Nurse to feds: State grants went to politicians’ campaigns

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

‘ T housands of dollars” in state grants awarded to bolster health care in minority communities instead went to pay campaign workers for former state Sen. Rickey Hendon and Democratic candidates Hendon supported, a Chicago nurse has told investigators.

The nurse, Tonja Cook, 44, detailed her allegations in four interviews with state and federal authorities between October 2010 and May 2011, records show.

In June 2011, federal prosecutors in Springfield charged Cook and another Chicago nurse, Margaret A. Davis, with siphoning $500,000 from state grant funds for Davis’ “personal use.”

Hendon, 58, a West Side Democrat who unexpectedly retired from the Senate in February 2011, hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing.

Great moments in Illinois corruption and "public health".