Author: Serkadis

Steady membership declines are cited for a decision to close the Round Lake Area Park District’s fitness center April 30.

Executive Director Jeff Nehila said fitness center membership has dwindled to 218, far below the 401 needed to break even financially. He said the 17-year-old center has been subsidized by other revenue-generating programs for many years.

“There’s a lot of local competition now, where there wasn’t 17 years ago,” Nehila said.

As part of a facility with a nature center and pool on Hart Road in Round Lake, the basement-level fitness center has offered basics such as barbells, three-lane indoor miniature track and treadmills.

In addition to the workout equipment, fitness classes at other park facilities and pool access were part of the $255 annual membership fee.

Nehila said the fitness center’s basement spot could not accommodate amenities typical of seven private health clubs now within the district’s boundaries.

What’s happening in the Round Lake area is not a statewide trend, said Peter Murphy, president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Association of Park Districts.

Murphy said the 168 park district-operated fitness facilities “are holding their own” and typically attract a family clientele.

Plans call for the Round Lake Area Park District’s fitness equipment to be purchased by a wholesale operation. If that fails, Nehila said, the park district would make it available for purchase by the general public.

Fitness center members who have paid for the year won’t be left in the lurch when the facility closes April 30, according to park district officials.

American Fitness Center, on Route 59 in unincorporated Ingleside, has agreed to honor park district memberships. Nehila said the private club will allow park district members to finish their terms.

Prorated refunds will go to members who don’t want to transfer to American Fitness.

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Going once …

Auction donations for the 26th annual Palatine High School Dinner and Auction include:

• NFL football autographed by John Madden (along with an autographed model of his travel coach bus)

• Crosstown Classic tickets

• Palatine “Mayor for a Day”

• “Page for a Day” for state Sen. Matt Murphy or state Rep. Suzie Bassi

• Wine tasting for 30

• 10th-row seats to Willie Nelson and REO Speedwagon

• Four-hour ridealong with the Palatine Police Department

• Dinner at the Palatine Fire Department fire house

• Golf green fees for four

• Overnight stay at a bed and breakfast near Galena that includes a Mystery Dinner package

• Chicago White Sox box seats

• Chicago Cubs, Blackhawks and Wolves tickets

• Chicago Bulls tickets, ninth row, center court

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Interestingly enough, Insomniac Games’ Marketing Manager, James Stevenson, has publicly placed his bets on the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII as the more superior version.
 
 
 

China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, the part mainland of China closest to Hong Kong that cranks out about one-third of China’s exports, is facing an acute labor shortage most people can only dream of right now.

China Daily:

At a job fair in Shenzhen yesterday, only 1,000 workers were looking for jobs.

In Dongguan, some 150,000 extra workers are needed after the Spring Festival, according to Huang Huiping, an official with the Dongguan labor and social security bureau.

Sources with the bureau said there were two jobs in the city for every worker in December.

The processing industries are facing up to 80 percent job vacancies, Huang said. “It is because many factories have opened more production lines following increased overseas orders,” Huang said.

Zhongshan, a Pearl River Delta city and a center of home appliance manufacturing, is also facing a shortage of 130,000 workers after the festival, said Zhang Yousheng, assistant general manager of Gaowei Electrics Group.

“Workers’ salaries will increase by 30 percent this year. But we still find it hard to employ qualified workers,” Zhang said.

Yet good news for Chinese PRD workers is good news for workers in other places. The cost of labor in the delta has been rising for years now, reducing its cost-competitiveness relative to both other Chinese regions… and other nations.

Finance Buzz: “If it’s going to cost another 20 percent (to produce our goods) it will be extremely dangerous for us,” said James Lim of COG Design, which manufactures slick, educational toy brands such as Dino Horizons and Eino-O Science in the Pearl River Delta. “Down the road we may have no choice but to move our factory to the northern part of China to make our costs lower.”

