Cleveland Tyson of Buffalo Grove was awarded $56.25 million this week for his role as a whistleblower. Tyson used to work for Amerigroup, a Medicaid provider, and his testimony revealed Amerigroup was not insuring pregnant women and sick people—even though the government was paying them to do so. The government sued the company for over $300 million, and this week Amerigroup settled the suit for $225 million. From 2000-04, Amerigroup was paid $243 million by......

Just a week after Todd Stroger announced his nine nominees to head up the independent board that will operate the county hospitals, it was revealed that the former head of the Health Services Bureau is still calling the shots. Stroger said that Dr. Robert Simon had conducted the interviews for those nine candidates. Simon resigned his position as head of the Health Services Bureau last month. Just as quickly, he was given a contract to......

Remember that independent board that is supposed to assume control of Cook County's Health Services Bureau? The one that is supposed to separate politics from public health care delivery? Turns out, it might not be so independent after all. Of the 20 names submitted to Stroger to fill the nine slots on the independent board, 16 have made campaign contributions to Illinois candidates, including Stroger himself, according to the Sun-Times. Only four—Quin Golden, formerly of......

CVS owes America $36.7 million. CVS Caremark Corp. agreed today to pay that amount to settle Medicaid prescription drug fraud allegations. The company switched Medicaid patients from the tablet version of Ranitidine, a generic Zantac, to the capsule version. It's not medically different, but it's a lot more expensive. According to the FBI, "during the period Dec. 15, 2000, through April 1, 2001, Caremark charged Illinois Medicaid $79.80 for 60 Ranitidine capsules instead of $17.10......

Late Friday, Todd Stroger and nine other county commissioners worked to close the Cook County budget for 2008. The compromise deal doubled the county parking taxes and raised the sales tax to 1.75 percent - making Chicago one of the highest taxed cities in the nation. Those tax hikes, coupled with an agreement to cede control of the county Health Services Bureau to an independent oversight panel yielded the elusive ninth vote that Stroger had......

The Cook County Board of Commissioners had a contentious meeting yesterday as they tried to resolve a looming budget shortfall of nearly $300 million. The board must pass a budget by Feb 29 or face a partial shut down of the county government. Board President Todd Stroger has been trying to convince county commissioners and the public that unless the county sales tax is raised to two percent from its current 0.75 percent, county health......

It was pretty much inevitable that discussions about the NIU shooting would turn to gun control. And turn they have. A group of NIU parents are calling for tighter gun control laws, as is Rep Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago). Mayor Daley asked "Why do we love guns in America?," and Neil Steinberg complains that "the prospect of any kind of meaningful gun control in this country is as impossible a dream as perpetual motion." There's a......

Dr. Maines was inoculating 10-day old emryonated hen's eggs with a specimen containing an H5N1 avian influenza virus. This experiment was part of a study to investigate the pathogenicity and transmissibility of newly emerging H5N1 viruses. Identification of genetic markers affecting the ability of H5N1 viruses to transmit efficiently will help in the early identification of emerging H5N1 viruses with pandemic potential. Information gained from this study is important for pandemic preparedness. Image and......

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......

Tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, so anti-choice protesters marched downtown yesterday and Trib editorial board members wrote syndicated columns calling abortion "evil". But there are pro-choice activists working throughout Chicago and Illinois, too, and today's Trib has a story about the the Chicago Abortion Fund, a group that helps poor women pay for abortions. The CAF also works to destigmatize abortion by holding "leadership groups" and launching a public access TV......

The CTA may be getting slightly greener (assuming it can get its hands on some green). Yes, our beleagured transit authority is looking to by hybrid buses for its fleet if Springfield works out a funding structure. The diesel/electric buses get an extra 2 miles per gallon, and they're priced to move because the King County Metro System in Seattle didn't exercise its option to by the articulated (read: accordion) buses, plus they'd save......

When Mike Madigan and Mayor Daley declined Balgojevich's invitation to meet (again) yesterday to try to work out a deal to fund transit, Rick Harris, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which represents rail workers on the CTA, told the press that "we are about at wits' end." Harris was reacting to the looming "Doomsday 3", as the RTA's labor unions are concerned that a plan to overhaul pension and health care......

Crook County Board President Todd Stroger unveiled his $3.2 billion budget Wednesday. Stroger has struggled to give the appearance that his government is small and fiscally responsible, eliminating about 735 positions over the last three fiscal years, and reducing 1,800 positions from this year's budget. Now he claims that bringing the county's tax take to $888 million by 2009 — by tripling the county sales tax and doubling gas and parking taxes — is necessary......

A blue-ribbon committee of business and health care executives announced their recommendation yesterday that an independent board assume oversight of Cook County's health care system. The ten-member committee was appointed by Board President Todd Stroger last spring at the urging of Senator Dick Durbin. Stroger said that he is open to independent management of the county's health care system, stating the obvious to the Chicago Tribune: "It's obvious that the [County] Board does not work......

Just so you know, nobody is going to let you forget about global warming for more than five minutes. Whether it's Al Gore's tears, your alderman's lightbulbs, or Blackle, somebody's always got some new way to save the earth and they want to bend your ear about it while they are driving home. The newest thing you should be worried about? How global warming is going to affect your health. About 12,000 physicians, health care......

