NEW: Two Loretto executives worked together to steal nearly $500,000 from the safety-net hospital, which is meant to serve the poorest Chicagoans, according to a criminal complaint.
The charges come amid an FBI investigation into Loretto after Block Club Chicago and the Better Government Association revealed questionable practices at the hospital — including the misuse of COVID-19 vaccines.
Court docs refer to an Individual A with whom Bergdahl worked to embezzle ~$487,000 from the hospital. Individual A is not named, but details make clear it's Anosh Ahmed — another former Loretto exec who faced scrutiny and resigned after our reports.
Pritzker, set for victory: "Tonight, you made history. Four years ago, I told you that we would think big, that we'd write a new playbook, that we would put gov't back on the side of working families, that we would be bold. And we didn't waste any time. We raised the minimum ...
"wage to a livable wage. We guaranteed a woman's right to choose. We balanced the budget, paid all our overdue bills and got six credit upgrades. ... And we legalized cannabis."
Pritzker: "Just a few minutes ago, the news networks called this race in our favor. And I'm grateful tonight."
• Though folks often say Chicago has the strictest gun laws, experts have said Chicago's laws are actually similar to those of other big cities.
It's hard to compare laws between cities, but NY and LA actually have some restrictions that are tougher than Chicago's.
• Laws in surrounding communities matter, experts have said.
That's why Chicago's violence is affected by lax laws in other states — you can just go to, say, Indiana and buy a gun that you use in Chicago. And people do. Again, 60% of "crime guns" here are from other states.
Arwady sharing data showing how hospitalizations remain high. Said she's particularly worried about folks 80+, who are seeing a lot of hospitalizations are not as vaccinated as she'd like.
Arwady: She expects the removal of masks will come in the future, but it's not imminent.
"If we see people feel like 'I don't have to do any of these things' ... we won't come down as quickly and effectively ... it takes longer to get to that point where we all want to get ... ."
NEW: The Center for COVID Control got $124 million from the feds — while telling workers to lie about results, keeping tests in unrefrigerated garbage bags around the office and processing tests late, ex-employees say.
Former Center for COVID Control employees said the company couldn't keep up with tests, so it left them in garbage bags, unrefrigerated, around the office. Still processed them, eventually.
Former employees said they hid bags of tests in a backroom and in a U-Haul parked behind the company's Rolling Meadows HQ when state health department inspectors visited.
Was watching @WGNNews last night when I head @patrickelwood quote my Center for COVID Control stories — word for word at points — without providing any credit or reference to Block Club.
I've worked for WEEKS on these stories.
This is unacceptable. This is plagiarism.
I am so disappointed in @WGNNews. Block Club is a small, nonprofit newsroom.
It is HARD for us to spare the resources needed for me to investigate this, but we do it because it's important.
To not provide credit and to steal entire sentences, facts, etc. is unacceptable.
I've built trust with dozens of sources, interviewed 50+ people, researched for hours (working MANY 12+-hour days recently), gone to sites, obtained reports and more to get this information.