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Saukvalley.com Your source for news and sports 7 days a week

Births ................ C5

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Classified .......... D1

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Crossword - Saturday ........... D7

Crossword - Sunday ............. C8

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Lottery .............. A2Markets .......... A10Obituaries ......... A4Opinion ............. A6Scoreboard ...... B6Scrapbook ....... C3Sports .............. B1Support groups .. C5Travel .............. C10Weather .......... A11Wheels ............. D8

VOLUME 7ISSUE 2544 Pages

Business Community IndexExcitement on the basketball floor is matched by excitement on the bench. The SVM Photo Team captures “Coaching Excitement.” See Page

C12

Morrison native’s footwear for little ones seems a shoe-in for success.See Page C1

Today: 30/7For the forecast,

see Page A11

Snow possible

WEEKEND FEATURE | WHITESIDE COUNTY

Photos by Alex T. Paschal/[email protected] Chad Fowkes (left), dispatcher Michael Drane and Stacey Fowkes team up to help the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Depart-ment rescue and provide aid to people trapped in snowy or blizzard conditions. The group of volunteers has reached 38 stranded pedestrians and motorists with their snowmobiles in the few years they’ve been helping the department.

BY CHRISTI [email protected], ext. 5521

@SeaWarren

STERLING – It’s been about 5 years since Stacey Fowkes first called the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department to see whether it needed help with snow rescues. And, to her sur-prise, the answer was yes.

Since then, Stacey, her hus-band, Chad, sons Michael and Gaije, friend Chad Wil-liamson, and a rotating host of other snowmobilers have been helping whenever they can – fielding calls from the sheriff’s department and

going where deputies can’t.To date, they have rescued

38 stranded pedestrians and motorists – 11 in the snow-storm on Super Bowl Sunday alone.

“We started doing this as another way we can help others in our community,” she said. “We love to help and support our community, and to think of people being out stuck in their cars in the freezing weather, or grandma sitting home with no milk or bread, just made us think we could do something.

Snowmobile team rescues stranded motorists in snowstorms

They go where sheriff’s deputies can’t

The team stayed real busy during the blizzard on Super Bowl Sunday. “When the wind starts blowing, that’s when we get a lot of calls,” Chad Fowkes said. SNOWMOBILE CONTINUED ON A2�

Want to

help?

Donations can be dropped off at Douglas and Frye Motorsports, 1902 Locust St. in Sterling, or you can give Stacey Fowkes a call at 815-499-4432 to arrange something else.

She recommends gas cards, gift certificates to Douglas and Frye for oil and parts, face masks, gloves, snow pants, waterproof blankets, or a mon-

etary donation.Snowmobile Rescue of Sterling, Rock Falls, and

Surrounding Areas is always looking for more peo-ple to volunteer with their snowmobiles, trucks, or dispatching skills. For more information, call Sta-cey or head to the Facebook page facebook.com/groups/307029302755617/.

VIDEO GAMBLING | RESTRICTING PARLORS IN ROCK FALLS?

BY PAM [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5570@pam_eggemeier

ROCK FALLS – The city will let the state Legislature, and the market, further dictate what businesses can have video gambling.

A Rock Falls committee this week decided against pursuing an ordi-

nance similar to one passed in Ster-ling, and another being considered in Whiteside County, that would pro-hibit video gambling parlors.

The Rock Falls Ordinance Commit-tee looked at amended language for a video gambling code drawn up by the county, then chose to wait for the state to clear up gray areas in state statute.

The committee decision Thurs-day came after hearing Mayor Bill Wescott’s thoughts on the issue.

“I feel we should leave the ordi-nance as it is, and wait for the state to do something,” Wescott said. “This is not necessarily my recommenda-tion, but it is my belief.”

City doesn’t follow suitOrdinance committee decides to let state clear up language

Rock Falls Mayor Bill Wescott

SUIT CONTINUED ON A5�

ONLINE

Don’t miss out on all the fun!

If you haven’t been to our Plan!t Sauk Valley website this week, you’ve missed:

• The first in a series of features on local bands by SVM Plan!t Editor Lucas Pauley. This week, Lucas featured Dixon band Trippin Molly (above). Go to our site to see a video of the band playing one of its songs.

• The debut of Foodtorials, video and text instructions for tasty recipes.

• A Grub Hub feature from SVM reporter Jermaine Pigee on Salamandra Restaurant (above) in Dixon.

• Tech Type blogs from SVM Online Editor Angel Sierra about Rock Falls Tourism (See Page A2) and a one-way ticket to Mars.

Go to planitsaukvalley.com

BY JERMAINE [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5525@JPigee84

STERLING – Gov. Bruce Raun-er’s proposed budget includes $300 million in education fund-ing, which is a much-needed boost for local school districts.

Although school officials in the Sauk Valley are looking for-ward to the additional funding, some say the money still does not fully fund school districts.

Other school leaders want more specifics on the proposal.

During a campaign stop in Sterling last summer, Rauner said he wanted to increase spending on local schools. He said Illinois had one of the low-est rates of state support for funding education.

Educators encouraged, but waiting for details

EDUCATORS CONTINUED ON A3�

STATE BUDGET | SCHOOL FUNDING

W Y SUPPORTOCA Y OWN DBUS N SS S?

WHY SUPPORTLOCALLY OWNEDBUSINESSES?

1. LOCAL CHARACTER AND PROSPERITYIn an increasingly homogenized world, communities thatpreserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctivecharacter have an economic advantage.2. COMMUNITY WELL-BEINGLocally owned businesses build strong communities bysustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a webof economic and social relationships, and contributing tolocal causes.3. LOCAL DECISION-MAKINGLocal ownership ensures that important decisions are madelocally by people who live in the community and who willfeel the impacts of those decisions.4. KEEPING DOLLARS IN THE LOCAL ECONOMYCompared to chain stores, locally owned businessesrecycle a much larger share of their revenue back into thelocal economy, enriching the whole community.5. JOB AND WAGESLocally owned businesses create more jobs locally and,in some sectors, provide better wages and bene!ts thanchains do.6. ENTREPRENEURSHIPEntrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation andprosperity, and serves as a key means for families to moveout of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

7. PUBLIC BENEFITS AND COSTSLocal stores in town centers require comparatively littleinfrastructure and make more ef!cient use of publicservices relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.8. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITYLocal stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkabletown centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl,automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.9. COMPETITIONA marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses isthe best way to ensure innovation and low prices over thelong-term.10. PRODUCT DIVERSITYA multitude of small businesses, each selecting productsbased, not on a national sales plan, but on their owninterests and the needs of their local customers, guaranteesa much broader range of product choices.

Publishers ofThe Telegraph • Daily Gazette • SV Weekend

www.saukvalley.com

Reprinted with permission from the New Rules Project (www.newrules.org),a national initiative to strengthen local economies.

Thank You to our advertisers forsupporting this

locally ownedindependent business section.

February 21, 2015 A Marketing Supplement to Sauk Valley Media

2015

Special Section Inside Today’s Edition

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Telegraph • 113 S. Peoria Avenue • Dixon, IL 61021 • 815-284-2224Daily Gazette • 3200 E. Lincolnway • P.O. Box 498 • Sterling, IL 61081 • 815-625-3600

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A2 • SV Weekend www.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

SubscriptionSubscribers should receive their paper by 7:00 a.m. weekdays, and by 8:00 a.m. Saturdays. Subscribers receiving the paper by carrier should call their carrier first for missed delivery. If you cannot reach your car-rier, Daily Gazette subscribers should call 815-625-3600, and Telegraph subscribers should call 815-284-2222. Redelivery will be made in Sterling, Dixon, and Rock Falls. All other areas will receive credit, and your carrier will be notified. Phone hours are 6:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:SV Weekend, P.O. BOX 498, STERLING, IL 61081

GeneralSV Weekend is published on Saturday with the excep-tion of general legal holidays by Sauk Valley Media, 3200 E. Lincolnway, Sterling, IL 61081. Periodicals postage paid at Sterling, IL 61081 and at additional mailing offices. (USPS 008968).

SV Weekend is a member of The Associated Press, which is entitled exclusively to the use of all local news printed in this newspaper. Member of Shaw Media.

The publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by that portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred — whether such error is due to the negligence of the publisher’s staff or otherwise — and there shall be no liability for non-insertion of any advertisement beyond the amount paid for such advertisement.

SV Weekend usesrecycled paper and is recyclable.

Ernest AppleyardProduction Director

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Manager

Sam R FisherPublisher

SherylGulbransonCirculation Director

Randy JacobsPress Foreman

Larry LoughExecutive Editor

Jeff RogersManaging Editor

Offices3200 E. LincolnwaySterling, IL 61081

815-625-3600

113 S. Peoria Ave.Dixon, IL 61021815-284-2224

www.saukvalley.com

SVWeekend

POLICESterling Police

Samantha M. Jones, 18, of Tampico; 7:46 a.m. Thursday at West 23rd Street and Oak Grove Avenue; speeding; promise to comply.

Micah C. Galvan, 20, of Sterling, 11:06 a.m. Thurs-day in the 1000 block of Avenue L; Whiteside County warrant for failure to appear on a charge of criminal trespass to land; taken to Whiteside County Jail.

Jacob M. Munz, 19, of Sterling; 12:11 p.m. Thurs-day at Locust and Reins streets; failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident; promise to comply.

Jusitn W. Garcia, 32, of Sterling; 1 p.m. Thursday

in the 200 block of Eighth Avenue; no insurance and expired registration; given notice to appear in court.

Oscar A. Bosch, 33, of Sterling; 11 p.m. Thursday at East Third Street and 16th Avenue; Whiteside County warrant for failure to appear on a charge of pos-session of cannabis; posted bond.

Dixon PoliceKristina M. Schaver, 30,

of Dixon; 12:08 p.m. Fri-day, 600 block of Fellows Street; possession of drug paraphernalia; issued city ordinance citation.

Ogle County Sheriff

Brandy Thomas, 29, and Juan Lozano, 29, both of Rochelle; Thursday; warrant for retail theft conspiracy; taken to Ogle County Jail; to appear in court.

Michael Hensley, 24, of Forreston; Thursday; leaving the scene of an accident; taken to Ogle County Jail; to appear in court.

Eric Polich, 23, of Middle-ton, Wisconsin; Thursday; warrant; taken to Ogle County Jail; posted bond and given notice to appear in court.

BIRTHDAYSHappy birthday to Twila

Highland, Emily WIlliams, Vanessa White, Jeannie Jones, Caryl Dimmig, John Markley, Patrick Mason, Gary Kessel, Norman Day, and Pat Stachoviak, all on Saturday.

Happy birthday to Jeff Page, Doug Lair, Lewis Epperson, Stephanie Fritz, Kelly Null, Justin Shuman, Diana Hosler, and Sandra Royer, all on Sunday.

COMMUNITY WATCH

Were we in ERROR?Getting it right

We care about accu-racy, and we want to correct errors promptly. Please call mistakes to our attention at 815-284-2222 or 815-625-3600, ext. 5501 or 5502.

CorrectionsIn a story published

in Thursday’s editions about overtime pay at Dixon Correctional Cen-ter, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Shaer was quoted as saying, “We hired 700 new [corrections] officers [statewide] dur-ing a 10-year period, ...” In fact, Shaer said those 700 officers were hired over a 1-year period.

We regret the error.

LOTTERY NUMBERSPick Three-Midday: 8-9-1 Fireball: 3Pick Three-Evening: 8-9-7 Fireball: 3Pick Four-Midday: 1-1-5-1 Fireball: 3Pick Four-Evening: 6-1-8-9 Fireball: 6Lucky Day Lotto – Midday: 1-14-27-40-42Lucky Day Lotto – Evening: 12-16-18-33-39

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ONLINE EXTRA

BY ANGEL [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5695@_angelsierra

Do endorsements or online reviews matter? Do they change your shopping or eating hab-its? In January, I wrote and posted on Facebook about the importance of online reviews to con-sumers and businesses, and about the value they can provide to potential customers.

A quick look Wednesday at Rock Falls Tourism’s promo page visitrock-falls.com revealed a noticeable change in the form of a large, green advertisement, which invited people to “leave a review.”

Translation: digital feedback.

The effort is a concept that’s only a few weeks old, said Tourism Execu-tive Director Tim Wilson, who aims to cultivate the buzz achieved through social media.

The group recently kicked off a new mar-keting campaign with

the slogan, “Come for the Peace, Stay for the Party!”

By extending its reach through channels such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, and FourSquare, the agency intends to generate and guide the dialogue by harnessing the power of word-of-mouth conver-sation online.

Wilson has the abil-ity – in a limited capac-

ity – to directly respond to comments, he said, but the ultimate goal is to get people to do the talking by reviewing local restaurants, busi-nesses, and other places of interest.

The plan is to connect farther and go beyond paper products, noting that digital media is the “new way of marketing.”

Ithaca, New York, this

week received a blast of attention when it asked tourists not to visit, and instead suggested a trip to the Florida Keys after “surrendering” to winter. So, finding fresh, inno-vative ways to promote tourism is nothing new.

How they do it is.It’s a step forward

toward meeting a younger, more connected demographic.

Your chance to review Rock FallsTourism looks for online comments on TripAdvisor, FourSquare, Yelp

“We love to snowmo-bile, so why not help those who need it?”

Volunteers always run in pairs, carrying hats, gloves, masks, water bottles, snacks, first-aid kits, phone chargers, and blankets that Stacey waterproofs by sew-ing shower curtains to them.

“We try to think outside the box,” she said.

And, outside of a few donations from friends and family members, they fund the entire thing themselves – from sup-plies to gasoline.

Whiteside County Sher-iff Kelly Wilhelmi said he believes their efforts have saved lives.

“You know, it means a lot to us,” he said. “Our job is to help people, and when we’re unable to do it, it’s great that someone else is able to step up and help us.”

One or two volunteers will stay home to field calls from the sheriff’s department and requests for help made to the group’s Facebook page. Then snowmobilers are sent where they are needed.

Their top priority, Sta-cey said, is to get people they rescue to a safe, warm place.

And as they’re out, they check on random cars they see stuck in drifts. Once a vehicle has been checked, they place a glow stick on its roof, so other rescuers know.

Stacey said they’d really like to get a pull-behind sled, so they can better transport supplies – and children.

“That was the hard-est call we had,” she said. “There was a girl with a 3-year-old, and we couldn’t get to and transport them all safely.

With a pull-behind sled, we could’ve. That call was the one that broke my heart, but thank God, someone else was able to get to them.”

She hopes to be able to buy a sled in the next 2 years, but until then, she said, they’ll keep doing the best they can.

“Sometimes it’s tough to get down these roads,” Sheriff Wilhelmi said. “The county and state and townships can only do so much, especially when it’s blowing and everything. It gives us another option, and it’s very, very much appreci-ated.

“These people are won-derful.”

Sheriff: Their efforts have saved livesSNOWMOBILE

CONTINUED FROM A1W

Sheriff Kelly Wilhelmi

IN BRIEFDogs safe after minivan stolen

CHICAGO (AP) – Seven dogs have been safely reunited with their owners after two men stole a mini-van they were left in outside a pet day care in Chicago.

Surveillance video released Thursday shows that the van was unat-tended when two men walked up to it, got inside, and drove away.

The van was found about 4 miles from the day care on Thursday.

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SV Weekend • A3www.saukvalley.comSaturday, February 21, 2015

“We are 48th out of 50 states,” he said at the time. “I want to increase state support so we can fully fund our schools and make sure every dis-trict gets proper support

and fund-ing.”

G e n e r a l state aid is c u r r e n t l y p r o r a t e d at 89 per-cent, which means the state will pay

only 89 percent of what it would take to fully fund a foundation level of $6,119 per student.

With the additional money proposed, school districts would be funded at 95 percent.

“This is money we are already supposed to be getting,” said Dan Arickx, superintendent of the Rock Falls Elementary School District. “We still are not where we are sup-posed to be.”

Because of the prorat-ing, local school districts have decreased staff, cut budgets, and increased outside fundraising.

“What Gov. Rauner’s budget address did not mention is that this increase still falls more than $250 million short of the statutory founda-tion level for general state aid this year,” said Ron McCord, superintendent of the Rock Falls High School District.

Rauner didn’t say how he planned to pay for the education increase, as the state budget has a pro-

jected $5 bil-lion shortfall next year.

A l t h o u g h the increase in funding still would n o t f u l l y fund school d i s t r i c t s ,

McCord said every little bit would help.

“The closer the state can get to fully funding edu-cation, the better it is for all districts,” he said. “An increased appropriation of $300 million is a great start.”

David Blackburn, busi-ness manager of Dixon School District, said the district was highly depen-dent on state aid. Any additional money would be a positive for the dis-trict, he said.

“That money is better than nothing,” Blackburn said. “I’d rather see an increase than a decrease. It’s just a proposal, how-ever, so nothing will be passed right now.”

Tad Everett, superinten-dent of Sterling School District, said Rauner’s

proposal still had some unknowns.

“After he talked about the $300 million increase in education, he also said it would help school districts with the most needs,” Everett said.

“What does that mean, and how do you define that? Where is the rev-enue going?”

Everett said he hoped he could get some answers in the near future. School districts have to make

decisions in the spring about reductions in staff.

“I want to know if all of that money is going into K-12 education,” Ever-ett said. “How much is going to private schools, and how much is going

t o C h i c a -go?”

John Zick, s u p e r i n -tendent of the Ashton-F r a n k l i n C e n t e r school dis-trict, said he also wanted more details.

“It’s better news,” Zick said. “I would hesitate to say it’s good news until there are more specifics. Until we know specifics, the impact will be mini-mal on our immediate decisions.”

Scott Vance, superin-tendent of the Morrison School District, said he agreed with Zick that it’s too soon to know how the district would be affect-ed.

“Without knowing in what form the increased revenue is going to come in, I can’t say for certain how exactly [the school district] would use the funds,” Vance said. “We have needs in several funds such as education, transportation, and oper-ations and maintenance.”

Governor’s funding plan for education ‘better,’ but is it good?EDUCATORS

CONTINUED FROM A1W

Philip Marruffo/[email protected]. Bruce Rauner speaks during a visit to Loveland Community House in Dixon on Feb. 7. During his budget address Wednesday, Rauner proposed spending an additional $300 million on Illinois schools.

David Blackburn

Dan Arickx

Tad Everett

DIXON | COLLECTING THE CRUNDWELL LOAN

BY MATT [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5529@MattMencarini

DIXON – In January, a fed-eral judge ordered that the ownership of loans owed by former city Engineer Shawn Ortgiesen and his wife, Angela, be transferred from former city Comp-troller Rita Crundwell to the U.S. government.

Now that the govern-ment owns the debt, it will move to collect.

The tools it has available to collect on any debt vary, and the ease with which the government can collect depends on the debtor’s assets, said Charles Tabb, a law pro-fessor at the University of Illinois who specializes in bankruptcy, contracts and commercial law.

Crundwell was arrested at City Hall in 2012 and later pleaded guilty to wire

fraud in the theft of nearly $54 million from the city over 2 decades. As part of the plea agreement, a federal judge issued a $54 million restitution order.

The U.S. government has seized, liquidated and transferred many of Crundwell’s assets to the city already, about $9.3 million in all, mainly from the sale of her prop-erty, homes and horses.

In the U.S. government’s discovery, it found loans issued to the Ortgiesens, to Dixon Fire Chief Tim Shipman and his wife, and to Donald Wolber.

The loans to the Ship-mans were repaid with-out litigation, and as a result, the terms and amount were not made public. Wolber’s $2,000 loan is nearly repaid, the government reported.

Between November 2008 and January 2012,

C r u n d w e l l l e n t t h e Or tgiesens $ 1 8 2 , 8 6 2 at a 4 per-cent inter-est rate. The loans are in default, and the Ortgie-sens now owe the govern-ment $182,580.33, which will be applied to the city’s restitution.

Ortgiesen resigned from his job at the city on April 16, 2013, after it was dis-covered he had charged a city credit card for per-sonal expenses between April 2007 and March 2013. When he left, he paid the city with a check that included the remaining balance plus interest he had calculated at 5 percent.

Or tgiesen has not returned a request for comment.

Tabb addressed gen-eralities of how the U.S. government, or any cred-itor, will move to col-lect on a debt. He didn’t address the specifics of

the Ortgiesens’ loan.The easiest route for

collection is to seize bank accounts, Tabb said, because the assets are already liquidated. In essence, a bank owes money to the account holder, equal to the account balance.

For the government to collect the balance, it would transfer owner-ship of the debt from the account holder to the government.

Wage garnishment is the next easiest route, Tabb said, adding that the government or creditor serves the employer with an order, and each month a portion of the paycheck is withheld until the debt is paid off.

“Garnishment is slam dunk,” he said. “They love garnishment.”

After that, a creditor will move to seize and liquidate non-exempt property. The law allows a debtor certain property that can’t be seized, Tabb said, including a modest

home, vehi-cles, clothes, a Bible, tools of the trade, bedding, etc.

But i f a debtor owns a s u m -mer home, that’s likely something that would be seized if the creditor thought it had enough value.

If a summer home worth $200,000 has a $190,000 mortgage attached, Tabb explained, going after the home for a $10,000 return might not be worth it.

“What position a credi-tor will take is based on the practically of what they’ll be able to realize,” he said.

The creditors weigh the hassle versus the return, and if the debtor is willing to agree to some repayment plan, it’s often agreed to, Tabb said, because if creditors push too hard, a debtor is likely to file for bankruptcy.

If that happens, credi-

tors that already have liens on property or on assets are given prior-ity treatment, Tabb said, and once the lien hold-ers have been settled, the rest of the creditors split the remaining assets. The rest of the debt is wiped away.

“On the one hand, you want to move quickly before the debtor files,” Tabb said of placing liens on property and seiz-ing bank accounts. “The counter to that is if you move too quickly, you push them into bank-ruptcy.”

In the case of the Ort-giesens, since the loans are not fraudulent, they could be wiped away in bankruptcy.

Debts resulting from fraud, Tabb said, aren’t lost in the bankruptcy process.

But how much of the $182,580 will be collect-ed and when, Tabb said, “depends on the financial situation of this unfortu-nate couple.”

Seized assets, wage garnishments are optionsProfessor says creditors take easiest routes to collection

Charles Tabb

Shawn Ortgiesen

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FUNERAL SERVICES FOR THE WEEK

W Today’s visitations:Mary C. Estrada of Sterling,

8:30-10:15 a.m., with prayers at 10:15 a.m., at St. Mary Catholic Church in Sterling.

Toney E. Searing of Rock Falls, 8:30-10 a.m. at McDon-ald Funeral Home & Crema-tory in Rock Falls.

Mary Jo A. Burkhalter of Sterling, 9:30-10:45 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sterling.

Bernard C. “Bernie” Kes-sel of Amboy, 9:30-10:30 a.m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Amboy.

Harold R. Schmall of Franklin Grove, 10-11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Dixon.W Today’s funerals:Virginia Long of Dixon,

9:15 a.m. prayer service at Jones Funeral Home in Dixon, followed by 10 a.m. Mass at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Dixon.

Toney E. Searing of Rock Falls, 10 a.m. memorial ser-vice at McDonald Funeral Home & Crematory in Rock Falls.

Bernard C. “Bernie” Kes-sel of Amboy, 10:30 a.m. Mass at at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Amboy.

Thomas L. Keller of Bull-head City, Arizona, 11 a.m. memorial service at Faith Baptist Church in Sterling.

Mary Jo A. Burkhalter of Sterling, 11 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sterling.

Mary C. Estrada of Sterling, 11 a.m. Mass at St. Mary Catholic Church in Sterling.

Harold R. Schmall of Franklin Grove, 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Dixon.W Sunday visitations:LeRoy W. “Lee”

Josephsen of Dixon, 1-4 p.m. at Preston-Schilling Funeral Home in Dixon.

Donald Marschang of Sub-lette, 1 to 6 p.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Sublette.

Isabelle J. Benson of Mor-rison, 4-7 p.m. at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Morrison.

Jacob Burke of Oregon, 4-8 p.m. at Farrell-Holland-Gale Funeral Home, Oregon.W Sunday funerals:Elmer L. Koster of Sterling,

noon at Schilling Funeral Home in Sterling, followed by celebration of life and lunch at Woodlawn Arts Academy in Sterling.

OBITUARIES

Obituary informationAll obituaries, including

death notices, are due by 2 p.m. Sunday through Friday if sent via email, [email protected] or fax, 815-625-9390.

Obituary corrections and clarifications will appear in the Corrections

box on Page A2 the next publication day after we are notified of an error.

Receipt of all obituar-ies must be confirmed by phone.

For more information, call 800-798-4085, ext. 5530 or 5502.

OREGON – Jacob Mat-thew Burke, 25, the son of Bob and Dawn Burke of Oregon, passed away Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, at Loyola Medical C e n t e r, w h e re he had been a patient in the i n t e n s i v e c a re unit for 2.5 weeks.

Jake was an active stu-dent and athlete at both Oregon and Rock Falls High schools. More than winning, he enjoyed the game and playing it with his teammates. He went on to graduate from Western Illinois Uni-versity, where he found inspiration in studying psychology. Among his many accomplishments, Jake would consider falling in love, spend-ing time with his friends and family, and learn-ing guitar as his favorite. His family will miss his warm smile, playful per-sonality, and loyal heart.

Jake will be greatly missed by his parents, Bob and Dawn Burke of Oregon; sisters, Car-rie Tinsman (Rob) of Anthem, Arizona, and Becky Merrill (Clayton) of Canton, Mississippi; brothers, Jason Coffman

and Zach Coffman, both of Chicago, and Brett Burke of Oregon; his lov-

ing grandmother, Darlene Burke; and numerous a u n t s, u n c l e s, cousins, nieces, n e p h e w s , a n d countless friends.

He was preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Donald and Patricia Aulls; and paternal grandfather, Roger Burke, all formerly of Oregon.

His family would like to thank Dr. Goyal and team, and the many nurses and staff at Loyola Medical Center who took such loving care of Jake.

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Far-rell-Holland-Gale Funer-al Home, 110 S. Seventh St., Oregon. Christian Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Mary Catholic Church, 301 N. Fourth St., Ore-gon. Burial will follow at St. Mary Cemetery in Oregon.

Memorials may be directed to Special Olympics.

Go to farrellholland-gale.com to send condo-lences.

Jacob M. Burke

ROCK FALLS – Timo-thy Lee Wells, 59, was born Nov. 9, 1955, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the first child of the late Joseph Nathan and Barbara Jean (Crawford) Wells of Coloma, Michi-gan, and Lombard.

Tim was married to his beloved wife, the late Linda Staats, and shared 23 years of a cherished love. They resided in Lombard, and later Springfield. Tim attend-ed Wheaton Central High School, and North-western Military Acade-my in Lake Geneva, Wis-consin. He was a certi-fied mechanic and spe-cialized in marine and motorcycle mechanics. Tim captained motor yachts on Lake Michi-gan and at Fort Lauder-dale, Florida. Tim’s true passion was for music and he was trained on guitar and drums. He was an accomplished session drummer, play-ing in various bands in his earlier years. He was a descendent to the Historical Sawyer Ball House, the family home-stead in Coloma, where he enjoyed attending many family gatherings.

Shortly before Tim’s passing, he openly stat-ed his faith and trust in

Jesus Christ. He felt completely at peace with the c i r c u m s t a n c e s and had no fear or regret. His cour-age and convic-tion of stepping

across the threshold of life into eternity was unwavering. “We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8. Tim demonstrated all of this and more.

Tim passed away of liver carcinoma Feb.18, 2015, surrounded by his loving family.

Su r v i v o r s i n c l u d e his brother, Jonathan ”Scott” (Tammy) Wells of Lisle; sisters, Marjorie Lou (James) Williams of Montgomery, Laura Lind (Joseph) Tito of Chicago and Coloma, Michigan, and Cynthia Furman Wells of Dixon.

A celebration of Tim’s life will be at the fam-ily homestead in Colo-ma. Iterment will be on Memorial Day weekend at Coloma Cemetery in Michigan, with family and friends.

Timothy Lee WellsNov. 9, 1955 – Feb. 18, 2015

DIXON – Adelle G. Katz, 98, of Dixon, died Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at Sauk Valley Senior Living in Rock Falls.

She was born July 23, 1916, in Chi-cago, the daugh-ter of Michael and Florence (Kantro) Gunther. She worked for the Dixon State School for 10 years. She enjoyed going to Crystal Lake on the weekends and play-ing bridge. She was a member of a bridge club for many years. She also enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchil-dren. Adelle married Dr. Irving A. Katz on Dec. 31, 1943, in Charleston, South Carolina. He pre-ceded her in death on April 12, 2003.

Survivors include one daughter, Margery (Ste-ven) Chapman of Rock Falls; grandchildren, Michael Katz and Ryan

Katz of Milton, Florida, and Alyssa Chapman and Adam Chapman of

Rock Falls; great-g r a n d c h i l d r e n , Michael Katz II, Adysson Scott, Koltyn Chapman, and one expected great-grandson, Co l l y n A n d e r-

son; nieces, Lois (Paul) Pitalis and Betty (Roger) Goatcher; and four great-nieces.

She also was preceded in death by one son, Michael Katz; one brother, Lester Gunther; and two sisters, Maude (Leo) Karno and twin sister, Annette (Sher-man) Lewin.

Private burial will be at Riverside Cemetery in Sterling.

A memorial has been established.

Jones Funeral Home in Dixon is handling arrangements.

Go to thejonesfuneral-home.com to send con-dolences.

Adelle G. Katz

DIXON – LeRoy W. “Lee” Josephsen, 93, of Dixon, died Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, at his home after an extended illness.

Lee was born Aug. 11, 1921, in Harmon, the son of Charles and Margaret (Snapoo-nis) Josephsen. He mar-ried Fern E. Hillison on July 4, 1943. Although they later divorced, they remained friends throughout the years. He took great pride in being a truck driver and hav-ing driven more than a million miles. He retired from Prince Castle after 33 years of service. Lee would proudly say he never received a ticket or was involved in an acci-dent. He was an active member of Dixon Moose Lodge 727 and Dixon Elks Lodge B.P.O.E. 779. He thoroughly enjoyed playing euchre, fishing, carpentry work, and gardening. Lee will be remembered for his kind heart, the same jokes he always thought were so funny, and for the sweet man he was.

Those left behind to cherish his memory include his two daugh-ters, Carol (Dean) Jones of Celebration, Flor-

ida, and Sandi (Ron) Reinhold of Dixon; two granddaughters,

Michelle (Dan) N e w m a n a n d Andrea ( Jason) Cook, both of Dixon; and five great-grandchil-dren, Tyler, Nate, Allison, and Brady

Newman, and Carlie Cook. He also will be remembered by three sisters, Elaine Handel, Margaret Rutherford, and Thora Schauff; dear friend, Margaret Haines; and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by three brothers, Charles, Marvin, and Fred Josephsen; and a son-in-law, Richard Fick.

Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Preston-Schilling Funer-al Home in Dixon. The funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Vincent O. Marran-dino, director of pastoral care at KSB Hospital in Dixon, officiating. Buri-al will be at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Dixon.


Visit prestonschilling-funeralhome.com to send condolences.

LeRoy W. ‘Lee’ Josephsen

R O C K F A L L S – Keven Glenn

Dean, 60 of Rock Falls, died Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at CGH Medical Cen-ter in Sterling.

Keven was born June 25, 1954, in Sterling. He was the son of James Dean and Sam and Donna (Glenn) Crady. He was an Army veter-an. Keven married Janet Helfrich on May 4, 1991, in Rock Falls. He enjoyed cooking, baking, and woodworking. Keven was an avid NASCAR fan, and was the past president of the Twin City Cruizers Car Club.

Survivors include his wife, Janet of Rock Falls; three daughters, Bobbi Jo Dean (Darren) Blair of Chuluota, Florida, Jessi-ca Dean (Andrew Lundy) of Geneva, Florida, and Kelli (Luke) Rajnowski of Sterling; two sons, Ryan Dean (Nicole Koehler) of Dixon and Michael (Kim) Kilday of Rock Falls; 10 grand-children, Jaimi Machen, Byron Dean Morgan,

Deseray Heck, Zoie Blair, Brenon Blair, Lexi Lundy, Ava Lundy, Grace

Lundy, Zachary Kilday and Bran-don Kilday; one great-grandchild, Syler; one sister, Debbie Dean of Delatore, Califor-nia; one brother,

Lonnie (Shelby) Crady; siblings from the Dean a n d Ca n t re l l f a m -ily; niece, Christiana Crady; and nieces and nephews; and special friends, James Lathrop, and Keith Argraves, and Frank Selmi.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Lisa; and one brother, Michael.

A gathering of family and friends will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by a memo-rial service Tuesday, at McDonald Funeral Home in Rock Falls, with Dalmus Meeks, pastor, officiating.


Go to mcdonaldfuner-alhomes.com to send condolences.

Keven G. Dean

FULTON – Nova J. Park-er, 75, of Harbor Crest Nursing Home in Fulton, formerly of Albany, died Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at

the nursing home.Arrangements were

completed by Bosma-Renkes Funeral Home in Morrison.

Nova J. Parker

SUBLETTE – Don-ald Marschang,

71, of Sublette, died Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, at Mendota Com-munity Hospital.

He was born Nov. 20, 1943, in Morrison, the son of Vincent and Bes-sie (Mock) Marschang. He had been a farmer and had worked at Way-side Press for 20 years. In retirement he worked part time for Del Monte. He was a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Sub-lette, Amboy Knights of Columbus, and the American Legion. He was a veteran of the Army. He married Judith Prendergast on Oct. 15, 1966, in Sublette.

He is survived by his wife, Judy of Sub-lette; one son, Doug Marschang of Dixon; one daughter, Brenda (Pete) Prevenas of North Platte, Nebraska; four grandchildren, Tyler

Marschang and Jacob, Ryan, and Katelin Pre-venas; and one sister, Gladys Shappa of Phoe-nix.

He was preceded in death by his par-ents; one son, Jeffrey D. Marschang; and one brother, Charles Marschang.

Visitation will be from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday and from 9:30 to 10:15 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Sublette. Mass of Christian Burial will at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the church, with the Rev. Randy Fronek and the Rev. Joel Lopez officiat-ing. Burial will be at St. Mary Cemetery in Sub-lette.


Mihm-Jones Funeral Home in Amboy is han-dling arrangements.

Condolences may be sent online at www.the-jonesfh.com.

Donald Marschang

LAKE BLOOMINGTON – James A. “Jim” Malay died Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, at his Lake Bloom-ington home.

He was born Nov. 26, 1937, in Moline, the son of Paul Joseph “Jack” and Mary (Gor-man) Malay. During his early years, he was employed at Massey’s Ace Hardware store in Dixon. He gradu-ated from Dixon High School in 1955, and St. Ambrose College in 1959. He served 6 years in the Army Reserves. In 1960 he joined State Farm Insurance, and retired as vice president of services and systems in 1999. He was very active in his communi-ty, serving for 15 years as chairman of Timber Point Outdoor Center

in Hudson, a camp for Easter Seal Children.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine; daughters, Susan (Bill) McNary, Julie (Ed) Freidman, and Karen (Spencer) Comp-ton; and his son, Jim (Alicia) Malay; as well as 10 grandchildren.

He was preceeded in death by his parents; sister, Rosemary Malay Robinson; and his broth-er, John.

A Funeral Mass was Jan. 28 at Epiphany Catholic Church in Normal, with the Rev. Michael Schaab and the Rev. Carl LoPres-ti officiating.

Carmody-Flynn Funer-al Home in Bloomington handled arrangements.

A memorial has been established to the Tim-ber Point Outdoor Cen-ter.

James A. ‘Jim’ Malay

ROCK FALLS – Cyrus J. Sickler Sr., 60, of Rock Falls, died Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015. He was a handyman.

He was born Jan. 12, 1955, in New Yo rk s t a t e. He married Susan L. Mankamayer. She preceded him in death.

Survivors include two daughters, Crystal Sick-

ler of Rock Falls and Amy White of California; one son, Cyrus Sickler Jr.

of Florida; seven grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and four stepgrand-children.

A celebration of life will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at

Sterling Township Center of Youth. 312 Fourth St., Sterling.

Cyrus J. Sickler Sr.

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH• Gaming• Food• Craft Beer

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!

The Whiteside County Board is expected to vote on an amended code at its March 17 meet-ing. County Administra-tor Joel Horn presented a proposed amendment to the county’s Executive Committee on Jan. 27, but the panel decided to coordinate its efforts with the cities before present-ing changes to the full board.

