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Things that make you go “Hmm…”

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* Laura Washington had a good column this week about Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. My favorite part…

Now the headlines are getting ugly. Now the mouths at the Dirksen Federal Building are spilling salacious, off-the-record but damning details. Political “friends” of the Jackson family are allegedly chatting up investigators, about pay-to-play and quid pro quo.

All true.

* Let’s move away from that former Senate contender to a current Senate contender. As we’ve already discussed, an investment fund in the state’s Bright Start college savings plan lost $85 million last year. Normally, that probably wouldn’t be any big deal since just about everybody lost money in the markets last year. But this one may be different…

Mr. Giannoulias knew about problems in Bright Start’s Core Plus investment fund a full half-year before he finally stopped throwing money into it.

According to Mr. Giannoulias’ office, he e-mailed Oppenheimer on May 6, saying he wanted to discuss Core Plus’ underperformance and how to “turn the ship around.” But it wasn’t until Dec. 4 — after the credit markets and Core Plus’ investments in mortgage-related securities had tanked — that the office diverted all new contributions from Core Plus to U.S. Treasuries.

By that time, the fund had about completed a year in which the value of what was supposed to be a nest-egg dropped a nifty 38%.

Mr. Giannoulias office says it was urged to “stay the course” by an independent advisory panel. But the treasurer made the final decision to wait.

Go read the whole thing.

* And then there’s this…

[A no-show grant] is one of 54 state grants frozen by the federal government as part of an on-going investigation into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration.

54 grants have been frozen?

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 7:20 am

Comments

If the “push polling” phone call I received last night is any indication, Alexi Giannoulias is in for a rough ride. Plenty of questions along the lines of “If you knew Giannoulias’ family bank was involved in lending to organized crime, would that make you more or less likely to vote for him.”

Plenty of innuendo about Mark Kirk, as well — but nothing nearly as salacious.

Hmmmmmm, a push poll aimed at a potential Democratic primary opponent and a general election opponent. I wonder who could be behind it????

Suffice it to say that apparently Bill Daley isn’t interested in being the ambassador to China.

Comment by Anon Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:22 am
And somewhere a Shaw brother smiles…

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:29 am
–[A no-show grant] is one of 54 state grants frozen by the federal government as part of an on-going investigation into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration.–

Talk about burying the lead. That’s a huge story, if true.

It’s confusing, obviously. The feds freeze state grants? What feds? What grants? When? Where was the money coming from?

Needless to say, a little follow up is in order.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:08 am
Any candidates with ties to corruption will find the going tough next year in Illinois. Voters have had it, and they do not give candidates a benefit of a doubt they would have given them in 2006. So any accusations of corruption from deal making to personal ethical problems will carry weight with Illinois voters.

Both Rob Blagojevich and Roland Burris will be making the daily news next year too, reminding Illinois voters why they hate incumbants.

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:19 am
Only 54 grants ?

Comment by Leave a light on George Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 9:33 am
Rich, everybody may have lost money in the markets last year, but not very many of them lost 38 percent on an allegedly “safe” bond fund.

This is inexcusable. There are red flags all over that prospectus (the big fat document, not the six paragraphs of happy talk the parents got) not the least of which is “the fund will invest mostly in debt securities.” That means bonds; if a bond fund is not buying bonds, it ain’t low-risk.
Further, Alexi’s ham-fisted attempts to fix the problem after the horse left the barn may possibly have made it worse. He directed the fund manager to invest only in short-term treasuries once he really realized the fund was in the crapper; well, fine, but that locks in an almost zero return for the forseeable future, ties the manager’s hands as far as cleaning up the crap in the fund and profiting from any market recovery, and takes the manager off the hook for any breach of fiduciary duty claims for anything happening after that date since they were trading as directed.

The “explanations” Hinz got from Alexi and Co. also make no sense.

If this happened at a State pension fund, the phony reformers would be calling for heads to roll. But since it’s the Boy Genius, nothing but silence. Speaking of pension funds, will this finally kill off Alexi’s goofy ILPERS power grab?

The saddest part is that there is NFW these families will ever get their money back. The only way that could happen would be to have a showing of fraud. The only fraud here is Alexi Giannoulias.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:49 am
Is there anyone who was on Blago’s goodside who hasn’t drowned or is at least treading water? I mean that sincerly, has anyone close to the man survived unscathed or prospered?

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 10:54 am
Is there anyone who was on Blago’s goodside who hasn’t drowned or is at least treading water?

John Filan and Jack Lavin, to name two.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:09 am
The Hinz column on the performance of Bright Start under Alexi is very critical and quite damaging. sure, the mob scares, but mess with parents’ money? that is a real scorcher!

Comment by Amy Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:12 am
Is there anyone who was on Blago’s goodside who hasn’t drowned or is at least treading water?

Ginger Ostrow, Milan Petrovic, Jimmy DeLeo, etc.etc.etc.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:28 am
Well, Bill…there’s you!

Comment by Concerned Observer Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 11:44 am
Everyone, including me, lost money last year. In fact, I know plenty of professional investors who hung on last year in hopes of their funds coming back. To solely blame Alexi for this loss seems unfair.

It is not surprising that Greg Hinz is again leading the charge against Alexi. He has an axe to grind and it shows.

Comment by IllinoisProgressive Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 5:23 pm
IL Progressive, you’re missing the point. Alexi is responsible for the Program by law. The buck stops at his desk, “fair” or not. This fund lost several times more than “the market” lost and was managed by “professional investors.”

If you think Hinz has an ax to grind, fine. Let’s have General Holland do an audit of what happened. The families who were counting on the State of Illinois to safeguard their college savings and are out $85 million deserve some answers.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 6:06 pm
Don’t forget Brian Hamer was Rod’s guy at Revenue.

Comment by Take It Easy Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 8:36 pm