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ROUNDUP: Evans Steps Up, Levar Steps Down, Huggins Steps Quietly
>> JUDGE ASSESSES FIELD FOR BERRIOS SEAT As the dust settles from the Nov. 2 election, it seems that one of the biggest winners locally was Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans—and not only...
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Illinois’ Fiscal Crisis: We’re No. 2!
One of the nation’s most influential financial analysts sees big trouble ahead for Illinois. Meredith Whitney is sounding the alarm about the dire fiscal condition of the nation’s 15 largest states....
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Clearing the air under the CTA’s June subway fire probe
The safety and security of passengers should be the CTA’s top priority. So it was encouraging to see the transit agency produce a hard-hitting and scathing internal report delving into the...
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Candidate for Cook County Pension Post Pleaded Guilty In 1985 Vote Fraud Case
A former Cook County government employee who pleaded guilty to vote fraud in 1985 is now running for election to the Cook County Pension Board, an estimated $6.9 billion retirement fund serving nearly...
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ROUNDUP: Politics (and tickets) as usual
>> DRIVING COARSE AT CITY COLLEGES Maybe City Colleges of Chicago should start offering drivers education courses…for its own employees. Since 2008 the college system’s fleet of around 80...
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Lemont Pol’s iPhone Woes Puts the Byte on Taxpayers
A five-night getaway to Puerto Vallarta can run about $650 a person—covering round-trip airfare and a room at a classy hotel in the Mexican resort town. Steven Rosendahl’s tab ended up considerably...
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Big Changes Follow BGA Investigations
By Andy Shaw, BGA President & CEO Last month, the BGA and FOX Chicago exposed Chicago city officials spending your tax dollars on lavish meals, first-class seats and fancy hotels, and even...
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Dangerous Political Terrain in Maywood?
Check out the following “musing” by Maywood Village Clerk Gary Woll, a veteran political figure in the near western suburb. We knew Maywood was hairy in various ways, but politics is literally a...
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Bloomberg News: Feds Falling Down on FOIA
Bloomberg News, an international finance and political information service, found that major U.S. federal government agencies are too slow or are outright failing to comply with Freedom of Information...
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ROUNDUP: Peepers, Parkers and Loaders — Oh My!
>> PEEPER BACK TO WORK FOR STATE If you take a peek inside the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) offices in Schaumburg these days, you might see James Stumpner, 48. Paid nearly...
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Legislative Lovefest Far From Picture Perfect
There are public servants in the trenches who deserve our gratitude and respect. In a somewhat literal sense, think about the American troops who risk their lives on a daily basis. In a figurative...
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Rumble in the Courts
A veteran Chicago attorney recently filed a defamation lawsuit against Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown that claims she sought to damage the lawyer’s reputation in retaliation for his...
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BGA Updates Popular Payroll Database With 2011 Salaries
Want to know how much a public employee is paid? Then ask the Better Government Association (BGA). The BGA—a non-partisan, non-profit government watchdog—has updated its popular Payroll Database with...
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Political Dredging Stirs Muck in Oak Brook
Last year, municipal leaders in Oak Brook hired a law firm to get to the bottom of three things: how the now-former police chief, Tom Sheahan, was hired in 2005 by the village government under a...
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The Chicago Park District Desperately Needs Some Internal Landscaping
> The Chicago Park District isn’t all fun and games—unless you’re a bureaucrat there, and then it’s an endless game of duck-and-dodge. Which is why the agency is in desperate need of some internal...
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Oak Brook’s Continuing Drama Needs New Plotline
The television soap opera “As the World Turns” took place in the semi-fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois. In the real-life Illinois town of Oak Brook, it’s getting about as surreal as anything on...
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Elderly Couple Endures A Knock-Down Fight With Chicago Bureaucracy
For Tom and Veronica Bullock, this year’s blizzard brought more than an avalanche of snow. The retired South Side Chicago couple was also hit by an arctic blast of bureaucratic bungling and red tape....
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Higher Ed. Hire Raised Ire in Previous College Job
George W. Reid—the man recently hired to run the day-to-day operations of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, at a taxpayer-funded salary of $190,000—has an impressive resume that includes a...
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Before the Fall, Cellini Firm Feasted on Fees
It would appear that William Cellini’s reign as a state powerbroker is over, especially since he’s probably headed for jail. That’s in sharp contrast to a few years before his conviction last November...
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Storm Still Swirls Around Oak Brook Village President John Craig
The Village of Oak Brook has cleared away enough snow from the recent blizzard to get back to business as usual. But Oak Brook’s village president still is trying to get out from under another...
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