Bill Cameron Sits down with Cook Country Board President Toni Preckwinkle. When discussing Rauner’s promise to veto pension money for Chicago Public Schools because he thinks it’s a Chicago bailout, Preckwinkle dispensed with attempt at diplomacy saying “A profoundly inept and mean-spirited governor. I’ve lived in Chicago for 50 years. In that time Jim Thompson was governor, Jim Edgar, George Ryan. I disagreed with them sometimes, but I never thought they were unfit for their jobs or evil people. That’s where I am with this governor and it’s profoundly disturbing.”
When presses if she really meant to characterize the governor as “evil”, Preckwinkle responded, “Yes, this is a person who cut funding for autism programs on National Austism Day.”
For his part, Rauner is promising to veto the money for Chicago in order to “provide adequate and equitable funding for students in Illinois no matter their zip code.
Tempers are flaring because of the big layoffs caused by the new sweetened beverage tax being put on hold in court. Sheriff Dart has been saying Preckwinkle’s staff is crazy to peddle the notion his senior staff is bloated. “That’s insane. That’s the talk of crazy people. I would suggest to them I have plenty of doctors in my mental health unit that would be happy to talk to them.” The only good news at the county is the survival of Obamacare in Washington, which is very good news for county hospital.

In this week’s round table discussion, Bill Cameron is joined by Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune, Greg Hinz of Crain’s, and Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times. Topics include Sean Spicer’s resignation, and what this means for the for the Trump cabinet. They discuss the GOP Healthcare bill and if it might see a revival. The round table reacts to Toni Preckwinkle calling Governor Rauner “evil.” They continue the discussion of the state of Illinois schools as well as the state’s debt.

In this week’s community spotlight, Nick Gale talks with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and his announcing that another victim of John Wayne Gacy has been identified. This is the second of eight unidentified victims that has been identified through DNA. Dart is encouraging anyone who had a family member go missing in the fall of 1976 to reach out to his office so they may follow up and collect DNA samples to try and ID the remaining six victims.