Chicago/Illinois DU'ers....I've got a juicy one for you.

[XNASA]

Last night I went to dinner with two couples who are pretty well connected to the CPD. We started talking politics and the conversation turned to ex-Gov George Ryan.

Two people at the table mentioned that the fire in the County building in October was set to destroy files that were harmful to Ryan.

Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Edmund Donoghue concluded that the six deaths from the October 17, 2003, fire at the Cook Country Administration Building were homicides. But no reason for setting the fire has been reported in the Media.

http://www.crowdsafe.com/new.asp?ID=1252

When I asked why the Media hadn't reported this, they all agreed that the timing wasn't right yet and that eventually, the story would get out.

I told you it was juicy.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Whoa!!!

WHOA!!!!!!! That's HE-uge! :wow:

Who'd vote for a Republican in IL after THAT comes out?

[demsrule4life]

3. There are people that actually vote for repugs in IL?

[Logansquare]

13. It's one big happy family of corruption

The dem machine in Chicago is not exactly progressive, and the Repub state organization isn't exactly a bunch of fundie neo-cons like we see in the rest of the country. One side of me hates it, but the other side shudders to think of what could replace it.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. That whole thing was damned suspicious.

Why to hell would they have gasoline stored in the building. Dick Devine, who allegedly barely made it out in time, will have a field day with this. I went to grade school with Dick Devine's younger brother (good old Chicago connections, LOL). Too bad the younger brother died a couple years ago, would be interesting to hear him say what his brother thinks...privately, of course.

Thanks for the juicy info.

[XNASA]

5. How 'bout it.

I was shocked when it was ruled a homicide. I wondered, why would anyone want to set a fire in the County Building?

Now it makes sense.

[Chicago Democrat]

4. JFK Crazy ! Huge Unbelievable...

Thats just crazy enough to be true. Ryan is on trial now, but are you saying that Ryan had anything to do with the fire??

[XNASA]

6. Me? I'm not saying anything.

I'm just saying that I heard that there were files that were harmful to Ryan stored on that floor.

That was the rumor at dinner last night, anyway.

[demsrule4life]

7. Now it comes out

that magical word, Rumor.

[XNASA]

8. My sources could only speculate.

Until this reaches the mainstream, how could it be anything else?

I'm sure a lot of people would like to know why 6 people are dead.

I'll tell you something that isn't a rumor, 6 people are dead and it's been ruled a multi-homicide. That much is true.

[demsrule4life]

9. I have my own connections in the CPD

and you are right it is classified as an arson At this time there are also no suspects. Repug or not I would never spread rumors that someone might be responsible for six murders unless the evidence pointed that way. So lets wait and see where the evidence takes us.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. "Dead because of political clout"

Victims of the Cook County office building fire are...
"Dead because of political clout"

By Carole Ramsden | October 31, 2003 | Page 2

"PEOPLE DIED because of political clout, and they died because the politicians would spend money to buy expensive computers to reward their friends who buy tickets to upscale political dinners, but they won't put money in to make a situation safe for employees."

Those were the bitter words of Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy after an October 17 fire that killed six people at the county’s office building in downtown Chicago. The six county employees, three of them from Murphy’s office, died of smoke inhalation after they were trapped inside a stairwell--because doors that should have been unlocked in a fire situation remained barred as a "security measure."

Grieving families of the victims were left asking numerous questions: Who gave the order to evacuate the building? Why weren’t the door locks overridden? Why weren’t sprinklers and other safety devices installed in the building when it was renovated in 1996? Why didn’t the county’s main office building file its evacuation plan with the city’s high-tech emergency center?

http://www.socialistworker.org/2003-2/474/474_02_ChicagoFire.shtml

[Beaker]

11. you got any juice on Daley?

I hate that corrupt POS more than I do most repugs...it amazes me that people keep re-electing his criminal ass.

and BTW- I'm sick to fuckin' death of those stupid goddamn black iron fencing everywhere.

it makes me sick to think of all the ways that lil' ritchie keeps screwing the taxpayers...Millenium park...soldier field...the bus stop contract...meigs field...this trucking thing that's going on...just to name a few.

[IkeWarnedUs]

12. something on Daley

I was watching channel 32 (local Fox affiliate, WFLD) noon news Friday and they broke in to cover a press conference Daley was holding about the truck-for-hire scandal. I've never seen Daley like that before. He said he took administrative blame for the scandal, but that he didn't personally know about it until it hit the news. He said senior aides were trying to fix the problem for months and didn't tell him what was happening. He was visably angry - shaking at times. When WFLD left the press conference and went back to the anchors, Mark Suppelsa said Daley was probably so pissed because he was scared because the FBI is all over the investigation because of the mob ties to it. Daley has handled all sorts of embarassing scandals and I've never seen him so shaken.

