Illinois First Lady Patti Blagojevich fired from her job

Chicago (US), Jan.22 (ANI): The Chicago Christian Industrial League has fired Patti Blagojevich from her position as development director.

Blagojevich was hired in September and was earning a 100, 000 dollar annual salary.

"We exercised the right to terminate her contract," said Mary Shaver, interim executive director of the charity.

Hired to raise money for a state-of-the-art but financially troubled shelter on the West Side that provides transitional housing, training and counseling to the homeless, Blagojevich had a one-year contract.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported January 8 that the charity raises about a million dollars a year but needed to increase that to two million dollars.

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 dollars a month - the same as it did before she started.

Governor Blagojevich was arrested December 9 on federal charges that he tried to trade official government actions for campaign contributions - including trying to sell an appointment to replace President Obama in the U.S. Senate.

The first lady is overheard on some of the government wiretaps from the investigation into her husband. She has hired a criminal defense lawyer but has not been charged with any crime.

"She did a good job, but the circumstances made it very difficult for her," a source on the league's board said. (ANI)