* The pressure is increasing on Senate President Emil Jones to “do something” about not only allegations of improprieties about himself, but also about the ethics situation in the state…

[Jones’ relatives] have been the beneficiaries of a ton of financial good fortune in the last few years, thanks in no small measure to the taxpayers of Illinois. That includes his wife, Dr. Lorrie Jones, who in 2005 was promoted by the Blagojevich administration to state mental health chief and given a $70,000 raise, taking her annual salary to $186,000. It includes his son Emil III, who recently got a new state job and salary bump from the state Commerce Department, and is now making $57,360. And most prominently of all, it includes Jones’ stepson, John Sterling, who has gotten tens of millions of dollars in city, county and state computer technology contracts.

It was just this week that WMAQ-Channel 5 and the Sun-Times discovered an additional $11 million in contracts and subcontracts given to Sterling through city, county and state governments. That’s in addition to the $45 million no-bid deal he received from City Colleges. And in addition to an additional $55 million he had already been paid by City Colleges. […]

State Sen. James Meeks, a fellow Chicago Democrat, suggests a different approach, telling McKinney on Monday, “If I was him, I’d ask all of them, ‘Who’s doing business?’ ” Meeks went on to say, “For the legislative leaders to not want to face these stories or deal with hints of impropriety, they can handle it in one of two ways. They can disclose all of the business their family members have, or they can choose not to know anything about business their families have. If they choose not to know, when stories come out, there are people who won’t believe them. And it’s their choice.” […]

In response to our most recent report, Jones told the Sun-Times he might soften his stance in opposition to legislation that would put the names of subcontractors on the Internet. That bill, sponsored by a Republican, Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont, has been deader than a doornail, locked up in the Rules Committee, which the Senate president controls. But late Tuesday, it sure looked like Jones would try instead to pull a legislative end run, tacking a thus far unseen “ethics” amendment on another bill instead.

* That “end run” is most likely connected to Rep. Fritchey’s ethics bill, which received some more attention yesterday….

Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, said the governor should call a special session about ethics legislation that Fritchey sponsored earlier this year. House Bill 1 is meant to end “pay-to-play politics” in Illinois by banning campaign contributions from most state contractors.

The measure sailed through the House on a 116-0 vote in April but never emerged from the Senate Rules Committee, which is the first stop for all bills that reach the Senate.

“Governor, you and you alone have the power to put years of public cynicism and distrust in state government to rest in a matter of minutes,” Fritchey said on the House floor. “You now have the opportunity to send one of two messages to the people of Illinois: You can call a special session on House Bill 1 and help restore public confidence in state government, or you could do nothing and tell them to expect more business as usual.”

The idea might be for the Senate to pass its own ethics bill, which would specifically be designed to be unacceptable to the House. It’s the usual game.

* By the way, one aspect of Fritchey’s call for a special session that was ignored yesterday was Comptroller Dan Hynes’ support of the idea. From a Fritchey press release…

State Comptroller Dan Hynes, who initiated the legislation, has joined in the calling for the special session, stating, “This overtime session provides us with an opportunity to do something we should have done long ago, to end pay-to-play politics and to help restore confidence in our elected officials.”