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Tuitions have skyrocketed to pay for administrative bloat and exorbitant salaries,

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Every young adult in Illinois deserves a chance at college. For many, a college degree is the path to breaking out of a cycle of poverty. For others, it’s a badge of honor to build upon the hard work of their parents. And it used to be that if someone couldn’t afford the cost of college, he could work his way through.
But years of massive growth in higher-education bureaucracies and outrageous increases in administrative pay and employee pension benefits have had an incredibly harmful effect.
Lower-income students are now priced out of a college degree. Tuitions have skyrocketed to pay for the administrative bloat and exorbitant salaries, and the costs are falling on taxpayers – and on families and students who are trying to get ahead through higher education.
Now, if low-income students want a college degree, they are forced into crippling debt. More than 1.7 million Illinoisans hold student-loan debt, including 70 percent of the state’s class of 2013 – the fourth-highest rate in the country. Total student-loan debt in Illinois is approaching $50 billion.
In addition to debt, many students are now forced to depend on grants. But for too many would-be students, college is no longer an option.
It’s not surprising to see university and college administrators across Illinois searching desperately for a scapegoat as the state’s budget crisis exposes the mess they’ve created. Instead of admitting their problems are self-inflicted, university officials have settled on blaming the state instead.
Due to the budget gridlock, the state has not appropriated nearly $2 billion in funding for higher education. That’s obviously had an impact on university and college budgets. But higher-education institutions don’t steward this money responsibly to help keep college affordable. Instead, those funds are funneled into skyrocketing administrative costs.
Listening to university officials, however, doesn’t provide the real story. So here it is:
Students are losing access to college because colleges and universities have massively increased tuitions. Combined tuition and fees have grown by over 100 percent at many universities. Even at institutions such as Chicago State University, which serves low-income students, annual tuition and fee costs now equal $11,758, up 77 percent since 2006.
Illinois’ public universities and colleges have forced students and families to pay more and more each year in tuition, whether in the form of cash, federal student loans or state money, then used those funds to hire more and more administrators. Administrative staff increased by 31 percent between 2004 and 2010, while the student and faculty populations each increased by less than 3 percent. Chicago State University has the most administrators per student, by far, of any Illinois university.
Tuition increases have also been used to push executive compensation to exorbitant levels. Over half of Illinois’ 2,465 university administrators received a base salary of $100,000 or more in 2015.
And Illinois’ top higher-education administrators receive additional compensation – housing allowances, cars, club memberships and generous bonuses – that cost colleges and universities millions of dollars each year.
Those big salaries have led to pension benefits that neither Illinois taxpayers – nor students – can afford.
Over 25 percent of university pensioners will receive between $1 million and $2 million in total retirement benefits, while 15 percent will receive more than $2 million in benefits. Early retirement ages – 50 percent of university workers retire in their 50s – and high salaries, coupled with a 3 percent automatic annual benefit boost, allow many university workers to become millionaire pensioners.
That combination of higher salaries and generous pension benefits has put a tremendous strain on the universities’ pension system. The retirement benefits accrued by university workers have grown by 780 percent since 1987, or 8.4 percent yearly.
As a result, the state now appropriates more than 50 percent of its $4.1 billion higher-education budget toward retirement costs. A decade ago, retirement costs made up only 20 percent of the state’s total higher-education spending.
College and university officials and politicians are taking advantage of the budget gridlock to blame the state for their current woes – but all the evidence shows the crisis in higher education is self-inflicted.
Rather than blame the state for their own mistakes, universities and colleges need to reform their spending, with the primary goal of increasing the accessibility of college for all students.
To that end, they must reduce salaries and eliminate administrative bloat – then pass the resulting savings on to students so that all Illinoisans can afford a quality higher education.
The state can also help by fixing the broken university pension system – starting bymoving new university workers onto 401(k)-style plans based on the current SURS self-managed plan program.
In addition, enacting a constitutional amendment allowing Illinois to reform pension benefits for existing workers going forward will go a long way toward fixing the problemswith higher education in Illinois.

