Rockford Record American, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 by RockfordRecordAmerican

WHAT’S LOCAL: LOOSE-MEAT TREAT, PAGE 3

STATE: ‘WARM OUR HEROES’ DRIVE, PAGE 7

SPORTS: ICEHOGS HIT ROAD FOR SIX-GAME STRETCH, PAGE 10

AIDA FREY: THE AMAZING FRENCH QUARTER, PAGE 11

Rockford Record American

RECORDAMERICAN.COM | ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS NEWS & OPINION RECORDAMERICAN.COM Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014

Find us: @recordamerican

IDENTIFYING THE POOR SEE “POVERTY” PAGE 4

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

INDEX Opinion - 2 What’s Local - 3 News - 4-5, 7-8 Sports - 9-10 Parks - 11

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Publisher: Track Media, LLC Executive Editor: James Vanderlin Editor: Mary Elway Reporters: Lea Downs, Jim Hagerty, H. Michael Vincent, Nate Callahan, Jess Coreau

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||| OPINION

Some thoughts on governing By Lee H. Hamilton

I have been working in or around government for over 50 years, and if you asked me to boil down what I’ve learned to one sentence, it is this: Governing is much harder work than most people imagine. This doesn’t excuse its lapses or sluggish rate of progress, but it does help explain them. Why is it so hard? Partly it’s the country we live in. There were 130 million Americans when I was in high school. Now we number over 300 million, with a diversity and cultural complexity that were impossible to imagine when I started out. Finding common ground, meeting complex needs, answering to an overwhelming diversity of interests — this is not work for the faint of heart. The structure we do this with makes it even tougher. We have governments at the federal, state, and local levels, and they in turn have branches — executive, legislative and judicial — and a cornucopia of massive agencies. To solve a problem you have to navigate a slow, complex, untidy system whose transparency and accountability are always less than they should be. This is magnified by an American public that, these days especially, wants mutually contradictory things. We want to rein in Wall Street excess, but we don’t support the regulatory structure to do it. We want affordable health care but don’t like Washington’s involvement in the health-care system. We want to shrink the deficit without any cuts in defense

spending or entitlements. Our diversity, complex structure, and difficulty settling on coherent policies make the hardest part of governing even harder. Building a consensus is the most important and most difficult part of political leadership. If politics is ultimately about the search for a remedy — I know, for many politicians it’s about ego or power or money, but I’m interested in the ideal — then you have to be able to get a consensus around that remedy. You need a majority in the U.S. House, 60 votes in the Senate, and the President’s approval. This country cannot be governed without compromise, dialogue and accommodation, and it comes apart at the seams when we go too long without them. We often have disagreements in politics, but good politicians know that we have no choice but to work through them. The best want to bring different groups of people together, not pull them apart. They understand that not all the good ideas come from one source, and they reject the idea of constant conflict and permanent gridlock. In a divided country with a government specifically set up to divide powers, we need to follow this process — not because we want to but because we have to. They know, too, that you have to treat every person with dignity and respect, even though the clashes may be hard. I used to watch Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill engage in tough, hard-hitting dialogue over the issues of the day, but for both of them the underlying premise was that they had to reach an agreement and move ahead. They knew civility had to be the rule — and always ended by trying to top each other with a good Irish

story, doing their best to leave everyone in the room in an upbeat frame of mind. Don’t get me wrong. The clash of ideas is important. In a dynamic system, with competing power centers and a panoply of interests trying to use their power to achieve their objectives, better policy — a policy that more nearly reflects the will of the American people — can emerge from this debate. Playing one side against the other, or merely stating the problem in order to rile up listeners — these are easy. Moving ahead to reach a solution: that’s the hard part. Which is why our system works so slowly. It’s unwieldy, messy, and often very noisy, but most of the time, it gets there. Yet there are no guarantees. Our system is not self-perpetuating. There is no automatic pilot. The question Abraham Lincoln asked at Gettysburg 151 years ago is as fresh today as it was then: Can a nation so conceived and so dedicated long endure? We’re still finding out, but we know one thing: It will take hard work. Lee Hamilton is director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

||| WHAT’S LOCAL

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

Local home cooking in Loves Park

The loose-meat sandwich from Riverside Family Restaurant. The eatery is at 1726 E. Riverside Blvd., Loves Park, Ill. The restaurant offers a full breakfast and lunch menu seven days a week . (Photo by Jeremy Oster)

