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Cook County Cook County Board Toni Preckwinkle Government and Politics Infrastructure More + Preckwinkle-seeks-pay-hikes-following-Cook-County-sales-tax-increase.com Photo by Manuel Martinez Just two weeks after raising the sales tax to pay for pensions, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is moving to give tens of millions of dollars a year in pay hikes to county workers. Legislation introduced yesterday by the county chief would extend raises of up to 6.5 percent throughout county government. Only those who make more than $200,000 in annual salary would be excluded. The proposal, sent to a Cook County Board committee for review, extends to other unionized employees...

City officials are pushing property-tax hikes, sales-tax hikes, and even a commuter tax and financial-transaction tax. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s wish for a $474 million sales-tax increase to help pay for the county’s growing pension debt has been granted. The hike pushes the sales-tax rate back up to 10.25 percent in Chicago – the same as it was when Preckwinkle took office in 2010. And that’s not the only new tax residents have to face. Preckwinkle is just the latest local leader to usher in a tax increase. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a new tax earlier this...

A man was charged with killing a 13-month-old baby while fleeing police after the shooting of Chicago rapper Capo, prosecutors said Monday. Antoine Watkins, 21, plowed over Dillan Harris as police chased him after seeing him walk "calmly" away from the murder scene Saturday, prosecutors said. Watkins has been charged only in the baby's death "at this point," not in the murder of Capo, whose real name was Marvin Carr, prosecutors said. "You killed my f---ing baby!" a woman howled during Watkins' bond hearing Monday before she was escorted out of the Cook County courtroom, according to DNAInfo. . .

Cook County Board today cleared the way for President Toni Preckwinkle's plan to raise the county's sales tax a penny on the dollar, mostly for pensions. The action came when the board's Finance Committee, which includes all board members, voted 9 to 7 to 1 to send the $474 million a year tax hike to the full board, which will consider it later today. The key votes came from Commissioner Luis Arroyo, a Chicago Democrat who voted "yes," and suburban Republican Elizabeth Gorman, who cast a "present" ballot and who is widely rumored to soon be headed to a new,...

A Lakeview Chinese restaurant with a controversial name that spurred a criminal vandalism case has closed, though its owner said he intends to reopen. Chop Chop Chinaman, located at 3343 N. Halsted St., has been shuttered for the last several weeks. Its name contains what many consider an ethnic slur — Chinaman — and it caused one woman in February to scrawl lipstick on the restaurant window to express her displeasure. That woman, Jeannie Harrell, was charged with misdemeanor criminal damage to property. She wrote on the window (in terms saltier than a newspaper allow) that the name is racist,...

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Tinley Park squatter living rent and mortgage free The problem with squatters is hitting home in an upscale Tinley Park Subdivision. On Mallow Street where homes sell for $350,000 or more, a woman has been living in a house rent and mortgage free for two years. “It's very frustrating, our property taxes are very high, I work nights to pay mine and to help support my family. And I just see her coming and going without a care in the world it's enormously frustrating,” said neighbor Patti Yara. And no one is more frustrated than...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has become the latest high-profile progressive to endorse Cook County Commissioner Chuy García's challenge to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). “I am going to Chicago to support Chuy García and [City Council candidate] Susan Sadlowski Garza. I support them because we need a political revolution in this country and we need the kind of working-class coalitions that Chuy and Susan are pulling together,” Sanders said in a statement.

Illinois had the biggest decrease in population according to a new report from the Census Bureau. Between July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014, the state lost 9,972 people. On the other end, Texas saw the largest population increase adding more than 450,000 people during that time. Cook County saw a very slight decrease in population. It’s one of four counties with a population of more than 1 million to experience a decrease. Others include industrial counties like Wayne County, Michigan; Cuyahoga, Ohio; and Allegheny, Pennsylvania. The rate of people leaving Cook County for other counties has been increasing since...

Father Who Torched Apartment to Kill His Daughter and Son-in-Law Found Guilty of Murder Subhash Chander set fire to a 36-unit Oak Forest building in 2007 because he was angry and offended. His 3-year-old grandson also died. By Dennis Robaugh (Patch National Staff) March 21, 2015 at 11:18am A grandfather who torched an Oak Forest apartment building seven years ago to kill his pregnant daughter, her husband and their 3-year-old son — because his daughter’s choice of husband offended him — has been convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. Subhash Chander, 64, an angry, argumentative heavy drinker, now faces...

ities: The problem with socialism, Margaret Thatcher once noted, is you eventually run out of other people's money. In progressive Chicago, that's hit home as Moody's has cut its credit rating to two grades above "junk." Chicago's finances are staggering under the weight of an unfunded pension liability that Moody's Investors Service has estimated at $32 billion, eight times the city's operating revenue. Chicago has a $300 million structural deficit. And Illinois law requires the city to up its 2016 contributions to its police and fire pension funds by $550 million. "This is an unfortunate wake-up call for anyone still...

