ALGONQUIN TWP., Ill. - It usually happens that any time an actual media outlet comes into an area that's not been covered by an actual media outlet for years, some grief and consternation will follow.
Note that that says will follow, not "may" follow. That's because it happens every. single. TIME.
We've chronicled that over the years of the print version of this publication, and have outlined our battles with such places as Edgar County and its errant sheriff-wannabe, Dee Burgin; or the late Golda Dunn up in Cumberland County and the grief she gave us when we first started covering Cumberland.
Now, up in McHenry County, the Edgar County Watchdogs (John Kraft and Kirk Allen) are enduring the same thing, which is what they, too, get repeatedly when they start looking into misdoings by government entities.
The current battle is with Algonquin Township. We learned long ago that if there's something untoward going on in a local governmental entity, it'll be going on at a township, as there's usually zero oversight and greedy people getting 'involved' in the job of being a public official when they have business doing so.
Apparently Algonquin Township has something they don't want the Watchdogs to see, as the township has taken drastic measures in an attempt to stop the Watchdogs from obtaining public records: The township attempted to obtain the Watchdogs' Dropbox files via subpoena (for those of you who might be unfamiliar with it, Dropbox is a file sharing app that many of us in media use. It's constantly hack-attempted, when the hackers actually don't have a clue as to what's in each of our dropboxes [we're smart enough to NOT put anything of any kind of value in them]). This, on Algonquin Twp's part, was in an attempt to get a video of the Watchdogs' taken down, something AT had already attempted to do by contacting YouTube, where the vid was presented. Here's the 15-minute vid; it ostensibly shows a township official rummaging around the office viewing documents that she wasn't supposed to have access to.
The effort to get to the Watchdogs' dropbox was rejected by the California court to which it was directed. Which is great, because it preserves journalistic process. But the very fact that AT tried this is gasp-inducing...which to use indicates either they have something significant to hide...or it's becoming imperative that people holding public office in Illinois be forced to pass a basic test about what a PO can and cannot do as it pertains to lawsuits, subpoenas, what constitutes a public document, what rights and privileges media enjoys....you know, stuff like that.
To read the entire horror story, hit this link.