Ted Dabrowski
Vice President of Policy

Homer Glen State of the Village Address

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The Homer Township Chamber of Commerce Cordially Invites You to the 2016 State of the Village Address Presented by Mayor George Yukich Thursday, March 31, 2016 DiNolfo’s Banquets 14447 W. 159th St. Homer Glen, IL 60491 Registration begins at 11:15 a.m./Lunch promptly at 11:45 a.m. $35 Chamber Member $40 Non-Member
 
Kindly reply by March 24th Business / Organization ____________________________________________ Contact: ______________________ Address _______________________________________City ____________________ State _____ Zip _________ Phone ______________________ Email ____________________________________________________________ Please reserve ________ places at $ _______ per person.
 
Please list all attendees and dietary requests on back. Please list me as a __ $500 PLATINUM Sponsor or as a __ $250 GOLD Sponsor or as a __ $125 SILVER Sponsor Sponsorships are also available as follows: $500 PLATINUM Sponsor: Four luncheon tickets; Recognition on email and newsletter correspondence; Business name on event sign; Business name on event program; Chamber website advertisement space for six months and chamber mailing labels for current members. $250 GOLD Sponsor: Two luncheon tickets; Recognition on email and newsletter correspondence; Business name on event sign; Business name on event program; Chamber website advertisement space for three months. $125 SILVER Sponsor: Business name on event program; Business name on event sign; Recognition on chamber website; Recognition on email and newsletter correspondence.
 
Please make check payable to: Homer Township Chamber of Commerce Please charge my VISA, MasterCard or American Express (circle one) Card Number ______________________________________________ Expiration __________________________ Print Name ________________________________________________ Code ______________________________ Signature _________________________________________________ Amount $___________________________ You also have the option to register and pay online at the new Chamber website  http://homerchamber.com/

We need your help to get the Homer Township Property Tax Referendum Passed

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Last year we hit the pavement hard and knocked on hundreds and hundreds of doors. In the end we successfully placed or property tax  referendum on the March 15th ballot, but the work isn’t over yet. Now we must make sure that the residents of Homer Township know what is at stake.
 Americans for Prosperity has loaded a script and call list into their state of the art phone banking system and I’m asking all of you to join us Saturday, February 27th at Mullets in Homer Glen from noon- 4pm. We will be hitting the phones to educate residents about our property tax  initiative and urging them to vote yes on March 15th.
AFP will be buying lunch for all the volunteers so come hungry. Please RSVP as soon as possible to tkoehn@afphq.org so that we have a head count for food. I hope to see everyone there.
God Bless You and Your Family
-Steve Balich

Todd Koehn | Field Director | Americans for Prosperity Foundation – Illinois m: 224.239.5311 | e: TKoehn@afphq.org

A Daughters Journey to Far Off Places

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Hi!!
It’s been since Sunday that we have been non-stop traveling but we are finally settled in! After our flight to the Philippines Manila, we took a small plane an hour south to a smaller island called el nido. It is absolutely beautiful here!! Today we just took it easy hanging out at the beach and waking around town and we made some new friends from Canada.

Rauner to Dems: Work with me or pass tax hike


Editors Note: The People in Illinois are fed up with increased taxes to pay for excessive salaries, benefits, and pensions that exceed more than the average private sector worker who may get laid off or loose their job on any given day.

Rauner to Dems: Work with me or pass tax hike

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday evening closed out a tour of speeches to civic groups around the state with an often-repeated message for Democrats:
Work with him on what he considers reforms or pass a tax hike and wear the blame for it.
Eight months into fiscal year 2016 without a state budget, the Republican from Winnetka continued to put the onus for the budget impasse on Democrats in general and House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago in particular.
After a speech to the Springfield and Illinois chambers of commerce Tuesday, the governor told reporters, “I’ve said to the speaker, ‘I will work on tax reform and new revenue, but we need to do reforms.’ So far, he’s refused.”
Asked if his position was so weak that he must simply wait for the speaker to act, the governor said: “I can’t unilaterally raise taxes, and I won’t unilaterally raise taxes. And I can’t pass a budget; only the Legislature can pass a budget. ”
Rauner said Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, “know that only doing a tax hike isn’t either the right answer or politically popular. They just want to try to force me to do that, and I’m not going to that, so we’re going to stay the course.”
Democratic leaders, including Sen. President John Cullerton of Chicago, have recently said Rauner’s wrong, that without some agreement with the GOP, the votes simply aren’t there for a tax increase.
They’ve also rejected the core of the Rauner “Turnaround Agenda,” with a Madigan spokesman recently calling it “neither structural nor reform” but “another whack at middle class families so the 1 Percenters can get further ahead.”
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Rauner has said while he’s never said one thing must or must not be included in a grand bargain with Democrats, he wants:

  • Term limits for elected state officials, including legislators, and independent legislative redistricting.
  •  A property tax freeze coupled with local governments being given the option to cut costs by removing some items from collective bargaining, the prevailing wage and contracting rules.
  • Significant changes to the state’s civil lawsuit and workers compensation systems.

