// a href = ./ //

   Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich says his audit of Brentwood city government revealed sloppy accounting and a lack of documentation at city hall.  Schweich says those factors were behind his rating the St. louis County suburb as "poor."

   The audit came about because of a citizen petition drive that began in 2011. Residents became concerned about the city's finances after former city administrator Chris Seemayer pleaded guilty to stealing $30,000 but continued to collect city benefits.

   Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich says his audit of Brentwood city government revealed sloppy accounting and a lack of documentation at city hall.  Schweich says those factors were behind his rating the St. louis County suburb as "poor."

   The audit came about because of a citizen petition drive that began in 2011. Residents became concerned about the city's finances after former city administrator Chris Seemayer pleaded guilty to stealing $30,000 but continued to collect city benefits.

The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from former Illinois Governor George Ryan over his 2006 corruption conviction. The justices on Tuesday turned away Ryan's appeal without comment.

Ryan had asked the high court to reconsider his conviction based on a 2010 decision saying honest service fraud requires bribery and kickbacks. Ryan said the jury instructions at his trial were wrong, and that it was never proven that he took bribes.

Ryan was released from prison in recent weeks and is serving the rest of his sentence on home confinement.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandra, will appear in federal court today to answer criminal charges in an alleged scheme to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.

Both have agreed to plead guilty in deals with federal prosecutors. Jackson is charged with conspiracy and his wife with one count of filing false joint federal income tax returns for the years 2006 through 2011 that knowingly understated the income the couple received.