NRA Calls for 'Armed Security' Around Schools

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," the NRA's Wayne LaPierre said.

In an amazing Friday morning press conference, the National Rifle Association broke its weeklong silence following the horrific shooting of 26 people at a school in Newtown, CT and called for a surge of gun-carrying "good guys" around American schools. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for a new kind of American domestic security revolving around armed civilians, arguing that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." "We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents," LaPierre said. "Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American family, our …

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Last Chance: D39 Kindergarten Orientation

Registration is open now at Central, Harper, McKenzie and Romona.

Kindergarten registration is currently underway at Wilmette School District 39 for children who live within the district’s boundaries and will turn five on or before Sept. 1. District 39 serves portions of Wilmette, Glenview and Winnetka. Registration packets can be picked up at Central, Harper, McKenzie and Romona. Each of the four elementary schools will hold kindergarten parent orientations from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17. On April 23, each school will hold a lottery to determine whether children will attend kindergarten in the morning or afternoon. Not sure where your child will go to school? A map of the District’s boundaries and the attendance area of each school can be found on the District’s website at www.wilmette39.org. …

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An Extra Shot With James

A Year in Review: Bidding Farewell to 2011

Patch's columnist takes a look back at a year of advice and commentary.

This week Wilmette-Kenilworth and Winnetka Patch are running countdowns of the top news stories of the year. So I figured I’d get in on the action and do my own little year in review piece. How unoriginal is it to write a retrospective column right before New Year’s? Pretty freaking unoriginal. But it’s either that or some equally uninspired fluff piece about things to do around town for New Year’s Eve. So with the sun setting on 2011, I thought I would comb through all of my previous columns from this past year and attempt to put a little bow on the whole shebang. Strolling through the back catalog of my recent hits, I have discovered that the voice and focus of this column has changed over the course of the year. In the beginning quarter…

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Avoca Looks to Merge Summer School, Save Money

Avoca District 37 and Wilmette Public Schools District 39 are discussing deepening summer school combination.

Summer school has concluded at Avoca District 37 for 2011 and possibly forever in its current form. At Thursday’s District 37 school board members talked openly about furthering consolidating summer school operations with District 39 as early as next year to reduce costs. The two districts already partner on special education and an informal discussion has begun on whether elective courses should all be placed under the umbrella of District 39. “We are looking at cost savings,” District 37 President Jeffrey Greengoss said. “The summer school program has been losing some money because there is more busing that we had hoped for and some of the students are non-tuition. I made it a priority to see where the numbers came in to see if we could …

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