CHICAGO: CRIME KIND OF TOWN

various | various | various

[hoosiermama]

Crime in Chicago has been in the news lately, but it is nothing new. Historically it dates back over a hundred years. From the tale of the Gray Wolves

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/540.html

The 1890s Chicago City Council was notorious for corrupt political practices orchestrated by a faction of its aldermen known as the Gray Wolves. So named because they were viewed as preying upon the defenseless public, the Gray Wolves were led by First Ward aldermen “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward. These elected officials were not only skilled at trading votes for favors, but once in office they excelled in making municipal decisions to profit themselves financially.

TO the present, it is a compelling historical subject.

“Please post links and information, or connections of dots to this thread. Keep chit chat to the minimum or in Freemail. THANKS!”

[maggief]

Ping

[April Lexington]

You know what is scary? We know this but the vast, vast majority of Americans don’t know this and wouldn’t understand even if they heard about it.

[April Lexington]

Written with Robert Havighurst, this paper was one of a series arguing that “the American social class system actually prevents the vast majority of children of the working classes, or of the slums, from learning any culture but that of their own groups.”

I don't see how having Obama in the White House will encourage these kids to read Shakespeare.

[lilylangtree]

Thanks. I was asked yesterday why I didn’t like obozo. I’m forwarding your references to the party that asked and label it as “one of many reasons I can’t stand obozo”.

[maggief]

“- Kelly King Dibble, former IHDA executive director and relative of President Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett .”

http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/Resources/career-services/events/real_world_speakers.asp

Kelly King Dibble
Kelly King Dibble is senior vice president and director of public affairs and government relations at Northern Trust. As Northern Trust’s senior public affairs officer, Dibble directs the company’s external government relationship strategies and activities at the municipal, state, and federal levels.

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Dibble served as the executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority since 2003. In this position, she was responsible for budgetary, operational, legislative, and policy objectives of the Authority, which has more than $2 billion in assets and 200 employees.

Dibble received her JD from Harvard Law School and holds a BA in economics and political science from Wellesley College. She is a board member of the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute, Ounce of Prevention Fund, and South East Chicago Commission. She is also a member of the Visiting Committee for the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

//

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/the_obamas_and_their_mortgage_1.html

Kelly King Dibble has a long time friendship with Michelle Obama from the time they both worked at the Chicago Planning Dept, and she also worked for Rezko. Dibble went on to head the Illinois Housing Development Authority under Governor Blagojevich, with Rezko help. Dibble also hosted a fund raiser for Obama. More on Dibble here.

Dibble also was mentioned during the Rezko trial by Ali Ata. Dibble was a regular visitor to Rezko’s office while heading the IHDA (which is based in Chicago). She also crossed Rezko when she refused to hire a Rezko relative.

Dibble later resigned from the IHDA in Jan 2007 to take a job with Northern Trust, and is now Senior Vice President Public Affairs. So if Northern Trust is asked about the loan, Dibble will be in charge of framing the answers.

//

(no link)

Vacant land turns to gold for insiders - Buyers with clout cash in on parcels
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Sunday, November 20, 2005

Author: Ray Gibson and Robert Becker, Tribune staff reporters

EXCERPT

After entertaining proposals from a half-dozen builders, the city selected a developer, Historic Drexel Partners LLC, which ultimately built homes selling for between $800,000 and $915,000.

It is a company with close ties to Rezko. One partner is Michael Sreenan, a Chicago attorney who does corporation work for Rezko. The other partner in the venture is Andrew Dibble.

Dibble’s wife, Kelly King Dibble, is the executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, a quasi-state agency charged with developing affordable housing. She had worked as vice president in charge of business development at Rezko’s company, Rezmar, before her appointment to the authority by Blagojevich.

Documents filed by Andrew Dibble with the city were faxed to City Hall using a fax machine in Rezko’s office. Sreenan, who said Rezko wasn’t involved in the project, added that since his office is in the same building as Rezmar, he frequently uses the company’s fax machine.

Shortly after Historic Drexel was sold the property, Andrew Dibble went to work for the state’s Capital Development Board, where he received $78,000 a year as the manager of construction. He has since left the post. His wife receives $137,000 a year at the housing authority.

Home prices escalated

In winning city approval, Sreenan and Dibble said the properties would sell for between $655,000 and $692,000. Sreenan said the prices escalated primarily because home buyers added upgrades for the new homes.

