Air Force One is expected to shuttle President Barack Obama home to Chicago Wednesday evening. The visit comes on the president’s 49th birthday. A big part of the trip is devoted to campaign fundraising.

For the president’s birthday, the White House says he’ll celebrate Wednesday evening with some friends, and then spend the night at his home in the Kenwood neighborhood.

On Thursday, he’ll take a tour and make a speech at the Ford plant on Chicago’s far South Side. And he’ll attend two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee, and one for state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat once held by the president.

That lunch-time event takes place at the Palmer House Hilton. That’s just a couple blocks from the federal court building, where jurors continue to deliberate the two dozen counts against former Governor Rod Blagojevich. Some of those charges focus on Blagojevich’s alleged scheme to profit from his power to appoint Mr. Obama’s replacement in the Senate.