Amy Mack, the former Northwest Herald’s hit piece reporter and intimidator of unwelcome candidates, now works for the Daily Herald.
She did several hit pieces on me during 1998 and 2000 elections, using my ex-wife’s divorce filings, among other sources, including my ex-in-laws, Herb and Millicent Geist, whom she told one of my supporters looked at her like “deer in the headlights.”
Then, last fall, she did a hit piece for her new employer, the Daily Herald. And they put it on the front page of the paper.
On a Sunday.
It was on McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi. She cited expenditures which IRS would not question, if made by a private business, but which taxpayers might find a bit strange for a public official.
One topic was for $714 for a luncheon for Bianchi’s swearing in.
In that article Mack did not mention the bills for the judicial reception that was held two years later.
Not that it was a big secret.
Anyone in the courthouse could have gotten a free meal out in the hall that day when new judges were sworn in and the 22nd Judicial Circuit was inaugurated.
The bills included $300 for flowers.
Plus $19.50 for sales tax.
Of course, county government is exempt from sales tax.
Guess someone missed that.
Then there’s a bill for $2,240 from the Public House in Woodstock. It even says what was served:
- Assorted sandwiches
- Turkey Hero
- Roast Beef
- Gourmet Chicken Salad
- Tuna Salad
- Pickle Spears
- Potato Salad
- Pasta Salad
- Assorted Desserts
- Assorted Beverages
Public House charged $151.20 in tax. The line says, “Tax if applicable.”
Another $888.81 went for rentals from Ralph’s General Rent-All Inc., and Party World.
The Woodstock firm supplied
- 14 30 inch by 8 foot banquet tables – $126
- 172 new charcoal gray chairs -$163.40
- 19 white 72 by 120 inch banquet tables -$209
- 1 linen – $5
- a $9 per mile, $5 mile delivery fee – $45 – and
- $35 per hour for labor – $280
There was also a $60.41 “damage waiver.”
So where did the money come from?
That’s tomorrow’s story.