City officials said they selected Historic Drexel because it met the city’s specifications and because it offered $10,000 more than the parcels’ appraisal price.

“This set of respondents not only bid the most, but they offered to pay over the appraised value of the property. And there was no requirement for affordability,” Healy said.

But the Dibble bid wasn’t the highest. Another developer matched it, according to city records.

Historic Drexel’s project also had the support of Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), who increasingly has tapped developers for campaign funds as parts of her ward rapidly gentrify.

Among her donors were Kelly King Dibble, Sreenan, the development’s architect and the contractor, who donated a total of $5,000 at an October 2004 fundraiser for the alderman.

“I supported the development,” Preckwinkle said of Historic Drexel. “I think the homes they built are beautiful.”

After Historic Drexel paid the city $275,000 for the six lots, it obtained a $3.3 million construction loan and built six new homes. One of the homes is the Dibble residence.

When the Dibbles went to record the sales price with the Cook County recorder of deeds, they declared they didn’t have to pay hefty real estate transfer taxes on the sale because they had paid less than $500 for the property and home, even though the couple paid $652,850, according to records.

After questions were raised by the Tribune, Andrew Dibble on Nov. 10 wrote city officials saying that while he had received initial legal advice not to pay a real estate transfer tax, subsequent legal counsel advised him to the contrary. Dibble now faces a transfer tax on the property of about $5,800.

///

???

http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=1647&SearchResult=55&graph=MucketyMap?_r=DC

Ann Dibble Jordan, Vernon E. Jordan Jr.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. personal relations:
Vickee Jordan Adams - daughter
Antoinette Cook Bush - stepdaughter
Valerie B. Jarrett - great uncle
Ann Dibble Jordan - spouse

//

Related???

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2008/Obamas-Chicago-Posse/The-Friends-of-O/index.php?cp=1&si=0

“Many of us were able to introduce [Obama] in our workplaces,” says Alan S. King, a lawyer who studied for the bar exam with Michelle. “That expanded his base of support, raised his profile, and enhanced his fundraising efforts.”

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

This may have been posted somewhere, but I haven’t seen it. I have been looking for a place to put it ever since I ran across it. IMO, it presents a timely portrait of the hypocrisy we are seeing in the administration. I posted the entire article, the meat starts about the 3rd paragraph. So, for the record:

---

http://architectureandmorality.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-whence-barack-cometh-inside-look.html

Friday, March 07, 2008
Mr. Obama’s Neighborhood: An Inside Look at Hyde Park, Chicago

Now that we have ample time to consider exactly who Barack Obama is, I’ve been compelled to revisit my old stomping grounds: Hyde Park, Chicago. Known for being home to controversial figures like Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson and institutions like the University of Chicago, Hyde Park is also the most dense center for theological education this side of Rome. The prestigious University dominates the neighborhood economically, culturally and politically, having essentially taken the neighborhood over since the 1960s and housing thousands of students, professors and staff. And Hyde Park can boast to being one of Chicago’s truly unique cul-de-sacs, a mixture of history, beauty and eclecticism, an attempted safe haven surrounded by the seedier parts of Chicago’s South Side. But at its heart, Hyde Park is a paradoxical neighborhood, promising intellectual rigor and diversity on the exterior, but still falling prey to a tired ideology born in the 1960s on the interior. I couldn’t define Obama’s politics any better.

I recently lived in Hyde Park for 3 years while attending seminary, and generally enjoyed my time there. I taught guitar lessons at the University’s private school, I tutored professor’s students, and I studied theology with students from a host of schools. I got to know the neighborhood, and through work, many of its residents as well. To say the least, it is a very liberal neighborhood, standing out even in a liberal city like Chicago. There was certainly no shortage of visible support for prominent Democrats like Barack Obama, as when he ran against a hapless Alan Keyes in 2004. It was not uncommon to see pictures of Hyde Park residents posing with him at University or neighborhood events. And as I mentioned before, several African-American activists and politicians grace the neighborhood within blocks of each other, notably Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, and Carol Moseley Braun, who ran for president in 2004.

To me, this can offer wonderful clues about the neighborhood. Though the University did its best to polish Hyde Park’s image, I found the neighborhood to be heavy and defensive, a place of constant and unspoken tension, especially among the races. My wife, a friend, and my roommate all experienced this tension separately as eggs were thrown, guns were drawn, and bottles were hurled. There were frequent urgings not to walk along 53rd Street alone as gangs were choosing random white males to beat, presumably as part of a gang initiation ritual.

