*** UPDATE 2 *** Subpoenas were approved on a vote of 10-1, with Rep. Mautino as the lone “No” vote.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Click here to listen to live audio of the Legislative Audit Commission hearing.

[ *** End Of Updates *** ]

* Sun-Times…

A co-chairman of a legislative audit panel on Tuesday plans to seek authority to issue subpoenas for records and witnesses in a probe of the troubled Neighborhood Recovery Initiative in what could become a lingering — and potentially more of a public — headache for Gov. Pat Quinn.

State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, on Monday first told the Sun-Times political portal Early & Often that he will move to formally ask for the authority to subpoena records and witnesses from the anti-violence program that the state’s auditor slammed as riddled with mismanagement. […]

Barickman is a co-chairman of the Legislative Audit Commission, which is made up of six Republicans and six Democrats. He plans a morning news conference following the commission meeting.

I wrote about this issue in today’s subscriber edition. House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman e-mailed this to me after reading what I wrote…

I think the Senator [Barickman] is about to learn the Auditor General already has subpoena power

* Meanwhile, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Sun-Times again…

Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown had a direct managerial role in a not-for-profit group that got an anti-violence grant from Gov. Pat Quinn’s now-disbanded Neighborhood Recovery Initiative, state records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

The group, Dream Catchers Community Development Corp., was founded by Brown’s husband, Benton Cook III. It was asked to return unexpended grant money after having its contract terminated in 2011 by Chicago Area Project, a larger not-for-profit that had been overseeing organizations that had received money through the Quinn anti-violence initiative.

Dream Catchers was supposed to be paid as much as $10,000 by Chicago Area Project to distribute anti-violence literature between February 2011 and November 2011.

The group initially was awarded $3,333 of the $10,000. But Chicago Area Project ended the deal after only a few months, in May 2011, saying it learned of the potential conflict of interest posed by Cook also being paid tens of thousands of dollars by Chicago Area Project to oversee other Neighborhood Recovery Initiative programs.