Financial journalism group recognizes pension report as 'Best in Business'
My in-depth story about the history of Illinois' pension crisis, published in August 2015 by Crain's Chicago Business, won a national award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. The piece finished first in the group's explanatory journalism category in its 2015 Best in Business awards. 
Government reform group awards 'Straight Talk' recognitionI covered the 1997 statehouse press conference where the late Democratic U.S. Senator Paul Simon and the then-Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra, a Republican, formed a new government watchdog group called the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. 
EIU Journalism Department names alumnus of the yearMany thanks to my friends in Eastern Illinois University's Journalism Department for this special recognition in October 2016. EIU is where my interest in journalism first took root. |
The man and Illinois' fiscal fiasco
By Dave McKinney
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Feb. 8, 2017) -- As speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, Michael Madigan has outlasted five governors and is now on his sixth. This year, the Chicago Democrat will become longest-serving state or federal House speaker in the United States since at least the early 1800s. Madigan is to Illinois what his late mentor, Mayor Richard J. Daley, was to Chicago, the state’s great metropolis - a city the political boss once controlled down to the last garbage truck. As speaker for all but two years since 1983, Madigan has directed the fate of key pension, labor and tax laws. As state Democratic Party chairman since 1998, he has shaped the fortunes of his allies and stymied opponents. But if Daley’s Chicago was “the city that works,” a nickname coined during his tenure, Madigan’s Illinois is the state that doesn’t work. The speaker is one of America’s most powerful politicians, presiding over arguably its most dysfunctional state capital. Illinois is beyond broke. It is the first state in eight decades to go without an annual budget, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Its bond ratings, the lowest of any state, are near junk status. It is projected to have a budget deficit this fiscal year of $5.3 billion and owes vendors about $10.8 billion in unpaid bills. Its pension system, serving more than 815,000 public employees and retirees, was tied with Kentucky’s system for the lowest funding ratio among states, at 37.6 percent, according to a 2014 ranking by Pew Charitable Trusts. Unfunded liabilities stood at $129.8 billion last June, up from $2.5 billion in 1971, the year Madigan joined the legislature 
Pension obligations are now projected to consume about a quarter of state operating revenues every year through 2044, raising the specter of steep tax hikes or deep cuts to public services. The state’s unpaid bills could reach $47 billion by 2022, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration has predicted.
Hundreds of Illinois politicians share a measure of blame for the fiscal fiasco. Still, as speaker, Madigan has sponsored or voted for every major state law affecting pensions over his three decades in the job and is a leader in budget deliberations every year. No one in modern Illinois politics wields as much legislative power, said David Axelrod, the Chicago-based Democratic political consultant who helped put Barack Obama in the White House. “In his domain - in terms of the art of keeping and exercising power within that building - he’s incomparable,” Axelrod said, referring to the state capitol in Springfield. “Whatever his complicity in helping to create the problem, he’s also going to be essential to its solution.” Madigan declined to be interviewed for this report. In the fall of 2015, he shrugged off criticism during rare public comments about his role in the fiscal crisis. “If you wish to be a critic of me, then you would blame everything that’s happened in the state for the last several years on me. Some do that,” he told reporters. “I don’t choose to be so negative.” Read more:
Analysis: Illinois fix to unpaid bills could be financial time bomb
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Mylan dangles Disneyland trips, steak dinners to blogger moms in EpiPen school pitch
By Dave McKinney
CHICAGO (Sept. 23, 2016) -- When Mylan NV recruited food allergy bloggers to learn about its campaign to get allergic shock antidotes into schools, many were eager to join the maker of the EpiPens they carry in purses and stash in book bags to protect their children against potentially lethal attacks.
The bloggers, more than a dozen mothers of children with serious allergies, embraced the effort Mylan outlined in a series of "summits" it held for them beginning in 2013.
They wrote impassioned posts on blogs shared with tens of thousands of followers on social media. Their personal testimony helped persuade a number of state lawmakers to pass bills to get schools to stock epinephrine injectors, such as the EpiPen, according to legislators and others familiar with the lobbying effort.
CHICAGO (Sept. 23, 2016) -- When Mylan NV recruited food allergy bloggers to learn about its campaign to get allergic shock antidotes into schools, many were eager to join the maker of the EpiPens they carry in purses and stash in book bags to protect their children against potentially lethal attacks.
