Tag Archives: children

Toys ‘R’ Us brand may be brought back to life

(CNN) The company closed all of its US stores in June as part of a bankruptcy liquidation. But the owners of the company’s remaining assets are looking into restarting the business, as well as the related Babies “R” Us brand, the company disclosed in a court filing this week.

Toys “R” Us had planned to auction off the rights to its name and the Babies “R” Us brand. Bidders had already made offers for them, according to the filing. But the company’s owners decided to cancel the auction.

The company said it is considering “a new, operating Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us branding company,” the filing said. The plan would “create new, domestic, retail operating businesses under the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us names, as well as expand its international presence and further develop its private brands business.”

The details of when and how the brand would be brought back to life were not disclosed.

The fact that other bidders were interested in buying the name doesn’t necessarily mean that others were looking to bring it back to life. Companies often buy the brands of out-of-business competitors in bankruptcy court to make sure the brand can’t be used again by a new rival. Details of who was looking to buy the Toys “R” Us brand also was not disclosed in the bankruptcy filing.

 

Read the full story on  CNN.com.

The Steve Dahl Show – June 7, 2018 – Sample

Steve and Brendan are joined by Janet today, while Dag is out playing gigs! Janet thinks Steve’s iPad it is making him more creative! A subscriber warns the boys about a taco fest happening in the city! The group talks travel tips, starting a family, and grumpy individuals.

The Steve Dahl Show – May 4, 2018 – Sample

Papa is having continued success with his CPAP machine and a good nights rest, but too much sodium left Dag wide awake until 2am. Steve is determined to get his favorite burritos here in Chicago! Plus Brendan and Dag had a perfect Rock Challenge on the radio!

Arrest made in Illinois State Fair stabbing

(CHICAGO) Illinois State Police say a 17-year-old girl has been arrested in the weekend stabbing of a 16-year-old girl at the Illinois State Fair.

A statement from the agency says the stabbing occurred Saturday night in the carnival area of the fair in Springfield.

The brief statement says the 16-year-old girl was expected to be released from the hospital Sunday. It describes the incident as “isolated.”

The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, the Springfield Police Department and the Conservation police are helping in the investigation.

The 10-day fair was scheduled to end Sunday.

 

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Teach your kids to say ‘I’m sorry’ and mean it

[van id=”health/2016/08/09/parent-acts-teaching-kids-to-say-sorry-wallace-orig.cnn”]

CNN’s Kelly Wallace and psychologist Erik Fisher give parents advice on how to teach their kids to apologize for bad behavior.

By Kelly Wallace, CNN

Editor’s note: Kelly Wallace is CNN’s digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter @kellywallacetv.

It’s a dynamic that just about any parent can relate to: Your child does something wrong, such as hitting their sister, or yelling at a friend, you encourage them to apologize, they refuse and then barely say the word “sorry.”

No real meaning, no real apology, no real empathy.

You think to yourself: They didn’t learn anything from this experience. How can I make sure they not only never do it again, but they also learn to truly empathize with the person they hurt?

In the sixth installment of the CNN Digital Video series “Parent Acts,” we asked people to act out how they handle these moments of trying to get their child to apologize. We then had a parenting expert listen to their role-play and weigh in with advice.
Anke Schnell, an Atlanta mom, says if someone messes with her son’s Lego building, he can become explosive.

“In that situation, he’s more likely to feel wronged, like somebody came into my space, so why should I be apologizing,” she said. “I find saying ‘sorry’ in the moment is not likely to happen so that’s why I don’t even bother.”

Erik Fisher, a psychologist working in the Atlanta area and co-author of “The Art of Empowered Parenting: The Manual You Wish Your Kids Came With,” said it’s not always easy to get children to apologize exactly when the wrong occurs. In Schnell’s case, he advised her to help her son “slow his engine down” by talking with him in a calm voice and then asking him how he thinks he might be able to show that he is sorry to the boy he hurt.

“What might you feel when you say, ‘I’m sorry?’ What might be the best way to help him know you regret what you did?” said Fisher, demonstrating what a parent might say. “The biggest thing to me that we need to give our kids is emotional education.”

Kids today may not be getting enough of an education in how to handle their emotions and, in particular, how to empathize with people around them. College freshmen today are 40% less empathetic than they were 30 years ago, according to research done by the University of Michigan, which analyzed empathy among almost 14,000 college students over this time period.


