Free Republic

Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Alvin Boutte, Jr., the adviser who encouraged the state to invest in Democrats’ beloved ShoreBank as it was failing, has agreed to pay a fine, to have his securities license suspended, and to work under “heightened supervision” in the securities industry for the next year. The ShoreBank scandal erupted in 2010 as Chicago Democrats, particularly Rep. Jan Schakowsky, tried to bail out the bank using any means necessary–whether federal, state, or private money. The bank’s closure was delayed several times–evidence, critics charged, of preferential treatment from the Obama administration. Eventually, under pressure from the Tea...

Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure. The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found “millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.”

Former State Senator and Republican Cook County Board President candidate Roger Keats and his wife Tina left Illinois to live in Texas. They bid farewell to their Illinois friends in a Wilmette Beacon article, and with this letter, saying they’re “voting with their feet and their wallets.” GOOD BYE AND GOOD LUCK As we leave Illinois for good, I wanted to say goodbye to my friends and wish all of you well. I am a lifelong son of the heartland and proud of it. After 60 years, I leave Illinois with a heavy heart. BUT enough is enough! The leaders...

Three people were shot at the Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais this afternoon, the Associated Press is reporting. Radio station WTIP in Grand Marais reported that the county sheriff said people were shot inside the courthouse between 4:15 and 4:30 p.m. today, and the suspect is in custody. State Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville also said the suspect was in custody. He had no details on what led to the shooting. Neville said two of the wounded were being treated at a hospital in Grand Marais, with the third taken to Duluth. The Cook County Sheriff’s Department would only...

John Wayne Gacy Victim Finally Identified November 29, 2011 10:56 AM William George Bundy has been identified as one of John Wayne Gacy's victims. (CBS) CHICAGO (CBS) — One of the unknown victims of John Wayne Gacy has been identified, more than 30 years after his death at the hands of one of the nation’s most notorious serial killers. Using DNA technology, investigators were able to determine that William George Bundy, who was last seen on October of 1976, was killed by Gacy. The news comes after Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart launched a new effort to determine the eight...

While it's true that President Obama began his political career in the living room of former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, his first political sponsor and major fundraiser was Antoin "Tony" Rezko. The pair go back to the 1990s and Obama's state Senate years, but they are best known for the still-not-completely-explained 2005 real estate deal that allowed the Obamas to buy their Chicago South Side mansion, while Rezko's wife bought a narrow strip of the home's lot on the same day. At that time, Rezko was under federal investigation for influence peddling and fraud while serving...

CHICAGO — Three men were ordered held without bond Saturday, charged in a Wednesday shootout that left four people dead, including a security guard from Hobart, in a Far South Side Altgeld Gardens store. The shootout happened during an attempted armed robbery inside The Connect, a department-type store in the 500 block of East 130th Street, police said. At least one of several would-be robbers exchanged gunfire with the security guard, Michael Banks, 30, of 3958 Willow St., Hobart, authorities said. Eric O’Neal, 18, Devon Walker, 18, and Alfred Spikes, 20, all of Chicago, were each charged with four counts...

Property taxes are unfair. Taxpayers don’t understand their bills. And that’s not likely to change. It is amazing to me, in this era of Tea Party rebellions, that no organized campaign has been launched to abolish property taxes in Illinois. The idea would certainly be popular with voters. Last week, thousands could be found standing in lines at the assessor’s offices in Cook County as second installment tax bills arrived in the mail. Most were seniors wondering how they had lost their senior citizen exemption, a property tax break that can be worth hundreds of dollars. Others just couldn’t understand...

Roger Keats, a former Illinois state senator and Cook County Board president, is packing up and leaving the Land of Lincoln for good. The 62-year-old Keats was a good government reformer who helped clean up the rampant corruption in the Chicago-area courts uncovered by Operations Greylord and Gambat. But now he’s throwing in the towel, and he and his wife are heading for Texas. “I am tired of subsidizing crooks," Keats told the Wilmette Beacon. In “Good Bye and Good Luck,” a letter to all the friends and political supporters he’s leaving behind after 60 years, Keats says he is...

When workers came to repair his flood-damaged house, Mike Elliott put his things in storage and moved out temporarily. Three months later, the workers are gone, the job unfinished, and Elliott is still renting a room from his next-door neighbor, wondering when he can move back home. His two-story frame house in Des Plaines needs new floors, a bathroom, a kitchen and plumbing. The half-fixed home is the result of a bureaucratic breakdown in the Cook County program meant to fix the damage.

