of her unborn child was negotiating the biggest concession deal in park district history.
She said she also didn’t say anything in response to an email July 3, 2002, from a park district negotiator saying he was unaware of any relationships between park officials and the Park Grill restaurant owners — who included Matthew O’Malley, the father of Foxgrover’s baby.
“I never put it in writing that I was having a baby with Matthew O’Malley,” Foxgrover testified in Cook County Circuit Court in a lawsuit filed by City Hall to break the Park Grill’s 30-year lease at Millennium Park, a deal reached after Foxgrover gave birth in September 2003.
29. July 10, 2014
A part-time police officer in a small McHenry County community who was fired after less than a week on the job now faces criminal charges of official misconduct, possession of a stolen firearm and burglary, authorities said.
Ryszard T. Kopacz, 30, was released from custody after posting bail this morning and is due back in court on July 16, according to his lawyer and court documents.
Kopacz, of Wauconda, had been on the job as a part-time officer for just a few days in far northwest suburban Richmond, just south of the Wisconsin border, when he was terminated on July 6 for failing to show up for a July 5 shift, according to a Richmond Police Department press release.
28. July 9, 2014
CBS 2: Northbrook Postmaster Taking long breaks in middle of work day
The postal system is in financial trouble but the CBS 2 Investigators uncovered a boss at the federal agency who is anywhere but at work in the middle of his government day.
“I’m doing fine”, said United States Postal Service Northbrook Postmaster Ronald Weddington when confronted outside his Park Ridge home.
Postmaster Weddington entered the Northbrook Post Office branch at 9:11 a.m. on this day and left his government job at 11:01 a.m. He drove to his home 10 miles away and stayed inside until 1:45 p.m. When asked upon leaving his house why he is home so much during the work day, Weddington replied, “No. I’m not home a lot.”
27. July 9, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Feds to lawmakers: Don’t question NRI witnesses for 90 days
The Justice Department has asked state lawmakers to wait 90 days before calling several former members of Gov. Pat Quinn’s inner circle to testify on the governor’s Neighborhood Recovery Initiative to avoid possibly interfering with an ongoing federal probe of the scandal-tainted anti-violence program, a ranking Republican lawmaker said Wednesday.
“We do not want to impede their efforts or compromise the integrity of their criminal investigation,” said state Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, co-chair of the Legislative Audit Commission that was set to hear testimony from Quinn’s former aides on July 16 and 17. “Therefore, I believe it is appropriate for the Legislative Audit Commission to consider the request and its scope.”
Barickman said the verbal request came from two staff attorneys and an intern in the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs in Washington, D.C., and not directly from the federal prosecutor’s office in Springfield, which would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the request.
26. July 9, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Off-duty cop may be in foul territory over Jeter autographs
A Chicago cop is in dugout doo-doo for allegedly soliciting autographs on sports memorabilia — which he claimed was for a police charity fundraiser — from New York Yankees star Derek Jeter during the Chicago White Sox-Yankees battle at U.S. Cellular Field in May.
The Chicago Sun-Times is told the Yankees organization has filed a complaint with the Chicago Police Department about a 9th District Chicago cop who served as extra security at the Cell during the four-game series, claiming the officer broke the rules by soliciting Jeter’s autograph. Sources are questioning the authenticity of it being done for a police charity.
25. July 9, 2014
Illinois Policy: Chicago State University sued for violating first amendment rights
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, filed a lawsuit against Chicago State University, or CSU, last week, accusing the university of “[engaging] in an ongoing campaign to silence … criticisms of how the university is run” when it tried to shut down an independently operated faculty blog.
Since at least last year, CSU’s administration has been in open conflict with faculty members who contribute to “CSU Faculty Voice.” The blog is known for criticizing alleged cronyism, waste and the generally questionable management decisions of the university. In November, lawyers for the administration demanded the blog be taken down, claiming it used their trademark without permission and violated their standard of conduct because the posts were insufficiently “civil,” apparently thinking that their feelings trump basic First Amendment rights.
Problems continued to escalate after the writers refused to cave to the administration’s threats. In January, CSU lawyers sent another letter claiming that the blog’s name and design implied it was affiliated with the university. But even a cursory glance at the website shows this isn’t true; the blog clearly has “.blogspot” in its URL address and lacks the “.edu” designation that every college or university maintains. And why would a university formally sponsor or approve of a blog that openly criticizes it?
