While on the county payroll, a top urologist at Cook County Hospital solicited nearly $1 million from drug companies over the last decade for his private foundation. Dr. Paul S. Ray's pitch was that the money would go toward medical research and education.
Back when Barack Obama was a state senator, the Illinois Legislature offered this perk: You get elected, you get to give out some money.
Family jewels are family jewels -- even if they came from a notorious theft ring rather than Grandma.
As City Hall's scandals mount, so do the legal bills for taxpayers. Since January 2004, Mayor Daley's administration has spent more than $625,000 on outside lawyers to represent city employees in federal criminal investigations, records show. That's when the Chicago Sun-Times exposed widespread waste and corruption in the city's Hired Truck Program, sparking a federal investigation that expanded into a rigged hiring system.
Corey Novick, a former lawyer for the state's child-welfare agency, is suing two aides to Gov. Blagojevich. His claim: They fired him in 2007 for cooperating with "the federal probe into illegal hiring."
The Watchdogs: Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko had a hard time following rules -- even simple ones, like when a federal judge told him: Stay home. Twice, Rezko violated the home-confinement terms of his bail, formerly sealed court files show, by making "social calls" -- including last September to the home of former top Cook County official Orlando Jones after Jones committed suicide.
The Watchdogs: In July 2004, state pension board member Allison S. Davis voted to turn over as much as $100 million in state workers' retirement cash to an investment management firm. Months after it won the lucrative deal at Davis' urging, that investment firm hired Davis.
Trucking czar Michael Tadin and his son are the winning bidders for a nearly six-acre industrial site along the Chicago River in Bridgeport. The land -- owned by a firm that includes developer Thomas Snitzer -- was auctioned last week under a judge's order.
