There’s something to be said about tradition in the great city of Chicago. In the last 36 years, 30 sitting or former aldermen have been convicted of  crimes. Obviously Alderman Carothers is all about upholding tradition. His father, a former alderman, went to prison in the 1980s for extortion.  Viva la tradition.

Alderman Isaac Carothers

BY NATASHA KORECKI, FRAN SPIELMAN AND TIM NOVAK
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — One of Mayor Daley’s closest allies on the City Council has been wearing a wire and secretly recording “public officials and real estate developers” for more than a year, a City Hall bombshell that was revealed in a federal court document Thursday.

Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th) was charged Thursday with fraud and bribery for allegedly accepting $40,000 in home improvements and other gifts from a politically connected developer, but he has been cooperating with the feds since April 2008, according to court papers.

A government motion filed in February asked to keep under seal the indictment of the developer — Calvin Boender — until May. It was unsealed Thursday.

The document identifies Carothers as “Public Official A” — with clear identifiers pointing to him, including a reference to one of his family members running for Congress in 2004.

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