News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Oct. 19, 2016
Homer Junior High students take stand against bullying
Participate in Unity Walk
Homer Junior High School students stand united against bullying.
On Oct. 19, in conjunction with Unity Day, students participated in a Unity Walk on the school track during their advisory classes.
Many wore orange (the official color of National Bullying Prevention Month) and carried signs with such slogans as “Bullying. Be Smart. Don’t Start” and “Bullies Tear Down. Friends Build Up.”
“We hope that by taking time to reflect on what it means to be united as a school during our Unity Walk, students will understand what it means to be a caring, kind, respectful and empathetic individual,” said Homer Junior High Assistant Principal Greg Zurales.
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Homer 33C Junior High students take stand against bullying Participate in Unity Walk
Homer 33C Critical thinking skills put to the test at Young School Learn how to walk on air
News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Oct. 19, 2016
Critical thinking skills put to the test at Young School
Learn how to walk on air
Young School third-graders learned a valuable lesson about trial and error recently as they worked together to solve the following problem in science: How can we walk on air?
After much discussion (and failed attempts), they blew up 21 balloons, taped them to the top of a table and flipped it over. Voila! Problem solved.
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Homer 33C Creative writing assignment leads to correspondence with Korean War veteran
News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Oct. 19, 2016
Creative writing assignment leads to correspondence with Korean War veteran
A creative writing assignment has led to a special correspondence with a Korean War veteran.
In September, Hadley Middle School teacher Rose Bumber showed students a documentary on the Honor Flight Chicago program and asked them to write letters to the World War II and Korean War veterans who would be traveling to Washington, D.C. shortly for a day of honor and remembrance.
“I told the students that they might hear back from a veteran,” said Bumber, “but that’s not why we were doing it.
“We did it to honor them and to say ‘Thank you,’” she added. “I just wanted the kids to feel the joy in saying ‘Thank you” to these very special men and women who sacrificed for our country.”
The students wrote from the heart, thanking veterans for their service and sacrifice.
One student wrote:
“Dear Veteran,
Thank you so much for serving our country and fighting for America. Thank you for fighting for our freedom. You are very brave and courageous for serving in the military, and leading us to freedom. You are one of the many people in the United States who had the courage and bravery to serve our country. Your heroism is very amazing and I appreciate everything you’ve done to help our country.”
The sixth-grader and her classmates were tickled when Korean War veteran Lee Mazur wrote back.
“I want to thank you for the thought you put into the letter I received from you,” he said. “I opened the envelope marked `MAIL CALL’ which was presented to me on the airplane during the return Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.”
He went on to explain how he and 100 other Korean War veterans were visiting memorials in Virginia and Washington, D.C. with the 75th Honor Flight when he was handed her letter.
He described how fire trucks greeted their airplane as they arrived back home, using their water cannons to spray water over the airplane. As they disembarked, Gov. Bruce Rauner and an Army general were there to shake each veteran’s hand.
“There was a long line of saluting Army, Navy and Marines welcoming us back with a salute and handshake,” Mazur wrote. “The entire Terminal 2 had over a thousand people, family with children, scout troops and many other veterans. All in all … a day to remember for the rest of my life.”
He enclosed two photographs of himself — one taken (in uniform) in 1951 and one taken near the Washington Monument during his Honor Flight visit to Washington, D.C.
“When I read the letter to both of my Creative Writing classes, the sixth-graders were in awe,” said Bumber. “You could see the look of happiness on their faces.
“I’m very proud that my students participated in this program,” she added. “And given the opportunity, I will do it again in the future.”
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NBC Insider Reveals Conspiracy to Take Down Trump Goes All the Way to the Top
Conservative Tribune 10/20/2016
The “Access Hollywood” tape showing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump making lewd remarks about women was purposefully leaked to The Washington Post by NBC’s top brass in a bid to influence the 2016 election, an insider source has claimed.
“Trump was leading in the polls, so the tape was leaked to derail his bid,” the source told the New York Post. “NBC handed over the scoop of the year to WaPo just to help Hillary.”
Moreover, the network has reportedly refused to launch an investigation into who leaked the tape and why, thus suggesting that the leak was “sanctioned by the people at the top,” according to the source.
NBC was also in possession of a video that could be highly damaging to Trump’s opponent, Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton, but was refusing to release it.
This video reportedly showed Juanita Broaddrick, one of the many women who has accused Clinton’s husband of sexual assault, admitting during a 1999 interview that Clinton herself threatened her after the rape occurred in 1978.
