Cook County commissioners are pushing ahead with a proposed crackdown on owners, lenders and any entity with a financial interest in vacant properties blighting communities across the region, undeterred by a federal lawsuit filed this week against the City of Chicago over a similar measure.
County commissioners are looking to put the kibosh on what they call a pattern of underhanded hiring and spending by outgoing County Board President Todd Stroger.
The ill-fated hire of a now-indicted former Detroit Public Schools executive and a payment to a Stroger’s aide’s firm that flew beneath commissioners’ radars are the latest in a series of events that have prompted Commissioners John Daley, Bridget Gainer and Larry Suffredin to call for increased transparency in hiring and spending.
At Tuesday’s County Board meeting the trio will introduce an ordinance that will require the administration to provide more detail on spending and hiring decisions. Read more...When Kevin Long showed up at the Daley Center last month, the results could have been disasterous.
Officials caught Long, 48, with four large, steel hunting knives, leading investigators to uncover a cache of 1,600 knives at his home. Long, on parole for harassing a witness, was charged with 51 counts of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Many of the knives were made of a hardened polymer that would render metal detectors, such as those at the Daley Center and airports, ineffective. Read more...
Sorry, seers. If a county proposal goes forward, some of you might have to find a new line of work.
County commissioners today referred to the County Board's law enforcement committee a proposed law that would ban people from committing fraud under the guise of performing spiritual acts for money.
The proposal, from Commissioners Edwin Reyes, Bridget Gainer and Gregg Goslin, includes a swath of spirituality. Read more...
It’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of the sales tax debate. But for now, the sales tax is staying right where it is.
Commissioner Tony Peraica’s bid to axe the remaining half-percent of the 2008 sales tax hike was defeated by county commissioners at Tuesday’s board meeting. Commissioners in the finance committee voted 11-6 against the measure.
Voting nay were Commissioners William Beavers, Jerry Butler, John Daley, Bridget Gainer, Joseph Mario Moreno, Joan Patricia Murphy, Edwin Reyes, Deborah Sims, Robert Steele and Larry Suffredin. Read more...
