The Tribe and Sun Times; Obama and Jones

Read the Trib and Sun Times side by side today:

From the Trib:

Obama arrived in Springfield with an important ally. Emil Jones, then the minority leader of the chamber and later its president, fancied himself a mentor to Obama. To Jones, Obama represented "the future," someone who "embodies all that I dream and work for."

The two met on a street corner years earlier when Obama's South Side community group coincidentally convened an outdoor meeting just doors from Jones' house. They have been close ever since.

And the Sun Times:

At the same time Senate President Emil Jones went to unusual lengths to block a Commonwealth Edison rate freeze, his stepson's computer-consulting firm was on the payroll of the utility's corporate parent.

Late Wednesday, a top Jones aide said the Senate leader was unaware of his stepson's utility deal until being told of it by the Chicago Sun-Times.
[***]
The disclosure set off questions about why Jones did not publicly disclose his familial ties to the utility, and prompted a call from Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn for Jones to "abstain" from any further negotiations or votes on rate-freeze legislation this spring.

"I don't think it's healthy for the legislative process," Quinn said when told of the relationship. "Obviously, the public won't be happy at all to find out there are interests legislators have that connect to major bills that affect the lives and pocketbooks of families and businesses in Illinois, literally millions of people."

And the related stories here and here.

WaPo today writes Obama is ...lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community... Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus is quoted by WaPo in reply

Yearwood added, referring to Obama: "Before he makes an overall statement about hip-hop, he should know more about the complete culture of hip-hop."

I have a feeling foul-mouthed and anti-intellectual as they are, those hip hoppers have a pretty good sense of the culture in Illinois.