Rauner on Tuesday argued that simply using his veto and other executive powers to control out-of-whack spending or to fashion a one-year patch would not be addressing Illinois’ fundamental flaws in its political and business environments. Those flaws, he says, are costing the state population, jobs and the ability to compete.
“Higher taxes or fewer services … I say that’s not the choice,” the governor said Tuesday. “Let’s do faster economic growth and less government waste and bureaucracy. We’ll free up billions to put into our schools and human services. That that needs to be the conversation.”
“If we were just an average-growing state — average-growing over the last 15 to 17 years — we wouldn’t have a budget deficit, we wouldn’t have unpaid bills, we wouldn’t have had the need for a tax in 2011 and we’d have money for our schools. We need to grow and we need to shrink the cost of government.”
Not everyone agrees with the idea that Illinois can right itself solely by downsizing government and promoting growth, especially in the short term.
Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois-Springfield, said that while both are legitimate goals, even eliminating the state’s entire payroll wouldn’t let Illinois balance its budget and pay its debt.
Democrats and Republicans alike, he said, are probably going to have to accept some bitter pills — likely reduced spending on social services for Democrats and some form of tax increase for Republicans — if there is to be a budget agreement anytime soon.
Without an overall budget for fiscal 2016, the state is still making payments on roughly 90 percent of the bills it covered in the previous year by paying for costs mandated in continuing appropriations, by court decrees, in the primary education budget that did pass and for its debt service.
And that spending does not include funds for higher education or most social services.
Illinois also is sitting on about $6.9 billion in unpaid bills, and that amount will grow to $10 billion to $12 billion by June 30, the end of fiscal year 2016 if action isn’t taken, according to state Comptroller Leslie Munger, R-Lincolnshire. Additionally, Illinois unfunded pension obligations are estimated at $111 billion to $113 billion.

Deerfield High School (DHS) in Deerfield, Illinois quietly changed a multi-stall girls restroom to a co-ed

