Rezko turns down trial delay

I wondered what changed his mind?

Three weeks ago, the legal team of Antoin "Tony" Rezko said they wanted to delay the trial, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time.

A federal judge ruled today that the corruption trial of former gubernatorial fund-raiser and adviser Antoin "Tony" Rezko will begin next month, despite protestations by his attorneys that they have been overwhelmed by 1.5 million documents dumped by federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve said Rezko’s trial will start on Feb. 25, though she told his attorneys they could further pursue a delay in writing.

Now Rezko does not want to have a delay in the start of his trial, in fact as far as he's concerned, the sooner the better.

From today's Chicago Sun-Times:

Federal Judge Amy St. Eve jailed Rezko on Monday, saying his financial maneuverings suggest that he might flee to avoid going to trial.

St. Eve told defense attorneys at a morning hearing that she's willing to delay the trial for a week to give them more time to prepare.

But defense attorney Joseph Duffy told her Rezko not only didn't want a delay -- he wishes the trial would start sooner.

Rezko, whose bail was revoked three days ago, obvioulsy does not like being incarcerated at the Metropolitian Correctional Center.

Will Rezko now "sing like a canary?"

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Illinois 2008 Election Democrats Tony Rezko corruption

FutureGen plant may have no future

Lost amidst the news coverage of the Florida Primary two days ago was another important news story. The Department of Energy is pulling its financing of FutureGen, an innovative energy coal-powered energy plant.

Since yesterday's Republican presidential plant spent a lot of time on energy, maybe not coal, this reversal should not be overlooked.

Last month, in what was viewed as a major coup for Illinois, the FutureGen Alliance, a coalition of private companies, chose the central Illinois city of Mattoon over two Texas towns.

From Crain's Chicago Business:

The Energy Department on Wednesday cited its concern about the FutureGen cost escalation. Officials said it was preferable to pursue separate clean coal technologies instead of what one official called "a living laboratory" concept. It will begin a process leading to a solicitation of industry bids for projects by the end of the year.

Despite pleas from two Illinois congressman to President Bush, the decision to pull-the-plug, financially speaking, on FutureGen appears to be final.
Crain's is writing about FutureGen in the past tense, although the alliance vows to carry on with its plans.

The FutureGen program was envisioned as a unique research project that would trigger development of a virtually pollution-free coal plant where carbon dioxide emissions would be captured and buried deep beneath the earth. It would produce both electricity and hydrogen.

As it has been said and written many times before, the United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal.

Related post:

Downstate Illinois town wins new clean coal plant: UPDATED

Technorati tags: Illinois energy coal mattoon Republican alternative fuels politics

Eight Wonders of Kansas announced

Okay, this may seem like a comedy piece, but after my week in Kansas last summer, which I dubbed "My Kansas Kronikles," I can assure you that there are many places worth visiting in the Sunflower State.

Here they are, the Eight Wonders of Kansas, as announced Tuesday by Governorn Kathleen Sebelius:

•The world’s largest hand-dug well, Greensburg
•Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Barton and Stafford counties
•Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, Abilene
•Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson
•Underground Salt Museum, Hutchinson
•Monument Rocks and Castle Rock, Gove County
•St. Fidelis Church (Cathedral of the Plains), Victoria
•Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County

The Kanas City Star provides a photo gallery which is available here.

More from the Star:

"We were looking for places that were iconic, places that elicited a 'wow!' or places that are literally unique to the state," Penner said. "...We got some nastygrams when the list (of 24 finalists) came out. But that's good, too. We want people talking."

The eight wonders were winnowed from 350 nominees submitted by people from throughout the state. More than 24,000 votes, from across Kansas and the country, were cast on finalists chosen by a committee.

Here's my take: I didn't visit Hutchinson, so I missed both the salt mine (which I regret, because it looks pretty neat), and the Cosmosphere. I was in Kansas for just a week, and I was looking for things and places I hadn't seen before, and since I've been to the Kennedy Space Center and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the latter didn't make the cut.

More about the rest: "The Cathedral on the Plains" in Victoria I saw from Interstate 70. I didn't stop there, because I wanted to get to to the Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, while making a quick detour to Russell, before sunset.

Here are Kansas Kronikles posts about that part of the trip:

Wetlands and Wildlife Scenic Byway
Bob Dole's Russell

I did travel to Greensburg, but the The world’s largest hand-dug well was closed to the public, as it it today. You can get a look at the well museum before the May 4, 2007 courtesy of the Greensburg Chamber of Commerce.

Here once again are my Greensburg posts:

Greensburg, the fall and rise, part one
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part two
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part three
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part four
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part five
Greensburg, the fall and rise, part six

The Monument Rocks are worth the six miles of driving on an unpaved road to get there. I didn't make it to the smaller, less grandiose Castle Rock, which is located about twenty miles to the east of the larger formation. Both outroppings are part of the same formation consisting of Niobrara Chalk.

Both sites are located on private land, but visitors are welcome.

