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* Cook County: We can’t afford to police towns — unless they pay
Squeezed by budget cuts, several suburban police departments have talked with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office about policing their towns — but Cook County Board members say those law enforcement agencies would have to cover the costs and get county board approval.
* Stroger pulls appointment of ex-campaign manager
The county board typically endorses the president’s nominations, but some commissioners told the Sun-Times last week they were balking at the appointment of Williams.
* Watchdog: Stroger using county jobs to reward supporters, punish foes
* Stroger stymied in appointing former campaign manager to post
* Cook County Board nixes suburban police takeovers
Cook County suburbs looking to save money by dropping their police departments and handing over law enforcement to the sheriff would be out of luck under a measure the County Board approved Tuesday.
The resolution, approved with only one commissioner voting against, opposes allowing the sheriff’s department to take over primary police responsibilities in municipalities, as it did in Ford Heights. To hammer home the point, the measure states that no new funding will be provided for such efforts.
* Prognosis: Progress
The symptoms are troubling: Thousands of impoverished patients rely for their health care on Cook County facilities that don’t match their needs and that cost more than taxpayers can sustain.
The prognosis, though, has brightened. Apply the right treatments and everyone could win — the county health system’s patients, the underused infrastructure and the taxpayers who pay for it all.
* Mayor Daley: Not making gun owners jump through hoops with new law
“We’re not jumping through hoops. We have to have accountability. … This is protection of the city from lawsuits from a lot of people,” the mayor said.
* Daley: Gun law ‘reasonable’ despite lawsuits challenging it
* The new rules to buy a gun in Chicago
* Alderman wants investigation into offensive graffiti on South Loop building
An alderman who discovered graffiti on a South Loop building that said “we kill cops” just days days after a police officer was gunned down on the South Side wants the defacement removed immediately and criminal charges against its creator.
* Chicago Crime Commission resurrects most wanted list
That new list includes reputed street gang members accused of murder and a former police officer accused of shaking down drug dealers. The nonprofit group’s Most Wanted list has nine men and one woman.
* From Al Capone to today’s ‘Most Wanted’
Chicago Crime Commission releases its 1st list since 1937
* Most-wanted list that once included Capone returns
* Pollution worries cloud Chicago police gun range
Hamilton said the nearest city neighborhood is about a mile away and the nearest suburbs are about three-quarters of a mile away. Studies have shown the range wouldn’t create noise problems for those residents, he said.[…]
But the Southeast Environmental Task Force didn’t know about the proposal until it was placed on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s agenda in June, said Peggy Salazar, the task force’s interim director. The task force has sent letters to the city’s Department of Environment and to police Supt. Jody Weis with questions about possible noise and lead pollution, Salazar said. She also said the task force envisioned the property becoming open land for recreational use.
* Colleagues pay respects to ‘remarkable’ officer
* Slain Chicago Officer Thor Soderberg honored at visitation
* Chicago Carriage cab drivers protest hikes in lease rates
* More black churches take on AIDS battle
[I]n recent years, with more access to information about the disease, increasing numbers of black churches are slowly becoming outspoken advocates for testing, increased government funding and education. For some, it has meant changing their views about religion and opening their doors to gays and lesbians, whom they once shunned.
* Contractor’s error cut off access to riverwalk near Lakeshore East
Residents of Chicago’s Lakeshore East community were denied access to the riverwalk for two days last week when a contractor hired to replace missing aluminum panels separating the riverwalk and Lower Wacker Drive mistakenly installed one too many.[…]
‘’Fifteen thousand people live in that neighborhood. You had people coming off the riverwalk expecting to be able to cut under Lower Wacker and, instead, they were running into this wall. That extended their commute home by five or 10 minutes,'’ said Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), who drove to the scene to eyeball the mistake before demanding that the Department of Transportation remove the panel.
* Chicago Neighborhood Hit by Mortgage Loan Fraud
* ‘Transformers’ take over Michigan Ave.
* Soldier Field has interest in hosting Big Ten title football game
* Durbin meets with Illinois farm chief
The Illinois Farm Bureau president met there recently with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Durbin’s office says the two talked about homegrown biofuels and tax credits for biodiesel and ethanol.
