Chicago Sun-Times

Emanuel, business leaders make pitch for McCormick arena — and it’s a tough sell

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:23:05 -0500

Aldermen, union leaders and local residents have questioned the mayor’s priorities at a time when Emanuel is closing 53 elementary schools, phasing out the city’s 55 percent subsidy for retiree health care and using millions in overtime to mask a shortage of police officers.

Daley nephew trial expected next year, grand jury still working

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:07:26 -0500

The involuntary manslaughter trial of Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley accused in the death of 21-year-old David Koschman, won’t happen till next year, the judge in the case said Tuesday. Meanwhile, a grand jury investigation led by special prosecutor Dan K. Webb into the way the case was handled by the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office continues longer than expected and is now expected to be completed in July.

Outgoing GOP chief Pat Brady warns leaders: ‘It’s not 1980 anymore’

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:27:15 -0500

With Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady on his way out the door, the next person to lead the state Republican party will have to glue together the fractured pieces of a bloodied and bruised party that’s allowed social issues to polarize its members. Just how difficult a task that will be depends on whom you ask, though both moderate and conservative Republicans insist they support a “big tent” that includes a diversity of beliefs.

Lynn Sweet: Black Caucus chair asks for lenient sentence for Jesse Jackson Jr.

Wed, 08 May 2013 02:32:04 -0500

WASHINGTON — I wandered into a nuance-free zone on Tuesday, reading the first wave of letters (there were 14) that the public sent to a federal judge regarding the July 1 sentencing of Jesse Jackson Jr. and wife Sandi. People who know the couple are asking for leniency. Folks who only know of them — a onetime congressman and former alderman who looted $750,000 from campaign funds to bankroll a seven-year indulgent spending spree — want them shown no special mercy. There were no in-betweens. Eight of the letters argued for a break. The most prominent advocate for Jesse Jackson …

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie had secret weight-loss surgery

Wed, 08 May 2013 01:35:54 -0500

NEWARK, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie, who once famously called himself “the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen,” disclosed Tuesday he had secretly undergone weight-loss surgery, a major new step by the potential Republican presidential contender to address both his health and a political vulnerability.

Bar group honors Sun-Times’ Koschman stories

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:15:36 -0500

Chicago Sun-Times coverage of the manslaughter indictment of Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko was named a winner Tuesday of the Chicago Bar Association’s Herman Kogan Media Awards. The honor, for print coverage of the legal system, went to reporters Tim Novak, Chris Fusco and Carol Marin for their work on a 15-page special report published Dec. 4, 2012, of the indictment of the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the 2004 death of 21-year-old David Koschman of Mount Prospect.

Quinn vetoes electric-rate hike; legislators likely to override

Mon, 06 May 2013 02:14:59 -0500

Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday vetoed legislation that would raise electricity rates by $70 million a year for the modernization of the electrical grid. But the veto doesn’t mean the rate hike won’t happen.

Bill seeks to snuff out smoking on college campuses

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:35:45 -0500

Illinois’ public colleges and universities could be forced to stamp out smoking on their campuses by next summer if a bill facing members of the House becomes law.

Madigan pension reform package passes House in tight vote

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:50:04 -0500

POLITICS BLOG: The Illinois House Thursday narrowly backed a bi-partisan pension-reform package pushed by House Speaker Michael Madigan and put the question of solving the state’s nearly $100 billion pension crisis in the lap of the state Senate. In a sober debate lasting a little more than an hour, the House voted 62-51, with six members voting present. Sixty votes were needed for Madigan’s measure to clear the House.

Penny Pritzker’s failed Superior Bank lost customer savings in subprime crisis

Thu, 02 May 2013 07:44:53 -0500

EDITOR’S NOTE: This report originally appeared on suntimes.com in 2008, written by former Sun-Times political reporter Abdon Pallasch. White House hopeful Barack Obama talks a lot on the campaign trail about how failing banks have used subprime loans to victimize customers. “Part of the reason we got a current mortgage crisis has to do with the fact that people got suckered in to loans that they could not pay,” he told a crowd in Reading, Pa., last week. “There were a lot of predatory loans that were given out, a lot of teaser rates. Banks and financial institutions making these …

Senate passes ‘puppy lemon’ legislation

Thu, 02 May 2013 02:21:54 -0500

If the state protects consumers who unknowingly buy “lemon” cars, why shouldn’t the same safeguards exist when putting down big money on Fido, Murph or Fluffy at a pet store? State lawmakers took a serious look at that question Wednesday.

Joe Walsh, ex-wife squabble over child support

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:14:00 -0500

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh visited a Cook County courtroom Wednesday as lawyers for the fiery Tea Party Republican and his ex-wife continue to sort out his final few months of child-support payments before their youngest child graduates high school.

Work is stopped on UNO high school after state halts funding

Wed, 01 May 2013 02:22:32 -0500

Construction was halted Tuesday on a new, state-funded charter high school being built on the Southwest Side for the state’s largest charter-school operator, the politically influential United Neighborhood Organization, after the project’s general contractor said UNO has fallen behind in its payments for the work. The move came five days after Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration suspended funding to UNO following Chicago Sun-Times reports on insider deals.

State cuts off money to UNO charter schools over insider deals

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:35:58 -0500

Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration has cut off funding to the state’s largest charter-school operator, the politically influential United Neighborhood Organization, over insider deals it says violated the terms of a $98 million state grant, according to a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. The deals involved millions of dollars in state funds that went to companies owned by two brothers of a high-ranking UNO executive, Miguel d’Escoto.

Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board investigating judge who’s hearing Daley nephew case

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:43:43 -0500

THE WATCHDOGS: The McHenry County judge presiding over the manslaughter case of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew is now the subject of a judicial ethics investigation over her divorce from a man who continues to live with her seven years later while owing his former law clients hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Koschman special prosecutor bills come to $1 million

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:43:43 -0500

More than $1 million — that’s the final tally for the special prosecutor’s investigation that led to a manslaughter charge against former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko after the Chicago Police Department and Cook County state’s attorney’s office twice declined to charge him in the 2004 death of David Koschman.