Morning shorts
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray
* Illinois prisons: Low-level inmate is killed by cellmate with violent past when Illinois prison officials OKd housing them together
Joshua Daczewitz was a first-time inmate at a minimum-security prison when he tested positive for cocaine.
So corrections officials transferred the pudgy, bespectacled Daczewitz to one of the state’s toughest prisons as punishment and put him in a cell with Corey Fox, a lifer in for murder.
That turned out to be a fatal mistake.
With a history of violence even behind bars, Fox had been locked up alone for a year not long after pummeling and threatening to kill a cellmate and confessing to his desire to kill again. Yet after Fox was transferred to Menard Correctional Center in late 2003, several staffers at the maximum-security prison cleared him to share a cell with Daczewitz.
* Chicago parking meters: Firm admits it wasn’t ready
LAZ Parking, a company that does business in 16 states and brings in more than $200 million annually, was poorly prepared to take over Chicago’s parking meters when the handoff from the city took place Feb. 13, the firm acknowledges.
It relied heavily on mall security guards and workers from a temporary job-placement agency — all with no experience in the parking industry — to reprogram the city’s approximately 36,000 meters and change over the decals that provide drivers with rates and rules, company officials said.
But LAZ did not have nearly enough of the hand-held devices that shoot an infrared beam to reset the meters so that they provided the correct amount of time for each quarter inserted into the coin slot, according to workers hired for the task.
* Chicago parking: Drivers gamble, lose over broken meters
* Investment bank chairman James Tyree putting together bid to buy Sun-Times Media Group
“My premise is that the papers have great content. It’s content that people want and they find valuable,” Tyree said. He said the challenge is figuring out how the company can operate on revenue that’s still falling from heydays of more than $400 million a year. In 2008, the company’s revenue was $323.8 million. Like other newspaper companies, Sun-Times Media Group has struggled with declining advertising income as business and some readership moves to the Internet. But circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times has held steady or increased while other major papers declined.
Tyree said he expects the company will be sold via the bankruptcy proceedings within 60 days. The company’s biggest creditor is the Internal Revenue Service, which alleges it is owed $608 million. Bankruptcy could induce the IRS to settle for whatever a buyer pays.
* Working together more important than ever before
* Sewer projects among most popular stimulus uses for mayors
* Craigslist to meet with state AGs over sex ads
* Normal green-lights street use for electric vehicles
* Pit bull attack: Highland Park mayor renews call for ban after attack
* Halvorson health care bill is only one brick - we need a total rebuild
* Troops give Halvorson message to share
* Edgar staffer to serve on O’Fallon council
- Bill - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 8:43 am:
==Edgar staffer to serve on O’Fallon council==
There goes the neighborhood.
- Johnny USA - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 8:47 am:
==That turned out to be a fatal mistake.==
Agreed. Doing cocaine in prison is *never* a good idea.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 8:52 am:
You’d think the Sun-Times Media Group could make a go of it at $323 million a year in revenues.
It would be nice if the IRS could give them a break on the back taxes they owe through Lord Black of Crosharbour’s crimes. You know he’s got plenty stashed around the world.
It’s still mind-boggling to me that the Sun-Times could owe $600 million in taxes. In their old building, the carpets were worn through to the floor — and the floors were wearing through, too.
- sal-says - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 8:52 am:
“Low-level inmate is killed by cellmate with violent past when Illinois prison officials OKd housing them together”
The ‘decision makers-all of them’ should be fired or in jail or both.
- Leroy - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 8:55 am:
Word - why should working men and women subsidize the Sun Time Media Group’s business?
Isn’t that just corporate welfare? They should pay their tax bill or face the consequences, just like you or me. Unless somehow they are above the law…
- wordslinger - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 9:10 am:
Leroy, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of “corporate welfare.” But come on — in the current environment, the Sun-Times is hardly the poster child for Treasury Raiders.
Maybe the IRS can give them a break, maybe they can’t. Negotiations in bankruptcy situations like these happen all the time. I’m sure the IRS knows their business and how best to maximize the government’s position.
Is it in the government’s best financial interest to force liquidation, throw people out of work, and get X pennies on the dollar? Or, is it better to take X pennies on the dollar and allow them to continue as an ongoing, taxpaying employer? Beats me — I’m sure the numbers-crunchers can figure it out.
I do know they owe the nut to the government because a pompous, supercilious criminal robbed them blind while they were actually making a little money. Perhaps that should be a mitigating factor.
- 618er - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 9:55 am:
“Is it in the government’s best financial interest to force liquidation, throw people out of work, and get X pennies on the dollar? Or, is it better to take X pennies on the dollar and allow them to continue as an ongoing, taxpaying employer? Beats me — I’m sure the numbers-crunchers can figure it out.”
If the Sun-Times Media Group was a taxpaying employer the IRS probably wouldn’t be involved in this. The way I read it if they were paying taxes the IRS wouldn’t have a lien on them, forcing Chapter 11 protection. If they are making money, why aren’t they paying taxes?