Every once in a while, you read something in the news which leaves you seething. We live in a world full of both corruption and stupidity — two things which often seem to work synergistically. A couple of days ago, I came across something which had that unique blend of the two, a news story that was like a freshly-brewed cup of tick-me-off in the morning. The story in question comes out of Illinois, via Andrew Breitbart's Big Government website. Short and to the point, Breitbart's article notes that election officials in The Most Corrupt County in the Most Corrupt...

Over 35 counties in Illinois missed the deadline to mail military ballots to our soldiers defending America. But in Chicago, county election officials have taken special steps to ensure that no inmates at the Cook County Jail are unable to cast a ballot. The Chicago Board of Elections hand delivers ballots to the jail. They don’t even wait for the inmates to apply – they bring the applications with the ballots! Over 2,600 inmates have cast ballots so far – strikingly similiar to the 2,600 soldiers who will likely not recieve a ballot for the Nov 2 election. Disgraceful does...

Turnout in polling places in suburban Cook County show that residents in several areas with large minority populations did not vote early. Numbers released Thursday by the Cook County clerk showed that places like Park Forest and Cicero had lackluster turnout at early voting locations. Park Forest has a minority population of 61 percent, with an African American population of 55 percent. The total population of the suburb is more than 22,000, but as of Wednesday only 747 people had voted. Cicero has over 26,000 registered voters with 77 percent Hispanic, but as of Wednesday only 921 people had shown...

Oh my: Michelle Obama electioneering in polling place? posted at 7:15 pm on October 14, 2010 by Allahpundit regular view When Drudge puts up the red font — with italics, no less — we’re almost obliged to blog it, aren’t we? I’m … outrageously outraged?

A few weeks ago Chicago Magazine published a story that revealed what sure looks like an influence peddling scandal perpetrated by Democrat Cook County Board of Review member Joseph Berrios. The story is filled with the maddeningly typical Chicago corruption. It also seems to implicate his other two fellow board members, Brendan Houlihan and Larry Rogers, Jr -- both Democrats. To date Houlihan has yet to answer to these charges. The Cook County Board of Review is the office responsible for handling property tax complaints and is responsible for lowering the tax rate if a property merits a reduction. As...

Living the American Dream -- on the taxpayers' dime Now, HUD is reviewing housing grants to Cook County workers August 16, 2010 BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter with the BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION Anntoinette R. Brown got the American Dream -- twice. And, though it appears to have been improper to do so, the taxpayers helped pay for it, a Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association investigation has found. Brown, a Cook County government employee, was one of the county's first residents to qualify for the "American Dream Downpayment Initiative," a federally funded housing-assistance effort. Terry M. Gowder Sr. (inset) got a grant...

This story has been building for weeks on HillBuzz.org, but the reporting there was often iffy, hazy, and speculative, so I didn't write about it myself. But this week things have come to a head proving the allegations had some merit because now Cook County GOP Executive Director Jeremy Rose has resigned over the allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him. The story goes that on June 17, 2009, a woman was attending a Chicago Young Republicans meeting in Chicago and when she made to leave for the night was prevented from doing so by Rose. Rose began touching the...

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's last year in office is marked by one incident of bilking the taxpayers after another. Each week seems to bring a new example of Stroger and his buddies and family members sticking their hands in our pockets and this week has been no different. In fact, this week we've gotten a twofer as two incidents of Stroger's nest feathering have come to light. The first came on the 27th when Big Boss Todd awarded a $15,000 consulting job to Raymond L. Harris Sr., of Bolingbrook, who worked on Stroger's losing primary campaign to retain...

The Sun-Times reports that the next Cook County Board President might be yet another bought and paid for union stooge. Democrat Party candidate Toni Preckwinkle raised $1.3 million for her campaign for county board president thus far and $220,000 of that came from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). So, what we are seeing is yet another Democrat candidate owned lock, stock and barrel by a public employees union. Gee, I wonder if she’ll be amenable to union demands once in office? Her opponent, GOP candidate Roger Keats, has raised only $19,000 so far. Not that there IS a Republican...