It’s all an sign of the massive development happening in the Pearl River Delta. If this one region can crank out so much output, imagine what an entire China could do once the rest of the country catches up.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• If Chanos Thinks China Is Dubai ‘Times One Thousand’, Then Who Will Be Their Abu Dhabi?
• China Announces Even Tighter Restrictions On Loan Growth
• Forget Empty Housing Developments, Check Out The Massively Empty Cities Of China

The South Barrington Garden Club sponsored Rose Elementary School’s participation in the 2010 National Forest Service poster contest administered by National Garden Clubs, Inc.

Seventeen members of Rose School’s Green Club participated and five posters will move on to the regional contest. The winners of regional will then move on to the national level.

The state winners by grade were: Grade one, Zoe Breilatt; grade two, Samantha Saile; grade three, Japoni Doan; grade four, Matt Malters; and grade five, Ryan Yala.

Meetings for the South Barrington Garden Club (SBGC) are held or originate at the South Barrington Park District, 3 Tennis Club Lane, at 9 a.m. on the first Thursday of the month year-round. The Club is open to all.

Programs consist of speakers, hands-on projects and bus trips to points of interest in the area followed by a lunch at a local restaurant.  The club has sponsored scholarships, nursing homes, state projects, garden therapy, education and other projects to beautify the community. Membership fee is $25 for South Barrington residents and $35 for nonresidents. 

Call Anita, (847) 277-7151 for information on membership or participation in events.

• Send Your news to [email protected]

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The Palatine Public Library District joined libraries across the state on Wednesday, Feb. 10, to participate in “Snapshot: One Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries” to show how important academic, public, school and special libraries and library systems are to residents throughout the state of Illinois.

On Feb. 10, Palatine Library staff collected patron comments, photographs, and statistics to chronicle a typical day in the library. These numbers will be added to those of other libraries across Illinois to show how libraries provide invaluable services to Illinois citizens.

Palatine Public Library District Director Susan Strunk said, “Libraries are more important than ever to our communities, and library use is at record levels. We want all the citizens of Illinois, and particularly our Illinois lawmakers, to see what a typical day is like for an Illinois library. Lawmakers have reduced state funding that is vital to help libraries maintain current programs, collections and services. We hope this ’snapshot’ makes the point to lawmakers that their constituents, our patrons, rely on us for critical services.”

Please visit www.palatinelibrary.org to view comments and pictures from “Snapshot: One Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries” at the Palatine Library.

“Snapshot: One Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries” is a project of the Illinois Library Association. For more information, contact your local library or visit: www.ila.org.

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Maine East High School senior Dana Castillo is on a roll, having won first place in the Chicagoland regional “Poetry Out Loud” competition Tuesday, Feb. 16, just days after she earned first place for the second consecutive year in Maine East’s competition. Dana will now compete in the state contest on March 18 for a chance to advance to the nationals next spring.

Maine East English Department Chairman Helen Gallagher said students eagerly compete in “Poetry Out Loud,” which involves selecting poems from an online anthology, with hundreds of possibilities, memorizing at least one poem from the anthology and preparing to deliver it publicly. The competition also involves reciting the poem for their class and competing to be the classroom winner.

This year more than half of all East students received this assignment as a requirement in their English classes. As a result, 58 classroom winners were invited to compete in the school contest Thursday, Feb. 11. English teacher David Hessert served as master of ceremonies, while English teacher Cathy Creagh and Learning Resource Center director Merrilee Anderson worked hard as judges to score students in seven categories: physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, overall performance and accuracy.

In addition to Castillo taking first place in the Maine East competition, Paulina Nowak placed second, and third place went to Dominika Koziol. Other finalists included Karol Grzebien, Patrice Campbell, Christina Giannokopoulos, Amalia Kanelos and Raja Umair-Amjad.

