NASA statement on loss of communications with Columbia

[FEB. 1, 2003]  A Space Shuttle contingency has been declared in Mission Control, Houston, as a result of the loss of communication with the Space Shuttle Columbia at approximately 9 a.m. EST Saturday as it descended toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. It was scheduled to touchdown at 9:16 a.m. EST.

Communication and tracking of the shuttle was lost at 9 a.m. EST at an altitude of about 203,000 feet in the area above north central Texas. At the time communications were lost. The shuttle was traveling approximately 12,500 miles per hour (Mach 18). No communication and tracking information were received in Mission Control after that time.

Search and rescue teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth and in portions of East Texas have been alerted. Any debris that is located in the area that may be related to the Space Shuttle contingency should be avoided and may be hazardous as a result of toxic propellants used aboard the shuttle. The location of any possible debris should immediately be reported to local authorities.

Flight controllers in Mission Control have secured all information, notes and data pertinent to today's entry and landing by Space Shuttle Columbia and continue to methodically proceed through contingency plans.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will make a statement over NASA Television at 1 p.m. EST (12 p.m. CST) Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center.

[NASA]

Will Andy Applesauce wake up
on Groundhog Day?

[FEB. 1, 2003]  Illinois Raptor Center invites you to come and find out!

(Andy has been asleep since November! It is very important that he wake up on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, to forecast the weather!)

Please take this opportunity to drop by the center for a photo opportunity anytime between 9 and 10 a.m. on Groundhog Day to meet Decatur's own hometown whistle pig, Andy Applesauce. You will be able to take pictures or video of Andy, rain or shine!

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IRC will provide a fact sheet about groundhogs, along with coffee and doughnuts to celebrate the day. Please join us!

If you need more information, call the Illinois Raptor Center at (217) 963-6909 or e-mail us at barnowl@illinoisraptorcenter.org.

The Illinois Raptor Center is a private nonprofit organization serving the people and wildlife of Illinois.

Visit our site at www.illinoisraptorcenter.org.

[Illinois Raptor Center news release]

Ameren prepared to merge with CILCO

[FEB. 1, 2003]  ST. LOUIS -- Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE - News) announced Friday that two Peoria-based managers will be the top operating officers at AmerenCILCO: Scott A. Cisel, 49, vice president and chief operating officer for AmerenCILCO, and Robert G. Ferlmann, 41, vice president, AmerenCILCO Trading and Dispatch and Unregulated Sales.

Ameren Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Mueller will be chairman of AmerenCILCO, and Ameren President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Rainwater will serve as president of AmerenCILCO.

In a separate release the company announced the closing of the transaction to acquire CILCORP Inc. from The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES - News). CILCORP is the parent company of Peoria, Ill.-based Central Illinois Light Company, which, beginning Friday, will operate as AmerenCILCO. Announced in April 2002, the purchase includes CILCORP's natural gas and electric businesses, including 1,200 megawatts of largely coal-fired generating capacity.

[Scott Cisel]

Until his most recent appointment, Scott Cisel served as senior vice president at CILCO, where he has been employed for 28 years. Cisel joined CILCO as a summer meter reader and advanced through various management positions in sales, customer services and district operations. He was named manager of commercial office operations in 1981 and in the 1980s held a number of management positions in energy services, rates, sales and customer service, and in research and development. He was promoted to director of corporate sales in 1993, and from 1995 to 1998 he served as vice president, at first managing sales and marketing, then legislative and public affairs, and later sales, marketing and trading. In April 2001, he was named senior vice president.

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A trustee of Eureka College, Cisel serves on the board of the Tri-County Urban League, in addition to many other civic activities. A native of Peoria, Cisel holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration and economics from Culver Stockton College and a master's degree in liberal studies from Bradley University.

[Robert Ferlmann]

Until his most recent appointment, Ferlmann served as director of energy trading (both natural gas and electricity) for CILCO -- a position he has held since 1997. He joined CILCORP in 1987 as an accounting analyst and senior accounting analyst and assumed progressively higher positions in finance until he became senior energy supply administrator in 1993.

Ferlmann holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting and a master's of business administration degree, both from Bradley University. He is a certified public accountant in Illinois. He serves on the board of directors for St. Joseph Home and is an active member of the St. Thomas Parish Council.

With assets of more than $13 billion, Ameren, through its subsidiaries, serves 1.7 million electric customers and 500,000 natural gas customers in a 49,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.

[Ameren Corporation]

Department of Commerce and Community Affairs ship renamed,
on a new course and under a new captain

Jack Lavin will head the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

[FEB. 1, 2003]  CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich continued to promote large-scale reforms of state government by announcing his plans for fundamental changes at a key state agency that has often been identified with bureaucratic inefficiency and mismanagement.

The changes announced by the governor on Thursday included his call for a revised mission for the department that is charged with economic development and job creation, as well as his appointment of a new director for the agency, and even a new name for what is currently the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.

"I am here to appoint a new director for DCCA -- and to point the department in a new direction," Blagojevich said.

"Today, DCCA is a department with great potential but greater problems," he said, citing the fact that businesses and local governments often express frustration at an inability to navigate through a maze of red tape and are unable to access valuable grants and programs.

Blagojevich said that by reforming the department it will more effectively fulfill its core mission -- to create jobs and expand economic activity throughout Illinois.

One step that the new department will take to promote statewide economic growth will be through an innovative venture capital program. As a candidate for governor, Blagojevich spoke often about the initiative that he intends to create to bring much-needed private investments to the state, especially to areas that have lacked access to capital in the past.

Adding that "a new day for DCCA begins with a new name, one that better reflects its goals," Blagojevich said that he will direct it to be renamed the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

He added that the new director will be assigned to carry out important internal changes within the department and help him bring about reforms and more sensible spending throughout state government. Helping the governor fulfill his reform agenda, the department will help the governor in his review of all Illinois FIRST and Member Initiatives -- to decide which fill an essential need and which are "political pork."

"The department will be on the front lines in my effort to carry out government-wide reforms and institute the fiscal discipline that the people of Illinois want and deserve," he said.

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To lead the new DCEO, Blagojevich named Jack Lavin, who brings with him experience in both the public and private sector. As deputy state treasurer in the early 1990s, he helped triple the amount of money the state invested in economic development. The programs he oversaw helped more than 25,000 families and businesses gain access to credit.

Since serving in state government, Lavin posted impressive successes creating jobs in the private sector. As chief financial officer for Rezko Enterprises -- a firm that had eight restaurants when he began in 1995 and grew to more than 120 five years later, as sales increased from $4.3 million to $60 million -- he helped create more than 1,800 jobs.

"Jack knows what businesses need in order to grow, understands how state government can help and is dedicated to putting people to work," the governor said.

Among Lavin's first tasks at the department will be a top-to-bottom review aimed at finding opportunities for streamlining the department and consolidating functions, both within and outside the department.

As an example of consolidation, the department will likely serve as one of the few agencies where state job training programs -- which now exist in the form of more than 30 separate programs, at the cost of $800 million per year -- will be carried out.

Blagojevich said that performance audits will be conducted to demonstrate whether such changes are working.

The governor's venture capital project will take the form of a $200 million fund consisting of funds that will be raised privately and will be independently and professionally managed. The Illinois Opportunity Fund will be aimed at creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers across Illinois -- in particular, in downstate communities that have not had access to venture capital.

"Under my administration, it will be businesses that will expand, not state government," Blagojevich said.

[Illinois Government News Network
press release]

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