MORNING READ
Page A2 • Saturday, June 14, 2014
8DAILY PLANNER Today Monthly community breakfast: 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Kingston Friendship Center, 120 S Main St. Donation is $7. Carry-outs available. Weight Watchers: 7:15 a.m. weigh-in, 7:45 a.m. and 9 a.m. meetings Weight Watchers Store, 2583 Sycamore Road (near Aldi), DeKalb. Overeaters Anonymous Walkand-Talk meeting: 8 to 9 a.m. at the Northern Illinois University Lagoon, meeting at the NIU Lincoln Highway parking lot. www.oa.org; Call Marilyn at 815-751-4822. NICE Food and Clothing Center: 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturdays, by appointment other days, at 346 S. County Line Road in Lee. Serves southwest DeKalb County and southeast Lee County. 815-8242228. It Is What It Is AA(C): 9 a.m. at St. Catherine’s Church, 340 S. Stott St., Genoa. 800-452-7990; www. dekalbalanoclub.com. As Bill Sees It AA(C): 9:30 a.m. at DeKalb Area Alano Club, 312 E. Taylor St., DeKalb. 800-452-7990; www.dekalbalanoclub.com. Learning to Live Al-Anon group: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Newman Catholic Center annex, Normal Road in DeKalb. llc904@hotmail. com. Narcotics Anonymous: 10 to 11 a.m. at United Church of Christ, 615 N. First St., DeKalb. www.rragsna. org; 815-964-5959. Knights’ Saturday Burgers and More: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at DeKalb Knights of Columbus Club, 1336 E. Lincoln Highway. Open to the public. Burger buffet: Noon to 2 p.m. at Genoa Veterans Home, 311 S. Washington St. Open to the public. Lightning games: 1:30 p.m. at Genoa Veterans Club, 311 S. Washington St. www.genoavetshome.us or contact Cindy at crmcorn65@ yahoo.com or 815-751-1509. Back to Basics AA(C): 6:30 p.m. at Cortland Methodist Church, 45 Chestnut St., Cortland. Last Saturday is open meeting. 800-4527990; www.dekalbalanoclub.com. AA Speaker Open Meeting: 8 p.m. at DeKalb Area Alano Club, 312 E. Taylor St., DeKalb. 800-4527990; www.dekalbalanoclub.com. Saturday Night AA(C): 10 p.m. at 312 E. Taylor St., DeKalb. 800452-7990; www.dekalbalanoclub. com. Sunday 24 Hours a Day AA(C): 9:30 a.m. at DeKalb Area Alano Club, 312 E. Taylor St., DeKalb. 800-452-7990; www.dekalbalanoclub.com. Genoa American Legion Riders: 11 a.m. at Genoa Veterans Home, 311 S. Washington St., Genoa. 815784-5967. Rockford Writers’ Guild: 1 to 3 p.m. at Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, 411 Kent St., Rockford. The guild schedule – complete with maps and directions is available at www.rockfordwritersguild.com; click on “Meetings and Events for Writers.” Memories of DeKalb Ag: 2 to 4 p.m. at Nehring Gallery, Suite 204, 111 S. Second St., DeKalb. Free and open to all. www.dekalbalumni.org. Society for Creative Anachronism Fighter’s Practice: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the East Lagoon located on the corner of Castle Drive and College Avenue on NIU Campus, DeKalb. Visit www. carraigban.org/ or call 815-7395788 or 815-986-5403 for other information. Middle Ages-Renaissance history re-enactors and those interested in “stepping into the past” are welcome. Bread & Roses women’s chorus practice: 5:45 to 8 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 830 N. Annie Glidden Road in DeKalb. For information, call Patty Rieman at 815-758-4897 or visit www. breadandroseschorus.org. DeKalb County Illinois NAACP Adult Chapter: 6 to 7 p.m. at New Hope Church at Twombly and Annie Glidden roads in DeKalb. Attendees discuss political, educational, social and economic equality to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. Contact Kevin Chambliss at tiger39217@ yahoo.com or 815-501-7583. Steps And Traditions AA(C): 6 p.m. at Masonic Hall, Route 23, Genoa. 800-452-7990; www. dekalbalanoclub.com. No Longer Hopeless AA(C): 7:30 p.m. at DeKalb Area Alano Club, 312 E. Taylor, DeKalb. 800-452-7990; www.dekalbalanoclub.com. Any Lengths AA(C): 8 p.m. at Federated Church, 612 W. State St., Sycamore. 800-452-7990; www. dekalbalanoclub.com.
