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Illinois

* A look at spending differences in statewide races

* A look at Ill. congressional campaign finance reports

* Statewide Democrats blank their opponents with money, new records show

* Davlin far ahead of Strom in funding - Mayor has more than seven times as much as opponent

* Joe Mysak: States Should Follow Illinois, Get Out of Gambling

* Editorial: Sale of lottery won’t be a big winner for Illinois

* Chief Justice Roberts says judges should be judges, not statesmen

* Mayoral foe Brown pitches sales tax holidays - Says benefits to small businesses would offset cost

* Biggest contributor giving mayor, wife a lift to Miami

* Simpson: Why Dorothy Brown would make a good mayor

* Berrios named county Dem chief - Challengers step aside for first Hispanic in post

* Cell-phone charges: Let the buyer beware

* Firing range scare leads to increase in safety - Stray bullet nicked state police cadet back in November

* Top 10 Treo Accessories

* Payment is issue in fired state workers case - Governorâ€™s office not paying firm that probed hiring procedures

* Businessman admits cheating IDOT, other government agencies

* Editorial: Pandoraâ€™s box

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:23 am

Comments

Soooo, . . . some cold weather. Yep, . . .s’cold.
Bears game Sunday. Paul’s busy . . . Soooo, gotta go, good talking to you. Bill around . . . no - probably going to the game. Later.

Comment by Pat Hickey Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:31 am
HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!

Comment by Bill Murray Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:32 am
Bill Murray says…

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!

Comment by Bill Murray Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:33 am
Bill Murray says…

Bill Murray says…

HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!

Comment by Bill Murray Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:34 am
Thanks. I meant the real Bill.

Comment by Pat Hickey Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:34 am
hmmm, this seems vaguely familiar. where’s punxsutawney phil?

Comment by bored now Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:37 am
Good Morning,Pat!
Has anyone else noticed the severe dropoff in quality of the Morning Shorts, this morning?

Comment by Bill Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:48 am
Bill, you’ve got about ten minutes to answer my question from yesterday.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:51 am
Bill,

You mean that ‘the’ cog in the wheel of this State’s Executive Branch is not allowed down in Florida with all the other branches of State Government? Thanks be to God! Illinois Resurgam!

Bill’s at the wheel.

Hey, is Dick Simpson a hoot or what? I no longer miss ‘Willie and Ethel” that those Limey dopes at the Sun Times dropped from the Funnies.

Comment by Pat Hickey Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 8:56 am
It’s fine that the auditors did a great job uncovering contract fraud at IDOT but why wasn’t somebody monitoring the contract in such a way as to prevent the fraud from occurring in the first place. Why did it take from 1997 to now. It doesn’t sound like Shah was using innovative hithero unseen methods to bilk the state. Where were the contract monitors? Were they knaves or fools?

Ditto KKBio, the contractor which shut down hastily last month ahead of a law enforcement investigation into billing fraud. KKBio did drug testing of DCFS clients, allegedly billing for tests it din’t perform. The contract has been in effect for 15 years. Where was the DCFS contract monitor? Again, knaves or fools?.

I’d have to guess fools. Instead of going all out to dumb down the Illinois state civil service, maybe it would be worth it to pay a little more (yes, I’m actually saying this) and get people with real qualifications and creds (like maybe, they have to sit a truly competitive examination) to monitor these contracts. Do something for the taxpayers for a change. Save us some money.

Comment by Cassandra Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 9:09 am
So Ald. Isaac Carothers is now a “co-vice chairman” of the Cook County Democratic Party. Perhaps that will make him a big enough fish for the US Attorney to reel in now.

Comment by fedup dem Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 9:39 am
Cassandra -

Here’s something for you to chew on.

Shah Engineering was a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE). Most of the engineering firms who have run afoul of the law in recent years have been DBE firms. The state requires a certain percentage of the work in large contracts to be subbed out DBE firms, and the list of qualified DBE firms is relatively small. The list of honest, hardworking DBE firms is somewhat smaller, and they stay busy for obvious reasons. The irony is that in order to keep their DBE status, these firms have to not be too successful (to reinvest or distribute profits to keep the owner’s net worth down) or to hide the money (which is illegal).

The reality is that the larger engineering firms, and IDOT themselves, have their hands tied to a certain extent because of the goals that are in place, and it is hard to get a firm disbarred until the problem has gotten so out of hand that everyone knows, including the auditors. And the other issue that you allude to is that IDOT has not kept pace with private sector pay since the early 1990’s, and there has been a massive brain drain of the best, most experienced people exiting to the private sector, who could help put a lid on some of this stuff.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 9:58 am
Simpson being granted tenure at UIC is even more absurd than giving Billy Ayers a lifetime job at the trough he tried to destroy for all those years. What are they thinking?

Comment by Bill Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 10:31 am
Check out Shah Engineering on ISBOE.

http://www.elections.state.il.us/CampaignDisclosure

Some interesting hits under “Shah, M” and “Shah Engineering” as “Last or Only Name” but the real juice is from Shah employees: “Search Contributions” qualified with “Employer: Shah Engineering”. A quick search reveals $18K or so since 2004.

I guess several staff member from Shah got to know Blagojevich a little bit from working closely on their state contracts and decided he was their kind of guy and were moved to express their First Amendment rights to political expression.

Not mentioned in the SJR article.

Comment by Hugh Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 10:33 am
Bill,
That was during Stanley Fish’s tenure as leader of UIC. Stanley is unreadable as a litereary critic, but a snappy dresser. Hiring Bomber Billy and Hyde Park Dick must have been coupled to the Big Fish - he and his old lady,Jame Tompkins, also a Reader-Response critic, cost the State a Lung! Old Alderman Dick, he kills me.

Comment by Pat Hickey Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 10:50 am
Does Dick Simpson truly believe that Dorothy Brown will hold Mayor Daley to under 50%? I am glad he has found a candidate to support but the election is 25 days away and whatever she does now is too little too late.

Comment by paddyrollingstone Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 11:11 am
From the SJR:

As part of his plea deal, Shah has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

[U.S. Attorney Rodger] Heaton said his office would speak with Shah to determine how widespread the scheme was. If any other companies or individuals “deserve our attention, they’ll receive it,” he said.

Comment by Hugh Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 11:18 am
Nice caddy, Rich, your dad seems to be “on a mission from God”, all he needs is the black hat and sunglasses now… and to fix the lighter

Comment by Gregor Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 12:50 pm
Casandra-my only obervation is if this big brain that our govenor has created is causing these problems why have most of these firms been on the payroll since the mid 90s. we got rid of them you hired em.

Comment by anon again Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 4:29 pm
Wouldn’t it be spectacular is Da Mayor passed the hat amongst da Bears fans at the game for a contribution to the Florida Red Cross, as a gesture towards the other big story today. Nineteen dead and many, many homes wiped out. Gives one pause to think about all the hoopla, doesn’t it.

Comment by Disgusted Friday, Feb 2, 07 @ 11:10 pm
mDZEpHzsQUJhaYcOX

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 31, 07 @ 4:56 pm