From Chicago Sun-Times
By Chris FuscoJuly 17, 2008
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Back when Barack Obama was a state senator, the Illinois Legislature offered this perk: You get elected, you get to give out some money.
Like his counterparts, Obama routed this state grant money to parks, libraries and schools during his eight years in the Illinois Senate.
He gave money to domestic-violence, job-creation and social-service programs.
He also pumped cash into St. Sabina Catholic parish, the South Side church whose pastor is the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken supporter whose comments in a May sermon about Obama's former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, landed the priest in trouble with Cardinal Francis George. St. Sabina got $100,000 to help rebuild its community center.
And a venture capital fund linked to the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- who apologized last week after making a crude remark about the Democratic presidential hopeful -- got $200,000, thanks to Obama.
In all, Obama doled out more than $3.6 million in state grants in just the last half of his state legislative career, records show.
A proposed botanic garden in Englewood got $100,000 from Obama, but the project never was completed because an additional $1 million in funding that Obama had said he'd "work tirelessly" to help obtain never materialized, the Chicago Sun-Times reported last week. That was among the biggest chunks of cash Obama gave out during the 2000-2003 budget years. ...
