Rumors are circulating that Andy McKenna may be looking to jump into the race for Governor. The former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party would join a crowded field.
I asked McKenna about those rumors last week and he said he would be helping other candidates…
Former Cicero Town President Betty Loren Maltese is out of prison and living in a halfway house in Las Vegas.
Loren Maltese was released from a federal prison in California yesterday after serving six-and-a-half years. She and other Cicero public officials were convicted of ripping off the town for millions of dollars in an insurance scam.
Loren Maltese will stay at the halfway house for several months. In an early 2008 interview , she said she would “never go back to Cicero.”
* Still think that federal campaign rules are the way to go? Really?
Over the past five years, Rep. Bobby L. Rush has spent more than a tenth of his campaign’s receipts on the church he founded, a tidy tithe totaling $152,777.
It’s an example of how the campaign finance system allows candidates and office-holders to redirect funds to institutions they care about.
Gov. Pat Quinn today announced he’ll order the troubled state-run Howe Developmental Center closed.
The Tinley Park center is home to about 250 developmentally disabled clients. Quinn’s predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, last year ordered the facility be shuttered after getting pressure from advocates for the disabled who blamed more than two dozen deaths at Howe on neglectful treatment there.
The center lost its federal certification in 2007 because it failed to meet basic standards, which meant Howe also lost all its federal funding.
* WTTW’s Chicago Tonight hosted a panel discussion about old and new media last night. I was invited, but couldn’t attend…
Part of the show was based on the Community Media Workshop’s latest study of Chicago and Illinois blogs. Several political blogs were included, big and small, except for this one. Not sure why.
