Three Innovative Manufacturers Announce New Jobs in East Peoria, Colona and Chicago, Illinois

CHICAGO - February 7, 2013. As part of his commitment to drive small business growth, Governor Pat Quinn today announced new jobs at three small Illinois manufacturers. The governor is strengthening his effort to attract and expand manufacturing companies in Illinois by helping small businesses get access to capital to bridge the credit crunch and create jobs. Expansion of these businesses across Illinois today will create 75 new jobs.

The companies the governor visited today are: Vosges Haut-Chocolat in Chicago, freight firm Tennant Truck Lines Inc. in Colona and medical device maker Endotronix in Peoria.

"These high-potential companies are examples of the innovation and diversity that make up Illinois' manufacturing landscape," Governor Quinn said. "Small business means big business. As our state continues to recover from the great recession, we must always do all we can to boost economic growth and job creation."

Approximately three out of every four workers in Illinois are employed by a small business, according to state employment data. A small business is defined as companies that employ fewer than 500 workers. In total, there are about 271,000 small businesses in Illinois employing nearly 3.7 million workers.

The state provided the three companies with targeted investment packages, administered by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The packages included Advantage Illinois, a federal program that connects banks with Illinois residents to start new companies and expand existing businesses; Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) corporate income tax credits, which are based on job creation; and Employer Training Investment Program (ETIP) job training funds that will help enhance the skills of their workforces.

Launched in 2011, Advantage Illinois is a five-year program that leverages $78 million in federal funding to attract almost $800 million in private sector investments. These investments allow businesses to bring innovative ideas and new products to market, and accelerate job creation and economic growth in Illinois.

Governor Quinn's manufacturing jobs tour follows his State of the State address, in which he announced the Illinois Manufacturing Lab, an innovative, public-private approach to advanced manufacturing. The lab will serve as a hub for companies to learn the world's most sophisticated tools and software, keeping Illinois at the cutting edge of advanced manufacturing.

Under Governor Quinn's leadership, DCEO is identifying and aggressively courting companies such as Vosges, Tennant and Endotronix that are looking to expand their reach. The governor has made marketing Illinois' world-class attributes abroad part of his jobs agenda, from working with local businesses to increasing their access to global markets, to personally meeting with companies to recruit them to Illinois.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat (Chicago)

The Chicago-based chocolate maker purchased a former Whole Foods bakery building in Logan Square, and converted it into its new corporate headquarters, test kitchen and manufacturing plant. The building will eventually house a chocolate museum, a retail store and a gastropub. For the first time, Vosges will fulfill CEO Katrina Markoff's "bean to bar" mission to trace the origins of its chocolate and craft it directly from the source - the cacao bean.

Vosges will invest $3 million and create 35 jobs in Illinois. DCEO provided an Advantage Illinois Participation Loan, EDGE tax credits and ETIP training dollars worth a total of $1.7 million. In a participation loan, DCEO purchases a portion of the bank term loan at below market interest rate.

"The chocolate temple will be much more than a physical address, it will be the beating heart of our endeavors and a hub of creativity for all who care to venture with us," Katrina Markoff, CEO and founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat said. "Working with the state, we will be able to move out of a leased facility and purchase a building that allows us to remain a home-grown Chicago business."

Tennant Truck Lines Inc. (Colona)

The regional trucking firm built a 20,000 square foot outpost in Colona that will combine three existing facilities in the Quad Cities area. The expansion provides a modernized, central location for employees and positions the trucking firm to expand operations as the company grows. Tennant Truck Lines, founded in 1946, currently serves the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Midwest.

DCEO is providing Tennant Truck Lines with Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits that is worth up to $1.1 million over 10 years. The trucking firm has committed to invest $2.1 million and create 30 jobs. In keeping with the terms of EDGE, if the company doesn't meet its job creation targets and commitments, it will not be eligible for the tax credits.

"Tennant has grown the company from 75 employees in 2009 to over 200 employees in 2013," said Aaron Tennant, CEO of the trucking company. "Tennant Truck Lines has been able to focus on a comprehensive investment in promoting professional truck driver image and respect at a state and nationwide level along with providing a solid footprint and service offering across the Mid-Atlantic.

