* This is what happens when you leave the office too early on a Friday. You miss the horror show…
Seven state parks will still close next weekend, even though Gov. Rod Blagojevich and state lawmakers have approved money to keep them open, the Blagojevich administration said today.
Blagojevich originally targeted 11 state parks to close Nov. 30. Lawmakers approved $230 million in new spending to prevent those park closings and a variety of other cuts, and the governor approved most of that spending yesterday.
But Blagojevich spokeswoman Katie Ridgway said Friday afternoon that only four of those 11 state parks will remain open: Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park in Sheffield, Channahon Parkway State Park in Channahon, Gebhard Woods State Park in Morris and Kickapoo State Park in Oakwood.
* And the tinfoil hatters were foiled again…
Sen. Richard Durbin said Friday he will recommend another term for corruption-busting federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald if he wants to stay on as Chicago’s U.S. attorney.
Durbin told a news conference that he first wants to sit down with the city’s top federal prosecutor and ask him what he wants in the future. Asked if he would recommend that President-elect Barack Obama renominate Fitzgerald, Durbin said: “Yes.”
“I think he has done an extraordinary job as U.S. attorney; I have the greatest confidence in him,” Durbin said. “I want to do what he wants to do, I want to support what he wants to do and I won’t presume what that is.”
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