Chicago Daily Observer

In an explosive development reaching to the state’s highest office, a former high-ranking state official claimed Tuesday that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was on hand when he handed over $25,000 in campaign money to now-indicted campaign fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

Ali Ata, 56, a former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, said Blagojevich then asked Rezko if he had talked to Ata about a job.

According to prosecutors, the deal with Mell never went through, and the money instead went to Rezko associate Joseph Aramanda.

And who is Joseph Aramanda? The guy who allegedly gave a straw donation for Rezko to Barack Obama, and whose son served as in intern in Obama’s Senate office in 2005.

Did you know you can dig a huge hole in Lincoln Park without a permit?

That’s just one of the revelations that came out of Friday’s opening hearing in the lawsuit filed by the Committee to Keep Lincoln Park Public, a group of north-side residents looking to keep the Latin School from building a soccer field just east of the zoo.

The residents say there are many reasons to oppose the soccer field deal the Park District struck with Latin back in October 2006. But on Friday they asked Cook County Circuit Court judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird to issue a temporary restraining order to block further construction on the grounds that the Park District never got a building permit to construct the field.

At 2pm Wednesday, April 23, 2008, Judge James Epstein is set to hear a motion requesting compliance with the Preliminary Injunction against Governor Blagojevich issued last week.

The Healthcare and Family Services Defendants have yet to take the
necessary steps to comply with the injunction previously issued. Judge Epstein will consider a contempt action to compel compliance with his previous order.

On April 15, Judge James Epstein issued a preliminary injunction immediately enjoining Governor Blagojevich and Illinois Healthcare and Family Services from continuing the expanded FamilyCare program.