Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: It’s really not that much of a mystery
Next Post: It’s just a bill
Posted in:
* October of 2018…
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says she’ll seat a grand jury sometime this month to see if anyone broke any laws in how Governor Rauner’s administration handled the Legionnaires outbreak at the Quincy veterans home. Madigan announced her investigation yesterday. The Quincy outbreak began nearly four years ago and 14 people died from Legionnaires and 70 others became sick. Republicans say the investigation is little more than a last minute election year ploy to smear the governor.
Illinois Republican Party press release in the same time period…
“During her 16 years in office, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has done absolutely nothing to address the corruption from Speaker Mike Madigan and Illinois Democrats that has plagued our state for decades. But now that an independent investigation has found her party’s candidate for governor to be a tax fraud, Madigan has launched a clearly partisan investigation into a serious public health crisis that Governor Rauner took swift action on and has been transparent with the General Assembly and the media. This is nothing more than the politicization of the devastating deaths of Illinois veterans to distract from JB Pritzker’s scheme to defraud Illinois taxpayers hours before a debate.”
* From just before AG Madigan launched her grand jury probe…
Newly disclosed records from the office of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner document a pattern by the state of slow-walking and soft-pedaling bad news about deadly outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run home for war veterans in downstate Quincy. […]
Some of the details that broke through the black ink are drawing new criticism from a nationally recognized infectious disease expert and prompting one Democratic lawmaker instrumental in establishing a state disease notification law to call for a criminal investigation.
“All aspects of this need to be looked at through the criminal process, whether it be manslaughter, neglect, you name it,” said state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, an Aurora Democrat and chief House sponsor of the disease notification bill.
I gave credit at the time to Rep. Kifowit for pushing AG Madigan into launching the criminal investigation…
Kifowit told me yesterday that she’s been pestering the attorney general since late August.
* Today…
Ahead of @RepKifowit's committee hearing this afternoon on the LaSalle Veterans' Home COVID outbreak that killed 36 residents in the fall, @ilhousegop members sent @ILAttyGeneral a letter again urging a criminal probe. More on both here: https://t.co/0DsmXwEKY0 pic.twitter.com/QtzMzybSzy
— Hannah Meisel (@hannahmeisel) May 11, 2021
* From Hannah’s story…
State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), who chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee set to interrogate Pritzker administration officials about the LaSalle outbreak Tuesday told NPR Illinois she didn’t believe it was appropriate for lawmakers to pressure Raoul’s office to open a criminal investigation.
“I think the Attorney General has to decide for themselves,” Kifowit said. “That’s not the role of the legislature to tell a separate constitutional officer [to investigate]. “We’re going do all we can to investigate the situation and it’s up to the Attorney General to decide what path they’re going to take.”
Lots more in Meisel’s story, so click here and discuss below.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 2:03 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: It’s really not that much of a mystery
Next Post: It’s just a bill
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
When the number of supporting signatures for your demands fit on one page, you’re just showing your impotence regardless of the demand.
Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 2:27 pm
The letter to the AG was of course mailed or hand delivered since that office still doesn’t have email a month after the hack…
Comment by Watcher of the Skies Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 2:30 pm
The Raunerites who now feel “governors own” when it comes to devastating and tragic events that happened at veterans homes is truly a sight to behold.
Heck, even “Lucky Pierre” in the past days was *still* trying to downplay the Quincy Home malpractice.
Good on Kifowit.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 2:33 pm
From the article:
==But Kifowit is not calling on Chapa LaVia to appear in front of the committee, nor the fired administrator of the LaSalle home. She also told NPR Illinois she saw no need to use subpoena power for her committee’s hearings into the outbreak==
Chapa La Via needs to explain what happened. Publicly. This is the minimum owed to the families of the deceased and the taxpayers of Illinois. Tip-toeing around her makes everybody in that chain look bad. People will believe the issues at VA will be taken seriously in Illinois when it looks like they are fully being invesiigated.
Comment by Responsa Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 2:56 pm
The criminal investigation was never really clear to me with the Quincy fiasco, and isn’t here. But then most of what society considers criminally stupid (”negligent” or what have you) seems completely arbitrary to me, so what else is new.
Comment by Perrid Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 3:02 pm
=== Chapa La Via needs to explain what happened. Publicly. This is the minimum owed to the families of the deceased and the taxpayers of Illinois.===
While it may feel like it’s owed, the lawsuits that are now rolling, might be difficult to get her to do anything let alone admit fault or accept responsibility.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 3:09 pm
The Illinois Attorney General has very limited powers to enforce criminal law. I think in Quincy the AG had to get permission from the State’s Attorney.
Comment by Bigtwich Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 3:38 pm
I would advise Stephanie Kifowit not to hold her breath if she expects AG Kwame Raoul to do anything but duck and cover. That’s why he was put in place, because he won’t investigate public corruption.
There was a Center Square article linked here on CapFax from February 3, 2020, titled, “Amid corruption investigations, some look to give Illinois’ Attorney General more power to investigate.” AG staff, not Raoul, met with Grant Wehrli and Patrick Windhorst about this issue.
Raoul did issue a presser congratulating the Minnesota AG re. the Derek Chauvin conviction, so I guess it’s okay for state AG’s outside Illinois to get involved in local cases.
Comment by Payback Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 4:46 pm
===That’s why he was put in place===
You might want to review how AG’s are chosen in this state. He won an open election, including a very competitive primary. But I’m sure the voters went for him because he’d roll over. That sure sounds like voters.
Comment by Watcher of the Skies Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 4:52 pm
== I guess it’s okay for state AG’s outside Illinois to get involved in local cases.==
The Illinois Attorney General has a unit that assists State’s Attorneys when they ask for assistance in criminal cases so the AG gets involved in local cases here too.
Comment by Bigtwich Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 4:59 pm
=== That’s why he was put in place, because he won’t investigate public corruption.===
You are utterly clueless to the constitutional powers of the AG, aren’t ya? Of course you are. Why?
“That’s why he was put in place”
Who exactly did this?
I mean, try harder to seem thoughtful.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 5:01 pm
Chapa will testify but it’ll be in depositions from the lawsuits coming. If they subpoena her what happens if she doesn’t show what can they do?
Comment by Frank talks Tuesday, May 11, 21 @ 5:43 pm
“He won an open election, including a very competitive primary.” Raoul’s campaign hq was in Senate President John Culleton’s district office on Belmont Ave. Raoul was hand picked by the party leaders and had their backing, because he was the safe choice to do nothing.
“The Illinois Attorney General has a unit that assists State’s Attorneys when they ask for assistance in criminal cases so the AG gets involved in local cases here too.” Right, and the AG can also ask to use county grand juries in Quincy, which they have done in Cook County.
Comment by Payback Wednesday, May 12, 21 @ 12:10 pm
===…when they ask for assistance in criminal cases…===
Have they asked?
Has anyone asked?
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, May 12, 21 @ 12:15 pm