Sterling approved a similar amendment to its video gambling ordi-nance at its Feb. 17 coun-cil meeting. City Attorney Ron Coplan even took the city’s language one step further than the county by adding percentage of floor space to the pri-mary business definition. In addition to the new requirement that alcohol and food must generate at least 60 percent of a business’s gross receipts, Sterling also now requires that at least 60 percent of the floor space be devot-ed to its primary business before gambling termi-nals are allowed into the mix.

Although Wescott said he was troubled by the “massive gray areas” created when the state enacted the Illinois Video Gaming Act in 2009, the more he researched the issue, the more concerns he had with trying to fix it at the local level.

“The gaming parlor concept is an unfore-seen consequence of the statute,” Wescott said. “And the state has done nothing to clarify the lan-guage.”

Wescott and some com-mittee members said they were inclined to let the free market system make some of the deci-sions.

“I believe that several

businesses in town would have already failed with-out gaming,” Wescott said. “But at some point, the time will come when the market becomes sat-urated and businesses will have to make their own decisions impact-ing whether they’ll fail or succeed.”

Committee member Daehle Reitzel, who is a downtown business-man, said he believes the required percent-ages would be difficult to enforce and that the amended language takes things too far.

“I think we are really crossing a line when we monitor a business’s sales receipts,” Reitzel said. “I agree there is no need to move forward with this.”

Committee Chairman John Watts said he was relieved after hearing the mayor’s thoughts on the issue.

“I was hopeful you wouldn’t recommend going with the county’s amendment,” Watts said. “We have made commit-ments with this money

for several years out, and I don’t want to keep busi-nesses from coming in.”

Sterling Mayor Skip Lee said he was surprised by Rock Falls’ decision to break from the pack on the ordinance changes, but he said each city has different considerations.

“Maybe it was like the rental inspections pro-gram, and the mayor didn’t feel there was a consensus on the coun-cil for it at this time,” Lee said. “We had broad-based support here, and the council was firmly behind our decision.”

Sterling’s decision was expedited by a liquor license application from Suzy McAfoos, owner of Suzi’s Video Poker and

Slots, which has a parlor in Rock Falls. The chang-es in language would keep such parlors out of the city because a major-ity of the receipts come from video gambling ter-minals.

While that situation might have affected the timing, Lee said, Sterling wasn’t comfortable with waiting for clarification from the state.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Springfield to rem-edy the gray areas,” Lee said. “We wanted to be proactive on this. We want our businesses to be destination points –

that’s how we want to be viewed.”

Lee said he wasn’t afraid to roll the dice on finan-cial implications of the city’s move. In 2014 alone, nearly $20 million was played in video gambling in Sterling. Although players won back about 91 percent, they still con-tributed more than half

a million dollars to state and local government. The city’s share was $84,880.

“I always say that if money is the sole reason for doing something, it probably won’t end well,” Lee said. “Our research shows the pot of money won’t continue to grow; it will just spread out.”

Committee chairman: Don’t keep businesses awaySUIT

CONTINUED FROM A1W

’’‘‘I wouldn’t hold your breath if

you’re waiting for Springfield to remedy the gray areas. We

wanted to be proactive on this. We want our businesses to be

destination points. Sterling Mayor Skip Lee

Sterling’s new languageSection 10-74Limitations Upon PlacementNo video gaming terminal permit shall be issued to,

and no video gaming terminal shall be placed or oper-ated within a location that does not also have issued to it a license for the sale of alcoholic beverages for retail by the drink for consumption on the premises as its principle business. Principal business means and is defined as premises where 60 percent or more of the floor space of the premises is devoted to the retail sales of alcoholic beverages and/or food products, or 60 percent of the gross receipts generated on the premises result from the retail sale of alcoholic liquor and/or food products. Notwithstanding any greater limit which may from time to time be established by the Illinois legislature, no more than five (5) video gam-ing terminals shall be allowed, nor permits issued therefore, under this ordinance under each licensee at any one location.

PEORIA

PEORIA (AP) – After a 2-year study that exam-ined alternative loca-tions, Caterpillar Inc. announced Friday that it will keep its global head-quarters in Peoria and modernize its downtown complex in what it called a recommitment to the city.

The world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, with $55 billion in annual sales and revenue, Cat-erpillar will expand and overhaul its headquarters with a three-tower build-ing as its centerpiece, CEO Doug Oberhelman said.

“Caterpillar will stay in Peoria,” Oberhelman announced to a standing ovation of about 200 dig-nitaries at the company’s downtown visitors center.

The mor ning gala reserved a prominent seat for new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, whose campaign focusing on repairing the state’s finan-cial cracks and making Illinois more attractive to business won him the job over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, with whom Oberhelman had clashed about fiscal policy.

“Great day for Illinois. Outstanding day for Illinois,” Rauner pro-

claimed. “Great day for Peoria.”

Caterpillar, whose cur-

rent headquarters was built in 1967, when its annual sales were just

$1.5 billion, will expand the site to 31 acres and six blocks and add walk-ing and biking paths, and “innovative” workspaces.

The company has about 2,400 employees in its main headquarters and 800 others spread around downtown.

OBERHELMAN WOULD not say how much the company would spend. The creation of the head-quarters study raised concerns that Caterpillar could move, and Rauner said the company was courted heavily by other countries as well as states.

Another major central Illinois employer, agri-business firm Archer Daniels Midland Co., moved its international headquarters from Deca-tur to Chicago last year.

Rauner, who named Oberhelman to a transi-tion committee advis-ing the governor on top priorities for his first 100 days in office, said Cat-erpillar never asked for favors.

“They never came to me or previous governors and asked for any spe-cial deals or any special treatment, tax breaks, rebates or kickbacks,” Rauner said. “They just wanted to be treated with respect and know that Illinois is going to be fis-cally responsible and run right, the way Caterpillar is run right.”

O b e r h e l m a n t o l d repor ters af ter the announcement that the company considered the pros and cons, but decid-ed early in the review process to stay.

Caterpillar announces, ‘We’re staying put’Heavy equipment maker to expand its headquarters

APGov. Bruce Rauner (left) and Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman participate in the Caterpillar Inc. announcement that it is keeping its global head-quarters in downtown Peoria. The heavy equipment maker also announced Friday that it will expand its corporate campus in Peoria.



Opinion

W Editorials represent the opinions of the Sauk Valley Media Editorial Board. W Opinions expressed in letters and columns are those of the writers.

THE FIRST AMENDMENTCongress shall make no law

respecting an establishment of reli-gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of

the people peaceably to assemble,and to petition the Government

for a redress of grievances.

Share your opinionsMail: The Reader’s VoiceSauk Valley Media3200 E. Lincolnway, P.O. Box 498Sterling, IL 61081Email: [email protected]: 815-625-9390Website: Visit www.saukvalley.comPolicy: Letters are to be no more than 300 words and must include the writer’s name, town and daytime tele-phone number, which we call to verify authorship. Individuals may write up to 12 letters a year.

Quotes brought to you courtesy of

O n Dec. 14, 1799, the final day of his life, 67-year-

old George Washington, weakened by an infection after a horseback ride in a snowstorm, along with the unsound medi-cal practice of bleeding, asked a secretary wheth-er his final deathbed instructions had been understood. The secre-tary said yes.

“’Tis well,” Washington whispered. Then he died.

’Tis well that we remember the Father of Our Country on Sunday, 283 years after his birth on Feb. 22, 1732.

His name is synony-mous with our nation. His likeness is ever pres-ent on our currency.

’Tis well, too, that

Washington’s leadership qualities receive atten-tion, above and beyond that amalgamated, manufactured Monday holiday known as Presi-dents Day.

The life of Washington, who led the Continental Army to victory in the American Revolution, presided over the 1787 Constitutional Conven-tion, and was elected our first president in 1789, offers wisdom worth remembering today.

Among the examples:Learn from your mis-

takes. Washington wit-nessed plenty as a fron-tier colonial officer, and he made some himself. From them, he learned the British could be defeated.

Take the initia-tive. With the Brit-ish occupying Bos-ton, Washington approved a plan to transport heavy guns from an inland fort to the heights surround-ing the city. The astonished Brit-ish were forced to evacuate without a shot being fired.

Protect your flanks. Not only did he do this successfully against the

British, but also against rival gen-erals.

Don’t give up. Washington took hardship and discouragement in stride. He con-quered the despair of Valley Forge and led his army to victory.

Take calculated risks. Crossing the Delaware for a bold Christmas attack on the

enemy was a gamble,

but it paid off.Live to fight another

day. Washington lost many battles, but he knew when to withdraw to keep his army intact.

Lead by example. As the first president, everything he did set a precedent. He knew it, and acted with wisdom. He got the nation off to a good start.

Be wary of politics. Washington warned Americans that politi-cal parties would create discord for the fledgling nation. He was right. His countrymen should have listened.

Cultivate friendships and alliances. Friends helped Washington suc-ceed militarily and in government. The French

fleet helped him force the British to surrender at Yorktown.

Know when to say when. Washington could have been a supreme leader for life, if he’d wanted to. But he volun-tarily stepped down, to his everlasting credit.

Take care of your health. Yeh, that horse-back ride in the snow wasn’t such a good idea. Neither was medicinal bleeding.

Create something posi-tive that will outlast you. Well, all Washington did was to help create the United States of America. What an outstanding legacy.

Washington was a wise leader. ’Tis well that he be remembered.

Worthwhile wisdom from America’s ‘dad’EDITORIAL

What we thinkWashington’s birthday is Sunday. Let’s

remember how the Father of Our Country became “first in war, first in peace, and first

in the hearts of his countrymen.”

“I just want to know the facts as they are, not as you think they are, not as you hope they

are, not as someone tells you they are.”Jack Anderson,

syndicated columnist, 1999

EDITORIAL BOARD

Jennifer BarattaJim Dunn

Sam R FisherSheryl Gulbranson

Larry LoughJeff Rogers

Blockage was the city’s fault,not resident’s

MICHAEL J. HUBBARDRock Falls

This past week, my sewer backed up here in Rock Falls because of the city’s blockage in the street, thus flooding my basement and ruining my water heater.

I turned in a claim to the city of Rock Falls’ insur-ance company. I received a call yesterday from the insurance company stat-ing that it did not cover sewer backups, even though this was the city of Rock Falls’ problem that my sewer backed up and water got into my water heater, ruining the burner.

I do not believe this is fair to the homeowners of Rock Falls.

Water hookup issue a matter of lost liberty

WILLIAM LEESMANGalt

In response to Mr. Cush-man’s letter [“Rock Falls acts reasonably in city water issue,” The Reader’s Voice, Feb. 13], interest in liberty should be every-one’s concern, regardless of location.

Most have been incre-mentally dumbed down and don’t recognize free-dom and liberty – condi-tioned to accept whatever politicians want to force upon them “for their own good.” Rock Falls resi-dents request hookup to the city system; it’s their choice. Politicians forcing residents to do so violates their liberty.

Extended the hookup period? They’re still forc-ing residents, at virtual gunpoint, to connect – force being the operative.

Appeal to the public works committee to show hardship? In Obama’s economy, that could be a long line. Would the com-mittee wave its wand, grant dispensation from the king? Or would it still force hookup and offer assistance using moneys forcibly taken from other citizens?

The Clean Water Act is an illegal law. The Con-

stitution doesn’t grant that power to the feds. That is purveyance of the states and residents. The EPA is an illegal organi-zation created by Nixon through an illegal execu-tive order.

Filters can be installed to remove contaminants at a far lower cost than forced hookup. Does Rock Falls put the poison known as fluoride into its water? Talk about disease-caus-ing contaminants.

The politicians “donate” long hours to benefit fel-low citizens and do so long-term. They’re the only ones who can benefit society? Two, three terms,

tops; they should step aside. Let new knowledge benefit society. Thinking they alone possess supe-rior ability is beyond the pale.

Same old politicians – continually – have put us in our current mess. Rock Falls? As I stated prior, it extends to all levels of “government.”

“Stupid voters” was pointedly brought to the fore by John Gruber: “Lazy voters are a fact of life. If they don’t vote, that’s their choice.”

And if someone choos-es to use a well, it’s their choice, not some politi-cian’s.

Be responsible in funding of state Medicaid

MARYJANE A. WURTHNaperville

and DEAN M. HARRISONChicago

As a result of recently enacted reforms, Illinois’ Medicaid program is in the midst of great trans-formation, with new ways to deliver care, improve outcomes, and achieve savings.

More than 115 hospitals across the state are part of innovative systems, such as Accountable Care Enti-

ties and Care Coordination Entities, that coordinate care for Medicaid enroll-ees to ensure the best out-comes and control costs. These reforms have also reduced Illinois’ spending on Medicaid by more than $1 billion since 2012.

Why is that important? Many of our families, friends and neighbors rely on Medicaid for their health and well-being. It’s the only insurance for one out of every two children in Illinois, and one in four Illinoisans – kids, adults, seniors and individuals with disabilities or mental illnesses – are covered by Medicaid.

The program is cost-effective and provides tax-payers with a significant return on investment. The evidence: Illinois ranks 49th in the nation in Med-icaid spending per enroll-ee – substantially lower than all other Midwestern states and large states like New York (second) and Pennsylvania (seventh); and 75 percent of Medic-aid payments to Illinois hospitals are from non-state sources.

Through federal match-ing funds and a hospital-provider tax, hospitals and health systems provide $400 million in additional funding to non-hospital providers such as com-munity clinics and nurs-ing homes. Every hospital

job supports more than 1.2 additional jobs for our local economies.

To have a healthy, pro-ductive workforce in a competitive economy, Illinois needs to responsi-bly fund its Medicaid pro-gram. We urge the gover-nor and General Assembly to invest in health and not leave our most vulnerable residents behind.

Note to readers: Mary-jane A. Wurth is president and CEO of the Illinois Hospital Association, and Dean M. Harrison is the IHA Board of Trustees chairman and president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare.

Americanflags should be all-American

U.S. Rep. CHERI BUSTOSEast Moline

I’d like to tell you about an effort I led regarding one of our most beloved national symbols, the American flag.

Last week, I introduced the All-American Flag Act. This common-sense bill would require that all American flags purchased by the federal government be made in America. It sounds obvious, but cur-rent law does not require this.

This bipartisan bill, which builds on my pre-vious efforts to ensure we buy homemade American flags, will boost American manufacturing and create American jobs.

As I travel around north-western and central Illi-nois, I hear from veterans time and again that they are disappointed that too many American flags are actually made overseas, in countries like China. Not only does it send a bad message when our national flag isn’t made here, but it’s a bad use of taxpayer dollars.

It is estimated that the U.S. imported $4 million worth of flags last year – mostly from China. And, according to the Congres-sional Budget Office, this bill would not lead to any cost increases.

I’m committed to con-tinuing to fight for Ameri-can manufacturing, the American taxpayer, and the American flag.

THE READER’S VOICE

Joe Heller, Heller Syndication

Dave Granlund, GateHouse News Service

George Washington

1732-1799

The Father of Our

Country still has lessons

to teach 21st-century Americans.

Today’s

Collect all 8throughout this week!

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J ust weeks after Congresswoman Cheri Bustos

started her second term in Illinois’ 17th District, political conspirators are planning to make it her last.

Republicans want to defeat the Democrat in 2016.

Even some Democrats want her out of that seat.

But for different rea-sons.

Such is the price of political success.

YOU JUST HAVE TO wonder what Republi-cans are thinking.

Sure, they would like to win in the 17th District next year, even though it promises to be a tough one for Republicans.

But the National Republican Congressio-nal Committee has made Bustos one of its 19 key targets for 2016.

The timing is strange, because the bigger voter turnout in a presidential election is usually Demo-cratic friendly, especially in a blue state like Illi-nois.

And Bustos, the GOP might recall, has kicked their butts in the past two elections.

Even if you don’t know the politics, you need to understand the math.

It doesn’t add up.

BUSTOS, A FORMER East Moline alderwoman – and ex-newspaper

reporter – unseated Republican Bobby Schil-ling in 2012, and then won a rematch last November in the district that includes Whiteside and Carroll counties.

After Schilling unseated two-term Democrat Phil Hare amid the tea party fervor of 2010, the Legislature’s Democratic majority redrew the boundaries of the 17th to change the party’s advantage from slight to substantial.

As a result, Bustos beat the incumbent the first time by 6 points – just 2 months after his campaign had publicly bragged he held a dou-ble-digit lead.

Then she turned back his challenge by 10 points last fall in what was otherwise a pretty good election for Repub-licans.

Still, the NRCC announced this week she has been targeted as “vulnerable.”

“As Nancy Pelosi con-tinues to pull her smaller and weaker caucus of House Democrats to the far left, we are going to make sure that these vul-nerable Democrats are held responsible for their disastrous policies,” the NRCC news release said. “As demonstrated in the past several elections, House Democrats have been oblivious to the will of the American people, and it is time to end their

toxic agenda which is bankrupting middle class families.”

When it comes to Bus-tos, Republicans have always been eager to talk the talk.

Then they stumble.

SINCE THE BIG WIN in her first re-election cam-paign, Bustos has been given additional duties as a Democratic up-and-comer.

The Democratic Con-gressional Campaign Committee has made her the vice chairwoman of its recruitment commit-tee.

Her job with the Demo-crats’ political arm in the lower chamber of Con-gress will be to help the recruitment chairman to find House candidates for the party in 2016.

“Cheri Bustos knows what it takes to win a swing district in any political climate,” Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, chairman of the DCCC, said in a state-ment.

To call Illinois’ 17th a

“swing district” these days might be a stretch.

The mathematical reali-ties are that Democrats have little chance of win-ning control of the House next year – they would have to wrest 30 seats from Republicans. But it’s a pretty good bet – given the political realities of a presidential election – that they will make gains.

Whether a little or a lot ... we’ll see.

ANOTHER SIGN OF growing respect for Bus-tos’ political future is that her name is included in the early talk about the U.S. Senate seat on the ballot in 2016.

Democrats are wildly optimistic about early retirement for Republi-can Mark Kirk after one term, which he won in that off-year election of 2010. He will have to fight strong political head-winds to win re-election in 2016.

After all, this is still Illi-nois. And voter turnout will swell with the presi-dent’s race at the top of the ballot, which favors Democrats.

Hard to tell whether a Bustos candidacy has a lot of enthusiasm.

Also tough to gauge whether being the only “downstate” (non-Chica-go area) Democrat being mentioned would be a help or a hindrance.

The stock answer from Bustos’ office about her

political future is that she is focused on serving the 17th District. Of course.

Three other Democratic House members also are in the discussion.

Most mentioned is two-term Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran, and Rep. Robin Kelly, the only black in this early field.

The other name is familiar in the Sauk Valley: Bill Foster repre-sented Lee County and part of Whiteside before he lost a re-election bid in 2010. But he was back in 2012 when, as with the 17th District, Legisla-tive Democrats decided they could make the 14th (now the 11th) more friendly for their candi-date.

The Bustos advan-tage? A close family relationship with senior Sen. Dick Durbin – she famously baby-sat his kids, the story goes.

Imagine the Republican campaign ads around that one!

KIRK, HOWEVER, won’t go down without a fight.

He’s a former congress-man who won the 2010 nomination in a crowded GOP field despite some concerns among Repub-licans that he wasn’t con-servative enough – which is probably why he won in November that year.

Political analysts respect his fundraising abilities and consider

him the kind of moderate his party needs if it wants to keep this seat.

But first he might have to fend off an attack from the right wing of his own party.

The name of ex-Con-gressman Joe Walsh showed up recently on an inside-the-beltway web-site as a possible primary challenger to Kirk.

Walsh confirmed it in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Mark Kirk’s a liberal Republican, and I’m a conservative Republi-can,” the tea party favor-ite said. “We’ve always gotten along, and the Republican Party’s a big tent and all that, and I think last year was a watershed moment when Mark Kirk put his arms around Dick Durbin and refused to help Jim Ober-weis, a fellow Republi-can, beat Durbin.”

Well ... sort of. Kirk risked his relationship with Durbin when he reluctantly (and feebly) supported Oberweis only after being shamed by desperate Repub-licans who somehow thought they could win that race.

“Mean Joe” has also challenged Kirk to prove he is medically able to continue serving after suffering a stroke in 2012 and missing almost a year of work in the Sen-ate.

2016 should be fun.

17th District a stepping stone for Bustos?Larry Lough is executive editor of Sauk Val-ley Media. Contact him via email at [email protected].

larryLOUGH

SECOND OPINION

YOUR GOVERNMENT ONLINEMonitor your govern-

ment at these websites:Gov. Bruce Rauner –

www.illinois.govIllinois General Assem-

bly – www.ilga.govIllinois State Board of

Elections – www.elec-tions.il.gov

Secretary of State Jesse White – www.cyber-

driveillinois.comTreasurer Michael Fre-

richs – www.treasurer.il.gov

Attorney General Lisa Madigan – www.illinois-attorneygeneral.gov

Comptroller Leslie Munger – www.ioc.state.il.us

Auditor General Wil-

liam Holland – www.auditor.illinois.gov

Lee County – www.leecountyil.com

Whiteside County – www.whiteside.org

Ogle County – www.oglecounty.org

Carroll County – www.carroll-county.net

Bureau County – www.

bureaucountyclerk.comCity of Dixon – www.

discoverdixon.orgCity of Rock Falls –

w w w. r o c k f a l l s 6 1 0 7 1 .com

City of Sterling – www.ci.sterling.il.us

City of Oregon – www.cityoforegon.org

City of Amboy – www.

cityofamboy.orgCity of Morrison –

www.morrisonil.orgCity of Prophetstown –

www.prophetstown.usCity of Fulton – www.

cityoffulton.usVillage of Mount Mor-

ris – www.mtmorrisil.com

Village of Tampico –

www.tampicoil.comVillage of Ashton –

www.ashtonusa.comVillage of Franklin

Grove – www.franklin-groveil.org

Village of Milledgeville – www.milledgevilleil.net

Village of Chadwick – www.chadwickil.com

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APA woman walks into a building on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana on Thursday. Illinois’ public universities are bracing for a 31.5 percent cut in state funding that Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed as he tries to cut the state govern-ment’s budget deficit.

MOLINE (AP) – Deere’s f i rs t-quar ter prof i t declined, reflecting softer demand for agri-cultural machinery. Its performance topped analysts’ expectations, but its 2015 guidance appeared to disappoint.

The company said that falling farm incomes and lower commodity prices are putting pressure on demand for agricultural machinery, particularly larger models.

Shares closed 72 cents higher Friday afternoon.

The Moline-based company earned $386.8

million, or $1.12 per share, for the 3 months ended Jan. 31. A year ear-lier, it earned $681.1 mil-lion, or $1.81 per share.

The results still beat Wall Street expecta-tions. The average esti-mate of analysts sur-veyed by Zacks Invest-ment Research was for earnings of 83 cents per share.

“Deere’s first-quarter performance reflected sluggish conditions in the global farm sector, which reduced demand for agricultural machin-ery, particularly larger

models, and led to lower sales and income,” Chairman and CEO Samuel Allen said in a statement on Friday.

Revenue totaled $5.61 billion, also beating Wall Street’s view. Analysts expected $5.43 billion, according to Zacks.

Agriculture and turf sales dropped 27 percent mostly on lower ship-ment volumes, unfavor-able foreign currency translation, and the pre-viously announced sales of John Deere Land-scapes and John Deere Water.

Demand soft, profit drops

CHAMPAIGN (AP) – Faced with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s surprise plan to cut their state fund-ing by almost a third, Illi-nois’ public universities are preparing to argue such drastic reductions would be a mistake while also mulling what to do if they’re enacted.

The 31.5 percent cut Rauner proposed as part of his budget address Wednesday is part of the Republican governor’s starting point in what will be months-long nego-tiations with Democrats who control the General Assembly. But university administrators fear big cuts, even if they are suc-cessful at pushing back.

“It’s so draconian that to walk it back some still leaves you in a bad place,” said Peter McPherson, president of the Associa-tion of Public and Land-

grant Universities and an expert on public univer-sity funding.

After his address, mem-bers of Rauner’s budget team said the Republican governor believes pub-lic universities are better situated to absorb deep cuts than many other state agencies because they have other sources of revenue.

Dropping for years Though public universi-

ties are state institutions, state funding for them has been dropping for years. Most of their funding comes from other sources, such as tuition, donors and federal research grants.

School administrators point out that that most of that money comes with a requirement that it be spent on particular research projects or in a specific academic depart-ment.

Illinois State Univer-sity President Larr y Dietz sent a message

to his campus in which he called Rauner’s plan “disturbing news.” The state signaled earlier this winter that universities should prepare for cuts of about 20 percent. But in an interview, Dietz stressed that he believes schools can negotiate more manageable cuts.

Next month, leaders from the state’s public universities will formally make their cases during hearings in Springfield, but lawmakers who hope to push the governor’s proposal back have start-ed talking, too.

“I think there is some common ground we can find here,” Sen. Scott Bennett, a Democrat whose district includes the University of Illinois’ U r b a n a - C h a m p a i g n campus, said Thurs-day. Bennett said he had already started talking to other lawmakers, Repub-licans among them, with public universities in their districts.

Universities prepare to counter proposed cuts

Ten studentshurt in bus crash

MONTGOMERY – A northern Illinois school district says 10 students were injured when a school bus was involved in a crash in Montgomery.

School District 308 spokesman Brian Graves says the students were taken to the Rush Copley Medical Center and were

in good condition. The crash occurred about 8:15 a.m. Friday as the bus was headed to Boulder Hill Elementary School.

Lawmaker quits for transit post

SPRINGFIELD – A central Illinois lawmaker has resigned from the General Assembly to take a job in Gov. Bruce

Rauner’s administration.Republican state Rep.

Rich Brauer of Petersburg will join the Illinois Depart-ment of Transportation as assistant secretary. A news release Friday called Brauer a “strong advo-cate” for the region on transportation issues.

Brauer has been in the Illinois House for 12 years.

– The Associated Press

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TECHNOLOGY

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) – That phone app keeping track of your exercise and meals might keep you out of the hospital one day.

Why give your doctors permission to incorporate data from fitness trackers and health apps into elec-tronic patient records? Well, they might spot signs of an ailment soon-er and suggest behav-ioral changes or medi-cation before you land in the emergency room. They also might be able to monitor how you’re healing from surgery or whether you’re following a treatment regimen.

“Right now we only see our patients for about a 15-minute visit in the office, and it’s a very con-stricted view,” said Dr. Lauren Koniaris, a spe-cialist in pulmonary criti-cal care at Hackensack University Medical Cen-ter in New Jersey. “This

really globalizes the view of their health status, so that we’re really in con-tact with them on a much more daily if not hour-to-hour basis. It’s almost like a virtual house call.”

At Hackensack, a hand-ful of patients at risk for heart failure are asked to use a fitness tracker to count steps walked and flights climbed. They are also asked to record what they eat – by pho-tographing the product’s bar code, for instance – using a phone app that has a database contain-ing nutrition informa-tion on thousands of food items. Using Apple’s new HealthKit technol-ogy, data from the various trackers and apps gets automatically transferred to the Epic MyChart app on the iPhone. From there, the information goes to the hospital’s records system, which also comes from Epic.

Hackensack wants to expand to more patients and start tracking blood pressure and amount of sleep, too. But the hospi-

tal first needs to ensure that teams are in place to review the glut of data coming in. More broadly,

there’s also a question of whether these trackers and app really improve patient care, and con-

sumer privacy and secu-rity issues to address. The University of California, San Francisco, is studying

which gadgets are reliable and whether that reliabil-ity extends to patients with extreme conditions. Then they have to figure out which data are really meaningful – not just noise.

Many doctors and hos-pitals see potential. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, uses Fitbit trackers to monitor hip-replacement patients for a month after surgery. Health workers get data on daily steps and can tell when patients have trou-ble walking – a hundred or more miles away. The Ochsner Health System in New Orleans is turn-ing to wireless scales and blood-pressure devices to help reduce readmissions for chronic diseases such as heart failure. Noticing a small weight gain, for instance, might reveal fluid buildup resulting from the heart failing to pump normally. Not only can doctors intervene sooner, they can use the data to show how exer-cise can help lower blood pressure.

Fitness trackers, health apps might boost careDoctors say data could help spot ailments sooner

APCardiologist Dr. Sarah Timmapuri looks at data on a smart phone synchronized to a new Fitbit Surge worn by patient Gary Wilhelm, 51, during an examination Feb. 5 in Hackensack, New Jersey. Wilhelm, who works at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey on payroll and finance technology, joined Hacken-sack’s app test after he suffered a heart attack in October.

IN BRIEFBudget to cut $16M from trains

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed state budget would cut $16 million from Illinois’ funding for Amtrak trains that serve downstate areas.

The proposal would roll the state’s current $42 mil-lion Amtrak subsidy back to 2013 levels and cause a reduction in the number of trains running between Chicago and St. Louis and Chicago and Carbondale.

The (Bloomington) Pan-tagraph reports the Quin-cy-Chicago link and the seven state-backed trains running to Milwaukee could also be affected.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Negotiators reached a tentative contract cov-ering West Coast dock-workers on Friday eve-ning, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled internation-al trade at seaports han-dling about $1 trillion worth of cargo a year.

T h e b re a k t h r o u g h came after 9 months of negotiations that turned contentious in the fall,

when dockworkers and their employers began blaming each other for problems getting imports to consumers and exports overseas.

The 5-year deal still must be approved by the 13,000-member Inter-national Longshore and Warehouse Union’s rank-and-file. They work 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle that handle about one-quarter of all U.S. international trade, much of it with Asia.

Negotiators for the union and the Pacific

Maritime Association, which represents ocean-going shipping lines and the companies that load and unload cargo at port terminals, began talking formally in May. Their prior 6-year contract expired July 1.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said that both the dockworkers’ union and their employ-ers agreed to resume work this evening. In recent weeks, employers cut most weekend work, saying they would not pay extra wages.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that is good for workers and for the industry,” said maritime association President James McKen-na and union President Bob McEllrath in a joint written statement. “We are also pleased that our ports can now resume full operations.”

After initial signs of progress, in the fall e m p l oye r s p u b l i c l y charged dockworkers with creating a conges-tion crisis to gain bar-gaining leverage by slow-

ing their work rate and withholding the most skilled workers. The union responded that its members were working safely and blamed the jam on broader dysfunc-tion at West Coast ports that predated contract talks, notably a lack of truck beds to tow con-tainers from dockside yards to distribution warehouses.

By January, the mari-time association’s mem-bers stopped ordering night work crews to load and unload ships.

Tentative contract reached in ports disputeWork supposed to resume tonight

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The following stock quo-tations, as of 5 p.m., are provided as a community service by Chad Weigle of Edward Jones, Dixon and Raymond James and Associ-ates, Sterling.

Abbott ...........................47.49Alcoa .............................15.79AltriaCorp .....................55.61Autonation ...................62.60American Express ........79.84Arris-Group ..................28.59Apple ...........................129.50ADM ..............................48.14AT&T .............................34.08Bank of America...........16.36Boeing .........................158.32BorgWarner ..................61.29BP ..................................41.28Casey’s ..........................91.15Caterpillar ....................84.45CenturyLink .................37.02

Chevron ......................108.58Cisco .............................29.61Citigroup ......................51.77CNW .............................43.95CocaCola ......................41.97ConAgra ........................34.52Dean .............................16.54Deere & Co ...................92.41Disney .........................104.55Donaldson ....................38.41DuPont .........................76.66Exxon ............................89.92Ford ...............................16.40Exelon ...........................33.85GE .................................25.20FifthThird .....................19.39HawaiianElectric .........33.33Hewlett Packard ...........38.39HomeDepot ...............112.23Intel Corp. ....................34.41IBM .............................163.67IntlPaper .......................57.58JCPenney ........................8.20JohnsonControls ..........50.58

Johnson&Johnson......100.25JPMorgan Chase ..........59.79Kraft ..............................64.42Kroger ...........................72.78Leggett&Platt ...............44.77Manpower ....................79.53McDonald’s ..................94.20Merck&Co.....................58.35Microsoft ......................43.863M ...............................168.03Monsanto ...................124.93Newell ...........................40.12AGL ...............................50.06Nike ...............................94.94Parker-Han .................123.71Pfizer .............................34.55Pepsico .........................99.05

Procter&Gamble ..........84.87RaymondJames ............56.60Republic .......................40.64Sears Hldg ....................36.66SensientTech ................62.96Sprint ..............................4.83Staples ..........................16.79TheTravelers ...............107.83UnitedContinental ......68.03UnitedTech .................124.07USBancorp ...................44.61USSteel .........................24.61Verizon ..........................48.97Walgreen .......................77.13WalMartStores..............84.32WasteMgt......................54.49Wendy’s.........................11.26

MONEY & MARKETS The following quota-

tions are provided as a community service by Sterling Futures:

Corn: March 3.85; May 3.93; July 4.001⁄2

Soybeans: Jan. 9.991⁄2; May 10.021⁄4; July 10.07

Soybean oil: March 31.48; May 31.67

Soybean meal: March 347.50; May 338.70

Wheat: March 5.10; May 5.07

L i v e c a t t l e : Fe b. 156.70; April 148.52;

June 141.87Oats: March 2.74; July

2.77Feeder cattle: March

199.17; April 198.35Lean hogs: April 67.40;

June 81.72; Oct 68.95Sugar: March 14.39Cotton: March 64.67T-Bonds: March 1448⁄32

Silver: March 16.22Gold: Feb. 1201.00Copper: March 2.6035Crude: April 50.90Dollar Index: Dec.

94.47

Commodities

EASTERN U.S.

By The Associated Press

The deep freeze that broke records in hun-dreds of cities across the eastern half of the United States on Friday will last most of next week.

Another widespread round of ice, snow or freezing rain is set to start falling today from Mis-souri to the mid-Atlantic and as far south as Ala-bama and Georgia.

“Higher amounts over the next 2 days will prob-ably be across southern Indiana and Illinois and eastward through Ohio into western Pennsylva-nia,” said Bruce Sullivan, a senior meteorologist with the National Weath-er Service. “That’s where

it looks like the jackpot will be.”

But even before the lat-est snowstorm, residents had to deal with school cancellations, power out-ages, road hazards, and water main breaks from the punishing cold.

Here’s a look at the lat-est weather and the effect it is having around the country:

Siberian what?“Polar vortex” is so last

year. Forecasters are call-ing the record-setting bout of icy air the “Sibe-rian Express” because winds coming from Rus-sia are traveling over the Arctic Circle and push-ing into Canada and the United States.

“We can almost show the trajectory from Sibe-ria all the way to the U.S.,” Sullivan said, not-

ing meteorologists began using the term long ago.

Despite being the buzz-word of winter 2014, polar vortex also has been used for decades in meteorol-ogy. It is a pocket of very cold air that typically swirls around the North Pole.

“Sometimes little pieces break off,” Sullivan said. That has also happened this week, meaning a frosty one-two punch.

NASA shiversSchools in Alabama

sent students home early and NASA shut down its Huntsville facility Friday as a storm began unload-ing ice, sleet and snow.

The weather service said roads were impassable in at least seven counties.

Dozens of school sys-tems dismissed students early or canceled classes altogether.

‘Siberian Express’ will run into next week Deep freeze breaks records

AP Ray Abey views ice flowing on the Delaware River at Pleasant Hill Park in Phila-delphia. The National Weather Service said Friday that the newest band of Arctic air could plunge parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic into deep freezes that haven’t been felt since the mid-1990s.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – With an antibiotic-resis-tant “superbug” outbreak connected to its facil-ity, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center stopped short of pointing a fin-ger at the manufacturer of a medical instrument

believed to have spread the deadly germs.

The maker of the product was careful not to blame the hospital as it issued new cleaning instructions emphasizing meticulous manual sterilization.

Things may not be so polite once lawyers get involved. Lawsuits are expected to follow the outbreak tied to two

deaths and several infec-tions, with the hospital and manufacturer point-ing fingers at each other.

“That’s exactly the kind of skirmishing you’re going to see,” said John Culhane, co-director of the Family Health Law & Policy Institute at the Widener University School of Law in Dela-ware. “The bottom line is

that the two defendants will be hauled into court, and they’ll be trying to do two things: One, they didn’t do anything wrong; the second thing is to pin the blame on the other defendant.”

Two people have died at UCLA, and five oth-ers have been infected with the bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant

Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, after undergoing similar endoscopic proce-dures to diagnose and treat pancreatic and bile-duct problems between Octo-ber and January, hospital officials said. More than 170 other patients also may have been exposed.

The family of an 18-year-old student in grave con-dition from the bacteria

is considering suing the endoscope’s manufactur-er, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, an arm of Japan’s Olympus Corp, attorney Kevin Boyle said.

That hard-to-clean medical instrument used on more than half a mil-lion people in the U.S. every year has become the focus of the investiga-tion into the outbreak.