A local rapper and a 35-year-old man are accused of beating a man to death because he accidentally scratched the rapper’s car. Edward Brown and Steven Fox, 26, a rapper known as “Sincere the Realist,” sent the 46-year-old victim into coma and eventually his death, according to prosecutors and police reports. Brown is a family friend of Larry Brown, who died on July 7 from the injuries related to attack, according to court testimony. It was Fox’s car that Larry Brown caused minor damage to when he was returning home in the early morning hours of June 17, assistant state’s...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dan Patlak was an analyst at the Board of Review for eight years. Patlak has been a taxpayer advocate in Wheeling Township where he is in his second term as Wheeling Township Assessor. Patlak is a Certified Illinois Assessing Officer and has been a licensed real estate broker since 1986. Patlak is a member of the National Taxpayers Union and is endorsed by the National Taxpayers United of Illinois PAC. DAN PATLAK -- IN HIS OWN WORDS My campaign for Commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review has adopted a radical new idea…educating taxpayers so they can...

One of the main reasons that little Todd Stroger lost his comfy job as president of the Cook County Board -- the office left him by his deceased father -- is because of the graft and payoffs to his friends and family members that he constantly perpetrated. It was so bad even Democrats were ashamed of him and voted him out of office in the last primary. But thanks to the fact that Illinois Democrats moved the primary to February President Stroger has eight months to continue giving his friends and family members cushy jobs paid for by the County...

Reporting from Washington — Mwenda Murithi, the Kenyan-born leader of a notorious Chicago street gang, was arrested 26 times after his student visa was revoked in 2003. Charged with at least four felonies, he served 30 days in the Cook County Jail for a 2007 drug violation. By law, he could have been deported immediately. But Chicago officials did not report him to immigration authorities because city and county ordinances prohibit them from doing so. Not long after he got out of jail, Murithi ordered a gang hit that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Schanna Gayden, struck by a...

One of the most exhausting days we have had in awhile. Freepers, Minutemen, Veterans and law abiding citizens showed up at City hall to make sure there was a voice to demand justice for Schanna Gayden a young teenager who was muderer in Logan Square by an illegal alien who was arrested 27 times by the Chicago Police Department and nothing was done. If we had SB1070 in Illinois Schanna might still be with us today!! Be reminded we live in a sanctuary city and the hands of the Chicago Police are tied behind their backs when it comes to...

Cook County's 'country club' hospital Oak Forest Hospital is virtually empty -- and far overstaffed May 17, 2010 BY LISA DONOVAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters Cook County-owned Oak Forest Hospital is known by doctors and nurses in the public health system as the "country club." They aren't referring just to the 340 rolling acres the hospital sits on, or the pond that beckons geese, ducks and brown-bagging staffers. » Click to enlarge image On a given day, more than two-thirds of Oak Forest Hospital's beds are empty, and about a fifth of its buildings are vacant. An entrance by...

<p>The 1890s Chicago City Council was notorious for corrupt political practices orchestrated by a faction of its aldermen known as the Gray Wolves. So named because they were viewed as preying upon the defenseless public, the Gray Wolves were led by First Ward aldermen “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward. These elected officials were not only skilled at trading votes for favors, but once in office they excelled in making municipal decisions to profit themselves financially.</p>

A long-brewing political war over Cook County property taxes has gone nuclear with charges that tax bills are being delayed intentionally until after the November elections to disguise big tax breaks to politically connected businesses and higher levies on homeowners.snipAt his [Houlihan's] press conference, he said that the County Board of Review — which doublechecks and revises proposed property assessments made by Mr. Houlihan's office — "is engaged in a deliberate effort to delay second-installment property tax bills until after the Nov. 2 election."

Chicago Breaking News reported late last night that former Chicago schools chief and current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan manipulated a system to favor powerful political allies by placing their children in the schools of their choice. The discovery of a list, the existence of which had been long denied by the city, and its composition of mainly high-powered political figures calls into question the appeals system used to reconsider applications that had been denied by the top Chicago-area schools: While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help...

