Add one Illinois Governor's Wife to the unemployed rolls

By Ethel C. Fenig

Joblessness has increased so much that even Illinois' troubled First Family (D) has been affected. Add Patti (#%&* expletive deleted those Cubs) Blagojevich to the ranks of the unemployed.

Buried in the wall to wall coverage of Tuesday's inauguration was the notice that the Chicago Christian Industrial League, a homeless shelter which also provides counseling, dismissed her from her $100,000 a year fund raising job.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Jan. 8 that the charity raises about $1 million a year but needed to increase that to $2 million. Its big hurdle: repaying a $10.8 million loan it obtained from ShoreBank with help from the Illinois Finance Authority — a state agency created by Blagojevich’s husband, the governor — to build the $25 million homeless shelter.

The Sun-Times reported that, in each of Patti Blagojevich’s first three months on the job, the Christian Industrial League brought in $10,000 to $15,000 a month — the same as it did before she started, according to president William Good.

Formerly a real estate agent, Mrs. Blagojevich had only worked a few months at her new job to help the League repay the state which her husband still governs.

"She did a good job, but the circumstances made it very difficult for her,” a source on the league’s board said.

#%&* Expletive deleted.