Thursday, September 17, 2009

Lake County Coroner Richard Keller Mum on State Report Detailing Green Dragonfly Meth Clinic Violations

In the latest development of a story we've been following with great interest, the Tribune reports today that Department of Human Services' Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse cited 43 violations during a July 21-23 inspection of the Green Dragonfly Methadone Clinic in Waukegan, while Dr. Richard Keller, the Democratic Lake County Coroner, was the clinic's medical director. The Waukegan News-Sun (which previously called for Keller's resignation in an editorial) previously reported that Keller was paid $70,000/yr as the private clinic's director, which is in addition to the salary of around $100,000/yr he draws as coroner.

Lake County States Attorney Michael Waller, whose office is investigating the actions of Keller, told the Chicago Tribune that if the clinic had not decided to close on its own, its license would have been revoked.

The clinic's operators have shown hints that they are willing to cast the blame on Keller if they have to. Keller resigned as clinic director shortly after the story broke, and he had previously announced he would not run for relection (later admitting this investigation, and not political burnout, led him to that decision).

Keller told the Tribune that he hadn't read the report and declined to comment.

Hmm... don't ya think a state report citing over 40 violations of the medical clinic you supervised would at least pique your interest?

And I know I keep harping on this, but I can't resist continuing to point out that the Lake County Democrats, led by State Senator Terry Link, initially (and loudly) claimed this is all political persecution. Of course, the last time the notoriously thin-skinned Link used that excuse was when his petition scandal broke, and he claimed that the allegations of dead people's signatures appearing on his election petition was all concocted by 'Republican operatives.' We all know how that turned out.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keller is going to jail

Anonymous said...

What is lost in the conversation is that Keller ran on the platform that you need a medical doctor running the coroners office. He beat Wipper over the head with this constantly. He just forgot to include that he was a bad medical doctor.

Whispers said...

Kelly killed young Mr. Vaughn

Anonymous said...

cadigan has a website up. Impressive fellow. Unclear though if he can raise the money or if 10 years after retirement porter is still a force.

Bad news for dold.

http://cadiganforcongress.com/index.html

Crazy4glf said...

Putting Keller's alleged action or inaction aside, what happened with the previous Republican in that position? Oh yeah, conflicts of interest with their CONCURRENT position?

What happened to the Sheriff Curran ran against? Oh yeah, questionable financial skills.

What happened to the country after the last Republican President?
Oh yeah, unmatched spending with no strings, re-writing long-held regulations, under-funding NIH, regulatory agencies, and Cabinet Departments charged with safety, infrastructure, etc., and never seeing a federal or international policy or agreement he didn't like.

And despite McCain encouraging Obama to be careful with military spending, Republicans are claiming Obama is wrong to end an expensive European missile (defense) system because one should be respectful of previous agreements (Geneva convention, US Constitution?). Also, wasn't it BUSH who told us we need to learn to fight in a novel manner and put aside the weapons with which we stock-piled for ages? Hmm. Which Bush is one to believe?

With regard to not being aware of important facts, Bush didn't seem to have a problem with a lose regulatory structure despite this schemata having poor outcomes in the late 1920's and 1930's. He didn't know how much gas cost. And he didn't know what to do in Iraq a few months after the invasion. The hypocrisy here is thicker than the smog in LA.

How is this relevant? It is relevant because I have repetitively stated that if the Repubs would not have appearances of impropriety, a propensity to poorly spend government funds, and wholy undue decades of progress, maybe their new found ability to critique and their born-again fiscal conservativeness would hold water, would be open for consideration, and wouldn't appear to be a flip-flop, a distraction, and the perpetuation of unproven rhetoric.

Finally, McKenna, who the Repubs kicked out as GOP Chair deserves my vote to be Governor? Compared to Keyes, Ensign, and Sanford, he's probably not that bad.

If commenting on the (untoward) actions of the GOP who can't stop being judgemental is a rant, so be it. Let one's actions and comments be consistent for once.

tikkunolam said...

*sigh*

I'm a Democrat, Crazy. I really, really am. I've been commenting on this blog a while, because there's a lot to be gained from conversations with people I don't automatically agree with. The corollary to that is, there's also a lot to be gained from conversations with people I don't automatically disagree with.

One of the benefits of a comparably small community of commenters, as at this blog, is that we have the ability to have real dialogue, and relative to much bigger blogs, there's very little vitriol, and most importantly, we can stay on a single topic, or related topics, for a full conversation.

The reason this blog is small is that it's local. This is also very nice, because I talk about national politics all the time, and I appreciate the forum to discuss governance a little closer to home. I know you think the national Republicans are bad, and you think bringing them up gives credence to your arguments. In a shallow sense, you're not wrong. But, there are lots of ways to make persuasive, Democratic arguments without driving the conversation away from the subjects at hand.

As I said before, I'm a Democrat. There are very few Democrats who comment here. Concerned Colonial and I are genuinely trying to change some minds. We'd welcome your help. We'd love it. But right now, you're hurting more than you're helping. I'm not asking you to stop commenting; rather, I'm asking you to stop commenting in such a way that is guaranteed to anger more people than it will convince.

I know you've heard this a lot since you started commenting here. But: If a man calls you a horse, you call him a jerk. If another man calls you a horse, you punch him on the nose. If a third man calls you a horse, well, then, perhaps it's time to go shopping for a saddle.