Our Shameless Solicitation For Donations –

PARIS, IL. (ECWd) –

The time has come once again to ask for donations to assist us in keeping public bodies and public officials accountable to the citizens they are supposed to represent.

We continue to travel to attend meetings, court cases, and to interview and gather evidence for articles we are working on. All of this takes a tremendous amount of time, and a substantial amount of funding.

We humbly ask once again, for donations to continue our efforts in holding power to account.

We continue to assist those who ask; private citizens, public officers and employees, and public bodies have asked for assistance, and we provide it without cost.

We have stayed true to our published mission: “to foster accountability, truth, and transparency in our local governing bodies” – our annual financial reports are available online in the IRS’s Charitable Organization Search Tool, and we have maintained our registrations with state agencies (Sec of State and the AG), and have maintained our 501(c)(4) charitable organization status with the IRS.

Our work speaks for itself; here are some of our accomplishments since our last donation solicitation:

• won a 6-year battle to pry financial records and other information out of the hands of the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency (here)
• won a near-6-year battle to pry records from a public community college (here)
• won a Court Sanction against Township Attorney (here)
• IBEW Political Director terminated after we published his vulgar message to us and to Rep Bailey (here)
• exposed Fireman’s theft of public funds – he was charged (here) – this was also covered by WAND’s I-TEAM (here)
• exposed Bellmont’s Mayor for his illegal use of village equipment on his private property, and his attempts at using the Court and restraining Orders against residents for their lawful exercise of First Amendment rights (here)
• exposed Governor Pritzker’s Press Secretary’s picking of winners and losers in access to press conferences – policy was changed (here)
• exposed former State Rep and current County Board Chairman Jack Franks’ banishment from State Capital unless escorted (here)
• exposed Cumberland County Deputy for racist message, death threats, threat of violence, and alleged spouse abuse (here)
• exposed county board members for compensation overpayments (here) – one repaid the county (here)
• assisted in the huge victory in Macoupin County against the City of Carlinville and their attempts at forming a private company in order to contract from the private company. Two good citizens championed the cause and sued the city, and won (read it here)
• exposed Sheriff’s Administrative Assistant for payroll fraud (here) – she was terminated (here)
• outed a Coles County Assistant State’s Attorney for allegedly soliciting sex and porn from Defendant – he resigned the first business day after our article (here)
• in a month-long project with us, WAND-TV’s I-TEAM highlighted Shelby County’s Engineer and his alleged conflict of interest, private company working out of county building (here)
• exposed a Township’s attempt at censoring certain videos (here and here)
• exposed US Senate Candidate’s alleged violation of the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act (here)
• covered Watseka Police Chief’s alleged sexual harassment against a police officer, we won those records after filing a lawsuit for copies of them (here)
• exposed Township donations to a Political PAC (here and here) – it is no longer a PAC
• forced village to change its video taping policy for meetings (here)
• interviewed Kankakee County Auditor and covered the lawsuit he filed against the county for usurping his statutory duties (here)
• enhanced our capability to live stream public meetings and other events by purchasing the correct equipment and services – our readers can now enjoy the action as it happens
• Live streamed High School Graduations (here and here)
• outed an SIU Professor for allegedly using state resources for political campaign (advocating in favor of a referendum on taxes) purposes (here)
• won a 2-year public records lawsuit against Carlinville (here)
• exposed a Park District employee for allegedly inciting a riot in Champaign – he was later arrested by U.S. Marshalls in Mississippi and charged (here)
• exposed Police Officer’s DUI – he plead Guilty (here)
• stopped illegal appointment of Airport Authority Commissioner (here)
• exposed School Assistant Principle’s arrest and his lies about the arrest – he is no longer employed there (here)
• and many, many more…