Tag: Blithe Spirit

The good and the bad, emphasis on Trib and Sun-Times

Clout bus contractor charged with hiding CPS payments from IRS

Her clout bore a familiar name:

The Sun-Times reported that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had twice intervened with schools officials on behalf of Jewel’s — last year and also in 2010. Jackson said he called CPS CEO Forrest Claypool in 2015 to defend the company because he’s known Lockhart for years, describing her as an “outstanding community servant” who often donated the use of her firm’s buses free of charge.

Free of charge not lately, in view of her $1.1 million earnings 2009 through 2011. Did Rev.Jesse also speak up for her when the park disttict hired her company after CPS fired her?

via Clout bus contractor charged with hiding CPS payments from IRS | Chicago Sun-Times

Illinois Blues, Chapter 7, The Restless Citizens of Galewood

The Galewood meeting — Sen. Don Harmon and Rep. Camille Lilly, in one of a pre-election-year series — was held on September 12, 2013, when 60 or so residents gathered in the small Galewood Community Church, a few blocks north of North Avenue, the Oak Park-Chicago boundary.

In a meeting of just over an hour, assorted cries from the heart filled the air while the two legislators responded — civilly at first, but as the evening wore on, less so, even testily, with Lilly fairly shouting at one point, talking over questioners.

Optimism again:

Harmon took his customary optimistic stance. The state is “turning the corner,” he said. There had been “no borrowing for the last three years.” The pension problem was not as dire as some in the media were saying. The issue was not pensions anyhow, but pension benefits.

Benefits.

A retired teacher asked why her benefits were on the line.

They aren’t, Harmon said: “It’s that they don’t grow at the same rate.”

Her benefits would be reduced, she responded, and by a specific dollar amount which she supplied on the spot.

This was double talk from Harmon: Neither pension nor benefits were the issue, but her benefits would not grow as fast? Talk nonsense, and gullible people nod their heads. But he had non-gullible people before him.

It was a signal of trouble ahead.

More to come, from Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters— available in paperback, epub and Amazon Kindle formats.