Chicago Daily Observer

Grass Roots political organizer Paul Jacobs, the Senior Advisor at the Sam Adams Foundation, has been indicted on charges related to his work leading a petition drive in Oklahoma. Jacobs is charged with a felony of conspiring against the State of Oklahoma in collecting signatures in favor of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights by an out of state resident. After 300,000 signatures were gathered by Jacobs and others, signatures removed by the Oklahoma Supreme Court keeping the petition from making it to a ballot.

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has handed down the indictment to Jacobs and two other political organizers stating “Oklahoma law requires anyone who circulates a petition be a qualified elector, that means a U.S. citizen over the age of 18 and a resident of Oklahoma.” Edmondson charged that the petitioners “came into the state with the intent to leave the state ... Read More...

Cites Possibility that Taxpayers’ Dollars Have Been Spent in Violation of State Constitution.

Former prosecutor and current public interest attorney Richard Caro who has been in the forefront of a constitutional battle to keep the governor of Illinois from transgressing the rights of the legislature, has filed a motion for reconsideration after a dismissal of his case by a circuit court judge.

In his motion, Caro pointed out that his action was designed to prevent any public expenditure in behalf of the AllKids bridge program by transferring money not appropriated to it by executive fiat. Judge Kathleen Mary Pantle did not address that point in her preemptory Sept. 28 dismissal of his lawsuit, he says.

Caro’s point that monies have been in fact expended unconstitutionally has to do with the governor’s Aug. 30 announcement that the program was being established and implemented. Judge Pantle concentrated on a very narrow point ... Read More...