Last month, Dr. Robert Simon retired from his top job of running the troubled Cook County hospital system. But just as quickly, he became a taxpayer-funded consultant to the new "independent" county hospital board.
SPRINGFIELD -- Saying he's tired of the House "pimping" the Senate, Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) said he'll try to change a bill so lawmakers who vote against raises won't get the extra cash.
SPRINGFIELD -- Legislation to combat ''pay to play'' politics in Illinois advanced to the Senate floor Thursday, where its future is uncertain because of what the Senate president calls a ''gaping loophole.''
The Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center is "dangerously understaffed" and must hire private security guards to help make it safe again. That ruling came Thursday from a federal judge, who rejected complaints from the Teamsters union representing detention center guards that bringing in private guards would be unfair to employees.
When Henry Webster joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1950, there were only 66 African-American firefighters.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger can proceed to fire Public Defender Ed Burnette, an appeals court ruled today. Stroger plans to do it in as little as 12 days. The Appellate Court of Illinois reversed a decision made last week to block Stroger from conducting a hearing on whether to oust Burnette.
Five years after 21 young people jammed into the E2 nightclub died in a stampede toward the exit touched off by pepper spray, City Hall has finally gotten around to regulating event promoters.
A federal judge says the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center is “dangerously understaffed” and immediately gave approval for the director there to bring in a private security firm to help fill vacant jobs.
Two months ago, Chief Procurement Officer Montel Gayles embarrassed and infuriated Mayor Daley with kid-gloves treatment of James Duff, head of a mob-connected family that became the poster child for minority business fraud in Chicago.
SPRINGFIELD -- The fate of a salary increase for state lawmakers now lies in the hands of Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), who last week said, "I need a pay raise."
There's already a laundry list of problems at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, but so far no one has seen the wardrobe of its leader as a problem. That changed Wednesday when county Commissioner William Beavers delivered a public dressing-down to its director, mockingly asking Earl Dunlap, "Do you own a suit?"
When Henry Webster joined the Chicago Fire Department in 1950, there were only 66 African-American firefighters. Thirteen years later, Webster became the Jackie Robinson of the Chicago Fire Department — one of four black firefighters to integrate a fire company. Today, a City Council committee has approved a 10-year, $1-a-year lease that will pave the way for Webster’s trailblazing story to be told to future generations of Chicagoans.
Saying he’s on “a crusade to help Mayor Daley,” Gov. Blagojevich staged a West Side rally Tuesday to unveil his $150 million plan to curb youth violence and “stop the killing.”
The Chicago Children's Museum has presented five revisions of its proposed facility in Grant Park, but opponent Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) doesn't buy that the latest one is the final one.
Gov. Blagojevich is proposing a $150 million anti-violence initiative that would provide new state dollars for more teen jobs, after-school programs and community grants in high-crime areas.
Mayor Daley today accused opponents of his plan to build a new, $100 million Children's Museum in Grant Park of engaging in political intimidation — a charge more frequently leveled against him.
One of Gov. Blagojevich's highest-ranking aides faced a sizable tax problem when he hired her in 2003 -- and when he promoted her almost four years later. Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters had a federal tax lien for $21,548 placed against her by the Internal Revenue Service in July 2002, according to records in the District of Columbia's recorder of deeds office.
TAMPA, Fla. -- The woman known as the "D.C. Madam" apologized to her mother and sister in suicide notes, saying she couldn't bear going to prison and saw killing herself as the only "exit strategy."
Out of the legislative madness in Springfield this week came five little words said twice for emphasis: “I need a pay raise. I need a pay raise.” It was Senate President Emil Jones speaking.
Even though he's no longer on the state payroll and has pleaded guilty to federal felony charges, a former top Blagojevich appointee is still getting money from taxpayers.
Twenty-one state senators either failed to show up or didn't vote for a plan that would have given voters the right to recall Gov. Blagojevich. Now, some of those same senators who spared the governor from a possible humiliating fight to stay in office are seeing an influx of jobs and money in a maneuver one critic called "highly suspicious."
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is set to hand control of the county's struggling health system to a panel of nine health care and industry executives he says "reflects the cultural, gender and racial diversity" of the county.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is set to hand control of the county's struggling health system to a panel of nine health care and industry executives he says "reflects the cultural, gender and racial diversity" of the county.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger cannot remove Public Defender Ed Burnette from his job next week, a judge ruled Friday.
Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) lost eight blue-chip clients last year, but replaced them with 10 new ones and still has 38 law clients that did business with the city or other local government agencies, according to his annual ethics statement.
