As Long as They Do It Early & Often, Why Not Let Suburbanites Vote for Chicago Mayor

Life in Chicago wasn’t so good as many baby boomers who lived in the city might recall. Aldermen didn’t need computers to figure out which voters on which blocks were not supporting them at election time. They would have their minions raid alleys and purloin garbage can lids.

The next day, the alderman would knock on the victim’s door and offer a new garbage can lid in exchange for their vote. Or, face a certain fine under the “No Garbage Can Lid” ordinance, an expensive misdemeanor.

Starting in the late 1940s and through the 1960s, Chicago residents discovered they could escape the oppression of the old Chicago Machine for brighter, freer manure-covered pastures. So began the new “Sub-Urban” life.

Many of the new suburban homes, built in part with veteran’s benefits, were located on old abandoned pig farms. The suburbanites didn’t mind trading the odor of old Machine bully to pig stench.

Of course, the word “suburban” didn’t come from he suburbanites. It came from he angry Chicago Machine. Legend has it that the origins of “Sub-Urban” began after a beer-drinking brawl in a smoke-filled room on the seventh floor of Chicago’s City Hall in the summer of 1960, when the Chicago Outfit stumped hard for JFK for president. (“Mafia” is a New York Term, Outfit is exclusive to Chicago.)

As the mob leaders departed, the aldermen discussed how to get money to pay legal fees for eight Chicago Police officers, who were also precinct workers, who were indicted in the Summerdale scandal for operating a large-scale burglary ring. They were stealing more than garbage can lids, apparently.

One of the aldermen suggested Chicago absorb the pig farms outside of the city’s confines when an another named Louie “The Lip” blurted out his disgust with the fleeing voters from his precinct.

As quoted in the Chicago Herald-American, Louie “The Lip” declared, “De, de, de, dey is movin’ to da, da, da, da ‘sub-oyeban’ pi, pi, pi, pig farms.” The ward bosses looked at him like he was Einstein, declaring, “Dat’s poyfect! Dat’s da name. We’ll call doz areas the Suburbs”cuz they is sub-par to our urban environs.”

(You need to read that paragraph a few times to understand Chicago-ese.)

Thus became the word “Sub-Urban” or “below City Life,” the “Suburbs!”

Although many aldermen were happy to see disgruntled voters flee their precinct voting obligations to the Machine, it became painfully clear most leaving the bungalow neighborhoods were people of good financial means. They had jobs, money, but the money was fleeing to the “suburbs,” which boasted innovative things like curb-less streets, garbage cans lined up in front of the house, not in the back, and stinking, egg-smelling well-water.

The loss of money hurt the Machine, and ever since, the Machine has been conspiring in ways to force those disgruntled former “Urban” dwellers to help keep their pensions afloat.

“Who gonna pay fer da pensions?” was a common refrain at Machine Precinct meetings in 1966. Machine captains couldn’t pronounce their words, but one they knew well was “pension” which rolled off their lips and out of taxpayer pockets like honey from a beehive.

Since then, of course, the city’s despots and autocrats have conspired in many ways to grab cash from the wallets of the ancestors of those early Sub-Urban Pioneers, including back in the 1980s forcing Chicago, with the help of columnist Mike Royko, when the city demanded suburban taxpayers to pay to save the CTA.

Money collected from the suburbs goes into the state pot and is divvied up in favor of Chicago’s cash-strapped schools. In fact, every time Chicago comes up cash-short, they dip into the pocketbooks of hardworking suburbanites. Chicago has been in need of money forever, and it’s mayors eyeball suburban taxpayers like the Big Bad Wolf licking his chops after Little Red Riding Hood.

The suburbs might as well give up. Turn Cook County into “Chicago County” and erase the concept of the “suburbs.” We’re paying for Chicago. We might as well be a part of Chicago, and have a voice in whomever is going to be the next mayor.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Thanks to Ray Hanania. Ray is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. Hanania can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com.

Tweet

Abraham Kiswani, Owner of World Security Bureau, Indicted on Tax Evasion Charges

A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted a businessman on tax evasion charges for allegedly scheming to evade personal income taxes for three years.

