by Amanda Griffin-Johnson A state audit of a Cook County jobs training program is raising concerns about some of the program’s expenditures. The Chicago Tribune reports: Among an audit’s 68 findings were questions about whether youths who were paid more than $1 million were even qualified to be in the program, why $31,000 in pension payments...

by Will Compernolle According to the Chicago Tribune, a new Congressional report called “Summertime Blues” shows stimulus funding has gone to buy iPods for high school students, cell phones for smokers trying to quit, and advertising for the stimulus itself. While the stimulus has been defended as an endeavor to spur job creation, no jobs were...

by Will Compernolle A court-appointed watchdog group claims Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is “using the county payroll to reward those who backed his failed re-election effort and punish those who did not,” the Chicago Tribune reports. Stroger’s staff has lowered minimum job qualifications, pretended not to know job applicants when they did, tried to invoke...

by Kate Piercy From today’s Chicago Tribune Editorial page: “Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has handed out raises — some of more than 20 percent — to his staff while proclaiming a message of ‘shared sacrifice’ and planning spending cuts of $1.4 billion because the state is awash in debt.” —The Associated Press, July 6, 2010. “Illinois ended...

by Kate Piercy Questions are surrounding the nearly half a million dollar salary of Bellwood’s Roy McCampbell, who says “he did the work of 10 people for Bellwood — comptroller, administrator, public safety CEO, finance director, budget director, human resources director, mayoral assistant, corporation counsel, property commission director and development corporation officer,” and thinks Bellwood...

In recent weeks there has been a lot of bad news surfacing for taxpayers when it comes to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.