John G. Peters will become the 11th president of Northern Illinois University on June 1. The NIU Board of Trustees named Peters, who is currently the provost and chief operating officer at the University of Tennessee, to the position last month.

Board Chairman George Moser said: “The board sought a leader who could take Northern to the next level in terms of support, prestige and partnerships with government and industry. Dr. Peters is highly respected academically, has great understanding of the higher education political landscape and is a skilled fundraiser.”

A native of Ohio, Peters has been at Tennessee for seven years. Prior to that, he was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received a doctorate in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His academic specialties include American politics and congressional studies.

Peters’ appointment was not without controversy, however. The Northern Star, NIU’s campus newspaper, filed a lawsuit against the NIU board, alleging that it violated the Open Meetings Act by not informing the public when a hiring meeting was taking place. A hearing on the suit has not been scheduled. Star editor Joe Biesk says, “We don’t have a problem with Peters. We just have a problem with the way the search was handled.” Peters will take over for retiring President John La Tourette.

Now an investigative analyst, Raynor was the McCook license examiner who took it upon herself to document illegal activities dating back to the time Gov. George Ryan was secretary of state. Michael Igoe is White’s new special counsel in charge of operating the general counsel’s office and Irene Lyons is on staff as a lawyer assigned exclusively to work with federal authorities on the scandal investigation.

The hirings came on the heels of the resignation of inspector general David Grossman. He had taken the job in February, but quit to protest the firing of general counsel Donna Leonard. In reaction to the departures, U.S. attorney Scott Lassar, who heads the Operation Safe Road investigation, said he was “very disturbed by the developments.” Leonard had been the chief legal liaison to Lassar’s office. At press time, White had rehired Leonard and named as inspector general former U.S. Attorney James B. Burns.

The internal politics in the secretary of state’s office nearly overshadowed news of last month’s indictment of Florida driving school instructor Marek Winniczek, who allegedly took bribes from unqualified Illinois residents in exchange for Florida truck driver’s licenses. The Illinoisans then often exchanged their Florida licenses for Illinois licenses.

Number of people charged as a result of Operation Safe Road: 31*
Number of guilty pleas: 25
Number of people sentenced: 16
Number of driver’s license facilities investigated: 5
Number of secretary of state inspector generals in the last 4 months: 3**
* All figures as of mid-April.
** Figure does not include interim inspector generals.
Sources: U.S. attorney’s office, the secretary of state’s office

Illinois Issues May 2000 | 38

Illinois congressmen wants Death Row inmates to get DNA testing
Peoria Republican U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood and Chicago Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. have each introduced legislation to protect Death Row inmates from wrongful execution by giving them a chance to prove their innocence with DNA testing.

LaHood, along with Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt, also is pushing competent counsel in capital cases and a requirement that juries be informed of the option to sentence a defendant to life without parole. “We must be 100 percent sure in those death penalty cases,’’ says LaHood.

Jackson’s plan also calls for a seven-year moratorium on all executions until the U.S. attorney general’s office can certify that state and federal judicial systems are giving inmates access to DNA tests.

Hastert names first Catholic House chaplain
Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert has selected Chicago Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin to be the first Catholic House chaplain. Coughlin has been a vicar for priests with the Chicago Archdiocese since 1995. The chaplain position became unexpectedly political when Hastert named Presbyterian minister Charles Wright to the post after a bipartisan congressional search committee had recommended the Rev. Timothy O’Brien, a Catholic priest.

That decision, in the wake of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush’s visit to the evangelical Bob Jones University, led to charges that Republicans were anti-Catholic. Republicans shot back that Democrats were exploiting religion for political reasons.

Coughlin has worked as a pastor in several Chicago-area churches. In the mid-1980s, he completed a one-year sabbatical studying East/West religions and serving with missionaries in India.

The Associated Press reported that Hastert, a Republican from Yorkville, called Coughlin “a gentle spirit. And that’s what we need right now.”

QUOTABLE
"The media does act as a watchdog of government. If you think the media has done something wrong, you don't have to get in an argument with them because they'll always win. They always have the last word."
Former Gov. Jim Edgar talking to The Associated Press about Gov. George Ryan's frustrations over coverage of the licenses-for-bribes scandal.

Illinois Issues May 2000 | 39