A federal trial started yesterday pitting the city of Joliet against the Obama administration and 700 tenants of a public housing project that city officials want to tear down. Joliet officials describe the Section 8 housing project as smelly and crime-ridden among other things. One Joliet council member allegedly called the mostly black tenants "rats."

U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency contends that the city's real motivation to demolish the project stems from the fact that it lies on pricey land near Harrah's casino.