Ostensibly to “catch her breath,” Interior Secretary Gail Norton resigns from the Cabinet, effective at the end of the month. Besides opening federal lands for oil drilling whenever possible, Norton’s office also appears to have traded access for bribes from Casino Jack, through aide Italia Federici. “Abramoff boasted in e-mails of having an inside track in Norton’s department. Norton posed for a photograph with Abramoff in her office in 2002.“