Results tagged “michaelscott”

• Two people are dead and four were hurt in a fire this afternoon near suburban Bloomingdale.
• A week after his body was found in the Chicago River and a day after he was memorialized, the Chicago Board of Education met and honored Michael Scott.
• The Sun-Times has a profile of Joe Ferguson, the city's new Inspector General.

Awesome timelapse video by Joshua Mellin

With questions still lingering around the circumstances of the death of Michael Scott, the Chicago Police is not rushing to issue its ruling. Still, in light of recent discoveries in the investigation, it seems that they may be inclined to issue a ruling in line with the one the Cook County Medical Examiner's office issued earlier this week and has been forced to defend. Among other discoveries:

In a sense, the chatter over the death of Chicago Public Schools Board of Education President Michael Scott seems to be almost deafening. But we have to realize it's been only a little over two days since his body was found on the water's edge of the Chicago River; to expect a full set of answers in such a short time span is completely unrealistic. But that hasn't kept the speculation from churning, even as friends and family still try to make sense of his shocking death. At the heart of all of this is what the Tribune has labeled "a rift" between the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. On Monday afternoon, as police continued their investigation, the ME's office declared Scott's death a suicide by a "contact-range, through-and-through gunshot wound to his head," according to CCME Nancy Lynne Jones at a press conference. The rare press conference from a Medical Examiner was a defensive move as police have urged patience while they continue to investigate the circumstances around his death. His untimely death has also shown a spotlight on a few other items, including a recent probe into his usage of his board credit card, though it's reported he had already begun paying off the rather small amount ($3,000) on it.

Despite yesterday's ruling from the Cook County Medical Examiner's office that CPS Board of Education president Michael Scott's death was a suicide, Chicago Police are still going forward with their investigation, including reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing residents who lived near where Scott's body was found. According to Fox 32:

• With police reiterating that their investigation is still early and ongoing, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office officially ruled the death of CPS Board of Education president Michael Scott a suicide.
• The aftershocks of the beating death of Derrion Albert continue to be felt as today a federal judge gave the okay for students at Fenger High to transfer if they felt unsafe.
• An young Aurora man with Autism was found safe this morning after he went missing from his home late yesterday; he was found safe but in Crest Hill which is 20 miles from Aurora.

Media outlets around the city are reporting that a body pulled from the Chicago River near Merchandise Mart early this morning is that of CPS Board of Education President Michael Scott. As of 9:00 a.m. this morning, police have yet to confirm the news but outlets such as the Tribune, Sun-Times, and ABC 7 (where Scott's wife, Diana Palomar, was vice president of community affairs) have reported the body as being Scott's. The body was discovered around 3:15 a.m. and Scott's car was found parked in a lot near the river; the body was pulled from the river around 4:30 a.m. Scott had last been seen yesterday evening around 6 p.m. after visiting his sister in a South Loop care facility, something family members said he did every Sunday. Scott's family later reported him missing. Neither police or the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office have confirmed the body was Scotts, though ABC 7 reports the CCME confirmed the body is an unidentified man, black, in his 50s.

Mercy Hospital has always had a special place in the heart of the Daley family. Richard J and wife Eleanor fundraised for the hospital in the 60’s and all the Daley children were born there. In a city where patronage is king, should it be any surprise that current Mayor Daley created a special financing district for Mercy when they fell on tough times? The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that when Mercy Hospital faced bankruptcy four years ago, Mayor Daley created a tax-increment financing district around the hospital that would benefit Mercy to the tune of $60 million. The hospital sold a chunk of land to developers who planned to build pricey condos in the area. The property taxes from the condo owners would go back into the hospital.

The Tribune has discovered that Michael Scott has more of an interest in the Olympics than civic pride. Scott, a Chicago 2016 committee member, president of the Chicago Public Schools and a "friend of Richie", also served as a consultant to a condominium developer near the proposed Olympic Village site, a deal that could result in the project being worth far more than it currently is. For his part, Scott says that there's no conflict, given the depth of his role in the project. "I had no financial interest. I didn't do any real work," Scott told the Tribune. This, of course, is all in addition to the story from earlier this summer that Scott owns land located near the proposed Olympic cycling venue, something that Scott and others have said was not a conflict of interest.

On Wednesday, the city's 2016 Olympic bid committee, issued a statement saying that they would all feel a lot better if Michael Scott had just been more upfront about his involvement in plans to redevelop a parcel of land near Douglas Park, the proposed site for an Olympic cycling venue. "It would have been preferable if Mr. Scott had disclosed this situation so that the matter could have been vetted by the Chicago 2016 Audit Committee and any perception of conflict could have been avoided," the statement from Chicago 2016 said. It added that Scott also "intends to submit a revised conflict of interest statement outlining his role with the proposed development and affirming that he has had no financial gain from the project and intends to accelerate his separation as agent for the group."

File this under color us surprised: Chicago's 2016 bid committee has determined that Michael Scott, Mayor Daley's President of the Chicago Board of Education, has no conflict of interest in developing a piece of city-owned real estate across from Douglas Park. Scott was served a federal subpoena earlier this month over his alleged role in clouted admissions to elite public schools. He's also part of the mayor's team working to bring the Olympics to Chicago. The Tribune published an investigation last week into Scott's role in redeveloping a parcel of land near a proposed Olympic cycling venue.

• Chicago Public Schools head Michael Scott announced he has been subpoenaed by a grand jury in connection with the investigation into admission practices at some of the system's more elite schools.
• Remember the guy who had his wife, mistress, and two other women glue his penis to his body? Now he's going to jail.
• CTA workers caught yammering on cell phones when they should be working will be fired, according to a new edict handed down by the agency.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised, given their willingness to spend like crazy on cappuccino machines, but it seems the Chicago Public Schools is the next entity that is facing one helluva budget shortfall for the 2009-2010 school year: $475 million, to be exact. And how does the CPS propose to close the budget hole? Why, with a property tax hike, of course. CPS used $100 million in reserve funds last year to avoid a tax hike and, coincidentally, last year was also the first time since Mayor Daley took over the schools (in 1995) that a property tax hike to benefit schools wasn't put on taxpayers.

• In the latest bit of bad news for U.S. Sen. Ronald Burris, Darrel Thompson, his chief of staff, has resigned. Could the Senator himself be far behind?
• An afternoon shoot-out in an alley along 87th Street on the city's South Side has left a 13-year-old, a 15-year-old, and 17-year-old dead.
• Patti Blagojevich is shakin' off that firin' by the Chicago Christian Industrial League just fine as she's selling a house to bring in a little extra money.

One of Chicagoist's favorite movies of 2005 was the adorable documentary, Mad Hot Ballroom, which told the story of New York Public School students who cha-cha-cha-ed and fox-trotted in a local competition with training they received in extra-curricular dance programs. We were apparently not the only fans of the film, as former Chicago School Board President Michael Scott brought a similar program to Chicago Public Schools after seeing the film. Current Board President Rufus Williams...