STANLEY CUP FINAL
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COUNT ON CRAWFORD Blackhawks goalie gives team a fighting chance Inside
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Johnsburg’s Delaney Pruitt named Girls Soccer Player of the Year
Sports, B1
Grafton looks to move past quarrels Township wants to avoid bankrupting lawsuits, infighting among officials By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com HUNTLEY – Grafton Township’s tumultuous year that involved a near government shutdown and an overhaul of the township’s leadership has centered on one number. Zero.
Grafton officials grappled with the number zero in February, when former Supervisor Linda Moore argued the township neared bankruptcy with only $8,500 available to cover $100,000 in average monthly expenses for the remainder of the year. But other numbers, pri-
Top IRS leader in D.C. part of scandal Supervisor admits to reviewing cases By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER The Associated Press WASHINGTON – An Internal Revenue Service supervisor in Washington says she was personally involved in scrutinizing some of the earliest applications from tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status, including some requests that languished for more than a year without action. Holly Paz, who until recently was a top deputy in the division that handles applications for tax-exempt status, told congressional investigators she reviewed 20 to 30 applications. Her assertion contradicts initial claims by the agency that a small group of agents working in an office in Cincinnati were solely responsible for mishandling the applications. Paz, however, provided no evidence that senior IRS officials ordered agents to target conservative groups or that anyone in the Obama administration outside the IRS was involved. Instead, Paz described an agency in which IRS supervisors in Washington worked closely with agents in the field but didn’t fully understand what those agents were doing.
marily the $734,431 spent in legal fees during the past four years, coupled with other factors such as unaudited budget figures can explain how Grafton’s finances neared the number zero. “They had a surplus, then they entered into the battle with the town hall and the
legal fees began to mount, and then the other lawsuits entered into play,” current Supervisor Jim Kearns said. “It created a perfect storm of eating up all reserves.” On Monday, the new-look Grafton Township Board will
“They had a surplus, then they entered into the battle with the town hall and the legal fees began to mount, and then the other lawsuits entered into play. It created a perfect storm of eating up all reserves.” Jim Kerns, Grafton Township supervisor
See GRAFTON, page A6
A new look at comics Graphic novels are growing in popularity as alternative educational tools for teachers
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By SHAWN SHINNEMAN • sshinneman@shawmedia.com s his classes struggle throughout the year with some denser Shakespeare passages, Brad Fennessy pulls out his secret weapon – comics. The modern, graphic interpretations of Shakespeare’s classics,
Fennessy said, help supplement the traditional text. His students get to see how characters interact. “It helps them with the visual component,” said Fennessy, a Woodstock North High School English teacher. “Most kids these days, they lack the imagination as they read.”
Fennessy isn’t the only one in the area using graphic novels as an educational tool. Thanks in part to a broad interpretation of reading materials under the state’s new Common Core learning standards, the books are gaining popularity in area districts and in schools across the country. Though the word “comics” tends to conjure images of Marvel superheroes, supporters of the genre note its diversity. In addition to adaptations of serious literature, historical graphic novels and original works are finding their way into local classrooms and libraries. In addition to supplementary Shakespeare comics, Fennessy’s students have read the Pulitzer-prize winning “Maus,”
by Art Spiegelman, which depicts the World War II experience of the author’s Jewish father, a survivor of Adolf Hitler’s Europe. Next year, they’ll read an original memoir called “The Quitter,” by Harvey Pekar. And as Fennessy and others have noted, students are not only receptive to comics in the classroom, but have helped drive the trend. In Harvard’s District 50, librarians noticed their graphic novels were rarely on the shelves, so they applied for and received a $5,000 “Back to Books” grant to buy more.
Illustration by Caleb West – cwest@shawmedia.com
See COMICS, page A6
I personally don’t, and most of the librarians that I’m familiar with don’t think that either. They know it’s important to reinforce kids’ reading skills by giving them something they want to read.” Karen Kruckenberg School District 50 support technician on graphic novels being a less pure form of reading
See IRS, page A6
LOCALLY SPEAKING
SATURDAY
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CL’S CARDBOARD REGATTA TO SET SAIL The 29th annual America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta will be at noon Saturday at Main Beach in Crystal Lake. General admission is $3 a person with a maximum of $15 a family. All proceeds are distributed to local charities. For information, visit www.cardboardcup.com.
FRIDAY: ‘World War Z,’ starring Brad Pitt and Mireille Enos, opens in theaters. Brad Pitt
The week’s happenings in news, sports and more. Page A2
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Vol. 28, Issue 168
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