By Steve Rhodes
“The head of Roseland Community Hospital has stepped down, and the facility’s vice president said the state does not owe Roseland $6 million, as the hospital claimed earlier this week,” CBS2 Chicago reports.
What in the world?
“Roseland CEO Dian Powell resigned on Tuesday, a day after she claimed the hospital was in danger of closing because the state owed it $6 million in unpaid bills.
“However, on Tuesday, Roseland vice president Sharon Thurman said the state doesn’t owe the hospital any money. She acknowledged the state recently made an advance payment of more than $950,000 – money it expects to owe the hospital through the end of the year – to help keep Roseland open.
“The hospital had said it would stop accepting patients on Wednesday due to its financial problems, but an employee said Wednesday morning Roseland was still accepting patients at this time.”
*
“Sources say that Roseland Community Hospital’s board of directors is working with Governor Pat Quinn’s office to come up with a plan to keep the hospital running,” ABC7 Chicago reports.
*
So far, reports allege mismanagement – not fraud – on the part of Powell. If that’s true, where has the board and the state been all this time? With more than a hundred layoffs and an estimated $5.4 million loss this year, it never should have been allowed to get this far.
Wide Receivers
“CPS announced on Thursday that half of the students from closing schools have enrolled in new schools and, so far, the vast majority – some 86 percent – are going to the designated receiving schools,” Sarah Karp reports for Catalyst.
“But a breakdown of enrollment numbers by school shows wide variation among parents declaring where they will send their children in the fall. At King on the West Side and Parkman and Bontemps on the South Side, fewer than 10 percent of parents enrolled their children in new schools. At Stockton on the North Side, where the building is not closing but Courtenay’s staff is taking over Stockton’s building, nearly everyone enrolled, according to CPS data.
“CPS officials had said they wanted all parents to fill out forms indicating where they will go by Friday, 10 days after the historic vote to shutter 50 schools. However, district officials acknowledge that some parents might still be deciding where to send their children.
“‘Parents who remain undecided can also register their child throughout the summer leading up to the start of the school year on August 26,’ a press release states.”
*
“One big question is whether schools with excess capacity under CPS guidelines, but with waiting lists for special magnet or selective programs, have to take students. This was tested on Thursday by a group of parents organized by the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization.
“Education organizer Jitu Brown took mothers and grandmothers from South Side schools – Overton, Williams and Parkman – to Pritzker Elementary School in Wicker Park. The receiving schools for Overton and Williams are the poorest-rated in the district, while the receiving school for Parkman has a mid-level rating.”
Click through to read how that went.
Clown’s Lawyer
“Rick Halprin, a prominent criminal defense attorney whose clients included the infamous mobster Joey ‘The Clown’ Lombardo, died Tuesday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Hyde Park condominium, authorities said,” the Tribune reports.
“Mr. Halprin, 73, was pronounced dead at 10 a.m. Tuesday in his home in the 1000 block of East 53rd Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The office listed a preliminary cause of death as a suicide, but an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.”
Sad: “Authorities were serving an eviction notice at his condominium when his body was found, said police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.”
Sadder: “A busy lawyer and avid hockey player, Mr. Halprin suffered from severe back pain that in recent years had forced him to give up both activities, Murphy said.
“He played hockey until he was 70. That was one of his biggest disappointments – that he couldn’t play hockey,” said [law partner William] Murphy.
Halprin naturally showed up in my 2005 Chicago magazine profile of Lombardo. Click through to see how.
Can You Hear Him Now?
“Gov. Pat Quinn learned Tuesday that keeping up the pressure on legislative leaders to strike a deal on pension reform will be no easy task after House Speaker Michael Madigan failed to phone in to a meeting held on the topic,” the Tribune reports.
“While the gathering with Senate President John Cullerton appeared to be designed to show the public that Quinn isn’t giving up on pension changes despite two years of inaction, the lack of participation by Madigan only underscored the continued dysfunction among the state’s ruling Democrats.
“Quinn had been told by Madigan’s staff that the speaker was out of state, but the governor said he hoped Madigan would call in to the meeting. That didn’t happen.
“He was unavailable,” Quinn told reporters at an unrelated stop Tuesday. “He doesn’t have a cellphone. I did leave a message for his wife.”
For my thoughts on that, see @BeachwoodReport.
Obama’s Afghan Massacre Cover-Up
Another promise broken.
Cubs Studs
No kidding. In Fantasy Fix.
–
The Beachwood Tip Line: Lay it down, clown.
Posted on June 5, 2013