Joe's Time, Our Dime?
Is Berrios conducting political and personal business on government time?
Ad Categories: City Life
Joseph Berrios, Candidate for Cook County Assessor: Under the Microscope
THE INSIDER: With a background as a Democratic Party boss, a lobbyist, and a powerful commissioner of a property tax appeals board, Joseph Berrios now wants to be Cook County assessor, a role that will give him even more sway in picking winners and losers among local taxpayers. Chicago magazine’s political editor—working with the Better Government Association—argues that Berrios shines as a vivid example of the clout-infested politics for which Illinois is famous
Board of Review Probe Centers on Joe Berrios's Office
CURIOUS DEALS: The murky dealings at the Cook County Board of Review—some of them linked to the commissioner Joseph Berrios through friends and aides—have drawn the scrutiny of prosecutors.
Cook County Campaign Contribution Limits to Board of Review Not Being Enforced
THE FRIENDLY BAR: A county effort to cap campaign donations by property tax attorneys turns out to be toothless
Cook County Board of Review Documents
Confidential transcripts from the board’s investigation
Dining Critic Tries Nutraloaf, the Prison Food for Misbehaving Inmates
JUSTICE IS BLAND: I eat Nutraloaf, the all-in-one “disciplinary loaf” served at Cook County Jail
The Girls of Murder City, by Douglas Perry
LADIES’ FRIGHT: A new book reintroduces a cast of murderous women from the 1920s
Blago: The View from Washington
If Rod Blagojevich has one hero in life besides Elvis, it’s Richard Nixon, and if there’s one newspaper that wrecked Nixon’s life and legacy it’s the Washington Post. How ironic, then, that the Washington Post is trumpeting almost the same line as Blago himself. The Washington Post of Pentagon Papers and Watergate? Yes. Last week, the paper ran an editorial titled “Federal prosecutors should not retry Rod Blagojevich.”…
Sammy Sosa: Cubs 'Threw Me into the Fire'
SAMMY AGONISTES: His fall from grace as a beloved Chicago sports icon came with startling speed and bitterness. The Cubs “threw me into the fire,” says the ex-slugger Sammy Sosa in a rare interview. “They made [people] believe I’m a monster.” But the real blame for his haunted career is more complex—a tale of money, fame, and the cost of hero worship in the steroids era
The Prosecutors' Biggest Blunder in the Blago Case
The key mistake in the government’s case against Rod Blagojevich happened right at the start of the trial, during jury selection, with the choice of a juror who ultimately became the sole vote siding with the ex-gov on key counts of the indictment. Sources say the holdout juror, an African-American retired state worker who had worked for the Illinois Department of Public Health, should have been dismissed…