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DAILY CHRONICLE G-KHS student arrested MOVING ON?
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Police: 2 students’ threats led to lockdown; investigation ongoing By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN
istrators. Officials called police and put the school on lockdown GENOA – A Genoa-Kings- around 10:20 a.m. The emerton High School student was gency security procedures arrested Monday after fellow were lifted about 40 minutes students reported threatening later, but a police officer resocial media posts to admin- mained at the school for sevbkeeperman@shawmedia.com
eral hours to keep an eye on things. “We take that kind of thing very seriously,” said Joe Burgess, superintendent of Genoa-Kingston School District 424. “There’s no reason not to.”
Two students were involved in making the threats, which were violent and referenced the 1999 Columbine High School shooting that killed 13 people, Genoa Police Chief Robert Smith said. Only one of the
students suspected of making the threats was at school Monday. “The investigation will continue,” Smith said. Officials didn’t find anything suspicious or dangerous at the high school after
completing a search which involved checking lockers and backpacks, Smith said. “We didn’t find any weapons,” Smith said. “No guns, no nothing.”
See LOCKDOWN, page A5
Consolidation committee releases its final report
KEEPING NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
By KEVIN P. CRAVER
kcraver@shawmedia.com
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Edvin Cruz of DeKalb does a bench press Monday at Fitworkz in DeKalb. More than 12 percent of new gym memberships are purchased in January, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Cruz has been a member of the gym for a few years.
Staying the course Specific, realistic goals key to achieving New Year’s improvements By KATIE SMITH
ksmith@shawmedia.com DeKALB – As the new year unfolds, so do many people’s plans to reinvent themselves and lead healthier, more successful lifestyles. Although some may be quick to abandon their New Year’s resolutions, setting a specific goal ahead of time puts them at an advantage, according to a study by John C. Norcross of the University of Scranton. Those who resolve to change in the new year reported higher rates of success than those who simply vowed to “change the problem later.” Those pursuing health-related goals might see better results after investing in a personal trainer or surrounding themselves with like-minded people. DeKalb’s FitWorkz lead trainer and assistant manager Timothy Mamon said he has seen New Year’s resolution-setters throw their hands up and leave the gym forever almost as quickly as they pack in after the holidays. “How many people stay with it? I would say maybe 20 percent,” Mamon said. “And the 20 percent that stay with it are usually the ones that take the time to talk
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Kirkland Dollar General opens, draws a crowd / A6
Running at the far end of a long line of treadmills, Claudia Chavez of DeKalb works out Monday at Fitworkz in DeKalb. with us.” Fronting the money for a personal trainer is typically a good incentive for people to make it to the gym, Mamon said. But fitness experts are generally willing to dish out free advice, which tends to help newcomers stick with their workout regimen. “If you don’t see any results, why would you keep doing something?” he said. “The ones who sit down and meet with us, we’ll show them the right way to train
so that they actually see a difference in the mirror. That little difference that they see over the course of the next 30 days is enough for them to stick to a program.” More than 12 percent of new gym memberships are purchased in January, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Although only 71 percent of people who set resolutions are able to stick with them for at
LOCAL NEWS
least two weeks, the Norcross study found, self-efficacy and a readiness to change before Jan.1 were some of the most important qualities among successful resolvers. “What a lot of people end up doing – New Year’s resolutioners in particular – they’ll create these unrealistic, unachievable goals and they’ll give themselves a very unrealistic time frame in order to achieve that,” Mamon said. Those who set SMART goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound, are much more likely to commit to their resolutions, he said. “It’s those little, itty-bitty things that are going to keep you going,” Mamon said. “Making too much change all at once, which is what New Year’s resolutioners tend to do, will set you up for failure in the long run” In an effort to help those who have resolved to lead a healthier lifestyle, the Sycamore Public Library is offering a cooking lesson with nutrition counselor Lisa Brandt and chef Mike Zoeller at 6 p.m. Thursday.
See RESOLUTIONS, page A5
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LeGrier funeral Intensity surges Wake for slain NIU student set for Friday / A3
At first glance, a 406-page report aimed at paring down Illinois’ prodigious 7,000 units of local government – and reducing its whopping property tax burden in the process – doesn’t tell homeowners and local governments anything they don’t already know. It tells homeowners that they pay too much to far too many governments, and that the sheer number of governments makes it impossible to keep an eye on them all. As for local government officials, it tells them that the never-ending parade of unfunded state mandates – directives from state lawmakers with no funding attached – drives up costs. “These reforms will help stabilize local governments and permit taxing bodies to operate a more efficient streamlined process that taxpayers can support,” state Rep. Tom Demmer, a Dixon Republican who served on the task force that drafted the report, said in a Bruce statement. “My next job as a Rauner legislator is to see it through that these recommendations are heard in committee and eventually voted on by the full Legislature.” The final report of the Task Force on Local Government Consolidation and Evelyn Unfunded Mandates seeks to Sanguinetti prod lawmakers into giving local governments and votOn the Web ers the power to drive down both the number of governRead the ments and their cost to taxpayers. The report, released final report to the public Monday after of the Task almost a year of work by Force on Local the task force led by Lt. Gov. Government Evelyn Sanguinetti, comes Consolidation with 27 recommendations and Unfunded Mandates at toward both goals. Suggestions by the task http://shawurl. force include allowing vot- com/2c3l. ers to dissolve local governments by referendum and imposing a minimum four-year ban on the creation of any new governments, save those created by consolidating two or more. “A large part of the reason why taxes are so high in Illinois is the result of an extraordinarily high number of local governments coupled with financially burdensome unfunded mandates,” the report concluded. However, a number of the proposed unfunded mandates reforms mirror the priorities of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda,” such as making collective bargaining optional and reforming or eliminating prevailing wage requirements for government projects, making them nonstarters in a General Assembly held by House and Senate Democratic supermajorities. Rauner, who highlighted property tax reform as one of his top legislative priorities during his 2014 campaign, created the task force by executive order in February, a month after taking office.
See CONSOLIDATION, page A5
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