NATIONAL
CHICAGO — Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who made a farewell speech to House colleagues 11 days earlier, made his resignation official Monday with a letter to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Hastert had announced in August he wouldn't seek another term and earlier this month confirmed he wouldn't finish his 11th term, but he hadn't said when he would resign his seat.
In his letter, Hastert said he chose Monday because he was advised it would give Blagojevich sufficient time to set a special primary election for Feb. 5 so voters can pick candidates to run for the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2009.
Hastert said Feb. 5 makes sense because that's the day Illinoisans will go to the polls in regular primary elections.
Hastert's resignation caps a 21-year career in Congress that saw the former wrestling coach serve as House speaker longer than any other Republican.
Adventurer's wife asks for legal death noticeCHICAGO — The wife of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who disappeared while flying his plane in September in rugged Western terrain, asked a court Monday to declare him legally dead."As painful as it is for Mrs. (Peggy V.) Fossett, other members of the family and his many friends, it is time to initiate this process," said attorney Michael LoVallo, who filed the petition in Cook County Circuit Court.The request was a step toward resolving the legal status of Fossett's estate, which according to court papers is "vast, surpassing eight figures in liquid assets, various entities and real estate," LoVallo said.Fossett, 63, disappeared Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif.There was a transponder aboard but no signal was received.