By Jeremy Oster

Rockford Record American

When you walk into The Riverside Family Restaurant in Loves Park, Ill., you’re greeted by the smell of a homecooked meal and a hostess with a genuine smile. The restaurant is cool and clean, and the storefront faces south, so you don’t get the sun in your eyes while you’re eating. In addition to the front dining room and the old-fashioned lunch counter, their back room can seat up to 15 people for a business meeting or a family party. Wi-Fi is available, if you have to make your meal a working one. The Muaremi family, who are the owners of the establishment, are a very hard-working family. While Holta oversees The Riverside Family Restaurant, Jimmy looks after Mustangs Bar and Grill in South Beloit. Yet, as busy as this family is, Jimmy still takes their three girls to see Mom for a family meal as often as he can. Seeing a family breaking bread together like that reminds you that you are supporting a local family business. When the Muaremi family re-opened the diner in October 2012, they kept on the original employees. Cook Tony Mandell and waitresses Penny Lapinski and Beth Higgins have each been working for more than 25 years at former Rockford-area Maid Rite locations. Mandell got his first job at the old Auburn Street Maid Rite as a dishwasher when he was 16 years old. He soon moved

up to the position of head cook. When asked about his daily customers, Mandell said: “It’s a nice family atmosphere. Probably 75 percent of people are regulars. It gets to the point I can have folks’ breakfast cooking before they get here.” It isn’t just breakfast Tony is serving up. Riverside has a full lunch menu, too, including their signature sandwich. Waitress Beth Higgins said, “This is the only place in Winnebago County that you can get a loose-meat sandwich.” When asked if The Riverside Family Restaurant was serving the same type of loose-meat sandwich still served in Maid Rites across the country today, Higgins said: “No. Maid Rite changed their recipe. This sandwich tastes like the original family recipe they served years ago. There’s nothing fast-food about it.” Higgins is a fun waitress, the kind the kids want to go and see again. She gets surprised every once in a while by a grown 20-something young adult who remembers her fondly as “the Maid Rite Lady.” She also has customers stopping in who haven’t been to town for a while who are happy to hear that though the name of the place has changed, they still serve “that sandwich.” So, the secret is out. Now, the next time you get hungry watching a re-run of Rosanne serving loose-meat sandwiches at the Lanford Lunchbox, you know a great family place to get one around here.

4 Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM ||| NEWS

Poverty more common than we think By Barbara Raab

It was one of those arresting moments that transfixed the room: Amy, a military veteran and divorced mother, stood up at the mic and choked back tears as she told her story. She had gone to school to become an elementary school teacher, but wasn’t able to find full time work. With two kids to support, she was earning just $15,184 a year, far below the poverty line for her family. But she was one of the lucky ones for whom there was a lifeline: after obtaining Medicaid and Section 8 housing, Amy was admitted into a program at her local community action agency in her home state of Wisconsin that helped cover the costs of returning to school. Amy is now a reading specialist with a full time stable job and benefits and owns her own home. The people listening to Amy’s story were journalists. They were part of an unusual event organized by NBC News, my former employer, that brought journalists and anti-poverty advocates together to do something they don’t do very often: talk to one another. Inspired by open-mic poetry slams, this was called a “poverty pitch slam.’ The pitch slam was part of the NBC News “In Plain Sight: Poverty in America’ project, a special reporting initiative supported by the Ford Foundation, which I launched and ran in 2013 (the project, which recently won a George Foster Peabody award, is now in its second year, and—full disclosure—I have transitioned to a new job as program officer in the Ford Foundation’s Media & Justice initiative). Amy was one of a dozen people who had five minutes or less to pitch their stories to the panel of journalists from around the nation, including reporters and editors from big platforms like USA Today and NBC News, as well as smaller outlets like public radio stations and the Springfield News-Leader in the Ozarks (whose Every Child project has been brilliant and powerful). The pitch slam coincided with the 50th anniversary of the launch of President Johnson’s “war on poverty,’ which generated a flurry of big-media press coverage of poverty, an issue, as Dan Froomkin pointed out last year in an essay for Nieman Reports, that the “mainstream’ media tend to mostly ignore. (A finding

