Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Tribune: Debt collector indicted on pay-to-play charges linked to Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown
The owner of a Pennsylvania debt collection business was indicted Friday on federal charges alleging he steered money to Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office and campaign in exchange for government business.
Donald Donagher Jr. donated thousands of dollars to Brown’s campaign fund, paid $5,000 into the clerk’s scholarship and community development fund and directed one of his employees to make hundreds of thousands of robocalls for Brown’s campaign in an effort to obtain debt collection contracts from the clerk’s office, according to the indictment. Donagher also underwrote the office’s 2014 Women’s History Month celebration, according to the indictment.
Daily Herald: Gorman's out at the tollway as new board moves in
There’s more churn at the Illinois tollway with the executive director exiting as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s team assumes control.
“Executive Director Liz Gorman is no longer employed by the Illinois tollway,” new Chairman Will Evans wrote in a memo to staff Friday.
Crain's Chicago Business: Chicago a growth market? Not for Airbnb.
Two years ago, Chicago was the fifth-largest market for Airbnb, with about 6,300 homes and rooms in the city listed for rent on the online shared-housing platform, according to AirDNA. But the number of listings here has increased just 3.9 percent since then, dropping the city to 12th, as warm-weather markets, like Miami, Las Vegas and Kissimmee and Davenport, Fla., outside Orlando, have taken off. One potential explanation: The city started enforcing its home-sharing ordinance in summer 2017, making it harder for Chicago residents to rent their homes on a short-term basis through Airbnb.
WTTW Chicago Tonight: Aldermen Seek to Curb Burke ‘Staff-Loaning’ Habit
The former chair of the City Council Committee on Finance is no stranger to scrutiny. But now, Ald. Ed Burke’s practice of loaning out employees to work for aldermen is coming under fire.
On Thursday, WTTW News reported that Burke – who was just re-elected to his position as 14th Ward alderman – had for years loaned out staff members from his committee to work for individual aldermen, free of charge. Ald. Michele Smith (43rd), who is facing Derek Lindblom in the April 2 runoff election, has authored an ordinance that would outlaw the practice.
Chicago Tribune: Ex-Chicago State official whom school had decided to terminate collects more than $800K to leave job, settle lawsuit with UIC over dissertation
A former top academic officer at Chicago State University whom the school had decided to terminate — and whose doctorate from another local university was called into question after a complaint about her dissertation — has received settlements from both schools totaling more than $800,000.
Angela Henderson, who was provost at Chicago State before the school informed her last year that it had decided to terminate her employment, was paid an extra year’s salary of almost $232,000 — plus almost $43,000 in unused vacation days — to walk away from the job, according to a copy of her separation agreement reviewed by the Tribune.
WBEZ: Emails Outline Possible Details Of Cochran Plea Talks
Indicted Chicago Ald. Willie Cochran is expected to take a plea deal in his federal corruption case next week and had been planning on resigning his City Council seat effective this weekend, according to emails obtained by WBEZ.
Cochran, the 20th Ward alderman who faces federal bribery and wire fraud charges, outlined what appears to be the details of a plea deal in several emails he wrote from his City Hall account earlier this month. WBEZ obtained those emails through a state open records request.
Belleville News-Democrat: Signal Hill superintendent using vacation days, will retire amid state investigation
A Belleville area school superintendent, who was disciplined in late 2018 for failing to adequately investigate a testing breach in the district, is using some vacation days to travel before officially retiring with three months left in the school year.
Signal Hill School District 181 Superintendent Janice Kunz and other staff members received written reprimands from the school board in November for their involvement in distributing copies of the state science test to students before they took the exam last March and later not adequately investigating how it happened.