The bloggers, more than a dozen mothers of children with serious allergies, embraced the effort Mylan outlined in a series of "summits" it held for them beginning in 2013.
They wrote impassioned posts on blogs shared with tens of thousands of followers on social media. Their personal testimony helped persuade a number of state lawmakers to pass bills to get schools to stock epinephrine injectors, such as the EpiPen, according to legislators and others familiar with the lobbying effort.
During the same period, the company was marking up its EpiPen to more than $600 per twin pack, six times the 2007 price, creating a burden for many of the bloggers' followers, other parents of children whose lives are threatened by bee stings and peanuts.
At least four of the bloggers told Reuters they believe Mylan took advantage of their goodwill. Some have joined public criticism of those price hikes.
"I personally believe that Mylan held the summits to gain blogger trust and then used those bloggers to spread word about their initiatives. They raised prices while those initiatives gained traction," Ruth LovettSmith, a former food-allergy blogger from Massachusetts who attended three summits, said in an email.
Mylan spokeswoman Lauren Kashtan declined to comment on the criticism.
But in an email, she said the company regretted that it had not anticipated "the potential financial issues for the growing minority of patients" whose EpiPens are not covered by insurance or a patient assistance program.
Mylan now offers coupons to more families to cover out-of-pocket costs and said it would soon release a half-price EpiPen.
Kashtan also said the blogger summits served a worthy purpose.
"Mylan aimed to provide access to information, resources and expertise about anaphylaxis and life-threatening allergies," said Kashtan, who represented the company at four summits. "We are proud to have brought together such a passionate and dedicated group of advocates."
Chief executive Heather Bresch was blasted Wednesday at a hearing before U.S. lawmakers who, along with prosecutors in several states, are investigating the price hikes.
EpiPen sales exceed $1 billion a year and command more than 90 percent of the market.
STEAKS AND BLOG POLISHING
The effort to get epinephrine injectors into schools is a point of pride for Mylan, which has credited its alliances with advocates for its success.
"We have collaborated with government officials, leading advocacy organizations, parents, caregivers and healthcare professionals to successfully champion legislation and policies," Mylan said in a 2015 report on its social responsibility efforts.
LovettSmith, whose son has nut allergies, went to her first Mylan blogger summit in January 2013 at a boutique midtown Manhattan hotel overlooking the Empire State Building.
It was the first of at least four summits, each involving about 15 bloggers, some of whom attended more than one event. They wrote about being treated to three-course dinners featuring pan-seared yellow fin tuna or marinated grilled hanger steak.
At a 2014 summit at the company's Canonsburg, Pa., headquarters, Mylan brought an outside communications consultant to help the women polish their blogs, advocate to policymakers, practice on-camera television interviews and speak at public events, participants told Reuters.
Homa Woodrum, a lawyer in Las Vegas whose 8-year-old daughter relies on EpiPens for nut and oat allergies, attended that summit. But she skipped an invitation to a May 2015 event at California's Disneyland, uncomfortable with the shift in venue to a resort.
"It starts to seem a little like you're being buttered up," Woodrum said. Read more:
At least four of the bloggers told Reuters they believe Mylan took advantage of their goodwill. Some have joined public criticism of those price hikes.
"I personally believe that Mylan held the summits to gain blogger trust and then used those bloggers to spread word about their initiatives. They raised prices while those initiatives gained traction," Ruth LovettSmith, a former food-allergy blogger from Massachusetts who attended three summits, said in an email.
Mylan spokeswoman Lauren Kashtan declined to comment on the criticism.
But in an email, she said the company regretted that it had not anticipated "the potential financial issues for the growing minority of patients" whose EpiPens are not covered by insurance or a patient assistance program.
Mylan now offers coupons to more families to cover out-of-pocket costs and said it would soon release a half-price EpiPen.
Kashtan also said the blogger summits served a worthy purpose.
"Mylan aimed to provide access to information, resources and expertise about anaphylaxis and life-threatening allergies," said Kashtan, who represented the company at four summits. "We are proud to have brought together such a passionate and dedicated group of advocates."