Classroom winners, in addition to the finalists, were: Fazil Ansari, Kristen Beierwaltes, Julia Besch, Keandra Broaster, Patrice Carpenter, M.J. Cunanan, Ashley Daul, Jasmine DeDios, Afia Ekra, Jessica Gammell, Anna Garcia, Dylan Guzman, Katie Garvey, Laksmi Gil, Ahmad Hamdan, Adam Herlo, Nicole Hoffman, Cyril Jackson, Angela Jones, Justyna Kaczmarzyk, Shirley Kakkanad, Keriakos Kappos, Mohammed Khalil, Eliza Kolakowski, Angelica Lazarz, Jeffrey Levinson, Gisel Martinez, Daniel Mercado, Megan Mistretta, Sunny Nair, Mahek Parikh, Sona Parmar, Mychael Patytskyy, Abdullah Qaisar, Kayla Ramsay, Cyrano Roche, Brandon Roman, Angel Salgado, Jong Shin, Sarah Shulga, Adrian Skorka, Tina Spanos, Justin Stancy, Samantha Stankowicz, Amanda Steckly, Rafaela Stoyanova, Zoriana Telwak, Jason Thomas, Kimberly Thompson, Deanna Vasilopoulos, Louie Velazquez and Ebbony Wilson.

The Illinois Arts Council oversees the state competition in Poetry Out Loud, a national program created five years ago by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. More than 300,000 students competed last year; this year’s national finals will take place in Washington, D.C., on April 27.

• Send Your news to [email protected]

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More and more “details” are coming out regarding the much-rumored Killzone 3. Previously, we heard that there’ll be some info about it “in the coming months”. A couple of days ago, it became “in the coming week”.

Despite the fact that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway lost three AAA-ratings over the last year, Berkshire credit default swap spreads just hit a 17-year low which means perceived credit risk is lower than before ratings agencies downgraded Buffett’s conglomerate.

Bloomberg:

Berkshire credit-default swaps fell to the lowest in 17 months, ending at 128.1 basis points yesterday in New York, according to CMA DataVision prices. The swaps reached 127.6 on Sept. 22, 2008. That compares with 130.4 on Feb. 19 and 525 basis points on March 5, 2009. A rising stock market in the final nine months of 2009 boosted Berkshire’s results, allowing investors to look beyond the three AAA ratings the company lost in the last year.

“The market’s increasingly recognizing the fundamental creditworthiness of Berkshire,” said Bill Bergman, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. “They’ve cemented their position in the marketplace.”

The markets have spoken. We can’t think of a more obvious example how ratings agencies have lost enormous credibility.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Who Stole Warren Buffett’s Seat At Lunch Today?
• Warren Buffett Going To Charity Lunch At Smith And Wollensky Today
• Whitney Tilson: I’m Shorting The Hell Out Of Homebuilders Because America Won’t Need Any Homes For Years

The first round of the Women’s Basketball Regional Championship found the #3 seeded Lady Hawks fall in an upset to 6th seeded C.O.D, 66-39.

Relying on the 5 starters that carried the team through the final weeks of the season, the Harper ladies struggled in the first half, digging a hole that was far too deep for the undermanned team to overcome. Shooting just 21% (5 – 24), the Lady Hawks would trail 32-14 at the half. The deficit proved too large as COD would go on to lead by as many as 34 points in the second half.

Anna Kirchoff would lead Harper with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals, Peggie Parhas added 14 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists, Siobhan Cerney contributed 6 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist, Noreen Davis added 2 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals, and Nina Montero added 2 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist.

Despite ending the season with a loss, the Lady Hawks finished the season 19-10 overall, 10-5 in conference action. This marked the first time the women’s basketball team finished with a winning record since 2002.

** Special thanks to Harper announcer Lou Nunez, Jr. for providing additional information used in the writing of this report.

