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Quinn abolishes scholarships as feds look at Sen. Collins

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Illinois

* Gov. Pat Quinn held a press conference today to sign the legislative scholarship abolition bill into law. From a press release…

Governor Pat Quinn today signed a new law abolishing the century-old political scholarship program in Illinois, one of his ethics reform goals since taking office. The Governor proposed to abolish this troubled program in 2009, 2010 and in 2011, and worked with the General Assembly to get it done this spring. Governor Quinn is committed to increasing college scholarships to students with merit who are in true financial need as well as restoring integrity to state government.

“There is no place for political scholarships in Illinois,” Governor Quinn said. “I believe in the power of education, the importance of ethics and integrity, and the idea that you can get ahead in life with a little hard work. That’s why today I enact this long-overdue reform and redouble our efforts to increase scholarships for deserving college students.”

Raw audio of Quinn’s announcement…

Click to download

Raw audio of the Q&A…

Click to download

* Coincidentally, or not, the Sun-Times splashed a related story today…

The U.S. attorney’s office has opened a criminal investigation into a series of legislative scholarships awarded by state Sen. Annazette Collins — marking an expansion of a federal probe into the scandal-tainted tuition-waiver program.

The Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday obtained a copy of a June 1 federal subpoena issued by then-U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office that seeks an array of records regarding the waivers the West Side Democrat handed out during an 11-year career as a state representative and senator.

The query follows Sun-Times reports in March about a series of questionably legal waivers Collins gave to five students who listed her former home as their official residence even though some had driver’s licenses or voter registrations linked to addresses outside her district. State law requires that legislative scholarship recipients reside in the awarding lawmaker’s district.

Reached Tuesday evening, Collins referred questions about the matter to her attorney, Michael Monico, who maintained his client’s innocence.

“This is a grand jury matter so it’s really not for us to comment on it at this point. We don’t believe that senator did anything criminal or that would arise to a federal criminal violation,” he told the Sun-Times.

The subpoena delivered to Collins’ district office asked that she “produce all information” concerning her “procedures for the establishment, awarding and operation of the Illinois General Assembly Scholarship” program.

Oof.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:00 pm

Comments

It’s about time. As district office staff I always dreaded the selection process. The legislator I worked for was a former teacher, and I’ll never forget getting calls from individuals who wanted to apply for “that scholarship Boland gave to teacher’s children” as it was described to me on a number of occasions.
This legislative waiver program should have died at least a decade ago, but better late than never!

Comment by Mike Huntoon Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:28 pm
hard to believe, but years ago blacks did not receive athletic scholarships at the U of I and were rarely played. one chgo legislator, rep corneal davis, approached new football coach Elliott w a proposition. he offered to deliver the Wendell Phillips high school championship backfield to him using legislative scholarships he harangued colleagues to help him with. they went to the rose bowl (davis oral history p. 211)

not enuf to justify the program today. just a footnote.

Comment by langhorne Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:29 pm
PQ uses Hand-Out Andy and Dick Simspon, father of the corruption data base that shows 99.95% are honest to promote himself. BTW there are reports Hand-Out Andy’s crew of fundraisers are working on more tuition waiver reporting. Yawn.
Did anyone check the ISBE FOI website to see if they posted new fed requests?

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:33 pm
Can someone please help me understand the feds’ jurisdiction in this issue? Might they be investigating alleged wire or mail fraud? Because if the feds are examining whether a state program was abused by state officials, it seems like this could have been more appropriately prosecuted by a state’s attorney or might be one of the few times the AG’s statewide grand jury powers were legitimately needed.

Anyone?

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:39 pm
At a time of economic struggle for many families, the State abolishes a program that helps kids go to college. Instead of fixing the problems with it, they throw the baby out with the bathwater. Yet give millions to the Stock Exchange and Sears.

Comment by Casey Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 12:51 pm
=== Can someone please help me understand the feds’ jurisdiction in this issue? ===

I’m just shooting from the hip here… I really don’t know for sure, but I imagine the Feds, by default, have jurisdiction (along with the Illinois AG and State’s Attorneys) over all state and local public corruption. Most (or many) public corruption cases throughout Illinois have been brought by the Feds. I don’t think they need to have a nexus to some sort of federal law (e.g. wire fraud, postal fraud, etc.). But maybe I’m off on this.