As the owner of the security firm World Security Bureau, ABRAHAM KISWANI, also known as “Ibriham Kiswani,” willfully failed to pay the full amount of taxes on his personal income for the calendar years 2010, 2012, and 2013, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Kiswani concealed some of his income for those years by arranging for WSB to pay certain personal items, including those held or purchased in the name of family members, and disguising them as business expenses. The expenditures included mortgage payments, homeowner’s association dues, property taxes, sewer and water fees on a personal residence, slip fees and insurance for a boat, slip fees for jet skis, and gold coins, the indictment states. Kiswani covered up some of his 2013 income by arranging for WSB to pay some of his wedding expenses and then entering those payments in WSB’s records as business expenses, the indictment states.

The indictment charges Kiswani, 49, of Burbank, with three counts of tax evasion and one count of willfully filing a false corporate tax return.  Kiswani pleaded not guilty at his arraignment before U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah in Chicago.

Tweet

How Chicago became a Key Hub in El Chapo's Massive Sinaloa Cartel U.S. Drug Operation

In untold hundreds of truck and train shipments, tons of cocaine rolled into Chicago hidden among loads of vegetables, shrimp, and even live sheep.

The city acted as the American distribution center of the vast network of the Sinaloa cartel, and was run by Chicago twin brothers who had declared allegiance to a person they referred to often simply as “The Man.” Both would eventually turn against their boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and one of them, Pedro Flores, began testifying in Guzman’s historic trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

In harrowing detail over three hours, Flores explained his rise from dealing cocaine with family members on the Southwest Side to working as a top lieutenant for the world’s most notorious drug lord. He told an anonymous jury in New York that he has cooperated against some 50 people in the cartel network already, testifying he risked his life to help the U.S. government after considering his future and that of his pregnant wife 10 years ago. “Or that lack of a future,” Flores said. “That lack of living. I couldn’t promise my family tomorrow.”

Neither Pedro Flores nor his twin, Margarito Flores, have been seen publicly in the nearly four years since both were sentenced to 14 years in prison in Chicago. Dressed in navy blue jail garb, Pedro Flores took a seat in the courtroom Tuesday for a few moments before the jury filed in to hear his testimony.

Perhaps 30 feet away was El Chapo himself, a man to whom Flores estimated he once sent as much as $227 million a year from the cartel’s U.S. operation. Guzman has entered the courtroom with a smile and handshakes for his lawyers in recent days, but as he stared across the room toward Flores, that look had faded.

Flores was somewhat soft-spoken as he related his experiences, drawing laughs in the courtroom gallery at times with his likable demeanor. He described giving El Chapo gold-plated guns as a gift because Flores had “seen too many movies,” and recalled that the reputed kingpin laughed at him the first time he met Guzman at a secret mountain compound in Sinaloa.

Flores was wearing jean shorts. “He said with all that money, I couldn’t afford the rest of the pants?” Flores said.

Guzman has been on trial for more than a month at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, with prosecutors accusing him of drug trafficking as the head of the cartel. They have presented a series of insider witnesses, perhaps none more compelling than the 37-year-old Flores, who now ranks among the most significant criminal turncoats that Chicago has ever produced.

He told jurors his father welcomed him into the world of drug smuggling, using him as a child because his hands were small enough to reach into gas tanks of cars where drugs had been stashed. Their father was kidnapped and presumably killed when he ignored warnings and returned to Mexico in 2009 after drug rings suspected the brothers were helping authorities.

Questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fels, Flores explained how his early drug business grew thanks to a connection from one of his father’s friends to the point where Flores was taking shipments in a “grimy van” left for him at a restaurant in the Chicago suburbs. Fels then showed jurors a photograph of a Denny’s in Bolingbrook off of I-55.

Early work to keep larger quantities of drugs in stash houses didn’t always go well, Flores said. The first time he backed the van into a garage, it hit the overhang and the drugs had to be unloaded on the driveway. The plastic bags they were in then tore, spilling kilos onto the concrete. “There’s neighbors out,” he said. “It was a pretty hectic day.”

Chicago was a natural hub for drug networking, Flores said, because of its location in the middle of the country and its infrastructure. “You’re practically halfway to everywhere,” Flores testified.

Flores was soon moving drugs to Milwaukee and other cities, where he eventually attracted the attention of federal authorities who got an indictment against him and sent the brothers fleeing to Mexico.

