Are More Indictments Coming in Chicago's City Government?

Mark Brown reports:

There are echoes of the Hired Truck scandal in the city's program for compensating workers injured on the job.

If you've been reading "Clout's Sick List," the latest series by Sun-Times investigative ace Tim Novak, you might have already reached that conclusion on your own.

The most obvious parallel is the intriguing disclosure that 12 former city employees convicted in the Hired Truck scandal are among those who have filed workers compensation claims against the city, among them one of the truck investigation's central figures, John "Quarters" Boyle.

Do you think that's a coincidence, or do you think the people who were able to take advantage of one city program perhaps knew how to abuse another?

If we've learned anything during the past few years about Boyle, whose claim is still pending, it's that his every involvement with city government involved one scam or another. The other 11 each got money out of the city for their alleged injuries -- at least $350,000 total among them. Some received multiple awards.

After reading the Sun-Times stories, you might get the impression that some injury-prone city workers come up lame every time they need a little extra cash to remodel the house, finance a vacation or pay off their debts at the riverboats.

Government is the ultimate scam.