By Steve Rhodes

“Five days after Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress, his wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, filed a series of amendments to her ward committee’s campaign fund, revealing dozens of previously undisclosed transactions that went back three years,” the Sun-Times reports.
“That includes at least $13,000 in previously undisclosed transfers from her husband’s congressional account into her ward organization account, a Sun-Times review of campaign records show.
“In all, Sandi Jackson’s ward organization filed eight amended reports, dating back to 2009. Some of the corrected reports now indicate negative balances – something that an official with the Illinois State Board of Elections said could result in a review.”
Perhaps the work of Whitney Burns – in response to pressure from the feds to set things right.

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Posted on December 14, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“A top aide to Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown could be in hot water for failing to disclose in her personal bankruptcy case that she had a six-figure taxpayer-funded job,” Dane Placko, Patrick McCraney and Robert Herguth report in the Sun-Times.
“The aide, Yvonne Davila, was hired in May to serve as Brown’s press adviser at $104,000 annually, according to county records and interviews.
“However, when she filed a federal court petition the next month to try to secure a Chapter 7 bankruptcy designation, citing serious financial problems, Davila didn’t mention her county job even though she was required by law to provide a full financial picture, FOX 32 and the Better Government Association found.”

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Posted on December 13, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

I’ve got some reporting to do on a new project this morning so there won’t be a Papers column today. But we do have some other fine offerings for you, dear readers.
* The Political Odds. Updated for your gaming pleasure.

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Posted on December 12, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago Public Schools officials have identified 330 schools they say are underutilized, and the city is bracing for what could be a massive number of school closures,” WBEZ reports.
“Chicago school officials and the head of an independent Commission on School Utilization have said enrollment problems are caused by a loss of 145,000 kids in the city between 2000 and 2010, an 18 percent decline.
“But actual declines in Chicago Public Schools enrollment have not been anywhere near that severe.”

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Posted on December 11, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Anita Alvarez is unraveling faster than the Bears.
If you watched 60 Minutes last night, you know what I mean.
I hope to have more on this later – I got sidetracked this morning – but here’s the video and transcript from Rich Miller and Eric Zorn.

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Posted on December 10, 2012

By The Weekend Desk B Team

Natasha Julius is on special assignment in Wisconsin – something to do with Paul Ryan and yoga. We expect her back next week.
Market Update
Trading on Fiscal Cliffs is up among savvy investors due to boredom; interest will be sure to spike when we go over and volume will go up to 11. Trading on America, however, stalled amidst reports that corporate profits are at record highs and wages at record lows. Oh to be in Iceland now that a long, cold winter has come.

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Posted on December 8, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“The security company employing state Sen. Donne Trotter has been paid more than $350,000 as a subcontractor on a City of Chicago security deal and is represented by a politically powerful lobbying firm run by a onetime top aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley,” the Sun-Times reports.
That doesn’t necessarily mean anything unless the firm is employing Trotter as a political favor. But if Trotter is to be believed, it’s not a ghost job – he said he worked as a security guard until midnight the night before he was arrested for having a gun in his carry-on luggage at O’Hare.
Still, it’s his job that might pose a larger political problem than the gun if it turns out to be hinky.

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Posted on December 7, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

Getting caught unknowingly packing heat at the airport seems like a relatively common occurrence – isn’t it just about every week that one celebrity or another “forgets” they have a gun in their carry-on?
(Wayne Coyne’s grenade story is only a slightly different version of this by-now well-worn tale.)
So it would be easy to suggest that Donne Trotter made a stupid mistake and should be sent on his way. As Rich Miller points out on his Capitol Fax Blog, the law requires intent to be prosecutable.
But here’s the tricky part.

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Posted on December 6, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

“Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday brushed aside allegations that the owner of a company awarded a $99 million O’Hare Airport janitorial contract was the longtime business partner of a man with ties to organized crime,” the Sun-Times reports.
More ado about nothing.
“We had a competitive process. This company won and they’re now offering jobs to the other [union] workers to also work for them at the airport doing the janitorial services,” Rahm said.
Hey, if the mob wins a competitive process, they win a competitive process. I’m sure they provide competitive service at a competitive price. If nothing else, the mob is awfully competitive.

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Posted on December 5, 2012

By Steve Rhodes

A post in Politics on the R.J. Vanecko indictment is on the way. In the meantime, let’s catch up with the rest of the news.
1. Rich Miller on his Capitol Fax Blog reports that Dick Durbin is in good shape according to a poll showing he has a 51% approval rating, but isn’t that not so great considering he’s the No. 2 person in all of the U.S. Senate and that a below-50% rating is within the (4.4%) margin of error?
I haven’t heretofore sensed any vulnerability for Durbin, but I expected a better showing for such a known quantity.

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Posted on December 4, 2012