A Quinn-appointed panel criticized as “ill-conceived” last month, finding that it traded protecting the public safety for $3.4 million in savings. The governor halted the program. He said he had been unaware of the program but maintained that he would not fire Randle, though he acknowledged he had considered it. Quinn said recently that he was standing by Randle. “Clearly, mistakes were made,” Quinn said Aug. 13. “I take accountability for the mistakes, the director who made the mistakes takes responsibility for them.”

The shows, Lee wrote, would focus on “solutions to save the planet, . . . done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other’s inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution.” The Post said Quinn sounded stunned as he spoke from his home in Houston. “He’s exaggerated what I’ve said,” Quinn said. “I’ve seen many people take off in odd directions from things they’ve seen in my books, but nothing so catastrophic as someone arming himself with bombs and guns. . . . I know this will have a big effect on my books themselves. Sales might zoom up, but that doesn’t mean approval of it will zoom up. It might zoom down.”

Illinois is one of 12 states to automatically prosecute minors facing felony charges in the adult penal system. Over the past decade, fewer states are prosecuting minors as adults, and a state commission is now trying to figure out whether Illinois should be next. “In no other arena are we willing to look at 17-year-olds as adults,” said Randell Strickland, the Illinois disproportionate minority contact coordinator of the McArthur Foundation’s Models for Change program. As a member of the state’s Juvenile Justice Commission, he’s hoping the research nudges lawmakers to transition the teens into the juvenile system. “We’re killing flies with sledgehammers.”

Dean, who retired from his $112,743-a-year job in 2008, was the focus of an earlier report in April from Fisch and DiNapoli. It alleged Dean not only took every Friday off for 17 years, but cheated state taxpayers out of $500,000 with false hotel expenses, phony time sheets and improperly collecting travel reimbursements. In Tuesday’s report, like the earlier one, DiNapoli and Fisch said Dean did not act alone. “Mr. Dean exploited his position of power to garner personal benefits from the state,” the report stated. “He was unhampered in his pursuit of these free benefits by any effective management oversight of his activities. In fact, members of his management team exhibited similar, inappropriate behavior.”

But concerns over liability, administration costs and varying standards among agencies have delayed other departments from implementing the rule. Now Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has asked the city’s Fire and Police Commission to approve the practice, and it is expected to do so Thursday. In a memo to the commission, Flynn said that other agencies in Wisconsin that allow retirees to carry guns “report no problems,” and that no liability issues had arisen among law enforcement agencies allowing it around the country. Under Flynn’s proposal, Milwaukee police would conduct background checks and firearm training, as well as supply documentation of the certification to the retirees, who would have to pay $100 a year for the privilege.

His book opens with a Swat team smashing their way into his home and pinning him to the floor before dragging him away to face drug and money laundering charges. The scale of his crimes was such that he could have been looking at a life sentence. Instead, after plea bargaining, he received nine and a half years, of which he served almost six. “America was good to me, but I accept that I put myself in jail by knowingly breaking the law for a number of years,” he writes. “Among prisoners I used my Englishness as a talking point. Being English totally helped me; with prisoners, with guards. They called me ‘England’ and would ask me, had I met the Queen? Benny Hill? At that point I was just thankful for everything English that has gone worldwide. Although some people would come up and ask me, ‘What language do they speak in England?’ It was crazy.”

The KBI said the reduction has led to matches with crimes under investigation in Kansas and other states. Six said the backlog could be eliminated as soon as next February. But he cautioned that additional resources are needed to stay current with the samples, such as a new crime lab.

The inmates make 38 cents to $1.08 an hour, said John McGovern, general manager. Eighty inmates who work for six private businesses that send work into the prison make at least minimum wage. But about 40 percent of their wages go to victim reparation, taxes, room and board and mandatory savings, McGovern said. The first goal of CSI is training, teaching work habits and skills to help inmates succeed in the outside world. The jobs also help maintain order. Inmates who want to continue to work for CSI can’t get into trouble, and they must maintain a 94 percent attendance rate.