Suffice to say, the neighborhood was not a safe one. And who should have expected it to be? While million-dollar homes and condos were the norm in Hyde Park, poverty of the worst sort surrounded it on every side, save for Lake Michigan. This irony was what many conservatives have come to expect: the liberalism so often championed by professors, politicians and theologians within the street boundaries of Hyde Park and practiced by Chicago’s politicians did nothing to alleviate the real suffering around it. Consequently, the violence and tension spilled out into Hyde Park’s tree-lined streets. Even Carol Moseley Braun was not immune; she was mugged at her home before a University students ran off her attacker in 2006.

The predominant theology in this heavily theological neighborhood was liberation theologies of various stripes. (If you’re not familiar with the term, liberation theology is a highly political and social view of Jesus Christ and his redemption. It is championed by the poor and by minorities who hold poverty and oppression as virtues, for which Jesus had special appreciation). In Hyde Park, it was black liberation theology that was the norm, although queer (this is the politically correct term), Hispanic, feminist, and womanist theologies demanded attention as well. But the black liberation theology gives us the most real insight into Hyde Park’s most famous resident, Barack Obama. It is this theology that defined the culture of Hyde Park in the 1960s, a decade Hyde Park has had trouble leaving. And it is this theology that dominates his own church, several miles south of Hyde Park on 95th street. (Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, received his Doctorate from my seminary.)

To put it simply, Hyde Park is a racially-driven neighborhood. It prides itself as a neighborhood that fights white authority and prestige. Whites are seen as a great impediment to black improvement and the cause to the problems to begin with. It is whites who have invaded the neighborhood and populated its university, usually with presumed snobs who have the money to afford the U of C to begin with. Ironically, the academics that do this (as a professor, Obama would have be considered a part of this) do so with the financing and intellectual protection of the largely white university system.

And I believe this defines Obama as well. While he has shrewdly and masterfully run a campaign that transcends his race and plays into white guilt, he is at heart as racially-driven as his neighborhood of choice. His wife’s thesis demonstrated this, Obama’s controversial church demonstrates this, and if he is anything like Hyde Park and the general culture of the University, there’s no denying that race is one of his most notable motivators. You would think a neighborhood that was home to Milton Friedman for 30 years would have learned to think more objectively; in fact, Obama and company in Hyde Park are predictably and ideologically leftist.

posted by relieveddebtor @ 7:24 AM

[penelopesire]

Yet another OUTRAGE!! Obama belongs in jail, not the White House!

[penelopesire]

You have found some real humdingers! Especially that last article dated from just the other day! Of course, no major media coverage yet. I am praying that any criminal acts that may have been committed by Obama can be brought into the light of day and SOON!!

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/boards/vc/members/dibble.asp

Kelly King Dibble

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Damn==I hate it when I post a link right after you...
:-)

[STARWISE]

Good info ... the more truth we find, the better
and more credible (and maybe valuable) this archive.
Thanks for starting it, hoosy .. ;)

[STARWISE]

Illinois’s ‘Corruption Tax’ (est. $300M just for Chicago)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2218611/posts?page=4#4

[hoosiermama]

Alexi Giannoulias: Not so transparent (Obama’s IL buddy)
Marathon Pundit ^ | 3-31-09

FROM:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2219378/posts?page=2

Just like that window from the Giannoulias family’s Broadway Bank on Chicago’s North Side, sometimes what you think is transparent is in fact not something you can easily see through.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, 32, is strongly considering a run for the Senate seat currently held by fellow Democrat Roland Burris.

Giannoulias, who prior to his election was a senior loan officer at the bank, had never voted in an election until his name was on the ballot, announced yesterday that he won’t be accepting campaign donations from corporate political action committees or federal lobbyists.

Big deal. Will Giannoulias forgo donations from union PACs? Or money from his family members, you know, the ones who own Broadway Bank?

About that bank: Almost half of the $7 million Giannoulias raised for his 2006 race came from “the Broadway family.”

And this is not just any bank: Broadway loaned millions to convicted mobster Michael “Jaws” Giorango

---

More at site:

[hoosiermama]

Blagojevich, his brother, top aides indicted..and lots more dots to connect....