corroborated by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), in a new study of the three major network evening newscasts set to be released next month.) On the January anniversary of LBJ’s speech, however, the Washington Post, for example, presented everything we presumably need to know about the war on poverty, and The New York Times judged the war on poverty a “mixed bag.’ Most of the coverage binge, as FAIR’s radio program, “Counterspin,’ pointed out, focused on either methodology—how we count poverty and whether it has gone up or down over the last half-century—or on the deep political and philosophical divide that exists over how to attack poverty in this country. What it didn’t really focus on was the people, like Amy, who can tell the very real stories of what it is like to be poor, and to want to be not-poor, and how hard it is in America 50 years after LBJ’s speech to do what he pledged: to replace despair with opportunity. But these are the stories that are out there to be told, begging to be told, and I am here to tell you that, contrary to the beliefs and fears of editors and executive producers, these are deeply personal stories that, when told, do captivate the audience of readers, listeners, and viewers. In the first year of the NBC News In Plain Sight project, the coverage (most of it online) included stories about life on minimum wage, fast food worker strikes, hunger, urban and suburban poverty, childhood asthma in poor urban areas, homeless veterans, the “unbanked,’ threats to food stamps, criminal debt, transportation for low-income workers, gays and poverty, the dental crisis for the poor, putting off parenthood for financial reasons, unemployed older workers, the disappearance of “the American dream’— and more—and viewers did not turn the channel or click away from the 100+ stories we presented. In fact, the sharing of stories via social media was robust. So here are a few more story ideas that I didn’t get around to, but I hope somebody else will. (As Henny Youngman might have said had he been a journalist, take my story ideas...please!) If you’re so poor...: When many Americans see food stamp recipients who are obese, or struggling families with flatscreen televisions, they wonder how this

can happen; same thing when they see a poor kid in an expensive pair of sneakers. Brian Charles, a reporter on the poverty beat in Connecticut, talks about “death by a thousand ‘no’s’.’ As he explains it, what people don’t see when they see that kid in the Nikes is that the kid’s mom may have said no so many times that finally, when the kid wanted those sneakers, for once, that thousandth time, she said yes. Tell the story of those moms, and those kids. Explain how flat-screens are cheap but good schools and real opportunity are not. Explain the link between scarcity and obesity. And tell the stories through the experience of the real experts, the people who live them, by connecting with organizations like Witnesses to Hunger. Welfare-to-work: Has it worked? It’s been nearly 20 years since President Clinton enacted “welfare reform’ into law. The new law definitely did end “welfare as we know it,’ but did it come through on its promise to move millions of poor Americans to work that leads to good jobs? What is the truth about TANF? There’s some great policy work on this question, but let’s not forget about the human stories—the “success stories’ and the failures. Solutions: Amy’s story is a story about programs that worked to lift her out of poverty. There are other stories like that out there, waiting to be told, and to be appreciated by an audience that wants more than doom and gloom. The Solutions Journalism Network has a lot of really smart stuff to say about how to do this kind of solutions-oriented reporting, and the HalfInTen story bank is a great resource for people who, like Amy, are willing and ready to tell their personal stories. I know the people who are launching TalkPoverty.org well—Greg Kaufmann, from his work as a fellow poverty reporter when he was at The Nation, and the folks at the Center for American Progress through their ongoing poverty work. They are going to bring unique voices to this blog— from people doing cutting-edge work as researchers, advocates, and activists in the fight against poverty, to the people living in poverty themselves. I hope reporters will keep up with this blog to discover story ideas and people they should talk to in covering poverty. There are way too many stories that still need to be told. It would be great if we could

get to a point where poverty reporters had to worry about being scooped. We’re not there yet. Barbara Raab is a program officer for the Ford Foundation. She focuses on the development and support of high-quality, principled reporting in the United States, with an emphasis on social justice, a diversity of voices and press freedoms. Her work helps foster new and innovative models of reporting, as well as building and sustaining centers of journalistic excellence. Before joining the foundation in 2014, Barbara was a senior member of the editorial leadership team at NBC News. As senior newswriter for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Barbara has covered every major news story for the past 15 years, and shared in journalism’s highest awards and honors. In 2013, she served as senior producer for “In Plain Sight,” NBC News’s Ford-funded multiplatform reporting effort on poverty in America, which was honored with the prestigious George Foster Peabody award. Since 2008, Barbara has been an adjunct associate professor and coach at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She is a longtime volunteer leader in nonprofit and community organizations, and a frequent moderator and public speaker. Barbara earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where she is a member of the Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women Associates Council.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

