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Jack Fitzgerald, owner of nine Washington area dealerships -- seven of which are on the chopping block by General Motors and Chrysler -- left his headquarters on Rockville Pike mid-morning yesterday, armed with a black bag full of thick consumer reports, pie charts and line graphs on cars. In the past three weeks, he's been a virtual one-man PR machine, meeting with local and national politicians and blitzing the media in a desperate attempt to save his business.

Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney — A Book to Watch! ### On June 16, the paperback edition of Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI by Peter Lance will be released by HarperCollins. This is happening despite a prominent U.S. Attorney’s best efforts to stop it. Since this book was first published in hardcover in 2006, Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago (the same Patrick Fitzgerald of the Valerie Plame investigation) has repeatedly attempted to have the publisher bury the book, and to prevent publication...

Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), a staunch ally of Mayor Richard Daley, was indicted today on charges he accepted about $40,000 in improvements to his residence as well as meals and tickets to sporting events in exchange for backing a major project by a developer. The developer, Calvin Boender, was also indicted. Carothers, 54, was charged with four counts of wire and mail fraud and one count each of accepting a bribe and filing a false federal income tax return. Boender was charged with four counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of obstruction of justice, two misdemeanor counts of...

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced. Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades. The indictment comes four months after Blagojevich was arrested and charged with engaging in pay-to-play politics in a sweeping federal complaint that accused him of trading state jobs, contracts and regulatory favors for campaign contributions. The...

Federal prosecutors have only a week left to indict former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. When authorities arrested Blagojevich back in December, it was based on a criminal complaint. Prosecutors didn't have the case all tied up in a bow, but U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald rushed to bring charges because he said Blagojevich was in the middle of a crime spree. FITZGERALD: Sometimes when there's ongoing criminal conduct, and this is a very different case than what we often see, we will expose the criminal conduct and bring charges to let people know we're on to it, and to hopefully, to...

CHICAGO – A federal jury convicted Chicago's former streets and sanitation commissioner Monday of using bogus documents and other fraudulent acts in a scheme to load the city payroll with political campaign workers. Al Sanchez, 61, looked on without expression as U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman read the guilty verdicts on four charges of mail fraud and acquittals on three others. Each count carries a maximum 20-year sentence. Afterward, Sanchez said the conviction was unfair. "We had a job to do and we did it and now I'm sitting up here convicted of crimes and I don't know what...

If U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald was still thinking about appealing the light sentence given Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, a ruling in an unrelated appellate case last week might have changed his mind. Fitzgerald had appealed a lenient sentence in a case of consumer fraud, with the result that Judge Richard Posner actually ordered the defendant acquitted, adding a rebuke to prosecutors that was, even for Posner, sharply worded. Fitzgerald’s spokesman told me that the Vrdolyak matter is “still under review” and he had no comment on Posner’s ruling. Vrdolyak, after pleading guilty in a $1.5 million financial fraud, was sentenced last...

U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was interviewed by federal authorities for several hours Saturday as part of the ongoing corruption investigation into charges that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell a Senate seat for personal or political profit, sources familiar with the talks said. Burris' interview, which had been delayed for weeks, took place at his attorney's offices in downtown Chicago. He has been informed he is not a target of the probe, the sources said. Burris acknowledged a week ago that federal investigators wanted to talk to him about the circumstances surrounding his appointment by Blagojevich, which occurred three...

Okay, so the President and his family came home to Chicago this weekend to get a haircut, play basketball with friends and take his wife to Valentine's Day dinner at Gold Coast's Table 52. This is what we're to believe the President has time to focus on, as Iran develops world peace-threatening nuclear weapons, Illinois-based soldiers die in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American economy teeters on the edge of falling into bottomless catastrophe? Amazing timing, don't you think? The very day that Roland Burris admits he didn't really tell the Illinois House impeachment committee, "the truth, the WHOLE truth, and...

NOTE: For those who don't get it, Jesus is not rooting for any particular team. When players say that they thank God or say they thank Jesus, they are thanking our Creator for giving them the strength to use the talent God gave them and to be the best they can be. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GLENDALE, Ariz. -- That's not a mirage rising out of the desert, folks. It's the Arizona Cardinals soaring to their first Super Bowl. Yes, the Cardinals, founding members of the NFL, but historically among the most dysfunctional of franchises, finally have joined the big boys. Capitalizing on...

