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Here’s one for the PlayStation Web’s history. In 2008, a teenager was caught using a cheat mod in SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals, and so was consequently kicked out of the tourney. As an act of revenge, he
Stacking and unstacking cups on a table as fast as you can might not sound like an athletic activity. But for the World Sport Stacking Association, stacking is a sport that requires skill, precision and lots and lots of cups.
The WSSA filled a Peoria Civic Center space with about 130 stackers Saturday during the Illinois state championships. That’s about 50 more participants than last year. WSSA Director Mark Lingle said the uptick in participation wasn’t surprising because the sport is growing at a fast pace.
Sport stacking involves stacking plastic cups in predetermined sequences in as little time as possible. Sounds simple – but the WSSA’s rulebook says otherwise.
Special cups with hole-punched bottoms to allow air flow are required for competition. Regulation mats are used at tournaments for stacking surfaces, and specially developed timers are necessary for competition. Stackers can compete in individual or doubles events or can be part of a relay team. False starts or fumbles can foul up a stacker’s attempt at a record time.
But for all the sport-like sides of stacking, the main reason it’s growing is its accessibility.
“Anyone can do it,” Lingle said. “We have competitors from (ages) 4 to 87 worldwide. It doesn’t matter your age, if you are disabled or (your) ability. Kids that struggle with traditional sports often excel in stacking.”
Sport stacking requires working the left and right sides of the brain and improves ambidexterity and bilateral proficiency, which is why teachers love it.
Ken Mansell teaches at Ellington Elementary School in Quincy and implemented a stacking program about three years ago.
“Self-esteem is everything,” he said. “It helps with their concentration and focus. It challenges every kid.”
Kennady Fleer, 8, attends Ellington and won first place Saturday in her division for cycle stacking.
“Some people just sit in front of the TV,” she said. “But I’m active, and I like to stack. It helps with other sports, too.”
Emily and Chase Werfel, 13 and 10, siblings and members of Team USA, said stacking lets them challenge themselves.
“I like how fast you can go and seeing how good you can get,” Emily Werfel said.
Chase Werfel, who owns a few division world records, said traveling to competitions across the country is his favorite part of the sport.
The Werfels said they practice almost every day, as mandated by their coaches.
Fleer said she doesn’t think of stacking as practice but more as playtime.
“We have the cups set up in the basement,” said Fleer’s mother, Brenda. “When I saw her do it at school for the first time, I was just blown away. It’s amazing.”
Lauren Rees can be reached at 686-3251 or [email protected].
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There are 224 projects, businesses, services and schools in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties tagged to receive $124 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money, according to government statistics.
Give or take.
From $96,000 to retrofit diesel trucks at Brubaker Transfer in Goodfield with more fuel-efficient engines, to $8 million to resurface 6.2 miles of Interstate 74, the targeted recipients are having a wide range of experiences collecting the money in the first year of the stimulus program. Everyone loves the temporary infusion of money, but some rue the complicated, hyper-bureaucratic process. And whether it’s working remains the subject of debate.
“It’s been confusing to us because the rules keep changing,” said Keith Rider, the director of finance for the Central Illinois Agency on Aging, the recipient so far of about $50,000 that pays for additional home-delivered and congregate meals for the elderly. “It’s a lot of work for not a lot of money. It’s sort of a pain.”
Emily Cahill, the grant development and research specialist with the Center for the Prevention of Abuse, had a different take.
“Any time you start a new program, there are going to be some complications,” said Cahill, whose agency was awarded $245,371 for programs to prevent homelessness and to get the homeless into housing as quickly as possible. “I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went. Any hoops we had to jump through were totally worth it for the additional money we received.”
ARRA is one year old. The $862 billion program passed the U.S. House of Representatives with zero Republican support in February 2009 and passed the U.S. Senate with just three Republicans joining the Democrat majority. President Barack Obama signed it into law on Feb. 17, 2009.
The program is a smorgasbord of tax benefits, contracts, grants, loans and entitlements that were intended to jump-start a battery-dead economy with money and subsequently lead to the creation of jobs. The White House said last week that the stimulus bill created 2 million jobs in the first year and will add another 1.5 million this year.
It created six jobs, albeit temporary jobs, at Peoria Heights Grade School.
“We were able to hire six para-professional reading specialists to help out our most needy students,” said Principal Gene Beltz, whose district received additional Title 1 grants of $169,000 and $53,000. “Of course, when the money is gone, so are the jobs.”
In most cases, the money comes with strings attached. For instance, the Special Education Association of Peoria County has educational needs all through the system that provides service to 17 school districts in Peoria County. It received $3.2 million in additional stimulus money with instructions to spend it as quickly as possible. It doled out all but $350,000 to the 17 districts and spent its portion on office equipment.
