Each year, Veterans Day falls during the month of November. On this Veterans Day, we are celebrating those who have served our country. VA is reaching out to explain the meaning of Veterans Day, and the fact that our gratitude reaches far beyond just one day out of the year.

Since 1954, the Veterans Day National Committee has worked to ensure Veterans Day receives proper and widespread observance.

President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. Veterans Day continues as an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. The federal holiday is observed on November 11. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.

What’s closed on Veterans Day?
The following public, government and school services are affected today, November 11, 2010:

Most schools are closed.

Most government buildings are closed.

Post office branches are closed. There will be no mail delivery, except for Express Mail

All courts will be closed, except for Cook County Holiday Bond Court.

Major banks are closed.

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With American military forces poised for action, President Barack Obama said Saturday that the U.S. and its allies are prepared to act with urgency to end violence against civilians in Libya.

Allied jet fighters are reported over Libya Saturday as Gaddafi’s troops pushed toward Benghazi. So far U.S. forces are not involved.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Clinton that “we need action now” and she responded to him, “there are difficulties,” the source said, explaining that Clinton was referring to China and Russia’s opposition to intervention at the United Nations. Sarkozy replied that the United States should at least try to overcome the difficulties by leading a strong push at the U.N., but Clinton simply repeated, “There are difficulties.”

One jet fighter, possibly a Libyan warplane, was shot down near Benghazi by rebels.

“Gaddafi must stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi, pull them back from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiyah, and establish water, electricity and gas supplies to all areas. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya.”
– President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama arrived in Brazil on Saturday for the start of a three-country, five-day tour of Latin America to promote greater economic ties and improved regional security.

Michigan: Fennville High School’s star basketball player, Wes Leonard, collapsed on the basketball court and later died after making a game-winning layup in overtime to cap his team’s perfect season.

After a winning layup, Wes Leonard was surrounded by adoring fans. Suddenly he collapsed and was surrounded by family and then paramedics. He was transported to Holland Hospital. After Advanced Life Support measures by paramedics and emergency department physicians lasting lasting 80 minutes, Wes Leonard was pronounced dead.

An autopsy Friday showed that Leonard died of cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart, according to a statement from Dr. David A. Start, the Ottawa County chief medical examiner.

Wes Leonard, 16, is the second Fennville High School Blackhawk athlete to lose his life in 14 months. In January of 2010, a wrestler, Nathaniel Hernandez, 14, died after suffering a seizure at home after he had participated in a match.

Facebook R.I.P. Wes Leonard …

Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis is leaving his position at the end of Tuesday, March 1, 2011, when his $310,000-a-year contract expires. Weis said several factors led to his decision. He was “mainly guided by his commitment to the people of Chicago and the members of the Chicago Police Department.”

Terry Hillard who headed the Chicago police department from 1998 until 2003 will serve as interim police superintendent. After his previous retirement from the Chicago Police Department, Terry Hillard co-founded Hillard Heintze, a Chicago-based strategic security and corporate investigations consulting firm, with Arnette F. Heintze, a retired Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office, and an ex-Fortune 100 director of security.

“Serving as the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department has been an honor and a great privilege. I thank Mayor Daley, and the residents of Chicago, for this opportunity of a lifetime.”
– — Jody Weis

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has expressed that he will select a new leader after he is sworn in on May 16, 2011.

Weis was selected to serve as the 54th Superintendent of Police by Mayor Richard M. Daley on February 1, 2008. Weis’s previous experience included 22 years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation after graduating from the University of Tampa in 1979.

On April 6, 2010, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Independent Police Review Authority received a complaint charging Weis with “failure to take proper police action.” The complainant, retired Chicago Police Sergeant John Northen, called Weis a “coward” who “cut and run” from a shooting incident where a man was killed, instead of responding to assist and support his officers. Weis was holding an outdoor press conference at an intersection in the crime-ridden Englewood District on a recent 26 hour period of violence in Chicago where 41 people were shot with four dead. Four blocks from the shooting incident, Weis abruptly left the media event and reportedly returned to headquarters after the shots rang out.

SOURCE:
Spielman, Fran (April 6, 2010). “Retired cop says Weis ‘cut and run’ after shooting”. Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago: Sun-Times Media, LLC). Retrieved April 6, 2010. (link to the article is expired)

Four yachting enthusiasts from California and Washington became the first Americans slain by Somali pirates since a wave of attacks began six years ago.

  Scott Adam

Jean and Scott Adam, a couple from California, and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Washington, who had been sailing around the world since December 2004 with a 58-foot yacht carrying Bibles, were shot and killed by Somali pirates as four U.S. warships trailed their vessel ‘The Quest’.

Scott Adam grew up in Prospect Heights, Illinois.

U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans’ captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire. Rescuers tried to provide lifesaving care to the four Americans, but the Adams and Macays were killed. U.S. Central Command says negotiations were underway to free the hostages when gunfire erupted aboard the pirated vessel.

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There’s good news and bad news about Steve Jobs. First the good news …

President Barack Obama traveled Thursday night to Woodside, California (in Northern California) for a meeting with a group of Silicon Valley chief executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, Oracle Founder/CEO Steve Ellison, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Yahoo! President and CEO Carol Bartz, AND Apple Founder/CEO Steve Jobs.

Jobs is also reported to have ‘bravely’ worked a full day February 7, 2011 at Apple — working on a new subscription service for the iPad.

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