[Bumped up for visibility from Friday evening, slightly edited, comments opened and stories added.]

* Here’s the raw audio of Friday’s Q&A with US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn…

Click to download

…Adding… Emanuel said he didn’t want to get into the claim by CTU President Karen Lewis that during a meeting Emanuel “exploded, used profanity, pointed his finger in my face and yelled.” But, he did say that the two hugged at the end of the meeting.

...Adding More… Gov. Quinn said “it’s very clear that I did not” decide which state facilities to close based on partisanship. He didn’t explain, however, why it’s so “very clear.”

The governor reacted harshly when asked about the Chicago city council voting this week to urge him to sign the gaming bill. “It would be nice if they read the bill,” Quinn said acidly, pointing out that this was the “same city council that approved a parking meter proposal” which he called a “disaster.”

Quinn was also asked about Emanuel’s previous statements that Quinn’s concerns about gaming regulation were easily dealt with. “C’mon,” Quinn sneered. “Chicago? Gambling? Easily dealt with?”

Ouch.

Emanuel had left the room before Quinn took questions, by the way.

…Adding… Tribune…

Gov. Pat Quinn took a little shot today at Chicago aldermen who passed a resolution urging him to sign into law a major gambling expansion that would net the city a casino.

“This is the same City Council that approved a parking meter proposal. . .I don’t think my neighbors or folks in my neighborhood are very happy with the 75-year parking meter disaster,” Quinn said. […]

“To do things in a hasty, ill-considered way is the wrong way and I don’t do it that way,” Quinn added.

The governor’s comments came after the City Council on Thursday backed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to get Quinn to sign the bill. They argued that a Chicago casino would bring new jobs and generate roughly $20 million a month. Emanuel has pledged to use the revenue to rebuild the city.

AP…

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is denying Republican claims that partisanship played a role his decision to take steps to close seven state facilities and lay off more than 1,900 workers.

Quinn said Friday “it’s very clear” he didn’t target facilities in Republican areas. Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross has accused Quinn of targeting “Republican facilities and Republican jobs.”

Five of the seven facilities Quinn targeted to close have both a Republican state senator and representative. A sixth has Democrats and a seventh is split with a Republican senator and Democratic representative.

* And Lynn Sweet indicates that President Obama is fine with a Chicago casino…

When President Barack Obama dropped in at Chief of Staff Bill Daley’s office on Friday, the conversation with visiting Chicagoans — including former Mayor Richard Daley and his son, Patrick — turned to how Mayor Rahm Emanuel was doing, why Chicago doesn’t have casino gambling and Obama’s own immigration record.

That’s the report I got from Ald. Danny Solis (25th) […]

“Obama could never understand why Indiana and the other states” had casinos and Chicago did not, Solis said.

One thing, I guess, led to another and Obama offered up, Solis said, that his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, “goes once or twice a year to Vegas and really enjoys it.”