Welcome to Our World

Some paramedics and the CFD union find out something we've known for years now:

• The Chicago Firefighters Union is expressing outrage that a man convicted of attacking two fire paramedics walked out of court this week with a virtual slap on the wrist.
  
  Jonathan Soto of Bartlett was charged with four counts of aggravated battery for the 2011 incident, but a Cook County judge convicted him on only a lesser misdemeanor charge.
  
  "My complaint is with the system that allows this to happen," said union president Tom Ryan. "We are going to make it our mission to make sure that if this happens again, that we are going to do anything in our power to make sure they are punished to fullest extent of the law."
  

Evidently, no one told them this was Cook County and the jagoff got 1 year supervision and 20 days of community service.

Judge James Linn in case you were wondering.

Interesting Bail Observation

A sharp-eyed reader send these articles to us.  The first armed robbery:

• Bail was set at $350,000 today for a Northwest Side man who is accused of robbing a man by making him withdraw $100 from a Gold Coast ATM this week.
  
  Patrick J. Palumbo, 47, of 2800 block of West Diversey Avenue, was charged late Friday night with one count of armed robbery, police said.
  
  Palumbo was ordered held today in lieu of $350,000 bail, officials said.

He showed the victim a knife and got $100.

Now the second armed robbery:

• A judge set bail today at $100,000 each for three teen-age girls charged as adults with the armed robbery of two University of Chicago students this week near the South Side campus, authorities said.
  
  A gun brandished by a fourth suspect, a 14-year-old girl facing juvenile charges, discharged while the girl was pistol-whipping a 28-year-old female student early Monday, but no one was shot, police said. The woman was accompanied by another student, a 22-year-old man.

A pistol whipping and a weapon discharge, yet bail is just $100,000?  And the guy with the knife gets $350,000?

This just feeds into our opinion about the broken system we have here in Cook County.  See below for our judicial endorsements and tell us we're wrong to think this way after half a century of living here.

Thanks Weis

J-Fled - the gift that keeps on giving:

• A man filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Chicago Crime Commission alleging the non-profit damaged his reputation by falsely stating he was a leader of a local gang in a law enforcement book.

  Edward Arroyo says the Chicago Crime Commission’s Gang Book, which was released in January, falsely said he was a leader in Roselle of the Spanish Gangster Disciples, according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit court.

  Arroyo’s name and picture are featured on a page in the book dedicated to the Spanish Gangster Disciples leadership, but he says he is not affiliated with any gangs or “criminal enterprise,” according to the lawsuit.

This will be very interesting. Maybe the Crime Commission can hand out those smiley face stickers like the ones on the Blago billboards and instruct all the police departments, government agencies and other owners of the book to paste it over this guy's mug.

Hit and Run Suspect in Custody

We were unavailable most of the day, so we didn't get to cover this one:

• A suspect is in custody in Wednesday night’s hit-and-run death of a popular Cook County correctional officer, struck and killed as she walked to work at the Cook County Jail, sources said.

  Nikkii Bostic-Jones, 37, was hit around 10:50 p.m. Wednesday while crossing the street outside the jail on her way to work, officials said.

  Bostic-Jones flew into the southbound lane and was hit and pinned under a sheriff’s car, sheriff officials said.

  Police obtained the possible make and model of the full-sized van responsible, as well as a partial license plate number. Using databases, they located a similar van nearby, owned by a man who lives near the jail, source said.

  Evidence on the van appeared to link it to the crash, sources said.

That entire street and boulevard around the jail is a death trap. County had stationed squad cars as crossing guards on and off over the years when employees and sheriffs had been hit by cars. Maybe it's time to figure out a better parking arrangement for our brothers and sisters working the jail. They shouldn't have to risk their lives crossing the street to get to that hellhole they work in.

Godspeed Officer Bostic-Jones.

Again, Why Was He Out?

Another murderer, not serving a full sentence, manages to kill again:

• A Bridgeport man accused of murder 15 years ago has been charged with fatally stabbing a man during an argument in his home earlier this week, Chicago police said.

  Joseph "Joey" Lacyniak, 34, was charged with first-degree murder in the Monday morning death of John Hughes Jr., police said.

• Lacyniak was previously charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in 1997, according to court records.

  The following year, the then-20-year-old received concurrent 50- and 25-year prison sentences following a jury trial before Judge Michael Toomin, court records show. But an appeals court ordered a new trial for Lacyniak in 2004.

  In 2006, Lacyniak pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was later allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, records show.

Concurrent 50 and 25 year sentences means a minimum of 37 years. A guilty plea to 20 years and he's out in 10 - call it time served - and he's allowed to withdraw the guilty plea.

Cook County courts are a joke.

Once Again, the Wrong Message

More stupidity from Anita and her underlings:

• A 19-year-old Chicago man has pleaded guilty to burglary in connection with an attempted break-in during which he was shot.

  Anthony Robinson was shot in the leg by the homeowner as he tried to break in and steal liquor, according to police.

