Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* 4 charged with digging up, dumping bodies at Burr Oak Cemetery

As many as 300 bodies were unearthed and dumped in a mass grave as part of a scam that netted the workers about $300,000, authorities said Thursday.

The empty graves were resold to unsuspecting families for cash — off the books, authorities said.

“There should be … a special place in hell for these graveyard thieves,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who appeared with authorities at a press conference at the cemetery Thursday.

* Jail moves to protect cemetery defendants

The four cemetery employees charged in the alleged scheme to dig up bodies at Burr Oak Cemetery and illegally resell their grave sites have been moved into a special section of Cook County Jail to avoid serious injury from other inmates, Sheriff Tom Dart said this morning.

“These people need to be put in a special place because there is the strongest possibility of serious injury if that doesn’t happen,” he said. “We jumped on that right away.”…

Former cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49, foreman Keith Nicks, 45, and dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks, 39, all of Chicago, and back-hoe operator Maurice Dailey, 59, of Robbins, were each charged with dismembering a human body, a Class X felony. All face up to 30 years in prison.

Towns’ bail was set at $250,000, the others’ at $200,000. Towns was placed in the psychiatric wing of Cermak Hospital. “We’re concerned for her based on a psychiatric evaluation,” said sheriff’s office spokesman Steve Patterson.

* Cemetery Investigation To Last Months

* Families rush to site of disturbed burials

* Families anguished at finding bodies dug up, headstones gone

* Exclusive: Emmett Till’s casket left to waste at Burr Oak

Broken. Rusted. Battered. The image of a glass-covered casket with the body of Emmett Till was shown around the world in the 1950s. But on Thursday, as hundreds of African Americans searched frantically for the graves of love ones, the battered casket of Till was rusting in the back of a shack at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip…

“When we opened it up trying to find what we have, a family of possums ran out,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Cemetery workers had been cooperative and informed law enforcement officials that it was indeed Till’s original casket.

“It sure looks like all of the photos I have ever seen,” Dart said. “This is absolutely horrible.”

* Ex-Daley aide pushes back against inspector general

Tristan’s lawyer, William Coulson, sent a letter Wednesday to the mayor in which he defended Tristan’s conduct and suggested Inspector General David Hoffman violated a federal court’s wishes and a city ordinance by making his investigative report public.

“Mr. Hoffman’s report is, in my view, shockingly deficient in both factual support and analysis, and falls far short of the high standards which the citizens of Chicago should expect from the Inspector General,” Coulson wrote to Daley.

Various city employees who also were mentioned in Hoffman’s report have hired a lawyer and separately asked a federal court judge to remove Hoffman’s report from the public file.

The unidentified employees want the report sealed, Hoffman and other city employees barred from making any more comments about it, and future reports by Hoffman that recommend employee discipline to be filed under seal.

* Pick outsider as personnel chief

Here are a few suggestions for the mayor as he considers Tristan’s replacement:

• • Pick a professional with no deep political ties. We’re not saying all top city professionals need to be free of politics, but if you want this post to have credibility, pick an outsider.

• • Hire someone who understands that the federal court order on city hiring means what it says. When an alderman sends a letter advocating for a city employee, it’s time to pick up the phone and inform the federal hiring monitor — not ship it along to the city’s legal department to see if it absolutely, positively has to be reported.

• • Select someone who understands the best way to end the costly federal monitoring of the city’s hiring is to work with the federal court monitor, not around her.

* City job headed down the tubes

The Daley administration moved Thursday to fire a $91,008-a-year plumbing inspector caught doing a side job with no permit, city license and without signing a secondary employment form allowing him to perform the work.

The violations were particularly egregious because Kendrick was assigned to a task force that busts people for working without permits.

On Thursday, Kendrick was placed on administrative leave pending termination proceedings. The fact that he allegedly asked Water Management investigators for city-owned parts — lead packs and copper — to repair the broken pipe did not factor into the decision.

“It’s not that we’re making light of that. It’s just that we have enough to fire him without delving into that,” said Buildings Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey.

* Radical School Reform Model Showing Results

* Inflating test scores just misleads public

Daley said 69.8 percent of Chicago elementary students passed their 2009 state exams.

There’s just one problem: That’s not correct. It’s actually 67.5 percent — 2.3 points lower than what Daley and CPS’ leaders announced. This is the real number, the one that goes on the state report card.

There is a logic to using two numbers, but CPS and Daley didn’t explain it, preferring to highlight the higher number in their press release, which is what many reporters and the public rely on. The higher number, you see, excludes Chicago students still learning English. The lower number includes them.

* Mayor urged to quit over health insurance

* Kane County DUIs: Cops seek tough penalty when suspects refuse tests

* ‘Chicago Gardens’ exhibit see artists’ visions in full bloom

* State fire marshal warning on smoke detectors

* New O’Hare runway prompts noise complaints in Park Ridge

* There’s an app to teach you CPR

posted by Mike Murray
Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:16 am

Comments

Tom Dart continues to do his job exceptionally well, taking on important issue. Great work Sheriff Dart!

Comment by Hair today, gone... Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:36 am
I for one am happy that the Inspector General is going after Daleys cronies who dont follow the law and then lie about it to cover up their wrong doing. Maybe this will show some of the other cogs in the machine that the old ways of doing things arent going to be tolerated anymore.

Daley lying about test scores next he will be denying he knows white guys from Bridgeport that he grew up with that get caught getting minority contracts, or saying he doesnt know how a gang member with a ged ends up running the hired trucks program. Chicago doesnt deserve the olympics. But Daley is a gold medalist in corruption and deciet.