Surprise, Parents! Co-Ed Restroom in North Shore High School

Editors note: When we speak of rights of students to feel comfortable does that imply making the majority uncomfortable to satisfy the needs of a few. Where is the school in standing for the rights of students who are uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with anyone but their own sex. Since when should everyone have to conform to political correctness at their own expense. Don’t I have a right to say no to co-ed lockers and bathrooms. This is all part of the Obama Administration shredding American culture values and traditions in an attempt to give us his version of hope and change.
Surprise, Parents! Co-Ed Restroom in North Shore High School
Written By Laurie Higgins
A couple of months ago, Deerfield High School (DHS) in Deerfield, Illinois quietly changed a multi-stall girls restroom to a co-ed restroom. Worse still the administration has not notified either parents or students. Rumors are circulating that the administration chose secrecy over transparency in order to avoid controversy.
This is not a single-occupancy restroom, nor is it a girls restroom restricted to actual girls and boys who wish they were girls. Rather, it is a co-ed restroom euphemistically called an “All Gender Restroom,” presumably to divert attention from the reality of what the administration has created. They have created a co-ed restroom that girls and boys may use together.
Of course, schools that allow only gender-dysphoric students to use multi-stall opposite-sex restrooms, have in reality created co-ed restrooms too. In reality, it makes no difference if the boy in the girls restroom dislikes his body and cross-dresses or likes his body and dresses normally. In both cases schools are creating de facto co-ed restrooms.
But DHS has gone a step further than most schools have yet dared to go in the steady march to obliterate respect for and recognition of the nature, meaning, and importance of objective, immutable sexual differentiation. DHS has skipped over the interim step of allowing only gender-dysphoric students to share restrooms with opposite-sex peers. No intermediate step for the “progressive” science-denying administration at DHS. All boys and girls may avail themselves of this co-ed restroom.
It should be noted that during the day this restroom is in a remote part of the high school and therefore a more convenient place for a sexual assault. This restroom, however, is located near the pool and gyms, so during public events like swim meets, basketball games, and pep rallies, it is easily available to any and all community members. A high school girl or a younger sister of a high school girl may be in a stall when a strange adult male enters.
A faculty member posed this question to an administrator about the brave new bathroom world in which restrooms and locker rooms are invaded by opposite-sex students: What would happen if a girl student said she didn’t want to share a restroom with a boy. The administrator said the school would make separate accommodations for the girl.
Our hapless neighbors in Alberta, Canada are willing to make similar accommodations for the properly ordered desires of girls who don’t want to shower and use restrooms with those whose sex they don’t share. In the “Guidelines for Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments That Respect Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities and Gender Expressions,” the Alberta the government wrote that “A student who objects to sharing a washroom or change-room with a student who is trans or gender-diverse is offered an alternative facility.”
I told my millennial children (who happen to be DHS alumni) about these bizarre statements. Their first response was incredulity, and then they worked out the absurd implications of such fecklessness. First, one girl will object to using a locker room with a boy and will receive a special accommodation. Next, so many girls will express opposition to using locker rooms with actual boys that schools will have to create restrooms exclusively for actual girls, at which point gender-dysphoric boys will complain that they deeply desire to change and shower with girls, insisting on their “right” to use the new girls-only restroom. And then Leftists will step in to stop all this nonsense, claiming that students have no right to privacy based on objective, immutable biological sex.
Alternatively, parents and their representatives on school boards could insist steadfastly and passionately that restroom and locker room policies and practices recognize and respect immutable sex differences.
Right now Leftists are demanding that schools create de facto co-ed restrooms but will grudgingly permit schools to limit the commingling of sexes to gender-dysphoric students and will grudgingly allow schools to require gender-dysphoric students to use private stalls for excretory functions and changing clothes. But those are merely transitional accommodations.
The next step in their truly wicked effort to “eliminate the binary” will be to demand that gender-dysphoric students be allowed unrestricted access to restrooms, locker rooms, and showers, which is to say, no more requirements that gender-dysphoric students use private stalls for excretory functions, changing, and showering.
Then comes the coup de grace. Leftists will demand that all facilities be open to any sex, including those who are not gender-dysphoric. Once society has allowed objectively male persons unrestricted access to women’s private facilities, there will remain no rational justification for prohibiting non-gender-dysphoric males from using opposite-sex facilities.
Kind readers, if you think this is an absurd line of thinking, you have not been paying attention to how “LGBTQQIAP” activists have been using incrementalism successfully for the past 45 years. These are their pernicious goals, and they count on the ignorance and cowardice of Christians—including church leaders, many of whom refuse to lead. While conservatives cower, stubbornly ignoring warnings, “LBBTQQIAP” activists and their accomplices scurry onward, ten steps ahead and bold as brass.

Shift in state funding would cost Homer 33C $237,000

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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
 
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For Immediate Release:
Feb. 8, 2016
 
Shift in state funding would cost Homer 33C $237,000
 
A proposal to redirect state funding from children requiring special education services to lower poverty schools would have a detrimental effect on Homer School District 33C.
 
Administrators estimate Homer 33C would lose $237,000 in state funding if the General Assembly approves the proposal put forth by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).
 
“This proposal to cut special education funds represents yet another hit from the State of Illinois,” said Superintendent Kara Coglianese. “Our demands for services are on the rise in Homer 33C, but the state continues to chip away at our limited resources, jeopardizing our ability to meet the needs of every child.”
 
According to state data, the percentage of students requiring special education services is on the rise in Homer 33C. Two years ago, 15 percent of the district’s student population was identified as having disabilities. This year, it’s 16 percent — 2 percent higher than the state average.
 
Under ISBE’s proposed budget, the state would take $305 million from an account designated for special education services and give it to lower poverty schools for their general expenses.
 
The goal is to create equity between school districts. Problem is, school districts like Homer 33C would still have to provide special education services (which cost four times more than that of regular education services) but with less funding.
 
If the proposal goes through, it won’t be the first time Homer 33C has been asked to do more with less money. For the past several years, the state has not only reduced funding to schools but skipped payments altogether.
 
Administrators have responded by implementing a number of cost-saving measures, including a realignment of job duties throughout the district and a sharing of resources between departments and schools to meet student needs when possible.
 
Recently, the district embarked on a plan to save $100,000 by converting 500 aging laptops to Chromebooks using CloudReady.
 
