State's $1 Million Seed Investment Will Connect Education, Business, Healthcare Communities to Aurora's Fiber Optic Network; Help Create 2,500 Jobs Over Five Years

AURORA - October 16, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today announced that OnLight Aurora is a recipient of an Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge award, a statewide competition to establish ultra-high speed broadband networks across Illinois. The state is awarding $1 million in Illinois Jobs Now! capital funding to OnLight Aurora to help connect the city of Aurora's fiber optic network to its education, business, and healthcare communities and accelerate economic growth and job creation.

Announced during Governor Quinn's 2012 State of the State Address, the Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge advances the governor's efforts to encourage world-class broadband infrastructure in every area of Illinois.

"Smart communities will foster the job engines of the future," Governor Quinn said. "To win in the information economy, we need information infrastructure that is second to none. Through the Gigabit Communities Challenge, Illinois will build stronger, smarter communities with Internet connections more than 100 times faster than they are today."

OnLight Aurora is among the first in a series of Challenge award recipients that will be announced in the coming weeks. The state's investment will help connect Aurora's robust, state-of-the-art fiber network to more than 12,000 end users, including students, nurses, business men and women, and residents.

Administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), the $1 million award represents a seed investment for OnLight Aurora's pilot project and will help leverage an additional $1 million in public and private matching funds and create 2,500 jobs over the next five years. The state's investment will help provide connectivity to Aurora's public and private K-12 schools, higher education and healthcare institutions, commercial corridors and community anchors in underserved areas, and major non-profit organizations across the city.

"This grant will help OnLight Aurora continue to close the digital divide within our city by capitalizing on our Fiber Optic Network," said Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner. "We know that technology has the potential to revolutionize our educational system and it is an absolute must for successful companies of all sizes. By developing the infrastructure of the future, we drive economic development, strengthen our tax base, and address our community's most fundamental needs: jobs, quality of life and global competitiveness."

OnLight Aurora is an independent, not-for-profit organization that was formed out of a technology task force organized by Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner in 2011 that included public and private sector volunteers. The mission of OnLight Aurora is to leverage the world-class connectivity of Aurora's Fiber Optic Network for non-municipal use.

"One of the major factors in companies locating to a city is the access to technology," said Joseph Henning, President and CEO of the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce. "This grant will make it more cost effective to provide current businesses and those looking to make Aurora home, with the technology they need to succeed in today's global business environment while creating thousands of jobs over the next five years."

As part of the comprehensive, multi-year Illinois Jobs Now! economic development program, the Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge sought proposals from private and public organizations to encourage promising ultra high-speed broadband deployment projects throughout Illinois. Applicants were required to provide a viable plan to connect at least 1,000 end users to an ultra high-speed broadband network. Award recipients will receive seed funding to help build or expand world-class broadband networks in Illinois.

Earlier today, Governor Quinn awarded the first Gigabit Communities Challenge grant to Gigabit Squared during an awards ceremony held in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. For more information on the Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge, visit Gigabit.Illinois.gov.

A longtime advocate for improving our technology infrastructure, Governor Quinn has been a strong voice for broadband deployment in all areas of Illinois. As part of the Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program, the Broadband Deployment Fund was used in 2010 and 2011 to jumpstart more than 4,000 miles of new fiber optic cable construction and more than $300 million in private and federal investment in Illinois.

The Place where corn and nightmares grow!

28322 Great River Road, Princeton, Iowa

October 19, 20, 26, 27 and 31. Opens at 7pm, last victims through the gates at 10:30pm.

Admission is $12. Bring two non-perishable food items to donate to the North Scott Student Hunger Drive and receive $2 off your ticket.

Online tickets available at www.hauntedcarterfarms.com

WASHINGTON - Senators Chuck Grassley and Dean Heller and Representative Mark Amodei are pressing Attorney General Eric Holder for information about the cases that were not prosecuted during a fall-out between the Reno, Nevada offices of the U.S. Attorney and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

A recent article in the Reno Gazette Journal indicated that the U.S. Attorney's office may have declined or dismissed as many as a dozen cases that were submitted by the ATF.

"The Justice Department has yet to respond to any of Congress' questions about what happened in Reno for more than a year.  It's an abdication of responsibility on the part of the Justice Department, and if these crimes weren't prosecuted, whether because of actions of the U.S. Attorney or the ATF, the people of Nevada should know why," Grassley said.

"This breakdown within the Department of Justice is a threat to public safety. There is no question this problem should have been addressed some time ago. The Department of Justice needs to explain why they allowed this problem to fester. I will continue to work with Senator Grassley and Congressman Amodei to get answers and hold the Department of Justice accountable," said Heller.

"The Department of Justice owes Nevadans an explanation and a solution. That it has failed to provide either, let alone demonstrate a sense of concern or urgency, is disappointing. I will continue to work with Senators Grassley and Heller to ensure this problem receives the attention it deserves," Amodei said.

A copy of the text of the letter is below.  A signed copy of the letter can be found here.

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

We are in receipt of the Department's October 12, 2012, letter regarding the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Reno.

On September 28, 2012, we understand that ATF Acting Director B. Todd Jones and U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden released a public statement, although neither the Justice Department nor ATF took any steps to notify any of our offices about the statement before we learned about it from public news accounts.  In that statement, Acting Director Jones and U.S. Attorney Bogden reportedly said: "The United States Attorney's Office in Nevada is accepting, for review and potential prosecution, all cases and matters referred to it by ATF.  The United States Attorney's Office and ATF are reviewing the allegations and will work to address any issues that could impact the effectiveness of their law enforcement efforts to protect the public from violent crime."

According to recent accounts by the Reno Gazette Journal, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada may have declined or dismissed as many as a dozen cases that had been submitted to it by ATF.[1] Therefore, please provide answers to the following questions:

1)      Is the U.S. Attorney's Office re-considering the cases that it formerly declined when submitted to it by ATF?

2)      If so, how long will it take to conduct reviews of those cases?

3)      Who within the U.S. Attorney's Office would conduct the review?

4)      In the course of the U.S. Attorney's Office's dispute with ATF, how many of the ATF cases declined by the U.S. Attorney's Office would be barred within the next six months by statutes of limitations?  For each such case, precisely when would the statute of limitations expire?

Please provide a response and produce these documents by Thursday, October 25, 2012.  If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact Senator Grassley's staff at (202) 224-5225, Senator Heller's staff at (202) 224-6244, or Representative Amodei's staff at (202) 225-6155.

Sincerely,

Chuck Grassley

Dean Heller

Mark Amodei

cc:       The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General

U.S. Department of Justice

B. Todd Jones, Acting Director

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

The Honorable Daniel G. Bogden, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada

U.S. Department of Justice

[1] Martha Bellisle, ATF cases U.S. Attorney's office in Reno refused to prosecute, Reno Gazette Journal (Oct. 9, 2012), available at http://www.rgj.com/interactive/article/20121009/NEWS01/121009018/RGJ-Investigates-ATF-cases-U-S-Attorney-s-office-Reno-refused-prosecute.