November was a sad reminder of the corruption at various levels of Illinois government from retired House Speaker Denny Hastert to the small Village of Bellwood.

Illinoisans’ confidence in their state government is the lowest of residents of any state in the nation, and corruption stories from February 2016 don’t help.

April saw two major players in Illinois education ensnared in charges of cronyism, among more than 60 other corruption-related stories.

In November, 13 of 53 Corruption Watch stories were related to policies and actions of criminal-justice authorities in Illinois.

At least 84 corruption-related stories have been reported from across the state of Illinois in August alone. Atop August headlines is the recent revelation that a federal grand jury subpoenaed the emails of Gov. Pat Quinn’s ex-chief of staff in relation to Quinn’s anti-violence grant program. The case, which has been referred to by some...

45.  April 30, 2014 Sun-Times: Criminal probe of Quinn anti-violence plan rocks governor’s race A criminal grand jury has launched a probe into Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program —  once likened to “a political slush fund” — delivering a major blow to the Democrat as he seeks re-election this fall. On Tuesday, the Quinn...

With a score of 96.5 percent, the Hanover Township is the first township-level government entity in the state to earn an “A” grade in the Illinois Policy Institute’s Local Transparency Project. The Local Transparency Project grades governments on the availability to the public of vital community information, such as public meeting schedules, government employee salaries and...