“She claims Hillary had grabbed her hand and thanked her for ‘everything you do for Bill,” the Post reported. “Broaddrick added that when she tried to pull away, Hillary looked her in the eye and firmly repeated the same line, ‘which she assumed was a threat. Hillary wanted her to keep her silence.’”
Were this video released, it could conceivably engender a drop in the polls for Clinton — much like the release of the “Access Hollywood” video has caused Trump’s own poll numbers to slide. But apparently, NBC was too invested in the Democrat candidate’s presidential election to risk damaging her chances by acting like an objective, unbiased news outlet.
Shocking, I know.
Such a plot by a generally respected media outlet ought to enrage every American citizen, regardless of his or her political affiliation. If these reports are true — and probably even if they aren’t, to be honest — NBC is purposefully trying to drive a one-sided narrative to influence one of the most important events in the American political process. This is simply unacceptable.
H/T Fox News
Trump is right on election integrity
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Two local Democratic operatives lose jobs after video sting on voter fraud
Two local Democratic operatives lose jobs after video sting on voter fraud
Foval was laid off on Monday by Americans United for Change, where he had been national field director. Creamer announced Tuesday night that he was “stepping back” from the work he was doing for the unified Democratic campaign for Hillary Clinton.
The moves came after 36 hours of coverage, led by conservative and social media, for O’Keefe’s video series “Rigging the Election.” In them, Foval is filmed telling hidden-camera toting journalists about how they’ve disrupted Republican events; Foval also goes on at length about how an organization might cover up in-person voter fraud. In another Tuesday night statement, the Creamer-founded Democracy Partners, which used Foval as a contractor, denounced both Project Veritas and the statements caught on camera.
“Our firm has recently been the victim of a well-funded, systematic spy operation that is the modern day equivalent of the Watergate burglars,” said the firm. “The plot involved the use of trained operatives using false identifications, disguises and elaborate false covers to infiltrate our firm and others, in order to steal campaign plans, and goad unsuspecting individuals into making careless statements on hidden cameras. One of those individuals was a temporary regional subcontractor who was goaded into statements that do not reflect our values.”
War on Students in Chicago
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27 student musicians selected to participate in ILMEA Honors Festival
News Release
Homer CCSD 33C
Goodings Grove Luther J. Schilling William E. Young William J. Butler
Hadley Middle Homer Jr. High
Contact: Charla Brautigam, Communications/Public Relations Manager
cbrautigam@homerschools.org | 708-226-7628
For Immediate Release:
Oct. 18, 2016
27 student musicians selected to participate in ILMEA Honors Festival
Will perform Nov. 5 at Festival Finale Concert
More than two dozen band and choir students from Homer Junior High School have been selected to participate in the Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA) Elementary and Junior High Division’s District I Music Festival in November.
The students, who had to audition for the honor, will join more than 500 student musicians from over 60 schools in the southwestern metropolitan Chicago area for a joint concert Nov. 5 in New Lenox.
“We are extremely proud of all the kids who auditioned, regardless of the outcome,” said Jason Skube, co-director of bands at Homer Junior High School.
“It takes a lot of courage to prepare for this audition as the music is of a high school caliber and must be played by each individual for a professional music educator who is evaluating everything they hear,” he added.
Students spent the month of September rehearsing for the rigorous audition process, said Homer Junior High School Choral Director Diane Pullara, who helped choir students prepare their audition pieces.
On Oct. 1, they performed (one by one) for a group of judges and waited to hear if they would be among the 150 choir and 150 band students selected to participate in the Music Festival.
A few days later, they learned 16 Homer Junior High choir students and 11 Homer Junior High band students had been selected to join the elite group of musicians.
They will come together for a public Festival Finale concert on Nov. 5 at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox. The concert starts at 3 p.m.
Admission is $5.
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Americans’ biggest fear? The government
Americans’ biggest fear? The government
Far more Americans are afraid of the nation’s increasingly corrupt government than they are of the terrorist threats and economic issues government officials use to maintain power.According to the latest rendition of Chapman University’s American Fear poll, the vast majority of Americans count government institutions and the corruption they breed as their biggest fear. Sixty percent of respondents to the poll said “corruption of govetnment officials” was their biggest fear.
In second place, with 41 percent, was “terrorist attack on nation, followed by “inadeqyuate funds for the future” in third place (39.9 percent).
