This Day In History - February 29th

1940

McDaniel wins Oscar

On February 29, 1940, Gone with the Wind is honored with eight Oscars by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An epic Southern romance set during the hard times of the Civil War, the movie swept the prestigious Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction,


Film Editing, and Actress categories. However, the most momentous award that night undoubtedly went to Hattie McDaniel for her portrayal of “Mammy,” a housemaid and former slave. McDaniel, who won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, was the first African American actress or actor ever to be honored with an Oscar.


Born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1895, McDaniel demonstrated her talents as a singer and actress while growing up in Denver, Colorado. She left school while a teenager to become a performer in several traveling minstrel groups and in 1924 became one of the first African American women to sing on U.S. radio. With the onset of the Great Depression, she was forced to take work as a ladies’ washroom attendant in a Milwaukee club. The club, which hired only white performers, eventually made an exception and let her sing, and she performed there for a year before setting her sights on Hollywood.


In Los Angeles, she won a small role on a local radio show called The Optimistic Do-Nuts and before long had become the program’s main attraction. In 1932, she made her film debut as a Southern house servant in The Golden West. In American movies at the time, African American actors and actresses were generally limited to house servant roles, and McDaniel apparently embraced this stereotype, playing the role of maid or cook in nearly 40 films in the 1930s. Responding to criticism by groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that she was perpetuating stereotypes, McDaniel responded that she would rather play a maid on the screen than be one in real life. Furthermore, she often subverted the stereotype by turning her maids into sassy, independent-minded characters who sometimes made white audiences shift uncomfortably in their seats.


Her most famous role was as Mammy in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind. Directed by Victor Fleming and based on the best-selling Margaret Mitchell novel of the same name, the movie remains the highest-grossing movie of all time when inflation is taken into account. Although she was honored with an Oscar, liberal African Americans sharply criticized McDaniel for accepting a role in which her character, a former slave, spoke nostalgically about the Old South.


McDaniel’s film career declined in the late 1940s, and in 1947 she returned to radio as the star of the nationally broadcast The Beulah Show. In the program, she again portrayed an effervescent Southern maid but in a markedly un-stereotypical manner that won praise from the NAACP. In 1951, while filming the first episodes of a television version of the popular show, she had a heart attack. She recovered to do a few more radio programs but in 1952 died of breast cancer at the age of 57.

Free Senior Enrichment Seminar - Thursday, March 24, 2016

Sauk VIllage Finance Department Report - February 23, 2016

Finance Department Report

 

by: Mohan Rao

The Finance dept. has uploaded the TIF1, 2, 3 & 4 Illinois Comptroller’s report for the fiscal year 2014/2015. The Finance dept. will also upload Cook County Debt Disclosers info soon on the Cook County web site.

 

The department will also need a transfer from CN Account in the amount of $100,000.00 to pay current benefits.  The reason for transfer is we can’t access Illinois Funds/US Bank as there are some issues with log-ins.  The borrowed will be paid back once we get the Tax Levy from Cook County.

 

This ends my report.

Sauk Village Administrative Services Report - February 23, 2016

Board Meeting Report for February 23, 2016 

by: Director Sherry Jasinski

• Pink Beauty Supply has received their business license and have paid for their sign permit
• The restaurant will be coming in this week for their business licenses
• 60 Letters were sent out last week in regards to the homes that have squatters residing in them, giving them until March 1 to contact me so I can instruct them what's needed- we received 5 calls this week on Monday
• 39 letters went out in regards to active water accounts that owe us large amounts of money totaling $95,787.63
• FOIA Log and information is now posted on the Village web page

That will conclude my report.

Sherry

This Day In History - February 28th

1993

ATF Raids Branch Davidian Compound

At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, agents of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) launch a raid against the Branch Davidian compound as part of an investigation into illegal possession of firearms and explosives by the Christian cult.


As the agents attempted to penetrate the complex, gunfire erupted, beginning an extended gun battle that left four ATF agents dead and 15 wounded. Six Branch Davidians were fatally wounded, and several more were injured, including David Koresh, the cult’s founder and leader.


After 45 minutes of shooting, the ATF agents withdrew, and a cease-fire was negotiated over the telephone. The operation, which involved more than 100 ATF agents, was the one of the largest ever mounted by the bureau and resulted in the highest casualties of any ATF operation.


