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Early voting begins Monday By STEPHANIE HICKMAN shickman@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – DeKalb County will open three more voting locations Monday for the start of early voting. Polls will be open at the Sandwich Fire Department at 310 E. Railroad St. in Sandwich, Kirkland Village Hall at 511 W. Main St. in Kirkland, and the Blackhawk Annex of the Holmes Student Center on the Northern Illinois University campus at
the corner of Lucinda Avenue and Normal Road in DeKalb. The DeKalb County Legislative Center at 200 N. Main St. in Sycamore also will continue to be available to voters as well. DeKalb County Clerk John Acardo said he expects many of the county’s residents to take advantage of the early voting process, especially now that they don’t need a reason to request an absentee ballot as they did
Obama warns of extremist threat in Syria
before 2011. “I think early voting is becoming more and more popular because of the convenience factor,” he said. Since pre-election day voting began Feb. 28, 325 people have voted in person or by mail, Acardo said. Although he always hopes all the county’s 57,000 registered voters cast their ballots, he expects only 20 to 21 percent of them actually will in the April 9 election. The ballot is comprised en-
tirely of local races including library board, school board, mayoral and aldermanic seats. “I always say these are the most important elections in my opinion,” Acardo said. Although these local elections, which include more than 430 candidates countywide, aren’t as glamourous as the national elections, they play a major role in the communities. “These elected representatives have a significant im-
pact on our every day lives,” he said. For residents who haven’t registered to vote, Acardo said there is still time. Voters can register with valid photo identification at the Legislative Center in Sycamore and the NIU campus locations during a grace period that lasts until noon April 6, but they must cast their ballot at the time of registration.
See EARLY VOTING, page A9
Where to vote: • DeKalb County Legislative Center, 200 N. Main St. in Sycamore • Blackhawk Annex of Holmes Student Center, NIU campus in DeKalb • Sandwich Fire Department, 310 E. Railroad St. in Sandwich • Kirkland Village Hall, 511 W. Main St. in Kirkland What to bring: Valid government-issued photo identification On the Web: For information on local candidates, see the Daily Chronicle’s Election Central website online at Elections. Daily-Chronicle.com.
Wanted: More police
By JULIE PACE The Associated Press AMMAN, Jordan – President Barack Obama warned Friday that an “enclave for extremism” could fill a leadership void in wartorn Syria, a chilling scenario for an already tumultuous region, especially for Jordan, Syria’s neighbor and a nation at the crossroads of the struggle for stability in the Middle East. In a significant step toward easing regional tensions, Obama also brokered a phone call between leaders from Israel and Turkey that resulted in an extraordinary apology from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla. The call marked a diplomatic victory for the president and a crucial realignment in the region, given Israel’s and Turkey’s shared interests, in particular the fear that Syria’s civil war could spill over their respective borders. Obama said he remains confident that embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad’s government will ultimately collapse. But he warned that when that happens, Syria would not be “put back together perfectly,” and he said he fears the nation could become a hotbed for extremists. “I am very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism, because extremists thrive in chaos,” Obama said during a joint news conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. “They thrive in failed states, they thrive in power vacuums.”
See OBAMA, page A9
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Sgt. Mark Tehan (second from right) addresses fellow police officers during a roll-call meeting on Wednesday at the DeKalb Police Department in DeKalb.
DeKalb department’s calls increase; staffing still at 2007 levels By JEFF ENGELHARDT
By the numbers
jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
AP photo
President Barack Obama (left) and Jordan’s King Abdullah II shake hands after their joint news conference Friday at the King’s Palace in Amman, Jordan.
Town DeKalb Genoa
DeKALB – The city of DeKalb has 1.3 police officers for every 1,000 people, a ratio lower than all other state university cities in Illinois. But DeKalb police Chief Gene Lowery’s concern does not start until the phone rings. Although the population held steady, calls for service increased from 38,803 in 2011 to 40,908 in 2012. Looking at the number of calls per officer, DeKalb’s was double that of Urbana-Champaign’s, the state’s largest university town. Lowery said the 647 calls per officer last year showed the department needs more officers if it hopes to become a proactive force rather than a reactive one.
Officers 61 6 full-time 8 part-time 3 27
Kirkland Sycamore
Population 43,862 5,100 1,750 18,000
“I have never been part of a department where they do more with less. I don’t know how they do it,” Lowery said of his officers. “The big dilemma is that you are so buried in responding to calls for service that all you do is react. You never get ahead of the game, ahead of the cycle of crime.” To combat the problem, Lowery said he planned to ask the DeKalb City Council
for more officers this coming fiscal year, though he did not want to say how many he would request until he makes his formal presentation to aldermen. The department has 61 officers including Lowery, and is authorized for 63 this year. Lowery said the problem is two of the officers on staff still are training and the two open positions could take a year to fill because of the police academy and training process. With DeKalb’s force operating at 2007 strength levels, Lowery said he is in the process of reorganizing the department to place greater emphasis on patrol units using a “cops on dots” philosophy – targeting high-crime areas and attempting to maximize untapped resources.
See POLICE, page A9
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