*** UPDATE 1 *** * As of 11:16 this morning, the Sun-Times had posted five substance-packed updates on the Blagojevich trial…

* Blagojevich trial: Sam Adam Sr. counseled in questioning

* John Johnston: Contribution and legislation were "linked"

* Blagojevich trial: Johnston testifies on racetrack bill

* Blagojevich trial: Racetrack owner John Johnston takes the stand

* Blagoevich trial: Accountant questioned about IFA nomination

And the Tribune had posted just one…

The big question heading into this morning’s session of the Blagojevich corruption trial was whether Blagojevich’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr., and U.S. District Judge James Zagel would again butt heads.

But that was overshadowed by an even bigger development: Former first lady Patti Blagojevich apparently cut her long brown hair over the weekend and showed up in court with a short bobbed hairdo.

Scintillating, no?

*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Sun-Times…

Bradley Tusk, a onetime aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is testifying about an alleged shakedown scheme contained in the government’s indictment.

Tusk said while he was deputy governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich told him he wanted a message delivered to then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel: A $2 million grant for the Chicago Academy, a school in Emanuel’s district, was on hold unless his brother, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, held a fund-raiser.

Ari is the inspiration for the “Entourage” characte, Ari Gold.

Tusk said he didn’t deliver the message but called Blagojevich’s lawyer to tell him: “You need to get your client under control.”

[ *** End of Updates *** ]

* Says Neil Steinberg…

I keep waiting for the big crime to show up in the testimony– and maybe it will, some obvious quid-pro-quo for Obama’s old Senate seat, the “OK, you give me $10 million and you’re a senator” moment. But I haven’t heard it yet. My gut tells me that Blago’s crime is going to boil down to the same crime Miriam Santos was convicted of — the crime of saying on tape what many others say unrecorded.

Neil should listen to the tapes. From my weekly syndicated newspaper column…

Back in 2003, Rod Blagojevich’s former congressional chief of staff Dave Stricklin was asked by Chicago Magazine to recall an example of his former boss’s “goal-oriented approach to his congressional work.”

“Having X amount of dollars raised by X date,” was Stricklin’s response.

The U.S. attorney’s office has posted several audio recordings online related to Lon Monk’s testimony against Rod Blagojevich. I listened to them all last week, some of them twice, and it was beyond obvious that nothing changed for Blagojevich from the time he was a congressman right up until he was arrested.

We mostly knew that already, of course. Blagojevich broke every state fundraising record in the book. And the recordings show he crossed a very big line.

Blagojevich’s voice sounds almost desperate at times on the recordings as he tries to make sure he has $4 million in his campaign bank account by the end of 2008. Dec. 31 of that year was the last day that most state contractors could contribute to his campaign because of a new law, so the push was on.

“(H)ere’s the thing,” brother Rob said during a phone call two days before the dramatic Dec. 8 FBI arrest. “Four million dollars is the target. Right now, when I do my math, we come up short by a quarter of a million, two-fifty, but it, but there’s enough there, like a Pritzker, like a Zell, like a …”

“Oh, this is no good, forget that,” a clearly peeved governor interjected. Blagojevich berated his brother for not making the goal. “This is not good, I mean your, your numbers keep coming down! Your numbers keep coming down! You were safely at … 4 million, now we’re down to 250,000 short of that?”

In the end, they ended up $1.3 million short of that $4 million target. The big money never came in because of that early morning visit by the feds.

There are definitely some “smoking guns” on the tapes. For instance, five days before he was arrested, Blagojevich and Monk talked for the umpteenth time about how best to convince racetrack owner John Johnston to kick in a huge contribution by the end of the year. At the time, Johnston was also hoping that Blagojevich would sign a bill that greatly helped the horse racing industry.

Blagojevich advises that Monk tell Johnston that he will wait to sign the bill until right after the first of the year, suggesting he say that the governor will sign a whole bunch of bills at once and Johnston’s will be included in that stack in order to bury the story.

Monk asks Blagojevich how many bills are still waiting to be signed. Blagojevich guesstimates a hundred and reiterates that Monk relay to Johnston how important it is that December is a “key month” for contributions and that his campaign had been waiting a year for the cash. Blagojevich then says that he needs to speak to his government chief of staff right away.

A call is placed and the governor asks how many bills are awaiting his signature. He’s told there are 30.

“Thirty bills?” Blagojevich asks on the recording. “And they’re all the same timing?… Yeah, so don’t do any of ‘em,” he orders his chief of staff. “I wanna do ‘em all together. OK. In toto. OK. All 30.”

After the phone call Blagojevich asks Monk to rehearse what he plans to say to Johnston and advises “Be careful.” Monk says he’ll tell Johnston to “stop screwin’ around,” and will inform him of the governor’s plan to “group all these bills together.”

Blagojevich suggests that Monk tell Johnston that the governor would “like some separation between (the contribution) and signing the bill.”

“Define separation,” Monk says.

“A week,” Blagojevich replies.

You can’t hardly get busted more clearly than that.

Stricklin, the former congressional chief of staff who so accurately described Blagojevich’s “work ethic” back in 2003, was mentioned on the FBI recordings as well. Blagojevich and Monk talked four days before the arrest about people who should be loyal and pony up but were refusing.

Blagojevich: “That f—— Stricklin gets me sick.”

Monk: “He’s such a f——- stuffed shirt.”

Blagojevich: “Gets me sick.”

Stricklin, of course, had the last laugh.

* Related…

* Defense, judge could butt heads again

* Ali Ata Back on the Stand in Blagojevich Trial

* Ata to be back on stand today in Blagojevich case

* Testimony resumes today in Blagojevich trial

* Rod Blagojevich Trial Day 11: The week ahead, recap

* Blog-ojevich: Tweets and posts from the trial

* Wiretap excerpts

* Tapes show Blagojevich as feisty, combative

* A tale of two stories: Is it the best of times or the worst of times for Blago?

* Characters in federal court could fill menu

* Blagojevich trial: Day 11 and last week’s recap

* The trial at two weeks

* Next Task for Blago Jury: Fighting Boredom

* Blagojevich wiretap tapes available online