Cook County Board President Todd Stroger (D), whom President Obama heartily backed in 2006, has come under much fire since then. He has raised county taxes, giving Chicago the highest sales tax of any city in the United States. His critics allege that he has done this so that his administration can afford to employ his political workers and family members in padded six-figure patronage jobs, which, according to several dozen aggrieved county workers, had been the modus operandi of his father, whom he succeeded.
That’s the long version. If you need a one-sentence story that encompasses what’s wrong with Cook County right now, here you go: Stroger’s cousin has just resigned as the county’s CFO, after undisclosed allegations made against her by a convicted felon who had been a Stroger patronage worker.