By Steve Rhodes
“I wanted to share with you the latest investigative project from my undergraduate journalism students here at Columbia College,” our old friend and Chicago Talks co-founder Suzanne McBride writes. “Eleven seniors and one junior in my Honors Seminar spent the last three months examining the century-old legislative scholarship program, conducting more than 250 interviews.
“They uncovered some interesting facts in their survey of all 177 legislative offices and in interviews with more than 60 students who’ve received the scholarships. Some of the students talked about doing campaign work, while others had to register to vote – a practice called illegal by one constitutional lawyer.”
The series – comprised of eight stories – ran Dec. 8-10. Here are the highlights.
*
“The Illinois General Assembly scholarship doesn’t work like other scholarships,” Chicago Talks reports.
“Some students win it because they have the right connections. Others don’t face much competition for the award – a year of free tuition at one of 12 public universities in Illinois. And several recipients don’t even meet the one requirement of the state’s century-old scholarship law – residency in the district of the lawmaker who gave them the tuition waivers worth thousands of dollars apiece.
“A three-month investigation by a team of Columbia College Chicago journalists done in collaboration with Illinois Statehouse News found repeated instances of scholarships being awarded to campaign donors, politically connected families and, in at least one instance, a lawmaker’s relative. The journalists also identified five legislators who require scholarship applicants to register to vote, a practice one constitutional lawyer called illegal.”
*
“Kelly Durkin of Downers Grove, who received a year of free tuition in 2008 to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Westmont), said she found out about the program from her dad, who learned about it through her uncle, Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Countryside).”
*
“Chicago resident Megan Dunne, a recipient of four consecutive scholarships, said she was asked by someone in Rep. Edward Acevedo’s (D-Chicago) office to make calls for donations. Dunne, along with a friend and fellow recipient, agreed.
“‘They were soliciting people to call to try and get sponsors and stuff like that,’ Dunne said. ‘We both owed that to them.’
“Dunne received a scholarship for three consecutive years at University of Illinois at Chicago and just received her fourth for Eastern Illinois University in 2008, after transferring.
“Acevedo did not respond to calls requesting comment.”

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Posted on December 14, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
As the Reader’s Mick Dumke points out in “Alexi’s Albatross,” state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias continues to be dogged by his association – and performance – with his family’s Broadway Bank. The ambitious upstart overcame questions about Broadway to win statewide office in his first foray into politics, but those questions continue to loom over Giannoulias’s run for U.S. Senate. Let’s take a look at Dumke’s piece – which also illuminates Giannoulias’s relationship with Barack Obama – to find out why.
*
First, about that first run. How indeed did an unknown capture the treasurer’s office in his first race?
“Four years ago Giannoulias was a 29-year-old officer at the bank, and known in political circles – if at all – as the guy who’d helped Barack Obama raise lots of money in the Greek community. Then Obama paid Giannoulias back, endorsing him in TV spots that propelled him to a come-from-behind win in the 2006 Democratic primary for treasurer.”
He raised a lot of money for Obama, that’s how. Pure and simple.
*
“After graduating in 1998, Alexi played pro ball for a year in Greece, then enrolled in law school at Tulane. His JD in hand, he returned to Chicago and took a job as a loan officer at Broadway Bank. Within two years he’d been named senior loan officer and a bank vice president.
“It’s not clear what responsibilities came with these titles. He’s said that as VP he oversaw all of Broadway’s lending – but he’s also said he was really just the guy who serviced the bank’s loans – overseeing things like billing and payment collection – while more senior officers, including his older brother Demetris, negotiated the deals and made the final decisions. When I pressed him to specify his job descriptions at each stage of his employment at the bank, he laughed.
“‘You have to understand that it was the family business – I did everything there,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I was a teller and sometimes I serviced loans – whatever we needed’.”
It was a family business. Giannoulias got his job through old-fashioned nepotism. His description of his duties will become more important as we go along.

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Posted on December 10, 2009

From The Beachwood Good Government Press Release Room
CHICAGO – A citizens’ movement to “Take Back Illinois” launched today with the Illinois League of Women Voters, Better Government Association, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, and other reform groups at the helm, including former members of the Illinois Reform Commission.
The partnership unveiled its plan for a petition drive to empower voters to change the state’s redistricting process with an amendment to the Illinois Constitution. “The Illinois Fair Map Amendment will take unfair politics out of the redistricting process and put the power in the hands of the people,” explained Jan Czarnik, Executive Director of the Illinois League of Women Voters.
According to data obtained at the State Board of Elections, since the current legislative map was drawn by legislators in 2001, incumbents have won their elections at a staggering 98 percent success rate.

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Posted on December 3, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
“Schools close, violence spikes.”
Sound familiar?
Now consider: That was the headline on a Sun-Times story from 2006. That’s right. Three years ago, the Sun-Times pinned a rise on school violence on the mayor’s Renaissance 2010 program, then being implemented by Arne Duncan.
Reading the paper’s 2,500-word examination now is stunning in its resonance to recent events. And it puts Duncan & Co. on the spot.
The article isn’t available online (naturally), so I’ll be generous with excerpts here.

