WHO’S DRIVING THE KIDS?

1 in 10 taxi cab drivers in 47 school districts – 
arrested or convicted of such crimes as aggravated battery, soliciting prostitutes,
possession of a controlled substance, assault, I.D. theft,  mob action, or have orders of protection against them.
Phil Rogers, NBC5- Chicago 

Watch NBC5- Chicago Investigation here
April 9, 2013

Last year at OpenTheBooks.com, we posted all Illinois school district checkbooks…

In our Taxes for Taxi’s Report, we exposed 48 north suburban school districts spent $50 million shuttling children in taxi cabs (2006-2011). Only 8 districts had contracts, the rest circumvented procurement law and paid for expensive individual rides. Read our report here. 

Now, NBC5 found that taxi companies and schools have exposed children to incredible risk. For instance, a convicted child sex offender drove taxi’s at eight different school districts!

Thanks to the investigative reporting of Phil Rogers, the hiring practices at the two biggest providers of taxi cab service are now being investigated by the Cook County State’s Attorney.

Is your school using taxi cabs to transport students?
Review database of schools and cab companies here.

Want to be a Watchdog? For districts using taxi’s, demand to see:
1. The contract with the cab company and proof of bidding process. All expenditures over $25,000 are subject to mandatory bidding.
2. The district RFP (Request for Proposal). See if the district attempted to get competitive bids.
3.  Proof that the drivers have “clean” records. The list of permitted taxi cab drivers is a mandatory requirement.
Download sample Freedom of Information Act request here.

Can your school comply with the law? Half can’t.

Thanks to our Taxes for Taxi’s Report a year ago, Gurnee Elementary School District 56, Woodland Elementary District 50, and Warren Township High School District 121 curtailed the use of outside taxi companies achieving two goals: saved money, improved safety. Read news article here.

Local citizens must demand transparency- to safeguard our children and stop corrupt practices.

Let us know what you find. 

Adam Andrzejewski
founder, non-profit OpenTheBooks.com
For The Good of Illinois
adam@openthebooks.com

P.S. Our organization relies on you, please help by donating $25, $50, $100, $250 or $500 today, Click here.

Search “Every Dime.Online.” transparency at www.OpenTheBooks.com or download in The App Store or the Google Play Store.

WE ARE GROWING!

On Monday, May 6th, we are hosting an “Open House” Event in our new office space. Meet & Greet starts at 6:15pm with the speaking program beginning at 7pm. Download all details here.

Celebrate the success of For The Good of Illinois and our nationally leading transparency project, Open The Books. Learn why American Spectator wrote, “this may be the smartest thing a smart phone has produced yet.”

Renew your spirit: meet some of the most impactful activists in Illinois. Hear how they are using the Freedom of Information Act and Open The Books to drive out public corruption.

Help recognize the winner of our “A Good Deed” 2012 Contest: this couple sacrificed to help our deployed soldiers in combat. Let’s show our support. Learn more here.

Meet our core team: our Board of Directors, Board Advisors, and strongest supporters.

Influence the serious candidates for Governor of Illinois.  It’s your turn… to exert some sway.

We are here… For The Good of Illinois!

Some people have lost faith that Illinois can have a gainful future. Nonsense. Let’s do something about it.

Please return this email as your RSVP. We’ll pre-print your name tag.

Adam Andrzejewski
founder, OpenTheBooks.com
adam@openthebooks.com

P.S. Our organization relies on you, please help by donating today, Click here.

Search “Every Dime.Online.” transparency at www.OpenTheBooks.com or download in The App Store or the Google Play Store.

Join us for a half-day workshop this Saturday at the University of Chicago’s International House (1414 E 59th St  Chicago, IL 60637).  The program is co-sponsored by the Global Voices Program at the University of Chicago’s International House. Special thanks to our other co-sponsors: the Polish American Congress (IL), Polish Women in Business, the Foundation for Free Speech and the Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union.

Lunch will be served throughout the day. After the program, join for a reception at Szałas Restaurant with traditional Polish fare and drink. The total cost is only $35 for adults – and only $20 for students.  Register today to reserve your seat at the reception: http://apacouncil.info/workshop.php.

Speakers

LTG/AMB Edward L. Rowny (former Chief Negotiator Strategic Nuclear Arms)
Message from Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defense
Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL)
Senator Dick Durbin (invited)

Elected Official Roundtable
Moderator: Karen Majewska, Mayor of Hamtramck, MI
State Rep. Robert Martwick
Justice Aurelia Pucinska
Matt Bogusz (Mayor-elect Des Plaines)
Andrew Przybylo (Mayor-elect Niles)

Money and Politics
Moderator: Mark Dobrzycki
Adam Andrzejewski (Founder, For the Good of Illinois)
State Sen. Antonio Munoz (Treasurer, Cook County Democrats, Latino Caucus)
State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka
State Treasurer Dan Rutherford (invited)
Professor Mark Hansen (invited)

Seeking Political Appointments
Moderator: Anna Goral
Stanley Gruszynski (Obama Campaign/USDA Director for Rural Development)
Andrew Rajec (Bush Campaign/USAID Regional director)
White House Representative

Breakout sessions:
Immigration Reform and Visa Waiver Program
Community Organizing
Business and Public Service

OPEN THE ILLINOIS CHECKBOOK

 
“To The Comptroller: Open Up”
read editorial here
Alton Telegraph, January 8, 2013  

Today, your taxes are due. But, the books are closed in Illinois.

