Crook County at its best

Misspellings, grammar errors put county mag on ice

INDEPENDENT? | $24,999 for 'positive press' for Stroger

July 27, 2008

BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter/mkonkol@suntimes.com

Tired of getting "pummeled by the newspapers every day," Cook County Board president Todd Stroger's administration has decided to counter with a new magazine overseen by county officials.

Publisher/editor Theresa Tracy said Cook County magazine would be "independently published" and a "credible, compelling and valuable resource" for county residents.

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The Stroger administration has decided not to distribute Cook County magazine because of grammatical errors and omissions.

But county officials have the final say on what's published. And Tracy accepted $24,999 from Stroger's administration last November to launch the magazine -- $1 under the amount that would have required the approval of the full Cook County Board.

Tracy said there should be no "perception that we were just a house organ."

But, according to an agreement between the Stroger administration and Tracy obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, county officials were seeking a "non-threatening news environment that ensures regular, positive press -- to counter-balance negative press often found in the mainstream media."

Tracy also agreed to give the Stroger administration final say on whether to distribute the magazine.

County Commissioner Robert Steele, a Stroger ally who's listed on the masthead as "Cook County Board liaison," said Stroger's press office was instrumental in the creation of the magazine.

"The press office looks at it, reviews it and says whether it's the message we want to get out," said Steele, who added that he "referred several ideas to the editor and talked to the press office about whether that's the message we're trying to get out. I'm supportive of it."

Tracy said that initially she "wanted a whole lot more money" for putting out the 32-page glossy magazine but that the Stroger administration said $24,999 was the most it could provide at the time.

"They said, 'If we like the product, we might consider to give you more,' " Tracy said. She said she plans to make the magazine work financially by selling advertising, but the "Spring/Summer" edition includes only three ads.

The cover story is an interview with Stroger that starts by asking him, "How are you feeling these days?" There's also a short obituary for Stroger's late father and predecessor as county board president, John H. Stroger Jr., who died in January. It misspells his name.

The magazine also includes tips on gardening, planning a picnic and getting the proper permits, as well as a recipe for orange crab salad.

But don't expect to get your hands on a copy. Stroger spokesman Eugene Mullins said he has 5,000 copies of the issue in his office -- and that's where they'll stay.

"I was asked to review it and decided not to distribute it -- not because of content, but errors and omissions in the article" about John Stroger, Mullins said. "Judging on grammatical stuff -- something misspelled or that's not a complete sentence -- falls back on the president. And this is a Cook County magazine. I have to find a way to get rid of them. I'm not distributing them."

Another Political hack gone

Emergency director Ruiz moved to tech job

March 28, 2008

Recommend (4)

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

The $162,912-a-year executive director of Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications was kicked upstairs Friday after only nine months on the job amid a blitzkrieg of complaints from disgruntled underlings.

Tony Ruiz, a former lineman for the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation, will now serve as the city's chief technology operations officer overseeing GPS, electronic inventory and biometric systems.

The surprise reassignment comes at a time when 911 center employees have been complaining privately to the Chicago Sun-Times about everything from broken chairs, job application tampering and promotions irregularities to excessive overtime and sexual harassment by 911 supervisors.

Morale reportedly took a further nosedive when Ruiz handed out uneven punishment to a pair of 911 dispatchers accused of failing to notify police about a brawl at a Southwest Side Park last summer. And underlings accused Ruiz of “giving” Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) a $4,000 digital radio so she could monitor snow removal and emergency operations in her ward.

The radio was returned after the Chicago Sun-Times started asking questions.

Ruiz could not be reached for comment about his reassignment.

Hispanic aldermen who have complained about a shortage of Hispanics in the mayor's cabinet were taken aback by the reassignment to an obscure job.

Ruiz will be replaced on a temporary basis by 911 center veteran and technology expert Jim Argiropoulos.

“It bothers the community that we're putting aside talented [Hispanic] people without giving a good explanation. I don't know why he would take on that role when we need him as an individual who can handle so many emergencies we have at the 911 center,” said Ald. George Cardenas (12th).

The shake-up was announced in a press release distributed Friday, when bad news is traditionally buried. In it, Daley tried to put the best face on the cabinet shuffle.

“As part of our commitment to better manage government and protect taxpayers, we continue to identify ways to incorporate management efficiencies into our citywide operations. Having a point-person to coordinate operational uniformity across all departments will help us improve our processes and identify further economies of scale,” the mayor said.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that a pair of police communications operators at the 911 center had raked in $114,591 and $113,136 in overtime last year — double their annual salaries — raising renewed questions about staffing levels that were supposed to be resolved two years ago.

