Oak Park

Illinois corruption watch: March 2016

04/04/2016
Several instances of corruption and mismanagement of public property and trust came to light in March and included new developments in cases involving Chicago Public Schools’ former CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

TAGS: corruption

Illinois corruption watch: January 2016

02/12/2016
In January several instances of corruption, influence peddling and mismanagement across Illinois were brought to light, from the College of DuPage’s expense-account mismanagement, to Chicago’s red-light-camera bribery case.

State, suburbs double down on Divvy

By Austin Berg
09/30/2014
Chicago’s Divvy bikes will soon be pedaled down suburban streets. On Sept. 29, Gov. Pat Quinn approved a $3 million state grant expanding the bike-share program to the suburbs of Evanston and Oak Park, while adding 50 new docking stations to Chicago’s Garfield Park, Austin, Rogers Park and West Rogers park neighborhoods. Seven hundred new...

TAGS: Divvy, rideshare, taxes

Illinois corruption watch, August 2014

By Brian Costin
09/05/2014
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...

TAGS: Chicago, corruption, cronyism, transparency, waste

Illinois corruption watch, June 2014

By Brian Costin, Anthony Trania
07/09/2014
Unfortunately for taxpayers, June was a groundbreaking month for corruption in Illinois. In June alone, there were reports of 85 corruption-related stories in the state. Some of the record-breaking highlights include the following: For the first time in 33 years, the Illinois Legislative Audit Commission exercised its subpoena powers in the issuance of a subpoena...

Illinois Corruption Watch, May 2014

By Brian Costin
06/04/2014
In completing our second month of the new “Illinois Corruption Watch” project, we are shocked at the volume of corruption stories being reported across the state. In just two months we have found reports of 101 different corruption-related stories; 45 in April and 56 in May. It’s no wonder Illinois citizens have by far the...