“We are cognizant of our responsibility to be good financial stewards,” said Coglianese. “Everyone in our district is on the lookout for ways to be more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.
 
“The State of Illinois is trying to do the same,” she acknowledged. “We just hope it doesn’t fall on the shoulders of our students with disabilities.”
 
 
 

They do not assimilate or integrate simply force communities to conform to how they wish to live

Why Is Small Town America Being Flooded With Islamic “Refugees”?

By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Looks like my old stomping grounds in Montana are heating up. People there are not taking Obama’s plan to force refugees on them lying down. There was a protest in Missoula, Montana at 10 a.m. this morning over that very issue. It is just one of many battles brewing out there in small town America.
Small towns in the sparsely populated parts of America are the perfect place to relocate these refugees. Especially if your agenda includes politically terraforming the country. The West is historically conservative in their politics. Many are Republicans and Libertarians. Even the Democrats hearken back to an earlier time when they were more conservative in nature. Obama and the Democrats can’t have that. They need to have an entire country willing to submit to Marxist diktats. They need areas seeded with those who will vote Democrat and ensure that they stay in power no matter what.
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And it’s not just voting demographics that are pushing this move either. I personally believe that there is a warped logic to all of this. That if Islam can be made the predominant religion in America, people will be more easily controlled. That’s insane of course and won’t work, but there you have it. Instead, Shariah law will be implemented and you will see the same atrocities occurring in Europe happen here. The big difference being, that at least for now, Americans are armed and will use those weapons to protect their neighbors, loved ones and country.
Bringing in the refugees also moves forward the Cloward and Piven strategy to overwhelm the system so it will collapse and cause chaos in the streets. These people want to tear the system apart, so they can replace it with something truly heinous. The Obama administration will never admit that this is the plan, but can you honestly look at what is going on today and tell me it isn’t? Our borders are wide open. We are not vetting anyone to speak of and security here in the US is worse than before 9/11.
Communities in states such as Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Kansas are being infused with Muslim refugees even though they are not wanted by the residents or the local law enforcement. The feds and their leaders are not giving them a choice. Wyoming is the only state currently not participating in the program, but even the governor there wants to jump in it. Living in large cities would be too costly for the refugees and more can be accomplished with seeding them across the plains. In a small town, they can turn everything to their advantage in short order. Since many of our larger cities are already flooded with immigrants from south of the border and from Muslim nations, in many respects they have at least partially fallen to the ploy already. This is the fundamental transformation of America in play. South Carolina, Idaho, Minnesota, North Dakota and Michigan are vigorously fighting against this program and Obama’s ‘change’.

The same entitlements, jobs, lodging and freebies will be given to these refugees in small town America. But that will mean taking more and more away from locals in these same communities. These immigrants bring crime and disease with them. As crime rises, people will leave which will hasten the take over of these towns. At least that is what Obama and his friends hope for. I pray that people dig in and decide to stay and fight if they can.
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Which brings me back to Missoula where they had a protest this morning in front of the county courthouse. Refugees are being brought into Helena and Missoula and the people there don’t want them. We’re talking about hundreds of Muslims. Other rallies in Twin Falls, Idaho and Fargo, North Dakota are planned as well. I have friends in Idaho that just won’t stand for this invasion.
It’s the same old story here. NGOs with lots of money and a pro-immigrant agenda are seeking out politicians who can be bought basically, or that can be forced into compliance one way or the other. These individuals, such as Sand Point, Idaho, Mayor Shelby Rognstad, conspire against their constituency until they are forced by the people to back down. The politicians in Missoula seem to have sold out to this movement. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to find out what each of them was offered in exchange for their support in resettling large number of Islamic refugees in their areas.
Witness the great sellout:

Here in “Big Sky Country” local politicians in Missoula, working with pro-immigrant NGOs, are inviting the federal government to begin sending Syrians, comparing them to the Hmong refugees who fled Vietnam’s communists in the late 1970s. They have not been deterred by the fact that 98 percent of Syrian refugees are Sunni Muslims, the vast majority of whom FBI Director James Comey admits are impossible to vet for ties to terrorism.
Despite Comey’s warnings, the Missoula Board of County Commissioners sent a letter on Jan. 13 to the U.S. State Department requesting Syrian refuges. “We look forward to seeing approximately 100 refugees per year resettled in Missoula,” the letter states.
“Missoula is an ideal city for resettling refugees,” the letter continues. “Our community enjoys good schools, incredible natural beauty, and a low unemployment rate, among other factors.”