  Robinson was sentenced to two years probation and community service.

  The homeowner, 81-year-old Homer Wright, was initially charged with unlawful use of a weapon in the case. That charged was later dropped.

They've got him dead bang (pun intended) on the burglary, yet zero prison time. Way to go Cook County. Hopefully, Mr. Wright aims a bit higher next time.

Naming Rights for Jail?

County government joins the revenue hunt:

• How does the Coca-Cola lobby at the 26th and California courthouse sound? The Kraft Kafeteria at Stroger Hospital? Or even the Bianchi Busse Woods Bike Trail in the forest preserve?

  The possibilities abound, Cook County officials say, as they look to sell everything from naming rights to advertising at most of its real estate holdings — from the hospitals to forest preserve paths and nature centers to even public areas of the city and suburban courthouses as a means of generating new revenue streams.

  In a moribund economy, politicians are loath to raise taxes, and so County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s staff has been looking for new ways to raise money for the cash-strapped county government, whose umbrella encompasses the vast health and hospital system as well as local courts and jails. The forest preserve — a separate taxing district — has been in the black the last few years.

How about shrinking government instead? Or better yet, abolishing county government on a scale heretofore unseen in Illinois? Cook County is the most redundant governing body in the entire United States as far as we can tell. With very few exceptions, there isn't much the county does that isn't already covered by local or state authority.

No Visits for You

Prisoners won't be getting their visits - or their deliveries of certain "items:"

• Due to an outbreak of "influenza-like illness" at Cook County Jail, officials tonight said some visitation will not be allowed.
  
  In an effort slow the spread of the sickness, staff of the Cermak Hospital has advised the sheriff's office to put all detainees in Division 1 on no-movement status and to ban visits there, according to a news release.
  
  Detainees in Divisions 4 and 5 are on a limited movement status, which might affect visitations there, sheriff's officials said.

This is going to put a crimp in the prisoner underground economy and we're pretty sure the commissary is ill equipped to pick up the slack.

Dart Appointee Arrested/Indicted

From the blog called 19th Ward Politics:

• Confirmed: Tom Dart's top animal crimes investigator Larry Draus indicted... Media left out in the cold. Source says numerous high profile Animal Cruelty cases now in jeopardy! Update; Finally hits the press!
  
  Blogger has confirmed that Dart's top Animal Crimes investigator was indicted after being under FBI surveillance for over a year. This investgator has close ties to the Sheriff and was even given the Humane Chicago Award in 2009 along with Sheriff Dart. Its ironic when anyone else has been arrested from our department Dart gives a press release. But i guess a different standard is applied when your close friends to Sheriff Dart himself. Why is this being covered up???

Is there any entity in Illinois that isn't rife with corruption?

UPDATE: 19thWardPolitics has a whole series of outlining how the Sun Times appears to be in the tank for Tom Dart. Hop over to this link and read their blog.

Big Nuts = Big Indictment

Pardon our laughter:

• The “Hog” says he wouldn’t squeal — and he got indicted because of it.

  Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, an old-school Chicago politician who likes to call himself “The Hog With the Big Nuts,” has been indicted on federal tax charges.

  The feds allege he failed to pay taxes on $225,000 from his campaign accounts and used it for personal expenses including gambling and boosting his city pension.

  A federal grand jury found he illegally converted more than $225,000 in campaign funds into income and failed to pay taxes on it between 2006 and 2008, prosecutors said.

  But Beavers, 77, said they only indicted him because he refused to wear a wire on fellow Commissioner John Daley, the former mayor’s brother.

  “They tried to get to me to become a stool pigeon and I wouldn’t become a stool pigeon,” Beavers said Thursday, telling the Sun-Times he hadn’t been told of the indictment. “They wanted me to wear a wire on John Daley. S---.”

Unfortunately, the chances of Beavers pulling what we'll call a "Bill Henry" are better than average. Hog Nuts is old and if he drags things out, he might actually beat the Feds by his mere mortality. But it's nice to see this asshole continuing the fine Chicago tradition of sending current and former aldercreatures to the pen.

Now that John Daley wire....there's something that deserves a bit more exploration.

Sheriff's Police to be Downsized?

From the always popular 19th Ward blog:

• It has come to my attention that today - January 31st, 2012 - Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle is announcing that 80% of Cook County suburbs responded affirmatively to a survey asking if they would annex unincorporated areas, where the County would pay the suburban police a contracted fee for police service there instead of paying Sheriff's Police.
  
  Sheriff's officials have been shown signed documents that purport to show 80% of Cook County suburbs support this back-door plan to eliminate 232 Sheriff's Police patrol officer positions that currently cost $19 million a year. This tiny fraction of the massive $4 billion County budget is the latest sacrificial lamb to Preckwinkle's reckless disregard for our Department's tradition of providing dedicated public service to the citizens of Cook County.
  
