NEWS
Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 • Page A5
Pakistan’s Sharif gets election victory Honduran police The ASSOCIATED PRESS LAHORE, Pakistan – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif looked poised to return to office with a resounding election victory – a mandate that could make it easier to tackle the country’s daunting problems, including growing power outages, weak economic growth and shaky government finances. Questions remain, however, about Sharif’s stance on another key issue: violent Islamic extremism. Critics have accused his party of being soft on radicals because it hasn’t cracked down on militant groups in its stronghold of Punjab province. The United States has pushed Pakistan for years to take stronger
action against Islamic militants whose fighters stage cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan. As unofficial returns rolled in Sunday, a day after the election, state TV estimates put Sharif close to the majority in the national assembly needed to govern outright for the next five years. Even if he falls short of that threshold, independent candidates almost certain to swing in Sharif’s favor would give his Pakistan Muslim League-N party a ruling majority. That would put the 63-yearold Sharif in a much stronger position than the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party, which ruled for five years with a
weak coalition that was often on the verge of collapse. Pakistan suffers from a growing energy crisis, with some areas experiencing power outages for up to 18 hours a day. That has seriously hurt the economy, pushing growth below 4 percent a year. The country needs a growth rate of twice that to provide jobs for its expanding population of 180 million. Ballooning energy subsidies and payments to keep failing public enterprises afloat have steadily eaten away at the government’s finances, forcing the country to seek another unpopular bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan also has an ineffective tax system, depriving the government of
funds. Sharif, the son of a wealthy industrialist, is seen by many as more likely to tackle the country’s economic problems effectively because much of his party’s support comes from businessmen. He also is expected to push for better relations with Pakistan’s archenemy and neighbor India, which could help the economy. The Pakistan People’s Party was widely perceived to have done little on the economic front. “Anything better than zero and you have already improved on the PPP’s performance in terms of managing the economy,” said Cyril Almeida, a columnist for Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
8BRIEFS Vermont House passes aid-in-dying bill MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont’s lawmakers approved a bill Monday night allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it, making it the first state in the country to give legislative backing to assisted suicide. The measure approved in a 75-65 roll call vote now goes before Gov. Peter Shumlin, who has expressed support for the legislation. Three other states – Oregon, Washington and Montana – have similar laws.
Bangladesh search ends; death toll put at 1,127 SAVAR, Bangladesh – Several of the biggest Western retailers embraced a plan that would require them to pay for factory improvements in Bangladesh as the three-week search for victims of the worst garment-industry disaster in history ended Monday with the death toll at a staggering 1,127. Bangladesh’s government also agreed to allow garment workers to form unions without permission from factory owners. That decision came a day after it announced a plan to raise the minimum wage in the industry.
– Wire reports
Lathan Goumas – lgoumas@shawmedia.com
Dam Klemann and his wife, Lori, of Chemung fish Wednesday at Brookdale Conservation Area in Woodstock. Dan said he and his wife fished at the lake about a dozen times in 2012.
County’s 2030 plan carves out goal to preserve 15 percent of open space • OPEN SPACES
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Continued from page A1 space a day are being lost to developers looking to convert parcels into a subdivision or business park, the U.S. Agriculture Department estimates. But in McHenry County, the recession dampened the feverish pace of development, Haderlein said. The reprieve has allowed the Land Conservancy to preserve nearly 700 acres of creeks, farmland and woodlands throughout the county since the recession hit. The nonprofit often works with private landowners and local governments to negotiate land donations. The effort has allowed the group to perserve roughly 2,000 total acres of open space that is needed to ensure groundwater aquifers recharge and farm soils replenish for production. “We all breathe air. We all drink water. We need food to live. Open space and underdeveloped land provides those things,” Haderlein said. “I don’t care if there is a
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$2 million mansion being developed. If there is not water to flush the toilet, it’s worth nothing.” The MCCD has the greatest authority to acquire and protect land in the county. The agency used two successful referendums in 2001 and 2007 to preserve open space and watersheds, improve recreational areas and restore wildlife habitats. All told, the district manages more than 25,000 acres of open space scattered throughout the county, including areas such as Coral Woods in Marengo, Glacial Park in Ringwood and Pleasant Valley in Woodstock. The McHenry-Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District doesn’t actively acquire open spaces, but it provides the conservation district with constant input, said District Manager Ed Weskerna.
The group has stressed the importance of protecting the county’s prime farmland, which makes up 60 percent of the county landscape, primarily located in less developed areas to the north and west. “We are not trying to promote development, and we are not trying to promote all land preservation,” Weskerna said. “We are just trying to steer development away from the prime farmland in the county.” MCCD and the Land Conservancy have said they will protect the declining oak tree population that once represented a large portion of the county’s natural habitat. The county’s 2030 plan even carves out a goal to preserve 15 percent of the county’s open space through land acquisition and other preservation tools such as private land donations. “Open space is essential to our neighborhoods to provide relief from suburban stressors like traffic congestion, blacktop roads and a horizon of only rooftops,” said Elizabeth Kessler, executive director of MCCD.