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Not for long if you bring these transplants in. We haven’t learned a damned thing from watching what is going on over in Europe. How do you justify the rapefugees in Germany and Sweden, who treat rape as game for a large number of players at a given event? How can you ignore the violence, the murders, the depravity that is the Ummah? What’s wrong with these people? Do money and power mean so much to them that they don’t care that they are selling America out to a hellish nightmare movement? Imagine your wives, daughters, mothers, neighbors… little children… subjected to these beasts. What would you do?

I lived in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. My daughter still lives up that way. Sandpoint, Idaho is not far from there. The good people there are making a stand against politicians who would bring in these refugees. And they are winning. Just last week they voted to withdraw a resolution supporting refugee resettlement; stopping, at least for now, a bitter war between the residents and the politicians. The people at that meeting were enthusiastically victorious and cheered as newly elected (and probably short-lived) Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad asked the council to withdraw the resolution from consideration. A measure meant to counter statements from Bonner County commissioners and Sheriff Darryl Wheeler opposing the resettlement of refugees, the resolution was intended to restate Sandpoint’s commitments to human rights, according to Rognstad.
“This resolution has only served to divide us and this community,” said Rognstad, as he requested the withdrawal. “That saddens me.”

I’ll bet it does because his bread was probably buttered with goodies if he played ball. He was roundly lambasted by the audience over his moronic, treacherous statements.
Twin Falls, Idaho has also been fighting the refugee resettlement program tooth and nail. But they are not having nearly as much success as Sandpoint has unfortunately. The Twin Falls Times is now reporting that starting on October 1st, approximately 300 Muslim refugees, mostly from Syria, will arrive there. There are 45,000 people in Twin Falls. I lived there for a while when I was little. It was idyllic. Not for long… that’s just the first wave. There are more on the way from Iraq, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Community leaders were told at a recent Boise State University conference held for “stakeholders” — including church groups and social service providers — that a couple of thousand refugees are planned to a arrive statewide soon.
This is nothing less than an invasion and a displacement of the people who have lived in these areas for generations. It is the redistribution of a religious demographic and this will not end well. Over 90% of the refugees from Syria alone are Sunni Muslims. And in their midst are terrorists, I guarantee it. They will move in and begin converting whole communities to Islam using sweet talk and threats. Many, many more mosques will pop up that are funded by the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The call to prayer will be heard where the buffalo roam and the antelope play. Shariah law will worm its tentacles into each community. I’m not being dramatic. I’m telling you this will happen if this keeps up.
This is how countries fall and slaves are made. This is the Caliphate moving into our midst and those who support ISIS will set up house in these small towns. What do you think will happen? And it won’t take that long either. It didn’t in Germany, France, Norway or Sweden. Why would it be different here?
We are being lied to by the Obama administration and by our leaders. They claim they will bring in 10,000 a year. Don’t make me laugh. You can look for a minimum of 100,000 to 200,000 a year to come in once the floodgates are opened. Obama himself has said this and he means it. All of these refugees will come from Islamic countries and the vast majority will be Muslim. Almost none of them will be Christians.
They do not assimilate… they do not integrate. Instead, they force communities to conform to how they wish to live. People need to check into what is going on and what is about to happen where they live. Your politicians will not willingly tell you. Why is this happening? It’s simply a political agenda. One that wants more power and money for those in control and one that wants to get rid of our pesky constitutional rights and subjugate Americans. Obama acts more like a proxy for the mullahs of Iran these days than President of the United States. We each need to fight this in our communities before it is too late. This is the beginning of the Hijrah migration here in the US and it is the ultimate enemy within.

Homer 33C STEAM lab equipment used to repair learning tool

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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:
Feb. 8, 2016
 
STEAM lab equipment used to repair learning tool

Hadley Middle School teachers Andrew Dole (left) and Jonathan Grill were able to restore the zoom feature on this classroom ELMO by replicating a plastic piece that had broken internally. The teachers used the school’s new 3D printer to create the piece.

 
 
Hadley Middle School teacher Jonathan Grill relies on his classroom ELMO to project lessons onto the board so students can follow along.
 
So when a student accidentally tipped the machine over, disabling the zoom feature when it hit the ground, Grill thought he would have to work around the projector’s limited abilities.
 