David Koresh was born Vernon Wayne Howell in Houston, Texas, in 1959. In 1981, he joined the Branch Davidians, a sect of the Seventh Day Adventist Church founded in 1934 by a Bulgarian immigrant named Victor Houteff. Koresh, who possessed an exhaustive knowledge of the Bible, rapidly rose in the hierarchy of the small religious community, eventually entering into a power struggle with the Davidians’ leader, George Roden.


For a short time, Koresh retreated with his followers to eastern Texas, but in late 1987 he returned to Mount Carmel with seven armed followers and raided the compound, severely wounding Roden. Koresh went on trial for attempted murder, but the charge was dropped after his case was declared a mistrial. By 1990, he was the leader of the Branch Davidians and legally changed his name to David Koresh, with David representing his status as head of the biblical House of David, and Koresh standing for the Hebrew name for Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed the Jews held captive in Babylon to return to Israel.


Koresh took several wives at Mount Carmel and fathered at least 12 children from these women, several of whom were as young as 12 or 13 when they became pregnant. There is also evidence that Koresh may have harshly disciplined some of the 100 or so Branch Davidians living inside the compound, particularly his children. A central aspect of Koresh’s religious teachings was his assertion that the apocalyptic events predicted in the Bible’s book of Revelation were imminent, making it necessary, he asserted, for the Davidians to stockpile weapons and explosives in preparation.


Following the unsuccessful ATF raid, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took over the situation. A standoff with the Branch Davidians stretched into seven weeks, and little progress was made in the telephone negotiations as the Davidians had stockpiled years of food and other necessities before the raid.


On April 18, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno approved a tear-gas assault on the compound, and at approximately 6:00 a.m. on April 19 the Branch Davidians were informed of the imminent attack and asked to surrender, which they did not. A few minutes later, two FBI combat vehicles began inserting gas into the building and were joined by Bradley tanks, which fired tear-gas canisters through the compound’s windows.


The Branch Davidians, many with gas masks on, refused to evacuate, and by 11:40 a.m. the last of some 100 tear-gas canisters was fired into the compound. Just after noon, a fire erupted at one or more locations on the compound, and minutes later nine Davidians fled the rapidly spreading blaze. Gunfire was reported but ceased as the compound was completely engulfed by the flames.


Koresh and at least 80 of his followers, including 22 children, died during the federal government’s second disastrous assault on Mount Carmel. The FBI and Justice Department maintained there was conclusive evidence that the Branch Davidian members ignited the fire, citing an eyewitness account and various forensic data. Of the gunfire reported during the fire, the government argued that the Davidians were either killing each other as part of a suicide pact or were killing dissenters who attempted to escape the Koresh-ordered suicide by fire.


Most of the surviving Branch Davidians contested this official position, as do some critics in the press and elsewhere, whose charges against the ATF and FBI’s handling of the Waco standoff ranged from incompetence to premeditated murder. In 1999, the FBI admitted that they used tear-gas grenades in the assault, which have been known to cause fires because of their incendiary properties.

Sauk Village Fire Department Report - February 23, 2016

Sauk Village Fire Department Report

By; Fire Chief Al Stoffregen

 

Over the past 2 weeks, the fire department responded to 34 calls. The fire department responded to 4 vehicle accidents, 6 fire alarms, 13 medical assist, 3 CO alarms, 2 smell of gas, 2 assist other agency, 1 structure fire, 1 car in the house, 1 brush fire, and 1 vehicle fire.

  

Also I would like for you to know that our truck 5120 is back in service. All the minor and major repairs were completed.

This Day In History - February 27th

1922

Supreme Court Defends Women’s Voting Rights

In Washington, D.C., the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for female suffrage, is unanimously declared constitutional by the eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court. The 19th Amendment, which stated that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex,” was the product of over seven decades of meetings, petitions, and protests by women suffragists and their supporters.


In 1916, the Democratic and Republican parties endorsed female enfranchisement, and on June 4, 1919, the 19th Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the required three-fourths majority of state ratification, and on August 26 the 19th Amendment officially took effect.

RIP Former Sauk Village Fire Chief Travis Thronhill

Last night I attended the wake for former Sauk Village Fire Chief Travis Thornhill. Travis will truly be missed and our condolences to Travis's wife, family and friends. Below is the proclamation presented to Travis's wife Lagay.