Endotronix Inc. (East Peoria)

Endotronix is developing a sensor system for patients with congestive heart failure that prevents the need for hospitalization by allowing for critical medication adjustments by phone or office visit. The Advantage Illinois' Invest Illinois Venture Fund (IIVF) is one of several investors providing funding for Endotronix to ramp up clinical trials to test the efficacy of the system. Central Illinois Angels is the lead investor.

IIVF is a new venture capital program that supports young, innovative companies in our state that demonstrate high growth potential. DCEO invested $400,000 to support the expansion. Endotronix agreed to create 10 jobs.

"IIVF's commitment to Endotronix was a tipping point for our company, allowing us to complete financing that funded our advanced engineering effort to overcome key technical challenges," said Harry Rowland, CEO of Endotronix. "We are now on the cusp of tremendous growth and value creation, as our technology can improve the quality of life for patients suffering from congestive heart failure while reducing the overall costs of care. We would not be in this position today without the visionary support of IIVF and the state's leadership in supporting the development of early stage life science companies here in Illinois."

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Author/contributor:  Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.  http://www.aapsonline.org/

Black history in American has certainly had its ups and downs. It's troubling when, for political theater, those who should know better fail to emphasize the inspirational stories that highlight the strengths of blacks and the humanity of whites. While it is undeniable that cruelty and suffering are part of this country's history, at some point it is counterproductive to paint blacks as weak victims of the white man's callousness.

There were always free blacks in America (including my family). Indeed, in 1641, Mathias De Sousa, an African indentured servant who came from England with Lord Baltimore, was elected to Maryland's General Assembly. The first census of 1790 counted 19 per cent black Americans, 10 per cent of whom were free.

Black Americans served on both sides during the Revolutionary War. The British promised freedom to slaves belonging to Patriot masters who served. Because of his manpower shortages, George Washington lifted the ban on black enlistment in the Continental Army in January 1776, creating his so-called "mixed multitude," which was 15 per cent black. Economist Walter Williams is so correct that necessity can overcome prejudice.

Nestled in the back of some folks' minds was (is?) the notion that blacks were not as intelligent as whites. They certainly couldn't have had the smarts to be doctors. James Derham (c. 1757-1802?), born a slave in Philadelphia, proved the naysayers wrong. He was the first known black American physician, although not professionally trained in medical school. As was common at the time, physicians were trained in apprenticeships. Young Derham was fortunate that his three early masters were physicians who taught him to read and write.

Derham's third owner taught the young teen how to mix and administer medicines. After this owner, who had been arrested during the war for being a Tory, died in prison, Derham was sold to a British officer, and he served as a doctor to soldiers. After the war, he became the property of a Scottish physician (appropriately named Dr. Love) from New Orleans, who hired him to work as a medical assistant and apothecary.

By 1783, Derham quickly saved enough money to buy his freedom, and he set up his own medical practice in New Orleans. Derham, who spoke English, French, and Spanish, was a popular and highly regarded doctor, who treated both black and white patients. By age 30, Derham earned more than $3,000 annually.

Derham's medical paper on his success in treating diphtheria caught the attention of Benjamin Rush, a physician who signed the Declaration of Independence, served as surgeon general of the Continental Army, and has been called "the father of American medicine." Rush invited Derham to Philadelphia in 1788 and was so impressed that he encouraged him to stay. There, Derham became an expert in throat diseases and in the relationship between weather and disease.

In 1789, Derham returned to New Orleans, where he saved many yellow fever victims. He stopped practicing medicine in 1801, when the new city regulations required a formal medical degree to be considered a doctor. Nothing is known of his whereabouts after 1802.

The first university-trained black American physician was James McCune Smith, born in 1813 to slave parents who were emancipated by New York law. Despite his scholastic achievements at the Free African School of New York, he was denied admission to American medical schools. When he was 19 years old, the Glasgow Emancipation Society helped Smith enroll in Scotland's University of Glasgow. He received his B.A. degree in 1835 and his M.D. degree in 1837. A skilled debater and lecturer, Smith was a founding member of the New York Statistics Society in 1852, and was elected as an early member of the American Geographic Society.

