* I can’t recall any real problems with ACORN in Illinois (there may have been allegations in the past, but nothing horrific was proved), but if you’ve been watching the cable news lately, the scandal is everywhere and now a few Illinois state legislators want the group investigated and its state funding suspended…

Three metro-east legislators want the suspension of all state funding and contracts for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN.

State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Highland, and Sens. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, and Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, have sent a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn, asking that the attorney general’s office conduct an investigation of ACORN before the group receives any more state funding. […]

“In light of the multiple news reports exposing ACORN’s questionable behavior, as well as video evidence showing ACORN employees offering tax assistance to open brothels and tips on how to launder money into a congressional campaign account, Illinois government needs to take a good, long look at the business it does with this organization,” Stephens said. “We need to see what this group is really up to and whether or not any contracts and connections they have with the state are worthy of the use of public money.”

Stephens said the organization has received grants from various state agencies. Stephens said he and some other legislators are still gathering information on how much money the organization has received.

Background…

At issue are a series of secretly filmed videos at ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New York City showing employees answering questions from a pair of 20-somethings posing as a prostitute and pimp (actually they’re an amateur filmmaker/MBA student and a college journalism student). The duo sought advice on how to get help buying a home in which to run a sex ring for underage girls from El Salvador, all while dodging taxes on the whole illicit endeavor. Boy, did they get lessons in how to lie and cheat.

You’re not a hooker, but a “freelance performing artist” on loan documents, the girl is told in Baltimore. In Washington, she’s advised to set up a fake company and become an “independent consultant” for it. Bury your profits in the back yard, you don’t have to pay taxes. Claim the teen sex slaves as dependents for the tax credit.

* Sens. Dick Durbin and Roland Burris were among just seven US Senators voting “No” on a bill to cut off certain ACORN funding. Burris showed he’s still spry when a Fox News reporter tried to get his reaction. The video shows just as much about Burris as it does about Fox…

The Tribune has their statements…

Sen. Dick Durbin explains that ACORN has helped more than 100,000 families obtain homes. Sen. Roland Burris… says he didn’t want to pass judgment based on “a few isolated incidents.”

Perhaps because she’s African-American, Democratic US Senate candidate Cheryle Robinson Jackson appears to be the only candidate asked about ACORN at a campaign event so far…

But Jackson said she agreed with Illinois’ two current senators who were among a handful of senators who voted against a proposal to strip the controversial community organizing group ACORN of federal funding.

* As always with cable TV meltdowns, you have to take a look behind the hype. And at least some of the hype is just that, apparently…

But when the Press-Enterprise newspaper caught up with ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke, she told the newspaper she was messing with the filmmakers and making it all up.

“They were clearly playing with me," she said "I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me." Reports the newspaper: "Since she claimed on the video to have killed her husband, two San Bernardino police homicide detectives interviewed her at the office Tuesday. Police said they have been in contact with Kaelke's former husbands and the homicide claims do not appear accurate.

More…

In Philadelphia, Neil Herrmann, ACORN’s lead organizer there, said the couple was kicked out after talking to a counselor “for a few minutes.” They called to set up an appointment the day before the visit.

“At first when the counselor came,” she wasn’t going to take them back,” Herrmann said. “But they had made an appointment. When he mentioned the 13-year-old girls, they were asked to leave.”

O’Keefe disputed Herrmann’s account, saying “we talked to them for more than a few minutes.”

ACORN emailed a copy of a Philadelphia police report dated July 24 to The Post to verify its account that police were called and the couple was shown the door. O’Keefe is named on the report.

Still, there are some very real problems with at least local branches of that group. I’d like to see if any of the legislators have any proof or allegations of Illinois wrongdoing, however.

* Related…

* ACORN Announces Major Steps to Address Issues Raised by Videos

* ACORN vows to look into, correct flap

* The 345-75 roll call Thursday by which the House amended the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 to deny all federal funds to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN: Democrats — Bean, Y; Costello, Y; Davis, N; Foster, Y; Gutierrez, Y; Halvorson, Y; Hare, Y; Jackson, N; Lipinski, Y; Quigley, Y; Rush, N; Schakowsky, N. Republicans — Biggert, Y; Johnson, Y; Kirk, Y; Manzullo, Y; Roskam, Y; Schock, Y; Shimkus, Y.

* Census Bureau Drops Acorn From 2010 Effort

* ‘Undercover’ work on ACORN makes student a darling of conservatives

* GA Gov. Perdue to state: Don’t do business with ACORN

* Florida may do battle with ACORN - The state of Florida could take its own action against ACORN, a legislative leader said Thursday, as the firestorm over revelations about the group’s activities grew in intensity.

* Louisiana governor bans state contracts with ACORN

* Other nonprofits see own vulnerability in ACORN

* ACORN backlash expected to have few effects on Sacramento branch

* Schwarzenegger Urges Attorney General to Investigate ACORN

* ACORN vows to keep fighting after video controversy: The Midwest director of ACORN flew into Detroit on Wednesday, vowing to continue the group’s advocacy despite a white-hot controversy over a video showing two employees telling a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp how to cheat on taxes.