Country Club Hills resident Robert Darnell doesn't understand all the fuss over Mayor Dwight Welch. "Mayor Welch has done such a good job, I can not say anything bad about him," Darnell, 73, said.
Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) lost eight blue-chip clients last year, but replaced them with 10 new ones and still has 38 law clients that did business with the city or other local government agencies, according to his annual ethics statement.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger cannot remove Public Defender Ed Burnette from his job next week, a judge ruled Friday.
Illinois taxpayers would not be left “holding the bag” if fans default on equity seat licenses sold to finance the $400 million renovation of Wrigley Field, former Gov. Jim Thompson said Thursday.
SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois House voted unanimously Thursday to direct the state's top auditor to probe Gov. Blagojevich's mistaken $1 million award to a clout-heavy private school.
Concerned that a shortage of summer jobs tied to a souring economy could trigger a surge in the gun violence that’s killing Chicago’s children, Mayor Daley vowed today to pick up the slack. City Hall will spend $1.5 million to provide 1,000 summer jobs for young people in 10 impoverished neighborhoods with the highest levels of teen violence, the mayor said.
SPRINGFIELD -- Senate President Emil Jones and his allies Thursday killed a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given voters the right to fire Gov. Blagojevich or other state and local officeholders they deem corrupt or incompetent.
SPRINGFIELD -- Three years in the making, Illinois legislators finally struck a deal Wednesday on a proposed statewide ethics bill to combat "pay-to-play" politics.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has forced unqualified people into jobs on the public defender's payroll. Those charges were made Wednesday by Public Defender Ed Burnette, who is fighting to keep a job he was appointed to five years ago by Stroger's father, John Stroger. One supervisor hired by Stroger was so unqualified, Burnette said, "I had to find something for him to do."
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Senate today quashed a constitutional amendment that would have given voters the right to recall corrupt or inept politicians — an initiative driven by the daily drumbeat of scandal surrounding Gov. Blagojevich.
Fresh off a hefty pay increase last year, state legislators are in line for another raise -- and they'll have the final say this time on whether they and other top officials get the extra cash.
Standing in front of a sign proclaiming "I am not a politician," Republican Marty Ozinga III officially kicked off his campaign Wednesday for the south suburban and Downstate 11th Congressional District.
Mayor Daley's plan to require Chicago building owners to secure vacant buildings to prevent foreclosures from destroying neighborhoods hit a roadblock Wednesday.
At least 1,500 more parking ticket scofflaws and red-light runners have had their vehicles booted -- and 12,000 more Chicago parking tickets have been written -- in the first three months of a $1.5 million technology upgrade.
SPRINGFIELD - The question of whether to amend the state Constitution so Illinoisans can recall corrupt or inept politicians devolved Tuesday into a legislative game of chicken that must be decided by the weekend if voters are to get a chance to oust scandal-plagued Gov. Blagojevich before his term ends.
It was going to be a matrimonial blowout: lots of food, scores of guests and even a mariachi band.
SPRINGFIELD -- More legal troubles could lie ahead for a private school that Gov. Blagojevich said mistakenly got $1 million he had promised for fire-ravaged Pilgrim Baptist Church.
Former Gov. Jim Thompson said Tuesday he has found a way to have the state buy and renovate Wrigley Field -- a remodeling cost of "at least $400 million" -- with "no taxes of any kind." "I like my new proposal. I'm hopeful that we can reach an agreement" with Tribune Co., said Thompson, chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.
More than 90 Chicago Police employees -- including a recently promoted district commander -- have received payouts from a $12 million fund created to compensate victims of City Hall's rigged hiring system, records show.
"Frustrated and angry'' about the opportunities Gov. Blagojevich has "squandered,'' former Chicago Schools CEO Paul Vallas said Monday he would be "open to running again'' for governor.
Chicago will receive more than $153 million in federal funding over the next two years to test a carrot-and-stick combination of ideas aimed at reducing traffic congestion. The carrot is 10.2 miles of “bus rapid transit service” in four pilot corridors that include dedicated lanes during rush periods and traffic lights that turn green automatically for hybrid.
Lake County's top judge faced a dousing of pepper spray and a drunken-driving charge after a weekend traffic stop by Vernon Hills police. David M. Hall, a Lake County judge since 1989 and chief judge since December 2007, was admitted to Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for a "heart-related event" after his arrest, his attorney Mark Belokon said.
