Here's Hoping Flower's Arrest Brings Reform

January 15, 2010  

CHICAGO - Charles Flowers no longer will be able to use his public office as if it were an ATM. On Thursday, the superintendent of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education was arrested and charged with theft by the Cook County state's attorney's office.

In a series of stories by staff writer Duaa Eldeib over the past nine months, the SouthtownStar has exposed a long list of corrupt and questionable practices by Flowers.

Although he inherited an office already $425,000 in debt, Flowers put his two sisters and a nephew on the payroll.

As the debt mounted to $1 million, the office defaulted on a $190,000 loan from Cook County, was evicted from its headquarters for failing to pay the rent and failed to make payroll.

The Art of Balance

By Patrick Markey 

Anita Alvarez, the first Hispanic female CBA President, is focusing on expanding CBA services. Alvarez, who was elected Cook County State’s Attorney in November 2008, had spent 22 years as a prosecutor before she ran for the top job and bested six Democrats in the primary and then handily won the general election. Prior to becoming States Attorney, Alvarez already had a distinguished legal career in the office that she now heads. She served as the Chief Deputy State’s Attorney, Chief of Staff to the Former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine, Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau, Deputy Chief of the Narcotics Bureau, and Supervisor of the Public Integrity Unit. Her list of awards is long. In 2001 she was named Person of the Year by Chicago Lawyer Magazine. In 2002 she was the recipient of the Professional Achievement Award from Chicago-Kent College of Law. In 2005 Alvarez was named Person of the Year by the Latin American Police Association and also named States Attorney of the Year by the Illinois State Crime Commission.

Editorial, April 9, 2009: 

Busting Crooked Pols

If you’re a local prosecutor and want to go after gangs or drug dealers, state law gives you an arsenal of powerful weapons. One of the most potent: the ability to eavesdrop on conversations by tapping a telephone.

But if you’re a local prosecutor going after a Chicago alderman or suburban mayor who’s on the take? Sorry. State law says you can’t tap the phone even with a court order.

No wonder corrupt pols here fear only one person: U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.

Most government corruption cases are brought by the U.S. attorney’s office, in large part because federal prosecutors have the tools to pursue them. They aren’t hamstrung by Illinois’ stifling anti-anti-corruption laws.

Fitzgerald has made crooked pols a priority: He has convicted one former governor and indicted another. He has convicted 148 federal, state and local officials in seven years. He has at least eight prosecutors working on public corruption cases.

And that still isn’t enough.

.    .    .

Editorial, March 23, 2009:

Reforming Illinois:
Who's listening in?  Not county prosecutor - yet

Say you’re an ambitious county prosecutor who wants to stamp out political corruption. Say you’ve got solid evidence that a certain politician is a crook, but the only way to really get the goods on him is to listen in on his phone conversations – and you’ve exhausted every other investigative option. 

In Illinois, if you’re a county prosecutor, you simply can’t do it. You can’t wiretap the phone. State law doesn’t allow it. 

Federal law does, so federal prosecutors can do it, as they did in the case of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In one of the more curious twists of Illinois law, county prosecutors are prevented or hamstrung in using listening devices to go after public corruption and other white-collar crimes. They have to jump through many more legal hoops that the feds for instance, if they want to put a wire on a snitch to record conversations with a bad guy – whether it’s a gang leader or a political boss. 

So many hoops, in fact, that using a wire is often all but impossible for county prosecutors. 

GLBT applause-o-meter rings, and pols listen

Laura Washington 

           
The applause-o-meter wildly careened as the tuxedoed politicians strutted across the stage Saturday night at the annual Equality Illinois gala. Dawn Clark-Netsch, the grand dame of progressives, floated by in a billowy green and red gown, reprising Christmas. The meter went through the roof. 

The main attraction was the parade of politicians, who each stepped briefly into the spotlight and wooed the 1,100 or so supporters of the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender rights group. It’s a must do for any politician who cares about Chicago’s GLBT vote. 

The state’s top pols were there though the next big election isn’t until 2010. Dozens, including a U.S. Senator, a governor and an eager passel of congressional wannabes all jostled for the limelight. 

