A corrupt Chicago alderman? Quel frommage!<\/p>\n
Under a cloud for two years since her ward office was raided by federal agents, 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin was indicted on federal bribery charges Thursday along with her chief of staff.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
…<\/p>\n
Between them, they allegedly got new kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, bathroom tiling, sump pumps and an HVAC system for free or at a discount.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Remember, it was granite countertops that brought down Ray Nagin<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Austin, 72, was charged with one count of conspiring to use interstate facilities to promote bribery and other charges, according to prosecutors. She became the third sitting Chicago alderman currently under federal indictment and the second to face charges this year.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sun-Times<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
It also leaves the council\u2019s two most senior members facing federal criminal charges. Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) is the council\u2019s longest-serving alderman and faces a 2019 racketeering indictment that accused him of using his position on the city council to steer business to his private law firm. Austin, appointed to the council in 1994, is second in seniority to Burke.<\/a>
\nIn late April, a federal grand jury also indicted Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th), the nephew and grandson of Chicago\u2019s two longest-serving mayors. Thompson faces charges involving what prosecutors say was a massive fraud scheme at a Bridgeport bank, Washington Federal Bank for Savings.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nI had the Burke story<\/a>, but I missed the Thompson indictment.<\/p>\n
This is…interesting.<\/p>\n
Told of Austin\u2019s indictment, Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) said, \u201cOh, no. Her and Chester both? I have great relationships with both of them. Known them for way longer than I\u2019ve been on the council. I wish nothing but the best for them. I hope she\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/a>
\nSawyer called the outspoken Austin a rare breed in politics who says what she thinks and never stabs anyone in the back.<\/a>
\n\u201cI love her candidness and her straight talk, if you will. She\u2019s not gonna tell you something just to make you feel better. She\u2019s gonna tell you the truth,\u201d said Sawyer, son of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer.<\/a>
\nThe epitome of old-school Chicago politics, Austin didn\u2019t hesitate to put her relatives and friends on the city payroll and made no apologies for it.<\/a>
\nSawyer said he respected that quality as well because, as he put it, \u201cThey got the job done.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPerhaps the time has come for adult supervision in Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A corrupt Chicago alderman? Quel frommage! Under a cloud for two years since her ward office was raided by federal agents, 34th Ward Ald. Carrie Austin was indicted on federal bribery charges Thursday along with her chief of staff. … Between them, they allegedly got new kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, bathroom tiling, sump pumps and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23114,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23112\/revisions\/23114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}