(thanks for the info and links)

FROM:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2221025/posts

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.
...snip

---

Blagojevich, 52, , was charged 16 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal agents. He allegedly used his office in numerous matters involving state appointments, business, legislation and pension fund investments to seek or obtain such financial benefits as money, campaign contributions, and employment for himself and others, in exchange for official actions, including trying to leverage his authority to appoint a United States Senator, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Also charged as co-defendants in the same indictment are:

John Harris, 47, of Chicago, Blagojevich’s chief of staff from late 2005 until last December after he was arrested along with Blagojevich. Through his attorney, Harris, who is charged with a single count of wire fraud, has authorized the Government to disclose that he has agreed to cooperate with the United States Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of this case;

Alonzo Monk, 50, of Park Ridge, a lobbyist doing business as AM3 Consulting, Ltd., and a long-time Blagojevich associate who served as his general counsel when Blagojevich represented Illinois’ Fifth Congressional District, and later managed his 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial campaigns, was his first gubernatorial chief of staff from 2003 through 2005, and later chairman of his campaign fund;

Robert Blagojevich, 53, of Nashville, Tenn., Blagojevich’s brother, who became chairman of his campaign fund in August 2008;

Christopher Kelly, 50, of Burr Ridge, a businessman and a principal campaign fundraiser who also served as chairman of Blagojevich’s campaign fund from early 2004 until August 2005. The indictment alleges that with Blagojevich’s knowledge and permission, Kelly at times exercised substantial influence over certain activities of the governor’s office; and

William F. Cellini, Sr., 74, of Springfield, a businessman who also raised significant funds for Blagojevich, in part through his role as the executive director of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association. Cellini had longstanding relationships and influence with trustees and staff members of the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois (TRS), and he was associated with Commonwealth Realty Advisors, a real estate asset management firm that invested hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of TRS, the indictment alleges.

http://cbs2chicago.com/governor/rod.blagojevich.indicted.2.974448.html

7 posted on 04/02/2009 3:07:49 PM PDT by kcvl
...snip

---

In other news?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353797,CST-NWS-rezdavis23.article

Obama ‘s ex-boss a Rezko partner - Lawyer consulted on final Rezmar redevelopment
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Monday, April 23, 2007
Author: Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times

EXCERPT

While Davis was running the law firm, he was also a board member of the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., a not-for-profit company that hooked up with Rezko’s Rezmar Corp. on tax-supported projects to rehabilitate apartments for low-income tenants. Davis ‘ firm handled the legal work on those housing deals.

Davis has long been an influential member of the Woodlawn community just south of the University of Chicago. His father was the university’s first African-American professor. Since 1991, Davis has been a member of the Chicago Plan Commission, appointed by Mayor Daley, a friend.

Four years ago, Blagojevich appointed Davis to the Illinois State Board of Investment, which controls state pension funds — one of a series of appointments the governor made at Rezko’s request.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/672314,CST-NWS-watchdog29.article

Obama helped ex-boss get $1 mil. from charity - Senator’s spokesman: ‘Not a conflict to do what’s right’

Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Thursday, November 29, 2007

//

(no link)

Double-Duty Davis - Rezko pal pushed pension deal — and months later, the pension firm hired him
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Thursday, June 26, 2008
Author: Chris Fusco, Dave Mckinney and Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times

In July 2004, state pension board member Allison S. Davis voted to turn over as much as $100 million in state workers’ retirement cash to an investment management firm.

Months after it won the lucrative deal at Davis ‘ urging, that investment firm hired Davis .

RREEF America REIT II Inc. agreed to pay the Chicago developer $30,000 a year to take a part-time post on its board of directors, even as Davis continued to serve on the Illinois State Board of Investment.

There were questions about the legality of the dual roles. According to Illinois law, “No member of the board shall have any interest in any brokerage fee, commission or other profit or gain arising out of any investment made by the board.”

But the state board got a legal opinion that Davis could hold both posts as long as he didn’t vote on any future state deals for RREEF, a real estate investment trust.

It’s an unusual situation. Davis — who was appointed to the state pension board by Gov. Blagojevich at the behest of since-convicted gubernatorial adviser Tony Rezko — is the only member of the state’s two main pension boards to also serve as a paid board member of a firm that handles state employees’ retirement money.

(snip)

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/644511,CST-NWS-davis11.article

How reform-minded City Hall critic became a cozy insider - Foe of Daley I, now ally of Daley II — caught in glare of unwanted spotlight
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, November 11, 2007
Author: Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times
As a young lawyer, Allison S. Davis was a City Hall outsider.