24. July 8, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Metra, Madigan and the ugly ways of clout
An investigative report on House Speaker Michael Madigan’s working relationship with Metra easily could have been titled, “How Clout Works.”
What you won’t find in the state inspector general’s analysis, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, is evidence that Madigan bluntly demanded Metra officials hire or promote soldiers in his patronage army.
That would have been gauche.
What you will find is case after case when Madigan got what he wanted simply by making the suggestion, knowing perfectly well that nobody at Metra wanted to say no too often to the most powerful elected official in the state.
Madigan never had to demand. The demand was understood.
23. July 8, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Madigan’s Metra influence detailed in report
A secret report put together by the legislature’s watchdog in the wake of last summer’s Metra scandal offers new insight into how Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan navigates the intersection of public business and ward-style patronage through his Southwest Side office and Illinois Capitol suite.
The analysis by then-Inspector General Thomas Homer — based on interviews with Madigan’s political allies, government officials and the speaker himself — presents those methods in an unflattering fashion.
The report contains an account of Metra’s chairwoman entering Madigan’s Capitol office to talk about state issues and leaving with a yellow Post-it note bearing names of two workers the speaker wanted to see promoted. In another meeting, a Metra lobbyist who was a longtime Madigan aide was spotted leaving the speaker’s office with two resumes. Another time, Madigan simply called the cellphone of one of his “better” precinct captains to tell him about a state job, according to the report.
22. July 7, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: How IHSA compares on spending, transparency
In Florida and Pennsylvania, the private, not-for-profit organizations that oversee high school sports operate like governments in terms of openness.
They let the public see sponsorship contracts, vendor payments and other records, just as a government agency would have to do under those states’ “sunshine” laws.
In Texas, the agency that oversees high school athletics operates as part of the University of Texas at Austin. So its records are open to the public, too.
Now, some Illinois lawmakers — as well as newspaper and broadcasting groups — say the private, not-for-profit Illinois High School Association, which oversees 35 high school sports and activities statewide, should be held to the same transparency standard.
21. July 7, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Cop fired for watching porn fights for pension
A former Wheaton police officer fired for watching pornography in his cruiser is fighting to receive disability pension pay.
Thomas Sommerfield was terminated earlier this year after an internal investigation showed he had been watching pornography in his cruiser, according to records obtained by the Tribune. Sommerfield, a 23-year veteran patrol officer, was among the officers who were honored last year for arresting a man in a shooting incident.
Sommerfield is claiming a psychological disability, said Richard Reimer, attorney for the pension board. Reimer would not discuss specifics of the case or comment because it is pending. In general, he said, line-of-duty disability pension benefits offer 65 percent of the officer’s salary and non-duty disability pension pays out 50 percent.
Sommerfield’s last annual salary with the city was $87,339, according to Wheaton city officials.
20. July 7, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Nightmare family feud: Suit alleges cop set feds on daughter-in-law
It was the family feud of nightmares.
Jennifer Scherr was the mother of an 8-year-old girl dying of brain cancer.
She says her father-in-law, a Chicago cop, helped her grow marijuana in her Evergreen Park basement to medicate her dying child’s suffering.
Officer Curtis Scherr gave her weighing scales and growing lamps, told her how not to get caught, and even helped tend what he called her “garden,” she says.
Then, in the summer of 2012, little Liza died, and everything went to hell.
Her father-in-law described Liza’s remains as a “biohazard” and wanted them removed from his daughter-in-law’s home before everyone had paid their respects, she says.
19. July 7, 2014
Oak Forest Patch: Accused Embezzler Sopko Back on Oak Forest payroll, house arrest loosened
A Cook County Circuit judge last week agreed to ease the restrictions of the house arrest conditions for Charles Sopko, the husband in a pair accused of embezzling from a Palos Heights fire protection district.
Sopko and his wife are suspected of swindling roughly $350,000 from the district, from 2009 through 2012. Sopko’s lawyer argued that his restrictions should be lessened, in light of his compliance with court dates and his efforts to return to work. Judge Hynes lifted Sopko’s nightly curfew, Sun-Times Media reports.
Michelle Sopko is charged with felony theft, conducting a financial crimes enterprise, identity theft, official misconduct and forgery. She was fired from her job as a part-time bookkeeper/administrative assistant with the fire district in December 2012. It’s alleged that she funneled $352,000 from the district’s payroll and accounts payable system into the couple’s bank account over the course of 30 months.
