Chicago, IL - Fifth Panelist Quits Over Colleague's Affiliation With Nation of Islam

Chicago, IL -A fifth Jewish member of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich's commission on discrimination and hate crimes has resigned in protest of the continued presence on the panel of a representative from the Nation of Islam.

The resignation on Wednesday of Alan J. Spellberg, a prosecutor in the Cook County state's attorney's office, is the latest development in a snowballing controversy facing Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, in an election year in which he risks alienating voters no matter how he responds.

The debate ignited after Muhammad, one of the commission's 26 members and the minister of protocol for the Nation of Islam, invited commission members to a speech given by Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.