The Monument Rocks

The Tallgrass National Prairie Reserve is in Chase County, in the heart of the Flint Hills region. As I blogged yesterday, perhaps the most famous resident of the county, Easter Heathman, passed away at age 89 Tuesday night. Heathman lived just south of the preserve in Bazaar.

Here are my Chase County posts:

Chase County Courthouse
The Flint Hills
A taste of home

And finally, Ike. Although most of my series was presented a positive view of Kansas, I had to scold the state for not elevating Dwight D. Eisenhower, a great general, president, and American, to the level of state icon, in the way Alexander Hamilton is in New York, or Andrew Jackson is in Tennessee.

True, an integral part of Eisenhower's nature (and genius) was modesty, so maybe he would've recoiled at reaching hero status. But let's give the man his due.

Although Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, his native Kansans parents moved to Abilene, Ike's father's hometown, two years later. Abilene was Eisenhower's home until he graduated from West Point. During World War I (Ike never made it to Europe, much to his disappointment) he was briefly stationed at Fort Leavenworth, and after the war attended the prestigous Command and General Staff School there, graduating at the top of his class.

Fortunately, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene was named one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas. You can read about the museum, and Abilene in the posts below:

Abilene
The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum

Closer to home, last year Illinois used an online poll to determine its seven wonders. The list is so lame, that an Illinois tradition, ballot-box stuffing, must have been involved in deciding the winners. I'm serious. No Lincoln sites? Oh, yeah, he's our icon. Where's the Sears Tower? Galena? Or the Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO World Heritage site?

Oh the picture. Since I snubbed Hutchinson last summer, I thought I'd include this photograph taken near Lindsborg, about 50 miles from the city.

Related post:

My Kansas Kronikles: A thirty nine post series

Technorati tags: Kansas travel byways photography photos Greensburg history Eisenhower Americana Illinois nature Sebelius tourism

Nader may be a presidential race invader

Guess who may be stirring up the pot in regards to this year's presidential race? Ralph Nader, Green Party candidate for president in 2000 and 2004.

Ralph says he's thinking about running again, although he's not saying under which, or any, party banner.

From ABC News:

(Nader) has harsh words for the leading Democratic candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, chastising them for failing to advance aggressive plans to tax corporations more fairly, and to fight for a vastly higher minimum wage.

Obama, he said, is a particular disappointment, since his background suggests that he knows the importance of progressive issues yet hasn't fought for them in the Senate.

"His record in the Senate is pretty mediocre," Nader said. "His most distinctive characteristic is the extent to which he censors himself. He hasn't performed as a really progressive first-term senator would." His "self-censorship," Nader said, "is a reflection of character."

He's no kinder to the Republican frontrunner, Sen. John McCain. "Senator McCain is the candidate of perpetual war," he said.

Well I hope he runs, since he'll peel off votes from the Democratic nominee. If there is a Green Party candidate other than Nader, and if Michael Bloomberg runs as well, that will cause headaches for Senator Clinton or Obama.

Nader is of course a complete fraud. Here is an excerpt from Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say, (Not As I Do), Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, in which the self-appointed fighter for "the little guy" confronts "problems" among his staff at Multinational Monitor publication:

Nader also that marriages in his shop were "a problem" and actually discouraged his minions from tying the knot. He figured marriages would mean that employees would ask for more pay and be unwilling to work longer hours. Lowell Dodge, one of his most lieutenants, said theat working for Nader was terrible for marriages because of Nader's insistence that his people keep working eighty hours a week. "There is a gap between what you would expect from someone who is fighting to make the world a better place to live and what you actually get on Nader's team, he observed. The writer James Fallows, who once worked on the Congress Project, said, "Ralph was very upset when I got married, because that's one step away from having the right devotion."

Hat tip to Pat Curley at Brainster, and I echo his sentiment, "Run, Ralph, run!"

Technorati tags: Nader Green Party books Obama politics Barack Obama 2008 Election Democrats Republican Hillary Clinton Hillary

McCain and ANWR, Romney and Cape Wind

I'm watching the CNN Republican presidential debate, and Mitt Romney brought up John McCain's vote against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

True, a bad vote.

However, Mitt Romney, like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and the family environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is against the Cape Wind Wind Farm, something that would possibly upset the views of some multi-millionaires living off of Cape Cod.

A bad stand.

Speaking of the Kennedys, their most famous in-law, Arnold Schwarzenneger, might be the recipient of poor lighting, but they just showed "Ah-nold" in the debate audience, and his hair is a burnt-orange.

Find a new hairstylist.

UPDATE 8:20 PM: "The Governator" will endorse McCain tomorrow.

Related posts:

Not in my back yard: Commission rejects Cape Wind project
RFK, Jr: Environmental hypocrite
A Kennedy is on the board of the Chicago Climate Exchange
New North Dakota wind farm, Cape Wind flounders
Wind power update--Michigan this time, UPDATED
North Dakota welcomes new wind farm
My Kansas Kronikles: Gray County Wind Farm

Technorati tags: wind renewable energy Massachusetts wind power elections 2008 McCain Romney Republican Mitt ANWR Cape Wind