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Serving DeKalb County since 1879
* Monday, January 27, 2014
MARKING 100 YEARS • LOCAL, A3
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Hundreds celebrate St. Mary School
Huskies can’t overcome rough play at Buffalo
Re-election at stake in Gov. Quinn address By SOPHIA TAREEN The Associated Press
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
A farm is seen through blowing snow Jan. 6 in Pierce Township.
By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – With subzero temperatures and strong winds predicted today, public buildings, schools and colleges in DeKalb County have planned to close their doors today. All local public school districts are closed. The Northern Illinois University campus will be entirely shut down, with classes canceled and employees not expected to report to work. Classes will not resume until 8 a.m. Wednesday. All DeKalb County public buildings including the courthouse will be closed as well because of roads and weather conditions. Meteorologist predictions for gusty winds paired with more snow prompted District 428 to cancel Monday’s classes, Superintendent Jim Briscoe said. He said the temperature was not the determining factor. Classes could be canceled in the district Tuesday
as well, Briscoe said. “It’s the winds and light snow and the fact that we’re expecting more snow,” Briscoe said. “It could create some dangerous driving conditions.” The DeKalb County Sheriff’s office responded to several accidents over the weekend related to ice- and snow-covered roads. Gov. Pat Quinn’s office Sunday issued a statement urging Illinois residents to stay inside. “As we head into another bout of extreme winter weather, our public safety workers are working around the clock to keep people safe while keeping roads open for those who must travel,” Quinn said in a written statement Sunday. “I urge all residents to stay warm and check on your friends and relatives who may need assistance during the dangerous cold. And please keep your pets indoors during this winter blast.”
See WEATHER, page A5
A vehicle becomes stuck in a snowdrift Jan. 6 while traveling south on Somonauk Road south of Hinckley in Squaw Grove Township.
Brutal cold returns to Midwest for extended stay By DON BABWIN The Associated Press CHICAGO – A persistent weather pattern driving bitterly cold air south out of the Arctic will cause temperatures from Minnesota to Kentucky to plummet today, turning this winter into one of the coldest on record in some areas. For about 2½ days, actual temperatures will range from the teens to below zero, and the wind chills with be even colder, minus 43 in Minneapolis, minus 23 in Milwaukee and Chicago, minus 14 in Kansas City, Mo., and minus 3 in Louisville. In fact, the National Weather Service says most of the Midwest will feel far colder than today’s expected high in the nation’s northernmost city, Barrow, Alaska – minus 4. National Weather Service Meteorologist Scott Blair stopped short of calling the latest round of cold part of the polar vortex, which are winds that circulate around the North Pole. “There’s really nothing abnormal about the air that’s coming into the area,” he said. “It’s just been a very persistent pattern” of cold air.
AP photo
A minivan is hooked up after being pulled out of a ditch Saturday on Indiana 9 south of Alexandria, Ind. Multiple wrecks closed Indiana 9 from Indiana 128 to County Road 900 North on Saturday. He said it’s an amplified pattern of the jet stream, and cold air is filtering in behind a large trough of low pressure. He explained further: “Troughs are typically associated with unstable or unsettled weather, and, at this time of the year, much colder air.” In the Chicago area, residents were bracing for a historic deep freeze. today’s high was expected to
be minus 4 degrees, and it could get as low as negative 17 downtown, with wind chills as low as 40 below. Such temperatures are expected to hold into Tuesday. If Chicago makes it to 60 hours below zero, it will be the longest stretch since 1983, when it was below zero for 98 hours, and the third longest in 80 years. Chicago resident Matt Ryan, 19,
was headed to his family’s house in the suburb of Oak Park on Sunday. “I came home to steal a scarf from my parents,” he said. His plan for Monday: Dress in layers, carry hand warmers and wear long underwear. Ryan said he was a little excited that classes were going to be canceled at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but that he’d never seen a winter so intense. “I’m sick of it,” he said. Chicago Public Schools called off today’s classes for its nearly 400,000 students a day in advance, as did suburban districts. Earlier this month, when it was below zero for 36 straight hours, CPS closed for two days. North Dakota and South Dakota residents dealt with dangerous cold Sunday and wind gusts that reached up to 60 mph. The high winds led to blowing snow that made it nearly impossible to travel in some parts. “This is definitely the most widespread event we’ve had this year,” said weather service meteorologist Adam Jones in Grand Forks, N.D.
See MIDWEST, page A5
CHICAGO – With his top priority of pension reform inked into law, Gov. Pat Quinn is preparing for a critical election-year State of the State speech this week, needing to persuade lawmakers and voters he has the leadership skills to keep running Illinois. The annual address, set for Wednesday, is a chance for Quinn to lay out his goals and recap his accomplishments. He is sure to count pension reform – which he once said he was “put on Earth” to solve – as a signature achievement, but how much credit the Chicago Democrat can take is a matter for debate. Quinn has won praise for keeping the state’s roughly $100 billion pension crisis in the public eye, despite the threat of reforms to the retirement benefits of state workers and unions, traditional Democratic allies who could be key to his re-election. At the same time, he’s been criticized for his more populist methods and not doing more to broker the deal that was passed in December by the Legislature and now faces legal challenges. Other pension reform advocates say it’s fair to give Quinn a nod for his efforts, but some argue that he actually came late to the issue and acted only when he couldn’t afford not to as the state’s executive officer. “It was driven by the fact that he had no place else to go,” said Ty Fahner, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which had warned of a state pension crisis for years. “We got a bill because we had no place to go.” Until a few years ago, pension reform was far more on the radar of economists and business executives than legislators and the public. Lawmakers skipped or shorted payments to the state pension systems for years and created a growing shortfall. Despite dire consequences for the state’s budget and business climate, the General Assembly took years to act. Fahner said it wasn’t until 2011 – two years after Quinn came into office – that the governor took the issue seriously. By that time, Illinois’ pension crisis was evolving into a national embarrassment and the state’s credit ratings were taking serious hits. Quinn began speaking out about pension reform any chance he got, at times refusing to address other issues until the crisis was solved. He called lawmakers into special sessions, set deadlines, rolled out a social media campaign featuring a cartoon snake named “Squeezy” and tried to hold lawmakers’ paychecks until they came up with a solution. For months, he also refused to take his own paycheck.
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