White House says it had no knowledge of actions • PROBE Continued from page A1 obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies. “There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said. The government would not say why it sought the records. Officials have previously said in public testimony that the
By ALBERTO ARCE The Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – At least five times in the last few months, members of a Honduras street gang were killed or went missing just after run-ins with the U.S.-supported national police, The Associated Press has determined, feeding accusations that they were victims of federal death squads. In a country with the highest homicide rate in the world and where only a fraction of crimes are prosecuted, the victims’ families say the police are literally getting away with murder. In March, two mothers discovered the bodies of their sons after the men had called in a panic to say they were surrounded by armed, masked police. The young men, both members of the 18th Street gang, had been shot in the head, their hands bound so tightly the cords cut to the bone. That was shortly after three members of 18th Street were detained by armed, masked men and taken to a police station. Two men with
no criminal history were released, but their friend disappeared without any record of his detention. A month after the AP reported that an 18th Street gang leader and his girlfriend vanished from police custody, they are still missing. The 18th Street gang and another known as Mara Salvatrucha are the country’s biggest gangs, formed by Central American immigrants in U.S. prisons who later overran this small Central American country as their members were deported back home. Both engage in dealing drugs and charging extortion fees under threat of death. Now the 18th Street gang said its members are being targeted by police death squads, described by witnesses as heavily armed masked men in civilian dress and bullet-proof vests who kill or “disappear” gang members instead of bringing them to justice. In the last two years, the United States has given an estimated $30 million in aid to Honduran law enforcement.
Board has 30 days to vote
Police ID suspect in New Orleans mass shooting NEW ORLEANS – Police identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the shooting of nearly 20 people during a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, saying several people had identified him as the gunman. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said they were looking for Akein Scott. He said it was too early to say whether he was the only shooter. “The important thing for Akein Scott now is to turn himself in,” Serpas said, standing outside of police headquarters. A photo of Scott hung from a podium in front of the police chief.
are being accused as death squads
U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States. In testimony in February, CIA Director John Brennan noted that the FBI had questioned him about whether he was AP’s source, which he denied. He called the release of the information to the media about the terror plot an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.” Prosecutors have sought phone records from reporters before, but the seizure of records from such a wide array of AP offices, including general AP switchboards numbers and an office-wide shared fax line, is unusual. In the letter notifying the
AP, which was received Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation for the seizure, according to Pruitt’s letter and attorneys for the AP. The records were presumably obtained from phone companies earlier this year although the government letter did not explain that. None of the information provided by the government to the AP suggested the actual phone conversations were monitored. Among those whose phone numbers were obtained were five reporters and an editor who were involved in the May 7, 2012, story. The Obama administration has aggressively investigated disclosures of classified information to the media and has brought six cases against people suspected of providing classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined. The White House on Monday said that other than press reports it had no knowledge of Justice Department attempts
to seek AP phone records. “We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department,” spokesman Jay Carney said. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the investigative House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on CNN, “They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it before they intruded on the freedom of the press.” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an emailed statement: “The burden is always on the government when they go after private information, especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources. ... On the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government’s explanation.”
• CHARTER Continued from page A1 a thrust to the charter movement. We don’t see ourselves as being a proponent of the virtual movement,” said Larry Fuhrer, president and chief executive of Northern Kane. “We have only the interest of bringing blended virtual learning that we have learned here to other people around the state.” The Virtual Learning Solutions conflict spurred legislation that would place a one-year moratorium on all state virtual charters introduced after April 1. It has cleared the House and sits in the Senate. But Fuhrer said the chief sponsor of that legislation, Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, told him his charter proposal is exempt because Northern Kane already had its blended virtual learning program in place. Since 2011, Cambridge Lakes has offered a mix of traditional classroom instruction and online instruction for more than 70 students within District 300’s territory. District board members didn’t challenge Fuhrer’s assertion that the Illinois Online Charter School would supplant the education of public schools. But members had ample questions about why they were needed to approve a proposal that provided no benefit to district students. They also questioned Fuhrer about whether district money would be needed for Northern Kane’s effort to expand its blended program to schools across the state. “You would be going out to other districts within the
boundaries of the state of Illinois providing those services based on a charter that we negotiated,” board President Anne Miller said. “I’m having a hard time figuring out where the benefit is to District 300.” Fuhrer argued the primary benefit is added revenues for Northern Kane, which already works with the district to improve students’ education at Cambridge Lakes. Teachers in the area also would receive training on blended learning, an educational service that still is foreign to many schools. Fuhrer also defended the decision to seek a second charter from District 300 for its blended learning expansion, arguing the charter merely would serve as another “vehicle” for a limited staff to market and brand the service to districts across the state. “I would do it through Cambridge Lakes ... but I would prefer two vehicles rather than one because it is cleaner,” Fuhrer said. “But I’m not precluded from doing it the other way.” Northern Kane also has been using K12 Inc. to provide curriculum for its blended learning program, a partnership the charter proposal would continue. The for-profit Virginia company has been criticized in the academic world for its obligation to shareholders and shoddy track record with student achievement. Board members did not make mention of that relationship Monday. They now have 30 days to vote on the proposal from Northern Kane, which could appeal the decision to a state commission.
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