Alvarez for state's attorney

Cook County's next state's attorney will take the job at a treacherous time: The murder count in Chicago is escalating, citizens in many communities distrust law enforcement, and economic hardship could well lead to troubling increases in robberies, burglaries and property crimes. Add to that Cook County government's chronic financial dysfunction, plus the probability that political insiders will pressure the new chief prosecutor for jobs and other favors, and you have a near-perfect storm.

We like all three of the available choices for state's attorney. We also want all three of them to stay where they are now. Let us explain:

• This page frequently praises Cook County Board member Tony Peraica for his courage in combatin the arrogance, bloat and corruption that suffuse county government.
• Green Party candidate Thomas O'Brien, an assistant state's attorney for two decades, is broadly respected for his work in Juvenile Court on behalf of children; lawyers who've practiced there especially praise his work in child-abuse cases.
• Democrat Anita Alvarez, though, has demonstrated the crime-busting skills, the professionalism and—this is crucial—sufficient independence from the office's old-boy culture to now retool it to negotiate its mounting challenges. We have a few quibbles with Alvarez. But we're confident she will grow in office, realize that taxpayer-provided resources are finite, and say a resounding no to the County Building mismanagers and the Democratic insiders who'll try to take advantage of her. That confidence on multiple levels leads us to endorse Anita Alvarez for Cook County state's attorney.

•••

Daily Herald, October 25, 2008

Our picks for Cook County offices

Daily Herald Editorial Board

For Cook County state's attorney, Anita Alvarez is the clear choice for her experience, understanding of the office and dedication to its mission.

Republican challenger Anthony Peraica, a Cook County Board member known for his outspoken criticism of the county administration, has tried to make a case that the state's attorney's office is incapacitated by internal politics and needs to focus more attention on rooting out government corruption. But such thinking shows a lack of appreciation for the functions of the office, which certainly has more than enough of a challenge keeping up with the violent crime that is its primary focus.

While it's naive to suggest that politics doesn't play a role in the nation's second-largest prosecutorial office, Alvarez, a Cook County prosecutor for 22 years, demonstrates the strength and independence to address the office's structural problems and shape it into an effective organization going forward. Attorney Thomas O'Brien also is seeking the position from the Green Party, but it's Alvarez who has the best personal and professional qualifications.

COMMENTARY :

Alvarez is our pick for state's attorney

September 29, 2008
The people of Cook County need a state's attorney who is ready to run the office now, not someone ready to learn on the job.

This is the crucial difference between the two candidates running for the job, career prosecutor Anita Alvarez and Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica.

Alvarez has been a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office for 22 years. After graduating from Chicago-Kent College of Law, she worked her way up from the bottom wrungs of the prosecutor's office -- a rare Hispanic women in an old boy's club -- to the office's No. 3 position.

ANITA NAMED ONE OF CRAIN'S 'WOMEN TO WATCH 2008'

By: Greg Hinz May 05, 2008

From this week's Focus
ANITA ALVAREZ
DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE • COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY

Yes, she's a self-declared "hockey mom" who's — yawn — struggling to balance family and career and has taken to wearing a lot of red power suits lately.

She's also a political novice who made history Feb. 5 by beating five men to become the first woman and Hispanic to win a primary for Cook County state's attorney.

Anita Alvarez, 48, a career prosecutor and marathon runner — her best finish is 4:12 — is still a relative unknown. But that will change if, as expected, she beats GOP nominee Tony Peraica in the general election in November.

ON Q: WITH ANITA ALVAREZ, HISTORIC STATE'S ATTORNEY CANDIDATE

By Demetrius Patterson | N'DIGOnline, March 6-12, 2008

DIGGING FOR AN EPIPHANY ON ALVAREZ

By John McCarron | Chicago Tribune, February 8, 2008

ONCE COUNTED OUT, ALVAREZ GETS BIG HELP FROM WOMEN, SUBURBS

By Rob Olmstead | Daily Herald Staff, February 7, 2008