PEOPLE

Edited by Jennifer Halperin

BRAUN BROUHAHA

She was crowded out of the Illinois Democrats' "photo op" at their podium at the Democratic National Convention. She was left behind by Vice President Al Gore's motorcade after he arrived in Chicago. She was slated for a nonprime-time speech in her own hometown.

But these snubs didn't stop U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun from pushing her way to the convention forefront after President Bill Clinton delivered his acceptance speech. And they didn't convince her to lay low following the controversial trip to:

Nigeria that has caused her most recent problems. She later recanted.

In an effort to defend the trip, where she met with military dictator Gen. Sani Abacha, Moseley-Braun showed reporters copies of a letter from Abacha that endorsed Clinton's re-election. The move threw White House media handlers into a tailspin as they tried to put together a response to the unsolicited endorsement.;

Moseley-Braun was roundly criticized by the African-American community for her early August diplomatic trip to Nigeria, which is under U.S. pressure to allow democratic elections, stop drug trafficking and improve its human rights record. She traveled with her former fiance and top campaign aide Kgosie Matthews, who also once was a paid lobbyist for the African country.

This latest Moseley-Braun flap has pundits pondering whether she'll face a challenger in the Democratic primary if she runs for re-election in 1998. U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who did make it into that convention tableau, has said he will not run against her.

STEPPING DOWN

Well-known scientist Lorin I. Nevling, chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey and acting chief of the Illinois State Water Survey, says he plans to retire at the end of the year. Nevling has headed the history survey since 1987, and assumed double duties as head of the water survey early last November.

"Dr. Nevling was instrumental in the reorganization of the new department and in integrating the scientific work of the surveys into the day-to-day management of our natural resources," said Brent Manning, director of the Department of Natural Resources and chairman of the Board of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Nevling, who is active in the national botanical community, is former scientific administrator at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and the Herbaria of Harvard University.

THREE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS PICK UP AWARDS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE, ETHICS

The executive director of Illinois' Board of Higher Education has won the Motorola Excellence in Public Service Award.

Richard D. Wagner has been on the board's staff since 1969, serving as executive director since 1980. Previously, he served in a variety of staff capacities, including deputy director of fiscal affairs and executive deputy director.

Prior to joining the state's higher education board, Wagner worked at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maryland. He holds a bachelor's degree from Bradley University in Peoria, and received his master's of public administration and doctorate of public affairs from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Wagner was honored for his work evaluating the state's $1.8 billion higher education system. Early in the 1990s, he and his staff noted the duplication of degree programs in the state's 12 public universities and the small number of students and degrees granted in many programs. They compiled a list of 190 such programs that could be eliminated, which amounted to about 13 percent of all degrees being offered in Illinois.

The board of higher education referred these programs back to the governing boards at individual campuses for review. Under this so-called PQP program (priority, quality and productivity), millions of dollars were freed up through the elimination of low-priority programs, much of which was reinvested in higher faculty salaries or equipment.

Meanwhile, the Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award has been presented to A. Ernest Fitzgerald and Arthur S. Flemming.

In 1968, Fitzgerald was a management systems deputy in the office of the assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force.

He disclosed to a congressional committee that a cargo plane had serious technical problems and would cost at least $2 billion more than anticipated, a prediction that proved correct. Shortly after, he was fired on orders from former President Richard Nixon.

He was reinstated in his old job only after extensive legal action that lasted from 1974 until 1983.

Flemming has served in government since 1939, when he was appointed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission. He was U.S. commissioner on aging, chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and served as president of three universities.

The two winners will be encouraged to give a major lecture at the University of Illinois on either the Chicago or Urbana-Champaign campus.

38 ¦ October 1996 Illinois Issues

Politically connected firm indicted in state aid scam

Four people were indicted this summer on charges of bilking the state out of at least $7 million.

Two of the four are owners of a consulting firm, Management Services of Illinois Inc., that made major contributions to Gov. Jim Edgar's 1994 reelection campaign. The other two were managers at the Illinois Department of Public Aid. The two are accused of helping MSI receive millions of dollars from the state for no-bid contract work that was never performed.

In return for the state contracts, prosecutors say, MSI is believed to have bribed former public aid manager Ronald Lowder with trips to Germany, Mexico and a Super Bowl game in Miami. The firm later hired Lowder.

MSI also is believed to have provided current public aid employee Curtis Fleming with gifts and/or expensive meals. He was immediately placed on suspension without pay.

MSI owners Michael R. Martin of Springfield and William D. Ladd of Petersburg contributed more than $31, 000 in cash to Edgar's re-election campaign and $105, 000 in computer services.

Prosecutors said MSI used influence peddling to boost its state payment to more than $8 million in 1994 from $370, 000 in 1993. The firm's job was to track down Medicaid patients who had private insurance in an effort to recoup money for the state.

In renegotiating the lucrative public aid contract, prosecutors say, Martin and Ladd supplied false information regarding how much it cost them to do this work. Fleming and Lowder were instrumental in these contract negotiations.

Each of the defendants is charged in 16 counts of mail fraud, while individually they face additional charges.

Showdown at Meigs airport gels curiouser and curiouser

Chicago Mayor Richard M.

Daley may have gotten more than he bargained for when he proposed turning the downtown airport at Meigs Field into a park.

As Illinois Issues went to press, Gov. Jim Edgar was taking the matter to the state's Supreme Court while pushing separate lawsuits in circuit and federal courts to try to block the airport's closing. Meigs' conversion into a public park was scheduled to begin on September 30.},

City officials speculated to the media that Edgar was trying to tie up the matter in court to buy time until the legislature reconvenes in November. Then, the Republican-dominated body could vote to seize control of the tiny airport.

Daley has argued that the airport is used almost exclusively by elite public officials flying to Chicago from Springfield and by wealthy private pilots who fly their own planes. He argues the space would be put to better use as a park that could be used by people from all over the city.

But Daley's opponents contend the airport is important to business commuters who must get downtown quickly. Chicago Aid. Joseph Moore of the 49th Ward argued that parks in his own neighborhood need to be revitalized before the city invests in a downtown park that would be used primarily by out-of-towners.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Plan Commission approved a $448 million plan to rebuild Midway Airport, where would-be Meigs travelers would be shifted.

Illinois Issues October 1996 ¦ 39