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Tuesday, September 3, 2013
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No schedule set for wide receiver’s return from injury
Genoa bank employee gets to bring dog to work
Tommylee Lewis
Corn Fest’s triumphant return ‘Ambience’ big part of festival in downtown By FELIX SARVER fsarver@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Marianne Buehler and her husband Lonnie didn’t attend Corn Fest when it was held at the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport the past five years. They liked the festival when it was held in downtown DeKalb, which was good for them this year as Corn Fest returned there. For many who attended Corn Fest this year, the downtown location had more to offer. “It’s more of a community feel,” Marianne Buehler said, “...and the local businesses can participate in
it.” This year’s weekend-long festival brought a positive response from both audiences and businesses, said Lisa Angel, chairwoman of the Corn Fest committee. On Saturday, the people came out in force, she said. Corn given away for Saturday’s Chuck Siebrasse Corn Boil ran out by 1 p.m. The event was scheduled between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. About 15,000 ears of corn were given out. “That was the largest Saturday we had in a long time,” she said. While the festival seemed more popular than ever this year, a storm Friday threatened to damp-
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Children ride the Dragon Wagon on Sunday at the 2013 Corn Fest in DeKalb. For the first time in five years, the festival was held in downtown DeKalb.
en the fun. At least three hours of the festival was interrupted by the storm but volunteers – many of them not registered as volunteers – helped keep the tents up as the wind blew hard, she said. “That’s what’s so great about this community here,” Angel said. “People will jump in and help.” Angel said a meeting to plan next year’s festival will be held in two weeks. The festival will be during the Labor Day weekend and typically it will continue to be held after move-in day for Northern Illinois University, she said.
See CORN FEST, page A7
Felix Sarver – fsarver@shawmedia.com
Assad: Risk of regional war if West strikes Syria
SANDWICH FAIR PREVIEW
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By SYLVIE CORBET The Associated Press
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Fred Barber of Sheridan parks a 1956 Farmall 300 owned by Bev Lehrkamp (not pictured) of Sandwich as preparations for the 126th annual Sandwich Fair get underway Monday morning at the fairgrounds.
Preparations for 126th Sandwich Fair underway By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com SANDWICH – Anne Hilliard had never heard of a fair when she moved from Chicago to Sandwich as a teenager. Decades later, the Sandwich Fair – one of Illinois’ largest – has helped to shape her life. “I didn’t even know what a fair was, but our church had a booth [at the fair] and I volunteered for all the available hours,” Hilliard, now in her 50s, said. “A few years ago I was thinking about what do I want to do when I retire. The first thing that popped in my head was that I would go to the fair every day.” Decades after she first volunteered in the church booth, Hilliard still gets excited about the fair. She spent 25 years as a lock-and-key collection exhibitor and nine years running as the collections exhibits superintendent. She’s one of hundred of thousands of
The Sandwich Fair windmill as seen Monday. fairgoers who are expected to take part in the 126th Sandwich Fair that runs Wednesday to Sunday at the historic, 181-acre Sandwich Fairgrounds where about 400 vendors, roughly 28,000 exhibitors, as well as dozens of musicians, entertainers and tractor-pullers will be on hand. “I always like to say that there’s something to do out here for almost everyone,” fair Secretary Nancy Rex said. “We have
the largest number of competitive entries for any county fair in the state of Illinois, from dairy cows to rabbits to swine to photographs to apple pies to artwork and collections.” Rex said that although the format of the fair never really changes, the experience is never the same. She said organizers expect between 170,000 and 180,000 people to attend the fair during its five-day run if the weather is good. “The Sandwich Fair is always new every year,” she said. “We have many traditional things that come back year after year, and we try to add new vendors and new musical entertainment. ... A lot of the folks from the Chicago suburban areas enjoy a day in the country at an old-fashioned country fair.” General admission for the fair costs $9, but it’s $5 for children between 5 and 12. Children younger than 5 are free.
See FAIR, page A6
PARIS – France released an intelligence report Monday alleging chemical weapons use by Syria’s regime that dovetailed with similar U.S. claims, as President Bashar Assad warned that any military strike against his country would spark an uncontrollable regional war and spread “chaos and extremism.” The verbal crossfire, including a rejection of the Western allegations by longtime Syrian ally Russia, was part of frenzied efforts on both sides to court international public opinion after President Barack Obama Bashar Assad said he would seek authorization from Congress before launching any military action against Assad’s regime. In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Assad was quoted as saying that Syria has challenged the U.S. and France to provide proof to support their allegations, but that their leaders “have been incapable of doing that, including before their own peoples.” “If the Americans, the French or the British had a shred of proof, they would have shown it beginning on the first day,” he said, deriding Obama as “weak” and having buckled to U.S. domestic political pressure. “We believe that a strong man is one who prevents war, not one who inflames it,” Assad said. French President Francois Hollande and Obama have been the two world leaders most vocally calling for action against Assad’s regime, accusing it of carrying out a deadly chemical attack Aug. 21 against rebel-held suburbs of Damascus. The U.S. said it has proof that the Assad regime is behind attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children. Those numbers are significantly higher than the death toll of 355 provided by the aid group Doctors Without Borders. It has marked an intolerable escalation in a two-year civil war in Syria that has left about 100,000 people dead. The Syrian government denies the allegations, and blames opposition fighters. In the Figaro interview, Assad questioned whether an attack took place at all and refused to say whether his forces have chemical weapons, as is widely believed.
See SYRIA, page A5
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