Finger-pointing, lawsuits likely to follow ‘superbug’ scare Two dead, five infected at UCLA

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DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine (AP) – Almost every building was gravely damaged, nearly every window smashed in this Ukrainian town left unrecognizable by months of relent-less shelling. Children played in the rubble where their homes once stood, while neighbors boiled water in open fires as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Two days after govern-ment forces fled Debalt-seve in disarray, leaving the Russian-backed sep-aratists in total control of the strategic town, all was quiet Friday.

Residents who could not or refused to flee came blinking out of makeshift shelters to soak up the rare win-ter sun. Across town, Cossack fighters rolled jubilantly away on commandeered trucks,

tanks and armored vehicles, having secured another decisive victory for the rebels.

Yevgeniya Fomichova, whose gutted apartment was just three blocks away from a Ukrainian military encampment, said she and more than a dozen neighbors cow-ered in basements for 7 months. The nightly ter-ror of shelling worsened in January as separatists massively intensified their onslaught.

“For a month we’ve had no bread and water,” the 60-year-old said, adding that it had been weeks since she and her neigh-bors had bathed.

Debaltseve’s ordeal had been expected to end with the cease-fire agreement forged last week by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germa-ny and France. Instead, the attacks intensified as the rebels moved to capture a town deemed strategically important for its role as a railway hub linking the two larg-est separatist-held cities.

Quiet spreads in ravaged town

AP A Russia-backed rebel rests as a dog eats from a can in Debaltseve, Ukraine, Friday. After weeks of relentless fighting, the embattled Ukrainian rail hub of Debaltseve fell Wednesday to Russia-backed separatists.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) – Islamic State militants unleashed suicide bomb-ings Friday in eastern Libya, killing at least 40 people in what the group said was retaliation for Egyptian airstrikes against the extremists’ aggressive new branch in

North Africa.The bombings in the

town of Qubba, which is controlled by Libya’s internationally recog-nized government, solidi-fied concerns the extrem-ist group has spread beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and estab-lished a foothold less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy.

The militants have taken

over at least two Libyan coastal cities on the Med-iterranean – Sirte and Darna, which is about 19 miles from Qubba. They released a video Sunday that showed the behead-ing of 21 Egyptian Chris-tians who were abduct-ed in Sirte, and Egypt responded Monday with airstrikes on Darna.

The Islamic State group has established its pres-

ence in Libya by exploiting the country’s breakdown since dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011.

Islamic State bombers kill dozens Suicide attacks launched Friday

Fears of war remain among shaken citizens

UKRAINE

LIBYA

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Road to PeoriaThe Sauk Valley’s three largest schools – Dixon, Rock Falls, and Sterling – found out their regional fates on Friday. See who each will face in the 3A regional round in the scoreboard on B4.

Stuck in idleSauk Valley Sports

‘Like’ us!

Sports for the Sauk Valley fan!

NASCAR suspends Kurt Busch indefinitely after a judge said the former champion almost surely choked and beat a former girlfriend last fall, and it seemed likely he’d do it again.

BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW | 1A/2A REGIONALS

Philip Marruffo/[email protected] Newman junior Noah McCarty has learned how to the be the go-to guy offensively for the Comets this season. He’ll be key next week as the Comets vie for the 2A Fulton Regional title.

Piecing things together, againComets adjusting to changing roles this season

BY TY [email protected], ext. 5554

@STyReynolds

It’s almost been like two sea-sons this winter for the Newman boys basketball team. And after the Comets found their stride around Christmastime, they’re finally coming around again … just in time for the postseason.

After a slow start, Newman won its own post-Christmas tournament. But right after the holiday break, the Comets (17-10) were forced to reshuffle the deck once again.

Now, they’re finding their groove for the second time, and they couldn’t ask for it to

come at a better time.“We started the year a little

slow, then I thought we really picked it up to win our own tournament,” Newman coach Ray Sharp said. “Then Jake [Barnes] got hurt, and that changed our rotations again, so then it took us a little while to kind of work through it again.

“Now, we’re comfortable again, and everybody knows

their role a little better.”Barnes not only forced a shift

in personnel, but also playing style. Instead of having two big presences in the post, the Comets were forced to go with a smaller lineup and feature forward Noah McCarty as the lone scoring threat inside.

The adjustment also allowed Newman’s guards to settle in. After admittedly trying to do too much early in the season to replace the potency of the four seniors guards who graduated last spring, the Comet back-court has realized what it has to do to help the team win.

Inside• SVM breaks down each of the three regionals featuring local 1A & 2A boys basket-ball teams, B5.

PIECING CONTINUED ON B5�

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected] Dixon’s Connor Sperling squares off with Mahomet-Seymour’s David Wisehart during a Class 2A wrestleback match in the 195-pound bracket Friday at the state wrestling tournament at State Farm Center in Champaign. Sperling was eliminated from action after losing 7-2. For full coverage, see B10-11.

STATE WRESTLING EXTRA | FULL COVERAGE B10 & B11

SEVEN UPHandful of locals still fighting for

medals

e-mail: [email protected]

FOLLOW SATURDAY’S LOCAL SPORTS ACTION ONLINE. GET CONNECTED.

Sportsinside

BOYS SWIMMING

Locals tapered for Saturday’s sectional, B3.

OUTDOORS

Waiting for warm

temps, B12.

Suggestion boxComment or story tip? Contact Sports Editor Dan Woessner at [email protected] or 800-798-4085, ext. 5555

Section B

SportsSaturday, February 21, 2015

v weekend RERUNWarriors fall to Trojans again, B4.

B2 • SV Weekend www.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

TOP OF 2Your guide to what’s going on in sports

On the tubeTV listings

Jameis Winston

Throw onChris Bosh

Waiting game

Heat and star forward are waiting for results of tests to determine if blood clots have moved from his legs to his lungs.

SaturdayAuto racing

9:30 a.m.

• NASCAR Sprint Cup, prac-tice for Daytona 500, FS1

11 a.m.

• NASCAR XFINITY, pole qualifying for Alert Today Florida 300, at Daytona Beach, FS1

2:30 p.m.

• NASCAR XFINITY, Alert Today Florida 300, at Day-tona Beach, FS1

Midnight

• NHRA, qualifying for Car-quest Auto Parts Nationals, at Chandler, Ariz., ESPN2

Men’s basketball10 a.m.

• S. Florida at E. Carolina, ESPNU

11 a.m.

• Minnesota at Wisconsin, ESPN• UMass at VCU, ESPN2• Oklahoma at Texas Tech, ESPNEWS• Seton Hall at St. John’s, Fox

Noon

• Florida at LSU, CBS• S. Illinois at Indiana St., CSN• Kansas St. at Baylor, ESPNU

1 p.m.

• Miami at Louisville, ESPN• Iowa St. at Texas, ESPN2• W. Virginia at Oklahoma St., ESPNEWS• Butler at Xavier, FSN• Dayton at Duquesne, NBCSP

1:30 p.m.

• Villanova at Marquette, Fox

2 p.m.

• Penn St. at Northwestern, ESPNU

3 p.m.

• Clemson at Duke, ESPN• TCU at Kansas, ESPN2• Bradley at N. Iowa, CSN/FSN• Drexel at Northeastern, NBCSP

5 p.m.

• Virginia Tech at N.C. State, ESPN2

6 p.m.

• Auburn at Kentucky, ESPN6:30 p.m.

• Tennessee at Mississippi, ESPNU

7 p.m.

• Georgia at Alabama, ESPN2• Loyola at S. Illinois, CSN

8 p.m.

• UCLA at Arizona, ESPN8:30 p.m.

• Cincinnati at Houston, ESPNU

9 p.m.

• Gonzaga at St. Mary’s, ESPN2

Women’s basketball11 a.m.

• Nebraska at Indiana, BTN• Iowa St. at W. Virginia, FSN

1 p.m.

• Michigan at Minnesota, BTN

6 p.m.

• Iowa at Ohio St., BTN

Women’s gymnastics8 p.m.

• Oklahoma at Michigan, BTN

Men’s hockey4 p.m.

• Minnesota at Penn St., ESPNU

College wrestling3 p.m.

• NWCA National Duals, semifinals, at Iowa City, BTN

Golf2 p.m.

• PGA, Northern Trust Open, third round, at Pacif-ic Palisades, Calif., CBS

8 p.m.

• LPGA, Women’s Austra-lian Open, final round, TGC

COLLEGE BASKETBALL | BIG TEN

Former Florida State quar-terback says he will throw at NFL combine on Satur-day despite reports that he has an injured shoulder.

On the tubeTV listings

NHL7 p.m.

• Penguins at Blues, FSN9 p.m.

• Kings vs. Sharks, at Santa Clara, Calif., NBCSP

Soccer8:55 a.m.

• Premier League, Burnley at Chelsea, NBCSP

11:30 a.m.

• Premier League, Newcas-tle at Manchester City, NBC

SundayAuto racing

11 a.m.

• NASCAR Sprint Cup, Daytona 500, Fox

7 p.m.

• NHRA, Carquest Auto Parts Nationals, at Chan-dler, Ariz., ESPN2

Men’s basketballNoon

• Ohio St. at Michigan, CBS• Furman at UNC-Greens-boro, CSN• W. Kentucky at Middle Tennessee St., FSN

1:30 p.m.

• La Salle at St. Louis, NBCSP

2 p.m.

• Iowa at Nebraska, BTN• Utah at Oregon, FS1

2:30 p.m.

• Cleveland St. at Wis.-Milwaukee, CSN

3 p.m.

• Evansville at Wichita St., ESPNU

3:30 p.m.

• William & Mary at Hofs-tra, NBCSP

4:15 p.m.

• Indiana at Purdue, BTN5:30 p.m.

• Florida St. at Virginia, ESPNU

6:30 p.m.

• Michigan St. at Illinois, BTN7:30 p.m.

• Washington at Washington St., ESPNU

Women’s basketball11 a.m.

• Duke at N.C. State, ESPN2• Temple at S. Florida, ESPNU

1 p.m.

• Rutgers at Michigan St., ESPN2• LSU at Arkansas, ESPNU

3 p.m.

• Cal at Stanford, ESPN2

Women’s swimming8 a.m.

• Big Ten Championships, at Columbus, BTN

College wrestling11:30 a.m.

• NWCA National Duals, finals, at Iowa City, BTN

Golf2 p.m.

• PGA, Northern Trust Open, final round, at Pacif-ic Palisades, Calif., CBS

NBA5 p.m.

• Warriors at Pacers, FSN

NHL11:30 a.m.

• Capitals at Flyers, NBC2:30 p.m.

• Bruins at Blackhawks, NBC

7 p.m.

• Stars at Wild, NBCSP

Soccer5:55 a.m.

• Premier League, West Ham at Tottenham, NBCSP

8:05 a.m.

• Premier League, Leices-ter City at Everton, NBCSP

10:10 a.m.

• Premier League, Liverpool at Southampton, NBCSP

Bubble watch officially onBY JOHN MARSHALL

AP Basketball Writer

Big Ten teams have been beating up on each other all conference season, leaving

more than half of them dancing on the NCAA tournament bubble.

No. 5 Wisconsin is a lock to get into the bracket. The Badgers reached the Final Four last sea-son, and look as if they’re geared for another deep March run.

Up to eight other teams could join the Badgers.

Maryland (22-5) appears to be in good shape barring a late-season meltdown.

Purdue (18-9) filled a big hole in its résumé by beating Indiana in Bloomington on Thursday night. The 67-63 victory not only gave the Boilermakers a season sweep over the Hoosiers, but it was their first road win over an NCAA tournament-caliber team this season.

Purdue still has three games left against teams on the NCAA bubble: Ohio State, Michigan State and Illinois.

Michigan State (18-8) has some ugly losses on its résumé, includ-ing Nebraska and Texas South-ern, but has won five of its past six games to make a strong case to be included. The Spartans have Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Indiana left, so they still have some work to do.

Ohio State (19-7) doesn’t really have any glaring losses on its

résumé, though a strong final push would certainly make the Buckeyes feel safer.

Indiana (18-8) does have an ugly loss, to Eastern Washington, and has lost five of its past eight games.

A loss to either Rutgers or Northwestern would hurt the Hoosiers, while beating Iowa and Michigan State would certainly be a boost.

Iowa (16-10) pushed itself toward the bubble with losses to Minnesota and Northwestern, but bounced back with a rout over Rutgers.

The Hawkeyes beat North Carolina and Maryland and swept Ohio State, so there are some solid wins on their résumé.

Minnesota (16-11) needs a strong final push to get in, and Michigan (13-13) may need to win the conference tournament for its invite.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL | KENTUCKY WILDCATS

Wildcats still pursuing perfection

BY GARY B. GRAVESAP Sports Writer

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats know each one of their last five South-eastern Conference opponents wants to be the team that knocks them off.

To prevent their first loss, as good as the Wild-cats have been, they’ll need to be better – par-ticularly when it comes to finishing off foes.

Though Kentucky (26-0, 13-0 SEC) has success-fully absorbed everyone’s best shot, coach John Calipari wants his team to be the aggressors working up to delivering the knockout punch.

First up down the stretch run is Auburn (12-14, 4-9) on Saturday night. The Wildcats will be looking to build off their effort in Tuesday’s 66-48 victory at Ten-nessee. Calipari was pleased with how Ken-tucky regrouped after some early struggles.

“They’re getting better,” Calipari said of his team on Friday. “They were talking about it them-selves. They brought it up last game. ... ‘We’re up 12 [points], let’s go. Let’s get this to where it’s sup-posed to be,’ and they kept playing and they did some good stuff.

“We’ve still got a ways to go, though.”

At first glance, the schedule appears to favor Kentucky, with

Auburn the first of three consecutive Saturday home games. On the other hand, the Wild-cats will be hosting No. 18 Arkansas – which has beaten them three straight times – and Flor-ida, which dropped a hard-fought 68-61 game to Kentucky 2 weeks ago.

In between are road contests at Mississippi State on Wednesday, and a March 3 return date at Georgia, which battled the heavily favored Wild-cats before falling 69-58 earlier this month. Such gut-checks keep the Wildcats from looking past Auburn, despite the fact that the Tigers have lost three of four.

The Tigers, struggling to reach .500, will be as motivated as anyone to put an end to Kentucky’s pursuit of perfection.

“They play really hard,” Calipari said of Auburn. “Offensively, they’re playing pretty loose, driving the ball. Defensively, they’re just digging in and scram-bling. They’re not going to let us just throw it to the post.”

To counter the expect-ed challenge, Calipari and his assistants have been working individu-ally with the Wildcats to make sure they exploit their size advantages within the two-platoon concept. He has also

made it clear that while close victories speak vol-umes about the Wildcats’ poise, it’s time they start putting teams away.

Players say they are not focused on making his-tory, just improving on its last game.

“We’re just working on what we do as a team, and getting better,” guard Tyler Ulis said.

If they do improve, then history will take care of itself.

“We’ve just got to go out there and play the best basketball we can,” said freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns. “Just like every other game, take it day by day and try to win them all.”

Kentucky hitting stretch run in quest for unbeaten season

APKentucky head coach John Calipari (right) instructs Andrew Harrison (5) and Tyler Ulis (3) during the Wildcats’ game against South Carolina last Saturday in Lexington, Ky. Kentucky has five regular-season games left in its pursuit of a perfect season.

APIndiana forward Troy Williams (5) defends an inbound pass by Purdue guard Rapheal Davis during the first half of their game Thursday in Bloomington, Ind. The Hoosiers and Boilermakers are just two of several Big Ten teams squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Big Ten & the tourneyThey’re in: WisconsinIn good shape: MarylandOn the bubble: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, PurdueNeed late surge: Minnesota, Michigan

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On the calendar

Local events

SaturdayBoys swimming

1 p.m.

• Newman, Sterling at Byron Sectional• Morrison at United Township Sectional

Wrestling9 a.m.

• State wrestling tourna-ment, at State Farm Center, Champaign

MondayBoys basketball

6 p.m.

• 2A Fulton Regional, Morrison vs. Fulton

7 p.m.

• 1A Erie Regional, Eastland vs. Milledgeville

7:30 p.m.

• 2A Fulton Regional, Princeton vs. West Carroll• 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Regional, Amboy vs. Somonauk

Girls basketball7 p.m.

• 1A Illinois Valley C.C. Supersectional, Annawan vs. Prophetstown

TuesdayBoys basketball

6 p.m.

• 1A Erie Regional, Polo vs. Annawan

7 p.m.

• Dixon at Rochelle• 2A Fulton Regional, Bureau Valley vs. Morrison/Fulton

7:15 p.m.

• Rock Falls at Mendota7:30 p.m

• 1A Erie Regional, Erie vs. Prophetstown

Wrestling6 p.m.

• 1A Polo Dual Sectional, Rock Falls vs. Mercer County• 1A Polo Dual Sectional, Dakota vs. Harvard

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Cosby leaves Illini after suspension

Illinois guard Aaron Cosby has left the team after an injury and a recent suspension.

The school said Friday that the redshirt junior from Louisville, Kentucky, plans on earning his degree before transferring to another college to pursue a master’s degree.

Last month, coach John Groce suspended Cosby and guard Rayvonte Rice without explanation.

NBA

Bulls, Cavs to pursue Perkins

While many prognostica-tors pegged the Bulls and Cavaliers to meet in the Eastern Conference finals, that may not be their only compeition.

Both teams will aggres-sively pursue center Kend-rick Perkins when his buy-out from the Jazz becomes official.

GOLF

Goosen hits long putt for 1-shot leadRetief Goosen rolled in

a 30-foot birdie putt on his final hole Friday at Riviera to wind up in a spot he hasn’t been in a long time – atop the leaderboard going into the weekend.

The late birdie gave Goosen a 1-under 70, and a one-shot lead over Ryan Moore, Graham DeLaet, and 21-year-old rookie Justin Thomas.

BOXING

Mayweather- Pacquaio set date

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will meet Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in a welterweight showdown that will be boxing’s richest fight ever. Mayweather himself announced the bout Friday after months of negotia-tions, posting a picture of the signed contract online.

The long-anticipated bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will almost surely break every financial record. Mayweather could earn $120 million, while Pac-quiao’s split of the purse will likely be around $80 million.

NFL

Three teams eyeing L.A. marketLos Angeles is the hottest

market for new stadiums in the country – and the NFL teams that could come with them – but the possibility that three teams will kick off in the region is a football fantasy, experts say.

The Oakland Raiders, the San Diego Chargers, and the St. Louis Rams each have gained a foothold in the LA area. The Raiders and Chargers announced that they are planning a shared stadium in Carson, in the Los Angeles suburbs, if both teams fail to get new stadiums in their current hometowns. Rams owner Stan Kroenke is part of a venture that wants to build an 80,000-seat stadium nearby, in Inglewood.

sportShortsSVM staff, wire services

Let us hear it• Game results, story tips, athlete of the week nominations, team and individual stats can be faxed to 815-625-9390, called into 800-798-4085, ext. 5552 or e-mailed to [email protected].

Contact usat 800-798-4085Sports Editor

Dan Woessner, ext. 5555 [email protected]

Sports ReportersPatrick Mason, ext. 5550 [email protected] Ty Reynolds, ext. 5554 [email protected] Weidman, ext. 5551 [email protected]

BOYS SWIMMING PREVIEW | 2015 SECTIONALS

BY PATRICK [email protected], ext. 5550

@pm222

Technical swim suits coming out of the box and the tags coming off the suits for the first time can only mean one thing: championship meets are on the horizon.

The Byron co-op swim team put on the water-wicking suits for the first time this season during practice on Friday to get used to the feel in the water, before Saturday’s Byron Sectional meet.

“They tried their suits out in the water, and they look nice and rested,” Tigers coach Julia Rudzinski said of her swimmers. “They’re swimming more effi-ciently, and they don’t have any muscle sore-ness. It’s an exciting time.”

The Tigers have reached the end of a 2-week taper, and their energy was at an all-time high. Rudzinski had her team swim an easy 1,000 yards during a practice last week and, after several minutes, swimmers started to finish the workout and were ready for more. Only there wasn’t more to come.

Rest is crucial for swimmers at this point in the season, and the Tigers have been getting plenty.

“We as an entire team are fully tapered,” Rudz-inski said of the process of slowly decreasing the workload over a period of time to build energy in order to reach maxi-mum potential. “We’re pretty excited to see how we’re going to fare. It’s been fun watching them throughout the season, and now we’re ready to go.”

The Tigers, along with 12 other teams includ-ing Sterling and New-man, will have a chance to qualify for the state meet at the sectional on Saturday. Diving events begin at 9 a.m., with the swimming events to fol-low at 1 p.m.

Sectional is the only meet where a swimmer

can qualify for next weekend’s state meet at New Trier High School in Winnetka, so teams are generally fully rested for this meet.

Many fast swimmers will compete Saturday, including Byron co-op’s Caleb Carlson, who has the best shot of any local swimmer to advance to state.

The Dixon freshman has consistently recorded times faster than the state qualify-ing standards in several events this season, and could set new personal records coming off a taper.

Carlson swam just about every event over the course of the sea-son, but will swim in his strongest events on Saturday in the 200-yard individual med-ley, as well as the 100 breaststroke.

To round out the four maximum allowable events, he will swim legs on two relays – the 200 freestyle relay and the 200 medley relay.

“We’re hoping he will qualify in all four,” said Rudzinski, who is optimistic that several Tigers will be swimming

next weekend at state. “He’s got such nice potential, and he hasn’t even hit where he could be.”

Sterling diver Javier Quiroz should also be someone to keep an eye on. Quiroz, a senior, has stepped up and has taken over the top div-ing slot with Sterling record-holder Cade Coursey out this week-end because of a team policy violation.

If Quiroz turns in a similar performance to his 289.65 six-dive score on Feb. 7 at the Inde-pendent Conference meet held at Byron, he should be in contention for a state berth.

“Javier is our top diver right now, and we fully expect him to perform well,” Golden Warriors coach Kyle Ruiz said. “We think he has a good shot. He has stepped up into that role and has been a team leader all year, and it’s something he shows every day.”

On the swimming side, the qualifying standards for each event were low-ered after last season except for the 50 free-style, which stayed at 21.90 seconds. Warriors senior Lucas Campbell is about 1 second off that mark, having swum a 22.92 already this season.

With Campbell’s length and how he has progressed, Ruiz expects a big day from his senior captain. Another swimmer who should perform well for Sterling is Blake Ruiz. Blake will swim the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM, and needs to drop around 6 sec-onds to qualify in the breaststroke.

“We expect Lucas to show up and be very fast tomorrow,” Kyle Ruiz said. “And probably one of the hardest working swimmers is Blake [Ruiz]. I hold him to a very high standard, and I think he’ll be very fast.”

Philip Marruffo/[email protected] Carlson, a freshman at Dixon who swims for the Byron co-op, has a very good chance of advancing to the state meet in four events if he swims well at Saturday’s Byron Sectional.

Batteries chargedTaper has locals bursting with energy for sectional

Byron SectionalWhen: Saturday – Diving 9 a.m.; Swimming 1 p.m.Teams: Belvidere North co-op; Byron co-op, Freeport, Harlem, Auburn, Boylan, Rockford East, Guilford, Rockford Jefferson, Rockford Christian, Hononegah, Sterling co-op, NewmanLocal swimmers to watch: Caleb Carlson, Byron co-op; Sergio Solis, Byron co-op; Jacob Heitter, Byron co-op; Jacob Conley, Byron co-op; Lucas Camp-bell, Sterling co-op, Blake Ruiz, Sterling co-op, Brandon Pillars, Sterling co-op Outlook: Byron coach Julia Rudzinski says she expects to have several swim-mers at next weekend’s state meet. If all goes to plan, freshman Caleb Carl-son, of Dixon, could have a full plate of four events at state. Sterling senior Lucas Campbell is the closest Warrior swimmer to a state cut, just 1 second off the time standard in the 50-yard freestyle. Newman could pull off an upset and sneak into contention in a relay event.

United Township SectionalWhen: Saturday – Diving 9 a.m.; Swimming 1 p.m.Teams: Canton, Dunlap co-op, United Township, Farmington, Galesburg, Knoxville, LaSalle-Peru, Macomb co-op, Moline, Morrison co-op, ROWVA, Ottawa co-op, Alleman, Rock Island, RockridgeLocal swimmers to watch: Kyle Workman, Morrison; Brian Slater, MorrisonOutlook: Many schools don’t have full teams, so the relay portions could be wide open. Morrison’s Kyle Workman is the Mustangs’ top distance swimmer and is looking to have a strong meet. Mustang teammate Brian Slater is on the cusp of swimming a sub-1 minute time in the 100 butterfly, and could sneak into contention.Advancing to state: The winner of each event will advance, as well as those that meet or better the qualifying standard.

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AT A GLANCEBoys basketball

NIB-12 West Conf. AllOttawa 9-2 16-8Geneseo 7-4 14-11LaSalle-Peru 5-6 13-11Sterling 3-8 9-16Rochelle 1-5 2-19

Friday’s results• LaSalle-Peru 69, Sterling 49• Geneseo 55, Ottawa 35

Saturday’s game• DeKalb at Ottawa, 6

BNC West Conf. AllDixon 12-1 25-1Rockford Lutheran 11-1 21-1Winnebago 12-3 19-8Byron 6-6 19-8Mendota 5-7 16-10 Rock Falls 2-10 5-19Oregon 3-11 10-18Stillman Valley 0-11 2-18

Friday’s results• Dixon 63, Byron 48• Winnebago 53, Mendota 50• Lutheran 83, Rock Falls 38• Oregon 60, Stillman Valley 38

Three Rivers East Conf. AllKewanee 11-1 20-8Bureau Valley 9-3 25-3Newman 8-4 17-11 St. Bede 6-6 15-11 Princeton 5-7 14-10Hall 3-9 11-17Amboy 0-12 0-27

Friday’s result• Rockridge 57, Newman 56• Bureau Valley 65, Princeton 53• Kewanee 70, St. Bede 62

Three Rivers West Conf. AllRockridge 15-0 24-1Fulton 7-6 17-12 Riverdale 6-6 14-9Morrison 6-7 16-12Erie 6-9 11-19 Orion 6-8 13-16Sherrard 5-7 11-13Prophetstown 4-11 7-22

Friday’s result• Rockridge 57, Newman 56• Fulton 51, Orion 47

NUIC East Conf. AllAquin 11-2 22-6Forreston 10-2 17-5AFC 9-4 20-9Polo 8-5 20-9Pecatonica 6-5 10-11South Beloit 6-7 8-15Dakota 4-8 6-16Milledgeville 4-9 9-17Durand 2-10 5-18Orangeville 1-9 2-20

Wednesday’s result• Forreston 62, Pecatonica 41

Friday’s results• Polo 67, Dakota 39• AFC 78, Durand 34• Milledgeville 70, Orangeville 43• Aquin 60, Pecatonica 39• Forreston 80, South Beloit 49

Saturday’s game• Dakota at Forreston, 7

Postseason pairingsCLASS 3A

Sterling Regional Monday, March 2

• No. 4 Rock Falls vs. No. 5 Alleman, 7Tuesday, March 3

• No. 1 Dixon vs. Rock Falls/Alleman, 6• No. 2 Sterling vs. No. 3 Geneseo, 7:30

Friday, March 6• Championship, 7* Winner advances to Brady University Sec-tional championship vs. Canton Regional winner, 7

CLASS 2AFulton RegionalMonday, Feb. 23

• No. 4 Morrison vs. No. 5 Fulton, 6• No. 3 Princeton vs. No. 6 West Carroll, 7:30

Tuesday, Feb. 24• No. 1 Bureau Valley vs. Morrison/Fulton, 7

Wednesday, Feb. 25• No. 2 Newman vs. Princeton/West Carroll, 7

Friday, Feb. 27• Championship, 7Winner advances to Farmington Sectional vs. Winnebago Regional winner, 7 p.m. March 3

CLASS 1AErie Regional

Monday, Feb. 23• No. 4 Eastland vs. No. 5 Milledgeville, 7

Tuesday, Feb. 24• No. 2 Polo vs. No. 7 Annawan, 6• No. 3 Erie vs. No. 6 Prophetstown, 7:30

Wednesday, Feb. 25• No. 1 Forreston vs. Eastland/Milledgeville, 6• Polo/Annawan vs. Erie/Prophetstown, 7:30

Friday, Feb. 27• Championship, 7 p.m.Winner advances to Eastland Sectional vs. River Ridge Regional winner, 7, March 4

Hinckley-Big Rock RegionalMonday, Feb. 23

• No. 4 Indian Creek vs. No. 5 Paw Paw, 6• No. 3 Somonauk vs. No. 6 Amboy, 7:30

Wednesday, Feb. 25• No. 1 Hinckley-Big Rock vs. Indian Creek/Paw Paw, 6• No. 2 AFC vs. Somonauk/Amboy, 7:30

Friday, Feb. 27• Championship, 7 Winner advances to Somonauk Sectional vs. Ottawa Marquette Regional winner, 7, March 4

Girls basketballNIB-12 West

Conf. AllOttawa 10-3 20-7 Sterling 7-6 15-17LaSalle-Peru 4-7 12-16Geneseo 5-8 8-21Rochelle 0-11 1-24

Wednesday’s results3A Streator Regional

• Mendota 53, LaSalle-Peru 30• Sterling 58, Rock Falls 54

Friday’s result3A Streator Regional

• Championship, Mendota 39, Sterling 24

BNC West Conf. AllRockford Lutheran 13-2 24-5Byron 11-3 26-6 Mendota 11-3 25-3Stillman Valley 9-4 21-8Dixon 4-10 11-17Rock Falls 3-10 13-15Oregon 3-11 11-18Winnebago 1-11 8-20

Wednesday’s results3A Streator Regional

• Mendota 53, LaSalle-Peru 30• Sterling 58, Rock Falls 54

3A Rochelle Regional• Lutheran 48, Belvidere 39• Freeport 35, Dixon 33

Friday’s results3A Streator Regional

• Championship, Mendota 39, Sterling 243A Rochelle Regional

• Championship, Lutheran 72, Freeport 42

Three Rivers East Conf. AllAmboy 12-0 28-2Kewanee 9-2 20-7Hall 5-5 13-12Bureau Valley 5-6 15-13Newman 5-7 9-19St. Bede 3-9 7-22Princeton 1-10 5-20

Thursday’s result1A Roanoke-Benson Sectional

• Championship, Annawan 50, Amboy 26

Three Rivers West Conf. AllProphetstown 13-1 29-3 Sherrard 11-1 22-5Erie 8-5 18-12Rockridge 5-6 15-10Fulton 4-6 13-15Morrison 5-9 13-14Orion 4-8 9-15Riverdale 0-10 0-23

Thursday’s result1A Pecatonica Sectional

• Championship, Prophetsown 34, Galena 30

Postseason pairingsCLASS 3A

Rochelle Regional Tuesday’s result

• No. 4 Belvidere 56, No. 5 Rochelle 23Wednesday’s results

• No. 1 Rockford Lutheran 48, Belvidere 39• No. 2 Freeport 35, No. 3 Dixon 33

Friday’s game• Championship, Lutheran 72, Freeport 42Winner advances to Hampshire Sectional vs. Sycamore Regional winner, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24

Streator Regional Monday’s result

• No. 4 LaSalle-Peru 53, No. 5 Streator 30Wednesday’s results

• No. 1 Mendota 53, LaSalle-Peru 30• No. 2 Sterling 58, No. 3 Rock Falls 54

Today’s game• Championship, Mendota 39, Sterling 24Winner advances to LaSalle-Peru Sec-tional vs. Morton Regional winner, 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23

CLASS 1AIllinois Valley Community College

SupersectionalMonday’s game

• Prophetstown vs. Annawan, 7

3A STREATOR REGIONAL | MENDOTA 39, STERLING 24

Michael Krabbenhoeft/[email protected]’s Katelyn Everett (right) tries to wrestle a loose ball away from Mendota’s Bailey Beetz during Friday’s 3A Streator Regional championship game. The Golden Warriors lost to the Trojans 39-24.

BY CODY [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5555@CodyCutter

STREATOR – When Sterling and Mendota fought for a regional championship in 2014, the Golden Warriors couldn’t muster much against a tall Trojan team.

Fast forward 1 year later, and both teams went toe-to-toe once more for Class 3A regional hard-ware in Streator. With most of the Trojan lineup returning this year, the Warriors were very familiar with who was out on the court. Unfortunately for them, the end result was all too familiar, as well.

Mendota used a 16-point third-quarter run to burst the game open from a largely defensive half, enough to make the Warriors’ sea-son come to an end with a 39-24 loss at Pops Dale Gymnasium.

Sterling scored five more points in this loss than in last year’s regional meeting with the Tro-jans. Hurting its efforts was a strong 2-3 zone defense from the Trojans, which played a large part in 21 Golden Warrior turnovers. The Trojans had a 15-14 lead at halftime.

“They make the other team think, ‘Yeah, they got a chance,’ and then they just come back,” Sterling senior Gabby Sandoval said. “We needed to handle the ball a little better. We could have got it.”

The thought of getting regional title No. 2 in as many years was enough to fuel the Trojans’ fire at half. Utilizing its overwhelming height advantage, 6-foot, 1-inch forward Ally Bromenschenkel was fearless in the paint, grabbing three steals and three offensive rebounds. Six-foot, 2-inch forward Brooke Stallings stepped up with six third-quarter points.

The Golden Warriors had just six points and three rebounds in the third quarter.

“We just really wanted to win our second regional,” Bromenschenkel said. “We just had to keep up our defensive intensity and pick it up on offense. We were just missing easy bunnies in the first half. We put those in, and we got it going.”

“In that second half, we only had three rebounds as a team,” Ster-ling coach Ryan Vasquez said. “They took control of the boards in the second half, and that was the momentum changer right there.”

Limiting the Trojans to 15 first-half points is something no oppo-nent had accomplished this sea-son. Sterling’s constant swarming gave the Trojans fits, leading to out-of-the-norm turnovers.

“They were speeding us up,” Bromenschenkel said. “They were playing real good defense. We just had to be strong with the ball and not let them get it out from us.”

“We knew who their shooters were, and we wanted to limit them on their shots,” Sandoval said. “We did a good job in the first half

of doing that.”Sandoval led Sterling with 9

points, despite being sidelined for much of the third quarter after tak-ing a hard charge by the Trojans’ Abby Bromenschenkel. Jay Borum led Sterling with four assists and three rebounds coming off the bench.

The Warriors close out a year of transition under Vasquez, the

former Sauk Valley Predators head coach tapped to replace Julie Schroeder this past summer.

“It was a learning process this year,” Vasquez said. “The seniors on our team opened their arms up willingly to learn a new system, and that’s real tough. They did some real nice things for us this year. It’s a learning process. We’ll get there.”

Task too tall, againTrojans knock out Warriors for second year in a row

Michael Krabbenhoeft/[email protected]: Sterling’s Lauren Fritz shoots during Friday’s 39-24 loss to Mendota in the 3A Streator Regional championship game.BELOW: Sterling’s Erin Stroup looks to pass around a Mendota defender. The Warriors finish the season with a 15-17 record.


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“I think we started off trying to fill that gap a lot; we were shooting a lot of 3s, too many for us to be taking,” senior Drew Rosengren said. “Now, we’ve kind of figured out we’re a lot better if we get the ball to Noah, or drive to the hole, and find the open shooters with kick-out passes.”

The Comets have also benefitted from McCarty’s maturation. Always talented skill-wise, the 6-foot-7 junior has accepted his role as Newman’s go-to guy, something Sharp and his coaching staff have

been urging McCarty to do since the start of the season.

“We’ve had a lot of heart-to-heart conversa-tions with him about him being the man,” Sharp said. “It’s really hard for an underclassman to assert himself on a team; they always defer to the older kids, and feel like they’re overstepping their bounds if they try to do too much. But he’s been playing varsity as long as these seniors have, so they don’t really see him as an underclassman. I think that’s helped Noah step up and adjust to it.

“Plus, these kids under-stand what it takes to have success at this time of year, when it’s lose and

you’re done, and that can play an important part in winning and losing in the playoffs.”

The seniors’ experi-ence also plays a key role in something else that will come in handy if the Comets are to make another long postseason run.

Not only do the Comets have plenty of experi-ence with basketball suc-cess the past few years, but many of the players were also part of the state championship football team in 2013, and this fall’s run to the quarter-finals.

“I think that experience is going to help us keep our composure, help keep us poised,” senior Trevor

Bolin said. “We’re not going to panic when we feel a little pressure, not have too many nerves, and just be able to go out and execute in key situa-tions.”

Newman opens the postseason with a semi-final game against either Princeton or West Car-roll on Wednesday at the Class 2A Fulton Regional. A win by the second-seeded Comets in that game could set up a title-game showdown with top-seeded Bureau Valley.

