The DuPage County Board Tuesday, Nov. 28 unanimously approved its Fiscal Year 2024 budget, which includes a balanced, $625 million spending plan and keeps the property tax rate flat. “This is a fiscally responsible spending plan that makes critical infrastructure investments which will take the pressure off upcoming budgets,” said
By Jason Crane Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin and the Aurora City Council honored representatives from Open Door Health Center of Illinois for the Aurora facility’s 30 years at the Tuesday, Nov. 28 City Council meeting. Open Door Health Center of Illinois started in 1975 when the Visiting Nurses Association
As we look at what is happening to the Republican Party, it may seem difficult to believe that it was originally formed as a reform party. In the 1850s political landscape, the major parties – the Whigs and the Democrats – struggled for dominance, and neither party was above anti-democratic
With one mile of sparking lights and one month of magical nights, the 17th season of the Aurora Festival of Lights drive-thru starts Saturday, Nov. 25, at 5 p.m.. One of the region’s largest free drive-thru holiday light displays, the Aurora Festival of Lights runs from Saturday, Nov. 25, through
By Jason Crane Aurora Chief of Police Keith Cross and Deputy Chief of Police Matt Thomas presented an Aurora Police Department (APD) public safety technology update at the Committee of the Whole meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 21. The presentation outlined the ways the APD is leveraging technology to build a safer
Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, second from right, joins Aurora Housing Authority executive director Ralph Jordan, left, and his team to distribute free Thanksgiving meals to residents of Aurora public housing.
Illinois State representative Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) is set to attend the annual Tradeswomen Build Nations (TWBN) Conference in Washington, D.C., December 1-3. The Conference will bring together thousands of women from across various industries to learn, share, and connect. Tradeswomen Build Nations is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women
By John & Nisha Whitehead Americans have become easy prey for hackers, scammers, snitches, spies, and con artists. But don’t be fooled into thinking the government is protecting you. To the contrary, the U.S. government is selling us (or rather, our data) to the highest bidders. By the way, those
By Hannah Meisel As Illinois faces shortages of health care practitioners and mental health professionals, the State agency in charge of licensing for those and more than 100 other industries has struggled to keep up. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has failed to meet its goals to
By Jason Crane Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin and the Aurora City Council honored Board members from the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley for its 75th anniversary at the Tuesday, Nov. 14 City Council meeting. The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley is a collection of individual
By John & Nisha Whitehead We are one year out from the 2024 presidential election and as usual, the American people remain eager to be persuaded that a new president in the White House can solve the problems that plague us. Yet, what is being staged is not an election.
Receiving mail from your hometown while on active military duty is a welcomed surprise. For those stationed away from home during the holiday season, that surprise is even more special. The City of Aurora’s annual Gifts from Home program honors active military personnel from Aurora by providing them with a
A special unveiling Thursday, Nov. 9, in Aurora, brought tears to the eyes of some of the veterans in attendance. East Aurora School District 131 assembled a group of veterans, educators, students, and community supporters to unveil the new Veterans Memorial Monument, located at the main flagpole in the East
By Jerry Nowicki Illinois received another credit upgrade Tuesday, the same day a legislative committee once again scrutinized governor JB Pritzker’s administration for its handling of unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. The upgrade came from Fitch Ratings, the last remaining holdout of the nation’s three major credit reporting agencies
By Jason Crane The Aurora City Council joined with the global community in an International Day of Mourning to reflect on the lives lost internationally and recommit to unity, peace, and understanding at the Committee of the Whole meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 7. Tuesday, Nov. 7 was the one-month anniversary of
The Oswego Village Board approved, Tuesday, Nov. 7, a special use and preliminary/final planned unit of development to allow for the construction of an outdoor, 24,000-seat cricket stadium on 33 acres near Orchard Road and Tuscany Drive.
Illinois State representative Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) is set to participate in the annual Climate Emergency & Energy Security D.O.E Summit, co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), scheduled to take place November 15-16, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The summit, organized by the Energy Outreach and Policy Alliance (EOPA), will
By John & Nisha Whitehead We have arrived at the dystopian future depicted in the 2005 film V for Vendetta, which is no future at all. Set in the year 2020, V for Vendetta (written and produced by the Wachowskis) provides an eerie glimpse into a parallel universe in which
By Peter Hancock Elementary and secondary students in Illinois showed consistent improvements in their reading and math scores while the State’s high school graduation rate reached a 13-year high for the most recently concluded school year. Those are some of the conclusions from the most recent annual statewide school report
October 26, 2023Dear editor; Overflowing reserves ($53MM); obstinant refusal to properly recognize and appropriately utilize interest income windfall ($14MM); constantly increasing share of state sales, income, gambling, and marijuana taxes increase (multi-millions); reprehensibly wasteful spending (at least $3MM); and even inaccurate redefinition of elementary generally accepted accounting procedures . .
