DAILY CHRONICLE
January 16, 2016 • $1.50
TURNING IT UP
The Sycamore boys basketball team overtakes Rochelle, 69-51 / B1
WEEKEND
HIGH
LOW
23 2
Complete forecast on page A8
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Suspect sought in Genoa bank robbery Undisclosed amount of cash taken from Heartland Bank and Trust branch By BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com GENOA – Police said a Heartland Bank and Trust branch at 327 W. Main St. was robbed Friday. Police were called to the downtown bank about 10:20 a.m. for a report of a robbery. Police said the man entered the bank, brandished a handgun and demanded money from a teller. The suspect was described as being 5-feet 9-inches tall, with a stocky build and blond hair. He was wearing a tan baseball cap with a white front and had a red mark on his right upper cheek near his eye, according to a police news release.
The man left the bank with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the area, Genoa Police Chief Robert Smith said. Although customers were in the bank at the time of the robbery, no one was injured. “We’re hoping someone can identify this man and we can make an arrest,” Smith said. Officers from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and the Kingston Police Department assisted at the scene Friday morning. FBI agents arrived later to help with the investigation. The bank said the branch would remain closed for the rest of the day Friday.
“All employees are fine,” Heartland Bank said via its official Twitter account. “The branch is closed for the day. In the meantime, our Huntley branch is open.” Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 815-895-3272 or email Crime Stoppers at crimestoppers@dekalbcounty.org. Crime Stoppers will pay a cash reward of up to $1,000 and tipsters can remain anonymous. Genoa Mayor Mark Vicary said bank robberies are uncommon in the city of 5,000 people in northeast DeKalb County. “I’m really proud with how this has handled by our police
and the bank employees,” he said. “I’m just glad no one was hurt.” Bloomington-based Heartland Bank and Trust Co. had 58 offices in 37 Illinois communities with $2.5 billion in total assets and 667 employees as of Sept. 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In DeKalb County, it has two branches in Sandwich and one each in Genoa and Somonauk. In 2014, there were 3,961 bank robberies, burglaries and larcenies, according to FBI reports. The crimes were most often committed on Fridays and between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. Of the 3,961, 218 were in Illinois.
Shaw Media photo illustration
Genoa police released images of a bank robbery suspect who was armed with a gun as he robbed Heartland Bank in Genoa about 10:20 a.m. Friday. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 815-895-3272 or email Crime Stoppers at crimestoppers@dekalbcounty.org. Crime Stoppers will pay a cash reward of up to $1,000 and tipsters can remain anonymous.
Big drops for stocks are back
NEW GUIDELINES FOR GUN SALES
By STAN CHOE The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Former police officer Mike Webb, owner of C.O.P.S., Inc. gun shop in Sycamore, fills out information in an Acquisition and Disposition book for firearms after he received firearms Wednesday to sell in his shop.
Executive orders seek to reduce gun violence President’s initiatives include clarifying rules, adding examiners Voice your opinion
By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Background checks are required before someone can legally buy a gun in Illinois, but sometimes there are so many requests that buyers receive the firearm before the check is actually complete, said Mike Webb, owner of C.O.P.S. Inc. Gun Shop in Sycamore. “The federal law says, you have to do a background check,” he said. “But you’ve only got three days to do the background check. Because the state is so overwhelmed, they don’t get that. One time we had 17 people on the board.” President Barack Obama has issued executive orders aimed at reducing gun violence. They include hiring more people to speed the investigation and background check process, ensure gun sellers are licensed and remove barriers
Are you a gun owner? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com. Obama is redefining who is a gun seller to an “arbitrary threshold” that targets law-abiding gun owners and that will not stop gun violence. Hultgren also brought up the scandal in which the IRS was targeting conservative groups as proof the Obama administration’s “activists” can’t be trusted to enforce rules created by executive fiat. “Americans shouldn’t have to bring their lawyer to a gun show, Mike Webb, owner of C.O.P.S., Inc. gun shop in Sycamore, writes down the serial nor should they fear a knock on the door because they sold or number of a Ruger SP101 .22LR-caliber revolver Wednesday in the Acquisition and traded legal firearms to their Disposition book for firearms after he received the gun to sell in his shop. relatives or other gun collectors,” to mental health reporting. the orders, particularly those Hultgren said. Republican Rep. Randy Hulthaving to do with gun sellers. Federal officials do plan to gren, who represents the 14th Hultgren, whose district congressional District, opposed includes the Sycamore area, said
See GUNS, page A5
LOCAL NEWS
LOCAL NEWS
LIFESTYLE
WHERE IT’S AT
Retiring
Merger meeting
Going gray
DeKalb Deputy Fire Chief Greg Hoyle retires / A3
A meeting will be held by DeKalb County for hospital merger / A3
The newest trends point to everything gray / C1
Advice ................................ C4 Classified ........................ D1-2 Comics ............................... C5 Local News ........................ A3 Lottery ................................ A2 Nation&World...........A2, 5-6
NEW YORK – Yes, this is scary. Stock prices plunged again Friday and are down 8 percent in just two weeks, an unprecedented slide for a start of a year. The vicious drops feel even more unsettling because they’re such a departure from the placid and strong returns that investors had been enjoying for years. Like vacationers returning from a warm beach to a slushy commute to work, the shock of change is making something already painful even more so. Now investors just need to get used to it, analysts said. “It was easy for many years,” says Bill Barker, portfolio manager at Motley Fool Asset Management, whose three mutual funds control about $600 million. “That was not an accurate display of what happens in the market all the time.” The painful return of big price swings serves as a reminder that investing in stocks can be harrowing, especially if investors focus on the day-to-day moves. That’s not to say investors can’t still win over the long term. Over the past 12 months, an investor in an S&P 500 index fund has lost nearly 5 percent, including dividends. But over five years, they are up a total of 60 percent, and over 10 years, they are up 79 percent. It’s just that analysts expect the volatility to continue. The remarkably calm stretch from late 2011 through last summer was an anomaly. From 2012 until last summer, investors basked in a market where the Standard & Poor’s 500 rarely had a bad day. The widely followed index fell more than 1 percent less often than Los Angeles has rainy days, about 8 percent of the time. During that span, the S&P 500 also completely avoided a “correction,” which is what traders call a sustained drop of 10 percent. It wasn’t until this past August when the S&P 500 snapped into its first correction in nearly four years, felled by concerns about China’s slowdown and the fragility of the global economy.
See STOCKS, page A5
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion...............................A7 Puzzles ............................... C4 Sports ..............................B1-4 State ...................................A4 Weather .............................A8