The two Three Rivers East foes have already met twice this season, with each team winning on its home court. In fact, Newman’s win over the

Storm on Feb. 10 injected some confidence into the team, and has them feel-ing like they’re peaking at the perfect time.

“They’re a really good team, and the fact that we beat them, I think it just shows that we can be a really good team when we show up to play hard,” Bolin said. “We proved that if we’re not lazy on defense, if we don’t take plays off, we can play with anybody.”

And the defense is what Bolin and his teammates are pointing to as the key to make the season last as long as possible. While the Comets had strong perimeter scoring to bal-ance McCarty’s inside presence last season,

Bolin points out that there hasn’t consistently been that “knock-out scorer” this winter.

But if the Comets can hold their opponents to under 60 points, and with the way the guards are meshing with McCarty’s double-double ability in the paint, they like their chances to win.

“Our defensive presence has to be there the whole postseason,” Rosengren said. “But each game, we’ve got to kind of figure out how we want to tackle the offensive side.

“But I think with the talent on this team, and the coaching that we have, we should be able to adjust to anything that gets thrown at us.”

2A FultonWhen: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, FridayTeams: No. 1 Bureau Valley (24-3), No. 2 Newman (17-10), No. 3 Princeton (14-11), No. 4 Morrison (16-12), No. 5 Fulton (16-12), No. 6 West CarrollPlayers to watch: Zach Barber, Fulton sr. G; Kaleb Church, Morrison sr. G; Garrett Duffin, Princeton sr. F; Tommy Johnston, Bureau Valley sr. G; Noah McCarty, Newman sr. F; Nolan McGinn, Newman sr. F; Matt McGinnis, West Carroll jr. C; Parker Neuhalfen, Bureau Valley sr. G; Outlook: Bureau Valley and Newman split two TRAC East meetings this season with each team winning at home. A third meeting could happen on a neutral court in the championship game in Fulton. While those two teams are the favorites, Princeton, Morrison and Fulton all have solid teams and could pull off an upset here. Favorite: Bureau ValleyDarkhorse: NewmanWinner to: Farmington Sectional vs. Winnebago Regional winner, 7 p.m. March 3 SVM prediction: Bureau Valley

1A ErieWhen: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, FridayTeams: No. 1 Forreston (19-5), No. 2 Polo (19-9), No. 3 Erie (11-19), No. 4 Eastland, No. 5 Milledgeville (8-17), No. 6 Prophetstown (7-22), No. 7 AnnawanPlayers to watch: Brad Cavanaugh, Polo jr. G; Robert DeVries, Forreston sr. F; Jordan Harris, Milledgeville sr. G; Brighton Haverland, Eastland so. F; Jack Heflin, Prophetstown jr. C; Wyatt Kerchner, Forreston sr. G; Alex Landwehr, Annawan jr. G; Cody Weimer, Erie jr. FOutlook: Forreston pulled ahead of the pack with Aquin in the NUIC East. The pack included Polo, a team that looked strong in the middle of the season, but has hit a bit of a rough patch recently. If the Marcos can get back on track, they could challenge the Car-dinals for the title. Erie has shown flashes this season, and it’s hard to bet against Eastland in the postseason.Favorite: ForrestonDarkhorse: ErieWinner to: Eastland Sectional vs. River Ridge Regional winner, 7, March 4SVM prediction: Forreston

1A Hinckley-Big RockWhen: Monday, Wednesday, FridayTeams: No. 1 Hinckley-Big Rock (16-10), No. 2 AFC (19-9), No. 3 Somonauk (16-10), No. 4 Indian Creek (13-13), No. 5 Paw Paw, No. 6 Amboy (0-27)Players to watch: Jack Bullard, AFC jr. G; Bret Gittle-son, AFC sr. G; Jordan Hochstatter, Amboy so. G; Dan Humers, Somonauk sr. F; Kevin Kurz, AFC sr. F; Mitch Lavoy, Somonauk sr. F; Eric Phillips, H-BR sr. G; Drew Winterton, Indian Creek sr. GOutlook: The top four teams at this regional seem evenly matched, which should make for a wild week in Hinckley. AFC has shown this season that when it gets going that it can beat just about anyone. If the Raid-ers get hot, they could hoist the regional plaque. But it won’t be easy with the hosts and Somonauk both look-ing like real contenders.Favorite: AFCDarkhorse: SomonaukWinner to: Somonauk Sectional vs. Ottawa Marquette Regional winner, 7, March 4SVM prediction: AFC

PIECINGCONTINUED FROM B1

W

Win over Storm giving Newman confidence

SVM SCOUTS 2015 1A/2A BOYS BASKETBALL REGIONALS

Bureau Valley’s Parker Neuhalfen Polo’s Brad Cavanaugh AFC’s Bret Gittleson

SV Weekend • B5BOYS BASKETBALLSaturday, February 21, 2015

Auto racingDaytona 500 lineup

After Thursday qualifying; race Sunday

At Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Fla. Lap length: 2.5 miles

(Car number in parentheses)1. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 201.293 mph.2. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 201.135.3. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet.4. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200.187.5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 193.241.6. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 197.837.7. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 197.968.8. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 197.477.9. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 194.995.10. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 190.678.11. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 197.994.12. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 193.282.13. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 199.867.14. (44) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 194.978.15. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 193.133.16. (66) Mike Wallace, Toyota, 192.509.17. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 193.299.18. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 196.532.19. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, 194.012.20. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 197.959.21. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 198.325.22. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 198.177.23. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 195.3.24. (41) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 197.976.25. (23) J.J. Yeley, Toyota.26. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 195.346.27. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 196.554.28. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 194.452.29. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 195.588.30. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 196.962.31. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 197.507.32. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 196.816.33. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 197.2.34. (55) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 190.517.35. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 200.214.36. (83) Johnny Sauter, Toyota, 198.22.37. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 197.256.38. (9) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 197.243.39. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 193.357.40. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 198.212.41. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 197.946.42. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota.43. (32) Bobby Labonte, Ford, Past Cham-pion.

Failed to Qualify44. (62) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 197.828.45. (29) Justin Marks, Toyota, 194.675.46. (30) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 190.791.47. (26) Jeb Burton, Toyota, 195.004.48. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 198.229.49. (98) Josh Wise, Ford, 193.386.

Men’s basketballBig Ten

Conference Overall W-L Pct. W-L Pct.Wisconsin 12-1 .923 24-2 .923Maryland 10-4 .714 22-5 .815Purdue 10-4 .714 18-9 .667Michigan St. 9-4 .692 18-8 .692Ohio St. 8-5 .615 19-7 .731Indiana 8-6 .571 18-9 .667Illinois 7-6 .538 17-9 .654Iowa 7-6 .538 16-10 .615Michigan 6-8 .429 13-13 .500Minnesota 5-9 .357 16-11 .593Nebraska 5-8 .385 13-12 .520Penn St. 3-11 .214 15-12 .555Rutgers 2-12 .143 10-17 .370Northwestern 3-10 .231 12-14 .462

Wednesday’s resultsWisconsin 55, Penn St. 47Northwestern 72, Minnesota 66

Thursday’s resultsNo. 16 Maryland 69, Nebraska 65Purdue 67, Indiana 63Iowa 81, Rutgers 47

Saturday’s gamesMinnesota at Wisconsin, 11 a.m. (ESPN)Penn St. at Northwestern, 2 p.m. (ESPNU)

Sunday’s gamesOhio St. at Michigan, noon (CBS)Iowa at Nebraska, 2 p.m. (BTN)Indiana at Rutgers, 4:15 p.m. (BTN)Michigan St. at Illinois, 6:30 p.m. (BTN)

NBAEASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division W L Pct GBToronto 37 17 .685 —Brooklyn 22 31 .415 14!Boston 20 32 .385 16Philadelphia 12 42 .222 25New York 10 44 .185 27

Southeast Division W L Pct GBAtlanta 43 12 .782 —Washington 33 22 .600 10Miami 23 30 .434 19Charlotte 22 30 .423 19!Orlando 18 39 .316 26

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 34 21 .618 —Cleveland 34 22 .607 !Milwaukee 31 23 .574 2!Detroit 22 33 .400 12Indiana 22 33 .400 12

WESTERN CONFERENCESouthwest Division

W L Pct GBMemphis 39 14 .736 —Houston 36 18 .667 3!Dallas 37 20 .649 4San Antonio 34 20 .630 5!New Orleans 27 27 .500 12!

Northwest Division W L Pct GBPortland 36 18 .667 —Oklahoma City 29 25 .537 7Denver 20 34 .370 16Utah 20 34 .370 16Minnesota 12 42 .222 24

Pacific Division W L Pct GBGolden State 42 9 .824 —L.A. Clippers 36 19 .655 8Phoenix 29 26 .527 15Sacramento 19 34 .358 24L.A. Lakers 13 41 .241 30!

Friday’s resultsIndiana 106, Philadelphia 95Orlando 95, New Orleans 84Toronto 105, Atlanta 80Detroit 100, Chicago 91Miami 111, New York 87Minnesota 111, Phoenix 109Cleveland 127, Washington 89Dallas 111, Houston 100Milwaukee 89, Denver 81Utah 92, Portland 76Sacramento 109, Boston 101Brooklyn 114, L.A. Lakers 105San Antonio at Golden State, late

Saturday’s gamesOklahoma City at Charlotte, 6 p.m.New Orleans at Miami, 6:30 p.m.Phoenix at Chicago, 7 p.m.Toronto at Houston, 7 p.m.Sacramento at L.A. Clippers, 9 p.m.

Sunday’s gamesCleveland at New York, noonAtlanta at Milwaukee, 2:30 p.m.Washington at Detroit, 2:30 p.m.Philadelphia at Orlando, 5 p.m.Golden State at Indiana, 5 p.m.Denver at Oklahoma City, 6 p.m.Charlotte at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.Memphis at Portland, 8 p.m.Boston at L.A. Lakers, 8:30 p.m.

Friday’s box score

PISTONS 100, BULLS 91CHICAGO (91)Dunleavy 0-5 0-0 0, Gasol 4-10 4-4 12, Noah 4-8 2-4 10, Rose 2-9 4-4 8, J.Butler 9-18 9-9 30, Snell 1-3 0-0 2, Gibson 7-13 1-1 15, Hinrich 3-4 0-0 7, Brooks 2-6 0-0 4, Mirotic 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 33-78 20-22 91.DETROIT (100)C.Butler 6-10 6-6 20, Monroe 9-14 2-5 20, Drummond 7-18 4-13 18, Dinwiddie 5-9 1-2 12, Caldwell-Pope 5-11 0-2 12, Tolliver 0-3 0-0 0, Martin 0-3 0-0 0, Lucas III 4-8 0-0 9, Meeks 2-8 5-5 9. Totals 38-84 18-33 100.

Chicago 23 30 15 23 – 91Detroit 22 23 32 23 – 1003-Point Goals–Chicago 5-16 (J.Butler 3-5, Hinrich 1-1, Mirotic 1-1, Dunleavy 0-2, Brooks 0-2, Snell 0-2, Rose 0-3), Detroit 6-22 (Caldwell-Pope 2-3, C.Butler 2-5, Dinwiddie 1-2, Lucas III 1-4, Martin 0-2, Meeks 0-3, Tolliver 0-3). Fouled Out–Noah. Rebounds–Chicago 49 (Noah 14), Detroit 59 (Drummond 20). Assists–Chi-cago 16 (J.Butler 5), Detroit 19 (Dinwiddie 9). Total Fouls–Chicago 23, Detroit 23. A–19,053 (22,076).

NHLEASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAMontreal 58 37 16 5 79 154 130Tampa Bay 60 36 18 6 78 195 160Detroit 56 32 14 10 74 163 143Boston 58 28 21 9 65 151 154Florida 57 26 19 12 64 141 157Ottawa 56 23 23 10 56 159 160Toronto 59 23 31 5 51 163 180Buffalo 59 17 38 4 38 109 200

Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAN.Y. Islanders 59 39 19 1 79 193 165N.Y. Rangers 57 35 16 6 76 181 142Washington 59 32 17 10 74 176 147Pittsburgh 58 32 17 9 73 163 146Philadelphia 58 24 23 11 59 155 170Columbus 56 26 27 3 55 149 173New Jersey 58 23 26 9 55 130 157Carolina 57 21 29 7 49 129 155

WESTERN CONFERENCECentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GANashville 58 39 13 6 84 177 137St. Louis 58 38 16 4 80 184 142Chicago 59 35 19 5 75 175 138Winnipeg 60 30 20 10 70 166 162Minnesota 58 30 21 7 67 162 154Dallas 58 27 23 8 62 181 185Colorado 59 25 23 11 61 154 166

Pacific Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAAnaheim 59 36 16 7 79 176 167Vancouver 58 33 22 3 69 165 155Calgary 59 32 23 4 68 171 156San Jose 60 30 22 8 68 170 172Los Angeles 57 27 18 12 66 159 151Arizona 58 20 31 7 47 131 194Edmonton 60 17 33 10 44 139 203NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss.

Friday’s resultsNew Jersey 4, Vancouver 2Carolina 2, Toronto 1N.Y. Rangers 3, Buffalo 1St. Louis 5, Boston 1Colorado 4, Chicago 1Anaheim 6, Calgary 3Minnesota 4, Edmonton 0

Saturday’s gamesN.Y. Islanders at Washington, 11:30 a.m.Nashville at Philadelphia, noonWinnipeg at Toronto, 6 p.m.Columbus at Montreal, 6 p.m.Florida at Ottawa, 6 p.m.Carolina at New Jersey, 6 p.m.Anaheim at Edmonton, 6 p.m.Pittsburgh at St. Louis, 7 p.m.Detroit at Dallas, 7 p.m.Tampa Bay at Arizona, 7 p.m.Los Angeles vs. San Jose at Santa Clara, CA, 9 p.m.

Sunday’s gamesWashington at Philadelphia, 11:30 a.m.Boston at Chicago, 2:30 p.m.Nashville at Buffalo, 5 p.m.Vancouver at N.Y. Islanders, 5 p.m.Florida at Pittsburgh, 5 p.m.Tampa Bay at Colorado, 6 p.m.Columbus at N.Y. Rangers, 6:30 p.m.Dallas at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

Friday’s box score

AVALANCHE 4, BLACKHAWKS 1Colorado 1 0 3 – 4Chicago 0 1 0 – 1First Period–1, Colorado, Barrie 8, 12:52. Penalties–None.Second Period–2, Chicago, Versteeg 12 (Richards, Rozsival), 9:05. Penalties–Mitchell, Col (holding), 2:35; Hjalmars-son, Chi (slashing), 14:28; Landeskog, Col (cross-checking), 18:10; Hossa, Chi (cross-checking), 18:10.Third Period–3, Colorado, Landeskog 15 (O’Reilly, Barrie), 11:05 (pp). 4, Colo-rado, Barrie 9 (Iginla, Landeskog), 11:29 (pp). 5, Colorado, Stuart 2, 14:13. Pen-alties–Landeskog, Col (tripping), 7:59; Sharp, Chi (interference), 10:44; Hjalmars-son, Chi (interference), 10:44.Shots on Goal–Colorado 10-7-13–30. Chicago 9-12-7–28.Power-play opportunities–Colorado 2 of 3; Chicago 0 of 2.Goalies–Colorado, Varlamov 17-15-7 (28 shots-27 saves). Chicago, Crawford 23-13-4 (30-26).A–22,103 (19,717). T–2:26.

GolfPGA – Northern Trust Par Scores

Friday At The Riviera Country Club

Los Angeles Purse: $6.7 million

Yardage: 7,349; Par: 71 Partial Second Round

Retief Goosen 66-70—136 -6Ryan Moore 69-68—137 -5Graham DeLaet 70-67—137 -5Justin Thomas 68-69—137 -5Angel Cabrera 70-68—138 -4Bubba Watson 7 0-69—139 -3Derek Fathauer 66-73—139 -3Jordan Spieth 69-70—139 -3J.B. Holmes 70-69—139 -3Paul Casey 70-69—139 -3Seung-Yul Noh 71-69—140 -2Vijay Singh 66-74—140 -2Sergio Garcia 71-69—140 -2Nick Watney 66-74—140 -2James Hahn 66-74—140 -2Carlos Ortiz 67-73—140 -2Daniel Summerhays 66-74—140 -2Tony Finau 70-70—140 -2Bryce Molder 71-70—141 -1Charles Howell III 71-70—141 -1Keegan Bradley 73-68—141 -1Jim Furyk 71-70—141 -1Harris English 72-69—141 -1Brendon Todd 69-72—141 -1Charl Schwartzel 71-70—141 -1William McGirt 68-74—142 EBrian Stuard 71-71—142 ECamilo Villegas 73-69—142 EDustin Johnson 70-72—142 EHunter Mahan 75-67—142 EKen Duke 72-70—142 EMatt Jones 70-72—142 EMatt Every 70-72—142 EVaughn Taylor 74-68—142 EKyle Reifers 72-70—142 EAndrew Putnam 73-69—142 EPat Perez 69-73—142 EHideki Matsuyama 70-72—142 ESang-Moon Bae 71-71—142 EMichael Putnam 70-72—142 EPadraig Harrington 70-73—143 +1Jason Gore 73-70—143 +1Danny Lee 70-73—143 +1Carl Pettersson 71-72—143 +1Jason Kokrak 71-72—143 +1Jhonattan Vegas 71-72—143 +1

TransactionsBASKETBALL

National Basketball AssociationPHILADELPHIA 76ERS — Signed G Tim Fra-zier to a second 10-day contract.SACRAMENTO KINGS — Signed G David Stockton to a 10-day contract.SAN ANTONIO SPURS — Signed F Reggie Williams.

FOOTBALL National Football League

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Terminated the contract of G Mike Pollak.GREEN BAY PACKERS — Released LB Brad Jones.ST. LOUIS RAMS — Named Chris Weinke quarterbacks coach.SAN DIEGO CHARGERS — Agreer to terms with T King Dunlap on a four-year contract.

COLLEGEBOISE STATE — Signed football coach Bryan Harsin to a five-year contract.ILLINOIS — Announced men’s redshirt junior basketball G Aaron Cosby will transfer.N.C. STATE — Signed football coach Dave Doeren to a two-year contract extension through the 2019 season.

FRIDAY’S SCOREBOARD

BY TY [email protected], ext. 5554

@STyReynolds

DIXON – As Laron Carr lofted the pass, every eye in Lancaster Gym was on the ball. The crowd knew what was coming, but it seemed like a longshot that Isaiah Roby would track it down.

But in one smooth motion, the 6-foot-8 Dixon junior caught the perfectly placed, perfectly timed pass and threw it down through the cylinder, igniting the crowd – and the Dukes – with the spark they needed.

The alley-oop play broke a fourth-quarter tie, and sent Dixon to a 63-48 victory over the Byron Tigers in Big Northern West action, tying the program record for wins in a single season. It was the 25th victory, tying the 1966-67 team that finished 25-2.

“I knew that play was a game-changer,” Carr said, “and it defi-nitely was, big-time. It had been open the whole game, I just hadn’t been able to get the ball to him. That time, it worked.”

“It was a great pass by Laron, and a great finish by Isaiah,” Cal Jarrett added, “and it’s those plays that really get us going. It was easier to turn up the intensity on defense after that, because every-thing was just feeding off itself.”

The play nearly blew the roof off venerable Lancaster Gym, and kick-started a game-closing 19-4 run that saw a tight affair turn into a double-digit margin of victory.

The Dukes (25-1, 12-1) followed up the oop with a fast-break layup from Roby to Nate Gascoigne, who was fouled on the play. Gas-coigne missed the free throw, but Dixon corraled the rebound, and Roby went in for a one-handed slam on a drive from the left wing.

The dunk attempt caromed out, but Kyle LeBlanc was able to tap the rebound out to Carr, who found a wide-open Cal Jar-rett on the left wing – nearly the same spot Roby had vacated. Jar-rett knocked down a 3-pointer, extending Dixon’s lead to 51-44, and setting the tone for the final 4! minutes.

“Cal sealed the deal with that shot,” said LeBlanc, who matched Jarrett’s 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting thanks to several wide-open layups behind Byron’s zone defense. “We knew the back side is the weakness of the 1-3-1, and we found it inside and outside tonight.”

Jarrett found Carr (23 points, 4 assists, 2 steals) cutting down the lane for a layup on Dixon’s next possession, forcing Byron (19-8, 6-6) to call its second timeout in a little more than a minute. But it still couldn’t stem the tide, even after Austin McCarey (18 points,

5-for-7 FGs, 6-for-6 FTs) knocked down a pull-up jumper out of the timeout.

Jarrett hit a free throw, then Roby found LeBlanc with a pass from the high post. LeBlanc putback a miss on Dixon’s next possession, then Carr hit four straight free throws for a 62-48 lead with 52.9 seconds to play. Jarrett closed out the scoring with a free throw 20 seconds later, then the Dukes ran out the clock after snaring their 10th offensive rebound when he missed the second.

“We played great for 3! quar-ters, but it got stretched out at the end and we had no answer for it,” McCarey said. “That’s a really good team, and when the crowd started going insane at the end, they really

turned up the intensity.”Dixon never trailed in the game,

but it was nip-and-tuck for 26! minutes. The Dukes built a 22-15 lead midway through the second quarter, only to see Byron close the first half on a 12-5 spurt. Clay-ton Hoover’s 3 inside the final second tied the score at 27 head-ing into the break.

The Dukes scored 11 of the first 13 points of the second half, only to see the Tigers rally again. Trail-ing 38-31 with 3:04 left in the third, Byron went on a 13-6 run, capped by McCarey’s 3-pointer off a pass from Hoover (8 points, all in the first half), and a fast-break layup by Dillon VanLankvelt (13 points, 4 assists) to knot the score at 44 with 5:27 remaining.

That’s when Roby (6 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 blocks) brought the house down with the alley-oop dunk, and it was all Dixon from there. The Dukes fin-ished 25-for-38 from the floor (66 percent), and outrebounded the Tigers 27-14.

“It got away from us there at the end,” Byron coach Tom Schmidt said, “and there’s only so much you can do against a great team with that kind of size and athleti-cism and strength. I’m proud of how we played tonight, and the game was a lot closer than the final score for 3! quarters.”

Star of the game: Laron Carr, Dixon, 23 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 blockKey performers: Cal Jarrett, Dixon, 16 points, 4 rebpunds, 3 steals, 2 assists, 1 block; Kyle LeBlanc, Dixon, 16 points, 7-for-8 FGs, 4 rebounds; Isaiah Roby, Dixon, 6 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 blocks; Austin McCa-rey, Byron, 18 points, 5-for-7 FGs, 6-for-6 FTs; Dillon Van-Lankvelt, Byron, 13 points, 4 assistsUp next: Dixon at Rochelle, 7 p.m. Tuesday

By the Associated Press

A U B U R N H I L L S , Mich. – Spencer Din-widdie spent Thursday afternoon preparing for another weekend in the D-League.

A day later, everything had changed.

After a pair of trades left the Pistons short-handed, the rookie point guard was thrust into the start-ing lineup Friday night and outplayed Derrick Rose in Detroit’s 100-91 victory over the Bulls.

“I was getting ready to head to Grand Rapids for the weekend, and then all the crazy stuff started happening at the trade deadline,” Dinwiddie said. “I was just trying to keep up with who was going where, and all of a sudden they told me that my plans had changed.

“I thought they meant I had gotten traded, too. Luckily, I just didn’t have to go to the D-League.”

The Pistons traded two starters, including point guard D.J. Augustin, to Oklahoma City for Reg-gie Jackson. But when

the three-team deal wasn’t finalized by Fri-day night, coach Stan Van Gundy was left with only John Lucas III and Dinwiddie at the point.

Lucas was the obvious choice, but Van Gundy went with a hunch.

“We had two hard practices the last 2 days, and everyone on the

team noticed how well Spencer was playing,” he said. “He’s always been a poised player, but he still does too much at a jogging pace. In the last 2 days, he had really picked up the tempo.”

Dinwiddie made it work, putting up career highs of 12 points and nine assists while Rose only had eight

points and two assists in 31 minutes.

“I had butterflies about starting the game, but it was something else to play against Derrick,” Dinwiddie said. “I’ve always loved his game, and he came back from an ACL tear, just like I’ve had to do, so it meant even more.”

BOYS BASKETBALL | DIXON 63, BYRON 48

Dukes get it doneDixon closes game with big run to tie record for wins

Philip Marruffo/[email protected]’s Laron Carr goes up for a shot along the baseline Friday night over Byron’s Payton Janssen. The Dukes used a fourth-quarter rally to earn a 63-48 win in Big Northern West game in Dixon.

NBA | PISTONS 100, BULLS 91

No dwindling with DinwiddieD-league callup leads undermanned Pistons past Bulls

APBulls forward Pau Gasol (16) drives on Pistons center Andre Drummond during their game in Auburn Hills, Mich. on Friday. The Piston won 100-91.


NHL | AVS 4, BLACKHAWKS 1

BY RONALD BLUMAP Sports Writer

NEW YORK – Major League Baseball is slowly addressing the lagging pace of games.

MLB and the players’ asso-ciation announced an agree-ment Friday to enforce the rule requiring a hitter to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box in many cases. MLB also will post stadium clocks timing pitching changes and between-inning breaks starting in spring train-ing, and it no longer will require managers to always come onto the field when they request video reviews by umpires.

But the sides limited penalties to warnings and fines, and not automatic balls and strikes. The fines don’t start until May 1, and are capped at $500 per offense.

Many of the more radical ideas experimented with dur-ing the Arizona Fall League were not adopted, such as a 20-second clock between pitch-es, a limitation of pitcher’s mound conferences involving

catchers and managers, and no-pitch intentional walks.

Still, even the modest changes are too much for players, used to their routines and reluctant to alter them.

“If you rush a hamburger, it’s not going to be completely done. There are going to be too many mistakes. You’re going to rush the game. It would just be terrible. I don’t think there needs to be a time limit,” Miami Marlins pitcher Mat Latos said.

Said Chicago White Sox out-fielder Adam Eaton: “I’m not a big fan. There’s a lot of think-ing involved. When a pitcher steps on the rubber, there’s a lot going on. There’s thinking in the dugout, the coaches, every-one. Why speed that up?”

Baseball has been contemplat-ing the issue for nearly a decade. In February 2005, the batter’s box rule was announced as an experiment in the minor leagues.

Still, the average time of nine-inning games as increased to a record 3 hours, 2 minutes last

year, up from 2:33 in 1981.Detroit Tigers ace Justin Ver-

lander says the change will be tougher on batters than pitchers.

“I hope it screws up their whole rhythm and everything,” he said, jokingly.

MLB cannot make unilateral changes to playing rules with-out the consent of the play-ers’ union unless it gives 1 year prior notice, so an agreement was necessary for any 2015 alterations. The World Umpires

Association also approved.“The players believe that

enforcing the rules that currently exist regarding between-inning breaks and plate appearances is the best way to address the issue of pace of play,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement. “We’re confident that today’s announcements will have a pos-itive impact on the pace of the game without jeopardizing the integrity of the competition.”

The pitch clock will be used in the minor leagues at Double-A and Triple-A, where union approval isn’t needed.

MLB said it is likely to announce only fines involving repeat fla-grant violators. In the AFL, strikes and balls were called as penalties, and the average game time was reduced by 10 minutes.

The rule requiring hitters keep a foot in the box contains many exceptions, including swinging at a pitch, getting forced out by a pitch, calling time, faking a bunt, and wild pitches and passed balls.

“I think it’s something that’s going to take some time,” San Diego Padres catcher Derek Norris said. “You’ve got guys playing for 7, 8 years that have always stepped out of the box and taken a practice swing.”

Clocks will be installed on or near outfield scoreboards, and on facades behind home plate, near most press boxes. Inning breaks will be counted down from 2:25 for locally televised games and 2:45 for nationally televised games. Pitchers must throw their last warmup pitches before 30 seconds remaining, with exceptions if the pitcher or catcher is on base when the previous half-inning ends.

“These changes represent a step forward in our efforts to streamline the pace of play,” said Rob Manfred, who took over from Bud Selig as commis-sioner last month. “The most fundamental starting point for improving the pace of the aver-age game involves getting into and out of breaks seamlessly.”

BY COLLEEN KANEChicago Tribune

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Chris Sale probably isn’t one in need of extra motivation, but the fiery White Sox left-hander couldn’t help but feel a jolt as he watched the club’s offseason unfold.

The Sox tabbed Sale a South Side centerpiece in 2013 when they signed him to an affordable, lengthy contract that could keep him on board through 2019. Two rocky Sox sea-sons later, he was naturally cheery about greeting the new teammates that could help make his stay more enjoyable.

“You never really know what to expect, but there was definitely a lot of energy this offseason, and it was fun to watch,” Sale said. “You’re working out and see that your team is making a push for it, and you start pushing yourself, too.”

Right-hander Jeff Samardzija and closer David Robertson were among the newcomers welcomed Friday as pitch-ers and catchers reported to Camelback Ranch, and they were among the rea-sons Sale declared the Sox “a team to fight back now” after hovering near the bottom of the American

League Central for 2 years.He gave just one goal for

this season, and it wasn’t improving on his third-place finish in AL Cy Young voting last year.

“Winning a World Series,” he said. “That’s what we all show up for.’”

Coming off a year in which he went 12-4 with a 2.17 ERA, Sale said he approached the offseason the same as he did any other, though he utilized more massage therapy.

The Sox will need Sale to stay healthy if they want to contend. He spent more

than a month on the dis-abled list with a strained flexor muscle early last season, and missed starts in 2012 and 2013 because of injuries and fatigue.

General manager Rick Hahn said the Sox, like last spring, will alter Sale’s regi-men in an effort to keep him healthy. He added that having a better bullpen this year might discourage the Sox from pushing Sale too hard during the regular season.

“It has already come up, ‘How are we going to get over that first bump in the

road?’” Sale said. “But we’ll act accordingly and figure it out along the way.”

Samardzija seemed equally happy to join a rotation that includes Sale. He said he has gained “tons of admiration” for Sale while watching his highlights on Chicago TV when Samardzija was with the Cubs.

“You don’t see anything but success from that guy,” Samardzija said. “What a competitor. That’s what you like to see, that fire.”

The Sox were able to put together such a hope-filled offseason – and are able to set their sights on sign-ing Samardzija long term – thanks in part to reason-able contracts like those of Sale and left-hander Jose Quintana.

Sale said it doesn’t bother him that he is signed to such a team-friendly con-tract compared with some other top starting pitch-ers. But it would certainly make it better if the Sox began winning.

“The most exciting thing is we have a core group of players locked up for quite a long time,” Sale said. “It would be nice to keep us together and hopefully be able to play 3, 4, 5, 6 years together and make some-thing special happen.”

BY MARK GONZALESChicago Tribune

MESA, Ariz. – The Cubs begin prep-aration for the 2015 season Friday, but they also hope to begin to a lay a foundation for long-term success when they conduct their first work-out for pitchers and catchers under new manager Joe Maddon.

With the core of the Cubs’ future – Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Addison Russell, Jorge Soler, C.J. Edwards, and Kyle Schwarber – moving closer to cementing permanent roster spots, Maddon will lean on his veterans for leadership as much as performance.

“When you have your leaders within the clubhouse taking care of that for you in advance, that’s the best way to do it,” Maddon said Thursday.

“I don’t like to fine guys. I don’t like to take their money. I really don’t have a lot of rules. I’m anti-rules. I’m going to talk to players. They know what’s right. They know what’s wrong. It’s pretty simple stuff to me.”

Maddon, who managed the Rays the last nine seasons before signing a 5-year contract with the Cubs, said he has pulled players out of games for not hustling, and former Cubs manager Dale Sveum pulled short-stop Starlin Castro in the middle of a game 2 years ago for a lack of focus.

“For me, the best way to avoid that is you get your lead bulls on the same page,” Maddon said. “And when they are, if somebody strays a bit, the appropriate guys in the club-house take care of that for you.

“I should be the last guy always to have to intervene if this is running properly.”

Enter Anthony Rizzo and marquee acquisition Jon Lester. Rizzo report-

ed to camp well in advance of the first full-squad workout Wednesday, and has made a positive influence on Bryant, 23, who is “very close to the big leagues,” according to President Theo Epstein.

Lester, who signed a 6-year, $155 million contract in December after nine seasons with the Red Sox and A’s, has set a positive tone around his new teammates, Epstein said.

BY JAY COHENAP Sports Writer

CHICAGO – Two third-period penalties provid-ed a big opportunity for the Colorado Avalanche, and Tyson Barrie and company made the most of their chance for a valu-able road win.

Barrie had two goals and an assist, Gabriel Landeskog scored for the fifth straight game, and the Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 on Friday night.

“Those were two big points,” Barrie said. “We know what position we’re in and we know we’ve got to win a lot of hockey games. I thought we played a great game and it was nice to get that power play going.”

The teams were tied at 1 when Niklas Hjalmars-son and Patrick Sharp were sent off for inter-ference at 10:44 of the third, giving Colorado a 5-on-3 power play. The Avalanche quickly took advantage, with Landesk-og tipping in a nice pass from Ryan O’Reilly.

Hjalmarsson then left the box, but Barrie scored from the slot to make it 3-1 at 11:29. Barrie has five goals and an assist in seven games this month.

“It’s not often that you see two calls being made on the same whistle, but we felt like it was a must for us to score and we did,” Landeskog said. “And back to back it was big for us to kind of loos-en up a little bit.”

Brad Stuart added his second goal of the season when goaltender Corey Crawford badly mis-played his dump in from center ice, punctuating a frustrating performance for the Blackhawks.

“A 5-on-3 for 2 minutes in a 1-1 hockey game at home is tough to see,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said.

Semyon Varlamov had 27 saves for Colorado, which had lost of five of seven. Landeskog also had an assist.

Kris Versteeg scored in the second period for Chicago, which dropped to 2-1-3 on its eight-game homestand. Crawford finished with 26 stops.

“Tonight we just fell off the horse,” captain Jona-than Toews said.

“We were definitely in that hockey game,” Craw-ford said. “We did a lot of good things, and definite-ly let it go. To let these slip away, it’s frustrating.”

Barrie made a couple of nice plays to help the Avalanche get off to a solid start.

Barrie picked off a pass by Blackhawks defense-man Brent Seabrook at the blue line and beat Crawford with a high shot on the stick side for his eighth goal at 12:52. The defenseman then tied up Patrick Kane on a prime scoring opportu-nity for Chicago with 3:34 left in the period.

Versteeg was unable to connect on a couple of solid chances in the first, and then chipped a tooth when he skated into Stu-art’s high stick in the sec-ond. There was no call on the play, but Versteeg got his revenge with 10:55 left in the period.

Blackhawks defense-man Michal Rozsival shot the puck behind the Colorado net, and Brad Richards then passed it in front to unmarked Ver-steeg, who beat Varlamov for his third goal in the last four games.

Avs pull away at United Center

Hawks continue to struggle at home

Maddon to lean on veteransNew manager expects experienced guys to lead team

Sox moves have Sale psychedAce motivated by team adding key pieces during the offseason

Baseball taking measures to try and pick up pace in 2015Pace of play changes• Enforcement of rule requir-ing hitters to keep at least one foot in batter’s box• Posting of clocks to time pitching changes & breaks between innings• Managers no longer have to come onto field to request video reviews• Plays involving runners leav-ing base early or tagging up are reviewable

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL | RULES ANNOUNCEMENT

APBlackhawks goalie Corey Crawford makes a save Friday against the Avalanche in Chicago. The Blackhawks lost 4-1.

APNew Cubs manager Joe Maddon says he’s going to rely on the veteran players to keep guys in line in the locker room and on the field.

MCTWhite Sox starter Chris Sale is excited by the additions the team made, and believes the goal for the team in 2015 should be a World Series title.

Star of the game: Tyson Barrie, Avs, 2 goals, 1 assistUp next: Bruins at Blackhawks, 2:30 p.m. SundayTV/Radio: NBC/ 720 AM

MLB | CHICAGO CUBS

MLB | CHICAGO WHITE SOX


Bridge

It seems hard to believe, but this is my 7,500th col-umn. My first appeared on April 1, 1994. So, please ex-cuse my featuring a deal that I declared. It was played dur-ing a Friday evening duplicate at the former Beverly Bridge Club in Manhattan.

In the bidding, West used the Unusual No-Trump, in theory showing at least 5-5 in the minors.

North’s three-spade re-sponse was forcing. Then, over East’s jump to five diamonds, I decided that six hearts rated to have play. How did I make the contract? West led the diamond two (in principle fourth-highest). East won with his ace and shifted to his club.

