Too Little, Too Late: Drew Peterson Finally Offers Reward for Missing Wife Stacy Peterson

It's not often that you get to recycle a headline so quickly, but this week's wacky Chicago-based news environment offered a two-fer. First, Barack Obama suddenly catches on to what Jeremiah Wright, his pastor of twenty years, has been preaching and decides to say something about it: too little, too late.

Now former Bolingbrook, Ill cop Drew Peterson has decided to take time out from his media posturing to offer a reward for his missing wife, Stacy. You remember Stacy, mother of their two children, step-mother to two of Peterson's older children by his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Apparently Peterson has decided, in between dating and TV appearances, that he remembers his young fourth wife, too--although he says she ran off with another man.

Six months or so after Stacy's family, friends, volunteers, and just plain strangers have been constantly searching for her, Peterson is offering $25,000 for information about Stacy's disappearance: too little, too late.We're not sure where the money is coming from, as not too long ago, Peterson and his sidekick attorney Joel Brodsky were begging for monies for Drew on a website that quickly vanished.





Like the website, Stacy suddenly vanished, too. Just before she went missing, she told friends she wanted a divorce. She also told her pastor that Peterson had killed Savio, his third wife. Savio was found bruised and dead of what was first ruled an accidental drowning in a dry bathtub. Peterson controlled that crime scene.

Later, however, after Stacy's disappearance, Savio's body was exhumed for a second autopsy. That procedure, plus an outside autopsy by renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, moved Savio's death into the "probable homicide" category. Savio, like Stacy, repeatedly told people that Peterson would kill her and get away with it.

Why was she so sure of that? He threatened her with that, many times, Savio told everyone who would listen. And then there was his stalking of Savio, control, and repeated physical abuse. Stacy, too, was monitored and tracked, and she was afraid she would be killed before she could get out.

Peterson's second wife, Viki Connolly, said the same thing, as did a former fiancee. Connolly says she's still afraid of Peterson.





Savio's family now, at last, has control of the seven-figure estate Peterson and the two minor Savio children inherited--which had been managed by Peterson, a boy who loves his toys (motorcycles, cars, guns,light aircraft). Lately, Peterson's been losing a lot: the Savio decision, the yanking of his weapons permit, and the court's refusal to give his guns back.

Apparently, Peterson and Brodsky have decided it's time for a little positive PR--or so the family and friends of both Savio and Stacy believe. We believe that too.

Peterson's recent media appearances have been more than a little bit frayed around the edges. His portrayal of the jovial college jock who is guffawing at a private joke about his self-professed "bad luck" with women is now several degrees beyond hackneyed.




Peterson, who we've written about ad nauseum (for some reason, the word "nausea" just comes up with the word "Peterson"), is most likely chumming for not only current PR, but to hook some sympathy with any potential jurors. Peterson, who says he expects to be arrested, alternates between fishing for sympathy and laughing it all off.

At this point, $25,000 isn't nearly enough to start cleaning up the ol' Drew dumpster enough to put even a dim shine on his public patina. However, it is enough to start speculation: did the offer hit the table as a ploy just before Peterson is arrested?

Stay tuned. Investigators still want answers about two timelines of extreme interests: Peterson's whereabouts before Savio died and before Stacy went missing.

Chicago Earthquake .2 Off Historic Level; Experts Say New Madrid Fault is Restless

America's Most Wanted: Alleged Family Killer Found in Chicago After 10 Years

Obama Supporter Rezko in Court on Corruption Charges; Obama May Be Forced to Testify

The Waffle Watch: Part-Time Senator Obama , Race, Iraq, & The Poor

Although Sen. Barack Obama, the very junior Democrat senator from Illinois, apparently is now more a star than, say, Elvis Presley, it's still not a bad idea to get past the hype and look at reality. As this quick-look by CBS shows, Obama has waffled on Iraq for years.

Even though Democratic party apologist Sen. Dick Durbin spreads the justification jam, the message is clear: Obama's campaign is actually a giant moving waffle house. There's another hidden message in Obama's speeches, and here CBS shows a major one.

Obama speaks of his campaign bringing whites, blacks, and Latinos together and of working on anti-poverty programs for those groups. Memo to Sen. Obama: among Illinois' top 5 ethnic groups are the original inhabitants of this land: Native Americans.

Census results from the turn of the century show that about 100 tribes are represented in Illinois, most in the Chicago area. Many Native Americans were moved to Chicago during the government's ill-fated "relocation" programs designed to break up tribal communities and reservations.

Obama needs to check on poverty statistics and needs for that section of his constituency, which makes up slightly more than nine per cent of his state's population. It's apparent, though, that like most black politicians before him, Obama finds Native Americans to be invisible--to him, at least.

Someone might also want to tell Obama that there are Asians, in fact, many racial backgrounds, in his state, and home city, and that many of them are poor or working poor. Again, Obama makes it clear, to those who can get past the media hype, that his focus is on snake-charming the all-important black, Latino, and white voters.

Does America really want, or need, a president who not only is a waffle king, but who's only interested in serving only certain groups at his slick cliche cafe? We need to think about that.

There's another problem here: the issue of race. Obama's campaign waffles there, too. It's supposedly not about race, but the mantle of "first potential black president" gets whipped around in the air like a Spanish matador's cape.