Comment by fed up Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:46 am
Does Dan Hynes have some responsibility as Comptroller regarding Burr Oak? I thought the Illinois Comptroller is empowered to shut down, fine and oversees Illinois cemetaries, right?

What was going on at Burr Oak that his office didn’t catch in time?

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:49 am
I’m not positive, VM, about his responsibilities here, and rather than go off half-cocked like some I’m trying to get more info about where that responsibility begins and ends.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 9:54 am
Kass mentions in his column this am about Hynes not being at the press conference. His office stated that it was an “oversight” that he wasn’t.

I’ll have to read it again, but I think the comptroller regulates Funeral Homes, but not cemetaries. There is a difference.

Comment by How Ironic Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:35 am
VM,

The comptroller has authority over privately owned cemeteries that offer pre-paid funeral services. I don’t know if Burr Oak provides those services but, if not, Hines has no authority over them. I seem to have read somewhere that the comptroller has no authority over Burr Oak but can’t remember where I read it.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:37 am
In a tv interview this morning, Dart said that barbers and hair dressers are more licensened than cemeteries.

Comment by Hair today, gone... Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:46 am
Oof, madon, this Burr Oak thing is a lurid mess. And it’s obviously been going on for quite some time in plain sight to everyone in the neighborhood.

Before we try to pick the political winners and losers, let’s clear up the mess in a solemn, respectful and timely manner.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:52 am
That’s the real story, here, wordslinger. Who knew what and when did they know it? It seems hard to believe that this was happening on the scale that it was and no one outside the 4 in jail knew what was happening. Time will tell. Dart/law enforcement ain’t done with this.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 10:56 am
on last night’s CBS 2 Chicago report, Zekman said that there were 20 complaints to the Comptroller’s Office about the cemetery in question. And that those complaints were referred to the cemetery to handle.

whether or not the Comptroller’s Office has some powers to investigate, that approach to handling complaints sounds just plain stupid. 20 complaints referred back to the problem, a letter from a sad mother of a buried child left unanswered (from a Lauren Jiggets NBC 5 Chicago story the day before) and, from the Kass column today that Hynes vowed to do something about cemetery problems.

i’d say Hynes has a problem.

Comment by Amy Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:03 am
Burr Oak Cemetery is now getting national attention. The Southtown Star (South side of Chicago paper) is running heartbreaking stories from relatives. CLTV news is too. All the local news are constantly interviewing CC Sheriff Tom Dart, who seems to be at this cemetery a lot as of late.

Homewood Memorial Gardens, far south on Haltsted had some problems very recently yet another Cook County Cemetery with problems

Roland Burris should be concerned about his tombstone at Oak Woods, also in Southern Cook County.

Comment by Third Generation Chicago Native Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:03 am
Vanilla Man
Seems like Dan Hynes was contacted about Homewood Gardens Cemetery issues less than a month ago, seems like the Southtown Star got heavily involved there.

Comment by Third Generation Chicago Native Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:05 am
From the Comptroller’s web site:

Welcome to the Cemetery Care & Burial Trust Division of the Illinois State Comptroller’s Office. Though most often associated with the state’s fiscal matters, a lesser known function of the agency is our oversight of the cemetery and funeral home industry.

Nothing more is written to clarify this statement, and it leads us to believe that the Comptroller is responsible. If this is not true - the Office needs to tell their own staff, because it is Hynes’ own staff that provides the content to this decidedly obsolete, decade-old web site. (It is the old Didricksen website, with a color and photo change. Gee, do they have a webmaster?)

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:18 am
Way back when, Hynes made a big deal of volunteers from his campaign helping to clean-up cemeteries around the state - literally pulling weeds, etc.

That said, I believe Tom Dart is correct when he said recently that there is more regulation of barbers and hairdressers than there is of cemetery operators.

Funeral directors and embalmers are licensed by the Dept. of Professional Regulation, but there is no licensure requirement of cemetery operators that I’m aware of, and Hynes’ function is limited to ensuring that they have sufficient assets to provide promised care in perpetuity — atleast as far as I know.

Comment by Yellow Dog Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:34 am
VM,

I looked at the FAQ section of the comptrollers website and read the following:

=The Illinois State Comptroller’s Office is responsible for the oversight of those active, privately-owned cemeteries and funeral homes which sell pre-need goods and services. Other cemeteries and funeral homes, including family burial grounds, those with religious affiliations, and those owned and operated by municipalities, along with those businesses that do not sell on a pre-need basis, are outside the jurisdiction of the Comptroller’s office.=

That means the the Burr Oak cemetery would come under the jurisdicton of the comptroller’s office ONLY if they offer pre-paid funeral programs.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:37 am
VM,

I would add that the website is like so many others at the state. Looks good, hard to navigate, provides little actual information.

That I had to find the above info on the FAQ section proves it.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:39 am
So the Comptroller’s web site is both right and wrong?

Why am I not surprised? What a crappy old website.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 11:39 am
Hynes has a problem. The Comptroller’s Auditors visit this cemetery at least once a year. I guess the last several years the grounds looked just fine!!! And…Great Leadership as far as not passing any meaningful regulatory oversight over the last several years if Dart’s reports are accurate. This story has legs. Hynes stays as Comptroller to spend more time with his young family. Kiss Governor Good Bye!!

Comment by anon Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 12:18 pm
I now have a Hynes cemetery post up. Please go there to comment.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jul 10, 09 @ 12:21 pm