By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, through the Zoom video conference platform, mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin shared with the Council that Dan Barreiro, chief community services officer is retiring in a few months. Barreiro, a graduate of East Aurora High School
By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead It begins. We are moving quickly down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas, and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts. In the wake of the January 6 riots at
Following a sustained improvement in positivity rates, ICU bed availability, and the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) stated that Regions 8 and 9 are on track to move to Tier 1 of the Restore Illinois plan, Tuesday. Most notably, under
By Robert W. Panton, MDElmwood Park At a time when Illinois lawmakers should be supporting health-care heroes who are working tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic, we instead receive unwelcome new legislation that will drive up the costs of practicing medicine in Illinois and send more physicians packing to move to
By Mavis Bates, Kane County Board member, District 4 Good news is coming for Kane County renters. Kane County will soon receive a grant of $15 Million to help renters who are behind in paying their rent. The money will come from the most recent federal COVID-19 relief package that
Principio et finem similaria. The beginning and the end are the same. So it was for the presidency of one Donald J. Trump, racist, misogynist, narcissist, egotist, paranoiac, and pathological liar. From the beginning of his tenure, I have referred to him in my personal journal as “T. Rump.” That’s
By Brooke Shanley A concerned resident brought forth challenges to the petitions of candidate Ron Woerman based on his residency. During the challenge process, while the charges were ultimately dismissed by the Aurora Electoral Board in its ruling January 11, there were many statements made under oath, by Mr. Ron
By Jason Crane At the Aurora city government City Council meeting Tuesday, through the Zoom video conference platform, director of communications, Clayton Muhammad gave a presentation about the Aurora STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Academy. Together with Hinsdale-based TinkRworks, the city government will provide education for more than 750
By John W. Whitehead No doubt about it: The coup d’etat was successful. That January 6 attempt by so-called insurrectionists to overturn the election results was not the real coup, however. Those who answered president Donald Trump’s call to march on the Capitol were merely the fall guys, manipulated into
The Naperville Park District was one of two agencies to be honored by the DuPage Monarch Project for its commitment to protect the monarch butterfly January 19. Naperville Park District received the Pat Miller Community Engagement Award for its educational outreach and for involving residents in planning and planting monarch
The Village of Oswego has announced its second round of grant awards to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns. In December 2020 the Village announced grant funding available to Oswego’s small businesses though the Federal CARES Act. After a first round of funding was quickly exhausted, the
By Jason Crane Dale Berman, Village president of North Aurora officially stepped down as president, Monday, at the Village Board meeting through the Zoom video conference platform. Berman gave notice at the January 5 Board meeting that the January 18 Board meeting will be his last. Last Spring Berman stated
By Jerry Nowicki The State’s COVID-19 seven-day average case positivity rate dropped to 5.7% Tuesday, the lowest it has been since October 23, 2020. The positivity rate peaked at 13.2% on a rolling average as of November 13, 2020 and the entire State entered strict Tier 3 mitigations November 20.
By Bela (Bill) SuhaydaAurora A woman, waiting patiently to hear the results of what kind of government our founders hammered out in the “Federalist Debates” asked Benjamin Franklin: “What kind of government have you given us.” Franklin’s response: “A Republic madam….if you can hold on to it.” It’s been a
The Aurora Public Library District (APLD) will be host to Kane County Board members Mavis Bates and Myrna Molina alongside Kendall County Board members Robyn Vickers and Amy Cesich at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. The group will discuss live on Zoom the misunderstandings and misconceptions centered around the ways
As the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, I don’t pay an undue amount of attention to the weather. However, Monday, January 28, 2019, was different. I woke up to a heavy snowstorm barreling across Illinois and was concerned because the Institute
By Jason Crane Twenty Civilian Review Board semifinalists were announced at the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, through the Zoom video conference platform. Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin presented the update about the Civilian Review Board (CRB). The establishment of the City of Aurora’s Civilian Review
By Sarah Mansur Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Lame Duck Look Back” series in which Capitol News Illinois is following up on the major bills that passed both chambers of the General Assembly in the January 8-13 lame duck session. The Illinois General Assembly last week
By John W. Whitehead What should we expect in 2021? So far, it looks like this year is going to be plagued by more of the same brand of madness, mayhem, manipulation, and tyranny that dominated 2020. Frankly, I’m sick of it: The hypocrisy, the double standards, the delusional belief
By Jerry Nowicki One of the most transformative six-day periods in the history of Illinois government came to an end Wednesday with the election of representative Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, as the State’s House speaker, the first Black man to hold the title. Equally groundbreaking was the fact that Welch
