Articles

Pension crises in Chicago, in Illinois and in cities and states throughout the nation threaten the retirement security of public employees, investors' confidence in public securities and, ultimately, the economic recovery on which businesses, consumers, homeowners and workers are counting.

The city of Chicago's employees, shielded from retaliation by the city's whistle-blower ordinance, are under orders to report suspected misconduct by their fellow workers. Yet, too often, they don't. A recent survey commissioned by the Office of Compliance, created to oversee the city's court-ordered efforts to keep politics out of hiring, revealed that municipal employees report only half the incidents of apparent wrongdoing they witness, while the employees of other large cities report two-thirds of suspicious incidents.

In three separate appeals, former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling, deposed Sun-Times boss Conrad Black and former Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch, all white-collar convicts, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of a federal statute that calls it fraud to "deprive another of the intangible right to honest services."

After the National Football League teams' marketing affiliate awarded Reebok International Inc. the exclusive right to distribute headwear displaying the teams' names and logos, Buffalo Grove-based American Needle Inc. cried foul.

Dramatically expanding the reach of the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Supreme Court has held that an employer is legally responsible for a supervisory employee's sexual harassment of a worker over whom the supervisor has no authority. Some employers may think the court overreached in holding them accountable for harassment by supervisors who can't influence a victim's job status, but the ruling should make it easier for Illinois employers to recruit and retain good employees.

Non-profit hospitals across Illinois shuddered when the state's Department of Revenue rescinded the property tax exemption of Provena Covenant Medical Center in Downstate Champaign for failing to provide enough free care to the poor. The revenue department noted that Provena Covenant gave free care to only 196 of the 110,000 patients it admitted in 2002 and hired collection agencies to pursue 64 patients to whom it gave discounts.

Since 1970, 30 Chicago aldermen have been convicted of public corruption. But even more chicanery may have gone unpunished or, worse, undetected. At long last, Mr. Moore and at least a dozen co-sponsors are seeking to empower the inspector general to investigate allegations of misconduct by aldermen.

Developer Albert Hanna and real estate agent Carol Mrowka, two of Chicago's most vocal property rights advocates, have won their fight on constitutional grounds to invalidate the city's 41-year-old landmark ordinance. But their victory should ultimately serve the cause of preservation.

Mayor Richard M. Daley, the greenest of America's mayors, bested his peers once again when he recently unveiled a "Climate Action Plan," the first of its kind in the nation, to cut Chicago's greenhouse gases to 75% of 1990 levels between now and 2020.

An "obscene amount of money" which threatens the fairness and impartiality of state courts