[Bumped up from Saturday, updated and comments opened.]

* Taken on its own [and combined with a new update below], a new Sun-Times story looks more promising than it may actually be. But things might become more clear once we connect some dots with another story published today.

First, the Sun-Times…

A Chicago developer and donor to Gov. Blagojevich steered more than $100,000 in commissions to first lady Patti Blagojevich’s real estate firm before a business owned by the developer’s parents saw dramatic increases in state payments. […]

In 2002, before Blagojevich took office, the state paid Tiran’s parents’ home-care company for the developmentally disabled, Diane Home Care, $183,000. In 2003, during the governor’s first year in office, the payments increased to $325,000. Last year, Diane Home Care did $1.1 million in state business through a contract with the Human Services Department. […]

Sources who spoke to the Sun-Times on condition of anonymity said [FBI] agents had asked questions about Patti Blagojevich’s real estate dealings with Rezko. The work got under way in July 2003 — about six months after the governor began accepting Rezko’s recommendations to place people on state boards and about eight months after Patti Blagojevich landed a $47,000 commission from a Rezko land deal.

A few things to remember…

1) This doesn’t appear to be about Rezko.

2) Patti Blagojevich has had a real estate license for a long time. Every one of Dick Mell’s kids has a license. She’s known politically connected people almost all her life.

3) There is no stated direct link between the increases to the DD home-care business and the real estate connections. There may be a rational explanation. But so far, the corruption is all implied.

4) Tiran and his companies have given just $20,525 to the governor’s campaign fund. Not a lot by any stretch.

* So, this AP lede is way out of line with the facts in the Sun-Times story…

Commissions Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s wife made in her real estate business are linked to increased revenue for a state contractor’s family business, according to a published report.

Not quite.

* A new Tribune story claims Mrs. Blagojevich’s real estate firm earned $700,000 on real estate deals over seven years. That ain’t much during such an over-heated market. “Of those commissions, the Tribune found more than three-quarters came from clients with connections.” As I explained above in point 3, that doesn’t tell us much, either. She’s known connected people all her life.

* But this is where the dots might be connected. According to the Tribune, Mrs. Blagojevich appeared to use her proximity to power to obtain a job as an investment banker…

“I’m not going to lie to you, it would have been great for us to get one of the state pension funds,” said Peter Contos, president and CEO of North Star, who sponsored the first lady’s application for a federal license. […]

Contos said his firm decided to hire Blagojevich, who has a degree in economics from the University of Illinois, because of her political ties. He said she was recommended to him by an administrative staff member. […]

Contos said he and others at North Star encouraged her to find work at a bigger firm but she touted her connections and her ability to bring in business

* So, to sum up, while there may very well be something to this real estate business, there is no clear connection to wrongdoing as of yet.

However, as the Tribune story alleges, Mrs. Blagojevich touted her obvious political connections and her ability to land state business in exchange for a potentially lucrative job. She was also recommended by an administration insider. That goes directly to how she may have operated, not only in this particular instance, but during her real estate career.

* But here’s the rub…

“But after three months she brought in no business,” Contos said. “Obviously, her connections weren’t as strong as advertised.”

In the end, she turned out to be all talk and no action and had to leave the firm. So, nothing is completely clear-cut here.

Still, this is not good news for the Blagojevich family.

*** UPDATE *** The Trib ran a separate story Sunday about that Tiran real estate deal mentioned at the top…

Tiran recently told the Tribune he hired Patricia because she was recommended by the alderman in his ward, and not because of her family ties.

“No impact whatsoever,” he said. “And I believe they sold the whole project. They did a good job.”

[Ald. Dick Mell] said it’s possible he, too, had talked to Tiran about hiring his daughter but saw no problem with it.

“It’s conceivable that I mentioned it to Virgil that if he were looking for somebody to sell the property that my daughter is in the real estate business,” Mell said. “But just because I mentioned it to Virgil doesn’t mean he had to hire her. I’ve helped other Realtors who I know too.”

The real estate story looks even less “bad” now, but there’s still that problem with the revelations about how Mrs. Blagojevich allegedly got that investment banking job.