On Jan. 22, Jason Hammond accepted a noncooperating plea deal from prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois: He will serve 41 months for his role in an organized assault on a casual dining establishment in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park. On May 19, 2012, Hammond and 17 others stormed the Ashford House restaurant with bats and hammers, interrupting lunch and leaving 10 people injured. But instead of years in jail, America should perhaps consider sending Hammond a thank-you card. He is not to be confused with his twin brother, Jeremy Hammond, who is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison...

Whoops! Technical difficulties identified with Cook County voting machines. “This was a calibration error of the touch-screen on the machine,” Scalzitti said. “When Mr. Moynihan used the touch-screen, it improperly assigned his votes due to improper calibration.” A “calibration error” – indeed: if you vote for one candidate with an “R” after his name and the machine registers a vote for the candidate with a “D” after his name, you could call that a calibration error. The same way you could call going in for a surgery to have your gangrenous left leg amputated and the doctor mistakenly removes the...

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – Admitting his confidence in Cook County ballot integrity is shaken, State Representative Candidate Jim Moynihan (R-56), was shocked today when he tried to cast a vote for himself and the voting machine cast it for his opponent instead. “While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” said Moynihan. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a...

The Democrat mantra that voting fraud is rare takes another blow today with the stunning story of a GOP candidate unable to vote for himself in Cook County Illinois. The Illinois Political Review reports: Admitting his confidence in Cook County ballot integrity is shaken, State Representative Candidate Jim Moynihan (R-56), was shocked today when he tried to cast a vote for himself and the voting machine cast it for his opponent instead. “While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” said Moynihan....

The Democrat mantra that voting fraud is rare takes another blow today with the stunning story of a GOP candidate unable to vote for himself in Cook County Illinois. The Illinois Political Review reports: Admitting his confidence in Cook County ballot integrity is shaken, State Representative Candidate Jim Moynihan (R-56), was shocked today when he tried to cast a vote for himself and the voting machine cast it for his opponent instead. “While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” said...

The Democrat mantra that voting fraud is rare takes another blow today with the stunning story of a GOP candidate unable to vote for himself in Cook County Illinois. The Illinois Political Review reports: Admitting his confidence in Cook County ballot integrity is shaken, State Representative Candidate Jim Moynihan (R-56), was shocked today when he tried to cast a vote for himself and the voting machine cast it for his opponent instead. “While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” said Moynihan....

HARVEY, Ill. (WLS) -- A Harvey police officer was shot by a burglary suspect who is now holding people hostage inside a home at 147th and Robey, officials said. The officer was wounded in his arm, according to spokesperson Sean Howard, and was taken to Advocate Christ Hospital. The police officer came across a burglary in progress and exchanged fire with the offender, Howard said. The offender then ran into the home, where he is now holding people hostage. Officials do not know how many hostages are being held.

A man with a concealed carry permit shot at an armed robbery suspect who was running from a cell phone store in Crestwood, prompting an officer who was also chasing the suspect to take cover, police said. The man with the permit told police he was about to step inside an AT&T store at 4756 W. Cal-Sag Road around noon Saturday when he noticed the store was being robbed, Crestwood police said in a statement. The man said he stayed outside to prevent anyone from entering, police said. After he saw the suspect leaving through a back door, he entered...

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's husband has been hit with a federal subpoena asking him to appear before a grand jury as part of an investigation into a state anti-violence program. It is the second, ongoing probe into Cook that is also looking into how monies were dispensed from the $54 million anti-violence program. Cook was paid more than $154,000.00 in salary and benefits from the grant funds.

Kass exclusive: Suburban officer charged in 95-year-old's death Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass discusses charges filed in the death of 95-year-old John Wrana. John Kass April 2, 2014 An officer was charged this morning in the police killing of 95-year-old John Wrana, the World War II veteran who was fatally shot with beanbag rounds in his apartment at a south suburban senior facility last year. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office said patrolman Craig Taylor, 43, was charged with one count of reckless conduct, a Class 4 felony. Taylor has been with the Park Forest Police Department since January,...