DAILY CHRONICLE
March 7-8, 2015 • $1.50
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WEEKEND SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
Rauner gives call to action Proposes making government work for people again By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com and ERIC R. OLSON eolson@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner gave a rousing call to action to residents and dignitaries of DeKalb County on Friday, pledging to take government power away from the so-called special interests and return it to the people. Speaking to a crowd of about 200 people in the Hopkins Park Terrace Room at a gathering staged by the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, Rauner said that although he has proposed cutting government spending in many areas, he plans to increase school spending. “I want DeKalb County booming economically, and I want the best schools in America right here in DeKalb County and every county in the state of Illinois,” Rauner said. Rauner’s appearance was part speech, part meet-andgreet with those in attendance. His message seemed generally well-received by many in attendance, although some on hand later talked about the need to consider whether Rauner’s budget plan was slashing spending by too much, too soon. During his speech, Rauner decried Illinois’ sky-high local property taxes, which he said were driving more people out of the state every year, and it’s multiplicity of local governments. He repeatedly called for local voters to have more control over how local governments spend their money. Taxpayers should control whether property taxes increase, what issues can be collectively bargained by employees of their country and municipal governments, and should be able to decide what pensions and health benefits their local governments offer, he said. “This is about transforming the government of Illinois so it works for you again,” Rauner said. “It’s not working for you.
It’s working for the special interest groups that make their money from government.” About 12 hours after the announcement that Rauner would appear, registration for the event hit its maximum of 200 people, DeKalb Chamber Director Matt Duffy said. After his speech, Rauner briefly stayed back for photos and questions before heading to Elgin. Jeff Petersen of Chapel in the Pines in Sycamore said Rauner’s speech was “impressive.” “The state was clearly going in the wrong direction,” Petersen said, “and he has a lot of [ambitious] plans, and I’m very supportive of his actions to get the state back in line.” Rauner has proposed $6 billion in spending cuts in order to balance next year’s state budget, which will include substantially less revenue Voice your after the state income tax was opinion allowed to roll Would you back from 5 percent to 3.75 vote to lower percent at the your property start of this taxes, even if year. local governR a u n e r ’ s ment services plan calls for would be t h e s t a t e t o reduced? Vote cut back on online at the amount of Daily-Chronimoney it trans- cle.com. fers to local governments, excluding primary schools, to which he has pledged to increase funding. It has drawn opposition from many who say that the spending reductions could have a devastating impact. Northern Illinois University President Douglas Baker listened to Rauner speak and said he briefly talked with Rauner during his visit. Baker said he was glad that Rauner was getting his message out to the public. He also said that he and other university officials would be lobbying in Springfield in an attempt to soften Rauner’s proposal to reduce funding to public universities by 31 percent next year. The reduction in the state allocation would cost NIU about
See RAUNER, page A6
Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks to locals about his Turnaround Agenda on Friday at the Hopkins Park Terrace Room in DeKalb. Watch a video from Rauner’s visit to DeKalb at Daily-Chronicle.com.
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EATING BREAKFAST BOOSTS STUDENTS’ CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Tyler Elementary School first-grader Daijon Lee Adams picks a breakfast tray from the food service area before school starts Wednesday in DeKalb. Principal Andria Mitchell said that about half the students at Tyler eat breakfast at the school.
Fueled before school By the numbers
By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – About 150 students at Tyler Elementary school ate a bagel with cream cheese, apple and milk for breakfast this week. Students devoured the meals made available by the school in the cafeteria before heading to their classrooms. It’s not just Tyler Elementary School. Similar scenes played out in schools across DeKalb School District 428 to help students such as 7-yearold Elli Moon prepare for the rest of their day. “If you don’t get breakfast, you want to go to lunch,” Elli, a second-grader, said. “And that just spoils your learning.” Although many DeKalb County schools offer breakfast, some advocates say not enough children take advantage of the program. Those advocates, including officials at the Illinois Hunger Coalition, want to see more children eat breakfast as a means to increase their chances of school success. Andria Mitchell, the principal at Tyler, has seen
• 3,331: Illinois schools that offer the School Breakfast Program • 380,458: Illinois students who eat school breakfast • 376,272: Illinois students who eat free and reduced-price school breakfast Source: Food Research and Action Center
Dior Pryor (left) and Syaisha Johnson, first-graders at Tyler Elementary School, talk while eating breakfast Wednesday in the cafeteria before school. The breakfasts include chocolate or plain milk, a bagel with cream cheese and a piece of fruit. Watch a video at Daily-Chronicle.com. children eating breakfast offered by the school for years. Illinois’ Childhood Hunger Relief Act requires school districts to implement the School Breakfast Program in each school where at least 40 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch. Illinois State Board of Education data shows last school year, nearly 70
percent of Tyler Elementary students qualified. “A lot of times our babies come to school not having breakfast, for whatever reason,” Mitchell said. Children who regularly eat breakfast are healthier overall, more likely to participate in physical activity and better able to concentrate, according to doctors
at kidshealth.org, a youth health information project created by The Nemours Foundation. At Tyler, Mitchell said those facts hold true. “A lot of our children would not be able to concentrate on learning,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think students would be learning as much if they were focused on eating.” Katie Klus, the child nutrition coordinator for the Illinois Hunger Coalition, said she would like to see more low-income students eating breakfast at school. She cited the School Breakfast Scorecard from the Food
See BREAKFAST, page A6
Oil train derailment involved safer tank cars The ASSOCIATED PRESS GALENA – The rail cars that split open and burst into flames during a Galena oil train derailment this week had been retrofitted with protective shields to meet a higher safety standard than federal law requires, according to railroad officials. The fire continued to burn Friday, a day after the derailment in a rural area south of Galena. No injuries were reported, but the accident was the latest in a series of failures for the safer tank-car model that has led some people to call for tougher requirements. “It certainly begs that question when ... those standards failed to prevent leakage and explosions that threaten hu-
man safety and environmental contamination,” said Steve Barg, director of the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation, which owns a nature preserve several hundred yards from the derailment site. BNSF Railway said the train’s tank cars were a newer model known as the 1232. It was designed during safety upgrades voluntarily adopted by the industry four years ago in hopes of keeping cars from rupturing during derailments. But 1232 standard cars have split open in three other accidents in the past year, including one in West Virginia last month. In Thursday’s accident in Illinois, 21 of the train’s 105 cars derailed in an area where the Galena River meets the Missis-
AP photo
Smoke and flames erupt from the scene of a train derailment Thursday near Galena. sippi. BNSF Railway said a resulting fire spread to five rail cars. Firefighters could only access the derailment site by a bike path, said Galena Assistant Fire Chief Bob Conley. Emergency personnel were
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still working to contain the blaze Friday but described the area as “stable.” The Federal Railroad Administration was investigating. The cause of the derailment hasn’t been determined.
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