Andy Shaw at the Better Government Association says the organization has filed a lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools for "willfully and intentionally" keeping Freedom of Information Act requests from reaching the BGA in a timely manner.
From Shaw:
Why? Because, with so many FOIA requests slipping through the cracks for so long, CPS has to be doing this purposely, or at least be aware its FOIA compliance is grossly inadequate.
As far as we can tell, there's only one FOIA officer fielding requests at CPS, which has hundreds of schools, thousands of teachers, and hundreds of thousands of students.
That's ridiculous. And CPS, led by educated professionals, should understand that.
Our suit is demanding reforms -- not just to punish CPS, but also to fix the FOIA process and improve service to the public.
Read more about why Shaw believes the media and the public need access to certain CPS information at Reboot Illinois.
There may be more bad news for Illinois, says a new report by the Public Interest Research Group. The Illiana Expressway, a proposed tollway running between Wilmington, Ill. and Hebron, Ind. Proponents say it would help relieve traffic from I-80 and generate revenue from truckers paying tolls. But the PIRG says the project would unnecessarily spend taxpayer money (possibly more than $250 million from Illinois taxpayers) and not attract enough traffic to pay for itself. The PIRG says Americans are driving less and spending money on expanding roads throughout the country could be a waste of money. Which 10 other proposed highway projects did the report call "boondoggles?"