Since I thought West had

five diamonds for his overcall, I assumed he intended his diamond-two lead as a suit-preference signal for clubs.

This left me confident that he could not have a spade void; with that, he would

have led a high diamond. But perhaps he had a heart

void.I won the second trick with

my club ace, led a spade to dummy’s king, and called for the heart nine.

If East had played low in tempo, I would have won with my ace and gone down.

However, East, thinking it could not cost, covered with his 10. I won the trick, not-ing West’s discard, entered dummy with another spade, played a heart to my seven, drew trumps, ran the spades and claimed.

That was a top because ev-eryone else started trumps by cashing the ace, after which there was no recovery.

If declarer calls for dummy’s top card in a suit and you have it surrounded, almost always it will be right to play low smoothly.

© 2015 UFS

Another personal milestone reached

Garfield by Jim Davis

Dilbert by Scott Adams

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley

Blondie by Dean Young & John Marshall

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis

Pickles by Brian Crane

Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman

Alley Oop by Dave Graue and Jack Bender

Frank & Ernest by Bob Thaves

Zits® by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Arlo & Janis by Jimmy Johnson

Wizard of Id by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart

Rose is Rose by Pat Brady and Don Wimmer

Grizzwells by Bill Schorr

Stone Soup by Jan Eliot

Family Circus by Bil Keane The Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn

Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce

Soup To Nutz by Rick Stromoski


18 ATTORNEYS TO MEET ALL OF YOUR LEGAL NEEDS

• DIVORCE • CHILD SUPPORT • CUSTODY• VISITATION • ORDERS OF PROTECTION

Call Tony Miller & Elizabeth Klahn

PROVIDING KNOWLEDGEABLE, EXPERIENCED,RESPONSIVE, CLIENT-FOCUSED REPRESENTATION IN:

Sterling: 815-625-8200Dixon: 815-284-8200www.wmpj.com

Girls basketballClass 3A Streator Regional

at Lowell “Pops” Dale Gymnasium, Streator

MENDOTA 39, STERLING 24STERLING (15-17)Carolynn Hammelman 0-0 0-0 0, Gabby Sandoval 3-6 0-0 9, Denajha Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Katelyn Everett 1-5 0-0 2, Rashel Robinson 2-7 2-2 6, Jay Borum 1-5 0-0 3, Lauren Fritz 1-3 0-1 2, Erin Stroup 0-0 0-0 0, Makenzie Barnhart 1-1 0-0 2, Mackenzie Garza 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 9-27 2-3 24MENDOTA (25-3)Bailey Beetz 0-1 0-0 0, Ally Bromenschen-kel 4-7 5-5 13, Amy Devitt 5-10 1-2 11, Abby Bromenschenkel 3-8 0-0 8, Brooke Stallings 3-10 4-4 7, Mani Biers 0-2 0-0 0, Haylie Barrera 0-4 0-0 0, Rebecca Scheid 0-0 0-0 0, Mary Brandner 0-0 0-0 0, Brit-tany Newell 0-0 0-0 0, Montana Schlesing-er 0-0 0-0 0, Whitney Lewis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-42 7-11 39.Sterling 8 5 6 5 – 24Mendota 9 6 16 8 – 393s – Sterling 2-10 (Borum 1-4, Sandoval 1-3, Everett 0-2), Mendota 2-3 (Ab. Bro-menschenkel 2-2, Barrera 0-1). Rebounds – Sterling 15 (Borum 4), Mendota 26 (Al. Bromenschenkel 7). Turnovers – Sterling 21, Mendota 9. Fouls – Sterling 13 (Robin-son out), Mendota 9.

Boys basketballFriday’s box scores

at Lancaster Gym, Dixon

DIXON 63, BYRON 48BYRON (19-8, 6-6 BNC West)Dillon VanLankvelt 6-8 0-0 13, Austin Col-train 0-1 0-0 0, Clayton Hoover 3-10 0-0 8, Austin McCarey 5-7 6-6 18, Verne Johnson 2-6 0-0 4, Drew Franklin 1-2 0-0 3, Payton Janssen 1-6 0-0 2, Griffin Thatcher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-40 6-6 48.DIXON (25-1, 12-1)Riley Mehrens 0-0 0-0 0, Laron Carr 8-13 6-6 23, Isaiah Roby 3-6 0-1 6, Ryan Webb 0-0 0-2 0, Cal Jarrett 6-10 3-6 16, Kyle LeBlanc 7-8 2-2 16, Nate Gascoigne 1-1 0-1 2. Totals: 25-38 11-18 63.Byron 13 14 10 11 — 48Dixon 16 11 15 21 — 633s – Byron 6-14 (Hoover 3-7, McCarey 2-3, VanLankvelt 1-1, Franklin 1-1, John-son 0-1, Janssen 0-1), Dixon 2-6 (Carr 1-3, Jarrett 1-2, Roby 0-1). Rebounds – Byron 14 (Janssen 4), Dixon 27 (Roby 9, Carr 4, Jarrett 4, LeBlanc 4). Assists – Byron 9 (VanLankvelt 4), Dixon 16 (Roby 7, Carr 4, Jarrett 2, Gascoigne 2). Steals – Byron 5 (Coltrain 2), Dixon 6 (Jarrett 3, Carr 2). Blocks – Dixon 8 (Roby 6, Carr, Jarrett). Turnovers – Byron 9, Dixon 11. Fouls – Byron 17, Dixon 11.

at LaSalle

LASALLE-PERU 69, STERLING 49

STERLING (9-16, 3-8 NIB-12 West)Jordan Asbury 2 0-0 4, Juan Gomez 2 1-2 5, Reid Blackburn 0 1-2 1, Jacob Martinez 3 1-2 7, Zach Springman 1 0-0 3, Dimitric Young 1 3-4 5, Ethan Sanford 1 0-0 2, Joe Brouilette 4 0-0 8, Sterling Thornton 6 0-0 14. Totals: 20 6-10 49.LASALLE-PERU (13-11, 5-6)Huebbe 5 0-2 13, Uranich 1 0-0 2, Pusik-etti 1 0-0 2, Christman 1 0-0 3, Doyle 3 2-2 8, Soderholm 5 5-5 15, Milaicki 2 0-0 6, Tubbs 3 0-0 6, Presbach 1 0-0 2, Atrilano 3 6-7 12. Totals: 25 13-16 69.Sterling 6 16 15 12 – 49LaSalle-Peru 20 14 20 15 – 693s – Sterling 3 (Thornton 2, Springman), LaSalle-Peru 6 (Huebbe 3, Milaicki 2, Christman).

at Milledgeville

MILLEDGEVILLE 70, ORANGEVILLE 43

ORANGEVILLE (2-20, 1-9 NUIC EAST)Getz 1 0-0 2, Obert 12 1-1 28, Alber 2 1-2 5, Parriott 2 0-0 4, Bollon 1 0-0 2, Leverton 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 2-3 43.

MILLEDGEVILLE (9-17, 4-9)Blake Kappes 1 7-9 9, Jordan Harris 3 0-1 6, Zach Schmidt 2 0-0 5, Kolton Morgan 2 0-0 4, Evan Skoog 1 0-2 2, Joe Gennaro 6 0-0 13, Luke Ebersole 4 2-2 12, Keagan Murray 2 0-0 5, Harrison Schmidt 3 0-0 8, Curt Strauss 2 2-2 6. Totals: 26 11-16 70.Orangeville 11 9 11 12 – 43Milledgeville 17 24 20 9 – 703s – Orangeville Milledgeville 7 (Eber-sole 2, H, Schmidt 2, Murray, Z. Schmidt, Gennero).

at Ashton

AFC 78, DURAND 34DURAND (5-18, 2-10 NUIC East)Spickler 1 0-0 2, Manning 1 0-0 3, Alvarez 1 0-0 2, Lake 2 1-1 6, Merners 2 0-0 4, Sadler 1 0-0 2, Bryant 3 0-0 7, Chandler 3 2-4 8. Totals: 14 3-5 34.AFC (20-9, 9-4)Tyler Stacey 1 0-2 2, Bret Gittleson 8 0-0 21, Kaywan Palmer 3 0-0 7, David Zinke 2 0-0 5, Ryan Rod 2 1-2 5, Jacob Hilliker 3 0-0 6, Kevin O’Dowd 1 0-0 2, Dylan Pitzer 1 0-0 2, Jamey Talley 3 0-0 7, Glen Mun-dell 1 0-0 3, Bobby Larke 1 0-0 2, Trevor Ramsey 3 0-0 6, Kevin Kurz 4 1-2 9, Adam Mairs 0 1-2 1. Totals: 33 3-8 78.Durand 4 14 7 9 – 34AFC 16 29 17 16 – 783s – Durand 3 (Manning, Lake, Bryant), AFC 9 (Gittleson 5, Palmer, Zinke, Talley, Mundell).

at Oregon

OREGON 60, STILLMAN VALLEY 38

STILLMAN VALLEY (2-18, 0-11 BNC West)Vanbriesen 5 0-0 14, Byers 1 1-2 4, Rob-erts 2 0-0 4, Lewis 1 2-2 4, Kutz 3 2-4 8, Wenberg 1 0-2 2, Perez 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 5-10 38.OREGON (10-18, 3-11)Trevor Otten 10 0-0 26, Mat Wasilewski 7 2-2 16, Jarret Reynolds 0 0-2 0, Jer-rick Orsted 4 0-0 8, Sukhdeep Gill 0 0-1 0, Andrew Newman 3 1-2 7, Carson Buck 0 1-2 1, Zach Stromberg 1 0-0 2. Totals: 25 4-9 60.Stillman Valley 13 8 10 7 – 38Oregon 13 17 15 15 – 603s – Stillman Valley 5 (Vanbriesen 4, Byers), Oregon 6 (Otten 6).

at Lanark

EAST DUBUQUE 55, EASTLAND 40

EAST DUBUQUED. Lange 7 1-1 19, Glennan 2 0-0 4, Schul-ting 4 7-9 15, A. Lange 5 1-2 13, Welp 0 1-2 1, Theill 1 0-0 3. Totals: 19 10-14 55.EASTLANDTyler Dambman 1 0-0 3, Donny Groezinger 4 5-7 13, Eric Schaney 1 0-0 2, Brighton Haverland 4 5-9 13, Blake Janssen 1 1-1 3, Zach Randecker 1 0-0 3, DJ Heeren 1 0-0 3. Totals: 13 11-17 40.East Dubuque 12 14 16 13 – 55Eastland 10 9 11 10 – 403s – East Dubuque 7 (D. Lange 4, A. Lange 2, Theill), Eastland 3 (Dambman, Randecker, Heeren).

at Savanna

GALENA 71, WEST CARROLL 63

GALENAHulscher 3 3-4 10, Soat 6 4-7 19, Spillane 1 0-0 2, Peebles 4 3-8 11, Bingham 3 4-9 11, Bauer 5 5-8 16, Eilts 1 0-0 2. Totals: 23 17-36 71.WEST CARROLLCaleb Brashaw 5 1-2 14, Jordan Bracero 4 3-4 11, Hunter Bender 2 0-0 4, Kaleb Plat-tenberger 5 0-0 14, Trevor Miller 1 0-0 2, Luke Jones 1 0-1 2, Matt McGinnis 7 2-2 16. Totals: 25 6-9 63.Galena 13 24 13 21 – 71West Carroll 8 20 15 20 – 633s – Galena 6 (Soat 3, Hulscher, Bingham, Bauer), West Carroll 7 (Plattenberger 4, C. Brashaw 3).

FRIDAY’S SCOREBOARD

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected] Falls’ Francisco Arellano tries to escape the grasp of Mt. Carmel’s Andrew Wise during a 220-pound wrestleback bout on Friday at the 1A state wrestling tournament in Champaign. Arellano was pinned in 1 minute, 18 seconds.

Philip Marruffo/[email protected]’s Cal Jarrett shoots Friday during the Dukes’ 63-48 win over Byron at Lancaster Gym.

LOCAL ROUNDUP

Chris Johnson/Shaw MediaOregon’s Ali Scheidecker releases her ball at Cherry Bowl Lanes in Rockford Friday morning during the state tournament. She rolled a 177, 183, and 224 for a 584 series and 194.7 average in the morning session. She finished Day 1 in 97th place with a 1,124 series.

By SVM Sports Staff

Oregon’s Ali Scheideck-er completed her first series at the girls state bowling tournament Fri-day at Cherry Bowl Lanes in Rockford.

Scheidecker, the area’s lone state qualifier, fin-ished with a 1,124 six-game series. She rolled a high game of 224 dur-ing her first-round series of 584, and added a 211 game in the second round where she finished with a 540.

The Oregon sophomore ended Day 1 in 97th place out of 131 bowlers.

Lemont senior Kyra Udziela finished the first day with a 13-pin lead with a 1,397 series. Col-linsville had the early team lead with a pin total of 6,310, ahead of Wau-bonsie Valley (6,171).

Boys basketballLaSal le-Peru 69,

Sterling 49: The Golden Warriors faced a 20-6 def-icit after the first quarter and couldn’t recover in a road NIB-12 West loss.

Sterling (9-16, 3-8 NIB-12 West) was led by 14 points from Sterling Thornton, who hit two of the Warriors’ three 3-pointers, while Jacob Martinez added seven points. Dimitric Young and Juan Gomez each added five points in the loss.Rockridge 57, New-

man 56: The Comets outscored Rockridge 35-25 in the second half, but couldn’t complete the comeback after a 32-21 first-half deficit in a Three Rivers crossover game.

Noah McCarty led Newman (17-11) with 22 points and nine rebounds, while Nolan McGinn added seven points. Dillan Heffelfin-ger, Trevor Bolin and Shayne Allen each added six points in the loss.

Rockridge made two free throws with 11 sec-onds left to gain a one-point lead, and Bolin missed a would-be game-winning 3 at the buzzer.AFC 78, Durand 34:

Bret Gittleson scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Raiders to a home Northwest Upstate Illini East division home win.

G i t t l e s o n h i t f i v e 3-pointers, as AFC (20-9, 9-4 NUIC East) had 14 players score points. Kevin Kurz finished with nine points, while Kay-wan Palmer and Jamey Talley each added seven in the win.Polo 67, Dakota 39:

The Marcos outscored Dakota 22-7 in the third quarter to pull away for a win in NUIC East play.

Polo improves to 20-9 overall and 8-5 in the conference, while Dakota drops to 6-16 overall and 4-8 in conference.

Lutheran 83, Rock Falls 38: The Rockets allowed 31 first-quarter points in a Big Northern West loss in Rockford.

M i c a h e l B e r e n t e s scored a team-high 11 points for Rock Falls (5-19, 2-10 BNC West), Jacob Mammosser added seven points, while Con-nor Murphy finished with five.

Lutheran still sits atop the BNC West with a 21-1 overall record, and 11-1 in conference.Oregon 60, Stillman

Valley 38: The Hawks cruised to a Big Northern West home win, after tak-ing a 30-21 lead at half-time.

Oregon (10-18, 3-11 BNC West) was led by Trevor Otten’s 26 points, as he made 10 shots from the field, includ-ing six 3-pointers. Matt Wasilewski added 16 points, while Jerrick Orsted finished with eight in the win.

Kane Vanbriesen led Stillman Valley with 14 points, behind four 3s.Mil ledgevi l le 70,

Orangeville 43: The Missiles used a 24-point second quarter to pull away for an NUIC East win in Milledgeville.

Joe Gennaro led Milled-geville (9-17, 4-9 NUIC East) with 13 points, while Luke Ebersole added 12. Blake Kappes finished with nine points, with Harrison Schmidt adding eight. Jordan Harris finished with six points and eight assists in the win.East Dubuque 55,

Eastland 40: The Cou-gars trailed 26-19 at half-

time and were outscored 29-21 the rest of the way in a home NUIC West loss.

Donny Groezinger and Brighton Haverland combined for 26 points, each scoring 13. Tyler Dambman, Blake Jans-sen, Zach Randecker and DJ Heeren each added three points for Eastland.Fulton 51, Orion 47:

The Steamers edged out a Three Rivers West home win.

Fulton improved to 17-12 overall and 7-6 in the TRAC West.Galena 71, West Car-

roll 63: The Thunder dropped an NUIC West home game, after falling behind 37-28 at halftime.

West Carroll had four players score in dou-ble figures, with Matt McGinnis leading the way with 16 points. Caleb Brashaw and Kaleb Plattenberger each added 14, while Jordan Bracero finished with 11 in the loss.Faith Christian splits

two: The Falcons moved into the consolation bracket of the ACSI tour-nament.

The Falcons lost to Faith Christian (Wis.) 72-57, which moved the Falcons into the consola-tion bracket. The Falcons (16-12) defeated Portage Christian Academy 48-41, to move to the semifinals.

Zach Lessman scored 33 points over the two games, including hitting four 3-pointers in the win over Portage.

The Falcons will play Morningstar in the semi-finals of the consolation bracket Saturday.

Friday’s starsTrevor Otten, Oregon, 26 points, 6 3-pointersNoah McCarty, Newman, 22 points, 9 reboundsBret Gittleson, AFC, 21 points, 5 3-pointersMatt Wasilewski, Oregon, 16 pointsMatt McGinnis, West Carroll, 16 points

Scheidecker rolls to 97thOregon sophomore competes at girls state bowling meet


CLASS 1A | 195-POUND SEMIFINAL

BY BRIAN [email protected], ext. 5551

@BrianWeidman

CHAMPAIGN – Austin Shoup was on the verge of making his-tory in his only season as an Erie-Prophetstown wrestler.

Instead, the transfer student from Morrison will be remem-bered for merely a great season, but not a championship one.

Shoup suffered a stunning pin at the hands of Mon-mouth-Roseville senior Logan Millizer in a Class 1A semi-final bout at the IHSA state wrestling tournament at State Farm Center. The Sauk Valley will not be represented in Sat-urday night’s championship bouts, as Shoup was the last one standing.

“I wanted to be smart and not give up two points,” Shoup said. “He stood up, I went to bring him back down, and he ended up hitting a switch. I should have let go, but I was trying to use more muscle than my tech-nique, which got me into a little bit of trouble.”

Shoup (41-1), whose stated goal was to be an undefeated state champion this season, will now try to work his way back for a third-place medal in Satur-day’s wrestlebacks.

Millizer (41-5), meanwhile,

will go for a state title against St. Joseph Ogden’s Wesley Kibler, who pinned Vandalia’s Bobby Bradley in 1:48 of their semifi-nal bout.

Millizer was a runner-up at the

Clinton Sectional last week, and a decided underdog on Friday, but that meant little after pull-ing off a shocker.

“This was my goal all along,” Millizer said. “When it comes

down to this, it’s all about heart. Whoever gives most of it is probably going to win. If you have the drive to win, anything is possible. I go into every match thinking I am

going to win.”Shoupnearly executed a first-

period takedown, but Mil-lizer was able to slither out of bounds before any points were rewarded.

In the second period, Millizer successfully rode out Shoup for the first 1:55, but was then hit with an illegal hold penalty point, giving Shoup a 1-0 lead.

Millizer was in the down posi-tion for the third period, and 15 seconds into it, pulled off a reversal to seize a 2-1 lead. When Shoup tried to fight it off, he found himself on his back, and was pinned at the 4:50 mark.

“Once I got that call, I wasn’t trying to go to overtime,” Mil-lizer said of the penalty point he was assessed. “I was trying to win it right there. I went for the reversal. Things fell into place.”

In hindsight, E-P coach Tod McCullough wishes Shoup had accepted the reversal, get an escape, and start over fresh at 2-2.

“He probably should have just bailed and given up the reversal instead of trying to save it,” McCullough said. “It really wasn’t a reversal yet. He got his leg, and once he stepped back over the top, he got the reversal and we were in trouble.”

Pin sticks Shoup in semfinalsErie-Prophetstown senior falls short of goal of championship

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected]’s Austin Shoup faces off with Monmouth-Roseville’s Logan Millizer during Friday’s 1A 195-pound state semifinal match at State Farm Center in Champaign. Shoup, who came into the match undefeated, was pinned in 4 minutes, 50 seconds.

BY BRIAN [email protected], ext. 5551

@BrianWeidman

CHAMPAIGN – Matthew Crandall endured 8! minutes of wrestling before having a match snatched away from him on Thursday at the IHSA State Wrestling Tournament.

It took less than 2 min-utes for the Oregon junior 285-pounder to take care of business on Friday.

Crandall is one of six Class 1A wrestlers still alive for a medal after the first round of wrestlebacks were com-pleted on Friday morning. He is joined by Fulton’s Tyler Fleetwood (106), Morrison’s Augustus Linke (106), Erie-Prophetstown’s Grady Todd (138) and Jared Cole (145), and Polo’s Ethan Cain (170).

Crandall (33-9) easily han-dled T.J. Peters of Olympia, pinning him in a mere 1:49. Peters had lasted just 51 sec-onds before being pinned by Plano’s Tommy Brown in the quarterfinal round.

It was Crandall’s first-round match against Brown that was hard for him to accept. Nurs-ing a 1-0 lead late in the third period, Crandall was riding out an exhausted Brown and seem-ingly had things well in hand.

Crandall was whistled for stalling with just a few sec-onds left in the bout.

“I had been working him the whole time, he wasn’t getting anything, and he had no ener-gy left,” Crandall said. “I had a cross-face butcher, and a cou-ple of times I kicked over into a turk. I almost had him on his back, and then I get called for stalling. I couldn’t believe it.”

A scoreless 1-minute over-time period was followed by a pair of 30-second OT periods that were also scoreless.

In the ultimate tiebreaker, Crandall had the choice to go up or down. He chose down, but was unable to escape in 30 sec-onds, handing Brown the win.

“I should have taken the top, because he had nothing left,” Crandall said. “All I had to do was tie up his ankle, and he would have been done.”

Fleetwood (37-4) began his day with an 8-2 loss against PORTA’s R.J. Marrero. It was 2-2 with 25 seconds left in the third period when Marrero got an escape to seize a 3-2 lead.

With 10 seconds to go, Fleet-wood had the makings of a takedown, but instead found himself flung to his back. The

5-point move sealed the win for Marrero.

Fleetwood bounced back to pin Sam Dietz of Murphys-boro in 3:31 in a first-round wrestleback bout.

Linke (33-16) stayed alive with a 5-4 decision against Knoxville’s Avery Dean, while Todd kept his medal hopes alive with a 3-2 decision against Amer Shalabi of Chi-cago Ag Science.

Cole (39-6) began his day with an 8-4 loss to Shelbyville’s Jared Finley in the quarterfi-nal round. It was a rough bout for Cole, who was assessed several second-period penalty points, and also dealt with an injury to his right shoulder.

In the wrestleback round against Camp Point Central’s Jeremy Bowen, Cole scored an escape and a takedown in the second period, then padded his lead with two back points in the third period to secure a 5-1 win.

Cain (28-5) was dominant in rolling to a 9-0 major decision against Murphysboro’s Pat-rick Stanton in a 170-pound wrestleback.

Dropping first-round wres-tleback bouts were Oregon 145-pounder Dominic Mar-chetti (33-11), Morrison 160-pounder Austin Keller (36-11), and Rock Falls 220-pound-er Francisco Arellano (31-15).

In Class 2A, losing in the first round of wrestlebacks were Dixon 113-pounder Mason Rhodenbaugh (24-12), by technical fall to Oak Forest’s Francis Edelen; and Dixon 195-pounder Connor Sperling (22-13), 7-2 against Mahom-et-Seymour’s David Wisehart.

Included among those to not have wrestleback opportuni-ties were Sterling 126-pound-er Isaac Anderson (27-7); Dixon 220-pounder Ryan Troutman (25-12); and Ster-ling 285-pounder Cariel Bea-sley (32-9) in Class 2A; and in Class 1A, Amboy 195-pounder Dallas Appleman (34-8).

CLASS 1A | WRESTLEBACKS

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected]: Erie-Prophetstown’s Jared Cole takes down Camp Point Central’s Jeremy Bowen in a 145-pound wrestleback on Friday. Cole won the bout 5-1.BELOW LEFT: Polo’s Ethan Cain handles Murphysboro’s Patrick Stanton during a 170-pound wrestleback on Friday. Cain won 9-0.BELOW RIGHT: Morrison’s Austin Keller grabs the leg of Prairie Central’s Nick Kaufman during a 160-pound wrestleback. Keller was eliminated after losing 11-2.

Crandall outlasts opponent at 285

Still in medal contention

Tyler Fleetwood, Fulton (106)Augustus Linke, Morrison (106)Grady Todd, Erie-P’town (138)Jared Cole, Erie-P’town (145)Ethan Cain, Polo (170)Matthew Crandall, Oregon (285)

B10 • SV Weekend STATE WRESTLING EXTRA Saturday, February 21, 2015

FRIDAY’S SCOREBOARDat State Farm Center, Champaign

CLASS 1A 106 pounds Semifinals

Joey Rivera (Coal City) pin Josh Fiegel (Har-vard) 5:42Colin Davidson (Litchfield) def. R.J. Marrero (PORTA) 8-3

QuarterfinalsRivera (Coal City) pin Avery Dean (East Alton-Wood River) 3:11Fiegel (Harvard) def. James Henseler (Roxa-na) 6-0Davidson (Litchfield) pin Joey Bianchini (IC Catholic) 4:56Marrero (PORTA) def. Tyler Fleetwood (Fulton) 8-2

First-round wrestlebacksAugustus Linke (Morrison) def. Dean (East-Alton-Wood River) 5-4Henseler (Roxana) tech. fall Cole Hilliard (Peotone) 5:12, 16-0Bianchini (IC Catholic) major dec. Douglas Nisly-Nagle (Monticello) 13-0Fleetwood (Fulton) pin Sam Dietz (Mur-physboro) 3:31

113 pounds Semifinals

Alec Henze (Dakota) def. Jared VanVleet (Oakwood) 7-4Chase Bittle (Belleville Althoff) def. Anthony Rink (Herscher) 7-3

QuarterfinalsHenze (Dakota) def. Alex Matlock (LeRoy) 4-0VanVleet (Stillman Valley) def. Ren Dazey (Oakwood) 7-4Bittle (Belleville Althoff) tiebreaker Brady Wilsie (Byron) 1-0Schrank (Rockford Lutheran) def. Anthony Rink (Herscher) 6-4

First-round wrestlebacksMatlock (LeRoy) def. Chase Emerson (Peo-tone) 7-2Mason Sauseda (Bishop McNamara) def. Dazey (Oakwood) 5-4Wilsie (Byron) pin Ryan Hopkins (Havana) 1:21Rink (Herscher) pin Ivan Garcia (Plano) 3:23


Cody Minnick (Coal City) def. Hunter Spen-gler (Sherrard) 8-4Trey Hild (PORTA) major dec. Stone Engle (Mercer County) 9-0

QuarterfinalsMinnick (Coal City) major dec. Logan Knis-ley (Monticello) 12-1Spengler (Sherrard) pin Cooper Secker (Freeburg) 1:43Hild (PORTA) pin Dillon Swift (Dakota) 1:44Engle (Mercer County) def. Chaston Wom-ack (Vandalia) 3-1

First-round wrestlebacksKnisley (Monticello) def. Blake Kittleson (Stillman Valley) 6-4Secker (Freeburg) def. Sam Meyers (Man-teno) 6-4Swift (Dakota) def. Ryan Chambers (Mur-physboro) 8-6Womack (Vandalia) def. Drew Sonnefeldt (Lisle) 3-1


Brandon Briggs (North Boone) major dec. Nolan Baker (Byron) 10-1Printice Walls (Dakota) def. Dalton Brito (Roxana) 8-3

QuarterfinalsBaker (Byron) def. Will Lucie (Warsaw) 7-5Briggs (North Boone) major dec. Chuck Jacobson (Monmouth-Roseville) 12-0Brito (Roxana) sudden victory Jake Worms (Illini Bluffs) 4-2Walls (Dakota) def. Dalton Jensen (LeRoy) 8-1

First-round wrestlebacksLucie (Warsaw) major dec. Jevon Hey (Bel-leville Althoff) 9-0Ryne Lipsey (Vandalia) def. Jacobson (Mon-mouth-Roseville) 6-5Worms (Illini Bluffs) def. Reiss Bielski (Har-vard) 4-0Jensen (LeRoy) pin Arieh Hart (Murphys-boro) 2:50


Andrew Wenger (Dakota) def. Tanner Cole-man (Peoria Heights)Corey Jurzak (Coal City) def. Jarid Brauna-gel (Belleville Althoff) 8-6

QuarterfinalsColeman (Peoria Heights) def. Jared Foiles (Roxana) 8-2Wenger (Dakota) major dec. Maxx Fritz (Mt. Olive) 11-0Braunagel (Belleville Althoff) def. Drew Mook (Herscher) 8-1Jurzak (Coal City) def. Rahveon Valentine (Lena-Winslow) 6-3

First-round wrestlebacksFoiles (Roxana) pin Austin Wetsel (Princ-eton) 1:12Fritz (Mt. Olive) def. Devin Makemson (Bis-marck-Henning) 8-6Mook (Herscher) major dec. Kyle Jones (Peotone) 12-1Valentine (Lena-Winslow) tech. fall David Luper (Carterville) 2:23, 19-1


Josh Larson (Byron) def. Sage Friese (Sen-eca) 8-5Nate Olsen (Dakota) major dec. Peyton Smith (Benton) 14-5

QuarterfinalsFriese (Seneca) def. Austin Headrick (Wilm-ington) 3-2Larson (Byron) def. Drew Hoselton (Prairie Central) 5-4Olsen (Dakota) def. Gage Haga (St. Joseph-Ogden) 5-4Smith (Benton) major dec. Amer Shalabi (AG Science) 8-0

First-round wrestlebacksHeadrick (Wilmington) sudden victory Daniel Braunagel (Belleville-Althoff) 3-1Hoselton (Prairie Central) def. Garrett Brach-bill (Shelbyville) 8-6Kaehl VanDalsen (Monticello) def. Haga (St. Joseph-Ogden) 12-5Grady Todd (Erie-Prophetstown) def. Shalabi (AG Science) 3-2


J.J. Wolfe (Dakota) major dec. Zach Lorek (Bishop McNamara) 8-0Riley Beard (IVC) major dec. Jared Finley (Shelbyville) 9-1

QuarterfinalsWolfe (Dakota) tech. fall Will Kleinert (Clifton Central) 2:58, 15-0Lorek (Bishop McNamara) def. Blaine Yocum (Cumberland) 6-1Beard (IVC) def. Sam Durfey (Stillman Val-ley) 8-2Finley (Shelbyville) def. Jared Cole (Erie-Prophetstown) 8-4

First-round wrestlebacksKleinert (Clifton Central) major dec. Jake Berman (Wilmington) 15-5Yocum (Cumberland) def. Dominic Mar-chetti (Oregon) 3-2Durfey (Stillman Valley) def. Anthony Carter (Sparta) 4-2Cole (Erie-Prophetstown) def. Jeremy Bowen (Camp Point Central) 5-1


Kenny Abitua (Stillman Valley) major dec. Curtis VanWinkle (Mercer County) 13-4Greg Krulas (Dakota) major dec. Wyatt Fox (Shelbyville) 12-4

QuarterfinalsAbitua (Stillman Valley) def. Griffin Meeker (St. Joseph-Ogden) 8-3VanWinkle (Mercer County) def. Paul Garcia (Prairie Central) 4-3Krulas (Dakota) pin Jake Weigand (Knoxville) 2:50Fox (Shelbyville) def. Zach Tomac (Plano) 11-6

First-round wrestlebacksMeeker (St. Joseph-Ogden) def. Zac Biasioli (East Alton-Wood River) 9-2Garcia (Prairie Central) def. Brock Barnhill (Auburn) 1-0Weigland (Knoxville) pin James Smith (Mon-ticello) 3:31Tomac (Plano) def. Kalk Kalkbrenner (Lena-Winslow) 11-8


Adam Hudson (Shelbyville) def. Logan Win-ter (Clinton) 5-1Nick Hawkins (Wilmington) def. Jared Pack-er (Dakota) 8-6

QuarterfinalsHudson (Shelbyville) def. George Sosa (Bowen) 7-0Winter (Clinton) pin Ean Eichert (Walther Christian) 5:09Packer (Dakota) def. Gabe McKinley (El Paso-Gridley) 5-1Nick Hawkins (Wilmington) def. Nick Kaufman (Prairie Central) 13-6

First-round wrestlebacksSosa (Bowen) def. Aaron Carter (Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) 4-1Eichert (Walther Christian) def. Jesse Kes-sler (Auburn) 6-1McKinley (El Paso-Gridley) pin Adam Ferrell (Westmont) 4:48Kaufman (Prairie Central) major dec. Austin Keller (Morrison) 11-2


Carver James (Dakota) tech. fall Duncan Terry (Normal U-High) 3:59, 15-0Kyle Betrourne (Bishop McNamara) pin Naulon Simms (Tremont) 1:48

QuarterfinalsJames (Dakota) tech. fall Jacob Burton (Monticello) 4:12, 15-0Terry (Normal U-High) def. Joe Mann (Wilm-ington) 4-0Simms (Tremont) def. Patrick Staunton (Murphysboro) 11-7Betourne (Bishop McNamara) pin Sam Schuler (Prairie Central) 1:06

First-round wrestlebacksChase Ward (Illini Bluffs) def. Burton (Mon-ticello) 9-7Drew Pranka (Princeton) major decision Mann (Wilmington) 12-1Ethan Cain (Polo) major dec. Staunton (Murphysboro) 9-0Schuler (Prairie Central) pin Logan McGuire (Lawrenceville) 1:52


Danny Falconer (Byron) tiebreaker Jacob Franklin (Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) 2-1Hunter Sant Amour (El Paso-Gridley) def. Riley Kauzianic (Coal City) 5-3

QuarterfinalsFranklin (Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) sudden victory Colton Reed (Tolono Unity) 3-1Falconer (Byron) pin Austin Renshaw (Her-scher) 3:40Kauzlanc (Coal City) def. Lucas Duckett (Shelbyville) 9-3Sant Amour (El Paso-Gridley) def. Payton Loete (Orion) 10-5

First-round wrestlebacksReed (Tolono Unity) pin Maurice Paino (Bowen) 1:09Renshaw (Herscher) pin Marucs Rice (Mon-ticello) 1:52Jarrod Noel (Bismarck-Henning) def. Duck-ett (Shelbyville) 2-1Loete (Orion) major dec. Ricky Alboyd Jr. (Uplift) 9-1


Logan Millzer (Monmouth-Roseville) pin Austin Shoup (Erie-Prophetstown) 4:50Wesley Kibler (St. Joseph-Ogden) pin Mitch Geister (Herscher) 1:48

QuarterfinalsShoup (Erie-Prophetstown) def. Jordan Ladd (IVC) 8-2Millizer (Monmouth-Roseville) pin Ian Alber-stett (Durand) 2:53Geister (Herscher) def. Zach Martin (Har-vard) 6-4Kibler (St. Joseph-Ogden) def. Bobby Brad-ley (Vandalia) 9-3

First-round wrestlebacksLadd (IVC) tech. fall Caleb Cole (Shelbyville) 3:22, 16-0Austin Ricketts (Plano) def Alberstett (Durand) 10-5Ryan Berman (Wilmington) def. Martin (Har-vard) 12-6Bradley (Vandalia) def. Parker Czaja (Coal City) 7-1


Brandyn Peacock (Bowen) def. Ross Sealby (Byron) 3-2Tristun Reeves (El Paso-Gridley) tiebreaker Cole Werner (Litchfield) 7-2

QuarterfinalsSealby (Byron) pin Noah Rink (Herscher) 1:44Peacock (Bowen) ultimate tiebreaker Andrew Wise (Mt. Carmel) 4-2Werner (Litchfield) def. Jake Frost (Coal City) 4-3Reeves (El Paso-Gridley) pin Kyal Davis (Wilmington) 2:39

First-round wrestlebacksRink (Herscher) def. Drew Crawford (Man-teno) 7-2Wise (Mt. Carmel) pin Francisco Arellano (Rock Falls) 1:18Frost (Coal City) def. Dustin Brandon (Eure-ka) 6-3Zach Shoulders (East Richland) pin Davis (Wilmington) 4:20


Tommy Brown (Plano) pin John Barnes (St. Bede) 0:55Quinton Ball (Mercer County) def. Eli Burdick (Durand) 1-0

QuarterfinalsBrown (Plano) pin T.J. Peters (Olympia) 0:51Barnes (St. Bede) def. Rodney Baker (Bel-leville Althoff) 3-2Burdick (Durand) pin Ricky Cantu (Mon-mouth-Roseville) 5:59Ball (Mercer County) tiebreaker Gevin Ashi-kyan (Oakwood) 2-1

First-round wrestlebacksMatthew Crandall (Oregon) pin Peters (Olympia) 1:48James Britten (Leo) pin Baker (Belleville Althoff) 2:42Anthony Griffiths (Westmont) sudden victory Cantu (Monmouth-Roseville) 6-1Kyle Hull (Wilmington) def. Ashikyan (Oak-wood) 3-2

CLASS 2A Weights with local wrestlers


Jabari Moody (Rich Central) major dec. Michael Tortorice (Mundelein Carmel) 9-2Christopher Tucker (East St. Louis) def. Francis Edelen (Oak Forest) 9-7

QuarterfinalsMoody (Rich Central) major dec. Trentin Rilea (Canton) 21-8Tortonce (Mundelein Carmel) def. Tom Buell (Lincoln-Way West) 9-2Tucker (East St. Louis) def. Francis Edelen (Oak Forest) 9-7Punke (Washington) major dec. Brandon Ramos (St. Laurence) 9-1

First-round wrestlebacksRilea (Canton) pin Kyle Szlenk (Hampshire) 2:54Buell (Lincoln-Way West) sudden victory Josh Contreras (Riverside-Brookfield) 6-4Edelen (Oak Forest) tech. fall Mason Rhodenbaugh (Dixon) 1:51, 15-0Ramos (St. Laurence) major dec. Josiah Fitzgerrells (Mt. Vernon) 10-0


Andrew Marsden (Crystal Lake Central) pin Cody Sawyer (Grayslake North) 5:24Eric Schultz (Tinley Park) major dec. Cody Barnes (Woodstock North) 19-7

QuarterfinalsMarsden (Crystal Lake Central) pin Kyle Eighner (Sandwich) 1:55Sawyer (Grayslake North) def. Richard Smith (Hillcrest) 6-3Barnes (Woodstock North) pin Paul Turner (Ottawa) 2:52Schultz (Tinley Park) major dec. David Wise-hart (Mahomet-Seymour) 20-8

First-round wrestlebacks John McKinney (Triad) def. Eighner (Sand-wich) 8-2Flores (Carbondale) pin Richard Smith (Hill-crest) 2:19Turner (Ottawa) def. Zach Stout (Jackson-ville) 9-2Wisehart (Mahomet Seymour) def. Connor Sperling (Dixon) 7-2

COMMENTARY

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected]’s Connor Sperling walks off the mat after being eliminated from the 2A state tournament on Friday at State Farm Center in Champaign. While the state tournament draws a huge crowd to the big venue, many area teams are struggling to fill rosters while wrestling in front of small crowds.