Make no mistake, it is about race--as duplicitously defined by the Obama camp. If you support him, it's not about race. If you don't support him, then you're part of America's racial problems. The core message is subtle, but pervasive: a vote for Obama is a vote to prove the U.S. is not racially prejudiced; a word, or vote against Obama proves it is.

Or so the Obama camp would have you believe. In fact, the essence of racial equality in politics is that all candidates get evaluated by their record and their statements, regardless of their race.That applies to Obama, too.

If this country really wishes to continue to mature racially, then it's time to get past the rhetoric and the hype, and make one thing clear: voting against Obama is not a vote against blacks, or a vote for white domination. It's simply a vote that chooses another candidate as more qualified and more trustworthy, based on the individual voter's beliefs and choices.

Will some people vote against Obama because he is black? Of course. On the other hand, will some vote for Obama because he is black? Of course.. Interestingly enough, a vote for Obama because he's black isn't a racial choice, according to the leftist rhetoric, whereas a vote against him is. Or (back to the waffle counter here) a vote for Obama is a good racial choice, proving our racial fairness; a vote against is racism.

America doesn't have to prove anything racially. Within a very short time, the U.S. has moved from the rotten era of routine segregation (not to mention routine sexism) to an integrated nation. If you doubt that, check out the Secretary of State's office, the Supreme Court, and just about every facet of our daily lives.

Dealing with racial issues isn't easy. Xenophobia seems to be hard-wired into us as a species. We each have to outgrow that, just as developing babies in the womb have to outgrow vestiges of a tail and the stage where the fetus looks more like a newt than anything else.

The reality is that in no time, in no place, will prejudice ever be totally rooted out of the human race other than by education and cultural changes, such as those demonstrated in the U.S. in less than 50 years. To frame this election only in terms of race is the mirror image of pre-integration days, when everything was framed by race.

We don't have to buy into proving ourselves as "not racist" by voting for Obama. That needs to be repeated. Evaluate him fairly--which means looking at him without the "first black" rhetoric.

Because color, or racial background, is a lousy reason to vote for, or against, someone.

Obama & Slumlord Rezko: The Money & Political Ties Are Years Old And Deep in Poverty Scandals

For generations, Chicago politics have been believed by many to be among the dirtiest in the nation. Given the nature of politics, deciding who's the prettiest in the mud rasslin' contests is not a thing of beauty. But as the campaign flows on, one element is being hosed away: Barack Obama's attempt to present himself as totally pure in his associations and backers.

Not only did Obama legally represent a portion of Tony Rezko's slum landlord business, but amazingly enough, Rezko and Obama bought side-by-side properties (including Obama's mansion) a few years ago. Obama's rise from novice senator to Democratic front runner took more than one good speech to fuel--it took money. Lots of money. And Rezko provided it, while low-income tenants in his projects went without heat in brutal Chicago winters.

Obama, who's saavy enough to handle Chicago politics, clearly could figure out renewal projects that didn't quite "renew." The Rezko problems were long-term and well-publicized, but Obama seems to have missed them.

As Tim Novak reports in an excellent investigative piece for the Chicago Sun-Times:

"For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side.

It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers....

Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on.

But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.

Obama has been friends with Rezko for 17 years. Rezko has been a political patron to Obama and many others, helping to raise millions of dollars for them through his own contributions and by hosting fund-raisers in his home.

Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko's low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers."

Novak also summarized some squalid details of Rezko urban renewal projects:

"Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:

• Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure.

• Six buildings are currently boarded up.

• Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.

• Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.

• At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings. "

The government has filed numerous charges against the Syrian-born Rezko. Arrested this week on bond violation, he faces faces serious jail time if convicted of attempted extortion, money laundering, and fraud.

Obama's ties to Rezko run deeper than the "just another contributor" story he's floating. In fact, you could call Obama a Rezko supporter. In Obama wrote several letters supporting Rezko's Cottage View Terrace projects for low-income senior citizens. Taxpayers funded the Obama-endorsed projects for more than $14 million.

Although Obama says he's given all "identified" Rezko campaign contributions to charity, the taint lingers. Now it's been revealed that while Rezko was claiming poverty, he was getting millions from a secretive investor identified as an Iraqi millionaire. Why would someone from the Middle East invest in an indicted Syrian businessman now in jail?

One Arab-American blogger claims that Rezko's problems are caused by "the media bias against Arab Americans.....Arab American businessmen make easy targets for criticism and attacks." The freezing low-income apartments, Ray Hanania declared, were "livable residences." He speaks of Rezko's generosity, including "Rezko has a long history of supporting Arab American causes." Then why didn't his "generosity" extend to maintaining the low-income project housing as he contracted to do?

Now fast-forward to the Hillary Clinton snub that Obama denies at President Bush's State of the Union speech. In South Carolina, Clinton scored a solid hit on Obama as she brought up his business ties to Rezko, sparking real anger in Obama's eyes and voice.

With Bill Clinton acting as wife Hillary's Obama hit man, the Democratic campaign has turned into a real brawl. Obama's "Far Above the Madding Crowd" noble pose is getting scraped thin.

As Desi would say to Lucy: Obama, you got a lot of 'splaining to do. Start with how you missed Rezko's shenanigans (if you did, especially as you were one of his partners' lawyers) and if so, how that translates to being able to identify international shenanigans if you become president. And if you didn't somehow overlook Rezko's problems, then tell us why you went out of your way as a U.S. Senator, to support him.

Video: Global Warming? Chicago Gets The Most Snow in More than 100 Years, Weather Channel Says