The two biggest names in Illinois politics- Republican Comptroller Judy Baar-Topinka & Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan- are in court spending tens of thousands of your money to try to prevent you from seeing “their” spending.

In January, we filed a lawsuit to compel them to produce one year of state checkbook spending. Topinka claims that three days of work is an “undue burden“. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is defending the Comptroller.

To make such a claim, the government must show the “burden” exceeds the public interest. In Illinois, that is just impossible- our last two governors went to jail.

 On January 27th, the Chicago Tribune editorialized that their excuse is a “much abused loophole”. Read editorial here

For The Good of Illinois v. State of Illinois, Comptroller: Complaint

Comptroller Topinka-AG Madigan: Motion To Dismiss

For The Good of Illinois: Response in Opposition to Motion To Dismiss

For The Good of Illinois:  Motion for Relief

As you read the court filings, please note the use of the vigorous and robust rhetoric used to try and keep the government spending private. “They” really don’t want you to see all the gory details.

Today April 15th at noon, join me at the Chicago Tax Day rally in Daley Plaza, Chicago. Here’s our message to both parties, “Open The Books!“

Adam Andrzejewski
For The Good of Illinois | CEO
“Like” my facebook fan page here

P.S. Our “Hot” new ‘Open The Books’ smart app is a free download in The App Store or the Google Play Store.

“…it may be just the tool taxpayers need 
to start holding their elected officials accountable.”
 Kristine Frazao 
 National Correspondent, Washington D.C.

   OPEN THE BOOKS

Reached 30% of America on FOX, NBC, CBS & ABC
Click Here to Watch Newscast

At openthebooks.com, 1,000 Pulitzer Prizes are waiting to be won…

FOX, NBC, CBS, & ABC affiliates across America featured our OpenTheBooks app on their nightly newscast. In one hour, 2,000 people downloaded it.

What was all the excitement about? Make sure you watch the two minute news segment, click here.
  

Open The Books is a game changer in the great debate gripping Washington DC–  where to cut. In order to cut federal spending, first we must see it. The app hyper-localizes United States government checkbook spending plus farm subsidies and 2.5 million federal employees to your zip code, or any zip code across the country.

Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit and Michael Malkin, Fox News Contributor teamed up to promote. The Gateway Pundit posted and tweeted about our “Hot new App”, here; Malkin then retweeted the message to her 500,000 twitter followers.

Roger Kimball at PJ Media wrote his Roger’s Rules investigative post using the information at openthebooks.com. Read it here.

Kankakee Daily-Journal newspaper wrote a three part investigative story using information on openthebooks.com. Read it here.

You were with us from the beginning, and now our reach is growing…

You can’t complain about Washington, D.C., if you don’t take the time to see the massive money flows into your backyard and zip code.

What will you find?

Visit the website, www.OpenTheBooks.com or download in The App Store or the Google Play Store.

Adam Andrzejewski
 For The Good of Illinois | CEO

P.S. Please “like” my facebook fan page- it’s where I’ll break the latest “Open The Books” news. Click here.

NEW APP SHOWS HOW FEDERAL MONEY IS SPENT
By OpenTheBooks.com founder, Adam Andrzejewski

From Roger Kimball at PJ Media see the original post here.

It’s that time of year again.  Like millions of Americans — some 50 percent of tax filers, in fact — I am spending many hours assembling various forms and bits of paper that I will turn over to my accountant, who will then go away to add, subtract, depreciate, amortize, deduct, allow, and expense, presenting us in the end with a long and (to me) unintelligible document, a hefty bill for his services, and pulse-rattling totals to be sent to the U.S. Treasury and the treasuries of various states.

Here’s a question.  What do you suppose those governmental agencies do with all that dough?  Aircraft carriers, I know, are expensive, and I don’t begrudge the federal government a dime for that sort of expense.  And the president, I know, must have his vacations.  The Daily Caller ^[1] reported that taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama and his family last year.  I can’t say I am thrilled by that, but when you have a federal budget (not, of course, that we have actually had a budget ^[2] under Obama) of nearly $4 trillion, $1.4 billion might seem almost reasonable.  Almost. (OK, it really doesn’t.)