  

Proclamation

Travis Thornhill

WHEREAS, The Thornhill family was one of the original families that moved to Sauk Village in 1960 and

 WHEREAS, Travis and his lovely wife Lagay have celebrated almost 51 years together enjoying hobbies that included fishing and bowling and

WHEREAS, Travis was a long time Cubs fan and University of Alabama Football Fan.       ROLL TIDE! and

WHEREAS, Travis joined the Sauk Village Volunteer Fire Department in 1965 where he was quickly promoted to the rank of Engineer in 1968 and later promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1970 by Fire Chief Leroy Hawkins and

WHEREAS, Travis later earned the rank of Captain in 1979 and in just over a year Travis rose to the rank of Assistant Chief in 1980

WHEREAS, Travis was promoted once again to the rank of Chief in 1992 after showing that he had excellent leadership qualities and

WHEREAS, Travis was an instrumental piece to the Sauk Village Fire Department over the next several years until he retired in 2002 and

WHEREAS, The Village of Sauk Village would like to acknowledge Travis Thornhill for his strength and compassion throughout his 38 years of service and

WHEREAS, Travis leaves behind his loving wife Lagay, and dear companion, their Shiatsu Dolly, who will miss him dearly and

WHEREAS, NOW, THEREFORE, The Mayor and Board of Trustees , on behalf of the Sauk Village Fire Department  and the residents and staff want to extend our condolences to Travis’  family and friends.

Dated this 25th of February, 2016.

________________________                            ___________________________

 David A. Hanks, Mayor                                      Debra L. Williams, Village Clerk

 

 

Sauk Village Beautification Committee Report - February 23, 2016

The beautification committee will be hosting their annual spring cleanup on May 21 from 9:30 AM to 1 PM.   The committee will be posting flyers within the next couple of days with details. 


Any questions about this event please contact Linda Todd at 758-3330 and leave a message.

This Day In History - February 26th

1993

World Trade Center Bombed

At 12:18 p.m., a terrorist bomb explodes in a parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a crater 60 feet wide and causing the collapse of several steel-reinforced concrete floors in the vicinity of the blast. Although the terrorist bomb failed to critically damage the main structure of the skyscrapers, six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. The World Trade Center itself suffered more than $500 million in damage. After the attack, authorities evacuated 50,000 people from the buildings, hundreds of whom were suffering from smoke inhalation. The evacuation lasted the whole afternoon.


City authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) undertook a massive manhunt for suspects, and within days several radical Islamic fundamentalists were arrested. In March 1994, Mohammed Salameh, Ahmad Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad, and Mahmoud Abouhalima were convicted by a federal jury for their role in the bombing, and each was sentenced to life in prison. Salameh, a Palestinian, was arrested when he went to retrieve the $400 deposit he had left for the Ryder rental van used in the attack. Ajaj and Ayyad, who both played a role in the construction of the bomb, were arrested soon after. Abouhalima, who helped buy and mix the explosives, fled to Saudi Arabia but was caught in Egypt two weeks later.


The mastermind of the attack–Ramzi Ahmed Yousef–remained at large until February 1995, when he was arrested in Pakistan. He had previously been in the Philippines, and in a computer he left there were found terrorist plans that included a plot to kill Pope John Paul II and a plan to bomb 15 American airliners in 48 hours. On the flight back to the United States, Yousef reportedly admitted to a Secret Service agent that he had directed the Trade Center attack from the beginning and even claimed to have set the fuse that exploded the 1,200-pound bomb. His only regret, the agent quoted Yousef saying, was that the 110-story tower did not collapse into its twin as planned–a catastrophe that would have caused thousands of deaths.


Eyad Ismoil, who drove the Ryder van into the parking garage below the World Trade Center, was captured in Jordan that year and taken back to New York. All the men implicated had ties to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a radical Egyptian religious leader who operated out of Jersey City, New Jersey, located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. In 1995, Rahman and 10 followers were convicted of conspiring to blow up the United Nations headquarters and other New York landmarks. Prosecutors argued that the World Trade Center attack was part of that conspiracy, though little clear evidence of this charge was presented.


