Carol Larson of Alden Township has been on the MCC Board for many years.
Below is her campaign piece:
Carol Larson’ campaign literature for re-election to the McHenry County College Board cites “professional integrity” and “fiscal responsibility” under “Experience.”
A press release from State Senator Pam Althoff:
Springfield, Ill. – Both the Illinois Senate and House took up legislation to reform the state’s public employee retirement systems during the week. State Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-Crystal Lake) said the pension changes were largely “test votes” that could help define the final parameters of any reforms that may ultimately be sent to the Governor.
The Illinois Senate approved a very narrow measure, Senate Bill 1 that would only impact active teachers outside the city of Chicago.
Retired teachers, state employees, university employees, Chicago teachers, General Assembly members and judges were not included in the bill.
Senate Bill 1 was criticized as a piecemeal approach to a problem that has overarching consequences for all Illinoisans.
It was approved on a partisan roll call with no Republicans voting for it.
Despite having bipartisan support, a much more comprehensive measure that Althoff supported, Senate Bill 35, failed to garner sufficient votes in the Senate to advance. Only 11 members of the Democrat super-majority voted for the changes in Senate Bill 35.
The House also approved a pension change that would limit Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) paid to all retirees.
A 3% compounded COLA currently granted to retirees has been identified as a major expense driving up the cost of pension benefits.
Under HB 1165, retired workers would be limited to a cost of living increase of 3% on the first $25,000 of pension income for persons not covered by social security, and on the first $20,000 for those covered by Social Security.
This would translate into no more than $750 for those who do not receive Social Security benefits and $600 for those covered by Social Security.
Annual cost of living increases have been identified as one of the largest cost drivers of the state’s current retirement systems. It has been projected that changing the way in which these increases are calculated could save the state $100 billion by 2045.
One measure that did pass the Senate with strong bi-partisan support was SB 1224, which would end the practice of allowing persons to use unused vacation and sick time to boost their pensions when they retire. The measure, which passed 53-0, would apply only to new hires.
Earlier in the month the House sent the Senate measures that would increase the retirement age to 67 (HB 1166) and cap pensionable income at about $113,000 (HB 1154).
Althoff said it was also disappointing that Governor Quinn didn’t bother coming to Springfield to push for reforms, despite having said he “was put on earth” to solve the pension problem.
While not directly a pension issue, a March 19 ruling by a Sangamon County judge upholding legislation adopted last year could have a significant impact on the state’s ability to control health care insurance costs.
The court upheld SB 1313, a 2012 law that repealed a guaranteed state subsidy for health insurance premiums of up to 100% (for retired employees with 20 years or more of service).
The court ruled that the benefit was not a part of an employee’s pension and therefore did not fall under the constitutional guarantee afforded to pension benefits.
Although pension changes gathered the most attention, much of the week was actually spent in committees reviewing hundreds of pieces of legislation in advance of a March 22 deadline to conclude committee review of bills and send them on to the full Senate. The committee reviews are the first stage of the annual process that winnows down thousands of proposals to get to those that will ultimately win approval from both the Senate and House and be signed into law by the Governor.
One critical measure that remained in committee is a much-needed reform of the state’s workers’ compensation laws to assure that a genuine tie between the workplace and the injury exists. Illinois has long been plagued by a system in which employers are forced to cover injuries under the worker’s compensation system, even if the injury had little or nothing to do with the employee’s job.
Senate Bill 2307 would establish “causation” standards in Illinois that would be used to determine if an injury was actually caused by work conditions or occurred on the job. The lack of such standards has been cited by businesses as a major reason why Illinois’ workers’ compensation costs are higher than competing states. Even the Illinois Attorney General has issued a report calling for reform, citing the causation issue as a major factor in driving up workers’ compensation costs for the state.
Pam Althoff
While committees dominated the week’s work, several measures did pass the Senate including the following:
EPA Reports (SB 33): Allows the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to require that drinking water quality test data be submitted electronically rather than filing paper copies.
Gaming Chips (SB 66): Clarifies that gaming chip suppliers can attach their logo (rather than the company name) to chips, supplies and equipment. This codifies actual practice, as most suppliers have used a logo, but a review of statutes found that the law actually required the use of the supplier’s name rather than a logo or other distinctive mark.
Nursing Home Notices (SB 1197): All nursing homes must provide written statements on federal asset income disclosure requirements and provide notice that Medicaid can be denied for failure to comply.