It seems like Cook County politics becomes more and more like a bad soap opera every time we open the newspaper. While Todd Stroger is threatening more cuts and tax hikes to cover the tab on the bloated executive payroll, Tony Peraica is giving speeches about prosecuting the crooks. Forrest Claypool wrote an op-ed piece earlier this week about the disaster that the County's health care system has devolved into, and Todd Stroger won't even......

A tentative contract deal was announced yesterday between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. Although the details were not discussed publicly, our sources tell us that nothing too radical was agreed upon. The teachers are expected to get around 4 percent each year of the deal. CTU President Marilyn Stewart suggested to Crain's Chicago Business that the CTU managed to restore some of what was lost in the previous contract, which was......

"'Cause it's Friday, you ain't got no job ... and you ain't got shit to do." Well, you can go check out the New Orleans Social Club at Millennium Park. If you aren't, here's some stuff in the news. Buckingham Fountain is slated to undergo a complete overhaul in autumn 2008. Near West Side businesses get $1.5 million in TIF money intended for keeping manufacturing jobs in the area. Does Manny Flores have the......

Boy, you know it must be bad when Mayor Daley is calling you out on your legislative tactics. In remarks to the press yesterday, Daley called Blagojevich's plans to cut $500 million from the recently passed budget and impose a universal health care plan of his choosing legally questionable and "dangerous." "In short, I'm cutting pork and special-interest spending and, in its place, I'm using the legal authority that I have to expand health care......

Here are some things in the news while we do spit takes at the ticket prices for the upcoming Van Halen tour. A $300-a-year parking permit created for realtors, home health care providers, and social workers to plug a $2.4 million hole in the city's 2007 budget only generated $15,900 in revenue. Facing increasing criticism in allowing BP to increase the amount of pollution it can discharge into Lake Michigan, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels......

There's no love lost here between Chicagoist and Cook County government. In fact, not only has Todd Stroger (as well as the other comedians that pass for "Commissioners" on the county board) been a target for our anger, frustration, and disappointment, they've been fodder for our ridicule and a symbol of what's wrong with local government here. Looking back at the news from last week, we've been following the story of Sally Lemke, the nurse......

A.O Scott’s review of the new Michael Moore movie begins with a very astute observation; namely, that whenever Moore’s name is brought up it is inevitably attached to adjectives such as “polarizing,” “controversial,” “provocative,” and “muck-raking.” And that it is the media itself which perpetuates the use of these adjectives. Would one describe Steven Spielberg as “polarizing?” Spielberg has two films in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time and no one describes him......

It's been said that politics makes strange bedfellows, but we wonder if politics just makes you crazy instead. While Blagojevich strolls around the capital trying to convince the General Assembly to play ball with his all but dead budget, Emil Jones is taking shots Mike Madigan by proxy. On Tuesday he kicked Sen. Louis Viverito (D-Burbank) an assistant majority leader, out of a closed-door Senate Democratic leadership meeting. Viverito voted against the plan for expanded......

Now that Blago's $7.6 billion tax plan has crashed and burned in the state legislature, he's doing a total 180, embracing expanded gambling in Illinois to try and cope with a state budget that is in serious trouble. The legislation, backed by Emil Jones, would expanding gambling in Illinois to include three riverboat licenses for Waukegan, the south suburbs and an as-yet undetermined point within an eight-mile radius of O'Hare Airport. As part of......

It wouldn't be a week here in the Politics bureau of the Chicagoist offices if we didn't take at least the perfunctory shot at Todd Stroger or one of his handlers. So here's this week's. In case you hadn't figured it out by now, Stroger and his puppet masters have been playing fast and loose with the county's budget, even though it's in such desperate shape that they have slashed critical services just to keep......

Last Thursday, the Regional Transportation Authori-tay (RTA) told Metra, Pace and CTA to start preparing emergency budgets to take effect July 1 due to a $226 million deficit in the big picture of the RTA. Springfield needs to help out or the Chicagoland area is getting some more salt in the public transportation wounds that have been inflicted with deteriorating infrastructures, higher fares and delays caused by massive renovations. The Daily Southtown article quoted RTA......

So much has happened in politics this week, all across our little city. From the ministers in the West Loop, to construction and development on the South Side, to Top Cops Downtown getting notice in DC, it's like Chicago is just one big happy village, people. Let's take a look: Blago's Budget Puts Him in Touch With God. Governor Rod Blagojevich is on a "crusade," bringing tax fairness, education and health care to all of......

When Ditka speaks, Chicago listens to what Da Coach has to say. Does the same go for the NFL Players Association? While Ditka has certainly done OK for himself financially since his playing days — coaching the Bears, opening a successful steakhouse, TV football analyst gigs — not all former NFL players are doing so well. Back in the day, they just didn't get the ridiculous contracts today's players get. Careers in the NFL are......

The big news yesterday was Rod Blagojevich's tax proposals. Coming as part of his combined State of the State and budget address to the General Assembly yesterday, Blago is proposing the largest tax hike in state history. Along with raising taxes (which he said he wouldn't do during his re-election campaign), he is also planning to increase spending by 9.5%, to a record $60.1 billion; $7 billion of that would come from the new gross......

As March comes roaring in like a lion, our fearless leaders here in town and downstate have been doing some roaring of their own. Let's take a look back at some of the more noteworthy events thus far: Illinois' crappy reputation with elections is yielding news calls for an audit. State rep Mike Boland (D - Moline) has introduced an amendment to the election code requiring an election-night audit in each precinct in Illinois instead......