In a remarkable screw-up, a Department of Justice official today accidentally distributed to the media a document containing the names of nearly 20 confidential witnesses interviewed during a federal probe targeting the operators of a fraudulent investment scheme. In announcing felony charges against two men for their roles in an alleged $15 million Ponziesque swindle, the spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (he of Rod Blagojevich- and Scooter Libby-prosecuting fame) e-mailed reporters a 62-page U.S. District Court complaint filed against John Walsh and Charles Martin, principals of the now-defunct One World Capital Group. Included in the document was a...

Roland "Tombstone" Burris goes to Washington this week as part of the Illinois political freak show, and many of us back home will watch it and feel like cringing, at least at the beginning. Who among us could not wince at the prospect of Tombstone standing before news cameras, his head bobbing, smiling amiably, chattering nonsensically as is his way, insisting he feels no shame. All he wants is to become a United States senator, and he kissed a tainted hand to get there. His fellow Democrats may be ready to bar his entrance to the Senate chambers, and politicians...

'Thousands of phone calls' on feds' wiretaps MORE TARGETS | 'Multiple witnesses have come forward,' authorities say $$$ Prosecutors revealed Wednesday that they captured "thousands of phone calls" on secret wiretaps in their investigation into Gov. Blagojevich. The disclosure came in a government filing in which prosecutors asked for a 90-day extension to indict Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris. The filing also revealed that the government has additional targets in its ongoing probe and that the governor's Dec. 9 arrest spurred more witnesses to talk to prosecutors. "Multiple witnesses have come forward in recent weeks to...

Federal authorities investigating Gov. Rod Blagojevich have intercepted thousands of phone calls, interviewed a number of new cooperating witnesses and targeted several potential defendants in the case, according to a court filing released Wednesday. The motion was made in federal court by prosecutors who are seeking an extra three months to formally indict Blagojevich and his former chief of staff, John Harris. The move was expected because the deadline for handing up an indictment had been set for Jan. 7. The extension would give U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's office until April 7. Fitzgerald's office cited the complexity of the case...

Illinois is the laughing stock of America and even the world, but you can’t say it just happened because of the scandal engulfing our governor, Rod Blagojevich. It’s been that way for a long time. The difference is that today, many in Illinois politics, Republicans and Democrats, are exploiting it for their own selfish agendas. The people declaring that Illinois is the nation’s laughing stock the most are in fact politicians, elected and government officials from Illinois, all seeking some personal advantage in the Blagojevich scandal. But the real challenge we face is not what the rest of America thinks...

U.S. senators are in for a major fight if they intend to follow through with threats to bar Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's appointment from replacing President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate next week, say legal scholars, political analysts and even some elected officials. The current 50-member Senate Democratic caucus had urged Blagojevich not to appoint former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the job while Blagojevich is under the cloud of a possible indictment and impeachment for allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder. He ignored the request. Now the entire campaign to de-legitimize Blagojevich...

Springfield, IL—The Barack Obama Whitewash is in full swing and US Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald is currently in the Tank for the President-elect. My sources in Chicago claim Fitzgerald is now looking out for Obama’s interests. The deal has already been made. Now Fitzgerald has made quite a mess and before it’s all over whistleblowers within his own office may spill the beans. The only way out is for a real sweetheart deal where Governor Rod Blagojevich, shuts up, resigns and escapes prison. No hearings, no trials and no risk of exposing Obama or his minions to sunshine. The lawyers for...

Posted below, but the point is, there is some contradictory evidence that O DID meet with Blag about the senate seat. Everybody is in cahoots with everybody to protect O it seems: >>I just do not get what is happening these days....we had two very clear news items posted on Tri Connect describing how O was to meet with Blag that afternoon, then a followup story AFTER the meeting took place. Not to mention the now fading, soon to be forgotten, memory of Axlerod's very clear "I know he has talked with the govenor" etc... comment on video. How did...

Prosecutors seek to release Blago's calls December 29, 2008 BY NATASHA KORECKI AND DAVE MCKINNEY, Staff Reporters Federal authorities had more wiretaps than previously disclosed in the investigation of Gov. Blagojevich -- including the cellular telephone of a member the governor's inner circle. A new government filing in federal court indicates that in November, authorities tapped the cell phone of "Lobbyist 1." The Sun-Times has identified lobbyist 1 as Lon Monk, the governor's first-term chief of staff. Monk later became a fund-raiser and state lobbyist. The revelation that investigators captured more on secret recordings than previously disclosed, came as federal...

Chicago (AP) -- U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wants lawmakers to hear what Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY'-uh-vich) says on wiretapped phone calls. . . . Federal prosecutors have asked a judge for permission to disclose a limited number of the intercepted conversations in a redacted form.