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* Ending jail STD tests could save county $800,000

* Whistleblower cites OT scam, patronage hires at Cook County Detention Center:

One supervisor who was a friend of former County Board President John Stroger got kickbacks from staffers for whom the supervisor arranged unearned overtime and from outside contractors he took to the center, the suit alleges. The supervisor had staffers set up nonprofit companies to give him kickbacks, the suit said.

* Guv announces $2 million package to build wind towers

* A detailed look at the lottery RFQ

* State fear new federal Medicaid cuts:

Illinois public hospitals could lose $623 million annually, including as much as $235 million for the Cook County hospital system, under a change to Medicaid rules being pushed by the Bush administration, state officials said Wednesday.

* Chopping into Forest Preserve: “[Stroger] wants to take 25 percent of the Forest Preserve’s operating budget to fix 2 percent of the county budget deficit,” said Benjamin Cox of Friends of the Forest Preserves. “Is it worth it?”

* Blagojevich, Schwarzenegger to announce energy pact

* McQueary: Tantrum over spanking, right or ruthless?

* Tow truck firms get $1,000+ for cars

* Mary Mitchell: Under Stroger’s proposed cuts, the poor are sacrificial lambs

* Sun-Times Editorial: Daley should flunk the test rigger

* Sun Times: Stroger, cut the irresponsibility

* ‘Very disturbing’ patterns in school closing

* Public school graduates promised free Illinois Central College education

* Area snack plants hoping for Super payoff

* New Labor director, Catherine Shannon, wants to be out front

posted by Paul Richardson
Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 7:28 am

Comments

You forgot this headline…

Fitzgerald Giving Nation’s Capital a Rare Taste of Justice

http://patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com

Comment by PJF Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 8:26 am
Jays Potato Chips or as the former Vice President and Indy resident might opine Jays Potatoes Chip
http://www.jaysfoods.com/ is the pinacle osurce for fine face-filling fare - and Fort Wayne offers jars of pickled oprah I mean okra?

Comment by Pat Hickey Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 8:45 am
Sorry Paul - fingers greasy from my breakfast of Champions - Stewart’s Key Lime Cream Pop and two-bit bags of Jays from County Fair; hence, my granite abs and marble pects! Eat Smart Illinois!

Comment by Pat Hickey Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 8:49 am
I hate to keep bringing this up but all children, including illegal immigrant children, in Illinois have access to free or very low cost health services via a state medical card (Allkids) which covers preventive care including school physicals. Yet Ms. Mitchell and others keep giving the impression that thousands of little children will have no health care if the Cook County health system budget is cut. Completely untrue. Cook County is awash in underutilized hospitals and clinics including two hospitals (with associated primary and specialty clinics)
dedicated to children only—Children’s Memorial and Comer (U. of Chicago). The fact is, for kids anyway, we don’t need Cook County Hospital any more. And that’s good–for the kids and for the people who have to fund Cook County Hospital.

The adult population is more complex. But the truly poor and the disabled have Medicaid and the elderly have Medicare. They have a choice in their care and Cook County has a lot of hospitals and clinics. There is a state funded pool for those who are ill and can’t get insurance. And for young and middle aged healthy adults, private insurance is relatively cheap.

What Mitchell and others seem to be saying is that if you live in Cook County you shouldn’t have to pay anything for health care if you don’t want to. A sort of mini universal health insurance, with even the wealthy receiving totally free health care regardless of cost, as frequently occurs. And if somebody from a distant country wants to fly in and get his open heart surgery at Cook County Hospital, well, that’s free too. The voters didn’t vote for universal health care in Cook County. But that’s what we got.

And then there are those poor prisoners. They already get free food, clothing, housing and education in Cook County Jail, and they get expensive free medical care as well. I guess Illinoisians like to provide excellent services to their adult felons (the Juvenile Home is a separate story of Democratic corruption) and that’s fine, but providing excellent services would be a lot cheaper if more of them were placed on home confinement or other supervision in the community where they could work for some of these goodies.

If we are going to have universal (and I mean universal–free care for the world) health care in Cook County, shouldn’t we at least have a chance to vote on it.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 8:54 am
“* Ending jail STD tests could save county $800,000″

Is there anything about the Toddler’s budget cuts that does not scream of pennies saved in the short-term at the cost of big dollars in the long-term?

Every time he opens his mouth, he proclaims his complete and utter ignorance of how government he is in charge of works.

Comment by So-Called "Austin Mayor" Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 9:10 am
Mary Mitchell’s fine column today is another piece of great writing made possible in part by the incredibly shortsided and mornoic decision of the Sun-Times editorial board to endorse Toddler for County Board President. I am still waiting for any member of that board to do the honorable thing and resign their job as partial penance for this plague they helped to unleash upon their readership.

Comment by fedup dem Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 9:44 am
The vice president of sales and marketing at Pretzels Inc. is really named “Chip Mann”?

Talk about finding one’s niche in life.

Comment by Ivory-billed Woodpecker Thursday, Feb 1, 07 @ 12:11 pm