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 ›

Another problem from Todd Stroger's watch falls into Toni Preckwinkle's lap. more ›

Former County Board President Todd Stroger's attempts at collecting unemployment were shot down in flames because he was an elected official. But his former aide, Carla Oglesby, was approved for unemployment benefits by Stroger in the months before he left office.Oglesby collected at least $3,465 in unemployment compensation in the final months of 2010, despite being charged with theft of government property, money laundering and official misconduct. 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 ›

Less than a month on the job and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is tackling some of the problems her predecessor left behind. This week she met with state officials to try and sort out the mess that Stroger's infamous "zoo party", paid for with funds allocated to help county flood victims, left for her. more ›

The moral of this story? “A man without hope is a man without fear.” more ›

And here we thought we wouldn't have Todd Stroger to kick around anymore. Huffington Post Chicago — hereafter known as "ChuffPo: — has compiled a list of the Toddler's top ten lowest moments as County Board President. We find it hard to limit ourselves to ten, given the quilt of ineptitude and hubris Stroger knitted in just four years, starting with being elected. But let's see what ChuffPo compiled: 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 ›

At what would be the last meeting for a trio of names familiar to those who follow Cook County politics, Todd Stroger, Tony Peraica and Forrest Claypool took some good-natured jabs, said goodbyes, and thanked supporters. Stroger, who lost the Democratic primary to 4th Ward Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, defended the unpopular penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase he worked to implement. “That penny literally kept the government running. Without that money, we would have had to shut some doors, cut days off, not provide some services as we actually are dictated to (provide) by the state.” Stroger told press after the meeting. He also publicly thanked his cousin, Donna Dunnings, saying “I’d like to give her a lot of credit for the success we had,” as she, according to the Sun-Times, "openly wept" in the audience. Dunnings was fired by Stroger in 2009 after a patronage scandal that had her bailing a former steakhouse busboy out of jail, twice, amid allegations that he was improperly promoted and carried on an inappropriate personal relationship with her. more ›

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that newly released county documents showed a zoo party was hosted by outgoing Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's administration, paid for with federal grant money intended to help families whose homes were damaged by flooding. more ›

Preckwinkle warned county officials that spending cuts will be coming, in order to overcome a projected revenue shortfall of $480 million. That shortfall includes the loss of revenue in the projected rollback of the county sales tax increase Stroger and the Board approved last year; a $55 million settlement reached this week related to strip searches in Cook County jail; higher debt payments and new contract costs for employees. more ›

The feud between Cook County Board President-elect Toni Preckwinkle and outgoing board president Todd Stroger took an ugly turn during Tuesday's board meeting, as Cook County Commissioner Bill Beavers lashed out at Preckwinkle. 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 ›

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

Todd Stroger, the soon-to-be-unemployed Cook County Board President, is being called upon to fight Carla Oglesby's unemployment claims. Oglesby was arrested last month on charges of fraud and official misconduct after allegedly steering no-bid county contracts to her private public relations firm. more ›

Apparently, it has been a busy after-hours week at the Cook County Building and that has us thinking of Bob Seeger. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Cook County Board President’s office “underwent a hush-hush after-hours security inspection Wednesday night.” Despite assertions from Stroger’s spokesperson that the sweep had been planned for weeks, Cook County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Executive Director David Ramos and the two former FBI agents (now owners of a private security company) that accompanied him, still needed building management’s assistance to enter offices for Stroger and former Chief of Staff Carla Oglesby. Oglesby is awaiting trial for an array of contracting irregularities. The CST notes that Ramos is a key witness in the case. more ›

Thieving was easy for for former Todd Stroger aide Carla Oglesby. Holding on to the nearly $300,000 she allegedly embezzled from the County was a different matter. more ›

Losing a county-wide election by a staggering margin, having one of his cronies arrested on fraud charges, these are the things that should leave a politician wondering how safe he might be in the eyes of both the public and prosecutors. But no, outgoing Cook County President Todd Stroger appears to be hellbent on making sure that people with political connections have a safe paycheck place to work. 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 ›

Todd Stroger's (now-former) Deputy Chief of Staff spent the night in Cook County Jail after being arrested and charged with defrauding the county of $300,000 in a scandal involving multiple no-bid contracts awarded at a dollar threshold just low enough to avoid county board approval. Carla Oglesby was held on $250,000 bail after she was arrested Monday afternoon. State's Attorney Anita Alvarez served a warrant issued as part of an investigation by her financial crimes unit. more ›

Carla Oglesby, Todd Stroger's former deputy chief of staff, was arrested Monday afternoon by the Cook County State's Attorney's financial crimes unit on a warrant related to charges stemming from an ongoing corruption probe of Stroger's office. Oglesby was charged with theft of government property, money laundering and and official misconduct. more ›

In addition to giving jobs to friends, Todd Stroger is now also giving them furniture. According to the Sun Times, the Stroger administration blew $13,000 on new furniture for childhood pal Eugene Mullins. Mullins, Stroger’s chief spokesman, denied the price tag, but then said he didn’t know how much it cost and denied the Sun Times entry to his office to photograph the desk and chairs. While Todd might not have the receipts, the company he purchased the items from does. Scott Freeman, owner of Simple Distributors, said the order was taken over the phone and delivered in February. The company still hasn’t seen payment. Stroger appeared this morning on "The Don & Roma Show" on WLS-890 AM this morning in which he: said he won't run for mayor; speculated on Rahm & Jesse Jackson Jr.'s meeting; and called the furniture issue a non-story. more ›

In the shadow of Todd Stroger's swan song of hiring and no-bid contracts to friends and family, the Finance Committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a host of ethics reforms in the county, including barring people that have business before the county from making campaign contributions. The board also took aim at county tax appeals commissioner Joe Berrios, who is running for county assessor. The reforms require candidates for assessor or Board of Review to return campaign contributions that exceed $1,500 from people that are appealing their tax bills. The reforms also bar public officials from conducting political activity while acting in the official capacity of the county, or using county resources. more ›

We're shocked - shocked, we tell you - to learn this morning that outgoing Cook County President Todd Stroger has been accused of hiring shenanigans. A motion in an ongoing lawsuit brought by attorney Michael Shakman alleges Stroger has violated a political hiring ban 157 times. According to the Sun-Times: 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 ›

• Cook County President Todd Stroger's troubled jobs training program lost $2,7 million and could lose even more.
• The Cook County Sheriff's latest partner in crime-fighting: garbage men.
• The attorney for Rod Blagojevich, brother and co-defendant of former governor Rob Blagojevich, admitted he regrets not calling U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. to the stand.

The Department of Revenue of Cook County was the proud recipient of the 2010 tax collector award by the National Association of Counties. It's strategic planning and modernization efforts to collect the money off its citizens was unmatched by any other in the U.S. Cook County previously ranked number one with the highest sales tax in any large city at 10.25 percent. The rollback that took effect July 1 only ties us for the number one slot with Los Angeles at 9.75 percent. The highest sales tax in the country is 12 percent in Cullman County of Alabama. 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 ›

It looks like even though he's still in the "Screw It" Zone, lame duck Cook County Board President Todd Stroger got a reality check and has pulled the controversial appointment of Vincent Williams, a former Stroger campaign chairman. Stroger had tried to appoint Williams to a seat on the Board of Zoning Appeals - worth $38,000 a year - but was met with stiff resistance from commissioners. As a result, Stroger asked the board to indefinitely defer their consideration of the appointment. Republican Commissioner Peter Sliverstri quipped, “As far as I’m concerned, it can wait until the next administration." Ouch. more ›