There's a good deal of mystery at City Hall after the FBI raided Chicago Ald. Ed Burke's City Hall and Southwest Side ward offices. Symbolic of the secrecy: Burke's offices had "closed" signs on them, and the windows were papered over as law enforcement worked inside. No arrests have been made, and no charges have been filed. The 74-year-old Burke kept a low profile today. He's a one-time Chicago cop who wields tremendous power as head of the City Council's finance committee. He's also the partner in a prominent law firm specializing in property tax appeals. He handled the appeal for President Donald Trump's Chicago tower. The veteran alderman — known for his round spectacles, slicked-back white hair, pinky ring and pinstriped suits — already was facing a fight for re-election. |
 The raid: Agents arrived at his City Hall office early Thursday morning, told employees to leave and papered over the glass windows at the office's entrance, a source confirmed. A woman who left the office and did not identify herself said FBI agents were inside. Read more here, and the story will be updated throughout the evening. In the afternoon, he released a statement: "As you are aware, there have previously been several other investigations such as this. In every instance we cooperated fully. And in every instance nothing has been found," Burke said. "So once again we will be cooperating fully and I am completely confident that at the end of the day nothing will be found amiss in this instance either." Political bio: Burke is marking his 50th year on the council, holding the record for Chicago's longest-serving alderman — clouted into the job in Chicago tradition. As the City Council's finance chairman, Burke oversees the committee that vets the city's major expenditures and has total control of the $100 million workers' compensation fund. He was known as a political brawler who, during the mid-1980s Council Wars, was among a group of aldermen who fought then-Mayor Harold Washington. Past controversy: In 2012, a federal grand jury demanded that Burke's Finance Committee turn over records related to a "duty disability" program that in 2011 alone paid out $115 million to disabled city workers, according to documents the Chicago Tribune obtained at the time. The subpoenas were issued about one week after city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, a former federal prosecutor, announced that Burke's committee had rebuffed his attempts to obtain many of the same records. His life: One half of a Chicago power couple, he's married to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. In fact, she won retention, and a swearing-in ceremony was held in her chambers Thursday morning as the raid was unfolding. A court spokesman said family was at the ceremony, but he couldn't say whether the alderman was in attendance. History lesson: Read about his rise to power — OK, he inherited his political job from his father — in Rick Kogan's decadeold piece here. |   |
 Mayor Emanuel was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program talking national politics on Thursday, as John Byrne reports: He threw Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi a Chicago-style compliment as she continues her bid to become House speaker: She won, and the winner gets the power. "Nancy Pelosi led the Democratic Party for the last two years from a really bad election in 2016," Emanuel said. But he dissed U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Texas congressman some Democrats are pushing as new blood to lead the House delegation. Emanuel said O'Rourke doesn't deserve the gig because he's a "loser," who lost to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in a tight Senate race earlier this month. "I'm from Chicago. Maybe I'm really old school, but to the victor go the spoils. You don't — now, a lot of people in our party, and if Beto O'Rourke wants to go and run for president, God bless him, he should put his hat in and make his case. But he lost. You don't usually promote a loser to the top of the party, and take a winner and say, 'We're going to cut your knees off,' " Emanuel said. "My view is, everybody in our party always says, 'Oh, the Republicans are so much tougher, so much stronger,' " he added. "You think they would take somebody that won and say, 'You know what your reward is? We're going to cut your knees off'? Look, in Chicago, New York, across cities and suburban areas, that's not how you play politics to win." | |
 From the Tribune's Mike Riopell and Rick Pearson: Taking questions from reporters for the first time since the Nov. 6 election, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Thursday was asked why he was handily dispatched by J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, after one term in office. Instead, he issued a warning over Democratic control of state government. "I am very scared for the people of Illinois. I believe that the folks who put Illinois into a financial quagmire are now back in complete control of the government," he said. "The policies that have created the financial mess for the state of Illinois are now the policies that will be dominating completely without any resistance whatsoever." Read more here. | |
 Illinois 18-year-olds can keep buying cigarettes in many areas of the state, after lawmakers this week failed to override Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a measure that would have raised the statewide minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21, the Tribune's Mike Riopell reports. Read here. That likely kicks the issue to Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker, who takes office in January. But the incoming governor was noncommittal on Thursday. "We'll see if the new General Assembly has the votes to pass the bill again next year and then JB (will) work with stakeholders to figure out what's best for Illinois," Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh wrote in an email. Under the tobacco legislation that died, it would have been illegal to sell tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, to anyone under the age of 21. Retailers who violated the law could have been fined, but the state would no longer have penalized those caught possessing tobacco while underage, under the plan. Chicago already boosted the minimum legal tobacco age to 21 from 18 in 2016. | |
 From the Tribune's Michael Hawthorne: After a series of explosions at medical sterilization plants during the late 1990s, federal safety officials urged Sterigenics International in suburban Willowbrook and other companies to overhaul the way they handled highly volatile and extremely dangerous ethylene oxide gas. What it means to the public: Instead of following through on some of the safety recommendations, the companies persuaded President George W. Bush's administration in 2001 to relax clean-air regulations allowing facilities to vent the cancer-causing gas directly into the air, according to memos and other documents compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service at the behest of U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Chicago. Why it matters now: The Bush administration's industry-friendly decision had been largely forgotten until earlier this year, when a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analysis found that residential areas near Sterigenics and Medline, in Waukegan, are among only a few dozen nationwide where the long-term risks of cancer from breathing toxic air pollution exceed federal safety guidelines. Sterigenics rushed to redirect its vents into pollution controls shortly before the EPA released its National Air Toxics Assessment to the public in August. Medline is following suit after the Tribune began asking questions about the facility's emissions. Read more here. | |
 U.S. Rep. Danny Davis penned a "letter of support" for a felon's company — the company used to commit crimes. Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's report here. Initially, Davis' spokesman said: "The congressman didn't know anything about (the felon's) legal situation." But when told Davis had been alerted to the man's criminal history, Ira Cohen told the paper: "The congressman is a big believer in second chances." | |
 The Illinois Prisoner Review Board on Thursday denied parole for Chester Weger, who was convicted of the 1960 triple slaying of three Riverside women at Starved Rock State Park. The 7-7 tie meant Weger fell one vote short of winning his freedom. His attorneys protested, noting that one board member was absent. Read more here. | |
|
沒有留言:
張貼留言