Cook County’s vital statistics office in the Loop was closed briefly Tuesday morning after an employee opened an envelope “filled with white powder,” according to Courtney Greve with County Clerk David Orr’s office, which oversees that office.
Cook County’s vital statistics office in the Loop was closed briefly Tuesday morning after an employee opened an envelope “filled with white powder,” according to Courtney Greve with County Clerk David Orr’s office, which oversees that office.
Forrest Claypool, the county commissioner who left the Democratic party to run as independent candidate for Cook County assessor, says he'll file petitions today signed by more than 90,000 voters in his bid to get on the ballot in November.
Claypool is running against Democrat Joseph Berrios, a board of review commissioner and chairman of the party, Republican Sharon Strobeck-Eckersall, a former Evanston assessor, and the Green Party's Robert Grota.
Claypool announced his candidacy in early April, angering Democrats by leaving the party and running without having participated in the primary. He needed to garner 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot, and expects a tough challenge from election lawyers retained by the Berrios campaign. Read more...
In a lottery that Republicans hope will mirror election results, Cook County Clerk David Orr this morning picked their party to top local ballots for November's general election.
Overseeing a lottery to determine ballot positions, Orr first picked the GOP ticket out of a fishbowl, followed by the Democrats and the Green Party.
The lottery was similar to one held in the fall to determine where primary candidates would appear on the ballot, only this time the choices were narrowed to three. Read more...
A report issued today by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Better Government Association chronicles corruption in Cook County, calling the county “infested with conflicts of interest.”
In addition to naming about 150 convicted county politicians and employees, it outlines a five-point plan for curing the county of corruption.
“Cook County has become Crook County,” said UIC professor Dick Simpson, one of the report’s authors, at a press conference today outside County Board President Todd Stroger’s office. “This pervasive pattern of corruption must be changed if county government is to provide honest, effective, efficient and transparent government that taxpayers can afford.” Read more...
