Chicago Daily Observer

The Senate Ethics Committee has told Republican Sen. Tom Coburn that he’ll be engaged in a “serious violation of Senate rules” if he continues delivering babies back home in Oklahoma.

Coburn’s response: So what?

“On my own time, I’m taking care of women who have a need, and I’m going to continue to deliver babies,” Coburn, an obstetrician, told Politico. “I’m not going to stop.”

Somehow the Tribune and the Sun-Times neglected to mention that Ald. Arenda Troutman served as a Democrat when she was on the city council. That is Troutman (D-20th) that never shows up in the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times Articles about her guilty plea, something that the Tribune carefully included in the Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) indictment story for example.

The mayor’s favorite pool boy—airport operations boss Dave “Pool Boy” Ochal—is at it again, throwing his vast political clout in the faces of his neighbors after the storms knocked out power this week.

Ochal’s Far Northwest Side neighborhood was without power for two days in the summer heat. Neighbors dug into their own pockets to pay for emergency generators and shipped their elderly, including some who required oxygen therapy, to live with friends and family who had power. Then neighbors said they witnessed a political miracle Wednesday night:

Before leaving Chicago State University, embattled university president Elnora Daniel signed off on spending more than $18,000 to publish a tribute book honoring herself, a glossy coffee table publication featuring pictures of Daniel posing with lawmakers, university staff and her family.

The 52-page soft-cover book looks like a personal photo album, with minimal text and no photo captions. There are pictures of Daniel at a grant ceremony with President George W. Bush, smiling at U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and accepting state checks from Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who funneled millions of dollars to Chicago State under Daniel’s leadership.

The last page features a photo of Daniel and five family members dressed in formal dinner attire and standing next to an elaborate staircase. Daniel’s university-financed family travel was the subject of a stinging state audit that found she spent more than $15,000 to attend a leadership conference aboard a Caribbean ... Read More...

An embattled member of Barack Obama’s vice presidential search team quit today following criticism of favorable loans he received from a subprime mortgage lender under federal investigation.

Jim Johnson, former chief executive officer for the mortgage lender Fannie Mae, quit his post with the Obama vetting team, the Obama campaign said in a statement released moments ago.

A mole wore a wire for a year while acting as a bagman carrying bribes from developers and contractors to Chicago building inspectors, exposing systemic corruption in the Zoning and Buildings Departments, authorities said Thursday.

Even for a town that has turned payoffs into an art form, the operative uncovered brazen misconduct, investigators alleged.

City inspectors ignored problems, fabricated reports and sped up paperwork in exchange for envelopes of cash, work on their homes and tickets to skyboxes for Bulls games, the federal charges alleged. One inspector took $10,000 to approve two illegal basement units in a building, while another allegedly took $7,000 to “inspect” plumbing that was already covered by concrete, investigators said.

“Anyone who pays a dime of city taxes should be dismayed by the conduct of these city employees,” city inspector general David Hoffman said at a press conference at the federal courthouse Thursday afternoon. He spoke just after “Pat”—as he called U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald—announced bribery charges [see links on right] against 15 people, including seven city employees, stemming from an investigation that started in Hoffman’s office more than a year ago.

“These employees of the buildings department and the zoning department are paid good salaries with excellent benefits,” Hoffman said. “Their jobs were to make sure that the building codes and the zoning ordinances were laws that protect city residents. But what they actually did with their jobs was to make sure the laws were violated. Everything was the exact opposite of the way it should be. The people who we the taxpayers were paying to protect us were ... Read More...