Home Blog Page 2

Hanover Township families receive toys in time for Christmas

0

Volunteers kept a steady pace distributing gifts to families participating Hanover Township’s Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program in Bartlett Friday.

 
Marija Tripkovic, front, and Jennifer Gaspar, who are volunteers from Streamwood High School, bring bags of presents to participants in Hanover Township’s annual Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program at the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 in Bartlett.
Joe Lewnard/[email protected]
 
Cars are lined up for Hanover Township’s annual Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program at the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 in Bartlett.
Joe Lewnard/[email protected]

Cars lined up outside the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus building as bags containing wrapped gifts, and in some cases, new bicycles, were loaded into family’s vehicles. Around 600 families including 1,300 children took part in the pair of programs.

 
Jose Santeliz, a volunteer from Streamwood High School, carries bags holding Christmas presents during Hanover Township’s annual Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program at the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 in Bartlett.
Joe Lewnard/[email protected]

Families participating in the Sponsor-A-Family program wrote down what they were hoping for, and another family in the community will take responsibility for buying those gifts, Hanover Township Supervisor Brian McGuire said. Those participating in the toy drive would provide their child’s wish list, and volunteers would then match donations that were received with a child’s wishes.

 
Bicycles being given during Hanover Township’s annual Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program are lined up at the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 in Bartlett.
Joe Lewnard/[email protected]

All of the gifts were provided through private donations and no tax money was used, McGuire said.

“There’s still a great need out there, we’re just glad our donors rose to the occasion to take care of it,” McGuire said.

 
Presents awaiting distribution are lined up during Hanover Township’s annual Toy Drive and Sponsor-A-Family Program at the Hanover Township Tiknis Campus on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 in Bartlett.
Joe Lewnard/[email protected]

Source link

Trump taps West suburban Catholic school leader as next Vatican ambassador

0

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday announced he’ll nominate West suburban Catholic school board leader Brian Burch as the next U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

Burch, the co-founder and president of the conservative political action committee CatholicVote, is the president of the Seton Montessori School board in Villa Park. He lives with his wife, Sara, and nine children in the western suburbs.

“He has received numerous awards, and demonstrated exceptional leadership, helping build one of the largest Catholic advocacy groups in the Country,” Trump said in a statement. “He represented me well during the last Election, having garnered more Catholic votes than any Presidential Candidate in History!”

__

This report was published in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For more, visit chicago.suntimes.com.

Source link

Giannoulias debuts new drive-through DMV in Lombard, a first for Illinois

0

Suburbanites accustomed to the bureaucratic drabness of the former DMV facility in Lombard are getting an upgrade.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias debuted a new facility with a 24-hour/seven-day drive-through on Friday.

The new DMV in Lombard has a first-of-its kind in Illinois drive-through service.
Courtesy Illinois secretary of state

Customers can expect more redesigned and reimagined DMVs in the future, officials said.

The replacement facility is still located at Eastgate Mall, 837 Westmore-Meyers Road, but is roomier with more amenities.

Giannoulias noted the original Lombard DMV was one of the busiest in Illinois but “wasn’t keeping up with the growing population in DuPage County.

“Its small size and the technical limitations often created nightmares for customers with long lines and long wait times,” Giannoulias said at the opening.

“The new facility will pair the efficiency of our One-Stop-Shop model with the convenience of our Fast-Lane kiosk initiative to create new synergies to the benefit of our customers and employees.”

A look inside the new Lombard DMV at Eastgate Center.
Courtesy Illinois secretary of state

Here is a look at some additional features at the site.

• The drive-through kiosk is the first one in Illinois. Drivers can renew vehicle registrations and licenses, plus obtain license plate stickers.

• Employees are cross-trained to provide both driver and vehicle services instead of the two sections being kept separate.

• Thirty customer stations are available, and drivers can make payments at each one, reducing wait times.

• The DMV is 13,600 square feet, providing 1,600 more square feet than the old space.

• Administrative hearings will be held at the new facility to handle cases involving license suspensions for driving without insurance or under the influence, or excessive traffic violations.

The previous Lombard DMV handled over 134,000 vehicle transactions in 2023, the most out of 143 facilities in Illinois, and nearly 125,000 driver-related transactions, the fifth highest.

