When county commissioners voted in favor of a county-wide hiring freeze last week, they did it with the goal of preventing County Board President Todd Stroger from going on a spending spree in his last months in office.
Wary of past hires that embarrassed the county, and with the bad taste of several current scandals in their collective mouth, commissioners voted 16-1 in favor of the freeze. Read more...
Striking back at Cook County commissioners who seek to curb his hiring powers, County Board President Todd Stroger yesterday vetoed as promised a county-wide hiring freeze that would last through November.
Stroger vowed to wield his veto pen after commissioners overwhelmingly approved the measure last week. But the freeze was passed 16-1, virtually assuring a veto-proof majority. Read more...
Chicago may not have seen a sports champion since the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, but that hasn’t dampened local politicians’ enthusiasm for spending big bucks on our local teams.
The Chicago Current analyzed campaign expenditures from 2009 and found that politicians’ campaign committees spent nearly $360,000 on tickets to see the city’s major league teams. Read more...
There’s no way around it: The economy was nasty last year.
It was lousy for job seekers. It was wretched for businesses. And according to political fundraisers, it was a downright drag on donors. Read more...
Is Cook County CFO Jaye Williams overpaid?
She earns more than the chief financial officers of several other large municipal governments surveyed by the Current, including New York City and the City of Chicago. Read more...
This summer, we’ll all have the regrettable opportunity to watch what is hopefully the finale of Rod Blagojevich’s celebrity circuit – his trial.
Surely, we’d be better served to focus on our economic future and what’s at stake in November, but let’s be honest: We won’t be able to look away as he takes the stand and yet another reality show begins. Read more...
The impact of the upcoming trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich is already being felt throughout the halls of the Illinois state Capitol.
While the upcoming trial will no doubt bring negative fallout to state Democrats in the coming months, the federal corruption probe into Blagojevich and his administration has spurred numerous ethics-related developments including the formation of a government reform commission headed by former prosecutor Patrick Collins. Read more...
Michael Demetrio says that when his wife ran for office, there was one place, and only one place, she turned for money: their own bank.
“We have a fairly firm philosophy,” Demetrio says. “We do not take funds from anyplace else besides us.” Read more...
Greg Hinz has an excellent recap of the events that led up to Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano's alleged suicide, and a look into how it feels to cover a suicide — and feel responsible for one [Crain's]
Tracy Swartz talks to the director of a company called Aftermath that often does cleanup after someone is hit by a CTA or Metra train [RedEye]
The Current's May print edition is now available at bars, restaurants and other locations around Chicago. Here's a story from the paper. More to come on Monday.
Mark Kirk entered the U.S. Senate race as a golden child of Illinois’ Republican Party, winning handily in his GOP primary for Barack Obama’s old seat. Read more...
Metra's executive director, under investigation for his agency's financial irregularities, apparently walked in front of one of his agency's own trains this morning in Crystal Lake and killed himself, the Northwest Herald reported.
Phil Pagano, the commuter rail agency's longtime chief, reportedly committed suicide two hours before a Metra board meeting where it appeared he would be stripped of his powers. Read more...
When former Chicago City Clerk James Laski left federal prison in 2007, he had a financial advantage that most inmates never get — access to $188,434 in campaign funds.
A loophole in state law allowed Laski to use the money, donated by supporters who hoped to see him elected, for personal expenses. Read more...
Aramark Correctional Services is a Chicago-based company that provides food services for inmates at Cook County Jail. It rakes in about $1 million a month, or roughly $180,000 to $195,000 a week.
But if you were to examine the county’s new online check register, you wouldn’t know that. In fact, you might think Aramark was fleecing the county, providing “miscellaneous services” and “computer accessories and supplies.” Read more...Public transportation riders in Chicago got a reprieve from Springfield this week, as legislators gave the Regional Transportation Authority the ability to borrow more money to bridge a $260 million gap in payments from the state.
A bill passed Monday by the Illinois legislature allows the RTA to borrow as much as $400 million in “working cash” to cover its debts — a feat that will mostly be used to stave off the threat of cuts to CTA, Metra and Pace while the state struggles to pay up. Read more...
The weekend likely can't come fast enough for County Board President Todd Stroger.
A stream of negative news stories is creating a rocky week for the administration. Reports surfaced that his deputy chief of staff, Carla Oglesby, had approved a $24,975 contract for her public relations firm just days after she took the county job. That launched an ethics investigation into Oglesby, who is now on unpaid administrative leave, and some inside the Stroger administration wonder why she is still on the payroll. Read more...