Harper’s women’s track and field team participated in the North Central Invitational on February 20th with the following results:

Wt throw  Anne Craigen             10.18   33’4 ¾            pr

Shot       Anne Craigen             10.70m            35’ 1 ½  pr
             De’L   Morris                        9.05                 29’8 ¼   pr

PV         Karoline Banasik       2.50  8’2          7^th place  pr

HJ          Karolin Banasik         1.40 4.7           9^th place pr  NQ

55m       Robin Bingham          8.40 pr
             Erica Joy Ramirez     8.41 pr

mile       Chelsea McPherson  6:00.47 pr
             Janet Franco              6:27.09 pr
             Elisse Rene Lorenc   6:39.18 pr

800m     Janet Franco              2:54.82 pr 

200m     Robin Bingham          29.98 pr

3000m    Elisse Rene Lorenc   13:06.23 pr

 

1600m R                     Banasik, Maslanka, Franco, Bingham  4:43.19 pr  NQ

The Woodford County Board is seeking historical designation for its courthouse.

“There will be grants that are available once it is determined to be a historical site,” County Board member Tom Karr said. “Then, obviously, we have to let the state and nation know this is a historical site and maybe we can get a bit of tourism this way.”

The application process is just beginning, and it will be sometime before it is considered by both the state and national registers of historic places.

Last week, the County Board allocated $200,000 to rewire the courthouse building. The board hopes, with additional grant money, it will be possible to refurbish the building and make it more appealing to visitors.

When Woodford County was created in 1841, its citizens were charged with providing a courthouse building free of charge.

It also provided for a popular election to establish the permanent location within two years. The temporary courthouse was duly provided, and its first trials were in 1841. Abraham Lincoln, David Davis and Asahel Gridley were some of the circuit-riding attorneys in attendance.

According to retired Circuit Judge Richard M. Baner, who compiled a history of the courthouse, “Amidst considerable controversy and devious political maneuvering it was decided by the commissioners that a permanent courthouse would be constructed in the town of Hanover (now Metamora).”

The courthouse remained in Metamora for more than 50 years despite various efforts to move it. In 1894, Eureka, again made another attempt and prevailed. All the county offices were moved to various temporary locations in Eureka.

For the permanent structure, in 1897, the architectural firm of Bell and Kent from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was hired. The H.C. Bruning firm from Havana handled construction, which was completed in 1898 at a cost of $90,232.

This did not include the Corinthian-columned bell tower, two-ton brass bell and Howard clock donated by the citizens of Eureka in 1906 at a cost of $1,268.

The basic structure is of steel-reinforced concrete and brick with a complete stone exterior. The roof trusses are steel and the roof deck is of concrete slab. The tall windows have skylights on the upper two floors.

The interior included marble floors and wainscoting, wrought-iron stair and balcony railings, solid oak doors and paneling, and deeply molded high ceilings on the upper floors.

The tower clock was electrified in 1963 by Eureka watchmaker Ben Schumacher.

In 1991, the courthouse underwent a major renovation that included re-sheeting the dome roof, restoring the bell tower stone and steel and replacing the cupola and installing a light that can be seen for miles.

 

Catharine Schaidle can be reached at 686-3290 or [email protected]

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Harper College’s men’s track and field team participated in the North Central Invitaional on February 20th with the following results:

wt. throw         Keith Ley                   9.08m 29’9      pr
                     Adam Coonich            8.65m 28’4      pr           

Shot               Trak Myers                11.04m 36’2    pr
                     Adam Coonich            7.80m   25’7    pr 

LJ                  Fuad Agoro                 6.26     20’6     pr         5^th NQt
                     Travis Pruitt               6.15     20’2 
                     Trak Myers                5.66     18’7

TJ                  Fuad Agoro                 12.38   40’7                 5th
                     Mark Niemann          11.74   38’6                 9th

HJ                 Jarrett Austin            1.89     6’2 ½               3^rd
                    Fuad Agoro                 1.84     6’0 ½               4^th

