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Is Barack Obama's November 4, 2008 Grant Park Victory Speech a sign of things to come?

Mayor Daley promised to not use taxpayer's money to pay for Barack Obama's victory speech in Grant Park Chicago, Illinois. The November 4, 2008 event was a big day for many white and black folks expecting great things from Obama. Chicago is a big labor town and when we work, we expect to get paid. Some of the security was handled by private contractors. The Chicago Police handled much of the outside perimeter work, and much of the security close to the stage was handled by non-union armed guards. Many of these guards do not go through the background checks our Chicago Police go through. I think this had something to do with the consultants the Chicago Police hired; it could be a retired copper. When many people retire with a large pension from Chicago, they forget where they come from. I hope Mayor Daley finds out why some of the armed guards must wait until December 31, 2008 to get their $230.00 check for putting their life on the line with no benefits. I hope Barack Obama makes sure these scabs are paid for putting their life on the line for him! Contact me for details, I know the companies involved. The workers need change! Patrick McDonough.

Comments

Per state law the guards go through a state & fbi background check

www.dpr.state.il.us

name the companies

(Response) Your e-mail is?

Federal probe into City Hall hiring quieting down
It's been 11/2 years since last indictment
By Todd Lighty and Jeff Coen

Tribune reporters

December 2, 2008

A federal prosecutor told jurors at the hiring fraud trial of Mayor Richard Daley's patronage chief that the investigation inside City Hall was alive and well, promising that many more corrupt public officials would be brought to justice.

"For those who are there and are responsible for this scheme, there's another day," Assistant U.S. Atty. Philip Guentert told jurors in 2006, during closing arguments. "City Hall is chock-full of the schemers."

Yet more than two years later, the federal investigation appears to have stalled.

Robert Sorich, Daley's longtime patronage chief, convicted in July 2006, did not cooperate with the investigation, likely hampering prosecutors' hopes of climbing the ladder to expose higher-level corruption.

Since then, only former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, accused of being a co-schemer, and an assistant have been charged in the probe.

Federal prosecutors rarely announce publicly when secret grand-jury investigations have ended. But in a telling sign that the hiring investigation appears over, lawyers for the Daley administration say they last heard from U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's office on this issue in April 2007, a month after Sanchez was indicted.

Sources told the Tribune that prosecutors have approached Sanchez about cooperating in return for a plea deal. But Sanchez's lawyer, Thomas Breen, said his client has done nothing wrong.

"As far as Mr. Sanchez is concerned, we are going to trial in March," Breen said.

Sanchez was a top official in the Hispanic Democratic Organization, once the most powerful and feared patronage army in Daley's political organization. HDO coordinator Aaron Del Valle, a former Streets and Sanitation employee accused of helping Sanchez, was indicted with him for lying to a federal grand jury, officials say.

Del Valle's lawyer, Martin Dolan, also said he was prepared for a March trial.

Federal authorities declined to talk about any plea deals or whether they hoped to bring further charges against higher-ups in City Hall.

Evidence at Sorich's trial indicated that former top Daley aides Timothy Degnan, Victor Reyes and John Doerrer may have participated in the fraudulent hiring scheme, according to a government filing.

Since Daley was elected mayor in 1989, all three men had led the Mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, an office prosecutors placed at the center of the hiring fraud scheme.

Degnan's lawyer declined to comment, Doerrer's lawyer could not be reached for comment and Reyes has denied any wrongdoing.

Sorich, who worked under all three, has long-standing ties to the 11th Ward Democratic Organization run by the mayor's brother John. Both John Daley and Degnan attended a fundraiser to help pay his legal bills, as residents and party workers from the ward rallied around him after his conviction.

Sorich, sentenced to almost 3 years in prison, is scheduled to be released in 2011.

His lawyer, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said prosecutors had to claim that Sorich's conviction was a step up the ladder to justify indicting a man "who . . . went to work every day and did the job assigned to him."

The hiring investigation was in full tilt when prosecutors interviewed Daley for two hours in August 2005.

If federal authorities were still hot on the case, they might not be so chummy with the mayor.

At the funeral of Chicago Police Detective Joseph Airhart last month, Fitzgerald and Robert Grant, the head of the FBI's Chicago office, were seen chatting with Daley for at least 20 minutes.

And during the summer, Daley spoke at the FBI's 100th anniversary celebration at Navy Pier. After the speech, Grant and Daley posed for photographs.

tlighty@tribune.com

jcoen@tribune.com

mdw@ripco.com

name the companies

(Response) Your e-mail is?

(Response) Go to page one of the website and go to contact me "e-mail" Pat

Three years ago I saw this coming and even blogged about it. I'm not happy to announce this but prepare, and welcome to the depression. This one was due to hit in 2001 but our lovely and trustworthy leaders lied about all the economic data just to not let the psychology get out that we were in for a correction. So they played with the figures and made matters much more worse. During the 1929-1937 depression the stock market dropped and stood still for about 6 years. This time around due to government interference the stock market will stay low for a total of about 12-14 years. Look at todays levels compared with 1999 after the tech crash. When prices rise faster than earned income a correction must occur, not government interference.

(Response) I predicted this event as well as others years before it happened. It is a shame, protect your home!