In November 1997, Yousef and Ismoil were convicted in a courtroom only a few blocks away from the twin towers and subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Only one other man believed to be directly involved in the attack, Iraqi Abdul Rahman Yasin, remains at large.


After the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, U.S. investigators began to suspect that Yousef had ties to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the head of the anti-U.S. al Qaeda terrorist network. Whether bin Laden was in fact involved in the 1993 twin tower attacks has not been determined, but on September 11, 2001, two groups of al Qaeda terrorists finished the job begun by Yousef, crashing two hijacked airliners into the north and south tower of the World Trade Center.


The structural steel of the skyscrapers could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel, and both collapsed within two hours of being struck. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and 23 policemen who were struggling to complete the evacuation and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

This Day In History - Febreuary 25th

1870

African American congressman sworn in

Hiram Rhoades Revels, a Republican from Natchez, Mississippi, is sworn into the U.S. Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress.


During the Civil War, Revels, a college-educated minister, helped form African American army regiments for the Union cause, started a school for freed men, and served as a chaplain for the Union army. Posted to Mississippi, Revels remained in the former Confederate state after the war and entered into Reconstruction-era Southern politics.


In 1867, the first Reconstruction Act was passed by a Republican-dominated U.S. Congress, dividing the South into five military districts and granting suffrage to all male citizens, regardless of race. A politically mobilized African American community joined with white allies in the Southern states to elect the Republican party to power, which in turn brought about radical changes across the South.


By 1870, all the former Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union, and most were controlled by the Republican Party, thanks in large part to the support of African American voters.


On January 20, 1870, Hiram R. Revels was elected by the Mississippi legislature to fill the Senate seat once held by Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. On February 25, two days after Mississippi was granted representation in Congress for the first time since it seceded in 1861, Revels was sworn in.


Although African Americans Republicans never obtained political office in proportion to their overwhelming electoral majority, Revels and some 15 other African American men served in Congress during Reconstruction, more than 600 served in state legislatures, and hundreds of African Americans held local offices.

Sauk Village Homeland Security (ESDA) Report - February 23, 2016

Sauk Village Homeland Security (ESDA) Report

 by; Assistant Director Amon Darnall

Over the past 2 weeks, the ESDA responded to 25 calls. The ESDA department responded to 6 fire alarms, 5 vehicle accidents, 2 smell of gas, 2 CO investigations, 6 school patrol, 1 vehicle fire, 1 structure fire, and 2 assist other agency.

Sauk Village Senior Citizens Chili Cook Off - March 12, 2016

    Sauk Village Senior Citizens 8th Annual Chili Cook Off

Location: 21801 Torrence Ave.
Sauk Village, Illinois 60411


Date: Saturday, March 12, 2016


Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Donation: $3.00 a Bowl - All you can eat

Entertainment:

• The Morgan Family
• Line Dance with Flora Haynes
• Door Prizes
• 50/50 Raffle

Doors open at 11:30am                   Judging at 12:30pm

Event sponsored by: Sauk Village Senior Citizens Committee

This Day In History - February 24th

1991

Gulf War ground offensive begins

After six weeks of intensive bombing against Iraq and its armed forces, U.S.-led coalition forces launch a ground invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.


On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, its tiny oil-rich neighbor, and within hours had occupied most strategic positions in the country. One week later, Operation Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces massed in the Persian Gulf. Three months later, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991.


At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, a massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live via satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere.


Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in a massive air war against Iraq’s military and civil infrastructure, encountering little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force.


Iraqi ground forces were also helpless during this stage of the war, and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel, and thus other Arab nations, to enter the conflict; however, at the request of the United States, Israel remained out of the war.


On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq.


After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and a majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either been destroyed or had surrendered or retreated to Iraq. On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms. One hundred and twenty-five American soldiers were killed in the Persian Gulf War, with another 21 regarded as missing in action.

Sand Ridge Nature Center to Host Interactive Underground Railroad Hike

Congresswoman Kelly To Host Housing Expo

Congresswoman Kelly To Host Housing Expo     

 

Congresswoman Robin Kelly will host a Housing Expo on Saturday, March 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the New Early Learning Center, located at 729 Engle St., in Dolton. Participants will learn about loan modification, foreclosure prevention, down-payment assistance programs, and how to appeal property taxes. Banks and agencies, including Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS), Wells Fargo, Chase, BMO, and more will be on hand to assist homeowners and tenants.