Sexually Violent Offenders (SB 93): Allows for sexually violent persons to be temporarily housed in a distinct portion of the Chester Mental Health Center. The temporary housing is needed while permanent facilities at Rushville are undergoing renovations to expand capacity. The temporary housing must be closed by June 30, 2015.
Cook Co. Homestead Exemption (SB 1894): Increases the maximum reduction that may be made in the Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption for Cook County and the General Homestead Exemption. This legislation was introduced because the Alternative Homestead Exemption in Cook County that began in 2003 is beginning to expire.
Additional legislation approved by the Senate and Senate committees can be found at the Senate Republican’s “Senate Action” page at www.senategop.state.il.us.
In her official capacity, Johnsburg Village Administrator Claudette Peters was subpoenaed to appear before the McHenry County Grand Jury on February 27th.
She was asked to being “any and all documents, emails, electronic and non-electronic communications, plat of surveys, reports, maps, charts, engineering surveys, specifically to include identifying contact information of individuals who signed the quit-claim deeds to the village concerning parcel number 10-18-179-019, and what is referred to as the unimproved portion of Maple Avenue, which also may have been legally described in the quit-claim deed attached hereto.”
The deed was recorded in February, 2011.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
CHICAGO — A former Chicago investment advisor was sentenced today to six years in federal prison for an investment fraud scheme that swindled clients, causing them to lose more than $1.6 million.
The defendant, DIMITRY VISHNEVETSKY, pleaded guilty last August to wire fraud and bank fraud, admitting that he misappropriated funds raised from investors for his own purposes, including to pay for such expenses as 
while using additional investor funds to make Ponzi-type payments to clients.
Vishnevetsky, 34, of Chicago, was ordered to pay $1,684,763 in restitution, nearly all of it to a half-dozen investment clients, by U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, who likened Vishnevetsky’s conduct to a financial storm that devastated the lives of his victims.
Vishnevetsky was ordered to begin serving his sentence on May 28.
“This offense was entirely unnecessary,” the government argued at sentencing.
“There was no good reason for this fraud, and the defendant, who was skilled in the world of finances could have gotten a legitimate job. In fact, [he] obtained a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, and attended the University of Oxford.”
According to the court records, Vishnevetsky offered and purported to sell investments, including investments in funds which promised to trade S&P Futures, and a fund that could trade in things such as equities, futures contracts, and commodities, as well as brokerage and management services for some investors, and promissory notes, through Hodges Trading, LLC, and Oxford Capital, LLC, which he controlled. Three purported Oxford funds existed in name only, as did the promissory notes, which Vishnevetsky described as London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) adjusted notes.
Between September 2006 and March 2012, Vishnevetsky made false representations about the profitability of his prior and current trading, the use of the invested funds, the risks involved, the expected and actual returns on investments and trading, as well as false representations about the funds he purportedly traded.
For example, Vishnevetsky created and provided some investors fraudulent trading results showing profits as high as 36 percent per year. In fact, any trades that Vishnevetsky actually made consistently resulted in losses, not profits.
The bank fraud conviction resulted from false statements Vishnevetsky made between 2007 and 2010 to Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust concerning his income and assets to cause the bank to issue, and later modify, two loans totaling approximately $519,500 to purchase a condominium in Chicago.
The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern.
The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which filed a companion civil enforcement lawsuit, assisted in the investigation.
The investigation falls under the umbrella of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit: www.StopFraud.gov.
Those are the votes cast early and absentee.
They will be added to the results you will be able to read here or on the McHenry County Clerk’s election return web site.
To gauge the impact such votes will have take a look at the totals by township:3
I’m informed that Nunda Township Board Commissioner candidate Rob Parrish and Grafton Township Supervisor candidate Linda Moore had absentee ballot campaigns.
Using First Class stamps Algonquin Township Trustee candidate Russ Cardelli has done something all candidate will be able to do in 2014.
He got the last word in my mail box.
By mailing his post cards First Class Saturday he pretty much guaranteed delivery on Monday.
After Saturday mail delivery ends, Third Class political mail–which is treated like First Class mail the last few weeks of a campaign season–will allow any one to time delivery for Monday.
So, let’s see what he message is.
Most people look at the address side of the mail first. Russ Cardelli has a photo of his family there.
On the back side Russ Cardelli’s biggest campaign point appears in too small print. He led the fight to keep Algonquin Township officials’ salaries from rising. He lost the vote, with Supervisor Dianne Klemm voting with him, 3-2.
Your blogger was out delivering campaign literature for the last couple of days and hasn’t had time to write articles.