All of the growth sometimes meant lost shipments and drug debts, one of them leading to a dispute with a former supplier who apparently ordered his kidnapping in Mexico, Flores said. He described being handcuffed, blindfolded and stuffed in a truck for a bumpy ride to a building where he said he was held in a cell for days.

After his brother helped arrange his freedom, and with cartel leaders including Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada taking notice of the twins’ success, Flores described an early meeting with Zambada and Guzman’s cousin.

Zambada told the Flores brothers they would be supplied by the cartel, and that their business would grow again. The drug boss said “any idiot” could sell drugs in Mexico, but through his own experiences in Chicago, Zambada was impressed with how much product the brothers had moved in the U.S. “He laughed and said, ‘imagine if you guys were triplets,’ ” Flores testified.

The Floreses would get the same price for bulk cocaine as other top lieutenants, Flores recalled Zambada saying, and they would work on their own behalf.

The business did in fact take off again, Flores said. Drugs flowed through Los Angeles and Chicago to Philadelphia, Detroit, New York and Washington. Throughout his cartel career, Flores said, he moved some 60 tons into the states.

After boosting their supply, the Flores brothers were taken to see El Chapo, Flores said, telling jurors he went first to an airstrip in a cornfield for a 40-minute flight that ended on another runway that ran up the side of an incline in the mountains.

From there they were driven in trucks into an even more remote area. Along the way were macabre signs of the cartel’s handiwork, including a naked man chained to a tree. Flores recalled he appeared to be crouching and staring down at them as they passed.

The kingpin’s compound was a concrete foundation rising from the earth, he said, with a thatched roof. “Like you’d see on vacation,” he said. El Chapo appeared wearing a hat, with a shiny handgun in his waistband. An AK-47 rifle leaned on a chair nearby.

Guzman promised to solve the dispute that had led to Flores being kidnapped, and indeed, Flores said he heard that the man, Guadalupe Ledesma, eventually had been suffocated on El Chapo’s orders. Flores said his anxiety around Guzman eventually faded in future meetings, and that he brought El Chapo the gift of the guns — which were laughed at for being too heavy — and a gag gift of a pair of jean shorts like the ones Flores had been mocked for, which he gave the kingpin in a box shaped like a Viagra pill.

Flores described how the shipments just kept coming, with the cartel even employing submarines to move drugs into the U.S. without detection. The truck shipments came too, including so many with vegetables Flores said they could affect market prices by dumping them for sale in Chicago. And there was the one with the sheep.

The brothers were unprepared. And the truck was headed for a Chicago warehouse.

“I’m looking at a bunch of live sheep,” Flores said. “What are we gonna do with them?” The answer was a friend who was paid $10,000 to take them out of the city. Still, Flores said he complained up the chain of command that “I was concerned the cover loads were getting kinda weak.”

By November 2008, Flores said he had begun to have enough of the business. His wife was newly pregnant, and the cartel had split into two warring factions. One remained headed by Guzman and Zambada, and another by Arturo Beltran Leyva. Both sides wanted to force the brothers to remain loyal and never do business with the other side.

The brothers’ “sweet spot” in the cartel that let them make money without worrying about internal — and often deadly — politics was dissolving. Fearing for his life, Flores said he reached out to the Drug Enforcement Administration through a lawyer, and began cooperating.

That included making recordings, including of El Chapo, on a digital recorder Flores said he bought at a Radio Shack in Mexico. The jury is expected to hear those recordings in the coming days, as Flores continues his testimony.

As for his more recent past, Flores testified that he hasn’t always been on the straight and narrow. He worked a scam to flood other inmates’ commissary accounts with money, he testified, and got his wife pregnant again, this time in a bathroom while in DEA custody.

Still, his cooperation could be key in the federal government’s attempt to hold El Chapo accountable for decades of allegedly providing illicit drugs to addicted Americans. Flores said he made the decision he had to, knowing he was testifying in exchange for wiping out crimes that could have meant multiple life sentences.

“I could only give them one life,” he said.

Thanks to Jeff Coen.

Tweet

Accenture Hired to Satisfy Donald Trump's Mandate to Secure the Border, Instead,Charges the US almost $14 Million to Hire Just 2 Border Agents #Corruption #DraintheSwamp

A scathing report by the Office of the Inspector General revealed that a consulting company hired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to fill thousands of new jobs to satisfy President Trump's mandate to secure the southern border is "nowhere near" completing its hiring goals and "risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars."

