Wife says Blagojevich teaching history in prison

[March 16, 2013]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is spending his time in federal prison teaching Civil War history and learning to play the guitar, while his attorneys work on an appeal, his wife said on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the beginning of his 14-year term for corruption.

"All that we have been left with is a aching hole in our lives," Patti Blagojevich also said in a Facebook post. Glenn Selig, a longtime spokesman for Rod Blagojevich, confirmed the posting was from Patti Blagojevich.

Blagojevich reported to a Colorado federal prison on March 15, 2012. Jurors had convicted him on 18 counts, including charges that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat.

Patti Blagojevich wrote that attorneys are "working diligently" on her husband's appeal but they wouldn't have any answers for at least six months.

She lamented the fact that her husband is missing events in his family's lives. The couple has two daughters, and she said he has missed birthdays, holidays and music recitals.

"The loss feels all consuming," she wrote. "Unfortunately, those moment have been stolen from my children and there is no getting them back."

But Patti Blagojevich also wrote that family members have visited the former governor many times and talk with him every day. She said her husband also runs "miles and miles" around a quarter-mile track.

A call seeking comment from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons was not immediately returned.

[Associated Press; By CARYN ROUSSEAU]

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