So, in the comment section, please tell us what happened this past weekend in the political world.
Did someone knock on y0ur door?
Did you get a phone call promoting a candidate?
Did you receive mailings you haven’t seen posted here?
Please provide as much detail as you can, including where you live.
If you can scan some Nunda Township mailings and email them to calskinner2@gmail.com, that would be appreciated.
When we interrupted the description of McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s revision of his Federal court case against Special Prosecutor Thomas McQueen and Quest Consultants International, et al, we had just gotten to the unnamed “co-conspirators.”
That’s where we begin today.
Co-conspirators enter the picture here:
“Defendant McQueen, along with Defendant Quest Investigators, and other as yet unnamed co-conspirators, met and agreed, through explicit and/or implicit means, to
- manufacture and
- fabricate
evidence for the purpose of removing Bianchi from office by charging and prosecuting Bianchi and other SAO employees with criminal offenses, despite the lack of probable cause or credible evidence.”
McQueen’s personal involvement in the investigation is stressed, including his personal interviewing of individuals.
“Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators manufactured evidence and fabricated inculpatory witness statements against Bianchi and other SAO employees,” the filing says.
And, “at the direction and/or with the knowledge of Defendant McQueen, the Defendant Quest Investigators prepared reports that contained the false and manufactured evidence.”
A list of witnesses interviewed for which inaccurate reports were prepared follows:
McQueen is also said to have convinced Quest investigator Robert Scigalski to change reports.
Next, Ekl writes,
“After a reasonable opportunity for further investigation or discovery, there likely will be evidentiary support that the false evidence manufactured during the investigation by Defendant McQueen and the Defendant Quest Investigators was done without Special Prosecutor Tonigan’s knowledge.”
Bianchi’s “political enemies” make another appearance in the text, “secretly obtaining information from Bianchi’s political enemies in furtherance of the conspiracy to violate Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights through the manufacture and falsification of evidence to arrest, indict, and prosecute Bianchi and other members of the SAO with crimes that they did not commit. Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators concealed their relationship and communications with these individuals until they were recently revealed through discovery obtained by Plaintiffs on May 23, 2012 in this instant case.”
Subsequently, the Grand Jury Judge Graham convened is examined, emphasizing the leadership role McQueen played in the investigation, but including false statements made to the Grand Jury by the Special Prosecutor and Quest investigator Scigalski.
The belief is expressed that “Tonigan did not know that the evidence was false and that Tonigan incorrectly believed that Defendants McQueen andScigalski were relating truthful information that they learned during their investigation.”
The September, 2010, indictment and arrest of Bianchi and his assistant Joyce Synek is the next topic covered.
The text intimates that McQueen “duped” Tonigan to bring charges.
It continues to emphasize the problems with the investigation.
And, the “co-conspirators” return:
“Despite the concerted efforts by the Defendants and other as yet unnamed co-conspirators,
Bianchi refused to resign and continued with his duties as State’s Attorney.”
Because “the first indictment failed to allege Bianchi committed an actual underlying crime,
which is required to charge official misconduct…Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators resumed their investigation for the purpose of fabricating evidence that Bianchi committed an underlying crime of ‘theft of labor, services, and use of property.’”
After an interview with McHenry County Administrator Peter Austin, the Special Prosecutors withheld the statement and “instead manufactured a false statement of Peter Austin for the purpose of creating the appearance that there was probable cause to charge Bianchi and Synek with conspiracy and official misconduct.”
From October through March, 2011, the filing claims that McQueen withheld evidence, including “evidence that a computer virus explained why certain documents could not be recovered from a computerrather than a deliberate act by Bianchi or Synek, [which] eviscerated the conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges….”
Again, thee is language to let Tonigan off the hook.
And the conclusion:
“…the withheld information would have additionally revealed gross investigative misconduct and perjured testimony before the grand jury, thereby exposing due process violations which would have led to the dismissal of Bianchi and Synek’s indictments prior to trial by the trial judge.”
Note the emphasis on the investigatory miscues.
Bianchi and Synek were found not guilty after a two-day bench trial by Judge Joseph McGraw.
The second trial and its investigation now take center stage:
“Shortly after obtaining the first indictment against Bianchi and Synek, Defendants McQueen and Scigalski began a second illegal and unauthorized investigation of Bianchi, and two of his employees, Plaintiffs Ronald J. Salgado and Michael J. McCleary. This investigation included interviewing witnesses about Bianchi’s handling of criminal cases, which clearly exceeded their authority under the orders signed by Judge Graham appointing Tonigan as a special prosecutor on September 18, 2009 and January 7, 2010.”
