A year ago today Toni Preckwinkle succeeded Todd Stroger as Cook County Board President. (Has it only been a year?) While her first 12 months would have been considered a positive by simply not being Stroger, Preckwinkle has been, for the most part, as advertised. more ›

Three more county commissioners have joined William Beavers and Earlean Collins in reneging on their February decisions to abide to furlough days as part of the 2011 budget. more ›

This isn't unexpected from "the Hog with the Big Nuts." For Collins, it's a reversal of what she agreed to in February. more ›

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said as only she can that layoffs will be a part of any effort to balance the county's $315 million budget deficit. more ›

The Sun-Times reports today that former County Board President Todd Stroger filed for unemployment benefits with the Illinois Department of Employment Security. more ›

After over 19 hours of deliberations, the Cook County Board unanimously approved a $3 billion budget at 4:25 this morning. more ›

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has been pushing for a substantial pay raise for one of her newest staff hires, and questions are starting to circulate. Preckwinkle has been pushing for a $43,000 pay raise for Mary Laraia, who is "second-in-charge" at the Cook County Forest Preserve. Laraia has been a contributor to Preckwinkle's aldermanic campaigns in the past, and Laraia contributed $2,250 to Preckwinkle's campaign last year. If the raise is approved, Laraia's salary will jump from $111,908 to $155,172 per year, which Commissioner Liz Gorman pointed out was almost a 40% raise. more ›

Seven Cook County workers have been suspended from a county job training program. The Sun Times reports the director of the Cook County Board President’s Office of Employment and Training (POET) suspended seven employees earlier this week, citing an official misconduct investigation. Among those suspended includes an employee related to Shirley Glover, an ex-Cook County financial manager who was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty for embezzling over $100,000. more ›

County Board President Toni Preckwinkle seems headed for a showdown with Sheriff Tom Dart over proposed cuts to his department's budget. If Dart holds the line with his current proposed cuts, it could become the first confrontation in Preckwinkle's administration. more ›

Yesterday we took a look back at the salad days that were the Todd Stroger administration. No matter how much you loved or hated the guy, the fact of the matter is that corruption and clout in Cook County is now Board President Toni Preckwinkle's problem. And with her taking the helm in Cook County comes a new report by county Inspector General Patrick Blanchard that Cook County’s Highway Department is a patronage "dumping ground." more ›

New County Board President Toni Preckwinkle didn't let the dust settle under her feet after giving her inaugural speech. Preckwinkle set a 2013 deadline to roll back the unpopular penny sales tax hike implemented by the outgoing Todd Stroger and showed dozens of Stroger staffers the same door Stroger was shown by voters last spring. more ›

Toni Preckwinkle will be sworn in today as the new President of the Cook County Board and chances are that she won't be smiling like in the photo above for a while. more ›

From the Chicagoist "tips" inbox (yes, we check it) comes this gem of a Google ad from reader James Chase. more ›

Cook County Board President-elect Toni Preckwinkle was hoping for a smooth transition with the man she's replacing. But is it any surprise that Todd Stroger so far hasn't cooperated with Preckwinkle? more ›

A week after winning reelection to the Cook County Board, 17th District Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman filed for bankruptcy. more ›

Cook County Board President-elect Toni Preckwinkle announced her transition team today, and it's a bipartisan commission of heavy hitters, . more ›

In a wide-ranging interview with the Sun-Times yesterday, Preckwinkle laid out the foundation of her agenda and reading it is a breath of fresh air after four years of the naked patronage and incompetency of Todd Stroger's administration. more ›

State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's embezzlement case against former Tood Stroger aide Carla Oglesby becomes better reading by the day. A ten-page complaint against Oglesby refers anonymously to fellow associates of Stroger who may have been involved in Oglesby's embezzlement scheme. Alvarez said many of the people in the complaint may have been involved unwittingly, as Oglesby used their work for Stroger to bill her own company. more ›

Oh, Twitter. Even though you bring us joy sometimes, you can also stir up feuds. Twitter feuds between friends, enemies, and frenemies is nothing new, nor are feuds between, say, media outlets. But the raucous over Twitter has now extended to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. We've posted before about Com. Tony Peraica (Rep., 16th) and his tweeting habit from board meetings. Whether we agree or disagree with his views, the Tweets are also a good way to stay up-to-date on what was generally happening at the meeting and sometimes vote-by-vote reports on important ordinances. But one Commissioner had enough and introduced what he admitted to be an "Anti-Twitter" ordinance. Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno (Dem., 7th) introduced the ordinance to prevent Peraica from tweeting during meetings but the ordinance was shot down earlier today. Moreno expressed concerns about the information Peraica was relaying, calling it often "inaccurate" while Peraica saw it as " a clear violation of freedom of speech." more ›

