Woodstock home wins Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies Planit Style, 8
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RICHMOND-BURTON GOLF • SPORTS, C1
TRAIL OF HISTORY • LOCAL, B1
Jordan Hahn takes 3rd place in Class 2A boys golf state tourney
Event wraps up in Ringwood after 25 years
One more joins GOP race for D-6 seats
Insurance seekers eye marketplace
By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Shelly Nicholson speaks Oct. 2 to a crowd at the Crystal Lake Public Library about the Affordable Care Act.
Residents approach debut of health care exchange with optimism and caution By JEFF ENGELHARDT CRYSTAL LAKE – Holly Thurston and Jeanie Sandore have been waiting for October. After losing their jobs around the same time a few years ago, the two have been going to informational meetings and workshops about the Affordable Care Act, hoping the coming changes in the law would help them. By the time they sat down
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT This is the fourth in an occasional series from the Northwest Herald that will examine the multiple changes to health care in America in 2014 due to the federal Affordable Care Act.
they would sign up. “I’ll definitely be signing up through the marketplace, and I am glad it is finally available to people who have lost their jobs or have pre-existing conditions,” Thurston said. “I think it’s a great idea.” Thurston and Sandore are two of roughly 814,000 of Illinois’ 1.8 million uninsured expected to take advantage of the government marketplace, according to health care
Inside
jengelhardt@shawmedia.com
EYE ON THE
Administration officials say about 476,000 health insurance applications have been filed through federal and state exchanges. PAGE A9
at an Oct. 2 informational meeting at the Crystal Lake Public Library, the question no longer was whether they would sign up for coverage through a government-regulated marketplace, but how
Voice your opinion Have you checked into health insurance on the Affordable Care Act website? Vote online at NWHerald.com.
A former independent candidate will make the McHenry County Board’s rural western district a contested Republican primary race. Larry Smith, a retired Harvard businessman, is running as a Republican for District 6, which covers the western half of the county. He will run against incumbents Ersel Schuster and Michele Aavang for two open seats. Smith ran as an independent in 2012 – while he lost to the four Republican candidates in the election, he received more votes than the three Democratic challengers. “I think there’s some room for improvement,” Smith said of his reasons for running again. “I’m not pleased with some of the votes our present representation has gone with.” District 6 covers all or part of 11 townships making up the county’s rural western half, which includes Harvard, Marengo, Hebron and Union. Other likely contested GOP primaries for County Board include District 1, where three candidates have pulled petitions, and District 3, which could be a five-way race for two open seats. District 1 covers southern and eastern Algonquin and a sliver of
“I think there’s some room for improvement. I’m not pleased with some of the votes our present representation has gone with.” Larry Smith District 6 candidate about his reasons for running again
See ACA, page A9 See ELECTIONS, page A9
Fed-up voters meet the enemy and it is ... them? By NANCY BENAC The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Hey, fed-up Americans, here’s a scary thought after the dispiriting spectacle of the government shutdown: You’re the ones who sent these members of Congress to Washington, and they really are a reflection of you. For all the complaints about Washington, it was American groupthink that produced divided government in the past two elections and a Congress that has been tied in knots lately.
John Adams, who would become the country’s second president, wrote in 1776 that legislators “should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large.” More than 200 years later, members of the current entangled House “are probably a very accurate reflection of how their constituents feel,” says Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist. Not that people are ready to take ownership of the failings of their representatives. “Of course not,” says Baker.
LOCALLY SPEAKING
“It’s a completely dissociative view of American politics – that somehow there are these grasping, corrupt, tone-deaf politicians in Washington who are totally unconnected to the caring and attentive, compassionate person” that an individual voter has elected to Congress. With the government now powering back up to full speed and the next budget crisis pushed off at least until January, there is no shortage of speculation about whether voters will retaliate in the 2014 elections against law-
makers for this fall’s budget impasse. A lot depends on how the next year goes. President Barack Obama is expressing hope that the same spirit that ultimately produced a deal to end the shutdown and avert default will allow the country to make progress on other issues such as improving the immigration system. “If we disagree on something, we can move on and focus on the things we agree on, and get some
See VOTERS, page A9
AP file photo
Voters leave a polling place on election day Nov. 6, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. With the partial federal shutdown come and gone, there is no shortage of speculation about whether voters will retaliate in the 2014 elections against lawmakers for this fall’s budget impasse.
HUNTLEY
SCHOOL EXPANSION WILL TAKE 2 YEARS Renovation work at Huntley High School is slated to begin in the spring and will continue for the next two years. Huntley District 158 officials recently have set the construction timetable for the project after construction concluded in August on a $3.64 million renovation of the school’s football stadium and athletic fields. Work will happen in stages throughout the school year and quieter summer months. For more, see page B1.
Paul Vance H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
HIGH
LOW
61 39 Complete forecast on A12
CRYSTAL LAKE: Officials tout economic development efforts. Business, D1 Vol. 28, Issue 293
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