novak.0.jpeg

Tim Novak

Watchdogs reporter

Tim Novak is an investigative reporter exposing government corruption in the state of Illinois, Cook County and the city of Chicago. His stories include a four-year investigation into a homicide that led to the appointment of a special prosecutor, resulting in Mayor Daley’s nephew pleading guilty to manslaughter in 2014. A six-month investigation in 2004 brought down Daley’s Hired Truck program, in which city agencies spent $40 million on private trucking companies owned by mobsters and politically connected insiders that were often paid to do nothing. The ensuing federal investigation ended with the indictments of 49 people, including 29 city employees.

As the White Sox and Bulls owner seeks $1 billion in state funding for a new South Loop ballpark, he’s spending big to gobble up lots around the Bulls’ home, records show.
Judge Maura Slattery Boyle and her husband received the lien six months ago for back taxes between 2018 to 2021. She won’t talk about that except to say they’ve now been paid.
Officeholders can keep taking a public pension if they aren’t working for the branch of government that’s paying that benefit. Seven primary candidates, including O’Neill Burke, are getting retirement pay from past offices.
Mahon, a Streets and San. official under Mayors Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, admitted falsifying records in his 16 years on the board of Washington Federal Bank for Savings.
William Mahon, a high-ranking Streets and San official under Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, was allowed by City Hall to serve on the board of the crooked Chicago bank.
Sheila Jackson Lee, a congresswoman from Texas, visited Chicago to raise money for her failed effort to become Houston’s mayor. Her son Jason Lee is a top adviser to Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The team is considering building a stadium at the Clark Street-Roosevelt Road site, sources say. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf would say only, “We met to discuss the historic partnership between the team and Chicago and the team’s ideas for remaining competitive in Chicago in perpetuity.”
Johnson’s campaign fund held on to other questionable contributions. Sitting mayors are barred from accepting contributions from city contractors and city lobbyists.
The Chicago City Council icon turned felon is entitled to more than $540,000 he paid into a city pension fund — and a nearly $2.5 million payout from his campaign fund.