Law School Scandal

The Tribune doing some fine reporting for the first time in a bit. John Kass continues his peerless take on it all:

• If there were any doubts that Illinois is the diseased poster child of political corruption, those doubts are long gone.
  
  Friday's story in the Tribune exposes a widening pattern of corruption at the University of Illinois. This time, with the trading of law school admission for patronage-style jobs.
  
  So any doubts about where this state stands should be erased. What remains is the smell.

And what a smell it is. The full Tribune report is here. The internal e-mails released finally prove support to a theory that cops have speculated on for years:

• [Law School Dean Heidi] Hurd's e-mail suggests that students getting the jobs are to be those in the "bottom of the class." Law school rankings depend in part on the job placement rate of graduates.
  
  It wasn't immediately clear if the private sector or government jobs were provided.

Government lawyers, be they Corp Counsel, ASA's or various elected thieves, are usually the bottom of the barrel as far as Law School rankings are concerned. The U of I proves to be no exception to these expectations.