Oak Lawn Emergency Closings and Early Dismissals

The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the Chicago region starting Tuesday afternoon, with snow accumulations up to 18 inches. Oak Lawn Patch will update emergency and school closings during the snow emergency.
We'll watch the news crawl so you don't have to.
Richards High School Closes Early, Re-schedules Registration
Dist. 218 has rescheduled registration for incoming freshmen at Richards High School until next week.
Registration has been canceled for Feb. 1 and 3.
The new registration dates, times and guidelines are as follows:
Monday, Feb. 7, 5 to 7 p.m., students living in ZIP Coded 60453.
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 5 to 7 p.m., students living in ZIP codes 60415, 60803,60827, and 60472.

Parents must bring proof of residency and students’ birth certificates to registration.
Richards High School will dismiss classes early at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
School Closing Information
Check back here often  for information about school closings for local public and private schools. As of Monday evening, these schools were still planning to be open on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

Oak Lawn Community High School Dist. 229 will post school closings and/or alternate bell schedules on its website at olchs.org.
Parents who've signed up for the Honeywell Instant Alert System will receive a phone call, text or e-mail regarding school closings and alternative bell schedules. Click here to update links.
OLCHS school closings and alternate bell schedules will also be posted at the Emergency Closing Center at www.emergencyclosingcenter.com.
Emergency school closings due to weather conditions, power failures or other unforeseeable events will be broadcast on AM radio stations 670, 720, 780 and 890; FM radio stations 94.7, 96.3 and 99.5; and TV stations Fox32 and WGN Ch. 9.
School closings will also be announced on WGN 720 AM and WBBM 780 AM and TV Channel 2 CBS; Channel 5 NBC; Channel 7 ABC, Channel 9 WGN and Channel WFLD/Fox.

Candid Camera

, California - Developed by a senior in high school, the hilarious iPhone application, Candid Camera: Black Ops Edition, is now free to celebrate the release of the First Strike Map Pack! Using a secret facial recognition software, Black Ops takes judging your friends to a new level. Take a picture of anyone and watch as the app assigns a Black Ops personality trait and description to each of your friends.

After extensive research and testing, It has been proven that the Candid Camera: Black Ops Edition iPhone application is the funniest application on iTunes. "A must have" for all iPhone or iPod touch 4th Generation users, the simple functionality of the application makes a perfect party tool to show to your friends. Developer Kyle Barber explains the functionality.

"Simply pick up your iPhone/iPod touch, and select the Scan button. Once the Camera is displayed, find a target that you would like the app to scan. After you capture your target in the perimeters of the application, sit back and watch as the app scans your target."

After the application is finished scanning, a result is shown for everyone to see. Wait and watch as everyone around you reads the definition and starts laughing uncontrollably. By the end of the night, everyone in the room will have their face scanned. From definitions such as Noob, to Death Machine and Kill Joy, your audience will be begging for more scans with this application.

Made by a senior in High School, the Candid Camera: Black Ops Edition is truly a gem. Although extremely simple in functionality, developer Kyle Barber guarantees theat his application will provide hours of entertainment.

"As a huge fan of Call of Duty Black Ops, I thought an application that utilized the games keywords and sayings would be perfect for any Call of Duty fan. I was honestly amazed by how positively my friends responded to the app. My friends took my phone for nearly 30 minutes, walking around to everyone in sight scanning their face. It was like a contest to see how was the coolest in the eyes of thee app. Everyone seemed to want their picture taken," reminisced. Barber. "When first day sales exceeded my goal of $0.99, I knew that I had something special. I was very excited that my grandma and three of her friends downloaded the application on the first day it was released. I honestly did not expect such an outcome," Barber continued.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iOS 4.1 or later
* 1.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Starting February 1st, for a limited time Candid Camera: Black Ops Edition 1.0 is free and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Photography category.

Local book clubs anticipate speech by author Salzman

When Patty Wixon learned there were at least 173 book clubs in Ashland and Mark Salzman was among their top authors, she and the other Chautauqua Poets & Writers board members decided to try to bring him to his fans.