For decades, the Cook County hospital system has been crippled by politics -- doctors, administrators, funding and programs have long needed the approval of political overseers before becoming part of the structure. But in a matter of weeks, the troubled health care operation will be taken over by a group of nine outsiders, described by many as independent and non-political.
The days of warm weather in Chicago triggering a blitzkrieg of porch inspections are over.
Mayor Daley -- a harsh critic of the proliferation of guns in society -- said Saturday it was "not a difficult decision'' to make assault rifles available to rank-and-file officers.
WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday brushed aside a challenge from Hillary Rodham Clinton to debate before the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush poked fun at his potential successors Saturday night, expressing surprise that none of them were in the audience at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner.
On Monday, Todd Stroger faces a critical decision regarding the county's health-care system.
Advocates for battered women are mobilizing against a city plan they claim would give short-shrift to a problem Mayor Daley once called a "national plague": domestic violence.
Mayor Daley's ambitious, but stalled plan to create a San Antonio-style riverwalk along Wacker Drive will take two giant steps forward this summer.
Chicago businesses will be asked to cough up contributions of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 to "sponsor" city business seminars, under an ordinance advanced today by a somewhat queasy City Council committee.
The Watchdogs: A sewer-inspection company in which Mayor Daley's son and nephew had hidden ownership stakes has shut down, walking away from a $4.5 million contract with the city's water department in the face of an investigation by the city inspector general's office and the FBI prompted by reports in the Chicago Sun-Times.
SPRINGFIELD -- The impeachment drumbeat at the Statehouse grew louder Wednesday, a day after the blockbuster accusation by a former state official that he got his state job after pouring money into Gov. Blagojevich's campaign fund -- including a $25,000 check in an envelope he presented to the governor.
Just 18 months ago, Todd Stroger was campaigning for office on a promise to make Cook County government more open and transparent. Now, though, the County Board President is forcing anyone who works under him to sign a confidentiality agreement — promising they won’t disclose anything he deems “confidential” that they “learned, disclosed or observed” while on the job.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans killed legislation Wednesday aimed at removing limits on how long workers can wait before suing their employers for pay discrimination.
Chicago aldermen turned up the heat on the Illinois General Assembly today to deliver a high-tech solution to a vexing neighborhood problem: chronic speeding along residential streets.
Should Hillary Clinton fold her tent because she trails Barack Obama in the battle for delegates to the Democratic convention?
Three years ago, Mayor Daley bounced his purchasing chief and ordered Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey to clean up a minority contracting program disgraced by scandal.
Hundreds of teens at the Cook County juvenile jail on the Near West Side have been unable to go to school for two months because the jail doesn't have the manpower to take them there, a court-appointed administrator testified Wednesday.
A former top official in Gov. Blagojevich’s administration pleaded guilty to federal charges this afternoon and leveled some of the most significant accusations yet against the governor.
It's not cheap getting your point across at the state Capitol. Just ask the 110 local governments across the state that paid $5 million in taxpayer funds last year to do just that.
It’s not often that a Chicago mayor is reduced to reading the police blotter. But, that’s what it came down to for Mayor Daley today after a weekend bloodbath that turned 13 Chicago Public School students into shooting victims.
Whenever disaster strikes Chicago, Mayor Daley’s knee-jerk reaction is to defend the city’s response. On Monday, the mayor changed his tune -- big time.
Jocelyn Wells and her son Ezell Holden went to City Auto Auction of Chicago in south suburban Harvey and bought a "nice, clean-looking car" for $3,700. But as soon as the car got to the highway, it died, and Wells had to get a tow. Now the car needs repairs Wells can't afford.
Is Illinois still a "state of shame," as proclaimed by a 2006 Chicago Sun-Times series that revealed the state ranked among the worst at helping veterans find jobs?
Jason Heldt served two tours of duty in Iraq as a hospital corpsman with the Navy. The 25-year-old, now living with his parents in Crete, holds certifications as a medical assistant and nurse's aide. But he's having a hard time finding a health care job.
He's credited with turning around the city's building permit troubles and eliminating many of the Building Department's woes.
The family wanted something simple for John Mendoza -- the chance to see the 16-year-old one final time and then to say goodbye. But two Chicago funeral homes told the grief-stricken Mendozas this week they couldn't help, and a third offered only an abbreviated service -- all because John Mendoza had been beaten to death and the funeral homes feared gang retaliation, the Mendozas say.
With an ambitious O’Hare expansion plan and Midway privatization on tap, Mayor Daley today announced a new aviation commissioner.
For the first time in more than a decade, the waiting list for the Chicago Housing Authority's Section 8 voucher program will open today for applications.
