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…I suspect indictments are going to come down pretty soon [for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich], and this is a soap opera with sort of sporadic episodes, and there may yet be more. Maybe not so much Burris, but Blagojevich will be back.

* Lenders get bailouts, then want renters out

You might remember the story as well. The banks loaned money to a Romanian con man named Mihail Stancu, who had pretended to convert the Albany Park building to condominiums, in essence selling the seven unimproved apartments to himself before fleeing the country with more than $1 million in profits gleaned from the mortgages.

It was exactly the kind of mindless lending that put our country in its current straits, albeit compounded in this case by outright fraud.

And ever since, the seven families who live in the Spaulding building have been paying the price for someone else’s foolishness. The banks keep trying to throw the families out — using both legal and extra- legal means to accomplish their aims — despite a court order specifically granting them permission to stay.

* Food pantry demand: West Side church serves more and more

* Unemployment sends people back to class

With Illinois’ unemployment rate at a 26-year high of nearly 8 percent, more people are turning to technical schools and community colleges to learn new skills.

Spring 2009 enrollments are at near-record levels, up 3.1 percent statewide. LLCC’s increase is about 5.3 percent, and other community colleges are showing even more dramatic spikes. Enrollment at Rend Lake College, near Ina in Jefferson County, has risen 20.6 percent, while Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg is up a whopping 31.4 percent.

* Some in Posen fear they’ll never get another mortgage if I-294/I-57 plan goes through

The Tollway will help property owners with relocation, which “may include help in locating a replacement building, payment of moving expenses and costs, mortgage or rent assistance, and other financial assistance,” according to Tollway regulations posted on its Web site.

* Illinois Poverty News Weekly

* Airline revenue fell 19% in Feb: group

* Gary Airport Pushes Ahead

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn plans to move quickly in building a third Chicago area airport in far south suburban Peotone.

And that could mean a real blow for the Gary airport which has been struggling.

* When a no-tax pledge isn’t a no-tax pledge

Suburban members of Congress who voted this week to raise taxes on big bonus recipients at AIG say their votes in favor of that hike do not violate their pledges to never raise taxes. […]

And the taxpayer group behind the pledge, while opposing the tax hike on bonuses, indicated it did not consider such votes a violation of the signed pledge.

* Legislators decry use of foreign steel in Granite City

* Secure Energy Seeks Federal Loan Guarantee to Begin Work on Coal Gasification Project

* State dedicates $40 million more for Illinois colleges

* CHA Gets Stimulus Money

The Chicago Housing Authority is getting $143 million from the federal stimulus package. It’s money CHA says may help finish renovations that are behind schedule.

* Pension fund for CPS axes 2 managers

* Impact of Joliet casino fire unknown

The smoldering, Egyptian-themed casino was closed after the fire and did not immediately have a reopening date, according to Penn National Gaming, the Wyomissing, Pa.-based parent company of Empress.

The Empress employs more than 800 workers, and after the nearby Harrah’s Casino, the Empress is the second largest single taxpayer to the city of Joliet. In February alone, the Empress paid $837,000 in casino taxes to the city and more than $1.8 million to the state.

* Casino workers await word on future

* Daley, Weis intrigued by security guard proposal

* Daley OK with giving private security guards city ticket-writing authority

* Daley pulls 16.1% raise for cops

With tax revenues plummeting, the Daley administration has pulled off the table an offer to raise the salaries of Chicago Police officers by 16.1 percent over five years, according to City Hall sources.

* Chicago’s ‘green’ promise fades

Buying carbon credits fights global warming only if they help finance new sources of renewable energy, such as new wind turbines, energy experts said. Yet 87 percent of the credits Chicago has purchased sent money to a wood-burning power plant that has been operating for nearly two decades.

* Food deserts will bring Daley back into Wal-Mart battle with unions

* Metra service: Why Metra is riding slow train to future

Metra runs on paper, as in paper tickets. Although the majority of riders use monthly passes, passengers in January still bought more than 666,000 one-way tickets or used 10-ride tickets, which conductors have to punch individually.

* Transit trolling: RTA chief on fare hikes; parking contract going out for bid; beware Red Line bandit

* Chicago 2016: As IOC visit nears, protests getting louder

* Daley’s official gift logs don’t include trips, free meals

Instead of providing the Board of Ethics with a list of gifts, though, Daley tells the board a “mayoral gift log is maintained in the mayor’s office and is available for public inspection.'’

But those logs are far from complete, a Chicago Sun-Times review has found, failing to disclose all of the gifts Daley gets.

They don’t, for instance, include any of the trips Daley has gotten from various organizations. Or any of the free meals he has eaten. Nor do the gift logs even list the birthday and Christmas presents he has gotten from his staff since 2005.