So far, 17 secretary of state facilities are using the “One-Stop-Shop” model, officials said.

In order to ensure continuity of service, temporary pop-up locations are offered to serve customers while permanent facilities are being redesigned.

To learn about other upgrades, check out @ILSecOfState social media pages.

Source link

Sosa, Cubs appear to have made up, the question is will anyone care?

0

In this Sept. 18, 2002, file photo Cubs’ Sammy Sosa warms up in the on-deck circle during the Cubs’ baseball game against the New York Mets in New York. The Cubs and Sosa appear to have reconciled. The question is will anyone care?
AP

The last time I saw Sammy Sosa, I explained to him what the word “skeptic” means. It means doubt, I said, suspicion, distrust.

I had asked if he had returned to baseball to prove the skeptics wrong. Sosa looked up from the autograph he was signing. He frowned.

This was in spring training in appropriately named Surprise, Arizona, a surprise because there Sosa was in a Texas uniform, a year after he had left baseball.

This was Sosa’s last stab at redemption. The Cubs had since been discarded. He had spent a year in limbo. He was a nonroster invitee at a rookie’s salary, his fame still of value enough for nine pages in the Rangers’ media guide.

Sosa’s English was always as useful as he needed it to be. I tried another tack. A skeptic, I say, is someone who thinks you can’t hit any more.

“Your skeptics can watch,” he said.

That’s just it. The skeptics stopped watching, the Cubs did too, Hall of Fame voters, old teammates. Sosa simply did not matter. He was without defenders, unimportant in the way Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have continued to be, or Alex Rodriquez. Sosa became the outcast of the outcasts, a lost page in baseball’s case book.

Old clubs welcomed back Bonds and Clemens and Mark McGwire and others of the era when baseball cheered their feats and ignored the reasons. The Cubs simply disowned Sosa.

The 1998 home run race between Sosa and McGwire resurrected baseball from the labor wallow and the lost World Series of 1994. It was welcomed as validation of America’s pastime, compelling and thrilling at the time and only later discredited as if it were an intentional fraud on the honest affections of fans.

For his part, Sosa got a ticker tape parade and the key to New York City, presented by mayor Rudolph Guliani, irony obviously having no shelf life.

Maybe no athlete has gone from glory to irrelevance faster than Sosa, (well, maybe Lance Armstrong, but that’s another column). Much of it was Sosa’s fault for sure, but also baseball’s as well, there being mutual mistrust, forgiveness ungiven and unwelcome. And now…

…Welcome back, Sammy.

We shall see how this goes, or even if anyone still cares. The Cubs are willing to bend and Sosa is willing to be bent, and Cub fans may wonder what difference any of it makes.

The Sosa of memory was something, PED-ed very likely, though Sosa still has not outright admitted to doing anything wrong. A hint is as good as a confession.

“I made mistakes and I apologize,” Sosa said in a statement.

Good enough for Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts. “Thanks for reaching out,” said Ricketts in a statement.

Now, can we get on with admitting that Sosa was worth those summers of wonder when No. 21 would step into the batter’s box, carefully scrape away the back line with his right foot, squirm his cleats until he was comfortable and flick the bat with insolence, ready to do harm.

There was menace there and when the ball sailed out of Wrigley Field, Sosa would skip out of the batters box, the chest thump and the heart kisses seemingly meant for every Cub fan.

“We can’t change the past, but the future is bright. In my heart I’ve always been a Cub,” Sosa said in his statement.

“Nobody is perfect,” said Ricketts in a statement.

Ah, nothing like the reconciliation of old lovers. Why did we ever break up?

Without argument the most beloved Cub is Ernie Banks but the greatest Cub was Sosa, no one else close, not Ryne Sandberg, Ferguson Jenkins nor Andre Dawson.

If Sosa tarnished his legacy with an ugly exit from Chicago, indifferent stopovers in Baltimore and Texas and a guilt by association appearance before Congress, a new generation does not care.

He was one of the most famous baseball players alive, and if his fame came with an unwanted curiosity, about steroids, about corked bats, about a general sourness that followed so many summers of clear joy, none of that will change.

