State finds 'willful' neglect in fire BY FRAN SPIELMAN, DAVE MCKINNEY AND ROSALIND ROSSI, Chicago Sun Times
The most serious citation issued by the Labor Department accuses Cook County Board President John Stroger's administration of ignoring earlier employee concerns over locked stairwells at 69 W. Washington, where six people died last October after being trapped in smoke-filled stairwells.
'The employer failed to provide reasonable protection for all of its employees by neglecting to address employee's [sic] safety concerns over locked stairwell exits brought up during safety meetings,' the agency wrote in its citation against the county, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times late Friday through a Freedom of Information request.