The audit found that as of Oct. 1, CBP had paid Accenture Federal Services approximately $13.6 million of a $297 million contract to recruit and hire 7,500 applicants, including Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents, and Air and Marine Interdiction agents. But 10 months into the first year of a five-year contract, Accenture had processed only "two accepted job offers," according to the report.

The inspector general called for immediate action. The report is titled "Management Alert — CBP Needs to Address Serious Performance Issues on the Accenture Hiring Contract." It alleges the consulting company — which CBP agreed to pay nearly $40,000 per hire — failed to develop an "efficient, innovative, and expertly run hiring process," as the company pledged to do when it was awarded the lucrative contract. Instead, the probe concluded the company "relied heavily" on CBP's existing infrastructure, resources and experts in all of its recruiting.

"We are concerned that CBP may have paid Accenture for services and tools not provided," the report states. "Without addressing the issues we have identified, CBP risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a hastily approved contract that is not meeting its proposed performance expectations."

According to the report, CBP has bent over backward to accommodate Accenture.

When it became clear the company would miss a 90-day deadline to reach the "full operation phase" outlined in the agreement, the agency modified the contract granting Accenture another three months to ramp up operations to meet the terms of the contract.

CBP also allowed the company to use the government agency's applicant tracking system when Accenture failed to deploy its own, leading to another contract revision.

The result of both changes meant that as recently as July 1, CBP staff continued to carry out a "significant portion of the hiring operations," the OIG noted. And because there was no way to track which applicants were recruited through Accenture's efforts, CBP agreed to "give credit and temporarily pay Accenture for a percentage of all applicants."

The OIG's conclusion: "CBP must hold the contractor accountable, mitigate risk, and devise a strategy to ensure results without additional costs to the Government."

The Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog launched the investigation after receiving complaints about Accenture's performance and management on an OIG hotline.

Thanks to Vanessa Romo.

Tweet

Home of Mayor Raided by @FBI Special Agents

The mayor of Atlantic City made headlines last month when he was involved in a fight outside a casino that was captured on video. The mayor, Frank Gilliam, was not charged. But Mr. Gilliam may be facing more serious trouble. Yesterday, federal officials raided his home, removing computer equipment and boxes in an operation that represents another setback for this struggling seaside city.

“The F.B.I. was at the mayor’s home in Atlantic City in an official capacity executing a search warrant,” said Doreen Holder, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I.’s office in Newark. Ms. Holder said the I.R.S. was also involved in the search, but she declined to offer any other details.

Video posted on social media showed about a dozen agents going in and out of the home on Ohio Avenue.

The mayor’s office declined to comment about what prompted the raid. “We can tell you that the mayor’s office is open, and we are here to provide services to Atlantic City residents and to serve the administration in any way that we can,” said Christina Bevilacqua, the deputy chief of staff in the mayor’s office.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Monday, Mr. Gilliam emerged from his house and left in a Mercedes-Benz S.U.V. He did not respond to shouted questions from reporters gathered at the end of his driveway.

The F.B.I. operation is the latest chapter in what has been a tumultuous couple of months for Mr. Gilliam, a Democrat. The late-night brawl he was involved in took place outside the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City; surveillance video obtained from the casino showed the mayor swinging wildly at an unknown man. Casino security intervened to break up the fight.

The cause of the melee has never been made clear. Prosecutors said they would not pursue criminal charges against Mr. Gilliam.

Mr. Gilliam has also faced complaints about his campaign finances. The mayor and the Atlantic City Democratic Committee quarreled over a $10,000 check that had been made out to the committee, but that Mr. Gilliam deposited into his campaign account. The committee filed a criminal complaint in March, but a judge later dismissed the case.

Mr. Gilliam was elected in 2017, defeating the incumbent mayor Don Guardian, a Republican who had clashed frequently with the administration of former Gov. Chris Christie over the state’s decision to take over Atlantic City’s finances. The city was on the brink of bankruptcy as its casino industry struggled.