A skeptic remembers it all.

Source link

Vote at NYCHA’s Hylan Houses Lands in a Tie

0

At the Brooklyn complex, 83 tenants voted to join the Public Housing Preservation Trust and another 83 opted to convert to private management under the PACT initiative. A final recount will take place Jan. 8, and if the numbers stand, a runoff vote will be scheduled.

hylan vote

Adi Talwar

NYCHA’s Hylan Houses at 131 Moore St. in Brooklyn.

After a 30-day election period, voters at NYCHA’s Hylan Houses are split over what funding model they want for their campus—and may be heading to a runoff vote to determine the path forward.

The 19-story development in Bushwick is the fifth NYCHA campus where tenants where asked to vote on whether they want to stay in the federal Section 9 public housing program, or join one of two other models for raising repair money: PACT or the Preservation Trust.

After three weeks of voting and 175 submitted ballots, a second tally held Friday found the results evenly split between PACT and the Trust, with 83 votes for each. A final recount will take place on Jan. 8, and should the tie still stand, residents will be asked to take part in a 30-day runoff vote, where just the Trust and PACT will be on the ballot, according to voting rules.



Source link

Three robbed outside Des Plaines restaurant

0

Three people were robbed by a gunman Thursday night outside a Des Plaines restaurant.

No one was hurt in the stickup, which occurred at about 9 p.m. at Marisco La Isla Dorada, 1916 Mannheim Road, police said in a press release.

The victims — two men and a woman, all from Tennessee — had just left the restaurant after eating when they were approached by a man armed with a handgun who demanded their wallets, police said.

After the victims complied, the thief fled on foot with about $1,100, police said.

The robber was described as wearing black clothes. No other information about him was available.

Anyone with information about the robbery can call Des Plaines police at (847) 391-5400.

Source link

Hanover Township receives $600,000 open-space grant for park in Bartlett

0

Residents review proposed green-space expansion plans for Hanover Township’s Tiknis Campus in Bartlett during a public meeting in July.
Courtesy of Hanover Township

For its planned development of eight acres of green space on its Tiknis Campus in Bartlett, Hanover Township has received a $600,000 Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The envisioned improvements next to Town Hall at 250 S. IL Route 59 in Bartlett include installation of an asphalt and boardwalk trail, an outdoor classroom, a gazebo, a discovery dock on the wetland and a fitness station.

Construction is expected to begin next fall.

“We could not be more excited with this award,” said Hanover Township Supervisor Brian P. McGuire. “Since 2009, the township has created nearly 50 acres of open space for the enjoyment of township residents. With these funds, we are able to expand our outdoor footprint to build more programs and opportunities for residents to be outside and active.”

Existing green space in Hanover Township include Runzel Reserve, located north of the Senior Center along Route 59 in Bartlett; the 13-acre Izaak Walton Reserve at 899 Jay Street in Elgin; Lenoci Reserve at 735 Stowell Avenue in Streamwood; around the Bridlewood subdivision along Shoe Factory Road just outside Hoffman Estates.

For more information on the township’s land use plans, visit hanover-township.org.

Source link

Woman evades would-be car thieves in Des Plaines

0

Two would-be thieves tried to force a woman out of her SUV on Wednesday evening in Des Plaines, but the driver escaped in her car unharmed, police said.

The attempted carjacking occurred at about 5:45 p.m. in grocery store parking lot on the 1700 block of East Oakton Street. The woman had just loaded groceries into her Dodge Durango and climbed inside.

Once behind the wheel, the woman was confronted by two people outside who yelled at her and demanded she get out, according to a press release. One said they were armed but no weapon was seen, police spokesperson Kathryn Kozlowski said.

The duo tried to open the SUV’s doors but couldn’t because the doors were locked.

The woman backed out of her parking space, drove off and called police.

One of the would-be thieves was described as a man with short hair who was wearing a black vest, police said. A description of his accomplice wasn’t available.

Police are reviewing surveillance footage.

Source link

District 211 board election uncontested after two candidates’ paperwork rejected

0

None of the three incumbent Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education members whose terms are ending are seeking re-election on April 1, including current president Anna Klimkowicz who was first elected 28 years before.
Courtesy of District 211

The April 1 board of education election for Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 became officially uncontested Friday when an electoral board sustained objections against two of the filed candidates’ nominating petitions.