“It was an almost frightening amount of money, but we went about spending it as wisely and as quickly as we could,” said Jane Winter Clark, the director of the association. “We were informed that the money had to be used on something newly created, not on some existing program. If I had the ability to spend it anyway I wanted, I would have used it for salaries and benefits.”
Government data accessible at www.recovery.gov (or for Illinois-specific data at www.recovery.illinois.gov) does not tell the whole stimulus story. Those numbers, such as the $124 million described as the total stimulus tally for the Tri-County Area, include only local recipients that received money filtered through state agencies such as the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
There are lots more avenues that lead to what is technically defined as stimulus money. The Cash for Clunkers program gave cash benefits to people trading in old gas-guzzling cars, first-time home buyers received an $8,000 tax credit and unemployment benefits were extended. Other agencies, besides state agencies, received some stimulus money. For instance, the Peoria and Pekin Urbanized Area Transportation Study distributed contributions to 14 road construction projects in the Tri-County Area, including the reconstruction of Parkway Drive in Pekin and Prospect Road in Peoria Heights.
Roger Bergia, superintendent of the Peoria Heights school district, said the stimulus money is in some ways frustrating.
“What’s ironic about it is we get this money that’s supposed to go to create jobs, and we’re buying equipment with it that we don’t necessarily need,” he said. “I would like to use it to build something tangible that would create jobs.”
Scott Hilyard can be reached at 686-3244 or at [email protected].
Federal stimulus program assessment
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Nobody mentioned the name Tyler McCoy.
Instead, Peoria’s Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group board members delicately referred to “the incident involving a MEG vehicle in Peoria County.” Perhaps that’s because Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy – Tyler’s dad – headed up the MEG board for years. And the elder McCoy was sitting in the front row at Wednesday’s meeting.
Awkward. While “the incident” loomed over everything the board said and did, the bigger issue is how nearly $1 million a year in MEG funds – public money – is being spent. Does MEG really offer the most gangbangers for the buck?
Tyler McCoy makes an unfortunate poster child for those who don’t think so. In some quarters, MEG agents are portrayed as gritty undercover drug warriors. In others, MEG is a bunch of slacker cowboys with public checkbooks, accountable to no one.
“It’s like Switzerland,” scoffs one Illinois state trooper. “It’s like an untouchable.”
Until recently, 32-year-old Peoria County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler McCoy was a MEG agent. Last September, Deputy/Agent McCoy was involved in an early-morning one-vehicle crash involving an elusive band of deer and even more elusive alcohol testing and official reporting.
He said he’d been drinking before he swerved off Truitt Road near Illinois Route 40 to avoid the
animals. He was not tested or ticketed. But there was video, and an Internet posting of the stumbling and weaving Deputy/Agent McCoy became an instant sensation. The tangled investigation and prosecution were no doubt embarrassing to Sheriff McCoy, who was up for re-election, and it isn’t over yet. The DUI trial is set for later in the spring.
This started here with an anonymous letter asking some very pointed questions a couple of months ago.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Jr. somewhere out in God’s country on Route 40?” he/she wrote. “Where was he coming from? Why are we, as taxpayers, footing the bill for this deputy to drive a county owned vehicle for personal use?”
That could be a big question these days. Generally speaking, take-home vehicles are a sore spot for a lot of public bodies. Under the best of circumstances, it’s a tough sell to taxpayers whose private employers consider it near-charity to reimburse mileage, much less provide a car. So it’s worth checking out. The city has cut 36 take-home vehicles in the last couple of years, which brings its total down to 42, not including the fire department. Overall, the county has 85 employees who drive public vehicles, and most of them are sheriff’s deputies. But Deputy/Agent Tyler McCoy was not one of them.
“He was driving a MEG vehicle, and the county does not put money toward that vehicle,” Peoria County Director of Strategic Communications Jenny Zinkel said via e-mail. “The cost of the vehicle, maintenance, repairs, etc. are not paid by Peoria County.”
Apparently, MEG has its own chain of command. Calls about this to MEG Director Larry Hawkins, a retired Peoria County sheriff’s deputy, were referred back to Sheriff McCoy. As a MEG vehicle, Deputy/Agent McCoy’s 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee was either purchased or seized in a drug raid, the sheriff said. (He drives a used 2007 Tahoe, if you’re wondering.) Sheriff McCoy explained the MEG set-up.
“We pay a little over $16,000 a year to belong to MEG, plus a guy,” he said. “Here’s the reason: We don’t have a drug unit. . . . We get all the expertise. It’s a good deal, because it’s information-sharing also.”
Which is fine, as far as it goes. But at that same time, the city of Peoria was pulling out of MEG. It does have a drug unit. Peoria has a lot of drugs. It also has a horrendous budget crunch. Put those things together, and Peoria Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard ends up sending a very polite letter to Hawkins that the city would no longer staff MEG as of Jan. 3.