55H              Xzavier Kimbrough    8.57 pr
                    Jarrett Austin 9.31 pr

55m             Garrett Dorsey          6.84 pr             7^th

400m           Garrett Dorsey          51.09              3^rd pr  NQ
                   Mark Niemann          58.33

800m           Jesus Escareno          2:08.13            pr
                   Tom Johnson              2:08.29            pr

mile             Jesus Escareno          4:42.65            pr

200m           Garrett Dorsey          23.63               pr
                   Fuad Agoro                 24.26               pr
                   Travis Pruitt               24.53               pr
                   Chris Myksch            30.38               pr

1600m R      Dorsey, Escareno, Johnson, Pruitt   3:42.07

Amazon’s Deal of the Day will surely bring Hell a little closer to you. Dante’s Inferno is up for grabs, and they’re slashing off some major dollars from the original price.
 
 
 

In the US, there’s been an ongoing battle by a bunch of ISPs who want to implement metered broadband as a way to increase revenue. While they’ve been spinning this as getting heavy users to “pay their fair share” you’ll note they never promote any plans to drop prices for the person who barely uses their internet connection. But one thing that has become pretty clear is that consumers absolutely hate metered broadband — not just because it can increase fees, but because it changes the way they use the internet. Rather than being free to just use it and experiment, suddenly you need to keep track of all that usage (without any kind of reliable meter). This introduces amazingly annoying transaction costs that lead people to just not want to use the internet as much — decreasing the value of the connection, even as the price is increasing.

A year ago, after a ton of bad publicity around metered billing, Time Warner Cable backed off plans to implement it on a widespread basis, and now it looks like AT&T may be recognizing the same thing. AT&T, of course, has been running a few small scale tests, and it’s been pissing people off so much that they’ve been complaining to the Better Business Bureau, which isn’t making AT&T happy. For now, the company has stopped signing new customers up for the metered trials and has said that the “experiment” will end on April 1. Whether or not the experiment ending means no more metered broadband… or more widespread metered broadband, remains to be seen. But large number of complaints being filed should make AT&T think twice before deciding to roll this out further.

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Northwest Community Hospital plans to open a center for physical therapy in the Rolling Meadows building that Sears Hardware vacated more than four years ago.

The lease on the outbuilding in the Jewel Plaza on Kirchoff Road still is being negotiated, said Gary Skiba, vice president of regional services for the hospital.

However, the hospital is confident that negotiations will be successful and hopes the center will open in the summer, he said. Remodeling plans already have been submitted to the city for review.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation or physical therapy outpatient services will be consolidated from other locations in about 10,000 square feet of the building, Skiba said. He said it is premature to announce which offices in the Northwest suburbs will close due to the consolidation.

The physical therapy services will take about half the building, but Skiba said he is pretty sure the hospital will lease the entire building. He said he did not know what else would go there.

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The book, Making Cents, written by Elizabeth Keeler Robinson and illustrated by Bob McMahon, gives young readers ideas about some of the items they can purchase with a penny going all the way up to a one hundrend dollar bill. 

The children in the book want to make a clubhouse.  They will need to save money and learn what they can purchase with every amount.  The book starts off explaing that 1 penny can buy a perfect nail.  The amount adds up to a $100 dollar bill; which the children have the choice to purchase 10,000 nails or plywood sheets, 2 x 4’s, a hammer and a saw.  Each page starts off by adding the previous coin or bill by a certain number to make up the next demonation.  An example would be: 

“Soon we’ll have two tens, and they’ll add up to a…Twenty-dollar bill! Andrew Jackson’s on the front and that’s that White House on the back. It’s worth two thousand cents, but it’s easier to carry. That twenty-dollar bill can buy..”

The children have have doing things throughout the book to earn money.  They have a lemonade stand, sell items at a yard sale, wash windows & deliver the newspaper to name a few.  The final page shows all of the children playing on the clubhouse that was built with the money that they had worked so hard for. 