Chief executive Heather Bresch was blasted Wednesday at a hearing before U.S. lawmakers who, along with prosecutors in several states, are investigating the price hikes.
EpiPen sales exceed $1 billion a year and command more than 90 percent of the market.
STEAKS AND BLOG POLISHING
The effort to get epinephrine injectors into schools is a point of pride for Mylan, which has credited its alliances with advocates for its success.
"We have collaborated with government officials, leading advocacy organizations, parents, caregivers and healthcare professionals to successfully champion legislation and policies," Mylan said in a 2015 report on its social responsibility efforts.
LovettSmith, whose son has nut allergies, went to her first Mylan blogger summit in January 2013 at a boutique midtown Manhattan hotel overlooking the Empire State Building.
It was the first of at least four summits, each involving about 15 bloggers, some of whom attended more than one event. They wrote about being treated to three-course dinners featuring pan-seared yellow fin tuna or marinated grilled hanger steak.
At a 2014 summit at the company's Canonsburg, Pa., headquarters, Mylan brought an outside communications consultant to help the women polish their blogs, advocate to policymakers, practice on-camera television interviews and speak at public events, participants told Reuters.
Homa Woodrum, a lawyer in Las Vegas whose 8-year-old daughter relies on EpiPens for nut and oat allergies, attended that summit. But she skipped an invitation to a May 2015 event at California's Disneyland, uncomfortable with the shift in venue to a resort.
"It starts to seem a little like you're being buttered up," Woodrum said. Read more:
Fiscal morass deepens as gov fails to budge
Governor Bruce Rauner greets House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, his two Democratic legislative nemeses, after delivering his 2016 State of the State address.
By Dave McKinney
SPRINGFIELD (Jan. 27, 2016) -- Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner refused to step away from his stalled legislative agenda on Wednesday while insisting that a spending deal remains within reach, but his words appeared to leave his Democratic rivals unmoved.
Republican Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature have been locked in a budget stalemate for nearly seven months.
"To achieve a grand compromise, we must cast partisanship and ideology aside,” Rauner told the state legislature in his State of the State address. “We must break from the politics of the past and do what is right for the long term future of our state. I’m ready, and it’s my genuine hope that you are too.”
In a nearly 40-minute speech that drew robust Republican applause but only a tepid Democratic response, Rauner did not abandon his stalled plan and lobbed barbs at two primary Democratic constituencies. Read more:
SPRINGFIELD (Jan. 27, 2016) -- Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner refused to step away from his stalled legislative agenda on Wednesday while insisting that a spending deal remains within reach, but his words appeared to leave his Democratic rivals unmoved.
Republican Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature have been locked in a budget stalemate for nearly seven months.
"To achieve a grand compromise, we must cast partisanship and ideology aside,” Rauner told the state legislature in his State of the State address. “We must break from the politics of the past and do what is right for the long term future of our state. I’m ready, and it’s my genuine hope that you are too.”
In a nearly 40-minute speech that drew robust Republican applause but only a tepid Democratic response, Rauner did not abandon his stalled plan and lobbed barbs at two primary Democratic constituencies. Read more:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel lays out plan to equip 700 more police cars with Tasers in response to the police-involved shooting deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones.
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By Dave McKinney
CHICAGO (Dec. 30, 2015) -- Chicago police will get new equipment and training to help them defuse tense situations and limit their use of lethal force, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on Wednesday, following weeks of protests calling for him to resign over his handling of fatal police shootings. The number of Tasers, or electric stun guns that are generally not lethal, for the police department will be doubled to 1,400 so that every patrol unit that goes out at night has one, Emanuel said at a news conference. "Just because you are trained that you can use force, doesn't mean you should," Emanuel said at the news conference, flanked by top officials including interim Police Superintendent John Escalante. Read more: |
Demolishing Detroit to save it comes at a price as teardown costs soar
A demolition crew digs out the foundation from a razed home that was one of thousands of blighted structures that have been knocked down in Detroit since 2014. Reuters | Rebecca Cook
By Dave McKinney
DETROIT (Dec. 15, 2015) -- Nowhere in America bulldozes derelict homes with Detroit’s ferocity, as the city that has become a byword for U.S. urban decay seeks to engineer a recovery by tearing itself down. A year after the city exited the biggest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy, a plan to demolish half of its nearly 80,000 blighted or deteriorating structures -- nearly one in three city buildings -- is showing some signs of success. The number of fires - often caused by arson attacks on abandoned homes – dropped in October from a year ago, and deeply depressed property values have ticked higher in areas close to demolitions. The aim of the program is to stabilize home values and reduce foreclosures as the city of 680,000 people struggles with emptying neighborhoods, high crime and one of the worst unemployment rates in the country. But the federally backed program has been tainted by allegations that Mayor Mike Duggan favored demolition contractors who donated to his campaign and by a steep rise in costs. Read more: |
A Detroit neighborhood stripped of blightDuring a late-fall visit to Detroit, I did a ride-along in an area on the city's northwest side known as Brightmoor with John George, founder of the Motor City Blight Busters. Using thousands of volunteers and relying on private donations, George explains in this video how his non-profit has cleaned up an entire, blighted neighborhood.