As for the other complaints, OEMC spokesperson Jennifer Martinez said the chairs are being replaced, the radio has been returned and overtime is being reduced. She flatly denied the allegations about hiring and promotions irregularities and alleged sexual harassment.

Supreme Court considers 'right to bear arms'

Landmark case on D.C. ban expected to have major ramifications

WASHINGTON - In a landmark hearing on gun ownership, the Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to endorse the view that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns, but was less clear about whether to retain the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns.

The justices were aware of the historic nature of their undertaking, engaging in an extended 98-minute session of questions and answers that could yield the first definition of the meaning of the Second Amendment in its 216 years.

A key justice, Anthony Kennedy, left little doubt about his view when he said early in the proceedings that the Second Amendment gives “a general right to bear arms.”

Several justices were skeptical that the Constitution, if it gives individuals’ gun rights, could allow a complete ban on handguns when, as Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out, those weapons are most suited for protection at home.

“What is reasonable about a ban on possession” of handguns? Roberts asked at one point.

Justice Samuel Alito, who like Roberts was appointed by President Bush, cited another provision requiring rifles or shotguns be kept unloaded and dissembled or bound by a trigger lock, and said it did not seem as if they could be used as such for the self-defense of one’s home.

The court’s four liberals seemed most sympathetic to the law during the arguments. Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that the District’s public safety concerns could be relevant in evaluating its 32-year-old ban on handguns, perhaps the strictest gun control law in the nation.

“Does that make it unreasonable for a city with a very high crime rate ... to say ‘No handguns here?’” Breyer said.

Bush administration sides with partial bans
Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Bush administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, supported the individual right, but urged the justices not to decide the other question. Instead, Clement said the court should allow for reasonable restrictions that allow banning certain types of weapons, including existing federal laws.

He did not take a position on the District law.

The court has not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The basic issue for the justices is whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns or whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.

The 27 words and three enigmatic commas of the Second Amendment have been analyzed again and again by legal scholars, but hardly at all by the Supreme Court.

The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The court's ruling, expected by the end of June, could have a far-reaching impact on gun-control laws in the United States and could become an issue in the November election.

Wake up and smell the coffee......

Its amazing how people don't see how phony these politicians are.

Obama spurns pastor's 9/11 jibe

Barack Obama has been a member of the church since the early 1990s

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has denounced remarks made by his pastor that the 9/11 attacks were like "chickens coming home to roost".

The Illinois senator said the 2001 comments, which have resurfaced on the web, were "completely inexcusable".

Mr Obama said he had not been present during Rev Jeremiah Wright's sermon, at the Trinity United Church of Christ.

The black Chicago pastor brought Mr Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding and baptised his daughters.

Mr Obama, a member of the church since the early 1990s, posted a blog on the Huffington Post about his relationship with the pastor, who is now retired.

"I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies," he wrote.

'God damn America'

Mr Obama, who conducted a number of media interviews on Friday to reject Mr Wright's comments, said he had looked to him for spiritual - not political - guidance.

In a sermon on the Sunday after the attacks of 11 September 2001, Mr Wright told his congregation: "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards.

"America's chickens are coming home to roost."

In a 2003 sermon, Mr Wright said blacks should condemn the US.

"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human", he said.

Mr Obama said he expects his political opponents will use videos of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on.

He is locked in a close race with New York Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, ahead of Pennsylvania's primary vote on 22 April.

Doesn't this begin at home with parents being parents

Hot Off the press....

Pfleger and crew had a press conference at the all holy Saint Sabina.

Tragically, this year 17 children have lost their lives in Chicago due to gun violence. We must demand common sense gun legislation and stop easy access to guns. We must also make sure we arrest the perpetrators who take the lives of our children.

Unfortunately, the coverage and community action often differ from incident to incident. Therefore, I am asking people to join with me in two efforts to demand common sense gun laws and to put together a reward fund so that every time a child is murdered in the city, each child's life will be addressed equally. We will immediately put a $5,000 reward (Bounty) for the arrest and conviction of the shooter, if there is no known suspect and we will gather at the state of Illinois building to demand stronger gun legislation.

Every time a child is murdered , within the next 24-72 hours we will rally from 11:00am to 12 Noon at the Thompson, State of Illinois building , 100 West Randolph, demanding the state legislators to pass gun legislation. If you are interested in becoming part of this team, please fill out the form and fax it to 773-483-7583 or mail it to St Sabina Church, 1210 West 78the place

City bans plastic bags- feel good politics

• Tiny plastic bags used to sell small quantities of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and other drugs would be banned in Chicago, under a crackdown advanced today by a City Council committee.

  Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) persuaded the Health Committee to ban possession of “self-sealing plastic bags under two inches in either height or width,” after picking up 15 of the bags on a recent Sunday afternoon stroll through a West Side park.

Rumor has it, ...

If you dont hear a good rumor by 11am start your own.

What City Commissioner will be moving to a new department due to him getting his secretary pregnant ?

What about phony Alderman ??????

Alderman want to crack down on phony city stickers

December 5, 2007

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Chicago aldermen were poised to move today to shut down a “widespread black market” in counterfeit city stickers to boost city revenues by as much as $5 million a year.

At the request of Inspector General David Hoffman and City Clerk Miguel del Valle, the City Council’s Traffic Committee was scheduled to approve an ordinance imposing stiff new penalties for those who sell and manufacture bogus stickers and against motorists who purchase and display them.

Manufacturers would face six months in prison and an unspecified forgery fine. Those who purchase bogus stickers for as little as $25 — compared to $75 for passenger vehicles and $90 for SUV’s — would face the same penalty as those who display a counterfeit temporary license plate. They would have their vehicles booted, then impounded and be slapped with a fine as high as $1,000, plus towing and storage fees.

The ordinance gives police officers and parking enforcement aides “probable cause” to believe a sticker is counterfeit “whenever the sticker is missing one of its visible security features or the emblem appears on its face to be counterfeit.” Impounded vehicles would be returned only after the owner presents proof that a valid sticker has been purchased.

Hoffman urged aldermen to tighten the noose after a yearlong investigation that identified 388 counterfeit stickers — 94 percent of them at city auto pounds and at least one on a car that belonged to a city employee.

“If this was a counterfeiting problem that appeared to be caused by one high-volume manufacturer, the best solution to this problem would be to catch and prosecute the manufacturer. But that is not the nature of the problem here,” Hoffman wrote in a report to Mayor Daley and 50 aldermen in early November.

“This is a counterfeiting problem apparently caused by a large number of small manufacturers using relatively unsophisticated equipment…In this age of Photoshop, widespread scanners and color printers, it is very easy to manufacture poor- or medium-quality counterfeits…Anyone with a color ink jet printer can make a bad quality copy of one. Apparently that is sufficient to avoid detection most of the time.”

Hoffman’s projection that a crackdown would generate as much as $4.7 million in new revenue could not come at a better time.

Daley’s 2008 budget was precariously balanced with $276.5 million worth of increased taxes, fines and fees, including a new, $120 sticker fee for SUV’s.

The inspector general launched his investigation in September, 2006 after an unidentified motorist attempted to reclaim a vehicle at a city auto pound by presenting a counterfeit sticker. An alert auto pound employee noticed that she had recently released another car with that same sticker number.

After perusing an internal database for all city auto pounds, she noticed that several other cars processed over the prior two months bore that same sticker number.

Investigators subsequently interviewed more than 50 people who came to city auto pounds to pick up vehicles bearing counterfeit stickers. A “large number” of them said they had gone to a currency exchange with the intention of buying a sticker at the full price of $75 for a passenger vehicle only to be confronted on the street outside with someone selling stickers for $25-to-$40. They bought the bogus stickers at 15 different locations.

The investigation struck paydirt at city auto pounds, but didn’t stop there.

In April, a parking enforcement aide found two cars parked on one block with the same sticker number.

“As the PEA was writing a citation on one of the cars, she was confronted by the car’s owner. The owner turned out to be another city of Chicago employee, who was off-duty and lived in the neighborhood,” Hoffman wrote. The employee’s title and identity were not revealed. A footnote states, “This matter is the subject of a separate IGO investigatory report.” Hoffman refused to elaborate.

In June and July, Chicago Police officers made two arrests for possession of bogus stickers. One of the men had 18 bogus stickers and was “in the process of selling them” near a flea market.

Does he have a clue

Snow advisory issued, weather may slow travel

November 21, 2007

FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS

The city's Department of Streets & Sanitation has deployed 40 trucks late Wednesday in preparation for a Thanksgiving Day snow storm that is expected to slow travelers both on the roadways and in the air.

The city Department of Streets & Sanitation deployed 40 snow-fighting trucks to patrol Chicago’s main roads, bridges, overpasses and other elevated structures late Wednesday, according to a Streets & Sanitation release.

“We wanted to have a small team of trucks on our main routes to keep an eye on conditions, especially those that can develop on elevated portions of roadways that can turn cold more quickly than standard pavement, which is warmed by the earth,” Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Michael J. Picardi said in the release.