A naked, wet and angry Rahm Emanuel? That's the last image Americans need in our minds right now. But it's been seared onto our brains — just like that weird wrestling scene from the movie "Borat" — thanks to former U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who resigned the other day amid allegations he sexually harassed male staffers. "Let me tell you a story about Rahm Emanuel," Massa said on a recent radio program, talking about taking a shower in the Congressional Gym. "I'm sitting there showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel not even with a towel...

the times Some see Preckwinkle nomination as sign voters want to move past seedy Stroger era New era for Crook County? By Sophia Tareen Posted: Monday, February 22, 2010 12:05 am CHICAGO | Corruption in the nation's second-largest county is so commonplace that even a government phone system expects complaints: "For current patronage issues, press 2." For decades, Cook County -- where dozens and dozens of employees, contractors and politicians have been convicted of wrongdoing -- has been synonymous with politically connected hiring and nepotism. Although the county since 1983 has been under a court order banning political hiring and...

A new study has been released by the University of Illinois in conjunction with the Better Government Association that details Cook County’s disgusting history of political neer-do-wells calling it a true “culture of corruption.” (Download .pdf of report) “More than 140 people have been convicted of corruption in county-related cases since 1970,” the study finds. Featured are tales of bribes, ghost payrolls, sweetheart deals, rip-offs, and the “wholesale subversion of the judicial system.” “This rogue’s gallery of corrupt individuals is just the tip of the iceberg,” said the BGA’s Andy Shaw, “because, for every one of those convicted, there may...

New study provides insight into 141+ years of political hijinks Cook County has been a "dark pool of political corruption" for more than a century, a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago says. Nearly 150 employees, politicians and contractors in the nation's second-largest county have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957, according to a report released Thursday by the university and the Better Government Association (.pdf) The 33-page study gives a history of corruption, starting from 1869 when county commissioners were jailed for rigging a bid to paint City Hall. It also details hiring scandals, including...

Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass is an old school journalist. He’s one among a cadre of Windy City reporters, most from the Sun Times and the Tribune, who routinely expose the hooligans and shenanigans of the Chicago Political Machine. Kass says the national MSM ignored the political environment that gave birth to Barack Obama. While Kass calls Obama “a Chicago political guy,” he knows the Machine is multi-layered. While the hub is Chicago, spokes extend throughout Cook County, and reach deep inside the state capital at Springfield. Because the MSM ignored the Machine from which Obama emerged, the electorate didn’t...

Terrence O’Brien got his start in Chicago Democratic politics like so many of his peers and the generations that came before him, dutifully ringing doorbells to solicit votes for his state senator on the far North Side. He rose to coordinating other precinct captains for such candidates as a young Cook County state’s attorney and mayoral hopeful named Richard M. Daley. After serving some 20 years as an elected leader of the obscure-but-jobs-rich Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Mr. O’Brien decided last year that the time was ripe to seek higher office, to run for county board president. So he lined...

Illinois Democrats nominated Alex Giannoulias to run for the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. As Richard Baehr noted Monday on AT, Giannoulias has substantial weaknesses that could enable Congressman Mark Kirk, the Republican nominee, to take the seat in November. The GOP Senatorial Campaign Committee is wasting no time in focusing on Guannoulias's shady past, something that may resonate with Illinois voters, sick of Democrat machine corruption that has left the state arguably in worse fiscal shape than California.

So, with a headline like that above perhaps you might imagine that I, a conservative, will launch into another attack on a Republican that just isn't Republicany enough for me, right? You might think that this will be just another hard-line blogger attacking another "moderate" Republican, right? Well, by "fake Republican" I mean just that: fake. Putting fake candidates on the ballot is a game that Chicago Democrats play in every election. Every election they put fake Republicans up against real Republicans in primary elections. What the Democrat Party does is put several shill candidates on ballots to drain votes...

Everyone is always talking about how corrupt Illinois politics is. Well, it's been that way since day one. Since I live here (I'll take your condolences) I thought I'd give a brief history of Cook County, the home of the City of Chicago. There is a saying about Chicago’s weather: if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes it’ll change. This, of course, is an allusion to the fact that the weather in Chicago is often unpredictable with every season but winter seeming all too short. The rains come, the winds blow, the snow falls and the chill descends...

The Cook County Democrat Party sent out a direct mail piece early this week that listed all the Democrat presidents that brought "prosperity" to this country. Oh they are all there, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ, Bill Clinton... uh, wait. Isn't one of 'em missing? You guessed it, Jimmah Carter, the worst president in American history, was left off the list of illustrious "prosperity" bringers. Oopsie. The nitwit that commissioned the flyer, Democrat Party Chairman Joe Berrios, claims that it was the printer that goofed it up and that he had Carter on the original piece before the printer sent it...