It is noted that McQueen incorrectly identified himself as a “Special State’s Attorney” in a petition to expand the investigation, although “Tonigan was the only individual legally appointed as a Special State’s Attorney and, pursuant to court order, Defendant McQueen was only appointed to ‘assist’ Tonigan.”
McQueen’s document is referred to as a “perjured petition.”
Still again, Ekl’s petition focuses on McQueen’s role in the investigationL
“McQueen continued to directly lead the second investigation by interviewing witnesses personally and directing the Quest investigators who to interview, what questions to ask, and what information to conceal.”
Again, the charge is made that McQueen and Quest employees had failed “to properly document exculpatory evidence.”
Seven examples are listed. (See Paragraph 84in the filing.)
Bianchi’s “political enemies” make another appearance in the motion:
“Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators continued to secretly obtain information from Bianchi’s political enemies, in furtherance of the conspiracy to violate the Plaintiffs’ rights by the manufacture and falsification of evidence to arrest, indict, and prosecute Bianchi and other members of the SAO with crimes that they did not commit.
“Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators also revealed confidential information to Bianchi’s political enemies during the course of their investigation.
“Defendants McQueen and the Quest Investigators concealed their relationship with these individuals until they were recently revealed through discovery on May 23, 2012 in the instant case.”
Complaints that were made about the investigation leading to the second indictment are reiterated as far as its presentation to that Grand Jury.
The following descriptions appear:
The investigation and indictment of prcecss server Michael McCleary for using his county car for personal business follows.
If your memory is good, you will remember the firestorm that arose the last time President Barack Obama was pushing to raise the debt ceiling.
In this interview, Joe Walsh said, “We’ve got to cut up this credit card.” Tonight he will be on WTTW at 7.
The Obama-loving mainstream media was advancing the idea that Social Security and Medicare checks would not go out if the debt ceiling was not raised.
Into this pit of misinformation stepped freshman Congressman Joe Walsh from McHenry County.
He cut a YouTube piece which suggested the President was lying.
That created a firestorm.
Liberal and conservative cable television played pile-on, resulting in widespread public knowledge
He pointed out that Social Security and Medicare checks would not be sent out only If President Obama decided those were the obligations that should not be paid.
And, the mainstream media stopped reporting as fact that if the debt ceiling were no raised, Medicare and Social Security checks would not go out.
This year, the Heritage Foundation has made the same argument, albeit in less incendiary fashion.
And the main stream media continues to say repeat the lie that Joe Walsh called the President on last year.
Talk about the difference one man can make.
Leftwing Chicago NBC-TV columnist Edward McClellan wrote yesterday:
From a career standpoint, Walsh used his two years in Congress brilliantly.
He knew from the get-go he was a one-term fluke, so he set out to build his image as a Tea Party hero/martyr by making as many outrageous pronouncements as possible, defending them to liberal CNN anchors.
He was not only the best-known freshman in Congress, he was one of the best-known congressman, period, and he already has the national following necessary for a syndicated radio show [emphasis added].
And, this just in–Joe Walsh will be interviewed by lefty Carol Marin on WTTW-TV tonight at 7.
II. Clear and Convincing Proof Plaintiff Created Shadow and Cited it on June 21, 2011 in Order to Mock and Misdirect the Court (No. 10)
Allegation 10 concerns Plaintiff’s creation of http://shadowmcsd.blogspot.com (hereafter referred to as “Shadow”) and his attribution of that blog to unknown sheriff’s deputies in order to mock and misdirect the Court as to his culpability for Real MCSO.
In support, Defendants presented undisputed evidence that Shadow was created from Plaintiff’s home computer on June 18, 2011, one week after Defendants moved for sanctions (Ex. 26; Ex. 33 at ¶¶ 33-34).
Three days later Plaintiff cited Shadow to the Court as an example, along with Real MCSO, of the work of unidentified rogue sheriff’s deputies blasting the sheriff’s administration because of their disenchantment with the Sheriff’s tyrannical rule. (Ex. 11 at ¶ 3.)
Once again, subject to Plaintiff’s affirmative defense that his wife created and administered Shadow unbeknownst to him, this evidence establishes Plaintiff created Shadow and then misdirected the Court by citing it in support of his false theory that it, like Real MCSO, was the work of rogue deputies.
= = = = =
Part 5 tomorrow.
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