"How could one woman steal over $53,000,000 without anyone noticing?" The largest municipal fraud case in the history of the United States, and not surprisingly it happened in Illinois, a breeding ground for corruption. Dixon, Illinois, is a small community of a little over 15,000 people in...
Cook Co. (ECWd) - In a clear message to public bodies, Cook County Judge Hon. Franklin U. Valderrama has sided with the public's right to records in a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case. In doing so, the 16-page opinion and order expose the...
Cumberland Co. (ECWd) - In January of 2016, we attended the Neoga School District Board meeting to expose the fact the Board had violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to properly post the agenda for the meeting. The article which includes my public comment at...
BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) - After outing Bloomington's use of public credit to purchase an airline ticket for Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner's girlfriend to go on vacation in Japan, he came out defiantly swinging, and his supporters started circling the wagons to unsuccessfully defend this purchase. First, he...
BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) - After posting an article exposing the fact that the City of Bloomington, Illinois had purchased an airplane ticket for Margot Erhlich, Mayor Tari Renner's girlfriend, to presumably accompany him on his "business trip" to Japan this week, Renner decided to leave a...
BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) - Bloomington Illinois' Mayor Tari Renner took another vacation, I mean took another "business trip" to Bloomington's Japan Sister City. It is our understanding he is in Japan as we are typing this article. Diane Benjamin at BLNNEWS.com wrote about the bills and payroll last...
Illinois (ECWd) - When we fail to address violations of law by public officials at the local level, it festers and desensitizes us to the importance of our laws. Those officials who are allowed to get away with breaking our laws move up the chain to...
Orland Park, Illinois (ECWd) A recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Orland Park Public Library (OPPL) yielded a PDF of food and beverage receipts in which this public body chose to improperly redact non-exempt information such as the names of the employees either making...
SPRINGFIELD, IL. (ECWd) - In a scathing OEIG Report, it was revealed that Department of Children and Family Services Director George Sheldon: had improperly hired a "consultant", Igor Anderson, made improper payments to him out of his personal accounts, consultant lacked any substantive work product, admitted...
DeKalb, IL. (ECWd) - PRESS RELEASE: "There has been a Temporary Restraining Order filed against the Northern Illinois University's Board of Trustees by Misty Haji-Sheikh. She alleges that on June 15, 2017 the Board of Trustees took final action against President Douglas Baker that was invalid regarding...
