JUDGE TO MEL -- STICK AROUND

A judge freed Mel Reynolds on his own recognizance after the first-term Chicago Congressman showed up in court to answer a 20-count indictment for statutory rape, child pornography and other charges. Reynolds -- a former Rhodes Scholar once seen as "the Great Black Hope of Chicago politics," according to TIME reporter Julie Grace -- lashed out at the indictments as the products of a publicity-seeking local prosecutor and a racist justice system. But Grace says his case will probably slide further downhill tomorrow when an alleged accomplice goes to court: Edward "Eddie" McIntyre, a Chicago water department employee and the father of the underage campaign worker Reynolds is charged with seducing.