18. July 6, 2014
State Journal-Register: Tight state budget still has pet projects in it
The new state budget Gov. Pat Quinn signed last week left lawmakers from both parties unhappy — but it didn’t leave them empty-handed.
Among expenses in the $35.7 billion spending plan, tucked into a document thousands of pages long, are millions of dollars for pet projects statewide. They range from a new school in House Speaker Michael Madigan’s Chicago district to money to promote a racetrack near St. Louis and funds to begin planning Illinois’ 200th birthday celebration — scheduled for 2018.
The items are part of a 2015 budget that legislators admit doesn’t include enough revenue to cover the state’s regular spending needs. Lawmakers defend the extras, saying they were for projects already in the works or badly needed for job creation and other purposes.
Quinn, Madigan and other top Democrats wanted to extend Illinois’ temporary income tax increase beyond Jan. 1 to avoid “severe” cuts to education and other areas, but rank-and-file Democrats — worried about re-election this fall — wouldn’t support it. The tax issue is likely to resurface after November’s election.
17. July 6, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Pol says he spent $8K at Hooters because of food, drink, football
Thaddeus Jones wears two hats: State lawmaker and Calumet City alderman.
He also has two political campaign funds.
What do those funds have in common besides ties to Jones?
Both have reported dozens of expenditures – a total of 90 to be exact – at a south suburban Hooters, part of a national restaurant chain known for outfitting waitresses in tight-fitting tank tops and bright orange short shorts.
In all, Jones’ political committees have spent nearly $8,800 since 2009 at the Hooter’s in Lansing, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections, the state agency that collects data from campaign funds.
16. July 4, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Feds subpoena emails in Quinn anti-violence fund inquiry
A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena for emails of key players in Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled $54.5 million anti-violence program, including the former head of the program and two former ranking members of Quinn’s administration.
The subpoena, provided by the Quinn administration in response to a Tribune records request, is the latest public sign of federal prosecutors’ interest in a program also under scrutiny by Cook County authorities and a state legislative panel.
The May 13 grand jury document sought emails dated back to the beginning of 2010, the year Quinn ran for his first full term as governor and launched the Chicago-area program in the closing weeks of his campaign. Quinn spokesman Grant Klinzman said the administration has “zero tolerance for mismanagement, fraud or abuse” and that the governor has directed agencies to fully cooperate with authorities.
15. July 4, 2014
WUIS: Quinn Halts Political Hiring
Gov. Pat Quinn has ordered a moratorium on political hiring at the Illinois Department of Transportation and is requiring executive-level staff in every state agency to undergo training about proper hiring practices.
The Chicago Democrat’s actions come amid questions about whether state jobs were improperly filled based on clout rather than qualifications.
The Associated Press obtained copies of memos sent Thursday by Quinn’s attorney to IDOT leadership and the heads of all agencies, boards and commissions.
14. July 3, 2014
Daily Herald: Email prompts Quinn to withhold $20 million in funding for COD
The College of DuPage won’t receive a $20 million state construction grant now that Gov. Pat Quinn has seen an email detailing President Robert Breuder’s strategy to secure the long-promised funding for the Glen Ellyn school.
“The tactics used by the president in his email” convinced the governor not to release the $20 million the school hoped to use for a Teaching and Learning Center, a Quinn spokesman said Wednesday.
“We are suspending the possibility that they can submit a project for that funding,” David Blanchette said.
COD spokesman Joseph Moore said the school did not have a comment Wednesday evening but may have one Thursday.
13. July 3, 2014
During appellate arguments, which I watched in December, U.S. Appeals Judge Frank Easterbrook, formerly the chief judge of the panel, grilled government attorneys on some of the basics of the case. It was almost jarring to watch justices question the very essence of charges that had been under a public microscope for five years. Easterbrook appeared incredulous after asking if prosecutors could cite “any criminal conviction in U.S. history” other than Blagojevich’s in which a politician was convicted for trying to trade one job for another.
“I’m aware of none,” responded prosecutor Debra Bonamici.
“Where is the line that differentiates legal horse-trading from a federal offense that puts you in prison?” another appeals judge, Illana Rovner, asked.
It wasn’t that cut and dried, Bonamici said. The jury concluded Blagojevich was trying to obtain more than a job. Still, it was clear the appeals judges had issues with fundamental aspects of the case.
