Arkush: Bears are better, but Lions will put up a fight
Sports, C1
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
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NBC DRAMA COMING TO COUNTY
PACIFIC ELECTRONICS • BUSINESS, D1
‘Chicago Fire’ seeks extras to film in Union Planit Style, 7
Company taps tropics with faux palm trees
COINCIDENCE OR CLUSTER?
Health fades in wait
Web scary place for survivors Practices can halt abuse on social media By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
Lathan Goumas – lgoumas@shawmedia.com
Tim Wierschke looks at his wife, Sandy, as they pose for a portrait Thursday at their home in McCullom Lake. Sandy Wierschke was diagnosed with brain cancer 7½ years ago and was given less than a year to live. She is one of 33 cancer patients who believe their cancer was caused by chemical company Rohm and Haas’ Ringwood plant. Wierschke will undergo surgery again Monday to have a returning brain tumor removed.
McCullom Lake brain cancer plaintiffs fight to see appeals ruling with treatment is less than a year, and victims have only a 3 percent chance of being alive five years after diagnosis. Her husband, Tim, said her doctors have put her in the top half of 1 percent of people who have lived the longest. Part of what keeps her going, they said last week, is that she wants to live to face the chemical manufacturer that she and 32 other plaintiffs blame for their brain and pituitary tumors. “Everyone knows Sandy
By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
M
cCULLOM LAKE – Sandy Wierschke was given seven months to live when she was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer. That was more than seven years ago. The odds of her survival are even more remote than the three in 100,000 odds of getting the deadly disease. The average survival time
is a fighter. She’s not going anywhere until we see vindication of the lawsuits,” Tim Wierschke said. Sandy is going back into surgery Monday morning at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge – her last MRI caught the cancer growing back. “I want my day in court,” said Sandy, sitting next to her husband in their McCullom Lake home and behind the
See LAWSUIT, page A9
About this series “Coincidence or Cluster?” is the Northwest Herald’s ongoing investigation of the McCullom Lake brain cancer lawsuits.
Like it or not, we live in an increasingly digital world. For good or bad, social media create a more open and connected world – one that allows people to share details of their lives with family and friends. While divulging daily minutiae online is fun for some, for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, that seemingly ubiquitous status update could put detailed information at their abusers’ fingertips. “[Social media are] kind of a really easy tool for someone to get information, which is a danger for anyone, but then specifically when you’re in that situation – be it dating or domestic violence,” Turning Point’s Molly Horton said. “For someone to have that information, it heightens that danger.” A simple post can reveal where a survivor is, who he or she is with, and what they’re doing – a move that can put them at risk. Facebook responded with a recently released privacy guide for survivors of abuse created in partnership with the National Network to End Domestic Violence. The guide mentors survivors about the privacy controls they can place on their profiles to keep from being exposed to their abusers, all while allowing them to maintain important connections with family and friends and resources.
“It is critical that survivors have the information they need to navigate their lives safely and, in today’s digital age, a significant part of our lives are online.” – Cindy Southworth, from the National Network to End Domestic Violence
On the Net Facebook’s privacy guide, created in conjunction with the National Network to End Domestic Violence, provides tools for protecting one’s privacy and maintaining safety. It can be found at http:// shawurl.com/ stl.
See ABUSE, page A10
Shutdown nearing, House votes to delay health reform By DAVID ESPO
Inside How did we get here? A brief history of American government shutdowns. PAGE A2
The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Locked in a deepening struggle with President Barack Obama, the Republican-controlled House approved legislation late Saturday imposing a one-year delay in key parts of the nation’s health care law
and repealing a tax on medical devices as the price for avoiding a partial government shutdown in a few days’ time. Even before the vote, Senate Democrats pledged to reject the bill, and the White House issued a statement vowing a veto in any event. Republicans are pursuing “a narrow ideological agenda ...
LOCALLY SPEAKING
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
LOW
71 48 Complete forecast on A12
ing end game. If so, a House GOP rank and file would soon have to choose between triggering the first partial shutdown in nearly two decades – or coming away empty-handed from their latest confrontation with Obama. Undeterred, House Republicans pressed ahead with their attempt to squeeze a concession
from the White House in exchange for keeping the government open for business Tuesday. “Obamacare is based on a limitless government, bureaucratic arrogance and a disregard of a will of the people,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.
See SHUTDOWN, page A10
CRYSTAL LAKE
FORMER GATOR FIGHTS LOU GEHRIG’S Former Crystal Lake South defensive tackle Jeff Arison is confined to a motorized wheelchair, having lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) since 2011. But focusing on the bad days, Arison says, does no one – himself included – any good. “I think I’m where I am today because I have been so positive,” he said. For more, see page C1.
Senior Airman Nick Theiss
HIGH
and pushing the government towards shutdown,” it said. The Senate is not scheduled to meet until mid-afternoon Monday, 10 hours before a shutdown would begin, and even some Republicans said privately they feared that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., held the advantage in the fast-approach-
CARY: Air Force veteran returns from 3 tours overseas, welcomed home by more than 100. Local&Region, B1 Vol. 28, Issue 272
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