  AFSCME and our membership must immediately and in the strongest possible way address Preckwinkle's back-door plan to summarily eliminate 232 dedicated career police officers from our ranks. Preckwinkle has apparently had private sector consultants working on this plan, poring over maps and statistics, for the last 6 months. Preckwinkle apparently believes she can set her plan in motion within six months, and can wholly eliminate the Sheriff's Police from her budget by the end of 2012.

County government is for the most part, bloated, inefficient and redundant with much local government, and as more and more unincorporated Cook County becomes annexed to the 'burbs, the overarching need for the Sheriff's Police becomes less and less. That's just economic reality.

Suicide? Or Other?

Things like this make us wonder of someone isn't fudging numbers somewhere along the line

• Questions don't die at the Cook County morgue in the case of a Chicago Catholic priest who was stabbed more than 20 times. His death was ruled a suicide.
  
  The I-Team has been told that the body of Father Waclaw Jamroz is going to be exhumed so a full autopsy can be done. The exhumation will come two and a half years after the Cook County medical examiner chose not to do a full examination.
  
  Without a complete autopsy, questions about the priest's death have festered - questions that some experts and his family say are disturbing and unanswered.

Of course, the fact that this is Chuck Goudie, notorious stretcher of the truth, casts a whole boatload of suspicion the other direction. But someone stabbed 20 times ought to be looked at more closely in our opinions.

Any detectives want to chime in?

Bring Out Your Dead

Once again, the morgue is proving to be an embarrassment to the County government:

• To the disgust of some staff, bodies are piling up at the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner, stacked atop each other in blue plastic tarps against a wall of the storage cooler because of ongoing financial woes, the Sun-Times has learned.

  All the storage trays are full, and many have a second body on them, according to sources in the office. Some 400 adults and about 100 babies are currently being kept in the cooler designed for under 300, one source said.

  “There are so many bodies in there now, they can’t keep it cool enough. The stench is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” another source in the office said. “I think it’s sacrilegious.”

We wonder what it's like to actually live in a place where government is semi-competent.

$45 Million Wasted

Don't we know somebody over there? (MMM)

• Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure.

  The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

  The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found “millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.”

Gee, government waste in Cook County. Who'd have thunk it?

No Brainer

Wow. Someone said this was a bad idea and they actually listened:

• Jurors and law enforcement officials will be spared having to pay a parking fee at Cook County courthouses after all.

  County Board President Toni Preckwinkle had recommended that drivers pay a $4.75 daily charge at the courthouses as part of her budget proposal. Some county commissioners balked at the prospect of jurors having to pay to park while fulfilling a civic duty.

  On Tuesday, county officials announced jurors and law enforcement officers would get their parking validated instead.

We heard Preckwinkle is actually starting a "Bureau of Parking Validation" so she can have a few extra payrollers working the phones on Election Day.

County Layoffs Threatened

Preckwinkle plays hardball:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is asking county unions to agree to eight unpaid days off of work next year to help save 500 jobs.

  Preckwinkle’s offer came in a letter sent out to union leaders this week as she looks to finalize her executive budget recommendation by month's end. In the letter, Preckwinkle asks union workers to give up pay for six holidays, including Labor Day, and to take two other unpaid days off.

  Unions, which have been meeting regularly with Preckwinkle as she puts together next year's budget, say they’ve been blindsided.

Evidently, the campaign contributions haven't bought the access they thought they had. But seeing as how County is the most overstaffed, useless and redundant arm of government that we can think of, we aren't surprised.

Erkel Applies for Unemployment

Taking advantage of the system in every way possible:

• Like thousands of Illinoisans who have lost their jobs, former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has applied for unemployment benefits.

  But newly minted Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration officially “protested” the claim with the state’s unemployment agency.

  “. . . Former Board President Todd Stroger did submit an application for unemployment,” said a source in the Preckwinkle administration who is familiar with the application. “That application was protested because, as a former elected official, he is ineligible.”

It's not as if he has any marketable skills. Without sponging off the taxpayer again, the Toddler might end up living in a van, down by the river, begging for change at expressway ramps and scrapping cans out of the trash.

The County Axe Starts Trimming

Preckwinkle versus Alvarez, and so far, Preckwinkle appears to be winning:

• Just a day after State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told the Cook County Board that budget cuts would severely impact her office, she issued pink slips to more than 100 office staff members.

• Most of the 101 workers were called throughout the day Wednesday. The remainder will be called by Thursday, Daly said.

  Seven court reporters were told they were being laid off last week, for a total of 108 job losses so far, Daly said.

• Fifty-eight assistant state’s attorneys and 20 investigator positions could also be eliminated to meet the 8 percent reduction Alvarez is willing to cut in her budget, Daly said. But Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has demanded a 10 percent cut.

So what will be the effect on court operations? Fifty-eight ASA's probably means no "third chair" in anything but the big trials. Twenty investigators means a whole bunch of witnesses and summonses don't get delivered. The savings in gas and vehicles might be substantial, but the always inefficient court operations may grind to near immovability in short order, and a system that can't even convict murderers in 66% of its cases may see that number climb even higher in other categories.