Then one night, after opening the machine and discovering a small piece of broken plastic, Grill thought of the school’s new 3D printer — a high-tech gadget used by students in the STEAM lab to create computer-generated plastic objects.
 
Could it possibly be used to craft a replacement piece for the ELMO? Grill asked himself.
 
The next day, while eating lunch with STEAM lab teacher Andrew Dole, Grill explained his dilemma.
 
“The ELMO works, but doesn’t work,” he said.
 
Dole decided to see if he could replicate the broken plastic piece — a tiny nub resembling a miniature bolt.
 
Using the same computer program and 3D printer that students use in class, Dole replicated a new plastic piece.
 
The first one was a little too thick, so he tried again. This time, he was successful.
 
“It took two tries and 2 cents to print,” he said.
 
Thanks to the 3D printer and Dole’s ingenuity, the ELMO is back to zooming in and out for classroom demonstrations.

Hadley Middle School teacher Andrew Dole used the same computer program and 3D printer that students use in class to design this replacement piece for a classroom ELMO. He added the quarter to show the size of the replacement piece.
 
“It works like it always did,” said Grill.
 
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The Democrat Defamation that Iowa Exposed

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The Democrat Defamation that Iowa Exposed

By Pat Hughes
 
History was made on Monday night in Iowa. Republican Ted Cruz became the first Hispanic candidate to win a presidential caucus or primary. Ever. You must be sick of hearing about it. After all, the mainstream print media and the liberal talking heads on CNN and MSNBC love this stuff. First African-American this. First Latino that.
 
Wait. You didn’t hear about it? Nothing from progressive queen Rachel Maddow or her twin Chris Hayes? New York Times grievance monger Charles Blow loves writing about how “persons of color” are good and white people are bad. Anything from him?
 
ted cruz wins iowa
 
It turns out that this is a story the liberal intelligentsia wants nothing to do with. Ted Cruz’s victory, along with the fact that 60% of lily white fly over Iowa Republicans voted for an Hispanic or African-American to be their president, undermines the only narrative keeping the Democratic party and its allies in business: that Republicans are racist. Without repeatedly telling this blatant, knowing and disgusting lie, Democrats face having to monopolize minority voting blocs by peddling – on their dubious “merit” – tired policy prescriptions that have hurt minorities time and time and time again.
 
In my hometown of Chicago, a city run exclusively by Democrats, the adult (20-24 years old) unemployment rate for African-Americans was 59% as of 2014, while the unemployment rates for young African-Americans and Latinos stand at 12% and 15%, respectively. Female Hispanics have seen a 44% drop in their employment rate over the last five years.
 
This is the same city in which liberal politicians bemoan the plight of children they’ve left undereducated, while they fight efforts at education reform – like charter schools and vouchers – to protect a feckless teachers union. The result: the Illinois State Board of Education reports that less than half of Chicago Public School students meet state standards, and only 26% of high school seniors will graduate college-ready.
 
This same sad tale can be told in Democratic strongholds all over the country – from Detroit to Baltimore to Los Angeles to Ferguson. Each of these cities is the result of the progressive mix of over-promising and under-delivering, corruption, institutional ineffectiveness, cronyism and special interest-focused politics. That combination invariably shatters the relationship between self-professed public servants and the public they claim to serve.
 
So there is no wonder that the left remained silent as Tim Scott, a Republican African-American Senator, endorsed Hispanic Marco Rubio in Scott’s home-state of South Carolina, the Governor of which is a female Indian-American Republican. I think Melissa Harris-Perry’s head just popped off of her narrow shoulders!
 
But what about Republicans? Why aren’t we celebrating a Cruz victory as historic? The short answer is because we don’t care. Ted Cruz’s ethnicity, Ben Carson’s race, Carly Fiorina’s gender, are meaningless to us. We merely want someone who reflects our conservative values, regardless of what they look like or where they are from. Iowa proved that.
 
In recent months, we’ve seen a frustrated electorate send a strong message to politicians they perceive to be entrenched in power. Born from that sentiment is an opportunity for Republicans. This is a chance to build new coalitions among minorities, who, as Americans first, understand that greater individual liberty and smaller government lead to greater prosperity for everyone. Everyone. And in the process we can defeat a political movement and a party whose calling cards have been defamation and deceit all along.

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