THIS is Investigative Reporting

And big surprise, it's by Tim Novak, one of the driving forces behind the Hired Truck scandal:

• Mayor Daley promised that one-fifth of the homes built as part of the massive makeover of the historic Maxwell Street market would be set aside as affordable housing.

  Damaris Matis, a real estate agent, got to buy one of those 187 affordable homes.

  Matis, then 25 and single, already owned two condos and was making $43,782 a year when city housing officials deemed her eligible to buy an affordable one-bedroom condominium in the city-subsidized development, called University Village.

Gee, she owns two condos, but is eligible to buy another set aside for affordable housing, gets $20,000 in subsidies and then flips it for almost $30,000. And as a topper, she and others didn't even pay back the "subsidies" granted for being eligible for affordable housing.

Among others getting a crack at affordable housing were a connected firefighter who already owned a house and the son of the co-owner of New West Realty - the company selling the housing.

It's amazing how far you can get if you know the right people or have an "in." And how you can get City subsidies to augment your flipping of property you probably shouldn't have had a chance at in the first place.

Meanwhile, Pam Zekman looks for the next parking scandal.