‘Empathy is what’s tanking’

Educational psychologist Michele Borba who coined the term “Selfie Syndrome” has a new book, “Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World,” based on decades of research and interviews with more than 500 children.

She says technology is partly to blame. Children “are more and more plugged in and you don’t learn empathy facing a screen and right now you’re encouraged to learn feelings by circling emojis and that ain’t going to cut it,” said Borba, an award-winning author of 22 parenting and educational books, and motivational speaker.

What’s also happened, according to Borba, is too much focus on academic success and not enough on social and emotional development.
“We’ve narrowed our definition of success so much to one side of the report card that all of a sudden, we’re starting to realize, ‘Hey, both sides need to be nurtured if we want a kid who is really going to thrive and survive,’ and right now, I think empathy is what’s tanking.”

Empathy can not only lead to happier children, said Borba, but it also helps when it comes to developing personal and professional relationships that are critical to success.

Employers “are not looking for the SAT score. They’re looking for can the kid walk in, sit down, conduct the interview and most importantly, get into the client’s shoes,” she said.

Empathy can also lead to more resilient children, which is something college counselors expressed concern about in recent years. Too many college students lack the resilience to deal with setbacks, which leads to more anxiety and depression. This has led to campuses now implementing programs that teach resilience.

“Why are we waiting until our kids are 18?” said Borba, who believes this is too late. “The other thing we’ve done is we’ve made all of this an either-or — either we help our kids be smart in terms of academics, or we help our kids be smart in empathy — and it’s not. Both are critical because both blend together and that’s how we’re really going to help the child who is going to make it out there in a brave new world.”

Teaching kids empathy
There is no question that some children are just naturally more empathetic than others, but that doesn’t mean that empathy cannot be learned and developed. Borba said parents should start teaching it at the youngest ages, talking about feelings and emotions with our girls and our boys.

We do a better job talking emotions “with our daughters, even as toddlers, than we do with our sons, so the pink-blue divide already spreads apart by the time they’re 2,” she said. “We talk consequences with our sons. We talk feeling with our daughters.” Borba highlighted that by the time kids go into kindergarten, the divide of language and emotions between them is huge, creating a handicap for boys.

What all parents can, and should do, she said, is take some time to think about what values they want their child to have when he or she is 40, and then come up with a “family mantra” that illustrates those values such as “We are the caring Johnsons” or “We help, we don’t hurt.”

By far, the thing that children she interviewed remembered most was their family’s mantra.

The challenge then is for parents to be an example of that mantra themselves, since our children remember our behavior and model it.

“Do you, as a parent, say, ‘I’m sorry’ and mean it, meaning that you’ve changed your behavior? Are you teaching your child to feel what other people feel, to take perspectives?” said Fisher, the psychologist and author. “So when you say ‘sorry’ and you mean it and behavior changes … you help them understand also what ‘I’m sorry’ means.”

Other ways to teach our kids empathy include trying to help our kids develop perspective and understand where the other person is coming from, for example, when we discipline our kids. We can tell our child that we are disappointed in their behavior and then ask our child how they would feel if it happened to them, or how they think their friend feels and what their friend now needs to feel better.

People who use that approach “are more likely to not only have a better behaved kid, but also one who is more likely to get into the shoes of somebody else,” said Borba.

We’ve also got to get our children practicing kindness, Borba added. “We are fabulous at practicing everything … we take our kids to violin, to soccer, to coding lessons,” but we don’t spend much time really focusing on making sure our kids develop a “kindness mindset.”

One way to practice kindness is the “one times two rule.” That is, every day, say or do at least two kind things for someone, she said. Parents can make a list of kind things to do and tack it up on the refrigerator, listing activities such as smiling, holding open the door and welcoming a new child at school.

But are we as a society understanding how important empathy really is? Borba says schools are acknowledging it.

“Schools are there, because they get it and they realize that this side has been lying dormant and a lot of our kids are in sleep mode as a result of it,” she said, adding that just schools aren’t enough.

“All I’m trying to do is switch the dial up a notch and get people to start talking about this.”

