The Washington Post reports:
The wide-ranging public corruption probe that led to the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich got its first big break when a grandmother of six walked into a breakfast meeting with shakedown artists wearing an FBI wire.
Pamela Meyer Davis had been trying to win approval from a state health planning board for an expansion of Edward Hospital, the facility she runs in a Chicago suburb, but she realized that the only way to prevail was to retain a politically connected construction company and a specific investment house. Instead of succumbing to those demands, she went to the FBI and U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in late 2003 and agreed to secretly record conversations about the project.
There's more:
Rezko was an important catch. The multifaceted businessman with interests in real estate and pizza parlors became a gatekeeper to Blagojevich, advising him on appointments to boards and commissions. Obama, for example, acknowledged he had "formal discussions" with Rezko in 2003 when a close friend of Obama's, Eric Whitaker, emerged as a candidate for director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. The agency oversaw funding for the staff of the health facilities planning board, but Whitaker -- who served as the agency's director from 2003 to 2007 -- has not been implicated in the scandal. Whitaker has said he did not actively seek the job.
Obama really knows some people.You'll want to read the whole article.
