* 4 charged with digging up, dumping bodies at Burr Oak Cemetery
As many as 300 bodies were unearthed and dumped in a mass grave as part of a scam that netted the workers about $300,000, authorities said Thursday.
The empty graves were resold to unsuspecting families for cash — off the books, authorities said.
“There should be … a special place in hell for these graveyard thieves,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who appeared with authorities at a press conference at the cemetery Thursday.
* Jail moves to protect cemetery defendants
The four cemetery employees charged in the alleged scheme to dig up bodies at Burr Oak Cemetery and illegally resell their grave sites have been moved into a special section of Cook County Jail to avoid serious injury from other inmates, Sheriff Tom Dart said this morning.
“These people need to be put in a special place because there is the strongest possibility of serious injury if that doesn’t happen,” he said. “We jumped on that right away.”…
Former cemetery manager Carolyn Towns, 49, foreman Keith Nicks, 45, and dump-truck operator Terrence Nicks, 39, all of Chicago, and back-hoe operator Maurice Dailey, 59, of Robbins, were each charged with dismembering a human body, a Class X felony. All face up to 30 years in prison.
Towns’ bail was set at $250,000, the others’ at $200,000. Towns was placed in the psychiatric wing of Cermak Hospital. “We’re concerned for her based on a psychiatric evaluation,” said sheriff’s office spokesman Steve Patterson.
* Cemetery Investigation To Last Months
* Families rush to site of disturbed burials
* Families anguished at finding bodies dug up, headstones gone
* Exclusive: Emmett Till’s casket left to waste at Burr Oak
Broken. Rusted. Battered. The image of a glass-covered casket with the body of Emmett Till was shown around the world in the 1950s. But on Thursday, as hundreds of African Americans searched frantically for the graves of love ones, the battered casket of Till was rusting in the back of a shack at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip…
“When we opened it up trying to find what we have, a family of possums ran out,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Cemetery workers had been cooperative and informed law enforcement officials that it was indeed Till’s original casket.
“It sure looks like all of the photos I have ever seen,” Dart said. “This is absolutely horrible.”
* Ex-Daley aide pushes back against inspector general
Tristan’s lawyer, William Coulson, sent a letter Wednesday to the mayor in which he defended Tristan’s conduct and suggested Inspector General David Hoffman violated a federal court’s wishes and a city ordinance by making his investigative report public.
“Mr. Hoffman’s report is, in my view, shockingly deficient in both factual support and analysis, and falls far short of the high standards which the citizens of Chicago should expect from the Inspector General,” Coulson wrote to Daley.
Various city employees who also were mentioned in Hoffman’s report have hired a lawyer and separately asked a federal court judge to remove Hoffman’s report from the public file.
The unidentified employees want the report sealed, Hoffman and other city employees barred from making any more comments about it, and future reports by Hoffman that recommend employee discipline to be filed under seal.
* Pick outsider as personnel chief
Here are a few suggestions for the mayor as he considers Tristan’s replacement:
• • Pick a professional with no deep political ties. We’re not saying all top city professionals need to be free of politics, but if you want this post to have credibility, pick an outsider.
• • Hire someone who understands that the federal court order on city hiring means what it says. When an alderman sends a letter advocating for a city employee, it’s time to pick up the phone and inform the federal hiring monitor — not ship it along to the city’s legal department to see if it absolutely, positively has to be reported.
• • Select someone who understands the best way to end the costly federal monitoring of the city’s hiring is to work with the federal court monitor, not around her.
* City job headed down the tubes
The Daley administration moved Thursday to fire a $91,008-a-year plumbing inspector caught doing a side job with no permit, city license and without signing a secondary employment form allowing him to perform the work.
The violations were particularly egregious because Kendrick was assigned to a task force that busts people for working without permits.
On Thursday, Kendrick was placed on administrative leave pending termination proceedings. The fact that he allegedly asked Water Management investigators for city-owned parts — lead packs and copper — to repair the broken pipe did not factor into the decision.
“It’s not that we’re making light of that. It’s just that we have enough to fire him without delving into that,” said Buildings Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey.
* Radical School Reform Model Showing Results
* Inflating test scores just misleads public
Daley said 69.8 percent of Chicago elementary students passed their 2009 state exams.
There’s just one problem: That’s not correct. It’s actually 67.5 percent — 2.3 points lower than what Daley and CPS’ leaders announced. This is the real number, the one that goes on the state report card.
There is a logic to using two numbers, but CPS and Daley didn’t explain it, preferring to highlight the higher number in their press release, which is what many reporters and the public rely on. The higher number, you see, excludes Chicago students still learning English. The lower number includes them.
* Mayor urged to quit over health insurance
* Kane County DUIs: Cops seek tough penalty when suspects refuse tests
* ‘Chicago Gardens’ exhibit see artists’ visions in full bloom
* State fire marshal warning on smoke detectors
* New O’Hare runway prompts noise complaints in Park Ridge
* There’s an app to teach you CPR