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Cash-starved Illinois pays rock stars but lets social services languish
Gov. Bruce Rauner fields questions after a budget meeting in Springfield with the legislative leaders.
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By Dave McKinney
CHICAGO (Oct. 24, 2015) -- To see the fickle fiscal state of affairs in cash-strapped Illinois, you need look no further than how the musical acts Styx, Sammy Hagar and Hank Williams Jr got paid for performing at the state fair in August, but the woman who sculpted the event’s life-sized butter cow did not. Nearly five months into a budget impasse pitting new Republican Governor Bruce Rauner against long-serving Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, Illinois is deep into uncharted territory. Vendors are paid, or denied payment, at the behest of obscure laws or on demand from state and federal courts, resulting in misshapen priorities between the budgetary haves and have-not's. Read more: |
Other work:
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A Snowballing Problem: Illinois' pension debacle decades in the making
Aug. 11, 2015:
My special report in Crain's Chicago Business about the origins of Illinois' mammoth pension problem was covered on WTTW-TV's "Chicago Tonight." Anchor Phil Ponce and I look at some of the key moments on a decades-long timeline of poor planning, bad number-crunching and last-minute decision making that have put the state on a path toward financial ruin. "It's a really good, comprehensive overview and a good primer for anyone trying to figure this out," Ponce said of the story. Watch: |
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A Special Report
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Grading the governor: Six months in, how's Gov. Rauner doing? Spoiler alert: He needs to show some improvement
August 2015:
If Bruce Rauner’s vision of shaking up Springfield meant making a lot of noise, his first six months have been a rousing success. But if the goal was to get something substantive actually, well, done, Illinois’s new governor has yet to impress, accomplishing less in his first spring in power than any predecessor since before fellow Republican Jim Edgar took office in 1991. Here’s how well, at presstime in late June, he has delivered on seven key promises he made during the election. Read more here. And to listen to my July 9, 2015, WGN-AM radio interview about this piece, click here. |
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The Venture to Bring Helicopters Back to Downtown Chicago
June 1, 2015:
CHICAGO — The only complaint Mike Conklin ever received from his time helicoptering President Bill Clinton around in Marine One came from the White House chief usher, who politely asked if there were some way to quit strafing the flowers with wind from the rotors. That negligible complaint notwithstanding, Mr. Conklin is using the expertise he gained in piloting Mr. Clinton 192 times over more than four years to pitch Chicago’s corporate community on a new, potentially lucrative business concept: getting downtown mostly by helicopter, avoiding the city’s clogged expressways. Read more: |
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Are Scientologists targeting Illinois mental health laws?
