- Jolting Joe? Sun-Times reports that Cook County’s new Assessor, Joe Berrios, may have violated federally-imposed guidelines in his initial hiring and firing decisions, including the addition of two family members to the staff.
- Daley double. Also in the Sun-Times, high praise for President Obama’s choice of Bill Daley as the new chief of staff. “He’ll make the city proud,” says an editorial. The paper also reports on a federal indictment of a one-time partner of the mayor’s son Patrick for allegedly running a $3 million minority contracting scam.
- Death of death penalty? Trib reports on the Illinois House’s historic vote to abolish the death penalty ten years after former Governor Ryan imposes a moratorium on capital punishment. Now it goes to the Senate.
- Jack talks smack. My former colleague on the political reporting beat, ex-FOX trotter Jack Conaty, pens an op-ed in the Trib urging the news media and the candidates for Chicago mayor to focus on pressing issues instead of sideshows like Rahm’s residency.
- And finally. The Trib says in a wistful editorial that Governor Quinn should follow the lead of new governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Jerry Brown of California in recognizing that it’s time to reform, reorganize and reinvent government because business as usual has been a dismal failure in all three states.