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Posted on December 2, 2009

By The Beachwood Parking Bureau
Be extra careful this year of the city’s winter parking rules, which went into effect at midnight. There are a few new twists.
* Any car parked anywhere overnight in the city during the winter is subject to booting depending on an algorithm involving the city’s cash-on-hand.
* Cars with snow on them will be considered a safety risk and in violation of the new rules and be towed. Cars with frost on them will just get a ticket.
* If you voted against the mayor, you will be ticketed.
* If you opposed the Olympics, you will be ticketed.
* If your alderman is Joe Moore, you will be ticketed.

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Posted on December 1, 2009

By The Beachwood Block 37 Affairs Desk
“Block 37 wants to open by Thanksgiving.”
And we’ve got the exclusive list of stores, offices and attractions you can expect to see.
1. The Invisible CTA Superstation. Watch – or don’t – as invisible CTA train cars whisk invisible travelers to O’Hare on important invisible trips.
2. The Block 37 Haunted House. Stocked to the brim with decades of failed plans for Block 37.
3. Walmart Outlet Store. Staffed by a single worker – Ald. Anthony Beale – whose (on-the-clock) hours are kept to 39 a week.

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Posted on November 4, 2009

By The Beachwood Chicago Flag Committee
Next year Richard M. Daley will celebrate the milestone of serving as our mayor for longer than his father, and in so doing become the longest serving mayor in Chicago history. The crash and burn of the Olympics bid should not deprive him of his right to a legacy. There’s still time to secure a place in history other than mere longevity. Ald. Ed Burke thought the Olympics would merit a fifth star on our flag. Here are some suggestions from our crack staff on how Richard II can earn that star all on his own.
1. One year without a student dying from a handgun blast.
2. One year in which 90 percent of Chicago high school students graduate.
3. One year in which 75 percent of Chicago high school students go on to college.

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Posted on October 23, 2009

By Christopher Flavelle/ProPublica
On Thursday, the government released a flood of data about the stimulus, showing how 9,000 federal contractors spent their stimulus dollars – including the value of the contract, each project’s status, and how much each of the contractor’s five highest-paid officers were paid.
But when it came to presenting that data, Recovery.gov, the government’s official site for stimulus information, highlighted one number in particular, posting it on the site’s main page in large font: “JOBS CREATED/SAVED AS REPORTED BY FEDERAL CONTRACT RECIPIENTS: 30,383.” To make extra certain of getting viewers’ attention, the number itself appears in bright green.
As the economy continues to shed jobs, it’s easy to see why the administration is keen to highlight the number of jobs created by the stimulus. When the numbers were released, Jared Bernstein, the administration’s chief economist, said the job count “exceeds our projections,” adding that it supported the conclusion “that the Recovery Act did indeed create or save about 1 million jobs in its first seven months.”
But do the 30,000 jobs represent a good return? And since the federal contracts for which data was reported this week represent just a sliver of the overall stimulus package, what do they really say about the impact of the stimulus as a whole?

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Posted on October 19, 2009

By Sam Singer
For most of us, the Sixth Amendment represents the familiar proposition that we have a right to a competent criminal defense. In its plainest form, we picture a lawyer who will fight vigorously to keep us out of prison, and if he can’t, then at least to make our stay as short and comfortable as possible. We don’t ask more of the Constitution because we don’t need more; generally, the legal consequences of criminal prosecution end with an orange jumpsuit.
Not so for Jose Padilla. When he pleaded guilty to a drug charge, his prison sentence was a secondary concern. More important for Padilla, a Vietnam veteran and lawful U.S. resident of forty years, was his lawyer’s assurance that pleading guilty would not subject him to deportation. When it turned out his lawyer was wrong, Padilla sought relief in the Kentucky courts, arguing that he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. In denying his claim, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Sixth Amendment does not contemplate the “collateral consequences” of a conviction. Having examined the direct consequences of his guilty plea, the court explained, Padilla’s lawyer had no obligation to warn him that pleading guilty would automatically trigger his removal.
On Tuesday, Padilla asked the Supreme Court to reject Kentucky’s narrow interpretation of the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel. He contends that the right is not fixed in scope, but that it expands and contracts with the objectives of the client. As a non-citizen, Padilla wanted reliable advice about the immigration consequences of conviction before entering a guilty plea. Had he received it, he would have bargained for a conviction that would not trigger deportation. Failing that, he would have gone to trial, where the government had the burden of proof and he had a fighting chance.

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Posted on October 16, 2009

By The Beachwood Public Affairs Desk
While we certainly want to see a public option make its way back into health care reform legislation, we don’t want to see the public option movement stop there.
* The Parking Meter Public Option. For those who don’t want to pay a private company to park on public streets.
* The Aldermanic Public Option. For those who don’t want to pay a privately funded and controlled local representative.
* The Congressional Public Option. For those who don’t want to pay privately funded and controlled national representatives.

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Posted on October 15, 2009