A former North Chicago school board member and her district's transportation director took kickbacks totaling at least $800,000 over 10 years from contractors who had been awarded the district's lucrative school bus contracts, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Gloria Harper, 59, of North Chicago, was a member of the board of North Chicago Community Unit School District 187, and Alice Sherrod, 59, of Gurnee, was in charge of transportation for the district of 4,000 students, prosecutors said in announcing a 26-count indictment against them and three contractors.
In 2001, the women started collecting $4,000 to $5,000 a month in exchange for sending business to suburban bus companies, but by 2003, they were receiving $20,000 a month, the indictment states. During that same time period, the women awarded $21 million in student bus contracts to companies that paid them off, the indictment reads.
They and contractors Derrick Eubanks, 47 of Lake Villa; Tommie Boddie, 66, of Wadsworth; and Barrett White, 52, of Matteson, were charged with wire fraud and various other counts of soliciting or paying bribes.
All but White were also charged with filing false income tax returns.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/15/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Not Pakistan or Afghanistan? Next choice; Chicagoistan. Why am I not surprised this occurred in Chicago--the city that brought up our current national disaster.
#3
A really informative "reality show" format would be to expose the lifestyles these crooks were funding with this baksheesh. I'm betting there's some really ugly furniture and clothing involved...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/15/2011 22:45 Comments ||
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IM NOT SURE I BELIEVE THIS: Obama: 80% Of The American People Want Higher Taxes. But Im happy to call your bluff, Mr. President: I challenge you to introduce legislation raising taxes on 80% of Americans. . . .
#1
This guy's been bluffing his way through his entire life because no one's ever had the balls to call him on it.
I'd love to play p0ker with him. I could use a 747...
#2
Unfucvking believable! This guy does not know how to tell the truth. How can you negotiate with a liar? They invent lie about the premises of the argument and the arguments as they go along to suit their own narcissistic ends. The Pubs need to follow Donald Trump's lead and begin playing hardball with this man-boy of a President.
#4
He is either the biggest traitor in American History and the history of the world, or he is the most moronically stupid ass monkey to ever exist.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Halliburton Lost Drill Bit Division ||
07/15/2011 14:39 Comments ||
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#5
Show me the survey that claimed datum comes from, including the internals. I'd bet a lot of money that either he invented that out of whole cloth, or it wasn't done by a reputable organization within the industry.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/15/2011 15:04 Comments ||
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#8
Push him HARD. He's so brittle a small tap will break him. The 80% number is like the 90% of guns used by the drug cartels came from the United States - pure fiction to push an agenda. The truth is that nothing Barry says can be trusted. He's a pathological liar. If you call him enough on it, he'll fold like a cheap suit. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi need to be hammered as well. They're just as much responsible for the current mess as O'Bumble is.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/15/2011 15:12 Comments ||
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#9
He's deep within his bubble, which is an echo chamber, of sycophants and true believers(tm). Time to push now when he has a total unrealistic view of the universe because his responses will come to this. Push, push, push.
#10
Push hard. Hire Trump if you need someone with brass balls.
Obama is looking more and more like a psychopath.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/15/2011 15:30 Comments ||
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#11
I agree with pushing hard. He still has his followers and our rinos. If we had just stood up to him things would not have gotten this bad. Every time he took a vacation I was glad to be rid of him.The mainstream media also has done our country a major disservice as well. My hope is he is removed due to a mental breakdown. Biteme would be some improvement. So should he remain I must warn all "DANGER WILL ROBINSON" he will do more damage.
Where is he getting this 80% figure? How about out of his hind end. Gallup doesnt back him up. Neither does Rasmussen. Gallup gets you closest, but you have do get a little creative with the numbers and even it shows that 50% would prefer a deal with no revenues at all (Ras shows 55% on that side).
Update: In comments, Jay Caruso says Obama is citing this poll. Heh, he may well be. Its a PPP (theyre the people who polled Rick Perry behind Obama in Texas) and this particular poll is up to their usual standards. It was commissioned by MoveOn and other leftists, and cherry picks four states. If thats the poll hes citing, he may be outsourcing the making up of the stuff.
I feel smug. ;-). But I did a bit of work on this kind of thing, long ago.
#19
"Obama: 80% Of American People Want Higher Taxes As Part Of Deal"
Then raise taxes on the 49% or so WHO DON'T PAY ANY TAXES AT ALL. Even if it's just $1 a week. It's their country too (I guess) - let them participate in the "shared sacrifice." I'm sure that 80% if them would be pleased to contribute. Right, Bambi?
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/15/2011 18:54 Comments ||
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#20
"I wonder what the terrible twos look like at his age?"
Here's one answer, MTC. (Coffee and eye-bleach alert.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/15/2011 19:03 Comments ||
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#21
I agree with Dr. Steve. I have some additional ideas, but I'll elaborate them later.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/15/2011 19:21 Comments ||
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#23
If you look at that Gallup poll, 20% want the deficit problem solved purely by spending cuts. 73% want some mix of spending cuts and tax increases. So Obama, like a typical demagogue, ignored the 7% "don't know" and claimed 80% of the American people want higher taxes as part of the deal.
Of course, the 73% know it will come from the other 27%.
#25
Some call it the herd effect. I have called it the flocking effect. What Obama is doing is he tries to direct his herd, "As soon as members know what other members think, they cease to act independently. They begin to follow what the group does, even to their detriment". The skill of a con artist is that he can go back time after time place after place to relieve people of things of value. Emotion is the key element they tap. Logic is gone altogether. "It's my football so we'll play by my rules" as said of JFK.
#26
Massachusetts has a voluntary higher tax option. How many people out of all those paying regular taxes have opted for the higher rate? Do you think its 80 percent? 40 percent? 5 percent? or less.
A far more honest statement would be that many Americans want other people to pay more taxes, but not themselves. Some how that little part of the 'poll' never gets addressed.
#27
With elections in 2012 the difficult decisions will not be made. Then in 2012 with the realization that they can't make the tough decisions the child has been cut off from daddy. So they will sew and patch and make things work till then. Then the devil will have his due.
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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