I t would be easy to look around the State Farm Center

on Friday and think the sport of wrestling is in a healthy state.

Attendance in the 17,000-seat facility or the 78th IHSA State Wres-tling Tournament was somewhat sparse at 8:30 a.m. for the beginning of the Class 1A quarterfi-nals, but by the time the semifinals for 1A, 2A and 3A rolled around Friday night, only the nosebleed seats weren’t occupied.

Come Saturday night for the finals, it will be downright festive. It always is. Beach balls will be batted around the arena, as ushers try in vain to corral them.

A video featuring some old-time tourney high-lights will be played. When an ex-Dakota Indi-an or ex-Byron Tiger is featured in the highlight package, current fans in the school’s large cheer-ing sections will ooh and ahh, remembering that wrestler’s exploits from days gone by.

The Grand March – a parade of finalists with the Olympic Games theme playing – will raise the hair on everyone’s arms.

The state’s best wres-tlers, doing their thing on a big stage in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd – everything’s all good, right?

Not so fast.What about the 3

months leading up to the state finals? Any issues there? Let’s take a peek.

Most of the coaches in the Sauk Valley Media coverage area are accommodating about faxing or emailing dual meet results. As long as we receive them by a reasonable hour, say, 10:30 on any given night, a box score will be in the next day’s paper, along with a few highlights in a roundup.

Ever notice how short some of those box scores are? That’s because they’re full of forfeits, unless it’s a matchup of teams that can fill all or most of the 14 weight classes, and those are few and far between.

It continued into the postseason. There was a two-man 285-pound weight class at the New-man Regional.

There would have been a two-man 106-pound weight class there as well, but one squad found a last-minute addition, just to pick up a few extra team points. That

wrestler, who did practice with the team for a few weeks and received a few forfeits, lost his only bout, but received a sectional berth.

I wonder what some old-school wrestlers who had to claw and scratch their way to advance in the postseason 20, 30, or 40 years ago think about that.

How about attendance? The most heavily attend-ed dual I went to this season was Rock Falls at Sterling, but most of the yelling being done was for the junior high bouts before the main event.

When the high school kids took over, half the crowd left Musgrove Fieldhouse, and it was as quiet as your average church service in there.

So what can be done? Before Friday night’s semifinal bouts, I con-tacted two area wrestling authorities, mat official Don Mekeel of Sterling and Polo coach Justin Zigler for their thoughts.

Mekeel has been around the sport his entire life, as a competi-tor, coach, official, and administrator – he is currently the secretary of the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association.

Mekeel noted there’s no easy solution to drum up interest, but the key is to have a head coach who knows how to push the right buttons.

“It’s really a tough sport,” Mekeel said. “It’s not like you’re going to play a game every day, so the thing is, how do you get kids interested in something that’s that tough?

“The bottom line is it comes down to the head coach, and what he does to make it a big deal in his area to be a wrestler.”

Mekeel suggested invit-ing grade school and junior high school wres-tlers to high school prac-tices, to give them a taste of what lies ahead. The high schoolers can be role models on impres-sionable youth.

Also, how about the high school team show-ing up to a junior high practice or match? That would mean a lot to youngsters coming up.

Zigler has plans for next season to include a junior high match prior to a Polo high school match, provided he can find a school willing to participate.

He agreed with Mekeel in that the head coach needs to be the point man in drumming up interest, though in his case, there is only so much he can do, as he has a young son at home to care for.

“I think we need to step up and support our programs more,” Zigler said, “to get more kids involved at the high school level.”

How to save wrestling?Sports reporter. Reach him at [email protected] or 800-798-4085, ext. 5551.

brianWEIDMAN

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected]’s Tyler Fleetwood gains control of Murphysboro’s Sam Dietz during a 106-pound Class 1A wrestle-back on Friday at State Farm Center in Champaign. Fleetwood kept his medal hopes alive by pinning Dietz in 3 minutes, 31 seconds.

SV Weekend • B11STATE WRESTLING EXTRASaturday, February 21, 2015

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OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

Wishing for warmthWell, if this week

ain’t a perfect representation

of Illinois weather, I don’t know what is. As I type, we sit at 10 below zero, and that’s before you fig-ure in the windchill fac-tor. However, when you look at the forecast ,we have snow, warm weather into the mid-40s, and rain all thrown in there over the next 10 days.

I used to think that was crazy; now, it just seems to be typical. What are we gonna do, right?

I am hoping through all this we are setting up for a big flood. We have a good snow pack, then you zap it with warm air and rain, and you’ve got high water. High water in the late winter and early spring is a good thing.

First of all, nothing flushes ice from a river like high running water. If you have to rely on warm air alone to clear the river of ice, it can take forever and a day.

More than clearing ice, this high water is a tre-mendous benefit for a river system. High water moves silt and sediment from the river, keeping holes deep and current flowing strong. We have done well over the past several years with our share of high water, and the Rock River sits in really good shape.

Of course, there are many (including me) that wish she was a little deep-er, but it is what it is. I’m just happy that we haven’t yet started to have islands made of pelican and goose poo start to pop up.

At this time of the year, I always have the urge to go fishing, that’s a no-brainer. However, I am really excited this year to get out after some

whitetail buck sheds. I haven’t had much chance to look the past several years, but I am all over it this year. It’s a ton of fun to stock the backpack and just start walking.

Sheds are one of those things that you just don’t find laying all over the place, so there’s a ton of excitement when you spot one. On occasion, you may find a matching set laying right next to each other, or fairly close anyhow. Finding a set is a really cool deal, especially if it came from a deer you have seen carrying them before. If you manage to harvest this deer down the road, you are able to see the development that has occurred.

At the very least, they make great decoration and conversation pieces

in a hunter’s home.You all ain’t going to

believe this either, but the Wolf Pack is back at it again, and have announced their next coyote round up. It will take place just 1 week from Sunday, on March 1. Talk about a bunch of guys and gals that like to chase varmints.

Now, you can get all the details on the event you need by hanging around Facebook, but I do know the weigh-in will once again be at the Kickback in Tampico. I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t a third event announced after this one, if the weather permits.

Me, well, I’m wanting warm air, mushrooms and flatheads. How-ever, I’m doing my best to adapt to these long, drawn-out winters. It gets tougher by the year, and the itch to move south grows with every passing day spent not on open water. But I’ll make it, I think, I always do. Just gotta hang in there; after all spring’s right around the corner, right? That’s what they say, right?

Oh well, until next week … Go Catfish!

Submitted photoCatMatt can’t wait for some warm weather, so he can get back on the Rock River and find some flatheads.

Fishing guide from Prophetstown. He can be reached at flathead mechanic40 @gmail.com

mattJONES

NASCAR SPRINT CUP

Thinking big after fast startEarnhardt hoping for success with new crew chief

B MARK LONGAP Sports Writer

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Greg Ives plopped down in his chair, let out a sigh of a relief and asked, “Am I in the Chase now?”

Not quite.But the newest Hendrick

Motorsports crew chief is off to a rousing start in his first season with NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., the defending Daytona 500 champion.

With Ives tuning the No. 88 Chevrolet and calling the shots, Earnhardt won the first of two qualifying races at Daytona Inter-national Speedway on Thursday, and will start third in the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

It’s still way too early to assume the move will land Earnhardt in the Chase for the Sprint Cup champion-ship for a fifth consecu-tive year, or improve his chances of securing his first Cup championship. But getting off to a strong start can be pivotal for any relationship, and the driver-crew chief connec-tion is arguably the most vital in auto racing.

“The relationship is gell-ing as quick as I knew it would,” said Ives, who cracked a few jokes after his first victory with Earn-hardt on Thursday night. “When you bring great attitude, have some fun at the racetrack, have good finishes, you’re going to gel pretty quickly.”

Of course, that was after two successful races at Daytona – a place where Earnhardt is always among the favorites.

The real challenge will come when they’re faced with adversity.

“I don’t think we’re even

close to where we need to be,” Ives said. “I feel like there’s areas I’m going to have to improve big-time. There’s areas that Dale and I are slowly growing and continuing to make better. It’s just going to keep on flourishing from here.”

Earnhardt found con-sistent success alongside former crew chief Steve Letarte, who left the team at the end of last season to spend more time with his family. Letarte also took a job as a NASCAR analyst for NBC Sports.

Letarte revitalized Earn-hardt’s career after two mediocre seasons at pow-erhouse Hendrick.

“I think change is a necessity in the sport,” Letarte said. “Greg is a very bright young mind. When they’re fast, they’re going to be crazy fast. I’ll be interested to see how they rebound through the lows. There are lows. There are always lows. ... I put a lot of that on Dale. Dale puts a lot of that on himself. He’s going to have to be the guy that keeps this team moti-vated and sharp. I don’t question at all that Greg Ives is going to be in there

sunup to sundown trying to make the cars faster.”

Ives is widely regarded as one of the most detail-oriented guys at Hendrick.

He cut his teeth while working under Jimmie Johnson’s longtime crew chief, Chad Knaus – argu-ably the most cunning and calculated guy in the NASCAR garage. Ives served as race engineer for Johnson’s run of five con-secutive championships. And he guided Chase Elliott to the 2014 Xfinity Series championship at JR Motorsports, which is co-owned by Earnhardt.

“We’re trying to build that communication and trust, and starting to understand how we can talk and communicate and work together,” Earn-hardt said. “That’s going to be real important for us. I mean, I don’t even know what it’s like to sit in a hauler and be in that envi-ronment during the race weekend with him. A lot of new things to sort of work ourselves through, and I’m excited, nervous – not apprehensive – but very anxious and excited to go ahead and start working.”

APDale Earnhardt Jr. (left) signs autographs before practice for the Daytona 500 on Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Earnhardt hopes a strong start with new crew chief Greg Ives means great things to come.


620 N. OOOttttttawa, DDDiiixxxon(((815)))222888888-2251

www.heeerrriiitttagesquaredddiiixxxon.cooommm

HeritageSquare

Ruth Chamberlain and Lyle Reuter are queenand king of the Mardi Gras!

Section C

Businesswww.saukvalley.com SV Weekend Saturday, February 21, 2015

Dear Dave,I’m 30 and debt-free. Do you

think I should stop making contributions to my 401(k) account for a year in order to save up an emergency fund?

– Beth

Dear Beth,Yes, I do. But it shouldn’t take

you a year to set aside an emer-gency fund if you’re debt-free and making decent money at your job. Just make it part of your monthly budget plan, grit your teeth and do it.

I recommend that people put off or stop investing until they are debt-free, except for their home, and have an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses in place. In some cases, depending on how much debt they have, it could take 3 or 4 years to do all this. I know it seems like a long time, but it’s really not in the grand scheme of things.

Here’s the way I look at it. If you have no emergency fund, but you’re contributing to your 401(k), there’s a good chance you’ll end up cashing out your 401(k) if a large, unexpected expense comes along. When you cash out a 401(k) early, you get hit with a penalty plus your tax rate. That’s not a good plan.

That’s just one of the reasons I tell people to have an emer-gency fund in place before they start investing.

– Dave

A waste of money?Dear Dave,I have a question about home

warranties. Are they a waste of money if you already have a fully funded emergency fund, with 6 months of expenses or more set aside?

– Andy

Dear Andy,In my opinion, they’re a waste

of money even if you don’t have that much set aside for emergen-cies. I recommend an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expens-es to cover the unexpected things that life will throw at you. This amount of cash, sitting in a good money market account with check-writing privileges, will give you easy access in the event of a financial emergency.

I don’t do extended warranties of any kind, Andy. They’re not a good deal. You’re better off to self-insure against things break-ing down, and put what would have been profit and marketing dollars for the extended warran-ty company in your own pocket.

– Dave

* Follow Dave on Twitter (@Dav-eRamsey), or visit daveramsey.com.

Process shouldn’t

take a year

Financial straight talk. For more advice, plus special readers offers, visit davesays.org or call 888-22-PEACE.

daveRAMSEYFOOTWEAR FOR LITTLE ONES

BY PAM [email protected]

800-798-4085, ext. 5570@pam_eggemeier

MORRISON – Whether in a small Mid-west town or the largest city on either coast, the limelight always finds Megan Linke.

The 1995 Morrison High School grad says she is still a Midwest girl at heart, but the lure of the city called at an early age.

“She talked about getting out of the small town all her life,” said her father, Gus Linke, who last year retired from the Morrison school district after 44 years as an educator, the last 20 as ath-letic director.

Gus said his daughter has always loved the big moment, and she has a history of excelling when the lights shine the brightest.

“She entered beauty pageants when she was young, competed all over the country in gymnastics, was a cheerlead-er and star basketball player,” Gus said. “Everything she tried she was very good at it, and she was always a leader.”

After studying communications and marketing at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the big city issued a louder call. Her love of sports launched a modeling career that continues today.

“Arena football is huge in Iowa, and I was a cheerleader and dancer for the Iowa Barnstormers,” Megan said. “It was really kind of a fluke. I never actively pursued it, but because of the Barnstormers experience, the opportu-nity presented itself to do some model-ing gigs.”

A shoe-in for success

Morrison native can’t shake the limelight

Photos submitted by Megan Linke Megan Linke, who graduated from Morrison High School in 1995 and now lives in New York City, has launched a web-based shoe venture, LiLi Collection, that could soon turn into storefronts.

The collection also includes (from top left): pink bow moc two-tone moc-casins, hippity hop moccs, tan fringe leather boots, baby lavender bow shoes, and yellow Annimoccs.

LiLi CollectionVisit lilicollection.com to see Morrison

native Megan Linke’s line of handmade shoes, boots and mocassins for babies and toddlers.

Megan is offering her customers back home a special deal. Use code Sauk15 to receive a 15 percent discount on pur-chases from the LiLi Collection website.

SHOE-IN CONTINUED ON C8�

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

Service to others was part of Lutheran Schools Week Jan. 25-31 at Christ Lutheran School in Sterling. Students delivered valentines to area nurs-ing homes. Lydia Winkelman, a kindergartner, and gave hers to Lois Klein-schmidt, a resident at Heritage Woods of Sterling. Photo submitted by Rose Andermann.

Students in Spanish 4 at Bureau Valley High School in Manlius display artwork they made during their study of Spanish-speaking artists. They took on the role of their chosen artist to reproduce masterpieces. Photo submitted by Renee Hartz.

MANLIUS – Students in Tina Eller’s Spanish 4 class at Bureau Val-ley High School studied Spanish-speaking artists in January, during a four-part unit.

The students learned about artists, photog-

raphers, and sculptors. Each one selected an art-ist to write about in Span-ish. Those compositions included the artist’s birth and death, where they studied or learned about art, what style they were known for, and their most

important works.The next step was to make

a visual presentation and answer questions about their work in Spanish. In the third part, the students pretended to be their artist and answered questions in an interview style.

The final project session was to replicate one of their artist’s works. The students had the choice to paint, sketch with pen-cil, take a photograph, or sculpt with clay. Sheila Heth, art teacher, provid-ed hints during the class.

Artistic talents come alive in classroom

IN BRIEFCatfish, perch, on dinner menu

STERLING – The Knights of Columbus annual Lenten fish fry has begun.

The meal will be served from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at St. Mary Par-ish Center, 600 Avenue B.

The suppers will con-tinue March 6, 13, 20, and 27, and April 3.

On the menu are deep- fried catfish and perch and baked white fish, along with cole slaw, French fries or a baked potato, roll and butter, coffee, and milk. The cost is $9.

For carry-outs, call 779-245-8128.

Volunteers help with center event

AMBOY – Teen Turf’s annual Souper Bowl Supper was Jan. 31 at the Boehle Youth Cen-ter, 235 W. Main St.

Those who helped are Deb Albee, Mike and Mary Anderson, Louella Blackburn, Albert and Norma Jean Borrell, Sandy Draper, Christine

Drendel, Rich Geiger, Marlene Greskiwcz, Sarah Hendriks, Mark Hicks, Isaiah Hood, Fran Kessel, Brian McWethy, Sophie Nelson, Nic Pellens, Connie Pettinger, Cindy Phillips, Kaleb and Ryan Phillips, Ann Piper, Eileen and Irene Ramsdell, Pete Rood, Al and Roxy Sten-zel, Mary Kathryn Stenzel, Rodney Swan, Cody and Austin Thompson, Kim-berly Watley, and Donna Wellman.

Teen Turf was started 20 years ago. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to P.O. Box 321, Amboy, IL 61310.

For more information, call 815-857-4800.

Spaghetti to be served with salad

ROCK FALLS – A spaghetti dinner will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at St. Andrew Grade School, 701 11th Ave.

The meal includes spaghetti, bread, salad, dessert, and a drink.

The cost is $5 per person.

For more information, call the school at 815-625-1456.

DIXON – Several com-munity education class-es will start in March at Sauk Valley Community College, 173 state Route 2.Q Reasons You Will

Not Be Hired & How To Fix Them, CRN 60863, from 4 to 5 p.m. March 3 in Room 2L6 – Partici-pants will be taught the reasons why some people do not get job offers. The cost is $5; free to current students.Q P r e p a r i n g Y o u r

Estate Plan, CRN 60930, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 3 in Room 2H14 –

A basic overview of estate planning will be cov-ered. Among the topics are account registration, beneficiary designation, life insurance, transfer on death, and will, trust, and tax information. The cost is $10.Q Wilton Course II,

Flowers and Cake Design, CRN 60920, from 6 to 9 p.m. March 5 and March 12 in Room 2L1B – Stu-dents will work with royal icing to make flowers. They also will be taught the basket weaving design and several borders. A hand towel, bowls for frosting,

and a small container to transport flowers need to be brought to class. The cost is $40. A supply kit may be purchased during the first class for $30.Q Microsoft PowerPoint

Level One, CRN 60944, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. March 4 in Room 3K2 – Instructions on the basics of PowerPoint to create a slideshow presentation will be provided. The cost is $65.

To register for any of the courses, stop at Sauk’s office of admissions or call the community education office at 815-835-6212.

Decorating on SVCC schedule

Students at Woodlawn Preschool Academy of the Arts in Sterling are taught kin-dergarten readiness skills, with a daily arts curriculum in visual and culinary arts, music, dance, and theater. One student, Makaylee, puts together a puzzle during her class. Photo submitted by Janel Stahr.

STERLING – An open house for Woodlawn Pre-school Academy of the Arts will be from 6 to 7 p.m. March 2 at Woodlawn Arts Academy, 3807 Woodlawn Road.

Visitors can meet the pre-school teacher, arts cur-riculum instructors, and administrative staff. Tours of the building and the classroom will be available.

A $25 non-refundable fee can be paid starting March 2 to register for the fall ses-sion. The first month or first semester payment is due by Aug. 1 The preschool will run a 3-day morning

program for children 4 and 5 and a 2-day morning pro-gram for those 3 and 4. For information on afternoon classes, call Becky Rich, program coordinator and preschool director, at 815-626-4278.

During the summer, Petra Paufve, lead pre-school instructor, will offer preschool-themed pro-grams. A Touch of Nature Preschool Camp, which will run twice, will involve outdoor activities. Tiny Tots Academy, for children 1 to 3, is an introduction to preschool. It includes songs and finger plays,

reading books and creat-ing art projects. Parents are required to attend. Stu-dents registered for the fall session will be welcome to attend an Aug. 17. open house.

Details on all programs will be in the academy’s Summer Arts Program Guide. Registration for summer programming opens at 9 a.m. May 4.

Financial assistance is available. Visit the office, or the website at wood lawnartsacademy.com for an application. For more information, call the number listed.

Prospective preschoolers welcome

DIXON – Applications are being accepted for Sauk Valley Community College’s spring 2015 Single Parent Scholar-ship awards.

The scholarships are given at the end of each semester to currently-enrolled single parents, who demonstrate finan-

cial and circumstantial need. Students must apply for financial assis-tance before they submit the scholarship applica-tion.

To pick up the materi-als, stop at the financial assistance office, or to have them sent email [email protected] or call 815-

835-6339. The applica-tion deadline is March 2.

The awards are pro-vided by the SVCC Single Parent Committee and the Sauk Valley College Foundation.

For more information, call Sharri Miller at the foundation office at 815-835-6345.

Sauk scholarship applications

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The annual Congres-sional Art Competition is underway.

The office of U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-East Moline, is accepting art-work from high school students in the 17th Congressional District, which includes Carroll and Whiteside counties.

The competition is a nationwide arts con-test by the U. S. House o f R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s .

One winning piece of artwork form each dis-trict will be selected to be displayed for the next year in the Can-non Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, District of Colombia.

The winner also will receive two airline tick-ets to Washington. Run-ners-up will have their work displayed in Bus-tos’ Illinois and Wash-ington offices.

To compete, students, should submit original artwork in digital form to bustos.house.gov/helping-you/artcomp etition and to her office at [email protected] for consid-eration. The deadline is April 10. A limit of one per student is allowed.

All entries will be post-ed online for the public to vote for their favorite.

Visit the website for full details.

Rep seeks art from district youth

STERLING – A craft and vendor show to raise awareness and money to fight cystic fibrosis will be from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Cochran’s Pub, 13464 Galt Road.

Among the vendors will be Reborn Dolls, 31 Bags, Scentsy, Bows and More, Avon, Gold Canyon, Miche, Taste-fully Simple, and Ori-

gami Owl. Scarves, jew-elry, reclaimed woods, painted wine glasses, glass block lights, boot-cuffs, wreaths, crafts, and other items will be available for purchase.

A silent auction also is planned. Among the items are a Chicago Bears cooler on wheels, baskets from Gold Can-yon and Tastefully Sim-ple, a fishing rod and

reel, Rubbermaid auto-motive floor mats, and an overnight stay.

Barbecue, chips, and a beverage will be served for $5. Nachos will be $2. Soft drinks and bottled water also will be sold.

All proceeds will go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

For more information, call Rosa Barb at 815-590-7500.

Proceeds from auction to fight disease

DIXON – National Alli-ance on Mental Illness Sauk Area will gather Tuesday at Sinnissippi Centers, 325 state Route 2.

Business will be con-ducted at 6 p.m., fol-lowed by the support

group at 7. NAMI provides educa-

tion, as well as support, for families struggling with a diagnosis of men-tal illness in a relative or friend.

NAMI Sauk Area serves those who live in Carroll,

Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside counties.

For more information, email [email protected] or call Mary Ann Hutchison at 815-244-1405, Mary Brokaw at 815-284-6417, or Lorna Engwall at 815-778-3662.

Business to start off NAMI group meeting

C2 • SV Weekend www.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

Things to do with snow

Wanted: Photos from youA scrapbook is a book with blank pages, and that’s what our Scrapbook page is without your pictures. We want to fill the page with images that

capture lives in the Sauk Valley. They can be submitted by email to [email protected] or can be taken to the Sterling and Dixon offices.

WEAR A SCARF: During the cold hours of Feb. 9, a cat emerged in the 700 block of Eighth Avenue in Rock Falls. Photo submitted by Bonnie Williams of Rock Falls.

SCOWL: An angry bird sits in the snow Feb. 9 along East Second Street in Rock Falls. Photo submitted by Wil-liams.

LOOK LIKE A PRESIDENT: A silhouette of Abe Lincoln at Hennepin Avenue and First Street in downtown Dixon recently caught the eye of Monica Hendricks. Photo sub-mitted by Hendricks of Dixon.

PLAY FOOTBALL: A helmet, left over from the season, waits for a new game to begin Feb. 9 along East 10th Street in Rock Falls. Photo submitted by Williams.

GRIN AND BEAR IT: A green monster rises from the snow Feb. 9, along East Second Street in Rock Falls. Photo submitted by Williams.

HAVE CHICKEN: A snow chicken was seen roosting Feb. 9 along East Second Street in Rock Falls. Photo submitted by Williams.

GET A MOHAWK: A snowman has a big grin Feb. 9 in the 700 block of Eighth Avenue in Rock Falls.

Photo submitted by Williams

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Scrapbookwww.saukvalley.com SV Weekend • C3

VALENTINE ROYALTY

A Valentine’s king and queen were crowned at Resthave Retirement and Nursing Home in Morrison. They are Joe Klimson and Rena Heusinkveld. Photo submitted by Karla Burn.

DIXON – Additional reading material is on its way to the shelves at Dixon Public Library, 221 S. Hennepin Ave.

They are as follows:Fiction: “Private Vegas,”

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro; “My Father’s Wives,” by Mike Greenberg; “Hush,” by Karen Robards; “First Frost,” by Sarah Allen; “The Girl on the Train,” by Paula Hawkins; “Van-essa and Her Sister,” by Priya Parmar; “The Laws of Murder,” by Charles Finch; “The Marriage Charm,” by Linda L. Miller; “Outline,” by Rachel Cusk; “See How Small,” by Scott Black-wood; “The Same Sky,” by Amanda Ward: “Lost & Found,” by Brooke Davis; “Etta and Otto and Russell and James,” by Emma Hooper; “Eyes Wide Open,” “Hacker,” and “Water Walker,” by Ted Dekker: “The Night-ingale,” by Kristin Han-nah; “Crash and Burn,” by Lisa Gardner; “There’s Something I Want You to Do,” by Charles Baxter; “The Big Seven,” by Jim Harrison; “The Chess-men,” by Peter May; “The Sacrifice,” by Joyce C. Oates; “The Hunger

of the Wolf,” by Stephen Marche; “The Mime Order,” by Samantha Shannon; “Doing the Devil’s Work,” by Bill Loehfelm; “Crazy Love You,” by Lisa Unger; “The First Wife,” by Erica Spindler; “The Con-vert’s Song,” by Sebas-tian Rotella; “Motive,” by Jonathan Kellerman; “Twelve Days,” by Alex Berenson; “The Secrets of Midwives,” by Sally Hepworth; “A Spool of Blue Thread,” by Anne Tyler; “A Pleasure and a Calling,” by Phil Hogan; “Funny Girl,” by Nick Hornby; “The Revenant,” by Michael Punke; and “Before I Go,” by Colleen Oakley.

Mysteries: “All the President’s Menus,” by Julie Hyzy; “Breaking Creed,” by Alex Kava; “As Chimney Sweep-ers Come to Dust,” by Alan Bradley; “Puzzled Indemnity,” by Parnell Hall; “Darned If You Do,” by Monica Ferris; “Death of a Liar,” by M.C. Bea-ton; and “Obsession in Death,” by J.D. Robb.

C h r i s t i a n F i c t i o n (large print): “Gather-ing Shadows,” by Nancy Mehl, and “The Winter Brides,” by Denise Hunt-

er, Deborah Raney, and Betsy St. Amant.

Westerns: “Out of the Wilderness,” by Max Brand, and “Wanted: Sam Bass,” by Paul Colt.

Large Print: “Un-manned,” by Dan Fes-perman; “Empire of Sin,” by Gary Krist; “Madame Picasso,” by Anne Girard; “Never-home,” by Laird Hunt; “Private Vegas,” by James Patterson; “The Last American Vam-pire,” by Seth Gra-hame-Smith; “A Map of Betrayal,” by Ha Jin; “Die Again,” by Tess Gerritsen; “The Bone Orchard,” by Paul Doiron; “A Place Called Har-mony,” by Jodi Thomas; “Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin’ Cornbread,” by Mary Jane Hathaway; “Rose Gold,” by Walter Mosley; “Mal-ice,” by Keigo Higashino; “Your Face in Mine,” by Jess Row; and “Bloody Politics,” by Maggie Sef-ton,

T h e b o o k g r o u p selection for March is “Orphan Train,” by Christina Baker Kline.

V i s i t d i x o n p u b l i c library.org or stop at the library for the list of new nonfiction titles.

New books on shelves

SPRINGFIELD – Sec-retary of State and State Librarian Jesse White has awarded $15.2 mil-lion statewide in Public Library Per Capita and Equalization Aid Grants to 635 public libraries.

Area libraries receiv-ing per capita grants are Pankhurst Memorial Library in Amboy, $3,125; Mills and Petrie Memo-rial Library and Gymna-sium in Ashton, $1,215; Byron Public Library District, $9,986.25; Chad-wick Public Library Dis-trict, $1,361.25; Creston-Dement Public Library District, $992.50; Dixon Public Library, $19,666.25; Erie Public Library Dis-trict, $4,180; Forreston Public Library, $1,807.50; Franklin Grove Public Library District, $1,276.25; Schmaling Memorial Public Library District

in Fulton, $4.351.25; La Moille-Clarion Pub-lic Library District in La Moille, $2,290; Lanark Public Library, $1,821.25; Bertolet Memorial Library District in Leaf River, $2,676.25; Milledgeville Public Library, $1,707.50; Odell Public Library in Morrison, $5,325; Mount Carroll Township Public Library, $2,848.75; Mount Morris Public Library, $3,747.50; Ohio Public Library District, $1,181.25; Oregon Public Library Dis-trict, $7,716.25; Paw Paw Public Library District, $1,087.50; Polo Public Library District, $3,516.25; Henry C. Adams Memo-rial Library in Proph-etstown, $2,600; Flagg-Rochelle Public Library District in Rochelle, $17,196.25; Rock Falls Public Library District, $14,213.75; Savanna Pub-

lic Library District, $5,155; Sterling Public Library, $19.212.50; Julia Hull Dis-trict Library in Stillman Valley, $10,346.25; York Township Public Library in Thomson, $2,167.50; and Walnut Public Library District, $2,190.

Per Capita Grant fund-ing is authorized under state library law and helps provide for expenses such as: paying for materials, personnel, equipment, electronic access, tele-communications, and technology. Equalization Aid Grants help public libraries, which have a low library tax base, ensure a minimum level of funding for library services.

Visit cyberdriveilli nois.c o m / d e p a r t m e n t s /l i b r a r y / g r a n t s / p l p c _equalization.html for more information on the grant programs.

Money for local libraries

S T E R L I N G – T h e Woodlawn Arts Acad-emy’s Student-Teacher Art Exhibit will include a poetry and songwriting contest.

Students in fifth grade or higher and teach-ers may submit origi-nal poetry or songs that involve the theme of “bridge.” Poetry should not exceed 1,000 words, and should be typed, double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman. Songs should be less than 5 minutes long.

Entries are due on or before Friday. Works, with an entry form, can be emailed to czepezau er@woodlawnartsacad emy.com or dropped off at the academy, 3807 Woodlawn Road.

Three judges will deter-mine the winners, who will be invited to read or perform during a recep-tion from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. March 13 in the J. Mark Beaty Performance Center at the academy.

Also starting March 13, an exhibit of the student and teacher artwork will open. The public can vote on their favor-ite pieces in three cat-

egories – kindergarten to fourth grade, fifth to eighth grade, and ninth to 12th grade.

The winners of both contests will be featured in the Summer Arts Program Guide. Some winning pieces will be

displayed on the First Avenue Bridge between Sterling and Rock Falls, through a partnership with the Bridge the Com-munity.

For more information, call the academy at 815-626-4278.

“Snowl” won the fifth- to eighth-grade category in the 2014 Student-Teacher Art Exhibit at Woodlawn Arts Academy in Sterling. The piece was created by Abigail G. at Centennial Elementary School in Polo. This year’s exhibit starts March 13 at the academy. Photos submitted by Janel Stahr.

Contestants sought by academy

“Quack Attack” won the kindergarten to fourth-grade category in last year’s Student-Teacher Art Exhibit at Woodlawn Arts Academy in Sterling. It’s the work of CreLogan C. from Centennial Elemen-tary School.

DIXON – The Phid-ian Art Club of Dixon has announced the judges for its literary competition.

Chris Minor, a journalist for WQAD T V f r o m Moline, will judge the n o n f i c t i o n c a t e g o r y . S h e h a s covered the Quad Cit-ies for more than 20 years, and was named Best Reporter by the Illinois Associated Press 2 years in a row.

Former Dixon resident A.K. Thompson is the fic-tion judge. A writer and teacher in southern Illi-nois, she is the author of “Relentless, Envi-ous Death: The Biogra-phies of Katherine Shaw Bethea and Solomon Hicks Bethea,” pub-lished by KSB Hospital in Dixon. Thompson also writes an outdoor col-umn, “Dirt Church” for Adventure Sports maga-zine.

Chosen to judge poetry this year is Del Cain, a poet, prose writer, edi-

tor, and workshop leader from Saginaw, Texas. He is an author of nonfiction volumes on the “good guys” and the “bad guys” of the old West, as well as poems and stories in various journals.

The contest is open to those 17 and older living within a 35-mile radius of Dixon. Guidelines on the contest are available at local libraries, or by calling Elizabeth at 815-994-1940. Entries must be submitted by March 1 to Dixon Public Library, 221 S. Hennepin Ave.

ChrisMinor

Judges selected for contest

OUT AND ABOUT

Blizzard conditions Feb. 1 didn’t keep this woodpecker away from food along Rockside Drive in Dixon. Photo submitted by David Bingaman of Dixon.


BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTSElenore Leigh

GoldsberryAshley Dewaele and

Raymond Goldsberry of Walnut are the parents of a daughter born at 8:14 p.m. Feb. 8, 2015, at CGH Medical Center in Ster-ling.

Elenore Leigh Golds-berry weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces at birth and was 22 inches in length.

She is welcomed by Zemiah Hubbard, 6, Alexus Goldsberry, 6, and Elizabeth Goldsber-ry, 2.

Maternal grandparents are Meri Kreuger and Doug Dewaele, both of Walnut.

Paternal grandmother is Shirley Mazzei of Wal-nut.

Skylynn Christine Lance

Alissa and Jeffrey Lance of Dixon are the parents of a daughter born at 3:01 p.m. Feb. 7, 2015, at CGH Medical Center in Sterling.

Skylynn Christine Lance weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces at birth and was 21 inches in length.

She is welcomed by Cali-ann, 5.

Maternal grandparents are Timothy Hall Sr. of Dixon and the late Tracie Nelson.

Paternal grandmothers are Laurie and Dorothy Lance of Groton, Con-necticut.

Maternal great-grand-mother is Lynn Nelson of Sun City, Arizona.

Paternal great-grand-parents are Miriam and Kenny Blackburn of Dixon.

Aveyah Brielle Harris

Rebecca Hawkins-Har-ris and Jermaine Harris of Sterling are the par-ents of a daughter born at 8:04 a.m. Feb. 6, 2015, at CGH Medical Center in Sterling.

Aveyah Brielle Harris weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth and was 21 inches in length.

