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Chicago Tribune: Anti-Madigan documentary shows why he'll be hard to beat
About two-thirds of the way through “Madigan: Power, Privilege, Politics,” a recently released documentary commissioned by the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, the narrator intones, “Like him or not, Mike Madigan‘s rise to power is the result of incredible political skill.”
Thank you.
Critics of the veteran Democratic Illinois House Speaker responded indignantly in April when I awarded him a grade of B for his political acumen — marked down from an A, I wrote, because of a “public demeanor so icy and charmless that you’d think he was auditioning to be a Bond villain.”
But come on. You don’t hold the speakership for 31 of the past 33 years, build impressive legislative majorities and avoid indictment in Illinois unless you’re awfully crafty and very wise to the ways of Springfield and the inclinations of the electorate.
Reuters: Illinois teachers' pension fund eyes 14.5 percent payment hike for state
Illinois’ biggest public worker pension fund said on Friday its board gave initial approval to a state contribution of $4.56 billion in fiscal 2018, a 14.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) said the higher payment would still fall $2.31 billion below what the state should be contributing to pensions on an actuarial basis.
“By any measure, $4.56 billion is a lot of money, but that amount is a direct product of the perpetual underfunding of TRS by state government over the last 76 years,” TRS Executive Director Dick Ingram said in a statement. “Illinois is reaping what it sowed.”
Chicago Tribune: Chicago man cleared in 6-year-old's death gets innocence certificate
A certificate of innocence has been handed to a Chicago man whose conviction for the 1992 rape and murder of a 6-year-old boy was vacated last month.
The granting by a Cook County judge of the certificate on Thursday to 55-year-old Mark Maxson will allow him to seek a nearly $200,000 reimbursement from the state for his wrongful conviction.
Under the law, the certificate also means the state will expunge Maxson’s murder conviction.
BND: Illinois disqualifies doctor known as 'Dr. Million Pills
Regulators suspended the license Friday of an Illinois doctor known as “Dr. Million Pills” for lavishly prescribing opioid pain pills without examining patients and taking up the operation of a pill mill run by a former doctor whose license was revoked five years ago.
Dr. William J. McMahon’s patients filled prescriptions up to 200 miles from his suburban Chicago clinic, according to paperwork signed by Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Acting Director Jessica Baer.
Investigators learned one patient was running a crew of people into the doctor’s office to get pills to sell. Drug Enforcement Administration investigators recorded one 60-second office visit during which McMahon provided three prescriptions for the opioid painkiller Norco without examining the patient.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel's Law Department sanctioned again for not disclosing police files
A federal judge sanctioned the city this week, making it the seventh time since 2011 that Mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s Law Department has been punished for not turning over potential evidence in a police misconduct lawsuit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox on Thursday ordered the city to the pay fees and costs for a second deposition of a Chicago police officer accused of using a Taser on a pregnant woman. The woman, Elaina Turner, suffered a miscarriage soon after the August 2013 incident, according to her lawsuit.
As part of the routine exchange of evidence known as discovery, the city was required to give Turner’s lawyers all documents related to Officer Patrick J. Kelly’s disciplinary history. But it failed to turn over records showing that Kelly was involved in a fatal on-duty shooting in 2014. Her lawsuit was filed in 2015.