Poor children in a rich nation Rockford Record American

A new UNICEF report shows that 2.6 million children have sunk below the poverty line in the world’s most affluent countries since 2008, bringing the total number of children in the developed world living in poverty to an estimated 76.5 million. Innocenti Report Card 12, Children of the Recession: The impact of the economic crisis on child well-being in rich countries, ranks 41 countries in the OECD and the European Union according to whether levels of child poverty have increased or decreased since 2008. It also tracks the proportion of 15-24 year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). The report includes Gallup

World Poll data on people’s perceptions of their economic status and hopes for the future since the recession began. While early stimulus programs in some countries were effective in protecting children, by 2010 a majority of countries pivoted sharply from budget stimulus to budget cuts, with negative impact on children, particularly in the Mediterranean region. “Many affluent countries have suffered a ‘great leap backwards’ in terms of household income, and the impact on children will have long-lasting repercussions for them and their communities,” said Jeffrey O’Malley, UNICEF’s Head of Global Policy and Strategy. “UNICEF research shows that the

strength of social protection policies was a decisive factor in poverty prevention. All countries need strong social safety nets to protect children in bad times and in good – and wealthy countries should lead by example, explicitly committing to eradicate child poverty, developing policies to offset economic downturns, and making child well-being a top priority,” O’Malley said. Other significant findings of the UNICEF report, released today at an event co-hosted with the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, include: In 23 of the 41 countries analysed, child poverty has increased since 2008.

In Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Greece and Iceland, rates rose by over 50 per cent. In Greece in 2012 median household incomes for families with children sank to 1998 levels – the equivalent of a loss of 14 years of income progress. By this measure Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain lost a decade; Iceland lost 9 years; and Italy, Hungary and Portugal lost 8. The recession has hit 15-24 year olds especially hard, with the number of NEETs rising dramatically in many countries. In the European Union 7.5 million young people (almost equivalent to the population of Switzerland) were classified as NEET in 2013. In the United States, where extreme child poverty has increased more in this downturn than during the recession of 1982, social safety net measures provided important support to poor working families but were less effective for the extreme poor without jobs. Child poverty has increased in 34 out of 50 states since the start of the crisis. In 2012, 24.2 million children were living in poverty, a net increase of 1.7 million from 2008. In 18 countries child poverty actually fell, sometimes markedly. Australia, Chile, Finland, Norway, Poland and the Slovak Republic reduced levels by around 30 per cent. O’Malley said: “Significantly, the report found that the social policy responses of countries with similar economic circumstances varied markedly with differing impacts on children.”

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

||| STATE

Quinn launches ‘ Warm Our Heroes’ drive Rockford Record American

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, on Tuesday, launched the Warm Our Heroes holiday collection drive for Illinois veterans and their families and invited people across the state to support this important cause. In five cities across Illinois, state facilities will accept public donations of winter clothing, non-perishable food and personal items until Dec. 19. The Warm Our Heroes drive is part of Governor Quinn’s agenda to honor and support the men and women who have served our country and maintain Illinois’ status as the most veteran-friendly state in the nation. “We need to always take care of those who have borne the battle, especially

during the holiday season,” Quinn said. “Warm Our Heroes supports our veterans and their families and I encourage everyone to take a minute to give back to those who have sacrificed so much.” Warm Our Heroes was launched by the governor in 2012 as a state employee initiative to provide much-needed items to Illinois veterans in need. In its first year, state employees collected more than 3,500 donations which were distributed to veterans’ organizations across the state. This year the governor expanded the program to allow the public to participate. Warm Our Heroes will collect warm winter clothing, dry and canned food and personal items such as toothpaste