But what about the rest of the dough? Put the federal spedning to one side for a moment. What about the trillions upon trillions that the state and local governments spend?  Where’s that go?  One of the most irritating aspects of the carnival of fiscal irresponsibility we’ve been subjected to in recent decades is the fact that no matter how much money we send to our masters in Washington and in our state capitals and local bursaries, they always spend more, a lot more, than they get. The $16-point-whatever trillion federal debt gets loads of attention, but what about the billions upon billions in debt that various states have racked up?  California is essentially bankrupt, ditto Illinois, New York, and many other states.  My own state of Connecticut is in a bad way, but why? The population of the state has been stable these past few decades, yet expenditures, and debt, have skyrocketed. Why’s that?

It’s been tricky to answer such questions.  Until now.  A public-spirited chap called Adam Andrzejewski got fed up with the lack of governmental transparency and decided to do something about it.  Hence his invaluable website Open the Books ^[3], a project of For the Good of Illinois, Inc. ^[4], a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded by Mr. Andrzejewski in 2007. The goal of Open the Books is something that the Obama administration came to office promising but never delivered: transparency.  Hence its motto: “Every dime. Online.”

They haven’t quite got there yet, but their database is a formidable thing, and if I were a government or state or municipal employee (or former employee) I would blush to browse through the records it has assembled.  Take a look. While you’re waiting to find out how much more money you will have to send to the bureaucrats who live so well off your hard work, contemplate what the “public servants” in your neck of the woods pull down in salaries or pensions. Here are a few screen shots:

First, I asked for recent Connecticut state and local salaries

Mr. Calhoun was a successful college athletic coach.  I wonder if the taxpayers are happy about those many millions?  Or how about the millions to various unnamed teachers in Avon, Canterbury, and elsewhere?

Then I thought I’d look at Illinois salaries.  It’s good to be a dean in Illinois:

Illinois also seems to be a good place to retire if you are a “public servant.”  Here is the beginning of a list of MONTHLY pension payments.

Not bad, eh?  I mean not bad for the folks collecting on your money because various unions have  the politicians in their pockets.

I hope that Open the Books will become more widely known.  There is a trove of information there about the expenditures of every state, many localities, and the federal government. It is partly sobering, partly infuriating.  Perhaps Mr. Andrzejewski will take up my idea and start a new not-for-profit called Throw The Bums Out.org.

Click Here to Watch

News story on FOX, ABC, CBS, & NBC affiliates in 112 markets reaching 30% of country.

The “Open The Books” app is a game changer in the great debate gripping Washington DC-  where to cut. In order to cut federal spending, first we must see it.  This simple concept underlies the “Open The Books” mobile app for Apple and Android smart devices.  The app hyper-localizes United States government checkbook spending plus farm subsidies and 2.5 million federal employees to your zip code, or any zip code across the country.  You can’t complain about our politicians if you don’t take the time to see the massive money flows into your backyard and zip code.  The most frequent response, “I’m in the wrong business.”

The app is the brainchild of www.OpenTheBooks.com non-profit founder Adam Andrzejewski.  Free download in The App Store or Google Play Store.

Former Herscher resident and one-time candidate for governor Adam Andrzejewski announced this week he will definitely not be seeking public office in 2014.

Andrzejewski, who lives in Hinsdale, recently made headlines across the nation when he launched an online searchable database that opened the federal government’s checkbook register to public scrutiny. He previously had spearheaded the effort to release all state of Illinois spending records.

“After consulting with supporters, donors, advisers and my family, I have decided not to run for office in the 2014 election cycle,” Andrzejewski said at a Chicago news conference.

In a message to The Daily Journal, he explained “growing up in Herscher, I learned the importance of commitment.” And he added he is fully committed to his work in government transparency.

“Our transparency work is of state and national importance,” he said. “It’s more important to continue our policy work than to run for office.”

Regarding his exposure of federal government spending, Andrzejewski noted The Daily Journal’s recent story of more than $8 million in Pell Grants going to a local beauty school is gaining national attention.

“Your story … is going to everywhere, and my guess is that it will be picked up by the national blogs soon,” he said. “As someone who received federal Pell monies to go to college, I’m very disappointed in the program.”

Andrzejewski promised to continue to put “every dime, online, in real time” through the Open the Books platform.

“We are a national leader in pioneering online transparency of government spending. We have been effective at exposing corrupt practices, and we have assisted in getting good candidates elected to office,” Andrzejewski said.

“Our platform of expanded transparency, forensic audits and freezing property taxes is [a step toward solving] the long-term problems of the state.”

Andrzejewski’s organization, For the Good of Illinois, recently posted 12 years of the federal checkbook online at openthebooks.com. They also launched a program to bring those records to smartphones.

Read the whole story here.

See the video here.

For the Good of Illinois Founder & CEO Adam Andrzejewski announced yesterday at The University Club of Chicago that he would not seek public office in 2014.  He based his decision on the substantial work that For the Good of Illinois is working on.

The press conference video runs 8 minues and is a full recap of our significant work product of the past three years.