With county government facing a $300 million shortfall next year, (soon-to-be-former) county board president Todd Stroger appears poised to propose an across the board 10 percent cut. “The administration is still working hard on the budget,” county spokesman James Ramos told the Tribune, explaining that the county CFO Jaye Williams had no comment on next year's budget. “It is premature to make any statements.” Finance Committee Chair John Daley (who is also the mayor's brother) said that he believes the budget shortfall for the county could be even worse than anticipated next year, and supports the 10 percent cuts. more ›

Federal hiring monitor Mary Robinson issued a report this week detailing something that the rest of Cook County has been well aware of for some time now: Todd Stroger has been using his position as Cook County Board President to hire and fire people based on political allegiances. Robinson noted in her report to the federal court that is overseeing hiring in Cook County and the City of Chicago that while progress has been made on removing political influence from the hiring process in Cook County, “since losing his primary bid to run for reelection, the president has aggressively used his legal authority to make unilateral exempt hiring and firing decisions to reward supporters and part company with those who were disloyal.” more ›

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Screw It Zone. Presented for your consideration: One Mr. Todd Stroger, (soon to be former) Cook County Board President. Stroger ascended to his seat in a Machiavellian deal with the devil, taking power in the second most populous county in the United States after his father succumbed to a stroke. But all is not well in the heartland. more ›

The election to replace Cook County Board President is still five months away, but Todd Stroger's still in the captain's seat. And that means that his administration is still in charge when it comes to contracts and hiring. According to the Sun-Times, the Stroger administration quickly hired and payed two contractors to help promote energy efficiency and composting in Cook County (you remember those campaigns, right? Right?), even though they aren't listed in state or county business registries, as required by law. more ›

After the suburbs raised holy hell about a new red light camera ordinance the Cook County Board passed last week, the Board is now backing down on the new ordinance. The Parking Ticket Geek reports that the Board voted 9-4 (with three presents and one absence) to allow the municipalities to opt out of having the red light cameras placed at intersections. Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Wilmette, and Bartlett were among the 'burbs who were none-too-pleased about the ordinance. Commissioner Tony Periaca, who voted against the original ordinance, said, “It’s an overreach and an encroachment on their sovereignty and sets a dangerous precedence. It’s a way to separate taxpayers from their money. It’s not about safety it’s about revenue.” Commisioner Patricia Murphy, who voted present, didn't exactly rebut Peraica when she expressed concern over that revenue: “If they opt out in great numbers how does it effect our budget. I’m worried what this means to the budget if municipalities choose to opt out. If they opt out you’re not going to have anything left." more ›

Cook County commissioners passed a resolution this week boycotting Arizona businesses in response to the state's punitive law requiring immigrants to carry their alien registration papers, and requiring police to question people they suspect of being in the United States illegally. The county then voted to award one of two contracts for red light ticketing cameras to American Traffic Solutions, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The other contract went to Redspeed Illinois, based in Lombard, Illinois. (That's DuPage County, in case you were wondering.) The red light cameras will be posted at some 30 intersections around Cook County. One town targeted seems to be Schaumburg where another fight over the cameras could be brewing. The Expired Meter has more on that as well as a list of the proposed intersections. more ›

That lovable scamp Todd Stroger is at it again. Just a few days after reports surfaced of shenanigans including contracts with board approval and new furniture spending sprees, a new report says that Stroger gave his CFO a ridonkulous raise of $54,000 and did so without board approval. That's not a typo: 54 plus three zeros. For a raise. Hell, many of us don't make that in a YEAR and we're not the CFO of a county struggling to make ends meet. CFO Jaye Williams was the recipient of the pay raise, which boosted her salary from $176,000 to $230,000 (31 percent). This from the board president who's been huffing and puffing about the board's tax roll-back has no problem shelling out an extra $50K? more ›

With just seven months left in the captain's chair, Todd Stroger has entered the "Screw It Zone," prompting new restrictions by the Cook County Board. more ›

It's been a rough week for Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. February's tough primary is drawing nearer and Stroger's reeling from the Board's override of his veto of their half-percent tax roll back. That veto override was a bitter pill for Todd to swallow, which may account for his demeanor in this interview he conducted with the Chicago News Coop; the interview happened right after the override. Perhaps it's no surprise given that particular failure, but Stroger exhibited a feeling of abandonment, beginning with Mayor Daley. more ›

It's the same old song and dance at the County Building this afternoon, as Todd Stroger once again vetoed the rollback of his penny-on-the-dollar sales tax. The tax was recently voted down (again) by the Cook County Board by a vote of 12-5. Since the State Legislature changed the rules to require only 11 votes to overturn a Board President's veto, all the commissioners have to do is to not flip-flop on their original vote. more ›

After all the huffing and puffing earlier this week over the new tax rollback, the Cook County Board still managed to pass its 2010 budget yesterday and there were no new taxes included. The budget, valued at $3 billion, does include that new half-percent tax rollback - from 1.75 percent to 1.25 percent. Though the battle over the veto and override still hovers on the horizon. more ›