U.S. Rep. Danny Davis defended his decision to step out of the Cook County Board President's race and instead focus on winning reelection to his Congressional seat. According to WBEZ, Davis felt like "I could have won" except for some impediments. more ›

Todd Stroger filed for re-election of his seat as Cook County Board President late Monday afternoon. By filing the nearly 22,000 signatures he's collected to put him on the ballot so late - he filed less than an hour before the deadline - he'll secure the last position on the ballot, considered second to the top spot in terms of voting booth strategy. "I feel great," Stroger told the press after filing. "I feel like 150 pounds of dynamite." While Stroger is perceived as politically vulnerable after a tenure of tax increases and budget debacles, that 150 pounds of dynamite has yet to really go off on Cook County residents. The 22,000 signatures are only about half of what a few of his opponents turned in. Never one to take the blame himself, Stroger instead told the Sun-Times it had to do with his helpers: "Normally, you have people who collect signatures. It's hard getting people out there to collect signatures." more ›

That's what Fox Chicago's Dane Placko found happening when he took a camera crew down to 49th and Ashland for a visit to the Mother's House social services agency. Mother's House is supposed to be providing job training to people in Illinois' EarnFare program, which "is designed to provide adults who receive Food Stamps and who volunteer an opportunity to gain valuable work experience, earn cash assistance, and become self-sufficient." Placko spoke to a number of EarnFare workers who told him the only task they were given each day was to gather signatures on petitions for political candidates, most notably Cook County Circuit Court Clerk and Cook County Board President candidate Dorothy Brown. Besides the interviews, Placko also found several stacks of political petitions at the Mother's House office, which lead to a heated exchange with the manager there escalating to a point where police were called. more ›