Olympic Gift Keeps on Giving

First, you have aldercreatures accepting trips to China:

• Six Chicago aldermen who traveled to Beijing last summer on a weeklong Olympics fact-finding trip paid for by a Chinatown business group didn't report it on their annual ethics disclosures.

  They didn't have to, according to the city's Ethics Board.

  And that illustrates the vagueness of standards for elected officials to report such activities with business leaders, one watchdog group says.

But a cop gets a free soft drink or cup of coffee and everyone is screaming for their head.

And then we have this money making machine:

• Chicago's first-round flame-out in the 2016 Olympic sweepstakes was still a boon to 13 six-figure executives -- with one compensation package worth $483,713-a-year plus a housing allowance and monthly cleaning service.

  A federal tax filing released Monday shows that Chicago 2016 spent $5.9 million on salaries and benefits in 2009, including $28-a-month health club subsidies for roughly 100 employees.

  The parade of six-figure executives was led by Chief Operating Officer David Bolger, with a $483,713-a-year package that includes salary, "retention" bonus and benefits and $7,871 in other compensation.

As stated here and elsewhere, someone, or actually 13 "someones," made out like bandits over the No-lympic fiasco.

A bunch of other people got taken for an Olympian ride. Failure pays pretty well in Chicago.