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May 2 9, 2015 • $ 1. 00
BARBS CRUISE INTO TITLE GAME
DAILY CHRONICLE
DeKalb softball beats DundeeCrown, will play Huntley in regional championship / B1
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KishHealth discussing alliance Letter of intent signed to explore affiliation with Northwestern Memorial HealthCare KishHealth’s board of directors voted unanimously Wednesday to sign a letter of intent to enter into exclusive, DeKALB – KishHealth System, nonbinding talks with Northwestern DeKalb County’s largest private em- Memorial to explore an affiliation. ployer, is in talks with Northwestern If the talks, expected to last several Memorial HealthCare that could end months, are successful, KishHealth with the local health system becom- could become part of the much larger ing part of the Chicago-based aca- Northwestern Memorial system. demic health system. Issues such as governance, local
By BRETT ROWLAND
browland@shawmedia.com
control and staffing will be part of future discussions, KishHealth System president and CEO Kevin Poorten said Thursday. “We’re doing this because it’s right for us, and it’s right for our community, and it’s right for our patients,” he said. The board’s aim in exploring an affiliation is to improve the over-
all health care delivery system in DeKalb County, he said. The litmus test for any agreement will be how it will benefit local residents. “We truly believe our patients will be better served long term because of what this potential affiliation means,” Poorten said. “Otherwise, we don’t do it.” Poorten said both systems have
strong balance sheets and that the talks were spurred by a mutual desire to better serve patients in DeKalb County. The letter of intent was the culmination of discussions over the past year between leaders at the two systems.
See ALLIANCE, page A4
Ex-House Speaker Hastert indicted
CATASTROPHIC ILLNESS
‘NEVER GIVE UP’
Former official charged in relation to payments of hush money, lying By BRENDA SCHORY bschory@shawmedia.com
Valerie Tobias for Shaw Media
Ron Menges (top) shows a family video to his son, Ethan Menges, during a visit Sunday to Select Specialty Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Ethan, 22, of Genoa, collapsed suddenly Jan. 22 and has been fighting for his life ever since. His current focus is to get strong enough for lung surgery that could save his life.
Former G-K athlete, valedictorian slowly recovering By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com For Ethan Menges, hanging out with family and friends now means watching a movie from his hospital bed in Madison, Wisconsin. On Wednesday, it was “The Godfather” with his dad, Ron. “We usually watch movies, depending on which friend is here,” Menges, 23, said in a telephone interview after a nurse at Select Specialty Hospital inserted a speaking valve into his trachea that allowed him to speak. “It’s hard to mouth conversation with people,” Menges said. “A lot of times they just chat and listen. I might throw a quick sentence here or there, or ask them questions.” Menges graduated from Ge-
noa-Kingston High School in 2010. He was the class valedictorian and an athlete who co-captained the varsity basketball and football teams, and also played baseball and ran track. He went on to double-major in statistics and economics at NorthEthan western before landing Menges a job as an actuary at Milliman in Chicago. On Jan. 22, it all changed. That night, Menges collapsed while leaving a Bulls game in Chicago. He was taken to nearby Rush Hospital, where doctors found that Menges had contracted a flu-like virus, and then walking pneumonia, which infected his lungs, and then spread to his blood-
stream and throughout his body. The doctors let people crowd into Menges’ hospital room, thinking it would be the time for family and friends to say their goodbyes, Ethan’s father, Ron Menges, said. “They didn’t think he’d survive the first couple of days,” he said. “They didn’t know if this would be the chance to say goodbye.”
‘BLIP, BLIP, BLIP’ Menges woke up a week later. “I made some phone calls while I was out of the room, and my mom was in the room, and he smiled at her,” Ron Menges, said. “I ran back in there. His eyes were not closed for a week, There was no muscle tone in his eyelids. I
If you go n WHAT: Moonlight
Bowl fundraiser, silent auction and pasta buffet to benefit Ethan Menges n WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Saturday n WHERE: Park Lanes Bowl in Loves Park, 5318 N. Second St. n COST: $40 for bowling couples, which includes everything. For nonbowlers buffet tickets are $10.
See RECOVERING, page A7
Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a Republican who served as the U.S. representative from the 14th Congressional District for 20 years, was charged Thursday with structuring cash withdrawals of $952,000 to evade currency reporting laws and then lying to the FBI about it. According to the charges, Hastert’s bank withdrawals were connected to paying an unidentified person $3.5 million as compensation for Hastert’s unstated “misconduct” against that person – and for Dennis Hastert’s actions to be Hastert kept secret. Investigators considered several reasons behind the cash withdrawals, according to the charges, including that Hastert himself was a “victim of a criminal extortion related to, among other matters, his prior positions in government and was giving the cash to another individual as payment.” Hastert, 73, now lives in Plano. Each of the two counts in the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, officials said. In 2014, the FBI and Internal Revenue Service began investigating Hastert’s cash withdrawals as transactions to evade the reporting requirement, prosecutors said. When FBI and IRS investigators asked Hastert if he was making the cash withdrawals “to store cash because he did not feel safe with the banking system … Hastert stated: ‘Yeah … I kept the cash. That’s what I’m doing,’ ” according to the charges. The person receiving Hastert’s payments was identified in the
See HASTERT, page A7
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
LOCAL NEWS
WHERE IT’S AT
Local sourcing
NIU turf design
Free bike ride
Breweries, wineries, distilleries could ramp up county economy / A3
The Huskies unveiled a new look for their football stadium Thursday / B3
Project to provide DeKalb residents bikes at no cost / A3
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