And that’s where you scrape past questions about “the incident” and into questions about the indigent. MEG is funded by federal grant money, the Illinois State Police, nearby counties and communities. If Peoria’s budget is too tight – when a third of MEG arrests take place there – what will other communities say? How does MEG prove its value?
As it turns out, Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons was asking these questions at MEG meetings before Tyler McCoy ran his Cherokee off the road. When questions about the younger McCoy led to questions about MEG money, Lyons said he wanted to address them within the group. So the new MEG board head, Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston, got a Freedom of Information Act request in early January: Without divulging any case-sensitive information: What’s the budget? The salaries? The cars? The phone? The gas? And the payoff: How many arrests?
“That’s always been a question mark,” Huston says, quickly adding that he can vouch for the value of a push against methamphetamine in Pekin a couple of years back. “It’s kind of hard to measure how much you’re getting for your effort. Law enforcement costs money. It doesn’t make money.”
But he was quick to seek and provide that information from MEG. Compressing the FOIA report:
– There are 18 MEG vehicles with a combination of almost 1.2 million miles. That includes a 1991 Chevy purchased new for $32,638, which has just 20,410 miles because it is a specialized vehicle. Cross-checking, Deputy/Agent McCoy’s 2004 Jeep Cherokee apparently was purchased used for $4,436.41, and had 41,500 miles on it.
– MEG has $346,493 in funding, a combination of $40,000 in federal forfeitures, a $71,179 federal grant, $105,300 from the Illinois State Police; and $130,014 from MEG funding by other groups.
– In return, it made 318 arrests last year, which is roughly $1,090 apiece.
That doesn’t sound so bad. But it is only a sketch of the full picture. It doesn’t include most of the salaries and overtime, which are paid by the home departments, and it doesn’t break down where and how that money was spent. At last week’s MEG meeting, with the city of Peoria already out, some of the other police chiefs were probing further about the return on their investment. Officially, they were told, “the incident” and other issues with MEG oversight are being addressed.
“I don’t agree with your assessment,” Lyons finally said in the meeting. “I don’t think they’re fixed. I don’t think there is any intention of fixing them.”
There was a 40-minute executive session, ending in lunch without further comment. Asked about the financial issues later, Lyons agreed to fill in the FOIA sketch, using information he has painstakingly dragged from MEG over the last couple of years. Again, this is compressed:
– In 2008, MEG agents’ salaries ranged from $38,180 to $112,320. Director Hawkins was far from the highest-paid, at $63,000, although he is also drawing a pension. Overtime was zero for Hawkins but blew up to $33,185.30 for one agent and totaled $103,151.14 for the unit.
– On top of the pay, the OT, the cars and the cell phones, MEG agents get a credit card to gas up. The lowest annual charge was $2,827.17; the highest was $7,437.26. Altogether, fuel reimbursement came to $69,647.03.
– According to Lyons’ figures, in 2008, taxpayers paid $959,659.17 for a total of 286 arrests. That translates to $3,355 per arrest, and less than one per day.
By contrast, according to Peoria Police Capt. Mike Scally, in 2008, the city’s narcotics division made 225 drug arrests. Scally points out that arrest numbers can vary if there are special investigations going on. In 2009, for example, Peoria made just 86 drug arrests.
Still, according to Lyons’ figures, the MEG unit average for 2006-2008 is about two-thirds of an arrest per day.
“All last year I called them a dinosaur, a vestige of Haight-Ashbury and that their get-up-and-go had got-up-and-went about 1995,” the state’s attorney says via e-mail.
“Keep in mind these figures cover THREE counties and include Peoria, Galesburg, Bartonville (ZERO arrests by MEG in B’ville last year), Morton, E. Peo, Chillicothe, Pekin etc.” he says. “Each year at … (we call it FelonyFest) at 3 Sisters Park, police arrest about 50 people, where it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Though a joint police effort, MEG uses the figures as theirs. Thus, of the paltry MEG arrest figures . . . 50 arrests come from a mere three days in May.”
Add “the incident” on top of those numbers – and a recession where every local budget is stretched to its limit – and MEG Director Hawkins might consider a better answer to these questions than the one he gave his board on Wednesday.
“If we’re not in this together,” he said. “I wonder if we should even have the unit.”
TERRY BIBO is a columnist for the Journal Star. She can be reached at [email protected], 686-3189, or (800) 225-5757, Ext. 3189.
Read the original article from Journal Star.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
Mike “Sully” Sullivan is selling his sole remaining bar.
The brains behind some of Peoria’s most beloved restaurants and watering holes said Saturday he is selling Sullivan’s at 4614 N. Prospect Road to Joe Kahn and Justin McConnell.
Kahn owns two Heights restaurants, Seven on Prospect and Basta Mangiare. McConnell is a Peoria entrepreneur who spent a summer working in one of Sullivan’s kitchens in the 1990s. McConnell also worked in management at the Journal Star for about six years, through 2007.