June 2015:
The oft-maligned Church of Scientology needs whatever friends it can get after the searing HBO documentary Going Clear. Followers still have at least one in, of all places, Springfield. State Rep. Mary Flowers, a Democrat whose district stretches from the Auburn Gresham neighborhood to Countryside in the southwestern suburbs, is sponsoring legislation that bears Illinois Scientologists’ imprint. The resolution, picking up where she left off two years ago with a similar bill, would drag the state into a debate over the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of mental illnesses. Scientologists have long contended that psychiatry is essentially bunk. (Remember Tom Cruise’s 2005 rant against antidepressants?) According to the church’s website, its members founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights in 1969 to protect people from “abusive or coercive psychiatric practices.” How seriously do they believe in this abuse? The group’s museum is named Psychiatry: An Industry of Death. House Resolution 7 marks another foray into Illinois lawmaking by Scientologists. Read more: |
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Leaving violence and joblessness: A family’s bid for a better life
May 4, 2015:
WOOD DALE, Ill. — Latonya Polk knew by the early summer of 2012 that she and her family had to leave their home in one of Illinois’s most violence-prone suburbs, outside Chicago. Less than a year earlier, her husband, Kalem Polk, had been killed while he sat on the front porch of the family’s Bellwood, Ill., apartment with a cousin and a mutual friend. After the killing, she quit using her home’s front door near where her husband had been shot. As soon as she could get out of her lease, Mrs. Polk sought out a safer place. She was also losing faith in the local schools and worrying about the friends her son was making. And she was unemployed, having been laid off from a clerical job in Chicago’s public school system. “I was ready to leave behind everything, just to get out of there,” Mrs. Polk said. Not far to the west of Bellwood was one of the most affluent places in America: DuPage County. It’s a land of shopping malls, palatial homes, golf courses and good public schools. Among the nation’s 100 largest counties, it is also the one where low-income children have the best odds of growing up to escape poverty, according to a large new academic study that tracked several million families in recent decades. On moving day, Mrs. Polk pointed her car to DuPage. Read more: |
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Short-term budget fix: Bipartisanship breaks out in Springfield
March 25, 2015:
Could a stopgap budget fix to plug a $1.6 billion deficit that passed the General Assembly with Republican and Democratic votes be a precursor to a new spirit of bipartisanship in Springfield? With bigger budget decisions looming, the answer is probably no, even though this week's move pushed by Gov. Bruce Rauner will give a temporary infusion of cash to day-care programs and prison guards. I joined a panel on WTTW-TV's "Chicago Tonight" with H. Woods Bowman, professor emeritus at DePaul University’s School of Public Service, and Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, to talk about the state budget. Watch: |
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Schock's last tango: Expenses scandal downs congressman
March 18, 2015:
An almost narcissistic adoration for social media and an intercontinental lifestyle few of his downstate Illinois constituents enjoyed have ended the once-promising political career of U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, a Republican from downstate Peoria. With Schock now under a federal criminal investigation, I joined a panel on WTTW-TV's "Chicago Tonight" to discuss Schock's stunning fall with moderator Carol Marin, former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady and Dr. Royce Lee, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Chicago. Watch: |
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Chicago Magazine 'The Power 100': Who’s No. 2? Get Ready to Rumble
March 2015:
Gov. Bruce Rauner may have vast power over doling out state contracts and jobs, but House Speaker Michael Madigan has the upper hand. That’s because of the position he’s perfected as the absolute gatekeeper of all things big and small. At a moment’s notice, he can turn the House into a legislative killing field. (Just ask Blago.) And thanks to his 71-seat Dem supermajority, which he kept intact despite the national GOP tidal wave last election, he’s got enough votes to swat down Rauner’s vetoes and block any borrowing the gov might want for capital projects. Read more: 'Hardball' tactics alleged in settled lawsuit against Bruce Rauner
Oct. 7, 2014:
By Dave McKinney, Carol Marin and Don Moseley SPRINGFIELD — Republican Bruce Rauner had a quick answer when asked to assess blame for the fast collapse of a once-promising business venture created and backed by his one-time Chicago investment firm. Christine Kirk. The accomplished CEO he recruited from a high-flying national accounting firm couldn’t make their business-outsourcing firm, LeapSource, based in Tempe, Ariz., profitable because he said she didn’t share his vision of what makes a “good company.” Read more: |
What they said:
Rod Blagojevich on May 12, 2005 answering why he announced a long-shot campaign-finance plan via press release days earlier rather than facing questions from reporters: |
George Ryan, mulling his possible re-election plans for 2002, responding to McKinney's question about why Illinois voters regarded him so poorly in polling: |
Biographer David Mendell, in "Obama: From Promise to Power," noting how Barack Obama had a "cordial, but not chummy relationship" with statehouse reporters, and that one writer noticed Obama initially: |