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Chicago - For constituents familiar with the brash way he governed Illinois, it comes as no surprise that Rod Blagojevich wants to make one last statement to the public before he leaves his family and reports this week to serve 14 years in prison.

The former governor's lawyers say he wants to go out with dignity. But that may be difficult in front of the television cameras he so adored as a politician that likely will illuminate his every step from his bungalow in Chicago's Northwest Side to the gate of the Colorado prison he requested.

Who will stand with him when he speaks to the media Wednesday as promised? Will he offer contrition, as he did before his sentencing judge? Or will he again profess his innocence, as he did through his two trials and as his wife Patti did for him in a televised interview in recent days?

Will he make one last stop before reporting for prison Thursday at a favorite haunt, just as his predecessor, George Ryan, stopped at a pancake house for coffee on his way to prison in 2007?

"These last few days - they are the hardest of all," said Jim Laski, a former Chicago city clerk who was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption in 2006. "You feel helpless. You think about prison 24/7. You can't sleep."

Since his December sentencing on 18 counts that included trying to sell President Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat, Blagojevich hasn't granted interviews and his attorneys say he wants to avoid a media frenzy. But the man soon to be identified as federal prisoner No. 40892-424 plans to step outside his home Wednesday to address the media. His publicist said he never planned to slip away undetected.

Spokesman Glenn Selig offered few hints about what Blagojevich could say, explaining only that, "He has truly enjoyed being out in public. He never considered `sneaking' out of Chicago and miss an opportunity to say goodbye."

Blagojevich, a 55-year-old father of two daughters, used his rhetorical skills to help win one term as a congressman and two as Illinois governor. After his arrest in 2008, the Democrat turned to those same skills to persistently declare his innocence on the national talk-show circuit, but in the end they couldn't help him persuade a jury when he took the witness stand during his retrial.

The former governor could tear a page from a well-worn book on how former Illinois governors spent their last days before prison. Four of the state's last nine governors served time after convictions.

Ryan, Blagojevich's Republican predecessor, made a public statement in 2007, also one day before he was due to begin serving a 6 1/2-year sentence after being convicted on corruption charges that he always denied.

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Blago to Have Final Word Before Prison

COMMENTARY

Plainclothes police are staking out the hideout, snipers lock on to their targets from the tops of surrounding buildings and a truckload of Swat team members are hiding nearby _ it's the quiet before the storm. Suspects all accounted for in the hideout, check. Certain evidence confirmed in the hideout, check. Communication lines secured, neighbourhood cleared, weapons locked and loaded, full metal jackets in place, check, check and check.

''Take them out! Go! Go! Go!'' The element of surprise is half the battle.

Ah, the goose-bumps I get when watching a police raid in a Hollywood movie. But when I learned I was to witness my first real-life Thai police raid on the morning of Feb 28, I wasn't that excited.

At 10.30am, the question came: ''What are you doing at the office, aren't you supposed to be at the raid?'' Answer: ''Bah, there's no hurry.'' At 11.30am another question: ''Shouldn't you have left already?'' Answer: ''Nah, I'll leave in an hour.''

At the scene, 1pm. Inside the compound of the Cabbages & Condoms restaurant, a man with a shaved head standing under the scorching sun, sweat oozing from his every pore. A pair of Ray-Bans covered his sad, mysterious eyes. His hands rested on his hips in a devil-may-care manner befitting a lone cowboy eyeing a group of pilgrims, who were even sweatier since they had been there for hours. The cowboy, who could have used a hat, sighed and with an exasperating twang said: ''Nothing happening yet, pilgrims?''

''No,'' one pilgrim replied.

A big crowd of reporters and cameramen have been waiting at the compound since early morning. The police are expected to raid the medical clinic on the second floor of the restaurant. The clinic _ which is not part of the restaurant _ is suspected of providing illegal abortions. A couple of police cars and a few policemen were waiting around. Some 45 minutes later, the commander and other bigwigs arrive. The raid is happening. They are ready to go. The bigwigs then march upstairs, followed by their police entourage as reporters and cameramen crowd after them. The members of the media were prevented from going up by the police. Foreign patrons of the restaurant looked on, bewildered.

More waiting. Some 30 minutes later the bigwigs come down. Camera lights flashing, microphones jabbing, questions spewing _ ''What did you find?'' ''What did you see?''

''We found nothing,'' says the commanding officer, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

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Painting a picture

Long Island City, NY (PRWEB) March 10, 2012

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BERKELEY, Calif.First Amendment advocates have accused Berkeley's police chief of intimidation and censorship after he sent an officer to a newspaper reporter's home in the middle of the night to insist on changes to a story.

Sgt. Mary Kusmiss knocked on Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley's door around 12:45 a.m. Friday on Chief Michael Meehan's orders, the Oakland Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/AlRYtG).

Meehan apparently thought Oakley misreported what he said during a public meeting about the police department's response in the case of a local resident who was beaten to death last month.

But Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher's Association, said if Meehan had a problem with the story, he should have called the newspaper the next day or written a letter to the editor.

"It's the most intimidating type of (censorship) possible because the person trying to exercise it carries a gun," he said.

Oakley said he was shaken by Kusmiss's visit to his Berkeley home. He and his wife thought that a relative may have died.

Meehan has since apologized, calling his actions "overzealous." He said he didn't think Oakley would be intimidated or upset since Kusmiss regularly deals with the media.

"I did not mean to upset (Oakley) or his family last night," Meehan told the Tribune. "It was late, (I was) tired too. I don't dispute that it could be perceived badly."

Oakley had covered a community meeting on Thursday about the beating death of 67-year-old Peter Cukor on Feb. 18. Cukor had called the department on its nonemergency line to report the suspect in his beating, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, about 15 minutes before his wife dialed 911 to report that DeWitt was attacking her husband. But police did not immediately respond to that first call.

Oakley wrote that Meehan apologized to the community at Thursday's meeting for the department's slow response. But Meehan said he apologized only for not informing the public sooner about why the response was slow.

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Police chief sends officer to reporter's house

Syrias army is too large and too well equipped, and recent defections not nearly important enough to slow the growing crisis there, US intelligence experts told The Washington Post today.

Diplomatic pressure on President Bashar al-Assad is having little effect, the officials said, and the only hope for a quick resolution to the bloodshed is economic sanctions.

That leadership is going to fight very hard, one official said in The Post. The odds are against them, but they are going to fight very hard.

In the most comprehensive, telling comments since the Syrian uprising began a year ago, three senior US intelligence experts said those closest to Assad are remaining steadfast.

More from GlobalPost: Syria: Kofi Annan's call for talks rejected

The experts said the Syrian army has increased its attacks on civilian sites such as mosques, hospitals and schools to kill Free Syrian Army forces they believe are hiding there.

Restraint has been lifted, one official said, according to The Post.

CNN said recent defections from Assads government and military are having little effect, and there are reports Al Qaeda is complicating the situation by infiltrating opposition forces.

US experts dont know the extent of Al Qaedas presence, CNN said, and arent sure the terrorist organization is even welcomed in Syria.

Poor organization is hampering the uprising, the officials said, and poor communications make it difficult to mount a sustained attack.

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Assad regime in control, US intelligence says