Sullivan’s is closed, as of Saturday night, Sullivan said. Kahn said he and McConnell are purchasing the building and the equipment, and they plan to change the name of the business.
“It’s not going to be an Irish pub. It will be more European,” said Kahn, who plans for the new business to be called the Public House.
“We’ll have straightforward dishes – rotisserie, smoked meats, steaks, chops, great salads,” Kahn said.
McConnell said they plan to keep some of Sullivan’s more popular menu items, add more appetizers and expand the wine list. He plans for the pub to be closed for the next two to three weeks.
“The changes aren’t going to be radical, but it will take a certain amount of time (to implement),” McConnell said.
Kahn said he had been speaking for some time to Sullivan about this deal, but the specifics were hashed out Friday afternoon.
“We’re neighbors, so we visit, we have coffee together. Us barkeeps, we gossip,” Kahn said.
Sullivan would not share his selling price but did say he was satisfied with the transaction.
“I feel a lot better when a former employee (buys a restaurant), because it’s in their blood,” Sullivan said. “People think I just want to open (bars), sell them and move on. That’s not true. Each time I’ve sold, it’s been different circumstances. This time, I’ve got to get my health back in shape.”
Sullivan has been battling cancer of the bile ducts since Christmas. He’s been undergoing chemotherapy.
“I’ve got about three weeks to go, and then we’ll find out what direction we’ll go in – the next direction will be surgery or radiation,” he said.
McConnell said he is looking forward to his new opportunity.
“He has done a great job,” McConnell said about Sullivan. “It’s very unfortunate that it’s happening under the circumstances that it is, but we’re pretty privileged to take over what he created.”
Although Sullivan said he will be focusing mainly on fighting his cancer, he won’t be completely out of the bar scene. He said patrons might very well spot him visiting with regulars at the Prospect Road business on St. Patrick’s Day – after he attends church with his mother, of course.
And, if Sullivan’s health goes the way he hopes, he might have his hands in another venture before long.
“I hate giving (Sullivan’s) up, but maybe something will come up later,” he said.
Danielle Hatch can be reached at 686-3262 or [email protected].
Read the original article from Journal Star.
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It took Neil Gaiman 20 years to decide he was a good enough writer to turn his idea for “The Graveyard Book” into reality.
It took just four months on the shelves for librarians to bestow Gaiman with a John Newbery Award for it.
Decked out in all black from his shoes to his leather jacket, the hip British author recently spoke to Naperville Unit District 203 junior high students from a stage decorated with headstones.
Gaiman made a number of appearances in Naperville last week for both adults and children in his role as the 2010 Naperville Reads author.
The program is a partnership among Anderson’s Bookshop, the Naperville Public Library, District 203 and Indian Prairie Unit District 204 to get people reading and discussing the same books.
Gaiman told students he was inspired to write “The Graveyard Book” while watching his son ride a tricycle around the cemetery next to their house. When he started seriously writing the book two decades later – starting with Chapter 4 – it was one of his daughters who encouraged him to continue by simply asking what happens next.
“The trouble with being an author is if somebody actually asks you what happens next that gives you a reason to carry on writing,” he said.
Gaiman did just that and the book came out in September 2008. Four months later his phone rang at 5 a.m. The voice on the other end told him he won the Newbery Award.
Over the years, Gaiman has seen several of his books turned into movies, including “Stardust” and “Coraline.” The latter also was inspired by one of his children.
“The great thing about being an author is you have a really, really good opportunity to impress your children because you can actually do something they might like,” Gaiman said.
The book took about 10 years to write and filming the “stop-motion” movie was time consuming as crews had to move dolls in tiny increments and photograph each movement.
In addition to novels, Gaiman has written newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, TV scripts and comics. He is well-known by comic book fans for his “Sandman” series. In 2009, he also wrote, “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader,” which was set at Batman’s funeral.
“Last year I got to kill Batman, which was kind of fun,” he said. “Everybody should kill Batman once.”
Gaiman said writing was all he ever wanted to do.
“I was the kind of kid who grew up with a book in his hand … I loved books,” he said. “I wanted to write pretty much as far back as I can remember.”
He read to students from his novel, “Odd and the Frost Giants,” though he was briefly interrupted by one of the top annoyances to public speakers – a cell phone ringing.
Oops.
It was his own.
Gaiman also answered questions from students. In response to a query about whether there will be a sequel to “The Graveyard Book,” he said he may write another book using some of the same characters, though it wouldn’t exactly be a sequel.
In light of the creepy books Gaiman has penned, another student asked about the scariest movie he had ever seen. Gaiman said his favorite is “The Haunting,” which “scared me absolutely senseless.”
