Understanding Government

A former village president of Bensenville, Illinois — which is right by O’Hare airport — wrote a letter to the U.S. House Transportation Committee and Government Oversight Committee demanding an investigation into the Obama administration’s reward of more money for O’Hare airport expansion. Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune reports that John Geils, the former village president, claims that, “The ‘Chicago Way’ is alive and well in the axis between Chicago and Washington.”

At issue is the more than $1 billion the U.S. Dept. of Transportation has committed to O’Hare expansion and more specifically the $155 million Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood added last month. LaHood is a former Illinois congressman who has admitted to being in almost daily contact with Rahm Emanuel, the former Obama chief of staff and future mayor of Chicago.