The first American medical degree was conferred on David J. Peck, born circa 1826 into a free black family in Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1846, after studying two years with a private physician, he enrolled in Rush Medical College and graduated in 1847. Peck practiced medicine in Philadelphia for 2 years before moving to Central America to start a homeland for free blacks in Nicaragua.

Thank you, doctors, for paving the way for my grandfather, my father, and me.

http://www.aapsonline.org/

Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD is a board-certified anesthesiologist and Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) member. Despite being told, "they don't take Negroes at Stanford", she graduated from Stanford and earned her MD at UCSF Medical School. Dr. Singleton completed 2 years of Surgery residency at UCSF, then her Anesthesia residency at Harvard's Beth Israel Hospital. She was an instructor, then Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland before returning to California for private practice. While still working in the operating room, she attended UC Berkeley Law School, focusing on constitutional law and administrative law. She interned at the National Health Law Project and practiced insurance and health law. She teaches classes in the recognition of elder abuse and constitutional law for non-lawyers. Dr. Singleton recently returned from El Salvador where she conducted make-shift medical clinics in two rural villages. Her latest presentation to physicians was at the AAPS annual meeting about challenging the political elite.

Additional op-ed  by Dr. Singleton: ObamaCare and the Twilight Zone: To Serve Man  http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/medicine_and_the_twilight_zone_2013_to_serve_man/

AAPS Lawsuit Covered on national TV News with Rand Paul on Andrew Napolitano: http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/video/2

There are new opportunities to harvest corn stover in two regions of Iowa - near Nevada in central Iowa and near Dubuque in eastern Iowa. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will host two meetings, one in each part of the state, to address emerging opportunities related to stover harvesting for the biomass feedstock needs of local industries.

The central Iowa meeting will be held Feb. 28 at the Iowa Arboretum near Madrid, Iowa. This meeting is in collaboration with DuPont and will look at the use of corn stover in cellulosic ethanol production. The eastern Iowa meeting will be held on March 6 at the 4-H Building at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds, Dubuque, Iowa. The eastern Iowa meeting is in collaboration with JELD-WEN Fiber of Iowa to discuss use of corn stover as a fiber material. Both meetings start at 12:45 p.m.

Stover harvesting can impact economic, agronomic and water quality production factors. The meetings will address many of the positives and negatives of stover harvesting and discuss how stover harvesting can be managed within corn production. Crop producers, land owners, crop consultants, agronomists, service providers and others with an interest in stover harvest and its
removal from farm fields are encouraged to attend.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach meeting speakers include : John Sawyer and Antonio Mallarino, soil fertility specialists; Mahdi Al-Kaisi, soil management specialist; Chad Hart and William Edwards, agricultural marketing specialists; Matt Helmers and Kapil Arora, agricultural engineering specialists; Mark Licht and Virgil Schmitt, field agronomists; and Kelvin Leibold, farm management specialist. Industry speakers on the agenda include : Dr. David Ertl, technology commercialization manager, Iowa Corn Growers Association; Dennis Penland, DuPont business development manager; Andy Heggenstaller, agronomy research manager, DuPont; and Gardner Lance, general manager, JELD-WEN Fiber of Iowa.

A noon lunch will be sponsored by industry partners prior to the start of the meeting at no cost to the participants, however pre-registration is required. Industry representatives will be available to meet with participants during lunch and at the close of the meeting.

Registration forms for the Feb. 28 Boone County meeting are available from the Boone County Extension Office by calling 515-432-3882, or online at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/boone/. Registration for the March 6 Dubuque meeting are available from the Dubuque County Extension and Outreach Office by calling 563 583-6496, or online at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/dubuque/.

There is no fee to attend this meeting. Registration is required for correct meal and handout counts. Walk-in registration the day of the meeting will only be accepted if space is available.

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