Odd Timing

This pops up in our comment section:

• The Daley administration has signed another $5 million public relations contract -- bringing the citywide total to 11 firms and $55 million -- to augment the highly controlled message coming out of City Hall.
  Mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard insisted last fall that not a penny would be paid to outside spin doctors until Chicago's budget crisis is over.
  
  Please remember this when the city cries poor on the contract.
  
  3/03/2009 05:22:00 AM

And Tuesday night at 8:58 PM?

• The Daley administration on Tuesday abruptly canceled 11 public relations contracts with a $55 million pricetag to drive home the point that taxpayers cannot afford to augment the highly controlled message coming out of City Hall.

Could this have anything to do with it?

• Educap is a multibillion-dollar student loan charity run by CEO Catherine Reynolds. As CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported Monday night, 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.
• CBS News has learned that high-profile names on the Educap flight list include CIA Director Leon Panetta, former Sens. Tom Daschle and Ted Stevens, former FBI Director William Sessions and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
• And records show Reynolds took Chicago's Daley and his wife on 58 flights including ones to Turkey, Asia and Sweden.

Is this the break we've all been waiting for? The beginning of the end? A misstep involving taxes brought down Al Capone. Maybe a misstep involving tax exemptions brings down Shortshanks.