* Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Chicago), the son of a Chicago alderman, was appointed to his seat last year. He has a no-name challenger, but the Machine, as usual overreacted. Somebody allegedly obtained drivers license photographs of Zalewski’s opponent and the opponent’s father to circulate door-to-door. The Zalewski folks believed that the circulators weren’t who they said they were, but getting those photos ain’t exactly legal…

Zalewski’s supporters - and Zalewski himself, according to affidavits filed in the case - went door to door with photographs of Collins and his dad and asked voters who signed their petitions if the Collins duo, indeed, were the circulators.

But before the electoral board could rule on the circulator issue, Collins’ attorney, Richard Means, raised the illegality of using driver’s license photos, which were attached to Molaro’s objection paperwork.

“There is no question these are their driver’s license photographs and they came from inside,” Means said. “When you look at an actual driver’s license, there’s a watermark, or imprint, on it. Here we have the exact same photo with no watermark, so it wasn’t taken off the face of his license. It was taken off the original picture in the files of the secretary of state’s office. We were ready to prove that.”

Democratic Party attorney Michael Kasper swiftly informed Means the objection would be dropped, according to Means.

Ugh.

An internal Secretary of State investigation has been launched. This is one of those little things that can easily mushroom into something bigger, so we’ll keep an eye on it.

* Speaking of a mushrooming controversy…

A Chicago AIDS charity has been ordered to return a $500,000 state grant it received to rehabilitate a South Side apartment building, amid questions about the group’s spending.

The legal judgment obtained by the Illinois Commerce and Economic Opportunity Department and announced Friday, comes in the wake of Chicago Sun-Times stories outlining the Let’s Talk, Let’s Test Foundation’s financial struggles and failure to complete the apartment project, which was meant to help fund AIDS-education efforts.

State officials said the foundation — created in 2002 by state Rep. Connie Howard (D-Chicago) in an effort to stem the spread of AIDS in African-American neighborhoods — hasn’t finished the project and didn’t “disclose the complete nature of all grant-fund expenses.”

Separately, Illinois Public Health Department lawyers plan to try to recover $523,545 more from the organization, based on questionable expenses they say it made after getting a separate, $1.2 million AIDS-awareness grant. A court-style hearing in which the foundation would be allowed to defend its spending should be opened in the “very near future,” and a judge would decide if the money was misspent, a health department spokeswoman said.

The association claims it’s almost a million dollars in debt and can’t afford to defend itself against the charges. Oops.

* Meanwhile, in Rod Blagojevich news, the cops thought they had a lead in the investigation into last week’s break-in at Sam Adam Jr.’s office, but it turned up little…

Prosecutors filed a misdemeanor gun charge against the man arrested after police executed a search warrant related to the burglary of the law offices of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorney.

Prosecutors did not tie Calvin Ware, 41, to the burglary, though, either in court documents or during his appearance on Sunday in Cook County Circuit Court. Ware, charged with unlawful use of a weapon, was given a $25,000 bond and ordered to return to court on Friday.

Adam told the Sun-Times that the most important stuff related to the Blagojevich case was not touched…

Sam Adam Jr. said [Sunday] he remained “99 percent sure” no sensitive material was on the laptops. Adam said the hundreds of hours of recordings that a judge has barred from public disclosure are contained on disks, as well as a main server. Neither the server, nor the disks were touched, Adam said.

“None of the tapes are on the [stolen] computers,” Adam said.

Another source said “at best” portions of some transcripts may have been on the computers.

The laptops stolen link up to a main server where the sensitive material — including tapes and transcripts that are not public — is stored.

And Sneed’s lede Sunday was as follows…

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a major Elvis fan who is strapped with legal fees, will be paid $75 to debate a Columbia College professor about the “cultural merits” of the Elvis Presley film “Viva Las Vegas” Dec. 16.

Huh?

There’s really no need to ask why he took so llttle cash. The publicity from this stunt is enough, and he just got some more.

* Related…

* Report: U.S. lawmakers bend ethics rules

* Lawyer: Blago will testify at his own trial

* Rod Blagojevich, God’s instrument: “I embrace this opportunity that I’ve been confronted with. I know God has a purpose for me. Because this whole story is upside down. And this is one way —by me fighting back for the liberties and the rights of Americans that men and women have lost their lives for through the decades and a couple of centuries — to give me a chance to be able to fight back against these powerful forces who are lying. (This) is in many ways I think God’s way of having me serve my country again.”

* Rod Blagojevich, witness to be: “I want you all to know and the people of Illinois to know that I can’t wait to testify at my trial. I am going to testify at my trial, I will answer each and every question asked of me….I’m looking forward to testifying at my trial. And what I love about that is the fact that I’m going to be under oath. Everything that I say is going to be under oath. And you’ve gotta tell the truth. And I can’t wait for my story to come out because I’ve got the simple truth on my side….I know what the truth is. I am going to testify. I’m going to answer every question asked of me. The truth will come out”

* One year after Blagojevich’s arrest, Illinois has seen changes, struggles

* Rod Blagojevich: A strange trip for Illinois