Obama grant being probed. State to charity: What happened to garden money?

[bijou]

A $100,000 state grant for a botanic garden in Englewood that then-state Sen. Barack Obama awarded in 2001 to a group headed by a onetime campaign volunteer is now under investigation by the Illinois attorney general amid new questions, prompted by Chicago Sun-Times reports, about whether the money might have been misspent.

The garden was never built. And now state records obtained by the Sun-Times show $65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer who heads the Chicago Better Housing Association, which was in charge of the project for the blighted South Side neighborhood.

Smith wrote another $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created five months after work on the garden was supposed to have begun, records show. K.D. is no longer in business.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan -- a Democrat who is supporting Obama's presidential bid -- is investigating "whether this charitable organization properly used its charitable assets, including the state funds it received," Cara Smith, Madigan's deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday....

http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/1184049,CST-NWS-watchdog25.article

I'm amazed this is getting any coverage in the MSM.

[thundley4]

I'm not.  They couldn't cover the story and claim the investigation is politically motivated, since Lisa Madigan is an Obama supporter.

[jinxmchue]

I'm amazed this is getting any coverage in the MSM.

They're probably learning that if they don't report these things, bloggers will and they won't be able to control it.  Of course, they still won't be able to control it.

[Wretched Excess]

the sun-times has done 90% of the decent investigative reporting on obama's work within the corrupt world of chicago politics. 

[thundley4]

Where's the $100K gazebo? 

[PotterFan]

My question is "Where is Fr Pfleger?" 

Typically he would be right in the media's face asking where the money went. I hope someone actually does their job and finds out where the money went, because we know it's not in Englewood.

[MrsSmith]

$65,000 of the grant money went to the wife of Kenny B. Smith, the Obama 2000 congressional campaign volunteer ... $20,000 in grant-related checks to K.D. Contractors, a construction company that his wife, Karen D. Smith, created

I'm sure this won't get much MSM attention.   

[JohnnyReb]

Where's the $100K gazebo? 

It was a $19.95 plastic one from Home Depot. The porch monkeys climbing on it destroyed it the day it was delivered. The "SEED" money was spent on poppy seeds  for unfortunate Muslim farmers in Pakistan.