Government, Financial, Fraud, Oops, Lie, Corruption

Illinois broke federal securities laws in misstating the true health of the state's depleted pension funds when going out onto the bond market between 2005 and early 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday. The finding of securities fraud doesn't subject the state to any fines or penalties but amounts to a warning to potential investors about the state's past financial misdeeds.

Democrat, Hypocrisy, Liberal, Crime, Financial, Fraud, Greed, Corruption, Convict

Former U.S. representative Jesse Jackson Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to using campaign money to buy more than $750,000 worth of luxury items, collectibles and clothes - marking the fall of a man once heralded as one of Illinois' most promising politicians.

  Jackson's wife, Sandi, a former Chicago alderman, also pleaded guilty Wednesday to a separate felony charge of filing false tax returns over six years.

  The former Democratic congressman, who represented a district that included parts of Chicago's South Side and south suburbs, was first elected to office in 1995, replacing Democrat Mel Reynolds, who resigned after being convicted of statutory rape.

Democrat, Liberal, Incompetence, Financial, Oops, Education, Debt

Illinois already has the highest unfunded pension liabilities of any U.S. state. This has forced the state to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its education budget, lowered its credit rating, and given it the highest borrowing costs of any state in the nation. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, the state has postponed an auction of $500 million in bonds only hours before it was set to begin, citing concerns that investors would demand higher interest rates. The bond sale, which had been intended to finance education and transportation projects, is now delayed indefinitely.

Democrat, Liberal, Tax, Incompetence, Financial, Brilliance, Oops

Topinka says this is extremely disappointing, since a year ago, the state sharply increased income taxes (by 67 percent) and corporate taxes. “After the largest tax hike in our history, the state continues to be in this precarious fiscal position with persistent payment delays, and frankly, the situation is unlikely to significantly improve in the near term,” she said.

Liberal, Government, Incompetence

The state of Illinois has reached a new level of broke. Come Monday, it won't have enough cash to bury its indigent dead.

A judge on Thursday sentenced one of the most unsavory figures to emerge from the investigation of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to just 5 1/2 years in prison, heeding praise for the former political insider as one of the most important cooperating witnesses in the state's sordid history of corruption.

  Moments before the judge announced the sentence for money laundering and fraud, a somber Stuart Levine stood ramrod straight at a courtroom podium, apologizing for a laundry list of scams in which he used influence on state boards to line his pockets with millions of dollars.

Election, Incompetence

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois may not be finished investigating those late military ballots. Members of the House Elections Committee say they're considering formal hearings into how and why 36 counties missed the deadline to send ballots to deployed servicemen and other overseas voters.

Government, Incompetence, Financial

For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession.

  Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget.