Illinois
Suzanne Akhras: 2024 candidate for Illinois House District 82
Suzanne Akhras is a Democrat running for Illinois House District 82.
Bio
Party: Democrat
Office Sought: Illinois House District 82
City: Burr Ridge
Age: 52
Occupation: Nonprofit leader
Previous offices held: Never held public office before
How should the state respond to the influx of migrants bussed here from Southern states?
I have been involved in immigration reform since the early 2000s, and I have seen the failures at the national level in setting fair policies. In 2015, when the U.S. Refugee Program, agreed to allow Syrian refugees to resettle in the U.S., I took immediate action. I organized a group of diverse volunteers and the Syrian Community Network was formed to help refugees with a warm welcome, jobs, registering kids at school, after-school programming, legal immigration support and so much more.
During the Afghan refugee resettlement in 2021, I helped organize the Afghan Refugee Taskforce to bring community members together to address the influx of refugees and help secure jobs, housing, and schooling.
As the president of the board of the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants, we provide services for migrants coming to Chicago from Southern states. We must focus on helping migrants find housing and jobs which can lead to stability and safer communities. Federal immigration reform is key.
Are you satisfied with the state’s existing ethics policies for senators and representatives? If so, what about the policies should reassure Illinoisans that elected leaders abide by high standards? If not, what changes need to be made?
Illinois has ethics laws and regulations to ensure that elected officials conduct themselves properly. As a first-time candidate, I still have a lot to learn about this subject. I believe that elected officials should be transparent and accountable to their constituents, and I support legislation that makes it possible.
Elected officials work for their constituents, and we have seen in Illinois our fair share of corruption cases where elected officials have been involved.
Would you support a requirement that election petitions include a line asking candidates for their campaign email address?
I do not see a problem with such a requirement. I believe candidates and elected officials should be accessible to their voters and constituents. At the same time, we need to make sure that petitions are accessible to everyone who wants to run for office.
How well do you think criminal justice reforms made in recent years are working? What, if any, changes need to be made?
Criminal justice reforms are necessary to improve the fairness of the criminal justice system. I am in support of funding our law enforcement and first responders, so they can help keep communities safe.
I also believe that establishing relationships between our community members and our law enforcement can enhance trust and cooperation, thus leading to crime prevention. We all have to take a part in keeping our communities safe and empower our youth to make good choices.
Investments in education, accessible youth programs, and access to social services (especially mental health services, and substance abuse treatment) can also help prevent and reduce crime in our communities.
Criminal justice reforms work well when those implementing them are trained and understand how to perform their duties in a manner that respects everyone. We must address sentencing reform, policing reform, and rehabilitation for individuals leaving prison when talking about criminal justice reform.
We now have an assault weapons ban in Illinois. What if any changes should be made to the law? What more can be done to improve gun safety?
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. Every single day we see in the news horrible stories where kids bring guns to school, and toddlers who kill family members because guns in the house have not been stored away.
Responsible gun owners agree that weapons should be secured from being accessed by children, teens, and unauthorized people in their households.
Illinois passed an assault weapon ban, and we need one at federal level. In addition to a federal weapons ban, we need to pass legislation such as secure storage to protect families with children from gun-related injuries and deaths.
I received the Gun Sense candidate distinction from Moms Demand Action and I will work tirelessly to make sure we live in communities free of gun violence.
Illinois is the only state in the nation that mandates regular behind-the-wheel tests for senior drivers. Do you support any changes?
Research shows that Illinois has a reduced crash rate in older drivers compared with other states and behind-the-wheel testing requirements may be a factor. At the same time, this practice could be considered discriminatory against older adults.
I would need to have more data points in order to make a decision on whether I would support any legislative changes to the current mandate. We want our senior members of the community to be mobile and independent, we also want them to be safe.
I would trust the advice and date points from experts when making decisions on whether to change or not the behind-the-wheel tests for seniors in Illinois.
What personal qualifications do you bring that would make you an effective legislator?
I have a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and I completed Nonprofit Management and Executive Education course. I have received numerous awards and recognitions for my community impact and humanitarian efforts.
I believe in the power of volunteerism and public service. I have served on executive boards of various nonprofit organizations, addressing needs such as mental health services, youth programs and immigration reform.
In 2015, I founded the Syrian Community Network (SCN), a nonprofit organization that supports refugees and immigrants in navigating new systems and provides them with services to attain economic security. I am also the chair of the board of Directors of the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants and serve on the Council of Leaders of DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform.
