South Side Ald. Willie Cochran pleaded guilty March 21 to felony wire fraud for spending his ward’s charity funds on personal expenses. That’s 30 Chicago aldermen convicted of corruption since 1972.
The South Side alderman had been charged with stealing charity donations to finance his daughter’s college tuition payments and casino getaways in Indiana, among other offences.
Illinois finds itself at a crossroads: will it empower minorities and poor people to unleash their potential, or will it perpetuate an inequitable status quo? For far too many Illinoisans, opportunity is unfairly and unnecessarily out of reach. Illinois ranks in the bottom ten among all states in social mobility and last among Midwest states...