The Cook County state's attorney's office has dropped more than 150 DUI cases in which indicted Chicago cop John Haleas was the arresting officer, officials said.
The federal appellate court in Chicago Tuesday upheld the conviction of four men charged with running the patronage hiring system in Mayor Daley's City Hall. The ruling sent waves of angst through City Hall, Gov. Blagojevich's office and other government offices where some had hoped the court would find the age-old practice of giving plum government jobs to cronies was legal.
Illinois State Police confirmed Tuesday that a former student who killed five students at Northern Illinois University had a valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card even though he had a history of mental illness.
A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld the convictions of four former aides to Mayor Richard M. Daley on charges they were part of a scheme to hide political patronage hiring in city government.
Mayor Daley and his wife made less money last year than in 2006 but gave more to charities, according to their most recent tax returns.
In an abrupt shift, Gov. Blagojevich's administration won't open the books on dozens of pardons he has granted since taking office. Executive clemency files maintained by the Prisoner Review Board typically show police reports, court records and letters of recommendation -- all accessible from the agency in the past.
The state's top auditor soon may be sicced on Gov. Blagojevich's administration to figure out how a politically connected private school mistakenly got $1 million from the state in one of the governor's biggest, most inexplicable financial miscues.
SPRINGFIELD -- A highly touted initiative Gov. Blagojevich's office once said could rake in $300 million for the state through corporate sponsorships and naming-rights deals met a quiet death in February after netting the state a paltry $315,000.
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Party officials want a federal judge to order an investigation into whether Sen. John McCain violated election laws by withdrawing from public financing, saying federal regulators are too weak to act on their own.
Mayor Daley ridiculed the Chicago Tribune on Friday for crusading against his plan to build a $100 million children's museum in Grant Park at a time when the struggling Tribune Co. is trying to convince the state to buy and renovate Wrigley Field.
Mayor Daley ridiculed the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times today for crusading against his plan to build a $100 million Children’s Museum in Grant Park. Both the Tribune and Sun-Times have declared their opposition to the Grant Park site, using the argument that the museum would be an intrusion in Grant Park that would violate legal covenants restricting lakefront construction.
Do Chicagoans not like children? How else to explain the overwhelming rejection of Mayor Daley's plan to change the city's motto from "City in the Garden" to "City of Children."
A photo of Vice President Dick Cheney is sparking a lot of questions among Internet readers as to what's being reflected in his sunglasses.
University of Chicago researchers will interview victims, offenders and parents -- with a particular emphasis on single moms -- to get to the heart of youth violence and devise “out of the box” strategies to prevent it, Mayor Daley said today. Daley said he got the idea for the study after the murder last fall of University of Chicago graduate student Amadou Cisse of Senegal.
SPRINGFIELD -- A proposed $3 billion tax hike defeated by the House on Thursday was billed as a way to help the state's schoolchildren and pothole-weary motorists by making the rich pay more taxes.
The embattled former minister of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has been selected as the keynote speaker for the Detroit branch of the NAACP's 53rd Annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner.
Chicago's city seal says, “Urbs in Horto.” It means “City in a Garden.” It might not say that for long if Mayor Daley has his way. How do the latin words, “Urbs of Liberi” sound? After launching an unprecedented study of youth violence by the University of Chicago, Daley said today he would like to change the city's motto.
In the world of Cook County patronage, it's known as "The Rule of Seven." That means the first seven applicants for a job who meet minimum qualifications are the first ones interviewed -- giving a huge advantage to anyone tipped to a planned opening.
Chicago building owners would be required to secure, maintain and light up their vacant buildings under a mayoral crackdown in the works to prevent the epidemic of home foreclosures from ruining entire neighborhoods.
Illinoisans with kids in schools would get an unexpected state tax break before fall classes begin under a plan that unanimously passed the Senate Wednesday but appears to face long odds in the House.
Rep. Danny Davis watched Wednesday as President Bush signed a bill Davis has pushed for five years to spend $165 million a year rehabilitating people getting out of prison.
The scene of one of the most racially divisive chapters in Chicago Fire Department history will be converted into a museum honoring the contributions made by African-American firefighters, under a mayoral plan quietly introduced Wednesday -- a move one black alderman called "poetic justice." Engine 100 was the site of a raucous 1990 retirement party captured on a now-infamous videotape.
Rebel rookie Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) claimed Wednesday that half a dozen aldermen have changed sides in recent days and now oppose Mayor Daley's plan to build a $100 million Children's Museum in Grant Park.
