More on Joh Wyma...
If the feds have Wyma, who needs Rezko?
FROM:
http://www.southtownstar.com/news/miller/1320476,120908miller.article
......
The Tribune cited unidentified sources to claim that bigtime lobbyist John Wyma’s cooperation allowed federal investigators to make “covert tape recordings” of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
You just can’t get more “inside” than Wyma.
.....
Wyma has been known to hang out at Blagojevich’s house for hours, playing chess and swapping stories. Rezko was never Wyma-style close to Blagojevich.
Chris Kelly was a much closer Blagojevich friend than Wyma, and Kelly and Wyma reportedly were at odds throughout the years about who really had the governor’s ear. But it was Wyma who truly put all the pieces together with the fundraising and the lobbying.
Rezko is in prison, Kelly is awaiting trial on a tax beef, and now Wyma apparently is cooperating with the G.
...........
Ho-lee cow.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
4. CDR was involved in possible corruption in Philadelphia from 2000-2003.
Wonder how this connects with:
Burris has gone on to receive over $1 million in no-bid, low-effort “consulting” contracts from Illinois State agencies under the Governor’s control as well as a $5000/month “retainer” from Loop Capital, headed by BHO homie Jim Reynolds.
Jim Reynold is one of BO longest and best friend. Loop Capital is also partly run by Craig Robinson BO’s BIL.
“In 2003, James Reynolds, A Chicago Investment Banker Who Is A Member Of Obama’s National Finance Committee, Was Recorded On FBI Wiretaps Arranging What Prosecutors Said Was A “Sham’ Consulting Contract With A Woman They Called The “Paramour’ Of A Mayoral Adviser In Philadelphia. His Firm Later Won $300,000 Worth Of City Contracts.” (Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, “Fundraisers Linked To Corruption Cases,” USA Today, 10/16/08)
37 posted on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:18:47 PM by hoosiermama
Stolen: It’s the CHicago Style.
(No link)
Jesse White aide claims cover-up - Ex-secretary says White took over firm under state scrutiny
Chicago Sun-Times - Sunday, January 20, 2002
Author: Tim Novak Mark Brown
Secretary of State Jesse White ‘s former secretary on Friday denied misspending at least $100,000 in state grants that White helped her get to train welfare mothers as office workers.
Donna Lumpkins Floyd insisted that her company, Infinity Cultivation Center, trained 350 to 400 people, but she said she is unable to prove that to state officials because White seized control of the company last spring and had the records destroyed when officials were trying to determine how the money had been spent.
” Jesse took over my company, all assets of my company, all documentation, all equipment during the last six months of its existence. People destroyed all the records,” Floyd said during a half-hour interview. “When Jesse got the business from me, he changed the locks. I had no access to the facility.”
Floyd ‘s allegations are “utterly ridiculous,” said White ‘s spokesman, Dave Druker. “Clearly, she’s become desperate, and it’s unfortunate that she’s lashed out against the secretary when her problems are with the departments of Human Services and Commerce and Community Affairs.”
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in Friday’s editions that state officials want Floyd to return at least $100,000 of the $175,000 in state grants she got while working for White because there is no evidence she trained people. But state officials said they had no idea where to find Floyd and that they may turn the case over to the State Police or Attorney General Jim Ryan.
Floyd called the Sun-Times from Arizona, where she said she has been living since September, after White had her evicted from an apartment in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood. Floyd said White arranged for her to get the apartment after she stabbed her husband in the leg a year ago. Druker said White did help Floyd get the apartment but that she was evicted for failing to pay rent.
“I think this is a political charge,” Floyd said. “Perhaps, probably I didn’t follow the [state] guidelines to a ‘T,’ but this is a political fight because of my relationship with Secretary White .”
Floyd , 29, said she had a personal relationship with White , 67, a relationship that helped end her marriage to a former member of White ‘s famous tumbling team.
(snip)
37 posted on 01/07/2009 10:14:46 AM PST by maggief
Latte anyone? LOL
FROM:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1365268,CST-NWS-inspect07.article
Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General.
That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general’s 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted.
In the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators split the order among 21 vocational schools to avoid competitive bidding required for purchases over $10,000. As a result CPS paid about $12,000 too much, according to Inspector General James Sullivan. “We were able to find the same machines cheaper online,” he said.
.............
The grade-changing took place at an unidentified high school, where student athletes grades were boosted, then, after transcripts were issued for college admission offices, the grades were changed back. The culprits could not be identified because passwords allowing entry to the grading system were shared by a number of people, Sullivan said. A new record system has tighter security, he said.
At Carson Elementary, an overcrowded school in Gage Park where even neighborhood kids were restricted from enrolling, five lower- level employees got six relatives into the school by falsifying addresses. Sixty-nine students from outside the attendance area got in, but they didn’t even bother to lie about their addresses. CPS had to spend as much as $252,000 to bus kids who live in the neighborhood to other schools, Sullivan said.
