whistleblowing. a san francisco tv station reports the former investigator says he was canned for reporting bureaucratic dysfunction. darrell whitman says management at the occupational health and safety administration, osha, encouraged the speedy and sometimes unwarranted closure of investigations, in order to clear up backlog of cases. osha disputes whitman's claims. saying he was fired for numerous reasons, including lack of candor during an investigation meeting and unauthorized release of government documents. whitman's case will go to the office of special counsel, another government agency that is supposed to protect whistleblowers. a corrupt chicago politician, that's really not new, but now it seems not even the schools are immune. media reports say the former head of chicago public schools pleaded guilty to steering about $20 million in contracts to a consulting company in exchange for $2.3 million in kickbacks.