Register by visiting http://reprobinkelly.eventbrite.com. For more information, contact Alan Banks at (708) 679-0078 or at Alan.Banks@mail.house.gov.

This Day In History - February 23rd

1945

U.S. flag raised on Iwo Jima

During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag.

Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event. American soldiers fighting for control of Suribachi’s slopes cheered the raising of the flag, and several hours later more Marines headed up to the crest with a larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.

Rosenthal took three photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which showed five Marines and one Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second was similar to the first but less affecting, and the third was a group picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle for Iwo Jima in late March.

In early 1945, U.S. military command sought to gain control of the island of Iwo Jima in advance of the projected aerial campaign against the Japanese home islands. Iwo Jima, a tiny volcanic island located in the Pacific about 700 miles southeast of Japan, was to be a base for fighter aircraft and an emergency-landing site for bombers. On February 19, 1945, after three days of heavy naval and aerial bombardment, the first wave of U.S. Marines stormed onto Iwo Jima’s inhospitable shores.

The Japanese garrison on the island numbered 22,000 heavily entrenched men. Their commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had been expecting an Allied invasion for months and used the time wisely to construct an intricate and deadly system of underground tunnels, fortifications, and artillery that withstood the initial Allied bombardment. By the evening of the first day, despite incessant mortar fire, 30,000 U.S. Marines commanded by General Holland Smith managed to establish a solid beachhead.

During the next few days, the Marines advanced inch by inch under heavy fire from Japanese artillery and suffered suicidal charges from the Japanese infantry. Many of the Japanese defenders were never seen and remained underground manning artillery until they were blown apart by a grenade or rocket, or incinerated by a flame thrower.

While Japanese kamikaze flyers slammed into the Allied naval fleet around Iwo Jima, the Marines on the island continued their bloody advance across the island, responding to Kuribayashi’s lethal defenses with remarkable endurance. On February 23, the crest of 550-foot Mount Suribachi was taken, and the next day the slopes of the extinct volcano were secured.

By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island, and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded.

Free Senior Enrichment Seminar - Wednesday, March 9, 2016

This Day In History - February 22nd

1819

The U.S. acquires Spanish Florida

Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States.

Spanish colonization of the Florida peninsula began at St. Augustine in 1565. The Spanish colonists enjoyed a brief period of relative stability before Florida came under attack from resentful Native Americans and ambitious English colonists to the north in the 17th century.

Spain’s last-minute entry into the French and Indian War on the side of France cost it Florida, which the British acquired through the first Treaty of Paris in 1763. After 20 years of British rule, however, Florida was returned to Spain as part of the second Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution in 1783.

Spain’s hold on Florida was tenuous in the years after American independence, and numerous boundary disputes developed with the United States. In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty, which officially put Florida into U.S. hands at no cost beyond the U.S. assumption of some $5 million of claims by U.S. citizens against Spain.

Formal U.S. occupation began in 1821, and General Andrew Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812, was appointed military governor. Florida was organized as a U.S. territory in 1822 and was admitted into the Union as a slave state in 1845.

 

Free Senior Enrichment Seminar - February 25, 2016

This Day In History - February 21st

1965

Malcolm X assassinated

 In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.

Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats. In 1931, Malcolm’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible.

In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities. In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims.

The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral “devils.” Muhammad’s teachings had a strong effect on Malcolm, who entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name “X” to symbolize his stolen African identity.

After six years, Malcolm was released from prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem, New York. In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans “by any means necessary.” A fiery orator, Malcolm was admired by the African American community in New York and around the country.

In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, Malcolm’s suggestion that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a matter of the “chickens coming home to roost” provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm’s new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.

Open Tollway Position

Roadway Maintenance Manager  $104,000.00 - $110,000.00 Annually

·       High School Graduate or GED equivalent is required.

·       College level management or related course work is desirable, but not required.

·       Must possess extensive knowledge of roadway maintenance principles and practices with 7-10 years progressively responsible experience in a managerial capacity over a large, decentralized maintenance operation, is required.

·        A strong managerial background in all aspects of snow and ice control for a major transportation system is required. In-depth knowledge and experience with computerized maintenance management, inventory control and work scheduling systems is required.