12. July 3, 2014
State Journal-Register: IDOT director, top Quinn aide out
A deputy director of the Illinois Department of Transportation has resigned days after the agency’s transportation secretary amid questions about hiring.
IDOT spokeswoman Paris Ervin confirmed that agency deputy director of finance and administration Mike Woods resigned effective Wednesday.
The 32-year-old Woods is a former agency personnel chief.
Meanwhile, Gov. Pat Quinn spokesman’s Grant Klinzman confirmed that a contract expired this week and is not being renewed for Gary Hannig, the governor’s legislative liaison. Hannig, 61, was a longtime member of the Illinois House and IDOT secretary from 2009 to 2011.
11. July 3, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Illinois Supreme Court rules Burge can keep his pension
In a split vote, the Illinois Supreme Court today upheld a Cook County judge’s ruling that allows disgraced former Chicago police commander Jon Burge to keep receiving his pension despite his 2010 conviction for lying about the torture of suspects.
At issue was whether Attorney General Lisa Madigan had the legal authority to challenge the administrative board’s split decision that allowed Burge to keep his approximately $3,000-a-month pension.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Madigan did not, accepting the reasoning made by Burge’s attorney at oral arguments in January that Madigan had no standing to intervene under the state’s pension statute.
“What the Attorney General is seeking then, through the filing of her complaint, is the authority to contest every administrative decision made by the Board, however limited in scope or effect, and to do so outside the confines of the Administrative Review Law,” this morning’s ruling says. “This would be a fundamental change in the workings of the Pension Code.
10. July 3, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: Daley claims ‘medical hardship’ to avoid Park Grill testimony
Saying it would be “a medical hardship,’’ attorneys for former Mayor Richard M. Daley are trying to prevent him from taking the witness stand in City Hall’s lawsuit to break a sweetheart lease given to the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park while Daley was mayor.
Daley’s attorneys declined to elaborate on the “medical hardship” in the motion they filed Wednesday asking Cook County Circuit Court Judge Moshe Jacobius to quash the subpoena the former mayor received from the Park Grill’s attorneys.
“In light of the significant privacy interests at issue and publicity concerns relating to Mr. Daley’s status as a public figure, an affidavit supporting this assertion can be provided to the court, if necessary, for in camera review,” Daley’s attorney Terrence Burns wrote in a motion that will discussed Tuesday when the Park Grill trial resumes.
9. July 2, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Trial date set for officer in 95-year-old’s death
A trial date has been set for the Park Forest police officer charged with reckless conduct in the case of a World War II veteran who died after being shot five times with beanbag rounds from a shotgun.
Prosecutors and the attorney for Officer Craig Taylor on Tuesday agreed on a Sept. 15 bench trial before Associate Judge Luciano Panici at the Cook County Courthouse in south suburban Markham.
Taylor, a 10-year police veteran, faces a charge of reckless conduct in the July 2013 death of John Wrana, 95.
Park Forest police were called to Wrana’s unit in the Victory Centre facility in Park Forest the evening of July 26, 2013, when Wrana, just weeks from his 96th birthday, refused treatment and became combative, according to Cook County prosecutors.
8. July 2, 2014
Southern Illinoisan: Former state mine regulator cleared to work for mining firm
Three months after being fired as one of the state’s top mining regulators, a failed candidate for the Illinois House has been cleared to work for a company his office once regulated.
In a ruling issued last week, the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission said Tony Mayville can go to work for Knight Hawk Coal LLC without violating the state’s revolving door ban. Currently, officials are barred from working for companies they formerly regulated for a period of one year.
The decision overturned a previous ruling by the state’s executive inspector general that Mayville couldn’t go to work for Knight Hawk because he helped oversee the company when he was an administrator in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Mines and Minerals.
7. July 2, 2014
Daily Herald: COD president defends push for state grant money
After the College of DuPage waited a dozen years for a promised state construction grant that never materialized, President Robert Breuder finally saw an opportunity to get the $20 million.
One week before Gov. Pat Quinn made a rare appearance at COD in May to speak during commencement ceremonies, Breuder sent an email to college trustees detailing his plan to publicly thank the governor for committing to release the grant money.
“When I introduce Governor Quinn at commencement, I want to help our cause (getting the $20 million released sooner rather than later) by thanking him for his commitment in front of 3,500 people,” Breuder wrote. “There are many voters in our district. Please keep November 4 in mind.”