“The staff? We almost view that as a family gift to him,” Daley press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said.

“He has to record everything that’s considered a gift,” Heard said. “What you consider a gift and what we consider a gift are two different things.”

* Don’t wreak havoc: Landmarks law works

* Jurors Consider Mail Fraud Against Sanchez

* Ex-assessor candidate charged with perjury

Eugene Kryczka, former candidate for Antioch Township assessor, has been charged with five counts of perjury for filing candidacy petitions that included 50 false signatures.

If convicted, Kryczka could face up to five years in prison. He was released from Lake County Jail after posting 10 percent of a $30,000 bond.

* Melrose Pk. mayor in heated race for 4th term

* Sheriff, SEIU make calls in Orland Township race

* DNC pays city for Obama’s celebration

* Dental Neglect: Illinois’s Oral Health Care Shortage

There’s a little-noticed public health crisis brewing in Illinois. It’s not especially sexy, but it’s serious. It’s connected to life-threatening ailments, nutrition and even job prospects… The problem is access to dental care. Illinois has the third largest underserved population in the country. The few clinics that treat poor people are overwhelmed. Now they’re bracing for a new flood of patients, as more people lose their jobs.

* Illinois nursing homes tops in younger mentally ill

* If you’re jealous of that hair

posted by Mike Murray
Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 9:40 am

Comments

Fraud? In the mortgage industry? I’m shocked! Shocked!

Here’s a theory for you.

The reason the financial sector wants to unload the “toxic assets” without auditing the contents is simple.

The financial companies suspect/know that these portfolios are full of fraudulent loans.

The big financial sector companies weren’t victims of fraud, it was a major part of their business model.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 9:52 am
“Schakowsky: I haven’t received a solicitation. It must have gotten lost in the mail.”

DING!

Comment by Levois Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 10:10 am
–Chicago’s ethics ordinance prohibits the mayor and other city officials and their immediate family members from taking any gift worth more than $50 from anyone doing business with City Hall.–

Quite possibly the least enforced ordinance in Chicago ever?

Daley’s arrogance grows every day. He’s not even trying to live up to the letter of the law, and his flack dismisses it with contempt.

Will we ever see the day the IRS takes a crack at this guy?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 10:22 am
Jan Schakowsky knows about indictments. and she should keep this in mind as she evaluates a run for U.S. Senator. don’t think that we have forgotten Bob Creamer’s time in the Federal Pen for actions with a group with which Jan had deep interactions. we need a clean break from unethical dealings.

Comment by Amy Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 10:25 am
Quinn is off-base on this airport thing. The whole idea is deranged. Destroy thousands of acres of valuable farmland far away from human habitation, while undermining the viability of existing infrastructure and wasting taxpayer dollars that could have been used to better connecting impoverished South Side communities with that existing infrastructure.

Or to rephrase it in words short enough to fit into a gubernatorial soundbite, “use the ‘third’ airport dough to build a fast rail line linking the South Side to Gary, Midway and O’Hare, instead of paying for sprawl that won’t help South Siders and will drive up food costs.”

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 10:37 am
I don’t suppose the ‘book of gifts’ was maintained in the mayor’s office so they could see who (emphasis on who) was wanting a peek at it, eh?

Comment by Belle Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 10:59 am
“and will drive up food costs”

If you’re going to argue against the SSA, there are enough legitimate reasons without going here about a few thousand acres of land. I remember my school bus rides as a kid picking up the farm kids in Cook County. None of the farms are there any more, and the US is producing record amounts of grain with better productivity.

The fact is, you could pave over the remaining farmland in the collar counties and it wouldn’t register a blip in food prices. The US is only about 3% urbanized. I will say that eastern IL has some of the best black dirt for farming when it is well drained - Drummer silty clay loam is the best. Maybe the airport developers (if it’s built) should be made to strip off the A horizon soil and ship it to Southern IL, where it could turn marginal farmland into a high producer.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 11:00 am
I heartily endorse the idea of moving as many peopla an possible out of nursing homes into community-based residential programs. The quality of life is much higher in the community setting and its much cheaper than institutionalization. some people are too compromised by thir mental illness to live semi-independently. The nursing home industry lobby opposes community-based mental health care for selfish economic reasons.

Comment by Captain America Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 12:57 pm
Food bank usage may be up but an astonishingly high percentage of those using food banks are not receiving food stamps, although they would be eligible.

State welfare offices should provide a computer terminal and outreach workers to all food banks so that clients can simultaneously receive food packages and initiate applications for ongoing food stamp relief.

That’s probably too much of an effort for our ossified Illinois state bureaucracies, I would guess.

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Mar 23, 09 @ 3:51 pm