By Steve Rhodes

“A onetime top aide to former state public health director Dr. Eric Whitaker was indicted Wednesday in what federal authorities said was a $433,000 grant kickback scam she then tried to cover up,” the Tribune reports.
“Quinshaunta R. Golden allegedly used her position as Whitaker’s chief of staff to issue millions of dollars in state grants. There was no indication in the indictment that Whitaker, a close friend of President Barack Obama, knew about the alleged wrongdoing.”
I guess it’s important to note right at the top that there is no indication that one of Obama’s best friends knew about the alleged wrongdoing, just to clear both of them from their associations right off the bat.

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Posted on August 8, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“They called themselves the ‘Chicago connection’ and appeared confident that their contacts with Illinois politicians would help persuade newly elected President Barack Obama to lift longtime economic sanctions against leaders in Zimbabwe, according to federal charges unsealed Tuesday,” the Tribune reports.
“The two, Prince Asiel Ben Israel and C. Gregory Turner, were charged with violating federal law by lobbying on behalf Zimbabwe’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe, whose violent and oppressive regime has been the target of U.S. economic sanctions since 2003.”
But here’s the interesting part:

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Posted on August 7, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“When national budget cuts kicked in this year, the federal defender’s office in Chicago reduced its staff, froze salaries and tried some creative belt-tightening by renegotiating utilities for its Loop offices and making staff lawyers pay for their own gas while visiting clients in far-flung jails,” the Tribune reports.
“Now, unless Congress acts quickly, further cuts because of sequestration in Washington threaten to gut an already lean operation that represents hundreds of indigent clients charged in Chicago’s federal court each year, from alleged bank robbers to terrorism suspects.

“I have never seen anything like this,” said Carol Brook, executive director of the Federal Defender Program in Chicago. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this could happen.”

The implications go to the heart of our criminal justice system because the very notion of a fair trial is endangered when the playing field between prosecution and defense is so skewed.
“With federal defender’s offices across the country facing similar threats, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., raised concern Monday that the widening gap in resources between federal prosecutors and public defenders could lead to a constitutional confrontation.”
Add it to the list.

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Posted on August 6, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans,” Reuters reports.
“Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin – not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.”
Go read the whole thing. Then consider this Chicago angle which isn’t in the Reuters story:

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Posted on August 5, 2013

By Natasha Julius

Here’s a tip for the CTA: seat configurations are not the only thing making your riders uncomfortable.
Market Update
When the Apocalypse comes and the cockroaches are riding our corpulent, uneducated asses across increasingly barren landscapes, at least they’ll have spanking new sports arenas.

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Posted on August 3, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“The indifference of the U.S. media to the case of Bradley Manning hasn’t prevented him from exposing the security state or influencing other whistleblowers,” Bernard Keane writes for Crikey in “Manning And Whistleblowing In An Age Of Persecution And Indifference.”
“The trial was conducted at Fort Meade, in Maryland, not too far from Baltimore-Washington Airport – not exactly difficult to get to for the east coast U.S. media, but mainstream media attendance at a trial at which the media was an unindicted co-conspirator has been scant.”
See also: If You Blinked You Missed The Coverage Of The Bradley Manning Verdict.

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Posted on August 2, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

News you can abuse.
1. Quinn To Sign Medical Marijuana Bill Today.
Now if we can get him, Madigan and Cullerton to sign up, we’ll have this pension mess solved before the weekend’s out.
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Too easy? At least I didn’t make a munchies joke.

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Posted on August 1, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

Who knew that when Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever he was talking about our transparency and not his?
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Related: Federal Appeals Court Rules the Government Can Track Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant.
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See also: Global Coalition State Principles to Protect Human Rights from Surveillance.

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Posted on July 31, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

1. Obama Promises Disappear From Web.
2. Waiting For The Manning Verdict.
3. New York Times Articles Based On Manning’s Leaks.
4. More New York Times Articles Based On Manning’s Leaks.

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Posted on July 30, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

“In a new interpretation of the Espionage Act, a federal judge made it easier for prosecutors in leak cases to meet their burden of proof, while reducing protections for accused leakers,” Steven Aftergood reports for Secrecy News.
“Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the prosecution in the pending case of former State Department contractor Stephen Kim need not show that the information he allegedly leaked could damage U.S. national security or benefit a foreign power, even potentially. Her opinion was a departure from a 30-year old ruling in the case of U.S. v. Morison, which held that the government must show that the leak was potentially damaging to the U.S. or beneficial to an adversary.”
So you could leak the recipe for the meat loaf at the Department of Defense cafeteria and plausibly be charged with espionage. Nice.

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Posted on July 29, 2013