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Politics : John McCain for President -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (1479)	6/23/2008 1:43:36 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6579

Obama and his Rezko ties DAY ONE OF TWO April 23, 2007Recommend (25) BY TIM NOVAK Staff Reporter/tnovak@suntimes.com For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side. It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers. It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers. Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on. "Senator Obama does not remember having conversations with Tony Rezko (inset) about properties that he owned" — Obama’s campaign staff on Sunday. (Sun-Times/AP) RELATED STORIES Sun-Times' questions: Obama campaign's answers Map: Rezmar Corp.'s low-income projects Top recipients of campaign cash Obama's ex-boss a Rezko partner Troutman dad got rehab deal Rezmar deals involving Davis Miner law firm Sweet blog: Obama's donor courtship Obama: Election chance for change ABOUT THIS SERIES Staff reporter Tim Novak examines previously unreported government-funded, low-income housing deals involving Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the indicted political fund-raiser. TODAY \| Rezmar kept getting city and state funding, even as earlier projects fell into disrepair and financial troubles. Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on. But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building. ..... "Their buildings were falling apart,'' said a former city official. "They just didn't pay attention to the condition of these buildings.'' Eleven of Rezko's buildings were in Obama's state Senate district. ..... Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble: • Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure. • Six buildings are currently boarded up. • Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs. • Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans. • At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings. For five weeks, the Sun-Times sought to interview Obama about Rezko and the housing deals. His staff wanted written questions. It responded Sunday but left many questions unanswered. Other answers didn't directly address the question. Among these: When did Obama learn of Rezmar's financial problems? "The senator had no special knowledge of any financial problems,'' Gibbs wrote. [ The Sgt. Schultz defense: "I see NOTHING, I know NOTHING." ] ..... Did the senator ever discuss Rezmar's financial problems with anyone at his law firm? "The firm advises us that it [is] unaware of any such conversations,'' Gibbs wrote. ........ Asked what Rezko cases Obama worked on, Miner told the Sun-Times, "We'll put together a list of the cases he worked on involving Rezko/Rezmar in the next day or two.'' That was March 13. He never provided the information. ..... the Englewood apartment building at 7000 S. Sangamon where the tenants were without heat for five weeks. The tenants there had no heat from Dec. 27, 1996, until at least Feb. 3, 1997, when the city of Chicago sued to turn the heat on. The case was settled later that month with a $100 fine. It was during that time that the area's new state senator, Barack Obama, got a $1,000 campaign donation from Rezmar. The date: Jan. 14, 1997. .... suntimes.com Thanks for inviting me to document Obama's sleazy past.