and soap to give to community veterans organizations and VA hospitals. In Rockford, the donation drop-off site is the E.J. Giorgi Center, 200 S. Wyman St. Other sites include: Illinois State Capital – 401 S. 2nd Street or 207 State House, Springfield, 62706; James R. Thompson Center – 100 W. Randolph St., Chicago, 60601; Kenneth Hall State Regional Office Building – 10 Collinsville Ave., East St. Louis, 62201; and Marion Regional Office Building – 2309 W. Main St., Marion, 62959. In addition, Illinois Department of Transportation district headquarters

offices are accepting Warm Our Heroes donations. These include: - 201 W. Center Court, Schaumburg; - 819 Depot Avenue, Dixon; - 700 E. Norris Dr., Ottawa; - 401 Main St., Peoria; - 13473 Illinois Hwy 133, Paris; - 2300 S. Dirksen Pkwy, Springfield; - 400 W. Wabash, Effingham; - 1102 Eastport Plaza Dr., Collinsville; and - 2801 W. Murphysboro Rd., Carbondale.

For more information, visit the program at Illinois.gov/WarmOurHeroes.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

||| NATION/WORLD

FBI releases hate-crime statistics Rockford Record American

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), on Monday, Dec. 8, released Hate Crime Statistics, 2013, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s first publication to present data collected under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. The bias categories of gender (male and female) and gender identity (transgender and gender nonconforming) have been added to the other bias categories of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Other new aspects of the report include the presentation of age categories to indicate whether hate crimes were committed by or directed toward juveniles. In addition, the data for the 2013 report were collected and published in accordance with the U.S. Government, Office of Management and Budget’s revised categories for race and ethnicity, as well as the FBI UCR Program’s revised definition of rape in the Summary Reporting System. Hate Crime Statistics, 2013 includes data about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of the bias-motivated

incidents reported by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. However, the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Highlights of Hate Crime Statistics, 2013 follow. Law enforcement agencies reported 5,928 criminal incidents involving 6,933 offenses as being motivated by a bias toward a particular race, gender, gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity in 2013. There were 5,922 single-bias incidents involving 7,230 victims. A percent distribution of victims by bias type showed that 49.3 percent of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ racial bias, 20.2 percent were victimized because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias, 16.9 percent were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias, and 11.4 percent were victimized due to ethnicity bias. Victims targeted because of the offenders’ bias against disabilities accounted for 1.4 percent of victims of single-bias incidents; gender identity, 0.5 percent; and gender, 0.4 percent. There were 6 multiple-bias hate crime

incidents involving 12 victims. Of the 4,430 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2013, intimidation accounted for 43.5 percent, simple assault accounted for 38.8 percent, and aggravated assault for 16.6 percent. Five murders and 21 rapes (15 from agencies that collected data using the revised rape definition and 6 from agencies that used the legacy definition) were reported as hate crimes. Beginning with the 2013 data collection, the UCR Program’s revised definition of rape is “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” The legacy UCR definition of rape is “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” There were 2,424 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (73.6 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 26.4 percent

of crimes against property. In the UCR Program, the term known offender does not imply that the suspect’s identity is known; rather, the term indicates that some aspect of the suspect was identified, thus distinguishing the suspect from an unknown offender. Law enforcement agencies specify the number of offenders and, when possible, the race of the offender or offenders as a group. Beginning in 2013, law enforcement officers could also report whether suspects were juveniles or adults, as well as the suspect’s ethnicity when possible. Of the 5,814 known offenders, 52.4 percent were white, and 24.3 percent were black or African American. The race was unknown for 14.8 percent. Other races accounted for the remaining known offenders: 0.8 percent were American Indian or Alaska Native; 0.7 percent were Asian; 0.1 percent were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander; and 7.0 percent were of a group of multiple races. Of the 2,527 offenders for whom ages were known, 68.0 percent were 18 years of age or older. Of the 368 offenders for whom ethnicity was reported, 54.1 percent were not Hispanic or Latino, 6.3 percent were in a group of multiple ethnicities, and 3.3 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Ethnicity was unknown for 36.4 percent of these offenders. Most hate crime incidents (31.5 percent) occurred in or near residences/ homes. More than 18 percent (18.1) occurred on highways/roads/alleys/ streets/sidewalks; 8.3 percent occurred at schools/colleges; 5.7 percent happened at parking/drop lots/garages; and 3.5 percent took place in churches/synagogues/ temples/mosques. The location was considered other/unknown for 13.2 percent of hate crime incidents. The remainder of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or multiple locations.