- Cassandra - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 9:57 am:
We need to know about the decision to place these two prisoners together. Presumably, given the huge sums we taxpayers devote to the prison system every year, these decisions are made according to protocol. If not, that’s a serious failure ot management. And if the protocol failed, why?
The family of the deceased inmate should sue.
Government bureaucracies in large part exist to protect themselves, and only a lawsuit is likely
to bring out the truth, including malfeasance if there was any.
In the meantime, I wonder why the deceased inmate was in jail in the first place. Illinois is far to fond of the prison alternative to correct illegal behavior. And we are paying billions for that fondness–every year. Highly-paid state bureacrats and prison contracts reap huge benefits from those billions.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 10:03 am:
===If they are making money, why aren’t they paying taxes? ===
1) They aren’t making money
2) They have an old tax bill as a result of a criminal owner who robbed the place blind. Literally.
3) How about paying attention to basic facts and not resorting to silly talking points?
- Nearly Normal - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 10:32 am:
RE: Company taking over the parking meters in Chicago and their lackluster beginning–maybe they should call their company LA-Z for their inepitude in hiring dependable staff. Lack of poor planning may be from their name–LA like in Los Angeles? Could be that California laidback attitude?
- Nearly Normal - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 10:36 am:
I meant to stay “not hiring dependable staff at first.”
C’mon, this is a major city and not having the planning done properly is pathetic.
- Stooges - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 10:38 am:
You know this prison story is a shining example of what happens when agencies are operated by cronies and political appointees instead of people with expertise and training. What a sad case.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 10:57 am:
I’d like a lot more information on this prison case and other cases where there hasn’t (yet) been a fatality or attack. I’d also like to see a lot more interest in stopping prison rape because if the state is going to lock people up, it becomes the responsibility of the state to keep them safe while they’re in state custody.
- Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 11:12 am:
{(2) They have an old tax bill as a result of a criminal owner who robbed the place blind. Literally.}
Do you have a source for the nature of the tax liability owed by the Sun Times? Does the liability arise from the failure to pay income taxes; or have their been payroll taxes due that have not been remitted? Do you know how much of that $608 million is actual tax due, vs. assessed penalty? Under certain circumstances can’t the IRS just seize the assets to satisfy the liability?
The Sun-Times has said it expects its advertising revenue to decline roughly 30% throughout 2009. That follows an 18% drop in print ad revenue during last year’s fourth quarter. Maybe the IRS has decided they don’t want it, and will take far less than full value to avoid doing so.
- Ghost - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 11:34 am:
I mentioned in the past my prediction about the Kibndle as being the possible future for the newspaper industry. Time Magazine has a new article along this same line
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895737,00.html?cnn=yes
- Princess - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 12:57 pm:
Cassandra “In the meantime, I wonder why the deceased inmate was in jail in the first place. Illinois is far to fond of the prison alternative to correct illegal behavior. And we are paying billions for that fondness–every year. Highly-paid state bureacrats and prison contracts reap huge benefits from those billions”.—-
A quick check on old newspapers, Cassandra, reads this guy was not all pure and dandy nor arrested for a minor drug offense. While no one deserves to receive what eventually happened to him and it is totally disgusting he was moved into what became his death situation, people who drive get away cars, arson to homes and robbery/burglary I believe do belong in prison.
- Southern Illinois Voter - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 1:11 pm:
Cassandra, the family settled for $150,000 in a civil lawsuit - read the article.
Doing drugs in prison is a major offense & always necessitates a transfer from a minimum security facility.
I’m sorry this inmate lost his life. I know there are two sides to every story. Just remember that.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 5, 09 @ 2:44 pm:
If doing drugs in prison is a major offense and always necessitates a transfer from a minimum facility, perhaps that is a protocol which should be reviewed. At least some of those prisoners may simply be addicts in need of treatment.
We can’t keep folks in jail forever, except in limited instances. Apparently, the deceased was initially found suitable for minimum security, suggesting that he was also suitable for rehabilitation. Was that happening? We’ll likely never know.
I think the family settled way too low although I understand the reluctance to go all the way to a public trial. But it does seem as if DOC has gotten completely off the hook. What are they doing differently to prevent this from happening again. Has Quinn made any changes at DOC as a result of this disastrous outcome. Or are the Dems (champions of the poor and distressed, they claim) sweeping it all under the rug.
- concerned mom - Thursday, May 14, 09 @ 7:04 pm:
I think those responsible for putting the minimal security child, who cleary had some problems in with the killer who advertised his intentions should now be fed to Mr. Fox, one, by one, by one. Punishment, is one thing. Murder, a whole nother matter. Very sad. First the drug addicts life is ruined for a long long time even if they do rehab. Not to mention the time in prison served. Now, his/her life is ended by a killer with no hope at all……is this a judicial system?,