BINGO!
(Nice work Friday!)
FROM:
http://illinoisissuesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/burris-contracts-to-contributors.html
Monday, January 05, 2009
Burris’ contracts to contributors
By Dana Heupel
During Roland Burris’ first full fiscal year as Illinois attorney general, more than half of the money his office awarded for outside legal work went to campaign contributors, according to a book published by Illinois Issues magazine and the Springfield State Journal-Register.
In FY 1992, Burris’ office issued roughly $4 million in outside legal contracts to individuals and law firms, according to the book, Illinois For Sale, which was published in 1997. More than $2.25 million of that amount went to contributors to Burris’ campaign or to the main Democratic fundraising committee.
None of the outside legal contracts were required to be put out for bids by competing law firms. Burris’ office was allowed to award the contracts without consideration over whether the state received the best price for the legal work.
At the time, Burris’ office denied they were “pay to play” contracts.
(snip)
..
(no links)
Remark rocks gov race - Burris hit for `white boys’ speech
Chicago Sun-Times - Thursday, February 26, 1998
Author: SCOTT FORNEK AND MARK BROWN
Two Democrats running for governor lashed out at front-runner Roland Burris on Wednesday for a videotaped speech in which he appears to call them “ non-qualified white boys .”
“It’s outrageous,” said rival candidate Jim Burns, demanding an apology. “Race-baiting doesn’t belong anywhere in this society, and it certainly doesn’t belong in a campaign for governor.”
The remarks came in a speech that aired earlier this year over a local cable station and was replayed Wednesday by WLS-Channel 7. Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, was angrily rejecting any suggestion that he should consider dropping out of the race.
“I got 20 years’ experience in Illinois government, and some of those other non-qualified white boys ought to get out,” Burris appears to say on the tape. “They never held a public office before.”
(snip)
..
Win could be in the cards for Burris - $1 million gift might keep the odds in his favor—or stack the deck against him
Chicago Sun-Times - Monday, February 11, 2002
Author: Scott Fornek
In the high-stakes poker game of gubernatorial politics, Democrat Roland Burris could be holding his best hand ever—a pair of aces in his strong support among fellow African Americans and his potential appeal Downstate—as well as a gift of $1 million in chips to keep him in the game.
“Absolutely, it’s his to lose,” said Tom Carey, a Democratic strategist and adviser to the Burris campaign.
But with his primary rivals holding a few aces of their own, the former attorney general still must play his cards carefully if he hopes to win the pot.
Thanks to the record $1 million infusion of cash from firms tied to an Oak Brook businessman (Joseph Stroud), Burris started the year with $911,162 in his campaign kitty. That’s nearly 26 times the $35,111 he had at the same point in his 1998 bid in which he still managed to squeak out a second-place finish.
(snip)
..
IT’S NOT RACIST TO TELL WHY BURRIS IS GIVING DEMOCRATS THE JITTERS
Chicago Tribune - Tuesday, January 6, 1998
Author: John Kass .
If a white columnist criticizes a black politician by calling him a political hack, is that white columnist a racist? Just so you don’t think this is a hypothetical question, let’s be clear.
Am I a racist for putting the hack label on Roland Burris in a Dec. 24 column? He’s one of four leading contenders seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor in the upcoming March primary.
(snip)
Years ago, as South African leader Nelson Mandela was about to be released from prison, dozens of Chicago’s black political/intellectual elite were at a meeting on the South Side.
Present were the socialists, the black nationalists, the progressives and several political operatives and politicians. Burris was there in his three-piece suit, starched white shirt and power tie.
He was being asked whether the African National Congress should deserve any criticism. But the questioner didn’t use the words “African National Congress.” Instead, he used the letters, ANC.
“I don’t know if we should start criticizing the ANC, before we criticize CBS and NBC and ABC first!,” Burris said with emphasis. “Let’s take care of ABC and NBC. Then CBS. We address them, then we can pressure ANC. But go after the other networks first!”
After a moment of stunned silence—as if someone had passed gas at a quiet dinner party—the meeting was in an uproar.
Many were stunned that Burris thought ANC was a television network. Others thought he was doing an imitation of Las Vegas comic Norm Crosby, the king of malaprops. The consensus was that Burris should keep his mouth shut.
“We need a blackout on this guy,” said several at the meeting, only they used an ugly two-word slang phrase in place of “guy.”
(snip)
(LOL!)
35 posted on Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:01:36 AM by maggief
Obama Communist Connections:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2883823/posts
ETL, connecting some of your communist connection material to the Chicago Crime Thread....Wish it was as organized as your work! Mine is quite a dog pile!