Through my nonprofit work, I learned how to work with people who come from diverse backgrounds, how to find funding for programs, how to improve processes.
OSWEGO, Ill. (WLS) — A Chicago-area man claimed a $1.3 million jackpot prize during an ordinary stop at a local gas station.
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The newly-minted millionaire said he bought the ticket while stopping to buy a drink.
“‘Why not?’” the winner said. “I played a Quick Pick, and it turned out to be a lucky day.”
His ticket matched all five numbers in the Thursday, June 11 evening Lucky Day Lotto drawing. The winning numbers were 1-13-19-27-35.
The ticket was purchased at Oswego BP, located at 2791 US Highway 34.
Overjoyed, he wasted no time sharing the big news with his wife.
“She was thrilled,” he said. “It’s funny-I actually won a $45,000 prize playing this same game 15 years ago when it was called Little Lotto.”
The winner plans to use the prize money to buy a new house and secure his and his wife’s retirement.
For selling the, the Oswego BP will receive a bonus of $13,000.
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The Illinois Polymer Maker Lab, Beckman’s newest core facility, will open soon in the institute’s basement. The lab will be the first-of-its-kind facility for the automated formulation and testing of polymer-based materials and will soon be open to researchers across campus and across the nation.
The lab will help researchers accelerate the development of materials and products related to paints and coatings, adhesives, personal care items, composites, and materials for 3D printing. It could also help researchers design resins for energy-efficient manufacturing and products in the food science industry. It’s funded by a Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation.
“The core capabilities will be pretty unique,” said Dan Krogstad, the lab’s manager and a research professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “The IPML facility at Beckman provides researchers with an incredible opportunity to accelerate the development of polymer-based formulations through the creation of rich, digital datasets using automated equipment and workflows.”
The lab joins four other Beckman core research facilities: the Biomedical Imaging Center, Microscopy Suite, Molecular Imaging Lab and Visualization Lab.
“The Illinois Polymer Maker Lab is another example of how Beckman provides cutting-edge facilities that you can’t find anywhere else,” said Beckman Director Steve Maren. “This facility will fuel materials discovery for our researchers and especially allow them to push the boundaries of knowledge through AI.”
The Anton Paar high-throughput rheometer, an HTR 7000, was the first instrument to be installed in IPML earlier this spring. It’s a robotic instrument capable of dispensing polymers and measuring their flow behavior automatically.
For example, the rheological properties tell us whether a paint will drip after being applied to a surface, how easy it is to squeeze toothpaste out of a tube or how well the materials will flow through pipes in a factory.
However, while the rheological properties are important in the development of new materials, collecting related data can require a lot of time. High-throughput systems, like IMPL’s Anton Paar HTR 7000, help overcome this limitation.
Sam Tawfick, a co-leader of the Autonomous Materials Systems group, said his Beckman research colleagues are researching how to better manufacture advanced materials through 3D printing or resins for polymers reinforced with carbon fibers
“The flow behavior of polymers is critical to assess their manufacturability,” said Tawfick, the Anderson Family Scholar and professor of mechanical science and engineering, adding that the IPML rheometer’s usefulness is in how it dispenses polymers and automatically measures their flow.
“This changes the students’ workflow in the lab by minimizing sample preparation steps and enabling the equipment to run and take measurements 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For the students, this means higher productivity and the ability to focus on interpretation of the results.”
Beyond reducing the time required, automating rheological measurements promotes machine learning by making procedures more uniform, creating organized digital datasets and increasing the amount of data that can be collected.
Tawfick believes access to the lab will have incredible implications for both expanding knowledge and offering new materials to the public.
“I personally think students will achieve more during the same timeline of a Ph.D. or postdoctoral training, connecting more dots around their discovery and tightening both the scientific understanding and the reliability of their discoveries,” he said.
In the past, it’s taken up to 20 years for a new polymer, like a high temperature resistant silicone or high strength composite, to be ready for commercial use. Material readiness is ranked on a scale (called the Technology Readiness Level, or TRL) between 0 and 9, the latter which describes a material that’s commercially established.
“It takes about 10 years to move the concept of a material from TRL 0 to TRL 3 in a lab,” Tawfick said. “IPML is targeting this stage, with the aim of shortening it from a decade to potentially weeks.”
And because the lab will be a Beckman core facility, knowledge can transfer among users thanks to the help of expert staff members and the creation of institutional knowledge, Tawfick said.
“Groups from campus and external users from the private sector will benefit from and contribute to this institutional knowledge,” he said. “This will be accomplished by gradually optimizing the workflows and the AI models used in the facility.”
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