Curriculum Connections

Making Cents would be an excellent book to use as part of an economics lesson related to people need to have money in order to purchase goods.  The book is realistic with what each amount of money can actually purchase in today’s economy.  It is simple enough to be read to 1st graders all the way up to 3rd grade.  After reading the story, students could think about what they would build if they had a certain amount of money and then journal about it. 

In Virgina, Making Cents can be used in the social studies SOLs 1.9, 2.8 & 3.9.  The SOLs explain that people can save money for future purchases of good and services.  As well as economic costs when making a purchase.

Additional Resources

• Here a link that teachers can use for PowerPoint presentations for their students.  The presentations are free and range from good & services to wants & needs.
• The Council for Economic Education has listed several tools that teachers can purchase to help aid in the teaching of economics.  The tools that are available for purchase can also be used to tie the lesson in with language arts.
• Teachers can use the interactive worksheets from the Goods & Services Lesson as a support to the economic content. A student can take the on-line worksheet more than once; and each time different questions will be asked.  This would be a great way for students to practice the economic knowledge they just learned.

Book: Making Cents
Author: Elizabeth Keller Robinson
Illustrator: Bob McMahon
Publisher: Tricycle Press
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 30
Grade Range: 3-5
ISBN: 13: 978-1-58246-214-1

This wonderful photo was taken in August 1950 by LIFE Magazine staff photographer Peter Stackpole. It’s part of the LIFE Magazine photo archive hosed on Google. You can purchase a framed print for $89.99.

via ffffound | Thanks to Yuri for the ffffind.

Probably every household with a cat has had a basic rectangular cardboard scratcher at one time. I’m always on the lookout for creative ways to disguise this somewhat uninteresting, but necessary, cat accessory. The Cat’s Boat from Japan caught my eye, with its sleek lines and natural wood. This wooden frame holds the cardboard insert while creating a small raised bed for a cat to lounge in. The frame also has non-skid feet to keep the scratcher in place.

Available from a number of Japanese websites (Rakuten, Fusion8186, gmo-toku.jp & real-style.jp) for 9,800¥, or about $107 US.

Check out these photos from Sei Katsu-sha of a very handsome fellow trying out his new boat:

via OhMyCat

Snow continues to be a real downer in the Tri-County Area.

More than 5 inches fell Sunday in Peoria, bringing the total for February to 17.9 inches.

But snow removal companies aren’t unhappy spring-like weather doesn’t appear to be on the horizon.

They were cleaning up again early Monday, plowing snow-covered parking lots and private driveways.

“We’ve been out since 4 this morning to get commercial jobs done before the businesses opened,” said Derek Vestal of City Coal & Asphalt in Pekin.

Snow flurries are expected to continue Tuesday, but accumulation should be minimal, according to the National Weather Service.

A high near 30 degrees is in the Tuesday forecast, with the temperature expected to drop to about 14 at night.

The snowfall has been a windfall for George Blackburn of Blackshor Services on West Plank Road in Peoria.

“The storms are larger in size, there have been longer storms and except for (Sunday), the storms have been colder,” Blackburn said. “By having more snow events, we have more business.”

But the constant accumulation and removal of snow is getting old, Blackburn said.

“We have another month of winter left,” he said. “It’s kind of wearing you weary.”

Contractor Chad Zike of Peoria said his workload this winter isn’t just about snow.

“We spend more time out because of icing conditions rather than snow,” he said. “There was slightly more snow than normal, but the icing conditions are a lot of our work.”

Temperatures weren’t cold enough Monday to cause any severe icing in Peoria.

At General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport, the runways Monday were “clean and clear,” director Gene Olson said.

Two midday flights to Chicago were delayed and an incoming flight from Detroit and an originating flight to Detroit were canceled.

Olson said weather in Peoria was not a factor in the delays and cancellations.

Lauren Rees can be reached at 686-3251 or [email protected].

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