Angela Wood's "Things Not Seen"

Rockford author Angela Wood is celebrating the nationwide release of her historical novel Things Not Seen.

The novel takes readers to 1939 as Elisabeth Muldern’s dream of teaching needy children is about to come true. She has settled in the poorest section of Chicago to do exactly that.

Kenneth Derrin finally finishes medical school, but before he can begin a country practice, his father, owner of Derrin Steel Consolidated, dies, leaving Kenneth to run the vast enterprise.

With the world on the brink of another Great War, the Chicago mob sees a lucrative opportunity to seize the steel mill industry across the country. Believing Elisabeth to be a spy for the Feds and Kenneth an uncontrollable liability, the mob seeks to eliminate all threats to the Chicago plants.

In Things Not Seen, readers learn how Elisabeth’s and Kenneth’s lives become entwined for survival by Providence.

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available through bookstores nationwide.

As an English teacher for nearly 30 years, Wood has been encouraging her students to love the art and enjoyment of writing. As a professional pianist, she has broadened her outreach to others through public performance and private instrumental tutoring. She lives with her husband and children in Rockford.

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A Lesson Learned From The Election: Civility In Politics Needs To Be Restored

The Stevenson family has a unique place in American political history. The first Adlai E. Stevenson, Vice President of the U.S., collected stories, jokes and aphorisms in a loose-leaf binder throughout his long career. They were jotted on napkins, cards -- anything at hand. If it was worth keeping, it went in the binder which became known as “the black book.” His son, Lewis Stevenson, Illinois Secretary of State, contributed little, but his grandson Adlai II expanded the black book in his career as a lawyer, senior official in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, Governor of Illinois, Presidential candidate and Ambassador to the UN.

Adlai E. Stevenson III inherited the black book, including contributions from friends and supporters around the world, and augmented it from his career as a Marine, lawyer, State Representative, State Treasurer, United States Senator, candidate for governor, international investment banker and ever the hereditary global sojourner and public policy activist. The black book was continuously organized and reorganized as a ready source of wit and wisdom for their speeches.

While a lack of civility is a symptom of today’s money-driven politics of ideology, tactics, religiosity and ignorance, the author believes Americans today yearn for the politics and culture which created America and made it great.

In Adlai Stevenson III’s The Black Book, he records American politics, culture and history as these men knew it. Since few, if any, American families have been as actively involved in public office and politics for as long as the Stevensons – beginning in the 1840’s with great-great-grandfather Jesse Fell who sponsored  Abraham Lincoln for President -- it is a unique history covering finance and economics, law and justice, the media, politics, religion, education, war, and so much more. In order to see the future you must see the past, from The Black Book.

Adlai E. Stevenson III has lectured widely, authored numerous articles and is the recipient of many honors, including Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure with Gold and Silver Star, and is an Honorary Professor of Renmin University in Beijing. He is Chairman of the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy which aims to bring practitioners from the world together to address systemic challenges to democratic systems and also Chairman of SC&M Investment Management Corp., an international financial intermediary. A graduate of Harvard College and Law School, he maintains an office in Chicago and a home with his wife, Nancy, on a farm near Galena, Illinois.

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Dying Mafia Don Gives Advice to His Grandson

An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed and said, "Grandson I wanta you to listen to me. I wanta you to take mya 45 automatic pistol, so you will always remember me." Grandson replied, "But grandpa I really don't like guns, how about you leaving me your Rolex watch instead."

The old man replied: "You lisina to me, some day you goina run da bussiness, you goina have a beautiful wife, lotsa money, a biga home and maybe a couple of bambino, some day you goina come home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another man. Whata you gonna do then? Pointa to you watch and say, "Times Up"?

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Federal Arrest Warrants & $50,000 Reward Issued for Joseph Jose Banks and Kenneth Conley, #WeHaveAFugitive

Federal arrest warrants were issued late today for two men who were charged with escaping this morning from the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in downtown Chicago. Joseph Jose Banks and Kenneth Conley were each charged with escape in a criminal complaint filed this afternoon in U.S. District Court. A widespread manhunt for both men continues under the coordination of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, together with numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Banks, described as male/black, age 37, 5’8” tall, 160 pounds, and Conley, described as male/white, age 38, 6’0” tall, 185 pounds, were believed to be traveling together and were reportedly last seen this morning in the Tinley Park area. Both men are considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information about them is encouraged to contact local law enforcement or the Chicago FBI Field Office at 312-421-6700.

According to the complaint affidavit, Banks and Conley were cellmates and were present during a physical head count at 10 p.m. last night. MCC employees arriving for work at approximately 7 a.m. today observed what appeared to be a rope hanging from a window on the south side of the building. A physical head count was conducted, and neither Banks nor Conley were present in their cell. The window in the cell was broken and had a makeshift rope tied to its bars.

The high-rise MCC in Chicago, located at 71 West van Buren St., is a federal detention facility operated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Escape carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statues and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The charges were announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Thomas R. Trautmann, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office. The U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Chicago Police Department are assisting in the investigation, along with other law enforcement agencies.

A complaint contains merely allegations and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Manhunt Continues for Escaped Bank Robbers from Chicago High-Rise Jail, #WeHaveAFugitive

Two bank robbers pulled off a daring escape from downtown Chicago's high-rise jail Tuesday by apparently scaling down about 20 stories using a makeshift rope tied to the bars in a cell window.

Police helicopters and canine units swarmed the area, but not until more than three hours after Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley went unaccounted for during a 5 a.m. headcount, U.S. Marshal's Service spokeswoman Belkis Cantor said.

Both men were still at large late Tuesday night.

Investigators found a broken window in the men's cell, where window bars were found inside a mattress, according to an FBI affidavit filed late Tuesday. Fake metal bars also were found in the men's cell, a rope was tied to a window bar, and each man's bed was stuffed with clothing and sheets to resemble a body, the affidavit said.

It appeared to illustrate a meticulously planned escape from the 27-story facility that came a week after Banks made a courtroom vow of retribution. Both men are facing hefty prison sentences, and the FBI said they should be considered armed and dangerous.

SWAT teams stormed at least one home in Tinley Park, a suburb south of the city. Although neither man was found, evidence suggested that both had been at the home just hours earlier, according to the FBI.

Some schools went on lockdown after being inundated with calls from nervous parents. Mike Byrne, a superintendent in Tinley Park, said "our parents are so emotionally charged right now" because of the school shootings in Connecticut.

Hours after the escape, a rope possibly made of bed sheets could be seen dangling down the side of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. At least 200 feet long and knotted about every 6 feet, the rope was hanging from a window that was 6 feet tall but only 6 inches in diameter.

The facility is one of the only skyscraper lockups in the world, and experts say its triangular shape was meant to make it easier to guard, theoretically reducing blind spots for guards. The only other escape from the nearly 40-year-old facility occurred in the mid-1980s, Cantor said.

Exactly when Banks, 37, and Conley, 38, escaped remains unclear. Shop owners across the street from the wall the men scaled said police suddenly flooded into the area around 8:30 a.m., hours after they missed a headcount. Police initially said the men escaped sometime between 5 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

Both men were wearing orange jumpsuits, but police believe they may have quickly changed into white T-shirts, gray sweat pants and white gym shoes. The FBI believes both men were in Tinley Park, a heavily wooded area about 25 miles south of Chicago. Authorities were scouring a local forest preserve in the afternoon.

Banks, known as the Second-Hand Bandit because he wore used clothes during his heists, was convicted last week of robbing two banks and attempting to rob two others. Authorities say he stole almost $600,000, and most of that still is missing.

During trial, he had to be restrained because he threatened to walk out of the courtroom. He acted as his own attorney and verbally sparred with the prosecutor, at times arguing that that U.S. law didn't apply to him because he was a sovereign citizen of a group that was above state and federal law.

After he was convicted by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, he said he would "be seeking retribution as well as damages," the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune reported.

When the judge asked how long he needed to submit a filing, Banks replied: "No motion will be filed, but you'll hear from me."

Pallmeyer, a prominent federal judge who oversaw the corruption trial of now imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, appeared to stick to her regular schedule Tuesday and there were no signs of extra security. Her office declined comment.

Conley pleaded guilty last October to robbing a Homewood Bank last year of nearly $4,000. Conley, who worked at the time at a suburban strip club, wore a coat and tie when he robbed the bank, and had a gun stuffed in his waistband.

Both men were being held in the Chicago lockup, which houses around 700 inmates awaiting trial in the Dirksen Federal Building a few blocks away. It is one of the only skyscraper jails in the world, said Jennifer Lucente of Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Architect Harry Weese designed the building in the mid-1970s shortly after notorious prison riots in Attica, N.Y., and was asked to design a "more humane" lockup, Lucente said. That was one reason Weese ensured each cell had a window, she said.

The brother of Hollywood director Christopher Nolan also tried to escape in 2010. Matthew Nolan, who was being held pending an extradition request, was sentenced to 14 months in jail for plotting to escape from by hiding a rope made out of bed sheets in his cell.

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