Washington Junior High seventh-grader Christopher Gamble, a fan of “The Graveyard Book,” said it was an honor to listen to Gaiman and he hopes to tackle “Odd and the Frost Giants” next.
“His books are nice and interesting and they keep going,” Gamble said. “They don’t calm down like some of the books.”
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
Amy Cawley was the kind of kid who sat at her breakfast table in Morton Grove munching cereal and taking great delight in reading the box.
Many years later, when she fully realized how important reading was in her life and career, she asked her parents when she learned how. They smiled. They shrugged. They said they couldn’t remember a time when Amy didn’t read.
“I will read anything in print,” the Bartlett resident says. Books, of course. Magazines. Newspapers. And, yes, cereal boxes, because you never know what you’re going to learn from the back of your Cheerios.
That passion has served her well in a career that began in September 1980 when she got her first job at the Poplar Creek Library in Streamwood and continues to this day in her new role as executive director of the Roselle Public Library District.
Getting started
Amy Cawley was a young mother searching for a professional identity. She had worked in a bank, in an office, in retail – but those were just jobs.
She was looking for something more, something that would grab hold and not let go. She was looking for a calling.
She already was a familiar face at the Poplar Creek Library, the mom who was always bringing her two children to storytimes.
The truth is, she felt comfortable there. She liked the atmosphere, the feel of being surrounded by books and reading and sharing that feeling with her kids.
One day a librarian sauntered up and suggested someone who spent so much time in the children’s department might actually like to work there as an aide.
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Cawley says now. “But it was intriguing. I like to read and I like children and I like people in general.”
She got the job, and she’s been working at libraries ever since, moving from Poplar Creek (where she gained fame as the guitar-plucking children’s storyteller “Miss Amy”) to Bartlett (where she eventually was elected to the library board) to the Roselle Public Library District, where she’s been head of the youth services department for the past seven years.
In that role, library officials say, she helped expand many program offerings and became a familiar and welcoming face in the community.
Last September she was named interim executive director when Lisa Poignant left the post in what was described as an amicable parting after less than two years.
In addition to the library’s day-to-day operation, Cawley found herself helping oversee the installation of a heating and air conditioning system as well as some parking lot improvements.
The library board, meanwhile, was launching a regional search for a new director, President Elaine Pizzicaro says, and even interviewed a few candidates.
But in the end, board members chose Cawley.
They were impressed by her leadership and dedication. They were impressed by her education – she has a bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago, a Master of Library and Information Science Degree from Dominican University in River Forest, and a certification in nonprofit management from Harper College. And they were impressed by her attitude and approach.
“She took hold of the reins and plunged in,” Pizzicaro says. “She is enthusiastic and knowledgeable and proved herself very capable.”
“The board got to know me at a different level, as an administrator,” Cawley says.
She officially assumed her new duties Feb. 20.
“It was like a test drive,” she says of her stint as interim director. “How many times do people get to test drive their dream job?”
Challenges
If you were going to choose the perfect moment to become executive director of the Roselle Public Library District – or any other library in Illinois – you probably wouldn’t choose February 2010.
Everybody, it seems, is facing a budget crunch, brought on in part by cuts in state and local funding. Libraries are even under fire from critics who say they’ve outlived their usefulness, even as just about anybody in the industry will tell you they’ve never been busier providing new materials, programs and outreach efforts.
Cawley is undaunted.
“It’s time,” she says. “It was time for a new challenge.”
Her first task is to share her vision for the library with both her staff – most of whom knew her as a co-worker – and the community and get as many people as possible to buy into her message.
She says she’ll do that with her staff through open and honest communication.
“Not just an open door,” she says, “but an open ear.”
She already has numerous contacts in the community, but now she will try to create even more connections, to build even more partnerships, to ensure the library is a place where community members can come for their information and entertainment needs, and where everyone can feel as comfortable as she does.
She is determined to be visible. She is determined that the library do everything it can to serve the community, expand its target audience and provide a welcoming atmosphere amid its roughly 85,000 items.
If it all turns out the way she hopes, she says, “I will have impacted Roselle in a positive way.”
Making history
That she hopes to make a lasting impact is no surprise.
Beyond her love of libraries, Cawley’s a history buff who volunteers at the 1st Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton and can be found some weekends serving as a re-enactor at Revolutionary War or Civil War encampments.
She does it, she says, because she enjoys exploring “women’s roles, women’s history … the kind of stuff that didn’t get written about until recently.”
And she would know. She says she devours biographies, histories, fantasies and adventure stories – along with the occasional mystery.
There isn’t much mystery in what she hopes to accomplish as the library’s executive director and, no, her vision for what a library can be didn’t come from the back of a Rice Krispies box.
It did, however, come from prolific author Ray Bradbury.
She heard him speak about libraries some years back and what he said struck a chord.
“He called them ‘the University of the People,’” she says, “and I’ve always believed in that.”