||| CHICAGO BULLS

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM 9

Bulls’ Gasol brings commitment to children’s health to Chicago By Adam Fluck

As the 7-foot, 250-pound veteran approached the table, he couldn’t help but notice it was constructed for young children. Loaded with crayons and paper, the table was low to the ground and surrounded by several small chairs suitable for someone a fraction of his size. Pau Gasol, however, didn’t flinch for a second, and effortlessly slid his frame onto one of the seats. And for the next few hours on Thursday evening, he brightened the day for patients at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Forget that Gasol had racked up 48 points and 28 rebounds in 86 minutes over his team’s two games—the first in Chicago and the other in Charlotte—the previous two evenings. While no one would have faulted him for taking a well-deserved night off to recuperate, Gasol instead chose to come to Lurie, a place where he knows he will receive more than he gives. “It’s about my commitment to children and organizations that are doing so much good for children and their families,” explained Gasol. “I told Lurie’s I would go because it was a scheduled day off. Of course I didn’t anticipate the double overtime game (on Tuesday versus the Mavericks). “I knew I was going to be tired either way,” Gasol continued. “But going to the hospital and interacting with the children, bringing them hope and joy and putting a smile on their faces... it’s energizing to me. It’s really rewarding. So if I’m tired, it’s nothing compared to what they’re going through. It’s inspiring for me to make these visits.” The Bulls have an ongoing relationship with Lurie Children’s, a state-of-the-art hospital located in downtown Chicago. Players and staff visit patients and their families at Lurie Children’s, and the team has partnered with the hospital to renovate, redecorate and rename a space

Pau Gasol

in the Family Life Center, now known as the Chicago Bulls Charities Teen Lounge. Hospital visits are hardly anything new for Gasol, who has a long track record of such endeavors. In March of 2010, he announced a partnership with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where he was involved in community outreach initiatives on behalf of the hospital and interactions with patients. During the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, he participated in the Hoops for St. Jude program, making a donation for every point he scored. Currently, Gasol serves as a Hoops for St. Jude ambassador. That Gasol’s parents—his mother, Marisa, as a physician, and father, Agusti, as a hospital administrator—both worked in the medical field certainly had something to do with it, he acknowledged. “I watched as I grew up both of my parents and their work, as well as the way they took care of us and the importance of health overall,” said Gasol. “I got into medical school (University of Barcelona at the age of 18) and it’s one of my passions.

To be able to cure people and give them a chance at life... there is nothing without health and nothing more powerful than health and being healthy. “I’m touched by children in a big way,” Gasol added of his current focus. “They’re so vulnerable and innocent and they have so much ahead of them. I just try to be encouraging and reinforcing when it comes to their situation and hopefully help them through the healing process.” Gasol, 34, is certain that if he were not a basketball player, he’d be a doctor. He’s known as much since November 7, 1991, the day Lakers superstar Magic Johnson announced he had tested positive for HIV. The news hit Gasol, then 11 years old, hard and he was determined to one day find a cure for AIDS. His development into one of the best young players in Europe, however, led him to a life of basketball and eventually the NBA. Watching him interact with the young patients, it’s clear that his commitment couldn’t be any more sincere and genuine. Whether it’s conversing with a

