‘We’re on the friends and family plan now’: New details emerge in alleged AT&T scheme to bribe Illinois House speaker – Chicago Tribune/MSN

Less than two weeks after AT&T Illinois’ bill to end mandated land line service became law in 2017, the utility’s then-president, Paul La Schiazza, allegedly received a request from a relative of House Speaker Michael Madigan to sponsor a non-profit event. The then-powerful speaker was also directly involved in “small cell” legislation in 2017 that allowed companies like AT&T to put up micro-towers on light poles and elsewhere in public rights-of-way, according to the filing.