Mr. Gilliam, a native of Atlantic City who had served as a city councilman since 2009, campaigned on a “new era” message, saying that Atlantic City’s struggles were the result of poor management of city government and the casinos. He faulted Mr. Guardian for allowing the state takeover and said the largely Democratic city needed to return to its Democratic roots.

He promised to court developers and bring in businesses. Since taking office, two casinos have opened where old ones had shuttered. But he also promised to broaden Atlantic City’s appeal, seeking to establish the resort city as a family-friendly destination. “We’ve lost our identity because of gaming,” Mr. Gilliam said during the campaign. “If everyone got to the table, Atlantic City would find its way.”

The F.B.I. raid on Mr. Gilliam’s home, however, is a reminder of the long history of criminal behavior among some of Atlantic City’s top public officials.

Robert W. Levy, who was elected mayor in 2006, disappeared in 2007 amid rumors of a pending federal investigation into his military record and benefits. He was found to have checked into an addiction and rehabilitation facility in central New Jersey, and later admitted in court to falsifying his military records to receive veterans benefits.

In 1991, James L. Usry, who had been mayor for six years and was Atlantic City’s first elected African-American mayor, pleaded guilty to campaign contribution violations after prosecutors accused of him accepting $6,000 in cash and a $500 check in exchange for supporting an ordinance that would have benefited a business owned by the donor. Mr. Usry and four city councilmen were indicted.

And in 1984, Michael J. Matthews, who had been elected mayor in 1982, was charged with extortion, bribery and conspiracy as part of a wide-ranging sting operation against organized crime. Federal authorities said he maintained a close relationship with Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, an infamous organized crime leader, that predated Mr. Matthews’s election as mayor. Mr. Matthews pleaded guilty to a single count of extortion.

Atlantic City also played a central role in the Abscam scandal, which resulted in the convictions of several members of Congress on charges of bribery and political corruption, including Senator Harrison A. Williams of New Jersey.

At the center of the scandal were promises for casino partnerships and revenue in Atlantic City.

“I’ll give you Atlantic City — without me, you do nothing,” Angelo J. Errichetti, who was then mayor of Camden, N.J., boasted to an undercover agent about arranging a casino license for a $50,000 kickback.

Thanks to Nick Corasaniti.

Tweet

Whitey Bulger's Last Warden at "Misery Mountain" Denies Reports He is to be Fired

A “crazy month” at the maximum prison in Hazelton, W.Va., where South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was murdered ended with reports the warden may be fired. But Warden Joe Coakley denied a New York Times report saying he’s being replaced, sending an email to staffers calling the report a rumor.

Justin Tarovisky, executive vice president of the guard union at U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton, told the Herald he was informed of the email and has not been told of the warden’s future. But, Tarovisky added, the prison just ended a lockdown that began just after Bulger’s murder Oct. 30, hours after he arrived at the prison.

“I was not alerted to any firing. But it has been a crazy month up there, and we’re trying to push on,” the union rep said. “Officers have got to go in there every day, and we have to stay safe.”

The warden sent out an email that stated: “I spoke personally with Acting Director Hugh Hurwitz this afternoon. He confirmed there have been no discussions regarding replacing me as Complex Warden. Additionally Bryan Antonelli, FCI Williamsburg Warden, has not be selected as Complex Warden at Hazelton. As I have stated many times, I am honored to be your Warden! I hope this addresses any rumors or concerns.”

Tarovisky said the warden has said he’s trying to hire more guards. He told the Herald last month the prison has 77 vacancies — more than half for guard positions.

“Morale is low at Hazelton,” he added. “We were locked down for a month, and we just came back.

“Inside the prison the inmates are taking it all with a grain of salt,” he added. “We take that kind of violence seriously and we have got to stay on our toes.”

The 89-year-old Bulger was beaten to death with a padlock inside a sock, reportedly by two inmates tied to organized crime in Massachusetts who may have also attempted to gouge out his eyes inside “Misery Mountain,” as inmates call Hazelton.

Bulger, serving life for 11 murders but suspected of many more, was reportedly killed by a Mafia hitman from Springfield named Fotios “Freddy” Geas and a member of a North Shore drug gang.

The second suspect, Paul J. DeCologero, is connected to a notorious Burlington-based crime family that robbed rival drug dealers and once dismembered a teenage girl, according to published reports.

Tweet