Obama MLK Day speech in Harvey raises questions

The Chicago suburb of Harvey, best known as the hometown of baseball hall-of-famer Lou Boudreau, is where Ill. Senator Barack Obama will be on Martin Luther King Day.

From Friday's Daily Southtown:

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has picked an interesting spot to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Harvey.

The troubled city claimed the minor coup Thursday when the in-demand senator's office announced he will speak to an expected audience of 2,000 at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church.

Obama, who is pondering a bid for the presidency, will be joined by Harvey Mayor Eric J. Kellogg, said St. Mark's pastor, Bishop William Jordan.

The senator will be in Harvey for "reflection, not politics," his spokesman Julian Green said, adding he did not know if Obama was aware of a series of scandals plaguing Kellogg's administration.

This comes from the August 12, 2006 Daily Southtown:

Harvey Mayor Eric J. Kellogg ordered one of his detectives to make a gun seized from a convicted felon vanish from evidence, authorities said Friday in the latest scandal to plague Harvey police and the first to finger the mayor in potentially criminal behavior.

In an October meeting with other unnamed Harvey officials, "Public Official A" told Detective Hollis Dorrough to "help with the case and return property" to the defandant's stepfather, whom he had known for years, prosecutors said at Dorrough's Friday morning court appearance.

Sources close to the case named Kellogg as "Public Official A" and said Kellogg's bodyguards are the other "unnamed officials."

Big hat tip to Rich Miller of Capitol Fax for the Daily Southtown stories.

The below comes from Miller's blog:

Anyway, Harvey is so screwed up that the Daily Southtown has a special page devoted to the town on its website. The page is called "Eye on Harvey," and it’s an instructive read. Perhaps the Senator’s staff should go check it out.

There are seventy Harvey stories to review.

Does Obama have morons for staff? Or is St. Barack not as smart as his backers say he is?

North of Harvey, Tony Rezko, Obama's tainted property neighbor, is making news.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The federal government is looking to re-evaluate Tony Rezko's bond after discovering he has no equity in either property he's posted as security. Rezko -- a top Gov. Blagojevich fund-raiser indicted last year in an alleged kickback scheme and an alleged loan fraud scam -- is selling his Lake Geneva property. The property, valued at more than $800,000, is so ridden with liens that the government didn't object to selling the house and paying off creditors. He also posted his Wilmette mansion for bond, but there's no equity in it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn McNiven told a judge authorities are concerned because Rezko now has no personal property securing his $1.5 million bond.

Hat tip to Anne Leary at Backyard Conservative for that one.

Related posts:

UPDATED! More problems for Obama: Senator hired intern with ties to Tony Rezko

More Obama and Rezko

Obama and the Laborers' Union Ed Smith