Mayor Daley's public troubles grew yesterday as news emerged that the mayor has taken some 46 trips abroad in the last two years, 19 of them at taxpayer expense. The Sun-Times is reporting that "seven of the trips were fully or partially bankrolled by the Daley campaign fund, seven by the Chicago 2016 Olympic organizing committee, four by the Sister Cities program, three by World Business Chicago and two by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce." Two trips - to Washington, D.C. and Kona, Hawaii - were aboard a private jet owned by Educap, a nonprofit organization under federal fraud investigation. more ›

Well, sort of. It was a bizarre scene at City Hall today. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in town to give a speech on gun violence, attended Daley's press conference today. When a reporter asked Mayor Daley how many times he had flown on a private jet owned by EduCap, as alleged last week, Daley replied, “Once or twice, we pointed that out. Yes, you’ve got all the facts on that." EduCap funded the Academy of Achievement, which happened to pay the Mayor's wife, Maggie, a sizable amount of money for help in 2006 and 2007. Daley than began pontificating on the Academy and, eventually, Tutu felt compelled to respond. Here's how the exchange went down, via the Trib's Clout Street. more ›

According to a report by CBS News on Monday, Mayor Richard Daley traveled to Singapore in 2006 on a $13 million jet owned by a non-profit student loan organization, Educap gave millions of dollars to the Academy of Achievement, which paid the mayor's wife Maggie $100,000 in 2006 and $50,000 in 2007 to be a "site consultant", scouting out locations to hold annual conferences for outstanding students. According to the CBS News report, "records show [Educap CEO Catherine] Reynolds took Chicago's Daley and his wife on 58 flights including ones to Turkey, Asia and Sweden." Educap is under investigation by the IRS and Congress for "alleged abuse of its tax-exempt status because it charges high interest on charitable student loans, and provides lavish perks with millions in compensation for Reynolds and her husband." more ›