·       Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Availability to respond and work 24 x 7 x 365 when emergency conditions occur.

 

**Click the image below to be directed to the Employment Page, where you can apply**

                                                                                                           

 

NEW UPDATE TO APPLICATION PROCESS:

“As of September 10, 2014, the Tollway will begin using an on-line application system to assist prospective and current employees in the job application process. This system will allow users to create an individual account, create and maintain a profile of education, experience and certifications, identify job interest categories, search for open positions, and submit job applications. This system will automatically notify users of recently posted jobs based on the job interest categories chosen.

For the employee to be notified of open positions and submit job applications, this system requires the user to have an email account. This could either be a personal account (i.e. gmail, yahoo) or getipass.com account.

To apply for a posted position or to create a “Job Interest Card,” applicants should visit the Tollway’s website, www.illinoistollway.com.

Completed applications may be mailed to the Tollway or dropped off in person at the agency’s Downers Grove headquarters between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. All applications must be received within the dates indicated on the job posting.”

The Illinois Tollway Employment Application can be completed on our on-line application system, which can be found at the www.illinoistollway.com under ‘Employment Opportunities’, or mailed or hand-delivered to Human Resources, 2700 Ogden Avenue, Downers Grove, IL 60515.


Please ‘click’ on the Job Titles above for more information, including additional job requirements and preferences. More information can be found at www.illinoistollway.com.


Questions and requests for accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., and the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/1-101 et seq., should be directed to Human Resources at (630) 241-6800 ext. 2333.

YMCA Training Information

It's time to "Talk It Up" with your kids

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission has launched Talk It Up! a parental responsibility campaign to combat high rates of underage drinking in Illinois. Why involve parents? Because our research shows that contrary to popular opinion, kids do listen to their parents.



Parents who are involved in their children’s lives on a day-to-day basis, who talk with their kids about good decision-making, who give them the support to say no and provide  fun alternatives to alcohol have remarkable success rates. And the sooner they start the conversation, the more effective they are.



Talk It Up! is aimed at parents of 8th grade students, and taps into the power of parents to make positive change. The campaign gives parents the education, resources and tools to get talking, and keep talking, with their kids. We are reaching out through a variety of channels—radio ads and TV spots, billboards and bus cards, social media community engagement, blog posts, a redesigned website and all kinds of other methods—to get the word out.

Bottom line: Parents know we have their back. Kids know their parents have their back. And together we are building a community that is changing the way we look—and talk about—underage drinking.

https://www.illinois.gov/ilcc/Education/TalkItUp/Pages/default.aspx

This Day In History - February 20th

1792

George Washington signs the Postal Service Act

On this day in 1792, President George Washington signs legislation creating the U.S. Postal Service.

Prior to the American Revolution, correspondence between parties depended largely upon hired private couriers, friends and the help of merchants. Individual colonies set up informal post offices in taverns and shops where horse-drawn carriages or riders would pick up and drop off mail en route.

In 1707, the British government established the position of Postmaster General to better coordinate postal service in the colonies, though the business was still conducted largely by private individuals. In 1737, a 31-year-old American colonist named Benjamin Franklin took over as Postmaster General and oversaw the colonial postal service from England until he was dismissed for subversive acts on behalf of the rebellious colonies in 1774. Franklin then returned to America and helped create a rival postal system for the emerging nation.

Based on Franklin’s recommendations, the Continental Congress created the Constitutional Post in 1775. During the Revolutionary War, then-Commanding General George Washington depended heavily on the postal service to carry messages between the Army and Congress. Although Article IX of the Articles of Confederation written in 1781 authorized Congress to [establish and regulate] post offices from one State to another, the formation of an official U.S. Postal Service remained a work in progress.

Finally, on February 20, 1792, President Washington formally created the U.S. Postal Service with the signing of the Postal Service Act, which outlined in detail Congressional power to establish official mail routes. The act allowed for newspapers to be included in mail deliveries and made it illegal for postal officials to open anyone’s mail. In 1792, a young American nation of approximately 4 million people enjoyed federally funded postal services including 75 regional post offices and 2,400 miles of postal routes.

The cost of sending a letter ranged from 6 cents to 12 cents. Under Washington, the Postal Service administration was headquartered in Philadelphia. In 1800, it followed other federal agencies to the nation’s new capital in Washington, D.C.