Chicago News Blog

“The government is promoting bad behavior,” according to a CNBC reporter who went off on Obama’s stimulus package on national TV.

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A homeless man is taking his battle for public office a step further.

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Last weekend may have been spring-like, but you’ll know it’s still winter when you wake up this Saturday morning.

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The Bulls GM says he’s staying in job, and “that puts an end to it.”

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A clout-heavy city inspector who built a new home without installing a water meter has been slapped with a $7,640 water bill amid word that he also has been cited for installing an underground sprinkler system without a permit. Richard Kus’ overdue bill includes more than five years’ worth of water and sewer fees, along with interest and penalties, for the home with a hot tub that he built in the 5500 block of South Natoma.
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If Sen. Roland Burris misled an Illinois House impeachment panel with a false account of his appointment, he did the same thing with the Illinois Supreme Court last month. In a lawsuit to force Secretary of State Jesse White to certify his appointment to the Senate, Burris submitted the same Jan. 5 affidavit to the state high court that he had earlier sent to the House panel. The truthfulness of the affidavit has since been called into question.
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When the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta in 1996, 35 percent of the contracts went to minority- and female-owned businesses, and 30 percent of the employees were minority. The Chicago Urban League is focused on helping minority communities in Chicago fare as well or better and reap long-term benefits if the city succeeds in landing the 2016 Olympic Games.
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The last major reporting period for candidates hoping to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress ended Thursday night and here is the Chicago Sun-Times’ first-blush survey of fund-raising numbers the top Democrats seeking the seat have reported.
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Bensenville Village President John Geils survived a challenge to his candidacy and will remain on the April 7 ballot after the village’s election board rejected a claim that he does not live in Bensenville.

The election board made its decision late Thursday following a seven-hour hearing in which attorneys debated the minutia of Geils’ life such as how many times he flushed the toilet at his home at 208 S. York Road to whether he decorates for Easter (he doesn’t).

It was clear the inquiry was getting under the skin of the six-term incumbent.

“It was part of our responsibility I guess to have them look in my underwear drawer,” he complained as photographs of the contents of his home were entered into evidence.

Donald Heim of Bensenville filed the residency objection to Geils’ candidacy for a seventh term as village president. Geils will face Bensenville attorney Frank Soto in the April 7 consolidated election.

Heim’s attorney, Tim Martin of Naperville, said he did not get a fair hearing from an election board made up of Village Clerk Carole Mantia and Trustees Marianne Tralewski and Henry Mandziara.

“That (decision) was not consistent with the evidence that we brought forward,” Martin said.

Geils’ attorney, Phillip Luetkehans of Itasca, said the evidence was clear that Geils lives in Bensenville.

“It’s not even a close call,” Luetkehans said. “This whole thing had no basis in facts or the law. The whole thing was ludicrous.”

Martin argued that Geils lives either in a home at 17 Croydon Lane in Oak Brook, which is owned by his wife Sharon, or at a golf course resort that the Geils family owns in Green Lake, Wis.

Geils said he travels to Green Lake, Wis., several days a week to work at the resort, but he lives in Bensenville.

–James Kimberly

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Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama’s victory celebration in Grant Park — despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions.
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