* Practicing ‘inclusivity’ at the U of I
It may be too early in the debate to condemn the University of Illinois for firing an adjunct professor whose orthodox Catholic views on homosexuality deeply offended some of his students. But the university’s action against religion professor Kenneth Howell certainly bears more, and careful, scrutiny.
* Not-so-free exchange: The church, the academy and the issue of homosexuality
The University of Illinois finds itself embroiled in an entirely avoidable debate over academic and religious freedom.
* U. of I. to review Catholic instructor’s firing
A faculty group at the University of Illinois’ flagship campus will review the decision to fire an adjunct religion professor for saying he agreed with Catholic doctrine on homosexuality.
* Cheng foresees furlough days
CARBONDALE - Despite precautions taken to fight a lack of timely state funding, SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng told the Faculty Senate on Tuesday that some furloughs will likely still have to happen.
“Even with our savings and the 4 percent reductions, we still do not have enough to support our budget next year,” Cheng said.
* Teens hit the books to get ahead with summer school
[T]oday, many students choose to hit the books in June and July so they can rack up extra credits — for a fee — or learn the ropes before starting freshmen year. High schools cater to the new type of teenager with an array of college-prep courses.
* To cut gridlock, drivers should pay for fast lane, new study says
* Wild bash, tragic end
‘’Based on the investigation conducted by this department, it is determined that Salgado’s death was caused by drowning with no indication of the drowning to have been caused by or at the hands of another,'’ according to the report.
* Mayor says Blue Island not to blame for wild party
The city of Blue Island bears no responsibility for last month’s drowning death of a Calumet Township trustee at an after-hours party on park district property, Mayor Don Peloquin said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
* Dead body ruins fun for public officials
As a columnist, I like elected officials throwing after-hours parties in public buildings where women get naked, people get drunk and a couple is seen having sex in a shower stall.[…]
Of course, when a dead body is found the next morning, all of the fun suddenly becomes deadly serious and extremely embarrassing.
* Will Blue Island officials take honorable stand?
The issue: In Blue Island, public officials and employees, using public facilities at public expense for private debauchery that led to tragedy, have been exposed.
We say: It’s time for those responsible to stand up and be counted.
* State continues Southland nursing home shutdown
Though a Southland nursing home is back in compliance with recent care violations, state health officials said Tuesday they are still pressing ahead with license revocation based on a history of substandard care.
* End the denial. Chicago street gangs in the suburbs.
* Dist. 203 treats construction crews to lunch
Naperville Unit District 203 provided a free lunch for construction crews Tuesday in hopes of showing its appreciation for striking workers who returned to the job.
* Aon buys Hewit for $4.9 billion, expands dramatically
Hewitt, based in Lincolnshire, is one of the world’s biggest human resources consulting and outsourcing companies with over $3 billion in annual revenue.
Hewitt, which employs roughly 4,500 people in the Chicago area and 23,000 globally, will be merged with Aon subsidiary Aon Consulting. Aon Corp. employs 36,000 globally, including 6,300 at its Aon Consulting unit.
* Suburbs consider merging firefighting forces
The adjoining suburbs of Alsip, Chicago Ridge and Oak Lawn in recent months have signed on to a study by the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus that explores the feasibility of merging some function of their fire departments or consolidating them into a single fire protection district.
* Schaumburg makes camera opt-out official
Though there was already little doubt about Schaumburg’s negative stance on Cook County’s proposed red-light camera program for the suburbs, village officials Tuesday felt it important there be no doubt at all.
* Tinley Park may pull out of county plan for red light cameras
* Zoning board hears debate on W. Chicago prayer center
History may be a hard thing for leaders of the Islamic Center of Western Suburbs to overcome in their effort to seek permission from DuPage County to convert a house into a prayer center.
* Dist. 26 considers another $2 million in budget cuts
Cary Elementary District 26 will explore closing a second school as it works to cut $2 million from its 2011-12 budget.
* County board questions higher sales tax’s effect on kids
Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter said he wants the school representatives to come back with a clearer plan for how improvements to area schools will improve children’s educations.