little boy about his interests or simply coloring alongside a little girl, there is no mistaking Gasol’s impact on these visits. But for as much as the children gain from his presence and encouragement, Gasol comes away impressed and inspired by the young patients. “They have incredible strength and will,” said Gasol. “They’re going through difficult situations. Sometimes, it’s a life or death situation and they find a way to stay positive, stay strong. They look forward to being healthy and back with their friends, going back to school and being able to play basketball or whatever sport they like. Whatever it might be, they look forward to their future. So they’re absolutely resilient about it and hopefully they have a loving family that nurtures them throughout the process, as well as a great hospital with a great staff.” With roughly six weeks of the 2014-15 season in the books, Gasol has already established himself as a leader on the court for the Bulls. A two-time NBA champion, Gasol has proven to be a leader who is about winning. Gasol knows he won’t always be a basketball player, but he can always be someone who touches and improves the lives of others. “To me, in the big picture it’s more important being a leader off the court and being the best person that you can be,” said Gasol. “At the end of the day, basketball is just a vehicle. It’s a tool that allows me to get into a lot of doors and have a lot of impact in different areas with different people. When basketball is over, you need to continue to stay loyal to yourself. Basketball, as I said, it’s temporary. What you have to stay true to is yourself as a person and make sure you build on that as you move forward with your life.” Adam Fluck is the senior manager of digital content for the Chicago Bulls.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM

||| AHL HOCKEY

IceHogs stumble at home, hit road for six games Rockford Record American

Just like the week before, the IceHogs managed half of the possible six points available from their Week 9 slate. Rockford started strong by blanking the Milwaukee Admirals 4-0 on the road, but lost in similar fashion upon their return to the BMO Harris Bank Center on Saturday. The weekend ended with the second-straight overtime affair between the IceHogs and Monsters, with this one falling in Lake Erie’s favor 4-3. Week 9 results Thursday, Dec. 4, Rockford 4 at Milwaukee 0 Saturday, Dec. 6, Grand Rapids 4 vs. Rockford 0 Sunday, Dec. 7, Lake Erie 4 vs. Rockford 3 (OT) Week 10 schedule Wednesday, Dec. 10, at Milwaukee, 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, at Lake Erie, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Lake Erie, 6 p.m. Bacon Bits -Garret Ross bagged his second hat trick of the season on Sunday, tallying all three of Rockford’s goals in a 4-3 overtime loss to Lake Erie -Ross became the second player in the club’s AHL era to notch two, three-goal performances in one season -Pascal Pelletier also accomplished the feat during the 2008-09 season -Ross leads Rockford with 10 goals this season and has two, three-goal contests and a two-goal effort -Goaltender Michael Leighton picked up his second shutout of the season, and 38th of his AHL career on Thursday in Milwaukee -Leighton now holds sole possesion of

third place on the league’s all-time shutout list, moving ahead of Bobby Perrault -Leighton sits seven shutouts behind Johnny Bower (1945-58) for the AHL all-time career record -For the first time this season, Rockford allowed four goals in back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday -Saturday’s shutout loss was the second time the IceHogs were blanked this season, including a 1-0 shootout loss in Toronto on Oct. 19 -It was the first time Rockford was held scoreless at home since a 4-0 loss to Peoria on March 16, 2013 -Even with getting shut out on their Teddy Bear Toss night, the IceHogs still managed to collect over 2,200 stuffed animals for local charites -Since their five-game winning streak from 11/16-11/26, Rockford is just 1-2-

2-0 over their past five outings -Despite the slowdown, Rockford is still tied for the most points in the AHL (35) with Utica and Springfield through nine weeks -After Sunday’s home tilt against Lake Erie, the IceHogs won’t play a home game for 19 days running through Dec. 26 -The time away from the BMO Harris Bank Center includes six-straight road games, a season high -Over his last six games, defenseman Ville Pokka has 3g-3a-6pts -Klas Dahlbeck became the 67th former IceHogs player to play in the NHL after skating in Rockford -Dahlbeck also became the fourth different IceHogs skater to make his NHL debut this season -Rockford is 5-4-0-0 on Saturdays this season and 11-2-2-1 on every other day

