Marathon Pundit: Obama awarded cash to wife's cousin's group

During the Democratic National Convention in August, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. told deleages that "Illinois is America."

AP takes a look at Obama's Illinois.

As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife's cousin, records show.

In 1999, Obama arranged for $50,000 for adult literacy and counseling services offered on Chicago's South Side by a group called Blue Gargoyle. A $25,000 grant for the group's youth services followed the next year.

The group's executive director when the grants were awarded was Capers Funnye, a South Side rabbi and Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed.

Funnye tells AP, "Everything was done according to whatever guidelines the state of Illinois had in place." But AP said those guidelines were "nonexistant."

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At the time, Illinois legislators were handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants. The money was part of a deal that legislative leaders cut with the governor to approve a major public-works program.