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Kish College receives $1.1M grant Federal funds will provide support services for 140 students, increasing tutoring opportunities By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com MALTA – Kishwaukee College has received a $1.1 million federal grant that will allow the college to provide support services to 140 students. Kishwaukee College will use the five-year TRIO Student Support Services grant to implement a program that will focus on assisting first-generation, low-income college stu-
dents as well as students with academic or physical disabilities. “This is a big deal for us,” Tom Choice, president of Kishwaukee College, said. “It’s really going to make a big difference for that population that we serve.” Kishwaukee College is a two-year community college in Malta that offers five transfer degrees and more than 70 occupational degrees and
certificates. This is the first time they have received the TRIO grant. The first-year grant award is $220,000 and will total $1.1 milTom Choice lion by the end of its five-year allotment. Elected officials including U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield, and state Rep. Bob
Pritchard, R-Hinckley, will be on campus at 12:30 p.m. Monday for a launch event to celebrate the college’s successful grant application. The grant will help the college provide increased tutoring opportunities, learning community groups and other assistance to students in order to increase graduation rates and help provide students with a better understanding of finances and college resourc-
es, Sedgwick Harris, vice president of student services at Kishwaukee College, said. “When you have a student who doesn’t understand the [college] process, they tend to not persist,” he said. “If they are the first person in their family to go to college and they don’t have parents who understand the process and what resources are available
See GRANT, page A8
If you go The Student Support Services program will kickoff today with a ceremony at 12:30 p.m., at the Kishwaukee College Student Center, Room C1130, with U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren and state Rep. Bob Pritchard present. Students can apply through the Office of Student Services. Income eligibility will be verified through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
House GOP heads back to the Capitol
HELPING FIND CLOSURE
Speaker position up in the air for Republican majority By ERICA WERNER The Associated Press
Photos by Katie Smith – ksmith@shawmedia.com
Marcy Richardson shares a photo album with her neighbors Saturday, during a memorial for Jackie Klosa, who was killed in the EF 4 tornado that leveled Fairdale and surrounding areas in April. Although it’s been a struggle for Klosa’s family to cope after the disaster, they hosted the memorial in hopes of providing closure for community members who knew Klosa.
Remembering their friend Fairdale community celebrates life of Jackie Klosa By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com KIRKLAND – The Kirkland Community Fire Department fell silent Saturday as Marcy Richardson played the last voicemail she received from her sister-in-law and dear friend, Jackie Klosa. Klosa, 69, was killed in the EF4 tornado that swept through Fairdale and the surrounding area April 9. Family and friends gathered Saturday at the Kirkland Community Fire Department to celebrate Klosa’s life. “... I just wanted to let you know I’m driving myself this morning ...” Klosa said on the voicemail. A stroke left Klosa without a driver’s license for some time, but when it was finally reissued, the woman, who prided herself in her independence, no longer needed to rely on neighbors and friends for rides. “The last weekend she was over, I’d be doing dishes and she’d tap me on the shoulder and stick it out to show me,” Klosa’s sister,
A card with the words “please share a memory with us!” rests inside a journal Saturday at the Kirkland Community Fire Department during a memorial for Jackie Klosa. Guests were invited to write their favorite memory with Klosa. Billie Schnorenberg said. Klosa’s family laid the longtime Fairdale resident to rest next to her husband Aug 19, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Although the experience was therapeutic for those who knew Klosa best, an outcry from the community sparked Sat-
urday’s memorial, her daughter, Donna Peek, said. “I’ve heard from the community that they were wondering when we were going to have something up here for mom,” she said. “They were needing closure.” Klosa was found in the bathroom of her home after the torna-
do leveled most of the unincorporated community. She had battled lung cancer, but was cancer-free when she died, Schnorenberg said. “I was the last one to talk to her the night of the tornado,” Schnorenberg said. “[I said] that she needed to go to the basement, and I knew she wouldn’t. It really wouldn’t have made any difference, but we didn’t know that at the time – she was deathly afraid of spiders. She said, ‘They’ll find me in the bathtub with my purse and my cellphone.’ And that’s where they found her.” Klosa was a retired Quality Control inspector from G.I.C. for more than 20 years and survived by her daughters, Peek, and Yvette DeWispelaere; Schnorenberg, her sister, and many more extended family and long-time friends. After beating a terminal lung-cancer diagnoses, things were looking up for Klosa, neighbor and family-friend Geri Hopper said.
See FAIRDALE, page A8
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STEMfest promotes science, opportunity among families / A3
NIU offense firing on all cylinders in victory at Miami Ohio / B1
Pumpkin Fest kicks off with trick-or-treating in Sycamore / A6
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WASHINGTON – House Republicans return to Washington this week to confront a nearly unprecedented leadership crisis, looming budget deadlines and a deeply uncertain future. Attention is focused on Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, who is under pressure from party leaders to run for House speaker – a job he repeatedly has made clear he does not want. Even if Ryan yields to his colleagues’ pleas, conservatives are increasingly serving notice that the 45-year-old House Ways and Means Committee chairman will have to audition for the job just like anyone else, despite the widespread support he has. That suggests that the same John hard-liners who pushed current Boehner Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to announce his resignation and scared off his heir apparent, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., could throw up obstacles to Ryan, too. It also leaves any resolution unclear for a party that seems Paul Ryan nearly irreparably divided. More than a half-dozen lawmakers are considering running for speaker if Ryan does not, even as hard-liners warn that Boehner risks more rebellions if he stays on past his planned departure date of Oct. 29. “John is a lame duck. There was a reason John announced his resignation,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. “I think Paul does have the credibility across the conference to be able to unite us, but to say he’s the only one I think is hyperbole.” “It’s not just the conservatives Paul would have to convince,” Mulvaney added. “Everybody’s interested in a new type of leadership.” The turmoil comes as Congress confronts the need to raise the federal borrowing limit by early November or risk a market-shattering default, and delicate talks are underway to come up with a budget deal to avoid a government shutdown in two months. The task of raising the debt limit is falling to Boehner. But he will have to tread carefully, given GOP objections to an increase without concessions from President Barack Obama – something the White House is ruling out. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the Republican rebels, said he would consider forcing a vote to push Boehner out of the speaker’s chair if Boehner engages in “nefarious activity.” Massie defined that as “running the tables” on legislation not supported by a majority of Republicans. Boehner has suggested he wants to “clean the barn” before leaving Congress so his
See HOUSE, page A8
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