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
After graduating from Wheaton College in 1988, Philip Ryken prayed he would someday return to stay.
That prayer was answered Feb. 19 when Wheaton College’s board of trustees hired Ryken to become the school’s eighth president.
“It’s an amazing honor and a wonderful blessing,” said Ryken, who grew up in Wheaton.
The senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia will begin his new duties July 1, replacing the retiring Duane Litfin. Ryken recently was on campus to meet with the staff and faculty and speak to students.
He talked to the Daily Herald about his vision and hopes for Wheaton College. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation:
Q. This is a homecoming for you, isn’t it?
A. My family moved here in 1968. My dad (Leland Ryken) has been a professor of English at Wheaton College for 42 years. I went to Wheaton Christian Grammer School and Wheaton North High School. Then I went to Wheaton College.
Do you have childhood memories of being on campus?
A. So many of the things I love in life are associated with Wheaton College. I remember as a schoolboy coming on campus to go to orchestra concerts put on by college students. That really awakened for me a love for music. I went to countless Wheaton College basketball, football, soccer and baseball games. And my first job was working in the library on campus.
Wheaton is also where I met my wife during freshman orientation in 1984. So whether it’s music or sports or learning or romance, to me it’s all been associated with Wheaton College.
At what point did you decide you wanted to pursue the college presidency?
A. This is something we (Ryken and wife Lisa) have been talking about and praying about for the past six months. This is probably the only other job in the world I would have considered. We really had the hope and the expectation we would stay in Philadelphia at Tenth Church for the rest of our lives, or at least for the rest of our ministry.
What made the Wheaton job so appealing?
A. Wheaton College is a leading academic institution and probably regarded as the finest Christian college in the world. Every year we send out hundreds of talented, energetic graduates to serve Christ and his kingdom all over the world. The challenge and the opportunity of providing leadership for that kind of institution is absolutely unique.
A lot has changed on campus since Duane Litfin became president in 1993.
A. Dr. Litfin has provided extraordinary leadership for Wheaton College and will go down as one of the great presidents in our history. He has raised the academic standing of the college. He has broadened our ethnic diversity. He has dramatically improved our facilities. And most importantly, he has maintained the theology and mission of the college. It’s a huge privilege for me to succeed such a terrific president.
Is it intimidating to replace someone who has accomplished so much?
A. Honestly, I do not find it intimidating to succeed Dr. Litfin for this reason: I have a clear sense of calling to this role and I believe God will give me whatever grace I need to do that work faithfully. I can only be the president God has called me to be.
Q What is it like making the transition from the pulpit to the presidency of an academic institution?
A. I’ll have a huge amount to learn about academic leadership. And I think everyone in the Wheaton community understands this.
However, one advantage I have is that for the past 10 years I have been serving on the board of visitors and now the board of trustees. This means I already have many relationships with people on campus and have some acquaintance with the academic and spiritual and financial issues a college faces.
I also think pastoral ministry is very good preparation for a presidency because one of the things you learn in ministry is how to help people resolve conflict. And that’s always going to be an important part of leadership anywhere.
What is your vision for the college?
A. There are a number of issues we need to address in coming years. We need better facilities for our conservatory and library. We need to continue to broaden the ethnic diversity of our student body and faculty. We need to develop sustainable models of funding that make it possible for students to afford a first-rate college education. We need to develop broader global partnerships for education.
But my biggest priority is to encourage Wheaton College to become more and more a community of grace. Wheaton is a very performance-oriented college and I want to encourage us all to know the love and the grace that God has for us. And then to pursue excellence in response to that grace.
You mention you want to broaden ethnic diversity. How do you do that?
A. We broaden the diversity of our campus by building strong connections to churches across the country that are in minority ethnic communities. We do it by continuing to recruit and retain minority faculty. And we do it by praying God will enable us to represent the full diversity of his church.
What about the rising cost of college tuition?
A. There are some people that have a wealthy enough background to be able to afford a Wheaton education already. We have many students who have more limited means, who therefore are absolutely dependent on the generous commitment of our alumni to continue to support the mission of Wheaton College.
I expect this to be a challenge for me throughout my tenure at the college – to do everything we can do to make sure qualified students are not going somewhere else simply for the reason of cost.
In the short term, what is the biggest challenge you need to overcome?
A. I think my biggest short-term challenge is simply to learn how to be a good president for Wheaton College.
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
TALCA, Chile — One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicenter were tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and the head of the emergency agency said authorities believed at least 300 people were dead.
The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as dozens of aftershocks — one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake — shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation.
President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile but said the government had not asked for assistance from other countries. If it does, President Barack Obama said, the United States “will be there.” Around the world, leaders echoed his sentiment.
In Chile, newly built apartment buildings slumped and fell. Flames devoured a prison. Millions of people fled into streets darkened by the failure of power lines. The collapse of bridges tossed and crushed cars and trucks, and complicated efforts to reach quake-damaged areas by road.
