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* The Kankakee Daily Journal’s managing editor was upset with yesterday’s piece slamming the paper’s coverage of how a prominent local businessman was indicted on five counts by a federal grand jury.

You’ll recall that Michael J. Pinski, a bigtime Kankakee developer and owner of a major title company, was indicted for his alleged direction of a scheme to strip one of his buildings of asbestos and then dump it in an open field in Hopkins Park, a nearly all-black, totally poor town in Kankakee County.

One of the things I chided the paper for was publishing just four paragraphs on the story. They actually published a few more than that in theIR dead tree edition, but in none of those grafs is it made clear that Pinski is a major K3 wheel. The paper also provided no context at all about the dumping site’s long, sad history. The additional paragraphs are, in reality, just background material and filler. Here’s the rest of the article…

Pinski hired O’Malley in August 2009 to remove the building’s pipe insulation, which contains asbestos.

For years, asbestos was used in insulation and in fire-retardant products. However, it was discovered that inhaling the fibers is not only dangerous but can be fatal –resulting in lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.

But O’Malley wasn’t trained in asbestos removal, according to their indictments. O’Malley then hired Mikrut to recruit and oversee the five workers who removed the asbestos between Aug. 15 and Aug. 20, according to their indictment.

Mikrut and another person, who is not named in the indictment, drove a dump truck Aug. 23 to a field in Hopkins Park and dumped about 127 large garbage bags of the asbestos insulation into a field, according to the indictment. Soil in that field became contaminated with asbestos, prosecutors contend. Mikrut and Pinski also are accused of telling a state EPA inspector in September 2009 that they didn’t know anything about the removal.

Pinski and Mikrut will be arraigned July 15. O’Malley pleaded not guilty June 11 after he was arrested, according to court records. His next hearing is July 29 in Urbana, with a trial set for Aug. 16.

Each of the seven charges is punishable by up to five years in prison and fines totaling up to $250,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not disclose the indictments until Monday, although U.S. Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal on June 11 ordered the indictments unsealed, court records show.

Like I said, not much there. No context about Pinski or Hopkins Park. Not even a sidebar. And, since Wednesday, no follow up story, either.

I’ll be in Hopkins Park this weekend to check things out for myself. In the meantime, this one is for the K3 Daily Journal folks and all their fine, upstanding townie friends…

And it’s up against the wall, redneck mother

Too much? OK, maybe, but whatever. They are what they are.

And go Sox.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 25, 10 @ 7:15 pm

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