After a Year of Battles Over Arbitrators, Controversy Seems to Have Cooled

Almost a year ago, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner poured gasoline on the fire that has smoldered between claimants and insurers — and between political parties — when he charged that the state's workers' compensation system was full of corrupt judges and arbitrators. Three months earlier, Democratic senators in the deep-blue legislature had taken the unusual step of grilling some of Rauner's appointments to arbitrator jobs in a closed committee hearing. The objections over one appointee were so strong that Rauner withdrew the nomination, and some obser...