: President Joe Biden hits town as a historic abortion vote is taken on the floor of the U.S. Senate, that and more with ourFor the third year in a row, Chicago is America’s most corrupt city, and Illinois is the third-most corrupt state, according to an annual report from the University of Illinois at Chicago.The report, co-authored by University of Illinois at Chicago professor and former 44th Ward Ald.
Despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic nearly shut down state and federal courts, 2020 was one of the most “significant” twelve months in the “startling saga of political and public corruption in Chicago and Illinois,” Simpson said. The report, co-authored by Marco Rosaire Rossi and Thomas J. Gradel, uses a formula that compares the number of each area’s corruption convictions with its population to create the ranking system that incorporates data from 1976 to 2020.
In November 2020, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and three lobbyists for the firm — Michael McClain, John Hooker and Jay Doherty were charged with conspiring to bribe Madigan by providing little- or no-work lobbying contracts and other benefits to Madigan’s friends and associates. All four pleaded not guilty, and are set to stand trial in September.
Sandoval admitted that he took more than $70,000 in bribes from a former executive for Safe Speed, the red-light company. The firm itself has not been accused of wrongdoing, and officials have said the former executive acted without the company’s knowledge or approval.