Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Tuesday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

I’m not ignoring the weekend’s violence, I’ve just been catching up with the reports and thinking on it. Gathering string, as we say in the business.
I believe this will be a good listen, by the way:


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Pat Quinn’s Secret Prisons
“Between 80 and 100 people die each year inside Illinois prisons. WBEZ has sought information about those deaths, but the Department of Corrections under Gov. Pat Quinn is taking a ‘trust us, nothing to see here’ attitude,” Rob Wildeboer reports for WBEZ.
“However, persistent and disturbing complaints from inmates and their families make it hard to just move along.”
Madigan’s Secrets Revealed
“A secret report put together by the legislature’s watchdog in the wake of last summer’s Metra scandal offers new insight into how Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan navigates the intersection of public business and ward-style patronage through his Southwest Side office and Illinois Capitol suite,” the Tribune reports.
“The analysis by then-Inspector General Thomas Homer – based on interviews with Madigan’s political allies, government officials and the speaker himself – presents those methods in an unflattering fashion.
“The report contains an account of Metra’s chairwoman entering Madigan’s Capitol office to talk about state issues and leaving with a yellow Post-it note bearing names of two workers the speaker wanted to see promoted. In another meeting, a Metra lobbyist who was a longtime Madigan aide was spotted leaving the speaker’s office with two resumes. Another time, Madigan simply called the cellphone of one of his ‘better’ precinct captains to tell him about a state job, according to the report.”
Okay, the case against Madigan was made long ago. The question now is: What are we gonna do about it?
Illinois’ Obamacare Secret
“Months after the sign-up deadline, thousands of Americans who purchased health insurance through the Affordable Care Act still don’t have coverage due to problems in enrollment systems,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In states including California, Nevada and Massachusetts, which are running their own online insurance exchanges, some consumers picked a private health plan and paid their premiums only to learn recently that they aren’t insured.”
In Illinois, as I can personally attest, many if not most of those qualifying for Medicaid whose coverage was to begin on January 1st still have not had their applications processed and are going without.
Illinois’ Prep Sports Secrets
“The groups that oversee prep sports in many states make their records public, while the Illinois High School Association has resisted calls for greater transparency in its handling of extracurricular activities and the millions of dollars they generate each year,” AP writes.
“The Chicago Sun-Times examined the transparency levels for the high school governing bodies in the six most populous U.S. states plus four others near Illinois and found that seven of those groups are either subject to open-records laws or voluntarily respond to requests.
“In other states such as Florida and Pennsylvania, the private nonprofit groups that oversee prep sports give the public access to contracts, payments made to vendors and other records, operating much like government agencies.
“Similarly, the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association says it isn’t subject to open-records laws but complies anyway.”
Here’s the Sun-Times story.
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The Cub Factor: Hype-O-Dermic
Stop the madness, I wanna get off.
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See also: NY Daily News: Theo Could Have Gotten More.
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Also:


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BeachBook
* The End Of Chicago’s Majestic Rat-Ridden Movie Palace.
* United Resists Airport Wage Rule.
* Honeybee Swarm Shuts Down United Gates At O’Hare.
* Decades After Tragedy: The Willis Clan On America’s Got Talent.
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TweetWood


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Prospective.

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Posted on July 8, 2014