At least 214 people were killed and 15 were missing as of Saturday evening, Bachelet said in a national address on television. While that remained the official estimate, Carmen Fernandez, head of the National Emergency Agency, said later: “We think the real figure tops 300. And we believe this will continue to grow.”
Bachelet also said 1.5 million people had been affected by the quake, and officials in her administration said 500,000 homes were severely damaged.
In Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, people sleeping in bed suddenly felt like they were flying through major airplane turbulence as their belongings cascaded around them from the shuddering walls at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT).
A deafening roar rose from the convulsing earth as buildings groaned and clattered. The sound of screams was confused with the crash of plates and windows.
Then the earth stilled, silence returned and a smell of damp dust rose in the streets, where stunned survivors took refuge.
A journalist emerging into the darkened street scattered with downed power lines saw a man, some of his own bones apparently broken, weeping and caressing the hand of a woman who had died in the collapse of a cafe. Two other victims lay dead a few feet (meters) away.
Also near the epicenter was Concepcion, one of the country’s largest cities, where a 15-story building collapsed, leaving a few floors intact.
“I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here,” said Fernando Abarzua, marveling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, “but he keeps shouting, saying he’s OK.”
Chilean state television reported that 209 inmates escaped from prison in the city of Chillan, near the epicenter, after a fire broke out.
In the capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) to the northeast, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building’s two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.
A car dangled from a collapsed overpass while overturned vehicles lay scattered below. “I can now say in all surety that seat belts save lives in automobiles,” said Cristian Alcaino, who survived the fall in his car.
While most modern buildings survived, a bell tower collapsed on the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church and several hospitals were evacuated due to damage.
Santiago’s airport was closed, with smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and destroyed pedestrian walkways in the passenger terminals. The capital’s subway was shut as well, and transportation was further limited because hundreds of buses were stuck behind a damaged bridge.
Chile’s main seaport, in Valparaiso about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from Santiago, was ordered closed while damage was assessed. Two oil refineries shut down, and lines of cars snaked out of service stations across the country as nervous drivers rushed to fill up.
The state-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, halted work at two of its mines, although it said it expected them to resume operations quickly, the newspaper La Tercera reported.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera angrily reported seeing some looting while flying over damaged areas. He vowed “to fight with maximum energy looting attempts that I saw with my own eyes.”
The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region. He said the huge waves also damaged several government buildings on the island.
Pedro Forteza, a pilot who frequently flies to the island, said, “The village was destroyed by the waves, including the historic cemetery. I would say that 20 or 30 percent has disappeared.”
On the mainland, several huge waves inundated part of the major port city of Talcahuano, near the hard-hit city of Concepcion. A large boat was swept more than a block inland. Pinera flew over the area and said an unspecified number of people had died in Talacahuano.
Waves also flooded hundreds of houses in the town of Vichato, in the BioBio region.
The surge of water raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga and prompting warnings across all 53 nations ringing the vast ocean.
Tsunami waves washed across Hawaii, where little damage was reported. The U.S. Navy moved a half-dozen vessels out of Pearl Harbor as a precaution, Navy spokesman Lt. Myers Vasquez said. Shore-side Hilo International Airport was closed. In California, officials said a 3-foot (1-meter) surge in Ventura Harbor pulled loose several navigational buoys.
About 13 million people live in the area where shaking was strong to severe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS geophysicist Robert Williams said the Chilean quake was hundreds of times more powerful than Haiti’s magnitude-7 quake, though it was deeper and cost far fewer lives.
More than 50 aftershocks topped magnitude 5, including one of magnitude 6.9.
A tremor also hit northern Argentina, causing a wall to collapse in Salta, killing an 8-year-old boy and injuring two of his friends, police said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.3 quake was unrelated to Chile’s disaster.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. It caused a tsunami that killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage along the west coast of the United States.
Saturday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
For Faith Rawley, the difference between life before and after the merger of the Canadian National Railroad and the EJ&E railway is measured in vibrations.
“The windows rattle, the walls vibrate,” said Rawley, who can see the tracks from her backyard in Warrenville.
For Marty Moylan, Des Plaines mayor, the difference is measured in happier residents.
“We’ve noticed because residents are not calling and complaining” as much about freight trains, Moylan said.
Nearly a year after CN began shifting freight trains from its rail lines onto the EJ&E, a Daily Herald analysis shows mixed results for the suburbs.
After a slow start, train numbers are trending up along the EJ&E compared to before the merger _ and that will increase. On one major CN line, traffic is down. The number of delays lasting 10 minutes or more at crossings actually has dipped. But the length of trains has doubled.
CN’s intent was to ease freight traffic on its tracks through a Chicago bottleneck by moving trains to the EJ&E, which runs in a semicircle between Waukegan and Gary, Ind.
