With recent improvements to the Village of Glencoe's website achieved a 92.5 out of 100 possible points on our transparency test, the highest score weve ever recorded in llinois.
The Institute has filed a FOIA request seeking any e-mail sent or received by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle's concerning the trouble-plagued Adult Probation Department.
The family of a 13-year-old girl who police say was sexually assaulted by a poorly-supervised probationer has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Cook County acting-Chief Probation Officer Jesus Reyes.
Amidst record demand for services, IDES agency heads say they dont know why the appeals department is handling a fraction of the cases it did at this time last year.
Staffers say the delay is intentional.
By Chris Andriesen
11/16/2010
by Kate Piercy Back in July, Gov. Quinn made an amendatory veto to HB5154, which called for the exemption of all public employee performance evaluations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Illinois Policy Institute argued against this bill, saying it would threaten transparency in government by prohibiting the release of public employee performance reviews...
By Chris Andriesen
10/28/2010
by Lee Williams Download a formatted version of this report, complete with a table of the Pittman-Robertson Act contracts awarded by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, here. SPRINGFIELD, IL.—The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is misappropriating millions of dollars that should have been earmarked for the state’s sportsmen. The Pittman-Robertson Act, an 11-percent federal tax on...
With Cook County being known nationwide for its levels of corruption you know it’s bad when Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says that a case of corruption by Hanover Township’s former welfare services director, Aurea Picasso, “may be a new low in Cook County corruption.” “Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Conway said that as welfare...
by Kate Piercy Do you know how much you’re paying for lobbyists? Sunshine Review has released a paper about taxpayer-funded lobbying in Illinois, reporting information about lobbying contracts and membership in taxpayer-funded lobbying associations. Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations are groups funded at least in part by public dollars that lobby for the collective interests of government bodies. ...
by Kate Piercy The Illinois Policy Institute sent a Freedom of Information Request into the state asking for state employee salary information, and it came back with some puzzling data: Illinois taxpayers gave former governor Rod Blagojevich $28,880.07 in 2009. His “monthly salary” was $14,784.33, so it appears he received two months of pay in...
by Kate Piercy The News-Gazette sounded a warning today with regards to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reacting to the efforts to weaken FOIA some have already attempted: The new Freedom of Information law was barely two weeks old when legislators amended it the first time in January, repealing a provision that made evaluations of public school...