She is welcomed by Abrianna, 16, and Ada lynn, 11.

Maternal grandparents are Sue Hawkins and Bob Hawkins, both of Deer Grove.

Paternal grandparents are Gordon Harris and Martha Harris, both of Sterling.

Maternal great-grand-mother is Mary Ellen Clary of Sterling.

Paternal great-grand-mother is Claudette Har-ris of Lexington, Ken-tucky.

Mallori Sharon Smith

Mandi Yocum and Jor-don Smith of Amboy are the parents of a daughter born at 8:28 a.m. Feb. 6, 2015, at KSB Hospital in Dixon.

Mallori Sharon Smith weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce at birth and was 20 inches in length.

Maternal grandpar-ents are Jr. and Jennifer Yocum of Amboy.

Paternal grandparents are Lincoln and Amy Smith of Franklin Grove.

Maternal great-grand-parents are Melvin and Sharon McNinch and Denny and Karen Yocum, all of Frank-lin Grove; and Dan and Linda Moyers of Dixon.

Paternal great-grand-parents are Jan and Dil-lard Hudson of Eldena and Sharon Smith of Franklin Grove.

Information soughtThe birth announce-

ment for Lauren Eliza-beth Beauchamp cannot be printed without addi-tional information. The editorial department has been unable to reach the submitter. If those who submitted it could call 800-798-4085, ext. 5501, it would be appreciated.

TodayAlcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m.,

closed, Big Book, United Methodist Church, 201 E. Chicago Ave., Davis Junction.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m., open, tradition; 12:30 p.m., closed; 7 p.m., closed (5), Bazaar Ameri-cana, 609 W. Third St., Sterling.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m., open, women’s; noon, open; 6 p.m., open, 90-92 S. Hennepin Ave., Dixon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 9:30 a.m., former St. Anne Grade School, 32 N. Jones Ave., Amboy, 815-857-2315.

Women’s Alcoholics Anony-mous, 10:30 a.m., closed; 7 p.m., closed, 808 Freeport Road, Sterling.

Mercy Nursing Services free blood pressure clinic, 11 a.m.-noon, Walmart, 1901 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Reality Check Narcotics Anony-mous, noon, 6 p.m., First Christian Church, 506 Fifth Ave., Rock Falls, 779-245-3487. Downstairs, west door.

Sauk Valley Alcoholics Anony-mous Group, noon, open, Old School; 8 p.m., open, fun night, bring a friend, back door, 1503 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Mercy Nursing Services free blood pressure clinic, 1-2:30 p.m., Save-A-Lot, 928 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., open, First Presbyterian Church, 1100 Calvin Road, Rochelle.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., closed, Village of Progress, 710 S. 13th St., Oregon.

SundayAlcoholics Anonymous, 7 a.m.,

closed; 7 p.m., open, Rochelle Community Hospital, 900 N. Sec-ond St.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 a.m., closed; 11 a.m., open; 1 p.m., closed, Spanish; 7 p.m., closed, Bazaar Americana, 609 W. Third St., Sterling.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m., closed; noon, open; 6 p.m., closed, step, 90-92 S. Hennepin Ave., Dixon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 10 a.m., open, Horizon View Farm barn, 2422 N. River Road, Oregon.

Sauk Valley Alcoholics Anony-mous Group, 10 a.m., open, Big Book, back door, 1503 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 6 p.m.,

closed, Church of St. Anne, 401 N. Cherry St., Morrison.

Reality Check Narcotics Anonymous, 6 p.m., First Chris-tian Church, 506 Fifth Ave., Rock Falls, 779-245-3487. Downstairs, west door.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., closed, Spanish, St. Patrick Catholic Church, 236 Kelly Drive, Rochelle.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., closed, 808 Freeport Road, Sterling.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., closed, clearance required, BAAbble on for Life Prison Group, 815-973-6150.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m., closed, 304 Seventh Ave. W, Lyndon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, , 8 p.m., closed (4), Mount Morris Senior Center, 9 E. Front St.

MondayChildhood immunization clinic;

women, infants and children clinic; and family planning ser-vices, all by appointment only, Lee County Health Department, 309 S. Galena Ave., Suite 100, Dixon, 815-284-3371.

Abuse Changing team, 815-625-0338.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 a.m., open, Methodist church, 402 First Ave., Forreston.

Veterans Affairs representative, 9 a.m., Rock River Center, 810 S. 10th St., Oregon, 815-732-3252.

Dixon Rotary Club, noon, lower level, St. Luke Episcopal Church, 221 W. Third St., Dixon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, noon, closed, step; 6 p.m., open, 90-92 S. Hennepin Ave., Dixon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, noon, closed, Big Book; 6 p.m., closed, Spanish; 7 p.m., open, Bazaar Americana, 609 W. Third St., Ster-ling.

Alcoholics Anonymous, noon, closed (1), St. Paul Lutheran Church, 114 S. Fifth St., Oregon.

Reality Check Narcotics Anony-mous, noon, 6 p.m., First Christian Church, 506 Fifth Ave., Rock Falls, 779-245-3487. Downstairs, west door.

Sauk Valley Alcoholics Anony-mous Group, noon, open, Sun-shine meeting, back door, 1503 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Crochet-Knitting Club, 12:30 p.m., Whiteside County Senior Cen-ter, 1207 W. Ninth St., Sterling.

The Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary, 1 p.m., 409 Avenue F,

Sterling, 815-625-1622.Senior Dental Health Program, 1

p.m., Good Neighbor Care of Ster-ling, 2705 Avenue E, 815-564-2145.

TOPS, 4 p.m. weigh-in, 4:30 p.m. meeting; 5:30 p.m. weigh-in, 6 p.m. meeting, Hub City Senior Center, 401 Cherry Ave., Rochelle.

TOPS Chapter IL 634 meeting, 4:30 p.m., 205 S. Walnut St., Frank-lin Grove.

TOPS, 5 p.m. weigh-in, 5:30 p.m. meeting, Polo Church of the Breth-ren, 401 S. Congress Ave., Polo, 815-946-3638.

Celebrate Recovery, 6-8 p.m., 201 W. Market St., Morrison, 815-590-8929.

Celebrate Recovery, Christ-centered Recovery Group, 6-8 p.m., Revive Community Church, 8 E. Front St., Mount Morris, 815-994-0428.

Rock Falls Rotary, 6 p.m., Beelendorf’s Deli, 204 W. 10th St., Rock Falls.

Rock Falls Boy Scout Troop 306, 6:30-8 p.m., Harvest Time Bible Church fellowship hall, 1802 Dixon Ave., Rock Falls.

Rock Falls Optimist Club, 6:30 p.m., Candlelight Inn, 2200 First Ave., Rock Falls.

Byron Fire Protection District

Trustees, 7 p.m., district headquar-ters, 123 N. Franklin St.

Mount Carroll Monday Night Al-Anon-Alateen, 7 p.m., Church of God, 816 Clay St., Mount Carroll. 815-284-3444.

Lee, Whiteside Chapter of the American Diabetes Association, 7 p.m., Ryberg Auditorium, CGH Medical Center, 100 E. LeFevre Road, Sterling.

Sauk Valley Interfaith Peace Action Group, 7 p.m., Wesley Unit-ed Methodist Church, 2200 16th Ave., Sterling, 815-625-4657.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., closed, 808 Freeport Road, Sterling.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7 p.m., closed, step study, New Hope Fel-lowship Church, 113 state Route 64, Kings.

Tampico Lions Club, 7 p.m., Good Times, 106 N. Main St., Tam-pico, 815-438-2789.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m., closed, St. Luke Episcopal Church, 207 W. Third St., Dixon.

Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., closed (3), First Presbyterian Church, 502 Third St., Savanna.

Sauk Valley Al-Anon Group-Alateen, 8 p.m., open, back door, 1503 First Ave., Rock Falls.

SUPPORT GROUPS, CLUBS, AND SERVICES

COLLEGE BRIEFSAugustana

CollegeROCK ISLAND –

Nathaniel Hall of Ore-gon, Emilie Antolik of Rochelle, and Ashley Wolfe of Dixon participat-ed in the Feb. 7 annual winter concert at Augus-tana College.

Rockford University

ROCKFORD – Jamie Logan of Dixon, Amanda Davy of Rock Falls, Nathan McKee of Paw Paw, Peyton Achs of Erie, Andrea Naylor of Franklin Grove, and Brian Nordman and Matthew Murray, both of Oregon, were named to the fall dean’s list at Rockford University.

Marquette University

MILWAUKEE – Douglas Floski of Byron gradu-ated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mar-keting from Marquette University.

Goshen CollegeGOSHEN, Ind. – Mor-

gan Yordy, a freshman peace, justice and con-flict studies and history double major of Rochelle, was a cast member in “Reality TV Island” and “Miniature Migrants,” two of the “Winter One Acts” presented Feb. 13-15 at the Goshen College Umble Center.

Three plays were writ-ten and directed by stu-dents, which explored ideas and issues in the U.S. through humor and seriousness.

Greenville College

GREENVILLE – Nich-ole Philhower of Ohio graduated Aug. 14 from Greenville College, with a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education.

UW-Platteville PLATTEVILLE, Wis. –

Students named to the fall dean’s list at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville include:

Byron: Laura Hedges, Rachel Hopkins, Kayla Kohlmeier, Rebecca Lowe, Marissa Morales, and Casey Olson.

Forreston: Caleb Snider.Lanark: Calvin Cassens,

Abbey Grisham, and Collin Macomber.

Manlius: Nicole Swan-son.

Milledgeville: Kaitlin Hutchison.

Morrison: Brock Deter and Cassandra Heusinkveld.

Mount Carroll: Garrett Badtke and Patrick Fritz.

Oregon: Lynea Axelson.Rochelle: Tyler Mollet.Rock Falls: Thomas Far-

rell and Ashlen Folkers.Savanna: Tayte Hunter.Sterling: Allison Byrd,

Lynsey Prescott, Jonathan Schweiss, Carly Willman, and Aubrey Ybarra.

Walnut: Nichole Kriz.

Midwestern State University

WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Michael A. Woodyatt of Byron graduated summa cum laude in December from Midwestern State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in radio-logic sciences.

Olivet Nazarene University

BOURBONNAIS – Reilly Roberts of Dixon, a sopho-more at Olivet Nazarene University, will portray Percy Talbott in the university’s production of “The Spitfire Grill.”

Show times are 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at Kresge Auditorium in Larsen Fine Arts Center, One University Ave.

Philadelphia University

PHILADELPHIA – Emily Barton of Sterling, a junior and member of the Phila-delphia University cross-country team, has been named The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Academic All-Area Women’s Cross-Country Performer of the Year and was chosen for the Academic All-Area Women’s Cross Country Team.

The three-time all Central Atlantic Collegiate Confer-ence performer was named CACC Runner of the Year in 2014, with a career best time of 19:54.5 on Nov. 2.

She also earned the U.S. Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Asso-ciation National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II All-Academic honors for the fall 2014 cross country season.

Educators of Beauty

STERLING – Kimberly Monarrez of Sterling has graduated from the Edu-cators of Beauty Cos-metology Program.

Polo Community High School

High HonorsFreshmen: Lena Bau-

mann, Hanna Blumhoff, Jordan Drolema, Randal Gabaldon, AshLee Griffin, Linsey Hecathorn, Aaiyah Johnson, Macklin Llanas, Lance Pearson, Leila Steb-bins, Priscilla Tennison, and Hailey Wiggins.

Sophomores: Brenner Bushman, Fabian Calderon, Brodie Cromer, Justine Gorzny, Jenna Handel, Wil-liam Hoak, Hannah Hobbs, Olivia Hopkins, Raynah Marks, Raven Nance, Chris-topher Rademacher, Lauren Rhodes, Stephanie Sofolo, Mason Wright, and Zandrea Yingling.

Juniors: Samantha Bush-man, Ethan Cain, Brix Clay-ton, Wyatt Patterson, Ken-neth Pearson, and Braxton Stamm.

Seniors: Crystal Bell, Emily Ditzler, Karl-Heinz Drucklieb, Drake Gaul, Hannah Grobe, Jacob Hanlon, Hailey Man-zano, Madison Merdian, KeeLey Meyer, Kennedi Palmer, Savanah Phillip, Lana Scholl, Kami Shenefelt, Parker Taylor, and Truley Wingert.

HonorsFreshmen: Kyle Blum,

Megan Call, Isabel Emmert, Luke Peterson, Alex Scher-er, Reid Taylor, and Baylee Wiemken.

Sophomores: Tristen Aguilar, Marcus Almasy, Lani Bergstrom, Matthew Binkley, Miles Bushman, Timothy Cholke, Jessica Conway, Caleb Day, Jona-than Heath, Zachary Hen-son, Jakob Sarber, Jakob Simpson, and Brianna Snyder.

Juniors: Thomas Bardell, Dylan Beers, Bradley Cava-naugh, Haley Cisketti, Jesse Ditzler, Juan Dominguez, Emalie Gunder, Kimberlee Lowry, Brinley Peterson, Kaleigh Powell, and Noah Prerost.

Seniors: Andrew Albrecht, Josh Boward, Idalis Calde-ron, Taylor Chaney, Kevin Cheeseman, Andrew Dewey, Daniel Diehl, Jozi Grobe, Matthew Handel, Ben McKean, Shelton Morris, Jake Phillips, Karl Prerost, Mason Rhodes, Nathan Rinaldo, Max Sim-mons, Alex Sterenberg, Alexandria Stover, Austin Webb, and Blake Wiemken.

Reagan Middle School, DixonHighest Honors

Sixth grade: Carolina Araujo, Bleon Azemi, Riley Bally, William Bates, Marlie Beauchem, Max Beck-man, Kaelynn Bock, Anna Breedlove, Olivia Brooks, Joshua Brown, Samantha Buelvas, Jaylen Carr, Wil-low Carstensen, Fernando Castro, Connor Colby, Aubriana Comer, Skyler Connolly, Kassie Consi-dine, Ashley Crawford, Mia DeLashmit, Eli Dever, Brock Drengenberg, Emily Drew, Logan Etheridge, Emma Evans, Lauren Fagan, Ethan Fox, Joy Garnhart, Emma Godbold, Abigail Goff, Elsie Gordon, Cadyn Graf-ton, Angelina Gray, Taylor Guelde, Abigail Guthrie, Taylor Harrison, Isabella Heintzelman, Sydney Heller, Noelle Herwig, Taylor Hills,

Chloe Hofilena, Alexus Jensen, Grace Johnson, Jeremiah Joos, Malori Kelly, Caylyn Kimmel, Addyson Kinn, Thomas Koski, Hailey Kratzner, Isaiah Kuehl, Hold-en Longan, Tianna Lonkert, Jade Miller, William Miller, Erica Pasley, Grant Piller, Ryan Pitzer, Haley Rees, Kaeden Rice, Olivia Rick, Anakin Rodriguez, Griffey Rodriguez, Emma Russell, Cade Schier, Kiaya Shaffer, Zara Shuey, Skyler Smith, Ashlyn Spangler, Madison Stamm, Quinn Staples, Eliz-abeth Stauter, Paige Stees, Aidan Steingraber, Jaelinn Stinson, Molly Stitzel, Der-rick Thomas, Miguel Torres, Madelyn Verdick, William Weidman, Madison Wetter, Evan Zera, and Allison Zim-merman.

Seventh grade: Chey-anne Anderson, Madilyn Barnhart, Molly Biggs, Melody Breckenfelder, Toni Brumbly, Emma Carlson, Madelyn Chesley, Cameron Crone, Brooklynn Damb-man, Sophie Doane, Sarina Dodge, Nicquelette Faze-kas, Kara Flynn, Kara Gaith-er, Logan Griswold, Mad-eline Gusse, Dylan Harsh-man, Eaden Hvarre, Aidan Johnson, Emma Johnson, Olivia Jones, Rachel Kar-pinski, Riley Kavanaugh, Gabrielle Kitzman, Noah Kuehl, Matthew Lohse, Kortny Marsh, Erica Miller, Sarah Miller, Austin Portner, Taylor Renkes, Madisyn Rubright, Rachael Rumph, Kaylie Schaeffer, Braden Schielein, Aidan Schmall, Christian Seagren, Thomas Sitter, Madison Stegbauer, Nicole Stocksdale, Bethany Tschosik, Jayden Valdez, Grace Wadsworth, Devan Welch, Trevor White, Jacob Wickert, and Tyler Yocum.

Eighth grade: Imanol Aburto, Alyssa Batten, Alli-son Bay, Joseph Becking-ham, David Binkley, Mad-eline Blackbourn, Madalin Blumhoff, Alyssa Bonnette, Alicia Brown, Dylan Brum-bly, Calista Crone, Jozi Dever, Katie Drezen, Daniel Ferguson, Jettus Gaffey, Collin Grady, Brooke Himes, Caroline Hoffman, Chloe Hogenson, Kelsey Horton, Payton Lawrence, Isabelle Lindenmeyer, Andrew Lohse, Aidan Long, Jen-nifer Lucas, Taylor Masters, Taryn Munroe, Kaelyn Mun-son, Kiarrah Muntean, Hallie Nelson, Nathalia Parra, Ste-ven Piller, Nolan Randick, Owen Rick, Jonathan Rive-ra, Hailey Rupiper Gonzalez, Clinton Schielein, Addison Schmall, Madison Segge-bruch, Gabriel Sohn, Taylor Troutman, Jesena Valdez, and Tyler VanQuathem.

High HonorsSixth grade: Nina Baratta,

Graesen Blumhoff, Jack Boss, Lauren Dallas, Joseph Dukes, Zachary Fay, Sydney Felgenhauer, Boston Gless-ner, Wyatt Hankemeier, Mariah Hoffman, Cassidy Hussung, Benjamin Huyck, Dakota Johnson, Paige Knipple, Christopher Krug, Ethan Kullerstrand, Jackson Lengquist, Dominic Lozano, Jeffery Meredith, Kaitlynn Pfeiffer, Austin Pleskovitch, Jayce Portner, Sydney Powell, Abigail Provo, Cameron Rogers, Kennedi Rogers, Madison Schaeffer, Maddie Scheffler, Connley Shank, Jocelyn Shoffner, Tristen Smith, Kalob Steck,

Faith Steder, Cade Stephe-nitch, Devrin Thomas, Mya Thomason, Michael Ullrich, Gianna Verive, Charles War-ner, Paxton Witmer, and Ashley Zentz.

Seventh grade: Aaliyah Baker, Hakeem Banks, Talia Becker, Brigitte Boucher, Gabriel Burger, Bailey Burling, Kayla Cal-lison, Alyza Carter, Payton Fitzsimmons, Starla Flynn, Christian Harshman, Carson Heather, Isaac Hernan-dez, Kyle Hofilena, Arne Koski, Brayden Lafferty, Nathan Long, Elizabeth McCullough, Mary Melvin, Isaiah Moss, Mikaila Oros, Shannon Osenberg, Chey-enne Predny, Gabriel Reed, Edward Roberts, Zachary Scheffler, Tara Schielein, Jasmine Schultheis, Jacob Shafer, Chloe Shaw, Payton Simmons, Alexis Sneek, Faith Snyder, Taylor Spell-man, Bailey Underhile, and Alyssa Wolf.

Eighth grade: Ava Berkey, Trevor Bishop, Alex Boswell, Talbir Chima, Tianna Cor-nell, Kyle Crawford, Olivia Dennison, Derian Duncan, Karli Ewaniuk, Brayden Forrest, Avery Fox, Madi-son Gaulke, Leigha Grove, Joseph Heckert, Quinten Hoyle, Ryan Lawton, Brooke Lehman, Ethan LeSage, Andrew Leslie, Brooke McCann, Dylan Messer, Montana Mull, Sean Phelan, Madeline Roach, Chloe Roberts, Juli-ana Rotella, Isaic Sanchez, Victoria Schultheis, Logan Scott, Skylar Scott, Charles Stiens, India Thompson, Evelyn Villareal, Isaiah Wil-cox, Ervion Williams, and Hunter Wilson.

HonorsSixth grade: Cambria Bell,

Kali Boswell, Mazzi Chaffee, Eric Delhotal, Hannah Dick-son, Kameron Elder, Emilie Helfrich, Emma Hernandez, Jahshawn Howard, Jac-lyn Iniguez, Alivya Knopp, Draven Koehler, Kennedy Lance, Daniel Long, Myla Miranda, Shane Nelson, Andrew Pollom, David Roll-inger, and Samuel Walker.

Seventh grade: Trevor Ashlin, Zackary Bass, Kelcy Brechon, Jecina Ellison, Jessie Frey, Zachary Gas-ton, Noah Gearhart, Raven Gouldsberry, Cody Gray, Kaitlyn Hansen, Cole Jones, Alexander Mazzarisi, Gabriel McGuire, Clayton McThenia, Kaitlin O’Donnell, Jordyn Olalde, Diellza Osmani, Lucas Page, Savannah Per-kins, Jenna Pitman, Mateo Rodriguez, Logan Smith, Andrea Thomas, Noah Wil-liams, and Zakiya Wiltz.

Eighth grade: Colten Bishop, Ashley Blythe, Samantha Boehm, Finn Brandon, Kade Callison, Paichens Chamberlain, Bryce Christiansen, Tyler Christiansen, Brianna Edwards, Corey Gillette, Chelsea Glenn, Kira Goral, Madilyn Gutierrez, Devon Hansen, London Hart-man, Faith Jendrzejczyk, Grace Jendrzejczyk, Terey Kilgore, Zoe Love, Emily Lynch, Anna Mason, Shakia McGlown, Colten Moore, Madelyne Parages, Tristan Putt, Joseph Riley, Dakota Shuck, Kyle Spencer, Ethan Weidman, and Seth Wise-man.

HONOR ROLLS

SV Weekend • C5www.saukvalley.comSaturday, February 21, 2015

Dear Abby: I am 17 and a senior in high school. During freshman year, one of my classmates was a boy I’ll call “Alex.” This year, I have been told that Alex has changed his name to “Aly,” a more feminine name. Aly now sometimes dresses like a girl and sometimes like a boy.

What gender should I refer to Aly as? Would it be rude to ask my class-mate which gender he, she identifies with?

– Gender Dilemma

Dear G.D.: Consider-ing that Aly could be in a process of transition, I not

only don’t think the ques-tion would be rude, I think it’s an intelligent one. If you ask your classmate politely and privately, I’m sure Aly will be glad to answer.

Dear Abby: I gave up a baby girl for adoption 29

years ago. I thought when she became an adult she would want to contact me, but I have heard nothing. I have known how to contact her for many years, but haven’t done it because I didn’t want to intrude in her life. I have left contact totally up to her if she chooses.

Like I said, so far I’ve heard nothing, and I’m just wondering why she wouldn’t want to contact me or know anything about me.

– Wondering Bio-Mom

Dear Bio-Mom: Are you certain your daugh-ter knows she was

adopted? While many adopted children want to know their birth par-ents, not all do because they don’t feel anything is “missing” in their lives. They also may think it would be disre-spectful to the parents who raised them. Please don’t take it personally.

Dear Abby: I’m stuck in the middle between my mom and my husband, “Gary,” regarding a one-sie my brother bought for our daughter. Gary is a die-hard Raiders fan. My mom and brother love the Chargers. Mom and my brother thought

it would be funny to gift my daughter with a Chargers onesie. Mom asked me to have my child wear it during the game.

When I asked Gary what he thought, he got upset and said, “Please don’t do that. I don’t want your mom buying Chargers clothes think-ing she can turn our daughter into a Chargers fan.”

Mom texted me for a photo of the baby wear-ing it. I said I was sorry, but her dad doesn’t want her to wear it, and she got mad and said, “Whatever.” I can’t

please everyone. What should I do?

– Good Sport Out West

Dear Good Sport: Whether your mother and your brother thought it would be funny to give your daughter a Chargers outfit is beside the point. Your husband doesn’t see the humor in it, so my advice is to let the child be logo-free until she’s old enough to decide for herself which one to sup-port.

Contact Dear Abby at DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Teen seeks right approach with classmate Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips. The column is pro-vided through Universal Uclick.

dearABBY

This year’s American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Whiteside County will be Feb. 28 at Froggy’s Bar and Grill in Rock Falls. With a flyer are (from left) Chaley Lamb with Froggy’s, and Betty Clementz, co-chairman for this year’s relay. Photo submitted by Russ Siefken.

ROCK FALLS – This year’s American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Whiteside County kickoff, Rockin’ to a Cure, will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at Froggy’s Bar and Grill, 213 W. Second St.

Two local bands will per-form. Chameleon will play soft rock and Dinner at the Kids Table’s music will have a faster beat. A mini Relay for Life store, 50-50

drawings, and give-aways also are planned.

Teams can register at the event for this year’s relay, which will be from 6 p.m. to midnight June 13 at Hinders Field in Rock Falls. Both the relay and a survivor dinner on June 2 require registration. Information will be avail-able.

The tickets are $5, and

includes appetizers. They can be purchased at the door; at United Way, 502 First Ave., Sterling; or Nutrition Plus, Northland Mall, 2522 E. Lincolnway, Sterling. They also will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the mall.

For more information, go to relayforlife.org/white sideil or call Russ Siefken at 815-441-1086.

Bands to perform at kickoff

STERLING – Spring classes and programs are planned at Ster-ling-Rock Falls Fam-ily YMCA, 2505 YMCA Way.

For those interested in summer camp at Camp Benson, a meet the staff day will be from 2 to 5 p.m. March 8.

Families can speak with Cory Harrison, camp director, and other staff and campers. Ways to reduce camp costs and a new fund-raiser will be discussed.

Visit ymcacamp ben son.org to register for camp or for more infor-mation.

C e r t i f i c a t i o n s f o r American Red Cross l i feguarding, Ameri-can Red Cross CPR for the professional res-cuer, and American Red Cross first aid will be available at various

times from March 8 to 29.

Students will be taught rescue skills, profession-al CPR, first aid, and how to handle life-threaten-ing emergencies.

Participants must be at least 15; be able to swim 300 yards continuously with free and breast-stroke; tread water for 2 minutes with arms and legs and 2 minutes with legs only; and complete a timed event in 1 minute, 40 seconds.

The cost is $180 for members and $270 for nonmembers, with par-tial reimbursement for YMCA employees. Reg-istration is required.

A 3-on-3 double elimi-nation basketball tourna-ment for youth is sched-uled for March 15. Teams can be coed, all boys, or all girls, with a maximum of four players.

Divisions are students in first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth and sixth grade. The cost is $50 per team. Each team will play at least two games. Registration ends March 7.

An Easter egg hunt in the YMCA pool will be March 27.

The times are 4:15 p.m. for 3- to 4-year-olds and 4:45 for 5- to 6-year-olds. Both age groups must be accompanied in the pool by an adult.

Those 7 to 8 will hunt at 6:15 and 9 to 10 at 6:45.

The cost is $5 per fam-ily for nonmembers and free to members. Regis-tration is appreciated.

To register or for more information, stop at the YMCA, visit srfymca.org or call 815-535-9622.

Y camp information update

The other day, I was driving down the road when my attention was drawn to a bird perched on top of a utility pole.

I recognized the large, white owl from past experiences. I found a side road where I could pull off, and I parked in a gate entrance to view the bird. Sure enough, I con-firmed that it was indeed a snowy owl.

The bird I was looking at was heavily barred, leading me to believe it was an immature owl. According to the “National Wildlife Fed-eration Field Guide to Birds of North America,” the snowy owl’s sum-mer range is some 2,000 miles north in the area of Nunavut, Canada – a frozen, treeless area. According to recent news reports, the U.S., and particularly the Northeast, is experi-encing something of a snowy owl invasion this winter.

The snowy owl is one of the most power-ful and heaviest of the North American owls. It is 20- to 27-inches tall with a wingspan ranging from 54 to 66 inches. It has a rounded

head, yellow eyes, and broad, rounded wings. It is a white owl with some dark barring.

Immature snowy owls are barred more heavily and will travel farther south in the fall and winter months. The adult females are barred more than the adult males and are larger. The owls’ diet is strongly dependent on lemmings.

They live in the tun-dra, so while they are visiting us, we rarely find a snowy owl sitting in a tree, as they are accustomed to perch-ing on the ground at a high vantage point overlooking vast, frozen tundra for prey. Their call is a deep, hoarse, “raven-like” croak, a shrill whistle, or a loud, hollow, barking growl.

They have a “hooting” call that is territorial call that can be heard as far as 2 miles away.

Other names for snowy owls are: arctic owl, ermine owl, great white owl, harfang, wapachthu, and white owl. They can fly at speeds of 50 miles per hour.

The exact reason for this year’s snowy owl “invasion” south into the U.S. is unknown. Some speculate it may be due to a drop in the lemming population, others believe it is due to increased breeding success.

I sat in my truck and watched the snowy owl, from a distance, for a long time. I thought of where it had come from and the distance it had traveled to get all the way to Illinois. I could only imagine what life was like so far above the Arctic Circle. I bid the bird a silent good-bye and drove off to leave the bird in peace.

Park district news: Check the park district web site, dixonpark district.org for spring sports information.

Northern visitor spotted Greg Hunter is the direc-tor of Natural Resources for the Dixon Park District.

gregHUNTER

DIXON PARK DISTRICT

IN BRIEFFriday meals planned at church

ERIE – An all-you-can-eat Lenten fish fry will be from 4 to 7 p.m. March 6, 13, 20, and 27 at St. Ambrose Parish Hall, 820 Fifth St.

The menu includes fresh, wild-caught, Alaskan pol-lack with Polish seasoning, coleslaw, a baked potato, roll, dessert, coffee, and lemonade.

Donations will be accept-ed.

A 50-50 raffle and door prizes are part of the event.

Mass media focus of presenter’s talk

MORRISON – A Whi-teside Forum’s series on mass media in modern society will continue with at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the program room at Odell Public Library, 307 S. Madison St.

The speaker will be Beth Hafner of Sterling, who teaches English and journalism at Clinton Community College in Iowa. Among the topics she will address are where most people get their information, how much facts matter, who owns the media, and who gets to tell the stories.

Social media’s ability to perpetuate bias and cen-sorship, as well as balance

bias and prevent censor-ship also will be examined, as will how advertising and net neutrality impact daily lives.

A discussion and ques-tion period will follow the program.

For more information, call Marc Adami at 815-772-4949.

Tickets available for turkey dinner

LA MOILLE – A turkey supper will be from 5 to 7 p.m. March 12 at Com-munity United Methodist Church, 71 N. Main St.

On the menu are turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, a salad bar, pie, and beverages.

Carry-outs will be avail-able; call the church at 815-638-2348 after 4 p.m. Pick up is at the southeast basement door.

Advance tickets until March 8 are $9 for adults and $5.50 for children 10 and younger. After that date, tickets are $9.50 for adults and $6 for children.

To purchase tickets, email the church at [email protected] or call the carry-out number.

Toulon Cemetery part of program

PRINCETON – The Bureau County Genealogy

Society, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the society library, 629 S. Main St.

Don Schmidt, superinten-dent of the Toulon Cem-etery, will talk about the cemetery and genealogical inquiries. His program will include stories about open-ing graves, a sliding vault, and Margaret Skinner’s postmortem revenge.

For more information, call the society at 815-879-3133 or visit from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday. Tues-day, Thursday, or Friday, or the first Saturday of each month at the library.

Heart health topic of center lecture

STERLING – A presenta-tion about the heart will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at Whiteside County Senior Center, 1207 W. Ninth St.

Tracy Aude, a cardio nurse practitioner with Dr. Thomas Kurian, will give the talk about the risk fac-tors of heart disease and cardio testing. Giveaways will be part of the program.

After the presentation, participants are welcome to stay for lunch. Chicken fried steak with country gravy, vegetable, dessert, and a beverage will be served for $5.

For more information, call 815-622-9230.

DIXON – Churches in the Dixon Area Christian Ministerial Association will have community services during the first five Sundays of Lent.

Each one will be at 6 p.m. They are:Q Sunday at Grace Unit-

ed Methodist Church, 921 E. Chamberlin St.Q March 1 at First Unit-

ed Methodist Church, 202 S. Peoria Ave.Q March 8 at First Bap-

tist Church of Dixon, 111 E. Second St.Q March 15 at the Wor-

ship Center, 403 N. Otta-wa Ave.Q March 22 at Immanu-

el Lutheran Church, 1013 Franklin Grove Road.

The theme is “Moun-taintop Experiences.” Each service will include a short drama that rep-resents a transforma-tional happening from the Bible, Mount Ararat, Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, the Mount of Olives, and Mount Calvary.

Bible readings, prayers, hymns, and other music are planned. Donations

to benefit Dixon Habi-tat for Humanity will be accepted, and light refreshments will be served.

The community Good Friday service will be at 7 p.m. April 3 at Bethel Evangelical Congrega-tional Church, 131 North Court St. Donations for Habitat for Humanity also will be collected at that time.

For more information, call the Rev. Marilyn Nolan, association presi-dent, at 815-288-1505.

Lenten services feature dramas


Grants benefit 4-H Foundation

The 4-H Foundation has received a $30,000 dona-tion from ADM Cares, a part of the Archer Daniels Midland Co.

The “I Think Green Pro-gram” was established to teach how living things interact with each other and with their environ-ment. More than 1,350 youth were involved in one or more of the three cur-riculums, worms, insects, and butterflies. With the donation, the program will add two new curriculums, nature detectives and car-nivorous plants.

The 4-H Citizen Scientist Program provides students in junior and senior high school opportunities to extend learning beyond current 4-H project work into the world of hands-on research. As citizen sci-entists, members observe and record information from a stream site close to their home community, collect data from samples taken, and add the infor-mation to the scientific-research related to water quality.

Trainings are conducted

in cooperation with Illinois RiverWatch. Once trained, each team of citizen scien-tists receives a complete tool kit to help monitor water quality of wadeable streams.

As an Illinois 4-H Project Partner, a portion of the donation also will be used to support 4-H teen leader-ship programs.

Fundraiser money helps 4-H programs

Tractor Supply Co. raised $763,283 during the 12-day, national fall, in-store Paper Clover Cam-paign for 4-H educational programs.

Participating stores included Dixon and Prince-ton. The money was raised by $1 customer donations at check out.

According to the press release, the effort has provided direct support for local camps, after-school programs and other activities, and has granted scholarships for animal sci-ence to robotics.

Of the proceeds collect-ed, 70 percent goes to support the county and state programs, which received $2,675, and

30 percent to national 4-H programs.

TSC has raised about $6.5 million for 4-H pro-grams nationwide through the campaign, coordinated through the state 4-H Foundation, in just more than 4 years.

Evening meal to kick off conference

ROCK ISLAND – The annual bi-state Women in Agriculture Conference will be at Jumer’s Casino and Hotel, 777 Jumer Drive.

The conference plan-ning committee will have a dinner and program March 19. Attendees and their spouses or guests are welcome. A cash-bar social hour begins at 6 p.m., with dinner at 6:30 p.m., followed by a pre-sentation by David Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech. The cost is $30 per person.

Registration and a light breakfast will begin at 8 a.m. March 20, with the conference from 8:30 to 4 p.m. Kohl will discuss personal family budgets, living expenses, record keeping, investing in the future, and advice on

forming advisory teams. Several breakout ses-

sions are planned. The cost is $50 and includes breakfast and a buffet lunch.

Registration is due Feb. 28. Registrations thereaf-ter will be $60, and $75 the day of the class. To register, contact the Rock Island County Farm Bureau office at womeninagricult ureconference.com or 309-736-7432.

Museum tour part of 4-H workshop

ROCKFORD – The Uni-versity of Illinois Exten-sion, in partnership with Burpee Museum of Natu-ral History, 737 N. Main St., will offer a program March 7 at the museum.

The 4-H Project Work-shop Day will feature three workshops of hands-on activities on fossils, dinosaurs, local ecosystems, nature, and rocks.

The activities are open to all 4-H members, ages 9 to 13. To register or for information, go to edu/jsw or call 815-986-4357 by March 4.

The cost is $20 for

youth and $6 for adults, and includes museum admission, participation in two workshops, and a self-guided museum tour. One adult per five children must be present during the tour.

For more information about the workshop, contact Elliott Lawrence at [email protected] or 815-235-4125.

Presentations highlight meeting

CHADWICK – Chadwick Achievers 4-H Club mem-bers met Feb. 4. Accord-ing to report by Regan Scidmore, club reporter, upcoming events include a public speaking competi-tion March 14 and live-stock- and dairy-judging contests March 21. Call the Carroll County Exten-sion office at 815-244-944 for more information.

