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The Rev. Kevin D. Spears
Fellowship Baptist Church in new location
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Friday, June 14, 2013
Coaches studying the game through stats
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Cleanup begins after Ill. storm
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Agency to survey DeKalb County The ASSOCIATED PRESS
FINANCIAL CUTS Locals react to federal unemployment changes By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Maria Lathrop lives paycheck to paycheck. And sometimes, that check is an unemployment check. The 38-year-old mother works as a telephone surveyor at Northern Illinois University’s Public Opinion Laboratory, but her job caps her at 900 hours a year. After she reaches her 900 hours, she goes on unemployment and Voice your receives $158 a opinion week in benefits. It’s a smaller How long should amount than the individuals be eligi$9.50-an-hour job ble for unemploywith NIU, and it becomes much ment benefits? Vote harder for her to at Daily-Chronicle. com. pay rent. She fears what would happen if her finances took another hit. “I would have a hard time if I didn’t have unemployment and if I didn’t have a job,” Lathrop said. “I wouldn’t know how to pay my bills. I wouldn’t have a place. I don’t want to lose my car from the insurance. I’m kind of depending on a job or unemployment to help me out.” About 80,000 long-term unemployed people across Illinois experi-
See STORM, page A7
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
DeKalb resident Maria Lathrop works part time at Northern Illinois University where she is allowed a certain amount of hours, and when that limit is reached, Lathrop receives unemployment benefits. enced a hit to their finances Monday, when federal unemployment benefits were cut 16.8 percent as part of widespread federal spending cuts
commonly referred to as the sequester. The federal program, which lasts for 26 weeks – or about 6 months – after state unemployment benefits
expire, could be discontinued at the end of the year.
See UNEMPLOYMENT, page A8
Coverage may be unaffordable for low-wage workers By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR The Associated Press WASHINGTON – It’s called the Affordable Care Act, but President Barack Obama’s health care law may turn out to be unaffordable for many low-wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores and hotels. That might seem strange since the law requires medium-sized and large employers to offer “affordable” coverage or face fines. But what’s reasonable? Because of a wrinkle in the law, companies can meet their legal obligations by offering policies that would be too expensive for many low-wage workers. For the employee, it’s like a mi-
CHICAGO – Thunderstorms that punched through northern Illinois raked the region with hail, heavy rain and winds of up to 85 mph, snapping or uprooting large trees and downing power lines. The National Weather Service confirmed one weak, brief tornado northwest of Manteno in Kankakee County. But the Chicago area was largely spared the worst of the overnight storms because they did not combine into the intense wall of severe weather as quickly as had been predicted. “A lot of the storms stayed separate and ... were only really heavy rain and lightning and small hail producers,” weather service meteorologist Richard Castro in Romeoville said. “That real intense line of storms didn’t generally take shape” until farther south and east into Indiana and Ohio. Surveyors from the weather service fanned out across parts of three northern Illinois counties to review storm damage after funnel clouds and possible tornadoes were reported by law enforcement personnel and trained spotters in the area. The agency’s damage assessment teams headed Thursday to eastern Lee County, far southern DeKalb County and Kendall County to examine damage from Wednesday evening’s storm. They focused on a corridor from Paw Paw and Shabonna east to Plano and Yorkville.
rage – attractive but out of reach. The company can get off the hook, say corporate consultants and policy experts, but the employee could still face a federal requirement to get health insurance. Many are expected to remain uninsured, possibly risking fines. That’s due to another provision: the law says workers with an offer of “affordable” workplace coverage aren’t entitled to new tax credits for private insurance, which could be a better deal for those on the lower rungs of the middle class. Some supporters of the law are disappointed. It smacks of today’s Catch-22 insurance rules.
See HEALTH CARE, page A7
AP file photo
President Barack Obama gestures as he talks about the Affordable Care Act on June 7 in San Jose, Calif. Obama’s health care law is called the Affordable Care Act, but a glitch could make it unaffordable for many low-wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores and hotels.
DeKalb’s Big Read goes West By FELIX SARVER fsarver@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The Wild West is coming to DeKalb County in October with the DeKalb Public Library’s seventh consecutive Big Read. The library received a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts this month to celebrate American literature and to encourage DeKalb County residents to read. This year’s Big Read will focus on “True Grit” by Charles Portis. The DeKalb Public Library is among 77 libraries to receive this grant. “We are very proud of the fact we’re one of three organizations in the nation to receive this grant seven years in a row,” said Edith Craig, DeKalb Public Library communications manager.
See LIBRARY, page A8
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