Soon-to-be-former 7th District Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno thinks it's on the way out. Reeling from his loss to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, Moreno lamented the demise of the Chicago Machine to the Sun-Times. "The committeemen don't have as much influence over the voters as they did when patronage was alive and well," Moreno told the paper. With Al Sanchez and the Hispanic Democratic Organization out of the way, and a federal judge looking over the mayor's shoulder when it comes to hiring, ward bosses can't round up mobs of poll workers to help turn out the vote. Garcia, who was bounced from his seat as a state senator in 1998 at the hands of the HDO, beat Moreno in last week's election. more ›

Dick Simpson, professor and head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has authored (yet another) report on the voting patterns of elected officials in the region. And unlike the conclusion he reached in his previous report (that the city council is the mayor’s rubber stamp), he’s discovered that a majority of Cook County’s commissioners don't, in fact, like Todd Stroger. more ›

Just days after the death of his father, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has indicated that he may agree to give control of the county hospitals to an independent agency. Stroger's chief of staff Lance Tyson told Crain's Chicago Business "the intent is to take health services for the poor out of the sphere of politics and put it into a sphere of greater business expertise." The proposal to turn the county's health care system over to an independent body came last October, when a committee of business and health care executives commissioned to study the systemreleased their recommendations. more ›

The Board meeting we went to a few weeks ago was excruciatingly boring, but some parts got cattier than a sorority house during period week. Looks like that was the theme yesterday, too, when things really got ugly at and after the meeting, with Bill Beavers leading the charge. But he wasn't the only one--lots of people got in on the action. Liz Gorman on Tony Peraica: "loser," "pathetic, pathological liar," "abusive weasel," "no man,"... more ›

Remember when all the county hacks on the payroll were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, crying about how Forrest Claypool was going to destroy Cook County by laying off everybody? Remember when progressives and reformers were begging people to vote for Tony Peraica and all the DINO pork-choppers were saying that he was Ronald Reagan reincarnated, hell-bent on destroying the social safety net of Cook County? We hate to say we... more ›

This summer’s Gay Games 2006 in Chicago got some good news this week in the form of an approved federal blanket waiver allowing non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS to travel the United States and participate in or attend the event. Gay Games VII Sports & Cultural Festival will be held at various city venues from July 15 to 22. The waiver gives the games Designated Event Status and allows HIV-positive participants and attendees to apply for... more ›