There was just one problem: COD no longer had a construction project to link to the money.
6. July 2, 2014
Chicago Tribune: 2 professors sue CSU in blog case
Two Chicago State University professors sued campus administrators in federal court Tuesday, alleging that campus policies illegally targeted a controversial faculty-led blog.
Phillip Beverly and Robert Bionaz are CSU professors and, they say in their lawsuit, founders of and contributors to the CSU Faculty Voice blog. The site’s posts often feature critical views of the school’s leaders, and the blog has long been at the core of a rift between some faculty members and administrators.
School administrators, the lawsuit alleges, “have engaged in an ongoing campaign to silence Plaintiffs’ criticisms of how the University is run.”
5. July 1, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Former prosecutor had ‘grave concerns’ about charges against NIU cop
A former DeKalb County state’s attorney testified today that he had “grave concerns” over an investigation that led to a Northern Illinois University campus police officer being charged with sexually assaulting a student.
Former chief prosecutor Clay Campbell said the NIU police investigation against campus police officer Andrew Rifkin was so flawed that Campbell said dropping the charge was the correct option.
“The Constitutional process was so corroded there was no way I thought Mr. Rifkin could receive a fair trial,” he said.
Campbell, in the waning days of his term in 2012, decided to drop the case against Rifkin, but his successor, State’s Attorney Richard Schmack, recharged Rifkin. Campbell’s testimony came during a hearing today in which Rifkin’s attorney asked Judge John McAdams to dismiss the assault charge.
4. July 1, 2014
Chicago Tribune: Wicker Park school principal, assistant principal reassigned
The principal and assistant principal at a Wicker Park elementary school were removed from their posts Tuesday, according to a Chicago Public Schools spokesman.
Alice Vera, principal at Jose de Diego Elementary Community Academy and Michele Gulo, the school’s assistant principal, have been reassigned by the district.
“The Board’s Office of the Inspector General completed an investigation involving the principal and assistant principal assigned to De Diego Elementary School,” said CPS spokesman Joel Hood. “Based upon those investigative findings, the Board suspended both from their administrative responsibilities, but cannot comment further to due to personnel restrictions.”
A source close to the investigation said the district was looking into falsified enrollment information at the school as well as reimbursements filed by the school.
3. July 1, 2014
Chicago Sun-Times: William Beavers’ tax fraud conviction upheld
Former Cook County Commissioner William Beavers’ tax fraud conviction has been upheld by a federal appeals court.
In a widely-expected ruling published Monday, the 7th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals found that Judge James Zagel made no significant errors in his handling of the gruff-voiced 79-year-old’s trial last year.
Even if the appeals court had ruled favor of the self-proclaimed “hog with the big nuts,” it would have had little effect: Beavers finished serving his six month prison service in May.
2. July 1, 2014
Southern Illinoisan: Family of teen killed in 2007 get $1.2 million
A Pope County jury delivered a $1.2 million verdict to the family of a teenager who died when his bicycle collided with an ambulance in Golconda.
Brett McDaniel, 13, was was riding his bike on Rosalie Street on the edge of Golconda when he failed to stop at the Adams Street intersection, authorities said after the collision. The Mercy Regional Emergency Medical Service ambulance was traveling on Adams, just cresting a hill, when the bike ran into the side of the ambulance at about 6:30 p.m., Oct. 8, 2007.
Attorneys for McDaniel’s family alleged the ambulance was traveling over the speed limit and “failed to exercise care to avoid colliding with a person riding a bicycle.”
1. July 1, 2014
Reboot Illinois: Is McPier taking you for a ride?
In 2011, McPier created a nonprofit — Navy Pier Inc. — to operate the Pier, but now they’re refusing to release any meaningful information about the Pier’s operation on the grounds that, as a nonprofit, it’s not a government agency and therefore exempt from the state’s open records law — the Freedom of Information Act.
In other words, go take a ride — we’re not showing you our books: Not payroll information listing salaries, benefits, bonuses and perks; and not contracting records to find out if anyone has a sweetheart deal, if minority-owned businesses are getting a fair shake, and if there’s competitive bidding.
Yes, a government agency helped create a nonprofit, and now, incredibly, it’s using that nonprofit as an excuse to withhold public records and shield its books from public scrutiny.