Report: Obama got grants for wife's cousin

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama awarded grants as an Illinois state legislator to a nonprofit headed by a relative of his wife, records show.

The two grants totaling $75,000 were awarded in 1999 and 2000 to a Chicago social services organization led by Capers Funnye, a Jewish rabbi who is a cousin, once removed, of Michelle Obama, The Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register reported Tuesday.

Funnye told the newspaper there was nothing improper about the way his group, Blue Gargoyle, obtained the grants and that Obama did not encourage him to apply for the funds to provide job training and tutoring for high school for dropouts on Chicago's South Side.

He denied using family connections to pressure Obama, then an Illinois state senator, to approve the application, the State Journal-Register reported.

"State Sen. Obama joined other legislators in securing funding for a well-established social services agency in his district that provided job training, employment counseling and alternative education programs to approximately 1,200 Chicago residents each year," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.