Cook County Worker Charged With Theft

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Cook County Board President John Stroger's patronage chief and a longtime confidant "ordered" an "unqualified" and "inept" ex-con to be put in charge of finances for a $14 million county program, authorities alleged Thursday.

Gerald Nichols and Albert Pritchett "ordered" county officials to hire Shirley Glover for the job, even though the program's director didn't want to hire her, court documents say.

That disclosure came as Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine charged Glover, 50, with theft, forgery, fraud, money laundering and other crimes. She's accused of stealing more than $180,000 from a job-training program overseen by Stroger: the President's Office of Employment Training, or POET.

The Cook County way.