Posted inTimes Weekly News

New automated Vote-By-Mail system coming together for Clerk’s office

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry earlier this week accepted the first major piece of equipment to automate the Vote By Mail program in Will County. The high-speed, state-of-the-art EvoluJet Printer from BlueCrest has the capability of printing 2,200 ballots per hour. Specialists from BlueCrest and the manufacturer, Kyocera, were on hand to assemble the EvoluJet’s components and make the necessary adjustments to begin printing test ballots on location at the Will County Clerk’s Office. The EvoluJet Printer will be joined by two other major pieces of equipment: The high-speed Relia-Vote MSE Inserter will automate the assembly of Vote By Mail packets, and the Relia-Vote Vantage Sorter will streamline the sorting of Vote By Mail packets for outbound mailing and for organizing return ballots. These three machines will improve efficiency and accuracy across the entire Vote By Mail program. They also will save Will County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars each election compared to the cost of assembling and processing Vote By Mail Ballots manually. Staley Ferry announced back in August that the Will County Board had unanimously approved $1.9 million in funding to purchase equipment to automate her office’s growing Vote By Mail program.

Posted inTimes Weekly News

Kwanzaa celebration continues through Jan. 1


The principal practiced on the forth day of Kwanzaa (December 29) is Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
Upholding the principle and practice of Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) teaches us the essential value of shared work and shared wealth and the right of everyone to a life of dignity and decency. It urges us to cultivate a kinship in and with the world, to reject artificially created conflicts between a robust economy and a rightful relationship with the environment. And it teaches respect of the earth as shared sacred space and common good, not to be plundered, polluted and depleted by corporation greed and aggression and consumerist consumption without consideration of consequences to the world.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa

Posted inTimes Weekly News

World dignitaries react to death of Bishop Desmond Tutu

Long before Nelson Mandela won his freedom from 27 years of imprisonment fighting apartheid in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu earned the moniker “the nation’s conscience.”
White and Black residents of the popular African nation lauded the bishop for his relentless fight to unite races and end the racist system of apartheid.
South Africa’s leading advocate for change and reconciliation under a Black majority rule and the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Tutu, died in Cape Town on December 26 at the age of 90.

Posted inTimes Weekly News

White House announces the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking

The updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking responds to this predatory behavior by addressing the needs of underserved individuals, families, and communities. As such, officials said it reflects the administration’s commitments to gender and racial equity by taking action against the systemic injustices that communities experience, including underserved populations.

Gift this article