The weekly Pioneer Press is reporting on its web site today that the Illinois Attorney General’s office, to put it in the words of the headline,
for Bianchi complaint”
McHenry County Republican Central Committee Chairman and County Treasurer Bill LeFew made a big deal about not being able to separate his office duties from his political duties.
In mid-October, he announced that he was going to resign in order to avoid the potential conflict.
More recently, LeFew admitted mailing anonymous hit pieces about the basis of the complaint, spending office funds on meals for overtime employees, a couple of hundred dollars for parade candy during non-election years, etc. He has come under heavy fire, even having the Northwest Herald call for his immediate resignation.
Enterprising reporter Pete Gonigam elicited the information from the Attorney General’s office.
He writes that a spokeswoman,
” announced Thursday evening that the office found no basis for opening a criminal investigation against McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi.”
But, when asked who filed the complaint, Robyn Ziegler would not reveal who sent the letter or its specifics.
Gonigam has been able to scoop the daily newspapers several times on McHenry County’s baseball stadium.
Perhaps with this on-the-spot news approach, he is pointing the way for papers like his Algonquin Countryside to compete better.