In the News
An United States Air Force Captain killed in Afghanistan is being honored by Congressman Bill Foster (IL-11) and Congressman Randy Hultgren (IL-14) Wednesday.
Foster and Hultgren issued a joint statement to honor Captain Brandon Cyr's life, service, and sacrifice.
Captain Cyr was from Oswego and was a member of the 906th Air Refueling Squadron. He grew up in a military family and knew at a young age he wanted to serve his country. He was killed when the aircraft he was in crashed in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan on April 27, 2013.
AURORA — The hope is that the project will be a cornerstone of the rebirth of downtown.
"You take a look at RiverEdge Park, Waubonsee Community College, the Paramount, SciTech — downtown is truly becoming a destination point for culture and entertainment for the entire community and we're really pleased to be part of that," Library Board President John Savage said at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new downtown main library Wednesday.
On March 20, Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced The National Fab Lab Network Act of 2013 (H.R. 1289), which would create a federal charter for a non-profit organization called "The National Fab Lab Network" (NFLN). NFLN would act as a public-private partnership whose purpose is to facilitate the creation of a national network of fab labs and serve as a resource to assist stakeholders with their effective operation.
BOLINGBROOK – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Bill Foster announced Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has made a $680,000 investment in the Bolingbrook Fire Department for vehicle acquisition.
The funding will help support and improve the capability of the department to respond to fires and other types of emergencies, according to a press release.
It's been a busy three months for Bill Foster.
The representative for the recently redrawn 11th U.S. Congressional District has a constituency that stretches from North Aurora to New Lenox, Shorewood to Woodridge. Its border cuts a jagged diagonal across Naperville, the southwest half of which also lies in the 11th.
The construction permit for 1418 North Capitol St. was issued in October 1884 to a man named Henry Keller. He wanted the building to be two stories tall, tin-roofed, 24 feet wide and 60 feet deep, large for what he planned to use it for, which was a blacksmith shop. The most useful of useful trades — an occupation built on making things, on skill.
Over the course of a few years, Henry expanded the shop. He had 11 children, only two of whom made it to adulthood, one of whom also became a blacksmith, and he had retired by the time the 1920 Census rolled around.
And then:
Women have been working for free from December 31 until today, speakers at an equal pay rally in Chicago said.
That's because April 9 marked the day when a typical woman worker's salary finally caught up with a man's from 2012.
"I am not happy that here in the 21st century we still have to have a rally because women are not getting equal pay for equal work," said Attorney General Lisa Madigan at today's event.
Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin Congressman Bill Foster met with current and former students at Aurora University who have benefitted from the Obama Administration's recent immigration directive. The program, which is modeled after Durbin's DREAM Act, allows young immigrants brought to the United States as children a chance to apply for a two-year renewable work permit and exemption from deportation.
From a news release:
AURORA – U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, and Waubonsee Community College President Christine Sobek on Thursday announced a proposal to put a manufacturing laboratory in Waubonsee's downtown Aurora campus as a way to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.
"Manufacturing is the way a city grows," Foster said during a roundtable discussion with Sobek, Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner and other business and community leaders. "Kids don't build stuff anymore. This is an opportunity to get back into that."
When he was little, Jemuel Stephenson had the bug to make things.
So when he was 10, his mother took him to Fab Lab, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology creation that provides free access to sophisticated computer-controlled manufacturing equipment.
"It was just like heaven," Stephenson, now 18, said recently as he was using the equipment at one of the labs, a mobile facility sponsored by MIT, to make an acrylic model of a turbocharger for car engines.