Removed from the ballot were Jean Baptiste Benjamin Hirwa of Schaumburg and Michael Prokopij of Hanover Park.

The remaining candidates for the three available seats are former candidate Jane Russell of Rolling Meadows, former Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 board member Kenneth Van Dyke of Roselle and Anne Lopez of Hanover Park.

Van Dyke filed the objection against Hirwa’s petition, while former District 211 board member Ed Yung filed the objection against Prokopij’s.

None of the incumbents whose terms are ending are seeking reelection. Senior board member and current president Anna Klimkowicz, along with first-term members Curtis Bradley and Tim McGowan, will leave the board in the spring.

Source link

How the #LovePurse campaign helps domestic violence survivors

0

Mario Castro, left, created the #LovePurse campaign to support domestic violence survivors and women in need.
Courtesy of Metropolitan Family Services

The purses are new, never used.

Maria Castro insists on that. When domestic violence survivors and women in need receive a #LovePurse, they’re given their own new shoulder or tote bag, thoughtfully filled with hygiene products.

“She needs to understand how special she is and that this new journey deserves a new everything,” Castro said.

What started as a one-woman project in 2021 — Castro buying toiletries for women at a homeless shelter — turned into the #LovePurse organization and, some say, a movement. It’s resonated on social media and far beyond Castro. Other women — Castro calls them “Angel Ambassadors” — have organized purse-packing events.

“We always have purses for folks when they arrive,” said Julia Forte, volunteer and outreach coordinator for Metropolitan Family Services, an organization whose DuPage branch runs the only emergency domestic violence shelter in the county.

Some people have asked if Castro would get more purses if she accepted used ones. But a new purse presents a couple of things, Forte said.

“It presents a new start. It presents dignity, which is something that not everybody feels they deserve. And sometimes in these situations, you may just take what you can.”

As Castro often says, it’s not just a purse.

‘Filled with love’

The idea behind #LovePurse came to Castro as she was sorting through toiletries she purchased for a shelter in Chicago.

“I just thought about it for a moment … I would really love to make it a little bit more special so that it’s not in a plastic bag,” said Castro, who lives in Riverside.

So she ordered big purses that would fit all the items. And she added a note of affirmation in each purse. That Women’s History Month, Castro put out a social media appeal inviting people to join her.

“We are in critical mode right now, and we as women always step up for each other. Please consider doing this,” Castro recalled.

It was an easy concept to get behind during the pandemic.

“To my surprise, we had collected, at the end of March, a couple of hundred purses,” Castro said.

The campaign grew from there. Castro now counts ambassadors in different cities and countries. There are red #LovePurse T-shirts, corporate supporters and a fundraising gala. Purses for women in cancer treatment carry special lotions and deodorants.

“When you hear her talk about it, you just feel how much she cares about it, how much she’s been personally impacted, and how much care goes into what the items are,” Forte said of Castro. “They’re literally filled with love.”

A purse can also provide a sense of security.

“It is such a piece of us when we walk out the door. My mom and I, we have always carried a Rosary in our purse,” Castro said.

‘She matters’

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers recently collected more than 150 purses across DuPage County to support Family Shelter Service’s annual Holiday Shoppe event for people in domestic violence programming.

“When we put the purses out for display, people often say this one was calling to me,” Forte said.

The #LovePurse organization lists the items to fill purses: deodorant, soap, body lotion, hand sanitizer, a toothbrush and toothpaste, lip balm, a comb and brush, full-size shampoo and conditioner, a face cloth, a compact mirror, chocolates, mints, floss and a note pad and pen, among other essentials

Each purse also contains an empowering note.

“I think that the message is probably even more important than the toiletries because it makes her understand at that moment that somebody took the time, went out and bought everything to make her feel special, but also to let her know that she matters,” Castro said.

She read a few examples.

“Some just say, ‘Hey, beautiful, I just want to let you know how strong you are,’” Castro said. “‘I’m so sorry for what you have been through. No one deserves that, and especially not you. Always remember you are worthy.’”

Source link