Fitzmas in April for the man Barack Obama endorsed for re-election in 2006?

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said Thursday it will release news late in the afternoon about a “significant criminal matter” that will include a court filing.

A written statement gave no information on what the subject might be, but in early January, federal Judge James Holderman gave the office three additional months to decide whether to indict former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and resigned from office. That deadline ends Tuesday.

The U.S. attorney’s office said its announcement would be made in a news release, and posted on its Web site.

As of 5:15 pm EDT, there’s nothing on the website for the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, although the Chicago media expects Blagojevich to (finally) be indicted today. In the meantime, we will have to wait and see a little longer. But as usual, there’s no shortage of Democratic corruption to amuse and horrify us.

UPDATED: Yup, Blago has been indicted; the indictment is described here. The RICO connspiracy charge alone carries a maximum 20-year sentence.

Illinois: David Freddoso looks at the “corruption tax” imposed on residents of Illinois, while the latest Daley ally convicted last week is discussed here.

Alabama: Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford will stand trial this summer and former Governor Don Siegelman, also a Democrat, saw the bulk of his conviction affirmed earlier this month.

Maryland: Pretrial proceedings also continue against Democratic officials in Baltimore, including the Mayor.

New York: the NY Daily News has an article and a rogues’ gallery on corruption and dysfunction in Albany. As usual, when you dig for this stuff there’s a boatload of Democrats and a handful of Republicans.

California: Oakland’s current government is awful. Jack Dunphy looks at a stone-cold Oakland cop-killer and the morally depraved excuses made for him; the comments from Red Ron Dellums are enough to make you wonder why anyone would agree to serve in the Oakland PD under such a Mayor. But the Democrats’ next in line has his own problems:

Former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Tuesday he will run for mayor of Oakland in 2010.

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Perata is a political heavyweight who served four years as state Senate president pro tem, when he was, arguably, the most powerful Democrat in state government. But candidate Perata will bring plenty of baggage into the mayor’s race, too.

The FBI has investigated Perata for more than five years, trying to determine whether he took kickbacks or bribes for official favors, perhaps through a network of friends and associates.

Earlier this year, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco told Perata’s attorneys the office would not file charges. But the FBI subsequently took their case to the Sacramento U.S. attorney’s office, which agreed to review the case. Perata said he hasn’t heard anything about the case since then.

Of course, there’s not always fire where there is smoke, but the step of trying a second set of prosecutors certainly suggests that the FBI thinks it has something.

All in a day’s work, my friends.