Comment by Just Observing Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 1:04 pm
Perhaps you should start a corruption feed on the right hand side and the state gop should start a counter on days since the last democrat alderman/county commissioner/state legislator was convicted/investigated/indicted the way the rooftop ussed to keep track of years since last cubs post season/pennant/world series.

I’ve lost track, in the last 2 years have there been more springfield/cook county/or city democrats indicted/convicted/investigated by the us attorney?

Comment by Shore Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 1:05 pm
The Feds act because it would never enter the AG’s
mind to do so,so its a mute question.Thank God these political scholarships are gone.

Comment by mokenavince Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 1:38 pm
–PQ uses Hand-Out Andy and Dick Simspon, father of the corruption data base…–

C’mon CFC — doesn’t Simpson rate a nickname?

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 2:01 pm
These scholarships should have been stopped years ago. What about the free tuition state college employees get for their family? Talk about a BIG perk that the state colleges cannot afford except by increasing the tuition for non-employees.

Comment by Mayor Rich Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 2:22 pm
I have no problem with the state employees getting a break for their children. It helps attract talent that otherwise would not want to live in that bustling metropolis of Urbana, DeKalb, Carbondale, Charleston, Bloomington or Macomb.

Comment by Casey Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 2:25 pm
I think there are plenty of people who want to live in those “bustling metropolis’” without the need to bribe them with free scholarships.

Comment by champaigndweller Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 2:51 pm
I’ll give you Champaign, but have you been to the rest? Bloomington is one big stretch of khaki pants and chain restaurants, while Carbondale is literally hours from anything else.

We keep hearing about running goverment like a business - well, this is the employee discount.

Comment by Colossus Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 4:47 pm
I’m with 47th and JO. When I worked for the state I watched state deputy directors lie to the feds and intentionally violate federal cooperative agreements, grant programs, and contracts. When someone would question this wrongdoing, the agency deputies and director would retaliate and AG Madigan would defend (and continues to defend) the perpetrators. I’m curious what the feds are doing with Rep. Collins and why.

Comment by Crime Fighter Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 4:50 pm
CFS, even you should know better than to assert that the US Attorney requests information via FOIA.
It’s not like a few of those haven’t come over your transom.

Comment by J. Edgar Hoover Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 4:58 pm
In a rough econonmy, of course “someone” will take a job working in a poo-dunk college town. However, if you want to compete with Northwestern, U of Chicago, etc. for top academic talent, a perk like free tuition for the children is a big help, especially since the state school cannot compete salary-wise with what the Chicago schools can pay.

Comment by Casey Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 4:59 pm
Rep Collins got on the wrong side of Jesse White - that is where her problems stem from.

Comment by Casey Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 5:00 pm
–Rep Collins got on the wrong side of Jesse White - that is where her problems stem from.–

Jesse White has tumbled the Justice Dept? I doubt it.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 5:30 pm
Jesse has been around long enough to have connections at all levels.

Comment by Casey Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 5:49 pm
“so its a mute question”

Moot. The question is moot. Perhaps the only useful thing Jesse Jackson has said since 1980.

“especially since the state school cannot compete salary-wise with what the Chicago schools can pay”

And if they can’t offer free tuition–like NW and UofC do–much less the reciprocal free tuition to other private schools (see, eg, this: http://www.economist.com/node/303697 ), then how can they possibly compete for the best younger faculty without *KNOWING* they will jump ship when Prof.Jr. gets to high school? It’s $40,000 of (likely tax free) bonus income.

Comment by Chris Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 5:56 pm
@Casey-

I like Annazette, but it seems her problems stem awarding
Scholarships to people who were not eligible.

Moreover, if you believe nothing else that Derrick Smith says, believe him when he says that the feds would happily cut a deal with him if he has dirt on Jesse White. Which, clearly, he doesn’t.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Jul 11, 12 @ 11:03 pm