“People often fear what they cannot control, and we find continued evidence of that in our top fears,” Christopher Bader, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Chapman University, said.
According to the researchers, a majority of Americans believe the government is concealing information,
Via Chapman University:
[M]ore than half of all Americans believe the government is concealing information about the 9/11 attacks; as well as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Another 40 percent believe the government is hiding information about extra-terrestrials and global warming; and one-third believe there are conspiracies surrounding Obama’s birth certificate and the origin of the AIDs virus. Nearly one-fourth of Americans also believe there is something suspicious about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
“We found clear evidence that the United States is a strongly conspiratorial society. We see a degree of paranoia in the responses. Most indicative is nearly one-third of respondents believed the government is concealing information about ‘the North Dakota crash,’ a theory we asked about that – to our knowledge – we made up,” Bader said.
Of course, it’s not paranoia if it’s true.
Madigan rules Illinois with an iron grip
Nothing moves in Illinois without the blessing of its all-powerful House speaker and chairman of the state Democratic Party: Mike Madigan. However, Clinton’s campaign may have chosen the wrong messenger for their request.
Clinton campaign manager Robert Mook outlined his strategy in a Nov. 26, 2014, email to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, the Wikileaks documents show. Mook wanted Bill Daley to contact Madigan’s Chief of Staff Tim Mapes to make the request that the Illinois General Assembly quickly introduce and pass a bill changing the date of the primary.
Daley is the former White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, the son of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother to former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
The later timing of the vote would act as a safeguard for the Clinton campaign were she struggling in the primary. The Wikileaks emails show Mook offered to give Illinois a 10 percent boost in delegates if the General Assembly moved the primary to April, and 20 percent if lawmakers moved it to May.
As the Chicago Sun-Times notes, Madigan changed the date of the 2008 Illinois primary benefit then-candidate Barack Obama, moving it up to February from March.
But this time would be different.
Madigan’s map
Madigan’s more than 30 year reign as Illinois’ speaker of the House is explored in a new documentary, “Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics.”
The documentary touches on the subject of legislative mapmaking, which is how Madigan first took power over the House in the early 1980s. Throughout the state’s history, Illinois lawmakers have carefully crafted legislative maps to maximize their political advantage. This system has led to a lack of competitive elections, and an equally distressing lack of confidence in state government.
He serves on the board of directors for the Independent Maps Amendment, which gathered more than half a million signatures to put a mapmaking reform amendment on the state ballot this November.
But a Madigan lawyer sued to have that question stricken from the ballot. And he won.
Asking a man who led an effort to reduce the speaker’s power for Madigan’s favor was a fool’s errand.
Illinois political commentator Rich Miller wrote in his Oct. 13 newsletter that Madigan spokesman Steve Brown pointed to Daley’s involvement with redistricting reform as one of the reasons for the failed attempt.
The Mook email Wikileaks released suggested the Clinton campaign had tried to change the date of the Illinois primary on multiple occasions, but had been rebuked.
“As we discussed, they don’t really care about being helpful and feel forgotten and neglected by POTUS,” Mook wrote. “The key point is that this is not an Obama ask, but a Hillary ask. And the Clintons won’t forget what their friends have done for them.”
Madigan’s mentality
The new documentary about Madigan shows how his approach echoes Clinton’s in this case, as he has built an unprecedented political force in Illinois through favoritism.
Filmed interviews with former politicians, professors and political commentators exposed the political machine the speaker has built.
“He’s been getting people jobs, getting promotions for his people, getting raises for his people. It’s what he does,” Miller said in an interview for the documentary.
He compared Madigan’s operation to that of mob leader Paulie Cicero in the organized crime movie “Goodfellas.” In return for support, the speaker provides protection for favored workers and Democratic House members.
“Everybody pays tribute up, but from the top down they take care of you. And that’s how they get the loyalty,” Miller said.
The Democratic Party has held a majority in the Illinois House for all but two years since 1983. They can select anyone to be House speaker. But they choose Madigan every time.
It’s easy to see why. The man has unprecedented authority.
If a Democratic House member doesn’t vote for Madigan, he can take away her campaign money, strip her of any leadership roles and even make sure none of her bills get a hearing. The Illinois House’s unique rules allow the speaker to ensure bills that threaten his power base are not given a public hearing.
Madigan rules Illinois with an iron grip. And failure to follow through on a favor can come with dire consequences.
To find out where you can see “Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics.” go to michaelmadigan.com.