-The IceHogs power play is 1-26 (3.8%) over their past seven games -During that same timespan, the IceHogs penalty kill is 3-28 (89.7%) -Over the club’s past 11 games, Rockford’s penalty kill is 4-45 (91.1%) dating back to 11/15/14 Hot Hog: Week 9 Garret Ross Right Wing (4g, +5) Second-year forward Garret Ross collected four goals in Week 9 to surge to the team lead in lamp lighters with 10 overall on the season. Ross began the week with his seventh goal of the campaign helping the Hogs to a 4-0 win in Milwaukee on Thursday. After getting held off the stat sheet on Saturday against Grand Rapids, Ross notched his second hat trick of the season on Sunday against Lake Erie. For the week, Ross finished with a plus/minus rating of +5 and overall this season, the forward has 10g-7a-17pts in 25 games, ranking second on the Hogs in scoring. Upcoming games Wednesday, Dec. 10, at Milwaukee Admirals: Game begins at 7 p.m.The IceHogs make another mid-week trip to the BMO Harris Bradley Center to tangle with the Admirals. The road matchup is the first leg of a six-game road swing for Rockford. Friday, Dec. 12, at Lake Erie Monsters: Face-off is set for 6:30 p.m. After meeting the Monsters three times at home, Rockford makes its first visit to Cleveland to take on Lake Erie at Quicken Loans Arena. In their AHL history, the IceHogs are 10-4-1-0 on the road against the Monsters. Saturday, Dec. 13, at Lake Erie Monsters: Game starts at 4 p.m. The IceHogs and Monsters meet for the third time in seven days as their weekend set wraps at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM 11

||| NATIONAL PARKS

Keeping up with Aida: Exploring the South, part two Editor’s note: Following is an installment of Junior Ranger Aida’s Frey’s column, “Keeping up with Aida.” Frey and her family are currently visiting national parks and other historic sites in the American South. Frey, 13, has visited nearly 200 national parks in just four years and is the unofficial ambassador of the U.S. National Park Service.

By Aida Frey Junior Ranger My observation of the French Quarter: WOW. I’ve never seen anything like this. The French Quarter is a sea of constantly moving and exploring people. It is made up of bars, restaurants, voodoo shops, churches, souvenir shops, parks, statues, record stores, markets, tours of all kinds, candy shops, and clothing stores. The French Quarter keeps the 200 to 300-year-old buildings alive due to special committees that were formed to protect them against any destruction. There is a constant movement of people, horse-drawn carriages, tour buses, cars, bicycles, and river boat traffic. We saw mimes, living statues, tap dancers, musicians, fortune tellers, tumblers, artists, walking tours, beggars, homeless, and thousands of tourists. New Orleans is a very unique city that is like no other. On our last day in New Orleans, we visited the Barataria Preserve, which is a unit

Junior Ranger Aida Frey has visted 196 national parks in four years. (Photo by Norma Marin)

of Jean Lafitte Historical Park just south of the city. We saw many different kinds of plants like the Spanish moss, palm trees, and cypress trees. There are alligators in the area, but it was too cold for them to come out and see us. It felt like I was in a jungle when we explored the swamp. We then drove to Chalmette Battlefield, also a unit of Jean Lafitte Historical Park. This is where the Battle of New Orleans in 1814 happened. General Andrew Jackson defeated the British at this battlefield and kept control of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. I climbed a four-story monument at the battlefield alone. I noticed that the field was very small and was sand-

wiched between two industrial factories. After Chalmette, we drove to Gulf Islands National Seashore in Mississippi. This national park is on the Gulf of Mexico, and we saw swampy bayous, snapping turtles, and pelicans. At the visitor center, I met two kids, a 5-year-old, and 7-year-old, who were starting the Junior Ranger program. It was really fun talking with them and their parents. This was my 196th national park! The next day we went to Natchez Trace headquarters, where we met with U.S. Park Ranger Jane Farmer and reporter William Moore from the Daily Journal newspaper in Tupelo, Mississippi. We all took a tour of part of the Natchez Trace, and William

interviewed all of us for a newspaper article. I have been on different sections of the Natchez Trace several times before, and ranger Jane invited me to the headquarters as a special guest. Jane talked to me and I learned a lot about the history of trace, the Chickasaw Indians history, and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) buildings that are behind the headquarters. Thank you, Jane, so much for spending time with us. I hope next time we meet, you can take us on the trail with your horses. This is was a very fun and interesting trip. From animals to Indians, from trees to different kind of food and from the Arkansas Post in the 1600’s to the Civil war battlefields—I learned a lot. I met a lot of great rangers, visitors, and children beginning their Junior Ranger books.

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014 | ROCKFORD RECORD AMERICAN | RECORDAMERICAN.COM