No answers on grant snafu

An Illinois House committee grilled a Blagojevich administration aide for 90 minutes Wednesday about a botched $1 million grant to a private school, but got little information. Deputy Gov. Louanner Peters said she didn't know many answers to questions about the money and couldn't tell the State Government Administration Committee who did. The hearing was called to look into the grant Gov. Rod Blagojevich called a "bureaucratic mistake." The Democrat promised the money in 2006 to help rebuild the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church, which was gutted by a fire in Chicago. Apparently concerned about constitutional church-state separation requirements, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity instead gave the money to the Loop Lab School in Chicago, one of the church's tenants. Blagojevich has promised he will find another $1 million to give to Pilgrim Baptist Church.