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* Gery Chico’s appointment to chair the state board of education was held up in the Senate yesterday…
Based on issues raised by a Texas blogger, Senate Republicans put the brakes on Quinn’s appointment, asking that Chico personally appear before a Senate panel to explain his relationship with Save A Life Foundation, a charity that is undergoing a probe within Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office.
“To me, this is the biggest non-event there could be,” Chico said when asked about the wrinkle in his confirmation. “I’m happy to come down there and answer any questions.”
The Senate won’t take up Chico’s confirmation until, at the earliest, October, when lawmakers reconvene for their fall veto session. Chico can serve as the board chairman until he’s confirmed.
“No one is accusing him of anything, but if something comes up, you want to resolve it,” said Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), the ranking Republican on the Senate Executive Appointments Committee. “Without him here, we can’t answer those questions.”
Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) said he “absolutely” favors Chico’s appointment. The head of the Senate appointments panel, Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago), said he did not believe Chico’s nomination is threatened but was willing to accommodate Republicans so they could ask questions of Chico, who was not required to attend Wednesday’s hearing.
* Save a Life Foundation was built on a lie and the group’s founder lied to everybody about just about everything. For instance, founder Carol Spizzirri said she started her organization after her daughter was killed in a hit and run accident and the police responders didn’t know emergency first aid. Turns out, that wasn’t true. Her daughter was allegedly drunk and flipped her own car. She didn’t die at the scene, according to an I-Team report.
Spizzirri claimed to be a nurse. Not true, either. She claimed to have taught nearly 70,000 children how to save a life in Chicago Public Schools in 2006 alone. Apparently not true. The group claimed to have a National Guard contract. Nope. Spizzirri filed defamation lawsuits that failed and her charity closed in 2009.
But before the end came, Spizzirri had managed to dupe a whole lot of people into backing her organization. Click here for a partial list of the duped, which included Mayor Daley. Barack Obama was also a supporter at one time. It got regular grant money from the Center for Disease Control, the state of Illinois, FEMA and others.
* The Chicago Public Schools under Paul Vallas and Gery Chico were also apparently conned. At one point, Chico was listed as being on the group’s board of directors.
Chico flatly denies ever being on the board, and considering that Save a Life was built on a foundation of lies, it’s kinda difficult to believe them and not him. But there is this…
[Chico] appeared at SALF’s “Bridge the Gap” Summit in 2003, where he received a 10th Year Anniversary Award from the organization.
In a news release from that same year, Chico’s wife, Sunny, described her husband as “instrumental to bringing SALF to the Chicago Public Schools” during his tenure there.
* The “Texas blogger” described in the Sun-Times report is Lee Cary, who publishes the SALF Exposed! blog. Cary recently sent a letter to the Illinois Senate Education Committee describing himself as a “writer whose articles have been published by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, the American Thinker, and elsewhere.” He’s quite dogged.
The fact that Chico was conned is unfortunate, but so were a heckuva lot of other people. Unless something else comes out between now and October, he ought to be confirmed.
* Meanwhile, another of Gov. Pat Quinn’s appointments was held up yesterday as well…
Selection of former Democratic state Rep. Mike Smith for the Educational Labor Relations Board also was held in the Senate Executive Appointments Committee. Bivins said Smith’s appointment might violate a requirement that no more than four members of the seven-person board be from the same political party.
Bivins said there also are questions about whether Smith meets statutory requirements that board members have a “minimum of five years of experience directly related to labor and employment relations in representing educational employers or educational employees in collective bargaining.” […]
In Smith’s case, [Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson] cited his 16 years as a member of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, including four years as chairman; 12 years on an appropriation committee for education; and six years on the House Personnel and Pension Committee.
“He was responsible for negotiating with legislators and advocates to make changes to the state’s education labor law — impacting educators and their employers,” Thompson said.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:26 pm
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Pretty shameless of Republicans now given that a number of Republicans pushed Chico for Chicago Mayor. They mostly did it because they hated the idea of Rahm Emanuel, but doesn’t change the fact that a number of Rs openly pushed Chico for a big public office just a few months ago.
Comment by just sayin' Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:34 pm
So Chico thought, mistakenly, he was supporting a group that helped to educate others on life saving techniques…
So his crime was wanting, to support education intiatives which would help save lives… the dastard.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:34 pm
Breitbart and American Thinker as your sources? Not Peabody-winners, are they?