* 14 years after power market reforms, still few options for homeowners
More than a decade after Illinois changed the way electricity is sold in the state, business customers have more alternatives to traditional utilities than ever, but similar choices have failed to develop for residential users.
* Our View: Morrissey right to shine light on police discipline
We applaud Mayor Larry Morrissey’s decision Monday to release the results of a Police Department internal investigation of officers Oda Poole and Stan North in the Aug. 24, 2009, shooting death of Mark Anthony Barmore in the basement day care of the Kingdom Authority International Ministries Church.
* Boone County’s budget may get second look
BELVIDERE — Boone County departments are on the road to experiencing cuts, either self-inflicted or those forced by the County Board.
* Peoria police will roll out anti-crime strategy to curb violence
* McLean Co. starts search for administrator
* Central Ill. company dumps manure without permit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined the Greenville Livestock Inc. $40,000 last Friday for not following the Clean Water Act when it discarded animal waste.
* Army Corps considering coal ash to fix levees
The corps announced the plan last month, touting the injection of a slurry of water, coal ash and lime into 25 miles of slide-prone levees in 200-mile stretch of the river from Alton, Ill., near St. Louis to tiny Gale on southern Illinois’ tip as the cheapest, longest-lasting fix among several options it weighed.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 10:05 am
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Previous Post: *** UPDATED x1 *** This just in… Quinn pulls election-year stunt, deletes party ID laws
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If nearly all Americans will have health insurance by 2010, why do Cook County taxpayers have to support Cook County hospital? Is the assumption that the national health overhaul will still produce many residents who need the services of a free public hospital, even in a hospital-rich area like Cook County? And if so, why.
I wish the current planners well in their efforts to reduce the large pools of political hacks working currently in the Cook County hospital system, hacks who perform not medical but “administrative” services, and perform them badly. Haven’t we been trying to close Oak Forest hospital for years and years? Every Democratic poltician in town will be trying to stall the
de-politicization of hospital hiring. In could take centuries.
I suppose it’s possible that the hospital could develop a specialty in care for low-income illegal immigrants, those who can’t get health insurance through employers or through the insurance pools, which, I believe, are barred to
non-citizens. But if that is what we will be supporting with our hundreds of millions in tax monies each year, at least there should be an open discussion of the plan. If given their druthers, Cook County Democrats would be happy to shove that issue under the rug, just as long as they get to keep their huge “patronage pools” of underqualified and overpaid “administrative” staff in the system. Whatever it costs. It’s not their money, after all.
Comment by cassandra Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 10:38 am
Sorry, I mean, by 2014.
Comment by cassandra Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 10:39 am
When Carol Marin says we should end the denial about street gangs being in the suburbs does she mean places like Maywood, Cicero and Harvey, or does she mean like, you know, “the suburbs”?
Comment by Scooby Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 10:39 am
When Carol Marin says we should end the denial about street gangs being in the suburbs does she mean places like Maywood, Cicero and Harvey, or does she mean like, you know, “the suburbs”?
Well… there are street gangs in both “types” of places that you mention, so I am not sure what your point is.
Comment by dave Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 10:45 am
There are gangs, of sorts, in the suburbs. Even in the more affluent ones. I recall growing up in the 90s there was a once a year pilgrimage of the inner city gangs to the suburbs to slap around the suburban gangs just for fun.
Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 11:01 am
John B.
Please don’t post things like “growing up in the 90s”. It makes my rheumatism flare up!
Comment by Way Way Down Here Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 11:32 am
Who’s in denial about gangs in the suburbs? Drugs are big business.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 11:41 am
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/13/news/economy/illinois_debt/
CNN compares Illinois to Greece
Comment by Opa! Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 1:25 pm
Scooby, Des Plaines and Evanston are not what you would call
low income suburbs. but there are big gang problems in these
suburbs and others.
Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 4:44 pm
@Army Corp of Engineers - “Army Corps considering coal ash to fix levees”
What are they planning to do with all the toxic metals embedded in the ash they plan to put right next all that water?
The article basically says the Army Corps’ plan is “don’t worry”.
Comment by Not Not Steve Jobs Wednesday, Jul 14, 10 @ 9:20 pm