Here is how the Chicago Tribune described it:

<snip>
"As I stand before you today, I am embarrassed, I'm angry and I'm disappointed because I feel I have let the people down," Daley said, making his first public comments on the scandal, which broke while he was vacationing out of the country.

"But as much as I feel I have let people down, I also feel that I have been let down," he said. "As any good manager will tell you, part of the challenge is to pick good people and trust them to do their jobs. So did I know there were abuses in the program still not being addressed? No. Should I have been told? Yes."

One City Hall insider said the mayor's anger was even more intense behind the scenes. "I think he is so mad at so many people that if he fired them all, city government would come to a screeching halt," the source said.

link (free subscription needed): http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0401310122jan31,1,3236260.story?coll=chi-news-hed

And here is how the Sun Times described it:

There has been no shortage of mayoral mea culpas during Richard M. Daley's 15 years in office, but it was hard to remember one that quite matched the emotion-charged apology he delivered Friday after returning from a week's vacation while the scandal over the Hired Truck Program was unfolding at home.
<snip>
You didn't have to read between the lines to find the apology Friday. . . Those of us in the room for his news conference thought he was on the verge of crying several times, which didn't quite seem to translate to the television screen, I thought later after viewing it on tape.
<snip>
If you take him at face value, you'd have to guess that he was very disappointed in city Budget Director William Abolt, whose office oversees the Hired Truck Program and who did a woeful job of responding to media inquiries as the story was breaking.
<snip>
Right up until last week, Abolt had been the new golden boy of the Daley regime, granted can-do-no-wrong status by the mayor himself. Now he's going to walk the plank for the truck mess, which he probably deserves, although he would not be anybody's primary suspect for allowing the corruption that characterized the program, only for the incompetent effort to fix it.
<snip>
A forgiving public has always accepted the mayor's apologies. But Daley may have been so upset this time because he knows Chicagoans will have difficulty believing that the mayor with the hands-on reputation didn't realize so many of those trucks parked at job sites around his city had nothing to do -- or that Tadin was still the program's primary beneficiary six years after Daley had promised to cut him down to size.

link to much more: http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown01.html

If you think Chicagoans will have a hard time believing Daley's ignorance, imagine how hard it will be for the FBI to buy it.

There are a lot more links to the story on Google news. I think this one had legs and it will stomp all over him.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Daley+Chicago+trucks+&btnG=Search+News

(edit for a spelling boo boo)

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

15. I heard the same rumor about

files relating to Ryan being stored in that building about two months ago from a person who works in the States Attorney office. It didn't really shock me when I was told about it. George Ryan is a total sleazebag. What I can't figure out is why his trial won't be heard until next year. I also like his choice of attorney, Dan Webb, former US Attorney for the Northern District and great friend and I believe a law partner of former Illinois Gov. "Big" Jim Thompson.

As for "lil ritchie", he makes me sick as well. To use an old country Irish expression, "he forgot where he came from". He's turned his back on all the rank and file firemen and policemen in the city and the city's public schools are a total mess and he blames everything on the teachers. What a jerk.

[buycitgo]

17. amen!!!!!

did you see that ASS clapping and laughing at remarks by the chimp in chief at the Mayors' conference last week?

WTF was THAT all about? he looked like a Labour Party backbencher trying to out applaud his fellow sychopants during weekly PM's Questions sessions.

he makes me sick

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

19. Why were you surprised about that?

Remember the St. Patrick's Day parade last year. Don't be surprised if Chimpy isn't invited back this year to march along with Capt.or is it Maj. Hickey from Hickory Hills.

LOL, I know my father is rolling over in his grave in Holy Sepuchlre Cemetery over this sh**.

[Beaker]

20. There's a reason that Ryan's trial won't hit until next year-

because of those "liscense-for-bribes" deals, this thing has national implications, and there's no sense in haveing a showcase corruptio trial of a high-profile Repuglican during the lil'dictators re-selection campaign.

[Logansquare]

14. Do you remember what office the fire started in?

This would help either foward or discount the rumor. I had thought that Ryan was pretty much being thrown to the wolves by the state organization; perhaps someone who is connected to the county is trying to cover his/her own butt.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. I think it was an office used for storage.

Not sure which specific department.

[slappypan]

16. Chicago Archdiocese/abusive priests/Maryville

Another rumour going around is that files destroyed had to do with pedophile Catholic priests and possibly the recently closed Maryville Academy facilities.