Fresh off a fresh corruption trial, the Illinois House Ethics and Elections Committee held their first meeting of the new legislative session Tuesday afternoon. State Representative Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis is the House Republican spokesperson on the committee, and gave comments on the issues the committee will be facing. Windhorst addressed committee members on the need for stronger ethics reform in the state. He told the committee that House Republicans are committed to ethics reform and are looking forward to working on legislation to strengthen ethics laws and combat corruption throughout Illinois.
We’ve had ethics issues in our state going back decades. Four governors have gone to prison, several legislators, even city council/alderman…it’s a problem that’s been endemic to our state and we need to address it. We can’t rely on the United States Attorney’s office solely to be the entity dealing with corruption and ethics issues in our state. We, as a legislature, need to be putting forward laws that correct this problem. Unfortunately, we have one of the worst reputations of any state in the country for ethics and corruption and that means we need the strongest ethics laws in the country to combat that.
A Master Sergeant with the Illinois State Police has confirmed the agency is currently investigating a local case with potential corruption implications. There’s nothing official at this point, but rumors continue to swirl about an alleged scheme involving officials selling internet service “on the down low” to individuals near the Carmi Airport and potentially pocketing proceeds.
Additionally, it’s been 73 weeks now since Rhonda Blades allegedly shot and killed her own dog in front of others after it bit a neighbor’s 11-year-old boy while the animal was leashed and under her control. Read more at Seven Weeks Later – Still No Special Prosecutor Assigned to Case – WRUL-FM. Blades is married to Illinois 2nd Circuit Associate Judge Thomas Dinn III. A special prosecutor was supposed to be named, but the case and documents allegedly sat on the White County States Attorney Chris Neal’s desk for more than a year. Within the last month, WROY/WRUL News has learned that the case has finally been assigned to a special prosecutor out of Williamson County. Since the incident, Blades, an attorney who was the Wabash County Public Defender, has since been named an Assistant State’s Attorney in Wayne County (she was sworn in by former White County States Attorney Denton Aud, now a judge), and was chosen to take part in the 2nd Circuit’s Lawyer in the Library program in Carmi to provide free legal advice. More at Lawyer in the Library – WRUL-FM
