Sneed: Gov and family spend his birthday skiing in Utah

Follow @sneedlingsKa-ching?

So what do you give one of the state’s richest men for his birthday?

Nothing.

Well, almost.

• Translation: Gov. Bruce Rauner and wife Diana took a break late last week to celebrate his 61st birthday skiing in Utah with their six kids.

They did not exchange gifts.

“It’s a family tradition not to do so,” a Rauner source said.

• Upshot: Instead, the gov’s birthday gift was 25 of the most sarcastic and funny cards his family could find to give him.

Follow @sneedlingsThe Peterson file . . .

Mystery solved?

So why did convicted murderer Drew Peterson make an abrupt exit from the state’s prison system at the Menard Correctional Center to a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana?

Although the state and the feds are declining to discuss reasons for the sudden transfer of Peterson, a former Bolingbrook cop, his former attorney, Joel Brodsky, speculates:

“It’s a maximum-security system where the feds will have more resources to closely monitor Peterson,” said Brodsky, who represented Peterson at the trial in the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. “Remember, Peterson was also found guilty of plotting to murder Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow while Peterson was serving time for Savio’s murder.

“Such a transfer would ostensibly eliminate any fear of Peterson plotting another murder for hire, which he did with inmates in a prison,” he added.

“Peterson will be in a cell 23 hours a day all by himself; he’ll exercise alone; shower alone. Phone calls will be heavily monitored. Basically, there will be no human contact.”

Former inmates at Terre Haute who were executed were Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza. Two non-death row inmates imprisoned there for life are Kirksey Nix, leader of the Dixie Mafia, and Zayd Safarini, member of the Abu Nidal Organization who was convicted in the deadly hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73.

Running with Rahm . . .

Huff ’em & puff ’em.

A very in-shape Mayor Rahm Emanuel was spotted early Wednesday morning, well before the sun came up and way before the City Council met at the Police Training Academy for what has become his favorite morning routine.

• Translation: Rather than hitting the gym, the mayor’s favorite workout routine now is running with about 25 police recruits.

• Fit bit: After a few stretches, Emanuel and the recruits ran about a 4-mile loop — beginning and ending at the Training Academy.

• Nyet bit: However, the Rahmster, who usually follows up his police recruit run with a swim in Lake Michigan during warm weather, opted NOT to hit the water when it hit the upper 60s this week.

Pssst!

Sneed hears rumbles Brian Hamer — former Mayor Richard Daley’s director of revenue, former Gov. Pat Quinn’s revenue chief, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s former chief of staff — is being eyed as director of revenue for the beleaguered Chicago Board of Education.

Tipsville . . .

$$$: Watch for Preckwinkle to be the key sponsor of a resolution calling for the continued support of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion at the National Association of Counties meeting in Washington this weekend. Cook County alone has 140,000 participants.

• The buckshot: If the ACA is repealed without a replacement framework, counties will be forced to reassume the cost of caring for medically indigent adults — and public hospitals will see increases in uninsured patients.

Vroom droom:

Sneed hears the 2005 Chrysler that State Comptroller Susana Mendoza dumped in favor of a $32,000 Ford Explorer may have had 104,000 miles on it, but a top source claims it was in impeccable condition and not in need of expensive repairs, despite Mendoza’s claims.

“It was spotless inside, detailed all the time — and in mint condition,” the source added.

A Malia missive . . .

Gads!

The British press seems to be targeting former first daughter Malia Obama as their latest celeb to chase.

Like mushrooms after rain, Brit reporters seem to have sprouted along her off-year film intern path, noting a long weekend recently partying in Aspen and Manhattan drinking Red Bull and water, flanked by heavy security.

Poor Malia.

What a nightmare.

Sneedlings . . .

I Spy: Former Obama strategist David Axelrod and wife Susan dining at Coco Pazzo on Friday night . . . as well as Chicago Symphony maestro Riccardo Muti. . . . Today’s birthdays: Emily Blunt, 34; Aziz Ansari, 34, and Daymond John, 48.

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