Presentations were given on dairy, sewing, corn, soybean, brownies, cooking, and horses by Scidmore, Briana Wilkin-son, Nikki Ebersole, Eric Ebersole, Dylan Wilkin-son, Natalie Wilkinson, and Becca Alexander, respectively. The members

also received T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Hands-on training part of course

MORRISON – The Univer-sity of Illinois Extension will offer a Robotics Workshop from 10 a.m. to noon March 14 at the Whiteside County Extension office, 100 E. Knox St.

Basic hand-on activities will be given on robotic skills, construction, and 3-D print-ing.

The cost is $5 and includes supplies. Go to edu/clw or call 815-772-4075 to reg-ister.

Club members to serve breakfast

WALNUT – The annual pancake and sausage breakfast of the Walnut Winners 4-H Club will be from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Wal-nut Senior Citizens Cen-ter, 132 S. Main St.

The all-you-can-eat meal costs $5 for adults, $3 for children 6 to 12, and is free for those 5 and younger.

Carry-outs are available.

Polo producer earns recognition

The Illinois Pork Producers Association recently rec-ognized members. Brent Scholl (left) of Polo accepts the Distinguished Service Award from Todd Dail, IPPA president. Photo submitted.

U of I to offer web conference

OREGON – Soil fertility and the influence of crop production practices, envi-ronmental stewardship, and market prices will be the focus of a Soil Fertil-ity Seminar, in partnership with the University of Illinois Extension.

Web-conference presen-tations will be from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Ogle County Extension office. The cost is $50 and includes lunch.

To attend, go to the exten-sion website or call the extension office by Wednes-day.

Tips on leasing options available

The 2015 Farm Outlook & Ag Leasing Program will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 19 at the Ogle County Farm Bureau Building.

The workshop is for landowners and opera-tors. Information on cur-rent leasing practices, including crop-share, cash rent, and flex leases will be offered.

Gary Schnitkey, Univer-sity of Illinois Extension specialist, farm manage-ment, will cover the leas-ing outlook with relation to commodity prices and risk, lease length, input prices, and income pro-jections.

Time will be alloted for questions and answers.

The cost is $10. Advance registration is

available online or by call-ing the extension office.

Daylong activities planned in Oregon

OREGON – The annual University of Illinois Exten-sion, Ogle County 4-H Day of Dabbling will be Feb. 28 at the Oregon Church of God, 860 West Oregon Trail Road.

It is open to youth, ages 5 to 15, and will consist of 18 hands-on workshops. Registration is from 8:40 to 9 a.m.

Workshops on visual arts, cooking, natural resources, woodworking, aerospace, intercultural, scrapbooking, poultry, and science will be offered. The class will be taught by adult and youth volunteers.

Registration is due Tues-day. The cost is $9 for 4-H members and $15 for non-members, payable at the door. Some classes may require additional fees.

Class descriptions and registration forms are avail-

able online and at the exten-sion office.Farm site of syrup production tour

MOUNT MORRIS – An introduction to maple syrup production and market-ing will be from 2 to 5 p.m. March 5 at Mount Morris Public Library, 101 E. Front St., and Hough’s Maple Lane Farm, 3788 N. Mount Morris Road.

Topics include a brief history of maple sugar production, an overview of the basic tools and skills necessary for small-scale sap collection and process-ing, considerations for scale equipment, marketing, and regulations for a small com-mercial-syrup producer

After the classroom por-tion of the workshop, the group will go to the farm to see a functional sugar house, setup, and taste samples.

If weather conditions allow, there may be some syrup processing.

This class will be taught by Peggy Doty, extension energy and environmental stewardship educator; Andy Larson, extension foods

systems and small farms educator; and Rob and Lynette Hough, syrup pro-ducers. Register online or at the extension office.

Price discount for early reservations

MOUNT CARROLL – Registration for 4-H Camp ’15 is underway. The cost is $235 before March 4 and $250 thereafter.

The 4-day, 4-night camp, for youth ages 8 to 15 by June 28, is led by University of Illinois Extension staff in DeKalb, Winnebago, Boone, Ste-phenson, Ogle, and JoDa-viess counties and Camp Benson staff. Campers will check in from 6 to 6:30 p.m. June 28 and check out from 6 to 6:30 p.m. July 2.

Activities include swim-ming, hiking, nature study, rock climbing, arts and crafts, archery, canoeing, field games, crate stack-ing, teambuilding chal-lenges, camping skills, scavenger hunts, tubing, and kayaking along the Wakarusa River.

Evening activities will be provided by the teen 4-H camp counselors from the co-sponsoring counties. Campfires, a dance, and a night of friendly competi-tion are planned.

Registration and pay-ment are available online or by calling the extension office.

EXTENSION BRIEFS

Ogle County Extension For more information, or to register for classes,

contact the University of Illinois Extension Ogle County office, 421 W. Pines Road, Oregon, visit edu/bdo, email Lisa Valle, extension program coor-dinator, at [email protected] or call the extension office at 815-732-2191.

IN BRIEF

JOB INTERVIEW COMPETITION

Bureau Valley High School FFA members from Manlius attended the Jan. 19 Section 3 Job Interview Career Development Event. Kolton Church (left) and Garrett Jackson competed in a mock job interview. Contestants were asked questions and had to complete a resume, cover letter, and job application. Emma Deppen, club reporter, said Jackson placed sixth on the varsity level and Church placed fourth on the junior varsity level. Photo submitted by Willard Mott.

SNOWSHOEING

This year’s Junior Stewards of the Upper Mississippi Valley Program began Feb. 7. The reporter of the day was Shawn Wegmann, a student in third grade in Clinton, Iowa. The group watched nature videos and went snowshoeing. Meetings are at Ingersoll Wetlands Learning Center in Thomson. Photo submitted.

SPRINGFIELD – Brent Scholl of Polo was present-ed with the Distinguished Service Award at the recent Illinois Pork Producers Association Pork Expo.

Scholl, an active member of the association, volun-teers at the county, state, and national levels.

He also is a member of the Lee County Pork Produc-ers, and has held multiple offices, including president.

He served as the IPPA Dis-trict 2 director from 2004 to 2012, working on the Youth Committee, Production Tech Committee, Indus-trial Services Committee, Public Policy Committee, and the Marketing Com-mittee, which he chaired.

He also was a past IPPA president.

On the national level, he is involved with both National Pork Producers

Council and the National Pork Board. He has been a delegate to the National Pork Forum several times, and serves on NPB’s Swine Welfare Committee and Animal Health Committee. He also is on the Pork Qual-ity Assurance Task Force and the Common Audit Task Force.

Scholl participates in Operation Mainstreet, and has given more than 20 pre-sentations about modern pork production to local civic groups.

Scholl began farming in 1980. He and his brother, Bruce, are fifth genera-tion farmers on the fam-ily’s Centennial Farm. They raise row crops, and finish about 250 head of cattle and 6,000 pigs a year.

He is also co-owner and vice president of First Class Insurance Agency.


See Today’s Classi!ed Section for Crossword Answers

Your strength and courage willbe tested this year. Good and badfortune will prove your resilienceas well as your generosity. Your!nancial picture will improve andyou will make gains through in-heritance, repaid loans or winnings.A positive attitude will protect youfrom negativity.

PISCES (Feb. 20-March20) -- Don’t get upset with friendsor relatives. Focus on being the bestyou can be, and leave others alone.Trying to mold someone to yourideals is unrealistic. Practice kind-ness.

ARIES (March 21-April19) -- Don’t take personal disap-pointments out on those around you.If you do your best to turn a lemoninto lemonade, you will attract posi-tive people and get good results.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Put your mind at ease bystaying on top of your chores. Or-ganize your personal papers and putthings back in place to avoid clutterand potential loss.

GEMINI (May 21-June20) -- You need to relax. Don’t com-promise your health by taking on

responsibilities that don’t belong toyou. Put your feet up and enjoy agood book or your favorite music.

CANCER (June 21-July22) -- Don’t get drawn into a disputewith someone who is looking fora !ght. Emotional confrontationsrarely resolve anything. If you can’tapproach the issue reasonably, backoff until you can negotiate peace-fully.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)-- You will dazzle people you en-counter with your gregarious andfun-loving nature. If you make themost of whatever you participate in,you will !nd yourself in a leadershipposition.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept.22) -- Holding a grudge is negativeand unproductive. It will cloud yourjudgment and stand between youand success. If someone lets youdown, learn from the experience soit won’t happen again.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct.23) -- Romance is on the rise. If youhaven’t yet found a special some-one, get out and mingle, or makeplans for two if you are part of acouple.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) -- Don’t settle for less thanwhat you deserve. There is alwaysroom for improvement, and ad-vancement will be yours if you keepup with trends. Update your resume.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov.23-Dec. 21) -- Gambling or a riskyinvestment will cause unwanted!nancial or legal repercussions.Spend your cash wisely and don’tbelieve anyone offering an unrealis-tic fast-cash scheme.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- Friends and relatives willbe reluctant to listen. Get your ownaffairs in order, and resist the urgeto tell others how to do things. Med-dling won’t help you get ahead.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) -- You’ll be amazed at thesatisfaction you get from helpingothers. Join a humanitarian causeand participate in making the worlda better place for everyone.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

AstrographThere is always room for improvement


She modeled for everything from posters to catalogs and com-mercials. During that time, she was a runner-up for Miss Iowa USA and Miss Venus Swim-wear.

She moved to Chicago, where she was discov-ered by Quest Modeling Agency. Doors opened – a hosting job for a fash-ion television station, magazine shoots, and TV appearances.

Megan decided to put

the modeling whirlwind on hold, moving to Los Angeles in 2004. She worked in the medical devices industry, which she enjoyed, but the limelight followed her.

“A friend nominated me to be on a reality TV show, ‘The One’, and I was chosen to be the bachelorette,” Megan said. She also became the spokesmodel for an LA-based company, then moved to her cur-rent home, New York City.

“I moved to New York in 2009, and booked a lot of jobs, and found myself

traveling a lot,” Megan said.

Then family life called, and she put her career on pause. She met hus-band Scott Marwin, an orthopedic surgeon at New York University Hospital, and they were married 2 years ago. Little did Megan know that the birth of her son, Liam, now almost 2, would trigger another big career opportunity.

“I never imagined myself sewing, but I decided to take les-sons,” Megan said. “I started making shoes for Liam, and

what started as ‘my little hobby’ has grown beyond my wildest expectations.”

Other parents started noticing the little shoes and asked her to make some for them. In July, she launched LiLi Col-lection, a web-based business that could soon turn into store-fronts.

She is selling the shoes, boots and moccasins for babies and toddlers internationally now, warranting the hiring of assistants.

Her husband started calling their son LiLi,

a nickname that has stuck for him and is now a rapidly growing brand.

Celebrities are lov-ing the shoes, and their plugs on social media are boosting the brand. Actress Tori Spelling has the shoes on her Seasonal Must List, and actress Megan Hilty, fit-ness guru to the stars Tracy Anderson, and a reality TV star – who Megan can’t name, but many of us would guess – are hooked on the brand.

“It doesn’t matter if they are celebrities,

it just makes my day when parents post pictures of their kids in my shoes,” Megan said. “There has been so much support, too, from people back in the Sauk Valley buying my shoes.”

Even Gus admits that sewing wasn’t something he ever envisioned for his daughter.

“I’m really surprised that the business has taken off the way it has,” he said. “The success is great, but the best part for me is always seeing my grandson in a new pair of moccasins.”

Morrison native started making shoes as hobbySHOE-IN

CONTINUED FROM C1W

AGRICULTURE

Tribune News Service photosKristine Menn, greenhouse coordinator for Arvegenix, separates the male and female parts of a field pennycress flower crown Feb. 4 at the Arvegenix labora-tory in the Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Pennycress is a winter-growing weed with seeds that produce a high-quality oil for potential use in industrial and renewable fuels.

BY TIM BAKERTribune News Service

CREVE COEUR, Mo. – A biotech startup here is trying to accomplish something that hasn’t been done since the middle of the last cen-tury. Researchers are trying to turn what currently amounts to a weed – in this case, pen-nycress – into a viable commodity crop for farmers. And they hope to do it before the end of this decade.

“It’s been a long time since a wild strain was domesticated,” said Den-nis Plummer, one of the founders of Arvegenix. “Even for some of the recent domestications, it took decades.”

Indeed, the last plant to make a similar jump was the soybean, which originated several thou-sand years ago in China. Outside of China, the plant spent the vast majority of its life as lit-tle more than a novelty. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it began its ascent to its current position as one of the world’s largest grain crops. And even then, it didn’t become a staple of U.S. farms until the 1950s.

It would be asking a lot to expect pennycress to enjoy the same level of success. Still, this mem-ber of the mustard seed family does have a lot working in its favor.

The plant’s seeds have the potential to be solid oil producers, while left-over meal can be used to make livestock feed. But its strongest trait may be the fact that it grows in the winter, when most Midwestern fields are empty.

Arvegenix envisions a crop rotation where pennycress fits in between a typical corn/

soybean rotation, giving farmers an extra grow-ing season.

“If we can fit into that window when nothing else is growing, that’s the definition of sus-tainability,” said Jerry Steiner, the new chief executive of the 2-year-old biotech startup, which has 11 employees, with more than half working for equity in the company in lieu of salaries.

The sustainability fea-ture is one of things that helped the company in snagging a $100,000 investment by Yield Lab, an accelerator for agribusinesses. Yield Lab, founded last year, recently named Arveg-enix among the five com-panies in its initial invest-ment program, which includes mentoring and a business development program.

“There aren’t many crops that can grow in the winter,” said Matt Plummer, Yield Lab pro-gram manager and son of the Arvegenix founder. “We’re not increasing land acres to grow any-thing. And we aren’t tak-

ing anything away from the food supply.”

This is also why the crop has been pushed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its quest for new biofuel sources.

All, however, is not perfect with this spindly plant and the tiny seeds it produces.

The biggest problem is that farmers can’t make money growing it. At least not yet.

That’s where Arveg-enix has its focus at the moment, using advanced breeding technology to nudge the plant toward something better than it is today. A plant needs to be more predictable, more consistent and one that produces a higher oil yield.

Within 4 years, researchers hope to have a version that could break even. From there, it should have no trouble attracting the attention of farmers, said Dennis Plummer, a former Mon-santo executive.

“I’m sure not every farmer will want to plant it,” he said. “But they’re all interested.”

Young biotech firm chases next cash crop

Menn pollenates the female part of a field penny-cress flower in the Arvegenix laboratory in the Dan-forth Plant Science Center.

Pennycress seeds have potential to be solid oil producers

MORRISON – The annual Whiteside County Region-al Spelling Bee will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Morrison Junior High School, 305 E. Winfield St.

Twenty-two school champions will compete to represent the county at the May 24-29 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, District of Columbia.

The winner will receive a paid trip to compete in the national spelling bee. He

or she also will receive a 1-year membership to Bri-tannica Online Premium, a “Webster’s Third New International Diction-ary, Unabridged,” and the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, a 2015 U.S. Mint Proof set.

The second-place winner will receive a “Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and a $20 Ama-zon.com gift card.

A Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and a

$20 Amazon.com gift card will go to the third-place winner. The fourth-place prize is a “Merriam-Web-ster’s” Collegiate Diction-ary and a $10 Amazon.com gift card.

Due to the merge of the Whiteside, Lee, and Ogle County Regional Offices of Education, this will be the last year for the Whiteside County Spelling Bee. Call the Whiteside office at 815-625-1495 for more infor-mation.

Twenty-two students gear up for competition

The project was completed in about 3 weeks. Gathered around the podium are (in no particular order) Devin Wilkinson, Zack Castro, John Sipe, and Wendy Sipe, Manny’s manager. Members also made a Manny’s sign for the front of the oak-stained podium. The classes will receive a pizza party from the restaurant for their work.

PODIUM PROJECT

West Carroll High School ag construction class students recently built a podium for Manny’s Pizza and Saloon, both in Savanna. Members are (in no particular order) Makayla Huizenga, Devin Wilkinson, Michael McGinnis, Cassie Johnson, Anna Badtke, Jake Low, Alex Haring, Cameron Ehlers, John Sipe, Brianna Kamp-meir, and Bailey Durward. Photos submitted by Don Mathey.

Members of the Ogle County Clovers 4-H Club and their guests gathered before the Jan. 25 preliminary round of the county bowling tournament at Town & Country Lanes in Mount Morris. Those compet-ing include (sitting, from left) Katelyn Ackland and Kayla Mingus; (middle row) Josey Fox, Gracie Mingus, Chloe Freier, Callie Ackland, Aus-tin Zuercher, and Ariel Zuercher; and (back row) Mahalia Freier, Carley Ackland, Jordan Mingus, Sarah Antolik, Jamie Query, and Megan Ack-land. Freier and Antolik, both of Rochelle, and Jordan Mingus of Byron, will bowl Sunday at the finals. Mingus also had the county’s high senior game with a score of 202, and high senior three-game series of 446.

Two clients at Walnut Manor Nursing Home accept Valentine’s gifts from chapter members. All clients received a valentine, cup of candy, and valentine cookies. The group also delivered to the village hall, post office, Kickback Saloon, a doc-tor’s office, Tampico Bank, a restaurant, and Casey’s. Gifts also were delivered to Bertha Driessens, Ruth Kelly, Mrs. Kaiser, and Mrs. Waldron.

VALENTINE DELIVERIES

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Royal Neighbors of America Chapter 1570 members delivered trays of homemade cookies and candy to the working ladies in Tampico and several ladies, 90 and older. Sandrock Insurance employees and members posed for a picture with the treats. Gifts also were given to Linda Kuepker and Betty Glassburn Apple, two members recovering from surgery. Photos submitted by Shirley Lester.

BOWLING TOURNAMENT STARTS

Photo submitted by Jeannette Mingus

Silent auction donations are appreciated

KATIE PIERCEDixon

I wanted to thank everyone who donated something to our Feb. 7

Pinewood Derby Silent Auction.

Thank you to Culver’s, Touch of Thai, Ginko Tree Cafe, Salamandra’s, Kroger, Family Video, Plum Hollow, The Field Museum, Legoland, Go Bananas, Monkey Joe’s, The Stained Glass Shop-pe, Raging Waves, White

Pines Inn, Warner Fam-ily Chiropractic, Chicago Wolves, Candy John-stone of Perfectly Posh, Arthur’s, Roberta Cutler, and Culligan Water.

With your help, our silent auction was a great success.

We appreciate it so much.

Thank Goodnesspolicy

Sauk Valley Media accepts letters to the editor (300 words or less) from nonprofit and volunteer groups who want to thank the community for its support.

Letters may be emailed to [email protected] or sent to Sauk Valley Media, 3200 E. Lincolnway, P.O. Box 498, Sterling, IL 61081.

THANK GOODNESS


SV Weekend • C10

Travelwww.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

BY ANNE Z. COOKETribune News Service

The farm woman selling the orange and pink hand-knit

dolls at the farm mar-ket in Castro, on Chiloe Island, is telling me where she gets the wool, I’m trying to answer, and we’ve hit a dead end. We’re both speaking Spanish. After all, Chiloe belongs to Chile. But we might as well be shouting in the wind.

“She’s says the wool comes from her sheep and she spins it herself,” says Rodrigo Guridi, appearing at my elbow. A guide and longtime resi-dent of Chiloe Island – the largest island of the Chi-loe Archipelago – Guridi had already unraveled a couple of mysteries for me and my husband, Steve, explaining that Chiloe’s unique culture – people, language, farm-ing and fishing – is the result of more than 300 years of isolation.

“You’ll have to stay lon-ger if you want to pick up the accent,” he tells me, with a hint of I-told-you-so. We need at least 2 weeks to see what makes Chiloe a true one-off, unlike any place we’ve been before.

The next time, visit in autumn – March and April in the southern hemisphere – after sum-mer vacation ends, he says. Local tourists go home and the leaves turn red and yellow. Now he tells me, I’m thinking, wondering what comes next.

Things are seldom what they seem here in Middle Earth, Chile’s little-known step-child, a cluster of green hills rising out of the south-ern Pacific Ocean. Skim milk doesn’t masquerade as cream, exactly, and hobbits are thin on the ground. But as the grow-ing number of foreign travelers touring this 40-island archipelago, at 42 degrees south, west of the Gulf of Ancud, have discovered, every day brings a new surprise.

After a 2-day stopover in Santiago, Chile’s capi-tal city, where Salina, a new friend and movie fan, said Chiloe Island, also known as Chiloe Grande, reminded her of “the shire,” I wasn’t sure what we’d find. Images of dry heat and a scrubby, rocky landscape, some-thing like Argentina’s pampas, wouldn’t go away. But I saw what she

meant once we reached our hotel, the Parque Quilquico, perched on a bluff overlooking a long, blue bay.

“Oh, take a look! It’s breathtaking,” gushed the woman who’d shared our cab from the airport. Beyond the windows lay a wonderland of rolling hills, grassy meadows, leafy trees and half-hidden vales sloping down to the sea. A dozen brown and white cows grazed in the foreground, enjoying the last warm days of summer. Only the hobbits were missing.

“It’s so familiar,” she said, sinking down onto the sofa, her expectations ajar. “I know this is Chile, but I feel as if I’m some-where else, in Vermont or England.”

Or Vancouver or Seattle. Why, I wondered, did such an inviting and eminently livable place go unnoticed for so long? With navigable bays, a sea full of fish, rich farm-land, dependable rain and a temperate climate, Chiloe could be a major Pacific port.

The next morning we headed to the farm mar-ket, always an unfailing opportunity for colorful

photo-ops. The usual fresh farm produce, raised locally, was a vegetarian’s delight: cab-bages; lettuce; tomatoes; onions; carrots; apples; purple, yellow and white potatoes; and honey, breads, fish and cheese. The same wool that made my doll reappeared as nubby grey and brown shawls, hats, socks and blankets.

But what in heck were those ugly dried lumps suspended on long strings, and the dark-green bricks, and the jars full of stringy stalks? And the muddy-colored, folded leather things? I’ve said yes to some strange edibles in my time – grilled warthog and seal oil ice cream among them – but this food, if it was food, looked like expired army field rations.

Once again, Guridi stepped up with answers. The foods on the strings were smoked, dried sea squirts, weird marine creatures pried out of rocks at low tide; and two kinds of smoked mussels. The stalks that looked like sugar cane were the stems of the nalca plant, the so-called giant Chil-

ean rhubarb, so large and healthy it looks carnivo-rous. The “bricks” were dried seaweed and the folded “leather” was bull kelp, leaves harvested from the sea, dried, fold-ed into squares and tied together with the stems, Christmas gifts from Neptune.

“It’s the old way of doing things, so nothing would be wasted,” said Guridi. “If you wanted to survive on this island, you had to be ingenious.”

It was an accident of history, of course, that shut Chiloe off from the world.

After Spain conquered Peru, the conquistadores headed south, expect-ing to walk over Chile’s indigenous people. But the Mapuche tribes living south of the Bio Bio River weren’t so easily pushed around. Whomping the Spaniards, they chased away the remaining set-tlers, a group of Spanish and Huilliche Indians, who fled from the main-land to Chiloe.

Alone on the island, the new arrivals inter-married, blending their cultures and creating today’s mostly mestizo population. Early on,

Jesuit priests arrived, and traveling from one island to the next, encouraged the converts to build churches. Over time, 70 were erected, each made entirely of wood joined by wooden pegs. Today, 17 of these exquisite expressions of primitive art have been designated World Heritage Sites and are Chiloe’s best known, most visited attraction.

The Jesuits, volunteers from a host of Euro-pean countries, sketched architectural styles they remembered from home: neoclassical, baroque, gothic and others. But the villagers who did the work were skilled boat builders.

“The Jesuits knew what a church should look like, but no one knew how to build one,” said Carlos Miranda, a guide at the Tierra Chiloe Hotel, who leads cultural tours of the islands. “What they did know how to build was boats,” he said, escort-ing us to the church in Rilan, to look at the ceil-ing, built “exactly like an upside-down boat.”

Motoring across the bay to Chelin and Quehue, two tiny outer islands, we stopped to inspect the bare bones of the Che-lin Church, in the midst of a renovation, then anchored in the cove at Quehue, for two perfect hours of kayaking.

The churches are famous. But Chiloe’s signature buildings are the “palafitos,” ancient ramshackle wood houses built on stilts built over Castro’s bay. No could tell me why these houses, decorated like Easter eggs, weren’t built on dry land, but one guide thought they’d originally

belonged to fishermen. With tidal variations as high as 23 feet, being over the water might keep a fishing boat afloat.

The same tidal varia-tion, in fact, is why thousands of shallow wetlands and estuar-ies dot Chiloe’s east and west shores, making the islands a top birding destination. If I’d had my binoculars – and a pas-sion for birds – I could have seen Magellanic and Humboldt penguins, Chilean skua, parasitic jaeger, Buller’s albatross, kelp goose, cinnamon teal, black-necked swans and Chilean Flamingoes.

Driving up and down roads that resemble roll-er coasters, I wondered if the hills are moraines and whether Chiloe was glaciated during the last ice age. Apparently so. Ice once entombed the island, except for a nar-row strip now within Chiloe National Park. Despite another rainy day, we joined trained naturalist Pablo Mansilla, a guide with Chiloetnico, a local tour company, for a nature walk through an old-growth rain forest in the southernmost sector.

Exhibits at the inter-pretive center near the entrance help to make sense of the park’s indig-enous flora and fauna, many predating the last Ice Age. The brush in this forest was so tangled and thick and the ground cover so mossy and spongy that bushwhack-ing was literally impos-sible. Thank goodness for the long loop of raised boardwalks that gave us a peek at the way it used to be, and answers to at least one of Chiloe’s many mysteries.

Middle Earth, on Chiloe Island

Tribune News Service photos Resembling a sail in the wind, the Terra Chiloe Hotel is modern architecture’s version of the traditional Palafito construction in Chiloe, Chile.

ABOVE: Feria Artesanal (artist’s market) in Dalca-hue is the place to buy hand-knit woolen shawls and wood carvings in Chiloe. LEFT: Horseback riders cross the beach at low tide, near Terra Chiloe Hotel in Castro.

Chiloe is a four-season destination. March and April, fall in the southern hemisphere, are good months to visit, after vacationing Chileans have gone home. The weather is warm, the colors are changing, and hotel rates drop. Rain showers are frequent year around, except in winter when it might snow; bring a rain-coat or parka.

Lodging: Hotels, inns

and B&Bs are available in most price categories; see turismochile.travel. For a more deluxe expe-rience, the top-ranked Hotel Parque Quilquico (www.hpq.cl) offers rustic luxury. The Tierra Chiloe (tierrachiloe.com) provides minimalist con-temporary design. Both serve fine cuisine and offer room rates with or without meals, spa and massage services,

swimming pool and fit-ness equipment, guided tours and outdoor recre-ation and airport trans-fers.

Flying there: The air-line connections with the least elapsed time are on LAN flights from the U.S. to Santiago, with a single stop in Lima, Peru. Other airlines also fly to Santiago, but with more stops and/or longer air-port waits.

More information

Each day brings new surprise on Chile’s best-kept secret

The United Way of Whiteside County received $1,700.50 from sales of SBM’s Private Label Copy Paper. SBM in Sterling, generated this donation in direct proportion to the number of cases of paper sold in Whiteside County. With the certificate are (from left) Wendy Johnson, SBM president; Russ Siefkin, Whiteside County United Way director; and Rod Johnson, SBM general manager. Photo submitted.

Area counties receive grants

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Emergency Man-agement Agency awarded funding to Local Emergen-cy Planning Committees.

Hazardous Materials Preparedness Planning Grants in the amount of $435,378 have been awarded to 33 LEPCs to enhance emergency plan-

ning and preparedness for hazardous materials incidents.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materi-als Safety Administration funds the program.

Allocations are based on the state’s population, the number of miles trucks carrying hazardous mate-rials travel through the state, and potential risk

posed by fixed chemical facilities in the state.

Locally, Carroll County received $9,547.30 and Lee County, $10.820.

Local engineering firm earns award

DIXON – The American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois recently had its 2015 Engineering Excellence

Awards Competition.The competition recog-

nizes projects of engineer-ing achievement by Illinois consulting engineering firms. Entries are judged on the basis of engineering excellence, the degree to which the client’s needs are met, and the benefits to the public welfare and private practice of engineering.

Willett, Hofmann & Asso-ciates Inc., and its client,

Bureau County Highway Department, received a Merit Award for its project “CH 8 over the IAIS Rail-road & Hennepin Canal,” just outside of Wyanet. The project consisted of the removal and replacement of the existing six-span bridge on County Highway 8.

The bridge originally was constructed in 1931, and included an historic Pratt truss. The truss was

removed, rehabilitated, and moved to a new location on a roadway about 1 mile away.

Willett, Hofmann and Associates Inc. provides land surveying, civil and structural engineering, architectural services, and grant and loan funding application preparation from offices in Dixon, Freeport, Rockford, Joliet, Sterling, and Moline.

PRIVATE LABEL WINNER

Pete Harkness employees recently completed training. Rick Godman (center) has become a Ford Senior Master Technician in the 2014 Ford Lincoln Masters Program. He now is a certified a senior master, chassis master, drivetrain master, and engine master technician. Also at the presentation were (from left) Joe McGlen-non, fixed operations director; Don Gregg, service manager; Mike Grems, general manager; and George Orth, fixed operations director. Photos submitted.

James Schuldt also completed the training. He was presented a plaque by McGlennon, Gregg, and Randy Lyon, sales manager.

MASTER TECHNICIANS

Illinois Bank & Trust, Sterling Banking Center recently donated $2,628.55 to the Northern Illinois Cancer Treatment Center’s Dixon facility. With the check are (from left) Gina Caruana, bank senior vice president; Pam Topper, market president; Jon Berens. cancer center administrative director; and NICTC Board of Director mem-bers. The proceeds will be used to provide breast-cancer-related resources and programs to cancer patients. The money was raised through the bank’s Pink Ribbon Debit Card Program, which is in its third year of operation. Photo submitted.

SPEEDING DETERRENT

Rock Falls Rotary Club, with matching funds from a Rotary District 6420 Community Grant, recently purchased a radar sign. The mounting will allow the sign to be shared within the school zones of East Coloma-Nelson and Montmorency schools in Rock Falls. According to Betty Clementz, both Dave Cha-vira, East Coloma-Nelson superintendent, and Alex Moore, Montmorency principal, agreed that there was a definite need for slowing down traffic at each site, especially during times of arrival and departure. Photos submitted by Clementz.

BYRON – Exelon Gen-eration mailed 20,000 public information bro-chures to residents and businesses within 10 miles of Byron Generat-ing Station.

Federal law requires nuclear operating com-panies to develop emer-gency-response plans

for their nuclear energy facilities and to ensure evacuation plans are in place in the event of an emergency.

State and county agen-cies also use the plans for non-nuclear related emergencies such as extreme weather events or fires.

The brochure contains information about gen-eral emergency pre-paredness, including reception center loca-tions, evacuation routes, a map, and a list of emergency alert broad-cast stations.

T h e b r o c h u r e a l s o includes a special needs

card to be completed and returned by those with special transporta-tion or other needs.

According to a press release, Exelon’s nuclear facilities have multiple physical barriers and layers of backup safety systems to ensure safe operations, in extreme

events such as: floods, tornadoes, and earth-quakes.

The company also has teams of emergency-planning experts at each of its nuclear facilities who work with state, county, and local, emer-g e n c y m a n a g e m e n t officials in the devel-

opment, maintenance, training, and testing of e m e r g e n c y r e s p o n s e plans.

Copies are available at exeloncorp.com/byron for anyone within the 10-mile radius of the three facilities who did not receive a brochure in the mail.

IN BRIEF

Nuclear plant to mail emergency planning brochures

CANCER TREATMENT CENTER DONATION


SV Weekend • C12

Communitywww.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

Philip Marruffo/[email protected] ABOVE: Amboy girls basketball coach Mike McCraken reacts to a traveling call during a Roanoke-Benson 1A Sectional game on Tuesday. The Lady Clippers went on to beat Newark, 50-41. BELOW-LEFT: Dixon boys basketball coach Jason Mead reacts to a play as his Dukes face off against the Oregon Hawks. After a slug-gish first half, Dixon went on to win the Feb. 3 game. BELOW-RIGHT: Bureau Valley’s Jason Marquis reacts as his team takes the lead against Newman on Jan. 13.

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected] Philip Marruffo/[email protected]

TOP-RIGHT: Sterling wrestling coach Kevin Heller works the mat dur-ing sectional action.

BELOW-RIGHT: Oregon boys basketball head coach Quinn Virgil watch-es along the sidelines Tuesday as his team suf-fers a 55-27 loss at Dixon.

LEFT: Dixon girls bas-ketbal l coach Luke Ravlin reacts to a play Wednesday evening dur-ing a regional semifinal game against Freeport in Rochelle. The Duchesses fell to the Pretzels, 35-33, to end their season.

Philip Marruffo/[email protected]

Alex T. Paschal/[email protected] Alex T. Paschal/[email protected]

Follow @SVMphotogson Twitter

By Terry BoxThe Dallas Morning News

(TNS)

Poor sales-hungry Chevy couldn’t even get the headlights right on its

last hapless Colorado pickup.They always looked upside down to me, making the entire truck seem a bit twisted - as if it had been styled by Keith Richards, my favorite senior citizen.Some designer stacked the Colorado’s turn signals and parking lamps above the headlamps, giving it a dizzy, slightly demented look.Every time one passed me on the road, I halfway expected to see Billy Bob Thornton behind the wheel.And the Colorado didn’t get much better from the grille back.

Skinny, square and kind of tinny looking, Colorados squeezed power from harsh four- and five-cylinder engines. The trucklet screamed young and financially distressed, and finally, I guess, people got tired of hearing it.

Chevrolet buried the tired Colorado in 2012, leaving the stale midsize pickup segment to the aging Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier.

But that was old Chevy. New, reorganized Chevrolet plans to make a dramatic re-entry into the segment with an all-new, much-larger Colorado that’s bent on bullying Toyota’s old segment-leading Taco.

Get this: The metallic-gray 2015 Colorado I had recently rolled on a chassis that was fully boxed, running thick frame rails that resembled those beneath a full-size Silverado.

It weighed around 4,500 pounds - at least 500 pounds more than

the old truck - and was equipped with a V-6 engine, Z71 off-road package and four-wheel drive.Some people even mistook it for a Silverado that had taken up jogging after Thanksgiving. Like all new Chevys, the Colorado sported a big gold bow tie in the center of a bold grille.

This time around, the Colorado greets the world with glaring, properly placed headlamps, a raised, chiseled hood and squared-off flared fenders similar to those on the Silverado. The crew-cab model I had stood about 71 inches tall and was 74 inches wide. That compares with 74 inches in height for a Silverado crew cab and 80 inches of width.It felt bigger, though - enhanced by thick, unadorned sides, squared-off wheelwells and an

especially long-looking 140-inch wheelbase. Large vertical taillamps and a rear bumper with steps pressed into the corners added to the Silver in its genes. The pumped-up pickup was a stretch for me because of the slightly raised Z71 suspension and burly 255/65 tires on gray-and-silver 17-inch wheels.

In fact, if you parked the Colorado next to a Silverado from a decade or so ago, I’d bet the Colorado would be just as big or bigger.

Chevy says the Colorado is aimed at people who don’t want or need a full-size pickup. But no one will call the new truck small. My pickup a loaded model at $36,535 had the optional 3.6-liter V-6 engine with 305 horsepower under the

hood, an engine that sees duty in dozens of GM vehicles. With 269 pound-feet of torque, the double-overhead-cam motor might not be a perfect truck engine, but it has good power and can tow up to 7,000 pounds.

Bolted to a solid six-speed automatic, the engine felt lively and capable in most situations, propelling the Colorado to 60 in about 6.6 seconds, according to Car and Driver. If pushed really hard, the engine felt and sounded as if it was working pretty hard. While admirably quick, it just wasn’t quite as competent as a good V-8.

But, then, buyers in this segment may not expect that. If they’re looking for superior fuel economy, though, they may not find that, either.

The four-wheel-drive Colorado I had was rated at 17 miles per gallon in the city and 24 on the highway. A full-size Silverado equipped with the base 4.3-liter V-6 gets 18 mpg in town and 24 on the highway.

Though firm, the truck’s suspension absorbed rough pavement well. Even direct hits on a pothole were minimized by the Colorado’s stiff body and frame, which muffled squeaks and squirms. In fact, the ride is so decent that most of you could live with a four-wheel-drive Colorado as your primary vehicle.

The burly-looking pickup also benefits from GM’s growing expertise with electric power steering, which can feel numb if not properly tuned.

Equipped with a V-6 engine, Z71 off-road package and four-wheel drive.

2015 Chevrolet ColoradoPaid Advertisement

SV Weekend • D8

Wheelswww.saukvalley.com Saturday, February 21, 2015

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