Towns along CN tracks backed the merger, eager to see some relief from blocked streets, noise and environmental concerns. Municipalities near the EJ&E opposed it, saying they didn’t want the problem in their communities.
Before the merger, the underused EJ&E carried about three to 18 trains daily. CN plans to increase that by up to 24 trains. The company started moving freights to the EJ&E on March 11, 2009.
But instead of a dramatic boost in trains on the EJ&E, change was slow in 2009 partly because CN is still improving the old railroad to handle extra capacity. The other factor is the recession, which caused the Freight Transportation Services Index, a measure of freight shipments, to decline by 12.4 percent in 2008 and 2009. But an upswing occurred in the last seven months of 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported.
That growth in train traffic was apparent in sections of EJ&E track between Mundelein and Aurora where freight volumes spiked in December and January compared to the dog days of spring 2009.
CN spokesman Patrick Waldron confirmed the railroad is seeing an uptick and anticipates a gradual recovery.
Right now, “we’re in the midst of an artificial situation,” said Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, whose town led the merger fight along with Barrington. “The economy is such, the anticipated volume is less than what would be expected.”
By the numbers
Here’s a look at some changes in train traffic using March 2009 to January 2010 data CN provided to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. Comparisons are based on average daily train numbers before the merger. The analysis showed:
• A 42 percent drop in freight trains on a CN line between Schiller Park and Mundelein.
• A 14 percent rise in trains on the EJ&E between Mundelein and Bartlett.
• A 6 percent uptick in freights on the EJ&E track from south Bartlett through Wayne to West Chicago, near Geneva Road.
• An 18 percent decrease in trains on the EJ&E from West Chicago through to Aurora, near Aurora Avenue.
That drop, however, tightens to just 5 percent from July through January, when the daily average number of trains, 11.4, topped the pre-merger number of 10.7.
But while the growth in train traffic may be incremental, the length of trains is not. Previous trains on the EJ&E were 3,300 feet on average, now the range is 6,000 to 8,500. Most last year were around 6,000 feet, Waldron said.
“The number of trains is one thing. The length is another,” Barrington Village Manager Jeff Lawler said.
CN has allocated $60 million to distribute to towns along the EJ&E for mitigation such as fencing, safety improvements and soundproofing for residents. Twenty-one municipalities have signed mitigation agreements, while 12 hold out. Some towns including Aurora and Barrington are suing to reverse the merger decision.
“We will continue to work with communities up and down the EJ&E to address concerns,” Waldron said.
Funding Warrenville received from CN to reduce train noise is a sore point for Faith Rawley, who calls the system of determining which homes qualify for soundproofing grants haphazard. While train noise reverberates throughout her neighborhood, some households including the Rawleys aren’t eligible for funding.
Yet the noise and vibrations are inescapable, she said.
“Walls vibrate, artwork on the wall shakes, and windows rattle,” Rawley said, adding that it’s especially troublesome for her sick mother-in-law, who lives with the family.
“While standing in her room you can feel the floor vibrate beneath your feet. This is not a great way for her to rest and recuperate,” she added.
Tired of waiting
Delays of 10 minutes or more at crossings have decreased since the takeover, CN reports. In February 2009, blocked crossings of 10 minutes or more totaled 25. In April, that number was down to 14 and the monthly average is around 8.4.
The railroad identified where chronic blockages occurred and made operational changes to minimize them such as introducing power switches so crew don’t have to hand-throw switches, Waldron said.
“In a sense, communities are better off because of safety initiatives CN is doing that the EJ&E didn’t have to do,” University of Illinois at Chicago transportation expert Joseph DiJohn contends.
Some blockages have been significant, however. Those include: 76 minutes on March 31, 2009, in Naperville; 43 minutes on June 6 in West Chicago; 88 minutes on July 28 in Barrington Hills; 272 minutes on Oct. 3 in Matteson; 62 minutes on Oct. 21 in Bartlett; 95 minutes on Nov. 27 in Wayne; and 165 minutes on Dec. 4 in Bartlett.
Out of 84 delays of 10 minutes or more from April 2009 to January, 38 percent were between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
“We haven’t reached the full range of the negative impact,” Weisner predicted, adding he’s concerned about derailments. A fatal derailment occurred on CN lines in Rockford last June.
But for municipalities on CN lines like Des Plaines and Buffalo Grove, there’s cautious optimism.
“It appears freight traffic is down and interference with surface traffic has been reduced,” Buffalo Grove Trustee Jeff Berman said.
Too soon to tell, said DePaul University transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman. “I think the jury is out on CN’s performance until we see traffic patterns during normal economic times.”
Read the original article on Chicago Press Release Services
Unfortunately, Mega Man Zero Collection has just been delayed in Japan. The news was revealed over at the game’s official site, along with an apology from Capcom.