A new report on "Judicial Hellholes" arrives just in time, albeit indirectly, to remind Congress that no health-system changes can qualify as real "reform" if they don't include serious lawsuit reforms as well. The annual report by the American Tort Reform Foundation, released Dec. 15, shows that President Obama's own Cook County, Ill., is the nation's third-worst place for lawsuit abuse. Maybe that helps explain why Obamacare, especially as translated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, discourages lawsuit reforms rather than promoting them. For instance, the Pelosi bill punishes states if they implement the most effective tort reform of all, namely...

I think we need to meet as conservatives to get ideas on how to save our beautiful state. It was going well until Blago took over in 2002. I'm thinking January 9th. Downtown Chicago.

Here is a really fascinating series of tweets from Commissioner Tony Peraica as he participated in the latest Cook County Board meeting. Today (Dec. 1) Board President Todd Stroger tried to cajole the board into upholding his veto of the roll back of his implementation of the highest tax rate in the country. Peraica is against the tax and since the State Legislature ended the four-fifths rule, lowering it to three-fifths to overturn the president's veto, the fight was on. Anyway, here are the tweets that Peraica posted during the debate and they are a fascinating peak inside a board...

OK, say you are running for the Cook County Board. And say your daddy is the village clerk in the very district where you are hoping to get a whole slew of by-mail and early votes. Also say your cousin is running for Governor and he's already the State Comptroller now. Do you think your opponent might casually wonder if the fix is in? ... well, it is Crook County, after all. Naturally, the above isn't just some bad TV script, but a real situation in southern Cook County. In Orland Park where Democrat Patrick Maher is running to unseat...

Chicago prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades and other material regarding the classroom performance of Northwestern University journalism students, according to The New York Times. Seems the prosecutors are tired of being second-guessed by the J-students, who are participants in The Innocence Project. The Innocence Project is an effort by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism to provide students with real-life experience in scrutinizing the actions of police and prosecutors in old cases. Their work has led to the release of at least 11 inmates who were shown to have been wrongly convicted. It's that success rate that has the local DAs...

The Democratic primary will be bloody. It will take no great political prognostication to figure that out. Todd Stroger, the encumbent, is vulnerable and the Democrats know it. That's why there are no fewer than four challengers ready to take him on. Stroger is best known for sticking the County with the highest sales tax in the country. Local news stations have featured stories of cushy jobs going to friends and family. Then, there's the story of Tony Cole. Cole was his basketball playing buddy when Stroger offered him a job in the County. Not three months into his tenure,...

Vote of Confidence A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape—and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. By Gretchen Reynolds A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape-and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The...

The federal monitor over Cook County government hiring issued a progress report on patronage problems today -- *snip* Some workers for the county are actively undermining efforts to take politics out of personnel practices. Read the report here.

There's a smell test that I usually use when a politician invokes the deity into a political debate. Does it seem out of place? Is this something that the politician does consistently or are they suddenly invoking the deity? For instance, Bill Clinton could be found at church only when there was political heat on him. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, evokes the lord a lot and so if she were to evoke the lord I wouldn't be quite as skeptical. (though, I understand that this would give her more license)

The Chicago Sun Times has the latest in a string political corruption revelation in an area in which this appears common place. Patronage workers with the Cook County Forest Preserve District are seeing more green these days -- in their paychecks. With people everywhere facing tough financial times, the 28 forest preserve patronage workers who've been on the payroll since 2006 all got hefty raises in the following two years, an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association has found. They're among 38 forest preserve workers who are exempt from the Shakman court order that bans political...

The Chicago Sun Times has the latest in a string political corruption revelation in an area in which this appears common place. Patronage workers with the Cook County Forest Preserve District are seeing more green these days -- in their paychecks. With people everywhere facing tough financial times, the 28 forest preserve patronage workers who've been on the payroll since 2006 all got hefty raises in the following two years, an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association has found. They're among 38 forest preserve workers who are exempt from the Shakman court order that bans political...

Patronage workers with the Cook County Forest Preserve District are seeing more green these days -- in their paychecks. With people everywhere facing tough financial times, the 28 forest preserve patronage workers who've been on the payroll since 2006 all got hefty raises in the following two years, an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association has found. They're among 38 forest preserve workers who are exempt from the Shakman court order that bans political hiring in city and county government.