Comment by Newsclown Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:37 pm
Newsclown beat me to it. I’d hide any association I had with Andrew Breitbart.
Comment by Cheryl44 Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:47 pm
Mentioning Breitbart is probably what piqued Bivin’s interest in the first place.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 12:53 pm
a lot of republicans like Dudycyz, Rita Mullins and Ralph Connors of you know the Heartland Institute were on that board too, maybe they should bring Walter and Rita in too………..
also bring in teh Bush folks who invited them to the WH in 2008 too
This knife definitely cuts both ways……..
Comment by I'm Just Saying Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 1:15 pm
Rich:
That’s an impressive list of otherwise savvy politicians who, according to you, were “duped.” On what basis did you arrive at that conclusion?
Also, does it concern you that none of the allegedly “duped” pols (on both sides of the aisle, by the way) have called for investigations?
Investigate what? According to this October 11, 2009 Tribune article, IL and federal taxpayers appear to have their pockets picked of “at least $8.6 million in federal and state grants”: http://bit.ly/dxcTSp
Also, regardless of where the Texas blogger publishes, he clearly cares more about what appears to be a massive Illinois fraud then the knuckleheads who posted the above derogatory comments about him.
CF
Comment by Check Factor Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 1:16 pm
=== On what basis did you arrive at that conclusion?===
LOL. You really think that all those folks actively participated in scamming local, state and federal governments? Truly?
Is that incredibly goofy question why you are using an untraceable IP address?
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 1:21 pm
Also, the Illinois attorney general is investigating. You act like nothing’s being done.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 1:22 pm
It must be exhausting to spin a con like that SALF deal. She sure had a lot of folks lined up, though.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 1:22 pm
It’s really pitiful how low politicians sink. Not so much that I’m surprised, just always befuddled at the lack of shame.
Comment by D.P. Gumby Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 2:06 pm
Sounds like this was something more along the lines of Mark Kirk.
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 2:45 pm
The CON we should actually be concnered about is one the GA participated in with eyes wide open…STAR bonds….
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 3:09 pm
“…for a partial list of the duped, which included Mayor Daley.”
It’d be interesting if Daley (and others) wrote a book some day about all of the “organizations” that duped him–how–and what the short and long-term effects were.
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 3:22 pm
===is being duped a defense ? ===
Being duped means they were a victim. You want to start punishing victims?
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 3:50 pm
Published on Breitbart’s Big Government? I’d take “SALF Exposed” with a Mount Everest of salt, especially considering that there was major fraud with many victims going on here, not some concerted let’s-make-it-look-like-we-did-work-for-a-charity scam on the part of politicians.
Comment by precinctcaptain Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 4:01 pm
Mr./Mrs./Ms. Concernedcitizen, stuff happens sometimes. If it was just one person who was duped, you might have a stronger case.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 4:15 pm
@ precinctcaptain
Yes, your liberal friends also came out of the gate disparaging Breitbart’s expose of lefty Congressman Wiener’s Twitter scandal. Turned out Weiner was the liar and Breibart was right.
Come up with a valid refutation of the charge, then I’ll listen.
Comment by Conservative Republican Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 4:56 pm
Is “that all we’ve got”?
I don’t know. I think Chico’s destruction of a large Chicago law firm when he was managing partner is a pretty big problem.
But hey, state government here is the haven for unemployed and/or unelected Democrats. That’s Chico’s real qualification.
And once Debbie Halvorson gets her state job, will there be any unemployed Democratic politicos left? If not, then Governor Quinn will have to be forced into hiring real people with real credentials to manage state government agencies. Heaven forfend…
Comment by Conservative Republican Thursday, Jun 23, 11 @ 5:00 pm
Concernedcitizen: What about Annabel Melongo?
Ms. Melongo recently “celebrated” her first year anniversary as a prisoner awaiting trial in Cook County Jail on a $300,000 bond. The charge? Allegedly recording and uploading to her website two benign phone conversations with a Cook County Clerk of Courts.
Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez, who was apparently close to Save-A-Life Foundation’s Carol J. Spizzirri (the fake nurse, etc.), is overseeing the prosecution.
The story has only been reported by a few blogs, one of which was written by Texas writer Lee Cary.
Here’s a list via a Google search: http://bit.ly/m4q76t
Here’s Ms. Melongo’s inmate page on the website of the Cook County Sheriff: http://bit.ly/irlJiI
Note that the next court date is blank.
Comment by Alvarez is out of control Friday, Jun 24, 11 @ 8:50 am