By Judd Lofchie – I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to the Chicago premiere of the movie “The Public” and afterwards a Q & A with the director, Emilio Estevez, and Ryan Dowd, the executive director of Hesed House, Aurora’s homeless shelter. Ryan Dowd wrote the book, “The
By Cindy Sellen – Montgomery In the aftermath of the mass shooting that rocked our community in Aurora, February 15, we are asking and thinking “What can I do?” This mass shooting was one of the 43 in our country in the first 49 days this year. I have three
Good Friday this year, it was more than 150 years since Abraham Lincoln’s death. Had he lived to finish his second term, the history of the United States would no doubt have been far different. Some historians believe that if Lincoln had lived, he would probably have been more successful
Spring finally has sprung…somewhere. Trees are budding and flowers are blooming. The animals in Al Demeter Park next to the Santori Public Library of Aurora have come out of hibernation and are emerging from their dens just in time to get a load of wet, heavy, snow dumped on them.
Our accidental president, Donald Trump, just cannot do enough nice things for his best buddy, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. After transferring the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, he recognizes the Golan Heights as “Israeli territory,” territory which the Israelis “liberated” from Syria during the Six Days War in 1967. This
By Deena Sherman – My parents were married right out of high school in the early 1960s. With a union job at a steel mill and a license to operate a beauty shop, they quickly saved enough to buy a house and enter the middle class. Fifty years later, two
A risk the people of Aurora should not have to to take: By Richard C. Irvin, mayor, Aurora, Ill. After a nearly a week of news reports that convicted-murderer Thomas Kokoraleis would reside in nearby Wheaton following his release from custody, Aurora was blindsided over the weekend, March 30-31, when
The U.S. government, in its pursuit of so-called monsters, has itself become a monster. It is not a new development, nor is it a revelation. It is a government that has in recent decades unleashed untold horrors upon the world, including its own citizenry, in the name of global conquest,
By Priscilla Gruber – April Fool’s Day the Kendall County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will hold the only public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday, April 1 scheduled on the County’s revised proposal 17-28 regulating commercial gun ranges. It is not about non-commercial backyard shooting which the County’s Law Justice
By Dan Hites – I am not a politician, this being my first time running for elected office. I am a candidate for Aurora Sixth Ward alderman. For 35 years I have been an entrepreneur and real estate developer; opening and running businesses as assorted as nightclub, radio station, restaurants,
The absurd cruelties of the American police state keep reaching newer heights. Consider that if you kill a police dog, you could face a longer prison sentence than if you’d murdered someone or abused a child. If a cop kills your dog, however, there will be little to no consequences
First of two parts Rita Hatthaway published the following article for Home & Garden magazine: “Mary Johnson, 42, was at her wit’s end. She loved her three sons more than life itself. They were all bright boys, ranging from freshmen to seniors in high school. But she had violent thoughts
By Angela Clay Thomas – February 15, State representative Linda Chapa LaVia accepted an appointment to lead Illinois’ Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Chapa LaVia’s departure from the 83rd House District, which includes most of the West Side of Aurora and portions of the East Side of Aurora and North Aurora,
Aurora Sixth Ward alderman Mike Saville, center, presents a check to the Fox Valley Park District (FVPD) at the Monday, March 11 Board meeting in the amount of $20,744, from the 6th Ward fund. Board president Chuck Anderson, left, and executive director, Jim Pilmer, accept the check for the purchase
Uncle Sam wants you. Correction: Big Brother wants you. To be technically accurate, Big Brother, aided and abetted by his corporate partners in crime, wants your data. That’s what we have been reduced to in the eyes of the government and corporate America: Data bits and economic units to be
From the vault, June 6, 1984 (revised): Americans, rise up! The barbarians are at the gate! Millions and millions of scruffy-looking, drug-addicted, sex-crazed criminals want our land, our resources, our money, and our women, and they will stop at nothing to pry it out of our cold, dead, hands. But,
By Hesham Shehab – Recently-fired CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill will be keynote speaker for a Chicago-based group the Israel government recently declared “terrorists in suits.” Hill, who was fired as a contributor for CNN following a speech at the United Nations where he used the anti-Israel eliminationist rhetoric “from the
Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) Monday held a moment of silence on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. to honor the victims of the shooting at Henry Pratt plant in Aurora February 15. Five employees lost their lives, and six police officers suffered injuries. “Today, we
By Evelyn Essling – The shooting at Henry Pratt company in Aurora brought me to tears. I prayed for all of them immediately! But now, the anti-gun individuals will be at it again to try and remove guns from the general public. I do not own a gun, but if
Is there a humanitarian crisis in these United States? Indeed there is. On our southern border, tens of thousands of human beings exist in a man-made limbo with little food, water, shelter, and hope for a better future. Across the country, hundreds of thousands more human beings exist without payment