Salzman, author of the Pulitzer-prize-nominated memoir "Iron and Silk," will speak at the biannual Chautauqua event at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Ashland High School's Mountain Avenue Theatre, 201 S. Mountain Ave.

"Since we announced he's coming, people keep stopping us and saying, 'Oh, I'm so glad you're bringing him. We just love his books,' " Wixon said.

In addition to his memoir about his time teaching English in China and studying martial arts, the diverse writer has penned three novels: "The Laughing Sutra," "The Soloist" and "Lying Awake." Salzman also wrote another memoir, "Lost in Place: Growing up Absurd in Suburbia," and a nonfiction book, "True Notebooks," about teaching writing in Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall.

He is one of the top selling authors at Bloomsbury Books, which keeps a list of the number of book groups in Ashland, said manager Anita Isser.

"I do know that people are aware that he's coming and fans of his have expressed delight that he'll be here," Isser said. "I think he's so popular because he's an excellent writer and he also writes different things: fiction, biography, travel lit."

A number of his books have been used as texts in Southern Oregon University and Ashland High School classes, Wixon said.

Salzman will lead writing workshops for educators and high school students during his time in Ashland.

He also is a screenwriter and an accomplished cellist whose music has appeared on film soundtracks, including the documentary "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien."

Salzman's range of interests and knowledge attracts many locals to his writing, said Wixon, who has read many of his books.

"We have a large number of writers here in this area, not just published writers, but people who write frequently," she said. "In the case of Mark Salzman, I think any of us who write are amazed when someone can write so interestingly and skillfully about a whole variety of things."

Several book groups whose members hadn't previously read Salzman decided to do so in anticipation of his visit, said Kathi Bowen-Jones, an Ashland High School English teacher and a Chautauqua board member.

"He's a writer people really like to read together and talk about,

2011 NFL playoff schedule comes to Seattle on Saturday

The 2011 NFL playoff schedule is now set, and the Seattle Seahawks will host a first round game. The 2011 NFL playoff schedule begins on Saturday, Jan. 8, and the Seahawks will be hosting the opening game. It is bound to be a very exciting time for Seahawks fans, especially with how well they played against the St. Louis Rams on Sunday night. Now they have been graced with a spot in the 2011 NFL Playoffs, even if some football fans around the league don't believe it should have happened.
The official 2011 NFL playoff schedule will have Seattle vs. New Orleans, with a start time of 1:30 pm PT on Saturday. The game will be broadcast in the Spokane area on NBC (channel 6 to Spokane Comcast customers). This means that most football fans will also be able to watch the game on NBC HD (channel 106 to Spokane Comcast customers). It's also probably a sure thing that most sports bars across Washington State will be airing the game live for the fans.
If the Seahawks can win their game against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Playoffs, they will then have to head to Atlanta to play against the Falcons for their second round game. It's a tough road ahead for Seattle, but the first major obstacle of making it into the postseason came through in great fashion Sunday night.

No joke: 7-9 Seahawks dare to dream

SEATTLE -- The mind wandered as time passed and Pete Carroll did not immediately appear for his postgame news conference Sunday night.

I pictured a public-relations staffer running the Seattle Seahawks' first-year coach through a series of tests to see if Carroll could keep a straight face after claiming the NFC West title and a wild-card playoff berth with a 7-9 record.

Would Carroll transcend the national laugh track accompanying Seattle's snoozer of a 16-6 victory over the St. Louis Rams? Or would this two-time NCAA champion and outspoken proponent of "doing things better than they have ever been done before" publicly succumb to the sheer hilarity of it all?

Yes and no.

Carroll smiled upon arriving at the podium, mustering an opening line as improbable as Charlie Whitehurst to Ruvell Martin for 61 yards (that just happened).

"Was that fun or what?" Carroll said. "Geez."

Geez is right.

Now comes the hard part for Carroll and the Seahawks: convincing themselves of their playoff worthiness before the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints visit Qwest Field for a 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff Saturday.

