The plot thickens!There's even more to the story that Uptown Update broke a couple weeks ago about former alderman Helen Shiller being a lobbyist on behalf of Pooh Bah Enterprises for "gentleman's club" VIP. DNAInfo has a follow-up story in which Helen denies that role.
Even though she was listed on the city database as a lobbyist for Pooh-Bah, and even though that form was filled out by hand, in pen, by her former aldermanic staffer Michilla Blaise, the former alderman now says, "it was a mistake that I was listed as the lobbyist for Pooh Bah Enterprise."
Both Helen and Michilla refused further comment, although Brendan Shiller freely admitted lobbying for Pooh Bah and taking some credit for the agreement Pooh Bah eventually reached with the City allowing it to continue operating.
Now the city's roster of registered lobbyists has Helen Shiller listed as a lobbyist for Sonia Beauty Salon, Inc.
You can read the entire story at DNAInfo.
The DNA Info site looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteSeems they've been poaching some of the better reporters from the Sun Times.
Here's a link to their page on Uptown/Andersonville. They've already got up a number of stories on our lovely crime and strip club free neighborhood.
Another thing Helen Shiller is now listed as a lobbyist for a beauty salon? The salon is listed as a manufacturer? I guess they could be manufacturing beauty supplies. Although that block of Talman is residential.
Seems like some things besides my eggs might be a bit scrambled.
It's interesting that the DNA reporter started looking into this on the day Uptown Update posted the original story. Coincidence? Could be. Could be he reads Uptown Update.
Dude, everybody reads Uptown Update :)
ReplyDeleteOk, ok, ok .. lemme see if I have this straight:
ReplyDeleteAn executive of a trucking company, who runs the pro-liquor, anti-top establishment, Pooh Bah, with steeped history in sexual harassment lawsuits, who is also on the board of the Jesse White Tumblers, and has given the father-in-law to Blago a healthy sum of cash .. who was once married to a state rep, who also was a GOP committeeman for 40 years, who also worked to get his friends state jobs ... walks into a bar .. No. Wait.
So, a woman who spent the majority of her aldermanishiphood promoting many things not promoted within the walls of strip club that serves alcohol, and who spent the final years of her tenure hiding from the press under her desk helps start a firm who boasts a specialty service of "Public Affairs" and when contacted by the press to inquire as to any working relationship with said strip joint - that's been all the way to the US Supreme Court fighting for the right to share drinks and exposed nipples in the same room (which was all made good when said joint paid off the city) - climbs back under her desk ...?
No. Wait. What?
Shiller was always a capitalist. Gotta respect that.
ReplyDeleteRespect Shiller? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.........LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL...LOLOLOLOLOLOL (doubled over from lack of oxygen)...LOLOLOLolololol...ololol..lol.... (passed out from the incredulity of any sane person respecting and calling her a capitalist as an Alderman).... lololol..ol...lo...lol
ReplyDeleteI think Shiller, who literally sat at the feet of Castro in Cuba during her college days to learn about socialism and education, would do a spit-take at being described as a capitalist.
ReplyDeleteIMO, she only learned how to game the system to get money for her causes.
If you go back to 1979, there's a story about her in one of the newspapers, long before she was alderman. One of the community organizations she was involved with was caught on tape doing something shady. Turns out that they were getting 800 lunches a day from the government to feed needy kids in Uptown during the summer. Trouble was, only 75-150 kids were showing up to eat.
The community members at that time videotaped kids in the program taking those extra lunches and going door to door selling them. When asked why they didn't request fewer lunches from the government, Helen's mentor, Slim Coleman, at first said 700 kids were showing up to eat every day. When confronted with video, the program manager changed the story to say that kids were afraid to cross gang boundaries to come eat, so the sandwiches were being taken directly to them. About the selling? "Oh, that was just one day."
Starts with sammies, ends with Wilson Yard. You just learn to game the system to get the money to eventually do what you want. But by all accounts, Helen never got rich, the way the Daley family did. If she's a raging capitalist, she's kept it very well hidden.