What do you think is the best way to teach empathy to our kids? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace on Twitter @kellywallacetv.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Big John Howell Show Notes 4-29-16

On the heels of the Dennis Hastert case, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to eliminate the statute of limitations for people accused of molesting children. Because he is protected by statute of limitations, Hastert can never be charged with sex abuse and many of the victims will never get justice because their abusers are protected by the same law. Madigan joined John to talk about the proposed change to the law, and also weighed in on regulation of Daily Fantasy Sports websites in Illinois. (Listen here)

Barbara Blaine the founder and President of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) joined John with reaction to the proposal to eliminate the statute of limitations for people accused of molesting children. (Listen here)

Gov. Bruce Rauner said Wednesday that if a bipartisan budget agreement can’t be reached by the end of May, he’d be willing to pay for a special legislative session out of his own pocket to continue negotiations. Rauner added that lawmakers must stay persistent in achieving long-term solutions that consider new forms of revenue and reforms from his “turnaround agenda” to create a balanced budget.

John Boehner left no doubt he’s not a fan of fellow Republican Ted Cruz, leaping off the sidelines of the presidential race to unleash a stunning verbal lashing of the Texas senator, reportedly calling him “Lucifer in the flesh” and a “miserable son of a bitch.” He reportedly said he’s played golf with front-runner Donald Trump, describing them as “texting buddies,” and said his relationship with Ohio Gov. John Kasich “requires more effort” but they’re friends.

SpaceX has announced a new plan to land a spacecraft on Mars. They would send one of their new Dragon 2.0 spacecrafts to Mars in 2018. It would be an unmanned flight, but still the biggest thing ever landed on the Red Planet and would be a dress rehearsal for future manned flights. Tom Jones joined John to talk about the new space project, Tom is a former NASA Astronaut and author of the new book “Ask The Astronaut.” (Listen here)

The Chicago Republican Party has taken down their illegal sign. It wasn’t because it was deemed illegal and they decided to comply with the long arm of the law. It was because a vandal tore the sign. Chris Cleveland says he’ll replace the sign, at a cost of $1500, which is three times the cost of getting it permitted.

In addition to the NFL Draft, next week Chicago is also hosting the James Beard Awards. Chicago Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel joined John with a preview. (Listen here)

If you’re looking for something other than the NFL Draft to do this weekend, BaconFest is going on at the UIC Forum this weekend. Seth Zurer one of the co-founders of BaconFest joined John with a preview. (Listen here)

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan

On the heels of the Dennis Hastert case, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to eliminate the statute of limitations for people accused of molesting children. Because he is protected by statute of limitations, Hastert can never be charged with sex abuse and many of the victims will never get justice because their abusers are protected by the same law. Madigan joined John to talk about the proposed change to the law, and also weighed in on regulation of Daily Fantasy Sports websites in Illinois.

Trucker gets 3 years for I-88 crash that killed tollway worker, injured trooper

Renato Velasquez | DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office

(AURORA) A semi truck driver has been sentenced to three years in prison for driving fatigued and causing an I-88 crash last year that killed a tollway worker and severely injured a state trooper.

Renato Velasquez, 48, had been working for 27 hours before the Jan. 27, 2014, crash that killed Vincent Petrella and left Trooper Douglas Balder seriously injured on the Reagan Memorial Tollway near Eola Road in Aurora, prosecutors said.

Petrella and Balder had stopped to help a disabled vehicle in the eastbound lanes of the Reagan. They were in the right-hand lane and shoulder, with their vehicles’ emergency lights activated, officials said.

Velasquez, who was also traveling eastbound, collided with the vehicles about 9:45 p.m., police said at the time.

Petrella, a husband and father of two young children, died at the scene, according to tollway officials. The 39-year-old Chicago native had worked at the tollway since 2001.

On Feb. 26, Judge Robert Kleeman found Velasquez guilty of one count of operating a commercial vehicle in a fatigued state, and two counts of failure to comply with hours of service requirements, according to the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office. He was also convicted of driving too fast for conditions and failing to yield to emergency vehicles.

Kleeman handed down the three-year sentence at a hearing Monday at the Wheaton courthouse.

“Illinois law imposes rules and regulations on the trucking industry for a reason—to keep the roads safe for all motorists,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement.

“Ignoring these regulations however, can result in tragic consequences, as we saw in this case. Had Mr. Velasquez gotten the proper amount of rest before getting behind the wheel of his truck, Mr. Petrella would be alive today and Trooper Balder would not be facing a life of pain and suffering,” Berlin said.

Velasquez, of Hanover Park, must serve 50 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, officials said.