Obama's Eric Whitaker: Not-for-profit group used state funds to buy decked-out Hummer

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

With its custom red paint job, on-board TV, public-address system, game consoles and sparkling chrome tire rims, the 2003 Hummer was no ordinary vehicle.

The $45,196 SUV was designed to deliver an eye-catching, AIDS-awareness message to people in poor African-American neighborhoods on behalf of the Illinois Department of Public Health, then headed by Dr. Eric E. Whitaker, one of President Barack Obama’s closest friends.

Soon, though, other AIDS activists began to question how the Chicago not-for-profit organization that used the decked-out Hummer to spread its message could afford to spend money on such a vehicle.

After first insisting otherwise, Whitaker aides ultimately concluded that the organization’s director had lied when he said he used his own money to buy the Hummer when, in fact, taxpayers had footed the bill, according to e-mails obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Still, Whitaker’s agency allowed the group — called Working for Togetherness — to keep the Hummer and reimburse the state for only half its cost.

That's the Chicago Way. For other recent Eric Whitaker corruption news.