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8WHAT’S HAPPENING AT DAILY-CHRONICLE.COM? Yesterday’s Reader Poll results:
Today’s Reader Poll question:
How much of the World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil will you watch? I’ll watch every game: 2 percent I’ll watch when I can: 11 percent I’ll watch when the United States plays: 6 percent I’ll find something else to do: 81 percent
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When breaking the rules works SPRINGFIELD – It probably wasn’t any kind of short con job – we weren’t playing for real money – but it sure could have been. At the Illinois Press Association‘s annual convention here this week, the IPA organized its first Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament. The proceeds went to benefit the IPA board, so Northwest Herald Editor Jason Schaumburg, Shaw Media Group Editor Dan McCaleb and I signed up to play. I’m not a regular gambler, but I know how poker works, and I don’t mind playing if it’s not for more than I can afford to lose. And I did make it to the final table, although I didn’t last long there. Just as we were about to start the tournament, there were loud voices out in the hall. A few women, also here for the convention, were having a good time and, although they hadn’t signed up for the tournament, were invited in to play. They didn’t seem to know much about how poker worked, and didn’t seem to mind if they won or lost. Naturally, they started cleaning people out left and right. One woman in particular did well. She almost never folded. She’d call people’s bets with bad hands, then the cards would break her way. At one point she kept betting a bad hand and ended up with a flush, good enough to win the hand. They had to explain to her how she’d won. “Doesn’t it stink losing to someone who doesn’t know what they have?” Schaumburg said to one unfortunate player who’d gone against her. There was a “ringer” in the tournament, a woman who regularly plays in poker tournaments. She-who-never-folded took her out. The ringer spent much of the rest of the night watching over the novice’s shoulder, often wondering aloud why she’d called one bet or another. Then she’d win the hand. It went on like that until the woman
EDITOR’S NOTE Eric Olson who never folded was among the final four players, with a big stack of chips in front of her. Then she played a hand the way she should have – and lost it all. Her hand was a pair of aces, known as a “pocket pair.” It’s one of the best starts you can have in Texas Hold ’Em poker. She went all in before any other cards were turned. One player called her substantial all-in bet with an 8 and a 9 of different suits. When the first three cards were turned – the “flop” – there among them was another 8 and 9, giving the weaker player two pair. No other aces showed up on the board, and just when she’d played a hand in the proper way, shewho-never-folded was out. It was stupefying. First thought: When things are going your way, stick with what works. Second thought: When money doesn’t seem real, people don’t show it the same kind of respect. The woman who never folded probably wouldn’t have played the way she did if she was gambling her money. Given what she didn’t know about poker, it’s doubtful she would have sat down to play in the first place. It’s kind of the same situation with our state and federal governments. They deal in numbers in the billions and trillions of dollars, sums so large that they’re hard to really imagine and so immense that they’re beyond our ability to conceptualize. What’s more, the tax dollars they spend are other people’s money, and because the state is always assured of bringing in more, legislators are free to keep betting big rather than having to worry about folding programs that we perhaps can’t afford.
When they spend too much in Illinois, they can always put off paying the bills – hence the multibillion-dollar backlog of unpaid bills at the state comptroller’s office. At the federal level, the Treasury can actually print money. You can’t devalue money any more than simply having the power to make more of it. No wonder that our federal deficit is so mind-bogglingly large. In the upcoming federal budget, which begins in October, the budget deficit will be about $500 billion, and that’s progress – it’s the lowest deficit since 2008. Our national debt is about $17.5 trillion, a number so mind-bogglingly huge that we can’t really grasp it and so it just becomes something we write or say. One trillion is a thousand billions. A trillion seconds ago, it was about 30,000 B.C. Seventeen trillion? Yeah, that’s a whole lot, but it’s no big deal. We’ll just print more money, and bet this hand, too. Third thought: Defying conventional wisdom doesn’t always make you wrong. Almost everyone in the room that night knew more about poker than the woman who didn’t fold. We were all so sure that we knew better, and yet what she was doing that night was working. Sometimes going against the grain really works. That’s where innovation, invention, and groundbreaking new ideas often come from – the people who say “why not?” when everyone else in the room says “no way.” Of course, what we saw that night was more amusing than groundbreaking. But for a Thursday evening in Springfield, that was good enough.