He criticized Mayor Richard J. Daley over the 1968 riots. He worked to integrate Chicago neighborhoods. And he fought to elect judges based on legal ability, not political connections.

Today, Davis is a consummate City Hall insider.

He’s a loyal ally of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who appointed Davis to Chicago’s prestigious Plan Commission. Davis has gotten deal after deal from the mayor, helping to make Davis one of the city’s top developers. And Davis has forged strong ties to the Daley family, doing deals with one of the mayor’s nephews and giving legal business to Daley & George, mayoral brother Michael Daley’s law firm.

Now, Davis finds himself in the glare of an unwanted spotlight.

One of his business partners, William Moorehead, recently began serving a four-year prison sentence for stealing more than $600,000 from at least 13 federally funded housing projects he managed — including two buildings that he and Davis co-own. During the period Moorehead has admitted he was stealing the money, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned, he lent Davis $100,000 — a loan that has drawn scrutiny from federal investigators, though Davis hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing.

(snip)

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/570056,CST-NWS-vanecko23.article

Mayor’s Nephew Cashing In - Bob Vanecko wants to revive Chicago’s struggling neighborhoods with $68 million in city-linked pension funds. He has his eye on areas near his uncle’s proposed Olympic stadium.
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, September 23, 2007
Author: Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times
A nephew of Mayor Daley stands to make millions of dollars from city-connected pension funds.

In winning business from pension funds for city workers, cops, teachers and CTA employees, Robert G. Vanecko said he never told anyone he’s Daley’s nephew.

But officials with those funds knew who he was, interviews and documents show.

Vanecko and his partner, Allison S. Davis , a top mayoral ally, also asked pension funds outside Chicago to invest with DV Urban Realty Partners, a company they formed two years ago. None did.

It’s a risky venture, Vanecko and Davis warned potential investors.

Still, the city-related pensions opened their checkbooks, giving DV Urban $68 million. They did so even as they face growing financial worries, according to a recent state study.

(snip)

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1496799,CST-NWS-refuse26.article

Pension funds may not cooperate on subpoena

March 26, 2009

BY FRANK MAIN, FRAN SPIELMAN AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters

Trustees for at least two city pension funds are considering stonewalling Chicago’s inspector general over a subpoena for records involving their investments with a company co-owned by one of Mayor Daley’s nephews.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/1407352,CST-NWS-davis01.stng

Insiders’ housing projects targeted - Subpoena probes deals by Obama ex-boss and Daley pal Davis , plus Rezko, Cellini
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, February 1, 2009
Author: Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed records on dozens of low-income housing projects built over the last 30 years by indicted businessman William F. Cellini, convicted political fund-raiser Tony Rezko and City Hall insider Allison S. Davis .

(snip)

Davis , 69, and Vanecko, 43, are partners in a start-up real investment company, DV Urban Realty Partners. Five city pension funds have invested $63 million with the Davis and Vanecko company.

THE OTHERS

A federal grand jury also has demanded that the Illinois Housing Development Authority turn over records on a dozen other people:

- Nicholas Hurtgen, a former investment banker awaiting trial on corruption charges.

- Brian Hynes, a lobbyist who once represented the state agency.

- Chris Kelly, a close friend and adviser of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

- Mark Kirincich, president of Commonwealth Realty Advisors, a company started by William Cellini.

- Robert Kjellander, a lobbyist, Republican Party heavyweight and close Cellini pal.

- Milan Petrovic, a lobbyist and Blagojevich buddy.

- Paul Rosenfeld, an IHDA lobbyist and Blagojevich insider.

- Marvin Traylor, a lobbyist and Cellini associate.

- John Wyma, a lobbyist and longtime Blagojevich associate.

- Kelly King Dibble, former IHDA executive director and relative of President Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett .

- Darren Collier, an ex-IHDA staffer.

- Michael Todd, an ex-IHDA staffer.

//

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/1407352,CST-NWS-davis01.stng

Insiders’ housing projects targeted - Subpoena probes deals by Obama ex-boss and Daley pal Davis , plus Rezko, Cellini

Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, February 1, 2009
Author: Tim Novak, The Chicago Sun-Times

(snip)

- Kelly King Dibble, former IHDA executive director and relative of President Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett .

//

Dr. Orly, Obama Trust House Research Needed
A Natural Born Citizen...Orly? ^ | Jan 19, 2009 | me

Posted on Monday, January 19, 2009 9:22:28 AM by urtax$@work

Saturday, January 3, 2009 More help in research needed Obama’s house is sitting in a trust: Northern Trust Co, attorney Kelly Dibble. I got info that there are other properties sitting in that trust. Does anybody have addresses of these properties, legal descriptions, any info on these properties? What type of a trust is it: Charitable trust? Revocable? Irrevocable? Who are the beneficiaries? Who is listed as a trustor? Can smbd check microfish in county recorders office and get certified copies of tax payments? Orly Posted by Orly Taitz, DDS Esq. at 6:45 AM

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-bloggers/2167360/posts

36 posted on 04/02/2009 3:47:53 PM PDT by maggief

[hoosiermama]

Ethics board launches probe into Rep Jesse Jackson Jr.
Chicago Sun Times ^ | 4-7-09 | Natasha Korecki

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224419/posts

A congressional ethics board has launched a preliminary inquiry into U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill), related to President Obama’s vacant Senate seat and the corruption investigation of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

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NY Times hides Blag-O connection
American Thinker ^ | 04/03/2009 | William Tate

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2222215/posts

The New York Times is once again filtering content to protect its Chosen One. Their Friday report on the indictment of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich covers up the document’s many allegations against Barack Obama’s “political patron” and longtime friend and fund-raiser, Tony Rezko...

[hoosiermama]

Case against Blago looks overwhelming
The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 8, 2009 | MARK BROWN

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224800/posts

Given some of the other evidence in this case, I wouldn’t have figured Blagojevich to have had that much patience about receiving his reward. But it would help explain why there isn’t more money leading directly to his own pocket, settling mostly for campaign donations.

Prosecutors also seem to have addressed that weakness with accusations that Rezko paid fees to Patti Blagojevich, the governor’s wife, for work as a real estate broker — they say she didn’t do enough to justify the payments.

[hoosiermama]

White House wealth: President Barack Obama’s team virtually all Chicago millionaires
Thursday, April 09, 2009 9:15:34 AM

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2225505/posts

“She (Valerie Jarrett) also reported $346,687 in income from serving on seven boards,
***including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Jarrett’s most lucrative fee as a director was $146,643 from Chicago-based USG Corp., a building products maker.”

[hoosiermama]

Mayor Daley Reflects On 20 Years In Office
CBS 2 CHICAGO ^ | 09 APRIL 2009 | CBS 2 CHICAGO

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226027/posts

Mayor Richard M. Daley was in a very reflective mood Thursday. It’s been 20 years since Daley was first elected to office. He has served six terms.

Asked at a news conference if he had any thoughts on his decades as Chicago’s mayor, Daley talked at length about everything from his legacy to his relationship with the press.

The following is a transcription of his comments:
...snip

[hoosiermama]

Obama refinancing would be bad move, experts say (skirting mention of the Rezko dough)
Chicago Tribune ^ | 4-9-09 | John McCormick

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226040/post

.......snip

The Obamas, however, do not need to worry about lowering their monthly expenses as much as most Americans, and their Washington housing is free. Back in Chicago, they have a mortgage locked in at 5.625 percent, compared with the current national average of about 4.87 for a standard home loan.

The Obama loan, however, is what bankers call a “super jumbo,” which is larger and often harder to finance in today’s market conditions. At the time they received the loan, the average for similar-size mortgages was estimated in the range of 5.93 percent to 6 percent, according to news reports.

Their rate, an Obama spokesman said in 2008, was because of a competing loan offer and the fact that the couple already had several million dollars deposited at Northern Trust Co. Such loan adjustments are common among lenders competing for banking and investment relationships with wealthy families.

.....snip

[hoosiermama]

Investigators Take Closer Look at Rep. Jackson in Blagojevich Case
NY Times ^ | April 13, 2009 | SUSAN SAULNY and CHRISTOPHER DREW

FROM:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2228562/posts?page=1

The Chicago Tribune reported Friday that the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is known for the energy and sweep of his investigations, had subpoenaed several people who had helped Mr. Nayak set up the fund-raiser to benefit Mr. Blagojevich. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Monday that Mr. Blagojevich’s people had been told that Mr. Jackson would raise up to $5 million in campaign cash for Mr. Blagojevich.
...snip
Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. went to see the Illinois governor in December to press for an appointment to the United States Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama.