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Morning Shorts

Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009 - Posted by Mike Murray

* Is Dept. of Juvenile Justice Letting Grant Money Slip?

* Report hits state’s emergency preparedness following H1N1 mess

* 1,200 people get H1N1 vaccine after restrictions lifted

* Everyone now eligible for H1N1 vaccine

* Ill. State Police probe deadly hostage standoff

* Mayor Daley gets thumb-drive from La Rabida Children’s Hospital

* Let me ask you this question in writing

Carol Marin, our town’s journalistic triple threat (WTTW-Ch. 11 moderator, WMAQ-Ch. 5 investigator and Sun-Times columnist), yesterday called out Chicago Department of Revenue Director Bea Reyna-Hickey for refusing to sit for an on-camera interview about parking ticket revenues.[…]

Instead, Marin wrote, Reyna-Hickey agreed only to respond to questions submitted in writing:

* CPS board may tighten expense account rules

Chicago School Board members will decide Wednesday whether to dump their $24,000-a-year receipt-free expense accounts — tabs once likened to “slush funds” — in favor of submitting receipts for all work-related expenses.

* Sneed

Memo to Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown: Sneed hears judges are complaining next year’s 2010 court calendars, which are necessary for scheduling purposes — are two months late!

* Scott crossed the line in conflict of interest

Government, to be effective, must be trusted by its citizens, and it earns that trust by avoiding even the appearance of insider collusion.[…]

That’s why “The Watchdogs” story in Monday’s Sun-Times about the late Chicago School Board President Michael W. Scott’s ties to a multibillion-dollar lakefront project was troubling.

* Chicago Police Board fires cop in bartender attack

* Chicago charity: Chicago Youth Programs needs donations to help mentor students from preschool through college

More than 90 percent of its youths have avoided school dropout, teen parenthood and delinquency since 1999

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* Panel: Great Lakes not losing extra water

* Cold weather can mean frozen pipes in Illinois

* Cash-strapped towns look for ways to save

* From coffee to cops, finding ways to save

* Schaumburg residents oppose $24 million tax levy

* District 300 sets $6 million target for budget cuts

* Oak Lawn approves 2010 budget

* Tinley Park tax levy, abatement approved

* Parents ‘ecstatic’ as students return in SD 144

* Mokena requiring employee health care contributions, offering buyouts to save cash

* New superintendent appointed in District 135

* Sangamon board asks to delay mandatory drug court creation

* Council approves sales tax increase

6 Comments

- OdysseusVL - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:04 am:
That Cook County calendar story would not be a big deal but for the fact that County employees are off on just about every “holiday” that can be dreamed up. In Fed Court, they don’t have to worry about those things because the court holidays are the obvious ones. In State? Different matter completely. The real problem is not a lack of calendars but of a county that caves in too much on time off.

- Ravenswood Right Winger - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 10:04 am:
Would the Cook County GOP have a chance if Dorothy Brown wins the Cook County Board President’s nomination in the Dem primary? This kind of incompetence, combined with the gift scandal, would be campaign fodder, no?

- Anon and on... - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:01 am:
@ RRW

Don’t think the calendar story will have any real “legs” that would carry it into the general election. That said, I would cross party lines and vote Republican if she were able to win the primary. Brown is a nutter who used to have “praise dancing” at her office functions…pretty bad for a lawyer not to understand the principles of separating church and state. I’m sure the media will pick up on far more interesting scandals if she actually prevails.

- wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:07 am:
–Chicago School Board members will decide Wednesday whether to dump their $24,000-a-year receipt-free expense accounts — tabs once likened to “slush funds” — in favor of submitting receipts for all work-related expenses.–

Are you kidding me? What possible rationale can there be for $24,000 expense accounts for school board members?

- Phineas J. Whoopee - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 11:51 am:
Word, I have to disagree with you about Chicago School Board members having to justify their expenses. We live in a time where we should trust our public officials to spend our money wisely and not nickel and dime them and waste their valuable time with reports when they should be working for the kids.

BTW, how do I apply to be a school board member?

- cassandra - Wednesday, Dec 16, 09 @ 12:00 pm:
Sigh. Isn’t it time for the head of Juvenile Justice, a Blago appointee, and his management team to go? Last week we read about poor conditions in theses facilities and Quinn’s reluctance to let a team of reporters in to see the facilities and talk to the kids.

Now, we learn of the agency’s lackadaisical attitude towards money. Why bother filling out theose grant forms if you know you’ll keep getting those six figure salaries and perks no matter what you do. It’s not rocket science. It’s laziness and lack of accountability. And it’s typical of patronage bureaucracies all over the world.

Quinn can’t bear to fire anybody, we know, but
he seems to have plenty of money for soft landings for Democrats. Is that trade job still open?

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