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shaw media.com
8TODAY’S TALKER
LEGAL NOTICES Linda Siebolds lsiebolds@shawmedia.com 877-264-CLAS (2527) Fax: 630-368-8809 RETAIL ADVERTISING 815-756-4841, ext. 2217 OBITUARIES 815-756-4841, ext. 2228 obits@daily-chronicle.com General Manager Karen Pletsch Ext. 2217 kpletsch@shawmedia.com Editor Eric Olson Ext. 2257 eolson@shawmedia.com News Editor Jillian Duchnowski Ext. 2221 jduchnowski@shawmedia.com Daily Chronicle and Daily-Chronicle.com are a division of Shaw Media. All rights reserved. Copyright 2014 Vol. 136 No. 142
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8CORRECTIONS Accuracy is important to the Daily Chronicle, and we want to correct mistakes promptly. Please call errors to our attention by phone, 815-756-4841, ext. 2257; email, news@daily-chronicle.com; or fax, 815-758-5059.
8LOTTERY Illinois Lottery Friday Pick 3-Midday: 1-3-4 Pick 3-Evening: 5-5-2 Pick 4-Midday: 4-4-9-5 Pick 4-Evening: 9-1-2-7 Lucky Day Lotto-Midday: 6-14-20-28-33 Lucky Day Lotto-Evening: 2-14-26-32-37 Lotto jackpot: $8.75 million
Mega Millions Numbers: 7-38-46-49-56 MegaBall: 1 Megaplier: 5 Mega jackpot: $66 million
Powerball Powerball jackpot: $40 million
Broadway cancer survivor mentors young singers NEW YORK – Five young, amateur singers assembled a little nervously in a rehearsal room recently near Times Square. This was the day they’d be mentored by a Tony Award-nominated star. The five had overcome things teens should never have to – cancer, stroke, pneumonia, kidney disease and a parent fighting overseas. But they were put at ease as soon as they spotted the Tony nominee’s bald head. “I am an ovarian cancer survivor,” Valisia LeKae told them. LeKae, who had been diagnosed late last year and underwent several rounds of chemotherapy, made the act of mentoring these kids for an upcoming talent show hosted by Madison Square Garden even more poignant.
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Sgt. 1st Class Clayton Riley (right) accepts the flag and shakes hands with Sycamore Elks No. 1392 Lodge Vice President Michael Lahey during the flag presentation ceremony Friday at the Sycamore National Guard Armory.
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“It definitely does because I went through Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer,” said Falyn Vega, 14. “It’s like, ‘Wow, she went through it. I can do it too.’ It’s awesome.” The annual Garden of Dreams talent show gives kids who have faced illness, homelessness, poverty or tragedy an opportunity to perform in front of family and friends on the Radio City Music Hall main stage. This year’s show will be held Tuesday and admission is free. One of the children had written that she’d had the hardest time going through chemotherapy, something LeKae could relate to. “I knew exactly what she was talking about. I knew exactly what that moment felt like and the days after,” LeKae said. “But also seeing the other side of the rainbow.” One by one, the five sang a song and waited for critiques from LeKae and Marishka Wierzbicki, a master vocal
coach and associate teacher at Liz Caplan Studios in New York. Cassie Smyth, 16, performed “Warrior” by Demi Lovato and when she was finished, LeKae congratulated her on her song choice. But Smyth, who had a stroke in 2013, had kept her eyes mostly closed. “The great thing about being a warrior is allowing everyone to see it in your eyes,” LeKae said. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You don’t have to keep them closed. Connect with your audience.” Later, Wierzbicki said she thought all five had great potential. “They’re deep. They know things. Some things they’re afraid of, but they have awareness and you can see that in the way they respond,” she said. “I don’t put kid gloves on to work with them because I don’t think that’s what they need.”
8STATE BRIEF Prayer service for Kane County teen hit by train ELBURN – St. Gall Catholic Church has planned a prayer service in remembrance of Parker Wolfsmith, a 14-yearold Kaneland Harter Middle School student who died last month after he was hit by a train in Maple Park. The service will be from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at St. Gall, 120 W. Shannon St., Elburn. All ages and faiths are welcome to attend the event, which will begin with a discussion about the grieving process, followed by a prayer service in the church.
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