Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough seeks end to historic anti-patronage case despite charges that she ‘stonewalls’ – Chicago Tribune/MSN

As Chicago, state and even other Cook County officials have been freed in recent years of federal court oversight to ensure hiring is done properly in their offices, two-term Cook County clerk and former recorder of deeds Karen Yarbrough has been the final holdout in the more-than-half-century struggle by attorney Michael Shakman to wring politics out of hiring, firing and promotions in government.