Provena Hospitals outside of Chicago, which became a poster child for uncharitable hospitals in a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, has been denied real estate tax exemption and a claim for refund of $1.1 million in taxes paid for the year 2002. The Appellate Court in Illinois has reversed a trial court and affirmed the decision of the state’s Director of the Department of Revenue denying the claim that the hospitals are either charitable or religious. The Court decided, over the Hospital’s objection, that its standard of review was whether the Director had made a clear error in the decision. It concluded that it was not left with “a definite and firm conviction” that the...