**Update 9/7: Here’s an image of yesterday’s print edition of the Northern Star with synopses and photos. In reading it again I’m struck at how much time and money have been spent already and still NIU is unable to determine whether any of its employees have done anything wrong.** …and the Trib has more about…
Category: City Watch
NIU “Coffee Fund” Updates
NIU Today: NIU confirms the existence of a “private, non-university bank account named ‘coffee fund.’” In the article, NIU says, “Any determination of criminal charges will be made by the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s office after reviewing the evidence collected during the criminal investigation.” Northern Star: State police are now involved as far as advising…
NIU Closes Somebody’s Coffee Fund
**Update 9/1: DC has significantly re-worked the story, so the quote below no longer appears there.** I very much appreciate the Daily Chronicle‘s continued persistence and endurance with the NIU “coffee fund” story, especially as things get curioser. DeKALB – Northern Illinois University has located the “coffee fund” and shut it down. University officials said…
Daily Chronicle Still on Top of NIU Resignation Story
In “NIU hired outside firm to investigate employees” we learn that NIU paid about $25,000 for investigations into what have previously been described as serious allegations of misconduct. A contract between the university and Sycamore law firm Foster & Buick Law Group shows that attorney John Countryman was hired June 4 to investigate “named individuals…
Comment on 8/27/2012 Council Meeting Agenda
OK, Council, you said you’d bond out no more than $12 million but now staff is coming at you with a proposal for borrowing $14 million. It’s not that Peace Road and the fire stations don’t need attention. They do — especially Station 2. But is this really the way to do it? Bundling the…
Corn Fest Has a Liquor License. Guess Where the Bar Is?
DeKalb Corn Fest, Inc. now has its own liquor license, and its own special permit to serve liquor at Corn Fest in the great outdoors. My companion and I saw them about 5:30 p.m. We had to request to see these documents, because they weren’t posted anywhere: not at the gate to the beer garden,…
NIU “Coffee Fund” Quote of the Day
In reading “NIU: ‘We Welcome’ State’s Attorney Involvement” we get this: “The integrity of this great university is not at issue,” the statement continued. When your PR people claim that the resignations of two of your top employees at the same time were for personal reasons and a coincidence, but later it’s found they actually…
NIU Must Not Investigate Its Own “Coffee Fund”
I really hate to pick on Marc Strauss, the only Northern Illinois University trustee who will talk to the press right now, but this doesn’t wash: “We acted swiftly upon learning of the possibility of impropriety, and I instructed the NIU Police to launch a thorough investigation,” [Eddie] Williams [who is executive vice president of…
Rental Association Positions on Proposed Housing Ordinances
DeKalb’s city council will hold a special workshop meeting August 22, 6 p.m. in council chambers, to discuss proposals related to the work of the Safe/Quality Housing Task Force. The agenda and backup materials (a 109-page PDF) are here. If you’ve been following the work of the task force, especially lately, you know that its…
A Reminder About Liquor Code Overhauls
Delighted as I am that the City of DeKalb appears to have competent legal counsel at this time, I am also a little dismayed that Mr. Frieders seems to be driving the agenda lately. This seems to be a pattern with our city manager, and the history leading to the latest attempt at overhauling the…