It's a tough sell, but the Seahawks were in a buying mood.

"We're in the tournament," Whitehurst said. "Anything can happen."

The Seahawks are proof.

"I hear that this has never happened before and I think that is kind of cool," Carroll said. "Wasn't it TCU that won for all the little guys?"

One slight difference: TCU went 13-0 this season. Seattle trailed 14-0 at home to Carolina. The Seahawks lost nine games by double digits this season. They lost by a combined 64 points during one two-week stretch.

"I would say this," Carroll continued, unsolicited. "If you have followed my track record about the systems you play in, whether college and the BCS or here and the NFL system, this is the system. I don't give a crap about that."

You tell 'em, Pete.

"We just played it out and this is what happened," Carroll said. "I'm sure some other teams are disappointed in that, but there are some teams that are disappointed with the BCS system as well. I don't have a suggestion how to fix it. This may never happen again."

The folks at USC must be pleased to know Pete Carroll and Reggie Bush are bowl-eligible.

The Tampa Bay Bucs and New York Giants, not so much. Tampa Bay missed the playoffs despite going 4-0 against the NFC West and 10-6 overall. The New York Giants, 41-7 winners at Qwest Field in Week 9, also missed the playoffs at 10-6.

Seattle would have to win the Super Bowl to finish this season with a winning record.

"Getting to the playoffs, that's all you want -- just to have a shot," said Seattle linebacker Will Herring, whose fourth-quarter interception helped seal Seattle's fifth NFC West title in the last seven seasons. "We got a home game next week, we're going to have our fans behind us and there's no better place to play in the country."

The Saints are about to play the first trap game in playoff history.

"Seeing New Orleans lose to Tampa Bay today, we don't know how they feel coming in next week," said Seattle defensive end Chris Clemons, who finished the season with 11 sacks. "They're last year's champs, so there's always that championship hangover that a lot of guys have going into the first postseason game."

Carroll paid his respects to Saints coach Sean Payton and "their program" before joining Clemons in the land of make believe.

"Sean is an incredible coach and all that, but they're coming here," Carroll said. "It's a short week and they have to fly across the country and figure all that stuff out. They have a lot of stuff to get organized. We're going to have a really cool week of preparation."

The Seahawks also figure to have Matt Hasselbeck back in the lineup at quarterback. Hasselbeck could have played against the Rams, by all accounts, but Carroll said he didn't want to rush the 35-year-old back from a the hip/back/upper butt injury Hasselbeck suffered while running into the end zone against Tampa Bay last week.

Translation: The Seahawks figured they could win the NFC West title with their backup quarterback. Whitehurst's mobility did make a difference against the Rams, but this was a struggle. Seattle converted four times in 15 chances on third down. Whitehurst did avoid turnovers, something Hasselbeck hasn't done nearly well enough.

"I think the plan worked out perfectly," Hasselbeck said. "We got the win. Charlie did a real nice job and mission accomplished. I felt like all the work I did to try to get back this week was money in the bank. If we had to make a withdrawal, we could, but we didn't have to."

Hasselbeck said he has played with more serious injuries, but this one made life tough in the short term. He couldn't even walk up a flight of stairs when the week began. Doctors drained fluid from the injury Monday and again Sunday. Trainers began getting Hasselbeck ready for the game about five hours before kickoff.

Hasselbeck looked good during warmups, I thought.

"A lot of that is adrenaline," Hasselbeck said, appearing stiff after standing on the sideline in the Seattle cold. "It's not a serious injury. It is something that will heal. It's just hard to get it to heal in six days. But we took it pretty far."

Carroll had committed to Whitehurst early in the week, but suspicions mounted when Hasselbeck practiced Friday and warmed up Sunday. Carroll said he assured Whitehurst behind the scenes that there would be no last-minute change of heart.

Will Hasselbeck start against the Saints? Carroll wasn't saying. He was presumably too busy trying to keep a straight face.